Old News

OLD NEWS GLEANED FROM
THE BASTROP ADVERTISER

Second week of Nov. 1910:

If you have or are expecting a friend, ring 56 and tell us about it. (56 was the telephone number).

City Business
Out of General Fund[]'
To:
        J. N. Jenkins, Salary Mayor 5.00
        B. C. Clark, Salary Marshall   50.00
        F. A. Orgain, Salary secretary 16.65
        H. C. Burns Salary Scavenger 5.00
        Public Library Donation         6.25

The office of city scavenger was declared vacant and the mayor was authorized to appoint a new one who would do the work required.

Be it ordained by the City Council of the City of Bastrop that it shall be unlawful for any person within this city to construct, maintain or operate any cess-pool or old well as a receptacle for sewage or other effete matter.

Sheriff Woody Townsend bought the fine young combination bay horse from E. D. Roc this week. It is one of the finest animals ever brought to Bastrop.

J. W. Taylor and Jack Jenkins left Tuesday night for Dallas and will return overland in Mr. Taylor’s new Overland car.

Messrs. J. E. Head and Ben Moncure made a trip to Smithville by water one day recently, leaving Bastrop at 5 o’clock in the afternoon, reaching Smithville at 10 p.m.

The ‘Old Kentuck’ Ranch in Live Oak County has been bought by a syndicate of DeWitt County capitalists. It will be subdivided for a German colony. German farmers who have made a success in DeWitt County will take up the farms on the former ranch. It is proposed to make this one of the largest German settlements in west Texas.

The University of Texas opened its doors Wednesday with 1000 students upon the ground. A large part of the crowd was (sic) girls.

Salem Mass. – Mrs. Taft was an anxious visitor to the Salem hospital Tuesday where Wilford Crowell six years old lies suffering from bruises and cuts received when struck by one of the White House automobiles.

Plowed Up Old Coins.
Karnes City, Tex – Mr. Frank Woods, who lives fifteen miles east of Karnes City while plowing in his field plowed up twenty-five Spanish milled dollars, dated from 1810 to 1812. How or when they got there is a mystery, but it is supposed that in the early ‘70s, while freight was being hauled from old Indianola to San Antonio by Mexicans, that they buried the money, but never returned to get it. The money is in a fine state of preservation and seems to be better silver than the present dollars.

Flood Victim’s Bones Found.
Johnstown, Pa. – The bones of eight disjoined victims of the flood of twenty-one years ago, were dug from the bed of the Conemaugh River on Monday at the foot of the famous old stone bridge against which the tons and tons of water buried human lives, houses and everything moveable. Besides the bones, coins, kitchen utensils, sewing machines and many other relics were found. The relics were appropriated by the working men, but the bones have been gathered in bags and will be buried in the Grandview Cemetery.

For Sale
A live up-to-date newspaper in a live up to date town. No junk in it. One half down and balance to fit purchaser. P. O. Drawer 449, Uvalde, Texas.

July 23, 1910:

Following Sunday’s wreck on the St. Louis & San Francisco Railroad near Tolar, Texas in which Engineer De Camp was killed, two small boys confessed Sunday that they drove spikes in the ties next to the rails "just to see what would happen". The boys are aged 12 and 14.

Old Tom Blue, Harris County’s oldest Negro and said to be a former bodyguard to General Sam Houston died Sunday at Harrisburg at the age 120. Mr. Blue was a former slave and was brought from Tennessee to Texas by Sam Houston shortly after the Battle of San Jacinto.

The largest shipment of peaches ever received in St. Louis during a 24-hour period glutted the market Tuesday. Besides 130 cars for through trade, 100 cars were received for local consumption causing prices to drop to bedrock.

Older News

(The Bastrop Advertiser had a column in 1910 which reported on its news from 1882, 28 years before.

Keeping our promise of Yesterday’s News Today, Today’s News Tomorrow and Tomorrow’s News Whenever, Texas Escapes proudly submits this subfeature.)

A four-horse wagonload of old corn sold for forty cents a bushel Sunday. We are told 1.25 was refused for the corn several months ago.

"Hogs on Main Street keep pretty tolerably fat and add much to the attraction of the main thoroughfare."

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OLD NEWS GLEANED FROM
THE ELGIN COURIER

March - April 1936:

While this news is not as old as we normally feature, 1936 is the oldest that is not in storage. As it turns out, 1936 was the year of the Texas Centennial and many items reflected this fact.

J. A. Walling, who lives at the intersection of Hwy 95 and 20, requests that stop signs be installed here before there is a loss of life. "Small accidents are almost a daily occurrence", says Mr. Walling. "These accidents are largely by cars driven by local people who drive recklessly fast coming in on the concrete." This brings us also to the gross disregard that many people show for the stop signs downtown. Jay walking has also become a habit with many of us and this too will be dangerous when the tourists are coming thru [sic].

Elgin was saddened to learn this morning that "Uncle" Pat Sowell passed away at 6 a.m. at the Confederate Hospital in Austin. Mr. Sowell was 91 and the last remaining Confederate veteran residing in Elgin.

Harvey Knowles, 25, of Tallahassee, Alabama. (That’s what it said) died in a Taylor hospital from a crushed head received when a heavy boxcar door slammed shut while the train was being switched. It is believed that he was looking out the door of the car when the accident occurred.

AD: Old newspapers for sale. The Courier has a large quantity of newspaper suitable to cover pantry shelves, wrapping clothes to put away, etc. A great big bundle for 5 cents. As long as they last.

April 2 – LICENSELESS DRIVING ENDED YESTERDAY

Strict enforcement of driver’s license law began April First. (This article was for real, however one questions the wisdom of the date).

A serialized story; The Last of the Pagans, ran it’s final installment this week. The serial that replaced it was entitled: Wife vs. Secretary. Playing at the movies was The Gorgeous Hussy with Joan Crawford and Love Begins at 20.

AD: COLDEST BEER IN TOWN- THREE KEGS ON TAP AT ALL TIME

GRAND PRIZE – PEARL MAGNOLIA – MONTE CARLO

CITY MARKET AND GROCERY

On exhibit at the Texas Centennial Exhibition is BIG JIM, the world’s largest steer.

Weighing 3,100 pounds, Jim was raised by the late Will Rogers, who donated the steer to the Salvation Army’s Boy and Girls home in Lytton, California.

AD: BABY CHICKS AND CUSTOM HATCHING

I am setting my incubator each Monday and Thursday.
Flock owners of purebred chickens; see me before selling your eggs.
Pfeiffer’s Hatchery.

Included each week in the Courier, were the school newspapers of Manor and Elgin High Schools. This may have been done as a money saving plan during the depression, but it had the added benefit of letting the parents know what was happening in school.

The drawback was the teasing a student got from his/her peers (half the paper was devoted to this) would now become community-wide teasing.

One of the features was Senior Observation Post, which provided observations and advice on and to seniors. Example:

Ophelia McDavid Characteristic: Lady in Blue

Hobby: Chewing Gum

Needs most: to gain weight

Ambition: to live in San Antonio

Hobbies included watching cars on the highway, removing dogs from under houses, and eating pecans. Ambitions were: to get out of school, to become a radio announcer, or a detective, and my favorite: to be an apple vendor.

AD: THE O. HENRY GARAGE 110 E. 8^th Street Austin. 3 hours 15 cents – all day .25

"Where Elginites always park when in the Capital".

A contest for best essay was held in honor of the Centennial. Suggested topics were:

Albert Sidney Johnson, the Great Texan, The Alamo, Spanish Missions, Confederate Officers that joined Maximillian’s Army after 1965, and The Suffering of Texas Under Radical Rule (Reconstruction).

A large advertisement for The Texas Centennial Extravaganza in Dallas shows none other than Billy Rose as the Director General. Also featured was the famous fan dancer Sally Rand. Not pulling any punches, the text reads: If you want education go elsewhere, if you want Entertainment, come here. It could be argued that Sally Rand’s performance was educational, but we won’t get into that.

This concludes this installment of Old News, we now return you to the present and the mayhem and violence of your newspaper.

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