HENRY LEE VADEN SR.

"An interesting visitor in Sherman during the holidays is Henry L. Vaden.  Mr. Vaden was born in Grayson County in 1849.  His father was James H. Vaden, who with his family moved to Red River County in 1843 when Texas was a Republic.  Mr. Vaden fought the Indians in Red River County and again in Grayson County where he moved in 1845, before the county was organized.  He settled on the land now known as the County Farm, which was later sold to the County of Grayson, reserving only the acre known as the Vaden burying ground.
"Mr. Vaden was on of the commissioners appointed to lay off the present site of Sherman, receiving in payment for that service the lot on the northeast corner of the square now occupied by the Commercial Bank building.  He afterwards traded this lot for an Indian pony which he sold for $25.00.
"The 320 acres where Sherman was first located, 4 miles west of new Sherman, was bought by Mr. Vaden and sold by him during the War between the States for a "lot of Confederate money, some of which is still in possession of the family, now valued as an interesting relic of the trying times of the 1860s.
"Henry Vaden says, 'I do not remember much of the conditions during the war.  I came to town once a week with corn to have ground at the old time ox-tread-wheel mill, known as the Stewart Mill.  It was located on top of the steep hill where the Andrews home now stands, at the intersection of Travis and College Streets, called Dugan's Hill.
"' The first school I attended was in a little log house back of the home field.  This school was taught by a man named Droke, a regular down-east Yankee who came to Grayson County about the same time we did.  Bill Walsh, now living west of town, and Pum Wright of Purcell, my home town, went to this school too.
"'The first preaching I ever heard was by Parson McComb who lived in the Farmington neighborhood.  He was a Hardshell Baptist, a fine old man.  He preached for 2 solid hours, which was pretty trying for a live boy.  Jack Jennings also preached there.  He was not of any particular church but preached just good religion - to suit himself.
"'The Masseys owned the first cotton gin I ever saw.  Cotton was raised only along the river, wheat, oats and corn being raised further inland.  Father used to run ox teams to Jefferson, taking grain down thru Kentuckytown, then, through "the devil's race-track", a road fittingly named, through Jernigan thicket; it was boggy, black and sticky - no road at all.  Then through Black Jack Grove, Sulphur Springs, and on to Jefferson.
"'The wagons had large bois d'arc wheels and each one was drawn by 5 yoke of oxen.  A lead horse was taken along to hunt up the oxen, and was hobbled, and the others were tied by neckin' them, as it was called.  Each steer was tied to his mate, the rope around the neck; but this method was some times unsatisfactory because the rope would twist.  A better method was to use a stick, twisting it in the rope around the necks of the steers. 
"'It didn't take so much to interest a fellow in those days.  We didn't have picture shows, good roads and automobiles; but we did have good horses, good hunting, picnics and dancing.  Many happy times we had at Jack Jennings, Burl Perry's (now the Tate home), Captain Lee's, Captain Birge's, and Sophia Porter's, whose home were always centers of social activities.  'Aunt' Sophia Porter (no relation) had a beautiful home, 100 negroes, and she loved a good time.  She was said to be an old sweetheart of Sam Houston.  She frequently spent the night with us when she came to attend the Grayson County Fair.  There were, too, the Thompsons and Masseys where every one enjoyed visiting.
"'We had great times hunting.  Game was abundant and when we wanted prairie chicken for dinner, we went out and killed just what we wanted for the time, and not everything in sight as they do now.  We hunted turkey on horseback; when near enough we would throw a rope and knock them down.  I caught 4 turkeys this way just a few years ago near Madill.  We caught quail by driving them into a net.  The net, a bag, would be 10 feet long with hoops to hold it open.  On each side from this extended wings 20 or 30 feet long.  A covey of quail was rounded up and slowly, not crowding them too fast, driven into the net.  I have seen dozens caught at one time in this way.
"'I attended school after the war in the old Odd Fellows Hall that stood before the Texas and Pacific Railroad built on Walnut Street just across from where the T. & P. freight depot now stands.  It was a large 2-story, frame building.  The school was taught by Parson Petty, I remember.  Here were Fred and Joe Cockrell.  After this, in 1869 and 1870, I went to a boarding school at Ladonia.  It was the first Baptist school, so far as I know, to be established in Texas.  It was taught by Booker Featherstone, a Baptist preacher and a fine teacher.  He had, several years ago, a son living in Henrietta, a big cow man.  There were 4 other teachers in the school.  I boarded with Dr. H. Harrison, Mollie Fitch, who afterward married brother Jim, was there, also, Alvis and Laura Belcher, and a son of Parson McComb.  A Mr. Brown taught math and Emmet Cox was another teacher."

"'The Odd Fellows Hall was a 2 story frame building, one room above used by the Odd Fellows and one room below used as a school room during the week and alternately by the Methodists, Baptists, and Christians as a meeting place on Sunday.  The seats were of split logs and a shelf of split log along the wall was used as a table upon which to write.
"'The first teacher here was Jim Hurt who afterwards became a big lawyer on the Supreme Court at Dallas.  Capt. Hurt entered the army in 1861.  In 1865-66 this school was taught by a very smart Irishman named Mingan who had been educated in Dublin; he had also taught with Capt. Hurt.
"'There attended this school, among others, Col. Eubank, a boy named Graves, Jim and Betty Sacra, Wm. and Missouri Bullock (Wm. Bullock was first boy born in Sherman), Mollie Fitch, Frank and Henry Vaden.
"'Quantrell's men wintered in Sherman 2 or maybe 3 winters - '62, '63, '64.  In '62 two of them stayed at our house all winter.  By the next year people had begun to be afraid of them.  My father, this winter of '63, kept 2 of Capt. Nicholson's men.  They were from Fannin County and Honey Grove; one, a cousin, was named Beasley.
"'Quantrell's men were for one or two winters at Flowing Well.  By the close of the war they had become a band of desperadoes, killing and thieving.
"'There was a story that Sophia Porter offered $40 for a strip of Jim Crow Chiles' skin from his back with which to make a razor strap, (J.C. Chiles had Major Butts killed.)  Major Butts, in the winter of '63, was killed supposedly by Quantrell's men.  He had sold cotton and with the money was returning homo.  His body was found a few days afterwards on the branch near the North Travis road, about 3 miles north of town, half starved and famished, so he looked about and found Major Butts' body.  He was the husband of Sophia Porter, living at Preston Bend."
"'The year of '62 was one of bitter prejudice and hard feeling.  There were rumors of a plot among the Union sympathizers to cause an uprising among the negroes, bring in the Indians from the Territory and kill all the Southerners.  The plots were discovered by Newt Chance who joined the group.  It was found they had a list of names, headed by Col. Wm. Young.  Before anything could be done, Col. Young was shot from ambush.
"'A vigilance committee was organized, called the Wild Goose; a number were arrested, tried before a regular jury and judge, and hanged immediately.
"'In Gainesville, 48 were hanged on one limb.  Each day a few were tried, were place on a wagon driven immediately to the tree, a rope put about each one's neck, and the wagon driven out from under them.
"'This tree stood across the road just east of town.  It was completely destroyed by the Federals who sent it north as souvenirs.
"'In Dodge City, 14 were hanged.  In Howe, several, among them a Mr. Gibbons and a Mr. Vivian.
"'Mr. Foster, editor of the Sherman paper, was taken out and shot, his body left lying upon the street.  They tried to find Judge C.C. Binkley but he escaped by being away from home that night, his bed being occupied by Bro. C.C. McClain, Methodist minister.
"'A.M. Boyd was taken from his house and shot.  His body was found the next day in the creek-bed about a mile from home. (Jim Young, Newt Chance and Chas. Cox were the leaders.)
"'Gen. Bourland whose home was on the River, north of Dexter, had charge of the troops who protected the frontier. (The Indians made a most destructive raid, going down into Denton County, and killing many people, women and children.)
"'Col. George Reeves organized the 11th Texas Cavalry; they rendezvoused at Georgetown, north of Pottsboro."

"'The first preacher of the Christian church I remember to preach after the war, was Tom Caskey.  After the big debate between Dichler and Swenney here, the Campbellites built a church on the corner of Houston and Montgomery Streets, now used by John Locke as a tin shop.  Of all the old time preachers, a blind preacher named Rogers was the best, he was a wonderful talker.
"'The first jail of Grayson County was on the block and right at the back of where the City Hall now stands on Jones street.  It was a curiosity in the way of architecture, but served its purpose well.  It was built of big logs, one room above the other.  It was called the calaboose.  A ladder went up on the outside to an entrance in the second story, up which the unlucky prisoner was taken and then lowered to the ground floor through a trap door in the floor of the second story.  Small openings covered with iron bars served to admit light and air.'"