In October of 1885 The Wallace and Co. Circus came to Stephenville with such attractions as “a veritable revivable of classic Roman sports, breath abating feats in mid-air, beautiful bevies of female riders, wild beasts in vivid groups.” The excitement was too much for many young men and by the end of the performance, 19 had been arrested for fighting. Stephenville Empire

On October 16th “pistol shots and the cry of fire brought the citizens from their supper tables . . . the old tinder box [the main Tarleton building] was on fire. By the time hose companies got their connections made . . . the building was so enveloped in flames that no power could have saved it. With the exception of the library, some furniture, and a quantity of text books, the main building was a total loss.”

Erath Appeal

Well, there were very few old-time craft set-ups. Actually just me at the blacksmith shop, but there was a pretty good crowd and the people were interested and interesting. The museum board will have to root out craft talent for next year, the old folks that have presented at the fair have aged out or lost interest, but I know there are talented younger people out there who can demonstrate rope-making, soap-making, farrier, roping skills, etc. Actually we did get a semi-promise from Ginny Garrard to bring her spinning wheel up from Austin for next October’s By-Gone Days. The Master Gardeners with their plant sale were the big success – they had nice crowds and many people were pleased with their purchases.

I’ll be at the blacksmith shop hammering out plan hangers for those with patience.

In October of 1872 Erath County vigilantes hanged so many people, some at McDow Hole near Alexander, that Austin placed the area under marshal law for the winter. People were afraid of assassination if they testified against the vigilantes, so lawyer T.I. Nugent was able to get the charges dropped. Lena Lewis, “Erath County: A Compilation,” Unpublished manuscript in the Tarleton library, Stephenville, Texas, 1938.

I’ll be out of town until Friday, meanwhile it’s time to plant kale, turnips, garlic, and lettuce.

During the mega-drought from 7,500 to 6,000 years ago, North America heated up and La Nina became permanent. We’re headed into our third year of La Nina so you probably know that this climate mode is characterized by drought, punctuated by tropical storms from the Gulf and especially cold spells in winter. During this time moisture-loving grasses disappeared, leaving the ground exposed to erosion. A new study of the Brazos River from this time probably holds true for the Bosque River, large, violent thunderstorms scoured away huge amounts of soil along the rivers, meandering back and forth over the centuries and removed earlier camp sites. All this silt settled below Waco and along the Texas beaches. It wasn’t long before drought grasses like buffalograss and the gramas spread over Texas, along with very low glycemic food plants like prickly pear, Texas thistle, yucca, and mesquite. There were stone ovens to bake away the toxins from various roots and tubers, but these foods could be eaten raw. The glycemic index is a measure of how fast your body processes sugar, it runs from 0 to 100, with a doughnut rated at 100. The study of coprolites (dried human feces found in caves) suggest that an Altithermal meal would run about 25 glycemic units. These Native Texans and especially the ones who lived in far West Texas where the Altithermal drought never ended, developed near perfect digestive efficiency, but at a price, the coprolite studies show that they consumed up to 300 grams of indigestible fiber per day. People today are consuming an unhealthy 15 grams. This near perfect metabolism has crashed into potato chips and hamburgers today – leaving the descendants of these people vulnerable to obesity and diabetes.

The present highway from Stephenville to Fort Worth (377) began as a bison migration route, then Indians used it as well. By the 1870s it became “road” used by the Chidister Stage line, then a gravel road, in October of 1891 a railroad was completed along this route.

Lena Lewis, “Erath County: A Compilation,” Stephenville, Texas, 1938. Unpublished manuscript, Tarleton University library.