The Hamilton Herald-News (Hamilton, Tex.), Vol. 83, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 3, 1958 Page: 15 of 72
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1858 - 1958
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IN OUR
LUKER
STUDIO
David Harelik's Dry Goods Store
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FROM THE. . .
Tin Type
to the
Movie
Camera
MERCHANDISING
METHODS
Editor’s Note: The first private
telephone in this section was in
the home of Mr. and Mrs. M. S.
Brunk. The line ran from the
Brunk home to his grocery store.
This was in 1890 or ’92.
Now 100 years later we join in the celebration
of our Centennial and note the great strides in pro-
gress made by all professions and businesses.
Have Changed
During the Past
100 YEARS.
with playmates, Cousin Lillian
Law, Stella and Craik Pierson,
Anne, Lizzie and Walter Collier,
George and Q Brunk and others
arrived soon after to sit on the
porch or stand even closer to
watch the circus wagons unload
and the “Big Top” go up. The
show must have carried some 50
to 60 people in addition to the
Bailey family and the lot was a
busy place, the “cook tent” being
the first one up and the show
folks ate in relays, while tent
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LL.M
100 Years of Progress!
Photography is much easier now. No longer do you
pose breathless as you wait for the powder to ex-
plode to make a flash picture.
Changes Made in
Communications
(Editor’s Note — Tommy Kemp,
one of the honor students of the
Class of 1958, Hamilton High
School, prepared and read the
following paper during the Com-
mencement exercises in Hamil-
ton, May 23, 1958):
soli!
JHS
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H
down, and as usual, Mrs. Bailey
would come over and “visit” with
Grandmother and other people
she knew, for she knew and re-
membered almost everybody in
all the towns the Circus made in
central and north Texas, law of-
ficers, business people, women of
schools and churches — which she
visited when she had time or a
Sunday “layover.”
By 1:30 p.m., a big crowd had
gathered at the Circus ground, to
see the free, outdoor rope walk-
ing of Eugene Bailey—we knew
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We proudly salute the pioneers of yesteryear# who
paved the way to a progressive Hamilton County.
RM
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By Cecil B. James
“The Greatest Show on Earth
—at least to us kids was the an-
nual coming of Mollie Bailey’s
Circus which was eagerly await-
ed and still remains as one of the
most pleasant memories of child-
hood”.
I don’t know when the Show
first came to Hamilton, but it
must have been about 1888 or
1890 and for twenty years or
more it was an event that we
knew would come with the
springtime or early summer. Our
grandmother, Mrs. Nancy Bould-
in’s home was on the lot just west
of the present First Baptist
Church. It was, for early days, a
large house with three log
rooms and three more built of
lumber, together with a wide
covered porch some two or three
feet off the ground across the
front, which faced east. All of the
ground from the house to the
creek in front of the house was
vacant, without even a fence and
the favorite “stand” for the show
was the lot where the Misener
Hotel was afterwards built, now
owned by the Baptist Church.
Grandmother had a good water
well and also an underground,
cement cistern for “soft water”
and the circus people carried wa-
ter for their use from the well
and cistern, watering the eleph-
ants and other animals at the
creek, which was a bold, running
stream fed by springs.
The circus traveled at night,
usually arriving a little after sun-
up and we James kids together
to both Hico and Hamilton an-
other medium of communication
was set up in the form of the
telegraph. Later, came the radio
and television as a more modern
means of communication.
Radio Station KCLW made its
first broadcast as a part of Ham-
ilton’s forward movement in
1948.
The people of Hamilton County,
one generation after another,
down through the years have
witnessed astounding changes in
communication from the long
weary journey of the pioneer
messenger to the mere flip of a
switch when two points even
thousands of miles apart are con-
nected. Even though our area is
only a small part of a vast ex-
panse within the borders of the
state of Texas, we have played
a vital part in this development
as a whole.
all of them by name, Eugene,
Willie, Albertine, Brad and Birda
(their sister), and then the big
tent opened with Mrs. Bailey or
her husband, Gus, at the ticket
window.
Once inside, we sat for two
hours, so enthralled, it seemed
only minutes and came out, dazed
by the excitment and “numb”
from sitting on the narrow wood-
en seats.
Back again for the night perfor-
mance, if we were lucky, which
was “guaranteed to be entirely
different,” and may have been,
but little we cared of that. It was
different because of the “kero-
sene oil” flares that lighted the
grounds and tent, making the
trapeze performers in the top of
the tent look fifty feet high off
the ground and adding a magic,
dreamlike, fascination to the
whole show.
Performance over and holding
hands with our parents to keep
from getting separated in the
crowd, we journeyed home and
to bed, if we lived anywhere near
the show grounds, with the noise
and bustle of the wagons being
loaded with plank seats and other
circus properties, faintly discern-
able in the otherwise quiet night.
Next morning, on our way to
school, most of us kids went
around by the circus grounds, to
see if anything of the Circus was
left, and stopped to wonder how
such a big and wonderful affair
could have taken place on so
small a lot, and to almost question
if it had not been a dream after
all.
Of course, there were small stores in most
villages, but transportation and roads were a
problem. Hence the traveling merchants or
peddler made the rounds of the settlements.
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EVANT’S FIRST GRADUATING CLASS, taken either in 1902 or 1903. Note stage de-
corations. Reading, left to right: Walter McNeil (a long-time instructor at the State
University), Sadie Longmire (Mrs. David Carter), Linna Burney (Mrs. E. C. Farmer),
Nellie Bowman (teacher), Otto Burney (teacher).
p
Since prehistoric times man
has felt the need to converse
with his fellowman. Even though
these beginnings were crude,
they served a purpose and deve-
loped into more adequate forms
as communities and countries
progressed. At one time, the few
pioneer settlements in Hamilton
County found themselves liter-
ally isolated except for hours of
tedious travel by horseback or
ox cart over trackless expanse of
plain and forest.
An example of purposeful es-
tablishment of communication
with the outside world was the
settlement of Carlton on the
Waco-San Angelo Stage Line,
which assured these pioneers a
definite outside contact even
though it might be at irregular
intervals due to hazardous travel
conditions.
In 1858, the nearest railroad
was at Houston. The old romantit
Pony Express was in existance at
this time, but there is no record
of its ever having included the
little known territory of Ham-
ilton County. Anyhow few of
our struggling pioneers could af-
ford the astounding postal fee of
$5. for a one-half ounce letter.
An important date in the his-
tory of communication is the
year of 1876 when the Hamilton
Herald News was first publish-
ed. By 1876, the northern edge of
our county was included in the
establishment of railroad service
and connection with it was made
by a mail and passenger hack in
1880 from the town of Hamilton
to Hico where the railroad sta-
tion was located. Communica-
tion between the pioneer settle-
ments and the rest of the world
was now fairly well established.
A decade later found the first
telephone of the county installed
in Hamilton as a private line.
The first company to handle the
telephone traffic was organized
at Hico with a switchboard ex-
tension in Hamilton connecting
the two towns. Other surrounding
settlements soon followed this
same pattern of communication.
With the coming of railroads
Coining of Mollie Bailey Circus Was Event
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poles and canvas was being
spread, horses fed, curried and
unharnessed, uniforms cleaned
and repaired, everybody getting
ready for the big street parade
starting at 10 a.m., with the
bright red uniformed band, train-
ed horses, dogs, elephants and
other circus animals, and the
performers dressed in their
brightly colored tights, riding
plumed horses or in decorated
vehicles.
The parade over, things settled
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Billingslea, W. F. The Hamilton Herald-News (Hamilton, Tex.), Vol. 83, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 3, 1958, newspaper, July 3, 1958; Hamilton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1313712/m1/15/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Private Collection of Mary Newton Maxwell.