A true Texas fact

[Wildthings]

The Arcane Texas Fact of the Day:

The highest point between Dallas and Houston is Tehuacana, Texas, at an altitude of 640 feet above sea level. Tehuacana is six miles northwest of Mexia in Limestone County and has a population of 283 hearty souls, plus a mess of dogs, cats and horses and one Vietnamese pot-bellied pig named "Lo-retta."

Ahhhh Tehuacana!! I've been through there and have some photos somewhere...hmmmmm….. in the meantime here's some info from Texas Escapes

History in a Pecan Shell

The town’s post office was called Tewockony Springs in 1847 – named after springs that had been named after the local Tawakoni Indians.

In 1852 the Tehuacana Academy opened, and the town became known as Tehuacana Hills – being the highest point of elevation between Dallas and Houston. The post office continued operation under the name Tewockony Springs, but it was renamed in 1869 after it reopened after a closing brought upon by the Civil War.

The Cumberland Presbyterian Church made Tehuacana the site of Trinity University and it remained there until it moved to Waxahachie in 1902.

The property was then sold to the Methodist Church, which opened Westminster College.

Westminster College merged with Southwestern University in 1942 but the school closed its doors in 1950. The school opened as Westminster Junior College and Bible Institute in 1953.

Westminster College Athelic Team with school building in background.

The Trinity and Brazos Valley Railway came through in 1903 but was discontinued in 1942 when WWII created a need for the steel rails of short line and little-used railroads.

The population has fluctuated between a high of over 600 in the 1920s and a low of 265 in the early 1980s.

 

[woodman6415]

A True Texas Arcane fact of the day.....
This damn yankee was missin you....
Good to see this back on track. @Tony was a little short on facts, but he's forgiven.

Tony is a Little short period...

 

[TXMoon]

The Arcane Texas Fact of the Day is a Doozy:

In Brazoria, Texas, there is a park called the "Masonic Oak Park." It is named after a live oak tree that stands in the park. The tree is called the Masonic Oak because it was under that tree that Stephen F. Austin, Anson Jones (later President of the Republic of Texas), John A. Wharton (for whom Wharton is named), J.F. Caldwell (for whom Caldwell is named), A.E Phelps, Alexander Russell, and Asa Brigham met in March, 1835. to establish the first Masonic Lodge in Texas. Jones wrote, "The place of the meeting was back of the town of Brazoria near the place known as General John Austin's, in a little grove of wild peach or laurel, and which had been selected as a family burying ground for that distinguished soldier and citizen." They met underneath what was then a very prominent, 200 year-old live oak tree. The lodge was called the Holland Lodge, named for J.H. Holland who, at that time, was the Masonic Grand Master of Louisiana. The tree still stands and it is now estimated to be close to 400 years old. You can actually visit it. It's right here:

https://www.google.com/maps/@29.055...4!1sk8YlAS231ngqoTTI7DrU4A!2e0!7i13312!8i6656


If you look you can see both a historical marker and a granite marker erected by the Masons to mark the spot. HOW COOL IS THAT?. To think that this tree bore witness to that meeting and to every second of Texas history since then is pretty mind-blowing. I told y'all it is a doozy of an Arcane Texas Fact!

Very cool! We go out and visit "the Big Tree" near Rockport about once a year. Also, speaking of Brazoria, one of my favorite biker bars is called West of the Brazos on 36, in Damon, TX. Thank you for the History.

 

[David Hill]

A True Texas Arcane fact of the day.....
This damn yankee was missin you....
Good to see this back on track. @Tony was a little short on facts, but he's forgiven.

Well...….short anyway.
Just adding---didn't see Wendell's until after I posted.


GREAT to see ya back!

 

[Wildthings]

Very cool! We go out and visit "the Big Tree" near Rockport about once a year.

Ahhhh Goose Island "Big Tree"!! I've been through there and have some photos somewhere...hmmmmm….. oh yeah here they are



Here it is with the original chainlink fence



and the info on it

 

[Tony]

EDIT: I unfortunately didn't buy this building.

History uncovered... We purchased our building on the north side of the square in Comanche in early 2019. Our intent is to bring back the history and original beauty this building has to offer. As with all historic renovation projects, there are setbacks and unforseen schedule changes due to the "unknowns" one always finds. Around the end of October we started prepping the inside walls of our building to paint. The east wall was stucco, as seen in the first picture. Our building was built sometime around the mid 1870s. Layer after layer of "new and improved" renovations had been done over the past 145 years; covering up the prettiest parts of the building. The stucco had been added to the wall sometime in the late 1920s to early 1930s and then had been covered up since the late 1950s with studded sheetrock walls. You can imagine the dust and dirt on it. I had already crawled up into the space between the ceiling and the roof to identify a leak and discovered that behind the stucco was some old red brick. So it didn't take long to decide to chip off some of the stucco and expose the brick in the lobby and office portions of the building. But little did we know! When we were prepping the outside of the building for paint, I had the man running the powerwasher go ahead and wash the stucco wall. When he did, he knocked off a loose piece of stucco at the very top of the wall; which was black underneath it and not red brick. I stepped back and looked at it and said "Wouldn't it be neat if there was something painted on the brick under the stucco?" Well I don't by lottery tickets because if it weren't for bad luck I wouldn't have any luck at all so the hope of something being painted on that wall left about as quick as I said it. After we finished washing the wall, I started chipping away at the bottom of the stucco down at the floor. And what did I find; red brick. Of course! However, after about the 4th swing of the hammer and chisel...it was still red; but red paint this time. I followed the red paint up about 3 feet but had no clue what I was looking at. So I chipped a little more to the left. Still no clue. So I chipped a little more to the right and found another color. White. What? So I chipped til I ran out of white paint and low and behold...I had a T. The red paint still made me curious so I stepped back to get a view of all of it and then it hit me. "That's the tail end of a cow!" To which made no sense at all so that only left 1 option. We had to see what WAS painted on that wall. Being somewhat smarter than I look, I figured that if it truly were a cow that that would only lead to more questions than answers so I decided to chip away in the direction of the T to see if we could uncover a word. Each letter uncovered brought a thousand guesses until it became evident we were dealing with TOBACCO. Most old buildings had tabacco on the floor; we now had it on the wall! So putting two and two together we googled tobacco brands and up popped BULL DURHAM. Duh! But really, did we seriously have an advertisement for Bull Durham Tobacco in Comanche, Texas let alone in our building? It took 2 1/2 days to slowly chip away the stucco covering this once in a lifetime find. Each swing of the hammer and small piece of stucco that fell was like opening a present on Christmas morning. You didn't know what you were going to get! The mural is in pristine condition considering it's age. After a brief amount of research, it was determined that this mural was most likely painted between 1890 and 1900. It is 18' tall and 18' wide. Bull Durham Tobacco was a world famous loose-leaf tobacco manufactured by W.T. Blackwell in Durham, North Carolina from 1850 until 1988. Blackwell heavily advertised his brand of tobacco all across the country with the trademark bull. He commissioned artists in 1869 to begin painting these large murals across the country. The success of Bull Durham Tobacco was due to Blackwells advertising tactics that made it world famous and made Durham, North Carolina the Tobacco Capital of the World. Blackwells company was the one of the first to use a large scale advertising campaign across the country. Before his Bull Durham advertising, large marketing campaigns were unheard of and considered risky; to which W.T. Blackwell proved them wrong. Legend has it that at the time this mural was painted there wasn't a building where our's is now but was more of a walk through area. Later, it is told by historians that when a building was built it was home to the Jack Wright Saloon where outlaw legend John Wesley Hardin shot and killed then Brown County deputy Charles Webb in 1874. All of us are proud to have found, uncovered and will be able to preserve this awesome piece of history and artwork for years to come. Our plan is to remove the loose dust from the wall once construction is complete and seal the mural as is. We look forward to getting the building completed this next month and moved into our new offices. Stop in and see us at 109 West Grand on the north side of the square in Comanche...or to see the mural! :)

 

[ripjack13]

EDIT: I unfortunately didn't buy this building.

History uncovered... We purchased our building on the north side of the square in Comanche in early 2019. Our intent is to bring back the history and original beauty this building has to offer. As with all historic renovation projects, there are setbacks and unforseen schedule changes due to the "unknowns" one always finds. Around the end of October we started prepping the inside walls of our building to paint. The east wall was stucco, as seen in the first picture. Our building was built sometime around the mid 1870s. Layer after layer of "new and improved" renovations had been done over the past 145 years; covering up the prettiest parts of the building. The stucco had been added to the wall sometime in the late 1920s to early 1930s and then had been covered up since the late 1950s with studded sheetrock walls. You can imagine the dust and dirt on it. I had already crawled up into the space between the ceiling and the roof to identify a leak and discovered that behind the stucco was some old red brick. So it didn't take long to decide to chip off some of the stucco and expose the brick in the lobby and office portions of the building. But little did we know! When we were prepping the outside of the building for paint, I had the man running the powerwasher go ahead and wash the stucco wall. When he did, he knocked off a loose piece of stucco at the very top of the wall; which was black underneath it and not red brick. I stepped back and looked at it and said "Wouldn't it be neat if there was something painted on the brick under the stucco?" Well I don't by lottery tickets because if it weren't for bad luck I wouldn't have any luck at all so the hope of something being painted on that wall left about as quick as I said it. After we finished washing the wall, I started chipping away at the bottom of the stucco down at the floor. And what did I find; red brick. Of course! However, after about the 4th swing of the hammer and chisel...it was still red; but red paint this time. I followed the red paint up about 3 feet but had no clue what I was looking at. So I chipped a little more to the left. Still no clue. So I chipped a little more to the right and found another color. White. What? So I chipped til I ran out of white paint and low and behold...I had a T. The red paint still made me curious so I stepped back to get a view of all of it and then it hit me. "That's the tail end of a cow!" To which made no sense at all so that only left 1 option. We had to see what WAS painted on that wall. Being somewhat smarter than I look, I figured that if it truly were a cow that that would only lead to more questions than answers so I decided to chip away in the direction of the T to see if we could uncover a word. Each letter uncovered brought a thousand guesses until it became evident we were dealing with TOBACCO. Most old buildings had tabacco on the floor; we now had it on the wall! So putting two and two together we googled tobacco brands and up popped BULL DURHAM. Duh! But really, did we seriously have an advertisement for Bull Durham Tobacco in Comanche, Texas let alone in our building? It took 2 1/2 days to slowly chip away the stucco covering this once in a lifetime find. Each swing of the hammer and small piece of stucco that fell was like opening a present on Christmas morning. You didn't know what you were going to get! The mural is in pristine condition considering it's age. After a brief amount of research, it was determined that this mural was most likely painted between 1890 and 1900. It is 18' tall and 18' wide. Bull Durham Tobacco was a world famous loose-leaf tobacco manufactured by W.T. Blackwell in Durham, North Carolina from 1850 until 1988. Blackwell heavily advertised his brand of tobacco all across the country with the trademark bull. He commissioned artists in 1869 to begin painting these large murals across the country. The success of Bull Durham Tobacco was due to Blackwells advertising tactics that made it world famous and made Durham, North Carolina the Tobacco Capital of the World. Blackwells company was the one of the first to use a large scale advertising campaign across the country. Before his Bull Durham advertising, large marketing campaigns were unheard of and considered risky; to which W.T. Blackwell proved them wrong. Legend has it that at the time this mural was painted there wasn't a building where our's is now but was more of a walk through area. Later, it is told by historians that when a building was built it was home to the Jack Wright Saloon where outlaw legend John Wesley Hardin shot and killed then Brown County deputy Charles Webb in 1874. All of us are proud to have found, uncovered and will be able to preserve this awesome piece of history and artwork for years to come. Our plan is to remove the loose dust from the wall once construction is complete and seal the mural as is. We look forward to getting the building completed this next month and moved into our new offices. Stop in and see us at 109 West Grand on the north side of the square in Comanche...or to see the mural! :)
View attachment 176547 View attachment 176548 View attachment 176549

That doesn't look like you....

 

[Nubsnstubs]

EDIT: I unfortunately didn't buy this building.

History uncovered... We purchased our building on the north side of the square in Comanche in early 2019. Our intent is to bring back the history and original beauty this building has to offer. As with all historic renovation projects, there are setbacks and unforseen schedule changes due to the "unknowns" one always finds. Around the end of October we started prepping the inside walls of our building to paint. The east wall was stucco, as seen in the first picture. Our building was built sometime around the mid 1870s. Layer after layer of "new and improved" renovations had been done over the past 145 years; covering up the prettiest parts of the building. The stucco had been added to the wall sometime in the late 1920s to early 1930s and then had been covered up since the late 1950s with studded sheetrock walls. You can imagine the dust and dirt on it. I had already crawled up into the space between the ceiling and the roof to identify a leak and discovered that behind the stucco was some old red brick. So it didn't take long to decide to chip off some of the stucco and expose the brick in the lobby and office portions of the building. But little did we know! When we were prepping the outside of the building for paint, I had the man running the powerwasher go ahead and wash the stucco wall. When he did, he knocked off a loose piece of stucco at the very top of the wall; which was black underneath it and not red brick. I stepped back and looked at it and said "Wouldn't it be neat if there was something painted on the brick under the stucco?" Well I don't by lottery tickets because if it weren't for bad luck I wouldn't have any luck at all so the hope of something being painted on that wall left about as quick as I said it. After we finished washing the wall, I started chipping away at the bottom of the stucco down at the floor. And what did I find; red brick. Of course! However, after about the 4th swing of the hammer and chisel...it was still red; but red paint this time. I followed the red paint up about 3 feet but had no clue what I was looking at. So I chipped a little more to the left. Still no clue. So I chipped a little more to the right and found another color. White. What? So I chipped til I ran out of white paint and low and behold...I had a T. The red paint still made me curious so I stepped back to get a view of all of it and then it hit me. "That's the tail end of a cow!" To which made no sense at all so that only left 1 option. We had to see what WAS painted on that wall. Being somewhat smarter than I look, I figured that if it truly were a cow that that would only lead to more questions than answers so I decided to chip away in the direction of the T to see if we could uncover a word. Each letter uncovered brought a thousand guesses until it became evident we were dealing with TOBACCO. Most old buildings had tabacco on the floor; we now had it on the wall! So putting two and two together we googled tobacco brands and up popped BULL DURHAM. Duh! But really, did we seriously have an advertisement for Bull Durham Tobacco in Comanche, Texas let alone in our building? It took 2 1/2 days to slowly chip away the stucco covering this once in a lifetime find. Each swing of the hammer and small piece of stucco that fell was like opening a present on Christmas morning. You didn't know what you were going to get! The mural is in pristine condition considering it's age. After a brief amount of research, it was determined that this mural was most likely painted between 1890 and 1900. It is 18' tall and 18' wide. Bull Durham Tobacco was a world famous loose-leaf tobacco manufactured by W.T. Blackwell in Durham, North Carolina from 1850 until 1988. Blackwell heavily advertised his brand of tobacco all across the country with the trademark bull. He commissioned artists in 1869 to begin painting these large murals across the country. The success of Bull Durham Tobacco was due to Blackwells advertising tactics that made it world famous and made Durham, North Carolina the Tobacco Capital of the World. Blackwells company was the one of the first to use a large scale advertising campaign across the country. Before his Bull Durham advertising, large marketing campaigns were unheard of and considered risky; to which W.T. Blackwell proved them wrong. Legend has it that at the time this mural was painted there wasn't a building where our's is now but was more of a walk through area. Later, it is told by historians that when a building was built it was home to the Jack Wright Saloon where outlaw legend John Wesley Hardin shot and killed then Brown County deputy Charles Webb in 1874. All of us are proud to have found, uncovered and will be able to preserve this awesome piece of history and artwork for years to come. Our plan is to remove the loose dust from the wall once construction is complete and seal the mural as is. We look forward to getting the building completed this next month and moved into our new offices. Stop in and see us at 109 West Grand on the north side of the square in Comanche...or to see the mural! :)
View attachment 176547 View attachment 176548 View attachment 176549

Comanche, Texas. Home town of my uncles, aunts and mother. I was months away from being born there. Instead, my mom lost the battle as to where she wanted to live. So, I was born in Cajun Country... Comanche is a beautiful little town. I lived there twice, about 1947-8, and then from 53-55, then to Odessa for a year and back to Cajun Country. ............ Jerry (in Tucson)

 

[Nubsnstubs]

That doesn't look like you....

You're right Marck. He's too tall in that photo.............. Jerry (in Tucson)

 

[vegas urban lumber]

Ahhhh Goose Island "Big Tree"!! I've been through there and have some photos somewhere...hmmmmm….. oh yeah here they are

View attachment 176546

i like whatever the fence rails are made out of
kinda like oversized diamond willow

 

[Nubsnstubs]

i like whatever the fence rails are made out of
kinda like oversized diamond willow

It's Texas, Trev. Everything's oversized in Texas, 'cept Tony........... Jerry (in Tucson)

 

[Gdurfey]

So was this mural on the outside of the original building?? Very cool.

 

[Wildthings]

So was this mural on the outside of the original building?? Very cool.

It's actually on the inside wall of the building between the Wild West Mercantile store and the store on the corner. There was an alley between the two stores and this was painted on the outside wall of the building on the corner. The alley was eventually closed in to contain a saloon as mentioned above.
Here's a Google street view of it




@Tony Are you saying you didn't buy that building or is that just part of the C&P

 

[Tony]

It's actually on the inside wall of the building between the Wild West Mercantile store and the store on the corner. There was an alley between the two stores and this was painted on the outside wall of the building on the corner. The alley was eventually closed in to contain a saloon as mentioned above.
Here's a Google street view of it

View attachment 176550


@Tony Are you saying you didn't buy that building or is that just part of the C&P

No, it's not mine, just copied the post from Traces.

 

[Tony]

The Texas Quote of the Day: "Cures for many diseases were .based on folklore, and error, and old wives' tales. Some physicians drew off a cup of blood at the first complaint of a patient, even before the ailment was diagnosed. Brown sugar was believed to be just the thing for smallpox. A Texas rancher posted a prescription for bad colds in his bunkhouse: ONE QUART OF WHISKEY AND A DOZEN LEMONS. DIRECTIONS: THROW THE LEMONS AT A FENCE POST AND DRINK THE WHISKEY." ----- Ross Phares, Texas Tradition, 1954

 

[woodman6415]

The Texas Quote of the Day is fantastic. I edited it ever-so-slightly to make it a tad clearer, so it's not verbatim:

"All old time printers and telegraphers of the 1880s remember 'Peg,' for he was a remarkable character, never to be forgotten. He had lost one of his legs in a railroad accident, having gone to sleep and fallen off the brakebeam, or something like that. The leg was really a fine one and "Peg" could, and did, get from $10 to $15 on it in any pawnshop. He was a great talker, and when only half-loaded, was very amusing. He told some good stories, too. I remember one in particular....

'Gentlemen,' said he, 'you can talk about your hot towns as much as you want to, but Santone takes the cake. I was out there last winter and I had the time of my life. There was a big variety show going on down on one of the plazas and, of course, I went to see it.

The show was nearly over when a drunken cowboy came in. He had two big guns strapped round his waist and a Bowie knife that looked like a young sword. He swaggered about and the show had to stop for a few minutes and then catching sight of the boxes on the edge of the stage, he made for one. Everybody seemed to be afraid of him and tried to quiet and pacify him.

A fellow on the stage began to sing. The cowboy promptly ordered him to stop. The fellow paid no attention, but went on singing. The cowboy kept making a fuss. Finally the singer got mad and, advancing to the front of the stage, asked if there was not an officer in the house to take the drunken nuisance out and lock him up. There was no response so the singer advanced to the side of the stage and began climbing to the box.

The cowboy reached out and dragged him into the box. They dropped to the floor in a clinch, but as they fell I saw the cowboy had his knife in his hand. Then I saw them rise, the cowboy holding the singer by the back of the neck. He rammed him face foremost against the wall and rammed that big knife through him twice and then, slamming it plumb through him between the shoulders, he left it sticking in his body and, picking him up, hurled him out of the box to the stage below. "It was all over in a minute and there was the biggest stampede you ever saw. The whole audience made for the door in one solid mass, and I was working well in the lead, in spite of having only one good leg to work with.

When I struck the sidewalk I saw a policeman and rushed to him: I said, 'You had better go down yonder, a cowboy just murdered a man in the theater down there.' He looked at me and just grinned. 'That's all right,' said he. 'They been killing that same man for two nights now. It's part of the show.' "Next night I went back to enjoy the fun of seeing the stampede, now that I knew it was part of the show. I got a seat near the end of a row and there is where I was a fool.

The cowboy came in and went through the same performance. There was the same stampede, too. and a big Dutchman near me stampeded at the first flash of the knife and took the whole tier of seats with him. In the rush they got my leg, the broomstick one, jammed in the seat and broke it square off. Then they walked all over me and I never saw a thing. When the dust settled they found me all spraddled out on the floor. The proprietor acted pretty square. He set 'em up two or three times, sent me home in a hack and next morning early they had a carpenter come 'round and fix my stem, and that night I left for El Paso. Santone was too strenuous for me.'


----- Samuel Oliver Young, True Stories of Old Houston and Houstonians, 1910

 

[woodman6415]

The Texas Quote of the Day:

"For several years [circa 1870s] Waco and Fort Worth were the wildest cowboy towns on the frontier. Barrelhouse saloons occupied the best business stands. The bar was in front and the gambling department behind, with folding doors between. It was the special thrill of drunken cowboys to ride into the saloons, shoot up the mirror and shoot holes in the heads of barrels of whisky and catch in glasses the amber liquor as it streamed out and then come around next day and pay the damages, leaving it to the saloon men to name the amount of the harm done, for they did not pretend to be conversant with the value of things.

Streams of wagons came and went, bringing in wool, buffalo, hides and meat and taking out supplies of various kinds. At all hours the streets and wagon yards were crowded. Great herds of cattle on the way to Kansas and the pastures and markets of the North crossed the Brazos at Waco.

Later I made several trips as freighter to Lampasas and Brownwood, both wild towns, only on a somewhat smaller scale than Waco and Fort Worth. The people out that way could ride, rope and shoot straight. They were equally ready to settle any little dispute with you by shooting it out, or to give you anything they had if you seemed to need it worse than they did."

------ Onetime freighter S.H. Hall remembers the old days in an article in the Dallas News, November 1930

 

[woodman6415]

The Texas Quote of the Day:

"My duties at Jacksboro for the past month [March 1867] had been entirely indoors, and I was not prepared for the beautiful and enchanting appearance of the landscape, as I now for the first time saw the prairies in all their spring beauty. The gorgeous wild flowers, covering the green sward in a thousand hues, that would have made many a cultivated flower garden blush with envy ----- numbers of them were new to me ----- the splendid grass, covering the earth with a luxuriant matting; the clear atmosphere, the pure and bracing breezes sweeping from the gulf, all combined to enchant me with my first Texas spring. And, after all these years, each recurring spring here is as delightful to me as ever; nowhere, in my knowledge, does nature so completely re-invigorate everything and fill everything with new life as it does each spring in Northwest Texas."

----- H. H. McConnell, Five Years a Cavalryman, 1889

 

[Gdurfey]

.........and clear down through the hill country...….I so miss springtime in Texas.

 

[woodman6415]

The Arcane Texas Fact of the Day:

You may count yourself among a very small group of Texans if you know the Arcane Texas Fact of the Day: the town of Bastrop was founded on June 8, 1832, and named for the Baron de Bastrop, who had been helpful to Moses Austin, Stephen F. Austin's father, in Moses' attempt to obtain land rights for the first American colony in Texas.

A couple of years later, Mexican authorities imprisoned Austin in Mexico City. The white settlers in the Bastrop area, wanting to show their loyalty to Mexico in hopes of getting Austin released, renamed the town of Bastrop "Mina," in honor of Francisco Xavier Mina, a national hero and martyr to the cause of liberty in Mexico. And so it was that, on April 24, 1834, Bastrop officially changed its name to "Mina."

Austin was subsequently released and Texas won its independence. No longer having to show deference to Mexico, Texas renamed Mina back to Bastrop on December 18, 1837. And it's been Bastrop ever since.

So, if you knew that Bastrop was called "Mina" for about five and a half years, go to the 'fridge, get yourself a Shiner Bock, and smile inwardly to yourself regarding your superior Texanhood. But don't rub your friends' faces in it; wouldn't be nice.