Christmas in the Mexia Papers: 1945 - 1949

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The Great Mexia Fire of 1922

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Mere days after Governor Neff declared Martial Law in Mexia, a fire swept through two blocks in the heart of downtown Mexia Saturday night, January 14, 1922. Possibly due to the newsmen who had descended on the city to cover the military presence in the town, photos were taken at the height of the flames.  Eight buildings and more than 100 businesses were destroyed. The Corsicana Daily Sun put out an Extra edition Saturday night with details of the timeline (and clearly a hope they would attract some of the burned out businesses...) The fire originated in the Ross & Green building at 6:30, and spread to the adjacent buildings and jumped across the street to burn out the facing block's side by 8:00 that evening, due to the critical and ongoing water shortage in the city. "The firemen have resorted to the use of dynamite in their efforts to control the flames." At 7:42 "just before the Telephone building caved in" a call reached C...
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A bit of a Mexia mystery for you... In April, 1921 there were several front page columns devoted to the exciting new Halson Hotel coming to Mexia. One even featured an architect's rendering of the place. Its cost of $350,000 in 1921 translates to a $5,000,000 cost in 2018. the hotel with electric elevators would also have a theater on the ground floor and public auditorium on the second. The feature below goes into great detail regarding the plans, down to the private baths with each of the 28 rooms on the top three floors having "water mixers" for the right temperature and a hook for the shaving strop. A site was announced the same month, at the northeast corner of Sherman and Main June 30, 1921, a two page spread includes the six-story hotel as a main selling point for Mexia But in July, amidst the list of building projects, there is a only short line "the lot has been cleared for the Halson Hotel" and noth...
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Martial Law Comes to Mexia for 47 Days: January 12 to Feb. 28 1922

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Life was pretty exciting in Mexia in 1922, as long as you managed not to get killed.  The headlines on Monday, January 9 are inextricably linked. The oil boom had brought with it, as always, the rush of money and people rushing to chase the money. 1921 had seen the town population swell exponentially. There wasn't enough of anything in Mexia, not enough water, or train tracks, or beds, or restaurants, and, naturally, not enough law to handle the vice that accompanied roughnecks in the field making money.  By the dawn of 1922, things were getting intolerable. The headline "Martial Law Not to Be Declared Here Now  was just the handwriting on the wall.   There was a raid two nights before, at 11:00 on Saturday night, "zero hour when Federal and Sate officers, rangers, and prohibition agents went 'over the top,' at the Winter Garden and Chicken Farm, capturing the two resorts without a drop of blood and with only one shot fired, whi...
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