City Spring Clean-Up Begins Tomorrow

Dumpsters will be next to City Water Works at Cedar Street and Broadway.

Spring has arrived, and the City Spring Clean-Up begins tomorrow morning, March 21. It will run until next Thursday, March 28 (including Saturday, March 23, but not Sunday, March 24). Daily hours of operation will be 9am to 7pm. Dumpsters will be located next to the Water Treatment Plant on West Broadway and Cedar Street.

Items which may not be placed in containers include paint, oil, oil filters, chemical containers, air conditioners, and refrigerators unless tagged landfill acceptable. You must show a City of Roscoe utility bill or identification showing you are a Roscoe resident.

For more information, contact City Hall during business hours at 325-766-3871.

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PLOWBOYS, PLOWGIRLS AT POST INVITATIONAL FRIDAY

Spring Break is over and the Plowboys and Plowgirls will resume their track season this Friday, March 22, at the Post Invitational Track & Field Meet in Post.

The meet begins at 12:00 noon.

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PLOWGIRLS MAKE ACADEMIC ALL-DISTRICT TEAM

Virtually the entire Plowgirls’ team has made the 2018-19 8-2A Academic All-District Basketball Team. Here are their names:

Jaci Alexander
Veronica Cuellar
Kadee Martinez
Jovana Peña
Sadie McCambridge
Shauna McCambridge
Liberty Saenz
Riley Sheridan
Bonnie Wilkinson

Congratulations for all those good grades, girls!

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ROSCOE IN YEARS GONE BY: THE COMING OF CARS

Roscoe's first car may have been a Maxwell Touring Car like this one. (Photo from Internet)

One of the biggest changes to Roscoe as it moved into the twentieth century was in transportation and, in particular, the advent of motor-driven vehicles.

It is not known when the first automobile was driven on the streets of Roscoe, but it was most likely around 1906 or so. “Horseless carriages” had been introduced in the 1890s in the United States, but they were scarce and seen primarily as novelties, and it wasn’t until the first years of the new century that they came to be a common sight in cities like New York and San Francisco. Naturally, it was even later that the country folks ever saw them in rural settings like Roscoe.

Editor Joe Pickle’s remark in the Roscoe Times of October 16, 1906, suggests the locals’ early awareness and attitude toward the new contraptions: “New York burglars are traveling around to business in automobiles. If you wish to avoid being mistaken for a burglar or a capitalist, don’t travel in an automobile.”

It is not known who owned the first car in Roscoe, but by 1908 there was apparently already one in town being used commercially. An article in the May 31, 1908, Fort Worth Star-Telegram describes cars in this area of west Texas being used as transportation services, early-day intercity taxis or ubers, you might say. Below a large photograph showing seven Buicks and two Reos grouped around a Big Springs garage, the article explains that cars make daily runs between Big Springs and San Angelo, Big Springs and Garza County, and Big Springs to Lubbock, Plainview and Post City.

Besides mentioning that three cars conduct a daily service between Colorado City and Sweetwater, it also says that a “Maxwell touring car makes the round trip daily between Roscoe and Snyder, 44 miles.” Just who owned this service, how long it operated, what they charged, and how successful they were is no longer known and probably never will be.

Artist's depiction of Chenoweth's "bus." (Snyder & Scurry County, p. 32)

This area also offered the first intercity bus service in the state and one of the first in the country. W. B. Chenoweth of Snyder designed a six-cylinder engine for a “motor driven stage coach” for daily service from Colorado City to Snyder. It was an open wagon with seats in the back and an engine in front and could achieve a speed of almost 25 miles per hour. He opened his service for business in October 29, 1907. However, people were horrified by the vehicle, fearing it would crash or explode, and preachers warned their congregations not to ride in it. The town’s citizens passed a resolution outlawing its operation in Snyder, and Chenoweth moved on to Big Springs, where he opened a route from there to Lamesa. (Snyder, p. 32)

One of the first Roscoe people, and maybe the first, to own a car for private use was Dr. J. W. Young, Sr., who bought his first car in 1909. He did it, as he says in his memoirs (p. 19), because it was “more satisfactory than making his calls on horseback.” However, he couldn’t use it after a rain “for several days because no roads were graded,” (p. 39) and in those times he returned to making his visits on horseback.

In speaking of that first car, he says, “It was a beautiful two-cylinder car—no top, no windshield, no doors.” He also says he spent a lot of time “doctoring” it: “I often got out to work on my car as the gas often had water in it, and the lubricating oil was black. I often had to clean both spark plugs to get them to fire. But the car would usually get me to see a patient quicker than a horse—and the family I visited liked to see an automobile!”

Kids always wanted to ride with him, and he would take them along so they could experience what it was like, but also so they could help him by opening and closing the gates on the way. Gates were just part of country travel in those days: “When I came to Roscoe there were very few roads. Most of them were trails through pastures and fields. I remember once going to the Champion neighborhood and there were fifteen gates to open, and I was still closer to Roscoe than I was to Champion when I reached my destination. If you took a trip of 30 or more miles, it would take over an hour to open and close the gates.” He also recalls a trip to Pyron when the boy who went with him later complained to his mother that he’d had to open and close seventeen gates. (p. 39)

Early photos of downtown Roscoe, such as this 1909 one, show no cars.

But despite those commercial car services and Dr. Young’s early experiences, there seem to have been few cars around Roscoe before 1912 as none of the photos the museum owns before that year show any. However, they often appear in photos after that and seem to have become a normal part of the landscape as time went on and roads improved.

As the number of cars increased, so did road improvements, including the care of city streets. In 1913, the City Council passed an ordinance requiring every able-bodied male to either work five days a year on the streets or pay $3. And in 1916 the first rules for driving in town were passed. Along with regulations for the use of wagons, buggies, and carriages was an ordinance for automobiles. The speed limit for driving the streets of Roscoe was 12 miles per hour, and each automobile had to be equipped with a bell or gong that could be heard for 300 feet and must be sounded 50 feet before reaching an intersection or crossing, but must not be sounded when passing a vehicle. (Parks)

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REFERENCES

“Autos Are Popular Means of Transportation in West,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, May 31, 1908.

Parks, George. “City of Roscoe Has Glorious Past, Active Present, Great Future,” Roscoe Times, December 9, 1938.

Rhodes, Jack. “Busing Industry.” Handbook of Texas Online. 

Scurry County Museum, Snyder and Scurry County. Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2012.

Young, Dr. J. W., Sr. It All Comes Back. Sweetwater, TX: Watson-Focht, 1962.

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From the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, June 13, 1909.

A Stevens-Duryea like the one Long owned. (Photo from Internet)

LANG* REACHES ROSCOE

Makes 225 miles in 13½ Hours Running Time on 20 gallons of gas.

E. F. Simmons of the Stevens Duryea and Midland auto agencies Saturday received a telegram from F. M. Long, telling of the splendid record he had made in his Stevens from Fort Worth to Roscoe, 225 miles west of this city.

Mr. Long, who with his family started from Sweetwater early in the week, accomplished the 225 miles to Roscoe in 13½ hours, actual running time. Only 20 gallons were consumed in the long run.

Mr. Long and family are traveling in Mr. Long’s recently acquired six-cylinder seven-passenger Stevens-Duryea.

*LANG is a typo. It should be Long.

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Cars weren’t the only vehicles traveling the dirt roads of west Texas in 1908. Here, a Case steam tractor with carbide lights pulls a train of supply wagons, alongside a team of mules hooked to a water wagon. The view is from the corner of Main and First Street (now Broadway) looking west showing the stores on the south side of First Street between Main and Cypress.

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WEATHER REPORT: BEAUTIFUL SPRING WEATHER

Blossoms on a peach tree.

Winter doesn’t officially end until the Spring Equinox, which arrives this afternoon at precisely 4:58pm, but as far as the weather is concerned, Spring began here in Roscoe last Thursday. 

Last Wednesday, which began with clear, blue skies, turned into the nastiest day we’ve had so far this year with sustained high winds of 35mph and gusts up to 50mph. The winds whipped up a dust storm that covered the afternoon sky and blew until the wee hours of the morning.

But then the wind died down almost completely, and by dawn Thursday morning the skies were once again completely clear. Since then, we’ve had beautiful, temperate weather. Friday and Saturday were cool with highs of 54°F and 57° respectively but felt warmer than that with only light breezes. Sunday afternoon the temperature reached 63°, Monday 65° and yesterday 68° under clear, blue skies with only light breezes. Lows since Sunday have been in the low forties.

The outlook for the next few days is for more of the same. The high today will be a bit cooler with winds from the north at around 13mph and a high of about 60°, but tomorrow will be nicer with a high of 67° and a light south breeze. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday will be cloudy with a high of 63° Friday, 73° Saturday, and 79° Sunday. Lows will be in the fifties all three days and there will be a 20% chance for rain.

The weather will also be nice the first part of next week, but rain is not in the forecast.

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