"An Unborn Empire" - Robert E. Howard's Texas

[linefacedscrivener]

"Those who live in Texas know how big it is. Each dot represents some place Howard mentions going to in one of his letters or that he lived in when he was young. Texas is bigger than France. So, moving around Texas, you're doing a lot of traveling."

        -Rob Roehm at Howard Days 2013

If you have ever been to Howard Days, read any of the Collected Letters volumes, seen an issue of REHupa, or know anything about Robert E. Howard's family and genealogy, you have probably heard the name Rob Roehm. He became involved with Robert E. Howard approximately two decades ago and has turned an interest into a passion for visiting all of the places in Texas Howard had ever been. He travels with his father, Bob, who brings along his camera and takes some excellent photos. 

At Howard Days 2013, they gave a presentation about their travels, which is interesting on a number of levels. One, is that it covers Howard and Texas, the main interest of "An Unborn Empire." It is also fascinating to see the information and insights Rob had gained from visiting the many locations. And, most intriguing, is the travelogue and exploits of father and son (and sometimes Mom!) as they travel about the state of Texas. 

The following is the video Ben Friberg took of the presentation in two parts. 

If you become more interested in Rob's travels, check out his book on the subject, Howard's Haunts available here: www.lulu.com/shop/robert-roehm/howards-haunts/paperback/product-746872.html

[linefacedscrivener]

"I spent a great deal of my earlier childhood on a ranch, and in the way of occupation have done a great many things, such as riding the range, packing a surveyor’s rod, working on farms, and in law offices, writing up oil field news for various Texas and Oklahoma papers, and working in a drug store."
    -Robert E. Howard letter to Argosy All-Story, July 20, 1929

Robert E. Howard had the experience of a wide array of jobs after he graduated from high school, including working for the Cross Plains Review newspaper, as he says, writing news about oil field activities in the surrounding area. At Howard Days 2017, they opened up the offices of Cross Plains Review to give everyone a tour of the facility with a focus on Robert E. Howard's work there. Courtesy of Ben Friberg, we have a video of the tour, which contains a lot of Texas and Robert E. Howard history. 

[linefacedscrivener]

"Tired of the news about the Conornavirus? Bummed over the cancellation of Howard Days 2020? Want to get away from it all? We offer you... Escape!"

Listening to the Old Time Radio show Escape! might be a good solution, but, unfortunately, none of the episodes were from a Robert E. Howard story. Still, the sentiment is fitting these days with talk of quarantines, cancellations, bans on traveling, etc. to want to escape. So, since you can't travel to Cross Plains, Texas, this June, you can still travel virtually around the state. So, I offer up more Texas travels of Rob and his Dad from a presentation filmed by Ben Friberg at Howard Days 2017, along with Todd Vick who also joined in on the travels with Ol' Two-Gun. 

[linefacedscrivener]

This is a great historic photo of not only a young Robert E. Howard with his dog Patches, but also of the historic house that is now the Robert E. Howard Museum.

The museum was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 19, 1994.

At Howard Days 2019, it was announced that a new historical marker was to be placed at the house. A draft of the marker was then unveiled. see the video below, courtesy of Ben Friberg. 

[linefacedscrivener]

"Just west of this place begins the real western half of the American continent. You will not see the real west until you cross the Callahan Devide. Where the high postoak ridges of the devide fall away into the high plains country to west and south, begins to West. Standing on the uplands I look westward and seem to see the whole vista of mountains, canyons, peaks, rivers, endless dusty plains, cactus-haunted deserts and high mesas stretching away from my very feet to the foaming shores of the Pacific. And I close my eyes and seem to glimpse a vast dim mighty caravan surging endlessly across those vast expanses - a restless river of changing glints of light and checkered colors, surging, eddying, brawling, swirling its spate into the waste-places, but sweeping onward, untiring and irresistible. What man can pick out the separate elements in such a flood? The individual mingles with the liquid masses and is lost - yet nowhere is the individual more strongly marked, more clear-cut; pioneers and buffalo hunters, miners and soldiers, sun-burnt women in home-spun, reckless dance-hall girls, gunfighters, gamblers, cowpunchers, outlaws - Spaniards, Saxons and Indians, mingled in one chaotic flood they roar blindly toward the sea.

"I am proud that in all these patterns, men of my native state had a part. Nowhere in the West will you find a place where a Texan has not set his foot. Buffalo hunters, guides, officers, outlaws - they left their mark wherever men lived hard."

        -Robert E. Howard to H.P. Lovecraft, August 9, 1932

I love Howard's writing here. He falls into elegant prose, then drives home his point with how proud he is to be a Texan. The story beyond the beginning of the Texas revolution with the "Come and Take It" flag fits the bill of that Texas spirit. The following is a good video that tells that history:

[linefacedscrivener]

"I did typing for Robert E. Howard, the creator of Conan the Barbarian. I typed many of the original Conan stories that appeared in Weird Tales Magazine."

    -Norris Chambers

Norris Chambers grew up in Cross Cut, Texas, a town the Howards lived in before moving to Cross Plains. His parents were also friends with Dr. Howard and Hester, so even though Norris was eleven years younger than Robert, the families had contact with each other over the years. REH loaned many of his books to Norris, including the many Tarzan novels he owned. In his teens, Norris purchased a typewriter and, with Howard's help, began advertising to type clean manuscripts for authors at a lower than going rate. Howard also gave Chambers a number of his own manuscripts to type, including a number of the Conan stories.

Later in life, Norris Chambers started a website featuring short stories about small town Texas life in Cross Cut. One of these is about his time typing the manuscripts for Howard: www.norrisc.com/conan.html

In a collection of stories at the following link, he talks about the history of and life in Cross Cut, Texas, duirng the 1920s and 1930s: www.norrisc.com/crosscut.html

And finally, on the main page, there are ample stories that tell of life in a very different age than today, and one that is closer to Robert E. Howard's Texas than ours: www.norrisc.com/index.html

[Von K]

Mar 24, 2020 6:43:26 GMT -5 linefacedscrivener said:

"I did typing for Robert E. Howard, the creator of Conan the Barbarian. I typed many of the original Conan stories that appeared in Weird Tales Magazine."

    -Norris Chambers

Norris Chambers grew up in Cross Cut, Texas, a town the Howards lived in before moving to Cross Plains. His parents were also friends with Dr. Howard and Hester, so even though Norris was eleven years younger than Robert, the families had contact with each other over the years. REH loaned many of his books to Norris, including the many Tarzan novels he owned. In his teens, Norris purchased a typewriter and, with Howard's help, began advertising to type clean manuscripts for authors at a lower than going rate. Howard also gave Chambers a number of his own manuscripts to type, including a number of the Conan stories.

Later in life, Norris Chambers started a website featuring short stories about small town Texas life in Cross Cut. One of these is about his time typing the manuscripts for Howard: www.norrisc.com/conan.html

In a collection of stories at the following link, he talks about the history of and life in Cross Cut, Texas, duirng the 1920s and 1930s: www.norrisc.com/crosscut.html

And finally, on the main page, there are ample stories that tell of life in a very different age than today, and one that is closer to Robert E. Howard's Texas than ours: www.norrisc.com/index.html

Thanks again for all your great posts linefacedscrivener! Your thread here is a gold mine.

Don't know if if you've seen this, an interview with Norris Chambers posted by Ben Friberg on his channel:

Memories of Robert E Howard, by Norris Chambers and Ben Friberg

"I was always amazed at the way he talked. He didn’t talk like an old country person. He talked just like he was writing, just like you’re reading in a book. That always amazed me the way he’d do that."

Norris Chambers

[linefacedscrivener]

Mar 24, 2020 8:44:16 GMT -5 Von K said:

Mar 24, 2020 6:43:26 GMT -5 linefacedscrivener said:

"I did typing for Robert E. Howard, the creator of Conan the Barbarian. I typed many of the original Conan stories that appeared in Weird Tales Magazine."

    -Norris Chambers

Norris Chambers grew up in Cross Cut, Texas, a town the Howards lived in before moving to Cross Plains. His parents were also friends with Dr. Howard and Hester, so even though Norris was eleven years younger than Robert, the families had contact with each other over the years. REH loaned many of his books to Norris, including the many Tarzan novels he owned. In his teens, Norris purchased a typewriter and, with Howard's help, began advertising to type clean manuscripts for authors at a lower than going rate. Howard also gave Chambers a number of his own manuscripts to type, including a number of the Conan stories.

Later in life, Norris Chambers started a website featuring short stories about small town Texas life in Cross Cut. One of these is about his time typing the manuscripts for Howard: www.norrisc.com/conan.html

In a collection of stories at the following link, he talks about the history of and life in Cross Cut, Texas, duirng the 1920s and 1930s: www.norrisc.com/crosscut.html

And finally, on the main page, there are ample stories that tell of life in a very different age than today, and one that is closer to Robert E. Howard's Texas than ours: www.norrisc.com/index.html

Thanks again for all your great posts linefacedscrivener! Your thread here is a gold mine.

Don't know if if you've seen this, an interview with Norris Chambers posted by Ben Friberg on his channel:

Memories of Robert E Howard, by Norris Chambers and Ben Friberg

"I was always amazed at the way he talked. He didn’t talk like an old country person. He talked just like he was writing, just like you’re reading in a book. That always amazed me the way he’d do that."

Norris Chambers

Thanks Von K. I included the video with my earlier Norris Chambers post, but linking it to this one makes sense in case anyone missed that one. I finished reading all of Chamber's articles and they were really interesting. I like stories of earlier times - I understand them more than I do today's stories.  That may be why I have gravitated to writing history so much. 

Also, thank you for the support on this little corner of the Swords of Robert E. Howard. I appreciate it.

[linefacedscrivener]

"But to return to the present day: the native Texan is looked on as lawless. But if he is prone to reserve calling in the law as a last resort rather than a first, it is only necessary to remember that the time is not far back when men considered it their own personal business to protect themselves. When the uncle for whom I was named - a prominent banker on the coast - was mixed up in the 'round bale war,' he hired a private detective to guard his house and protect his family when he himself had to be absent, but he asked no man to protect him. He wore his protection on his own right hip. Anyway, when one of his associates was shot down on the streets, the gang that did it ran the sheriff clean out of town. Even when my uncle learned of a plot to murder him as he got aboard the Galveston train, he didn’t ask for a police escort. He didn’t even ask his friends to help him, but they were there in force, and the would-be killers backed down. I’m not telling this to show how brave my uncle was; I don’t claim he was any braver than anybody else. As far as that goes, he wasn’t afraid of anything between the devil and the moon. But it just shows that in those days men considered protecting themselves their own personal job, unless the odds against them were too overwhelming."
        -Robert E. Howard to H.P. Lovecraft, September 22, 1932

Working through the REH/HPL letters (again), I came across this quote above. I know the uncle he is referring to has to be Robert T. Ervin, Hester's brother, but I have never heard of the "Round Bale War." I looked in The Collected Letters and A Means to Freedom for an endnote, but there were none. I Googled it and came up empty. So, I set about doing some research. When I finally found references to it, they all steered me to one source, T. Tuffly Ellis's "The Round Bale Cotton Controversy," an article based on his dissertation from the University of Texas in 1964, published in the Southwestern Historical Quarterly. 

It turns out, cotton bales were the typical rectangular ones we are used to seeing with hay, and the ability to bale cotton in this manner had become wide-spread throughout the South in the post Civil War era after the invention of the cotton gin. There was a problem with this method. When these bales were loaded onto the trains, because they were so heavy, the ability to load them left a good portion of a rail-car space unused. So, someone invented a machine that would bale cotton into round bales, kind of like how we often see hay bales sitting on farm fields as we drive around. This created a huge advantage for many reasons. The first was the size and shape allowed for them to be loaded up into rail cars, taking up more space, meaning more cotton was shipped, hence, more profits. The other reason was the machine compressed the cotton in the process, so not only did it take up more space on the rail-cars, the amount of cotton was markedly higher. Oh, and one other thing.  Because the cotton is compressed, it makes it tighter with less space in-between the cotton, making it more impervious to water and fire damage. 

Now, all of this would seem like a good thing to me. However, herein lies the rub: farmers owned the rectangular balers, while the new corporations, the two that had developed round balers, only leased their machines for an obvious profit. This became a war of a new fangled machine making an old machine obsolete, and some people didn't like that idea. They divided into camps and the war began brewing.

One method to combat this was to alter the rates for shipping cotton bales that are rectangular versus round, obviously charging higher rates for shipping the round ones. This went to court. The Galveston Cotton Exchange came out against any change in the rates, and it may be that Robert T. Ervin was working for the cotton exchange in some manner, as noted by the "Galveston train."

Another method to combat the change was violence. According to Ellis, "Threats and violence were sometimes made against a person for putting up cotton in round bales. Operators of gins were sometimes intimidated. C.W. Raschke of Lexington, Texas, for example, told the Commission that when he began operating a round bale gin press, 'they [his opposition] promised to blow me up with dynamite.' One group of farmers passed a resolution threatening to thrash a man that would put cotton up in round bales." 

Hence, Howard's story about his Uncle Robert T. Ervin shows that this was not something to be taken lightly and that this was not an REH embellishment on the truth. This was a serious situation and passions ran high.

For more information on the war, link to "The Round Cotton Bale Controversy": www.jstor.org/stable/30240965?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

[linefacedscrivener]

"Texans took the first herds to Kansas, to New Mexico, to Canada. One man, right after the Civil War had ruined the New Orleans market, drove a herd of longhorns to New York without finding a market. He eventually sold them in Boston."
        -Robert E. Howard to H.P. Lovecraft, August 9, 1932

One of my favorite subjects regarding Texas history is anything about the Texas cattle drives north to Kansas or further beyond. One of my favorite television shows is Rawhide, one of my favorite books is Lonesome Dove, and I never grow bored reading histories of the cattle drives, overviews, first person accounts, or things tangentially related. It is also interesting how certain events create situations in which life changes, then changes again. You know, like pandemics.  In this case, the Civil War created the situation of plentiful longhorn cattle and a demand in the north for beef. Not long after, the expansion of the railroad system pretty much ended the need for the cattle drives, that and barbed wire.

Here is an interesting video that talks about the early Texas cattle drives:

[Von K]

You're welcome linefacedscrivener.

You're being very kind regarding my re-post of Ben's Norris Chambers vid. I missed the posts on the ninth page due to events in rl during that period and less time to read than usual. I should have double checked first, knowing how comprehensive your thread here is.

[linefacedscrivener]

Mar 26, 2020 17:15:48 GMT -5 Von K said:

You're welcome linefacedscrivener.

You're being very kind regarding my re-post of Ben's Norris Chambers vid. I missed the posts on the ninth page due to events in rl during that period and less time to read than usual. I should have double checked first, knowing how comprehensive your thread here is.

No worries. These certainly have been interesting times, and it is hard keeping up with everything. And like I said, it complimented the post nicely and now people reading that post won't overlook it. That's a great video and one of Ben Friberg's earliest. He has really been doing Howard Days and REH studies a great service with his videos. 

[linefacedscrivener]

"The boys hazing the herds up the old Chisholm used to chant,

'Ki yi, ki yi -yoh! Get along, little dogies! Its yore misfortune and none of my own!
Ki yi, ki yi -yoh! Get along, little dogies! You know Wyoming will be yore new home!”'"

    -Robert E. Howard to H.P. Lovecraft, November 2, 1932


Robert E. Howard had a fascination for the old songs for as he also told HPL, "Its cheering to find men collecting these old ballads, which seem to be forgotten by practically all people. Folks don’t sing like they used to." Howard often recounted many of the old song lyrics to Lovecraft, some of which he had heard, but most, it seems, had not found there way back east or to Lovecraft's ear. Although Howard never mentioned him, Gene Autry was a contemporary of Howard's being only a year younger. He too had a fascination for the old western songs and ended up making a singing career out of it. I grew up listening to and watching the old Gene Autry movies and he was always my favorite. In turn, my kids grew up listening to the Gene Autry songs and watching his movies as well. One album that was oriented toward kids, was "Always Your Pal, Gene Autry," and it featured some of the old songs, like "The Old Chisholm Trail." Great album, great song. 

Here's Gene Autry: 

[linefacedscrivener]

"Yet I feel that if I ever do write anything of lasting merit it will be fiction laid in the early West. Some day I hope to be able to use the life of John Wesley Hardin, either as a biography, or a basis for a historical novel. I rate Hardin along with Billy the Kid and Wild Bill Hickok as the three greatest gunmen who ever lived.”

        —Robert E. Howard to August Derleth, October, 1934


In light of my last post, about the old cattle drive song, "The Old Chisholm Trail," perhaps it is time to address Howard's infatuation with the story of John Wesley Hardin who participated in a number of cattle drives up the Old Chisholm Trail. His is a fascinating story. Born on May 26, 1853 to a Methodist preacher, he did not take to his father's religion and started having trouble at an early age. He killed his first man at the age of 15 and then depending on whom you believe he killed at least another dozen, if not two dozen, or as many as four dozen men. He served time in prison for murder right here in Huntsville, Texas, two blocks from where I work. While in prison he studied law and wrote his autobiography, and was released after serving 17 of his 25 year sentence for murder. Unable to truly curb his ways, not long after his release he committed another murder, legally a "negligent homicide." He moved to El Paso in 1895, and there he got his comeuppance when John Selman shot him in the head. He died August 19, 1895.

The following video from the show Gunslingers is titled "John Wesley Hardin: The Dark Heart of Texas" and details some of Hardin's encounters while working the cattle drive up the Old Chisholm Trail. Also, note the talking head professor, Mitch Roth--he is a colleague of mine who has the office one door down (though he is not a University of Texas professor, as labeled, but a Sam Houston State University professor).  Enjoy!

 

[linefacedscrivener]

“Of all gunmen John Wesley Hardin was probably the smartest. He originated some of the tricks Billy the Kid used and got credit for inventing. For instance, the six-shooter roll, which takes a man off guard. They say the Kid invented that. Why, that was old stuff in Texas before the Kid killed his first man. To the best of my knowledge Hardin invented it, and it was practised by all the vaqueros who hazed the dogies up the old Chisholm. Many a Kansas law bit the dust before they learned the trick. Hardin once got the drop on Wild Bill himself that way, but for some damfool reason didn’t drill him. The Kid was as slick as Hardin, but he had the advantage of mechanics; double-action guns had come in, in his time, and he used one of that sort – a .41, worn high up on his left hip, as he was left-handed. Hardin used a single-action – a cap-and-ball at first – and it’s easy to see the difference. What Billy accomplished in a single movement, or at most a slight change in a single movement, Hardin was forced to do with three – Billy simply rolled the gun and pulled the trigger as he reversed it, while Hardin had to draw back the hammer and release it as he rolled the pistol. Success in that maneuver depending on speed, one can easily see that John had to have steel-trap quickness in his thews and nerves. And he did. Moreover he was a crack shot. Once he and a friend were coming out of a saloon, and John was pretty drunk. Seeing this, his friend pointed some distance down the street to where a loafer lounged on a whiskey-barrel, and bet John that he couldn’t, in his condition, shoot the fellow off the barrel. For answer a long-barrelled .44 flashed into John’s hand as if by magic and at the crack of the shot, the loafer toppled from the barrel, shot cleanly through the head. The friend paid the wager.”

        —Robert E. Howard to August Derleth, December 29, 1932


The story of Hardin shooting the Mexican off the barrel after he was released from prison has been retold many times. One early documentation of this event came in the New York Tribune in the October 14, 1900 issue which explained,
that "immediately after regaining his liberty he clinched his reputation for being the 'meanest bad man on the border' by betting $5 that he could at the first shot knock an innocent Mexican off a soap box where he left the dead Mexican in the gutter where he fell." Hardin was charged for negligent homicide because it was said the man died from falling off the whiskey barrel/soap box, not from the gunshot itself. 

Link to the newspaper article through the Library of Congress Chronicling America webpage, a great resource for historic American newspapers: chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1900-10-14/ed-1/seq-39/#words=Robert%2BBorup