In the midst of war, some towns stay far removed from the action. For Waco in 1917, this was far from the case. Engineers and workers broke ground for Camp MacArthur training base in July, famously taking up over 10,700 acres of the small Texas city. But its smaller counterpart, Rich Field Army Air Base, had just as much to offer. After studying meteorological reports, topography, and location, the War Department and the Military Committee of the Waco Chamber of Commerce approved the 690-acre plot in August 1917.

Rich Field was born from an explosion in aeronautics. After a poor performance of US planes in Mexico, President Woodrow Wilson realized that American aircraft were disturbingly inferior to their European counterparts. American planes were slower, had no mounted weaponry, and lacked performance characteristics. Therefore, when the United States entered World War I in April 1917, Wilson approved $640 million to expand the air division of the army (the air force as a separate military unit did not yet exist). The money would fund the building of 6,000 pursuit planes, 3,000 observation aircraft, and 2,000 bombers. With such an increase in air power, pilots were now in high demand.

Sitting upon the land that is now Extraco Events Center, Waco High School, and Lions Park, the US military named this new sixteen hanger base after Second Lieutenant C. Perry Rich, who died when his plane crashed into Manila Bay in the Philippines in 1912. The first man to arrive was medical officer Major Emory C. Gaffney, followed by First Lieutenant Frederick T. Ealand and Captain J. S. Foster, who were sent to get everything in shape. Within two months, First Lieutenant Lotha A. Smith piloted the first flight out of Rich Field in a J-1 Standard plane with a 100 horsepower A7A Hall-Scott motor. By late November, twenty-five aircraft arrived to the $2 million base, and on a chilly Thanksgiving Day twenty-five eager cadets began their training in Standard J-1s, later to be replaced by Curtiss JN-4s.

While today seeing an airplane may be nothing spectacular, residents of Waco felt quite differently in the 1910s. The Wright Brothers flew for the first time in 1903, and a mere fourteen years later Waco residents marveled at the planes now flying regularly above their homes. They clamored to see the planes practice maneuvers out at the base. On top of free air shows, Camp MacArthur and the air base also bolstered the Waco economy by bringing in 35,000 soldiers and their families, ready to spend their monthly wages at the stores downtown. Waco residents fully supported the construction and operation of both the camp and air base, as it spurred tremendous growth and put Waco on the map.

Rich Field quickly developed a culture of its own. With its own publication, the Rich Field Flyer, enlisted men could keep up with the events of the war, the camp, other aviation training centers, and much more. The publication was intended first and foremost to be a morale booster, its pages filled with humor, cartoons, poems, and “kadetograms” from the men at the base. Kadetograms could be as simple as a shout-out to a friend or poking fun at an officer because they were all anonymous and simply grouped by squadron. The Flyer also had a sports section to keep everyone up to date on the rivalries between the base football teams, especially keeping tabs on Rich Field’s rival, Love Field Air Base in Dallas, Texas. The local YMCA used the Flyer to advertise its programs for the soldiers and encourage activities and attendance.

The three main units assigned to Rich Field were the 39, 150, and 249 Aero Squadrons. Other squadrons were equipped and trained at Rich Field to then be moved to other bases. Others also went straight from Rich Field to the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe and received further training from the Royal Air Force of Britain. In all, four hundred pilots were trained at Rich Field, and only eight training fatalities occurred. Most of the young men who made it through training saw combat in France.

After the war, the airfield stayed in business until the 1940s, much longer than its counterpart Camp MacArthur, which closed in 1919. Yet at the end of World War I, those at Rich Field knew the base would never quite be the same, and to them its future remained uncertain. In the final edition of the Rich Field Flyer, the men paid tribute to Waco:

"No history of Rich Field would be complete without a mention and sincere appreciation of the debt it owes to the citizens of Waco. A hospitable people always, they have left no thing undone to make the lives of the personnel of this post pleasant… We have railed at Waco, but then too ‘I have eaten your bread and your salt, I have drunken your water and wine, the deaths we have died I have watched beside, and the lives that ye led were mine.’ We have laughed together. There has been marriage and giving in marriage. We have carried our dead through your streets. And when this field echoes no more to the cry of ‘Contact!’ and the thunder of half a hundred motors, when we who played here our little parts in the Great Drama are scattered over the seven seas, be sure that each of us carries the most pleasant memories of this post and wherever two or three foregather the name of Waco will be mentioned with affection."

Later Waco Municipal Airport, the former Rich Field offered flying lessons and even ten minute flights to downtown and back for one dollar. One airline even operated limited commercial passenger service to Waco until the beginning of the Second World War. After World War II, the air base closed for good, as it was not large enough to accommodate the newest commercial planes now in use. The Heart of Texas Coliseum (Extraco Events Center) claimed some of the available land in 1951, and the city constructed Rich Field High School on the grounds in 1960, later to be renamed Waco High.

Rich Field blessed and invigorated the small town of Waco at a time when America needed it most. Though it was war that brought the men to Waco, the resulting growth and prominence changed the face of Central Texas forever.

For more (including 25 images & 6 audio files) view the original article

On June 18, 1918, a troop train carrying soldiers from Camp MacArthur’s 80th Field Artillery left East Waco and traveled eastward on the Cotton Belt line, heading toward a southern training camp. After traveling for fifteen minutes (about seven miles), the train derailed just north of Selby, killing Corporals Laurn Harrell and August Handschumacher, Jr. and injuring about thirty military personnel and four railroad employees. 

According to a report made by the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) on the incident, Troop Train Number 264 consisted of fourteen passenger coaches, six freight cars, and a caboose, and was a Baldwin Consolidation-type, 2-8-0, Number 510, of the St. Louis Southwestern Railway of Texas, also known as the Cotton Belt line.

The derailment occurred as the train approached a trestle crossing the Tehuacana Creek. After an official investigation and upon hearing statements from the train’s engineer, Statham, the ICC came to the conclusion that a sun kink served as the main factor in the accident. Sun kinks can occur when extreme heat causes rails to bulge or spread. At the time of the accident on that June day, it was reported to be 103 degrees. Statham reported to the agency that the sun kink was “3 to 5 inches in width and about half a rail length long, located about 400 feet south of the trestle; he then set the air [brakes] in emergency and jumped.”

The ICC report also factored in the poor condition of the track: “this section was not properly supported by a ballast, and should not have been permitted to remain in that condition.” This information led to the determination that the locomotive began its derailment 113 feet south of the trestle, causing the engine to turn over when it began to cross. A Waco News-Tribune account of June 19, 1918, states: "at the time of the wreck [the train] was passing over a wooden bridge across Tehuacana Creek. As the engine went onto the bridge, timbers suddenly gave way and the locomotive ploughed through.”

The ICC found no mechanical problems with the Baldwin Locomotive Number 510. However, the arrangement of the cars made the event more tragic. During the derailment, the engine’s tender cistern detached from its frame, and unfortunately, the first passenger car directly behind it was composed entirely of wood. The tender’s frame and tank practically demolished the wooden coach, and the two deaths and many of the injuries occurred in this car. The ICC claimed that placing this lighter wooden coach behind the locomotive with the heavier steel cars behind it “undoubtedly increased the danger of injury to the passengers.”

Much speculation followed the incident as to the cause. On June 19, 1918, the Waco News-Tribune reported on a popular belief: “The favorite opinion of the hundreds of officers, camp and railroad officials, and citizen spectators, was that the bridge or the rails had been tampered with, by persons knowing of the troop movement.” With the United States into its second year of involvement in World War I, it is not surprising that such theories of sabotage were being put forth. Just a few days after the derailment, the investigation reports debunked these theories.

For more (including 10 images) view the original article

Though not uncommon to late nineteenth-and early twentieth-century cities, red-light districts were regarded as areas of ill repute where madams and prostitutes worked outside the law. Yet in 1889, Waco—a city lauded for its multitude of educational institutions and churches—became only the second city in the United States to legalize such an area. This district, known as the Reservation, or sometimes as Two-Street, brought in thousands of dollars of revenue to the city while serving as a source of controversy for many years.

Waco’s 1871 charter differed slightly from that of most Texas cities. Rather than completely outlawing prostitution, the Waco charter included a provision for the city government to suppress or regulate bordellos. For many years, government officials attempted to control prostitution and, in 1884, implemented laws to completely suppress it. However, these actions proved in vain, and after just five years of attempting to eliminate prostitution, the city of Waco did a complete about-face on its strategy.

The new policy legalized prostitution in a small area just off of downtown between Washington Avenue, North Third Street, Jefferson Avenue, and the Brazos River, providing the city with more control over where and when such actions could take place. The policy also segregated the area by race, and prohibited drinking within its limits. Prostitutes were required to sign the Bawdy House Register and pay a $10 licensing fee every three months. Each woman also had to pay to be examined by a city doctor twice a month. Madams paid fees for each bedroom of the house they ran, as well as additional fees for each resident of the house. Any woman recorded on the Bawdy House Register seen outside of the Reservation could be charged with vagrancy and fined up to $200.

Though legal, the Reservation and its occupants were looked upon with disdain by the rest of Waco. Since the women could not walk to the city to shop for fear of being charged with vagrancy, they traveled in enclosed carriages directly to the stores, where a clerk either met them at the curb with the goods they required or sent them to the back of the store to keep them out of public sight. Children of prostitutes were shunned as well. In 1893, a city wide vote banned children born of women listed on the Bawdy House Register from Waco’s public schools. Itinerant evangelists often spoke against the evils of prostitution in Waco but rarely reached out to help the actual women themselves. For instance, when J. T. Upchurch established a rescue society to aid prostitutes in Waco, the local Methodist church kicked him out of the congregation.

Abandonment and financial desperation led many women to the Reservation. In the nineteenth century, a divorced or pregnant-out-of-wedlock woman struggled to find a career and often was abandoned by her family and friends. As many as one hundred women worked in the Reservation during its heyday. Some, such as renowned Waco madam Mollie Adams, became enormously wealthy and successful. In one case, a madam named Della Smith even left the Reservation, married a grocer, and lived the rest of her life in respectable society. Yet for many of these women, life in the Reservation ended in drugs, alcohol, and violence.

By some estimates, the city made up to $12,000 of revenue per year from the licensing and regulatory fees. Yet when the federal government sent a message to the city council in 1917 warning the city to shut down the vice district, the decision to do so was made quickly. With the inevitability of the US entering the Great War looming ahead, Waco could either close the Reservation or pass up on the possibility of gaining a military base.

Despite the construction of Camp MacArthur, traces of the Reservation—which in many ways distinguished Waco from other cities—remained. However, the remnants of the district slowly whittled away in the 1920s as bordellos closed, economic interests shifted elsewhere, and immigrants fleeing violence at the Texas-Mexico border moved into the neighborhood to fill the emptied houses. That transition marked the unofficial end of the contentious vice district which once brought both controversy and economic profit to the city.

For more (including 4 images & 9 audio files) view the original article

Ten weeks after the United States declared war on Germany in 1917, Waco was chosen as the site for a military training camp. The United States initially lacked the military manpower needed to fight in the war and needed to rapidly increase the number enrolled in the armed forces. Cooperation between Waco businessmen and the federal government allowed construction to begin on a troop training complex on July 20, 1917. Spread out on 10,700 acres of cotton fields and blackland farms, the military camp cost five million dollars to construct.

The site was named for Lt. Gen. Arthur MacArthur, a Medal of Honor recipient who served in the Civil War and the Spanish-American War. Eighteen thousand troops arrived to begin their training in September of 1917. These National Guardsmen, primarily from Wisconsin and Michigan, boosted the Waco population, stimulating economic growth for the city. Though Camp MacArthur possessed the capacity to hold around forty-five thousand troops, no more than twenty-eight thousand resided at the Waco training compound.

The camp consisted of administration offices, a tent city, a base hospital, and a number of other military buildings. Loretta Johnston, a nurse at the hospital in 1918, described the base as “very pleasing to the eye” and the hospital as a “pleasant place for [the] sick and convalescent soldiers.” Johnston also wrote of a recreation hall in the hospital which housed parties and dances for the nurses and officers on weekends.

The troops from Wisconsin and Michigan formed the Thirty-Second Infantry Division of the National Guard. After receiving basic training in Waco, these troops joined the American Expeditionary Forces near Langres, France, on February 24, 1918, where they received more training and ultimately became a front line unit.

After the deployment of the Thirty-Second Infantry Division, Camp MacArthur became an infantry replacement and training camp, as well as an officer school. Recruits from Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, and New Mexico arrived in Waco to receive their training until the camp became a demobilization center following the armistice of November 11, 1918.

The military center affected Waco in a number of ways. The population boost stimulated a period of economic prosperity which continued until the Great Depression. After the war’s conclusion, many soldiers returned to Waco. Even the annual fair held at the Texas Cotton Palace came to reflect the military presence in Waco. The Cotton Palace Exposition of 1917 catered heavily to soldiers, including exhibits such as a bullet-ridden German biplane. Additionally, the US Army’s insistence upon decreasing distractions for soldiers led to the closing of Waco’s red-light district known as “The Reservation.”

Camp MacArthur officially closed on March 7, 1919, and the land it formally encompassed was incorporated into the city of Waco. Portions of the materials from the camp were then used to construct a portion of the US-Mexican border; others were used to build houses in the Edgefield neighborhood in Waco.

For more (including 10 images, 5 audio files, & 1 video) view the original article

When Stephen F. Austin led the first Anglo-American settlers into Texas including areas along the Brazos River, they brought with them their strong agricultural tradition based on cotton-growing. From the period of annexation until well into the first few decades of the twentieth century, King Cotton retained its sovereignty over the agricultural landscape of the Lone Star State. In an effort to recognize the importance of this cash crop to its livelihood, Waco stylized itself as the Cotton Capital of the South, and its leading citizens organized an exhibition intended to celebrate the end of the growing season and cotton’s central role in the state’s economy.

The first exposition of the Texas Cotton Palace was held in November of 1894. The activities lasted a month, and it seemed that the Cotton Palace would become a permanent yearly fixture in Waco’s social calendar. Unfortunately, tragedy soon struck. In January of 1895, just a few months after the first celebration, a terrible fire damaged the Cotton Palace. The exhibition hall at Padgitt Park burned down, and the rest of the grounds were left badly damaged. The Texas Cotton Palace would not see further festivities for fifteen years.

The Cotton Palace reopened in 1910. The 1910 exposition was housed on a triangular-shaped twelve-acre lot surrounded by Clay Avenue, Dutton Avenue, and South Sixteenth Street. The Cotton Palace’s facilities were designed to be both eye-catching and practical. The main building had a central dome done in a striking palatial style, and the coliseum was capable of seating ten thousand people. The grounds featured automobile, poultry, floral, and machinery buildings with diverse exhibits. These permanent buildings were augmented by a racetrack, barns, and carnival grounds known as the War Path that included a Ferris wheel and a wooden roller coaster.

Cotton Palace organizers desired to provide entertainment that would appeal to people of varied age groups and backgrounds. Activities at the two-week-long exposition at the Cotton Palace included better baby contests, horse and automobile races, as well as canning, baking, and needlework competitions. Among the exhibits were farm products and manufactured goods from across Texas and neighboring states. In order to draw in more crowds, forty acres of park space and an athletic field with an eighteen thousand seat capacity were added to the original grounds. Perhaps the major events of the exposition were the coronation of the Cotton Palace Queen at the Cotton Palace Ball, a lavish gala attended by dignitaries and debutantes alike.

  The Cotton Palace had a role on the home front during World War I, devoting several buildings to the war effort. For instance, one building was used to display a captured German biplane, along with other items of weaponry and equipment such as artillery pieces and shells. A record number of 547,242 people attended the exposition in 1918, although this record was likely due more to the patronage of personnel from Camp MacArthur than the appeal of war-themed attractions.

Twenty years after the reopening of the Texas Cotton Palace, the exposition came to an end for good in 1930 upon the decline of the cotton market and the economic crisis brought on by the Great Depression. In the early 1970s, however, the Waco Cotton Palace Pageant was created to keep the tradition alive.

The Texas Cotton Palace was very much one of the major landmarks and attractions for not only Waco but also for the Lone Star State. This two-week-long exposition provided a memorable experience for pleasure seekers and the subjects of King Cotton alike.

For more (including 11 images, 3 audio files, & 1 video) view the original article