Chasing Our Tales - Hazel Dell, Texas

I was back and forth through Comanche County all my growing up life, and I never remember hearing of the little community of Hazel Dell, Texas. It is at the intersection of Texas Farm Roads 591 and 1702, seventeen miles southeast of Comanche, Texas. The community was established in 1869 when a sawmill was built on the Mill Branch of the Leon River, but in 1870 the post office was listed as Resley’s Creek some miles away.

The town grew to include a store, a hotel, a bowling alley, a saloon, and the sawmill which provided the lumber for the town buildings. As the community grew, more stores popped up, and in 1871 a new post office was established at Hazel Dell, and the first official mention of a school was in 1876 as the rawhide lumber had built it in 1873.
The earliest marked graves are dated 1873, as well.

Ranches sprang up in the territory, and cowboys, drifters, and a lawless element were attracted to the area where violence became a way of life. Murders, hangings, cattle rustling, gaming, and mob activities were all present in the town’s heyday.

By 1880 the town was reputed to be the second largest in the county, but the decline began when Hazel Dell was bypassed by the railroads. The community had a population of thirty in 1884, forty-five in 1890, and 100 in 1896, when it also had a flour mill and a cotton gin.

By 1940 the community included the school, a cemetery, and scattered dwellings. The school consolidated with that of community of Gustine in the 1940s, and by the 1990s, the site was still marked on county highway maps with its community center, cemetery, and scattered houses.

There is a second Hazeldell in Texas, but it is in southern Lamar County. It is five and one-half miles south of Biardstown. It was settled by 1896, and reportedly it school had twenty-thee students and one teacher that year. A 1936 county map shows a school, a cemetery, a business, and a cluster of dwellings, and by 1957 the Delmar Independent School District had absorbed the Hazeldell School. By 1964 all that was left of this community was its cemetery.

Now, back to the Hazel Dell in Comanche County, the scene of many and varied acts of violence. Extralegal activity was a tradition in Comanche County, particularly in Hazel Dell.

Comanche is the seat of the county and many a town meeting was held under the branches of the enormous oak that stands on the southwest side of the square. A lot of things were settled there that could not be settled by a court of law at the courthouse. Violence was not restricted to the county seat. Sipe Springs was visited many times by vigilantes to stamp out cattle rustling, and an even more violence prone area was Hazel Dell. In the 1870’s Hazel Dell had more gun play and rope stretching that any other town in the area. It was the scene of one of the most violent mob actions in the territory.

Vigilantes raided the James Mackey place looking for Mackey’s two sons who had run amok and apparently stolen some horses. Mackey, who had a good reputation, was away in Waco, and his two sons were not found, but when the old man returned to his place, the vigilantes also returned, dragged him to an oak tree by a near-by creek, and hanging him.

John Wesley Hardin frequented Hazel Dell, and two of his henchmen, Aleck Barrickman and Ham Anderson, were tracked to the Bill Stone ranch near Hazel Dell and shot to death.

In 1875 the Fraley Brothers were framed by a mob for horse stealing and were hanged near the Hazel Dell cemetery. It is alleged that the members of the mob wanted the Fraley property and got it by killing the brothers. There are references to other mobs that stole property through their vigilante actions.

Now here are some other interesting genealogical tales and queries regarding Hazel Dell.

The Riley Condron family, consisting of himself, his wife, and six children, Harrod, Albert, Mary, Daisy, Pearl, and Roy, came to Hazel Dell from Alabama. They brought axes, saws, grubbing hoes, but no seeds of any kind. They brought extra oxen but no milk cows. They staked their oxen out at night and on the last night of their journey, they came to Joplin’s Creek near Hazel Dell. A terrible norther blew up, and everything froze. Their tents blew down, and they decided to stay where they were.

“I am searching for Baggett/Seale and Patton lines. My grandmother was Dawn (Donnie) Patton Rodgers. She married Samuel Houston Rodgers. Dawn's mother was Mollie (Mary Clarica) Baggett, and she married Jim Patton. Mollie's parents were John Baggett and Elizabeth Yarbough Seale Baggett. The Baggetts lived in Comanche County from about 1840's to 1890's. First week of March 1857 there was a Comanche raid on the Baggett ranch, near the town of Hazel Dell. Joel Baggett, 12, was killed by the Indians and sister Bettie, 10, was wounded and lived. On July 11, 1867, a Indian raid was committed on the Leon River School and considered a great crime. My great grandmother, Mollie, and sisters were at this school house at the time. All made it home safely. The teacher was killed. Two boys were taken by the Indians, but the men tracked the Indians and were able to get the boys back alive. Elizabeth Yarbough Seale Baggett is buried at the Midway Cemetery as well as a lot of the other Baggett families memebers. We are not sure where John Baggett is buried.”

R. M. Johnston died at the age of 84 in Gustine, Texas, in 1924. He had been a resident of Comanche County for forty years, having come from his native Alabama about 1884. He settled in Hazel Dell and reared a family of twelve sons and daughters who all were alive at the time of his death. He is buried in the family burying ground at Hazel Dell.

Here are some sketches of Hazel Dell life from the Comanche Chief newspaper:

In 1879 Bob Childs of Hazel Dell bought 300 head of cattle. In that same year. Mr. D. J. Rowe of Hazel Dell dropped by the Comanche Chief office and paid for a another year’s subscription to that paper. He reported that his crops were in splendid condition.

In 1880 R. T. Childs and Professor J. E. Corrigan of Hazel Dell visited the newspaper. The professor has taken charge of Hazel Dell’s flourishing school. That same year the professor was brough to Comanche by Constable John Rhodes and lodged in the jail, charged with assaulting his wife while he was in a state of intoxication. “It is indeed a great pity that so intelligent a man should allow strong drink to get control of him.”

In 1881 the Chief stated: “The failure of J.D. Stephens has been the all-absorbing topic of our town and county for the past few days. The first news of the failure was announced on the 16th of last month by the attachment of all of the business houses owned by Mr. Stephens by writs sworn out by Lessing, Lyons, Solomon and Company. and Cleveland & Cameron, of Waco; followed by suits for smaller amounts by merchants in Fort Worth and other places, making an amount between thirty and fifty thousand dollars. Mr. Stephens has been operating in Comanche and vicinity for the past eight years, and was at the time of his failure proprietor of the houses, doing business at Hazel Dell under the name J.D. Stephens and Company, Sipe Springs, and J.T. Yeargin & Company, Eastland. His house at this place was disposed of several
months ago, and he had of late been devoting his attention to the cattle business. His real estate amounts to thousands, but is not convertible into money. His failure was not a surprise to some, while to many it was not only a surprise but will work great hardships. Mr. Stephens says he can and will pay out every dollar he owes if he is not pressed too hard by his creditors. It is to be hoped that he will be able to pay out.

Finally, some short obituaries:

Joseph Garland Taylor, born April 4, 1881 in Hazel Dell, Texas, died on November 13, 1950, in Waco, Texas. His wife was Erie Lamentation Flowers.

Lou Cribbs, 75, of Flowery Branch, Georgia, died December 17, 2003. Funeral arrangements have not been announced for Mrs. Cribbs, a homemaker. Survivors include five children, Allen B. Cribbs of Duluth; Dalton G. Cribbs of Hazel Dell, Texas; Tonya Kummer of Mesa, Ariz.; and Tommy Cribbs and Shawna Townsend, both of Lawrenceville; and a brother, Edward Shirl of Denver.

George Washington Harrard was born December 31, 1858 in Coryell County, Texas and died January 14, 1930. He was buried in the Hazel Dell Cemetery, Comanche County, Texas.

I have thoroughly enjoyed writing this piece, and I hope you enjoyed reading it. Do you have something to share with us? If so, please contact me at P O Box 61, Mineral Wells 76068-0061.

©2008 Sue Seibert