Traces of Tx (today)

[Shakey Jake]

Here's the Texas Quote of the Day (Per Traces of Texas)
"In 1966 upon being told that French President Charles De Gaulle had taken France out of NATO and that all U.S. troops must be evacuated off of French soil, President Lyndon Johnson mentioned to Secretary of State Dean Rusk that he should ask De Gaulle about the Americans buried in France. Rusk implied in his answer that De Gaulle should not really be asked that in the meeting, at which point President Johnson then said to Rusk:
"Ask him about the cemeteries Dean!"
That made it into a Presidential Order, so Rusk had to ask President De Gaulle.
So at end of the meeting Dean did ask De Gaulle if his order to remove all U.S. troops from French soil also included the 60,000+ soldiers buried in France from World War I and World War II.
De Gaulle, embarrassed, got up and left and never answered.”
----- Thomas J. Schoenbaum, "Waging peace and war: Dean Rusk in the Truman, Kennedy, and Johnson Years", 1988.
Shown here: Dean Rusk and President Lyndon B. Johnson

[Shakey Jake]

Another goodie from T of T Facebook group:
After former Texas Governor Jim Hogg's death in 1906, his daughter Ima and her brothers tried to sell the Varner Plantation that the governor had owned, but a provision in his will specified that the land be kept for 15 years. On January 15, 1918, oil was found on the Varner Plantation. A second strike the following year provided oil income amounting to $225,000 a month shared among the four siblings. This is the equivalent of about 3 million dollars per month in today's money. The Hoggs did not believe that the oil money was rightfully theirs, as it had come from the land and not hard work, and they were determined to use it for the good of Texas. As a result, Ima Hogg became one of the greatest philanthropists in Texas history.
Shown here: Circa 1890, Governor Jim Hogg with wife Sarah, daughter Ima on the far left, and sons William Clifford, Michael Stephen, and Thomas Elisha.
(Note: This includes the Bayou Bend in Houston. It's a "must stop" if you're ever in the area. https://www.visithoustontexas.com/listi ... ens/19626/

[Shakey Jake]

A. J. Royal, Pecos County sheriff, son of Ethel Joseph and Mary Frances (Ousley) Royal, was born in Lee County, Alabama, on November 25, 1855, the only son in a family of five daughters. He left the family farm and moved as a young man to Fort Worth, Texas, where he worked for the railroad. He married Naomi Obedience Christmus on January 19, 1879, in Coryell County, and the couple moved to Junction, where Royal operated a saloon and a ranch. Reportedly, he was indicted for murder there. In 1889 he took his family to Pecos County, where he farmed. The Royals had six daughters and one son. In Pecos County Royal quarreled with one of his employees and killed the man on the street in Fort Stockton. In 1892 he was elected sheriff of Pecos County. While sheriff, he won the Koehler Saloon in a card game, but the owner died before signing it over. On August 6, 1894, Royal had a shoot-out with James Rooney in the saloon.

As sheriff, Royal was a controversial figure. Some citizens thought he used his power to terrorize those who disagreed with him, especially several prominent people. Others considered him a tough lawman who fought hard to establish law and order. During the campaign for reelection, he reportedly allowed a Mexican American prisoner to escape in exchange for being allowed to make a campaign speech to Hispanic voters. He was subsequently arrested by the United States marshal for letting a federal prisoner escape. Royal was defeated in the election. On November 21, 1894, he was murdered in his office at the courthouse by an unknown assailant. Tradition in Pecos County states that nine leading citizens met together and agreed that Royal should be killed. No one was ever charged with the crime.

[Shakey Jake]

William Everett Preston (September 2, 1946 - June 6, 2006) was a soul musician from Houston, Texas. Along with Tony Sheridan, he was one of just two non-members to receive top billing on a Beatles record.
Billy first met The Beatles while touring with Little Richard’s band in 1962. At the time The Beatles were the opening act.
They met again in 1969, during the sessions for the Let It Be album and film. George had recently gone to a Ray Charles concert in London, where he saw Preston playing the organ.
“When I went with Eric Clapton to see Ray Charles play at the Festival Hall, before Ray came on there was a guy on stage playing the organ, dancing about and singing ‘Double-O Soul’,” said George.
“I thought, That guy looks familiar,’ but he seemed bigger than I remembered. After a while Ray came on and the band played for a few songs and then he reintroduced… Billy Preston! Ray said, ‘Since I heard Billy play I don’t play the organ any more – I leave it to him.’ I thought, ‘It’s Billy!’ Since we had last seen him in Hamburg in 1962, when he was just a little lad, he had grown to be six foot tall.”
George invited Preston into the studio, where his enthusiasm and easy-going personality helped ease the tensions. At the time Preston was in London to film some BBC television appearances.
John was in favor of making Preston a full member of the band; Paul disagreed, saying there was little point as the band was close to splitting. Nevertheless, he worked with The Beatles for ten days in January 1969, playing Fender Rhodes electric piano and a Lowrey DSO Heritage organ.
Preston performed with The Beatles during their 42-minute performance on the rooftop of Apple, in January 1969, which was the band’s final public performance.
The ‘Get Back’ single was credited to “The Beatles with Billy Preston”, as was its b-side, ‘Don’t Let Me Down’.
In the years preceding his death Preston had worked on a collection of Beatles cover versions, which remains unreleased.
(Source: Abbey Road Tribute)

[Shakey Jake]

Eugene Freeman "Shake" Oliver worked as a shoe shiner in several barber shops in Dublin and on the sidewalks of Blackjack and Patrick Streets. He earned the space by sweeping up hair at the barber shops. In the 1940s he lived in a lean-to behind the J. F. Edmonds home on Grafton Street. He was born around 1888 and died after the Korean War. Don't you know he had lots of stories to tell about what he overheard while working. It's a fine picture from the Portals of Texas History. This picture portrait was taken by J.R. Rogers about 1950.

[Shakey Jake]

One of the best Día de los Muertos pictures I've seen. This was taken in Terlingua. There's going to be a huge Día de los Muertos parade in Houston tomorrow.

https://abc13.com/houston-dia-de-los-mu ... /14012596/

[Shakey Jake]

Dean Griffth submitted this awesome photo of the Light House Trail at Palo Duro Canyon.
Jake

[CT_Shooter]

Preston performed with The Beatles during their 42-minute performance on the rooftop of Apple, in January 1969, which was the band’s final public performance.
The ‘Get Back’ single was credited to “The Beatles with Billy Preston”, as was its b-side, ‘Don’t Let Me Down’.

Peter Jackson's documentary about the Beatles final live performance Get Back (streaming on Disney and essential viewing) brought Billy Preston front and center and "back where he once belonged". Thank you, George.

My Sweet Lord.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EORbL8N-R8

[Shakey Jake]

The man shown in these two images is James Edward Pettus of Goliad, Texas, who was born in 1855 and died in 1942. He was a rancher at death but he had been an old trail cowboy. I just read what he said in a 1930 magazine article and it is so, so good:
"He talks of moving herds of cattle over a great distance of land in dangerous times, the day-to-day struggles, the fears, and the exhilaration of accomplishment and finally heading back home to Texas .... 'I rode the range when it was new, with my father's cattle and horses and many a pleasant memory is mine as I hark back to cow camps, long before barbed wire fence days. The songs that we sung to the cattle; of sleeping, dead to the world, with water running down round our bedding and tricking down our backs as the rain pelted on our hat brims pulled over our faces for protection. Of stampeded and everything else in God's world to make us miserable, but strange to say none of 'em did, we slept, ate, rounded-up, branded, marked and drove cattle as free-hearted and happy as if we had been on a lark of some kind."
HOW GREAT IS THAT? Source: Stories of the Old Trail Drivers of Long Ago" by Cora M. Cross in Semi-Weekly Farm News of Dallas, Texas August 26, 1930
These photos come from James E. Pettus' Find-A-Grave entry. The newspaper article appeared in 1884.
(Source: Traces of Texas)

[Shakey Jake]

The Texas Quote of the Day has Tom Landry, former coach of the Dallas Cowboys and Texan, describing how his B-17 ran out of gas at the end of World War II, forcing a crash landing. Great story!
“We tore up one ’17 pretty good when we ran out of gas. Our alternative airfield was in France because at the time we didn’t have enough gas left in the tank to make it across the Channel to England. So we went to our alternate, and when we got there it was zero visibility—just totally fogged in. I don’t know how many hundreds of planes might have gone down that day trying to find their alternate field. We were skimming the treetops and the roofs of the houses, trying to find an airfield. We’d know about where it was from our navigator; he’d tell us where it was, and then we’d have to drop down through the fog to find the field. Well, finally we just ran out of gas. We moved everybody to the back of the plane, cut the motors, and looked for a field to land in. But fields over there are lined with trees, not fences. We overshot the field we picked and went right into the trees. The trees knocked the wings off, and when the plane stopped, there was a tree trunk sitting about a foot in front of us where we sat as pilots. Everybody just got up and walked off the plane. Nobody got hurt because there was no gas to explode.”
------ Tom Landry in a 1981 interview with Mark Oristano

[Shakey Jake]

If you ever get near Winchester, TX stop in at Murphy's Steak House. You'll love it. You get steak as every bit as good as Ruth Chris for a fraction of the price. Winchester is a bit northwest of LaGrange. Winchester, named for Winchester, was first settled in 1827 by John Ingram, who received a grant nearby on the Colorado River still known as Ingram's Prairie. The town itself was platted in 1857 by John Gromme on lands originally granted to E. Campbell and J. F. Berry in 1831. A post office was established in 1866, and by 1900 the town had eighteen businesses. As a shipping point on the Waco branch of the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway, the community served a wide area of prosperous farms. Due to improved roads and the decline of cotton farming, the number of businesses dropped to nine by 1950, and the population dropped to 220. By the 1980s the population was fifty, and the settlement had four businesses. Most of the surrounding farmland had reverted to pasture for cattle, and additional revenues came from oil production. Through 2000 Winchester still had a population of fifty. I'll add that the Steak House also serves as the Post Office!

[Shakey Jake]

Another great read from Traces of Texas today:
The Texas Quote of the Day was written by Teddy Blue Abbott, the young cowboy shown in this photo, and it is a GREAT one:
"There were worlds of cattle in Texas after the Civil War. They had multiplied and run wild while the men was away fighting for the Confederacy, especially down in the southern part, between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande. By the time the war was over they was down to four dollars a head -- when you could find a buyer. Here was all these cheap, long-horned steers overrunning Texas; here was the rest of the country crying for beef -- and no railroads to get them out. So they trailed them out, across hundreds of miles of wild country thick with Indians. In 1866 the first Teas herds crossed the Red River. In 1867 the town of Abilene was founded at the end of the Kansas Pacific Railroad and that was when the trail really started. From that time on the big drives were made every year, and the cowboy was born...
Those first tail outfits in the seventies were sure tough. It was a new business and had to develop. Work oxen were used instead of horses to pull the wagon, and if one played out, they could rope a steer and yoke him up. They had very little grub and they usually ran out of that and lived off of straight beef. They had only three or four horses to the man, mostly with sore backs, because the old-time saddle ate both ways, the horse's back and the cowboy's pistol pocket. They had no tents, no tarps and damn few slickers. They never kicked, because those boys was raised under just the same conditions as there was on the trail -- corn meal and bacon for grub, dirt floors in the houses and no luxuries. In the early days in Texas, in the sixties, then they gathered their cattle, they used to pack what they needed on a horse and go out for weeks on a cow hunt they called it then. That was before the name roundup was invented, and before they had anything so civilized as mess wagons. And I say, that is the way those first trail hands were raised. Take her as she comes and like it. They used to brag that they could go anyplace a cow could and a stand anything a horse could. It was their life.
Most all of them were Southerners, and they were a wild, reckless bunch. For dress they wore wide-brimmed beaver hats, black or brown with a low crown, fancy shirts, high-heeled boots and sometimes a vest. Their clothes and saddles were all homemade. Most of them had an army coat with cape, which was a slicker and blanket, too. Lay on your saddle blanket and cover up with a coat was about the only bed used on the Texas trail at first. A few had a big buffalo robe to rollup in, but if they ever got good and wet you never had time to dry them, so they were not popular, All had a pair of bullhide chaps, or leggings they called them then. They were good in the brush and wet weather, but in fine weather were left in the wagon."
----- E.C. "Teddy Blue" Abbott, "We Pointed Them North," 1939. Teddy Blue was 18 years old and had already spent several years in the saddle when this photo photo was taken. He had been born in Cranwich, England in 1860, and was brought to the West by his parents as a boy. The Abbotts settled in Lincoln, Nebraska at a time when the region was overrun with Texas cattle and cowboys heading north on trail drives. Teddy Blue's father decided to try his luck in the booming business and bought cattle from Texas. Teddy , only 10 years old, when he first became a trail cowboy, went to Texas and was allowed to help herd them to Nebraska in hopes that the open air would improve his frail health. The experience, Abbott said later, "made a cowboy out of me. Nothing could have changed me after that." Teddy Blue worked on the range throughout the 1870s and 1880s. His memoirs of cowboy life -- from the dangerous trail drives to the off-season shenanigans in town -- was published in 1939 and, on account of its honesty and the fact that it dealt with quite a few mature, "adult" themes, marked a new era in the historiography of the Old West. It's clear to me when I read "Lonesome Dove" that Larry McMurtry was well-acquainted with Teddy's autobiography!

[Shakey Jake]

Per TSHA:
On this day in 1837, eighteen Texas Rangers fought 150 to 180 Kichai (Keechi) Indians in present-day Archer County in a conflict called the battle of Stone Houses. In mid-October 1837, a ranger company pursued the raiding Kichais up the Colorado River. Lt. A. B. Van Benthusen and seventeen men split from the main group and headed north to the Brazos. Eventually, they found the Kichais. Cherokee and Delaware Indians who were present attempted to act as peace agents, but when one ranger killed an Indian and took a plug of tobacco from the dead man’s body the infuriated Kichais attacked. The rangers sought cover in a shallow ravine, but after fierce fighting, the Kichais set fire to the prairie and smoked them out. In the ensuing chaos, some rangers escaped into the woods. Eight rangers survived the battle, which was so named after three stone mounds that looked like houses to the Indians.

[Shakey Jake]

On this day in 1918, World War I came to an end. The armistice found the two most prominent Texas units on active service in France. The Ninetieth Division was fighting its way through the Meuse-Argonne, while the Thirty-Sixth Division was resting behind the lines after suffering heavy casualties in the same offensive. A total of 198,000 Texans saw service in the armed forces during the course of the war. Five thousand one hundred and seventy-one Texans, including one nurse, died in the armed services; 4,748 of the dead served in the army. More than a third of the total deaths occurred inside the United States, many of them as a result of the influenza epidemic of 1918. Four Texans were awarded the Medal of Honor. In a trend that would become even more marked during World War II, military camps were established in Texas to train men for service and the state was the main location for pilot training for military aviation.

[Shakey Jake]

Per T of T:
My, my, my ... the things y'all send in. Traces of Texas reader Margie Thibert sent in this remarkable bit of Texana, a wedding present that Janis Joplin gave to Margie when Margie got married. Janis was an artist major at Lamar, and so was Margie's roommate Annette Clark. The system had put Janis in a room with two Pentacostal preacher's daughters and of course that didn't work so Janis stayed in Margie's room. Margie thought about asking Janis to be in the wedding but "I was afraid she'd say f*** in front of my parents and I'd be disowned." Janis made this as they were studying Picasso's Blue Period, painting it on some kind of board ... cloth board, maybe?
So how outstanding is that story and this historical artifact? A painting by Janis Joplin? Thank you, Margie. Really awesome!

[Shakey Jake]

Presidio la Bahía was established in 1749 during the Spanish Colonial period and was the site of the Goliad Massacre on Palm Sunday, March 1836. Built by the Spanish Army, it was host to one of the bloodiest chapters in Texas' quest for independence from Mexico.
Missions Espíritu Santo and Rosario tell a story of faith, sacrifice and the creation of a distinctive ranching heritage. The missions also reveal the story of the Karankawa, Aranama and Tamique people’s traditional way of life.

[Shakey Jake]

A rather unique post on Traces of Texas today. I thought it was good enough to share here:
There's never a dull moment here in West Texas. I left Terlingua yesterday and drove to Marathon, on account of I wanted to see my friend Danny Self, who owns the Marathon Motel & RV Park. Danny opened his door and said, with a twinkle in his eye, "you're not going to believe what's in my bathroom. Follow me." It turned out that Danny had found a baby javelina while out walking his dogs last night here in Marathon. Somebody left something like a manhole uncovered, the baby javelina fell into it, and its mother left it. Danny fished it out of the hole and realized it had a broken leg, which meant that even if the baby javelina's mother returned, it would not survive. Danny's friend DJ Hensley is the local wildlife/domestic critter rescuer/helper here in Marathon, so Danny called DJ and she came over with some goat's milk, which the baby javelina drank greedily. The baby javelina is only a few days old --- its umbilical cord is still attached. This morning, Danny is driving the 168 miles to the A-Z veterinary clinic in Midland, where the little critter's leg will be surgically repaired, and then it will be off to a wildlife rehabilitation place, where it will be taken in, allowed to heal, and eventually be released back into the wild. Don't get me wrong: I love Texas wildlife as much as the next guy, but I am not sure that I'd drive 340+ miles to save a baby javelina, particularly when there doesn't seem to be any shortage of them hereabouts. But Danny feels that fate called upon him to do it and that he wouldn't be able to live with himself if he didn't and, besides, "who can resist that face?" He's a much better man than I am and I'm not afraid to say it. I have to admit, though, that its face DOES make a pretty compelling argument! Here are a few photos of DJ with the baby javelina. Also: did you know that baby javelinas are called "reds" because they have so much red fur? I didn't.

[cooperhawk]

Does the term "Roast Suckling Pig" come to mind? Oh never mind. After looking at that face I
couldn't do it either.

[Shakey Jake]

On this day in 1980, Jess Sweeten, colorful county sheriff and mayor of Athens, Texas, died. He was born in Stigler, Indian Territory, in 1905. He moved to Dallas in 1926 and worked there for several years before becoming a deputy sheriff. In 1932 his election as sheriff of Henderson County made him the youngest sheriff in Texas. He served for twenty-two years. The six-foot-four, 225-pound Sweeten gained a reputation as a hard-nosed investigator and a crack shot. During his tenure he shot nine men, killing three, including Gerald Johnson, the so-called "Dallas Kid," whom Sweeten gunned down after a high-speed car chase through Athens. Sweeten conducted shooting exhibitions for schools and civic clubs throughout his career, shooting cigars and other objects held up by his one-armed assistant, Gus Sowells. On one occasion, he reportedly fired 3,700 rounds in seven hours, shooting up some 600 pounds of potatoes. He was elected mayor of Athens in 1969.

https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/r ... &FORM=VIRE

[Shakey Jake]

Today's post comes from the fine folks over at TSHA:
On this day in 1845, the Republic of Texas concluded its last Indian treaty. The agreement marked the end of the Tehuacana Creek Councils, which began in the spring of 1843, when Jesse Chisholm helped convince a number of Indian groups, including the Caddos, Tawakonis, Delawares, Lipan Apaches, and Tonkawas, to meet on Tehuacana Creek near the Torrey Brothers trading post south of present Waco. A second council met at Fort Bird on the Trinity River in the fall of 1843. These councils resulted in a peace treaty between the Republic and the Wacos, Caddos, and other smaller groups, but the absence of the Comanches caused President Sam Houston to call another council to meet at Tehuacana Creek in April 1844. The April council convened without the Comanches, but by October 9, 1844, Houston had negotiated a treaty with a part of the southern Comanches, Kichais, Wacos, Caddos, Anadarkos, Hainais, Delawares, Shawnees, Cherokees, Lipan Apaches, and Tawakonis. At the November 1845 council the Wacos, Tawakonis, Kichais, and Wichitas agreed to the treaty of October 9, 1844.