The Clifton Record (Clifton, Tex.), Vol. 109, No. 35, Ed. 1 Friday, June 25, 2004 Page: 34 of 108
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THE CLIFTON RECORD — BOSQUE COUNTY, U.S.A.
FRIDAY JUNE 25, 2004
Bosque County’s Own John A. Lomax, ‘Ballad Hunter,’
Caught The Essence Of Life On The Chisholm Trail
By Joe Marchman
CHISHOLM TRAIL HISTORIAN
MERIDIAN — John A. Lomax
eulogized himself — his epitaph:
“Ballad Hunter.”
The proof of his life chronicled
the lore of America’s most
romantic era. The Lomax
Collection of “folksy” lit-
erature and song stand
alone as the water-
mark in the area
of folklore and
legend.
Affection-
ately, John A.
Lomax will
forever be .
knighted as
the “Balladeer
of the Bosque ■_ <
here in Central
Texas,” a confed-
erate to the nostal
gia of a childhood which is
preserved in memory like a de-
lightful dream. The marvelous dis-
coveries of his youth served him
well. To be a child in a garden of
the Bosque is to understand.
Imagine, if you will, a glistening
spring morning in Bosque County
— the year, 1871 — the aura of a
new day had begun. The fresh fra-
grances of inspiration filled the
air.
On the big road north of Merid-
ian traveled many new settlers in
covered wagons, men on horse-
back, and vast herd of longhorn
cattle.
After the Civil War, longhorn
cattle were plentiful in Texas. The
railhead at Abilene, Kan., was a
primary market. The Chisholm
Trail through the lush tall grasses
of Bosque County provided a natu-
ral passage.
Alongside the famous beef cattle
trail, just north of Meridian, capi-
tal of the Texas frontier, the
Lomax family had settled in 1869.
Ed Nichols recounts in his book
Ed Nichols Rode A Horse of see-
ing the Lomax children walking to
school together.
You can still see them even now,
coming down the road in the
morning...two by two ...Richard
and the redheaded Molly Lomax
usually led ...sometimes, their
little brother ‘Johnnie’ came along
to spend the day. He was a pretty,
fat little fellow, four or five years
old. I can see him now as he ran
along by their side ...sometimes
holding his sister’s hand or some-
times holding to Richard’s.”
Ed Nichols described Johnnie as
a little rascal, full of mischief Ed
went on to say, “It didn’t occur to
me that Johnnie would make the
most noted collector in America of
cowboy an] other folk songs.”
As a boy, at nighty Johnnie.
Lomax would often be awakened
by the cowboys singing ballads to
their cows, “bedded down” near
the Lomax home.
As a youngster, he was fasci-
nated by the “cowboy character”
that passed his way. The early
Texas cowboy “diaried” his life by
making up and singing the inci-
dents of his day’s work.
To be able to sing was as impor-
tant as riding a
horse in a
cowboy’s life
on the
Chisholm
Trail.
As a youth,
Lomax lived a
mile north of
|own on the
osque River,
ext to the fa-
us Chisholm
jil. Lomax dis-
played a considerable interest in
ballads cowboys sang to their high-
headed longhorns as they moved
north past his home, songs that
chronicled the events of cowboy
life on the romantic but rough fron-
tier of Texas.
In 1910, Lomax published his
first book, Cowboy Songs and
Other Frontier Ballads. In doing
so, he committed to posterity such
captivating old-time favorites as
Home on the Range, Red River
Valley, The Strawberry Roan, The
Old Chisholm Trail, and many oth-
ers.
Lomax became interested in the
cowboy’s plaintive tunes, and pe-
gan to collect them. When he set
off for college, at the bottom of his
trunk, tied with a cotton string, he
included a small roll of these cow-
boy ballads. Thus, his meager cow-
boy songs, written out on scratch
pads and pieces of cardboard, were
the beginnings of a living Ameri-
can folk song collection that was to
gain for him the fame of univer-
sally being considered the fore-
most authority on American folk
culture.
At college, Lomax showed the
“battered manuscripts” to his En-
glish professor at the University of
Texas. He was informed that these
tall tales of Texas were of little
value when compared to the “clas-
sic sagas” and tall tales of Beowulf.
That, in fact, frontier literature
was tawdry, cheap, and unworthy
of his efforts.
It was not until he entered
Harvard, while working on his
Masters degree that he received
the enthusiastic reassurances of
Professors George Lyman
Kittridge and Barrett Wendell. At
last, armed with the support of his
Harvard English professors, he
r sent .1,000 letters .to. newspapers, in
John A. Lomax
America’s south and west seeking
folk ballad material. The response
was overwhelming. .
Now began the exciting, and of-
ten precarious, career of this
dauntless ballad hunter. With an
ancient Ediphone strapped to his
saddle, he travelled from Texas to
Wyoming, writing down the songs
of the cowboys around the camp-
fires, along the cattle trails, and in
frontier saloons.
Lomax received a Sheldon Fel-
lowship from Harvard. The fellow-
ship was followed by grants from
the Guggenheim Foundation, the
Carnegie Foundation, and the Li-
brary of Congress.
This financial encouragement
expanded his adventures into the
dimly-lit alleys of New Orleans’
/Negro section...into the dining
halls of penitentiaries filled with
stripe-suited colored inmates who
sang wonderful spirituals, and
“sinful” work songs...into the
fields of cotton plantations, mining
towns, and the lumber camps of
the northwest.
John Lomax searched America’s
nooks and crannies for new songs.
He believed that much of modern
music is based on themes heard in
cowboy, Negro, and other folk bal-
lads. He was intense, and deter-
mined to leave no source
uncovered.
Times have changed, but the
heritage of life on the Texas fron-
tier will always have a sentimen-
tal place in our hearts.
McLennan County Electric Cooperative, Inc.
Provider of Electric Service in these Counties:
Bell, Bosque, Coryell, Falls,
Hamilton and McLennan
Where quality, personal, reliable service is still the standard
Your Home Team Advantage
McLennan County Electric Co-operative
1111S. Johnson Dr McGregor, TX 76657
P.O.Box 357 (254)840-2871
Touchstone Energy *
The power of human connections
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Smith, W. Leon. The Clifton Record (Clifton, Tex.), Vol. 109, No. 35, Ed. 1 Friday, June 25, 2004, newspaper, June 25, 2004; Clifton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth791129/m1/34/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Nellie Pederson Civic Library.