Biography of Sarah E. Wills
     Mrs. Wills was born March 9th, 1850 in Georgia and died
March 6th, 1937.
     She was survived by her daughter and four sons, Mrs.
Beatric Senn of Thorndale, Dan Wills of Ozona, Ray Wills of
Holland and Albert and Claude Wills of Fort Worth.  She had
15 grandchildren and 18 great grandchildren.
     The death of her mother was about 4 years after Mrs. Wills
was born, which was her first rememberance.  Mrs. Wills, her
father and brother were the only ones left in the family.
     Mrs. Will's uncle came after her and her brother and carried
them to Alabama to Thomas K. Cook, her grandfather.
     During the time she was staying there the civil war broke
out.  Mrs. Wills was very small and didn't know very much about
the war, why it was fought and other important facts.  The things
that impressed her most were the coming of the Yankees.  They
were notified of their coming so her grandfather carried
twenty head of horses, a load of meat and syrup to a cave.  When
the yankees arrived at their houses no one was there except
Mrs. Wills and her grandmother.  The men fed their horses out
of her grandfather's corn. One of the men asked Mrs. Wills for
the smoke house key and she gave it to him.  When he opened the
door and saw only middlings of meat, he asked her if their hogs
didn't have any hams.  She told him yes but they were all hid.
They left and did not hurt them.
     There were men which were called deserters who stayed out in
the bushes in order to steal horses, set houses on fire and
did other mean things.
     The 25th day of October, 1866, Mrs. Wills started to Texas
with her father in a wagon.  There were 14 wagons that came

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together.  She drove the front wagon.  The mules that she drove
were wild and ran away with her and tore the wagon up.  This
forced them to stop and repair the wagon.
     Every night while camped they had to guard their wagons
to keep the people from stealing their mules.  The women guard-
ed until 12 o'clock in the night and did their cooking for the
next day.  The men ######## guarded from midnight on.
     One night when the women were guarding some men came up and
tried to steal Mrs. Wills' mules.  She whispered to her father
and he got up and scared them away.
     They landed the 23rd day of December in Texas on little
river between Temple and Rogers.
     Mrs. Wills only lived there one year but her father stayed
two years.  He then moved to where Rogers now stands and Mrs.
Wills lived there with him one year.  She was then married to
G. A. Wills on the 7th of June in 1868.
     Mrs. Wills' father went to Belton and bought the first glass
oil lamp that was ever sold in Bell county.  The first time it
was lit was the night Mrs. Wills married.  Everybody there was
so afraid of the lamp that all of them left the room when it
was first lited except her father.  That same old lamp is still
being used.
     A short time after she married, the moved to Conley.
Mrs. Wills only lived there two years.  During the time she lived
there they gave four acres of land for the church and cemetery
which is still being used.  After leaving there they moved up on
Little River and bought some land from Mr. Anderson.  They only
kept it five years then moved to McMullin county where the
Indians were bad.
     Mr. Wills drove an oxen wagon from Austin to Brady City,

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hauling freight.  While he was hauling there was only a negro
boy left with Mrs. Wills.
     They lived in a one room log house that had no windows or
door# shutters.  The negro boy slept across the door on a palet.
He always slept with a pistol in his hand.  One night about 20
Indians came.  They marched around and around their house but
did not bother them.  The negro boy kept on wanting to shoot into
them, but Mrs. Wills had to threaten to shoot him to keep him from
shooting into them.  The Indians would have burned their house
and killed them if they had started shooting.
     Indians would never go into a dark place, therefore Mrs.
Wills never burned a lamp at night.  They wouldn't even stir
at night unless the moon was shining.  The Indians shook their
buffalo robes and kept their dogs so scared until they wouldn't
even come out from under the house.  After leaving their home
they killed and scalped a sheep herder about a mile and a half
away.
     The next morning Mrs. Wills went to her husband's brother,
Captian Dan Wills, to see if the Indians had been drove out of
the country.  He was after them at that time.
     As she was coming home she heard a bell.  There were two
Indian men trying to steal their horses.  She had to run about
1½ miles back to a  little creek and go down the creek to her
home.
     There was not a store, not even a post office in McCullin
county.  S. A. Wills hauled the first load of groceries to
Brady City from Austin.  There were only two houses in Brady
City at that time.
     Mr. and Mrs. Wills and family moved to Bell county in 1880.
Her oldest son, Dan, drove an ox wagon when he was only eight

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years old.  Duahana, her oldest daughter and her husband rode
two horses and drove a herd of cattle.  Mrs. Wills drove a
wagon.
     When they crossed the Colorado River, Dan's team turned and
went up stream.  He climbed down on the wagon tongue where he
was in water almost to his knees.  Dan was just about scared to
death.  The water was getting up into the wagon bed when the
others headed his oxen back to the bank.
     After the wagon and team was got out of the water, they
had to camp two days in order to get everthing dried.  During the
two days they were camped there some men came by and tried to claim
their cattle because they were branded the same as theirs.
     They landed in Waco where Mr. Wills was going to work on
the railroad.  There was only one railroad in Waco at that time.
He was working there when the first Katy train came into Waco.
     During the time he was living there he had a lot of cattle.
Five of his milk cows were stolen.  They had to haul water for them
from dripping springs where Cameron Park is now located.
     After living in Waco four years, Mr. Wills sold all his
cattle and moved to Holland.  He hauled freight there for three
years.  He then moved to Brazos county but soon moved back to
Holland where his oldest daughter was married to Tom Gibson on
the 14 of July 1889.  Mr. and Mrs. Wills lived in an around
Holland until Mr. Wills's death in 1922.  He was 82 years old.
     Mrs. Wills has made her home with her daughter, Mrs. Beatrice
Senn since Mr. Wills'# death.  They have lived near Friendship
until the last few years.  They have been living near Rockdale
until about a month before Mrs. Wills' death.  She died in
Conley, about seven miles south of Thorndale.