During this period of early travelers, there were no Texas counties and the entire area of the state of Texas was under the rule of Spain. Very few protestant preachers had endeavored to spread the Christian doctrine in this area. If they did spread Christianity and were caught, they were executed by the Spanish government.

The two traveling cowboys without any guesswork on our parts were required to use guns, rifles and dogs to blaze their way through the Comanche and Apache native lands. Despite what historians of our area have recorded the adventures of these two cowboys are not recorded in the local history, but the Byrom family has recorded many events of history that were just simply ignored and not recorded as a part of our area’s history.

The great-grandfather most certainly had a method of communicating with the so-called savage natives. There is no doubt that they confronted each other as the two cowboys from Tennessee made friends on their journey as they were deciding where to settle so they could bring their family members out west.

It was during this 1828 trip that the two cowboys made their way back to what was later called Sandtown. They settled near the area around Blue Ridge which is a few miles southeast of Aubrey.

Last week our area lost a good man in the death of J.H. Byrom. He has been a friend all of my life. He was a friend to my family, and he recalls with pleasure when he and my oldest brother James were young men (J.H. and James were fifteen years older than me). They both talked at great length about how they taught me to walk. They thought that I would never accomplish the walking experience. They continued their steady teaching throughout my life and until two weeks ago. I visited with J.H., two weeks ago when he was very sick. He wanted to know how I was coming with my surgery and dialysis – he was still keeping up with me and my health status.

I will miss J.H. Byron who loved to tell me stories – and he has told many stories about his grandfather. His grandfather taught the local Cherokees how to build barns and houses. This information is not recorded by local historians, because they were not close enough to the actual people who made history.

J.H. was a genuinely honest and plain spoken man, and it wasn’t difficult to understand what he was talking about whether it be religion or politics. He was easy and interesting to listen to whether he was talking about current events or previous years’ events. I always found him to be very knowledgeable and he studied out what he was going to tell you.

I have mentioned how J.H. Byrom’s grandfather bought the first steam engine to the area., He bought it in Dallas. It required several days to drive it to the Onega area. The steam engine was used to harvest grain and power the Bryom’s cotton gin that was located in the Blue Ridge community.