The
Thursday, October 29, 2015
Parker County
of T S E Ber County
The
Park
WWW.SPRINGTOWN-EPIGRAPH.NET
2015
October
29, 20
15
Inside! The BEST of Parker County!
SHS $10K richer
Volume 52, Number 28
Page 1B
$1 Springtown, Texas 76082
A Squirrely Start to Autumn
Community support helps Porcupines win contest BY NATALIE GENTRY It’s official, Springtown High School has beaten 45 other high schools to take first place in the 2015 Brookshire’s ExtraPoint contest White division. POJO fans rallied this year and SHS led the way from week one until the final day Oct. 27. The achievement can and should be seen as a testament to the coordination and dedication of the entire community with Springtown Brookshire’s store director, Mark Baumann leading the charge. Signs were displayed throughout Springtown including the Chamber of Commerce, local businesses, and many SHS events like football and volleyball games. Weekly updates and encouragements were posted at registers in Brookshire’s. This year’s competition was split into divisions – Red, White and Blue – according to enrollment size to allow schools of similar size to compete against each other and provide better odds of winning. Last year all schools competed in one weighted race which gave schools with smaller enrollment numbers a distinct advantage. “We are the reason the rules were changed,” Baumann said. “SHS had the most participation last year, by far, with over 22,000 texts sent in.” During the last few weeks of this year’s contest, the top five high schools solidified their places in the running. And although second place, Parkers Chapel High School, began to close the gap during recent weeks, SHS managed to keep the lead by over 1,600 texts. So, 1,600 equals $10,000.
October is the second rainiest month for us around here – and more rain is expected this weekend – but somtimes you’ve just got to get out there and get your business done like this squirrel in Springtown Park. Photo by Mark K. Campbell
The history of the ‘hanging tree’ Simple museum artifact belies a sordid tale from Springtown’s violent past BY NATALIE GENTRY Artifacts in the Legends Museum represent the multifaceted history of Springtown. Many objects reflect the compassion and camaraderie of this close-knit town. Other pieces have a different story to tell. A lawless time... The Texas frontier was often a refuge for people with questionable character or intentions. One such notable Springtown character was Nancy Hill, a notorious horse thief of the 1860s. The daughter of a murdered “Yankee sympathizer,” Nancy (often called Nance) was one of eight children of Allen and Dusky Hill. Hill and her gang committed crimes throughout Denton, Cooke, Wise, Parker, and Montague counties, but she was headquartered in Springtown where her family lived.
This limb remnant from the local hanging tree was used to finish off Katherine and Martha Hill, sisters of the infamous local horse thief Nancy Hill. Photo by Natalie Gentry
Brookshire’s sale rumored
Vigilante justice In August of 1873, Hill was pursued by a group of vigilantes and caught in Montague County, where they hanged her for her crimes. Hill is the only woman known to be hanged in that county.
But the violence didn’t stop there. A few days after Hill’s death, a mob accosted her sisters Katherine and Martha and strung them up from the now notorious hanging tree about three miles south of Springtown. Then, about a day after that, the vigilantes burned down the Hill farm and captured, shot, and killed Nancy’s mother Dusky and sisters Adeline and Eliza. The eldest Hill child, Jack, had been killed months before Nancy’s hanging, so the only Hills left after the violence were Isabelle, 12, and Allen Jr., 11. It is thought that the children were spared because the mob felt they were too young to be complicit in the gang’s activity. The youngsters were taken in by the Tackett family of Springtown and later by the Parker County Sheriff, Wes Hedrick. After most of the family was wiped out, many Springtown citizens refused to bury the bodies for fear of retaliation by the vigilantes, but former Texas Rangers Al Thompson and Dock Maupin defied the mob and finally buried the bodies. And the rest, as they say, is history.
The Kindness of...Monsters
Corporate offices: ‘No comment’ BY CARLA NOAH STUTSMAN Springtown’s only grocery store might be for sale. A report from Reuters news agency that Brookshire Grocery Company is exploring a sale has created a media frenzy. The story, which broke Oct. 14, said a sale of the grocery chain – which includes the popular Brookshire’s Food & Pharmacy stores in Azle, Springtown, and Lake Worth – could be worth as much as $1 billion including debt. The Reuters account says Brookshire is working with investment bank JPMorgan Chase & Co on an auction that has attracted larger peers, including Albertsons Companies. Brookshire officials have so far declined to comment or to confirm or deny the points outlined in the Reuters story. Quoting an anonymous source, the NBC affiliate in Tyler, where Brookshire is headquartered, said the company is exploring a sale to H.E. Butt Grocery Company, also known as HE-B. Tyler radio station KNUE, though,
ran a story Oct. 15 naming Albertsons as the most likely buyer, saying it is the only company mentioned in the Reuters story and citing its recent acquisitions of Safeway and Tom Thumb. Albertsons is currently preparing its initial public offering in advance of going public. Kroger, the second-largest general retailer in America behind Walmart, and the fifth-largest in the world, was the third possibility noted in the KNUE story. Local Brookshire’s store managers directed media inquiries to the corporate office in Tyler where a spokesperson had no comment. Brookshire Grocery Company was founded in 1928 by Wood T. and Louise Brookshire, when they opened their first 25 x 100-foot store on Tyler’s downtown square. These days, Brookshire employs more than 13,700 people at more than 150 locations in Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas. Brookshire also operates three distribution facilities and a fleet of 72 The fiendish rainy weather during the Springtown-Alvarado football game brought out the best in this creature. Photo by Mark K. Campbell tractors and more than 300 trailers.
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Early voting ending Election Day is Nov. 3 BY NATALIE GENTRY Early voting for the Nov. 3 general election ends Oct. 30 in preparation for Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3. Local ballots Locally, Parker County residents who live inside Emergency Services District 1 will decide whether or not to accept the Poolville area into the Emergency Services District 1 (ESD1). In addition, some Precinct 1 voters will elect school board members for the Poolville Independent School District, while others decide whether or not to become part of Parker County Emergency Services District 8. State ballots Voters statewide will decide whethPLEASE SEE VOTING, PAGE 4A.
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