George Edwards loaned me a wagon and two yoke of oxen, even going along himself for company.  The commissary was outfitted for a month’s stay, and a day in advance of the expected arrival of the surveyor the outfit was started up the Brazos.  Each of the men had one or more private horses, and taking all of mine along, we had a remuda of thirty odd saddle horses.  George and I remained behind, and on the arrival of the surveyor we rode by way of Palo Pinto, the county seat, to which all unorganized territory to the west was attached for legal purposes.  Our chief motive in passing the town was to see if there were any lands located near the juncture of the Clear Fork with the mother stream, and thus secure an established corner from which to begin our survey.  But the records showed no land taken up around the confluence of these watercourses, making it necessary to establish a corner.

Under the old customs, handed down from the Spanish to the Texans, corners were always established from natural landmarks.  The union of creeks arid rivers, mounds, lagoons, outcropping of rock, in fact anything unchangeable and established by nature, were used as a point of commencement.  In the locating of Spanish land grants a century and a half previous, sand-dunes were frequently used, and when these old concessions became of value and were surveyed, some of the corners had shifted a mile or more by the action of the wind and seasons on the sand-hills.  Accordingly, on overtaking our outfit we headed for the juncture of the Brazos and Clear Fork, reaching our destination the second day.  The first thing was to establish a corner or commencement point.  Some heavy timber grew around the confluence, so, selecting an old patriarch pin oak between the two streams, we notched the tree and ran a line to low water at the juncture of the two rivers.  Other witness trees were established and notched, lines were run at angles to the banks of either stream, and a hole was dug two feet deep between the roots of the pin oak, a stake set therein, and the excavation filled with charcoal and covered.  A legal corner or commencement point was thus established; but as the land that I coveted lay some distance up the Clear Fork, it was necessary first to run due south six miles and establish a corner, and thence run west the same distance and locate another one.

The thirty sections of land scrip would entitle me to a block of ground five by six miles in extent, and I concluded to locate the bulk of it on the south side of the Clear Fork.  A permanent camp was now established, the actual work of locating the land requiring about ten days, when the surveyor and Edwards set out on their return.  They were to touch at the county seat, record the established corners and file my locations, leaving the other boys and me behind.  It was my intention to build a corral and possibly a cabin on the land, having no idea that we would remain more than a few weeks longer.  Timber was