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Bastrop County, TX |
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A VISIT TO 1910 THROUGH THE PAGES OF THE ELGIN COURIER Contributed by Ann Helgeson,
Copyright 2/2003 I have just spent two days hunched over a pile
of yellowing issues of the Elgin Courier from 1910. I recently joined the
Elgin Historical Association and thought that I could contribute to the
preservation of Elgin's past by making old issues of the newspaper more
accessible to people. I had grand notions of scanning them all into a
computer format where they could be read and searched on the Internet. As all
grand notions it now looks perhaps a little too grand, but I am exploring
possibilities. But back to 1910. It was like falling through
one of those invisible time portals in some historical novels. I'm getting to
know all the Carters and Dildys and Rivers and
Smiths and Snowdens and Wades. And all these
grandparents and great grandparents are walking around, vigorous and
ambitious, in our town. The first issues I read came from August
through October. The cotton was coming into town to be weighed and ginned and
baled. By early October 6457 square bales had been received. The farmers from
New Sweden were reported to be satisfied with the harvest which was yielding
1-3 bales per acre. At 3 o'clock on the last Saturday in October a couple of
guys counted the vehicles in town and came to 600, half of them wagons with
an average of four cotton pickers on them. By mid-August Elgin and its trade territory
had also shipped 75 train cars of watermelons at roughly $75 a car, which was
called "pin money while you wait for cotton to open." It's probably
just as well they were shipping off all those melons because back in June the
City Council had been obliged to issue an ordinance about melon rinds in the
street. Fines of $1-5 could be issued for throwing rinds and "all
business houses along streets shall provide a box or barrel in which to
provide for the deposit of the melon rinds." If you were in the market for land you could
buy 171 acres (125 in cultivation) a five-room house with barns, well etc for $2,700. At the end of July another farm for sale
4 miles south of Elgin (price $4250) gives us a glimpse into what was being
grown and how: 200 acres 35 acres in cotton 25 in corn 6 in peanuts 1 ½ in cane 3-4 in ribbon cane 1 in sweet potatoes 1 team 6 head of cattle 6 head hogs 4 turning plows 1 cultivator 1 mower and rake 1 four room house tank Automobiles were just appearing on Elgin's
streets and the first fatality was duly noted: Judge C. W. Webb's pug dog.
Someone had just bought a "bran new" Hudson
20 and driven it "overland" from San Antonio to the amazement of
all. There were Hupmobiles, Studebakers, a Chalmer Detroit, a Cadillac, Overlands,
a Columbus, a Maxwell and a Buick in the parade on San Jacinto Day. Farmers
were beginning to complain that drivers didn't use their rear driving lights
at night. Arc lights were being installed on Main
Street, the Elgin Light and Power Company having just begun business. One
article in August reported that they were "now furnishing day and night
current for fans, motors and lights." Mr. Diesch,
the president and manager was said to be an experienced electrician. How
high-tech that occupation must have sounded. A word like "current"
could be dropped into a conversation the way we talk about megabytes and web servers.
In the weeks before the power went on parents were urged to warn their
children of the dangers of loose wires. Notice how they mention fans before
lights. A couple of issues back I noted that the Majestic theatre had
purchased 1000 Palmetto fans for the use of their patrons. In June the Majestic showed the great drama
Drink, the story of two female rivals for the favor of a drunkard. It was
advertised as "two big reels of pictures and full of interest and
excitement." A new motion picture theatre was opening up in 1910 also
and a contest was being held to name it. Amateur productions as well as
travelling professionals were at the Bassist Opera House. In June a benefit
production (for the Baptist parsonage fund) of "The Merry Cobbler"
was enacted "without a bobble" by local people to great acclaim.
Tickets were 35-50 cents. "The play has gained a strong hold upon
theatre goers by the simplicity of its story and the strong undercurrent of
heart interest mingled with comedy low and high…The various Thespians richly
deserved the applause manifested many times during the evening." R.B.Morrison, in the character of the villain was
"the best thing that has ever been on an Elgin stage, amateur or
professional." Ada Scarborough, who was later that summer to win the
popularity poll held at the Majestic Theatre, provided some of the
"heart interest" in the role of Carlotta. The Opera House also saw
the first San Jacinto Day ball at which young ladies appeared in the latest
fashions, described by the Courier in great detail, and everyone danced to
the music of Besserer's orchestra from Austin until
the small hours. Much entertainment and leisure time was spent
in visiting friends and family in town and in the surrounding communities.
Every week the Courier ran columns and columns of who went where, who stopped
by the Courier office and who was visiting who and from where. There were
columns from surrounding communities with similar tidbits and the readers of
the time could probably guess from them who was courting whom, and who was
included and excluded from various social groupings. These columns had
alliterative names and anonymous correspondents: McDade Mutterings (by XXX);
Schiller Snap Shots (sometimes Schnapp Schotts by White Boy); Woodalia
Warblings (White Panther); Young's Prairie Yelps
(Part of It); Kimbro Runner (Plough Boy); Type News
(Someone); Owens Prairie (Redneck); the Butler News (Busy Boys.) The summer was full of barbecues and concerts
by such as the Liberty Boys Band of Lund, in great demand and very
accomplished. It was an election year and candidates spoke at all these
events. Cone Johnson, a Democrat aspiring to be governor, was everywhere: at
a concert at the skating rink, at the big barbecue in May at Coupland that was said to have practically emptied the
town on that Saturday. Little seems to have changed in politics. The Courier
editor wondered "Why is it that all the candidates for governor are so
corrupt and guilty of so much meanness? Read in the campaign 'dope' and
speeches, so far, we fail to find where any of them accuse another of a
single good deed or anything but impure motives. Strange that some 'good' man
don't get in the race." Religious revivals were popular, especially
during the time after the cotton was laid in. Sid Williams, "one of the
most prominent evangelists in the South and a leading factor in the Baptist
denomination" was here for three weeks, preaching at the skating rink
because none of the churches had space big enough for the crowds. The
Presbyterians and probably others cancelled their Sunday services and
encouraged all to hear Williams. While the revival was going on the Majestic
Theatre took its moving picture machine and showed their pictures in Bastrop.
Even the "42" club cancelled their regular Tuesday card games. There were public lectures and speeches in
these days before radio and television. In order "to create more
interest in our schools" and "to bring before us all ideas and
thoughts that are well worth considering and applying" two local
worthies offered $25 in gold to the winner of an essay/elocution competition
held in June. The theme was "My Duty as a Citizen as applied to any
vocation that may be selected by the applicants." A good crowd was in
attendance at the Methodist Church and papers were read by Miss Mary Moore,
James Carter, Lancelot Clopton, Miss Mary Lou Carter and Wade Owens. The last
named, who chose law as his vocation, was the winner. He spoke of the evils
of disregarding the morality of the cases he would hear and of the need to
resist the desire for notoriety. He lauded principles of honesty, temperance
("the quickest way to ruin is by way of the wine cup") and public
spiritedness. In 1998 when we look forward to a new high school building it
is interesting to read that the cornerstone of the "new school" was
laid in July 1910. The Masons provided a suitable ceremony for this event. And of course there was baseball. The season
opener was on San Jacinto day against Bastrop (Elgin 6 Bastrop 2). It was
preceded by a parade of automobiles over a two mile route to the ball park.
When the electricity came on that summer the scoreboard was operated
electrically. The Elgin B-lose (what does this name mean?) played teams from
Taylor (the Central Texas champions that year), Bastrop, Cameron, Del Valle,
Waco, McDade, Santone, Rockdale and Southwestern
University. One June week the B-lose lost 2 out of 3 at Cameron, partly
because pitcher Charley Carter went to Taylor overland to catch the L&GN,
but got there just as the train was pulling out. Still in one game "for
nine snappy innings Elgin played Cameron to a 2-2 standstill. In Elgin's half
of the tenth inning she jumped on the ball good and heavy and scored seven
runs before Cameron could stop them." The pitcher was John Davis, who
had lost the first game 5-3. It was noted that Jess Baker tried to buy a
pitcher, but couldn't. Almost all the people in this world of the
Elgin Courier are Anglos. The Courier in those days was a white folk's paper
and Hispanic and African Americans only occasionally burst onto the page, and
usually connected with some sort of disturbance. The Mexicans celebrated the
100th Mexican Independence day in October 1910 on vacant lots on S. Colorado
Street. (Avenue C) Here is what the Courier reported: "As bad as the
Mexican is lauded to be, this celebration passed off as quietly as could be
expected; not one arrest was made that we heard of." There was one shoot out between the police and two black brothers. A
most telling report was of "a stray negro found dead in a creek near Hills
Prairie." Miss Mary Rivers got front page space for her
letters home during a trip to Washington D.C. where she attended Chevy Chase
College. She took the steamer "Comus"
from New Orleans and wrote vividly of the ship being called upon to rescue
passengers from a burning sister ship off "Cape Cannaveral."
Odd to think about a girl from Elgin watching this fire at sea at two o'clock
in the morning in the very waters where the shuttle Challenger fell three
quarters of a century later. The next week she described New York harbor, the
Statue of Liberty (which hadn't been there 25 years yet), Coney Island, and
Brighton Beach (now full of ex-Soviet emigres; the USSR has been and gone
since 1910). Of course the advertisements were just as
engrossing as the articles. Garrett's Pharmacy extols "A Habit That
Pays" (shopping at their store). All over the papers there are ads and
articles about miracle tonics: Nyal's Liquid Liver
Regulator, Ayer's Hair Vigor, Dr King's New
Discovery, Dr. Cox's Barbed Wire Liniment (guaranteed to heal without leaving
a blemish), Electric Bitters (always prove a godsend to women who want
health, beauty and friends), Doan's Kidney Pills. Cottolene
("Shorten your food - Lengthen your life") was aggressively
advertised and endlessly contrasted to the evils of lard. "It is made
from pure health-giving cotton seed and packed in air-tight tin pails and
never exposed to store dirt, dust and contaminating odors." Porcelain
Enameled Bathtubs, like the one I have in my 1909 house, are on sale by R.A.
Carl, The Tinner, for $20. There are fashion
plates, although advertisements are mostly for dress patterns and fabrics.
The Rivers family enterprises seem to sell and trade in almost everything.
Dr. J.P Tingle has the most modern dental equipment, including a
self-cleaning cuspidore. 1910 was a time of transition when Elgin was
changing from a dusty country town to a modern twentieth century city.
Everyone, and especially the Courier's editor, talked of new businesses and
improvements - what we call economic development and infrastructure today.
Elgin now had electricity, telephones and a water system. The new street
sprinkler owned and operated by Clyde Owens was "one of the best
additions to the city in a long time." A new ordinance prohibited
livestock from roaming free in the city. There was a new steam laundry, four
brick firms and "enough clay around this town to wall this old state in
from the world." There was intense speculation on what the 1910 census
would show about Elgin's population. Halley's comet came and went and Elgin
continued to grow. "Comet parties are all the rage now," said the
Courier, "Catch us getting up at four o'clock to see the brute. We'll
wait til it shows in the west after supper." Careful as I was with this precious legacy of
the past the floor of my study is littered with little scraps of brittle
yellow newsprint. I was reading some of the Historical Association's
duplicate copies, but I suspect the other set (sadly incomplete) is in a
roughly similar condition. Something must be done, and quickly, to preserve
the detail of daily life in over a century of life in Elgin. It's been a great two days visiting Elgin in
1910. I was up until 2 last night and will probably be up late again. All in
all perusing the old newspapers has had a similar effect to Chamberlain's
Liver Tablets: it braces up the nerves, prevents despondency and invigorates
the whole system. Ann Helgeson Elgin October 21, 1998 |
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