Milam County Historical Commission
Milam County, Texas
Milam County, Texas
Early Milam Resident
Joshua Wilson McCown, Jr.
For fifty-six years the subject of this sketch has resided in Texas, most of the time in Milam county. It is needless to say that he is a pioneer and an early settler of the county. Mr. McCown traces his ancestry back to the land of song and story, heroism and romance, - Scotland, - from which country his progenitors emigrated some time during the last century to America and settled in Pennsylvania. There his paternal grandfather, Alexander McCown, was born, reared, twice married (his first wife dying), and moved in 1784 to Kentucky, settling in what is now Bardstown, Nelson county. He was the father of a large family of children, sixteen of whom were sons and grew up.
Joshua Wilson McCown, Sr., the father of the subject of this sketch, was one of this number. He was born in Bardstown, February 5, 1804, and was there reared. He went to Tennessee when a young man and in Columbia, that State, on April 22, 1828, married Martha Shapard, a native of Tennessee, born April, 1808. He resided in Tennessee until 1837, when he moved to Texas and settled in Washington county, where he lived until 1848, at which date he came to Cameron, Milam county, where, for several years he was engaged in the mercantile business. Later he lived at Houston and at other points in the State, and is still living, being now a resident of Whitney, Hill county. He has been twice married, and has raised to maturity fourteen children. His first wife died at Houston in 1852, leaving sixteen children, of whom Joshua Wilson McCown, Jr., the eldest, is the subject of this momoir [(sic) memoir]
He was born in Murfreesborough, Tennessee, July 8, 1830. Being brought to Texas at the age of seven by his parents, he was reared in Washington county. His boyhood and youth were passed on the farm. In 1852 he married Margaret Chalmers of Waco, who died shortly afterward without issue. May, 1854, he married Susan, a daughter of Josiah J. and Ann Turnham, of Milam county.
Mr. Turnham was one of the first settlers of this county, moving here from Missouri, in company with Giles O. Sullivan, another of the pioneers of the county, and settling at Nashville in 1840. In the spring of 1842 he settled about a mile and a half east of the present site of Cameron, where and in which vicinity he subsequently made his home until his death, which occurred in September, 1863. His wife died in May. 1859. They were industrious, kind, good people, and Milam county is indebted to them for some of its best citizens. They had nine children, all of whom became grown, Mrs. McCown being the eldest. She was born in Missouri and was five years old when her parents moved to Milam county. Here she was reared, being brought up on the frontier and knowing from experience all the privations and disadvantages of frontier life. She however is one of those women to whom though reared in a wilderness men bow and pay willing homage, being a great favorite with the old settlers and in fact with all who know her. Mr. and Mrs. McCown reside now on the old Turnham homestead, and in a house erected in 1852 by Mrs. McCown’s father, being the second brick house built north of the old San Antonio road and west of the Trinity river. It was built of bricks made on the place, and is still in a good state of preservation. Here they have raised their family of seven children, this being the number that reached maturity out of the twelve born to them. They are: Martha Ann, the wife of Dr. Thomas A. Pope of Cameron; Susan, the wife of T. G. Sampson of Milam county; James Coleman, deceased; Margaret Chalmers, the wife of Dr. V. E. H. Reed of Cameron; Joshua Wilson, deceased; Robert Lee and “Sul” Ross.
Mr. McCown has never been in public life, though probably one of the best known men in Milam county, and one whose knowledge and business experience would amply fit him for the successful discharge of the duties of any office to which he might be called. But his tastes do not run in that direction. He owns a large farm near Cameron, situated on the Little river, to which he devotes his time and attention. He served in the Confederate army during the late war, being Master of Transportation west of the Mississippi till the fall of Vicksburg, and then he was engaged in trade operations with Mexico till the close of the war. He has been a life-long Democrat and is thoroughly loyal to the principles of his party. To Texas and all its interests and enterprises he is devoted with that impulsive enthusiasm and arduous attachment which characterizes those who have followed the State through its struggles from a few straggling settlements on the frontier to its present proud and prosperous condition of Statehood. Mr. McCown knew most of the early Texans of note, with many of whom he was brought in contact at one time and another during his youth and early manhood. He is full of reminiscences of early days in Texas, and if the scope of this article permitted numbers of these might be inserted here to the interest and edification of the readers of this volume. Two or three of a local nature will be given, because they fit so appropriately in this place.
“Speaking of early events in Milam county,” said Mr. McCown, “I know of no single event that attracted so much attention at the time or was the source of more amusement that what is known among the old settlers as ‘The trip of the Washington.’ Being the ascent up Little river of the first and only steamer that ever plowed the water of that stream. The trip was made in the winter of 1850-’51, and was the conception of my father, who was then engaged in business in Cameron. It seems that he had mentioned several times to some of his acquaintances the possibility of navigating Little river with small boats during the winter freshets, but his suggestions had generally met with ridicule. At last, just after a particularly heavy rain, when the river was considerably swollen and gave promise of remaining up several days, he hastily constructed a skiff and put out for the lower Brazos country in search of a steamer to make the attempt. He secured one at Washington, called “The Washington,” the property of Captain Jo. Woods and commanded by Captain Hatfield. The trip was undertaken on the payment of a bonus of $500 and a guaranteed amount of freight at stipulated rates. The boat was loaded with a cargo of merchandise, consisting of groceries, provisions and whisky, and the ascent begun. It did not excite much interest along the Brazos, but when Little river was reached the sound of a steam whistle, never heard before in these parts, instantly attracted attention, and when it came to be known that a real, live steamer, duly equipped and fully loaded with merchandise, was in the river making its way to Cameron, curiosity quickened into interest and interest grew into excitement, general and prolonged. My father, who was enjoying something of a personal triumph in the success of the enterprise, spared no pains to spread the news as to what was going on. Word passed rapidly from house to house, and, it being at a time of year when the people were idle, crowds soon began to flock to the river banks from all directions. Men, women and children, all ages, sexes and conditions, in all stages of dress and undress – a motley company of curiosity seekers – came pouring out from the settlements. As the Washington puffed and wriggled along the winding stream dodging a lot of drift-wood here and clearing a sharp angle there, knots of sight-seers would greet it with a great profusion of shouts and hurrahs, and much waving of wool hats and calico bonnets and aprons. Passengers were taken on at each stop, any one being at liberty to ride, and when stops were not made some of the more ambitious swam out into the river on horseback and climbed on the steamer while in motion. In this way the boat rapidly filled up until it became a mass of surging, shouting, rollicking humanity. It stopped when it reached the shoals, about two miles and a half east of Cameron and near where I now live, was made fast to a tree, and, in accordance with instructions, the decks were cleared and a general jubilee of feasting and dancing set in. For two days and nights this went on until all were surfeited with fun and frolic, when the Captain cleared away the debris, turned the nozzle of the Washington down stream and glided back into the waters of the Brazos. The event left a lasting impression on the settlers and its incidents afforded topics for conversation for a long time afterward.”
“Upon another occasion,” said Mr. McCown, “when Little river was on one of its periodical tears, an incident happened which was the source of a good deal of amusement among the few settlers who were then here. Three men – Lee Davis, George Chapman and Bit-nose Robinson – were out in a canoe on some sort of a nautical expedition when by some mischance their little craft was upset and got away from them. Little river then, as now, was no respecter of property rights, and frequently left its channel and wandered around at will. On the occasion mentioned, it had appropriated most of the surrounding country, so that Davis, Chapman and Robinson found themselves a considerable distance from land when their canoe capsized. Chapman, being an expert swimmer, made his way on driftwood and by swimming to the shore, while Davis and Robinson, being less expert, sought safety in the branches of a tree. Davis, younger and more vigorous than Robinson, secured the best perch, a large limb which at the juncture with the main body of the tree formed a fairly comfortable resting place. Robinson, taking what he could get, perched on a small limb which in a short time got, as he said, ‘pretty sharp,’ As the day wore on into the night, he asked Davis to swap seats with him for awhile , but Davis refused. Davis did not know how long they would have to stay there waiting for the waters to go down, and. knowing a good thing when he saw it, he was inclined to hold on to it. Urged by cold and fatigue Robinson kept up his importunities for a swap, recalling to Davis their friendship, their companionship in misery, his age, the possibility of his becoming so benumbed and tired as to fall off and drown right before Davis’ eyes; but none of these things moved the callous-hearted Davis. He looked stolidly on the turgid waters, said nothing and continued to roost high. Finally Robinson said: ‘Davis, I don’t know whether we will ever live (to) get out of this scrape or not, but if we do I am going to give you one of the all-firedest best whippings you ever got. If you ain’t got any sense, nor reason nor decency about you, I’ll take it on myself as your senior in years and your better in manhood, to beat some into you!’
“They survived, and the next day along in the afternoon the water had so far receded that they could wade out, which they did, clambering over logs and drift, and slippery banks and knolls, until they reached terra firma. Once on a solid footing Robinson, though more dead than alive from cold, hunger, fatigue and loss of sleep, reminded Davis of the promise. The latter was very much disposed to ‘let by-gones be by-gones’ and tried to make old ‘Bit-nose’ forget his threat with a profusion of promises of refreshments and friendship every afterward; but “Bit-nose’ was a man of his word, and waiving all these things aside he admonished Davis ‘to shed his linen,’ at the same time, as he described it, ‘peeling and rolling in’ himself. He thrashed Davis all over the hillside, ‘everlastingly walloping the yerth’ with him as he afterward said; and everybody believed that he did it, because Davis never denied it.”
Continuing in a reminiscent vein Mr. McCown said: “The citizens of Milam county have always been a fairly temperate people, not given, I believe, to over-indulgence; but men are men the world over, and I reckon the early settlers of this county liked a ‘snort’ of ‘mountain dew’ or something of the kind as well as the common run of men in other places. At any rate the first barrel of whisky that ever came across Little river created a wave of excitement that spread to the fatherest [(sic)] fringe of the settlements, as I have heard some of the old ones tell, and afforded the means of one day’s solid enjoyment in the midst of many of genuine hardship and privation. The liquor was brought overland in a ‘carry-all’ from old Nashville by a thrifty Dutchman named Kattenhorn. He made his first stop in the vicinity of Cameron, at the big springs just east of that place, that being, however, before there was any Cameron. The settlers then were scattered mostly along the river bottom and on the first tableland from a mile to a mile and a half east of the present county seat. As soon as Kattenhorn got into the settlements with his liquor word passed around in the neighborhood, and a large delegation of the ‘men folks’ soon gathered at the big spring. Settlers were not flush with money in those days but they knew how to ‘raise the wind’ when occasion demanded as well as people of these times, and so a self-constituted committee on ways and means immediately set about to devise a plan whereby Kattenhorn’s whisky could be transferred from Kattenhorn to the settlers and Kattenhorn properly remunerated for the same. After considering two or three schemes they finally drew up a joint promissory note, which was signed by each of the settlers, agreeing to pay Kattenhorn at a certain time a stated amount for the liquor, which he accepted and thereupon delivered to them the coveted article. They proceeded to divide it in equal lots, and after having imbibed a sufficient quantity to put them on their mettle they instituted a series of foot-races, the stake being a quart a race. They drank and ran and ran and drank until all were glorious full and happy, in which condition as many as could shouldered their jugs and started for home, some reaching there like Tam O’Shanter to meet the angry frowns of their ‘gentle dames’, others falling by the wayside to dream of foot-races in fields elysian, while still others remained about the spring, where I suppose they made good use of its cooling waters whey they awoke from their reveries. It should be mentioned that they paid the note to Kattenhorn at maturity.”
“Yes, yes,” said Mr. McCown, reaching for his pipe and package of Durham tobacco; “the early Texans were a great people, a peculiar people, perhaps, but a great and a good people, - honest, brave, generous, hospitable, true to their kind and faithful to their country. They were not a cultured class as culture now goes; but in real manhood and womanhood I think they fairly filled the measure, and in their rough strength they were resistless, as history shows. Mexican, Indian, wild beast and all natural obstacles have gone down before them in their steady march toward the west. The work will perhaps never see their like again, as it will probably never see another Texas.”
SOURCE: History of Texas, Together with a Biographical
History of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson Counties (Chicago: Lewis, 1893, p. 481-485)
.
Joshua Wilson McCown, Jr.
For fifty-six years the subject of this sketch has resided in Texas, most of the time in Milam county. It is needless to say that he is a pioneer and an early settler of the county. Mr. McCown traces his ancestry back to the land of song and story, heroism and romance, - Scotland, - from which country his progenitors emigrated some time during the last century to America and settled in Pennsylvania. There his paternal grandfather, Alexander McCown, was born, reared, twice married (his first wife dying), and moved in 1784 to Kentucky, settling in what is now Bardstown, Nelson county. He was the father of a large family of children, sixteen of whom were sons and grew up.
Joshua Wilson McCown, Sr., the father of the subject of this sketch, was one of this number. He was born in Bardstown, February 5, 1804, and was there reared. He went to Tennessee when a young man and in Columbia, that State, on April 22, 1828, married Martha Shapard, a native of Tennessee, born April, 1808. He resided in Tennessee until 1837, when he moved to Texas and settled in Washington county, where he lived until 1848, at which date he came to Cameron, Milam county, where, for several years he was engaged in the mercantile business. Later he lived at Houston and at other points in the State, and is still living, being now a resident of Whitney, Hill county. He has been twice married, and has raised to maturity fourteen children. His first wife died at Houston in 1852, leaving sixteen children, of whom Joshua Wilson McCown, Jr., the eldest, is the subject of this momoir [(sic) memoir]
He was born in Murfreesborough, Tennessee, July 8, 1830. Being brought to Texas at the age of seven by his parents, he was reared in Washington county. His boyhood and youth were passed on the farm. In 1852 he married Margaret Chalmers of Waco, who died shortly afterward without issue. May, 1854, he married Susan, a daughter of Josiah J. and Ann Turnham, of Milam county.
Mr. Turnham was one of the first settlers of this county, moving here from Missouri, in company with Giles O. Sullivan, another of the pioneers of the county, and settling at Nashville in 1840. In the spring of 1842 he settled about a mile and a half east of the present site of Cameron, where and in which vicinity he subsequently made his home until his death, which occurred in September, 1863. His wife died in May. 1859. They were industrious, kind, good people, and Milam county is indebted to them for some of its best citizens. They had nine children, all of whom became grown, Mrs. McCown being the eldest. She was born in Missouri and was five years old when her parents moved to Milam county. Here she was reared, being brought up on the frontier and knowing from experience all the privations and disadvantages of frontier life. She however is one of those women to whom though reared in a wilderness men bow and pay willing homage, being a great favorite with the old settlers and in fact with all who know her. Mr. and Mrs. McCown reside now on the old Turnham homestead, and in a house erected in 1852 by Mrs. McCown’s father, being the second brick house built north of the old San Antonio road and west of the Trinity river. It was built of bricks made on the place, and is still in a good state of preservation. Here they have raised their family of seven children, this being the number that reached maturity out of the twelve born to them. They are: Martha Ann, the wife of Dr. Thomas A. Pope of Cameron; Susan, the wife of T. G. Sampson of Milam county; James Coleman, deceased; Margaret Chalmers, the wife of Dr. V. E. H. Reed of Cameron; Joshua Wilson, deceased; Robert Lee and “Sul” Ross.
Mr. McCown has never been in public life, though probably one of the best known men in Milam county, and one whose knowledge and business experience would amply fit him for the successful discharge of the duties of any office to which he might be called. But his tastes do not run in that direction. He owns a large farm near Cameron, situated on the Little river, to which he devotes his time and attention. He served in the Confederate army during the late war, being Master of Transportation west of the Mississippi till the fall of Vicksburg, and then he was engaged in trade operations with Mexico till the close of the war. He has been a life-long Democrat and is thoroughly loyal to the principles of his party. To Texas and all its interests and enterprises he is devoted with that impulsive enthusiasm and arduous attachment which characterizes those who have followed the State through its struggles from a few straggling settlements on the frontier to its present proud and prosperous condition of Statehood. Mr. McCown knew most of the early Texans of note, with many of whom he was brought in contact at one time and another during his youth and early manhood. He is full of reminiscences of early days in Texas, and if the scope of this article permitted numbers of these might be inserted here to the interest and edification of the readers of this volume. Two or three of a local nature will be given, because they fit so appropriately in this place.
“Speaking of early events in Milam county,” said Mr. McCown, “I know of no single event that attracted so much attention at the time or was the source of more amusement that what is known among the old settlers as ‘The trip of the Washington.’ Being the ascent up Little river of the first and only steamer that ever plowed the water of that stream. The trip was made in the winter of 1850-’51, and was the conception of my father, who was then engaged in business in Cameron. It seems that he had mentioned several times to some of his acquaintances the possibility of navigating Little river with small boats during the winter freshets, but his suggestions had generally met with ridicule. At last, just after a particularly heavy rain, when the river was considerably swollen and gave promise of remaining up several days, he hastily constructed a skiff and put out for the lower Brazos country in search of a steamer to make the attempt. He secured one at Washington, called “The Washington,” the property of Captain Jo. Woods and commanded by Captain Hatfield. The trip was undertaken on the payment of a bonus of $500 and a guaranteed amount of freight at stipulated rates. The boat was loaded with a cargo of merchandise, consisting of groceries, provisions and whisky, and the ascent begun. It did not excite much interest along the Brazos, but when Little river was reached the sound of a steam whistle, never heard before in these parts, instantly attracted attention, and when it came to be known that a real, live steamer, duly equipped and fully loaded with merchandise, was in the river making its way to Cameron, curiosity quickened into interest and interest grew into excitement, general and prolonged. My father, who was enjoying something of a personal triumph in the success of the enterprise, spared no pains to spread the news as to what was going on. Word passed rapidly from house to house, and, it being at a time of year when the people were idle, crowds soon began to flock to the river banks from all directions. Men, women and children, all ages, sexes and conditions, in all stages of dress and undress – a motley company of curiosity seekers – came pouring out from the settlements. As the Washington puffed and wriggled along the winding stream dodging a lot of drift-wood here and clearing a sharp angle there, knots of sight-seers would greet it with a great profusion of shouts and hurrahs, and much waving of wool hats and calico bonnets and aprons. Passengers were taken on at each stop, any one being at liberty to ride, and when stops were not made some of the more ambitious swam out into the river on horseback and climbed on the steamer while in motion. In this way the boat rapidly filled up until it became a mass of surging, shouting, rollicking humanity. It stopped when it reached the shoals, about two miles and a half east of Cameron and near where I now live, was made fast to a tree, and, in accordance with instructions, the decks were cleared and a general jubilee of feasting and dancing set in. For two days and nights this went on until all were surfeited with fun and frolic, when the Captain cleared away the debris, turned the nozzle of the Washington down stream and glided back into the waters of the Brazos. The event left a lasting impression on the settlers and its incidents afforded topics for conversation for a long time afterward.”
“Upon another occasion,” said Mr. McCown, “when Little river was on one of its periodical tears, an incident happened which was the source of a good deal of amusement among the few settlers who were then here. Three men – Lee Davis, George Chapman and Bit-nose Robinson – were out in a canoe on some sort of a nautical expedition when by some mischance their little craft was upset and got away from them. Little river then, as now, was no respecter of property rights, and frequently left its channel and wandered around at will. On the occasion mentioned, it had appropriated most of the surrounding country, so that Davis, Chapman and Robinson found themselves a considerable distance from land when their canoe capsized. Chapman, being an expert swimmer, made his way on driftwood and by swimming to the shore, while Davis and Robinson, being less expert, sought safety in the branches of a tree. Davis, younger and more vigorous than Robinson, secured the best perch, a large limb which at the juncture with the main body of the tree formed a fairly comfortable resting place. Robinson, taking what he could get, perched on a small limb which in a short time got, as he said, ‘pretty sharp,’ As the day wore on into the night, he asked Davis to swap seats with him for awhile , but Davis refused. Davis did not know how long they would have to stay there waiting for the waters to go down, and. knowing a good thing when he saw it, he was inclined to hold on to it. Urged by cold and fatigue Robinson kept up his importunities for a swap, recalling to Davis their friendship, their companionship in misery, his age, the possibility of his becoming so benumbed and tired as to fall off and drown right before Davis’ eyes; but none of these things moved the callous-hearted Davis. He looked stolidly on the turgid waters, said nothing and continued to roost high. Finally Robinson said: ‘Davis, I don’t know whether we will ever live (to) get out of this scrape or not, but if we do I am going to give you one of the all-firedest best whippings you ever got. If you ain’t got any sense, nor reason nor decency about you, I’ll take it on myself as your senior in years and your better in manhood, to beat some into you!’
“They survived, and the next day along in the afternoon the water had so far receded that they could wade out, which they did, clambering over logs and drift, and slippery banks and knolls, until they reached terra firma. Once on a solid footing Robinson, though more dead than alive from cold, hunger, fatigue and loss of sleep, reminded Davis of the promise. The latter was very much disposed to ‘let by-gones be by-gones’ and tried to make old ‘Bit-nose’ forget his threat with a profusion of promises of refreshments and friendship every afterward; but “Bit-nose’ was a man of his word, and waiving all these things aside he admonished Davis ‘to shed his linen,’ at the same time, as he described it, ‘peeling and rolling in’ himself. He thrashed Davis all over the hillside, ‘everlastingly walloping the yerth’ with him as he afterward said; and everybody believed that he did it, because Davis never denied it.”
Continuing in a reminiscent vein Mr. McCown said: “The citizens of Milam county have always been a fairly temperate people, not given, I believe, to over-indulgence; but men are men the world over, and I reckon the early settlers of this county liked a ‘snort’ of ‘mountain dew’ or something of the kind as well as the common run of men in other places. At any rate the first barrel of whisky that ever came across Little river created a wave of excitement that spread to the fatherest [(sic)] fringe of the settlements, as I have heard some of the old ones tell, and afforded the means of one day’s solid enjoyment in the midst of many of genuine hardship and privation. The liquor was brought overland in a ‘carry-all’ from old Nashville by a thrifty Dutchman named Kattenhorn. He made his first stop in the vicinity of Cameron, at the big springs just east of that place, that being, however, before there was any Cameron. The settlers then were scattered mostly along the river bottom and on the first tableland from a mile to a mile and a half east of the present county seat. As soon as Kattenhorn got into the settlements with his liquor word passed around in the neighborhood, and a large delegation of the ‘men folks’ soon gathered at the big spring. Settlers were not flush with money in those days but they knew how to ‘raise the wind’ when occasion demanded as well as people of these times, and so a self-constituted committee on ways and means immediately set about to devise a plan whereby Kattenhorn’s whisky could be transferred from Kattenhorn to the settlers and Kattenhorn properly remunerated for the same. After considering two or three schemes they finally drew up a joint promissory note, which was signed by each of the settlers, agreeing to pay Kattenhorn at a certain time a stated amount for the liquor, which he accepted and thereupon delivered to them the coveted article. They proceeded to divide it in equal lots, and after having imbibed a sufficient quantity to put them on their mettle they instituted a series of foot-races, the stake being a quart a race. They drank and ran and ran and drank until all were glorious full and happy, in which condition as many as could shouldered their jugs and started for home, some reaching there like Tam O’Shanter to meet the angry frowns of their ‘gentle dames’, others falling by the wayside to dream of foot-races in fields elysian, while still others remained about the spring, where I suppose they made good use of its cooling waters whey they awoke from their reveries. It should be mentioned that they paid the note to Kattenhorn at maturity.”
“Yes, yes,” said Mr. McCown, reaching for his pipe and package of Durham tobacco; “the early Texans were a great people, a peculiar people, perhaps, but a great and a good people, - honest, brave, generous, hospitable, true to their kind and faithful to their country. They were not a cultured class as culture now goes; but in real manhood and womanhood I think they fairly filled the measure, and in their rough strength they were resistless, as history shows. Mexican, Indian, wild beast and all natural obstacles have gone down before them in their steady march toward the west. The work will perhaps never see their like again, as it will probably never see another Texas.”
SOURCE: History of Texas, Together with a Biographical
History of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee and Burleson Counties (Chicago: Lewis, 1893, p. 481-485)
.
Credit for this article goes to
"History of Texas, Together with a Biographical History of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee
and Burleson Counties"
(Chicago: Lewis, 1893, p. 481-485)
"History of Texas, Together with a Biographical History of Milam, Williamson, Bastrop, Travis, Lee
and Burleson Counties"
(Chicago: Lewis, 1893, p. 481-485)