BINT FAMILY

THE BINT FAMILY OF CISCO, TEXAS

Dolphin William Bint, the son of a gamekeeper, was born at Lambourn, Berkshire UK in 1840. He arrived at New York from London on the "E.W Stetson" in August 1864. In 1866 his name appears in the town directory for Quincy, Adams County, Illinois where his occupation is a butcher. He gave his occupation as "butcher" on the ship's list where its index wrongly spells his name as Dolphin Bent.

The E.W Stetson was an American three-masted schooner launched at Newcastle, Maine in 1862 regularly used on the Atlantic crossing. The only picture I could locate was in her later years being wrecked during a severe storm at Jamesport, Long Island in 1898.

Basil Lubbock reports a race between the fast iron clipper 'Baron Colonsay' and the Swallowtail packet 'E.W. Stetson':

"It was dead beat up and although the 'Baron Colonsay' went through the water about three knots faster than the 'Stetson', the Yankee could head a point or more higher, with the result that after a tussle of several days duration, they took their pilot boats together." In addition, packets were built with full rounded bows above the waterline so that they rose to oncoming seas and stayed dry, whereas the clipper ships, with their sharp streamlined bows, cut into the waves and shipped water constantly."

Around 1876 Dolphin settled in the early frontier settlement of Red Gap, Texas, which later became Cisco when the railroad was built. One of the first graves in the Cisco cemetery was for a Bint infant. Dolphin later moved seven miles west to Dothan to become a farmer with a 160 acres land holding and a sizeable flock of sheep. He went on to add a further 80 acres, and later another 100+ acres. (The latter acreage was sold after his death) The original land and homestead is still owned by family members.

Their first home was just a dugout cabin. Dolphin was later to bring lumber from Fort Worth by wagon to build their house.

Dolphin Bint 1840-1883

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Ranching, agriculture, oil, transportation, water and industry all have played an important part in the development of Cisco from its beginning 117 years ago as a small community known as Red Gap, located on land that was then known as the Bint Sheep Ranch.

It was in the late 1870's that a group of settlers decided they had gone far enough west and decided to stop where they were. Where they were was near the present site of Cisco. The new community was located near what is now the western city limits of Cisco near Oakwood Cemetery. It was just prior to the time the Texas and Pacific Railway Company completed pushing its gleaming rails westward from Fort Worth to El Paso.

In a short time Red Gap was a "rough and ready town" boasting 350 inhabitants and six saloons. It became the gathering place for cattlemen and cowboys for miles around, who came to wet their whistles and let off steam. In 1881, the country was all open range and cattle and sheep roamed the streets and grazed upon the site of the present business district. Gambling was not frowned upon and many fights and killings kept Red Gap a lively place. There were some 1,500 people, mostly ranchers and their crews, living in Eastland County. (From Cisco's Town Web-site)

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Dolphin Bint married Benjamine Francis (Fanny) Smith born 1863 at Waxahachi, Texas, the daughter of Ben Smith who had served with Parson's Brigade, of the Confederate States Army. Dolphin and Fanny had one son Arch, and two daughters, Prudence and Dolphin.

Benjamin Smith was born in the year 1838. He was the son of North Carolina born C Smith (1793). Known to most as Ben, he was 6ft tall, and had black hair and blue eyes and appears to have had a penchant for trouble. Between 1856 - 1858 he married Caroline (born Arkansas in 1840) and around 1860 moved to Waxahachie, Ellis County, Texas. Frances Benjamine their third daughter, was born there in April 1861. In 1862 Ben and his brother-in-law Lemuel H Armstrong signed up as privates with the 19th Texas Cavalry Regiment at Ellis County which became a part of Colonel Parsons Brigade in the Confederate Army. Parson's Brigade earned the reputation as one of the finest mounted units serving in the Trans-Mississippi Department. The brigade took part in almost 50 battles. The men were also responsible for watching federal operations from Memphis, Tennessee to Vicksburg, Virginia. For 3 years they provided outposts and scouts for the Army HQ, first in Little Rock, Arkansas and later at Shreveport, Louisiana and into Indian Territory (now Oklahoma).
		Ben Smith and Cynthia

After the War Benjamin Smith settled in Erath County, Texas. His wife Caroline had died sometime between 1866 and 1869, and on the 1870 census his new wife is Ann Martin. That marriage did not last long as she remarried in 1879.

Ben's three daughters, Margaret Jane, Amanda, and Frances Bess (Fanny) all married in Eastland County. His sons James and John married and raised their families in Hamlin, Texas.

He died in the home of another son (grandson?) Edgar at Hamlin in 1921 and it is believed that his third wife Cynthia (born 1850) who he had married around 1882 was buried by him.

Ben Smith's grave at Dothan Cemetery

My gratitude to Phyllis L King of Camp Wood, Texas, a great great great grand-daughter of Ben's brother Cornelius, for the very useful research and her kindness in sharing it. Also to Lee & Larry Harris for this rare photo of Ben and Cynthia Smith.

Dolphin died when only 43 years old in 1883, a result of being lost in a snow storm and developing a lung infection. He is buried at Oakwood Cemetery, Cisco. His widow Fanny was to marry for a second time and became Mrs Moudy. She stayed on the farm property until her death at 85 years old in 1949. She is also buried at Oakwood. His daughter Prudence married Arthur Harris a locomotive fireman on the Texas & Pacific Railroad and went to live in Baird, Texas. Their son Vinnie was Leland Harris's grandfather.
		The graves of Dolphin and Fanny in Oakwood cemetery at Cisco.

Recollections of Dolphin's wife, Fanny. Vinnie Harris married Virgie Fry and they had 3 children, Weldon, Wendolyn, and Mary. Virgie died in 1934 when her eldest child was just 6 years old. When Weldon, Leland's father, was around 11 years old he went to live with Grandma Moudy (Fanny). She would tell him about Dolphin and other family members.

"Dolphin used to write to a sister in England" (He did not have a sister, she or Weldon may have possibly thought that Francis was a girl's name.) and "the address was Childredge, Wantage, Berkshire, England". (A puzzle here, he obviously wrote to someone in Childrey, possibly Aunt Prudence, but brother Francis was living a fair distance away at Henley from 1861.) "Dolphin walked with a limp". "He received a pension from England, and it continued after his death" (Probably an annuity from his grandfather's or father's will)

Dolphin's son Arch Bint was a respected man in Eastland county and served many years as a county commissioner. His sister Prudence, her husband and two of their four children tragically died of smallpox in 1907,and the surviving two boys Vinnie & Clifton after a couple of years with the Harris family, went to live with him. Leland Harris relates that it was undoubtedly due to Arch's influence that they both had some college education and later become school teachers at a time when not many people graduated from High School in rural Texas. Vinnie Harris was Leland's grandfather.

One of Arch's two sons Arlin, Gerald Bint's father, was superintendent of the Cisco school District for many years. He taught Leland Harris science, chemistry and physics. Leland remembers him as a tall, dignified, intelligent, likeable and somewhat reserved man. He and his wife Edna tragically died in 1999 from injuries received when their house burned down.

Gerald Bint was born in 1935 on the family farm at Dothan. He has now retired after 42 years as a college professor and part-time farmer of peanuts and sweet potatoes. He still works on his farm and has a few cattle and some sheep. He has two sons, Mark (born 1958) who lives in Cisco, and Tim (born 1961) whose home is in Glendale, California. A number of Dolphin's descendents still live in Cisco.

Information from Dolphin's great grandson, retired college professor Gerald Bint, who was born in 1935 on the family farm at Dothan, his son Tim, born 1961, now a finance manager at Glendora in California, and Leland Harris from Deer Park, Texas. Dolphin's picture was from Leland . Leland is a great-great grandson through Dolphin's daughter Prudence Bint who married Arthur Harris. (Thanks also to his son Robin who delivered the photo here to Berkshire in person and trod some of the same paths and pastures as Dolphin.)

tom.bint@tiscali.co.uk

	Bint Family History

Bint Family History