The Aransas Pass Progress (Aransas Pass, Tex.), Vol. 84, No. 7, Ed. 1 Wednesday, April 8, 1992 Page: 2 of 22
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Wadrwtday, April 8,1992
No agreement reached on school finance
By Lyndell Williams
AUSTIN — Gov. Ann Richards
admitted last week that legisla-
tive leaders still have no agree-
ment on how to change the state’s
school finanoe system, which has
been struck down by the Texas
Supreme Court.
Richards said she won’t call a
special legislative session until an
understanding is* * reached.
“1 don’t want to spend taxpayer
money unless i get a consensus
and I can get a bill, ” Richards said
after meeting with Lt. Gov. Bob
Bullock and House Speaker Gib
Lewis. ‘There is no consensus
among the members.”
Last session, lawmakers cre-
ated County Education District
school property taxes; the Texas
Supreme Court later ruled them
unconstitutional, but they’re still
being oollected.
Lawmakers now may be de-
laying until U.S. District-Judge
James Nowlin rules whether
these taxes can still be collected.
If he says they cannot be ool-
lected, the heat will be on law-
makers to defuse taxpayer anger
over higher property taxes that
were illegal, but collected
anyway.
The Supreme Court has given
the state until June 1993 to act.
Black Inmate Rate
Speaking of heat and educa-
tion, state Rep. Ron Wilson, D-
Houston, charged the lack of a
decent education system is one of
the reasons for skyrocketing in-
creases in black state prisoners.
Wilson, whom many regard as
the voice of influence in the
House Black Caucus, was react-
Letters to the editor
Please fix Beasley Ave.
Dear City,
You should come Ax our road
because you cannot go down one
end of the road. My friend and I
tried to go down one end of our
road with bikes but we couldn’t
because it so muddy.
Then a few months later my
mom tried to go down it but she
couldn’t, so she had to go around
it where cars made a path through
the grass.
Before many cars got stuck and
my dad had to go pull them out
with his big tractor. There there
was a Are on the other side of the
road and the policemen and the
Aremen had trouble going down
the road.
Missy Broerman
Age 10, 4th Grade
Beasley Avenue
ing to a study, which shows that
last year Texas had 1,414 black
prisoners per 100,000 black
oitisena, more than double the
683 priaoners per 100,000 rate in
1985.
Other groupe on the priaoners-
per-100,000 scale: Hispanics
rose from 173 prisoners in ’85 to
293 in *91; white prisoners in-
creased from 122 in ’85 to 167 last
year
Overall changes in prison
populations that period, based on
ethnicity, are: whites, down 12
percent; Hispanics, up 2 percent;
and blacks, up 10 percent.
Wilson said some black prison-
ers probably function on the sixth
grade level. They deny us the
money and the resources,” he
said.
El Paso U.S. Rep Ron Coleman
found his name high on the list of
the worst check bouncers at the
U.S. House bank.
Coleman, a former state repre-
sentative, was a member of The
Gang of Four,” the media’s
moniker for four firebrand mem-
bers alio plagued the regime of
House Speaker Billy Clayton.
Recvci!
DEMONS TRATIOfJ J
Other members were Luther
Jones of El Paso; John Bryant of
Dallas; and John Whitmire of
Houston, all attorneys.
Like a group of blitsing Rne-
backers, the four liberals con-
stantly dogged Clayton and his
lieutenants during floor debate
gnd oommittee hearings, provid-
ing serious and amusing diver-
sions amid Clayton’s business-as-
usual dynagfy.
Bryant, the leader, ran for
speaker against Clayton in 1981,
making a decent showing, but lost
and the rebels’ outlook was grim.
In 1982, the scene changed:
Clayton fell out of power in the
Brilab soandal, Coleman and
Bryant won congressional seats,
Whitmire crossed the rotunda to
the Senate, and Jones went home
to become county judge.
Bryant hasn’t changed. Last
week, he fired the first shot of
open revolt sgainst congressional
leadership by urgingU.S. Speaker
Thomas Foley to step down.
“Foley refuses to be a political
leader for Democrats,” Bryant
charged in a speech on the House
floor. Foley says he’s staying put.
And the rest of tfafe gang? Whit-
mire went on to bfecdlne a Demo-
crat powerrunner in the Texas
Senate, but lost his seat in last
month’s primary.
Jones later did some man-
euvering as a possible opponent
to entrenched Texas Democratic
Party chairman Bob Slagle, but he
hasn’t sought public office in re-
oent years.
Meanwhile, Slagle
tined to keep the chairmanship
heJiss held for 12 yean.
Capital
Highlights
Party executive committed
member Hazel Obey, leader of
the Rainbow Coalition in Texas,
was challenging Slagle until her
name surfaced in a media probe of
political campaign activities in
the Texas General Land Office.
With Texas Republicans call-
ing for a federal investigation of
that agency, Democrats weren’t ^
about to elect a party ohairmaiv ^
who might later face indictment
and a grand jury trial.
Other Highlights
• House Appropriations
Committee chairman Jim Rudd,
D-Brownfield, wrote House col-
leagues he is vehr ♦lose to the 76
votes needed td bdoome speaker.
in January. Otner+andidatesim-1
mediately discounted Rudd’s
claim as political strategy that is
premature. Other front-runners?
Take your pick: Pete Laney of
Hale Center, Rudd’s regions com-
petition; David Cane of Dallas, a
big money raiser; or Tom Uher of
Bay City, who oounts on Mending
experience with reform.
Aransas Pass — A town founded by lottery.
The Progress — A newspaper never meant to last!
By Dick Richards
Publisher
Eighty-three years ago tomor-
row, April 9, 1909the first issue of
The Progress was printed. The
Progress has been printed con-
tinuously since then and for 46 of
those years has been published
by the Richards family.
Founded in 1909 by W. H. Ver-
nor, who also was the first mayor
of Aransas Pass, the paper was
never intended to survive the lot-
tery, huricanes, depressions and
recessions and last for 83 years.
These exoerpts from a book, “A
Rugged American” by W. H.,Ver-
nor will partly explain what took
place here in the early 1900s.
T. B. Wheeler, called the Father
of Aransas Pass, and his partner
• Russel Harrison, who was the son
of former President of the United
States, Benjamin Harrison, own-
ed 12,000 acres fronting on Red-
fish Bay and extending back to
what is now the townsite of Aran-
sas Pass. They had platted the
townsite and did a good job of it,
making the streets wide and
potentially beautiful. The main
business street was 120 foot wide
and ran the full length of the town-
site from east to west.
Now T. B. Wheeler, a former
mayor of Austin and a former Lt.
Governor ofTexas, had good poli-
tical connections. Early in 1909
he made adeal with the real estate
firm Burton and Danforth of San
Antonio, Texas to take over and
sell out the townsite.
According to Vernor it
appeared that Mr. Wheeler had
confidential advance informa-
tion from U. S. Government
sources about the establishment
of Port City near Port Aransas and
its entrance to the Gulf of Mexico.
The.plan was simple if you
understood it. There were 6,000
tickets. They sold for £100 each
to people who lived mostly in the
states of Texas, Oklahoma, Kan-
sas and Nebraska. While all the
tickets were sold for £100 each, it
did not take all cash to buy one.
Ten dollars cash and £10 per
month without interest was cons-
idered sufficient and that’s the
way most of them were sold.
Each ticket called a “certifi-
cate” by the promoters repre-
sented a lot in The City of Aransas
Pass of which there were 6,000—
or one for each ticket. Since it was
to be a lottery, there were some
prizes and some were good ones.
First prize was a three-story 72
room hotel located on the corner
of the main street which was 120
foot wide. The second prizes con-
sisted of 10 modern cottages
which had been built by the
promoters especially for the
occasion of the drawing or “dis-
tribution” as they called it. Third
prizes consisted of 1,000 farming
tracts ranging in sizes from 5 to 40
acres each, directly surrounding
the townsite of Aransas Pass.
Each holder of a certificate,
when it came to dividing the prop-
erty, would get at least one town
lot in the City of Aransas Pass, and
would have a chance at the first,
second, or third prizes in addition
to the town lot.
Sales started slowly but in six
months they had 9,000 applica-
tions and had to return 3,000
along with the money. This gave
the promoters good income, ab-
out £60,000 per month, so they
didn’t hesitate to build the 10 cot-
tages used as the second prizes.
The old 72 room, three-story
hotel went in as part of the prop-
erty they had secured from Mr.
Wheeler and was set up as first
prize, and was valued at
£100,000.
Now, as stated before, the plan
was fairly simple if you under-
stood it. There were 6,000 lots at
Aransas Pass, besides which they
owned 8,000 acres of truck farm-
ing land surrounding the city and
which was surveyed and cut up
into 1,000 farm tracts, each con-
taining 5 to 40 acres.
The plan of sale and delivery of
the property was subject to sever-
al explanations. When dealing
with the government, who had
several inspectors on the ground,
it was called an auction sale. In
getting the chances to the public,
it was called a gigantic land “lot-
tery” and this is what made the
sale so popular.
During this time Vernor’s job
was to promote the land sale and
The Progress was the instrument
used to do so. The newspaper was
sent to the certificate holders and
much propaganda was printed on
the new port city which was to be
Aransas Pass.
All details of how the lottery
worked are too long for this writ-
ing but you may be sure that the
scheme was well planned. Only
one little hitch. The federal in-
spectors came on the scene.
Part of the deal when buying
the £100 chance was that you
would not bid more than £100 for
a piece of property. The way the
thing worked was easy. There
were two boxes. In one box was
every certificate holder’s name.
In the other box were slips of pap-
er with the 6,000 town lots on
them. Some of the slips had the
prizes along with a town iot, so if
they called Joe Q. Public and
drew out a slip with a lot that had a
cottage on it he won a prize. The
next guy might only getatown lot.
So some got only town lots and
some got town lots with acreage
tracts or cottages. The agreement
was that once a name.was Sailed
agd matched with a piece of prop-
erty that person would bid
£100.00 and none would overbid
him.
VWell, along oome the feds and
thus the overbid trust was born.
With this system the federal in-
spectors called it a lottery, which
was illegal, and thus shut it down.
They bought some certificates so
that they might* participate and
then when a primedjjleoe of prop-
erty would oome up they oould
bid more than the agreed upon
£100. Well, all heck broke loose.
The £100,000 first prize hotel
sold for £16,500. to a Mr. H. G.
Gardner of Woodward, Oklaho-
ma. Cetifioate holders refused to
sit idly by and watch these postal
THE ARANSAS PASS PROGRESS
UAPA0M4OO
Subscription Rates: San Patrick) County, Cities of Port Aransas and Rookport Year *20.80. Six Months *12.80. Outside the
above area #25.00. Six Months *17.00.
Publishers: J. O. Richards and R. P. Richards
Oaaaral Manager: R.P. (Dick) Richards; Managing Editor: Mary Cola, Pastures Editor: Juliet K.Wenger; Lifestyle Editor:
i; Staff Writer: Tom Anderson
t Texas Prase Association, South Texas Press Association, National Newspaper Association.
regarding corporations, Arms or individuals win gladly be corrected when called to the
Any
publisher's attention
■a Progress (U8P8 028-900) Is published wuakly by Richards Enterprises. Inc.. 346 South Houston
i Pass, Tanas 78336. Second Class Postage paid at Aransas Pass, Texas.
> to The Aransas Paas Progress. P.O. Box 2100. Aransas Pass. Texas 78336.
ante, address tnd telephone number. All letters
of the writer may be withheld on request. Comments should be brief, to the
aeons, clarity and length. Only originals will be
to The Aransas Paaa Progress, P.O. Box 2100, Aransas Pass,
properties at a lower price than
they were really worth and they
begiui to make higher bids. Some
£203,600 in excess of the
£600,000 anticipated was raised.
This amounted to about £30 per
certificate holder. Not all were
able to be returned thus the Over-
bid Trust. And result of that can
be seen on Wheeler Avenue in the
form of the new Ed and Hazel
Richmond Liberary.
Now we talked about the new
port city to be built. The goven-
ment had cost for dredging to
Aransas Pass, Corpus Christi,
and Rookport. Aransas Pass stood
out as the most logical choice for
the port.
The cost to dredge Aransas
Pass was £713,400.00 compared
to £2,443,202.60 for Corpus
Christi and £1,542,673.20 for
Rockport. Annual maintenance
for the three contenders was
Aransas Pass £15,000.00, Corpus
Christi £100,000.00 and Rock-
port £75,000.00. How in the
world could any other place ex-
cept Aransas Pass be named as
the port city? Surely our govern-
ment was on the square and
would follow the line of least re-
sistance in making the port city.
As mentioned before Mr. Ver-
nor was the first mayor of Aransas
Pass. He defeated Mr. Wheeler,
the former Lt. Governor of Texas
for the poet 53—50 in a very close
race.
Now being in politics does seem
to have some advantages. Vernor
got wind of some information that
led him to believe that Aransas
Pass was not going to be selected
as the Port City and he secretly
made up his mind to sell The Prog-
ress and leave town. This he did
and The Progress became the
property of a banker named
Todd. That transaction is another
stpey.
While the low cost was in our
favor, other things evidendy were
not.
1. The City of Corpus Chriejji <f
was maintaining a full time loo- /
byist at Washington D. C. It was
thought that his salary 4nd ex-
penses might have been paid by
the King Ranch.
2. The King Ranch had gone
into politics and through their in-
fluence had elected a son-in law
named Rudolph Kleberg to the
National Congress.
3. President William Howard
Taft’s brother, Mr. Charles P. Taft
owned a vacation spot, and some-
times oooupied, The La Quinta
Ranch just across the bay from
Corpus Christi near Gregory.
Thus Corpus Christi got the Gold
and Aransas Pass got the Shaft.
9
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Cole, Mary. The Aransas Pass Progress (Aransas Pass, Tex.), Vol. 84, No. 7, Ed. 1 Wednesday, April 8, 1992, newspaper, April 8, 1992; Aransas Pass, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1135663/m1/2/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Ed & Hazel Richmond Public Library.