Amarillo Sunday News-Globe (Amarillo, Tex.), Vol. 13, No. 33, Ed. 1 Sunday, August 14, 1938 Page: 70 of 264
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FOURTEEN—SECTION B
AMARILLO BTTNDAY NEW3 AND GLOBE. AMARILLO, TEXAS.
GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY EDITION. 1938.
Panhandles Apaches and Unmapped Streams Plagued Explorers
Sources of Red River
Not Found for Years
By CHARLES RENTROE
Spanish, French and Americans followed the sandy
bends of the Canadian or marched across the flat expanse
of the Llano after Coronado explored "El llano del Cibola"
(the buffalo plain) in 1541.
One of the first Spanish entradas into the Panhandle
after Coronado was the unauthorized expedition of Fran-
cisco Leyva de Bonilla and Antonio Gutierrez de Humana
in 1593. (1) Bonilla and Humana made themselves liable
to royal prosecution when they started their self-financed
journey into New Mexico and then across the eastern buf-
falo plains.
Unauthorized exploration during the days of Spanish
exploration was like shooting ducks out of season today.
It was against the law. Authorities of the king and the
governor of New Viscaya (Chihuahua) were wont to send
expeditions after independent pioneers and arrest them.
Such a fate had befallen De Sosa in 1590 when his private
expedition had been stopped in New Mexico and the lead-
ers thrown in the cahildo at Saltillo. One of the objects
of the Onate expedition in 1599-1604 was to arrest such
"traitors" as Bonilla and Humana. But fate intervened.
Neither of the two men was ever seen again.
Bonilla and Humana's expedition
crossed the Texas-New Mexico line
at the Canadian River. While his
route is still conjectural, studies by
David Donoghue indicate a high
probability that Humana's route was
as follows: Crossing into the Pan-
handle at the Canadian River he
followed that river to about the
central part of the Panhandle in
present day Hutchinson County.
There he came in contact with the ^ uwtrlru J) nil
large sand dunes at the ben o ie the expenses of an expedition. The
viver and turned to the i bubble of quivira was still shiny and
crossed to Wolf Creek and its tnb- iridescen(i H
utaries tr Ochiltree County . . the • ...
SJSSSSS! c,pt. v,„™„ „ ,
v nephew of Onate. was made recrtut-
Jusepne, an Indian gui . - jng officer. It was Zaldivar who
conquest of New Mexico had finally
been awarded to Juan Onate, a
member of a family that had taken
a prominent part in the conquest
of New Spain. A crowd of com-
petitors aad been playing politics,
pulling strings, paying bribes to
likely men of influence and appeal-
ing to the king for a period of more
than 10 veal's. Some of the appli-
cants liaa even offered to pay all
one of the two survivors of the
.-'-i U «n + Knri + ioc fit
pariV, IA>1U
San Juan in 1599 the final outcome
of the expedition. (3)
Within a short distance of the
large Indian settlements along Wolf
Creek Humana murdered Bonilla.
Juscphe and five other Indians fled
and started back to New Mexico.
On the way four were lost and a
fifth was killed. Jusephe -was taken
prisoner by the Apaches and kept
for a year. At the end of that time
he heard of a Spanish party in New
Mexico and managed to make his
escape to the New Mexico pubelo
settlements.
Meanwhile Humana had returned
to the Panhandle after going as
far north as the Cimmaron River. of t,Uffaj0
ma.de the next recorded entrada Into
the Panhandle.
In September 1599 Onate sent
Zaldivar, 60 men and Jusephe the
guide of the Humana expedition to
hunt buffalo on the plains to the
east. They were told to capture some
of the "humped cattle" if at all pos-
sible.
Zaldivar crossed over from Pecos
to the sources of the Canadian and
followed that stream down as far
and probably a little beyond the
present Texas-New Mexico line. (6)
On the fifth of October they reach-
ed the main "herd of cattle."
Here they constructed a large
corral out of cottonwfood, large
enough to hold ten thousand head
Here a war party of Indians mur-
dered the remainder of the party,
"surrounding them with fire and .
burning them all." 4 > The only |
one. who had escaped was one who j
had been injured by the fire. This
was presumably the mulatto woman
spoken of by Father Zarate. (5)
Next day thes'e armored "cow ras-
selers" started the main herd very
nicely toward the corral. But as
soon as the buffalo saw the queer
structure they turned on their heels
and stampeded toward the Span-
iards. They had no other alter-
native but to get out of the way.
Down in Nueva Vizcaya things , For several days they tried various
had began to pick up at this time, j methods of shutting them up with
The contract for the settlement and ! no success. Seeing that the full-
grown buffalo could not be cap-
tured, Zaldivar ordered that some
of the calves be taken. But they
became so e>'raged that of the
many brought toward the stockade
not one was put in confines. Zaldi-
var gave up the enterprise and
went back to New Mexico to join
Onate. (7)
In 1601 Onate set out from New
Mexico to see this buffalo country
to the east traversed by Humana
and Zaldivar. Accompanied by two
friars. 70 picked men and the tried
and trustworthy Jusephe as guide,
he set out for the buffalo plains.
Starting up the Canadian In New
Mexico, he followed that stream
to a 'great bend' and a large num-
ber of sand dunes. Donoghue places
this locality in eastern Hutchinson
County. (8) From there he visited
large villages of Indians on Wolf
Creek and Its tributaries. The
streams "seven leagues north of
the Indian village" that Onate men-
tions in his diary were probably the
North Canadian and some of its
tributaries in the Oklahoma Pan-
handle.
Onate started back from the North
Canadian and found the Indians
| on Wolf Creek in a hostile mood, j
A battle was fought thatj resulted
I in the Spanish beating a retreat with j
: small losses. The party returned ;
to Pecos via the Canadian River
route.
• • •
Pedro Vial was another man who !
had looked upon the Llano when
it was an unexplored desert. He
I was a French adventurer who in 1
| 17B6 was commissioned by the
j Spanish governor of Texas to ex-
i plore a route from San Antonio to
j Santa Fe. Peace with the Co-
| manche tribes had made a trade
I route feasible after years of in- j
termittent warfare.
Vial came north from San An-
j tonio, passing east of the High j
P.ains to the Red River somewhere |
near Ringold. Hp turned up the
Red for a short distance and then
j crossed over to the Canadian. He j
! made his way down this stream,
pushing on through the very center
' of the Panhandle and reached Santa j
Fe in May, 1787. (91 Jose Mares
crossed the Panhandle by a more
southerly route a few months later j
upon a like expedition. (10)
The sources of the Red River had |
been a headache to American topog-
raphers for some time. In 1806
; Captain Richard Sprrks of the
United States army attempted to
ascend the river to its source. He i
was stopped before he ever reached !
the Panhandle by a detachment of |
Spanish cavalry and sent back. Ul>
The same year Zebulon Pike
ascended the rkansas with instruc-
tions to cross the sources of the
Red and follow down the stream.
He first mistook the Arkansas for
the Red and then built a stockade
on the Rio Grande under the mis-
taken impression that it was the
| Red River. Before he could get
I the puzzle unraveled the Mexican
authorities who had known the
sources of the Red River for 300
years arrested Pik- and he was
| taken to Chihuahua City and
1 thrown into prison. Two of his
HOW MANY HERDS of these mixed cattle have you seen on the Plains in recent
years? The longhorn had disappeared almost entirely from the range when this
photograph was made on the Matador Ranch in 1895, but these bovines are yet a
l'ar cry from the stuff the range is stocked with today. (Photo courtesy or h. b. Nelson)
men escaped in New Mexico and
managed to make their way back
to Arkansas by way of the Ca-
nadian River route. The trip was
made in a canoe. tl2> These two
were the only members of Zebulon
Pike's ill-fated expedition who vis-
ited the Panhandle.
In 1820 a group of scientists,
journalists, and soldiers under the
command of Maj. S. H. Long made
a third attempt to locate the elusive
head of the Red. This apparently
well-named crew made one of the
most careless and slipshod recon-
naissance expeditions in the his-
tory of the U. S. Topographical
Corps. Maps bv this expedition were
so full of errors and miscalculations
that tributaries of the Arkansas,
Platte and Canadian remained un-
certain for years after.
Upon leaving the Arkansas they
traveled 200 miles to the headwaters
of the Canadian without making a
single note on geograp: y or topog-
raphy even though that was one
of the avowed purposes of the trip.
At the Canadian, Long and his
crew of scientists made probably
their greatest mistake in an almost
endless series of blunders. They
called the Canadian the Red River
and without bothering to explore It
to its sources as their instructions
had said, started down the river
on the way back to the East. Travel-
ing down stream, their suspicions
were aroused by deviations of the
river's course from that which they
expected the Red to be. But it
was not until they reached the
confluence of the Canadian with
the Arkansas that they were cer-
tain of their error. (13)
• • *
During 1823 John H. Fonda cros-
sed the Panhandle on his way to
Santa Fe from Fort Towson in In-
dian Territory. Fonda was sup-
posed to have traveled up to the
source of Red River and then
crossed over to the Canadian. No
data is available to determine which
i fork of Red River Fonda followed.
In all probability it was the Salt
Fork. (14)
In 1831 Aaron B. Lewis traveled
up the Washita River from Fort
Towson to its headwaters in present
day Hemphill County. He then
crossed over the low divide into
the Canadian River valley and fol-
lowed that stream through the Tex-
as Panhandle into New Mexico.
Later that same year Lewis, accom-
panied by a young poet named Al-
bert Pike, crossed the southern Llano
Estacado. Donoghue places their
route as along the Black Water
Draw of the Brazos River in Bailey
and Lamb counties—then down the
Yellow House through Crosby and
Garza counties to the Double Moun-
tain Fork of the Brazos. Here they
turned northeast and classed Knox
and Wilbarger counties into In-
j dian Territory. (15)
Pike's journey has received little
| attention because it had no com-
i mercial importance and probably be-
I cause hp published his accounts be-
tween blank verse of Shakesperian
j tempo.
Pike's knowledge of West Texas
: was remarkable for that time. He
{ knew that the North Canadian rose
j near the Rabbit Ears Mountains just
north of Clayton. N. M.. and he
! had a fair idea of the location of
the Red River, a problem that
was not definitely settled until 1852
when Marcy followed the Red River
to its sources in the Palo Duro. His
' most serious errors are made in stat-
ing that the Canadian River and
the Arkansas head in the sTime
locality, and that the Pecos joined
| the Rio Grande in the vicinity of
San Antonio. It was Pike who
named th Salt Fork of the Brazos.
Others crossed the Panhandle, but
I left little record of their wander-
ing until Josiah Gregg made his
memorable trip in 1839. By 1849,
when Marcy made a survey of the
| road through the Panhandle via
I the Canadian River, the Panhandle
had been crossed and recrossed in-
numerable times.
(1) Herbert Eugene Bolton. Span-
ish Explorations in the Southwest,
Charles Seribners. New York.
(2) David Donoghue, Coronado,
Onate and Quivira, Mid-America,
vol. XVII.
(3) Bolton, ibid.
(4) Same as (3).
'51 Father Zarate. Relacion, in I
Land of Sunshine, XII, p. 45.
<6> Same as (3).
(7) Same as (3).
<8) Donoghue, ibid.
<9> Herbert E. Bolton, Texas in
the Middle Eighteenth Century, 128-
130.
(10) Same as (3).
(11) R. G. Thwaites, Early Wes-
tern Travels. XVI, 85.
12) Thwaites, op. cit. p. 22, vol.
; XIV.
(13) Same as (12>.
(14) Cardinal Goodwin, The
Trans-Mississippi West, 68-69.
(15) David Donaghue, Explora-
tions of Albert Pike in Texas, 135-
138.
W, W. McDade of Wildorado, who
ran the Gray ranch at one time,
bought a house from Mel Arm-
strong and moved it to "Sweet La
Cruz." The house burned so he
moved another from the Fitz Ham-
ilton place in the west part of
Potter County, this house being still
used as a camp a mile or more
from the old rock house built by
the Grays three miles from Wildo-
rado ... "I knew Mickey Mc-
Cormiek 'plum good.' Last time I
was over there her house was full
of bird dogs, maybe because Mickey
loved bird dogs."
First passenger train through Wil- j
dorado came over the tracks June 15,
1908; I. A. Allred. garage man, Wil-
dorado, says, "Folks from the farms
and ranches tuck out an' come to f
town to see the train go by."
Drift Walkers
By J. M. WINCHESTER
Mrs. Cora Beverley, in addition to
her numerous household duties, as-
sumed an additional responsibility
when she found that her new home
was far too far from school for her
children to attend. She became
their teacher. That was the win-
ter of 1891, wlvn she and her hus-
band, the late H. M. Beverley, moved
to Potter County to take over the
management of the Frying Pan
Ranch. .They came here from San
Antonio.
Next year, however, was a differ-
ent story; she moved into town
with the children and placed them
in the old school that occupied the
block bounded by Eighth and Ninth,
and Harrison and Jackson Streets.
She remembers quite vividly the
heavy snows that often covered the
country then, and one in particular
which was so deep that the drifts
covered the picket fences.
"There was so much snow." she
said, "that the children going to
school just cut across the yards and
walked right on over the fences.
"When those snows melted it
meant holidays for the children
There was so much of it, and the
school house stood in a dry lake bed,
that the water formed a lake which
often came to the top of the steps.
That situation wasn't remedied for
a number of years. Finally, though,
the city dug trenches to Wild Horse
Lake, and then the water would
always drain off."
Another favorite story of Mrs.
Beverley's is the one about the pros-
pective juror who wanted to be ex-
cused from service because, as he
told the judge, his wife couldn't milk
the cow. The judge didn't consider
this a valid reason for him to be
excused, but he did compromise
with tlv juror.
"Morning and evening," Mrs. Bev-
erley related, "throughout that term
of court the judge had the jury
walk over to the man's hous/>. where
they stood around and watched
while he milked the cow."
Their old home was a* 708 Fill-
more. considered quite a ways in the
country in those days. They had
several lots, so they kept a cow
and a horse. Mrs. Beverley and
Mrs. Tol Ware became great friends
and were equally active in church
and civic work. There is a tale
that Mrs. Wares roan horse knew
where all the Baptists i. town lived,
and that Mrs. Beverley's black horse
"Lizzie" knew where all the Presby-
terians resided.
She recalls, also, how nearly al-
ways, when the high school com-
mencement exercises were held in
the old Bivins Opera House, there
rarac a heavy rain or a hail storm.
She tells about one of those occa-
sions.
"This was an unusually heavy
rain," she said. "There were no
taxis or sidewalks, and the streets
were rivers of mud and water. So
the patrons and the graduates took
off their shoes and stockings and
waded home, the water often coming
over their knees."
Mrs. Beverley makes her home
at 712 Fillmore with Mrs. Albert
Pestle Artist
Claim to the honor of being the
next oldest druggist in point of con-
tinuous operation of a business place
in Am-""'" is made by "oy Pool.
Mr. Pool is owner and manager
of the Pool Drug Company, located
at 306 Polk Street in the Amarillo
Hotel building, and is the owner of
the Pool Drug Store No. 2 at Six-
teenth Avenue and Van Buren St.
Arriving in Amarillo on January
1. 1915, Mr. Pool became a partner
in the then Dickson Drug Company,
located at Fifth Avenue and Taylor
Street. He sold his interest in May,
1917, to enlist in the United States
army for service in the World War
but was not used.
On November 19, 1919. Mr. Pool
opened the Olympic Drug Store in
the old Olympic Theater building
at Seventh and Polk. His entire
stock and fixtures went up in smoke
when the Olympic Theater burned
on the night of Thanksgiving Day
in 1919.
Mr. Pool was out of business until
October, 1920, when he opened his
present No. 1 store in the Amarillo
Hotel building. In March, 1937. he
purchased the Randal Drug Store
at Sixteenth Avenue and Van Buren
Street, which became the Pool Drug
Store No. 2.
The two stores now employ 16
people with a payroll of approxi-
mately $20,000 annually.
Mr. Pool prides himself In the
fact that his No. I store has filled
upward of 150.000 prescriptions since
he has been in business in Amarillo.
All of these prescriptions are now
on file and available for reference
by persons to whom they were is-
sued.
SI00,000 for Amarillo
A Eberstarit of Amarillo: "In 1901
H. B. Sanborn tried to sell his hold-
ings in the Plemons Addition, which
then was about all of Amarillo. He
wanted $100,000 for it.
"He was unsuccessful in disposing
of this property, however, until 1904,
when a shrewd Irish promoter by
the name of Burns came here and
made a deal with Sanborn whereby
he paid down $1,000 to bind their
contract. Then Burns went to Kan-
sas City and sold the property to
some people there, who organized
the Amarillo Company. They were
placed under contract to put up
cash and notes as the property was
sold, until $200,000 was paid in.
"From 1905 through 1906 and
early 1907 Amarillo boomed a n d
property values rose. . . , Those were
wonderful years; there was more
money made here then than ever
has been made in the history of the
city over a similar period. . . . San-
born bought back the unsold portion
of the addition in 1907."
Bivins. one of her two daughters
The other is Mrs. Cora Green.
J. M. Jackson, Dickens: "Uncle
Ridge Greathouse handled so niucli
strychnine in killing pests that he
cot it all mixed with his tobacco
but it never hurt him,"
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We've Been "MOVING
For 30 Years!
• Left, 1908
• Below, 1938
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Amarillo Sunday News-Globe (Amarillo, Tex.), Vol. 13, No. 33, Ed. 1 Sunday, August 14, 1938, newspaper, August 14, 1938; Amarillo, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth299921/m1/70/?rotate=270: accessed May 21, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Hutchinson County Library, Borger Branch.