history – Page 105 – Texas History Notebook

Larry McMurtry

Larry McMurtry was born in Archer City, Texas to William Jefferson and Hazel Ruth McIver McMurtry, a ranching family. He relates that his family had been ranchers since the 1870s and that it had included several trail drivers among his uncles and other relatives. Accordingly, some of his tales were developed from stories he had been told when he was a boy. McMurtry lived on a ranch south of Archer City near a local landmark known as “Idiot’s Ridge” until he was old enough to go to school and his parents moved into town.

James Earl Rudder

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James Earl Rudder was born in the community of Eden, Texas in Concho County to Dee Forest Rudder and Annie Clark Powell Rudder. Upon graduation from high school, he attended college in Stephenville at the former John Tarleton Agricultural College in 1928 and 1929 before transferring to Texas A&M, previously known as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas. After receiving his degree in Industrial Education, he began teaching and coaching football at Brady, Texas. He remained in Brady for a few years before becoming an instructor and coach at John Tarleton Agricultural College in 1938.

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The Barrow Gang Comes to North Texas

Bonnie and Clyde’s crime spree was short, only a few years, but whenever there happened to be an event involving them in a small town, people living there remembered it. There were at least two such events in North Texas’ Wise County.

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Mexia, Texas

Mexia is located in Limestone County in east central Texas. It was founded in the 1800s and lies just north of Fort Parker with Groesbeck being the nearest town to the south of the fort. Before the Anglo settlement began in the area, it was home to Native American tribes including the Comanche.

John B. Jones, Texas Ranger

Ranger John B. Jones was born on December 11, 1834 to Col. Henry Jones and Nancy Elizabeth Robertson Jones in South Carolina, the only son of five children. The family moved to Texas in 1839, settling near current day Austin. Mrs. Jones’ brother, Dr. Joseph William Robertson had settled in the area a couple of years earlier and at the time he was practicing medicine from a log cabin around what is now Congress Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets in Austin. Henry Jones had served in the militia and commanded a regiment under future President of the Republic Mirabeau B. Lamar. He had fought at the battle of Plum Creek and others and was elected to the first Texas Legislature that convened in February, 1846.