Tales from the Morgue

1937: Glimpses of Yesterday: William Coldwell Family

May 15, 1937

Editor's Note: This is one of a series o/ articles, in. which leaves of albums belonging to pioneer El Paso families will be turned with reproductions of daguerreotypes.

THE late Mrs. William Michie Coldwell was married in the first Anglo-Saxon wedding ceremony in El Paso. She and the late Mr. Coldwell were wed on Nov. 8, 1884, by the beloved Parson Tays at the old St. Clement's Church.

Mrs. Coldwell, the former Stella Brinck of Jefferson, came to El Paso to spend her vacation from a girls' school with her sister, the late Mrs. J. P. Hague. She remained to become a bride.

Mr. Coldwell came from a family of true pioneers in El Paso. He came here with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Colbert Coldwell on a buckboard stage in 1873. Colbert Coldwell ran away from home with his negro body servant at the age of 15 to fight for Texas Independence. He fought in the Battle of Brazito
and near Anthony, with Gen. Doniphan in 1847. After the war he returned to Tennessee and married Miss Julia Michie, who had lost seven brothers in the war and wished to come to Texas to live.

The young couple lived in Austin until 1873 when Mr. Coldwell was appointed Customs Collector at this port. William, who was then seventeen years old, considered himself a man and rode with the soldier escort over the long, treacherous journey. The family arrived on Christmas Day and camped where the Plaza Theater is. Later they moved to a house located where Longwell's garage Is.
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WILLIAM COLDWELL taught himself to read eight languages and took an active part in civic and social affairs of the city. He was an alderman and Coldwell School is named for him.

Mr. and Mrs. Coldwell reared seven children to maturity in El Paso. They are: Judge Ballard Coldwell, Coldbert Coldwell. Mrs. W. R. Collins, the former Julia Coldwell, Mrs. J. A. Rule, the former Rena Coldwell, all of El Paso; Hugh Coldwell of Wichita; Kans., Lieut. Harold Coldwell, United States Naval Base, P. I. Grandchildren of the pioneer couple include: Miss Catherine Coldwell of El Paso, who attends Vassar College; Colbert Coldwell IV, junior at El Paso High school; Eleanor Coldwell, freshman in high school; William (Billy) Collins, junior at Austin High School; Hamilton Collins, freshman at Austin High; William Walker Coldwell of San Antonio; William Michie Coldwell II and Clarie Coldwell, children of Lieut. and Mrs, Coldwell.
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LIEUT. AND MRS. COLDWELL are en route to their new station at Norfolk from the Philippines. They will make a trip around the world before coming to the United States.

1961: Norton Brothers Founded in 1903; One of City's Oldest

May 21, 1961

Norton Brothers Inc., one of El PESO'S oldest business firms, was founded in 1903 by Charles F. Wilkcn, L, Blakesley, and J. G. Freeman, as the International Book and Stationery Co., Inc., and thus rates as one of the Cities oldest business establishments

The original location was at 107 South El Paso street , now the site of the Capri Theatre.

On Oct. 4, 1907, the firm was purchased by Fred W. Norton of Sedalia, Mo., and was moved the same year to the old Herald Building facing Pioneer Plaza, in the approximate location of the present Plaza Men’s Wear.

The ground floor was devoted to sales and display, with storage facilities in the basement. Eight persons were employed, including a delivery boy with a bicycle.

In 1912 Fred’s brother, Ben, joined the firm as vice president  after having sold his own business, the Douglas Engineering and Assay Office in Douglas, Ariz.

The business prospered and in 1916 more space was needed. The brothers leased the second floor, enlarged the office furniture department and added a line of sporting goods. Heretofore the  sales area had been confined to El Paso County, but in that year Ben Norton began representing the firm in Old Mexico, New Mexico, Arizona and West Texas, and expansion continued.

On May 22, 1920, at the 18th annual stockholders meeting, the name of the firm was officially changed to Norton Brothers, Inc.

In 1929, after 33 years in the same location, more space was needed, and Norton Brothers  moved to it’s third location, 237 E. San Antonio street. Here the store ran the entire width of the building through to Texas avenue, giving it the advantage of entrances on two main downtown thoroughfares.

Fred Norton, Sr., died on Sept. 5, 1951. His brother, Ben, now is chairman of the board of directors of the pioneer firm.

1959: Physician Kills Lawyer in Long Feud Over Photos

January 29, 1959

A vengeful physician, embittered by repeated reverses in lawsuits, last night shot and killed Attorney Theodore R. Andress, a long-time courtroom antagonist.

The killer, Dr. Harold Eidinoff, 50, was in County Jail today charged with murder with malice.

A year ago he was in a mental institution, evidently suffering from paranoia, an ailment marked by delusions of persecution. Today he mumbled when asked questions about the killing as he apparently made his own plans to beat the electric chair.

Officers said his behavior indicated he is laying groundwork for a plea of insanity.

The shooting ended Eidinoff’s long feud with Andress over nude photos of Eidinoff and his first wife, Sylvia, who also is his present wife.

Eidinoff, roughly dressed, unshaven, and wearing a bullet-proof vest emptied a .38 caliber revolver at Andress in front of the International Airport terminal at 6:12 p.m. Six shots were fired.

The attorney was hit five times – twice in the chest. One bullet severed an artery beneath his collar bone and probably was the cause of death. A bullet struck him over the left eye and another hit his right wrist. He died at 7:24 p.m. at El Paso General Hospital.

Mrs. Andress was a horrified witness of the slaying. She said her husband had just alighted from an American Airlines plane from San Francisco, where Mr. Andress had attended a convention of educators. He was president of the El Paso School Board. He was 54.

Dozens of other persons, travelers and airport personnel and taxi drivers, also witnessed the slaying and heard the shots. At first they thought it was all a stunt – part of the horseplay by members of the Horseless Carriage Club, who were welcoming delegates to the Barbershoppers singing conventions.

Eidinoff apparently had been checking airline schedules and waiting for his victim most of the day. He had checked into the Glenwood motel at 5701 Alameda avenue, presumably having driven here from Grants, N.M., his most recent residence. He registered as “Harold Reed.”

Eidinoff Presumably went to Grants from Austin, where he was a patient, according to reports received by El Paso officials, in the Texas State Hospital. Earlier in 1958 he was in the psychiatric ward of a Houston hospital.

As Mr. and Mrs. Andress waited at a temporary wooden baggage rack outside the terminal, Eidinoff approached the lawyer.

He had on a leather jacket and a cap similar to those worn by truck drivers. Eidinoff said something to Andress which witnesses did not hear, then opened fire at close range.

After the first two shots Andress reeled back, clutching at the baggage rack for support. He said, “No, no, no. Don’t do it!”

Then he fell while Eidinoff continued to fire a t him. After emptying the revolver Eidinoff threw it at the prostrate from of his victim then turned and walked at a fast gait toward the terminal entrance.

Mrs. Andress was screaming: “My God, my God! Stop that man! He shot my husband!”

A Yellow cab limousine driver, W.F. Leffler of Highway 80 East, who was watching the whole scene unbelievingly, saw Andress’ head resting on the baggage rack in a pool of blood. He heard Mrs. Andress scream, then seized Eidinoff as he reached the sidewalk curb. Eidinoff made no serious resistance.

Mr. Leffler held the killer until Police Officer Servando Blanco, who was inside the terminal, come out. Blanco handcuffed Eidinoff, directed the calling of an ambulance and police.

Numerous doctors hurried to El Paso General and made desperate but futile efforts to save Andress’ life. He already had lost too much blood, apparently from the severed clavicle artery.

Eidinoff, taken to Police Headquarters and later to County Jail, was calm but uncommunicative, officers who tried to interview him said.

“He’s clammed up,” one official said. “He seems to be trying not to make a coherent statement.”

“I was nailed to a cross in March of 1954,” Eidinoff told detective Joe Gonzales. “Only one man ever got off the cross. He was Jesus, I’m not.”

This statement apparently referred to a chapter in a prolonged legal battle that involved divorce, libel and legal fee suits. In 1954 Attorney Andress, representing other lawyers in a suit to collect fees, introduced in court a photograph that showed Eidinoff and his first wife in the nude.

The nude photograph, according to a Houston psychiatrist who examined Eidinoff in 1957 had helped unbalance the former El Paso doctor, and activated his paranoia.

Eidinoff contended that the photograph, taken in 1937, was stolen.

Obsessed with hatred for the lawyers who were thwarting him in court, Eidinoff let it be known he would get even. He filed a blizzard of lawsuits, often serving as his own attorney. He consistently lost in court.

Eidinoff was indicted in 1957 for criminal libel. At the same time Attorney Andress filed a $125,000 libel suit against the doctor.

Eidinoff told acquaintances he had lost everything – his practice as a proctologist, a lot of money, friends, and the respect of other physicians. He blamed it all on the chain of circumstances that followed introduction of the nude photographs.

After District Attorney William E. Clayton conferred with City police last night, a murder charge was filed against Eidinoff before Justice of Peace Charles Windberg. No bond was allowed. Judge Windberg also ordered an inquest into Andress’ death.

While being questioned, Eidinoff was informed that Percy Foreman of Houston, noted Texas criminal lawyer, would be in El Paso this week for a meeting of lawyers. Foreman had represented Mrs. Eidinoff in a garnishment suit, filed by Andress, which had tied up $80,000 Eidinoff had withdrawn from an El Paso bank.

City detectives said they found some poison in Eidinoff’s room which he may have used as a medicine. They also found a book whose pages had been hollowed out to form a gun carrying case. Title of the book: “Literature of the United States.” His automobile was found at the airport.

Eidinoff owns considerable property, including a motel. When arrested he had more than $700 in cash and travelers’ checks.

Eidinoff is in a cell block with 20 other jail prisoners. He stood in line this morning to get breakfast, then was photographed, but didn’t say a word, jailers reported.

Madam Tillie Howard

04/21/2010

By Nancy Johnson
For the Headlight

One of the most memorable madams in the Southwest was El Paso's Tillie Howard who was in business for years and nearly gained respectability. She kept a well-ordered house and showed tender concerned for her girls' welfare at a time when sympathy was unheard of in the sporting house business.

Tillie had laughing eyes, according to one little boy. They sparkled with intelligence and wit. Her figure was well proportioned, and she had a low, husky voice and delightful throaty laugh. She was 23-years-old in 1892 when she paid $2,200 for a house on Utah Street and opened for business. She was extremely good at business and soon was famous all over West Texas. Hers was THE house to visit.

Young Texas Ranger, Alonzo Oden, transferred to Ysleta in 1893 and noted in his diary that he went to El Paso, bought a new pair of boots then paid called on Tillie Howard.

"I've been anxious to visit Tillie. She's the talk of the border. Jim said he'd introduce me, so we went down there. It's a regular saloon and sort of hotel and dance hall combined, but Tillie makes the place different. She is tall, and I imagine she doesn't need those artificial bosoms the ladies are using now; hers look natural enough. She has the bluest eyes, whitest skin and blackest hair, and is one of the most beautiful women I've ever seen.

"She is glad to talk about everything interesting except Tillie. She took me all over her establishment and introduced me to all her girls. She is proud of the fact that the girls are refined. She allows no loud talk, no vulgarity, and the girls are not allowed to get drunk. They are paid straight salary. Tillie thinks this is more protection for the girls, and she thinks it keeps them honest. On commission they are sometimes inclined to cheat."

Tillie made the papers when one of her girls died at work. The funeral was so elaborate, it was covered by the El Paso Times; other papers throughout the West copied the article. Nothing was too good for Tillie's girls.

"The body of the unfortunate young woman "Vernice Valentine," who died at the house of Miss Tillie Howard, is laid out in Powell's undertaking rooms. The corpse is attired in white satin-silk, occupies an elegant coffin ornamented with beautiful wreaths of flowers placed there by sympathizing friends. The lid bears her true name, but it is cautiously kept away from public view. The hands of the deceased hold a bunch of white flowers, from the center of which a white dove in natural position and opened wings is ready to fly heavenward. Every effort has been made to hear from her friends in Eagle Lake, Wisconsin. Undertaker Powell has concluded to keep the body no longer, and it will be buried at 5 o'clock this evening in Evergreen Cemetery, Rector Cabell Martin of the Episcopal Church, conducting the funeral services."

The house made the papers again in 1894 after a shooting death when a customer appropriately named Bass Outlaw died. A short muscular man, he was popular and well thought of when sober, but his drinking led to a long history of brawls, killings, and lost jobs with various law enforcement agencies. Fast and deadly with a gun, he was famous in an area of fast guns. He had recently been named Deputy U.S. Marshal

Bass was drinking in Tillie's saloon then visited one of her girls. He felt somewhat better until he met two other Marshals in the parlor, told them his problems and got mad all over again, ignoring their advice to go home and sleep it off. He wandered in the direction of the bathroom where a gunshot was heard moments later.

Tillie ran into the yard sounding SOS, on a police whistle with Bass on her heels. Ranger Joe McKittrick, across the street, followed the sound and discovered Bass wrestling the whistle from Tillie.

Bass saw the Ranger and shouted "Do you want some too?" He fired his gun, hitting McKittrick in the head. His second bullet struck the body before it hit the ground. He turned and fired point blank at one of the Marshals, missing his head but blinding the man with powder burns. However, reflexes had been triggered. The Marshal's shot landed near Bass's heart and he died four hours later.

 

Tillie and the diamond mines

2007: Big Bend bids farewell to Burro Lady

02/11/2007

By Ramón Rentería
El Paso Times

Maybe it is the image -- a solitary woman dressed in cowboy boots and a sombrero and riding a donkey -- that made us wish we, too, could exit the rat race.

To most of us, she was simply the "burro lady," a free spirit minding her own business, a fiercely independent woman who -- with her donkey and bundles of blankets and trinkets -- became as much a part of the far West Texas landscape as picture-perfect mountain vistas.

Judy Ann Magers drifted with the seasons and rode at least a couple of generations of donkeys along Interstate 10 and the isolated back roads of the Big Bend country.

Magers, 65, died Jan. 26 of natural causes while camping out in Sierra Blanca. An estimated 200 mourners said adios Monday in Terlingua to the woman they hardly knew except as a roadside icon.

Fort Hancock artist John MacKenzie had never encountered anyone else so visually well-known to so many people in the region.

"She seemed just as hardy as a piece of mesquite wood," MacKenzie said. "She represented another world that's disappearing."

Chris Calvin, the owner of a guest ranch 52 miles south of Alpine, always felt he kind of knew the burro lady, maybe spiritually.

"She did it her way and never complained," Calvin said. "That touched all of us."

Calvin composed these verses in honor of the woman he and his wife, Rita, admired for finding inner peace:

She moved about like the wind

the mountains was her mantle

the desert her bed

she took no pity or alms

her burdens she bore in silence

hot or cold, thin or flush, her faithful burro was all she would trust

she took the trail not taken and she's out there still.

Magers rarely talked to others and never accepted charity. Most people never knew her name, but she was friendly with those she trusted. In recent years, she started accepting rides from motorists pulling a horse trailer.

Ron Segura, a retired Air Force master sergeant from San Antonio, took Magers' picture in 1996 on Highway 90, about six miles east of Valentine, where he maintains a vacation home. The burro lady often camped out in front of an old Texaco station near Segura's property.

Segura offered her bottled water, sodas and sometimes food.

"She always insisted on paying and would not take what was offered if I didn't take her money," Segura said.

Not much is known about Magers except that she was born in Nebraska and that she once traveled the rodeo circuit as a bareback bronc rider and lived the ranch life. Three daughters and two sons showed up at her funeral.

Bill Ivey, the owner of Ivey's Emporium in Alpine and the ghost town of Terlingua, first met Magers in Lajitas in the early 1980s. He later became her guardian and made sure she had spurs, a hat and boots in her coffin like she requested.

"We had deep compassion for her and wanted to feel sorry for her, but she wouldn't let us," Ivey said. "So, that compassion turned into respect for her and her privacy and her lifestyle."

Marfa native Jake Brisbin of El Paso met the burro lady years ago.

"I have enormous respect for her for having the courage to do exactly what she wanted to do," Brisbin said. "That's what America is -- a place where that can still be done."

Hudspeth County Judge Becky Dean-Walker knew the burro lady for 20 years and often left a barrel of water outside her ranch gate near the freeway so Magers could water her burro. Magers always left some change to pay for the water.

"She was one of a kind. I never knew why she was doing what she was doing. I never asked," she said.

Returning from Magers' funeral, Dean-Walker caught herself looking for the burro lady, who was always somewhere along the way, sometimes miles and miles from where you last saw her.

"It's going to be really strange without her," Dean-Walker said. "I'll be looking for her for a long, long time."

Weather readings were taken at many sites before airport

09/19/2009

Dear Trish: I have asked several local "historians" a question, but no one "knows" so hope you can find it. Many of our high and low temperature records were established back in the 1800s. Where in the world was the official temperature reading taken before the current location at the El Paso International Airport? Did the location change several times? Most of these very old temp records were the low temperatures. Good luck!! -- Mary

Good question, Mary. Instead of scouring the archives for this one, I went straight to the source: Tim Brice, with the National Weather Service office in Santa Teresa. And, as it turns out, there isn't one answer to your question; there are lots.

Brice says the first record of the El Paso Weather Bureau office is Nov. 6, 1877, when it was located at a site on San Francisco Street, between Santa Fe and El Paso streets. On Aug. 12, 1880, the bureau moved one door east.

On Nov. 1, 1881, records show the office was at a corner of San Francisco and Santa Fe streets. One year later, the bureau moved to the State National Bank Building, one door west of the southwest corner of San Antonio and Oregon.

On April 1, 1882, the office was located at the Sheldon Hotel, the southwest corner of St. Louis (now Mills) and Oregon Streets. On Aug. 8, 1894, the bureau was in the Government Building, at the southeast corner of St. Louis and Oregon. Dec. 29, 1907, at the El Paso & Southwestern Building on the southeast corner of Stanton and Franklin. July 1, 1925, at the Mills Building, on the northwest corner of Oregon and Mills. Then at the U.S. Court House, at the northeast corner of San Antonio and Kansas.

The thermometers have their own history. Brice said the first mention of them comes from a note about the State National Bank location. The note says the temperatures registered at that site were too high in the early years because of the exposure of the thermometers on the northwest wall of the building.

The next time the Weather Service records mention the location of the thermometers is in a note about a thermometer shelter and rain gauges in San Jacinto Plaza.

So does that explain the lower lows? Brice says it might.

"As you can see, for a good part of the time the early weather readings were taken in and in the neighborhood around San Jacinto Plaza," Brice wrote in an e-mail. "Now since the plaza area is down in the river valley there are some daily cold records that will be tough to beat. Cold air sinks and tries to get to the lowest point since it is denser than warmer air. Think of the air like water (both are fluids); water always tries to go down hill. Cold air is the same. So on cold, clear mornings, it will be several degrees cooler in the river valley as opposed to other parts of El Paso. Of course, our all-time cold temperature of -8 (brrr) occurred on January 8, 1962."

The airport became the official site for temperature readings on Dec. 14, 1942. The readings are still taken there, even though the National Weather Service office moved to Santa Teresa in 1996.

 

TALES FROM THE MORGUE

Have a question?

• If you want to know about El Paso's history, send Trish an email at [email protected] or comment at her blog by visiting elpasotimes.com/blogs
Trish Long is the El Paso Times' archivist and spends her time in the morgue, where the newspaper keeps its old clippings and photos. She shares some of this history in her blog, Tales From The Morgue.

1959: New Hilton Inn To Offer Luxury In Homelike Air

July 11, 1959

Luxury living in an informal homelike atmosphere will be offered guests of the El Paso Hilton Inn scheduled to be completed and in operation by Christmas.

The Inn will contain 107,909 square feet of floor space and will cost $1.5 million.

Room service will be patterned after that of metropolitan hotels, with direct-dial telephones connected to all departments. The guest rooms will face a solarium area and landscaped garden-swimming pool. Custom made furnishings include single and double beds, each of which may be made into sofas for daytime use.

Double as Racks A dressing area off the all-tile bath of each room will have a four-foot ceramic lavatory ledge where toilet articles may be placed.

Many of the rooms will interconnect for use as suites. A dresser-desk, placed between the beds will double as luggage racks.

The spacious pools at the El Paso Hilton Inn will please every age, The main pool, to be built in the shape of a letter H, will be 40x80 feet. One side of the H will have both high and low boards for younger swimmers. The other side will be shallower. There also will be a wading pool.

To Landscape Area The swimming pool area will be landscaped with $30,000 worth of trees, shrubs and flowers. There will be cabanas which can be reached from the poolside guest rooms simply by sliding open glass doors on the room solariums.

A second pool, 35x70 feet will be for the use of Skyrider Club members. It also will have a wading pool for children.

The 200-seat dining area in the central building will have both a carpeted dining area and a coffee shop with counter. The two areas are separated by transparent sun screen walls. A gift shop will be located in a corner of the dining area.

Adjoining the public dining area will be three meeting-dining rooms. Each will seat 100, and have sliding partitions which can be opened to provide one large room and a seating capacity of 300.

Music Piped to Areas The lobby of the Inn, upstairs and downstairs will be a peaceful place. Soothing recorded music will be “piped” to all public areas. Comfortable furniture will be dotted around the desk and drive-in registration entrance in the downstairs lobby. Upstairs in the second-floor portion of the lobby, guests will find an inside garden. Greenery and flowers will beautify the second-floor section year-round.

Barber and beauty shops will open off the downstairs lobby.

A private club, Skyriders, will adjoin the Hilton Inn. It will have its own swimming pool, bar, lounge, card room, dance floor, dining room and kitchen facilities.