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Published with permission since
August 6, 2000
Bob Bowman, a former president of the East Texas Historical
Association, is the author of 24 books on East Texas history and
folklore. He lives in Lufkin. See Biography.
Archie P. McDonald is Director of the East Texas Historical
Association and author or editor of more than 20 books on Texas.
See Biography.
|
Memorial
Day 5-12-08
When Americans pause at the ceremonial beginning of summer to honor
those who gave their lives in military service they are participating
in our national version of ancient rites...
Peter
Ellis Bean 4-28-08
The American frontier produced many colorful characters, including
Peter Ellis Bean...
San
Jacinto Day 4-14-08
News of the fall of the Alamo on March 6, 1836, and the execution
of Texians captured at Goliad three weeks later, produced the terrible
Runaway Scrape, a mad flight of refugees who scrambled eastward to
escape a similar fate at the hand of General Antonio Lopez de Santa
Anna’s armies. In the midst of these troubles, one man, Sam Houston,
rode west...
"Take
Care of My Little Boy" 3-31-08
Travis wrote this last letter from the Alamo early in March 1836 to
David Ayers...
Coxey’s
Army 3-17-08
"...Jacob Sechler Coxey of Massillon, Ohio, wanted the government
to issue $500 million in paper currency and spend it on public works—roads,
municipal buildings, etc..."
Texas
Independence Day 3-3-08
The
Printer Fires Both Barrels 2-18-08
Archer Fullingim
"Always
Late" 2-3-08
"Just on the southside of the crossings sat a beer joint named
"Neva's," and there, my father said, was where Lefty Frizzell sang
about a girl who was "always late" with her kisses."
Kirby Lumber Company 1-21-08
Martin
Luther King, Jr. Birthday 1-7-08
New
Year’ Day 12-24-07
Walter Paye Lane 12-10-07
Margie
Neal 11-26-07
Pamelia
Mann, Tough Texan 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...
James
Long, Filibuster 10-29-07
And Jane Long, Mother of Texas.
Long
Hot Summers 10-15-07
Veterans of the "long hot summers" of the summers of the 1960s, a
time of racial tension, would have thought it "de ja vu all
over again" if they had remembered 1919...
Good
Night Irene 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...
Newton,
Texas 9-24-07
It is strange how my life has intertwined with Newton County, the
long, slender eastern twin of Jasper County located in southeast Texas
just north of Orange and Beaumont, Texas...
The Kelly
Plow 9-10-07
Early in the nineteenth century, American farmers broke the soil pretty
much the same way as old English grangers or even Biblical tillers
did—with wooden plows...
Jarvis
Christian College 8-20-07
Obtaining a collegiate education presented a problem for African Americans
in Texas prior to court-ordered racial integration which began in
the 1950s... In Texas, especially East Texas, Wiley College in Marshall
and Jarvis Christian College in Hawkins were about the only options
for undergraduate instruction...
Gaceta
de Teja 8-6-07
Readers of the Dallas Morning News, Tyler Telegraph, Gilmer Mirror,
Jefferson Jimplecute and every other newspaper in Texas may not know
about the journalistic ancestor they share. That was a single issue
of the Gaceta de Tejas, or Texas Gazette, and here is its story.
John
Henry Faulk 7-31-07
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...
Haden
Edwards 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...
East
Texas Bapist University 6-18-07
East Texas Baptist College, now University, began and remains in Marshall,
Texas...
The Republic's First President 6-4-07
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 5-21-07
Price Daniel served in more political offices than anyone I know and
he did so with distinction and honor...
The Cotton Bowl 5-7-07
East Texans claim Dallas-Big "D," as we once said-so a story of the
Cotton Bowl falls into our area; well, at least the stadium is located
in Dallas' east side, in Fair Park...
Speak
for yourself, Robert 4-23-07
Sam Houston was a man of many loves...
491 Days
4-9-07
William Williston Heartsill's Fourteen Hundred And Ninety-One Days
In The Confederate Army...
The Chicken War 3-27-07
Since raising and processing and marketing chickens has become a major
economic enterprise in East Texas since World War II, it is appropriate
to remember the "Chicken War" of 1719...
Jane
McManus Storm Cazneau 3-07
Texans are worldwide famous for toughness and resilience...
Governor
Thomas Mitchell Campbell 2-07
Bring 'Em Back Alive: Frank Buck 2-12-07
Before the late Steve Ervin wrestled his first crocodile, ... before
swimming champion Johnny Weissmuller personified Edgar Rice Burroughs'
Tarzan and Jungle Jim in movies and serials, ... Frank Buck captured
American and international audiences with tales of his adventures
doing just those kinds of things everywhere on the planet.
The
Big Thicket Light 1-29-07
"The Big Thicket Light, a.ka. the Saratoga Light, shows up at
night on a seven-mile stretch of road connecting Farm Road 1293 and
Saratoga, a former health spa/oil town/Big Thicket gathering area
in Hardin County."
Built
it and they will ride it 1-22-07
Most motorists traveling down Bremond Street in Houston, Lufkin, and
Nacogdoches, or likely any street along US Highway 59 from Houston
to north of Nacogdoches, haven't a clue of the debt East Texas owes
to Paul Bremond...
He
Done Her Wrong: The Sad Case of Mrs. Harriet Moore Page Potter Ames
1-2-07
Alto
12-18-06
"This story is about Alto, a town originally known as Branchtown
located on El Camino Real, or the Old San Antonio Road, where US Highway
69 and State Highway 21 intersect south of Rusk, north of Lufkin,
west of Nacogdoches, and east of Crockett. Once upon a time, those
places might have been described as near Alto, for it was nearly as
large as any of them."
"My
Blue Heaven: Gene Austin" 12-4-06
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...
The
Babe 11-20-06
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...
Woman's Christian Temperance Union 11-6-06
The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union was misnamed: “temperance”
means “moderation... avoiding extremes.” What the WCTU really wanted
was total abstinence from all alcohol beverages...
Why did they name it that? 10-23-06
Everyone wonders why some cities and towns in East Texas are
named as they are but never really make a effort to learn the secrets-except
Fred Tarpley...
William
Marsh Rice 10-9-06
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, especially since
I am a beneficiary of his will. Let me explain.
New
London School Explosion 9-25-06
Dr. Bobby H. Johnson... has written a play based on the New London
School Explosion which occurred on March 18, 1937...
America's
Team 9-11-06
The Dallas Cowboys, dubbed America's Team in 1978 by Bob
Ryan, editor of NFL Films, really are East Texas' team...
Guinn
Big Boy Williams 8-28-06
We talk mostly about the "stars" of movies, but we know that character
actors can help a film succeed or cause it to fail. One of the best
was Guinn Williams, known to generations of filmgoers-especially devotees
of Westerns-as Guinn "Big Boy" Williams...
High
Sheriff of Henderson County 8-14-06
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.
El
Camino Real 7-30-06
In 2004, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison succeeded in persuading Congress
to designate El Camino Real, at least the Texas and Louisiana portions,
a national historic corridor. We Texans, especially we East Texans,
knew it all along...
Party
Primaries 7-17-06
Cynics like to speak of "dirty politics" and "the smoke-filled room"
atmosphere of party big shots making decisions on candidates clandestinely.
That pretty well sums up the way political candidates were determined
in East Texas and elsewhere in the state prior to 1905, when...
Air
Conditioning 7-3-06
When someone asks my wife how people lived in Texas before
air-conditioning, she says that no one did. That is partly true and
partly false, but we can all agree that the a/c makes surviving Texas’
summers a happier experience. The old timers coped, however, and here
is how.
Another
College Among the Pines 6-19-06
We who give "All Hail to SFA" think of our University by one of its
earlier nicknames, "The College Among The Pines." That also described
another excellent institution headquartered in Carthage, Texas, named
Panola College after its host county...
East
Texas Savior of the French Wine Industry 6-5-06
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, Texas
Father Margil 5-22-06
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.
Pink Palace of Healing 5-8-06
University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Kinkaid School 4-24-06
When I attended French High School in Beaumont, Texas, early in the
1950s, we "country hicks" from the north side of town looked across
town at students in the tonier Beaumont High School, many of whose
students lived in the affluent westside along Calder Avenue. It would
have been above our station to know that Beaumont Highers felt the
same way about the scholars at Kinkaid School in Houston.
Jaybird-Woodpecker War
4-10-06
"Back a ways, when many voters were a little light on
their literacy skills, symbols appearing beside the names of candidates
identified their political party..."
Honky
Tonk Man 3-27-06
Johnny Horton
Gilmer,
Texas 3-11-06
"It is presumptuous for a native of Beaumont and long-time
resident of Nacogdoches to be writing about Gilmer, Texas. Only admiration
for ..."
In Due And Ancient Form 2-27-06
Masonry in Texas
Man
with a Method - Littleton Fowler 2-13-06
Long before winning fame and martyrdom at the Alamo, William Barret
Travis wrote to tell Methodist leaders in the United States how badly
Texas needed their attention. Samuel Doak McMahon held the first meeting
of Methodists in Texas in his home, located ten or so miles east of
San Augustine, in 1832, but the arrival of Littleton Fowler in 1837
was the first authorized Methodist activity there.
Old
Time Judge 1-29-06
Thomas Whitfield Davidson
Brotherhood
of Timber Workers 1-16-06
Those engaged in a common activity often refer to themselves
as “brothers” or “sisters,” but the Brotherhood of Timber Workers
refers to something rare in East Texas—a labor union.
Lady
Godiva: Adah Isaccs Menken 1-9-06
The Boll
Weevil 1-1-06
"Tex Ritter sang this lament decades ago:
'Oh, the boll weevil is a little black bug, come from Mexico they
say, come all the way to Texas, just looking for a place to stay,
just looking for a home, just looking for a home.' And the weevil,
actually a beetle, found it, much to the chagrin of East Texas cotton
growers." |
Weeping
Mary 5-5-08
Few town
names in East Texas attract as much curiosity as Weeping Mary, a 140-year-old
black community hidden away in the deep woods of western Cherokee
County,... first settled after the Civil War by freed slaves from
neighboring plantations...
Quilting
a family history 4-21-08
If Teddy Ivy wakes up in the middle of the night, curious about a
part of his family's history, all he has to do is consult the quilt
on his bed...
Mayhaws:
A spring delicacy 4-7-08
"...Mayhaws are to East Texans what blueberries are to Maine.
The trouble is they don't grow in convenient places like fields and
roadside bar ditches. Most mayhaws are found in swamps, river bottoms
and other places where large snakes, giant mosquitoes and other varmits
make their home..."
Dog
trot houses 3-24-08
Dog trot houses were built and occupied by East Texas’ earliest settlers.
Many of them migrated here in the early l800s from the Old South...
The
first Elvis impersonator 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.
Did
Davy survive? 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?...
A
good ol’ store 2-11-08
Losing a community institution is like losing a good friend...
The
“Indian” bootlegger 1-28-08
Tony Sanches... 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...
History
and sawmill tokens 1-14-08
"...Buster, 80, who retired from the Lufkin post office in 1990,
has been scouring East Texas for the tokens since 1995..."
Gospel
music 1-2-08
Few things have left as much impact on East Texas history as gospel
music...
Rudolph
the red-nosed pumping unit 12-17-07
If you drive through Lufkin during the holidays, be sure to take notice
of one of East Texas’ most unusual Christmas decorations...
A
unique town story 12-3-07
... Just how these and other strangely-named communities got their
names is a whole slice of East Texas history. For example, take Redwater...
Remembering
school days 11-19-07
Few things stir the nostalgia of our lives as the days we spent
in our schools decades ago...
The
Mystery of Lady Bountiful 11-5-07
November 22 will mark the 85th anniversary of an East Texas murder
that created a still-lingering mystery and put a timber baroness in
a pauper’s grave.
Out-of-the-way
places 10-22-07
A friend once told me his greatest pleasure was driving around East
Texas and looking for oddball places seldom found in tourism brochures...
Restoring
Davy’s Spring 10-8-07
An East Texas landmark remembered by motorists from the last century
has been given a long-deserved facelift at Crockett...
The
Devil’s Triangle 9-17-07
In Texas, as in the rest of the Confederacy, the Reconstruction Era
between 1865 and 1877 saw little more than a continuation of the Civil
War in a new guise. The Union won the first phase of the war that
pitted professional armies against each other between 1861 and 1865,
but the South won the second phase that developed into guerrilla warfare...
Jim Swink comes home 9-3-07
Jim Swink, the lanky halfback who thrilled high school and Texas Christian
University football fans in the 1950s, has returned home to his roots...
Fairmount
8-27-07
The only visible reminders of Old Fairmount, an early East
Texas community in southern Sabine County, are a well-kept graveyard
and a church founded in 1887...
Comeback
of a cotton gin 8-13-07
At Point, a small town of some 700 souls in northern Rains
county, a sturdy old gin has found a new life as an entertainment
venue that draws crowds from all over East Texas...
Many
Places of LaSalle's Murder 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."...
A Sturdy Pioneer 7-16-07
One of my favorite history addicts is ninety-four-year-old Pearl Weaver
Havard...
Replying
to Readers 7-2-07
Korley’s
Kolumns 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 ...
Death Superstitions 6-11-07
In early East Texas, death was accompanied by a variety of superstitions,
some of which are still respected in the homes of our grandparents.
The
Chief's Sons 5-28-07
Natchitoches and Nacogdoches
Pistol-packing Preacher 5-14-07
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...
Washington’s
East Texas Cousin 4-30-07
Alexander Hamilton Washington, a cousin of George Washington, cut
a wide swath through Polk and San Jacinto counties before and after
the Civil War...
Looking
for Hangings 4-16-07
Before the electric chair gave Texas an alternative way of punishing
murderers and the like, Texas counties had the local authority to
hang criminals...
"No Gallows"
4-2-07
The names of some East Texas towns can be downright confusing. And
much of the confusion arises from mispronunciations which, during
the passage of time, have become actual names.
The Emporia Mystery 3-29-07
In the early 1900s, an explosion and fire spread throughout the old
Emporia sawmill in south Angelina County. An estimated 30 sawmill
workers, most of them black, are believed to have perished in the
conflagration...
All
Those Pleasant Hills 3-07
Could Pleasant Hill be the most popular name for towns in East Texas?
With nine communities named Pleasant Hill in the more than 40 counties
that constitute East Texas...
A
Centenarian's Life 2-18-07
"At the age of 106, she has 218 of them--34 grandchildren, 91
great-grandchildren, and 93 great-great grandkids..."
Palestine’s Texas Theater 2-4-07
"...Texas Theater, one of the grand old movie houses of East
Texas, has been restored and is now a setting for community stage
productions..."
The Love Boys 1-22-07
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.
The
Smith Brothers 1-8-07
Four brothers from Delta County lived with an ordinary name in the
mid-1800s, but they were far from ordinary...
The
Circus Fight 12-24-06
"What one historian has called "the most famous circus fight
in history" unfolded in 1873 as Robinson's Circus was preparing to
leave Jacksonville in East Texas..."
The Piney Woods 12-11-06
In view of an economic development group's plan to change the image
of the piney woods of East Texas with a new name, perhaps a look at
the history of this part of Texas is appropriate...
The
First County Agent 11-27-06
In the early 1900s, during a time of low crop production and a depressed
farm economy in East Texas, Tyler and Smith County pioneered a concept
that celebrates its 100th anniversary this year--the county agricultural
agent.
The
Possum Dinner 11-12-06
While most East Texans were planning Thanksgiving dinners in 1929,
four old friends in Frankston were sitting down for a meal of possum
and sweet potatoes...
The
first "over water" oil well 10-30-06
In the early l900s, 27-year-old Walter B. Pyron, of Blossom, Texas,
a production foreman for Guffy Oil Company, noticed gas bubbles rising
from Caddo Lake...
The Worst Feud 10-15-06
The deadliest feud happened in East Texas between 1840 and
1844. The Regulator and Moderators War was the first and largest American
feud in numbers of participants and fatalities.
Jot Em Down 10-2-06
"... From their Jot 'Em Down Store in Pine Ridge, Arkansas,
Lum and Abner evolved into one of the nation's most popular radio
series. But if you ask old timers in Delta County, Texas, they'll
tell you with pride that they remember when the Jot 'Em Down Store
was in East Texas..."
Granny's
Neck 9-18-06
Granny's Neck is one of the oddest names ever given to a piece
of East Texas real estate. Also known as Old Granny's Neck and Harper's
Crossing, the small community...
The
War Protest 9-4-06
At the peak of another war ninety years ago, a small East Texas sawmill
town made a statement about American soldiers being killed in a distant
land.
The
Burning House 8-21-06
Motorists traveling along U.S. Highway 59 in Polk County are
often startled to see what appears to be flames pouring from the windows
of old sawmill house...
A
Moving History 8-7-06
"...Bill Daniel is best remembered by some admirers for
one of the strangest events in East Texas--the move of an entire town
from Liberty to Waco, a distance of more than 200 miles, in October
of 1986 during the Texas sesquicentennial celebration..."
The
Cutoff and Mistletoe 7-24-06
There is an old Texas saying that goes something like this, "Every
time the Legislature meets, keep a close watch on your wallet and
your wife." In the case of Trinity County--a lovely East Texas landscape
dotted with pine trees and bordered by two rivers--the Legislature
grabbed more than the county's wallets and wives...
The
Hardin Brothers 7-10-06
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...
The
8-F Crowd 6-26-06
Lamar Hotel, Houston
"... Often referred to as the "unofficial capital of Texas,"
Suite 8-F ... was the meeting place for Houston's business leaders
from the late 1930s to the 1960s...."
Nethery's Store 6-11-06
In hundreds of small towns in East Texas, the general store was the
hub of the community--a place where neighbors visited, made purchases
of everything they needed, and usually put it on credit. Few, if any,
of the old general stores remain today...
Tennessee
Williams' Texas Director 5-29-06
Without the interest of an East Texas woman, American theater icon
Tennessee Williams might still be writing high school plays in a small
town.
A
Personal Hero 5-14-06
"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."
Fall of the Largest Tree 5-1-06
"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."
The
Parker Family 4-17-06
"In the same decade that established Cynthia Ann Parker and her
son, Indian Chief Quanah Parker, as living legends, another clan of
Parkers wrote their own chapter of history in East Texas..."
Three-legged
Willie 4-3-06
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..."
Three
Tragedies 3-20-06
"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..."
Why
did they call it that? 3-7-06
Don't let anyone tell you that the people who picked names
for some of East Texas' earliest communities were not imaginative
or lacked a sense of humor.
The Runestone 2-19-06
"East Texans willing to take the time to drive about 100 miles
into eastern Oklahoma will be rewarded with a centuries-old mystery."
Legacy
of an Oldtimer 2-5-06
"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."
Fairmount
Cemetery 1-24-06
"Thankfully, more and more East Texas cemeteries are securing
state historical markers as community landmarks..."
FDR
and Nine Acres 1-9-06
"With luck -- and an infusion of funds -- a historic Kilgore
home built in the 1930s could be on its way to regaining its stature
as one of East Texas’ most interesting homes." |
