This site contains affiliate links to products. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

To read more and look inside an individual book just tap an image below

On April 18, 1897, an Aurora Texas cotton buyer named S. E. Hayden wrote a newspaper story detailing the collision of what he described as a cigar-shaped flying object with Judge J. S. Proctor's windmill. The airship, as it became known, burst into pieces. Hayden reported that some of the fragments were etched with a type of hieroglyphics, and that townsfolk searching through the debris were shocked to find the body of a small alien, dubbed "the Martian pilot,..." Read more Look inside

See also: Mysterious Texas

With A Concise Account Of The Early Settlements, Hardships, Massacres, Battles, And Wars, By Which Texas Was Rescued ... And Consecrated To The Empire Of Civilization

Found Inside: "In 1871, there lived near the western boundary, of Wise county, a ranchman, named Ball: the incident which I will now relate, occurred about two years after he settle in that part of the countyr, which I believe was in 1867. The Indians were very troublesome, and the old man being one of the outside settlers, was constantly harassed by hostile bands. He was compelled to keep his horses locked up at night, and on one occasion they killed tow good horses through the cracks of the stable. ..."  Learn more

by Theodore Adolphus "Dot" Babb

The stories of those Texas pioneers who survived captivity among the Comanches are full of harrowing interest. Of particular interest is that told by Dot Babb in his 1912 narrative.

In September of 1865 thirteen-year-old T. A. "Dot" Babb was abducted from his home in Wise County by Comanches and adopted into their tribe.. After years of captivity he was returned. He spent the last 30 years of his life in Amarillo and is buried in Randall County . . . Read more Look inside

Found Inside: "Tragedy in Wise County

Because it was dawn in 1897, a time when roosters had top-sergeant voices and anyone in bed after 5:00 a.m. either had no purpose in life or no rooster, Aurora citizenry aroused early with, if not enthusiasm, at least promptness. Aurora, on that seventeenth day of April in 1897, possessed a full cemetery and empty houses . . . Read more

Found inside: "Barnes and the rest of the Bass gang had been hotly pursued by posses and Texas Rangers . On June 13, 1878 a posse led by Sheriff W. F Eagan and Ranger Captain Peak found the outlaws camped at Salt Creek in Wise County. A sharp fight ensued, and and train robber Arkansas Johnson was shot to death. The posse also shot ". . . Read more

First published in this edition in 1937, in “Cowboys and Cattleland,” author and cattle rancher H. H. Halsell tells of growing up in Wise County, Texas, where his father drove cattle to Kansas each year, and how, when Halsell was old enough, he and his brother began driving cattle to Kansas. He shares his stories of Indian raids, the great cattle trails, big game hunting . . . Read more Look inside

Resources:

Early Life in Texas County by County

Books about Texas People and Places

Amazing People from Texas County by County

These Deceased Residents from Wise County left a total $200,573 in Unclaimed Money for their heirs. Please contact  your Family and Friends in Alvord, Aurora, Boyd, Bridgeport, Chico, Decatur, Newark, Paradise, Rhome, Runaway Bay and Springtown . . . Check the list