"Twix the Crix"

The following article is quoted in part from an article entitled Between the Creeks that is contained in Russell Traylor's book "History of Titus County, Vol 1" which was published in 1965. I am adding a few of my own notes and updating some of the information to the present. The article is about the area in northern Titus and Morris Counties between White Oak Creek and Sulphur River. Mr. Russell refers to it as "between the creeks", but most of the people I knew during my younger days referred to the area as "twix the crix". Part of the article is already quoted under the photos of the old Sullivan-Sanford sawmill. That portion will be repeated here to keep the article in context.
Texas has had its share of romance, myth, fable, bloodshed, hope and riches in disposing of its public lands. The romance, myth and fable were a part of Coronado's search for Gran Quivira, where everyone had their ordinary dishes, jugs and bowls of gold. Bells of gold tinkled in their lodges, there were towns and fields that raised granin in such abundance it was even fed to the horses. This wonderful land was somewhere north of the Rio Grande. Instead, Coronado found the the deserts and plains of the Middle West, the forest of East Texas, and Indidams living in abject poverty. Coronado and his successors (the explorer, impresario, settler, foreigner, cattleman, speculator and oilman) all have sought the El Dorado. Only the oilman has found the fabulous riches of Coronado and only then in the bowels of the earth in the form of a black liquid that he once thought was inexhaustible. The all found lots of land. They won it with their blood at Bexar, the Alamo, Goliad and San Jacinto. The settlers struggled with it and fought among themselves for it. The thousands of lonely graves scattered over its area caused it to be known as a place that "was Hell on women, kids and oxen, but a playground for men". That area of Titus and Morris Counties in the vicinity of Sulphur River-White Oak Creek (often times referred to as "between the creeks") was no exception to the struggles in Texas for lands. There are two things that man has always sought, freedom and land. America and Canada are the two nations of the world that have been foremost in giving to its citizens these two basic wants, and of all the states, Texas has been the most liberal with its lands. The Indians greeted the first Spaniards with cries of "Tejas, Tejas", which meant friendly, and so the Spaniards named it Tejas (later given a pronunciation of Texas), meaning friendly land. It has truly been a place that has freely taken many for its citizens who have been rejected elsewhere. Sulphur River heads in three prongs in Hunt and Fannin Counties. There are North, Middle, and South Sulphur. These have all joined in one stream at the east end of Delta County and it flows east joining Red River in southwestern Arkansas. Its name was given by early settlers due to the fact that at times a faint odor of bromides or sulphur was present in the water. This could be the by-product of seepage from the many oil fields along its course. Sulphur River forms the north boundary of Titus and Morris Counties and as expressed by one native it is as crooked as a "churnful of chitterlings". It has generally a wide bottom with most of it on the south side, and this bottom soil is for the most black land soil of Delta, Hunt and Fannin Counties that has been floated down river in floods. In some areas this topsoil has been found to be 200 feet thick. White Oak Creek rises in Hopkins County and flows east parallel to Sulphur River. On the west boundary of Titus County, ther are about four miles apart and they gradually converge and then join at the northeast corner of Morris County. This creek gets its name from the great amount of white oak timber that grows in its bottoms. It does not have the rich soil of the Sulphur River bottoms. The soil between the two streams is generally called "post oak dirt". It is of grayish color, shallow in depth, and not too fertile. It does not readily absorb water and in the summer dries to the hardness of clay. There are areas that are flat and in season of wet weather these areas are covered with water. These are called "flats" and perhaps the largest is Willow Oak Flat covering parts of the Uzzell and Shay surveys in Titus County. The area is one of hardwood timber. There is to be found all kinds of oak, sweet gum, black gum, poplar, sycamore, elm, ash, pecan, hickory, pignut, and bois d'arc. Only since about 1920 have pines begun to show up in isolated areas. When this timber was virgin there was no underbrush and one could see for hundreds of yards in any direction except in the canebreak areas. The rancher had no trouble in finding his cattle or using his lariat. There were large areas of switch cane called "canebreaks". These were the areas of the wildcat, the panther, the bear, the wolf and the rattlesnake. Lacy Creek in the Dundas and Banks Surveys in Titus County was the favorite bear hunting spot of the early settler. There was a salt seep on what is now the Dundas Survey in Titus County known as "Red Lick" and all animals came to the place for salt. It was a favorite hunting spot. The switch cane furnished fodder in the sinter for cattle, deer and horses and the oak, pecan, pignut and hickory furnished mast for the hogs. If the mast was plentiful, the hogs were fat and the settlers well supplied with meat, but if a late freeze got the buds, then the mast was lean and so was the meat. When the timber was cut, there were oaks of seven feet in diameter and perhaps the larges tree cut was a red sycamore cut by J. A. Logan and others near Jones' Crossing in Titus County that had a stump of nine feet six inches in diameter. This area had always been a favorite hunting and fishing ground. Squirrels have always been found in abundance and upt to about 1900, there were plenty of deer and then for a period of some 40 years there were no deer, but now many deer are found in the woods. There are some reports of wild turkey, but so far no one has reported seeing a bear. The wildcat and the wolf have returned, along with the fox and other small game. The Hill Hole in White Oak Creek on the John R. Slaughter Survey has always been a favorite fishing spot on that creek and there are areas on Sulphur River, too numerous to mention, that have always been favorite fishing spots. Catfish are plentiful in Sulphur River and grow to large size, and it is not unusual for catfish weighing 30 to 40 pounds to be caught in this stream. The largest fish ever known to have been caught in the stream was a catfish caught by Tom Polk and others near Jones' Crossing that weighed 110 pounds. (I saw a 105 pound catfish that was caught during the 1950's below the Highway 67 bridge in Cass County. It was caught in a barrel net which has long been outlawed in the state of Texas.) There are many lakes in the area all along Sulphur River which were probably created when the river changed course. Fishing has been done by pole, by seines, by net, and by some through a method called "grabbling". A "grabbler" is a person who wades out into the water then dives down in and around logs and holes in the bank feeling for fish and catching them with his hands. Due to the prevalence of water moccasins and alligators , not too many employed this method of fishing. "Grabbling" was also hard on the hands because catfish, and especially gars, can chew. (Seines and nets are now outlawed. So is a couple of other methods that were illegal even back then known as "telephoning" and the use of explosives.)
The Congress of the Republic of Texas created Red River County in 1837. Red River formed its boundary on the north and east and Big Cypress Creek formed the boundary on the south. It was an area that extended approximately 200 miles east and west and 150 miles north and south. All of Titus and Morris Counties were included in this area. The act of Congress creating this county provided that the first courts of the county would be held at LaGrange on the second Monday in January, 1838, at which time a permanent county seat would be selected. The eastern boundary of Texas at the time had not been definitely defined. There were times when a part of the Red River County area was considered as being a part of the United States (specifically Arkansas) and at times the boundary of Texas was supposed to follow Red River and include part of what is now Arkansas and Louisiana. LaGrange was located about 5 miles east of Clarksville and is now known as Madras. At any rate, the commissioners selected the Town of Clarksville as the county seat of Red River County. It was perhaps the largest and oldest town in the county. Other towns were Jonesboro, north of Clarksville on Red River, Daingerfield and Jefferson. There was also Fort Sherman in what is now the southwestern part of Titus County, and other isolated settlements throughtout the area of Red River County. It was necessary from time to time that those living in what is now Franklin, Titus, and Morris Counties go to Clarksville to transact their legal business, some to check land titles, some to attend court, pay their taxes, and perform the numerous other chores that can be done only at a county seat. There were no established roads leading from the south into Clarksville, but the settler was not long in finding the best place to cross Sulphur River. As a result there were several fords on the river in Titus and Morris Counties. Later there were ferries at these places, and in so9me of them bridges and highways have been built. Those people living in the Daingerfield area of the county traveled in a northerly direction through what would probably now be Omaha and Naples (see Wheatville and Naples histories)and forded White Oak Creek in approximated the vicinity of present day Highway 26 (Highway 259), and then crossed Sulphur River in the vicinity of the J. L. Goodman Survey, a famous place know as "Rock Crossing". This is a rocky area and the bottom of the river was fairly covered with rock. There is no public road at this crossing and there was never any ferry or bridge. Going upstream, the next crossing on the river was known as "Jones Crossing" and was in Titus County in the vicinity of the H.W. Jones Survey which borders on Sulphur River. Henry Jones once had a ferry across the river at this place. Long before the Civil War, there was another town located on what is now State Highway 49 between Mt. Pleasant and Daingerfield known as Snowhill. (Snow Hill is located about five miles west northwest of Daingerfield.) This was quite a large town and was in existence during the time that Titus and Morris Counties were still a part of Red River County. The people in the Snowhill area travelling to Clarksville, doubtless crossed at Jones' Crossing. This crossing is not now used, but the old passageway to the river is still evident. Up river a short distance from Jones' Crossing was the Hargis Crossing. Running from Mt. Pleasant north to the Wilkinson community, which is between White Oak Creek and Sulphur River, is FM Highway 1402 and this roads continues north from Wilkinson to Sulphur River. It is better known as Harts' Bluff Road and was so named because of the fact that a family by the name of Hart had a ferry across Sulphur River where this road intersects the river. There was a ford across the river at this place before Hart built the ferry. The early settler in Mt Pleasant probabably used this road and crossing in going to Clarksville. (Near where US Highway 67 crosses Sulphur River from Cass County into Bowie County is the location of the old Stephenson Ferry.) In 1846, Titus County was created and its area included Titus, Franklin and Morris Counties. Its norther boundary was Sulphur River and its souther boundary was Big Cypress Creek. Mt Pleasant was selected as its county seat. As a result of this, it was no longer necessary for the citizens of Titus County to travel to Clarksville to transact their legal business. In time, the use of most of the crossings diminished except for the occasional traveler. White Oak Creek, being a much smaller stream, did not prresent any particular problem in crossing it. There were numerous places on this creek that were used as fords. In 1875, Morris and Franklin Counties were carved out of Titus County. Texas, in its early days, was short on many things, but there was no shortage of lands, and history records that the public domain of TExas has been dispensed with a liberal hand. (When Texas was annexed into the United States in 1845, Texas did not cede its public lands to the United States.) The Spaniards were the first to begin disposing of the public domain. They were followed by the Mexican government. There were no Spanish or Mexican grants in either Titus or Morris Counties. During the ten years that the State was a republic, numerous grants were made in Titus and Morris Counties and there were various ways in which these grants were made. There were grants to promote citizenship and induce immigration into the state. An act was passed in March, 1836, providing that all persons, except Africans and their descendants and Indians, living in Texas on the day of the Declaration of Independence would be entitled to on league (4,428.4 acres) and one labor (177.l acres) if they wre the head of the family; and if a single man 17 years or older, they were entitled to one-third of a league. Later, laws provided that the heads of family who arrived in Texas as immigrants after the Declaration of Independence and prior to October 1, 1937, should receive certificates for 1280 acres of land if head of family, and a single man would receive a certificate fo 640 acres, provided they remained in the republic for three years and performed the duities of citizenship. These so-called "setter grant laws" were amended from time to time. Many of the surveys of land in the Sulphur-White Oak Creek area were of the settler or immigration type. Practically all of those containing 160, 320, 640, or 1280 acres are these types of grants. Among those are the W.A. Dundas, Jack Dillard, and Joseph Keith in Titus County, and the J.R. Slaughter, W.B. Daniel, B.I. Ratliff, and numerous others in Morris County. Donations were made to the veterans of the Texas Revolution, and those who participated in the Battle of San Jacinto were give 280 acres of land. We find one of those, the William F. Savage Survey, in Titus County. From time to time, the republic and state would get short of money, and would issue land script and sell them at varying rates per acre. Those owning this land script could go into the public domain and locate land wherever found. The larger surveys, such as the John Tumlinson, Henry P. Banks and George W. Brooks, are surveys of this type. In order to induce railroads to build, the State of Texas began in 1852 to grant lands to railroads in return for laying of tracks. At one time it was provided that any railroad that would construct at least 25 miles of track would be given sixteen sections of land for each mile constructed. The railroad would certify to the Land Commissioner that it had constructed a certain number of miles, and the Commissioner would issue certificates for a certain number of acres, and then these certificates might be sold and those who owned them would go out into the public domain and locate lands. The area contains many grants for railroads, and among these are the BBB&C Railway Company, GC&SF Railroad, SA&MG Railroad, and the Texas Central Railroad. Practically all of the northeastern part of Morris County was located with T.C. Railroad grants. Most of the counties of Texas received three leagues of land to be used in promoting education. A portion of land granted to Titus County was located in Titus County and is known as Titus County School Land Survey. It comprises approximately 2,000 acres. The counties could sell this land, but were required to keep the proceeds of the sale in a permanent school fund and keep this fund invested and use the interest in the furtherance of public schools. Titus County received lands in Montague and Pecos Counties, and all of these lands have been sold. Strange to say, oil has been found in each county upon these lands. The Titus County permanent school fund approximates $35,000.00 (1965 figures), and is kept invested in bonds of various types and the interest therefrom parceled out to the various schools on a pro rata basis in accordance with the number of children enrolled. In 1876, the Legislature began to set aside public lands for the support of public schools in Texas, and as these lands were sold, the monies went into a permanent endowment fund. This fund has been enriched through the years by oil and other minerals, and today (again 1965 figures) the permanent school fund of the State of Texas approximates a half billion dollars. The State School Board keeps this fund invested in bonds of various types, and the income therefrom is parceled out to the schools of the State of Texas in accordance with the number of children enrolled. The state, in disposing of its public lands, issued only a script which said that the holder was entitled to a certain number of acres of the public domain, and it was up to the holder of the script to get a surveyor and go out into the field and have his lands surveyed. When the lands had been surveyed, the field notes were sent to the State Land Office, and if the office found that the field notes did not conflict with any other surveys, a patent was then issued and that tract of land was named after the person in whose name the patent was issued. These grants are referred to as surveys. Notwithstanding the fact that the soil of the area was not too good, that mosquitoes and malaria were in abundance, that pestilence was often prevalent; the area was not without its early settlers. Long prior to the Civil War, the Ellis family was living in the vicinity of the Titus County School Land Survey, The Henry Jones family was on Sulphur River, the Rogers family and the Goodman Survey near Rock Crossing. There was the Zelieff family on the John R. Slaughter Survey in Titus County and south of Zelieff lived the Wyzhe, Goodman, Hill and other families. There was the Tillman Smith family living in the White Oak Creek area southeast of what is now Talco. Many of these people lived and died in the area, were buried and the location of their graves long since forgotten. Near Rock Crossing there is buried Bob Williams and other members of his family, who were mysteriously killed, the location of their graves long since forgotten. Just south of Jones' Crossing on either the Henry Culp or C.M. Palmer Surveys is the Culp cemetery, all traces of which have been obliterated. Millers, Culps, Jones, and others are probably buried in this cemetery. Members of the Hargis family are buried on the William Hargis Survey. There was the Dutch family of Peter Sourwine, who lived on Sulphur River on the Mary Fleming Survey, and the graves of this family are in the woods, but no one knows where. There wad a large Negro settlement centering around the Green Logan, Mose Price, Jack Dillard, Abe Daughtry, and James Burns Surveys, all of whom were Negroes. The people were living in the area long prior to the Civil War, but none of them remain in the area at this time. These people did very little farming, no more than was actually necessary to furnish them with the necessities of life, and they depended largely upon stock raising. They all had their herds of hogs and cattle, and on up until P. H. Pewitt purchased the area in 1942, this was considered open range country. Each person had his brand for his cattle and mark for his hogs. The ears of the hogs, and quite often the cattle, would be clipped in various manners to indicate and owner's mark. These marks were generally registered at the county seat. There are still a few wild hogs in the bottoms, but no wild cattle. Those now living in the area complain that there seems to be an abundance of snakes in the forests, fields and streams, more than usual, and it is said that this is due to the fact that when hogs were running at large, they actually hunted out the snakes to eat them. Snake venom for some reason has no effect on a hog. According to the old settlers, hogs treated snake meat as a delicacy and quite often hogs would be seen in the summer in the shallow lakes snake hunting. This has always been an area that was known for wildcat whiskey making, and no one knows how many elicit whiskey stills have been confiscated through the years, but doubtless the number will run into hundreds; and strange to say, this industry still flourishes to a certain extent. The settler's home was most crude, being constructed of logs and, of course, with no facilities for sanitation. Thes is no rock in the area, and the chimneys were built of mud and sticks. In constructing these chimneys, sticks of certain size and length were cut and these were then built in the so-called "pig pen" type, and were plastered with mud. These were rather dangerous and quite often would catch fire. In order to protect himself, the settler always kept a long pole standing up beside the house near the chimney so if the chimney caught fire, this pole could be used in prising (prying) it away from the house so the house would not catch fire. The last of these log houses with the mud and stick chimney was on the Logan Survey. There was farming in some of the areas, but never too much farming in the area covered by the Broseco Ranch. Charlie Page lived for several years in the vicinity of the Preston Bland Survey in Morris County and farmed, and there were some Negro families by the name of Moore in the area that farmed for a good many years, but all in all, it has been primarily a forest and ranching area. The area has been a place of violence. In addition to those already named as having been murdered, there was D.P. Zelieff, who was murdered near his home on the Slaughter Survey and although it was thought that Albert McGill was the one that killed him, it was never known or proven. This was in the 1870's. A.F. and Henry Culp came into Titus County as carpetbaggers following the Civil War and during the reconstruction period, they were officers of Titus County and incurred the enmity of many of the old citizens. Henry Culp, on one occasion, became angered at Tim Morris, a resident of the area, and Culp threw his lariat rope around Tim Morris and dragged Morris down the road for some distance. Fortunately for Morris the rope was around his body and not around his neck. He told Culp that he intended to kill him. After the reconstruction period, when Culp had lost the protection of the Yankee soldiers, Morris began hunting him. He found Culp sitting on Tillman Smith's front porch one morning and killed him with a shotgun. Following the war, the Culps moved a great number of Negroes in the vicinity of the two Batte, Waggoner and Smith Surveys in Titus County and began farming. Many of the settlers did not like this and on one occasion a group of them went to this area and killed several of the Negroes. This broke up this farming operation of the Culp family. Long prior to the Civil War, W.C. Batte owned several thousand acres of land in the vicinity of the Batte, Waggoner, Smith and other surveys of land, and following the Civil War, he sold this land to W.J. Johnson for $1.00 per acre. This gives rise to this land being, even today, called the Johnson Farm. This area was the scene of the bitter feud between the Cowley and Copeland families about 1895 which resulted in several members of both families being ambushed. The last one killed was Jap Johnson who was shot off of his wagon as he was hauling logs and his assailants, in order to hide their tracks, set fire to the woods and Johnson was burned almost beyond recognition. When the Civil War commenced, there was living in what is now the Morris County part of Broseco Ranch, the Ransom Rogers, William Hall, William Murphy, Spencer, Goodman, and Bill Powell families (Lloyd Heard Notes: The Bill Powell mentioned was William Edward Powell who immigrated to Texas from Indiana in 1853 with a wife and three children. He settled on 320 acres located just north of the present day Mt Moriah Baptist Church. His house, a log cabin stood in what is now Forrest Clair's front yard. The log cabin was still standing as late as 1965. The Rogers, Goodman and Hall families also lived in the Mt Moriah Community. Bill Powell's wife was Emily Ann Goodman, but it is unknown what relationship she was to the other Goodmans in the area. Bill Powell was my mother's grandfather.) Apparently the sympathy of most of these families was tithe the North, and these people refused to go into the Confederate Army. For a long while, they hid out in the canebrakes of Sulphur River Bottom and in and around a cabin that had been built by Bill Murphy. As the was progressed, the need of the South for soldiers became more desperate, and beginning in about 1863 the Confederacy set up a method of conscripting men into the army. This still did not bring any of these men into the army and along in that year the Confederacy sent the conscription officers into the Sulphur River bottoms in the hope that they could catch these men and put them in the army. Bill Murphy saw them coming and warned the others, of whom there were several, and they made preparations to fight them off, but thinking that perhaps they had better not put up any fight, they all took to the bottoms. In doing so, it appeared that Murphy and one of the Goodmans was going to be caught by one of the conscription officers on a horse, and Goodman shot and killed this conscription officer. They all made their escape and went on into Kentucky and other northern states and stayed there for the remainder of the war when they returned home. Notwithstanding the fact that the sympathy for the great majority of the people in and around where these men lived was with the Confederacy, there did not seem to be too much, if any, bitterness toward them for not participating in the Confederate Army. They and their descendants have lived and owned land in that area on up to the present time. Around 1900, Sebe Ledbetter, a real estate dealer living in Naples, began buying land in the area between the creeks and in the space of some two or three years he put together a block of some 20,000 acres. This land was turned to the Sullivan-Sanford Lumber Company, of Cincinnatti, Ohio, and this concern began the building of a large mill in Naples in the latter part of 1905, and had it in operation in 1906. This mill was located east of Naples and north of Highway 67. It built a railroad from Naples in a northwesterly direction crossing White Oak Creek. After crossing White Oak Creek, it generally followed what is now FM Highway 71 across Morris County and on into Titus County to the Green Logan Survey and then turned in a northwesterly direction and ended near the SA & MG Railway Company Survey that is now owned by Roy Gentry. (Roy Gentry died in late 1999 or early 2000.) It had a branch that went north crossing Sulphur River near Rock Crossing and another crossing the river near Jones' Crossing. It had one wood burning engine which would leave Naples in the morning and would push cars to various places along the line where these cars would be loaded with logs during the day and then the logs would be carried back into Naples in the afternoon. Some 500 men were employed at the mill and in the woods. Large numbers of oxen and other animals were used in the woods in getting the logs to the railroad. The sawmill was never too successful financially and one of those who worked there said that for some three or four months preceding Christmas in 1908, they were not paid and on Christmas Eve each received $1.00. This employee says that late in the winter the management brought a large sack of $5.00 and $10.00 gold pieces to the mill and paid all of them back wages. By 1912, all of the good timber had been cut and the company's financial position had worsened. The mill went into bankruptcy and was dismantled. The railroad was abandoned and the rails removed, but the old ties stayed in the ground until they rotted. A large portion of the roadbed is still used for roads today. Shortly after the mill quit operating, a man by the name of Cobb opened a brick plant on the river about a mile upstream from Rock Crossing and only one kiln of brick was made and cured before this plant went into bankruptcy and quit operating. Some of the ruins of this old plant are still in the area.
About 1917, Clayton D. Browne, a financier from Dallas, purchased the lands of the bankrupt Sullivan-Sanford Lumber Company. He had thought that he might cut these lands into smaller tracts and sell them to people as homesteads, but he was never very successful in this operation. In a small portion of the George Dyer, Ebenezer Allen and Travis G. Wright Surveys in Morris County, he started a settlement called Browntown, and built a schoolhouse which was the only school that was ever conducted in Morris County between the creeks. There were several families living in Browntown. Among them were Charlie Page; Dutch, Jim and Jess Love; Elbert VanHoose; Jim Davis; some of the Goodmans; and probably other families, but this community never flourished to the extent of having a store or church. Browne never made any attempt to fence any of the land and finally seeing that his colonization project would not be successful, he sold all of his lands in 1932 to C.M."Dad" Joiner. Joiner was a wildcat oil well driller and drilled the discovery well in the great East Texas Field in 1930. This field received such wide notoriety throughout the United States that Joiner was hailed as a great and successful oilman. He proceeded to cut up the land he had bought from Browne in lease blocks of 10 acres. He sold hundreds of thousands of dollars of these leases in California and other western states. He had received so much notoriety on his strike in east Texas that many people thought that Joiner could find oil any place, and he did drill several wells in the area, but all were dry. All in all, it made a very good promotional scheme for him and made him a considerable amount of money. P. H. Pewitt, a successful oilman of Longview, bought the Joiner land in 1942. It was his idea to start cleaning out the brush and making a ranch, but he had no idea of the resistance that he would meet from the settlers in the area. He went in Morris County to the instersection of the old railroad with Highway 26 (now 259)and began building his headquarters, barns, corrals, shops and other houses, and he moved in bulldozers and other equipment to begin clearing brush. In the course of time, he tried all methods of clearing the brush. He first used bulldozers to push it over and push it in windrows and then burn it. He then tried a large chain hitched to two bulldozers and pulled this through the woods and pulling over the timber. He then tried the saws that are fastened on front of the bulldozers, and these, as the go through the timber, saws the trees down. LeTourneau came up with an enormous machine that he said would push down all the timber and grind it up. This was tried, but it was found that although the LeTourneau machine would push down the timber, it would really leave the ground in an awful mess, and that it cost more to clean it up than it did to get the timber down. Pewitt found that his most successful operation in clearing the timber was to cut it with the saw in front of the bulldozer and let it lay on the ground for about two years, then during a hot summer set it afire and most of it would burn. He would then take a disc weighing several tons and go over this land and prepare it for seeding. There is always the problem of sprouts from the roots left in the ground, but thse are being sucessfully killed by various brush sprays. Pewitt started building fences, and in so doing he began to narrow the open range and cut out the hunter and fisherman from their favorite areas. They began to retaliate by cutting his fences, and in some instances stealing his cattle and killing his hogs. He would buy other tracts of land, some of them with houses on them, and no sooner would the title be placed in him than the house would be burned. On many occasions he would miles of fences cut between every post. At one time his employees had penned a large number of hogs in a small pen in Titus County and a couple of men got in this pen with axes one night and killed many of these hogs and crippled others, and those who saw this pen the next morning said they believed that it was the bloodiest mess that they had ever seen at any place in their life. There were many threats against his life, his foreman's life, and the lives of his employees, and actually on more than one occasion there were some shots exchanged, but no one was hit. He finally decided that he could not raise hogs and he stopped this part of the operation, but he did continue to expand his cattle operations by fencing and clearing more land and buying more land. He would attempt to buy out those who lived in the area, and by 1955 he had fairly well succeeded in this with the exception of some two or three families, he had fairly well bought up all of the land in the area. By 1955, the hunters, fishermen and open range men had become reconciled to the fact that this land was going to be reduced to possession, and although there were sporadic outbursts of fence cutting and other vandalism, on the whole there was not too much trouble after that time. He built a large and spacious home near the headquarters and lived there for several years until it burned about 1957, when he moved to the hotel in Mt Pleasant and continued to live there until he sold his ranch. He cleared about 20,000 acres of the land and planted this in permanent pastures. These are some of the best pastures in the area today. Even before the day of Joiner, there were many attempts to find oil in the area, but none were successful until R.H. Moore, of Omaha, drilled the discovery well in the Pewitt Ranch Field on the Henry Banks Survey about 1948. This developed into a large oil field and so far is the only oil field on the ranch. Pewitt and B.C. Pyars, of Tyler, drilled a well on the George Dyer Survey in Morris County and for awhile thought that it would produce, but despite all of their efforts they were never able to make a commercial well. Numerous wells have been drilled in Morris County, but so far it is one of those counties in Texas that does not have any production of oil or gas. Broseco Corporation, a Maryland concern, bought the Pewitt Ranch in 1962. At that time Pewitt owned in excess of 40,000 acres and in this sale he sold his cattle, his equipment, and his nil holdings in the Pewitt Ranch Field. Broseco Ranch hired Floyd Shelton of Fort Worth as its manager. He has carried on the Pewitt development in a very credible manner and has in many instances expanded this in the way of making additional water supplies for the livestock, improving the pastures, and the cattle herd. In time he believes that he can make it one of the most productive ranches in the east Texas area. The deer and the other wild animals have returned and the people have moved out. No doubt there are less people living in this area now than there were 120 years ago. Soon Interstate Highway 30 will cut through the heart of the ranch and where once the small locomotive of the lumber company lumbered through the woods will now see the big diesel vans moving through the area at a rate of speed never dreamed possible sixty (ninety five) years ago.
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Mr Traylor Russell, the author of this article, was an attorney in Mt Pleasant. He was attorney for Paul H Pewitt and the Broseco Corporation from the time that Pewitt started purchasing land in the area and he had the opportunity during the course of his duties to examine numerous abstracts and other evidences of title in both Titus and Morris Counties. For his articles, he interviewed many of the old citizens of the area, some that worked for the Sullivan-Sanford Lumber Company and some that worked for both the Pewitt Ranch and the Broseco Ranch.