Bob Burchard

I was talking to an old cowboy the other day about the cattle business in Gonzales, and how it had changed through the years. He was telling me how they use to bring the cattle to market before there were trucks and trailers to haul them, and before there was a local auction to help sell them. There was a time when most of the cattle in Gonzales County were driven down the public roads and rights-of-way to loading pens located next to the railroad, there to be loaded onto cattle cars and shipped to processing plants around the state.

I was talking to a fellow the other day - he was new in town. I asked him where he lived. He said he was living on a place located on County Road 228. I said -Where in the world is that? He said - you go out Highway 97 to Waelder, and about 5 miles out you turn right on County Road 228. I said, Oh, you live on the Denton Creek Road. Now I know where you live.
They have put numbers on all the county roads, you know. I think that is good. The EMS and Law Enforcement people will be able to find us quicker in an emergency.

The Eggleston House on East Avenue here in Gonzales is one of our historic treasures. Located east of the Gonzales Memorial Museum, this timber structure is one of the finest examples in the State of Texas of the dog run or dog trot house. Horace Eggleston built the house in the 1840’s on the south side of the 300 block of St. Michael Street in the Original Inner Town of Gonzales on land we now more easily recognize as the E. E. Smith, Jr., property. The City of Gonzales moved the Eggleston House in 1954 to its current location on St. Louis Street.

What is the lowest admission price you remember paying to go see a movie? Or, as we used to call it - the picture show. For me, it was nine cents at the Crystal Theatre here in Gonzales and also the same price at the Lynn. Later I remember paying 15 cents for a child’s ticket. The adults paid 35 cents, and it went up to 50 cents when I was in high school in the mid 1950s. The Lynn Theatre was to the place to go on a Saturday night in Gonzales. The Lynn, Crystal, and the Fix Theatres were owned by Lynn Smith, Sr., and Lynn Smith, Jr., of Gonzales.

Of all the early settlers of Gonzales and Green De Witt’s Colony, certainly one of the more outstanding residents was Jacob C. Darst. Arriving in 1831 from Missouri, Darst became involved in the discussions of independence from the Republic of Mexico, and the desire of the colonists to obtain their freedom from the constraints placed upon them by the laws of Mexico. He believed with all his heart in the cause for freedom, and participated every way he could in the pursuit of the goal.

When she saw what was happening, she immediately went looking for her father. Being only five years old, her short little legs would not cover much ground, but she was doing the best she could. It turned out her father was in the garden inspecting the progress of his efforts on this beautiful spring day in 1839. There had been a late frost, and he was checking for damage. The potatoes looked a little singed; the carrots seemed to be all right; the peas were hurt the most, but maybe they would make; it was too late to pull them up and plant again.

He was working in the field this bright Spring day of 1835, just south of the creek below the cabin, when he smelled them. He had been pulling up tree stumps with the oxen, and he noticed the team started acting restless and uneasy, almost skittish. And, then he turned his head, just slightly, and caught the breeze. He smelled them. Indians. He could not see them in the brush at the edge of the clearing, but he knew they were there. It was either Indians, or it might be a bear, He was betting it was Indians.

I grew up in Gonzales in the 1940’s and early 1950’s. As I think about those years, I recall there were sporting activities for the young men of the community coming home from World War II, and to a lesser extent, the young women. I remember, for example, there was a men’s basketball league. They played in what is now the old gymnasium at the Junior High School. That was the only gymnasium in town when I was growing up. There was a team from the cotton mill playing in the league, looking for some fun, I suppose, after their shift at the mill.

She was still in shock. It had all happened so fast. Was it three days ago when he died, or was it two? Yes, yes, he died three days ago. It was the funeral that was day before yesterday. It all happened so fast. He was working in the far end of the field right behind the house, trying to clear some tree stumps from the field, when he suddenly slipped, and fell down a slope on his back into some brush. And that is where the snake must have been - a rattlesnake, someone said - right in that low brush. It must have happened so quickly that the snake did not have time to run away.

Those who first came to Gonzales and Green DeWitt’s Colony brought with them their culture and their style of living. This would have included the ways in which they entertained themselves. Our first citizens, who were mostly from the southern part of the United States, brought with them the music of the day and the instruments on which the music was played. These instruments were the fiddle, the juice harp, and an empty jug, across the mouth of which one would blow to produce a tone or sound