Ann

Yes, I vaguely remember that some girls at Evangel were conspiring against Ann, that girl who kissed another girl during initiation activities. Yuk! At least I had the good sense to kiss a guy, not a girl. Duh! I forget what they were going to do about her. I don't even remember who she was, just someone who lived on the opposite side of the dorm.

Mr. Limbo Land

There is no reason whatever to give another thought to Mr. Limbo Land. Does he have no faith? Does he not believe that God works all things together for good to those who are called according to His purpose? Does Mr. Limbo Land never read his Bible and pray? Obviously not, for if he ever did he would see that perhaps now is not the time. He must wait wait wait. Or he can sell sell sell. Those are his options, wait for never-never land or sell to the next poor loser down the street. Obviously this situation is not going to do much for land values but, really, what do you expect out there on the margins of social acceptability, always dreaming about pie in the sky. Were you expecting to get rich quick? Ha ha ha! No, it does not work that way. We all may be moldering in our graves long before this war even gets started.
There are no guarantees in this life. So why spend so much time making everyone else miserable? Have you nothing constructive to say? The more you toot your own horn, the more difficult you make it for all concerned. How can you expect me to vote your way when you have got everything working against me? It just doesn't make any sense.

Elizabeth

Yes, who was that nasty witch Elizabeth, the Presbyterian, who was brought in to be supervisor instead of me? I could not stand taking orders from that haughty, arrogant person. Fortunately I was able to submit my resignation shortly after that because, well, it was time for me to leave and one cannot expect me to spend the rest of my life taking orders from her. I have better things to do with my life than to take orders from Elizabeth. Better to find my own life somewhere else on the planet far away from Elizabeth than to continue in that miserable state of servitude and slavery to her. I am not saying that she was a bad person, and it was not necessarily her fault that I strongly dislike her, but I truly believe that I had every right to leave that place far behind me, that it was high time that I moved along professionally and improved my skills in order to advance beyond anything that Elizabeth's tiny little brain could ever comprehend, and so I returned to school and doubt that I will ever get back there again to stay because, well, that would be a step down for me.

Thomas Redmond

Yes, I am trying to remember who Thomas Redmond was other than just a classmate in journalism. He was sort of weird, sort of hostile, but I never really understood what his problem was. Maybe Cheryl or Machelle remember something about him but I don't. I think that his family was from South Florida but I have forgotten what he said, something about his father having a company in this area, maybe public relations although I am not sure. It was very dangerous to try to talk to Tom. He would get all irritated and act like he didn't want to be bothered talking to us so there was no reason to try to get to know Tom or even less so to try to contact him later or to remember anything about him.

Murders

Speaking of murderers, we should remember that Temple Houston, son of the illustrious Sam Houston, was the attorney who defended "Red Tom" O'Hare, who murdered the Indian "Red Blanket" (aka "Wolf Hair") in cold blood. The O'Hare Incident occurred in 1893 in Roger Mills County. Thanks to Houston's work as an attorney, "Red Tom" O'Hare was acquitted of killing the Indian even though he himself admitted to doing so according to witnesses based on some hearsay about stolen cattle. Anyway, O'Hare was drunker than a hoot owl when the murder occurred according to witnesses. Also, the trial was moved to Canadian county where the Cheyennes apparently would have not that much influence. Before the trial a war party of Cheyennes appeared in town asking for the prisoner to be turned over to them but negotiations with town officials resulted in the Cheyennes going back to their reservation to await the outcome of a fair trial.

Speaking of Rewards

Yes, the McClellan ancestor was able to redeem his properties by killing the predator, the gypsy/Moor/whatever who was hiding out in the woods, and thus win glory and fame for the McClellan clan, taking the head on the tip of his sword to present to the king, thus culminating with the family motto "Think On."

Temple Houston, on the other hand, was not so fortunate. Although a son of the illustrious former president of the Texas Republic, Temple was denied a similar opportunity not by a king, as we in the U.S. have no King James II to authorize such a reward in case some people have forgotten, but by the authorities of Roger Mills County in Oklahoma. However, in this case Temple was not content to kill the killers and then claim the reward that had been offered by the City of Cheyenne. No, Temple, a resident of Judkins, Oklahoma, wanted the county, Roger Mills County, to post a bond so that apparently his expenses in performing the duties of bounty hunter would be covered ahead of time and thus the reward virtually prepaid.

This offer was rejected and the persons in custody were released for lack of evidence.

That no one was charged may seem somewhat amazing given that it is fairly certain that Sheriff Andrew Jackson Bullard and his deputy John Cogburn were killed on July 2, 1902, at the head of Dead Indian Creek by the outlaws, Sam Green and Pete Whitehead and others in the group of seven people who were wandering the Oklahoma countryside apparently collecting stolen horses and cattle and other items.

There was a eyewitness, Frank Doan, who saw the whole thing. Frank had stopped and talked to Bullard and then rode on. When Doan heard gunshots he looked back over his shoulder and saw Bullard and his deputy falling to the ground. Bullard's body was found dead, riddled with 11 bullets in him from three different guns. Cogburn was killed by one bullet.

So that's one report. Makes you wonder how Green and Whitehead got away, but it is very dangerous to chase down murderers. They might kill you first.

Houston

Obviously lots of people have already read the McClellan book, the one about my great-great-grandfather, William Brownlow McClellan, so I don't need to explain about his continued political opposition to Sam Houston. McClellan, in his newspapers of the mid-1800s, mostly published in LaGrange, Texas, consistently campaigned against Sam Houston, president of the Republic of Texas and later U.S. Senator, in every election and for whatever reason. Kind of makes you wonder why George Bush would be so fascinated the "old hero."

There possibly was a personal aspect to that mutual enmity. Sam Houston was possibly a student of McClellan's grandfather at least for a bit and also friends with the governor of Tennessee, who would be some distant cousin to McClellan, and also friends with McClellan the Choctaw Indian agent not to be confused with my ancestor, but it would seem that my grandfather's cousin does not fully explain that aspect of it. The book mostly just describes the various themes that McClellan wrote about. No need for me to rehash that same old story about "the Mexican Prisoners," those 141 Texans who languished in Mexican prisons for two years, until 1844. Sam Houston, president of the Republic of Texas, seemed reluctant to do anything about it, busy as he was trying to negotiate annexation into the United States, and McClellan's newspaper makes much of the delay. On April 11, 1844, Houston returned by mail a free copy of the newspaper, the "Intelligencer."

Bad Houston policies:
* Indian peace treaty: McClellan criticizes this Houston policy, saying that "the crack of our sure rifles is the best guarantee" (of peace and safety). (This is not such an unusual opinion. Not much has changed. Even today the U.S. tends to think that the crack of our superior weapons is the best insurance.)
* Texas capital: Removal of the capital of Texas out of Austin, leaving the entire western frontier of Texas vulnerable to Mexican and Indian raids and incursions, crashing land values, etc. But the attempt to move the capital to Washington-on-the-Brazos is not short-lived and by 1845 the capital is back in Austin so obviously the people knew better than Sam Houston on this point.

In 1845, McClellan fails to support Houston for U.S. Senator, preferring to endorse Thomas Rusk and M.B. Lamar (obviously not to be confused with "La Mar," that Spanish song sung by all on the bus on the way back from campamento). Jesse Grimes, in a letter to Anson Jones, then president of Texas, says of McClellan: "The La Grange Intelligencer is early in announcing its favorites for the Senate and has ingeniously selected a ticket that will have considerable tendency to unite the East with the West, but this ticket will not suit, at least a respectable portion of the community. Texas has suffered sufficiently under the profligate administration of the one and the other has recently kept rather bad company; true proverb, that a man is known by the company he keeps." Grimes thinks that Houston and Jones will be unbeatable, but as it turned out, Houston and Rusk won.

In 1854, McClellan, describing a pamphlet in which Gen. T. T. Green criticizes a speech that Houston made in the U.S. Senate, says: "It may be truly said, that Gen. Green has 'lathered the old hero with aqua fortis and shaved him with a whipsaw.'"

Thus we see that McClellan and Houston were not exactly buddies, to put it mildly.