Tag: Texas

Cowboy, author, and detective born on the Texas coastFebruary 7th, 1855 On this day in 1855, Charles Siringo was born in Matagorda County. Beginning in 1870, he worked as a cowboy, part of the time for Shanghai Pierce, and later helped establish the LX Ranch. While working as an LX cowboy, he met Billy the […]

Earlier I posted about Jane Long, the woman shown here, and mentioned that her story is one of overcoming incredible hardship.  That prompted me to read a lengthy article about Jane Long that Anne A. Brindley published in the October 1952 Southwestern Historical Quarterly. Goodness gracious, Hollywood needs to make a movie about her life.  […]

Charles Goodnight co-founded the JA Ranch in 1877, the first large cattle operation in the Panhandle. He worked to produce better livestock, not only purebred cattle but also a bison-cattle cross called “cattalo.” Charles’ wife, Mary Ann, known as Molly by the ranch hands, cared for orphaned bison calves and was instrumental in conserving living […]

The Pecos River rises on the slopes of the Santa Fe mountain range in Mora County, New Mexico, and travels 900+ miles before emptying into the Rio Grande. Its drainage basin is approximately 44,000 square miles. It’s sort of hard to believe when you look at the river today, but before dams came along and […]

Traces of Texas reader Mary Haner graciously submitted this wonderful photo of the Sayers family outside their home, which comes with a good story Says Mary: “This is the Sayers home in Dumont. Farley Says is 5th from the right. Burk Burnett shot Farley Sayers over a cattle dispute in May 1912. Farley was married […]

One of the oldest existing ferry services in Texas began 200 years ago. A member of Stephen F. Austin’s Old Three Hundred, Nathaniel Lynch, established his ferry in 1822. The flat-bottomed boat was pulled by hand using a rope strung across the San Jacinto River at Buffalo Bayou. The historic ferry played a vital role […]

💥💥💥💥💥💥

A circan 1910 photo of Katy, Texas, which is 126 years old today.  It was on January 23, 1896, that the Katy Post office opened.  As late s the 1820s, Karankawa Indians hunted buffalo at the site where Katy is now situated. Present-day Fifth Street in Katy follows the course of the San Felipe Road. […]

The Texas Quote of the Day is a story about Texas beer and comes from T. Lindsay Baker’s OUTSTANDING 1986  “Building the Lone Star,”  which is unbelievably well-documented and needs to be in every Texan’s library: “Erected in stages between 1883 and 1904, the Old Lone Star Brewery in San Antonio is in fact a […]

Hanging Tree 😔