Austin Happenings

Though its masthead proclaimed that the Texas State Democrat held itself in devotion to “those things which make happiness in the Texas home, prosperity on the Texas farm and contribute to the development of Texas resources,” news is news.

And news, especially in 1902, sold newspapers. Even high-minded sheets like the State Democrat had to report the various unfortunate interruptions of the status quo that make news.

Gunfire for sure never makes for a happy home, and as the May 29 edition of the Austin weekly noted, “There seems to be a great deal [of] promiscuous shooting and no one knows who does it. Saturday night two [men] and a…preacher named Pitts were shot. Two [men] have been arrested that are supposed to have been in the shooting affair.”

The same issue noted that J.W.D. Singleton, a Capital City hack driver, “was fired at by unknown parties about midnight Sunday. He states that the [man] who fired the shots must have mistook him for one of the parties in the shooting of the preacher Pitts.”

What the preacher had done to provoke the wrath of man went unreported.

The same night Singleton found himself dodging bullets, someone broke into William Ulit’s meat market and stole $25 worth of knives, butcher blocks and other items.

At 8th and Waller, Mrs. Joseph Thompson did some crime prevention, shooting at a burglar about to make off with her silver service. The would-be thief dropped the silver and “took to his heels.”

Even in the early 1900s, riding a bicycle on city streets could be dangerous. A runaway horse struck Roy Wilson as he rode his “wheel” (an early term for bicycle) on East 5th Street. As the Democrat reported, “Neither boy nor horse were injured but the wheel was badly damaged.”

In other Capital City news that distant spring, the just-completed Seton Hospital opened to the public, the local postmaster got a $100-a-year raise and former Gov. Frank R. Lubbock was in town to testify before a legislative committee.

Farmers could not have enjoyed reading that “boll weevil are spreading despite the untiring efforts to stop their progress” but may have felt a bit better in noting that Round Rock resident C.F. Wacker reported that crops in his area were in good shape.

John W. Hornsby, a descendant of one of Travis County’s earliest settlers, withdrew from the Railroad Commission race while at Pflugerville, where “one of the largest political picnics given this campaign” took place.

Laura King Orr would be a June bride in ceremonies at the First Baptist Church on the 11th. The prospective groom, Charles Huberich, taught at the University of Texas.

Life went on, but so did death.

The weekly newspaper reported five deaths since its previous issue, including the passing of M.A. McClaughlan. He had served the South during the Civil War in Company A, 11th Alabama Infantry. He died at the Confederate Veterans Home on West Sixth St. Burial would follow in the State Cemetery.

Apparently never quite able to live up to its lofty ideals, the State Democrat itself soon succumbed of poor circulation brought on by weak advertising sales.


© Mike Cox - "Texas Tales"
August 22, 2007 column
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