Eleanor Jane Smith Story

Submitted by Mrs. Jeanette Fields of Glendale CA.  Eleanor was her great grandmother.

The autobiography is as follows:

In 1839, at the age of seven, I came to Texas from Dallas County, Alabama, with my parents, John L. and Hester Ann Smith.  We settled at White's Prairie near the town of Bastrop.  The next year we moved up on Wilbarger Creek at what is now known as the William Coats place, where we lived with Jim Rogers.  Joshiah Wibarger, from whom Wilbarger Creek gets its name, lived a few miles below us.

We moved back to Bastrop in 1842 and lived on Piney Creek, two miles from town, where we bought a little place.  Four years later we moved up to Mike Youngs's in the community now known as Youngs Prairie.  While we were living there the war began with Mexico, and we were forced to reurn to Bastrop for a few months.  After we came back to Mik Young's, Levay Williams was killed and scalped by the Indians.  I watched over his body while the men dug his grave.  Williams, Mike Young's wife, and one child are all buried at a place said to be in S.H Manor's field.

In 1847 we lived with a man by the name of Bain, on what is now known as the Sam Burnett place.  While there I was married July1, 1847 to W. R. Hobbs (William Rite), who was then a Texas Ranger and served under Captain Jack Hays on the Texas frontier.  The following year we moved to the George Glasscock place on Big Sandy Creek.  There we lost all we had, including our house, by fire, and in the fall of that year we moved to the Yegua near John Roff's at what was then called Yegua Springs.  In 1851 my brother, Sam Smith, bought the place covering the Springs and since then it has be sometimes known as the Sam Smith Springs.  Our nearest trading point or medical help from this place was Bastrop.  When Mr. Hobbs would go to Bastrop I was left alone as it took him all day and till late at night to make the trip.  I would leave the house while he was away and stay on top of the corn in the crib for fear of the Indians.  Many times I saw buffalo and wild cattle feeding ut of the brush and watched bears catch our hogs.  Our nearest neighbor was Dickie Townsend, four miles away, who lived where Cal Gage lives now.

About 1852 we moved to what is now called the Hobbs place.  It was then in Bastrop county, but later was cut into Burleson county.  The county line was moved again after while and we were again in Bastrop county.  It was changed later on making our place in Lee county.  So we lived in three different counties and lived at the same place and in the house all the time.

I am the only one living now of our family of six children.  I have fourteen children and forty nine grandchildren. I have divided all I have among my children and have never regretted it, for all have an outstretched arm of welcome wherever I go among them.  Today, August 31st is my 84th birthday and I am spending the day with my baby child, Mrs. O.L. Spier, of Owens Prairie.

 Eleanor Jane Hobbs

Elgin, Texas

August 31, 1914