Carol C Taylor Blog

Now that the long Fourth of July holiday is over and Little League Baseball finished for another year, most people will either head to water parks or hibernate inside their homes under the air-conditioning. Texas heat is about to crank up.

But 19th century residents often packed up and set off for the nearest camp meeting. Originating in England and Scotland, Camp Meetings were religious services featuring worship, preaching, and communion with socializing thrown in for good measure. The movement crossed the Atlantic in the late 18th century and peaked near Cane Ridge, Kentucky in the summer of 1800. In one week some 23,000 people gathered to hear emotional preaching by evangelists in mass religious meetings. All activities were held outdoors in the woods. Families came in wagons prepared to camp out for the event. Some actually tied the milk cow to the back of the wagon and cobbled up a chicken pen for the family hen and tied it to the rear axle.

Northern and Southern camp meetings varied in support of moral issues. Northerners supported women’s rights, abolition, and temperance while Southerners pushed for temperance. As the population of the country moved westward, evangelism at camp meeting followed.

Here in North Texas, the first known Protestant minister was Rev. William Stevenson, a Methodist preacher who came out of Arkansas. By the time of statehood in 1846, more and more ministers were traversing the region preaching the gospel, marrying couples, and spreading news. They stayed with strangers or slept in the woods in all kinds of weather.

Sometime in the 1850s, the Harrell family who lived northwest of the present site of Kingston opened up a campground in their woods. Every summer, neighbors loaded up the wagon, brought the milk cow, kids and chickens for a week of religion, socializing, and rejuvenation. These meetings usually took place in August after it was too hot for gardens to produce many more vegetable, wheat and corn were harvested, and cotton was near bloom. Music and preaching filled the air day and night. Women visited with friends seldom seen. Children were free to roam with others their own age. I have often wondered if men argued politics at that time just before the Civil War.

The Civil War did end the camp meetings. The campsite was abandoned until about 1872 when Mr. and Mrs. Harrell opened it to families fleeing from the war-torn areas of the South in search of new homes and a new start in life. Nothing is mentioned about reviving the religious aspect of the campground.

In 1895 Rev. Eugene C. DeJernett of Commerce purchased land northwest of Greenville on the Sabine River in what is today known as Peniel. His intent was to create a spot where revivals of the old campground venue would be available to all in his religious sect, The Holiness. The precept was so successful that it became the groundwork of Texas Holiness University, later Peniel University.

Today there are few outdoor revivals, just like there are few semi-pro baseball teams around. The audiences were lured away by air-conditioning and television.

Does the end justify the means? This age old question is at the core of today’s article and the one I plan to write next week. Comments are welcome.

By 1839 Anglos hoping to claim land along the Red River of northeast Texas found most of it taken. So they looked farther to the west or south. At least five families settled in what is now Hunt County, including Godfrey Smith, John Nail, Peter Barrow, Miller Green or Greenberry Miller, and Isaac Banta.

Within the next five years other families moved in from Missouri. All of these men were refugees from the law. However, that was fairly common of emigrants from the United States who either escaped from the law, debt collectors, or angry wives. The Missourians wanted everyone to believe they were regular farmers who grew wheat and sorghum. They also traded poultry, cattle or horses, which they had previously stolen.

The Shawnees and the first group of Anglos in the area negotiated a trading license through the Republic of Texas Indian Agent at an earlier date. Led by Loud Ray (Rhea), four of the Missouri group raided a camp of Shawnee hunters and traders near present day Scatter Branch. The Anglos killed two Native Americans, caught and stabbed a young Indian boy, stole twelve horses, a few rifles, chickens and valuable beaver pelts. As a result the Shawnee turned to the first five settlers for help.

Those men turned to Colonel James Bourland and President Mirabeau B. Lamar who refused to assist, both being staunch racists and believers that the “only good Indian was a dead Indian.”

So the good men of Hunt County appointed a judge and jury, heard testimony from the Shawnee witnesses, and convicted Ray and his men in absentia.

About the same time, John Nail and his son returned from Jefferson with a load of goods to sell to neighbors. Arriving home late at night, the Nails stopped the wagon next to the door intending to unload when the sun arose. But the next morning they found only the wagon, relieved of all the goods Nail hoped to sell.

An open prairie beside the South Sulphur River called Smith’s Prairie served as a common meeting place. Settlers throughout the area gathered again to determine the sources of trouble. Some had seen Loud Ray and his men with various items lifted from Nail’s wagon. Since the nearest law enforcement was in Bonham, over thirty miles away, the group decided to take the law in their own hands for a second time. A posse formed to find, arrest, and return the criminals was successful.

Ray and all his men were captured, some as far away as Shreveport. Loud Ray testified as state’s witness. The Shawnees objected that they were ignored. The jury heard two cases, one dealing with the three Native Americans killed and the other over the thief of Nail’s goods. Only the four men, including Ray, were tried for murder but the entire gang was tried for robbery.

The first four were sentenced to hang. The thieves were to leave Texas within ten days after they put a noose over the head of each killer. The hanging was held on Ray’s Prairie, named for the leader of the ruthless Missouri emigrants.

NOTE: the word emigrant is used when someone moves from one country to another. Since Texas was an independent nation at the time, anyone from the United States was an emigrant.

I think we all know that we are in the midst of the 100th Anniversary of World War I, the war that was supposed to end all wars. I know that I have written many words about it. But I want to share with you a way that each Hunt County resident can help remember those involved in the war and those who gave their lives in the service of their countries. Remember the United States was not the only participant.

The Hunt County Historical Commission members dedicate themselves to the preservation of local history. We assist with historical markers, we answer numerous questions about the history of Hunt County and its many communities, we locate and keep an eye on cemeteries, and one of our members gladly indexes old Greenville newspapers. Sometimes we have such a meaningful event we need to have a public observance of its importance.
On April 13, 1996 the Hunt County Historical Commission entertained the county with the 150th Birthday Celebration on the Courthouse Square. Now we have another important date to commemorate and we want input on ways to share our respect for those whose lives were drastically changed a century ago.

Next Thursday, May 25, we will have our bi-monthly meeting at the Audie Murphy/American Cotton Museum beginning at 7:00 P.M. Everyone is invited, and the good new is that it is free. We may have a few leftover items on the agenda, but the primary purpose is to discuss ways to celebrate November 11, 2018.

At exactly 11:00 A.M. on the eleventh day of the eleventh month guns came to a halt. All high-ranking military men in the war signed the armistice. As the news spread, tears of joy and sadness flowed around the world.

John Byrd and John Armstrong have collected over 600 names of men who registered for the draft, enlisted here in Hunt County, died either in action or from the dreaded Spanish Influenza, or returned home to continue an new life, and were buried in one of our county cemeteries. The two Johns did a tremendous job, but as John Armstrong asked, “What’s next? How do we honor these men?”

There is a national movement to place flags on the grave of each of these men as well as a special World War I flag. We plan to do our part. There is a monument in front of the courthouse with the names of the forty-one who gave their lives. On one of the memorial walls at the Audie Murphy/American Cotton Museum are the same names, I believe. Other communities may have similar memorials for the men from there who died and maybe even those who served. On May 28 I am speaking at Brigham Cemetery in Campbell. I’ll tell what I know about some of their veterans.

But we would like to have a countywide memorial.

So if you are the descendent of a World War I veteran from any part of the country, if you are interested in the past, or if you interviewed a veteran or a relative who was on the Homefront, please join us. We need your input. We need to honor our past. For more information feel free to contact at my email below.