Friday, February 16, 2007
Baylor History, Part Two
Two years after their arrival in Texas, Judge Baylor had found success. The land surrounding his cabin contained a surprising number of black bears, which Baylor managed to domesticate and successfully breed in a barn of his own design on the bank of the Pecos river. At this time, the oil and gas industry was becoming established by Jean-Paul Beaumont and Arthur James Port along Texas’ Gulf Coast, and their machinery required frequent bear-grease lubrication. Baylor’s bear farm was the sole source of the necessary bear grease, and Baylor began shipping all he could produce down the Pecos River to its mouth near Beaumont.
The bear-grease business made Baylor wealthy, but his industry was a hard one. Bears are not animals which normally form herds, and in their natural state, each bear can require up to 100 square miles to itself. The bears confined to Baylor’s barns and yards plotted insurrection, and in April of 1844 struck for freedom, an event now celebrated annually at Baylor through its great tradition of “Diadalosa,” or “Day of the Bear.” Though the present-day celebration consists mainly of ping-pong and pie-eating contests, the inspiration for Diadalosa was considerably more bloody. The bears managed to break into Baylor’s storage shed and overturned 17 two-barrel cans of red paint. This apparently was a diversionary effort, as when Judge Baylor and his sons Gideon and Ezekial rushed to the scene, they were attacked from their rear flank by twelve to fifteen bears armed with sharpened sticks, a truncheon and at least one operational bolt-action firearm. In the ensuing melee, Judge Baylor lost an ear and suffered a gunshot wound, Gideon’s left foot was bitten off, and Ezekial suffered a great number of injuries, which have been variously reported as hives, shortness of breath, sleeplessness, headaches, incontinence, muscle soreness, swelling of the lips, stroke, and even death. Needless to say, this event imposed great hardship on the continuation of Judge Baylor’s continued operation of the bear ranch. Notably, a description of the attack by Liz Baylor was later excerpted in Reader’s Digest’s “Drama in Real Life” series.
Diadalosa’s negative effect on the bear-grease business was offset by the very positive effect it had on higher education in the Republic of Texas. In search of some way to continue to operate his ranch, Baylor sought to bring students into his University from outside of his immediate family. He did so by placing an advertisement in the popular Philadelphia-based publication “Baptist Church Companion and Gazetteer,” in the winter of 1845.
The text of that first advertisement can be found preserved in a glass case at Baylor’s Bill and Vera Daniel Historical Village, and reads as follows:
“To educate and uplift students and mankind—
Baylore [sic] University now open!
Sunshine is promised to all students, and
Books fill our library for reading. Send $12 to
Tiffany Baylor, students to arrive August 29, 1845.
Baptist teaching. Offering classwork and hornbooks.
Rhetoric, Latin, History, Dentistry, and Fash. Merch., et cie.”
Labels: Baylor History
Comments:
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The Bear Meat blog has some incorrect information, if what you are saying is right. I think that site, the Bear meats, is run by trolls, with the neon hair that sticks straight up. And they are smelly, like the trout!
# posted by 
: 12:53 AM
: 12:53 AM
This reminds me of Lillian Hellman. IT is hysterical. She wrote like three autobiographies, but the only problem was that none of them were true. However, people believed them for a long time. One story of hers was made into a movie.
Osler I think you should do more of this. Fake History. I like it. Its like on Seinfeld when J Peterman asked Elaine to ghost write his autobiography, and he was doing only boring things like clipping coupons. Then he met Kramer and started buying stories from him.
You remember that Seinfeld, don't you?? OH wait a minute, that's right - I was watching Seinfeld re-runs and you were in LAW SCHOOL. SO now I am an expert on all things Seinfeld and you do that whole Federal Sentencing thing....
Osler I think you should do more of this. Fake History. I like it. Its like on Seinfeld when J Peterman asked Elaine to ghost write his autobiography, and he was doing only boring things like clipping coupons. Then he met Kramer and started buying stories from him.
You remember that Seinfeld, don't you?? OH wait a minute, that's right - I was watching Seinfeld re-runs and you were in LAW SCHOOL. SO now I am an expert on all things Seinfeld and you do that whole Federal Sentencing thing....
# posted by : 2:53 AM
: 2:53 AM
P. S.
I might have found a person who has a way worse job than anyone I know, including my ten hours a week at the Risk Management Nerdy Habiteers place. Tonight I met a guy at Home Depot who just might have lost the will to live. Yet, there he was in his bright orange apron, his name (that I do not recall) scrawled across the front in black sharpie marker. He had one real arm and one sort of prosthetic arm with like a hook thing at the end. NOt that disturbing, plenty of people have this.
ALso his eyes, everywhere they are supposed to be white? They were bright red. Even that was okay...
BUT: I had to ask him about bathroom vanities. You see my husband, Luthier Bill, was crawling over the piles of crap stored in our garage that is normally his shop but this week is our storage unit while our floors are being all "moose lodged up." He accidentally brushed against the pedestal sink and it fell to the ground and broke into a million pieces. I never liked it anyway, so tonight was the perfect excuse to replace it.
SO I was asking this man about vanities. I told him the story of the pedestal sink and how I was waiting for my husband to get back but that my son's diaper was reallllly poopy and he had to take him to the car and change him...but that he would be right back but that I needed to ask some questions about bathroom vanities.....
He politely listened but you could see his red eyes just glazing over.. Then I asked him if the vanities come with the sinks in them already and he said some do, you have to read the box. Then I asked him which sinks go with which vanites and he explained that a 31 inch sink top will fit a 30 inch vanity, and so on.
Then I found one I liked and he was soooo polite, but I finally asked him where can I find that one I liked and then put it on my cart thing and take it home.
He started to explain the complicated code they have there at Home Depot in such a way that I felt like I was about three inches tall yet, at the same time, I was filled with admiration for this man who CLEARLY just HATES his job and on the weekends I'll bet washes his car with that orange apron.
He was like "SEE THESE CIRCLES? They have a letter and a number. SO you take the letter and the number of the one you want and then go over to this shelf and find the letter and number that matches SO you want this Maple Mission style 30 inch vanity that has a circle that says "F28." SO then you go to this shelf over here and find the one that is F 28."
It was the WAY he said it there was like this subtext like "WOW WHERE DID I MAKE A WRONG TURN IN LIFE where I have to talk to yet another one of these morons who watches HGTV and thinks they know the difference between travertine and slate? Yet I have to be nice to her, because I am the guy in the moronic orange apron with my name scrawled across in black marker! WHY can't they let me just work in the back of the store someplace, where I would not have to talk to these abysmally stupid 'do it yourself-ers?' Keep smiling, keep smiling, buy ammo, keep smiling...
Through all of this he had this eveeeen tone of voice like " you know I have stock options in this company.... I have been here since 1982, BEFORE I lost my arm and my eyes turned red. All I have to do is be nice to these idiot customers and I can retire in a couple of years. Keep smiling, buy ammo, keep smiling"
WOW. I was too freaked out to ask him about the kind of sink handles I needed for that sink, but I asked him anyway and he was like "WELL YOU GO THE THE "SINK HANDLES" or "FAUCET" aisle over here and you read the box for your vanity. See your vanity needs center mounted 8 inch hardware OR SINK HANDLES - keep smiling buy ammo keep smiling. SO you just pick out the one you like best!"
The entire thing reminded me of that scene in Annie Hall when Dwayne, Annie's brother, played by Christopher Walken is driving Alvie and Annie to the airport in the rain.
I might have found a person who has a way worse job than anyone I know, including my ten hours a week at the Risk Management Nerdy Habiteers place. Tonight I met a guy at Home Depot who just might have lost the will to live. Yet, there he was in his bright orange apron, his name (that I do not recall) scrawled across the front in black sharpie marker. He had one real arm and one sort of prosthetic arm with like a hook thing at the end. NOt that disturbing, plenty of people have this.
ALso his eyes, everywhere they are supposed to be white? They were bright red. Even that was okay...
BUT: I had to ask him about bathroom vanities. You see my husband, Luthier Bill, was crawling over the piles of crap stored in our garage that is normally his shop but this week is our storage unit while our floors are being all "moose lodged up." He accidentally brushed against the pedestal sink and it fell to the ground and broke into a million pieces. I never liked it anyway, so tonight was the perfect excuse to replace it.
SO I was asking this man about vanities. I told him the story of the pedestal sink and how I was waiting for my husband to get back but that my son's diaper was reallllly poopy and he had to take him to the car and change him...but that he would be right back but that I needed to ask some questions about bathroom vanities.....
He politely listened but you could see his red eyes just glazing over.. Then I asked him if the vanities come with the sinks in them already and he said some do, you have to read the box. Then I asked him which sinks go with which vanites and he explained that a 31 inch sink top will fit a 30 inch vanity, and so on.
Then I found one I liked and he was soooo polite, but I finally asked him where can I find that one I liked and then put it on my cart thing and take it home.
He started to explain the complicated code they have there at Home Depot in such a way that I felt like I was about three inches tall yet, at the same time, I was filled with admiration for this man who CLEARLY just HATES his job and on the weekends I'll bet washes his car with that orange apron.
He was like "SEE THESE CIRCLES? They have a letter and a number. SO you take the letter and the number of the one you want and then go over to this shelf and find the letter and number that matches SO you want this Maple Mission style 30 inch vanity that has a circle that says "F28." SO then you go to this shelf over here and find the one that is F 28."
It was the WAY he said it there was like this subtext like "WOW WHERE DID I MAKE A WRONG TURN IN LIFE where I have to talk to yet another one of these morons who watches HGTV and thinks they know the difference between travertine and slate? Yet I have to be nice to her, because I am the guy in the moronic orange apron with my name scrawled across in black marker! WHY can't they let me just work in the back of the store someplace, where I would not have to talk to these abysmally stupid 'do it yourself-ers?' Keep smiling, keep smiling, buy ammo, keep smiling...
Through all of this he had this eveeeen tone of voice like " you know I have stock options in this company.... I have been here since 1982, BEFORE I lost my arm and my eyes turned red. All I have to do is be nice to these idiot customers and I can retire in a couple of years. Keep smiling, buy ammo, keep smiling"
WOW. I was too freaked out to ask him about the kind of sink handles I needed for that sink, but I asked him anyway and he was like "WELL YOU GO THE THE "SINK HANDLES" or "FAUCET" aisle over here and you read the box for your vanity. See your vanity needs center mounted 8 inch hardware OR SINK HANDLES - keep smiling buy ammo keep smiling. SO you just pick out the one you like best!"
The entire thing reminded me of that scene in Annie Hall when Dwayne, Annie's brother, played by Christopher Walken is driving Alvie and Annie to the airport in the rain.
# posted by : 3:33 AM
: 3:33 AM
Wow... I was going to make a silly remark about milking bears for their grease, but after reading Tyd's comments I'm left a little unnerved.
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# posted by : 10:12 AM
: 10:12 AM << Home
