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

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“The last killing that took place in this town – last summer – had some of the ear-marks of an old-time frontier homicide. The offended party fired from the hip with an old single-action .44 and the victim pitched out into the street with his feet up in the doorway. Those old guns sure bellow when they speak. I was about half asleep and the report woke me up, some distance from the scene of action.”
        —Robert E. Howard to August Derleth, March 1933


The last piece of the March 1933 letter to August Derleth mentions a killing the previous summer on the streets of Cross Plains, Texas. Howard mentions the same killing to Derleth again in his July 4, 1935 letter:

"And there was Arch Davidson, the last man killed in a fight in this town – he was warned to keep out of Walt Farrow's place, but he kicked open the door and lurched in, in his bravado – and there he froze suddenly, with the knowledge of death on him, in the glare in Farrow's eyes, in the sixshooter in Farrow’s lifted hand. Then the gun crashed and the bullet tore his brains out and hurled him headfirst out into the crowded street, where women shrieked suddenly to see that limp shape lying with the shattered head in a slowly widening pool of crimson." 
     —Robert E. Howard to August Derleth, July 4, 1935

On Saturday, June 11, 1932, cafe owner Walt Farrow shot and killed Arch Davidson in his cafe on Main Street in Cross Plains, Texas. Farrow claimed he killed Davidson in self-defense. Archie Davidson, who was 29, was taken to the Santa Anna Hospital, where he died on Sunday afternoon June 12. He was an oil field worker and was survived by his parents, seven brothers and two sisters.

On June 14, Walt Farrow's case was sent to the grand jury on Tuesday and he was indicted with the charge of murder.  The trial was set to take place the following week (fast justice!). Farrow's bond was set at $3,500, and he engaged attorneys W. E. Martin and J.C. Shipman of Abilene to represent him. 

On Wednesday, June 22, 1932, Farrow's case opened in Baird Texas in the 42nd District Court and it finished the following day. The .44 caliber pistol was introduced into evidence, of the "1873 pattern," and the attending physician reported it was a gunshot to the right eye that caused Davidson's death. Walt Farrow took the stand and testified, "When Archie came in at the door he looked like a wild man and I thought he was coming over the counter at me. I guess I shot him."  Farrow also explained to the jury that three of the seven Davidson brothers had come to his cafe two weeks before and created a disturbance. Farrow had reported this to "Jim McMillan, night watchman" who told him he "had a right to protect his business and keep them out."  Farrow took it to heart. 

The case wrapped up on June 23, and the jury went into deliberation at 4:20 p.m.  They reached their decision on Friday, June 24, making their report at 3 p.m.  The Abilene Reporter stated, "it was understood a compromise verdict was reached after original balloting of eight for acquittal and four for conviction." Farrow was found guilty of murder without malice. Upon recommendation of the jury he was granted the suspension of a three-year penitentiary sentence. 

Sources: The Collected Letters, Tyler Morning Telegraph, The Abilene Morning News, & Abilene Reporter. 

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“I have Dobie's Coronado’s Children which I’ll be glad to lend you, if you wish. I intended visiting Dobie (who is an instructor in the state university) when I went to Austin in the spring, but he was – and still is – in Mexico riding a jackass through the mountains and gathering material for another book. His Vaquero of the Brush Country has even more solid meat in it, though it doesn't make quite such interesting reading.”
        —Robert E. Howard to August Derleth, July 3, 1933

I decided to look at another Robert E. Howard letter to August Derleth in which he discusses the history of Texas. In this July 3, 1933 letter, Howard mentions Texas folklorist J. Frank Dobie who authored Coronado's Children, his second book. The subtitle of the book says it all: "Tales of Lost Mines and Buried Treasures of the Southwest." This is no doubt why it caught the interest of Robert E. Howard and very well may have been the motivation for his authoring one of the last stories he wrote before his death, which was originally untitled by was later given the title by Glenn Lord, "Nekht Smerkeht." Evidence for this is found in another letter to Derleth (May 9, 1936) it which he writes, "I haven't written a weird story for nearly a year, thought I've been contemplating one dealing with Coronado's expedition on the Staked Plains in 1541. A good theme if I can develop it." To read Howard's words and not the expansion version, pick up a copy of the Robert E. Howard Foundation Press's Pictures in the Fire. 

Although Dobie began writing during the latter part of Howard's life, his fame grew throughout the 1930s to the 1960s. In the early 1960s, a documentary was being made that featured John Henry Faulk speaking about the life of J. Frank Dobie, which you can watch here: 



And then J. Frank Dobie himself was interviewed, which you can watch here: 

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“After returning from San Antonio, I spent a short time in Dallas and Fort Worth, and was again impressed – as always – by the contrast between the country to the east and the west of the latter named town. Fort Worth boasts that there 'the West begins' and while this is not true geographically, it certainly is true politically and economically. Dallas is only thirty miles east of Fort Worth, yet the feeling of the city is definitely of East Texas, while the feeling of Fort Worth is definitely West Texas. Somewhere between the towns runs the semi-mythical, imaginary, yet immeasurably important line that divides East and West Texas. It is not suprizing, the contrast between the towns, after all. Dallas has always looked toward the rich black land farming country and pine woods of East Texas, to which she owns the greater part of her prosperity. Fort Worth, on the other hand, owes her growth and her very existence to the West; it was as a shipping point for cattle the town got its start; and Fort Worth as definitely looks westward as Dallas looks in the opposite direction. The highway between the towns is almost like the main street of a city, dotted with small towns, and lined with small, prosperous farms, in the most thickly settled part of the state (379 people to the square mile.) But leaving Fort Worth and going westward, abruptly one comes into open rolling country, thinly settled, made up of ranches and big farms, with towns few and far apart. Of all these northern cities, I like Fort Worth best, though for color and historical glamor none of them can compare to San Antonio and other towns of the south.”

        —Robert E. Howard to August Derleth, July 3, 1933



Dallas versus Ft. Worth - some things never change! Having visited the two cities quite a bit in recent years, I would have to say Howard's observations still stand. Dallas strikes me as a more modern city, while Ft. Worth seems rooted in its past (though don't get me wrong, it is still a city). Perhaps the biggest thing that has changed is the road between the two cities, "dotted with small towns," is no longer evident. It is just one huge metroplex and if it was not for the signs telling me I had entered a different city, there is no way I would have ever known. Still, Ft. Worth and Dallas have two very different atmospheres. 

San Antonio, which I have also visited frequently, does have more color and historical glamour, but it too is seeing its heritage fall to the wayside as the city continues to grow.

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“Another thing that has a strange fascination for me is the recently created Brownwood Lake, made by throwing a dam across a gorge just below the juncture of Jim Ned Creek with the Pecan Bayou, and confining the water in a great basin of the hills. The importance of that lake can hardly be estimated. While it can not be compared in size with the lakes in your region, still, it is the second largest lake in the state, covering several thousand acres, and, coupled with the rivers which flow into it, and are now, because of the backing up of the water, increased to an amazing size for miles upstream, it really offers a remarkable spectacle for a dry country like this. It is a phenomena I can scarcely credit, even when I look at it, when I think of the drouths of the past, and of the cattle I have seen dying of thirst where now the water rolls seventy feet in depth. The great drawback of this country is always lack of water, except during certain years when it is swept by terrific floods. (Such as filled Lake Brownwood in twenty-four hours, after the engineers had predicted that two years at the least would be required to fill it.) This lake may mean life to hundreds of cattle; what it will mean to the farmers who irrigate with it, only time can tell. The old road from Brownwood to Cross Plains, used to cross the basin of the lake – an old road, fifty years old the first time I ever travelled it, which was longer ago than I like to remember. It seems strange to remember the times I have trudged along that road and been dusty and thirsty, where now I'd have to use a boat. Some of my friends and I hope to build a fishing shack up in the hills on one arm of the lake, but I reckon the general public will swarm in and swamp the landscape. One thing, those hills will never be permanently settled, because they won’t support population. Down in the valleys, with irrigation, they can raise almost anything. But the lake is surrounded by rugged ridges and hills, rocky, grown with mesquite, post oaks and prickly pear. The changing of several highways and roads, caused by building the lake, and the moving out of people whose land was submerged, has caused the hills to become more isolated and wild than before. It's the very sort of country I’d like to have a retreat in.”

        —Robert E. Howard to August Derleth, July 3, 1933


The storm that filled the lake in one day when it was supposed to take three years, occurred on July 3, 1932, and became the backdrop for Robert E. Howard's short story, "Wild Water." The story is available in The Robert E. Howard Foundation Press publication's Robert E. Howard's Western Tales. 

Lake Brownwood State Park was largely built by the Civilian Conservation Corps, including the beautiful clubhouse pictured above. For a little history about the construction of the park, watch the official video from Texas Parks & Wildlife. 

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“I'm enclosing a snap snot of myself, taken among the ruins of Old Fort McKavett. I drove over there last Sunday and took a few pictures. Didn’t have time to work up an article, though. Fort McKavett is in Menard County, about 155 miles southwest of Cross Plains. It was established in 1871, and abandoned the same year. Again in 1872 it was occupied by two companies of cavalry and five of infantry – largely negroes. It was abandoned permanently in 1883; and thereby hangs a tale, which is not likely ever to be written – not by me, at least. I will merely remark that the Federal soldiers found their most dangerous enemies not to be Comanches. Fort McKavett is situated near the head waters of the San Saba river, and folks live in the less ruined buildings which once formed barracks and officers’ quarters.”

        —Robert E. Howard to August Derleth, July 1933


The favorite site for Howard-heads to go have there picture taken is at "Old Fort McKavett" on the same spot Robert E. Howard had his taken. This is on my bucket list of things to do.

There are some interesting videos of Fort McKavett online, especially those with drones doing fly-overs of the park. However, I wanted something on the park and its history. The best video I could find does not have the greatest of audio qualities, but it did have the best content on the fort and its history I could find. Enjoy!

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“You will read much of San Saba river and the surrounding territory in “Coronado's Children”. It is on the San Saba that the famous Lost Bowie Mine is supposed to be located. (Though some maintain it was on Rio de Las Chanas, now called Llano River.)”
        —Robert E. Howard to August Derleth, July 1933


In the letter to Derleth, Howard tells him briefly of the tantalizing tale of Jim Bowie's lost silver mine. Howard explains the mine is supposed to be located on the San Saba River, which runs from the town of San Saba through Menard, but then mentions that it might possibly be on the Llano River in the area that is currently Llano County, about 70 miles from Menard. The latter is actually where the legend started for there was an expedition in the mid-1700s looking for the Los Almagres Mine. The talk of the silver mine spread to the town of Menard and the legend changed locations from the Llano River to the San Saba. When Stephen F. Austin toured the area, he too heard tales of a rich silver mine, now located along the San Saba River. In the late 1800s, the "Lost San Saba Mine" became the "Lost Bowie Mine" and the name stuck as the legend grew. Though it seems just that, it still makes for good fantasy, leaving room for the notion of "What if?"

To read more about the developing legend of the mine, link to the entry on the Handbook of Texas: tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/dkl05

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“Near Menard, through which I passed on my way to Fort McKavett, are the ruins of San Luis de Las Amarillas, the presidio built by the Spaniards to protect the workers in the Los Almagres mine. Little good it did; the Lipans ran them all out, workers and soldiers together, and then the Comanches kicked out the Lipans; and then the Texans lammed the Comanches, and we’ve still got it. God knows who’ll own it next. But the mine is lost and forgotten except by a few stubborn old timers.”

        —Robert E. Howard to August Derleth, July 1933


San Luis de Las Amarillas is today known as the Presidio San Saba. It was constructed in 1757 and with its fortress like look, it assuredly played on the imagination of Robert E. Howard. It did have a pretty sad history as it was burned to the ground a year after it was constructed, then was rebuilt, and only lasted a about 15 more years. It was abandoned in 1772. Still, they built it well and portions of the Presidio, seen in the picture above, still remain today.

The Texas Historical Commission video below presents a broader view of the establishment of the Presidio San Saba, but it includes pictures of its ruins. 

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“Another town I went through was Paint Rock, in Concho County, so named because of Indian paintings on rock cliffs near the town. It was to John Chisum’s ranch on the Concho River that the survivors retreated after that bloody fight on Dove Creek, where five hundred Texans fought three thousand Comanches for a day and a night, in 1864. It was from Concho County, in 1867, that John Chisum started for New Mexico, with ten thousand cattle, and, though he did not know it, the shadow of the Bloody Lincoln County War, and the stalking phantom of Billy the Kid.”

        —Robert E. Howard to August Derleth, July 1933


This particular battle was fought by one of the Texas Ranger Frontier Organization companies that had become part of the Confederacy during the Civil War.  Captain Gillentine's company found an abandoned Indian camp on December 9, 1864, near the Clear Fork of the Brazos River. There was a fresh grave there that the captain ordered dug up by his men. This did not go over well with the Rangers or the Indians who soon learned of this desecration. Gillentine then ordered the pursuit of the Indians. Captain John Fossett, with another company, began moving toward where the Indians were believed to be heading and found them camped on Dove Creek on January 7, 1865.  On the morning of January 8, they attacked. 

One Ranger, in his diary, summed the encounter up in this manner:
    
    "March on until day the 8th, dismount, load guns, mount and ride on across Spring Creek. Join Fossett with 200 men. Made the attack. Got whipped. Twenty men killed and 25 wounded. Fell back 6 miles to Spring Creek, a running creek."

As it turned out, they thought they had found the location of several hundred Kiowa Indians, but instead, found an estimated 2000 Indians of the more violent Kickapoo Tribe. It was a horrible defeat. 

To read a little more detail about the Battle of Dove Creek, Texas author Elmer Kelton (one I really enjoy reading), wrote the entry for the Handbook of Texas. Link to it here: tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/btd01

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“The road curves around the foot of Signal Peak, rising nearly ten thousand feet in the burning blue sky—only a foothill of the Rockies, but the highest point in Texas, indeed the highest point between the Rockies and the Atlantic ocean—a colossal castle of almost solid rock, visible for seventy-five miles across the desert.”

        —Robert E. Howard to Carl Jacobi, Summer 1934


I always love Howard's descriptions of things. 

Signal Peak is commonly known today as Guadalupe Peak. It is the highest point in Texas with an elevation of 8,751 feet. It is in the Guadalupe Mountains National Park and there is a good trail (with a lot of switchbacks) leading to the top. It is four-and-a-quarter miles to the top, and the same back, but keep in mind, that is four miles pretty much straight up.


For further information on the Peak, watch the video below.

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“P.S. The drouth seems to be broken in this part of the country, since I wrote the above. I drove over to Stephenville, yesterday, and came back in the first real rain we’ve had in months. Stephenville is the county seat of Erath County (scene of many Indian raids in the ‘50’s and early ‘60’s), the home of John Tarleton Agriculture and Military College, and of the most unusual court house in the state. The structure is built about a pyramid of arches, of heavy, rugged stone. Those massive arches, rising tier on tier, are almost medieval in their effect. The court house was built in 1891. The town lies about a hundred miles east of Cross Plains. That rain made things a lot cooler in these parts, although I hadn’t found the heat unbearable, as it was.”

        —Robert E. Howard to August Derleth, July 1933


I was working through the July 1933 letter Robert E. Howard wrote to August Derleth and I forgot to add the postscript. The Erath County Courthouse is an incredibly impressive feat of architecture, as are many of the old courthouses in Texas. They sure don't build anything like this anymore--that's a shame. Of course, can you imagine how much it would cost!

The John Tarleton Agriculture and Military College is now Tarleton State University, and it is a pretty campus. 

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Paul I. Wellman's novel THE COMANCHEROS is a grand slice of fictionalized Texas history. I expect Howard would have written something like it -- or at least, would have devoted several pages of AN UNBORN EMPIRE to a summary of the frontier traders who did business with the Comanches. Wellman's novel is probably best remembered today as the basis of the 1961 John Wayne movie, scripted by the great Clair Huffaker. The film is good, the novel better; it's a shame it's been long out of print, but inexpensive used copies are plentiful.

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Feb 21, 2020 22:51:52 GMT -5 efb said:

Paul I. Wellman's novel THE COMANCHEROS is a grand slice of fictionalized Texas history. I expect Howard would have written something like it -- or at least, would have devoted several pages of AN UNBORN EMPIRE to a summary of the frontier traders who did business with the Comanches. Wellman's novel is probably best remembered today as the basis of the 1961 John Wayne movie, scripted by the great Clair Huffaker. The film is good, the novel better; it's a shame it's been long out of print, but inexpensive used copies are plentiful.

Thanks for the post efb. I realized after reading your recommendation that I had, of course, seen the movie, but never read the book. I found an original 1952 release for $6 on Amazon. It is on the way.  Thanks for the recommendation. 

I often think the same thing when reading a lot of the really good 1940s and 1950s western paperback novels - "that's something Howard could have written."  For example, Louis L'Amours "The Gift of Cochise" (Collier's 1952) always struck me as something Howard might have written.

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Over the weekend, I was looking around the old REH: Two-Gun Raconteur website via the Way Back Machine. In looking at the tab on "Texas" I was impressed to find so much written on Robert E. Howard's Texas, all of which clearly fits with this thread, An Unborn Empire.  It was also interesting to see that my idea of posting on Howard's Texas is not unique. At first I kind of moved on to the other articles, but then got to thinking that these old Howard's Texas posts are still relevant and of interest, so why not link to them from time to time.

So, the first one is close to what I started my own thread with: "The 'Lone Wolf' of the Texas Rangers." This article is by Damon C. Sasser from August 22, 2012. Link to it here: web.archive.org/web/20130121130945/http://rehtwogunraconteur.com/?p=19899#more-19899

Enjoy!

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"But in a little town on the plains I met a figure who links Texas with her wild old past -- no less a personage that the great [James Franklin] Norfleet, one of modern Texas' three greatest gunmen -- the other two being Tom Hickman and Manuel Gonzalles, captain and sergeant of the Rangers respectively."

        -Robert E. Howard to H.P. Lovecraft, October 1930

When I wrote of "Lone Wolf" Gonzuallas, I had noted James Franklin Norfleet's name, but never followed up with a post on who he was or his background. When I came across the article "J. Frank Norfleet" by Brian Leno on REH Two-Gun Raconteur, I thought it appropriate for An Unborn Empire. 

Link to his article here: web.archive.org/web/20111114045516/http://rehtwogunraconteur.com/?p=4485

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"I have no love for Wild Bill Hickok - he killed too many Texans. But he was a power in the west."
        -Robert E. Howard to H.P. Lovecraft, September 22, 1932

"How many men Wild Bill Hickok killed will probably never be known; conservative estimate puts the number at fifty-odd. But Wild Bill had a somewhat softer snap than the Kid, since the quick draw had not attained its ultimate heights when he was at his best. As for the famous fight with the McCandlas gang, on which much of Hickok’s fame rests - in which he is supposed to have killed seven or eight of them in hand-to-hand combat, unaided, I’ve heard on pretty good authority that he had plenty of help, and that far from being an open, stand-up fight, Hickok and his friend way-laid the McCandlas’s and mowed them down with shot-guns, and that some of Wild Bill’s lady friends aided in the fray by beating out their victims’ brains with hoes and mattocks, while they lay wounded on the ground. But that Wild Bill was a master killer can not be denied; differing from most gun-men, who generally aimed at the body, Wild Bill usually shot his victims in the head."
        -Robert E. Howard to H.P. Lovecraft, May 24, 1932

"I have often wondered what would have been the result of an encounter between Jack Hayes and John Wesley Hardin, or Billy the Kid, or Wild Bill Hickok. I’m inclined to believe that each would have killed the other."
    -Robert E. Howard to August Derleth, December 29, 1932

Searching on the Two-Gun Raconteur website via the Wayback Machine, I came across a posting by Brian Leno on Will Bill Hickok titled, "Wild Bill and the Fight at Rock Creek Station." In among the Billy the Kid posts, Hickock was mentioned, but I never detailed him or his life, so I thought I would link to Leno's great article that should not be lost to the vagaries of the Internet.

Link to the article here: web.archive.org/web/20100701111915/http://rehtwogunraconteur.com/?p=5070

Interested in the life of Wild Bill?  Here is a decent documentary detailing his life.