Milam County Historical Commission
Milam County, Texas
Milam County, Texas
He walked from Thrall to Rockdale
Mike Brown - Editor,
Rockdale Reporter - 2015-03-12
If you don’t remember E. A. Camp — and you probably don’t; he passed away in 1961 — consider this a history lesson.
He was actually known in his later years as “Mr. Rockdale.” He certainly earned that nickname.
Mr. Camp served as the town’s mayor, as a state representative, was city attorney for 30 years, a member of the draft board, chairman of the Rockdale State Bank board of directors and vice-president of the Rockdale Sandow & Southern Railroad.
But, above all, Mr. Camp was an unforgettable character, emphasis on the second word.
A case in point. The Rockdale Reporter reported on this little adventure 100 years ago this week. An oil gusher had come in near Thrall and attorney Camp and businessman E. B. Phillips — The “Phillips” in Phillips and Luckey Funeral Home — had been out to the oil well site to transact some business.
There was a bit of a snafu on the transportation front and the two men were left stranded at the oil well, three miles from town. No cell phones in 1915. There was nothing to do but walk the three miles, through the cold and mud into Thrall.
Where they attempted to call a “jitney” — a small passenger bus — to come out of Taylor and pick them up.
But the man who answered the phone was supremely uncooperative. He strongly urged Camp and Phillips to buy a car from him, instead of sending them help.
The final straw came when he told them he would trade a rescue ride for an oil well.
Camp and Phillips hung up.
By this time, the two Rockdale businessmen had become so disgusted with Taylor they decided they’d just walk to Thorndale.
They started out. It began to snow. And sleet. Camp and Phillips finally slogged into Thorndale just before midnight.
To find the hotels were full. But one hotel manager graciously said the Rockdale men could sit in his lobby and play dominoes until the sun came up and the trains started running.
About 2 a.m. a salesman came downstairs and left the hotel.
Camp looked over at Phillips, who had nodded off over his domino hand. Camp quietly went upstairs, crawled into the salesman’s just-vacated, still warm, bed and went to sleep.
Phillips, shortly thereafter, awoke, figured out what had happened, and irate at his business partner, decided he’d show him and just walk to Rockdale.
Which he did!
Camp caught a train back home the next morning.
Reporter Publisher John Esten Cooke ended the story by saying Phillips was so mad at Camp he didn’t speak to him for two days.
Cooke headlined the story: “Oil Promoters Have Much Fun.”
The story’s deck read “Two Rockdale Capitalists Have Thrilling Experience in Snowstorm at Thrall.”
(Just in case you were wondering about there being hotels in Thorndale, that’s the truth. Our companion city to the west once boasted not only hotels but auto dealers, grocery stores a movie theater and much more.)
I called Mr. Camp’s grandson, Jim, in Cameron to tell him this story and he told me one I hadn’t heard.
Mr. and Mrs. E. A. Camp had gone to Austin, unaware that our capital city had begun designating one-way streets downtown.
“My grandfather turned the wrong way down a oneway street, and didn’t realize it, but my grandmother did,” Jim said.
“She finally convinced him what was happening and he began to roll the window down. I don’t think she knew what in the world he was doing.
“He stuck his head out the window and yelled into the traffic: ‘IF YOU FOLKS WILL JUST WAIT A MINUTE, I’LL TURN AROUND AND JOIN YOU’.”
.
Mike Brown - Editor,
Rockdale Reporter - 2015-03-12
If you don’t remember E. A. Camp — and you probably don’t; he passed away in 1961 — consider this a history lesson.
He was actually known in his later years as “Mr. Rockdale.” He certainly earned that nickname.
Mr. Camp served as the town’s mayor, as a state representative, was city attorney for 30 years, a member of the draft board, chairman of the Rockdale State Bank board of directors and vice-president of the Rockdale Sandow & Southern Railroad.
But, above all, Mr. Camp was an unforgettable character, emphasis on the second word.
A case in point. The Rockdale Reporter reported on this little adventure 100 years ago this week. An oil gusher had come in near Thrall and attorney Camp and businessman E. B. Phillips — The “Phillips” in Phillips and Luckey Funeral Home — had been out to the oil well site to transact some business.
There was a bit of a snafu on the transportation front and the two men were left stranded at the oil well, three miles from town. No cell phones in 1915. There was nothing to do but walk the three miles, through the cold and mud into Thrall.
Where they attempted to call a “jitney” — a small passenger bus — to come out of Taylor and pick them up.
But the man who answered the phone was supremely uncooperative. He strongly urged Camp and Phillips to buy a car from him, instead of sending them help.
The final straw came when he told them he would trade a rescue ride for an oil well.
Camp and Phillips hung up.
By this time, the two Rockdale businessmen had become so disgusted with Taylor they decided they’d just walk to Thorndale.
They started out. It began to snow. And sleet. Camp and Phillips finally slogged into Thorndale just before midnight.
To find the hotels were full. But one hotel manager graciously said the Rockdale men could sit in his lobby and play dominoes until the sun came up and the trains started running.
About 2 a.m. a salesman came downstairs and left the hotel.
Camp looked over at Phillips, who had nodded off over his domino hand. Camp quietly went upstairs, crawled into the salesman’s just-vacated, still warm, bed and went to sleep.
Phillips, shortly thereafter, awoke, figured out what had happened, and irate at his business partner, decided he’d show him and just walk to Rockdale.
Which he did!
Camp caught a train back home the next morning.
Reporter Publisher John Esten Cooke ended the story by saying Phillips was so mad at Camp he didn’t speak to him for two days.
Cooke headlined the story: “Oil Promoters Have Much Fun.”
The story’s deck read “Two Rockdale Capitalists Have Thrilling Experience in Snowstorm at Thrall.”
(Just in case you were wondering about there being hotels in Thorndale, that’s the truth. Our companion city to the west once boasted not only hotels but auto dealers, grocery stores a movie theater and much more.)
I called Mr. Camp’s grandson, Jim, in Cameron to tell him this story and he told me one I hadn’t heard.
Mr. and Mrs. E. A. Camp had gone to Austin, unaware that our capital city had begun designating one-way streets downtown.
“My grandfather turned the wrong way down a oneway street, and didn’t realize it, but my grandmother did,” Jim said.
“She finally convinced him what was happening and he began to roll the window down. I don’t think she knew what in the world he was doing.
“He stuck his head out the window and yelled into the traffic: ‘IF YOU FOLKS WILL JUST WAIT A MINUTE, I’LL TURN AROUND AND JOIN YOU’.”
.
All Credit for this article
goes to Mike Brown and the
Rockdale Reporter
goes to Mike Brown and the
Rockdale Reporter