Opinion

Another influential family to settle at Eliasville initially was the Cunningham family. Initially, Dr. Hugh Wilson, had come to Texas in 1837, after serving as a missionary to the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians in Mississippi. He helped organize the first U.S.A. Presbyterian Church in Texas and was the founder of Austin College. The governor of Texas at the time, Elisha M. Pease, awarded Dr. Wilson a Headright Land Grant of two sections of land in Coryell County, which would mean 640 acres x 2, due to the new Headright Land Grant signed by President Lincoln in 1862, the person would now get 1,280 acres for two sections of land. As a result, his great-grandson, William Wilson Cunningham and his new wife, Ella (Owen) Cunningham moved to that land in 1884. Then in 1893, the family sold that land and moved on to Eliasville, where they purchased land along the Clear Fork of the Brazos. The men folk first moved all the stock and household goods and then the grandmother, mother and younger children arrived in Albany, by train. The men met them with wagons and transported the whole family to their new home in Eliasville.

The state’s unemployment rate dropped to 6.8% in January, down a tick from December’s 6.9% rate but double the record low of 3.4% in May 2019. It is unclear what effect the mid-February winter storm had on employment, when power outages swept the state and many roads were impassable. We’ll find out next month.

There are several very good insurance commercials on television these days. Veterans, sports personalities, cartoon characters, and even an emu all take their turns entertaining and drawing you in to the “really good deals” with their companies. To hear them tell it, only their company really cares about you. They will be there when you need them. They will be waiting for your call. They will not make you pay for something you don’t need. All of them, even the emu, can be proud of some really good advertising minutes.

I watched today as a mother gave her little boy his medication … probably for a cold or sinus infection. They were eating in a restaurant … social distancing … where he was being treated to a pile of French fries and “whatever he wanted.” She spooned the orange-colored liquid into his open mouth. He made a face. Then they high-fived and ordered ice cream.

The One Act Play advanced. We head to the next competition on the 22nd and the 23rd. Join us for a dessert theatre in the Old Gym on Sunday, March 21, at 3 p.m. If you wish to make a donation, money will be used to help pay for our trip.

Parks Camp was located where the Guerrant Ranch is located currently on FM. Rd. 576 E. The Camp Town was established in the spring of 1918, as a company town for the employees of the Texas Company, later known as Texaco.

As Texans across the state continue to deal with the damage from the mid-February winter storm, so does the political fallout in Austin.