Texas History Notebook

Zachary Scott

Zachary Thomson Scott, Jr. was an actor. He was born in Austin, Texas to Zachary Thomson Scott, Sr. (1880 – 1964) and Sallie Lee Masterson Scott (1888 – 1983) on February 21, 1914. His father was a medical doctor who practiced most of his career in Austin. Zachary, Sr. happened to be studying medicine in Galveston in September 1900 when the hurricane struck the island. A 1978 newspaper account from the Galveston Daily News related that the future Dr. Scott was there at an infirmary working as an orderly when he decided to try and make a quick trip to see his parents in Central Texas. Zachary Sr.’s father, Richmond Lewis Scott was a dairy farmer in Bosque County in the Clifton area. The young man walked to the station and was told that they weren’t selling any tickets because the tracks were already partially submerged by water. So, he returned to the infirmary where he continued to work and helped others as the storm pounded the island. He survived the storm, completed medical school and in 1909, he married Sallie Lee Masterson. The couple had three children: Abigail Ann, Zachary, Jr. and Mary Lewis.

William Milton Tryon

William Milton Tryon (1809 – 1847) was an early Texas resident. His parents were William Tryon (1784 – 1820) and Jane Phillips Tryon (1790 – 1830). William Milton Tryon was born in New York to the couple and was the oldest of six children, three boys and three girls. William, the father, is sometimes said to be a descendant of the Loyalist (loyal to the Crown of England) Governor William Tryon (1723 – 1788). The Loyalist Tryon had served England as governor both of North Carolina and New York during the years 1765 to 1780. His title primarily had military responsibilities and he was actively engaged on behalf of the British during the Revolutionary War. The governor was born and died in England. Given the relative closeness of the ages the governor and the known ancestors of the Texas Tryon family, it is possible to determine that the father William Tryon does not appear to have been descended from the governor, though they may have had common ancestors back in England. The father’s ancestors are reasonably well identified in online genealogy sources and they had resided in America as far back as around 1700.

Jimmie Hudson Kolp

Jimmie Allene Hudson was born April 13, 1904 in Copperas Cove, Coryell County, Texas to Robert L. Hudson (1871 – 1912) and Ollie Maye Thompson Hudson (1873 – 1961). Jimmie was the middle child of three siblings. In the 1900 census, Robert’s profession was listed as “dreyman” which was a term to describe a person who drove a flat bed wagon. In 1910, Robert’s profession was listed as being a carrier for the United States mail. No cause of death is noted, but Robert passed away two years later at the age of forty when Jimmie was just eight years old. In 1914, Ollie Maye married a doctor named William Arthur Gault (1867 – 1950). Dr. Gault had been born in Travis County and was a member of the large family that included lawman Maney Gault, who was a cousin. Dr. Gault and Ollie later settled in Electra, Texas were he continued his medical practice.

Geronimo Parra

Geronimo Parra was the name of a long time criminal who was known around the Texas-New Mexico border area. He was one of the last outlaws executed by hanging in El Paso in early January, 1900. Some ten years earlier, Parra had been accused of killing Texas Ranger Charles H. Fusselman some ten years earlier.

Indianola

Hurricanes have always figured into Texas history. Twenty-five years before the well known hurricane that damaged so much of Galveston in 1900, another one struck the town of Indianola. Indianola was located roughly halfway between Galveston and Corpus Christi on the western side of Matagorda Bay. It is now a lightly inhabited community a few miles southeast of Port Lavaca, but once was a busy port.