The Alamo Before and After

Remember the Alamo!

Most Americans and many others know the significance of that stirring cry. The story of the Battle of the Alamo has been told and retold in print and cinema. But how much do you know about the 300-year history of the Shrine to Texas Liberty before and after the famous battle?

Established in 1718 as Mission San Antonio de Valero, the site was one of several religious outposts founded in Tejas by the Spanish Empire. Soldiers controlled the territory and its indigenous people, who were taught the Spanish language and Catholicism by priests.

The mission was moved twice, the second time due to a hurricane, settling in its current location in 1724. A stone convento to house the priests’ private quarters, offices, refectory and gardens was built first. The mission church began construction in 1740 but suffered many setbacks and was never completed while the mission was active.

Mission de Valero as imagined in 18,83; wikipedia public domain

In addition to learning Spanish and the Catholic faith, indigenous residents of the mission were taught skills such as weaving, farming, masonry, and metalworking. They also worked to harness the nearby San Antonio River and built irrigation ditches called acequias, providing water for vegetable gardens and livestock.

Mission Valero was secularized in 1793. Lands and goods acquired by the mission were distributed to the indigenous residents who became parishioners at San Fernando on the other side of the river. The former mission became a community known as Pueblo de Valero.

However, threats on Tejas’ borders from French and American explorers caused Velero to become a defensive military post by 1803. It was occupied by a Spanish cavalry unit, La Segunda Compañia Volante de San Carlos de Parras. For short, they were called the Alamo Company after their hometown of Alamo de Parras, explaining how the post got its name.

The soldiers converted the old convento into barracks and established the first hospital in Texas on the building’s second floor. The Alamo Company remained at the outpost for 32 years, through Mexico’s fight for independence from Spain that culminated in 1821, and until 1835.

With the need to protect its northern frontier, Mexico had established laws allowing colonists into Texas. Led by men such as Stephen F. Austin, immigrants flooded in, attracted by land and opportunity. Along with the native population, they lived fairly free of government interference, being far away from the capital in Mexico.

This autonomy changed with the election of Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna as president in 1833. He instituted a more centralist government, leading to a civil war and Texas seeking its own independence.

I will not go into the battles that led to the 13-day siege of the Alamo, its fall and the eventual defeat of Santa Anna’s army at San Jacinto. If you wish to read a detailed account, visit this site: https://www.thealamo.org/remember/battle-and-revolution 

The Alamo drawn in 1838 by Mary Maverick; wikipedia public domain

Oct. 28, 1845—First U.S. Army Unit Arrives in San Antonio 

On Mar. 1, 1845, the U.S. Congress passed a joint resolution signaling impending Texas statehood. The U.S. Army dispatched three companies of the 2nd Dragoon Regiment – trained to fight mounted or on foot - from Fort Washita, Indian Territory, to San Antonio in the Fall of 1845 to protect the region.

The Dragoons established a camp near the Alamo in rented facilities which became known as the Post at San Antonio. The Army leased the Alamo between 1849 and 1861 and again between 1865 and 1876 for use as a quartermaster depot.

The Alamo ca. 1854; wikipedia public domain

The Depot quartermaster, Major Edwin B. Babbitt, recommended that the building be demolished and replaced with a new warehouse, but Quartermaster General Thomas Jessup vetoed that idea. Instead, he directed the building to be repaired. These repairs incorporated an arched façade to hide a new pitched wooden roof, giving the Alamo its world-famous silhouette.

“Absent Jessup’s directive…the Shrine of Texas Liberty would probably have been demolished…!” —George Nelson, The Alamo, An Illustrated History

With Texas’ secession from the union in 1861 the Alamo was under control of Confederate forces until 1865. In the late 1870s the Army began relocating its operations to what is now known as Fort Sam Houston.

Clara Driscoll, Savior of the Alamo

Clara Driscoll; wikipedia public domain

By1903, the Alamo had been neglected and was nearly torn down and replaced by a hotel. Once again, it was saved, this time by 22-year-old Clara Driscoll, whose grandfather had fought in the battle of San Jacinto. Donating her own money, she collaborated with the San Antonio chapter of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas to protect the historic mission. For her generosity, Driscoll is known as the “Savior of the Alamo.”

Born in 1881, Clara was the only daughter of Corpus Christi millionaire Robert Driscoll. Educated in Europe, she knew the importance of preserving historical sites. She wrote: “By the care of our eloquent but voiceless monuments, we are preparing a noble inspiration for our future.”

When Driscoll died in 1945, her body lay in state at the mission’s chapel, in recognition of her work to preserve “the shrine of Texas Independence and glory,” as she described it.

A Battle Over Preservation

Today, the Alamo needs updates. Plaster is flaking off the walls of the nearly 300-year-old building. Its one-room space can hold only a fraction of key artifacts and is usually so packed with tourists that it’s impossible to give each exhibit the time it deserves. The surrounding plaza is a circus, packed with novelty shops and a Ripley's Believe It or Not Museum.

But Texans are deeply divided over how to renovate the Alamo. A $450 million plan proposed in 2017 turned into a five-year fight over whether to focus narrowly on the 1836 battle or present a fuller view that delves into the site’s Indigenous history and the role of slavery in the Texas Revolution.

Several defenders in the 1836 Battle were slave holders, including William B. Travis and Davy Crockett. Whether or not to point this out in future displays at the Alamo is a bone of contention between conservative groups and those who wish to tell the Alamo story from a more inclusive perspective. Indigenous leaders also want the site to respect its ancient role as a burial ground. Historians argue that support for slavery really was a motivating factor for the Texas Revolution.

Alamo Cenotaph; image by David R. Tribble; creative commons share-alike 3.0

Another virulent disagreement concerns the Cenotaph, a 56-foot-tall monument to Alamo defenders erected in the plaza between 1936 and 1940. Under the renovation plan, the Cenotaph would be moved 500 feet south and deposited in front of the historic Menger Hotel. The intent was to make the plaza “period neutral” and help visitors imagine how the Alamo looked as a mission and fort. But conservative groups rallied in armed protest and turned up at public meetings chanting “Not one inch!”

The struggle over the Cenotaph ended when the Texas Historical Commission, a state board whose members are appointed by Gov. Greg Abbott, voted to deny a permit to move it. Nearly half of the board members of the nonprofit raising funds for the Alamo renovation resigned in protest.

On April 15, the San Antonio city council voted for a new plan that leases much of the plaza to the state for at least 50 years — and leaves the Cenotaph in place. Let’s hope the new plan goes forward.

I have visited the Alamo several times and am always filled with awe for those who gave their lives there, but I agree the plaza needs to be redesigned to show more respect for the shrine. As for the matter of slavery, it distresses me to know some of our heroes owned slaves, but I’m not sure I want to dwell on that fact when I stand in the most revered site in Texas. What do you think?

Surgery Then and Now

 

This topic came to mind because I’m scheduled for some foot surgery this week. I have “hammertoes” due to a genetic neuro-muscular disease. Dubbed Charcot-Marie-Tooth Disease after the three physicians who first diagnosed it in the 1880s, it causes leg muscles to atrophy (also the lower arm muscles) which, in turn, causes structural deformities such as toes that curl down and under, making them strike, or hammer, the ground with every step. Hence the funny name.

Together with extremely high arches, hammertoes are typical early signs of CMT. I was diagnosed with it at the age of nine. My right foot and hand have always been worse than my left. Several decades ago, the toes on my right foot were straightened to alleviate pain. I’ve put off fixing the problem on my left foot for years but recently decided to go ahead and have it done.

Surgery is no fun, but I have never been afraid of being “put under.” Well, I don’t enjoy having a needle inserted in my vein, but once that’s done, I’m good to go. Once inside the surgical suite, it’s quickly lights out and I don’t know anything more until I wake up in the recovery room with nice warm blankets hugging my chilled bod. (They keep it cold in surgery - to deter germs, I assume.)

There will certainly be some discomfort afterward, but my doctor has promised pain medication and a prescription for more. Oh, the blessings of modern medicine! Compare that to surgeries of yesteryear. It gives me the willies to think of being cut open back then.

William Cheselden, ca. 18th century

William Cheselden (1688-1752,) a famed English surgeon and teacher of anatomy and surgery, who could remove a bladder stone in a minute, reportedly said he bought his reputation dearly. “For no one ever endured more anxiety and sickness before an operation!” Hmm, I bet his patients might have argued the point.

Cheselden did much to establish surgery as a scientific medical profession, although surgery was carried out in ancient times. In The Early History of Surgery by W. J. Bishop, the author writes about trephining the scull by our prehistoric ancestors. He refers to laws pertaining to the practice of surgery in ancient Babylonia and Assyria; to Egyptian surgical textbooks written around 3000 B.C.; to Hua To, the father of Chinese surgery in the 2nd century A.D.; and to Hindu surgeons who excelled at creating artificial noses centuries before modern plastic surgery.

Hua To, father of Chinese surgery

What I found truly enlightening is that some of those ancient surgeons used anesthesia. Hua To had his patients drink wine laced with an “effervescing powder” which produced numbness and insensibility. He is said to have done  abdominal surgery, even removal of the spleen, an operation not performed in Europe until the 19^th century.

Bust of Hippocrates

Hippocrates, the Greek ”Father of Medicine”, treated every kind of malady and his writings deal with many surgical procedures. He traveled a great deal and led to the separation of medical practice from superstition and magic. He laid down rules for the arrangement of the surgery and described many instruments.

Greek & Roman surgical tools: scalpels, hooks and bone forceps

The golden age of Greek surgery was the 1^st century A.D., when advances in anatomical and physiological knowledge had led to improved surgical techniques. The Romans despised medicine as a profession but made use of Greek physicians and even their slaves. In Republican Rome there is no mention of army surgeons, but later, during the Empire, every cohort had its surgeon.

Following the collapse of the Roman Empire, medicine and surgery were extensively practiced in the Arabic Empire and Byzantium (Constantinople.) But in Western Europe, little progress was made in medicine for a thousand years. With the spread of Christianity medicine became the concern of the priestly class. Disease was regarded mainly as something to be endured with patience and resignation. Priests were forbidden to practice of surgery.

What little surgical skills existed passed mostly into the hands of barbers and other uneducated men. Itinerant “operators” specialized in removing stones or cateracts or repairing hernias.

Other operations are described in surgical texts of the Middle Ages. Some contain references to anesthetic sponges prepared by soaking them in various herb concoctions. Some favorites were mandrake, opium ad henbane root. The sponge was held to the patient’s forehead and nostrils, hopefully sending him or her into a deep sleep before any cutting began.

Skipping over some of messy, obnoxious and brutal practices of this time period, let’s jump to the Renaissance, which gave birth to profound changes in medicine and surgery. In surgical practice the lack of anatomical knowledge had been a huge drawback. Dissection of the human body had been forbidden by the Church and many people were instinctively afraid of the dead. They wanted bodies buried promptly.

Presumed self-portrait of da Vinci

Then things changed. Great artists – Donatello, Michelangelo, Raphael and Leonardo da Vinci took up the scalpel to study human anatomy before beginning to paint. Leonardo produced hundreds of anatomical sketches, perhaps the first accurate diagrams of the human body. “Only the fact that the Leonardo drawings were not reproduced in book form until recent times prevents the great artist from being regarded as the true founder of modern anatomy,” says W. J. Bishop.

Ambroise Pare, detail of engraving, 1582

Renaissance surgeons also learned a great deal about wound care during the widespread wars of the period. Ambroise Paré, a one-time barber’s apprentice, became a great military surgeon, developing better, more humane treatments for gunshot wounds. He began his service career in 1536 and followed the French armies in France, Flanders, Italy and Germany for most of the next forty years.

Richard Wiseman, 17th century English surgeon

The outstanding surgeon of 17^th century England was Richard Wiseman, surgeon to James I and Charles II. His book Several Chirurgical Treatises, was the greatest work on surgery produced in English up to that time. (Chirurgical = surgical.)

I have gone far and wide from our Old West frontier because I wanted to offer you a wider view of how surgery grew and changed over the centuries. As you can guess, surgery was an agonizing affair until dependable anesthesia was introduced.

By 1831, three anesthetics had been discovered – ether, chloroform and nitrous oxide. During the Civil War chloroform became the anesthetic of choice. Other advances in the administering of chloroform and surgical techniques cam out of the war, as in every war. However, more time passed before western pioneers reaped the benefits of this developments.

I’m grateful for all the brave, determined doctors, nurses and scientists who brought us to where we are today. I will gladly put myself in my surgeon’s hands tomorrow.

Lyn Horner is a multi-published, award-winning author of western historical romance and paranormal romantic suspense novels, all spiced with sensual romance. She is a former fashion illustrator and art instructor who resides in Fort Worth, Texas – “Where the West Begins” - with her husband and three very spoiled cats. As well as crafting passionate love stories, Lyn enjoys reading, gardening, genealogy, visiting with family and friends, and cuddling her furry, four-legged babies.

Amazon Author Page: viewAuthor.at/LynHornerAmazon (universal link)  

Website:  Lyn Horner’s Corner 

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Summertime Eats from Yesteryear

Since it's hotter than Hades right now, I want to share some cool old-time summery recipes. (And one fiery one!) The salad recipes are from my mother's Watkins Cook Book, published in 1936 by the J.R. Watkins Co. in Winona, Minnesota (price $1.00.) The other recipes come from The First Texas Cook Book, published in 1883 by women of the First Presbyterian Church of Houston, Texas.

Cherry Salad

Cherries, black or Royal Anne (red, similar to Rainier cherries)

Cream cheese

Nuts (I suggest pecans or walnuts chopped)

Lettuce, crisp

 

Select large black or Royal Anne cherries, wash, remove stones carefully, fill with cream cheese and nuts. Chill, serve on crisp lettuce with fruit salad dressing.

 

Fruit Juice Aspic

1 quart syrup from canned pineapple and canned white cherries
Juice of 3 oranges
Juice of 2 lemons
1 cup sugar
1 box gelatin (plain)
1 cup cold water
Boiling water (I assume 1 cup)
Any cut fruit

Dissolve gelatin in cold water, then in boiling water. Mix with fruit syrup and juice. Let mixture come to boil. Pour into mold. Any fruit may be [added to mold]

Creamy Salad Dressing (For Fruit Salads)

½ tsp. dry mustard
½ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. paprika
2 egg yolks & whites separated
¼ cup vinegar
¼ cup butter
1/3 cup whipped cream

 Add sifted dry ingredients to beaten egg yolks, add vinegar and butter. Cook in double boiler, stir until smooth and creamy. Remove from fire, when cool add stiffly beaten egg whites, beat over hot water. Chill. Before using, add whipped cream.

Stuffed Tomato Salad

Ripe tomatoes, chilled
Cooked sweetbreads or chicken
Celery, cut, crisp in ice water
½ cup blanched almonds

Mayonnaise dressing (amount unspecified)

Celery salt
Paprika

Peel, cut off tops, scoop out center of tomatoes. Chill. Fill with blended mixture, serve on crisp lettuce.

Or use shredded cabbage, shredded pineapple, and diced cucumbers after placing in ice water and salt to crisp.

Now for the Texas recipes. They were not laid out like our modern ones, but I think you can get the gist of them.

Corn Fritters

Grate six ears of boiled corn, beat the yelks (yolks) of three eggs, and mix with the corn; add two even tablespoons of flour, season with pepper and salt, add the whites of three eggs beaten to a stiff froth. Fry in hot lard; serve upon a napkin laid on a flat dish. (Fancy!)

Saratoga Potatoes

Peel and slice on a slaw-cutter into cold water, wash thoroughly and drain, spread between the folds of a clean cloth, rub and pat dry. Fry a few at a time in boiling lard, salt as you take out.

Saratoga potatoes are often eaten cold. They can be prepared three or four hours before needed, and if kept in a warm place they will be crisp and nice. Can be used for garnishing game and steak.

Stuffed Eggs

Boil some eggs hard, remove the shells, and cut them in half lengthwise, take out the yelks, mash then fine and season with butter, pepper and salt, chop some cold boiled ham fine and mix with the yelks, fill the halved whites with this mixture and put them in a pan, set in the oven and brown slightly.

Filé Gumbo (Hot stuff!)

Brown a tablespoon of flour, put in a pot with quarter of a tablespoon of hot grease and two sliced onions, add to this a large slice of ham, also chicken, turkey or young veal cut up; fill the pot with boiling water and let the contents boil about two hours. A minute or two before serving add a pint of drained oyster liquor and 50 to 100 oysters, also a pod of red pepper. When ready to serve, after having poured the gumbo into a tureen, stir in in a spoonful of filé. Have rice cooked dry to serve with it.

*Filé powder is a seasoning made from the ground, dried leaves of the sassafras tree. It's an integral part of Creole cooking, and is used to thicken and flavor Gumbos and other Creole dishes.

If you think these recipes require a lot of work, you’re right. In the old days, women spent much more time preparing food than most of us do today.

If you have a favorite summer recipe you would like to share, I'd love to read it. Please post it in your comments.

Lyn Horner is a multi-published, award-winning author of western historical romance and paranormal romantic suspense novels, all spiced with sensual romance. She is a former fashion illustrator and art instructor who resides in Fort Worth, Texas – “Where the West Begins” - with her husband and three very spoiled cats. As well as crafting passionate love stories, Lyn enjoys reading, gardening, genealogy, visiting with family and friends, and cuddling her furry, four-legged babies.

Amazon Author Page: viewAuthor.at/LynHornerAmazon (universal link)  

Website:  Lyn Horner’s Corner 

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Cowboy Lore and History of Coffee

 

“Whether perked, brewed, dripped, or boiled, coffee has been touted as the definitive treatment for drunkenness, sleeplessness, depression, and anxiety. Both cursed and blessed, the dark brew has been blamed for man’s (and woman’s) perdition as well as salvation practically since the discovery of the bitter red berries.”

~From back cover of HOW THE CIMARRON RIVER GOT ITS NAME and Other Stories About Coffee

Chapter One of this entertaining book is titled Cowboy Lore, Legends, Lies, and Bits of Truth About Coffee. Before I delve into the history of coffee, here are a couple of those cowboy legends.

“A buckaroo grew weary of riding drag day after hot, dusty day. He decided to ask for what pay he had coming, take to the trail alone, and see what Lady Luck might bring his way. Things didn’t go so well. He had drifted into the Oklahoma Panhandle when the chance presented itself to rustle a few cattle. Now fortune was on his side. He drove those longhorns across the hot prairie, staying away from well-worn trails. When he came to a river he stopped to rest and built a little fire to put on a pot of coffee before searching out a fording place. Suddenly he heard the clatter of hooves moving fast. A posse! He jumped on his horse, took one long look at the coffee pot, and shouted, “Simmer on, you son of a b—ch.

"And with that he splashed across the river and was gone. But the memory of the would-be rustler lingers on: the river is still called by the name he gave it, the Cimarron. Cowboys are known for their colorful language.”

Legend #2

“Northerners, like old-timers in Montana, had a lot of fun at the expense of “rawhides,” their name for Texas cowhands who began spilling into Montana from about 1883. The nickname was derived from the Texans’ way of mending everything that broke or fell apart with strips of rawhide, whether it be a bridle or a wagon tongue. They knew cows and horses, the Montanans said, but when it came to anything else, they were “from the sticks and no mistake.” They told a story about a Texan who rode into camp in time for dinner. When they passed him the sugar, he said, “No, thanks, I don’t take salt in my coffee.” The only sweetener he knew about was sorghum syrup.”

There are many more humorous, sometimes true, tales of cowboys and coffee in the book, but let’s move on to some historical factoids.

According to the book’s author, Ernestine Sewell Link, coffee originated in the Middle East. The plants were cultivated, the seeds zealously guarded by Arabian growers as the beans (red berries) developed into a lucrative trade. However, a few of the seeds were smuggled into India, where they grew into trees and flourished.

Dutch traders, recognizing the value of the coffee beans, got hold of seeds in India and started plantations in Java, an island near Borneo.

Coffee berries & roasted beans

Despite the Arabs’ best efforts, coffee made its way to Europe, first arriving in Italy, supposedly after the Turks laid siege to Venice. They were routed by the Venetians, leaving behind their supplies, including bags of coffee berries, when they fled. One Venetian man took the berries and introduced “the divine drink” to his compatriots.

When coffee arrived in Rome, a controversy ensued. Some priests declared it to be the Devil’s invention, insisting he had given it to the Mohammedans for use in their rituals. Coffee would entrap weak Christians, causing them to lose their souls. But when the Pope tasted the drink, he said, “Why, this Satan’s drink is so delicious that it would be a pity to let the infidels have exclusive use of it. We shall fool Satan by baptizing it and making it a truly Christian beverage.”

French merchant sailors brought back stories about coffee and introduced the beans to France. Jean de Thevenot is credited with teaching Parisians how to prepare and drink the dark, bitter brew. They were to fill a boiler with water, let it boil, then add a heaping spoonful of coffee power per every three cups of water. This should be brought to a boil and stirred or temporarily removed from the fire lest it boil over; then repeat the process ten or twelve times. When done, pour into porcelain cups, place on a wooden platter and serve while boiling hot. “One must drink it hot, but in several installments, . . . One takes it in little swallows for fear of burning one’s self – in such fashion that . . . one hears a pleasant little musical sound." [A slurping sound, presumably.]

In Germany, Frederick the Great resented the fortunes being made by foreign merchants from the coffee bean trade. He declared coffee to be a quality drink, only available to the rich, thus limiting how much traders could sell in Germany. To quiet complaints from the poor, he claimed avoiding coffee was good for the fatherland because coffee made men sterile. Physicians further insisted women must not drink it if they wished to have children. Protesting such nonsense, Johann Sebastian Bach wrote the Coffee Contata.

Garraway's Coffee House, Exchange Alley, London

In England during the 17^th and 18^th  centuries, coffee drinking flourished. Touted as the “virtuous“ drink, it became the drink of democracy. Coffee houses sprang up where men could meet and discuss differing opinions. Women complained to King Charles II that the “drying and enfeebling” liquor had made the men “unfruitful as the deserts where that unhappy berry is said to be bought.” Alarmed, Charles ordered the coffee houses to be suppressed, but the men argued intensely against this, and he revoked his order within eight days.

However, when the East India Company formed to promote tea, the government began pushing tea, calling it “the cup that cheers.” Soon, tea replaced coffee as the national drink of England.

We have the French to thank for bringing coffee to the Americas. One brave, determined Frenchman brought a sprout from King Loius XIV’s royal tree across the Atlantic, keeping it alive through the depredations of a Dutch spy, a pirate attack, and a severe water shortage. Landing on the Caribbean island of Martinique, he planted and tended the wilted sprout, and within a few years coffee plantations were established.

Coffee could be had in the young United States, although at an exorbitant price. Not until after the Civil War did it gain widespread popularity. During the war, it became a staple among Union troops. The daily ration was ten pounds of green coffee beans or eight pounds of roasted ground per company. When the soldiers bivouacked, fires were built and coffee was the first thing prepared.

Did Confederate soldiers have coffee? Well, it seems they sometimes did. Dogs trained for patrol duty were sent across enemy lines where, by previous arrangement, Yankee coffee was exchanged for Confederate tobacco and peanuts.

And then . . .

COFFEE CAME TO THE FRONTIER

According to folklorists, coffee spread widely in settlements of the Southwest after the war. It was effective after the settlers’ habitual over-indulgence in mescal, “pine top” whiskey or other alcoholic home brew. One memoirist recalled Southerners being so impoverished after the war that they concocted “coffee” from parched maize, meal bran or roasted sweet potato peelings.

Travelers to Texas were not impressed by the so-called coffee they experienced. Frederic Law Olmsted is quoted as saying, “. . . it is often difficult to imagine any beverage more revolting.”

The author mentions a number of other substitutes for coffee, including sassafras tea, which was considered a good tonic. Peppermint, easily found growing along little streams, also made a good tea (one I personally enjoy.) Among settler, though, parched corn was the most common substitute for the real thing.

Eventually, coffee did come to Texas after the war, much appreciated by gone-to-Texas emigrants, hunters and cowboys. “With the establishment of the ranching economy in the last decades of the 1800s, the back burner on the stove in every Mama’s kitchen had its coffee pot. Coffee was taken for granted as a necessity in the West.”

Lyn Horner is a multi-published, award-winning author of western historical romance and paranormal romantic suspense novels, all spiced with sensual romance. She is a former fashion illustrator and art instructor who resides in Fort Worth, Texas – “Where the West Begins” - with her husband and three very spoiled cats. As well as crafting passionate love stories, Lyn enjoys reading, gardening, genealogy, visiting with family and friends, and cuddling her furry, four-legged babies.

 Amazon Author Page: viewAuthor.at/LynHornerAmazon (universal link)  

Website:  Lyn Horner’s Corner 

Twitter   Facebook   Goodreads   Sweethearts of the West 

San Antonio Spring & An Early Texas Author

 

“The ride through the fresh dewy morning hours! Oh, that was worth something! Everything looked as if it were ‘made.’ The sky had that wonderful blueness I have never seen anywhere but in San Antonio; the hillsides were green with the tender green of spring and there was a perfect blaze of flowers everywhere.”

Mollie E. Moore Davis

~Quoted from Quotable Texas Women by Susie Kelly Flatau and Lou Halsell Rodenberger

Mollie Evelyn Moore Davis (pen name: M. E. M. Davis) was an American poet, writer, and editor. Born in Telladega, Alabama, April 12, 1844, she was the only daughter of Dr. John Moore and Lucy Crutchfield. Two of her uncles attained the rank of colonel during the American Civil war, one in the Confederate, the other in the Union army.

Mollie E. Moore Davis; public domain; wikipedia

A few years before the war broke out, Dr. Moore moved his family to Texas and took up planting cotton. There, at the La Rose Blanche Plantation, in Hays County on the banks of the San Marcos River, Mollie grew up. She was educated by private tutors, and her talent for poetry revealed itself. Along with her brother, she also learned to ride, shoot and swim.

From the age of 14, Mollie wrote regularly for the press and periodicals. A critic said of her that she was "more thoroughly Texan in subject, in imagery and spirit than any of the Texas poets," and that scarcely any other than a native Texan could "appreciate all the merits of her poems, so strongly marked are they by the peculiarities of Texas scenery and patriotism." In 1889, Davis became editor of the New Orleans Picayune.

In 1874, Mollie married Major Thomas Edward David, editor of the The Daily Picayune. The couple took up residence in New Orleans’ old French Quarter, where Mollie spent the rest of her life. Accepted into the exclusive Creole society, she studied and wrote about it, but also continued to write about her beloved Texas. Some of her best known short poems were “Going Out and Coming In,” “San Marcos River,” “Stealing Roses through the Gate,” and “Lee at the Wilderness.” Several of her poems and sketches were written for Harper’s Magazine, and other periodicals.

Davis was perhaps most admired for her short stories, which often appeared in northern monthlies. She enjoyed chronicling the lighter, humorous side of life but occasionally touched on sterner problems. "Snaky baked a Hoe-Cake," "Grief" and others, contributed to Wide Awake in 1876, were among the first African-American Vernacular English stories to appear in print.

Davis portrayed life in Texas and Louisiana in a number of novels including: In War time at La Rose Blanche Plantation, Under the Man-Fig, An Elephant’s Track and Other Stories, The Story of Texas Under Six Flags, The Wire Cutters, Jaconetta, and others. In War Times at La Rose Blanche Plantation and Jaconetta were largely autobiographical. Jaconetta was Davis’s childhood nickname during the Civil War.

The Story of Texas Under Six Flags; public domain

In both poetry and prose, Davis depicted characters and settings in minute detail, allowing her readers to “see” what she described. This ability demonstrated a keen observation of not only people, but of the natural world, as shown in the quote at the top of this article.

The Price of Silence; public domain 

 The Price of Silence, published by Houghton, Mifflin and Company in 1907, deals with life in New Orleans, with roots in the past. It evokes the “tragedy of color.” This book was written while the author suffered from an excruciating malady and shows some haste in composition, yet it surpasses her other creations in its bold conception, dramatic situations and intensity. "This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it." ~found on Amazon

Mollie E. Moore Davis died on January 1, 1909, in her home on Royal Street in New Orleans.

Irish At Heart

I'm late, I'm late for a very important date! Aye, 'tis three days past Saint Patrick's Day, but I'm still wearin' the green. I have only visited Ireland once and then only for a brief four-day bus tour. Yet, the Emerald Isle lives in my heart. Why? I don't really know. I do have a bit of Irish blood in my veins, passed on by my dad, but it's not enough to truly call myself Irish.

There's just something about Ireland that calls to me. Perhaps it's the Irish people's troubled history and their long struggle for freedom from British rule. Or all the Irish myth and legends I've enjoyed reading. Today, I'd like to share a couple of those legends and a blessing to light your day. Plus a special book recommendation!

The Legend of the Shamrock.

Long ago, when Ireland was the land of Druids, there was a great Bishop, Patrick by name, who came to teach the word of God throughout the country. . . This saint, for he was indeed a saint, was well loved everywhere he went. One day, however, a group of his followers came to him and admitted that it was difficult for them to believe in the doctrine of the Holy Trinity.

Saint Patrick reflected a moment and then, stooping down, he plucked a leaf from the shamrock and held it before them, bidding them behold the living example of the "Three-in-One." The simple beauty of this explanation convince these skeptics, and from that day the shamrock has been revered throughout Ireland.

 

The Legend of the Leprechaun

If you should be walking along a wooded path some moonlit night in spring and hear the faint tap-tapping of a tiny hammer, you might be lucky enough to catch a glimpse of an Irish leprechaun, the elfin shoemaker, whose roguish tricks are the delight of Irish storytelling.

According to legend, the leprechaun has a pot of gold hidden somewhere, and he must give up his treasure to the one who catches him. You'll have to step lively and think quickly to capture a leprechaun's gold though, because this sly little fellow will fool you into looking away for an instant while he escapes into the forest.

A story is told of the man who compelled a leprechaun to take him to the very bush where the gold was buried. The man tied a red handkerchief to the bush in order to recognize the spot again and ran home for a spade. He was gone only three minutes, but when he returned to dig, there was a red handkerchief on every bush in the field. As long as there are Irishmen (or women) to believe in the "little folk," there will be leprechauns to reflect the wonderful Irish sense of fun, and many a new story of leprechaun shenanigans will be added to Irish folklore each year.

The Blessing of Light

May the blessing of Light be on you, 

light without and light within. May

the blessed sunlight shine on you and

warm your heart till it glows like a great

peat fire, so that the stranger may

come and warm himself at it, and also a friend.

Now for my book recommendation, I highly suggest you read The Texan's Irish Bride by our own Caroline Clemmons. It's a wonderful story and I bet you will find the Irish heroine enchanting.

Winter Storm Havoc Today, Yesterday - And Tomorrow?

By Lyn Horner

Millions of Texans lost electric power and/or water during the winter storm and freezing temps we just experienced. My husband and I are among the very lucky ones whose homes remained warm and whose pipes did not freeze and burst. Our children were not so lucky.

Daughter Carrie and her family (including three young children) lost power. They bundled up and went to stay with friends during the outage which lasted only about 12 hours. Thank goodness!

Son Dan's family had it much worse. Their power was out for 60 hours, turning their house into a refrigerator. Using his head, Dan set up a large tent facing their gas fireplace, where he, his wife and two teenagers huddled to keep warm. Along with two dogs, I'm sure.

Why is this happening? Because the Texas power grid is designed primarily to handle summer heat, not severe winter cold. Our power plants need to winterize to prevent such a disaster again!

Now, lest you think this is the first time Texas has been hit by snow and cold, it's not. We have lived here over 30 years and have experienced two previous bad winter storms and freezes during that time. But the event I want to tell you about happened way back in 1895.

I’ve mentioned the Valentine’s Day blizzard that struck Galveston that year, which plays a significant role in MY VOYAGER. But there’s much more to tell about the frigid winter of 1894-95.

My main source:

Space City Rewind: Houston’s Great Snow of 1895

Posted by Matt Lanza at 10:01 AM on February 16, 2017

[The following quote is from Brenham, Texas, about 73 miles west/northwest of Houston.]

“All of Wednesday night polar spirits swept the earth until boundless snow had deformed the withered heath and the people of this section for the first time within the memory of the oldest inhabitant, looked out upon nature fringed with a beard made white with other snows than those of age.” – Brenham Daily Banner, February 15, 1895

Mr. Lanza also reports how rough that winter was on the plains. “This particular dispatch in the February 17, 1895 Galveston Daily News described the suffering experienced in Oklahoma:

“Many settlers are killing prairie dogs and eating them, having nothing to feed their families. They are in a piteous state of destitution without parallel in the settlement of new countries. It may be painful to drag before the public the distressing picture of a single individual starving to death, but when multiplied many hundred times one can then form a picture of this accumulated suffering.”

Included was a letter sent by the chairman of an aid committee in Medford, Oklahoma, to the mayor of Galveston appealing for assistance for destitute settlers who had lost their crops due to the summer drought. They were in desperate need of food, clothing and grain for seed and feed. The letter was dated Feb. 9, 1895

“Stories and pleas such as this one from Oklahoma were discovered in regional newspapers during the extremely cold early-mid February of 1895”

Houston’s winter of 1894-95 ranked as the eighth coldest on record until now. Six of Houston’s 35 coldest days on record occurred in the 1894-95 winter. The city reported 20 inches of snow Feb. 14-15. Galveston reported 15 inches.

The snow didn’t just fall in Houston and Galveston. It was a huge storm, dropping snow from Tampico, Mexico, to Pensacola, Florida. It also set records in New Orleans and Alabama.

Florida suffered multiple freezes that winter, decimating the state’s citrus crops. Here are headlines from the New Orleans Picayune, Feb. 10, 1895:

 

Much to my frustration, I could not find temperature records for Dallas/Fort Worth from 1895. However, I did find some from four years later, year of the Great Blizzard of 1899, also known as the Great Arctic Outbreak of 1899, a severe winter weather event that affected most of the United States, particularly east of the Rocky Mountains. Dallas recorded a temp -8 degrees.

So, as you can see, this is hardly the first time Texas and the rest of the South have suffered heavy snow and sub-zero cold. What worries me is that we may experience such weather more frequently due to the warming of our planet. Sound crazy? Not necessarily, according to climate experts. The following link will take you to an article that explains how this winter event came about.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2021/02/16/setup-arctic-outb

To summarize, the jet stream normally holds freezing arctic air farther north, but it dipped south this week, bringing bone-chilling temperatures with it. This situation began in early January with a disturbance of the polar vortex. The writer, Tom Nizio, goes into detail, including some great diagrams showing weather patterns. Here’s the paragraph that has me concerned.

“There is some evidence that rapid climate change in the Arctic, which is melting sea ice, is helping to disrupt larger-scale weather patterns in the Northern Hemisphere, which may make incursions of polar air more likely and lead to extreme heat waves during the summer. This is still an area of active scientific research, however.”

If this turns out to be accurate, it’s all the more reason for Texas power plants to properly winterize. Okay, I’ll get off my soap box now.