A HISTORY
OF
TEXAS AND TEXANS   
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BY
FRANK W. JOHNSON
A LEADER IN THE TEXAS REVOLUTION
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Edited and brought to Date by
EUGENE C. BARKER, PH. D.
PROFESSOR OF AMERICAN HISTORY
THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS
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with the Assistance of
ERNEST WILLIAM WINKLER
TEXAS STATE LIBRARIAN
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VOLUME V
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THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY
CHICAGO AND NEW YORK
1916

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   HENRY  C. GILLILAND. Though for the past fifteen years his home has been in Oklahoma, Henry C. Gilliland is one of the most widely known old timers of North Texas. He came to Texas when a boy more than sixty years ago, and was closely identified with the frontier, Indian fighting and pioneer existence of the years both before and after the Civil war. His career is one that will be read with much interest by his many friends in Texas, and not long ago he wrote and published a little booklet on his life and battles for seventy years from which much of the material for this article is drawn.
   He was born in Jasper County, Missouri, in the lead mines district, on March 11, 1845. His parents were Joseph C. and Lucretia K. Gilliland. His father was of Irish descent, and though poor was highly educated. At the age of sixteen he lost an arm and was consequently given all the advantages that could be obtained in order to fit him mentally as to overcome physical handicap. Mr. Gilliland’s mother was of English descent, and from the Barrington family that has furnished many of the nobility to Great Britain. Mr. Gilliland was one of eight children, six sons and two daughters: Samuel L., James B., William B., Joseph C., Martha A., Henry C., John F. and Ann Eliza.
   In 1851 the family moved to Indpendence, Jackson County, Missouri, and in the fall of 1853 set out for Texas. Henry Clay Gilliland was then eight years of age and has a distinct recollection of the trip. After thirty days of travel the family crossed Red River at Colbert’s Ferry and some time later passed through the city of Sherman which was then only a “clapboard town” as Mr. Gilliland describes it, with a population of about 200 or 300 people.  The intention of his father was to go to California, but as it was late in the season they remained near Sherman and rented some land which in the following spring they planted to corn. In 1854, after selling the crop, they went on to Dallas County and there in the late summer rented land and sowed twenty acres of wheat. Leaving this crop to grow they went to the unorganized County of Parker, thirty-one miles west of Fort Worth. There was nothing at the time either in Dallas or Fort Worth to attract this colony of people to make a permanent home in those cities. Their home in Parker County was five miles northeast of Weatherford, where Henry Clay Gilliland gained his first knowledge of Indians, buffalo and other forntier conditions. The Indians for some years were quite freindly and Henry C. Gilliland was a sturdy boy before Indian hostilities broke out. In the meantime on February 14, 1855, the father died of pneumonia, and in the absence of carpenters or cabinet makers a wagon bed, supplied by a kind hearted neighbor, was torn up and converted into a coffin. The older sons were already working in the woods but the family lived on the simplest terms for several years. Until the crop of wheat planted in Dallas County came to maturity they lived on venison and other game. The first Indian hostilities occurred in 1858 and Mr. Gilliland soon came to know the meaning of Indian raids and the devastation and destruction that followed the course of these marauders.
   In 1861 four of his brothers enlisted in the Confederate army, and in February, 1863, Mr. Gilliland himself, at the age of eighteen, enlisted in Company H of the Second Texas Cavalry. Two of his older brothers were members of the same company. One of the brothers was then known over the state as one of Texas’ best fiddlers. On leaving home he had left his fiddle behind and Henry C. Gilliland began practicing on the strings and acquiring his first knowledge of an art which has since made him conspicuous among the “old time fiddlers” of the Southwest. After the war, in which he served from 1863 until the close, Mr. Gilliland and his brother returned home to take up the heavy task of reconstruction and rehabilitation. There was little progress in Northwest Texas at the time due to the constant threat of Indian hostilities. On July 5, 1869, Mr. Gilliland had his greatest battle with the Indians. He tells the story of that day in the little book already referred to, and it makes one of the interesting chapters in the Indian annals of Southwest Texas. Mr. Gilliland played a very prominent part and was practically a leader in the band of men who took up the chase and practically exterminated a band of the Comanche Indians on that day. After recounting the story of the battle Mr. Gilliland writes: “I could tell you of many other engagements and of our troubles but it is hardly necessary to go over the battle ground and recall the many inhuman treatments received by the white settlers. They continued to trouble us and steal our horses and murder our people until 1875. The ground upon which this last Indian battle was fought is now a beautiful farm. During these long and tedious months I was busy with my fiddle. They were having balls all over the country and I was one of their fiddlers and dancers. I did not play in contests then, for they did not have them, but the time soon came when the ‘old fiddlers’ had their contests and I had to meet such men as Jesse Roberts, Polk Harris, Mose J. Bonner, Sam P. Stafford, Jim Gunn and hundreds of others. Among that number was Mat Brown, the best fiddler on earth, who met death on June 18, 1915, while fishing at Spur, Texas.
   “At the close of 1869, or during its summer months we became acquainted with the people and especially the young girls of Parker County and among them was a Miss Susie Borden. She was a beautiful young woman and was born September 2, 1847, being two years younger than myself. December 9, 1869, we were married. We were very poor but knew how to work. We settled down and worked with a will that knows not of failure, and finally there was a company formed in our county to fight the Indians.  Captain Willis Hunter was the captain of that company and at the end of one year I was elected its captain. I had one hundred-fifteen men who were regarded as fighters, but before we had a fight our company was called in and disbanded. I now had little to do but practice on my fiddle and soon there was a fiddlers’ contests called for at Weatherford. I entered that contest and won first honors; then at Fort Worth another contest was held and I won again; then a contest at Cleburne and William Snyder won. After this contests were held all over the country from Dallas to Fort Worth and from there to Dalhart, and I won many of the first prizes. In Oklahoma I played in thirteen prize contests and won twelve of the thirteen.”
   From 1888 to 1890 Mr. Gilliland served as district clerk of Parker County. During all those years he was actively engaged in working his farm, in fighting Indians and in participating in the various fiddlers’ contests. In 1901 he sold his interests in Texas and moved to Oklahoma, and for the past fifteen years he has lived at Altus. He served as city clerk for several years, and at the present writing is justice of the peace at Altus. He is a democrat  and has held all the offices in the subordinate lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. His church is the Baptist.
   On May 25, 1913, Mr. Gilliland lost his first wife, after a happy married companionship of over forty years. To their marriage were born the following children:  Mary L., who first married John Cockburn, Mr. Cockburn having been waylaid and killed by horse thieves about twelve years ago; he was an officer in Oklahoma. One year ago Mrs. Cockburn married John Gipson and now lives in Eldorado, Oklahoma. The oldest son is William H. Gilliland, and he married Florence Stevenson in Oklahoma. James B. Gilliland married Miss Nellie Shick. Ida May is the wife of Mark Lingenfelter and they live in Oklahoma. Susan Anna is the wife of L. A. Walker. Sam B. Gilliland is still unmarried. Mrs. Gilliland was the daughter of Maj. Marshall Borden.
   On August 20, 1914, a romantic courtship terminated in the marriage of Mr. Gilliland to Mrs. Mary Self of Fort Worth, Texas. Mrs. Gilliland, who is twenty-six years younger than her husband, had for some time been a great admirer of Mr. Gilliland’s prowess as a fiddler and after they met their acquaintance ripened quickly into love and matrimony.

-- transcription by Kate Maynard, 2010