As an Indian scout, Henry Strong had killed (and scalped, sometimes decapitated) dozens of Natives during his time in Texas after escaping here to avoid murder charges. Strong was on his way to San Antonio after spending the night with a friend near Dublin. He arrived in Comanche on January 5, 1877 as the bank was being robbed. Strong was put in charge of a posse that trailed the gang to San Antonio. They arrived just as the leader of the bank robbers, Joe Horner, was being arrested. Horner was caught as he was trying to convince a blacksmith to make him a bulletproof vest. Horner escaped from the jail, stole two horses, and robbed the stage at the Uvalde River crossing. He was captured soon after and taken to Uvalde where court was in session where he was immediately sentenced to ten years in the Huntsville prison. A couple of years later Horner escaped and was never recaptured.

Henry Strong, My Frontier Days and Indian Fights on the Plains of Texas. Waco: 1926; The Handbook of Texas.

The most common Opuntia (prickly pear) in Erath County is Opuntia engelmannii. Natives used every part of this cactus, including the stems, flowers, fruit, seeds, thorns, and sap. Of all the native plants of Texas, the prickly pear has been most responsible for keeping humans and animals alive during times of deprivation. The most obvious feature is the flat, oval pad, this is the stem, known as the cladode. The cladode has been an important food source and healing agent throughout human history in Texas. After the spines are burned off, the pads are ready to eat by boiling, steaming, roasting, or if they are new (nopalitos), they can be eaten raw. Buried deep in dry rock shelters and caves, the pads have been found that were split laterally and then sewn together again to form pouches. The pads were then used as steaming pouches for cooking meat, they have been found with different kinds of meat, fish, and even lizards inside. The name for this cooking process has been lost in Texas, but the Aztec name is mixiote (mee-sho-tah). The prickly pear pads were also used as a topical healing agent used to treat wounds, sores, swellings, and insect bites. The pad was split and the mucilaginous side was placed over the wound as a poultice. The antiseptic gel was used to stop the bleeding and reduce inflammation. The use of this healing method was learned by the Comanches from more ancient folk when they spread into Texas in the early 1700s. The Hispanics learned the technique from them and later the treatment became standard practice among early Anglo settlers as well. I have read in several places that this treatment was used successfully to treat serious bullet and arrow wounds. The prickly pear in the background is the Opuntia ficus-indica, the thornless variety developed by the Aztecs, the photo was taken in my garden, started from a cactus in Gene Porter’s garden over 40 years ago.

Matt Warnock Turner, Remarkable Plants of Texas: Uncommon Accounts of Our Common Natives, Univesity of Texas Press, 2009.

An 1890 description of a dance between Stephenville and Hamilton: “We found about 15 girls . . . the orchestra consisted of one fiddle . . . I was rather bashful, but encouraged by a fierce-looking cowboy with a villainous eye, two big pistols and a pair of three-inch spurs. I selected a partner and we began. Nothing but quadrilles, [an early form of square dance] we danced. As the cowboys warmed up they occasionally aided the caller by calling out: ‘Everybody dance just as pretty as he can!’ ‘Climb he grapevine,’ or ‘Chase the squirrel,’ etc. At the conclusion of the quadrille I escorted my partner to a seat and attempted the polite in my best style. I noticed that all the cowboys left the room . . . Before long the newcomer was signaled by the cowboys outside to join them and was told that ‘I had committed a most serious breach of etiquette by talking to my partner . . . .” State Gazette (Austin)