Law Officers Killed By The Barrow Gang: Cal Campbell (Victim 9)

Constable Cal Campbell was the last lawman to be killed by the Barrow gang.  The list of law officers who were victims of the gang is as follows:

Eugene Moore, Atoka, OK, 8/5/1932
Malcolm Davis, Dallas, TX 1/6/1933
Harry McGinnis, Joplin, MO 4/13/1933
Wes Harryman, Joplin, MO 4/13/1933
Henry D. Humphrey, Alma, AR 6/26/1933
Major Crowson, Huntsville, TX 1/16/1934
E. B. Wheeler, Grapevine, TX 4/1/1934
H. D. Murphy, Grapevine, TX 4/1/1934
Cal Campbell, Commerce, OK, 4/6/1934

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The Lubbock Brothers

Three brothers figure into the history of Texas.  They are Thomas, Francis and Henry Lubbock.  Colonel Thomas Saltus Lubbock is the brother for whom Lubbock county and the city of Lubbock is named.  He was born in South Carolina in 1817 and came to Texas early enough to participate in the Siege of Bexar in late 1835.  He was also a participant in the ill-fated Santa Fe Expedition in 1841.  Thomas was captured in New Mexico while Texas troops were on their way to Santa Fe.  He was taken to Mexico and imprisoned, but was one of two individuals to be able to escape.  He later made his way back to Texas.  When the Civil War broke out, he first served in an irregular unit comprised mostly of former Texas soldiers and Texas Rangers as scouts for the Confederate Army.  He and some others later joined the Confederate Army and were founding members of “Terry’s Texas Rangers,” the 8th Texas Cavalry.  Lubbock was promoted to Colonel and put in command of the regiment after the death of Benjamin Franklin Terry but happened to be ill with typhoid fever at the time.  Thomas died the following day on January 9, 1862 before he could take command.  He is buried in Glenwood Cemetery in Houston, Texas.

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NASA Comes to Texas

In the 1960s, the expansion of the United States space program was rightfully associated with President Kennedy.  However, it had begun during the presidential terms of President Eisenhower.  In January of 1960, President Eisenhower urged Congress to give a new civilian space agency full responsibility for the development of nonmilitary space exploration.  This article is intended to be an overview of the early days of the space program in Texas.  We would like to expand on this topic as we find more information.

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Jack Lummus, Medal of Honor Recipient

Jack Lummus was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions on the island of Iwo Jima during World War II.  According to a May, 1945 newspaper report based upon an interview with a fellow Marine, 1st Lt. Lummus was killed while leading an infantry and tank attack on the island on March 8, 1945.

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Alvis Edgar “Buck” Owens, Jr.

Buck Owens was born Alvis Edgar Owens, Jr. to Alvis Edgar and Macie Owens in Sherman, Texas in 1929.  He is said to have given himself the nickname of Buck after his favorite mule (alternately said to be a donkey or a horse in different accounts) when he was young.  His father, Alvis Edgar, Sr., was a sharecropping farmer in Grayson County, Texas.  In 1937, the family moved west to Arizona.  The family legend is that their trailer broke down near Phoenix, Arizona where they had other relatives, so they elected to settle there.  Similar to the stories of many other musical artists, Buck’s mother sang and played the piano at their home and in church.  Buck learned to play the guitar, mandolin and other instruments when he was a youth.  He dropped out of school at age thirteen to help the family survive and did all sorts of jobs to raise money.  As a young man, Buck began performing in honky-tonks to earn his living.  When he was about twenty, he married his first wife, the former Bonnie Campbell, a singer in a band both she and Buck played in called Mac and the Skillet Lickers.  Buck and Bonnie eventually moved to Bakersfield, California where Buck began to play around town and in the surrounding area. Buck and Bonnie would remain married for about five years.  He was married three more times.

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