our history: PARKER COUNTY’S PAST
Fiddlin’ Around
By SHANNON MARTINDALE SHATZER
O
62
n a dry summer evening, a young man sits outside,
using light from the flames of a pile of black jack
brush he cut and placed there earlier in the day to read
by the firelight while the stars begin to appear and shim-
mer above him. This day, like all of the other days, he
has spent doing backbreaking work in the fields. He is
weary, but his education is valuable to him, and this is
the only time during the day he has to study.
One by one, the stars come into view, brightening
above him, and he stands, stretching his aching back,
before going inside the cabin for a moment. He returns
outside holding his fiddle. He sits back down, and the
first few notes he plays are to tune his instrument before
throwing himself into a lively tune.
This young man is Henry C. Gilliland, who would
later become tied for being the world’s championship
fiddler some 60 years later. Born in 1845 in Missouri, the
fifth of eight children, his family set off for the California
Gold Rush in 1853. A year later, they put roots down in
Parker County. The journey into the Texas prairie seems
to have left an impression on Gilliland, as he wrote in his
memoir:
“We came out of the bottom, and struck a rich valley
prairie, covered with abundant grass waist high, and great
droves of wild deer would stand and gaze at us with
much wonder.”
They passed through Dallas on the way from
California. Gilliland seems to have been unimpressed
with the land that would become the enormous city,
remarking in his memoir that they could have bought the
entire county, as it was then, at $1.00 per acre, but that it
was covered in swarms of mosquitoes. The family finally
found their home in Parker County, five miles northeast of
what is now Weatherford.
Sadly, only one year after their relocation, Gilliland’s
father, Joseph Gilliland, passed away from pneumonia,
leaving Lucretia Gilliland, his widow, to raise her chil-
dren alone. Despite the continual threat of Indian raids,
Lucretia chose to remain in Parker County, and the family
endured their share of hardships.
“We were now living without bread, using dry veni-
son for bread and fresh venison for meat. We did this for
days and weeks,” Gilliland wrote.
Gilliland spent his days in the fields, farming and
cutting brush, and his evenings reading. As he grew into
a young man, Gilliland began playing his older brother
Joseph’s fiddle after his two eldest brothers left home to
serve in the army.
“When they left home, I took charge of his [Joseph’s]
fiddle, and learned very rapidly to play, but my strings
were of ‘horse hair,’ and I lacked someone to show me
how it was ‘done,’” Gilliland wrote.
In 1863, Gilliland enlisted in the Second Texas
Cavalry, Arizona Brigade, and served in the Confederacy
during the Civil War. Not much is known about his time
in the war, as he was something of an unreliable narrator
regarding his experiences at the time.
When the war ended, Gilliland joined the Texas
Rangers to combat the attacks by Comanches in Parker
County, which were growing in intensity. He also
spent his free time honing his skills at the fiddle. He
married Susie Borden on Dec. 9, 1869, and as the years