Texas History Notebook

Tex Hughson

Cecil Carlton “Tex” Hughson was born February 9, 1916 in Buda, Texas to Cecil Hughson and Ada Rowland Hughson, a farming family. The 1920 federal census listed him as the middle of three children with an older sister and a younger brother. He grew up in Kyle, graduating from a small class there before enrolling at University of Texas at Austin. There he played baseball under Uncle Billy Disch, long time coach of the Longhorn baseball team and one of the individuals for whom the university’s Disch-Falk field is named. In 1937, Tex was named as a First Team All-Southwest Conference pitcher, earning a 9-2 record. His club went 11-6 that year and finished second in the Southwest Conference. 1937 was the only year during Disch’s last five season as head coach that his team did not win the Southwest Conference.

Jarrell Tornado, 1997

Jarrell, Texas is located in the northern part of Williamson County, about thirty miles north of Austin. It was founded in 1909 and named for O. D. Jarrell. It has been the site of two recorded tornadoes. The first occurrence was on May 17, 1989 when an F3 tornado touched down. The second and more devastating F5 tornado struck the area on May 27, 1997.

H. J. Justin

Herman Joseph Justin was born April 7, 1859 in Lafayette, Indiana to Nicholas Wilhelm Justen and Katherine Hubertz Justen. Both of his parents were born in Germany. H. J. was the oldest of their six children. Some biographies, including the Justin Boots website, list Nicholas’ profession as cigar maker, but in the 1870 and 1880 census he is listed as a tailor.

Ann Sheridan, Actress

Clara Lou “Ann” Sheridan was born in Dallas County, Texas on February 21, 1915 to George Washington Sheridan and Lula Stewart Warren Sheridan. A biography says that her family moved to Denton when she was 3 years old. Her father’s profession was listed as a machinist in a garage in the 1920 federal census and the family consisted of George W., Lula, their five children and George’s parents. George is said to have been a grand nephew of Union General Philip Henry Sheridan. Such a connection is not easy to verify using online genealogy records, although they may indeed be related in this way. Clara Lou was the youngest of the couple’s five children who lived to be adults.

G. H. Schoellkopf

Gottlieb Heinrich/Henry Schoellkopf was born in Germany on September 23, 1849. He came to the United States when he was a youth of 14. A newspaper article in the Amarillo Daily News of June 18. 1940 recounted his early days. Not long after the Civil War, G. H. Schoellkopf had come to Texas in the late 1860s, looking to acquire bison hides for a company of tanners and robe makers (possibly a company run by an uncle or some other relative) out of New York. He set up his first location at a former trading post in Indianola on the Gulf Coast. From there he began to travel around the state and into Mexico looking for hides. The article says Schoellkopf was impressed by the potential of the area and felt like there was an opportunity for him to operate his own business. He was motivated to stay in Texas after a storm hit the area and the waters, either a tidal wave or storm surge, destroyed his business. It would only be a few years later when the first of two monster storms would essentially wipe out Indianola, but this storm was large enough. Schoellkopf took the opportunity to relocate to Dallas, then a small trading village, in 1869.