“In the 1860’s, John Chisum built a very large log house, facing west, with a big rock chimney at one end, which was used as a store for supplying his own camps, but also sold to travelers and settlers”, reads an article by Leona Banister Bruce, published in A History of Coleman County and Its People, by Ralph Terry. I find the topic of cattle baron John Chisum’s (and later Shield’s) store in Trickham endlessly inviting. Trying to discover the locations of each, a project which remains inconclusive to me, is a favorite expedition. There are a lot of stories and clues about the locations of these buildings in the historical record, but the actual sites are still elusive.
“It was located on the Mukewater, 4 miles north of the wagon road from Round Rock. In the early 1870s, L. L. Shield bought this store, but found that it would be better located where the wagon road crossed the Mukewater. Around this new store location grew the village of Trickham. Rather than move the old store, he instead built a new one at the new location,” the Bruce article continued.
A cowboy who worked for the Chisum outfit called Ike Fridge described what he saw when arriving at the ranch in 1869, in the book History of the Chisum War. It seems likely the commissary in this paragraph is what later became Chisum’s store. “The ranch house was built of pecan logs with three large rooms… so sturdy that it would serve for a good fort in time of trouble. Large corrals were all about, constructed for the most part, of pecan, but with hackberry and other native timber used for convenience. The Coggin’s Ranch headquarters about four miles away was considered a close neighbor. Chisum built a stone commissary, where he stored supplies for his men and the outfits in the surrounding country. This building, about 20×40 feet had portholes for use in repulsing the Indians and was surrounded by a high picket fence of mesquite posts. Five or six families used this for a school. Numerous Indian fights made it necessary to have a fortified place for the school.”
Local historian Don King and I have speculated over the location of both the Chisum and Shield stores. Don wrote, “The Chisum store was on Mukewater Creek four miles north of the wagon road from Round Rock. Then it was moved down to where the crossing was located and that’s where Trickham originated. So just where was the Round Rock road crossing? And: “In May 1874 L. L. Shield bought the Chisum store and expanded it into a general merchandise operation…” [B. Gay] By 1879 the settlement had reached the level at which it could apply for a post office at which point the name “Trickham” was attached to it.
Conclusion, maybe: It (at both locations) was called “Mukewater” (or some variation) between about 1863 when Chisum opened his store and 1879 when the post office required an acceptable name and “Trickham” was created.”
When you drive into Trickham, there is nothing there now but the little Union Church, the old community center and the mysterious stone graves that line what used to be Main Street. Once, however, there was a lot more going on there, and these stores were the center of it all. Inside the old town square, now filled with thick brush and mesquite, I found some rock foundations and an old cistern. It could be this was once the L.L. Shield store. The Chisum store I’ve had less luck with discovering possible sites, though Don and I have tried several times to hone in on and verify that location. While little if any traces of these old buildings remain, the stories from their day as part of a wild frontier town and a bustling cattle center keep them alive. Selling watered-down whiskey to passing cowboys going up the Western Trail, hosting weddings and even a few shootings, the old stores, in their own way, still stand even today.
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Diane Adams is a local journalist whose columns appear Thursdays on BrownwoodNews.com. Comments regarding her columns can be emailed to [email protected].
