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PEOPLE
TEXANSTexas
without Texans is like Antarctica without penguins -
in both cases the landscape
would be barren without them.
Texans just happen to be a lot more colorful.
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There’s
Got to Be More to His “Galveston” Than That Glen Campbell Sings It by Bill
Cherry 7-3-09
If you know singer Glen
Campbell’s real relationship with the island, you can’t help but wonder if there
isn’t more to the story than that a songwriter named Jimmy Webb wrote these words
and tune, and that Glen sang them...Bonnie
and Clyde by Bob Bowman 6-29-09
During
their Depression-era crime wave between 1931 and 1934, Bonnie and Clyde were suspected
of killing at least twelve people, including nine peace officers. Their victims
fell in Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana...Blast
From The Past: The Houston Colt 45s
by Clay Coppedge 6-19-09
The
first major league baseball team in Texas was the Houston Colt .45s, now the Houston
Astros. Of course, we also have the Texas Rangers baseball team now but it all
started with Houston, and the determination of legendary Houstonian Roy Hofheinz... |
The
Billionaire Developer: George P. Mitchell by Bill Cherry 6-1-09
George
P. Mitchell was born on Galveston Island 90-years ago May 21st. And for all 90
of those years, he’s been making history, and with a good portion of that history
he has made life better for other people and for future generations... Sideshow
Texans by Mike Cox 5-28-09
Phineas
Taylor (“There’s a sucker born every minute”) Barnum knew talent when he saw it...
The Shields boys, Tarver and Erlich-Earle...Charlie
Bullock: “Art’s a luxury” by Byron Browne 5-27-09
“Art’s
a luxury,” Charlie Bullock says... Of course, Bullock is talking for us non-artists.
For himself, art is as much a necessity as eating... Jim
Reeves and Cheyenne by Bob Bowman 5-24-09
As
a one-time reporter, I covered the funerals of numerous East Texans, but the one
I remember the most was that of Jim Reeves, the iconic country singer who grew
up at Galloway in Panola County... Jesse
James in Texas by Bob Bowman 5-17-09Driving
Around with Bonnie and Clyde by Robin Cole-Jett
5-15-09
Joe
Pruno by Mike Cox 5-14-09
The story
of Joe A. Pruno reads like a Victorian-era dime novel, complete with ample exaggeration,
outright fabrication and historical inaccuracies...Play
Misty For Me - A Reprise by Bill Cherry 5-4-09
Barry
KilgorePecos
High Bridge & the Pecos River Queen by Mike Cox 4-30-09
Almost
everyone’s heard of Pecos Bill, the mythical West Texas cowboy, but the “fair
young” Pecos River Queen never got the attention she deserves... Ten
Things To Know About Henry Smith by John Troesser 4-1-09
Scant
mention is made of Henry Smith in Texas history texts, but the Centennial Statue
in Brazoria holds his place in early Texas history...
Marx
Brothers by Clay Coppedge 4-1-09
The Marx Brothers weren’t funny at all until they came to Texas...Boyce
House by Mike Cox 3-19-09
Chances
are, you’ve never heard of Boyce House. But he deserves to be remembered... House
improved the communities he served as a hard hitting newspaper editor, he made
a couple of generations of Texans laugh and he offered himself as an unsuccessful
political candidate. What he did best, however, was collect Texas stories --folktales,
jokes, history--and preserve them in books, articles and newspaper columns...Texas
Cherokees by Clay Coppedge 3-16-09
Popular
history affords them a reputation as a friendly and reasonable tribe... That doesn’t
mean that the Texas Cherokees weren’t divided on major issues of the day, like
whether it was nobler to inflict slings and arrows on the white settlers or the
Mexican soldiers who were fighting them, or both. Nor does it mean that the Cherokees
weren’t treated in the same shabby manner as other friendly and hostile tribes
alike... A
letter from Mark Twain
by Bob Bowman 3-15-09
When
William H. Hamman, a two-time candidate for Texas governor, was murdered on the
streets of New Birmingham in 1890, he left a legacy as an enterprising businessman
and investor. But often overlooked was his friendship with Samuel Clemens...
Elmo
Johnson by Mike Cox 3-12-09
I
drove to Sonora to interview him. As best I can tell, I’m the only person who
ever took down what he had to say. My only regret is that I didn’t pump him harder
for stories about his days along the Rio Grande the last time conditions were
dicey.
Pistol
Packing Mamma by Bob Bowman 3-8-09
One
of the most popular songs in the U.S. during the mid-1940s was “Pistol Packing
Mama.” But few know that the song came from East Texas and was written and performed
by an Cherokee County musician Al Dexter. Leon
Breeden by Bill Cherry 3-7-09
The Man from Oklahoma and Jazz: They Brought Academic Notoriety to a Podunk Teachers
College Gail
Borden by Mike Cox
3-5-09
A
New Yorker who grew up in Indiana, Gail Borden came to Texas in 1829, five years
after his brother Thomas arrived as one of Stephen F. Austin’s colonists...Pansy
by Mike Cox 2-26-09
Though her
looks could have given her a shot at Hollywood, Pansy opted for the circus world.
She and her husband had a trapeze act in a traveling show. They drew big crowds
and made good money. All that changed in a moment. ...Miss
Lockhart and the Comanches by Maggie Van Ostrand 2-16-09
Matilda Lockhart, and the bloody Council House conflictThe
Hermit in the Dugout by Mike Cox 2-11-09
Why
would anyone want to live out their years in a dirt-floor dugout competing for
shade with scorpions and rattlesnakes in the summer and warmed only by burning
chopped railroad ties in the winter? Gold.Clyde’s
Funeral by Mike Cox
2-5-09
Stories
can turn up in weird places. For instance, who would expect to find an account
of the Depression-era outlaw Clyde Barrow’s funeral in the self-published memoir
of a long-time fiddler-turned-preacher?Life
and Times of James Coryell by Clay Coppedge 2-4-09
The
man for whom Coryell County is named was not born there and did not die there
but he was an adventurous sort who packed plenty of travel and a few brushes with
fame into an abbreviated life... Doak
Good by Clay Coppedge 1-15-09
Just
after the demise of the great buffalo herds and the Comanches but before many
towns or vestiges of civilization popped up on the Llano Estacado, a few hardy
individuals claimed that vast and lonesome land as their own. One such person
was Doak Good...
Owen Wister by Mike Cox
1-15-09
The cultured gentleman
from Philadelphia generally credited with inventing the Western novel, a genre
that evolved into film and eventually television, spent some time in West Texas
on his way to becoming a nationally-known writer...Alley
Oop is a Texan? by C. F. Eckhardt
1-14-09
Alley Oop, the cave-man character
created by Victor T. Hamlin in 1932, is a native Texan. The area around present
Iraan, Texas was a gold mine of dinosaur fossils. This gave Hamlin the idea for
a comic strip...Belle
Christmas by Mike Cox 12-22-08
No
matter how she came to be called Belle Christmas, she had a reputation as a local
character long before someone dreamed up the “Keep Austin Weird” bumper sticker...
OBITUARY
Bill
Stein: a Bibliophile’s Bibliophile 12-12-08
“A
gentleman is one who puts more into the world than he takes out.”Garrett
Murder by C. F. Eckhardt 12-9-08
One of the many unsolved mysteries of the West. Bob
Wade by Byron Browne 12-5-08
From
Austin to Houston to San Antonio to Abilene his over-sized, sometimes monstrous,
oftentimes Titanic creations have become so iconic, so much a part of our landscape
that they frequently define the area that they inhabit.Bad
Man Returns by Mike Cox 12-4-08
As the old saying goes, it’s hard to keep a good man down. But that sure couldn’t
account for Bill Johnson’s reappearance in McLennan County. One of Texas’ lesser-known
outlaws...Bill
Wharton by Mike Cox 11-27-08
Used
to be, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries, some people were born Thankful
and died Thankful. That’s because, way back, parents sometimes named their daughters
Thankful. Born in 1803, Thankful Rankin...
A
man who got around by Bob Bowman 11-18-08
Ambrose
Fitzgerald really got around East Texas--and without ever leaving his homestead...The
story of Emil Kreklau's self-propelled fan by Murray Montgomery
11-1-08
If you go online and do a search of “The Industrial Revolution,”
you will be inundated with more information than any normal human being is prepared
to digest. An old newspaper article that I came across recently prompted me to
give it a try and my head is still spinning as a result... Mance
Lipscomb by Clay Coppedge 10-19-08
Songster
and guitarist Mance Lipscomb spent most of his 80 years as a tenant farmer around
Navasota, in Grimes County before becoming an overnight sensation when he was
65...Love
in the Time of Diphtheria by Luke Warm 10-14-08
Scupltress
Elizabet Ney, Dr. Edmund Montgomery and Liendo PlantationIndian
Emily by Mike Cox 10-2-08
One of the most romantic stories in the lore of the Old West originated at Fort
Davis... In the late 1860s, an Apache female fell wounded in a skirmish between
cavalry troops stationed at Fort Davis and her band....Hardin's
Shotgun by Mike Cox 8-27-08
John
Wesley Hardin's shotgun used by him to kill the Sheriff of DeWitt County, the
most notorious of the men who had served in the State Police of the early 1870s...
Gussie
Nell Davis by Archie
P. McDonald 8-25-08
Gussie Nell Davis
and the Kilgore RangerettesGideon
Lincecum: King of Texas’ Wild Frontier by
Clay Coppedge 8-24-08
If, as Russian
novelist Mikhail Zoschenko once put it, “’Man is excellently made and eagerly
lives the kind of life that it being lived” then Lincecum was what the Russian
had in mind. The life Gideon Lincecum so eagerly lived is the one a lot of us
can’t help but think we would have lived had we been in that time and in those
places... Johanna
Domodora of South Texas by Linda-Kirkpatrick
8-18-08
Out
of the PWA the Works Progress Administration (WPA) was born. Thanks to the WPA
and the monies paid to writers, we now have a collection of interviews of people
whose stories would have been lost in history. Florence Angermiller's interview
with Johanna July of Brackettville, Texas is a story that I have read over and
over...
Howard Hughes by
Archie P. McDonald 7-28-08
Howard
Robard Hughes Sr.Al
Jennings by C. F. Eckhardt 7-21-08
Al
Jennings of Oklahoma, largely through masterful self-promotion, became for a time
the best-known of the outlaws of the American West...Jackie
Gleason and Michael DeBakey Apparently Shared A Passion by Bill Cherry
7-14-08
It
was the early spring of 1972. We had gone to Washington, D.C....
Mary
Ann Goodnight and the Texas State Bison Herd by Linda Kirkpatrick
7-11-08
Their story began many, many years ago and when you know it your heart will fill
with the same pride that you get at you watch Old Glory waving in the breeze.
Former
slave recalls memories of old Lavaca County by Murray Montgomery 7-7-08
In 1946, a black man by the name of Tate Hicks told a local paper that he was
the oldest man in Lavaca County. Fact is, he came to Texas as a slave...Terry's
Texas Rangers by Mike Cox 7-3-08
" The Texans who rode with the Terry and Lubbock, and later under Col. John
A. Wharton, paid a high price for their beliefs. Of 1,700 who served in the regiment,
the 8th Texas consisted of only 150 men by the end of the war."Adventures
of Eddie Fung: Chinatown Kid, Texas Cowboy, Prisoner of War by Mel Brown 6-26-08
Forgotten
Conservationist by Mike Cox 6-19-08
No matter the significance of their contribution to society, sometimes worthy
people are overlooked by later generations. Oscar Charles Guessaz is a perfect
example. No Texas park, wildlife management area, fish hatchery, vessel, conservation
group or school honors his uncommon, hard-to-pronounce surname, but anyone who
enjoys hunting and fishing in the Lone Star state owes Guessaz an appreciative
tip of their camouflaged gimme cap... El
Paso’s Beautiful People: 1921-1946 6-5-08
Photographer Alfonso Casasola and The Casasola Photo CollectionThe
Women of 1836, Part III, Mary Millsap by Linda-Kirkpatrick
6-3-08
"... Mary Millsap, wife of
Isaac Millsap, Gonzales Ranger. Isaac was the oldest defender at the Alamo and
Mary was now one of the oldest widows. Not only was Mary left with the burden
of seven children to raise but she had been blind for many years..."Tom
Slick by Clay Coppedge 6-1-08
"In addition to his oil and ranching business and contributions to research
science, Slick also made a name for himself as a cryptozoologist: one who searches
for animals that science has never officially acknowledged. Think Loch Ness Monster,
and then think Yeti, Sasquatch or Bigfoot and you get the idea..." A
gifted writer by Bob Bowman 6-1-08
Few people knew Landon Bradshaw, a self-educated writer who had a remarkable gift
for telling stories in a down-to-earth fashion. He wrote only one book, “These
People Actually Lived in East Texas.” People who have copies cherish it with an
affection reserved only for their wives and rich uncles.
Bud Newman, part II by Mike
Cox 5-29-08
Outlaw Bud Newman apparently
believed himself bullet proof, figuratively and even literally... Bud
Newman Gang by Mike Cox 5-26-08
Bud Newman didn’t amount to much as an outlaw, but not for lack of grit...
The
life and times of F.W. Neuhaus by Murray Montgomery 5-8-08
The life of Mr. Neuhaus was very interesting one. From the time he left
his home in Germany until his feet hit the sand at the old port of Indianola;
F.W. Neuhaus intended to be a successful man in Texas - indeed he was... Susannah
Dickinson by Linda-Kirkpatrick
5-1-08
"...Susannah picked up Angelina
and followed the officer into the courtyard. It was then that she viewed a site
that history books can never describe. The air was still and there was a deafening
hush all around. The bodies of the brave dead Texans lay stacked in piles, later
to become funeral pyres spreading smoke and history to the sky above..."George
Washington Brackenridge
4-28-08
The man and the statuePeter
Ellis Bean by Archie P. McDonald 4-28-08
The American frontier produced many colorful characters, including Peter Ellis
Bean...
The
Forgotten Hero by C. F. Eckhardt 4-24-08
Who was the first—and possibly the greatest—hero of the Texas Revolution? He’s
a man you may have heard of, but not very often. Try Ben Milam...
San
Jacinto Hero Henry Millard by Mike Cox 4-17-08
Texas has 254 counties and 1,208 incorporated cities, but none are named for Henry
Millard – a virtually forgotten hero of the Texas War for Independence. Goodbye,
General Bill by Gael Montana 4-17-08
Eulogy for Brigadier General Bill Bacon, RetOld
Bill and Handsome Wolf by Clay Coppedge 4-7-08
"...I wish I had known about Old Bill Williams and the Comanche chief Ysambanbi,
otherwise known as Handsome Wolf, when I was screwloose and fancy free in the
Yellow House Canyon..." The
Women of 1836 - Part I by Linda Kirkpatrick
4-3-08
The women who came to Texas were strong beyond means. They faced every hardship
and danger that one can imagine and still they survived. The following stories
relate the tales of a few of these women. The first is an unnamed woman from Anahuac...
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TEXANS
- Browse by Category |
Celebrated
& Uncelebrated Texans
Actors, athletes,
musicians, photographers, singers, writers ... |
There’s
Got to Be More to His “Galveston” Than That Glen Campbell Sings It by Bill
Cherry 7-3-09
If you know singer Glen
Campbell’s real relationship with the island, you can’t help but wonder if there
isn’t more to the story than that a songwriter named Jimmy Webb wrote these words
and tune, and that Glen sang them...Blast
From The Past: The Houston Colt 45s
by Clay Coppedge 6-19-09
The
first major league baseball team in Texas was the Houston Colt .45s, now the Houston
Astros. Of course, we also have the Texas Rangers baseball team now but it all
started with Houston, and the determination of legendary Houstonian Roy Hofheinz...The
Legendary Stardust Cowboy by Clay Coppedge 6-3-09
The
Legendary Stardust Cowboy (real name Norman Carl Odam) from Lubbock...The
Billionaire Developer: George P. Mitchell by Bill Cherry 6-1-09
George
P. Mitchell was born on Galveston Island 90-years ago May 21st. And for all 90
of those years, he’s been making history, and with a good portion of that history
he has made life better for other people and for future generations... Sideshow
Texans by Mike Cox 5-28-09
Phineas
Taylor (“There’s a sucker born every minute”) Barnum knew talent when he saw it...
The Shields boys, Tarver and Erlich-Earle...Charlie
Bullock: “Art’s a luxury” by Byron Browne 5-27-09
“Art’s
a luxury,” Charlie Bullock says... Of course, Bullock is talking for us non-artists.
For himself, art is as much a necessity as eating... Jim
Reeves and Cheyenne by Bob Bowman 5-24-09
As
a one-time reporter, I covered the funerals of numerous East Texans, but the one
I remember the most was that of Jim Reeves, the iconic country singer who grew
up at Galloway in Panola County... Play
Misty For Me - A Reprise by Bill Cherry 5-4-09
Barry
KilgoreBoyce
House by Mike Cox 3-19-09
Chances
are, you’ve never heard of Boyce House. But he deserves to be remembered... House
improved the communities he served as a hard hitting newspaper editor, he made
a couple of generations of Texans laugh and he offered himself as an unsuccessful
political candidate. What he did best, however, was collect Texas stories --folktales,
jokes, history--and preserve them in books, articles and newspaper columns...Pistol
Packing Mamma by Bob Bowman 3-8-09
One
of the most popular songs in the U.S. during the mid-1940s was “Pistol Packing
Mama.” But few know that the song came from East Texas and was written and performed
by an Cherokee County musician Al Dexter. Leon
Breeden by Bill Cherry 3-7-09
The Man from Oklahoma and Jazz: They Brought Academic Notoriety to a Podunk Teachers
College.
Leon Breeden and his One O’clock Lab Band
Owen Wister by Mike Cox
1-15-09
The cultured gentleman
from Philadelphia generally credited with inventing the Western novel, a genre
that evolved into film and eventually television, spent some time in West Texas
on his way to becoming a nationally-known writer...Alley
Oop is a Texan? by C. F. Eckhardt
1-14-09
Alley Oop, the cave-man character
created by Victor T. Hamlin in 1932, is a native Texan. The area around present
Iraan, Texas was a gold mine of dinosaur fossils. This gave Hamlin the idea for
a comic strip...Bob
Wade by Byron Browne 12-5-08
From
Austin to Houston to San Antonio to Abilene his over-sized, sometimes monstrous,
oftentimes Titanic creations have become so iconic, so much a part of our landscape
that they frequently define the area that they inhabit.Mance
Lipscomb by Clay Coppedge 10-19-08
Songster
and guitarist Mance Lipscomb spent most of his 80 years as a tenant farmer around
Navasota, in Grimes County before becoming an overnight sensation when he was
65...Love
in the Time of Diphtheria by Luke Warm 10-14-08
Scupltress
Elizabet Ney, Dr. Edmund Montgomery and Liendo PlantationGussie
Nell Davis by Archie
P. McDonald 8-25-08
Gussie Nell Davis
and the Kilgore RangerettesGideon
Lincecum: King of Texas’ Wild Frontier by
Clay Coppedge 8-24-08
If, as Russian
novelist Mikhail Zoschenko once put it, “’Man is excellently made and eagerly
lives the kind of life that it being lived” then Lincecum was what the Russian
had in mind. The life Gideon Lincecum so eagerly lived is the one a lot of us
can’t help but think we would have lived had we been in that time and in those
places... Johanna
Domodora of South Texas by Linda-Kirkpatrick
8-18-08
Out
of the PWA the Works Progress Administration (WPA) was born. Thanks to the WPA
and the monies paid to writers, we now have a collection of interviews of people
whose stories would have been lost in history. Florence Angermiller's interview
with Johanna July of Brackettville, Texas is a story that I have read over and
over...
Howard Hughes by
Archie P. McDonald 7-28-08
Howard
Robard Hughes Sr.Jackie
Gleason and Michael DeBakey Apparently Shared A Passion by Bill Cherry
7-14-08
It
was the early spring of 1972. We had gone to Washington, D.C....El
Paso’s Beautiful People: 1921-1946 6-5-08
Photographer Alfonso Casasola and The Casasola Photo CollectionA
gifted writer by Bob Bowman 6-1-08
Landon Bradshaw wrote only one book, “These People Actually Lived in East Texas.”
People who have copies cherish it with an affection reserved only for their wives
and rich uncles.
The first
Elvis impersonator by Bob Bowman 3-10-08
Former radio personality Norman Johnson of Nacogdoches holds a unique place in
East Texas history: He was the first known Elvis impersonator. The
Printer Fires Both Barrels by Archie P. McDonald
2-18-08
Archer Fullingim The
Killer and Me by Clay Coppedge 2-3-08
Jerry Lee Lewis once offered me a drink of whiskey but I turned him down because
I was sixteen years old and conducting my first ever interview with anyone but
myself. It happened in 1969 at the Bigger ‘N Dallas nightclub...Kathy
Dell: A Cowboy's Sweetheart; the life of a famous unknown
by Mel Brown
2-18-08
"Dell’s true importance
to the state’s music history is found in the pioneering spirit and unconventional
accomplishments of her career... in two male dominated professions, first as a
rodeo star and then as a country musician and band leader.""Always
Late" by Archie P. McDonald 2-3-08
Lefty FrizzellBuffalo
Bill by Mike Cox 1-24-08
Granddad
worked for Buffalo Bill Cody. No, he didn’t travel the nation with the old scout’s
famous Wild West Show...
Remembering Claire Perry
by Robert Cowser 1-15-08
I first contacted
Claire Perry, the widow of the Texas writer George Sessions Perry, when she was
living in Guilford, CT in 1963...J.
Frank Dobie and Colonel Jack Jenkins by Mel Brown
1-1-08
Two Texans become friends in War-torn
England
Urban
Landscapes of Jacinto Guevara by Johnny Stucco 10-11-07
“If this all seems mystical, trust me, it is for me too.” Good
Night Irene by Archie P. McDonald 10-1-07
Since Shreveport and Caddo Parish were once members of the old East Texas Chamber
of Commerce, it is appropriate for the East Texas Historical Association to consider
Huddie Leadbetter, better known as Leadbelly, as part of our past—especially since
at least one of his prison sentences was served in this region... Thomas
Lovell 1852 - 1911
10-1-07
Builder George
Roy Clough Invents Call-in Radio by Bill Cherry 8-15-07
By the time the Federal Communications Act was established in 1938, radio broadcasting
was already a big business in Galveston. The Moody family was broadcasting over
its station in the Buccaneer hotel, and George Roy Clough was operating his first
station, KFLX out of make shift studios in the living room of his home...John
Henry Faulk by
Archie P. McDonald 7-30-07
Johnny
Faulk had once been atop the show business ladder in New York City, only to tumble
when falsely accused during the era of McCarthyism of being a communist...Robert
Leroy Ripley by Mike Cox 7-31-07
Believe it or not, Robert Leroy Ripley did not hail from Texas, but the Lone Star
State proved to be a rich source of material for the syndicated newspaper cartoon
that made him famous... The
Magnificent Montague by Bill Cherry 7-15-07
The Magnificent Montague I want to talk about isn’t fictional, and he’s not white,
he’s black, and he’s probably one of the most important contributors to American
black culture that has ever lived. Someone you should know about... Charles
W. Pressler by Mike Cox 6-27-07
Chief draftman of the 1879 Texas-sized Texas map.Korley’s
Kolumns by Bob
Bowman 6-25-07
Some seventy years
ago, a self-educated farmer and justice of the peace in Henderson County starting
writing letters to the Athens Daily Review. In a few months, Cicero Witt Corley...
Powers
of Texas by Maggie Van Ostrand 6-17-07
Surely there are more
powers in the great republic of Texas than can be listed in any single article,
or even in any single book. This is about one of them: Powers Boothe...What
Stanley Walker Saw by Clay Coppedge
Stanley Walker, the legendary
journalist and editor from Lampasas, was a man ahead of his time. Though he lived
and worked in a time far removed from ours, his perceptions and comments hold
merit more than 40 years after his death... Bring
'Em Back Alive: Frank Buck Archie P. McDonald
Before the late Steve
Ervin wrestled his first crocodile, before Jane Goodall learned to communicate
with chimps, before swimming champion Johnny Weissmuller personified Edgar Rice
Burroughs' Tarzan and Jungle Jim in movies and serials, and before John Wayne
performed in a film titled "Hatari!" about a professional trapper of animals for
zoos, Frank Buck captured American and international audiences with tales of his
adventures doing just those kinds of things everywhere on the planet... Texas'
Most Civilized Soul by Clay Coppedge
Roy Bedichek has been called
the most civilized soul Texas ever produced. If that's so - and it has never been
seriously disputed - the seeds of Bedichek's civilized nature and his love of
the natural world were sown in Falls County, where he grew up...Enrico
Filiberto Cerracchio
Italian born Texas sculptor and his Equestrian Statue of General Sam Houston Photographer
Louis de Planque by Mike Cox
Like many creative types, Louis de
Planque had his eccentricities. He expressed his artistry on the glass plate photographic
negative; he indulged his penchant for the mildly outlandish in his dress. Raoul
Josset (1899-1957)
"They Might be
Giants - then again, they might be the work of Raoul Josset. The Franco-American
sculptor who made larger-than-life Texas Statues...""My
Blue Heaven: Gene Austin"
by Archie P. McDonald
Gainesville, in Cooke County, gained a native
son named Eugene Lucas on June 24,1900. Lucas became one of the nation's most
popular entertainers during the 1930s, but by then he used his stepfather's name-Austin...
O.
Henry and the Shoal Creek Treasure by C. F. Eckhardt
Before he
became known as O. Henry, a former consumptive from South Carolina-William Sidney
Porter, everybody who knew him called him Bill-lived and worked in Austin. One
of his first jobs there was with the state's General Land Office... The
Babe by Archie
P. McDonald
Mildred Ella Didrikson, the greatest woman athlete of the
twentieth century, was the sixth child born to Norwegian immigrants Ole Nickolene
and Hannah Marie Olson Didriksen, in Port Arthur, Texas, in 1911... Kim
Stanley: Daughter of Texas
by Maggie Van Ostrand
Kim Stanley made very few films, and was
nominated for the Oscar for nearly every one, even that of Pancho Barnes in "The
Right Stuff" though she was onscreen fewer than ten minutes. She preferred stage
acting, and electrified audiences with performances as Cherie in "Bus Stop"...
Conan
in Texas: The Robert E. Howard Story
by C. F. Eckhardt
"Though Howard is best remembered as the creator
of Conan the Cimmerian, mostly today called 'Conan the Barbarian,' he also created
King Kull of Atlantis, Solomon Kane, ... Bran Mak Morn, 'El Borak,' sailor Steve
Costigan, and dozens of others. He wrote in virtually every genre with the possible
exception of romance, under at least 100 different pseudonyms..."Steven
Fromholz BioVictor
T. Hamlin & Alley Oop
by C. F. Eckhardt
Victor Hamlin was not a newspaper man at the time
he created Alley Oop. He was a cartographer for an oil company, making site maps.
He was also a cartoonist who had a mildly-successful science-fiction strip featuring
the 'mad scientist' Dr. Wonmug and his sidekick Oscar Boom...The
Height of Celebrity by Maggie Van Ostrand
"Since the media
harps on the public's right to know, be it the names of secret agents, who's dating
whom, or who's gender bending, why not ease our minds and let us know who's walking
tall and who's walking small? Like former-planet Pluto, some stars need to be
downsized. To that end, help is on the way from the Height Detective."Bob
Wills: The Greatest Fiddle-Player of Them All by C. F. Eckhardt
"...He was a shirt-tail kid from Turkey, where they put both city limits
signs on the same post. He had a fiddle and a Model T, and he pushed that Tin
Lizzie to anywhere anybody would pay $3 or $4 to hear him fiddle all night and
sometimes well into the dawn while they danced to old songs. Sixty years after
that beginning ..."Kris
Kristofferson and Mickey Newbury: A Texas Connection by Dorothy Hamm
"...We knew nothing about Kristofferson then. We would come to learn that
his life was far more interesting than any song he could ever write. Perhaps that's
why he had to write them. His story is well known, born in Brownsville, Texas..."
Tennessee
Williams' Texas Director by Bob Bowman
Without the interest of
an East Texas woman, American theater icon Tennessee Williams might still be writing
high school plays in a small town.Honky
Tonk Man by Archie P. McDonald
Johnny Horton Pedro
Gonzalez-Gonzalez by John Troesser
A Guy So Nice - They Named Him Twice
During his career he performed alongside such actors as Glenn Ford, Lee Marvin,
Karl Malden, James Garner and James Arness. Freddy
Fender by Ken Rudine
"Freddy Fender is probably the greatest
singer, writer and musician of Mexican-American heritage." "Lady
Godiva": Adah Isaccs Menken by Archie P. McDonald
The lady on the horse
Willie
by Dorothy Hamm
Native Texan Willie NelsonNorm
Cash
"Cash, a left-handed hitting first baseman, had a distinguished
career in major league baseball, with the Chicago White Sox (1958-1959) and Detroit
Tigers (1960-1974)."Millard
Lewis Cope by Archie P. McDonald
"Tip O’Neil reminded us that
'all politics is local.' Millard Cope taught us that the best journalism is local,
too."The
Quebe Sisters by Bob Bowman
"If
Bob Wills were around today, the chances are good that he would be delighted with
three teenage sisters from Burleson."Dana
X. Bible and the Twelfth Man by Archie P. McDonald
A story about the life and contributions to Texas football by Dana
Xenophon Bible Hallettsville
Photographer Left a Legacy of Memories by Murray Montgomery
Henry
Jacob Braunig John
Trlica by Clay Coppedge
"Every picture tells a story only
as long as people know the story.
A visit with Dan Martinets is in order if
you want the story on the photographs collected in the book "Equal before the
Lens: Jno. Trlica's Photographs of Granger, Texas" by Barbara McCandless..."The
Light Crust Doughboys are on the air! by Archie P. McDonald
"Truett Kinsey’s voice came out of Philcos and Zeniths and other
radios all over East Texas, and eventually much of the South, each day at noon
to announce the beginning of a performance of the most popular fiddle band ever
assembled..."Jackass
in Heaven by Mike Cox
Clay McGonagill may have been the ropingest
cowboy Texas ever produced. He’s for sure one of the Lone Star State’s least-known
characters, though cowboys still tell stories about him around the campfire or
over a cool beverage after a hard day in the saddle.The
Other Babe by Archie P. McDonald
"Babe" Didrikson, the outstanding
woman athlete of the twentieth century.Johnnie
High: People Told Him It Would Not Work by Dorothy HammBoxcar
Willie by Dorothy Hamm
Lecil Travis
Martin, known around the world as Boxcar Willie.Joe
Tex by Clay Coppedge
The singer that critic John Morthland of Texas
Monthly called "by far Texas' greatest contributor to soul music."Casablanca’s
East Texan by Bob Bowman
Dooley Wilson, the piano player who sang
"As Time Goes By" in CasablancaMy
Friend Morris by Bob Bowman
"Morris Frank, who gained
fame for his newspaper columns in the Houston Chronicle and his speeches throughout
America..."James
Brown, Desdemona's Celebrity Actor by Linda Ruhl
Lt. Rip Masters of "Rin Tin Tin"George
Sessions Perry by Clay Coppedge
Traces of the town that George
Sessions Perry knew and wrote about in the first half of the Twentieth Century
can still be found in Rockdale. O.
Henry by Mike Cox
"The mustachioed young man from North
Carolina hardly seemed the martial type, but as a citizen soldier in the Austin
Grays he demonstrated the qualities of a leader – even if it was to keep from
spending the night in the guardhouse."The
Eerie Demise of Johnny Horton by Clay Coppedge
"Despite Johnny
Horton's wild-at-heart looks and voice, he was a man haunted for years by ominous
premonitions of his own death."Etta
Moten Barnett by John Troesser
November 5th, 1901 - January -
2004
"Life does not owe me one thing."
"While her birth in
Weimar, Texas may have just been chance, it's her accomplishments after she left
Weimar that deserve a closer look. When she died last year of cancer (in Chicago)
at the age of 102, Etta Moten Barnett had had a rich and full life.. She is now
remembered as an actress, singer, and philanthropist ..."
Linda
Darnell by Archie P. McDonald
The brief but brilliant life of
actress Linda Darnell began in Dallas on October 16, 1923...Pardner
Jones by Mike Cox
"Jones was the go-to guy for shooting hats
off actor’s heads or cigars out of their mouths. A la William Tell, he also could
make instant apple sauce, albeit with a bullet instead of an arrow."Mollie
Bailey by John Troesser
"Circus Queen of the Southwest"Never
another like Bill Pickett by Clay Coppedge
Bill Pickett invented
the practice of what we know as bulldogging, or steer wrestling....Katherine
Anne Porter in East Texas by Bob Bowman
"Porter apparently
never forgot her life in East Texas. Many of her short stories reflect the geography,
rural traditions and language of the pineywoods."Texas
Guinan by Luke Warm
She may have been Waco's Answer to Mae West
- but no one remembers the question...Jules
Bledsoe
Ten
Thing you should know about Jules Bledsoe by John Troesser, Photos courtesy
The Texas Collection, Baylor University
His role as "Joe" in Jerome Kern's
Showboat made "Ol' Man River" an American classic.
"The
Light Crust Doughboys are on the air!" by Archie P. McDonald
The
most famous, and most successful, western swing group in Texas in the 1930s
Hondo
by Mike Cox
Hondo, a word made famous by Louis L'Amour. Gene
Autry
Cowboy
Gene by Mike Cox ("Texas Tales")
Gene Autry the Singing
CowboyRoger
Miller by Maggie Van Ostrand
Country Music Hall of Famer
Anecdotes
of Roger and friends, quotes and stories.
Nuggets
of History Bob Bowman
Ginger Rogers,
La Salle, Custer and his men...Jack
Teagarden from Vernon, TexasThe
Big Bopper by Archie P. McDonald Lightnin'
Hopkins by Bob BowmanOur
Celebrities by Bob Bowman ("All Things Historical")
"... I continue to be amazed how many famous people are from the Piney Woods..."
Robert
Howard
Barbarians
At The City Limits - Arnold is from Austria - Conan is from Cross Plains, Texas
by Brewster Hudspeth
Robert had the build and look of a fighter but
the melancholy loneliness of a poet. No one knows how this tiny town so far from
exotic places (unless you count Abilene) inspired young Robert to write such vivid
fantasy.Dan
Blocker
The
Mighty Hoss by Archie P. McDonald
Dan Blocker's story begins and
ends in DeKalb, in Bowie County, located in uppermost Northeastern Texas, though
most of it played out in West Texas and in Hollywood.
Dan
Blocker
Ten Things You Never
Knew About "Hoss" Cartwright. by John TroesserAdah
Isaccs Menken: The lady on the Horse by Archie P. McDonald 12/8/02Sissy
Spacek and Rip Torn by John TroesserRoy
Orbison
Wink, Roy Orbison's
Boyhood HomeHank
Thompson - 1999 Texas Country Music Hall of FameOl'
Rip, The Entombed Horned Toad of Eastland County
The story of Ol' Rip,
the horned toad entombed in the Eastland County Courthouse for 31 years.Bob
Wills, the King of Western Swing Baseball
Players - Shelby Edwin Cropper & Elzie Wheat 1910 photoJim
Reeves Tex
Ritter
Crossing
Paths in Texas Marx
Brothers by Clay Coppedge 4-1-09
The Marx Brothers weren’t funny at all until they came to Texas...A
letter from Mark Twain
by Bob Bowman 3-15-09
When
William H. Hamman, a two-time candidate for Texas governor, was murdered on the
streets of New Birmingham in 1890, he left a legacy as an enterprising businessman
and investor. But often overlooked was his friendship with Samuel Clemens...Brando
by Maggie Van Ostrand
"April 3 is Marlon Brando's birthday and,
if you ask any actor, it should be declared a national holiday..."Hoyt
Axton: Artist Unclassified by Dorothy Hamm
"He could never be pinned down to one genre; he made his mark wherever he
happened to land. Record companies were unsure how to categorize his music. One
catalogue listed his music as "Unclassified." Hoyt's friends thought it was a
totally appropriate label for the music and the man." The
Most Distinguished Tramp by Murray Montgomery
"...The Feb.
25, 1910, issue of the Herald had an interesting story about old "A-No. 1" - the
headline read, "The most distinguished tramp in the world paid this city a visit
Monday. Traveled 468,450 miles at a cost of $7.61". The paper told its readers
to look for the tramp's work during their travels. The article said that "A No.
1" would always carve that name under his work, along with the date and an arrow
to show what direction he was heading when he left..."Hank
Williams and Patsy Cline Still Mean A Lot by Dorothy Hamm
Although tragedies ten years apart ended the young lives of Hank Williams
in 1953 at age 29 and Patsy Cline in 1963 at age 30, they continue today as two
of country music's best loved and most enduring stars... Super
Comic, Super Star, Super Man by Maggie Van Ostrand
Mario Mareno
Reyes was the sixth son of 15 children, who became a world-wide cinema super star,
was married to the same woman for over 30 years, and made enormous financial contributions
to the Mexican poor. You may not think you know of him, but you do. He was known
as Cantinflas... East
Texas and the Black Sox by Bob Bowman
The 1919 World Series is
best remembered as the most famous scandal in baseball history, but lost in that
history is an East Texas connection to the scandal.Mexican
Beauty: Dolores del Rio by Maggie Van Ostrand
"Sinuous and
sensual, she was widely regarded as the female Rudolph Valentino. ... Precious
few other actresses have retained both beauty and stardom for over fifty professional
years."Donna
Reed - Perfect Worlds by Dwight Young
"... I distinctly remember
more than one afternoon when I thought, sitting there in the plushly upholstered
splendor of the Granada, “I wish the whole world was like this.” A decade later,
Donna Reed brought that sentiment into our living rooms..."Maurice
Barrymore in Marshall
"Marshall was indirectly responsible for launching
the Barrymore Dynasty..." |
A
Confederate Soldier in Texas: Full Metal Corset by Maggie Van Ostrand
6-18-09
Upon examination, the astonished
medic found that Lt. Harry T. Buford was not an ordinary case, not by a long shot...Ten
Things To Know About Henry Smith by John Troesser 4-1-09
Scant mention is made of Henry Smith in Texas history texts, but the Centennial
Statue in Brazoria holds his place in early Texas history... Gail
Borden by Mike Cox
3-5-09
A
New Yorker who grew up in Indiana, Gail Borden came to Texas in 1829, five years
after his brother Thomas arrived as one of Stephen F. Austin’s colonists...Miss
Lockhart and the Comanches by Maggie Van Ostrand 2-16-09
The bloody Council House conflict, and Matilda Lockhart...Life
and Times of James Coryell by Clay Coppedge 2-4-09
The
man for whom Coryell County is named was not born there and did not die there
but he was an adventurous sort who packed plenty of travel and a few brushes with
fame into an abbreviated life... Indian
Emily by Mike Cox 10-2-08
One of the most romantic stories in the lore of the Old West originated at Fort
Davis... In the late 1860s, an Apache female fell wounded in a skirmish between
cavalry troops stationed at Fort Davis and her band....
Mary
Ann Goodnight and the Texas State Bison Herd by Linda Kirkpatrick
7-11-08
Their story began many, many
years ago and when you know it your heart will fill with the same pride that you
get at you watch Old Glory waving in the breeze. Terry's
Texas Rangers by Mike Cox 7-3-08
" The Texans who rode with the Terry and Lubbock, and later under Col. John
A. Wharton, paid a high price for their beliefs. Of 1,700 who served in the regiment,
the 8th Texas consisted of only 150 men by the end of the war."Forgotten
Conservationist by Mike Cox 6-19-08
No matter the significance of their contribution to society, sometimes worthy
people are overlooked by later generations. Oscar Charles Guessaz is a perfect
example...The
Women of 1836, Part III, Mary Millsap by Linda-Kirkpatrick
6-3-08
"... Mary Millsap, wife of
Isaac Millsap, Gonzales Ranger. Isaac was the oldest defender at the Alamo and
Mary was now one of the oldest widows. Not only was Mary left with the burden
of seven children to raise but she had been blind for many years..."Susannah
Dickinson by Linda-Kirkpatrick
5-1-08
"...Susannah picked up Angelina
and followed the officer into the courtyard. It was then that she viewed a site
that history books can never describe. The air was still and there was a deafening
hush all around. The bodies of the brave dead Texans lay stacked in piles, later
to become funeral pyres spreading smoke and history to the sky above..."Peter
Ellis Bean by Archie P. McDonald 4-28-08
The American frontier produced many colorful characters, including Peter Ellis
Bean...George
Washington Brackenridge
4-28-08
The man and the statueThe
Forgotten Hero by C. F. Eckhardt 4-24-08
Who was the first—and possibly the greatest—hero of the Texas Revolution? He’s
a man you may have heard of, but not very often. Try Ben Milam...
San
Jacinto Hero Henry Millard by Mike Cox 4-17-08
Texas has 254 counties and 1,208 incorporated cities, but none are named for Henry
Millard – a virtually forgotten hero of the Texas War for Independence. Goodbye,
General Bill by Gael Montana 4-17-08
Eulogy for Brigadier General Bill Bacon, RetOld
Bill and Handsome Wolf by Clay Coppedge 4-7-08
Old Bill Williams and the Comanche chief YsambanbiThe
Women of 1836 - Part I by Linda Kirkpatrick
4-3-08
The women who came to Texas were strong beyond means. They faced every hardship
and danger that one can imagine and still they survived. The following stories
relate the tales of a few of these women. The first is an unnamed woman from Anahuac...
"Take
Care of My Little Boy"
by Archie P. McDonald 3-31-08
Travis
wrote this last letter from the Alamo early in March 1836 to David Ayers...The
adventures of John Himes Livergood by Murray Montgomery 3-20-08
In the days of early Texas, Lavaca County had its share of adventurous pioneers,
and a man from Missouri, John Himes Livergood, can be counted as one of the best
among them... Here is a story about him in an expedition against the Indians who
had killed a settler’s wife and daughter and kidnapped his 8-year-old boy... Goodrich
Jones: The best friend Texas trees ever had by Clay Coppedge
3-6-08
Some people might be tempted to refer
to W. Goodrich Jones as the original tree hugger. While there is no record
of Jones in an arbor embrace, he was no doubt a pioneering conservation and a
profound and lasting impact on forestry in this country, especially Texas. A state
forest in East Texas is named in his honor... Did
Davy survive? by Bob Bowman 2-25-08
Did Davy Crockett survive the battle of the Alamo, only to be sent to Mexico as
a prisoner and forced to work in a mine? The possibility was raised in an edition
of Southwestern Historical Quarterly in April of 1940...Ann
Whitney
2-10-08
Texas Schoolteacher of the Year
1867 Martin
Luther King, Jr. Birthday by Archie P. McDonald 1-7-08
Where were you on April
4, 1968, when news of the death of Martin Luther King Jr. reached you? Having
dinner, perhaps, as I was, and watching TV...Margie
Neal Archie P. McDonald 11-26-07
Margie Elizabeth Neal
of Carthage, Texas, really was the first woman to do lots of things and do them
well...Train
travelers owe much to service pioneer by Delbert Trew 11-20-07
Every traveler today, no matter what mode of travel he prefers, owes a salute
to the organizational genius of Fred Harvey...Pamelia
Mann, Tough Texan Archie P. McDonald 11-12-07
A lady of my acquaintance, active in the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, once
complained to me on the argumentative nature of her sisters in this hereditary
Lone Star sorority. My explanation: it's in the blood... The
General Was A Spy—And So Was The Pirate by C. F. Eckhardt 11-2-07
James Wilkinson was Commanding General, United States Army—a rank that no longer
exists but, at the time, the highest rank in the US Army. The equivalent, today,
is Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff. He was also the top spy in the US for the
Spanish Empire. He was designated Agent #1... Agents #12 and #13 were the brothers
Laffite, Pierre and Jean... Eyewitness
by Maggie Van Ostrand 10-31-07
Mr. Epperson...
was once a newsboy and lived in Washington DC. This does not sound all that memorable
except for one fact: He was selling newspapers at Ford's Theatre on the night
of April 14, 1865... James
Long, Filibuster by Archie P. McDonald 10-29-07
And Jane Long, Mother of Texas.
First to Fly by C.
F. Eckhardt 9-19-07
So far as is known, the first man-carrying, heavier-than-air craft—the first airplane—flew
not at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in 1903, nor in East Texas the year before.
Nor did it fly in California in the 1880s, though apparently a steam-powered monoplane
was flown there then. It flew in Gillespie County, Texas—in 1866. Enter Jacob
Brodbeck—genius...Sally
Skull, the Scariest Siren in Texas by Maggie Van Ostrand 8-31-07
Second only to becoming famous as one of Jack the Ripper's victims would be gaining
celebrity as one of Sally Skull's husbands... Some say Sally didn't always wait
to get a divorce, and perhaps took the easy way out. She killed them... How
legends are made by Delbert Trew 8-21-07
Charles GoodnightThe
Harrowing Life and Times of Elizabeth Ann Bishop by Maggie Van Ostrand 8-15-07
One of the Texas frontier women who taught the wilderness to quit howling and
behave itself was Elizabeth Ann Bishop... What she endured is testament to the
strength of frontier women... Teresita
Woman of the Apache by Linda Kirkpatrick
8-2-07
Many accounts are told of the April 18, 1881 incident at the McLaurin Ranch in
the Frio Canyon of Texas. Many historical accounts are linked to one another and
a small glitch in history could have changed many of the outcomes. Just one small
change could have altered the lives of many, including one Apache woman. Many
Places of LaSalle's Murder by Bob Bowman 7-31-07
The site of La Salle's murder has been a source of unbridled speculation. At least
eight communities have made claims as "the place were La Salle was killed."...
CSA
Veterans by Mike Cox 7-12-07
Doffing
his sweat-stained hat, the visitor looked around the family’s living room. His
still-clear eyes stopped at the oil painting hanging over the mantle above the
Snyder family’s gas-log fireplace. The artwork, done from life, depicted Maj.
Gen. Sterling Price in his Confederate uniform. Snapping to attention with a click
of his heels, the old-timer presented a crisp salute to the long-dead officer...
Haden
Edwards by Archie P. McDonald 7-9-07
Haden Edwards helped influence the Anglo settlement of East Texas almost as much
as Stephen F. Austin, but the state capitol and a couple of universities are not
named for him. Here's why...Deaf
Smith - Eyes of the Texas Army by Murray Montgomery
7-5-07
During those dark days of the
Texas Revolution many men came forward and represented themselves well in the
war with Mexico. When we think of those times, the names Travis, Houston, Austin,
Bowie, and Crockett quickly come to mind. There were many others, however, who
were just as important to the Texas cause. One of those was Erastus "Deaf" Smith...
there was none more dedicated in the Texas fight for freedom than this man. Did
John Wilkes Booth Live In Texas? by C. F. Eckhardt 7-1-07
Wherever and whenever John Wilkes Booth, assassin of Abraham Lincoln, died, it’s
pretty much a sure bet it wasn’t in a burning barn in Virginia...Dr.
Edward Arrel Pye, A Texas Medical Hero by W. T. Block Jr. 6-16-07
Whenever the virulent yellow fever plague came to town, the townsmen who were
cautious packed up their families and belongings and fled elsewhere. Sometimes
a town’s physician did not leave; they stayed to treat their patients and occasionally
died... The
Republic's First President by Archie P. McDonald 6-3-07
Usually, the argument about who first served as president of the Republic of Texas
involves David G. Burnet and Sam Houston. Maybe Richard Ellis has a claim, too...Price
Daniel by Archie P. McDonald 5-21-07
Price Daniel served in more political offices than anyone I know and he did so
with distinction and honor. Cartwright
by Bill Cherry 5-14-07
Mayor Herbie,
His Time in Jail and the Big Downtown Parade that Followed. Henry
O. Flipper, An Epic Remaining To Be Told by C. F. Eckhardt 5-14-07
Perhaps the most enigmatic figure in the annals of the American West is not Johnny
Ringo of maybe-suicide/maybe-murder or the deliberately enigmatic Mysterious Dave
Mather, but 2/LT Henry O. Flipper, 10th United States Cavalry... Checkers
by Mike Cox 5-9-07
Even though the game
has been popular in America since the 1840s, no one seems to have compiled a list
of famous Texas checker players. If anyone ever does, one name that should be
included is W.R. (Bill) Chambers.Sally
Scull: Texas' Pioneer "Bad Girl" by W. T. Block Jr.
5-1-07
Sally Scull, the pioneer Texas
'bad girl" was a combination Belle Starr, Calamity Jane, and Annie Oakley... Alamo
Hero by W. T. Block Jr.
Isaac RyanSam's
Mother-in-Law by Mike Cox
"Despite the rocky beginning of their relationship,
Sam Houston treated Mrs. Nancy Lea, his mother-in-law, with all due respect. He
must have learned to accept her eccentricities as well, like the lard incident..."
Governor
Thomas Mitchell Campbell by Archie P. McDonaldRichard
Ellis by Mike CoxJane
McManus Storm Cazneau by Archie P. McDonald
Tallest Rebel
by Mike Cox
The first time the Yankees soldiers saw Henry Clay Thurston charging
toward them through the clouds of black powder smoke they must have rubbed their
eyes in disbelief. This gray-clad Johnny Reb towered over the other fighting men
like a pine tree growing next to a bush... Catherine
Magill Dorman: Confederate Heroine of Sabine Pass by W.T. Block, JrTemple
Lea Houston by C. F. Eckhardt
Temple Houston was probably the closest
of all the sons to the old man in temperament and abilities, but he resented being
compared to Sam. He determined at an early age that he would not be remembered
as 'Sam's boy,' but as 'Temple Houston.' Don
Juan de Ońate by Brewster Hudspeth
(AKA) Juan de
Ońate y Salazar
"Since the name Juan de Ońate y Salazar rolls off the
tongue, Juan would probably be on the fast track to household-name-recognition
by now, if it wasn't for some pesky historical research and vandalism to another
statue in New Mexico that bears Juan's name...."The
Smith Brothers by Bob Bowman
Four brothers from Delta County lived with
an ordinary name in the mid-1800s, but they were far from ordinary...Thomas
Deye Owings of Maryland, Kentucky and Texas by W. T. Block Jr.
"He
was a colonel and hero of the War of 1812 [and] was Kentucky's original industrialist
and iron master, also holding several political offices. He was also commissioned
by Stephen F. Austin in Jan. 1836 to raise 2 regiments of Kentuckians to fight
for Texas Independence from Mexico, sacrificing as a result the life of one of
his sons during the Goliad Massacre..."Bowie
by Mike Cox
James Bowie trafficked in slaves, participated in land fraud and
drank too much – but he did not lack for grit...William
Marsh Rice by Archie P. McDonald
Everyone loves a murder mystery, especially if the murder happened
a long time ago and did not involve someone they know. The story of William Marsh
Rice's demise is such a case... The
Rufus F. Hardin School - Founder George SmithThe
Rufus F. Hardin School - Educator Rufus F. HardinOld
Sam Houston Song by Mike Cox
Here's a good television game show question:
Name the only person who ever served as governor of two states... The
8-F Crowd by Bob Bowman
"... Often referred to as the "unofficial
capital of Texas," [Lamar Hotel] Suite 8-F ... was the meeting place for Houston's
business leaders from the late 1930s to the 1960s...." East
Texas Savior of the French Wine Industry by Archie P.
McDonald
Those who favor a glass of wine, especially French wine, may not
be aware of the debt they and the French owe to Dr. Thomas Volney Munson of Denison,
TexasFather
Margil by Archie P. McDonald
Father Antonio Margil de Jesus helped introduce
Christianity to the wilderness of East Texas, but his story began in Valencia,
Spain, where he was born in 1657.Fall
of the Largest Tree by Bob Bowman
"The passing of Arthur Temple --
the man some newspapers called the last of the East Texas timber barons -- ended
a link with a history reaching back more than a century."Marie
Cronin and the Bartlett Western Railroad by Clay Coppedge
What the old Bartlett Western Railroad lacked in revenue, it more than
made up for in local color, history and folklore. Mrs.
Margaret Kinkaid by Archie P. McDonald
Kincaid School,
Houston, TexasThree-legged
Willie by Bob Bowman
Robert McAlpin Williamson
"The Republic
of Texas, which existed only a decade, had its share of interesting characters.
But few of them were as colorful as Three Legged Willie, who passed away some
146 years ago..."Houston
Ring by Mike Cox
"Sam Houston's marriage
had a lot going against it..." General
Hiram B. Granbury by Sam FenstermacherTexas
Rangers and the Battle of Plum Creek by Murray Montgomery
The Comanche attack on the South Texas coast has long been known as the
last great raid by the Indians.
Man
with a Method by Archie P. McDonald
Littleton FowlerOld
Time Judge by Archie McDonald
Thomas Whitfield DavidsonFDR
and Nine Acres by Bob Bowman
Tom Potter and FDRSam
Houston by Mike CoxMarie
Hough Borden Vintage photos courtesy Ruben R. HernandezA.M.Aikin,
Jr. by Archie P. McDonald
"In these days of
evaluating our schools—exemplary to acceptable to whatever—and multiple special
legislative sessions devoted to figuring out how to spend more money on schools
while taking in less revenue, Texans might want to remember A.M. Aikin Jr., who
helped drag education and Texas into modern times..."Norris
Cuney by Archie P. McDonald
"... Cuney technically began life as
a slave..."Lady
Doc by Mike Cox
Dr. Sofie Herzog, first female surgeon in Texas
George
Louis Crocket by Archie P. McDonald
Religious Leader and early Historian of East Texas
Price
Daniel by Archie P. McDonald
"... he had taken an oath of office
pledging loyalty to the Constitution of the United States eight times..."Sam
Houston's Will by Mike CoxOld
Three Hundred by Archie P. McDonaldWilliam
Thomas Scott William
Pinckney Rose Rev.
Jonas Franklin Dancer by Mike Cox
The namesake of Dancer Peak in Llano CountyGeorge
Campbell Childress by John Troesser
"Ten Things
You Should Know About George Campbell Childress"
Author of the Texas
Declaration of Independence and namesake of Childress County
Chief
Executives by Archie P. McDonald
"East Texas has produced its share
of prominent personages in entertainment, business, medicine, and other professions
but prominent political figures have tended to call other sections of the state
their home, especially in the last half century. It started out differently."Davis
Bunting, his wife Martha Bowden Bunting, and family
by Murray MontgomeryA.P.
and Marie Borden of Mackay, Texas Pass
the Biscuits, Pappy by Bob Bowman
His Texas
homilies, radio broadcasts, hillbilly music and affinity for rural Texas propelled
him into the governor’s office for two terms.Doris
Miller: Hero by Archie P. McDonald
African American
hero of WWIISamuel
Arthur Robertson by Mike CoxTwin
Sisters by Mike Cox
When 74-year-old Dr. Henry North Graves died that
summer morning in Dallas, the solution to one of Texas’ enduring mysteries may
have died with him.
James
Harper Starr by Archie P. McDonaldDavy's
Widow
Elizabeth Patton CrockettRichard
“Dick” Dowling Edward T. Cotham, Jr.
Richard “Dick” Dowling was one of
the most interesting figures in Houston and Texas historyThe
Air Ace by Bob Bowman
Lance C. Wade, Royal Air Force of Britain, World
War II Bet-A-Million
Gates by Archie P. McDonald
John Warne Gates,
a native of Winfield, Illinois, became associated with three of Texas’ most important
items: barbed wire, railroads, and oil.
Wiley
Post - famous aviator Wiley PostWilliam
Gerald Tobin & Chili by Mike Cox
William
Gerald Tobin’s career as a Texas Ranger left a lot to be desired. But he had an
idea that left Texas, and the Southwest, an enduring gastronomical legacy.LBJ
and East Texas Politics by Archie P. McDonald
Lyndon
B. Johnson’s victory over Coke Stevenson for a Senate seat by only 87 votes earned
this future president the nickname of "Landslide Lyndon." Everyone agrees that
Johnson’s aides "stole" that election by "finding" additional votes for their
candidate in Box 13 in Jim Wells County. What everyone might not know is that
Johnson had been burned by a similar tactic in a special Senate race in 1941,
and had vowed never to be caught short again.John
Henry Kirby by Archie P. McDonald
An East
Texas timber baronNice
Politics by Mike Cox
Wick Blanton and Tom
Morris running for county attorney of Wilson County"Bigfoot"
Wallace. by Luke Warm
"... Over the years his willingness to recount
his adventures insured he would become a genuine Texas legend. He never told a
story he couldn't later improve upon. …"Big
Foot Wallace and the Indian by Mike Cox
Ambush, strychnine, hanging...
A tale of good and evil with a twist.Buffalo
Man by Mike Cox
Hollywood has seldom – if ever – portrayed buffalo hunters
as civilized, erudite men. Screenwriters and producers of Westerns usually have
their buffalo hunters play the role as coarse, scruffy men ready to drink or kill
anything. But as the story of one time buffalo hunter John Cloud Jacobs demonstrates,
reality is not always that simple. ... McDonald
Observatory - An Orphan’s Gift by Bob Bowman
Standing atop Mount Locke
in the Big Bend area, McDonald Observatory is far removed from East Texas, but
without the interest and generosity of an orphaned Confederate soldier from Clarksville,
the world-famous astronomy center might not exist today. William McDonald ...Beauford
Jester by Archie P. McDonald
Governor of Texas
General
Hiram Bronson Granbury
Albert
Thomas by Archie P. McDonald
One of the most famous photos ever made shows
Lyndon B. Johnson taking the oath as president aboard Air Force One shortly after
the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In the photo, a tall, trim man
wearing a bow tie bends in to get a better view of President Johnson and Justice
Sarah Hughes, who administered the oath. That man was Albert Thomas...Edward
Mandell House - The House That House Built by Archie P. McDonald
Edward
Mandell House of Galveston and Houston rose about as high as one can go in Texas
or United States politics, yet he never held an elective or appointive office.
Instead of wanting to be "king," House was content to be the "king maker."Governor
by Chance - Edward Clark by Archie P. McDonaldMiss
Rita of Beaumont's Dixie Hotel by John Troesser
The Philanthropic Madam
of Oil City “Godfather
of Beaumont” by Fred B. McKinley
Frank Yount and the Yount-Lee Oil Company,
“the Godfather and Financial Gibraltar of Beaumont.”
Painter Harold Osman Kelly - Blanket Texas' Famous Son Donna
by Mike Cox
Donna Hooks Fletcher, namesake of Donna, Texas
Three
Bean Salad by John Troesser
Tom Bean, Peter Ellis Bean and Judge Roy
BeanEla
Hockaday More Than a School Omarm by Archie P. McDonald 8-8-04
Founder
of the Miss Hockaday School for Girls in DallasPixilated
in Port Arthur & Reincarnated in Luling
Alfred Stillwell and Edgar Davis
by Luke Warm William
Christy
A forgotten Texas hero Mr.
Ambassador by Archie P. McDonald
Edward Aubrey Clark of San Augustine
Tragedy
of Chief Bowles by Bob Bowman
"Few historical figures are as tragic
as Chief Bowles, the 83-year-old Cherokee Indian chief who died on a Neches River
battlefield near Tyler 164 years ago..."Norris
Wright Cuney by Archie P. McDonald
The most remarkable African American
leader in Texas in the nineteenth century. Characters
by Bob Bowman
Some people collect antiques. Others collect baseball cards.
Personally, I've always been partial to East Texas characters -- the sometimes
slightly off-center people who lived lifetimes doing things differently than the
rest of us.Ten
More Things Your Should Know About Judge Roy Bean by John Troesser
The Jersey Lilly: Where "sidebar" has a very literal meaningKate
by Mike Cox
Catherine "Kate" Magill Dorman -- a little known Texas heroine
of the Civil War"Rajah
of Swat" - Rogers Hornsby by Archie P. McDonaldTen
Things Your Should Know About Judge Roy Bean by John Troesser Richard
Kimble and Almaron Dickinson, Heroic hat makers at the Alamo by Murray Montgomery
The
Short but Eventful Life of Adrián J. Vidal 1840-1865 by Brewster Hudspeth
The
Volunteer Fire Departments of Sunray and Dumas - The Shamrock Oil refinery
explosion in the late 1950's Sarah
by Mike Cox
Few Texas women ever saw any worse than Sarah Creath McSherry
Hibbens Stinnett Howard. A woman with true grit, the way she came by her long
name is one of Texas' more gripping tales. Born around 1812....
Air
Pioneer by Bob Bowman
Texas Aviation Hall of Famer. In 1921 she became
the only black pilot in the world. A year later she became the first black woman
to fly over American soil. Philip
Nolan by Archie P. McDonald
We can credit him and men like him with "making
news" in the Untied States that quickened the interest of other Americans about
building futures in Texas.
The
Last Hero - John G. Pickering by Bob Bowman
The last surviving veteran
of the Battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836, lies in an almost forgotten cemetery
in deep East Texas, his tombstone chipped and broken. It's an ignoble resting
place for a proud old soldier, John G. Pickering.Robert
Thomas Hill, "Dean of Texas Geology" (1858-1941) by Margaret WaringTemple
Lea Houston: Son of Sam
Even with his father's fame; he made a hefty name
for himself. by John TroesserTen
Things you should know about Anson Jones by John Troesser An
informal history of Pierce, Texas: Containing barely related facts on neighboring
towns in Wharton, Jackson and Victoria Counties. by Brewster HudspethTen
Things you should know about "Shanghai" Pierce. Beef - it's what's for dinner
- again. by Brewster Hudspeth
The
Niels and Mellie Esperson Buildings - If you live in Houston, you've heard
the name; now, meet the people. by John TroesserA
Man to Count on in Big Spring - "An Earl and his money are soon
popular." by Brewster HudspethThergood's
Pine by Bob Bowman (From All Things Historical) - The story of a slave and
the oldest pine tree in East Texas.The
Starr Family Mansion by Archie McDonald ( From All Things Historical)
A
Journalist's Hero by Bob Bowman ( From All Things Historical)
"Journalists
are by nature a cynical lot. And because they've seen humanity at its worst, they
have few heroes. One of them died in Tyler last month. ....."
Ira
Eaker: From Covered Wagon to Jet-Age Air Power, Four Stars by Bill Bradfield
"During dark days of World War II when the bitter war was far from
won, it was a Texas tenant farmer's son who took command of the U.S. Eighth Air
Force in England, playing a key role in making the Normandy invasion possible....."
Lyne
Taliaferro Barret by Archie P. McDonald (All Things Historical)
The Crusty Old Baptist by Murray Montgomery (Times Past) East
Texas' Mark Twain by Bob Bowman (All Things Historical)Allan
Shivers by Archie P. McDonald (All Things Historical)Two
Pilots, Three Air Forces, One Hometown:
Lt. Col. Alvin Mueller & Lieutenant
Dick Campbell by John TroesserMister
Ben by Bob Bowman (All Things Historical) A
Ranger's Ranger by Archie P. McDonald ( All Things Historical)William
Goyens by Archie P. McDonald (All Things Historical) Back
Home in It-lee, Texas, USA by Jeanne Moseley (From Good Day for a Story)
"... His career in radio broadcasting took him to Dallas, Louisville,
Providence, Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York and then back to Los Angeles, where
he became well known as a premier broadcaster. As a young boy on Italy's Ward
Street, his favorite pastime was listening to Gene Autry's radio show..."The
Fayetteville Photographer and His Sculptor Daughter : William and Waldine Tauch
by John TroesserEdward
C. Lasater & the Dairy IndustryDare
Devil Rogers
During
the Depression, as the people of the nation collectively dug deep into their pockets
and often came up with nothing, Dare Devil dug his own grave time after time,
town after town."Frank
Earl Kleppler
Artist, 1890-1952 F.S.Stockdale
6-18-09
Last Governor of Confederate
Texas |
George
Washington Brackenridge
4-28-08
The man and the statue
Tom
Slick by Clay Coppedge 6-1-08
"In addition to his oil and ranching business and contributions to research
science, Slick also made a name for himself as a cryptozoologist: one who searches
for animals that science has never officially acknowledged. Think Loch Ness Monster,
and then think Yeti, Sasquatch or Bigfoot and you get the idea..." |
Bonnie
and Clyde by Bob Bowman6-29-09
During
their Depression-era crime wave between 1931 and 1934, Bonnie and Clyde were suspected
of killing at least twelve people, including nine peace officers. Their victims
fell in Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana...Jesse
James in Texas by Bob Bowman 5-17-09Driving
Around with Bonnie and Clyde by Robin Cole-Jett
5-15-09Clyde’s
Funeral by Mike Cox
2-5-09
Stories
can turn up in weird places. For instance, who would expect to find an account
of the Depression-era outlaw Clyde Barrow’s funeral in the self-published memoir
of a long-time fiddler-turned-preacher?Garrett
Murder by C. F. Eckhardt 12-9-08
One of the many unsolved mysteries of the West. Bad
Man Returns by Mike Cox 12-4-08
As the old saying goes, it’s hard to keep a good man down. But that sure couldn’t
account for Bill Johnson’s reappearance in McLennan County. One of Texas’ lesser-known
outlaws...Bill
Wharton by Mike Cox 11-27-08
Used
to be, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries, some people were born Thankful
and died Thankful. That’s because, way back, parents sometimes named their daughters
Thankful. Born in 1803, Thankful Rankin...Hardin's
Shotgun by Mike Cox 8-27-08
John
Wesley Hardin's shotgun used by him to kill the Sheriff of DeWitt County, the
most notorious of the men who had served in the State Police of the early 1870s...
Al
Jennings by C. F. Eckhardt 7-21-08
Al
Jennings of Oklahoma, largely through masterful self-promotion, became for a time
the best-known of the outlaws of the American West...
Bud Newman, part II by Mike
Cox 5-29-08
Outlaw Bud Newman apparently
believed himself bullet proof, figuratively and even literally... Bud
Newman Gang by Mike Cox 5-26-08
Bud Newman didn’t amount to much as an outlaw, but not for lack of grit... Cherokee
Bill: Don't Get Him Mad
by Maggie Van Ostrand 3-27-08
By the age of 20, Crawford Goldsby, later known as Cherokee Bill, was one of the
most notorious killers prowling the western frontier.Annie
Rogers and the Bank Dick by Maggie Van Ostrand 2-3-08
Annie Rogers and the Great Northern Train RobberyCaptain
William Coe lived criminal highlife by Delbert Trew 1-16-08
My recent column about "No Man's Land" in the Oklahoma Panhandle brought in a
great true story from Roy McClellam of Spearman. Reading like a novel by Louis
L'amour, this tale tells of a Robber's Roost located right here in the Panhandle
area.... Joaquin
Murrieta, Robin Hood or Just Plain Hood? by Maggie Van Ostrand 1-5-08
Everything about Joaquin Murrieta is disputed. He was either the Mexican Robin
Hood or the El Dorado Robin Hood. He was either an infamous bandito or a Mexican
patriot...
Luke Short,
The Undertakers' Friend
by Maggie Van Ostrand 12-20-07
"Luke Short had
become part owner of the failing White Elephant Saloon in Ft. Worth. The owners
of the White Elephant thought Luke's presence and the expansion of gambling activities
would help restore prosperity. Little did they know of the event that would put
their saloon on the map..."
Jesse James. Miss
Shirley’s Story by C. F. Eckhardt 10-8-07
I met the lady I must call ‘Miss Shirley’ once and once only... She was, at the
time, well on the shady side of 90. My ostensible reason for meeting with her
was to gather her memories of my grandfather... My real reason was to hear a story
she had to tell about an entirely different sort of man—a man named Jesse James...
Is
Jesse James really in that Missouri grave? by Murray Montgomery
10-4-07
One of those who disagreed with
history's version of James' death was a fellow known as Uncle Bill Goodwin of
Dublin, Texas. Uncle Bill's version appeared in The Gonzales Inquirer in 1933
and his story is the subject of this edition of Lone Star Diary...Fannie
Porter of San Antonio by Maggie Van Ostrand 9-25-07
If even half the legends passed down through generations are true, the Old West
was a riotous and exciting place. Whether heroes or desperadoes, these legendary
people all seem to have either been born in, traveled through, or fought for the
great Republic of Texas... But they didn't fight, shoot, and rustle all the time.
They needed rest. They needed relaxation. They needed love. And Fannie Porter
of San Antonio supplied these diversions. This is her story. Bosque
Treasure by Mike Cox 11-20-07
Daniel
H. Evans. "Described by one newspaper as a “handsome young man,” the 20-year-old
convicted murderer-robber left behind “respectable connections in Tennessee, Missouri
and Texas” as well as a long forgotten legend of hidden loot." A
Man Named Pink by Clay Coppedge 9-19-07
"[Pink] Higgins first became known as a gunfighter during the notorious Horrell-Higgins
Feud in Lampasas County in the 1870s...."B.
F. (Frank) Payne, Texas Ranger by Linda-Kirkpatrick
9-5-07
...The year was 1866, when B. F.
(Frank) Payne, a strapping young lad of twelve years old, mounted his pony to
go on a cow hunt with his dad and some of the other neighboring ranchers... Texas
was sparsely populated at this time. Ranches, towns and homesteads were few and
far between and the threat of conflict between the Indians and the Anglos was
always on everyone’s mind... A.J.
Sowell by Mike
Cox 9-5-07
The few photographs of
A.J. Sowell show him to be a man of normal weight, but read his book and you have
to wonder how he managed to keep trim. He easily could have spent the rest of
his life overeating to compensate for his days as a Texas Range... Lottie
Deno: Queen of the Paste Board Flippers by Maggie Van Ostrand 8-3-07
Lottie was known by many names, including Carlotta J. Thompkins (the name she
was christened with), Laura Denbo, Faro Nell, and Charlotte Thurmond. She was
dubbed Lottie Deno the night she won every hand of poker from every opponent foolish
enough to think he could win...Sarge
Cummings Master of the Long Loop Linda-Kirkpatrick 7-1-07
Robert H. “Sarge” Cummings was known as a master of the long loop, a cowboy term
for rustler. This old coot was loved by all, except for maybe the Texas Rangers.
Children were ecstatic whenever he came to visit a spell. Some would crawl under
his chair just to spin the rowels on his spurs as he spun tales of the wild west...
Who
Was J. Frank Dalton, Anyway? by C. F. Eckhardt 6-15-07
Over the years those who claimed J. Frank Dalton was Jesse James accumulated a
mountain of what they considered ‘conclusive’ circumstantial evidence that Dalton
was in fact Jesse...Kinch
West by Mike Cox 5-16-07
Kinch West's name does not rank high on the list of infamous Texas outlaws, but
he must have been quite a rounder in his younger days... The
Life and Times of Whitey Walker by Clay Coppedge 5-1-07
Whitey Walker is perhaps best remembered in Texas history as one of the men who
didn't quite make it "over the wall" during a breakout of the "Death House" at
Huntsville's Wall's Unit on July 22, 1934. Belle
Starr The Bandit Queen by Maggie Van Ostrand
"I regard myself as
a woman who has seen much of life," said Belle Star to The Fort Smith Elevator
in 1888, a year before she died... Sam
Bass: The Not So Merry Bandit by Clay Coppedge
If notorious Old
West bandit Sam Bass buried all the gold he is said to have buried in Central
Texas, he would have been a wealthy man indeed. He wouldn't have made the fatal
decision to rob a bank in Round Rock in July of 1878. He would simply have stopped
by one of the caves where millions of his dollars are said to have been buried,
and hightailed it to Mexico, incognito. Likewise, if he stopped by every place
he is said to have been sighted on that ill-fated trip to Round Rock...The
Demise of Bad Man Buckley by Murray Montgomery
During the days
of early Texas, there were many a scoundrel packing guns and causing panic and
mayhem amongst the town folk. Hallettsville had one of the worst of these villains
in a fellow known as "Bad Man Buckley." ...High
Sheriff of Henderson County by Archie P. McDonald
Old time East
Texans refer to some of their revered and feared lawmen as the "high sheriff,"...
in Henderson County, the legend was Jess Sweeten. Texas
Outlaw Kid Murray by Mike Cox
Texas' least-known outlaw, newspapers
dubbed him "Kid" Murray...The
Life and Times of Big Bill Babb by Clay Coppedge
The two young
bankers probably didn't think the failure of their private banking firm would
be a matter of life and death. But there they were, sequestered in a Waco hotel
room with Big Bill Babb and a few of his men. Babb was making the two young bankers
an offer they couldn't refuse... Jack
Cross Texas Killer by W. T. Block Jr.
Most Texans of today think
of their Lone Star state as having been a haven for killers, fleeing from American
justice... Jack Cross was as vicious and cold-blooded a killer as Texas ever produced,
but he quickly found it necessary to reverse directions, that is, to flee to Louisiana
from Texas jusice. The
Hardin Brothers
by Bob Bowman
More than 110 years have passed since East Texas outlaw
John Wesley Hardin was shot down in an El Paso saloon, but he remains one of the
most intriguing badmen in history. Almost lost in Hardin's history are his three
brothers, Joe, Jeff and Gip, whose lives were also singed with violence...
Jesse James, Supposedly
by Clay Coppedge
"...That the James
and Younger brothers spent some time in Texas is not in dispute, and local legends
of the James and Younger brothers in Bell and surrounding counties abound..."Sheriff
Kirk by Mike Cox
"...The killing of Sheriff Kirk stands out
as an Old West shootout worthy of any Hollywood Western..." Rustlers
and Outlaws Were Common in Early Days by Murray Montgomery
"Folks living in Lavaca County in this day and time might be surprised
to know that back in the 1870’s, 1880’s and 1890’s this was quite a wild place..."
Katie
Elder: Her True Story
by Maggie Van Ostrand
"[Her] background
was perhaps more plaid than checkered. For one thing, there were all those names.
Besides being called Katie Elder, she was also known as Kate Fisher, Big Nose
Kate, Nosey Kate, Mrs. John H. "Doc" Holliday, Kate Melvin, and Kate Cummings..."Rube
Burrow - Stagecoach Holdup by Mike Cox
"Stagecoach robberies
happened so often along the Texas frontier it came to be considered something
of a right of passage to hand over one’s money and valuables to a masked man with
a gun on some lonely roadside."Freeny
Hanging by Mike
Cox
"... No matter White’s official status, most folks remembered
him as the sheriff who hanged a tenant farmer named George Freeny for killing
his son-in-law..."
Outlaw
with two faces by
Bob Bowman
In July of 1888, Rupert P. Wright, dressed in rags and one
eye blinded by his own hand, pleaded for mercy on a charge of bigamy before an
Arkansas judge. To those who knew Wright, his appearance and demeanor were far
removed from the days when he was a prominent newspaper editor, attorney, and
aspiring legislator in Little Rock. But they would soon learn that he was also
an escaped murderer, forger, arsonist and jail breaker named Pete Loggins from
East Texas.Marshall
"High Pockets" Bailey of West, Texas
"The Long Arms of the Law" and
Pioneer Consumer Advocate
If bootlegging couldn't be controlled, then
at least it could be monitored for quality. Courtroom
Storytellers by Bob Bowman
Because they've seen the best and worst
of humanity, lawyers are among our best storytellers. Courtroom stories of Joe
Tonahill and J.J. Collins. Pearl
by Mike Cox ("Texas Tales" column)
He has the singular distinction
of being the first and last man legally hanged in the county."Over
the Wall, The Men Behind the 1934 Death House Escape" by Patrick M. McConal
(Book)Sheriff
Fenton of Coleman County and His Larger Than Life Wife by John Troesser
Reader's Comment: ... I just wish I had been born a little earlier and
had the good fortune to get caught stealing chickens or running whiskey through
Coleman County. Who knows what good fortune I might enjoy today as the result
of helping a youngster feed his pigeons on the jail roof. - PJH A
Sheriff Named "Buckshot" by John TroesserGentle
Justice by Jeanne Moseley (From Good Day for a Story)
".....
He's a sophisticated cowboy with a flair created by Neiman Marcus ...... He's
known by the name "Gentle Justice", which he earned during the 20 years he served
as sheriff. ..... " The
Bank Robbery (Dalton Gang, 1894) by Bob Bowman (All Things Historical column"Tales
of Bad Men, Bad Women, and Bad Places : Four Centuries of Texas Outlawry"
by C.F. Eckhardt (Book)
"The
Texas Sheriff : Lord of the County Line" by Thad Sitton (Book) "Running
with Bonnie and Clyde: The 10 Fast Years of Ralph Fults" by John Neal
Phillips (Book) William
Thomas "Billy" Cloyd, Sherill of Motley County November 1896 to November 1900
|
Adventures
of Eddie Fung: Chinatown Kid, Texas Cowboy, Prisoner of War by Mel Brown 6-26-08
The
Oryoku Maru and Lieutenant Walter A. Kelso, Jr.'s Journey by Bill Cherry 2-18-08
"In 1944 Lieutenant Kelso became a Japanese prisoner of war, and he passed
away along with seventy-six other American soldiers because the enemy let them
die of dysentery and starvation in 1945. Only one survived."The
King's Texan and USS Texas by C. F. Eckhardt
Archie Ludlow was
in elementary school when, in 1910 to 1912, the two newest battleships for the
US Navy—the Texas Class, USS Texas and USS New York—were under construction. Money
was tight for building battleships...Private
David Bennes Barkley
One of three Texans awarded the Congessional Medal of Honor in WWI
The
Korean War Hero Who Swung the Board of Education at Ball High by Bill Cherry
"If any of the students at Ball High School knew he was Lt. Col. Richard
H. Schiebel, a Korean War hero, who in the years before had flown an F-51 all
through the war zone, successfully completing 100 missions against the enemy,
they didn't talk about it..." Lanky
and the POWs by Clay Coppedge
Mildred "Lanky" Lancaster
"In
a lifetime crammed with unique life experiences, playing accordion for German
POWs ranks near the top."High
Over Houston, Captain A. J. High: A Positive Altitude by John Troesser
The
Whirlwind Lt. John Lapham Bullis and the Seminole Negro Scouts by
C. F. Eckhardt
One of the least-known heroes of the Texas frontier was
a man known to his followers as The Whirlwind and to his enemies as The Thunderbolt.
He was New Yorker John Lapham Bullis, a lieutenant in the Regular US Army... Fairmount
Cemetery by Bob
Bowman
Edward Smith and the Battle of Sabine Pass, and Thomas B. AnthonyFlying
Tigers by Archie P. McDonald
Claire Lee ChennaultBold
CSA Vet Thomas Evans Riddle, & Man o’ War by
Mike Cox
Patriots
by Mike Cox
"The American Revolution lasted seven years, affording
plenty of men the opportunity to go down in history as patriots. Since 52 years
went by between the end of the struggle that separated the 13 colonies from England
(1783) and the beginning of Texas’ fight against Mexico (1835), it would seem
unlikely that any of the men who fought the British ever ended up in Texas. But
some did."
Doris
Miller: Hero by
Archie P. McDonald
African American hero of WWIIA
Soldier's Story by Bob Bowman
Milton Irish, one of only 28 survivors
of the Goliad massacre.
A classic story of a simple soldier involved in the
momentous events that gave birth to Texas. Richard
“Dick” Dowling Edward
T. Cotham, Jr.
Dowling is remembered today primarily for his role in
leading a group of unruly Irish dockworkers to one of the greatest upsets in military
history at the Civil War Battle of Sabine Pass. The
Air Ace by Bob
Bowman
Lance C. Wade, Royal Air Force of Britain, World War II Macario
García, Veteran of D-Day by Murray MontgomeryAugust
Carl Weiss by Mike Cox
During the Civil War not every Southern
soldier served in the Confederate army because he believed in slavery or hated
Yankees. Some shouldered arms only because they had to. That was the case with
August Carl Weiss, one of 2,000 men who soldiered for the South in Waul’s Legion,
a unit raised at Brenham by Thomas Neville Waul. Alfonso
(Alphonso) Steele - last Texas survivor of the battle of San Jacinto Alfonso
Steele - Limestone County Roadside Park
in Memory of Alfonso Steele, Last Survivor of Battle of San Jacinto, First Settler
of Limestone County Where
are you Benny Goodenberger?
by Perry Peary
Mark Davis was in the Merchant Marine and was assigned
to serving on oil and gasoline tankers coming up the east coast from New Jersey
to Texas. In May of 1942, he was on the SS Virginia coming out of New Orleans
when a German submarine, the U-507 torpedoed the ship....
Tejano
Hero Norberto Sierra Texas
Women in World War II by Cindy Weigand
NURSES, WACS, WAVES,
and SPARS, Uniformed Women of "The Greatest Generation"WACs
by Archie P. McDonald
Women's Army CorpsWorld
War IWorld
War II |
| Texas Settlers,
Founders & Native Americans |
Texas
Cherokees by Clay Coppedge 3-16-09
Popular
history affords them a reputation as a friendly and reasonable tribe... That doesn’t
mean that the Texas Cherokees weren’t divided on major issues of the day, like
whether it was nobler to inflict slings and arrows on the white settlers or the
Mexican soldiers who were fighting them, or both. Nor does it mean that the Cherokees
weren’t treated in the same shabby manner as other friendly and hostile tribes
alike... Jewish
Immigrants Competed with Galveston's Former Slaves in the Beginning by Bill
Cherry
"When the Jews began temporarily settling in the Galveston, they
were faced with a new problem, one that hadn't existed in New York and Baltimore
and Boston and Philadelphia. After all those places were north. Galveston was
in the south."
Chineses Heart of Texas
by Mel Brown
The
San Antonio Community, 1875-1975 |
Rev.
John August Tubbe by W. T. Block Jr.
An Immigrant Farmer, Sawmiller,
and Preacher
In 1845 the gates opened widely for a flood of German immigration
to Texas. Thousands of them arrived on the raw, Indian-infested frontier, and
hundreds of them died en route...Tulip
Transplants To East Texas
The Dutch Migration To Nederland, Texas, 1895-1915
by W. T. Block Jr.
To the East Texas of 1900, whose non-native population
can be delineated as the overflow of the Anglo-Saxon Lower South, a Dutch colonization
scheme must have appeared somewhat phenomenal. To the promoters...Strap
Buckner: The Tallest of Tall Texas Tales by Maggie Van Ostrand
On library shelves, hidden among stories about Texas Legends of whom there are
countless numbers, the least written about yet the biggest is that of Aylett C.
"Strap" Buckner. When I say "biggest," I'm not talking about the most famous like
Jim Bowie, Sam Houston or Davy Crockett. I'm talking about sheer size...Samuel
Everitt Rogers' Grave
Samuel Everitt Rogers, killed and scalped by Comanche
Indians on May 03, 1863, in Carlton, Texas. Chinese
Farmers in Calvert - Historical MarkerGerman
Freidenker (Freethinkers) historical marker
4-12-09Polish
Settlers in White Deer - Historical Marker 3-22-09Doak
Good by Clay Coppedge 1-15-09
Just
after the demise of the great buffalo herds and the Comanches but before many
towns or vestiges of civilization popped up on the Llano Estacado, a few hardy
individuals claimed that vast and lonesome land as their own. One such person
was Doak Good... |
Milton’s
Rosenberg Library by Bill Cherry 4-3-09
Tripo
and Adele made sure that Milton and Elaine learned to pride Galveston, a city
where, for an example, all of the knowledge they could ever possibly need was
in store for them at the Rosenberg Library, and at no cost. Adele took them there
every week...Elmo
Johnson by Mike Cox 3-12-09
I
drove to Sonora to interview him. As best I can tell, I’m the only person who
ever took down what he had to say. My only regret is that I didn’t pump him harder
for stories about his days along the Rio Grande the last time conditions were
dicey.The
Bravest Man by Bob Bowman 3-2-09
Those
who lived in Lufkin during the Depression years knew Homer Garrison, Sr., as a
kindly, genteel man who gave away pennies to children and felt he had cheated
them “because I always got a two-bit smile.” Somehow, it wasn’t the image you
expected for the bravest man in the world, which is the way his son, Homer Garrison,
Jr., a man once considered as J. Edgar Hoover’s replacement, felt about his father.Pansy
by Mike Cox 2-26-09
Though her
looks could have given her a shot at Hollywood, Pansy opted for the circus world.
She and her husband had a trapeze act in a traveling show. They drew big crowds
and made good money. All that changed in a moment. ...100-year-old
Aggie by Bob Bowman 2-22-09
When
William B Holsonbake of Hughes Springs celebrated his 100th birthday last May
15, someone asked him how he had managed to become a centurion "Well," he said
with a twinkle in his eyes, "it could have been because I was an Aggie."...The
Hermit in the Dugout by Mike Cox 2-11-09
Why
would anyone want to live out their years in a dirt-floor dugout competing for
shade with scorpions and rattlesnakes in the summer and warmed only by burning
chopped railroad ties in the winter? Gold.Belle
Christmas by Mike Cox 12-22-08
No
matter how she came to be called Belle Christmas, she had a reputation as a local
character long before someone dreamed up the “Keep Austin Weird” bumper sticker...
Bill
Stein: a Bibliophile’s Bibliophile 12-12-08
“A
gentleman is one who puts more into the world than he takes out.”The
story of Emil Kreklau's self-propelled fan by Murray Montgomery
11-1-08
The Hallettsville InventorMonumental
Texas: The Stolz Name Is Written In Stone by H.H.Howze
10-8-08Mr.
Goss and Belmont’s Goss Barbeque 7-24-08
Former
slave recalls memories of old Lavaca County by Murray Montgomery 7-7-08
In 1946, a black man by the name of Tate Hicks told a local paper that he was
the oldest man in Lavaca County. Fact is, he came to Texas as a slave...
The
life and times of F.W. Neuhaus by Murray Montgomery 5-8-08
The life of Mr. Neuhaus was very interesting one. From the time he left
his home in Germany until his feet hit the sand at the old port of Indianola;
F.W. Neuhaus intended to be a successful man in Texas - indeed he was
Here
a Pig, There a Pig - Third and Final Event of the Pig Trilogy by Linda-Kirkpatrick
3-10-08
Today in Real County there are
several dedicated “hog hunters” and they don’t understand catch and release if
you get my drift. I will introduce you to a few of these unique people...The
“Indian” bootlegger
by Bob Bowman 1-28-08
Tony Sanches,
a Lufkin sawmill hand in the 1920s, not only made some of the best bootleg whiskey
in East Texas; he had the best customers--people like singer Jimmy Rodgers, Clyde
Barrow of the Bonnie and Clyde gang--even the local sheriff...
In Remembrance
of Gregory James Krauter by Gael Montana
When friends and neighbors pass
it's natural to reflect on their lives and think of all the good times, the silly
moments you shared with them. It's harder to do when the 'good times' were few
and far between toward the end and there was a darkness lurking that no one could
lighten... Carr
Boys by Mike Cox
The cowboy Carr boys enjoyed the distinction of being
the oldest twins in Texas.Jim
Swink comes home by Bob Bowman
Jim Swink, the lanky halfback who thrilled
high school and Texas Christian University football fans in the 1950s, has returned
home to his roots...Bura
Handley by Phil Handley
“Mister Wellington.”Capt.
William E. Rogers: Beaumont Steamboatman by W. T. Block Jr.
Perhaps no
one in early Beaumont was as popular and well-known as the steamboat captains,
and one of them whose biography comes readily to mind was Capt. W. E. Rogers...
A
Sturdy Pioneer by Bob Bowman
One of my favorite
history addicts is ninety-four-year-old Pearl Weaver Havard, who also cooks a
mean plate of cat head biscuits and brown gravy. Pearl has lived in the same part
of Angelina Country--within the so-called prairie communities along Farm Road
1818 east of Diboll--all of her life...Armless
Judge by Mike Cox
Paul Desmuke
"Hard-drinking, crusty Judge Roy
Bean has gotten a lot of ink over the years, but he wasn’t Texas’ only colorful
justice of the peace..."Pistol-packing
Preacher by Bob Bowman
On his first morning in Groveton Lee presided at
the funeral of a young church member who had been murdered. He soon named criminals
from his pulpit and where they gathered...The
Only Only by Bill Cherry
He Was the World's Oldest
Trapeze Artist and He Lived in Old No. 25
A Centenarian's Life
by Bob Bowman
"A long, long time ago, Clara Davis stopped trying to remember
the names of her grandchildren. But there's a good reason. At the age of 106,
she has 218 of them--34 grandchildren, 91 great-grandchildren, and 93 great-great
grandkids..." The
Love Boys by Bob Bowman
For more than fifty years, brothers Olen and Seaby
Love have lived on the same plot of land in rural Morris County, living in ways
that haven't changed much from the days of their pioneer parents. He
Done Her Wrong: The Sad Case of Mrs. Harriet Moore Page Potter Ames by Archie
P. McDonald
Well. One might say a whole lot of men did Harriet wrong.
After growing up in New Orleans, Harriet Moore left a prosperous retail store
and traveled to the wilds of colonial Texas with what turned out to be only her
first husband, Solomon C. Page. Prosperity stayed behind in Louisiana.
Lucius
Seneca Hine, M.D.
A Yankee Doctor in Oakalla, Texas after the Civil War
The
Big Thicket Bear Hunters Club of Kountze by W. T. Block Jr.
The old bear
hunters of Hardin County had two things in common - they hunted bears until their
youth gave way to old age, and they became windy raconteurs, talking each other
to death about the big bear that got away... A
True Texas Woman by Murray Montgomery
Susan Nancy Garrison
"Texas!
It's a name that evokes great adventure, and to many people the word represents
a symbol of the struggle for liberty and human rights. Most folks associate the
name with the likes of Bowie, Houston, Crockett, and others like them - all men.
But what about the women? Those strong Texas female pioneers - we don't often
hear of their hardships and the things they had to endure to produce this great
land..." Judge
Leonard W. Scott of Caldwell CountyRemembering
Uncle Jay Ransom by N. Ray Maxie
Uncle Jay once told me, "A person may
not remember your name. They may not remember your face. But they will forever
remember how you treated them."Former
slave's death in 1889 attracted rare news coverage
by W. T. Block
In February 1889, Beaumont Enterprise
published an obituary about a Black centenarian, nicknamed "Old Sock," in
an age when Black obituaries were usually printed only in Negro newspapers...A
Personal Hero by Bob Bowman
"Leon Herman
Adickes, 88, ... died recently at Hemphill -- a place where he helped make history
by simply doing things to make his community a better place."Memories
of Uncle Bob and a Wooden Box by Delores Miles
"Really
he must have been a most intelligent man for how else could he have known to give
a child joy you must let them have it a little at a time." Plains
Pioneer by Mike Cox
When Charlie Saigling first saw the South Plains,
there wasn't any cotton, or grain fields or "anything." In 1909, already 32 years
old, he had just been handed 14 sections of land by his father, who got it for
$4,000... Three
Tragedies by Bob Bowman
"An intriguing family
mystery spanning more than 135 years is told by three tombstones lying behind
a rusting iron fence in a small East Texas cemetery. Each of the tombstones provides
cryptic inscriptions that, when linked together in time, offer glimpses of three
tragedies that stalked the family of Robert and Sarah Smith in 1869 and 1872..."Sam
Banty by George Lester
"My grandfather on my mother's side was Samuel
Butler Williams. He stood only five feet tall, and he was as feisty as a bantam
rooster, thus his nickname, Sam Banty. He came from Alabama, but not with a banjo
on his knee. He came with a wife, six kids, and a sharp knife..."
Legacy
of an Oldtimer by Bob Bowman
"Alvin Burchfield of Rusk is the kind
of oldtimer every historian dreams of interviewing. At 92, he remembers more facts
and dates than you'll find in most county history books."Fairy
Fort
The namesake of Fairy, TexasClyde
Burns of Huntsville, Texas
Forty Years in the Water Tower Business
or
Does the Ladder of Success Have to be this High?
by
Edward Aquifer
Photos courtesy of Clyde BurnsThe
Man From Nickel: Leslie Jones Askey
by Murray Montgomery
The classic spirit of an entrepreneur. Looking
for Grandfather in Port ArthurA
Cowboy Nicknamed Whiskey by Mike Cox
"He won his nickname when he
got so desperate for a drink that he traded his horse and saddle for a gallon
of whiskey."
Richard
Gaertner's Story by Murray Montgomery
Every town needs a storyteller and
Moulton is fortunate to have a mighty good one in a feisty fellow named Richard
Gaertner.Mary,
Mary, Once of Perry by Toney Urban
Unbelievable, but true stories connected
to Perry, Texas (Falls County)
"In the late 40s and early 50s, there
was a Black lady named Mary (last name unknown), that would arrive out in the
countryside near Perry, Texas and dispense some incredibly amazing medicine and
conversation....."Thomas
Bone and The Most Famous Bathtub in Coryell County by Clay Coppedge
The
Old Fiddler by Bob Bowman
Way back in the l930s, Henderson County storekeeper
John Hatton leaped from obscurity into statewide prominence when Athens started
its annual Old Fiddlers Reunion.Renaissance
Man of Buckholts by Clay Coppedge
Civilization as we know it did not develop
on John Greiner's place northwest of here but it might seem that way when you're
touring his place via the Little River Miniature Railroad. "The
Last of the True Road Hands"
The Bob Mohel Saga by John Troesser
Phillip
Sawyer of AustwellJerry
and Shirley Chovanec of Fayetteville, Texas Louis
Polansky of Fayetteville, Texas The
Bootblack King by Bob Bowman (From All Things Historical)"Eloise"
in Texas - When you outgrow one lobby, move to another hotel The
Grandfalls Goat ParadeDan
Martinets, The Lone Granger. When we say Granger has Character, 90% of it
is Saint Dan. Tuffy
the East Texas Chow by John Troesser The
Palestine Beachcomber: Jacel by Sandy Fiedler
The
Weimar Goatherd by Norman Conquest"Bones"
An East Texan in the Hill Country by John TroesserEasy
to be Hard - Milton Schiller, Brick Detective by Norman Conquest Pansy
the Librarian Solid
Citizens of Gonzales: Gerhard and Rosina Behlen by Norman Conquest Lucas
McCain : Frontier Single Parent Role Model? or Sociopathic Killer? by John TroesserPrimadonna's
BirthdayBelle
the Cow |
Characters
& More
Joe
Pruno by Mike Cox 5-14-09
The story
of Joe A. Pruno reads like a Victorian-era dime novel, complete with ample exaggeration,
outright fabrication and historical inaccuracies...Pecos
High Bridge & the Pecos River Queen by Mike Cox 4-30-09
Almost
everyone’s heard of Pecos Bill, the mythical West Texas cowboy, but the “fair
young” Pecos River Queen never got the attention she deserves... Duck
Tales by James L.
Choron
Stage and Screen Actor Ronald ColmanThree
Times a Hero by James L. Choron
An Afghanistan War veteran's storyOur
Little Hero by James L. Choron
"This isn't a "Texas" story, but it's one
that I think Texans will identify with. A "different kind of war story", it's
one of the saddest, but most heroic paranormal cases I've ever dealt with." |
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