Americana at its best

I recently attended the event at Ft. Belknap called Crawfish & Cannons...an “Americana” event! The crowd came (1,200 or so). The band played. The cannons blasted. Visiting the newly remodeled museum was outstanding. And, the crawfish was tasty, even if I never quite accomplished the technique of eating them! It was heart-warming as I looked across the crowd on that beautiful day, just thinking about America and our lives and privileges we enjoy as Americans. And of course, being true Texans, we experienced Americana at its best.

Ft. Belknap is part of a great story in Texas history. It was on the Butterfield Overland Mail route (1851-1859), coming down from Ft. Smith and on west. In 1856 the town of Belknap was actually chosen as the first county seat in Young County. My father-in-law, Elmer Larimore, was born just outside the walls of Ft. Belknap in 1897.

Looking back, the B. H. Larimore family came to Young County from Kentucky for the land. They paid $1 an acre, and settled in the True community. My mother-in-law’s family, the Norris’s, came from Alabama to work in the coal mines at Newcastle.

Families came from all across America to settle in this Young County area. The Proffitt and Tankersley families came for the grazing land. They came from Hood County, Texas, bringing large herds of cattle with them.

In the early 1870s, Rufus Henderson Choat and his brother left Taneyville, Missouri, and rode their horses to Texas after their father was killed by Union soldiers. His brother settled in Tarrant County and Rufus rode on to Young County to acquire land. He settled on Salt Creek.

I love this story: Flora Belle Larimore went to a barn raising. When she first saw Rufus Choat standing in the door with a pistol on each hip, she thought he was the most handsome sight that she had ever seen!...The Larimore/Choat connection.