East Texas Historical Journal Volume 30 Issue 1 Article 1 3-1992 ETHJ Vol-30 No-1 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-1," East Texas Historical Journal: Vol. 30 : Iss. 1 , Article 1. Available at: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/ethj/vol30/iss1/1 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 1 El , I EXI HISTORICAL JOURNAL EAST TEXAS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION OFFICERS Bill O'Neal President Audrey Kariel First Vice President Ray Stephens Second Vice President Linda J. Brown Secretary-Treasurer DIRECTORS Garna L. Christian Houston 1992 Cecil Harper Spring 1992 Marion Holt Beaumont 1992 David Stroud Kilgore 1993 Doris Bowman Lufkin 1994 Carol Riggs Lufkin 1994 Pattie Willbanks Tyler 1994 Linda Cross Tyler ex-President Ron Hufford Lufkin .. , ex-President F. Lee Lawrence Tyler Director Emeritus James V. Reese Nacogdoches ex-officio EDITORIAL BOARD Valentine J. Belfiglio Garland Bob Bowman , .. Lufkin Garna L. Christian , Houston Ouida Dean Nacogdoches Patricia A. Gajda , Tyler Robert L. Glover Tyler Bobby H. Johnson , Nacogdoches Patricia Kell Baytown Max S. Lale .. , , Fort Worth Irvin M. May, Jr Bryan Bill O'Neal ,, Carthage Chuck Parsons , South Wayne, WI Fred Tarpley Commerce Archie P. McDonald EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND EDITOR MEMBERSHIP INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERS pay $100 annually LIFE MEMBERS pay $250 or more BENEFACTOR pays $100, PATRON pays $50 annually STUDENT MEMBERS pay $8 annually REGULAR MEMBERS pay $15 annually Journals $7.50 per copy P.O. Box 6223 STEPHEN F. AUSTIN STATE UNIVERSITY Nacogdoches, Texas 75962 409-568-2407 © Copyright 1992 XXX - East Texas Historical Association EAST TEXAS HISTORICAL JOURNAL Volume XXX 1992 Number 1 CONTENTS WOMEN'S GROUPS AND THE EXTENSION OF CITY SERVICES IN EARLY TWENTIETH-CENTURY DALLAS by Patricia Evridge Hill ,......................... 3 MEMORIES OF WORLD WAR II by Buck A. young , 11 THE PORTER DEMONSTRATION FARM by Jack Stoltz , 16 ESPIONAGE DURING THE TEXAS REVOLUTION by Robert~. lresting ,. , 22 FOR LACK OF A NAIL. .. by Max S. LaJe _ ,., ......•34 THE SWAMP ANGELS: A HISTORY OF SPAIGHTS 11TH BATTALION, TEXAS VOLUNTEERS, CONFEDERATE STATES ARMY by W. T. Block , , 44 IN REMEMBRANCE by Pauline Anderson Slovak , _.58 EAST TEXAS COLLOQUy , _. _ , 66 BOOK REVIE\VS 69 Archie P. McDonald, 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 Gagnon. Historical Literacy, The Case for History in American Educa­ tion, by Jamie O'Neill Buenger and Calvert, Texas Through Time: Evolving Interpretations, by Robert Wooster Abernethy, The Bounty of Texas, by Ernestine Sewell Linck Silverthorne, Christmas in Texas, by Cherry Coffman Haynes, Soldiers ofMisfortune, the Somervell and Mier Expeditions, by Margaret Swett Henson DeShields, Cynthia Ann Parker, and Kissinger, Quanah Parker, Comanche Chief, by Lee Schultz Hacker, Cynthia Ann Parker, the Life and the Legend, by Vista K. McCroskey Gould and Pando, Claiming Their Land, Women Homesteaders in Texas, by Joyce Gibson Roach Jenkins and Kesselus, Edward Burleson, Texas Frontier Leader, by Alwyn Barr Eisenhower, So Far From God: the U.S. War with Mexico 1846-1848, by James W. Pohl Rawley, Secession: The Disruption ofthe American Republic, 1844-1861, by Travis Lee Koscheski Bailey, Between the Enemy and Texas: Parson's Texas Cavalry in the Civil War, by David Stroud Thompson, Westward the Texans, the Civil War Journal of Private William Randolph, by Robert W. Glover Davis. Jefferson Davis, a Memoir, 1890, by William Hartt McPherson, Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution, by Brandon H. Beck Nolan, Lee Considered, General Robert E. Lee and Civil War History, by Robert W. Glover Hardison, Caissons Across Europe, by Robert L. Wagner Miller and Sanders, Urban Texas, Politics and Development, by Garna L. Christian Sibley, The Methodist Hospital ofHouston, Serving the World, by Brooke Tucker Boles and Calhoun, Rice University. a 75th Anniversary Portrait, by Allen Richman Peacock, The Nature ofTexas. a Feast ofNative Beauty. by Fred Tarpley Rosenberg, The Southern Baptists, a Subculture in Transition, by Jerry Self Hyman. Oleander Odyssey. the Kempners of Galveston, Texas, 1854-19805. by Ron Ellison Woolley, The Edge of the West and Other Texas Stories, and Tolliver, Have Gun Need Bullets, by Elizabeth Tierce Williams and Veninga, Texas in the 21st Century, Building a Future for the Children of Texas, by Edward Hake Phillips EAST TEXAS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION 3 WOMEN'S GROUPS AND THE EXTENSION OF CITY SERVICES IN EARLY TWENTIETH-CENTURY DALLAS by Patricia Evridge Hill In 1904, Sarah P. Decker told women at a national assembly of the General Federation of Women~s Clubs, "Dante is dead. He has been dead for several centuries, and I think it is time that we dropped the study of his Inferno and turned our attention to our own." 1 Dallas women heard Mrs. Decker's message. Club women appropriated speaking and organiza­ tional skills learned in benevolent societies, literary clubs, and choral groups and challenged the vision of largely unrestricted growth that guided members of the early city's business elite. At the same time, Dallas club women stretched convention by manipulating the middle-class woman's traditional role as homemaker and "lady." Although few local women challenged the notion of instinctive female traits, they used traditional beliefs about women's talents and interests to address family issues and aspects of the urban environment associated with juvenile delinquency, poverty, and illiteracy. Through their advocacy of expanded social services and major municipal public health and sanitation programs, federated women's clubs became efficient reform vehicles in the early years of the twentieth century. The "projects" sponsored by middle-class club women mirrored those of federated women's clubs in older urban areas and, although altruistic, were intended to hasten Dallas' maturation from frontier town to city. Early clubs, such as the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, were local responses to well-known eastern organizations. Dallas women con­ tinued to depend on national organizations headquartered in older American cities to provide an ideological basis and goals for local club projects even after they turned their attention from the intellectual im­ provement of club members to major reform efforts. 2 Club women con­ sidered problems such as crime, juvenile delinquency, and illiteracy the social costs of urban growth. They envisioned programs established by women's clubs and expanded city services as remedies for social problems associated with urban capitalism. Women's club leaders viewed their accomplishments as concrete signs of the city's urbanity. Since their vision of growth was based on the local implementation of programs originated elsewhere, club women valued efficient organizing and the ability to con­ duct effective publicity campaigns above creativity. In the process, club members made Dallas residents more aware of the uneven nature of urban growth, proposed solutions to social and civic problems, and gained unprecedented respect and influence while expanding public roles for women. 3 Organized women's groups appeared in Dallas as early as 1870, when the southern branch of the Presbyterian Church established a Ladies' Aid Patricia Evridge Hm;s Assistant Professor ofHistory at Lander College in South Carolina. 4 EAST TEXAS HISTORICAL ASSOCIAnON Society to institutionalize the nursing and undertaking services that women of all denominations provided on the frontier. The Ladies Hebrew Benevolent Association and the Methodist Woman's Missionary Society formed within the next five years for similar purposes. 4 Women's literary clubs in Dallas date from the founding of the Shakespeare Club in 1866. Shortly after the turn of the century. the women who guided Dallas' early women's clubs articulated an urban vision much like that adopted by middle-class, Progressive Era reformers who sup­ ported Elmer Scott's Civic Federation after 1917. Both groups sought to reduce crime, juvenile delinquency. transcience, and other social problems through environmental change and shared the belief that environmental change could be effected through education, the elimination of poverty. and increased cultural awareness. In spite of later similarities, the agenda of Dallas' women's clubs was firmly in place a decade before the founding of the Civic Federation. Women's clubs focused their attention and subse­ quently that of Dallas residents on urban safety, sanitation, and health, while Progressives affiliated with the Civic Federation emphasized adult education and social work. Women's clubs were also interested in educa­ tion but concentrated their efforts on that of children rather than adults. Since both groups articulated reform visions, membership overlapped significantly after 1917. Many women, including Mrs. Wendell (Stella White) Spence, Mrs. Henry (May Dickson) Exall, and Mrs. Victor Hex­ ter, who worked in the local suffrage movement and joined the clubs in the decades immediately before and after 1900, later supported the reform programs of the municipal welfare department and contributed to the Civic Federation. 5 National calls for women's clubs to take more initiative in reform efforts galvanized the opinions of local women. Women's groups, such as the Shakespeare Club, the Standard Club, the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle, the Mathian Club, and the Schubert Choral Club, were vital components in the education of women in early Dallas. 6 Kathleen McCarthy describes the club as a "college" for the mature woman. In Dallas before 1915 (the year Southern Methodist University opened), clubs were often the only post-secondary education even the most capable daughters of prominent families could secure.