The Future’s Not Ours To See

Spurs belonging to John B. Cavitt

We make our plans, then we find out what really happens.  Below is my transcription of a quick note written on the letterhead of a lawyer’s office from one of his clients to the client’s brother several hundred miles away.

The author is a cattleman, husband, and father of two smalls girls.  He is far from home tending to some business difficulties, and hoping soon to catch a train back to his family.  Now we know he was shot and killed two days later.  See “What to Tell the Judge About the Murder” and “Murder in Juarez, Trouble in El Paso” for further details.

Sheridan, or S. H., or Sherd, as he was sometimes called, was in business with his brothers and the husbands of his sisters.  When he refers to the sale of “Falls”, he must be referring to a ranch that the family owns in Falls County, Texas.

Peyton F. Edwards,

Lawyer

El Paso, Texas, Mar 31, 1890

Jno. B. Cavitt Esq,

Wheelock, Tex,

Dear Bro,

The obstructions are about to be removed from the court & I think all will be over in a few days.

Your letter received by express.

I think your idea good about the sale of Falls.  I will surely be home in a few days & we can talk things over.

We expect to get everything arranged by tomorrow,

Your Bro

S. H. Cavitt

Evidently, everything wasn’t arranged by tomorrow, and others took matters into their own hands.

John’s spurs

John’s spurs

What Did Your Foremothers Look Like in 1900?

Dodgen Family in about 1900

If you called Bertha Clara Dodgen Alexander “grandmother”, here is your chance to see her at about the age of 10 or 12 years.  For unrelated readers of this post, the interest will be in the clothing or faces of the subjects.

Standing, left to right on photo: Mary Dodgen, Emma Dodgen, Frank Dodgen, Nora Dodgen, Bertha Dodgen, Lela Dodgen standing beside her mother.

Seated: Eva Dodgen, J. D. Dodgen sitting on his father, Joseph Caswell Dodgen, Mary Mobley Price Dodgen “Mollie”, and Olive Dodgen in lower corner of photo.

At one point, this family lived in a rock ranch house up Llano Lane about a mile from the Round Mountain Cemetery.  The parents in this photo, known as “Mammie and Granddad Dodgen,” also once lived up a hill overlooking the Blanco River outside the town of Blanco.  Although a farmer/rancher by trade, Granddad Dodgen was a Baptist preacher by calling, and he served the Round Mountain Church and the Blanco Church at different times.

They are buried in the Blanco Cemetery, along with Mary, Eva, Olive, Lela, and “Aunt Mattie” Dodgen Price.  Yes, a Dodgen man married a Price woman, and his half-sister married the brother of his wife.  Which means that the kids in this picture were double-cousins with Sibba and James Dodgen.  The world of Hill Country Texas was small back then.  This also might help explain why Mary, Eva, Lela, and Olive never married- by the time they graduated college and started teaching, the lure of summer travel surely was greater than the lure of raising children and living on a ranch, scratching out a living.  What do you think?

Emma married Jesse James Stewart.  Frank married Elitha Shelley.  Nora married Zebulon Montgomery Pike Davis (Pike).  Bertha married Robert Frank Alexander.  J. D. married Blanche Farquhar.  Howard Dodgen, born after this photo was made, married Lorene Tullos.

For a high school picture of Bertha, see “Graduating into Life”.

What to Tell the Judge About the Murder…

The post “Murder in Juarez, Trouble in El Paso” has proven to be  popular over the past year and a half since I published it.  You can see in one of the comments that a relative of one of the principal characters in the story has found it.  Margie has sent me a lot of information on the murder and subsequent trial that she has found, and I intend to put her research skills to good use here, as well as the efforts of Mom’s and mine to uncover and transcribe all the personal family letters relating to the situation.

In this post I am publishing my transcription of an old newspaper article from April 10, 1890, 8 days after the murder of my great-grandfather Cavitt in the city of Juarez.  I kept the format of the newspaper as much as possible, including misspellings.  Ellipses replace holes in the actual newspaper.

Daily El Paso Tribune

Thursday, April 10, 1890

Who Fired First

Sensational Theory of the Bolton-Cavitt Killing.

The Defense Foreshadowed

“I don’t care what they say about Cavitt’s not having fired first, and his pistol not having been drawn, and all that.  I believe he fired the first shot, and I shall always believe it.”

Such was the declaration of “Doc” Bolton immediately after the killing.  Such was his declaration in the Juarez jail last Sunday to two TRIBUNE reporters, in presence of Judge Crosby, H.R. Wood, and Mr. Lewis of Hearne, a brother-in-law of Bolton.  Yet the undisputed facts do not warrant Bolton’s statement.  Cavitt fell with a cane in one hand and a cigarette in the other.  His pistol was in his waitband [sic], under his vest, which showed no signs of an effort on his part to draw the pistol.

How, then, is Bolton’s assertion to be accounted for?

In one of two ways:

First, Bolton is mistaken; or,

Secondly, neither Bolton nor Cavitt fired the first shot.

Who did fire it then?

That is the question.  By diligent inquiry the TRIBUNE reporters have picked up bits of fact and rumor and theory that lead to the conclusion, with almost absolute certainty, that the theory of Bolton’s defense will be this:

The first shot was fired, not by Bolton or by Cavitt, but by a third party; and that Bolton, hearing the shot and being unable in the darkness to tell just where it came from, was justified by the language that had passed between him and Cavitt in supposing that Cavitt had opened on him, and that thereupon Bolton shot in self-defense.

Now for the evidence.

The official post mortem examination on the body of S. H. Cavitt, held by Doctors Saminiego and Castilo, showed the following facts:  The bullet which was the immediate cause of death, struck deceased in the left side, passed through the left lung, then through the heart, then through the right lung, a portion of the liver, and went out on the right side.  It was undoubtedly the bullet from a 44 calibre pistol.  It had first passed through a pocket containing some papers, a scrap of which was found in the wound.

The second wo…………………… showed  that the bullet……………………………. at the right of the small………… the back and passed out through the bowels.

The third wound was a flesh wound in the left side just below the arm pit.  It is positively certain that the last two wounds were caused by shooting from behind the deceased, which would indicate that the shots were fired after he had turned and staggered into the street.  Thus, the first shot fired was the fatal shot.

Who fired it?

The TRIBUNE has it from reliable authority- namely one of the surgeons who were present at the examination- that the wound through the bowels and the flesh wound under the arm need not necessarily have proved fatal.

Therefore, if Bolton did not fire the first shot, he was not the murderer.

But how can the question whether he fired the first shot be settled?  Right here is where the legal fight will be made.  If it can be demonstrated from

The Caliber of Bolton’s Pistol

And the track of that first and fatal wound that the ball was not fired from Bolton’s pistol, his defense is impregnable.

A Significant Statement

“There is one fact in regard to the killing that I have not yet seen published,” said a friend of Bolton to a TRIBUNE reporter.  “It is the fact that Cavitt and Clayton were on bad terms.  It is alleged that Cavitt had threatened, some time before the Juarez tragedy, to kill Clayton.”

Whether the above statement be true or not, it indicates that Clayton will not occupy second place in the judicial drama soon to be presented.  He will stand alongside Bolton as one of the three actors in the tragedy, each of whose actions there and theretofore demand searching investigation.

Finally, another significant fact is the assertion of Bolton that Clayton was some little distance from him when the firing began.  This would go a long way to establish a theory of the defense that Clayton, not Bolton or Cavitt, fired the first shot.

Mrs. S. H. Cavitt, widow of the deceased, and J. B. and Clarence V. Cavitt, his brothers, arrived in the city by the T. and P. train this afternoon.  They have come to look after the prosecution of S. H. Cavitt’s slayers and to take charge of his property interests in Mexico.

What to Do with Your Family Relics

Wondering what to do with those old buttons collected by Grandma or Great-aunt Jean?  How ’bout that man’s suit which has rotted away from a century of heat and humidity in someone’s attic- are there buttons to rescue and use?

I found this wonderful book on making bags from old clothes and scraps of fabric, and felt inspired by an evening bag design covered with buttons.  The Perfect Handmade Bag by Clare Youngs has nifty ideas for ‘making silk purses out of sows’ ears,’ which is pretty much what I did with the blue silk donated by a neighbor, and a jar of old buttons collected from the sewing kits of these ancestors:

My maternal grandmother, Bertha Clara Dodgen Alexander, in about 1935 or 1940,

My paternal grandmother, Beulah Arney Cavitt, (on the right) with her best friend, Bess Seale, and my then-future grandfather, James Harvey Mitchell, in about 1909,

My maternal grandfather’s sister, Lucy Jane Alexander Freese, in the late 1920′s or 1930,

and finally, my own mother, Roberta Ruth Alexander, in about 1936.

The buttons I found range from bone buttons for underwear, through shell dress buttons eroded by years of washing in lye soap on a scrub board, to pearl shoe buttons from a child’s high-top boot, to a button from my Grandfather Mitchell’s white vest.

What do you do with your family’s treasures, and how do you display them?

The United States in 1854

Click on the map to see an enlarged version.

This map, folded and crumpled, we found in the possessions of Josephus Cavitt, born February 19, 1826.  He was a great-great-grandfather of mine.  He was the father of Sheridan, of whom I have written before:  “Murder in Juarez, Trouble in El Paso“.

The paper is thin, but strong in most places.  It is mostly white, not yellowed or browned, which tells me that it was made from a low-acid cotton rag fiber.  The states and territories of the western half of the country looked quite different in 1854, didn’t they?

The northern areas of the West are:  Oregon Territory, Missouri Territory, and Minnesota Territory.  South of that are California, Utah Territory, and Indian Territory; all followed by Territory New Mexico, and Texas.

The map’s projection would be unusual for our own time, focusing Mexico at its center, and showing as much of Central America as it does United States.

The U.S. capitol is shown in a central etching, and George Washington is shown in a wreath of oak branches.  Under his portrait is the designation ‘Hart’, and under that, it says “Published by Case Tiffany & Company 1854″.

Before putting the map into a protective archival clear envelope, we flattened it over a two-week period by carefully pressing small areas at a time by hand, then using plastic sand bags to weigh them down.

Old Austin

It is not unusual to hear Austinites talk about “the way things were in the old Austin“, meaning the 1970′s – Armadillo World Headquarters and such.

I grew up surrounded by stories and experiences of an Austin that predated the “old Austin” by quite a bit.  Darrell Royal was the winning football coach at the University of Texas during all my growing-up years, but before that, there was D. X. Bible.  He had started out as coach at Texas A&M, Texas’ bitter rival, then coached at Nebraska, before returning to Texas and coaching at the University of Texas.  ‘Bully’ Gilstrap was his assistant coach.

Bully Gilstrap was a counselor at a boys’ camp named Rio Vista in Hunt, Texas in the summertime.  My grandmother, Beulah Cavitt Mitchell, worked there, too, as the dietitian in 1942.  Evidently, she was on the lookout for a job after summer camp ended, because Bully recommended her to D. X. Bible, whose wife had recently died, and who was looking for ‘a fine lady’ to look after the two children.  My grandmother filled the bill and here is a letter she wrote to Joe, a cousin of hers.  ‘Sadie’, mentioned in the letter is another mutual cousin of Beulah and Joe.

Beulah Mitchell in a picture taken at Camp Rio Vista in 1942.

Envelope:  Austin, Texas Sep 14 1:30 PM 1942

Mr. J. F. Cavitt

P. O. Box 436

McGregor, Texas

Letter:

Sept-14-1942

2304 Woodlawn,

Austin, Texas

Dear Cousins Joe and Polly:-

Your letter must have been in answer to a conversation Sadie Gideon and I had about you a few days ago.  We were wondering how you were and why we didn’t hear from you.  So it was a real joy to have your letter.  I telephoned her immediately and she was glad to hear from you too.

You’ll be surprised to see that I am in Austin.  I’m rather surprised myself, tho I’ve been considering this job as housekeeper and companion for D. X. Bible’s two motherless children all summer.  After a trip over here to look the set-up over, in August, I decided to come, and have been here since Sept. the first.  It’s a lovely, air-conditioned home with two well-trained servants, so my duties are very light- mainly concerned with management of the children.  So far, I like it.

My own children are scattered.  Arney is in Kerrville with friends, expecting the stork in October.  Her husband, an ensign in the navy, is on shore duty in Brisbane, Australia.  Jimmie and Roberta are in San Antonio, where Jimmie is teaching radio mechanics in one of the government schools for civil service applicants.  He likes his work very much.  Scott is still on the west coast doing patrol duty.  Has been out there a year and expects to be able to come home on leave this week.  He’s a first lieutenant now.

I’ll be able to go to Arney and stay a while when she needs me.  My good servant, Mattie, is taking care of her.

Have lots to tell you dear ones, but not time for a real letter today.  Why don’t you come over to Austin to see Sadie and me and then we could do a lot of good talking.

Sadie and I both think Felix should have the saddle, with the understanding that, at his death, it be returned to you or someone in the family.  So let his boy have it when he comes.

Do write to me and lets set a “get-together” for sometime this fall.

Much love to you all and thanks for keeping the saddle for me.

As ever

Beulah

There are several mentions in this letter that are notable because they seem strange to us today.

For one thing, it was war-time and no one in the country escaped family and personal involvement in the war effort.

For another thing, notice that the Bible’s house had air-conditioning.  How modern and how comfortable!  Definitely worth telling about in a letter.

Also, notice the mention of two servants in Austin and the one, Mattie, in Kerrville.  Odd as it sounds today, ‘servant’ was a common job then.  Even though my grandmother barely hung on financially herself, she always included household help in her budget.  Better to wear old clothes and live in rented rooms than to do without a servant to help with the heavy work associated with keeping house.

For the family members who are reading this and wondering about the name of ‘Scott’ appearing alongside the names of Beulah’s other children, Scott Johnson was a young man who had attended Schreiner Institute in Kerrville.  He made my grandmother his second Mom while he was a student, and he always kept up with her, even after he finished school.

Lastly, my grandmother grew up on a ranch, so she was used to riding.  The saddle was likely one she and Sadie had used as children and passed on through the family.

Beulah Mitchell sitting in Jimmie and Roberta’s apartment.

A year or two after grandmother wrote the letter, her son, Jimmie (my father), and wife, Roberta (my mother) moved to Austin.  They first rented a garage apartment at about 32nd Street near Guadalupe, at the home of  A. N. McCallum, the long-time superintendent of the Austin public schools.

Austin was a much smaller place in the 1940′s and residents were acquainted with a large percentage of the other residents.

More Small-town Talk in the Great Depression

My blog entry, “The Radio Talk Show in 1934″, was on the subject of my father’s radio station during the Great Depression.  I found some other photos to share, related to my father’s business at that time. In addition to the radio station, he had a radio repair business AND he had a car outfitted with a sound system he took to all the local rodeos, ball games, and other outdoor events requiring announcers.  Oscar Clark, who owned a liquor store, was also in business with my father.

Jimmie Mitchell with his mobile outdoor sound system; Kerrville, Texas.

I am guessing that this is about a 1933 Buick.  Does any reader have another idea?

Newsflash:  An astute reader and car-collector in Kerrville told me, accurately, that this is a 1936 Ford Sedan.  Thanks, Wayne!

Jimmie Mitchell’s ham radio set-up in the early 1930′s.

My father got his ham operator’s license in the early 30′s.  My son, Jeffrey Bridge, got his ham license in the 2000′s, and was able to get his grandfather’s old call letters assigned to himself.

In the early days of ham radio, it was an ideal way to ‘travel’ around the world by communicating with ham operators in other countries.

I Think I Know How He Felt

From the Waco Daily Examiner of December 8, 1875:

“Master A. B. Smedley of the Iowa State Grange, says:  ‘When I see a man of reasonable intelligence attend his Grange for years and listening to the most interesting discussions on fruit culture and tree planting, and then visit his place and not find as much as a currant bush and not a tree to break the cold winter winds, I feel as though I wanted to import from South America a small earthquake to stir him out of the old ruts and make him adopt a more advanced method.’”

You said it, Brother!

The newspaper from which I nabbed this jewel is very white- newspapers were made of cotton rag at this time.

Waco is in central Texas.

‘Grange’ according to Random House Unabridged means “a lodge or local branch of the “Patrons of Husbandry”, an association for promoting the interests of agriculture.”

This is a family photo from about this time period- the 1870′s:

Where’s the i-pod?

Photo from New Orleans

I’m guessing that this unknown young woman had her photo made in about 1870. Her hair style, earrings, cameo, and style of sleeve inset are telling me this.  I think.  (I’m still new at identifying clothing and hair styles from various periods.)  She is in our home collection, mixed among pictures of our Cavitt kin, so she might be a family member, or a friend.

Andrew Cavitt Shatton

This photo was made in Memphis, Tennessee. I am guessing that it is circa 1890, based on his hairstyle, shirt collar style, and coat collar style.  He must be related to the Cavitts, as his first and middle names match those of Tillie’s husband.  But, I have not done the research to find out exactly who he is.

When I look at antique photos, I can’t help but mentally update them to current times.  So, picture these two with ear buds and cell phones.  What would they be wearing in 2010?  How would they be walking, driving, moving in space?

Who is Telling the Truth?

My white cotton gloves and my sweat-soaking headband are necessary to protect my 1890 newspaper!

Here is what I found in one old newspaper clipping:  (I put in elipses where there were holes in the newspaper.)

El Paso, Texas Herald, April 13, 1890

As Stated in Court.

Statement Made by Doc Bolton and J. W. Clayton in the Mexican Court.

… the Juarez court… ation of J….ton will not…for about…onger, but the substance… mination is as follows:  In the first place it is Senor Jose N. Pastran, the district judge of Juarez, who has charge of the case, he is the same judge who has been trying the three Americans for the murder of a woman in Juarez last summer.  He occupies about the same position as our county judge, and is allowed three days to hold the prisoners in separate confinement without allowing anyone to speak to them, in which length of time they are examined separately and have no chance to get up a story.  In this particular, a prominent  American lawyer stated a few days ago that the Mexican law is way ahead of ours.  Bolton and Clayton were examined in this way and their stories conflict.  A gentleman who was present states that Clayton’s testimony is as follows:  “I was standing on the sidewalk alone and Cavitt came up to me and said, ‘You followed me over here to do me up.’  I said I did not, on which Cavitt grabbed me by the coat and I pushed him back with my hand.  He reached to pull his pistol.  At this instant Bolton came up and seeing the trouble he opened fire on Cavitt, who returned it, and the shooting became general.”  Bolton’s statement is about as follows:  “I was standing with Clayton on the sidewalk when Cavitt came along and I accused him of making a compromise in his lawsuit (which he had previously agreed with me not to do alone).  He told me I lied, I told him he was lying to me, on which he stepped back and pulled his pistol and fired, we then shot at him and he staggered back up the sidewalk and fell in the alley.”  According to the witnesses Cavitt had a cane in one hand and a cigarette in the other, these he had in his hands when he fell.  Dr. Samienego… the cane out of his hand when he…dead, his pistol was found stuck, not in the pocket, but in the waistband of his pants over his left hip with all the cartridges complete only one chamber being empty where the hammer rested, it had no empty shell and the pistol did not have any powder smell; it had not been used for some time.  Both Clayton and Bolton were arrested and sixteen dollars in cash were found on Bolton, with five notes, viz: three of $3000 each and two of $2000 each, making $11,000 all told.  These notes he has carried round with him for some time, they are drawn on the Corrallitas Cattle Company, and will not be due for about three months yet and they would have to be signed by Bolton before they could be cashed.  The officer in charge of the jail has charge of them and they will be returned at the proper time.  Clayton had no money on him.

Three different stories.  Hmmm…… some things never change!