Scalped and Lived to Tell About It
When an old story comes from many sources, it is difficult to glean the exact details. In this case, we know a man was scalped and lived to tell about it. Farmers like Josiah Wilbarger and his wife who settled the west accepted the ever-present danger of Indians hostile to encroachment of the new arrivals. […]
WILD MAN OF THE NAVIDAD
A story, circulated since the 1830s in South Central Texas, contains enough truth to merit a Texas Historical Marker. Residents along the Navidad River bottom in Lavaca and Jackson counties began seeing strange footprints along the riverbank, and at the same time they began missing small amounts of sweet potatoes and corn. On moonlit nights […]
LOVE AFFAIR BECOMES A LEGEND
If you are in deep East Texas on TX 63 southwest of Burkeville, be sure to read the historical marker designating the site of Shankleville, a black community named for an ex-slave. Jim Shankle was born in 1811 on a Mississippi plantation. When he married Winnie, she already had three children. Soon after the marriage, […]