[Illustration: H. W. GRABER]
The Life Record of
H. W. Graber
A Terry Texas Ranger
1861-1865
Sixty-two Years in Texas
Copyright 1916 by H. W. Graber
Index
Page
Chapter 1 My Earliest Recollections......................... 9
Chapter 2 I Abandon the Printer’s Trade and Take Up.........
Surveying......................................... 14
Chapter 3 Indian Troubles—My First Venture in Business...... 22
Chapter 4 My First Military Experience...................... 28
Chapter 5 Our First Engagement.............................. 43
Chapter 6 An Accidental Injury—Shiloh—The “Mark-Time” Major. 56
Chapter 7 I Am Wounded and Captured......................... 73
Chapter 8 The Escape of Major Ousley........................ 91
Chapter 9 In Prison at Louisville, Where I Was Honored With.
Handcuffs......................................... 98
Chapter 10 Camp Chase—Fort Delaware—I Change My Name for the.
First Time and Am Finally Exchanged............... 107
Chapter 11 The Inhumanity of the Federal Government.......... 136
Chapter 12 I Rejoin My Command............................... 142
Chapter 13 Middle Tennessee and Kentucky..................... 144
Chapter 14 I “Swap” Horses With a Federal.................... 156
Chapter 15 The Battle of Perryville.......................... 169
Chapter 16 I Refuse to Become a Teamster..................... 176
Chapter 17 Omissions in Preceding Chapters................... 186
Chapter 18 General Johnston’s Failure to Strike—Sherman...... 190
Chapter 19 Georgia Service—A Negro’s Preference—A Hazardous..
Undertaking....................................... 208
Chapter 20 I Sell a Ten Dollar Gold Piece for Fifteen Hundred
Dollars........................................... 231
Chapter 21 My Service With Captain Shannon................... 237
Chapter 22 We Receive Notice of Johnston’s Surrender—I.......
Decline to Be Paroled and Resolve to Make My Way..
Out............................................... 244
Preface The Reconstruction Period......................... 262
Chapter 23 Upon My Return From the Army I Find My Business...
Affairs in Bad Shape.............................. 266
Chapter 24 The Affair at Hempstead........................... 271
Chapter 25 I Narrowly Escape Capture......................... 285
Chapter 26 I Save the Life of an Enemy....................... 306
Chapter 27 I Get Back Into the Business World................ 316
Chapter 28 I Assist in Establishing the Masonic Institute.... 326
Chapter 29 I Remove to Waxahachie and Go Into Business There. 339
Chapter 30 The Tap Railroad.................................. 344
Chapter 31 Business Troubles................................. 366
Chapter 32 I Start Anew...................................... 373
Chapter 33 The Methodist School at Waxahachie................ 377
Chapter 34 My Later Business Experiences..................... 380
Chapter 35 The Confederate Veterans’ Home.................... 389
Chapter 36 My Appointments in the U. C. V.................... 395
Chapter 37 The Terry Rangers’ Flag........................... 401
Chapter 38 Roosevelt’s Visit to Texas........................ 424
Chapter 39 My family......................................... 434
Chapter 40 In Conclusion..................................... 441
Preface
The purpose of this narrative is to hand down to my children, and to
present to my friends, an intimate, personal account of a life which has
not been without interesting episodes, and which has been lived during
the most eventful period that this Nation will, in all probability, ever
know.
Though a large portion of my story will deal with incidents which
occurred during the great sectional strife of the sixties, it is not
intended as a history of that great calamity, but is meant, simply, to
be an account of incidents with which the writer was personally
associated.
The Great Strife which so nearly disrupted our country is over. For many
years we of the South have been dwelling amicably with those of the
North—this is as it should be. We are, united, the greatest country on
the face of God’s footstool. And to both the North and the South belongs
the credit.
The mistakes of certain Northern fanatics, which were not, I believe,
dictated by general Northern sentiment, have long been rectified. The
Government at Washington today is, I know, truly representative of the
entire country. The tragic blunders which were evident in the South
during what has been called the “Reconstruction Period” would not be
possible today. The country has become a unit.
In perfect love and friendship for all the good people of the United
States, irrespective of location, and with no sectional feeling other
than an abiding love for my South, I write this story. I hope it may be
found to be not without interest.
H. W. GRABER.
My Earliest Recollections
CHAPTER I
I was born in the city of Bremen, Germany, on the 18th day of May, 1841.
My father was a native of Prussia, and my mother of the Kingdom of
Hanover. They were married in the city of Bremen in 1839. There were
five children born unto them; a daughter, the oldest of the family, died
in Bremen; the others moved with the family to Texas. I was educated at
a private school, starting at six years old, up to the time of our
removal to Texas in 1853.
In connection with the ordinary literary course, the French and English
languages were taught in the higher grades in which I had just entered,
but when father decided to move to Texas, he had me drop the French and
employed an additional private teacher to come to our home and give me
English lessons, which enabled me to speak the English language on our
arrival in Texas.
Our father was a manufacturer of fine mahogany furniture and established
a profitable trade on this with New York, exporting more of his
furniture than was sold at home, though he had quite an extensive local
trade, as his styles and work were very popular, all of his furniture
being hand carved.
The great Revolution of 1848, which caused great stringency in financial
affairs of the country, forced him to mortgage his home, and from this
he never recovered. It was this condition that induced his removal to
Texas.
Father and I came to Texas a year in advance of the balance of the
family, for the purpose of getting acquainted with the country and its
conditions. Then, the year following the rest of the family came over.
We settled in Houston, Texas. We came over on a large sailing ship, as
steamships were very few, and we came by way of New Orleans, where we
found a great yellow fever epidemic, though we escaped it this year.
I forgot to mention that, when a child about four years old, I was
playing on the river front, sliding up and down on a plank with one end
in the water, the other end on the steps leading down to the water, when
I lost my hold, slid into the river and under the bottom of a schooner,
coming out on the opposite side, where one of the sailors caught me by
the hair just as I started under the third time. I was carried home
unconscious. This proved my first narrow escape from death, of which I
had many during life.
Soon after our arrival in Houston, father worked in an undertaking
establishment for a man by the name of Pannel, but during the first
summer, both father and mother were taken sick with typhoid fever and
died within one week, leaving me, the oldest of the family, then
thirteen years old, to take care of the rest of the children.
We had an uncle, father’s brother, living on Spring Creek, in the upper
part of Harris County, who took charge of our sister and a younger
brother until I could make provisions for them to come back to Houston,
there to get the benefit of the schools.
During the yellow fever of that fall my brother, next to me, died with
yellow fever.
I forgot to mention that soon after arrival in Houston I secured a
position in the large retail grocery establishment of F. Bauman, and,
subsequently, in the wholesale grocery establishment of C. E. Gregory,
where I soon became shipping clerk and an expert marker of freight, with
the marking brush; so much so that when a lot of freight was turned out
on the sidewalk (to be shipped by ox-wagon, which was the only means of
transportation out of Houston before the day of railroads) and when
marking this freight, passersby would stop and watch me, as I was the
youngest shipping clerk in Houston, which of course made me feel very
proud.
After a year or more in the service of this wholesale establishment I
was offered a position in a retail dry goods establishment of G. Gerson,
where I became familiar with the dry goods business. After about a year,
Gerson decided to open a general merchandise establishment at Waxahachie
and place his cousin, Robert Angleman, in charge of the same, and, for
this purpose, loaded about a half dozen ox-wagons with part of his
Houston stock and employed me to go to Waxahachie and clerk for
Angleman.
In place of going up to Waxahachie on the stage, our only means of
travel then, I begged them to allow me to go with the wagons, as I was
anxious to camp out and hunt on the way, but I took a great fancy to
driving one of the wagons, the driver of which permitted me to learn,
and I became somewhat expert in handling six yoke of oxen, each one of
which had a name, such as “Red” or “Ball,” or “Jerry.” The oxen seemed
to know their names when called on to move up, followed by the crack of
the big whip, and it is hardly necessary to say when this outfit entered
Waxahachie, preceded by this team, this little boy was driving, popping
his whip as loud as any of the men. I felt I was the biggest man among
them.
Angleman’s business proved a great success—selling goods for cash and
also taking pecans in trade for goods at fifty cents a bushel. These
pecans were shipped by wagon to Houston and from thence to New York,
where they netted from sixteen to eighteen cents per pound. Angleman’s
business was the first Jewish establishment in Waxahachie, and
ultimately grew to be the largest business in that section of the
country.
My sojourn at Waxahachie of about two years proved the most pleasant of
my life, as everybody seemed to be my friend, and took a special
interest in me because I was the only orphan child in the place and was
without a home. While there I boarded at both hotels; first at the
Rogers House and next at the Ellis House.