White Settlement, Texas council fur-loughs library cat

[TexasTowelie]

Browser has his own Facebook page. Courtesy White Settlement Public Library

WHITE SETTLEMENT, TEXAS -- Over children’s petitions and voters’ protests, the City Council has voted to fire Browser the library cat.

But the book-loving feline may yet have another life. His friends and fans vow to take his future to voters in November, forcing an election if necessary on whether the library can keep its six-year reading mascot.

Declaring that “City Hall and city businesses are no place for animals,” Councilman Elzie Clements led what Browser’s fans call a sneak attack on June 14, ending in a 2-1 vote giving the former shelter cat 30 days to find a new home.

“This is not just a cat, it’s like a family pet,” said Browser fan and former Councilman Alan Price, saying the cat’s fans “will petition for an election if we need to — we’ll take this to November. I don’t think that will be any problem.”

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/bud-kennedy/article85612157.html

[pinboy3niner]

1. Library Girl no, Library Cat yes!

[Number9Dream]

2. Dewey, the library cat in Iowa, touched the world

Last edited Mon Jun 27, 2016, 10:13 AM - Edit history (1)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dewey_Readmore_Books

[Fla Dem]

3. Councilman Elzie Clements and Councilman Paul Moore are pricks.

They should be removed from the council.

[Coventina]

4. Wow! "White Settlement"!!! What a horrible name for a town!!!

After saving Library Cat, their next order of business needs to be a new name!!!!

[LanternWaste]

6. Unfortunately, the name refers to exactly what you think

Unfortunately, the name refers to exactly what you think-- a way to distinguish the settlement full of white setters from the local Indians. About five or six years ago, a vote was held to change the name, but it failed by a 100-1 margin.

[Major Nikon]

11. I don't know of anyone around here who worries too much about it

I suspect if you polled the population around here, very few would even know where the name came from. At the time White Settlement was founded, there were very few Native Americans in the entire state of Texas. Those that lived near White Settlement at the time of its founding are almost completely long gone.

[LanternWaste]

12. As I lived in WS during the vote, it certainly seemed rather melodramatic at the community meetings.

As I lived in WS during the vote, it certainly seemed rather melodramatic at the community meetings. I imagine that as a vote was held, we may infer that many did have concerns. Also, the settlement began in earnest in the 1860's when the Tonkawas and Wichitas were still a notable demographic in north Texas.

I'm not too confident that there were "very few Native Americans in the entire state of Texas" at the time as you pointed to, as primary sources point to 150,000 in north Texas alone (reduced to 6,000 after the military campaigns against the Plains Indians). In context, this was the period of the Texas-Indian Wars, the Antelope Hills campaign, the Battle of Jacket's Camp, Battle of Adobe Walls, etc.

[Major Nikon]

13. In 1900 the US census counted 470 Native Americans in Texas

White Settlement wasn't named until the 1940's and Native American resettlement didn't begin until the 1950's.

[kentauros]

14. White Settlement, Texas

From the Texas State Historical Association's "Handbook of Texas Online"

[font face="garamond"][font size="5"]White Settlement, Texas.[/font]

[font size="4"]White Settlement is an incorporated residential community just off Interstate Highway 820 at the western edge of Fort Worth in west central Tarrant County. In the early 1850s the name White Settlement referred to the small number of isolated farms and one or two trading posts that were scattered west of Fort Worth, reaching to the Parker county line through hostile Indian territory. In the later part of the 1850s an organized community named White Settlement gradually developed around the homesteads of three brothers from Tennessee—Elijah, David, and Joseph Farmer. The Farmers were joined by Kentuckian Paul Isbell, who moved to the area with his slaves. In 1860 Isbell played a prominent role in the hanging of two men that he believed were responsible for organizing a slave insurrection. After the Civil War White Settlement remained a frontier outpost, but once the threat of Indian attack was removed, it began to grow. It had a post office from 1866 until sometime in the 1870s. In the 1880s the community was bypassed by the railroads. White Settlement began an extended period of growth in the early 1940s, and by the mid-1950s its population had reached 10,000. The town incorporated in 1941. Among the catalysts for this growth were the establishment of Carswell Air Force Base, activated by the United States Army in July 1942; the development of industry in Fort Worth; and the construction of the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. This growth spurred the development of a number of bedroom communities near Dallas and Fort Worth, among them White Settlement. In 1990 the population of White Settlement peaked at 15,472; in 2000 the community had 14,831 inhabitants.[/font][/font]

[Coventina]

15. Not a very auspicious beginning, either.

[kentauros]

17. There are a lot of stupidly-named towns in Texas,

but I'm sure we're not alone in that regard across the country

However, I always have to bring this one up for a laughable town name in Texas: Whon

[font face="garamond"][font size="5"]WHON, TEXAS.[/font]

[font size="4"]Whon is at the junction of Farm Road 2633 and county road LR, in far southeastern Coleman County. Its name is an Anglicized version of Juan, the name of a Mexican cowboy who once lived on the McCain Ranch. Sam H. McCain bought Mrs. Wagie Cooper's half section on Camp Creek in 1903, and Mrs. McCain became postmistress the same year. Tom Holmes built the first house, and Jackson Lindsay was the first schoolteacher. By the 1920s the town had a cotton gin, a public school and teacherage, two churches, and a number of stores and businesses. During Prohibition, the countryside along the Colorado River south of Whon was a popular hideout for bootleggers. As small-scale cotton farming in the area decreased, the community began to decline. In 1940 Whon had a store, a post office, and sixty people; by 1949 the population had dropped to thirty. The town was relatively isolated until 1967, when the first paved road reached the community. The population was estimated at fifteen in 1966. The post office, which had become a unique drive-in facility in 1961, was still operating in the 1980s. A number of old structures, including the teacherage and the remains of the McCain family's dugout home, were still standing. At one time Whon was thought to be at the exact center of the state, until a surveyor's error of ten miles was discovered. Through 2000 the population was still reported at fifteen.[/font][/font]

In other words, they didn't know how to spell Juan!

[Coventina]

18. That's hilarious!

[niyad]

5. what a gorgeous little being there-- and what ugly beings those two human are.

what in the HELLLLLLLL is the matter with them??? I know lots of businesses (not just bookstores and libraries) that have resident furry owners. never seems to bother anybody.

[JCMach1]

7. Get her certified as an emotional support service animal and dare the politicos to remove

[trueblue2007]

10. i agree!!! AND WHEN THE CITIZENS RIOT..... throw the bums out.

[mnhtnbb]

8. Time for some new Council members.

And a new town name.

[trueblue2007]

9. another reason i think that TEXAS SUCKS !!!

WHOEVER FIRED BOWSER needs to lose his/her job on the city counsel.

[LynneSin]

16. White Settlement? I first thought this was an article about a Klan rally

Or where Donald Trump should retire after he gets trounced in the elections (although I suppose that should be Orange Settlement)

[kentauros]

19. Orange already exists.

[font face="garamond"][font size="5"]ORANGE, TEXAS.[/font]

[font size="4"]Orange, also known as the "Gateway City," is the county seat of Orange County. It is located on U.S. Highway 90, Adams Bayou, and the Southern Pacific and Missouri Pacific railroads and stands at the junction of the Sabine River and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway in eastern Orange County near the Louisiana border. The community was originally called Green's Bluff for Resin (or Reason) Green, a Sabine River boatman who arrived there sometime before 1830. The town was renamed Madison in 1840 in honor of President James Madison. It obtained a post office in 1850 and became the county seat upon the 1852 organization of Orange County. To avoid confusion with a community called Madisonville, the town was renamed again when it incorporated in 1858, taking the name Orange from an orange grove owned by George Patillo. Because of its relative isolation on the Louisiana border, the community became a stopping place for outlaws and renegades interested in crossing the Sabine River into Texas.
(more at link)[/font][/font]

Orange is East Texas and its conservatism-level would be best described as fluorescent-red

[shenmue]

20. Noooooooooooo