Traces of Tx (today)

[Shakey Jake]

Another fine photo from the UTA collection. It's just listed as "Cowboys and little girl eating at a chuck wagon after a days work on the SPUR RANCH.
The following excerpt is found on the TSHA webiste. The full article can be found here: https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/spur-ranch
I would say the photo was taken in the early 1930's.
The Espuela (Spur) Cattle Company, a Texas corporation headed by Alfred M. Britton and S. W. Lomax, was formed in 1883 to establish a ranch in the area east of the Southern High Plains. Later that year the company purchased from the New York and Texas Land Company 242,000 acres in four blocks of railroad lands located in Dickens, Kent, Garza, and Crosby counties in western Texas for $515,440. In 1884 the company reorganized under the corporation laws of Texas and became the Espuela Land and Cattle Company of Fort Worth with the same personnel as the old company. To the new company were transferred the holdings of the Espuela Cattle Company. Inasmuch as the state had retained title to every alternate section in the surveyed blocks of railroad land, and since these sections could be leased at low rates, the Spur range as finally fenced covered some 569,000 acres, including twenty sections of other public lands. Most of the cattle purchased to stock the range were bought from small ranchers who, no longer having access to what had been an "open" range, were forced to sell to the Espuela. In all, the company acquired sixty-one herds and their brands. Among the latter was the Spur, which gave the ranch its name.

[Shakey Jake]

On this day in 1929, Popeye, the Sailor Man, renowned comic-strip character, first appeared in print. The Victoria Advocate is credited as the first newspaper in the nation to run Elzie Crisler Segar's comic strip, originally called "Thimble Theatre," which starred the spinach-eating hero. Segar (1894-1938) was born in Chester, Illinois, and worked as a moving-picture machine operator, a house painter, and a photographer before his first cartoon effort was rejected by a St. Louis paper. Segar became a popular cartoonist in the 1920s. Popeye was probably inspired by Frank "Rocky" Feigle of Segar's hometown. By 1932 Popeye was the undisputed star of "Thimble Theatre," as evidenced in fan mail, toys, games, novelties, and jokes. Segar himself called the Victoria Advocate Popeye's "hometown." In gratitude he contributed a special cartoon for the Advocate's historic 1934 anniversary issue. Speaking to the newspaper's editor through Popeye, Segar wrote, "Please assept me hearties bes' wishes an' felitcitations on account of yer paper's 88th Anniversity....Victoria is me ol' home town on account of tha's where I got born'd at." Crystal City, Texas, also claims a special relationship to Popeye. The spinach industry credited Popeye and Segar with the 33 percent increase in spinach consumption from 1931 to 1936, and in 1937 Crystal City, the "Spinach Capital of the World," erected a statue to honor Segar and his sailor.
Source: TSHA Texas Day by Day

[Shakey Jake]

Here's one for you Tales of Wells Fargo fans. This picture comes from the archives of the UTA Library. It shows Dale Robertson at the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo. I met Dale as a child. There was a breeder of Appaloosa horses in my hometown (Jim Wild) that lived across the street from us. Dale was there looking to buy a horse. He didn't speak to my brother and I much but did say hello and asked if we liked horses. I found this article about Jim Wild on the internet:

Wapiti's breeding made him a Quarter Horse, but the long line of roan mares in his pedigree gave him his spots. His dam was a roan racing mare by the name of Cuadroon (spelled Quadroon in some records). She was sired by the Thoroughbred stallion Song Hit, a grandson of Man O' War.
Cuadroon's owner, Mary Peavy Stees, and her mother, Mavis Peavy, often swapped breedings between their horses. One cross resulted in a bay colt with a white blanket and dark peacock spots. This 1949 colt became one of their most famous foals.
Sold at the tender age of two, Wapiti worked cattle for Ike Anderson of Steamboat Springs, Colorado. When Jim Wild of Sarcoxie, Missouri, asked Cecil Dobbin of Peyton, Colorado, to help him find a stallion for his Appaloosa breeding program, Cecil purchased Wapiti. Wapiti arrived at Jim's Flying W Ranch on January 1, 1960, and quickly won his way into Jim's heart.
When Jim advertised Wapiti in Western Horseman, the bold stallion quickly drew attention to the Appaloosa breed. He placed in the top three at the National Show's get of sire class, in 1968 to 1970. Wapiti sired 218 registered foals who earned 268 performance points, 192 halter points, six bronze medallions, five registers of merit, one superior halter and two superior performance awards. He also sired many National and World champions.
Wapiti passed away due to cancer in 1979. The great stallion is buried at Flying W Ranch under a life-size statue of his likeness.

Anyway, Dale is pictured with Ingrid Goude whom I knew little of until I read the wiki article. (ed., Forgot to add the picture is from 1959)
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingrid_Goude)

[Shakey Jake]

I was an undergrad at TCU during this time. Oh, boy, was it turbulent time in Texas politics. It was also when I learned the expression "Never trust a lawyer or a politician." was true. From the TSHA Day by Day:
On this day in 1971, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed suit in federal court alleging stock fraud against a number of Texas state officials accused of making profitable, quick-turnover, bank-financed stock purchases in return for the passage of legislation desired by a financier, Houston businessman Frank W. Sharp. The political turmoil from the Sharpstown scandal resulted in a "reform" movement that eventually saw much of the legislature replaced. Reform laws passed in 1973 required state officials to disclose their sources of income, forced candidates to make public more details about their campaign finances, opened up most governmental records to citizen scrutiny, expanded the requirement for open meetings of governmental policy-making agencies, and imposed new disclosure regulations on paid lobbyists.
Pictured below is Gus Mutscher, Speaker of the Texas House, who received a five-year probated sentence for his role in the debacle.
(For more information on the "Dirty Thirty" check out this link: https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/ent ... rty-thirty)

[Shakey Jake]

Here's a bonus picture today of an early cattle drive. (as noted by the UTA digital library). There are no names or dates recorded with the picture but I would guess late 1800's. I also wonder what the photographer is standing on to get that angle. Perhaps a windmill? Who knows but it looks like he got them to pose for the picture. It's not the clearist of photography but it does have some fine nostalgic features to it.
Jake

[Shakey Jake]

On this day in 1839, Waterloo (soon to be renamed Austin) was approved as the new capital of the Republic of Texas. In 1836 Columbia (now West Columbia) had become the first capital of an elected government of the republic. It remained capital for three months. The city of Houston was then selected as a temporary capital until 1839. A capital-site commission selected a site near La Grange in 1838 and Congress passed a bill to build the capital there, but President Sam Houston vetoed it. Mirabeau B. Lamar, Houston's successor as president and a proponent of westward expansion, instructed the commission to inspect a site he had visited on the Colorado River. Impressed by its beauty, abundant natural resources, and central location, the commission purchased 7,735 acres comprising the hamlet of Waterloo and adjacent lands. Because the area's remoteness from population centers and its vulnerability to attacks by Mexican troops and Indians displeased many Texans, including Houston, political opposition made Austin's early years precarious ones. In 1842, during his second term as president, Houston ordered the government to return to the city of Houston, and issued an executive order making Washington-on-the-Brazos capital. The order spawned the Archive War. The Constitution of 1845 provided that Austin be capital until 1850, when a vote was required to choose the permanent capital. The city received majorities in that election and a subsequent election in 1872.
Source: TSHA Day by Day

[Shakey Jake]

Today's bonus picture was taken by Frank Reeves Jr on January 14, 1939 on the Matador Ranch in Hutchinson Co. Here's some extensive information on the ranch from the TSHA website. It's a fairly long article so read what you want of it.
Jake
MATADOR RANCH.The Matador Ranch, with its headquarters in Motley County, just below the Caprock on the rolling plains of northwest Texas, was started in the fall of 1878 when banker Alfred M. Britton entered a partnership with Henry H. (Hank) Campbell. Campbell purchased a small herd and range rights from Joe Browning, who in early 1878 had made his headquarters at an abandoned dugout at Ballard Springs in Motley County. The dugout had been built by a buffalo hunter named Andrew Jackson Ballard. Campbell's next purchase was 8,000 "jinglebob" cattle that had recently been brought into the region from the Pecos. Soon afterwards Spottswood W. Lomax and John W. Nichols of Fort Worth and a Mr. Cata of New York became associated with Britton and Campbell in financing the enterprise, which they reorganized as the Matador Cattle Company with capital stock of $50,000. The amount of stock suggested a brand, 50M, which was used one year and then replaced by the Matador V. Lomax, an enthusiast in Spanish literature, gave the ranch its name. On December 4, 1882, the Matador Cattle Company sold out to the Matador Land and Cattle Company of Dundee, Scotland. Approximately 100,000 acres of land and 40,000 cattle located in Motley, Dickens, Cottle, and Floyd counties were involved in the sale. However, before the property was formally transferred in early 1883, Britton and Campbell, the former retained as the company's manager and the latter as ranch superintendent, convinced the company's board of directors to purchase an additional 203,000 of acres lying within the range and to acquire 22,000 more cattle. After Campbell's resignation in 1891, the board assigned a new manager, Murdo Mackenzie, who adopted a program of grading up the herd and of sending steers to northern pastures for maturing. A severe drought in 1892 on the Matador range caused the company to lease the White Deer pasture of 348,000 acres in Carson County from Francklyn Land and Cattle Company. The lease was retained until 1902. That year the Matador purchased 210,000 acres of the XIT Ranch from the Capitol Freehold Land and Investment Company and established the Alamositas division of the ranch along the Canadian River in Oldham County, Texas. Subsequent purchases adjacent to Alamositas increased the size of the division to 800,000 acres. From 1904 until 1914 it leased 500,000 acres from the United States government on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation, a Sioux preserve in South Dakota, and another of 150,000 acres in Canada was leased from 1905 to 1921. The original ranch was enlarged by purchases, and by 1910 the company owned 861,000 acres in Texas and had 650,000 acres under lease in the two northern pastures. The company also leased 500,000 acres in northern Montana from 1913 to 1928 and 300,000 acres on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota from 1921 to 1926. Since 1910 the average number of cattle on hand has been 55,000.
Through the first quarter of the twentieth century the Matador used its ranch in Motley County as a breeding ground. Yearling steers were sent to Alamositas until they were two years old, then shipped to the northern leases for double-wintering, and then to markets in Chicago or Kansas City. By the 1930s the company restricted the major portion of its activities to the Texas ranches. Headquarters of the ranch in 1946 was at Denver, Colorado. On July 31, 1951, the ranch was sold to an American syndicate, Lazard Brothers and Company of London. Their property included 400,000 acres at the Matador Division, 395,000 at Alamositas, 4,600 acres in Montana, a herd of 1,400 horses, and 46,000 cattle. The Lazard Brothers divided the land and cattle among fifteen corporations they had formed. The various cattle corporations took over operations at different divisions of the ranch, and the Matador division went to ten of them. During the 1950s different individuals and groups bought the corporations and either started their own ranching operations or sold the land off to other ranchers. Fred Koch of Wichita, Kansas, purchased three of the corporations in the name of his Rock Island Oil and Refining Company, acquiring 105,000 acres of the Matador Division including the ranch headquarters. On October 3, 1952, Koch incorporated the Matador Cattle Company, and the headquarters of the Matador Ranch was located just south of the town of Matador. Matador Cattle Company was a subsidiary of Koch Industries, headed by Fred Koch. After his death in 1967 his sons, Charles and David, took over. In 1968 Sterling Varner was president of Matador Cattle Company, followed by Tom Carey in 1969 and Wes Stanford in 1975. In the early 1980s John Lincoln was president. The ranch is noted for its quail, dove, small deer, and, of course, fat cattle and nutritious grass. In 1960 the ranch launched a mesquite eradication program that accelerated in the 1970s, since the trees' extensive root systems continued to spread and absorb what little water was available to grow grass. Testifying to the wildness and toughness of the land, where cattle get lost in the Croton Breaks in adjoining Dickens County, ranch hands have found during several Matador roundups ten-year old animals that had never been branded.

[Shakey Jake]

My goodness! I've never seen Willie Nelson play another guitar rather than his old nylon string guitar. I guess this proves that he did, at least once. I came across this picture on the UTA digital libraries. It is annotated as being taken at Billy Bob's in Ft Worth 1991. Willie rockin' out on a Fender Strat! My whole world has a different perspective now!
Jake

[Shakey Jake]

From TSHA Day by Day:
On this day in 1944, the Thirty-sixth Infantry Division, nicknamed the "Texas Division," began its "two-day nightmare," the crossing of the Rapido River in Italy. General Mark Clark needed pressure on the German defensive line below Rome to prevent the Germans from counterattacking the projected Allied beachhead at Anzio. Further, an Allied breakthrough into the Liri valley would facilitate the march toward Rome. The Rapido’s swift current and muddy banks, together with the lack of adequate boats and bridging equipment, compounded the difficulties—not to mention the strong German defenses. The division suffered heavy casualties, including 143 killed, 663 wounded, and 875 missing. The division participated in the continuing Italian campaign, including the liberation of Rome, and went on to invade Southern France and advance into Germany.

(The picture below is from the UTA digital library. It was taken at Camp Bowie, Tx Dec.20, 1941)

[Shakey Jake]

January 21, 1877 (From TSHA TX Day by Day)
On this day in 1877, the Mason County courthouse burned, destroying all early county records, including those pertaining to the Mason County War. This deadly episode began as a feud over cattle rustling but grew into a conflict between the Anglo and German elements in the community. The violence began in February 1875, when a mob took five suspected cattle thieves from jail and killed three. Shortly thereafter, another suspected rustler was killed by twelve men with blackened faces, prompting his friend Scott Cooley, a former Texas Ranger, to seek revenge. Cooley and his men, including Johnny Ringo, killed at least a dozen men, whereupon Maj. John B. Jones and twenty or thirty Texas Rangers were sent to quiet the difficulties. Jones searched for Cooley and his followers without success before discovering that some of his rangers were former comrades-in-arms of Cooley. After Jones discharged them, Cooley fled into Blanco County and died a short time later. A few people were eventually arrested, but most of the cases were dismissed. After many months of violence, a strained peace returned to Mason County in the fall of 1876, but the courthouse fire ensured that many of the details of the Mason County War would remain unknown.
(Johnny Ringo pictured below)