Friday, January 26, 2007

Del Rio: Property owner uproots, hides state historical marker

Home for sale: 2 brdm, 1 bath, 1 historical marker

Perry Denison cares deeply about the history and traditions of Del Rio, as evidenced by his family’s 43-year stewardship of what may be the oldest standing structure in Val Verde County still retaining a semblance of historic integrity.

But now, Denison believes a commemorative plaque threatens to cost him a minor fortune. Denison, a San Antonio medical equipment repairman, owns the Taylor-Rivers House, 100 Hudson Drive, in the heart of south Del Rio’s historic residential neighborhoods.

In 1983, a handsome, cast-metal marker was planted in the side yard of the unassuming, stuccoed home at the intersection of Nicholson Road and Hudson Drive.

Now the plaque has been taken down and stashed away in darkness, considered by Denison as a liability to his effort to sell the property for an “asking price” of $95,000.

Read full story from swtexaslive.com

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Keeping Jasper County History Alive

Family Records, Old Newspapers, and Local History Kept Safe at the Jasper County Jail
Bertie Bryant, Jimmie Tanner and their cohorts at the Jasper County Historical Commission (JCHC) have the distinction of talking their way into jail, and they're proud of it. Up until a few years ago, members of the commission kept the important county archives in their own homes, but then the Texas Historical Commission started requiring that records be kept in a central location with public access.

About the same time, Jasper County built the new jail adjacent to the sheriff's office and decommissioned the old jail on the courthouse square.The old jail then got a second life protecting the records of the Jasper County Historical Commission....
Read full article from the Jaspernewsboy.com

Monday, January 22, 2007

Texas Woodmen of the World Delegates 1915

Texas, New Mexico and Arizona Delegates to the Woodmen of the World Convention in St. Paul, MN in July 1915.

View the photo

In the photograph: W. A. Fraser, front row with two little girls in front of him; John Stephens of El Campo (unsure which one is John).

The rest are unknown. You might recognize some of these folks.

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Monday, January 15, 2007

Will the Real Home of the Hamburger Please Stand Up....

Everyone needs a claim to fame. In Athens, Texas is the hamburger, for in the late 1880s the very first hamburger was served at Fletcher Davis' Luncheonette. Or maybe not.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. --A burger battle is brewing between a Texas state legislator and the owners of Louis' Lunch, a restaurant established in 1895, where it has been claimed that the hamburger was invented.

However, with the new session of the Texas legislature now under way, Republican State Rep. Betty Brown has proposed a resolution declaring Athens, Texas, is the original home of the hamburger.

Brown, an Athens resident, says that a long ago resident of the town, Fletcher Davis, had a luncheonette in the late 1880s and sold the first burgers there.

A magazine article also suggests that Davis not only created the hamburger, but sold it from a booth at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904.

Those claims are not sitting well with Ken Lassen Sr., 89, the third-generation owner of Louis' Lunch where he says his grandfather came up with the first hamburger

Lassen said it happened in 1900 when a man rushed into Louis' and asked for something he could eat on the run. Louis Lassen, Ken Lassen's grandfather, grabbed a broiled beef patty and put it between two slices of bread.
So the battle of the burger wars continues...

Read the full article at boston.com

Clyde High School, Clyde, Texas 1921 Basketball Team Photo


View the Photograph

In the photograph: Alfred Brown, Cliff Berry, Truett Hollingshead, Loyd Campbell, Roguy Tabor - coach, Clifford Bouchette, Alva Osborne, Gideon Tyler, Wallace McNeal

More Texas Old Photos