We have a little bit of everything in today's issue. From a Texas forestry pioneer to an acting icon to the latest on the Delta variant. Plus, coming events!
Jones organized the first Arbor Day celebrations in Temple in the late 1880s and lobbied for a statewide recognition of a day dedicated to trees. Arbor Day was first celebrated in Texas on Feb. 22, 1889.
Jones Park, nestled between Avenues G and H in Temple, was named after W. Goodrich Jones, local banker and tree enthusiast.
Temple National Bank founder planted Arbor Day seeds
By DAVID STONE, Our Town Temple exclusive
Perhaps W. Goodrich Jones is best known for starting a prominent Temple bank, but that would be just half of his story. He is also known as the best friend of Texas trees.
A report he wrote on the condition and future of forestry in Texas set the tone for the past century’s tree conservation practices and saved East Texas forests.
Jones came to Texas in 1883 after his graduation from Princeton to serve apprenticeships at banks in Galveston and in South Texas. A family friend invested $80,000 with Jones to start Temple National Bank.
His first impressions of Temple were unfavorable.
“Not a tree was to be seen,” he later wrote. One of the first things he did in his new home town was to plant pecans in a tin can and place them in a window sill. It might have been the town’s first tree planting.
Jones organized the first Arbor Day celebrations in Temple in the late 1880s and lobbied for a statewide recognition of a day dedicated to trees. Arbor Day was first celebrated in Texas on Feb. 22, 1889.
As a child in an affluent family, Jones spent two years in Europe where his father took him on a tour of the fabled Black Forest. What he saw there struck him as profound. The German system of continuous planting, cultivating and cutting rotation, along with the forest’s almost mystical beauty, was something he never forgot.
The U.S. Forest Service asked Jones to survey the forests of East Texas in 1905. “I went by train, carriage and horseback,” he wrote. “It was a scene of terrible waste of virgin timber, by the lumber mills in the harvesting of lumber. To cut down and drag out one tree, 100 younger trees were knocked down and killed.”
The state was, he concluded, “killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.”
Jones remembered what he had seen in the Black Forest, a cooperative effort between state and federal governments to regulate planned cutting and planting as part of a systematic program to replenish the forests indefinitely.
Jones attended a White House Conference on conservation called by another ardent conservationist, President Theodore Roosevelt, and helped form the Texas Forestry Association in 1914, serving seven years as the association’s president. Later, he lobbied the state legislature for creation of the Texas Department of Forestry, which became the Texas Forest Service in 1926.
To honor his accomplishments, the Temple named a park in his honor. Jones Park is nestled between Ave G and Ave H in the center of town. The state named a state forest near Conroe in recognition of his dedication to Texas woodlands.
‘If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball’
By DAVID STONE, Our Town Temple exclusive
Long before Patches O’Houlihan threw a wrench into plans to create a championship-caliber dodgeball team, Rip Torn ate a lot of black-eyed peas in Temple.
I’ll explain.
Torn, a popular actor whose career spanned more than 60 years, was born in Temple in 1931, the son of Thelma and Elmore Torn. Elmore, known as Tiger, was an agriculturalist and economist, and he spent much of his life promoting the consumption of black-eyed peas. His success is a major reason Southerners consume the magical legume on New Year’s Day in hopes of attracting wealth and good luck during the new year.
Although many younger Americans relate Rip Torn to his role as O’Houlihan in the Vince Vaughn comedy “Dodgeball,” Torn already had a lengthy list of movie and television successes.
One of Torn's earliest roles was in Pork Chop Hill, portraying the brother-in-law of Gregory Peck's character. The part of George Hanson in Easy Rider was written for Torn by Terry Southern, but according to Southern's biographer Lee Hill, Torn withdrew from the project after co-director Dennis Hopper and he got into a bitter argument in a New York restaurant. Jack Nicholson played Hanson, instead, in a career-launching performance.
In 1972, Torn won rave reviews for his portrayal of a country-and-western singer in Payday, and he co-starred with singer David Bowie in the 1976 science-fiction film, The Man Who Fell to Earth.
Torn also had dozens of roles, including RoboCop 3, Jinxed!, The Telephone, By Dawn’s Early Light, Columbo, Men in Black and Down Periscope before teaching a group of misfits to play dodgeball.
We have a winner!
Congratulations Catherine Dodd! You are the winner of a $25 gift card to Natural Grocers in the Our Town Temple email drawing! Thanks for your continued support, Catherine!
Delta variant spreading easily
By ELVIA LIMON, The Texas Tribune
The Delta variant of the coronavirus, which is contributing to skyrocketing cases in Texas and across the nation, seems to cause more severe illness than previous variants and spreads as easily as chickenpox, according to an internal presentation circulated within the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Based on this new COVID-19 data, the CDC recommends increased public mask use in regions where the variant is spreading quickly and in schools. It is also urging local health authorities to consider heightened prevention tactics like "universal masking" for public indoor settings.
However, Republican state leaders held their ground against allowing local schools and governments to require masks, sticking with statewide bans on pandemic-era restrictions even as hospitalizations continue to rise. On Thursday, Gov. Greg Abbott signed an executive order prohibiting cities and other government entities from enacting vaccine requirements or mask mandates.
Hospital and health officials here are seeing dramatic jumps in COVID-19 hospitalizations, straining an already decimated health care system that is starving for workers in the aftermath of previous coronavirus surges. Overall on Thursday, Texas hospitals reported 5,662 patients hospitalized with COVID. A week earlier, COVID hospitalizations were 3,566. On July 1, it was 1,591. And overall, Texas is now the state with the second-most COVID-19 deaths, behind California.
The rising number of hospitalized Texans has spread beyond the heavily populated metro areas that first began to report increases a few weeks ago. Now, cases are being seen in all corners of the state, triggering pleas from hospitals for state-backed staffing to help handle the increased pressure.
Trend forecasters at the University of Texas at Austin's COVID-19 Modeling Consortium said Wednesday that most regions of the state could see a return within a couple of weeks to the capacity-busting hospitalization rate facilities were experiencing in January — the height of the pandemic — if people don’t resume masking up and social distancing.
LIFE SPAN TREADMILL DESK: Great condition. Desk and treadmill come as set. $500. Call/Text 254-654-0548 if interested. Can send pictures.
HEY, REAL ESTATE AGENTS — Here’s a perfect place for your newest listing!
BODY SOLID HOME GYM EXM-1500x: Great condition. $500. Call/Text 254-654-0548 if interested. Can send pictures. Comes with floor pads.
LARGE DESK WITH CHAIR: Great condition. $250. Dark brown in color. Approx 55 inches long, 35.5 inches wide, 35 inches tall. Sides of desk act as bookshelves. Call/Text 254-654-0548 if interested. Can send pictures.
SELLING YOUR CAR? Post it right here!
RAGE FITNESS — 40-pound soft-sided medicine ball. Great for Atlas drills. Like new. $40. (254) 624-4010
VITAMIX — Great condition. Comes with two pitchers. Great for salsas and smoothies. $200. (254) 624-4010
LOOKING FOR SOMETHING? HAVE SOMETHING TO SELL? List it here!
July 31, Saturday - Billy Holt, Bo’s Barn Dance Hall, 9 p.m.
July 31, Saturday - 4-hour Wine Trail Tour, Tour Temple, 13 S. 2nd Street, 3 p.m.
July 31, Saturday - Bell County Cutting Horse Show, Bell County Expo Center Equine/Livestock Complex.
July 31, Saturday - Adult Night at Summer Fun Water Park, Belton, 8 p.m.
July 31, Saturday - Live Comedy Showcase, Corky’s, 8 p.m.
August 1, Sunday - Bell County Cutting Horse Show, Bell County Expo Center Equine/Livestock Complex.
August 6, Friday - Lilly Milford of Lilly & The Implements joins Bryon White of The Damn Quails for a special performance. O’Briens Irish Pub. 9 p.m.
August 6, Friday - Family Night at Summer Fun Water Park, Belton, 7 p.m.
August 6, Friday - Branded Heart, Bo’s Barn Dance Hall, 8 p.m.
August 7, Saturday - Dave Jorgenson, Bo’s Barn Dance Hall, 9 p.m.
August 7, Saturday - Bell County Comic Con is a family friendly event for those interested in comics, pop culture, wrestling, gaming, movies and fantasy. Bell County Expo Center. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
August 7, Saturday - Dig It! Family Day. Will include a sand pit for unearthing treasures. Learn what it’s like to be an archeologist or a paleontologist and the difference between the two fields of science. Temple Railroad & Heritage Museum. 10 a.m.
August 7, Saturday - American Bucking Bull, Bell County Expo Center Equine/Livestock Complex.
August 8, Sunday - Bell County Comic Con is a family friendly event for those interested in comics, pop culture, wrestling, gaming, movies and fantasy. Bell County Expo Center. 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
August 13, Friday - Bell County Kennel Club, Bell County Expo Center.
August 13, Friday - Hyway Traveler, Bo’s Barn Dance Hall, 8 p.m.
August 13, Friday - Bell County Cutting Horse Show, Bell County Expo Center Equine/Livestock Complex.
August 14, Saturday - Bell County Kennel Club, Bell County Expo Center.
August 14, Saturday - Texas Senior Pro Rodeo, Bell County Expo Center Equine/Livestock Complex.
August 15, Sunday - Bell County Kennel Club, Bell County Expo Center.
August 15, Sunday - Texas Senior Pro Rodeo, Bell County Expo Center Equine/Livestock Complex.
Have an event you would like to promote? Email info to OurTownTemple@gmail.com with “What’s Happening” in the subject line. Keep it short and sweet — what, when and where. You may include a short description. You must include a phone number for verification purposes. The phone number will not be published unless requested by submitter.
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