'Blue Law Enforcement Brings Down Burlington' by Clay Coppedge/Temple Daily Telegram

Blue Law Enforcement Brings Down Burlington

by Clay Coppedge

Temple Daily Telegram - December 12, 2005

BURLINGTON - The Milam County community of Burlington north of Cameron is like a lot

of small towns that once were bustling hives of commerce and activity back in the

day, regardless of how long ago that day might have dawned.

Originally called Irish Settlement, John and Michael Jones built the area's first log

cabins. The town was called Waterford for a time, after the hometown of an Irish

settler, but renamed Burlington when the post office was moved there.

Timothy Gleason, a Vermont native who had been the postmaster at Waterford, renamed

the town Burlington in honor of that Vermont town.

A familiar cycle of boom and decline followed.

The best places to see the Burlington's past and present combined are at the St.

Michael Catholic Church in downtown Burlington and at the cemetery of the same name

seven-tenths of a mile east of the church.

The church was established in 1875, when people still called the town Irish

Settlement. Visiting priests administered services at St. Michael for a few years

until the church was built in 1885. A parochial school operated here from 1891 until

the 1950s.

The town boomed when the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway was built through here

in 1891. Cattle, cotton and lumber kept the town prosperous and active.

A bank was established in 1907. W.A. Barclay built an oil mill. Gins flourished.

Census figures show the town reaching its peak in the early 1900s but old timers in

the 1930s maintained that the town's precipitous decline started when Barclay was

fined under provisions of the Blue Law, or Sunday Law, which made it illegal to

conduct business on Sunday.

'They enforced the Sunday 'blue law' of Texas in Burlington back in 1912 and the town

hasn't been the same since, say old time residents,' a 1936 story in the Telegram

began.

The article goes on to say that 'they' made W.A. Barclay (the Falls County town of

Barclay is named for him) angry when he was fined for breaking the blue law.

The incident began when Barclay went south to get some cotton pickers. Said cotton

pickers arrived in Burlington on Sunday night and Barclay ordered his superintendent

to open his store and provide the cotton pickers what they needed in the way of food

and clothing.

Such activity was deemed taboo on the Sabbath, and Barclay was thus charged.

The case went to court in Ben Arnold where Barclay lost his case and was fined. 'It

made him so mad that he 'left Burlington flat' as one of the old-timers put it,' the

story related.

That wasn't the first time the law was tested in Burlington. A November 1910 item in

the Rosebud News reported that J.W. Whaley had been charged with violating the Sunday

law.

Whaley was the beneficiary of a hung jury. Three jurors favored sending Whaley to

prison for life. Two favored fining him. One voted for acquittal, according to Whaley

himself. It may have actually played out just that way.

Part of the town's visible history went up in smoke when the old Warschak Store

burned to the ground on Nov. 26, two days after Thanksgiving.

Burlington Volunteer Fire Chief Gene Klein said the structure was fully engulfed in

fire by the time firefighters arrived on the scene, about 12 minutes after the call

was received. That's how long it takes for a piece of visible history to turn to ash.

All articles from the Temple Daily Telegram are published with the permission of the
Temple Daily Telegram.
All credit for this article goes to
Clay Coppedge
and the
Temple Daily Telegram