Hi, I found ths old book of hand written records in a Garage sale near I-35- the Old Butterfield Stage route from San Antonio to Waco. It was in a very old house near the Skating rink in Hewitt near Waco. The home was part of an estate of a member of the Patton Family ( Payton in Erath County) from the Patton Community between Crawford, Waco, and Valley Mills., Texas. It do not know the connection of the F.M. Holley to thePatton family. , but the elderly gentleman who was selling said the Erath County Paytons were part of his Patton kin. I attended Stephenville High school with a Patton in Stephenville and The Paytons there ran the Payton- Frakes Dairy and bottle milk route in Stephenville. Purchase date of the book was 1881. Maybe the customer list might contain one of your missing links. It contains only credit sales, rent, record of cow breeding, and farm work done by the man, possibly his wife ran the store when he worked. O.C.MANN 4/8/1875 (Looks like 1815- both dates were dim pencil and before the stated date of Purchase) J.S. NORRIS J.F.BROOKS H.G.FURNIS- Orderred from Coe- Younce & Co. St. Joseph missouri wholesaler 11/5/1888) JIM CROOK WESLEY PATTERSON, July 6, 1885 ARTHUR CROW J.S.HOPKINS J.A.CROW W.L. HUTCHISON C.M.CLARK (THERE WERE CLARKS AND WATKINS AND YOWELL IN WACO - WE HAD COMMON ANCESTORS BACK EAST) CHARLEY HUTCHINSON G.W.HUTCHINSON HORACE HARPER H.C.ECHOLS B.W.ECHOLS B.M.JONES Other records show 2/24/1912- $2.24 for headrights (Poll Tax/ or Veterans land claims?) B.M.Jones- $10.00 for rent on place. Total of $61.00 by fall of 1885 ( date reads 1825- has to be a looped open 8 resembling a fancy 2. ) SEVERAL CUSTOMER MIXED MEDICINES AND SALVES FORMULAS ARE GIVEN (Cocaine and Opium were legal over the counter until about 1900, but most people jnew tho use them only as medicine) Grease Heel remedy Smallpox remedy Cleaning solution ( Mix your own) Chroming mixtures ( Bleach- separate recipe for each color) Dry Cleaning mix Cement (Similar to Glue) White Glue Stain Remover (Soured milk was a common ingredient) Washing Compound Rust remover and last but not least- A RECIPE FOR A RABIES CURE- a certain root boiled in a pint of warm milk down to 1/2 pint and given warm on an empty stomach and no food until after 3 P.M. for 3 days, at least. According to Sevier Family History , Grandpa 8 times back, Col. John Sevier also had a cure for cancer in his vest pocket given him by a Cherokee medicine man which he had seen work.. He lost it, so today our scientists are hunting it in South America. Why not hunt it in the Smokies???Harry S. Truman said the Indians gave us tobacco and we gave them Syphlis and Smallpox and it was doubtful which side cheated the other. Actually some of the greatst Indian medicine men - leaders- never lost a patient with herbs and sweat lodges. When they could not cure White man's diseases they felt the Great Spirit had left them and they stoicly jumped into fires and died. Hope this has a foot track which might help you and see how they lived. Castor oil and Quinine and Epson Salts and Soda in water for upset stomach, and a sweat bath near the stove wrapped in blankets was the common cure when I grew up in the 1930's After that, If you could stagger and fever was gone, you were glad to walk 3 miles to school in snow & below 32 degree weather to get out of that house. We did not enjoy sugar coated medicine and stay home faking aan illness. (No the 3 miles 1 way to school was not really uphill both ways. ) I also have an old book of hand written " Perscriptions" from my grandad's house and a daily dairy of 1900 farm work in Texas clear cutting those Mesquite and Oak and shinery and hand digging stumps to farm.Most of Central Texas was clear cut, I think the perscriptions were used by his Grandad Dr. & Rev. and Pharmacist and land seculator, Dr. William Pinckney Hatchett, born Shipley (Pine Mountain) Ga. and organizing churches in Gonzales. and up the Bosque from Waco to Stephenville, and some on Pony Creek. He helped organize the Central Texas Baptist Convention when Baylor University and Mary Hardin Baylor were 20 years old and there was no Texas Baptist Convention. He and a brother were with the short term Texas Rangers with Gen. Taylor of Fort Jessup, La. His fater in law was a Rev. B.T.Stevens of Ga, and buried on Hatchett land on the Duffau Creek. Selden, Texas. Take care, charles A. Wyly Take care, Charles A. Wyly