Historic Walker County

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❖ Above: Men with the Civilian Conservation Corps building the dam that made Lake Raven. COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES, DENVER. Below: Robert A. Josey Boy Scout Lodge built as part of a Works Progress Administration project. COURTESY OF THE EDITOR. reconstruction plans for the site. On May 18, 1956, the park officially reopened after a massive reconstruction effort. 77 Another New Deal program, the Civil Works Administration (CWA), created temporary manual labor jobs, which assisted the unemployed in Walker County and the broader region. Locally, the CWA facilitated the construction of the Robert A. Josey Boy Scout Lodge in Huntsville. Josey, a self-made millionaire and local philanthropist donated $5,000 to purchase the land for the lodge and set up a $30,000 trust fund to maintain it. The CWA then contributed $10,000 for construction and labor, and the group completed the building in 75 days. On June 17, 1934, Huntsville citizens gathered for the dedication of the new lodge, which was “nestled in a little ravine in the pine woods just south of the city.” Each year the Josey trust fund also issued small rewards of $100 (later raised to $500) to Boy Scouts who demonstrated outstanding community service. 78 In 1935, President Roosevelt activated the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which provided employment for millions of people in public works projects around the country. Between 1935 and 1943, the WPA provided employment for 600,000 Texans who built bridges, wrote stories, and surveyed archeological sites. One of the most important programs implemented in East Texas was the collection of slave narratives, an effort that was conducted by the Federal Writer’s Project of the WPA. Between 1936 and 1938, the Project conducted personal interviews with roughly three hundred former slaves in Texas and approximately a dozen from Walker County. Local subjects included Armstead and Harriet Barrett, Carey Davenport, Tom Holland, and Henry Probasco. In one interview, Tom Holland explained his responsibilities to his former master, “I chopped cotton and plowed and split rails, and then was a horse rider.” He also explained that they “allus [always] had plenty to eat, sich [such] as it was them days, plenty wild meat and cornbread cooked in ashes.” 79 T H E T E X A S P R I S O N R O D E O A N D C E N T E N N I A L C E L E B R A T I O N In 1930, the board of directors for the Texas Prison System appointed Marshall Lee Simmons as its General Manager. Known as a reformer, Simmons worked to improve living and working conditions within the system. He solved numerous financial deficiencies, rooted out fraud and organizational negligence, and sought to end inmate abuse that had long tarnished the reputation of the Texas Prison System. In addition, Simmons aggressively pursued the infamous outlaws, Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow. In 1934, after Bonnie and Clyde’s embarrassing raid on the Eastham farm in Houston County, Simmons received permission from Governor Miriam (Ma) Ferguson to retain the services of Texas Ranger 3 6 ✦ H I S T O R I C W A L K E R C O U N T Y
Frank Hamer, who ultimately ended the careers of the legendary criminals. 80 In another act that proved remarkably popular, Simmons instituted the first Texas Prison Rodeo in 1931. The event quickly gained fame as “Texas’ fastest and wildest rodeo.” By 1933 it had not only generated considerable revenue for the Texas Prison System, but it became a popular sensation with attendance mushrooming to 15,000. In fact, attendance became so high that the following year prison officials had to build wooden bleachers and charge admission. The proceeds from the rodeo financed an education and recreation fund that supported everything from textbooks and dentures to Christmas turkeys. Simmons gained additional credit for luring talented celebrities to entertain during the rodeo’s formative years, including cowboy Tom Mix, and musical groups such as the Cotton Pickers Glee Club. 81 If the Prison Rodeo brought people to Walker County, then so too did the Texas Centennial Celebration that took place in 1936. Joseph L. Clark, a professor of History at Sam Houston Normal Institute, spearheaded the Walker County Centennial Committee, which pushed for the creation of the Sam Houston Memorial Museum (SHMM). Previously, in 1929, Harry F. Estill, President of Sam Houston State, had requested a $3,500 annual budget to maintain Sam Houston’s historic home. By 1935, however, Estill and local leaders had convinced the state legislature to appropriate more than “ten times that amount” for the renovation and construction of a site that ultimately became the SHMM. 82 In March 1936, the Huntsville Item reported that three governors attended the ground breaking ceremonies for the museum with President Estill and thousands of other visitors who wanted to see Sam Houston’s final residence—the Steamboat House—and his ❖ Above: A photograph from the first Texas Prison Rodeo in Huntsville, 1931. COURTESY OF THE TEXAS PRISON MUSEUM. Below: A crowd gathered at Sam Houston’s gravesite for the Texas Centennial Celebration. COURTESY OF THE SAM HOUSTON STATE UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES. earlier Woodland Home. 83 C h a p t e r V I ✦ 3 7
Page 2 and 3: Thank you for your interest in this
Page 4 and 5: CONTENTS 3 CHAPTER I Native America
Page 6 and 7: ❖ Above: William E. Moore found t
Page 8 and 9: Eight decades later, following a di
Page 10 and 11: ❖ Cincinnati town survey. COURTES
Page 12 and 13: ❖ Advertisements from The Huntsvi
Page 14 and 15: ❖ Above: Sam Houston (1793-1863).
Page 16 and 17: ❖ Above: “A typical Texas cotto
Page 18 and 19: I need not assure you that whenever
Page 20 and 21: ❖ Above: Thomas Jewett Goree (183
Page 22 and 23: ❖ Right: Memphis Allen sat on the
Page 24 and 25: Five miles further north and east,
Page 26 and 27: ❖ Top: The Austin College Buildin
Page 28 and 29: ❖ Above: The Henry Opera House (l
Page 30 and 31: ❖ Top, left: Marcellus E. Foster
Page 32 and 33: ❖ Above: New Waverly School, earl
Page 34 and 35: ❖ Operators at the switchboard, H
Page 36 and 37: ❖ Above: Andrew Smither, Lee Cart
Page 40 and 41: ❖ Above: The Sam Houston Memorial
Page 42 and 43: imprisoned at the University of San
Page 44 and 45: ❖ Top: Huntsville City Council wi
Page 46 and 47: ❖ Wendell Baker with his wife, Au
Page 48 and 49: ❖ Above: An aerial view of Sam Ho
Page 50 and 51: ❖ Above: A map of Walker County T
Page 52 and 53: ❖ Above: An inmate is pulled by a
Page 54 and 55: ❖ The Texas Prison Museum proudly
Page 56 and 57: ❖ Above: The Storybook House (for
Page 58 and 59: 27 Patricia Smith Prather and Jane
Page 60 and 61: 95 Bernadette Pruitt, Wendell Baker
Page 62 and 63: HUNTSVILLE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL Like s
Page 64 and 65: to-date with industry trends, equip
Page 66 and 67: ELKINS LAKE RECREATION CORPORATION
Page 68 and 69: COMMUNITY SERVICE CREDIT UNION ❖
Page 70 and 71: ❖ MCCAFFETY ELECTRIC CO., INC. Ab
Page 72 and 73: FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF HUNTSVILLE O
Page 74 and 75: COMFORT SUITES- HUNTSVILLE Local re
Page 76 and 77: BETHY CREEK RESORTS For families wh
Page 78 and 79: CANDYCE FARRIS DIXON, CPA ❖ Candy
Page 80 and 81: ❖ CHARLES W. MONDAY, JR., M.D., P
Page 82 and 83: SMITHER, MARTIN, HENDERSON & BLAZEK
Page 84 and 85: SAM HOUSTON CANCER CENTER In just a
Page 86 and 87: SAM HOUSTON STATE UNIVERSITY In res
Page 88 and 89:
HUNTSVILLE INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTR
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Historic Walker County

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