Battle of the Bulge

Posted on December 29, 2019 by admin
Deep snow and winds made vehicles impossible to move. Troops moved in the blizzard through the Ardennes Forest. (army.mil)

From December 16 of this month until January 28, 2020, veterans of the US Army and other Allies will honor those men who fought in the Battle of the Bulge, the last major battle in the European Theater. This year marks the 75th Anniversary of the Battle. Allies planned to invade Germany, eventually leading to the Nazi surrender and end of war in Europe. The Bulge slowed them down but did not defeat the Americans and Allies.

At dawn of December 16, 1944 American troops in the Ardennes region of Belgium, Luxembourg, and France awoke to an invasion by approximately 200,000 German soldiers. The weather was severely cold, around zero, knee deep snow slowed down marches to basically crawls, and food supplies were limited. Vehicles could not plow through the snow, leaving GIs to move on foot. Men cut blankets into strips to wrap around their feet. Survivors recall the large number of frozen bodies. Many who survived suffered from frozen feet, with or without amputations. But Americans and Allies fought on.

By Christmas the tide had turned in favor of the Allies, but the battle continued until January 25, 1945. Christmas Day was cold but sunny, allowing US planes to reinforce soldiers along the front. Some 19,000 troops died from cold, as well as the war. One of those young men was Carlton Sheram, a young Greenville man who had recently graduated from Texas A&M. Sheram was tank commander who was killed near Bastogne, Belgium. Citizens of Bastogne consider Sheram a hero, even to this day.

During the Battle of the Bulge, these soldiers received cold food dropped from planes. But they didn’t complain. (Flickr.gov)

A couple of ironies connect with the Battle of the Bulge. The Germans attacked on December 16 in the Ardennes Region. It was in those hills and along the rivers that much of World War I was fought. And the Allies made it across the German border all the way to Munich. The Allies in 1918 accepted an armistice before Germany was invaded and suffered any damage.

Soldiers from the Third United States Army carried a printed copy of Gen. George Patton’s Christmas Prayer of 1944. Patton had a copy given to each soldier before the battle. It petitioned the heavens for good weather and concluded with a Christmas greeting from the General. It read, “To each officer and soldier in the Third United States Army, I wish a Merry Christmas. I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty, and skill in battle. We march in our might to complete the victory. May God’s blessings rest upon each of you on this Christmas Day.”

This was Hitler’s last major offensive along the Western Front. Winston Churchill call it the “greatest American battle of the war”. It crushed Germany’s hope for ultimate success in the war.

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Cowboy’s Christmas Ball

Posted on December 22, 2019 by admin
A truly Texas tradition, Cowboys Christmas Ball in Anson, Texas first began in the 1880s. Revised and now celebrated at Pioneer Hall, it belongs on everyone’s Bucket List.
(Southwestcollection.wordpress.com)

Ranch life was a solitary, lonely life for both ranchers and hired hands. But at Christmas time, everyone gathered for a little fun. In Jones County, the ranchers, cowboys and families made the way to the annual Christmas Dance held at the Star Hotel.

The Star held the free dance every year to show appreciation for their patronage. In the 1880s, one didn’t drive around the corner for a bottle of milk. Any and everything needed was either made on the ranch or seldom bought in Anson. All business was handled in the county courthouse at Anson. And going to Anson was not a short trip. Men and their families usually made an overnight trip and stayed at the Star.

Everyone came to the ball, everyone from old “stove-up” cowhands to little children. Dancing lasted well into the night, sometimes greeting the rising sun. The dances included square dances, schottische, heel and toe polka, waltzes, and the Virginia reel. Music was usually provided by a local band consisting of a bass viol, a tambourine and two fiddles. Other dances had only fiddle players. Instruments hidden in pockets or tied to a saddle horn were most popular. I suspect that the bass viol stayed at the hotel for such events. Instruments like harmonicas and mouth harps were quite popular.

In 1890 the Star Hotel burned to the ground, taking the Christmas Ball with it. But in the Great Depression of the 1930s citizens revived the Ball under the name Cowboys’ Christmas Ball. Leonora Barret, Anson teacher and folklorist, put the event together in the high school gymnasium. People were still around who remembered the dance steps and old customs. Men bowed and women curtsied. With slow music the dancers performed in an unhurried manner and with as much grace as found in the late 19th century.

In 1937 the group accepted an invitation to the National Folk Festival in Chicago. Since no other dance group performed such dances, other invitations came until the beginning of World War II. In 1938 Eleanor Roosevelt invited them to dance on the White House lawn. In 1940 the Anson group, now incorporated, built Pioneer Hall as a permanent home for the Cowboys’ Christmas Ball.

Anson’s Cowboys’ Christmas Ball caught the attention of several folklorist. During the Depression, those enthusiasts could be found among chuck wagons, along levees and railroads, and in saloons, churches, and penitentiaries throughout the south and southwest. The folklorists developed a method to record the music for posterity. At a time when money was almost nonexistent, folk songs filled a need to forget troubles and enjoy their own type of music.

In some areas of the south tenant farmers gathered on the front porch every Saturday night. Their music was more blues than the cowboy ballads. Much of that genre became part of the Louisiana Hayride. It was these folklorists who played a central role in recording, preserving and promoting American folk music.

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Update on the Courthouse Cannon

Posted on December 15, 2019 by admin
The mysterious artillery piece on the grounds of the Hunt County Court House is a howitzer cannon built by the Japanese military in the 1930’s for the Sino-Japanese War and later used in the Pacific Theater of World War II.

Monuments were important to communities, to counties, and to individuals during in 20th century. Today, we argue the value of many such monuments. While we can generally recognize a Civil War piece of art, those created to honor World War I and World War II men are less distinctive. Such is the case at the Hunt County Courthouse.

Sometimes we forget that two wars, deadly, devastating and created by rulers craving total control occurred in the last century. World War I began in August 1914 and was formally ended on November 11, 1918 with the signing of the Armistice. World War II began in September 1938 when Hitler’s troops invaded Poland. It officially ended in August 1945 when Japan surrendered. But while these are definitive dates, the truth is that tensions continued from 1914 to the end of the Cold War. Various dates exist for the end of the Cold War, but let’s use 1991 when the Berlin Wall came down.

For the most part the same countries fought almost the same wars during that time period. It’s easy to confuse those times and events, to say nothing of weapons. That seems to have been what confused me. The howitzer found on the courthouse square was built by the Japanese military in the 1930s for the Sino-Japanese War (China v. Japan). It was later used in the Pacific Theater of World War II. So, it didn’t arrive in Greenville until after 1945, probably 1946-47.

Once the US government released all these weapons, citizens were usually irate when they learned the armaments were used to kill American soldiers and sailors. Personally, I don’t blame them. Yet, it was cool to have a cannon, or howitzer, or tank parked out on the courthouse lawn. It’s also possible to find jet fighters planes on children’s playgrounds in some places.

The first cannon was probably given to Greenville by 1929 when the courthouse was dedicated. It was probably German made like one that arrived on the campus of East Texas Normal College in 1928. These artillery pieces were valuable for their heavy metals. So, when World War II came along and the United States had given away their weapons, scrap metal drives collected most if not all of the old weapons. Very little is known about the first one in Greenville, except it made it to the scrap metal dump.

The one we have today was definitely built by the Japanese, used in the Sino-Japanese War, as well as World War II. Because Greenville or Hunt County had forfeited their earlier cannon, they were granted another weapon. That is what is on the square today. But it’s placement there created quite a ruckus, I understand.

Isn’t is interesting how public opinion changes as time goes by.

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Where is a World War II relic hiding?

Posted on December 7, 2019 by admin
Mystery Solved! This curious object on the lawn of the Hunt County Courthouse lawn is a Type 92 battalion gun or light howitzer used by the Imperial Japanese Army.

For many years a Japanese artillery piece hid in broad daylight behind some bushes on the northwest corner of Hunt County Courthouse Square. Recently those bushes were removed and voila, a Japanese 105-millimeter field howitzer appeared. There is definitely a story behind that scrappy little armament covered with peeling paint and maybe in need of restoration.

This pitiful World War II relic has quite a story. It is a Type 92 field howitzer designed in the early 1930s by the Japanese military. It saw action in the Sino-Japanese War and later played an important role in several major battles in the Pacific Theater against US forces. After every battle the Allies won, all weapons were sent to the United States where they were tested before being decommissioned. Smaller ordinance was often taken home by soldiers and sailors but tanks, even a small howitzer, were too big to fit into a duffle bag.

Americans Marines firing from captured Japanese howitzer. This piece is very similar to the one found on the lawn of the Hunt County Courthouse in Greenville, Texas. Recently, Cindy Stovall and Pud Kearns began a landscaping project on the courthouse square. It would be wonderful if that piece of World War II history could tell its story. (albumwar2.com)

By the surrender of Japanese in 1945, the United States had more than enough war relics. Numerous scrap metal drives were held all over the country in the early years of the war. Not only did individuals donate worn out iron instruments, but cities, towns and municipalities donated old cannons used in World War I. When the war was over, the cannons, artillery pieces, and howitzers came to rest in parks, courthouse squares, and other patriotic sites throughout the country. Once these field pieces were accepted by the US Army, the Ordinance Chief sent a copy of the “scrap” certificates to the donor. So, in 1942 the City of Greenville, or maybe Hunt County, donated a cannon they owned for patriotic reasons. But where did that cannon come from?

In April 1929, the current courthouse was formally opened to the public with parades, hour-long speeches, and lots of excitement. And in the parade, there was a smaller cannon that came either from World War I or even as far back as the Spanish-American War. There is one sentence in a three-page article of the courthouse dedication that mentioned the little cannon but with no more information.

On July 5, 1898 the Greenville Messenger reported that Greenville celebrated the news of American fleet victory at Santiago, Cuba. A group of men ran over to the Sherman, Shreveport, & Southern Railway (SS&S) shop to roll their cannon down the street to the square. Was that the cannon donated in World War II?

As much as $90 billion dollars’ worth of surplus war property was held by the US government throughout the country. Once again, the US government doled out useless armaments. Any entity that donated scrap metal in form of artillery qualified for a replacement, even if it was made in Japan. That’s how our artillery piece came to reside at 2500 Lee Street.

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Pimento Cheese and Venison

Posted on November 23, 2019 by admin
The table in our dining room is just about set for Thanksgiving. And in the background, you can see the swinging door to the kitchen inspired by the ones in both of my grandmothers’ houses.

I’ve been preparing for Thanksgiving Day for over a week. We won’t have family at our house but will join everyone at my mother-in-law’s house. As I was doing this, I began to remember the Thanksgiving Dinners I have hosted or attended over the years. My first memories are when I was a little girl. Both of my grandmothers had a swinging door from the kitchen to the dining room. I thought that was so cool that I now have the same setup.

Once we married, we have had Thanksgiving with my in-laws every year. Most of the celebrations have been at their home, but occasionally they have gathered at our house. At my in-laws, we all seem to have our own assigned places. Grandchildren eat in the game room. The menu is fairly routine every year. The menu is about the same at our house, but we eat in the dining room with the swinging door.

I found an article on the internet lately about Thanksgiving dinners in the South. And I was not at all surprised how Southern we are in foods, and other ways for that matter.

See how you rate.

First, there are always nibbles before the meal. In my husband’s opinion all that is needed is pimiento cheese and celery sticks. Our gourmet son tells me that various cheeses could be substituted for the ones found in our local grocery store. I try not to eat any as I am “saving myself” for the real good stuff.

The next Southern item was Green Bean Casserole. Plain green beans just don’t reach the mark. They should have that true Southern ingredient, Duke’s Mayo. We have a cousin who loved it so much, that was all he ate when a little kid. His grandmother made a bowl especially for him.

The article mentioned that most Southern home have at least one dish somebody hunted, fished or grew in the backyard. I can’t remember fish or deer or wild turkey, even though my father and brother were hunters. I do know that even today we raise vegetables. Many we preserved by canning and those are the one we serve. Over the years we have had corn, pinto beans, green beans, squash, and homemade pickles.

Pies are a must-have at the Taylor household. And everybody has a favorite. So, there are pecan (my mother-in-law is the pro here), cherry, lemon, chocolate, pumpkin, and chess pies. Personally, a Texas sheet cake does the job, but that would not be acceptable, so I eat pumpkin pie.

No self-respecting Southern will turn down sweet potato casserole. Sweet potatoes are better for you than Irish potatoes, but not the sweet potatoes baked with a hearty pour of molasses and a heaping dash of cinnamon sugar. Lastly, they are covered with toasted miniature marshmallows.

In the South we have turkey dressing, not stuffing. We cook it in a pan, not in the turkey. My take on that is the stuffing might spoil in our warmer climates while it stays in the turkey. Besides, you can get all the dressing you want instead of the little dab stuffed in the turkey.

Heaven forbid, don’t forget Sweet Tea. Ugh! My mother was very sugar conscious; it was not healthy to eat sugar. It has stuck with me in several foods. So, I drink tap water with meals.

Last, but surely not least is the timing of the meal. Ninety-nine percent of Texans are absolutely addicted to football on television on Thanksgiving. And children want to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. The solution: form a committee of football fans to set the time for the food. Maybe we’ll be able to eat before midnight!

Have a happy and blessed Thanksgiving whenever you celebrate.

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Tree Climbing

Posted on November 20, 2019 by admin
The 2013 Lucille Terry Preservation Award recipient was Landon Winery of Greenville, Texas. Carol Taylor, Bob Landon of Landon Winery, and Dr. Perky Beisel of Stephen F. Austin University, Nacogdoches, Texas

Twenty years ago, Melva Geyer, then editor of the Greenville Herald Banner, and I discussed the need for a column regarding the W. Walworth Harrison Public Library. Since I was the Genealogy and Local History librarian, I became the columnist.

The first few years, I wrote mainly about genealogy and then added local history. Articles from the first three years were printed and bound. I found the bound volumes recently and opened one to see how embarrassed I would be. But actually, I must say I was pretty good for a complete novice. As I read along, I realized there are many tasks on my To Do List that I still haven’t accomplished.

Gradually I moved from genealogy and stories of my family to Texas history. Lately, I have included Oklahoma, Louisiana, and other surrounding areas. I included events from the early Colonies through the beginning of World War II. I always said I had no interest in the 20th century; I heard my parents talk about the Great Depression and I knew my father fought in World War II. But curiosity got the best of me and I am working on a biography of Morris Sheppard, a Texas Senator from 1912 until his death in 1941. He also served as State Representatives in this area from 1902 to 1912. He will be remembered as the Father of Prohibition.

My first leap into literary work was co-authoring The Devil’s Triangle; Ben Bickerstaff, Northeast Texans, and the War of Reconstruction in Texas with the late Dr. James Smallwood, and Dr. Ken Howell. North Texas Press reprinted it this past summer.

About the same time, I earned a Master’s Degree in History. My thesis about Mercer’s Colony now waits for polishing up to be a manuscript in need of a publisher. Then there was a Photo Book, Images of Greenville.

I have been a member of the Hunt County Historical Commission for forty years and I love it. Over the years, I have served as president several times. I find myself researching and writing about local history in this column as well as on my blog (Carol C. Taylor blog) and in historical markers. I am a Board member of East Texas Historical Association and I must confess a member of the New Deal Symposium of Texas. One time I decided I wanted to know why the United States wanted to enter World War I. Yep, I searched that for five years and posted all sorts of tidbits on Facebook under the title “A Century Ago.” I stopped for a while until a friend told me he used it in one of his history classes. So, look for it again in December.

I taught genealogy classes at the library, have given numerous speeches regarding Women’s Rights, Farming and Ranching, and Civil War throughout Texas, and Louisiana.

Because my father’s health was failing, I retired from the library in 2010 but continued with history. During the twenty years I have lived in three different houses but have only owned two cars. Over the last twenty years, I have lost my father, his sister, and their mother who was a wonderful grandmother. I still keep in close contact with my brother and five cousins. And of course, I have a great husband and son. Families are the strength of living. All in all, it’s been a great twenty years. Wonder how many more years I will do this? I have no intentions of retiring as long as I can do something that is so much fun.

Posted in Genealogy, Greenville, Historical tidbits, North Texas History | 2 Comments

Old Concord Church and Graveyard

Posted on November 10, 2019 by admin
Family of Jacob Wilkins Cobb in 1896. Jacob Cobb and his wife Martha Jane are standing on the steps with children and grandchildren around them. The young couple on the far left are parents of Dr. Bradley Cobb of Bartlesville, Oklahoma. The entire extended family lived on farmlands they owned near the community of Jacobia from 1875 to 1902. Photo compliments of Dr. Bradley Cobb.

A doctor in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, asked to meet me at the Old Concord Graveyard adjacent to Concord Baptist Church at noon on Halloween. The church is one of the oldest churches in Hunt County, if not the oldest. Founded by Benjamin Watson, a Baptist minister who organized several churches in the eastern part of the county before the county was created; yet some of the earliest settlers already lived in the area. Watson built his first church at Shady Grove, then one at Shiloh before organizing Concord. From there he moved on to Bethlehem in northeast Collin County. The Concord church has moved a few times, hence the name Old Concord.

Churches like the one at Old Concord in the community of Jacobia followed an old European custom not often seen in the United States. These are known as consecrated burial grounds or graveyards. Today Old Concord Church faces west on Farm Road 118. The graveyard lies just south of the church. All tombstones face east/west in the true Southern tradition allowing the deceased to rise from death facing Jerusalem. It is an immaculately kept site, out on a flat prairie still tilled for crops.

A friend and I met with a tall, fairly young man. He came over as we walked up, introduced himself as an eye doctor from Bartlesville, Oklahoma, on his way to Yantis to spend the weekend dove hunting. Passing nearby, he stopped to visit the cemetery and maybe find the site of the family home.

My son had warned me about meeting strangers in a cemetery on Halloween Day. But Dr. Cobb was a delightful person. He told us his paternal great-great grandparents owned and farmed land around Jacobia before migrating to Oklahoma after statehood. I had to softly chuckle when he asked if the soil was blackland or sandy. In the Cherokee language he told us his maternal grandmother did not speak English so he and his siblings his parents, as well as his children were fluent in Cherokee. He did interpret as neither of us understand Cherokee.

He shared family history, stories that are usual for that time period not only in Hunt County but throughout rural United States at that time. The first Cobb family to arrive in Hunt County after 1875 were Jacob Wilkins Cobb and his wife Martha Jane Frances Matthews. Jacob was a successful cotton farmer who probably took most of his yield to the Vittitoe Gin just down the road. Martha Jane was the niece of Rebecca Lucinda Nicholson, the great-grandfather of President Jimmy Carter; a relationship few can claim.

The family continued farming in Oklahoma until the 1930s. The Dust Bowl, poor sales of crops, and the Great Depression took their toll on the family. Dr. Cobb’s father, another Dr. Cobb, was born in California. Parts of the extended family fled there during the Depression. Yet, the family was back in Oklahoma before 1965.

Dr. Cobb brought a wonderful photograph to give me. Taken in 1896 with all the extended family standing on the porch, it is a treasure. It caught my eye because of the carpentry on the house. Five columns held up the porch, all siding was from a mill and smoothly finished out, and decorative wood embellishments clearly showed the house was well built. Definitely not a share-croppers house. It is no longer standing but is an excellent example of fine carpentry in rural Hunt County at the turn of the 20th. Everyone was fashionably dressed for rural Texas at that time.

All in all, it was a delightful visit.

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Whose Idea Was the Time Change?

Posted on November 3, 2019 by admin
Do we really need daylight-saving time? Probably not, but it does have a fascinating history. (Photo: DoughRoller.net)

This weekend we will religiously change all our clocks back one hour, except for those that are digital like cell phones. At our house we have a number of clocks with pendulums that must be wound every eight days. I also have a husband that believes if he set the alarm twenty or thirty minutes ahead, I will not notice the difference and get up or get ready earlier. I learned that trick long ago and now know to calculate the difference. My husband is in charge of clocks.

So, who was this brilliant fellow who created or began the time change issue? None other than Benjamin Franklin. Late in life he served as the American envoy in Paris, France in 1784. Even though he encouraged everyone that “early to bed and early to rise” was an absolute necessity, Franklin was unpleasantly stirred from sleep at 6:00 by summer sun. To kindly suggest this was ludicrous, he wrote a satirical essay in which he calculated that in today’s money, the Parisians could save the equivalent of $200 million by getting up earlier and retiring earlier without using so much candle power.

Franklin did not propose daylight saving time, he merely proposed a change in sleep habits. Of which, the good citizens completely ignored.

In 1905 William Willett of Great Britain proposed an 80-minute forward of clocks so the good people of that island kingdom would have plentiful sunlight half the year. For the next ten years, Willett continued to push the idea with no avail.

In 1916 the Germans decided that the idea as a brilliant way to conserve electricity. Shortly thereafter, Great Britain followed. Americans implemented what was known as “summer time” while serving in World War I.

Many people believe the Americanization of daylight-saving time was to benefit farmers and ranchers. Wrong! The change threw off the schedule of harvesting due to dew on the grass, milking cows and other minute ways. In 1919 American agrarians led the fight to repeal national daylight-saving time. Urbanites, recreationalists, retail owners and industries have supported the issue, though.

National daylight-saving time reappeared during World War II, cows or no cows. But three weeks after the war ended, the confusing hodgepodge reappeared. States and localities began to set their own times; in Iowa there were 23 different pairs of start and end dates alone.

Finally, in 1966 the Uniform Time Act was enacted. Congress set times and dates for changes. However, there were exceptions. Hawaii, Arizona, and American Territories do not comply. The Navajo Nation in Arizona does, though. Only about 70 countries around the world participate.

University of California Santa Barbara economists calculated daylight-savings time led to a 1-percent rise in residential electricity through the additional demand for air-conditioning as well as increased gasoline consumption. Maybe Old Ben was right, let’s just turn over and go back to sleep.

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But What About the Germans?

Posted on October 27, 2019 by admin
Born in Celeste, but raised in Greenville, Mack Kendree Harrell, Jr. was an American operatic and concert baritone vocalist who was regarded as one of the greatest American-born lieder singers of his generation.

On a fall evening in 1939 former Greenville resident and recognized baritone Mack Harrell made his hometown debut with a German Lieder recital. The event held on Thursday, October 26, 1939 marked the opening of the new $200,000 Greenville Municipal Auditorium and the celebration of Harrell’s recent contract with the Metropolitan Opera of New York City. Note that the date was ninety years ago. The Dallas Morning News called the event the most “brilliant affair in Greenville society in years.” Sponsored by the Co-operative Concert Committee, the recital was attended by everybody who was anybody in the surrounding area.

For the first time in the city’s history, all municipal offices were under the same roof. The fire and police departments along with the new jail joined the mayor, city commissioners, and department heads on the ground floor. On the second floor was the new auditorium, well planned and about to become known for its fine acoustics.

The building was a tribute to a large group of men who came together to apply for a grant and loan from the Federal government under the Public Works Administration (PWA), not to be confused with Works Progress Administration (WPA) created to employ manual laborers during the Great Depression. The PWA served architects, engineers, and professionals with construction skills. All bills were paid on September 27, 1939. This city accepted the new building on October 9th. A little over two weeks later the festivities began.

Mack Harrell’s program consisted of twenty pieces by such composers as Handel, Mozart, Schubert, Wolf, Berber, and Schindler. Harrell began his musical career as a violinist but was encouraged by his wife to focus on his outstanding voice while at Julliard School of Music in New York City. He chose to specialize in German Lieder music.

What makes all of this even more interesting is that the recital occurred less than two months after Nazi Germany led by Adolf Hitler invaded Poland and destroyed her army. World War I ended only twenty- one years earlier; a time of strong anti-German feelings throughout the United States that included boycotts of concerts with German music. Were the same feelings prevalent in the U S in 1939?

Not really. In 1939 the United States was still recovering from the devastating economic disaster that had wrecked the nation for a decade or more. Americans focused more on their own problems than what was happening in Europe. On September 5, 1939, the United States declared its neutrality with regard to European problems. However, sixteen days later the Neutrality was repealed, and the Cash/Carry Plan was adopted that allowed the United States to provide Great Britain and France with arms and food.

Since 1900 public opinion had become an issue for most Western countries. While dictators and monarchy still ruled, they watched the people carefully over their shoulders.

Public Opinion Polls were frequently used here in America. The week of Harrell’s recital only 5% of those polled favored U. S. involvement in the European war militarily. At that time, Americans were satisfied with the Cash/Carry Plan. They could sit back and enjoy Mack Harrell’s recital with no ill feelings for their future foe.

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Repeatedly Unearthed Human Skull Found

Posted on October 20, 2019 by admin
The poor skull found in a field near Greenville in 1931 probably felt just like this image. So tired of being buried, found, examined, buried, found, and the circle continued. Since it hasn’t been found in the last few years, maybe it has found a home, even without the rest of the bones.

In the afternoon of March 16, 1931, a skull was found slightly protruding from the ground just outside the Greenville city limits. Of course, the news caused a whirlwind of excitement and speculations.

A group of boys found the skull while playing in the field. Immediately men and boys congregated to begin an excavation for more bones. When the sun set, they went home but quickly the next morning, there they were to dig more. Surprisingly, no more bones were found. The skull was properly turned over to the Constable.

Rumors flourished throughout the town and all of Hunt County. This was during the worst part of the Great Depression, so most people did not have jobs. One man confessed that he had carried the skull away from a local hospital a few years earlier. (You must remember that Greenville had multiple hospitals owned and operated privately by doctors until the 1960s.)

Searchers began to discuss seriously who’s head it was? Several bank robbers came to mind. Of course, there were numerous hangings in the vicinity as well as multiple other acts of violence. Yet, no more bones could be found.

A local newspaper reporter wrote an article for the Greenville Evening Banner of March 17. 1931, that contained a bounty of misinformation. The mystery was probably cleared up later when it was learned that it was the skull of a bank robber, which had been buried and dug up at least six time throughout Hunt County.

One possibility was a bank robbery in the late 1890s. A group of men, probably local, tied bandanas around their faces, walked into one of the banks on the square, carrying loaded pistols. The clerk handed over the money. The robbers retreated to the horse and mule barn on Jordon Street to mount their horses, and all but one of the men were seen leaving town. The search was on for the missing man, the horse and mule barn became the most suspicious place. Nothing was found except horses, mules, hay and muck; not one human being. Years later, a skeleton was found under all the hay and muck. Was that the robber, shot by his cohorts?

A bank robbery occurred in Merit about 1915. That time the two robbers blew up the safe with dynamite, rushed in to gather the cash, and fled in a car headed toward Farmersville. Maybe one of those robbers killed the other for the cash.

Sometime in the 1920s I think, bank in Point was robbed. The clerk was shot fatally. That robbery/murder was never solved. However, it filled several pages of the newspapers. Then there is the robbery here in Greenville in the late 1980s when the robber carried an ice pick.

I would like to thank my friend John Armstrong for frequently sending copies of newspaper articles he has found. John was a pharmacist whose hobby was collecting and indexing newspaper articles. Now, retired John is a jewel for finding great stories. Thanks, so much John.

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