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By Harper C. Stewart

Reprinted with permission of Gail (Mrs. L. D.) Hardesty, Harper C. Stewart's daughter.

These electronic pages may not be reproduced in any format by other organizations or individuals. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material must obtain the written consent of Gail Hardesty [granniegail@qwest.net] or contact William Kent Brunette, Robertson County TXGenWeb coordinator.

Chapter 13

The Belchers

Grandma Belcher lived with us at times and with her other children part of the time.  There were so many of us at the Sand hill that she was hard pressed to hold any of us long enough to pass on much of the family lore.  I am sure she did so with some of the older kids, but I am sorry to say that I remember little of her stories.

My Cousin Cornelia, Uncle Wint's daughter, supplied me an account of some of her stories and I will include them now.  My main reason for writing my life's story is to provide my children and grandchildren a closeness with our forbears.  There is this fine golden thread of family lineage interwoven into the living fabric of our lives and I hope you feel, as I do, the warmth of family ties.

Grandma said that her mother, Martha Hall George, was a part of the royal family of England, with her father being a cousin of the King.  As a young girl, he mother lived in a castle and her parents were determined that she not marry a commoner.  She was watched and chaperoned continuously.  She became involved with a group of people coming to America, so she joined them and cam along.  Now, this may be a wild story, but I guess it may be possible and sounds like young people today rebelling against their parents.

When she and Grandpa Belcher started to leave Mississippi for Texas, Grandma had second thoughts and at the last moment decided not to leave.  Grandpa started shoving off the barge and Grandma starting screaming:  "Wait.  I'm coming."  She got on and they came to Texas.  They went down the Mississippi to New Orleans where they stayed a week seeing the sights.  While there, a young man was hanged in the city square and the boy's mother saw it all.  The mother recalled that while this young man was a baby, the Mississippi river flooded and she climbed into a tree and held him all night.  She said how much better it would have been had she turned him loose and let him go at that time.

They then took a ship to Galveston, Texas, and upon arrival, had to wait three hours for the ship to make port.  it was not known how they came up to Hearne, but it is possible that they came by boat to Washington-On-The-Brazos or to Port Sullivan, west of Hearne, for there were no roads and there was lots of water.  Mama was a baby when they came to Texas.

Grandma said that during the Civil War, there were man people living in Mississippi from foreign countries and during the war they would fly their county's flag over their places.  Then, both the Confederate and Union troops would leave them alone.  Her father, Henry Dotson, had many bales of cotton stacked up on the wharves of the Mississippi and he was afraid it was going to fall into Yankee hands.  He had a close friend, who was French, fly the flag of France over his cotton and saved it.  When the war was over, all he had was the cotton and his land, because he had put all his money into Confederate currency which became worthless.

Grandma said that the Black woman, who had tended to her as she grew up, was named Kit and when Great Grandpa called the Negroes together and told them they were free to go and make their own way, Kit walked up and said:  "No, Sir, I'm not 'gwine' leave Miss Fannie."   And, she didn't.  They brought her and a young Negro named Green with them to Texas.  I have already mentioned Green as a real old man being at our home at times.

Grandma said Kit taught her to cook after she was married as they had servants before that time and she had not learned.

They also brought a white boy with them from Mississippi.  His last name was Caldwell.  When they first moved to Texas, there were some tough young men who delighted in fighting the young newcomers.  Grandpa was getting groceries and heard the commotion on the porch and knew what was happening.  He picked up a quart bottle of vinegar and came out of the store.  They had Caldwell down and Grandpa broke the bottle on the forehead of Pete Boswell, the leader.  Pete became related later, but he had a good size scar the rest of his life.  I believe he married Grandma's niece, Sally McGaw.

Later, Grandpa and Grandma were living on the old Belcher place and Caldwell told them at breakfast time that he was leaving to homestead in new Mexico and rode off.  Some six months after Grandpa died, Caldwell rode in, stayed a week, and left saying he would write.

They never heard from him again.  They always thought Indians may have killed him on his way to New Mexico for they were very active near El Paso at that time.  People in my family always seemed to have a person or two living with them for a year or two at a time.

When Grandma and Grandpa lived on the old Belcher place, way out in the woods near Pin Oak Creek, Green lived in a small house on the place.  Seems Green never did much work, but was charged with watching over the children.  They kept a horse for him to use if needed.  Sometimes he used it, or hitched up a buggy to go for supplies.  Green was afraid of his shadow and at night of ghosts and haints (haunts).  My Mother and other kids would sit under a tree and listen to Green tell stories.  he would go to sleep listening to his own voice and, at times, choke from swallowing his tobacco.

They would have lost Uncle Bob one time when he was about six years old.  They were walking along Pin Oak Creek and Uncle Bob got into quick sand up to his armpits.  Green pulled him out.  The children were not allowed in the woods unless Green was with them.

Green was sent to Bryan, about 20 miles away, to get cotton seed for planting.  On his way back, he tried to hurry the oxen team while crossing a creek.  The result was that the oxen ran directly into the bank and the wagon tongue stuck into the dirt.  He found a house nearby and George Dunn, the owner, helped Green on home.

Late one night, Grandma sent Green to town to get Grandpa to come home.  Grandpa liked a night out once in a while and liked to gamble.  Green saw him in a saloon, but was not allowed to enter.  He waited until Grandpa saw him him and came to the door.  Green said, "Missy say you best come home!"  Grandpa went back to the table, returned with a sack of money and said:  "Here, take this home and tell her this will shut her up!"

Grandma heard the horse running full out and she could see Green hitting the horse with his hat.  He was afraid of the dark - but more afraid he would get robbed.

Cornelia has copies of papers used by Grandma to establish a confederate pension when Grandpa died.  It was from the War Department, Adjutant General's Office, stating that Wyatt Winton Belcher enlisted December 9, 1861 in Green County, Missouri, in Captain Farris' Battery (Clark Artillery), Missouri Light Artillery, Confederate States Army, in Osceolo, Missouri.  The records show his nativity as Tazewell County, Virginia.  He was admitted into the Army because he was an expert rifleman and entered as a corporal.  he was admitted to Yandell Hospital, Meridian, Mississippi, in April 1865, and was paroled from prison may 1865 in Gainsville, Alabama.  Records show he was in the battle of Lexington, VA, Elk Horn, and Sugar Creek.

It is said that when Grandpa enlisted in the Confederate Army, his father never forgave him.  After the war, he wrote his father that he would like to come home.  His father wrote that he had better not come back.  It was after getting that letter, that they decided to come to Texas.  Nineteen years after he got out of the Army, he died without ever seeing any of his family.

Grandma said they settled on what was later called the old Belcher place that already had a house with a puncheon floor) log split and smooth side up, laid side by side).  Uncle Jim McGaw (Great Aunt Georgia Breedlove's stepson), about eight years old, was living with them at the time.  The wolves would come up and get under the house and howl.  Uncle Jim would set buckets of water to boil on the stove and pour the boiling water through the cracks in the floor to stop the howling.

Cornelia said that the Civil War problems stayed with Grandma, for every now and then, she would bring up some event that happened to the family.  She said she was teaching school and heard a horse coming at a gallop.  She went to the door.  Her father called, "Fannie, turn the children out and come home.  The Yankees are coming."

She said they did not hit their plantation but did shell Aunt Georgia Breedlove's place and the soldiers spent the night sleeping in her beds and using the dresser drawers to feed their horses in.  When they left for Texas, there was still a cannon ball lodged up in a tree in that yard.

I understand Grandpa Belcher died at the early age of 46.  Grandma said it was due to the "poisoning" - that he had a sore on his leg and went out in the early morning dew.  I suppose it may have been blood poisoning, however, he may also have had diabetes.  Several Belchers have been diagnosed and treated for diabetes.  His son, Robert, my uncle, had it and lost a leg before he died.  It was never reported in the Stewarts or Dotsons, so I must conclude that it enters our family from the Belchers.

In putting the Belcher trace in this booklet, I found some gaps and very few dates, but it is, however, a rich history.  The Belchers came to England from Germany, where they were whalers.  Several were knighted and one coat of arms was presented to a Belcher for his part in the Battle of Hastings.  In England, some were rectors and vicars.  Some signed the protestant returns to break away from the Church of England and came here for religious freedom.

Five brothers came to America during the early settling of our country, but only two left descendants, all in Virginia.  Some later went to Missouri following iron and steel work while others were farmers.  Others yet did missionary work with the Osage Indians.  it seems the Belchers stayed involved in church work, mostly the Church of Christ.  The attached Belcher family trace starts in Missouri where I found the first date I could verify.

Grandma's father, mother, three sisters, and four brothers, all Dotsons, cam to Black Jack, Texas, five miles east of Hearne.  While Grandpa, Grandma, and Mama came to Texas by water, the Dodsons came in covered wagons.

After Grandpa died, Grandma gave five acres of land to the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, where all Dotsons and Belchers, including my mother, were members.

I was not a member, going instead to the Methodist Church most of the time.  However, I spent many a Sunday in Mama's church.  They held revival meetings, with services held in a "brush arbor".  Mostly remembered was the food!  "Preaching all day and dinner on the ground."  Or some such saying went the rounds.  Children in this church are special and were treated royally with all kinds of games going on.

Grandpa Belcher came to Hearne with some money and invested in land from Black Jack to Five Points to Sutton.  He died when Mama was 15 and the other four children even younger.  Most of the property was sold in order to rear the family, but Grandma did retain her widow's grant which became the farm on which I was raised.

Grandma was a "sod widow."  A "grass widow" being one divorced, and a "sod widow" one had planted her husband.  Anyway, under Texas law at that time, she was entitled to a widow's grant of 200 acres.  This was partitioned, being divided into five parts of equal worth (some because of location being worth more per acre) and not equal acreage.

My brother Belcher, in his work of abstract title research, located this partition in Robertson County.  Papa, after each Belcher child came of age, bought their portion and that, too, is recorded.  The latest being obtained in 1910.  I believe from Uncle Wint.

When I was quite young, I rode in a covered wagon with Uncle Bob and family from Hearne to Mart, Texas, and returned.  This took over two weeks.  I remember sitting on the foot board of the wagon, holding onto the ends of lines that Uncle Bob held, and thinking I was driving.  I also remember the food!  It seems that I always remember food in my life, so I will take a break now and fix dinner.

You will find the Dotson trace listed in this booklet as far back as 1720, starting in Virginia where most were farmers.  One, probably my great grandfather, received a land grant of a section (640 acres) for his part in the Revolutionary War.  Grandpa and Grandma Belcher were married in Yazoo City, Mississippi, where Mama was born.  They moved to Hearne where Aunt Georgia and my three uncles were born.

Aunt Georgia and Uncle Jim McGaw lived in Calvert, ten miles from Hearne, and we did not visit too often for that was several hours away by horse and buggy.  Uncle Jim would tell Belcher and me stories about his "early days" and the Civil War.  Aunt Georgia was a good cook and made pear, watermelon, and peach preserves that were cooked in deep syrup.  Yet were crisp - mighty good!  They had no children.

Uncle Wint and family lived a little farther away, around Elliott and Franklin, and we did not see them too often.  Aunt Myrtle was beautiful with real dark (black, I think) hair and was nice to us boys.  Uncle Wint chewed Brown Mule plug tobacco and I cut off a small corner one noon and went back to plowing and chewing.  well, I got sick and went to the creek, rinsed my mouth out, lost my lunch, and rubbed sand in my mouth.  I did manage to live, but barely.  I did not chew again for ten years!

One day, Belcher and I were trying to swing up into the saddle from the ground, and Uncle Wint said, "Let me show you boys how a real cowboy mounts a horse."  He did, let out a Texas yell, hit the horse with his hat, and away they went.  For about 20 feet, that is.  he didn't see the clothes lines.  It caught him under the chin.  Off he went, with his feet up high and landed on his back.  Mama came out and was helping him get his breath and said, "You boys better make yourselves scarce."  We ran down to the creek.

Uncle Wint told his children that he may have never married if he had not met their mother.  He, at one time, was going with an 18-year-old girl and they wanted to get married.  Grandma was a very strong-willed woman and Uncle Wint knew that if she found out about it, she would put a stop to his getting married.  He told them that he bought a suit of clothes to get married in, rolled it up and hit it in a hollow tree in the yard.  Sure enough, Grandma found it and stopped the wedding.  He never found anyone he wanted to marry until he met their mother.

Uncle Wint played the piano in the Baptist Church in Hearne.  Aunt Georgia also played the piano and organ.  At times, Uncle Mark, as a youngster, would not come in at lunchtime and Grandma would send Green Butler to look for him in the woods.  He would often find him with several other young people grouped around him while he played the violin.

Uncle Mark was single when I was growing up and came by once a year.  he could play a violin real good, but his best performance was on the piano.  When he started to play, Mama would move everything off the piano for he really would beat it.  He played everything by ear.  One tune, which he made up, he called "The Old Slow Drag."  He said, "Now listen closely and you can hear the cotton pickers caterwauling in the fields."

If you have heard Negroes singing in a choir, you know how great it is.  But, to hear them sing in the field, where they may be 20 feet apart, is even more beautiful.  When Uncle mark played that tune, he would bring in the different notes of different singers and you could just visualize a dozen people singing in the fields.  That I can clearly remember.

When Mama was about 14, she liked to read novels and after Grandpa became a preacher, he did not believe novels were good reading.  He forbid mama to read them.  There was a hired hand on the farm who helped mama out.  He made a board rest well up in a large mulberry tree that she could climb up to, sit on, and continue to read her novels hidden among the leaves.  In fact, she continued to read very much for the rest of her life.

I am sure you have noticed my sisters' names, some of which may have been from stories Mama was reading.  I remember we had a calf that mama named "Napanee," probably from an Indian name.  One of my sisters remarked that she was sure glad mama wasn't reading that when she was born.

Grandma was scared quite often of the wild things in the woods and my uncles delighted in scaring her with stories of what they encountered while hunting.  one time, they went into a mud hole, got covered with mud, and told Grandma they had fallen into the Brazos River, nearly being swept away.  But, she did a good job of raising them just the same.

Now about Uncle Bob and Aunt Pink's family.  They usually lived within walking distance of our place.  We younger Stewarts and the Belcher kids were pretty close.  so, they really seem like part of the family.  They, like all the Belchers, come under the heading of "Good People."

They lived an easy lifestyle; all worked, yet had time to play and to live.  There was always a sound of laughter in their homes.  Most things they said were meant to lighten one's spirit.  Bob and Aunt Pink called each other "Hon" and "Sug' - and love was openly evident.

Mama and Papa, I am sure, loved each other and each of us kids (most of the time), yet it was not vocalized.

Cecil played with Belcher and me until I left home.  I saw him a few times after that and he had never changed.  The last time was a few years before he died.  He and I went to lunch in Bryan where everyone seemed to know and love him.  He introduced me to a well dressed gentleman as a "cousin, he and I skunt (skinned) saplings together."  I won't interpret that for you, but it expresses a great deal.

Uncle Bob could stare at a real mean dog and it would quiet down.  Or oft times, whimper and slink away.  He said the secret was to not show fear.  I never learned how to get my mind to do that!

Uncle Bob also said that if you saw a sleeping dog and it was sort of growling, to lay your hat over its head and you would dream the same dream that night.  I asked him if he ever did that and he said, "Yes, I did and I dreamed I had my head in a garbage can and someone was kicking me!"  All you had to do was mention something and he would come up with an entertaining answer.

They lived closer to the swampy country and some had malaria with chills and fever.  None of us in the San Hill had malaria and I am thankful I didn't for it is rough.  Cecil had what was termed "the three day chills."  You could nearly set your clock on the day it hit.  One day Cecil said he heard of a new cure and he was going to try it.

He ran around the house three times counter-clockwise, then ran in and dove under the bed.  The theory was if you did it just right, when you went under the bed, the chill would go over the bed - and you would miss it!  It didn't work - and Cecil was skinned from his head to the top of his feet on the rough flooring.  The chill hit on schedule and he shook and shook.  So, here is where we Stewarts inherited our humor and ability to control our attitudes over all factors affecting our lives.

I mentioned that the old Belcher cemetery is located on our farm with several graves other than members of the Belcher family.  Interred in it are Grandpa and Grandma Belcher, Uncle Mark, Uncle Berry, and Aunt Georgia.