Mahuldah Lemley       
  1841 - 1934



OBITUARY

Mrs. Huldah Reasoner, Survivor of Early-Day Indian Raid, is Buried
    Death Tuesday of last week of Mrs. Huldah Lemley Reasoner closed the 
career of a pioneer resident of Erath county who in several respects 
lived one of the most colorful lives of any woman in Erath county Texas.  
At the time of her death, Mrs. Reasoner probably was the only person 
in this section of the state who had been an Indian captive.

   Mrs. Reasoner, who would have been 94 years old March 1, died at 
the home of her daughter, Mrs. Alice Hall of Thurber.  Mrs. Reasoner 
had been blind 13 years and bedridden 18 months.  
   
   Funeral services were held Wednesday at the Doty Cemetery beside 
her husband, Jesse, who died 29 years ago.  Rev. Anderson of the Thurber 
Methodist church conducted the last rites.

   Survivors are three daughters, Mars. Alice Hall and Mrs. Ada Havens, 
both of Thurber, and Mrs. Ham Stewart, Russell Chapel; two sons, 
John Reasoner, Floydada, and Dick Reasoner, Slaton.

   Other survivors are 40 grandchildren, 64 great-grandchildren, and 
three great great-grandchildren.

   Mrs. Reasoner, who maiden name was Lemley, came to Texas and Erath 
county in the early sixties from Illinois.  The family settled near the 
present site of Huckabay and there, with a small group of other 
settlers, planted their homes in the virgin soil of young Erath county.

   Long ago the long dark hair that saved Mrs. Reasoner from being 
murdered by Indians, as were her sister and another young woman, 
turned gray, but the woman who battled the terrors of early day Erath 
never forgot her trying experiences with the vanishing warriors of the 
Southwest.

   It was in 1856 when Mrs. Reasoner was 16 years old that she was 
taken prisoner by a band of warriors who were causing many outrages 
in Erath county.  Her father, Mr. Lemley, was building a log house near 
Huckabay and was being assisted by other settlers in the community.

   More timber was need for the work, and the men went to the woods to 
cut logs, leaving the mother, three daughters and Mrs. Lucinda Woods 
at the Lemley home.

   Mrs. Lemley left the house for a few minutes, and when she returned 
she found that her girls and Mrs. Woods were gone and that the house 
had been wrecked.  Everything in the house had been stolen or destroyed.  

   Indians had rushed into the house in cyclone fashion, wrecked the 
furnishings, and made prisoner of the four young women.

   The Indians rode several miles with Mrs. Reasoner, her two sisters 
and Mrs. Woods.  When that reached a spot near the present site of 
Lingleville, they stopped, dismounted and helped the captives to the 
ground.

   Mrs. Reasoner always was of the opinion that her hair saved her 
from being murdered, for the Indians closely inspected their captives; 
then they had a short consultation, pointing first at one of the girls 
and then another and making motions toward their hair.  Shortly the 
Indians approached girls.  Then while Mrs. Reasoner and her raven 
haired sister looked on, the redmen murdered Lydia Lemley and 
Mrs. Woods.  Both had blonde hair.

   The beautiful hair of Mrs. Woods attracted one of the warriors, and 
he scalped her, taking the blonde tresses with him as he galloped 
away with his band of marauders.  Mrs. Reasoner firmly believed that 
the Indians would not harm a person with dark, black hair.  According 
to legend, the Indians in this section accepted the belief that all 
persons with black hair was of Indian lineage.

   Left alone in the strange woods, Mrs. Reasoner and her sister left 
the bodies of the slain girls and followed wagon tracks back to the 
settlement, where they told of the occurrence.

   Soon after the murder of the two young women and the escape of the 
other two, the Lemley family moved to Young county, where a brother 
of Mrs. Reasoner was murdered and another wounded by the Indians.

   A few years later, about the time the Indians made their last stand in 
this section of Texas, Mrs. Reasoner was married.  She reared a large 
family, and the care and devotion of her children in the declining years 
helped to soften the recollection of the tragedies of the hectic pioneer 
days in Erath.


This information was given to me (Ruby) in April 1998 by a granddaughter 
of Mahuldah(Huldah) Lemley and Jesse Reasoner.   The original was 
written by Mrs. Hale (Hall?), and sent to Strawn Newspaper.  Strawn and 
Gordon are in SE Palo Pinto county, TX.  This granddaughter also sent 
the pictures.  Nothing is dated.



Lineage of Mahulda Lemley

Father:        	John Lemley born 1807, wife Catherine Treece
Generation 3:	George Lemley b 1786, wife Catherine Linbariar
Generation 4:   Joseph Lamley, wife presently unknown 
Generation 5:   Jerg Lembgen, b 1718, wife Catharina unknown 



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