The Junior Historian, Volume 25, Number 3, December 1964 Page: 3
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THE JUNIOR HISTORIAN
THROUGH A WOMAN'S EYES
by CATHERINE BAKER
Edinburg High School, LENA SAPINGTON BAKER, was
employed in my hometown of Ben-
ton, Kansas, as a schoolteacher,
leading a fairly gay and normal life for a
young, single girl in 1904. My sister,
Mrs. Beulah Peffley, living in Jasper,
Texas, wrote me in a series of letters dur-
ing the year of her husband's new position.
She informed me that he had been sent
to the southern part of Texas to start a
new bank. The new town, Sam Fordyce,
situated on the bank of the Rio Grande
and named for one of the promoters of
the St. Louis, Brownsville, and Mexican
Railroad, was supposed to become one
of the major cities of the Rio Grande
Valley, because of an international bridge
that was to be built there.
Construction of the town, dependent
on the completion of the railroad, met
with many delays, one of which was an
outbreak of yellow fever in Monterrey,
Mexico, which caused a strict quarantine
on all border traffic. After a year's delay,
the railroad was completed and my sis-
ter's husband asked her to come to Sam
Fordyce and bring me along for a visit.
When I received my sister's invitation
to go to Sam Fordyce, I was torn by the
security I felt in my Kansas home, the
many pleadings of my wonderful friends,
and the loyalty I felt for my dear sister
(plus a spirit of adventure and desire to
see this wild, untamed land). I finally
decided to go with my sister. I met her in
Jasper, Texas, and from there we traveled
by train to Brownsville, and on to Sam
Fordyce.
What we found I hesitate to call a town
-the spring floods had washed away the
buildings that had been completed and
part of the railroad, leaving nothing but
a desolate, rock-infested cactus-filled,
mesquite-laden land. The peaceful river
that we had traveled along from Browns-
ville had caused this havoc. The Rio
Grande at times became a fierce and de-structive torrent. The carpenters and a
man and his wife, owners of the non-
existent hotel, were the only inhabitants,
except for Peffley. They were now moving
the town to higher ground.
A. Y. and Lena Baker were married in 1905
As there were no buildings, we were
forced to live in tents. My sister and her
husband set up two tents and two cots,
one for me and one for them. The next
day two more cots and their furniture
arrived, and my life in Sam Fordyce
began.
The Mexican men-and there were
many, for here was a chance to make six
pesos a week-had seen only a few white
women and were fascinated by them. I
had seen even fewer Mexican men. When
they clustered around the buggy, holding
their dirty sombreros across their chests
saying what I later learned was a compli-
ment, "Bonita, bonita (Pretty, pretty),"
chills would fly up my spine, and I could
see them carrying me off to an even more
awesome country.
During the forthcoming days, there was
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Texas State Historical Association. The Junior Historian, Volume 25, Number 3, December 1964, periodical, December 1964; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth391283/m1/5/?q=%221964%22: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.