Traces of Tx (today)

[Shakey Jake]

On this day in 1869, sixty-one men, women, and children died when the sidewheel steamboat Mittie Stephens caught fire on Caddo Lake during a run from New Orleans to Jefferson, Texas. The boat had been plying the New Orleans-Red River route since 1866. At that time Jefferson was the head of navigation via Caddo Lake due to the great log raft that obstructed traffic on the Red River. The Mittie Stephens had left New Orleans on February 5 with 107 passengers and crew and a cargo that included 274 bales of hay. On the night of the twelfth, a breeze blew a spark to the hay from the torch baskets that lighted the bows of the boat, and the resulting fire could not be contained. The boat headed for the shore, 300 yards away, but grounded in three feet of water near Swanson's Landing. The pilot and the engineer kept the wheels running in an attempt to force the boat to shore; the action of the wheels pulled the people struggling in the water into them and killed most of them. The Mittie Stephens burned to the water line, and parts of the wreck could be seen above the water until the early twentieth century. Jefferson remained the principal riverport of Texas until the logjam was removed in 1874.

[Shakey Jake]

On this day in 1836, Samuel Colt, of Hartford, Connecticut, patented the Colt revolver. This invention, along with windmills and barbed wire, brought order to the Great Plains. It was eventually produced in numerous models, the most famous being that of 1871. In 1839 the Republic of Texas ordered 180 of the .36 caliber holster models for the Texas Navy. The Texas Rangers gave the Colt revolver its reputation as a weapon ideally suited for mounted combat. Frederick Law Olmsted remarked that "there were probably as many revolvers in Texas as there were males."

[Shakey Jake]

The Texas Quote of the Day:
“You couldn’t cuss in there. You couldn’t drink. It had an air of respectability. Miss Edna wouldn’t stand for no bulls**t."
----- Dusty Hill, bassist for ZZ Top, talks about Edna Chadwell, the last madam of the infamous "Chicken Ranch" outside la Grange, Texas. This photo of Miss Edna was taken at the Chicken Ranch in 1973. Courtesy the very fine folks at the Houston Chronicle

[Shakey Jake]

Cindy Walker wrote over 50 songs for Bob Wills, including “Cherokee Maiden” and “Bubbles In My Beer”.
She had top ten hits in five straight decades (1940s - 1980s) which included songs she wrote for Bing Crosby, Gene Autry, Al Dexter, Eddy Arnold, Hank Snow, Webb Pierce, Jim Reeves, Roy Orbison, Glen Campbell, Ricky Skaggs, Ray Charles, Lacy J. Dalton, Riders in the Sky, Mickey Gilley, and Merle Haggard among MANY other artists. She became a charter member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970 and was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1997. Willie Nelson recorded You Don’t Know Me: The Songs of Cindy Walker in 2006.
Cindy Walker’s songs live on and are still being played every night somewhere. One of the greatest songwriters in American history.

[Shakey Jake]

Source: "Things They Didn't Teach You in School"
Scholars have left him out of the history books, and Hollywood couldn’t be bothered to acknowledge his existence either. He was Howard Hughes’ top engineer and lifelong best friend. This is about Frank Mann, the hidden genius behind much of Howard Hughes’ success in the world of aviation and mechanics. Frank Calvin Mann (November 22, 1908 – November 30, 1992) was an African American engineer who was known for his participation in many Howard Hughes's projects, including the Spruce Goose. He also starred in the Amos 'n' Andy radio show. Apparently, his lifelong friendship with Hughes was instrumental in opening doors for Mann's exceptional talents.
A native of Houston, Texas, Frank Calvin Mann's parents wanted him to become a schoolteacher, but from childhood, he had a natural ability to fix things. At age 11, he had his own mechanic shop. As a teenager, he worked alongside airplane mechanics, repairing engines. By the age of 20, he had designed and built several of his own Model-T cars. It was unheard of in the 1920s for a Black man to have anything to do with cars, trains, or airplanes. His life-long friend Howard Hughes was instrumental in opening doors for Mann's exceptional talents.
Mann attended the University of Minnesota and UCLA, where he earned a mechanical engineering degree. World War II equipment that revolutionized military weaponry would not exist if not for his involvement. Incredibly, few Americans are aware of Frank Mann. He was the first Black commercial pilot for American Airways. He was also a distinguished military officer. In 1935, following Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia, Frank Mann flew reconnaissance missions for the Ethiopian army.
He served in the World War II Army Air Corps and was the primary civilian instructor of the famous Tuskegee Airmen in 1941. He left Tuskegee after a rift with the U.S. government, which didn't want the Squadron, an all-Black unit, flying the same high caliber of airplanes as their White counterparts. An angry Mann had refused to have his men fly old "World War I biplane crates" because his airmen had proven themselves as equals.
Though they were being given inferior equipment and materials, their squadron never lost a plane, bomber, or pilot, and they were nicknamed the "Red Tails.” After the war, Mann was instrumental in designing the first Buick LeSabre automobile and the first communications satellite launched for commercial use.
His pride and joy was a miniature locomotive enshrined in the Smithsonian Institute, Mann also played a principal role in the Amos ‘N’ Andy radio show. He moved back to his hometown in the 1970s.
Frank Mann died on November 30, 1992, in Houston.

[Shakey Jake]

Fog on old tracks in Llano Co. I really like the bluebonnets! Photo shared from Facebook by Jerry Sargent Photography.
https://www.facebook.com/SargentPhotos? ... =-UC%2CP-R

[cooperhawk]

We stayed for a week at LLano last year. Very quaint and nice little town.

[Shakey Jake]

HB Barnum Orchestra during a circa 1961 jam session. Hal Blaine is on drums, the famous Carol Kaye on guitar, Dick Leith on trombone, a fellow by the name of Lauder on congas, an unknown bass player, and the little boy is Barnum's son. Hal said that HB was one of the most underrated arrangers and hero's in the business. HB is 87 and still living in Houston. HB is the one that brought Hal to record with Sam Cooke. When Hal walked in the black musicians said "what's the white dude doing here? and HB stuck up for Hal and said "you'd better listen to this dude because this is where it's at".
(note: My apologies if I seem to post a lot about music, but after all, it is (was) my business and interest.-Jake)

[Shakey Jake]

Dale Evans was born Lucille Wood Smith on October 31, 1912 in Uvalde, Texas. She had a tumultuous early life. Her name was changed to Frances Octavia Smith while she was still an infant and spent a lot of time living with her uncle. At age 14, she eloped with and married Thomas F. Fox, with whom she had one son, Thomas F. Fox, Jr., when she was 15.
A year later, abandoned by her husband, she found herself in Memphis, Tennessee, a single parent, pursuing a career in music. She landed a job with local radio stations (WMC and WREC), singing and playing piano. Divorced in 1929, she took the name Dale Evans in the early 1930’s to promote her singing career.
After beginning her career singing at the radio station where she was employed as a secretary, Evans had a productive career as a jazz, swing, and big band singer that led to a screen test and contract with 20th Century Fox studios. During her time at 20th Century Fox, the studio promoted her as the unmarried supporter of her teenage “brother” Tommy (actually her son Tom Fox, Jr.). This deception continued through her divorce from Butts in 1946 and her development as a cowgirl co-star to Roy Rogers at Republic Studios.
Evans married Roy Rogers on New Year’s Eve 1947 at the Flying L Ranch where they had earlier filmed the movie Home in Oklahoma. The marriage was Rogers’ third and Evans’ fourth but was successful; the two were a team on- and off-screen from 1946 until Rogers’ death in 1998.

Shortly after the wedding, Evans ended the deception regarding her son, Tommy. Roy had an adopted child, Cheryl, and two biological children, Linda and Roy (Dusty) Jr., from his second marriage. Together they had one child, Robin Elizabeth, who died of complications of Down syndrome. Evans and Rogers adopted four other children: Mimi, Dodie, Sandy, and Debbie.
Evans was very influential in changing public perceptions of children with developmental disabilities and served as a role model for many parents after she wrote Angel Unaware. Evans went on to write a number of religious and inspirational books. Roy and Dale appeared many times with Billy Graham in Crusades all over the country, singing gospel songs and giving their testimony.
From 1951-57, Evans and Rogers starred in the highly successful television series The Roy Rogers Show. In late 1962, the couple co-hosted a comedy-western-variety program, The Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Show, which was cancelled after three months.
In the 1970s, Evans recorded several solo albums of religious music. During the 1980s, the couple introduced their films weekly on the former The Nashville Network. In the 1990s, Evans hosted her own religious television program.
Evans died of congestive heart failure on February 7, 2001 in Apple Valley, California
Source: Cinemahub

[Shakey Jake]

The Rainbow Bridge (1936) and Veterans Memorial Bridge (1988) are a pair of bridges that cross the Neches River in Southeast Texas just upstream from Sabine Lake. It allows State Highway 87 and State Highway 73 to connect Port Arthur in Jefferson County on the southwest bank of the river. Bridge City in Orange County is on the northeast bank.

[Shakey Jake]

To most of the world, Texas is known as a big state in the southern United States,
But to Norwegians, it is also a word that frequently crops up in everyday conversation - often in the phrase "Der var helt Texas!" [That was very completely/totally Texas!].

[Hatchdog]

^^^^^^^^
How dare they?

[Shakey Jake]

Johnny Paycheck, Merle Haggard and George Jones (September 12, 1931 – April 26, 2013). George was born in Saratoga, Tx. Saratoga is an unincorporated community in Hardin County. It is located approximately 26 miles (42 km) northwest of Beaumont and adjacent to the Big Thicket National Preserve. Saratoga was originally named New Sour Lake.

[Shakey Jake]

I posted this last year as well but it's a good one so, here it is again:
On this day in 1896, in El Paso, U.S. deputy marshal George A. Scarborough shot constable John Selman, a celebrated gunman and gambler who had just left the Wigwam Saloon. Selman died the next day on the operating table. Scarborough was acquitted of murder but was forced to resign his position as deputy marshal. Selman, perhaps best known as the man who killed John Wesley Hardin in 1895, had himself been a notorious figure since the 1870s. Four years to the day after Selman's death, Scarborough died at his home in Deming, New Mexico, following a gun battle with rustlers in Arizona.

[Shakey Jake]

Traces of Texas reader Davey Schrank kindly submitted this nifty photo of his great great grandfather with his family on "the old ranch" on the Willow CIty Loop north of Fredericksburg. Davey didn't say when this was taken but it appears to be about 1900, give or take. I'm not sure of the purpose behind the stacked rocks, either. Any guesses?
Thank you, Davey! I love this!
Source: Traces of Texas Facebook group

[Shakey Jake]

Here's an early picture of the Chicken Ranch brothel just outside of LaGrange. The brothel operated from 1905 to 1973 before it was shut down by the Fayette County sheriff under pressure from the DPS and television activist Marvin Zindler.

[Shakey Jake]

Here's another entry sourced from the Traces of Texas Facebook group:
The first German to settle in Texas was Johann Friedrich Ernst, a former soldier and postal clerk in Oldenburg, Germany, who obtained a land grant to immigrate to Austin's colony in 1831. He left Oldenburg in September, 1829 after apparently embezzling funds from the post office there. But Texas was a chance for him to start anew, with no past. A letter from Ernst to a friend in Germany described his wonderful new life in Texas and influenced other Germans to immigrate. With his kindness and encouragement to the newly arrived from his old country, he became known as the "father of the immigrants."
Sidenote: The Handbook of Texas Online notes that the diversity of German cultures in the state was striking:
"Even in the confined area of the Hill Country, each valley offered a different kind of German. The Llano valley had stern, teetotaling German Methodists, who renounced dancing and fraternal organizations; the Pedernales valley had fun-loving, hardworking Lutherans and Catholics who enjoyed drinking and dancing; and the Guadalupe valley had atheist Germans descended from intellectual political refugees. The scattered German ethnic islands were also diverse."
Shown here: an early photo of the Schmitz Hotel in New Braunfels

[Shakey Jake]

Our youngest son took off for Kerrville yesterday where the "path of totality" for the eclipse was traveling. I thought it was supposed to be cloudy but the weather cleared up in time. Here's some of his pictures he took. They posted in reverse order but that's okay.
Jake

[Shakey Jake]

On this day in 1965, the Houston Astros played the New York Yankees in exhibition baseball in the Astrodome, the first event in the new domed stadium. The Astrodome, the first fully air-conditioned, enclosed, multipurpose sports stadium in the world, was first approved by voters in 1958. Roy M. Hofheinz had led in developing it. Over the years it was the home stadium of the Houston Astros and the Houston Oilers, among other teams. It also hosted such varied entertainments as bullfighting, rodeos, and, in 1992, the Republican National Convention. After the Oilers moved to Tennessee to become the Titans and the Astros moved to a new stadium, the Astrodome continued in use as part of an entertainment complex, the Astrodome Convention Center. (all of that greenspace around it is businesses and hospitals now.)

[Shakey Jake]

Elgin, a city with a history rooted in a significant flood along the Colorado River during the early 1870s, owes its establishment to this natural event. This flood prompted the Houston and Texas Central Railroad to re-survey a railway line from Manor to Austin. It altered its original route from McDade southwest towards the Colorado River between Bastrop and Webberville.
Officially incorporated on May 13, 1872, Elgin was named after Robert Morris Elgin, who served as the Railroad Land Commissioner then. During this period, a new North-South railway line was established, positioning Elgin advantageously with two major rail lines and a notable presence of eight daily passenger trains.
The turn of the 20th century marked a phase of growth and prosperity for Elgin. A prolific cotton harvest in 1900 spurred the establishment of five operational cotton gins and a cotton oil mill, indicating a flourishing agricultural sector. Additionally, three brick manufacturing companies in the vicinity earned Elgin the moniker "The Brick Capital of the Southwest."
This growth trajectory extended into the 1920s, a period marked by the construction of numerous brick commercial buildings that contributed to Elgin's architectural landscape. Presently, Elgin boasts a population of approximately 8,000 residents, reflecting a proud and evolving community.