In 1873, Bill Russell, bossing a trail drive out of Erath County, encountered a starving family in a wagon. Russell gave them a $20 bill and ordered the grub wagon to feed them. Years later he was recognized by the grateful father and repaid. Stephenville Tribune

1882: Alexander is situated on Greens Creek, a few hundred yards to the north, at the foot of the hills, and commands a lovely view of the creek valley, with its beautiful groves of pecan, elm, etc. Its fine water facilities abd pleasant surroundings make it a desirable village to live in. The bountiful supply of good water, for drinking, washing, and stock purposes, is one of the greatest charms of this growing little village. The creek affords quantities of fish and a nice place for boat riding.” Stephenville Empire

An article in the 1881 Fort Worth Democrat noted, A gentleman of experience, and one who can see as far into a mill stone as almost any of us, suggests that as winter vegetables will be scarce and difficult to obtain, now is the time to sow an abundance of turnips. To get a fall garden planted in September, water ahead of planting to cool the soil and sprout the seed. Buck Barry, an early settler, preferred September 20 for his first planting of fall turnips. James Buckner Barry, A Texas Ranger and Frontiersman, 1932

In the fall of 1866, J.L. Baker bought 236 head of cattle from Mr. Frey. Baker gathered a few hands and started the cattle toward Johnson County. But before the drovers were out of Erath County, they lost 100 head in a stampede. Cleburne Chronicle

In 1891, Jennie Sadler, “from a respectable Erath County family” had been missing for months. In September she was arrested near Valley Mills, dressed as a man and driving a herd of stolen horses. “Her strange conduct is simply unaccountable.” Stephenville Empire

In 1904, “A lady walked into the grocer’s shop with a fighting light in her eyes. ‘This here,’ she observed with a sniff as she banged a yellow substance on the counter,’ is the soap what does the washing of itself; the soap that gets all the linen as white as snow . . . and lets the happy housewife spend the rest of the day playing with her children?” The clerk replied no, that it was cheese. Thurber Journal

On the 26th, “A tornado struck the south side of Alarm Creek blowing down many trees, tearing the Alarm Creek School in half, throwing people from wagons, and picking a mule straight up that has yet to be found.” Erath Appeal

1889: “Our mines are still booming . . . the most pleasing fact about the Thurber mines is that all the laboring people are bitterly opposed to strikes – a bane to civilization. Here capital and labor are on the best of terms and are working in harmony – treating each other as friends.” State Gazette (Austin)

In the early 1960s, Tarleton students found Clovis points at the site of the new Senior Citizen’s Center, in the city park. The Bosque River channel was much closer to the Clovis camp than today, and the climate (even though this was the Pleistocene) milder and wetter than today. The site is registered with the Texas Historical Commission. The very rare Clovis points were used to kill big game like mammoths, giant bison, camels, and horses, but the weapon system used is still under debate because of lack of evidence. Skeletal remains of these early people (3,500 – 2,900 BP) are also rare, yet tell an interesting story about the Clovis hunters. Bioarcheologists have noted than people in these centuries were as tall as modern populations today, their bones show fewer health and stress indications, their teeth were well spaced so that they had fewer carries, and the wisdom teeth were not crowded like today. There were fewer enamel defects (caused by malnutrition) or other growth disturbances like bone infections or porotic hyperostosis. I find it interesting that the femur midshaft is flattened and thicker, something only found today among Marathon runners. I get the impression that Pleistocene (this is true worldwide) traveled long distances. Then everything changed with the Younger Dryas Event (12,900-11,700 BP) which destroyed the Clovis way of life and reduced the population in North America drastically. The megafauna died out and the kind of vegetation in Central Texas changed dramatically. Later, when agriculture replaced hunting, human bones show a round femur, indicating a more sedentary lifestyle, disease indicators on the bones increase, osteoarthritis from hard work became common, and people were shorter. This hunting to farming change in health was true all over the world because all domestic plants have nutritional deficiencies compared to animal protein. The catastrophic effects of Younger Dryas was disastrous in North America, yet bump-started agriculture in the rest of the world. We lost our large animals that would have been domesticated, while the rest of the world progressed faster with the help of horses and cattle. If it had not been for the Younger Dryas setback – Columbus could have confronted warriors mounted on camels or horses.

John Reilly, an English sheepman, was pistol-whipped and eighty of his sheep were clubbed to death near Carlton in late August. In the same area, E.G. Pendleton was tied and blindfolded while 100 of his sheep were killed. Tombstones of sheepmen were destroyed at the Honey Creek cemetery. In early September, sheepmen planned to gather at Carlton for a meeting, but the cattlemen took possession of the city hall first and refused to let the sheepmen inside. The cattlemen held their own meeting to decide what to do about the sheepmen. On September 19, Texas Rangers arrived and began their investigation into the violence. I don’t know if anything came of the investigation. State Gazette (Austin)