When I was a small girl, Father went to St. Louis and got some rich men interested in a ranch in Texas. He brought the men out and the St. Louis Cattle Company was organized, with Father to run the ranch. We moved to Crosby County in 1884 and lived at the headquarters, which was south of the Yellowhouse Creek and about a mile from Plum Creek.
...a boy came to work on the ranch; he always wore blue ducking pants and jumper so the boys called him "Blucher." His real name was John Emerson. One day his horse ran over a yearling, falling when his leg was broken, then falling on Blucher. He lived some 72 hours. Both horse and steer had to be shot.
Father took a partition out of the two room house and made a coffin. Mother folded a quilt and placed in the bottom, then she unrolled a bat of cotton all around inside, covering it tightly with new white domestic. Some wide lace was scalloped around the top inside edge, then mother told me to get a good feather pillow. A white slip with lace was placed in the coffin and Father dressed the boy in a good suit of clothes. We did not eat breakfast the next morning; the boy had died in the night, so just as the sun was coming and lighting up all the green, flower-covered canyon hills, Mother read the Bible and prayed the prayer, while we children sang the songs. We gave him the very best we had.
Father put an advertisement in the Dallas News trying to hear from the boy's people, but he never heard a word. The boy had two ponies, his saddle, bedding and tarp and the money which was coming to him.
The accident happened where Spring Creek runs into the Yellowhouse.
By Mrs. Laura Boles
Source: "Through the Years, A History of Crosby County, Texas" by Nellie Witt Spikes and Temple Ann Ellis ©1951; The Naylor Company, San Antonio, Texas
*******************************
Mystery of Skeleton Is Solved; Early Cowboy Reburied in Same Spot
The unearthing of a skeleton by two Crosbyton youths in the south west part of the county Saturday, caused considerable excitement in the city the first of the week, until it was learned that the boys had accidentally dug into the grave of an old time cowboy.
While digging around for possible hidden treasure reported buried in that section of the county, Albert Lieske, Jr., and Don Ballard unearthed the skeleton. They turned it over to Sheriff Jim Williams, and on investigation the sheriff found it to be the remains of a cowboy buried there some 51 years ago.
Old-timers recalled that J.T. Emerson, a young cowboy from Kentucky, had fallen from a horse and was killed and buried in that vicinity.
The skeleton was found approximately three and a half feet below the surface. The casket had rotted away from the body.
Sheriff Williams said he investigated the matter in the event there might have been foul play. The skeleton has been replaced at the same place and a fence erected around it.
The Crosbyton Review
Friday, April 19, 1940
*******************************
JOHN T. EMERSON STORY
The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, Monday evening Jan. 4, 1960, page B-1 and Tuesday morning May 17, 1960, page D-9 carried stories written by a staff reported, Jerry Hall, about Mrs. Jennie Way's uncle, a cowboy named Johnny T. Emerson. The stories are given in much more detail than I am going to account here.
John Emerson became an orphan at an early age and went to live with his sister and brother-in-law of Desdemona, Erath Co. - Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Ellison, Jennie's parents. When the family made a covered wagon trip to New Mexico about 1885, Johnny (then a teen-ager) went along. They stopped for a rest at a ranch in West Texas where Johnny got a job instead of continuing the trip.
On the return trip, the family stopped to visit him and his new friends. Johnny seemed to be doing fine in his new job, so Mr. Ellison gave him his "coming-of-age" gift, just as he had done for his own two sons, Bob and Berlin, who were a few years older than Johnny. The gift was a full cowboy rig, including a brand new saddle, boots, spurs, hat, caps, a saddle-blanket, bed roll, and lariat. As was customary, ranch owners furnished his horse.
We don't know how long he worked on the ranch, but eventually his horse stepped in a prairie dog hole and fell, crushing Johnny beneath him.
Jennie and Johnny had grown up together like brother and sister, so when Jennie moved to Crosby Co. in 1919, she began the long 30 year search for his grave.
Mrs. Lena Bonine was a reporter for The Ralls Banner when she met Hall, the Lubbock newspaper reporter. Mrs. Bonine was a friend of Mrs. Way's and knew of her longing to find the grave. It was through these associations that the grave was finally found.
Commodore A. Whittington of Lubbock, and his wife, Martha, had long known of a lonely grave on a ranch where, 20 years earlier, Whittington had worked as a cowboy. On Dec. 23, 1959, Mrs. Way, Mrs. Bonine, and the Whittingtons drove out across the prairies a few miles east of Slaton. In Yellowhouse Canyon, they found an old headstone inside a broken down barbed wire fence around a grave, but the letters, although faded dim, on the weather-worn sandstone rock could still be traced. They read "Johnny T. Emerson." As Jennie studied the surrounding landscape, she remembered it.
Jim Collier, owner of South Plains Monument Co. of Lubbock, donated a beautiful, large marble gravestone, and also donated the labor involved in the installation. A new rail fence was erected and paid for by donations from readers of the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal and The Ralls Banner.
On May 29, 1960, in a second funeral ceremony, the monument and gravesite was dedicated to the memory of the lonely life of all pioneer cowboys who died winning the wild west for present and future generations to enjoy. Mr. Collins' words were: "It's the sentiment we feel toward the breed of men represented." He carved on the headstone, "Blutcher (Johnny's nickname)...typifies a proud breed of young men in a raw, new land in a by-gone era. He shall not grow old, but to him belongs eternal youth.
by Vivian Way Bonine
Source: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~txcrosby/historybook/263.html
...a boy came to work on the ranch; he always wore blue ducking pants and jumper so the boys called him "Blucher." His real name was John Emerson. One day his horse ran over a yearling, falling when his leg was broken, then falling on Blucher. He lived some 72 hours. Both horse and steer had to be shot.
Father took a partition out of the two room house and made a coffin. Mother folded a quilt and placed in the bottom, then she unrolled a bat of cotton all around inside, covering it tightly with new white domestic. Some wide lace was scalloped around the top inside edge, then mother told me to get a good feather pillow. A white slip with lace was placed in the coffin and Father dressed the boy in a good suit of clothes. We did not eat breakfast the next morning; the boy had died in the night, so just as the sun was coming and lighting up all the green, flower-covered canyon hills, Mother read the Bible and prayed the prayer, while we children sang the songs. We gave him the very best we had.
Father put an advertisement in the Dallas News trying to hear from the boy's people, but he never heard a word. The boy had two ponies, his saddle, bedding and tarp and the money which was coming to him.
The accident happened where Spring Creek runs into the Yellowhouse.
By Mrs. Laura Boles
Source: "Through the Years, A History of Crosby County, Texas" by Nellie Witt Spikes and Temple Ann Ellis ©1951; The Naylor Company, San Antonio, Texas
*******************************
Mystery of Skeleton Is Solved; Early Cowboy Reburied in Same Spot
The unearthing of a skeleton by two Crosbyton youths in the south west part of the county Saturday, caused considerable excitement in the city the first of the week, until it was learned that the boys had accidentally dug into the grave of an old time cowboy.
While digging around for possible hidden treasure reported buried in that section of the county, Albert Lieske, Jr., and Don Ballard unearthed the skeleton. They turned it over to Sheriff Jim Williams, and on investigation the sheriff found it to be the remains of a cowboy buried there some 51 years ago.
Old-timers recalled that J.T. Emerson, a young cowboy from Kentucky, had fallen from a horse and was killed and buried in that vicinity.
The skeleton was found approximately three and a half feet below the surface. The casket had rotted away from the body.
Sheriff Williams said he investigated the matter in the event there might have been foul play. The skeleton has been replaced at the same place and a fence erected around it.
The Crosbyton Review
Friday, April 19, 1940
*******************************
JOHN T. EMERSON STORY
The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, Monday evening Jan. 4, 1960, page B-1 and Tuesday morning May 17, 1960, page D-9 carried stories written by a staff reported, Jerry Hall, about Mrs. Jennie Way's uncle, a cowboy named Johnny T. Emerson. The stories are given in much more detail than I am going to account here.
John Emerson became an orphan at an early age and went to live with his sister and brother-in-law of Desdemona, Erath Co. - Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Ellison, Jennie's parents. When the family made a covered wagon trip to New Mexico about 1885, Johnny (then a teen-ager) went along. They stopped for a rest at a ranch in West Texas where Johnny got a job instead of continuing the trip.
On the return trip, the family stopped to visit him and his new friends. Johnny seemed to be doing fine in his new job, so Mr. Ellison gave him his "coming-of-age" gift, just as he had done for his own two sons, Bob and Berlin, who were a few years older than Johnny. The gift was a full cowboy rig, including a brand new saddle, boots, spurs, hat, caps, a saddle-blanket, bed roll, and lariat. As was customary, ranch owners furnished his horse.
We don't know how long he worked on the ranch, but eventually his horse stepped in a prairie dog hole and fell, crushing Johnny beneath him.
Jennie and Johnny had grown up together like brother and sister, so when Jennie moved to Crosby Co. in 1919, she began the long 30 year search for his grave.
Mrs. Lena Bonine was a reporter for The Ralls Banner when she met Hall, the Lubbock newspaper reporter. Mrs. Bonine was a friend of Mrs. Way's and knew of her longing to find the grave. It was through these associations that the grave was finally found.
Commodore A. Whittington of Lubbock, and his wife, Martha, had long known of a lonely grave on a ranch where, 20 years earlier, Whittington had worked as a cowboy. On Dec. 23, 1959, Mrs. Way, Mrs. Bonine, and the Whittingtons drove out across the prairies a few miles east of Slaton. In Yellowhouse Canyon, they found an old headstone inside a broken down barbed wire fence around a grave, but the letters, although faded dim, on the weather-worn sandstone rock could still be traced. They read "Johnny T. Emerson." As Jennie studied the surrounding landscape, she remembered it.
Jim Collier, owner of South Plains Monument Co. of Lubbock, donated a beautiful, large marble gravestone, and also donated the labor involved in the installation. A new rail fence was erected and paid for by donations from readers of the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal and The Ralls Banner.
On May 29, 1960, in a second funeral ceremony, the monument and gravesite was dedicated to the memory of the lonely life of all pioneer cowboys who died winning the wild west for present and future generations to enjoy. Mr. Collins' words were: "It's the sentiment we feel toward the breed of men represented." He carved on the headstone, "Blutcher (Johnny's nickname)...typifies a proud breed of young men in a raw, new land in a by-gone era. He shall not grow old, but to him belongs eternal youth.
by Vivian Way Bonine
Source: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~txcrosby/historybook/263.html
When I was a small girl, Father went to St. Louis and got some rich men interested in a ranch in Texas. He brought the men out and the St. Louis Cattle Company was organized, with Father to run the ranch. We moved to Crosby County in 1884 and lived at the headquarters, which was south of the Yellowhouse Creek and about a mile from Plum Creek.
...a boy came to work on the ranch; he always wore blue ducking pants and jumper so the boys called him "Blucher." His real name was John Emerson. One day his horse ran over a yearling, falling when his leg was broken, then falling on Blucher. He lived some 72 hours. Both horse and steer had to be shot.
Father took a partition out of the two room house and made a coffin. Mother folded a quilt and placed in the bottom, then she unrolled a bat of cotton all around inside, covering it tightly with new white domestic. Some wide lace was scalloped around the top inside edge, then mother told me to get a good feather pillow. A white slip with lace was placed in the coffin and Father dressed the boy in a good suit of clothes. We did not eat breakfast the next morning; the boy had died in the night, so just as the sun was coming and lighting up all the green, flower-covered canyon hills, Mother read the Bible and prayed the prayer, while we children sang the songs. We gave him the very best we had.
Father put an advertisement in the Dallas News trying to hear from the boy's people, but he never heard a word. The boy had two ponies, his saddle, bedding and tarp and the money which was coming to him.
The accident happened where Spring Creek runs into the Yellowhouse.
By Mrs. Laura Boles
Source: "Through the Years, A History of Crosby County, Texas" by Nellie Witt Spikes and Temple Ann Ellis ©1951; The Naylor Company, San Antonio, Texas
*******************************
Mystery of Skeleton Is Solved; Early Cowboy Reburied in Same Spot
The unearthing of a skeleton by two Crosbyton youths in the south west part of the county Saturday, caused considerable excitement in the city the first of the week, until it was learned that the boys had accidentally dug into the grave of an old time cowboy.
While digging around for possible hidden treasure reported buried in that section of the county, Albert Lieske, Jr., and Don Ballard unearthed the skeleton. They turned it over to Sheriff Jim Williams, and on investigation the sheriff found it to be the remains of a cowboy buried there some 51 years ago.
Old-timers recalled that J.T. Emerson, a young cowboy from Kentucky, had fallen from a horse and was killed and buried in that vicinity.
The skeleton was found approximately three and a half feet below the surface. The casket had rotted away from the body.
Sheriff Williams said he investigated the matter in the event there might have been foul play. The skeleton has been replaced at the same place and a fence erected around it.
The Crosbyton Review
Friday, April 19, 1940
*******************************
JOHN T. EMERSON STORY
The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, Monday evening Jan. 4, 1960, page B-1 and Tuesday morning May 17, 1960, page D-9 carried stories written by a staff reported, Jerry Hall, about Mrs. Jennie Way's uncle, a cowboy named Johnny T. Emerson. The stories are given in much more detail than I am going to account here.
John Emerson became an orphan at an early age and went to live with his sister and brother-in-law of Desdemona, Erath Co. - Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Ellison, Jennie's parents. When the family made a covered wagon trip to New Mexico about 1885, Johnny (then a teen-ager) went along. They stopped for a rest at a ranch in West Texas where Johnny got a job instead of continuing the trip.
On the return trip, the family stopped to visit him and his new friends. Johnny seemed to be doing fine in his new job, so Mr. Ellison gave him his "coming-of-age" gift, just as he had done for his own two sons, Bob and Berlin, who were a few years older than Johnny. The gift was a full cowboy rig, including a brand new saddle, boots, spurs, hat, caps, a saddle-blanket, bed roll, and lariat. As was customary, ranch owners furnished his horse.
We don't know how long he worked on the ranch, but eventually his horse stepped in a prairie dog hole and fell, crushing Johnny beneath him.
Jennie and Johnny had grown up together like brother and sister, so when Jennie moved to Crosby Co. in 1919, she began the long 30 year search for his grave.
Mrs. Lena Bonine was a reporter for The Ralls Banner when she met Hall, the Lubbock newspaper reporter. Mrs. Bonine was a friend of Mrs. Way's and knew of her longing to find the grave. It was through these associations that the grave was finally found.
Commodore A. Whittington of Lubbock, and his wife, Martha, had long known of a lonely grave on a ranch where, 20 years earlier, Whittington had worked as a cowboy. On Dec. 23, 1959, Mrs. Way, Mrs. Bonine, and the Whittingtons drove out across the prairies a few miles east of Slaton. In Yellowhouse Canyon, they found an old headstone inside a broken down barbed wire fence around a grave, but the letters, although faded dim, on the weather-worn sandstone rock could still be traced. They read "Johnny T. Emerson." As Jennie studied the surrounding landscape, she remembered it.
Jim Collier, owner of South Plains Monument Co. of Lubbock, donated a beautiful, large marble gravestone, and also donated the labor involved in the installation. A new rail fence was erected and paid for by donations from readers of the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal and The Ralls Banner.
On May 29, 1960, in a second funeral ceremony, the monument and gravesite was dedicated to the memory of the lonely life of all pioneer cowboys who died winning the wild west for present and future generations to enjoy. Mr. Collins' words were: "It's the sentiment we feel toward the breed of men represented." He carved on the headstone, "Blutcher (Johnny's nickname)...typifies a proud breed of young men in a raw, new land in a by-gone era. He shall not grow old, but to him belongs eternal youth.
by Vivian Way Bonine
Source: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~txcrosby/historybook/263.html
...a boy came to work on the ranch; he always wore blue ducking pants and jumper so the boys called him "Blucher." His real name was John Emerson. One day his horse ran over a yearling, falling when his leg was broken, then falling on Blucher. He lived some 72 hours. Both horse and steer had to be shot.
Father took a partition out of the two room house and made a coffin. Mother folded a quilt and placed in the bottom, then she unrolled a bat of cotton all around inside, covering it tightly with new white domestic. Some wide lace was scalloped around the top inside edge, then mother told me to get a good feather pillow. A white slip with lace was placed in the coffin and Father dressed the boy in a good suit of clothes. We did not eat breakfast the next morning; the boy had died in the night, so just as the sun was coming and lighting up all the green, flower-covered canyon hills, Mother read the Bible and prayed the prayer, while we children sang the songs. We gave him the very best we had.
Father put an advertisement in the Dallas News trying to hear from the boy's people, but he never heard a word. The boy had two ponies, his saddle, bedding and tarp and the money which was coming to him.
The accident happened where Spring Creek runs into the Yellowhouse.
By Mrs. Laura Boles
Source: "Through the Years, A History of Crosby County, Texas" by Nellie Witt Spikes and Temple Ann Ellis ©1951; The Naylor Company, San Antonio, Texas
*******************************
Mystery of Skeleton Is Solved; Early Cowboy Reburied in Same Spot
The unearthing of a skeleton by two Crosbyton youths in the south west part of the county Saturday, caused considerable excitement in the city the first of the week, until it was learned that the boys had accidentally dug into the grave of an old time cowboy.
While digging around for possible hidden treasure reported buried in that section of the county, Albert Lieske, Jr., and Don Ballard unearthed the skeleton. They turned it over to Sheriff Jim Williams, and on investigation the sheriff found it to be the remains of a cowboy buried there some 51 years ago.
Old-timers recalled that J.T. Emerson, a young cowboy from Kentucky, had fallen from a horse and was killed and buried in that vicinity.
The skeleton was found approximately three and a half feet below the surface. The casket had rotted away from the body.
Sheriff Williams said he investigated the matter in the event there might have been foul play. The skeleton has been replaced at the same place and a fence erected around it.
The Crosbyton Review
Friday, April 19, 1940
*******************************
JOHN T. EMERSON STORY
The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, Monday evening Jan. 4, 1960, page B-1 and Tuesday morning May 17, 1960, page D-9 carried stories written by a staff reported, Jerry Hall, about Mrs. Jennie Way's uncle, a cowboy named Johnny T. Emerson. The stories are given in much more detail than I am going to account here.
John Emerson became an orphan at an early age and went to live with his sister and brother-in-law of Desdemona, Erath Co. - Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Ellison, Jennie's parents. When the family made a covered wagon trip to New Mexico about 1885, Johnny (then a teen-ager) went along. They stopped for a rest at a ranch in West Texas where Johnny got a job instead of continuing the trip.
On the return trip, the family stopped to visit him and his new friends. Johnny seemed to be doing fine in his new job, so Mr. Ellison gave him his "coming-of-age" gift, just as he had done for his own two sons, Bob and Berlin, who were a few years older than Johnny. The gift was a full cowboy rig, including a brand new saddle, boots, spurs, hat, caps, a saddle-blanket, bed roll, and lariat. As was customary, ranch owners furnished his horse.
We don't know how long he worked on the ranch, but eventually his horse stepped in a prairie dog hole and fell, crushing Johnny beneath him.
Jennie and Johnny had grown up together like brother and sister, so when Jennie moved to Crosby Co. in 1919, she began the long 30 year search for his grave.
Mrs. Lena Bonine was a reporter for The Ralls Banner when she met Hall, the Lubbock newspaper reporter. Mrs. Bonine was a friend of Mrs. Way's and knew of her longing to find the grave. It was through these associations that the grave was finally found.
Commodore A. Whittington of Lubbock, and his wife, Martha, had long known of a lonely grave on a ranch where, 20 years earlier, Whittington had worked as a cowboy. On Dec. 23, 1959, Mrs. Way, Mrs. Bonine, and the Whittingtons drove out across the prairies a few miles east of Slaton. In Yellowhouse Canyon, they found an old headstone inside a broken down barbed wire fence around a grave, but the letters, although faded dim, on the weather-worn sandstone rock could still be traced. They read "Johnny T. Emerson." As Jennie studied the surrounding landscape, she remembered it.
Jim Collier, owner of South Plains Monument Co. of Lubbock, donated a beautiful, large marble gravestone, and also donated the labor involved in the installation. A new rail fence was erected and paid for by donations from readers of the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal and The Ralls Banner.
On May 29, 1960, in a second funeral ceremony, the monument and gravesite was dedicated to the memory of the lonely life of all pioneer cowboys who died winning the wild west for present and future generations to enjoy. Mr. Collins' words were: "It's the sentiment we feel toward the breed of men represented." He carved on the headstone, "Blutcher (Johnny's nickname)...typifies a proud breed of young men in a raw, new land in a by-gone era. He shall not grow old, but to him belongs eternal youth.
by Vivian Way Bonine
Source: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~txcrosby/historybook/263.html
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