Dear Kinfolk,

NO, I am not suggesting we are related to the Lone Ranger.   However,  the old stories of our great grandparents has brought back my childhood memories of the Wild West movies.  When I was around 9 years old, my mother Alida would ask dad, Orren, to take me with him to work on Saturday.  Also, my sister Marjorie was glad to get her obnoxious little brother out of the house in case her friends came by.

Gun loaded and ready to go meet Roy, Gene and the Lone Ranger.

When we got downtown dad would give me 25 cents and dropped me off in downtown Enid, OK.   At that time the population was around 20,000.  Downtown was built around a square, with 5 movie theaters .  So I would spend 15 cents at the Dan & Bake hamburger joint for a Pepsi and small onion burger.  Then with a dime left over, I would choose which movie theater had the best (and most) westerns and spend the rest of the afternoon watching cowboy serials.   Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, the Lone Ranger were all my childhood idols.

There were movies of the good guys (wearing white cowboy hats) catching a horse thief (always in black hat) and hanging him from a big oak tree.  Now, remember the true stories of our great uncles, John Henry and Mitchell Anderson,  hanging their brother James for stealing their cattle.

There were movies of the Indians raiding the white settlers and capturing  a pretty little girl and taking her back to their camp.  Now, remember how our great-uncle John Henry Anderson who was with the Military Calvary that found an Indian camp with a captured white girl, and then rescued Cynthia Ann Parker whom they had been searching for for many years. 

There were movies of the white settlers in west Texas living in Forts for protection from the Comanches.   Now, I get an e-mail from a cousin, Barbara Close of Berkley California , describing her research of  Fort Davis and our great -g-g grandfather Henry M. Anderson and family.  Recently Barbara sent me a story of one woman making a Confederate flag for Fort Davis in March of 1865.  “As the flag was presented the soldiers fired salutes and one hit and wounded Mr. Sutherlin.  The presentation was followed by dancing in the school-house all night.”

There were movies of how the Texas Rangers would come to the rescue of a rancher and family being surrounded by Cheyenne Indians.  Now remember the blogs about our great gg Uncles and Grandfather  were Texas Rangers or Confederate Soldiers during the Civil War.  Fort Davis diaries told stories of  how John Henry and Mitchell Anderson “went on an Indian hunt,  they fought them near the double mountains on the Barzos and got three Indian scalps.  John Anderson was wounded, shot through the right arm with and arrow.”

There were movies of thousands of  wild Texas longhorn cattle being rounded-up and driven up the Chisholm trail to Kansas.  There were many scenes of the Comanches raiding the cattle .  Now, we found out stories of  the Anderson brothers driving cattle through west Texas Comanche country and up the Goodnight/Loving trail.  John Henry wrote “we got through OK”, after going through the Comanche country.

I now know why I have enjoyed writing the blogs,  I have relived my childhood cowboy fantasies through our grandparents true adventures.  Its in our genes!  

Some cowboys never grow up!

ANOTHER REAL PLUS OF WRITING THE BLOGS HAS BEEN THE NEW CONTACTS OF SEVERAL LONG LOST COUSINS! 

Brendan Roe,  Portland Oregon.  His  gg grandmother was May Emiline Anderson, 1881-1968.  She would  be the daughter of Albert and Nancy Anderson.

Barbara Close, Berkley, California.  Her great-grandfather was Mitchell Anderson, born 1837 in Jacksboro, TX.  Son of Henry and Sara Anderson.

JoRetta Lewis, Texas?.  Her great grandmother was Lucinda, Anderson, born in Arkansas in 1834.  Daughter of Henry and Sara Anderson.

Archie Brewer, deceased.  Her grandfather was John Henry Anderson born in Jacksboro, TX. in 1839.  Son of Henry and  Sara Anderson.

Hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful fall day,  if you have nothing to do, check out the western movie Lonesome Dove,  I could swear someone stole the story of our grandparents for this movie.

Jim Lee