I’ve been looking through a book I picked up for a dollar or two at a library book sale several years back. Titled Fort Worth’s Log Cabin Village, A History and Guide, it tells how the important historical attraction came into existence and catalogues the preserved structures from pioneer days in North Texas. Written by Terry G. Jordan, with assistance from others, the book was published by the Texas State Historical Association in 1980.
For a western author, this book is almost as valuable as the village itself. Maybe more, because it’s filled with photographs of the village and details of log cabin and log house construction. There’s a distinct difference between the two, by the way.
A log cabin or “pole shack” was a primitive log dwelling quickly put up by pioneers and often intended as temporary shelter. Small, without windows and with bare-earth floors, cabins were built of crudely notched logs, with bark left on, that projected at the corners of the structure. Chimneys were of “stick-and-dirt” construction. Walls rose just to the top of the door opening; the roof was laid with clapboards held down by heavy poles.
Pioneers often got together for log rollings and house raisings. The book quotes W. R. Strong, who came to North Texas in 1846. Mentioning several neighbors who helped him, Mr. Strong said, “My house was a log cabin fourteen feet square. . . . I put the logs up round when I built my house in the spring then in the fall I took a chopping ax and hewed the logs down smooth, then I cut chinkin, out of little poles mostly, and chinked the cracks and plastered them over with mud. I hewed out puncheons [split logs with one face smoothed] for the floor.”
Most log cabins served for only a few years before they were replaced by more permanent structures. A log house, by comparison, was built of squared timbers, carefully notched at the corners and sawn off flush, tightly chinked and with wooden floors. (Mr. Strong apparently worked hard to turn his cabin into a house.)
A log house might have one or two windows and a chimney built of stone or brick. It was generally larger than a cabin both in height and living space. According to my treasured library discard, log houses were usually built by carpenters who traveled from place to place, offering their skills for a price. Most were white, but some were black slaves hired out by their masters. Itinerant chimney masons followed the carpenters from site to site.
Fort Worth’s Log Cabin Village actually displays log houses rather than the humble log cabins, but it’s worth noting that the two types of dwelling both stem from earlier cultures that flowed westward, hand in hand, as the frontier expanded. In future posts, I hope to go into more detail about the building of log homes and furnishings.
Now, it’s my pleasure to tell you Dearest Irish(Texas Devlins, Book III) has been nominated for a Rone Award in the American Historical category by InD’Tale Magazine. This comes on top of a nomination for a 2014 Reader’s Choice Award by BigAl’s Books and Pals. Voting for the Rone Award is open. http://www.indtale.com/2014-rone-awards
Jane Toombs, accomplished author, dear friend, and parent to five children, two
stepchildren, and loved by six grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren has passed away.
She was the published author of about one hundred books, novellas and short stories, both in print and electronic. These include the various romance genres--gothic, suspense, contemporary, historical, Regency and paranormal--as well as other genres such as mystery, fantasy and horror. Her awards include a 1995 Bookrak Award for best-selling series book ( The Abandoned Bride), a 1998 Prism Award for best dark paranormal ( Lover's Moon) and a 2003 EPIC Award for best non-fiction.(Words Perfect: Becoming Your Own Critique Partner), co-authored with Janet Lane Walters. Other EPIC awards include a 2003 award for Best Anthology: Shifters (With three other authors.)
Jane was a member of a closed twelve author group of authors designed to promote each other called Jewels Of The Quill, where she bore the title of Dame Turquoise and had her own page at the site: http://www.jewelsofthequill.com
This group has won many awards: In 2006, Best Anthology: Tales From the Treasure Trove Vol. I , a Jewels of The Quill anthology with multiple authors. (The Turquoise Mask.) And again in 2008 the JOTQ won Best Anthology with Tales From The Treasure Trove Vol.III (The Turquoise Talisman) and we won Best Anthology once more in 2010 with A Valentine's Day Anthology, Magical Kisses. (The Third Kiss).
Jane was also a charter member of Romance Writers of America and belonged to several of their chapters.
Because Jane wrote for Harlequin for many years and they sold foreign rights, she had books published in many foreign countries in their languages.Besides Harlequin, she wrote for other New York publishers in the past, but most recently concentrated her efforts on writing only for electronic publishing companies.
Those who knew Jane held her and her work in the highest respect.
Today, rather than write
about a cowboy or western-related subject, I’d like to take the opportunity to
talk about a western anthology that I am privileged to be a part of. Several
contributors of Cowboy Kisses are also part of this collaboration. I’m excited
and pleased to be partnering with more than a dozen other western romance
writers for the short story Anthology, Rawhide 'n Roses, which is set for
release on March 15th.
When the idea was first
proposed on the Western Romance Writers thread on the Amazon Meet Our Authors
Forum for each of the authors to write a short story and publish it as a
collection, I jumped at the chance. A short story of roughly 2000 words? Sure.
No problem. How hard could it be?
Famous last words. Writing a
short story is a real challenge, as I came to find out very fast. I think the
shortest novel I’ve written is just under 70,000 words. Writing a complete
story using fewer words than an average chapter soon became an almost
impossible undertaking.
For my story, I chose to go with
what was familiar to me, namely the Yellowstone setting from my Yellowstone
Romance Series and its spin-off trilogy, the Teton Romance Trilogy. I
picked a character I introduced briefly as a very minor character in Teton
Splendor, added the character who is the hero in my current WIP, Teton
Sunset, and added a new character, to build my story. The resulting
short story is called Yellowstone Proposal, which takes
place in the time between the last two of the Teton books, Teton Splendor and Teton
Sunset.
Blurb:
Evan Connelly has been in love
with Kara Russell since he first arrived in St. Louis. But how could he
possibly tell her? He was from Boston, and she grew up in the wilderness of a
place he’d only heard of. She couldn’t possibly see anything in him. When Kara
returns home to her beloved mountains, can Evan find the courage to follow her
and make his feelings known?
Excerpt:
“Mr. Osborne? I would like to
request a leave of absence.”
Zach Osborne had glanced up
from the papers he’d been studying at his desk.
“Do you need to return to
Boston?”
“No, sir. I . . . ah . . . I
made a mistake when Miss Russell left.”
“Mistake?” The corners of
Zach’s mouth twitched. “What sort of mistake?”
“I let her get away, sir.”
Evan glanced at the ground. “I should have told her that I love her.”
“You want to go after her?”
Zach’s eyebrows rose.
“I’ve lived in Boston all my
life, Mr. Osborne. All I’ve known is how to keep my nose in a book. My family
was in disbelief when I told them I was moving to St. Louis. Here, I met a girl
I would like to make my wife, and I should have made my feelings known. If she
rejects me, then so be it, but at least I won’t have any regrets that I didn’t
try to win her over.”
“I wish I could go with you,
Evan, but you know I can’t leave the practice on such short notice.”
“I’m not asking you to go
with me.”
“All right, Evan, but you’ll
need a guide to take you up the Yellowstone.”
Three days later, Zach
Osborne had introduced him to Lucas Walker, an army scout who was heading back
home to the Tetons for the winter.
“You’re in love with little
Kara?” Lucas had given him the skeptical once-over. “I warn you right now. That
girl is a handful. I’ve known her since we were little kids. Her claws are
sharper than those of a mountain lion.”
“The Kara Russell I’ve met
was nothing less than a lady,” Evan said, standing taller.
“Suit yourself.” Lucas
shrugged, grinning broadly. “But don’t say I didn’t warn you. Just understand
that heading to the Yellowstone will be harsher than anything you’ll ever
experience.”
“It’ll be worth it, if I can
win Miss Russell’s hand.”
Lucas laughed. “You sound
like my brother. He suffered from a sickness of the heart, too. I sure as hell
hope I’m never afflicted. I don’t need my brain addled that way.”
“When do we leave?”
“Before first light in the
morning.”
The Yellowstone Romance Series
For Aimee Donovan, it started out as an unbelievable
journey into the past. Little did she know that her time travel would shape the
destiny of the place we know today as Yellowstone.
The Yellowstone Romance Series is an enticing mixture
of adventure, love, and danger through the generations as we meet the Osborne
and Russell families.
From the
dawn of the rugged and untamed wilderness of Yellowstone to the majestic
national park we know today, we feel the passion, heartache, and excitement on
every page.
My books (and audiobooks) are
available at the following links!
Sisters of Mercy, Bennett Ave, Cripple Creek, circa 1899
Cripple Creek, Colorado
is a small town nestled in the Rocky Mountains, west of Colorado
Springs. The town originally had a population of about
500 people. The gold rush in the 1890’s led to the population booming to 10,000
and later to 50,000. Saloons, brothels, shops and hotels lined East
Bennett Avenue, the main thoroughfare through
town. Most structures were made of wood, and folks from various walks of life
ventured there to either live or strike it rich. Once such group residing in Cripple
Creek at that time was the Sisters of Mercy.
The Sisters of Mercy was founded in Dublin,
Ireland, circa 1831, by
Catherine McAuley. Catherine was born into a Catholic family. She was orphaned
at age nineteen and went to live with relatives who had suffered financial loss
and disapproved of her religious beliefs. She was forced to find employment and
residence elsewhere and took a position as household manager for William and
Catherine Callaghan, and as Mrs. Callaghan’s companion. McAuley spent the next
two decades administering to the sick and the poor, especially women. When the
Callaghans’ passed, she inherited their home. In 1827, she opened the first
House of Mercy in Dublin. The House
of Mercy provided religious, educational and social services to poor women and
girls.
Through her work, and with the support of the Dublin
clergy and two associates, Catherine established the Religious Institute of the
Sisters of Mercy. Members were known as ‘walking nuns’ as they assisted the
sick and the poor. When Catherine died in 1841, the organization had over 100
members, with 10 foundations in Ireland.
The Sisters of Mercy came to the United
States in 1843, by invitation from the
Bishop of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Within ten years, the organization expanded
to New York, San
Francisco and other parts of the country, establishing
schools and hospitals. They arrived in Colorado
in 1882 to establish a school and hospital in Durango.
In 1889, the sisters were working in Denver
and in 1894, Sister Mary Claver Coleman was sent to Cripple
Creek to establish Cripple Creek’s
first hospital, St. Nicholas Hospital.
Like many of the buildings in Cripple
Creek, the sisters’ hospital was constructed of wood.
A major fire erupted in Cripple Creek,
circa 1896. It began on one side of the street and worked its way to the other
side. Eventually, the fire was put out, but another major fire erupted four
days later. With flames raging, men tossed sticks of dynamite into buildings in
an effort to slow down the fire. The Sisters of Mercy scrambled to get their
patients out of the hospital and to safety when one anti-Catholic man entered the
hospital and tossed a stick of dynamite into the stove’s chimney, hoping to destroy
the hospital. The dynamite exploded prematurely. He lost his leg, and the
sisters evacuated and treated him, too. After he healed, he repented and thanked
them for saving his life.
St. Nicholas Hospital, Cripple Creek, circa 1902
The original hospital survived the fire, but the Sisters saw
a need for a modern, safer structure. They built a new hospital of brick,
complete with electric lights, hot and cold running water and a surgery
department. The first two floors of the new building were dedicated to
patients. The sisters’ quarters were on the third floor and an orderly lived in
the attic. The hospital received its first patient in 1898 and was named for and
dedicated to Bishop Nicholas Matz. The Sisters eventually left Cripple
Creek in 1924. The hospital was purchased and operated
by local doctors. It eventually closed in 1972 and in 1995 was refurbished into
the Hotel St. Nicholas.
Today, Cripple Creek
is host to several casinos and receives many tourists, local and from afar,
daily.
"Kiss the children and sister Minnie for
me. And tell her whatever she does, never to marry a traveling man, they are
the most unhappy men on earth."—E. Barton Martin to his wife, Julia, April
6, 1877. (from 100 Years on the Road by Timothy B. Spears)
While the numbers were probably higher, The U.S. Census reported 7,262
traveling salesmen in 1870 and 223,732 in 1930. But what in the world did they sell?
Peddlers have a long history in
the U.S. The profession was largely enjoyed by Jewish, Italian and Greek
immigrants and those with a bit of gypsy in their veins. They would set up a
stationary market along a well travelled route where they could sell a variety
of wares from kitchen utensils to scrap paper to tonic water. The more successful peddlers usually
entertained their potential buyers with music.
Salesmen were different from peddlers in that
they were employed by a company to sale or market one specific item like the
sewing machine, cast iron ovens, saddles or even candy. I never gave it much
thought, but the items in a trading post or store had to come from somewhere.
The clerk might order from a catalogue or trade with travelers headed west, but
I imagine some of the bigger items came from traveling salesmen.
The I.M. Singer & Company which manufactured and sold
Singer Sewing machines was one company that employed salesmen. And in 1856, Edward
Clark instigated the hire-purchase plan, which would lead to the concept of the
layaway plan. With this plan, those with limited resources could still buy
their product.
With the advent of the
railroad in the 1850s, wholesalers established businesses in larger cities and
became intermediaries between retailers and manufactures. Travelling salesmen
would negotiate contracts with retailers. Between the 1800s and mid 1940s, salesmen used miniatures to entice
customers to buy. Some miniatures actually worked to show the potential buyer
how the product functioned. A miniature used by a salesman would have the
product’s name engraved in it thus distinguishing it from a toy. In a BriefHistory of Modern Miniatures by Lisa Robinson reports, “Farm equipment was a
natural candidate for such samples and there are some excellent examples of working
plows, reapers and other farm machinery. However, samples were produced across
a wide range of industries, working typewriters that can fit in the palm of
your hand, shoes, a working grist mill, a brace and bit drill set, furniture,
furnaces, specimen books (also called blads), just to name a few.”
Not all salesmen were honest; some even proved to be fraudulent. I found this fun story regarding a cigar salesmen in 1890. Regardless of the salesman's disposition, they had to be glib of tongue and willing to travel. It was not a glamorous profession but one very necessary to the western expansion and development of our fine country.
The cowboy is an American icon. But the cowboy was adapted from the Spanish American vaquero and the vaquero had it's origins in the Spanish Reconquista.
Before the Spanish could build its empire in the Americas, it had to reconquer the Iberian peninsula which was under Islamic rule. In order to hold onto the lands, the Castilian king granted vast tracts to his nobles and military officers. Similar to the American South West (as we have seen in so many westerns) these lands were best suited to raising cattle and sheep. Because of the expanses involved, working from horseback was essential. The resulting hacienda system was the forerunner of the American ranch.
Coincidentally, the last Moorish kingdom fell in 1492 - the same year the Columbus "sailed the ocean blue." Soon after Spain established colonies in Mexico, caballeros (gentlemen) started training Mexican to work their ranches. They were called vaquero, cow men, almost as an insult and certainly as a term to differentiate them from the Spanish-born caballeros. In time, the name was used with pride.
"One of the highest stations you could have in life was to be a
caballero," said Chavez, a resident of New Mexico whose lineage can be
traced to the Don Juan de Oñate colony, the caballero who was among the
first cowboys in the U.S.
"Even the poor Mexican vaqueros were very proud and there were few things they couldn't do from a saddle." "Vaquero
is a transliteration of the words 'cow' and 'man.' Vaca means 'cow,'"
said Chavez. "Interestingly enough, in Spanish, we call ourselves
cowmen; in English, it was demoted to cowboys."
With the missions, vaqueros spread west to California. When pioneers from northern European stock spread southwest, they adopted and adapted the Spanish way of ranching.
In their origin countries, raising herds of sheep and cattle were a different business altogether. Instead of vast tracks of semi-arid land, the people of central Europe and Britain moved herds by foot from pasture to pasture, usually on foot, using dogs to herd. This wasn't practical in the American west.
One out of every three cowboys in the late 1800s was the Mexican vaquero, says Kendall Nelson, a photographer from Idaho whose recent book, Gathering Remnants: A Tribute to the Working Cowboy (was made into a movie.) "All of the skills, traditions, and ways of working with cattle are very much rooted in the Mexican vaquero," Nelson told National Geographic News. "If you are a cowboy in the U.S. today, you have developed what you know from the vaquero."
Like tapas, pizza and Chinese food, the cowboy culture has its roots outside North America. Also like those dishes, the culture has evolved in the melting pot of America.
When I began
watercolor lessons, the first scene I painted was of a windmill at sunset. Not
original nor very good, but I love both windmills and sunsets. Although they’re
difficult to find now, I love the old wooden frame style windmill best. I also
miss the song a windmill sings during a breezy day or evening. With the windows
open, the sound is a lullaby at bedtime. Don’t get me wrong, I love modern
conveniences, but they’re a trade-off. We lose something with each part of our
past that disappears.
Due to my love for
the life-giving machines, I included them in two of my books. BRAZOS BRIDE has
been released in 2012 and re-released as part of a boxed set: MEN OF STONE
MOUNTAIN: MICAH, ZACH, JOEL. And TEXAS LIGHTNING, a time travel in progress, in which the heroine loves the sound of windmills. These books led to research about windmills which involved more than
just loving to look at and listen to them.
Over 80,000 working
windmills are estimated to be working now in Texas. You can’t drive on any road
without seeing them in the distance. They are of particular service to ranchers
in the arid regions. Land that once was almost useless to ranchers became
valuable once windmills were erected. The windmill has come to be one of the
symbols of ranching and cowboys. Once I started researching them, I was
surprised the type I have come to love was not as old as I’d suspected.
Range windmill purchased from Kozzi
Before the introduction of windmills to Texas and the West,
inhabitable land was confined to areas where a constant water supply was
available. There was no way for vast areas to be settled without a life-giving
supply of water. The coming of the windmill made it possible to pump water from
beneath the ground, and soon whole new areas were opened up to settlers. The
first windmills were of the European style, built by Dutch and German
immigrants for grinding meal and powering light industry. What settlers needed
most, however, was a windmill that pumped water.
Because of its bulk and need for constant attention, the
European windmill was impractical for this purpose. The solution to this
problem came in 1854, when Daniel Halladay (Halady or Halliday) built the first
American windmill in Ellington, Connecticut. He added to his mill a vane, or
"tail," as it was called by cowhands, that functioned to direct the
wheel into the wind. The wheel was a circle of wood slats radiating from a
horizontal shaft and set at angles to the wind, designed so that centrifugal
force would slow it in high winds; thus, the machine was self-regulating and
operated unattended. Its simple direct-stroke energy converter consisted of
only a shaft and a small fly wheel to which the sucker rod was pinned. This
compact mechanism was mounted on a four-legged wood tower that could be
constructed over a well in one day.
Triple windmills purchased from Kozzi
Railroad companies immediately recognized windmills as an
inexpensive means of providing water for steam engines and for attracting
settlers to semi-arid regions through which they planned to lay track. By 1873
the windmill had become an important supplier of water for railways, small
towns where there were no public water systems, and small farms. Many of the
very early mills were crude, inefficient, homemade contraptions. One of the
popular makeshift mills was a wagon wheel with slats nailed around it to catch
the wind, mounted on half an axle. The axle was fastened securely to a post
erected beside the well. A sucker rod was pinned to the edge of the hub. It was
stationary and worked only when the wind blew in the right direction. The windmills
used later on the big ranches were the more dependable factory-made windmills.
Windmills moved to the ranches with the use of barbed wire
in the late 1870s. At first the water holes, springs, creeks, and rivers were
fenced, so that the back lands had no access to water. In the midst of the fence
cutting and fighting, some ranchers began drilling wells and experimenting with
windmills. Most of these experiments were unsuccessful, however, due to lack of
knowledge concerning the proper size of the windmill in relation to the depth
and diameter of the well. One of the earliest successful experiments was made
eight miles north of Eldorado, in Schleicher County, Texas by Christopher C.
Doty, a nomadic sheepman. Doty moved his flock into that area and found
abundant water in shallow wells. By 1882, however, a drought had dried his
wells; he ordered a drilling rig from Fort Scott, Arkansas, bored a
fifty-two-foot well, and erected a Star windmill, which successfully supplied
water for his 4,000 head of stock.
Lone windmill at sunset Purchased from Kozzi
Watering stock with windmills spread rapidly. Eastern land
speculators began buying, fencing, and running stock on the land until it
became ripe for colonization. Among the first of these speculators to
indirectly bring windmills to North Texas was the Magnolia Cattle and Land
Company, organized by Maj. Willa V. Johnson, In 1884 the company bought
two-thirds of the state-owned land in Borden County, land which had natural
water resources and had long been unofficially claimed for grazing by
Christopher Columbus Slaughter. Once Johnson fenced the land, Slaughter was
forced into the use of windmills to supply water for his cattle. By 1886 the
Matador Land and Cattle Company (where years later my husband’s uncle worked)
began using windmills to water stock.
The largest of the Eastern land speculators, the Capitol
Syndicate, began using windmills on its XIT in 1887. One of their windmills was
believed to be the world's tallest; it was made of wood and was a total height
of 132 feet. A Texas historical marker at Littlefield marks the site of a
replica of the world's tallest windmill built on the XIT Ranch. The original
windmill blew over in 1926. By 1900 the XIT had 335 windmills in operation.
Not until the King Ranch began extensive use of the windmill
in 1890 did that the practice began to spread rapidly over that area. By 1900
windmills were a common sight in the Texas and the West. Inhabitable land was
no longer limited to regions with a natural water supply. The windmill made the
most remote areas habitable.
The use of windmills brought about two of the most colorful
characters of the West, the driller and the windmiller, and altered the
lifestyle of another, the range rider. The driller was usually a loner and
seldom seen by anyone except the range rider and windmiller. He followed the
fence crews and guessed at where he might find water, then bored wells with his
horse-powered drilling rig. When the driller was successful the windmiller
followed and set up a mill. Owners of the larger ranches usually employed
several windmillers to make continuous rounds, checking and repairing
windmills. The windmillers lived in covered wagons and only saw headquarters
once or twice a month. The early mills had to be greased twice a week, and this
was the range rider's job. He kept a can (or beer bottle) containing grease
tied to his saddle. When he rode up to a mill that was squeaking, he would
climb it, hold the wheel with a pole until he could mount the platform, and
then let the wheel turn while he poured grease over it.
The lonely windmiller
The range rider was always in danger of attacks from swarms
of wasps, which hung their clustered cells beneath the windmill's platform;
there was the added danger of falling from the tower when such attacks
occurred. The windmill industry's shift in 1888 to the backgeared, all-steel
mill caused heated debates in Texas livestock and farming circles. Most
ranchers and farmers welcomed the new steel windmill because its galvanized
wheel and tower held up better in harsh weather; also, its gear system was
better able to take advantage of the wind, thus enabling the windmill to run
more hours per day. The backgeared mill could also pump deeper and
larger-diameter wells. Those who favored the old wood mill argued that the
steel mill was more likely to break because of its high speed, that it was not
as easily repaired as the wood mill, and that when parts had to be ordered the
steel mill might be inoperative for days. Though sales of wood mills continued,
they declined steadily, so that by 1912 few were being sold.
The last major development in the windmill came in 1915. A
housing that needed to be filled with oil only once a year was built around the
mill's gears. This relieved the range rider of his biweekly greasing chores and
somewhat diminished the windmiller's job. Because of the dependability of this
improved windmill, worries over water shortages were eased for the rancher,
farmer, and rural dweller. This mill was the prime supplier of water in rural
Texas until 1930, when electric and gasoline pumps began to be widely used.
Though Texas became the largest user of windmills in the
United States, there were never more than three active manufacturers of
windmills in Texas at one time. Windmills remain an important supplier of water
for Texas cattlemen. The King Ranch in the late 1960s kept 262 mills running
continuously and 100 complete spares in stock. Stocking spare mills is a common
practice among ranchers who depend on the windmill to supply water for cattle
in remote pastures. One important ranch worker is the man who rides—or
drives—from windmill to windmill lubricating the gears and making repairs.
Because the windmill has been confined for the most part to
remote areas, it has become a symbol of a lonely and primitive life, fitting
for the pioneer Texans it first served and the cowboys about whom we love to
read. Let me leave you with one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite
groups: Sons of the Pioneers with “Cool, Clear Water.”
