Son of Nathaniel Wiley and Adeline Elizabeth Brannan Moore. He married Julia Ann Cosper Sept. 6, 1865 in Randolph County, Alabama.
They had two children, Eliza Elizabeth Moore (born July 6, 1866 - died before 1887, age 21) and Adeline Moore Ross (born 1868), in Alabama before coming to Texas on the Cosper wagon train, arriving in Bell Co. in early February, 1870.
Nathaniel and Julia's children born in Texas:
Nathaniel Henry Moore
Ransom Augustus Moore
Nancy Jane Moore Willis
Benjamin Franklin Moore
James Baylor Moore Sr.
Sherrill Moore
Sadie Frances Moore
Ollie Lee Moore
Millie Malvina Moore Fuller
Nathanial's stepson, Edward Jackson Wiggins wrote the following concerning the trip on the Cosper Wagon Train from Randolph Co., Alabama to Texas:
"Recollections of the Trip From
Randolph County Alabama to Texas
by Edward Jackson Wiggins
I am a grandson of Joel Henry Cosper, son of Julian Cosper Wiggins Moore and I was born in Randolph County Alabama, Dec. 24, 1861. I am 92 years and 11 months old at this writing (Nov., 1953), and I live in Gatesville, Texas. I came to Texas with the Rev. Joel Henry Cosper Wagon Train in the winter of 1869, and we arrived in Bell County, Texas Feb., 1870. We settled on the Lampasas River 4 miles east of the little village of Youngsport, Texas.
The worst hardships I remember on the trip was the bitter cold and rain. It seems to have rained most every day of our entire trip. I was just a small boy and enjoyed the fun and adventures with the other boys. We had about 20 wagons, one buggy, 42 grown people - 106 people including the children, two former slaves and 23 hounddogs. We had one team of mules, several horses including a very large horse that belonged to Granpa Joel. The rest of the stock were steer and oxen to pull the wagons. Every morning it was the boys' job to take the dogs and flank each side of the wagon train and get the meat for food for the day. The wagons were all wood with the exception of a piece of iron underneath the front axle where the coupling worked. When the wooden axle, tongue, wheels or wooden parts were worn out we camped until another could be hewed from a tree. We tapped pine trees to get pine tar to grease the wagons.
We crossed the Mississippi River at Vickburg, Mississippi. We crossed on an old flat boat that was little more than a raft. It had sides and was about 1 ft. to 18 in. high sides and was paddled across by three negroes and one white man. It would hold only two wagons at a time. The first load of two wagons consisted of Aunt Missouri, a widow of one of Grandpa Joel's boys, Francis M., and her children, two boys and two girls.
The river was about a mile wide, and just as the flat boat crossed the middle of the river two steam boats came by that caused such large waves they almost sunk the flat boat. The row men lost control and finally came to the bank below the landing and the boat was about half full of water. Aunt Missouri, scared and mad, asked if they were about to sink but of course she was assured that there was no danger. They finally reached the docks safely, but she overheard the man running the boat say that he thought sure they would sink.
That was enough for Aunt Missouri. ......She said that she would get her shot gun and sit on the river bank and watch the other loads come over and shoot if they missed the landing again. The first load took so long to cross that it was almost night so the others had to wait until the next day to bring the rest of the wagon train across. The crossing was much better by then.
Aunt Missouri had 4 children, 2 boys and 2 girls. Her husband was F. M. Cosper [Francis Marion], and he was wounded in the Battle of Shiloh but died from measles and exposure. He was Granpa Joel's oldest boy. I was about one year old when the boys were killed in the war. Grandpa lost two more of his family and a nephew H. G. Cosper, Ransom H. Gibbs, (Ransom Henry Gibbs), a son-in-law and Joseph Berry Mark Cosper, a nephew.
The trip across Louisiana was very wet, and all the creeks and branches had water in them, and the mud was too deep to leave the road. The Settlers on the route had built crude bridges over the streams and charged to use them, but as we couldn't go around for the deep mud, we had to use the bridges and pay the toll. Some of our oxen gave out on the way, and Grandpa would buy another to replace it. Where we crossed the Red River we had a steam boat to cross on.
We stopped in Rusk County, Texas to spend Christmas. Some of the Cospers and Bridges had settled there several years before we came, so we spent Christmas with them. We had been on the road then over two months. Some of our wagon train decided to stay in Rusk County, but Granpa Joel decided to go on West. When we got to Waco we thought of settling there, but due to the lack of water and large trees to build our houses, Granpa decided to come to Bell County. It was very cold and one of our most faithful steers played out there. When we left him some of the women folks covered him with an old quilt. We reached Bell County in the early part of February 1870.
Most of the timber was in the river bottoms so we settled on the Lampasas River four miles east of Young's Fort, now Youngsport. We lived in tents until the log houses were built. After Grandpa's log house was built, he ran a kind of store or conversary [sic] for the sttlers. He hauled his supplies from Belton, a distance of about 20 miles.
We cleared land and planted food stuffs, corn and grain and once or twice a year it was hauled to mill. Stinet's Mill, Fisher's Mill and Summer's Mill are on the Salado Creek that runs through the town of Salado and empties into the Lampasas and Leon Rivers south of Belton. This is a very swift little creek that has power enough to turn the water wheel for the mill. Summer's Mill is the nearest one to Belton and is now Phillip's Mill. It was operated as a mill until a few years ago, but it burned and was never rebuilt. The others are used for art and sculpture and other things.
At the time we made our trip the Indians were very quiet and didn't give us any trouble until late February, 1870. Then they seemed to start all over again. We had to chain and lock our stock to trees at night to keep them from stealing them. In the spring of 1870 they made a stealing raid on Grandpa's mules and horses. They killed some that they couldn't get, but the mate to the mule they took was chained to the body of a tree so they left him. Some one rode him to follow the trail, and every time he would find the trail he would bray. That old mule lived on for years. The man folks of the settlement tried to catch the Indians, but their horses gave out. They turned back but did get some of the stock back, but not the old mule's mate. Grandpa did get his big horse back the one he always rode when he went every week on his circuit to preach.
We made about eight miles a day on our trip. Every night we circled the wagons and made ready for the night then Grandpa would hold church services. He was a Methodist preacher and a circuit rider.
The early settlers bought their land for $ .50 to $1.00 an acre. By the time the Cospers arrived in Bell County the government had made the land grants to large surveyor companies so they had to buy raw land and develop it. They had very little chance of becoming very wealthy people. We had no railroads to bring in farming machinery or to get our products to market. We made our plows to cultivate our farms out of wood with a point and a handle bar with a wood mouldboard. It took a man to handle the plow and usually one to drive the oxen. About one half acre was all the work one could plow in a day. Wooden rakes or drags were then dragged over the land to pulverize the clods. The plows used in cultivating were straight shovel or bull tongue. We made the stock out of wood. About all the farming we could do was just enough to raise food for our families.
In late 1870 we had built several log houses and two or three families lived in each. Ours was a two room house with a hall between and three families lived there. The nearest lumber mill was at Roundrock, about 50 miles south of us. It had to be hauled by ox wagon and took days to make the trip.
In 1873 there was a big rain on the head of the Lampasas River that overflowed the whole country down the river. It washed away many, many homes because they had settle and built near the river to get water. Jake T. Cosper's (Thomas Jacob Cosper) house was washed away with their tents and all they owned. Ours and Grandpa Joel's was on higher ground, and we were saved.
Aunt Missouri's two boys lived with two of their uncles until they were large enough to work for themselves. Then they went to their mother and worked on ranches near Llano and on the Colorado River.
Edmond Park Cosper and two other families went on about four miles west of Young's Fort and settled on the Lampasas River there. At the time they had one child, the youngest on the wagon train from Alabama, 3 weeks old. They had one son later. This oldest baby, (Thomas Henry Cosper) lived on the old homeplace all of his life and died at the age of 84. [These were family friends of my parents', Thomas Henry Cosper, grandson of Joel Henry Cosper, and his wife Martha Ella Gartman.]
My mother, Julia A. Cosper, married three times. Jesse Benjamin Wiggins was my father and died during the Civil War. Her second husband was Nat Moore [Nathaniel William Moore]. After his death here in Texas, she married John Cawthon of Salado, Texas.
JACKSON WIGGINS, NOV. 14, 1954. "
From the book "Cospers of the South and Southwest" by Zell Ray Hunt.
They had two children, Eliza Elizabeth Moore (born July 6, 1866 - died before 1887, age 21) and Adeline Moore Ross (born 1868), in Alabama before coming to Texas on the Cosper wagon train, arriving in Bell Co. in early February, 1870.
Nathaniel and Julia's children born in Texas:
Nathaniel Henry Moore
Ransom Augustus Moore
Nancy Jane Moore Willis
Benjamin Franklin Moore
James Baylor Moore Sr.
Sherrill Moore
Sadie Frances Moore
Ollie Lee Moore
Millie Malvina Moore Fuller
Nathanial's stepson, Edward Jackson Wiggins wrote the following concerning the trip on the Cosper Wagon Train from Randolph Co., Alabama to Texas:
"Recollections of the Trip From
Randolph County Alabama to Texas
by Edward Jackson Wiggins
I am a grandson of Joel Henry Cosper, son of Julian Cosper Wiggins Moore and I was born in Randolph County Alabama, Dec. 24, 1861. I am 92 years and 11 months old at this writing (Nov., 1953), and I live in Gatesville, Texas. I came to Texas with the Rev. Joel Henry Cosper Wagon Train in the winter of 1869, and we arrived in Bell County, Texas Feb., 1870. We settled on the Lampasas River 4 miles east of the little village of Youngsport, Texas.
The worst hardships I remember on the trip was the bitter cold and rain. It seems to have rained most every day of our entire trip. I was just a small boy and enjoyed the fun and adventures with the other boys. We had about 20 wagons, one buggy, 42 grown people - 106 people including the children, two former slaves and 23 hounddogs. We had one team of mules, several horses including a very large horse that belonged to Granpa Joel. The rest of the stock were steer and oxen to pull the wagons. Every morning it was the boys' job to take the dogs and flank each side of the wagon train and get the meat for food for the day. The wagons were all wood with the exception of a piece of iron underneath the front axle where the coupling worked. When the wooden axle, tongue, wheels or wooden parts were worn out we camped until another could be hewed from a tree. We tapped pine trees to get pine tar to grease the wagons.
We crossed the Mississippi River at Vickburg, Mississippi. We crossed on an old flat boat that was little more than a raft. It had sides and was about 1 ft. to 18 in. high sides and was paddled across by three negroes and one white man. It would hold only two wagons at a time. The first load of two wagons consisted of Aunt Missouri, a widow of one of Grandpa Joel's boys, Francis M., and her children, two boys and two girls.
The river was about a mile wide, and just as the flat boat crossed the middle of the river two steam boats came by that caused such large waves they almost sunk the flat boat. The row men lost control and finally came to the bank below the landing and the boat was about half full of water. Aunt Missouri, scared and mad, asked if they were about to sink but of course she was assured that there was no danger. They finally reached the docks safely, but she overheard the man running the boat say that he thought sure they would sink.
That was enough for Aunt Missouri. ......She said that she would get her shot gun and sit on the river bank and watch the other loads come over and shoot if they missed the landing again. The first load took so long to cross that it was almost night so the others had to wait until the next day to bring the rest of the wagon train across. The crossing was much better by then.
Aunt Missouri had 4 children, 2 boys and 2 girls. Her husband was F. M. Cosper [Francis Marion], and he was wounded in the Battle of Shiloh but died from measles and exposure. He was Granpa Joel's oldest boy. I was about one year old when the boys were killed in the war. Grandpa lost two more of his family and a nephew H. G. Cosper, Ransom H. Gibbs, (Ransom Henry Gibbs), a son-in-law and Joseph Berry Mark Cosper, a nephew.
The trip across Louisiana was very wet, and all the creeks and branches had water in them, and the mud was too deep to leave the road. The Settlers on the route had built crude bridges over the streams and charged to use them, but as we couldn't go around for the deep mud, we had to use the bridges and pay the toll. Some of our oxen gave out on the way, and Grandpa would buy another to replace it. Where we crossed the Red River we had a steam boat to cross on.
We stopped in Rusk County, Texas to spend Christmas. Some of the Cospers and Bridges had settled there several years before we came, so we spent Christmas with them. We had been on the road then over two months. Some of our wagon train decided to stay in Rusk County, but Granpa Joel decided to go on West. When we got to Waco we thought of settling there, but due to the lack of water and large trees to build our houses, Granpa decided to come to Bell County. It was very cold and one of our most faithful steers played out there. When we left him some of the women folks covered him with an old quilt. We reached Bell County in the early part of February 1870.
Most of the timber was in the river bottoms so we settled on the Lampasas River four miles east of Young's Fort, now Youngsport. We lived in tents until the log houses were built. After Grandpa's log house was built, he ran a kind of store or conversary [sic] for the sttlers. He hauled his supplies from Belton, a distance of about 20 miles.
We cleared land and planted food stuffs, corn and grain and once or twice a year it was hauled to mill. Stinet's Mill, Fisher's Mill and Summer's Mill are on the Salado Creek that runs through the town of Salado and empties into the Lampasas and Leon Rivers south of Belton. This is a very swift little creek that has power enough to turn the water wheel for the mill. Summer's Mill is the nearest one to Belton and is now Phillip's Mill. It was operated as a mill until a few years ago, but it burned and was never rebuilt. The others are used for art and sculpture and other things.
At the time we made our trip the Indians were very quiet and didn't give us any trouble until late February, 1870. Then they seemed to start all over again. We had to chain and lock our stock to trees at night to keep them from stealing them. In the spring of 1870 they made a stealing raid on Grandpa's mules and horses. They killed some that they couldn't get, but the mate to the mule they took was chained to the body of a tree so they left him. Some one rode him to follow the trail, and every time he would find the trail he would bray. That old mule lived on for years. The man folks of the settlement tried to catch the Indians, but their horses gave out. They turned back but did get some of the stock back, but not the old mule's mate. Grandpa did get his big horse back the one he always rode when he went every week on his circuit to preach.
We made about eight miles a day on our trip. Every night we circled the wagons and made ready for the night then Grandpa would hold church services. He was a Methodist preacher and a circuit rider.
The early settlers bought their land for $ .50 to $1.00 an acre. By the time the Cospers arrived in Bell County the government had made the land grants to large surveyor companies so they had to buy raw land and develop it. They had very little chance of becoming very wealthy people. We had no railroads to bring in farming machinery or to get our products to market. We made our plows to cultivate our farms out of wood with a point and a handle bar with a wood mouldboard. It took a man to handle the plow and usually one to drive the oxen. About one half acre was all the work one could plow in a day. Wooden rakes or drags were then dragged over the land to pulverize the clods. The plows used in cultivating were straight shovel or bull tongue. We made the stock out of wood. About all the farming we could do was just enough to raise food for our families.
In late 1870 we had built several log houses and two or three families lived in each. Ours was a two room house with a hall between and three families lived there. The nearest lumber mill was at Roundrock, about 50 miles south of us. It had to be hauled by ox wagon and took days to make the trip.
In 1873 there was a big rain on the head of the Lampasas River that overflowed the whole country down the river. It washed away many, many homes because they had settle and built near the river to get water. Jake T. Cosper's (Thomas Jacob Cosper) house was washed away with their tents and all they owned. Ours and Grandpa Joel's was on higher ground, and we were saved.
Aunt Missouri's two boys lived with two of their uncles until they were large enough to work for themselves. Then they went to their mother and worked on ranches near Llano and on the Colorado River.
Edmond Park Cosper and two other families went on about four miles west of Young's Fort and settled on the Lampasas River there. At the time they had one child, the youngest on the wagon train from Alabama, 3 weeks old. They had one son later. This oldest baby, (Thomas Henry Cosper) lived on the old homeplace all of his life and died at the age of 84. [These were family friends of my parents', Thomas Henry Cosper, grandson of Joel Henry Cosper, and his wife Martha Ella Gartman.]
My mother, Julia A. Cosper, married three times. Jesse Benjamin Wiggins was my father and died during the Civil War. Her second husband was Nat Moore [Nathaniel William Moore]. After his death here in Texas, she married John Cawthon of Salado, Texas.
JACKSON WIGGINS, NOV. 14, 1954. "
From the book "Cospers of the South and Southwest" by Zell Ray Hunt.
Son of Nathaniel Wiley and Adeline Elizabeth Brannan Moore. He married Julia Ann Cosper Sept. 6, 1865 in Randolph County, Alabama.
They had two children, Eliza Elizabeth Moore (born July 6, 1866 - died before 1887, age 21) and Adeline Moore Ross (born 1868), in Alabama before coming to Texas on the Cosper wagon train, arriving in Bell Co. in early February, 1870.
Nathaniel and Julia's children born in Texas:
Nathaniel Henry Moore
Ransom Augustus Moore
Nancy Jane Moore Willis
Benjamin Franklin Moore
James Baylor Moore Sr.
Sherrill Moore
Sadie Frances Moore
Ollie Lee Moore
Millie Malvina Moore Fuller
Nathanial's stepson, Edward Jackson Wiggins wrote the following concerning the trip on the Cosper Wagon Train from Randolph Co., Alabama to Texas:
"Recollections of the Trip From
Randolph County Alabama to Texas
by Edward Jackson Wiggins
I am a grandson of Joel Henry Cosper, son of Julian Cosper Wiggins Moore and I was born in Randolph County Alabama, Dec. 24, 1861. I am 92 years and 11 months old at this writing (Nov., 1953), and I live in Gatesville, Texas. I came to Texas with the Rev. Joel Henry Cosper Wagon Train in the winter of 1869, and we arrived in Bell County, Texas Feb., 1870. We settled on the Lampasas River 4 miles east of the little village of Youngsport, Texas.
The worst hardships I remember on the trip was the bitter cold and rain. It seems to have rained most every day of our entire trip. I was just a small boy and enjoyed the fun and adventures with the other boys. We had about 20 wagons, one buggy, 42 grown people - 106 people including the children, two former slaves and 23 hounddogs. We had one team of mules, several horses including a very large horse that belonged to Granpa Joel. The rest of the stock were steer and oxen to pull the wagons. Every morning it was the boys' job to take the dogs and flank each side of the wagon train and get the meat for food for the day. The wagons were all wood with the exception of a piece of iron underneath the front axle where the coupling worked. When the wooden axle, tongue, wheels or wooden parts were worn out we camped until another could be hewed from a tree. We tapped pine trees to get pine tar to grease the wagons.
We crossed the Mississippi River at Vickburg, Mississippi. We crossed on an old flat boat that was little more than a raft. It had sides and was about 1 ft. to 18 in. high sides and was paddled across by three negroes and one white man. It would hold only two wagons at a time. The first load of two wagons consisted of Aunt Missouri, a widow of one of Grandpa Joel's boys, Francis M., and her children, two boys and two girls.
The river was about a mile wide, and just as the flat boat crossed the middle of the river two steam boats came by that caused such large waves they almost sunk the flat boat. The row men lost control and finally came to the bank below the landing and the boat was about half full of water. Aunt Missouri, scared and mad, asked if they were about to sink but of course she was assured that there was no danger. They finally reached the docks safely, but she overheard the man running the boat say that he thought sure they would sink.
That was enough for Aunt Missouri. ......She said that she would get her shot gun and sit on the river bank and watch the other loads come over and shoot if they missed the landing again. The first load took so long to cross that it was almost night so the others had to wait until the next day to bring the rest of the wagon train across. The crossing was much better by then.
Aunt Missouri had 4 children, 2 boys and 2 girls. Her husband was F. M. Cosper [Francis Marion], and he was wounded in the Battle of Shiloh but died from measles and exposure. He was Granpa Joel's oldest boy. I was about one year old when the boys were killed in the war. Grandpa lost two more of his family and a nephew H. G. Cosper, Ransom H. Gibbs, (Ransom Henry Gibbs), a son-in-law and Joseph Berry Mark Cosper, a nephew.
The trip across Louisiana was very wet, and all the creeks and branches had water in them, and the mud was too deep to leave the road. The Settlers on the route had built crude bridges over the streams and charged to use them, but as we couldn't go around for the deep mud, we had to use the bridges and pay the toll. Some of our oxen gave out on the way, and Grandpa would buy another to replace it. Where we crossed the Red River we had a steam boat to cross on.
We stopped in Rusk County, Texas to spend Christmas. Some of the Cospers and Bridges had settled there several years before we came, so we spent Christmas with them. We had been on the road then over two months. Some of our wagon train decided to stay in Rusk County, but Granpa Joel decided to go on West. When we got to Waco we thought of settling there, but due to the lack of water and large trees to build our houses, Granpa decided to come to Bell County. It was very cold and one of our most faithful steers played out there. When we left him some of the women folks covered him with an old quilt. We reached Bell County in the early part of February 1870.
Most of the timber was in the river bottoms so we settled on the Lampasas River four miles east of Young's Fort, now Youngsport. We lived in tents until the log houses were built. After Grandpa's log house was built, he ran a kind of store or conversary [sic] for the sttlers. He hauled his supplies from Belton, a distance of about 20 miles.
We cleared land and planted food stuffs, corn and grain and once or twice a year it was hauled to mill. Stinet's Mill, Fisher's Mill and Summer's Mill are on the Salado Creek that runs through the town of Salado and empties into the Lampasas and Leon Rivers south of Belton. This is a very swift little creek that has power enough to turn the water wheel for the mill. Summer's Mill is the nearest one to Belton and is now Phillip's Mill. It was operated as a mill until a few years ago, but it burned and was never rebuilt. The others are used for art and sculpture and other things.
At the time we made our trip the Indians were very quiet and didn't give us any trouble until late February, 1870. Then they seemed to start all over again. We had to chain and lock our stock to trees at night to keep them from stealing them. In the spring of 1870 they made a stealing raid on Grandpa's mules and horses. They killed some that they couldn't get, but the mate to the mule they took was chained to the body of a tree so they left him. Some one rode him to follow the trail, and every time he would find the trail he would bray. That old mule lived on for years. The man folks of the settlement tried to catch the Indians, but their horses gave out. They turned back but did get some of the stock back, but not the old mule's mate. Grandpa did get his big horse back the one he always rode when he went every week on his circuit to preach.
We made about eight miles a day on our trip. Every night we circled the wagons and made ready for the night then Grandpa would hold church services. He was a Methodist preacher and a circuit rider.
The early settlers bought their land for $ .50 to $1.00 an acre. By the time the Cospers arrived in Bell County the government had made the land grants to large surveyor companies so they had to buy raw land and develop it. They had very little chance of becoming very wealthy people. We had no railroads to bring in farming machinery or to get our products to market. We made our plows to cultivate our farms out of wood with a point and a handle bar with a wood mouldboard. It took a man to handle the plow and usually one to drive the oxen. About one half acre was all the work one could plow in a day. Wooden rakes or drags were then dragged over the land to pulverize the clods. The plows used in cultivating were straight shovel or bull tongue. We made the stock out of wood. About all the farming we could do was just enough to raise food for our families.
In late 1870 we had built several log houses and two or three families lived in each. Ours was a two room house with a hall between and three families lived there. The nearest lumber mill was at Roundrock, about 50 miles south of us. It had to be hauled by ox wagon and took days to make the trip.
In 1873 there was a big rain on the head of the Lampasas River that overflowed the whole country down the river. It washed away many, many homes because they had settle and built near the river to get water. Jake T. Cosper's (Thomas Jacob Cosper) house was washed away with their tents and all they owned. Ours and Grandpa Joel's was on higher ground, and we were saved.
Aunt Missouri's two boys lived with two of their uncles until they were large enough to work for themselves. Then they went to their mother and worked on ranches near Llano and on the Colorado River.
Edmond Park Cosper and two other families went on about four miles west of Young's Fort and settled on the Lampasas River there. At the time they had one child, the youngest on the wagon train from Alabama, 3 weeks old. They had one son later. This oldest baby, (Thomas Henry Cosper) lived on the old homeplace all of his life and died at the age of 84. [These were family friends of my parents', Thomas Henry Cosper, grandson of Joel Henry Cosper, and his wife Martha Ella Gartman.]
My mother, Julia A. Cosper, married three times. Jesse Benjamin Wiggins was my father and died during the Civil War. Her second husband was Nat Moore [Nathaniel William Moore]. After his death here in Texas, she married John Cawthon of Salado, Texas.
JACKSON WIGGINS, NOV. 14, 1954. "
From the book "Cospers of the South and Southwest" by Zell Ray Hunt.
They had two children, Eliza Elizabeth Moore (born July 6, 1866 - died before 1887, age 21) and Adeline Moore Ross (born 1868), in Alabama before coming to Texas on the Cosper wagon train, arriving in Bell Co. in early February, 1870.
Nathaniel and Julia's children born in Texas:
Nathaniel Henry Moore
Ransom Augustus Moore
Nancy Jane Moore Willis
Benjamin Franklin Moore
James Baylor Moore Sr.
Sherrill Moore
Sadie Frances Moore
Ollie Lee Moore
Millie Malvina Moore Fuller
Nathanial's stepson, Edward Jackson Wiggins wrote the following concerning the trip on the Cosper Wagon Train from Randolph Co., Alabama to Texas:
"Recollections of the Trip From
Randolph County Alabama to Texas
by Edward Jackson Wiggins
I am a grandson of Joel Henry Cosper, son of Julian Cosper Wiggins Moore and I was born in Randolph County Alabama, Dec. 24, 1861. I am 92 years and 11 months old at this writing (Nov., 1953), and I live in Gatesville, Texas. I came to Texas with the Rev. Joel Henry Cosper Wagon Train in the winter of 1869, and we arrived in Bell County, Texas Feb., 1870. We settled on the Lampasas River 4 miles east of the little village of Youngsport, Texas.
The worst hardships I remember on the trip was the bitter cold and rain. It seems to have rained most every day of our entire trip. I was just a small boy and enjoyed the fun and adventures with the other boys. We had about 20 wagons, one buggy, 42 grown people - 106 people including the children, two former slaves and 23 hounddogs. We had one team of mules, several horses including a very large horse that belonged to Granpa Joel. The rest of the stock were steer and oxen to pull the wagons. Every morning it was the boys' job to take the dogs and flank each side of the wagon train and get the meat for food for the day. The wagons were all wood with the exception of a piece of iron underneath the front axle where the coupling worked. When the wooden axle, tongue, wheels or wooden parts were worn out we camped until another could be hewed from a tree. We tapped pine trees to get pine tar to grease the wagons.
We crossed the Mississippi River at Vickburg, Mississippi. We crossed on an old flat boat that was little more than a raft. It had sides and was about 1 ft. to 18 in. high sides and was paddled across by three negroes and one white man. It would hold only two wagons at a time. The first load of two wagons consisted of Aunt Missouri, a widow of one of Grandpa Joel's boys, Francis M., and her children, two boys and two girls.
The river was about a mile wide, and just as the flat boat crossed the middle of the river two steam boats came by that caused such large waves they almost sunk the flat boat. The row men lost control and finally came to the bank below the landing and the boat was about half full of water. Aunt Missouri, scared and mad, asked if they were about to sink but of course she was assured that there was no danger. They finally reached the docks safely, but she overheard the man running the boat say that he thought sure they would sink.
That was enough for Aunt Missouri. ......She said that she would get her shot gun and sit on the river bank and watch the other loads come over and shoot if they missed the landing again. The first load took so long to cross that it was almost night so the others had to wait until the next day to bring the rest of the wagon train across. The crossing was much better by then.
Aunt Missouri had 4 children, 2 boys and 2 girls. Her husband was F. M. Cosper [Francis Marion], and he was wounded in the Battle of Shiloh but died from measles and exposure. He was Granpa Joel's oldest boy. I was about one year old when the boys were killed in the war. Grandpa lost two more of his family and a nephew H. G. Cosper, Ransom H. Gibbs, (Ransom Henry Gibbs), a son-in-law and Joseph Berry Mark Cosper, a nephew.
The trip across Louisiana was very wet, and all the creeks and branches had water in them, and the mud was too deep to leave the road. The Settlers on the route had built crude bridges over the streams and charged to use them, but as we couldn't go around for the deep mud, we had to use the bridges and pay the toll. Some of our oxen gave out on the way, and Grandpa would buy another to replace it. Where we crossed the Red River we had a steam boat to cross on.
We stopped in Rusk County, Texas to spend Christmas. Some of the Cospers and Bridges had settled there several years before we came, so we spent Christmas with them. We had been on the road then over two months. Some of our wagon train decided to stay in Rusk County, but Granpa Joel decided to go on West. When we got to Waco we thought of settling there, but due to the lack of water and large trees to build our houses, Granpa decided to come to Bell County. It was very cold and one of our most faithful steers played out there. When we left him some of the women folks covered him with an old quilt. We reached Bell County in the early part of February 1870.
Most of the timber was in the river bottoms so we settled on the Lampasas River four miles east of Young's Fort, now Youngsport. We lived in tents until the log houses were built. After Grandpa's log house was built, he ran a kind of store or conversary [sic] for the sttlers. He hauled his supplies from Belton, a distance of about 20 miles.
We cleared land and planted food stuffs, corn and grain and once or twice a year it was hauled to mill. Stinet's Mill, Fisher's Mill and Summer's Mill are on the Salado Creek that runs through the town of Salado and empties into the Lampasas and Leon Rivers south of Belton. This is a very swift little creek that has power enough to turn the water wheel for the mill. Summer's Mill is the nearest one to Belton and is now Phillip's Mill. It was operated as a mill until a few years ago, but it burned and was never rebuilt. The others are used for art and sculpture and other things.
At the time we made our trip the Indians were very quiet and didn't give us any trouble until late February, 1870. Then they seemed to start all over again. We had to chain and lock our stock to trees at night to keep them from stealing them. In the spring of 1870 they made a stealing raid on Grandpa's mules and horses. They killed some that they couldn't get, but the mate to the mule they took was chained to the body of a tree so they left him. Some one rode him to follow the trail, and every time he would find the trail he would bray. That old mule lived on for years. The man folks of the settlement tried to catch the Indians, but their horses gave out. They turned back but did get some of the stock back, but not the old mule's mate. Grandpa did get his big horse back the one he always rode when he went every week on his circuit to preach.
We made about eight miles a day on our trip. Every night we circled the wagons and made ready for the night then Grandpa would hold church services. He was a Methodist preacher and a circuit rider.
The early settlers bought their land for $ .50 to $1.00 an acre. By the time the Cospers arrived in Bell County the government had made the land grants to large surveyor companies so they had to buy raw land and develop it. They had very little chance of becoming very wealthy people. We had no railroads to bring in farming machinery or to get our products to market. We made our plows to cultivate our farms out of wood with a point and a handle bar with a wood mouldboard. It took a man to handle the plow and usually one to drive the oxen. About one half acre was all the work one could plow in a day. Wooden rakes or drags were then dragged over the land to pulverize the clods. The plows used in cultivating were straight shovel or bull tongue. We made the stock out of wood. About all the farming we could do was just enough to raise food for our families.
In late 1870 we had built several log houses and two or three families lived in each. Ours was a two room house with a hall between and three families lived there. The nearest lumber mill was at Roundrock, about 50 miles south of us. It had to be hauled by ox wagon and took days to make the trip.
In 1873 there was a big rain on the head of the Lampasas River that overflowed the whole country down the river. It washed away many, many homes because they had settle and built near the river to get water. Jake T. Cosper's (Thomas Jacob Cosper) house was washed away with their tents and all they owned. Ours and Grandpa Joel's was on higher ground, and we were saved.
Aunt Missouri's two boys lived with two of their uncles until they were large enough to work for themselves. Then they went to their mother and worked on ranches near Llano and on the Colorado River.
Edmond Park Cosper and two other families went on about four miles west of Young's Fort and settled on the Lampasas River there. At the time they had one child, the youngest on the wagon train from Alabama, 3 weeks old. They had one son later. This oldest baby, (Thomas Henry Cosper) lived on the old homeplace all of his life and died at the age of 84. [These were family friends of my parents', Thomas Henry Cosper, grandson of Joel Henry Cosper, and his wife Martha Ella Gartman.]
My mother, Julia A. Cosper, married three times. Jesse Benjamin Wiggins was my father and died during the Civil War. Her second husband was Nat Moore [Nathaniel William Moore]. After his death here in Texas, she married John Cawthon of Salado, Texas.
JACKSON WIGGINS, NOV. 14, 1954. "
From the book "Cospers of the South and Southwest" by Zell Ray Hunt.
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