Traces of Tx (today)

[Shakey Jake]

Per TSHA:
On this day in 1863, the First Texas Cavalry, USA, left New Orleans for South Texas as part of the Union effort to interdict the lucrative trade between Confederate Texas and Mexico. The First was one of two regiments of Unionist cavalry from Texas to serve in the Civil War; the Second was formed in Brownsville after the Rio Grande campaign got underway. Loyalty to the Union was anything but a major consensus in Texas during the Civil War. A total of 1,915 Texas men served the Union cause, in contrast to the many thousands who served the Confederacy. Brownsville was a center of Unionist sentiment. Significant numbers of civilians who supported the North fled to the lower Rio Grande, where a provisional state government was set up under Andrew J. Hamilton, and where Edmund J. Davis and others recruited cavalrymen for the North. Davis had formed the First Texas Cavalry, USA, in New Orleans in 1862. In November 1864 the regiment was merged with the Second into the First Texas Volunteer Cavalry. This new twelve-company regiment engaged in patrolling and reconnaissance duties until the end of the war, and was mustered out of service on November 4, 1865.

[Shakey Jake]

One awesome aspect of traveling around Texas is the great characters one meets. Traces of Texas reader Randal Dean was at a Ray Wylie Hubbard concert in Luckenbach when he met this man, "Boo," who operated a hat stand there and rode a '49 Harley Davidson. Let's see here: Ray Wylie Hubbard, Luckenbach, "Boo," '49 Harley ... doesn't that sound like a Texas short story in the making?
Thank you, Randal. What a great face Boo has!

[Shakey Jake]

Per TSHA:
On this day in 1845, two pioneer German-Texans, Friedrich Wilhelm von Wrede Sr. and Oscar von Claren, were killed and scalped by Indians at a place referred to as Live Oak Spring, ten to twelve miles from Austin, probably near Manchaca Springs. Wrede made an initial trip to Texas in 1837 and traveled and made notes of his observations in America. He returned to Germany in 1843 and compiled and published Lebensbilder aus den vereinigten Staaten von Nordamerika und Texas (1844). Wrede's travel book is a generally realistic account of the opportunities and difficulties of colonists on the American frontier, especially in Texas. The book helped to influence prospective German settlers to come to Texas, despite the negative effect of Wrede's own violent death in Texas the following year. Wrede returned to Texas in 1844 as an official of the Adelsverein. His companion in death, Oscar von Claren, immigrated from Hannover to New Braunfels, Texas, probably early in 1845. His family correspondence indicated his interest in the botany and wildlife of the New Braunfels area, and he collected turtles and snakes to sell to naturalists in Germany. He wrote Indianer bei Neu Braunfels im Jahre 1845 (1845), a group of essays depicting Texas Indians.The two authors were buried at the site of the massacre by United States soldiers, who gave them military honors. Wrede's son, Friedrich Wilhelm von Wrede Jr., settled in Fredericksburg but returned to Germany after the Civil War.

[Shakey Jake]

I've written about the "Hells Half Acre" of Fort Worth and the White Elephant saloon before. I came across this picture of the legendary White Elephant Saloon in Fort Worth, 1895 on the Traces of Texas Facebook page. The White Elephant was the site of much revelry and argle-bargle, culminating in the famous 1887 shootout between Luke Short and "Longhair" Jim Courtright. Is it just me or is the man second from right a dead ringer for Woody Harrelson? I should note that this is not the current version of the White Elephant, which opened in 1976 in the Stockyards. When this photo was taken the White Elephant was located in the 600 block of Main Street, having moved from the 300 block of Main Street a few years earlier. This White Elephant Saloon closed in 1913 after 28 years in business. Incidentally, there's a great chapter on the White Elephant in "Legendary Watering Holes: The Saloons that Made Texas Famous," a 2004 book by Richard Selcer that was published by Texas A&M University Press.

http://henryrifleforums.com/viewtopic.p ... nt#p174195

[Shakey Jake]

A visitor to the Stratford Cemetery in Sherman County would most likely pass the grave marker of Amanda J. Raines without paying it much attention. That's a pity because the story behind this unassuming marker is a great one.
Amanda Jane Crawford was born in 1853 and was only two years old when she and her parents moved to Flower Mound, Texas (Denton County) in 1855. Amanda grew up there and, in 1873, married John M. Raines. They had six children together. Amanda Jane would be just another name on a list of early settlers were it not for the fact that, when she was six years old, she was stricken with polio and was never able to walk or use her feet again.
Amanda Jane was a farmer's daughter, so it might seem that not being able to walk would be an insurmountable barrier. That didn't stop Amanda Jane. While still young, she learned to do housework on her hands and knees, doing her share of the work required to keep a frontier farm running. She literally scooted across the floor as she worked. She went to school via a specially built box that was hitched to a pony. She drove herself. Amanda Jane grew up that way and nobody paid any special attention to her. In fact, after she died, nobody spoke of her disability or could even much recall it. She was a beautiful, lively young woman, such that John M. Raines married her, deciding that it didn't matter that she had no use of her legs and feet
Amanda Jane kept working. She made her family's clothing after disconnecting the treadle on her sewing machine so that she operate it with one hand while guiding the cloth with the other. She drove her six children wherever they needed to go in her buggy or wagon, which she was an expert at driving. She did her share of community work and volunteer work for her church, too.
Amanda Jane lived to be 95 years old, outliving three of her children. In the newspaper obituary that accompanied her death, her surviving children marveled at the full life she'd managed to lead despite the challenges she endured. And they mentioned something she'd done on her fiftieth birthday, 45 years before. It was on that day, after 50 years of scooting around on the floor, that Amanda Jane Crawford Raines became the proud owner of a new wheel chair.
You know, I visit these old cemeteries and I often wonder how many Amanda Janes lie under the stones, how many great stories like hers are there waiting to be told, if only somebody knew them. Amanda Jane's grave is one of some 2,100 in the Stratford cemetery. The storyteller in me grieves to think how much gets lost when somebody passes away and how much forgotten history lies just beneath my feet.
Photo courtesy Find A Grave.

[Shakey Jake]

INTERESTING FACT: "Jesse James refused to rob banks in McKinney, Texas because his favorite chili was served in McKinney & he knew that if he robbed a bank there he would not be able to return and have some of that chili. Chili is SERIOUS business in Texas."
-Traces of Texas

[Shakey Jake]

Inducted in the Texas Radio Hall of Fame Misty was born Moda Fincher in Bronte, Texas to William Allen and Moda (Miller) Fincher on October 12, 1924, but she was known on the air simply as "Misty." She graduated from Lubbock High School in Lubbock, Texas in 1941, and moved to Fort Worth, Texas. She started her career as a vocalist and self-taught drummer for the all-girl Billye Gale Band and was with them for 5+1⁄2 years.
Misty always wanted to be a radio deejay. As a youth, she would fashion an imaginary microphone with a tomato soup can and a sawed-off broom pole. She went to work at KXOL-AM in Fort Worth, where she filed albums and pulled wire reports for sports broadcasts. She let it be known that she'd like to be a deejay, which, she recalled, "was a real thigh-slapper to management." On March 5, 1955, she was abruptly handed the midnight-to-6 am shift - seven nights a week, no days off, for $40 a week. She could not use her name. Instead, she was known as "The Frontier Gal" and had to agree to wear a Lone Ranger-like mask when out in public. She was 29 years old. Few expected her to succeed in what was then a male-dominated field.
She found more support and better pay in Lubbock in 1956, when the general manager of KDUB-AM, an AM radio station, offered her the same shift, midnight to 6 am, but with two days off each week and a raise to $75 per week. She later worked for the first Lubbock FM radio station, KBFM. Her Music with Misty program specialized in instrumental, easy-listening music. She worked on the MDA Telethon with Jerry Lewis for nineteen years.
In 1970, she went to work for KLBK-FM, where she premiered Music with Misty. When a tornado struck Lubbock on May 11, 1970, she refused to give up her post. She chose to broadcast continually for 26 hours so listeners could be reassured by her calmly delivered news reports.
In 1974 KLBK-FM changed formats to simulcast with KLBK AM and play hard rock at night. Misty moved over to KEND 1590 AM and took over the long running program, Music for Lovers Only. Her show ran from 9pm to midnight. Circa 1975, KEND was sold and the station's new owners switched to NBC's News and Information Service. Misty worked at the all-news station as a feature reporter and even did a few newscasts. Around 1976, she was hired by KNFM and moved to Midland. She worked in Midland for about five years at KNFM before returning to Lubbock. After returning to Lubbock, she did some brief part-time work on KCAS Radio, a daytime-only AM station.
In 1998, Misty came out of retirement and, at age 75, went to work as a deejay on radio station KDAV-AM, located in Lubbock's Depot District. KDAV installed an old analog studio just for her, including turntables, tape deck, and a big chrome microphone on a stand. "This little old lady..." (still wearing her trademark dark glasses) "...would shuffle in before 9pm, a tight double armed grasp on her albums held against her breast",[7] and make the magic happen.
Misty had what might be the largest collection of vinyl and shellac records in the world, totaling over 15,000 albums. "Someone to Watch Over Me" was her favorite song.
---Source: Say Goodbye to Radio

[Shakey Jake]

Anita Blair was the first guide dog handler in El Paso, Texas, when she graduated from The Seeing Eye in March 1940 with Fawn, a German shepherd. The photo is a black and white photo of Anita being guided by Fawn across a bustling city street in the early 1940s.
Just a month later, Anita and Fawn were crossing a street in El Paso when a car nearly hit her. “Fawn, the fawn-colored German shepherd, with perfect timing checked her mistress’s pace, so that the car sped past without the driver being aware that the young woman could not see,” the El Paso Times reported on April 19, 1940.
Fawn was at her side when she graduated from the Texas College of Mines and Metallurgy – now known as the University of Texas at El Paso, or UTEP – with a bachelor’s degree in 1944. She later earned a master’s degree from Texas State College for Women, now Texas Woman’s University, in Denton.
In 1946, Anita and Fawn were again in the news during a tragic fire at the 23-story Hotel LaSalle in Chicago. According to the June 6, 1946, issue of the El Paso Times, Anita was awakened by screams. “When I opened the door the smoke was so heavy I could taste it,” Anita told the newspaper. “I closed the door but did not want to get Fawn excited. Because of her I remained calm – and probably because of me she did the same.”
Fawn led Anita out the window and down the fire escape – 11 stories down – while the fire raged. Sixty-one people were killed in the fire.
In 1952, Anita became the first El Paso woman – and the first blind woman in any state – to be elected as a state representative. During her time in office, Anita fought for funding for the State School for the Deaf, teacher pay raises, and a bill that allowed women to serve on juries.
Anita returned to The Seeing Eye five more times to be matched with successor Seeing Eye dogs. Her last was Beryl, a black Labrador retriever, in 1990. Anita died in 2010 at the age of 93, and in recognition of her service as a state legislator, is buried in the Texas State Cemetery in Austin.

[Shakey Jake]

Per Traces of Texas Facebook Group:
One of my own photos. I took this shot of the ghost town of Barstow, Texas, in 2007. While standing there taking a series of exposures, a big yellow Labrador retriever came over, curled up at my feet, and went to sleep .... right there in the middle of the Main Street. For all I know, he's still there. An elderly man drove up and said that they would sell it all to me for $87.13 and a six-pack... and they would give me the six pack. Then he winked at me and drove away. It's that kind of place.

[Shakey Jake]

Traces of Texas reader Monette Rowland graciously sent in this photo of the Peyton Colony schoolhouse in the small Freedman's community of Payton, Texas, which is seven miles east of Blanco and which was established around 1865 by Peyton Roberts. Other freedmen followed suit, and in 1872 or 1874, the first church in the area was built on land donated by Jim Upshear, who had come with his wife to Peyton by wagon train from Virginia. Also built was a small log schoolhouse. Descendants of those early settlers still live in the community.
Peyton Roberts had been born a slave in Virginia. In the 1820s, he moved to Texas with his owner, Jeremiah Roberts, settling in the Bastrop area. Peyton and his family eventually became the slaves of Jeremiah's grandson, William, who freed them during the American Civil War. The freed families agreed to work for William during the war, receiving payment in the form of supplies they would need to begin new lives. It was known as Freedman’s Colony to white settlers. The residents mostly farmed for a living. Peyton Roberts also built a lime kiln, which was used to make the mortar for the buildings erected in Peyton. It was restored in 1960.
Thank you, Monette. Cool Texas history right there.
(Source: Traces of Texas Facebook group.)