Friday, July 20, 1923. Pancho Villa slain.

José Doroteo Arango, better known as Francisco "Pancho" Villa, was gunned down along with his assistant Daniel Tamayor, his unfortunate chauffeur Migel Trujillo and bodyguards Rafael Madreno and Claro Huertado in Hidalgo del Parral. Bodyguard Ramon Contreras survived the attack, killing one assailant.

The fatal trip into town in his Dodge sedan was to pick up payroll for his ranch employees. Details of the killings remain unclear, but it is widely suspected Plutarco Elías Calles and President Alvaro Obregón had a role in the killings, and that they were brought about by Villa's murmurings that he might reenter politics.  Jesús Salas Barraza took responsibility for the murder, with it being attributed to resentment over Villa whipping him in a feud over a woman, but it's generally felt that this was to divert attention from the plotters. Barraza served three months out of a twenty-year sentence for murder, and went on to become an officer in the Mexican Army.  Most of the surviving assassins also ended up in the Mexican army.

Telegraph service to Villa's hacienda of Canutillo was interrupted briefly, apparently in a move to cut communications lest his followers there start an uprising.

Villa left a complicated personal life in his wake.  His longest lasting spouse, Luz Corral, was not living with him at the time, and Austreberta Rentería was in residence at his hacienda as his wife.  Court challenges would uphold Corral as his legal spouse, and she would inherit his estate.  He had at least four living children at the time of his death.

Villa was an extremely odd character who had served brilliantly as a cavalry commander in the initial stages of the Mexican Revolution, but who was unable to adjust to the changes in military technology that had altered how cavalry had to be used.  He's the best remembered Mexican Revolutionary by far, although politically not a terribly effective one.  His decision to rail Columbus New Mexico in 1916, in retaliation for Woodrow Wilson allowing Carranza to transport his troops across Texas and back into Mexico, nearly lead the US into war, and provided an embarrassing episode in which a US expeditionary force was unable to run him down.  The Punitive Expedition, as it was known, did however serve to prepare the US for entry into World War One.

Perhaps Villa's violent life and death make the gathering of "prominent young girls" in a pageant in Seneca Falls depicting the progress of women, in which they were depicted as ancient warriors, a bit ironic.

 Warriors. Agnes Lester, Marjorie Follette, Emily Knight, Elizabeth Van Sickle, Carol Lester, prominent young girls of Seneca Falls, as warriors in the Drama depicting the Progress of Woman to be given at the reception at Seneca Falls, N.Y., on July 20, 1923.

The bodies of Villa and his men, laying dead in their Dodge, depicted the true face of war, which is not very glamorous. Women in liberal western societies, but only in liberal western societies, would "progress" into combat over the next century, but it's not an existential progress, but a retrograde trip into barbarity.

Casper's paper for the same day reported the end of the second dusk to dawn flying record attempt in Rock Springs.

Speaking of violence and women, the Casper paper was reporting a Cheyenne rancher was charged with violation of the Mann Act in the far western part of the state.

There were strikes in Port Arthur, Texas.

Tuesday, January 19, 1943. Birth of Janis Joplin.

 Janis Joplin was born on this day in 1943 in Port Arthur, Texas.

A blues influenced musical great, with a unique raspy voice, she was perpetually a troubled individual and died in 1970 at age 27.  

Churches of the West: Former First United Methodist Church, Port Arthur, Texas

Churches of the West: Former First United Methodist Church, Port Arthur ...:

Former First United Methodist Church, Port Arthur Texas

This is the Ruby Ruth Fuller Building in Port Arthur, Texas.  It was built as a Methodist Church in 1915.

This church may frankly not belong on this blog, as I really question if Port Arthur can be considered the "West".  I highly doubt it.  I don't know where the West really starts, but it's somewhere west of Port Arthur. Still, this church is west of the Mississippi, so I've included it here.

All of which, I suppose, begs the question a bit.  If churches in Port Arthur are in the South (and there are a lot of churches in Port Arthur, are churches in Houston in the South also?  What about churches in Dallas.  Maybe.  Maybe some are in both the South and the West. What about churches in Oklahoma?

Well, we have no desire to create a vast new profusion of blogs, but perhaps we should add a few for this purpose.  We're pondering that, and have reserved the URLs to do it.  For the meantime, as this posting is at least geographically credible, we'll be content to post this one here.

And now Port Arthur.

Once again, I find myself oddly connected with places in Texas hit by Hurricane Harvey.  This time Beaumont and Port Arthur.

Street in Port Arthur, Texas.  A lot of Port Arthur looks like this, although it also has, or maybe I should say had, some newer areas as well.

Port Arthur hasn't exactly done well in recent years, probably recent decades.  I don't know what happened to it, although I have my guesses.  One person I know who grew up there gave me his views on what occurred to the town, somewhat shaded in careful terms so as to not sound quite so harsh on his hometown, but it's clearly not doing well, or has had some pretty rough recent times.

 

The actual port.

Perhaps the Hotel Sabine best symbolizes it.  Janice Joplin, who was from Port Arthur, once gave a big concert there.  Sort of a homecoming of sorts.  It's not far from a museum on the Gulf Coast that prominently features here, although she wasn't so well received in her hometown during her lifetime.

 

These photos depict the Hotel Sabine in Port Arthur, Texas. The hotel is an abandoned ruin and has been for decades.

 

The Hotel Sabine certainly isn't the only messed up abandoned building in downtown Port Arthur.

I don't know what this building was, but it must have been a good looking building in its day.

Downtown Port Arthur has been undergoing a much needed renovation.  Hurricane Harvey clearly won't be helping that.

One thing I'd note is that all of the older part of the town is right on the port.  News footage I've seen of the disaster have shown some scenes from way up in town, however. That makes me wonder about the old parts of the town, which have surely been hit before.  Some of those areas are a mess, like depicted above, but others are not.  Or at least they were not.

Port Arthur's library.

Lamar State College in Port Arthur, Texas.  The back of this building looks out on the port.

Truly, a tragedy.

A monumental day in the petroleum industry. January 10, 1901

It was on this day in 1901 that a well, after many persistent efforts by its backers, struck oil at Spindletop Dome near Beaumont Texas.

Lucas Gusher.

The Lucas Gusher, as it was known, blew petroleum oil 150 feet in the air at a loss of 100,000 bbls per day for nine days before it was brought under control. It was the first producing well on the Gulf Coast and gave rise to Texas' oil industry and, for that part, to much of the oil industry in the United States.  The population of nearby Beaumont went from 10,000 to 50,000 people rapidly and the culture and industry of Texas was forever impacted.

 

Port Arthur, Texas, south of Beaumont.

Monday at the Bar: Courthouses of the West: Jefferson County Courthouse, Port Arthur Texas.

Courthouses of the West: Jefferson County Courthouse, Port Arthur Texas.:

This is the courthouse for Jefferson County, Texas, in Port Arthur.

This courthouse is one of the many public works projects courthouses Built during the Great Depression.  As the sign for the courthouse notes, it was built in 1935 and 1936, at time during which the fortunes of Port Arthur frankly look to have been better than they currently are.