Texas History Notebook

Eddie LeBaron

Edward Wayne LeBaron, Jr. was born January 7, 1930 to Edward Wayne LeBaron and Mabel Sims LeBaron. His grandfather Oscar LeBaron was a farmer who had moved his family to California from New York. Eddie was small in stature but was a gifted high school athlete at Oakdale High School near Modesto. He was also on the young side for his class year, entering high school at the age of 12 and graduating at 16. He signed with College of the Pacific, now known as University of the Pacific, in Stockton, California where his coach when he was a freshman was Amos Alonzo Stagg. At that time, Stagg was 84 years old and in the last year of his amazing career as an athlete and coach.

His first year playing for the Pacific Tigers, the team went 4-7. Their record over LeBaron’s next three years was 10-1, 7-1-2 and 11-0 under head coach Larry Siemering. In a 1990s document celebrating football history of the school, Siemering is listed as having been the head coach during three of the top four seasons in school history. Pacific dropped the sport in 1995 and it has since faded from football memories. However, the Tigers had some great football teams in its 47 year history with many players going on to professional football careers. In LeBaron’s senior year, he was one of eight players from the team who were drafted by the NFL.

LeBaron was highly regarded at Pacific. In 1947, Eddie was one of several players named to Associated Press’ Little All American team. In a newspaper article out of New York, it was mentioned that the honored players ranged in age from 17 to 26 with LeBaron being the youngest. The writer referred to Eddie as the “T-formation magician for the College of the Pacific.” In 1948, he was presented the Doug Vierra Memorial Trophy and was named the Pacific Tiger of the Year. The Vierra trophy was named in honor of a former player who had perished on a life raft off the coast of Iceland while attempting a rescue mission for the U. S. Navy in 1941.

Another 1948 newspaper headline was “Eddie LeBaron Looms A Potential Frankenstein.” The tongue in cheek article centered around LeBaron’s uncanny ability to fake football handoffs. It said that 19 year old LeBaron executed his fakes and handoffs so well that not even his coaches could follow where the ball was going. One assistant coach related an event from a recent game, a 14 to 7 loss against San Jose State. On one play LeBaron took the snap and faked to a runner before dropping back to complete a 55 yard pass. The referees had mistakenly thought the ball had been handed to a player who was tackled. The officials blew the whistle, ending the play, but had to nullify it and admit they had lost track of the ball. The assistant said that the staff quit trying to coach LeBaron on how to fake after that game. LeBaron held many school football records at Pacific. He was named an All-American in 1949 and inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1980.

A special article in the San Francisco Chronicle in the fall of 1948 noted that LeBaron, “College of the Pacific’s star quarterback,” had joined the Marine Corps Reserve. The article added that he would not have been subject to the draft until the following January, but when he was called up, LeBaron wanted to be a Marine. Eddie served two years with the Marine Corps after he left college. He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant and ultimately classified as a 1st Lieutenant. After basic training at Quantico, he arrived in Korea in 1951, spending nine months in country, seven months of which was on the front lines. According to a long interview he did for United States Naval Institute, he served with the 7th Marine Division including a push north to stop a Chinese drive from the Yalu River. He became a platoon leader and later senior platoon commander. During these months, he was wounded twice. LeBaron was a recipient of a Bronze Star and Purple Heart. Upon his honorable discharge, he joined the Redskins. His nickname became “the little general” due to his service with the Corps.

During his years as a professional player, he stood about 5’9″ tall and his usual playing weight was around 170 lb. Eddie played 7 seasons for the Redskins and 4 seasons for the Dallas Cowboys, the latter in the club’s expansion years. With the Redskins, he started in 58 of 82 games during which time the team record was 23-32-2. His first season, he followed former quarterback Sammy Baugh and was named Rookie of the Year. During his time as a Redskin, the club was at best an average team. He interrupted his career with the Redskins to play one season under his former coach Siemering with the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League, but returned to the Redskins after that year.

LeBaron went to the Dallas Cowboys in the NFL expansion draft with similar results, although he was a popular player with the franchise in those days. In the expansion draft, each club could protect a certain number of players, leaving others unprotected and eligible for the draft. LeBaron went to the Cowboys is said to have scored the first touchdown in the history of the club. The Cowboys only won five games, achieving a record of 5-22-1 during his tenure. With the Cowboys LeBaron started 30 of 52 games, giving way to Don Meredith in his final year, 1963. In his 11 year career, his total passing yardage was 13,399. Though it may pale in comparison to later quarterback production it was favorable for his era. LeBaron was named to four Pro Bowls during his career, three with the Redskins and one with the Cowboys. In four of his eleven seasons, he was ranked in the top 10 in pass completions; in five of his seasons, he was in the top 10 in passing yards and in eight of his eleven years, he was in the top 10 in passing touchdowns.

In an interview with the Cowboys for a club publication, LeBaron recalled that he was ready to retire while still with the Redskins, but that Cowboys’ Tex Schramm personally called him asking him to continue his career with the new club. In the same interview, regarding Meredith and LeBaron, each was said to be complimentary toward the other. The writer quotes Meredith as saying that LeBaron was “more my coach than Coach Landry.” Likewise, LeBaron said that he became close friends with Meredith and considered that part of his obligation with the Cowboys was to get Meredith ready to become the starting quarterback. The two remained good friends during and after football. LeBaron also was quite complimentary towards Coach Landry, noting his skill in recognizing opponents’ defensive vulnerabilities and allowing LeBaron to call audibles when when he saw certain defensive formations. He also mentioned Landry’s subtle and dry sense of humor of which most people were not aware.

During his professional football years, he earned a law degree and enjoyed a career as an attorney after his retirement as a player. He worked as a sports announcer for about five years beginning in the 1960s. He also served as general manager and in other front office capacities for about eight years with the Atlanta Falcons beginning in the late 1970s. Eddie died in 2015 at the age of 85 and was survived by his wife and children.

Theodore Brasher “T. B.” Baker

T. B. Baker was born on July 11, 1875 in Washington, Iowa to William Abner Baker and Luranah Grayson Baker. He was the youngest of seven children. His father was listed as being a farmer in most of the federal census reports and they resided in Kansas. T. B. was a single man of 25 in the 1900 census and was living with his parents in Eureka, Kansas, managing a hotel.

T. B. married the former Mabel “Mae” Crawley in 1902 in Miami, Oklahoma, her home town. A brief newspaper article noted that it was a small wedding at the home of the bride’s sister Lucy. Thereafter, T. B. and his wife were running the Greenwood Hotel in Eureka, Kansas. In October of that year, he was named manager of the Kingfisher Hotel in Kingfisher, Oklahoma. The local newspaper posted an article when his appointment was announced, adding that the hotel was in the process of being renovated and remodeled. In 1905 the couple had a daughter, Mary Louise, who died in Kansas two and a half years later of unknown causes. She was their only child.

The couple had relocated to San Antonio by about 1917. After a few years, Baker began to manage hotels for his own account. He owned and operated three properties in San Antonio. The St. Anthony Hotel on Travis Avenue was his first. It was built in 1909 by two cattlemen. The famous Menger Hotel on Alamo Plaza is said to be the oldest continuously operating hotel west of the Mississippi River and was completed in 1859 by German-born businessman William Menger. Located adjacent to the Alamo, it has been a popular and historic destination for more than 170 years. Also in San Antonio is the Gunter Hotel on St. Mary’s Street. It too was completed in 1909. Baker is believed to have owned each of the three hotels at least for a few years. All three of these hotels are still standing and in operation today.

Baker later built two hotels that were named for him. The first was in downtown Dallas and the second was in Mineral Wells. The hotel in Dallas was at the corner of Commerce and Akard streets. It replaced the Oriental Hotel which had been at that location since the early 1890s. Baker bought the property and the former structure was demolished in 1924 and construction of the new hotel began later that year. The features of the Baker Hotel were as follows: 18 floors, 700 rooms, a convention hall that could accommodate 1,700 people, a roof garden that could seat 2,100. For some time, it and other properties had been managed by other family members including a brother, William Rodem Baker and a nephew, Fenton J. Baker, who said that he grew up at the Dallas Baker. It was a popular location for downtown visitors, weddings, conventions and other gatherings. Radio station WFAA once had its broadcast studio there and future president Richard M. Nixon stayed there in 1963. The hotel operated for about 50 years at that location until it was acquired by a utility company which was blocking up properties for a headquarters building. It stood until June of 1980 when it was demolished.

A newspaper article on February 28, 1934 referenced a bankruptcy proceeding against the hotel company in connection with a lien held by a trustee in Chicago, Illinois. It was to have forced a sale of the Dallas hotel. In January, 1935 a newspaper article was published about a proposed plan of reorganization of the company. Further details are not available, but a reorganization plan appears to have been accepted by the court. The Dallas hotel appears to have remained in the hands of the hotel company until it was sold many years later.

The Baker Hotel in Mineral Wells opened in December 1929. The town was known for its mineral springs that flowed with water that supposedly had healing properties for drinking and bathing. An one time, there were an estimated 400 operating mineral wells in town. An earlier hotel not connected to Baker was called the Crazy Water Hotel which had 200 rooms. It suffered a fire in 1925 but reopened a couple of years later. Baker decided that the town could use another hotel and conceived a much larger structure than the Crazy Water property. His 14 story, 450 room hotel was an instant landmark and became a popular getaway destination for visitors from larger towns such as Dallas and Fort Worth. Local businesses served the water by the glass or cup. The hotel and other businesses evaporated the liquid and sold canisters of the remaining salty crystals so that people could mix it with their own tap water.

The property attracted well known entertainment acts and boasted a rooftop venue that accommodated hundreds of customers and smaller penthouse. Some of the celebrities and entertainers who stayed there include the Three Stooges, Lawrence Welk, Clark Gable, Judy Garland, Sophie Tucker, Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Dorsey Brothers, Lyndon B. Johnson, Roy Rogers and others. There was an Olympic sized outdoor pool filled with the spring-fed water.

The timing was somewhat problematic, since the opening followed only weeks after the devastating stock market crash which ushered in the Great Depression. Despite the horrendous national effects of the Depression, this hotel remained continuously open, surviving the Depression and operating until 1963. It finally closed for a number of reasons including the elimination of a local military base, increased competition, advances in medicine, government regulations concerning products’ claims of health benefits and declining production of the natural springs and mineral wells. Two years after it ceased operations, the Mineral Wells property was sold. Other than the two properties bearing the Baker name, it is unclear how or when the company owned hotels were disposed of.

In the twenty years since 1965, the Mineral Wells property has been the subject of several renovation plans but none of them have been completed. A new project was announced in the spring of 2026 with a target of reopening in 2028.

For a time, Baker leased the Galvez Hotel in Galveston, the Edson Hotel in Beaumont and the Stephen F. Austin Hotel in Austin. All three structures are still standing. Both the Galvez and Stephen F. Austin properties are operating hotels while the Edson is now owned by a utility company and serves as an office building. In the mid 1930s, T. B. was owner and managing director of the Texas Hotel in Fort Worth, at one time billed to be the city’s largest hotel. In 1935, a newspaper advertisement quoted the room rates to be $2.00 for a single room and $3.00 for a double room. The Texas Hotel is where President and Mrs. Kennedy stayed in 1963.

T. B. retired in 1952. In 1935 as part of a bankruptcy settlement, he had turned the management of the hotel company over to a nephew, Fenton J. Baker of Dallas, who succeeded him as President of the company. Mae Crawley Baker died in 1963 at the age of 86. T. B. Baker died in 1972 in San Antonio at the age of 96. Mr. and Mrs. Baker are buried in Kansas.

Jesse Robinson & Sally Scull

Jesse Robinson was born in Kentucky on February 11, 1800 to Charles Michael Robinson and Nancy Wood (or possibly Jannet Ray Robinson, as genealogy records differ). Jesse Robinson is rarely mentioned without reference to his first wife, Sally Newman, more famously known as Sally Scull, or Skull.

The date that Jesse came to Texas is still somewhat unsettled. Some accounts have him coming to Texas in 1822. He is not considered to be one of the “Old 300” of Austin Colony, but is believed to have been a member of the colony’s volunteer militia, considered to be the genesis organization for the Texas Rangers. Favoring this account, one of the families of Austin Colony was headed up by Joseph Newman, Sally’s father. In 1824, militia members including Robinson are said to have rescued the Newmans and a related family named Rabb from an Indian raid. Sally would have been a child at that time, but the stories suggest that this may have been how the Robinson and the Newmans met. In other accounts, he is said to be a member of the DeWitt Colony who arrived a few years later in 1827.

Robinson and Sarah Jane (Sally) Newman were married in late 1833. The couple had two children who lived to be adults, a daughter and a son, and possibly two more children who died in infancy. Sally and Jesse were later divorced in 1847.

Robinson received at least two land grants in the 1830s, the first of which was in DeWitt’s colony and was located on the San Marcus River north of Gonzales. He served in the Texas army in late 1835 and 1836. He is mentioned as participating in the Battle of Concepcion through the Battle of San Jacinto. Robinson has a biographical page on the website of the San Jacinto Museum of the Battlefield. In addition, Robinson took part in other events connected to the Texas Revolution including the pursuit of the retreating Mexican army under General Woll after Woll’s attempted invasion in the early fall of 1842. After the conflicts with Mexico finally died down, Robinson settled in Live Oak County. Some accounts have him being married to an Elizabeth Ann McFarlin but little is known of her. No children appear to have been born to any union of the two and they do not appear to have been married very long.

Federal census records are as follows. In 1850, he was living in Lavaca County with his two children by Sally. In 1860, Jesse was a member of the household of his son Alfred and living in Live Oak County. In 1880, at 80 years of age, he was living with the very large family of Alfred still in Live Oak County. Jesse died in December of 1882 and is buried in Latham Cemetery in George West, Texas.

A Texas historical marker was established for Robinson and was installed in 1973 at the Latham Cemetery with the following text, “A soldier in the Texas War for Independence. Born in Kentucky, in 1822 came to Texas. Became (1823) one of first Texas Rangers. Later fought in battles of Concepcion, on October 28, 1835, and San Jacinto, April 21, 1836. Served as a Ranger (1841) and in Republic of Texas forces resisting Woll invasion, 1842. Robinson bred fine horses and attended Gussettville races. He married Sarah Jane Newman (Sally Skull). Had three children, spent last years here, with son Alfred.” 1973. (Image credit: Findagrave)

The stories and legends that involve Sally Newman are quite colorful. Normally they focus on her five marriages, her independent and pugnacious nature and legends about her final end. She was born in 1817 in Illinois to Joseph Austin Newman and Rachel Elizabeth Rabb. Her family came to Texas as part of the Austin Colony. “Austin” was a Newman family name and some accounts say that the Newman family were cousins to the Moses Austin family, although they do not appear to be closely related.

Her husbands were Robinson, George Scull, John Doyle, Isaiah Wadkins and Christopher Horsdorff. A few days after her 1843 divorce from Robinson, she married George Scull. Scull was supposedly a survivor of the Goliad massacre. Scull was not his birth name but he adopted it after surviving a serious head wound. Scull was a gunsmith by trade. They lived for a while on a ranch owned by one or both of them near Goliad. Scull disappeared after they had been married about six years. There were various stories about how he had been killed by Indians or that he had left her while on a horse trading trip, but he was out of her life at some point. For a while thereafter, she continued to use his last name but adopted the spelling “Skull.” She settled for a time in Banquete, Texas in Nueces County. In 1852 she was married for a short while to John Doyle who also disappeared later. Her fourth husband was Isaiah Wadkins whom she married in 1855. The story about Wadkins is that she divorced him a few years later after he left her for another woman. Her last marriage was to Horsdorff. By then it was around 1860.

Sally was said to have operated several businesses. She was in the horse business and had driven mule teams. During the Civil War she made her living by hauling and selling cotton for the Confederacy. Her horse brand was the Circle S. She had a reputation of being intense, quick tempered and fluent in foul language. She was rumored to have possibly killed one or more of her missing husbands, although she was never charged with such a crime. She was also rumored to have stolen horses. Sally was an expert horsewoman and was known to be a good shot with her rifle or one of the two pistols she often wore.

She lived many different places in Texas. Often her travels took her south of the border. On one occasion, she was allegedly captured and imprisoned by Mexican activist Juan Cortina. Her legend was enhanced by the story that she was released after winning a poker hand against Cortina who was amused and intrigued by her unconventional personality and behavior. Another anecdote has her losing a team of mules in a Nueces River flood. Scull is said to have remarked that she would rather have lost the best husband she ever had than to lose “them good mules.”

Sally was not heard of after about 1866. There are alternative legends about her death or disappearance as well. One was that her last husband or someone else had killed her for the money she carried with her. Another was that she had changed her name, relocated to another location in Texas and lived to an old age.

There is a historical marker for her, as well, installed in Refugio, Texas. Its text is as follows, “Woman rancher, horse trader, champion ‘cusser.’ Ranched NW of here. In Civil War Texas, Sally Scull (or Skull) freight wagons took cotton to Mexico to swap for guns, ammunition, medicine, coffee, shoes, clothing and other goods vital to the Confederacy. Dressed in trousers, Mrs. Scull bossed armed employees; was sure shot with the rifle carried on her saddle or the two pistols strapped to her waist. Of good family, she had children cared for in New Orleans school. Often visited them. Loved dancing. Yet during the war, did extremely hazardous ‘man’s work.'” (Image credit: Historical Marker Database)

Sarah Ann Hardin-Kelton

There is a Texas Centennial historical marker honoring Sarah Hardin-Kelton. The text is spare and states, “Widow of William Hardin before her marriage to Dr. O. P. Kelton. Many of the Mexican officers and men were placed in the care of Judge and Mrs. Hardin after the victory at San Jacinto and were mercifully treated by them. Born August 27, 1806. Died.” (Punctuation added.) The marker is placed in South Belton Cemetery in Bell County, Texas. Her date of death was not entered on the marker and still appears to be unknown at this time.

Lawrence Sullivan “Sul” Ross

Sul Ross was born September 27, 1838 to Shapley Prince Ross and Catherine Hanby Fulkerson Ross in a family community in Iowa, then still a territory. He was the fourth of their eight children. Per Judith Ann Brenner’s fine biography, he was named for three family members including his great grandfather Lawrence Ross and an uncle in the Ross family named Giles Sullivan. As a child he was known as “Little Sul” and later just “Sul,” the nickname by which he became known. The biography notes that his great grandfather Lawrence had been captured by Indians from his Virginia school when he was six and lived with Cherokees until he was twenty-three and had to be persuaded to return to his family.