Traces of Tx (today)

[Rifletom]

Priceless!^^^^^

[markiver54]

[Shakey Jake]

I didn't find anything too interesting to post today. I did come across this picture dated Christmas1946 from the Basil Clemons collection of a father and son. It looks like the little buckaroo had his six-shooter taken away from him though, or perhaps, he lost it.

[Shakey Jake]

On this day in 1849, frontier artist and military officer Capt. Seth Eastman and his companies established Camp Leona on the Leona River in southern Uvalde County. The outpost, which was soon renamed Fort Inge, was part of a federal line of forts in Texas. Army troops and Texas militia used the camp as a base while they provided protection for settlements and escorted supply trains and mail carriers. For most of its history Fort Inge operated as a one-company, fifty-man post. Notable officers through the years included captains John G. Walker and Edmund Kirby Smith, as well as William A. A. (Bigfoot) Wallace and his Texas Rangers. The presence of Fort Inge brought a greater sense of security to the Hill Country frontier, and by the late 1850s farmers had established the nearby community of Uvalde. Fort Inge was closed for federal service in 1869. Today Fort Inge County Park includes the site of the old outpost.

[Shakey Jake]

Samuel A. Maverick (1803-1870), a cattle owner who initially didn't brand his calves, is responsible for giving the word it's meaning. It's been written that Maverick a Yale graduate, mayor of San Antonio, and a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, went into the cattle business and didn't brand his initial stock herd. He branded his calves with the MK brand. Thereafter when a cowboy came upon and unbranded steer, he considered it to be Maverick's, or a maverick. More information about Maverick can be found here: https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/ent ... l-augustus

[Shakey Jake]

I poked around the UTA digital library and found another gem in the Basil Clemons collection. This one is from 1926 with the following caption:
Movie star "Ridin' Bob Roberts"; Nash Sport Roadster furnished by Baines-Kime Motor Company, Breckenridge, Texas. Movie star Ridin' Bob Roberts shaking hands with unidentified person. The sign on the automobile is advertising his presence in Breckenridge.

I didn't know if Art Mix was related to Tom Mix so I looked it up and they were not.

[Shakey Jake]

Today was hectic. Here's a snippet of history from the TSHA web portal:
On this day in 1883, pioneer Panhandle rancher Joe Morgan died of smallpox despite the heroic efforts of two of his cowboys. Little is known of Morgan's life before he arrived in Texas in 1877. He located his spread in Lipscomb County on a Canadian River tributary. Morgan was a charter member of the Panhandle Stock Association, organized in 1880, and served on the Wheeler County grand jury in 1882. By the summer of that year he was reported to have significantly increased his rangeland. Because of his triangle brand, his ranch became known locally as the Triangle. In March 1883 he and his two small sons came down with smallpox. Edward H. Brainard, who had been working at the Triangle for two months, rode thirty-five miles to Mobeetie for a doctor while another ranch hand, Frank Biggers, rode 150 miles to Fort Dodge, Kansas, trying to find a doctor there in time to save his employer's life. Though both doctors came, it was too late to save Joe Morgan. Brainard and another cowboy, John Dilly, drove Mrs. Morgan and the two boys to Fort Dodge with the doctor in hopes of saving them there. Six-month-old Johnny recovered, but his three-year-old brother died. Mrs. Morgan eventually sold the ranch to Henry W. Cresswell.

[Shakey Jake]

On this day in 1836, the Convention of 1836 adjourned in haste as the Mexican army approached Washington-on-the-Brazos. The convention, which met on March 1, drafted the Texas Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the Republic of Texas, organized the ad interim government, and named Sam Houston commander-in-chief of the republic's military forces before the delegates evacuated Washington-on-the-Brazos. Their hurried departure was part of the so-called Runaway Scrape, in which Texans fled the advancing troops of Antonio López de Santa Anna. Richmond was evacuated about April 1, and Houston's subsequent retreat toward the Sabine left all of the settlements between the Colorado and the Brazos unprotected. The settlers in that area at once began making their way toward Louisiana or Galveston Island. The section of East Texas around Nacogdoches and San Augustine was abandoned a little prior to April 13. The flight was marked by lack of preparation and by panic caused by fear both of the Mexican Army and of the Indians. The flight continued until news came of the victory in the battle of San Jacinto.

[Shakey Jake]

Here's another fine picture from the Basil Clemons collection hosted by the UTA digital library collection of South Bend, TX (1920's). Per Wikipedia:
The area was settled in the late 1890s. The first storekeeper in the vicinity was J.N. Smith, who named the community Arkansas. When a post office was established, the name had changed to South Bend, after its location at a bend on the Clear Fork of the Brazos River.[3] Oil discoveries in the 1920s led to a brief boom in the local economy. In 1929, an oil well drilled to 4,250 feet began flowing with 130 °F mineral water, leading to the development of Stovall Hot Wells health resort.[2] It remained in operation through 1994, when it was destroyed in a fire. South Bend had approximately 500 residents in 1940, but soon suffered the same post war decline felt by other rural communities. By 1990, the number of inhabitants had fallen to 100. That figure rose to around 140 in 2000.

[Shakey Jake]

100 years ago this year, in 1923, brothers Tom and James Papadakis opened James Coney Island hot dogs in Houston. The brothers, who were born in Kastelli Gravias, Greece, had immigrated to New York and eventually made their way to Houston. With just $75 in his pocket and a third grade education, Tom convinced his brother James to build their version of the Texas Dream. A coin flip decided which of the brothers would have their name affixed to the business. 100 years later, it takes any Houstonian about three seconds to name JCI as the best hot dogs in town. Happy 100th birthday, JCI!
Photo courtesy James Coney Island.