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Columns
Texas History and Travel
The
opium war, Texas style by Clay Coppedge 5-11-13
The slandeourous and libelous
who lurk among us today have unprecedented avenues for any and all spurious allegations
cast upon the character of any individual, public or private. In days of yore,
the avenues were few but the character assasins were just as relentless. Take
Sam Houston, revered father of Texas...Pat
Garrett 4-9-13
Because he killed Billy the Kid in New Mexico, Pat Garrett’s
name is more associated with that state than it is with Texas but Garrett drifted
in and out of the Lone Star State for most of his life.
Bullet
Riddled Buddies 2-1-13
Whitey Walker met Frazier in the prison hospital
at Huntsville. The two men soon realized they had a lot in common, including gunshot
wounds.Frontier
Journalism in Texas 1-3-13
The people who started newspapers on the frontier
weren’t a lot different from others who of that time and place. They were an independent
and outspoken lot, generally not afraid to “settle the matter in cowhide” as one
editor put it.The
Bone Wars 11-30-12
What
has not been well chronicled is the role that two Texans played in the Bone Wars.Albert
Pike in Comancheria 11-18-12
Albert Pike was one of the most remarkable
but enigmatic figures in American history and also one of the first white men
to venture onto the Llano Estacado in the Texas Panhandle when that land was the
heart of Comancheria...Sally
Skull 11-1-12
Well-behaved
women rarely make history, the saying goes, and a woman known to history as Sally
Skull can be used to reinforce the point.The
Alleged Battle of Bandera Pass 10-3-12
One of the prettiest places in the
Texas Hill Country is the part of State Highway 173 that twists its way through
Bandera Pass not far from the Bandera-Kerr county line. The highway basically
follows the same route through the hills that the Apache, Comanche, Spanish, U.S.
Army, settlers and outlaws followed for centuries and where at least two major
Indian battles might (or might not) have been fought...A
Snakebitten Legacy 9-17-12
Leopold Moczygemba, who founded the country’s
first Polish community, first Polish Catholic School and who also consecrated
the first Polish Catholic Church, was one person who had to pay a price in his
own time for an honored place in history...The
Oilman and the Sea 9-3-12
Alfred Glassell, Jr. wasn’t your typical Texas
oilman, if there is such a thing...Sam
Bell Maxey 8-18-12
To the people he served in his lifetime he was respected
as the man who kept the Yankees out of Texas during the war. Wilson
Pottery 8-4-12
One of the first if not the very first African-American
owned businesses in Texas was in Capote, not far from Seguin in Guadalpe County.
The business was known as H. Wilson and Co. and was one of three potteries in
operation around Capote from 1857 to 1903.The
Ranger Formerly Known as Pidge 7-22-12
From the front lines of the Texas
Rangers, this Pidge character wrote first-hand accounts of the Taylor-Sutton Feud,
John Wesley Hardin and the pursuit of Juan Cortina along the border. He wrote
about rustlers and outlaws, good guys and villains, and usually with a laugh or
two thrown in for good measure. But who was Pidge? Trick
‘Em and Skin ‘Em 7-2-12
The old community of Trickham was the first community
in Coleman County to be settled, though today it might be hard for an outside
observer to understand why. Kit
Carson at Adobe Walls 6-16-12
When historians talk about the Battle of
Adobe Walls they are usually talking about the Second Battle of Adobe Walls...
The First Battle of Adobe Walls occurred some 10 years earlier and featured a
man who was a legend in his own time...Hello,
Sucker 6-6-12
Necessity may be the mother of invention but it can also
be the mother of re-invention. Other than perhaps Kinky Friedman, nobody exhibits
that twist on the old axiom more than Mary Louise Cecilia Guinan, known to history
as Texas Guinan and for her famous greeting: “Hello, Sucker.” Tex
Thornton: King of the oilfield firefighters and rainmaker 5-1-12
The oil
fields of the Texas Panhandle in the 1920s and ‘30s were a place where a man who
knew how to use nitroglycerin could make a good living for himself. Ward A. “Tex”
Thornton was such a man. Frederick
Law Olmsted 4-13-12
One of the most important people from American history
that most people have never heard of was Frederick Olmsted Law.
The Big Boom of 1882 3-9-12
The cycles of boom and bust, whether in the
cattle industry or world economics, are always accompanied by people who said
they saw it coming all along and who, after the inevitable crash are busy explaining
why it happened and who is to blame. It’s that way now, and it was that way in
1882 when the beef market boomed as it had never boomed before...
Desdemona 1-27-12
"Of all the nastiness that might be found in Texas
oil boom towns during the era of discovery in the early 20th Century, Desdemona
was reported to be the nastiest."
William F. Drannan told it like it wasn’t 1-9-12
William F. Drannan described
himself as the “Chief of Scouts” for the U.S. Army but later accounts have labeled
him as more of a great pretender. According to two books that Drannan wrote he
was a contemporary and brother-in-arms of such icons American icons as Kit Carson,
Jim Bridger and General George Crook... Creed
Taylor 12-9-11
Creed Taylor saw more of the most interesting pieces of
Texas history than anybody else. He was one of the fortunate few who grew up with
Texas and one whose personal history most closely matches the state’s.“The
Great Western” 11-4-11
Mention the Great Western to most people and they
might think you are trying to start a discussion about “Lonesome Dove” or “True
Grit.” Others will assume you’re referencing a railroad. Actually, you would be
talking about a woman known by many names – Sarah Bowman being the last – who
was better known by her nickname, “The Great Western.” Bone
Haulers 10-3-11
When bones were worth a lot of money on the open market,
people made a lot of money selling bones on the open market. The bone business
thrived from the 1870s, in the wake of the great buffalo slaughter, until the
mid-1930s...
Comancheros
9-4-11
At a time when few people dared to traverse the forbidding Llano Estacado
on the South Plains of Texas, a group of people known to history as the Comancheros
made quite a living in the region. Max
Hirsch, Healer and Winner 8-8-11
We’re not quite sure why Max Hirsch ran
away from home to become a horse trainer. He was already working with and riding
horses on the Morris Ranch near his hometown of Fredericksburg when something
got into him and he decided to cast his fate with some horses bound for Baltimore,
Maryland... Turkeys
and Tenderfeet 7-8-11
Frontier journalist Don Hampton Biggers’ covered
about everything he could get to just as the last of the plains buffalo were being
killed and some of the first ranches in West Texas were being established...Ferdinand
Lindheimer 4-12-11
About 50 species and sub-species of plants are named
for Ferdinand Lindheimer, a man born to the good life in Germany who made his
name – and the name of all those plants – on the Texas frontier. Fruit
Tree Ramsey 3-22-11
Alexander M. Ramsey, wrote down a list of fruit tree
varieties that he had for sale and put his son and business partner on a horse.
Frank traveled all over Texas, taking orders for trees and collecting native flora
along the way... Custer
in Texas 2-23-11
It’s not hard to figure that Gen. George Armstrong Custer’s
time in Texas was controversial and paradoxical. His entire military career was
that way...Bose
Ikard 2-1-11
One reason the relatively brief cattle drive era, which lasted
from the end of the Civil War to the early 1880s, had such an impact on history
was because the cattle drives allowed men to rise above the circumstances of their
upbringing and education to make a little money and earn a measure of respect.
As good an example of that as anybody is Bose Ikard, who was born into slavery
and became rancher Charley Goodnight’s most trusted and respected cowhand. Pig
War 1-1-11
As a Republic, Texas was hard to get along with. The Mexican
government already knew this, of course, but the French would find it out soon
enough when they sent Alphonse Dubois de Saligny to Austin in 1840 to help determine
if France should recognize the young upstart Republic. He wasn’t a Count but he
called himself one so we will too. Ironically, in light of his general snootiness,
Saligny – or rather The Count – is known to history as a prime participant in
what came to be called the Pig War. Frontier
Doctors 10-15-10
John F. Webber and Gail Borden LBJ
and Sad Irons 9-10-10
"From those hardscrabble times came Lyndon Johnson,
whose first campaign promise was to bring electricity to the Hill Country and
rural Texas."Slats
Rodgers 8-20-10
A key part of the Slats Rodgers story is that he was the
first man in Texas to receive a pilot’s license and the first one to have his
pilot’s license revoked... Ice
in Summer 8-6-10
"The rich and poor get the same amount of ice in
a lifetime but the rich get their ice in the summer and the poor get theirs in
the winter."Blind
Man’s Town 7-20-10
They called the man who founded Marble Falls “Stovepipe”
because of a sneaky trick he pulled off as a Confederate commander in the Civil
War. The town he founded was called Blind Man’s Town because he was blind when
he laid out the streets of the town by memory...Texas
Mormons 6-11-10
If Lyman Wight could have had his way, Texas and not Utah
might have become home to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and
the Mormon Church...Eck
Robertson 5-19-10
Of the pioneer types who helped establish a standard
for Texas fiddle playing, Eck Robertson deserves the most credit...Sally
Rand and Yesterday's ‘House of Tomorrow’ 5-1-10
News that Sally Rand would
come to Texas for the Forth Worth Frontier Centennial in 1936 was met with outrage
by some and curiosity by many. Her reputation, gained at the 1933 World Fair in
Chicago in 1933, preceded her... Pancho
Villa 4-15-10
Pancho Villa might have been a bandit and his horse might
have been as fast as polished steel, as the song would have it, but he was also
an actor, sort of a reality TV star of his day. The stage was the Mexican Revolution...Champ
D’Asile 3-1-10
If a few Frenchmen and their allies could have had their
way, Texas might have become part of a new Napoleonic empire. Dueling
2-24-10
The showdown at high noon on the dusty main street of a Western town
has its roots in the “gentlemanly” duels cultivated almost to an art form in the
South for decades. Dueling was a major issue during the Republic of Texas years...Jean
Laffite 1-1-10
Before Texas was known as a haven for Old West outlaws it
was a haven for pirates... Laffite was the best known and casts the longest shadow
across Texas history... Ned
Green 12-24-09
Ned Green was one of the first and most colorful of Texas’
20th Century millionairesGeorge
Kendall 12-1-09
The man for whom Kendall County is named is credited with
being America’s first war correspondent and the father of the sheep business in
Texas. Even without those notations in the state’s history, we would know him
as a survivor and chronicler of the ill-fated Santa Fe Expedition...Vin
Fiz Flyer 11-19-09
One of the first great aviation events in Texas was
the arrival of a flying contraption known as the Vin Fiz Flyer, which landed in
Fort Worth on Oct. 17, 1911 as part of what became the first Atlantic-to Pacific
airplane flight.Temple
Houston 11-1-09
"Temple lived a short but eventful life, usually on
the often-anonymous fringes of the frontier. Like other Texas and Old West legends,
much of what has filtered down to us about Temple Houston is pure fiction – compelling
fiction, to be sure, but fiction nonetheless. The truth is only the starting point."Dance
Pistols 9-21-09
Firearms collectors are willing to pay big bucks for vintage
Colt revolvers but the most valuable of all the old guns that were used on the
Texas frontier might be the Dance pistols, which were manufactured in Texas...
The
Horse Marines 9-7-09
Considering how much Texas history has occurred on
horseback it isn’t surprising to learn that one of the Republic’s greatest naval
victories was achieved by 20 or so armed and mounted rangers known to history
as the Texas Horse Marines...Alex
Sweet and His Siftings 8-26-09
In terms of popularity and a reputation
for being a real Texas wise guy, Alex Sweet could be called the Kinky Friedman
of his day... Roy
Crane and Captain Easy 7-31-09
That Roy Crane would end up in the funny
papers did not seem pre-ordained when he was a boy growing up in Sweetwater. Comic
strips hardly existed when Crane was born in 1901. He would be one of the people
who would help create a crucial part of that art form, if you’re willing to call
it that.Blast
From The Past: The Houston Colt 45s 6-19-09
The first major league baseball
team in Texas was the Houston Colt .45s, now the Houston Astros. It all started
with Houston, and the determination of legendary Houstonian Roy Hofheinz...The
Legendary Stardust Cowboy 6-3-09
Perhaps the most embarrassing moment from
a hometown perspective was when Lubbock’s very own Legendary Stardust Cowboy played
on “Laugh-In” in 1968...Bozo
Texino 5-2-09
The question has been asked many times and in many forms:
“Who is Bozo Texino?” Marx
Brothers 4-1-09
The Marx Brothers weren’t funny at all until they came
to Texas...Texas
Cherokees 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...Life
and Times of James Coryell 2-3-09
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 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. In
Praise of the Unappreciated Mule 1-2-09
While acknowledging the mule’s
notable lack of charisma, old-timers are quick to point out that the horse/ donkey
half-breed is a forgotten hero... The
Reindeer of Texas 12-1-08Thanksgiving
as a Texas Thing 11-19-08Mance
Lipscomb 10-18-08
Songster and guitarist Mance LipscombGranger
Through The Years 10-3-08How
To Mangle Friends and Influence Coaches 9-11-08Gideon
Lincecum: King of Texas’ Wild Frontier 8-24-08Little
One-Hearted Stock Tank 8-12-08
This is a glimpse of what 20th Century American
literature might look like if Ernest Hemingway had grown up on the south plains
of Texas instead of the Michigan woods...With
A Pit Bull On My Knee 7-24-08The
Unholy Catfish 7-10-08Fly
Fishing Is Not Always Pretty 6-23-08Tom
Slick 6-1-08Bats
5-5-08Old
Bill and Handsome Wolf 4-7-08The
Plight of the Pleurocoeleus 3-17-08
Dinosaurs
in Texas
Goodrich
Jones: The best friend Texas trees ever had 3-6-08Avisadores:
Messengers of Light 2-18-08The
Killer and Me 2-3-08Sanctified
Sisters 11-7-07Yoko
on the Llanos 10-21-07The
Trials and Tribulations of El Kabong 10-5-07A
Man Named Pink 9-18-07Ode
to the Oleo Strut 9-3-07Loco
on the Llanos 8-16-07Lubbock
Lights and UFOs 8-7-07King
of the Hill 7-15-07White
Lightning 6-30-07South
Llano River State Park 6-15-07Acres
and Acres of Acres 6-1-07
The Hill Country State Natural AreaThe
Life and Times of Whitey Walker 5-1-07From
Patty Hearst to Salado 4-16-07
Charles Turnbo writes about history but
he has also witnessed a fair amount it... What
Stanley Walker Saw 2-16-07Texas'
Most Civilized Soul 2-1-07
Roy BedichekHistoric
Joe Lee 1-22-07Zipperlandville,
and Other Places 1-3-07Mother
Neff State Park: Texas' first 12-8-06Colorado
Bend: It Is What It Is 11-21-06Lanky
and the POWs 11-8-06
Mildred "Lanky" Lancaster Flowers
For Sarah Herndon 10-12-06Haunted
Hill 10-5-06A
Classic Walk on The Wild Side 9-21-06Sam
Bass: The Not So Merry Bandit 9-13-06In
Praise of Texas Corn 8-22-06The
Texas Longhorn: Shaped By Nature 8-7-06The
Life and Times of Big Bill Babb 7-18-06Jesse
James, Supposedly 7-3-06The
Chisholm Trail Rides Again 6-11-06
Anyone wanting to follow the Old Chisholm
Trail through Bell County would find part of the quest relatively easy, at least
as easy as driving on IH-35...Westphalia
Waltz 5-30-06
Even in Texas, more people probably know more about the
song 'Westphalia Waltz' than they know about the town of Westphalia, the song's
namesake. Yalgo,
the legendary horse 5-17-06The
Old Bartlett Western Railroad 4-27-06
What the old Bartlett Western Railroad
lacked in revenue, it more than made up for in local color, history and folklore.
Folk
Medicine 4-11-06
"Today we can drive the countryside and see grasses,
flowers, weeds, critters, trees and the like. Modern-day herbalists and naturalists
can still see a drug store..."
Life,
death and dog-trot houses 3-11-06
"Driving west on State Highway
36 toward Gatesville, just past Flat, if you look at just the right time at the
right place you can see an old dog-trot house sitting about 100 yards off the
road, somewhat camouflaged by a couple of trees but recognizable for what it is
all the same..."
Kempner
2-23-06 Phantom
Alligators 1-21-06FM
2843 1-1-06
The old road to Austin
FM
116: In The Shadow of Fort Hood 12-9-05Horny
Toad Hypnosis 11-17-05
"Once an almost ubiquitous part of the Texas
landscape and psyche, the horny toad has been mighty hard to find for a long time."
John
Trlica 11-1-05
"Every picture tells a story only as long as people
know the story."Windmills
10-16-05
"This may be a bitter pill for some Texans to swallow, but
the windmill was not invented in Texas. Neither was the Colt revolver. Ditto barbed
wire."
Bird's
Creek 9-28-05
"Sometimes history remembers the marksman and other
times it's the victim whose name attaches itself to historical immortality..."
Tonkawa
Tales 8-26-05
"The Tonkawa Indians have been gone from Central Texas
for more than a century, but it's hard to spend much time in Central Texas without
finding evidence of the life they once lived here."
Joe
Tex 8-4-05Salt
of the South 7-15-05
"The Civil War has been called by some historians
'The War Between the Salts' because salt was only slightly less important to the
Union and Confederate armies than ammunition. ... Much of the salt used by the
Confederate Army was produced about eight miles south of where Lometa is now,
at a place called Swenson Salines..."
Taking
Dead Aim in Izoro 7-1-05
If you keep in mind that Izoro is more of a destination
of the mind than an actual physical destination you are likely to have a fine
time getting there. George
Sessions Perry 6-15-05
ROCKDALE - 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.
The
Eerie Demise of Johnny Horton 5-26-05
Despite Johnny Horton's wild-at-heart
looks and voice, he was a man haunted for years by ominous premonitions of his
own death. He often promised those close to him he would contact them from beyond
the grave.
Killer
Vultures 5-10-05
Groovin'
at The Grove 4-1-05
People who drop by Dube's General Store here expecting
to see a ghost town might leave disappointed.
Metheglin
Creek 2-22-05
Metheglin, the brew, has fared well in the intervening years.
From being the drink-of-choice for intemperate settlers, it's now bottled and
rhapsodized over like fine wine. Spicing appears to be the key to quality metheglin.
Name
of This Town Rings A Bell
Ding Dong, Texas 1-16-05Legends
of the Pancake Mine 1-1-05The
Most Famous Bathtub in Coryell County 12-15-04
"Thomas and Laquita
Barton's house outside of town has the first bathtub in Coryell County, a hand-carved
limestone classic...."
Never
another like Bill Pickett 12-1-04
Bill Pickett invented the practice of
what we know as bulldogging, or steer wrestling....
Major
Butt and the Titantic 11-15-04Good
old New Corn Hill 10-29-04Ol'
Paint's ride started in Bartlett 10-15-04
Identifying who actually penned
the classic trail drive song "Goodbye Old Paint" is about as easy as trying to
figure out which horse on which cattle drive inspired the song...
Renaissance
Man of Buckholts 9-28-04PRAIRIE
DELL
Tranquil setting belies past 9-24-04
The principle set for the
sequel to the movie "Texas Chainsaw Massacre."
The
Hobo of Little River-Academy
©
Clay Coppedge
Column began August, 2004 |
Clay Coppedge
Clay Coppedge is a regular contributor to Texas Co-op Power magazine. His work
has also appeared in Acres USA, Elysian Fields Quarterly, Field and Stream, Gulf
Coast Golfer, Texas Fisherman and other magazines and newspapers. He has worked
as a sports editor in Williamson County and as a reporter for the Temple Daily
Telegram as well as stints as a cab driver, busboy and other jobs too odd to mention.
He lives and writes near Walburg in Williamson County.
February,
2008
Books by Clay Coppedge |
Subject:
Clay Coppedge
I laughed as I learned from Mr. Clay's recent article
on Pat Garrett. I'd have to describe his style as hilarious history, or maybe
historical hysteria, or perhaps historical hilarity...at any rate, the man is
funny. - Frances
Giles |
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Book
Granger: Texas' Best Kept Secret
By Clay Coppedge
Photos by Leroy Williamson
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for ordering information.
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