estimated 100 residents were served by a school, three
churches, and a general store. Area farmers processed
their cotton at two gins. In the 1890s the common school,
called Parsons College after its director, Sam W. Parsons,
had an enrollment estimated at 500. The high enrollment
was attributed to an energetic agent who promoted the
school throughout West Texas and accepted anything of
value as payment for tuition and board. When Parsons
resigned in 1899, he received as his last year’s salary 100
cow ponies, sixty of which he traded for a store at Veal’s
Station. After it was bypassed by the railroads the town
ceased to grow, and gradually the number of businesses,
students, and residents declined. In 1906 postal service
was once again discontinued. In 1936, the state erected a
historical marker at the site of the school building.”
Like many other frontier towns, Veal’s Station watched
the wheels of progress, i.e., the railroad, pass it by, rele-
gating it to history’s faded pages. The modern-day settlers
scattered across the vicinity are likely glad it retained its
rurality; its country qualities.
MARY’S CREEK
To the east, north of present-day Willow Park, little
Mary’s Creek rose and fell, leaving hardly a trace but
for its mention in tales of wanton vandalism and worse
carried out by hostile Indians. All too often, settlers on
Mary’s Creek raised their eyes to find mounted plunder-
ers strung out along a ridge, or, worse yet, descending
toward their cabins. Such was the case when on July 4,
1869, Mrs. William R. Rider looked up from her Bible to
spy 11 Indians moving along the ridge. Leaden clouds
that had dumped copious amounts of rain across the area
were moving off, leaving in their wake a wide brilliant
arch of diaphanous color mistily anchored in the swells
of the prairie. Mrs. Rider used the rainbow as a teaching
aide and had been reading the biblical account of the
rainbow’s meaning to her 11-year-old daughter Annie.
A contingent of the raiding party began to pick their
way down the hill toward the Rider cabin where the terri-
fied Rider women sought refuge in an upstairs corner. But
they were saved by Mr. William Rider’s prize racehorse,
which diverted the Indians and proved prize enough for
the raid. The petrified mother and daughter listened with
bated breath as the tinkling of the bell attached to the
racehorse faded away.
Plains Indians, people of a true horse culture, knew
horseflesh and were adept at stealing the best. Early
Weatherford historian Henry Smythe in 1877 wrote: “One
of the peculiarities of all the Indian tribes is their knowl-
edge of and extraordinary fondness for the horse. They
seem to have an intuitive understanding of all the strong
points about the animal, and universally steal the best
of the horses on the ranch or in corral, or wherever else
these governmental thieves make their predatory incur-
sions.”
It’s likely Smythe referred to the Indians as “govern-
mental thieves” because often the raiders were reserva-
Continued on page 63
TEXAS BUTANE CO., INC.
Morris & Judy V. (Kemp) White
South Side Square • 103 W. Church • Weatherford, Texas 76086
Local
Phone:
8
1
7
-
5
9
6
8
7
5
8
“LOCALLY OWNED & FAMILY OPERATED”
We are proud to be the oldest continuously family owned propane company in the Area!
2
6
1
2
Metro
Phone:
8
1
7
-
5
9
4
Propane Sales & Service Since 1958
31