The Clifton Record (Clifton, Tex.), Vol. 102, No. 34, Ed. 1 Friday, April 25, 1997 Page: 1 of 14
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TIXAS PRESS
ASSOCIATION
1996
The Clifton Record
O 1997, Th* Clifton «NCOfd S H (t
A# Rights Reserved •/ W ▼
ONE SECTION....PLUS SUPPLEMENTS
FRIDAY
EDITION
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Serving Bosque County Since 1895 — . ■-
Clifton, Texas 76634 VOL. 102, NO. 34 • FRIDAY, APRIL 25, 1997
Lomax Gathering This Saturday In Meridian
- Public Encouraged To Attend —
John A. Lomax, Tall In The Saddle
By Joe Marchman
SPECIAL TO THE CLIFTON RECORD
MERIDIAN — Stampeding down the
legendary trails of our American West
it's easy to imagine a thundering herd
of crazed longhorns, spooked by light-
ning in a spring storm in Bosque County
with drovers in hot pursuit.
Those rambunctious days of yester-
year produced “an icon” of die western
frontier, known as the American Cow-
boy. The cowboy, alone, illustrates the
legend and lore of a time that has be-
come America’s most romantic era.
The adventures of the cowboy were
portrayed though song and stories
about his life on the trail and the daily
events of that time as he headed his
haughty Texas cattle north to the
bawdy Kansas towns of Abilene, Dodge
City, and the railheads of the Midwest.
The most famous beef cattle path
meandered through Central Texas and
Bosque County. It was known as “The
Chisholm Trail,” taking its name from
Jesse Chisholm, an Oklahoma merchant
who peddled his wares only north of
the Red River according to A.C. Greene,
noted writer for the Dallas Morning
News and historian.
Two years after the Civil War ended,
the first cattle to reach Abilene, Kan.
from Texas on The Old Chisholm Trail”
was Vt September, 1867.
Oddly enough, that same month and
year, John Avery Lomax was bom in
Goodman, Miss. Two years later, the
Lomax family in two covered wagons
moved to Texas and Bosque County,
arriving at Christmas in 1869. The
Lomaxes built a log cabin cm a form just
north of Meridian on the Bosque River
near Comanche Crossing, a favorite
crossing of the Bosque River on the Old
Chisholm Trail.
Each spring of Johnnie Lomax’s boy-
hood, early rains re awakened the lush
prairie grasses in the valley of the
Bosque and there soon followed long
ribbons of longhorn cattle headed
north. Frequently, the cowboys bedded
their high-headed denizens of the
South Texas brush country down for
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PASTOR AND CHOIR — In formal fashion, tha Rev. Elton Hal (canter) and choir members of Clifton Cumberland
Presbyterian Church in America sang thee way to tha new church doors prior to the dedication service of the
new building on Sunday.
- St sft Photo By Carol Moulton
Clifton Cumberland Presbyterian
Church Hosts Church Dedication
Famed artist Bjorklund was art iMusttatof lot the onslaught of pulp magazine'
that erupted in the eastern United States around Lomax s time Featured by the
writers of the day were cowpokes and gunslingers who eventually became tht
subjects of legend The artwork is considered historically meaningful as it de
fined an eta
the night near the Lomax cabin.
A cowboy on the Old Chisholm Trail
not only had to ride a horse like the
proverbial Comanche, but had to be
able to sing also.
Johnnie Lomax visited the evening
campfires to hear the wondrous home-
spun ballads and tales the wranglers
recited from their past experiences.
Johnnie was so enamored with the
Arayfortng prairie vagabonds that he
Instinctively wrote down on scraps of
paper the words to the songs and sto-
ries he heard.
One such ballad euphonically began:
“Come along boys and listen to my
tale, m tell you my troubles on the old
Chisholm Trail...”
The “ballad trail” for John A. Lomax
in search of the cowboy’s lament was
to cover more than a half-million miles
throughout his four-score and four
years. Initially, as a barefoot boy around
the campfires near his home to a hand-
cranked “horned" Edison recorder
which he strapped to the saddle of his
horse, Lomax galloped off on his life’s
journey of collecting the lore of the
cowboy.
Raucous-voiced cowboys sang for
him in bunkhouses and corrals —
around branding fires and saloons. The
now popular lore and myth of the fron-
tier cowboy began to shape itself
through John Lomax
In 1910, John Lomax published his
first book, “Cowboy Songs and Other
Frontier Ballads.” Old favorites such as
“Home on the Range," “Red River Val-
ley," “Strawberry Roan,” The Old Ch-
isholm Trail,” and many others were
contained therein.
“Songs of Cattle Trail and Cow
Camp,” was Lomax’s next book which
was released in 1919. “Good-bye Old
Paint” and the beautiful cowboy dirge
“Streets of Laredo” were two of many
Sm LOMAX, Page 2
CLIFTON— Members of Clifton
Cumberland Presbyterian Church in
America hosted a dedication on Sun-
day, April 20, for the new church on
Highway 6, south of Clifton.
Approximately 170 members and
guests participated in the dedication
which included hymns and songs by
the choir, soloists, and by the people
present. Theme for the dedication was
“A New Building With A Renewed
People.”
Dedicatory prayers were offered by
the Rev. Elton C. Hall, pastor, and the
sermon was given by the Rev. Joel P.
Rice, moderator of the Brazos River
Presbyter.
Proclamations were read from
elected officials, including Clifton’s
Mayor Truman Blum, Bosque County
Judge Bobby Joe Conrad, and the
mayor of Bellmead. Many visiting pas-
tors also participated in the solemn yet
joyous ceremonies. The ushers, elders,
and parking lot attendants helped all
to have an orderly dedication.
See CHURCH, Page 3
Bruce Greene Sculpture To Debut
Monday At Main Street ‘Spring Fling’
Alan Lomax Collection Preserves A
Slice Of America’s Rich Musical Legacy
By Kakl Pallmeyer
SPECIAL TO THE CUE TON RECORD
AUSTIN — When John Avery Lomax
began writing down the words to the
cowboy ballads and work songs he
heard growing up along the Chisholm
Trail near Meridian, he must have felt
that his documentation was somehow
incomplete. While the words were there
on paper, complete with both the lyri-
cal beauty and a honesty that simulta-
neously reported on and romanticized
life in that bygone era, there was some-
thing missing.
These songs were more than just
words — they need the music as well
to bring them to life. And while tradi-
tional musical notation could be used,
to represent the melody, there was
more in the way these s^ngs were per-
formed than could be captured on a
five-line staff.
The loneliness in the cowboy’s wail
as he sings about his “Home on the
Range," the sense of dignity in the
voices of African-American sharecrop-
pers as they worked the fields, or the
joyful harmony of a backwoods
church’s congregation could not be cap-
tured with words or notes on paper.
Neither could the wonderful sound of
the scrape of the bow across the fiddle,
the plunk of the banjo, the twang of
the Jew’s harp, or honk of the har-
monica.
To alleviate this problem and to pre-
serve the performance as well as the
song, Lomax began recording his sub-
jects in the field as early as 1907, first
using wax recording cylinders, and later
wax or acetate discs. His son, Alan Lo-
max, began accompanying him on these
trips in 1933 and later took up the
mantle himself, recording several his-
torical sessions with Woody Guthrie,
Lead Belly, and Jelly Roll Morton for
the Library of Congress during the late
30s ami early 40s. He later traveled the
world, recoiding the indigenous music
of England, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Africa,
India, Japan, Rumania, and other
places.
In 1959 and 1960, Alan Lomax em-
barked on two journeys through the
Deep South, returning to many of the
places he and his father had visited
before. Armed with the latest in record-
ing technology—stereo magnetic tape
SM ALAN LOMAX, Page 2
THE PERSONAL TOUCH - Alan Lomax, in his yssrs of preserving a
portion of history, has found tha folks who play and sing the songs
which hava been handed down from generation to generation. Lomax
has sought out ths pockets of civilization still untouched by the mass
madia, in an attempt to record tha traditional music of tha people.
By David Anderson
CLIFTON RECORD CITY EDITOR
CLIFTON — The Clifton Main
Street Project will host its first-ever
Spring Fling on Monday, April 28,
beginning at 5:30 p.m. The event will
be held at Bosque County Emporium’s
courtyard in downtown Clifton. An
original sculpture by local Western
artist Bruce Greene will be unveiled
as the feature event.
“We’re very exdted about our lat-
est project, and the Main Street board
believes the local citizens will be
pleased and excited, too,” said
Neelley.
“We cordially invite the entire com-
munity to come join us for this spe-
cial event. Fans and followers of local
Western artist Bruce Greene will be
especially interested in what we will
be unveiling Monday evening,”
Neelley said.
“This project grew out of one of the
recommendations of the Texas His-
torical Commission’s Resource Team
study in 1995,” said Main Street
Chairman Julie Conley.
“The team recommended having a
focal point that will draw attention
to the business district of the city. This
project grew out of that recommen-
dation,” Conley said.
Keeping the secrecy of the project
under wraps , Neelley would only say
that the unveiling will be “spectacu-
lar!”
Greene was inducted into the Cow-
boy Artists of America in 1994. He
moved to the Clifton area with his
family in 1989.
“My art is designed to make people
laugh and cry, to touch them emo-
tionally,” Greene told Southwest Art
magazine in an interview published
in September 1996. Man Street offi-
See SPRING FLING, Page 3
Clifton ISD Head Band Director
Requests New Teaching Assignment
By Debra D. Brown
EDUCATION EDITOR
CLIFTON — Dan Thoede, Clifton
High School’s Head Band Director for
the past 10 years, has requested a
new teaching assignment in Clifton
Independent School District next
year.
In a letter to Superintendent of
School Marlene Zipperlen, which the
band director shared with The Cup-
ton Record this past Monday, Thoede
asked to be allowed to relinquish his
duties as Head Band Director, effec-
tive at the end of this school year, and
still be allowed to teach next year in
the Clifton ISD.
He wrote, “It is no secret that in a
year or two I plan to retire from the
Texas public school system. At the
present time that is still my intention.
“When I retire I plan to work as a
consultant to other band directors, as
a clinician of marching and concert
bands, and as a U1L band adjudica-
tor. I also plan to teach private mu-
sic lessons.
“In addition, I plan to remain the
State Chairman of the Association of
Texas Small Schools Bands Outstand-
ing Performance Services, and the
Class AAA Representative to the State
Sm THOEDE, Pag* 7
4BSales Tax Board Drafting By-Laws
Trustees Approve Design Phase
For Clifton’s New High School
Teachers' Pay Also Subject Of Discussion
By Debra D. Brown
EDUCATION EDITOR
CLIFTON — Trustees of die Clifton
Independent School District approved
the design phase for the construction
of a new high school at the regular
meeting last Monday evening, April
21, in the elementary school cafete-
ria.'
Following a presentation of sche-
matic drawings by Kevin Smith, Vice-
President of Cla^comb Associates,
Architects, of Dallas, the board unani-
mously approved a motion by Trustee
Bruce Staff, with second by Trustee
Sam Wells, to approve the designs
and move forward with the contract
documents phase of the project.
The approved plans feature a fin-
ger-style structure (a central office,
gymnasium, and media area with two
classroom wings extending to the
west).
The exterior features brick with
native limestone wainscot, and in-
cludes approximately 81,000 square
feet, inclusive of alternates.
Smith assured trustees that ap-
proval of the design process did not
Sm TRUSTEES, Pags7
CLIFTON — The seven members
of the newly established 4B Economic
Development Sales Tax board of di-
rectors endured a two-hour session
of by-laws drafting this past Tuesday
night in council chambers at City
Hall.
The board is in the process of cre-
ating a corporation to handle funds
deriving from the collection of a half-
tent economic development shies tax,
« measure that was recently ap-
jftoved by voters within the city lim-
its. I
Sales tax collection will begin in a
few months, which gives the board
some time to structure itself in order
to be able to receive the tax dollars
and then put them to use locally to-
ward economic development of the
city.
At Tuesday’s meeting, the board
considered economic development
sales tax corporate structures of four
other cities, primarily utilizing the
City of Hamilton’s economic develop-
Sm BY-LAWS. Page 3
Coon Creek Homecoming Sunday
COON CREEK—The annual Coon
Creek Homecoming and gospel sing-
ing will be held Sunday, April 27, at
the church and old school house on
Highway 56 between Valley Mills and
Laguna Park.
The singing will begin at 10 a.m.,
with lunch planned for 12:30 p.m.
Singing will continue until 4 p.m.
“Everyone in the community is
welcome to join us in the annual cel
ebration,” said Mattie Boswell.
|
Opening Day,
CLIFTON-Youth basi
nearly 30 games is!
throughout the day;
The schedule
rain-out, Cliftot
slate of games t
At The Clifton Ball Park
■'-T«KSKS& ' .
i appeals in this issue of The n—_-____—__‘ *______. r
mi officials said they tentatr_
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Smith, W. Leon. The Clifton Record (Clifton, Tex.), Vol. 102, No. 34, Ed. 1 Friday, April 25, 1997, newspaper, April 25, 1997; Clifton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth788252/m1/1/: accessed July 8, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Nellie Pederson Civic Library.