William Drayton Mathews, my paternal great-great-grandfather, arrived in Austin, Texas in 1842, at the age of three. A year later, he and his family moved to Hays County. At the age of nineteen he joined the Texas Rangers under the superiority of Captain John S. Ford. He remained in the troop and rode in the frontier for three years under Ford, as well as the renown Edward Burleson and William A. Pitts. During his service in the Rangers, Mathews engaged in many battles with the Indians. Throughout these battles he learned a great deal about the female Indians, who would "fight right along with the men, seeming to enjoy the atrocities and mutilations"(Bruce, 1966:64). However, Mathews also observed that the women would "pat their bosoms, asking for mercy, as they knew that white men did not make warfare on women"(Bruce, 1966:64) if the Rangers chased and captured them.

At this time, most of the settled land was located in East Texas; Hays, Blanco, and Llano Counties lied on the edge of the frontier. Often, Mathews experienced the rich and fertile valleys of Home, Hay, and Mukewater Creeks, disappointed that the area was "far too west to be settled by [pioneers] in his lifetime"(Bruce, 1966:64-65). On April 15, 1861, Mathews was sworn into the Confederate Army, and served it with valor during four years of war.

During his service in the Texas Rangers, Mathews observed Indians protecting themselves by hiding behind the bodies of their horses as they rode into battle. He applied this newly acquired battle technique during the war, in which case many horses were killed under him. He, however, remained unharmed.

W.D. Mathews was discharged from the Confederate Army in 1865 and moved to Hays County to settle down.