I am looking for an original of the below Menardville Public School photo.
Earlier this week I was contacted by two different Menard folks hoping I might have a photo of the 1890 wooden Menardville School. John Warren Hunter was the principal. A lady had contacted them looking for the photo; she had the caption but no photo. This is the same location as the Menard Elementary and Junior High School in 2014. The Frontier Times magazine article says this wooden building was replaced around 1902 with a rock building.
Here is the photo from the Don Wilkinson Collection and unfortunately the quality is not very good and looks to be from a newspaper article. Below you will see the “newly” found caption. It would be wonderful if we can find an original copy.
Caption for Photograph of Menardville School, 1890 Photograph Missing
PUPILS IN MENARDVILLE SCHOOL, 1890
Bottom row, left to right: Jimmie Bevans, Bart Bourland, George Wyatt, Bob Crawford, Gus Hunter, Joe Wilson, Jim Mann, Willie Strom, Tom Scruggs, Marvin Hunter, John Wilson, Wecka Mears, Willie Bevans, Dan Murray, Bob Russell, Ransom Moore.
Second row, left to right: Jennie Russell, Maggie Bourland, MaryJane Wilkerson, Unknown, Unknown, Unknown, Ellen Wyatt, Gillie Somerville, Unknown, Ella Crawford, Annie Lou Mears, Annie Murray, Maggie Johnson, Louvina Somerville, Aunt Lula Maddox, Birdie Scruggs.
Third Row (standing) left to right: Miss Alma Owens, assistant teacher; Cora Hunter, Emma Chisum, Ruth Moore, Annie Strom, Nellie Schuchard, Lovie Hunter, Natha Lewis, unknown, Mel Bradford (?), Alma Gay, Unknown.
Fourth row, (standing), left to right: Charlie Strom, unknown, Walter Mann, Frank Strom, Tom Russell, Clay Mann, Ed Mears, unknown, Nettie Wilson, unknown, unknown, Otto Rau, J. W. Hunter, principal; unknown.
On stairway: Left to right: Max Russell, Judge J. D. Scruggs, unknown.
Signed: Many thanks! M. Wiseman
More information was found on this site: http://www.aliciasniche.com/txmenard/school/schoolinfo.htm
September 6, 1884, “Professor” John Warren Hunter, from Mason, opened the Menard school. While I’m not sure what this school was named, I found that it was originally located near the courthouse.
October 2, 1884, “The citizens of Menardville have recently subscribed very liberally towards building an addition to the school house, which is at present entirely too small for the number of pupils in attendance. A few more dollars are needed still.”
Menard News and Messenger-
June 18, 1936
First Schools
One of the first schools, as remembered by some of the pioneers of Menard County, was a picket, one-room structure situated west of where the West Texas Utilities Company is now located. George Chew and Professor Nunley were among the first teachers.
A few of the pioneers were taught under the massive burr oak tree which is still standing east of Menard in Sam Willman’s yard.
At a later date, a lumber two-story building was erected on the location now occupied by the present Menard Grammar School. Dances were often held in this building.
August 23, 1884 (4-5)
Menardville Murmurings
Menardville, Menard Co.
Submitted: August 16, 1884
Messrs. E. V D. Stucken, Enoch Ballou and J. D. Scruggs were elected school trustees for this precinct recently.
September 6, 1884 (4-5)
Menardville Murmurings
Submitted on September 1, 1884
Prof. Hunter recently of Mason has arrived and will open his school today. He has flattering prospects for a fine school and comes here highly recommended.
More about J. Marvin Hunter and family.
Publishing icon J. Marvin Hunter left behind words, artifacts for public to savor
— 7/16/2009
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the 175th of a series of articles marking Kerr County’s 2006 sesquicentennial.
By Irene Van Winkle
West Kerr Current
This photograph shows the family of J. Marvin Hunter and his wife, Susie Rogers, with their young family. Their children are, from left, Myra Jennette “Nettie,” Rachel, Jay Marvin, Jr. and John “Warren.” In his 64-year publishing career, he owned and/or published 16 newspapers, and printed numerous books and other historical publications. His legacy remains in Bandera housed at the Frontier Times Museum.
As publisher, editor and/or owner of 16 newspapers across Texas and beyond, along with authoring many books, and a popular monthly magazine, few rural newspapermen rivaled John “Marvin” Hunter, Sr. (1880-1957) for prolific output.
With a firm belief that better things were to be found over the next hill, Marvin had frequent bouts of wanderlust. He got ink in his blood at his father’s newspaper. Intense curiosity and boundless energy served him well to help small towns toot their horn.
His friends included statesmen, professors, outlaws and lawmen. Marvin finally made Bandera, Texas his home, and left a permanent impression, seen today at the Frontier Times Museum. Many relatives, including Ruth Dewoody Hay and Joy Hickman Short Putnam, maintain his memory and admire all that he left behind.
“Grandpa Hunter was a great promoter. He would come to a town, write stories about it, and would get it believing in itself,” Ruth said.
Besides the 1953 Bandera Centennial special edition, probably his best known publication (and now sought-after) was Frontier Times Magazine, which debuted on Oct. 1, 1923. The magazine followed two earlier efforts, Hunter’s Magazine (co-founded with his father in 1910) and Hunter’s Frontier Magazine (1916). It was filled with tales of the wild and blood-thirsty frontier, often submitted by old-timers, alongside vivid photographs, images and graphics.
In 1955 it was sold, and two years later it was a companion to True West magazine. Under various owners and editors, the magazine reappeared on and off until 1985.
In his 64-year career, Marvin owned and published these papers: The Saturday Gazette and The Mason Spy in Mason, Texas, the Comfort Times, the Bland Herald and Carlsbad Headlight in New Mexico, the Menard County Enterprise, Kimble County Crony, Garden City Gazette, the Melvin Advocate, Harper Herald, Ozona Optimist, the Big Lake Crony, Sonora New Era, Bandera New Era and the Bandera Bulletin.
He wrote at least eight books, and numerous shorter historical publications. In his fascinating autobiography, “Peregrinations of a Pioneer Printer,” the opening paragraph revealed his personality:
“My life has been quite an eventful one, largely because of the fact that I have lived in what might be termed two periods, the pioneer period and the modern period. I was born in Loyal Valley, Texas, the 18th day of March, 1880. I was so small that I do not remember the occasion. My wife says she is surprised that I do not remember it, as I have often spoken of incidents that I remembered which occurred even before I was born.”
He said that back in his Scottish and Irish roots, the Hunter family had intermarried with the Calhouns (first spelled Cohoon, then Colquhoon and Calhoon). In Colonial days, apparently, three Hunter brothers William, Jesse and James had come to America before the Revolutionary War. On the Warren side, a General Warren had fallen at the Battle of Bunker Hill, and in his honor, many descendants in Marvin’s family bore the Warren name.
Marvin’s parents, John Warren Hunter and Mary Ann Calhoun, were first cousins. His paternal grandparents were Thomas Hunter and Jane Calhoun, who moved from Tennessee to Alabama. John was born in Rogersville, Ala. in 1846. 10 years later, his father moved to Texas and remarried. The family, which consisted of at least two other sons, Augustus Warren and James, came to Hunt County, and then to Hopkins County near Sulphur Bluff where they were farming when the Civil War broke out.
Marvin said his father did not get along with the new stepmother so he took off on his own by age 15. John hauled cotton and freight with a mule train from North Texas to Brownsville, which had not been blockaded. His brother, James, joined the Confederates and served four years with Forrest’s Cavalry.
Learning his parents had died, in 1868, John rode three weeks on horseback from Sulphur Springs to Troy, Tenn. There, he met Mary Ann who was well-educated, and whose parents objected to the illiterate “wild Texas boy.” They wed anyway and moved to Booneville, Ark. near James.
John farmed on a rented patch of land, while Mary Ann taught, but after the crops failed, their lack of income prompted a new plan. Mary Ann taught John the ornate “Spencerian” handwriting method. He became proficient and engaged 11 students in a nearby community for a 10-day session, at $1 per student.
His classes were so successful, he was asked to teach a second session, and another in his hometown, so he taught one group in the day and another at night. Both of them teaching, Marvin said, “was sufficient to keep the wolf from the cabin door.”
Then, Mary Ann taught John reading and math, and he passed the the district school board examination and was qualified to teach third grade. They stayed in Booneville as the family grew. There were three daughters, Alice Carey, Cora Luby and Lillian Lenoir. Sadly, they lost a girl named Texas at 2 years old.
Yearning for a more “pioneer” life, they relocated to Gillespie County in 1877 with a mere $4 in cash. However, he soon was hired to teach school in Spring Creek, Squaw Creek, Willow City and Loyal Valley. 1879 proved to be a bust for crops, so between school sessions, John hauled bones to Austin for $7 per ton, and then freighted 135 miles from Austin to Mason.
The following March, Marvin was born, named for Methodist Bishop Marvin. Marvin may have inherited his itchy feet from his father, as the family moved again in the fall, this time to Voca in McCulloch County, where John taught. Three years later, they were at Camp San Saba. In 1884, they moved yet again, to Mason. Their home was formerly the Mason News-Item printing office, where little Marvin got his first taste of printers’ ink after upending an ink bucket over his head.
“My good mother had a task getting me separated from that ink,” he wrote.
Soon, though, they were in Menardville (now Menard), and by then another daughter, Mary Lois, had arrived. After being dismissed by two disgruntled trustees a year later, John took the family to Fort McKavett. Here, Marvin witnessed the killing of desperado John Vaden by bartender Ben Daniels. Years later, Daniels was appointed U.S. Marshal in Arizona and New Mexico by President Theodore Roosevelt.
For a time, the family fluctuated between Mason and Menardville. In 1891, John bought the Menardville Record and put Marvin to work, the beginning of his career. A year later, John established the Mason Herald, publishing it for 18 years.
Among his forays in journalism, Marvin served a short stint in the 1890s at the fabled Tombstone (Arizona) Epitaph, but hated it, calling Tombstone “disreputable” and “about the deadest town in the world.”
He first married Hattie Westerman who died shortly after they married in 1901. Two years later, he married Susie Rogers and they had four children: John Warren, Myra Jennette “Nettie,” Rachel, and Jay Marvin, Jr.
Marvin was involved in whatever community he lived. In Melvin, where he bought out the Melvin Rustler, he served as Justice of the Peace and postmaster. He joined fraternal organizations such as the Masons, Oddfellows and Woodmen of the World. But, above all those groups, he said faith in God was his standard.
At age 40, he realized the family needed to settle down, and he purchased the Bandera New Era in 1924. The depression came, and despite a drought, Bandera was spared its worst. Marvin’s observations eerily paralleled the mood of today’s economy:
“The whole country was in turmoil, and for a time it looked as if revolution was imminent. Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president of the United States, and while some of the policies he advocated were not sound, the coffers of the government were opened and Roosevelt played Santa Claus to relieve much of the distress. The public is too familiar with the effects of government extravagance and its consequences to require comments at my hands, so I will leave that description to other writers of history.”
Ruth Hay, who came from Dilly, married Marvin’s grandson, Ray Marvin Hay in 1952. They met through Marilyn Hunter, her roommate at Texas State College for Women in Denton. Marilyn was Warren’s daughter, and Ray Marvin’s first cousin. His grandfather on the Hay side was the brother of Marilyn’s grandmother. Ray’s mother was Marvin’s daughter, Nettie. Incidentally, the Hay family had come to the area with the Lyman Wight Mormon Colony in 1854.
“Ray was out of college, and a year older than me,” Ruth said. “He was printing the Bandera Bulletin with his grandfather and his mother.”
After dating for two years, they wed. Ruth worked at the newspaper, too, when their only child, Tom, was little. She recalled that “Grandpa Hunter” typed with only the index and middle fingers of each hand. She also worked at the printing business, and learned to do many things. Then, Ruth began teaching math and physics at Bandera High School, which she continued for 13 years. She later returned to the Bulletin for two years, until the Hunters sold it.
Ray Marvin volunteered as an EMT, in addition to his printing and newspaper businesses, Ruth said, which meant he often slept little. He was also the first mayor of Bandera to serve, but not the first mayor per se.
“Marvin was the first one ever elected,” Ruth said. “The town held an election, and on one ballot, they voted on whether to incorporate the town and who would be mayor. Marvin ran for mayor, and won, but the election to incorporate did not pass.”
Joy, who was born in Lockhart, was married to Bill Short, Rachel’s son, for 35 years, although they later divorced amicably. They met at Sul Ross University, married, and in 1950, moved to Bandera. They had five children, artist Susie, teacher Annette Lee, Les, a contractor, Clare Jill, who works at Bandera Electric Cooperative, and Jake, who’s in finance.
She was the first licensed administrator of Hilltop Village Nursing Home. Joy also is an avid historian, with active memberships in the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and the Kerr County Genealogical Society. She spends many hours volunteering at the Kerr Regional History Center.
Ruth said that one of Marvin’s best friends was Noah Hamilton Rose.
“They were both born in Loyal Valley, and Noah worked for John in his print shop,” she said. “They were lifelong friends, and Noah became a well-known photographer, who had businesses in San Antonio, California and Del Rio. People in California bought copies of his photographs (of Wild West characters), and often they were used for the movies.”
All of Marvin and Susie’s children learned about the business, and were trained as printers and newspaper workers. Nettie set type and was a reporter at the New Era. Rachel became an expert linotype operator and set all of the type on the weekly paper and the Frontier Times Magazine. In 1928, with his father’s help, Jay Marvin published the London Graphic, 24 years after Marvin first published it.
Son Warren published the reincarnated Harper newspaper for 10 years. He became well-known in his own right as an artist. His first major painting, a herd of Longhorn cattle swimming across the Platte River, hangs at the Frontier Times Museum, and was done when Warren was only 13, according to an interview Marvin had with Bill Reddell in his San Antonio Express column, The Bill Board.
“That boy was determined to become an artist,” Marvin told Reddell. “He had never seen a herd of longhorns nor the Platte. He had the scene described to him and started to work.” His first commissioned work, for which he got $50, was for John A. Miller, who said he’d pay for a good painting of a real Texas Longhorn.
“Old Warren took his easel down by the creek and started to work,” Marvin added. “I’d go get him for supper sometimes. Once I went after him and caught him chasing a cow back and forth along the creek. I hollered at him to cut it out. Runnin’ a cow doesn’t do ’em any good.”
Warren replied that he was studying the muscles in the animal’s hind quarters. After publishing the Harper Herald his father had founded, Warren sold it and attended Chicago Art Institute. He became established as an artist, opening a studio in San Antonio’s La Villita section. In addition to the historical marker for the museum, Warren’s own was dedicated there last fall.
In 1957, Marvin died in Kerrville after becoming ill while visiting a sister.
The Frontier Times Museum, located on 13th Street, contains a diverse collection of about 40,000 artifacts everything from a South American child’s shrunken head and 400 bells, to many of Noah’s photographs of outlaws, lawmen and pioneers, reflecting the spirit of the Old West. It is open daily except Sunday, and admission prices are a bargain.
Constructed from an attractive fieldstone, the museum opened on May 20, 1933, in the midst of the Great Depression. Marvin devised ingenious fundraising plans for the initial construction, and for later expansions, tied in with his books and newspaper.
Later, the museum was bought by Foster Doane. After his death, his widow remarried and moved away. Ruth said she “gave it to the community, or people, of Bandera.”
I have a blog post about Noah Rose at this link: https://blog.wilkinsonranch.com/2011/11/20/noah-hamilton-rose-famous-menardville-photographer/
Below is from the July 1937 Frontier Times magazine; The Country Schools of Fifty Years Ago written by J. Marvin Hunter with great information about Menardville and Mr. Hunter.
Writing a blog introduces you to many new readers and I am thrilled when they share their treasures. Here is one; this article is about the teacher Hannah Mahoney from a San Angelo Standard Times. This makes a nice addition to the Jakie Landers written history of one of the pioneer schools of Menard County; Palmer School.
Click the article for larger view and easier read.
San Angelo Standard Times article about Hannah Mahoney
Frontier Times, Vol. 2, No. 1 October, 1924, as written by J. Marvin Hunter
The Texas Ex-Rangers’ Association met at Menard
August 13, 1924 for its fifth annual reunion. The old boys were
royally entertained for the three days, and besides the members of the
Old Guard who were present there from different parts of the state.
A great barbecue was given, at which more than two tons of meat was
barbecued for the last day. It was a great gathering, and old boys of the
frontier greeted comrades they had not seen in half a century. They
swapped reminiscences and experiences with each other, and recalled
many an exciting chase after Indians or outlaws, or recalled battles in
which they participated while in the Ranger service. In the early days it
was the Texas Rangers and the Minute Men who drove the Indians back,
and broke up the gangs of outlaws and other lawless characters that
infested the western and the southwestern portion of the state. In a few
years all the original Texas Rangers will have passed on, but the record of
their heroic achievement will remain as a lasting monument. Officers for
next year are: W. M. Green, Meridian, Major; N. N. Rogers, Post, Captain;
A. T. Richie, Comanche, First Lieutenant; W. H. Roberts, Llano, Second
Lieutenant; Ed H. Wallace, Fort Worth, Adjutant; Miss Ruby Green,
Meridian, Secretary-Treasurer; J. O. Allen, Cookville, Chaplain; C. M.
Grady, Brownwood, Color Bearer; W. Y. Luke, Weatherford, Assistant Color
Bearer. The following members registered at this reunion:
Mr. and Mrs. A. P. Brown Celebrate Golden Wedding Anniversary With Festive Occasion at Country Home
Kerrville Mountain Sun, Kerrville, Texas, November 20, 1941
(Typed exactly as published; without corrections)
Dressed for celebrating 1956 Kerr County Centennial
Mr. and Mrs. A. P. Brown celebrated
their golden wedding anniversary
Tuesday in their home on
the Harper Road when their three
children were present for the happy
affair. These are Roy Brown, who
arrived Saturday from his home
in Los Angeles, Calif.; and Mesdames
Dan and Marcus Auld of
this city.
The wedding of Miss Gracie
Stulting, 20, to Potter Brown, 21,
was solemnized November 18, 1891,
in the home of the bride’s parents
in Gonzales, and Reverend Lyons,
a Methodist minister, said the ceremony
in the presence of relatives
and friends. Among the attendants
who are living today are Mrs.
Brown’s three sisters, who live in
Gonzales, and her brother, J. C.
Stulting, of Palacios.
Mr. Brown is a native of Kerrville,
and is the last surviving
child of the late Joshua D. Brown,
about whom the history of Kerrville
and Kerr County have been
woven. The elder Brown was born
in Virginia in 1816, and as a young
man came to Gonzales County. He
was the first white man to have
come to this section, having arrived
here in 1846, one year after the
Battle of San Jacinto, in which he
participated. He came here on a
prospecting trip, and went through
the Turtle Creek section, as well as
along this part of Kerr County
where the cypress trees were found
to be growing.
He returned to San Antonio and
Gonzales and organized a party of
ten men to come to the section to
establish a shingle mill. The cypress
shingles were made by hand
and carted away in ox carts, or
were bartered for other commodities
necessary for livelihood. The
camp was established by the big
spring on the Guadalupe River,
near where Henry Weiss’s home
now stands. In 1850 Mr. Brown
moved with his family to the farm
where Legion hospital now stands,
and here his children were born
and grew to manhood and womanhood.
This land stayed in the family
until it was sold to the War-
Risk Association, when a hospital
for the disabled Texas veterans of
the World War were to be cared
for. Later the American Legion
took over the hospital, which was
supported by the State of Texas,
and soon after that the U. S. Government
took over the plant.
The first colony to be established
here was called Brownsborough,
and kept the name until the organization
of the county in 1856, when
Mr. Brown, who had donated the
land for the county seat, asked that
the town and county be named for
his good friend of many years,
Captain James Kerr, a Kentuckian,
who was manager of DeWitt’s Colony
in Gonzales County, and who
had visited here. Mr. Brown’s
name appears frequently on court
records and real estate transfers,
as the divisions of the original
tracts of land came from him, and
from J. F. Gage, from whom he
had bought 756 acres of land in
two tracts.
A. P. Brown today is perhaps the
most authentic source of early history
of Kerr County, having learned
from his father and mother the
hardships and privations of pioneer
settlers, as well as the glory and
satisfaction which came from carving
a home in the wilderness of the
great State of Texas, and seeing
the same country grow and prosper.
Members of the Joshua Brown
family were intermarried with
other pioneer families, and they
were related to the Goss and Rees
families, also intrepid pioneers
from Gonzales County.
The Brown family have resided
in Kerrville all of the 50 years,
with the exception of a part of the
years 1920-21, when they lived in
California. They have six granddaughters
and two grandsons. One
granddaughter lives in California
and could not be present for the
happy occasion, and two granddaughters,
Misses Mary Louise and
Aydeen Auld, are students in the
Texas State College for Women in
Denton.
The daughters, Mrs. Dan Auld
and Mrs. Marcus Auld, and their
families held open house Tuesday
evening in the Dan Auld home on
Myrta Street, when baskets of
golden ball chrysanthemums, Talisman
roses, Gladioluses and blue
delphinium were used to arrange
the home for the occasion. The
guests were welcomed informally
by the hosts, their honor guests,
and by Roy Brown.
Golden flowers were used to cen-
ter the tea table, which was laid
with a hand-made cloth, and golden
tapers lighted the beautiful
scene. Misses Joan and Marjane
Auld served the wedding cake,
which rested on a bed of gilded
leaves and roses. The 40 guests
who called were limited to old-
time friends and relatives.
HOMESTEAD: Aulds established prosperity in Real, Kerr counties
Family hit marks in oil, hunting
- By Jerry Lackey
- Posted November 2, 2013 at 6:31 p.m.
“Daniel Auld spent late years of his life enjoying safaris in Africa.
The life of Alexander Daniel “Dan” Auld Sr. was filled with struggles, triumphs and tragedies, yet his golden years were rewarded with safari hunting experiences in Africa and around the world.
Dan was born Aug. 2, 1896, in Bandera County (before it became Real County in 1913) to Alexander Kennedy and Susanna Lowrance Gibbens Auld. He was the next to the youngest of eight children. His older siblings were Ida “Dollie,” his half-sister, Maggie, Annie, John, William, Archie and the youngest, Joe Marcus.
Alexander Kennedy Auld came to America from Scotland in 1878.
“Grandpa Auld came to Kerr County as a bachelor, looking for a widow on a ranch. He went out on a Thursday, and came back the next Monday with a wife,” granddaughter Mary Louise Auld Saunders Lehman told Irene Van Winkle with West Kerr Current.
Dan married Gussie May Brown on Oct. 19, 1920. They had four children: Mary Louise, Ayleen Aydeen and twins Alexander Daniel “Jack” Jr. and Joan “Donnie May”
Gussie’s father, Joshua D. Brown (1816-77), was the first white settler of record in Kerr County.
Joshua Brown was born in Madison County, Kentucky in 1816, to Edward and Janey Campbell Brown when she died. Edward married 12 May 1816 Anastasia Worland Brown and had they had six children. They came to Sabine County about 1831. In 1837, Edward married Sara Goss and had another son in 1838. Joshua came to Texas before October 1, 1837 and found his father and step-mother in Sabine County. They all moved to Gonzales in 1841.
Joshua married Eleanor Smith and had one child, Mary Louisa, born in 1847. Eleanor died a year later in Gonzales County.
In 1849, Joshua married Sarah Jane Goss (1833-1892). They had seven children: Eleanor Ann Brown Rees, John William, Mary Ela, James Stevens, Nicholas Jr., Virginia A. Brown Barlemann and Alonzo Potter “A.P.”
A.P. Brown married Grace Ida Stulting. They had three children: Roy, Gussie May Brown Auld, and Jane Helena “Pete” Auld.
“Mother and aunt Pete delivered milk to Pampell’s candy store (in Kerrville). They had an old horse that pulled a wagon. They would stop to unload the milk and then go on to school. That horse didn’t need guiding. He just knew where and when to stop,” Mary Louise said.
Pampell’s made its own candy in those days.
“Aunt Pete worked there. Mr. Pampell was pretty smart. He told her that his policy was that if you worked there; you could eat all the candy you wanted. So she ate a whole bunch on the first day and then got so sick, she never ate anymore,” Mary Louise said.
The Auld Ranch was sprawled across parts of Real and Kerr counties on the Divide, which serves as the watershed for the Frio and Guadalupe rivers.
Grandpa Auld died at an early age after being dragged by a horse when his foot got hung up in the stirrup, Mary Louise said. (In July 1905, Alex fractured his skull when he was hung up on his saddle by his chaps and drug by a steer he had roped).
“They brought him back to the ranch, but the only way they could get him to a doctor in San Antonio was by wagon, and it would have taken them four days. He said ‘No,’ and died at his ranch in Real County,” she said.
“My dad worked on the ranch during the screw worm era in the late 1920s and early 1930s,” Mary Louise remembered. “I’d help bring the goats from the pasture. If you saw the goats running around, that meant they had worms. So, I’d catch them, doctor them and then put them in the ‘wormy trap.’ You had to keep them separate.”
Dan Auld, a World War I veteran and one of the founders of the first Marine Aviation Air Corps, became active in the oil business in 1932.
He was a charter member of the All American Wildcatters.
Dan served as a director of Game Conservation International, was a vice president of Sportsmen’s Clubs of Texas, a charter member of the Texas Order of Saint Hubertus Hunt Club, and was a life member of both the San Antonio Livestock Exposition and the San Antonio Zoological Society, serving as director for the later.
After Gussie Auld died June 6, 1962, Dan married Pat Pate Oct. 24, 1963. They shared a love for hunting big game and went on many safaris all around the world.
Cleopatra “Pat” Pate was born Feb. 1, 1918, to Clarence and Inez Foster Pate in Goose Creek, where her father was production supervisor for Gulf Oil Company.
Pat was known as one of the world’s greatest female hunters.
The government of India honored her for heroism in taking “the man-killer Semmen.”
She held the record for the largest polar bear ever taken by a woman, the second largest recorded polar bear kill.
According to the San Angelo Standard-Times, Dan and Pat Auld rode an elephant in the Himalayas on a wild buffalo hunt. It was the only means of transportation.
Some of her major hunting accomplishments included bagging the wild buffalo in India, a giant polar bear in Alaska, rhino, elephant, leopard and the much sought-after African Bongo Antelope.
Dan Auld died in April, 1980, at 83 years old. Pat Auld Apperson died March 20, 2010, at 92 in Corsicana.”
This article first appeared in the San Angelo Standard Times newspaper on November 2, 2013 at 6:31 p.m., written by Jerry Lackey and updated and corrected by Jan P. Wilkinson, granddaughter of Dan and Gussie Auld.
My good friend Joe Herring wrote this blog post back on Saturday, September 3, 2011
Dan Auld is pictured in several of the photographs that I (author: Joe Herring) received in the Gussie May Brown collection; there is one I assume is Mr. Auld as an infant, and then one later when he was courting Gussie May. (He followed her out to California and they married there in 1920.)
The interesting thing, to me, is that the house Dan is standing in front of (I believe is now restored) and on display at the San Antonio Botanical Gardens (updated), the Auld House.
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Dan Auld, as a child, in front of the Auld House |
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The Auld House as it appears today in San Antonio at the San Antonio Botanical Gardens |
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Dan Auld as a young man, Kerrville, 1920s. Photo taken below the A. P. Brown homestead on the Guadalupe River |
Do you have any “Mystery Photos” in your family albums? Our family has quite a few of them and it would be great to know who they are! Thought I’d share.
This “Mystery Photo” was in Lamar Wilkinson’s album which was taken in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.
I have not been able to find anyone else with these features or a hint of identities. There are interesting things in this photo; notice the grandmother sitting in the wicker chair? It is covered with a leopard or bobcat/spotted-cat rug. There is also a rug under the girl sitting at her feet; see the felt backing. This photographer posed these ladies different than most with the one girl reading a book with a pot plant and the girl in front with her stockings showing and her bow tie makes me think its early 1900’s. I love this photo!
This “Mystery Photo” was in a group of photos from Gussie May Brown before she became Mrs. Dan Auld. I have not been able to determine the identity of this vehicle or driver. Great photo!!
Another “Mystery Photo” in the Gussie May Brown photos. What a cute little guy; would love to know his identity, too.
Another “Mystery Photo” in Lamar Wilkinson’s album. These little girls are so darn sweet with their arms around each other. Too cute!
Our family is very lucky to know Major Leland Bigby Apperson, Jr.; the widower of my grandfather’s second wife Pat Auld Apperson.
Visiting with Pat and Lee are Steven, Sarah and Wilson; November 2006
Lee was a member of the 96th Heavy Bombardment Group, 45th Air Division, Third Bombardment Division, Eighth Air Force; and piloted the Sans Souci B-17 Flying Fortress with his crew (name means without a care in French) to help defeat the Nazi’s in WWII. His memoirs written in 1999, are absolutely amazing! Their missions were Normandy, Northern France, Germany and Ardeness.
The last mission, their 30th was on Christmas eve 1944, when his group was chosen to fly as the lead of the 45th Combat Bombardment Wing, which was also picked to lead the Third Division and the entire Eighth Air Force 3d Bombardment Division. It was the 2,000th Heavy Bomber attack of Germany when 36 planes of the 96th were assembled where Lee and his crew led this large Air Armada. His crew bombed a German Airfield outside of Darmstadt and the other groups bombed hundreds of other German targets. Due to problems of frozen transfer valves in the Sans Souci they had to land in Brussels but were able to return to base as the “Tail End Charlie”, as the last plane in formation and finished with the honor of leading the largest Air Armada ever assembled by the Air Force or ever will be again in the Battle of the Bulge on December 24, 1944. There were some 2,055 planes, with 1,850 reaching their targets.
Leland’s flying career began July 4, 1944 and ended flying the Battle of the Bulge on Christmas Eve 1944 totaling 30 combat missions. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross, Five Air Medals, Four Bronze Battle Stars, Two Presidential Group Citations, French Parliament Liberation of Paris. Citations from General Doolittle, General Olds and General Partridge.
Lee married Pat Auld on 26 Jun 1999 and lost her in 20 March 2010. As a retired pilot, cattle rancher and avid bird and big game hunter, Lee still paints daily and leads an active life. He had a golfing twelve handicap when he was 85 years old. Thank you Lee for your service!!
We are losing these great soldiers at a very high rate and America should never forget!
A side by side comparison looking south down Congress Avenue of my glass plate negative photo on the left and our daughter Sarah’s photo taken in 2007, out of the State Capitol of Texas, located at 1100 Congress Avenue, Austin, Texas. I am unsure the date or photographer on my glass plate negative and this photo but based on the landscaping and new fence and black and white “Great Walkway”, I am using c1895 1896. [8-7-13 Update: I now believe circa 1896 because of the dedication of the Fireman’s Monument on July 7, 1896. It was one of the first to be erected on the 26-acre grounds surrounding the Capitol and can be seen in the glass negative photo.]
Looking at the c1896 photo; the first building closest to the Capitol grounds on the right was the third statehouse built in 1852 known as the Temporary Texas State Capitol of 1880’s. Below is a picture of the fire that destroyed the building in September 1899, so I know the photo was before 1899. The building across the street is the old Travis County Courthouse which was razed. This is what the historical marker reads:
Site of Temporary Texas State Capitol of 1880’s
Inscription. Built, 1882-1883, to replace the previous Capitol, which had burned in 1881. Until the building was completed, the orphaned Texas government conducted business in the county courthouse and jail across Congress avenue.
The three-story brick building “third Texas Capitol in Austin” was used five years. During this time it witnessed the passage of strong legislation to aid education and to halt fence-cutting, which, in 1883, had exploded into a range war. Governors John Ireland (1883-1887) and Sul Ross (1887-1891) both served in this building.
In 1883, the University of Texas held classes here for its 218 students until campus facilities were completed. On another occasion, cattle baron Charles Goodnight loaded $100,000 in cash in a wheel barrow and had it hauled to the Capitol to force settlement of a land dispute, but officials refused his offer.
After the present Capitol was finished, 1888, this structure was used as home of Austin High School. Studios for music teachers, and for various offices. When it burned, Sept, 30, 1899, curious spectators sat on the fence around the new Capitol to watch volunteer firemen, hampered by low water pressure fight the blaze. The old building was razed soon after and the bricks were used in structures throughout Austin.
Congress Avenue was designed to be Austin’s most prominent street. Early structures along Congress Avenue included government buildings, hotels, saloons, retail stores and restaurants. By the late 1840’s “The Avenue” formed a well-established business district. The mid 1870’s introduced gaslight illumination and mule-driven streetcars. The original dirt street was bricked in 1910. Trolley cars operated on Congress Avenue until 1940.
In 1836, five sites served as temporary capitals of Texas (Washington-on-the-Brazos, Harrisburg, Galveston, Velasco and Columbia) before President Sam Houston moved the capital to Houston in 1837. In 1839, the capital was moved to the new town of Austin by the next president, Mirabeau B. Lamar.
The Texas State Capitol is located in Austin, Texas, and is the fourth building to be the house of Texas state government in Austin. It houses the chambers of the Texas Legislature and the office of the governor of Texas. It was originally designed in 1881 by architect Elijah E. Myers, and was constructed from 1882 to 1888 under the direction of civil engineer Reuben Lindsay Walker. A $75 million underground extension was completed in 1993. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 and recognized as a National Historic Landmark in 1986.[2][3] The Texas State Capitol building is 308 ft. (94 m) tall.
History
Construction of the Italian Renaissance Revival style capitol was funded by an article of the state constitution, adopted February 15, 1876, which authorized the sale of public lands for the purpose. In one of the largest barter transactions of recorded history, the builders of the capitol were paid with over three-million acres (12,000 km) of public land in the “Panhandle” region of Texas; this tract later became the largest cattle ranch in the world, the XIT Ranch. The value of the land, combined with expenses, added to a total cost of $3.7 million for the original building. It was constructed largely by convicts or migrant workers, as many as a thousand at a time.[4] The building has been renovated several times, with central air conditioning installed in 1955 and the most recent refurbishments completed in 1997.
Statue of the Goddess of Liberty on the Texas State Capitol Grounds prior to installation on top of the rotunda
The cornerstone for the building was laid on March 2, 1885, Texas Independence Day, and the completed building was opened to the public on April 21, 1888, San Jacinto Day. The building was originally planned to be constructed entirely of limestone from Oatmanville (present-day Oak Hill), about ten miles (16 km) to the southwest. However, the limestone was found to have a high iron content after it began to discolor. Learning of the problem, the owners of Granite Mountain near Marble Falls offered to donate to the state, free of charge, the necessary amount of pink granite as an alternative. While the building is mostly built of the Oak Hill limestone, most of it is hidden behind the walls and on the foundations. Pink granite was subsequently used for many state government buildings in the Austin area.[5]
South side of the Capitol, with main entrance at right; above Then and Now photos taken out of the dome
On February 6, 1983 a fire began in the Lieutenant Governor‘s apartment in the building. A guest of the Lieutenant Governor was killed, and four firemen and a policeman were injured by the subsequent blaze. The capitol was crowded with accumulated archives, and the fire was intense and came dangerously close to destroying the structure. It caused severe damage to the east wing and compromised much of the framing, which was largely composed of exposed cast iron posts and beams. Restoration continued until 1993, however as the state took advantage of the extensive rebuilding to update the mechanical and structural systems to modern standards. Additionally, the state sought to address the growing lack of space in the old building, deciding that a new office wing should be added. The logical place for an addition was the plaza directly to the north. However, a large building there would have eliminated the historic north facade and covered what had been traditionally been seen as an important public space
In 1993, the $75 million underground Capitol Extension was completed to the north, doubling the square footage available to Capitol occupants and providing much improved functionality. In 1995, a comprehensive interior and exterior restoration of the original building was completed at a cost of approximately $98 million. Finally, in 1997, the park-like grounds surrounding the Capitol were given $8 million renovation and restoration.
Subsequently, to preserve the facade and historic plaza, the new Capitol Extension was built as a four-story underground structure, completed in 1993. Though the extension encompasses 667,000 square feet (62,000 m2), nearly twice the floor space of the original building, there is little evidence of such a large structure at ground level, except for extensive skylights camouflaged as planter rows.[6]
Grounds
Located four blocks south of the University of Texas, the Texas Capitol building is surrounded by 22 acres of grounds and monuments. There are 17 monuments that surround the Texas Capitol. William Munro Johnson, civil engineer, was hired in 1888 to improve the appearance of the grounds. By the time the first monument, commemorating the Heroes of the Alamo, was installed in 1891, the major components of Johnson’s plan were in place. These included a “Great Walk” of black and white diamond-patterned pavement shaded by trees. The four oldest monuments are the Heroes of the Alamo, Volunteer Firemen, Confederate Soldiers and Terry’s Texas Rangers, and flank the tree-lined Great Walk.[8]
A granite monument of the Ten Commandments on the grounds of the Texas State Capitol was the topic of a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court case, Van Orden v. Perry, in which the display was challenged as unconstitutional. In late June 2005, the Court ruled that the display was not unconstitutional.[9]
References and Footnotes
http://www.austinlibrary.com/ahc/capitol/default.htm
http://www.texasescapes.com/AustinTexas/Texas-State-Capitol-Austin-Texas.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_State_Capitol
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Texas
The Landmark of Texas Architecture of Jasper Newton Preston, by Bob Brinkman, Southwestern Historical Quarterly 110.1 (2006) vii, 1-37.
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=165692 by LoneStarMike posted February 27, 2009, Exploring Austin. Great photos of Austin then and now
Originally published on May 12, 2012
(Thank you to all the new visitors from Twitter; glad you are here!) I have the postcards known as “The Greatest Moments in a Girl’s Life” drawn by Harrison Fisher. They are from the early 1900’s and you might have seen them in a single frame of six images with captions but mine are individual postcards. The beauty and imagery is a favorite of mine.
“The Father of A Thousand Girls”, HARRISON FISHER (1875-1934) showed an early interest in drawing and from the age of six was instructed by his father, Hugh Antoine Fisher, a landscape painter. When his family moved from Brooklyn to San Francisco, Harrison studied there at the Mark Hopkins Institute of Art. At sixteen, Fisher had begun to make drawings for the San Francisco Call and later for the Examiner.
Mr. Fisher’s illustrations made his name and style recognized all over America. Fisher began to publish more regularly for Cosmopolitan magazine, acquired by Hearst in 1905, and became the top artist for its cover illustrations. Throughout his tenure, Harrison Fisher’s artistic style and subjects became closely identified with Cosmopolitan magazine. His work appeared nearly every month on the cover of Cosmopolitan magazine without interruption for 22 years. A total of 293 covers featured his work. He also illustrated at least 112 covers for Nash’s magazine, 110 covers for The Saturday Evening Post, and 37 covers for Ladies Home Journal, but none of his work for the other magazines exceeded the number of illustrations he drew for Cosmopolitan magazine.
“The Proposal”
“The Trousseau”
“The Wedding”
“The Honeymoon”
“The First Evening in Their Own Home”
“Their New Love”
Doing an Internet search I found many published books about Mr. Fisher’s drawings and his biography. I found a term paper by Melissa Speed titled; Harrison Fisher and the American Beauty found at the link: http://freepages.misc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mspeed/fisher.html.
At this link you can see more of his images: http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=harrison+fisher&id=CEEA7AB0D4C40D151CC6660199B99E4991D32320&FORM=IQFRBA