Carole Sikes Artist / Writer in Austin, Texas

WHAT DO YOU KNOW about Spanish Texas? It is believed that the shoreline from Florida to Texas was first viewed by a Spaniard as early as 1519. Spanish explorers came long before the English settled the Atlantic Coast of North America______ Strong, proud Spain struggled to persuade its own citizens to colonize the vast and remote lands in North America, so in 1820, it opened up Texas to Anglo Americans. After Mexico became independent from Spain in 1821, sparsely populated Texas became part of the Mexican Nation. Both Mexicans and U. S. citizens, wanting inexpensive land to farm and ranch, flocked to Tejas. This accounts for the myriad of Spanish names for towns, counties, rivers and creeks, mountains and islands.______ Spaniards brought horses. Many became wild, multiplied and were acquired and tamed by Indians. Spanish laws had established land ownership, water rights, community property and inheritance by daughters and widows. Crops were brought and irrigation was implemented. Pre...

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WHAT DO YOU KNOW about the Alamo? Much has been written about the Alamo. The battle of the colonists and the revolutionaries in the Mexican state of Tejas against the Mexican General Santa Anna’s army is one of the great defeats that has been romanticized and made legendary. So what does one say that hasn’t already been said? Jason Stanford, along with two others, has written a book entitled Forget the Alamo, the rise and fall of the American myth. To hear what he had to say I viewed a webinar. He discussed some Alamo myths that we have come to celebrate and enjoy. Labeling the tale “a white supremacy myth,” he did conclude that one can still enjoy Christmas without believing in Santa Claus. Stanford is an educator. As best I could tell without reading his book, the intent or theme is to debunk the white heroes and save the brown children from being uncomfortable in Texas History classes. He cited three Alamo heroes, all tall, intelligent and instinctive warriors. Davy Crockett, an ...

WHAT DO YOU KNOW about Cedar Choppers? Cedar Choppers came from Appalachia and the Ozark Mountains to the hill country of Texas in the mid-1800s. They were fiercely independent and reclusive from city folk. Living in tents and dirt floor shacks, near creeks with clear drinkable water, they never considered themselves Austinites. There were multiple settlements located on Bull Creek (*) and Shoal Creek in west Austin and Cypress Creek near the Anderson Mill on the Colorado River (now Lake Travis). Farther upstream on the river was Sandy Creek and north east of there were settlements at Leander and Liberty Hill. Across the river from the township of Austin there were settlements in West Lake Hills at Eanes, Bee Cave, Barton Creek and in Oak Hill. The hillbilly population was easily two generations behind mainstream America.______ It’s important to know that trees growing in cedar brakes in that day were not like the scrub or sap cedar in the hills today. Ash Juniper had tall straight t...

WHAT DO YOU KNOW about Steiner Ranch? Steiner Ranch is a subdivision with million dollar homes, offices and apartments galore. There are elementary schools, shops, and a spa, plus the 18 hole U.T. Golf Club, and Longhorn Village Retirement community. It stretches from a long waterfront on Lake Austin to hills overlooking Lake Travis. If dining at Bobby Steiner’s Steak House one can watch the sun set over sail boats in the lake below. By 1895, Texas cattle drives were over. While David B. Barrow senior was buying land to expand Austin by creating Northwest Hills subdivision, (mid 1950) Buck Steiner, only 20 miles away, was hiring cowboys to roundup his steers and truck them to markets. I called son Tommy Steiner several years ago when writing about Steiner Ranch in my book. (*) He told me a story about a boy that his father raised on the ranch. Ben took on the nick name “Humpy” when he was old enough to ride bulls at rodeos. Buck assigned Humpy to drive a truck full of Steiner cattle ...

WHAT DO YOU KNOW about the Old 300? The “Old 300” (actually 297) were the first Anglo families to form a colony in the Mexican state of Tejas. Moses Austin was a Missouri businessman with many varied investments, including mining, banking and others. He educated his son Stephen in the east. As a result of his business ventures, Moses Austin had much indebtedness and the financial panic of 1819 was devastating for him and his family. While attempting to settle his debts, he became ill and died leaving his vision of a colony in the Mexican state (Coahuila y Tejas) to son his Stephen F. Austin. Before his death, Moses Austin had begun seeking persons eager to acquire new land. However it was his son Stephen who dutifully, but with reluctance, took up his late father’s project and brought the new settlers to Texas from the years 1822 to 1824. The “families” were loosely defined. Some were people of means. Some were traditional families with children. Others were couples,...

WHAT DO YOU KNOW about “PA and MA” Ferguson? Because Texas was an agrarian state, James Ferguson (1871-1944) took on the nickname name “Farmer Jim” and made his first run for public office while only in his 40s. He became governor of Texas. Born on a farm near Salado, Texas, he was kicked out of a prestigious school when he was 16, wandered in the west for several years, then returned to be a lawyer. He never attended a law school but passed the bar with help from friends of his circuit riding father. James is described as “magnetic, grandiose, a bully and a crook.” (*) By contrast his wife, Miriam Amanda Wallace (1875-1961) was introverted, apolitical, and daughter of a nearby rancher/preacher. “Even if I had the right to vote I wouldn’t do it” she said. Ferguson posed as a Democrat-populist farmer but he had a chauffeur. His wife’s money bought a big house, a farm and interest in a bank. As an anti-prohibitionist, campaign money came from brewers. Speeches were drafted on pages fro...

WHAT DO YOU KNOW about the Texas State Cemetery? If you read Michael Barnes’ two recent features about the cemetery in the Austin American Statesman you already know more than I can add. Perhaps an impetus for his article was journalist Julian Read’s recent interment there. Julian was a resident in Westminster Retirement Community. He is certainly not the only, nor will he be the last Westminster resident to be recognized for public service with a resting place in our beautiful State Cemetery.________ Huge trees shade the gravesites of individuals who have made both major and minor marks in the history books of Texas. Stephen F. Austin’s remains were transported from his sister’s land and reinterred in the city named for him.________ Early settler Joseph Wilbarger lived many years after Indians scalped him and left him to die near the Colorado River. His remains are in the cemetery. There is a monument honoring Susanna Dickinson, survivor of the Alamo, but she is buried at nearby Oakw...

WHAT DO YOU KNOW about the French Legation?________ The French Legation was originally the private home of Count Jean Pierre Isadore Alphonse Dubois de Saligny (1841). As a lesser French diplomat, the Charge d’ Affairs entertained politicians of the new Republic of Texas hoping for legislative favors which never came. If you read my story about Dubois and the “Pig War”(1) you will know the details of his disastrous few years in the very rudimentary village of Austin, resulting in his recall to France.________ In 1849, Dr. Joseph W. Robertson bought the property as a home. He and his wife had 11 children and 9 enslaved workers. Later the former Legation was purchased by the State of Texas making it a museum. The Daughters of the Republic were appointed its custodians. DRT member “Miss Lillie” Robertson became enthusiastic keeper of its history and tour guide.________ The DRT and Violet Crown Garden Club (2) hired landscape architect Charles Pinkney (1906-1994) and iron worker For...

WHAT DO YOU KNOW about Texas inventors? There were some who were tinkers and struck it rich quite by surprise, others were creative thinkers finding solutions to problems, and my last example was man who inherited millions from his father but also made a name for himself. ________ In 1829 Texas was still part of Mexico. Gail Borden Jr. joined his father who printed the newspaper in San Felipe, an early Texas settlement. The father-son team printed the original Texas Declaration of Independence. But Borden Jr. was also and inventive thinker. He created a horse-drawn wagon that was also a boat. More importantly he found a way to evaporate 60 percent of the water from milk, resulting in milk that didn’t go bad in the Texas heat. This was a boon for a society that didn’t yet have refrigeration. Much later sugar was added to the vacuum sealed milk and it lasts for years. I think it is still on grocery store shelves today with the name “Eagle Brand Condensed Milk.” ________ Native Texan Sc...

WHAT DO YOU KNOW about these Texas facts? Sorry, no story this time but see how many of these Texas Brags you already know: All 15: You get the Texas Brag trophy, but you must have cheated. Seven: You’re on the way to becoming a Texan. Anything less than 5 is pathetic and I might tell you to go back where you came from but I need readers for my future essays. 1. Texas is the only state joining the U.S. by treaty. (It was first a sovereign nation.) 2. Six flags have flown over Texas (Spanish, French, Mexican, Republic of Texas, United States of America, and the Confederate States of America.) 3. Texas is the second largest land mass in the nation. (El Paso is closer to San Diego than to Houston and Dallas is closer to Memphis TN than to South Padre Island.) 4. In the list of the most populous cities in the United States, Houston, San Antonio and Dallas rank 4, 7, and 9. ( May have changed since this list was published.) 5. In wool production, Texas...

WHAT DO YOU KNOW about Richard Denney? Rick Denney; Vice Chair of Travis County Historical Commission, called me about a story in my book Hudson Bend and the Birth of Lake Travis. (1) Perhaps he and I qualify as Rut Nuts. A “rut nut” is someone interested in history, particularly swales and ruts which are physical remains of old trails.______ Our online discussions included trails west of Austin made by the Comanche, the mid-century trails made by the Boy Scouts of Camp Tom Wooten and the old rail line established to deliver supplies and equipment to the Mansfield Dam being constructed (1937- 1941) At Marshalls Ford to create Lake Travis.______ Tiny trails become freeways! Insect tracks are followed by mammals small and large. Humans with their livestock make tracks into wider roads and even highways. Spanish explorers’caminos become paved roads and rail lines.______ Today Austin citizens travel an old path used by the Comanche and early settlers that became a road and a later railro...

WHAT DO YOU KNOW about Texas becoming a state? On February 19, 1846, the Lone Star flag of the small nation of Texas was replaced with the stars and stripes of the United States. Anson Jones, the last president of the young indebted nation handed the reins to the first governor of the new state James Pinkney Henderson with these dramatic words, “The final act in this great drama is now performed; the Republic of Texas is no more.”______ The exchange of Texas’s sovereignty for statehood actually occurred two months prior to the above auspicious celebration in front of the dog run (*) capitol building in Austin. There still is confusion about which should be the official date for Texas statehood.______ The Texas Declaration of Independence was challenged by General Santa Anna and the professional Mexican army. Sam Houston’s volunteer army was greatly outnumbered but achieved a surprising victory at the Battle of San Jacinto (1836). Attacking during the afternoon siesta, while Mexican t...

WHAT DO YOU KOW about Governor “Pappy” O’Daniel? Wilbert Lee O’Daniel (1890-1969) was a businessman, politician, musician and showman. As a boy in Kansas he lived with his mother and step-father after the death of his biological father. He completed a two year business college (1908) and went to work for a flour mill (later owned his own mill). With his wife and three children, he left Kansas moving to New Orleans and then to Ft. Worth.________ In Texas (1925) he wrote songs and discussed religion on his popular radio show called The Light Crust Boys. His western swing band was named The Hillbilly Boys. Mixing music, flour and the bible, this rather attractive man acquired a huge rural audience encouraging him to run for governor in the one party state of Texas (Democrat in 1939). He had promised no capital punishment, no sales tax, no poll tax and a raise in old age pensions. On all this, he reneged.________ As governor he vetoed a record 57 bills, he likely didn’t understand. Twel...

WHAT DO YOU KNOW about Angelina Eberly? Each year the Austin History Center honors her important participation in establishing Austin as the permanent capital of Texas.___________ After Texas declared independence from Mexico in 1836, General Sam Houston was made leader of the Army at Gonzales. The Mexican Army had been victorious at the Battle of the Alamo in San Antonio and now was in hot pursuit of Houston and his rag-tag new volunteers. Houston was fleeing eastward while training the green soldiers to fight. San Felipe on the Brazos River was on the way to Houston’s choice for the final stand for against Mexico.___________ Angelina and a group of women had cheered and waved to the soldiers sent to delay Santa Anna’s men who were crossing down river from San Felipe. Realizing it was only a delay, they joined terrified citizens in the “Runaway Scrape.” The deserted town was set on fire to prevent the Mexicans from acquiring its store of goods.______________________________________...