#may 1883

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Exhuming and Re-interring - Unsightly Shanties

3 MAY 1883. Austin Daily Statesman.

Moving the Dead.

The work of exhuming and re-interring the remains of the patients who have died and been buried at the lunatic asylum began Monday. The graveyard, strange to say, has been for years just south of the front entrance of the building. Dr. Denton is having the cemetery moved to the southern portion of the grounds, and away from near the buildings. This is something that should have been done years ago, and is commendable in the present management.

The Old is Passing Away.

Yesterday another of the unsightly “shanties” was torn down to give place to two brick buildings, each to be two stories high. They are to be two stories high. They are to be next door east of the new Hanig building on East Pecan and will be built by Mr. Mike Butler the brickyard man.

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Letter Boxes - Courthouse Washed Off - Refresh the Weary - Dustiest In the City

2 MAY 1883. Austin Daily Statesman. 

CITY MATTERS IN BRIEF.

The letter boxes are now up and the carriers make their rounds.

The swallows again homeward flew yesterday. They were washed off the courthouse once more, and it appeared as if they took the hint this time.

A new ice cream saloon and confectionery was opened yesterday, by Messrs. Campbell & Co., next door to Peter Smith’s, on the Avenue where they will at all times be glad to cool the heated and refresh the weary.

Lavaca street will be sprinkled regularly after a few days. Protection hook and ladder company No. 3 have a water wagon made, and the supply of pipe was attached to the water main yesterday. Lavaca street has been the dustiest street in the city, and sprinkling it will be a great improvement in the comfort of living on it.

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Street Car Extensions - Italian Muscians - University Building - Arrests

The expansion of the city streetcar service was frequently advocated by the Austin Daily Statesman.  Undoubtedly John J. Tobin, president of the Street Railway Company and one of Austin's most prominent citizens, had friends at the Statesman which enthusiastically promoted whatever endeavors Tobin or his family were engaged in.

I have transcribed the article in full because it is filled with obscure historical details, including the popularity of cemetery visitations at the time, which was estimated to be up to 2000 people every weekend.

31 MAY 1883. Austin Daily Statesman.

Street Car Extension

In conversation with Dr. J. J. Tobin, president of the Austin Street Railway company, a Statesman representative yesterday learned that a very convenient and much needed extension of the street railway is contemplated.  He took the ground (and seemingly with good reasons) that if a railway line enhances the value of property in and around an entire city and county, a city railway line must inevitably increase the value of city lots in any part of a city to which the care are run.  Heretofore the running of street cars in Austin has been an "up-hill" business -- financially as well as literally.  The line of road operated was the only one which could have been run with any returns at all worth mentioning, and even on that the travel has not been what it should have been.  But the time is now arrived when the demands of the city call for more adequate street care accommodations.

The plan now is to extend the track from and avenue out Cedar or Pine street east to East avenue; thence to the cemetery, giving the hundreds of citizens who visit the homes of their loved dead easy access to the graveyard; and also giving the people living on Robertson Hill and in the southeastern part of Austin the benefit of the street cars for coming to the city and returning home.  This extension has been needed a long time, and will pay largely from the beginning of the same.  A line, according to the plan, will run west from the Avenue along Cedar street to the western portion of the city, terminating at the Raymond plateau, or near Pressler's garden.  A good patronage would be extended this line every day, and Sundays the cars would be crowded all day.  By these extensions a person could get on a car at the northern terminus and go down through the city to where the east and west lines begin and continue on to either the western limits of the city or to East Avenue and to the cemetery, without change of cars -- a run of about three and a half miles either way.  Different colored cars would designate the east and west cars.  The building of these lines, or additions, would be a great blessing to the city.  From three to ten hundred people visit Pressler's garden every Sunday, while not less than from one to two thousand people visit the cemetery every Sabbath, not to mention the large number who make pilgrimages thither every day, and by being able to go from the remotest part of the city to the cemetery and return on cars for ten cents the round trip many more would go.  Then property would be increased in value on Robertson Hill and vicinity and all along East Avenue and adjacent streets, as well as in the entire western and southwestern portions of Austin.  From $100 to $250 would be added to good lots all along the lines.  It would be well for property owners to consult with Dr. Tobin and try and arrange for these additions to be built immediately.  Already property is advancing around the park, in the northern part of the city, consequent upon the extension of the road to that point.  Austin now needs the lines named above, and it would undoubtedly be a paying enterprise to build them immediately.

CITY MATTERS IN BRIEF.

Three youthful Italian musicians, with two violins and a violincello are making music cheap now, and very fair.

The third story is now being put on the university building.  Work is progressing very satisfactorily, though Col. Cook complains of the scarcity of brick masons.

Sheriff Hornsby yesterday arrested Calvin Johnson, colored, against whom the grand jury had just found an indictment for the theft of a mare.

Frank Dunmore, in jail on a charge of robbery and attempted murder, is an ex-convict, having served a term in the penitentiary for stealing horses. So we are told by prison authorities.

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The Old Boy has Begun to Voodoo

30 MAY 1883. Austin Daily Statesman.

It would seem that the "Old Boy" has begun to voodoo the colored people of Austin.

Robbery and Attempted Murder. 

About 11 o'clock Monday night, two pistol shots awakened the generally quiet echoes of that peaceful portion of Austin lying near the freight houses of the Central and the Narrow Gauge roads, and cries for help were heard.  A Statesman reporter went down there yesterday morning to look up things, and ascertained the following facts:

Going to the residence of Brueggman, the reporter found Mr. Robert Franks lying in bed, with his clothes all bloody.  The reporter interviewed him and found that he had been in a "tussle" with robbers.  Coming home with his cousin, Mr. Brueggman, he said, from the saloon of the latter, they were accompanied, at a short distance, by a negro.  When on the track and near the round house of the Central railway, this negro suddenly stepped in front of them, and another negro from behind halloed, "Stop!"  Hesitating an instant, the villian ran up and said, "You d---d s--- b---, stop when I tell you," and fired.  Then a scuffle ensued, during which four or five negroes came to the assistance of the first two, and Mr. Frantz was stabbed three times once in the small of the back and twice between the shoulders.  The knife used was evidently a pocket-knife, as the wounds are small and not very deep.  The reporter examined them and they are already getting better.  The shot fired by the darkey grazed the surface of Mr. Frantz's left arm causing a painful abrasion.  He returned the fire but with what effect he did not know, as he said that the villains made off in different directions, after having relieved him of fifteen dollars, and seeing Mr. Brueggman go for help.  Mr. Frantz said that he had heard during the morning that a negro was shot, and was lying in his house, and he suspected that his ball had taken effect.  As he only came to Austin from San Marcos Friday he did not know any of the negroes.  Dr. Cummings had dressed his wounds, and he was resting good.

The reporter then hunted up the wounded negro, having heard from Dr. Matthews, who had been called in to see him, that there was one over in Masontown.  Going to the house of Charles Cook it was learned from his wife that he came in about twelve o'clock Monday night, with his arm shot in a fearful manner.  The ball went in just at the inside of the elbow joint, ranged along the bone, and lodging in the biceps of the left arm.  When cut out the ball was battered and ragged.  She said that her husband never went armed, and that he came home and told her that two white men had tried to rob him and shot him because he resisted and ran.  She told the reporter the sheriff had just taken him to jail in an ambulance.  Going to the jail where Cook had been taken by the sheriff the reporter tried to interview him and hear his version, but he would not talk much.  Said he didn't know anything about it except that two unknown white men attacked and shot him.  When told that one of his accomplices had already been arrested, named Frank Dunmore, he looked up in apparent bewilderment, and said that he knew nothing about a Dunmore -- never heard the name before.  Dunmore corresponds to a description of Mr. Brueggman, one of the robbers, and Mr. John Chenneville took him in; and he, too, languishes in jail.  The grand jury is working it up.  It is an interesting case.

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Silk Butterflies - Seider Springs

27 MAY 1883. Austin Daily Statesman.

Silk Culture in Austin.  Judge Schuetze, of this city, has now over two hundred silk butterflies laying eggs, and he has 3000 cocoons ready for having the silk reeled off.  He showed a Statesman representative a skein of beautiful yellow silk which he had just reeled.  The skein contained over 900 yards, and is, probably, the first silk ever reeled in Texas.  The most valuable part of Judge Schuetze's experiment is that he has discovered that bois d'arc leaves are as good as mulberry leaves for feeding the butterflies, and makes as good and fine a quality as mulberry leaves.  As bois d'arc grows spontaneously here and mulberry is hard to cultivate, the importance of this experiment will be seen at a glance.

A picnic of the Hebrew Sunday school will take place at Seider Springs this afternoon, to which the Statesman acknowledges an invitation.  A fine dinner will be spread, and there will be pleasure for all.

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Laundry No More - An Inebriate - High and Dry - Cattle - Jerked out a Huge Revolver

29 MAY 1883. Austin Daily Statesman.

The laundry is no more an active institution, because no expert can be had to operate it.

An inebriate named Martin handled Officer Howe very roughly for a while yesterday as the latter was trying to arrest him.  He was finally "run in."

The winds continue to be high and dry, like a stranded ship.  They not only carry dust in every conceivable place, but they take the moisture along, and thus make the drouth more blighting.

Owing to the fact that nearly all cattle now destined for the north or northwest are shipped by railroad, the International cannot supply the demand for stock cars.  A freight conductor on the International yesterday told a Statesman reporter that over 4,000 head had gone through here this spring.

Bob Jackson, a negro, was arrested by Jim Alexander, colored, Sunday, having stolen a horse and saddle from Williams & Farris, of San Marcos.  He tried to draw a pistol on Jim, when the latter jerked out a huge revolver and remarked that any suspicious motion on the part of Bob would contract the muscles in his (Jim's) forefinger.  Jackson is wanted here for the theft of a mare about two weeks ago.

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Fire Concerns - Railway Management - Giant Turtle - Bridge Aftermath

25 MAY 1885. Austin Daily Statesman.

The ghost of the late fire still haunts the debris on Pecan street.  It took the hose and a good pressure of water to down it again yesterday.

A match carelessly dropped by some passer-by yesterday fell among a lot of old papers in the basement under the shoe store of Messrs. Lewis & Peacock.  Had it been night, or Sunday, a calamitous conflagration might have ensued.

The colored people who did not hold a big picnic at Brueggerhoff yesterday can tell a tale about how a soulless narrow gauge railway management uncouples and leaves a whole excursion train standing on a side track simply because the money for the excursion was not paid.

The Texas express bought a large green turtle in from Galveston yesterday morning.  It weighed three hundred and fifty pounds, and is at Frank's restaurant.  To-day the curfew rings, as it were, and "Basil Underwood" or the green turtle, must die, that all may enjoy turtle in all styles.

River Notes.  The ferries yesterday and the day before, after the fall of the bridge, did an immense business.

To see the rotten condition of the timbers one wonders why the bridge did not give way long ago.

Every progressive county in the state, as far as heard from, has one or more free iron bridges over important streams, except Waco and Austin.

It now costs the citizens living south of town fifty cents a day to visit the city in a buggy.  Horseback it is twenty cents, and with wagon from fifty cents to one dollar.  Will this benefit the city?

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Construction - Tramps - Telephones - Bridge Accident

24 MAY 1883. Austin Daily Statesman.

In going to the insane asylum and back yesterday, a Statesman reporter counted twenty-two houses being erected.

Just now the city has more tramps than has been known for years.  Labor is in demand but the wages are too small for men who can live by their wits.

The telephone exchange here is now thoroughly renovated, over-hauled, repaired, and all wires straightened and in good working order.  In proportion to population, it is the largest telephone city in Texas now.

The Toll Bridge Fall.

At about half past 2 o’clock yesterday afternoon a Statesman representative heard a report that resembled the bursting of bombshells more than anything else and he wondered if Santa Anna and his hosts were again advancing on “Waterloo.”  Hastening in the direction of the sound, the reporter soon saw that an accident had occurred at the toll bridge over the Colorado at the foot of Congress Avenue.  Arriving there, a sight presented itself that at first struck horror to every soul until the eager question:  “Was anyone on it?”  “Is anyone hurt?”  were answered in the negative.  The excitement and the noise was occasioned by the falling in of the span of the toll bridge next the city, said span being 120 feet long.  The facts as near as they could be ascertained from Mr. Augustus Tiedman, the tollkeeper, and others who were present, are about as follows:

Drs. J. D. Fields and J. H. Coleman, of Manor, made arrangements to cross 600 head of cattle they were taking to Crockett county, as the river was too high and swift to swim.  As the cattle reached the edge of the second span they met a load of bricks being driven over this way from Butler’s brick yard, and drawn by a large pair of mules.  The driver drove them to the west side of the bridge and stopped them in order to let the herd go by, and the other mules fore-feet were just on the edge of the first span, and immediately over the second stone pier.  The cattle, at sight of the wagon and driver, would go up to the mules and smell, and then turn a circle back, and thus began “milling,” as the herders term their circling around in being urged.  There was no running among them all; but when about 150, as near as could be ascertained, had joined in the “milling,” a cracking sound was heard, followed almost simultaneously by the report heard for a long distance, and the span went down with a crash, carrying its load into the murky, scurrying waters of the Colorado, nearly fifty feet below.

Mr. Tiedman and his little daughter Anna were standing on the little platform at the river end of the keeper’s house, and the planks on which they stood were pulled and bent, and some of them broken by the shock, but both of them escaped.  How is a mystery.  The same may be said of Mr. Butler’s team and his driver.  The mules had almost every piece of the flooring torn from under them, and they were precipitated through; but the strong harness saved them by holding them up till they could be taken up.  They were not so much hurt, only bruised.

The loss, as near as could be ascertained last night, was about as follows:  Messrs. Coleman & Fields and their men think, after a count, that about seventy-five (or possibly more, perhaps less) head of cattle were killed or drowned by the calamity.  A large number floated down the river on the flooring of the bridge, until it capsized, when many of them sunk with it.  For nearly half a mile down stream the unfortunate kine were scrambling up on the banks, as if very proud of having excelled Gen. Putnam in his mad descent.  The value of the cattle lost will be about $1500, as was told the reporter by those who were acquainted with losses; while the bridge company estimate their loss at $2500 or $3000.

The cause of the break is very apparent.  The entire superstructure is rotten, and should have been condemned over a year ago.  The county authorities had it examined by an expert some time since, when the county was discussing the feasibility of buying it and throwing it open, and he pronounced it not properly built in the first place, and almost entirely rotten in the second, consequently unfit for use.  He told Judge Fulmore that it would fall with its own weight in three years.

The way to cross the river, now is by ferries — on just above the International iron bridge and the other just above the Chamber’s mill, down below the city.  Both are good ferries, and always running, with good roads and approaches.

Now is the time for the county to replace the old, rotten wooden bridge with a fine iron bridge.  The stone piers are as good as can be found anywhere.