More than 4,000 acres of largely barren land evolve into a vital community as you travel through a century filled with potholes, side trips, erroneous directional signs and occasional dead ends. Fort Worth’s Huge Deal builds on historic and documented data to unwind a twisted legend…and track down events before and after 1889 news about a Denver entrepreneur and “the largest real estate transaction ever recorded in Texas.” The book’s account of Arlington Heights and Fort Worth’s Westside gives rise to several mysteries and a surprise conclusion. Read Fort Worth’s Huge Deal online or download the e-book as a PDF. See the book page.
The Soldier’s Chronology is about the U.S. Army’s prenatal culture and its continual change in elements such as organization, weapons, transportation, communications, uniforms, insignia, medicine, and aviation. Jim Atkinson’s hardcover reference book contains 4,000 factual entries in time order about the Army’s evolution—about its men and women—not wars and generals. Although The Soldier’s Chronology is becoming harder to find, first editions reside at libraries in Australia, Canada, Germany, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Particulars about artifacts in the photo appear on the book page.
Brick travels for many reasons. Maybe someone built a brick structure in a town without a brick kiln. Perhaps somebody preferred the look of brick made elsewhere—or got a better deal on it, even with shipping costs. In such cases you’d expect to find a lot of those bricks in the area, especially after tear-downs and burnouts. Some brick, however, just show up with no simple explanation of why or how they got there. Their reasons for travel range from mysteriously accidental to obviously intentional.
If you have insights—especially about the unusual “Quatrefoil Perforation” or the brick that seems to be marked “U. M. P.”—please let us know. We received one lead about the latter, but the brand remains unresolved.
This historic brick (c. 1890) resided at the Vanishing Texana Museum in Jacksonville, Texas, thanks to the Ed Aber family of that community. The cross with equal arms that “turn” at right angles is an ancient symbol that evokes whirling motion—like two sticks bound together and twirled to create fire. During the very era that Mr. Aber kiln-fired this brick, the symbol had a surge of popularity in the Western world because Heinrich Schliemann discovered it during an excavation of ancient Troy. Then, well before WWII, the U.S. National Guard adopted the so-called swastika symbol for the 45th Infantry Division c. 1923.