Milam County Historical Commission
Milam County, Texas
Milam County, Texas
200 Marched on Commissioners, With a Band!
Editor's Corner by Mike Brown
Rockdale Reporter - 2015-01-15
If you’ve been in the newspaper business for a while you can remember a number of public meetings where a lot of people turned out.
This almost always happens when a governing body does something, or is thinking about doing something, a motivated segment of the community doesn’t like.
The most recent one I can come up with was a city council session a couple of years ago where 90 people packed into council chambers to voice their (negative) opinion of a proposed nuisance ordinance.
But that pales compared to one that’s alluded to in this week’s 100 Years Ago section on this page.
On Jan. 12, 1915, a crowd of over 200 chartered a train, then marched to the Milam County Courthouse behind a brass band to attend a commissioners meeting.
Here’s how it unreeled. In the 19-teens one of the big debates was “good roads vs. taxes.”
A unified rural roads system was still decades away and communities had to pay their own way if they wanted to upgrade roads.
And many of them were doing just that, passing bond issues, with tax increases, to build new roads.
That’s what happened in 1914 in Milam Road District 6, which was the Thorndale area.
But it was apparently close. So close that soon two petitions were started for presentation to commissioners, one asking the election be revoked and taxes refunded and another asking them to let the bond issue stand.
There were 316 for repeal and 248 wanting the bonds to be sold and work to start.
Commissioners placed the matter on their agenda. The “pro bonds” forces not only showed up, they hired a special train, which was dubbed the “Good Roads Express.”
More than 200 packed onto the train at the Thorndale station. It arrived in Cameron at 10 a.m. With them was the “Thorndale Band.” I’m assuming this was a town band since the era of high school bands in Milam County hadn’t arrived.
The band struck up and the 200-strong crowd marched through the streets of Cameron to the courthouse.
It attracted—as you might expect—a large crowd of Cameron residents.
Arriving at the courthouse lawn, the band staged a concert as a “get together meeting.” Then as many as could get inside did just that.
The meeting took all day and went into the evening. The first two hours were spent in examining every one of the 564 names on both petitions to be sure they were A. real; and B. lived in District 6.
Then came the arguments and each side had some heavy hitters, attorneys whose names are still recalled in Milam.
W. G. Gillis of Cameron argued for repealing the bonds and J. W. Garner of Rockdale asked commissioners to let them be.
About 4 p.m. the commissioners withdrew to the jury room to make their decision in secret.
(Wonder how that would fly today!)
Around 6:30 they came out and announced to the large crowd the bonds would remain.
It was reported the citizens of Cameron cheered and congratulated the Thorndale visitors on their success.
The band struck up, led the Thorndalians back to the Good Roads Express at the depot and it was quite a happy trip home.
Two offers to purchase the bonds, one of $99,250 and one of $100,000, were received on the spot.
mike@rockdalereporter.com
.
Editor's Corner by Mike Brown
Rockdale Reporter - 2015-01-15
If you’ve been in the newspaper business for a while you can remember a number of public meetings where a lot of people turned out.
This almost always happens when a governing body does something, or is thinking about doing something, a motivated segment of the community doesn’t like.
The most recent one I can come up with was a city council session a couple of years ago where 90 people packed into council chambers to voice their (negative) opinion of a proposed nuisance ordinance.
But that pales compared to one that’s alluded to in this week’s 100 Years Ago section on this page.
On Jan. 12, 1915, a crowd of over 200 chartered a train, then marched to the Milam County Courthouse behind a brass band to attend a commissioners meeting.
Here’s how it unreeled. In the 19-teens one of the big debates was “good roads vs. taxes.”
A unified rural roads system was still decades away and communities had to pay their own way if they wanted to upgrade roads.
And many of them were doing just that, passing bond issues, with tax increases, to build new roads.
That’s what happened in 1914 in Milam Road District 6, which was the Thorndale area.
But it was apparently close. So close that soon two petitions were started for presentation to commissioners, one asking the election be revoked and taxes refunded and another asking them to let the bond issue stand.
There were 316 for repeal and 248 wanting the bonds to be sold and work to start.
Commissioners placed the matter on their agenda. The “pro bonds” forces not only showed up, they hired a special train, which was dubbed the “Good Roads Express.”
More than 200 packed onto the train at the Thorndale station. It arrived in Cameron at 10 a.m. With them was the “Thorndale Band.” I’m assuming this was a town band since the era of high school bands in Milam County hadn’t arrived.
The band struck up and the 200-strong crowd marched through the streets of Cameron to the courthouse.
It attracted—as you might expect—a large crowd of Cameron residents.
Arriving at the courthouse lawn, the band staged a concert as a “get together meeting.” Then as many as could get inside did just that.
The meeting took all day and went into the evening. The first two hours were spent in examining every one of the 564 names on both petitions to be sure they were A. real; and B. lived in District 6.
Then came the arguments and each side had some heavy hitters, attorneys whose names are still recalled in Milam.
W. G. Gillis of Cameron argued for repealing the bonds and J. W. Garner of Rockdale asked commissioners to let them be.
About 4 p.m. the commissioners withdrew to the jury room to make their decision in secret.
(Wonder how that would fly today!)
Around 6:30 they came out and announced to the large crowd the bonds would remain.
It was reported the citizens of Cameron cheered and congratulated the Thorndale visitors on their success.
The band struck up, led the Thorndalians back to the Good Roads Express at the depot and it was quite a happy trip home.
Two offers to purchase the bonds, one of $99,250 and one of $100,000, were received on the spot.
mike@rockdalereporter.com
.
All Credit for this article
goes to Mike Brown and the
Rockdale Reporter
goes to Mike Brown and the
Rockdale Reporter