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 16th, 2008
Before the advent of the railroad into West Texas there was very little in the way of a permanent house of worship. Nevertheless, Protestant ministers made their way into the area alongside many of the other settlers.
Most ranch families followed a Protestant tradition in their faith, but church attendance was not a regular occurrence. One of the first “communities” that afforded residents the opportunity to worship came during the Civil War. Ranch families gathered their homes together into “citizen forts” for protection against Indians. For many there, the closeness with other families made worship a natural. Baptist ministers from Weatherford and Fort Worth made occasional trips to the area to preach. Continue Reading »
abilenet December 12th, 2008
I was downtown Abilene the other day at a business meeting. At a break in that meeting, I ventured outside for a breath of fresh air and took note of a building I had seen many times in the past but had paid little attention to. My eye was drawn to the name of the building that was just above the front entrance. It read, “Pfeifer.” Being the curious type that I am, I pulled out my iPhone and did a quick Google search to see what this building might be. I was able to find some information about the building and then went to the local library to find out more.
Sitting at 101 Walnut street is the building you see in this picture. This structure, which was built in 1906, served as the headquarters for the H. O. Wooten grocery business. The business, originally established in 1896, had a significant impact on Abilene’s early economy and employed generations of Abilenians. Mr. Wooten was a very successful businessman and community leader and was connected to Abilene’s early economic development. A fire destroyed much of the building the business was housed in 1911 and was rebuilt in its current configuration the following year.
By 1948, the H. O. Wooten Wholesale Grocery business had fourteen branch warehouses throughout West Texas and occupied this site into the 1950′s.
The building was purchased in the 1950′s by T. S. Langford and housed his business T. S. Langford and Sons in the 1950′s and 1960′s. They operated more than 150 sewing machines, sewing uniforms and working clothes for distribution in all parts of the United States.
In 1952, Walter Pfeifer, Jr., entered into the wholesale business and gained a great deal of success manufacturing evaporative coolers for the dry West Texas heat. Pfeifer bought the Wooten Building in 1967 and the Pfeifer family still owns the location to this day, hence the current name for the building.
Frazier, Don and Robert Pace, Abilene Landmarks: An Illustrated Tour, State House Press, p.71.
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 December 2nd, 2008
This Penateka War Chief, Buffalo Hump, was born most likely in the late 1700s or early 1800s near present-day Abilene. He first emerges in the historical record in 1836, listed as a resident of a brushy creek village, northwest of San Antonio. He rose to prominence as a leader of the Penateka Comanches by leading 400 warriors in the retaliatory Linnville and Victoria Raid in 1839. He was conspicuous in the running battle at Plum Creek, but escaped to his home on the upper Colorado. Continue Reading »