Post City

"Lone Star Historian 2" is a blog about the travels and activities of the State Historian of Texas during his second year. Bill O'Neal was appointed to a two-year term by Gov. Rick Perry on August 22, 2012, at an impressive ceremony in the State Capitol. Bill is headquartered at Panola College (www.panola.edu) in Carthage, where he has taught since 1970. For more than 20 years Bill conducted the state's first Traveling Texas History class, a three-hour credit course which featured a 2,100-mile itinerary. In 2000 he was awarded a Piper Professorship, and in 2012 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Wild West Historical Association. Bill has published over 40 books, almost half about Texas history subjects, and in 2007 he was named Best Living Non-Fiction Writer by True West Magazine. In 2013 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree by his alma mater, Texas A&M University - Commerce.

During the 1990s I began visiting Post as a research site for two books, The Bloody Legacy of Pink Higgins, A Half Century of Violence in Texas (Eakin Press, 1999), and The Johnson-Sims Feud:Romeo and Juliet West Texas Style (University of North Texas Press, 2010). I've been welcomed by the community for programs and autograph parties at Ruby Lane, a charming book store owned and operated by Rosa Latimer. I've been directed to historical locations and to men and women for interviews. My wife Karon has shopped Main Street, and one December I brought Karon and our oldest daughter and granddaughters, Lynn, Chloe and Jessie Martinez, to see the splendid Christmas art at OS Museum. 

Early this December I drove to Snyder for a speaking engagement at the Scurry County Museum. I decided to spend part of the day in nearby Post, putting together material for a blog about this historic, colorful West Texas community. Founded in 1907, "Post City" was the creation of cereal magnate C.W. Post, who had determined to build a model community in West Texas. Born in Illinois in 1854, Post was a successful salesman and inventor of agricultural machinery. In 1886 business ventures brought him to Texas, where he lived on a ranch outside of Fort Worth. By the 1890s Post was suffering health problems from overwork. While ailing, he responded to a recipe idea suggested by a ranch wife and developed a coffee substitute that he labeled Postum. He manufactured Postum at a plant in Battle Creek, Michigan. Soon he added the breakfast cereals Post Toasties and Grape Nuts. Post was an advertising genius, and by the early twentieth century he was a multimillionaire. 

The 1911 depot now houses the Chamber of Commerce.

Moved by the philanthropic impulses common to wealthy men of the Progressive Era, Post decided upon a West Texas colonization project that would offer families the opportunity to purchase homes or farms at low monthly payments. In 1906 he bought more than 213,000 acres of land along the Caprock, and began experimenting with irrigation and farming methods on land that formerly had grazed buffaloes and cattle. 

The oldest church in Post was built in 1911.

Triggered by the promise of Post's activities and advertising, Garza County was organized in 1907. Post laid out a town site near the center of the new county, and Post City became the county seat. Post erected a big department store and scores of houses: one-, two-, three-, and four-bedroom residences, ranging from $800 to $6,000. One of his favorite construction projects was the thirty-room Algerita Hotel, which he provided with a chef, fine linens, and Post cereals on every breakfast table. He built, equipped, and staffed the  two-story Post Sanitarium, the finest hospital in the region. Main Street was 120 feet wide, with grass, trees, and flowers enclosed boulevard style by a white picket fence. Post had ornate curbs built, so that women could step easily from their carriages. 

A dormitory for nurses was built just
south of the Post Sanitarium.

The town was surrounded by 160-acre farms, available from Post at generous terms. To provide adequate rainfall, Post tried seeding the clouds from firing stations along the nearby rim of the Caprock. In 1912 alone more than 234,000 pounds of dynamite were detonated in generally unproductive attempts to produce rain. Post hired a geologist to locate oil, and he constructed an enormous cotton mill which would provide hundreds of jobs. He also had a recreational lake built near town, and Two Draw Lake became a regional oasis and the site of an annual Fourth of July celebration. 

The Post Sanitarium now is home to the
Garza County Museum.

The statue of C.W. Post stands
in front of the courthouse.

Post attracted a railroad which reached Post City late in 1910, permitting the regular arrival of building materials. Soon the population approached 1,000, and a school and churches were organized. Post installed a telephone exchange, while residents of Post City enjoyed running water. Across Main Street and half a block west of the Algerita Hotel stood the two-story stone courthouse. Both the Algerita and the Garza County courthouse would host dramatic scenes from the last blood feud in Texas, the Johnson-Sims conflict of 1916-1918. 

Linda Puckett, Director of the Garza County Museum,
stands amid the C.W. Post office furniture she recently
acquired from Battle Creek, Michigan.

The OS Museum is upstairs, while the J. Cruse
Christmas  Gallery is downstairs.

On my recent trip to Post I stopped first at the 1911 railroad depot, which has been handsomely refurbished as headquarters for the Chamber of Commerce. At the Garza County Museum - housed in the two-story "Post Sanitarium," the two-story state-of-the-art hospital built in 1912 by C.W. Post - I visited with the enthusiastic and resourceful director, Linda  Puckett. Linda proudly showed me her most recent acquisition, the sturdy office furnishings of C.W. Post. I also enjoyed a visit with Rosa Latimer at her Ruby Lane book shop, followed by a tour of the always fascinating OS Museum. Each Christmas season a new set of crèches is placed on display. This year's exhibit will remain on display through January, and is well worth seeing. For the history buff, so is the entire town. 

A magnificent display in the OS Museum.

The historic Algerita Hotel is at left, while the
Ruby Lane Book Store is at right.

Rosa Latimer inside her charming
Ruby Lane shop.

For more information:  http://www.postcitytexas.com/

 http://rubylanebooks.com/                                   http://pjhscyberfair.tripod.com/OS_Ranch.htm

Christmas at the Matador

"Lone Star Historian 2" is a blog about the travels and activities of the State Historian of Texas during his second year. Bill O'Neal was appointed to a two-year term by Gov. Rick Perry on August 22, 2012, at an impressive ceremony in the State Capitol. Bill is headquartered at Panola College (www.panola.edu) in Carthage, where he has taught since 1970. For more than 20 years Bill conducted the state's first Traveling Texas History class, a three-hour credit course which featured a 2,100-mile itinerary. In 2000 he was awarded a Piper Professorship, and in 2012 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Wild West Historical Association. Bill has published over 40 books, almost half about Texas history subjects, and in 2007 he was named Best Living Non-Fiction Writer by True West Magazine. In 2013 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree by his alma mater, Texas A&M University - Commerce.

The Christmas dance at the Matador Ranch during the 1880s was the highlight of the year in a vast, lonely region of frontier West Texas. The historic ranch was organized in 1879, east of the Caprock Escarpment. At its height the Matador would graze 80,000 head of cattle on more than a million and a half acres of open range. An experienced trail driver, Henry Harrison "Paint" Campbell, was one of four investors who put up $10,000 each and incorporated the Matador Ranch under Texas law. Campbell was placed in charge of ranch operations, and when the ranch was sold in 1882 (for $1.25 million) to a Scottish syndicate, he was retained as ranch manager. 

One of the earliest structures at Matador
headquarters stood during the dances of the 1880s.

Mrs. H.H. Campbell, the lovely and capable wife of the Matador manager, made the ranch a social center of lonely West Texas. She happily organized dances, church services, and other activities for the cowboys, and riders from adjoining ranches. Her most popular event was the annual Christmas dance, begun in 1882 at the two-room ranch house at Ballard Springs. Mrs. Campbell assembled five other women from as far away as 100 miles, and headquarters cook Ben Brock and Jim Browning provided fiddle music. With 50 cowboys waiting in line to dance with the six women, the festivities went on for two nights. 

The main house at the Matador was built atop a hill
just south of the town that was named for the ranch.

By the next year there was a large bunkhouse and a stone mess hall, as well as more women, and in future years the two-room residence was expanded into the "White House." Mrs. Campbell soon entertained upwards of 100 people, but she demanded that there would be no liquor and no quarreling. During the summers Mrs. Campbell put up gallons of wild plum jelly to take the place of cranberries. As Christmas approached, some of the cowboys hunted deer, antelope, and turkey. A beef or two was slaughtered and barbequed, and two days of baking produced dozens of cakes and loaves of bread. There were tubs full of doughnuts and hundreds of fried dried apple pies, as well as gallons of black coffee. 

This spring-fed stone water tank towers above the
ranch site, providing Matador headquarters
with running water by gravity.

On the afternoon of the first night, guests began arriving. Matador cowboys who had been laid off for the winter always were in attendance. The women brought their party clothes in a suitcase and changed in the White House.

The party began with a supper in the mess hall, For the remainder of the two nights and a day food would be available at a serve-yourself buffet set out in the bunkhouse. When the opening supper ended the tables were removed from the mess hall, the fiddlers tuned up, and the caller directed, "Get your partners!" 

These Matador cowboys at a chuck wagon in the 1880s
could look forward to the annual Christmas feast.

The dancing went on for the next 30 hours. Women were always outnumbered at least three or four to one by the men and had a constant line of expectant partners. The men swung their partners so enthusiastically that female exertions were minimized, and occasionally ladies would slip away for a nap in the White House. Periodically, the cowboys would snack in the bunkhouse or, in discreet defiance of Mrs. Campbell's temperance edict, nip from a jug. 

These memorable Christmas celebrations continued through the 1880s, until the Campbells moved on and Murdo Mackenzie became the Matador manager for the next four decades. But during the formative frontier decade of the 1880s, there truly was a Merry Christmas, Matador style.

For information: http://matadorranch.com/ranch-history/

Radio and Gunfighterology

"Lone Star Historian 2" is a blog about the travels and activities of the State Historian of Texas during his second year. Bill O'Neal was appointed to a two-year term by Gov. Rick Perry on August 22, 2012, at an impressive ceremony in the State Capitol. Bill is headquartered at Panola College (www.panola.edu) in Carthage, where he has taught since 1970. For more than 20 years Bill conducted the state's first Traveling Texas History class, a three-hour credit course which featured a 2,100-mile itinerary. In 2000 he was awarded a Piper Professorship, and in 2012 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Wild West Historical Association. Bill has published over 40 books, almost half about Texas history subjects, and in 2007 he was named Best Living Non-Fiction Writer by True West Magazine. In 2013 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree by his alma mater, Texas A&M University - Commerce.

On Tuesday, December 10, I appeared before a large, responsive crowd at the Scurry County Museum in Snyder. Museum director Daniel Schlegel had invited me to present a program on “Gunfighterology.” During recent years Daniel has hosted me for two previous programs. One presentation, on my book The Johnson-Sims Feud – a conflict which began in Snyder – attracted such a large crowd that a repeat presentation was arranged to start immediately following the scheduled program. Hoping to generate another sizable audience for “Gunfighterology,” Daniel contacted radio friends of his. Since I already had agreed to a couple of unrelated radio interviews during that period, I was - happily - busier than usual on the air during the week prior to the Snyder event.

Conducting a long-distance radio interview
from my home office

At midmorning on Tuesday, December 3, I received a phone call from Jim Baum, owner-manager of KVMC (1320 AM) and KAUN (107.1 FM) radio stations in Colorado City, south of Snyder. Jim taped a lengthy interview about the anticipated program and about the office of State Historian. In addition to replaying the interview on the eve of the Snyder program, Jim promised to use snippets as news cuts. A couple of hours later Edel Howlin, of KUHF (88.7 FM), the station of the University of Houston, called to conduct a live interview about the office of State Historian. Both Jim Baum and Edel Howlin were experienced interviewers who expertly explored the novel topic of State Historian. Two days later I was the guest on Panola Pride, a half-hour morning program on KGAS (1590 AM) in Carthage. Owner-manager Jerry Hanszen wanted the State Historian to devote the program to a discussion of Pearl Harbor, emphasizing notable Texans (such as Waco’s Doris Miller, the first African-American recipient of the Navy Cross) who were involved in the battle. The following Monday I was called at nine o’clock by Geron Scates of KGWB (91.1 FM), the campus radio station of Western Texas College. Geron is the Radio Broadcast instructor for Western Texas College, where the Scurry County Museum is located. At ten o’clock I was on the phone with “Blue,” a lady broadcaster who conducted a live interview for her morning show on KSNY (101.5 FM) in Snyder. 

Entrance to the Scurry County Museum

Within a week I had appeared on five radio stations, in Houston, Colorado City, Carthage, Snyder, and on the campus of Western Texas College. The interviews ranged from 12 to 25 minutes; three were live and two were taped. In each interview I was introduced as State Historian of Texas, and my activities in that office were discussed. I was gratified to have enjoyed the opportunity to talk about the position of State Historian to so many listening audiences.

Daniel Schlegel has utilized high energy, resourcefulness, and personal likability in his role as museum director of the Scurry County Museum. The museum boasts appealing exhibits and an impressive collection of historical artifacts, many of which are stored and cataloged in the museum’s spacious basement. Daniel offered to bring out antique firearms to supplement my “Gunfighterology” program, an offer I eagerly accepted. For this presentation I bring a varied collection of pistols (mostly replicas), along with holsters and gunbelts, to illustrate the evolution of frontier revolvers. Authentic weapons from the museum clearly enhanced my program.

With Museum Director Daniel Schlegel
and Curator Danica Galbraith , who was
on her first day at the museum

My first book, Encyclopedia of Western Gunfighters (University of Oklahoma Press, 1979) is a comparative study of 256 gunfights and 589 shootouts. It is still in print after 34 years, and there have been German and British editions. Life and death conflict in the Old West has proved to be a compelling subject, and I have researched and written a number of other related books. Texas produced more gunfighters than any other state or territory, and there were far more shootouts and blood feuds in the Lone Star State.

During the past few years I have been called upon a number of times to present programs on gunfighters and shootouts, and nowhere did the subject exert greater interest than in Snyder. Despite the freezing temperatures and icy streets, men and women crowded into the Scurry County Museum on Tuesday evening. I had the opportunity to visit with most of them before and after the program. I signed a number of books, answered a lot of questions, and joined everyone in examining the antique arsenal provided by the museum. A grand time was enjoyed by all – starting with the State Historian!

Civil War Conference

"Lone Star Historian 2" is a blog about the travels and activities of the State Historian of Texas during his second year. Bill O'Neal was appointed to a two-year term by Gov. Rick Perry on August 22, 2012, at an impressive ceremony in the State Capitol. Bill is headquartered at Panola College (www.panola.edu) in Carthage, where he has taught since 1970. For more than 20 years Bill conducted the state's first Traveling Texas History class, a three-hour credit course which featured a 2,100-mile itinerary. In 2000 he was awarded a Piper Professorship, and in 2012 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Wild West Historical Association. Bill has published over 40 books, almost half about Texas history subjects, and in 2007 he was named Best Living Non-Fiction Writer by True West Magazine. In 2013 he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters degree by his alma mater, Texas A&M University - Commerce.

Lynn, Jessie, Chloe, Bill, Karon

On Saturday morning, November 16, it was my pleasure to conduct a Civil War Conference at Panola College in Carthage. I taught history for four decades at Panola, and as State Historian I have been provided an office and financial backing by the college. Dr. Gregory Powell, President of Panola College, and Vice President Dr. Joe Shannon have graciously afforded me an institutional affiliation and constant encouragement. One of my goals as State Historian was to bring an historical event to my home campus, and last June I hosted a conference on "East Texas Gunfighters and Shootouts." Response was enthusiastic, and there were many requests for another conference. "The Civil War in East Texas" was decided upon as the next conference topic. 

I promptly contacted my oldest daughter, Lynn Martinez, an award-winning teacher with a deep interest in women of the Old South. Lynn planned an antebellum fashion show, which would include "Seven Layers of Women's Clothing," as well as the "Language of the Fan." Lynn enlisted her two daughters, Chloe and Jessie. My wife Karon joined in, and she and her mother, Louise Ashby, created a beautiful antebellum ball gown, along with the requisite undergarments. Lynn has accumulated a large antebellum wardrobe, with which she attired herself, as well as Chloe and Jessie. 
 

Through the years I've delivered several hundred lectures on the Civil War, and I've collected numerous artifacts - authentic items as well as reproductions - to illustrate and enhance my presentations. Three of my great-grandfathers - one from Georgia, one from Mississippi, and one from Alabama - were Confederate soldiers, and I have a few of their Civil War heirlooms. To the conference I brought weapons, (mostly reproductions), uniforms, miscellaneous artifacts, and wall posters. A special prize was an antique Spencer carbine, borrowed from Dennis LaGrone, a former student of mine who has generously shared this unique weapon with me on several previous occasions. 

A large number of attendees were women, who especially enjoyed the fashion show. After more than an hour of varied presentations by me and by Lynn and her ladies, we took a break to enjoy refreshments, animated conversations, and up-close examinations of the artifacts and clothing. 

A feature of the second hour was a lively rendition by our ladies' quartet of "Dixie" and "Bonnie Blue Flag." At the close of the morning many attendees visited the traveling display on Civil War Medicine in the college library, which was opened for us by Librarian Cristie Ferguson. It was an enjoyable morning, and no one enjoyed the event more than I did.