Well, unfortunately, it looks like I'm on about a twice a month schedule for getting these posts up. The problem is, I keep getting distracted by my curiosity and end up doing more research! While trying to find out if the town cow problem got resolved, I discovered that the search tool had missed a couple of articles about W. C. So I decided I'd better go back and start from the beginning and skim through each edition of the newspaper. So that's what I've been doing for the past week. Unfortunately, I've only managed to get through the middle of 1891 at this point, so I keep going back and forth as to exactly when I should actually share those missing articles. Should I spend another week looking through the newspapers and update the times we already covered before moving on? That seems to make more sense, but will make you all have to wait longer for a new post. So I think I'll just put them all at the end of the Texas stuff. That means today we will just continue with the ones I originally found, from 1895 to 1900.
So let's do a quick review of 1890 - 1894:
1890:
W. C. was living in the town of Abilene, about 14 miles north of Buffalo Gap.
He was serving as secretary of the Aberdeen, Dakota Building and Loan Association.
He was also still serving as the secretary of the Alliance Association, as well as the business manager of the Alliance store.
In May, he resigned from the Alliance store, took a position at a different grocery store, and opened his own commission business.
By the end of the year, W. C. had added a real estate office to his commission business.
1891:
W. C. started up a fencing business with his brother-in-law, H. T. Brookreson.
He was serving as a deputy sheriff for Taylor County.
1892:
He ran unsuccessfully for Justice of the Peace in Abilene.
1893:
Who knows what he was up to, other than fighting a court case?
1894:
He was selling territory for a new patent windmill. (I still don't know what this means!)
By the end of the year, he had moved from Abilene and gone back to Buffalo Gap.
Alright, here we go with the newspaper articles, but just remember, the only two papers we have access to were both published in Abilene. Since W. C. was back in Buffalo Gap, we probably won't have nearly as much information for him.
1895
The Taylor County News
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
1 Mar 1895
From what I can tell, the district court had a specific term each year, and if they didn't manage to get through all the cases, they were held over. Remember that case between W. C. and John B. Neill that was being continued a whole year after it was first reported to be on the docket?
The Abilene Reporter
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
15 Mar 1895
This is showing the sale for delinquent city taxes. So I just noticed that the paragraph at the top says that they will be auctioning off only as much of the property as is needed to cover the cost of the taxes. That means that W. C. would not be losing all of those lots, since he only owed $6.08 in taxes. (I saw an article from around 1891 saying that the city tax rate was about 80 cents per $100, which means the value of those lots would have been $760 (about $22,700 in today's money). These are the same lots that were listed for the sheriff's sale a year prior for being delinquent in about $8 of county taxes. So he either didn't actually lose them then, or he somehow managed to get them back. (Maybe nobody else bid on them, and he was able to just bid the amount of the tax owed.)
The Abilene Reporter
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
16 Aug 1895
Nothing really interesting here, except that W. C. brought the whole family into Abilene. Which means it wasn't for business, but for shopping or socializing. Maybe they were getting school clothes or something.
1896
The Taylor County News
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
28 Feb 1896
Here is another list of jurors for the District Court. It looks like the court session rolled around each spring. There were actually more than two weeks in the term. (The article showed a fifth week - skipping the third and fourth for some reason (?) - but I just cut it off after the part that was relevant for us.)
The Abilene Reporter
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
24 Apr 1896
So this article says that W. C. visited Abilene, and that he was reporting on the farming conditions around Buffalo Gap, but it doesn't say that he himself was actually farming. He could have been doing something else entirely.
1897
The Abilene Reporter
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
23 Feb 1897
This is referring to the passing of W. C.'s second-oldest son, Calvin Malone. The narrative in our family history says that he was 16 when he died, but the family data sheet in the back shows that he was born on April 5, 1882, which would put him at just shy of his 15th birthday when he died. Considering that he died in the early morning hours, I find it interesting that news of his death reached Abilene quickly enough to make it into that day's edition of the newspaper. Maybe the Buffalo Gap correspondent wired the info or had access to a telephone. (According to the Texas State Historical Association, Abilene began receiving telephone service in 1895.)
The Taylor County News
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
26 Feb 1897
So, this is from the other newspaper, which was only published once a week, which is why the death was not reported by it sooner. The following was in the same edition:
This is how I knew that the "Lonie" in the honor roll lists was Calvin Malone. The fact that he was nicknamed "Fess" is a new bit of information. The family history tells us that his stepmother said that "he was too good to live in this world," and this touching obituary reveals that this wasn't just the sentiment of a loving mother (she had raised him since he was four years old), but that he was well-regarded by all.
I am assuming that he would have been buried in the Buffalo Gap cemetery, maybe even next to his mother Amelia Virginia, but he doesn't show up on any of the internment lists for there. Online descriptions of the cemetery indicate that there is a section with unmarked graves. They probably had markers, originally, but ones made of wood which didn't survive. (I saw an article from around 1890 saying that the cemetery board in Abilene had found graves in the street that were moved inside the cemetery grounds and given wooden markers.) I came across a news article from 2017 saying that the Taylor County Clerk was going to begin preservation efforts on a ton of documents dating back to 1878, including medical records, so maybe some day we'll have access to those and we can find out more about Calvin's and Amelia's deaths and burials.
The Taylor County News
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
26 Feb 1897
This was also in the same edition of the paper. Hopefully he got excused.
The Taylor County News
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
23 Apr 1897
This shows that W. C. finally lost those lots he owned due to non-payment of taxes. Since it says ownership was transferred "by sheriff," that means that they were auctioned off for delinquent county taxes from the previous year. (These were the same lots we saw in the article above from 1895, which means he either didn't lose them back then, or he bought them back somehow.) Notice that they were sold for $500, which was a bargain since they were worth $760 two years prior.
1898
The Abilene Reporter
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
3 Jun 1898
Okay, so this article has absolutely nothing to do with W. C. Cheatham or his family, but after that string of depressing articles I thought I'd lighten things up a bit. I'm not sure what the writer means by the "rainbow position," unless they mean bending over the handlebars maybe? Here is a picture of a typical bicycle from 1898:
The Abilene Reporter
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
9 Sep 1898
Aaaaaand another jury duty notice. I wonder if they dreaded those as much back then as we do today.
The Taylor County News
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
9 Sep 1898
Uuuummmm, I think this is exactly the same thing, just published in the other newspaper.
The Abilene Reporter
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
30 Sep 1898
At first glance, this seems like just another 'W. C. is involved in the fair' kind of article. But if you pay attention, is says that the named individuals are supposed to make an exhibit representing "his own school district." This implies that W. C. may have been on the school board. (I would assume for a school in Buffalo Gap - this shows 23 school districts in the county, but there were not 23 cities in the county at this time. Maybe each individual elementary and high school had a number. I couldn't find any info online to clarify this.)
The Taylor County News
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
23 Dec 1898
Once again, we see that back in the day people were just as (or even more) concerned with the character of a student than with their grades. It's a shame that now classes only choose (or can only find?) one student to single out each month for outstanding character.
1899
The Abilene Reporter
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
20 Jan 1899
Either W. C. didn't go into the city very often, or the reporting on people visiting was hit or miss, since the last visit mentioned in the paper was almost three years prior!
The Abilene Reporter
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
17 Feb 1899
Just another honor roll list, this time with Elmer being recognized.
The Abilene Reporter
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
26 Feb 1899
This is the last time we see W. C. in the newspaper while he was actually living in Taylor County. If you remember, we know that he had arrived in New Mexico in late 1899, probably November or earlier because he had already been serving as justice of the peace there in January of 1900. So that means he left Texas sometime after the end of February, but we don't know how long after.
So that's it for Texas. I'm going to throw in a couple of bonus articles that I came across, just to give you a sense of the times:
The Abilene Reporter
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
2 May 1890
And the one from a year later:
The Abilene Reporter
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
24 Apr 1891
Yikes! I guess there weren't any animal rights activists back then. I wondered why in the world they would be so harsh, and then I saw this article in the same paper:
Well, I guess that explains it, then.
The Abilene Reporter
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
21 Aug 1891
Okay, then. I never heard of this in all my life, and I've done a considerable amount of research into Victorian era fashion! (So I'm guessing it was a passing fad - probably they couldn't put up with how uncomfortable they were and said to heck with it!)
The Abilene Reporter
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
7 Jul 1899
The Abilene Reporter
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
4 Aug 1899
I had seen several articles about the racing shenanigans prior to this, but this is the first one that made it clear they were racing horses! I suppose it's possible that A. D. Cheatham or his brother Elmer could have been involved in this - although this article says "boys," the other ones implied that it was teenagers/young men, and A. D. would have been nearly 22 years old at the time, and Elmer 15.
The Abilene Reporter
(Abilene, Taylor County, TX)
25 Aug 1899
This is from a neighboring town in Taylor County. I just thought it was funny and didn't have anyone to laugh about it with. (And if you were wondering, a 'limning' is an illuminating description.)
I found these statistics fascinating! (And isn't it interesting that prison has been called 'the pen' since way back then?)
I must say, I love the way the editors of the paper wrote - you just don't see anything quite like it these days. I think they would make a modern rhetoric/debate teacher proud!
So, my next post is going to be shorter than normal, because I am just going to put up any extra stuff from Texas that I've found - hopefully that means I will be able to get it finished within the next week. See you then!
- Therese
Note: I think all of the articles above came from the Portal to Texas History: Texas Digital Newspaper Program website; you can find the links for each edition in the left sidebar. If for some reason I messed up and you don't find the link you are looking for, just go online and do a search that says "Portal to Texas History [name of newspaper] [date of article]" and you should get a result that takes you directly to that edition of the paper!
