Traces of Tx (today)

[cooperhawk]

Mesilla is one of our favorite stops in NM. The old town remains and there are some really good food places
as well as interesting shops.

[Shakey Jake]

I came across this 1890s photo of Texas Rangers W.H. Putnam and Captain Phillips. Putnam and Phillips both proudly displaying Colt Single-Action Army revolvers and Winchester rifles. Specifically, Putnam holds a lever action Winchester Model 94 rifle and Phillips a Winchester Model 1873. I tried to find more information about the two but wasn't successful. I'll try again later when I have more time to devote to it.
Jake

[Shakey Jake]

On this day in 1845, the United States flag is said to have been raised on St. Joseph Island by United States troops. This was the first time the U.S. flag was flown in Texas. St. Joseph Island is a sand barrier island in Aransas County. The troops were part of a force under Gen. Zachary Taylor sent to protect Texas from Mexican interference after annexation. After the detachment landed on the island, the main force landed on August 1 and camped by a massive live oak tree at the site of present-day Rockport. The tree is now known as the Zachary Taylor Oak.

[Shakey Jake]

Traces of Texas reader Stan Watty generously shared this wonderful photo, taken somewhere in east Texas. Stan didn't say where this was, but I reckon it doesn't matter. One of those "only in Texas" photos.

[Shakey Jake]

I didn't find any more information on W. H. Putnam but did come across this:
James Mitchell "Jim" Putman (1859-1923) served as a Texas Ranger from 1890-1893 and afterwards continued to serve as a lawman.

Putman captured and killed murderer Fine Gilliland. He was there when Lon Oden killed Florencio Carrasco, who was wanted for murder and horse stealing. Oden and Putman arrested William D. Barbee, alias "Pecos Bill", for murder of two men.

In the last year of his life, Putman lived with his sister Angeline Putman and her husband H.C. Williams on their farm at Thelma, Texas. After getting cancer and suffering partial paralysis of one leg, Putman committed suicide by shooting himself in the head with a .32 pistol.

[Shakey Jake]

Per T of T Facebook Group:
Traces of Texas reader Hector Cardenas was so kind as to share this photo and is it ever a doozy! This is Cardenas Bicycle Repair shop in San Antonio back in 1912. It was located at 106 South Laredo Street, which Google Streetview now shows to be a parking lot. Look at the rims on the walls and the tires (I'm guessing) in the boxes. Fantastic details. The sign on the wall reads "Not responsible for goods left over 30 days."

https://www.bing.com/maps?osid=d5f721ca ... orm=S00027

[Shakey Jake]

Here's another submission to T of T Facebook Group. My, I can smell all that new leather now! My father was a supervisor of a shoe factory in Sarcoxie, Mo. They made Hitchhiker, Clinic (Nursing Shoes), and LazyBone brand shoes. They also made shoes for Florsheim for a while. I remember those times when he would take my brother and I to the factory with him and the smell of new leather would just hit you in the face. The neatest thing that the company would do is give kids of school age of their employees a new pair of shoes at the start of each school year. Businesses wouldn't even think about doing that these days. It's all about the dividend. They also had company softball teams, both men's and women's, who played teams from nearby towns. It really didn't matter who won to most. It was just entertainment since we didn't have all the media sources of today. Enough of my rambling. Here's the post:

Traces of Texas reader Arthur Wellborn remembered us by sending in this fantastic late 1800s photo of his great great grandfather's saddle shop in Snyder, Texas. His name was Pierce Mashborn Wellborn and the name of the shop was Wellborn and Sons Harness and Saddles. Can you imagine how good the interior of this place smelled?

Thank you, Arthur! Awesome!

[Shakey Jake]

Here's an entry from May of 2017 on the T of T Facebook group:
Traces of Texas reader Seth Stanford graciously shared this nice photo of himself on his Dun horse, "Carter," near Mitre Peak, west of Alpine. This was taken about a month ago when they were moving cattle to water. This photo was taken by Ann Weisman.

Thank you, Seth! I love this!

[Shakey Jake]

Today's entry from T of T is pretty long and sad, but a good read, I hope you enjoy it:
The Arcane Texas Fact of the Day:
YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE the story behind the photo below. If you go to the Evergreen Cemetery in Victoria, Texas you will find the grave of Margaret Borland, shown here in 1872. Margaret died on July 5, 1873. The inscription reads
Our Mama
Margaret Heffernan Borland
Born Apr. 3, 1824
Died July 5, 1873
Gone but not forgotten
There is nothing to indicate the remarkable life that Margaret Borland led. Margaret, you see, was the only woman in the history of the Old West to run her own cattle drive. She was one of the first cattle queens and, like so many of the tales I relate here, her life was one of triumphing over adversity. It would make a great Hollywood movie.
Let's start at the beginning. She was born in Ireland in 1824. When she was five years old, she and her parents sailed across the ocean to New York City. Her dad, a candle maker, found it hard to make ends meet there, so when a land agent told him about opportunities in Texas, he jumped. The government of Mexico was offering incentives as well to families that supplied their own tools and were able to sustain themselves for a year. If a family was able to do that the government would give a yoke of oxen, a cart, ten milking cows, and a league of land. In addition, the family was required to practice Catholicism and to speak Spanish for business purposes. Margaret was nine years old when she arrived in Texas.
Along with her family, Margaret was part of the McMullen-McGloin colony that settled around San Patricio. Her dad did pretty well as a cattleman/rancher for about three years. Then he died at the hands of Jose de Urrea's forces during the Texas revolution. another cousin, her uncle, his wife, and their five children were killed in the same attack. The surviving family fled to the fort at Goliad.
In August 1843, Margaret married a man named Harrison Dunbar. In the 1840 census, Harrison Dunbar was listed as having 30 head of cattle, which would have set Margaret up for the beginning of her own career in cattle. Margaret gave birth to their daughter Mary in 1844, but Harrison died shortly after her birth from wounds he received in a pistol duel. Margaret was only 20 years old.
in October 1845, Margaret was remarried to a man named Milton Hardy. In the same 1840 census that showed the cattle count for Margaret's first husband, the census showed her second husband had 2,912 acres of land, as well as having five additional lots in town. They had two children together in the following two years. Two girls, Eliza who did not survive infancy, and Julia. In 1852, Margaret gave birth to another healthy daughter named Rosa. That same year Milton contracted cholera during an epidemic that also killed their young son William, and he died on August 24. Milton had 1200 cattle at the time of his death.
Margaret marred for a third time to a man named Alexander Borland on February 11, 1856. In 1858, Alexander participated in Victoria's first annual live stock exhibition. By the 1860 census, the couple had amassed the largest herd of cattle in Victoria, a number of 8,000. They had four children together, 3 boys and a girl named Nellie. The Civil War gave the Borlands access to millions of cattle that were free roaming in Texas due to many ranchers leaving their farms to fight for the Confederate States Army. In 1867, the Borlands opened a store but Alexander was not well. Since he had the money, Alexander spent it to see a surgeon in New Orleans, LA hoping to receive the best medical care. Alexander never returned to Victoria, and died in New Orleans, leaving Margaret a widow yet again.
For Margaret, the tragedy did not stop there for her or her family. In the summer of the same year of Alexander's death, yellow fever was spreading across Texas. The town of Victoria was not spared during this time, and the first casualty for the family was Margaret's daughter Rosa, who was only 15 at the time of her death. Margaret's firstborn Mary was next and, shortly after Mary died, her infant son died as well. Margaret's daughter Julia, who was 19 and a new mom herself, also succumbed to the illness. Julia's husband, Victor Rose, who almost perished himself during the epidemic, left their daughter named Julia Rose with Margaret so she could raise her. With all of her children from her first two marriages now dead, Margaret began to bury her children from her most recent marriage. William was only 6 years old when he died in the same epidemic. By the time the epidemic ended with the cooler winter temperatures setting in, Margaret only had three surviving children out of the nine she had given birth to.
After the death of Alexander, Margaret took over the ranching operation. Her brother James Heffernan stayed with her and her family and was considered to be a loyal and hardworking man who helped his sister during difficult times. There were more hardship to come. In the winter of 1871-72 a freak blizzard struck Victoria and killed thousands of her cattle. Despite the hardships of the previous years, by 1873 Margaret had over 10,000 cattle. Margaret decided to sell some of her cattle to provide some more income. The problem was that the price for Texas cattle was about $8 per head in Texas, whereas the price for cattle in Kansas was almost $24 per head. So what did Margaret do? She made the unprecedented decision to be her own trail boss and to drive her cattle over the Chisholm Trail to Kansas. To do this meant she needed to take her surviving children and her young granddaughter with her despite the dangerous road that lay ahead for them all. And so, at the age of 49, Margaret made the decision to take her family and 2,500 cattle to Wichita, Kansas in search of opportunity and fortune. It was, as you can imagine, an arduous journey through what was then hazardous Indian country.
Despite the hardship, the group arrived in Kansas with most of their herd intact. Sadly, Margaret would not make it to see the cattle sold, as she took ill towards the end of their journey and would not be able to make a full recovery and didn't live to see the selling of her cattle. After reaching Wichita, Kansas Margaret fell seriously ill with an illness known as trail fever. It has also been cited as congestion of the brain or meningitis. She did not recover. The task of selling her cattle was left to her surviving family members. The Wichita Beacon newspaper reported on Margaret's death with the following, "We regret to announce the painful news that Mrs. Borland, the widow lady who came up with her own herd of cattle about two months ago, bringing with her three little children, died at the Planter house Saturday evening with mania, superinduced by her long, tedious journey and over-taxation of the brain."
Margaret Borland died on July 5, 1873. As I mentioned, she was only 49 at the time of her death. Her body was then returned from Kansas to Victoria, where she now sleeps under an eternal Texas sky.

[Shakey Jake]

Charlie Christian was born on July 29, 1916 in Bonham, Texas but was raised in Oklahoma City from the time he was two years old. Charlie's immediate family were all musically talented - his mother played the piano; his father sang and played the trumpet and guitar; his brother, Clarence, played the violin and the mandolin; and his oldest brother, Edward, played the string bass. His parents made a living writing accompaniments for silent movies. At the age of twelve, Charlie was playing on a guitar that he had made from a cigar box in a manual training class. Charlie was actually first trained on the trumpet which was a huge contribution to his fluid single-note guitar style. Then, his father and brothers formed a quartet and Charlie got a real guitar. They performed in Oklahoma City clubs and Charlie even met Lester Young (tenor saxophonist) during one of his performances. Charlie was fascinated by Lester's style which helped in shaping his own stylistic development.
At the age of twenty-one he was playing electric guitar and leading a jump band. At the age of 23 (1939), Charlie was discovered by a talent scout, John Hammond, who had stopped in Oklahoma city to attend Benny Goodman's first Columbia recording sessions. Pianist Mary Lou Williams had actually recommended Charlie to John Hammond. Goodman was not very excited, this was due to the fact that Charlie was an unknown musician playing an electric instrument. The amplified electric guitar was fairly new at the time (trombonist and arranger Eddie Durham began playing it as a solo instrument in Jimmie Lunceford's band in 1935). It was essentially an amplified "f-hole," and it helped in making the jazz guitar solo a practical reality for the first time.
Previously relegated to a chordal rhythm style by the limitations of the acoustic instrument, jazz guitarists could now revel in the volume, sustain, and tonal flexibility provided by amplification. Charlie quickly realized the potential of the electric guitar, and developed a style which made the most of the unique properties of the instrument. When Charlie arrived in Los Angeles, he was only allowed a brief audition and he was not even allowed the time to plug in his amp. Goodman was not impressed so Hammond decided to sneak Charlie onstage later that night during a concert at the Victor Hugo. This made Goodman angry and he responded by launching into "Rose Room," which he assumed Charlie would be unfamiliar with. Charlie performed an impressive extended solo on the piece. This impressed Goodman and Charlie was let into the band.
Charlie was a hit on the electric guitar and remained in the Benny Goodman Sextet for two years (1939-1941). He wrote many of the group's head arrangements (some of which Goodman took credit for) and was an inspiration to all. The sextet made him famous and provided him with a steady income while Charlie worked on legitimizing, popularizing, revolutionizing, and standardizing the electric guitar as a jazz instrument.
After working at nights with Goodman, Charlie would seek out jam sessions. He discovered a club in Harlem, Minton's, located on New York's West 118th Street. At Minton's Charlie played with such greats as Dizzie Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Thelonius Monk, Joe Guy (trumpet), Nick Fenton (bass), Kenny Kersey (piano), and Kenny Clarke (drums). Charlie impressed them all by improvising long lines that emphasized off beats, and by using altered chords. He even bought a second amp to leave at Minton’s. Jamming sessions would usually last until about 4 A.M. and Minton’s became the cradle of the bebop movement. Charlie's inventive single-note playing helped popularize the electric guitar as a solo instrument and helped usher in the era of bop.
In the summer of 1941, Christian was touring the Midwest when he began showing the first signs of tuberculosis. He left the tour and was admitted to the Seaview Sanatorium on Staten Island. While he was there, he died on March 2, 1942 at the age of twenty-five.
Charlie Christian’s most familiar recordings are those with Benny Goodman which were available on vinyl for years ("Solo Flight") and which are now available on cd as "Charlie Christian: Genius of the Electric Guitar." There are recorded sessions from when he played with members of the Goodman and Count Basie bands, Lester Young, and numerous artists at Minton's. Charlie Christian had an immense influence on the development of BeBop and the transition from Swing to BeBop.
Source: All About Jazz