Cooper Review (Cooper, Tex.), Vol. 129, No. 30, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 23, 2009 Page: 2 of 6
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Cooper Review - Page 2
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Bob Bowman's East Texas
m*
£
AX
On The River
By Bob Bowman
£1
With ET
The Town of Twin Groceries
A recent caller from Bowie County had an
intriguing question recently, “Does East Texas
have a town named Twin Groceries?”
The answer is yes and no.
Around 1850, John Arthur helped settle the
town of Saltillo on the Old Jefferson wagon
road sixteen miles east of Sulphur Springs in
Hopkins County. He named it after a town in
Mexico.
Saltillo soon became a popular place for
teamsters, leading to the establishment of a
post office in 1860 with Moses Russell as the
postmaster.
The town also had a gristmill, a cotton gin and
a store.
A second store was opened on the opposite
side of the road from Arthur’s store and for
the first time, the community was known as
“Twin Groceries” for obvious reasons.
But the name didn’t last long and Saltillo
reemerged. By 1885. Saltillo had a water-
powered gristmill, two churches, a school and
a population of about sixty. But what about
Saltillo’s name?
Admittedly, it is not as colorful as Twin
Groceries, but it does have an interesting
history.
Saltillo, Mexico, the namesake of the one
in Hopkins County, and Austin both share
a special place in Texas history. Both were
Texas capitals.
Saltillo was the capitol of Texas when its
territory was part of the Mexican state of
Coahulia before Texas won its independence
and Austin became the capital of the Republic
of Texas.
In 1986, while I was serving on the Texas
Sesquicentennial Commission, a delegation
from Saltillo, Mexico, journeyed to Austin to
help Texas celebrate its 150th birthday.
In 1887, the St. Louis and Southwestern
Railroad built a line a few miles north of
Saltillo, Texas, and one of the town’s twin
grocery stores moved to the train station site.
Twin Groceries had no reason to use its name
anymore.
Saltillo opened a school in 1905 with an
enrollment of eighty-four. And in 1909, the
Gulf Pipe Line was laid through Hopkins
County near Saltillo, further spurring its
growth.
The town kept growing and soon had a
population of 350, a number of stores, several
barber shops, a bank, a printing house, and a
newspaper known as the Saltillo Signal.
The town grew until the 1920s, but the
Depression years reduced its prosperity and
its population fell to 250.
Today, Saltillo is still an active settlement
of about 200 folks and a few stores at the
intersection of U.S. 67, Farm Road 900, and
the railroad. The town is also less than a mile
from Interstate 30.
Sadly, there is nothing left of Twin Groceries
but a colorful old name.
In Years Gone By
From the files of The Cooper Review
Ten Years Ugo
Several Cooper Varsity
Band members enjoyed
great success at Young
Lions band camps at Texas
A&M-Commerce this June.
CHS students attended four
different camps- Leadership
camp, a marching camp
focusing on developing
leadership skills in young
people; Auxiliary Camp for
flag corps and rifle corps
members; Drum Major Camp,
an intense week of training
for drum majors and student
leaders in high school bands;
and Concert Band camp
for those whishing to focus
specifically on instrumental
playing skills.
Seven dry-hydrants were
recently installed in Precinct
One of Delta County. These
dry-hydrants units were
obtained through a grant with
the Texas Forest Service.
Morgan Hohenberger
was recently named to the
AAU All-American Squad
after competing in the AAU
National Tournament in
Arlington July 2-10.
Chris Douglas of the
Cooper FFA Chapter was
among one of seventy
students across Texas to
receive a $10,000 Houston
Livestock Show and Rodeo
Scholarship, July 6-8 at the
71s* Texas FFA Convention
in Amarillo, Texas.
Twenty Years Ago
According to information
from the office of Railroad
Commission Chairman
Kent Hance, the one oil/
gas well in Delta County is
still in operation, although
production is small.
Luna No. 1, in the
Cooper iteuimi
Owners - Jim and Sally Butler
JimB@Cooperreview.com
Publisher/Editor - Roger Palmer
Roger@Cooperreview. com
Office Manager/Staff Writer - Kimberly Palmer
Kim@Cooperreview. com
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fourth week in December. Second Class Postage is paid at Cooper, Texas
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MEMBER
2009
TU
TEXAS PRESS
ASSOCIATION
Vtexas press
ASSOCIATION
BETTER NEWSPAPER CONTEST
Award Winner
southwest part of the County,
produced 276,000 cubic feet
of gas in April and 17 barrels
of oil.
Thirty Years Ago
Alain Roffidal of Denain,
Franee will be the guest speaker
and musician at the 11:00
o’clock service Sunday, July
22, at the First Baptist Church
in Cooper, Rev. Richard Tatum
has announced.
1979-80 CHS cheerleaders,
Lesley Echols, Debbie
Blagburn, DeAnn Eudy,
Regina Glossup, Doris
Wilkerson, and Lisa Barnard
attended camp this week
at Dallas Baptist College
preparing for the upcoming
season.
Mrs. Delia Thomas, her
family, and friends had
the pleasure of viewing
her daughter, Sandra Sue
Thompson of Los Angeles,
Ca., make her first appearance
as a contestant on the TV
show, “The Price is Right”
in June 27. Sandra won some
very nice and valuable prizes.
Forty Years Ago
Six members of Cooper
Future Farmers of America
Chapter, Gary Don Chandler,
Larry Trapp, Sam Bettes,
Danny Pickering, Randy
Freeman, and John Wilson,
attended the State FFA
Convention in Fort Worth July
16-18, accompanied by their
advisor Bobby Wigley.
Four Cooper High School
Band majorettes are attending
Twirling Camp at Baylor
University in Waco this week
including Gayle Lowery,
Barbara Barrow, Dottie
Johnson, and Kathy Williams.
Fifty-one guests attended
a housewarming honoring
Mrs. Coleman Foster recently.
Hostesses for the occasion
were Mrs. Cordell Grizzle,
Miss Thelma Neal, Mrs. J.
D. Bettes, Mrs. Eddie Shelby,
Mrs. Gaza Janes, Mrs. Herbert
Manes, Mrs. M.H. Millard,
Mrs. Vera Bracken, Mrs.
Wilson Smith, Mrs. Lonnie
Cavanaugh, and Mrs. John
Earley.
Thirteenth Birthday
For several years on Grandson Casey’s
birthday he has invited a few friends and
we go to my cabin. They have a great time
swimming, canoeing, and climbing the steep
bank. For weeks it seems the temperature,
even at night, has been too hot to hunt. The
unseasonable norther this weekend really
brought some relief. Sunday, Casey became
a teenager and I figured because of the rare,
cool, July weather we should work in a hog
hunt before going to the cabin. As we drove
to Charleston and met John Watkins the
thermometer in the pickup showed sixty seven
and was really nice, especially after several
days of a hundred and above.
As we drove off into the bottom I turned
Ann and River loose. River is a young dog
out of some of Perry Burks’ line in Denham
Springs. They took off and we moved further
west until finding water in some bar ditches.
Figured some hogs were hanging around the
water so I turned more dogs, Chip, Bad Eye,
and T Garth, loose. Within ten minutes they
were baying and we ran to find them with
a big boar in a shallow pool. Chip is a little
catchy and was locked on one ear as the boar
walked around in the two foot deep water and
mud. Little Jack Russell, Zack, was out there
swimming with the others like he weighed a
hundred pounds. We try to catch hogs alive
whenever we can but figured we better not
get off in that boggy mess since the boar had
some cutters almost three inches long and
very sharp. We might fall down and the boar
get on top of us. It wouldn’t be pretty. Casey
as usual climbed six feet up a willow and had
a ring side seat.
If the boar would come out on the bank
where we could get his tail and back legs we
could throw and tie him. Finally we saw it
was no use so when Chip got tired and turned
loose, John waited until my other dogs were
out of the way and used his seven mag. About
that time, Brad, Walker, and Easton Richey
had heard the commotion and came up. They
had been watching the opposite side of some
woods nearby hoping another hog would run
that way. The boar sunk when John shot and
Casey waded out with a tie rope to put on a
back foot. Drug it close enough to the edge
that John and I could help pull it out.
Although it was still not nine o’clock we
figured it was time to quit before the heat set in.
A couple of the dogs had another idea. Before
we could get their leashes on, Bad Eye and T
Garth hit a trail and headed for the river. Must
have been some more hogs with the boar. Soon
they were baying and I sent Chip in to help
catch. Another boar, this one a hundred fifty
pounder. After tying his feet we loaded him
on the front of my four wheeler and headed
out to put it in my pen. Brad and other land
owners are glad two more of the critters are
out of the pasture rooting business. Casey’s
friend, Colton Strode, came about noon and
we did take them to the cabin that afternoon.
In a few weeks the skull will be bleached out
for Casey’s room. Happy thirteenth, Casey.
Years ago somebody trying to act like a
magician, handed me a blank sheet of paper
and asked me to draw an arrow, name a color,
and name a flower. The magician would then
tell me what I had written. Seems like he
correctly “guessed” two out of my three. The
way it works is a high percentage of people
draw an arrow pointing to the right, list red for
a color, and put rose for the flower. Somehow
the part about the arrow pointing to the right
always stuck with me. Here’s what I’m getting
at: A fish is pointed at one end like an arrow,
yet the fish symbol on the back of most cars
is pointed to the left. People have a choice of
pointing it right or left when they stick it on.
Granted, some have “Jesus” printed inside the
outline and all those I’ve seen have to go to the
left but I’m talking about the plain fish. Since
a kid I’ve known that a fish was a symbol for
a Christian. It was a password back in the days
of Roman persecution. When two people met
and not sure whether the other was a Christian
or not, with a stick, one would draw a curved
shape like the top line of a fish in the sand.
If the other was a Christian he would make a
similar mark to complete the bottom line of
the fish shape. If not, I guess he looked at you
like you were crazy. The only reason for a left
pointing fish I have been able to find is that
it resembles the Greek letter for A, or Alpha,
such as in Revelations 1:8, “I am the Alpha
and Omega, etc.” Some go so far as to say
a fish pointing to the right is the opposite of
Alpha and is a sign of the devil. That orta get
some comments.
A man went in a bar and asked the
bartender if he showed him something really
good would he give him a free drink. The
bartender agreed and the man reached in one
coat pocket and pulled out a little piano. From
another pocket he got a rat which sat down at
the piano and began to play the blues. After
a song or two the man put the rat and piano
away. In a few minutes he asked if he showed
him something better could he drink free all
night. The bartender didn’t think anything
could be better but he agreed. The man pulled
the rat and piano back out and also a frog. The
rat started playing and the frog started singing.
After a couple of songs a stranger came up and
offered a hundred thousand dollars for the frog.
No deal. Offered more and more until he got
up to a million and the deal was made. After
the stranger left with the frog the bartender
asked the man, “Are you crazy? That frog was
priceless.” The man said, “Naw, it’s all right.
The rat is a ventriloquist.”
etra327@embarqmail.com
According to the Thursday, July 23, 1964
issue of the Cooper Review:
Bryan Thomas Preas, son of Mr. and Mrs.
Opal Preas, is the recipient of a scholarship
from Texas A&M University, which is
provided by the university’s Opportunity
Awards Program.
The Annual Young Farmers Field Day wifi
be held at A&M University Saturday, July
25, according to Marshall Neil, advisor to the
local Young Farmers Chapter.
Representing the Red Henderson Post 483
American Legion at the state Legion meeting
to be held in San Antonio Friday (tomorrow)
through Sunday wifi be L. E. Bridges, vice
commander, and T. B. Carrington.
Plans are nearing completion for the Delta
County cotton tour, according to Marshall Neil,
advisor of the Young Farmers Association. The
tour, which is scheduled for Thursday, July
30, is being sponsored by the Delta County
Young Farmers Association and the executive
committee of Delta Farm Building Program.
Three Cooper Volunteer Firemen left last
Sunday morning for Texas A&M University
at College Station to attend the annual school
of instructions for firemen. They are Paul
Cates, Cooper Fire Marshall; Bruce Fielding,
who has charge of the local fire trucks; and J.
G. McKibben, a member of the department.
One hundred and seventy-five acres of
meadow grass were destroyed by fire Tuesday
afternoon on the farm of C. W. (Buster) Lewis
in the Gough Community, Rt. 2, Cooper.
The Little League Indians continue to
hold a substantial lead with one game to be
played of the regular schedule, sporting a 10-1
record. The Giants are in second place with a
6-5 record, and the Dodgers and Yankees are
tied for third with 3-8 records.
Mrs. Martha Watkins of Cooper expects to
leave August 16 for San Juan, Puerto Rico,
where she has accepted a position as librarian
at the Robinson School, which is operated by
Woman’s Division of the Methodist Church.
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Palmer, Roger. Cooper Review (Cooper, Tex.), Vol. 129, No. 30, Ed. 1 Thursday, July 23, 2009, newspaper, July 23, 2009; Cooper, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth805169/m1/2/?rotate=90: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Delta County Public Library.