Llano in 1917 - Part Three

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Written by John Hallowell

       On February 8, 1917, The Llano News reported that the U.S. had broken off diplomatic relations with Germany. It was the middle of World War 1, and American sympathies were mainly with England and France, but most were still hoping that the U.S. could stay out of the war. The headline said, “Let us Hope that no ‘Overt Act’ on the part of Germany will Occur to Precipitate War.” A separate article told how Congress was appropriating $15 million to “prepare the country for whatever may follow” by strengthening the nation’s military.

       Closer to home, the Llano County Good Roads Association and the Llano Business League called a “mass meeting” at the courthouse to discuss transportation needs and solutions.

       C.E. Shults announced that he had hired S.B. Zittle, who had formerly managed hotels in San Antonio, Marlin and Bay City, to manage his hotel (still called “Franklin” pending results of the re-naming contest). As renovations neared completion, Mr. Zittle’s attention was focused on furnishing the hotel, and he had already placed an ad seeking local goods and services wherever possible for the classy “new” hotel.

       Local Boy Scouts had been busy beautifying the downtown area (especially the “approach to the main part of the town from the Southern Hotel,” and a front-page article bragged that the “walk way is improved a hundred per cent.”

       Watkins Auto Sales purchased a business lot from A.G. Bradley, “across the street from the Buie Garage, a few doors east of the post office. It is part of the livery stable property which Mr. Bradley has owned for some years.” The article explained that “The lot has a 50-foot front and runs back 147 feet to the alley,” where “after passing the building now occupied by D.B. Williams,” widened to 80 feet of alley frontage.

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Scatterthought - July 21, 2017

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Written by John Hallowell

       Well, life has definitely slowed down a little since Kingsland’s big Aqua Boom festival, but I’m finding that perfection in the newspaper business (at least for me) remains an elusive goal. I do feel more rested, and I’ve made progress in catching up on some personal details (house-cleaning, healthcare updates, vacation planning), but I’ve continued to make mistakes and forget appointments. I hope people will continue to be patient with me, because (even with all the embarrassing mistakes) I’m having a great time!

       I’ll mention again this week and next that there will not be a paper on August 4; that’s my vacation week. I’m going to try to ignore my telephone and my computer that week; I’ll be playing catch-up for a couple of weeks after that.

       One of the highlights of my more-relaxed week was the opportunity to read all the way through Dana Wright’s wonderful new book, “Saving Stories: Afternoons with Darrell.” I am probably biased, because I consider Dana and Darrell (Llano’s celebrity songwriter Darrell Staedtler) both good friends, but I enjoyed the book tremendously. Not only did I learn a lot more about Darrell’s impressive country music career (and a little more about Dana’s noteworthy “new” career as a writer), but I feel suddenly more motivated to write some books of my own. My research style won’t be the same as Dana’s; I feel much more comfortable with old newspapers than with real people who might not really like what I write, and I’m better at reading than listening, anyway. But I believe that my “history” research shares the goal of Dana’s interviews: saving stories with a lasting value that otherwise might have been lost and forgotten. I hope I can do as well as Dana has done in pursuit of that goal (see a little more about Darrell and the book on page 6).

Read more: Scatterthought - July 21, 2017

Scatterthought - July 14, 2017

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Written by John Hallowell

       I have to start this week’s column with a correction. Sea Doo raffle winner Chris Heerlein did NOT buy 3,000 tickets, as I thought I had been told; he actually bought $3,000 worth of tickets. That means that he had just a little more than one tenth of the tickets, so winning the Sea Doo was not at all a sure thing. Still, I’m told that his purchase was the biggest in Aqua Boom history, so I’m glad he won (and if that “fact” turns out to be wrong, I’ll let you know next week!)

       I have been very happy with my paper’s circulation lately; I rarely have to pick up even close to ten percent of the papers I put out, and I think that more people are reading the Highland Lakes Weekly than ever before. In addition to the actual printed papers, there is an online flip-through edition posted every weekend, and I’m hearing from more and more people who read it. And this past week, Facebook informed me that I had 42,914 “post engagements” (whatever that means) on my Aqua Boom albums. I want to say “Thank You!” to everyone who pays any attention whatsoever to my efforts; you make me feel that I’m doing something worthwhile, and that thought gives me great satisfaction.

       Now that I’ve got so many people paying attention, it really seems like a shame to announce that I am taking my annual vacation in three weeks, and that there will not be a paper on August 4. I don’t count that against my tally of consecutive deadlines met (I’m at 318 now); there just won’t be a deadline that week to miss.

Read more: Scatterthought - July 14, 2017

Llano in 1917 - Part Two

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Written by John Hallowell

     Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa, who had invaded the U.S. the previous year, made the front page of The Llano News on January 11, 1917, amid rumors that his “army” was advancing toward Chihuahua City (the state capital where he had served as provisional governor before the 1914 revolution; the attack never happened, and Villa made peace with the Mexican government in 1920).

       Closer to home, Mrs. A.A. Knowles (born Adeline Augustus Osborne in Burnet County, although the article may have been mistaken in claiming that she was born there in 1842), died suddenly in Llano on Tuesday, January 9. The article called her “one of our noblest and best known citizens,” and described her 37 years in Llano as “a consistent and devoted Christian life.” Her husband, Captain W.W. Knowles, had owned the gin, mill and water works in Llano in the 1880s; he died in 1893.

       Locals who sent carloads of hogs by train to Fort Worth that week included A.N. Box, W. Hoerster, Geo. Schuessler, Jas. Wyckoff, R.S. Schneider, J.M. Wilson and Dees & Moss.

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Scatterthought - July 7, 2017

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Written by John Hallowell

       It was the best of times. Period. If anything at all went wrong this past week, it escaped my notice (or I just forgot). The “Twelve Days of Aqua Boom” (more or less) are over, and my head is still spinning, but I would have to say that it was a tremendous success!

       Two of the most amazing news items I heard this week (and one of them wasn’t an Aqua Boom item) were: 1) The visit of the Publishers Clearing House crew to Kingsland, and 2) the spectacular generosity of KLBJ radio personality Chris Heerlein.

       Publishers Clearing House stopped at H.E.B. in Kingsland to get helium for the celebratory balloons they presented (along with a bottle of champagne and a $1 million “check”) to a Buchanan Dam woman last Friday. (See, they really do exist. This is NOT “fake news!”)

       Chris Heerlein, who co-hosts the “Retire Ready” radio show with Sandra Newman every Saturday on KLBJ in Austin (I believe they are also co-owners of Reap Financial), has a vacation home here in Kingsland, and visits frequently. He was impressed by the Aqua Boom festival, and came by the Chamber booth at the lakeside park on Tuesday to buy THREE THOUSAND raffle tickets! There was no guarantee that he would win, but he was richly rewarded for his generosity when the newly-crowned Miss Aqua Boom, Amber Dyess, drew one of his tickets and earned him the beautiful new Sea Doo from Highland Lakes Watercraft.

Read more: Scatterthought - July 7, 2017