THE OLD FEDERAL COURT HOUSE TUMBLED IN, Smith County, TX ***************************************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm Submitted by Leroy Booker Butler, leroybutler@hotmail.com 16 May 2001 ***************************************************************** THE OLD FEDERAL COURT HOUSE TUMBLED IN "Some Biographies of Old Settlers." Historical, Personal and Reminiscent. Volume I By Sid S. Johnson, 1900: Sid S. Johnson, Publisher, Tyler, Texas Chapter XCVI - Pages 380-385 Along in 1855, Tyler was a small village with less than one thousand inhabitants, the people were social and clever, enjoying life, taking whatever amusement that passed around to its full enjoyment. A show would now and then put in an appearance, and the showmen were always the center of attention while in the village. The people flocked to the performance, and the old federal court house building was the place for the performance to take place. It was a two story frame building and loosely constructed. Judge Woltrons was the learned man that presided over the court, looked sternly in scrutinizing the technicalities of the law, in order that the shield of American jurisprudence should reach the aims and objects for which the framers of Uncle Sam's statues had in mind when enacted. Along in this year came "Thadeus of Warsaw", a noted Ventriloquist and Legerdemain performer. Thad had been loudly advertised and his wonderful tricks had attracted the attention of the average citizen. On his arrival he gave a free exhibition on the street corners of the village that created in the public mind great interest, because of the more startling demonstrations at the show promised at the Federal Court House. The bare footed boy stood with open mouth, startled at the tricks of the wonderful juggler who had amazed the world: the boy got on a big hustle for the usual price of admission. The evening came, and this great "will-of-the-wisp" was greeted by a crowded house. A few minutes after the performance commenced, Thadeus was startling the audience by his power as a ventriloquist. He started a man crying "fire!, Fire!, Fire!" a mile off, gradually bringing the man nearer and nearer, when a terrible crash (some thinking it was part of the show), the second floor empted its load of humanity on the ground floor, (from the second story). The men shouted, the women screamed, and excitement ran high; such a scramble of the people amidst chairs, tables, and benches had never occurred before in the South West. A heap of humanity, "without distinction of race, color of previous condition of servitude", lay mixed in a general scuffle with the furniture and rubbish from the second floor. No one was killed, only one was seriously hurt to the surprise of many, to think of the number hurled a distance of twelve feet. The showman caught a plank nailed to the wall, and remained suspended in mid-air hunting for a foot hold until his strength was exhausted, then he struck the lower floor with a dull thud almost lifeless, but soon recovered; the man he had crying fire has never shown up to this day. An old lady suggested to the writer that this fireman, through excitement, had pulled the floor down. Let us call to mind the injured. Dan Cowsar had both legs broken and a shoulder dislocated. He stood it like a hero and joked about only having two legs broken, taking his injuries with a degree of stoic philosophy; others with slight bruises performed the complaining act. He suffered greatly and recovered, but was never as active as before the accident. But there is a funny side to all conditions of life, and people will joke. Many were told; I will relate a few of the things that the people talked of and laughed about. Uncle Jimmie Adams wore a long tailed blanket coat, made of fine material. He might have bought it from his native heath; far off Scotland. The tail of his long coat had caught on a spike in the wall, and when the floor fell, left Uncle Jimmie against the wall without a foothold, and with every surge he made, the coat tore a little, until it reached the end, and he fell against the rubbish below, to the astonishment of the people. Dick Hubbard accompanied a lady friend, and made a mistake and carried the wrong one from the building. Old man Brown, who kept his seat in the fall, complained of being "badly jarred". John Kelly came crawling out from under benches, tables, and splintered lumber, saying "He will certainly give us our money back". Jasper Williamson was greatly alarmed at the imagined injury, and loudly called for a doctor. Upon a critical examination his wound was pronounced as of no serious consequence. The writer became entangled in the rubbish, leaving one shoe behind, gladly exchanging it for his personal liberty. Jack Davis and Everett Lott performed the "trapeze" act, sailing through the window in mid air, lighting on terra-firma, without serious results. These gentlemen were congratulated, and if the show had not come to an abrupt conclusion, would have been hardily "encored:. Van Hamilton limped downtown next morning from a sore shin, somewhat disfigured, but still in the ring. A certain old lady, frenzied by excitement, claimed everything picked up from the wreck out of the fall as her daughter's. A hat, a shawl, a slipper and ribbons, all the property of her more quiet daughter. John Holman finally found a Negro baby in one corner, the fall not even disturbing its slumbers. Holding it up, he said, "Whose is this?", "My daughter's", rang out on the evening zephyrs. "Well, Madame, it is badly hurt; it is very black in the face," Holman never failed to appreciate a joke, let the conditions be good or painful. A number of sprains and bruises were on many people, nut Dan Cowsar was the only person seriously hurt. It was a strange condition often met in the pilgrimage of life-two or three hundred people falling such a distance. The showman's wife was hurt in the fall, and detained him several days, during which he took up a class in ventriloquism and legerdemain. I was one of his pupils, and an expert one at that. He explained all his tricks; simplified them to the satisfaction of the class. It was easy done a "falling off a log", when the professor was present. But there came a time when this magician took his departure without leaving us a tutor. The scene changed, and things changed-the fogs come thick and fast-the mist settled, leaving us in the condition Pete Reaves was in his first effort before a jury-it went out through the top of the house. The class met for practice. "How was this done?" "Dern if I know", was the answer of the class. Nobody seemed to know. The final conclusion reached, "What in the devil and Tom Walker did Thad say, anyhow?"