I’m one of the speakers at the Central Texas Historical Association Fall Symposium.
October is a great month for seeing sites in Texas. With that thought in mind, let me interest you in a unique experience later this month. The newly organized Central Texas Historical Association will present its second fall symposium. This one will probably pique the interest of more than professional historians. It will appeal to anyone interested in the Civil War, Republic of Texas, Reconstruction, Texas Rangers (not the ball team, though), outlaws, and reenactments. The title says it all “Frontier Violence: Depredations, Outlaws, and Rangers.”
The symposium opens with Donaly Brice, formerly head researcher at the Texas State Archives in Austin. He is a stately gentleman who is ever so polite until he begins to talk about the Comanche Indians who came out of the Texas Panhandle to raid the good folks at Plum Creek near the town of Victoria. In addition to being a great historian, Donaly is a terrific storyteller. You’ll enjoy “The Great Comanche Raid: Boldest Indian Attack of the Texas Republic.”
East Texas State University graduate Bill O’Neal has written more than forty books, three hundred articles and book reviews on the American West. Retired from Panola College, he was named Texas Historian twice by the governor of Texas. Bill can tell a good story better than anyone. At this conference he will gives us the inside stories on “Texas Gunslingers.”
Henry B. Crawford is the embodiment of a Buffalo Soldier. He is a master reenactor with a passion for “living history.” Officially he is Curator of History at the Museum of Texas Tech University, but everyone who sees Henry or visits with him knows that he is a true “Buffalo Soldier.”
Chuck Parsons is one of my favorite historians. He feeds my interest in ranch history by sending books on the subject for me to review. Chuck appears to be a character out of an Elmer Kelton novel, as if he just climbed off a horse or down from a plow. He makes Texas History in the 19th Century real. Chuck will talk about “John Wesley Hardin.” Another great storyteller, Chuck knows almost everything there is to know about Hardin, who grew up in neighboring Fannin County.
Bob Alexander is the one presenter whom I have never had the opportunity to meet. A native Texan and veteran lawman, he retired as a special agent with the US Treasury Department and began a second career as an author. I look forward to what he has to say about the “Texas Rangers.”
I bring up the rear of presenters and I am very proud to be the only female chosen. You see, Ken Howell and I worked with Dr. Jim Smallwood on a Reconstruction era book, The Devil’s Triangle: Ben Bickerstaff, Northeast Texans, and the War of Reconstruction. It details the chaos and violence from Texarkana to Alvarado, and all points in between. Ben Bickerstaff and his cohorts were some of the meanest, ruthless demons to set foot in Texas following the Civil War.
For more information about this exceptional seminar go to this link. Ken Howell, the director of the group and co-author of the Bickerstaff book, has done a terrific job organizing the group and putting this program together.