|
November 1, 2009
WOLF CREEK HERITAGE MUSEUM NOTES by Virginia Scott MUSEUM HAPPENINGS A fairly quiet week with projects proceeding on schedule. I attended the quarterly meeting of the Northwest Texas Museum Association in Amarillo on Friday. These meetings help us keep up with what is happening in local museums and updates on what is new in displays, etc. This meeting was at the Amarillo Art Museum on Amarillo College campus. It is a beautiful museum with exhibits of local collectors that are amazingly beautiful. If you have time between doctor's appointments this is a great place to spend time. We had another visit from Robert Miller . This time he brought his mother, Vera Shutterly Miller. She was born in Lipscomb in the early 1900s and told us some wonderful stories of Lipscomb and the early families. They brought some more pictures from the estate of James Kilo Mugg, jr. of early Higgins, Lipscomb and various civic groups, social events , and individual photos. Ms. Miller enjoyed the museum especially viewing the side saddle and story of her mother Augusta Mae Mugg Shutterly. James, jr. daughters have sent all the photos to Robert for us. We have applied for a grant to preserve and digitalize glass slides taken by James Kilo Mugg, Sr. He was a pharmacist in Higgins from 1900's to 1920 then again in the 40's. We will try to exhibit some of these old photos soon. We are ready to start mailing out our brochure for the second volume of the history book. The book committee will meet next Thursday to prepare the mailings. So look for our brochures in the mail or at various places and start writing your family histories. HISTORICAL MUSINGS I try to date articles when I have put them in this column so I don't repeat myself . So I apologize if I have used this story of Mrs. Eva Black's elopement before. The story of Ms. Black was recorded in an article in 1971 at the time of her 100th birthday by Bob Davis in the Amarillo Daily News. She relates the following story of her elopement to Hiram Black. She was sixteen and both her mother and stepfather were opposed to her marrying because she had not finished school. Hiram, the boyfiend, had instructed her to sneak out of the house when he signaled her by tossing pebbles at her window. It seems that Hiram spent several nights tossing pebbles and failed at waking the sleeping Eva. He corners her outside when she is picking plums and the two ran off to the Connell Ranch where Hiram worked as a ranchhand. She borrowed a bridal dress from Mrs. Connell and together with another couple ("unmarrieds had to have a chaperon back then" ) they set out in a fringe topped surry to find a circuit preacher. Going from ranch to ranch looking for a preacher they finally found one in Meade, Kansas on the other side of No Man's Land. Following the elopement the couple returned to Ochiltree county bilding a dugout up the river. They made a barn by placing a fence across a deep draw. She finished the story by saying that it was severl years after the elopement before her mother forgave her or her husband. One,in fact, Mrs. Eubank caught Hiram at a cattle branding and threated to kill him with the 30-30 rifle she held in her hands. One way the couple made amends with her mother was by agreeing that Eva would go back to school. The family moved to Lipscomb and Mrs. Black attended school graduating with her daughter, Lola. We end this week's column sadly with the news of the death of Raymond Weis. Our condolences to the Weis and Watson family. |
|
© 2006 - 2024 Wolf Creek Heritage Museum
All Rights Reserved |