| dc.description.transcription | Dear Mr. Hopkins: I did not Ignore your very kind letter, but wanted to act on portions of it at least before writing you. I set out yesterday afternoon to see some of the folks you mentioned, but never got as far as Denton! I shall try to get up there and see the other people you listed, as well as yourself, before many more days. I do not know Just how the paper printed the article on the 1856 iron meteorite, merely a “find”, but it was not an observed fall, The discovery of a curiously heavy rock which turned out to be all metal might easily cause only a little talk by the finder and a friend or neighbor or two--quite a different thing from the observed fall of a great fire-ball--hence I hardly expected to be able to find any one who recalled anything about it. Mr. Robertson remembered nothing at all about any such find, nor did he recall the blacksmith, Mr. Higby in McKinney, who cut up a large portion of the iron meteorite. Some one in Denton had previously mentioned Sam Runnels to me, and I stopped at his home (between Lake Dallas and Little Elm), but some of his folks told me his mind was not properly functioning any longer and that I should not try to talk to him. I understand he is 93 and has lived in the district some 60 years, having originally settled somewhat east of there. At Little Elm I talked to Mr. P. T. Clark, who is 81 and has been in this section many years; he did not recall anything a bout the 1856 Iron find, but did think he recalled seeing an alleged meteorite on exhibit in McLinney some 50 years ago. In Frisco I talked to a good many people, especially to Mr. E. V. Baccus to whom Mr. Robertson had referred me. Altho Baccus was born in this region in 1857 he had never heard any report of the old iron meteorite. Robertson did remember the old lead mine tale; he places the locality as on the east side of Hickory Creek, perhaps 3 to 4 miles west of "Garza" near where a Mr. Massey owns property now. Robertson recalls riding over there on horseback and noting an area of an acre or two where a little "surface grubbing" had been done for the supposed lead, or at least some material from which "they chimed they could make bullets This seems different from your Bethel stone, and I'll check Into each matter further. Yours sincerely, | |
