Evolution of Texas

[Phil C]

This article was in the Portland News in Portland, Texas in the March 17, 2011 issue. It is about the New London, Texas tragedy that happened on March 18, 1937 which was 74 years ago today. There is lots of information you can find on this sad event by using Search on your computer and also on youtube. This is the article. I will post next week if they keep having it.

"Tragedy struck New London when approximately 300 students and teachers died after a build-up of "green grass" from beneath the school building exploded. The violent explosion was set off by Instructor of Manual Training Lemmie R. Butler after he unknowingly ignited the mixture of gas and air when he turned on a sanding machine. Flames immediately consumed a 253-feet long by 56-feet wide enclosed space beneath the modern, steel-framed building, causing its walls to collapse, its roof to impode and a two-ton concrete slabto land 200 feet away on top of a car. Countless workers and community members worked through the night to rescue the survivors and retrieve the bodies of the victims. An investigation revealed that the school had tapped a residue gas line in order to save $300 a month and concluded that "green gas", which has no odor, had been accumulating under the building for three months as a result of a faulty connection. The explosion promped the passage of a state odorization law that required all gas used for commercial and industrial purposes be mixed with maladorants to altert people of a leak."

New London, Texas is located in East Texas about 26 miles SouthEAST (mostly East) of Tyler, Texas. Nearly all of the students killed were in grades 5 to 12. The blast has been estimated at that time to have happened at 3:17 P.M. School was to be let out at 3:30 P.M. The grades 1-4 were already dismissed. I remember in Freer in the fifties that First grade was let out at 2 P.M., Second Grade at 2:15 P.M., Third Grade at 2:30 P.M, and Fourth Grade at 2:45 P.M. The other grades all got out at 3:30 P.M.

[Phil C]

This tragedy in a way hits home to me even though it happened before I was born years later. I lived for a couple of years in Tyler and worked at the gasoline plant that is just east of Tyler, Texas. One of the safety men was Delmer Moore and even though brief we were friends. We didn't stay in touch after I left so I don't know if he is still alive or not. He would be about 81 now. He was a good man and friend and concerned about everyone's safety. He once told me about the tragedy which happened when he was six years old and was living and going to school in New London. He was out of school but was waiting for his big sister who was in the sixth grade. He had to stay away from the school building to keep the noise down and not disturb the other older classes so he wasn't in danger of debris since he was far enough away. But he did lose his older sister who was in the sixth grade. You can find her photo by clicking on Dessie Lomita Moore. Mr. Moore said many were bitter with the school officials even though they were exornerated. This was a sad day in Texas when a town lost a whole generation.


http://www.newlondonschool.org/ListOfNames.htm#M

[Txbroadcaster]

If ever near, go the museum and the grave yards there..very chilling to see the graves marked. saying they are just body parts from the disater

[bobcat1]

What a horrible tragedy.

[Rabid Cougar]

Then you have the Texas City Explosion in April 1947.


http://www.local1259iaff.org/disaster.html

[Phil C]

Here is another one from the Portland News Issue of March 24, 2011. As you have probably noticed that even though the articles are about long ago events they are written like newspaper coverage of recent events. This following event is one that I don't know about but maybe some of you do. In any event I bet the passengers didn't return home through El Paso. :)

"March 25, 1894 -

In response to the Panic of 1893 and a rallying cry from Ohio Businessman and Reformer Jacob Sechler Coxey, Lewis C. Fry and 700 men from Los Angeles, California boarded a Southern Pacific freight in El Paso, Texas. They were going east to Washington D.C. to demand the issue of legal-tender currency for road and various other improvements. The men were treated with hospitality by the citizens of the numbers towns they passed through along the way but met with staunch resistance from others, namely the mayor of El Paso and the Southern Pacific Railroad company. The mayor unsuccessfully appealed to Texas Governor James Stephen Hogg to ask the war department to dispatch troops to dispel the "invaders." And once on the train, employees of Southern Pacific disconnected the cars that Fry and his men were on only 70 miles east of El Paso, leaving them stranded with no food or water in a barren, sparsely populated. Despite Hogg demanding they be taken the rest of the way and increasing excoriation from the general public, Southern Pacific refused to transport the men further until a special car was paid for. It was. The men reached San Antonio on March 29, Longview on March 31 and continued on. Most arrived at their intended destination weeks later."

[Phil C]

Here is another one from the May 5, 2011 issue of the Portland News. The article is dated May 9, 1930.

"The Sherman Riot of 1930 began. The racial tension was palpable as crowds of Whites from all over the region congregated in the courtroom corridor and outside the building to watch the trial of George Hughes, a Black farm hand who pleaded guilty to the rape of White woman. The crowd soon turned into a mob, however, when they started stoning the courthouse. As the first witness began to testify, the mob forced the corridor doors open. The jury and Hughes were removed from the courtroom while Texas Rangers fired three warning shots and used tear gas to disperse the unruly throng. The chaos did not end there and just before 1:00 P.M. tear gas was released again after the mob attempted to gain entry into the courtroom a second time. Bad went to worse at 2:30 P.M. when a can of gasoline was tossed through a window and caused a fire. Firemen evacuated those inside the courtroom with ladders but Hughes, who was inside a locked vault for his own safety perished in the flames. By 4:00 P.M. the courthouse was destroyed. At approximately midnight on May 10, members of the riot had opened the vault with dynamite and torchees, retrieved Hughes' lifeless body, drug it to the Black business section of town and hung it from a tree."

Not a pleasant story and a shame to Texas history. The people should have waited for due process of the law. One of the rangers who tried to stop the riot was Frank Hamer whose biography was written by H. Gordon Frost and John H. Jenkins and titled "I'm Frank Hamer: The Life of a Texas Peace Officer."
Hamer was to gain nationwide fame a few years later when he led peace officers who ended Bonnie and Clyde's era of lawlessness. This was one of his few failures in controlling riots. According to the biographers Hamer carried to the grave his disgust with the cowardness and lawlessness of the ones involved in the rioting.

[MUSTANG69]

Originally posted by Phil C
Here is another one from the May 5, 2011 issue of the Portland News. The article is dated May 9, 1930.

"The Sherman Riot of 1930 began. The racial tension was palpable as crowds of Whites from all over the region congregated in the courtroom corridor and outside the building to watch the trial of George Hughes, a Black farm hand who pleaded guilty to the rape of White woman. The crowd soon turned into a mob, however, when they started stoning the courthouse. As the first witness began to testify, the mob forced the corridor doors open. The jury and Hughes were removed from the courtroom while Texas Rangers fired three warning shots and used tear gas to disperse the unruly throng. The chaos did not end there and just before 1:00 P.M. tear gas was released again after the mob attempted to gain entry into the courtroom a second time. Bad went to worse at 2:30 P.M. when a can of gasoline was tossed through a window and caused a fire. Firemen evacuated those inside the courtroom with ladders but Hughes, who was inside a locked vault for his own safety perished in the flames. By 4:00 P.M. the courthouse was destroyed. At approximately midnight on May 10, members of the riot had opened the vault with dynamite and torchees, retrieved Hughes' lifeless body, drug it to the Black business section of town and hung it from a tree."

Not a pleasant story and a shame to Texas history. The people should have waited for due process of the law. One of the rangers who tried to stop the riot was Frank Hamer whose biography was written by H. Gordon Frost and John H. Jenkins and titled "I'm Frank Hamer: The Life of a Texas Peace Officer."
Hamer was to gain nationwide fame a few years later when he led peace officers who ended Bonnie and Clyde's era of lawlessness. This was one of his few failures in controlling riots. According to the biographers Hamer carried to the grave his disgust with the cowardness and lawlessness of the ones involved in the rioting.

Prescott Webb dedicated a chapter of his book "The Texas Rangers" to Frank Hamer. He was a differrent kind of peace officer for sure and one of the best known Texas Ranger captains.

[NastySlot]

Originally posted by MUSTANG69
Prescott Webb dedicated a chapter of his book "The Texas Rangers" to Frank Hamer. He was a differrent kind of peace officer for sure and one of the best known Texas Ranger captains.


the jr. high in Navasota has mural it's cafeteria and Hamer is in it.