Sanders, Liff 1958
Liff Sanders, retired circuit rider and founder of the First Church of Christ in Lubbock, discusses the early history of Lubbock and the role the churches played in it.
General Interview Information
Interviewee Name: Liff Sanders
Additional Parties Recorded: None
Date: June 20 and July 5, 1958
Location: Lubbock, Texas
Interviewer: Jean A. Paul
Length: 5 hours
Abstract
Tape 1, Side 1: Recollections of the open range,
Cattle costs and prices,
Panic of 1883,
Cattle drives,
Early preaching career,
Revival meetings,
Brush arbors,
Church met in courthouse.
Tape 1, Side 2: Lubbock Leader, early newspaper,
[dropped microphone here],
Building the first church,
Railroad (1909),
Ice plant venture and failure.
Tape 2, Side 1: Butchering livestock,
Lubbock’s growth,
Wolf hunts,
Church construction,
Early ranches in Lubbock County.
Tape 2, Side 2: Town section,
Problem of small-town lots,
Blacksmith shop,
Early baptisms,
Fish kept in baptismal tank,
Weddings,
Funerals,
First undertaker.
Tape 3, Side 1: Typhoid epidemic of 1909,
Early doctors,
Methodist circuit riders,
Church services in courthouse,
Early school houses and teachers,
Acquiring bell for the new church,
Problems of keeping time in Lubbock,
Residential district in early Lubbock (1900).
Tape 3, Side 2: Renaming of streets in Lubbock (1920s),
Freighting goods from Canyon City,
Burros used by local freight company,
Early stage hacks and stage service,
Liquor delivery by mail hack,
Opportunities in Lubbock before railroad’s entry in 1909,
Land settlement on eight and four section settlers’ acts.
Tape 4, Side 1: Land rush on Lynn County school land,
First proposed railroad route through Lubbock,
Building of first railroad and its boosters,
Prairie fires,
Mirages and illusions on the Plains,
Phelps White and first automobile in Lubbock.
Tape 4, Side 2: First ice plant in Lubbock and financial losses of investors,
Mention of Jug Reynolds’ part in Ice Company,
Building the ice plant and promotion scheme,
Sale of personal land lots by Rev. Sanders,
Church of Christ moved in one piece to new location,
Description of J. D. Caldwell’s store,
Experience of being lost one night out on the Plains.
Tape 5, Side 1: Van Sanders and Nicolett Hotel,
Establishment of the technological college on the Plains and the celebration that followed the announcement that Lubbock had won the college (1923).
Tape 5, Side 2: Experience with severe winters on the South Plains,
Burning corn and maize for fuel during cold weather,
Wagon loads of cow chips sold for $3.00 a load,
Rabbits sold by the car load during severe weather,
Severe sandstorms,
Cyclones,
Mr. Merrill’s dugout,
Mr. Merrill’s watering trough and apple orchard,
The Merrill Hotel,
Concrete blocks used in construction of Lubbock Mercantile,
Fires in Lubbock and their causes,
Activity of volunteer fire department,
Description of early Lubbock business district (1900),
Mention of the Lubbock Leader.
Tape 6, Side 1: Bob Penney’s barber shop,
Jug Reynolds,
"Poker Tom" Collins,
Will Taylor shoots Poker Tom and Jug Reynolds and is tried and acquitted for self defense,
Sheriff Roberts kills man named Haynes in Penney’s barber shop,
Railroad laborers and mules killed by freak lightning.
Tape 6, Side 2: Blank
Range Dates: 1883-1923
Bulk Dates: 1900-1923
Access Information
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Transcript:
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