Dr. Stiffler wrote..
RC Macaulay [EMAIL PROTECTED], Sir, I respect your opinion as I would
expect you of mine, yet I wonder about your e-mail account of walhalla as
opposed to valhalla? :-)
Howdy Dr.Stiffler,
The account is named walhalla after the nearby (used to be) town of
Walhalla, Texas. The local pronunciation differs depending on ancestory.
Germans pronounce the word with a V sound.
Stories differ regarding the demise of Walhalla Texas, some believe the
procrastinators club originated in the basement of the old cotton gin back
in 1889, but since they never got around to composing a members list...
well.. err.. what can I say
.
Settlers started coming in around 1821 ( the Austin Colony), the first
German town in Texas was settled nearby and named Industry. More German
settlers came and named Oldenburg, Rutersville, New Ulm, Waldeck, Weimar
etc. The Czechs came later and named their towns Dubina, Nechanitz, Praha
etc.
My favorite character out of Texas history is a fella named Buckner, a
genuine individual. He came in around 1815 before Austin, settled alongside
a spring fed creek otherside of LaGrange Texas. He had an old indian woman
lived with him. Nobody lived closer than 100 miles. Along came Austin and
told him he'd have to move off the land he settled cuz it was given the
Austin settlers by Mexico. Buckner held his own for 15 some years. The
trouble with Mexico got worse and Austin kept asking Buckner to fight with
the settlers but he stayed out of it until 1835 when he let a politicain
talk him into going down to Velasco to help fight. Got himself killed for
the trouble and outa kindness, the politicains divided his land between
themselves. Kinda reminds me of the story of Iraq.
Say Walhalla or Valhalla , don't much matter anymore, cuz Mexico will soon
demonstrate that Santa Ana actually won the battle of San Jacinto in 1836..
just took longer than expected.
Richard
