Pioneer History of Crane County Before 1925

By Gordon L. Hooper

This book is the outcome of a lifelong love of history and the results of many years of research. Mr. Hooper tired of hearing There werent any people in Crane before the oil boom, and set out to prove the statement wrong. The material covers historical information of the Comanche War Trails, Chihuahua Trail out of Mexico. Gold hungry prospectors on their way to the gold fields in California. The Butterfield-Overland Mail, route which carried the mail from home. Goodnigh-Loving cattle drives and John Chisum Trail drive, which herded thousands of longhorn cattle to the forts on the western frontier, and the first tough cattlemen who, mixing herds on the open range, of miles of unfenced land.

The second section covers the homesteaders in Crane County who endured the challenges and day to day dangers of living in the wild harsh country of West Texas. In-depth details of individuals, families, lives and evolving ranches, occurring after the open range ranches ended turning into fenced territory, becoming property owned by individuals. A treasure chest opened for history buffs, genealogists, with the history needed to educate the youth of today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Oct 4, 2012
• ISBN: 9781475912616

Gordon L. Hooper

Gordon Hooper’s Biography Gordon L Hooper was born on August 25, 1927, in a two room adobe house, in Lovington, New Mexico. His parents, Marven and Emma (Love) Hooper were the children of homesteaders who settled land in northeastern Lea County, New Mexico in the early 1900’s. When Gordon was 14 months old, his father hired out to be a ranch foreman for “Uncle” John Scharbauer and Millard Eidson, and on October 1, 1930 they moved Marven’s family to their 50 section ranch at Judkins, Texas in southwest Ector County. In the summer of 1937, Gordon’s father established his own business “Hooper’s Clay,” and the family of four including a baby girl (Marvelee) moved to Goldsmith, Texas. In the summer of 1943, the family of five which now had a 2nd son (Sammy) moved to Kermit, Texas for one year. In 1944, Gordon’s family moved back to the Scharbauer and Eidson ranch at Judkins, Texas. Gordon was 15 years old and was a sophomore at Odessa High. When school began in the fall of that year, Gordon didn’t know it, but from that time forward his education would be twofold. When a “ranch kid” gets home from school, he changes his clothes and helps with the ranch chores which include Saturdays and Sundays. After Gordon graduated from Odessa High in 1947, he worked full time on the ranch for two years. The work included breaking young horses raised on the ranch; during the hard winters he was responsible for feeding the cattle using a team of mules to pull the wagon filled with feed. The Hooper family moved to Crane County, Texas in 1949 and established the Ranch House Grocery on Highway 1233. Gordon married Nita Rhodes on March 17, 1950 and to this union was born four children; Danny, Steve, Judy, and Paul. During the Korean War, Gordon served in the United States Air Force located at the Amarillo Air Force Base. He was an instructor of jet mechanics on the B-47 Bomber. Gordon attended the West Texas Barber College in Amarillo, Texas and after his discharge, he and Nita returned to Crane, Texas. Gordon barbered in Crane for 44years and served as a Crane County Commissioner for 12 years. On January 1, 2001, he retired from both occupations. To occupy his time, he began to research the early history of Crane County and as a results, this history book was written. Gordon L. Hooper Age: 82 12/26/2011

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Copyright © 2012 by Gordon L. Hooper.

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ISBN: 978-1-4759-1259-3 (sc)

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Contents

Dedication

Foreword

Chihuahuan Desert

The Llano Estacado (Staked Plains)

The Comanche Indian

The Comanche War Trail

Juan Cordona Lake (Salt Lake)

The Chihuahua Trails Thru Crane County

The Butterfield Overland Mail Route 1858-1861

Oliver C. Loving And Charles C. Goodnight

John Simpson Chisum The Cattle King Of America

Maximilian’s Gold

The Tx Ranch 1879-1895

The Corpus Christi, San Diego, And Rio Grande Narrow Gauge Railroad Company (Ccsd & Rgng Rr Co)

Richard King’s Crane County Ranch Richard King And Arthur Hosmer, Jr. By Gordon Hooper

Crane County Deed Records Block X, Section 81

The Texas & Pacific Railroad

Sidney J. Kyle

Oscar & Oliver King

Robert E. Bob Brown And Mittie Dora Graham

Petition Of 1885

Committee Report:

A Bill

Lawrence Sullivan Ross Governor Of Texas 1887-1891

Crane County Sheriffs

The Big Drift Of November 1888

John Julius Henderson

Julius Drew Henderson

Elisha M. Graham

Joseph Andrew Graham

Ernest Elisha Graham

Samuel & Annie G. Cress Oh Four (04) Ranch

Annie G. (Cress) Curtis & Wicliff Kerr Curtis

The Transformation Of The Oh Four / K Bar Ranch

Samuel Toliver Tol Dawson

John T. Mcelroy

The Wild Mustangs Of Crane County Julius Henderson

Nathan A. Adams

Glenn Allen

Fount B. Armstrong

Burrell Newton Aycock

Thomas Russell Aycock

Roscoe C. Barnsley

Thomas Carwin Barnsley, Sr.

Thomas Carwin Barnsley, Jr.

Walter R. Bates

O.B. Bayes

John C. Behrns

William T. J. Bishop

My Old Boots-1910 Model

John H.Brock & Lawrence E. Brock

Miles Green Judge Buchanan

Nathaniel Green Buchanan

On The Butterfield Trail In The Desert Southwest

John M. Cason

Clark Brothers Cattle Company A Partnership (As Remembered By Bill Clark)

Jack B. Coe

Wilson E. Connell C Bar (C) Ranch

The Family Of William Henry Cowden

William Thomas Crier

Allen B. Curry

Robert R. Dakan

John H. Davis

Wilbur Emmit Dawson & Charles Roy Dawson

Archie P. Dick, Jr.

Vinzi R. Dockray

Benardess Steven Dunne

Allen P. Eaton

Charles, John And Oran Edwards

Newnan H. Ellis

George Epps

Elisha Hamilton Lish Estes

William Aaron Estes

Milton Truman Eudaly

Phil H. Flood

Benjamin L. Frost

Robert L. Gann

Tom T. Garrard, Jr.

Walter L. Gassaway

Glass & Everitt Ranch

Elisha Virgil Graham.

Ike L. Gray

Mrs. Eliza J. Hamlett

William A. Hand

Gay Hartman

Homer Robert Henderson

Homer And Annie Henderson

Marvin Floyd Henderson

The Hendrick Family

Edgar E. Hendricks

Sam Hill

Martin S. Hines

Thomas Frank Hodnett

The Hogg Family

Jefferson P. Holder

Sam H. Holloway Steeple O Ranch

John S. Huggins

Charlie H. Hugo

Frank Judkins

Eugene A. Kelly

Yebbie E. Kerr (A Crane County Cowboy Circa 1910)

John Madison Lambert

Henry R. Laurence

Preston Joel Lea, Sr.

Brown Leaves

Thomas E. Lindsey

William Little

The William W. Martin Family

Willie N. Maxey

Henry Mccowen

Jefferson Davis Megee

Robert Diogenes Dodge Mcgee Homesteader Of The Quarter Circle Rd Ranch

Robert Diogenes Dodge Mcgee Homesteader Of The Quarter Circle Rd Ranch

Mose B. Mcknight

Mrs. Matilda Keeks

Will R. Miller

William W. Miller

Seth L. Mills

James R. Moseley

Tom J. Munn

Nonsense

The Orient Railroad

Sam Patterson

James Thomas Pearl

The Philipp Family

Jack R. Pierce

Cowboy Poets Beware

John H. Porter And Ida May Akin Porter

Theodore E. Price

Road Runner

Henry H. Russell

Joseph L. Sawer

The Schumm Pasture

Alex H. Scott

Elisha R. Shackelford

George F. Shadix

Cora Hollis (Dawson) Smith

The Family Of Hugh L. Smith, Sr.

Townsite Of Stilwell Crane County Texas

J.S. (Andrew) Stutts

J.E. And Harry H. Taylor

Ike W. Tipton

Texas Horned Toad

Thomas Brass Tripp

James Bee Tubb

Charles T. Utley

Claude E. Vancel

William Newton Waddell

D.P. Waggoner

James A. Wilburn

The Story Of Helen And Bud Williams

Russell B. Williams

William S. Williams

Arthur C. Willingham

John T. Willis

Blowing Winds

William C. Wolfe

Jeff D. Wood

Oscar G. Wright

The Wristen Brothers

The Jonas Arnold Yates Family

A Summary Of North Crane County Ranches

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GORDON L. HOOPER

Dedication

This book is dedicated to the members of the Crane County Historical Commission, the Museum of the Desert Southwest, and the oldest ol’timer in Crane County, the Horned Toad . . . .

Foreword

This book was written because many people that I have come in contact with, were always saying that there were not any people in Crane County before they discovered oil in 1926.

When I retired from barbering and being a Crane County Commissioner in 01-01-2001, I needed something to occupy my time. That was when I decided to research the Deed Records in the County Clerk’s Office, to find who were the original land owners in Crane County.

I soon discovered that as a child growing up on a cattle ranch near Odessa, Texas, that I had known a lot of those Crane County homesteaders, and decided to write a brief history about each of them. Some of their stories are from excellent records, but some are only from their memories, and their stories are not always entirely reliable.

I have done the best that I could do, and hope that it will preserve a bit of the past, which is our heritage.

GORDON L. HOOPER

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IN THE BEGINNING

Chihuahuan Desert

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Chihuahuan Desert

U.S. Highway 385 makes Crane County the northeastern gateway to the humongous Chihuahuan Desert. As you enter the northeastern corner of Crane County, you are on the south end of the Llano Estacado (Staked Plains), but after traveling 3.7 miles south down U. S. Highway 385, you arrive at an escarpment and begin a downward slope into the northeastern corner of the Chihuahuan Desert.

Most of the Chihuahuan Desert is located in Mexico in the states of Chihuahua and Coahuila, but fingers of the Chihuahuan reach into western Arizona, southern New Mexico, and west Texas in the United States, also down south to the states of Zacatecas, and San Luis Potosi in Mexico. The Chihuahuan Desert is about 300 miles wide, 800 miles long, and has an area of about 175,000 square miles.

In every desert, there are certain plants that appear throughout the whole desert that are called indicator species. Plants that are indicators of the Chihuahuan Desert are the following: Yucca, creosotebush, mesquite, agave, ocotillo, prickly pear, and one plant that does not grow anywhere else, but in the Chihuahuan Desert. This plant is called lechugilla.

The Yucca, Creosotebush, Mesquite, Prickly Pear, and the Lechugilla are plants that are found growing in Crane County, and give proof that all of the county is in the Chihuahuan Desert, except for that small part of the Llano Estacado that is north of the escarpment,

Gordon Hooper

5-30-2011

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The Llano Estacado

(Staked Plains)

The vast plateau of the Staked Plains, or Llano Estacado, as the Spaniards called it, is one of the greatest natural cattle countries in the world. It was a great cattle country in prehistoric times, where ancient Americans, believed to have been the Folsom men, hunted a specie of wild cattle that is now extinct. Bones of these ancient bison and stone artifacts of the early inhabitants have been taken from 6,000 year old campsites that archaeologists excavated along Black Water Draw, south of Clovis, NM.(1)

The Llano Estacado (staked plains) acquired it’s designation in 1541 when Francisco Vasquez Coronado led an expedition of Spaniards into the interior of the great plains, that are located in southeastern New Mexico and the western panhandle of Texas. There were no visible landmarks on the horizon, such as hills or trees, to prevent them from becoming lost, so the men drove stakes into the ground as they journeyed across the plains. Thus marking their trail and insuring them of finding their way back across the vast sea of grass.

The Llano Estacado is a high plateau that is a giant irregularly shaped mesa. It reaches an elevation of 4,500 feet above sea level west of Elida, N.M., and slopes gradually toward the east to an elevation of 3,241 at Lubbock, Texas.

The Texas escarpment on the east, drops from 300 to 1,000 feet, and the New Mexican side on the west is even greater in some places.

The Staked Plains extend from Old Tascosa on the Canadian River north of Amarillo to the south of Odessa and Midland, reaching into the northeast corner of Crane County, and the northern regions of Upton and Reagan Counties, a distance of 300 miles. It extends east from the escarpment (sometimes called a caprock) in the southeast corner of New Mexico to another caprock east of Lubbock, Texas, a distance of 210 miles.

The boundaries on the east and west are more clearly defined than on the north and south. The western boundary in New Mexico is found east of Ft. Sumner from which the caprock runs in a southeasterly direction, and thereafter is found west of Kenna, Tatum, Lovington, Hobbs, and Jal, New Mexico.

The western caprock then enters Texas and becomes the southwest boundary where it is found west of Notrees, east of Penwell, and 16 miles north and 10 miles east of Crane, Texas. The southeast boundary does not have a definite visible topographical break between the Llano Estacado and the Edwards Plateau.

The plains do not end when they reach the Canadian River north of Amarillo, but this river is considered the north boundary for the area known as the staked plains.

The east boundary is a caprock that begins southeast of Amarillo, Texas, in southwestern Armstrong County, and follows a southward line going in an erratic direction through portions of the following 8 counties: northwestern to south central Briscoe, northeastern Floyd, southwestern Motley, northwestern Dickens, southeastern Crosby, western Garza, northwestern Borden, and southeastern Dawson. From this point on south is an imaginary line that takes in portions of Martin County, Glasscock County, Reagan County, and Upton County.

GORDON HOOPER

5-14-2005

NOTES

1. George A, Wallis, Cattle Kings of the Staked plains. Sage Books, Denver, CO 80210.

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The Comanche Indian

The Comanche life was not glamorous as some people think, especially for the women who did all of the work while the men’s duty was to hunt and protect the women and children. The buffalo was their main source of food. The Comanche always ate with their fingers. Many times their food was not cooked. When a buffalo was killed and butchered they ate the heart and liver raw. They did not waste any part of the buffalo. The hide was tanned for use as robes, tepees or bedding. The horns and hoofs were made into weapons. Intestines were twisted into ropes and the stomach was made into a water bag. Needles were made from bones. Their diet was supplemented by roots and berries. Acrons and mesquite beans were coarsely ground into meal. The women and children ate after the men had finished eating.

Because they were nomads, the Comanches kept very few belongings. Their tepees were buffalo hides draped over tall poles and when they moved they used two of the poles to make a drag called a travois. One pole would be attached to the side of a dog or horse and the other pole would be attached to the other side of the animal. Then with a buffalo hide stretched between and tied to each pole the indians could load everything that they owned on the travois.

In the fall and winter when the cold north winds begin to blow across the Llano Estacado, the buffalo migrated south and the Comanches migrated with them, and then in the spring and summer they all migrated back north.

Gordon L. Hooper

11-27-2009

The Comanche War Trail

In 1540, when Francisco V’asquez de Coronado arrived on Texas soil, he found Apache, Pawnee, Wichita, Waco and other Caddoan Indian tribes living here. Paleo-Indians arrowheads have been collected throughout Crane County along the Pecos River and in the Sandhills. In addition to the Comanche arrowheads, there have been older projectile points called Folsom, Plainview and Yuma that have been found in Crane County, but only small amounts of pottery.(1)

The Comanche Indians who belong to the Shoshonean linguistic family, lived along the upper Yellowstone and Platte rivers, and in the early 1700’s they begin to acquire horses that had been brought to this country by the Spaniards. The horse gave the Comanche a feeling of security and superiority over the other Indian tribes. Mounted on horseback increased his hunting range, and with lance or short bow in hand, he could bring down the buffalo with comparative ease and safety. The Comanche lived on horseback, and each Indian’s wealth was measured by how many horses he owned. In horsemanship, the Comanche has never been surpassed. In warfare, their strategy was to attack and retreat before the enemy could organize to resist them or inflict punishment. If he was captured he never asked for mercy and rarely ever gave any.

The horse gave the Comanche such great mobility that they became nomads and left the upper Yellowstone and Platte rivers, and migrated to the South Plains. They drove the Apache westward into the mountains that are now New Mexico, and forced the Pawnee, Wichita and Waco to the east, either to give way or share their country with them.

By the late 1700’s the Comanche Country streached from central Kansas south to the vicinity of Austin, Texas, and from the site of Oklahoma City westward to Raton Pass in New Mexico. The Kiowa made peace with the Comanche about 1795, and lived in Kansas and Oklahoma while the Wichita, Waco and kindred tribes shared east and south Texas with the Comanches. The Comanches with the aid of their horses had total control of the wide open spaces of west Texas.

The Comanche Nation was made-up of 5 main divisions: The Yamparika, or Root-eaters lived along the Arkansas River; the Kotsoteka, or Buffalo-eaters lived just to the south of the Root-eaters; the Nokoni, or Wanders lived along the Red River; the Quahadi, or Antelope People hunted on the Llano Estacado; and the penateka, or Honey-eaters lived in the southeastern parts of Texas. For the most part, these 5 divisions of Comanches were independent tribes.(2)

For 175 years the Comanches had harassed the Spaniards and their Pueblo neighbors in the western territory. Their wars with the hated Tejanos in Texas begin during the Texas Revolution with Mexico in the 1830’s, and continued intermittenly until 1875. Some of the most famous raids were the following attacks: The attack on San Saba’ de la Santa Cruz Mission (now Menard, Texas); the attack on Fort Parker; the Council House Fight; and the attack on Adobe Walls.(3)

Crane County is at the foot of the Llano Estacado which tells us that the Comanche Indians that lived here at different times of the year were the Antelope People. They received their name from the large herds of Antelope that grazed on the plains of the Llano Estacado, but there were also large herds of buffalo that numbered into the millions, and it was the buffalo that was their primary source of food, raiment and shelter. They lived primarily on the buffalo’s flesh while it’s shaggy pelt served as a robe, a sleeping mat, or the covering for their Tepees, and many uses were made of it’s sinews, membranes, bones and horns. The buffalo hunt was a tribal effort and was a serious crime for any warrior to hunt alone and frighten the herd.(4)

With the mobility that the horse gave the Comanches, they made long raids into Mexico for 100 years that begin in the mid 1700’s. Their missions were to steal women and children for slaves, as well as horses, mules and cattle.

The Comanche War Trail is a difficult route to decipher, because of the lack of written information, or maps. However, with the little information that we do have, and the earth’s terrian and it’s rivers, streams, springs and lakes, we can piece together a plausible route.

The Comanche War Trail begin on the northern Llano Estacado with a Western Branch and an Eastern Branch. The Comanche Indians of the north central and northeastern Llano Estacado traveled the Eastern Branch by following Running Water Draw that begins north of Clovis, New Mexico, and goes southeast past Plainview, Texas, into Blanco Canyon. From there the trail followed White Water River to the east side of the eastern caprock of the Llano Estacado, then south to Gholson Spring, Mooar’s Draw, Tabacco Creek and the Big Spring at Big Spring, Texas.(5) The trail then turned southwest until it merged with the Western Branch of the War Trail at Anglin Lakes in northwestern Midland County.(6)

The Comanches of the west central Llano Estacado traveled the Western Branch of the Comanche War Trail by following Black Water Draw that begins west of Muleshoe, Texas, and goes southwest to Abernathy, Texas, then turns south to Buffalo Springs east of Lubbock, Texas. The Comanches west of Lubbock traveled east through Yellow House Draw to reach the Buffalo Springs at Lubbock. From there the trail went south to Skeen Lake south of Tahoka, Texas, and then south southwest to Anglin Lakes northwest of Midland, Texas.

With the Eastern Branch and the Western Branch of the War Trail now combined into one trail at Anglin Lakes, it went south southwest until it entered the extrem northeastern corner of Crane County, Texas. It followed the now existing U.S. State Highway 385 until it turned west (six miles north of Crane, Texas) and went 8 miles to a fresh water spring. Upon leaving the spring in Crane County the War Trail went south 16 miles to Horse Head Crossing and crossed the Pecos River into Pecos County, and then went southwest to Comanche Springs at Fort Stockton, Texas. When the War Trail left the Comanche Springs, the trail again divided into a Western Branch that crossed the Rio Grande River at Presidio, Texas, and an Eastern Branch that crossed the Rio Grande River at Boquillas, Texas.(7) Upon entering Mexico, the Comanche War Trail went south as far as Zacateas, Mexico, and occaisonly to the Yucatan Peninsula.

The great Comanche War Trail was over a thousand miles long, and in some places the trail was a mile wide, trampled out by the hoofs of hundreds of horses. Most of the plundering missions into Mexico were made in the month of September when there was a full moon. The days were not too hot for a long fast get-away journey, and they could travel by the light of the moon at nights that were not yet cold. September was known as the month of the Comanche Moon.(8)

After the Civil War the Federal Government turned their attention to subduing all of the different Indian tribes in Texas, Kansas, Arizona and New Mexico. The Comanches agreed to a treaty with the Federal Government at Medicine Lodge, Kansas, and accepted a reservation in present day southwestern Oklahoma, in 1867. However, the Indians would not stay on their allotted land. In 1874, a general uprising by the Kiowa, Cheyenne and Comanches was marked by an attack on Adobe Walls, and after several other disturbances, the U.S. Army begin a merciless campaign against all Indians found off of their reservations. This campaign continued until the renigades finally gave up in the summer of 1875.(9)

Gordon L. Hooper

11-2-2009

NOTES

1. Historic Midland, An Illustrated History of Midland County. Edited by Bill Modisett. Pages 14-15.

2. The Handbook of Texas, Editor-in-Chief—Walter Prescott Webb, The Texas State Historical Association, 1952. Volume I, page 385. By R.N. Richardson.

3. Ibid., Volume I, page 385. By R.N. Richardson.

4. Ibid., Volume I, page 385. By R.N. Richardson.

5. Ibid., Volume I, page 386. By W.C. Holden.

6. Arrows over Texas by Robert S. Reading, The Naylor Company—The Publishing House of the Southwest, San Antonio, Texas. Page 88.

7. The Handbook of Texas, Editor-in-Chief—Walter Prescott Webb, The Texas State Historical Association, 1952. Volume I, page 386. By W.C. Holden.

8. Arrows over Texas by Robert S. Reading, The Naylor Company—The Publishing House of the Southwest, San Antonio, Texas. Pages 88 and 91.

9. The Handbook of Texas, Editor-in-Chief—Walter Prescott Webb, The Texas State Historical Association, 1952. Volume I, page 385. By R.N. Richardson.

Juan Cordona Lake

(Salt Lake)

An early record of Juan Cordona Lake which is located 12 miles from the present town of Crane, was established when on July 1, 1583, Antonio de Espejo began an expedition from the settlement of Santa Fe which is now the State Capital of New Mexico. He traveled east to the headwaters of the Pecos River, and then traveled south down the east side of the river until he arrived at a salt lake that historians believe is Juan Cordona Salt Lake. There he crossed the river and continued southwest toward the Rio Grande River.

In 1683 another Spanish explorer, Captain Juan Dominquez de Mendoza led an expedition from El Paso, south eastward down the Rio Grande River to Alamito Creek. There he turned northeast and traveled south of the Davis Mountains and eventually arrived at Comanche Springs, located at present day Fort Stockton. From there he continued northeast and on January 15, 1684, he encountered the Pecos River about 7 or 8 miles south from Horse Head Crossing. As he was exploring the region on the east side of the river, he stated in his diary that a great saline was discovered about a league (three miles) from the east side of the Salado river.

A careful study of the notes in Mendoza’s diary seems to indicate that this lake was, not Juan Cordona Lake, but that it is the present day Soda Lake that is 7 miles south from Horse Head Crossing, and is 14 miles south from Juan Cordona Lake. (In the early 1900’s the homesteaders referred to Soda Lake as Comanche Lake).

Captain Mendoza then continued his journey south down the west side of the Peoos River.

On April 21, 1836, Texas won her independence from Mexico, and almost two years later in 1838, we find the earliest record of any privately individual ownership of property in what would later become Crane County. That property is Juan Cordona Lake, and is recorded in Crane County deed records, volume 7, page 500.

On February 6, 1838, Headright Certificate #151 was issued by the Board of Land Commissioners of Bexar County to William H, Steel and Sudovic Colquhoun assignees. Almost 4 months later William H. Steel transferred his undivided 1/2 interest to I. Pickney Henderson on May 22, 1838, and the said Henderson transferred his undivided 1/2 interest to the aforesaid Colquhoun on March 8, 1845, and the said Colquhoun transferred all interest of Headright Certificate #151 to Annie James on January 4, 1867.

J. W. Throckmorton, Govenor of the State of Texas granted a Letter Patent to Annie James which assign to her, 22,372,900 Square Varas (3963 acres) of land situated and described as follows: On Bexar Territory, North of and near the Pecos River, a tributary of the Rio Grande. Beginning at an Earth Mound near the S.E. Corner of a Salt Lake, said Mound being 45 varas from the North Bank of the Pecos River, at a place known as the Horse Head Crossing, by virture of Headright Certificate No. 151, issued by the Board of Land Commissioners of Bexar County, February 6, 1838, to William H. Steel and Sudovic Colquhoun as assignees. Crane County deed records, Volume 7, Page 500.

Annie James died in the County of Bexar, in the State of Texas, February 27, 1901. John H. James was appointed Executor according to Annie’s Last Will and Testament. Crane County deed records, Vol. 7, Pg. 516.

On February 19, 1920, Maria W. James, individually and as Executrix of the Will of John H. James, deceased; John Sehorn, as Executor of the Will of Agnes James Shropshire, deceased; Alfred Giles, as Executor of the Will of Laura James Giles, deceased; Lottie James Sehorn and Diana James Dickinson, did by deed Grant, Sell and Convey to William Henry Cowden, Jax M. Cowden, Gilbert H. Gib Cowden, and William Hart Bill Cowden all of the County of Midland, State of Texas, a certain parcel of land situated in Crane County, Texas, near the Pecos River, known as Juan Cordona Survey #151, comprising 3963 acres of land more or less, being the same land patented to Annie James, June 12, 1867.—Crane County deed records, Volume 10, Page 124.

GORDON HOOPER 4-12-2005

The Chihuahua Trails

Thru Crane County

The first Chihuahua Trail called the Chihuahua-Santa Fe Trail was an old trail that was not connected to Crane County in any way. It begin in Chihuahua City, Mexico, and went east to Presidio where it crossed the Rio Grande River into Texas, and went northwest to El Paso. There it turned north and went up the Rio Grande River to Santa Fe in New Mexico Territory.(1)

Mexican Merchants from the interior of Mexico wanted to enhance their trade with the United States by finding a shorter route than the Chihuahua-Santa Fe Trail. So in 1839, some 200 Mexican merchants and mule skinners in 70 mule drawn wagons, accompanied by fifty heavily armed cavalrymen left Chihuahua, Mexico. They headed east, down the Rio Conchos Valley and crossed the Rio Grande River into the Republic of Texas at Presidio, and from there they set their course northeast across Texas and into Oklahoma. When they crossed the Red River they thought that it was the Brazos River. They continued on north until they reached the Canadian River where they encountered some Delaware Indians, who directed them to Fort Towson, Oklahoma that is just north of Paris, Red River County, Texas.

The Chihuahua Trail that was established during the spring and summer of 1840 when the trade merchants returned home to Chihuahua, Mexico begin at Fort Towson, Oklahoma. They went in a southwestly direction always traveling either west, south or southwest as they went by the following present day sites in Texas.

They crossed the Red River into Texas and went southwest to Paris, turned west toward Bonham, went south of Sherman, through Whitesboro, and just north of Gainsville and Muenster, and into Saint Jo. From there they traveled into the Cross Timbers between the future towns of Montague and Nocona.

At this point the trail becomes hard to follow for the next two or three hundred miles, but it is believed that the trail continued on westward to Seymour and Benjamin, and then turned southwest to the present day towns of Aspermont and Snyder.

At Snyder the trail turned south southwest to the headwaters of the Middle Concho River where it turned west going through Stiles, Castle Gap and Horse Head Crossing on the Pecos River in present day Crane County.

After crossing the Pecos River the trail went southwest to Comanche Springs where Fort Stockton was built in l859. It then went to Alpine and down Alamito Creek to Fort Leaton, then to Presidio where it crossed the Rio Grande River into Mexico, and then it turned west up the Rio Conchos Valley to Chihuahua City.

When the merchants returned and arrived at the Mexico border a new political regime was in power and the promished tariff exemptions were canceled. After some delay a compromise was reached, but because of the time involved to make the trip and the excessive tariff rate that was then being enforced, the trip was not repeated.(2)

In 1848, a third Chihuahua Trail was established that was 1150 miles long. It was called the Chihuahua-San Antonio-Indianola Trail.(3) Indianola, Texas, was on the Texas Gulf Coast on the west shore of Matagorda Bay. It was a natural port for the landing of ships, and had been in use from as early as 1685.(4)

The Mexicans were familiar with