Life of a Texas Woman During the War

MR. AND MRS. THOMAS MOORE.

Even as a little child sinks placidly to sleep in loving mother arms, so was the transition into eternal slumber of the beloved Mrs. Thomas Moore, at Waco, Tex., on April 20, 1906. For more than fifty years she had lived in Texas, going there from Kentucky with her husband and children in 1853. Her maiden name was Eliza Jane Dodd, and she was born in Barren County December 23, 1818. She was married to Dr. Thomas Moore in 1837, and on going to Texas they settled in Burnett, Burnett County, then far out on the frontier; but in 1867 they removed to Waco, and had lived there continuously since. Over sixty years they journeyed together.

It was in 1897 that Dr. Moore and his wife celebrated their sixtieth wedding anniversary—a "jubilee wedding"—when friends and relatives came to pay their tribute of love and honor to this aged couple whose devotion had been such a beautiful example. It was their practice to have anniversary dinners, to which wre gathered all the children and descendants as nearly as practicable. The family circle had grown to about fifty direct descendants, in which were numbered great-great-grandchildren, and it was in pride and happiness that this devoted couple gazed upon their stalwart sons, honorable and upright men, and their daughters, gracious, Christian women, with their children and children's children gathered about them.

Some years ago Mrs. Moore wrote for the Pat Cleburne Camp of Waco a story of frontier life as she had known it, and its publication here will be a revelation to many of the trials and tribulations attendant upon the life of those who went into that new and untried country.

LIFE OF A TEXAS WOMAN DURING THE WAR.

"I am poorly qualified to write an essay for the public. Born on a farm in Kentucky, A.D. 1818, educated in a country school with very limited facilities, I, of course, can do but little in the character of an esayist. I married young, came to Texas in 1853, settled in Burnett, then a frontier county, fifty miles west of Austin. My husband bought land. We had to live in a tent during the winter; but we soon erected a log cabin, and there husband and I, five children, and two servants commenced our career in Texas.

"By industry, hard work, and great economy and self-denial we, in a few brief though weary years, had a comfortable home with plenty around us to make us happy and contented. In 1861 the dreadful War between the States commenced. My husband went into the civil service of the Confederate States, where he served until its close.

"My oldest son volunteered and went into the army, in which he remained until the close of the war. My younger sons were engaged in taking care of our stock and in aiding the few men who were left at home in guarding our homes from the depredations of savage Indians and cruel Jayhawkers.

"In addition to these troubles, our frontier country was afflicted with terrible droughts and myriads of grasshoppers. Thus our region of country was cursed with domestic war, merciless Indians, thieving Jayhawkers, protracted droughts.

"The few supplies of food and clothing we had at the commencement of the war were soon exhausted. Our family was now increased to five sons and two daughters, and the question of food and raiment now presented itself to us in all its reality and ghastly vividness. 'What shall we do?' was the absorbing question with every one. Fortunately we had plenty of cows in the country; and form this source we could get plenty of beef, milk, and butter. We also had sheep, from whose fleeces we could make clothes. But to do this required machinery, and this we did not have. But the few men we had with us soon began to make looms, wheels, cards, etc., to make cloth to keep us from the cruel blasts of cold norther and the scorching rays of the dry summer's sun. I was fortunate enough to get a few dressed buckskins to make clothes for my husband and our boys and negroes. I was fortunate in having been reared on a farm, where my good mother manufactured her own jeans, blankets, comforts, socks, etc., for her own family of sons and servants, and she had fortunately taught me these same valuable lessons.

"So as soon as I could have a loom, wheel, and cards made I procured some wool and cotton and went to work in good earnest. It was not long before I had my wool carded and spun into thread for my warp and filling, and my web of jeans cloth ready for dyeing, cutting, and making into garmets for my men folks.

"My next work was to card, spin, weave, dye, cut, and make my linsey clothes for the women folks. Then came time for me to make my thick, warm flannel cloth for my blankets and underclothing for all of the family. Then came the time for making quilts, comforts, sheets, bolsters and pillowcases, towels, socks, stockings, etc.

"Then we needed shoes, hats, and bonnets. For shoes we had to substitute buckskin moccasins; for hats we had to use dressed rabbit, fox, and wild cat skins and straw; for bonnets we used our old dresses and straw. Our knitting of socks and stockings was done principally at night, when we used tallow candles made by our own hands for lights.

"Many of our frontier people suffered for want of bread. Corn and wheat crops failed on account of droughs and grasshoppers, and bread could not be had for love nor money. Our diet was poor indeed—no coffee, no tea, no sugar, no pepper, no spice, no salt—but we made sorghum molasses and used many miserable substitutes for others. When my husband donned his jeans suit, made out and out by my hands, and wore it to Austin to attend to his business in the Confederate States district court, he says his suit "was greatly admired for its beauty and its tailoring.' Of course this was very flattering to me, and I felt glad that I had been able to be of some little use to my family. I also made a good, warm suit for my oldest son, who was far from me fighting the battles for our beloved Southland, and O how glad I was to see my dear children at home warmly clad by my poor efforts to make them comfortable and happy, and I was glad to be able to aid in furnishing some little to feed and clothe some of the boys who were in the army with my son."

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