Chasing Our Tales - Buffalo Gap in Taylor County

A few weekends ago we had to head west to Midland to help our second oldest grandson, just back from the Marines, pick up a car. On the way back we decided to swing south at Abilene and visit my favorite uncle, Elmer Dillard, in Buffalo Gap. We had never been to Buffalo Gap, and the scenery was quite impressive, so I decided to learn more about the area and to share it with my readers.

Buffalo Gap was the first county seat of Taylor County, as at the time it was the only town. However, when the railroad was constructed through Abilene, bypassing
Buffalo Gap, it was only a few months until the growth of Abilene indicated its future as the business and political center of the county. The county seat was moved to Abilene amid hard feelings and threats on both sides, but the first courthouse has been restored and now sits in Buffalo Gap’s Historical Village. The sandstone blocks of this building were concave in the center and mortared together with cannonballs to keep prisoners from chiseling their way out.

Before white settlers arrived in the area, buffalo ranged over the prairies and plains of Texas. In the western part of the state they favored a gap called the Callahan Divide, a topographical boundary between the Brazos and Colorado River basins, a few miles south of present-day Abilene, Texas, and where the buffalo roamed, so did the native people of the area. The earliest recorded history of Taylor County centers around this gap in the divide, where in the 1860s and 1870s buffalo hunters made winter camp and from there transported their kill to Fort Griffin and other convenient centers of trade.

White settlers were drawn to the gap because of the abundance of water and grazing land. By 1879 a limestone courthouse, jail, and courtroom were built, but with the advent of the railroad in 1883, the county seat of Taylor County was moved to Abilene.

Buffalo Gap was first settled in 1857 following a route from El Paso to Texarkana. It was at Buffalo Gap that the trail veered north to Fort Phantom Hill before continuing east, and by 1880 the population of Buffalo Gap was 1,200. At its largest population size, buildings in the town included a drugstore, a carriage and blacksmith shop, a big hotel, a jail, three or four grocery stores, and a saloon. Presbyterian, Methodist, Episcopal, Baptist and First Christian churches were established in the community.

Buffalo Gap called itself the "Athens of the West." The Baptist church at Buffalo Gap is the oldest Baptist church in Taylor County. About 1885 Marshall G. Jenkins began a weekly paper, the Buffalo Gap Live Oak, and in the mid-1890s the Buffalo Gap Messenger was circulated.

In 1883 the Buffalo Gap Presbyterian College was organized and opened in 1885, but by 1890, when the seat of Taylor County was moved, the population had shrunk to only 300, and today, the town is populated by only about 400 people.

J. W. Carter was the sheriff of Taylor County in the mid to late 1800’s. He was also in business with a man named Doc Grounds. Together they operated a ranch in Mulberry Canyon, where it is was said they owned about 1,000 head of cattle in 1870. From the book Butman Methodist Camp in Mulberry Canyon by Darris Egger, Sr. comes the following quote:

"In 1874 Carter and Grounds drove 3700 head of cattle into Mulberry Canyon and settled there. Their headquarters was on what is now Tom Russom's place. He had small houses, one room and a lean-to scattered around his headquarters. He never had a homestead or any claim on the land. As settlers came he moved his operation over on Elm Creek….

“In 1874 Carter and Grounds drove 3700 head of cattle into Mulberry Canyon and settled there. Their headquarters was on what is now Tom Russom's place."

Copies of this book are available at the Abilene Public Library and in all three Abilene universities.

Carter was a well-known name in the Steamboat, Buffalo Gap, Mulberry Canyon region. The book mentions Orin W. Carter and Will Carter, as well as J. W.

Another Carter, Rosie, married James Mack Noble in Buffalo Gap on August 24, 1892. Rosie’s father as a doctor, and they arrived in the Steamboat Mountain area about 1880.

Still another Carter, Mary, married William H. Salyers in 1883. She was the daughter of Duncan Greenberry Carter and Martha Jane Hand who ranched at Steamboat Mountain. Martha Jane’s brother was Hendrick Hand, and he had a sheep ranch in the area. The Hands and these Carters had migrated to the Buffalo Gap area from Louisiana, and traveling with them was Martin W. Conly who taught school in Buffalo Gap prior to 1888.

"The circuit riding preacher used to ride across the land
With a rifle on his saddle and a Bible in his hand
He preached all about the promisedland
And he went riding, singing down the trail"

A final person of the Buffalo Gap area I would like to mention is a circuit riding preacher named James A. Robinson. I had always considered circuit riders to be Methodist, and while this gentleman’s grandfather was a Methodist minister, he was, instead, a Presbyterian.

The territory around San Saba was rough and wild, and circuit riders were given $25.00 to buy a pistol and $125.00 to buy a horse. The area was tough, and churches were few and far between. Bibles were scare. The circuit riders were strong men possibly wearing swallow-tailed coats and black hats.

The Reverend James Robinson was a circuit rider of Taylor County and held services in a different community each night of the week so that he could be back in his home pulpit, Lemons Gap, for the weekend. The Lemons Gap church was a schoolhouse during the week and a house of worship on Sundays.

Robinson carried the news of deaths, marriages, new babies, and other happenings all around the county. From his home at the foot of Bald Eagle Mountain near Ovala, he traveled a circuit north, leaving with his Bible and bedroll on Monday morning. The first night he was in Buffalo Gap, the second almost to Abilene, then he turned westward until it was time to return home across the hills.

On the last day of the circuit he would stop for a brief visit with the Reverend and Mrs. McKeever at Bluff Creek. He would stop at the same ranch on the same night every week, and at each ranch he was made welcome. Some folks would ride all day to hear his sermon and then ride all night to return home. He would arrive back at Bald Eagle Mountain on Saturday in time to prepare his Sunday sermon that he would preach at Lemons Gap.

The family always knew they would have scrambled eggs for Saturday night supper, as his congregation would provide fresh eggs, live chickens, and other foodstuffs for him to take home. The chickens were tied by their feet and hung from the saddle, and eggs, no matter how well cushioned, were subject to being cracked if not entirely broken by his arrival home, thus the scrambled eggs!

On Sunday mornings, Reverend Robinson would always stop his buggy at the ranch of Kate Sutton Edward and take the family to church at Lemons Gap.

Robinson was born on August 8, 1830, in Enneskeller, Ireland. Both his parents were Scottish but had moved or been moved to Ireland before his birth. His parents were William Andrew Robinson and Margaret McIntyre who were married before they left Scotland.

Robinson came to America in 1860 and began his ministry in Montreal, Canada, where he met and married Chloe Anna Bell Fry of Windsor Mills Canada. More about Reverend Robinson can be found at http://www.ladytexian.com/TXTaylor/bios/robinson.htm.

In 1884 the Colorado Synod ordered a new presbytery to be formed call the Buffalo Gap Presbytery, but in 1895 the name was changed to the Abilene Presbytery when Abilene became to prominent town in the area.

Now some information from our good friend and genealogist Noel Garland:

“I just saw your website quoting a letter from a Denise Hanks. Her father is a distant cousin of mine, Gary Hanks, of Gainesville, Texas, but on my maternal side of the family, Bennetts/Wyatts. I am wondering, though, who submitted the lineage of the Garlands, including possibly William Joseph Garland, married to Lydia Cooley. We know of no documentation that our earliest known ancestor had the middle name of Joseph, though one of his sons was a Joseph. Until that is proven by documentation, that has to be held in suspicion. Interesting though to see someone else has submitted information to a heretofore unknown website, by the general run of Garlands who join me in this research.”

Writing to John Buell Moore, Noel says:

“I am familiar with the Garland Hill District in Lynchburg, having seen this website before, http://www.garlandhill.org/history.php. Don’t remember which house General Samuel and his wife lived in, though it was on Madison Street. The history of the area link on the website is of interest, as it mentions the founder of Lynchburg, a John Lynch. Another one of John's son's moved west and is remembered as the founder of my hometown of Mineral Wells, Texas. There is a Lynch Square in downtown Mineral Wells.

“The city fathers of Mineral Wells had a chance to save a memorable structure west of town, the Garland homestead, but missed that opportunity when it burned down while I was overseas in 1957. What a shame. Have you or other of your cousins besides Scott Garland, perhaps Wayne Garland, visited Garland Hill? I always wanted to while in Washington on those two occasions but the visit never materialized.”

Do you have any information for us to share? If so, please email me a siouxcitysue@suddenlink.net or send a letter to P O Box 61, Mineral Wells TX 76068-0061.

©2008 Sue Seibert