Love in the Old West

 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 6 (Feb 8-14)
Prompt: Valentine
#52ancestors

Valentine brings to mind love stories. I'm sharing the story of my Great Grandparents and how they met. 

Picture the old westerns that you see on the AMC channel. Frontier towns with wood sidewalks and one main road through town. Nocona, Texas was established in 1887 along the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad and was the last stop in Texas before crossing the Red River on the Chisholm Trail. 

Mattie Niblett moved to Nocona to learn the milliner trade. Steaming the felt while making hats created even more heat during the hot Texas summer days. Mattie stepped outside the hat shop to catch a breeze one summer day in 1895. She was standing on the wood plank sidewalk leaning on the railing when Sid McCarley rode through town with a herd of horses headed to Indian Territory with his brothers.

About 1900 in Nocona, TX only 5 years after Sid and Mattie married.  

Found on Linda Ballard Shields Mooney's Pinterest. Originally sent by Tom Chambers.

 Sid was a bold young man of only 21 years old and Mattie captured his eye. As his brothers and horses continued through town, he stopped to talk to her. When the herd was almost out of sight, he told her that he would be back and rode to catch up with the herd.

 Sidney E McCarley and Martha (Mattie) Elizabeth Lydia Niblett married in Indian Territory on December 8th in 1895.