The
Whitewright Sun
Tmursday, May 27, 1937
pg. 8
First Job Held by Pioneer, 84, Was
Cutting Wood For Early Texas Trains
Sherman Democrat
One
of the two last survivors of a train of 21
wagons that came to Grayson
County in 1872 from Tennessee, R.K. Smith,
formerly of Whitewright
celebrated his 84th birthday, May 18,
at the home of his son,
C.F. Smith, 421 South Charles, with whom he
makes his home.
Mr.
Smith operated a grocery store in
Whitewright for 20 years, retiring in
1908. He came to the Whitewright area before
there was a town and now
numbers on one hand the surviving friends he
made there. The only
other member of the wagon train is his
sister, Mrs. Ida Richey, of
Orangeville.
Grayson
county presents a different physical
panorama and political picture now
that it did 65 years ago to the young man
who came west with his
parents from war destitute Tennessee.
Then there were no roads,
no towns. Mr. Smith recalls frequently
riding from Orangeville in
Fannin County to Dallas in a single day
without crossing a single lane.
The
wide prairies and herds were new to the boy
from Tennessee. He
recalls watching two dogs herd 500 sheep on
the prairie near Plano with
no men in sight. After watching the
dogs work the sheet for
almost an hour, he rode on toward Plano and
encountered the two
herdsmen returning from lunch.
Another
time he remembers a single dog working
several hundred head of goats
past a fork in the road to a point where a
lone herdsman had gone to
inquire the right road to Bonham.
But
the most vivid memories of the pioneer
merchant are of his boyhood in
Tennessee. His father, the late J.H.
Smith, joined the
Confederate army "with the first sound of
the drum" and returned home
only once before Lee surrendered.
Mr.
Smith recalls his father coming home for a
night while Bragg's army of
60,000 was stationed at Murphreesboro.
He returned with his
father and spent a night in Bragg's camp to
watch the soldiers parade.
That trip caused considerable worry to
his mother. Mr. Smith
recalls. He was to return the same
night he left home, but his
father let him remain a night in camp. The
next day, after passing
through Confederate lines, he was stopped at
John Morgan's camp within
7 miles of home. The boy spent the night in
the armed camp and then
circled the forces next morning to return to
his home.
Mr.
Smith and his 6 brothers and sisters and
slaves belonging to a
relative, operated a Tennessee farm for his
mother while the father was
at war.
His
first recollection of Texas is of a
beautiful warm prairie by day on
which his wagon train almost froze to death
the first night when a
"blue norther" struck.
The
family lived 2 years in Collin county before
moving to the Whitewright
area. The rich blackland from which
farmers were to build
comfortable fortunes was cheap then and
sometimes rather troublesome.
He recalls on numerous occasions
seeing wagons bogged down in the
mud in McKinney streets, 6 yoke of oxen
unable to move them.
One
of his first jobs in Texas was cutting wood
for a wood burner train on
the old Central line into McKinney. He
and his cousin cut 4 cords
a day at $1 a cord.
Mr.
Smith was born May 18, 1853 in Wilson
County, Tennessee. He was
first married to Miss Minnie Russell
December 27, 1876 in Whitewright.
He married a second time September 5,
1913 at Whitewright, this
time to Mrs. America Frances White.
His
children are C.F. Smith and Mrs. Don Fuller
of Sherman and F.A. Smith
of Whitewright. Mr. Smith has 4
grandchildren, Robert Smith of
California; Don Fuller, Jr., student at
Fayetteville and Miss Lodene
Fuller of Sherman and Norma Lou Smith of
Whitewright.
He
was surprised on the Sunday before his
birthday with a dinner at the
home of his son in Whitewright with all his
children present.
Mr. Smith died in July 6, 1940 and
was buried Whitewright City Cemetery
alongside his first wife who died in 1910.
