Early Settlers, Carlisle Texas

Today as we were cleaning and rearranging some things, I peeked into the little metal filing cabinet that was my dad's. I've looked in this thing a hundred times and even gone through it a couple of times to organize and sort; however, I still find something I haven't seen or read before every time I open it up. Today I found a copy of a handwritten history of early Carlisle, Texas which utterly fascinated me so I'm going to share it in it's entirety here. Daddy and Mother were part of a group that worked to make the Carlisle Cemetery a state historical monument and this written history, I'm sure, was part of that group effort. The Carlisle Cemetery did become a state historical momument due to the efforts of the group and now, if you drive out west on State Highway 114, on the north side of the road close to the old gin and school, you can stop and see the state marker, read the history and visit the cemetery. My grandfather, George Washington Wood, was the first person buried in the cemetery in 1920 as a consequence of the Spanish Influenza Pandemic. I've written previously about that on this blog. Anyhow, without further ado, here is the document I found today in its entirety. I found it fascinating and hope those of you in the Lubbock area or Wood family will too.

Early Settlers

 

In the fall of 1908, Mr. Altman and Mr. Collins came to West Texas in search of land. They each bought 160 acres from Mr. W.A. Carlisle. On Mr. Altman's farm there was a windmill and an earthern tank, but on the other farm there was just a plain plot of land. At that time there were only trails and a few wire fences, which were used by range riders.

 

Mr. Altman and Mr. Collins built a half dugout on each of their farms. They had to haul their lumber and other necessities for building the dugout from Plainview. After they completed the dugouts, they came for their families in Knox County.

 

In February of 1909 the Altmans and their three children and the Collins and their three children started back for West Texas. The Altmans moved to Lubbock in a covered wagon driven by two mules and leading a cow behind the wagon. The Collins family were also moving in a covered wagon. On the way out we stopped at Dickens for the night. A snowstorm blew in and the two families had to spend the night in the jail house for protection from the weather. As soon as the weather permitted, both families moved on westward.

 

It was very hard to come up the caprock. We had to stop along and let the mules rest. The wheels had to be blocked with rocks to hold them from rolling back. When we started down the caprock, we put poles between the spokes of the wheel and a sapling was dragged behind for brakes to keep the wagon from rolling into the mules.

 

After we arrived at the half dugout west of Lubbock, we moved everything into our new home. A fence or corral was built for the mules and also one for the cow. It was very lonely out on the prairie with only one neighbor, Mr. Collins' family.

 

At sundown, the coyotes and antelopes came to water from the earth tank. The antelopes were very wild, but the coyotes came up around the dugout and ate scraps of food. The howling of the coyotes was very frightening, especially to we children. There were skunks who ran and played on top of the dugout at night.

 

It was very hard to get the land ready for farming. About twenty acres was all that could be cleared for use in a year. The first two years we went back to Knox County to pick cotton because of the drought.

 

There were only a few stores in Lubbock at the time. There was a watering trough where the courthouse is today. There was a hitching rack all around the courthouse square for the horses and mules.

 

Dad helped build the first railroad from Plainview to Lubbock. We kids dug post holes to help get a fence around the farm. We also dug small mesquite bushes, catclaws, bare grass, and devil pin cushions or cactus.

 

In 1912 a one room post office building was moved out of Lubbock to be used as a school house. We had a hand pump which was used to get drinking water. There were seven children to attend school when it opened in the fall. Miss Sally Jones was the first teacher at Carlisle.

 

Our next school house consisted of two rooms with up lift doors between, and our teachers were Misses Mamie and Katie Bell Crump. They rode horseback to and from school each day from Shallowater.

 

A brick building was built in 1918 that consisted of three rooms, an auditorium and stage. There were up lift doors between one classroom to the auditorium that could be used for church and entertainment.

 

Six of the Altman children finished school at Carlisle. The school was consolidated in 1935 and two of the children finished at Frenship.  

 

Signed: Mrs. P.E. Smart, Lubbock, Texas 

 

(I, Elaine, believe this was written by Winnie Altman, but have no way of knowing for sure. The Altmans were close neighbors to the Wood family after they moved to Carlisle, by covered wagon, from the area north of Dallas to Carlisle in 1912.)