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El Centro College History Department and small change enterprises Present

Dallas History

El Centro Field Trip

To Texas History Page // To History 1302 Page // To North/North Central Texas Page


Dallas Music and YouTube:
Songs with "Dallas" in the Name
"Dallas" t.v. show theme song
Dallas Freeway Tour
South Dallas Boogie
Dallas History 101
Dallas in the 1930s and 40s, Pt. 1
JFK Assassination - Zapruder Film

Links to Dallas History:

  • Texas Handbook Online - Enter your Texas topic in the search box. This is a very extensive site with almost anything you want to know about Texas.
  • African-American Museum (Dallas)
  • Dallas Historical Society
  • Sam Bass' Grave - Dallas train robber
  • John Neely Bryan - Dallas Founder
  • Dallas History on Wikipedia
  • Dallas History
  • Dallas Photos
  • Dallas Heritage Village
  • Sixth Floor Museum
  • La Reunion Utopian Experiment
  • Oak Cliff in Wikipedia
  • Oak Cliff History
  • Dallas Museum of Art
  • Dallas Observer Newspaper
  • Dallas Zoo
  • The Women's Museum
  • History of Railroads in Dallas
  • North Texas Travel and Photos
  • Dallas Library Archives
  • El Centro Field Trip
    El Centro Students at John Neely Bryan's Cabin

    HISTORY 1301 LECTURE RESOURCES:
    Dallas Cemeteries - Photos
    Dallas - Wikipedia
    John Neely Bryan
    La Reunion Utopian Experiment

    HISTORY 1302 LECTURE RESOURCES:
    Dallas Cemeteries - Photos
    Dallas History
    Sam Bass - Photo and Gravestone
    Oak Cliff - Wikipedia
    Oak Cliff History
    Old Red Courthouse
    Dallas County History
    Dallas Photos
    Lecture Notes
    Belle Starr Lyrics
    1873 Dallas Courthouse

     V.  It was a time of change - especially in Dallas and Texas
     

    1.  In times of change not unusual to see different reactions to
       that change.

      2.  In Texas we find a lot of denial; living in the past

      3.  Signs of this included:

       a.  1876 constitution revealed effort to hold on to the
        "Old Texas"

        (1)  favored rural, farmers
        (2)  emphasis on property ownership
        (3)  elimination of remnants of Reconstruction,
         decreased funding for education,  no
         protections for ex-slaves

       b.  In Texas, it had become something of an honor to
        be identified as an ex-Confederate, especially
        if running for public office

       c.  Though slaves gone, segregation spread; future of
        African-Americans in Texas uncertain in 1877

       d.  The future was also uncertain for Tejanos; many Texans
        were still fighting the Mexican War that had actually
        ended in 1848; violence and discrimination continued
        in 1877

      5.  There were some new things in Texas that Texans embraced

       a.  They liked the image of cowboys that cattle drives
        brought

        (1)  Brought good times to cowtowns like Ft. Worth
     

        b.  Texans also liked the railroads

        (1)  Dallas 1872; Ft. Worth 1876

       c.  Did not like all the results, though - brought crime

        (1)  1876 some 3,000 fugitives in Texas
        (2)  100,000 horses stolen 1875-8
        (3)  But Ft. Worth thrived in these conditions - part of
         today's downtown was known as "Hell's Half
         Acre"

      6.  Dallas also thrived but in a different way - more involved in
       the business environment stimulated by the Industrial
       Revolution

       a.  In 1877, Dallas was settling down

       b.  Most infamous had left like Belle Starr and Doc
        Holiday had left town in 1876

        (1)  BELLE STARR, the bandit queen
         (a)  born Myra Maybelle Shirley in
          Carthage, Mo., 1848
         (b)  an educated middle-class child,
          family hit hard times after Civil
          War and moved from Missouri
          to Texas (Scyene)
         (c)  she was bitter, life of "little rich girl"
          over
         (d)  became involved with various
          criminal types such as
          bank robber Thomas Younger
         (e)  married James C. Cole 1866
         (f) had daughter "Pearl" or Rosie Lee
              1868
         (g)  Cole got involved with criminal
          Cherokee by name of Tom Starr
         (h)  fled to California in 1869
         (i)  had second child, James in 1871
         (j)  she returned to Texas, left kids with
          parents, met Cole in Oklahoma,
          moved back to Texas
         (k)  Reed killed
         (l)  married Sam Starr in 1880, 3/4 Cherokee,
          moved to Arkansas
         (m)  1882 arrested, convicted larceny,
          served 9 months
         (n)  1886 arrested again & she surrendered,
          Sam on the run; she found not guilty
         (o)  Starr killed
         (p)  took up with Jack Sevier (a.k.a. Jack
          Spaniard), half Cherokee, hanged
          1889
         (q)  took up with Creek Indian Jim Judy
          (a.k.a. Jim Starr)
         (r)  Pearl became prostitute, Belle did not
          approve & even tried to get Pearl's
          daughter, Flossie
         (s)  Belle murdered mysteriously while
          on horse
         (t)  Epithet - "Shed not for her the bitter
          tear, Nor give the heart to vain
          regret, 'Tis but the casket that
          lies here, The gem that fills it
          sparkles yet." died 1889, two
          days before 41st birthday
     

        (2)  DOC HOLIDAY came to Texas for climate due
         to t.b., began practicing medicine but
         couldn't due to illness; turned to gambling
         (a) lst violent confrontation in Dallas with
          saloonkeeper, Jan. 2, 1875;
          arrested
         (b) then killed a prominent citizen, fled
     
         (c) became Faro dealer in Jacksboro near
          Ft. Richardson; killed soldier so fled to
          Colorado, Wyoming, N. Mexico and
          back to Texas
         (d) at Ft. Griffin, Texas, met "Big Nose" Kate
          Elder, a prostitute/dancehall girl;
          tumultuous relationship
         (e) also met WYATT EARP - legendary
          lawman of Dodge City, Kansas
          in 1870s
         (f) fled to Dodge City after killing another man
     
         (g)  helped Earp in a confrontation, became
          friends but continued to move around
         (h)  with Earp in 1881 at Gunfight at OK Corral,
          Tombstone, Arizona; no conviction
         (i)  died in 1887, Glenwood Springs, Co.
     

       c.  But, they had been replaced by a new breed of criminal -
        the train robbers

        (1)  in 1877, the talk of Dallas was the big
         Mesquite train robbery by Sam Bass
         (a)  illiterate, orphaned at 13, would up in
          Denton as cowpoke, herded cattle
          to Kansas & took pay to Deadwood
          where he lost it; began robbing
        (2)  but by 1878, he too had been killed at
         Round Rock, Tx, by lawmen

      8.  Dallas was a bustling city, and by 1890, the biggest
       city in Texas only to be surpassed by Houston and San
       Antonio in 1900

      9.  May show clip of "The Pioneer Spirit"

    a. The Industrial Revolution was having a big impact on Dallas
    b. Economic class more evident with opening of "poor farm" near Hutchins in 1870s
    c. Trinity River Navigation Co. brough steamships to Dallas in 1890s
    d. Commerce St. had a toll bridge
    e. Railroads, fire engines, and first Texas city with phone - Here in the Sanger Brothers Department Store to Sanger estate (Dept. Store now El Centro College)
    f. Water system began in 1881
    g. Electric lights came in 1883
    h. State Fair organized 1887
    j. 1888 Dallas Hams Baseball and first skyscraper (N. Texas Bldg.)
    i. Oak Cliff founded 1890 - merged with Dallas in 1903
    k. Electric cars replaced mule drawn trolleys
    l. 1891 football game - Dallas beat Ft. Worth
    m. 1897 first movies

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