Traces of Tx (today)

[Shakey Jake]

Merle Haggard once held the Guinness World Record for buying the largest round of drinks ever bought by one person – and it’s a record that stood for more than three decades.
He set the record at Billy Bob’s Texas (Fort Worth) back in 1983 when he ordered 5,095 “C.C. Waterbacks,” a shot of Canadian Club whiskey with a water chaser, for patrons at the bar. Merle bought the shots in honor of his 28th hit song, “C.C. Waterback,” from his 1982 duets album with George Jones, A Taste of Yesterday's Wine".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJSiv1ZPUz4

[Shakey Jake]

In Houston and surrounding areas we have a saying whenever someone asks directions: "You can't get there from here." Maybe this picture is self-explanatory. This is the Katy Freeway (Interstate 10) for those not familiar with the local road monikers:

This is the world’s widest freeway. On Katy Freeway in Houston, Texas, consisting of 26 lanes:
The freeway is broken down in to 12 main lanes, eight feeder lanes and six managed lanes.
The managed lanes carry mass transit vehicles during peak hours and are only made available to single-occupancy vehicles for a toll-fee during odd-peak hours.

[Shakey Jake]

From the Traces of TX facebook group:
Traces of Texas reader Chino Chapa graciously sent in this dynamite historical photo of former Erath County farmer-turned-train robber Rube Burrow in his coffin, propped up against a train, in October, 1890. Chino included this super interesting history behind this photo:
"Burrow moved from Alabama to Texas in 1872, when he was 18, to farm with his uncle in Stephenville. Story goes he was intent on working hard and living right, which he did initially, saving enough money to secure some land, get married, and have children. He farmed in Stephenville until 1880, when his wife died, leaving him a widowed father of two at 25.
In 1884, he remarried and moved to Alexander, Texas. But when his crops failed two years in a row during a drought and his second marriage ended, he became bitter and turned to crime, robbing trains with his younger brother, Jim. His first robbery was a FW&D train near Bellevue, Texas, on December 11, 1886. His next hold-ups were T&P trains in Gordon, Texas, and Benbrook, Texas, in 1887. From there his life of crime escalated as he and his gang robbed trains from Arkansas to Alabama.
When he killed a conductor and a passenger, he became despised by the railroads & the target of one of the most widespread manhunts in American history for the next few years. Eluding authorities for almost 5 years, Burrow was captured by two black men, Jesse Hildreth and Frank Marshall, with the help of two white planters, John McDuffie and Jeff "Dixie" Carter, in Myrtlewood, Alabama on October 7, 1890.
Former slaves Hildreth and Marshall jumped Burrow and held him for McDuffie and Carter. Rube offered Hildreth $100 to let him go, but Hildreth said, "I couldn't use it then, 'cuz you'd kill me first," All four captors took Burrow, known as a charmer, to jail in Linden, Alabama, with Burrow entertaining them all the way with funny stories.
While in jail the next morning of October 8, 1890, Burrow complained of hunger and talked his jailers into handing him his bag, which had ginger snaps inside. It also contained a gun and Burrow whipped it out and held it at the head of one of the guards. He thought he'd escaped, locking two guards in his cell and taking another as hostage to get back the stolen money taken from him. However when Burrow went outside, Dixie Carter was again waiting for him and a gun fight erupted. Afterwards, Burrow lay dead in the street.
Burrow’s body was shipped by train back to Lamar County, Alabama, where he grew up. At a transfer connection stop in Birmingham, this photo was taken before the beginning of a publicized public display. Thousands showed up to walk past & view the corpse, some snatching buttons from his coat, cutting hair from his head and even stealing the boots off his feet. His guns, however, were removed before the event for safe keeping.
Burrow's father Allen met the train at its final destination, Vernon, Alabama, where train attendants threw the coffin at his feet. He took his son's body back to his home and buried him. Moral of the story, kids: Don't grow up to be train robbers."
THAT, dear readers, is how you do a history post! Thank you, Chino. An astounding shot, indeed.

[Shakey Jake]

On this date in 1871, Britton Johnson was killed by a band of Kiowas who attacked his wagon train. He had become legendary in the previous decade for pursuing Indians who kidnapped his wife and children. After his adventures on the Llano Estacado, Johnson worked as a teamster hauling goods between Weatherford and Fort Griffin. The evidence of spent cartridges suggests that he defended himself fiercely before dying. He and his men were buried in a common grave beside the road. For a more on this story: https://truewestmagazine.com/article/britt-johnson/

[Shakey Jake]

Just realized some of you may not want to read the article because of the "sign up, so I've posted it here. (Shhh....don't tell anyone)
From True West Magazine:
The drama began on October 13th, when a Kiowa and Comanche war party of several hundred swept down to where Elm Creek joins the Brazos River, about 10 miles above Ft. Belknap, Texas. The soldiers had been called away from the area and the fort abandoned. Many of the men from the settlements were away at the time of the raid.
Although they were legally slaves, the Johnson family been allowed to live as free people. They’d been inherited and then set free by a Texan named Allan Johnson, who abhorred slavery.
As the foray continued the valiant women grabbed guns and fired while the children re-loaded the rifles and pistols. One woman, Susan Durgan was cut down, her body stripped and mutilated. As the warriors overwhelmed the defenders and swept into the Johnson house, two of them got into an argument over who captured Johnson’s oldest boy. Custom dictated that to avoid contention among the warriors the issue was settled by killing the youngster. They threw the rest, including Mary Johnson, Elizabeth Fitzpatrick and the captive children on the backs of their horses and rode off.
Other settlers managed to save themselves from the raiders by hiding in caves on the banks of the Brazos, or in the brush thickets. One, Doc Wilson made a run for it, but an arrow struck him in the heart. He called out to his friend, “Hamby, I am dead.” Then he jerked the arrow out of his breast and fell to the ground mortally wounded.
The Comanche, responding to commands by their bugler, charged attacked home after home. When their chief, Little Buffalo was hit, the bugler mournfully sounded retreat and the warriors withdrew.
It was a classic Texas Indian raid; a lightning-quick surprise attack on the settlements, take captives and booty and return to their sanctuaries on the Llano Estacado. The settlers defended themselves as best they could, either by heroism or flight. As often happened in the real West, the cavalry didn’t arrive in time.
Afterwards, eleven bodies were found and buried. Eleven houses had been destroyed and several women and children carried off.
Britt Johnson arrived back from Weatherford to find his son dead and buried; his wife and two children missing. Mournfully, he waited until spring then he set out to get his family back. The settlers took up a collection to help finance his one-man expedition. He took a packhorse, rifle, two six-guns, some food and blankets and rode for the Wichita River, some 60 miles away.
Along the way he met a lone Comanche and speaking in Spanish made “peace.” The black man was not unfamiliar to some of the Comanche language. He learned the Comanche had a white woman and the Kiowa, some blacks.
Soon, more warriors arrived with stolen horses which Johnson recognized from the recent raid. He knew his family couldn’t be far away. Again he had a peace parley.
He rode with them for a few weeks and was able to persuade them to help him find and ransom his family and the other captives.
In a Comanche camp he found Elizabeth Fitzpatrick and learned from her that some 20 warriors had died in the Elm Creek Fight and her son, 12, had been killed after he became ill and couldn’t keep up with the party. She begged him to pay the ransom no matter what the cost.
Johnson made several more trips into Indian Country before the Kiowa finally agreed to ransom his family in 1865. In this venture he was assisted by his Comanche friends who advised him of the trading tricks of the wily Kiowa.
In time all the captives were ransomed and returned to their families except for little Millie Durgan, whose mother had been slain in the Elm Creek raid. She’d been adopted into a chief’s family and wasn’t for sale.
Millie remained with the Comanche for the rest of her life. She was too little to remember her white blood and background and all her life was held in high esteem by her tribe. She married happily and years later when she was found living on a reservation in Oklahoma. When the governor of Texas asked what the state might do for her, she said “Nothing.”
She died in Oklahoma in 1934.
Johnson was not harmed by the Comanches as he rode alone in their country. Some say they left him alone because he was a man of color. Others say they admired his courage.
Fate was less kind to Britt Johnson, the courageous black man who had ridden alone into the heart of hostile country many times in an attempt to rescue his family.
His dauntless courage had won him great respect on the Texas frontier and with three black partners, started a successful freighting business between Weatherford and Fort Griffin. But in 1871, ten miles east of old Fort Belknap, a Kiowa war party attacked their wagon train killed them all.
Britt Johnson demonstrated the highest ideals in frontier spirit. Disregarding his own safety, he was willing to risk his own life to rescue others.

[Shakey Jake]

Todays' Traces comes from our bad weather yesterday. It is thought there were a minimum of seven tornados in our area. Here's a picture of the Pasadena (E. Houston region) animal shelter and a nearby apartment complex.
Jake

[Shakey Jake]

From Traces of Texas Facebook group:
On August 27, 2021 the gun that John Selman used to kill notorious gunslinger John Wesley Hardin (shown here) sold at auction for $858,312.50. I'm actually surprised it wasn't more. Question for those who know more than I do: could you fire this pistol without hurting it? Would doing so devalue it in any way?
A brief recap for those unfamiliar with the story:
Constable John Selman led a long and varied life as both a lawman and an outlaw, but will most famously be remembered as the man who killed John Wesley Hardin. Selman served in the 22nd Texas regiment in the Civil War but faced charges of desertion. During the Lincoln County Wars, he was the leader of "Selman's Scouts," also known as the "Rustlers," for which exploits he was captured by Texas Ranger Joe McKidrict and jailed to stand trial. He escaped and fled to Mexico, returning to the U.S. in 1888 in El Paso. By 1892, he was elected constable, and served a short but tumultuous four years. On April 5, 1894, he killed the famed but unstable Texas Ranger Baz Outlaw, after a drunken Outlaw shot Joe McKidrict.
On August 19, 1895, inside the Acme Saloon, Selman used his "remarkably good judgement" when he shot John Wesley Hardin in the back of the head with this Colt Single Action serial number, 141805, taken into evidence as Exhibit A during the resulting trial. The killing ended the career of one of the West's most dangerous gunfighters, and immortalized Selman, forever after referred to as "the killer of John Wesley Hardin."
On April 6, 1896, just about two years to the day he had killed Outlaw, he got into an argument with Texas Ranger George Scarborough, the same Scarborough Hardin had drunkenly declared as the hired killer of Martin Mrose. According to Scarborough at trial, Selman had asked him to help break his son out of jail across the Mexican border. When Scarborough refused to head back in to drink on it, Selman, not renowned for his quickness, had pulled his gun. Scarborough shot him dead before he could get off a shot.

[Shakey Jake]

Here's a fine picture! It was taken by Basil Clemons April 17, 1926, noted as a "Booster Parade, Breckenridge, Texas. A race car carries a sign reading "Keep boosting, Breckenridge Music Shop, 325 W. Walker." A man dressed as a cowboy sits on the back of the car. Another sign on the back of the car reads "We're pitching for business." I don't know what the building is in the background but it sure was fancy for the day. I hope that's a smooth road ahead or that is a padded saddle!
Source: UTA digital library

[Shakey Jake]

From Traces of Texas facebook group:
Comfort, Texas (in Kendall County) was the sight of an amusing event in 1856. At that time the town had a cannon that was to be fired only in the event of an emergency, like a fire or an Indian attack. But on at least one occasion it was used for something quite different.
It seems that back in 1856 the little town of Comfort was preparing for its Fourth of July celebration and had ordered a wagon load of beer from the Menger Brewery in San Antonio. The wagon, unfortunately, arrived on July 2, two days early. At that time there was no cold storage in Comfort and the unpasteurized beer was basically a living organism just WAITING to spoil. Well, a wagon full of beer in such danger was judged by at least some of the Germans thereabouts to be a calamity of the first magnitude, so somebody fired the cannon, and everybody came running to the cannon, where they learned the true nature of the emergency.
Some of the citizens were miffed because, by strict definition, the firing of the cannon was a false alarm. But those voices were drowned out by (intoxicated?) voices of reason, who decided right there on the spot to celebrate the 4th of July on July 2nd. You've got to love that pragmatic way of thinking!
I was told this story several years ago by a man from Comfort. He was presented to me as somewhat of a local historian and told me this tale at a picnic. He was a tad inebriated, though, and I never knew whether it was true. But I received "A Treasury of Texas Trivia" by Bill Cannon, and this story is included. So apparently it IS true. And, if it isn't, it should be. The book is pretty good by the way. Lots of interesting tidbits.
Shown here: the corner of 8th and High Streets in downtown Comfort, 1904. These buildings still stand. Here's a current view:
https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A ... yIc8C06gAg

[Shakey Jake]

On this day in 1891, Fine Gilliland shot and killed Fort Davis cattleman Henry Harrison Powe during a roundup near Leoncita Springs in Brewster County. Gilliland had been sent by the firm of Dubois and Wentworth to make sure none of the local ranchers appropriated any of the company's cattle; he became embroiled in a dispute with Powe over an unbranded brindle yearling steer found without its mother. Powe believed that the steer belonged to a cow with his HHP brand, but Gilliland disagreed, and a gunfight ensued. Gilliland killed Powe and fled on horseback but was himself killed a few days later in a shootout with two Texas Rangers. Meanwhile, the cowboys branded "MURDER" on one side of the yearling and "JAN 28 91" on the other. Legend has it that the "murder steer" still appears whenever foul play has occurred; the incident also inspired an episode of the television series Rawhide and a ballad by Canadian folk singer Ian Tyson. You can take a listen here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DqxWiX0fnE