Prof. Pepper's Travelin' Medicine Show

  Austin Carroll "Slim" Mayes was born in Eastland, graduated from Anson High School, and lived off and on in Abilene, TX throughout his life.  He was born in 1901, before there was any sort of popular music in America.  As a result, the only music he was able to get ahold of to listen to was the kind of orchestral music that has been around for hundreds of years.  He always considered himself a violinist, but was recruited to play clarinet with the Simmons College Band while still in high school.  Of course, Simmons College is now Hardin-Simmons University; that band is now The World Famous Cowboy Band. Mayes worked as a mechanic during a brief time as a student at Simmons College.  He was one of the first people to repair airplanes in West Texas.  Of course, there was only one way to make sure the plane was fixed.  This meant he was one of the first people to FLY airplanes in West Texas as well!  Mayes decided to take his skill as a mechanic on the road in 1919 when he bega

My great uncle was James Obed Baker, DDS. He had been a Ag teacher for 15 years, while working his way through West Texas State Teacher's College (now WTAM). He loved to hunt and fish all his life. He lived a very exciting, from pranks with his brothers on the farm to meeting Al Capone. He liked to share the stories of his life with us, going to and from the farm he grew up on in Central Texas.  During these trips, Uncle Obed got to where he would repeat his stories near the end of his 97 years on this Earth. But, he always told at least one story that he had never told before. That includes the following story, on his last outing with us. A week later, he was was hospitalized for the first time in his life. Two weeks after that, he was dead. All of my life, I wondered why Uncle Obed’s nose looked the way it was. It was formed normal, but seemed to be mostly scar tissue.  My dad and I were in the pickup with him, on our way to the farm to fix some fence. Uncle Obed related the foll

  One of the greatest early Texans was John Coffee Hays.  He was born outside of Nashville, TN into the Donelson family, founders of that great city.  His father Harmon and Uncle Robert rode with Gen. John Coffee during the War of 1812.  Hays' uncle was their ultimate commander, Gen. Andrew Jackson.  Hays was born a year after their return from the war, and was named in honor of their commander.  Uncle Robert dubbed him "Jack", the proper noun by which he would be known to friends, family, and compadres in arms throughout his life. After a stint at the Davidson Academy, Jack Hays learned of the Texas War for Independence from Mexico.  This struggle was being led by Gen. Sam Houston, who was meant to be Jackson's political  protégé.  [Personal problems took Houston off that path, but Houston was back on track in Texas.  A perfect story for another time!]  Anyway, Andrew Jackson provided young Jack Hays with letters of introduction and recommendation to present Gen. Hou

People came to Texas from all over the United States, and all over The Earth.   When they carved “GTT” on the door of their homes and were Gone To Texas, they brought their guns along with them.  Why were they GTT?  Many of them had nowhere else to go.  The fact of the matter is that our greatest Texas heroes were ejected from their previous lives for various reasons.  The newly opened colonization of Texas was a great place to commence anew.   They brought along their firearms, because the country was wild and unknown.   The opportunity to disappear and start over was not without mystery of what was waiting for them here. Texas was part of the Mexican state Coahuila y Texas.   The government of México operated under The Mexican Constitution of 1830, which actually was not that bad.  Mexican El Presidente and Generalissimo Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna did not like the constitution, though, so he tossed it out.  This did not set well with so many of the Texas settlers who had come th

            After the Battle of Adobe Walls, the savage Indians were demoralized; this was especially the result of Billy Dixon’s long shot with his buffalo rifle. At this same time, the U.S. Army was responding to the settlers’ ongoing pleas of 20 years for something to be done about the marauding Indians’ savage attacks, murders, and kidnappings all along the frontier. An all-out war was waged with the Indians, carried out from all sides of the Texas High Plains. There were few actual confrontations, other than Ronald MacKenzie’s Battle of Palo Dura Canyon. This well known battle against mainly women and children (most of who escaped) resulted in the capture of the Indian’s enormous herd of horses, their winter’s food supply, and shelters. The supplies were destroyed. The best horses were kept for the Army, but the majority were shot and killed. Their food, shelters, and horses were gone, and they were left afoot and now on foot. The Indians had no option for the winter, except to

       During the 1850-60s in Texas, some of the worst Indian massacres ever recorder occurred in what was then the frontier of Northwest Texas. The area comprises the region from just outside Weatherford, TX to the area up just north of Ft. Richardson (Jacksboro), and south around present day Mineral Wells, Palo Pinto County. The Comanche and Kiowa and others would leave their reservation in the Indian Territory of present day Oklahoma, and on horseback would raid the scattered and isolated farming and ranching families. In 1860, the Ezra and Martha Sherman family lived on their little homestead in the Cross Timbers on the eastern edge of Staggs Prairie (north and a little east of present day Mineral Wells, TX). The father, mother, and three young children were about a mile from their nearest neighbor. One after noon, several Comanche approached the house. As was always the case in such situations, the family was way out numbered; about all they could do was welcome the Indians to o