Treue der Union

Posted on February 25, 2015 by admin

The Texas State Historical Association says that “the Civil War skirmish known as the battle of the Nueces took place on the morning of August 10, 1862, when a force of Hill Country Unionists, encamped en route to Mexico on the west bank of the Nueces River about twenty miles from Fort Clark in present-day Kinney County, were attacked by mounted Confederate soldiers… Contentions over the event remained on both sides, with Confederates regarding it as a military action against insurrectionists while many German Hill Country residents viewed the event as a massacre.

“After the war the remains of the Unionists killed at the battle site were gathered and interred at Comfort, where a monument commemorates the Germans and one Hispanic killed in the battle and subsequent actions. The dedication of the Treue der Union monument occurred on August 10, 1866. To commemorate the 130th anniversary of the memorial, the monument was rededicated on August 10, 1996. It is the only German-language monument to the Union in the South where the remains of those killed in battle are buried, and where an 1866 thirty-six star American flag flies at half-staff.”

The memorial stands on High Street in Comfort, Texas, between 3rd and 4th Sts., next to a piece of undeveloped land and across the street from a church and a school.
With the names of the dead on the sides. These fell in a later event in October 1862, on the Rio Grande.

And a 36-star flag does indeed fly there.

Not something you see too often. That flag was only current for two years, between 1865 and 1867, or rather between the admission of Nevada and Nebraska.

Two Stops on the Hill Country Bat Trail

Posted on February 24, 2015 by admin

Somewhere or other Jay heard about a bat roost near Comfort, Texas, and if that isn’t an incentive to visit that place when you’re already close by, I don’t know what is. So on the afternoon of the 14th, we went looking for it.

Comfort is a small town, pop. 2,300 or so, in Kendall County and, according to the Census Bureau, part of the San Antonio MSA. I’d put it in the Hill Country, though that’s not an official designation. Comfort’s main street (named High Street) is characterized by handsome 19th-century buildings, many made of local stone, put to 21st-century purposes, such as antique stores and restaurants that point out — or should point out — that they offer Comfort food.

To get to Comfort from San Antonio, head northwest on I-10. On Ranch to Market Road 473, a few miles east of town, you’ll find this curious structure.

According to the Texas Historical Commission plaque at the site: “This shingle style structure was built in 1918 to attract and house bats in an effort to eradicate mosquitoes and thereby reduce the spread of malaria. It was designed for Albert Steves, Sr., a former mayor of San Antonio, by Dr. Charles A. R. Campbell, an authority on bats who had served as the health officer in the same city. Named ‘Hygeiostatic’ by Steves, the bat roost is one of 16 constructed in the United States and Italy between 1907 and 1929. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark – 1981.” It’s also on the National Register of Historic Places.

No bats were at home, it being February. I understand that they do live there in the warmer months. Different sources put the number of such towers in this country at two or three. Apparently one of the others is on Lower Sugarloaf Key in the Florida Keys.

North and east of Comfort, not far from Fredericksburg, is Old Tunnel State Park. Formerly a railroad tunnel, it’s now a home for bats. During the warm months, you can sit outside the entrance and watch bats emerge around dusk — a smaller version of the bat flight out of Carlsbad Caverns, memorable enough that I remember it after 40+ years. Again, no bats were around in February. But on hand were a couple of bat enthusiast-volunteers to tell casual visitors about the bat cave, and we talked to them a few minutes.

That’s two stops on the hypothetical Hill Country Bat Trail. Another could be the Congress Street Bridge in Austin, also known for as a bat habitat, or Bracken Cave in Comal County.

Tumbledown Cemeteries Near Downtown San Antonio

Posted on February 23, 2015 by admin

Cemetery tourism isn’t what it used to be. I’m pretty sure that most San Antonio tourist literature either ignores or gives scant mention to the Eastside Cemeteries Historic District, as the city calls it.

Too bad. I’d call it a fascinating agglomeration of old graveyards amazingly close to downtown San Antonio. Officially 31 separate cemeteries over 103 acres, and even better, as unkempt as old burying grounds sometimes are.

City Cemetery No. 1, fittingly, is the oldest in the district, dating from the 1850s. Even a mild climate like San Antonio’s will wear stones down eventually.

Here lie Aug. and Georgiana Ohnescorce, both of whom passed their lives in the 19th century. Their stones are still legible, but you have to look at them pretty closely.

I didn’t seek out well-known permanent residents of the Eastside Cemeteries Historic District, though the San Antonio city site cited above tells us there are a number of them, including mayors, prosperous local businessmen, German pioneer families, 19th-century soldiers (some of them Buffalo soldiers), the woman who led the fight to preserve the Alamo in the first decade of the 20th century — Clara Driscoll — and the man who designed and advocated the San Antonio Riverwalk, Robert H.H. Hugman.

This is Cemetery No. 6, not quite as tumbledown as No. 1.

According to the city, the Confederate Cemetery is separate from Cemetery No. 6, but that’s hard to tell when you’re there. In any case, the Confederate Cemetery sports the Stars and Bars.

The cemetery’s historical markers says that there were over 900 burials in the cemetery, including former CSA soldiers, but also their dependents, some later descendants, and some vets from WWI and WWII as well.

Then there’s the Hermann Sons Cemetery, also enjoyably frowzy.

The first Texas lodge of Ordens der Hermanns-Söhne was founded in San Antonio, and the organization is no thing of the past.

South Texas in February

Posted on February 22, 2015 by admin

My most recent trip to Texas lasted eight days, most of them in San Antonio, though there was a foray into the Hill Country. One fine thing about South Texas in February is that it isn’t northern Illinois in February. There’s nothing quite like arriving at the airport and stepping out into night air that’s about 40 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the septentrional place you left. Not that it isn’t winter in both places, just that a South Texas winter isn’t going to be consistently cold, like an Illinois summer isn’t going to be consistently hot.

It’s also green in South Texas. Or greenish. The grass isn’t hiding under a coat of white, and there’s been enough rain this year to make it green. Some bushes have leaves, but most trees still do not. A few flowers, the early spring pioneers of the area, are budding. Despite occasional outbursts of cold weather, snow is just a rumor, rather than an active nuisance.

Most of the time I visited family or worked. But I did get out to see a few new things, and no matter how familiar you think you are with a place, there’s always something new. Such as a cluster of unkempt cemeteries east of downtown San Antonio, or a 26-foot copper-roofed gazebo designed by Jalisco architect Salvador de Alba Martina, or a bat roost in Kendall County, or a small state park I’d never heard of — Old Tunnel SP, only a park in recent decades.

Also, I saw a few things I’ve seen before, sometimes uncountably often, but gave them new thought. Such as the Sunset Ridge shopping center neon sign.

At about 110,000 square feet, Sunset Ridge dates from the development of its part of San Antonio in the 1950s. Or so I think, because it looks like it’s from that period, it’s historically plausible, and I myself remember it almost that far back: 1968 (and my brothers remember it even earlier that decade). Sunset Ridge, which is within walking distance of my mother’s house, has many old associations for me. Such as the Winn’s that used to be there. It was a Five & Dime, part of a well-known chain in this part of the country, but now long gone, so long ago that it wasn’t even Walmart that killed it off.

I’d never given the sign much thought. It was simply the Sunset Ridge sign. When I looked at the sign during this visit, I thought mid-century commercial neon, a holdover from an increasingly remote time, and increasingly rare.

Snow in San Antonio

Posted on January 25, 2015 by admin

In the winter of 1973, snow fell on San Antonio twice. That much I remember. That’s memorable because the number of times that snow stuck to ground in San Antonio during my youth there — 1968 to 1979 — was twice. By the time a foot or so fell in 1985, I was elsewhere. The 3 inches that fell in San Antonio February 1966 was before my time, but that might have been when it snowed heavily in North Texas, where I was. I remember that too.

So naturally we went out for a look. And to take pictures. I’m with Jim in the above image, and I took the one of Jay and Jim below.

This must have been the first snowfall, which was 0.8 inches on Jan 11. It looks like that much, not the 2 inches that fell on Feb. 8. Also, I doubt that Jay would have been around in February.

A front yard picture of a tree long ago dead and removed. I don’t know why I didn’t take any pictures of the February snow. Maybe no film. More likely sloth.

Back yard picture, on the deck that was later covered. At the time, it was open, and home to a decaying grill. Mostly I don’t remember cooking much on the grill, just building fires in it from time to time.

Christmas 1973

Posted on December 14, 2014 by admin

We bought a Christmas tree the day before yesterday. I’m not inclined to do so as much as I used to be, but the girls insisted, and took charge of the decorations.

For some reason, I documented our 1973 Christmas tree with the Instamatic 104 camera my mother had bought sometime in the 1960s. At least, I’m pretty sure this is what we had, along with millions of other people. It broke in 1976.

Not a particularly good image, even for that camera. But it captures most of our indoor decorations. The tree, which always looked more-or-less like that; stockings, hanging from a small sled acquired in Germany; a hard-to-see nativity scene on the table next to the tree (under the lamp); and a poinsettia.

I also documented my presents for the year. The flash cube activated for this shot.

There’s some kind of Revell model kit under there, but I don’t remember what it was (the company’s still around). That was probably among the last kits that I had, since I lost interest in models around this time.

On top of that are gloves, a bicycle pump, an envelope with some money tucked inside it, and a 1974 Wretched Mess Calendar. There isn’t much easily accessible information online about that publication, but there is a little evidence, besides my fractured memory and an overexposed print from late ’73, that such a thing existed. This is an article mentioning a ’69 version of the calender.

Finally, speaking of models, this shot. Not a Christmas image, but something I was doing at the time.

My Saturn V model. My mother had acquired it for me some years before — at a trading stamp redemption center — but I was too young for it for a while. In late ’73, I took up the task and finished it. And a fine model it was, too.

Goya at the Meadows Museum

Posted on November 19, 2014 by admin

Last Saturday, Jay and I visited the Meadows Museum on the SMU campus. We got in for free because it was homecoming weekend. Even though Jay had no interest in attending any official reunion events – he’s SMU Class of ’74 – he got one of the benefits of being an alum on this occasion: two free admissions to his particular museum.

Meadows specializes in Spanish art. I borrow from Wiki because I’m lazy: “[The museum] houses one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of Spanish art outside of Spain, with works dating from the 10th to the 20th century. It includes masterpieces by El Greco, Velazquez, Ribera, Murillo, Goya, Miro, Sorolla, and Picasso. Highlights of the Meadows Collection include Renaissance altarpieces, monumental Baroque canvases, rococo oil sketches, polychrome wood sculptures, Impressionist landscapes, modernist abstractions, a comprehensive collection of the graphic works of Goya, and a select group of sculptures by major twentieth-century masters…”

The graphic works of Goya. Such as the famed “The Sleep of Reason Brings Monsters.”

Along with some truly weird images as well.

I was glad to see them. Austin shouldn’t have all the weird. Dallas needs a little too.

Hi, How Are You

Posted on November 18, 2014 by admin

Just before dark on November 8, Tom took us to the corner of Guadalupe and 21st. That’s the location of the “Hi, How Are You” mural, also known as “Jeremiah the Innocent.”

It was the first I’d heard of it, but I haven’t spent that much time in Austin in the last 20 years. A record store that used to be on the site hired musician and artist Daniel Johnston, who has some renown in Austin, to paint the mural in 1993. Popular demand kept it intact when the location became a Baja Fresh in 2004, and now the restaurant on the other side of the wall is called Thai, How Are You?

Thai sounded just like the thing for dinner, especially since we hadn’t taken the time to have much lunch, so we went. I’m glad to report that the Thai, How Are You? serves good food.

The UT Tower

Posted on November 17, 2014 by admin

Damned if it isn’t January out there now, but at least it’s expected to return to a more normal November – a little above freezing – by the end of the week.

My recent visit to Texas started out warm, but cooled down with most of the rest of the country. It was still warm when we went to the UT Tower on November 8. Good thing, since the outdoor vista is the thing to do. In full, it’s the University of Texas Tower, a part of the school’s Main Building, built in 1937 and towering 307 feet over campus. One Charles Whitman used his marksman skills to murder people at random from atop the observation deck in 1966, so nearly 50 years later visitors need to go through a metal detector manned by a cop to get in. But at least you can get in. For a good long time, the tower was closed.

Officially, you take a “tour” of the observation deck, and there’s some commentary by guides – in our case, three perky UT students – but mostly you have access to the view in all directions. Because of a sad history of suicides, you have to look through bars.

South: Downtown Austin, including the Capitol of Texas. At the time the tower was built, it couldn’t be taller than the capitol, which is 308 feet. Now structures can be taller, but not positioned in way to block the view of the capitol from 30 specific locations (one of which must certainly be the UT Tower).

East: UT Stadium. Officially, Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium, with a seating capacity of 100,119, making it the 13th largest stadium in the world, according to Wiki. Note that it wasn’t at capacity that day. UT was playing West Virginia, and they weren’t expected to win. But they did.

From our vantage, we heard the crowd roar from time to time.

“That sounds like a first down,” Tom said about one roar. “What does it say about me, that I know that?”

“That you’ve been to too many UT games?” I suggested.

Northwest. The large house is Littlefield House.

West: The Drag and the Balcones Escarpment.

Guadalupe St., better known as the Drag, is in the mid-ground. Spent a fair amount of time there in ’81. The sign of the University Co-op, a major UT retailer, is just visible (CO-OP). Off in the background rises the Balcones Escarpment, a geological feature I’ve heard about for a long time, but never had seen so clearly displayed.

Texas Fall ’14

Posted on November 16, 2014 by admin

Just flew in from Texas and boy are my arms… Bob Hope seems to get the credit for that old gag, and it does sound like him. Someday when I have a few idle days, I might look around and try to find something Bob Hope said that was funny. Nah, too much trouble.

I went to Texas on the 7th and returned today, spending most of the time in San Antonio. But on the 8th, along with my brother Jay, nephew Dees, his girlfriend Eden, and my old friend – known him 40+ years now – Tom, visited the campus of the University of Texas at Austin. Our main objective was to go to the top of the UT Tower and take in the expansive view of Austin. This is the tower from the south, along with a statue of George Washington.

A silhouette of Washington, anyway, since the light wasn’t right. The Center for American History at UT says that “Pompeo Coppini’s dramatic rendering of George Washington has been a prominent fixture on the south mall since 1955. Erected by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, it was the first statue of Washington in the state.” I’ve run across Coppini’s work before.

Assorted other bronzes adorn the UT on the campus, such as effigies of Jefferson Davis, Texas Gov. James Hogg, and Martin Luther King Jr. (told you they were assorted). We either missed them, or the late afternoon November light was poor for picture taking.

A more ambitious work on campus by Coppini is the Littlefield Fountain, paid for by George Littlefield, an early big donor to UT. Apparently he envisioned a Confederate Memorial, but by the time the thing was actually done in the early 1930s, and Littlefield himself was gone, it was a memorial to honor UT students and alumni who died during the Great War. A fitting thing to see in early November, and 100 years after the Great War’s early days.

On the other side is a sailor of the war, to go with the lightly clad solider bearing a very long sword.

In the fountain itself, interesting equine-piscine creatures.

Been There, Seen That

By Dees Stribling

Category Archives: US: Texas