The latest issue of the Texas Historical Foundation’s award-winning Texas HERITAGE magazine featured stories from the state’s borderlands, including articles about Petra Vela Kenedy and another on the return of an ancestral burial place in Presidio to members of the Lipan ApacheTribe. For those interested in the Texas borderlands, here’s another resource to explore.
A society wedding of the “handsome granddaughter” of a wealthy cattleman and a pioneer Indian fighter and the “untimely end” of Henry Trueheart, Jr., 28, who led a “blameless life,” along with practical information on church services and train schedules were among the front-page news items in the November 26, 1904, issue of Presidio County’s six-page weekly newspaper.
The New Era, published in Marfa by O.L. Niccolls, devoted more than half of the front page to advertising a variety of goods and services. Bringing a new dimension to full-service merchandizing, “The Old Reliable Bootmaker” promoted custom-made footwear and repairs, ready-made ladies’ shoes starting at the cost of $1, and real estate. The proprietor also happened to be a notary public.
Two hundred nine issues of the New Era published from 1904 through 1918 are included in the award-winning Texas Borderlands Newspaper Collection, compiled and published online by the University of North Texas Libraries. Check out this link to investigate this fascinating archive.
The oldest publication in the collection is the premiere issue of The Ranchero, published in Corpus Christi by Henry A. Maltby on October 22, 1859, and the most recent is the December 28, 2012, issue of the Hudspeth County Herald and Dell Valley Review (Dell City, Texas). In between are more than 25,000 issues of 89 newspapers from 32 borderland counties in English, Spanish, and French that offer unique insight into daily life on the borderlands.
