Back in Boston

L to R: Rabbit sculpture, Working teapot

Dave and I were in Boston many years ago, basically wandering about on our own. This time we had two days of guided tours. The first was generic while the second focused on Harvard and the Freedom Trail. We learned some new things and took quite a lot of pictures. We didn’t actually get into the park to photograph the Make Way for Ducklings statues in Boston Public Garden, but we had seen them previously. The statues are a homage to the children’s book written and illustrated by Robert McCloskey (published in 1941). The story focuses on a pair of mallards who raise their family on an island in the park’s lagoon.

Hanging out in Halifax

L to R: Large waves, Cynthia with guide and lobster

Halifax was our favorite stop on our tour. The weather was cold, misty, and windy, but the scenery was wonderful; our guide was knowledgeable as well as good natured. During our visit to Peggy’s Cove we saw some of the largest waves of the season, and I had my picture taken with a live lobster. We also visited the cemetery in which are interred victims of the Titanic disaster.  Since Dave and I find cemeteries interesting, we were delighted to wander among the graves, reading the remembrances. All in all, it was one of the better shore excursions we experienced on this trip.

By and By in Baby Head

Near the former town of Baby Head

In our research for this short road trip, Dave ran found Baby Head Mountain on Google Maps. Being the curious person that he is, he had to see what had been written about the area. He was a bit appalled to find that the information about Baby Head was just as grizzly as the name implied. And after what he’d read, Baby Head became a destination rather than an aside to our road trip.

Downtown Desdemona

We needed a break from the home front so we decided to take a short

Freeways

road trip. Part of our quest was to see if we could find the town in which my maternal grandmother was born. However in the process we were going to take a look at several historical sites (Texas was first a part of Spain’s holdings before 1821, then it belonged to Mexico until becoming the Republic of Texas in 1836; it agreed to join the United States in 1845). The next few blogs are going to cover our road trip, one town at a time.

What’s New in New Fairfield

When you’re out roaming around sometimes you discover places you

Where we've been

didn’t know exist. I’m always looking for small Texas towns; what caused them to be built where they are, did anything special happen there, who lived here or does live here, is there a good place to eat in the area – all of these are questions I need answered.

Decatur Doings

For more than six months there’s been construction at an intersection

Buffalo

close to our house. Eventually there was a sign posted that gave information about what businesses were being built. We were a bit surprised that two restaurants were opening, a chicken place and a steak house. Both are Texas chains, but one we’d never sampled. And since it’s a hot Texas summer and doing outside exploring is rather limited by the temperature, we decided to make the journey to Decatur to sample the food at the original steak house before its clone arrived in the Keller area. Another reason for visiting Decatur was to see the hometown of the Dave’s movie idol, ‘Big Boy’ Williams.

Yonder in Euless

City of Euless

Before it was a town, the area near Euless was on the edge of Bird's Fort in 1841. The community actually began in about 1845, when Isham Crowley and a small party of pioneers reached the convergence of Big Bear and Little Bear creeks. There, on what is now the DFW airport grounds, a post office was founded in 1857, named Estill's Station. Nearby were a school, a church, a store, and a cotton gin. The post office closed in 1868 then reopened in 1881–1904, under the name Estelle. Most of the community gradually wandered away, moving to the present Euless and Irving.

A Pleasant Point

Not too far from Cleburne and from Keene is an old cemetery. We’d

Entrance to the cemetery

driven by a couple of times, but never stopped. On this pretty spring day, we did have a bit of time and decided to explore this small plot of history and art.

Elusive Elizabethtown

Coming from Denton I’ve passed the Buc ee’s and turned down highway 114 on more than one occasion. Off to the south of this highway I’ve

Highway sign

noticed a hotel, a gas station or two, and some apartments. What I didn’t know is that this was once the location of Elizabethtown, Texas. On a lovely, but cold and windy Monday Dave and I decided to go exploring.

Covering Coppell

Entry to Coppell

There are some towns that take you by surprise. I know that Coppell also has an excellent school district, and that the science program is particularly outstanding. It also has several interesting cemeteries, and some unusual places to eat.  I thought that Coppell was a town with a short history, but, as with many small towns, this is not the case.

To Tunisia – somewhere in Texas

Dido was a legendary queen of Carthage in Virgil's Aeneid. She killed

Pasture land near Dido

herself when Aeneas left her. That didn’t stop folks in Texas from naming a town after her. Now a ghost town, Dido has lots history and still is connected to the community.

Springing around Springtown

After loading up on holiday food, watching old movies, and generally

Area around Springtown

being lazy it was time to go exploring. We’ve been south of the Metroplex frequently, so taking some jaunts in a more northwardly direction seemed a good idea. Springtown was our destination, partly because we’d never been there, and partly because there was supposed to be a good Mexican restaurant within the environs.

History on Headstones

Headstone art

Dave plays golf at a number of clubs in near Keller and never likes to take the same route to them more than a couple of times. This means that he see some out-of-the-way places, discovers things of interest and gets lost a lot. Old cemeteries catch his attention because of the artwork on the monuments and the sometimes odd places they are located. One day neither of us was content to stay home, so we went to visit two of these graveyards that had aroused his curiosity.

Where, oh where is Birdville?

Almost every Saturday morning, a group of the Near-Normal Travelers meets for breakfast.

One of the oldest stores in Haltom City

Most of the time we go back to our one or two favorite places; these places are not over-crowded, particularly expensive, noisy, or gifted with surly waitresses. This weekend, however, we wanted to explore a place that has a rather intriguing reputation, so off we went to Haltom City. There’s not much information easily accessible about the history of Haltom City. Evidently it came into existence sometime around World War II when the war industry plants were built near Fort Worth. It was incorporated in 1950 and now has not only residences, but light industry and manufacturing. Interestingly, Haltom City is home to one of the oldest cemeteries in the area.

We did find information about two historical markers in Haltom City and they led us to New Trinity Cemetery. This cemetery began in 1886 when former slave, Reverend Greene

Top L to R: WWII Veteran, WWI Veteran
Bottom L to R: Stone from 1914, Historical Marker

Fretwell, died. There was no cemetery for African Americans in that part of Tarrant County so Mrs. Frances Fretwell, the Reverend’s widow, raised enough money to purchase two acres of land. It is here that Fretwell Cemetery and a small church were established. The original cemetery needed to be expanded, so in the 1920s adjacent land was purchased; this was referred to as the New Trinity Cemetery.  In 1931 more property was acquired and that section was named the People’s Burial Park. Currently these three cemeteries are called New Trinity Cemetery. There are several hundred souls laid to rest here, many of whom are veterans of World Wars I and II, and Masons. Also interred here is the founder of the first hospital for African Americans in Fort Worth, Dr. Riley Andrew Ransom. Next to his marker is the second Texas Historical Marker; it commemorates Dr. Ransom’s life. We were sad to see that there were lots of unmarked and damaged tombs; it was also obvious that while general mowing takes place occasionally, this graveyard need more complete care.

Children in Haltom City attend Birdville Independent School District. And this raises the

Phlox

question, just where is the town of Birdville and why does it have such a large school district? Unlike Haltom City, Birdville does have a written history. The first recorded settlement was in 1840 and was actually the predecessor to the establishment of a fort to protect the frontier from Indians. General Sam Houston sent Captain Jonathan Bird and 20 inexperienced Texas Rangers to build Bird's Fort on the north bank of the Trinity River. On September 29, 1843, some two years after the establishment of Bird’s Fort and several encounters with hostile tribes, General Houston along with Indian Commissioners, some early settlers, and a few trappers met with the Chiefs of Nine Tribes to sign a peace treaty. The troops at Bird’s Fort got added help in patrolling the area some six years later in the form of the establishment of Camp Worth. Troops remained there, eventually creating Fort Worth, until 1853 when they were sent to yet another dangerous outpost, Fort Belknap.

By 1850 the settlement had about 100 residents. These folks petitioned the state to create a new county which they named in honor of General E. H. Tarrant. The county boundaries at

Site of first Tarrant Count Courthouse

this time encompassed some 877 square miles. Birdville won the election and was named the county seat. A temporary court house was built while the city fathers obtained land, re-drew a map of the town and raised money to construct a brick court building. However, a permanent building was never erected because a special election in 1856, orchestrated by folks living in Fort Worth, over turned the previous decision (perhaps by as little as three votes) and the county seat was moved to its present location. All the records, equipment, and furniture were moved into a temporary building in Fort Worth. This election was contested over the next four years, costing several lives and about $30,000 in court costs. Ironically, all of these early records were lost in a fire that destroyed the courthouse building in 1876. Without the attraction of the county seat, businesses started to move out of the area and eventually the population fell to such a low level that other towns simply took over Birdville’s land area. By 1906 the Birdville Post Office had been discontinued with Fort Worth picking up the rural service. However, the Birdville School District was founded in 1896 and it has continued through today. Now the district covers 40 square miles, serving students from Haltom City, Hurst, North Richland Hills, Richland Hills, and Watauga. At the Birdville ISD administration complex is a small museum that tells the story of Birdville and has pictures from the early days.

Three and one-half carrots

Bluebonnet Café (2223 Haltom Rd, Haltom City, TX 76117, 817-834-4988) is a quirky place

Left T to B: Menu, Chicken fried steak and eggs, Bacon, eggs, grits
and biscuit
Center T to B: Coca-Cola Christmas, Coca-Cola wall
Right: Eggs, pork chop and grits

that, according to the regulars there, has been on that site forever. We got there around 9:30AM and were one of the last groups to be seated that didn’t have to wait. And speaking of places to sit, evidently there are some folks who will only sit in a particular server’s section so we got to watch a lot of jockeying for prime positions. Not only does this restaurant serve a broad cross-section of the Texas population, it also serves a lot of antique folks, as well. I hadn’t seen women with their hair in braided coronets in probably 20 years, but they were at this café. The rooms are also a step back in time; we were in the Coca Cola room, but behind us was the Elvis room and there were more rooms literally filled with memorabilia celebrating actors and singers of the 1950s. Our waitress was well equipped to deal with our nonsense and seemed to enjoy our sense of humor – always a good thing. The food was in much larger portions than I expected when I looked at the prices. Dave and I had large cups of very good, hot coffee. Dave and Andi had two eggs, pork chops and grits. Steve had a chicken fried steak and eggs. I had bacon, eggs and grits. These meals came with huge, fluffy, light biscuits and bowls of gravy. Although the place was jumping, our meal came out in a timely manner and it was correct. Everything was tasty, although both Andi and Dave said that while the pork chop was okay, they will try something different the next time we come. Steve and I were entirely satisfied with our meals. We all agreed that the biscuits were wonderful and that the gravy was good. While I was watching what other folks were eating, I spied the sticky bun; it came out steaming and would have fed at least two people. The order of biscuits and gravy came with three biscuits and a soup bowl of gravy; the woman at the next table looked at me and said, ‘I think I miscalculated the amount I can eat.’ We’ll be going back to this unique restaurant.

For information about my rating system, see Reading the Reviews.

Old tree

©2016 NearNormal Design and Production Studio - All rights including copyright of photographs and designs, as well as intellectual rights are reserved. 

Running around in Rendon

The community of Rendon is located on Farm to Market Road 1187 just about twelve miles

Pond on a farm in Rendon

southeast of downtown Fort Worth. The unincorporated town was named for Joaquin Rendon, the original land grant holder in the region. I can’t find any information about this man, and I’d like to know where he came from and what drew him to the area.  Originally known as Cross Roads, settlement began in the area with the arrival of the Hopper family. Evidently they farmed and raised cattle. That still occurs in this rural area, but on a much more limited basis. Where once there were cattle, there are now horses, donkeys, goats, llamas, and at one time commercially raised pigs and chickens. Until the late 1960s you could go down to the ‘chicken farms’ to get freshly slaughtered chickens or fresh eggs. Llama and horse ranches are also a latter addition to the Rendon area and smell a lot better than did the chickens and pigs. Back in the 1880s, the Norwood family also came to the area, helping to organize churches as well as bringing a general store and a post office. It was with the establishment of the post office that the name of the community was changed to Rendon. The Haddocks also arrived about this same time. By about 1895 Rendon boasted a flour mill, two gins, and a blacksmith, to serve a population of twenty-five. Norwood sold some acreage to the founders of the school and the cemetery about two years later. The Rendon School and the Rendon Cemetery were founded at that time. On the site of the original school house is a modern school that vacillates from housing alternative classes, to overflow elementary classes, to administrative offices; it’s now part of the Mansfield School District. By 1954 a volunteer fire department had been organized; the ‘new’ fire hall is on the site of the original. There are still fund raisers for this group that carry on the tradition of holding pancake breakfasts, and a Thanksgiving dinner; these activities pay for the fire and ambulance service that now takes care of more than 10,000 residents. At one time Near-Normal Traveler, Vince, was a member of the volunteer fire department as an EMT.

Marching through Mansfield

I’ve found a handy app for my phone; well, I think it’s handy, Dave may feel otherwise. The

Texas Historical Markers App

app is called ‘Texas History’; it has an image of a Farm Road sign, and it allows you to hunt for and/or identify historical markers. It links into Google Maps, and is accurate to within about 300 yards; this is why Dave may not be as excited about it as I am. He drives, I give directions, and we try to hone in on where this interesting marker may or may not be; sometimes it takes a while to find the marker. Since we know the Mansfield area well, we decided we’d try out this technology in that area.

Peeking in on Prague

The next series of Near-Normal Traveler Blogs reviews our tour/cruise with Viking. Since I’d

Alexej on the right

not taken a formal tour of anywhere in years, I had a bit of adjusting to do. First, and happily, I wasn’t in charge of anything. Second, and irritatingly, I wasn’t in charge of anything. In this episode we were taken around the old area of Prague by an excellent local tour guide. Alexej had been speaking English and doing tours for about 20 years – since she’d been in high school. When she began taking her required foreign language courses, the only language provided was Russian. However, midway through her junior year, Czechoslovakia became the Czech Republic; the students in the language classes refused to learn any more Russian and demanded to learn English. Luckily, their teacher spoke English and could comply with their wishes. That summer Alexej’s mother got her hired by a tour company and she’s been leading groups ever since.