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D\Where did Tom's family go after Wichita Falls and when did they leave?
The following is what I have found about them so far:According J.B. Marlow, the Wheeler family settled on Wichita River just below the Tenth Street bridge in 1875. He preempted 160 acres of land out of the E.A. Austin Survey,and that was settled in court in Henrietta in 1881, giving him a tittle to the land. He may have filed for the land in
1875 after he was discharged from the Rangers he went back to Marshall Co, Alabama.
According to the book A Pictorial History of Wichita Falls John V. Wheeler is credited with being the second settler in Wichita Falls, the first being Tom Buntin who built a dugout around Ninth and Kemp about 1865 then later he built a frame house on some land that he had preempted. Buntin stayed in the area until 1888 when he moved on further west to Chillicothe. Tom and John V. seemed to get along very well.
He registered a cattle brand at the court house in 1882, this was the first year any brands were registered.
In 1885 a 12 year year-old named Jim Marlow arrived in Wichita Falls and became very suscessful businessman and related much oral history of Wichita Falls, of which the following concerned John Valentine Wheeler:
In the fall of '85 Barry Anderson and Lish Stevens who were managers of the Box Kay Ranch, decided one day that they would have a little fun, so they got John Wheeler and Tom Buntin, a couple of "old nesters" they called them. And said "let's get them drunk and have some fun." Anderson and Stevens both were inclined to be a little overbearing. They accused Wheeler and Buntin of stealing their cattle, so they started a big fight . This all took place in the old White Elephant Saloon. So I and two of the Buntin boys were waiting to ride out with their dad and knowing that we would be more likely to find him in the White Elephant than anywhere else, we sneaked up and looked in there and saw the fight just as it started. Anderson and Stevens were usually ready to carve up on the fellow they fight, so they got their knives out and went to work on Tom Buntin. John Wheeler was a kind of a "knife man" too, so he did a little carving and had it not been for Maj. Davis and Sheriff Davis and ever other bystander getting into the fight. I don't think there is any doubt but what the results would have been more serious than they were. If an ordinary man had been cut up like Wheeler and Buntin were, he would have been in the hospital for thirty to sixty days. Wheeler and Buntin did not know how bad the other fellows were hurt, so they got in a wagon and pulled out of town and drove several miles up the river and had one of the boys to drive the team back. The way we happened to locate them , the next day was Sunday and we were out hunting as usual, the dogs began to bark and we went to see what they had treed and it was Wheeler and buntin. Of course what they were most anxious to know was whether either of the other men had died. When we assured them that their wounds were not mortal, they returned home.
Myra Jane Wheeler, my Grandmother could remember living in the dugout on the Wichita River, including the Falls that were not very far away. Also she could remember that John V. went to Gainsville for supplies leaving the family alone for periods of time, on one of these trips she remembers that an Indian came by while it was raining and set in the window sill out of the rain for awhile and then went on he way.
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