Emblems from the American Civil War that relate to the Southern Cause continue to be under seige from elements of the left/progressive culture in the US. Statues of Civil War heroes on both the tu and TAMU campuses are drawing fire from those who want them removed. Images of the Confederate battle flag draw particularly vicious howls of outrage from a vocal few who cannot differentiate history from contemporary political drama. Most folks today cannot understand what all the fuss is about ... so in most cases local powers that be yield to the protesters ... to the disappointed annoyance of the "silent majority."

A former president of Texas A&M, Frank E. Vandiver, PhD, addressed this situation April 28, 2001 in a speech at Andersen at the dedication of a statue and plaza commemorating the Grimes County Greys, a volunteer group who fought for the Confederacy more than 140 years ago. This group was a source of historic family and community pride for Grimes County.

For those of you who never had the pleasure of meeting Frank Vandiver allow me to introduce this gentleman.

Vandiver was President at TAMU from 1981 to 1988. Before that, he was President at the University of North Texas from 1979-1981. Before that he was on the faculty at Rice University 1955-1979 and served as President there 1968-1970. Vandiver retired from TAMU in 1988 to head the Mosher Institute at A&M and to devote full time to writing Civil War and military histories.

Vandiver was a Civil War historian of the first order and published 20 books on the subjects. Before his teaching at Rice, Vandiver was on the faculty at Oxford University and the US Military Academy. His favorite characters were "Mighty Stonewall Jackson" and John J. Pershing. He was not locked into the Civil War but in later writings blended lessons from that war into contemporary wars, WWI, WWII, Vietnam, etc.

Frank Vandiver was a good and gentle man ... and his delivery of anecdotes from the Civil War could mesmerize an audience ... He was the pure academic historian, the type who footnotes every utterance. And his voice was on par with Shelby Foote (a popular historian) who wrote the History of the Civil War and narrated the Ken Burns epic of that book.

Frank Vandiver found a home at Texas A&M and loved every part of it, from the Dixie Chicken to Kyle Field. He passed away at his home in College Station in 2005.

This was Frank Vandiver's speech for dedication of the Grimes County Greys memorial in April 2001.

quote:

---

Ladies and gentlemen, please accept my warm thanks for your invitation to participate in the unveiling of a new monument to Confederate soldiers. It is fitting and proper that we should do this for these men fought for what they believed in and wanted their descendants to have. It is fashionable now in some parts of the nation to stereotype Rebels as fighting for slavery. This certainly was one of the reasons, but the many, many non-slave holders in arms indicate other causes among which were independence and the defense of a life tempo comfortable in an agrarian nation. Rebels gave their lives for what they believed in -- many, many lives.

It may be that some of the men we commemorate here today were among those to whom General Lee referred in his tribute until recently displayed on the State Supreme Court building in Austin: I rate my Texans as storm troops and regret only that I must call on them too often. (As an aside, I wonder why that quotation was quietly removed by the then Governor. Was it because Lee said it, or because it praised Texas Confederates? See how easily meanings are confused?) I suspect that some of the men here memorialized were among Lee's favorites. Texas troops have usually done well. On that surreptitious moment that Lee's quote was taken from us, so was a bas relief of the Confederate Battle Flag.

It's about the current flag issue that I'd like to talk for a moment, with your kind indulgence. This issue is, to borrow a Jefferson phrase, "like a fire bell in the night." It is a far more serious matter than most people think. It is not "much ado about nothing," nor is it likely simply to go away. Part of the problem is that flags mean different things to different people at different times. Our American flag has suffered burnings, cursings and has, now and then, represented things not entirely agreeable to all Americans. So, too, the Lone Star. If you read the growing news about the Battle Flag you'll see that opinions are beginning to firm up on both sides of the issue. Many blacks have a legitimate aversion to a banner seeming to them a cloak for racism, a banner spuriously embraced by racist groups such as the KKK. Many Southerners sustain a deep, personal devotion to ancestors who died for that same banner in an American quest for independence -- and they see the controversy as an example of reverse racism.

What alarms me is that neither side, I think, quite appreciates the power of symbolism in this situation. The direct black approach of economic threats to sections of the south retaining the flag have scored early and big victories. But a counter-resentment is growing among defenders of their heritages and they just scored in Mississippi. The quick assertion that the election did not settle the issue and that the Mississippi campaign to change the flag would continue clearly underscores the deep divisions this issue is causing.

Where will all this end? If both sides continue digging in, riveting their positions, I foresee great trouble ahead for the country, a country re-divided in ways tragically hurtful to the vital progress of Civil Rights for both sides.

I do not think this is an issue of political correctness (surely an oxymoron!); it is an issue of deep-struck anguish. Both sides have legitimate points. In the normal American process these would be compromised. But compromise has failed because a few extremists on both sides will not have it so.

Let me suggest that all of us here, Americans everywhere, government officials especially, take this symbolic conflict as the warning that it is. I suggest that those on both sides of the flag issue try to see beyond their angers into the hearts of their supposed opponents. The battle flag seems to demean black successes in their fight against a background of American shame. The battle flag also has deep meaning in the southern psyche because it honors courage and assuages, still, the heartbreak of losing. In a new bestseller about the end of the war the point is made that had not Grant, Sherman, Lincoln and other Northern leaders been the men they were, the results of the war could well have been years of savage guerrilla battles and the kind of butchery that followed many European wars. One of the wise things to come from Lincoln's attitude of "letting 'em up easy," was that the South was left its history, could cherish men who fought gallantly in adversity and so could reenter a Union with honor and old enemies could become comrades once again.

If the flag issue, and it is only one of several attacks on Confederate history, escalates, banked anguish may become overt hostility with dismal portents. Americans must not let this happen. Edicts, proclamations, shouts, week-kneed truckling, none will derail this different train.

Americans all need to retreat from extremism. We need to work our way back to democracy's surest foundation -- reason. Reason nourishes understanding, understanding cools hatred so that the old trait of compromise can work its preserving magic. Americans can avoid racism and honor bravery at the same time.

May I suggest that defenders of both sides recall and affirm some words of Voltaire, which I will paraphrase here to reflect differing views: "I disagree with everything you say about the Battle Flag, but will defend to the death your right to say it." "I disagree with your displaying the Battle Flag, but will defend to the death your right to display it." Here is empathy coming from compassionate reason, the thing most needed in our country today.

I congratulate all of you who have produced this splendid memorial and deeply hope that it will be among the first received with the respect of compassionate reason.

Thank you

---

Edit: As one might expect, a member of the TAMU Touchstone group attacked Vandiver's speech with viciousness and hatred. That attack on an even-handed address by a learned and compassionate person stands in itself as a symbol of the blind hatred the left/progressives have for speech they do not agree with ... speech is only free if it reflects their narrow views.












[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 1/20/2007 1:04p).]

thanks for sharing that with us

The two posts above concerning Civil War symbols and the rediculous reactions to them by "left/progressive" activists today were triggered by a thread on the Aggieland Forum above ... "CSPD Objects to Flag Use at Former Sheriff's Funeral."

The event of concern was the funeral for former Brazos County Sheriff Bobby Yeager. College Station PD and Bryan PD along with Brazos County Sheriff Department officers were gathered to provide a traditional Law Enforcement Honor Guard for a fallen officer.

After the funeral started someone from CSPD noted a small Confederate flag, partly covered by the casket spray, on Sheriff Yeager's casket. Some unidentified supervisor of the CSPD ordered its members of the Honor Guard to walk out of the funeral (I presume as some sort of protest.) Bryan PD Honor Guard members followed the CSPD officers out the door. Current Sheriff Chris Kirk's officers remained and did the Honors.

Bobby Yeager was a devoted student of Civil War history and had requested that the flag be placed on his casket at his funeral. Bobby was a good and honorable man.

Apparently "political correctness" trumps all other considerations in College Station city government.

[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 1/21/2007 10:09p).]

Perhaps a compassionate compromise to defuse a passionate dilemma would be for persons proud of their Confederate Heritage to abandon the song Dixie and the Confederate Battle Flag and revert to The Bonnie Blue Flag for the song and banner as their historical symbols. The Bonnie Blue Flag was the favorite marching song and banner of Rebs ... and the lyrics state the nature of their cause. (And the white star on a field of blue has lived more than 160 years on the Texas Flag without a protest.)



THE BONNIE BLUE FLAG
Lyrics by Harry Macarthy (d. 1880)


We are a band of brothers
And native to the soil,
Fighting for the property
We gained by honest toil;
And when our rights were threatened,
The cry rose near and far--
"Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag
That bears a single star!"

CHORUS: Hurrah! Hurrah!
For Southern rights hurrah!
Hurrah for the Bonnie Blue Flag
That bears a single star.

As long as the Union
Was faithful to her trust,
Like friends and like brothers
Both kind were we and just;
But now, when Northern treachery
Attempts our rights to mar,
We hoist on high the Bonnie Blue Flag
That bears a single star.--CHORUS

First gallant South Carolina
Nobly made the stand,
Then came Alabama,
Who took her by the hand.
Next quickly Mississippi,
Georgia and Florida
All raised on high the Bonnie Blue Flag
That bears a single star.--CHORUS

Ye men of valor, gather round
The banner of the right;
Texas and fair Louisiana
Join us in the fight.
Davis, our loved president,
And Stephens statesman are;
Now rally round the Bonnie Blue Flag
That bears a single star.--CHORUS

And here's to old Virginia--
The Old Dominion State--
Who with the young Confederacy
At length has linked her fate;
Impelled by her example,
Now other states prepare
To hoist on high the Bonnie Blue Flag
That bears a single star.--CHORUS

Then cheer, boys, cheer;
Raise the joyous shout,
For Arkansas and North Carolina
Now have both gone out;
And let another rousing cheer
For Tennessee be given,
The single star of the Bonnie Blue Flag
Has grown to be eleven.--CHORUS

Then here's to our Confederacy,
Strong are we and brave;
Like patriots of old we'll fight
Our heritage to save.
And rather than submit to shame,
To die we would prefer;
So cheer for the Bonnie Blue Flag
That bears a single star.--CHORUS



For the history and significance of The Bonnie Blue Flag check out this site:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonnie_Blue_Flag

[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 1/25/2007 1:11a).]

It took me almost three weeks to finish reading this thread, but I just wanted to thank you guys for all of the info on my neck of the woods as well. I had a great time reading all of your posts.

But what are you doing up at 0330????

Test today. Taking a break.

AbileneAg .... I hope the test had several questions about proper harnessing of a mule, oilfield pump jacks, border blaster radio stations and seining stock tanks.

If it did, then he surely aced that test.

If it had I would have, as it was it was BioChem a topic unfortunately not covered in this diatribe.

How A&MC Got Its Share of the Permanent University Fund (Borrowed from the Aggieland Forum.)

This is not a "historic photograph" of TAMU but it describes an event in A&MC history that older Ags can picture in their mind as vividly as if they were there. (This is history all Ags should be aware of.)

August 17, 1921 was the date the Santa Rita #1, the oilwell near Big Lake, was brought in on University Lands. The University lands were 2,000,000 acres of arid land in west Texas (soon to become the Permian Basin) that the earliest Texas legislature had set aside for the University of Texas. (A&M was a part of tu per the State Constitution.) Oil funds were flowing into the Permanent University Fund but the University of Texas refused to share with A&M. Many hot debates were held on this matter over the years and eventually reached a point where tu offered to give A&M one-fourth of the revenue; A&M was holding out for one-third.

The time was 1931. One more meeting was in progress between the tu Regents and the A&M Directors to discuss this matter. This meeting was being held at A&M on the second floor of a building overlooking Military Walk (probably Ross Hall.) The meeting was deadlocked on the 1/4th or 1/3rd share. Judge R.L. Batts, a distinguished lawyer, was Chairman of the tu Board of Regents.

The following is a quote from Francis Marion Law, head of the A&M Board of Directors at the meeting.

quote:

---

About noon the bugle sounded for lunch. The cadet companies began to form and the band began to play. Judge Batts excused himself from the meeting and stepped out on the porch where he could witness the march. It was not until the last cadet had passed that he returned to the meeting I heard the Judge (and it seemed to me that he might be talking only to himself) say, "What difference does it make; they are all Texas boys."

Upon returning to his seat at the table Judge Batts turned to his fellow committee members and remarked that he felt that the position of A&M was just and that he would favor acceding to their suggestion of one-third.

---

A provision in the State Constitution precludes the legislature appropriating any money for either University for permanent improvements. Before this 1931 meeting all buildings on the A&MC campus were funded through private sources. The share of Permanent University Funds (PUF) has financed all building construction since that time on the A&M campus.

The Clear Fork Indian Reservation and Camp Cooper

The State of Texas actually made an attempt to establish reservations for West Texas native Americans if they would be willing to give up their free-ranging ways and settle down to a life of row-crop farming. (Yeah, right!)

In 1854 the Texas Legislature passed an act, call the Location Bill, that set would set aside 12 leagues of land for settlements of the tribes.

Four leagues were identified as the Brazos Reservation to be located near Graham for east and northeast tribes such as Waco, Anadarko and Tonkawa to settle on.

Four leagues were identified as the Clear Fork Reservation or the Comanche Reservation for Penateka Comanches (the ones that roamed south of the Caprock.) This reservation was about 40 miles west of the Brazos Reservation and about ten miles SSW of present day Throckmorton (or ten miles NNW of Fort Griffin.)

The third four league allotment was for a reservation attached to the Brazos Reservation dedicated wishfully for Lipan and Mescalero Apaches to trek to from the trans-Pecos region. No Apaches ever showed so those four leagues just increased the size of the original Brazos Reservation.

Now, let's consider the size of those intended reservations, each four leagues in total. Four leagues of land equals 18,576 acres, or about 29 sections of land, or about 5.5 miles square. Late in 1854 the Brazos Reservation had attracted about 2,000 Indians to its 5.5 X 11 mile tract; the Clear Fork Reservation had attracted about 450 Comanches to its 5.5 miles square allotment.

Although the eastern Indians were fairly proficient in growing some garden crops, the Comanches just couldn't get the hang of it and in short order began reverting to their wild and wicked ways ... thus their white settler neighbors developed the the first known NIMBY attitudes.

Since the State of Texas owned all its public lands and reservations were a Federal Government responsibility the US Army was tasked to establish a camp next door to the Clear Fork Comanche Reservation to keep order.

Camp Cooper was set up in January 1856 to keep an eye on the Comanche guests at the Clear Fork Reservation. And this camp produced some amazing West Texas history for its size and location.

This map gives the lay of the land:

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&t=h&om=1&z=10&ll=32.945301,-98.982697&spn=0.499008,0.888519
(The link insists on displaying 30-40 miles east of the intended map. Use left arrow to move display to show Albany ... then the up arrow to bring Throckmorton into the map.)

Fort Griffin was located about 13 miles north of Albany, about where Hwy 183 crosses the Clear Fork of the Brazos (at the highway bend.) The Clear Fork Reservation and Camp Cooper were located ten miles NNE of Fort Griffin on the Clear Fork.

And now, the amazing story of Camp Cooper and the supporting role it played in early Texas history ... and US history.

I will not attempt to paraphrase the tale of Camp Cooper because Trent McKnight does it very well without help from me.

quote:

---

Camp Cooper

By: Trent McKnight

Camp Cooper was a military post set up by the Federal Government in the mid-nineteenth century to oversee a newly organized Comanche Indian Reservation. The camp is located on the Clear Fork of the Brazos River, ten miles north of Fort Griffin, in the southern part of what is now Throckmorton County. It was named in honor of Major Samuel Cooper of the US Army who later became Adjustant General of the Confederate Army. Even though Camp Cooper is rich in a colorful history of engaging occasions, like many other military posts of the time, much of its history has been lost and forgotten. Hopefully we can recap some of its most exciting moments.

By January 1856 a newly organized United States Cavalry regiment was on the march to bring stability to Clear Fork country. The Indians arrived a year earlier than the soldiers and were finally alerted that they were to receive military help. The regiment, under the command of Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston had marched from Jefferson Barracks, Missouri through Indian Territory and then southward through Fort Wa****a and Fort Belknap, to Clear Fork River where they arrived January third to begin its occupation of Camp Cooper. Johnston accompanied by his wife and children arrived in the middle of a raging blizzard. They were leading two companies of cavalry and two foot soldiers.

Johnston did not stay in command very long. He moved southward to Fort Mason by way of Fort Chadbourne leaving Captain William J. Hardee in command. Major Hardee put the soldiers to work by building tents. Here officers and troops alike lived in these canvas houses. The hospital, guardhouse, bakery, and arsenal were also tents and storehouses were roofed with tarpaulins over frames. The fine cavalry horses were kept on picket lines, as there were no stables.

Yet, Hardee's command was only temporary. On April 9, 1856, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Edward Lee arrived to take his place. Hardee scarcely had the camp in order when Lee came. Therefore, Lee was left with hardly anything.

Here Lee was far from his wife Mary and his children, but he wrote them quite often. He didn't like this so called "desert land," but he would have to live with it for nineteen months in what he called his "Texas home."

In one letter he wrote to his baby daughter, he said teasingly, "My rattlesnake, my only pet is dead. He grew sick and would not eat his frogs and died." Rattlesnakes made life hazardous around the post. Because of them, Lee had to build his chicken coop well above ground.

In the winter when food was scarce the Indians would go to Camp Cooper and the government would feed them. But, when spring came and game was plentiful the Indians would become savage enough to kill those who helped them.

One notable engagement with the Comanche's occurred on December 18, 1860 when Governor Sam Houston commanded Captain L.S. Ross to take sixty men from a strong Texas Ranger force (aided by First Sergeant J. W. Spangle) and take the field against the Comanches. To this number of men a detachment of Company H, and Second Cavalry, sent from Captain N.G. Evans at Camp Cooper, surprised and destroyed a large Nakoni camp. The Indian camp was near the junction of Mule creek and Pease River, a few miles northwest of present-day Margaret, in Northeastern Texas. In the Fight, Ross killed a warrior, mistakenly thought to be Pete Nacona.

One of Ross's men grabbed an Indian woman with a baby around her neck running from the camp. Suspecting the Nakoni female could be the lost Cynthia Ann Parker they took her back to the camp with them. At Camp Cooper, Ross sent for her uncle, Isaac Parker. When he arrived, he interviewed her. She sat on a box with her baby, little Prairie Flower and her chin on her knees. When Isaac Parker could get no satisfactory replies, he said, "She isn't Cynthia Ann Parker!" With her face aglow, she said, patting her breast, "Cynthia Ann! Cynthia Ann!" One man noted, "A ray of recollection sprang up in her mind that had been obliterated for twenty-five years."

She was then taken to live with her relatives in Parker County. She died in 1864 and is buried in Oklahoma.

On February 18, 1861, Brevet Major General W.A. Twiggs, commanding the Department of Texas, agreed to surrender all the federal military posts in Texas to Confederate troops. But, the surrender of Camp Cooper however, was not affected until three days later.

Weeks before the firing on Fort Sumter, at Camp Cooper, Captain S. D. Carpenter with 250 men had to make a fateful decision of peace or war. Confederates surrounded the camp. Fortunately, Carpenter decided to surrender his post without resistance, thereby postponing the outbreak of the War Between the States.

Carpenter headed north with his men to Fight in that tragic event, The Civil War.


Among the famous Generals of the Civil War stationed at Camp Cooper were:

Union— "the Rock of Chickamauga" George H Thomas*, I. N. Palmer, George Stoneman**, Denner Garrad, and R. W. Johnson.

Confederates— Robert E. Lee, William J Hardee, N.G. Evans, Earl Van Dorn**, E. Kirby Smith*, John Bell Hood*, Charles W. Field, Albert Sidney Johnston* and Lawrence Sullivan Ross.

What other military post would put off such fine commanding Generals!

* - separate biography in World Book Encyclopedia
**- under Civil War in World Book Encyclopedia


Trent McKnight mcknight@westex.net

---

In 1859 the State of Texas and the US Government gave up on the idea of Indian Reservations in north and west Texas. The Indians were moved on to Oklahoma Reservations and the land reverted back to the State of Texas.

Camp Cooper disappeared from history in 1861 after the Federal troops vs West Texas Rebels dust-up.

Who would have thought that barren patch of land in south Throckmorton County on the banks of the Clear Fork of the Brazos River could have hosted the great names of Texas and US history.



[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 3/12/2007 11:19p).]

[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 3/13/2007 8:38a).]

[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 3/13/2007 8:52a).]

The article you quoted was a little unclear. I am fairly certain that L.S. Ross was a Captain in the Texas Rangers, not the U.S. Army.

Canyon ... You are correct about Sully. At that time he was only about 21 or so but had been an Indian fighter since 19 (that is the way he spent his Spring Breaks and summer vacations from his "backeast" schooling.) Even young men in Cameron and other central Texas settlements such as LaGrange, Lockhart, etc., were involved in defense from marauding Comanche bands.

Thanks for sharing Fossil. My family has been in Shackelford County for over 100 years now and I worked at Ft. Griffin some during summer breaks. I have always been a student of the area's history, some pretty interesting stuff has happened around there.

from the History forum google post, my post about Camp Cooper

*******************

Not really a fort on the trail, but an interesting and important historical site. Now just a flat river bottom, but Camp Cooper was important, because it was the first time that Robert E Lee commanded troops in the field. Long an engineer attached to different commands and or part of some General's staff, young Lt. Colonel Lee was there for about a year and a half. I'm kind of sure thats the approx location, there's nothing there but a small rock cabin built in later years and a Texas Historical marker. I went there one time with the land owner, and we wound our way on pasture roads, crossed the Brazos at a ford and ended up in a small field on the river bank that looked like all the other small fields. But I think thats it.

Handbook link

another good resource link to read

across the river from Camp Cooper you can see a ranch house. If this is the correct location, that ranch house belonged to gunman, lawman, and outlaw John Larn

if you've read Interwoven, or are familiar with the Reynolds Matthews ranch families, this is the Stone Ranch house. There's kind of an L shape opening towards the northwest, thats the house and a little stable or bunkhouse. The bigger square that you can just make out a little west of the road is the rock corral out behind the house. This two room dogtrot house was constructed in the early 1850's by a Military officer that came through the area at Camp Cooper and or Ft Phantom. The dogtrot was enclosed to create kind of three rooms. One side the kitchen eating area, the other side a bedroom and the middle now the entry hall, guest room, library, study and parlor.

In the 1980's Watt Matthews spent a bunch of money fixing it back up to its somewhat original condition. Outfitted with period furniture and stuff, you feel like you stepped back in time. Not like a museum, but like the family just stepped out for a little while kind of feeling.

more at Texas Handbook


[This message has been edited by TheSheik (edited 3/14/2007 4:08p).]

a picture of the Stone House



an even better one

the stable/bunkhouse is not visible in this picture, its behind the house. You can see the corral and another shack out back.

[This message has been edited by TheSheik (edited 3/16/2007 5:12p).]

The Sheik ... Those were interesting items of history you shared. I was aware that various old families in the Albany area had long been active in historical preservations but had not heard about the Stone Ranch houses.

Fact is, I was aware that the Clear Fork Comanche Reservation had been located in that general area but had never researched it ... and had not even heard of Camp Cooper. It was a pleasant discovery and a great story.

I could relate to the hardship of life in that early day Reservation and Army Camp at that bend in the Clear Fork. My grandfather passed through that area 25 years later in a two-wheel cart behind a team of oxen on his way to Jones County. He described the area as a sea of grass on a virtually treeless plain.

sig test. also this thread needs to be bumped.

Fossil Ag is like the EverReady bunny,
he just keeps going and going and going.

I enjoy whats he writes also.

Hi Mr. Fossil Ag Sir.

I thought it was the Energizer Bunny

You're right.

I'm sooooooo confused!

bump

ttt
fossil_ag
please reply if you are still hanging around, I have a question regarding a Beulah Waddell Burk in early Fisher county, wondered if you might know of her.

FishrCoAg ... I do not recognize the name Beulah Waddell Burk. Unfortunately Fisher County is sort of a black hole when searching back through records, unless you enjoy sifting through musty old ledgers in the Clerk's office.

The best place to start a search of this type is through Federal Census Images at their 10-year intervals back through the years. But the only one from Fisher Co. is dated 1880 and later ones have not yet been transcribed from microfilm. US GenWeb Archives is in process of doing this but don't expect results this century. This link is not worth much to you but at least it will give the microfilm roll number: http://www.us-census.org/states/texas/f-tx.htm.

Fisher County public records of births, marriages and deaths have not been transcribed for online access anywhere near the 1890-1920 eras so that is another resource not available to Fisher Co. searches. And only a couple of cemeteries in the county have an online accessible roster of interrments.

Fisher County's population went from 3,700 in 1900 to 12,600 in 1910 so those two census' are the prime ones to search for old timers.

I am sorry I could not be of more help. My only suggestion is to contact some of the Burks in the Rotan area (and there must be 50 or so) and see if anyone remembers an Aunt Beulah.

fossil
I am one of the Burk's! I was Beulah was my great grandmother, wife of Walter Lee Burk. I did not know her maiden name until I came across it while looking at some old funeral records yesterday. I'm not sure where she was originally from, but thought you might know. Thanks.

I suppose that most of you former students receive copies of the Spirit magazine from the TAMU Foundation.

If you received a copy recently, July 2007 Edition, you may be surprised to find a nice article about Dr. Dan Russell of the A&M College Rural Sociology department and his Project Houses for cash-strapped kids struggling to attend A&M College during the Great Depression.

This is the greatest story ever to rise from Texas A&M ... about one great man, one supportive department, one caring college and about 5,000 determined young men.

Remember that you read the story first on 6/15/2006 (Page 7) of this thread.

[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 7/12/2007 9:35p).]

I assume that most of you are former students, are members of the FSA, and receive copies of the Texas Aggie magazine. If your copy of the July-August 2007 edition is handy I request you turn to page 54 and look at the photo at the top left of the page.

It is a beautiful picture of the campus as it looked in about 1917 ... but wait, something is amiss! Surely my memory of the old buildings and their locations has not gone completely haywire this soon.

Relax. If you noticed something wrong with the photo your memory is crystal clear. The mixup is due to a series of human errors, humans other than yourself.

The most recent human error was with the editor of the Texas Aggie who failed to notice that the photo was flip-flopped. And that same error can be blamed on the University Archive archivist who failed to notice the same error. And finally we can blame the person who printed the photo from the negative back in 1917.

The photo was taken with a camera similar to the old Speed Graphic with its 4X5 negative cartridge and when printing to paper in the darkroom it was a simple and common mistake to flip-flop the negative and print a reverse image.

But someone down the line should have caught the mistake and said "Whoa, Nellie, this ain't right."

The fact that the Texas Aggie editors did not catch it indicates to me that with all the new building on campus, the history of old A&M College is being lost in our current workers and students.

Perhaps it is time for a refresher course on Aggieland building history to develop more eagle eyes to catch errors like the one described above before they get into print.

My sympathy to the old Ag class of '35 or '40 who may have puzzled over the photo in the magazine looking for his old dormitory ... ("It ain't nice to play tricks on Grandpa."

Let us take a tour of the A&M campus as it appeared in 1921-1930.

http://cushing.tamu.edu/collections/images/Pages/viewtext.php?s=browse&tid=4782&route=browseby.php&category=242&by=category&s=browse



I recommend you click on the link above if you want an enlarged view of the photo.

The top of the photo is generally to the east so we will call that east and the right hand side south.

First we will tour the buildings facing Military Walk. The building in the lower right corner is Guion Hall (1918-1971) demolished for site of Rudder Tower.)

Starting at Guion Hall going north toward the main entrance of Sbisa Dining Hall, the other terminus of Military Walk. Along the west side of the Walk, first is Bizzell Hall (1918- ?), next is Goodwin Hall (1908-1990), Vacant lot that later would locate Coke Building, next is the YMCA Building (1914-present), next is Mitchell Hall (1912-1972) demolished for Beutel Hospital, and next would be Sbisa.

Along the east side of Military Walk starting with Guion, first building is the first Assembly Hall (1889-1929), next is Foster Hall (1899-1951), next is Ross Hall (1892-1955), next is Legett Hall (1911- present), next is Gathright Hall (1876-1933), next is Milner Hall (1911-present), and next would be Sbisa.]

Next portion of the tour will start at the front of the Academic Building (1914-present.) The Academic Building was built on the site of Old Main, the first building on campus (1875-1912 burned.) Flanking the Academic Plaza on the north and south are twin buildings. Nagle Hall (1909-present) located on the south was the original C.E. building. To the north and facing Nagle is Bolton Hall (1912-present)which was the original E.E. building.

To the north of Bolton Hall and at an angle is a small two story dormitory Austin Hall (1888-1955).
North of Austin Hall is Fermier Hall (1919-present) which was the original M.E. Building. next door to Fermier on the east are three M.E. Shop Buildings (1922-present?).

South of the M.E. Shops is the old Watertower and near that is a water standpipe. The base of the standpipe is at the northwest corner of Bagley Hall (1904-1972) which originally was the Textile Engineering Building. Next door and sitting along the east side of Bagley was the second Natatorium (1908-1934). This Natatorium preceded the P.L. Downs Natatorium which was near Kyle Field.

Returning to the Academic Plaza and to Nagle Hall on the south side of it, notice a small two story building just east of Nagle and south of the Academic Building. That small two story dormitory was Pfeuffer Hall (1887-1954.) This building was a twin to Austin Hall which was located behind Bolton Hall. The building just to the south of Pfeuffer Hall is the Physics Building ((1920-present) now in use as the Psychology Building, I think.

And now the tour returns to the east side of the Academic Building where I will outline a building boom in the 1930s that at the time would rival the building boom on west campus today.

We will start with the odd-shaped building due east of the Academic Building. This was the Chemical and Veterinary Building (1902-1929.) You can find a photo of the building in the University Archives; one look and you can see that it would never fit with the architectural plan of Dr. F.E. Giesecke who was back in charge as college archetect. That building had to go in favor of a Giesecke building that would be located on that spot, Cushing Memorial Library (1930-present.)

From that spot look to the south to the large building. That building was the original Agriculture Building (1900-1963). In 1922 the newer Agriculture Building was built across the street from the Animal Husbandry Pavilion (1917-present) and the name of the original building was changed to Science Hall. Next door to the south of Science Hall was the State Chemist Building, also called Analytical Services Building, (1909-present?), and next door to the south of that was the original Agronomy Building (1918-present), now called Butler Hall.

Back to the Chemical and Veterinary Building, directly east of that is a frame structure I have not been able to identify. But just to he north of that structure is Mark Francis Hall (1918-present) which was a Giesecke building designed to be home of the early Veterinary School.

Moving east, you recognize the AH Pavilion and across from it the second Agriculture Building (1922-present) which was converted to the History Building in the 1970s and is now called Glasscock Hall.

And in 1930 is when we run past the aerial view linked above and the F.E. Giesecke plan for construction east of the Academic Building kicks into high gear.

Note the Livestock Barns and Stables located due east of the Pavilion and the second Agriculture Building. That had to go to make room for Giesecke's jewell, the System Administration Building that would be built there in 1932. A road running across the top of the photo would soon become State Highway 6 and the new Systems Building would face it. The open land visible to the north, east and south of the livestock barns which had previouly had been crop and grazing land for the school of agriculture would eventually be used for other purposes such as Polo Fields and a Golf Course.

Meanwhile, beginning in 1932, flush with money from its newly acquired portion of the Permanent University Fund, Giesecke filled in the construction gaps in his mall between the Academic Building and the new Systems Building.

The Animal Industries Building was sited east of the Pavilion, a Veterinary Medicine Group was added to Francis Hall, and Scoates Hall, the original home of Agricultural Engineering were all built in the 1932-34 time frame. Other building at that time were Hart Hall (1930), Walton Hall (1931), Chemistry Building (1932), and the Petroleum engineering Building (1932/34-present) now called the Halbouty Building.

As a sidenote since none of these buildings no longer exist, I direct your attention to the lower left edge of the photo to one rather large building and seven rows of small buildings. The small building are 165 "cottages" that were known as Hollywood by irreverent students housed there from 1923-27 due to dorm space shortage. the large building was the "New" Assembly Hall (1923-1953.) In 1928 Law and Puryear Halls were built on that location across the street from the YMCA to house the Hollywood students.

Hart Hall was built in 1930 facing Military Walk replacing the Old Assembly Hall that was torn down in 1929.

Any questions?

[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 7/15/2007 2:36p).]

[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 7/15/2007 9:41p).]

This photo was taken from the roof of the Academic Building looking east.



The building in the center foreground is the Chemical and Veterinary Building (1902-1929.) Now that you are familiar with buildings designed by the college architect, F.E. Giesecke, you can understand this building just did not fit his master plan.

This building was razed in 1929 and Cushing Memorial Library was built on the site in 1930.

Too bad. I like the look of that bulding.

Here is an old building that few have seen a picture of, or even knew it once existed.

I choose to call it the second Mess Hall. The first dining hall on campus was located inside Gathright Hall (also called Steward's Hall)(1876-1933.)

In 1897 a new larger Mess Hall was constructed west of the present location of Walton Hall.



Unfortunately this unique bit of architecture burned down in 1911 and that opened the door for Giesecke to build his Sbisa Dining Hall (1912-present.)

In those early days the road that ran north connecting Foster Hall, Old Main, Ross Hall and Gathright Hall (and by future Sbisa) did not continue straight north as it does now ... but abeam Gathright Hall veered to the west in the direction of present-day Campus Theater. The second Mess Hall was located along that westward jaunt of the road.

This photo taken before 1910 from the roof of Old Main looking north shows the Mess Hall in the left distance (above Ross Hall and west of the President's Mansion.)





[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 7/15/2007 11:17p).]

[This message has been edited by fossil_ag (edited 7/15/2007 11:20p).]

This building was the original Agriculture and Horticulture Building. It was completed in 1900. Its location was just south of where Cushing Library would be located. It faced to the west. In 1922 the School of Agriculture would move into its new building across the street and north of the AH Pavilion.



In 1922 the building was renamed Science Hall and for a time called the Oceanography Building. It was demolished in 1963.

Wow
those are some beautiful old buildings that are now gone for the sake of modernization.