LAST OF THE OLD-TIME LAWMEN Joe Moore was an Alto legend. He was a man of many talents – farmer, photographer, lawman, innkeeper, road-builder and musician. When he died in 1952 at the age of 90, his obituary was entitled “LAST OF THE OLD-TIME LAWMEN” His mind was still sharp up to the last ten minutes of his life. He had outlived three wives. At six feet four inches and weighing 280 pounds Joe Moore was a commanding figure around Alto. Born here in 1862, a youthful desire for adventure took him to Indian Territory, which is now Oklahoma for…

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One thing I have noticed since I started mining the old Alto Heralds for stories is how much you can learn about a person’s life just by following newspaper references. After hearing Jim Cromwell’s masterful presentation of Bill Brunt’s life and death at the Texas State Historical Marker Dedication I decided to search the Alto Heralds and to see what I could find about Sheriff Brunt’s younger years. No luck with a birth announcement – the Herald hadn’t started mentioning births in 1910. After undergoing an operation at the Jacksonville Sanitarium in 1927, and taking some summer courses at Lon…

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Remember when you could pick winners for the weekend’s high school games?

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ANNIE E TULLIS FENNER 1902 – 1980 When posting pictures on Facebook of the Berryman/Fenner house, one of Alto’s most beloved homes, I was impressed with the number of responses that had to do not only with the house, but with one of the owners, Mrs M M Fenner, long-time local music teacher. There seemed to be so much affection for and interest in her that I decided to tell her story. Annie E Fenner was born in 1902, daughter of Thomas M and Hattie Snow Tullis, originally of the Mount Zion community. After Thomas died, Hattie and the children…

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This column was originally published in the July 20, 2016 edition of the Cherokeean A few weeks ago the A Frank Smith Methodist Church got a surprise visit from Hunter and Totsy Cunningham, who have just moved to Nacogdoches. Hunter was church choir director while he was Alto High School Band teacher from 1959-1962. Discussing memories of his band and choir experiences made me want to see what the Alto Herald had to say about the AHS band. Although there were several city bands in earlier years, the first mention of a high school band is in 1929. Fortunately, we…

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With all eyes on AHS football this year, I thought it might be good to look back at some of Alto’s other winning teams. An article in the November 17 1960 Alto Herald compared two of the teams thought to be the best in the school’s history up until that time – the 1937 team coached by Ted Moore and the 1960 team coached by his son, Terry Ted. The 1937 team faced some obstacles that the later team never knew. For one thing, they didn’t have a football field. They played their games in Wright’s pasture, which I think…

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Back in the early 1900’s when Alto had a lot of thriving businesses, merchants were always looking for ways to draw more people into their stores to shop.  One of the favorite ways was to sponsor a TRADES DAY, usually on a Saturday, with all sorts of incentives to get customers into the stores. At the urging of the Alto Herald editor, Alto businessmen set up their first TRADES DAY on June 6, 1911.  About 50 merchants offered various premiums, some more than one, with some unique qualifications:   Mrs J M Fleming won a hat for bringing the largest…

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All high schools have a Homecoming Game every year, but every so often, as the old saying goes they “put the big pot in the little one” and have a really BIG homecoming. Alto’s first Big Homecoming took place in 1954. Under the leadership of Doug Douglas, proprietor of the Hi-Way Coffee Shop, plans began as early as July with letters being sent to all alumni from 1908 – 1954. One person from each class took the responsibility for finding and inviting classmates. All through August and September there were articles in the Alto Herald leading up to the big…

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The Alto Herald has always been a strong supporter of the Alto school, following the sports teams, printing news about fund-raisers and programs and publishing stories about outstanding students and teachers. In 1937 the Herald went a step farther. It began a weekly section of Alto School News. Because of the depression, the newspaper that year often comprised only 4 pages, but each week about a quarter of a page was given over to the school activities. The staff consisted of Editor-in-Chief Rose Mary Allen; Senior Reporter Buzzy Duff; Junior Reporter Carlos Murphy and Freshman Reporter Mary Ann Stribling. Alto…

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This column is chiefly about Donkey Ball games, but it was inspired by a story of a similar fund-raiser which I found in the newly added digitized Alto Heralds of the 1980’s. More about that later. Except for a brief mention in 1939 with no details, the first report of a donkey ball game came in 1948 and there I found a surprise. Yes, there was a Donkey Ball game, co-sponsored by the Lions Club and the Boy Scouts, but it was not Donkey Basketball. It was Donkey Baseball, and it was played on the football field. To quote the…

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