ROAD TRIP: A BBM Game

[jpwagoneer1964]

Electra, Tx

HISTORY OF ELECTRA

Electra, named after the feisty daughter of cattle baron W.T. Waggoner, is located in the western edge of Wichita County. The Waggoners were pioneers in the area when they established their cattle headquarters here in 1878. Their property almost completely surrounded the original townsite. Confusion over the delivery of Waggoner mail and the name Beaver for nearby Beaver Creek led residents in 1902 to circulate a petition changing the name of the city to Electra in honor of Electra Waggoner. The townsite opened in October 1907. In 1911 an oil company leased a tract of land from W.T. and the famous North Texas Oil boom was begun as fortune seekers came to stake their claims.

Today, Electra continues its agricultural and oil impact in North Texas. Farm and ranch land surrounds the town and most every field is punctuated with an oil well. Manufacturing is another strong economic force to the city.

An industrious and enthusiastic city government and school system make Electra an exciting city to live in and raise a family. A progressive hospital offering a plethora of services, a physician clinic, family practitioners, internist and general surgeon assure the best of healthcare services not found in many small cities.

The Chamber of Commerce is extremely active. The annual Electra Goat Barbecue is one of the busiest and most exciting events hosted by the Chamber. There are also the annual homecoming events, semi annual City Wide Garage Sales, Scarecrow Festival, and an annual visit from Santa Claus. Restoration of the historic Grand Theatre built in 1919 is underway as a citywide project.

For over 90 years Electra has been a vibrant community rich in history and ripe in personality and was designated a Main Street City in 1998 and a National Main Street City in 2000.

Mark

[MaineWriter]

Alligator, TX

You won't find any alligators around Alligator, Texas anymore. You won't find the town either, other than in the form of Alligator Creek and Alligator Road.

It's easy to forget how thick with wildlife the prairie around here was when the first settlers arrived. Deer, wild turkeys, wolves, bear, buffalo, antelope, wild horses, ducks, geese and wild hogs were plentiful.

So were alligators.

Members of the Santa Fe Expedition, when they camped on the San Gabriel River in Williamson County, amused themselves with shooting some of the numerous alligators that lived along the river.

The buffalo and bear were wiped off the landscape by the end of the nineteenth century. The last alligator in Bell County was killed in 1908.

The old community of Alligator, a few miles east of Bartlett, lives in legend, lore and in the memory of people like Bell County historian E.A. Limmer. Limmer, 85, was born there, though he never saw any alligators.

"All I saw was crawfish," he said last week. "Before the land was in cultivation they had to drain out a low area, and that's where the alligators were supposed to be."

The Alligator community consisted mostly of a church, tabernacle and a school house. Limmer said that in the fall, Joe Pacha, G.L. Oldham, Calvin Rice and Harvey Messer would hitch up their wagons and go to the lignite beds near Rockdale and come back with enough lignite to last the winter.

The lignite served its purpose well, maybe too well; one day in 1926 the school's old pot-bellied stove overheated the pipes and the school burned down.

That was the same year that Limmer's parents moved to Bartlett so he could start school and his sister could enter high school.

"I enjoy telling people that I was born at Alligator in Bell County," Limmer, 85, writes in the recent Bartlett Activities Center newsletter.

"Every Saturday morning my brother and I would go to the country with our father. When he turned into our farm, he would let us out and we would walk the remainder of the way to Grandpa and Grandma Limmer's house.

"While there we would crate the eggs (24 dozen to the crate) in order to take them to Lawrence Brothers store with Grandma's butter."

In such a manner, the Limmers paid for their week's groceries. The way of life he describes has gone the way of the wolf, bear, buffalo and gators.

"We would shuck and shell corn and take it to Lynn Bartlett, who would grind the corn into cornmeal," he continued. "In exchange for our work, Grandpa would give us 10 cents, which was the admission to the afternoon picture show."

Alligator Creek, which rises just east of Bartlett, makes its way southeast for 21 miles to its mouth on the San Gabriel River five miles east of the San Gabriel community in Milam County. Alligator Creek ran right through the middle of the old Limmer farm. When the family bulldozed part of the creek as part of a conservation plan, neighbors dropped by to see exactly what was going on.

"They said it looked like we were building the Panama Canal," Limmer recalled.

People today are surprised to find that there was once a community out on the lonesome prairie named for alligators and even more surprised to find that the town was named for the alligators that lived there. Alligators were once common in East Texas but they made a living in these parts too. You can still find them east of the Trinity River, around the coast and, sometimes, along the Colorado River.

There was a time when alligators - not just in Texas but all across the country - were endangered. State and federal laws allowed alligators to make an amazing comeback from the brink of extinction to the point where there is a limited amount of hunting of them permitted today.

In these parts, you can hunt all you want for alligators but you won't find any.

You won't even find the town named for them.

Leslie

[belbbmfan]

Red Earth Creek, Alberta

[jpwagoneer1964]

Katy, Tx

 If you had come in 1875 to live where Katy is today, you would have found no town and no railroad. One family was here. Thomas and Mary Robinson had 200 acres of land on the Cane island branch of Buffalo Bayou. They came in 1872. Fifteen years later. Peter Black and his wife Ophelia bought land and moved out from Addicks. These families farmed quietly until 1895 when it seemed that a lot of people suddenly decided Cane Island Texas would be a good place to settle.
Why did this area seem to he a good place to settle? Two main reasons -- first, people wanted to farm land; second, the Missouri-Kansas-Texas railroad was completed, and it was easier for people to get to the area, and easier to get farm products to market.
What did the people find when they arrived? The arriving people found rich farmland. The land was flat and seemed to go on forever. The prairie was covered with tall, flowing grass as high as a man on horseback.
Who came to settle the land? The first family of the 1895 group of new settlers arrived on Christmas Day in 1894. Mr. William Pitt, his wife Lella and their three children came from the town of Pattison, Teas. In 1895 many more families came to find new farms and new lives. The Peeks came from Indiana and Iowa to farm and run dairies. The Stuarts and the Danovers came from Iowa The Beckendorff's came from Pattison to farm. Mr. Cabiness came then, too. He worked for the railroad as the depot agent. He also built a lumberyard, milled rice bought and sold the farmer's peanuts and helped start the Apostolic Faith Church in 1905.
One very important person to come this year was Mr. James Oliver Thomas, who came from Mississippi. He bought 320 acres of land and laid out the town site of Katy in 1895. Mr. Thomas set aside land for two parks -- one on Cane Island Creek and the other was the town square.
The year 1896 saw more arrivals. The Stockdick family, the Ruskeys, Mortons, and David Peter Franz, a watchmaker. From Iowa, Mr. Stockdick was a real estate person who encouraged many more families to move to the northern areas of Katy. This was also the year that Katy is first listed in Washington, D.C. as having a post office. It is officially called Katy Texas arid Mr. J.O. Thomas was the postmaster. The post office was part of his general store.
Other key arrivals came in the form of Eule family from Germany in 1897 Mr. Eule is very special to Katy's history as he is the first person to raise rice here, the second year he dug wells to irrigate the fields, and the Eule family had a school in their home for their own children and the children of their neighbors; also. Mr. Featherston, the first pastor of the Katy Baptist Church, arrived in 1898 two families arrived on the same train in 1900, both from Germany: the Schlipf family and the Weinman family, with a school built on Schlipf land, which children attended until it closed in 1918, when the Katy Independent School District was formed. Many of these early arrivals raised rice. Other raised peanuts and cotton.
Many people in Katy date events in the town "before" and "after: the storm. The hurricane of September 8, 1900 that destroyed most of Galveston Island also destroyed most of the buildings in Katy. The only buildings not damaged in any way were the homes of J.H. Wright and Mr. Featherston. These homes are still in Katy. After the storm, Katy rebuilt and continued to grow. The main industry was rice farming, and a gas field was discovered in 1934 west of town. Many wells were dug and a refining plant was built. These industries are an important part of the town today.
Today, living in the Katy area means an escape from the hustle and bustle of the Houston scene. Katy offers the charm of a small town, or the sophistication of suburbia. Housing in Katy ranges from apartments and condominiums to large estate homes with acreage to enjoy and maintain horses. Others have championship golf courses in their backyard. Subdivisions abound with tennis courts, swimming pools, and endless amenities for residents.
Fully planned communities, which feature areas of shopping centers, spacious plazas, and every convenience that enhances community living lead the way to future growth in an exciting and efficient style. With the various stages of housing available, no matter what the size of the checkbook, one can find living in Katy easy and affordable. But a residency in a community is only half of being a part of the life in that community. Katy has so much more, to offer in many churches, clubs and organizations to fit one's preference for a complete lifestyle.
Katy is historically an agricultural area with rice the major crop, and soybeans having been added as an alternate crop in recent years. The Katy area has been the site of one of the United States' largest gas fields since the early forties, which added greatly to the economy of the area. Most recently the development of industrial sites, both East and West of the City, and numerous retail and restaurants have joined existing businesses and added growth to the economy, as the Katy area has been among the fastest growing in the nation in terms of both residential and business growth.

  Mark

[MaineWriter]

Yetzelalag, Mexico


Leslie

[moremojo]

Guanajuato, Mexico

--the capital of the State (estado) of Guanajuato. Historic city that grew wealthy upon the rich silver resources in the area; noted today for rich architectural heritage. The city was the birthplace of Diego Rivera, one of modern Mexico's most famous artists.

[jpwagoneer1964]

Orange, Tx

A Brief History of

      Orange, Texas

     The City of Orange officially came into existence in 1836, the year Texas won its independence from Mexico. However, its history, like that of the Lone Star State, goes back many, many years prior to that memorable date.

     The area’s first known inhabitants were the Atacapas Indians, who arrived about 1600. They lived mostly on seafood and wild game and worshiped ancestors who they believed came from the sea.

     In 1718 the French came and were followed about 50 years later by the Spanish. The French developed a thriving pelt industry as traders by taking advantage of cheap Indian labor and the area’s natural supply of fur-bearing animals. Less successful in their exploitations than their predecessors, the Spanish gave way to the rising tide of American expansion and development.

     Early in the 18th Century, the high banks on the Texas side of the Sabine River started their attraction for the early pioneers who dared to enter the land destined to be the Republic of Texas and afterward the State of Texas. This point on the Sabine River first was known as Green’s Bluff; also as Huntley. It was named for a man by the name of Green who surveyed the first land plot on the site. There was also a time when the community was known as the Lower Town of Jefferson. At another time it was known as Madison, in honor of President James Madison, who then was serving his second term in office. Due to confusion with the town of Madisonville, Texas, it became necessary to give the growing community a new name. Because of the native orange groves that had attracted the attention of boatmen as they navigated the Sabine River, it was an easy matter to select the name of “Orange.”

     The town grew steadily as a strategic link between East and West of this vast country. It served as a port for ships sailing the Sabine River with cotton as the prevalent cargo. Lumber, cattle and agriculture also were important in the growth and development of the area.

     The war between the States had disastrous effects on Orange by taking its toll of lives and property. When hostilities ceased, tragedy continued. A reign of terror marked by extreme lawlessness followed the end of the was for a decade.

 And, in 1865, one of the worst wind and rain storms in Orange’s history hit the area, leaving more death and destruction in its wake.

     Although these events hampered progress, ranchers were restocked with cattle, additional experiments were made in agriculture and more lumber mills were built. Orange once again emerged on the path of development. A big step forward for the city came in 1914 when the harbor was dredged to accommodate large ships. The operation was a great improvement to water transportation facilities and enabled the construction of ships here during World War I. Wartime production resulted in a decided increase in the city’s population. Several years of prosperity followed the end of the war. Then came the depression with World War II marking the end of those trying times.

     Almost overnight the small town of Orange with its some 7,000 residents became a bustling “booming” city of approximately 60,000 residents. Its shipyards again built ships and other local industries were expanded to meet tremendous wartime demands. A U.S. Naval Station was installed and additional housing was provided for thousands of defense workers and servicemen and their families.

    All of the growth in Orange during the war years did not disappear with the end of hostilities. Many persons who came in those days stayed to make their homes and raise their families here. After the adjustment was made from wartime production to peace-time output, the population in the Orange area stabilized at around 35,000. The shipyards, lumber mills, port and Naval Station remained in the city and by this time additional industries and businesses were being developed.

    The city is located in one of the most promising industrial areas on the fast-growing Gulf Coast. Orange offers its citizens practically everything they may desire in the way of employment, recreation and shopping facilities. Its future is bright; beside developing into an industrial center, Orange is taking great strides forward in other respects to give residents a well-rounded community life.

 

 Mark

[MaineWriter]

Eulogy, TX


In 1885 a store run by Charles Walker Smith applied for a post office in the name of Smithville after "Uncle" Billye Smith - a well-loved member of the community.

Smithville was already taken by a town in Bastrop County so the townspeople had to reapply under another name. It was said that since everyone "eulogized" Uncle Billye - Eulogy should be the town's name.

The post office closed in 1912 and the population of Eulogy never exceeded 200. According to the Handbook of Texas - from 1974 to 1990 the population stayed at 45 Eulogians.

Leslie

[Fran]

Yucuribampo, Mexico

[moremojo]

Orizaba, Mexico

--situated in the State (estado) of Veracruz de Ignacio Llave, near the Pico de Orizaba, the highest point of land in the Mexican republic. Historic city; with Cordoba, one of the ancient villas of this part of the country.