Dac Crossley's Western Blog

A Nervous Night in Austin

August, 1866. The President of the United States and the US Congress were “at enmity.” Whatever President Andrew Johnson favored, Congress opposed. Sound familiar?

A similar confrontation led to a night-time standoff at the Texas Capitol in Austin, a dangerous encounter at the end of the Reconstruction Era.

As with most States in the old Confederacy, Texas fell into political disarray at the end of the Civil War. Reconstructing the Texas state government was essential but difficult to accomplish. A reconstruction convention finally abolished the Articles of Confederation and elected J. W. Throckmorton Governor.

But Throckmorton didn’t last long. Over President Johnson’s objections, Congress soon returned the Old South to military rule. General Sheridan took charge of Texas and promptly removed Governor Throckmorton, who was too lax. All civil elections were forbidden. E. M. Pease was appointed to the office of governor.

The US Congress then replaced General Sheridan with General Hancock. Governor Pease abruptly resigned, stating he couldn’t serve under the control of military officers.

When, at last, a revised Texas constitution was adopted, Governor Edmund J. Davis was elected under military orders. He proved to be Texas’s least popular governor (so far).

A resurgent Democratic Party nominated Richard Coke for governor. Governor Davis declared the election illegal. His term wasn't over. He forbid the convening of the new legislature. But the new legislators paid no attention to the governor and hastened to Austin, taking possession of the upper stories of the Capitol.

The night of January 13, 1874, found Governor Davis in charge of the ground floor of the Capitol, protected by a troop of Buffalo Soldiers. In the upper floor the legislators worked through the night, certifying the election of Governor Coke. The stage was set for a bloody confrontation. The outcome was in doubt

To the relief of Austin’s residents, morning found Governor Davis prepared to yield the election. Reconstruction in Texas came to an end on that day.

I’m basing this account on my grandmother’s textbook, A History of Texas by Anna J. H. Pennybacker. The book’s back cover states “Retail price, 65 cents; exchange price 33 cents. Any deviation therefrom should be reported to the State Superintendent in Austin, Texas.”

So be it.

Dac Crossley
October 24, 2011

“I will believe that a corporation is a person when Texas executes one.” – Doonesbury.

Last of the Chigger Season

With October, we say farewell and good riddance to those horrid pests, the chigger mites. Their population cycle peaks in early June with a second smaller generation in August. Except for a few stragglers, those reminders of summer days are now gone.

Chiggers are larval mites, looking for snake, lizard or other hosts. The adults live in the soil and feed on other small creatures. We humans are an accidental dead end for larval chiggers. One good scratch and they're gone. The bite remains.

I think I’m the US expert on chiggers, thanks to my survivorship. (Well, there’s still Lee Goff in Hawaii and Willie Wren in the Dakotas. Maybe I’m simply the oldest).

Mom had an old southern recipe for a little boy’s “redbug” bites – salt and butter. My grandmother, daughter of a druggist, recommended Absorbine Junior. My generation painted the bites with fingernail polish and claimed that it worked.

Here are two myths about chiggers: One, they burrow into your skin (they don’t), and two, Spanish moss is loaded with chiggers (It isn’t. No chiggers there. Sorry.)

And here’s a puzzle. People living west of Webb’s Line, the 98th meridian, don’t get chiggers. Walter Prescott Webb in his classic study The Great Plains used the 98th as the approximate separation of tall- and short-grass prairies. You don’t get chigger bites west of the line, where the short grass grows.

I married a young lady from Amarillo and took her south on our honeymoon. She experienced chigger attacks for the first time. An event of some significance on a honeymoon.

The puzzle is that the chiggers are there in the short-grass prairie. They’re found on rabbits, mice, snakes. Either they don’t bite humans, or their bite causes no irritation. People surely must contact them, at picnics in the parks along water courses if no place else. But no chigger attacks there. (I’m not talking about California).

It would make a nice little experiment, wouldn’t it? Expose yourself or a friend to those western chiggers and see what happens. Would they be bitten?

In the glory days of chigger studies – why didn’t somebody do that? I still wonder.

Dac Crossley
October 6, 2011

“A lot of good arguments are spoiled by some fool who knows what he is talking about.” – Poet Miguel de Unamuno.