Vol 09 No. 06 - March 1932

Gerome Shield, Typical Texas Sheriff

NOTE: This is NOT a duplicate to the article on Gerome Shield found in the February, 1932 edition of Frontier Times.

GEROME W. SHIELD, was a typical Texas sheriff of the old school. During the years that he was sheriff of Tom Green county he was a terror to violators of the law, and when he went after a man-a cow-thief or a desperado, he always brought him in, dead or alive. He was absolutely fearless in dealing with lawless characters, and no matter how "tough" or how "desperate" the criminal happened to be, 'Rome Shield did not hesitate to take his trail and follow it until he got his man. Before he became a sheriff he was a cowboy and ranchman, and after he served four consecutive terms as sheriff of Tom Green county, he went back to the ranch life which he loved so well, and followed stock-raising until he died. This is a brief account of his life.

Further Mentions: He was born in Panola county, Mississippi, March 23, 1862 * came to Texas with his parents in 1869 * The family settled in Hunt county * moved to Coleman county and Trickham. * In 1884, 'Rome Shield located in Green county, securing work on the William Hewitt ranch on Live Oak Creek.

Fought With Billy The Kid

Eugene Cunningham. Here is some very serious and detailed history on Billy the Kid.

(EDITOR'S NOTE-Mr. J. W. Bracken, of Austin, Texas, has this to say about the above article. "I was all over Northwest Texas and Northeastern New Mexico just after the Lincoln county War, and this account of that bloody affair, with a few exceptions, is the most accurate account I have ever seen in print. In no account of that War have I ever seen the names of Jim Hisaw and a man by the name of Howell. I know that they were two of Chisum's main fighting men, Hisaw especially. Hisaw had several indictments against him in Lincoln county. Captain McMurray brought him to our headquarters camp and told me to hold him till he came after him or sent for him, which I did. Later on he took him to Lincoln county and got all of the indictments against him dismissed. Howell fell off of a wagon somewhere in East Texas and was killed. Jim Hisaw was known all over Northeast Texas in the 80's, Captain McMurray used him as an undercover man. He was one of the most reliable men that I ever had any dealings with.")

Further Mentions: * Lincoln county, New Mexico * the Captain Mountains * Florencio Chavez * the old Murphy, Riley and Dolan store building * the McSween store and bank * Billy the Kid * John Chisum * the Harold boys, Tunstall, McSween, Major Murphy, Pat Garrett * the Seven Rivers country * the valley of the Bonito * Lincoln * the firm of Murphy, Riley & Dolan * Alexander A. McSween * J. H. Tunstall, a young English capitalist * Mrs. Scholland, sister of Colonel Emil Fritz * To McSween came a, Major Murphy's one-time friend and partner at the military post of Fort Stanton. * Emil Fritz, who had established the Fritz ranch below Lincoln * Fort Stanton * the firm of Spiegelberg * Murphy, Riley and Dolan went to law * Rio Feliz * Jesse Evans * Frank Baker, Billy Morton and Jim McDaniels * Frank Coe * Coe's Ruidoso ranch * Jim Gillett * the sheriff of Silver City * San Elizario jail. * Rio Feliz ranch * Dick Brewer * Tom Hill * the Rio Penasco, a few miles from the Pecos * Frank Baker * Blazer's above Tularosa * Charlie Bowdre, Dock Middleton * Scroggins and Steve Stevens * Jack Middleton * George Coe * George Hindman * Old Mesilla * George Mind * Billy Matthews and Dad Peppin * John Copeland sheriff * Harvey Morris * Tom O'Phalliard * Ighenio Salazar, Ignacio Gonzales, Jose Semora, Francisco Romero * Colonel Dudly, commanding Fort Stanton * Harvey Norris * Skurlock * Sheriff Bob Beckwith * Salazar * Governor Axtell * General Lew Wallace * the old Ellis house * Jimmy Dolan * Jesse Evans * Bill Campbell * Tom Pickett * Dave Rudabaugh * Stinking Springs * one Bernstein, Mescalero Agency clerk * J. W. Bell * Bob Ollinger * Bob Beckwith * Pete Maxwell, the Fort Sumner sheepman * John W. Poe-an old Buffalo hunter *

TEXAS RIVER FLOWS TWO WAYS

A. H. Dunlap, a member of the State Board of Water Engineers, says there is a river in Texas that flows two ways. This fact was discovered by Mr. Dunlap recently during a trip to…

Some Early History Of San Saba County

By J. M. Low. [SELLER’S NOTE: HERE IS AN EXAMPLE OF WHY THESE FRONTIER TIMES ARE INVALUABLE FOR HISTORICAL AND GENEALOGICAL RESEARCH. HERE IS AN ACCOUNT FULL OF FIRST-HAND ACCOUNTS OF THE EARLIEST SETTLERS OF THIS REGION].

I will give you the names of some of the earliest settlers of San Saba county, when they came and where they settled, especially will I mention those whom I remember as having moved in from 1854 to 1860.

The first settlement was on Lower Cherokee Creek. On November 7, 1854 David Matsler, Poplin and Rumsey moved to this locality. A few weeks later D. D. Low and his brothers, J. M. and W. A. settled on the Colorado river. About the same time E. M. Boyett and Ambrose Kasey moved from Burnet and settled in the same neighborhood.

Further Mentions: A. J. Crawford's father, D. A. Harris, Joe Barnett, J. W. Flemming, Sam Linn, John Barnett, T. P. Hamrick, Jim Bolt, W. W. and Jim Crawford, Mrs. W. F. Luckie * the mouth of Simpson Creek * Abner Gregg, his two sons W. R. and John F. Dawson and John Smelser's father settled on Rough Creek. * Watses * Harkley and his sons, W. J., Levi, Riley and Israel, Jackson Brown and J. McDaniel settled on Wallace Creek * In 1854 or 1855 James Wood and his sons, W. R., John Spencer and Henry, and A. Woods settled on Richland Creek. Pony Hall, Beardy Hall and Pick, John and Bob Duncan settled near the same place about the same time. * Dr. Sloan and his two sons, Dr. Allen, At. H. Wardsworth, J. L. and John Baxter, John Fleming, A. J. Rose, Harvey Maxwell, McCarty and the Kings settled on the San Saba river in the Rock Shoals neighborhood. * Simpson Creek was settled by Matthew Hubbert, W. J. Murray, Henry and Allen Taylor, Jack Binion, Rev. John Davis, Burl Hamrick and Tom Farr * San Saba was settled in 1855 by Dr. J. C. Rogan, Dr. J. W. Hudson, J. S. Williams, the Burtons, Ely and Amos Freestone, G. B. Cooke, W. T. Murray, Barnett, Wear, George Williams, H. Harmon * Joe and Irvin Campbell, Chainey Crouch, Jack Latham, W. Thaxton, James Henderson, Jack Hinton, George Conway, and Haidens moved to Wallace Creek in 1855 * Upper Cherokee: Dr. Elliott was the first to move there. From '45 to '60 the following men settled there Capt John R. Williams, D. S. Hanna, Joe Hext, W. J. and Matthew Kuy. kendall, John Jackson, R. T. and Ben Barber, R. W. Gray, E. Estep and Joe Montgomery and his sons, J. C., J. N., M. L. and Lehue * Frank Haskell, Kelley and Poplin.

Further Mentions: Broyles' Valley * Charley Harris and Lambert * , J. B. Harrell and A. L. Houston of Georgetown * Isaiah Clark of Missouri * William Wier * J. H. Brown * Cyrus Ford * The Shaw Bend locality * Matt Brown, W. McShan and Linnett Mussett * Jeff Warren * Warren Crossing * A. Kirkpatrick and his brother, Jay * Pecan Bayou * W. J. Wallis, Rev. Sam Gay, J. P. Pyeatt and his brother, Andrew * Rough Creek * David Holland * Holland Hill. * Lampson and Billy Cole * Pool Branch * Bill Baker * Falls Creek * William Jennings * Dick, Tom Gooch, Newt Jackson, H. W. Marley, Buck Davis and Asherbrand, D. Beardsley and Joe Pullin * Marley Creek * Rev. Arnett, E. M. Moore * the Widow Eastman and Williamson * Cherokee Creek * Chappell community * J. Y. Tate and R. Kolb * : Dr. Masterson, Frank Ward, Captain Grumbles and his son, John, Jim and Wiley Williams, Capt. N. D. McMillin, J. N. Gauney, B. F. Smith, R. Bedwell, D. M. Williams, J. A. Taylor, W. R. Doran, J. R. Bomar, S. W. Terry, Bige Duncan and Nick Sutton * Davy Houston, William Davis and Cleveland, James Kelley and J. W. Means. * The first campmeeting in San Saba county was held in the fall of 1855 on Hamrick Greek by Rev. Smith, known as "Cedar Top," * Simpson Creek * Mrs. J. B. Carroll * by a Missionary Baptist minister from Burnet * John Hudson, Presbyterian * Flemming Spring * Cherokee Creek * Mrs. Matsler * Revs. Tunnell, Arnett, Moorland and A. G. Lane * The first store in the county was just below the Hamrick Branch * Jim Bolt put a saloon at the same place His smith was a negro * The first grave dug in the county was just across Mill Creek * Captain Grumbles * Sinnett Nussett * San Saba county was organized in act creating the county and defining its bonds was passed by the sixth Legislature. The boundaries of the county were as follows: "Beginning at the mouth of Fall Creek,. on the Colorado river; thence due west thirty miles; thence due north to the Colorado river thence…*

The first election for county officers was held on the 3rd day of May, 1856, at which the following officers were Elected: Jacob Harrell, chief justice; A. Sloan, district clerk; Eli Freeman, sheriff; M. Harkey… * G. B. Cook * ; Cal Montgomery, J. H. (Shorty) Brown, Williamson `Fear and James Wood * John McNeel * Chief Justice Jas. L. Burland, of Burnet county * J. C. Rainey's * Wallace Creek * Rowe's land, on the hill near old home place * J. C. Rainey's place * James Story * the R. D. McAnnelly Survey No. 37 * the 0. Wilcox Survey * The Cherokee Indians, led by their famous chiefs, Bowl and Egg, went on the war-path, murdering men, women and children * Capt. Lynch * McAnnelly's Bend * Lynch's Creek * the German Immigration Company * Captain Ed Burleson * the place owned by O. S. Ayres on Wallace Creek *

Cattle Battle On Edwards Plateau In 1884

Sam Ashburn. In this story, W. J. (Joe) Greer recounts a battle cattlemen fought with sheepman. The site of this severe skirmish in the then, untamed Edwards Plateau country was the famous Green Lake, a lake that never goes dry, now a matter of three miles off the Junction Rocksprings road and about halfway between Junction and this city. Mr. Greer had fenced in the lake, the times were dry and hard, and water was going at a premium. Drifting sheepmen and cattlemen wandered through the country building foundations for many fortunes of this period. Residents of the west did not like fences and neither did they like the sheepmen at that time so they took their wire knippers and cut the fence away.

Further Mentions: Camp Leona on the Leona river four miles south of Uvalde * the Greer Brothers ranch * One of the rangers, W. W. Baker * a Mr. Gaines and a Mr. Turner * Dr. Burt * Dr. Coleman, then ranching on the North Llano * William Tillery * Mason, Texas * M. M. Bradford, L. K. Henderson, Eaf Dragoo, J. D Gaines, Jack Turner, Frank Heggermann *

Traded Farm For A Sack Of Coffee

W. S. Adair. Story of Texas pioneer, L. T. Caton whose father, J. C. Caton moved the family from Missouri to Texas in 1852. They settled in Denton county and later in Ellis County.

Further Mentions: Colbert's Ferry, four miles north of the present site of Denison * a rich Indian, named Colbert * Old Man Chrystol * Denton county * 160 acres on the east side of Denton Creek * John Beal * with M. Ball, who lived in a cabin eight miles north of Decatur * Jacksboro Fort Belknap * After a sojourn of a few years on Denton Creek, father sold his survey, or traded it, for a survey near Pilot Point * John Anderson arrived at Pilot Point with several families of negroes and a drove of mules and jacks * we moved from Sherman to Ellis county, taking a place three miles from Possum Trot (now Red Oak), and eight miles below Lancaster, Dallas county * E. J. Davis, reconstruction Governor * Cole Younger, who had sacrificed everything for the Southern cause *

Texas Rangers Of Early Days To Get Reward

By Byron C. Utecht. Mentions the Rangers’ widows who will receive more than $200,000 in federal pensions.

Further Mentions: Maj. A. B. Coffee of the Adjutant General's Department * Coryell County * 'Mrs. Roy Smith, Big Spring * Company A. J. H. Neal, G. B. Broadwater, T. L. Oglesby, George W. Baylor and L. K. Caldwwell * Company B, G. W. Campbell, June Peak, Ira Long, Bryan Marsh and S. A. McMurray. * Company C, G. W. Arrington, John Hoffer and G. W. Schmidt. * * Company E, N. O. Reynolds, C. L. Neville and J. T. Gillespie. * Company D, D. W. Roberts and L. P. Sicker. * Company F, Pat Dolan and Joe Sheely. * John B. Jones, who was Adjutant General in 1880 * Baylor and General Grierson * General Buell * The last battle with Indians in Texas, according to well authenticated reports, took place ins Blanca Canyon, not far from Quitaque on the West Texas Plains, General McKenzie, leading United States cavalry, driving from Texas Comanehes and Kiowas. The site of this battle is pointed out today, and the new Denver and South Plains Railroad runs close by. *

'TEXAS BOB' HECKLE IS CLAIMED BY DEATH

Robert "Texas Bob" Heckle, snowy haired frontiersman, veteran of cattle and Indian trail, friend of all pioneers had been a resident of the Salt River valley for 42 years, coming from Texas, where his family had moved when he was less than one year old.

Mentions: Mrs. Emma Robinson, Cactus; Mrs. Hattie Lewellin, San Diego ; Mrs Ella Sullivan and Mrs Agnes Sikes, Glendale ; and six sons, David, Canon; Robert, Prescott; Travis, Camp Wood; Ingersoll, Wagner; Lee, Glendale; and Claremmce, Redding, Calif.

SAN ANTONIO LONG A MILITARY CENTER

All through its history, as today, San Antonio has been a center of military activity. From the time the Spanish established the old mission of San Antonio de Valero, in 1715, until the present, there has rarely been a day when uniformed soldiers were not to be seen in and about the city. Today San Antonio is headquarters for the independent military establishments which contribute toward making San Antonio the largest military center in the world. Until the world war came on, Fort Sam Houston was the outstanding military reservation. Then came the three flying fields, running close second to the gigantic central post. But in point of acreage the establishment at Leon Springs, consisting of Camp Stanley and Camp Bullis, are by far the largest. The United States government established San Antonio as a military post on October 28, 1845. For several years the army establishment moved about, and it was not until May 6, 1870, that the first deed for Fort Sam Houston was executed. The original deed called for 1,245 acres. Several times later on other acreage was acquired and today the army establishment in and around San Antonio occupies a total of 33,278 acres.

Morrell, The Pioneer Preacher

Marjorie Rogers, Marlin, Texas. SPREADING THE gospel in the wilds of Texas in 1835 was a hazardous undertaking, and it took a real he-man to act as "skypilot." During this period, "Wild-cat-Morrell," the famous "cane-brake" preacher from Tennessee, planted the first seeds of Baptist doctrine in Central Texas by preaching the first religious sermon to be heard in this part of the country. Z. N. Morrell heard that soul stirring appeal that was hurled from the various pulpits of the States and decided to hit the trail for Texas. "Who Among You Will Go To Texas?" The province of Texas was considered a real mission field, and it was. The map was put before Morrell and his companions and the "Falls of the Brazos" was pointed out as a good location for a colony to be established, so they mounted their horses and rode away. Colonists were so anxious to hear a sermon in this new country where there were few settlers and no churches at all that the denomination made no difference, and all expounders of the gospel were treated with the greatest of respect. And why not? These pioneer preachers could fix a broken wagon wheel, shoot Indians, plow a field and talk politics as well as uplift morals. It was generally understood that a Texas minister had real zeal, faith and courage or he would not be in this wild part of the country where it took a fighter to live. This is a great story about a truly great man.

Further Mentions: Morrell was born in South Carolina, January 17, 1803 * Sterling C. Robertson * the Municipality of Viesca * Sarahville de Viesea * Old Milant Land District * Falls county * the Forks of Little River or Griffin's Fort * Parker's Fort * Fort Griffin * Cartwell * J. R. Jenkins * the Yegua bottom * Elm Creek * Lieutenant Erath * John K. Allen's framed building * Col. Ed Burleson * Colonel Burleson, Jack Hays, Ben and Henry McCulloeh, Morrell, Judge R. E. Baylor, for whom Baylor University was named, T. W. Cox, the three famous pioneer preachers, and many others met the Indians in a bloody battle at Plum Creek * Mrs. Watts, whose husband was killed at Linnville

Captain John Pope's Route To The Pacific

Col. M. L. Crimmins.

THE DECADE from 1845 to 1855 was one of the fullest in United States history, and each of its events had a definite bearing on the proposed Southern Railway, with whose route this article deals. The admission of Texas in 1845, followed closely by the Mexican War, opened a vast new territory to settlement and exploitation. The discovery of gold in California made quick transportation and communication imperative, not only to save the following thousands from the fate of those who were journeying for wearying months around the Horn, dying like flies inNicaragua, or guiding the perilous and uncertain destiny of a prairie schooner across an unfriendly land, but also to bind the new and highly prosperous territory (so soon to be a State) to the Union. The growing friction between North and South, the realization of many Southerners in 1850 that war must come, and their intelligent and unceasing efforts to postpone it until the South was economically in a better position, the gradual swinging of trade routes away from north-and-south to east-and west, made a railroad connecting the South with the new southern empire a prime necessity. Quite naturally, it was Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War in President Pierce's Cabinet, who sent out the expeditions to report on the possibility of the five different routes for such a railroad to the Pacific. Congress appropriated $150,000 for this purpose. The route this story describes was the most southern of the five surveyed, and extended from the Red River to the Rio Grande, near parallel 32, north latitude. The survey was made in 1854 by Brevet Captain John Pope, Corps of Topographical Engineers. In 1849, Captain Randolph B. Marcy, 5th United States Infantry, had laid out a wagon road along the line Pope was to follow a road which has been in constant use since that time. This is the historic account of that route.

Further Mentions: * Dr. Brown, of Gonzales * Captain Pope * Dona Ana, * Preston * Kenner Garrard, 1st Dragoons * Lieutenant L. H. Marshall, 3rd Infantry * Captain Charles L. Taplin, Acting Mineralogist; Dr. W. S. Diffenderfer, Surgeon and Naturalist; John H. Byrne * the Staked Plain * The Organ Mountains * the Huecos * the Guadalupe Mountains * The Llano Estacado, a desert with neither wood nor water * Captain Taplin * Fort Belknap * Young County * The Wacos, Wichitas, and Caddoes * Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Cherokees * Fort Arbuckle * Forts Richardson * Fort Chadbourne * The oil fields of Young County * Archer County *

Tale Of Lost Mines Refuses To Die

The early settlers of the San Saba and Llano country found an old road leading south from the presidio of San Luis de las Amarillas. As it was their belief that the Spaniards had hauled bullion over it to San Antonio and Mexico, they called it Silver Trail and they traveled it themselves until the country was fenced. Like other roads laid out by men who must beware of ambush it kept as much as possible to high and open ground. The land it traversed on the North Fork of the Llano came to be known as Lechuza ranch.

In 1881 the Lechuza came into the possession of a young Scotchman, Capt. George Keith Gordon, who, after having hunted slavers on the east coast of Africa and mapped many of its harbors, had lately retired from the British navy. Many years have passed since Captain Gordon became interested in the San Saba mine; he is still interested and has a trail to hunt out. This is his story

Further Mentions: Fort McKavett * Gen. John R. Baylor * Capt. Ben McCulloch of the Texas rangers * Packsaddle mountain * A Spaniard by the name of Blanco * the Bowie mine * the Blanco mine * Among the earliest settlers in Llano county was a man by the name of Larimore * Jim Rowland * a fellow named Chancy *

GEORGETOWN WOMAN TELLS OF INDIAN CAPTURE

Mrs. Mary Fritz Halden who spent her girlhood at Fredericksburg when it was a pioneer town, recalls the event that nearly cost her her own life when she was a small child.

Most Texas histories contain the tragic story of 15-year-old Amy Metzger and her sister, Ann, 13, who were captured by an Indian band about two miles from Fredericksburg as they trudged home from school. That was in 1867, in turbulent reconstruction days.

It was by merest chance, however, that little Mary Fritz did not accompany her friends on that fatal walk. The girls had stopped at the Fritz home to invite their friend to their house for the night, but Mary's mother had objected because a rain storm seemed near.

Disconsolately, the two Metzger children walked homeward, until in a wooded section they were stopped by Indians. The older girl screamed and fought against her captors, the younger was tied to a tree, bound and gagged.

And 13-year-old Anna was forced to look while a scalping knife grew red with her sister's blood ; fortunately she fainted before the savages started their work of mutilating the body.

The whole town was thrown into a frenzy when the crime was discovered a day later as the girls' brother came up on Amy's body, lying in the road. There was no trace of the younger girl, and it was not until many months later that her story of being taken with the Indians and made to live in their village was learned. How she escaped, made her way to Mexico, and finally advertised for her parents in a newspaper which was read in Fredericksburg, is part of Texas pioneer history.

Further Mentions: Mrs. Charles Mosteller * George Halden * Georgetown

Ranch Founded By Richard King Becomes An Empire

By Charles Harrison. Here is story of the almost immortal figure, Captain Richard King, whose name is synonymous with the largeness of Texas itself. He had laid the foundations of what is the largest ranch in the United States and perhaps in the world. His picture hangs in the mess hall on the second floor of the big bunk house at Santa Gertrudis, a picture made in 1885, the year of his death, by one F. W. Guerin. And in that now fading likeness with its high forehead, steely blue eyes, blocky jaw, with wavy chin whiskers, there is written the character of the man who fought for an empire and won. Beneath that picture at the long pine table there sit today men of his stamp booted men, with the sorrel hair of cow ponies still clinging to their chaps, drinking cups of boiled coffee, telling yarns of the days before "barb" wire ruin't Texas."

Further Mentions: the Edwards Plateau * Santa Gertrudis creek, about two miles from the present town of Kingsville * The brand that he took was the Running W, and he lived to see that brand known by every cowman from Texas to the plains of Saskatchewan. Why he took the brand is lost in, legend. Some say that it was the brand of a herd that he bought from a hacienda in Mexico. Essentially the brand is a line with a hump in the middle, no angles, no crosses and hence no chance for "blots," in the lingo of the cow camps. It is a brand that cannot be "burned"-changed by rustlers into another mark. *

When Captain King passed on, the management of the King pastures were left to his wife, Mrs. Henrietta M. King, and her capable son-in-law, Robert J. Kleberg. Captain King was the pioneer, the man who subdued the wilderness, who set up cannon in front of his ranch house to drive away marauding bandits. Robert J. Kleberg was, the builder, the man who consolidated the vast King holdings, who bred up the King herds, who took the lead in every movement for the betterment of the cattle industry. And when the irons that once seared the XIT and other brands equally famous onto the flanks of the thousands of steers that were driven up the Chisholm Trail to the 'Kansas rail heads are rusting away in the dust of forgotten corrals, the Running W of Captain King is still found in every packing pen from North Fort Worth to Chicago.

Further Mentions: Robert W. Stayton and James B. Wells * Robert J. Kleberg was born in DeWitt County December 5, 1853 * Miss Alice Gertrudis King * Samuel G. Ragland * Raymondville * John D. Finnegan * La Puerta ranch * the Corpus Christi National Bank * The Santa Gertrudis pastures lie in Kleberg, in Jim Wells and in Brooks counties * Then there is the Laurelas, its headquarters in the brush 20 miles southeast of Kingsville, in Kleberg county. Charlie Burrell is the foreman of this outfit. * Worth Wright * the Canella pasture * And the Norias, in Kenedy, Willacy, Brooks and Hidalgo counties. Headquarters are 60 miles south of Kingsville, on the Missouri Pacific. Here Calsar Kleberg, nephew of Robert Kleberg, is manager. *

REMINISCENCES OF A FORMER TEXAN

Account of Mrs. John Petty, who came to Texas with her family in the fall of 1849 from Mississippi, settling at a village called Chappell Hill in Washington county, named for the Chappells. She goes on to relate primarily, of life as as a student and then teacher in the this area during frontier days.

Further Mentions: two young men to teach, Mr. Dunn and Mr. Wilson * Deguerre * ambrotypes * Miss Helen Swearengen * Mrs. Kirby * Mary, the mother of Eugene Daughtrey of Georgetown, and Ed Wallis, (afterwards of Wallis and Landis of Galveston) *

Founding Of Town By Castro In 1844 Celebrated

Account relates the early history, founding and development of Castroville, TX

Further Mentions: the Order of the Alhambra, a branch of the Knights of Columbus * Henri De Castro * Rev. J. M. Odin * Louis Rodriguez * G. L. Haas * Louis Huth and J. S. Bourgeois * Quihi on the banks of Lake Quihi, nine miles west of Castroville * Verde Creek to New Fountain * the town of D'Hanis * Names of the original colonists are graven on the side of the Castroville memorial as follows: Jean Batiste Lecomte, Theodore Gentilz, August Fretelliere, J. S. Bourgeois, Louis Huth, George Cupples, Charles Goubaud, Jean Faiver, Denis Boileau, Anton Erath, Joseph Ilaby, Joseph Bader, George Oertel, Leanard Hans, Mr. Clovis Chapoy, C. F. Macles, Leopold Menetried, Theopltile Mercier, Antoine Gully, Phillip Schneider, Louis Graf, Johnnes Hal'ler G. L. Haas, Charles De Montel, Sax Caspard, August Weber, August Bartz, Berthold Barth, Lorenz Rihn, Joseph Marc, Durs Spani, Ov ide Reseq, Joseph Haegelin, Joseph Diseher, Xavier Jung, Jacob Zinsmeyer, .Jean Stefan, Joseph Burell, Jacob Haby, Anton Gsell, Joseph Weber, Nicolas Ilab3' Michel Simon, Jean Ulrich Zuercher, Zacharie Ludwig Methicu Weber, Jean Marie Resee, and Jean Nicolas Fourgeaux

The Great Plains; A New Plan For History Writing

By J. Evetts Haley. Account relates insights of Walter Prescott Webb, who wrote on the differences between the Eastern and Western cultural and social development. Webb spent his boyhood upon the edge of the Plains country, at the western fringe of the Cross Timbers of Texas, and found from experience that the problems of living there were different from those of the 'eastern woodland his family had left behind. In the West, Webb saw many of the readjustments and adaptations demanded by a dry climate of eastern institutions and technique of life. Here he saw the scourge of beating hail and blowing sand, the blight of hot winds, the plague of grasshoppers and the devastation of drought. When he became interested in writing the history of the open country, this personal experience sharpened his insight into its problems and deepened his sympathy for his people. Like other pioneer explorations, the beginning of this one is of interest. Webb clearly reveals the fact that innovations in pioneer traveling ranching, fencing, provision of water, systems of land and methods of farming were forced by the differences in the Plains environment. Hence the proof is readily apparent that when "the Anglo-Americans who approached the Great Plains from the East. . . With an experience of more than two centuries of pioneering in the woodland, crossed over into the Plains, their technique of pioneering broke down and they were compelled to make a radical readjustment in their way of life . . . The history of the white man in the Great Plains is the history of adjustments and modifications, of giving up old things that would no hanger function for new things that would . . . " How well every Westerner who has pulled a "sucker rod" or railed up an old cow knows the truth of this observation!

Further Mentions: Prof. Frederick Jackson Turner, the dean of Western history * Emerson Hough * Ginn and Company