Gone at 3-17

by David M. Brown

  Carl Barber, Henderson background; L. V. Barber, survivor*; Clinton Barton, survivor; Anna (Smoot) Brannon, relative of Helen and Anna Smoot; J. B. Downs, witness, background on Kilgore; Ledell (Dorsey) Carpenter, survivor; Robert “Bobby” Clayton, survivor; Hazel (Shaw) Cobb, teacher, survivor, daughter of Chesley Shaw; Doris Brown Cooper, background, growing up in the Great Depression; Finis J. Cooper, rescue worker; Clyde Cowen, rescue worker; Preston Crim, survivor; John Davidson, explosion and family background; Everett Davis, East Texas background; Marvin Dees, rescue worker; Charles Dial, survivor; Jim Dickeson, Rusk County background; Lamone Dickeson, witness; John Dulin, East Texas background; Stanley Dzimitrowicz, Great Depression background; Ronnie Gaudet, nephew of Chesley Shaw; Carroll “Boxhead” Evans, teacher, survivor; Mildred Evans, teacher, survivor; Glenda Fleming, relative of victims; Graften Ferguson, rescue worker; William Follis, survivor; Sandra (Anderson) Florence, sister of Lillian and Allene Anderson who were killed in the explosion; Walter Freeman, survivor; Carolyn (Jones) Frei, survivor; Jack Gainey, survivor; Ellie Goldberg, advocate for children and school safety; A. L. Green, rescue worker; Avis Griffin, friend of Shaw family, former student of Chesley Shaw; Mary Hall, Tyler background; Myrtle (Meador) Hayes, survivor; Alvis Henderson, East Texas background; C. H. Hicks, witness; Jola (Rainwater) Hicks, survivor; Merle (Davidson) Hinchee, niece of Joe Wheeler Davidson Sr.; Max Holleyman, survivor; Georgia Lo-rine Bright “Darwin” Hoff, survivor, daughter of Lorine Bright, author of a memoir about the school explosion; Paul Howard, witness; Jean (Emerson) Howard, daughter of rescue worker Harold Emerson; Priscilla (Kerns) Joffe, survivor; Johnny Johnson, East Texas background; Margie (Gilstrap) Johnson, survivor; Otis Jones, witness; Virginia Knapp, historian, Rusk County; Claude Joseph “Joe Bo” Kerce, survivor; Joan Lloyd, explosion background; Grace Mathis, explosion background; L. A. “Tiger” Mathis, rescue worker; Carolyn McClain, daughter of first-responder Dr. J. T. Mc-Clain; Joan (McKnight) McIlyar, Felix McKnight’s daughter; Felix McKnight, reporter and rescue worker; Ben Meador, witness; Ira Joe Moore, survivor; Barbara (Moore) Page, survivor; Ezzie Poole, witness; Olen Poole, survivor; Mary Lou (Hudson) Powell, daughter of radio-man Ted Hudson; Douglas Reeh, explosion background; Jimmie (Jordan) Robinson, survivor; Arthur Shaw, survivor, nephew of Chesley Shaw; Charles Shaw, witness, son of Chesley Shaw; Marjorie Shaw, great-niece of Chesley Shaw; Barbara (Keeling) Smart, daughter of a school board member; M. A. Smith, New London background; Bill Thompson, survivor; Tina Todd, relative of nurse who worked in rescue mission; Miles Toler, director, London Museum and Tea Room; Felton Waggoner, junior high principal, survivor; Mrs. Felton Waggoner, teacher, witness; Molly (Sealy) Ward, student, survivor, leading advocate for the museum; Billie (Anderson) Watson, survivor, sister of Lillian and Allene Anderson who were killed in the explosion; H. G. White, survivor; Sam Wooley, witness.

  * Various defnitions of “survivor” have developed over the years among those who lived through this disaster. For some, a survivor was someone who was in the building and escaped with his or her life; the term “campus survivor” developed for the many children who were outside and spared death from falling debris. Here we use “survivor” to include all those who were in the building and on the campus, plus those who would have been in the building except for a twist of flate, such as Charles Dial, who should have been in a classroom but rushed home at the last minute to get his band uniform, which he had forgotten to bring with him that morning. The band had planned to perform a concert after school. After the explosion, the band, as such, no longer existed.

  Notes

  Chapter 1. 3:16 p.m

  1. Numerous news stories mentioned the warm, spring-like weather in East Texas on March 18, 1937, which backed up memories of that day among survivors interviewed by the authors. The temperature in the region reached at least 70 degrees by mid-afternoon, reported Janice Talley Marsh, “Learning From Disaster,” Tyler Life, March 1985.

  2. The opening is based on interviews with Bill Thompson and other survivors who were in Miss Wright’s classroom, including Preston Crim and Claude Joseph “Joe Bo” Kerce. Subsequent passages throughout the book based on personal interviews conducted by the authors will not be cited routinely in separate endnotes, except when a citation is needed to clarify the source of information or to add another source outside of the interview; readers may rely on the book’s list of people interviewed as the source of all quotes and story lines involving those individuals or family members directly affected by the disaster, not otherwise cited.

  3. Carolyn (Jones) Frei and Barbara (Moore) Page, interview by the authors, conducted with Frei in October 2009 and February 2011 and with Page on July 23, 2009; and Carolyn (Jones) Frei, unpublished memoir of childhood.

  4. Military Court of Inquiry Report, New London school explosion, March 23, 1937, Texas State Archives, Austin, TX, 150–51.

  5. Various newspaper accounts in the aftermath of the explosion reported James Henry Phillips’s dash into the building, including, “700 Children Thought Dead as Blast Razes Rusk County School Building,” on the front page of the Dallas Morning News, March 19, 1937.

  6. Associated Press story about the explosion, March 19, 1937.

  7. Time line of events before, during, and after the explosion, London Museum and Tea Room, New London, TX.

  8. Zana Jo Curry obituary, Henderson Daily News, March 28, 1937.

  9. Robert L. Jackson, Living Lessons from the New London Explosion (Nashville, TN: Parthenon Press, 1938), 53.

  10. Carroll Evans, interview by the authors, March 5, 1990; and Military Court of Inquiry Report, 364–65.

  11. Bud Price interviewed by London Museum and Tea Room official Ronnie Gaudet, August 8, 1997, notes on file at the London Museum and Tea Room.

  12. Military Court of Inquiry Report, 310–14

  Chapter 2. Daybreak, March 18

  1. Joe Davidson’s dream was widely reported in the aftermath of the explosion, including an Associated Press story, “Pathos and Tragedy in Texas School Explosion,” Mansfield (OH) News Journal, March 19, 1937, among numerous publications, and an AP year-in-review story that ran in client newspapers, including Dale Harrison, “Dream Warns Of Tragedy To New London Children,” Waterloo (IA) Sunday Courier, December 12, 1937. Early AP stories had his name as George Davidson, which was corrected in other dispatches.

  2. Except for his brief time in the news media spotlight after the school disaster, Davidson was not a public figure, so very few records exist to document his existence. It was possible, however, to develop a reasonably accurate profile of him using news reports and public records associated with the school explosion; a death certificate; U.S. census data on Davidson, his wife, and his children; and interviews and correspondence with members of his extended family and others who knew him, including New London explosion survivors Bill Thompson and Charles Dial.

  3. No biography of Columbus Marion Joiner is available, although plenty of information about him can be sifted from the works of oil-field historians. The profile of him here and later in the text was drawn from news stories and an assimilation of details and insights about Joiner from James A. Clark and Michel T. Halbouty, The Last Boom (New York: Random House, 1972); Walter Rundell Jr., Early Texas Oil: A Photographic History, 1866–1936 (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1977); Ruth Sheldon Knowles, The Greatest Gamblers: The Epic of American Oil Exploration (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1978).

  4. The physical description of Joiner is from Clark and Halbouty, Last Boom, 9.

  5. A. D. “Doc” Lloyd’s profile relies on numerous details assembled from the works of the same oil-field historians who wrote about Joiner. Essentially, the pair became locked at the hip regarding the discovery of the mammoth East Texas oil field, as historians and newspaper stories recorded it.

  6. Clark and Halbouty, Last Boom, 7, 18, 19.

  7. In 1910, when Joiner was living in Ardmore with his wife and seven children, the U.S. Census lists his occup
ation simply as real estate agent.

  8. Roger M. Olien and Diana Davids Olien, Wildcatters: Texas Independent Oilmen (Austin: Texas Monthly Press, 1984), 56.

  9. Clark and Halbouty, Last Boom, 110.

  10. News clip in vertical file at the Rusk County Library, attributed to Joiner by H. L. Hunt, Joiner’s protégé, during Hunt’s speech at the October 3, 1965, dedication of a monument honoring Joiner’s discovery. Hunt developed his own vast wealth after buying Joiner’s stake in the Black Giant.

  11. Clark and Halbouty, Last Boom, 123.

  12. Fifteenth Census of the United States—1930 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1931).

  13. Roger M. Olien, “Oil and Gas Industry,” Handbook of Texas Online (accessed April 2011), http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/doogz.

  14. Merle Weir and Diana J. Kleiner, “West Columbia, TX,” Handbook of Texas Online, (accessed April 2011), http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hgw03.

  15. Weather forecast for East Texas, March 18, 1937, National Weather Service, Henderson Daily News, daily weather report and forecast, March 17, 1937.

  Chapter 3. The Superintendent

  1. Junior high principal Felton Waggoner, testimony recorded in the Military Court of Inquiry Report, 139; Lorine Zylks Bright, New London 1937: One Woman’s Memory of Orange and Green (Wichita Falls, TX: Nortex Press, 1977).

  2. D. C. Saxon, testimony in Military Court of Inquiry Report, 156.

  3. Barbara (Keeling) Smart, interview by the authors, July 27, 2009. Barbara’s father, Jason William Keeling was a member of the school board at the time of the explosion. Keeling and other school board members met Shaw before the start of classes and walked the entire length of the high school, looking for evidence of what might be causing headaches in the building, according to Smart, who said she personally remembers her father talking about their excursion.

  4. Norfolk Notes, Rusk County News, June 20, 1900, July 25, 1900, January 2, 1901.

  5. Several news stories before and after the explosion, including reports written by Felix McKnight of the Associated Press and Henry McLemore of the United Press, referred to the school district as the wealthiest rural district in the nation. Our research never came upon evidence of a study or survey of all rural districts in the country during this period that verified claims that the London Consolidated School District was the richest in the United States. This possibly was anecdotal information picked up by newspapers and passed, like a virus, from one to the other. Nevertheless, it was a very wealthy district, undoubtedly among the richest during the Great Depression.

  Chapter 4. Sweet Chariot

  1. Towns such as Henderson, Kilgore, and Tyler had electricity long before rural areas in Texas. In 1937 less than 3 percent of residential dwellings in Texas, including the area surrounding New London, had no power lines supplying electricity, hence the use of oil-burning lamps and lanterns was still prevalent. Norris G. Davis, “Rural Electrification,” Handbook of Texas Online (accessed February 2011), http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/dpr01.

  2. In interviews with former students, Propes and Hunt frequently were described as stern; Propes was mentioned in various editions of the weekly Rusk County News as an election official who counted votes.

  3. Frei, unpublished memoir.

  4. Paul F. Lambert and Kenny A. Franks, eds., Voices from the Oil Fields (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1984), 24, 29, 70, 95, 192, 222, 230. This book was based on interviews conducted in the late 1930s by workers for the Federal Writers Project.

  5. “London Well Still Burns,” Henderson Daily News, July 26, 1931, 8.

  Chapter 5. Pleasant Hill

  1. Texas historical marker at Pleasant Hill Cemetery, near New London, TX.

  2. Cleburne Huston, Towering Texan: A Biography of Thomas J. Rusk (Waco, TX: Texian Press, 1971), 1.

  3. Weather reports from Overton Press, January 15 and January 22, 1937; Kilgore Daily News, February 2, March 15–17, 1937.

  4. Helen Smoot, “Snowflakes,” London Museum and Tea Room, New London, TX.

  Chapter 6. American Dreams

  1. Dixon Wecter, The Age of the Great Depression, 1929–1941 (New York: Mac-millan, 1948), 35.

  2. Ibid., 27, 40, 49, 62.

  3. Gene Smith, The Shattered Dream: Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression (New York: William Morrow, 1970), 15.

  4. Ibid., 105.

  5. Wecter, Age of the Great Depression, 39.

  6. Mildred Evans, “The Life and Times of Carroll and Mildred Evans,” comp. Kevin C. Evans (unpublished manuscript, 1986), 8.

  7. Ibid.

  Chapter 7. Wildcats’ Pep Rally

  1. Jackson, Living Lessons, 13.

  2. “Interscholastic League Banquet Attracts Many Educators,” Henderson Daily News, March 17, 1937, 12, covered the Interscholastic League’s annual banquet the night before. Shaw was the keynote speaker at the banquet and discussed the history of the contests from his perspective as a former student, teacher, and school official over nearly sixty years.

  3. News brief, Overton Press, January 15, 1937.

  4. Jackson, Living Lessons, 13.

  5. Associated Press, “Pathos and Tragedy.”

  6. Joanne Rosamond and Walter Fields, comps., “The Gaston Story,” (unpublished manuscript, West Rusk County Consolidated Independent School District, New London, TX, May 1989), 14.

  7. Ibid., 14–15.

  8. This italicized segment is based on New London’s last football game of 1936, in which Gerdes was a star for the Wildcats. Comments from the game announcer are hypothetical but derived from a careful reading of sports stories covering the Wildcats games and knowledge of football lingo in use at the time.

  9. Kenneth Holtzclaw, “Wildcats Win District 19-B Title, Beating Red Devils,” Henderson Daily News, November 22, 1936, 7; “Wildcats Primed for Bi-District Clash; Alvin Gerdes Unable to Play,” Henderson Daily News, December 3, 1936.

  10. “Football Player Dies of Injuries,” Henderson Daily News, November 25, 1936.

  11. “Center 6, London 0,” Henderson Daily News, December 5, 1936.

  12. Data on the Gerdes family from Fifteenth Census of the United States—1930.

  13. “Bulldog and Ranger Quintets Beat London and Stanolind Here,” Kilgore Daily News, January 8, 1937, a basketball game in which Alvin Gerdes was high scorer in London’s losing effort.

  Chapter 8. Farmer’s Boy

  1. Information in this chapter is based almost entirely on interviews with Bill Thompson and the family’s genealogical history, Nadine Thompson Heaberlin and Sam J. Heaberlin, comps., “Ancestors and Descendants of Alvin A. and Bonnie Freeman Thompson” (unpublished manuscript, 1989).

  2. Temperatures in Texas were above normal in June and August 1936, and the state’s record high is 120 degrees, recorded on August 12, 1936, at Seymour, according to the U.S. National Climatic Data Center. Data available through USA Today weather website (accessed September 26, 2011), http://www.usa-today.com/weather/wheat7.htm, cites U.S. National Climatic Data Center.

  Chapter 9. The Black Giant

  1. Clark and Halbouty, Last Boom, 79–80.

  2. Ibid., 77.

  3. Knowles, Greatest Gamblers, 253–54.

  4. Dorman Winfrey, A History of Rusk County, Texas (Waco, TX: Texian Press, 1961), 91.

  5. Olien and Olien, Wildcatters, 56.

  6. Clark and Halbouty, Last Boom, 80.

  7. Photo on file at the London Museum and Tea Room, New London, TX.

  8. Clark and Halbouty, Last Boom, 81.

  9. Knowles, Greatest Gamblers, 260.

  10. Clark and Halbouty, Last Boom, 123–29.

  11. William T. Jack, Gaston High School, Joinerville, Texas, and a Boy Named Billy Jack (Campbell, TX: J &N Press, 1989), 69–71.

  12. Centennial Celebration Publication, October 1950, First Presbyterian Church, Kilgore, TX.

  13. “Too Many Oil Wells Spoiled Good Farmer But Broug
ht to Light Good Café Man,” Henderson Daily News, March 20, 1931.

  14. Clark and Halbouty, Last Boom, 142.

  15. Knowles, Greatest Gamblers, 262–64.

  16. Olien and Olien, Wildcatters, 57.

  17. Lambert and Franks, Voices from the Oil Fields, 201–3.

  Chapter 10. Lunchtime

  1. Parts of Mattie Queen Price’s teaching scrapbook are on file at the London Museum and Tea Room, New London, TX.

  2. Price interview.

  3. Henderson, Texas City Directory—1935–36 (Springfield, MO: Interstate Directory Co., 1936).

  4. Carolyn (Jones) Frei distinctly remembers a carnival set up and ready to open on Friday, the following day. Alvin Thompson likely would have noticed the carnival on his way to and from work, as carnivals and fairs in the 1930s were set up at a designated location—Fair Park—on the fringe of downtown Henderson. In an era before television, news of such attractions coming to town spread rapidly, typically with no more advertising than handbills posted throughout the region.

  Chapter 11. Flateful Afternoon

  1. London Times, student newspaper, March 18, 1937, London Museum and Tea Room, New London, TX.

  2. Jackson, Living Lessons, 52.