"The McDonalds were among the pioneers of Texas," said A. F. McDonald, 5643 Vickery Boulevard. "John McDonald, my grandfather, came from East Tennessee to Texas in 1853 and settled near Springfield, Limestone County, when the Indians were not far away, and there, both he and grandmother died. Their children, including my father, Arthur W. McDonald, went to live with their uncle, Baxter Bell, at McKinney, making the journey on horseback.
     "Uncle Baxter was a cabinet maker, which was considered a good trade in those days when all the furniture in the houses on the frontier, and everywhere else, I suppose, was made by hand. Father, who learned the trade under him, had about completed his apprenticeship, when he was called to four years' service in the Civil War.
     "After the surrender, father returned to McKinney and married Ellen C. Spurgin, daughter of a Collin County pioneer. In 1870, father bought eighty acres of land on Duck Creek, Dallas County, and on it, set up a cabinet-maker's shop and began to make furniture for the settlers around about. But, it turned out that there was a flaw in his title to the land, and he had to give it up. But, as land was cheap, and furniture in demand, he was not long in making back what he had lost. He died in 1930, at the patriarchal age of 89. My brothers and sisters and I, still have chairs, tables and other pieces of furniture made by him, and by Uncle Baxter.

Duck Creek and Embree War.
     "The village of Duck Creek had a store or two, a corn mill, a blacksmith shop, a shoemaker's shop, and even a newspaper, the Rustler, run by Joe Routh. Clark & Carman, M. M. Clark and J. D. Carman were the leading merchants. It was a prosperous and happy community until the railroads came and caused trouble. The Katy and Santa Fe Railroads built out that way about the same time. The Santa Fe made a station at Duck Creek. The Katy missed the town by a scant quarter of a mile, and opened a station, which it named Embree, for Dr. K. H. Embree, who had been of assistance to the road in securing right of way. Before the people of Duck Creek had had time to take stock of the new situation, the enterprising business men of Embree had meddled to the extent of getting the postoffice changed from Duck Creek to their upstart town.
     "Duck Creek, without further ado, declared war, and the two towns began to mobilize. Routh sold the Rustler to George W. Crossman, and John H. Cullom, present County Tax Collector, started the Duck Creek News, now the Garland News. But, happily, there were a few cool heads in each camp, and before the bullets began to whiz, these succeeded in bringing about a compromise. They agreed to leave it to the Hon. Joe Abbott, representing the district in Congress. Judge Abbott suggested, that if the pep of the two towns were combined, it would make one good town, if not a city, and seeing that the faction of neither town would ever agree to take the name of the other town, he proposed that they drop both names and substitute something neutral. Both sides assented to this and, leaving it to Judge Abbott to select the name, he dubbed the place Garland, in honor of Attorney General Garland, under the Cleveland administration.

Moves to Lazy Neck.
     "But, after losing his hand on Duck Creek, father did not like that locality, and he sought another foothold, this time, in that quarter of Collin County, known as Lazy Neck, eighteen miles southwest of McKinney, where he bought a tract of 120 acres. All that region was open range and wild in those days. The native grass was so luxuriant, that in places, it would hide a man on horseback. Father built a log schoolhouse on the edge of his land, and soon a village called Nubbinville, with a general store owned by Alex Cox, a blacksmith shop, and a saloon, sprang up around it. Being shy of lumber, with which to make a door for the schoolhouse, father hung up a cowhide, which swung from the top, instead of swinging sidewise on hinges as wooden doors ordinarily do. The building was known on week days as the Rawhide Schoolhouse, and on Sundays, as the Rawhide Church.
     "The outstanding event of the year at Nubbinville was the big turkey-shooting tournament, put on by the saloon man at Christmas. The marksmen in a radius of fifty miles assembled to take part in these tournaments, or to get drunk and bet on the outcome, and to shout for the winners. Like the Texas State Fair, these tournaments ran two weeks, that is, through the holiday season. Whisky was cheap, and it flowed freely in those days, and was cracked up to be of much better quality than was on the market, ten or fifteen years later, when the manufacturers had learned how to poison the stuff. Still, there were shooting scrapes, and an occasional killing, even in those days.
     "We used to come to Dallas for supplies, or to visit our relative, Sinclair Gunning, who was on the police force, and who was the father of Charlie Gunning, now of the city detective department. We came in a wagon and, as there were no roads or bridges, we had to pick our way and cross Muddy, Rowlett and White Rock Creeks, and the East Fork of the river, as best we could; that is, we followed the stream until we came to a place where we could ford it. Caruth Brothers had a general store in Dallas, and a warehouse on their farm north of town, from which they supplied their tenants. We always loaded up at the warehouse. Dallas was a small town in those days, in comparison to what it is now, and very much of a mudhole when it rained. On one of our trips to Dallas, we took home a Singer sewing machine, which was the first sewing machine to find its way into the Lazy Neck community, and which was therefore, a nine days' wonder.

Pioneers Good People.
     "There was very little land in cultivation in Lazy Neck when we moved to that locality. The people depended upon cattle, which took care of themselves on the open range. A little corn and wheat, and a few bales of cotton, were all that any settler attempted to grow. Father hauled two bales of cotton to Jefferson and brought back the lumber with which he built our house. Even the people of McKinney and Sherman, when they outgrew log cabins, had to go all the way to East Texas for lumber. But, those were the good old days. The first settlers of Lazy Neck were high-class pioneer stock, and the name of the place was never applied to them, as a whole. It is said that there once lived in that region, a man who did nothing but play the fiddle and hunt with a pack of hounds. The people of McKinney, where he often went with his fiddle under his arm, got to calling him Lazy Neck, because he would not work, and from that small beginning, the name spread to the land he refused to lend a hand in cultivating. The dominant element of the community, however, were God-fearing, patriotic, industrious, and sticklers for the strictest standards of old-time propriety and morality, and they strove to bring up their children to follow in their footsteps. They permitted the boys and girls to indulge in reels and other square dances, but sat down on waltzes, schottisches and round dances, in general, that were, at that time, finding their way as far out as the frontier. Dim Sidwell was reputed to be the best fiddler in the Neck, with Babe and Jack Marriott as close seconds. Sidwell and Babe Marriott also played the banjo. When only one of them played for a dance, the blowout was called a frolic. When the boys could raise money enough to get all three of them to play, the event rose to the dignity of a function.

Evolution of the School.
     "Nubbinville flourished until the Santa Fe Railroad built the Dallas-Paris line, and on W. D. Daniel's farm, placed a station a mile south of Nubbinville and called it Wylie, for Col. W. D. Wylie, father of Gus Wylie, Street Commissioner of Dallas. Brown & Burns, the saloonist, the blacksmith, and everybody else at Nubbinville, moved to Wylie, taking the Rawhide School and Church along with them, and that was the last of Nubbinville. Wylie started with six saloons, all doing a brisk business. At once, the people began to sell or to take West, their cattle, to make barbed-wire fences, and to put the land in cultivation.
     "I went to school at Rawhide, at Wylie, and finished at Garland, where Prof. E. M. Chartier was principal of the public schools, and at the same time, was head of the Western Normal and Business College. I took both the normal and business courses. I had in view a business career, but, failing to land a position, I went to teaching, and was for seven years, principal of the Wylie public schools. As pupil and teacher, I saw the Wylie public schools grow from the one-room log schoolhouse, with the rawhide door, at Nubbinville, to the handsome sixteen-room schoolhouse at Wylie, with all the modern equipment, and employing a staff of twelve teachers. Wylie boasts as good a high school as there is in Texas, and it is the ambition of the patrons of the school, generally, to give their sons and daughters at least a high school education.
     "I went from teaching to banking, and served four years as cashier of the First State Bank of Wylie. Moving to Dallas in 1916, I bought three lots on Victor Boulevard, near Greenville Road. One of the lots, for which I paid $900, I soon after sold for $2,750. The lot I built on, I can sell for $6,000 without the house, for it is right in the exceptionally-flourishing business district that has sprung up at Victor Boulevard and Greenville Road."