Pre-History of Jackson County, Oklahoma (3)

By 1891, a few short years after its founding, the town of Frazer was home to several businesses. These included a hotel, drug store, a general merchandise store, and even a jewelry store. A medical doctor, J. E. Fowler, and his family lived in the drug store. The proprietor of the general store was C. C. Hightower, for whom the Altus High School football stadium is named: Hightower Memorial Stadium. In 1887, J. R. McMahan came to Frazer and became the first school teacher in Greer County, Texas. Eventually, he would replace Mrs. P. H. Holt as postmaster.[1]

Residents of Frazer likely knew their town was in a vulnerable spot. Although it was nice to have the Frazer River (known today as the Salt Fork of the Red River) and Bitter Creek nearby, Frazer stood where the creek and the river met. The dangerous potential turned into reality in 1891. On the night of June 4, torrential rains fell just north of Frazer, in the area that feeds Bitter Creek and the Salt Fork. The two currents overflowed and formed one very wide and swift river running at least three feet deep. Decades later, Dr. Fowler's daughter, only four years old in 1891, recalled: "I remember Mama walking from bed to bed on chairs because there was so much water on the floor." Townspeople got up in the middle of the night, gathered what they could, and moved to safety on higher ground. For many years after the flood, old-timers would say, "The average rainfall here is twenty inches a year and I remember the day it fell."[2]

When residents of Frazer fled their homes, they knew of a higher settlement just two and a half miles to the east-northeast. A post office had been established there the year before, in 1890. At some point, W. R. Baucum, who had formerly lived in Altus, Arkansas, and who knew the Latin word Altus meant "high," suggested that name for the new town.[3]

This traditional telling of the story about how and why Altus got its name leaves a question: if a post office was established there the year before the flood at Frazer, then what was the name of Altus prior to that event? The story assumes that Altus was given that name only after the people of Frazer moved to "higher ground." However, every U.S. post office has a registered name. So, again, what was the name of Altus in 1890, the year before the flood? If the original name of the settlement was Altus, then the story about the town being given that name after the flood doesn't add up.

Notes

[1] Chesser, Across the Lonely Years, 139, 179; Barbara Kay Shelton, "Altus on the Hill Above Frazer in Old Greer County," Chronicles of Oklahoma 40, no, 4 (Winter 1962-63): 390-92.

[2] Chesser, Across the Lonely Years, 139-40; Shelton, "Altus on the Hill Above Frazer," 392.

[3] George H. Shirk, Oklahoma Place Names, 2nd ed. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1974), 8; Chesser, Across the Lonely Years, 141.

Colonies Church of Christ, Amarillo, TX, 2015-2020

Nearing the end of 2016, Dick Marcear expressed to the leadership of the congregation that the time was nearing when he would no longer fill the pulpit at the Colonies. Wisely, the elders at that time appointed a search committee. Over the next several months, the committee identified Jeff Keele--who was then preaching for a congregation of the Church of Christ in Riverside, California--as someone who might be a good fit for the Colonies.

By October of 2017, Jeff and Alli and their beautiful family had moved to Amarillo. This was a major milestone in the life of this congregation, not simply because we were welcoming a new preacher, but also because this church had never before had a preacher other than Dick. Now going on three years, the addition of the Keele Family and Jeff's ministry of the Word here at the Colonies has turned out to be a blessing.

As mentioned in a previous post, the Colonies Church faces a number of challenges. Yet, under Christ and guided by his will, this congregation can and will respond in faith, hope, and love. Currently, we are led by four elders: Russell Bailey, Mike Green, Ken McLaughlin, and Paul Sneed. Our ministry and support staff include Jeff Keele and Dick Marcear, Vicki Gordon, Randy Wilson,Bryce and Allison Ballard, Saundie Wade, Dusty Cooper, Riley Black, and Nikki Dunavin.

Currently, the congregation supports David and Lori French, and their daughter, Kerin French Mashekwa in their mission in Zambia, southern Africa. The church also provides support for Prissy Sellers and family in their work in the Philippine Islands. Other mission efforts assisted by this church include Eastern European Mission, Amarillo Bible Chair, the Sunset International Bible Institute in Lubbock, the Texas International Bible Institute in Houston, the High Plains Children's Home, Sharing Hope Ministries, SnackPak4Kids, the North Amarillo Church of Christ, and the Key to the Kingdom television and radio programs that feature the teaching of Bret McCasland, a member of the Colonies Church.

Amarillo, Texas: Early Beginnings

Amarillo, Texas, c. 1889

Today, Amarillo, Texas straddles the line that divides Randall and Potter Counties. A brief look at the federal census of 1880 provides a glimpse of just how stark and simple the place used to be. That year, the two counties, not much more than squares on a map, had a grand total of twenty-seven residents. Almost all of them were young, unmarried men who, according to the census taker, were "Herding Cattle" and "Hunting Mustangs." For several years, then, the only residents of two counties were a few lonely cowboys.[1] But all of that was about to change.

In 1887, a construction crew was laying track across Potter County for the Fort Worth and Denver City Railroad. A new settlement grew up around their campsite and a post office was established. By 1890, the town next to a brand new railroad was one of the busiest cattle shipping points in the world. But busy does not mean large, and as late as 1900, the city that had come to be known as Amarillo had fewer than 1,500 residents.[2]

Fast forward more than a century, and the contrasts could not be more striking. Today, Randall and Potter Counties are home to well over a quarter million people, and the city of Amarillo continues to grow.

Notes

[1] Ernest R. Archambeau, "The First Federal Census in the Panhandle--1880," Panhandle-Plains Historical Review 23 (1950): 22-132.

[2] Handbook of Texas Online, H. Allen Anderson, "Amarillo, TX," accessed February 23, 2020, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hda02.

Coleman Grigsby "C. G." Witherspoon (1856-1916) and Early Deaf Smith County Texas

Born on Christmas Eve 1856 in Waxahachie, Texas, C. G. Witherspoon would go on during the 1880s and 90s to become an early settler in Deaf Smith County and a founding father of the town of Hereford.

His early years must have been difficult. His mother, Ann Elizabeth Garvin Witherspoon, died in 1862. Coleman was only five, and his little sister, Anna Elizabeth Rachel, was not yet four months old. Their father, William Anderson "W. A." Witherspoon, married again in 1871. Less than a year later, his new bride, the former Milinda "Linnie" Garvin, gave birth to the first of her nine children, five boys and four girls. The youngest, Mary Leona, was born in 1887, the year her mother turned forty.[1]

In 1888, the year he turned thirty-two, C. G., his wife, Fannie Armstrong Jackson Witherspoon, and their young son Claude moved to Amarillo. C. G. taught the first full term of school in Amarillo. Sometime later that year, the family moved to Deaf Smith County where C. G. "filed on land near the center section of the county"[2] It must have looked very promising. In 1889, C. G.'s half brother, Anderson, visited the county. The next year, Anderson, his brother Remmie, and their father, W. A., set out driving a herd of cattle and horses from somewhere around Waxahachie toward Deaf Smith County. By the Fourth of July 1890, the three men had made it to a campsite in Randall County, near present-day Canyon, Texas, just thirty miles from their destination.[3]

The Witherspoon men, C. G., his half-brothers, their father, W. A., and their families were some of the first residents of an early settlement in Deaf Smith County called La Plata. In fact, Alvie William Wilson, a grandson of W. A. Witherspoon, was the first child born in La Plata in 1892.[4] The town is no longer there. Around 1898, it moved, courthouse and all, to be close to the railroad that was coming through the county. The first attempt to rename the town had to be given up. The residents of what they called Blue Water, named for the Tierra Blanca Creek just south of town, soon learned that another community in Texas had already taken that name. So they changed it to Hereford, the name of the sturdy breed of beef cattle that men like L. R. Bradley and G. R. "Rat" Jowell had brought to the area.[5] In time, residents of Hereford came to call old W. A. Witherspoon "Uncle Billy."

According to the U.S. Census of 1910, Coleman G. Witherspoon was 54 years old and was engaged in the real estate business.[6] By then, he had established himself as a businessman and civic leader in Hereford. He was one of nine co-founders of Hereford College and Industrial School in 1902.

C. G. Witherspoon died in the summer of 1916 in Corpus Christi, Texas. He was only 59 years old. His widow, Fannie Armstrong Jackson Witherspoon, survived until 1947, when she died in Dallas at the age of 84. The two lie buried next to each other in the Waxahachie City Cemetery in Ellis County.[7]

Notes

[1] Information via ancestry.com, accessed January 2, 2020.

[2] Bessie Patterson, A History of Deaf Smith County (Hereford, TX: Pioneer Publishers, 1964), 60.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Handbook of Texas Online, H. Allen Anderson, "HEREFORD, TX," accessed January 2, 2020, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/heh02.

[6] Information via ancestry.com, accessed January 2, 2020.

[7] See the Find A Grave memorial for Fannie Jackson Witherspoon, with links to members of her family, at the following URL, accessed January 2, 2020: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/30091413/fannie-armstrong-witherspoon

Judge L(ysius) Gough (1862-1940)

When he died in November 1940, "Judge L. Gough" was described by his hometown newspaper, the Hereford Brand, as "a great leader, a true pioneer, and friend to all."[1] To this day one of the thoroughfares in the old section of Hereford, Texas, is Gough Street.

Lysius Gough was born in 1862 in Lamar County, Texas, his parents having moved there from Kentucky. As a teenager, he moved on his own to West Texas where he got a job working as a cowboy on the T-Anchor Ranch. Several times he worked a cattle drive, guiding a herd of thousands all the way through present-day Oklahoma to the rail head in Kansas. Having grown up in a strict Disciples home, he refused to drink, smoke, or swear. Noticing this, his fellow cowboys named him "Parson."

In the years that followed, Gough established himself as a community leader, serving as a lawyer and judge, and working in the cattle, farm, and real estate businesses in Castro and Deaf Smith Counties.[2]

Gough and his wife, Ida Etta Russell Gough, who died in 1904 at the age of 35, helped to establish the Christian Church in Hereford in 1899.[3] He was one of the founders of Hereford College and Industrial School in 1902.

Notes

[1] "Final Tribute Paid to Judge L. Gough in Services at First Christian Church Here Tuesday," Hereford Brand, November 7, 1940.

[2] Ibid.

[3] The Fiftieth Anniversary of the First Christian Church, Hereford, Texas (Hereford, TX: First Christian Church, 1949), 5.

Additional Source

Article on Lysius Gough in the Handbook of Texas Online:
https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fgo20

Reuben Harrison (R. H. or "Rube") Norton (1860-1944)

This brief biography is part of a project designed to acquaint myself with the people who founded Hereford College and Industrial School in Hereford, Texas, in 1902.

Reuben Harrison Norton--who went by R. H. or Rube--was born in Johnson County, Texas, in February 1860. He was married to the former Lou Alice Corbett, who was seven years his junior. The couple made their first home in Stephens County, where she had grown up. In 1891, the Nortons began moving west. Rube was setting out to establish himself in the cattle business. The couple's first stop was Quanah, Texas, where they lived until 1896. Another move took them to Amarillo, where Rube owned and operated a grocery store. In 1898, the Nortons moved to Hereford even before the town was established. There in Deaf Smith County, Rube became a successful stockman. He built a reputation for raising some of the best cattle in Deaf Smith County. At its peak, the Norton Ranch covered more than 5,000 acres.[1] R. H. and Lou Alice Norton were charter members of the Christian Church in Hereford, established in 1899.[2] Having lost his wife in 1915, R. H. was a widower for nearly thirty years. He died at his daughter's home in Amarillo in 1944. The couple lie buried next to one another in West Park Cemetery in Hereford.[3]

Notes

[1] Bessie Patterson, A History of Deaf Smith County (Hereford, TX: Pioneer Publishers, 1964), 55-56.

[2] The Fiftieth Anniversary of the First Christian Church, Hereford, Texas (Hereford, TX: First Christian Church, 1949), 5.

[3] Patterson, A History of Deaf Smith County, 55-56. See the photo of the couple's gravestone at the following URL: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/143191489/reuben-h_-norton#view-photo=117535885

The Growth of Public Education in Deaf Smith County and the Demise of Panhandle Christian College

As early as 1891, 22 citizens of Deaf Smith County, Texas, petitioned for a referendum that might create a new tax. Revenues would support and maintain free public schools.[1] Voters approved the measure with only one vote in opposition. The new ordinance generated a tax of only 0.06% (six cents per $100). But it was a start. Public education began in 1893, when a one-teacher school was established in the Womble community northeast of Hereford.[2]

The years around the turn of the century witnessed some important steps toward greater support for schools in the growing county. In 1898, the year Hereford was established, four leagues of Lamb County land, set aside by the state to benefit Deaf Smith County public schools, were sold for a dollar an acre. The windfall of $17,756 generated the county's permanent school fund. The next year, a local referendum doubled the rate of tax that went to support schools, from 0.06 to 0.12%. In 1902, yet another referendum increased the tax to 0.20%.[3]

Growth in student population closely paralleled growth in tax revenues for county schools. In the spring of 1901, the public school in Hereford had 208 students. In 1906, Hereford held its first graduation ceremonies. And by 1910, the total number of students had grown to 548. That same year, the town began building a three-story school house. Local citizens contributed $2000.[4]

The growth of the public school system in the town of Hereford and in Deaf Smith County was no doubt one reason why Panhandle Christian College, which always taught the primary grades, rapidly declined during its short life.

Notes

[1] Deaf Smith County: The Land and Its People (Hereford, TX: Deaf Smith County Historical Society, 1982), 65.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid., 65-66.

First Christian Church and the College at Hereford, Texas

This post relates to my previous entries about Panhandle Christian College (1902-1911) in Hereford, Texas. It helps to explain why this college, affiliated with the Christian Churches in Texas, and the emerging Disciples of Christ denomination, was forced to close its doors so soon after it began.

By 1907, just eight years after it began, the Christian Church in Hereford had outgrown its building at the corner of 3rd and Main Streets. That spring, several members of the congregation made pledges of $500 and $1000--impressive sums at the time--toward the construction of a new house of worship.[1]

The next year, builders broke ground at another prime downtown location, the northwest corner of 6th and Main Streets, just three blocks north of the first building. At that juncture, in 1908, the final cost of the new facility was projected to be $13,770. By then, the church had already arranged the sale of their first building. While they waited for the new one, they met in the auditorium of Panhandle Christian College, less than a mile away.[2]

The completion of the building's exterior in 1909 created mixed feelings. The new structure was the largest, most impressive church in Hereford. In size and beauty, it would be second only to the Deaf Smith County Courthouse, completed in 1910. But the congregation could yet not pay to finish the interior. At Christmastime, members gathered in the barely finished basement. Around that same time, they learned that the projected total cost for their new building had been far too low. The new estimate was $20,000.[3]

For several years, the congregation struggled to pay their current bills while raising the money to complete and furnish their new building. In 1910, the church borrowed $10,500 from the California State Life Insurance Company. Seven years later, they received a $5000 loan from the American Christian Missionary Society, an arm of their Disciples of Christ denomination. Finally, after nearly a decade of struggle, First Christian hosted their "first regular Bible school and church services" in a newly-completed building. It was May of 1917.[4]

In those early years, when the Christian Church at Hereford was struggling to complete its building, Panhandle Christian College just a few blocks away existed on the verge of financial collapse. One reason that the school closed in 1911 was that the same group of people was trying to pay for the largest church facility in Hereford while they supported their local college.

Notes

[1] The Fiftieth Anniversary of the First Christian Church, Hereford, Texas (Hereford, TX: First Christian Church, 1949), 6. According to this source, the original members of the financial committee were L. Gough, W. L. Vaughn, Ed Connell, and T. J. Graves.

[2] Ibid., 7. The splendid building, whose exterior was completed in 1909 with tall Corinthian columns facing both Main and 6th Streets, no longer exists. In 2019, 110 years later, a relatively-simple structure stands at this location: the Parkside Chapel Funeral Home.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

Sources on Frazer, Greer County TX, and Altus, OK

Handbook of Texas Online, Webb L. Moore, "GREER COUNTY," accessed October 25, 2019,

https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hcg81

Frances Herron, "Altus," The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=AL013.

Frazer Cemetery chronicle:

http://www.okcemeteries.net/jackson/Frazer/Frazertranscription.htm

Barbara Kay Shelton, "Altus on the Hill above Frazer in Old Greer County," Chronicles of Oklahoma 40, no.4.

Frazer Cemetery and Bitter Creek, SW Oklahoma

On Friday, October 18, I submitted final grades for the first 8-week Fall semester at Amarillo College and headed east to Oklahoma. My mother was in the hospital at Altus. Over the weekend, my dad and I took turns staying with her. She's doing better now and has been discharged from the hospital.

Before leaving Altus on Sunday, going back west toward Amarillo, I stopped by a few places of interest to me.

One of the earliest white settlements in the area was a place called Frazer (alternately spelled Frazier), a forerunner of present-day Altus. A post office was established at Frazer in February 1886. That was ten years before the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the U.S., not Texas, owned the territory south and west of the North Fork of the Red River. So, from the time people began living at Frazer, until the settlement was destroyed by a flood in June 1891, it was always a part of Greer County, Texas. Today, the same region (which comprises Jackson, Greer, and Harmon Counties, and part of Beckham County, Oklahoma) is known as "Old Greer County."  

Residents of Frazer buried their dead in a cemetery that lay perhaps to the north and east of the settlement (and to the west of present-day Altus). I visited the Frazer Cemetery and took a few photos:

According to online sources I found, there are approximately 63 graves in Frazer Cemetery. The cemetery is located west of Altus, on County Road 202, about a half mile south of U.S. Route 62. 

On Sunday afternoon, October 20, the big sky was quite a scene looking to the north and east.

If gravestones like these ones date to 1891, they must have been crafted somewhere else in Texas and brought to Frazer by wagon.

Frazer was located near the confluence of Bitter Creek and the Salt Fork of the Red River. These two streams flow south-southeast towards the Red River, and are located west of Altus. When heavy rains flooded both streams in June 1891, flowing water covered all of the land in and around Frazer. Residents woke up with water up to their beds. In the middle of the night they started making their way north and east toward a place that came to be called Altus, a Latin term that means "high."

This sign greets travelers on U.S. Route 62 heading east.

Under the bridge, I was surprised to find a good bit of water. The creek was flowing and frogs were jumping. After a minute or two, I smelled a skunk and got out of there. My shoes and jeans were covered with stickers.

Lockney Christian College (1): Early Beginnings

Construction begins for Lockney Christian College 1894 (click for larger view)

Among the earliest settlers in Floyd County, Texas, were Charles Walker Smith and St. Clair W. (S. W.) Smith. Contrary to some reports, the two were not brothers. Charles Walker was born in Holmes County, Mississippi, and S. W. hailed from Weakley County, Tennessee.[1] Yet the two men did recognize a spiritual kinship. Both were members of the Church of Christ, and both took an interest in Christian education.

In the fall of 1894, they established Lockney Christian College, "a school in which the Bible was taught daily in connection with a regular academic course."[2] With an announcement they titled "To the Brotherhood and Friends of Lockney Christian College," the Smiths made their appeal to like-minded believers to support their project. Some did. Above all, the Firm Foundation, a popular church journal published from Austin, Texas, edited by its founder, Austin McGary, provided consistent encouragement. In the fall of 1894, just as the school was opening, the journal included an announcement that heralded the school and that described Lockney as "a beautiful and healthful location. . . in the heart of the plains, one of the natural wonders of Texas." Partly because of that kind of publicity, both the college and the town grew.[3]

In a new, frame two-story building twenty-four by forty-eight feet, classes began on October 2 with sixteen students. Mr. and Mrs. J. D. Burleson of Uvalde, Texas, moved to Lockney to serve as some of the first teachers.[4] Although the school was called a college, it offered no college-level courses at first. During its early years, Lockney Christian College taught courses only at the primary and secondary levels. Today, we would likely call it a Christian academy. But it aspired to be a college in every sense of the word. One day it would achieve that status.

Notes

[1] Handbook of Texas Online, Charles G. Davis, "SMITH, CHARLES WALKER," accessed February 12, 2019, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fsm06. For information on St. Clair W. [S. W.] Smith, see https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Smith-113351, accessed February 12, 2019.

[2] M. Norvel Young, A History of Colleges Established and Controlled by Members of the Churches of Christ (Kansas City, MO: Old Paths Book Club, 1949), 148.

[3] Robert M. Platt, "A History of Lockney Christian College," 1960, Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, Research Center, Canyon, TX,  6-7.

[4] Ibid, 6-8. See also Handbook of Texas Online, R. L. Roberts, "LOCKNEY CHRISTIAN COLLEGE," accessed February 12, 2019, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/kbl14.

Christian Colleges and Disciple Division: Hereford and Lockney

To what degree were the Disciples of Christ distinguished from the Churches of Christ before the U.S. Census Bureau listed them separately beginning in 1906?

The historiography of two Christian colleges established in northwest Texas prior to the recognition of the split suggests that division predated the founding of these schools by a number of years. For example, in his 1955 book, The Story of Texas Schools, C. E. Evans identifies "Pan-Handle Christian College," sometimes called Hereford College, which began in 1902, as a Christian School, while Lockney Christian College, established in 1894, is listed as a Church of Christ School.[1]

Likewise, in his 2018 book, Higher Education in Texas, Charles R. Matthews, Chancellor Emeritus of the Texas State University System, places Hereford Christian College among schools established by the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), and Lockney Christian College among schools established by the Church of Christ.[2]

Although W. M. Stoker in his Pictorial History of Early Higher Education in the Texas Panhandle does not take up the history of the college at Lockney, he does refer to Hereford Christian College's affiliation with the Disciples of Christ.[3]

Scholars writing denominational history, as opposed to educational history, make exactly the same distinction. For example, in his book A History of Colleges Established and Controlled by Members of the Churches of Christ, M. Norvel Young discusses Lockney Christian College, but not the college at Hereford.[4] In the same way, History of the Churches of Christ in Texas, 1824-1950, by Stephen Eckstein Jr., provides information about Lockney Christian College, but does not mention Hereford Christian College.[5]

By the same token, in Religion on the Texas Frontier, Carter Boren, who traces the history of the Disciples in the Lone Star State, offers a section titled "Panhandle Christian College, 1902-1911," but says nothing of the college at Lockney.[6] Again, in his book The Disciples Colleges: A History, D. Duane Cummins includes a table listing "Church of Christ Colleges" in one column and "Disciples Colleges" in another. He places "Lockney College" in the Church of Christ column and "Hereford-Panhandle Christian College" in the Disciples column.[7]

Of course, it is possible for later sources to simply project into the past a division that did not exist at the earlier time in question. But in this case, the overall evidence suggests that these two Christian colleges were typical of a division that had existed for some time. Beginning in the late-nineteenth century, some leaders and historians of the Restoration Movement in America insisted that the Civil War did not result in immediate division. In fact, they said, the coherence of the Disciples movement was remarkable. But it is much more likely that the radical autonomy of the congregations in the movement made it more difficult for observers to perceive division. Along this line, as early as 1965, Restoration historian Bill Humble concluded:

The Civil War . . . so shattered the sense of brotherhood between northern and southern Christians that they could never again be called 'one people' in any meaningful sense.  . . . What had happened was that two threads of alienation--sectional bitterness and antagonistic understandings of the restoration principle--had become tangled together and had shattered the Christians' oneness.[8]

Notes

[1] C. E. Evans, The Story of Texas Schools (Austin, TX: Steck Company, 1955), 352, 355.

[2] Charles R. Matthews, Higher Education in Texas: Its Beginnings to 1970 (Denton: University of North Texas Press, 2018), 87-90, 295, 297.

[3] W. M. Stoker, A Pictorial History of Early Higher Education in the Texas Panhandle (Canyon, TX: West Texas State University, 1976), 16.

[4] M. Norvel Young, A History of Colleges Established and Controlled by Members of the Churches of Christ (Kansas City, MO: Old Paths Book Club, 1949), 148-52.

[5] Stephen Daniel Eckstein Jr., History of the Churches of Christ in Texas, 1824-1950 (Austin, TX: Firm Foundation Publishing House, 1963), 166, 170, 209, 217, and 310.

[6] Carter E. Boren, Religion on the Texas Frontier (San Antonio, TX: Naylor Company, 1968), 250-51.

[7] D. Duane Cummins, The Disciples Colleges: A History (St. Louis: CBP Press, 1987), 84.

[8] B. J. Humble, "The Influence of the Civil War," Restoration Quarterly 8 (Fourth Quarter 1965), 246. Along this line, see also Jonathan Franklin Woodall, "The Post-Termination Rhetoric of the American Restoration Movement," PhD diss., University of Memphis, 2014.

The Chisholm Trail, 1867-1890

Of the great American cattle trails, the most famous and most significant was the one named for Jesse Chisholm. During its peaks years, from 1867 to 1884, the Chisholm Trail began with feeder trails south of San Antonio, traveled north to Fort Worth and Waco, crossed the Red River into present-day Oklahoma, and continued on into Kansas. The destination of the trail was a railroad terminal, first at Abilene, later Newton, and then Wichita, Kansas. More than eight hundred miles long, it was considered by people at the time "one of the wonders of the western world."[1]

Along the Chisholm Trail near Deanville, Texas

How did the Chisholm Trail get its start? Shortly after the Civil War, Texas cattlemen first drove their herds north and east along what they called the old Texas Road, and then into Indian Territory following the Shawnee Trail on their way to either Kansas City or Sedalia, Missouri. But the hills and woods that dotted the trail, not to mention Indians who demanded a fee for crossing their land as well as outright bandits, rendered this route virtually impossible. Because of these impediments, markets in the east as well as Texas suppliers of beef were missing an opportunity.

In 1867, Joseph G. McCoy, an Illinois farmer, recognized the problem. Beef markets in the eastern U.S. were under-supplied. Realizing the tremendous potential, McCoy bought an entire township along the Kansas Pacific Railroad and named the site Abilene. He then hired a team of promoters to travel through Texas with the news about a railhead in south-central Kansas, ready to load up Longhorns and ship them to Kansas City and beyond.[2]

Several factors conspired to bring the great cattle drives out of Texas to an end. First, railroad construction in Texas eliminated some of the need to drive cattle to Kansas. Second, ranching operations in the northern Great Plains expanded, creating new competition for Texas ranches. Finally, in 1884 Kansas legislators imposed a quarantine on cattle entering the state. As historian John R. Lovett noted, by 1890, the day of the cattle drives across Oklahoma was over.[3]

Notes

[1] Steven D. Dortch, "Chisholm Trail," The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, www.okhistory.org (accessed February 15, 2018). See also T. R. Fehrenbach, Lone Star: A History of Texas and the Texans. Updated ed. (New York: Tess Press, 2000), 557-58.

[2] John R. Lovett, "Major Cattle Trails, 1866-1889," in Historical Atlas of Oklahoma, 4th ed., Charles Robert Goins and Danney Goble, eds. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2006), 116.

[3] Ibid. See also Edward Everett Dale, "Chisholm Trail," in Dictionary of American History, 3rd ed. Stanley I Kutler, ed. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2003), 2:158

Assassinations, American Indians, Van Halen, and More! My 17 Favorite Books of 2017

I spent the first week of 2018 sick. The next thing I knew, we were halfway through January! So, a little later than I had meant to post it, here's my annual list of "best books." I'd love to hear about what you read last year. So please leave a note about some of your 2017 books, and why you liked them, or didn't.

U.S. Presidents

1. Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine,and the Murder of a President, by Candice Millard (2011). A well-written, easy-reading book about President James A. Garfield, his assassin, and the political world they lived in. From the bibliography, it's clear that Millard knows much more about Garfield's religious life, and how it made him the great man he was. But for some reason, she neglects this vital theme. Why?

2. The Kennedy Assassination--24 Hours After: Lyndon B. Johnson's Pivotal First Day as President, by Steven M. Gillon (2009). Take the TV series "24" and make it about the first day after the Kennedy assassination. That's what Gillon does in this interesting, detailed book. Gillon provides plenty of insight for those who want to understand Kennedy, Johnson, their politics, and their presidencies.

American Indians

3. The Chickasaws, Arrell M. Gibson (1971). The old acknowledged masterwork on the subject. Gibson often cities interesting primary sources. Still, Richard D. Green, the current historian of the Chickasaw Nation, notes that Gibson produced this book without interviewing a single Chickasaw. Since then, of course, a newer day in the historiography of American Indians has dawned.

4. American Indians in U.S. History, by Roger L. Nichols (2003). An engaging, brief survey by an expert. Longer and, in my opinion, more useful than the introduction by Perdue and Green (see next entry). Like them, Nichols takes a chronological approach. His text is not accompanied by reference notes, but each chapter ends with a brief list of “Suggested Readings” that represent the classic titles for that historical period.

5. North American Indians: A Very Short Introduction, by Theda Perdue and Michael D. Green (2010). More serviceable than most of the other volumes in the Very Short Introductions series that I’ve read. Chapter 4, “Indians in the West,” corresponds closely to Robert M. Utley, The Indian Frontier, 1846-1890, listed below.

6. The Indian Frontier, 1846-1890, by Robert M. Utley (2003). An interesting survey. The author essentially says, “For the moment, let’s hold onto the Frederick Jackson Turner thesis, but include Indians along that all-important frontier.” Just after I finished reading Utley, I posted a full summary of his book.

Mostly Just for Fun

7. Van Halen Rising: How a Southern California Backyard Party Band Saved Heavy Metal, by Greg Renoff (2015). Renoff begins with the early lives of the original members of Van Halen, and ends with the 11-month world tour that followed the release of their first album in 1978. The book is mostly about Van Halen before hardly anyone outside of Southern California knew who they were. I read it just after passing my qualifying exams, which made the experience that much better. Anyway, if you're interested here's a bit more about it.

8. Ford County: Stories, by John Grisham (2009). This book is Grisham's only published collection of short stories. Not many people like short stories anymore. I've always liked them. With novels, you sometimes don't know if you're going to like them until you're several pages in. With a short story, by that point you're done, and you know not to necessarily trust that author. For one thing, Grisham tends to write long short stories. I know, that's a weird description. But for comparison, check out one of the really-short short stories by Raymond Carver.

9. Bound for Glory, by Woody Guthrie (1943). Woody Guthrie's unique and colorful descriptions of early-twentieth century America will sometimes make you smile and laugh. At other times, his recollections of personal struggles--a family ravaged by disease, financial disaster, house fires, and destitution--might just make you cry. Through it all, you will admire and appreciate Guthrie's unbreakable spirit. Here we have on full display the mind and heart of a creative genius who never took himself too seriously.

Restoration Movement History

10. Among the Early Evangelicals: The Transatlantic Origins of the Stone-Campbell Movement, by James L. Gorman (2017). This is the most significant monograph dealing with the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement to be published in the last several years. In this revision of his doctoral dissertation, Gorman reveals the transatlantic, pre-American roots of the Campbell Movement in America. A signal achievement, Gorman's work breaks new ground and resets the agenda for studying "Campbellism" in America.

11. The Sun Will Shine Again, Someday: A History of the Non-Class, One Cup Churches of Christ, by Ronny F. Wade (1986). The subtitle says it all: “A History of the Non-Class, One Cup Churches of Christ.” The author, Ronny F. Wade, is a long-time, widely-regarded preacher within this group. As one might expect, the history he writes is characterized by advocacy. He is much like the sports announcer who, while calling the game, always cheers for his team. Sometime back, I posted a brief review of Wade's book.

12. Oklahoma Christians: A History of Christian Churches and of the Start of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Oklahoma, by Stephen J. England (1975). England was a great biblical scholar, teacher, and leader within the Disciples denomination during the 20th century. Because he spent so much of his career serving as a professor and school administrator in Oklahoma, he took an interest in the history of his people in the Sooner State. For that particular topic, this book is a unique resource.

Still Other Sorts of History

13. Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America, by David Hackett Fischer (1989). The pick of the litter. This book, all by itself, is an education in several broad streams of American history. Fischer is one of those force-of-nature historians, and Albion's Seed is a delightful masterpiece. You'll never think of the various regions of the U.S. the same way after reading it.

14. Contesting the Reformation, by C. Scott Dixon (2012). Dixon has done a great service to students of the Protestant Reformation. A true expert on the literature, he writes each chapter as a detailed historiographical essay on some aspect of this massive topic. I found it to be an indispensable resource, especially as I prepared for qualifying exams on the Reformation! So, if you're getting ready for exams, or you just want to get a handle on the secondary literature about, say, Calvinism or the Radical Reformation, Dixon's book should be your first stop. It is both thorough and detailed. At least in English, there's nothing else quite like it.

15. Heading South to Teach: The World of Susan Nye Hutchison, 1815-1845, by Kim Tolley (2015). An outstanding new example of microhistory American style. By closely examining the life of an ordinary woman who did extraordinary things, Tolley is able to identify something of how the early U.S. changed especially as a result of the Second Great Awakening.

Texas History

16. Gone To Texas: A History of the Lone Star State, by Randolph B. Campbell (2003). This is likely the very best general survey of Texas history. Campbell relates the story of Texas "from prehistoric times to the beginning of the twenty-first century" (ix). The book is easy-reading, and is complemented by dozens of maps and illustrations. The history of the Lone Star State has often been told according to the traditional, great-people-and-events model. Some readers, especially Texans, might argue that given the topic, this approach is only natural. Either way, Campbell's book is no exception to the rule. Immigration, politics, and conflict, often violent conflict, are major features of the coverage. Neither footnotes nor endnotes accompany the text. Instead, each chapter has its own selected bibliography.

17. Sleuthing the Alamo: Davy Crockett's Last Stand and Other Mysteries of the Texas Revolution, by James E. Crisp (2005). In this delightful, unusual little book, a native Texan combines memoir and original research as he takes up two specific questions about the Texas Revolution. First, was Sam Houston, a president of the Republic of Texas, an anti-Mexican racist? Or, did someone else put words in his mouth? Second, did Davy Crockett really go down fighting at the Alamo, or did he surrender to Santa Anna's troops? Along the way, Crisp uncovers long-lost evidence, detects mistranslations, reveals secrets, and teaches the reader some of the deeper significance of history. He concludes that when, for whatever reason, we attempt to bury and silence the past we just wind up diminishing ourselves.

Tulia, Texas Wildfires, February 28, 2017

On Tuesday, February 28, 2017, wildfire broke out west of Tulia, Texas. Aided by parched fields and raging winds that were sometimes gusting over 50 miles an hour, the fire spread rapidly. In a short time, many homes and businesses in town were in jeopardy of catching fire. I don't know much about how this blaze was contained and extinguished. What I do know is that a large number of firefighters from Tulia and the surrounding area worked tirelessly through the afternoon and night. Thanks to them, Tulia was saved with what has to be considered minimal damage. In addition, local law enforcement did a great job blocking off streets and keeping the public safe. It was an impressive performance all the way around. After coming home from school that afternoon, Michele was evacuated. I was still driving home from Lubbock. (I was driving 85 mph north. The wind was pushing 50 mph west). Again, thanks to the hard work of many firefighters we were able to return home that night at around 9:30. Several days later, I took a walk with my camera. Here's a bit of what I saw. For a larger shot, click on individual photos:

The house top center is two doors down from ours.


All of the grass around the house I call "The Observatory" is completely charred. (On the far left, Michele's red car can be seen parked in our driveway). On closer inspection, it's obvious that this place nearly caught fire. See closeup below.




The large field just north of McKenzie Park, completely burned.



Looking north, with the Tule Creek bed in the foreground. The orange hue of the grass is due to fire retardant dropped from planes stationed at Amarillo.


A closer look at the orange residue. South Austin Avenue., next to McKenzie Park.


At the alleyway just north of McKenzie Hills housing addition, the fire was stopped.



Looking south and east towards the houses in McKenzie Hills



On the west side of Austin Avenue, firefighters scraped a line meant to stop or slow down the spread of the flames.

A Trip to Abilene

So last Thursday afternoon Michele and I got in the car and drove to Abilene. Compared to the panhandle it gets significantly hotter in that part of Texas, and the closer we got to our destination the further our car thermometer went into triple digits. By 3 that afternoon, we were somewhere around Post, Texas when the temperature reached 105.

I had booked a room at the Courtyard Marriott, which looked nice online. It was. We got to Abilene late afternoon, spent an hour or so in the pool, drove a few blocks down for a nice dinner, and then walked across the street to their shopping mall. We were amazed an hour later when we came out of the mall. At around 8:30, the temperature was in the mid-90s! Near sunset, it was still really hot. Did I mention it was hot in that part of Texas?

Anyway, on Friday morning Michele dropped me off at the Center for Restoration Studies which is in the library on the campus of Abilene Christian University. From there, she went shopping and got an afternoon massage that I had scheduled for her. The shopping and the message were the answer to her question, "If you go to Abilene so you can spend time in the library, what do I get to do?"

At the CRS, I gained a bit more in my quest to establish the timeline and travels of R. W. Officer (see previous post). Many thanks to Carisse Mickey Berryhill, who tracked down the Gospel Guide for me, and took care of a dozen other requests that day.

It also was a pleasure to finally meet in person and visit with Mac Ice at the CRS. Mac was preparing to set up an Restoration Movement hymnal display. Among the gems on the cart was the hymnal pictured here, published by Elias Smith at Boston in 1804!

We made it home late Friday evening. We were glad we got to have a quick vacation just before Michele began her new teaching job here in Tulia today.

Joe S. Warlick Encounters R. W. Officer in Arkansas, 1926

Joe S. Warlick (1866-1941), editor and publisher of the Gospel Guide, often included an "Editorials" section in his paper. These occasional pieces told of Warlick's travels, speaking engagements, debates, etc. To anyone interested in Restoration History, they are a must read.

In the June 1926 issue, Warlick tells of a recent trip from his home in Dallas, Texas to Arkansas and to other states north and east. Along the way, he preached wherever he could and delivered at least one school commencement address. His report includes the following:

"Saturday night we began [preaching] at Center Point, the old county seat of Howard County.  . . .

"We had dinner on the ground Sunday, which all enjoyed greatly. Among those who were with us was the venerable R. W. Officer, who now resides in Nashville [Arkansas], not far away."

"Editorials," Gospel Guide, Volume XI, No. 6, (June 1926), p. 4.

What is the significance of this for people interested in the life and times of R. W. Officer (1845-1930)?  Here we have one of the very few references to him in any church paper between about 1906 and his death in 1930. Up until the first few years of the twentieth century, R. W. had been a long-time and prolific contributor to a large array of Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement journals, especially the Gospel Advocate and Octographic Review.

Why he ceased sending notices to the journals and magazines is a puzzle. Shortly before, Officer did complain in print about his rheumatism. It's been some time since I've seen it, but there was also reference to a wagon accident that may have injured his hand. But these obstacles, it seems to me, would not be enough to stop an inveterate writer with the grit of R. W. Officer. Not to mention that during most of that time he had a second wife, several years younger than him, and also a son, Leon V., who lived close to his father.

Although brief, Warlick's notice includes more than one piece of important information. First, it locates Officer in Nashville, Arkansas in the spring of 1926. This is especially interesting because according to the U.S. Federal Census of 1930, Officer, by then 85 years old, was still living in Nashville. He is listed as a "boarder" in home of a "farmer" named Parker Russell (age 66); Russell's wife, Gillie (who was 59); and their son, Garner (19). Also according to the 1930 Census, Officer's occupation was "minister" of the Christian Church. It appears, then, that R. W. Officer spent at least the last four years of his life preaching for the Christian Church in Nashville, Arkansas, while residing with a farmer and his family who were presumably members of that congregation.

Second, Warlick's notice indicates that Officer (a veteran of the Civil War who was then 80 years old) was still vigorous enough to get out and around. Center Point, where Warlick shared lunch with Officer, is about 9 miles from Nashville, where he resided.

Third, it seems to indicate that Officer had not moved away from his convictions in previous years. In the time leading up to his silence in the papers, Officer had been suspected of all sorts of "isms" and heresies. Some people probably imagined that he stopped sending notices to the papers because he had indeed "gone off the deep end" religiously. But Officer's appearance at the Sunday gathering and dinner at Center Point, Arkansas in 1926 suggests otherwise. Officer's "heresy trial" in Alabama in the 1870s includes much the same rhetorical tone and tough stance as one would find in the pages of Warlick's Gospel Guide. If by 1926 Officer had long since changed his thinking in a radical way, then why would he want to venture out to see and hear the likes of Joe S. Warlick, a staunch preacher and debater?

All of this suggests two basic conclusions regarding Officer between the ages of 60 and 85. First, he did not stop publishing in the papers because he was no longer able. Second, it does not seem that Officer had significantly changed his views. Even if he had, he was still willing to go hear and visit with Joe Warlick, a preacher who certainly had not.

A. C. Huff: A Brief Biography

The first full-time preacher for the Church of Christ in Altus, Oklahoma was A. C. Huff. By the time he arrived in Altus in 1907, he was forty-three years old and brought with him over twenty years of preaching experience. The congregation paid him $60 a month, which was roughly equivalent to $1550 by 2013 standards.

A.C. Huff was born in 1864 in Halletsville, Texas, a little town in Lavaca County, about halfway between Houston and San Antonio. His mother died when he was just three years old. As tragic and sad as that was, the little boy was fortunate in that he had four older sisters who mothered him.

Growing up during those difficult years just after the Civil War, he had very few opportunities to receive any formal education. At the outbreak of the War, many schools across the South closed. It was years later before public schools were common. However, when he was sixteen he was able to attend school regularly for a time at Brownwood, Texas.

We know very little about the religious background of his family. We do know that he was baptized into Christ by W. E. Hawkins in 1882, and that he began preaching two years later, when he was twenty years old.

From that time on, for over 80 years, A. C. Huff preached the gospel of Christ and taught the truth of the Bible! He lived from 1864 to 1967--from Civil War to Civil Rights--and died at the age of 103. If he had lived two more months, he would have turned 104. During those 80-plus years of ministry, he was instrumental in planting congregations at Tucumcari and Raton, New Mexico; at Vega, Dodson, and Bronte, Texas; and at Lacey Chapel, Oklahoma. He preached in countless places, engaged in four religious debates that we know of, fathered twelve children, and delivered a 40-minute sermon on the day he turned 101.

Apparently, he spent less than a year in Altus. Our best records indicate that he worked with the church there in 1907, and with the church in Hollis, Oklahoma in 1910. It is a testimony to his preaching in Altus that since those days, there have only been a few short times when the Church of Christ did not support a regular preacher.

A. C. Huff passed from this life on December 8, 1967 in Del City, Oklahoma. The next morning, John R. Stewart conducted his funeral there and accompanied the casket to McLean, Texas, where a memorial service was held at 3 p.m., and where the old preacher lies buried until the resurrection.

Bibliography

Baxter, Batsell Barrett and M. Norvel Young, eds. Preachers of Today: A Book of Brief Biographical Sketches and Pictures of Living Gospel Preachers. Nashville: Christian Press, 1952.

Burns, Thelma. "Church History: Church of Christ, Altus, Oklahoma 1898-1980." Unpublished document, 1980. The best written source for the broad sweep of the history of the Hudson and Elm congregation.

Hall, W. Claude, "Congregational Growth and Expansion: Altus, Oklahoma," Firm Foundation September 13, 1927. An indispensable source for the early history of what was at that time the only congregation of the Church of Christ in Altus. Includes photos.

Lambert, Gussie. In Memoriam. Shreveport, LA: Gussie Lambert, 1988. Contains a four-page biography of Huff and a photo.

Stewart, John R. "Huff, A. C.," Gospel Advocate January 11, 1968. Huff's obituary, written shortly after his death by the man who conducted his funeral.

Wilhite, J. Porter. The Trail Blazers: Heroes of the Faith. Shreveport, LA: Lambert Book House, 1965. Includes a brief biography of Huff and the notes for one of his sermons.

Wilson, Linda D. Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History & Culture, s.v. "Schools, Subscription." http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/S/SC005.html (accessed January 30, 2013). I found this article helpful for understanding a reference to the little formal education that A. C. Huff received at a "subscription school."

A. C. Huff according to J. Porter Wilhite

A. C. HUFF

"Abraham Conn Huff was born February 8, 1864, in Texas, where he lived most of his life. After some country schools, which he attended only about six weeks; at the age of sixteen, he attended in Brownwood, Texas, and was able to teach school for some time. He also was a singing school teacher in those days. He did a lot of mission work wherever it was needed, leading his own singing in many meetings. This work was because of the love of God, and the souls of mankind; because support was practically nothing. Brother Huff began preaching at the age of twenty (1884). This being 1965, he now has preached longer than any living gospel preacher--81 years and still preaching--and preached forty minutes on his birthday this year. This is amazing! He had four debates! He reared twelve children, four sons, each an elder or a preacher of the gospel. WONDERFUL! Preached 81 years."

In J. Porter Wilhite, The Trail Blazers: Heroes of the Faith (Shreveport, LA: Lambert Book House, 1965), 72.

More about R. W. Officer and His Family

Since I last posted about the life and times of R[obert] W[allace] Officer, I have been able to discover additional information about him and his family. These new-to-me facts pertain to Officer's later years, which he spent in Red River and Hall Counties, Texas.

According to a record I obtained through "Find A Grave" by way of ancestry.com, the wife of R. W. Officer, Alice Crenshaw Gist Officer, died on September 21, 1921. As the photo and description in my first post indicate, the Crenshaw name does not appear on her tombstone. And, the stone lacks the birth and death dates for Alice.

Further, according to the 1910 United States Federal Census (Justice Precinct 4, Red River, Texas, Roll: T624_1585, page 10B), Alice Officer was born in 1860, and was then 50 years old, fifteen years younger than R. W., born in 1845, making him then 65 years old.

Now, Red River County, Texas is in the northeastern part of the state, hundreds of miles from Turkey, in Hall County. Yet, everything I've ever read has R. W. moving to Turkey in the early part of the 20th century. I'm confident that Officer did come to Turkey in the early part of the 1900s. But it's intriguing to find that the U.S. Census places him and his second wife, Alice, in Red River County in 1910.