(Texas Day by Day) On this day in 1836, Robert Kelsey Wylie was born in Tishomingo County, Mississippi.
… In 1865 he began driving cattle to Fort Sumner, New Mexico, a business he continued for ten years. He established cattle ranches near Ballinger and at Horsehead Crossing on the Pecos River. He also started a sheep ranch near Van Horn.
At various times he supplied cattle to John S. Chisum and to the foundation herd of the Matador Ranch. Continued
Showing posts with label Texas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Texas. Show all posts
Saturday, June 6, 2026
Thursday, June 4, 2026
Border photographer documents Mexican Revolution
(Texas Day by Day) On this day in 1913, Brownsville photographer Robert Runyon arrived in Matamoros and began compiling a unique record of the Mexican Revolution along the Texas-Mexico border. The Kentucky native arrived in Texas in 1909 and opened a photography studio the following year.
He is best known for his coverage of the revolutionary conflict in northeastern Mexico between 1913 and 1916. He traveled to Matamoros the day after its Federal garrison had been captured by Gen. Lucio Blanco's Constitutionalist revolutionary forces. Continued
He is best known for his coverage of the revolutionary conflict in northeastern Mexico between 1913 and 1916. He traveled to Matamoros the day after its Federal garrison had been captured by Gen. Lucio Blanco's Constitutionalist revolutionary forces. Continued
Thursday, May 5, 2022
Sunday, April 24, 2022
Kress Texas Critter
"Critter" is a term for a small locomotive used for switching at industrial facilities. This one is a Shuttlewagon Commander SWX420 and can move up to 20 loaded rail cars at a time.
Friday, April 15, 2022
Saturday, April 9, 2022
Sunday, April 3, 2022
Saturday, April 2, 2022
Thursday, March 31, 2022
Monday, February 28, 2022
New life in a ghost town
(Quay County Sun) GLENRIO - This longtime Route 66 ghost town on the easternmost edge of Quay County suddenly appears to be getting its first business in more than 40 years. Subcontractors from the Amarillo area descended on the Texas-New Mexico border town last week to set up a temporary chain-link fence around the long-abandoned State Line Cafe and Texas Longhorn Motel complex - the latter known for its sign that stated it was the first or last motel in Texas - and remove their rotted roofs. Continued
Monday, February 21, 2022
Fitzsimmons-Maher Prizefight
| Judge Roy Bean |
(Wikipedia) The Fitzsimmons-Maher Prizefight (February 21, 1896), also considered, unofficially, as the 1896 World Heavyweight Championship, occurred between Bob Fitzsimmons and Peter Maher on a sandbar in the Rio Grande River just far enough outside of the American city of Langtry, Texas ... Continued
Thursday, July 29, 2021
McKee refinery fire
(Wikipedia) ... The volunteer fire crews from nearby Sunray and Dumas were fighting the fire in a conventional manner while the decision was made to reduce the amount of liquid in the burning tank. This increased the volume of the tank filled with explosive vapors. A few minutes before seven in the morning, an hour after the blaze began, the tank ruptured as the remaining fluid in the tank boiled, increasing the gas pressure past the bursting point. Continued
Wednesday, May 26, 2021
John R. Brinkley
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| Courtesy of The Radio Historian |
(Wikipedia) John Romulus Brinkley (later John Richard Brinkley; July 8, 1885 – May 26, 1942) was an American quack who fraudulently claimed to be a medical doctor. He had no legitimate medical education and bought his medical degree from a "diploma mill". Brinkley became known as the "goat-gland doctor" after he achieved national fame, international notoriety and great wealth through the xenotransplantation of goat testicles into humans.
Although initially Brinkley promoted this procedure as a means of curing male impotence, eventually he claimed that the technique was a virtual panacea for a wide range of male ailments. He operated clinics and hospitals in several states, and despite the fact that almost from the beginning, detractors and critics in the medical community thoroughly discredited his methods, he was able to continue his activities for almost two decades.
He was also, almost by accident, an advertising and radio pioneer who began the era of Mexican border blaster radio. Continued
Monday, April 26, 2021
Sunday, April 25, 2021
Pompey Factor
(Wikipedia) ... After having lived in Mexico for the previous two decades, Factor and other Black Seminoles joined the US Army as Seminole-Negro Indian Scouts in August 1870, and served in the Red River War. On April 25, 1875, he was serving as a private by the Pecos River in Texas where, "[w]ith 3 other men, he participated in a charge against 25 hostiles while on a scouting patrol." A month later, on May 28, 1875, Factor was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions during the engagement. Two of the other men who took part in the charge, Isaac Payne and John Ward, both Black Seminoles, also received Medals of Honor. Continued
Saturday, April 24, 2021
Friday, April 9, 2021
Wednesday, April 7, 2021
Friday, April 2, 2021
Wednesday, March 31, 2021
Bootleg, Texas
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| Grain Elevator near Bootleg |
(TSHA) Bootleg (Bootleg Corner) is in southwestern Deaf Smith County.
There are two stories about the origin of its name. One associates the name with Moonshine Sheep Camp, where a moonshine still was once located; the campground was for cowboys and others traveling from La Plata to Endee, New Mexico.
Another story has it that the community was named for a "bootleg school"–a small school building that was moved to various locations by agents selling land for the Capitol Syndicate so that prospective customers would believe there was a school near the land they were buying. Continued
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