Crenshaw brothers ran away from home in search of their own adventures
 |
| Undated Photo of the Pleasant Crenshaw farm on Indian Creek near Ingram |
As I write this story, I am reminded of my favorite John Wayne movie, “The Cowboys” and epic Greek tales from ancient times. Today I am going to tell you the story of three young boys, between the ages of 11-19, who left their family home and the adventures that led to them settling in Kerr County, where they led prolific, industrious lives.
In 1867, Cornelius “Doc”, age 19, Pleasant “Pleas”, age 17, and Hugh “Carey” Crenshaw, age 11, were living in Newton County Texas and struggling with a problem. Their father, a widowed doctor, had a new wife and the boys, the youngest of ten children, did not like their new stepmother.
The Crenshaw brothers, fascinated by stories coming from the Texas frontier, decided they could no longer live with the step mother and decided to run away from home in search of their own adventures. While some local history publications have wild accounts of this adventure, including Comanche attacks and a much longer trek in miles, I am sticking to what I have been able to verify through public records and direct accounts of the journey that came from the three men who actually took part in the journey.
 |
| Pleasant Crenshaw |
 |
| Doc Crenshaw |
Carey Crenshaw
Not much is said about how the boys left their home — I can’t tell you if they left a note or even said goodbye to their family. All I have been able to discover is that Doc and Pleas left home riding horses, while Carey followed, astride a yearling steer. As an adult, Carey often told his children that his steer lagged behind his brothers’ horses during the journey, except when a heel fly would attack his mount. When the insect bit, the steer would lunge into a bovine gallop and end up ahead of the horses.
The boys traveled mostly at night, camping during the daylight hours in wooded areas or sheltering with families who would give them food and shelter until the adventurers decided to move on. On one occasion the boys overheard their host telling his wife he was concerned about the three boys and that he intended to find out more about them so he could return them to their parents. That night, the boys slipped away under the cover of darkness and continued on their journey.
Armed only with slingshots, the boys quickly became adept at shooting rabbits, squirrels and game birds for food. (Sounds like the kind of feral existence my brothers and I dreamed of when we were growing up.)
At some point during the odyssey, they joined up with Captain Ivery and his troop. (No full name of Captain Ivery was given in any accounts of this journey.) The unit was in Texas to hunt jayhawkers, men who deserted the army and existed by looting farms and settlements in east Texas. The term “jayhawker” is mostly associated with Kansas and Missouri, however, in my research of this story I did find that there were jayhawkers in Texas, mostly in the Big Thicket region.
After working with Captain Ivery’s troop, the boys spent a year in Gonzales County, where they were paid 50 cents a day for labor. Later, they went to Bee County and worked for a full year to earn a Spanish pony.
With their new pony, and the horses they already had (nobody was riding a steer this time) the brothers joined a cattle drive that took them to Kansas and then back to Texas. The drive ended in Kerr County and this is where the boys decided to put down roots.
According to Pleas’ memoir, when the Crenshaw brothers arrived in Kerrville in 1869, there were no more than twenty houses in town and Captain Charles Schreiner had just established his store in a little clapboard building that locals referred to as the “Old Alamo.”
Also during that time, Kerr County was having a problem with horse thieves and bands of outlaws attacking homesteads. To combat the problem, Captain Schreiner had decided to form a unit of Minute Men, companies of volunteer fighters, closely associated with the Texas Rangers. The state of Texas would issue guns to small communities so they could form these units. Minute Men would conduct their ordinary day to day life and business until an emergency arose, like an Indian raid or bandit attack. When trouble arose, the Minute Men would drop whatever they were doing and serve as the first responders to a crisis.
Doc and Pleas joined the Minute Men shortly after their arrival and were involved in bringing robbers and horse thieves to justice. They served under Captain John G. Burleson. It was through that service that Doc and Pleas met Burleson’s daughters. Doc married Mary Ann “Molly” Burleson in 1872, and Pleas married Margaret Melvina “Mellie” Burleson in 1873.
Doc became a blacksmith. He and Molly had nine children. After retiring from the blacksmith trade, Doc moved to Leakey and died in 1918 at the age of 70.
Pleas became a farmer and first settled on 100 acres on Bear Creek, he later moved to the Ingram area and settled along Indian Creek. He and Mellie had nine children. Mellie died 18 months after their last child was born in 1894. Pleas married a second wife, Dora Isabel Campion in 1901 and had another seven children.
Pleas’ memoirs document a hard-scrabble farming life of harvesting and tying grain by hand, often with the help of his brother, Carey.
On a foggy, cold morning in 1935, Pleas was going about his farm duties when he became disoriented in the fog and fell down a steep bluff. He developed pneumonia from his exposure to the elements and died at the age of 84. At the time of his death, he had 14 surviving children and 65 grand and great-grandchildren. Many descendants of Pleasant Crenshaw still live in the area, and some even live on original Crenshaw farmland.
Carey also became a farmer and had property northwest of Kerrville. He married Mary Alice Pyeatt in 1886. They had seven children. Mary Alice died in 1908 and Carey died in 1933.
Both Carey and Pleas, along with their wives and many of their children are buried in Nichols Cemetery in Ingram.
Comments
Post a Comment