The Clifton Record (Clifton, Tex.), Vol. 116, No. 38, Ed. 1 Wednesday, September 29, 2010 Page: 4 of 55
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Page A-4 ♦ September 29, 2010
PERSPECTIVES
TnCunwRlOOU'diflMnconLaia
m
This Week In
Texas History
By Bartee Haile
mark@cliftonrecord.com
His fate was already sealed
when Gov. James Edward
Ferguson rose to speak on
Sep. 24, 1917.
The defiant defendant
aimed his parting shot not at
the 28 jurors, whose minds
were made up, nor the hos-
tile gallery but at the people
of Texas. “You have decided
to remove me from office so
that another man can take
it. But you have made a po-
litical issue which will follow
you and which this state will
fight over for the next twenty
years.”
Moments later the senate
voted 25-3 to convict Fergu-
son on ten of the 21 articles
of impeachment. To prevent
his resurrection, the jury
then turned executioner and
banned the deposed governor
Lawmakers put "Farmer Jim" out to pasture
from public office for life.
The 43 year old Bell Coun-
ty banker w as the darkest gu-
bernatorial horse imaginable,
when he challenged the ma-
chine candidate for the Dem-
ocratic nomination in 1914.
Party power brokers snorted
at the audacity of the brash
newcomer and assured each
other that team player Tom
Ball would clean his plow at
the polls.
But Ferguson’s astute anal-
ysis of the electorate counted
for more than his inexperi-
ence. With three out of four
Texans living on the farm or
in small communities, any
fool could plainly see the rural
vote was the key to success in
a statew ide contest. Yet, after
the decline of the Populist
movement at the turn of the
century, politicians would not
give their country cousins the
time of day.
James Ferguson, coat-and-
tie businessman, became
“Farmer Jim,” shirt-sleeved
defender of the downtrod-
den. Concentrating on the
plight of the pastoral poor, he
promised destitute sharecrop-
pers immediate relief and a
fair shake. Making more than
150 campaign appearances
in the countryside compared
to only ten in the cities, the
spellbinding stump speaker
gave hope to the demoralized
“little people.”
Tom Ball never knew
what hit him. A hundred and
thirty-three counties went for
Ferguson as the novice net-
ted 55 percent of the primary
turnout. The November 1914
general election was the usual
cakewalk for the designated
Democrat.
The new governor kept his
promise to the sharecroppers
by pushing the Tenant Law
through the legislature. That
the reform was struck down
in the courts did not make a
dime’s worth of difference
to the Ferguson faithful, who
also applauded the generous
pardon policy that sent sanc-
timonious city folks through
the roof.
Ferguson was feeling his
oats after winning reelection
in 1916. Against the advice
of his closest counselors, he
picked a quarrel with most
potent lobby in the state - the
legion of Longhorn alums.
His denunciation of the Uni-
versity of Texas, a tax-sup-
ported elitist enclave, struck
a sympathetic chord with his
constituents, most of whom
had been forced by econom-
ic necessity to drop out of
school at an early age.
Although Ferguson’s at-
tack did contain an anti-intel-
lectual undercurrent, he was
motivated by more than mere
contempt for academia. The
issue was grass-roots educa-
tion. “The state is spending
$272 a year on the univer-
sity,” he explained, “and only
$7.50 on the children in the
little red schoolhouse.”
His veto of the university
appropriation brought the
matter to a head. Will Hogg,
son of the popular ex-gover-
nor and leader of the influen-
tial Ex-Students Association,
launched the crusade to chas-
tise Ferguson.
When the prohibitionists
jumped on the impeachment
bandwagon, the tide turned
against the cantankerous in-
cumbent. His subsequent
6-Man is a new football experience
Then Again,
I Could Be Wrong
By Dennis Phillips
dennis@cliftonrecord.com
I thought I was pretty well
informed when it comes to
the game of football. I write
about high school football
every week; attend roughly
4 games a week, and have
done so for many years.
1 thought I had seen it all.
In a last minute phone call,
the Meridian Tribune pho-
tographer, Beaver Randolph
could not make it to the
Walnut Springs homecom-
ing game against the Iredell
Dragons. Homecoming for
any school is a big deal, and
this is a must cover situation
for any hometown newspa-
per. After a brief conversa-
tion with the sports editor
for Meridian, 1 jumped in
the truck and headed to the
game.
I had never been to a six-
man football game* so I did
not really know wKaf fo ex-
pect. Since I was there to
photograph, I figured that it
could not be too difficult. I
had after all, photographed
many football games, so
how hard could it be?
Right away I realized 1
was in uncharted waters.
The home side of the field,
which is 20-yards smaller
than a regular football field,
was packed with Hornet
fans. All decked out in blue
and white. There were body
painted kids (several), face
painting, glow sticks, mums
as big as the girls wearing
them and noise. This small
6-man school was as loud
as any 2A school I have
covered. The fans were out,
wearing blue and getting
louder with ever successful
offensive play.
Now don’t think for a min-
ute that Iredell fans were not
present. There we so many,
they took to camping out on
top of the school bus. The
bus made for a great make
shift press box to film the
game from. The yellow and
black colors of the Iredell
Dragons were flying high
and the fans, just as loud.
What really made me take
notice was the game of 6-
man football itself. During
one offensive play, the ball
was lateralled three times,
then passed to a waiting re-
ceiver down field. The toss
was good, and the team ad-
vanced the ball 35-yards. All
that action and only 6 play-
ers on the field. I have start-
ed referring to the game as
organized chaos. At first you
get confused, the action is so
fast and so intense that just
following the ball is a job in
itself. When there is a gang
tackle, everyone on the field
is present, all 12 guys in on a
tackle is a sight to be seen.
In normal football games,
there are set plays that look
familiar. In six-man, I could
not figure out the forma-
tions, play sets and get this,
15 yards for a first down.
The game itself is intense
ri
The Year of Fruit
Rustic Ramblings
By Dr. Genie Ellis
The Clifton Record
Don’t get me wrong; I do
love summer. (This mind set
comes from twelve years of
public school with summers
off. June, July, and August
were magic - if for no other
reason than that there was no
school. Even many years lat-
er, if you say the word “va-
cation” to me, I won’t think
of a week off from work or
a particular destination. The
first thing that will come to
mind is the long period of
time between the end of May
and Labor Day.
I think I’m ready for fall
this year. This is a pattern
too. It’s September, and still
hot, still buggy, and believe
it or not, we’re still mowing
grass, spraying OFF, picking
and dealing with the garden
and fruit. I’ve had it (just like
every year at this time). The
heat is wearing me down.
This has been the “Sum-
mer of Fruit” around here.
I’ve written about this since
June, so let me condense it
for you. Believe it or not,
I’m still making jam and
jelly. This all started with the
plums from a neighbor’s tree
last June which yielded my
first ever homemade jelly.
This was hot work, and I was
tentative at first, as with any
new experience. But then
I was hooked. There was a
huge fruit crop around here
this year, gargantuan. At
various times, all the stores
were out of either sugar,
Sure Jell, fruit fresh, or can-
ning jars. Our peach trees
(both old, established/vol-
unteer - and the newer ones
we planted a few years ago)
were so loaded, limbs broke
on every tree. You never saw
so many peaches. I froze 50
cups, made five or six'tob-
blers, gave away bag after
bag to anyone who would
take them. At one point,
desperate, I offered some to
a total stranger in the super-
market. It was amazing and
exhausting. But what could I
do? - Let them fall and rot?
(Plenty did. We couldn’t
keep up with them). It was
the gift that kept on giving -
and giving - and giving.
Then the wild grapes
kicked in - and the regu-
lar plums from two small,
young trees that had never
had fruit before. I made six
to eight more batches of jel-
ly. Zack and I made mustang
grape wine. We decided to
do peach wine too. It was a
way to “dispose” of some of
the bounty, so what the heck.
I knew there was a wild plum
tree on the way to the pecan
bottom, and sure enough, it
was loaded too. Zack discov-
ered dozens of little ones (or
wild plum “bushes” not sure)
in the field behind our house.
I’ll bet now he wishes he’d
never told me about them.
Wild varieties of plums,
for those of you who don’t
know (I didn’t) are very
hard, small and sour. They
take a LOT of sugar for jelly
or jam. (See, now I’m an
expert!) A couple of week-
ends ago, Becca, Zack and I
picked half a bushel of wild
bush and tree plums, and I
started the jelly factory up
again. I have a quarter of a
bushel waiting for me in a
basket, and there are still
wild plums on the tree, heav-
en help me. I’ve given away
at least 13 jars (various sizes
from half pints to pints) of
jelly or jam, have about sixty
more here, and am still going
strong. I may never want to
see fruit again. But perhaps
there will never be another
fruit crop like this again. I
feel like I’ve participated in
CO-OP
PAYS FOR
TUI
1 N r
The Clifton Record
254-675-3336
refusal to identify the brew-
ers lobby as the source of a
six-figure secret loan (loomed
him in the senate.
Two months after his re-
moval, Ferguson introduced
the weekly newspaper that
would trumpet his message
for the next 18 years. Bla-
zoned across the masthead of
the “Ferguson Forum” were
the twin pillars of his philoso-
phy: “Agin High Rents” and
“Agin High Taxes.”
The ex-govemor tested
the political waters less than
year later by running against
his replacement in the Demo-
cratic primary. William P.
Hobby beat him better than
two to one, but 217,000 sup-
porters cast their ballots for
the banished maverick.
Following an indepen-
dent bid for the presidency
in 1920 and a U.S. Senate
race in 1922, his foes again
wrote Ferguson off. But he
bounced back in 1924 with
the tongue-in-cheek offer of
"two governors for the price
of one.”
Miriam was the official
standard bearer in the hus-
band-and-wife team’s bruis-
ing battle with the Ku Klux
Klan. The Fergusons won that
confrontation, which ripped
the sheets from the white su-
premacists and earned “Ma”
a place in the history books.
Miriam Ferguson returned
for a second term in 1932 after
back-to-back defeats in 1926
and 1930. She tried again in
1940 but was buried in the
W. Lee “Pappy” O’Daniel
avalanche. Fergusonism had
finally run out of steam.
Today the Fergusons are
ridiculed as die Ma and Pa
Kettle of twentieth-century
Texas politics. But to the im-
poverished and powerless,
whose cause he consistently
championed, Farmer Jim was
the only politician who ever
seemed to care.
(Special Offer - Buy “Se-
cession & Civil War” column
collection for $14.20 and get
“Outlaws & Lawmen” or
“Revolution & Republic” at
half price. Mail $21.30 to
Bartee Haile, P.O. Box 152,
Friendswood, TX 77549.)
and faster than any other
sport I have seen. Players
have to be fast and have
the ability to fly to the ball.
Blink and there is just so
much open field that a ball
carrier can find space in a
hurry to get to the end zone.
The hitting is hard. Where
in a normal game of football
one guy might get a little
contact to slow a ball carrier
down enough for another
guy to stop him. In six-man,
you are the only guy so you
better bring that ball carrier
to a stop on your own. That
makes for one heck of a con-
tact sport.
I truly enjoyed the game
and look forward to my next
opportunity to get out to an-
other. As a football fan, take
a day and go see this ver-
sion of the game, you will
be excited to see this kind of
action on the football field.
To learn more check out
sixmanfootball.com, it has
helped me understand the
game better, and I’m sure
you will find it useful as
well.
fruit history, like a pioneer
woman who must “put it all
by” in case of hard times to
come.
Zack almost never eats jel-
ly. My kids will eat a little.
Now that I rarely eat bread,
you might ask what I’m go-
ing to do with all of this. No
idea! I tried a little with some
very bland chicken tenders
sauteed in olive oil and lemon
juice. It did add some flavor!
I figure if the Brits eat plum
sauce with meat, the Chinese
enjoy sweet and sour sauce
with just about anything, we
serve cranberry sauce with
turkey - well, why not sweet
plum “sauce” with anything I
can possibly slather, drizzle,
or spread it on?
The next few months will
bring cool weather proj-
ects like fence mending,
thicket-clearing and pick-
ing up/buming fallen limbs.
But there will be no lawn
mowing, garden tending, no
BUGS, and no FRUIT! I’ve
missed looking up at the stars
from our hot tub during these
summer months. (Not easy
to enjoy a hot soak after a
day of temps higher than that
in the spa). Yes, I’m looking
forward to fall and winter.
And after a few months. I’ll
most certainly be anxious for
another glorious spring.
Dear Editor:
Let me introduce myself.
My name is Kay Kincheloe
Warren. I was bom and reared
in Clifton. I am the grand
daughter of Robert Lee Bal-
dridge, Sr. who was owner
and publisher of The Clifton
Record from 1901, until his
sudden death of a heart attack
in January 1946. Following
his death my grandmother,
Nora Payne Baldridge re-
tained ownership of the news-
paper and continued publica-
tion of the weekly until it sold
in 1966.
Her son, Robert Lee Bal-
dridge, Jr. just back from his
stint in the US Army in the
Philippines and with his 1932
University of Texas Journal-
ism degree assumed the role
as editor, co-publisher with
his mother, and photographer.
His wife, Katherine, and son,
John, accompanied him back
to his hometown.
My mother, Dorothy Bal-
dridge Kincheloe, with her
1939 University of Texas
Journalism degree was re-
porter, “where she wrote all
types of news and advertising
copy and did the proof-read-
ing.” She and her husband,
Clement, returned back to her
hometown. They welcomed
their daughter, Kay in No-
vember 1946.
My uncle, my Mother, and
I all graduated from Clifton
see LETTERS, page 8
COMMISSIONERS’ COURT
• Bosque County Commissioners’ Court
Monday, Oct. 11,9 a.m.
Bosque County Courthouse
Meridian
CLIFTON CITY COUNCIL
• Clifton City Council
Tuesday, Oct. 12,6 p.m.
Council Chambers
Clifton Civic Center
CLIFTON ISD BOARD
• Clifton Independent School District Board of Trustees
Monday, Oct. 18,6 p.m.
CISD Board Room
Administration Building
Clifton Middle School
PLANNING AND ZONING
• Clifton Planning and Zoning Commission
Tuesday, Oct. 19,7 p.m.
Council Chambers
Clifton Civic Center
COMMISSIONERS' COURT
• Bosque County Commissioners' Court
Monday, Oct. 25,9 a.m.
Bosque County Courthouse
Meridian
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
• City of Clifton Economic Development Corporation
Tuesday, Oct. 26, 7 p.m.
Council Chambers
Clifton Civic Center
The Clifton Record
Serving Bosque County Since 1895
The Clifton Record (USPS-118-100 • ISSN-1086-
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Bosque County Publishing, LP, 310 West Fifth
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Phillips, Dennis. The Clifton Record (Clifton, Tex.), Vol. 116, No. 38, Ed. 1 Wednesday, September 29, 2010, newspaper, September 29, 2010; Clifton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth789068/m1/4/?q=divorce: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Nellie Pederson Civic Library.