May 16, 2010
WOLF CREEK HERITAGE MUSEUM NOTES
by Virginia Scott
MUSEUM HAPPENINGS
The month and year is flying by quickly. It is the fifth month and it is almost over. This is the third week. The reason I say this is because we are still working on our projects for the first quarter of the year and the second quarter is almost over. So If you come see us ignore the office and work space, there are work piles every where with work in progress. Beside the books we are working on, we have the summer schedule, regular exhibit work, maintenance activities, and etc. The thing about these activities is that everything stops when a visitor enters the door. We love visitors you give us a welcome break from work So this summer plan to visit us often. The news is full of stories about how Americans will be traveling less this year due to the economy. Well the solution is travel at home. Come by the museum and learn about fun day trips in our area, area museums, and other fun things to do in the Panhandle. I also have giant dinosaur puzzles that I can set up for kids with a days notice.
The History book project is progressing to its end for this phase. I was gone last week and the email inbox reached its peak and some email was rejected due its size. If you emailed stories and pictures to us last week and the email was sent back to you, try again this week. Sorry for the problem but I was out with one of my other jobs.
We are putting the summer schedule together and still need entertainment for June and July, do you know of singers,poets, bands,choirs,re-enactors,historians,storytellers, etc that has a program that we could host. Give us a call. 806-852-2123
HISTORICAL MUSINGS
Three interesting events for May from the Texas Day by Day online email
- May 7, 1861, Anna Pennybacker, clubwoman, woman suffrage advocate, author, lecturer was born in Petersburg, Virginia. She graduated from the first class of Sam Houston Normal School in Huntsville, tx, continued her education in Europe, and taught grammar and high school for fourteen years. In 1884 she married native Texan Percy V. Pennybacker. Ms. Pennbacker wrote and published a New History of Texas in 1888, and the textbook was a staple of Texas classroom for forty years. She founded one of the first women's clubs in Texas, Tyler Woman's Club, in 1894. She became President of the Texas Women's Federation, raised money for women's scholarships to Texas University and helped persuade the legislature to fund a women's dormitory. She also had a fourteen year friendship with Eleanor Roosevelt based on their mutual interests in the advancement of women, world peace, and the Democratic Party. Anna Pennybacker died in Austin in
1938.
- May 14,1854, Texas Germans gathered to discuss the national crisis over slavery. At the annual Staats-Saengerfest (State Singers' Festival), held on May 14 and 15, delegates from various local political clubs of German citizens in western Texas met in San Antonio and, following the lead of the Frier Mann Verein (Freeman's Association ) organized by fellow Germans in the Northern states, adopted a mildly worded plank declaring that slavery was an evil and that abolition was the business of the states. The resolution went on to maintain that a state should be able to obtain help from the federal government to effect abolition. By "help" the convention meant that the state would ask the federal government to pay the owners for freed slaves. The declaration, along with more strongly worded antislavery newspaper articles in the German language press, led many Anglo-Texans to question the loyalty of their German neighbors on the slavery question, and eventually helped fuel mistrust when Texas joined the Confederacy in
1861.
- May 16,1968, 400 students at Edgewood High School in San Antonio held a walkout and demonstration, and marched to the district administration office. Ninety percent of the students in the Edgewood district were of Mexican origin. Among the students' grievances were insufficient supplies and the lack of qualified teachers. On July 10 of the same year, Demetrio Rodriquez and seven other Edgewood parents filed suit on behalf of Texas schoolchildren who were poor or resided in school districts with low property-tax bases. The resulting class action, Rodriquez vs. San Antonio ISD, was a landmark case in which a federal district court declared the Texas school- finance system unconstitutional.
Enjoy your week and stop and enjoy the spring irises. Thanks for planting them.
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