Dalby Springs, Texas

One day about 60 years ago, I got in from school and, after putting my books away, went into the kitchen. My mother was already working on supper.

I noticed a fruit jar with what appeared to be red water sitting on the window sill. I asked my mother what was in the jar.

“That’s mineral water from Dalby Springs,” she said. “It’s good for you.”

I thought, It’s red. Water is supposed to be clear. I’m not drinking it.

My mother talked about Dalby Springs now and then. I think maybe she had relatives there, or near abouts there. Or maybe Dalby Springs was an interesting place because of the curative springs.

I didn’t visit Dalby Springs until 2002, when talking with and researching residents and landowners whose homes or farms or ranches would be flooded if Dallas-Fort Worth water districts got their way and had a 64,000-acre-foot lake dug and hacked and scoured into parts of Red River, Titus, Morris and Bowie counties in Northeast Texas. I had an idea of writing a magazine story on the people who lived in the area and how their ways of live would be destroyed by city folk who wanted thick green lawns and golf courses at the expense of people who did not like or trust cities.

Shirley Shumake was my guide to the area. Her brother Max founded Save Our Sulphur, named after the Sulphur River, which flows across several Texas and Arkansas counties before joining the Red River. Dams near Cooper and Texarkana already impound thousands of acre feet of the Sulphur River. The Dallas area gets much of Cooper Lake water, pumped through six-foot-tall concrete pipes stretching underground about 80 miles. Residents of the affected counties saw no reason their land should succumb to flooding just to satisfy the egos of people who seem to want more and more of what belongs to somebody else.

Shirley showed me around Dalby Springs, what there is to be seen these days. What most impressed me was the wall of a rent house owned by Dickie Dalby, great-great-great-grandson of Warren Dalby, the first settler in what was to become Dalby Springs.

A wall in a bedroom of the rent house was part of the original log cabin Warren Dalby built in 1842. History, right there to see and to touch. If I remember correctly, all of the Dalby cabin is preserved behind more modern walls.

I never wrote the magazine article, but here is a piece from The Handbook of Texas Online:

“Dalby Springs is a community eleven miles from DeKalb in southwestern Bowie County. It was named for the nearby Dalby Springs. Settlement in the area began in 1839 with the arrival of Warren Dalby and his family. In the 1850s the springs were discovered to have medicinal properties, and as word spread, people began to visit the area to drink from the springs. Buildings were erected to accommodate travelers, and in 1860 a post office was established there, with Joseph G. Dalby as postmaster. By 1884 the town had a church, a school, five mills, five gins, and a population estimated at 250. During the 1890s a newspaper called the Guest was published there. By 1900 the community's population had fallen to 186. It continued to be reported at about that level until the 1950s, when it fell to fifty. In 1984 Dalby Springs reported an estimated population of sixty and no rated businesses. In 1990 and in 2000 its population was estimated at 141.”

https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hnd03

Murder most foul in Dalby Springs

In July 1865, with the body of a man who had been shot to death, and a murder suspect, but no elected judge for the county or judicial district, Dalby Springs residents appointed a trial chairman, a secretary, a guard on the defendant, 12 jurors and an attorney for the defense and prepared to try one of their own.

Attorney A.H. Latimer had asked district military judge B.W. Gray of Mount Pleasant to conduct the trial, but Gray did not respond. At that time, Texas was under military control of the U.S. Army, with all previous office holders who served under the Confederate government ousted from their positions. The Army-appointed officials ruled as they saw fit.

From U.S. Roots:

“On July 18, 1865, 60 citizens of Bowie and surrounding counties met and wrote, ‘We have only one recourse and feel that our lives, our property, and the safety of all those looking to us for protection demand our speedy action in the premises.  We will proceed to the trial of the accused according to the law and evidence, not admitting any evidence for or against the accused that would be excluded at a trial before a regular court.'

“Warren K. Dalby was required to act as chairman and William E. Estes was required to act as secretary and Luke C.Powell was required to detail a guard and take charge of the prisoners.  A. H. Latimer was appointed to act as assistant chairman and they proceeded with the trial.

“The prisoner was introduced and a jury of 12 men of lawful age selected.  The records read ‘J. M. McCowen, Harvey Daughterty, James. Easton, William Hall, T.P.Curbow, J.J. McClusky, W.H. Harrison, S.R. Proctor, K.H. Willowford, R.P. Lumpkin, Joe Hudgins and W.S. Proctor were duty empaneled.’

“The prisoner was informed that he was charged with murder to which he pleaded not guilty.

“W.E. Estes was appointed to act as attorney for the accused and G.D. Dalby was appointed secretary to fill the vacancy.

“Witnesses were F.M. Fulgham, Captain James Clark, R.S. Greenhaw, D.B. Burks, J. Thomas, William Greenhaw, L. C.Powell, Thomas Treen, James Phillips, J.L. Criner.

“The witnesses testified they saw the slain man and the accused riding off into the woods on their horses and saw a gun on the accused.

“They said they had seen the accused and slain man's wife together on many occasions.

“The case was submitted to the jury who gave a verdict, ‘Guilty of murder in the first degree.’

“The convicted man ‘was ordered to be kept in close confinement until the next day when he was to be hung by the neck until he was dead.’ Soon after the trial and conviction, a pine coffin was made by some members of the citizen's court and the coffin was placed in a two horse wagon and driven by a Negro named Ferry.  The convicted man was made to get into the wagon and they were driven to the spot where the murdered man's body was found.  The wagon was followed by the group of citizens and the convicted man was blindfolded and hung on a tree.  He was then buried in a grave which had been dug under the tree.

“The wife of the murdered man had been kept tied to a bed post since the discovery of the murder.  After the trial, she was set free and according to documents, ‘she left Dalby Springs and was never heard from again.’"

http://www.usroots.com/~jmautrey/towns/dalbysprings.htm

(The murdered man’s wife admitted she and the accused were involved in an affair and further admitted that she was aware of his intentions,)

Red Lick wants its own control

“The City of Red Lick was incorporated in August of 1997 in an effort to maintain local control over the issues that we face.  As of the 2010 U.S. Census, we had 1008 residents.  Our population is made up of families that have been here for several generations and also new families that have moved here because Red Lick fits their needs.  We are a residential community with a great school that consistently performs with the highest of marks.  We are serviced by an all-volunteer fire department that trains hard and has dedicated leadership and excellent response times.  The Council has managed to keep the tax rate as one of the lowest in the County.”

http://www.cityofredlicktx.com/

Red Lick is in Bowie County Texas, which is up in the northeast corner of the state. One story attributes the town’s name to observations of deer licking the red clay that is the dominant soil makeup in the area.

Demographics from federal census show the population breakdown of 94 percent White, and 3 percent African American. Other races each make up less than 1 percent of the population. For every 100 women age 18 and older, there are 88 men.

Median family income is $60,313. About 4 percent of families and the same percentage of the overall population lives below the federally-determined poverty line.

The Handbook of Texas Online says:

 Red Lick is a small town located off Farm Road 2148 about seven miles west of Texarkana in northeastern Bowie County. The community began in the 1860s and was named by residents who observed that a nearby red clay hill served as a salt lick for area deer. By the late 1800s social life centered around the Red Lick Methodist Episcopal Church, South, founded in 1885. The Bob Bonner family donated land for the wooden structure that also functioned as a lodge hall and school. Eventually a cemetery was located on an adjacent tract to the north. Church records in the early 1890s listed seventy names, and in 1906 church trustees included members of the Hargis, Earnest, Edwards, Medley, and White families. In 1909 a fire destroyed the church, but the congregation constructed another two-story building on that site. That structure suffered heavy damage in June 1935 when a tornado hit the community. Red Lick maintained its country school throughout the decades just prior to and after World War II. Farm Road 2148 was built through the area in the 1950s. In 1968 the church name was changed to Red Lick United Methodist Church. No population figures were available for Red Lick throughout most of the twentieth century until 1990, when the village had an estimated 448 residents. The Methodist church received a historical marker in 1992. Residents, concerned over the encroachment of nearby Texarkana, voted to incorporate Red Lick in 1997, and in 2000 the town had a mayor and council and a volunteer fire department. The population was 853.

https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hlr53

You had to be from there to know where it was

Old Boston, Texas, is not the same as Boston, Texas, or New Boston, Texas. Each is on Texas Highway 8, but each is an independent community. Coming north along Highway 8 from its intersection with U.S. Highway 67, the first big cluster of houses is Old Boston. Go on up the highway and you will come to Boston. It and New Boston have pretty much conglomerated into one sort-of urban area. But if you are from there, you know the difference.

Boston used to be the county seat of Bowie County, which used to be part of Red River County, as did all of North Texas, all the way out to where Wichita Falls is today. A new county courthouse was built in New Boston in 1986. The old courthouse was not large enough for renovation into a modern facility, and (just a guess) the folks who mattered wanted a new courthouse, preferably near enough Interstate 30 that drivers by could see the progressive nature of Bowie County.

Wikipedia says an arsonist burned the old courthouse on the night of August 13, 1987. The burning solved the problem of what to do with the old white brick building. Preservationists wanted the building restored; others said it was old and would cost too much money, and, besides, the county had a brand-spankin’ new courthouse five miles away.

That fire was about five and a half years before the Hill County Courthouse fire, an event that caused preservationists and the Texas Legislature to get together and put up quite a few hundreds of millions of dollars for restoring old courthouses.

Here is a link to a map of courthouse restoration:

http://www.thc.texas.gov/public/upload/preserve/courthouses/files/thcpp-projects-map-2017.pdf

The old Bowie County Jail still stands in the courthouse area.

Here is a link to satellite images of the Old Boston-Boston-New Boston area:

https://www.google.com/maps/@33.404978,-94.414058,1999m/data=!3m1!1e3

My family lived in Old Boston and Boston. My father’s parents lived in Boston and New Boston. They are buried in a cemetery not far southwest of the old courthouse area. I don’t remember anything about Old Boston and very little about living in Boston. They are okay places to visit.