Month: October 2019

Day Nineteen: Hillsboro to Temple, Texas

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October 31, 2019

Retracing Lena Huppler Bevers’ Travel Log

Fri. Oct. 31.

Finished fixing the car then left Hillsboro and had 3 miles of mud.  Had to be pulled with a team for 1/2 mile, cash $10.00.  We drove through Abbott and ate dinner in West.  Had paved road to Lorena, 15 miles.  We drove through Waco, Lorena, Bruseville, Eddy and stayed all night in Troy. – Lena Bevers

To start out the day of October 31, 1919, the repairs to Mr. McElhany’s car had to be completed.  Florence Bevers wrote in her travel log: “Left Hillsboro and went out and finished Cornies car ….”1  Perhaps Mr. McElhany’s car had been left on the road the evening before, so in the morning they had to go back to where it was to finish working on it.  Florence’s notation using the name “Cornie” is a clue to what Mr. McElhany’s first name was.  Possibly it was a nickname for Cornelius or for Clarence (In The First 100 Years in Codington County, it states that a Clarence McElhany moved to Texas about the same time as the Bevers did.2)

When the car was fixed, Herbert and Mr. McElhany resumed driving, but their progress was impeded because the road was muddy for three miles.  The Bevers’ car got stuck in the mud, so a team of horses was hired to pull the car for half a mile.  It cost $10.00 cash to hire the team.  One of Lena and Herbert’s grandsons states that he was told the following about this experience: “The car that got towed into town … by horses was the Model A.  But it really wasn’t broke down after all.  They thought it had a broken axle but it was in the mud up to the hubs and the wheel was spinning in the air.  A costly mistake, $10 in those days would be like $150 now for the tow.”3

At Hillsboro, the Meridian Highway joined the King of Trails Highway.  The Meridian Highway is the transcontinental highway on which the Bevers family had started their journey 19 days previously in Watertown, South Dakota.  The name of the highway was “derived from the Sixth Principal Meridian, which extends north-south through the Great Plains region.”4  If the Bevers family had not gotten off the Meridian Highway in South Dakota, they would have traveled through Columbus (Nebraska), Wichita (Kansas), closely bypassed Oklahoma City (Oklahoma) and driven through Fort Worth (Texas).  When they were in Fort Worth two days prior, they could have gotten on the Meridian Highway and driven to Hillsboro, instead of travelling to Lancaster and then to Hillsboro.  Once again, it is not known why they didn’t take this route.

In Texas, “the main, or trunk, line [of Meridian Highway] extended north-south through the middle of the state and generally followed the path of the Chisholm Trail, famously used to run Texas cattle to the railheads in Kansas in the heyday of the Cattle Drive era after the Civil War.”5

After they reached a better road, the two cars went through Abbott and then stopped in West where they ate dinner.  My mother and I got on the road about 10:00 AM today, using the frontage road that runs alongside Interstate 35.  We passed through Abbott and West within the hour.

Abbott Methodist Church, Texas (Photograph by MRW October 31, 2019)
The very small historical district of Abbott, Texas (Photograph by MRW October 31, 2019)
A section of Route 776 from The Official Automobile Blue Book 19206

In the running directions above, at mile 76.3 the town of West is listed, indicating that the train station is on the right.  When we drove around West, we found the station.

West Station, Texas (Photograph by MRW October 31, 2019)
(Photograph by MRW October 31, 2019)
(Photograph by MRW October 31, 2019)
West, Texas historical buildings (Photograph by MRW October 31, 2019)

When the Bevers family arrived in Waco, Texas they needed to cross the Brazos River.  The 1920 Waco City Map below shows the location of the bridge they crossed at Washington Avenue.  “Waco’s Historic Suspension Bridge was the longest single-span suspension bridge west of the Mississippi when it was completed in 1870. The bridge was built with cable supplied by the John Roebling Co., who built the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City.  Crucial to traders and travelers for well over a century, the bridge stands as an icon of Waco history….”7

From The Official Automobile Blue Book 19208

A postcard of the Suspension Bridge in Waco, Texas, dated 1912 (Courtesy of TXGenWeb Project9)
From The Official Automobile Blue Book 192010

Waco is a city with modern freeways, and we found a lot of construction going on.  My mother and I tried to follow Business U. S. Highway 77 into Waco, but we soon had difficulty identifying the route and we ended up passing the street that we wanted to take.  Eventually we found ourselves on a bridge crossing the Brazos River.  Due to lanes merging and stopped traffic, it took about 15 minutes to cross the bridge.  We had wanted to go to a park along the river before crossing the bridge where we could see the Suspension Bridge.  While we were sitting on the bridge in traffic, we saw another bridge to the west and thought it was the Suspension Bridge, so when we finally got over the bridge, we headed for a park on that side of the river to take pictures.  It wasn’t until we got to the motel that I realized that the bridge I took a picture of wasn’t the Suspension Bridge after all.

The bridge we used to cross the Brazos River; note the traffic is standing still. (Photograph by MRW October 31, 2019)
The bridge we thought was the Suspension Bridge, but is not. (Photograph by MRW October 31, 2019)

A postcard of the Amicable Life Insurance Building dated 1913 (Courtesy of TXGenWeb Project11)
Amicable Life Insurance Building, Waco, Texas (Photograph by MRW October 31, 2019)

The ALICO Building which was constructed from August 1910 to October 1911 claimed to be “the highest and most beautiful building in the south”; having twenty-two stories, the building was once the tallest in Texas and the tallest west of the Mississippi.12

We were happy to leave the traffic of Waco and head south again on the frontage road of Interstate 35 to stop at each of the towns that Lena mentioned in her travel log: Lorena, Bruceville, Eddy and Troy.  Bruceville and Eddy became one community in the mid-1970s and is now called Bruceville-Eddy.

Lorena, Texas (Photograph by MRW October 31, 2019)
Bruceville-Eddy, Texas (Photograph by MRW October 31, 2019)
Bedichek Academy Bell was presented to the First Baptist Church of Eddy, Texas in 1912 (Photograph by MRW October 31, 2019)
Troy, Texas (Photograph by MRW October 31, 2019)
The red building is dated about 1909; Troy, Texas (Photograph by MRW October 31, 2019)

The Bevers family ended their day in Troy.  When we were in Troy, there was no motel, so we decided to drive further south on Interstate 35 to Temple and stay in a motel there, arriving about 3:15 PM.

Notes:

  1. B. Winkelmann, Our Trip to Texas [Transcription of Our Trip to Texas by Florence Bevers, 1919] (unpublished, n. d.): 4.
  2. “Robert Mc Elhany Family,” In The First 100 Years in Codington County, South Dakota, 1879-1979, by Codington County History Book Committee (Watertown, South Dakota: Watertown Public Opinion Print, 1979): 261.
  3. D. L. Bevers, Herbert and Lena Bevers trip to Raymondville Texas [Transcription of Our Trip to Texas by Lena Bevers, 1919] (Unpublished, n.d.): 4.
  4. David Moore, et al., The Meridian Highway in Texas (Austin, Texas: Texas Historical Commission, May 27, 2016): 1.
  5. David Moore, et al., The Meridian Highway in Texas: 4.
  6. Automobile Blue Book Publishing Company, The Official Automobile Blue Book 1920, vol. 7 (New York: Automobile Blue Book Publishing Company, 1920): 649, 651, https://ia601208.us.archive.org/26/items/case_gv1024_a92_1920_v_7/case_gv1024_a92_1920_v_7.pdf.
  7. Texas Historical Commission, Waco: Waco Suspension Bridge, https://texasbrazostrail.com/plan-your-adventure/historic-sites-and-cities/sites/waco-suspension-bridge.
  8. Automobile Blue Book Publishing Company, The Official Automobile Blue Book 1920, vol. 7: 650.
  9. Suspension Bridge, Waco, Texas (1912), http://sites.rootsweb.com/~txpstcrd/Towns/Waco/WacoSuspensionBridge1912.jpg.
  10. Automobile Blue Book Publishing Company, The Official Automobile Blue Book 1920, vol. 7: 651.
  11. Amicable Life Insurance Building (1913), http://sites.rootsweb.com/~txpstcrd/Towns/Waco/WacoAmicableLifeInsBldg1913.jpg.
  12. John Troesser, Ten things you should know about the Alico Building of Waco, http://www.texasescapes.com/CentralTexasTownsNorth/WacoTexas/ALICO-Building-Texas-Skyscraper-Construction.htm.

Day Eighteen: Lancaster to Hillsboro, Texas

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October 30, 2019

Retracing Lena Huppler Bevers’ Travel Log

Thurs. – Oct. 30.

Left Lancaster and had fine road for about 40 miles, and then we had rough roads.  Ate dinner in Hillsboro. Got 4 miles from town and a spring broke on McElhany’s car so we had to go back and stayed all night at Hillsboro. – Lena Bevers

My mother and I started our tour today in Lancaster, Texas, at the town’s lovely little town square.  In the center is the town well which is surrounded on four sides by small historic buildings.  A town clock and a walkway lined with trees invite shoppers to sit and rest awhile.

Town Well, Lancaster, Texas (Photograph by MRW October 30, 2019)
Lancaster, Texas (Photograph by MRW October 30, 2019)
(Photograph by MRW October 30, 2019)
A plaque on the wall in the historic town square of Lancaster, Texas (Photograph by MRW October 30, 2019)
From The Official Automobile Blue Book 19201

From Lancaster, we set out on U. S. Highway 77 which approximately follows the route the Bevers family would have taken.  Florence recorded that they traveled through Red Oak, Waxahachie, Forreston, Italy and Milford on the way to Hillsboro.2  We stopped in Waxahachie, which is the county seat of Ellis County.  According to our AAA TourBook for Texas: “it is a town where the gingerbread of Victorian-era buildings sates even the most jaded architectural palate.  Twenty percent of the Texas buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places are in Waxahachie.  The 1895 Ellis County Courthouse, one of the most photographed structures in the state, is a red sandstone and granite edifice decorated with ornate capitals, carved by expert Italian artisans.”3

Ellis County Courthouse, Waxahachie, Texas (Photograph by MRW October 30, 2019)
Memorial to honor those “who wore the gray” in the Civil War, Waxahachie, Texas (Photograph by MRW October 30, 2019)
Penn Building, Waxahachie, Texas, dated 1894 (Photograph by MRW October 30, 2019)
A well-maintained building on a corner across from the Ellis County Courthouse, dated 1889 (Photograph by MRW October 30, 2019)

After leaving Waxahachie, we didn’t see anything notable in the small towns along U. S. Highway 77, except a few buildings in Forreston.

Forreston, Texas is nearly a ghost town, but the shop on the left still operates a few days a week. (Photograph by MRW October 30, 2019)
One of the businesses still in operation in Forreston, Texas (Photograph by MRW October 30, 2019)
“Downtown” Forreston, Texas; take note of the green sign to the right of the wood building (Photograph by MRW October 30, 2019)

Our next stop was in Hillsboro, Texas, where we found another outstanding courthouse.  It isn’t the same one that was standing when Lena and Herbert traveled through Hillsboro.  “Just over a century after Hill County’s grand 1890 courthouse opened, it burned to the ground. A 1993 fire gutted the modified Second Empire-style edifice designed by noted architect W. C. Dodson. With help from native son and music legend Willie Nelson, the county rebuilt the three-story courthouse topped by a seven-story clock tower. Today it’s the heart of a vibrant downtown with an 1870s rock saloon, a Renaissance-Revival library and reportedly the oldest pharmacy in Texas. Nearby neighborhoods of Queen Anne homes testify to the 19th-century prosperity of this cotton and railroading town.”4

Hillsboro, Texas (Photograph by MRW October 30, 2019)
Hillsboro, Texas (Photograph by MRW October 30, 2019)
Hill County Courthouse, Hillsboro, Texas (Photograph by MRW October 30, 2019)
The bell damaged in the Hill County Courthouse fire (Photograph by MRW October 30, 2019)
Constitutional Bicentennial Monument, Hillsboro, Texas (Photograph by MRW October 30, 2019)

Once again Mr. McElhany’s car had trouble, Lena wrote that a spring broke when they were four miles south of Hillsboro.  They turned around and found a place to stay in Hillsboro, so that is where we stayed also.  We arrived at our motel at 1:30 PM, ate lunch near the motel, then went to the historic district to take pictures.  The weather was unusually cold today, with rain and wind.  It was unpleasant each time I got out of the car to take pictures, and to fill the car with gas – but the cold weather didn’t stop us from getting our favorite dessert this evening: ice cream.

Notes:

  1. Automobile Blue Book Publishing Company, The Official Automobile Blue Book 1920, vol. 7 (New York: Automobile Blue Book Publishing Company, 1920): 656-57, https://ia601208.us.archive.org/26/items/case_gv1024_a92_1920_v_7/case_gv1024_a92_1920_v_7.pdf.
  2. B. Winkelmann, Our Trip to Texas [Transcription of Our Trip to Texas by Florence Bevers, 1919] (unpublished, n. d.): 4.
  3. American Automobile Association, AAA TourBook guide, Texas, (Heathrow, Florida: AAA Publishing, 2018)
  4. Texas Historical Commission, Hillsboro (2019), https://texaslakestrail.com/plan-your-adventure/historic-sites-and-cities/cities/hillsboro.

Day Seventeen: Denton to Lancaster, Texas

MRWLeave a comment

October 29, 2019

Retracing Lena Huppler Bevers’ Travel Log

Wed. – Oct. 29.

Left Denton and had fairly good roads to Fort Worth where we ate dinner.  Had paved road most all the way to Lancaster where we stayed over night. – Lena Bevers

On October 29, 1919 the Bevers family headed south from Denton to Fort Worth, Texas.  Florence wrote that they went through Roanoke on their way.1  When my mother and I started out from Denton, we entered the address of Fort Worth Stockyards Historic District in a navigation devise.  Soon we realized that the devise which directed us to take Interstate Highway 35 West was not taking us through Roanoke.  We reverted to using our sheet map so that the route we took would be more like the route that Herbert and Mr. McElhany took.  We needed to follow U. S. Highway 377.

We found Roanoke’s small Historic District to be very attractive.  In addition, a new city hall was completed just last February, which is architecturally as impressive as the government buildings of the late eighteen hundreds.

Roanoke, Texas (Photograph by MRW October 29, 2019)
The new Roanoke City Hall was dedicated on March 2, 2019; designed to resemble a late 1800s courthouse, its estimated cost was $17,000,000.2 (Photograph by MRW October 29, 2019)

Following our drive through Roanoke, we resumed our drive to Fort Worth.  We decided to stop and look around the historic part of the city at the stockyards.  Fort Worth was a very large city one hundred years ago, with a population of about 94,500.3  It is impossible to know which streets the Bevers family used, so it is unknown whether they would have driven past the stockyards.  A highlight of our tour of that area was watching a genuine cattle drive.  The cattle drive is not long, but it’s quite impressive to watch those huge longhorns pass by. Following the cattle drive, we had a very nice meal at a nearby restaurant. I ordered steak and my mother ordered catfish, then we split the meals between us.

(From The Official Automobile Blue Book 19204)
Main Street, looking north from 10th, Fort Worth, Texas in 1918 (Courtesy of TXGenWeb Project5)
Live Stock Exchange, Fort Worth, Texas, (Courtesy of TXGenWeb Project6)
Stock Yards and Packing Plants, Fort Worth, Texas (Courtesy of TXGenWeb Project7)
(Photograph by MRW October 29, 2019)
(Photograph by MRW October 29, 2019)
(Photograph by MRW October 29, 2019)
(Photograph by MRW October 29, 2019)
(From The Official Automobile Blue Book 19208)

As the Bevers family drove through Fort Worth, they crossed over an east-west transcontinental highway called the Dixie Overland Highway, which connected Savannah, Georgia with San Diego and Los Angeles, California.  It was developed in the late 1910s and was promoted as “the shortest, straightest, and only year round, ocean to ocean highway, in the United States.”9

Lena mentions that they “had paved road most all the way to Lancaster.”  The Official Automobile Blue Book 1920 provided this information: “Good roads have been the hobby of the people of this vicinity and as a result one of the finest systems of public highways known has been extended all over northern Texas, with main roads leading to every other important city of Texas and the southwest.”10

Florence listed several towns that they drove through between Fort Worth and Lancaster, two of them being Arlington and Grand Prairie.11  Route 751 above is the route the Bevers family would have traveled from Fort Worth toward Dallas (they probably didn’t go very far into into Dallas because they ended in Lancaster, south of Dallas). In the introduction to Route 751, the route is described as “14 miles asphalt, brick and macadam to Arlington; next 15 miles stone, excepting a short stretch of concrete; balance pavement.”12 The highway running between Fort Worth and Dallas was called the Bankhead Highway.

“This historic route, established in 1919 and considered the first paved transcontinental highway, connected Washington, D.C. with San Diego as part of the National Auto Trail system. The Texas segment was pieced together county by county, entering from the east at Texarkana swinging down to Dallas and making its way across Texas to exit at El Paso. Counties and towns competed heartily for the right to install the first paved automobile road and the economic boost that would arrive across those bricks and cement.”13

When my mother and I left the stockyards district, we had difficulty determining the best way to get to Highway 180, the road which was once the Bankhead Highway.  The day was overcast and I couldn’t get my bearings on which direction we were driving.  We tried to use the navigation devise, but after several miles realized twice that the devise was taking us onto freeways and not through downtown Fort Worth.  I pulled into a parking lot to examine the sheet map, and the devise announced that it could not help us any longer.  That threw both of us into a fit of laughter.  Finally, we determined that we needed to turn around in order to drive to Highway 180. 

In the introduction to Route 751, there is a statement that the auto tourist would be driving through “very pretty farming country.”14  Today when my mother and I drove this route, we only saw a very small section of farm land.  Nearly all of this area is suburban commercial businesses and shopping centers.  We also passed a metropolitan sports arena.

Arlington, Texas (Photograph by MRW October 29, 2019)
Arlington, Texas (Photograph by MRW October 29, 2019)
Grand Prairie, Texas (Photograph by MRW October 29, 2019)
Grand Prairie, Texas (Photograph by MRW October 29, 2019)

Two days prior to this one a hundred years ago, the two-car caravan stayed overnight in the town of Van Alstyne, which is north of Lancaster, on the north side of Dallas.  By traveling west from Van Alstyne to Pilot Point, then south to Denton and Fort Worth, and then driving east to Lancaster, they added about 70 miles to their trip.  They could have driven directly south from Van Alstyne through Dallas to reach Lancaster.  It is not known why they didn’t choose to do that.

Notes:

  1. B. Winkelmann, Our Trip to Texas [Transcription of Our Trip to Texas by Florence Bevers, 1919] (unpublished, n. d.): 3.
  2. City of Roanoke, Texas, Groundbreaking Ceremony Announced for New Roanoke City Hall, https://roanoketexas.com/DocumentCenter/View/1455/City-Hall-Groundbreaking-Press-Release-32717?bidId=.
  3. Automobile Blue Book Publishing Company, The Official Automobile Blue Book 1920, vol. 7 (New York: Automobile Blue Book Publishing Company, 1920): 627, https://ia601208.us.archive.org/26/items/case_gv1024_a92_1920_v_7/case_gv1024_a92_1920_v_7.pdf.
  4. Automobile Blue Book Publishing Company, The Official Automobile Blue Book 1920, vol. 7: 627.
  5. Main St, looking north from 10th, Fort Worth, Texas, http://sites.rootsweb.com/~txpstcrd/Towns/FtWorth/FtWorthMainSt.jpg.
  6. Live stock exchange, Fort Worth (1918), http://sites.rootsweb.com/~txpstcrd/Towns/FtWorth/FtWorthLiveStockExchange1918.jpg.
  7. Stock yards and packing plants, Fort Worth, Texas, http://sites.rootsweb.com/~txpstcrd/Towns/FtWorth/FtWorthStockYards.jpg.
  8. Automobile Blue Book Publishing Company, The Official Automobile Blue Book 1920, vol. 7: 629-30.
  9. Richard F. Weingroff, U.S. Route 80 The Dixie Overland Highway, https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/us80.cfm.
  10. Automobile Blue Book Publishing Company, The Official Automobile Blue Book 1920, vol. 7: 628.
  11. B. Winkelmann, Our Trip to Texas: 4.
  12. Automobile Blue Book Publishing Company, The Official Automobile Blue Book 1920, vol. 7: 629-30.
  13. Texas Historical Commission, Bankhead Highway, https://texastimetravel.com/travel-themes/main-bankhead-highway.
  14. Automobile Blue Book Publishing Company, The Official Automobile Blue Book 1920, vol. 7: 629.

Day Sixteen: Sherman to Denton, Texas

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October 28, 2019

Retracing Lena Huppler Bevers’ Travel Log

Tues. Oct. 28.

Left Van Alstyne and had fairly good roads.  Ate dinner at Piolet Point.  Stayed all night at a Private House in Denton. – Lena Bevers

You know you are in Texas when your waffle is in the shape of the state. (Photograph by EJJ October 28, 2019)

After breakfast at the motel, my mother and I headed south from Sherman, Texas, on U. S. Highway 75 which roughly follows the course of the King of Trails Highway, starting at Atoka, Oklahoma.  When we got to Howe, we took a road that runs parallel to U. S. Highway 75 instead of driving on the freeway.  Shortly we came to Van Alstyne, the town where the Bevers family had stayed overnight the prior night a century ago.  The historic district is only a few streets and it is well-maintained.  I had been seeing signs in Oklahoma and Texas for “fried pies.”  There on an historic street was a shop selling fried pies, so I went inside to try out a couple pies.  I ordered a Cherry one and one called Sawdust, which had a filling of chocolate chips, pecans, coconut and graham cracker crumbs.  The crust on both was light and flaky, and the fillings were delicious.

Sawdust and Cherry Fried Pies (Photograph by MRW October 28, 2019)
Van Alstyne, Texas; note the trolley tracks that are still in the street (Photograph by MRW October 28, 2019)
The bank on the right and the building next to it are both dated 1890. (Photograph by MRW October 28, 2019)
A striking mural on an historic building in Van Alstyne, Texas (Photograph by MRW October 28, 2019)

From Van Alstyne, Herbert Bevers and Mr. McElhany started driving west instead of south.  Florence Bevers states in her travel log: “Left Van Alstyne and had to leave our trail and go around bout way to Gunter, Tioga and ate dinner in Piolet Point.”1  No explanation is given by Lena nor Florence as to why they had to leave the King of Trails Highway.  The region they were traveling through is now called North Texas Horse Country due to the large horse ranches in the area.  It is promoted for its scenic drives.  The scenery for us as we drove by the ranches and farms was muted because of the low clouds and mist.

(Photograph by MRW October 28, 2019)
Pilot Point, Texas (Photograph by MRW October 28, 2019)
Pilot Point, Texas (Photograph by MRW October 28, 2019)
Long Horn Bull, Pilot Point, Texas (Photograph by MRW October 28, 2019)

Florence wrote: “There was a young fellow – his Mother and Sister from Nebraska with us all day and were going to stay with us till San Antonio but in the morning we lost them in Denton.”2  Possibly, they lost the young man’s car because the city was large, having a population of 7,626 in 1920.3  When the Bevers family entered Denton, they were driving on unpaved streets.  The first paved street in Denton was Hickory Street at the Courthouse Square, which wasn’t completed until 1920.4 

After eating a quick lunch in Pilot Point, we headed south on U. S. Highway 377 towards Denton.  The Denton County Courthouse-on-the-Square Museum has exhibits in the courthouse even though the historic building still holds county offices. We meandered through its halls and rooms, then took pictures around the square.  Lena says that they spent the night at a private home.  We ended our drive at a motel along Interstate 35 East at 3:00 PM.

Denton County Court House, Denton, Texas (Photograph by MRW October 28, 2019)
From the third floor of the court house, looking up at the spiral staircase the goes to the top of the clock tower. (Photograph by MRW October 28, 2019)
This antique bank safe was in the basement of the Denton County Court House (Photograph by MRW October 28, 2019)
Opera House, dated 1901, Denton, Texas (Photograph by MRW October 28, 2019)
This mural covers two sides of this building in Denton, Texas (Photograph by MRW October 28, 2019)

Notes:

  1. B. Winkelmann, Our Trip to Texas [Transcription of Our Trip to Texas by Florence Bevers, 1919] (unpublished, n. d.): 3.
  2. B. Winkelmann, Our Trip to Texas: 3.
  3. Texas Almanac, City Population History from 1850-2000, https://texasalmanac.com/sites/default/files/images/CityPopHist%20web.pdf.
  4. City of Denton, History of Denton, https://www.cityofdenton.com/en-us/about-denton/history-of-denton.

Day Fifteen: Atoka, Oklahoma to Sherman, Texas

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October 27, 2019

Retracing Lena Huppler Bevers’ Travel Log

Mon. – Oct. 27.

Left Caddo and had fine roads all the way.  Ate dinner in Denison while Mr. McElhany got his car fixed.  It would not run good.  Left there and drove to Van Alstyne where we stayed all nite. – Lena Bevers

After two and a half days of rainy and overcast skies, we started our journey today with sunshine and light breezes – a beautiful day for searching for landmarks of Herbert and Lena’s trip to Texas.  Our first stop was in Caddo, Oklahoma, where the Bevers family spent the previous night one hundred years ago. 

“Caddo’s druggist, William Frances Dodd was an ardent supporter of the [Jefferson] highway and worked diligently throughout the process of creating and building the road. He must have felt great pride and satisfaction when he saw its completion and watched people use it. Hundreds passed through Bryan County on ‘sociability runs’ and many stopped in Caddo to visit, give speeches, and spend money. Mr. Dodd and his lovely wife participated in several of the excursions, joining with friends here and continuing to New Orleans. He and his wife were well-known figures at meetings and conventions. Sadly, Mr. Dodd died suddenly in his pharmacy in 1924.”1

“As automobile ownership became more common, automobile associations, such as the Jefferson Highway Association, formed to promote automobile use and the needs of drivers for good roads.

“These associations organized and hosted sociability runs/tours, which were primarily taken to bring distant communities closer together. They also afforded auto owners an opportunity to drive to see what at that time were considered ‘novel’ places.

“Two notable social runs traversed the approximately 2,300-mile distance of the Jefferson Highway. The first occurred in July 1919. Participants traveled from New Orleans north to Winnipeg, Canada. The tour was organized by J. D. Clarkson, the general manager of the Jefferson Highway Association, and was called the “Palm to Pine Sociability Run” in honor of the designated starting and finishing points of the run. …

“… Communities along the touring route were urged to host celebrations in honor of the motorists. They were also encouraged to send motorists to meet the touring party before entering a community. Newspapers along the route featured stories about the tour and community events organized in their honor.”2

(Photograph by MRW October 27, 2019)
Caddo, Oklahoma (Photograph by MRW October 27, 2019)
The Caddo National Bank building, second from the right in the photograph above, is dated 1913. (Photograph by MRW October 27, 2019)
Sunday morning in Caddo, Oklahoma (Photograph by MRW October 27, 2019)
The plaque on the tan building above.

In Florence Bevers’ travel log, she records that the two-car caravan went through Durant, Calera and Colbert on their way to Denison.3  When my mother and I left Caddo, we decided to follow the route that the locals take to Durant, Oklahoma.  Writing about the Jefferson Highway, Caddo’s city website states: “The ‘old highway’ is still a popular way for locals to travel to Durant and avoid the busier [U. S. Highway] 69/75.”4  On Google Maps, the road to which the Caddo city website refers is Caddo Highway or Old Highway 69.  (The original Oklahoma portion of U. S. Highway 69, which was given this numbered designation in 1925, was the Jefferson Highway.5)

Caddo Highway, formerly U. S. Highway 69 and formerly the Jefferson Highway (Photograph by MRW October 27, 2019)

The people of Durant are proud of their historical district.  We found several streets with well-maintained historical buildings.

This monument was “erected in honor of our gallant Confederate soldiers” in 1917. (Photograph by MRW October 27, 2019)
The current Bryan County Court House was previously: Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Oklahoma of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; building dated 1917. (Photograph by MRW October 27, 2019)
Original brick pavement in one of the historical streets of Durant (Photograph by MRW October 27, 2019)
Durant National Bank on the left is dated 1900-1916; on the side of the building on the right the painting reads, “We Love Downtown Durant.” (Photograph by MRW October 27, 2019)
Durant, Oklahoma (Photograph by MRW October 27, 2019)

Below are the running directions of Route 721 in The Official Automobile Blue Book 1920, explaining the route to take from Durant, Oklahoma to Denison, Texas.  A few miles after Colbert, the automobiles had to cross the Red River on a toll bridge.6  This was probably the third toll bridge that the Bevers family crossed.  The toll for this bridge was 25 cents per car.  The other bridges were at Omaha and La Platte, Nebraska.  Today, we drove to a bridge that may be the one that the Bevers crossed. It is called the Carpenters Bluff Bridge. It is no longer in use, so we crossed the Red River on a modern bridge to the north of Carpenters Bluff Bridge.    Lena mentioned in her travel log that Mr. McElhany got his car fixed in Denison, Florence explained that the engine was not running right.  At the bottom of the running directions there are two garages noted.

Carpenters Bluff Bridge (Photograph by MRW October 27, 2019)
Looking down one lane of Carpenters Bluff Bridge, a horse and pedestrian lane is on the right, (Photograph by MRW October 27, 2019)
Sgt. Anthony Simmons Veterans Memorial Bridge (Photograph by MRW October 27, 2019)

Upon entering Texas, the speed law was: “Reasonable and proper.  Public highways 25 miles per hour; in or near built-up sections, 18 miles per hour; business districts, 15 miles per hour.”7  When the Bevers family arrived in Denison, they had their dinner, so that is where we ate as well.  Many of the restaurants were closed because it is Sunday, but when we inquired about a restaurant at a gas station, a local resident directed us to a very nicely restored burger place.

From The Official Automobile Blue Book 19208
Main Street West from Rusk Avenue, Denison, Texas (Courtesy of TXGenWeb Project9)
State National Bank, Denison, Texas, 1919 (Courtesy of TXGenWeb Project10)
Main Street, looking west from Rusk, Denison, Texas (Photograph by MRW October 27, 2019)
The National Bank of Denison, dated 1912 (Photograph by MRW October 27, 2019)
A mural on the side of a building in Denison (Photograph by MRW October 27, 2019)
A highly-recommended burger place where we ate lunch, Denison, Texas; note the original brick pavement. (Photograph by MRW October 27, 2019)
At the corner of Main Street and Houston Avenue, Denison, Texas (Photograph by MRW October 27, 2019)

At Denison, Jefferson Highway veered off to the south east, headed for New Orleans.  The King of Trails Highway continued south from Denison to Van Alstyne.  Herbert Bevers and Mr. McElhany continued following the King of Trails Highway to Van Alstyne where they stayed the night.  My mother and I didn’t find a motel in Van Alstyne when we were using an online travel website, so we chose to stay in Sherman, Texas instead.

Notes:

  1. Town Restoration Association of Caddo, Jefferson Highway, http://www.caddo-ok-today.org/JeffersonHighway.
  2. Iowa Department of Transportation, History of the Interstate Trail, Jefferson Highway and Jefferson Association: 4, https://iowadot.gov/autotrails/history-of-the-jefferson-highway-4.
  3. B. Winkelmann, Our Trip to Texas [Transcription of Our Trip to Texas by Florence Bevers, 1919] (unpublished, n. d.): 3.
  4. Town Restoration Association of Caddo, Jefferson Highway.
  5. Jonita Mullins, The drive is fine on Route 69, https://www.jeffersonhighwayinoklahoma.com/the-drive-is-fine-on-route-69.html.
  6. Automobile Blue Book Publishing Company, The Official Automobile Blue Book 1920, vol. 7 (New York: Automobile Blue Book Publishing Company, 1920): 607, https://ia601208.us.archive.org/26/items/case_gv1024_a92_1920_v_7/case_gv1024_a92_1920_v_7.pdf.
  7. Automobile Blue Book Publishing Company, The Official Automobile Blue Book 1920, vol. 7: 864.
  8. Automobile Blue Book Publishing Company, The Official Automobile Blue Book 1920, vol. 7: 607.
  9. Main Street West from Rusk Avenue, Denison, Texas, http://sites.rootsweb.com/~txpstcrd/Towns/Dennison/denisonmainst80.jpg.
  10. State National Bank, Denison, Texas, http://sites.rootsweb.com/~txpstcrd/Towns/Dennison/DenisonStateNationalBank1919.jpg.

Day Fourteen: McAlester to Atoka, Oklahoma

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October 26, 2019

Retracing Lena Huppler Bevers’ Travel Log

Sun. – Oct. 26.

Left McAlester and drove through Brewer, Kiowa, Chockie, Flora, Stringtown, Atoka.  Stayed all night Caddo. – Lena Bevers

The drive for the Bevers family on October 26, 1919 was one of the shorter drives that they made up to that point.  Florence Bevers explains the reason: “Left McAlester and had terrible roads.  Broke a spring and had 2 blowouts, 2 [punctures] within one and one-half miles.  Got to town and put 2 new casings on and had no more trouble all the way.  Ate our dinner on the road side and had rough and muddy roads all the way.  McElhaney got stuck twice.  Stayed all night in Caddo and Pa got a new spring for the car and put it on.”1

Herbert Bevers and Mr. McElhany again used the King of Trails/Jefferson Highway.  They started in McAlester and traveled through several small towns.  Some of the towns are no longer in existence.  My mother and I could not find Brewer nor Chockie, and when we looked for Flora, we only saw a correctional facility.  At Kiowa and Stringtown we didn’t find any historical buildings.

Postcard of Choctaw Avenue, looking East, McAlester, Oklahoma, postmarked 19092 (Courtesy of My Genealogy Hound)
The McMurray Building in McAlester, Oklahoma is dated 1897. (Photograph by MRW October 26, 2019)
The McAlester Building is dated 1902. (Photograph by MRW October 26, 2019)
A mural in downtown McAlester (Photograph by MRW October 26, 2019)
Another mural on a street-side wall of a building in downtown McAlester has a 3-dimensional effect (Photograph by MRW October 26, 2019)

The running directions of Route 916 of The Official Automobile Blue Book 1920 mentions passing the court house in Atoka.3  Below is a picture of the Atoka County Court House, which was constructed in 1913.4  It was six years old when Lena and Herbert passed it.  This court house was used until 1962, so we did not see it when we drove down Court Street.5

Atoka County Courthouse, constructed 1913 (Courtesy of Atoka County Historical Society)
Court Street (Courtesy of Atoka County Historical Society)6
The Oklahoma Building in Atoka is dated 1909. (Photograph by MRW October 26, 2019)
Diagonally across the street from the Oklahoma Building is the Bank in Atoka, Oklahoma. (Photograph by MRW October 26, 2019)

My mother and I could not locate a motel in Caddo, Oklahoma when we were using an online travel website, so we made our reservation in Atoka instead.  We left McAlester at 11:00 AM and arrived in Atoka at 1:00 PM, so we decided to take a scenic drive on the Indian Nation Turnpike and returned to Atoka at 4:00 PM.

Notes:

  1. B. Winkelmann, Our Trip to Texas [Transcription of Our Trip to Texas by Florence Bevers, 1919] (unpublished, n. d.): 3.
  2. Choctaw Ave., looking East, McAlester, Okla. (1909), http://www.mygenealogyhound.com/vintage-postcards/oklahoma-postcards/OK-McAlester-Oklahoma-Choctaw-Avenue-Looking-East-vintage-postcard.html.
  3. Automobile Blue Book Publishing Company, The Official Automobile Blue Book 1920, vol. 7 (New York: Automobile Blue Book Publishing Company, 1920): 798, https://ia601208.us.archive.org/26/items/case_gv1024_a92_1920_v_7/case_gv1024_a92_1920_v_7.pdf.
  4. Atoka County Courthouse, https://www.atokaok.org/gallery.aspx?PID=141.
  5. The USGenWeb Project, Oklahoma Archives, Atoka County, http://www.usgwarchives.net/ok/atoka/atoka.html.
  6. Court Street, https://www.atokaok.org/gallery.aspx?PID=139.

Day Thirteen: Muskogee to McAlester, Oklahoma

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October 25, 2019

Retracing Lena Huppler Bevers’ Travel Log

Sat. – Oct. 25.

Left Muskogee, had fairly good road to Chekotah, ate dinner there and started out after dinner and had terrible road.  Stayed all nite in McAlester. – Lena Bevers

During the century since the Bevers family drove through Muskogee, Oklahoma, many of the buildings seen in the postcard below have been replaced.  But in the background on the left side of Broadway, there are two buildings that are still standing and can be seen in the photograph that I took today.  The most interesting building we saw was Grace Episcopal Church.  It was built in 1905 at 6th and Broadway, then in 1923 it was moved and enlarged at a site a couple blocks away.  The siding made of wood shingles was very attractive.

View of Broadway West from Second, Muskogee, Oklahoma, ca. 1915-1920 (Image provided courtesy of My Genealogy Hound at MyGenealogyHound.com)1
Broadway West from Second, Muskogee, Oklahoma (Photograph by MRW October 25, 2019)
Grace Episcopal Church, Muskogee, Oklahoma (Photograph by MRW October 25, 2019)
Throughout the city, there are painted guitars as reminders of the musical roots of Muskogee.(Photograph by MRW October 25, 2019)

On October 25, 1919 the Bevers family started out following the King of Trails and Jefferson Highways. Referring to Route 916 in The Official Automobile Blue Book 1920, the road is described as mostly graded dirt, with a 5-mile stretch of sandy road near the Canadian River and “some stretches of gravel where old RR grade has been utilized as highway.”2 Lena states that they “had fairly good road to Chekotah, ate dinner there.” To follow Herbert and Lena’s route today, we again headed south on U. S. Highway 69, a divided four-lane highway. At Checotah, we stopped for lunch and filled the car with gas. If the original King of Trails/Jefferson Highway was still in existence today, the following photograph shows what a driver would encounter when he reached about eight miles south of Checotah.

Between Onapa and Canadian, Oklahoma, some of the roads that the Bevers family traveled are now covered with the waters of Lake Eufaula (Photograph by MRW October 25, 2019)

The Eufaula Dam was completed in 1964, creating a reservoir fed by the Canadian River and other rivers.  “The [Eufaula Dam] project was authorized by the 1946 River and Harbor Act. It was designed by the Tulsa District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and built under the Corps supervision at a cost of $121,735,000. Construction was started in December 1956 and was completed for flood control operation in February 1964. President Lyndon B. Johnson dedicated the project on September 25, 1964.”3

Eufaula Dam (Photograph by MRW October 25, 2019)
(Photograph by MRW October 25, 2019)

(From The Official Automobile Blue Book 19204)

When arriving in Eufaula, a note in the running directions for Route 916 in the 1920 Blue Book tells the reader: “Make local inquiry regarding bridge over Canadian river and, if same is completed, use new highway going over same.”5  Lena and Herbert with their family arrived at this point only a few months before this guide book was published, so they may have had to make this inquiry to determine how to cross the Canadian River.  If the bridge was not completed yet, a motorist following the 1920 Blue Book directions would find that about six miles further down the route he would need to cross the Canadian River on a ferry.  In fact, this is what Herbert and Lena did, for at the end of Lena’s journal, she makes a final comment, stating that they were “ferried across the Canadian river.”6  The charge for using the ferry was $1.00.7  Below is a picture of a ferry at Boonville, Missouri, dated 1913.  Although this isn’t the ferry they utilized, nor is it the location where they were ferried, this photograph gives us an idea of what type of ferry they would have used.

Ferry across Missouri River at Boonville, Missouri, 1913 (Public Domain; Courtesy of Federal Highway Administration)8
The location of the ferry was at Wirth between Eufaula and Canadian. (Image provided courtesy of My Genealogy Hound at MyGenealogyHound.com)9 

“When the Jefferson Highway was first located through Eufaula the only way of crossing the South Canadian River, about four miles below the town, was by means of a rather uncertain ferry, and the citizens of Eufaula, feeling the great need of a good bridge across the river, incorporated The Jefferson Highway Bridge Company, and at a cost of almost a quarter of a million dollars, built the present splendid structure of steel and concrete, forty feet above low water, affording a 365 day crossing throughout the year. Already the traffic over this bridge, which was opened for use April 21, 1920, bids fair to justify the large expenditure upon it and it is rapidly becoming one of the notable landmarks of the neighborhood.”10

The approximate site of the ferry crossing where Herbert and Lena’s family crossed the Canadian River, about 5.5 miles south of Eufaula near U. S. Highway 69. (Photograph by MRW October 25, 2019)

Notes:

  1. Broadway West from Second, Muskogee, Okla. (ca. 1915-1920): http://www.mygenealogyhound.com/vintage-postcards/oklahoma-postcards/OK-Muskogee-Oklahoma-Broadway-West-From-Second-vintage-postcard.html.
  2. Automobile Blue Book Publishing Company, The Official Automobile Blue Book 1920, vol. 7 (New York: Automobile Blue Book Publishing Company, 1920): 797, https://ia601208.us.archive.org/26/items/case_gv1024_a92_1920_v_7/case_gv1024_a92_1920_v_7.pdf.
  3. U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, Tulsa District, History of Eufaula History: https://www.swt.usace.army.mil/Locations/Tulsa-District-Lakes/Oklahoma/Eufaula-Lake/History/.
  4. Automobile Blue Book Publishing Company, The Official Automobile Blue Book 1920, vol. 7: 797-798.
  5. Automobile Blue Book Publishing Company, The Official Automobile Blue Book 1920, vol. 7: 798.
  6. Lena Bevers, Our Trip to Texas (unpublished, 1919): 12.
  7. Automobile Blue Book Publishing Company, The Official Automobile Blue Book 1920, vol. 7: 798.
  8. Ferry across Missouri River at Boonville, MO (1913): https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/infrastructure/trgal35.cfm.
  9. McIntosh County, Oklahoma 1922 Map: http://www.mygenealogyhound.com/maps/oklahoma-maps/ok-mcintosh-county-oklahoma-1922-map.html#.
  10. John D. Benedict, Muskogee and Northeastern Oklahoma, vol. 1 (Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1922): 500, http://genealogytrails.com/oka/mcintosh/countyhistory.html.

Day Twelve: Miami to Muskogee, Oklahoma

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October 24, 2019

Retracing Lena Huppler Bevers Travel Log

Fri. – Oct. 24.

Left Miami, had muddy road in the forenoon but good in the afternoon.  Ate dinner at Big Cabin. Stayed all nite in Muskogee. – Lena Bevers

The town of Miami, Oklahoma, which was named after the Miami Indians and is pronounced “My-Am-Uh,”1 is only about 10 miles south of the border between Kansas and Oklahoma.  Presently, Miami’s Main Street is the longest main street on Historic Route 66.2  When the Bevers family arrived in Miami in 1919, Main Street was not yet designated as U. S. Highway 66.  That designation would not occur until the summer of 1926, and this designation “acknowledged the route as one of the nation’s principal east-west arteries.”3

The Bevers family may have entered the town through the “Gateway.”

“In the early 1900s a steel arch greeted visitors entering Miami (by train), as it spanned East Central Avenue (between C and D Streets) next to the railway station. … The arch was removed in the 1930s.”4

“Gateway”, Miami, Oklahoma (Courtesy of John Scherer)5

“As part of the city’s project to reinforce its Route 66 roots, a replica of the classic steel structure was planned in 2007. It was built and finally erected by Heck and Wicker Inc. in July 2012, but now on Main Street.

“The new steel structure with a triangular top, proclaims to all visitors ‘The Gateway, Miami, Okla.’”6

(Photograph by MRW October 24, 2019)
(Photograph by MRW October 24, 2019)
A view of Main Street in Miami, Oklahoma (Courtesy of John Scherer)6
Welcome Home Parade, Miami, Oklahoma, September 26, 1919. This event occurred one month before the Bevers Family drove through Miami. (Courtesy of John Scherer)

One of the architectural gems on Historical Route 66 is the Coleman Theater Beautiful, an historic vaudeville theatre with a Spanish Colonial Mission-style exterior and Louis XV interior, costing $600,000 to build.7  Tickets sold at $1.00 each when it opened April 18, 1929, ten years after Lena and Herbert had passed through the town.  Current “programming ranges from ballets and operas to country and western acts to jazz and dance bands. Plus, … silent movies with the ‘Mighty Wurlitzer’ providing the music and sound effects.”8  During a tour of the theater given by a woman who had begun performing on the stage when she was about five years old (which was probably in the late 1940s), my mother and I were very impressed with the interior design, the carvings and paintings, and the care that devoted volunteers have given to restore the theater to its former glamour.

Coleman Theater Beautiful (Photograph by MRW October 24, 2019)
The backdrop on the stage is 90 years old (Photograph by MRW October 24, 2019)
One of the tasks volunteers completed during restoration was applying gold leaf throughout the theater (Photograph by MRW October 24, 2019)
One of the highlights of our tour was hearing this Wurlitzer organ play, the pipes are on each side of the stage. (Photograph by MRW October 24, 2019)

Two other beautiful sights on Main Street in Miami are murals painted on the side walls of buildings.

Herbert and Mr. McElhany drove about 100 miles on October 24, 1919.  Lena wrote that they had a muddy road on their way to Big Cabin, which is 40 miles from Miami.  Due to the muddy road they probably were driving about 10 miles per hour.  Then in the afternoon the road was good, so they accomplished the 60-mile drive to Muskogee at about 15 miles per hour.  According to The Official Automobile Blue Book 1920, the speed laws in Oklahoma were regulated by the towns and cities.9

Before heading toward Big Cabin, we tried to locate a stretch of the original Historic Route 66.  It took about 45 minutes to find it because the directions I obtained from a website were not specific enough and there either wasn’t a road marker or we missed seeing a road marker.  When we felt we had gone too far, we asked my mother’s phone to navigate us to the location of The Ribbon Road and after passing it once, we finally located the road.  The Ribbon Road is only one lane.  “Legend has it that the funds were insufficient and that the engineers chose to build only one lane, nine-feet wide and pave the whole length between Miami and Afton rather than pave half the distance with a regular width road.”10

The Ribbon Road, a section of Historic Route 66 (Photograph by MRW October 24, 2019)

On the map below printed in the International Tourist Guide, the route on the left is the branch of the Jefferson Highway that the Bevers’ family traveled on this day.11  Route 36 in The Official Automobile Blue Book 1920 lists many of the towns that Lena and Florence record in their travel logs.  In the introduction to this route, it states: “This is a section of the King of Trails, the Jefferson highway and the Ozark trail.  Good supply stations and stopping places all along the route.”12 According to a 1924 Rand McNally map, the King of Trails Highway merged with the Jefferson Highway at Vinita.13  As my mother and I traveled this route, much of it on U. S. Highway 69, we found that the towns are still small except Muskogee.  In Big Cabin, where the Bevers had their dinner, there were only truck stops, so we decided to continue down the road to Pryor.  We ate lunch across the street from a building dated 1900.  Then continuing on, we arrived at our motel in Muskogee at 3:00 PM.

(Courtesy of Jefferson Highway Association)
Historic buildings in Vinita, the one on the right is dated 1910 (Photograph by MRW October 24, 2019)
Historic building in Pryor dated 1900 (Photograph by MRW October 24, 2019)

Notes:

  1. Miami Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, History, http://www.visitmiamiok.com/history/.
  2. Miami Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, Route 66 Miami Itinerary, http://www.visitmiamiok.com/map/route-66-miami-itenery/.
  3. National Park Service, U. S. Department of the Interior, https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/route66/origins_of%20Route66.html.
  4. The Complete Route-66 Online Travel Guide, “Miami ‘Gateway’ Portico,” https://www.theroute-66.com/miami.html#gateway.
  5. Gateway, Miami, Okla., http://schehrer2.homestead.com/Miami25.html.
  6. The Complete Route-66 Online Travel Guide, “Miami ‘Gateway’ Portico.
  7. Main Street, Miami, Oklahoma, http://schehrer2.homestead.com/Miami25.html.
  8. Shannon Duhon, The Coleman Theater Beautiful, http://www.colemantheatre.org/opening-weekend.
  9. Shannon Duhon, The Coleman Theater Beautiful.
  10. Automobile Blue Book Publishing Company, The Official Automobile Blue Book 1920, vol. 7 (New York: Automobile Blue Book Publishing Company, 1920): 864, https://ia601208.us.archive.org/26/items/case_gv1024_a92_1920_v_7/case_gv1024_a92_1920_v_7.pdf.
  11. Road Trip Journeys, TheRoute-66.com Online Travel Guide, https://www.theroute-66.com/ribbon-road-us66.html.
  12. Jefferson Highway Association, International Tourist Guide, Jefferson Highway (Saint Joseph, Missouri: Combe Printing Co., 1923): 31.
  13. Automobile Blue Book Publishing Company, The Official Automobile Blue Book 1920, vol. 7: 98.
  14. Rand McNally and Company, Commercial Atlas of America, “Auto Trails Map, District No. 12, Southern Nebraska, Eastern Colorado, Kansas, Northeastern New Mexico, Northern Oklahoma” (Chicago: Rand & McNally and Company, 1924): 372-373, https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~201708~3000668:AutoTrails-Map,-Southern-Nebraska.

Day Eleven: Fort Scott, Kansas to Miami, Oklahoma

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October 23, 2019

Retracing Lena Huppler Bevers’ Travel Log

Thurs. – Oct. 23.

Left Fort Scott, drove through the coal mines, ate dinner in Pittsburg.  Left there and drove through the rock salt mines and oil wells and had supper and stayed over night in Miami. – Lena Bevers

This morning when my mother and I were eating our breakfast at a fast food place in Fort Scott, Kansas, on the wall behind us there was a panoramic photograph of downtown Fort Scott in 1917.  Here is a picture I took of that photograph:

The town of Fort Scott had its beginnings as a small settlement beside the frontier fort of the same name.  The fort was established in 1842 and was “charged with keeping the peace between American Indians and white settlers.”1  The fort was abandoned in 1853, but the town continued to grow.

West Wall Street, Fort Scott, Kansas in 1916 (Courtesy of Bourbon County Historical Preservation Association, Kansas)

Before departing Fort Scott today, we spent a short time visiting one of the historic downtown streets and the site of the military fort.  The grounds of the fort are maintained by the National Park Service.  We briefly perused two of the exhibit halls.

Historic Downtown Fort Scott, Kansas (Photograph by MRW October 23, 2019)
(Photograph by MRW October 23, 2019)
Fort Scott parade grounds (Photograph by MRW October 23, 2019)
This army escort wagon was restored by Werner Wagon Works, the workshop where we were given a tour in Horton, Kansas, three days ago. (Photograph by MRW October 23, 2019)
The bricks under this cannon appeared to be original from the 1800s. (Photograph by MRW October 23, 2019)

When Herbert and Lena headed south with their family on October 23, 1919, they continued driving on the Jefferson Highway. Lena recorded that they drove through coal mines. Southeastern Kansas was filled with mining camps at that time. Mining companies were mining for coal using underground mine shafts. This technique of coal mining declined during the 1920s and 1930s and the last mineshaft was closed in 1960.2 The region looks different now than it did when Lena and Herbert were here. As we traveled down U. S. Highway 69, there was an intermingling of woodlands, pastures and crop fields.

“The tipple, engine house, and tailing pile of former Crowe Company No. 16 shaft mine, active in the 1920’s.”3 (Courtesy of Kansas State Historical Society, Copy and Reuse Restrictions Apply)
“Part of Croweburg Camp as it existed between 1910 and 1920. “Crackerbox” houses are in the foreground and squarish houses appear in the background.”4 (Courtesy of Kansas State Historical Society, Copy and Reuse Restrictions Apply)
“Croweburg Camp in eastern Crawford county about 1920. Squarish houses with “hipped” roofs were common in the company camp.”5 (Courtesy of Kansas State Historical Society, Copy and Reuse Restrictions Apply)

Lena wrote in her travel log that the Bevers family ate their dinner in Pittsburg, Kansas.  As my mother and I headed to Pittsburg to have lunch, we stopped in the town of Franklin and visited the Miners Hall Museum.

This replica of a pole marker of the Jefferson Highway was sitting in the Miners Hall Museum. (Photograph by MRW October 23, 2019)

A map from the Jefferson Highway International Guide shows two branches of the highway.6  The Bevers family was traveling on the branch on the left.  Lena’s daughter Florence recorded that they drove near Arma, Edward and Garland, had dinner in Pittsburg, then drove through Crestline, Riverton, Lowell, Baxter Springs, Picher, Cardin and Commerce.7

(Courtesy of Jefferson Highway Association)
(Courtesy of Jefferson Highway Association)8

One of the buildings that Lena and Herbert probably drove past in Pittsburg was the Stilwell Hotel.  The Jefferson Highway International Guide had an advertisement for the hotel.9  (See below in the upper left corner.)  On the opposite page there are advertisements of services for tourists.

(Courtesy of Jefferson Highway Association)
Stilwell Hotel (Photograph by MRW October 23, 2019)
At Baxter Springs, Historic U. S. Route 66 merged with U. S. Highway 69 (Photograph by MRW October 23, 2019)
Lena stated that they drove through rock salt mines and oil wells. This mound was the only evidence we saw along U. S. highway 69 of rock salt mining in the past and we did not see any oil wells. (Photograph by MRW October 23, 2019)

Lena only occasionally mentions the type of facility they stayed at each night.  The Jefferson Highway Association published a Tourist Camp Manual in 1923 which gives us a clue of what they may have done.  The manual identifies towns where tourists can camp along the highway.  One of the places noted in the manual is in Miami, Oklahoma.10  We ended our day by checking into a motel at 4:00 PM.

Notes:

  1. Kansas Historical Society, Fort Scott (February 2013), https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/fort-scott/17808.
  2. William E. Powell, Former Mining Communities of the Cherokee-Crawford Coal Field of Southeastern Kansas (Kansas Historical Quarterly, vol. 38, no. 2, Summer 1972): 187-99, https://www.kshs.org/p/former-mining-communities-of-the-cherokee-crawford-coal-field/13222.
  3. William E. Powell, Former Mining Communities of the Cherokee-Crawford Coal Field of Southeastern Kansas: 187-99.
  4. William E. Powell, Former Mining Communities of the Cherokee-Crawford Coal Field of Southeastern Kansas: 187-99.
  5. William E. Powell, Former Mining Communities of the Cherokee-Crawford Coal Field of Southeastern Kansas: 187-99.
  6. Jefferson Highway Association, International Tourist Guide, Jefferson Highway (Saint Joseph, Missouri: Combs Printing Co., 1923): 29.
  7. B. Winkelmann, Our Trip to Texas [Transcription of Our Trip to Texas by Florence Bevers, 1919] (unpublished, n. d.): 2.
  8. Jefferson Highway Association, International Tourist Guide, Jefferson Highway: 22.
  9. Jefferson Highway Association, International Tourist Guide, Jefferson Highway: 26-27.
  10. Jefferson Highway Association, Tourist Camp Manual, Jefferson Highway (Saint Joseph, Missouri: Combe Printing Co., 1923): 37.

Day Ten: Kansas City, Kansas to Fort Scott, Kansas

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October 22, 2019

Retracing Lena Huppler Bevers’ Travel Log

Wed. – Oct. 22.

Left Kansas City, Kan. about 9 o’clock.  Drove through Kansas City, Mo., drove around in it for about 2 hours trying to get out.  Ate dinner in Belton.  Ate supper on the road and stayed all night in Fort Scott. – Lena Bevers

The downtown business district of Kansas City, MO, is in the center background of this photo taken in 1915.1 (Courtesy of My Genealogy Hound)

On October 22, 1919 the Bevers family started their day by going across the Kansas river from Kansas City, Kansas to Kansas City, Missouri.  The running directions of Route 1042 of The Official Automobile Blue Book 1917 state that there was a 15-cent toll for crossing the Intercity Viaduct one-way and 25-cent toll for round-trip.2  (This is the bridge that crossed the Kansas River at Minnesota Avenue.)  But in the 1920 edition of the Blue Book, there is no toll.3  In 1917 Kansas City, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri bought the bridge and in 1918 the two cities opened the bridge as a free bridge.4  So when Herbert and Mr. McElhany drove over the viaduct they didn’t have to pay a toll.  A sister bridge was built in 1962.  The two bridges are now called the Lewis and Clark Viaduct.  Presently, the eastbound lanes of Interstate Highway 70 travel over the original inter-city viaduct built in 1907.5  When my mother and I crossed the Kansas River today, we were driving on the same bridge that Herbert and Lena drove on.

(From The Official Automobile Blue Book 19206)

Upon entering Missouri, the speed law was: “‘Careful and prudent manner’; not exceeding 25 miles per hour.”7  After crossing the bridge, the two-car caravan somehow lost their way in Kansas City, Missouri.  They “drove around in it for about 2 hours trying to get out.”8  Possibly they were trying to exit the city on the King of Trails Highway.  Lena only mentions traveling through one town between Kansas City and their final destination, Fort Scott, which doesn’t provide enough information to determine on which side of the Kansas-Missouri border they traveled on.  Florence’s travel log gives additional information: “Drove thru Stillwell, Louisburg, La Cygne, Trading Post, Pleasanton, Linton, Prescott, Fulton, and stayed all night in Ft. Scott.”9  According to a 1924 Rand McNally map of Nebraska and Kansas, the King of Trails Highway does not travel through any of those towns.10  Apparently, the highway they got on was the Jefferson Highway, another north-south transcontinental route.

The Jefferson Highway was envisioned by Edwin Thomas Meredith, a businessman and political activist of Des Moines, Iowa.11  He and a group of associates organized the national Jefferson Highway Association in 1915, establishing its terminal points as Winnipeg, Canada and New Orleans, Louisiana.  This gave the Jefferson Highway the distinction of being the first international route to transect the United States.  The highway was named in honor of President Thomas Jefferson for his role in the Louisiana Purchase.  It was also known as the “From Pine to Palm” route and “The Vacation Route of America.”

The Jefferson Highway Association published a guide book in 1923 to assist tourists when they were traveling on the Jefferson Highway.12  The image below is a map of three branches of the Jefferson Highway from Kansas City, Missouri to Fort Scott, Kansas.  The center branch goes through some of the towns in Florence’s list.  The map also shows four branches within the city limits.  This is one example of road designations in the early 1900s that confused automobile tourists.

(Courtesy of Jefferson Highway Association)

While in Kansas City, Missouri, my mother and I decided to go to the National World War 1 Memorial.  World War 1 ended on November 11, 1918 and the site for this Memorial was dedicated on November 1, 1921.  At the time of their trip to Texas, Herbert and Lena had two sons serving in the army, Clarence and Edgar.13

(Photograph by MRW October 22, 2019)
(Photograph by MRW October 22, 2019)
(Photograph by MRW October 22, 2019)
(Photograph by MRW October 22, 2019)
A view of Kansas City, Missouri, from the observation deck of the Liberty Memorial Tower (Photograph by MRW October 22, 2019)

From our motel in Kansas City, Kansas, it took about 45 minutes to get to the Memorial and we found the location quite easily.  When we left the memorial, we chose to take the city streets instead of a freeway and it took us about 45 minutes until we were out of the suburbs of the city, only having a little difficulty staying on our route.  Then it took another twenty minutes to arrive at Belton, the town where Lena wrote that they had their dinner.  Belton has an historical main street and we decided to have our lunch at a café that was decorated with Betty Boop and other retro décor.  It was nearly 2:00 PM when we ordered our lunch, a bison burger for me and a grilled ham and cheese for my mother.

(Photograph by MRW October 22, 2019)
This restored building in Belton, Missouri, is where we ate our lunch. (Photograph by MRW October 22, 2019)

When we left Belton, we traveled on a winding country road (Route Y), which eventually took us across the state border, back into Kansas. Upon arriving at Louisburg, one of the towns Florence mentioned, our only option to continue toward Fort Scott was U. S. Highway 69, a modern freeway.  A few times we got off the freeway to drive through towns in Florence’s list.  Two of the towns are utilizing old buildings for public libraries.  In Prescott, the library had formerly been a school house and we were invited inside to see the upstairs room that was set up as an historical classroom. We finally arrived at our motel at 5:00 PM.

Louisburg Public Library is in a 1917 building.(Photograph by MRW October 22, 2019)

Notes:

  1. Kansas City, Missouri, 1915, Business District, http://www.mygenealogyhound.com/vintage-photographs/missouri-photographs/MO-Kansas-City-Missouri-1915-Business-District-historic-photo.html.
  2. Automobile Blue Book Publishing Company, The Official Automobile Blue Book 1917, vol. 5 (New York: Automobile Blue Book Publishing Company, 1917): 1102, https://ia800405.us.archive.org/15/items/case_gv1024_a92_1917_vol_5/case_gv1024_a92_1917_vol_5.pdf.
  3. Automobile Blue Book Publishing Company, The Official Automobile Blue Book 1920, vol. 7 (New York: Automobile Blue Book Publishing Company, 1920): 165, https://ia601208.us.archive.org/26/items/case_gv1024_a92_1920_v_7/case_gv1024_a92_1920_v_7.pdf.
  4. Intercity Viaduct, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intercity_Viaduct.
  5. Intercity Viaduct, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intercity_Viaduct.
  6. Automobile Blue Book Publishing Company, The Official Automobile Blue Book 1920, vol. 7: 65-66.
  7. Automobile Blue Book Publishing Company, The Official Automobile Blue Book 1920, vol. 7: 863.
  8. Lena Bevers, Our Trip to Texas (unpublished, 1919): 3A.
  9. B. Winkelmann, Our Trip to Texas [Transcription of Our Trip to Texas by Florence Bevers, 1919] (unpublished, n. d.): 2.
  10. Rand McNally and Company, Commercial Atlas of America, “Auto Trails Map, District No. 12, Southern Nebraska, Eastern Colorado, Kansas, Northeastern New Mexico, Northern Oklahoma” (Chicago: Rand McNally & Company, 1924): 372-373, https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~201708~3000668:AutoTrails-Map,-Southern-Nebraska.
  11. Iowa Department of Transportation, History of the Interstate Trail, Jefferson Highway and Jefferson Association: 1, https://iowadot.gov/autotrails/history-of-the-jefferson-highway.
  12. Jefferson Highway Association, International Tourist Guide, Jefferson Highway (Saint Joseph, Missouri: Combs Printing Co., 1923): 25, https://jeffersonhighway.org/resources/Documents/JH-International-Tourist-Guide-1923.pdf.
  13. C. M. Bevers, personal communication with E. J. Jones (October 17, 2019).