This is a collection of newspaper articles that were published on Christmas Day throughout the years in the Austin American Statesman. Documented by Janine Plumer.
1890 Runnaway Passenger Coach
Another passenger shared his experience in the rolling runaway passenger coach. “I was in the coach, just across the aisle from the stove, which was red hot. As the car tumbled, the fire from the stove fell all around and I looked for the coach to catch fire, but strangely enough it did no”t.
Back in Austin, Mrs Cunningham was attending the matinee performance of Old Homestead at the Opera House when at the end of the 3rd act someone announced from the stage that she should go to the front of the theater. Once there, she found a hackney waiting for her and it quickly transported her to her home, where she was told that her husband had died. He was one of the victims of the train wreck. The victims of the train wreck were brought to Austin on a mail train. The undertaker, Mr Miller, met the incoming train and took Mr Cunningham’s body to his undertaker establishment and prepared it for burial. It was then taken to the Cunninghams grief stricken home.
1893. On the front page, December 25th.
About 2000 people showed up for the impromptu Christmas races that took place at the old track in Hyde Park. In the horse races, the first winner was George Brush’s little filly Superior. Two more horse races then followed before it was time for the bicycle races, of which there were five. Young Paul Von Boeckmann won them all. Paul then went on to compete in the relay races and won all of those, including the quarter mile and the half mile and the one mile. I wonder if he was ever invited to an impromptu race again? He did dominate the day’s events.
1899 December 25th.
On the eve of the last Christmas a century ago at the 10th Street Methodist Church in Austin. A Dr Briggs gave a sermon in which he addressed the issues of salvation. Salvation, he believed, was not something a person received because one so desired, rather, Salvation is something one must work for. In the sermon he said salvation is a translation from a kingdom of darkness into a kingdom of light. When a seed is planted in the ground, it is hid in the kingdom of darkness. The sun and the rain reach it and decay begins, but from the heart of the decay a green chute appears and climbs towards the sun. At length it bursts through the crust of the Earth and into the sunlight. Salvation to the plant is not the bursting through the earth’s crust into the sunlight. That is but the beginning. Salvation is the maturity which it shall attain by responding to the forces governing its life, where its fruits shall golden in the sun, and tough fibers resist the storm.
Same page, same day, several broken windows were reported in the downtown business district due to carelessness when using fireworks. A Southern tradition.
1901 December 25.
PJ Lawless, The man who lived in the Driskill for 45 years and is believed to be one of their ghosts, ticket agent for the railroad, put an ad in the paper stating be advised that the International and Great Northern Railroad will, for their special accommodations, Commence the sale of holiday excursion tickets from December 20th through January 3rd. We have eight passenger trains handsomely equipped with sleepers and free chair cars, thereby affording the very best service to all points in the state, leaving Austin daily.
Mr Sullivan, of the Fulton Meat Market at 510 W, 17th Street, went to the Turkey pen behind his store to find that all twelve of his fine fat turkeys had been stolen. His response? “I don’t intend to pay any attention to the incident, It is an ordinary occurrence, having happened every Christmas the last few years. It’s no use to kick after the turkeys are gone”. I assume he is referring to and identifying with the manner in which a Turkey kicks after its head has been chopped off.
1936 December 24th.
On this, the eve of Christmas, the young sons of Governor Allred, Jimboy and David, spent much of the afternoon dancing around and decorating the spruce tree that had been finally set up in the reception room at the Governor’s mansion. It took the place of the original cedar tree that had been hastily taken down when it was discovered that both the governor and his wife were allergic to cedar. Unfortunately, it took a while to get there, and as the 25th approached, everyone was beginning to wonder if the tree was going to make it to Austin in time for Christmas. Just that morning, the governor had stated. “I guess I’ll just have to go chop down a hackberry”.
Safe rides, getting a free ride when drunk so as to not endanger other people’s lives originated in 1936 when in anticipation of the celebrations that would erupt throughout the city in the last Christmas of the century. Chief of Police RD Thorpe had an idea. He approached the taxi cab companies and requested that they volunteer their services for those too drunk to drive. The free service would be called “Bloto Service.” He explained his concept. If it was a. Observed that a person was unfit to drive, a taxi and two drivers would be called out. One driver would drive the taxi and the other driver would drive the intoxicated person’s car. Pleading his case, he explained further, that outright drunk is usually too far gone to be much of a menace. He is usually asleep at the curb. It is the man who has just enough to feel good that is the real threat, he is the fellow who really needs “Blatto’s service”.
Also 1936 December 25.
The Austin police chief set free 15 inmates at the city jail in a show of Christmas spirit. “Now the inmates won’t have to spend the holidays behind bars”, he stated.
—-OK. This is not in Austin, but noteworthy nonetheless. A judge who was feeling in the holiday spirit and released the individuals in his courtroom of their speeding ticket fines if they sang Jingle Bells.
In 1954, City Judge QZ Valentine ordered the eight men jailed for misdemeanors to be released. Because he said, “I can’t stand the thought of anybody sitting in jail all day Christmas for some minor infraction of the law”.
1936 December 23.
In the Court of Appeals, Chief Justice WC Morrow reversed the sentence of a year in prison for Jesse King for driving while intoxicated, declaring he couldn’t have been that drunk if he was able to steal a pig. A stolen pig was found in his car.
It was a sad holiday at the Wiginton home in 1936. Their dog, Janie Mac, a Scottish terrier, Who they swear had a Scottish Burr in her bark, had been missing since Monday. A newspaper reporter noted “the gloom at the Wiginton’s home is so thick you could spread it on a dog biscuit”.
December 25th, 1941.
In 1941 the year the United States entered into World War Two. All the pastors in Austin, 25 and all, one woman, joined together to give words of comfort and peace to people of all denominations. The front page of the City’s Papers special edition had a picture of each pastor accompanied by a heading that read, “Austin churches of all faiths join religious observance”. Their statement was surrounded by the picture of each pastor, it read, “pausing to celebrate the birthday of the King of Peace in the warring world of 1941. The US Texas and Austin find this Christmas time a time for rededication. Since the war,’s ravages have spread to this land. Our hope is that the next Christmas and the Christmases to come will find not only our land, but the lands of the world united in peace under the tenets of the man of Peace, who brought his message to the troubled world of 1941 years ago.
1954 December 25.
The caption read: Patients get good for bad
When the Austin State Hospital made a holiday plea to Austinites for gifts for their patients who had no families or money, they were devastated when many citizens sent unkind and discourteous items. One business owner responded. Glen Kennedy, manager of the Eli Witt cigar Company, was shocked to read in The Austin American that more than one third of the presence sent to the patients at the Austin State Hospital were either worthless, insulting or lewd. Some of the packages even contained old cigar butts. In response, on Friday, Kennedy sent one 000 fresh new cigars to the hospital. When asked why, he profoundly stated, What he later admitted was an understatement, that that thing kinda got to me.
Same year, December 24th.
OK, This did not happen in Austin, but the holiday hunters were from Austin and they were hunting in Gladewater, Texas, just north of Tyler. Upon returning to Austin, they emphatically announced that they had found a dead three toed tapir. On their trip. They described this tapir as part horse, part dog. A tapir is actually a large, hoofed, nocturnal herbivore native to South America. The excited hunters had no idea how the creature made it to Texas, and the mysterious find was the talk of the city on Christmas 1954.
1964 December 24.
Debbie and Cy Scott were from a well to do family and they wanted a car for Christmas. They spent much energy begging their parents for a car. Not just any car, a sports car. Until it came to the attention of the brother and sister that the Settlement Home had no transportation at all. The settlement home was a home for teenagers. Debbie and Sye together decided to change their Christmas wish, and they asked their parents to give the car they so wanted to the folks at the settlement home. And the parents did, They donated a Volkswagen bus, in the name of their children.
On this year, Christmas Eve marked the first anniversary of Austin’s youngest movie house cinema theater the Capital Plaza Movie House opened last Christmas and was the first indoor movie theater built in Austin in 25 years. Manager Bob Friedley planned an eggnog and cake bar for the occasion.
Austinites joined everyone around the nation with no doubt a tear and heartfelt thanks when on Christmas Eve 1964, after eleven years of imprisonment, 82 officers and men and one coffin returned to American soil after being held prisoners by North Korea.
The crew of the captured intelligence ship, the Pueblo, were considered by a medical examiner to be in fair to good condition, though clearly traumatized by their imprisonment. Before getting on the plane to return to the United States, the ship’s captain Bucher stated to South Korean premier. Chung II Kwon, his face working with emotion, I hope, while we were in captivity, at no time did we ever embarrass your country. There were methods used and made us sometimes ashamed of ourselves, but we tried to give at least some evidence that we didn’t believe any of what we were doing.
And the Austinites of Farway. And the Austinites, far away in Vietnam were in everyone’s thoughts. In 1964, both the US and South Vietnam forces joined the Vietcong and the North Vietnamese in a Christmas ceasefire. The Allied truce was to last from 6:00 PM Christmas Eve to 6:00 PM Christmas Day. During the first six hours of the cease fire, several mortar and ground attacks erupted, resulting in the death of six soldiers, and one civilian, and wounding 16 soldiers. Despite these attacks, by noon things had settled down and there were no more reports of fighting. Perhaps the short respite allowed Austinites far from their home, a moment to remember Christmas past and the people back in the capital city whose thoughts were surely filled with prayer and hope for them.
1976 December 25.
In 1976, just before Christmas, the striking drivers of the Orange and white University of Texas shuttle busses announced that their three month strike was over and they were ready to go back to work. The strikers made this decision soon after the transit union informed them that their strike benefits were to be cut off. Unfortunately, the shuttle bus company president Scott Keller, told them that there were no job vacancies available and when then asked “why would I hire anyone back when they acted like animals”? Referring to the aggressive attempts the students made to convince the company to raise their hourly wage from $2.56 to $4.50.
Finally, In Austin’s daily paper, This advice was given to all on Christmas Day. Titled Parents Coming to Visit.
How do you act when your parents come to visit you for Christmas?
If you are a newly married couple, this can be the first crisis in your new life together because your abilities as host and Hostess will be put to their severest test.
What you shouldn’t do is to favor or underestimate older people.
Don’t try to be twice as sophisticated as you already are.
Don’t try to make dinner better than mother ‘s.
Don’t assign the most comfortable chairs to your parents and treat them as if they were fragile.
Don’t exclude such serious subjects as civil rights or birth control from the conversation.
What you should do is treat your parents. As the adults they are.
