Scalped and Lived to Tell About It
When an old story comes from many sources, it is difficult to glean the exact details. In this case, we know a man was scalped and lived to tell about it. Farmers like Josiah Wilbarger and his wife who settled the west accepted the ever-present danger of Indians hostile to encroachment of the new arrivals. […]
BIG THICKET–FOREST WONDERLAND AND CIVIL WAR HIDEOUT
Opinions vary as to the parameters of the Big Thicket in Southeast Texas. Early Spanish explorers believed this vast wilderness of yellow pine trees five and six feet in diameter towering over dense growth of ferns, cactus, orchids, and carnivorous plants spread from the Old San Antonio Road all the way to the Gulf of […]
WILLIAM COWPER BRANN–THE ICONOCLAST
His supporters called him a visionary and a brilliant writer. Some even dubbed him the “Prairie Voltaire” and the “American Carlyle.” His detractors called him the “Devil’s Disciple.” Even his biographer Charles Carver described him as “a mean Mark Twain.” Upon his death, after a gun battle that also killed his assailant, those who hated […]
LA SALLE LEGACY
Two years after his death in 1687, explorer, fur trader, Frenchman, and visionary René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle deserves credit for the government of New Spain’s decision to construct missions in East Texas. The story springs from the massive colonization and exploitation of the New World by powerful European countries. Although Norse explorers […]
Elissa: Texas’ Tall Ship
She is a pricey lady, but Galvestonians claim her as their own and money seems not to be a concern when it comes to preserving this beauty. As far as anyone knows she only visited the island twice but she is a prize the city is proud to sail and show. Built in 1877 in […]
LINDHEIMER: FATHER OF TEXAS BOTANY
If you have heard of the Texas prickly pear cactus, the Texas yellow star daisy, milkweed and loco weed, or the Texas rat snake, you may be surprised to know all five derive their scientific name from Ferdinand Jacob Lindheimer—a botanist who scoured the wilds of Texas in the 1830s and 40s to discover several […]
TEXAS’ LADY CANNONEER
I call it being organized–juggling several things at the same time. However, like a circus clown trying to toss one too many bowling pins, I’ve dropped the whole passel. Expecting Friday to be especially busy, I wrote my blog, even added all the photos and went to bed knowing at the appointed hour on Friday […]
THE BELL WITH SEVEN LIVES
Travelers headed south across Central Texas may discover an interesting story of survival while passing through Cuero. On the southwest corner of US highways183 and 87, the handsome mission style St. Mark’s Lutheran Church boasts three bells in its arched façade. The small bronze bell, the one on the lower right, began life on the […]
TRUE TO THE UNION
One of the few Union monuments south of the Mason-Dixon Line stands in Comfort, Texas, honoring a group of Union sympathizers killed by Confederate troops. Most of the Unionists, young German immigrants recently arrived in the United States to escape oppression in their native country, saw themselves as freethinkers, intellectuals who did not believe in […]
SUTTON-TAYLOR FEUD
William Sutton was the only Sutton involved in this feud, but he had a lot of friends, including some members of Governor E. J. Davis’ State Police. The Taylor faction consisted of the sons, nephews, in-laws and friends of Creed and Pitkin Taylor. Creed apparently did not join the fight and Pitkin, an old man, […]