Traces of Tx (today)

[Shakey Jake]

On this day in 1934, town builder Asa (Ace) Borger was shot to death in the Hutchinson County town that bore his name. Borger was shot by Hutchinson county treasurer Arthur Huey, who was upset with Borger over the failure of the Borger State Bank and for failing to post his bail when he was arrested on an embezzlement charge. Huey also wounded another man, who died five days later. At his trial Huey claimed that he had shot in self-defense, arguing that Borger was gunning for him. The jury believed him and acquitted him. Three years later, however, he was sent to the state penitentiary for theft of county funds. Borger was born in Missouri in 1888 and successfully promoted several boomtowns in Oklahoma as a young man. In 1926 he purchased 240 acres in the Panhandle and organized the Borger Townsite Company. The company began selling lots in the town of Borger in March of that year and grossed between $60,000 and $100,000 on the first day. After six months Borger sold out completely, for more than a million dollars. The two-story dream house he built in 1929 was the first brick residence in Borger and is now a Texas historical landmark.

[Shakey Jake]

On this day in 1863, Maj. Santos Benavides, the highest-ranking Mexican American to serve in the Confederacy, led seventy-nine men of the predominantly Tejano Thirty-third Texas Cavalry across the Rio Grande in pursuit of the bandit Octaviano Zapata. Union agents had recruited Zapata, a former associate of Juan N. Cortina, to lead raids into Texas and thus force Confederate troops to remain in the Rio Grande valley rather than participate in military campaigns in the east. Zapata was also associated with Edmund J. Davis, who was conducting Northern-sponsored military activities in the vicinity of Brownsville and Matamoros. For these reasons, and because his men often flew the American flag during their raids, Zapata's band was often referred to as the "First Regiment of Union Troops." Benavides caught up with Zapata on September 2 near Mier, Tamaulipas. After a brief exchange of gunfire, the Zapatistas dispersed, leaving ten men dead, including Zapata. Benavides later defended Laredo against Davis's First Texas Cavalry, and arranged for the safe passage of Texas cotton to Matamoros during the Union occupation of Brownsville. He died at his Laredo home in 1891.

[Shakey Jake]

Sorry for the hiatus but I've been ill the past few days. Here's today's entry courtesy of TSHA:
On this day in 1836, Sam Houston, the victor of San Jacinto, was elected president of the newly founded Republic of Texas. Candidates for the office had included Henry Smith, governor of the provisional government, and Stephen F. Austin. Houston became an active candidate just eleven days before the election. He received 5,119 votes, Smith 743, and Austin 587. Mirabeau B. Lamar, the "keenest blade" at San Jacinto, was elected vice president. Houston received strong support from the army and from those who believed that his election would ensure internal stability, hasten recognition by world powers, and bring about early annexation to the United States. He served two terms as president of the republic and was subsequently a United States senator and governor of the state of Texas.

[Shakey Jake]

The Jaybird-Woodpecker War was a feud between two political factions for the control of Fort Bend County. The Jaybirds, representing the wealth and about 90 percent of the White. On this day in 1888, white members of a political association known as the Jaybirds held a mass meeting in Richmond, Texas, and ordered Charles Ferguson and several other black political leaders to leave Fort Bend County within ten hours. The population were the regular Democrats who sought to rid the county of the Republican government that had gained control during Reconstruction. The Woodpeckers, numbering about forty persons and also claiming to be Democrats, were the officials and former officials who held office as a result of the Black vote for the Republican ticket. Former friends, neighbors, and relatives became bitter enemies as a result of the feud.

The election of 1888 engendered much bitterness. Serious altercations occurred between rival candidates. On August 2, 1888, J. M. Shamblin, Jaybird leader, was killed. In September Henry Frost, another Jaybird leader, was seriously wounded. The Jaybirds held a mass meeting at Richmond on September 6 and resolved to warn certain Black people to leave the county within ten hours. They did so. Members of both factions were armed, and Texas Rangers were stationed in Richmond. The heaviest vote in the history of the county was polled on election day, which passed peacefully. Again the Democrats were defeated and the Woodpeckers left in control. After the election the breach between the factions widened. There were insults, assaults, threats, and denunciations-and two more killings. Kyle Terry, Woodpecker tax assessor, killed L. E. Gibson at Wharton on June 21, 1889; a week later Terry was killed by Volney Gibson. The county became an armed camp, and the "Battle of Richmond," on August 16, 1889, became inevitable.

An exchange of shots between J. W. Parker and W. T. Wade of the Woodpeckers and Guilf and Volney Gibson of the Jaybirds was the signal for the beginning of the battle. Most of the action took place around the courthouse, the National Hotel, and the McFarlane residence. After about twenty minutes of exchange of shots, the Woodpecker combatants retreated to the courthouse and left the Jaybirds in possession of the town. The casualties were heavy. Jaybirds from all parts of the county hurried to Richmond in anticipation of further hostilities, but there was no renewal of the conflict. The Houston Light Guards arrived to establish martial law, and Governor Lawrence S. Ross and the Brenham Light Guards arrived on August 17. Governor Ross remained in Richmond several days to act as mediator. A complete reorganization of county government resulted in the removal or resignation of all Woodpecker officials and the selection of Jaybirds or persons acceptable to the Jaybirds to fill the offices. After a turbulent era of more than twenty years, the White citizenry once more controlled the government.

A mass meeting was held at Richmond on October 3, 1889, to form a permanent organization to maintain White control. It passed a resolution to appoint a committee to draft a constitution for an association of the White people of Fort Bend County to control county affairs. A second meeting on October 22, 1899, organized the Jaybird Democratic Organization of Fort Bend County. Four hundred and forty-one White men signed the membership roll. The organization played the dominant role in Fort Bend County politics for the next seventy years.

[Shakey Jake]

Today's entry source is the T of T Facebook group:
Traces of Texas reader Steven Hall was nice enough to send in this photo of his great great great grandfather, Kinchen T. Sanders (which is a great Texas name, by the way), who was murdered in Dublin, Texas in 1934, and the article from the Dublin newspaper of the events of that day. Says Steven: "Here is the story and picture of my Great Great Grandfather, Kinchen T Sanders, and the news article about his murder in Dublin, Texas on 11-11-1934. The date of Kinchen's death is also the birthday of my Great Grandfather LD Sanders. The article doesn't mention why Kinchen was murdered, but the family rumor is that he was messing around with another man’s wife. My grandmother says that my great great grandfather had 6 kids and the the gentleman’s wife he was supposedly messing with had 7 kids. My grandmother always had a suspicion about the 7th child being one of my great great grandfather's children. Kinchen T. Sanders was born in 1876."
I read Steven's note and pondered the notion that there's nothing new under the sun: men, women, sex, fooling around ---- it's the same old story again and again. The names change and societal norms change but the story is an ancient, seemingly elemental one.
Thank you, Steven. RIP Kinchen T. Sanders!

[Shakey Jake]

Harbor City, a real estate promoter's dream that never quite materialized, was laid out on Corpus Christi Bay at the southeastern tip of Live Oak Peninsula in San Patricio County, around the time that the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway was built to Aransas Pass in 1887. The town plat on file at the courthouse in Sinton shows a beautiful, terraced shoreline, with Ocean Drive to be run from the development all the way to Portland, twelve miles away. In the 1890s the developers built the Ingleside Inn, sometimes called Harbor Inn, as the showpiece of their proposed city. Though economic conditions caused the development to fail, the Harbor Inn operated off and on until the mid-1920s, when it was torn down. During the hotel's heyday the boat Japonica called there daily, bringing guests from Corpus Christi. The Japonica continued to Rockport and called again at Harbor Inn in the late afternoon to pick up people wishing to return to Corpus Christi. The last operator of the hotel was Jimmy Holmes. A post office with Horace E. Brown as postmaster was established there in 1913; it was discontinued and moved to Ingleside in 1917. Harbor City reported a population of forty in 1914. It became Port Ingleside in August 1926, but the Harbor City name continues to be used on area maps. Below is an anonymous quote from early Texas days:
"Oh what mulish animals are mules! Many of these silly brutes, when they get their feet into sticky mud over the hoof, conclude they are mired and immediately fall down; and even when lifted up again they will not stand, but quietly permit themselves to be dragged out of the mud by the ears or the tail; and even then, it is sometimes necessary to strangle them to make them get up."

[Shakey Jake]

A little late posting today. This comes from the Traces Facebook Group. It's an interesting story that's taken 80 years to come full circle:

On August 1, 1943, the B-24 Liberator bomber in which Elton Gomillion, 22, of Iola, Texas was flying crashed in Romania. Via DNA testing, his remains were found and accounted for March 30, 2023. This past Thursday, he was brought to the Nobles Funeral Home in Navasota. On Sept 14, a full military funeral will be held in Iola, complete with 21-gun salute and an airplane flyover. And after 80 years in a Romanian cemetery, Elton Gomillion will be home.
According to information from the U.S. Army, on Aug. 1, 1943, the B-24 Liberator bomber on which Gomillion was the engineer was hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire and crashed during Operation TIDAL WAVE, the largest bombing mission against the oil fields and refineries at Ploiesti, north of Bucharest, Romania. His remains were not identified following the war. The remains that could not be identified were buried as Unknowns in the Hero Section of the Civilian and Military Cemetery of Boloven, Ploiesti, Prahova, Romania.
RIP Elton Gomillion, and welcome home, soldier!

I hope there are family still around to attend the funeral.
Jake

[Shakey Jake]

Just got the news that Charlie Robison has died of an apparent heart attack at the age of 59.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/le ... 2c772&ei=8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg1pYtoWL6c
Jake

[Shakey Jake]

Here's another one from the archives of T of T Facebook group:
On the southeast edge of Houston's Hermann Park stands a statue of this man, Dick Dowling. The statue was erected in 1905 and was Houston's first publicly-financed art work. The man to whom it is dedicated, Major Richard William (Dick) Dowling, passed away at the age of 30, having already lived an amazing life.
Dowling was born in Tuam, County Galway, Ireland, in 1837. His family fled the Irish Potato Famine and resettled in New Orleans, but yellow fever took its toll, killing most of them. As a young man, Dowling made his way to Houston and acquired a reputation as a businessman. He ran a series of saloons and a Galveston-based liquor importing business.
With the outbreak of the Civil War, Dowling enlisted as a lieutenant in the Jefferson Davis Guards. The unit saw some action, its main contribution to the Confederacy being the 1863 recapture of Galveston and the routing of a Union invasion force at the Battle of Sabine Pass. He was hailed as a war hero in Houston, and the end of the war saw him resume his successful business career. In 1865 he opened his most famous bar, "The Bank of Bacchus." In 1866 he formed the first oil company in Houston and by 1867 he owned more than 22 square blocks of downtown Houston and vast tracts of lands across Texas. Yellow fever took his life in 1867. He is buried in Houston's St. Vincent Cemetery.
He was commemorated by the City Fathers through the naming of Dowling and Tuam Streets, and by the Dick Dowling statue. This photo is one of only two known photos of him, and comes from the Lawrence T. Jones III collection at SMU's Degolyer Library.

[Shakey Jake]

On this day in 1866, the first producing oil well in Texas came in at a depth of 106 feet at Oil Springs in Nacogdoches County. The Melrose Petroleum Oil Company, which had been organized in December 1865 by Lyne Taliaferro (Tol) Barret and four partners, began drilling in the summer of 1866. Taliaferro, a Nacogdoches County merchant born in Virginia in 1832, had first contracted to lease 279 acres near Oil Springs in 1859, but the Civil War put a temporary halt to his exploration. The first well produced about ten barrels a day, but the low price of oil and the political unrest accompanying Reconstruction made the development of the field unfeasible. Barret suffered extensive financial losses and returned to the mercantile business in Melrose. Later he saw the field developed with an oil boom in 1887. Barret died in 1913. Though he received little acclaim during his lifetime, in 1966 memorial markers were dedicated at his grave in Melrose and at Stephen F. Austin State University to mark the 100th anniversary of the drilling of the first producing oil well in Texas.