We departed La Siesta Motel and RV Park and headed east on US 82 into Seymour, Texas. We have been looking for a self-car wash that was tall enough for an RV and we found one, less than a mile from our overnight stop. So naturally, we whipped it in there and gave "Nellie and Ruby" (the RV and Jeep) a well deserved bath!
Seymour, Texas is another town that originally had a different name. The town was named Oregon City after it was settled by people from Oregon. The town grew around the crossing of the Brazos River with the Western Trail. With the opening of the post office in 1879 the town underwent a change of name to Seymour after a cowboy named Seymour Munday. 1879 was a busy year for Seymour, it had a newspaper start, the first store opened and the post office opened. Seymour became the meeting point for cowboys from all over the western part of Texas. In 1896, an event was held in Seymour which was the first of its kind. It was called a “Cowboy Reunion” and was so popular that it became a tradition and is still held each year in July. There is no known record of any Cowboy Reunion held earlier than the one Seymour had in July of 1896. Hundreds of people attended and it was so successful, it was decided to have another Reunion the following year. The Reunion of 1897 was even more successful than the first. The main event of the second reunion was the attendance of Chief Quanah Parker and some 300 Native Americans. One night they staged an “Indian War Dance”, dressed in full battle regalia, dancing around a bonfire. The Cowboy Reunion became an annual event and is held the second weekend in July each year. It is now known as the “Old Settlers Reunion and Rodeo”. 2016, marked their 120th anniversary of the event!
Henrietta, Texas made me think of home, we used to go to Henrietta, New York to the mall. Henrietta Texas has some interesting history. When Cooke County was separated into two counties, the day before Christmas 1857, Clay County needed a seat of government. The centrally located town of Henrietta is the result – even though no one knows for sure the origin of the name. One rumor is that since the county was named after Henry Clay, a feminized version of his first name was in order, since ships, cities, and countries were once referred to as feminine. There wasn’t a fight for county seat, since it was the only real contender for the title. With just a store and about ten residences, and less than 110 people, tiny Henrietta had nowhere to go but up.
Although it was granted a post office in 1862, it was still a wild place and open to Indian attacks. When the Civil War took the troops that were stationed there away, residents moved into Cooke and Montague counties, and by 1862 Clay County was, for all intents and purposes, a ghost county. Indians had reportedly left "strange” markings on the town buildings, prompting a purifying fire by troops. This may have sent the spirits on their way, but now the town would be starting from scratch if and when people decided to resettle here. One attempted resettlement in 1865 was a little too early. Several members of the group were killed and the rest retreated. A second attempt by a Quaker group, in 1870, met a worse fate. The leader, Goodleck Koozer was killed and his wife and daughters were taken as captives, but eventually released. That same year fifty soldiers and 300 Kiowas fought a mighty battle in the former town. By July of 1874, settlers returned and the post office was reopened. The isolation of the settlers made the town the judicial “capital” of the region. The railroad arrived in 1882. Travelers would arrive by train and then ride stages to their final destinations. During the buffalo slaughter of the 1880s, Henrietta was an outfitting center and a shipping center for the bones of the slain animals. By 1890 the population was over 2,000 and had all the amenities of a large town, including hotels, five churches, two newspapers, and a 400-seat Opera House.
Nocona, Texas is home to Nocona Boots. Nocona Boot Company was founded in 1925 by Miss Enid Justin, daughter of H.J. Justin the founder of Justin Boots. Her goal was simple – to carry on her father’s tradition of making quality western boots in the town he loved. H.J. “Daddy Joe” Justin was a perfectionist with every detail of his craft. He started the tradition of fine boot making and when the cowboys came through on cattle
drives, he’d measure their feet and on the way back, they would pick up their boots. At the age of 12, in 1906, Miss Enid started working in her father’s shop learning the finer points of the trade, absorbing his knowledge and his love for the handcrafted boots.
After “Daddy Joe” died in 1918, other members of the family wanted to move the business to Fort Worth. Miss Enid felt so strongly that her father wanted the company in Nocona, she stayed. She borrowed $5,000 to keep seven employees in her small shop and founded the Nocona Boot Company. Every pair of Nocona Boots was hand made here until the factory closed in 1999, taking the jobs of many of the townspeople with it. Sadly, Nocona boots are not made in Nocona, Texas anymore.
Also located in Nocona, Texas is Tails 'N' Trails Museum. For centuries, people have traveled through this portion of Texas. They traveled by foot, by horse and by wagon. Eventually they traveled by rail and road. Permanent settlements were slow in coming, but with the establishment of Head of Elm (now Saint Jo), the county soon began to grow. Every individual who passed through left their footprints in time. It has been a long time dream of the citizens of Montague County to have a place to showcase the mementos of their history. The Tales 'N' Trails Museum provides the perfect repository for the relics and artifacts of the county's past. The Museum opened its doors in 2010 after fifteen years of planning and fundraising. Funded primarily by local donations, the Museum was built on land donated by the heirs of Joe Benton, an early pillar of the community. The Museum houses hundreds of Native American artifacts and European trade goods from the vast collection of Texana of the Joe Benton family. Mr Benton amassed the largest regional collection of Indian artifacts in the US, and only a fraction of that collection can be on display at any given time. In addition to temporary exhibits which are continually rotated throughout the year, the Museum focuses on five separate topics which are instrumental to the history of this area: Native American Culture, Western Heritage, Agriculture, Leather Goods, the Oil and Gas Industry.
We went through the town of Saint Jo. As I said earlier, Saint Jo was first named Head of Elm. Because it was near the headwaters of the Elm Fork of the Trinity River. The town was considered briefly as the county seat, but lost out to Montague. By the early 1870s, Head of Elm was thriving – partially due to it’s location on the Chisholm Trail. However, there are two conflicting stories regarding how Head of Elm became Saint Jo, both of which involve Joe Howell, who originally laid out the town. One theory revolves around a Tennessean named Irby Holt Boggess giving leadership in partnership with Joe Howell, around 1872. The other theory involves Howell's personal beliefs. Howell was an avid opponent of alcoholic beverage sales, and was thereby given the nickname of "Saint Jo", which managed to stick to both Howell and the town he founded. Saint Jo remained a "dry" city until a vote in 2009 passed allowing for the legal sale of alcoholic beverages for off premises consumption.
We saw billboards advertising for Fischer's Meat Market. The billboards had a German boy on the billboard. As we entered Muenster, Texas - we quickly decided it was a very German town. We learned that the town was established in 1899 as a German Catholic colony and named after the capital of Westphalia, Germany.
The Flusche brothers (Emil and August) were land agents under contract to sell 22,000 acres to immigrant settlers. The brothers had had success in Iowa and Kansas so even before platting a new town, settlers were transmigrating from their Iowa and Kansas homes. By the end of 1889, thirty-some people had arrived and on December 8, they celebrated a Mass by the Reverend H. Brickley of Gainesville. That date is considered the founding date of the town. Muenster holds a "Germanfest" each Spring.
Just before we got to Paris, we found this jack rabbit riding an oil rig. Not sure what they were trying to advertise for?
We ended our day outside of Paris Texas, at Spencer's RV Park. There were not many choices of RV parks along this portion of the route. We were pleasantly surprised once we arrived and got set up. The owners and workers were friendly and helpful. The site was concrete, level and offered wi-fi. The reviews said over-the-air channels were not available. We found CBS, PBS and FOX ... good for us! Our home for one night! See you tomorrow!
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