Traces of Tx (today)

[Shakey Jake]

Johnny Cash and his first wife, Vivian Liberto, in San Antonio circa 1955. They met at a skating rink in July 1951, when Vivian was a petite, exotically beautiful 17-year-old schoolgirl. Soon afterward Johnny, then a 19-year-old serviceman, was on his way to Germany. He did not see Vivian again until the summer of 1954. So he wrote letters. Hundreds and hundreds of letters, sometimes 2-3 per day. You can read quite a few of them in "I Walked the Line," Vivian's book about her life with Johnny. They are tender, silly, romantic, and beautiful.

[Shakey Jake]

Per TSHA:
On this day in 1921, Bessie Coleman became the world's first licensed black pilot. The native of Atlanta, Texas, graduated from high school in Waxahachie and attended Colored Agricultural and Normal University in Oklahoma. After moving to Chicago, she went to France and attended the aviation school at Le Crotoy. The Federation Aeronautique Internationale issued her a pilot's license. She flew in her first air show at Curtiss Field near Manhattan in 1922. She afterward took part in many more shows while touring the country, and her daredevil stunts earned her the nickname "Brave Bessie." She was killed during a test flight on April 30, 1926, at Jacksonville, Florida. She is buried in Lincoln Cemetery at Chicago. A Chicago street is named Bessie Coleman Drive, and a United States commemorative stamp in her honor was issued in 1995.

[Shakey Jake]

Harlingen, Texas 1939 hamburger stand "Boo Koo". Look at those prices! 25 cents for ham and eggs, chili is 10 cents and oh, my the REAL 7 Up (I hate that fake stuff)! Looks like they had a good business.

[Shakey Jake]

Between June 17 and June 28, 1899, rainfall averaging 8.9 inches fell over 66,000 square miles, causing the Brazos River to overflow its banks and inundate an estimated 12,000 square miles. Damage to property was estimated at more than $9 million and 284 persons were known to have perished in the floodwaters; thousands of others were left homeless. The flood's highest recorded stage was at Hearne, where, as at many points, the waters rose above all available flood gauges. Here's a portion of recorded rescue efforts after the flood. The entire reading can be found here:

http://lifeonthebrazosriver.com/FloodDu ... ly1899.htm

"The morning of July 9 found the crews assembled at Sandy Point, the Chase and Woolford crews having reported there from a plantation house, where they had slept, after landing on high ground some 100 persons, mostly colored. The three crews numbered 18 half famished men, and Mrs. Martin, the mistress of the house, proved to be entirely unable to furnish them with the necessary morning meal. Superintendent Hatchings, however, finally secured of the relief committee a sack of flour and a quantity of pork, which, with coffee and molasses, had to suffice for the preparation of the breakfast. As soon as the plain repast was finished, the current day's work began. Reports had come in stating that within a radins of 10 miles there were several large plantations isolated and with hundreds of people in dire distress. Few preparations were required to make the boats ready, and all of them were soon under way, each carrying as a pilot a citizen of Sandy Point who was well acquainted with the country thereabouts.

By 12 o'clock the surf boat had landed 54 persons, all of whom were colored, and the most of them women and children. By sundown 27 more had been gathered up—all from the larger houses and plantations. During this day's operations the surfboat was in charge of Keeper White, Keeper Haines being obliged to remain idle on account of his hands being disabled. The Chase and Woolford boats rescued 50 persons necessarily left in a rather insecure place the night before, and in addition to these 85 others, taken from various inundated places, making a total of over 200 persons rescued on the 9th of July. The night was passed by all three boat crews at Sandy Point."

[Shakey Jake]

On a personal note my wife gave me a book I've been looking to acquire for quite some time. The local library has it but only in the reference room only. I don't know how much she paid for it but it's a great Father's day gift. It was signed by the author on page inside but the script is old and faded. I can read the bottom where it was signed December 25, 1950. It also has the author's script on a blank page next to the first chapter depicted in the photo below. I've already red the first two chapters and it is an interesting read for sure.
Jake

[Shakey Jake]

"Every man was theoretically a king. Everything about him, including his right to breath, was peculiarly his own. His life was of no concern to the organized community. No matter how many men might be milling about him they were all free individuals just like himself. It was his right to shoot them dead if he they annoyed him. But the drawback to this was that it was their right to shoot him first if they were quick enough." R Casey writing of El Paso in 1852.

Today's T of T entry:

The Lively, a thirty-ton schooner operating from New Orleans to Galveston, was fitted out with supplies for a colony of 300 families by Stephen F. Austin and his partner, Joseph H. Hawkins of New Orleans. In late 1821 the ship sailed from New Orleans with approximately twenty colonists, including William W. Little, who was in charge of the group, and W. S. Lewis, who later left an account of the voyage. Bad weather blew the ship off course, and it took some four weeks to reach its destination. The immigrants had arranged to meet Austin, who had traveled overland from New Orleans, at the mouth of the Colorado but, mistaking the Brazos River for the Colorado, landed there instead. The men eventually made their way up the Brazos to higher ground and built a large log house near a small waterfall. With their food virtually exhausted, they planted a corn crop, but, failing to meet up with the other Austin colonists, they grew discouraged, and all but two or three eventually made their way back to the United States.

Austin in the meantime waited for the ship at the mouth of the Colorado, and when it failed to appear, assumed it had been lost. The lack of contact between the Lively and the other Austin colonists gave rise to a variety of rumors, ranging from the idea that all had been lost when the ship went down to tales that the passengers and crew had been starved by Indians. Some of the passengers eventually made their way back to Texas and told what had really happened, but the story of the shipwreck and the loss of its passengers, which had quickly spread to other colonies, persisted for many years and eventually found its way into some of the first published histories of the state.

After dropping off its passengers and supplies, the Lively sailed back to New Orleans. There it took on new supplies and immigrants and sailed for the Texas coast in May or June 1822. This time it was wrecked, on the western end of Galveston Island. Because of the widespread rumors concerning the first voyage, it was again assumed that the passengers were lost, but according to Thomas Marshall Duke, who was on board during the second voyage, they were rescued by the schooner John Motely, which landed them near the Colorado River.

[Shakey Jake]

On this day in 1874, R. P. "Scrap" Taylor and two others were lynched at Clinton, Texas. The incident was part of the notorious Sutton-Taylor feud, which grew out of violent Reconstruction-era politics. The Suttons were allied with the Reconstruction authorities, particularly the State Police, while the Taylors opposed them. The family fight began in earnest when Bill Sutton killed William "Buck" Taylor on Christmas Eve 1868. It subsequently developed into the longest and bloodiest feud in Texas history. The Sutton–Taylor feud began as a county law enforcement issue between relatives of a Texas state law agent, Creed Taylor, and a local law enforcement officer, William Sutton, in DeWitt County, Texas. The feud cost at least 35 lives and eventually included the outlaw John Wesley Hardin as one of its participants. It began in March 1868, not reaching its conclusion until the Texas Rangers put a stop to the fighting in December 1876. Texas Ranger, Captain Jesse Lee Hall led a posse that ended with the killing of Jim Taylor and two companions by a Cuero posse on December 27, 1875. On Sept 16, 1876, Dr Phillip H. Brassell and his son, George, were killed by the Suttons. Following the resultant outbreak of violence in October 1876, Texas Ranger, Captain Jesse Lee Hall led a force into Cuero, Texas, to break up the feud for good. By January 1877, he and his supporting troop had put an end to the conflict once and for all. Other Reconstruction-era feuds included the Earl-Hasley feud in Bell County and the Lee-Peacock feud in the Grayson-Fannin County area.

[Shakey Jake]

Per T of T Facebook Group:
The first time an American Indian chief was put on trial in the United States, the case was heard in Jack County in 1871, when Kiowa chief Satanta (pictured) went before a jury on a murder charge. Satanta, a legendary fighter, was also a politician who negotiated treaties with the white man. But in 1871 he led a group in an attack on a wagon train west of Jacksboro. Seven men were killed.
He was captured, tried, found guilty, and sentenced to be hanged until, as court documents show, he was "dead, dead, dead." Governor Edmund Davis, hoping to keep the peace with the Kiowas, commuted the sentence to life in prison., then paroled him after two years in Huntsville. However, Satanta was subsequently arrested after taking part in the second Battle of Adobe Walls and returned to Huntsville. In 1878 he threw himself from a prison window and died. 100 years later, Larry McMurtry would model the character "Blue Duck" in "Lonesome Dove" after him.

[Shakey Jake]

Blue Duck was mentioned in the article above and got me to thinking that Blue Duck was one of the outlaws that ran with Belle Star. He was a considered one of her suitors at one time. So, Blue Duck, in Lonesome Dove, may have just as well been Blue Duck. I guess McMurtry only knows but I'm not going guessing. Here's the Wiki article:
Blue Duck was born in the Cherokee Nation, with the name of Sha-con-gah. By the early 1870s he was riding with gangs across the Oklahoma Territory committing armed robberies and acts of cattle rustling. Blue Duck became romantically involved with Belle Starr during that time. When she married outlaw Sam Starr, she and her husband formed their own gang, which Blue Duck joined. He is believed to have ridden with the gang through most of the latter part of the 1870s, although his involvement with them was off and on.

On June 23, 1884, while riding drunk in the Flint District of the Cherokee Nation, and in the company of outlaw William Christie, the two men came upon a farmer named Samuel Wyrick. For no apparent reason, the two outlaws opened fire on the farmer, emptying their revolvers into him and killing him. They then reloaded and fired on a young Cherokee boy who had witnessed the murder, missing him but shooting his horse from beneath him. Both Blue Duck and Christie were captured by Deputy US Marshal Frank Cochran, and taken before Judge Isaac Parker, known as the "Hanging Judge", in Fort Smith, Arkansas.

Both were convicted, although Christie was later cleared of the charge and released. Blue Duck was sentenced to hang, but later his sentence was reduced to life in prison. He was sent to Menard Penitentiary in Chester, Illinois, as Inmate #2486. Blue Duck was assisted in an unsuccessful appeal by Belle Starr. In 1895, when he was diagnosed with tuberculosis and given only a short time to live, he was granted a pardon and released. He died shortly thereafter in Catoosa, Oklahoma, where he is buried.

[Shakey Jake]

On this day in 1931, Texas native Wiley Post and Harold Gatty took off in an attempt to fly around the world. Post, born at Corinth in Van Zandt County, was one of the best-known fliers in the world. He and Gatty circled the globe in 8 days, 15 hours, and 51 minutes. Their route passed through the northern latitudes and was some 15,000 miles long. Two years later, Post beat his earlier time by more than twenty-one hours. He is most famous, however, for piloting the plane in which he and humorist Will Rogers died at Point Barrow, Alaska, on August 15, 1935.