Worst Hard Times Book Talk

Gov. Murray and the Red River Bridge

2007-10-11T19:17:00.000-07:00

"The Worst Hard Time" page 109: "When Texas backed a toll bridge across the Red River on the border with Oklahoma, Murray sent the guard to the bridge, nearly provoking a shooting war between the two states. In the midst of the standoff he showed up with an antique revolver, waving it in the faces of Texas Rangers."

from the Oklahoma Department of Transportation

Oklahoma bridges attracted national and even international notoriety in the 1930s not because of their number or size but for a seriocomic episode that occurred on the Red River. Since the Red forms the border with Texas, meaning that both states had to agree on bridge policy--always administratively difficult--the river became a favorite location for private toll bridge operators who wanted a share of the expanding traffic between the two states. Investor-owned suspension bridges, several of them built and promoted by the Austin Bridge Company of Dallas, stood along the river near such towns as Waurika, Courtney, Grady, and Idabel. However, toll bridges became a subject of political reform in Oklahoma and elsewhere during the late 1920s, giving rise to efforts aimed at spending public funds to buy out their owners and "free" the bridges.53
A legal battle erupted in 1931 when Benjamin Colbert's old Red River Bridge Company contended that Texas had failed to buy out its rights to the location and obtained a federal injunction to prevent the opening of a new public bridge nearby on U. S. 69 and 75 that ran between Durant, Oklahoma, and Denison, Texas. The dispute soon enveloped both state governors. In a series of moves and countermoves Oklahoma's Alfalfa Bill Murray called out the National Guard to open the public bridge while Texas Governor Ross Sterling dispatched Texas Rangers to the site to uphold the court order. Although the conflict peacefully ended in a few weeks with a Houston judge dismissing the injunction against the free bridge, the tense moments had made national news and supposedly led Adolf Hitler to believe that domestic discord was eating away at America just as events in Europe began to take shape leading to the Second World War.

Source: Corbett,"Oklahoma Highways," 246-47; Oklahoma State Highway Department, Biennial Report of the State Highway Commission for the Period Ending June 30, 1942 (Oklahoma City: n. p., 1942), 91-92.

The statement about the Red River bridge incident is a little confusing....talking about a "toll bridge"...

The new bridge at the center of the dispute was a toll-free bridge.... Texas had delayed the opening of the free bridge and Murray wanted it open..... Murray did not want the people to have to pay a toll on the toll bridges...so maybe the toll bridges is what Egan is saying that 'Texas backed'.... but the toll-free bridge was finally opened. No war needed.

Handbook of Texas article

Dallas Morning News article

Tulsa World article

Governor Murray's Family

2007-10-11T13:30:00.001-07:00

"The Worst Hard Time" page 108: "Alfalfa Bill said anything could grow in Oklahoma. His daddy, David, had made wine not long after grabbing a piece of dirt in the 1889 Sooner land rush; his Murray Mosel was so well-known that President Teddy Roosevelt had declared it "the bulliest wine of the land." Alfalfa Bill was himself a bully, but these times needed such a man, he said."

Okay.... wait...I don't know where this information came from.

"His daddy, David".... ???? David who? Is David a nickname? I'd think step-dad or something, but his mother died back when Murray was two....so I don't think there is a step-dad.

His dad's name was Uriah Dow Thomas Murray... at the age of 91, he administered the oath of office to his son....just as William Murray would do thirty years later when his son, Johnston Murray, was sworn in as Oklahoma's 14th governor.

Archives Source Oversized Materials Box B

The archives do shorten his name to U.D.T. Murray...but I don't see a "David" anywhere when referencing William Murray's father.

Bethany Public Schools mentions the father/son relationship as well.

Handbook of Texas has the same name reference.

One of many genealogy posts that mentions "Uriah Dow Thomas Murray" as his father.

Anyway....long way of explaining my original question? Why the 'David' reference? Was that a name used by intimates? If not, what is the connection?

Sooooo...of course this leads to the next question?

What is all this about Murray's father making wine, his famous Murray Mosel, and Teddy Roosevelt lovin' it???

I'm surprised at this revelation...for a number of reasons.

A) I'd never heard of it. ha... okay that's not shocking.

B) His father was a winemaker? When? For a long period of time? As an occupation? Or was this wine a 'one-hit wonder' while he did other things?

I've seen a reference to his father doing work in saw mills and grist mills....with the title "Reverand"...with his 2nd wife being an evangelist

...not as a winemaker.

C) famous Murray Mosel?? I can find no reference to it yet.

D) When did Teddy Roosevelt make this proclamation? As president? ... so far I've found him claiming an 'occasional' appreciation for mint julep....

E) For all the imagery of a cigar-smoking Murray, I've yet to find something that tied him to being the son of a winemaker... surprising being as its the time of Prohibition and all.

....side note...the noting of TR calling it the "bulliest wine' and then describing W.H. Murray as a 'bully' is kind of funny. Of course, 'bully' this and 'bully' that was a favorite saying of TR... slang for "worthy, jolly, admirable"...obviously not the insinuation when describing W.H. Murray

...a curious tidbit though about his father...must be more.... still searching...

"Alfalfa Bill" Nickname of Governor Murray

2007-10-11T12:33:00.000-07:00

"Worst Hard Time" page 108: "He was known as "Alfalfa Bill" for his ceaseless advocacy of agricultures as the cornerstorne of society. Alfalfa Bill said anything could grow in Oklahoma."

Nicknames galore....according to Political Graveyard, Murray had a variety to choose from.... "also known as William H. Murray; "Alfalfa Bill"; "Cocklebur Bill"; "Bolivia Bill"; "The Sage of Tishomingo""

...Cocklebur...who knows why that reminds me of the Kookaburra song. ha

Photo Source

Governor Murray's 1930 Campaign Slogan

2007-10-10T22:05:00.000-07:00

"The Worst Hard Time" page 108: "With a campaign slogan that railed against what he called "The Three C's - Corporations, Carpetbaggers, and Coons." Murray won by a huge margin, 301,921 votes to 208,575."

The election of 1930 saw Murray facing the Republican candidate, Ira A. Hill. Murray did win decisively indeed.

However, I'm curious about the 'campaign slogan' quoted. I've been trying to locate some contemporary mention of that slogan or campaign material, but haven't had any luck. His hitchhiking campaign across the state was mentioned, but the slogan was "The Poor Man's Friend."

The only place I find those 'three c's' mentioned was in a Lewis L. Gould review of Progressive Oklahoma: The Making of a New Kind of State by Danney Goble in The Journal of American History Vol. 67, No. 3 (Dec., 1980), p. 714....where Gould writes, "If he does not always develop fully the less attractive side of this movement for social change, expressed in Alfalfa Bills' denunciation of "Corporations, Carpetbaggers, and Coons" as opponents of the Constitution, Goble lays out the relevant information for the reader with admirable fairness."

Now...that seems to indicate that the 'campaign slogan' was not a slogan of 1930, but rather was relevant during the time of the Oklahoma State Constitutional Convention in 1906/07.

The book reviewed is not at an area library, so I've done an 'inter-library loan' request. Hopefully I will be able to read a copy of the book to see the context and its sources.

While speaking about the Constitution....Murray did make his segregationist beliefs clear however saying....

"We should adopt a provision prohibiting the mixed marriages of negroes with other races in this State, and provide for separate schools and give the Legislature power to separate them in waiting rooms and on passenger coaches, and all other institutions in the State … As a rule they are failures as lawyers, doctors and in other professions. He must be taught in the line of his own sphere, as porters, bootblacks and barbers and many lines of agriculture, horticulture and mechanics in which he is an adept, but it is an entirely false notion that the negro can rise to the equal of a white man in the professions or become an equal citizen to grapple with public questions. The more they are taught in the line of industry the less will be the number of dope fiends, crap shooters and irresponsible hordes of worthless negroes around our cities and towns … I appreciate the old-time ex-slave, the old darky -- and they are the salt of their race -- who comes to me talking softly in that humble spirit which should characterize their actions and dealings with the white man, and when they thus come they can get any favor from me. (Applause.) When a negro says to me: "Set 'em up," or taps me on the shoulder as would an equal friend I would want to land on his shins; but when he comes to me with his hat under his arm humbly saying, "Cap'n" or "Boss" give me a cigar, I would give it to him if it required the last cent that I had with which to purchase it, and this class of darkies can get all the favors I can possibly give … I doubt the propriety of teaching him in the public schools to run for office or train him for professions, but his training should be equal so far as the appropriations of funds are concerned to that of any other race, but he should be taught agriculture, mechanics and industries that would make of him a being serviceable to society …"

His segregationist stance isn't in question...just curious about the slogan. Perhaps it worked so well, he recycled it.

Another quote credited to Murrary.... (yes, I know...times were different) According to a Time article in 1932, "Now the Negroes, the Indians and the poor white trash of Oklahoma have a Governor," exclaimed "Alfalfa Bill" upon his election, and the 172,198 Negroes and 92,725 Indians of Oklahoma knew he meant it."

William Murray - Governor

2007-10-10T19:55:00.000-07:00

"Worst Hard Time" page 108: "William Henry David Murray had been elected in 1930 after scandal drove the last two governors from office, both of them impeached."

Okay...hmmmm....this confused me initially...the first nine governors of the state of Oklahoma were

Name	Party	Term	DOB/DOD	Occupations
Charles Nathaniel Haskell	D	1907-1911	Born 3/13/1860, Ohio Died 7/5/1933, Muskogee, OK	Lawyer, Oil
Lee Cruce	D	1911-1915	Born 7/8/1863, Kentucky Died 1/16/1933, California	Lawyer, Banker
Robert Lee Williams	D	1915-1919	Born 12/20/1868, Alabama Died 4/10/1948, Durant, OK	Lawyer, Chief Justice, District Judge, Circuit Judge
James Brooks Ayers Robertson	D	1919-1923	Born 3/15/1871, Iowa Died 3/7/1938, OKC	Lawyer, Co. Attorney, Judge
Jack Callaway Walton	D	Jan 1923-Nov 1923	Born 3/6/1881, Indiana Died 11/25/1949, OKC	Commissioner of Public Works, Mayor, Corporation Commission
Martin Edwin Trapp	D	1923-1927	Born 4/18/1877, Kansas Died 7/26/1951, OKC	County Clerk, State Auditor, Lt. Gov., Investment Securities
Henry Simpson Johnston	D	1/1927-3/1929	Born 12/30/1867, Indiana Died 1/7/1965, Perry, OK	Lawyer
William Judson Holloway	D	1929-1931	Born 12/15/1888, Arkansas Died 1/28/1970, OKC	HS Principal, Lawyer, County Attny, St. Senator, Lt. Gov.
William Henry Murray	D	1931-1935	Born 11/21/1869, Texas Died 10/15/1956, unknown	Laborer, Teacher, Editor, Lawyer, Speaker of OK House, established colony in Bolivia, S.A.

So... Murray was the 9th governor. The "last two governors" were Holloway and Johnston. Holloway went into office after after Johnston was removed following impeachment proceedings. Holloway served out the remainder of the term....no removal.

Governor Trapp was not removed from office.

However, Trapp came into office after the impeachment proceedings and removal from office of Governor Walton.

So I take it the meaning of "the last two governors" is "the last two governors elected to a full-term by the people of Oklahoma"...which would be right as Walton and Johnston were removed.

...okay...make sense?

Enter Oklahoma Governor William Murray

2007-10-10T16:05:00.000-07:00

Photo: Cover of Feb. 29, 1932 issue of Time magazine.

Fact Checking the Stock Market Suicide....

2007-10-09T18:48:00.000-07:00

We've discussed this previously here and then yesterday here

...well, hmmmm. Like I said, I was curious about the who, what, whys of this episode mentioned in the book on page 74 ("One company, Union Cigar, went from $113 to $4 - in a single day. The company's owner jumped to his death from a building on Wall Street.") and page 95 ("When the Bank of the United States folded, it had deposits of two hundred million dollars. Fittingly, the bank's biggest office was next to Union Cigar, the company whose president had committed suicide after the stock fell from $103 to $4 in a day.")

The "Stock Market" page numbers are in the index.

So I'll update my findings. Thought I'd check out the New York Times...since it supposedly did take place in NY....plus the Times are microfilmed.

First off, I ran into an obstacle. I could not find a company named "Union Cigar" mentioned in that time period or in relation to the stock market crash....found a company with that name in Stark County, Ohio...but seemed unrelated. All the quotes had mentioned the "Union Cigar" company connection... but contintued to search.

So thought I would check out the Beverly Hotel connection found in the Anxious Decades book.

And there it was.

In the October 30, 1929, Wednesday issue on page 16....

TOBACCO MAN FALLS TO DEATH AT HOTEL
Anthony Schneider, 60, Head of Webster Eisenlohr, Killed at the Beverly in 6-Story Drop.
ACCIDENT, POLICE REPORT
$12,500,000 Company's Stock, Which Had Sold as High as 113 3/8, Went to 4 In Market Crash.

The article went on: "Anthony Schneider, 60 years old, president of Webster Eisenlohr, Inc., of 511 Fifth Avenue, one of the largest cigar manufacturing concerns in the United States...."

Ahhhhhhh....so this seems to imply...
*the company was not "Union Cigar" nor "Union Cigar Company"

*the death scene did not involve a "Wall Street building"

*jumped and committed suicide conclusion not confirmed through this article...as the police report said "Accident"

*one day drop amount not confirmed....as the article only mentions the drop, not when it occurred or if it fell over a period of days (as did many stocks) (A article by Dr. George Bittlingmayer (with the University of Kansas) indicates that it was not a one day drop...footnote 11)

*the figures involved were $113 and $4.

On November 13, 1929, an article mentions "Cullman Heads Webster Eisenlohr" under Changes in Corporation...seems to indicate a change of leadership.

This site shows a scan of a December 14, 1968 article that mentions the Cullman Bros. in connection with purchasing Webster, Eisenlohr & Co., "a foundering cigar" manufacturer.

I've also come to believe that the mysterious "Union Cigar" company may in fact have been the product of how the story started growing into a legend...the company name evolved as the story was retold. On October 28, 1929 (two days before the death article), the NY Times mentions a consolidation of companies under the Webster-Eisenlohr Co. banner that include a United Cigar's. The article also mentions the "Union Tobacco Co".... Union Tobacco was a major player.

The New York Death Index seems to confirm that a Anthony Schneider died on October 29, 1929...which fits the name in the article...The site records his age as 65 yrs, but that is at least in the right range. The certificate number is 25859. The Soundex number is S536....

....another name (Albert Schneider) I found in an article that refers to this incident (with its own spin on the events, but also mentioning the Beverly and a tobacco president) is not in the index. The source for that newspaper quote is not given in the excerpt.

Thus far, the NY Times article about Anthony Schneider, Webster Eisenlohr, the Beverly, and the stock values seems to have facts that are backed up in other sources....will see.

Seems that perhaps this is just one of those "print the legend" that I laugh at when Robert Wuhl recounts them.....

Photo Source

Stock Market Mention

2007-10-09T01:00:00.000-07:00

"The Worst Hard Time" page 95: "When the Bank of the United States folded, it had deposits of two hundred million dollars. Fittingly, the bank's biggest office was next to Union Cigar, the company whose president had committed suicide after the stock fell from $103 to $4 in a day."

This episode with the president of Union Cigar was mentioned back on page 74, however the top price was quoted as $113. That mention said he "jumped"...whereas this one deems it specifically a suicide. The Times article was less precise...giving room for falling off the ledge possibility.

Since the Times also says $113...I'm guessing that is the actual amount.

A book, Anxious Decades, refers to it...and says, "Reports of ruined investors committing suicide were greatly exaggerated, but when the stock of the Union Cigar Company fell almost 100 points in a day, its president eluded a waiter's grasp and leaped to his death from a ledge of Manhattan's Beverly Hotel."

According to the NY Times, Beverly was on E. 50th Street...not Wall Street, so not sure what Wall Street building that Egan referenced.

Herbert Hoover and Wheat Surplus

2007-10-09T00:31:00.000-07:00

"The Worst Hard Time" page 87: "Why not have the government buy the surplus wheat to feed the hungry? Farmers demanded as much. President Hoover rejected the idea out of hand."

Herbert Hoover created the Federal Farm Board on July 15, 1929. Price floors were set for wheat and cotton.... the government did buy surplus wheat.

However...Hoover was opposed to giving it as charity to the poor.

...saying that Hoover rejected the proposal out of hand seems to imply that Hoover said no without even stopping to think about it. He did think about it...he just thought about it in a way that led to rejecting the proposal....Hoover feared that even small steps towards a nationalized economy would destroy the American system.

Photo Source

Morris Sheppard and Prohibition

2007-10-08T23:50:00.000-07:00

"The Worst Hard Time" page 82: "In Texas, a still turning out 130 gallons of whiskey a day was found operating on the farm of Senator Morris Sheppard, a Lone Star state political heavyweight who happened to be one of Prohibition's biggest backers - an author of the eighteenth amendment."

According the the Handbook of Texas, John Morris Sheppard was a United States Senator from eastern Texas.

Who all authored the amendment? I'm not sure...found a reference that mentioned Purley Baker, Wayne Wheeler, Bishop James Cannon, and other leaders of the Anti-Saloon League.

Sheppard introduced the Volstead Act on the Senate floor. Time credited him with co-authorship.

I wonder what the outcome was of the still found on Sheppard's property? Was it his? He doesn't seem to have lost the credibility to be a pro-Prohibition spokesman. He supported the amendment vocally to the end. I haven't found a reference to where the still being found discredited Sheppard professionally.

Foreclosure Sales

2007-10-08T22:43:00.000-07:00

"The Worst Hard Time" page 79-80: "Foreclosure sales in Boise City, held in front of the new Cimarron County Courthouse, became a regular event.......After a while, farmers got wise to the sales and devised a scheme. Before each foreclosure event, they agreed to bid a dime for a horse or combine, and no more. Anyone who bid higher would be taken care of later. The bank knew what was up, and so did Sheriff Barrick, but they couldn't stop it. It was a legal bidding process. For a time, these ten-cent sales kept a few bankrupt nester in the game."

Thought this was pretty interesting bit of trivia that I hadn't heard of precisely... I've read about penny auctions along the same line of thought..only bidding was one cent.

South Carolina Department of Education
The Summer of the Golden Eggs
Lesson Plans

Starved Quote by Herbert Hoover

2007-10-08T22:33:00.000-07:00

"The Worst Hard Time" page 78: "No one has yet starved," said President Hoover, trying to calm people at year's end. He spoke too soon. A few months later people rioted in Arkansas, demanding food for their children."

Again...I'm not sure from the citations where the quote originated. I do know that Hoover famously said "No one is actually starving." (Other source)

The England, Arkansas food riot took place on January 3, 1931 - if that helps in narrowing down the quote.

Stock Market Crash

2007-10-08T22:14:00.000-07:00

"The Worst Hard Time" page 77: "In New York, men in suits were selling apples on the streets, a nickel a pop. They were at every street corner. Even millionaires were scared.
"I'm afraid I'm going to end up with nine kids, three homes, and no dough," Joseh Kennedy, the patriarch of America's best-known Irish-American family, told a friend.
The stock market's loss was up to fifty billion dollars. In three months' time, two million Americans lost their jobs..."

Now this passage is a little confusing with the Kennedy quote. I can't tell from the notes what is the source...or who the family friend was.

Edward Kennedy was not born until February of 1932, which made 9 kids...so I suppose the quote was post Edward's birth or during Rose's pregnancy perhaps.

But I'm wondering when and why he made the statement.... Kennedy largely was out of the stock market when the bottom fell out - having sold for high profits in 1928. As the JFK library profile says "He had largely pulled out of the market before the infamous October crash and the family's finances remained largely unaffected throughout the 1930s."

Curious about who he said it to though...and under what context.

Stock Market Suicide

2007-10-08T22:12:00.000-07:00

page 74: "One company, Union Cigar, went from $113 to $4 - in a single day. The company's owner jumped to his death from a building on Wall Street."

I wonder what his name was...or what became of his company, family, etc. Time magazine referenced this incident in a 1987 article by Otto Friedrich, but no name. I'm not sure of the original source for the info.

A later Stock Market reference in the book discussed.

Ehrlich Family Tidbit

2007-10-08T22:11:00.000-07:00

"The Worst Hard Time" page 70: "Hanna Weis"

WEIS, Hannah
b. 6 Jul 1878 - Lehigh, Kansas
d. 23 Jun 1`974 - Shattuck, Oklahoma
NWO - Shattuck, OK no date
Interment was in the SDA Cemetery south of Shattuck. Born to Daniel and Marie Weis. She married George A. EHRLICH no Sept. 30, 1894. She was preceded in death by her husband ni 1964, a son George, her parents, two sisters and four brothers. She is survived by a son, William George Ehrlich of Shattuck, eight daughters: Mrs. Marie Meier; Mrs. W.C. (Diana) Schiffner; and Mrs. Bill (Hilda) Kolander, all of Shattuck; Mrs. Lydia Bradford and Mrs. Lillie Laubhan, both of Follett, TX; Mrs. Estsher Young of Woodward; Mrs. George (Thersia) Slovacek of Booker, TX; Mrs. Leon (Lucille) Meier of Higgins, TX; 18 grandchildren; 41 gt. grandchildren; 3 gt. gt. grandchildren; nieces, nephews and other relatives and friends.

source - first name spelling error on source for Hanna....just thought it was interesting.

Oslo, Texas

2007-10-08T21:39:00.000-07:00

"The Worst Hard Time" pages 69-70: "Oslo, Texas, a few miles to the west, was supposed to be Norway in brown. Oslo was founded by Anders L. Mordt, late of Kristiania, Norway. Scandinavians belonged in the Dakotas, people told Mordt when he showed up in Guymon, Oklahoma, in 1909 and set up his land office. Mordt had other ideas. He vowed to build one of the biggest Norwegian colonies in the United States on empty ground just across the Texas border. He secured a hundred sections on a site he promised would soon have a rail line running through it, and he bought advertisements in Norwegian language newspapers in the United States. "Buy now before the price goes up," went one advertisement in a 1909 issue of Skandivaven. "Plenty of rain and the grains look good." The Norsemen came, about two hundred families. They erected a schoolhouse and a Lutheran church that was to be crowned by a copper bell shipped from Norway. The bell would chime over land that nobody named Grimstad or Torvik had ever before tried to call home, where meals of lefse and lutefisk would break the routine of beef and barley. Alas, the new church bell went down with the Titanic."

The notes on page 318 cite "Story of Scandinavians from Oslo on the High Plains, Peter L. Petersen, Norwegian American Historical Association, vol. 28, p. 138, 1979."

NAHA archives cite the story as A New Oslo on the Plains...or that is the most similar title in their archives. It notes it as Description "A New Oslo on the Plains; Anders L. Mordt Land Company and Norwegian Migration to the Texas Panhandle," reprint of an article published in the "Panhandle-Plains Historical Review," Canyon, Texas, 1976

The Handbook of Texas article references the same information, including the bell, the lufe and lutefisk.... and cites Peter L. Petersen, "A New Oslo on the Plains," Panhandle-Plains Historical Review 49 (1976).

...so I believe that would be the actual source.

Herbert Hoover and the Wheat

2007-10-08T20:53:00.000-07:00

page 43: "And for the first time, the government guaranteed the price, at two dollars a bushel, through the war, backed by the wartime food administrator, a multimillionaire public servant named Herbert Hoover."

The federal government backed the price guarantee...not Herbert Hoover. The price wasn't fixed at $2 throughout the war...it bumped to $2.26 in 1918 continuing to June 1920.

Hoover's personal wealth didn't play into the price of wheat...that I can surmise.

Dust Bowl Geography

2007-10-08T20:24:00.000-07:00

page 33: "The flattest, driest, most wind-raked, least arable part of the United States was transformed by government incentive, private showmanship, and human desire from the Great American Desert into Eden with a haircut."

Egan had been discussing Boise City, Oklahoma and the scheme used to entice homesteaders to the area....so I'm guessing he's talking about that specific region, not the entire Dust Bowl geography...but not sure.

The absolute flattest? The Black Rock Desert in NW Nevada is flat. The Red River Valley in North Dakota is flat. Ford’s Dearborn Proving Grounds boasts of the flattest stretch of pavement in North America.

The driest? Now I really thought that claim to fame belong to Death Valley.

Most wind-raked?... Does that mean windiest? Mount Washington ranks tops on the windiest, but not sure of the meaning.

Least arable?...or least likely to be arable if a drought comes and converts arable land to non-arable land? 'Least-arable' would be more likely...a parking lot...or urban areas....filled with buildings.

no big deal...just such a specific statement...caught attention.

Black Cowboy on the XIT Ranch

2007-10-08T17:28:00.000-07:00

page 21: "A man everybody called Nigger Jim Perry was the lone black cow puncher on the XIT. "If it weren't for this old black face of mine," said Perry, "I'd be foreman."

Again..."everybody" seems a little extreme.

From the January 1996 Lest We Forget: Jim Perry was an all-around cowboy, cook and fiddler who worked on the XIT ranch. He once remarked: “If it weren’t for my damned old black face I’d have been boss of one of these divisions long ago.”

Kind of surprising that he was the only black cowboy that worked on the XIT. Black cowboys were not a rarity in Texas in other ranches at the time period.

El Paso Community College Source
Black Cowboys Website

How to Get Rich on the Plains

2007-10-08T15:25:00.001-07:00

Cover of The Beef Bonanza; or How to Get Rich on the Plains, by U.S. Army General James. S. Brisbin

Source

XIT Ranch Lands

2007-10-08T14:55:00.000-07:00

page 20: "The ranch land was empty. No people. No bison. No roads. No farms. Just grass - three million acres of it."

According to the Handbook of Texas: "In 1882 the Capitol Syndicate marked off a large amount of Oldham County lands for use in its famous XIT Ranch. Only the southeastern part of the county fell outside the XIT after that time. Following a certain amount of property exchanging and dislocation within the local ranching industry, other ranches (the LX and the Frying Pan,qqv for instance) occupied Oldham County acreage." Seems like there would have been some trails or some stragglers from amongst these people and other earlier cowboys, but not sure.

Map Source

The XIT Ranch and the Texas Capitol

2007-10-08T13:35:00.000-07:00

page 20: "Everybody in Texas had a story about the XIT. It was the ranch that built the state capitol, the granddaddy of them all. Fifteen years after the end of the Civil War, Texas wanted the biggest statehouse in the union, a palace of polished red granite. To pay for the new stone showpiece, the state offered up three million acres in the distant Panhandle to anybody willing to construct the building. After the tribes were routed, Charles Goodnight had moved a herd of 1,600 cattle down from Colorado to Palo Duro Canyon. The grass then was free, it attracted other nomadic Anglo beef-drivers and speculators from two continents. In 1882, a company out of Chicago organized the Capitol Syndicate, and this group of investors took title to three million acres in return for agreeing to build the capitol. It would cost about $3.7 million, which meant the land went for $1.23 an acre. The syndicate drew some big British investors into the deal, among them the Earl of Aberdeen and several members of Parliament. By then, the Great Plains cattle market was the talk of many a Tory cocktail hour."

* "Everybody in Texas had a story about the XIT" - Wow...everybody in Texas? According to the U.S. Census, the population of Texas in 1920 was 4,663,228. Are those 4 million plus testimonials documented?

* "the ranch that built the state capitol" - The ranch built it? Now that would be a grand feat. The sale of the land (upon which the statehouse was built) financed the construction. Probably a salute to the 1997 exhibit at the Texas Capitol called "XIT: The Ranch That Built The Texas Capitol."

* "Texas wanted the biggest statehouse in the union, a palace of polished red granite" - They wanted native limestone, originally. The limestone coloring was not up to par, so alternatives were sought. A Marble Falls quarry offered to donate the granite. Article on the granite coloring....I've heard the granite called "sunset red" and "Texas pink"...but not just 'red'....no big deal.

* "Charles Goodnight" - Not sure about his connection to the capitol building except maybe to show that cattle had been in the region...

* "It would cost about $3.7 million, which meant the land went for $1.23 an acre" - actually...the Capitol Syndicate's expenditures were $3,224,593.45; about $500,000 was assumed by the state. $1.07 give or take...but the land was valued at $1.5 million in 1882, so it's not like the Texans got swindled.

* "By then, the Great Plains cattle market was the talk of many a Tory cocktail hour" - They Tory cocktail hour may have been filled by talk about cattle markets, but the plans all along were to eventually subdivide and sell the land for profit. A ranch doesn't seem to have been planned for a long-term existence....so I'm not sure if that statement means the British investors didn't know there was a plan for profit or if they just thought it was the cattle market that would score profits.

City of Austin Source
Handbook of Texas Source
Republic of Texas Press Source
State Preservation Board Source

Sidenote...About me

2007-10-08T12:21:00.000-07:00

Off topic...

Curious reader emailed today and asked....

A) Where am I from? Dust Bowl area?
B) Had I read the book before?
C) Do I know the author?
D) Do I know anyone in the book?
E) Was my family (grandparents/great grandparents) touched by events depicted in the book? How or why not?

For him and other inquiring minds... I will try to answer....

A) I live in Arkansas....and I've never lived anywhere in the region covered by the Dust Bowl map. Born in southern California...grew up in Arkansas...lived in Germany for 3+ years courtesy of the US Army...and then back to Arkansas.

B) No...but I enjoyed reading it...and just thought I'd explore a few things in the book. I'm sure the instructor...knows the answers to any questions I might have about the book...but what would be the challenge in that.

C) I do not know the author....at all.

D) I do not know anyone in the book...nor anyone that I know has even a remote connection to anyone in the book.

E) I don't have a family connection to the Dust Bowl saga either.

My dad's family lived in Arkansas where my grandfather worked as a barber at the VA Hospital at Fort Roots in th 1930s. My grandfather was born in Austin (Lonoke County) Arkansas in 1900. My grandmother was born in Austin (Lonoke County) Arkansas in 1903. They lived in Oak Grove (Pulaski County) from 1922 until their deaths in the 1980s. My dad (6th of 6 kids) was born in 1936 in North Little Rock, AR on the same day that King Edward VIII signed the documents abdicating the throne....Dec. 10th. That summer (while my grandmother was pregnant) saw Arkansas hit the highest temperature recorded to date in the state.... 120°F in Ozark. 1936 also saw 37 consecutive days of measurable rain.(trivia tidbits) My dad moved to California after his service in the Army in the early 60s. Anyway...more of a rural culture than urban personal connection to the 1930s...but not one dependent on agriculture or the weather.

My mom's family lived in Indiana where my grandfather was a machinist in Hammond, Indiana in the 1930s. My grandfather was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1909. My grandma was born in Hammond, Indiana in 1912. They lived in Hammond until 1944 when they moved to Texas. My mother (2nd of 3 kids) was born in Austin, Texas in 1945 on the same day the Army designates as the end of the Southern Philippines Campaign....July 4, 1945. Post-war, my grandfather continued to work as a machinist which took them to California in the late 1950s. So my mom's family has more of an urban blue-collar background...not dependent on agriculture or the weather either.

....long way of saying that.... no, I did not grow up hearing family legends or stories of surviving the Dust Bowl era or epic Depression era suffering.

any more questions?

Quanah Parker and Cynthia Parker

2007-10-08T12:19:00.000-07:00

page 17-18: "Led by Quanah Parker and other leaders, the Comanche also attacked the trading post at Adobe Walls, just north of the Canadian River. Parker was regal-looking and charismatic, with soft features that made him appear almost feminine. His first name meant Sweet Smell, which is believed to have come from his mother, a Texan kidnapped at age nine and raised as a Comanche. She married into the tribe and raised three children, including Sweet Smell. After Cynthia Parker had lived twenty-four years as an Indian, the Texas Rangers kidnapped her back and killed her husband, Chief Peta Nocona. She begged to be returned to the Indians, but the Rangers would not let her go home.......In his later years, Sweet Smell married seven women and built a large house."

*"almost feminine"

Quanah Parker and two wives. Topay is on the left, and Chonie is on the right. Photo circa 1890: Indian Territory. Photo by William E. Irwin ...More Photos
*"Sweet Smell" - I am not sure why (after the initial reference to his name) Quanah is referred to as "Sweet Smell"...the meaning of his name, not his name. I have not found references to him using "Sweet Smell" as the name people called him or he called himself...so not sure when he did.

*"a Texan kidnapped at age nine" - Her biography was published in The Navarro County Scroll in 1987. Another is found in the Handbook of Texas.

Read about the Fall of Fort Parker in 1836.

*"killed her husband, Chief Peta Nocona" - Quanah disputed when and where his father died, but doesn't seem to have been proven.

*"the Rangers would not let her go home" - the Rangers, apparently, returned her to her surviving members of her white family. Seems to be the norm that kidnapping victims are not usually left with the kidnappers, but not sure about the norm during this era...or what the precedence was when white people were found that had been kidnapped.

Texas Rangers on page 16

2007-10-08T07:26:00.000-07:00

page 16: "Starting around 1840, the Texas Rangers were organized by the Republic of Texas to go after the Indians."

This statement was a little confusing in that the Republic of Texas came into being on March 2, 1836 while the Texas Rangers were unofficially started by Stephen Austin in 1823 and officially started on November 24, 1835....prior to the Republic.

The official start of the Rangers found Texans in the midst of the Texas Revolution under a leadership (Sam Houston) who had a good relationship with the Indians. It was a later president (Mirabeau Lamar) that dispatched the Rangers after the Indians.
By 1840 (the date in the statement), the Rangers were certainly battling the Indians.

However, back in the unofficial days, the groups of rangers did defend against raiding Indian parties and outlaws....

Thus the bit of confusion on my part from the statement....

Source: Texas Rangers
Source: Republic of Texas

(the photo depicts the memorial on the grounds of the Texas Capitol)

Comanche Passages

2007-10-07T22:36:00.000-07:00

"The Worst Hard Time" page 15 "The Comanche were polygamous, which pleased many a fur trader adopted into the tribe."

Reference "The men were polygamous, but an adulterous wife could be killed or have her nose cut-off. Generally parabios would not interfere in these private matters (even in cases of murder) unless absolutely necessary."

How many fur traders were 'adopted' by the Comanche? As opposed to just trading with them? Adopted so much so that they reaped their reward through multiple wives? Not important...just curious.

page 15 "Naked, a Comanche woman was a mural unto herself, with a range of narrative tattoos all over her body."

Although I knew that the Comanche did tattoo to an extent, I'd always thought that the women were known more for the paint they adorned themselves with rather than actual tattooing. (The Wichita people, for example, were known as "tattooed people" by various other tribes.) Interesting tidbit about the Comanche....

Comment on Description of No Man's Land and the Panhandle

2007-10-07T21:58:00.000-07:00

page 13-14 "Now they were stuck in No Man's Land, a long strip of geographic afterthought in the far western end of the Oklahoma Panhandle, just a sneeze from Texas."

Referencing the map, No Man's Land encompasses all of the Oklahoma Panhandle...not just the "far western end" region.

From the Chronicles of Oklahoma: When Texas (1845), New Mexico (1850), Kansas (1854), and Colorado (1861) decided upon their boundaries, cartographers discovered an oblong strip of unclaimed land remained. It was one hundred and sixty-six miles east and west, and thirty-four, and one-half miles north and south, and has been known as No Man's Land, the Neutral Strip (the Strip), Beaver County of Oklahoma Territory, and, lastly, Cimarron, Texas, and Beaver counties of the sovereign state of Oklahoma.

Popular History Mentions of Lindbergh and Blackface....

2007-10-07T20:09:00.000-07:00

page 13 - "Within a year, Charles Lindbergh would cross the ocean in his monoplane, and a white man in blackface would speak from the screen of a motion picture show."

Charles Lindbergh flew from Garden City, New York to Paris, France on May 20-21, 1927. He was the first to fly alone across the Atlantic Ocean. His plane, The Spirit of St. Louis, was a monoplane with a single set of wings (unlike the popular biplanes of the day with their two sets of wings).

On October 6, 1927, the movie "The Jazz Singer" starring Al Jolson premiered and was the first full-length movie "in which spoken dialogue was used as part of the dramatic action." (It was not the first sound film) Read the history of minstrel shows to learn more about the use of blackface.

German POW Camps in the US

2007-10-07T18:13:00.000-07:00

Although there were German POW camps in the Dust Bowl region, they were hardly limited to that region. Like the Japanese Internment Camps, they were located in a variety of locations...with the the POW camps far more numerous. By war's end only three states did NOT have POW camps.

German POW Camps in the US

Angel Island, California German POW Camp
Clinton, Mississippi German POW Camp Texas German POW Camps
Nebraska German POW Camp - Camp Atlanta
New Mexico German POW Camp Agriculture
South Carolina German POW Camps

Japanese Internment Camps Map

2007-10-07T17:49:00.001-07:00

Page 10 reference: "The government treats it like throwaway land, the place where Indians were betrayed, where Japanese Americans were forced into internment camps during World War II, where German POWs were imprisoned."

From referencing the National Park Service map, the only internment camp in the Dust Bowl region appears to be at Granada, Colorado.

Amache (Granada), CO
Opened: August 24, 1942.
Closed: October 15, 1945.
Peak population: 7,318.

Source
Map Source

Technorati Profile

2007-10-07T13:00:00.000-07:00

Technorati Profile

About Rabbit Drives....

2007-10-07T12:31:00.000-07:00

Egan repeats at various times the imagery of rabbit drives held during the Dust Bowl era. His word choice seems to conjure a picture of a bunch of wild-eyed maniacs on the warpath...mad at the black dusters...but only able to take out their wrath on the innocent little bunnies.

page 8 "On Sundays, a mob of people with clubs herded rabbits into a corral and smashed their skulls." Using "mob" to describe the people.

page 9 "Melt White was sickened by the rabbit drives, the plagues of hoppers, a town of random death and no comfort from the sky. Melt was not sickened by the hoards of rabids (like he was the hoards of grasshoppers), rather he was sickened by the rabbit drives.

On Pages 116-117, Egan goes into more detail on how the "people saw the rabbits as a scourge, a perpetual motion of mastication, indifferent to the human alterations that were blowing away." He goes on to describe a bloodbath where the "rabbits panicked" and Melt White heard "the rabbits cry."

Egan writes how "it seemed such a shame to let all those dead rabbits go to waste when so many people were hungry in the cities"...."the rabbits were left to buzzards and insects or shoveled into pits and buried."

It seems almost like a backward attempt to villify the (dumb) people of the Great Plains for their cavemen-like behavior...while still maintaining the sympathy for the victims of their behavior...like Melt White with his Native American ancestory.

But the rabbits weren't just innocent bystanders and these weren't the little cottontail bunnies we're accustomed to seeing. These were wild jackrabbits. A big difference. The weather had allowed them to multiply in unforeseen magnitude. The Kansas Historical Society published an article in March 1998 about the rabbit drives.... "Jumpin' Jackrabbits: The Drive to Control Longears"

Rabbits are cute and furry sure, but a million of 'em...not so much. According to the article, "cattlemen estimated that feed for 200,000 cattle was saved by these attempts to control the jackrabbit."

The rabbit drives were brutal and ugly...by the standards of people who weren't living with them and by the standards of today.

But they weren't just wild, willy-nilly murderous rampages.

Other sources:
Nebraska State Historical Society
Ford County Dust Bowl Oral History Project
Life in Western Kansas

What is the Ogallala Aquifer?

2007-10-07T11:54:00.000-07:00

Description: A browse image of the water-level-change contours data set for the High Plains aquifer, 1980 to 1995. Data_Set_Credit: McGuire, Virginia L. and Sharpe, Jennifer B.

Source: United States Geological Survey

Dust Bowl Boundary Map

2007-10-07T11:02:00.000-07:00

Source

What are the Southern Plains?

2007-10-07T10:47:00.000-07:00

"The Worst Hard Time" page 3 "It is never drought in the southern plains."

The Southern High Plains have been called "heaven's tableland," the "dust bowl," the "land of enchantment," and the "land of exploitation." Outsiders argue that the land should be allowed to return to a "buffalo commons" (Popper and Popper 1991). Insiders insist that it is "God's country" - the only place they could call home. Whether these views are consonant or conflicting, one thing is certain: the region is undergoing irreversible decline. In fewer than 50 years, human activities, with extensive institutional support, have succeeded in fully replacing the complex grassland ecosystem with a highly mechanized monocrop agriculture dependent upon non-renewable groundwater. Is the region on the threshold of "criticality" as defined in chapter 1 of this volume? For the original grassland ecology, the transformation has been extensive. For the definition of "criticality" as environmental change that threatens human well-being, future systems, and life-support or production capacity, the current regional economy is approaching such a condition.....click for more on the Southern Plains.

Who was Coronado?

2007-10-07T08:33:00.000-07:00

page 1 "It scared Coronado, looking for cities of gold in 1541."

Who was Coronado?

Francisco Vázquez de Coronado (ca. 1510 – September 22, 1554) was a Spanish conquistador, who, between 1540 and 1542, visited New Mexico and other parts of what is now the southwestern United States. He was born in Salamanca, Spain.

Coronado was governor of Nueva Galicia (New Galicia, a province of New Spain comprising the contemporary Mexican states of Jalisco, Sinaloa and Nayarit). In 1539, he dispatched Friar Marcos de Niza and a survivor of the Narváez expedition, named Estevanico, on an expedition north from Compostela, toward New Mexico. When Marcos de Niza returned, he told about a city of vast wealth, a golden city called Cíbola, and that Estevanico had been killed by the Zuni citizens of Cíbola. Though he did not claim to have entered the city of Cíbola, he reported that the city stood on a high hill, that it was made of gold, and that he could see the Pacific Ocean off to the west.

Based on this report, Coronado assembled an expedition with two components. One component, carrying the bulk of the expedition's supplies, traveled by sea. The other component traveled by land, along the trail Friar Marcos de Niza had used. Coronado and Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza invested large sums of their own money in the venture. Mendoza, Coronado's friend and fellow investor, appointed him as the commander of the expedition with the mission to find the seven golden cities and take their gold.

Coronado set out in early 1540 at the head of a large expedition composed of 335 Spaniards, 1300 natives, four Franciscan monks (the most notable of whom were Juan de Padilla and the newly appointed provincial superior of the Franciscan order in the New World, Marcos de Niza), and several slaves, both natives and Africans.

He followed the Sonoran coast northward, keeping the Sea of Cortez to his left. At the northernmost Spanish settlement, San Miguel de Culiacán, he rested his expedition before they began trekking the inland trail. Scouts were sent ahead to find out if the land along the route would be able to support a large body of soldiers and animals. Returning scouts reported was that it could not, so Coronado elected to divide his expedition into small groups and time their departures so that grazing lands and water holes along the trail could recover. At intervals along the trail, Coronado established camps and garrisoned soldiers to keep the supply route open. Once the scouting and planning was done, Coronado led the first group of soldiers up the trail. They were horsemen and foot soldiers who were able to travel quickly, while the main bulk of the expedition would set out, at intervals, later.

After leaving the last Spanish settlement, they traveled northward through Sonora and crossed the Gila River, Mogollón Rim, and the Little Colorado River. Then, they followed the Zuni River drainage into Cíbola, in the western part of present-day New Mexico. There he met a crushing disappointment. Cíbola was nothing like the great golden city that Marcos had described. Instead, it was just a complex of simple pueblos constructed by the Zuni Indians. The soldiers considered killing Marcos for his mendacious imagination, but Coronado intervened and sent him back to Mexico in disgrace.

Coronado traversed Arizona's Mogollón Rim and from the head waters of the Little Colorado he continued on until he came to the Zuni River. He followed the Zuni until he found the region inhabited by the Zunis. The members of the expedition were almost starving and demanded entrance into the village of Hawikuh. The natives refused, and denied the expedition entrance to the village or trade. Coronado and his frustrated soldiers entered Hawikuh by force of arms and took the food they needed. Thereafter, the remaining local villages did not contest Coronado's demands when the Spanish requested intelligence and resources. This constitutes the extent of what can be called the "Conquest of Cíbola." During the battle at Hawikuh, Coronado was injured and he had to stay with the Zuni while healing. From the knowledge gathered during this time he sent out several more scouting expeditions.

The first scouting expedition was led by Pedro de Tovar. This expedition headed to the Hopi villages, with the expectation that this region may contain the wealthy Cíbola. Upon arrival, the Spanish were denied entrance to the first village they came across, and once again resorted to using force to enter. Afterwards the remaining villages did not dare fight the Spanish. Materially, the Hopi region was just as poor as the Zuni, but the Spanish did find out that a large river (the Colorado) lay to the west.

The scouting party returned to Zuni territory and reported their findings. Coronado sent another scouting expedition led by Garcia Lopez de Cárdenas to find the Colorado River. This expedition returned to Hopi territory to acquire scouts and supplies that could be used to find this river. Members of this expedition reached the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River, and became the first Europeans to see the magnificent canyon.

After trying and failing to climb down into the Grand Canyon to reach the river below, the expedition reported that they would not be able to use the Colorado to link up with their ships. After this, the main body of the expedition began its journey to the next populated center of pueblos, which were located along the Rio Grande River in New Mexico.

Melchior Díaz was the local commander of a camp along the main supply route. When Coronado was not able to establish contact with the ships from his camp in the Zuni region, Díaz was sent to establish contact with Hernando de Alarcón. Alarcón's fleet was hauling supplies for Coronado. Díaz set out from the valley of Corazones in Sonora and traveled overland in a north/northwesterly direction until he arrived at the junction of the Colorado river and Gila river. There the local natives told him that Alarcón's sailors had buried supplies and left a note in a bottle. The supplies were retrieved and the note stated that Alarcón's men had rowed up the river as far as they could, searching in vain for the Coronado expedition. They had given up and decided to return to their departure point because worms were eating holes in their ships. Díaz died on the trip back to Zuni territory.

Hernando de Alvarado was sent to the east, and found several villages around the Rio Grande. Coronado set up his winter quarters in one of them, Tiguex, which is across the river from present-day Bernalillo near Albuquerque, New Mexico. During the winter of 1540-41, his army found themselves in conflicts with the Rio Grande natives, conflicts which led to the brutal Tiguex War. This war resulted in the destruction of the Tiguex pueblos and the death of hundreds of Indians.

A Native American, whom Coronado called the Turk, had told him about Quivira, a rich country in the northwest. Deciding to look for Quivira, he took the Turk as his guide and traversed the Llano Estacado and what is now the Texas Panhandle. However, Coronado suspected the Turk was lying about the route and executed him. Other guides led him further north to Quivira, and he reached a village near present-day Lindsborg, Kansas. But his disappointment was repeated: the Quivira people (later known as Wichita) were not rich at all. The village consisted mostly of thatched huts, and not even small amounts of gold could be found. Coronado returned to Tiguex, where his main force had remained behind. Here he spent another winter. Near present day Dodge City, Kansas, Coronado held the first Christian mass in the interior of North America. The site of this mass is presently marked by a large concrete cross called Coronado's Cross to commemorate the event, which took place on June 29, 1541.

In 1542 Coronado was ordered back to central Mexico so that his troops could help put down the The Mixtón Rebellion. He left with two of the Franciscan missionaries who insisted that they stay. Coronado returned to Mexico by the same route he had come. When he arrived in Mexico, the Mixtón Rebellion was already over. Only 100 of his men made it back. The expedition was a complete failure,and though he remained governor of Galicia until 1544,the expedition bankrupted him. In 1544, Coronado retired to Mexico City, where he died on September 22,1554.

Text Source
Coronado Photo Source

Map of No Man's Land in Oklahoma

2007-10-06T22:11:00.001-07:00

No Man's Land became Seventh County, later renamed Beaver County. When Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory joined the Union in 1907 as the single state of Oklahoma, Beaver County was divided into the present Beaver, Texas, and Cimarron counties.

Source

Map of the Dust Bowl Region

2007-10-06T18:08:00.000-07:00

“Some 150,000 to 200,000 acres of our cultivated land and a large portion of our grass land is literally blowing away for the reason that for the past two years no vegetation has grown. Fields are bare and pastures are without grass to hold the soil. Our roads are blocked. Trucks from consolidated schools have been unable to take the children to their schools.” —F. E. Herring to Elmer Thomas, on conditions in Roger Mills County, Oklahoma, April 7, 1937.

Source: University of Minnesota History Department

Initial Reaction to Reading "The Worst Hard Time"

2007-10-06T17:30:00.000-07:00

For purposes of discussion, my copy of the book is the Mariner Books 2006 paperback edition.

I enjoyed the book...it reads easily, paints vivid pictures of the times and tells a story. All aspects that I admire in a writer. Here and there, moments of déjà vu appeared (like when he reinforces images such as the apple vendors time and again)...but that's not a negative, per se.

It's a nonfiction book - so my expectations are that the contents are true and factual.

It's written by a journalist - so my expectations are that the author is skilled in grabbing the reader's attention. It is not written by a historian, so I'm not surprised by the use of endnotes rather than footnotes...however the lack of citations in the book is a little off-putting, because the endnotes do not clearly distinguish what is cited...only that there the source was referenced somewhere in the chapter.

The title advertises the book as "The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl".... so...it's a story. A true story, but one that is told with the benefit of hindsight. It also tries to tell the 'whole' story of a big region and a lot of people...which means that much of the history-telling is left to soundbites.

...but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Reading Assignment.... The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan

2007-10-06T14:44:00.000-07:00

As a college student, reading assignments are the norm.

This book, The Worst Hard Time, was assigned for a history class.

No problem.

But reading it elicits so many questions....

Do I have the answers? Not so much...but I can try to uncover them.

But, does it even matter? What is my job as "the reader" of a book? To absorb? To question? To think? Or just to accept....

It's a nonfiction book...a National Book Award Winner, no less.

Anyway...it interests me. No more. No less.

If you do have a really great question feel free to email me at talkingbooks@yahoo.com or post it in the comments. I probably won't know the answer...but can see if anything can be found on it.

A few definitions....

2007-10-06T14:08:00.000-07:00

author - a person who writes a novel, poem, essay, etc.; the composer of a literary work, as distinguished from a compiler, translator, editor, or copyist.

book - a written or printed work of fiction or nonfiction, usually on sheets of paper fastened or bound together within covers.

citation - a passage cited; quotation.

discussion - an act or instance of discussing; consideration or examination by argument, comment, etc., esp. to explore solutions; informal debate.

fact - something known to exist or to have happened

historian - an expert in history; authority on history.

history - the branch of knowledge dealing with past events.

journalist - a person who practices the occupation or profession of journalism.

narrative - a story or account of events, experiences, or the like, whether true or fictitious.

nonfiction - the branch of literature comprising works of narrative prose dealing with or offering opinions or conjectures upon facts and reality, including biography, history, and the essay (opposed to fiction and distinguished from poetry and drama).

source - a book, statement, person, etc., supplying information.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Book Reviews of The Worst Hard Time

2007-10-06T13:34:00.000-07:00

As a New York Times reporter, Timothy Egan has written memorably about how our impossible dreams collide with the extreme climates and landscapes of the American West - from the fountains that dance before the desert palaces of Las Vegas to the giant ferns that drip and rot in Washington's Olympic rain forest. His last book, "The Winemaker's Daughter," a novel, stumbled with critics, but Mr. Egan is back on firm ground with his fierce, humane account of the dreams and extremes that crashed head on during the nearly decade-long calamity of the Dust Bowl.

David Laskin Review in the New York Times - December 17, 2005

Egan's account of the Dust Bowl era is a final, terrible rebuke to the policies of America's dying days of frontier expansion — when speculators, aided by the government, sold off as farmland grasslands never meant to be turned by the plow. Farmers ripped up the prairie and the wind blew away soil that had built up over millions of years. "God didn't create this land around here to be plowed up," Melt White, who lived through the Dust Bowl as a teenager, tells Egan. "He created it for Indians and buffalo. Folks raped this land. Raped it bad."

Mary Ann Gwinn Review in The Seattle Times - December 23, 2005

Booklist Online Review - December 15, 2005

New Yorker - Books Briefly Noted - February 6, 2006

2006 National Book Award Winner for Nonfiction

2007-10-06T12:46:00.000-07:00

The nominees for the 2006 National Book Award in Nonfiction were:

Taylor Branch, "At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68" (Simon & Schuster)

Rajiv Chandrasekaran, "Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone" (Knopf)

Peter Hessler, "Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China's Past and Present" (HarperCollins)

Timothy Egan, "The Worst Hard Time." (Houghton Mifflin)

The winner was Timothy Egan for "The Worst Hard Time."

Sources: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/books/292552_bookawards16.html

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003433007_egan16.html

http://www.nysun.com/article/43623

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/16/books/16books.html?ex=1321333200&en=fb438684c4c2f6fd&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

About the Author - Timothy Egan

2007-10-06T12:36:00.000-07:00

From The New York Times:

Timothy Egan worked for 18 years as a writer for The New York Times, first as the Pacific Northwest correspondent, then as a national enterprise reporter. He is currently a guest Op-Ed columnist.

In 2006, Mr. Egan won the National Book Award, considered the nation's highest literary honor, for his history of people who lived through the Dust Bowl, The Worst Hard Time. The book also became a New York Times Bestseller.

In 2001, he won the Pulitzer Prize as part of a team of reporters who wrote the series How Race Is Lived in America. He has done special projects on the West and the decline of rural America, and he has followed the entire length of the Lewis and Clark Trail.

Mr. Egan is the author of five books, including "The Good Rain: Across Time and Terrain in the Pacific Northwest," and "Lasso the Wind, Away to the New West." He lives in Seattle.

NY Times source accessed on Saturday, October 6, 2007

Other bios...
http://www.thenatureofwords.org/Authors/211789.aspx

The worst hard time : the untold story of those who survived the great American dust bowl

2007-10-06T12:31:00.000-07:00

The worst hard time : the untold story of those who survived the great American dust bowl
by Timothy Egan
Type: Book
Language: English
Publisher: Boston : Houghton Mifflin Co., ©2006.
ISBN: 9780618346974 061834697X
OCLC: 58788898