Rural schools/pioneer names

By 1969-70, the new auditorium was added and named, Bailey Auditorium, in honor of the previous High School principal and superintendent, John Bailey, and his wife, Kate Bailey, senior English teacher. When someone makes a good impression over a long period of time, they might get a building named after them. There you have two good examples in the Breckenridge ISD of the L.T. Cook Gym and Bailey Auditorium.

By this time, all the rural schools had closed and students were bussed to Breckenridge. Caddo and Park’s Camp were among the last ones to close and consolidate with Breckenridge schools.

Some of the Breckenridge streets were named after the early pioneers. Here are the names of some of those streets and who they were named after:

*Wheeler - District Judge and Lt. Governor of Texas - Thomas Benton Wheeler

*Hullum - Wash Hullum who was one of the earliest settlers at Picketville and helped build the one of the first Picket houses.

*Baylor - The first white settler arrived - John L. Baylor - built a cabin and settled on Duck Creek, later named Gunsolus Creek. Baylor later became an Indian agent in this area.

*Gunsolus Creek - This was formerly Duck Creek, but was renamed after Dr.

Gunsolus who was one of the earlier settlers to Picketville.

*Miller - Arthur Miller helped fund and build the park and pool in Breckenridge and the park was initially named for him, as Arthur Miller Park. There also was an earlier Miller who settled in Stephens County. Most likely named for the earlier Millers who settled here. Among them was Dr. Miller who was the first murder victim by another doctor.

*Walker - Named for E.L. Walker, first County Judge, father of BreckenridgeStephens Walker, known as B.S. Walker. He was the first white baby born in Breckenridge. Both were prominent businessmen and civic leaders.

*Dyer - John Lewis Dyer- a ranchman in Stephens County. His father, John Lewis Dyer was an itinerant preacher.

*Lindsey - He was the first County Commissioner.

*McAmis - He was a merchant in Breckenridge and built the stone building on Walker St.

*Rose - He was a local merchant and became a County Judge.

*Veale- There are several entities named after the Veale family, who were early settlers to this area and the first lawyer on the main street of Breckenridge. Lulu Black Veale was from an early pioneer family, daughter of Henry Black, who came in 1876. There is Veale Creek, Veale St. and Veale Cem etery.

I’m sure there are many more that I am missing, but this gives you an idea behind some of the street names in Breckenridge. I expect the elder readers to come up with those that I missed.

Further tributes were made to two distinguished early civic leaders in Stephens County. There were many more, but I came across these two and thought I’d share.

Andrew J. Morgan wrote a tribute to C.M. Caldwell, who was a civic leader and partner of B.S. Walker in many land ventures during the oil boom and a strong businessman and a staunch civic leader. “In his Abilene office hung a canceled check for $189,000 which was used to help save the First National Bank, when the financial crisis came after the Boom days. He and the other directors of the FNB, which included William Black, Jack Black and B.S. Walker raised the money among themselves. These men all put up a total of one million dollars of their own money to save the FNB. It was the only bank at that time that was solvent and people actually re-deposited their money that they had removed a few days earlier when they thought the bank was going to close.”

Andrew J. Morgan also paid tribute to Mr. Henry Green - pioneer rancher. “These pioneers had to depend on themselves and their limited resources - there was no friendly paternal government to fall back on and bail them out. Theirs’ was a life of isolation - no means of transportation except their horse or maybe a wagon, and no means of communication. These pioneers had a spirit of independence and individualism which is the very essence of Democracy.” Henry Green’s grandfather came from East Texas and settled in the area that would become Shackelford County. Henry Green’s father grew up there on the open range before there were any fences. He sent his son, Henry Green, to private schools to get a good education and then sent him to Trinity University at Tuhuacana and then returned to Hillsboro where he established a furniture and undertaker business. He got Typhoid Fever and returned to the open range and the cattle business.

By 1876, the Hill country was very populated and there was no more Open Range to graze cattle. Henry Green’s father sold his cattle and with Mr. Witty, moved further west and drove a herd of range horses to the western part of Stephens County and the eastern section of Shackelford County and raised range horses there until 1891. By that time, even that area of Stephens and Shackelford Counties was being fenced and there was very little of the open range.

When the young Henry Green graduated from college in 1891 and wandered what he would do next, his father told him to buy a good saddle and return to Albany and search for the horses baring his brand and round them up and sell them to raise a stake to purchase land or lease it.

Henry Green sold all his cow ponies to the Matador Cattle Co. for $900. In the process of tracking down the horses, he found a large tract of land along Hubbard Creek that was not fenced. The land belonged to Col. E.H. Graham, for which the town of Graham is named. It was 8,000 acres and Green was told that Graham would not sell or lease the land. However, Green was able to persuade Col. Graham to allow him to lease the 8,000 acres. For the next 50 years, Henry Green was an upright citizen of Stephens County and had a broad knowledge of cattle and a keen business sense. He never sought power, just a quiet life of a gentleman with the attitude to make a better world.

Henry Green’s philosophy was, “We don’t need more money, not more knowledge, but a greater strength of character and moral stamina among our people. When these virtues are possessed, money and knowledge can be acquired, and civilization will continue to rise to greater heights.”

Mr. Green said, “Possibly if we each tended to our own business for a whole year, this country would be better off both financially and morally.”

Those were the kind of men who settled in this part of the western frontier and established towns, farms and ranches and suffered through the hardships that the land provided and solved those problems with independence, resilience and fortitude.