Mills, Music and Movies

It pays to keep your eyes open as you drive around the country.  Not too far from where I live is the small town of Wolfe City.  If you happen to be passing by on Highway 11 you might spot this old building sitting off in the trees on the south side of the road.  The signage on the side (which you can barely see) says, "Texo Feeds."  It appears that it might have been an old feed dealership.  I have never walked out to the building and taken a closer look, but the height of the porch/dock at the larger door appears to be about right for a wagon loading dock.  I can just imagine an old farm wagon, pulled by mules, being loaded with bags of oats, or other feed.

Texo Feeds is interesting because it is associated with "Light Crust Flour."  If you happen to be north of Fort Worth on I-820 around I-35, you will see a large concrete grain terminal on the BNSF railroad tracks off in the distance.  On the side are printed the words, "Home of Light Crust Flour and Texo Feeds."  It is the old Burris Mill which was originally dedicated in 1936.  It is great advertisement for the small, but fast-growing city of Saginaw.*

Light Crust Flour was known far and wide because they also had a radio station which featured the "Light Crust Dough Boys."  The band was made up of Bob Wills, Herman Arnspiger and Milton Brown.  They later became the Texas Playboys and Bob Wills brought Texas Swing music to the world.

The Governor of Texas from 1939 to 1941 was W. Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel.  He later became a U.S. Senator in the controversial 1941 race in which he defeated Congressman Lyndon B. Johnson.  O'Daniel had previously been an official at the Burris Mill prior to being fired in 1935 after a series of disputes.  It was then that he formed his own band called the Hillbilly Boys and his own flour company.

Although their name more closely resembles that of the Foggy Mountain Boys, known for Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, the band from the hit film "O Brother, Where Art Thou," the Soggy Bottom Boys, is loosely based on the Hillbilly Boys band of "Pappy" O'Daniel who entertained likely voters in his quest for political office.  Although based in Mississippi, you may recall that the Governor in the hit movie was also named Pappy O'Daniel, who bolstered his popularity by offering a pardon to the members of the Soggy Bottom Boys.

I suppose my post this morning is a bit circuitous in nature, but there are plenty of dots to be connected.  There is a lot of interesting history just waiting to be discovered; it's almost covered up by trees and a bit out-of-the-way, but it's out there if you just look.

* Light Crust Flour

** O Brother Where Art Thou?