LOCAL ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE EDITION APRIL 2016 Helping Local Libraries Gettysburg Casualty Best Pies. Yum! HATSON! Texas hatmakers have you covered We’re e on a mission to set the neighborhood standard. With the most dependable equipment, we create spectacular spaces. We thrive on the fresh air, the challenge and the results of our efforts. We set the bar high to create a space we’re proud to call our own. kubota.com © Kubota Tractorr Corpporation, 2016 Since 1944 April 2016 FAVORITES 5 Letters 6 Currents 20 Local Co-op News Get the latest information plus energy and safety tips from your cooperative. 33 Texas History Gettysburg’s Last Casualty By E.R. Bills 35 Recipes Your Best Pies 39 Focus on Texas Photo Contest: Swings 40 Around Texas List of Local Events 42 Hit the Road Taking in Tyler By Melissa Gaskill Jeff Biggars applies steam ONLINE as he shapes a hat. TexasCoopPower.com Find these stories online if they don’t FEATURES appear in your edition of the magazine. Observations Cowboy Hatters Texas artisans crown your cranium in Tough Kid, Tough Breaks 8 a grand and storied tradition By Clay Coppedge Story by Gene Fowler | Photos by Tadd Myers Texas USA The Erudite Ranger Community Anchors Enlivening libraries establishes By Lonn Taylor 12 an environment for learning, sharing and loving literacy By Dan Oko NEXT MONTH New Directions in Farming A younger generation seeks alternatives to keep the family business thriving. 33 39 35 42 BIGGARS: TADD MYERS. PLANT: CANDY1812 | DOLLAR PHOTO CLUB ON THE COVER J.W. Brooks handcrafts hats for cowboys and cowgirls at his shop in Lipan. Photo by Tadd Myers TEXAS ELECTRIC COOPERATIVES BOARD OF DIRECTORS: David Marricle, Chair, Muleshoe; Mark Tamplin, Vice Chair, Kirbyville; Bryan Lightfoot, Secretary-Treasurer, Bartlett; Mike R. Hagy, Tipton, Oklahoma; William F. Hetherington, Bandera; Mark Rollans, Hondo; Anne Vaden, Corinth • PRESIDENT/CEO: Mike Williams, Austin • COMMUNICATIONS & MEMBER SERVICES COMMITTEE: Jerry Boze, Kaufman; Rick Haile, McGregor; Greg Henley, Tahoka; Billy Marricle, Bellville; Mark McClain, Roby; Blaine Warzecha, Victoria; Kathy Wood, Marshall • MAGAZINE STAFF: Martin Bevins, Vice President, Communications & Member Services; Charles J. Lohrmann, Editor; Tom Widlowski, Associate Editor; Karen Nejtek, Production Manager; Andy Doughty, Creative Manager; Grace Arsiaga, Print Production Specialist; Chris Burrows, Communications Specialist; Christine Carlson, Communications & Member Services Assistant; Paula Disbrowe, Food Editor; Suzanne Halko, Communications Specialist; Jane Sharpe, Senior Designer; Ellen Stader, Communications Specialist; Shannon Oelrich, Proofreader TexasCoopPower.com April 2016 Texas Co-op Power 3 Here today. Here tomorrow. BUILD A HOME YOU TRUST WITH A COMPANY YOU TRUST. Make yourself at home in a beautiful steel building from Mueller. From size to colors to a style that’s made for you, we’re here to help. As Mueller celebrates 85 years of building strong products and solid relationships, enjoy the peace of mind that we will be around for you, now and in the future. Call or visit our website today. www.muellerinc.com 877-2-MUELLER (877-268-3553) LETTERS A Crooner and His Crony Gene Austin’s family connec- Dig This Story tions gave us another great Martha Deeringer’s article The First Texans? [February 2016] musician [The Original Crooner, February 2016]. Austin gave his was most interesting. I always enjoy and learn much younger cousin, Tommy from her articles. Overstreet, the opportunity to perform with him when the I’m always looking for places famous crooner came to per- to find arrowheads. Cooper, in form in Houston in the ’50s, when Overstreet was a teen- East Texas, had a neat place to ager. This experience, Austin’s hunt arrowheads. mentoring and Overstreet’s natural talent allowed him to GLENN SNYDER | BLUE RIDGE | FANNIN COUNTY EC bloom into a great entertainer and Music Row executive. Editor’s note: Picking up arrowheads on Overstreet was a true Texas public land is illegal. Be sure you know the treasure. His story is told in his law before you begin your search. autobiography, A Road Less Traveled (Roots and Branches, 2013). SCOTT CAMERON | LAGO VISTA PEDERNALES EC pines, which are softwoods, not Flooded With Memories overwhelming. hardwoods. There’s a big differ- I live in Alvin, and we were in This exhibit is traveling Kolache and Trees ence botanically, visually and the process of having our house through Texas, and I would I just read East Texas Outdoors commercially, as softwoods are built when the rains hit [Alvin’s encourage everyone to see it [January 2016] by Melissa gymnosperms that are mostly Deluge: It Reigns, October 2015]. [rememberingourfallen.org/ Gaskill and was bothered by evergreen conifers with narrow No water came into the house, texas]. Your heart for our her use of the term “kolach” as needles and soft wood. Hard- but we had to chase down military will never be the a sausage wrapped in yeasty woods are angiosperms that lumber and materials that had same again. bread. She ate a pig in a blanket, are mostly deciduous trees with floated away. We had built 2 feet LORENA HADLEY | SCHERTZ not a kolach. broad leaves and hard wood. above the road grade, which GUADALUPE VALLEY EC My husband is Czech, and he Oaks and hickories are good probably saved us. Later, the knows his kolache. They are examples of hardwoods. county decided to build the road always filled with fruit. Prune is GREG GRANT | CENTER up 2 feet, so we have had water traditional. Sometimes they are DEEP EAST TEXAS EC in our house twice. I don’t wish GET MORE TCP AT filled with cottage or cream PINEYWOODS NATIVE PLANT CENTER that on anybody—no fun. TexasCoopPower.com cheese, but they’re never savory. DONNA AMERSON | ALVIN Sign up for our E-Newsletter for I remember a very good article SAM HOUSTON EC monthly updates, prize drawings in Texas Co-op Power devoted and more! to kolache [The Kolach Trail, Pride in the Military January 2014]. The September Pick of the WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! | HONDO Month [Around Texas, Septem- DANIELLA SPANN ONLINE: TexasCoopPower.com/share MEDINA EC ber 2015] was Remember Our EMAIL: [email protected] Fallen, a display of 600 photos MAIL: Editor, Texas Co-op Power, I especially enjoy the Hit the in Cameron honoring Texans 1122 Colorado St., 24th Floor, Road stories at the end of the who died in the wars on terror- Austin, TX 78701 Please include your town and electric co-op. magazine. Somebody probably ism. The pictures of the men Letters may be edited for clarity and length. already pointed out that the Big and women who lost their Thicket picture [right] was of lives for our freedom were Texas Co-op Power Magazine TEXAS CO-OP POWER VOLUME 72, NUMBER 10 (USPS 540-560). Texas Co-op Power is published monthly by Texas Electric Cooperatives (TEC). Periodical Postage Paid at Austin, TX, and at additional offices. TEC is the statewide association representing 75 electric cooperatives. Texas Co-op Power’s website is TexasCoopPower.com. Call (512) 454-0311 or email [email protected]. SUBSCRIPTION PRICE is $4.08 per year for individual members of subscribing cooperatives. If you are not a member of a subscribing cooperative, you can purchase an annual subscription at the nonmember rate of $7.50. Individual copies and back issues are available for $3 each. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Texas Co-op Power (USPS 540-560), 1122 Colorado St., 24th Floor, Austin, TX 78701. Please enclose label from this copy of Texas Co-op Power showing old address and key numbers. ADVERTISING: Advertisers interested in buying display ad space in Texas Co-op Power and/or in our 30 sister publications in other states, contact Martin Bevins at (512) 486-6249. Advertisements in Texas Co-op Power are paid solicitations. The publisher neither endorses nor guarantees in any manner any product or company included in this publication. Product satisfaction and delivery responsibility lie solely with the advertiser. © Copyright 2016 Texas Electric Cooperatives, Inc. Reproduction of this issue or any portion of it is expressly prohibited without written permission. ARROWHEADS: ALETHA ST. ROMAIN. BIG THICKET: STAN A. WILLIAMS | TXDOT STAN ROMAIN. BIG THICKET: ALETHA ST. ARROWHEADS: Willie Wiredhand © Copyright 2016 National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. TexasCoopPower.com April 2016 Texas Co-op Power 5 CURRENTS HAPPENINGS NATIONAL LINEMAN APPRECIATION DAY Is This Up THE MEN WE Your Alley? LOOK UP TO NATIONAL LINEMAN APPRECIATION DAY is April 11. It’s not prudent to climb a pole and shake their FOR ANTIQUES ADDICTS who can’t contain themselves at the sight of rotary hands, but remember to thank telephones, apothecary bottles or windup doorbells, Antique Alley Texas might them when you meet them eye- to-eye. They are among the be the perfect stop. Antique Alley, April 15–17, can’t contain itself to Grandview 18,000 full-time linemen at elec- and is spread out over 30 miles of back roads—toward tric co-ops across the country. FLEA MARKET first Cleburne, Alvarado, Venus and Maypearl. Linemen keep your lights on. appeared in English in When nasty storms hit and you Nita Redmon, a member of HILCO Electric Cooperative 1922, a translation of seek shelter, they grab their the French market’s and one of Antique Alley’s organizers, says it never gets old gear, charge into the teeth of name for secondhand the worst weather, repair when a visitor tells her, “This was my first Antique Alley goods, which in the damage and restore electricity. 1800s sometimes con- Texas, but it won’t be my last.” Who doesn’t appreciate that? tained fleas. Another The flea market-style event started in 1999 and includes story is that used-goods Co-op linemen also readily merchants were forced volunteer through NRECA stops in pastures along FM 916, FM 4 and Texas Highway 81.