CHAPTER THREE

A NEW CENTURY - A NEW LAND

The turning of the century did not stop the turnstile of families moving west. In 1900 Dickens County recorded 1151 souls, and most of the state school lands had been homesteaded or "patented" by settlers and were being improved. Patents were still being relinquished or sold, and land values on the better, improved farms were increasing. Good farmland was now selling for about $3.00 an acre.

Cotton, and to some extent crook-neck maize (milo maize) were the principal cash crops grown. Much of the land had to be devoted to raising feed for the horses, mules, and other livestock. Sweet sorghum (cane) was a popular forage: the stalks were cut by hand, tied into bundles, and stacked in the field in a "shock," butt down, tepee fashion. The shocks were left in the field for at least a month to sweat (cure), and then hauled in and stacked.

Two other sorghums, feterita and kafir, were popular feeds. Kafir was especially liked. Somewhat similar to maize, its large-kerneled, white or red heads stood straight up six to fourteen inches in length. The kafir and maize heads were cut from the stalk by hand, piled up in small piles, and later forked into a wagon to be hauled to the barn. Some wheat, oats, and alfalfa were grown for feed or grazing. Peanuts and potatoes were grown primarily for home use.

Research to develop dryland crop varieties was underway in other areas of the country. Straight-necked maize would become a major cash crop when mechanization arrived. Kafir would drop out of the scene. Hybrid corn, which revolutionized farming in other parts of the country, would never replace milo as the major cash feed grain in West Texas.

At Red Mud, James M. Field had built a general mercantile on the land owned previously by Jess Adamson. As the story goes, Field, while greasing his wagon wheel one day, was thinking about a name to submit on his application for a post office. As he laid down a tap, he thought, "That's it! Tap." The state accepted the name and Tap was formally born on April 27, 1900.⁽¹⁾

John McKay, born in Missouri, had moved to Dickens County in about 1886 from East Texas. He built a large stone house at Tap and later, when all the children had left home, used the large home for a hotel.⁽²⁾

The June 25, 1900 Census listed John's newly-married son Will as head of household, with wife Alice, his mother, and four brothers and two sisters. One of the sisters, Hattie, and her husband, John Z. Smith were listed in the household, and L. M. Johnson, who was listed as a boarder.⁽³⁾

Lee M. Johnson had traveled from East Texas with the McKays and lived with them at Tap, where Mrs. McKay ran the Tap Hotel. He was so fond of the McKays, he chose to work for them for $20.00 a month rather than file on his own land.⁽⁴⁾

Ambrose and Genie Decide To Move

Knowledge of the hardships of homesteading did not deter Genie from wanting to be near her family. She and Ambrose, now ages 30 and 32, decided to sell their farm and move to Dickens County. The 50-acre farm sold cheap, and they almost gave away their three mares, two cows, and the pigs and chickens.⁽⁵⁾

That June Ambrose moved the family in with his brother George Brantner, 36, while getting ready for the trip. George, unmarried and a farmer, also had their widowed mother, Susannah staying with him. She was 73.⁽⁶⁾

Later that month Ambrose and Genie boarded a train at Bremond with their few possessions and six children. Kay, born eight months earlier, was still breast feeding. The train carried them to Abilene, with a change in Waco. In Abilene they stayed in a hotel for three days. Carl, and one of his younger sisters, Ruby or Reba, were sick and vomiting. Genie, always a "sleeping person," was very tired and fell asleep. When feeding time came for Kay, who was crying, Ray Lil, age seven, could not wake Genie and finally had to get the lady who ran the hotel to help waken the mother.⁽⁷⁾

Brose hired a wagon and driver to take them the 100 miles or so to Dickens County. During the three-day trip they had to make several river and creek crossings, most of which were running high from the spring rains. Often, they would have to walk the creek banks to find a crossing that was safe from quicksand. Roads were poor most of the way.⁽⁸⁾

The family of eight arrived at brother Toby's place with two trunks, several boxes of dishes, and a few other things, including a feather bed. The bed was of little use at the moment as Toby, Mattie, and their six children lived in a half-dugout that had a one-room frame addition. Sixteen people in one dugout made sleeping a very cozy proposition.⁽⁹⁾

Brose and family soon moved into a dugout near Toby's, on one of the McArthur boy's place. It was like a cellar, with no windows and a small entrance. Soon after clearing out the cobwebs and setting up housekeeping, they broke their only lamp. Genie improvised with a snuff bottle of kerosene and a small wick. Not much light, but enough. They stayed there through the fall and helped Toby and the McArthur's harvest their cotton. They later moved into a nicer and more roomy half-dugout just north of the cemetery at Red Mud. It was here that Genie encountered the first rattlesnake, which almost bit her as she tried to kill it with an axe.⁽¹⁰⁾

Kay P. well remembered the dugout life. Various critters loved the dugouts more than the humans did. Spiders, scorpions, water dogs, and even snakes were a constant problem. No one put on shoes without first checking for scorpions.

Samuel Parker Presler and his wife Nancy also moved their family to Red Mud in 1900. He acquired land northwest of Tap and, in addition to stock farming, ran a four-horse freight wagon to Colorado City, Rotan, and Stamford. Of their eleven children, two young boys died of meningitis before the move to Dickens. A daughter died at age 21 and was buried in Red Mud. Two boys and six daughters would reach adulthood to further the settlement of the area.⁽¹¹⁾

Clint Garrett was also freighting to supplement his farming. He hauled for the Espuela store, making runs to Rotan and Colorado City. He also freighted for E. Luce and son when they had the Tap store nearby.⁽¹²⁾

Many of the other settlers depended upon freighting as one of the ways to survive until crops could be gathered. Teams of four or six horses or mules would be used to pull one, sometimes two wagons, according to the load. Freighters would usually make the trips in groups of several wagons. If all went well, the wagons would make twenty miles a day. They camped where they could find water for the teams, and all shared the cooking and yarn spinning after the horses had been hobbled for the night to graze.

If the children were old enough to stay alone or with neighbors, the wife would sometimes make the trip, returning the neighbor's favor by bringing them supplies. Otherwise, it was a lonely time for those left behind to tend to the stock, break the ice on the stock troughs or tanks, and make do until the food larder could be replenished. Each return home was the end of ten-to-fourteen days of anxiety about whether things were going well at home or on the wagon trail.

To help make a living, Toby Smith freighted for the Espuela store, sometimes from Colorado City about 80 miles to the south and sometimes from Quanah about 130 miles to the northeast. He always worked at least four horses to the wagon and, if he had a trail wagon, he worked six horses. On one trip, Toby and Sam Owen got caught in a blizzard coming back from Quanah and probably would have froze to death had it not been for the supply of blankets they were carrying. On another occasion, Toby and his brother Billy were intimidated by a band of riders whose intentions were obvious. The Smith boys avoided tragedy with some rifle pointing.⁽¹³⁾

There were also trips to the great Salt Flat on the Salt Fork of the Brazos in Stonewall County. The Salt Flat covered about a section of land. The salt formed in crusts of up to one-half inch thick from a little stream that ran from the center. The salt could be picked up in large slabs and loaded into the wagon. The cattle liked it, and sometimes a housewife used it for cooking in an emergency.⁽¹⁴⁾

In 1900 Robert D. and Sallie Williams bought state land in the Red Mud community west of Tap for $1.00 per acre. Another piece of land they acquired was a 119 acre tract with "several graves" in the southern end. They arrived January 1, 1901 and lived with neighbors, as was the custom, until their rock dugout was completed. The nearest neighbors were the Sam McKays on the south and the A. M. Lockets on the west.⁽¹⁵⁾

On August 23 Will and Alice McKay welcomed the first addition to their family. Walter Vernon would be called "Son" for the remainder of his long life. Brothers Paul Albert and Burton William would follow in time, after the loss of Baby McKay in 1901.⁽¹⁶⁾

In 1901, following their first fall and winter in West Texas, Ambrose rented some farm land from Toby Smith and moved into a half-dugout on that place. Brose continued work for the other neighbors as jobs became available. He had always been handy with tools and could do just about anything that was needed.⁽¹⁷⁾

This same year Ambrose bought 50 acres of grassland on the hillside and began building a half-dugout, lining or facing the front with rock. He also bought 80 acres of cultivated land from Mr. Stagner, agreeing to pay one bale of cotton a year for three years. The place was just across the line in Kent County.⁽¹⁸⁾

Georgia (Martin) Pace, who grew up near the cemetery, said that everyone referred to the hillside as the "Brantner Sandhills." "It was such a lovely place for active young folks to play and roll down the hills." The first headstones had been placed in the cemetery the year before, and Ray Lil Brantner remembered playing around them also, when she was a little girl.⁽¹⁹⁾

It was probably in 1901 that the first one-room school house was built on the Airhart property at Tap. In 1902 R. S. Crawford was hired to teach. He boarded nearby with the R. D. Williams.

The school house was used by all church denominations for services and was the gathering place for community activities. Each Christmas a program was held at the school with the whole community taking part. Ministers would sometimes come for a Saturday night service and preach morning and evening on Sunday. Robert and Sallie Williams fed a lot of "comers and stayers."

During these early years, Carl, Ray Lil, and Reba had Mr. R. Firm Self for a teacher. There were no grades and each child progressed at his or her own pace. The older children would assist Mr. Self in teaching the younger ones. Ray Lil recalled that her schoolmates included the Airharts, Lockets, Williams, Smiths, and McKays.⁽²⁰⁾

Genie was finding her days filled, trying to keep the dugout livable, keeping eight of them clothed and fed, and planning for the ninth member of the family to arrive. Coy Lee was born in the dugout May 15, 1902.

Charlie and Rob Harris, nephews of Suzie McArthur, bought the Tap store and mercantile from James Field. The Harris family, including brother Harve, were also running cattle on the Spur's Tap pasture. By 1902 the herd had increased to the point that the Spur Ranch was compelled to have them move their cattle. After not being able to find sufficient grazing elsewhere, they traded their homes and the Tap store in 1902 to E. Luce for cattle, and in 1903 headed for the New Mexico Territory where there was free grazing and no nesters.⁽²¹⁾

E. Luce sent John and Zona from Watson over to Tap to run the store and post office. Jeff Smith and Sam McKay were hired to farm the Luce land at Watson. Jeff always remembered the horses he drove: Old Tom, Old Ben, Dime, and Button.

As things work out, Lee Johnson, who was working for the McKays, met Edna Garrett, the sixteen-year-old daughter of Clint and Dora Belle. They were married April 22, 1902, by J. L. Cross in a home ceremony. Some of those attending the wedding were Bertha, Elsie, and Edna Airhart, Mag Smith, the Greers and Preslars. Lee moved his new bride to a farm eight miles west of Spur near the Garretts and Preslars. Three girls were born during the next four years. They also welcomed their twelve-year-old orphaned nephew, Lee Wright into their home in 1903.

On Christmas Day, 1902, Will H. and Belle Dora Martin arrived in the Tap community with their sons Edd H., Brookie, and Forrest, and two daughters, Willie and Georgia. Their first home was a half-dugout located about 200 yards north of the cemetery--probably the same dugout Genie and Ambrose stayed in during their first year. The Martins bought the land north and west of the cemetery. Will hauled lumber from Rotan and Quanah to build his house.⁽²²⁾

In 1903 E. Luce built a gin just south of the mercantile and about one-quarter mile out in John Luce's pasture. E. Luce went down in Stonewall County near Peacock on the river and bought a gin for $400.00. It was hauled to Tap on freight wagons by neighbors, including John "Contrariness" Hill, Elzy Cross, Clint Garrett, Uncle Elve Garrett, Jimmie Johnson, and a score of others. The gin was a single-stand, hand-operated affair fired with wood hauled from the Spur Ranch pasture. It was run by Claude Mayo, with Sam Smith firing the boiler and Fred Danforth and Lee Peacock running the stand.

The farmers hauled their cotton to the gin in wagons, then carried the cotton from the wagon to the gin in baskets made of wire and lined with ducking. The farmer would fill the baskets while the gin hands carried them to the gin. They had to tromp the cotton into the press. The bales were weighed on a large balance-beam scale and had to be hand lifted. The iron pee for the scale was very heavy and difficult to handle. The crew could gin about six or seven bales on a good day. The gin operated during the 1903 and 1904 crop years.

The cotton market remained at Snyder or Colorado City, seven to ten days away. More of the settlers took up freighting, hauling cotton to market and bringing back supplies.

Ambrose and Genie made progress improving their land. A one-room house was built near the dugout. Ambrose knew how to graft fruit trees and an orchard was established near the sandhill. It probably included Elberta peaches, which grew well in the area. Blooming willows were set out and bugle ivy was started. Brose and Carl worked at clearing more of the land, Grubbing the mesquite and shinnery was hard work, but the mesquite "grubs" provided firewood for many months.

Genie loved to gather her children around her and sing to them. She knew many love songs and hymns and encouraged the children to join in. All of her children were good singers in adulthood.

J. L. Cross stayed busy preaching for the Church of Christ and conducting weddings. On December 30, 1903, he performed the ceremony that united Jim R. McArthur and Bertha Airhart.

In 1904 Mrs. Airhart and Mrs. Manning were hunting their milk cows and found them trampling the cemetery. This prompted them to hold a box supper at the Airhart house to raise money for barbed wire for a fence. The nearby neighbors cut mesquite posts and the small group of plots was enclosed.

On October 4, Ambrose registered his brands at the Kent County Courthouse at Clairemont. The original Record of Marks and Brands shows an "ALB" on the left side and again on the left thigh.⁽²³⁾

Deba Cross (Elmer's nineteen-year-old sister), Annit Tinsley and Cora Lindsey shared teaching duties at Tap during the year. J. L. Cross again closed out the year with a wedding--T. A. Smith and Elsie L. Airhart were married on Christmas Day.

L. E. "Professor" Walker boarded with Robert and Sallie Williams during 1905 and taught school. T. W. Smith served as commissioner of the precinct. In June Ottie Smith and Robert Payne were married by J. L. Cross.⁽²⁴⁾

On September 1, 1905, the Espuela Land and Cattle Company, Ltd. served notice that those who desired to cut wood on the Spurs must obtain a permit. The cost would be 75 cents for two-horse loads in wagons, $1.00 for three-horse loads (one wagon), $1.25 for four-horse loads (one wagon), and $1.50 for four-horse loads in two wagons. No timber suitable for posts was to be cut and no cutting of any kind was permitted in the Duck Creek pasture.

The T. S. "Sebe" Lamberts, with their three children Essie, Orwin, and Joe, moved to Tap on January 6, 1906. Their first home was on the Alf Manning place just south of the cemetery. Two other daughters, Edna and Eola, would be born here.

Johnnie Sparks had come to Dickens County as a eighteen-year-old. In 1899 he moved with his parents to a dugout at Catfish. About 1906 he bought the old Wil Barger place at Red Mud and farmed, freighted, and ran a few cows.

In 1906 Ambrose hauled in lumber from Colorado City to add two more rooms to the one already standing near the dugout. The round trip took fourteen days. When it came time to expect Ambrose' return, Lugenia would stand in the yard at the end of a busy day and watch for the wagon to appear in the distance. A new cistern was dug and things were looking up for the family that had struggled in this pioneer country for six years.⁽²⁵⁾

On August 24 their last child, John V. was born. John recalled that, as the youngest, he had the honor of being the one to grind the coffee and earn the one piece of candy that came in each package of coffee beans.⁽²⁶⁾

A second gin was built in 1906 about a mile west of Tap on the Robert Williams farm. Williams had a large stock tank that could be used as a source of water. The directors included Tandy and Sam Smith, and was later called the Sam Smith Gin when he bought out Williams in 1907.

In 1906 a second box supper was held, this time at the school house, to raise money for a net wire fence for the cemetery. It was also decided to make the cemetery larger, so Johnnie Sparks on the south and Will Martin on the north each donated an acre, and the neighbors fenced the larger block.

After clearing and farming their land for four years, the Will Martins sold their place to P. Hinson in the fall of 1906. In the summer of 1907 they returned and bought back 119 acres of the land previously sold to Hinson and built a house and grocery store at Tap. Will operated the store through the fall and winter, then died of pneumonia in January, 1908.⁽²⁷⁾

Georgia (Martin) Pace recalled one unusual Christmas at the Brantner home. It was probably after Will Martin had died. "The Brantners always had a nice watermelon patch, and also many fruit trees. I can remember one Christmas when we were invited to eat lunch with them. We were very happy to accept their invitation. Our surprise of the day was (that) they served fresh watermelon for dessert. Can you imagine that? They had gathered the melons before frost and buried them in the barn under the cottonseed. They were well preserved, and really something different."⁽²⁸⁾

A few months after the birth of her youngest daughter, Edna Johnson was stricken with consumption (tuberculosis). The doctor ordered she and Lee to travel. Will McKay had also become ill, with travel recommended. In September of 1906, Lee and Edna, with their three daughters and nephew Lee Wright, started west with Will and Alice McKay, and their two boys, Son and Paul. The Johnsons stopped in the Guadalupe mountains west of Carlsbad, New Mexico on January 5, 1907. Six months later, at age 21, Edna was buried in a little mountain cemetery. Fifteen-year-old Lee Wright drove the grief-stricken father and baby girls home to Tap--the youngest was just eighteen months old.⁽²⁹⁾

Will and Alice eventually returned to Texas. Will died in 1911 in Kent County. Alice married Jim Perkins in 1913 and they had four children while living in the Dickens-Garza area.⁽³⁰⁾

Maranda Amanda Smith Brantner (1834-1907)

On April 4, 1907, Lugenia placed to rest the mother she had followed to West Texas. Maranda Amanda Smith, born in Mississippi in 1834, joined the growing list of family pioneers whose memory would hover over Red Mud Cemetery for countless decades to come. Neighbors as well as grandchildren knew her as Grandma Smith.

A community tabernacle was built at Tap in the summer. Sheet iron from the first gin was used for a roof. All the churches met at the tabernacle in rotation.

Johnnie Sparks had met Mary Pirkle at ABC, a camping spot, on one of his freighting trips to Rotan. They were married in 1907 and continued to live on Wil Barger's old place. Because they lived next to the church and cemetery, whole families would stay a week with them during revival time.

Religion was an important social glue to these early settlers, and meetings were held often at Tap. The families would furnish food and someone would always volunteer to cook for the large crowds. Church services would be held after the noon meal. This worked well until the word got around and people began showing up just for the free meal--leaving before the church service.⁽³¹⁾

Ambrose and Genie were Baptists in East Texas, and Brose had served as a deacon. During a Church of Christ gospel meeting at Tap preached by Joe Day, Genie began to question her affiliation. Brose was still reluctant to change. Later, after considerable study and prayer, Brose became convinced. A preacher named Mike Young was brought from Girard, Texas by Toby Smith. Young baptized them in Billy Smith's stock tank (now located on the Suzie McArthur place). The crowd stood on the bank of the tank singing "I Am Bound For The Promised Land."⁽³²⁾

In 1908 the Sebe Lamberts moved one mile west from the Manning place to a house on top of the hill and remained there until 1911, when they moved to the Sam Smith place. They lived here until 1925, then moved to the Wichita community north of Dickens.

In the fall Kay Brantner, almost eight years old, began his first school term. W. A. Lackey was his teacher and the first one to administer academic discipline to Kay's rear end. Mr. Lackey corresponded with Kay and with D. J. Young, Kent County Judge, in 1966.⁽³³⁾

The Town of Spur Is Born

The Espuela Land and Cattle Company, Ltd. had acquired 673 square miles of land in Dickens, Kent, Garza, and Crosby, much of which was excellent farm land. As early as 1904, The S. M. Swenson and Sons banking interests in New York had been interested in, and began negotiations for the Espuela. The purchase was finally consummated in 1908 with ratification by the London interests. The Swensons then set in motion a farmland development program that included selling the more level land for agricultural purposes.

The development plans of the Swensons came to major fruition in 1909. The location of the town of Spur came about largely through the efforts of Charles A. Jones, manager of the local Swenson interests. He persuaded the Stamford and Northwestern Railway, a part of the Burlington System, to extend their line from Stamford to the heart of the Swenson farmlands.

The railroad construction crew was a moving tent city, complete with a commissary. All of the equipment was horse or mule operated. As construction neared Spur, it provided work for some of the local men. It also provided some the first opportunity to see black men, since several were employed on the permanent work crew.

It is easy to imagine the excitement caused by the coming of the railroad and the prospect of a new town as its terminus. On November 1, 1909, the railroad was completed from Stamford to Spur. Town lots had been surveyed and 600 were offered for sale that same day. A tent/shack city had sprung up south of town where some two or three hundred people were waiting for the sale of lots to open.

Prior to the lot sale the only structures on the townsite were the Western Hotel, townsite office, depot, railroad section house and the temporary grocery store of Barber and Hancock. Within thirty days, Spur had boomed to a population of around 700. There were quickly about 50 businesses, 60 residences, a telephone system, school, several churches, and a terminal for the railroad.

In early 1910 C. A. Jones would write: "There are approximately 100 businesses, three banks, six lumber yards, and a complete cotton gin ready to handle the 1910 crop. An efficient electric light plant will commence serving the public by August 1, 1910." The Swensons were selling land direct to farmers for $12.00 to $15.00 per acre, with terms one-fifth down and the balance in six years.

It was about this time that the first Ford Model T cars began showing up in the county. William Fike "Jack" Godfrey had made a little money farming in the Paducah area. He came to Spur a few days before the townsites opened and camped with the others in Spade Draw, southwest of town. He bought two lots on Burlington Avenue (where Bell's Café was built). That same day Jack sold the lots for a $2,800.00 profit.⁽³⁴⁾

A post office at Spur meant the closing of several of the country post offices, including the one operated by the Luces at Tap. This would also be the last year for the Sam Smith gin to operate. All future cotton would be ginned in Spur.

Lee Johnson, after losing his wife Edna (Garrett) in New Mexico, had gone to Snyder for a time. He returned to Red Mud and farmed part of the Luce land, later purchasing it. He married Ophelia Preslar, oldest daughter of Sam Preslar. Ophelia had been one of Edna's closest friends.

Red Top

The number of school children had grown to the point that a new school was built at Tap. Since it had a red roof, it and the Tap community began to be called Red Top. E. and John Luce offered to buy the old school building for the Church of Christ if the men would move it and fix it up. It was moved about two miles south and placed on the corner of the old Perkins place. A brush arbor was built nearby.

The 1910 Census recorded that the population in Dickens County had more than doubled during the decade, climbing to 3,092. The first decade of the new century had been a long one for the Brantners. Now, a more civilized habitation offered them hope for the future. Real cloth could be felt, rather than depending on pictures in a catalog. The long freighting trips were also almost over.

ENDNOTES

1. Arrington, p. 11. (Contributed by Georgia Pace.)

2. Jack and Mary Lou McKay to C. R. B., March 5, 1989.

3. 1900 Census, Dickens County, Texas, W. A. McKay.

4. Arrington, pp. 274-275.

5. Erit Fry.

6. 1900 Census, Robertson County, Texas, George Brantner.

7. Rankin to C. R. B., June 2, 1973.

8. Erit Fry.

9. Rankin to C. R. B., June 2, 1973.

10. Erit Fry.

11. Arrington, p. 305.

12. Ibid., 249.

13. Watkins, p. 5.

14. Arrington, p. 106.

15. Ibid., 333-334.

16. Watkins, p. 38.

17. Erit Fry.

18. As Tom McArthur bought 80 acres of the Stagner homestead, this may be the other half of the quarter section. W. H. Stagner registered a brand in 1897; G. T. Stagner in 1898.

19. Georgia Martin Pace, "The A. L. Brantner Family From Tap, Texas." Georgia came to Red Mud with her parents in 1902. In later years she would play an important role in the Red Mud Cemetery Association and in recording and maintaining the history of the community. She contributed much of the Red Mud history included in Arrington's History of Dickens County.

20. Rankin to C. R. B., June 2, 1973.

21. Arrington, p. 265.

22. Ibid., pp. 287-289.

23. Ralph Brantner to C. R. B. December 29, 1992, (photocopy in author's file). Ralph Brantner said that Ambrose's old horse, Flax, was branded "AL" connected on left shoulder and "B" on left hip.

24. Ottie is presumed to be the daughter of Samuel and Florence Smith, reference the 1910 Census of Dickens County, Texas.

25. Erit Fry. Rankin to C. R. B., June 2, 1973.

26. John V. Brantner to C. R. B., 1959.

27. Arrington, pp. 287-289.

28. Pace.

29. Arrington, p. 275.

30. Watkins, pp. 38-43.

31. Erit Fry.

32. Ibid.

33. W. A. Lackey to Kay P. Brantner, July 29, 1966. W. A. Lackey to D. J. Young, September 30, 1966. Copies in Appendix.

34. Arrington, p. 344.