In the late 1800’s after the U. S. Government opened land in Texas for settlement many families came to Greer County, Texas to file, for a fee, on 160 acre tracts for a homestead.
One early settler was R.T. Payne, who was originally from Tennessee. R. T. and his family were living in Gainesville, Tex., when they decided to file on this newly opened land. Leaving Gainesville, they traveled to Quanah, Tex., and then crossed Red River into Greer County. Here they selected land not many miles north of the river for a homestead.
In July, 1891, the L. F. (Louis) Martin family from Mexico, Missouri came by train, shipping some household goods to Quanah. Met in Quanah by R. T. Payne (Uncle Bob), Louis bought a wagon and team to haul furniture and supplies, with wife, Jennie and three Gardner step-children to the Payne place for headquarters.
After looking over the prairie surveyed land into quarter sections, Louis chose a quarter where Hollis now stands. Unloading some lumber to show that plot was taken he drove back to the Payne’s. Next time he came with more lumber he saw two large rattlesnakes coiled beside the lumber. Without unloading his wagon this time he drove away toward the southeast (no fences then) to a quarter he had seen before, that cornered on the section where the Butler and Ball families from Michigan, had settled. There he unloaded lumber on the SE quarter of Section 19, more of a valley like location and nearer the Payne place.
After going to the Mangum land office to file on the 160 acres and bringing more supplies, work was begun to improve the place. A floored half dugout was built with boarded walls, two low windows for light and shingled hip roof. The dugout was used for a kitchen several years after a three room house and porch were built in front of it.
Elmer Gardner was anxiously waiting in 1897 to become 21. He hurried to Mangum to file on the quarter section just across the road south from the Martin home. He built a one room boxed house to show possession. He and his sister, Mamie Gardner, went to school in Quanah one year. Later they both taught school. Somewhere in Elmer’s rounds he caught the smallpox. By 1902 Dr. J. E. Jones had settled in the small town of Hollis. He was sent for to diagnose the disease. By that time my older sister, Grace, and I (Vera) had been added to the Martin family. Dr. Jones pronounced smallpox and quarantined Elmer in his house and put up his yellow flag. The rest of us were vaccinated. Elmer never was so sick that he had to stay in bed. While he stayed inside, people from across the road put food into his own dishes placed outside the door. He was furnished supplies for housekeeping. No one else caught the disease. The mail patrons avoided getting near his side of the road.
Elmer moved his house west one fourth mile, and lived in it after he married Mattie Daniel. Later he sold his quarter to Bob Darnell and moved to Mangum.
Going back to 1896 the Supreme Court settled a dispute between Texas and Oklahoma Territory as to the correct southern boundary of Greer County. The U.S. Court decreed that the mainstream of Red River was the right boundary instead of the North Ford of Red River, thereby making Greer County, Texas become Greer County, Oklahoma Territory.
There had been a one room school house built on a few acres of the NE corner of the quarter donated by Alford Ball. It was called Star Valley School. The building was used for social gatherings, religious and literary programs, community Christmas trees, singing, etc. Grace and I started to school at Star Valley. The teacher stayed at our house, one mile from school.
Mail still had to come from Quanah. Neighbors making the trip to Quanah would bring mail and supplies back for others. Red River was always a risk to cross, not knowing when a head rise might come down if it had rained upstream. Several freight wagons were lost by getting stuck in quicksand and washed away. My father was stuck in a channel of quicksand one time crossing the river. He had to wade water to unload his wagon on dry sand to make it light enough for his team to pull the wagon out.
In the same year (1896) after the U.S. Court ruled that Greer County belonged to Oklahoma Territory, my father applied for and was granted a permit to establish a Post Office in his house, known as the Martin P.O. There was no Hollis at that time. A Star Route brought mail from Witt to Martin and on to Eldorado in one day, reversing the route the next. The office did not pay much but was convenient for the community. So may people were coming for mail that the Tempt Johnson man and wife, Martha, thought the crossroads at the four sections would be a good location for a Store. They did build a store on the NW corner of the Butler place and a house for the family with five children to live.
Next Cecil Bible put in a Blacksmith Shop and house on the NE corner of the Bob Darnell quarter. Later Cecil sold his shop to Ace Frank, who in turn sold to Mr. Montgomery. Mr. Montgomery built an Open Air Skating Rink North of this shop. Hollis was becoming a town; so many young people came to skate.
Another tall building was erected on the SW corner of the J. W. Trammell land ad a Grocery Store. The owners lived in the back, partitioned from the front where the stock of groceries was. A man from Duke reserved a space in that store to put in a stock of "over-the-counter" Drug Supplies. The second floor of that building was used for a Lodge Hall. The steps went up outside on the west side leading to the door. The Trammell family lived one-half mile north.
The last store building made three crossroad corners taken, joining the Martin corner on the SE. But on our corner was growing a good garden, a wild currant patch. And fruit trees with a windmill and stock tank from which the garden could be watered. We lived one hundred yards west of the corner where barns and lots were built nearer the house. Papa built a corral where wild horses were brought to ride to tame. Jimmie Gardner, the younger step-son near 20, would usually be the rider. I would run into the house, and hide for fear he would be thrown. By that time section lines were fenced with barb wire. One time Jimmie came out of the corral on a running, bucking pony and was thrown into a wire fence. His left arm was severely cut. When Jimmie reached his 21st birthday he filed on the quarter west, joining the Martin homestead. He built a house to live in after he married Doll Moran.
In one of the early years a grant was given to the homesteaders that they could buy another 160 acres for one dollar per acre. Many bought extra land and built a tenant house. Using teams of horses or mules, a farmer was limited in his field work. Papa was lucky that the quarter joining on the north had not been taken, so he purchased that.
In 1902 with cotton fields being planted more, N. L. Jones of Quanah put in a Gin on the Darnell land, which was managed by his sons, Gus and Rufus. My mother cooked for gin hands in her dugout kitchen across the road from the gin. Gus, with his wife and baby, lived in his own house west of the gin. During those early years a large, gable-roofed square house was built for the Martin home. One room was reserved was reserved for the post office. Boys who came with parents to get mail would run up to the steps in the hallway and slide down the banister; we did not appreciate that performance.
Grace and I had a playhouse in a Chinaberry thicket north of the house near the henhouse. We furnished it with broken dishes, rocks for a chair or table or any other discarded articles. Hildreth Charlton still remembers playing there.
In 1903 the Star Valley school district was divided. A new two-room house was built one mile east of the Drew land, but still called Star Valley. The west part of the district was moved two miles west where a two room house was built on Bearden land, there fore called Bearden School. The Baptist people built a Church house north of Bearden School but still referred to it as Star Valley. The Church Of Christ people met at the east Star Valley School until 1907.
The Martin P.O. was moved from our house to the Johnson store. Later a McKeever family bought out the Johnston’s but retained the P.O. By then Hollis had absorbed the Witt P.O. and had grown with four mail routes serving the rural areas. Route four brought mail to Martin and on to Louis. I have a letter written in 1901 to Mrs. Jennie Martin, Oklahoma Territory from her brother, Frank Shell of Missouri, telling how the Shell estate was settled. Mama was Virginia Shell.
For entertainment there were young folk parties and singings in some home and of course school programs. One summer a Martin picnic was held in the John McGee pasture east of the Trammel land. Watermelons and cold drinks were for sale, games were played, especially a baseball game played by local boys. Politicians would be on hand for speeches while people sat on propped up board seats in the hot sun.
Sometimes a peddler would come through the country stopping at houses to sell something from his pack of goods. He would pay for his lodging with some article from his pack. Sometimes a showman would get permission to use a school house, for a performance, usually a ventriloquist or a slight of hand performer.
