Wm. Reasoner's Residence

Bloody Battle at Wm. Reasoner's Residence

About 1864, Wm. Reasoner, and wife, Mary Reasoner, their sons, Jack and Houston, James Vaughn, and Peter Gibson, about two o'clock in the evening, were making molasses on Barton's Creek, near the present city of Gordon, and near the Palo Pinto-Erath county line. A family horse, which was Indian shy, had been staked nearby. When this animal began to snort and raise considerable disturbance, the citizens became alarmed. About this time several Indians appeared and began to shoot from the bank of the creek and elsewhere. Mrs. Mary (Granny) Reasoner, stepped to the door, and an Indian hidden near the house, drove an arrow under her arm. James Vaughn was also wounded in the shoulder. But the savages soon disappeared. Mrs. Mary (Granny) Reasoner and James Vaughn recovered.

Note: Author interviewed Aunt Huldy Reasoner, Jno. Allen Hestelow, Jno. Wealty; Woodbury Daves, Hen. Blue, Mrs. Azeja Wolf; and others who lived in Palo Pinto and Erath counties at the time.

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