Traces of Tx (today)

[Shakey Jake]

I've been unintentionally absent the last two days. I think this one is appropriate for the occasion:
The Texas Quote of the Day:
“Money can buy you a fine dog, but only love can make him wag his tail.”
----- Kinky Friedman

[Shakey Jake]

Per TSHA:
On this day in 1824, James Franklin Perry married Emily Margaret Austin Bryan, the widowed sister of Stephen F. Austin, in Potosi, Missouri. At Stephen Austin's urging, Perry came to Texas in 1830 and, pleased with what he saw of the country, moved his family to San Felipe de Austin in 1831. Shortly thereafter the Perrys began developing Peach Point Plantation near Brazoria; Stephen F. Austin considered Peach Point to be his only home in Texas, and was buried in the family plot there, though his remains were moved to the State Cemetery in Austin in 1910. James Perry's loyalty to Austin was complete. Perry took care of Austin's papers and tried to collect some notes while Austin was imprisoned in Mexico. Following his brother-in-law's advice, Perry "steered totally clear of politics" until Austin's return but thereafter became active in the movement for independence. After the Texas Revolution Perry settled down to plantation life but was soon called into service as the administrator of Austin's estate. He was one of the first to shift from cotton to sugar as a plantation product. Mrs. Perry died in 1851, and Perry moved to Biloxi in 1853 for health reasons. He died of yellow fever on September 13 of that year.

[Shakey Jake]

Per TSHA online:
On this day in 1874, Louise Heuser Wueste, the first professional woman artist in western Texas, died in Eagle Pass. Wueste, born in Germany in 1805, studied portraiture at the Düsseldorf Academy before marrying in 1824 and had three children before her husband's death. Thereafter, she resumed her art career as a teacher of portraiture. In 1859 she followed her son and two daughters to Texas and opened a studio in San Antonio in 1860. During the Civil War she moved to Piedras Negras, Mexico, to live with her son. She received few commissions for work during her first years in North America. After 1865, however, she found many opportunities for painting and teaching. Louise Wueste periodically left San Antonio after the mid-1860s to live elsewhere in Texas with her children, including her son, Daniel, an Eagle Pass merchant. Her later work reflected an interest in the people and landscapes along the Rio Grande. Her work, possibly numbering in the hundreds, has never been cataloged. Most of it is held by descendants and private collectors. The largest public collection of her output is owned by the Witte Museum in San Antonio.

[Shakey Jake]

Blessing, Texas, which is a small town in northwest Matagorda County, was nearly named "Thank God," Texas. The town was the creation of Jonathan Edwards Pierce, brother of famed cattleman Shanghai Pierce, on whose land the town was established. Jonathan had wanted for the longest time to have a railroad depot built on his land so that cattle could be easily transported to market. Finally, in 1903, he prevailed upon the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway by granting them a right-of-way. A grateful Jonathan Pierce hoped to designate the place "Thank God," but the United States Postal Department rejected his proposal. As a compromise, the place was named Blessing, and the post office in Blessing opened. I really like the name "Blessing," but I think "Thank God" would have been slightly better.

This photo is of Jonathan E. Pierce, who was born in 1839 and died in 1915. He is buried in the Hawley Cemetery about three miles northeast of Blessing, as is his more famous brother Shanghai.

There's not much left in Blessing these days. There is an old hotel there that still exists. It's said to be haunted on the second floor. I've never stayed there. They do still have a Sunday buffet that they serve right in the kitchen. It's amazingly delicious and I ride my motorcycle down there every now and again to partake of their awesome vittles.

[Shakey Jake]

Phyllis Coates (born Gypsie Ann Evarts Stell; January 15, 1927) is an American former actress, with a career spanning over fifty years. She is perhaps best known for her portrayal of reporter Lois Lane in the 1951 film Superman and the Mole Men and in the first season of the television series Adventures of Superman. 71 years ago on September 19th, 1952, the Adventures of Superman premiered. It was an American television series based on comic book characters and concepts that Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created in 1938. The show was the first television series to feature Superman and began filming in 1951 in California on RKO-Pathé stages and the RKO Forty Acres back lot. Cereal manufacturer Kellogg's sponsored the show. The first and last airdates of the show, which was produced for first-run syndication rather than for a network, are disputed, but they are generally accepted as September 19, 1952, and April 28, 1958. The show's first two seasons (episodes 1–52, 26 titles per season) were filmed in black and white; seasons three through six (episodes 53–104, 13 titles per season) were filmed in color. George Reeves played Clark Kent/Superman, with Jack Larson as Jimmy Olsen, John Hamilton as Perry White, and Robert Shayne as Inspector Henderson. Phyllis Coates played Lois Lane in the first season, with Noel Neill, who previously played Lois Lane in the film serials Superman (1948) and Atom Man vs. Superman (1950), stepping into the role in the later seasons. Superman battles crooks, gangsters, and other villains in the fictional city of Metropolis while masquerading "off duty" as Daily Planet reporter Clark Kent. For nearly all of the series' episodes, Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen, Clark's colleagues at the office, found themselves in dangerous situations that only Superman's timely intervention can resolve. The opening theme is known as The Superman March. In 1987, selected episodes of the show were released on VHS. In 2006, the series became available in its entirety on DVD to coincide with the DVD release of Superman Returns, the first Superman feature film to emerge after almost two decades without such a movie. The feature film Hollywoodland, released in 2006, dramatized the show's production and the death of its star, George Reeves. ed: I forgot to mention she was born in Wichita Falls, TX.

[Shakey Jake]

This comes from Mrp Hicks from Texas Back Roads:
This is a picture of a cemetery with Military members of several wars, one being the War of 1812 and WWII, and if you look at this picture at the top left, it appears to be a shadow of a person standing over this grave.
Some think it's a sunflare, but others think it's a shadow of a man, as I do.
One of my favorites I've taken.
Wallisville, Texas, US
Note: Wallisville is in Chambers Co not too far from Houston. One of the major roads on the NE side of town is Wallisville Road. A military settlement, known as "El Orcoquisac", consisting of the Spanish fort, Presidio San Augustín de Ahumada and its complementing partner, Mission Nuestra Señora de la Luz, was established in 1756, on the east bank of the Trinity River near present-day Wallisville, upon the former site of an early French trading post. It's been around for quite a while.

[Shakey Jake]

Per TSHA:
On this day in 1917, diarist Elizabeth Scott Neblett died in Anderson, Texas. “Lizzie,” born in Mississippi in 1833, grew up a southern belle in Grimes County and married William H. Neblett, a planter and aspiring attorney, in 1852. From 1852 until 1863 she kept a diary that revealed an intimate portrait of southern culture and her own bitterness about a woman’s place in society. “Fame can never be mine,” she wrote. “I am a woman! A woman!” Her letters to her husband during the Civil War discussed varied topics that ranged from the economics of their plantation to the use of artificial birth control. They had six children, and often Lizzie’s writings addressed the hardships of childbirth and childrearing. Her journal and letters were finally published in 2001.

[Shakey Jake]

Aja Trier from San Antonio took this marvelous photograph (posted on the Back Roads of Texas). The station is in Albany, Texas which is the county seat of Shackleford County, a few miles northeast of Abilene. I wonder who now owns the station and the fantastic Sinclair truck parked there! My, what a great photo!

[Shakey Jake]

Per T of T Facebook group:
Traces of Texas reader Susan Buentello graciously sent in this wonderful circa 1890 photo of her great grandfather, Louis Pauli, in Seguin. He was not only a genuine cowboy but subsequently a Texas Ranger. He was born in 1874 and looks to be perhaps in his early 20s here, so this was probably taken in the 1890s.
Just an outstanding image. Thank you, Susan!

(note: Another picture of him can be found in a group picture I posted earlier in the year:
http://henryrifleforums.com/viewtopic.p ... li#p217412}

[Shakey Jake]

Every good Texan knows that Pecos, Texas is the site of the world's first rodeo, which was held on July 4, 1883. Well, Traces of Texas reader Trey Armstrong sent in this unbelievably great photo of one of the four contestants that day, Mr. Henry Slack. Prize money for the event totaled 25 dollars. I wonder what Mr. Slack would say regarding the bull-riding extravaganzas that go on today? He'd probably nod his head in approval, I'm thinking.
Thank you, Trey. What a great portrait!

[Shakey Jake]

On this day in 1982, a marker was erected at the site of the Kishi Colony to honor Japanese pioneer Kichimatsu Kishi and the settlement he founded. The colony was one of at least three small Japanese settlements established on the Texas coastal plain during the early twentieth century. The community, about ten miles east of Beaumont in central Orange County, was founded by Kishi, a veteran of the Russo-Japanese War. He purchased the land in 1907, and in the following year he and other Japanese immigrants planted their first rice crops. Several, including Kishi, brought their families to the United States. The Japanese colony at Kishi eventually included thirty-two men, five women, and four children. Although the Great Depression led to the Kishi Colony's collapse, a few of the former immigrants remained in Southeast Texas. Many of their descendants still live in the area. More information can be found here:
http://hirasaki.net/Family_Stories/Kish ... /Kishi.htm

[Shakey Jake]

September, 1960: John Wayne in Liberty, Texas. He was there to dedicate the only true, uncracked replica of the Liberty Bell as cast as the original at Whitechapel foundry in England. The bell is still in Liberty today. Photo by Moon Young. Courtesy The Portal to Texas History

[Shakey Jake]

Per T of T Facebook Group:
Most Texans are probably unfamiliar with Clydie Mae King, which is a pity because Clydie was one of the greatest Texas singers of all time. Clydie, who was born in Dallas in 1943 was a backup singer whose resume is unbelievable. She was one of the backup singers in Phil Spector's Wall of Sound in the early-mid 1960s and sang on countless hits. She was one of Ray Charles' Raelettes for three years. Clydie provided backing vocals for Humble Pie, which had great success in the United States, and she went on to become an in-demand session singer, working with B.B. King, The Rolling Stones, Steely Dan, Barbra Streisand, Bob Dylan, Linda Ronstadt, Joe Cocker, Dickey Betts, Joe Walsh, and many others. She sang on Joe Cocker's Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour, which became a feature film. Along with Merry Clayton, she sang the background vocals on Lynyrd Skynyrd's seminal hit "Sweet Home Alabama." Clydie was married a few times, romantically linked to Bob Dylan ... just a really well-led life. She passed away in 2019 at the age of 75.

[Shakey Jake]

A "two-fer" today:
Traces of Texas reader Zada Owens generously sent in this humdinger of a tombstone, which is in her family cemetery just outside of San Saba and very close to the Colorado River. Hosea Lawless, murdered by a band of horse thieves at the age of 27. Hosea was born in Arkansas, the son of Ezekial and Tabitha Lawless. Zada said her mom passed away a few years ago and is buried about 10 feet from this marker.
Thank you, Zada. One of the best tombstones I've ever seen!

[Shakey Jake]

On this day in 1839, Reuben Ross, standing in for Alonzo B. Sweitzer, seriously wounded Ben McCulloch in a duel. The encounter and its aftermath exemplify the persistence (and absurdity) of the Southern code duello tradition in the Republic of Texas and the ineffectiveness of the antidueling law passed by the Congress of the republic in 1836. The bad blood between McCulloch and Sweitzer began during their 1839 race for a seat in the Texas House of Representatives and intensified during their subsequent involvement in the pursuit of Indians who had raided Gonzales County. After a lengthy exchange of insults, Sweitzer's friend Ross delivered a formal challenge to McCulloch, who refused to accept on the grounds that Sweitzer was not a gentleman. Ross, however, was an acceptable substitute, and the two faced off with rifles at forty paces in a field two miles north of Gonzales. Ross, a trained duelist, shot McCulloch in the right arm, a wound that left him permanently crippled. With honor apparently satisfied, Ross sent his personal surgeon to tend to McCulloch and expressed his regret at having "to meet so brave a man in a private encounter." McCulloch was indicted for "setting at nought the quiet and good morals of this community" by "wickedly, willfully, and maliciously" accepting Ross's challenge, but the district attorney chose not to prosecute. The violence continued, however, as McCulloch's brother Henry shot and killed an obstreperous (and reportedly intoxicated) Ross a few months later, and the quarrelsome Sweitzer died in a pistol duel with Robert S. Neighbors in 1841. Ben McCulloch went on to serve as a Confederate general during the Civil War and was killed in the battle of Pea Ridge.

[Shakey Jake]

On this day in 1877, Charles H. Howard shot and killed Louis Cardis in a store in El Paso. The killing was merely the latest, though hardly the last, violent episode in a long dispute known as the Salt War of San Elizario. The trouble began in 1866 when a group of prominent El Paso Republicans, including Cardis, W. W. Mills, and Albert J. Fountain, sought to acquire title to the salt deposits at the foot of Guadalupe Peak, 100 miles east of the city, and to begin charging fees of the local Mexican Americans, who had for years collected salt there free of charge. The so-called Salt Ring fell apart in 1868, but the plan persisted, and in 1872 Cardis allied himself with Howard, a transplanted Missouri lawyer and a Democrat. After Howard became district judge in 1874, however, he and Cardis had a falling-out of their own. Howard filed on the salt lakes in the name of his father-in-law and set off a riot in September 1877 by arresting two men who had threatened to go for salt. After being held for three days by a mob at San Elizario, Howard agreed to give up his claim and leave the country, but sought out and killed Cardis instead. Howard was arraigned for murder, but in early December returned to San Elizario to press trespassing charges against a caravan of salt-seekers. There he was besieged by a mob. After five days and the deaths of two men, Howard gave himself up to save the lives of his party, but he and two allies were shot by a firing squad of men from Mexico. Although more violence ensued, no one was ever arrested or brought to trial. A congressional investigation attempted to get at the facts, but no positive action was taken except the reestablishment of Fort Bliss, which had been abandoned earlier in the year.

[Shakey Jake]

Braniff International Airways Flight 542, a Lockheed L-188 Electra.. On September 29, 1959, 23 minutes into the 41-minute flight from Houston to Dallas Love Field, the aircraft disintegrated in mid-air approximately 3.8 miles (6.1 km) southeast of Buffalo, Texas, killing everyone on board.

[Shakey Jake]

On this day in 1878, Kiowa chief Satanta committed suicide by jumping out his prison window. Satanta was born around 1820, probably in what is now Kansas or Oklahoma. He first emerged as an orator at the Medicine Lodge Treaty council in October 1867, where he came to be known as the "Orator of the Plains," although that title may have been a tongue-in-cheek reference to his long-winded speeches rather than sincere praise for his speaking abilities. In 1871 Satanta and his fellow chiefs Satank and Big Tree were arrested for their part in the Warren wagontrain raid. Satank was killed while trying to escape. The trial of Satanta and Big Tree at Jacksboro was a celebrated event, primarily because it marked the first time Indian chiefs were forced to stand trial in a civil court. The jury convicted the two men and sentenced them to hang, but Governor E. J. Davis commuted the sentences to life imprisonment. Satanta was paroled in 1873, but was re-arrested for his role in the attack on Lyman's wagontrain in Palo Duro Canyon and in the second battle of Adobe Walls. He was imprisoned in the Texas State Penitentiary at Hunstville until 1878, when, demoralized over the prospect of spending the rest of his life in confinement, he took his own life. (See previous entry http://henryrifleforums.com/viewtopic.p ... ta#p225188)

[Shakey Jake]

On the Throckmorton-Shackleford county line. Near the Clear Fork of the Brazos next to what used to be Camp Cooper. The post was founded by Col. Albert Sidney Johnston in January 1856 and became headquarters for four companies of the Second United States Cavalry under the command of Lt. Col. Robert E. Lee. This was Lee's first command of a fort. He remained in charge for fifteen months, from April 9, 1856, until July 22, 1857. Captains under his command included Earl Van Dorn and Theodore O'Hara.

[Shakey Jake]

The poignant photo of shoes left behind by Ruth Moment Armistead before she committed suicide by leaping from the UT Tower in Austin on September 30, 1971. This was taken by American Statesman photographer Ike Baruch.