LETTERS

The Dallas Woman



A very good issue, indeed, on Dallas women (March), but an error crept into Wade Leftwich’s interesting collection of female chronology. Mabel Gilbert, termed “the first white woman to move to Dallas,” was a man. Mabel (pronounced MAY-bell) Gilbert was a steamboat captain and his wife, Martha, was the first white woman to move to Dallas, or what became Dallas – Oak Cliff (then unnamed) to be more precise. Appropriately enough, they arrived by boat on the Trinity. Some readers, also, may quibble with the assertion that Martha Alice West was the first non-Indian girl born in Dallas County. What was undoubtedly meant was that she was the first such child born in Dallas County after it was created in 1846. Mary Mariah Cochran (who died in infancy) and Mary E. Tug-gle were born the year before within the bounds of what became Dallas County. Mary Tuggle, incidentally, lived deep into the twentieth century and was born about 350 yards north of Turtle Creek along Cedar Springs Road, if someone wants to step it off. Little Martha’s mother taught the second Dallas school, not the first, according to good old John H. Cochran’s Dallas County. Cochran refers to the mother as Mrs. R. J. West, not J.H. So much for historical fine-tuning.

I am surprised, however, that D Magazine, in an issue concerning so fundamental a topic as Dallas women, overlooked the most remarkable set in Dallas history, the six Hughes sisters. They not only started churches, owned and managed cotton gins, farms, and businesses, held title to most of Oak Lawn, and were strong women, wives, and widows – they were the mothers, aunts, and sisters of a Dallas line that extends today into the hundreds. One alone, Mrs. Obediah (Serna) Knight, was mother to 17 offspring. Their story is related in a modern history titled A Place Called Dallas, which I believe to be highly reliable.

A. C. Greene

Dallas



(Mr. Greene is the author of A Place Called Dallas, which is both reliable and excellent.)



Arson



The article entitled “Money to Burn” in your February issue mentioned my name in the context of having conspired in an arson plot.

For many years while Richard Rice was my neighbor in Fort Worth, I wrote his insurance business and I continued doing so after he relocated in Dallas. This included writing a Merchant’s Property Policy which was not an unusual coverage for him to have had in connection with his business.

Nothing is farther from the truth than your statement or inference that I was involved in such a conspiracy, and a cursory investigation by your author would certainly have removed me from suspicion. Surely you must realize how damaging and embarrassing an inference such as you have attributed to me can be. I hope that the reference to me in this article was an isolated example of irresponsible journalism rather than a policy of sensationalism that we see in certain publications. You have unfairly maligned me by overstating as practically gospel a hearsay reference made, I understand, by a convicted felon.

The least you could do at this point is to print a retraction of the innuendo that I was in any way involved. It would certainly have been fairer to have included me among the abused creditors of Richard Rice who continue to burn.

Keith Breithaupt

Dallas



(The information in the section of the story Mr. Breithaupt refers to was taken from court records.)



The recent articles on crime and its impact on the Dallas area have been well done. Since many of these are areas in which this Army Criminal Investigation Laboratory also becomes involved in processing, your magazine receives circulation throughout the lab.

The issue containing the article on the crime of arson was especially well prepared. The Fingerprints Division and the Chemistry Division especially appreciated the depth of your study.

Maurice D. Milton

LTC, CM

Commanding

United States Army Criminal

Investigation Laboratory-Pacific

APO San Francisco



Bond Issue



I read with a great deal of interest Wick Allison’s comments on the Publisher’s Page of the January issue. What particularly caught my attention was the comment, “It is no surprise that two of the most outspoken leaders on behalf of the bond vote were Russell Perry, who has served for many years as chairman of the road building lobby’s Central Highway Committee, and Rudy Day, President of Moody-Day Company, which supplies heavy equipment to highway and other industrial contractors.”

The Central Highway Committee is not a ” lobby.” It is a committee made up of a cross section of county residents who study road as well as other transportation needs of the county. Once the committee has, to the best of its ability, established transportation needs for particular areas, it has then presented such needs to appropriate public officials. It has been, in my opinion, a “people’s program.”

As far as Rudy Day of Moody-Day Company is concerned, he does rent and supply heavy equipment to highway and other industrial contractors, but he has never to my knowledge made a bid on county business with the County Commissioners. I think he has had a most commendable attitude, and he has not put himself in a position of being able to be criticized for having a “personal stake” in a bond election because I am confident he has not had a personal stake.

On the road programs we have studied, I have been in the same position.

I am confident there are still people who can promote bond elections without having any vested financial interest. It’s a bit discouraging that a magazine as well circulated as yours would help foster the belief that only a selfish motive could have been back of passage of a bond program. It was for the good of all the people in the county.

Russell H. Perry

Dallas



Mr. Allison responds: Mr. Perry is right in saying that he had no vested financial interest in the bond program. 1 never said he did. In denying that the Chamber’s Central Highway Committee is a ’ ’lobby,’’ however, Mr. Perry deliberately obscures the facts. The Committee’s name gives a good indication of its major interests when it studies the county’s “transportation needs.” If the Committee seriously explored mass transit and other alternatives to the automobile, it might be in a better position to claim an impartial role.

As for the reference to Mr. Day, my statement stands. As Mr. Perry concedes, Mr. Day sells equipment to road builders. The bond election resulted in more funds for road building. If Mr. Perry and Mr. Day would care to certify that Mr. Day will not sell more equipment as a result of this new burst of business for road builders, I would be delighted to publish their affidavit.

More Light on Thanks-Giving Square



D Magazine failed to see the forest for the trees at Thanks-Giving Square when it gave us a “Thumbs Down” in the March issue for our donations to the Square. There’s a lot more to it than you see on the surface.

In a blighted area of downtown Dallas, many businesses and individuals – and the city – come together to create: a large underground truck terminal (we hope only the first) to relieve congestion; an underground pedestrianway with retail shops designed to ultimately link up with the one now existing from Main & Akard to the Holiday Inn; a green space on the surface. This revitalization project had broad-based support and was participated in by the City of Dallas.

After all these factors were taken into consideration DP&L and many others concluded that this revitalization project would be beneficial.

W. W. Aston

Vice-President,

Dallas Power & Light Company



The Kimbell Caper



The “Up Front” story on the Kimbell Museum heist (March) provided detail to a curious occurrence which was left vague and disconnected by other media in the area. It also helped that the story got good play, including the art. Congratulations.

Elden Rowlings

Chairman, Department of Journalism

Texas Christian University

Fort Worth



No Sale



I was surprised to learn in John Mer-win’s article on foreign investment in Dallas (“Everybody’s Business,” February issue) that we had sold Twin Towers, our 470,000-square-foot office complex on Stemmons Freeway. Your writer obviously knows something we don’t. We haven’t sold Twin Towers to anyone, anywhere.

And while setting the record straight, let me add that we also have not sold Stemmons Empire Building, Empire Central Building, Campbell Centre I, Campbell Centre II, or any of our other Dallas area properties.

Should you do a similar story at some future date and want to check your facts, feel free to call me. We’re in the book.

Richard T. Mullen

Sanders Campbell & Company