To Become a Texian ed. by Ann M. Peel

To Become a Texian – The Letters and Journeys of Caroline Cox Morgan and Her Family 1839 – 1857.

Edited by Ann Macklin Peel. Frankfort, KY: the author, 1997. Paperbound $20.00 8 ½ X 10 183 pp. 6 pp photos. 2 maps. Afterword. Glossary. Bibliography. Index. Rev. by Donna Beth Shaw / P. O. Box 630231 / Houston 77263.

Ann Peel’s collection of old letters (now archived at the University of Kentucky) and notes chronicle real events of a family traveling and living between Kentucky and Texas and back, and their family relations in the mid-1800’s. Their intimate records reveal how ancestors might have been thinking. Peel, a descendant of James Morgan received a shoe box of letters from her aunt, and after years of deciphering and interviewing, the book emerged. The volume is virtually out of print. Digitization of the book will provide its availability on the University of North Texas Portal To Texas History by summer, 2007. This book is an excellent source of both local and national history, with first-hand accounts of the way things were, forming the foundation for further historical understanding.

Peel presents the letters in an organized, chronological manner. Narrations are provided between the letters, filling in gaps in time, and detailing the value of the family connections and their views.

The letters comment on more than foods and clothes; they also contain lengthy essays on local and national political events written by an active, literate, educated family. Social customs such as the first Christmas on the Texas south coast enrich the personal letters and document the lives of James Morgan and his family, Sidney Sherman, the Harris family and other known political characters of the Republic and post-Republic era.

They wrote to each other about the government, elections, weather and farming/ranching trends – providing contemporary observations of the times. Profound insights were offered on then-current events, written by citizens, regular people who lived generations ago. Caroline Cox's marriage to Kos Morgan, son of James Morgan, the land agent and employer of Emily D. West, is the focus of the family connections provided in the letters.

Historical narration between the chapters acquaints the reader/researcher with details of events summarized in other works but known as daily dynamics for individuals who experienced them in early Texas and Kentucky. Some chapter titles include: ‘Caroline becomes a Texian’, ‘A Texas Christmas’, ‘The gold road to El Paso’, and cover topics such as religion of the times, travel conditions, family challenges, Cornelius Cox and his Reminiscences and Diary, and comments on activities of James Morgan, a key figure in early Texas’ economy.

Showtime! - Cynthia Farah Haines

Showtime! From Opera Houses to Picture Palaces in El Paso.

By Cynthia Farah Haines. El Paso: Texas Western Press, 2006. 190 pages, oblong hardback, many b&w photos, bibliography ISBN 0-87404-303-4 $45.00
http://www.utep.edu/twp/ twp@utep.edu

Cynthia Haines was educated at Stanford and UTEP, has long lived on the border, photographed it, been a theater critic for decades, and professed Film Studies at the University of Texas at El Paso for 10 years before moving to Kansas where she is already organizing Kansas cinematic history. Her book production here shows her care for details, persistence, and an understanding, humorous mind.

Haines’ photographic interests led her to Mary Sarber at the El Paso Public library and the volume Literature and Landscape: Writers of the Southwest resulted. Her photographic contributions are seen in Country Music (1982) Los Murales (1992), Colors on Desert Walls (1997), and An Art of Conscience (1996).

El Paso’s modern incarnation was barely 150 years ago, and they had saloons, with dance hall girls. Harris happily explores venued entertainment early to late. She parades through vaudeville, opera houses, slide shows, the silent movies, the talkies, and the Golden period of movies in their grand houses, especially the Plaza Theater, and the drive-in screens.

The financiers, the conmen, the promoters, minstrels, actors, organists, ushers, projectionists, impresarios, moguls, critics, social mavens, and the viewing public play their roles amid dusty streets, store-front parlors, city hall, grand parties, road trips, bankruptcies, and fires. She considers about three dozen venues including several Spanish language houses. Haines’ Appendix B “El Paso’s Drive-In Movie Theaters” must trigger smiling, nostalgic recollections among the older adults, a cultural joy deprived modern teenagers.

And Haines exposes the cultural discriminations against the Chinese and African American communities. By telephone to WTM Haines relates that El Paso was often the nexus of Mexican performers and movies headed north across the border; major stars came North to open the shows. The Spanish theater Colon attracted wide audiences. Some folks learned their Spanish language there. Some Mexicans learned their English in the other theaters. The Cattlemen Steakhouse became a major restaurant based on its Texan myth and movie connections and German heritage. The vintage photographs, posters, advertisements, and show cards are delightful.

For only a $45 ticket, you too can experience the grand history of El Paso’s Showtime! with its cast of hundreds, directed and written by Cynthia Haines, produced and distributed by Texas Western, and showing at bookstores near you.

Keeping Hearth & Home in Old Texas - Carol Padgett

Keeping Hearth & Home in Old Texas:

A Practical Primer for Daily Living.

Edited by Carol Padgett (in hat). Birmingham, Ala.: Menaha Ridge Press, dist by Globe Pequot, 2001. 240 pages, 5 x 7, hard cover, illustrations, bibliography, index ISBN 0-89732-409-9 $13.95 http://www.menasharidge.com/

The gracious Dr. Padgett adds Texas to her short list of the “Hearth & Home Series,” others including Alabama, Massachusetts, Ohio, and Colorado. The volume informs you as to what American ladies of the 19th and early 20th centuries may have considered proper etiquette and practical application to conduct themselves and their households. The good doctor’s lengthy bibliography includes a number of Texas sources tucked into her wide-ranging list. Texas ladies of the time would have sought national sources as well as local.

Matters of grooming, social comportment, courtship, domestic relations, motherhood, health care, interior and grounds maintenance, cooking, dancing, bicycling, special affairs, mourning and points between are considered. Begin with bits from a diverse collection American sources (Fanny Farmer, Godey’s, Ladies Repository, Harper’s etc.), sift that large collection for what is appropriate for early Texas life, and sprinkle in over three dozen pieces of Texana.

By email to WTM Padgett relates ““Since all the material was originally published during the relatively brief span of history between the end of the Civil War and around the beginning of the 20th century, the daily advice pertinent for the featured states (MA, OH, AL, TX, CO) essentially offers a snapshot of America's ‘Westward Movement.’ Life in Massachusetts during that sliver of time was very different from life in Texas or Colorado! Thus, the Massachusetts book offers advice for dealing with one's servants, setting the table for formal dinners, and the intricacies of navigating sophisticated society; while the Texas and Colorado books include advice on selecting the most effective treatment for snake bites and gunpowder burns, dealing with one's farm animals, and locating the sites for the ‘geographical cures’ afforded by the western climate.”

The volume consists of quotations, extracts, advertisements, advice via correspondence, travelogues, and medical instructions. Padgett’s favorite Texan source is The Capitol Cookbook (1899). But she also plays to the popular crowd with Amelia Barr and O. Henry. Proper deference is paid by including items from the First Baptist Church Cookbook (Amarillo, 1909) and the First Texas Cookbook (Houston, Ladies, First Presbyterian, 1883). Padgett presents it all in the air of quaint nostalgia – from beef jerky to jerky guests. It being unseemly to become too publicly enthused, this reviewer simply records many pleasant visits there within the pages. You’re invited to the hearth for inspiration, edification, diversion, amusement, and tea.

Getting Away With Murder - Bill Neal

Getting Away with Murder on the Texas Frontier:

Notorious Killings and Celebrated Trials.

By Bill Neal, Introduction by Gordon Morris Bakken. Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2006. xix, 308 pages. 49 b/w photos, 3 illustrations, 1 map. ISBN 0896725790 $27.95 cloth http://www.ttup.ttu.edu/ ttup@ttu.edu

Bill Neal tells us how they did it. Neal has been a prosecuting and defense attorney for decades in West Texas, out where the lawless Wild West is still warm. He’s not the Bill O’Neal of a similar topic.

Laws are one thing, but the rules of popular justice, vigilantism, absconding witnesses, a quick getaway, fear of retribution, financial interests of the jury, race, the statute of limitations, personal friendship, the Victorian code, inexperienced prosecutors, lynching before justice ran its course, and, well, “didn’t the victim deserve it anyway” all played their roles. Neal focuses on legal matters, especially in the courtroom, generally cases you’ve not heard of before – they’re outrageous.

Neal populates his book with bank robbers, sheriff murderers, knife-wielders, gamblers, poison artists, angry mothers, and mail-order brides. In amongst them are lawyers, judges, and sheriffs trying to bring community stability.

Friendship goes a long way. Bill Richards in 1891 aided the legal “organization” of Cottle County, so his friend could get a friendlier trial environment in the new county.

Imagine in 1916, the guy who entered a crowded courtroom, shot and killed another guy on trial for murder, and wounded a witness and defense attorney for good measure. After four trails, he was scot-free. Neal brings us forward. Even in 1940, after a car thief- murderer confessed and was convicted, an appellate judge reversed the matter because he was not so sure that kicking and stomping somebody (namely Mrs. McHenry) to death was not based on too much inference.
You shake you head today over some outrageous dismissal, but that’s along tradition.
Neal’s examples are fresh and well written.

One Christmas in Old Tascosa - Casandra Firman

One Christmas in Old Tascosa.

By Casandra Firman as told by Quintille Speck-Firman Garmany. Foreword by Red Steagall and illustrated by Judy Wise. Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2006. xi, 90 pages. 2 photos, 12 illustrations ISBN 089672588X $21.95 cloth
http://www.ttup.ttu.edu/ ttup@ttu.edu

Tascosa now includes Cal Farley’s Boy’s Town. Before that it was the wild and wooly West with Indians, buffaloes, gunfights, cowboys, and dancehalls. Between the two, the town virtually went to the ghosts. But here is a sweet story from the interregnum.

Garmany was a seven-year-old in 1931. The Depression Dust Bowl was on, but few would have realized it given how simple life was in Tascosa. Having more than one pencil was a student’s wealth.

At the time Tascosa’s lone resident was Frenchie McCormick, an elderly woman with a dancing history and an honored wedding vow to remain in Tascosa. Nearby in a one-room school house Christmas was approaching and the children’s Pageant was finally ready. And it was nearly, completely, absolutely wrecked. It wasn’t the children, the building, the costumes, or even a too-playful dog. It snowed on the day before the evening’s performance, so heavily that the audience could not come. Parents knew their children were okay with the teacher in the schoolhouse, but they could not get through the snow. And without an audience to love and smile over the Pageant’s young performers, it would be a failure. Then through the blizzard, Frenchie McCormick was spotted coming through the deep snow. The children warmed Mrs. McCormick. She took her place among the chairs out front. And she loved the youngsters’ presentation. And the children loved her for being there – just to see them.

Red Steagall, a Texas poet laureate, and Richard O’Brien append a song “Frenchie McCormick.” Merry Christmas!

The Earthquake Winter: Bringing Hannah Home.

By Lou Sanders. (Authorhouse, 2005). Available through authorhouse.com, Amazon, and River Oaks bookstore. $14.95. http://www.authorhouse.com/

Like many Nashville folks, Sanders, a former teacher, finally came to Texas and now resides in Houston. The Earthquake Winter is not strictly Texana, but it does provide historical background for those filtering through the early Spanish-American frontier.

"The Earthquake Winter" is a delightful, engaging tale of one of the most fascinating periods in American history. Written for children and made colorful by the carefully researched historic detail, readers of all ages will cheer the spunky young heroine, Hannah, throughout her adventures. The appealing orphan survives a cruel foster family, finds refuge and friends with the local Indians, and braves the dangers of the Old Natchez Trace (near Sanders childhood home) to return to her family.

Hannah must deal with pirates and murderers to reach the home of her family who has journeyed to Natchez, Mississippi, to bring her home. Lou Sanders has created a riveting tale of the Old Natchez Trace, using the theme of the New Madrid Earthquake of 1811-1812. The quake rivals or exceeds San Francisco’s 1906 quake in intensity and may have created Caddo Lake, Texas’ largest natural lake.

This is a story of love, faith, and family, and what a family will endure in order to recover one of its own. Children will immediately like the Indians, pirates, and particularly the plucky, inventive, and resourceful heroine who will use all her resources of heart and mind to reconnect to her family. Sanders uses adventure and a richly detailed history as the background for this story. She portrays an engaging protagonist growing up in a fascinating and under explored era of American history. All ages will cheer Hannah and her family onward in their efforts to bring Hannah home. Highly recommended! Rev: Julia de Berardinis, Librarian - sand6403@sbcglobal.net