1880 :: The Day the James Boys Rode into Rockdale

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 them 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 . . .

1922 :: Rockdale Woman has an Old Paper

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.

1925 :: Reporter looks back at 1888

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 above 1925 newspaper clipping belongs to Iola Avrett nee Christian of Rockdale.

2011 :: Rockdale Homecoming

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

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

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

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.