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

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“Another trip I took of some small interest was to Stamford, 135 miles north west of Cross Plains, where the big annual West Texas rodeo and cowboy reunion takes place each third, fourth, and fifth of July.”
        —Robert E. Howard to H.P. Lovecraft, September and October 1933

“I’ve done a little running around in a modest way since I wrote you last, three or four short trips within the confines of the state. I've been over to Dallas a couple of times, which lies a couple of hundred miles east of Cross Plains; up to old Fort Griffin, on the Clear Fork of the Brazos; to Stamford, about a hundred and thirty miles north west of this town, where they have the big annual West Texas rodeo and cowboy reunion the third, fourth and fifth of each July.”
        —Robert E. Howard to August Derleth, September 4, 1933

The Rodeo is the official sport of Texas, and Stamford, Texas, is home to the Texas Cowboy Reunion. The following is the history of the reunion, which began in 1930, so it was still relatively new when Howard was a spectator. 

"In the spring of 1930, a group of men, many of whom were pioneers of Stamford, met to discuss forming an organization, a community project that would help pull the town out of the Great Depression. They wanted to honor the pioneers of the west and provide a place where they could come together and 'live again the days of the longhorn and open range,' and so these men decided on a rodeo. After discussing various possible names, Ray Rector, pioneer photographer, spoke up and said, 'I move that we call it the Texas Cowboy Reunion!'

"The first meeting was set for June 26, 27, and 28 of 1930. With no time to build an arena, the group decided on a natural amphitheatre on Swenson Ranch, the sides on which crude benches were constructed. The registration exceeded the hopes of those who organized the first reunion, with 98 contestants. Eight outfits brought their chuck wagons along to set up camp. The participants and fans came from all over Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Oklahoma, and elsewhere.

"Those men who were considered 'pioneers', who had worked cattle before 1895 were given badges which allowed them all of the privileges the rodeo had to offer, which included admittance to the performances and contests in bronc riding, calf roping, wild cow milking, and wild steer riding. There were also a fiddler’s contests and square dances.

"The Texas Cowboy Reunion is responsible for many contests which are now considered a part of rodeos everywhere, such as the cutting horse contest, wild cow milking, barrel racing, and the idea of sponsors.

"Begun as a small community project, started with a few men, the Texas Cowboy Reunion grew to be known as the largest amateur rodeo in the world. It had one mission, as stated by Ray Rector: 'To perpetuate the memory of the West, to entertain the pioneers of the past, to keep alive the traditions of those that wrested this country from the Indians and the Buffalo is our one aim, and to this task we have pledged our time, our money, and our efforts. With this idea in view we believe our organization will continue to grow until the last drive has been made, the last alkali bogs have been passed and the last great round-up will find us all together where cutting horses never gets tired and where no night guards are needed.'"

Source: texascowboyreunion.com/

For more information about the history of the Rodeo in Texas, listen to Judge Wise's podcast Wise About Texas, episode 19, "Cowboy Christmas: Rodeo in Texas" here: wiseabouttexas.com/cowboy-christmas-rodeo-in-texas/

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"Well, we’ve been having some elections in Texas, and on the first pass we dealt the Wall Street clan a body blow. I hear the big babies up that way sent down numbers of tickets already filled out for the boys to vote; they wanted to be sure their man went in. Well, the state of Texas is damned near sold out to the big interests, but not quite. Take Mr. Insull - the mister is meant sarcastically. The city of Cross Plains can’t even dam up Bee Branch, because it runs into Turkey Creek, which in turn runs into Pecan Bayou, which is a tributary of the Colorado River - because Mr. Beloved Insull owns the Colorado and all tributaries. As a result, the citizens of the town have to use water out of wells, that would ruin the system of a brass monkey. Brown County had one hell of a time kicking Insull and his cohorts off the Pecan Bayou so they could build their dam, but they did it, and thereby established a precedent that may help the next strugglers. I see they retired the poor fellow - his company, I mean - on a meager pension of $17,000 yearly. I pity him in his abject poverty."
        -Robert E. Howard to H.P. Lovecraft, August 9, 1932

Samuel Insull (1859-1938), pictured above, was born in England and at the age of 22, became Thomas Edison's secretary. He helped him to build GE, but when a merger pushed Edison out in 1892, Insull went to Chicago where he took over a power station and built an empire. By the end of the 1920s, Insull's utilities covered 32 states serving 4 million customers. As he expanded, he sold low priced stocks and millions of Americans bought in. When the Depression hit, they became worthless. Insull went from hero to villain overnight. He went bankrupt, was tried for fraud, and though he was acquitted, his reputation had been destroyed. He died of a heart attack in 1938.

One thing Howard, and most Texans in the early 20th Century, despised, was moneyed interest from outside of Texas, having bought up much of the land resources in Texas at the turn-of-the-century, who then made decisions that did not help Texans. The were only concerned with their profits and the money almost always left the state. The control of the Colorado River and its tributaries had to do with using the land resources to produce electricity. 

Samuel Insull is featured in the recent movie, The Current War, about the war for electricity between Edison and Tesla. Tom Holland plays a young Samuel Insull.

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"I often wished you were with me on my recent short trip through the southwestern hills, especially along the Old Spanish Trail, winding in and out among the vast, thickly timbered slopes and along the rivers, through deep cool valleys. There is a slumberous quiet among those hills, where the occupancy of man has scarcely made itself evident. Big wild turkeys flew across the road, so close that I could have dropped them with a pistol-shot - but I’m no hunter. It will take a hundred years to settle up the wilder portions of the state. I know of few greater pleasures than to drive over the long dreaming miles with the towns left behind and scarcely even a ranch-house or a wandering traveller to break the primeval solitude. And further west it is even wilder and less frequented. There is Brewster County with its area of 5,935 square miles, and its population of 6,624; Crockett area 3,215 square miles, population, 2,590; Pecos, area, 4,134 square miles, popula- tion 7,612; Terrell, area, 2,635, population, 2,660 - one human per square mile; Maverick, area 1,251 square miles, population 6,120. And etc., etc., also etc."
        -Robert E. Howard to H.P. Lovecraft, August 1931

Now there is something to imagine: Howard and Lovecraft tooling along the Old Spanish Trail together. Can you imagine the conversations?

Long before President Eisenhower created the highway system in America, a group of interested individuals got together in Mobile, Alabama, in 1915, to create the Old Spanish Trail Association. The goal was to create good roads that could be linked with one another, thus creating a route from California to Florida. According to the Texas Historical Commission, "The route quickly assumed a leading role in Texas' emerging highway system, in part, because it traveled to not only some of the state's most important nodes of military installations and industrial centers, but also some of the state's best known tourist destinations, parks, and recreational centers." Thus, Texas played a major role in the creation of the route. For the most part, if you are driving along Interstate Highway 10, you are on the OST, but there are still parts that exist and are not located underneath I-10 today. 

Click on the image above for an expanded view, and for those interested, the Texas Historical Society has a 34 page document on the trail's history: www.thc.texas.gov/public/upload/preserve/survey/highway/OST%20Historic%20Context.pdf

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"Glad you liked the rattles, and I'm sorry I couldn't get a bigger set. I'll try again next summer. If I could find a den of hibernating reptiles, and blast them out . . . I've seen thirty or forty big snakes hanging on a barbed-wire fence after the discovery of a hibernating den, and some lairs  have been found containing a hundred or more."
    -Robert E. Howard to H.P. Lovecraft, December 1932

When I first moved to Texas, there were a number of rattlesnakes in the undeveloped property across the street. Since it has been developed, I have never seen any in my neck of the woods, only out in West Texas.

Howard rounded up some rattlesnakes and then sent the rattles to H.P. Lovecraft as a gift in the fall of 1932. Interestingly, for many people in Texas, rattlesnake roundups are part of their heritage, and it remains popular with many today. Here is a video from Sweetwater, Texas, explaining that very thing:

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"Bigfoot Wallace . . . he marched on the Mier Expedition and drew a white bean."
        -Robert E. Howard to H.P. Lovecraft, October 1931 

"Outside of the original ranchers and the later farming class (both of practically the same stock, Scotch-English-Irish from the older Southern states) about the only other strain in the country in this section is Germanic: numbers of Germans having drifted up into this country from the Teutonic settlements of Fredericksburg and New Braunfals."
        -Robert E. Howard to August Derleth, December 29, 1932

I can find no evidence that Robert E. Howard ever visited LaGrange, Texas (east of New Braunfels and southeast of Austin), but Howard talked about things related to the location including the Mier Expedition, Germans living in Texas, and Beer.

The famous Mier Expedition that ended in the Black Bean Affair, began in LaGrange, Texas, and eventually ended there, when the remains of those who died were brought back and buried in a common tomb now called Monument Hill. That was in 1848. The following year, Heinrich Ludwig Kreische, purchased 172 acres of land in LaGrange, and it included Monument Hill. On the land he built his home and a brewery, which became the third largest brewery in Texas. The main beer produced was called "Kreische's Bluff Beer."

Kreische maintained the tomb during his lifetime, but he died in 1882 and the brewery closed in 1884. It sat in ruins until eventually the state took over the property. Today, it is a state park: Monument Hill and Kreische Brewery State Historic Site. The following is a short video on the ruins:

[Char-Vell]

Today I learned about the Black Bean Episode.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mier_expedition#Black_Bean_Episode

"On February 11, 1843, 181 Texans escaped but, by the end of the month, the lack of food and water in the mountainous Mexican desert resulted in 176 of them surrendering or being recaptured. This was in the vicinity of Salado, Tamaulipas."

I'm sure there's a mundane explanation for what happened to the remaining 5 Texans, but I like to think it was something Howardian.

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Aug 21, 2020 12:51:05 GMT -5 Char-Vell said:

Today I learned about the Black Bean Episode.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mier_expedition#Black_Bean_Episode

You know, it is so much a part of Texas history, I just kind of glossed right on over that. Thanks for pointing that out!

Here is a video on the Black Bean Episode that gives a good overview and ends with a picture of the Monument Hill memorial.

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I couldn't help but think that Howard could have used the Black Bean Episode in one of his Conan stories. How cool would that have been?

Although if Conan had been on the expedition, it wouldn't have failed. 

[Char-Vell]

Aug 21, 2020 15:23:58 GMT -5 linefacedscrivener said:

I couldn't help but think that Howard could have used the Black Bean Episode in one of his Conan stories. How cool would that have been?

Although if Conan had been on the expedition, it wouldn't have failed. 

He would be one of the 5 missing Texans,encountering some weird menace as they escape the Mexicans.

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"Conan is a Texan!" This was a really nice video on the museum. If you haven't seen it . . .

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"Then there was the case of Lord Adair. The Irish lord had made some big investments in the cattle business - beef was being exploited in Texas then as oil and farm products were later and the British companies were dipping their hands in the pot - and he and his wife were visiting the famous Goodnight ranch on the range of the South Paladuro. Goodnight was the nobleman’s partner."
        -Robert E. Howard to H.P. Lovecraft, January 1934

I was quite impressed with The Texas Bucket List video on the Cross Plains Robert E. Howard House Museum video, so I thought I would see where else in Texas Shane McAuliffe and his crew visited that Howard also visited or wrote about. The first video I hit upon was about Charlie Goodnight of the Goodnight-Loving Cattle Trail. I mentioned Goodnight in an earlier post, but this video talks about his home in Goodnight, Texas, now the Charles Goodnight Historical Center.

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"The valleys are fertile, and the people are prosperous. They are backward, according to the standards of the rest of the State, but it is a backwardness I respect, for it consists of an aversion to exorbitant taxes and unnecessary expenses. The town was, until recently, unincorporated, the largest town in the State not to be corporated. There is a windmill in almost every back yard, for there is no city water works, no electricity or gas."
    -Robert E. Howard to August Derleth, April 15, 1936

Drive around Texas and you will still see these old fashion windmills dotting the landscape (along with the newer, gigantic wind turbines), especially out west. Howard mentions this was also the case during his time as well. The Texas Bucket List paid a visit to the Aermotor Windmill factory in San Angelo. Now, this is cheating a little here, because Aermoter didn't move to Texas until 1986, but what keeps it tied to Howard is this is the only company still making these old fashioned windmills in Texas. Still, I thought it was interesting.

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"Writing has always been a means to an end I hoped to achieve - freedom. Personal liberty may be a phantom, but I hardly think anybody would deny that there is more freedom in writing than there is in slaving in an iron foundry, or working - as I have worked - from twelve to fourteen hours seven days out of the week behind a soda fountain."
           -Robert E. Howard to H.P. Lovecraft, July 1933

It is hard to imagine Robert E. Howard as a soda jerk, but he worked long hours behind the soda fountain in the mid to late 1920s trying to make ends meet; though his writing suffered for it. My Dad also spent time in his teens working as a soda jerk and he told me stories about how miserable the job was. The whole notion of a drug store offering lunches, fountain drinks, and hot fudge sundaes, has pretty much died off in America. The recent closure of the Highland Park Soda Foundation in Dallas, Texas, is but one more example. It opened in 1912 and just closed in 2018. The Texas Bucket List paid a visit there before it closed. Who knows, perhaps Howard paid a visit to this particular soda fountain on one of his visits to Dallas.

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"I didn't see such a hell of a lot of Eagle Pass but I saw Piedro Negras – and the hottest girl I've seen in many a day – a skirt in a Mexican whore house away out of the polite section. Also I learned several new vulgarities in Spanish. Some nice looking strumpets in what they name The Reservation across the border and most of them brazen as hell – five dollars."
        -Robert E. Howard to Tevis Clyde Smith, undated letter

***Speculation***

I give the above warning because I am going to jump off into some speculation here. Actually, I am going to convey the speculation many other Howard scholars have presented on the question, "Did Robert E. Howard ever have sex?"

There are many scholars who point to Howard's trip into Mexico from Eagle Pass, Texas, as being the most likely evidence for answering this question in the affirmative. The town being Piedro Negras and the implications of the undated, handwritten passage above, are what most have pointed to as evidence of his first possible sexual encounter. One of the Howard scholars, Bobby Derie--who does great work--presented on this topic at Howard Days. The reason for this question is not so much for puerile interests, but because it has been noted that Howard's writing becomes more sensual and sexual after his trip to Mexico. Now, because it is nowhere written or explicitly stated, we do not know the answer to the question posed--all we have is speculation, hence my warning. Still, it does make for some pretty convincing evidence that this is likely the case. 

Here is Derie's presentation:

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“I knocked off work Saint Padraic's Eve (something I haven't done deliberately for many months) and went to Brownwood to see a fight card. Saturday night a friend and I intended to celebrate in proper style, but a terrific sand storm, followed by intense cold weather, thunder and sleet, discouraged us, so we merely saw a movie and let it go at that. Next day dawned clear and fine though, so (after hauling a load of hay out to a ranch fifteen miles away and feeding some half frozen cattle) we lit out for San Angelo, which lies about 105 miles west of Brownwood, in the plains country . . . a typical western town, with broad windy streets, new handsome buildings, and a free-and-easy air. We saw a movie and leg-show, and, which is the natural custom for hillmen finding themselves in a city of the rich plains, we preceded to tank up on all the drinkables in view.”

        —Robert E. Howard to August Derleth, March 1933


***More Speculation***

Continuing the same line of thought as the last post, I am going to speculate a little further in regards to Howard possibly visiting with prostitutes in a town I have not seen mentioned elsewhere: San Angelo.

According to the Handbook of Texas, “Red-light districts operated in a variety of cities and towns during the 1920s and 1930s, among them Beaumont, Borger, Corpus Christi, Corsicana, Dallas, El Paso, Galveston, San Angelo, and San Antonio.” Now, if San Angelo had a known red light district, and Howard and his friend went to see a “leg show” and got soused in the bar, perhaps the next natural progression for these two young men . . .

Howard did take a lot of trips to San Angelo. He writes of going there to Lovecraft in August 1931. In a another letter to Lovecraft in a June 1934, he makes a very curious statement. He says, “I did get on an awful bust around Saint Patrick’s Day over at San Angelo, but that wasn’t on beer.” What was the awful bust on if it wasn’t beer? It could have been liquor, sure, or he could have said that tongue-in-cheek. And in February 1936, he wrote of taking his mom to San Angelo for treatment and he stayed in town. In that particular letter he makes this statement: “As in any typically West Texas town there is plenty of drinking, fighting and love-making going on all the time.” Hmmmm?

Again, this is all speculation, but perhaps this Texas Buck List video might give you more food for thought: