"Rockdale, my hometown, is Texas' heart and significant part of its soul," George Sessions Perry wrote in his book, Texas: A World Unto Itself. Perry wrote with lifelong affection about his hometown, first as a novelist and later as a magazine journalist. He describes the pioneers of Rockdale as typical of restless Southerners who hitched their wagons and moved to Texas after the Civil War. . . . Clay Coppedge . . .
Friday, April 29, 2011
1936 :: 4 Die in Texas Tornadoes
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. . . .
Thursday, April 28, 2011
1886 :: A Deluge of Rain and Hail
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.
Friday, April 15, 2011
1932 :: Mrs. Mary L. Perry Is Buried at Austin
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. Dallas Morning News, April 15, 1932
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