Rockdale ~ My Hometown

1899 :: Visitors at Loewenstein Mansion

2012-02-23T11:03:00.004-06:00

Marriage - Mrs. J. McKenzie of Galveston and her son, Donald McKenzie, were guests at the Loewenstein mansion this week. The lady was a friend of Mrs. Loewenstein’s in her girlhood days in Fayette county and attended the wedding of Mr. & Mrs. Loewenstein some 28-years ago and the families have been warm friends ever since, so she and her son came up to attend the nuptials of Robert Loewenstein and Miss Bertie Loper. Donald McKinzie acting as best man in the ceremony. Rockdale Messenger, February 23, 1899

1957 :: Perry Rites Set Tuesday

2012-02-19T11:03:00.000-06:00

Perry Rites Set Tuesday. Rockdale, Texas (AP). -- Funeral services for George Sessions Perry, writer and native of Texas, will be held here Tuesday (19th February 1957). His body was found Wednesday in Connecticut after he had been missing two months. Tentative funeral arrangements were reported by J.B. Newton, a relative. The hour has not been set. Mrs. Perry is expected to arrive Saturday by plane in Houston, where she will be met by her brother, Bill Hodges, Beaumont. They will come immediately to Rockdale, near where Perry maintained a ranch. The body of Perry, an arthritis victim, was found in a tidal stream near his Connecticut home. Coroner James Corrigan said Thursday the circumstances of the 46-year-old writer's death are "consistent with suicide." Police said they believed Perry disrobed and threw his garments into the water before entering the stream himself. Dallas Morning News, February 16, 1957. his findagrave memorial page

1906 :: Perry Farm for Sale

2012-02-17T11:03:00.002-06:00

FOR SALE -- 520-acre farm near Lexington, or will trade for stock of merchandise or other desirable property. J.W. PERRY, Rockdale, Tex. Dallas Morning News, February 17, 1906

1918 :: Death of Captain John B. Wolf

2012-02-11T11:03:00.003-06:00

Cameron, Texas. Feb. 10 . -- Captain John B. Wolf, an old resident of Milam County, died Friday night. He was born in Arkansas in 1840; enlisted in the Confederate Army in 1861 as a private and served four years, coming out as Captain. In 1869 he moved to Milam County and had lived here ever since. In 1878 he was elected Sheriff and Tax Collector. When these two offices were separated he was elected Tax Collector, and held this office for more than twenty years. He was one of the founders of the old Knights of Honor in Texas and for years was a grand officer. He was also a prominent Mason. He leaves a wife and seven children, all of whom were with him at the last, except one son. Dallas Morning News, February 11, 1918. his findagrave memorial page

1874 ::Birth of Rockdale

2012-02-09T11:03:00.003-06:00

Hence, it is with pleasure I hail the birth of Rockdale, the future distributing point for Milam, Bell, Williamson and Burleson counties ... by the completion of the Brazos bridge is connected with the outside world ... it is in the heart of one of the best agricultural districts in Texas. The town already contains from twenty to thirty houses, and is rapidly growing. Being the present terminus of this immense (rail)road, situated in a most health and convenient locality ... what is to prevent Rockdale from becoming one of the most important points in the interior? ... Rockdale is destined to become the great shipping point for Texas stock. Galveston Weekly News, February 9, 1874

1875 :: Rockdale in the News

2012-02-07T11:03:00.001-06:00

Rockdale, February 6. Yesterday, the 5th, was the first anniversary of the city of Rockdale. The day was celebrated by the usual everyday business which has characterized the place since the last spike was driven, February 5, 1874, that connected the place with the outside world. It has grown from a hole in the woods, to be a city of 3,000 inhabitants. Galveston Daily News, February 7, 1875

Rockdale, February 6. C.W. Weeks, known as “California Bill,” proprietor of a hash house, was shot to death yesterday by one Newley, a butcher, who took this method of collecting a debt of $20 for beef furnished to said California Bill’s hash house. This is the only murder that has ever been committed in this place. Galveston Daily News, February 7, 1875

1908 :: Boy Injured While Hunting

2012-02-02T11:03:00.001-06:00

Rockdale, Tex., Feb. 1. -- Walton Douthit, 10 years old, a son of B.L. Douthit, a jeweler of this city, was accidentally shot in both legs this afternoon while hunting in company with his Uncle Clifford Douthit of Fort Worth. The wounds are serious, but not necessarily fatal. Dallas Morning News, February 2, 1908. his findagrave memorial page

1942 :: Death of J.O. Newton

2012-02-02T11:03:00.000-06:00

J.O. Newton, 67, Ex-Official, Dies. Rockdale, Texas, Feb. 1 (AP). -- J.O. Newton, 67, who was Adjutant General of Texas under the administration of Gov. Thomas Campbell, died early Sunday at his home here. He was in business in Rockdale. Since 1920 he had been connected with Scarbrough & Hicks Co., and was identified over a long period of years with numerous central Texas business enterprises. Funeral services will be held Monday. The wife and three sons, J. Boswell, C.T. and Carter Newton, are survivors. Newton died after a lengthy illness. Dallas Morning News, February 2, 1942. his findagrave memorial page

1938 :: Death of Andrew Jackson

2012-02-01T11:03:00.002-06:00

Veteran Who Fought at Appomattox Dies. Temple, Texas, Jan. 31 (AP) -- Funeral services will be held Tuesday for Andrew J. Jackson, 93, Confederate veteran, who died at his home in the Salty community in Milam County Sunday night. Jackson was the last surviving member of Company C, Sixtieth Alabama Regiment, which surrendered with Lee in the final battle of Appomattox. He came to Texas in 1874 and had lived in Milam County since 1876. He and Mrs. Jackson observed their seventieth wedding anniversary Nov. 20. Survivors include twelve children, seventy-two grandchildren, ninety-six great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild. Dallas Morning News, February 1, 1938. his findagrave memorial page

1928 :: Death of Dora B. Douthit

2012-01-26T11:03:00.001-06:00

Mrs. Dora B. Douthit Dies Following Fall. Mrs. Dora B. Douthit, 82, who received a fracture of the right hip in a fall, died Wednesday afternoon at a Dallas hospital. She is survived by four sons, J.E. Douthit of Dallas, Leland Douthit of Palestine, Benton Douthit of Rockdale and Clifford Douthit of Reseda, Cal.

The body was sent to Rockdale Wednesday night by the George A. Brewer Undertaking Company. Funeral services will be held at the Rockdale Methodist Church on Thursday afternoon. Burial will be in Rockdale Cemetery. Dallas Morning News, January 26, 1928. her findagrave memorial page

1926 :: Death of Dr. A.C. Walker

2012-01-14T11:03:00.003-06:00

Death Calls Dr. Walker. Was Formerly Prominent Surgeon of Fort Worth. Fort Worth, Texas, Jan. 13. -- Dr. A.C. Walker, 74 years old, retired surgeon, who died at 3 o'clock Wednesday morning at his home, 319 South Adams street, is to be buried in Oakwood Cemetery, following funeral services at the residence at 10 o'clock Thursday morning.

Dr. Walker was known before his retirement ten years ago as one of the foremost surgeons in North and Central Texas. He was associated at one time with Drs. E.J. Beall and W.A. Adams, themselves well-known surgeons, in conducting one of Fort Worth's first sanitariums.

Born in Nacogdoches in 1851, Dr. Walker acquired his elementary school education there and later was graduated from the University of Virginia. Prior to his twenty-first birthday, he completed the course at Bellevue Hospital Medical College in New York, and his diploma was awarded as soon as he reached his majority, several months later. After returning to Nacogdoches and practicing his profession there one year, he moved to Rockdale, where he lived and practiced his profession for more than twenty-five years.

While at Rockdale Dr. Walker married Miss Gertrude Wright, in 1879, after her death, marrying her sister, Miss Lelene Wright. Mrs. Walker and six children survive him. The children are John C. Walker of Dallas, W.W. Walker of Waco, R.S. Walker of Los Angeles, Mrs. J.D. Davis, Mrs. C.W. Head and Miss Marguerite Walker, all of Fort Worth.

Dr. Walker was a member of the Rockdale Masonic Lodge.

Pallbearers are to be Ernest Douthit of Dallas and Dr. Clay Johnson, Dr. Lyle Talbot, A.S. Dingee, Frank Capps and J.N. Sparks, all of Fort Worth. Dallas Morning News, January 14, 1926. his findagrave memorial page

1911 :: Funeral of Dr. Kenneth A. King

2012-01-12T11:03:00.003-06:00

Dallas Morning News, January 12, 1911. Rockdale, Tex., Jan. 11. -- The remains of Dr. Kenneth A. King of 117 Wall street, Dallas, who was killed in the wreck near Abbott on the M., K. and T., arrived here Monday morning, and interment was made at 10 o'clock Tuesday morning at the Odd Fellows' Cemetery. The funeral was from the residence of his sister, Mrs. Leonard Isaacs. [his findagrave memorial page]

1893 :: Suicided on the Northbound Train

2012-01-11T11:03:00.006-06:00

The Galveston Daily News. Wednesday, January 11, 1893. Cut His Throat on a Train. A Witness in the Sheriff Olive Assassination Case Commits Suicide. Taylor, Tex., Jan. 10. -- A man named Young, between 40 and 50 years of age, and a witness for the state in the Armstrong and Olive murder trial at Georgetown, suicided on the northbound International and Great Northern at 11 o'clock this morning as the train was pulling into the Taylor yards by cutting his throat with a pocket knife. He had been to Georgetown yesterday as an attached witness in the case, and was at Echo in Bell county on the night J.T. Olive was assassinated. Soon after the train left Hutto, eight miles south of Taylor, deceased was sitting on a seat in the smoking car with Sheriff Brookshire of this county, and telling him what he knew about the case. Just before the train reached Taylor, Young left his seat, going into the closet, where the deed was committed. Young's family lives five miles north of Cameron, in Milam county. He had three or four sharp pocketknives and some silver change in his pocket when discovered. [his findagrave memorial page]

1874 :: Railroad Nearly Finished to Rockdale

2012-01-11T11:03:00.001-06:00

Galveston Daily News. January 11, 1874. The grading on the International and Great Northern Extension, southwest from the Brazos River, is nearly finished to Rockdale, twenty-five miles from the river and thirty miles from Hearne, Texas. The temporary bridge over the Brazos is completed, and track-laying is being pushed forward rapidly. Rockdale is about fifty miles northeast of Austin.

1912 :: Death of Mrs. M. E. Wilson

2012-01-09T11:03:00.004-06:00

Dallas Morning News. Jan. 9, 1912. Deaths. Special to The News. Rockdale, Tex., Jan. 8. -- Mrs. M. E. Wilson, one of the old citizens of Rockdale, was found dead in her bed, death having ensued some time in the night from natural causes. [her findagrave memorial page]

1912 :: Death of Sam D. Rudder

2012-01-09T11:03:00.002-06:00

Dallas Morning News. Jan. 9, 1912. Deaths. Special to The News. Cameron, Tex., Jan. 8. -- Sam D. Rudder, an aged Confederate soldier, died here. He is survived by one daughter and five sons. [his findagrave memorial page]

1911 :: Dallas Dentist Meets Death

2012-01-08T11:03:00.001-06:00

Dallas Morning News, January 8, 1911 -- Dr. Kenneth A. King, who was killed in the Katy wreck at Abbott yesterday morning, lived at 117 Wall street, Dallas, and was secretary of the State Dental College of this city. He was 30 years old and was born in Bavilla [sic -- Davilla], Milam County. He is survived by a widow and infant child, who are visiting relatives in Anson, Tex. Mrs. King will arrive here this morning at 8 o'clock. Other relatives are four brothers and three sisters -- Dr. F.B. King, Houston; Dr. M.K. King and Dr. Ben R. King, Fort Worth, Hon. H.T. King, Abilene; Mrs. Leonard Isaacs, Rockdale, and Mrs. Letcher, Dallas. The body was brought to Dallas at 7:20 o'clock last night and was met at the depot by Dr. Bradford, president of the State Dental College, and a number of students, who escorted the body to the Ed C. Smith & Bros. undertaking establishment. The body will be sent to Rockdale Monday for burial. . . . [his findagrave memorial page]

1896 :: The Cozy Corner

2012-01-05T11:03:00.001-06:00

Dallas Morning News. January 5, 1896. The Cozy Corner. ANNIE BLOCKER, Rockdale, Milam Co., Tex. -- Mr. Big Hat and cousins: Here comes a little girl 7 years old. I haven't many pets. I have a kitty and a doll and one little brother. I have never been to school but one session. Christmas is nearly here, and I want Mr. Big Hat to wake up St. Nicholas and send him around with a wagon load.

1937 :: Renflow Services Held Saturday

2012-01-02T11:03:00.004-06:00

Dallas Daily Times Herald, January 1, 1937. RENFROW, Mrs. Alyne, age 59, died Friday at the residence, 217 Sunset. Born in Tupelo, Miss. Resident of Dallas seventeen years. Survived by husband, Dr. G.B. Renfrow, Dallas; two daughters, Mrs. Robert Farmer, Wichita Falls; Mrs. J.E. Little, Dallas; son, W.H. Renfrow, Corpus Christi; two grandchildren; father, W.H. Poole, Rockdale, Tex.; two sisters, Mrs. Hugh Estelle, Rockdale, Tex; Mrs. Gaddy Hall, Rusk, Tex. Services will be held Saturday, 9:30 a.m., Guardian Funeral Chapel, 2811 Oak Lawn, Rev. Wallace Bassett officiating. Remains will be taken overland to Rockdale, Tex., Saturday, for interment at 4:30 p.m. Leave flowers at her findagrave memorial page.

Dallas Daily Times Herald, January 2, 1937. RENFROW SERVICES HELD SATURDAY. Funeral services for Mrs. Alyne Renfrow, 59, who died Friday at her home, 217 Sunset Avenue, were held Saturday at 9:30 a.m. at the Guardian Funeral Church, following which the body was taken to Rockdale for additional services and burial. Mrs. Renfrow, wife of Dr. G.B. Renfrow, had been a resident of Dallas for seventeen years. Surviving, beside her husband, are one son, W.H. Renfrow of Corpus Christi; two daughters, Mrs. Robert Farmer of Wichita Falls, and Mrs. J.E. Little of Dallas; her father, W.H. Poole of Rockdale; two sisters, Mrs. Hugh Estell of Rockdale and Mrs. Grady Hall of Rusk and two grandchildren.

1905 :: Killing at Vogel Mine

2011-12-27T11:03:00.002-06:00

Dallas Morning News. December 27, 1905. Fatal Result of Mexican Fight. Special to The News. Cameron, Tex., Dec. 26. -- Deputy Sheriff M.M. Johnson returned yesterday from Rockdale with Salvador Rodriquez, charged with killing John Martinez at the Vogel coal mine Sunday. The prisoner was placed in the county jail. His left arm was accidentally shot by himself, the ball passing through it and making a bad wound. Sheriff Johnson reported there was little to be learned about the killing, as it occurred in a Mexican camp.

1895 :: The Cozy Corner

2011-12-22T11:03:00.001-06:00

Dallas Morning News. December 22, 1895. The Cozy Corner. LENA MAY WIESE, Jones' Prairie, Milam Co., Tex. -- You see, Mr. Big Hat, I've made a resolve similar to Laurence C. Fountain's, though I don't write quite so often or regularly as he does. I notice that a great many of the cousins who write quite often steadily improve and I thought that by writing oftener than two or three times a year I might also improve. School has begun. I may get to go after christmas for a few months. Mr. Big Hat, if you get tired of printing my letters, just tell me to stop and I will do so. I will endeavor to give the cousins a description of my county. Milam county was created in 1836. It is one of the group of central Texas counties and is situated on the Brazos river, which forms its eastern boundary. The surface of the county is rolling and in many places hilly and broken. The county is about equally divided between woodland and prairie. The soil of the prairie varies. On the river and creek bottoms, it is a rich loam, producing cotton, corn, oats, potatoes, sugar cane, fruits and vegetables abundantly. Stockraising is carried on in connection with the farm. The Gulf, Aransas Pass, International Great Northern, Colorado and Santa Fe railroads cross the county. The principal towns and villages are Rockdale, Cameron, Milano, Gause, Lilac, Leachville, Branchville and Maysfield. Cameron is the county seat and has 2000 or 3000 inhabitants. Rockdale is the largest town. A coal mine is being worked there. Maysfield has 300 or 400 inhabitants and Jones' Prairie has about 300. The county has two private and one national banks. There are five or six weekly newspapers published in the county. The churches and schools are good. Almost all denominations have churches in the county. Our county superintendent is pastor of Maysfield Presbyterian church, which is about five miles from my home. I live about a mile and a half from Brazos river. The bridge which spanned Brazos river about three miles from my home fell about two years ago and killed over a hundred head of cattle. It fell the same day that Richmond bridge fell. The country about my home is rich in coal. Papa's land has coal on it. It looks like beds of charcoal. A coal mine is being worked about two miles from my home on the Brazos river and a railroad has been constructed to it. I'm going to walk to see it some time and I'll describe it to the cousins if they wish. I live nearly eight miles from Calvert, in Robertson county. I would describe it to the cousins, for it is quite a large manufacturing town, has an oil mill and ice factories and splendid schools, if I wasn't afraid Peggy would get my letter, that is. If she doesn't get it anyway. A handsome iron bridge spans the Brazos between Jones' Prairie and Calvert. Mr. Big Hat, what has become of Sallie? Did she ever get scared at any more ghosts?

1921 :: Funeral of Mrs. Elizabeth Simms

2011-12-20T11:03:00.002-06:00

Dallas Morning News. December 20, 1921. SIMMS. -- Rockdale, Texas. Dec. 19. -- The funeral of Mrs. Elizabeth Simms, who died Saturday, was held at the family residence Sunday afternoon, with a large concourse of sorrowing friends and relatives in attendance. Funeral services were conducted by the Rev. E.D. Hamner of Austin, a former pastor, assisted by the Rev. Mr. Weaver, present pastor of the Christian Church, of which Mrs. Simms was a member. Mrs. Simms was married to E.C. Simms and moved to Milam County in 1899, living on a farm near Tracy, but later removing to Rockdale, where she has since resided. She was a daughter of J.A. Hargrove and was born near Chappell Hill, Washington County. She leaves seven children, all living, all of whom were present at the funeral. her findagrave page

1900 News Clippings

2011-12-06T11:03:00.002-06:00

Rockdale Messenger, Thursday, December 6, 1900.

Cameron - J. B. McKinney was awarded the contract of keeping in running order the courthouse clock.

Marriage - Cameron - Frank Peoples and Miss Ethel Carter were married last Wednesday at the home of Tom Peoples in Cameron.

Marriage Licenses: Ben Burkely to Minnie Davis; James Riskup to Katerine Salac; B. F. Peoples to Ethel Carter; J. E. Griffin to Ora B. Little; W. T. Graves to Annie A. Powers; Solon Walker to Ella Keith; A. R. Rhodes to Sallie Harris; Spencer Brown to Lula Griffin; R. L. Coker to Lonie Gutherie; M. A. Taylor to Irene Westbrook; T. C. Westbrook to Annie Taylor; Pete Nichols to Ella Smith; A. T. Griffin to Marilla Donaldson

Suicide - Mrs. Edward Gandy of Lone Oak, a Dallas suburb, committed suicide by taking chloral. She and her husband had lived unhappily, and a short time ago, separated. Mrs. Gandy going to live with her mother. She grieved over her domestic troubles and left a written statement.

Assault - A desperate attempt, which may prove fatal, was made in Granger to murder Henderson Key. [very lengthy article]

Death - In a difficulty near Hempstead, Hez Harvey, Sr., about age 70, was shot and killed by John Renecke, who was badly wounded.

Death - Elmer Mayes, age 17, was found lying dead near a pond a few miles from Paris with a charge of shot in his breast. He was supposed to have met death while crawling after ducks and dragging his gun.

Death - D. W. Silvey, and old citizen of Milam county, fell while carrying a bucket of swill to his hogs and struck the bucket with his side, rupturing a gall cyst, from which he died within 24-hours.

Suicide - G. E. Ollard, a stranger, was found dead in his bed at a rooming house in Houston. An empty chloroform bottle was found on a table and it is supposed he swallowed the contents with suicidal intent.

Death - Bushdale - Twin infants of Henry Beckhaus were buried here last Wednesday.

Death - In this issue will be found a large ad on the 9th page of the Monarch saloon, which since the death of John Brown has been ably managed by T. E. Neeley.

MILAM COUNTY TEXAS - Newspapers: Gleanings from the Rockdale Messenger 1900. File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Lynna Kay Shuffield.

1897 :: Death of V.B. Orr

2011-11-29T11:03:00.002-06:00

Dallas Morning News. Veteran Crosses Over. Was Member of Jeff Davis' Regiment in the Mexican War. Rockdale, Tex., Nov. 28. -- Mr. V.B. Orr died at his residence in this city yesterday evening at the age of 71 years. Deceased was a veteran of both the Mexican and confederate wars, having served through the Mexican war in in Jeff Davis' Mississippi regiment and in the confederate war in Col. H.L. Muldrow's regiment in the western army. He emigrated to Texas from Tuxilo, Miss., in 1882 and settled in Rockdale, which place he made his home up to the time of his death. He leaves a large family connection and a host of friends in this county. He was an honored member of the Knights of Honor and will be buried with the ceremonies of that society. [Click HERE to visit his findagrave memorial page.]

1943 :: Funeral Home Burns

2011-11-26T11:03:00.002-06:00

Dallas Morning News. November 26, 1943. Funeral Home Burns. Rockdale, Texas, Nov. 25 (AP). -- A fire of undetermined origin Thursday gutted Phillips & Luckey funeral home, causing damages estimated at $25,000. The house was filled with people, gathering for a funeral service when the fire broke out. No one was injured. Several bodies were carried to safety.

1922 :: New High School

2011-11-06T11:03:00.001-06:00

Dallas Morning News. November 6, 1922. Rockdale's New $75,000 High School Dedicated. Special to The News. Rockdale, Texas. Nov. 5. -- Although Rockdale's new $75,000 high school building has been completed and occupied by the faculty and pupils for several weeks, the house-warming under the auspices of the Parent-Teacher Association was not held until Thursday, when the new auditorium was more than filled by 500 persons, among them were Ben Loewenstein Sr. and the Rev. W.E. Copeland, who were members of the first Rockdale School Board, elected in 1888, and are the only survivors of that board. The first school building was erected in 1884. The Parent-Teacher Association was organized about a year ago. The old high school building had long since outgrown the scholastic needs of Rockdale. Bonds for the new building were voted by Rockdale people more than three years ago. Construction of the new building was delayed for more than two years in the Supreme Court because of the mandamus suit against the Attorney General, who had refused to approve the bonds, due to an election technicality. The mandamus suit was a friendly one.

1960 :: Death of Johnny Horton

2011-11-05T11:03:00.001-05:00

Dallas Morning News. November 6, 1960. Singer Dies In 2-Car Collision. Milano, Texas. (AP) -- Singer Johnny Horton, 30, who became famous for his recording of "The Battle of New Orleans," died as two cars collided head-on here Saturday.

The accident on an overpass here in Central Texas also injured guitarist Gerald D. Tomlinson, 30, of Shreveport, La., reported in serious condition; Tilman Franks, 46, also of Shreveport, who was Horton's manager, and James E. Davis, 19, of Brady, a Texas A&M student who was alone in the other car.

The injured were taken to a Cameron hospital. Franks and Davis were believed to have escaped serious injury. A doctor said Tomlinson suffered compound fractures of both legs and might lose one of them.

Horton was at the wheel as he and his companions left Austin, where he filled an engagement Friday night. He was en route to Shreveport to discuss plans for a movie.

The singer, a former star of the national radio program "Louisiana Hayride," originating in Shreveport, had made his home in the Louisiana city the past eight years. He was born in Hollywood, but spent most of his early life in Rusk.

Horton was the husband of Mrs. Billie Jean Horton, who was the wife of Western singer Hank Williams until his death from a heart attack in 1953.

Other survivors are the couple's two small daughters, Zanina and Melody; his step-daughter, Jerry Lynn, and his mother, Mrs. John L. Horton of Rusk.

The funeral service will be held in Shreveport. Arrangements were incomplete.

His Find-A-Grave Memorial Page
His bio page at tshaonline.org
The eerie demise of Johnny Horton by Clay Coppedge
Honky Tonk Man by Archie P. McDonald

1895 :: The Cozy Corner

2011-11-03T11:03:00.001-05:00

Dallas Morning News. November 3, 1895. The Cozy Corner. JESSIE WILBURN, Rockdale, Milam Co., Tex. -- Mr. Big Hat and cousins: After a few weeks' absence from among you I now take my seat to encourage all and I hope Mr. Big Hat will encourage me, providing I need any. I guess Peggy had a nice little time eating my other letter, as I never saw it in print, but hope to see this one published. This week appeared Bessie Bee. Mr. Big Hat and all the cousins will be so sorry to loose [sic] her for a year. Our school will commence Monday and I will be glad. We will have a new lady teacher this year. We have moved since I wrote last. I will describe my new home next time I write. Cousin Rudolph, come again, I think your letters are so interesting, especially when you write about hunting. Success to Mr. Big Hat and dear cousins.

1939 :: J.H. Bonds Buried

2011-10-30T11:03:00.004-05:00

Dallas Morning News. October 30, 1939. J.H. Bonds Buried. Special to The News. Rockdale, Texas. Oct. 28. -- Funeral services for John H. Bonds, 86, citizen of Rockdale for more than fifty years, were held at the family home. Burial was in Oak Lawn Cemetery. Born in Columbus, he lived in Milam County since a boy of 14. He drove with his father and mother over the Chisholm Trail with herds of cattle. For a long time he was city marshal of Rockdale. Ten years ago he and his wife celebrated their golden wedding anniversary. Surviving are three daughters, Mrs. J.W. Garner, Mrs. Susie Williams and Miss Maude Bonds, Rockdale; a son, B.F. Bonds, Cameron; five brothers, W.A. Bonds, Cameron; M.M. Bonds, Rawlings, Wyo.; Boyd Bonds, San Gabriel; Thomas Bonds, Wilson, and Scott Bonds, Levelland; two sisters, Mrs. Fanny Anthony, Southland, and Mrs. Allie Pruett, Conoly. [his Find-A-Grave memorial page]

1934 :: Theodore Crohn Dies of Heart Attack

2011-10-18T11:03:00.001-05:00

New York Times. October 18, 1934. Retired Merchant and Stock Broker -- Once Owned Stores in Denver and Texas. Special to The New York Times. Cedarhurst, L.I., Oct. 17. -- Theodore Crohn, retired merchant and stock broker, died last evening at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Moses L. Roth, 28 Spruce Street, at the age of 86. Healthy and active, Mr. Crohn was stricken suddenly with a heart attack and died before a physician could be summoned.

Early last week he returned from a trip to Detroit, where he passed a month at a son's home, and last Thursday he observed his eighty-sixth birthday, playing contract bridge at night.

Arriving in New York when he was a boy from his birthplace in Germany, Mr. Crohn witnessed the Civil War draft soldiers training in what is now Central Park. Shortly after the war the oil boom that was starting in Oil City, Pa., attracted him to that place, and subsequently he went West, first settling in Denver and later in Rockdale, Texas. In both places he established stores. While in Texas he married the late Leah Baum of New York.

Soon after his marriage he again journeyed to New York and bought a seat on the Consolidated Stock and Petroleum Exchange, which later became the Consolidated Stock Exchange. He was a trader for forty-three years, relinquishing his membership during the World War, prior to the closing of the Exchange.

Mr. Crohn was one of the founders and president for several years of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun, East Eighty-fifth Street. He is survived by six sons and five daughters.

The funeral will be held at 10:30 o'clock tomorrow morning at the residence. Burial will be in Union Field Cemetery.

1887 :: Drought and Death

2011-09-10T11:03:00.003-05:00

Dallas Morning News. September 10, 1887. Rockdale Notes. Rockdale, Tex., Sept. 9. -- Rain is greatly needed here for stock and domestic purposes. Nearly all the cisterns in town are dry and private and public wells are worked to their full capacity.

An infant son of Mr. J.O. Sitman died yesterday of diphtheria and was buried today. Also an infant of Dr. A.C. Spratt was buried to-day.

1939 :: Death of E.B. Phillips

2011-09-02T11:03:00.004-05:00

Dallas Morning News. September 2, 1939. E.B. Phillips, 67, Died; Leader at Rockdale. Special to The News. Rockdale, Texas, Sept. 1. -- E.B. Phillips, 67, widely known businessman of this city, died in a hospital at Brenham Thursday night. Funeral services will be held here at 10 a.m. Saturday.

Mr. Phillips was born in Alabama, but came to Texas when a young man and had been active in the progress and development of Rockdale, Milam County and this section of Texas for forty years. He taught school in his early years. He had served as trustee of the Rockdale School Board and had been president of the Milam County School Board many years, holding that position at the time of his death.

His varied career had included the hardware business, coal mining and farming. He also was a mortician and for the past several years had devoted most of his time to that work. He was president of the Burial Associations Union of Texas.

Mr. Phillips is survived by his wife, Mrs. Minnie Perry Phillips; two daughters, Mrs. Laurence Warren of El Paso and Mrs. J.B. Newton of Rockdale, and one brother, R.K. Phillips of Weatherford.

1892 :: Two Deaths at Rockdale (Young and Vick)

2011-08-31T11:03:00.003-05:00

The Galveston Daily News. Wednesday, August 31, 1892. Mortuary. Two Deaths at Rockdale. Rockdale, Tex., Aug. 30. -- Died, Sunday morning, in Rockdale of consumption, Mr. Robert N. Young. The funeral took place Monday at Milano, Tex., under the auspices of the Knights of Honor of that place.

Died, Sunday afternoon, in Rockdale of typhoid fever. Wm. H. Vick, Jr., in the 20th year of his age. The deceased was an exemplary young man; was connected with the International and Great Northern freight office here and a son of Dr. John Vick of Albany, Tex.

1882 :: Burial of Samuel Cohen

2011-08-25T11:03:00.001-05:00

Galveston Daily News, Friday, August 25, 1882. Rockdale, Tex., Aug 24 – Sam Cowen, one of our merchants, died to-day, and was buried this afternoon according to the Jewish Rites in the Jewish Cemetery, Rockdale, Milam County, Texas.

1948 :: Death of E.H. Balhorn

2011-08-17T11:03:00.002-05:00

Funeral services for E.H. Balhorn, 55, who died Friday night [August 1948] in a Cameron hospital from a heart ailment, were held here [Rockdale] Saturday. Burial was in Oak Lawn Cemetery, with Masons in charge. Balhorn was widely known among grocers, as he had been a representative of large wholesale houses since a young man. At the time of his death he was connected with a St. Louis firm. He leaves his wife, a son, Edward Balhorn of Beaumont; two grandchildren; three sisters, Mrs. Ray Humphrey of Beaumont, Mrs. C. F. Tuberville of Oklahoma City and Mrs. Will Gray of Yoakum, and a brother, William Balhorn, Cameron. Dallas Morning News. August 17, 1948. E. H. Balhorn, Rockdale, Dies of Heart Ailment. Special to The News. Rockdale, Texas, Aug. 16.

1958 :: Amelia W. Williams

2011-08-14T15:20:00.000-05:00

Amelia W. Williams, educator and historian, daughter of Thomas Herbert and Emma (Massengale) Williams, was born in Maysfield, Texas, on March 25, 1876. Several generations of the family were planters in South Carolina until after the Civil War, when her father established a plantation on the Little River in the blacklands of Milam County.

Amelia, the oldest of seven children, was early recognized as a potentially outstanding scholar and so was given the best education available from local teachers. She attended Stuart Seminary in Austin and graduated from Ward (later Ward-Belmont) Seminary in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1895 with a liberal arts degree.

By the time she turned twenty-two both of her parents had died, leaving her the guardian of four younger sisters and manager of a 2,000-acre plantation. After rearing her younger sisters Amelia Williams was able at last to work toward her academic goals.

She passed exams for temporary certification and taught history and English in rural schools in San Gabriel, Marlo, Branchville, Baileyville, Calvert, and Cameron. Attending college during the summers, she earned a B.A. at Southwest Texas State Normal School in 1922, a B.A. and an M.A. from the University of Texas in 1926, and the Ph.D. in 1931. From 1925 until her retirement in 1951, Williams taught American and English history at the University of Texas.

As a student of Eugene C. Barker, she investigated Texas history, doing primary research on the Alamo. Her M.A. thesis, "The Siege and Fall of the Alamo," incorporating much of this material, was expanded into her Ph.D. dissertation, "A Critical Study of the Siege of the Alamo and of the Personnel of its Defenders," which established her as the authority on this subject. Five chapters of the dissertation were published in the Southwestern Historical Quarterly in 1933 and 1934. In 1935 she published Following General Sam Houston, 1793–1836. From 1938 to 1943 Williams and Barker collaborated on the eight-volume edition of The Writings of Sam Houston, 1813–1863. Her tact was credited for having convinced Houston's descendents to grant access to portions of his correspondence, an act that Barker's disdain for Houston had precluded for many years.

Williams was an honorary lifetime member of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas and also held membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution, the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and the Order of the Eastern Star. She was a Presbyterian and a Democrat. She died in Austin on August 14, 1958, and was buried near Maysfield. The Barker Texas History Center at the University of Texas at Austin contains her papers.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Milam County Heritage Preservation Society, Matchless Milam: History of Milam County (Dallas: Taylor, 1984). National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. 44. Vertical Files, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin. Jane Smoot [her niece, who is still living in Austin, Texas as of this date]

The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this article.

Jane Smoot, "WILLIAMS, AMELIA WORTHINGTON," Handbook of Texas Online (http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fwi83), accessed August 10, 2011. Published by the Texas State Historical Association.

1946 :: Rockdale Undertaker Dies

2011-08-14T11:03:00.003-05:00

Dallas Morning News. August 14, 1946. Rockdale Undertaker, P.E. Luckey, Dies. Rockdale, Texas, Aug. 13 (AP). -- P.E. Luckey, 67, senior partner of the Phillips & Luckey funeral establishment here, died at his home Tuesday. Burial will be here Wednesday afternoon. Survivors include his wife, four sons and a daughter.

Perry Emmett Luckey, the son of John Millard and Rachel Garner Luckey was born February 28, 1879 in the Millerton Community of Milam County. The old Luckey homestead was located on much of the land where the Sandow Strip mine is now located. On June 1, 1902, he was married to Mary Draper Carter. Her parents were Sinclair Blake and Tennie Love Carter who immigrated to Texas from Mississippi in 1877 and settled in the Tracy Community of Milam County. Mr. Carter was a Confederate veteran and he and his wife had experienced much hardship during the Civil War.

The Luckeys were parents of four sons: Darrell Emmett, Harold Milton, Donald Carter, Edward Earle; and one daughter, Bertha Lucille. The Luckeys were members of the Methodist Church. For a number of years, Mr. Luckey was associated with Henne and Meyer Hardware and Undertaking Company in Rockdale. These two men were pioneers in the burial insurance business and worked toward the enforcement of having burial insurance legalized in Texas. Later they founded the Phillips and Luckey Burial Association.

Mr. Luckey was a quiet and unassuming man and he had a steadfast devotion to principal. His heart was supercharged with love for his fellowman. He was a greatly beloved citizen of Rockdale.

From Matchless Milam, History of Milam County Texas, compiled and edited by Milam County Heritage Preservation Society, A Texas Sesquicentennial Edition.

1754 :: San Xavier Missions

2011-08-11T11:03:00.002-05:00

On this day in 1754, Pedro de Rábago y Terán took over as commander of San Francisco Xavier de Gigedo Presidio, the military post at the San Xavier missions (near the site of present-day Rockdale, Milam County, Texas). He replaced José Joaquín de Ecay Múzquiz, who had been sent in 1753 to assist Capt. Miguel de la Garza Falcón in investigating the murder of a priest and a soldier at Candelaria Mission. Nothing better illustrates the animosity that often existed between missionaries and soldiers than events at the San Xavier missions. Felipe de Rábago y Terán, Pedro's nephew, had served so poorly that conditions at the missions were deplorable when Ecay Múzquiz arrived. The nadir had come with the murder of Father Juan José Ganzabal and the soldier Juan José Ceballos, on May 11, 1752. Commandant Felipe, who had debauched Ceballos's wife, blamed the violence on the Coco Indians. But evidence uncovered by Ecay Múzquiz and others strongly suggested that Felipe himself was behind the murders. When the elder Rábago y Terán replaced Ecay Múzquiz, he was unable to reverse the general decline. The San Xavier missions were abandoned in 1756, and their property was moved to Santa Cruz de San Sabá Mission, which was itself destroyed by Indians in 1758. From Texas Day By Day

1914 :: Death of Mrs. M.C. Rasbury

2011-08-10T15:20:00.001-05:00

Dallas Morning News. August 10, 1914. Deaths. Rasbury. -- Rockdale, Milam Co., Tex., Aug. 9. -- Mrs. M.C. Rasbury died at the family home here at 7:30 o'clock Friday, aged 72 years. She had resided in Rockdale for thirty-three years and reared a large family. The surviving children are Judge Charles A. Rasbury of Dallas, E.L. Rasbury of Thorndale, Mrs. E.H. Wynne of Temple, Mrs. C.M. Sessions and L.L. Rasbury of Rockdale.

1912 :: Blood Poison Kills Woman

2011-08-10T11:03:00.004-05:00

Dallas Morning News. August 10, 1912. Blood Poison Kills Woman. Chicken Bone in Throat Ends Life at Temple. Special to The News. Temple, Tex., Aug. 9. -- The death of Mrs. L.L. Rasbury of Rockdale occurred here last night from blood poisoning caused by a small chicken bone having lodged in her throat about ten days ago. An operation was performed, but too late to prevent infection. Deceased is survived by her husband and a boy of 12 years, both of whom were here when the end came. Those also here were Hon. Charles A. Rasbury of Dallas, Mr. and Mrs. C.M. Sessions of Rockdale and Miss Maggie Buntin and Mrs. Adams of Flatonia, the two latter being sisters of decedent. The remains were forwarded to Rockdale for burial.

1914 :: Death of John T. Gambill, Sr.

2011-08-04T11:03:00.001-05:00

Dallas Morning News. August 4, 1914. Deaths. Special to The News. Gambill -- Cameron, Milam, Tex. Aug. 3. -- John T. Gambill Sr. died at Rockdale Saturday and was buried yesterday morning. The deceased was in the Confederate army and was well-known and highly esteemed in this county. He is survived by a large family.

1966 :: RHS Graduate Meets UT Sniper

2011-08-01T08:23:00.005-05:00

Cheryl Botts Dickerson still finds it hard to believe she's alive to talk about the events of Aug. 1, 1966. That day fate brought her face to face with the man who turned the University of Texas Tower into a sniper's den.

Cheryl was the last person to speak to Charles Whitman and the encounter would change her life. If anyone symbolized the innocence that existed that lazy summer, the innocence Whitman tried to shatter, it was Dickerson.

I was from a very small town, and I was a very shy, quiet reserved person, she said.

The then-19-year-old was a small town girl with a wide world ahead of her. She'd just graduated from Rockdale High and was set to attend Howard Payne College, a place with the same small town feel of Rockdale.

But before she headed off to college, Dickerson took a trip to "the big city", Austin, to visit her grandmother. Fate would twist and turn during the first 24 hours of her visit. It started with the 45-minute late arrival of her uncle to pick her up at the bus station. While she waited, she struck up a conversation with a young man named Don Walden.

And we were just talking, and he asked me if I had ever seen the UT campus, and I said 'no,' you know, and he was a student, and he said 'well let me come by tomorrow and come get you, it's my day off, and I'll show you the campus', she said.

Visiting the Tower :: The date was made, a first date with a first stop at the top of the UT Tower. There, Dickerson and Walden signed the register provided by receptionist Edna Townsley. The view from above that morning was beautiful.

"It was just gorgeous because you can see not just the city, but you can see the hills in the background. You can just see forever it seems like," Dickerson said.

By now, it was after 11:30 a.m. and it was getting hot. Soon the other visitors also taking in the view were gone, and Dickerson and Walden had the deck to themselves. But she remembers a series of maps out on the deck that described the landscape. They decided to examine them. The two had no idea it would turn out to be another fateful decision that provided a chance to leave the Tower alive.

"And in retrospect that's the kind of thing that will send chill bumps up your spine, because had we not stopped and spent another five to 10 minutes, we might have walked in on [Whitman] beating up [Townsley] or something," she said.

Townsley met a gruesome fate with Whitman; she was his first victim inside the Tower. As Dickerson and Walden looked at the map out on the deck, they had no idea Whitman was inside savagely beating the woman who'd welcomed them. Whitman would pull her bloody body behind a couch in the reception area.

High noon was approaching now, and the Tower's clock would soon chime 12 times. Dickerson and Walden had another decision to make.

"It seems like when I looked up at the clock, it seemed like it said it was 12 minutes to 12, or seven minutes to 12, something like that. And he said, 'you want to stay and listen? Ah, no, let's don't.' And that's probably another decision that would have been a totally different result," she said.

Dickerson and Walden decided to reenter the reception area and go back inside. Only this time, the receptionist wasn't at her desk, and someone else was in the reception area. Whitman was bent over the couch where Townsley lay dying. He had beaten her in the back of the head and dragged the dying woman behind a couch, leaving a trail of blood along the floor.

Face to face with a killer :: Whitman was probably unaware there were two people still out on the deck -- and they'd just decided to head back inside instead of waiting from the clock to strike 12. It was a decision that meant they were moments away from a face-to-face confrontation with a killer.

"Well, when we walked in the door the first thing I noticed is I looked to the right and the receptionist was not at her desk. But I rationalized - all this is taking place in 15 seconds - but I just rationalized in my mind she'd probably gone to lunch. And I didn't think anything about it."

The small-town girl from Rockdale also thought nothing of a reddish-brown swath on the floor directly in front of them. It was Townsley's blood.

"And I called Don's attention to it, because we needed to step over it. Again, I rationalized in my mind, 'is somebody going to varnish the floor?' I'm not the type of person who immediately assumes something negative or something drastic or bad, I guess, being small town, somewhat naive. And so we stepped over it and, just as we were stepping over it, I noticed a movement to our right, and we turned that way and a man stood up," she said.

Whitman was now aware he had company. A young couple stood between him and the glass-paneled door leading out to the deck -- and his final destination.

"It was like he had been bent over the couch. And when he heard us he stood up, turned and faced us, and he had a rifle in each hand. Now I know people think, you didn't think anything about that, you know? Well, we're walking, we were talking, we didn't even stop walking. We did not even stop walking, which probably saved our lives," Dickerson said.

A single word seemed to disarm Whitman -- if only for a moment.

"I just saw him. I smiled and said, 'hi.' And he smiled and said, 'hello,' to me as well. And we just kept on going," she said.

Dickerson and Walden didn't know it at that moment, but an elevator ride down the Tower would be the only way to finally escape the man bent on a shooting spree. The problem was those elevators were a floor below, and the stairs leading to them were block by an overturned chair.

"Well, as we started down the stairs there was a chair that was overturned on the stairs. Immediately I'm thinking they want to warn people there is varnish on the floor. You know, it seemed like I found an excuse or a reason for everything -- except the guns -- but the guns didn't stay in my mind. I don't know why I didn't wonder about them. Later Don commented that he started to ask him if he was going to go out on the deck and shoot pigeons. And that's probably another thing that saved our life, that he didn't stop and question him. We didn't stop talking. We didn't stop walking. We just kept going. And we walked around the chair, went down the flight of stairs, got on the elevator, we went down the elevator," she said.

As their elevator whisked them to safety below, the Tower's only other elevator brought two families -- the Gabours and Lamports -- up to the 27th floor above. They were looking forward to the view in time for the giant clock to chime. But Whitman had his own plans. Now armed with a shotgun, he opened fire on the two families on those stairs -- killing two and critically wounding two others. The shooting had begun.

Safe and sound :: Twenty-eight floors below, Dickerson and Walden saw the bodies and heard the shots.

"This man said, 'someone is shooting at people from the Tower.' And we just looked at each other, and both of us immediately "Oh my gosh, that has to be the man we just saw," she said.

Over the years, Dickerson has come to her own conclusions about why Whitman didn't shoot them.

"It wasn't our time. I just feel like there's an appointed time to die, and apparently that was not my time. Now, we could have been shot and survived -- and why that? I don't know. I think the reason he didn't shoot us is because we did not stop and question him. We were not a barrier to anything he wanted to do. We were in and out of there so fast, that when we left it might have been like, 'well, okay what was that?' I don't think he even knew we were out there. I think we caught him off guard. And we didn't stop. And I think that's a big part of it," she said.

When it was all over, and the news media learned of Dickerson and Walden's encounter with Whitman, their picture and story were in papers all across the country -- even around the world. Strangers sent clippings to Dickerson, mesmerized by her experience.

"Even Walter Cronkite had our picture on the evening news and told about, 'now the question has been answered who was the last person to see Charles Whitman and live to tell about it,' she said.

Dickerson still attended Howard Payne College and shared her story with others who wanted to be close to something that seemed miraculous. She said the experience brought her out of a shell, and ultimately into the classroom as a teacher. Now semi-retired in Luling, she's thankful to have touched the lives of some 4,000 students during her career. She feels blessed to have had the chance. But she admits she'll never be sure why she made it out of the Tower alive that day 40 years ago.

"There's no reason why he shouldn't have shot us," she said.

And no true explanation for what would follow that face-to-face confrontation with a killer.

UT Tower Shooting: Interview with Cheryl Botts Dickerson :: www.news8austin.com :: Updated: 7/29/2006 5:00:02 PM :: By: Paul Brown

1984 :: Joinerburgers

2011-07-26T15:20:00.000-05:00

The Rockdale Reporter, July 26, 1984. Joinerburgers: what was the recipe? by Bill Cooke. Happy Days (circa 1950's) had Arnold's, the hang-out hamburger place. Rockdale had one, too, in the late 1940's and through 1952. It was Joiner's Cafe, although it was more commonly called Joinerburger's. . . . Ira Joiner was the proprietor of Joiner's Cafe in a small frame building that butted right up against what is now (1984) Richard Thrasher's downtown Promenade mall. Through the years that big corner building housed a car dealership and later a hardware store, with Joiner's Cafe securely affixed to its west side. Mr. Joiner served a full lineup of hamburgers and other short orders but his cafe became best known in these parts for his Joinerburger which he produced with his "secret" recipe. For Rockdale teenagers, Joiner's was the hang-out because it was the only such place. We're talking pre-Dairy Queen, folks. Joiner's was, pure and simple, an Arnold's-before-its-time. . . . Ira Joiner sold his cafe to Red Smith in 1952 and moved to Florida for a brief retirement. Then he opened another Joiner's Cafe . . . in Lampasas (Texas). After several successful years in that city, he sold out, retired and moved back to Rockdale, only to die within a month, according to his brother, Quintus W. Joiner, and sister, Alice Fleming, both of Rockdale. . . . I can still almost taste those Joinerburgers. Wonder what was in that recipe?

1870 :: Marriage of Sweethearts of the Cattle Trail

2011-07-26T11:03:00.002-05:00

On this day in 1870, rancher Charles Goodnight married his sweetheart Mary Ann (Molly) Dyer . . . Goodnight, a veteran cattleman, helped blaze the Goodnight-Loving Trail in 1866 . . . on the 1850 Census, he is enumerated in Milam County, Texas, where his step-father aka brother-in-law is buried at the Mount Homer Cemetery . . . after their wedding, the couple settled on a ranch in Colorado for a few years before moving to the Palo Duro Canyon to help establish the JA Ranch. Charles managed the ranch, trailed cattle, and continued to upgrade the herds while Molly made a home on the solitary plains near the canyon. Her husband invented a two-horned sidesaddle so that she could more easily ride on the ranch. Though the couple had no children of their own, she became the “Mother of the Panhandle” to countless ranch hands. . . .

FYI . . . from Goodnight's wikipedia page . . . Larry McMurtry's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Lonesome Dove is a fictionalized account of Goodnight and Loving's third cattle drive. Woodrow F. Call represents Goodnight, Augustus McCrae is Loving. Though the characters have personalities rather different from their real-life counterparts, the novel borrows heavily from actual events, in particular Loving's ambush by Indians, and Goodnight's attentive care as Loving died from an arrow-induced infection. Call returns McCrae's body to Texas, just as Goodnight returned Loving's body for burial in Weatherford, Texas. The grave marker that Call carves for McCrae is based on the gravestone Charles Goodnight created for Loving.

1907 :: Man with balloon

2011-07-21T11:03:00.000-05:00

Dallas Morning News. July 21, 1907. WANTED -- Man with balloon to make three ascensions at Rockdale, Tex., July 24, 25 and 26. Wire quick. W.E. Gailtur [Gaither?], Rockdale, Tex.

1837 :: Powers - Wheelock Marriage

2011-07-20T11:03:00.002-05:00

New York Spector (New York, NY), Thur., 20 July 1837, p. 2, c. 7. Married. In Milam county, Texas, Mr. A.J. Powers to Mrs. Annette Kimble, daughter of Col. E.L.R. Wheelock.

1878 :: The Notorious Ache

2011-07-19T11:03:00.003-05:00

The Galveston Daily News. Friday, July 19, 1878. Milam County. Rockdale Messenger: On Saturday last an officer came down the International with the notorious Ache, against whom there are 32 indictments. He hails from Williamson county, and had taken refuge in the Cherokee nation, where he was captured. He has broken jail and escaped from officers more than once.

The Galveston Daily News. Friday, August 22, 1879. The Hanging of Bunk Ake Tomorrow. Austin, Aug. 21. . . . There is general interest about the hanging; people are coming in from all directions to see it. The gallows which was erected in the jail yard was taken down this afternoon and disappeared. This mystifies the sight-seers. The sheriff proposes to track the law which requires privacy. The governor this afternoon was again interviewed in Ake's behalf, and wll read the papers to-night. Ake stiffens his neck and declines to be converted. A colored preacher of his acquaintance wanted to pray for him, which service he declined, charging the reverend parson with having taught him to steal.

1905 :: Show Card Writer

2011-07-16T15:20:00.000-05:00

Dallas Morning News. July 16, 1905. Show card writer and sign painter (colored) wants position as porter in store. 8 years' experience; will write cards and do porter work; specimen of work sent if requested; best reference. C.M.W., P.O. Box 72, Rockdale, Tex.

1896 :: The Cozy Corner

2011-06-28T11:03:00.002-05:00

Dallas Morning News, June 28, 1896. The Cozy Corner. KATIE PLEASANT, Rockdale, Milam Co., Tex. -- Mr. Big Hat and Miss Big Bonnet: I have been a silent little girl in your department. I am a pupil at the Rockdale public school. I am in the fourth grade. We have a red-headed teacher. But I need not be talking about her having a red head, for I have one, too. Our school will be out in two more weeks. I am so glad of it. We are having some hard lessons now. My mother lives in the country on a large farm. She hasn't but two children, sister Ruth and myself. My father has been dead six months to-day.

1948 :: Ford Showing in Rockdale

2011-06-24T11:03:00.000-05:00

The Rockdale Reporter, June 24, 1948. Ford Showing Here Friday and Saturday Draws Record Crowd. More than 3500 attended the Gaither Motor Company showing of the new 1949 Ford here last Friday and Saturday as they saw and rode in the new model. . . . The local firm joined the 6500 Ford dealers throughout the country to play host to the public for the first time since before the war.

The local show was in typical carnival fashion. Pennants and banners decorated the showroom, balloons and favors were given away, and the Salty Swing Band played for the Saturday afternoon showing. . . .

"I have been a Ford dealer for thirty-seven years and I can truly say that the public acceptance of this all new Ford is the biggest thing I have ever seen happen in the Ford Business," Mr. Gaither, one of Texas' oldest dealers, concluded.

1931 :: Birth of future Mrs. L. Ron Hubbard

2011-06-17T11:03:00.007-05:00

Eighty years ago today . . . on the 17th day of June . . . in the year 1931 . . . a baby girl is born in Rockdale, Texas . . . the proud parents are Harry Hughes Whipp and his wife, the former Mary Catherine Hill (born in Rockdale in 1898) . . . other members of the family living in Rockdale at the time include an older sister, Nancy Catherine . . . as well as the maternal grandma, Catherine M. Hill nee Walden . . . this baby girl is given the name Mary Sue . . . her maternal grandparents were in Rockdale before 1900, which is when her Grandpa Hill is enumerated as a book seller . . . in 1910, he is listed as the owner of a book store in Rockdale . . . by 1934, when Mary Sue's little brother, Harry, is born, the family is living in Harris County, Texas . . .

Mary Sue Whipp would grow up to become the 3rd and final wife of Lafayette Ron Hubbard, the founder of the Church of Scientology . . . it has been said of the Hubbards that . . . They were indeed an unlikely couple – a flamboyant, fast-talking extrovert entrepreneur in his forties and a quiet, intense young woman twenty years his junior from a small town in Texas. But anyone who underestimated Mary Sue made a big mistake. Although she was not yet twenty-four years old, she exercised considerable power within the Scientology movement and people around Hubbard quickly learned to be wary of her. Fiercely loyal to her husband, brusque and autocratic, she could be a dangerous enemy. . . .

1884 :: Jones Marriage

2011-06-13T11:03:00.001-05:00

The Athenian, Friday, June 13, 1884. Monday last Mr. J. A. Jones and his bride were welcomed to their home in Athens. They were married in Rockdale May 28th, but the torrents of rain which had fallen had caused several washouts along the line delaying the happy couple until June 9th.

1999 :: Looking back at 1949

2011-06-10T16:07:00.000-05:00

The Rockdale Reporter, June 10, 1999. Word from the wife by Peggy Cooke. Roberta Pounders was at the office looking through some 50-year-old issues of The Reporter to get some information and ideas for the 50th reunion of the Class of 1949 and this weekend's Homecoming celebration. I had to look over her shoulder — I love looking at the old newspapers — and I was fascinated, not so much by the news items, but by the advertising.

For instance, Stricker's Variety Store sold everything from soup and something to cook it in, to clothing, linens, "things electric" (that's what it said in the ad), hardware items, and on and on. Today's big superstores have nothing on Stricker's. Their slogan was, "Yes, you'll find it at Stricker's!" A few items from their quarter page advertisement were --

electric irons
alarm clocks
toasters
soldering irons
electric switches and plates
fluorescent lamps
Romex (what's that?)
wash cloths and bath towels
can cutters
rotary egg beaters
dishes of various kinds
oil cloth
coffee pots and dripolators
double boilers
tea kettles
dish pans
brooms and mops
window shades

Also . . .

men's khaki pants
undershirts and shorts
socks and gloves
men's and boy's T-shirts
dress shirts
ladies (get this) "new" brassieres
sweaters
belts
panties and gowns
slips and nylon hose
handbags
barrettes

Also . . .

cabinet hinges
hasps
drawer pulls
Bibb washers
shoe soles and nails
wrecking bars
hack saws
levels
glass cutters
dozens of tools

. . . and that was just a few of the items they offered.

McLeod & Timmerman Grocery & Market had specials on --

sugar — 10 pounds for 88¢
Oxyod, Duz or Super Suds — large size 37¢
dry salt bacon — pound for 45¢
pickles — 22 ounce jar 33¢
Texas oranges — 8 pound bag 25¢
bread — large loaf 18¢
sardines — 2 flat cans 25¢

Rockdale Dry Goods and proprietors W.H. (Brit) Hensley and L.C. Mehaffey (the forerunner to Mehaffey's) advertised a special on Women's nylon hosiery — irregulars 95¢ and first quality, $1.10.

In one lead story, there was an urgent call for rooms in town as the La-Tex Pipe Line Co. of Houston would have 125 working men in Rockdale the next week looking for a place to stay. Rockdale was to be headquarters for the entire job from Hearne to San Marcos if living facilities could be found. The story said office space was secured "over the bank" and storage for trucks and tools in "the rear of Salisbury's Garage." They were asking for anyone with a spare room — or even a bed for one, two or more men to call the office.

The Kay Theatre advertised Courage of Lassie and a Saturday double feature with Fit for a King and Hittin' the Trails with Joe E. Brown and Tex Ritter with a Hop Harrigan serial and a cartoon at no extra charge. On Sunday, Centennial Summer with Linda Darnell, Cornell Wilde and Jeanie Crane.

Perry Hardware & Furniture advertised . . .

flour sifters for only 25¢
five-strand brooms 85¢ each
white cups and saucers, set of 6, for 95¢

Louis G. Gest Buick Sales & Service advertised the new Buick for 1949 with white sidewall tires available at no extra cost. New Dynaflow Drive -- where there is no gear shifting -- you just step on the gas! And Gaither Motor Co. offered bargains in used cars from $395 to $850.

1974 :: Rockdale Homecoming

2011-06-09T16:07:00.002-05:00

Rockdale Reporter, Thursday, June 13, 1974. Record Crowd Attends Homecoming. Rockdale's Homecoming at Fair Park Sunday (June 9, 1974) drew an estimated crowd of 400, the largest since the Homecoming Association was organized in 1933. With Rockdale celebrating its Centennial year this week, the Homecoming had particular appeal to former residents, and local residents turned out in large numbers to greet the "Homecomers."

They came from all parts of Texas and from California, Kentucky, New York, and Louisiana. The guest register showed Houston listed more than any other city. Mrs. Hazel Largent Benjamin, of Torrance, Calif., was awarded a Centennial souvenir for the visitor coming the greatest distance -- 1661 miles. Similar awards went to the oldest man and oldest woman present -- both from Rockdale. They were Jack Richards, 89, and Mrs. Lillie Martin, 92.

The event saw visitors start arriving at Fair Park at mid-morning. Following some two hours of visiting and talking over old times, a barbecue chicken lunch was served in Fair Park pavilion by the women of the New Salem Home Demonstration Club. Helmer Dahl, of Hutto, organist, provided background music.

W.H. Cooke emceed a short program that included the presentation of awards and election of officers for the Homecoming Association. "We held the program to a minimum to give visitors and local citizens a maximum time for visiting and talking over old times," he said. Glenn Hodges told the visitors about Rockdale's new $2.5 million hospital now under construction.

In the election of officers, Cooke was named president, succeeding Hugh Estell, this year's president, who was moved to the office of vice president being vacated by Cooke. Mrs. Cooke was named corresponding secretary, replacing Mrs. Hugh Estell who has been serving in this capacity. She was unable to attend this year's Homecoming, having had surgery at Richard's Hospital the previous Friday. Mrs. Louise Sessions was reelected recording secretary and Miss Emma Hardie was reelected to the treasurer's post.

The meeting disbanded shortly before 2 p.m., but the "visiting and yarn spilling" continued for another hour for many. Others participated in various events of the Rockdale Centennial program during the remainder of the afternoon. The museum and art show were open downtown, and many visitors joined the tour of Alcoa's Rockdale Works, "the nation's largest aluminum smelter." Many stayed for the community-wide church services at the football field at 6 p.m. The old homes tour also drew many former residents.

Retiring president Estell said the Association finished the Homecoming year "in the black" for the first time. He reported $386 in the collection box for those attending. "After paying all bills," Estell said, "the Association has a balance of approximately $75 on hand." The Association's income comes from membership dues which are $5 a year. Estell and incoming president Cooke said membership cards will be mailed to out-of-town residents who request membership, although this is not a requisite for attending the annual Homecoming.

You're an old Rockdalian if you remember . . .

2011-06-08T11:03:00.002-05:00

Rockdale Reporter. In June of 1996, Bill Cooke published the following list of rememberings as originally shared by Wiley Gilmore while addressing his RHS Class of 1951 reunion on the 8th and 9th of that month . . . Bill said that . . . Wiley's words will rekindle memories for the natives of our town and will serve as a history lesson for the non-natives . . .

You're an old Rockdalian if you remember . . .

taking piano lessons from Mrs. Sledge, Mrs. Perry or Miss Catchings
buying a block of ice from Mack Davlin's little ice house across the street from the post office
when the Rockdale economy was influenced more by the weather than by a corporate decision in Pittsburgh
when the town's Aggies ate a side order of crow along with their turkey after Thanksgiving (this menu has included more beef in recent years)
your choices for swimming were a stock tank, the Gabriel or the pool in Cameron
the Plunkett Stage Show which came to town for a few days every summer
when Rockdale had three movies theaters -- two indoors, one out
when the Rockdale football team made the front page of The Reporter just for scoring, much less winning (that was, of course, before the Tigers of '50 & '51, who were strong)
when the fastest-traveling (good) news in town was that Ashby's Confectionery had gotten a shipment of Hershey bars
the only real barbecue was cooked by Mr. Lee Caywood
George Sessions Perry -- two bonus points if you knew the real names of the Rockdale people George wrote about in his novels
the unique ammunition Stricker's Variety Store advertised once -- & only once -- in The Reporter (editor's hint -- the item involved the word 'shotgun')
barber Arch Holley giving you your first barbershop shave free (applied only to boys, of course)
Maxie's Sweet Shop, Stein's Bakery & Red Smith's Place -- also Weems, McVoy's, Backhaus Bros., M&T, and Holley's Red & White groceries
riding a school bus driven by Mr. Beard, Mrs. Kirchenwitz, Mrs. Lynch, Mr. Alford or Mr. Gross -- in my case it was Mr. Dewitt Kornegay's bus, with the ever-present threat of a roadside breakdown or getting whipped by Toughy Hunt
when the girls who were the best dancers went to the Baptist church & the girls who were the best piano players went to the Church of Christ
when people uttered the words Republican & communist with the same tone of disgust
playing racially integrated baseball on the playground of the old Minerva school long before Jackie Robinson set foot on Ebbetts Field for the Brooklyn Dodgers
special teachers, including but not limited to Mizz Dee McCoy, who loved you like a grandmother before moving you out of fifth grade & into the hostile world of junior-high -- Mr. Arthur Winkelman who dispensed a lot of citizenship skills & compassion along with occasional whacks with his board Excalibur -- & Loween Malachek reading Damon Runyon's short story about Dancing Dan every year the last day before Christmas break -- I owe her many debts I can never repay
special childhood friends -- mine was Frank Poncho Thompson who later made the supreme sacrifice for his country in Korea -- Poncho & I rode the school bus together, did crazy things like give each other models of German & Japanese airplanes for birthdays & Christmas -- he & I competed fiercely for everything -- once, in the third or fourth grade, we had a 'rasslin match for the favors of Nan Jones -- she spurned us both, grew up & married an engineer & served many years on the Austin school board
the start of World War II -- I was seven years old when America got involved -- we attended a little Methodist church in Minerva & one of the young men of the congregation went off to war -- he asked the members, as a commitment of support, to sing God Be With You Till We Meet Again at the close of each Sunday service until he returned -- Charles Hickman Trotter & his brother, Billy, both returned from the war safely

And as we go separate ways from this reunion today, it may be appropriate to remember the words of that hymn & to ask that . . .

God be with us all . . .
until we meet again . . .

Singer's Grill

2011-06-07T12:25:00.009-05:00

The Rockdale Reporter, June 7, 2001. Singer's Grill by Bill Cooke. . . . Back in the late 1940s, Tommy Thompson and Vera Prestridge Thompson Miller’s downtown Singer’s Grill featured a country / western band every morning. The 30-minute session was broadcast live over KTAE radio in Taylor. . . . Veteran musicians Bill Dowdy and Jimmy Hester of Lexington played rhythm guitar and sang in that Singer’s Grill band. Dowdy remembers most of the others who played too, including the late, and legendary, Perk Williams of Chriesman. Williams later was the fiddler / vocalist with Jimmy Heap and the Melody Masters of Taylor, a band that also broadcast live over KTAE for a half hour each weekday at noon, and became Central Texas’ top dance band.

The Singers Grill band was called "Tommy Thompson and the Boys" and it played from about 1948 through 1950. "Tommy wasn’t a musician," Dowdy notes, "but he ‘fronted’ the band with his cigar." Dowdy remembers most of the musicians who came and went. In addition to Williams the list includes Jay Bird Thomas, drums; Hub Sutter, clarinet; Bill Dessens, fiddle (now with the River Road Boys of Houston, a premier western swing band); Smoky Wilson, lead guitarist; Wally Bryant, bass; and Cotton Collins, fiddle. "Most of ‘em, but not all, have passed on," said Dowdy, who is 79 going on 39, still playing several times a week.

Singer’s Grill was so named by its first owner, Charlie Moore who loved to sing and did so at the drop of a hat. He even organized and led a short-lived Rockdale community chorus. Vera and Tommy bought the cafe from Moore and moved here from Franklin in 1947. Vera ran the restaurant and a dress shop next door for many years. Both businesses burned in 1973 and Vera moved to other locations. NBC Bank now [2001] occupies the space where Singer’s Grill and Vera’s Heaven to Seventeen were.

1880 :: The Day the James Boys Rode into Rockdale

2011-06-06T23:03:00.002-05:00

The Rockdale Reporter. June 6, 1974. The Day the James Boys Rode into Rockdale. It was back in the year 1880 that Frank and Jesse James and three members of their gang paid a visit to Rockdale . . . . but very few people knew about their visit or who they were. The following letter from Ruth (Williams) Wildman (1905-1993), a former Rockdalian now [1974] living at 5133 Lindsay in Houston, tells an interesting story about the visit of the James gang.

My father, Edward Williams, came to Rockdale as a very young boy. Having been born in Yazoo City, Mississippi, he crossed the Mississippi River on a ferry with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. John Shark Williams. The family settled on a farm near Schulenberg, but later looked for greener pastures. They bought a farm near Rockdale, and there my father grew up and lived his entire life, except for one brief business adventure. Yes, a business adventure. He came into town when he was 21 years old, the year was 1880. He opened a wagon yard, and the story he told was:
On a cold winter's evening, five men rode into his wagon yard and asked what he would charge to feed and keep their horses. He gave then his price, and they replied, "Sell us a barrel of corn, and we will feed our own horses." This he did, but he locked their saddles and bridles up for the night. Each saddle had a Winchester buckled to it.
The men told my father they were going to the telegraph office to send a wire. They left and did not return until late the next afternoon. They paid my father, but asked him if he would go buy them a loaf of bread. When he returned with the bread, they were saddled and ready to ride.
One of the horses began to act-up, and one man said, "Here, trade horses with me," so they traded. As they rode out of the gate, my father remarked to the one who was on the pitching horse, "I'd sure like to own that horse." The man replied, "Yes, and a lot of others." Then the man pulled his coat back and showed my father a big side gun, and said, "They don't allow this in this town, but I'd like to see them help it." Then they rode away unnoticed, as they had ridden in.
In the meantime, there was another businessman there, under the name of Bell. He ran a livery stable. About six months to a year later, Mr. Bell decided to leave town, but before he left he said the five men who rode in that day were Frank and Jesse James, and three of their gang. They had spent the night and the following day with him. He said they spent the night talking of old times, and they rested all day. They were his friends. He was a former member of the gang, and his name was not Bell.
My father said later, "I always knew they were the James Boys." He said, "It was Frank who traded horses with Jesse, and it was Frank who showed me the side gun."
One more thing, the wagon yard was located where Phillips and Luckey Funeral Home is now [1974].

Note from the Keeper of this blog . . . back in 1974, Rockdale was celebrating its 100th birthday . . . and this was one of the local history articles that ran in the Rockdale Reporter . . . which is now celebrating the 100th anniversary of being owned and operated by the Cooke family of Rockdale . . . there seem to be quite a few stories about the James Gang among the families of the Rockdale area . . . our Henry line came to Texas from Kentucky . . . a story that has been passed down in our family says that members of the James Gang stopped for a visit at the Henry homestead in Milam County . . . our connection to the James Gang . . .

1922 :: Rockdale Woman has an Old Paper

2011-06-06T11:03:00.007-05:00

Dallas Morning News. Rockdale Woman has an Old Paper. Copy of Galveston News of June 6, 1888, has Much of Interest Now. Special to The News. Rockdale, Texas. -- An interesting relic of the early days of Rockdale is a copy of the Galveston Daily News of June 6, 1888, the paper having been carefully preserved by Mrs. B.B. Baxter, widow of the late B.B. Baxter, well-known cotton factor of Rockdale in its earlier days. Mrs. Baxter lived here for the last forty-seven years, having reared a large family of sons and daughters, including B.B. Baxter of Fort Worth, E.F. and Dr. T.D. Baxter of Chilton, Charles L. Baxter of Chicago and Mmes. W.M. Wells of Morgan, Texas, and W.D. DeGrassi of Amarillo.

Doubtless the paper owes its long life, for a newspaper, to the fact that it contains a column write-up of the most disastrous fire which destroyed the Mundine Hotel, a three-story brick structure, causing the loss of life which led the reporter to say, "It almost surpasses human conception as to a building with such numerous avenues of egress that of thirteen people only two should have escaped. The only rational theory advanced is that the fire originasted about the staircase in the first story, and a comparatively small space being to the top of the house operated as a flue, filling the house with a volume of smoke so dense that the inmates were only awakened to suffer almost instant suffocation."

Then, as now, The News ran a column called "State Press," under which caption were numerous comments and quotations from various State journals, some of which have long gone the way of all flesh. Among those quoted are the Rockdale Messenger . . . Dallas Morning News. February 20, 1922.

1888 :: Leading Hotel in Rockdale Consumed by Fire

2011-06-05T18:51:00.003-05:00

Dallas Morning News, Tues., June 5, 1888. Most Horrible Holocaust. Eleven Persons Burned to Death. Perish. The Leading Hotel in Rockdale Consumed by Fire -- Men, Women and Little Children Devoured by the Flames. Rockdale, Tex., June 4. -- Rockdale was stricken this morning [the 4th], at a little after 3 o’clock, with fire and holocaust so appalling and heartrending that language is inadequate to describe the scene. At the time stated the town was aroused by cries of fire and the discharge of firearms. The fire was discovered about the staircase in the office of the three story brick building known as the Mundine Hotel. So terrible and rapid was the work of the flames that of thirteen persons known to have been in the hotel eleven perished. Those known to have been lost are:

Mrs. W. A. Brooks, wife of the proprietor of the hotel, and her four sons, aged 4, 6, 9 and 15 years respectively.
J. F. Briscoe, wife and two little children.
Isaac Crown.
A traveling salesman, supposed from papers found to be named Pemberton Pierce. He was representing Geo. Zeigler, of Philadelphia, but the hotel register being lost there is nothing more with which to identify by.

Mr. D.M. Oldham, representing F. Cannon & Co., of Galveston, escaped without injury, and Dr. W.A. Brooks, proprietor, was pulled by main force out of the room occupied by his family, he having reached the door but resisting every effort to be saved before his wife and children. He was carried down the rear staircase.

Mr. D.M. Oldham, who occupied an extreme southeast room in the second story, says that he was awakened by a roaring, cracking sound, thinking that a storm had arrived and was blowing the doors and window blinds about, but he soon detected smoke in his room, arose, went to the door and opened it only wide enough to see flames in the hall. Hastily closing the door, he went to the window, threw clothing out on the wide veranda which surrounds the south and east side of the second story, and from there to the ground, then followed by sliding down one of the supports of the veranda. Almost immediately after reaching the ground he saw the party supposed to be Pemberton Pierce rush out on the veranda all aflame and leap to the ground, striking on his head and killing himself instantly. Thus have perished two estimable families, one of Rockdale’s promising young business men, Isaac Crown, and a stranger whose sad fate will startle and grieve those to whom he was dear.

J.F. Briscoe was for many years a barber at this place, thoroughly respected by every one, and who by thrift and industry has risen to independence. He recently sold out his business here and opened one in the same line at Taylor, married to a young and beautiful woman who with her two little children had stopped over here, being en route to her girlhood’s home in Indiana. She was joined by her husband, who came in on the 11:30 train last night, only to share with his loved ones a horrible death. Mrs. Brooks, who has been identified with all that is good of Rockdale since its construction, was well and widely known by the traveling public, her husband and she always having kept the principal hotel.

Dr. Brooks is entirely dazed, crushed at heart and badly injured, but whether fatally or not cannot be determined, but it is thought he may recover.

Isaac Crown, the junior partner of the firm of I. Baum & Co., was about 30 years of age and unmarried. No citizen held a higher place in the esteem or confidence of all than did this young man.

The origin of the fire is yet conjectural. The hotel building was occupied on the first floor by the United States postoffice and the firm of T.B. Kemp & Co., general merchants, and from neither could anything be saved except such valuables as were contained in fire-proof safes. Adjoining the hotel on the north was a one-story brick building, owned by J.S. Perry and occupied by J.R. Rowland for storage of general merchandise, whose main stock was kept in the building adjoining still on the north. The first-named building was entirely consumed with its contents, and the last name is nearly destroyed, with goods badly damaged. Here the course of the fire was checked by the heroic efforts of the citizens, who worked with unceasing and fearless energy, unaided by organization of any kind and no conveniences for obtaining water. All business here is entirely suspended, and a gloom has been cast over Rockdale which cannot be removed for many a day.

Gloom at Taylor. Taylor, Tex., June 4. -- The news of the burning of the Mundine Hotel this morning at 4 a.m. cast a gloom over this city, as all parties are well known, three of them being here Sunday and left for Rockdale at 10 p.m. Frank Briscoe, who is in business here, left at 10 p.m. for Rockdale to move his family here. He and wife and two children are among the victims. P. Pierce, a drummer and noted as a composer of music, attended church twice here yesterday. He represented Ziegler & Co. of Philadelphia, and got several large orders for goods. A number of Taylor citizens have gone to Rockdale and several leave to-night to render all assistance possible.

1925 :: Reporter looks back at 1888

2011-06-04T11:03:00.014-05:00

The Rockdale Reporter. 1925. Old Paper Gives Account of Epochal Event in History of Rockdale. 37 Years Ago Mundine Hotel Burned in Rockdale. Through the kindness of Y.A. Gjedde the Reporter editor has been privileged to peruse a copy of the old Rockdale Messenger, published by Enoch Breeding, of date June 7, 1888, in which is printed an account of the burning of the Mundine Hotel in Rockdale. The fire occurred at 4:00 a.m. on Monday, June 4, 1888, and eleven people lost their lives in the flames, as follows:

Isaac Crown, Rockdale business man
Pemberton Pierce, a traveling man
J.F. Brisco, wife and two children. Brisco was a barber and with his family was to have moved to Taylor the next day.
Mrs. W.A. Brooks and four children. Mrs. Brooks is described in the story as being "a lady who had been a kind mother to all of us for lo, these many years, until we had all learned to love her."

Of the thirteen people sleeping in the hotel that night only two escaped, one being D.M. Oldham, a traveling man, who got out through an upstairs window, and Dr. Brooks, who was rescued by D. Sanford. The account of the fire is written in a somewhat flamboyant style, and the writer was evidently much agitated, the story being rather incoherent. It is not made plain just who Dr. Brooks was. His rescue and the account of the death of Mrs. Brooks and children are treated in separate paragraphs and no connection established between them.

The style of the writer is entirely different from present-day newspaper style. The story gives little details of property loss, merely stating that the post office and store of T.B. Kemp were destroyed, and that an adjoining building owned by J.R. Rowland was damaged by the falling walls of the hotel. V.B. Orr, a jeweler, is mentioned as having sustained a heavy loss. The story closes with the following paragraph:

"If we have not told all this terrible story, let the conditions and circumstances under which we write suffice. There was only one of those who perished, but was an intimate and a friend of ours. The pen fails to transcribe the words we would write."

Other items contained in this copy of the Messenger, printed 37 years ago, included:

an account of the marriage of Mr. C.A. Duffy to Miss Dedie Wilson. Mr. Duffy was described as the representative of the Missouri Glass Works, and Miss Wilson as one of Rockdale's most esteemed young ladies
the death of a child of N.P. Crump
the birth of boy babies in the homes of Luther Davis and T.J. Woody
the removal of the post office to the Messenger building, "around the corner"
the return from Wooten Wells of Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Isaacs [findagrave]
the visit of R.H. Hicks and G.B. Randle to Galveston
the receipt by the editor of a 29-inch turnip and six Irish potatoes weighing near four pounds

A perusal of the advertisements showed that:

bottle beer was for sale at the Rockdale Saloon at 5¢ a glass
Hawkes' spectacles could be purchased at Douthit's drug store
board and lodging could be had at J.H. Simmons, six miles south of town, at the rate of $10 per month or $3 per week by those who desired to stop there and drink the mineral water from the well on that place
Wallace & Company handled lumber
John G. Brown sold all kinds of good whiskey
Isaacs & Lockett were dealers in general merchandise
J.P. Heywood sold millinery and fancy goods
T.B. Kemp dealt in dry goods and groceries
Geo. W. Williams sold farm implements
Wolf & Winterberg were house and sign painters

Another display ad on the front page announced the democratic ticket of Cleveland and Thurman, giving woodcut engravings of each. Among the professional cards were those of:

Dr. E.W. Allen, dentist
Dr. J.H. Wilson, physician
Thos. A. Pope, physician
Henderson, Henderson & Mcalla, attorneys
A.G. Wilcox, attorney
A.C. Walker, G.A. Trott, B.F. Lee, P.A. Horton and J.B. Stone, physicians

Advertising rates were quoted at one dollar per single column inch. (Present-day advertisers take notice.) T.B. Kemp's produce quotations were as follows:

Butter 12½¢ per pound
eggs 7¢ per dozen
chickens, each 10¢ to 16¢
turkeys, per dozen, $3 to $7
hides, 3¢ to 5¢ per pound
corn 60¢ per bushel
sweet potatoes 40¢ per bushel
pecans 5¢ pound

J.H. Hill was mayor
J.R. Arthur, city marshal
Solon Joynes, R.H. Ames, J.G. Brown and Joe Lowenstein were aldermen
H.C. Travers was postmaster

Rev. J.H. Stribling pastor of Baptist church
Rev. N.F. Law, pastor Methodist church
Rev. T.C. Brittle, pastor Episcopal church
Rev. W.E. Copeland, pastor Cumberland Presbyterian church

No less than nine separate and distinct lodge directories were given. The paper consisted of four pages of six columns each, and much of the inside space was devoted to politics, including a two-column interview with Harry Tracy on the subject of the Farmers Alliance.

The brittle and yellowed original of the following 1925 newspaper clipping belongs to Iola Avrett nee Christian of Rockdale.

2011 :: Rockdale Homecoming

2011-06-03T11:03:00.004-05:00

Rockdale Reporter. May 19th, 2011. Rockdale Homecoming ahead on June 12th. Rockdale’s 77th annual homecoming is set for Sunday, June 12, at the Patterson Civic Center. Judith (Lumpkins) Slusher, Rockdale Homecoming Association president, said activities begin at 9:30 a.m. with exhibits and visiting. A catered lunch will be served at 12:30 p.m. Price is $10 and there will be no pre-sale of tickets. Honors class will be the 50-year RHS Class of 1961. There will be displays of memorabilia both days at the I&GN Depot Museum, and the Kay Theatre will also be open.

The second annual Big Blue Band Reunion is scheduled for Saturday, June 11, for the Patterson Civic Center, according to Jim Perry, former director. Perry and former directors Bill Grusendorf and Don Thoede plan to attend. The first reunion, held last August, drew a crowd estimated at 450. “The reunion gets under way at 1 p.m. and continues until ‘whenever’,” Perry said. Perry said donations will be accepted to cover the $425 cost of renting the venue. A concession stand will be open, staffed by the Matinee Musical Club.

1910 :: Dr. Sessions stuck in river

2011-06-01T11:03:00.002-05:00

Google Books. Texas State Journal of Medicine. Dr. I.P. Sessions, of Rockdale, was injured during the early part of June [1910], during a trip in his automobile. When crossing the Nueces river they got into water over the engine and extinguished the spark. Dr. Sessions got out into the water to crank the engine when the lever slipped, struck him in the side, and fractured a rib. The party was compelled to remain in the river until late that night. [Click HERE to visit his findagrave memorial page.]

1892 :: Judge Walker's Funeral

2011-05-31T11:03:00.003-05:00

The Galveston Daily News. Tuesday, May 31, 1892. MORTUARY. Judge Walker's Funeral. Rockdale, Tex., May 30. -- The remains of Judge Richard S. Walker arrived here Saturday from Cincinnati, O., on the 12 m. express in charge of his son, Dr. A.C. Walker, and were buried at 4 p.m. in Rockdale city cemetery by the side of his wife's grave. The body was followed to the grave by a large concourse of citizens in carriages. The funeral exercises were performed by Rev. W.E. Copeland, assisted by Rev. B.B. Baxter, Sr. His son, John C. Walker, of Galveston is here. [Click HERE to visit his findagrave memorial page.]

1924 :: Rev. W.E. Copeland Dies in Rockdale

2011-05-25T11:03:00.005-05:00

Dallas Morning News. May 25, 1924. Page Four. Rev. W. E. Copeland Dies in Rockdale. Special to The News. Rockdale, Texas, May 24. -- The Rev. W.E. Copeland, 85 years old, died at 8 o'clock Friday night at the home of his daughter, Mrs. C.K. Stribling of this city. Dr. Copeland was a veteran of the war between the States, losing a leg in the battle of Gaines Mill, Virginia. He served as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church here for more than forty years. He was a member of Hood's Texas Brigade and life chaplain of the organization. He was a native of Scotland and was educated at Edinburgh University, coming to America when a very young man. Dr. Copeland is survived by three sons, Robert, John and James Copeland, and one daughter, Mrs. Stribling. Funeral services will be held at the Presbyterian Church and burial will take place Sunday afternoon at 3 o'clock. Note . . . you may leave flowers in his memory at his findagrave memorial page.

1899 :: Death of Dr. Stephen Colquitt Cawthon

2011-05-18T11:03:00.002-05:00

The Rockdale Messenger, Thur., May 18, 1899. Death - After a long and lingering affliction, Dr. Stephen Colquitt Cawthon died Monday evening at 3 p.m., at the home of his father-in-law, J.R. Rowland on Burleson St. The doctor's oldest sister, Miss Mary had been with him for several months and his youngest sister, Miss Missouri of DeFuniak Springs, FL arrived that morning and was with her brother just 5-hours before his death. Mrs. Alice Lee of Waxahachie came in on the morning of the 16th to attend the funeral. He leaves a wife and sisters. The funeral was Tuesday evening at 4:30 p.m., after which the Woodsmen of the World took charge and interred the remains in the city cemetery.

1901 :: Pioneer Woman Dead

2011-05-11T18:11:00.001-05:00

Dallas Daily Times Herald, p. 2, col. 4. Obituaries. May 12, 1901. PIONEER WOMAN DEAD. Mrs. J. A. Marks, one of Texas' pioneer women, died Friday afternoon at 21 Polk avenue, Oak Cliff. She was born in Owenboro, Ky., in 1818 and came to Dallas county in 1872. She lived at Rockdale several years and had been living in Oak Cliff thirteen years. She leaves two sons, M. B. Marks, of Oak Cliff, and D. E. Marks of Calvert, and a daughter, Mrs. W. E. Werner, of Oak Cliff.

1896 :: The Cozy Corner

2011-05-11T16:46:00.001-05:00

Dallas Morning News. May 10, 1896. The Cozy Corner. RUSH WITCHER, Rockdale, Milam Co., Tex. -- Mr. Big Hat and cousins: I have been reading the Cozy Corner and think it very interesting. I live eight miles from Rockdale, in the black land. I have not been in Texas long. My home is in Mississippi. My brother, myself and a friend are "keeping batch." We do our own cooking. We hunt and fish some and live very happy. But we are not old bachelors. We do not aim to keep batch always. My friend is a subscriber to your paper. I like it very much. My age is 17 years.

ANNIE LAURA BLOCKER, Rockdale, Milam Co., Tex. -- Mr. Big Hat and cousins: It has been a long time since I wrote. It has been raining for three days and I have to stay in out of the mud. Our school closed the 27th day of March, and I was so sorry. I think Mr. Big Hat is so kind to give the cousins a whole page. My papa takes The News and he says he can't do without it. I have got a little pig and his name is Joe. I hope Peggy is sick when my letter arrives. I help mama do the housework. I will answer Fannie Chernosky's riddle. It is a watermelon. My age is 8 years.

1908 :: Moving Picture Outfit For Sale

2011-05-05T15:20:00.000-05:00

Dallas Morning News. May 5, 1908. FOR SALE. -- First-class, complete moving picture outfit, now in operation at Rockdale, Tex. Good chance for right man. Box 41. Rockdale, Tex.

1910 :: Birth of G.S. Perry

2011-05-05T11:03:00.003-05:00

One hundred and one years ago today . . . on the 5th day of May . . . in the year 1910 . . . a baby boy is born in Rockdale, Milam County, Texas . . . he would later write of his own birth as follows . . .

Then, in the third year of this tripartite union of Andrew Perry and Laura Van de Venter and Maie Van de Venter, an event occurred which the local press, with its usual carelessness, probably described as "blessed." At eleven o'clock on the morning of May 5, 1910, a son was born, red and squalling. The parents, wishing to commemorate Granny's late husband and also to honor an old friend, Dr. Sessions, named this strident, wriggling little creature, who would henceforth participate in the already adequate pandemonium of the household, George Sessions Perry.

As in the case of all other family offices that appeared to Granny either important or interesting, she immediately took over the management of this new member. She washed it, fed it lukewarm malted milk, and talked to it so constantly that the tiny brain, unable to effect other means of escape, simply succumbed to merciful sleep. At other times, fed and wanting diversion, the baby clutched its empty nursing bottle and sent it sailing at its Granny's head.

By 1912, after interminable sieges of colic and a few spasms induced by eating banana skins, the baby began to have a little smudge of personality of its own. And as this personality took shape, so did the struggle between it and its Granny Van for the control and direction of its existence.

From My Granny Van, The Running Battle of Rockdale, Texas by George Sessions Perry . . .

1936 :: 4 Die in Texas Tornadoes

2011-04-29T11:03:00.008-05:00

Dallas Morning News. April 29, 1936. Tornadic winds slashed through Southeast Texas Tuesday killing four persons and injuring at least a dozen others during a driving rainstorm which soaked most of the State. Freakish twisters took the lives of two Negroes on the Simms ranch, six miles northwest of Rockdale, and two others in Eastern Wharton County. . . . The body of a negro woman named Sullivan [sic] was found in the splintered ruins of her home on the Simms ranch. In a near-by field was sprawled the battered body of her son. . . .

New York Times. April 29, 1936. Rains Valued at Millions Help the Prospects for Crops. Dallas, Texas, April 28. -- Tornadic winds slashed through Southwest Texas today, killing four persons and injuring at least twelve as much-needed rains soaked most of the State, the "dust-bowl" area of Oklahoma and Southern Louisiana. As farmers and stockmen valued the rain at millions of dollars, twisters hit Eastern Wharton County and a ranch six miles northwest of Rockdale, Texas, killing four Negroes. Considerable damage was done in the affected areas. . . .

1886 :: A Deluge of Rain and Hail

2011-04-28T11:03:00.000-05:00

New York Times. April 29, 1886. Houses Damaged, Orchards Destroyed, and Cattle Killed. Rockdale, Texas, April 28. -- The most destructive rain and hail storm ever known in this section of Milam County visited Rockdale and vicinity yesterday afternoon. About half an hour before the storm burst upon the town the sky became almost black. The deluge of water led many to suppose a waterspout had burst. The roofs of many houses offered only partial protection against the downpour, as the water pounded through nearly every flat roof in the town. Following the deluge came a phenomenal hailstorm, which destroyed every sign of vegetation for miles around. The orchards were literally stripped of all small twigs and limbs, and many trees were barked and killed. Thousands of the hailstones were an inch in diameter. They tore through roofs, puncturing even the tin roofs and breaking the window shutters. Scarcely a single window pane on the west side escaped destruction. Following the rain and hail came a severe gale. The damage to dwelling houses and orchards within the immediate vicinity of Rockdale will exceed $15,000. The storm moved eastward, devastating fields and orchards in its path. No loss of human life is reported, but a large number of cattle was killed.

1932 :: Mrs. Mary L. Perry Is Buried at Austin

2011-04-15T11:03:00.000-05:00

Dallas Morning News. April 15, 1932. Mrs. Mary L. Perry Is Buried at Austin. From the Austin Bureau of The News. Austin, Texas, April 14. -- Funeral services were held Thursday for Mrs. Mary Lucinda Perry, 89. She was born in Starkville, Miss., April 7, 1843, and married to J.W. Perry Oct. 25, 1866. After her marrige she moved to Texas and settled at Lexington, Lee County, and later in Caldwell and Rockdale, where she lived for thirty-nine years. Fourteen years ago Mrs. Perry moved to Taylor, where she made her home with a daughter, and nine years ago she came to Austin. Surviving are six children, Ira Perry and Mrs. John Landis of San Antonio and E.H. Perry, Mrs. L.B. Baker, Mrs. E.E. Shropshire and Miss Rosalie Perry, all of Austin. Six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren also survive her. Her findagrave memorial page

1924 :: Death of George Doss

2011-03-30T11:03:00.000-05:00

Dallas Morning News. March 30, 1924. Rockdale Man Had Coffin Ready When Death Came. Special to The News. ROCKDALE, Texas. March 29. George Doss, 81 years old, died at his home in the Gay Hill community after an illness of several days. Mr. Doss has been ill for some time, and for quite a while had had his coffin at home ready. He was at one time the most prominent and progressive farmer in Milam County, taking his prize-winning exhibits to all the fairs. He was a veteran of the Civil War. Mr. Doss is survived by a large family, having been the father of ten sons and daughters, most of whom are living -- Ed Doss and Charles Doss, two sons, living near him all their lives. Funeral was held at Hamilton Chapel Cemetery Friday afternoon, the Rev. W.E. Copeland of Rockdale conducting the services.

1925 :: Death of James H. Copeland

2011-03-22T11:03:00.000-05:00

Dallas Morning News. March 22, 1925. COPELAND. -- Rockdale, Texas. March 21. -- James H. Copeland, 55 years old, died here suddenly Friday at noon and will be buried Sunday. Mr. Copeland was son of the Rev. W.E. Copeland, minister of the Presbyterian Church and Confederate veteran who died some months ago. Mr. Copeland was engaged in the building of the Christian Church here when stricken. He leaves a wife, who was Miss Izolie Turner, and a sister, Mrs. C.K. Stribling. Burial will be from the Baptist Church, with the Rev. Jesse Garrett, pastor, conducting the services.

1960 :: Lucy Hill Patterson

2011-03-18T11:03:00.003-05:00

Los Angeles Times, March 18, 1960. PATTERSON, Lucy Hill, beloved mother of Dr. George Hill Patterson. Services at 1 p.m. Saturday, Faith Chapel, Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, Forest Lawn Mortuary in charge. findagrave Lucy Hill Patterson Memorial Library

1870 :: 2000 Head of Cattle

2011-03-10T11:03:00.001-06:00

Galveston Daily News. Friday, March 10, 1870. Cattle - Major Hamlin of Milam county, will soon start for Omaha with 2,000 head of cattle.

1975 :: In Memoriam - Claire Hodges Perry

2011-03-09T11:03:00.001-06:00

Dallas Morning News. March 9, 1975. In Memoriam . . . Memorial services for Claire Hodges Perry, who died last week in Connecticut, were held Thursday, March 6, in Rockdale, Texas, the home town where she lived most of her life with her husband, the late George Sessions Perry. Aside from being Perry's close associate and unofficial editor in his dazzling writing career, which won him unique fame as an immensely versatile Texan (novelist, playwright, foreign correspondent, brilliant journalist), Claire Perry was connected with the book world as a literary agent and free-lance editor. During the summer months, the Perrys lived in an old house they loved at Guilford, Connecticut, where she was an active supporter of the Guilford Free Library. Those wishing to make memorial donations should send them directly to the library at Guilford.

Kannmacher v. State

2011-03-06T11:03:00.006-06:00

The Southwestern reporter, Volume 101 by West Publishing Company. 1907.

KANNMACHER v. STATE.
(Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas. March 6. 1907.)

1. Criminal Law — New Trial — Misconduct Of Jury — Raising Issue — Examination Of Jurors. Under Code Crim. Proc. 1895, art 817, authorizing a new trial for misconduct of the jury, and declaring it competent to prove such misconduct by the voluntary affidavit of a juror, and that the verdict may in like manner be sustained by such affidavit, and article 821. providing that, when the state has taken issue on the truth of a cause set forth in a motion for new trial, the court shall hear evidence by affidavit or otherwise, an issue is made, so as to authorize the court to compel the jurors to testify, by defendant's affidavit in his motion for new trial showing that his counsel had endeavored to talk with the jurors in regard to their verdict, but that they had refused to do so, stating that they had agreed they would not. and the affidavit of a person that a juror had told him that he was not originally in favor of the death penalty, which the jury imposed, but that they thought the wholesale killings in the county should be stopped, and that the death penalty should be inflicted in order to do so, though such juror made affidavit denying this.

2. Homicide — Cooling Time — Instructions. Where it is necessary for the court in a homicide case to charge on cooling time, it should define what cooling time is. [Ed. Note.—For cases in point, see Cent Dig. vol. 20, Homicide, § 000.] 1 Samj—Murder In Second Degree—Pajb Sio.n—Instructions.

It is an undue limitation and restriction, calculated to cause a conviction of murder in the first degree, for a charge on murder in the second degree to require the jury to believe defendant shot deceased in a "sudden transport" of passion; it not being necessary to reduce murder to the second degree that the passion be sudden or that there be a transport thereof, but merely that the mind of the slayer be not cool and deliberate when the intent was formed.

4. Same — Manslaughter. To reduce homicide to manslaughter, it is not necessary that the intent to kill be formed in a sudden transport of passion, on ?nate cause, but it is enough that the mind is excited and not capable of cool reflection from some adequate cause. [Ed. Note.—For cases in point, see Cent. Dig. Toi. 20, Homicide, §§ 59-01.]

5. Same — Self-Defense. One in charge of a saloon, though not the owner thereof, has a right to preserve order therein, and to prevent a breach of the peace, and to use such force as is necessary for that purpose, and if, while he was preserving the peace therein, deceased made an assault on him, which threatened his life or his person with serious bodily injury, he was authorized to defend himself, but if, when be commanded the peace, deceased while not recognizing his authority was doing no act which put his life in danger or his person in danger of serious bodily injury, and he then killed deceased, he would be guilty of murder or manslaughter. [Ed. Note.—For cases in point, see Cent. Dig. vol. 26, Homicide, §§ 156, 157.] Appeal from Criminal District Court, Dallas County: E. B. Muse, Judge. H. Kannmacher was convicted of murder, and appeals. Reversed and remanded. A.W. Nowlln and Muse & Allen, for appellant. F.J. McCord, Asst Atty. Gen., for the State. HENDERSON, J. Appellant was convicted of murder in the first degree, and his punishment assessed at death; and prosecutes this appeal.

A summary of the facts shows: That the homicide occurred in the city of Dallas at Strong's saloon, on the night of the 0th of September, 1905. Deceased (Will Rasberry), Bob Oliver, Zollie Meyer, and Highburger were engaged In a game of dominoes in a little room in the saloon at the south end of the bar counter. Appellant was bartender in the saloon, and one Zbiranskl, who was called "Chef," also connected with the saloon, was at the time in the domino room. The parties had been playing some time for beer, of which they appear to have drank freely. Somewhere about 10 o'clock a disturbance occurred in the domino room between the deceased (Rasberry) and Chef. Chef said something about the game, and deceased took offense at it: got up with a beer bottle find cursed and abused Chef; and was in the act of assaulting him. At this juncture appellant, who was in charge of the bar as night tender, the proprietor being absent, came back to the domino room, as some of the witnesses say, with brass knuckles on his right hand, and demanded to know what was up, and told the parties to stop the disturbance. Deceased told him it was none of his business, that he was not going to fight in the saloon, but threatened to take Chef out in the alley and whip him; told appellant to go back to the bar; that his place was behind the bar. Appellant said he would show him whether it was his business or not, and immediately went to the end of the bar and got a pistol, and came back with the pistol presented in the door of the domino room. Deceased in the meantime had advanced to the door with the beer bottle in his hand. The state's witnesses show he was doing nothing but standing there with a bottle in his hand. Appellant's witnesses show that he was advancing or in the act of advancing with the bottle In his hand. At this juncture appellant began firing. Deceased In the meantime got behind the door, which had a glass panel in it, and appellant fired a second shot through the door, which struck deceased in the left breast below the collar bone, and cut the main artery, which caused his death In a few minutes. The third shot was fired, which went into a window sill in the room, or It is possible the third shot is the one which killed deceased. It appears that prior to this homicide the parties, appellant and deceased, were on friendly terms.

Appellant's first bill of exceptions brings in review the alleged misconduct of the jury. Said bill is somewhat lengthy, and we abbreviate It as follows: Appellant alleged in his motion for a new trial substantially as follows: That while the Jury were considering their verdict five of said Jurors were opposed to the infliction of the death penalty, and refused to consent thereto; that the argument was used to said jurors by some member or members of the jury that the only way to stop homicides in Dallas county was to inflict the death penalty; that a large number of murders had been committed of late in Dallas county; that many men were being acquitted of murder, and that as a wholesome lesson for deterring the commission of crime the death penalty should be Inflicted: that among many other cases said jurors discussed the recent acquittal of B. R. Parker upon a charge of murder in the district court of Dallas county as a miscarriage of justice. Appellant further alleged that. In order to cover up and conceal said misconduct, said Jurors had entered Into an agreement between themselves prior to returning a verdict that they would not talk with any person, or state to any person what occurred in the Jury room in connection with their verdict, unless compelled to do so by the court; that appellant's counsel had endeavored to converse with said jurors to determine how they reached their verdict, whether by corrupt means, in order to present same in his motion for a now trial, but had been informed by two of the jurors, to wit, Craig and Buchanan, that they had entered Into an agreement not to tell how they reached their verdict, and refused to make any statement to appellant's counsel, to wit, J. C. Muse and R. B. Allen, In regard to any matter connected with their verdict, basing their refusal upon an agreement between the members of the jury that they would only tell what occurred, if compelled to do so by the court. Appellant attached to his motion for a new trial the affidavit of one A. W. May, which shows substantially as follows: That said May Is a resident of the city and county of Dallas, and has been for a number of years, and is acquainted with the Juror S. A. Murdock, who served on the Jury in the trial of appellant; that a few days after the rendition of said verdict affiant met said Juror, Murdock, In the city of Dallas, and, after greeting him, said, "How did you come to hang that man Kannmacher?" to which Murdock replied "that it was a cold-blooded murder, and that the Jury thought it was time that these wholesale killings in Dallas county should be stopped." Affiant then asked him if Kannmacher had any provocation for the killing, and stated that he thought no sane man would have acted like Kannmacher did, to which Murdock replied, "I thought Kannmacher did act very queer myself, and I was not individually in favor of the death penalty, but the Jury thought that wholesale killing In Dallas county should be stopped, and that the death penalty should be Inflicted In order to stop such killings." The Juror further stated that It did not seem to him that defendant was all right mentally. The state Introduced the controverting affidavit of the Juror Murdock, which avers that he did not state to one A. W. May that himself and others were opposed to returning the death penalty, and that the argument was made that the death penalty was the only way of deterring homicides in Dallas county, and, further, that no such argument was made to affiant in retirement of the Jury.

Motion for a new trial, which is made a part of the bill of exceptions, shows that appellant had all the members of the Jury present, and desired to interrogate them In the presence of the court, and proposed to show by them the agreement aforesaid, and that they discussed In connection with the verdict, and in the assessment of the death penalty, other killings in Dallas county, and the miscarriage of Justice on account of such other killings. The court In explaining this action on striking out appellant's attack on the verdict of the Jury, and In refusing to permit him to examine the Jurors In regard thereto, explained as follows: "The court refused to permit the Inquiry into the verdict upon the ground as alleged in the bill. The fact of the agreement among the Jury was as alleged In the bill. As to what the defendant expected to prove by the Jurors as to what occurred among the Jury in deliberating upon the verdict, the court does not approve as a fact, but only as to what was expected to be proved and the sources of information as to such proof are disclosed in the bill as merely speculative, based upon the affidavit of A. W. May, the agreement among the Jury and the refusal of Craig and Buchanan to affirm or deny as stated in the bill." We gather from this bill of exceptions that the contention of the state is that appellant by his proceedings did not make an issue as to the misconduct of the Jury; that, in order to raise this issue, It is incumbent on appellant to allege some fact, and support It by affidavit or otherwise, before the court will be Justified in Interrogating the Jury on the subject; that the most that can be said of this proceeding is that appellant is Informed and believes, and he only supports this Information by the affidavit of May, which in Itself is nullified by the affidavit of Murdock. In support of this contention appellant refers us to Jack v. State, 20 Tex. App. 656. It appears that was a trial of one Jeff Jack on a charge of theft of personal property, and the proof showed that he was porter of the party from whom he was alleged to have committed the theft. During the trial a member of the Jury, in the presence of some of the other members, stated that he had once been robbed by a porter. The court held that this was not such misconduct as would authorize a new trial, and Intimates that this accusation against the Jury was not sufficient to require Jurors to testify as to such misconduct, and the opinion goes on to say: "While, under our statute, it is competent to prove misconduct by the voluntary affidavit of a Juror, the statute does not intimate that Jurors can be brought into court by process and compelled to go upon the witness stand and testify as to arguments used and opinions expressed and given by Jurors in the Jury room." It may have been the practice formerly, when an attack was made on tli? Integrity of a Jury's verdict, to require testimony of Jurors as to what occurred In the Jury room, but that Is no longer the rule. The statute itself seems to authorize such a proceeding. It reads as follows: "A new trial will be granted where, from the misconduct of the Jury, the court is of the opinion that the defendant has not received a fair and Impartial trial, and It shall be competent to prove such misconduct by the voluntary affidavit of a Juror; and the verdict may In like manner, In such cases be sustained by such affidavit" Code Cr. Proc. 1895. art. 817. Evidently, if the verdict can be impeached by the voluntary affidavit of a Juror, it could be equally impeached, when the ground is laid for this impeachment, by requiring the 12 Jurors to be sworn and testify in regard to the verdict, and this seems to have been the practice before the decision in the Jack Case. We do not understand that decision to go further than to hold that there must be a real ground of misconduct stated and brought to the attention of the court by motion or otherwise. In such case, in the investigation of the question, the court will not be confined to the voluntary affidavits of jurors, but will compel them to testify. For a discussion of this question, see Mitchell v. State, 36 Tex. Cr. App. 278, 33 S. W. 367, 36 S. W. 456, Tsagulrre v. State, 58 S. W. 1005, 1 Tex. Ct. Rep. 97, Id., 42 Tex. Cr. R. 253, 58 S. W. 1005, Long v. State, 88 S. W. 203, 13 Tex. Ct Rep. 569, and Covington v. State (decided at present term) 100 S. W. 368. In the latter case this court held a motion impeaching the verdict of the jury for misconduct would be considered, though filed after the expiration of two days. Article 821, Code Cr. Proc. 1895, provides where the issue of misconduct Is controverted by the state the court may hear evidence by affidavit or otherwise. Of course, it Is incumbent in the first Instance on the party attacking the verdict to do so by the allegation of some fact supported by affidavits which question the integrity of the verdict and tend to show some misconduct of the jury In arriving at the verdict The question here presented is: Did the affidavit made by appellant and supported by May make an issue as to the misconduct of the jury, In connection with the other facts and circumstances presented In the bill of exceptions? This affidavit of appellant In his motion for a new trial shows that his counsel had endeavored to talk with the Jurors In regard to their verdict but the Jurors had refused to talk with or discuss the subject of their verdict with counsel, unless they were compelled to do so by the court They had already procured the affidavit of May, which states substantially that the Juror Murdock had told him that he was not originally in favor of the death penalty, but that the Jury thought that wholesale killings in Dallas county should be stopped, and that the death penalty should be inflicted In order to stop such killings. Evidently the state believed that this affidavit was calculated to throw suspicion on the verdict of the Jury, as it procured the affidavit of the Juror Murdock, who denied the allegations contained in May's affidavit If the matter bad been left here, the court might have been authorized to decide that the last affidavit was true, and to have overruled the motion for a new trial predicated on this pound; but when appellant informed the court that the Jurors had refused to talk with him or his counsel on the subject, and had told him as a reason why that they had entered Into an agreement not to do so, and when appellant craved of the court permission to have said Jurors sworn in order to investigate the matter, It occurs to us It was the plain duty of the court to have granted this permission. Appellant did more than Wate his suspicions as to how the verdict was reached. He supported this with the affidavit of one witness, May, and then explained to the court why It was impossible tor him to produce any affidavit of any juror, 101 S.W.-18 as they had refused, on account of an agreement among themselves, to talk to him on the subject Appellant showed that he had done all as to this matter which It was possible for him to do, and, though of Itself the affidavit of May may not have been sufficient to overturn the verdict and show it was superinduced by misconduct It was sufficient to cast suspicion upon the verdict and In our opinion the court should have had the accusation against the Jurors thoroughly Investigated. It may be there was no misconduct or undue means calculated to Influence the verdict of the jury. We are left In the dark as to that from the fact that the court refused to hear the testimony, and, so long as under our laws and Constitution a defendant is entitled to a fair and impartial trial by Jury, we cannot permit a verdict to stand which Is under the shadow of suspicion as to Its fairness. If there was no misconduct, the state had nothing to fear from an investigation of the jury, and the very fact that the investigation was refused tends to create an apprehension that there may have been some misconduct calculated to impeach the verdict and that it may not have been altogether fair and Impartial. We are the more constrained to this view because the homicide in this case was the result of no previous grudge or 111 will between the parties, but occurred In a sudden quarrel; and, if there was that express malice aforethought which alone justifies a conviction of murder in the first degree, it was formed within a very brief space of time. While the law limits the formation of this express malice aforethought to no particular time, still, when the circumstances show a killing on a sudden quarrel, with no element of previous HI will, it will not be permitted that the verdict shall rest under any suspicion of unfairness. All that appellant asked was that the light be turned on, and that he be permitted to question the Jury as to any misconduct which may have occurred In reaching the result This privilege was refused to him.

The charge of the court is criticized in several respects. It is insisted that nowhere in the charge on murder In the first degree Is the Jury told that express malice is a fact that must be proved; that the use of this language in the charge on murder in the second degree is not sufficient While we are not Inclined to view this as error, certainly not as reversible error, still on another trial we suggest that the charge on murder In the first degree be complete in Itself.

It Is also insisted that the charge on murder In the second degree is not complete, in that it falls to define cooling time as between murder in the first and second degrees — that is, it is claimed there was an interval between the first altercation and the fatal shooting — and while the court told the jury that If the Intent was formed in a mind disturbed by passion and cooling time had not elapsed between the Intent formed and the execution of the design, the homicide would be of no greater magnitude than murder in the second degree, it is urged that the court should have further denned cooling time; that is, such time as the mind of a person of ordinary temper would, under the circumstances, become calm, etc. Whenever It is necessary to charge on cooling time, we believe the court should define what cooling time Is. However, it occurs to us that this was a continuous difficulty from beginning to end. After the altercation began appellant took a few steps, two or three, and secured his pistol and immediately returned and began shooting. It would seem from this that the question of cooling time did not intervene. So that, if the Intent was formed when appellant first went In front of the domino room, and his mind was then calm and sedate and he formed the Intent at that time, and he consummated the design immediately as testified to, there was no question of cooling time, or, if he formed the intent to kill subsequently, when he went In front of the domino room with his pistol in his hand, and his mind was cool and deliberate at that time, It would be murder In the first degree. However, if, on the other hand, his Intent was formed when bis mind was not calm and deliberate, but under a state of excitement, ft would not be murder in the first degree, but murder in the second degree, or manslaughter, as the case may be.

Appellant also complains because the court In charging on murder in the second degree required the jury to believe that appellant shot deceased in a sudden transport of passion. We agree to this contention. This is an undue limitation and restriction on murder in the second degree, and is calculated to cause a conviction of murder in the first degree. It is not necessary that, in order to reduce a murder from the first to the second degree, the homicide occur In a sudden transport of passion. A passion Is not required either to be sudden, nor Is It necessary that there be a transport of passion. If the mind of the slayer is not cool and deliberate when the intent is formed, but Is laboring under any excitement or passion, this would reduce the homicide to the second degree. See Gaines v. State (Tex. Cr.) 53 S. W. 623; Thomas v. State, 74 S. W. 36, 45 Tex. Cr. R. Ill; Boyd v. State, 28 Tex. App. 137, 12 S. W. 737. In the last-named case Judge Wilson lays down, In a condensed form, an apt presentation of the law of murder upon implied malice, and this Is peculiarly applicable where there is no charge given on manslaughter. The same vice occurs in the court's charge on manslaughter; that Is, the court requires the Intent to kill to be formed in "a sudden transport of passion" on adequate cause. This is not the law; but. If the mind Is excited and not capable of cool reflection from some adequate cause, It. is none the less manslaughter, notwithstanding the passion may not be a transport of passion. This character of vice often occurs in charges, no doubt superinduced by the fact that the printed charges used by the judges contain this error, and we have had occasion more than once to reverse cases on this account. And we again call attention to the Incorrectness of the character of charge, and In any case where It is given and calculated to work Injury it will operate a reversal. In this particular case we cannot say that it did not operate to the prejudice of appellant He was convicted of murder In the first degree, and in applying the law to the facts the jury were instructed that they were only authorized to convict appellant of murder in the second degree if the intent to kill was formed In a "sudden transport of passion." It may be that appellant's mind was excited by passion, and the jury might have believed under a proper charge that it was so influenced, while at the same time they might not have believed that he was laboring under a sudden transport of passion. This was placing on appellant a greater burden than the law authorized.

Some criticism is Indulged In by appellant of the court's charge on the failure to instruct the jury with reference to appellant's right to preserve good order and prevent a breach of the peace In the house under his control. We believe on another trial of the case the attention of the jury should be properly directed to this phase of the case. Of course, no right of property was Involved, as we take it, in connection with the right of self-defense, but, inasmuch as the testimony tended to show appellant was In charge of the premises, he had a right to preserve order in the house, and to prevent a breach of the peace, and to use such force as was necessary for that purpose, but no more. If in preserving the peace deceased made an assault on appellant which threatened his life or his person with serious bodily injury, he was authorized to defend himself. If, on the other hand, appellant commanded the peace, and deceased did not recognize his authority, but was doing no act which put appellant's life In danger or his person In danger of serious bodily injury, and appellant shot and killed him, he would be guilty of either murder or manslaughter, as the facts of the case might authorize.

We do not deem it necessary to discuss other assignments.

For the errors pointed put, the Judgment Is reversed and the cause remanded.

Google Books,

1944 :: Death of Elizabeth H. Sitman

2011-02-04T11:03:00.001-06:00

Dallas Morning News. February 4, 1944. Mrs. Sitman, 88, Dies at Her Home. Mrs. Elizabeth H. Sitman, 88, a resident of Dallas for thirty years, died at her residence, 612 Sunset, Thursday following a brief illness. A native of Louisiana, she attended school there and lived at Rockdale, Milam County, and Austin before moving to Dallas. She was the wife of the late Joseph Sitman, cotton buyer. Christian Science services will be read Saturday at 10:30 a.m. at the Guardian Funeral Chapel. Burial will be at Hillcrest Memorial Park. Surviving are two daughters, Mrs. S. G. Bell and Mrs. Minnis M. Lasater, both of Dallas; five grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. findagrave

1885 :: Death of Dr. J.E. Douthit

2011-02-01T11:01:00.004-06:00

Dallas Morning News. Jan. 4, 1886. Dr. J.E. Douthit died suddenly from heart disease, Feb. 1, 1885, at Rockdale, Milam County, aged 56 years. He served as surgeon in the Confederate army. his findagrave memorial page

1957 :: Perry Search Goes On

2011-01-26T11:03:00.000-06:00

New York Times. January 26, 1957. Perry Search Goes On. Magazine Writer Disappeared From Home on Dec. 13. Special to The New York Times. Guilford, Conn., Jan. 25 -- State and local police still are pressing an unsuccessful search for George Sessions Perry, magazine writer. Mr. Perry, 46 years old, disappeared from his home here on Dec. 13. A state police helicopter flew over a wide area near the home for several hours yesterday but found no trace of the missing man. Mr. Perry, a sufferer from arthritis, disappeared while his wife, Claire, and a woman friend were visiting a dentist.

1885 :: Death of Dr. Milton Antony

2011-01-25T16:07:00.000-06:00

On this date in the history of our hometown . . . the 25th day of January . . . in the year 1885 . . . Dr. Milton Antony dies in Rockdale, Milam County, Texas. He is buried in the Old City Cemetery, which is just out of sight at the bottom edge of this postcard.

Dr. Milton Antony, Jr. was a Confederate Surgeon in Brazoria County, Texas during the war between the states, then relocated to Milam County, Texas where he was the third Postmaster in Rockdale, serving 06 June 1876 to 26 April 1877 (which was one month after the entire wooden portion of Rockdale burned). He was a practicing physician in both Cameron and Rockdale. A Henry family reunion write-up in a 1931 edition of The Rockdale Reporter states that --

On Oct. 3, 1876, the Henrys [i.e., William Paschal Henry (1836-1912) and Josephine Wingfield Henry nee Davis (1842-1899)] arrived in Rockdale to visit a sister and family of the Mrs. Henry's, it being Dr. and Mrs. M. F. Anthony, who at that time had the post office and drug store combined on the corner where the Wolf Hotel now stands.

That is the Wolf Hotel on the right corner of the Rockdale postcard. The Wolf sat on the northeast corner of the intersection of Main and Milam. According to a history of Rockdale published in 1936, a two-story stone and brick bank building was erected in 1875, which later became the Wolf Hotel, and then, ca. 1935, the American Legion Hall. An 1885 map of Rockdale does show a bank at that location, and on the corner across the street is a post office in the Mundine House.

A year before Josephine arrived in Rockdale to visit her sister, Margaret, the following item appeared in the 12 November 1875 issue of the Galveston Weekly News --

There are street fights occurring (in Rockdale) almost every day and the officers of the law seem to enjoy it, taking their fines, never giving offenders the least word of warning or lecture. Nothing better could be expected when they license women of ill fame for ten dollars a month and receive half of the fines and their compensation. The most disgusting of it is, when they choose, these officers step beyond their authority and utterly disregard the law at pleasure. Every day or two some very interesting scenes occur in the pettifoggeries of Rockdale.

And just a year before that 1875 report, the same paper, in the 09 November 1874 issue, described the brand new city of Rockdale as being --

delightfully located in a thriving section of the county. . . . there are two or three banks, fifty or sixty merchants, and plenty of saloons, and has generally all the appearances of a railroad town. . . . While all it new and in some degree crude, there are some fine stone and brick buildings. . . . Where a population of eighteen hundred now thrive, was ten months ago the home of the deer, and the pleasure ground of the black bear.

For more information about Dr. Antony and his family, see --

Dr. Milton Antony, Jr.
Dr. Milton Antony, Sr., his father
Judge Edwin Le Roy Antony, his son
My Antony Board at gonetotexas.proboards.com
Antony Roots & Branches, his ancestors & assorted kith 'n kin

P.S. The handwritten paper in the background of the collage is a document from 1864, signed by Milton Antony, M.D. and three other doctors -- requesting the Confederate army to excuse the only druggist in Brazoria County, Texas from being conscripted into the army . . .

1918 :: Death of John A. Shapard, Postmaster

2011-01-25T11:03:00.001-06:00

Dallas Morning News. Jan. 25, 1918. Rockdale, Texas, Jan. 24. -- The funeral of John A. Shapard, Rockdale's postmaster for the last four and a half years, was held Tuesday at the Presbyterian Church by the Rev. W. E. Copeland. Mr. Shapard was 67 years of age and died last Friday, the body being held for the arrival of a son in the United States Navy. Another son is with Pershing in France. He was a printer by trade, and worked on the local newspaper almost continuously for thirty-two years.

1877 :: Shipments of Cotton - Criminal Conviction - Sleet

2011-01-16T11:03:00.001-06:00

Galveston News. Rockdale, Jan. 16, 1877. There have been 10,100 bales of cotton shipped from Rockdale from Sept. 1st up to date. This does not include the Bell county cotton, which, before the extension of the railroad, was shipped from this point; it now goes to Taylor. Rockdale this season has done a larger business than ever before, and her merchants are all in good spirits and satisfied with the situation.

Wm. Plasters, who killed a man in the upper portion of this county last spring, the particulars of which were published in the News, has been tried and found guilty of murder in the second degree, and sent to the penitentiary for five years. He is a very wealthy cattle man, and lives in Bell county.

A heavy sleet set in about daylight this morning; at noon it was two inches thick on the ground. Heads up has been the order of the day, and a few hurriedly constructed sleighs have been out.

1924 :: Mrs. Ellen Ames Buried at Rockdale

2011-01-14T11:03:00.001-06:00

Dallas Morning News. January 14, 1924. Mrs. Ellen Ames Buried at Rockdale. Special to The News. Rockdale, Milam Co., Texas, Jan. 13. -- The funeral of Mrs. Ellen Ghent Ames, 75 years old, wife of R. H. Ames, formerly superintendent of the water works system in Rockdale, was held here Saturday afternoon. The body was brought from Little Rock, where death occurred some days ago, and was largely attended by citizens of this and near-by towns. The funeral services were conducted under the auspices of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, of which Mrs. Ames was for many years a member and president of the local chapter, the Terry Texas Rangers. The body was accompanied by Mrs. Ames' husband, her two sisters, Mrs. Mary Davis and Mrs. Victorine Arnold. Mrs. Ames' son was in Tampico, Mexico, and unable to be present.

1894 :: Hamilton-Henry Wedding

2010-12-30T15:20:00.000-06:00

Bethlehem Community
To the Messenger:
December 24 [1894].

Once more I come, heralding the news from old Bethlehem. Since my departure it seems that marriage bells have been substituted for [Christ]mas bells. I have attended weddings for the past two weeks and still have several invitations left.

Last Thursday night [i.e., 20th December 1894] both young and old began to congregate at the residence of Mr. and Mrs. W. P. Henry Sr., [my 2nd great-grandparents] for the purpose of witnessing the marriage ceremony between J. D. Hamilton and their daughter, Ella, conducted by Hon. W. D. Wells of Rockdale, with J. B. Henry and Miss Cornelia Bowling, Hubert Phillips and Miss Elma Rettig as attendants.

After which the entire crowd was ushered into the dining room, where they partook of a most wonderful, excellent and appetizing repast.

Well Mr. Editor, as I have an invitation to attend a wedding at Mr. and Mrs. Thos. Phillips, I will close by giving a list of presents. Enclosed please find some of the wedding cake.

The presents were as follows:

Mr. and Mrs. Thos. Phillips, table cloth
Miss Della Phillips, glass set
Miss Isa Phillips, set of casters
Mr. Hubert Phillips, syrup pitcher
Mr. and Mrs. Geo. Rettig, cake stand
Miss Elma Rettig, fruit dish
Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Bowling, fruit stand
Miss Nona Bowling, fruit dish
Miss Cornelia Rettig, head rest
Mrs. Lizzie Baumgartner of Iowa, photograph case
Mrs. M. F. Antony, set goblets [i.e., Margaret Frances Antony nee Davis (1833-1912), sister of Mother of the bride]
Messrs. Wallace Moody and Jno. Gore, pair towels and syrup pitcher
Mrs. S. H. Sharp, dusting brush [i.e., Emma Sharp nee Henry (1872-1944), sister of the bride, & twin sister of my great-grandpa]
Mr. J. B. Henry, set cups and saucers and spoons [i.e., Jerome Bonapart Henry (1870-1956), brother of the bride]
Mr. and Mrs. W. P. Henry Jr., price of present [i.e., William Paschal Henry, Jr. (1868-1941), brother of the bride, & his wife, Annie Mae Henry nee Calvert (1874-1950)]
Mr. L. O. Stewart, cake plate [i.e., Louis O. Stewart (b. June 1873), a 1st cousin of Berta Mary Sharp (1873-1955) who is the future wife of a brother of the bride, & my great-grandma]
Mr. and Mrs. W. P. Henry Sr., plates, knives and forks, salt and pepper stand, glass set, pair linen towels, table cloth, set glasses and lamp [parents of the bride, and 2nd great-grandparents of the Keeper of this geneablog]

Sol.

Sweethearts Join Hands in 1894 Christmas Wedding . . . A copy of the above newspaper article turned up in my files -- source unknown. I assume it probably came from my 1st cousin once removed, Georgia Faye (Henry) Kaseberg (1925-2001), as she was always so good about giving me copies of whatever finds she made.

Bride :: Ella May Hamilton nee Henry :: born 26 October 1875 in Grayson County, Texas :: died 14 December 1967 in Rockdale, Milam County, Texas :: a daughter of my 2nd great-grandparents, William Paschal Henry (1836-1912) and Josephine Wingfield Henry nee Davis (1842-1899)
Groom :: James David Hamilton :: born 19 September 1872 in Kentucky :: died 03 May 1922 in Rockdale, Milam County, Texas after coming in contact with a high-powered electric wire following a storm :: son of Joseph David Hamilton (1832-1905) and Mary Katherine Hamilton nee Hughes (1842-1906)

1868 :: Phillip Brooks wrote Oh Little Town of Bethlehem
Bethlehem, Texas according to TSHA
Bethlehem Community from Rockdale Centennial: A History of Rockdale, Texas 1874-1974

1894 :: Christmas Weddings in Rockdale

2010-12-30T11:03:00.005-06:00

The Galveston Daily News, Sunday, December 30, 1894. MARRIAGES. ROCKDALE MARRIAGES. Rockdale, Milam Co., Tex., Dec. 28. -- At the residence of Mr. W. H. Henry, two miles north of Rockdale, Mr. J. D. Hamilton and Miss Ella Henry were married on December 21 [sic].

At the residence of Mr. Henry Lockwood in this city on Christmas day at 5 o'clock Mr. W. H. Knight of Cisco and Miss Matie Bagley of this city.

At the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Phillips, three miles north of Rockdale, Mr. W. N. Vesey and Miss Della Phillips, both of this county, on the night of the 25th.

Mr. A. M. Scarbrough left Sunday for Van Buren, Ark., where he was married on the 26th instant.

1888 :: Merry Christmas. Entertainments at Rockdale

2010-12-28T16:07:00.000-06:00

Merry Christmas. Entertainments at Rockdale. Rockdale, Tex., December 27. -- Christmas eve was duly celebrated here by two public entertainments. From 7 o'clock to 8:30 p.m. the doors of the Baptist church were open to all desiring to participate in the distribution of presents from a handsome tree which had been erected in the edifice. This is but another of the many generous acts of the Baptists here, who, being in possession of the largest church structure, never fail to allow the public, on proper occasions, to avail itself of the advantages offered by their commodious building.

Promptly after the exercises at the Baptist church, as many as could gain admittance crowded into the opera-house, where Mrs. J. H. Cone combined the distribution of prizes to her music class with a novel Christmas boat, which appeared on the stage laden with gifts from Santa Claus. Much praise is awarded to Mrs. Cone for her management of this affair, and her patrons were well pleased with the advancement of her pupils as evidenced by their playing and singing.

At both entertainments Miss Texie Owsley, one of Rockdale's most amiable young ladies, gave some specimens in elocution, in which department she has been applying herself for some time at the Waco Baylor university. Miss Owsley acquitted herself most creditably. Christmas day was miserable in point of weather.

The Galveston Daily News. Friday, December 28, 1888.

1932 :: Wounds Fatal to Man

2010-12-25T03:20:00.002-06:00

Dallas Morning News. December 25, 1932. Wounds Fatal to Man. Special to The News. Rockdale, Texas, Dec. 24. -- Luther Pickens died here Saturday as a result of gunshot wounds received Friday night at the home of his mother. Mrs. Jane Pickens at Chapman City. He died upon arrival at a hospital.

1915 :: Dr. Sessions files for Bankruptcy

2010-12-23T23:03:00.001-06:00

New York Times. December 23, 1915. Out of Town. Special to The New York Times. Waco, Texas, Dec. 22. -- I.P. Sessions, physician of Rockdale, Texas, filed voluntary petition in bankruptcy in Federal Court here, listing liabilities of $70,129, assets of $56,660, and $2,500 exempt.

1956 :: Writer Still Missing

2010-12-18T11:03:00.001-06:00

New York Times. December 18, 1956. Writer Still Missing. Connecticut Police Continue Search for Perry. Guilford, Conn., Dec. 17 (UP) -- The police said today that George Sessions Perry, missing writer, was not in the area of his home here. The 46-year-old author and magazine writer has been missing since Thursday. The police searched the woods and two ponds near his home, but could find no trace of him. Joseph Quinlan, police chief, said he was "positive" Mr. Perry was not in the area.

1956 :: Search for Writer Vain

2010-12-17T11:03:00.000-06:00

New York Times. December 17, 1956. Search for Writer Vain. George Sessions Perry Still Missing From His Home. Guilford, Conn., Dec. 16 (AP) -- The police may abandon the search for the missing magazine writer, George Sessions Perry, tomorrow. Mr. Perry, 46 years old, has been missing from his home near here since Thursday. His wife found him gone when she returned home from a dentist's appointment. Mr. Perry wrote the "Cities of America" series for The Saturday Evening Post.

1956 :: Helicopter Joins Hunt for Writer

2010-12-16T11:03:00.002-06:00

New York Times. December 16, 1956. Helicopter Joins Hunt for Writer. But Searchers Fail to Find George Sessions Perry in Woods Near Home. By Richard H. Parke. Special to The New York Times. Guilford, Conn., Dec. 15 -- A wide search of the countryside failed again today to find any trace of George Sessions Perry. The 46-year-old magazine writer disappeared from his home here Thursday. The police and volunteer firemen from Guilford and neighboring communities tramped through miles of field and woodland surrounding Mr. Perry's home on Clapboard Hill Road, about three miles from here. This afternoon a helicopter took part in the hunt. Mr. Perry has suffered for some years with arthritis. He disappeared some time between 12:30 and 3 P.M. on Thursday while his wife, Claire, and Mrs. Milton MacKaye, wife of another writer, were on a visit to a dentist. He was in bed when the two women left. Mrs. Perry told Police Chief Joseph Quinlan that she and Mrs, MacKaye found him gone when they returned. They assumed he had gone to look for his Springer spaniel, Mr. Mutt. The dog, which had been missing for two days, was found last night at the home of a neighbor.

Not Heavily Dressed. Mr. Perry was wearing a tweed jacket, corduroy trousers and loafers when he left home, according to his wife. The Perry home is a large rambling colonial farmhouse that the couple purchased in 1944. They also maintain a home in Rockdale, Tex. They are in the habit of spending their summers in Guilford, and this year, Mrs. Perry said to day, they were considering remaining here for the winter. Mr. Perry, who is almost six-and-one-half-feet tall, has undergone intensive treatment for his arthritic condition and spent some months recently at the Grace-New Haven Community Hospital. Friends said he had shown marked improvement since his hospital stay, although he continued to walk with difficulty. He was said to have been generally in good spirits with only occasional periods of despondency. Mr. Perry has been a contributor to The Saturday Evening Post for many years. He and his wife originated the Cities of America series for the magazine.

1956 :: Hard Rain Limits Hunt for George Sessions Perry

2010-12-15T11:03:00.000-06:00

New York Times. December 15, 1956. Magazine Writer Sought in Woods. Hard Rain Limits Hunt for George Sessions Perry in Guilford, Conn. Guilford, Conn., Dec. 14 (AP) -- The police and firemen searched rain-sodden woods in vain today for George Sessions Perry, nationally known magazine writer. He disappeared from his home here Thursday afternoon. Mr. Perry and friends said they feared that the 46-year-old writer, who suffers from arthritis, had become lost in the woods while searching for his springer spaniel, Mr. Mutt, lost since Tuesday night. Police Chief Joseph Quinlan said he wanted the searchers to check a pond, partly on Mr. Perry's property, into which the writer may have fallen. The pond was dragged yesterday. However, Chief Quinlan said, "it's so full of stumps and trees that you can't do a very thorough job. We want to drain it, and we opened the dam a little more today; but it's raining so hard that the water runs in as fast as it runs out." Mr. Perry disappeared while his wife and Mrs. Milton MacKaye, wife of a fellow-writer, were on a two-hour trip to visit a dentist. "He was in bed when we left," Mrs. MacKaye said, "and when we found him gone when we got back, we supposed he had gone to look for the dog. We looked by ourselves for about an hour, and then we called the police because it was beginning to get dark. He had no identification on him, and we thought for a while me might have been picked up by somebody who took him to a hospital and didn't know who he was." Mr. Perry was wearing only a tweed jacket, corduroy trousers and loafers when he left home, Mrs. MacKaye said. He carried no wallet. Mr. Perry, who is almost six and a half feet tall, is a frequent contributor to the Saturday Evening Post. He and Mrs. Perry originated the "Cities of America" series for that magazine. They wrote the first several articles in the series.

1956 :: George Sessions Perry Disappears

2010-12-13T23:03:00.000-06:00

Southwestern Historical Quarterly. Vol. CVI, No. 1. July 2002. A Brief Peace: The Postwar Years of George Sessions Perry by Garna L. Christian. Whatever childhood or wartime demons hovered over George Sessions Perry as he disembarked from the European front of World War II, the fates appeared to favor his every turn. . . . A scant decade later, this fortuitous future lay submerged with Perry in an ice-bound Connecticut river, claiming the life of one of the most widely read writers in America. . . . Perry disappeared from his Guilford farmhouse between noon and three-thirty on the afternoon of December 13, 1956, when Claire left for a dental appointment. Since he apparently wore only a light coat and a pair of pants against the winter chill, his wife surmised that he had gone out to look for his missing spaniel, "Mister Mutt." After the dog returned alone, a fruitless search by police, firemen, and even a helicopter crew cast gloom on the prospects of recovery. An outpouring of messages of advice and hope included an offer from Post publishers to involve the governor in the search. The local police chief, a friend of the Perrys, recalled George recently "look[ing] remote" and having said, "The best thing I can do in this depressed state is either to jump into the river and swim to the North Pole or run into the woods until I drop." Two months to the day of his disappearance, a bridge inspector found Perry's nude body wedged against an abutment in the East River, several miles from his home. A coroner judged his death "consistent with suicide."

1899 :: Baxter-DeGrassi Wedding

2010-12-07T11:03:00.001-06:00

The Rockdale Messenger, Thur., 7 Dec 1899. Marriage - Winnette Duke DeGrassi and Miss Moselle Baxter were married in the beautifully decorated parlor of the bride's parents, Mr. & Mrs. B. B. Baxter on Thursday evening of last week by Rev. T. G. Alfred. A wedding feast followed in the dining hall. Mr. DeGrassi has been well known in Rockdale and at one time lived here. Miss Baxter is the second oldest daughter.

1903 :: Douthit files Deed of Trust

2010-12-03T11:03:00.000-06:00

Business Matters. Files Deed of Trust. Special to The News. Cameron, Tex., Dec. 2. -- B.F. Douthit of Rockdale filed a deed of trust late yesterday afternoon, naming H.L. Witcher of that place as trustee. Douthit was in the jewelry business. His liabilities show about $2,315.63. The assets are not stated, but consist of the stock and fixtures.

The following are among the largest creditors: Mrs. Flora Douthit, Palestine, $850; Dr. R.W. Wallace, Rockdale, $310; Morgan & Hawley, Dallas, $380; L. Boumen Jewelry Company, St. Louis, $212.

Dallas Morning News, December 3, 1903

1936 :: Mrs. Martha Smith

2010-12-02T11:03:00.001-06:00

Mrs. Martha Smith, 99, Dies in Milam County. Special to The News. Rockdale, Texas. Dec. 1. -- Milam County's oldest citizen, Mrs. Martha Smith, 99, died Sunday at her home at Sandy Creek, seven miles from Rockdale.

Mrs. Smith was born in Grimes County Sept. 14, 1837. She was three times married. Her late husband, Joseph M. Smith, a Confederate veteran, served as the Justice of the Peace at Cameron for many years.

Following the death of her husband in 1911, Mrs. Smith had made her home with her son-in-law, John Williams, who is 86 years old. His daughter and her husband, Mr. and Mrs. Ernest Coleman, for a number of years cared for the aged people.

Her two surviving sons, Jim and Tom Rogers, are in their seventies. She also leaves a large number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Dallas Morning News, December 2, 1936.

See also . . . her findagrave page . . .

1931 Thanksgiving Reunion

2010-11-26T11:03:00.004-06:00

In his 18th October 1931 radio address, President Herbert Hoover said that, "I appeal to the American people to make November 26 next the outstanding Thanksgiving Day in the history of the United States; that we may say on that day that America has again demonstrated her ideals; ... that upon this Thanksgiving Day we have removed the fear of the forthcoming winter from the hearts of all who are suffering and in distress -- that we are our brother's keeper." . . . Some members of my maternal grandpa's family apparently took this message to heart, for the group photo in the above collage is from a November 1931 family reunion held in Rockdale, Milam County, Texas. These family members (from left to right) are --

Emma Sharp nee Henry (1872-1944) [widowed twin sister of my maternal great-grandpa]
Ella Hamilton nee Henry (1875-1967) [widowed younger sister of my maternal great-grandpa]
W.P. Henry, Jr. (1868-1941) [oldest brother of my maternal great-grandpa]
Annie Henry nee Calvert (1874-1950) [wife of W. P. Henry, Jr.]
Jerome Bonapart Henry (1870-1956) [older brother of my maternal great-grandpa]
Sudie Henry nee Criswell (1881-1961) [wife of J. B. Henry]
Edgar Henry (1872-1950)
Berta Mary Henry nee Sharp (1873-1955)

The last named -- Edgar and Berta (Sharp) Henry -- are my maternal great-grandparents. By 1931, they had been farming in west Texas for more than a decade, so it was probably quite a big deal for them to travel back to Rockdale (their former as well as future home) during the desolate years of the depression. My connection to them is through their son, Robert E. Henry (1905-1976). In November of 1931, Robert was living in Massachusetts with his very pregnant 1st wife, Elizabeth, and their son, Robert, Jr., so they are not listed as being amongst the attendees. A little over two months later, Elizabeth would die following the birth of their daughter (my Mom).

I am extremely thankful that somebody in the family took the time to sit down and write out the details of this gathering, and to submit the article to the local paper (most likely The Rockdale Reporter) -- and I am grateful for whoever sat down and clipped this news story from the newspaper and carefully preserved it over the years until it finally passed into the caring hands of a cousin, who shared it with me. The following transcription of the yellowed and crumbling newspaper clipping of that article was e-mailed to me in 1999 by Peggy Skeeters nee Fergeson (a 3rd cousin). The bold text is the original wording, and the remaining text is notes that I have added for the purpose of clarification, etc.

On Sunday, [sic] November 26 [sic], 1931, a happy event took place at the home of Mrs. Ella Hamilton in this city [Rockdale]. It was a get-together of the Henry family for the first time in twenty years. W. P. Henry and Mrs. Ella Hamilton being the only ones left in the old home town.

The 26th day of November in 1931 was Thanksgiving Day, and was on a Thursday. The photos from that gathering are actually dated Sunday, 22nd November 1931. Mayhaps the members of this family -- who had scattered over the years -- had an extended (and long-overdue) multi-day "reunion" at the Hamilton home that was located at 604 West Cameron in Rockdale, Milam County, Texas.

Dr. and Mrs. T. E. Riddle were guests at this occasion, they being old friends and Dr. Riddle the family physician.

Thomas E. Riddle came to Texas from Tennessee as a young man and was engaged in farming and ranching while studying medicine. It was by long hard work that he prepared to take and successfully passed the medical examinations. Thus he proudly "hung out his shingle" and framed his certificate for his office. He was one of those rare individuals whose treatment included medicinal aids and prayer. Many of his medicines he prepared from plants, herbs and roots. These he carried with him in his saddle bag as he became a familiar figure moving mile after mile among the early day residents. Many long vigils were kept by this good man as he faithfully fulfilled the Hippocratic oath he had taken years before. Dr. Riddle served in the Confederate Army with McCord's Texas Cavalry, Company F, was a lifelong member of the Baptist Church, and was a Mason. It is probable that Dr. Riddle served Rockdale and its surrounding territory longer than any other doctor in the history of the town. His death occurred in 1934 and he is buried among many lifelong friends of yesteryears in the family cemetery. . . . from A History of Rockdale, Texas 1874-1974 edited by Mrs. Ida Jo Marshall (1903-1982).

Everyone came early, talked and enjoyed themselves. The dining room was decorated with lovely ferns and chrysanthemums. The table spread in picnic style, then came the time to eat, and everyone seemed ready. Dr. Riddle returned thanks. In the afternoon some pictures were taken. Then came the parting time but all declared that they had enjoyed themselves. All the relatives were present except nine grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.

See separate list > HERE < of all those not listed as attendees within this article. If the previous statement is correct, then there were quite a few at the reunion who didn't get listed in the 1931 newspaper article.

Grandpa Henry was born in Kentucky, came from there to Sherman in Grayson county. There he was married to Josephine Davis, she being a relative of Jefferson Davis. Grandmother was born in Georgia. Eight children were born to this union, three dying when infants.

According to an entry in Josephine's family Bible, "Josephine W. Davis married to Wm. P. Henry at the residence of Mr. James W. Lance March 1st 1864." We now know that marriage took place in Brazoria County, Texas, in which county Josephine was enumerated on the 1860 census. :: As of this date, I have still not found any connection to Jefferson Davis. :: Regarding the children born to this couple, according to entries in the family Bible --

Born in Brazoria County Texas October 20th 1865 Margaret Ann Henry
Margaret Ann Henry died April 19th 1868
Wm. P. Henry, Jr. born October 3rd 1868
Jerome Bonepart Henry born April 18th 1870
Emma & Edgar Henry born January 31st 1872
Harry Henry born July 31st 1874
Harry Henry died in Sherman January 10th 1875
Ella May and Jesse Eugene Henry were born in Grayson County Texas October 26 A.D. 1875
Jesse Eugene Henry died September 1876

On Oct. 3, 1876, the Henrys arrived in Rockdale to visit a sister and family of the Mrs. Henry's, it being Dr. and Mrs. M. F. Anthony, who at that time had the post office and drug store combined on the corner where the Wolf Hotel now stands.

This would be Margaret, Josephine's only sister. Margaret's husband (and also their 1st cousin once removed) was Dr. Milton Antony, Jr. He was a Confederate Surgeon in Brazoria County during the war between the states, and was the third Postmaster in Rockdale, serving 06th June 1876 to 26th April 1877 (which was one month after the entire wooden portion of Rockdale burned). He was a practicing physician in both Cameron and Rockdale. Margaret and Milton are buried in the Old City Cemetery in Rockdale.

The Wolf sat on the northeast corner of the intersection of Main and Milam. According to a history of Rockdale published in 1936, a two-story stone and brick bank building was erected in 1875, which later became the Wolf Hotel, and then, c. 1935, the American Legion Hall. An 1885 map of Rockdale does show a bank at that location, and on the corner across the street is a post office in the Mundine House (now McVoy's).

A year before Josephine went to Rockdale to visit her sister, Margaret, the following item appeared in the 12th November 1875 issue of the Galveston Weekly News: "There are street fights occurring (in Rockdale) almost every day and the officers of the law seem to enjoy it, taking their fines, never giving offenders the least word of warning or lecture. Nothing better could be expected when they license women of ill fame for ten dollars a month and receive half of the fines and their compensation. The most disgusting of it is, when they choose, these officers step beyond their authority and utterly disregard the law at pleasure. Every day or two some very interesting scenes occur in the pettifoggeries of Rockdale."

And a just a year before that 1875 report, the same paper, in the 09th November 1874 issue, described the brand new city of Rockdale as being "delightfully located in a thriving section of the county. . . . there are two or three banks, fifty or sixty merchants, and plenty of saloons, and has generally all the appearances of a railroad town. . . . While all it new and in some degree crude, there are some fine stone and brick buildings. . . . Where a population of eighteen hundred now thrive, was ten months ago the home of the deer, and the pleasure ground of the black bear."

Grandpa liked the country so he moved to a place just across the road from Dr. Riddle, just south of town, and stayed there awhile. He then bought 100 acres of land three miles north of town, moved there, and raised his family, . . .

Milam County Record, Volume 54 Page 526-529 . . . Know all men by these presents that I, Mary Estes of the State and County aforesaid in consideration of the payment of a promissory note . . . for three hundred ($300) Dollars given by W. P. Henry, have granted, bargained sold and released and by these presents do grant, bargain, sell and release unto the said W. P. Henry all that tract or parcel of land known as a part of a two league survey . . . containing an area of one hundred acres of land. . . . Witness my hand this the 14 day of December 1878.

. . . lived there until his death, Feb. 10, 1911.

According to William Paschal Henry's printed obituary (actually a photocopy of an undated newspaper clipping), as well as his tombstone, he died in 1912, not 1911.

Grandmother was killed Oct. 28, 1899.

According to her tombstone, Josephine Wingfield Henry nee Davis died the 28th January 1899. Family lore said that she was drug to death by the hair of her head when it became entangled in the wheels of her buggy, but we were never able to find a newspaper account of her death in the existing newspapers for that time period. After receiving this conflicting information regarding Josephine's date of death, my Mom went to the Rockdale Public Library to once again peruse the microfilm copies of the 1899 Rockdale Reporter, and sure enough -- in the 01st November 1899 issue, she found write-ups supporting the family lore.

Three of the children left here at different times. W. P. Henry and Mrs. Ella Hamilton are the only ones left in the old home . . . (crumbled edge, but I would guess the word missing is town) Those present on this occasion . . . (part of the word "occasion" is crumbled away) . . .

W. P. Henry (Jr. 1868-1941),
Miss Grace Henry (1908-1996) . . . (Henry is frayed & the first part of someone's name is crumbled away; the next line begins with) . . .
(Er) nest Henry ("Buck," 1911-1995),
Mr. and Mrs. (Birdie Henry 1894-1943)
Jack (Kyle) . . . (crumbled) . . . and
Lucille,
Graham (1917-1984),
We(l) to (n) . . . (crumbled) . . . Delbert Kyle,
Mr. and Mrs. (William Clinton 1896-1969) . . . (frayed) . . . Henry and
Nathlee Henry,
Mr. and Mrs. Will (Pearl Henry 1899-1981) Vogel,
Mr. and Mrs. Eddie (Bessie Henry 1901-1964) Backhaus and
Ruth Backhaus,
Mr. and Mrs. Joe Henry (1903-1955) and
Wesley Bert Henry.
Mr. and Mrs. Jerome (1870-1956) Henry and granddaughter,
Gloria Sue, of San Antonio;
Mrs. Emma (nee Henry 1872-1944) Sharp, Crockett;
Mr. and Mrs. Edgar (1872-1950) Henry, Norton;
Mr. and Mrs. Sylas (Ruby Henry 1895-1978) Christian, Rockdale;
Frank (1899-1952) and
Nellie (1912-1996) Henry, Norton;
Mrs. Ella (nee Henry 1875-1967) Hamilton,
Misses Laura (1898-1987) and
Ruth (1909-1998) and
Harry (1913-1983) Hamilton, Rockdale.

Those who were visitors:

Dr. (1838-1934) and Mrs. T. E. Riddle and
Miss Docle Williams, Rockdale;
Cleve Calvert, and
Miss Margaret Calvert, Houston;
Milton Phillips, Norton;
Mrs. Ida Halyard (1871-1964), Crockett. [sister of Berta Mary]

Every Family Has One :: My Hometown

2010-11-20T03:55:00.023-06:00

My Hometown . . . when I return . . .
the main street still is filled with pleasant faces and glad hellos
with an atmosphere of calm . . . with time for neighborly concern
with joy in sharing another's fortune
or heartfelt words to one who mourns.
Hometown is more than just a town
it is a way of life, a place of peace and quiet
and when I return it is as if I have never been gone
and in my heart I have not.
by
Craig E. Sathoff

Old Rockdale postcard . . .
Main St. north from I & G. N. Depot, Rockdale, Texas

The postcard has been reproduced in multiple Rockdale publications . . .
location / ownership / existence of original unknown . . .

According to a newspaper clipping from the files of my cousin, Peggy (Ferguson) Skeeters, a Henry family reunion was held at the old Hamilton homeplace in Rockdale, Milam County, Texas sometime in 1931. That yellowed and crumbling piece of paper recorded the following about the arrival of my 2nd great-grandpa, William Paschal Henry (1836-1912), and his family in the brand-new town of Rockdale, Milam County, Texas . . .

On Oct. 3, 1876, the Henrys arrived in Rockdale to visit a sister and family of Mrs. Henry's, it being Dr. and Mrs. M. F. Anthony, who at that time had the post office and drug store combined on the corner where the Wolf Hotel now stands.

That is the Hotel Wolf in the lower right corner of the above collage, with an arrow pointing to the same building on the old Rockdale postcard. The Hotel had gone out of business before 1935 when Rockdale's American Legion post purchased the building.

During World War II the building's second story was lopped off and its Main Street front was shortened and remodeled. A stage was added and the hall became the place to be for dances and music for almost 20 years. Rockdale Reporter, 06 Aug 1998

When I was in high school (the 60's), we frequently spent a portion of our weekend hours attending teen dances -- with real live bands! -- in the un-airconditioned bottom-half of this building. My parents were regular fixtures as chaperones at these events.

Directly across the street was McVoy's Grocery Store where my parents shopped weekly. Every Friday, my widowed Grandma, who never learned to drive, had her grocery list ready for Mom or Dad to take with them to McVoy's. There was a large wooden magazine rack near the front door where I would sit and read comic books while Mom checked out. Mr. Galbreath kept the produce stocked and freshly washed, and would give us pieces of fresh sugar cane to chew on. The meat market at McVoy's was where Mom bought steak cutlets for making her infamous chicken-fried steak with cream gravy which NONE of us have ever been able to replicate.

I was back on Main Street in June of 2009 while in Rockdale for the 75th Annual Rockdale Homecoming as well as my Mom's 60th RHS Class Reunion, where I was flattered to be told by numerous people (who had known Mom since the 40s) that, "You look just like your Mom!"

At the Homecoming gathering, one lady said to me, "Aren't you the one who found the snake in the bedroom when you were babysitting Delaine?" That was also during high school in the 60s! I was babysitting for the local pharmacist in his home. The baby and I were sitting in the rocker / recliner in her nursery when I saw a snake come crawling in the room! I got out of the room with Delaine and shut the door (which wasn't much of a barrier since it had such a gap at the bottom) and called my trusty Dad at our home (no cell phones in those days). Dad was there immediately, but it took him a while to find and kill the poisonous copperhead -- it had crawled up into the coils under the rocker / recliner!

Before I left town, we (me & Mom & my sister) visited the Dan Kubiak exhibit at the I&GN Depot, and I also took a few photos of Joy Graham's Bit of History building on Cameron Avenue.

The journey back home to Main Street was nostalgic, while somehow filled with the sweet assurance that at Home we are not forgotten. These people knew me as a child. They knew my grandparents. And in some cases, their parents and grandparents knew my ancestors. And many of the families of Rockdale have somehow managed to climb into my family tree!