So far we've looked more closely at W. C. Cheatham's life from his time in New Mexico up to the point where he moved to Laveen. Before we look at the last 15 years of his life, let's go back to Texas.
Today we are going to dig a little deeper into W. C.'s time in Taylor County. But first, let's review what the family history told us about this period in his life.
So this skips from W. C.'s birth to his marriage, to living in Buffalo Gap. As I told you before, the marriage record index that everyone cites for W. C. and Amelia Virginia has them getting married in Robertson County, but I couldn't find any record of either of them there. I also couldn't find anything at all about the first three children. The problem - which has me very, very frustrated - is that many counties did not start keeping birth and death records until after 1900. Add to that the fires and floods that destroy records (like the 1890 federal census), and we aren't left with much to go on. And, although there was a newspaper in Buffalo Gap prior to 1882, apparently there are no remaining copies. Don't ask me why. I found multiple sources telling me its name and publication dates, but nothing telling me where a copy could be viewed. So. We are going to have to rely on the Abilene newspapers to fill out W. C.'s story.
Before we continue, I want to give you a little more information about the early years of Buffalo Gap. I found most of this in an online book called The Texas You Expect: The Story of Buffalo Gap Historic Village by Frazier, Pace, and Wetteman. (Clicking on the title will allow you to read/download a copy of the first section, or you can view/download the entire thing here. If you want a little more info, you can read this 1 Feb 1948 newspaper article from the Abilene Reporter-News.)
Although Taylor County was officially established in 1858, there were no permanent settlements until the mid 1870's, after the government forced the nomadic Comanches onto reservations. The area was considered part of the unsettled West. By 1875 buffalo hunters moved into the area, which they named Buffalo Gap, and a shanty camp sprang up. By the next year, hide merchants had moved into the area and built a little town of log cabins. The population was about thirty. By 1877, the population had risen to 100, and the land had been surveyed and streets and lots laid out. A post office was established in 1878. By then, the population had risen to 400, and Buffalo Gap was named the county seat. By 1880, Taylor county had approximately 1700 residents, most in and around Buffalo Gap, which was a proper town by then. In 1881, however, the railroad company made a deal with ranchers north of Buffalo Gap and the new railroad bypassed the town. A new city, Abilene, was established along the railroad line, and as it boomed, Buffalo Gap declined. In 1883 the county seat was moved to Abilene, sparking angry protests by Buffalo Gap residents. Over the next two decades, Abilene continued to grow and prosper as Buffalo Gap steadily declined. (FYI, I came across another book that said the buffalo hunters came in 1873 but that the town wasn't established until 1878. So I don't know which is correct.)We know from the census records that W. C. and his family were living there in 1880, but we don't know exactly what year they moved there. It isn't likely to have been before 1877, considering the fact that it was just buffalo hunters and hide merchants before that. The family data sheet in the back of the family history says that W. C.'s first three children died between November 4 and November 21 of 1876. So that is about a three week period, and W. C. was reportedly gone for his mother's funeral the entire time. One would think, then, that the family would have been living somewhere that was a fair distance from W. C.'s parents without reliable mail service, since Amelia would have undoubtedly sent a letter off to W. C. as soon as the children fell ill and the first child died. So I guess it is possible that they lived in Buffalo Gap by the end of 1876, even though they would have been one of the very first settlers in the area.
You know, when I broke down the census info for Gray, New Mexico, I thought that town was pretty frontier-y. So I wondered how Buffalo Gap compared. You know, so I could get a sense of what life was like for the family back then. Which, if you ask me, is what makes all of this really interesting. Here is the census data for Taylor County in 1880. (There were five precincts, with precinct 1 being by far the largest. So I'm assuming that precinct was Buffalo Gap proper and the surrounding farms/ranches.)
Precincts 2 - 5
Farmers: 114
Stockraisers: 90
Laborers: 39
Running Stock: 1 (I guess this is different from raising stock.)
Dentist: 1
Physician: 1
Teacher: 1
Carpenters: 3
Surveyor: 1
Tailor/Painter (illegible): 1
Merchants: 2
Precinct 1
Farmers: 96
Stockraisers: 50
Laborers: 25
Dealer in Stock: 1
Physicians: 2
Teachers: 2
Music Teacher: 1
Carpenters: 11
Mail Carrier/Contractor: 2
Clerks: 7 (includes one company clerk and one saloon clerk)
Druggists: 2
Merchants: 17
Editor: 1
Printers: 2
Surveyors: 2
Shoemakers: 2
Hotel Keepers: 3
Shop/Market Keepers: 2
Saloon Keeper: 1
Livery Stable Keeper: 1
Blacksmiths: 2
Seamstress: 1
Freighter: 1
Lumber (?): 1
Attorneys at Law: 9
Minister of the Gospel: 1
Saddler: 1
Barber: 1
Butcher: 1
Brick Mason: 1
Stone Mason: 1
Stone Cutter: 1
Buyer of Hides: 1
M D (don't know what this is): 2
Treasurer: 1 (I'm assuming for the county)
Inspector of H & A: 1 (another county position?)
Judge: 1
Sheriff of Taylor County: 1
Bailiff: 1
In Jail: 1
So the population was overwhelmingly farmers and stockraisers. (Funny thing, I read in multiple places that there were way more stockraisers than farmers there at the time, but this is not what the census records show.) Most of the laborers were the teenage sons of the farmers. Most of the men were married with children, although there were quite a few stockraisers who were single men in their 20's. If you consider that there were 1,739 people in the county at this point (with 209 heads of households = adult males), it seems kind of crazy that there was only one butcher and barber and only two blacksmiths and not much else (except lawyers - they had those running out their ears!). So Buffalo Gap in 1880 seems to have been even more frontier-like than the town in New Mexico that W. C. lived in. Which makes sense, since it had been open to settlement for only about three years!
While researching Buffalo Gap I got the idea to go searching for the agricultural schedule of the 1880 census. When I just searched for "Cheatham" in the records on Ancestry it didn't give me anything, so I just started reading through the pages and was able to find W. C. Here is a zoomed clip of the document (click on the title to view/download the whole page):
Taylor County, Texas
W. C. is the one with a line drawn through his name. My guess is that he was crossed out because he wasn't actually farming, as it shows he had no tilled fields, farm land, or farm equipment. What it does show is that he owned $2955 (equivalent to about $73,000 today) worth of livestock, which goes right along with the regular census reporting that he was stockraising at the time. (It could have been cattle, sheep, or swine, since those are the choices at the bottom of the census form, but that section only shows that W. C. had 1 milk cow and two other cows. The rest is blank, even though he reported $2955 worth of livestock. Gotta love those census records!) Oh, and he had four horses, too, so it sounds like he was doing pretty well.
Okay. I think that is the only new document I have that is not a newspaper article (the more stuff I collect, the harder time I'm having keeping track of everything!)
So to recap: In 1880, W. C. and his family were living in Buffalo Gap, Taylor County, Texas. He was just 27 years old, and was raising stock and had two children at the time - Armon D. and Erences Leona. Erences died in 1881, just two days before her 2nd birthday. He and Amelia would have two more children, Calvin Malone and Elmer Virdwell, before 1885, which is the year that I found the first newspaper article mentioning him. According to the narrative, Amelia died in 1885, although the family data sheet says "23 or 28 Jan 1885 or 1886." He then married Mary Brookreson (at the latest in the beginning of 1887 based on the birth of their first child). W. C.'s son Calvin died in 1897, and his last child would be born prematurely and die in 1893. And that is the last mention of them in Texas.
The two newspapers available that cover the early history of Buffalo Gap were both published in Abilene. (Remember, Abilene didn't even exist until 1881, so there is no possibility of an article before that date.) Almost all of the articles below came from the Portal to Texas History: Texas Digital Newspaper Program website; you can find the links for each edition in the left sidebar.
1885
The Taylor County News
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
3 Jul 1885
In 1880 W. C. was stockraising, but this article tells us that in 1885 he was farming. The fact that it says "this year" indicates that he wasn't always farming. The 1880's was a period of brutally freezing winters (I've seen pictures of Abilene with a substantial amount of snow.) and drought-stricken summers on the plains, and a lot of ranchers lost enough of their herds that they switched over to farming. I saw an article from around 1883 talking about how poorly the cattle were faring that year. Maybe that is why W. C. was no longer raising stock.
And, that was it. I guess there wasn't much to say when all you are doing is farming. I'm guessing the Buffalo Gap newspaper might have mentioned him more.
1886
The Taylor County News
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
15 Jan 1886
This is exactly the kind of article that I was hoping to find when I started looking for old newspapers. The family history wasn't sure exactly when Amelia died. This article tells us that she died "very suddenly," which means unexpectedly, on January 8, 1886. So W. C. was left with an eight year old, a three year old, and a fifteen month old. He would have needed to find somebody to help him care for the children.
The Taylor County News
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
17 Sep 1886
The United States went through an economic depression between 1882 and 1885, in which farmers (the main portion of the Buffalo Gap population) were hit particularly hard. Of course, those dates just mean that the economy took an upturn in 1885, but it would take time for the economy to fully recover. Things were still tough for a lot of people in 1888, when Benjamin Harrison was elected president because of his protectionist pledges. The Texas constitution required each county to provide aid to indigent persons, so apparently W. C. was appointed to a committee to determine who those persons might be.
1887
The Taylor County News
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
27 May 1887
Here we see that someone, maybe W. C. (he was the original owner of the land in question, but the current owner was unknown) owed taxes from 1886 on 160 acres, and that this land was scheduled for public auction. I noticed that it is listed on the "unrendered" roll, and I was like, what in the world is that? So I did a little digging and came up with a whole bunch of books and articles full of legal-speak, and if I understood them correctly, here is what that means: Texas required all property owners to submit a list of taxable property to the tax assessor. If they did not, the assessor placed them on the "unrendered" list. He was then supposed to visit every person on that list and determine the value of their property. Once on this list, they could not appeal the property valuation, but if their property was purchased by the county at auction, they could buy it back for the amount owed. Or something like that. (If you really, really want to know how it worked, you can read all about it here and here.) As you can see, there were quite a few delinquent property owners who did not submit their list. There were actually 120 taxpayers on the resident rendered roll who were delinquent! And guess what I found while counting them just now?
Do you see the second and third names on this part of the list? A V Cheatham, which would be Amelia Virginia, and E C Cheatham, who I am going to assume is W. C.'s father, Edmond Calvin. This shows that they owned two lots apiece in Abilene. And the fact that they are on the resident list, means that they were both residing in Taylor County in 1886 (this becomes very relevant for E. C. when we start discussing him, because I have a later article implying he lived elsewhere. Maybe he came to stay for a while after his wife died.) And the fact that they are on the "rendered" list, means that W. C. must have submitted for his deceased wife, even though he did not submit for himself. Strange. Anyway, this just goes to show that I should not trust the whole OCR search thing, because I did a search for "Cheatham" and it didn't find either of these. (Now I feel like I need to go back and actually read every edition of this paper instead of relying on the search tool! Uuuggghh!)
That was the last newspaper article for 1887. But remember how I said that W. C. and Mary likely got married at the beginning of that year? I came across their marriage record a short time after I found these newspapers.
So W. C. married Mary Brookreson on January 18, 1887, just over a year after his wife Amelia died. Mary would have been 27 years old at the time, which is quite old for a woman to be marrying for the first time back in those days. The family history tells us that "in late life she had some kind of trouble with her leg and walked with her knee on a crutch." But do you recall the pictured I shared with you a few weeks ago?
We can clearly see that Mary has a crutch across her lap, and we can clearly see that it is much too long for a child. This picture was taken some time in the late 1890's, so Mary would have been only about 37 at the time. Perhaps she had always had something wrong with her leg, and that is why she was still unmarried at 27. Perhaps she was the one who stepped in to help W. C. take care of his children after Amelia died, and he decided that she would make a good wife and mother.
1888
The Taylor County News
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
15 June 1888
This is interesting. We can find out so much from this short little article. Not only was W. C. running for a government position, but he had already served in that office "in the past." This implies that, unless he held the position prior to 1883, he must have been living in Abilene, since that is where the county seat was and it would be impractical for him to ride his horse 14 miles to and from work each day. I would also like to point out that this article says that W. C. was one of the oldest settlers in the county, which matches what the family history says, and it also tells us that he was well-respected, which should come as no surprise since the same things were said about him in New Mexico and Duncan, Arizona.
The Taylor County News
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
20 Jul 1888
This is another article announcing W. C. as a candidate for office. He was running against the incumbent, so we'll have to see how it turned out.
The Abilene Reporter
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
5 Oct 1888
This article is about the Abilene District Fair. We can see from this that W. C. was farming in 1888, which means he probably was living in Buffalo Gap, not Abilene at the time. Notice that he is growing food crops, not cotton like he would in Arizona. (And just in case anyone was wondering, sorghum is a type of grain grown for human consumption and livestock feed.)
Abilene Semi Weekly Farm Reporter
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
18 Oct 1888
Okay! Do you remember several articles back when W. C. was on a committee to determine who needed financial aid and I told you that in Texas, that was the responsibility of the county? Well, most counties in Texas during the 1800's had "poor farms" instead of "poor houses," which is like an almshouse, which you have probably heard of. So a poor farm is just what it sounds like. The residents were given a place to live, but were expected to work the farm in exchange. The farms usually grew the food that the residents ate. The overseer of the poor farm was either elected or appointed, and usually served for a two year term. It was actually a pretty desirable public office to hold, as it came with a certain amount of prestige and a decent salary. (If you want to know more, you can visit The Poorhouse Story or read The County Poor Farm System in Texas by Debbie Mauldin Cottrell.) So anyway, I guess that the crops W. C. was entering in the fair were grown on the poor farm. Three other things: First, there was only one pauper on the farm, which means that the people of Taylor county were doing okay financially. Second, W. C. was probably finishing up his term, since he was running for a different county office during this time. And third, in was common for the wife of the poor farm superintendent to be expected to do the cooking and cleaning for the place. I'll bet Mary just loved that, especially because she would have stepped into the role as a newlywed and then been pregnant, giving birth to Shelton in November of 1887!
The Abilene Reporter
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
9 Nov 1888
So it looks like W. C. did not win the election. The newspaper said that these results do not include precinct 1, but I guess it worked kind of like today where they think it is safe to call the election anyway.
Abilene Semi Weekly Farm Reporter
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
16 Nov 1888
These are the final results of the election. It looks like I might have been correct when I guessed earlier that precinct 1 was Buffalo Gap, because W. C. picked up a whole lot more votes from that precinct than his opponent.
1889
The Taylor County News
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
22 Feb 1889
So, this is the county payroll report for the fourth quarter of 1888. You'll notice that the county received $8.50 ($232 today) from W. C., but then paid him $158.87 ($4,300 today). Maybe the first was him paying taxes and the second was them paying him for something having to do with the poor farm.
The Taylor County News
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
1 Mar 1889
The Taylor County News
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
24 May 1889
If you only read the section with W. C.'s name highlighted, you need to go back and read from the top. Apparently W. C. used Dr. Roberts' cure to kick his chewing tobacco habit!
The Taylor County News
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
19 July 1889
Here we see that W. C. was the business manager for the Taylor County Farmer's Alliance. What was that, exactly, you ask? Well, after the Civil War the economy in the South was devastated, with prices for cotton and other crops falling dramatically. So farmers started forming cooperatives in order to do collective bargaining for selling and shipping rates, and to lobby the federal government for changes. Farm prices continued to plummet between 1870 and 1895, prompting many, many farmers to join the alliances during the 1880's and 1890's.
The Abilene Reporter
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
26 July 1889
This shows us that W. C. was still farming, and apparently growing some monster watermelons - the average watermelon today, according to the internet, is about 20 pounds. I'm assuming that's for the round type you most commonly see today, but the "picnic" variety, which I'm guessing is the long type we always ate when I was a kid, range from 16 to 45 pounds. So, still a pretty good sized melon.
The Taylor County News
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
26 July 1889
I guess that first watermelon wasn't just a fluke, since he had another giant one to give to the other newspaper in town.
The Abilene Reporter
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
16 Aug 1889
In July, W. C. was the business manager, but here he is listed as the secretary. The Alliance must have had elections between that date and this, because the president is a different person as well.
The Taylor County News
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
11 Oct 1889
Yikes - jury duty twice in five months. I guess that's what happens when there are only a few thousand residents, and only the men were eligible!
The Abilene Reporter
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
25 Oct 1889
Okay, wait a minute. This says that W. C. was the book keeper of the Alliance Cotton Yard, which was in Abilene. I'm guessing that this is in addition to him being the secretary of the Alliance organization. This advertisement makes me think that W. C. must have been living in Abilene at this time, since he is keeping the books there. I would guess that he would need to be on hand whenever someone brought their cotton in. Some of you all would know better than me, but maybe his other crops were done for the year and cotton was a fall crop, so he could spend some time away from Buffalo Gap.
The Abilene Reporter
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
13 Dec 1889
This article is about the "progressive committee" of Abilene. I don't know if this is a committee to promote the growth of Abilene or what. This article also gives the impression that W. C. was living in Abilene, not Buffalo Gap, at the time.
The Abilene Reporter
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
23 Dec 1889
This is another article about the Abilene progressive committee. If you read the captions under the main title and the resolutions after the list of people who signed, you will see that it was indeed a committee to improve and grow the city. W. C. is listed as one of the Abilene citizens who signed, and it gives his occupation/business affiliation as "alliance store." So W. C. was for sure living in Abilene at this time. On a side note, reading the list of signers gives a great picture of the kinds of businesses in town!
The Abilene Reporter
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
23 Dec 1889
This says that W. C. was the manager of the Alliance Association store. I don't know if the store sold supplies to farmers and ranchers, or if it sold their goods, or maybe both. But this means that W. C. was either no longer or not just the book keeper at the cotton yard. We can also see from this that W. C. was well-educated and well-spoken. He sounds like a gentleman, not just a frontier farmer! It's easy to see why he would have been well respected in town.
The Abilene Reporter
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
23 Dec 1889
So I guess this partially answers the question as to what the Alliance Association store was selling. And W. C. was not just a manager, but the business manager, which I would suppose had a lot more responsibility than what we generally consider a store manager today.
The Abilene Reporter
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
23 Dec 1889
You see how getting multiple articles gives a much better picture of what was going on? W. C. was indeed still the secretary of the Alliance Association in addition to the other duties he had in relation to the store. (I don't know, but it strikes me as kind of funny that this is a farmers' association and W. C. isn't even farming anymore!)
So, I just went back and looked, and it seems that the newspaper published this thing along with the city and county directories in every single edition beginning on June 14, 1889, I just didn't clip them all. W. C. was already listed as secretary in the very first one. (Apparently, the alliance and its store had been around since at least 1888; the store had a different manager back then.) W. C. held the position of Alliance secretary through August 15, 1890. While figuring this all out, I came across an interesting article about the rocky financial situation of the alliance. It also gives more insight into what the alliance did, and if you are interested, you can read it here.
The Abilene Reporter
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
23 Dec 1889
Do you remember how, back in 1887, W. C. owed taxes on 160 acres? Well, I guess he managed to hold on to his land, because here he was selling (presumably) those 160 acres. (Although, now that I look at it, this says survey 11 and the other showed survey 7, so maybe he had a lot of land or bought more after his other part was sold at auction.) The A. M. has to be a typo or a recording error. (It looks like a combination of W. C.'s two wives.) Anyway, it looks like W. C. might have been giving up farming on a permanent basis.
And that was it for the 1880's. We saw W. C. Cheatham going from stockraising, to farming, to running the poor farm in Buffalo Gap, to becoming heavily involved with the Alliance Association and moving to Abilene. Next time we'll see what he was doing during the 1890's.
- Therese
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