| |
XIT
Ranch - Gone but not Forgotten 2-16-13
"Farwell’s
Folly: the Rise and Fall of the XIT Ranch in Texas" by Dede CasadZane
Grey's novels sparked love of reading by Delbert Trew 9-11-12David
Levi Kokernot by Wanda Orton 8-15-12
Alan Barber
wrote a book about him. “David Kokernot, Rogue Soldier of the Texas Revolution,”
newly published by Kullyspel Press in Idaho, is a treasure of regional and state
history, and as a bonus, reaches out to the Kokernot roots in New Orleans and
The Netherlands. Will
Rogers Coliseum by Debbie M. Liles 7-2-12"Old
Hoodoo" The Battleship Texas, America's First Battleship (1895-1911)
6-28-12
In this new
book (October 2011) about a little known era of Naval History, authors Al Sumrall
and Mark D. Cowan research the first Battleship Texas.The
Forgotten Indian Traveler by Mike Cox 6-21-12
The
men were Richard Irving Dodge, a young Army officer who would serve in the military
for 41 years and John Conner, a noted Delaware Indian. The meeting happened at
Fort Martin Scott... Thirty years went by before Dodge got around to writing about
his experiences at Fort Martin Scott in his classic book, “The Wild Indians.”Frederick
Law Olmsted by Clay Coppedge 4-13-12
One
of the most important people from American history that most people have never
heard of was Frederick Olmsted Law who designed New York City’s Central Park.
His classic account of Texas in 1850: “A Journey Through Texas,” published in
1857, is a solid and mostly objective look at Texas society in the middle part
of the 19th Century.William
F. Drannan told it like it wasn’t by Clay Coppedge 1-9-12
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...The
Shooting in Donley County by Mike Cox 1-6-12
Finch
wrote about his experiences in a now-scarce, self-published family history, “The
Lives and Times of a Family Named Finch.” In his book, he told of an incident
that convinced him Texas remained the Wild West... |
See Also
"Of Books I Sing"
"Of
books I sing" is a column showcasing excerpts from “volumes of forgotten
lore.” Rescued from library sales, thrift store shelves and recycling dumpsters,
if it’s amusing, poignant or illustrates the somewhat overblown and colorful prose
of yesteryear, it can find a place here. Think of it as a home for unwed paragraphs
or a museum of resuscitated sentences. |
Remembering
Miss Tillie by Murray
Montgomery 10-10-11
Excerpt from "A River, A Town, and Memories" by Tillie McGill Bright |
| | Mayhem
at Mount Carmel by Mike Cox 10-27-09
Excerpt from
"Time of the Rangers from 1900 to the Pesent"
The
morning of February 28, 1993... A Texas National Guard helicopter had been shot
down and numerous federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents killed
and wounded while attempting to serve a search warrant at David Koresh’s Branch
Davidian ranch |
Endangered
Stories
From "I Was a Teen
in the 1930s and Some More Stuff" by Harold Bell
Miss
Bell
Nobody
in the world, dead or alive, knew how long Miss Bell taught the fourth grade in
and around Decatur, Texas...
The
Sheriff
"You never know when somebody
says something, or does something, that it may have a big effect on you the rest
of your life."The
Tight-Wire Walker
"She's very daring.
They put her wire up to the very tiptop of the tent thirty-five feet above the
ground, and she does exciting maneuvers without using a net." My
Date with Mary
Mary was the cause of the most exciting week of my young
life. |
Texas Books
Books
about Texas that you may be unaware of.
Include independent publishers and
the presses of various universities.
Titles are chosen from a wide range of
topics we feel would be of interest to our readers, including architecture, ghosts
,people, places, history, war, law, outlaws...
|
| |
Combat Over Texas
by Dan Heaton 6-8-12
"Forgotten Aviator: The Byron
Q. Jones story"
No listing of the key locations in the early days of flight
– particularly the development of military air power – would be complete without
a reference to the southern Texas city of Brownsville. It was from there that
America’s first combat mission was flown, way back in 1915. |
Comanche
Raids in Coryell County by Mike Cox
Gordon Shook, Williamson’s great-grandson,
could still find what was left of the liveoak where his relative’s body had been
left by the Indians and posed for a photograph there. Charles E. Freeman used
the image in his book, “A History of Pearl, Texas.” Freeman also included
in his book a couple of accounts from Coryell County oldtimers who lived through
those bloody days...Christmas
Dinner by Mike Cox
In the letter the Galveston News published on Dec. 21,
1893, the former ranger A. J. Sowell expanded on an incident he had only mentioned
briefly in his 1884 book “Rangers and Pioneers of Texas.” "Tomahawks
at Twilight"
Authors Bob and Doris Bowman have completed a new book
on Indian attacks in the eastern half of Texas."Alex
Sweet’s Texas: The Lighter Side of Lone Star History" University of Texas
Press, 1986
Alex
Sweet and His Siftings by Clay Coppedge
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. Sweet’s day was roughly the last half of the 19th Century, a time
when Texas was by all accounts wild and wooly. To Sweet, it was also funny...
Texas
Sketchbook by Mike Cox
Humble, a Texas oil company created in 1911 which
in the 1970s became Exxon... published thousands of copies of the “Texas Sketchbook”
and distributed them for free to anyone who wanted one, including school kids...Everyone
was GTT: Gone to Texas by Delbert Trew
"Going To Texas - Five Centuries
of Texas Maps" by the Center For Texas Studies at Texas Christian University.
It is published by TCU Press, Fort Worth. Miss
Lockhart and the Comanches by Maggie Van Ostrand
"Comanches: The Destruction
of a People," by T.R. Fehrenbach.
The
Devil’s Triangle by Bob Bowman
“The Devil’s Triangle,” a new book by James
M. Smallwood, Kenneth W. Howell and Carol C. Taylor, provides a fascinating look
at the turbulent era after the Civil War
491
Days by Archie P. McDonald
William Williston Heartsill's Fourteen Hundred
And Ninety-One Days In The Confederate ArmyJane
McManus Storm Cazneau by Archie P. McDonald
Mistress of Manifest Destiny:
A Biography of Jane McManus Storm Cazneau by Linda Hudson"Texas
Women in World War II" by Cindy Weigand
NURSES, WACS, WAVES, and
SPARS, Uniformed Women of "The Greatest Generation""Soldiers
of Misfortune" by Sam W. Haynes
"The
Reluctant Warrior, Former German POW Finds Peace in Texas" by Heino R. Erichsen
"Wings
Over the Mexican Border: Pioneer Military Aviation in the Big Bend" by Kenneth
Baxter Ragsdale |
Law
& Disorder
The
Shooting in Donley County by Mike Cox
1-6-12
Finch wrote
about his experiences in a now-scarce, self-published family history, “The Lives
and Times of a Family Named Finch.” In his book, he told of an incident that convinced
him Texas remained the Wild West...Terror
on Highway 59 By Steve Sellers
“The
story that put a crooked Texas Sheriff in Jail” “Death
by Rope” by Bob
and Doris Bowman
Explores 49 lynchings and legal hangings in East Texas between
1862 and 1942. "Traveling
History with Bonnie and Clyde" by
Robin Cole-Jett
Driving
Around with Bonnie and Clyde
by Robin Cole-Jett
Her
book offers a history of Bonnie
and Clyde, plus 5 tours, with directions originating
from Dallas, of the old places they used to visit and the things they might have
seen.Bonnie
and Clyde Slept Here by Mike Cox
Don Wayland Crowley tells a great “Bonnie
and Clyde slept here” story in his self-published 2005 book “West Texas Tales:
Stories About My Father.” “The
Fiddler Changed His Tune” by Carl L. Stewart
Clyde
Barrow’s Funeral by Mike Cox
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?
Bertillion
Method early way to track criminals by Delbert Trew
In the book "Texas
Gulag" by Gary Brown, the history of Texas prisons, jails and even the early-day
chain gangs is presented from the years 1875 to 1925. The book outlined in detail
how criminals were identified as they processed through the old systems."The
Mexican Mesta," by William H. Dusenberry
There
were rules in good-old days, too by Delbert Trew
"They
Rode for the Lone Star" by Thomas W. Knowles
Texas
Rangers and the Battle of Plum Creek by Murray Montgomery
"My
Life with Bonnie & Clyde" by Blanche Caldwell Barrow
Reviewed by
Robin Jett"Elmer
McCurdy: The Misadventure in Life and Afterlife of an American Outlaw" by
Mark Svenvold"Over
the Wall, The Men Behind the 1934 Death House Escape" by Patrick M. McConal"Tales
of Bad Men, Bad Women, and Bad Places : Four Centuries of Texas Outlawry"
by C.F. Eckhardt
"The
Texas Sheriff : Lord of the County Line" by Thad Sitton "Running
with Bonnie and Clyde: The 10 Fast Years of Ralph Fults" by John Neal Phillips
|
Culture
and Observations XIT
Ranch - Gone but not Forgotten
2-16-13
"Farwell’s Folly: the Rise and Fall of the XIT
Ranch in Texas" by Dede CasadFrederick
Law Olmsted by Clay Coppedge 4-13-12
One
of the most important people from American history that most people have never
heard of was Frederick Olmsted Law who designed New York City’s Central Park.
His classic account of Texas in 1850: “A Journey Through Texas,” published in
1857, is a solid and mostly objective look at Texas society in the middle part
of the 19th Century.Turkeys
and Tenderfeet by Clay Coppedge 7-8-11
Frontier
journalist Don Hampton Biggers’ writings are collected in the book “Buffalo Guns
and Barbed Wire,” published by Texas Tech University Press. Old
Trail Drivers by Mike Cox 2-24-11
No matter the old
cowpoke’s backstory, in his dotage he could round up words on paper just about
as well as he once rode down and roped strays.Cattle
brands mark originality by Delbert Trew 2-22-11
Recently
I acquired a book, "The Manual of Brands and Marks," published in 1970 by The
University of Oklahoma Press, authored by Manfred Wolfenstine. If you are interested
in the history of brands, this is the book to study. Some of the interesting tidbits...
Longhorn:
Texas' first industry by Delbert Trew 1-17-11
The
book "The Long Trail" by Gardner Sowle, published in 1976 by McGraw-Hill, tells
the real story of early cowboys, longhorns and the first industry developed in
Texas. This was the chore of capturing, branding, taming, raising and driving
longhorns to market. Legends and myths, plus the exaggerations of many publications
are omitted boiling fact down to common sense explanations... 'The
Farmers' Almanac' a good guide for life by Delbert Trew
Among my early
memories as a boy was watching my parents and grandparents consult "The Farmers'
Almanac" before commencing any serious work. Whether planting crops, working livestock,
planning farm work, going fishing or even going to the doctor, out came the almanac
for study...Amarillo
in thick of Dust Bowl by Delbert Trew
"Amarillo - The Story Of A Western
Town" by Paul H. Carlson is a must read for old-timers and those who arrived later.
Most who have lived in the Panhandle very long remember seeing or hearing of our
most notorious history, but few know the little details of how and why the stories
unfolded. The book is a treasure chest of details based on published fact... Locusts
plague settlers by Delbert Trew
"Locust," a book by Jeffrey A. Lockwood
published in 2004, traces the history of locust plagues from early times, around
the world and into modern times. Sound scientific research, carried out over long
periods of time by renown entomologists, finally traced the origins and demise
of the Rocky Mountain Locust. Here are a few brief facts of interest... The
Faith Club: A Muslim, A Christian, A Jew-- Three Women Search for Understanding
The True Meaning
of Auld Lang Syne by Gael Montana
"A
Long Way from the Cotton Patch." by Jean Adele Cox
Cotton
Picking by Mike Cox
"Cottonseed
Kid Childhood Memories of a Texas Life" by Hariett Dublin"CHINQUA
WHERE? The Spirit of Rural America, 1947-1955" by Fred B. McKinley
"The
Lonesome Plains: Death and Revival on an American Frontier" by Louis Fairchild"Blow
by Blow, A Collection of Steve Blow's Award-Winning Columns from The Dallas Morning
News" by Steve Blow "Tom
Dodge Talks about Texas : Radio Vignettes and Other Observations 1989-1999"
by Tom Dodge
"I
was a Teen in the 1930s ..." by Harold Bell "Tall
Town Tales by a Country Editor" by R. E. Bailey. |
People
David
Levi Kokernot by Wanda Orton
8-15-12
Alan Barber wrote a book about him. “David Kokernot, Rogue Soldier
of the Texas Revolution,” newly published by Kullyspel Press in Idaho, is a treasure
of regional and state history, and as a bonus, reaches out to the Kokernot roots
in New Orleans and The Netherlands. The
Forgotten Indian Traveler
by Mike Cox 6-21-12
The men were Richard Irving Dodge,
a young Army officer who would serve in the military for 41 years and John Conner,
a noted Delaware Indian. The meeting happened at Fort Martin Scott... Thirty years
went by before Dodge got around to writing about his experiences at Fort Martin
Scott in his classic book, “The Wild Indians.” William
F. Drannan told it like it wasn’t
by Clay Coppedge 1-9-12
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...Strangers
in a Strange Land by Britt Towery 10-5-11
A new book
on the lives and ministry of a Miles, Texas Sweetheart & A Comanche Co. Texas
Cowboy Davy
In East Texas by Bob Bowman
Much of "Journey Into the Land of Trials" by
Manley F. Corbia, Jr., deals with Davy's travels across East Texas and his stays
in landmark communities like Clarksville, Nacogdoches, San Augustine and a fledging
village that would eventually be named for him. Indian
Emily by Mike
Cox
One of
the most romantic stories in the lore of the Old West originated at Fort Davis
in the late 1860s...
The story goes back to 1919, when Carlyle Graham Raht
included it in his book, “Romance of the Davis Mountains and the Big Bend Country.”
Gideon
Lincecum: King of Texas’ Wild Frontier by
Clay Coppedge
"Adventures of A Frontier Naturalist: The Life and Times
of Gideon Lincecum" Jerry Bryan Lincecum and Edward Hake Phillips’ collection
of Gideon Lincecum’s writings Adventures
of Eddie Fung: Chinatown Kid, Texas Cowboy, Prisoner of War by Mel Brown A
gifted writer by Bob Bowman
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. 'No
Person Shall Put Asunder' by Benard Burson
A
Texas-Norwegian-German Valentine - A synopsisRemembering
the Bastrop Chronicler by Murray Montgomery
This particular story originally
came from a book titled "Recollections of Early Texas" written by a man know as
the "Bastrop chronicler." His real name was John Holmes Jenkins... Kingsbury
Hall: The Genealogy of a Family
by Kenneth Kingsbury“Sam
B. Hall, Jr.: Whatever is Right,” by Jerry Summers
“Go
straight to hell.” by Bob Bowman
Sam B. Hall, Jr., the son of an East
Texas lawyer and judge who rose to a leadership role in Congress and finished
his career as a federal judge, was one of East Texas’ most interesting contemporary
politicians.
Hall’s life is profiled in a new book, “Sam B. Hall, Jr.: Whatever
is Right,” by Jerry Summers, who serves as the Sam B. Hall, Jr. Professor of History
at East Texas Baptist University in Marshall.
Please
Pass the Biscuits, Pappy: Pictures of Governor W. Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel (Clifton
and Shirley Caldwell Texas Heritage Series) by Bill Crawford
Pass the
Biscuits, Pappy by Bob Bowman
"From
My Mother's Hands" by Susie Kelly Flatau "Swedish
Texans"
by
Dr. Larry Scott |
Places
/ Travel Majestic
History by Byron Browne 6-8-11
‘Jeff Davis County,
Texas’ by Lucy Miller Jacobson and Mildred Bloys Nored.Book
offers county tales of the Texas Panhandle
by Delbert Trew
A book titled "Presenting the Texas Panhandle" by Lan-Bea Publications
in 1979 provides many interesting facts about the Texas Panhandle... Early
Movie Making by Mike Cox
Back in 1996 screenwriter Frank Thompson set
the scene at Hot Wells at the beginning of his interesting book, “The Star Film
Ranch: Texas' First Picture Show.” The
Story of Indianola by Maggie Van Ostrand
On my bookshelf sat a slim volume
of poems by one Jeff McLemore.... The name of the book, published in 1904, is
"Indianola and Other Poems," and its yellowed pages, bound together by string,
are as fragile to the touch as would be a human born the same year...The
forgotten forests by
Bob Bowman
“Lone
Star Pine” published by Jane G. Baxter of Nashville, Tennessee, and Dan T. Barnes
of Trinity, Texas, has captured the appearance of the old forests that existed
in the early 1900s. "The
Book Lover's Tour of Texas" by Jessie Gunn Stephens
Reviewed by
Jamie Engle"Splash
Across Texas!" by Chandra Moira Beal "Taking
the Waters in Texas" by Janet Mace Valenza"San
Antonio Uncovered" by Mark Louis Rybczyk"A
Field Guide to Cows" by John Pukie"Hill
Country" by Richard Zelade"Counter
Culture Texas" by Susie Kelly Flatau and Mark Dean "The
Eight Corners of Texas: A Guide to Visiting Some of Texas' Least Frequented and
Known-about Areas - The Exact Corners" by Paul McBurnett |
Writing
the Story of Texas
4-23-13
Edited by
Patrick L. Cox and Kenneth E. Hendrickson Jr. Austin: University of Texas Press,
2013.
Review by Dr. Kirk Bane Zane
Grey's novels sparked love of reading
by Delbert Trew 9-11-12Remembering
J. Evetts Haley
by Mike Cox 7-7-11
During
his long life, J. Evetts Haley held down some of the best “jobs” a person can
have: Collector of historical documents for a university library, rancher, and
writer. Willie
Morris by Mike Cox
Morris' “North Toward Home” will stand as a solid half
of the two best evocations of Austin in the 1950s and early 1960s, the other being
Billy Brammer’s “The Gay Place.”Boyce
House by Mike Cox
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...Remembering
Claire Perry by Robert Cowser
Wife of Texas writer George Sessions Perry
Texas'
Most Civilized Soul by Clay Coppedge
"Roy Bedichek has been called
the most civilized soul Texas ever produced... Today he is perhaps best known
as the author of Adventures of a Texas Naturalist, a book the late A.C. Greene
of Salado included in his The Fifty Best Books on Texas...
Book
Burning by Mike Cox
“'Where they have burned books,' German poet Johann
Heinrich Heine wrote in the 19th century, 'they will end in burning human beings.'
Indeed, Texans have done both...."Is
There an Edna Ferber in Your Mailbox?
or What’s a nice girl like you doing
on a stamp like this? by Luke Warm |
Miscellaneous
Throwaway
Children by David Knape 12-2-12My
Brief Stroll Down the Tobacco Road
by Frances Giles 7-23-12
The Tyrrell Public Library
in Beaumont, Texas during the years of my childhood was the site of many happy
hours spent browsing for books to read...Special
Delivery by Robert G. Cowser
When I began the seventh grade at Saltillo,
Paul Dodson, our teacher, told us that the State Department of Education would
present a certificate to those students who read and reported on thirty books
during the school year... Bookaholic
by Peary Perry
I probably need to join some kind of social group to be able
to restrain my book buying, book saving compulsion. I can’t seem to help myself
and am in danger of spinning totally out of control... On
Finding a Good Book Title by Britt Towery
When looking to write a book,
of all the problems and headaches involved none is more pronounced than finding
a great title... The
Old Book Shelf by Mike Cox
This shelf, standing in a back corner of the
Coryell County Museum in Gatesville, has a story as interesting as any of the
books it ever held. A novel-in-wood, it represents a Texas family saga extending
from before the Civil War through the Great Depression and into the modern era.
The
Worst Book on Texas Ever Written by a Man
Or, His legs were a little bowed from being in the saddle since boyhood Book
Snippets by Mike Cox
A stack of old books may hold much more than the titles
suggest. Pick one up, check the fly leaves and title page, thumb through it for
the magic passages older books often contain--the bizarre, the humorous, the historic,
the prophetic, the philosophical. |
See Also
"Of Books I Sing"
- "Of books I sing" is a column showcasing excerpts from “volumes of
forgotten lore.” Rescued from library sales, thrift store shelves and recycling
dumpsters, if it’s amusing, poignant or illustrates the somewhat overblown and
colorful prose of yesteryear, it can find a place here. Think of it as a home
for unwed paragraphs or a museum of resuscitated sentences.
Texas
Escapes Bibliography - Reference books |
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