Brooke Smith was an early businessman in Brown County. He compiled memoirs several years before he died.
He talked to his new business partners and told them that he believed they should buy a corner lot in Brownwood and an additional adjoining lot. He planned to build a plain square building, 24 feet by 70 feet, that was one story. Waco was one of the nearest railroad points and everything would have to be hauled. They planned to have all of the lumber sawed in Waco to proper lengths. They would make the doors and windows and frames, as well as the counters and shelving, in Waco. He did not think that work was available in Brownwood. Smith planned to go to Brownwood with the lumber, have the building built, and notify the partners that Steffens would select the $6,000 merchandise, load on freight wagons and come along with it.
The next step was to get a freighter to haul the material for the store there. He found a man named Mr. Myers, who was an old German and who was an uncle of Mr. Steffens. He had eight yoke of heavy long horn oxen and two strong wagons, one coupled to the other, trailer fashion, and he agreed to haul this lumber all at one trip.
On the morning of February the 6th, 1876, Mr. Myers drove this long, strong wagon train into Cameron’s Lumber yard. The building material, the hardware and paint, were all loaded for Brownwood. On the front wagon was a comfortable spring seat with cushions, and at the back of this was a mattress on top of the lumber, with a wagon sheet and bows to shield them from the sun and rain. They had cooking utensils and a supply box. A pony was tied to the rear of the wagon, saddled and bridled, ready for use in an emergency. These oxen were well trained and could be commanded by the saying gee and the haw words from the driver’s seat. Ox team freighting was slow, but a good method of transportation. Smith planned to make this trip all the way to Brownwood with Mr. Myers. So, after a very early dinner, loaded and equipped, this long wagon train drove out of the lumber yard and headed westward, to the Bosque hills.
They had ample capital arranged. They had a contract to buy goods 10% cheaper than any of their competitors. He and Mr. Myers sat on the spring seat, chatting and smoking. They gradually crawled westward toward the Bosque foothills, which was their camping place for the first night. The ox team moved along very slowly. They were only making a mile in an hour and ten minutes.
After a couple of hours, Smith looked back and Waco was only two miles back, and as he looked forward, the Bosque foothills were still nearly four miles away. He thought that he would snooze awhile on the mattress in the shade of the old wagon sheet. After an hour, he got up on the spring seat. He looked back and Waco was only about three miles away. They had not gotten very far. He asked Mr. Myers how long it would take to get to Brownwood. Mr. Myers replied about two weeks, with no bad luck. Smith said that he was never idle for two hours in the past fifteen years. He told Mr. Myers, that he would take the pony and ride on to the Bosque River and select a nice camp site, where the water was available and where there was good grass for the oxen to feed upon. He would make a campfire and have a bed of coals ready to boil coffee, toast bread, and fry bacon. He said that he might be able to catch a nice fish for supper. The pony was a good traveler. They rode it to the Bosque River. He cut a slender limb for a poll and tied a fishing line to it and caught a bait of tadpoles. He caught a blue catfish, large enough for supper for two. Mr. Myers came and watered his oxen and turned them loose.
He took the dishes and utensils to the river and washed them and put everything back in the food box. Supper must be topped off with another pipe of tobacco. Smith told Mr. Myers that he would ride the pony to Comanche and leave him in the livery stable there. He would pay his keep. Mr. Myers could come along and pick him up.
Although night was coming, Smith got in the saddle, and rode off to Gatesville, a distance of thirty five miles from the campsite. By two o’clock that night, Smith rode into Gatesville. He went around to the livery stable and told them to care for and feed the pony and have him saddled and at the hotel at seven in the morning. Then he went to the hotel to call him to have breakfast ready at six thirty in the morning.
By seven o’clock the next morning, he was in the saddle and arrived in Hamilton about mid-day. The horse and rider dined and rested a little, and then they were on to Comanche. That day’s journey was sixty five miles from Gatesville to Comanche. Smith arrived in Comanche safe and sound and the pony was in good shape. At about ten o’clock that night he took the pony to the livery stable and arranged for his keep in accordance with the agreement with Mr. Myers. He stayed at the “Steffens House,” a hotel kept by his new partner’s parents. The senior Steffens family had moved from Waco to Comanche about two years before. They were engaged in the hotel business in that young town.
About seven o’clock the next morning, the Ft. Worth-Ft. Yuma stage came through Comanche on it’s way westward, and Smith took passage with them, arriving in Brownwood a little after mid day. All in all, he made the trip from Waco to Brownwood in two days. Mr. Myers came with the supplies in about two weeks.
Smith was ready to get the building started for the store. Then he would call Steffens to bring the merchandise. They built a prosperous business. (Look for Beginning the Business in the Small Settlement of Brownwood in Part II). There is a picture of Brooke Smith at the Brown County Museum of History.
The Memoirs of Brooke Smith were published in a book in the Brown County Historical Society Book Series, In The Life and Lives of Brown County People.
(Submitted by Donnie Lappe and Ronnie Lappe)