Milam County, Texas

The Sixth Annual Reunion of the Old Settlers' Association of Bell County was held at the Court House in Belton, Texas, on Saturday, Novomber(sic) 5, 1904 at 10 o'clock a. m., there being present:

Judge R. Y. King, President; Geo. W. Tyler, Historian and Secretary pro tem, and a good attendance of members and visitors.

The President opened the meeting with prayer.

The following resolution was unanimously adopted:

RESOLVED, That we deeply deplore the deaths, since our last Reunion, of Don A Chamberlin, Fred Neibling and Lon Price, members of this Association, and tender to their surviving families and friends our sincere sympathies

The program consisted, as usual, in the reading of historical and biographical papers, sketches, etc., prepared for the occasion, as follows:

• Capt. Eli Chandler's Campaign Against an Indian Village -- by Newton C. Duncan, of Wheelock, Texas.
• Old Settlers of Milam County -- by M. H. Addison, of Caldwell.
• Sketch of Major Horace Haldeman and Pioneer Days in Bell County -- by Mrs. Eugenia Haldeman Openheimer, of Austin.
• Early Courtship and Marriage in Texas -- by Newton C. Duncan, of Wheelock.
• The Texas Farmer in Pioneer Days--by Geo. W. Tyler, of Belton.
• History of Melville Wilkinson and Family--by Mrs. Eva Cockrell, of Belton.

A recess was then taken until 2 p. m., and on reassembling the following papers were read:

• The Victory and Death of Captain Bird--by H. E. Bradford, of Belton.
• Sketch of John C. Reid. the First Country Clerk of Bell County--by Mrs. Nanna Smithwick Donaldson, of Williamson County.
• Merchantile(sic) Business in Belton in Ante-Bellum Days--by John F. Smith, of Galveston.
• Reminiscences of Old Troy and Oenaville--by L. C. Williams, of Beaumont.
• Retaliation of the Caddos in 1835-6 and other Reminiscences--by Newton C. Duncan, of Wheelock.

The president announced that, at his request, Mrs. Kate Alma Organ, Dr. J. D. Law and Mr. James P. Reed had prepared papers for this Reunion, but that they were unavoidably absent and, having expected to attend in person, had therefore not sent in their papers to be read, whereupon a motion prevailed requesting them to file their papers with the secretary to be published with those read today.

The following preamble and resolutions were adopted unanimously after full discussion:

Whereas, The organization of this association is imperfect, crude and chaotic and is not sufficiently cohesive and compact to accomplish the best results and purposes, and the Association has no financial resources or revenue whatever with which to pay its necessary and proper expenses, such as printing, postage, stationery, etc., therefore:

Resolved, That the president appoint a committee of five members whose duty it shall be to devise a more perfect plan of organization, to provide some method of raising a reasonable annual revenue, and that said committee are hereby given full power to proceed at once with such re-organization in co-operation with our regular officers who shall be officers of the re-organized Association and that we pledge ourselves to respect and heartily co-operate with what ever plan of re-organization said committee may decide upon, consistant (sic) with the originals plans, purposes and practices of this Association.

Resolved, That we heartily approve of the historical work being done under the auspices of this Association by the preparation and publishing of historical papers, and that we look forward to the development of this Association into a permanent historical society such as have long existed in many of the older communities of the United States.

Resolved, further, That we tender our thanks to all those who have furnished papers at this and former Reunions and take much pride in the fact that persons living elsewhere have thought enough of our purposes to contribute valuable historical papers to our archives.

The annual election of officers resulted as follows:

The president then announced the following committees:

Reunion Committee.

Committee on reorganization. (Under resolution adopted today.)

On motion, the duties of the treasurer, under the proposed reorganization, were devolved upon the secretary.

Adjourned.

Geo. W. Tyler, Secretary.------R. Y. King, President.

We must say a special thank you to Jan Jordan of Kingsville, Texas , for typing the above for use on the Milam County TXGenWeb site.