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Post by linefacedscrivener on Apr 27, 2020 12:12:48 GMT -5
 "I wish I had lived in Texas a hundred years ago." -Robert E. Howard to H.P. Lovecraft, December 1934
When I was growing up, my dad bought and sold old antiques from the 1920s through the 1950s. I remember reading the old pulp magazines, big little books, and decoding secret messages with the Little Orphan Annie decoder ring (One message really did decode as "Drink more Ovaltine"!).
Many of the dealers at the antique shows bought and sold old postcards. My dad never did, but I was always fascinated by them and the history they told of a different era. I thought I would track Howard's "Unborn Empire" for awhile through old Texas postcards. The one above was from the early 20th century showing the "Six Flags of Texas" and noting the warning: "Lest We Forget." |
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Post by linefacedscrivener on Apr 27, 2020 17:29:05 GMT -5
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Post by linefacedscrivener on Apr 28, 2020 7:56:05 GMT -5
 "I went to Howard Payne College at Brownwood, Texas, but no to take a literary course, no, no! I studied shorthand and typing, and returning to my home-town, I began my venture in the business world." -Robert E. Howard to Wilfred Branch Talman, September 1931 |
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Post by linefacedscrivener on Apr 28, 2020 8:24:59 GMT -5
 "We went into the capitol and . . . I might also add that the State capitol looks about as big as a good-sized Texas county-courthouse." -Robert E. Howard to H.P. Lovecraft, July 1935 |
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Post by linefacedscrivener on Apr 28, 2020 14:47:00 GMT -5
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Post by linefacedscrivener on Apr 28, 2020 14:52:25 GMT -5
 "Salaam, sahib; Say, bo, you're developing into a real poet. That poem of yours was sure great. Whats Truett doing these days? How is der old Daniel Baker? (Hail the beans and prunes!)" -Robert E. Howard to Tevis Clyde Smith, October 9, 1925 |
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Post by linefacedscrivener on Apr 28, 2020 15:07:20 GMT -5
 "We have been at home for over a month, but my mother is far from recovered. An abscess developed in the operation wound, which necessitated her staying for several days in a hospital at Coleman, and it is still necessary to take her there, a distance of some thirty miles, every few days in order to have her wound dressed and cleansed, as my father does not have the proper facilities for this." -Robert E. Howard to Farnsworth Wright, May 6, 1935
According to the Coleman County Historical Commission: "After Mr. Richard Henry Overall's death in 1900, Mrs. Martha Overall built a very modest home on the corner of East Pecan and Colorado Streets and moved into it. She continued to supervise the ranch management with J.T.Blair as her foreman. In 1923, Dr. L.P. Allison of Brownwood talked with her about financing a small hospital for him in Coleman. She decided to built the hospital herself and made Dr. Allison the manager. As a memorial to her late husband, Mrs. Overall constructed and equipped one of the most modern small hospitals in Texas at a cost of $69,000. She gave it to the people of Coleman County." |
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Post by linefacedscrivener on Apr 29, 2020 6:50:25 GMT -5
 "My parents and I went to Amarillo in the latter part of July. None of us had ever been to that city, and I wanted to see if the high altitude, 4500 feet, might help a persistent cough that had been bothering my mother." -Robert E. Howard to H.P. Lovecraft, December 5, 1935 |
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Post by linefacedscrivener on Apr 29, 2020 6:53:33 GMT -5
 "Those upland plains are monotonous to look at, but the atmosphere whips fresh blood and new life through the veins; at least it always did with me. We ate our dinner at the little town of Post." -Robert E. Howard to H.P. Lovecraft, December 5, 1935 |
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Post by linefacedscrivener on Apr 29, 2020 6:59:12 GMT -5
 "We reached Lubbock a few hours later . . ." -Robert E. Howard to H.P. Lovecraft, December 5, 1935 |
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Post by linefacedscrivener on Apr 29, 2020 7:01:03 GMT -5
 ". . . and from Plainview on it was new territory to all of us." -Robert E. Howard to H.P. Lovecraft, December 5, 1935 |
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Post by linefacedscrivener on Apr 29, 2020 7:05:22 GMT -5
 "We got to Amarillo well before sunset, having driven nearly 400 miles since morning. My mother had not regained her strength from her operation, but she stood the trip remarkably well. Amarillo is a town of some 43,000 people, and extremely modern and up-to-date, though somehow it doesn’t seem like a typical Texas town. It had a remarkable growth, springing from a small village to about its present size in just a few years. It spreads over an amazing territory, but, like most West Texas towns which have grown up since the beginning of the machine age, it has broad, straight streets, easy to drive on, and is very clean in appearance. It may some day be the biggest city in the State, if the Great Plains are ever developed as they should be. With its close proximity to the 'Bread Belt of the Nation' it has great possibilities as an industrial center." -Robert E. Howard to H.P. Lovecraft, December 5, 1935 |
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Post by linefacedscrivener on Apr 30, 2020 7:39:19 GMT -5
 "Returning to Amarillo we ate breakfast and then started on our home- ward journey. At Canyon, eighteen miles south of Amarillo . . ." -Robert E. Howard to H.P. Lovecraft, December 5, 1935 |
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Post by linefacedscrivener on Apr 30, 2020 7:42:54 GMT -5
 "At Canyon, eighteen miles south of Amarillo, we turned eastward and drove several miles to the Palo Duro canyon, the eastern-most of the great gorges of the west. A narrow road, a mile long, meandered down into the canyon, which is a thousand feet deep and perhaps eighty miles long, and we drove along the canyon floor for several miles, seeing some of the most vivid and rugged scenery I have ever seen anywhere, even in the Rocky Mountains of New Mexico. A small creek twists along the floor, and the road, which workmen were even then improving, crosses it repeatedly. Near one of those crossings was fought the last Indian fight ever to be fought in Texas - that is, the last formal engagement, if it might be so-called, when scouts and soldiers surprized and captured the Comanches who had taken refuge in the canyon, in 1874. "The Palo Duro is considered by some historians to have been the cradle of the Comanche race. At least it is certain that it was the homeland of the tribe for some centuries. Others consider that the tribe originated and developed somewhere on the plains of the Middle West, and drifted south to the Palo Duro as late as 1700. This is probably erroneous, for it is pretty certain that Coronado found Comanches living in the Palo Duro in 1541. It is possible that the theory of southward drift in 1700 is a confusion with an eastward and southward movement that did occur about that date, but which originated from the Palo Duro, where the Comanches had been living since drifting down from the north centuries before. There was an expansion movement on the part of the Comanches in the latter part of the eighteenth century. Before that time Apaches had occupied western and central Texas, and these were swept southward and westward, with their Lipan kin, before the onslaught of the conquering Comanches, who were soon destroying Spanish outposts along the San Saba, Concho and Llano Rivers, harrying the outskirts of San Antonio, and raiding deep into Mexico itself. Spanish development of the country north of the Rio Grande was checked and hindered, and there is a possibility that the Latins might eventually have been driven south of the Rio Grande entirely, but for the intervention of the Anglo-Saxon colonists. These drove the Comanches implacably northward and westward, shattering their power in battle after battle, until the last remnant of the once proud and merciless nation was cornered and captured in the ancient cradle of their race, and banished permanently to a reservation in the Territory. "There is, I understand, talk of building a road through the canyon, which at present, except for a few miles of passable, but unpaved road, has only horse-trails. This road would connect with the trans-continental highways in the northern part of the State, and would prove one of the most striking scenic drives in the country. I feel sure it will eventually be accomplished." -Robert E. Howard to H.P. Lovecraft, December 5, 1935 |
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Post by linefacedscrivener on Apr 30, 2020 7:47:03 GMT -5
 "So we came south, following the road we had taken in our northward travels, and reached the town of Sweetwater, in Nolan County, before sunset. It was formerly a clean, likable cattle-town, but now, since it is becoming an industrial center, has attracted some pretty unsavory characters, as well as many decent and honest citizens." -Robert E. Howard to H.P. Lovecraft, December 5, 1935 |
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