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"CHARLEY
ECKHARDT'S TEXAS"
by C. F. Eckhardt
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New
Before Maw Bell
- Rural Telephone Systems in the West 5-8-08
Alexander Graham Bell’s patent expired in the 1890s, and as soon as
it did anyone could legally manufacture and sell a telephone. Almost
instantly both Sears, Roebuck and Montgomery Ward began offering telephone
sets in their catalogs... Across much of the west, to the west of
old US 81 (present I-35) in Texas... there was already a network of
wire covering most of the country, in the form of barbed-wire fences...
The Forgotten Hero 4-24-08
Who was the first—and possibly the greatest—hero of the Texas Revolution?
He’s a man you may have heard of, but not very often. Try Ben Milam...
Hellagain Hill
- How Elgin Got Its Name 4-7-08
In Elgin they’ll tell you the town was named for a Mister Elgin...
If you ask the members of the Shadetree Historical Society, they’ll
give you a version of Elgin’s naming that has nothing to do with a
Mr. Elgin. They’ll tell you the original name of the place was Helgin—derived
from ‘Hell again.’...
The Long Shot 3-17-08
If you know Texas history, you know the story. At the second battle
of Adobe Walls buffalo shooter Billy Dixon used his Sharps rifle to
shoot a Comanche chief off his horse at about 1000 yards. With the
chief dead, especially at such extreme range, the Comanches called
it quits and left.
The
L-O-N-G Roads of Texas: Texas-State-Highway-16 3-3-08
Texas’ state highways are some of the most interesting ways to travel.
They pass through—not go around—interesting communities of every sort.
The towns are both beautiful—sometimes (and sometimes not so beautiful)—and
often historically interesting. The two longest state highways in
Texas are Highway 16 and Highway 6. Both cut across scenic and historically
significant parts of the state... |
Columns
- Biweekly
Preserving
Meat on the Frontier 2-21-08
Re-examining
the Mexican War 2-3-08
The
Wail of the Wampus Cat 1-3-08
Panoramic
Drawings 12-1-07
The
General Was A Spy—And So Was The Pirate 11-2-07
James Wilkinson was Commanding General, United States Army... He
was also the top spy in the US for the Spanish Empire. He was designated
Agent #1... Agents #12 and #13 were the brothers Laffite, Pierre
and Jean...
Aliens
Amongst Us 10-21-07
About
some plants and animals that are entirely foreign to Texas—indeed,
to the US...
Jesse
James. Miss Shirley’s Story 10-8-07
First
to Fly 9-19-07
The
Second Battle of the Alamo 9-4-07
‘Mysterious
Cattle Deaths’ Not So Mysterious 8-15-07
Was
South Carolina’s ‘Lost’ First Lady Buried On The Texas Coast?
8-1-07
The
King's Texan and USS Texas 7-14-07
Did
John Wilkes Booth Live In Texas? 6-30-07
Who
Was J. Frank Dalton, Anyway? 6-15-07
History's
Most Successful Failure - US Army's Camel Corps 6-1-07
In May of 1856, at Powderhorn, Texas, the US Army's most successful
experiment in overland transportation before the development of
four-wheel-drive vehicles powered by internal combustion engines
began. By the end of May, 1866, the experiment was dead.
Henry
O. Flipper, An Epic Remaining To Be Told 5-14-07
Perhaps the most enigmatic figure in the annals of the American
West is 2/LT Henry O. Flipper, 10th United States Cavalry...
Who
Killed the Chief? 5-1-07
Peta Nocona was the husband of the captive white woman Cynthia Ann
Parker-and the father of perhaps the greatest of all Comanche chiefs,
Quanah Parker. He was chief of a band of Quohada Comanches. Over
his death, over the years, there has arisen considerable controversy.
Bloody
Christmas 4-16-07
The Murder of LaSalle County Sheriff Charles B. McKinney
The
Bartlett Bank Robbery That Wasn't 3-28-07
Back during the 'hippie era' of the '60s, a group of 'unwashed intellectuals'
out of Austin decided to do their bit for the Age of Aquarius by
robbing a bank...
The
Ancient Art of Dowsing 2-16-07
In the search for water, minerals, and many other things, there
is nothing quite as controversial as the practice of dowsing...
Sarah's
Dream 2-2-07
Josiah Wilbarger - Scalped Alive on Onion Creek
The
Other Houston 1-22-07
Temple Lea Houston
The
Great Blackeyed Pea Hoax
1-1-07
Did you eat blackeyed peas for good luck on New Year's Day?
Did you do so because it's a 'great ante-bellum Southern tradition?'
If so, congratulations. You have been scammed by one of the most
likeable con-artists in Texas history...
Mr.
Acton's Story 1-1-07
"...We headed for that light. It was slow going, but we made
progress-but when we got to it, there was no house..."
Fox
in the Pickup Bed 12-15-06
O.
Henry and the Shoal Creek Treasure 12-1-06
The
Little Engine That Couldn't 11-15-06
The Fredericksburg & Northern Railroad
Conan
in Texas: The Robert E. Howard Story 11-1-06
Victor
T. Hamlin & Alley Oop 10-24-06
Santa
Anna or Ste. Anne? 10-11-06
When Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna y Perez de LeBron was captured
following the battle at San Jacinto, people in the United States
government wanted to talk to him...
Stampede
Mesa 9-27-06
"Stampede Mesa was-and may still be-one of the most thoroughly
haunted places in Texas."
The
Devilin' of Old John 9-20-06
Old John was about the oldest man I knew who was still working as
a cowboy, and I don't know how old he was when he died...
To
Cultivate Vine and Olive 9-13-06
"Texas under six flags." That's been around pretty much since who
flung the chunk, and it's wrong. "Texas under sixty flags" might
be closer to the truth, and even some of the six we claim never
flew over Texas... One French flag we don't claim actually did fly
over Texas...
How
the Texas Rangers Helped Win WWII 9-6-06
Cowboy
Life on a Small Spread 8-30-06
The
Coolerator 8-21-06
To
Sleep Tight 8-16-06
The old expression "Good night, sleep tight" once had real meaning.
Beds didn't have springs in early Texas. They had ropes...
To
Build a House II 8-9-06
Adobe Houses
"...Adobe was brought to the Americas by the Spanish..."
To
Build a House 8-2-06
Texas Log Cabins and Log Houses
The
Whirlwind Lt. John Lapham Bullis and the Seminole Negro Scouts
7-26-06
One of the least-known heroes of the Texas frontier was a man known
to his followers as The Whirlwind and to his enemies as The Thunderbolt.
Bob
Wills: The Greatest Fiddle-Player of Them All 7-19-06
"...He was a shirt-tail kid from Turkey... Sixty years after
that beginning he was a legend-Bob Wills ..."
The
Gunfight that Killed Helena
7-12-06
"The Colonel's son has been gunned down, in cold blood or so
the story implies..."
Panoramic
Drawings
7-5-06
"If you do much historical research, one of the things you're
going to run across is beautiful, highly-detailed panoramic drawings
done in the 17th, 18th, and the first half of the 19th Centuries..."
The
Ghost on Highway 281
6-28-06
... "Oh," somebody said, "you saw Lackey's ghost." Thereby, as the
old saying goes, hangs a tale..."
The
Ranger's Creek of Gold
6-21-06
In the first chapter of what was the treasure-hunter's bible for
many years, J. Frank Dobie's CORONADO'S CHILDREN... there are enough
clues to tell you...
San
Antonio's Blue Book 6-14-06
'The Blue Book' is the legendary directory of a city's 'red light'
district...
National
Dish of Texas
6-7-06
Chili con carne.
The
Rise and Fall of Meansville, Texas
5-24-06
You have to hunt for Meansville, Texas, and unless you have
a guide who knows San Patricio County well, you won't find it.
The
Lake That Wasn't and Was and Wasn't and Is
5-12-06
The story of Caddo Lake
The
Ghost on Milam Street
Seguin's Headless Ghost
Column
begins May 2006
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C. F. ECKHARDT
His
full name is Charles Frederick but uses his initials because his name
is too long to get on one line, goes by Charley with an 'ey' because
he's not a perfume. He was born a long time ago in Austin, Texas,
and grew up in an atmosphere where Texas and Southern history were
part of his life almost from the day he was born. His paternal grandmother,
a lifelong member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the
Daughters of the Republic of Texas -- she was a 'real daughter' in
the former case, since her father was a Confederate soldier -- who
lived with his family until he was 12, was born when Sam Bass, Billy
the Kid, Jesse James, and George A. Custer were still all alive and
kicking, and was a young lady before Butch Cassidy stole his first
horse. The man across the street was born when Texas was still a republic,
the man next door was the grandson of one of Jim Bowie's companions
at the Calf Creek fight in 1831, the man up the street was visited
frequently by an elderly uncle who knew way too much more about a
couple of Clay County, Missouri boys named Dingus and Frank than any
peaceloving feller had any business knowing, and just down the creek
lived a feller named J. Frank Dobie.
Eckhardt grew up in Austin and on about 400 acres of hardpan, cedar
brake, and honeycomb limestone in western Williamson County, Texas.
He attended the University of Texas when there was only one, and managed
to stay on good terms with both H. Bailey Carrol and Walter P. Webb,
which was considered something of an achievement, as the two Ph. D.s
hated each other's guts. He majored in history and holds a BA in the
subject. Since jobs in 'the history bidness' were hard to come by
unless one was politically 'correct' - which Eckhardt has spent a
lifetime refusing to be - he spent many years as a peace officer and
soldier. Finally tiring of being a moving target, Eckhardt pursued
a trade that would allow him both the time and the intellectual energy
to pursue his first love, writing about Texas and the American West.
From this trade he retired on 30 March 2002, to pursue writing full
time.
Eckhardt's
books include THE LOST SAN SABA MINES (Texas Monthly Press, 1980),
UNSOLVED TEXAS MYSTERIES (Republic of Texas Press, 1990-co-author),
TEXAS TALES YOUR TEACHER NEVER TOLD YOU (Republic of Texas Press,
1990), TALES OF BADMEN, BAD WOMEN, AND BAD PLACES-FOUR CENTURIES OF
TEXAS OUTLAWRY (Texas Tech University Press, 2000), and TEXAS SMOKE-MUZZLE-
LOADERS ON THE FRONTIER, illustrated by Wesley G. Williams (Texas
Tech Press, 2001). Forthcoming is "Tales Told Across Campfires," from
Texas Tech Press, probably in 2005, and of course the perennial 'novel
in progress' that all writers have. He has been published in magazines
as diverse as The Tombstone Epitaph and the short-lived revival of
Harper's Weekly, and in magazines in Great Britain, Switzerland, and
Australia.
Eckhardt lives in an historic home in Seguin,
Texas, with Vicki, his wife of more years than she likes to admit,
and numerous critters. |
Texas Books by C. F. Eckhardt
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| Texas
Tales Your Teacher Never Told You |
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| Tales
of Badmen, Bad Women, and Bad Places |
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