"Oh Susanna" with Peters Colony on your knee

Stephen Collins Foster (July 4, 1826 – January 13, 1864),
What does the song "Oh Susanna" have to do with Ellis County? 20 petitioners were originally involved in the Peters Colony that was a major force in bringing settlers into the Ellis County area. Of the American petitioners, 4 were from the Peters family and seemed to be the prime mover's in the organization of the colony. Hence the name Peters Colony. In the 1840's one of the major players in the Peters Colony was William C Peters a music teacher turned publisher. One of his students, Stephen Foster, as a gift, gave him the copyright to "Oh Susanna". W C Peters with his company Peters, Field and Company from Cincinnati did pay Stephen Foster a $100. People claim that W C Peters did not treat Stephen Foster fairly. But there was not really a song writers industry at the time and Foster never proclaimed to have been treated wrong by W C Peters. In fact he had written someone on the "delight" he experienced when he received two $50 bills for "Oh Susanna." "Oh Susanna" became a big hit and made W C Peters wealthy. W C Peters sold the song for $10,000. Using an inflation calculator the song would have sold today for about $200,000. Seeing that Foster died impoverished at the age of 37 with 38 cents on him, you can see where people feel he was taken advantage. The song was influenced by minstrel music Foster was exposed to at the age of 16 and by the full lyrics is very offensive and definitely politically incorrect. Though it is said that Stephen Foster was not a racist and instructed his performers to sing his songs with compassion towards the slave. Only God knew his heart I guess. Stephen Foster never visited Ellis County but his successful hit "oh Susanna" did help make W C Peters wealthy and maybe helped keep his investment in the Peters Colony alive a while longer.

reference "The Peters Colony" by Seymour V. Conor, Wikipedia

The incident in Ovilla that gave Squaw Creek it's name

1843 Ovilla, Texas. Mr Mitchell was watching over his heard of cattle. (His land was one mile north of the Billingsley settlement(also called Shilo then.) All the sudden there was a disturbance in the herd. INDIANS! The band of Indians brought down his cattle with their bows and arrows. They slaughtered Mr. Mitchell's cattle and began to eat the beef raw! (When I read that part, I flashed back to "Dances with Wolves" when Dunbar ate the raw Buffalo liver .) Mr Mitchell sent a runner to the Billingsley settlement. The Billingsley's hid their family in the creek bottom and told their family "to make no noise and answer no calls until Sammy came for them." (I assume Referring to Samuel Billingsley who would have been 50 years old at the time according to the book "The Peters Colony of Texas" pg192.

After boarding up their homes, 10 riflemen one by one in the night came to Mr Mitchell's aid. In the morning they confronted the Indians demanding payment for the slaughtered cattle . Indians hightailed it and took their stolen beef. They headed to the Brazos. The settlers had also sent a runner to Ft Worth to get the Texas Dragoons. The Dragoons ,also known as Texas Rangers, showed up too late for the confrontation but soon picked up the Indians' trail. They ambushed them on the Brazos river bank. The remaining Indians took flight to a cave on a small creek 5miles from the ambush. The Indians were found and all killed except for one Squaw who had ran down the creek only to be caught. The Dragoons named the creek, Squaw Creek after the Indian Squaw. Squaw Creek flows into the Paluxy River near the the Paluxy's intersection with the Brazos just East of Glen Rose, Texas. A canoe web-site shows a good map . It also is dammed for the Comanche Peak Nuclear plant. The Comanche Indians referred to the Peak as "Que-Tah-To-Yah" or "Rocky Butte".


Reference for this is "The Ovilla History Book" pg 14-15. "A Letter from Aaron Billingsley outlining the settlement of Ovilla"

Reading "The Peters Colony of Texas" by Seymour V. Conor I have found a David Mitchell who was involved in the Peters colony. He had a land certificate in Johnson County and in Ellis County. It also says he migrated to the colony a family man before July 1 st 1848. Maybe this is the same Mr Mitchell in our story who lost his cattle?

The Newton Cabin

The Newton Cabin in Midlothian, Texas is one of the surviving Peters Colony structures. The Larkin Newton family came from Neosho, Missouri to receive their 640 acres granted from the Peters Colony. Hanbook of Texas says

"The William Alden Hawkins and Larkin Newton families were the first to obtain permanent land titles at the site, under the authority of the Peters colony in 1848."

The contract agreement required them to be on their land and to have a home built by July 1st 1848. Mr. Newton found timber for the house in Dallas County. Hauled it back to Midlothian. The Newton cabin is built with a technique called The Half-Dovetail Notch. It is a very reliable structure when built properly. According to the Historical marker at the Cabin in Downtown Midlothian(N 32 29.032' W096 59.658), the cabin was originally built approximately 3 miles Southwest from it's current location. So I cranked up my etrex garmin gps and drove until I found 3 miles Southwest from the Cabin. N 32 27.039' W097 01.535' is exactly 3 miles SW of the current cabin location.

It is in the middle of Water works rd at MT Peak. It's near some quarries. Chaparral Steel warehouse is near that location. Since it's an approximate location I figure it was probably built at one of the higher points. I wonder if the quarry company or Chaparral Steel had the Cabin moved and preserved for a gesture to the community or maybe a tax write off? Can you imagine Mr. Newton hauling that wood across wild country? Tells you how valuable Oxen, Horses and mules were back then. That's why they hung you if you stole one.

Here is a quarry near the area.
I wonder what the Newton family's water source was? There is a pond near the area but looks like the Quarry folks built it.
Couldn't tell if a creek fed it. If they had a well I can't imagine getting through all that rock. I don't think they invented dynamite until mid 1860's? The Newton Branch runs through the area but doesn't seem to hold that much water. Maybe it held more back then or enough for what was required to live on. Of course their was Hawkins Spring right down the road/trail.

UPDATE ON CABINS ORIGINAL LOCATION Probably near HERE