Transcripts of Fred Harrington’s presentation to the
Wheatland United Methodist Men on January 14, 2006.
Fred Harrington:
Good morning. Ya’ll make me feel welcome. This is not my home church but it’s the mother of my home church. My home church is First United Methodist Church of Duncanville, the one I grew up in and in so many ways this is the mother church or the parent and we’ll talk about that connection a little bit more in detail later.
I am always reluctant to bring my wife to something like this because she outshines me. No, no, I am not reluctant I’m joking when I say that – I am tickled she’s here. And what’s going to happen with ya’lls permission is that I am going to talk for a while and then we are going to have some questions and answers and she is a lot better at the details than I so I know she can make a contribution today.
Let me tell you that I sincerely appreciate the invitation to be here and even beyond that I appreciate your interest in history because I too have an interest in history. My interest is not so much in who was at the battle of the Alamo but what happened at the details, at the local level, so local history is really what I am interested in and the combination of these local histories gives us our state heritage and our national heritage and that local fabric has to be strong before we can have a strong history and a strong feeling about our state and about our union.
What I am going to do is tell you my version of history. I like to make it interesting and I hope I do this morning. We're not going to talk so much about dates and exactly about who did what and all that but I am going to try to put some things in perspective for you.
In the spring of 1836 a startling thing happened. A bunch of ragtag Texans who did not like the rule they were under in Mexico, actually won their independence and became a Republic - and if we talk about upsets in sports we can also talk about upsets in the political world and this was an upset because the Texans were outnumbered. Probably the leaders of the Mexican forces probably had a better military education; but nonetheless, somehow the Texans won and Texas became a Republic.
At the time that happened the largest cities in the republic of Texas were maybe surprising unless you know something about Texas history. San Antonio, that’s not a surprise. Jefferson, I mean Jefferson is a wonderful little city, but at the time it was one of the bigger cities in Texas. Galveston and Nacogdoches; there was no Dallas, Texas, there was no Dallas county so you know we're in an area that history wise is relatively new. Which doesn’t mean that we're unimportant is just means we’re relatively new.
Texas had a lot of problems as a Republic. They didn’t have any people to speak of, it was a sparsely populated state. In the area of North Texas there was virtually no settlement, virtually no people. Texas as a Republic said, “Hey we’re broke, we’ve got war debts, and other debts, and we don’t really have any money to speak of. Our people don’t have any money”. And that’s true. They said, “One of the things we can do is bring people into Texas and by bringing people into Texas then maybe somehow we get more money.” And I’m not sure I follow that logic but we still use it today. I mean real estate developers say, “Hey, let’s get some roof tops in here and make things happen.” In fact, I’m reminded of a former mayor of Dallas, who I have a lot of respect for, R. L. Thornton, who used to say, his mantra was “Keep the dirt flying”. He wanted to make things happen and he thought that would be good for Dallas and I can’t argue with that.
In any event, the state of Texas wound up contracting with a fellow by the name of Henry Peters. And I failed to mention in the beginning but I’m real informal if you’ve got a question or want to interrupt me that won’t bother me at all in fact I welcome it. Does anybody know who Henry Peters was?
Laura Marceleno:
The owner of the Peters Colony.
Paul Foreman:
Him and his brother owned a hat factory or something in New York.
Fed Harrington:
Well he lived in Louisville, Kentucky.
Paul Foreman:
I was close.
Fred Harrington:
And I'm not going to tell you he and his brother didn't own a hat factory in New York, I don't know. But Henry Peters was an entrepreneur. One of the things he did is he was in the music business he bought and sold songs like “My Old Kentucky Home” and a few others you would recognize - he actually owned the rights to. Well, for some reason he decided that he would be in the land promotion business. So he contracts with the state of Texas beginning in 1840, no the Republic of Texas, I correct myself, to do land promotion in North Texas. Ultimately the area he promoted became known as Peters Colony. So beginning in 1841 the Republic of Texas contracts with Henry Peters to bring people to North Texas.
Well just how big was this area that he had a contract for? Well picture a map of Texas in your mind, and I did not bring one unfortunately to show, but picture a map of Texas and draw a line from the Red River to Ennis Texas, then let that line go due west almost to Abilene then let it go due north to the Red River again. That’s a lot of land, a lot of land, it includes Dallas, Fort Worth, Duncanville, Wheatland. A big, big area. Well what was the attraction to Texas for these people? Well, free land, because that was the arrangement. The Republic of Texas says, “Henry Peters, our contract says for ever settler you bring in we’re going to give you some land.” So Peters motivation was land or money - ultimately he hoped. The settlers motivation was free land. If you had a family you got 640 acres free. A single person half that - so by today’s standards that was a heck of a deal. Back then it was still a good deal. And things progressed, settlers moved in. Henry Peters didn’t do so well. His contract was renewed throughout the days of the Republic but he wound up having administration problems and money problems, and ultimately, I don’t think the Republican of Texas fully held up their end of the bargain let’s say.
In any event the settlers who came in weren’t happy either because of administration problems. And you’ve probably never heard of the Hedgcoxe war. Anybody heard of it? It’s not really a war, it’s a skirmish, but it happened in Dallas county around Carrollton. Some of the Peters Colonist in the 1840’s were so upset with the administrator, a guy by the name of Hedgcoxe that they literally tarred and feathered him and ran him out of town. And now maybe ya’ll have heard of somebody or heard euphemistically of people being tarred and feathered. Well they actually did that and Mr. Hedgcoxe was one of the victims. And I think that is interesting but you won’t read about that in a whole lot of the history books unless it’s a history of Peters Colony.
Well what did these Peters Colonist find when they came to Texas? They saw these ads that said that this is the land of milk and honey and you know they were promotional ads, they were not factual ads. So they showed up expecting one thing and then reality gave them another thing but they adapted.
Where were they from? Where were these colonist from who came to Wheatland, Texas? Well Henry Peters lived in Louisville, Kentucky. He had financial backing and partners who lived in England. So the adds appeared in the Louisville papers and consequently Peters Colonist were not southerners as many people might think but they came from Ohio River states - Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee - now there were a few from the south as well as Missouri, Arkansas, and other states but most of them were Ohio river valley states. So the settlers who came first to Wheatland were not true Southerners they were Midwesterners. But more than anything else they were Americans who were searching for their dream and their dream was land ownership. Most of them were farmers most of them were land people, they, for their time, knew the land and the land was life to them. When they get here to Wheatland, Texas what did they find?
Ted Gruebbel:
A dust bowl.
Fred Harrington:
Well, to the contrary. Today that’s what they would find.
But back then what they found was a prairie land that had such lush grass and such a thick mat of prairie grass that you could have 3 inch rain, and we pray that we have one tonight. You could have a 3 inch rain and immediately when it quit raining you could go outside and walk on the prairie grass and you wouldn’t get muddy you would get wet - it would go squashy, squashy. Well what they had to do though is they had to make a living and they did not east prairie grass so they put a plow to some of this and forever changed the landscape. The creeks that used to have clear trickling water when it rained now had gushing mud and water going down them. So a lot of erosion took place and the land did change, not dramatically, but it did change.
Now what would they do with their crops? And I am talking in the 1840s. There were no highways, no roadways, no trains, of course the automobile was many generations away. Well about the only thing they could do is grow things that they could themselves use - subsistence farming. They grew crops for them to eat and for their animals to eat. If you wanted to market something in this area in that time you had to wagon train it to Jefferson. Jefferson was the closest port. Back then, like if you wanted lumber to build a house in the 1840s you turned to Jefferson because Jefferson was a port city at that time and of course it was also East Texas and they did some milling there so the timbers and the wood for houses would have to come from Jefferson, Texas.
Let me read you some of the surnames of some of the people who settled in this area – Sproules, Jackson, Bell, Branton, Branson, Brotherton, Butcher, Carr, Chapman, Coleman, Daniel, Findley, Goodman, Heil, Houston, Kellough, Langley, Mock, McAdam, McFalls, Morris, Moss, Murphy, Merrifield, Nance, Newby, Nix, Rauls, Penn, Ross, Runyan, Simpson, Stewart, Uhl, Whaley, Wilmett, Wright, Terrel, Thomas, Terrington and I am sure there are others. Does anybody recognize any of those names? But these are the surnames of these people from the predominantly Ohio river valley who came to this area and took advantage of the offer through Peters Colony by the Republic of Texas for free land. So they settled around here and began to establish themselves.
Then in the state of Texas and even nationally in 1845 another significant event happened and that’s statehood for the Republic of Texas. Texas by 1845 and even before decided, you know, we may have won the battle of San Jacinto but Mexico hasn’t totally conceded defeat they have been making incursions into areas of Texas the Republic of Texas thought was theirs – Mexico said no the border line is not the Rio Grande so there was some back and forth. Again the Republic of Texas had no money very few people so a Union or joining the Union was the thing for the Republic of Texas, so they did, and then Wheatland went from being part of a Republic to being part of the state of Texas.
Along about the time of the statehood for Texas, and even before that in other areas, the Methodist church, and I use that term collectively, and pastor if you want to help me out here feel free to do so. But the Methodist church in America or North America was very aggressive at that time. They said, “We need to be part of the movement west and we need to establish a lot of churches on the frontier”. A group of Methodist missionaries from Nacogdoches came to this area in 1846 and built a one room log building. Again there were no mills around to make boards so all the buildings initially were log unless you could afford to go to Jefferson and freight in the lumber. They called this one room church, Wesley Chapel. It was located at what is now the corner of Highway 67 and Camp Wisdom Road (the Southeast corner). And at the time or shortly after it was built the corners were marked by four Pecan trees. Those, at least 3 of those pecan trees maybe 4 still exist at the location that’s behind Bledsoe Dodge or at the back part of – whatever it used to be Bledsoe. Is it Bankston now? So you can fairly easily even from your automobile, by driving on the service road and then the side streets, you can pass very close to that location and I think you can park and get pretty close to it I haven’t tried to lately.
So we have a church that is established called Wesley Chapel that serves the people in this area. At the time that was established I think its important to say there was a city of Dallas but it wasn’t much. About that time Dallas county was formed and Dallas became the county seat so it had a star by its name and it grew a little bit just because it was the county seat. But there was no Duncanville, there was no De Soto, there was Lancaster, Cedar Hill, Dallas, and a few towns to the North and a few other towns in this area – Florence Hill over toward Grand Prairie but Dallas county was not very well populated.
If each family gets 640 acres free and 640 acres is one mile by one mile - Dallas county is about 30 miles by 30 miles or 900 square miles, so if each family gets a square mile we could have 900 families in Dallas county. There were more than that because everybody didn’t have as much as 640 acres but the point is we weren’t very densely populated at all at that time.
Wesley Chapel continued to serve the people in this area and in fact as the progression happened someone died and they decided to bury that person on the grounds of Wesley Chapel. And that first death was Milton Reed who died in February of 1860. Well I bypassed another event and I’m going to bring it up not because its greatly historically significant but it shows us several things.
In 1856 a tornado came through this area and in fact destroyed Wesley Chapel but they decided to rebuild on the same site and did. That same tornado hit the city of Cedar Hill. Cedar Hill did not rebuild where it was located. Cedar Hill relocated the town a mile further south. So the original site of Cedar Hill is not where it is now it was about a mile north. Now why do people make decisions that they make through history? And I don’t have answers for a lot them and that’s one I don’t understand – I don’t know why they did that and its not historically significant but the fact that these people persevered at Wesley Chapel is because that’s a reflection of the type people they were – they were hardy people who would not give in to a natural disaster.
But something else starting happening about that time and I don’t have all the documentation I’d like to have but people who attended Wesley Chapel would get sick it seemed like more frequently than others especially beginning with the first burial and some even died they became so sick and the speculation is that when they would go to Wesley Chapel they would then drink water from the little stream - the little stream is downhill from where they buried and the speculation is that there was leeching from the graves into the ground water and into the stream and what do you get? Somebody who has got medical background, typhoid or diphtheria, or something or other, cholera or maybe all of those or some of them. In any event it is a bad deal. Well, I think they began to catch on that something wasn’t quite right there, but about the time, or shortly after that was happening, that there was a city of Wheatland, it was called Sprowles, and when I say city, there was a country store here, there was a post office here, in the country store, I mean it’s a stretch certainly to call it a city, it was a community. But again there was no De Soto, no Duncanville, I mean this was the center of the universe for these people.
Two guys, about this time, after the Civil War, got together. Henry Brotherton and Thomas Branson decided to form a partnership and they said, “You know I think we can make some money here at Wheatland”. And about that time the name changed from Sprowles Store or Sprowles Corner to Wheatland. So they shook hands and made a deal. Brotherton was the land owner on the other side of Hampton. Branson owned the land on this side of Hampton. I don’t know exactly what their deal was but it’s a partnership and they shook hands on it but we do know from looking at the records that all the land remained in the name of Branson, not Brotherton. So there’s some confusion that I think has pretty well been laid to rest as to whether Branson gave the land for this church or Brotherton and Branson gave it. And my take is that it was Branson and Brotherton even though the deed may say Branson only. I am prejudice because Brotherton descendants married cousins of mine so I am kin on the Brotherton side but not the Branson side, so I’ll admit that I’m a little prejudice there. In any event they said, “Let’s divide up this land and sell city lots”. They set a side a lot for a church and for a cemetery the cemetery and for other things and they did. The cemetery was destined basically, to be a family cemetery, and, but remember the problems that were occurring at Wesley Chapel. They were unhappy because they knew something was causing them to be sick. So the decision was made to move the church to Wheatland. Because number one, there was a post office here, and number 2 they could get away from whatever it was that was causing illness or sickness among the members. The town had already change its name to Wheatland so they decided to call the new church Wheatland United Methodist Church. But really you’re Wesley Chapel and Wheatland so the burials were also moved here and just like at Wesley Chapel there was a hill and then a stream downstream from it, well you got the same thing here, so I don’t know what they use for drinking water but maybe the geology was just enough different to protect them.
Okay, the first burial in Wheatland cemetery was of a school tutor and to fully understand school tutor, I think, and you may not have the curiosity about this, was to understand the area in the post civil war times and pre-civil war times, for that matter, in this area of Texas –Wheatland, Texas that is, if you could raise crops, feed your family, you were a success. Times were pretty challenging, there was not a lot cash money around, but there was some, but not a lot, there was no such thing as public school education or free public school education, what those people with a little bit of money and the desire to educate their children, and that was not necessarily the case with everybody, some of them thought children really didn’t need much of an education, especially women, but what they would do is they would hire a tutor, maybe three or four or five or six families would go together and hire a tutor or a school teacher to teach their families privately. In any event when this school tutor who was teaching the children in this area, when she died, they decided to bury her in Wheatland cemetery the private cemetery of the Brothertons and the Bransons. Like I say that was the first burial but then what they started doing since the church had moved here then the people started burying at Wheatland cemetery not at Wesley Chapel, that was abandoned as both a cemetery and the church.
Paul Foreman:
Do you remember her name?
Fred Harrington:
I do not.
Olivia Harrington:
We have it but I don’t know it.
Fed Harrington:
And I apologize for that.
Ted Gruebbel:
What year was that they moved Wesley Chapel to this location?
Fred Harrington:
I cannot tell you the exact year unfortunately, one written documentation is 1872.
Question:
Is there still a cemetery over where Wesley Road is?
Fred Harrington:
I am not going to get technical on you , I think there is.
Olivia Harrington:
There’s no markers.
George Hord:
They would haven’t moved ‘em. Their bodies would still be there.
Olivia Harrington:
The didn’t have markers on all of them, so therefore the didn’t know where they were, but they moved the ones that there were markers for.
Fred Harrington:
Not at that time:
Olivia Harrington:
That the families wanted to move.
Question:
Isn’t Wesley cemetery all grown over now with weeds and such?
Fred Harrington:
Well it’s actually a commercial property and it’s got some streets near it and I mean its not unkept but its not kept as a cemetery and frankly that causes some people to have some alarm some people aren’t happy about that, understandably so.
Paul Foreman:
I believe the last graves weren’t moved until the 1960s, if my reading was correct, which was not that far back. I think they were still burying people there until the 1930s. I think the last burial was in 1930s.
Fred Harrington:
What I said while ago then I stand corrected on that – I’m sure your right.
Laura Marceleno:
There’s no marker on that either.
Paul Foreman:
Where we went there is nothing to see but a picnic table.
Fred Harrington:
Our view of cemeteries today is not the same that it was even 50 years ago or 100 years ago. I know when I was a kid people talked about going to so and so’s house in that area and they had a headstone as their stepping stone to the back door. So I mean you know people wanted something out of a cemetery and they knew that there was no family or the family had moved to California what do they care I mean you know so they just used the headstone and not think it was all that bad a deal. Today we don’t see things that way but back then it was a little different. So I know there were headstones there that disappeared so consequently where is the grave when you go to move them and who’s there? Well you don’t know, so you don’t get them all moved. So that’s really a burial ground that we as a populace have abandoned and you know will probably never by able to reclaim. I say probably because its not a certainty that we can’t but it takes interest it takes someone with a passion to take that cause on.
One of the things that I passed over, and ya’ll tell me if I am talking too long here, but one of the things I passed over that’s very important and you may not think so when I bring it up. But after Texas gets its statehood in 1845 an event happened in the history of the US it was a big event it happened in 1849. The California gold rush, gold was discovered in California. You say wait a minute, timeout, this is Wheatland, Tx, that’s California, this was the 1800;s there were not highways airplanes or any of that. What’s the connection? Have any of you heard of California crossing in Dallas. There is crossing of the Elm Fork of the Trinity River called California Crossing. It got its name because so many people from the south were going to California because they understand that gold was just laying on the ground. All you had to do is bend over and pick it up. So, so many people from the south passed through Texas that they even called one of the crossings “California Crossing” because every time they looked up there somebody else crossing to go to California. I think that’s interesting. Major Penn, Sam Uhl, one of the Titteringtons, and others, many others, from this area went to California to find the gold. I mean here they had a subsistence living, hand to mouth, if they could make tomorrow’s meal that was a success. In California, if you could just bend over and pick up gold, I mean, that had an appeal, because then they would have money they could buy things that they couldn’t otherwise buy. The men I mentioned: Major Penn, Sam Uhl, Titterington, and others actually found gold in California and came back to this area to settle down because this is where they wanted to live. But because they had gold they could buy more land they became more prosperous and influential.
Question:
Did they raise cattle on the land what did they raise?
Fred Harrington:
Well, that’s a good question. A lot of them did but it wasn’t considered ranching country I mean the would raise a milk cow and cattle to slaughter but most of them did not raise cattle commercially so that you would call them ranchers. But Major Penn, his interest was horses, and if you’ll think back to that time without automobiles, the only mode of transportation was a horse, so if you were in the horse business it was kind of like an automobile dealership in a way. And he not only had gold for money but he prospered in the horse business and Major Penn was prolific, had a number of sons and daughters and he bought places for farms, or whatever you want to call it, acreage for each of these, he had the money to do that. And one of his children had the property where Red Bird mall is, that was Penn farm and that’s part of Wheatland.
Ted Gruebbel:
Part of Duncanville also.
Fred Harrington:
Well Duncanville doesn’t exist in my story.
Ted Gruebbel:
Penn farm was way out that far.
Fred Harrington:
Okay, but there were Penns all over. I mean live in Waxahachie and you look at some of the buildings around the square and they say Penn building. Well I haven’t researched it but I can guarantee you that Major Penn, that lived on the other side of Duncanville but had children who lived all over, one of ‘em went to Waxahachie and bought land down there for ‘em. So the Penns, because of California gold money, were able to have quite an influence in this area. So you know, I think of, or used to think of, the California gold rush as something as inconsequential to us, but its not. California gold rush had an influence on the history of Wheatland, Texas and that’s amazing to learn in my estimation.
Okay, so we have the gold rush, we have the civil war, which I am not going to talk much about, I mean it was significant but it didn’t change or alter things that much here. The next significant thing to happen was in the early 1800s and what happened then is the railroad came. And had the railroad come through Wheatland, Texas then history would have been a little different.
Question:
Early 1800’s or early 1900’s.
Fred Harrington:
Around 1880. 1881 more specifically.
But it didn’t come through Wheatland, it came through Cedar Hill, on the way to Dallas. And some people who were part of the Wheatland community or maybe Cedar Hill they might go to both places to shop. They decided that it would be nice to have a store near this railroad track between Dallas and Cedar Hill.
Jon Piltingsrud:
They still got that railroad track out there, I’ve been there, I used to walk from Duncanville to Cedar Hill on that railroad track.
Fred Harrington:
That’s the one I’m talking about, the very one.
So these people decided to call this new community or new store Duncanville, they got a post office. Then some of the people who were worshiping at Wheatland said, “You know it would be a little closer if we had a church over here, we get our mail here at this Duncan switch or Duncanville post office”, so Wheatland kind of split a little bit, Wheatland United Methodist Church split and some of the membership started the Duncanville, what ultimately was the Duncanville United Methodist Church. And they co-existed and I can tell you that they thought fondly of each other it was not like, can I say this, Baptist. When they do a split they get mad at each other it seems. When Methodist do a split I don’t think, I think there is harmony normally involved or at least that’s my experience. In any event, both churches prospered after that.
What I am going to do now is tell you a couple of fairly short things and then have questions and I’m sure I overstayed my time and I appreciate you indulging me.
Has anybody seen the movie Pancho Barnes?
Brenda La Gard:
Yes.
Gene Hudson:
It was filmed here, a lot of it.
Brenda La Gard:
What amazes me about the picture . . . when you see the pictures is how they have her flying over Wheatland and you don’t see all these highways and city you don’t see anything and its amazing how they did that where they just could fly over enough of it over the church and never even see anything but just . . .
Gene Hudson:
They had to get special clearance from FAA.
Fred Harrington:
The reason I bring that up it’s a cute movie but also it tells me something that I think is interesting. Somebody thinks that the Wheatland United Methodist church is a quaint church and I don’t think any of ya’ll would disagree. And that’s a good thing to be called quaint and different, I think, and you are proud and well you should be proud of your church building and the church grounds. I mean, I think its just marvelous, its inspiring to come here and see the old church and I know you’ll feel that way or you wouldn’t be here.
If you will indulge me just a minute longer. Olivia has heard this story so many times that she may get up and leave but I’ll try to tell my shorter version.
There was a man who ultimately was a land owner and prosperous contributor to the life in Wheatland, Texas by the name of Samuel Uhl: “U”, “H”, “L”, there is a Uhl Road in this area so there is a legacy of the name but you don’t see anybody with that last name anymore. Sam Uhl died in 1930 and is buried in Wheatland cemetery. Around 1850 while living in Maryland, Sam’s dad was talking to him and he said, “Sam your grandfather went to California to hunt for gold and we haven’t heard a thing from him in over 6 months, I am worried about him”. So Sam says, ”Well, why don’t I just go out there and check on him” Well he’s living in Maryland, he was born in 1832 so he’s not 20 years old yet, and Sam’s dad said, “Yes I think that’s a good idea”. So Sam packs up saddles up and heads to California. He gets to California, goes to where his grandfather was last known to be, asks around he can’t find him, any trace of his grandfather and never did in fact, which is not uncommon. I mean life in the California gold fields was not civilized and there were murders, robberies, that was the order of the day. In any event, Sam is young, strong, aggressive, he says, “Heh I’m out here, I might as try to find some gold”. So he pans for gold and he finds some. It wasn’t laying on the ground but he did find some. But he decides that’s enough. He sews the gold dust and nuggets into the lining of his clothes. Saves enough out for his expenses or sells it gets gold coins or whatever the currency was at the time and books passage on a ship from San Francisco to Panama, crosses the Isthmus, books passage on a ship to New Orleans. When he’s in New Orleans he said, “You know”, he said, “The Brothertons used to live by us and they moved to Texas, I think I’ll drop by and see how they’re doing.” So he goes from New Orleans to Wheatland, Texas and he visits with the Brothertons and he looks around and he says, “You know I kind of like this area.” He says, “I think I may settle here”. So he goes back home, gives his report, gets the rest of his belongings, comes to Texas, he’s got gold money, buys land, and he decides you know (back to one of your questions) he said “What this country really needs is sheep this will be good sheep country.” So he goes to Illinois and by then he’s married the Branson daughter or one of them. The Bransons were from Illinois, he goes to Illinois and he and his brother buy 1,500 head of sheep. It takes them a year and a half to herd those 1,500 sheep from Illinois to Wheatland, Texas.
Now, why do I tell this story? Well I mean I think it’s an interesting story and I love to tell it but the reason I think it’s interesting is here you have a resident landowner of Wheatland, Texas who’s not 25 years old. I mean you know we’re people of the world, we’re smarter than the people were 200 years ago, 150 years ago, we’re more energetic. Well baloney. He’s not 25 years old, he’s ridden horseback across the United States, across the Rockies, all the way to the West coast, he’s successfully panned for gold in California, he’s sailed the Pacific ocean, he’s crossed the Isthmus of Panama, he’s sailed in the Gulf of Mexico, he’s visited Texas, he’s herded 1,500 head of sheep from Illinois to Texas, and he’s not 25 years old.
Jon Piltingsrud:
He sounds like he’s as busy as you are.
Fred Harrington:
He’s a whole lot busier than I am.
I mean how can you not be impressed by somebody like that with the accomplishments and the energy they had. Well that man was part of the fabric of Wheatland, Texas. He was a settler in Wheatland, Texas. Now those are my prepared remarks and if anybody wants to add to that or ask questions or whatever I would welcome that.
Brenda La Gard:
Well, how did he do with his sheep?
Fred Harrington:
History doesn’t tell us that but as we look around we don’t see many sheep ranchers.
Ted Gruebbel:
He probably got killed by the cattle ranchers.
Fred Harrington:
Well, let me tell you when I was a kid we had a farm near Duncanville and my grandfather raised both sheep and cattle and I went with him all the time because my mother and dad moved in with him when my grandmother died so we had a blended family, multi-generational family, and we raised sheep successfully, there was a market for sheep, and I’m talking 1950’s, but the neighborhood dogs and the coyotes and the wolves did take their toll on the sheep but there was a market and people did raise sheep.
Brenda La Gard:
Sheep didn’t survive, I mean you had to have something else?
Fred Harrington:
That’s true, if you had a goat, you’ve heard the term “Judas Goat”, sheep will follow a goat anywhere. So if you want to manage sheep you put a goat in with them and when we would take sheep to market to sell, rather than try to herd and push the sheep, you just take your goat lead into the transport truck and then take your goat out and the sheep were – I mean their not real smart- in a lot or respects. In any event, that’s why they call them “Judas Goats” because they will betray the sheep. But I don’t know specifically how he did but there were a lot of sheep being raised in Dallas, County even unto the 50’s.
Brenda La Gard:
It wasn’t like you see because you can’t raise just sheep.
Fred Harrington:
I agree.
Gene Hudson:
When I first started out here there was a lot of, not a lot, but several descendants of the Uhls, Brothertons, and different ones that still attended here – and they gave us a little history about different things from their perspective. I’ll have to add something, else, in that movie that was filmed here I objected to it because it portrayed the minister as a ? he didn’t stand up to his wife - she was a bully.
Fred Harrington:
I’m not endorsing that by mentioning it but it I just think it puts your church in the light that’s the same as I put it in, which is that’s is worthy of being in a movie.
Kay Hord:
Along that note your probably not aware the Baptist convention for the last 3 years has hired a videographer to make a video of a Baptist church to show at their convention and they have rented Wheatland.
Fred Harrington:
You should be proud.
Olivia Harrington:
There is a couple of things I would like to say. But one is, when you talk about Wesley Chapel being started here, it was the first church west of the Trinity. The Cochran Chapel in North Dallas is east of the Trinity and it was started about the same time. This was the first church west of the Trinity.
Fred Harrington:
And north of Austin.
Brenda La Gard:
We’re still considered the oldest church west of the Trinity.
Fred Harrington:
Okay, there are really 2 qualifications, 2 geographic qualifications to that. Wesley Chapel is was considered to be and still considered to be the first church west of the Trinity, north of Austin. So I mean west of the Trinity in south Texas there were churches but in the north Texas area it was the first church west of the Trinity.
Olivia Harrington:
And It was about the same time as Cochran Chapel.
Fred Harrington:
There were six months or a years difference or something.
Brenda La Gard:
They probably have the reputation as being the oldest where they are.
Olivia Harrington:
Since Wesley Chapel is not still Wesley Chapel it probably makes them.
Fred Harrington:
Nobody to stand up and wave the banner.
Paul Foreman:
I’ve got several questions. Did Milton Reed’s grave make it over here. You said he was the first one buried.
Fred Harrington:
The reason I say he was the first burial there is that at some point in time historically his was the oldest death date they could find, now I do not know whether his remains and stone were moved to Wheatland, that is a matter of public record I just have not looked it up. So I mean its possible it was recorded at one time as the oldest burial there then his stone disappeared and his remains still may be a Wesley Chapel.
Paul Foreman:
But you don’t know the stone may be over here or do you know?
Fred Harrington:
That’s correct, I do not know, it may be. Most of those moved from Wesley Chapel were moved to the rear of the cemetery and in fact I had I think I had 4 direct ancestors – I know William Carr and his wife, A. J. garner were moved, those 3 were moved but Eliza Carr Garner I think she was buried here later.
George Hord:
But the rear of the cemetery is not as far back then as it is now, right? Didn’t they purchase some land from the church on this side - it was not as deep toward the east as it is now.
Question:
Was there a Wesley, Texas?
Fred Harrington:
No sir, there was just the small log cabin building that served as a church, there was no Post Office and in fact it’s easy for us to look at it now and say well there’s a big road here, and a big road here, well when it was Wesley Chapel there were no big anythings, except outdoors.
Question:
Dirt roads and all the wagon . . . The nearest house being about 10 miles away.
Fred Harrington:
Well maybe not 10 miles but there weren’t houses.
Question:
Going to church on Sunday would be a major undertaking.
Fred Harrington:
Exactly, exactly.
Donna West:
So what happened, what happened how come we don’t own the cemetery anymore?
Fred Harrington:
Well, first of all I do not know the answer exactly. The laws have changed in Texas. But back then it was not uncommon when there was a death for a family to say, “Well you know let’s just have a little grave side service and bury grandpa in the corner of the wheat field over here.” So that you had families burying here and burying there some would say, “Let’s go to the church and bury”. In none of those cases did people, that I know of, there may have been exceptions, but in none of those cases did people say, “Well let’s get a surveyor in here and survey off an area and officially call it a cemetery”. And that’s true of Wesley, that was Brotherton land and when the cemetery went into disuse the Grounds bought the land from the Brothertons and then the Grounds and then more recently, in my day, sold it to other people and the Grounds I’m not going to paint them as being villains because I knew ‘em personally and they’re wonderful people but they just didn’t look at owning a cemetery as a particular responsibility that they had to take care of so when they sold the land they just may not even have told somebody that people are buried on part of this land. So they sell the land and then it gets divided up and ultimately the Dodge dealership owns it and they need to expand and if they put a parking lot or something on top of graves, I mean there is nothing to stop them because it never got designated or deeded separately. And I don’t know that I’ve answered your question.
Donna West:
Well you just made another question. What about this one, what about this cemetery here, how come we don’t own this one?
Fred Harrington:
This cemetery is deeded as a cemetery and further is recognized by Dallas county as a cemetery. There are now state laws that allow those things to happen so that once you designate an area as a cemetery then it’s very difficult to undesignate it – today.
Comment:
Dig it up for a highway or something?
Laura Marceleno:
But how is it that it is not Wheatland’s cemetery? Why is it not Wheatland United Methodist’s cemetery?
Ted Gruebbel:
Well it was at one time. I don’t know. When the cemetery association took over.
- The tape ends here-