OLD McKINNEY HOME BEING
REMODELED
[J. M. Muse]
Democrat
February 8, 1912
(Hon. J. M. Muse
is having his big two-story residence on Waddill street remodeled. This old
Southern home is a landmark at McKinney. Its erection was commenced
sixty-two years ago. By special request, Mr. Muse wrote the following story
of his old home, which he is now having remodeled.)
The Story of an
Old House.
In 1857 Rev.
James Sanford Muse, a pioneer Christian minister and teacher, father of T.
H. Muse and of the late Judge P. B. muse, came to this country; and, sixty
two years ago, he began the erection of the house which I, his grandson am
now having remodeled and repaired. It took part of two years to build it. A
man named Courcy took the contract for $3000 which in those days was "some
money" though it would not be considered as so very much now. When the $3000
was exhausted the building was about half completed. Courcy gave up the job,
and my grandfather hired carpenters at $1.50 per day to complete it. When
completed, it cost $6000.
Among the
carpenters who worked on it were M. R. Johnson a millwright, a Mr. Reaves, a
Mr. Burke, and an negro man Jim, who belonged to my grandfather. Jim was a
son of aunt Melviny and a brother of Aggie Doty, who now lived in the suburb
of Lewisville. The head carpenter was William Ballew (no kin to Moot
Ballew), who was an uncle of the only white man ever legally executed in
Collin county. The head painter was a Norwegian named Spanberg, who was said
to have served an apprenticeship of seven years at Christiana before he was
allowed to ply his trade.
The house was
set upon bois d'arc blocks, and the sills were oak logs 8 x 10 cut in east
Fork bottom and sawed at the old Watts sawmill. The balance of the lumber
was all heart pine hauled on ox wagons from Jefferson, Texas. Uncle Mose
Wright, who lived in East McKinney tells me that he hauled some of the
lumber. It is said that my grandfather stood by and personally saw that not
a single stick of lumber that was not all heart went into the building.
All the lumber
was dressed by hand at the work bench, and the doors and wainscoting were
all made by hand. This was before the days of sized lumber ans sash
factories in this country. The frame work of the house was put together with
mortise and tenon and a pin put through the tenon, as at that time they had
no spikes and this was long before the days of round nails - the largest
nail used in the house being a tenpenny cut square nail. In addition to the
ordinary frame of 2 x 4, the house was framed like a mill with 8 inch square
pine logs, mortised and tenoned together marking out the outline of the
rooms. On the inside corners these eight inch square logs had four inches
cut out, so that they showed four inches on which to nail ceiling each way,
still showing the full eight inches on the outside each way - making a solid
corner. The studding rough and unsized some of it 3 x 4 instead of 2 x 4 was
mortised into the sill below and the plate above; and for greater security,
diagonal braces of oak were mortised into these corner posts sills and
plates. This method of construction made it possible to leave out any inside
wall and fill its place with folding doors for the whole side of a room and
this was done so that four rooms could be thrown into one. The overhead
ceiling which was only half an inch thick was hand dressed and ploughed for
tongue and groove at the work bench and fitted together so smoothly that the
joints were practically invisible when painted, and it is said that Spanberg
the painter almost made good this boast that he would make the ceiling so
smooth and glossy that the old gentleman could look up and see himself as in
a mirror.
Its many large
windows, three and one half by six feet in size, overlooked the country in
all four directions. About one hundred and fifty years to the south was the
large two story residence of Judge R. L. Waddill Sr. father of R. L., G. M.
and Miss Fannie Waddill. The old Waddill home burned down several years ago.
Some distance off to the south east tops of the few houses forming the then
little village of McKinney could be seen. To the west was the residence of
Albert Graves, father of our fellow townsman Wick Graves and of Lucretius H.
Graves deceased. A little north of west was the handsome two story residence
of Isaac graves deceased, grandfather of Vernie Graves and of Goodney
Graves, which house has been remodeled and is now owned and occupied by
Beecher Cameron and family. The old houses mentioned were all built about
the same time. Following what is now Wadddill street north and west in the
direction of Pilot Point out several miles there was a house occupied by a
man named Rodman and another by the name of Champion. Down the hill a couple
of hundred yards west of the house was a little row of one and two room
shanties known as "the quarters." A vivid picture of such scenes as this
will come up in the minds of some of the older people; but we of the younger
generation have a very hazy conception of the trappings and accoutrements of
that relic of barbarism, which was outgrown and finally thrown off by the
American nation in the throes of Civil War.
There were no
reads fenced on either side as in those days' folks were not confined to a
certain traveled way; they could mount a horse and take a straight course
for the place they wanted to go to over gently rolling prairies and through
skirts of timber. Barbed wire had not been thought of, and there were no
fences except around little patches here and there and those fences were
zigzag rail fences (worm fences) which had to be rebuilt after almost every
storm. Men would sometimes ride upon the square in McKinney with a dozen
Indian scalps at their saddle bow - this is mentioned to remind us that our
ancestors were not too civilized to make the Indian take his own medicine
occasionally. If a man raised more corn than he needed it sometimes happened
that about the best he could do was to give the surplus to his neighbors, as
there were no transportation facilities hence practically no market. One of
the principal articles of merchandise in McKinney was corn whisky, and we
had a distillery in those early days over on East Fork.
Soon after the
completion of the house in the fall of 1860, Lincoln was elected President,
and when he came to take the oath of office in March 1861, the flames of
civil war broke out. My father Thomas H. Muse, at that time less than
seventeen years of age together with his older brother, James Martin Muse
(afterwards killed at the battle of Shiloh, and for whom I was named)
volunteered and went to war in Company I Ninth Texas Infantry, the only
company which went as infantry out of the seventeen companies that lest
Collin county. The company was commanded at first by Capt. Joe Dickson;
afterwards for a short time by William Ballew (the carpenter, who was
Justice of the Peace here when the war broke out) and finally by Captain
Milt Board. It is impossible for me to secure a complete list of those who
went in this company, but the following have been remembered. Elder Ben
Faulkner deceased, father-in-law of Hon. Tom W. Perkins; Bent (R. B.)
Whisenant, now living at Allen; his brother John Whisenant, now deceased;
Jim Thompson; Sol Dodson; Arch Candler; Jimmie Campbell and Dan Nolan, two
Irishmen (each made a verbal will in the other's favor, which is permissible
in case of soldiers at war; Nolan was killed and Campbell though wounded
came back to claim his legacy, but found there was none); T. M. Scott, 1st
lieutenant; Mack Benge, 2nd lieutenant; Cary Gates; Bill Browning, Bruce
Stover; Andy Glass, Falvius King, ack scott, brother of Jim Scott and father
of Albert Scott who lives near forest Grove, Bill Phillips and Bill
Fletcher, both milled at Shiloh; Harvey Vermillion, father of W. R.
Vermillion; Joe Robertson, Elisha Beck, kinsman of Gabe; Charley Schultz,
Arch Box, and Staniper Smith (thought to
have both been
burned to death on a brain by the Yankees); Will Smith, brother of the late
Commissioner Mack Smith; Jeff Davis, Will Berry, Tom Candler, killed at
Murfreesboro; Jim Bowie, killed at Murfreesboro; Bill Turner, who lived near
Plano; Anderson Robins; Joe and Bill Anderson; Ben Webb; Munday; John Odell;
Lieutenant D. P. Tunnell; J. H. Jenkins; Jake Bewley; Jim Boone, brother to
Tom Boone deceased; Chris Williams and Ira Matthews (left out because they
were under age); Cliff Crim, uncle of Frank Crim deceased; Phil Barnes,
brother to Tom and Henry and Will Barnes; Marion Murtry; Lish Norman (killed
on Kenesaw Mountain); Joe Russell, uncle of the late Judge w. T. Beverly and
Hon. Geo. P. Brown; Wood Harris; Jim Harris and Jim Barnes, both killed at
the battle of Chickamauga; Geo. Bolin from Farmersville, there were 110 of
them.
Four years
elapsed; the fratricidal strife ceased, and the handsome young soldiers
returned, ragged, foot sore and wary, beaten poorer in this world's good and
disenfranchised all save those who never returned. The vast number of former
slaves suddenly liberated contained a few who did not know how to make use
of their newfound liberty in a lawful manner, so they had to be
"instructed." Sheeted ghosts rode by the old house night after night, some
of them so "dry" that they would stop at a cabin, call for water and take
six buckets to quench their thirst, merely remarking in deep chest tones
that they "hadn't had a drink since the battle of Chickamauga." It was very
impressive.
My grandfather
called his home and residence Mount Pleasant because the house was situated
upon the brow of a gently swelling hill, where the cool breezes wander over
its wide porches and play hide and seek among its many windows. Soon after
the was he started a school in his house, and many of our most prominent
citizens acquired their education within its walls. By way of advertising in
those days they gave what they called "exhibitions." The big doors were
folded back throwing four rooms into one, and the windows were opened so
that the overflow crowd could have a look in. It is remembered that John L.
Lovejoy, now President of the First National Bank, then a small boy,
performed some stunt at the first exhibition that was given.
Miss Mary Belle
Bentley, a young lade just out of college came to assist my grandfather wit
the school. My father, then a young man recently returned from the war,
naturally became interested; and as time passed, my grandfather concluded it
was all settled between them, so he told Miss Bentley how pleased he was
that she was to be his daughter. But my father had not yet "spoken," so it
was an embarassing moment for Miss Bentley. However he did speak a short
time afterwards and was accepted. Then my grandfather said,"Tom that is the
best day's work you ever did,"Looking back now over their almost fifty years
of married life, their nine children, and the work they have done together,
I am inclined to think grandfather Muse was right.
My earliest
recollection is of the occasion of my grandfather's funeral, where he was
carried a short distance north from the house to a little family burying
ground, where a few cedars have stood from that day to his. I presume that
beautiful Pecan Grove cemetery had not then been established. Anyway since
that time these graves have all been removed to Pecan Grove.
In the
distribution of my grandfather's estate, over forty years ago, the old house
and the plat of ground containing it came to my father. My father lived out
beyond it on his farm, so it became a tenant house and was occupied by a
number of different families. It fell into a state of bad repair, and
finally stood for a umber of years as a vacant house. The window lights were
broken out; the big chimneys fell down; the doors sagging on rusty hinges,
creaked and groaned in the wind' and it became the Haunted House, especially
with the colored population.
Almost twenty
years ago I wooed and won Miss Claudia Acker, daughter of the late Z. T.
Acker of Frisco (Rock Hill), and my father gave me as a wedding present the
"Haunted House" and the acre of ground on which it stood. I made some slight
repairs; and our wedding tour consisted of a drive in a two horse carriage
from Rock Hill to our future home in company with Hon. And Mr. L. J. Truett
then a young married couple. The old house was dressed up, partly with
wedding presents; and loving hands had spread a bounteous repast on the
dining table. No matter how much money is spent on it, it cannot look more
beautiful to me than it did that day.
Tucked away in
the convolutions of the brain it is said that the memory cells received and
record impressions of passing events, very much as a phonograph record
records and reproduces sound. If the fibres of these old timbers could
record and reproduce what has taken place in the sixty two years of its
existence, what wonderful stories it could tell - if it would only speak.
Heart of oak and
heart of pine, best work of the master builders, how nobly you have done
your part. Much of the history of Collin County has passed in review before
you as you stood, silent sentinel upon the hill. Hardy pioneers in the early
days sought shelter under your hospitable roof. Many of the most prominent
and substantial citizens of this country received their early training
within your walls, began in their youthful days the development of those
sturdy traits of character, which made of them the men and women whom we now
respect an honor. Blushing brides have been led from your door; little
children have played upon your porticoes; stalwart sons have gone forth to
war (one never to return); you have witnessed the joys and sorrows, the high
hopes and bitter disappointments of two generations; agonized souls,
convicted of sin, have found the forgiving Savior and peace of mind; and
some have departed on the long journey to the Far Country. One of the poets
has beautifully said, "All houses in which men have lived and died are
haunted houses." No wonder that you in time became the "Haunted House" -
haunted by our recollections of those whose footsteps on e echoed through
your halls.
May the link of
memory which binds the present to the past be not severed; but let use dress
you p in new garments and see you well started on the last lap of the
century of usefulness, which it seems may be your lot.
James M. Muse
July 30, 1920
Surname Index
Recommended Citation:
"J. M. Muse House,
EARLY SETTLERS OF COLLIN COUNTY." Collin County, Texas History
and Genealogy Webpage by Genealogy Friends of Plano Libraries, Inc., <http://www.geocities/genfriendsghl>
[Accessed Fri February 13, 2004 ].
