| A Word Edgewise
by Mary Joe Clendenin |
 |
THE FACES OF DEATH HAVE CHANGED THROUGH THE YEARS
We never cease to be amazed by changes in our world. Everything seems to change with time, even the appearance of Death itself. At this time, most deaths, come from our own inventions, especially for the age group from 15 to 30. The automobile is the great harvester of life.
Human beings seem to be their own worst enemies. Not just in war time, where enemies come in huge numbers, but also on our streets and in homes, death, violent death comes at the hands of fellow men.
Ten or so decades ago, such was not the case. Death, and the threat of death, for pioneer Texans came from the natural habitant they were determined to possess. Wild animals such as mountain lions or lynx, panthers, bears, alligators, and rattlesnakes, along with Indians, brought fear to the settlers.
Dilue Rose Harris, in Texas Tears and Texas Sunshine, tells about a man being killed by an alligator in the Trinity River. It happened in 1836, during The Run-Away Scrape just before the Battle of San Jacinth. In swamp land during heavy rains, people with their belongings were trying to get out of the path of the Mexicans.
He swam his horses across the mouth of the bayou, and then he swam back to the west side and drove the cart into the bay. His wife and children became frightened, and he turned back and said he would go up the river and wait for the water to subside. He got his family back on land, and swam the bayou to bring back the horses. He had gotten nearly across with them, when a large alligator appeared. Mrs. King first saw it above water and screamed. The Alligator struck her husband with its tail and he went under water. There were several men present, and they fired their guns at the animal, but it did no good. ... The men waited several days and then killed a beef, put a quarter on the bank, fastened it with a chain, and then watched it until the alligator came out, when they shot and killed it.
Here in Erath county about 1880, according to records written by Mrs. Myrtle Ham, the Sherrods had settled in the neighborhood of Alarm Creek near a spring where they got their water. It was the task of the children to carry water, so the daughter Tillie, about 9 years old, went to the spring. A rattlesnake bit her on the ankle. As she had been told how to make a tourniquet, she took off her garter and bound it around her leg. Before she could get to the house, her leg was badly swollen, but her parents put the leg in coal oil and gave her whiskey She was lame for several years, but she lived.
Panthers and the sound of panthers screaming put wild fear into the hearts of the early settlers who heard them. Mrs. Ham told about when her grandmother, Avline Miller was a little girl. Her mother was making lye soap in the yard and the five children were playing about her. They noticed the dog acting peculiar. The mother looked about and saw a big yellow panther creeping up on her. She very quietly told the children to get the baby and get in the cabin. As they did so she tried to think of some way to protect herself. Grabbing the gourd dipper she had been using to dip boiling water, she scooped up a dipper of the boiling soap. As the panther crept closer she threw the hot soap right into its face. It turned and ran.
Rabid animals that invaded the homes and barns were dreaded carriers of death for the pioneers. Since there was no cure for rabies, or hydrophobia as it was called by some who had witnessed the phobia of water in the mad person, the fear in the hearts and minds of the settlers was rampant.
In some communities one person was entrusted with a "mad stone" which was supposed to be a cure. Actually, the stone was something like a gall stone that came from the intestines of a deer. When someone in the family was bitten by an animal thought to be rabid, the stone would be sent for immediately. It would be boiled in milk and rubbed on the bitten area. Since no one could tell for sure if the animal had been rabid, the stone was trusted to work in some instances--or some other cause had made the animal act rabid. Think of the anxious days and nights during the incubation period when the family wondered if a loved one had rabies.
For the first Texas settlers, Death came with Indians, also, but nature itself posed many threats for the early settlers of Texas. Quite often it came on wings, as mosquitoes spread yellow fever and malaria. Mary Rabb told about mosquitoes when they lived on the Brazos in 1832. Clouds of mosquitoes and flies pestered the people and many suffered from malaria, dysentery, cholera and yellow fever. "It was almost impossible to do any work like sewing and churning unless we were in a mosquito bar."
Progress has been made on many fronts since the pioneers challenged the wilderness. Nature and dangers from its creatures have diminished in the face of knowledge about diseases and cures, and the decrease of animals. Still, Death, often a blessing, sometimes an enemy stalks, the population.