East Texas Historical Journal Volume 46 | Issue 2 Article 1 10-2008 ETHJ Vol-46 No-2 Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/ethj Part of the United States History Commons Tell us how this article helped you. Recommended Citation (2008) "ETHJ Vol-46 No-2," East Texas Historical Journal: Vol. 46: Iss. 2, Article 1. Available at: http://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/ethj/vol46/iss2/1 This Full Issue is brought to you for free and open access by SFA ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in East Texas Historical Journal by an authorized administrator of SFA ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. VOLUME XLVI 2008 NUMBER 2 f 3 'i J EJ.. HISTORICAL JOURNAL EAST TEXAS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION 2007-2008 OFFICERS Beverly I. Rowe .President Ted Lawe First Vice President })oris Bowman Second Vice President Portia L. Gordon '" Secretary-Treasurer DIRECTORS Bill O'Neal Carthage 2008 10 Ann Stiles Beaumont , 2008 Jeffrey Owens 1)'ler 2008 Caroline Castillo Crimm Huntsville , 2009 John Olgesbee San Augustine , 2009 Kenneth W. Howell College Station 2009 Tom Crum Granbury 2010 Ricky F. Dobbs Comrnerce 2010 L. Patrick Hughes Austin 2010 R.G.Ilean Nacogdoches .ex-President Dan K. Utley Pflugerville .ex-President EDITORIAL BOARD Patrick. Cox , Wimberly Ken Hendrickson Wichita Falls Ken Howell .Bryan L. Patrick Hughes _ Austin Linda S. Hudson _ Carthage Sarah Jackson .Nacogdoches Mary Kelley .Beaumont lim Maroney Baytown Bob Bowman Lutk:in Jim Smallwood _ Gainesville ))an K. Utley PflugerviUe Milton Jordan .Houston M. Scott Sosebee EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND EDITOR MEMBERSmp INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERS pay $100 annually LIFE MEMBERS pay $300 or more BENEFACTOR pays $100, PATRON pays $50 annually STUDENT MEMBERS pay $12 annually FAMILY MEMBERS pay $35 annually REGULAR MEMBERS pay $25 annually Journals $7.50 per copy P.O. Box 6223 Stephen F. Austin State University Nacogdoches. TX 75962 936-468-2407 e-mail: [email protected] http://www.easttexasmstorical.org © Copyright 2008 XLVI- No.2 - East Texas Historical Association EAST TEXAS HISTORICAL JOURNAL Volume XLVI 2008 NUMBER 2 CONTENTS STEVE ALLEN NEVER PICKED COTTOK IN TEXAS By Dan K. Ullt'y 3 "BUILr BY THE IRISHMAN. THE NEGRO AND THE MULE:" LABOR MILITANCY ACROSS THE COLOR LINE IN POST-RECONSTRUCTION TEXAS E.v Rohert S. Shelton 15 RACIAL POLITiCS [N DALLAS IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY By Theodore M.wwl' 27 THE CHIRINO BOYS: SPANISH SOLDIER-PIONEERS FROM LOS ADAES ON THE LOUISIANA-TEXAS BORDERLANDS, 1735-1792 By Francis X. Golan 42 DAN UTLEY NEVER PICKED COTTON By Archie P. McDonald 59 EAST TEXAS NEWS AND NOTES 65 By M. Scotf Sosebee BOOK NOTES B Archie P. McDonald 67 BOOK REVIEWS , 71 ' .. .. H OCT 2008 ,'.0 n .~:.r" "r")' !\-1 M. Scott So~ebee, Executive Direct~~~Editor .~~ STEPHEN F. AUSTIN STATE UNT ~TY ~~~~ P.O. BOX 6223 bdB2 L2 NACOGDOCHES, TEXAS 75962 936-468-2407 e-mail: [email protected] http://www.casttcxashistorieal.org 2 EAST TEXAS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION BOOKS REVIEWED Cantrell!fumer, Lone Star Pasts: Memory and History in ](L'WS by Caroline C. Crimm Bright, Native American Placenames ofthe United States by Fred Tarpley Wagner, It Happened on The Underground Railroad by Gail K Beil Galland, Love Cemetery: Unburying the Secret Histor}' o.l"Slaves by Bruce A, Glasrud Crawford/Crawford. The Settlers 0.1" Lovely County and Miller County Arkansas Territory, 1820-1830 by Jim D. Lovett Dougherty, Civil War Leadership and Mexican War Experience by Charles D, Grear Reynolds, Texas Terror: The Slave Insurrection Panic of 1860 and the S£'cession of the Lower South by John H. Barnhill Baker, Confederate Gllerrilla: The Civil War Memoir of Joseph Bailey by Kenneth W, Howell Thompson, Cortina: Defending the Mexican Name in Texas by John D. Huddleston MondayNick, Petra's Legacy: The SOUTh Texas Ranching c'mpire ofPetra Vela and M~tf2in Kenedy by Henry Wolff, Jr. Glasrud/Searles. BI~/falo Soldiers in the We.\'/: it Black Soldiers Anthology by Kenneth W. Howell Johnson. Polygamy on the Pedernales: Lvman Wight:~ Mormon Villages in Antebellum Texa.\'. 1845 to J858 by Jnhn W. Storey Evans, Bound in TJ,t'ine: The History and Ecolo?,y 01" Ihe Henequen-Wheat Comple_~ {or Mexico and the Amaican and Canadian Plain.I', 1880-1950 by John R. Lundberg Baker, American Windmills: An Album ofHistoric PhotoRraphs by Michael R. Bryant Reid. Reapin?, a Greater HarvesI: African Americans, The EXlell.l"irm Service and Ruml Reform in Jim Crow Texa.,> by Jane ~fanaster ~cDonaJd.By Early Candlelight: The Stor.v ofOld Milam by George R. Franks. Jr. Carlson, Deep Time and the Texas High Plains: Hiswry and Geo{ogv by FE. Abernethy Carmack. Hi.\'turic Hotels (~fTexas: A Traveler\' Guide hy Dan K. Utley Blodgett/Blodgett/Scott, The Land, The Law, lind The Lord: The Life ofPat Neffhy Gene B, Preuss Ferguson. Hi!>,turic Battleship Texa.c The Last Dreadnought by J, Edward Townes Cohen 11. Kindler ofSouls: Rabbi Henry Cohen of Texas by Gail K Beil Cochran. Cla},tie: The Roller-Coaster LIfe ofa Texas Wildcatter by Jorge Iber Dlien/Hinton, Wildcalters: Texas Indi.'pendenl Oilmen by Jo Ann Stiles Alexander. Spoke: A Biography of Tris Speaker by Bill O·Neal Nevels, L.vnching to Belong: Claiming Whiteness ThrouRh Racial Violence by Gary Borders Nolan, The Billy The Kid Reader by Jeff Bremer Utley. Lone Slar Lawmen: The Second Cemurv of The Texas Rangers by Robert :"J!eman EAST TEXAS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION 3 STEVE ALLEN NEVER PICKED COTTON IN TEXAS By Dan K, Utley Editor's Note: The following was Dan Utley's presidential address at the 2007 faU meeting of the ETHA. As you will read, Dan was unable to actually deliver the address and it was read by his friend and ETHA member Cynthia Beeman. Author's Note: A funny thing happened on the way to Nacogdoches. As my wife, Debby, and I prepared to leave Ptlugerville for the East Texas Historical As~ociatjonFall meeting, I began experiencing sustained abdominal pain. By that evening it was evident I would have to make a detour to a 10l;al hospital for relief. Avoiding unnecessary details, I will only say that while Tony Bennett may well have left his heart in San Francisco, I chose to leave my gall bladder in Round Rock. Thankfully, my dear friend and respected col­ league Cynthia J. Beeman capably delivered my presidential paper at the conference. Meanwhile, back in Round Rock, a remarkable surgical team led by Dr. Jack L. Walzel, by coincidence the descendant of a Texas family who picked cotton, worked diligently and successfully to provide me with anoth­ er chance. They are, quite simply, the best of their profession&, and I am thankful to have been in their capable care. Unfortunately, I had no choice in how the final days of my ETHA presi­ dency played out, but fortunately there were many who moved quickly to cover my assigned tasks and ensure the conference went on as planned. Foremost among those who stepped into the breach was Vice President Dr. Beverly Rowe, who unselfishly and without hesitation provided a steady transition in an unprecedented situation. That is what good leaders do. My thanks also to the members of the ETHA board for their understanding and support. And, as always, I remain indebted Lo my friends Dr. Archie McDonald and Mrs. Portia Gordon - the ultimate ETHA team - [or their sup­ port, concern, hard work, patience. and humor. As I recovered from surgery, Archie called to check on me and to report on the success of the conference. He also requested [ provide a copy of my talk for publication in the ETHA Journal, although at the time I must admit I wasn't quite sure which of us might still be groggy from general anesthe­ sia. Nevertheless, he prevailed, and so I herehy offer my paper - written by me back when I still had gall. Festus and Mabel. Sounds like a lost episode of Gunsmoke or maybe a California folk music duo from the I960s. Festus and Mabel. Perhaps a Martin Scorsese film of life along the Brooklyn waterfront or a Willa Cather novel about a young girl coming of age in Festus, Missouri. Festus and Mabel, though - more precisely Festuf> John, Jr. and Blanche Mabel Prater Utley ­ were my parents. Both grew up on cotton farms in Bell County, Tex..as, and they lived their early lives only about a dozen miles apart along the blackland prairie in the central part of the state. Festus John Utley, Sr., who came to Texas as a young man from North Carolina seeking unspoiled farmland and economic opportunity, died a young man, the result of complications from a farming accident on his land. My father, only a year old when his father died, Dan K. Utley is a past pre,~idenJ ofthe F:asf Texas Hi~·torical Association. retired from the TeUH Historical Commission, and lives in Pflugerville. 4 FAST TEXAS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIOi\ grew up picking cotton, but hi~ mother eventually turned the homeplace over to sharecroppers and moved into the big city of Belton. As a result, my father was soon able to put his cotton picking past behind him. My mother, however, was another story, and it is her influence that sets the personal context for this paper. To her, cotton picking was something akin to a Marine Corps boot camp. It was the touchstone of her youth, and it influ­ enced her work ethic throughout her life in interesting ways. It was an integral means by which she measured one's character or values, as well as a job's degree of difficulty. To her, those who had picked cotton were automatically part of an undefined but universal fraternal organization, and they had suc­ cessfully passed the initiation - no password necessary.