Jason Wreems - A History Lovers Guide to Austin

Published by The History Press

Charleston, SC

www.historypress.com

Copyright 2021 by Jason Weems

All rights reserved

Front cover, clockwise from top left: Statue of Eeyore the Donkey at Eastwoods Park; Austin skyline seen through colored glass in the Austin Central Library; The Goddess of Liberty crowns the Texas State Capitol Building dome; Rhapsody mosaic by Professor John Yancey at Dr. Charles Urdy Plaza.

All photos and illustrations by the author unless otherwise noted.

First published 2021

e-book edition 2021

ISBN 978.1.46714.547.3

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020948767

print edition ISBN 978.1.43967.212.9

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

CONTENTS

This book is dedicated

To my friends and family for a lifetime of love and support. To Austinites for the home and community youve given me.

To Austin, may you ever be a sanctuary for the dreamers and a monument to their dreams.

FOREWORD

Austin is one of the fastest-growing cities in the United States and among the top cities to visit and recommend for return visits. The natural beauty, geography, hospitality, attitudes and history have beckoned visitors and potential residents for over fifteen thousand years. A quote from Mr. Weemss book is apt: The same breathtaking beauty that draws more than fifty-five thousand new residents to Austin each year has drawn human life to the comfortable climes for longer than we can truly comprehend.

Jason is, like me, a tour guide, historian, one who is passionate about Austins rich history, natural beauty and its creativity. Austin is known as the Live Music Capital of the World. Speaking of creativity, in addition to being an outstanding tour guide and historian, Jason is also a singer-songwriter, a contributor to Austins aforementioned live music moniker, so Jason is uniquely qualified to write a guide to Austin.

Jasons book shares with you the stories of some of Austins legendary figures, household names such as the citys namesake Stephen F. Austin, Sam Houston, Lyndon Baines Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson, but also Angelina Eberly, Azie Taylor Morton, Clara Driscoll, Isamu Taniguchi and Emma S. Barrientos.

Come and explore the legend of lost gold along Shoal Creek, which interested an ambitious young man within the employ of the Texas Land Office, who would later make a name for himself in the literary world. Also check out the story of the woman who fired the shot heard round Austin, ensuring that Austin would remain the capital of the young Republic of Texas. And dont forget the story of Custers Field, named for an area where the Seventh Cavalry once camped and was commandeered by that General Custer.

Jason shows you how Austinitesas Austin residents are calledhave continuously claimed and reclaimed spaces and landmarks, including a bridge in downtown Austin that is home to the largest urban bat colony in North America, for the enjoyment of visitors and residents alike. Learn how all this (and more) makes up the natural, cultural and creative DNA of Austin, and see for yourself why Austin has become such a unique city.

Welcome to Austinthe capital of Texas, the City of the Violet Crown, the Live Music Capital of Texas, the Friendly City. And remember to Keep Austin Weird!

HARRISON DAVID EPPRIGHT

Manager of Visitor Services and Tour Ambassador at Visit Austin Tour Docent for SixSquare: Austins Black Cultural District Tour Docent at the Driskill Hotel

Host of Juneteenth Jamboree on KLRU/PBS

AUTHORS NOTE

I cannot tell a lie.

That famous line is, of course, attributed to a young George Washington. From the earliest possible age, I knew, despite popular misconception, that the cherry tree tale was a fiction created to give historical substance to a fledgling young nation. This awareness wasnt due to some great understanding on my part as a child but rather because the author of that story, along with many other stories of our nations founding fathers, was a hero in my childhood home. You see, the man behind the myths, Parson Mason Locke Weems, was one of my ancestors and arguably the forefather my family is the proudest of. Countless were the times in my childhood when I was told of his stint as Washingtons pastor before the war and his life as a traveling author, musician and orator when the Revolution was through.

It seems obvious, in hindsight, that I might seek to emulate in my own lifestyle a path not so different from this ancestral hero. I reached adulthood and took up a career as a Texas troubadour, which is to say Ive lived my life as a touring singer-songwriter, master of ceremonies and collector and sharer of stories. The skills honed over a lifetime as a performer and event producer are actually quite similar to those required of a tour guide, and after a long summer of musical touring and festival production in 2014, I decided to put down some roots back home in Austin. I took a job as the first guide with a then fledgling company called Austin Detours offering experiences that, when not paused by a global pandemic, have become the most purchased tourist tickets sold in the state of Texas.

After spending some time with my guests at Austin Detours, I quickly came to realize that my mission, at its heart, should be to help people personally connect to the stories of our city, and to accomplish that I must undo the work of people like my old hero, Parson Weems. If I really want to bring these stories to life, then I need to be able to show that these were real people who were more than mere names to be recited and that these times were not so very long ago. For the stories to become personal, one must be able to see that though the circumstances may have been extreme, it was a human, just like you and me but faced with impossible choices, at the heart of every amazing yarn or tale of revolution. The men and women who came before us deserve to have their humanity preserved, and that includes their struggles, their foibles and their charms. To de-mythologize the times, events and people of our history is to return the legacy of those men and women into the hands of the ordinary, everyday folks who have yet to learn that a hero or a legend may just lie dormant inside of them, too. Perhaps with this perspective we will all be inspired to be more participatory in the choices we make and do more than just watch history unfold continually before our eyes.

That constant unfolding of history brings us to some informative points about my approach to writing this book and the subjects that I selected. First, the obvious point should be stated that history is infinite in its facets, and providing a complete retelling is simply impossible. In this book Ive tried to spotlight certain locations that are relevant to our story based on their own merits, and Ive organized them in geographical order focusing on just five areas of town, which, I admit, is to omit many other relevant places and stories. This was a wrenching process, and I made the choices presented in this book based on a variety of criteria.