Dr. McLennan will got you well--oh please--please--" the child covered
his mouth to stifle any sound of weeping. He hid his face in the crook
of his arm and shook as with a chill. Quietly Whitley rose and put his
arm about the little brother, too upset, himself, to speak out what was
in his heart for the adored friend and parent.
As she hurried from the room Ann's hand dashed an unbid tear fron her
eye and she ran out the back way to find Uncle Bill. His good black face
peered around the corner of the open hall and Ann motioned to him to
come into the sickroom. "First, tell Caleb to ride as fast as my little
Nancy can gallop for Dr. McLennan." At the door she whisperod, undress
Mr. Andrew as carefully as you can--just his boots and undo his weskit
and pants so he will lie in comfort--thank you--"
Back in the yard where the Negroes were still camping in temporary
quarters the people sensing the tragedy, moaned softly and shook their
heads in sympathy with their white-folks. "Hit shore bad times when de
master is took." Lyman was saying.
Dr. McLennan arrived and ministered to the man sick to death of yellow
fever, but there was nothing could save him. Ann wrote heartbrokenly in
her journal, "I have no widow's weeds to mourn him in, and no time to
dwell upon my grief. Despite the tugging at my heart to be with my
people I would not retrace our steps for all the corn, cotton, and
cattle in the state of Coahuila and Texas. Andrew wished earnestly to
see his sons established in this land, and it shall be so by God's
help."
The widow Cavitt, with one fifteen year old son and the other six
younger, was left a stranger in a strange land, now the head of a big
family and looked to by 30 slaves for provisions and care. Fortunately
for her all the Negroes were of the same mind as Uncle Bill and with the
reliability and faithfulness of these, her people, Ann Cavitt managed to
carry out what she felt her husband would have liked. True to their
reputation of neighborliness, all her acquaintances made Ann feel that
there wasn't anything she could ask they would not try to grant.
Hospitality was unbounded. Though few in numbers the settlers were true
to each other unless, as occasionally happened, a rogue or scalaway
wormed his way into the midst of the true and faithful members of a
community cooperating in their aim to make a home out of the
wilderness....such rich wilderness!
It was often said that Texas was heaven for men and dogs but hell for
women and children, Many of the newcomers could not bring with them all
the equipment and comforts they had at their homes back east..,and for
them their whole lives consisted in cooking, tending children, doing any
hard labor that there were not enough men to accomplish....either in the
fields or in house or barn-raisings....cutting wood, fending off wild
animals and unfriendly Indian mauraders.
Few were able, as Ann Cavett Cavitt was, to bring out their looms and
spinning wheels, even their chickens and cows had of necessity been sold
before they put on their doors G...T...T...Gone to Texas. In the Texas
early days of the 1800's there were no newspapers, few books other than
Bibles and an occasional book of poetry, no schools and few churches to
add scope to the lives of the pioneering women....to break the monotony.
But invention and recolloctions brought about the quilting bees, the all
day preachings with dinner on the grounds, barn raisings, and square
dancing and singings.
Wild game was plentiful everywhere. Herds of buffalo, deer, antelope,
and wild horses roamed throughout Texas. Wild cattle could be caught
and domesticated, but the milk produced by this kind of cow was so
sparse it took seven to give enough milk to wet the breakfast mush for a
family. Turkey, quail, prairie chicken, and doves, bear and all
varieties of small game beside the streams full of fish made food for
the taking...by shooting or trapping.
Bee trees were everywhere, and it was the hunger for this sweet that
brought about the death of James Coryell, as we have been told in the
Cavitt family chronicles from time
--
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The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched.
It must be felt with the heart.
Helen Keller
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Last Blue Promise...Poetry and Links to All my Web Sites
http://www.fortunecity.com/bally/meath/45/index.html
...It is in silence where music lies...
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Listowner CARRINGTON and CAVITT surnames
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