Library Larry’s Big Day Visits Bayless-Selby House Museum

Library Larry, Emmy Lou Dickenson, and Mr. Chompers get together again for a new adventure, this time at Denton County’s Bayless-Selby House Museum. Along the way, they learn about life in the Victorian era, the specific history of the Bayless-Selby House, and the importance of preserving and restoring historical artifacts.

Chelsea Stallings takes the puppets on a tour of the Queen Anne style house and explains that many things have changed since the 1800s, but also that many things haven’t changed much at all. The puppets get an up-close look at everything from old toys and musical instruments to kitchen gadgets and photographs. Emmy Lou thinks it looks like a dollhouse come to life!

Library Larry’s Big Day is an award-winning television show produced by the Denton Public Library and Denton Television (DTV). The Bayless-Selby episode will air in April and May at 7 a.m. and 4 p.m. every day on DTV (Charter channel 26, Verizon channel 38, and Grande channel 12). You can also watch the episode and YouTube clips of past episodes any time at www.librarylarry.com.

 

For more information, contact Kerol Harrod at 940-349-8758, or visit .

 

In The Weeds 3/30/13: Dark Days For an Early Denton County Family

Searching through our Shepard Funeral Home Indexes from the early 20th C, we found the following information (names witheld):

Deceased: (withheld)

Charged to: (withheld)

Secured by: Mortgage on Horse

Date of Funeral: Mar. 11, 1906

Place of Death: 5 miles east of city

Cause of Death: not known

Date of Death: Mar. 10, 1906

Age: One Month

Interment: Ballew or Cooper Cemetery

In order to pay for his daughter’s funeral the father had to mortgage his horse.

Thanks to Leslie for finding this.

In The Weeds. 2/14/13: Quakertown Marker Dedication

   The formal dedication for the new Official Texas Historic Marker for the Quakertown Community will be held this coming Saturday February 16, 2013 at 10:00a.m. at the Denton Civic Center 321 E. McKinney St. Librarian Laura Douglas was involved in writing the historic narrative as part of the marker application process and will receive a Certificate of Commendation. You may know her from visiting the Special Collections Department here at the Fowler Library.

Joseph and Alice Skinner walk along Bell Ave. with Old Main in the distant background.

    We have an exhibit of photos, books and maps of Quakertown at the Emily Fowler Library running through the end February in the Special Collections department and  an archive of Quakertown history available if you wish to learn more.

    Also, mark your calendars for an upcoming program at the Emily Fowler Library about Quakertown on March 23 to be presented by Kim Cupit, Curator of Collections at the Courthouse On The Square Museum.

In The Weeds, 1/22/13: Christmas in Icaria

This coming Thursday, January 24th, 2013, The Denton County Courthouse Museum will present a program about a little-known part of Denton County history. Please read the following for more information:

Christmas in Icaria
a film by Daniel Garcia and Aurelio Medina

Brought to you
by the Denton County Office of History and Culture

with a short presentation on New Icaria
by Mike Cochran

at 12:15 PM, Jan. 24 
in the Commissioners Courtroom - 
Courthouse on the Square, 110 W. Hickory St. 

The film is the work of Spanish filmmakers Daniel Garcia and Aurelio Medina, who traveled to Denton County to make a film about New Icaria, the French communist experiment which tried to settle near present day Justin, Texas in 1848. The film makers interviewed a few locals, among them, Bill Marquis of Stony, Texas and a descendant of the colonists.

Etienne Cabet, the founder of the Icarian movement in France was a visionary, communist, author, journalist and rabble rouser during the tumultuous times after the French Revolution. He envisioned a perfect world, a utopia, based on equality for all citizens, and at the height of his popularity, he had tens of thousands of followers in France. In 1848 he decided to make his utopian vision a reality and he decided to build it in Justin, Texas. What could possibly go wrong?

The film will be introduced by local historian, Mike Cochran, who will present a short lecture on the New Icarian colony and the Icarian movement. 

The program will be offered Museum exhibits and lectures are free and open to the public. Handicapped parking and accessibility through the north entrance.

An illustration from a 19th century book showing the jubilant Icarian departing for their new colony in Texas.

An illustration from that same book, depicting the sad return of the Icarians from their ill-fated attempt to colonize Denton County.

 

posted by Chuck

Free Genealogy Databases Class, 12/1/12

   The Special Collections Department at the Emily Fowler Library will present a class on using the  genealogy databases we subscribe to such as Ancestry.com and Family Search as well as the indexes and local history resources we have available on our homepage. The class will be held Saturday December 1st, 2012 from 3:00pm-5:00pm at the Fowler Library.

Cat-Top

   With so much genealogy information being added daily to these and other databases, knowledge of efficient search strategies, techniques, and learning what each has to offer make your research faster and more enjoyable.

  This class is free but registration is required. Please call (940) 349- 6814 or contact me at chuck.voellinger@cityofdenton.com to register or for more information.

In The Weeds, 11/7/12: Amelia Found at TWU

   This is one of those really cool collisions between people and institutions. If you don’t mind, let me recount the story of how this happened because I think it has value in itself.

A few weeks back, Associate Professor of History at TWU Kate Landdeck contacted me about a project she is working on. I mentioned The Portal to Texas History website as a repository of the Denton Public Library photo archive. In the course of our conversation, Dr. Landdeck informed me that, in one of our photos, Amelia Earhart can be seen. While doing research for her project, she had identified one of the people in a photo entitled “Three Unidentified Women” as Amelia. Sure enough, there she is. Apparently, Ms Earhart was touring the country promoting aviation, especially for women.

Here’s one of several photos in the series of Ms Earhart at TWU:

As anyone with a collection of old photos can relate to, sometimes not everything you have has been meticulously identified and archived.  It takes fresh eyes to see something that was previously unknown. Here’s the Jan 27th, 1936 Denton Record-Chronicle on her visit to TSCW (TWU):  1.27.36DRC 

We are most grateful to Dr. Landdeck for indentifying Amelia for us and anyone who uses the Portal!

In The Weeds, 10/6/12: Neon Cowboys and Pink Ladies

  The Denton Courthouse on the Square will host a photography exhibition of the work of local historian and former city councilmember Mike Cochran entitled “Neon Cowboys and Pink Ladies” from Oct 16th to December 31th. This is a collection of photographs of neon signs in the Southwest in the 1970′s. I’m anxious to see this because I have an “old sign” fetish myself and find it nearly impossible to pass one wherever I see one without taking a picture.

Neon Cochran

Along those lines, we have the following titles at the Denton Public Library that might whet the appetite:

• “Neon Nevada”
• Route 66 Quick Reference Encyclopedia
• Texas Curiosities

In The Weeds, 9/18/12: 1862 Gainesville Hangings Commemorated

    A local group comprised of professors from North Central Texas College, The Clark Family and the Texas State Hist0rical Association will present a program dedicated to the commemoration of the mass hangings of suspected Union sympathizers in Cooke and surrounding counties during the Civil War.

You can read more about the hangings here and we have a couple books available in the Special Collections Dept. here at the Fowler Library for your perusal:

Tainted Breeze by Richard B. McCaslin, professor of History at UNT and speaker at the event, and…

George Washington Diamond’s Account of The Great Hanging At Gainesville, 1862 edited by Sam Acheson and Julia Ann Hudson O’ Connell.
The event is open to the public and here is the text of the email we received:

“The Clark family would like to extend a warm invitation for you to join them on October 13, as they will now host commemorative events to honor the 150th anniversary. Several days ago, the Texas State Historical Association and North Central Texas College, deemed they would like to participate and co-partner with the Clark family in remembering Cooke County’s Civil War experience. 

 

 

Remembering Our Past, Embracing Our Future

October 1862 – 2012

October marks the 150^th year since the Great Hanging at Gainesville. The Clark Family in collaboration with the Texas State Historical Association and the Honors Program at North Central Texas College, invite you to join them for commemorative events, special guests and catered luncheon on

 

Saturday, October 13, 2012 at the Civic Center

311 S. Weaver St, Gainesville, Texas

 

8:30am – 12:30pm	Speakers – Richard McCaslin, Leon Russell, Ron Melugin and L.D. Clark
12:30pm	Catered Luncheon by Rohmer’s Restaurant $7.00 adult, $3.00 children under 10
3:30pm – 4:30pm	Clark Cemetery Intersection Clark Rd and CR220 Sons of the Union Veterans-Color Guard/Rifle Ceremony
5pm	Clark-Carri Farm  (1/2 mile from the cemetery) 629 Clark Rd  Gainesville Hor d’ oeuvres & Bonfire   Special Guests Richard McCaslin, PhD is the University of North Texas Department of History Chairman.  He earned his BA from Delta State University, MA from Louisiana State University and PhD from The University of Texas at Austin and has authored Tainted Breeze: The Great Hanging at Gainesville, Texas, 1862. Leon Russell, born in 1928, three miles East of Gainesville considered it home until enlisting in the Army Air Corp at the age seventeen 17. Fueled by his motivation and complete disapproval of the cloak of secrecy surrounding the hangings, and the lack of the proper recognition of the injustice to the slain and their families, he successfully influenced the city of Gainesville to allow the first commemoration in Georgia Bass Park in 2007. His mission was to honor those citizens who tragically lost their lives in 1862.   Ron Melugin,  Professor of Government, NCTC; chairman of Cooke County Historical Commission; research responsible for 15 Texas Official Historical Markers in Gainesville; author of Heroes, Scoundrels and Angels: Fairview Cemetery of Gainesville, Texas. L.D. Clark earned his BA, MA, and PhD from Columbia University. He had a long career of teaching English at the University of Arizona, The University of Nice and Korea University.  He is the author of A Bright Tragic Thing and Civil War Recollections of James Lemuel Clark. Mr. Clark is the grandson of James Lemuel Clark and great-grandson of Nathaniel Miles Clark, victim of the Great Hanging. ** New Book** – The Texas State Historical Association will unveil its newest publication, The Great Hanging at Gainesville, 1862: The Accounts of Thomas Barrett and George Washington Diamond, with an Introduction by Richard McCaslin and Afterword by L.D. Clark. (Combined accounts of Barrett and Diamond )

 

 

RSVP – before October 5, 2012 to:  NathanielClarkfamilyreunion@gmail.com or colleen.carri@gmail.com

 - posted by Chuck.

Free Online Genealogy Resources Class, Sept 1st, 2012

   Do you like saving money? Do you wonder if there are free websites to help with your genealogy research? The Emily Fowler Library Special Collections Dept. will present a class on Saturday Sept 1st, 2012 at 3pm that shows the researcher some useful and *free* websites that can assist you. Call 940-349-6814 to register and for more information. Oh, and the class is…free!

Free is good.

Miss Emily’s JukeJoint 8.24.12: Folkies invade NTSU!

   In my research for someone unrelated in the old Denton High Bronco yearbooks circa 1962, I came across the following photo of one “Steve Fromholz”…

Bad Luck Steve

    I figured it had to be the singer-songwriter because it fit the era and that name is kinda unusual. The next one is pretty sweet:

Friendly Steve

   Which led my brain to vaguely remember a picture of him at NTSU. Sure enough, here he is in the 1964 Yucca yearbook with the more well-known Michael Martin Murphy singing an old appalacian tune that the Stanley Brothers recorded and Ralph Stanley made hugely popular about a decade ago thanks to the “O Brother, Where Art Thou” soundtrack and movie.

Wherefore Art Thous

Some kind of unbroken circle, what with the resurgence of folk-influenced music of current Denton bands such as Hares on the Mountain. The so-called “folk craze” of the early ’60s swept many a college campus but, I don’t know how many could say in retrospect that they had two very fine musicians in the making. You can read about Steve here and Michael here and about the Folk Music Club at North Texas State here.