ETHJ Vol-30 No-2
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East Texas Historical Journal Volume 30 Issue 2 Article 1 10-1992 ETHJ Vol-30 No-2 Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/ethj Part of the United States History Commons Tell us how this article helped you. Recommended Citation (1992) "ETHJ Vol-30 No-2," East Texas Historical Journal: Vol. 30 : Iss. 2 , Article 1. Available at: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/ethj/vol30/iss2/1 This Full Issue is brought to you for free and open access by the History at SFA ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in East Texas Historical Journal by an authorized editor of SFA ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. VOLUME XXX 1992 NUMBER 2 ""-1 C - EA T TEXAS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION OFFI ER Bill 0' eal.. .. ..............•.......... ..President Audrey Kariel First Vice Pre ident Ray Stephens ..................................... .. econd Vice President Linda J. Brown Seer t.ary·Treaaurer DIRECTORS Gama L. Christian Houston 1992 Cecil Harper. ..................... .. pring 1992 Marion Holt Beaumont 1992 David Stroud Kilgore 1993 Doris Bowman LufKin ]994 Carol Riggs Lufkin. ................ ..1994 Pattie Willbank Tyler 1994 Linda Cross Tyler .......•............ex-President lWn Hufford Lufkin ex-President F. Lee Lawrence Tyler Director Emeritus Jam V. Ree e acogdoche ex-officio EDITORIAL BOARD Valentine J. Belfiglio Garland Bob Bowman. ................................................. Lufkin Garna L. Christian ......•............•.......................... Houston Ouida Dean ............................................. .. acogdoche Patricia A. Gajda ................•.................................Tyler Robert L. Glover .................•.................................Tyler Bobby H. Johnson. .......................•................. .. acogdoche Patricia Kell Baytown Max S. Lale Fort Worth Irvin M. May, Jr..................................•..............Bryan Bill O'Neal arthage Chuck Parsons. ...................................... .. South Wayne, Wl Fred Tarpley. ........................................... .. '" Commerce Archie P. McDonald EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR m EDITOR MEMBER HIP I STITUTIO AL MEMBERS pay 100 annually LIFE MEMBERS pay 250 01' more BE EFACTOR pays $100, PATRO pay 50 annuall TUDE T MEMBERS pay 8 annually REGULAR MEMBERS pay 15 annually Journals $7.50 p r copy P.O. Box 6223 STEPHE F. AUSTIN STATE UNIVERSITY acogdocbe , Texas 759 2 409-568-2407 © Copyright 1992 XXX - East Texas Historical Associatwn EAST TEXAS HISTORICAL JOURNAL Volume xxx 1992 Number 2 C ") ~, 1I_~) ')C,~. l' C."7, ,'"'''"' ')Q r{~\.-' ~~" ("~.. :.... -~.." ~'\ CONTE I;;~,; \\.,.", ,~.~ DEPRESSION TIMES IN RAYBURN COUNny: .; SOME ASPECTS OF THE NEW DEAL~.· 'v·, .~.; by Robert S. Weddle .. '& -\::. ~ . '. ' ~ " COUNTERACTING REFORM: \:.~....": ': ' LEE SIMMONS AND THE TEXAS PRISON i"i§:rEM• .1930-1935' by Paul M. Lucko ">;--. ~ >-. ; •• ~ .•.•••••••••••. 19 THE ITALIANS OF BEXAR COUNTY. TEXAS: TRADITION, CHANGE AND INTRAETHNIC DIFFERENCES by Valentine J. Be1figljo 30 AMANDA AND WILLIAM FRANKLIN BURKS: A NUECES COUNTY PARTNERSHIP by Johnye C. Sturcken , 45 THE GREAT TEXAS TREASURY ROBBERY. JUNE 11, 1865 by Patrick Cox 51 KENNETH L. ANDERSON, LAST VICE PRESIDENT ALMOST FIRST GOVERNOR OF TEXAS by Leslie H. Southwick, ., 54 BOOK NOTES ,, 64 BOOK REVIEWS ,, , _ 70 Archie P. McDonald l Executive Director and Editor STEPHEN F. AUSTIN STATE UNIVERSITY P.O. BOX 6223'" NACOGDOCHES, TEXAS 75962 409-568-2407 2 EAST TEXAS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION BOOKS REVIEWED Sowell, Rangers and Pioneers of Texas, by Ben Procter White, They Also Served: Texas Service Records from Headright Certificates, by Charles K. Phillips Chalfant, Without Quarter: The Wichita Expedition and the Fight on Crooked Creek, by Robert D. Norris, Ir. Jones, The Mystery of Y'Barbo's Tunnel, by Barry L. Brown Geary, We Need Men: The Union Draft in the Civil War, by David Stroud Thompson, From Desert to Bayou, the Civil War Journal and Sketches ofMorgan Wolfe Merrick, by Robert D. Norris, Jr. Slatta, Cowboys of the Americas, by Lee Schultz Watson, Cowboy Cooking: Recipes from the Cowboy Artists ofAmerica, by Joyce Roach Omish, Pioneer Jewish Texans, by Cissy Stewart Lale Watriss, Baldwin and Goodwyn, Coming to Terms: The German Hill Country of Texas, by Janet Schmelzer Dethloff and Dyall, A Special Kind of Doctor: A History ofVeterinary Medicine in Texas, by Sam Malone Baker, Lighthouses of Texas, by Patricia G. Kell Burton, Black, Red and Deadly: Black and Indian Gunfighters oithe Indian Ter ritories, 1870-1907, by Bill O'Neal La Botz, Edward L. Doheny: Petroleum, Power, and Politics in the United States and Mexico, by Roger M. alien Weems, The Tornado, by G. Loyd Collier Knight, Fort Worth Outpost on the Trinity, by Janet Schmelzer Adams, Damming the Colorado, by D. Clayton Brown Koenig, Pine Trees and Cotton Fields, Reminiscences ofa Childhood, NE Texas NW Louisiana, 1925-1942, by Lincoln King One Day in the Life ofAngelina County, A Project ofthe Angelina Photographic Association, by Allen Richman Govenar, The Early Years of Rhythm & Blues: Focus on Houston, by Guida Whitaker Dean Sizemore, The LH7 Ranch in Houston's Shadow: The E.H. Marks' Legacy from Longhorns to the Salt Grass Trail, by Cecil Harper, 1r. Coleman, Bataan and Beyond: Memories ofan American POW, by Mark Choate Kemp, The Regiment: Let the Citizens Bear Arms, by E. Dale adorn Smith and Bogart, The Wars of Peggy Hull, the Life and Times of a War Cor respondent. by Fane Downs Taylor, Texfake: An Account ofthe Theft and Forgery of Early Texas Printed Documents, by Al Lowman Carson, From the Desk of Henry Ralph, by Carolyn Ericson Woods and Jones, Dawning ofthe Cold War: The United States' Quest for Order, by Scott L. Bills Brooks, Best Editorial Cartoons ofthe Year, 1991 Edition, by James G. Dickson Goyne, A Life Among the Texas Flora, Ferdinand Lindheimer's Letters to George Engelmann, by Sylvia W. McGrath Craddock, 1 Would've Been A Lumberjack (But I Couldn't Hack It!), by Gary Borders Givner, Katherine Anne Porter, bt Sylvia Grider EAST TEXAS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION 3 DEPRESSION TIMES IN RAYBURN COUNTRY: SOME ASPECTS OF THE NEW DEAL by Robert S. Weddle The Great Depression years of 1929-1932, in the assessment of Con gressman Sam Rayburn, constituted "the most serious, far-reaching and dangerous crisis that ever threatened this country.... We stood upon the verge of disaster. "I Grim facts emphasize the truth of this rhetoric when it was uttered prior to World War II. In the years immediately following the market crash of 1929, fourteen million breadwinners. with twice as many dependents. were out of work. The thirty-three million persons engaged in agriculture were selling the fruits of their labor below produc tion cost. Thus, seventy-five million Americans had virtually no buying power. 2 The nation's business structure, as well as the livelihood of millions of poverty-stricken families, was threatened. When Franklin D. Roosevelt. in accepting the Democratic Party's nomination for president in 1932, pledged a "new deal for the American people," the country was ready for a reshuffling of the cards. Rayburn's Fourth Congressional District, comprising five North Texas counties wedged between the Cross Timbers and the East Texas Timberlands, was a case in point.] A predominantly rural area in a state that was approaching an even balance between rural and urban populations, it had a preponderance of poor sharecroppers who had reached the end of their rope. Most lived in unpainted box houses without a telephone or elec tricity, on dirt roads that turned to quagmires when it rained. In essence, the twentieth century was passing them by. The principal cash crop in this area was cotton. Nearly everything else that was grown, with the exception of wheat in some areas, went to feed the livestock used to make the crop. Almost ninety-five percent of Rockwall County's farm income, for example. was from cotton. Fannin County, with some seventy percent of its farms operated by tenants, had almost 344,000 acres in cropland. two-thirds of it in cotton. 4 With an average yield of one-third bale per acre. farmers of this region contributed to the overproduction that lay at the roots of the Great Depression. The nation·s economy literally was choked by surpluses of both raw materials and manufactured goods. In Rayburn's judgment, "Franklin Roosevelt just hit the Presidency about the right time.tl When he took office on March 4, 1933, he "had a program and he had faith and confidence in the American people. tl There would never be anything to compare with the first 100 days ofthe Roosevelt Administration, Rayburn said. Because of the Depression and general panic the country over, "legislation had to be passed and passed quickly. H 5 Robert S. Weddle lives in Bonham, Texas. 4 EAST TEXAS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION The measures enacted sought three objectives: relief, recoveryland reform. The primary concern of the hundred-day emergency session of Congressl begun just five days after Roosevelt's inauguration, was relief. A significant means to that end was the restoration of hope. One of the most amazing aspects of the New Deal was the lightning swiftness with which legislation was passed and implemented. Equally amazing was the people's overwhelming and unified response when the president called for their personal involvement. It would be hard to find an area in which the people rallied with more striking unanimity than in Fannin County, which, as Rayburn's home county, is chosen as the