THE ALLIANCE IN TEXAS. 21 



Creek, of which there is a complete record. It should be 

 remembered that only twelve Sub-Alliances had been organized 

 during the entire year, or, from the date of the first meeting, 

 July 29, 1879, to J une I2 > l88 - To be sure, the meetings had 

 been frequent, but the results had not been satisfactory, in 

 regard to the increase in numbers. An old member writes that 

 party prejudice, and the failure in Lampasas County, made 

 organizing almost impossible ; that the meetings were poorly 

 attended, and a sort of general distrust prevailed against the 

 order. 



Under these conditions, the growth of the order was of neces- 

 sity slow. Brother S. O. Daws, a member of Alliance No. 13, 

 in his excellent " History of the Origin of the Alliance," says 

 that the first State meeting of the Alliance was held at Central, 

 Parker County, late in 1879. That meeting is doubtless the 

 one referred to as being held December 27, of that year. The 

 minutes of these meetings are said to be in existence, although 

 the fact is disputed upon good authority, and the charge made 

 that all such data have been manufactured since the order has 

 assumed considerable proportions. Be this as it may, it is a 

 matter of but little importance. The first officers of the Grand 

 State Alliance, from January i, 1880, to July of the same year, 

 were as follows : W. T. Baggett, President ; J. N. Montgomery, 

 Vice-President ; J. H. Dover, Secretary ; George McKibben, As- 

 sistant Secretary ; G. B. Patton, Lecturer ; John W. Sullivan, 

 Treasurer ; William Shadle, Doorkeeper ; A. E. Robertson, As- 

 sistant Doorkeeper ; J. F. Hood, Chaplain ; C. C. Pope, Assist- 

 ant Chaplain. Below is the full text of the first bond given by 

 an officer of the Alliance, and it will doubtless be read with 

 interest. Its amount $250 seems rather small when com- 

 pared with the last bond given by the National Treasurer. Its 

 date places it within the first seven months of the existence of 

 the order. It is doubtless the oldest authentic document relat- 

 ing to the business of the Farmers' Alliance. 



" STATE OF TEXAS 

 "PARKER COUNTY 



" Know all men by these presents That I John W Sullivan as Principal and 

 A E Robertson and J S Reeves his assur-ities are held and firmly bound unto 

 the Grand State Alliance in the sum of $250 Dollars to the payment of which 



