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Wednesday, January 31, 2018

1932 :: When Ghosts Walk in Courthouse Shade


Late in the 20th century, I picked up several vintage copies of Frontier Times at a local used bookstore . . . one of those copies was dated January 1932 . . . as it happens . . . in Lynn, Massachusetts, in January of 1932, a baby girl was born . . . her young Mother had been born in Maine, and her Father in Texas . . . that baby girl was my Mom . . . 
 
One of the articles in that 1932 Frontier Times was entitled "When Ghosts Walk in Courthouse Shade" . . . the "Ghosts" story was written by Vivian Richardson and was originally published in the Dallas Morning News in August of 1931 . . . one of the "ghosts" of San Augustine mentioned in that article is Elisha Roberts, who is a 3rd great-grandpa to my Mom . . . Vivian Richardson quoted an old Texan as saying that "I always think of the San Augustine country as the Valley of the Giants." Vivian went on to say that . . .


I think the deeds of the Giants will live on in the shadow of San Augustine's court house as long as there is a patriarch left to recount them. . . . it is on that ground one may almost always, of a likely afternoon, find the old men talking, and there I found them, that hot, singing July day, and listened reverently. . . . Sam Houston . . . and old Elisha Roberts, the last alcalde under the Mexican regime, could sit all day talking and whitling. I used to think they talked about Tennessee, where they knew each other, but I don't know. Maybe they didn't. . . . Almost every Texan who amounted to anything in the early days at one time either lived or stayed for long periods in San Augustine. . . .

This article can also be found in its entirety in the Coleman Democrat-Voice (Coleman, Tex.), Vol. 50, No. 52, Ed. 1 where it was published on Thursday, December 24, 1931 . . .

P.S. . . . it is now after 3 a.m. on the 31st . . . and as I put the finishing touches on this blog post, I sit here waiting for the "super blue moon eclipse" of which it has been written that "this rare celestial event - a blue moon, a supermoon, and a total lunar eclipse - hasn't happened in over 150 years." . . . I will call Mom in a few hours so she can see the eclipse from central Texas . . . seems that even the heavenlies are collaborating to celebrate her 86th birthday!


2 comments:

Joan said...

LIked your post. Like your new blog format -- in fact, I am envious of how you incorporate art into your blog. Nice to see you again.

BeNotForgot said...

Thanks for still being here, Joan! :)

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