RELEASE DATE: MAY 3, 2009
KINSEARCHING
by
Marleta Childs
P. O. Box 6825
LUBBOCK, TX 79493-6825
[email protected]
Historians investigating the history of the Sooner State are usually accustomed to looking for data in the periodical, The Chronicles of Oklahoma. Many genealogists, however, may not be as familiar with the publication and, therefore, may not realize the variety of material appearing in it. An example of an article containing biographical data that may be helpful to family researchers is "Fifteen Men in Ermine: Judges of the United States Court for the Indian Territory, 1889 - 1907" by Von Russell Creel. Published in the Summer 2008 (Vol. LXXXVI, No. 2) issue of the journal, the article provides information and photographs of the following men:
James M. SHACKELFORD, 1827 - 1909;
Charles Bingley STUART, 1857 - 1936;
William M. SPRINGER, 1836 - 1903;
Joseph Albert GILL, 1854 - 1933;
Constantine Buckley "Buck" KILGORE, 1835 - 1897;
Hosea TOWNSEND, who died in 1909;
William Yancey "Yancey" LEWIS, 1861 - 1915;
William Henry Harrison CLAYTON, 1840 - 1920;
John Robert THOMAS, 1846 - 1914;
Charles W. RAYMOND, 1858 - 1939;
William Ridgway LAWRENCE, 1840 - 1923;
Joseph T. DICKERSON, 1864 - 1954;
Thomas Chauncey HUMPHRY, 1846 - 1937;
Luman F. PARKER, Jr., 1872 - 1912;
and
Louis SULZBACKER, 1842 - 1915.
Visitors continued to flock to Spur during the first weeks of its opening. The names of more out-of-town visitors are found on page 4, column 5, of the 12 November 1909 issue of the newspaper, The Texas Spur. (For background information about this series of articles, see Kinsearching column dated 8 February 2009.)
SPUR, DICKENS COUNTY, TEXAS
"Gentlemen registered at the Western
Hotel this week" were
Mr. BRAZELTON, Waco;
W. G. COOPER, Hamlin;
Joe. (sic) H. HALEY, Jewet;
F. M. HAYES and G. M. SHIELDS, Goash;
J. P. HORTON, Sweetwater;
C. M. LUSH, Ft. Worth
J. E. McCORD, Sagerton;
C. W. MORGAN, Abilene;
W. P. MORRISON, Tom JEFFERS, J. C. TERRY, J. O. BELL, and GEO. MCKENTY,
Plainview;
H. F. MURRAY, Lubbock;
L. M. SARRETT, Haskell;
Sid TAYLOR, Anson;
J. M. TERRY and W. S. CAMPBELL, Munday;
J. F. WATKINS, Sterley;
and
H. D. WITHERS and E. PEGUAS, Stamford.
(Editor's Note: As the names in the register of the Western Hotel demonstrate, people from a variety of places stayed in Spur for at least one night. A few may have remained for a longer period of time. Many individuals may have been businessmen, especially salesmen, who were checking out possible money-making opportunities in the new town. An interesting examination of commercial, as well as entertainment, travelers and their connections between "settlements and the outside world" in the late 1800s and early 1900s is found in "Signatures of Commerce in Small-Town Hotel Guest Registers" by David A. Fyfe and Deryck W. Holdsworth. Their article appears in Social Science History, vol. 33, no. 1 (Spring 2009), pages 17-45. Although their study pertains to hotels in a particular area of New York and Pennsylvania, many of the same principles apply to other parts of the country during that time frame.)