BOB'S STORIES: A Texas Tale and Trials of the Trinity

By Bob Balch

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• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Feb 12, 2024
• ISBN: 9798823021821

Bob Balch

Bob is a native of Seymour, Baylor County, Texas, where he was born in 1947. Being a baby boomer and growing up in the post World War II era, he enjoyed the slow pace of small town America. He spent many leisurely days roaming the areas around his hometown with his friends. This included frequent trips to the Brazos River to hike, swim, seine for minnows, hunt, and trap game. Lake Kemp was another favorite spot for boating, swimming, water skiing, fishing, duck hunting, camping, and for just hanging out with friends. Between Seymour and Lake Kemp he enjoyed outings with his scouting buddies, and two of their favorite spots were the Craddock Ranch and the old George Place. It was on the Craddock Ranch that the famous Permian era bone bed was first discovered in the late 1800s which has attracted much attention from the scientific community down through the years. As a Boy Scout, Bob learned about these discoveries and even did some fossil hunting himself. He earned the Eagle Scout award along side his friends, Bill Whitley and Ken George, the current owners of the Craddock Ranch and the George Place, respectively. Bob graduated from Seymour High School in 1965 and went on to Baylor University in Waco, Texas, where he earned a BBA and JD degrees in 1971. He took a geology course as an undergraduate, and the field trips during that course brought back memories of his experiences on the Craddock Ranch and the old George Place. Now over forty years later serving as a director of the Whiteside Museum of Natural History in Seymour, his interest in this bone bed has been renewed. This eighth book, D-Don Lives! is his tribute to his hometown and the people who have made this story come to life. Bob has lived in Wichita Falls, Texas, since 1974 with his wife, Deborah Ann, where they raised two sons, Trey and Josh, both of whom are doctors who practice medicine in both Texas and Alaska in the fields of physiatry (physical medicine and rehabilitation) and interventional pain management. Bob practices law in Wichita Falls but maintains close contacts with his hometown about an hour away where his mother still resides at the age of 97. He hopes the readers of this book learn some history of the area and enjoy this tale of dimetrodons. A lot has transpired since I first started writing this book in 2014 and completing in 2015 with revisions through 2017. Many new specimens have been found and assembled for research, education of the public and study. New dig sites are opening up for study including the Ross Place owned by Joe Clay Ross. We appreciate the opportunities provided by all of the landowners in allowing us access to these sites. The future is bright for the Whiteside Museum of Natural History that has become a world class museum in the City of Seymour, Baylor County, Texas, my hometown which I am proud to say I grew up in and continue to visit regularly.

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© 2024 Bob Balch. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or

transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, institutions,

and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used

fictitiously. Any resemblances to actual events or locales or institutions

or persons, living or dead, are entirely coincidental. Various people

alive today or who had actual lives in history appear through this

fictional story, and their fates in this story are entirely invented.

Published by AuthorHouse  02/07/2024

ISBN: 979-8-8230-2181-4 (sc)

ISBN: 979-8-8230-2182-1 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or

links contained in this book may have changed since publication and

may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those

of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher,

and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

A Texas Tale

Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Cover

I The Trapper

II Possum Kingdom

III Jeremiah To Fort Worth

IV Chisholm Trail

V Hell’s Half Acre

VI The Stockyards

VII The Highway to Hell

VIII The Short Family Finds Its Way Into The 21st Century

IX The Bridge

About The Author

Dedication

The City of Fort Worth and the surrounding area have always been a special place in my life. As a child, I came here to visit my mother’s family. After graduation from Baylor University, I worked here for an accounting firm for three years. I married my wife, Debbie, in nearby Weatherford and lived in Fort Worth during our first year of marriage. After residing in Wichita Falls for forty-four years, we returned to Fort Worth to be near our two sons and our grandkids. We are excited to be back in Cowtown and are enjoying its many amenities. My wife has joined The Woman’s Club of Fort Worth and has enjoyed meeting new people and making friends. I have been a guest speaker for this group and really enjoy their company. On one occasion I toured their library with its many volumes on Fort Worth history, and the seed was planted in my mind to do a book about Fort Worth and its history. I write historical fiction. My research taught me many new facts about the history and people involved in building Fort Worth from its beginnings as a military outpost to the thriving city of today. So, it is with a great pleasure that I dedicate this book to this great city and its people.

Acknowledgments

I acknowledge The Woman’s Club of Fort Worth and its members for their contributions to the City of Fort Worth and its history. I thank them for giving me the opportunities to speak to their groups and for helping plant ideas for this book in my mind’s eye after visiting the library in their beautiful Newby home which serves as the club’s headquarters. I would also thank my wife, Debbie, for her support in these endeavors in writing my books. My sons, Trey and Josh, who are practicing doctors here in Fort Worth, have always supported me in my writing efforts. Finally, my publisher, Author House, has always been great to work with in the publication of all of my books, and I thank them for all of their encouragement and support in getting my books published and marketed.

Cover

The cover for this book A Texas Tale shows a montage of Fort Worth including downtown and the Trinity River as seen today from the air, the Will Rogers Coliseum, the entrance to the Stock Yards, Hell’s Half Acre historical marker, and also Hell’s Gate at Possum Kingdom Lake.

I

The Trapper

Jeremiah Benjamin Short was born on July 9, 1850, in a small cabin along the bottoms of the Trinity River not far from the fort which was established in 1849 on the bluff overlooking the river. It was called Worth named after General William Jenkins Worth, a veteran of the Mexican-American War, who had proposed the building of a group of ten forts running from Eagle Pass to the confluence of the West Fork and Clear Fork of the Trinity River to protect the settlers as they pushed westward. Unfortunately, he died in San Antonio in May of 1849 at the age of fifty-five of cholera before this fort was established in his name.

Jeremiah’s parents were Lawrence and Sally who had come to Texas from Alabama the year before his birth and settled in on a tract of rich soil located about a half mile southwest of the fort. They started tilling the soil to raise vegetables, chickens, hogs and other produce to sell at the fort. They called their first child by his initials JB. The boy grew strong and learned to trap fur bearing varmints by watching his father. When the fort was abandoned in 1853, JB’s family was doing well trading with the now some three hundred settlers who took over the fort buildings and set up clinics, schools, stores and hotels. When JB was six Fort Worth became the county seat of Tarrant County following a hard fought election with residents of old Bird’s Fort then named Birdville. In the winter of 1840 Jonathon Bird established a settlement which became known as Bird’s Fort. In 1843 at this site a new treaty was negotiated with several Indian tribes in the area. Sam Houston came for the pow wow but after a month departed and left General Edward H. Tarrant and George W. Terell to meet with the chiefs. It was agreed that the Native Americans would remain to the west of a line which traced a line passing through the future site of Fort Worth. The line marked where the west begins and this later became a famous slogan for Fort Worth. Then in 1849, Major Ripley S. Arnold was ordered to move Camp Worth to the north-facing bluff which overlooked the mouth of the Clear Fork. Then on November 14, 1849, the U.S. War Department officially named the post Fort Worth. It served its purpose as an outpost to protect East Texas settlements from raids by Native Americans until it was abandoned on September 17, 1853.

As JB grew up in this environment, he learned to read, write and decipher numbers at the little school up on the bluff, but his love