Dick Lemons' Farm

Fight at the Dick Lemons' Farm, About Five Miles Southeast of Palo Pinto

Dick Lemons had just returned from Weatherford, with a new Winchester, which he bought for Stiss Edmonson. He had also bought a large supply of cartridges. That night Stiss Edmondson, John Glover, and Huse Ennis, stayed with Mr. and Mrs. Lemons and just before dark, Mrs. Dick Lemons heard the Indians whipping horses across the river. When she conveyed the news to her husband, he in turn, alarmed the others, and in a short time, Dick Lemons was behind one gate-post, and Mr. Edmondson the other. About that time, the clock struck nine p.m. When the savages appeared, the citizens opened fire. During the excitement, the Indians' stolen horses ran down near the house, and this, of course, caused the red men to make a more stubborn resistance. For a considerable time, the Indians fought, and Mrs. Dick Lemons more than once, carried cartridges to her husband and Mr. Edmondson. On one occasion when she looked out the door, an Indian drove a bullet into the door facing, very near her head. The Indians finally retreated and traveled up the mountain to the north.

The next morning after the fight, a cowhide on the fence, and water-barrel standing nearby, had been punctured several times as a result of the Indians' fire. Some of the stolen horses recovered during the fighting, belonged to Tom Humphries, and Bill Wilson, who then lived in the Long Camp and Lake Creek district, about seven miles south of Palo Pinto. Some of the other horses belonged in Hood Co.

Note: Author interviewed: Mrs. Dick Lemons, mentioned above, and one or two others.

The above story is from the book, The West Texas Frontier, by Joseph Carroll McConnell.