David A. Price

In 1867, when he was twenty-one years old, he was married to sixteen year old Martha Ellen Lopp, daughter of William and Ann Williams Lopp.  The bride’s father was known to have said, “I never thought I would live to see my own child married to a damn Yankee.”

Martha Ellen’s childhood could be called a school of experience which equipped her for the role of a pioneer woman.  By the time she was five years old, she had traveled with her parents by ship, mule caravan and wagon train from California to Missouri to Texas.  Following is a story of her life as she told it in later years to a granddaughter, Mrs. Lucille Price Ramsey.

“When we first settled in our Texas home in Parker County (1856), all was peaceful until the spring of 1857, when a drunken white man killed a Comanche Indian in Loving Valley, just a few miles from our house.  This incident angered the Indians and their chief demanded the life of the white man, stating that if his demand was not granted, he would take ten white scalps to avenge the death of his one warrior.  There may or may not have been justification for the killing.  At any rate, the white man was not delivered to the chief for execution and soon thereafter, the Comanches went on the war path.  At this time, few white families lived on the frontier and those that did were miles apart with no adequate protection against Indian attacks.  The Comanche tribe ruled this part of Texas and outnumbered the white people tremendously.  Bands of marauding Indians mounted on fleet mustang ponies began roaming a wide area spying out and killing settlers who traveled alone.”

“Later whole families were attacked, including the Mason and Cambreen families.  Mr. Savage, our near neighbor, was brutally murdered while his family stood by, horror stricken and helpless.  After plundering the house and barn, the Indians made the Savage children captives.  They tied one child to the back of a wild mustang pony.  There was a gentle horse on the place, which the children had been riding.  A young Indian took a fancy to the horse and mounted it.  The horse, never known to run away, bolted, with the Indian clinging to its back and mane and racing wildly across the prairie, passed under a tree with a low, protruding limb.  The limb caught and jerked off the Indian’s head.  Later, two of the Savage children were rescued by a Negro named Johnson, formerly a slave of Col. M.T. Johnson.”

“For years, there was continued warfare between the white and red men.  Another neighbor, William Youngblood, was pounced upon, killed and scalped while alone in the woods splitting rails.  My father and Uncle Sim Richey, encountered this same band of Indians and fought them off until rescued by the Rangers, who had been trailing them.”

“An uncle, John Lopp, was killed near Beeman’s place, about five miles north of Weatherford.  His name is engraved on the memorial dedicated to the pioneers by Parker County citizens.  (An account of this is given in Wilbarger’s “Indian Depredations of Texas”).

“For better protection against the Indians, Father moved our family near to a government fort, garrisoned by U.S. soldiers.  This fort, built on the banks of the Trinity River, was named Fort Worth in honor of William Jenkins Worth, a commander of American forces during the Mexican War of 1846.  Here we remained until 1866, when we moved fifteen miles north of the fort.  Father built a log cabin home and cleared land for cultivation.”

“Times were hard indeed.  Confederate money had depreciated and gold was out of circulation.  Some folks hoarded and buried their gold.  Our family managed to get along without going hungry.  We raised garden stuff, some wheat and corn and a few chickens.  An old water wheel mill ground our corn.  Meat was no problem.  There was plenty of wild game consisting of deer, antelope, turkey and prairie chickens.  Coffee and sugar came from New Orleans.  The sugar was brown and unrefined.  There was no white sugar.  Finally, we couldn’t get brown sugar and had to substitute molasses.  Sometimes we boiled the molasses down until it sugared.  This we used for all sweetening.  Soda, we made from a homemade ash hopper.  From salt springs we hauled water which was boiled in huge kettles until it crystallized through evaporation and cooling.”

“With the aid of her children, Mother spun and wove cloth for our clothing. Little attention was paid to style, but we were particular about looking neat and being comfortable.”

“As for social activities, they were few and far between.  Pioneer life was a saga of hard work from morning to night, and we had to retire early to rest our tired bodies.  Our get-to-gethers were meetings at the church, school houses or an occasional quilting bee.  People came from miles around to attend the quilting bees.  We quilted all day and danced all night.  Young and old came, bringing baskets of food which we ate with keen relish.  There were no finicky appetites among the pioneers.  Dancing, when I was a young woman, was a wholesome pastime.  Everybody danced, including members of the church.”

“Weddings were also big events, followed by feasting and dancing at the bride’s or bridegroom’s parents home.  Fiddlers furnished the music on these occasions, playing the popular tunes of the times.”

“The only express mail route from east to west passed within eight miles of our home.  The mail station was near the boundary line between Tarrant and Denton Counties.  I remember a knock on our door one cold winter’s night.  It was the pony express rider who had lost his way in a snowstorm.  My husband gave him directions that soon put him back on his route.”

“The first church built was at Mt. Gilead, a small community five miles east of our home.  This also was the first church built in what is now Tarrant County.  We had services there about once a month.”

“When we first settled here, we did our trading at Elizabethtown, a small settlement on Elizabeth Creek.”

“My brother, T. A. Lopp, helped to build the extension of the Texas and Pacific Railroad from Dallas to Fort Worth.  The first rail line north of Fort Worth, passed through our pasture.  I shall never for get the day we all stood in our front yard to see the first train go by.  The little puffing, wood burning engine, and its boxcars thrilled us and filled us with fear and trembling.”

The follow quotation from a daughter, Mrs. D.E. Hedgecock, sheds an interesting light on the medical practice of the time.

“The first licensed physician at Keller was Dr. J.A. Wallace.  I was the first of my mother’s children born with a doctor in attendance.  Mrs. Link, a mid-wife, delivered most of the babies in the community, until Dr. Wallace came.  My mother was skeptical about the doctor and insisted that my father promise to have Mrs. Link present, in case help was needed.”

Dave and Martha Lopp Price, affectionately remembered as Uncle Dave and Aunt Matt, were the parents of five children.  They were charter members of the First Baptist Church and life long members of the Keller community.  They spent their entire married life of almost seventy years on a farm at the north edge of Keller.  The land was a wedding gift from Mrs. Price’s father, William Lopp.  Their first home was built of logs cut on the property and was floored with pine boards, hauled for East Texas.  The house was located in a grove of oak trees on a hill, owned in later years by Mr. and Mrs. L.L. McDonnell. 

David A. Price, born March 15, 1846, died January 15, 1935.  His wife, Martha Ellen, born July 26, 1851, died September 13, 1939.  Both are buried at Bourland Cemetery.