Capt. W. F. Drannan, Chief of Scouts, As Pilot to Emigrant and Government Trains, Across the Plains of the Wild West of Fifty Years AgoDrannan, William F.
History
Capt. W. F. Drannan, Chief of Scouts, As Pilot to Emigrant and Government Trains, Across the Plains of the Wild West of Fifty Years Ago
Drannan, William F.
Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.)
At this moment the lady of the house came on the porch where we were
sitting and invited us in to eat dinner, and she told the Captain she
had prepared a special dinner for him.
The Captain laughed and said: "Well, my good woman, here is my comrade,
Mr. Drannan; what shall we do with him? I expect he is hungry, too."
She said: "Well, Captain, you may invite him in. Maybe you can spare
enough for him to have a taste. I have only got a gallon of green peas
and a ham of venison roasted and four squash pies and a pan of corn
bread cooked for you, so I reckon you can spare Mr. Drannan a little
bite."
As we went into the house the man said, "My wife must think you are a
pretty good eater Capt." to which the lady replied, "I tried him a year
ago, and I have not forgotten how much it took to fill him up then."
We sat down to the table amidst the laughter that followed this remark,
and I can safely say that I never ate a meal that I enjoyed more than I
did that dinner, and I thought that the Capt. had not lost the appetite
the lady gave him credit for having the year before. And what made the
meal more enjoyable was the Texas style of cracking jokes from the time
we sat down until we left the table, and I will say this for Texas that
of all the states I have ever visited from that time until this day
Texas was then and is now the most hospitable.
It is fifty years ago that I ate that meal in the little settlement that
was miles away from the busy cities, and I can with safety say that I
have found in the state of Texas more large hearted people than I have
found in all the other states put together that I have visited.
When we were leaving the house we told the young man that we would come
back the next day and bring the horses for him, to take care of.
We left the settlement and struck the trail for our camp, and we found
that the boys had good success in hunting. They had four deer all
dressed and hanging to the limbs of trees.
That evening I asked the Capt. what course he intended to pursue now. He
said, "We have the horses off our hands for a time at least, and we will
pull south for a month or six weeks, and then if all is well we will
come back and get our horses and pull for Dallas. By that time the
farmers will have disposed of their crops and will have money more
plenty, and I think we can do better in selling our horses than we ever
have done. I think we have crippled the Apache tribe so much that some
of the settlements will not be troubled with them again, and if we are
as successful in our fights with them the balance of the season, they
will be pretty well down, and what a great blessing it will be to the
people of this country that we came to their relief."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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