abilenet May 8th, 2009
From time-to-time, one of you will leave a comment or question on this site. Both are appreciated because they help build community between each of us and allow us to share our ideas about Abilene and the sorrounding area. Unfortunately, it also allows the spammers of the world to use my site as a potential advertising space for viagra and every other sort of concoction they want to sell. I am getting 50 to 100 attempts like this daily so I’m afraid I am going to turn off comments for awhile. If you would like to post a comment or have a question, please feel free to email me at abitxhistory@gmail.com and I will get it to the site.
For those of you law-abiding citizens that are just learning a bit more about Abilene, I apologize that I have to take this action at this time. For you spammers, I hope you stub your big toe on the coffee table this afternoon.
abilenet December 26th, 2008
Elizabeth Ann Clifton, rancher, merchant, and Indian captive, was born on March 29, 1825, in Alabama. In 1842, when she was sixteen, she married Alexander Joseph Carter, a free black. The couple had two children and lived with Carter’s parents, Edmund J. and Susanna Carter, in Red River and Navarro counties before moving west to Fort Belknap in Young County, where they began raising stock and farming. Elizabeth Carter managed the ranch, soon as a full partner, while her husband and father-in-law ran a cargo transportation business. Though she was illiterate and epileptic, she also ran a boarding house, the Carter Trading House. In 1857 her husband and father-in-law were both mysteriously murdered. When Carter’s estate was finally settled, his remaining assets were divided between his two grandchildren, Elizabeth Carter’s married daughter as well as her young son. Mrs. Carter was not, however, made guardian of her son’s property. Continue Reading »
abilenet December 25th, 2008
On October 13, 1864, in western Young County, several hundred Kiowa and Comanche Indians raided the Elm Creek valley northwest of Fort Belknap. Peter Harmonson and his son, after taking refuge in a thicket on nearby Rabbit Creek, shot and killed one of the Indian leaders. At the household of Elizabeth Ann FitzPatrick the Indians killed and scalped Mrs. FitzPatrick’s daughter, Mildred Susanna Carter Durkin, and killed the son of Britt (Britton) Johnson, a black slave. Mrs. FitzPatrick, her son and two granddaughters, Mildred and Lottie, and Johnson’s wife and children were taken captive. Continue Reading »
abilenet December 11th, 2008
As soon as there were Texas cowboys, the cowboy song came into being. Driving cattle for endless weeks on the prairie inspired the young men who did it to occupy their time with poetry and singing. As early as the 1880s, many cowboy poems appeared regularly in ranching trade magazines. One of the most popular and poignant songs to come out of this tradition was “Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie.” Inspired in part from an old tale of a sailor buried at sea, the cowboy version takes its origins from the Hashknife Ranch, the site of modern-day Abilene. Continue Reading »
abilenet June 29th, 2007
If you’ve been to the site before, you may notice a significant change in the way these pages look. My reasons for changing are that I believe this blogging format will allow me to add content to the pages more quickly and I hope it allows you, the viewer, to add your own thoughts, information and histories to these web pages. And, I don’t mind saying that I like the look of it better anyhow. You will find all of the information that was available on the old site, at least all of the podcasts. As always, I hope you find these pages informative, interesting and that they draw out of you a desire to learn about and share stories of Abilene and Taylor County, Texas and the surrounding area.
abilenet April 3rd, 2007
In this final episode, part 3 of 3, we will complete our conversation with Don Frazier, professor of History at McMurry University and the Executive Director of the McWhiney Foundation, on the history of Fort Phantom Hill, Texas. This episode also include a poem by Larry Chitenden about Fort Phantom Hill.
abilenet January 11th, 2007
I have been thinking about this small web site, the blog, the podcast, why anyone would care. Most importantly, why would I want to spend anytime at all working on something like this when I have so many other things going on in my life? It has been very cold here in Abilene for a few weeks now. In Texas time that is equivalent to a year and a half of cold. Its just not something were used to around here. As we move from one cold day to another, I am struck by how difficult the winter of 1878 must have been for those early settlers that attempted to start the town of Eagle Colony, how distressing it must have been to live in the cold of that winter, to watch some of the children die, and to continue on despite the hardships. Continue Reading »