The Silsbee Bee (Silsbee, Tex.), Vol. 38, No. 43, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 3, 1957 Page: 2 of 8
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PAGE TWO
THE SILSfeEE BEE
THURSDAY, JANUARY 3, 1157
Services Scheduled For
K. R. Walker, 79, At
Richmond, Missouri
funeral services were scheduled
early this week in Richmond, Mo.
for Kimbleton Randolph Walker,
79, who died at the home of his
son A. B. Walker, 135 Dunlin
Drive, at 11:45 a.m. Friday. He
had lived here the past ydfr.
Mr. Walker is survived by
three sons, A B., and Howard of
Flint, Mich., and Byron Walker
of Kansas City, Mo., one sister,
Mrs. Bertie Bryant of Kansas City
and three brothers, Buster, Kene
and Robert Walker all of Cam-
den, Mo., six grandchildren and
sijc great grandchildren.
The body was sent by Farmer
Funeral Home by Missouri Pacif-
ic railroad to Henriette, Mo. on
Saturday, arriving Sunday night.
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“DUVAL COUNTY, USA”
STORY NO. 2
Duval's Background For Dictatorship
Is One of Violence and Sudden Death
By-FREDERICK HODGSON
SAN DIEGO, TEX.—To know
the history of Duval County is, to
f George
B. Parr. To know the county’s
You’ll have luxury and com-
fort in the palm of your hand
when you receive the bill of
sale for one of our fine re-
conditioned used cars
history
understand the power^of
people is to know Parr himself.
Parr’s power, and that of his
father before him, is based on the
Latin-Aroeriean, by tradition an
easily lied “follower.” Almoet 90
per cent of the people in Duval
are "Mexicans,” so called even
though their families may have
lived on this land since the days
of the Conquistadores. Most of
them are desperately poor. Many
are illiterate. Many speak no Eng-
lish st all.
Perhaps half the population of
this little county town, 4,397 at
the last official census, live in
miserable “jacales,” unpainted
huts built with scrap lumber.
The town, officially a city, is
typically Mexican, with a mis-
aion-style church and a central
plaza with a band stand. The line
separating Duval from Jim Wells
County runs through the town,
and through the eenter of the San
Diego Cafe, meeting place of the
anti-Parr forces. Across the
street. Highway 44, and catty-
comer to tiie West is the Court-
house and the Windmill Cafe,
headquarters of the Parr brigade.
The "Mexican" in Duval h
small, dark-skinned, Catholic by
religion.
George Parr is an “Anglo” and
by all rules of deep South Central
Texas he and his followers should
be as different as day is from
night.
The average “Anglo" in Duval
is a big man, taller by inches
than the general run of Ameri-
cans By religion he is Protestant.
He speaks little or no Spanish.
He is apt to wear fancy, high-
heeled Western boots and a West-
ern hat
Even though his skin may be
burned by the sun to the shadoof
old copper he thinks of himself as
“white'— in contrast to the Mex-
ican-American who is patronised
as a peon, as part Indian. The
“Anglo" speaks of "good Mexi-
cans” and “bad Mexicans.” but
always of “Mexican*” He doesn’t
think of the Latins as Americans
at all.
More than a trace of the fron-
tiersman still remains in the Du-
val “Anglo." There are men still
living who can tell truthfully of
pulling trigger on yelling Apa-
ches.
It is more than s bit startling
to the outsider to get the “feel"
of the small towns in Duval, Jim
Wells, Brooks, Webb and other
counties of the area. A man from
north of the Nueces River is a
“Yankee” and an alien.
The feeling, the psychology, the
atmosphere, is that of the fron-
tier, of violence and of sodden
death.
It would give a man from Aus-
tin, from Dallas or from Chicago
quite a jolt to sit in a man’s of-
fice as I did and ask a casual
question about another man and
have your hosi slam a loaded .45
on the polished desk so hard that
it left a dent
“One of theee days the blankety
blank so and so is going to walk
in here and I’m going to kill him.”
Or to hear a peace officer say
verv seriously that if he were
such and such a man—naming
him—that he wouldn’t fool around
waiting for the law, he’d just up
and kill the fellow who had
gunned a relative.
Or to hear another man tell of
visiting a friend in jail for mur-
der, a friend who was acquitted
quickly when the case went to
a jury. I asked for the circum-
stances.
“Oh, he was throwing —___
------------------out of a bar when
_____________________... said ‘Go ahead,
why don’t you kill me?’ My friend
said ‘Alright, if that’s what you
want.’ Bangl"
It’s not so many years ago that
these same men were killing Mex-
ican raiders from across the Rio
Grande on sight — and asking
questions afterward.
George B. Parr’s father, old
Senator Archie Parr, and the son
after him, put the anti-Mexican,
patronising psychology of the
“Anglo” into reverse. They then
parlayed the gratitude and adora-
tion of the Latins into one of the
most epical, most ruthless dic-
tatorships in American political
history.
Old Archie, then a red-necked,
cocky little $25 a month cow
puncher, arrived in San Diego at
the turn of the century and took
the side of the "Mexicans”
against the "Anglos.”
The "Anglos” in Duval were
then split into two factions, led
by the Robinsons and the Hoff-
mans. Archie shrewdly moved in
between the two groups, voted his
Mexicans as a solid unit and be-
fore a dozen yean had passed he
owned the county as a private
barony. He knew every political
trick in the book and added some
of his own. The title “Duke of
Duval” was no empty honor.
Old Archie was a small man,
pot-bellied in his later years, who
spoke Spanish like a native and
thought like a Mexican. He ap-
parently sincerely loved his fol-
lowers, loved them as a man
might love a faithful dog. He
punished them when they were
naughty, fed thern whea they
wen hungry, led them like a
flock ofsheep, robbed them blind,
tended their hurts — and used
them so adroitly that no man
dared oppoee him. He made alli-
ances with political leaden in ad-
joining counties. His power was
va$t.
Old Archie sat in the State
Senate for twenty years, ran a
rip-roaring wide open minty bade
home in Duval where not a dog
barked without his permission. He
controlled the courts, the police,
the schools, the rackets, every-
tlyng in the county. He manipu-
lated elections with the dexterity
of a gambler with a deck of cards.
There were sporadic revolts
against his rule, of course, but
these were put down ruthlessly.
On primary day in 1912, for ex-
ample, three men were shot to
death in the street in front of the
Courthouse. Two years later a
determined attempt was made by
Parr foes to clean up Duval by
the simple expedient of abolishing
the county altogether. It didn’t
work. In 1915 the Texas Supreme
Court oraered an audit of the
county’s books and the Court-
house burned down after the
auditors had worked only one day,
destroying the records.
In building his power, and in
consolidating it, Did Archie had
one powerful force operating in
his favor—the Constitution of the
State of Texas.
Ironically, ‘that much-amended
Constitution of 1878 was framed
deliberately to give counties the
greatest possible measure of home
rule. Behind the solidjHWPhrt of
that document the Duke of Duval
ruled with the absolute authority
of a Medici.
Thus it was the Constitution,
as much as Parr himself, that
posed the serious obstacle to At-
torney General John Ben Shep-
perd in his march on the Duchy
of Duval. He had to stay carefully
within its obsolete framework
while fighting against forces that
cared not one snap of the fingers
for all the law in Texas.
Old Archie’s son, the present
Duke of Duval, grew up in this
atmosphere of corrupt politics.
He knew of the liquor-laden pack
trains that came into the county
during the lush days of prohibi-
tion. He knew of the other things
that went on, and he learned well.
His playdiates were the Latin
children of San Diego. Spanish,
not English, was his mother
tongue.
Among his playmates was Man-
uel "Meme” Marroquin, now
Parr's most bitter enemy, editor
of a militant little bi-lingual
newspaper "New Duval.” Othbr
articles in this aeries will tell
more of Marroquin, » man who
LEONARD J. SONGE, JR.
Building Contractor
Contact us tqr Central Heating Your Home —' A
Low as $360.00
Also Wall Furnaces
J
Phone RO 9-2268, Beaumont
Silsbee Phone EV 5-4271
FHA Loans — No Money Down on Title I
A San Francisco music shop
displays nothing in its window
but a single harp and this sign:
“Drive Carefully. This is Our
Last Harp!”
ALWAYS CABBY
EXTRA KEYS
Don’t Bo Looked Oat!
Keyo Made in 1 MlnnU
WESTERN AUTO
ASSOCIATE STORE
L»fegS»
\
Ip M
;
P'-r -J
m 1
r ,1
1
TIMM'S Ml
The five reooono ore Noted
hero... but In realty know a
satisfying, wondorfwtty tasty
ovp of coffee, you'll have to
braw ■ not of Seaport. Open
the poehegi . ,, omel that
fresh, deftdowo aroma? Yeul
aela die rkhnooo of Seaport
coffee means mere eyp* per
powidlr Iw4 Try Sioport • • •
and )ein the thousands who
•ay... Iti* Seaport for me..
6 tell
SEAPORT
Lodge Notices
NOTICE: Silsbee Lodge No. 341,
Knights of Pythloo, moots each
Tharsday, 7:39 pjn. Community
HalL Members are urged to
attend and visiting brethren are
in yum.
8. M. Miears,
Chancellor Commander
Phillip McKinney, See.
STATED MEETING of Sllebee
Lodge No. 937, AJTAA.
M., Silsbee. Texas, srs
the first end third Toee-
day of each month at
7:89 o’clock. Visiting
bre thorn are cordially Invited.
e. o. McClelland, w.m.
P. L. CHOATE. Seey.
NOTICE: L a O. F. Ledge meets
every Tueedsy night at 7:39 la
. the Odd Fellows Hall Moated on
Eleventh Street and Keeeevett
Drive. Visiting brothers are In-
vited to attend.
Li-------
Noble Grand
H. D. Hayes. Bee. See.
t Church of Evade!*
to everyone to attend
Noncsi
The nret B
extendi a wale
tta aervicea.
Sunday School IS ajn.
Worahip Service 11 a.m.
Training Union 1 p.m.
Evening Worahip Service I p.m.
Mid-week aervicea: Brotherhood meet*
at 1:18 In the church, then vlalt In ahut-
in home* for their meeting*. WMU. GA,
RA, and Sunbeam*, T p.m.
Her. r. G. Herding Pastor
SHOP AT
Ray's Food Town
Open 1:1* a. m. Until Isa
Seven Deye A Week
Staple Groceries—
' Cold Drinks
Everyday LOW Prteee
Ph. EV 5-9077
Located 1 ltd.- Beat ea Bvndale
TV SERVICE
One Day Service
CALL
WARRICK TV
& APPLIANCE
rs
Time Iik. Joins In
Now Papermaking
Venture In La.
Time Inc. and Crown Zeller-
back Corp., one of the nations
largest papermakers, announced
last week that they were joining
together in building a $31 million
paper mill near St Francizville,
La.
The jointly-owned company is
expected to have one high speed
printing paper machine with an
annual capacity of 78,000 tons and
is scheduled to be in operation in
the latter part of 1958. Crown-
Zellerback will manage the mill.
This will be Time, Inc.’s second
venture in the paper making bus-
iness as the concern now owns all
the stock of Eastex Pulp and Pa-
per across the Neches river at
Evadak.
The paper mill at St Francis-
ville, which is about 27 miles
from Baton Rouge up the Missis-
sippi, will produce machine coated
magazine printing paper. The ma-
chine will have an annual capac-
ity of 78,000 tons.
-«-
Average cost of all wells drilled
below 15,000 feet runs about
$617,000 per well.
The person who curbs heedless spending, and sets
aside his “extra” dollars of income for later, larger
satisfactions, does “pull himself up by his own boot-
straps.” Open a savings account with us; add to the
balance every payday. You’ll soon see how “impos-
sible” ambitions can be realized-through systematic
SAVING!
MCM8CR
rcocRAi pc sum
SYSTCH
SILSBEE STATE BANK
Now paying 2% on Savings
SAVE DOLLARS
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Estrogenic Hormone Oil for throat
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A complete treatment for the price
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6 JOG value, now 3~
m . 3 ■
Night and Day
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Estrogenic Hormone Cream helps
face look yean younger... reg. 3.50
Estrogenic Hormone Oil for the
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Silk-Tone Special Foundation with
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dl ink
P & J P. skinner, pharmacists
IMk
Mils
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Zuber, Jerry. The Silsbee Bee (Silsbee, Tex.), Vol. 38, No. 43, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 3, 1957, newspaper, January 3, 1957; Silsbee, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth770966/m1/2/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Silsbee Public Library.