Fourth of July in Brownsville, Texas

Compiled by Javier R. Garcia

The following is an arrangement of photos taken on or about the Fourth of July with a connection to Brownsville.  There are a few extras thrown in for good measure.  If you really have time or interest follow the links wherever they glow and have an awesome Fourth of July!

1904 ~ was the year the railway which connected us to Robstown was finally completed and the St. Louis, Brownsville & Matamoros would eventually extend to Houston and beyond.  

 The line crossed over bridge to Matamoros and could go all the way to Mexico City.

[copied off Ebay]

1904~ According to Wikipedia this bridge was opened for testing in July of 1904 and never opened again as the water level never quite reached the height needed to safely navigate the river for trade.  

1910 ~ According to this newspaper clipping the bridge was also photographed in May of 1910.

1909 ~ For a city that used to have parades for every season or reason we seldom see many Fourth of July photographs from the past.  This digitized file was improperly cropped but it identifies as "Boston Shoe Store - 4th of July Celebration ___ - Brownsville, Texas"

1909 ~ Another parade float passing under old convent "crossover bridge"

c1910~ This photo of a woman named "Rose" decorated in the stars and stripes was likely taken for the Fourth of July. We can also date this photo between 1908 and 1913 since it came from the Gilhousen studio.  For more on the Gilhousen Photography business in Brownsville click this -->  LINK  <-- to a 2015 4th of July posting on this page.   If you have any old family portraits with that exact same stamp on it, now you're more the wiser.

1911 ~ Fourth of July parade showing more people wrapping themselves in the American flag to show their patriotism which is probably where get that cliche'd phrase from.

c1915 ~ One of the most colorful characters of our local history is Adolf Dittman who is seen here with a miniature flag collection fronting a very large American flag.  His vaudeville experience served him well and he continued his trade as a practitioner of the illusionist arts on his stage and his theater.  That table has secret compartments and is on display at the Historic Brownsville Museum on E Madison St and was once painted a brilliant gold. If you want to read more about Dittman and his theater CLICK THIS or if you rather see him do some magic CLICK*THIS 

c1920 ~ Fourth of July parade

1928 ~ Opening of the Gateway International Bridge.  Maybe it was too hot for everyone to turn out for the big celebration.

1928 ~ The Brownsville Tigers were a team sponsored by William Abraham "Snake" King.  If you ever visit a local Denny's and see this colorized photo you'll see a Historic Brownsville Museum stamp on it.  This is one of my earliest colorized photos but if you're more interested in reading a made-up history of the photo with a few facts thrown in to make it sound believable click THIS LINK.  

1929 ~ Yes this really happened and on more than one occasion and yes it got really ugly but this particular advertisement says it all.  If you can get a copy of Rattling Yours, Snake King  from a used book store you might pay less than from one in a local antique shop but there are still a few books out there.  As I recall, the author writes he opted out of the game after a few bouts which were not worth trying to get through the rough times during the depression years.

1932 ~ United States Custom House, Federal Courthouse and Post Office as it was being built on East Elizabeth St and 10th.  This photo is dated as July 4th and the building would be complete by 1933.   Today the building serves as our City Hall building.

For those who noticed the corner where the famous Three Sisters Store was for many years here's a close-up of that li'l corner taken from the above photo.  You could get a plate lunch for 25¢ next to the odorous garage of the Mobiloil service station and the lot where the Sears building was built used to be a large automobile dealership which encompassed the rest of the half-block.  The 1930 Sanborn map helps spell it out for us.

1935 ~ Known as "The World's Youngest Wild Animal Trainer," Manuel King was probably in his second year as a main performance attraction at the Million Dollar Pier in Atlantic City when he made the cover of The Billboard, a trade publication for carnys back then (not to be confused with the Top 40 music charts aficionados publication).  An interesting fact about him is that the 1933 Hurricane happened on his 10th birthday and there's a story about that and much more in "Yours With a Roar"... book written by his brother W.A. King Jr. That link will show much more facets of his story.  Manuel King left for the big carnival in the sky last April 2016.

 2012 ~ I took this photo from the roof of Market Square building.

2012 0316 The American Dream downtown Brownsville, Texas on E. Washington St between 12th and 13th

Last but not least, Happy Birthday to the Brownsville Herald which we all know was "Born on the Fourth of July 1892."  Brownsville historian  Jose Cazares wrote a brief history about the Wheelers who lived in this building and much more.  Frances January Wheeler took over after her husband Jesse Wheeler suddenly died.  Read all Mr. Cazare's homage to the newspaper celebrating 125 years off the press by pressing THIS.

  This bag is not that old - maybe from the 1960s or 1970s.  It's a photo of a money bag sent by Bronsbil Estacioner Dale Stevenson.  

Photo analysis: An early 1910's scene from the edge of Ro Grande on Matamoros

The advantage of scanning photographs is that it eliminates the need to handle photos or searching for your most powerful magnifying lens to zoom in on all the details to make a seemingly uninteresting photo with little information worth looking at closely.  This photo was scanned several years ago for William Quinones who asked to have his family photos digitized by the Brownsville Heritage Museum and was chosen among a few others depicting various scenes in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico across the Rio Grande from Brownsville, Texas.  There are no identifying postcard markings and it doesn't appear to have been taken by our most prolific photographer at the time, Robert Runyon. 

Here is as much as we can tell by looking the photograph by comparing it to others from the era.

The very first step is to enhance the photograph to remove the fading or cloudy haze which sometimes appears on vintage photographs using photo enhancement software.  In this case a basic edition of Photoshop Elements is good enough to significantly improve the photo's quality.

Now we can assess the situation.  At first glance there appears to be some activity of interest in the background where people are gathered and a small group is walking in the direction of the camera.  To the left is a wood building and a small shed next to a large poster-sized advertisement.

A closer look reveals that the framed structure behind the trees is the old Brownsville-Matamoros bridge built in 1910 which means those people are standing near the edge of the Rio Grande.

There were several ferry crossings to take people from one side of the river to the other.  Most photos from this place and time show ferry boats near Brownsville-Matamoros proper.  We're more interested in what appearances were like down the river near the old bridge rather than where the "new" Gateway International Bridge would be built and opened by July 4th, 1928.  Here we see ferry service but it is quite a way from old bridge seen in the distance.

 Here's another that appears to be same location which identifies Santa Cruz -  a small "colonia" or community next to Matamoros which has since been absorbed by that city.  There is a "Carta Blanca" beer advertisement which will take a closer look at using another photo from about the same time.

Back to the photo - note the sign propped up behind the shed which shows part of Rio Grande and bank on U.S. side.  It appears that the numerous 2x4 support framing is being used to a hold much larger sign facing the river to attract business from the Brownsville side.  

This postcard shows what the sign may have looked like.  In this case it's an ad for Carta Blanca beer and the Crixell Saloon.  There were Crixell bars on both sides of the river as we already know from our local business and political history.  Click on --> THIS <-- for more about the Crixells brothers Jose, Teofilo and Vicente.

The photo was further enhanced to bring out detail from the Cottolene shortening advertisement.  

 A quick search revealed that Cottolene was a rival of Crisco which is still sold today.  The goal was to find an exact copy of the poster with the woman serving her children but none was found.  What all these sample ads have in common is a woman in apron etc.

This shows illustrations of working and middle class women of the early 1900s and 1911-1915 woman's hairstyle which was also ideal for wearing the large hats of the era but enough of that....

What is of most interest is the label above the advertisement which clearly says "Dittmann Advertising Service."  

 Adolf Dittmann arrived in Brownsville, Texas in 1908 and was a man of many talents.

As a young man he left Salt Lake City to work as a magician in vaudeville theaters in Chicago, Boston and New York.  He also worked in a print shop and even composed and published music.  A short stint as a farmer in Florida and Brownsville, Texas convinced him that what he really wanted to do was return to the theater and magic and continue printing which is what he did and he built the very first movie theater in Brownsvile with stage for vaudeville performances. He also learned photography and later brought a 35mm moving film camera.

Here's another unidentified photo which my be Adolf Dittmann filming on or near Fort Brown

 Here is the theater he built in 1910 at 1118 E Washington St (next to present day Rutledge Burger).

 Colorized Robert Runyon photo

 This Robert Runyon photo shows inside of restaurant with poster ad on the right.

Note at bottom the ad is for Dittmann's Theater.  Adolf eventually sold the theater around the late 1930s or early 1940s and continued printing signs and also opened one of the first trailer park resorts on Central Blvd.

While we still didnt learn much about the people and place in the photograph and what interested the photographer to take a photo, we at least identified the advertisement, location and era in which the photo was taken.  For all our guesses, the photo may have been taken by Adolf Dittman himself but without proof, we can only assume it might have been.