No realization: It is apparent, even if not stated in Darton, “Texas: Our Largest State”: “It has large areas of fertile soil and a climate approaching the temperate.”
The Johnsons: Bearss, pp. 1–6; Johnson, Album, passism; Johnson, “The Johnsons,” passim. “Some historians”: Including the President’s mother, in her Album, p. 107. Jesse’s migration: Sparks, “President Johnson’s Georgia Ancestors”; Bearss, pp. 1, 2; Johnson, Album, pp. 87–88. “They were prosperous”: Elizabeth Thomas, an Alabama genealogist, quoted in Sparks, “President Johnson’s Georgia Ancestors.” Will: “Last Will and Testament of Jesse Johnson,” Aug. 30, 1854, in Johnson, Album, p. 88. Didn’t realize enough: Caldwell County Probate Record Book C, pp. 267–68; Bearss, pp. 4–6.
Indians in the Hill Country: Speer, Taylor, Fehrenbach, passim. “The terror”: Elliott Coues, On the Trail of a Spanish Pioneer, p. xxv, quoted in Webb, Plains, p. 120. “They lived along the streams”: R. Henderson Shuffler, “Here History Was Only Yesterday,” in Maguire, p. 22. Federal responsibility: Texans’ fury as it is shown in Fehrenbach, pp. 496–97, 501, 530, 532–33. 36 and 34 families: Brigham, p. 9.
“One of the outhouses”: Speer, p. 6. “The back of a bush”: Olmsted, p. 134. “Most popular use”: Fehrenbach, p. 298. “At random”: Hayes, quoted in Fehrenbach, p. 298. “This life”; “a difference”: Fehrenbach, pp. 300, 451.
Colt revolver; “Never again”: Fehrenbach, pp. 474–76. 149: Fehrenbach, p. 497. Hundreds died: Fehrenbach, p. 501. Torture and rape: Fehrenbach, pp. 450–51, 460. “A thousand deaths”: Nunley, “The Interesting Life Story of a Pioneer Mother,” pp. 17–21.
Formation of Blanco County: Commissioner of Insurance, Statistics and History, “Blanco County,” pp. 27–29, Galveston, 1882. Pleasant Hill: Gillespie County Historical Society, p. 63. Swarming with steers: Hahn, “White-Tailed Deer,” p. 9. The rise of the cattle business: Pelzer, pp. 45 ff; Hunter, ed., pp. 96-99 and passim; Fehrenbach.
The Johnson brothers as trail drivers: Hall, Speer, Moursund, passim. “The largest”: A. W. Capt, in Hunter, pp. 362–63. “On his return”: Fred Bruckner, quoted in Bearss, p. 31.
“Tall”: Johnson, Album, p. 73. T. U. Taylor described her as “a beautiful young woman with piercing black eyes, coal black hair, queenly in her carriage, a woman of great refinement and strong family pride” (p. 21). “Loved to talk”: Johnson, “The Johnsons,” p. 71. “Admonished”: Johnson, Album, p. 74.
“The months”: Fehrenbach, p. 558. The bitterness Hill Country ranchers felt toward the federal government for its Indian policies is shown in a remark by Capt, in Hunter, p. 36, that “As for chasing Indians, that was out of the question, for at that time they were under the watchful care of government agents.” The only wife: SHJ, Cox. “Gently reared”: Taylor, p. 21. Hiding in the cellar: Porterfield, pp. 39–40. Although most published accounts say, as Porterfield does, that it was an “extra diaper,” Eliza herself, when recounting the story, was, relatives say, less squeamish.
Losing the soil; drought: The most poignant description of the ranchers’ feelings come from their children and grandchildren, including Stribling, Cox, and Dollahite. The brush: Bray, “Forest Resources,” pp. 30–32; Graves, Heartland, p. 20; Hard Scrabble, p. 198. 500 square miles: Bray, p. 30.
“That king cash crop”: Graves, Hard Scrabble, pp. 20, 21. Cotton and the soil: Stribling; Graves, Heartland, pp. 20, 21. Into “the next county”: Graves, Hard Scrabble, p. 22. “Eating down”: Hahn, “White-Tailed Deer,” pp. 41, 43; Graves, Heartland, p. 23. Decline in cotton production: Agricultural Census for 1880, Hays County, State of Texas, Texas State Archives.
“The terms”: Fehrenbach, p. 560. Buying up the land: Bearss, pp. 29, 34; Speer, p. 48; Hall, pp. 345-46. “Made a market”: Speer, p. 58. Action Mill, store: Hall, pp. 344–47.
“Inner convictions”; “the best-adapted”: Fehrenbach, p. 561. Table talk at the Johnsons’; “He encouraged”: Cox, Gliddon. Subscribing: Cox; Jessie Hatcher, quoted in Bearss, p. 51. “Tenant purchase”: SHJ, Cox. Interest in religion; becoming a Christadelphian: Jessie Hatcher, quoted in Bearss, p. 52. The wedding gift: Johnson, Album, p. 74. “They took receipts”: Speer, p. 57. Businessmen: Fehrenbach, p. 557, for example. “$20 gold pieces”: Speer, pp. 57–58. “Wishful thinking”: Fehrenbach, p. 561. “Great optimism”: SHJ. Borrowing $10,000: Bearss, p. 45. “The Johnson boys”: Hall, p. 341.
“The year 1871”: Speer, p. 56. The 1869 flood: Speer, p. 52. Second overflow: Speer, p. 54. The Johnsons’ 1871 drives: Speer, pp. 57–58; Capt, in Hunter, pp. 364–66; Hall, pp. 339-41. “Half the cattle”: Webb, p. 231. “Cut a fellow”: Hall, p. 340.
Tied up with theirs; “a great loss”: Speer, pp. 57–58. Mortgages, lawsuits: Bearss, pp. 43–47, 186. Losing mill: Bearss, p. 45. Selling to James Johnson: Bearss, p. 187.
“Mr. Louis”: Hall, p. 344. “It has been”; Comanche raid: Hall, p. 346. Last land sold: Moursund, p. 210. Value of Tom’s property: Moursund, pp. 210, 214. Tom drowned: Moursund, p. 214. Value of Sam’s property: Moursund, pp. 214, 217. Moving to the Buda farm: Hays County Deed Record Book H, pp. 478–79, quoted in Bearss, p. 49.
“About this time”: Speer, p. 60. 4 acres for 1 bale; $560: Agricultural Census for 1880, Hays County, State of Texas, Texas State Archives. “Floats in grease”: Speer. Selling the carriage for down payment: Johnson, Album, p. 74.
Photographs: For example, Plates XXIX and XXX, in Bearss. Sideboard: Hatcher, quoted in Bearss, p. 179. “She would bring out”: Johnson, Album, pp. 73–74. Rebekah also wrote that “She had no pride of earthly possessions …,” but that does not fit with other descriptions. “Knocked him”: Hatcher, quoted in Bearss, p. 52. Sam in old age: Johnson, Album, p. 71; Cox.
2. The People’s Party
SOURCES
Books, journals, and archives:
Goodwyn, Democratic Promise; Josephson, The Politicos; Martin, The People’s Party of Texas; Morison and Commager, The Growth of the American Republic, V. 2; Morison, Commager, and Leuchtenburg, The Growth of the American Republic.
Southern Mercury, 1888–1890.
Barker Texas History Center.
Interviews:
Ava Johnson Cox, Stella Gliddon, Sam Houston Johnson, W. D. McFarlane, Emmette Redford.
NOTES
1892 campaign: Record of Election Returns, 1892, County Clerk’s Office, Blanco, Comal, Gillespie, and Hays counties.
Feeling rising: Goodwyn, pp. 26–37. Didn’t have railroads: From time to time a track would be laid a short way into a more accessible part of the hills, but the line would quickly fail. $1,945: Fourth Annual Report, Department of Agriculture, Insurance, Statistics and History, 1890–1891, Austin, 1892. The Lampasas beginning: Goodwyn, pp. 33–37.
“Our lot”: J. D. Cady, Oct. 30, 1888. “I will try”: Landrum, April 25, 1889. “I see”: Blevin, June 6, 1889. “I consider”: Minnie Crider, Feb. 13,1890. “If we help”: Sarah Crider, March 13, 1890. “As we live”: June 27, 1889. “We are in”: Eppes, April 19, 1888. All from Southern Mercury.
Cooperatives: Goodwyn, pp. 34–39, 43–49, 125–39. Many elderly Hill Country residents recall their parents’ descriptions of this. Fort Worth and Dallas: DMN quoted in Goodwyn, p. 47. Membership: Goodwyn, pp. 46, 73, 86. “A power”: Smith, quoted in Goodwyn, p. 86. Fanning out: Goodwyn, pp. 91 ff. “Swept over”: Darden, quoted in Goodwyn, p. 93.
Breaking the cooperatives: Goodwyn, pp. 125–39. Dollar assessment: L. Sellavan, Southern Mercury, Aug. 22, 1889. “Loves Dr. Macune”: Quoted in Goodwyn, p. 132. Caravans: The Austin Weekly Statesman said that observers were “completely astonished by the mammoth proportions” of the turnout (quoted in Goodwyn, pp. 131–32).
“Corruption dominates”: Quoted in Morison and Commager, pp. 240–41. “Army”: Morison et al., p. 184. Taking command: Morison and Commager, pp. 239–56; Goodwyn, pp. 319–23. Except: Morison et al., p. 173. “They have the principle”: Quoted in ibid., p. 188. Bryan’s speech: Ibid., pp. 188–90. Losing their i
dentity: Ibid., pp. 190–96; Goodwyn, pp. 470–92. “A triumph”: Morison et al., p. 195. “The last protest”: Ibid., p. 196.
Hill Country was worse: “Farm and Farm Property, with selected items for 1900 and 1910,” Bulletin: Agriculture Texas, Statistics for the State and its Counties, U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1920. 23 voters: BCR, Dec. 17, 1904.
3. The Johnson Strut
SOURCES
Books, articles, and documents:
Bearss, Historic Resource Study; Cocke, The Bailey Controversy in Texas; Fehrenbach, Lone Star; Frantz and White, The Driskill Hotel and Limestone and Log; Gantt, The Chief Executive in Texas; Gould, Progressives and Prohibitionists; Graves, Hard Scrabble and Texas Heartland; Humphrey, Farther Off From Heaven; Rebekah Johnson, A Family Album; Maguire, A President’s Country; McKay, Texas Politics; Moursund, Blanco County Families; Mowry, The Twenties; Nichols, Rugged Summit; Porterfield, LBJ Country; Speer, A History of Blanco County; Webb, The Great Plains, The Great Frontier; Wilson and Duholm, Genealogy.
Emma Morrill Shirley, “The Administration of Pat M. Neff, Governor of Texas” (Thesis), Baylor Bulletin, Dec., 1938.
Anita Brewer, “Lyndon Johnson’s Mother,” AS, May 13, 1965; William N. Kemp, “Representative Sam Johnson—1877–1937,” Journal of the American Optometric Association, Feb., 1968; Bela Kornitzer, “President Johnson Talks About His Mother and Father,” Parade, Jan. 5, 1964; Bruce Kowert, “Lyndon B. Johnson, Boy of Destiny,” Boston Globe, Dec. 15, 1963; Glenn Loney, “Miss Kate and the President,” “Exec. PP 13–1,” WHCF; Gene Barnwell Waugh, “The Boyhood Days of Our President: Recollections of a Friend,” San Antonio Express-News, April 25, 1965; “The Man Who Is the President,” Life, Aug. 14, 1964; “Lyndon Johnson’s School Days,” Time, May 21, 1965; “This is LBJ’s Country,” USN&WR, Dec. 23, 1963.
Blanco County Record, 1903–1925; Blanco News, 1905–1906; Johnson City Record-Courier, 1925–1926, 1937; Gillespie County News, 1904–1906; Fredericksburg Standard, 1920–1928; Llano Times, 1906; San Antonio Express, 1906, 1918, 1922, 1923. Austin Statesman, 1905; Fredericksburger Wochenblatt, 1920; Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 1923.
“Pedernales to Potomac,” Austin American-Statesman Supplement, Jan. 20, 1965; “The Record Courier—Blanco County Centennial Edition,” Aug. 1, 1958.
“The Hill Country: Lyndon Johnson’s Texas,” an NBC News television program (referred to as “NBC Broadcast”), broadcast May 9, 1966.
“Transcript of an Exclusive Interview Granted by President Lyndon B. Johnson to Robert E. McKay on May 21, 1965” (referred to as “McKay Interview”).
House Journals (HJ), 29th, 30th, 36th, 37th, 38th Legislatures.
O. Y. Fawcett, Fawcett’s Drug Store, “1905 Charge Account Book.”
Oral Histories:
Sherman Birdwell, Percy Brigham, Ben Crider, Joe Crofts, Marjorie A. Delafield, Stella Gliddon, Jessie Hatcher, Carroll Keach, Wright Patman, Payne Rountree, Josefa Baines Saunders, Louis Walter.
Interviews:
Milton Barnwell, Rebekah Johnson Bobbin (RJB), J. R. Buckner, Louise Casparis, Elizabeth Clemens, Roy C. Coffee, Ava Johnson Cox, Ohlen Cox, Ann Fears Crawford, Cynthia Crider Crofts, Willard Deason, John Dollahite, Robert L. Edwards, Wilma and Truman Fawcett, Stella Gliddon, William Goode, D. B. Hardeman, Eloise Hardin, Ugo Henke, Welly Hopkins, Sam Houston Johnson (SHJ), Eddie Joseph, Ernest Klappenbach, Fritz Koeniger, Jessie Lambert, Kitty Clyde Ross Leonard, W. D. McFarlane, Cecil Morgan, Alfred P. C. Petsch, Carl L. Phinney, William C. Pool, Cecil Redford, Emmette Redford, Benny Roeder, Gladys Shearer, Gordon Simpson, Arthur Stehling, Addie Stevens, Clayton Stribling, Fay Withers.
NOTES
Father relieved: Johnson, Album, p. 22. Sam’s boyhood: Ibid., pp. 22–23. Robert Bunton’s retirement: Cox. Teaching: Bearss, p. 56; Pool, LBJ, p. 23; Gliddon. The family was named Shipp. “He had”: Album, p. 24.
Successful at first: Johnson, Album, p. 24; Cox. “Strutted”: Ohlen Cox; Gliddon. Carrying the Colt: Joseph. “To make it”; his best friends: Album, p. 24.
Winning the nomination; his acceptance speech: Gillespie County News, July 9, 1904. Running ahead: BCR, Nov. 10, 17, 1904.
Sam Johnson as a legislator: McFarlane, Coffee, Phinney, Simpson, Buckner, Joseph; Patman OH, and quoted in Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 3. Alamo Purchase Bill: AS, Dec. 2, 1928; BCN, Oct. 28, 1937; HJ, Regular Session, 29th Legislature, 1905, pp. 76, 149, 152, 164, 198. The hero was Ferg Kyle of Hays County. Calf-roping bill: Gillespie County News, Jan. 28, 1905; HJ, pp. 76, 187. Franchise tax: Pool, p. 26. Wolf bounty: HJ, pp. 291, 332; Blanco News, April 10, 1905.
“A trio”: Gillespie County News, Feb. 25, 1905. Alarm clock joke: Walter OH, p. 3. “Mighty glad”: Rayburn to Sam Ealy Johnson, Jr., Feb. 22, 1937, “General Correspondence—Johnson, Sam,” SRL. “Has succeeded”: Gillespie County News, April 8, 1905.
Llano newspaper: Llano Times, March 1, 1906. SAE said, in an article reprinted in the Blanco News on March 29, 1906, “Representative S. E. Johnson of Fredericksburg [sic] is one of the hard-working members of the House. Although he is serving his first term in the Legislature he has made a splendid reputation for himself and should he return for a second term he would be in a position to render still more useful service to his constituents.” “Shell the woods”: Blanco News, July 26, 1906. Democratic primary results: Blanco News, Aug. 2, 9, 1906.
Losing on cotton futures: Sam himself would say that he had lost only because of the San Francisco earthquake, but the only one who believed this story was his wife, who wrote: “The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 wiped out his cotton holdings and saddled him with a debt of several thousand dollars” (Johnson, Album, p. 25). Among the relatives familiar with the real story are Cox, SHJ, RJB. “My daddy”: Quoted in Steinberg, p. 565.
“The damn Legislature”: Quoted in Fehrenbach, p. 435. Austin atmosphere: Among many descriptions, Frantz, The Driskill, and Steinberg, Rayburn, pp. 17, 19, 21. An enthusiastic participant: Joseph. Ordering out the lobbyist: McFarlane. Bill regulating lobbyists: HJ, Regular Session, 30th Legislature, pp. 76, 660, 754.
“Dull black”: SAE, April 14, 1929. “Were phrased”: Bower, quoted in Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 9. “Influenced” Bryan: Pool, p. 148. The Bailey case: McKay, pp. 21–24; Steinberg, Rayburn, pp. 17, 18. “Drive into the Gulf”: Cocke, p. 633. Only seven: Pool, p. 29; Bearss, p. 64; Steinberg, Rayburn, p. 18.
“A quiet worker”: Chaplain W. J. Joyce, in HJ, 30th Legislature, p. 427. “Straight as a shingle”: McFarlane; Percy Brigham, quoted in Porterfield, p. 32. The Fawcett account: Fawcett, “Account Book,” p. 277. Mabel Chapman refusing: Wilma Fawcett, Cox. Offered no job: RJB, SHJ.
4. The Father and Mother
SOURCES
See Sources for Chapter 3.
NOTES
Rebekah’s girlhood: Johnson, Album, pp. 28–30. Her house: Album, p. 29; SAE, Oct. 3, 1963. Her father: Album, pp. 75–87, 29; Moursund, pp. 11–12.
Meeting Sam Johnson: Album, pp. 17, 25, 30; Steinberg, Sam Johnson’s Boy, p. 10.
Their home: Photographs, Bearss, Plates XXIX, XXX; Cox, Gliddon. “Flawless”: RJB. Women working: See Chapters 27, 28. Girls quitting: Lambert, who was one of them. Normally: Album, p. 30. “I never”: Rebekah to Lyndon, May 30, 1937, “Family Correspondence, Johnson, Mrs. Sam E., Dec. 1929–Dec. 1939,” Box 1, Family Correspondence.
Going to church; contrast with other women; with Tom’s wife: Cox; RJB; Hatcher, OH, pp. 13–14. “Opposite”: Cox. Rebekah says, “In disposition, upbringing and background [we] were vastly dissimilar. However, in principles and motives, the real essentials of life, [we] were one” (Album, p. 25). “Then she’d hear Sam”: Lambert. “If men”: Fehrenbach, p. 302.
Quotation: Album, p. 32. Tablecloths: Saunders, OH, p. 14. Teacups: RJB; Mrs. Johnson. Sam bringing Mrs. Lindig: Hatcher OH, pp. 3, 4, and quoted in Bearss, p. 69. “The attending”: Album, p. 17. “Always dignified”: Hatcher, OH, p. 3. “You will be drowned!”: Hatcher, quoted in Bearss, p. 69.
“The end of the earth”: Gliddon. “Closed”: Barnwell. Climbing the belfrey: Cecil Redford. “Probably”: SHJ, p. 8. Only college degree: Gliddon. Green sneaking into the classroom: His daughter, Wilma Green Fawcett. “I don’t want”: RJB.
No room in Sanitarium; her illness thereafter: SHJ, RJB. Rebekah as a homemaker: Casparis, Cox, Cynthia Crider Crofts, Wilma and Truman Fawcett, Stribling. Rebekah as a teacher: Cox; Crider OH. Ava is the one who hummed. “She teached”: Crider OH, p. 8. “We didn’t”: Cox. “The highlight”: Waugh, “The Boyhood Days.” Ava’s experience: Cox. “I had heard”: J. R. Buckner, quoted in Pool, p. 56. “Gentle, gentle”; “quite the contrary”: Gliddon OH. “Highly organized”: Album, p. 27. “Mr. Sam lost”: Casparis. “That’s not”: Cynthia Crider Crofts. Most of them recall: Casparis, Lambert, Stevens. See A Note on Sources. “He used”; “German blood”; “You could see”; “One minute”: Casparis, Stevens, SHJ, Cox. “In disposition”: Album, p. 25. “The Bainses”: Rebekah Johnson quoted in HP, June 20, 1954, Sec. 6, p. 6. “It was something:” Casparis.
“Men who”: Cox. $32,375 sale: Fredericksburg Standard, Jan. 22, 1916. Putting on the plays: BCR, May 11, 1923; Bearss, pp. 103, 104. Johnson City Record: Bearss, pp. 75–76; Waugh, “The Boyhood Days”; Gliddon.
Sam’s buying ranches, etc.: Fredericksburg Standard, Nov. 28, 1919. Gliddon’s experience: Gliddon. Haunish episode: RJB. At the Fredericksburg bank: Walter OH; Petsch. “Broad-minded”: Wilma Fawcett. Selected as a member of draft board: Bearss, p. 76. No opposition: Fredericksburg Standard, Jan. 18, 1918.
“A flying mass”: Lucia Johnson Alexander, in AS, May 13, 1965. “I’ve bought”: SHJ, RJB. “I argue”: Deason. Spelling bees, debates, listening to records: Gliddon, quoted in Bearss, pp. 103–4; Gliddon; Cox; Wilma and Truman Fawcett.
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