Hasty Pudding(Cornmeal Mush)  Also called Loblolly or Indian Pudding.

This recipe has no know date of it’s origin but predates white man coming to the Americas. This dish was an constant staple in Colonial times. The name hasty comes from the fact it takes only 40 minutes to prepare. It was often served with a brown gravy which served as the entire meal. It also can be served as a desert by adding a sprinkle of sugar and topped with a bit of milk. This would be a wonderful dish served on a cold morning in camp. Quick, easy and filling.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Yellow Cornmeal
• 6 cups boiling water
• 1 teaspoon salt

Preparation:

Bring the water to a full boil in a heavy pot with a tight fitting lid. Add the salt and slowly add the cornmeal to the boiling water stirring constantly. Use a wire whisk for this application. Continue to whisk until the cornmeal thickens, about 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cover the pot. Continue to simmer slowly, stirring the pudding several times for around 30 minutes more. Remove from the heat and serve immediately.

This first installment will be something we are all familiar with.

TO BAKE CORN MEAL BREAD (The Virginia Housewife, 1825)

Rub a piece of butter the size of an egg into a pint of corn meal. Make it a batter with two eggs and some new milk. Add a spoonful of yeast. Set it by the fire an hour to rise. Butter little pans and bake it.

Note: A pint of flour equals 2 cups. Whole milk can be used for the new milk. A modern tablespoon of dry yeast can be used. Set the batter in a warm place to rise. Bake using a pan of your choice in a 400 degree oven for twenty minutes.

Born February 3, 1924 in Houston, Texas, he was known at an early age as the Poet Laureate of Poe Elementary School. This was not the end of his literary career for he late wrote numerous magazine and newspaper articles, a definitive history of Fort Anahuac (The Birthplace of the Texas Revolution), enjoyed the fifth printing of his popular book The Treasures of Galveston Bay and is included in the American Diaries of WWII. Also excelling in art, when attending Lanier Junior High School, he won a four year art scholarship at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. At Lamar Senior High School he formed his own twelve-piece dance band and was the founding president of the MAC (Make Actions Count) Club-a quasi fraternity. While studying chemical engineering at Rice Institute, he continued his musical activities with the Rice Band and the Knight Owls dance orchestra.

When World War II interrupted, he flew twenty five missions as a B-17 bomber pilot in the Eighth Air force; being shot down twice over Nazi Germany. Returning to Rice he was founding president of the Rice Veteran’s Association, Student Council chairman, re-organized and led the Knight Owls dance orchestra, and was president of the Rice Owl band where his outrageous innovations created a spirit that was thereafter adopted by the MOB (Marching Owl Band).

There is a legend at Rice University, that one Friday afternoon, before a Rice / A & M football game, Lewis secretly flew an airplane from Houston to College Station and dropped a large stink bomb and one hundred pounds of rice on an Aggie pep rally. The 1947 Rice yearbook shows photos of the mission.

Before graduating from college he began investing in land; eventually developing the following subdivisions in the Houston Area of Memorial Estates, Shady Oaks, Karankawa Pines, Richmond Road Farms, Shamrock Estates, Battleground Vista, Belknap Acres, Braeburn Gardens, Pinegrove Valley, Lomax Gardens, Greendale, Richmond Road Estates, Skyview Farms, Captains Retreat, Pirate’s Grove and Battleground Estate.

A former Eagle Scout, he served as scoutmaster with Boy Scout Troop II Airscouts and Girl Scout Troop 116 and as a council director of Sam Houston Area Boy Scouts of America and the San Jacinto area Girl Scouts of America. He was a Sunday School teacher, officer and choir member of the First Presbyterian Church of Houston, West Isle Presbyterian Church of Galveston, and the United Church of Idaho Springs, Colorado, and chairman of the Greater Houston Presbyterian Extension Committee of the Brazos Presbytery. A 32nd degree Scottish Rite Mason- he played in the Arabia Temple Shrine Drum and Bugle Corps. Band. Early in his life he served on the Board of Directors of the YMCA camps.

A business degree from the University of Houston guided him to other interests such a building and operating the Post Oak Twin Drive-in Theater, a Giant Slide, and Movieland Golf- a 36-hole miniature golf course where each hole represented a famous movie.

He was president of the Southwestern Historical Exploration Society and in 1968 directed its recovery of many Civil War artifacts out of Buffalo Bayou in downtown Houston. Leading another expedition in 1968 he discovered Puritan Pilgrim fortifications on the Caribbean Islands of Santa Catalina that had been lost from history for over three hundred years. He wrote many articles for True West, Treasure World, and Treasure magazines, and had a weekly shooting sports column for the Citizen newspapers.

In 1969, he convinced Governor Preston Smith to reactivate the Texas Army, which had been inactive since 1845, and was appointed Commanding General in which capacity he served for 40 years. He was well known for his impersonation of General Sam Houston on television, the news media and at public events. Curly was dedicated to perpetuating the memory of early Texas heroes; as one journalist put it: “The General keeps Texas’ past alive!”

A consummate hunter, fisherman and sailor, his large Texas flag mainsail was frequently seen on Galveston Bay. Curly loved Texas and all things Texan. Since retirement, he enjoyed monthly meetings with his Lamar ’41 classmates and singing and playing drums every Wednesday night with the jazz group known as the Over The Hill Gang.

He is survived by his wife Candace Frazier Lewis, daughter Marsha Blake, grandchildren Travis Hedemann, Holly Hedemann Ross, and great grandchildren Jordan and Sawyer Ross.

On January 20, 2010, a public ceremony of remembrances and celebration of the General’s life was conducted by the General Staff of the Texas Army at the San Jacinto Monument (Auditorium). Dressed in 1836 attire, the Texas Army performed full military honors; firing a 21-gun salute using cannon and flintlock rifles. The United States Air Force Funeral Detail also fired a salute and executed its flag presentation ceremony. Officiating Minister was Rev. Joe Hause and Rev. John W. Lancaster closed with the benediction.

The Family has requested donations to the Texas Army War Chest in lieu of flowers. For information please email Col. John Martin at Coljwm@gmail.com.

To the Colonels of the Texas Army:

The greatest honor that has been mine or my family was that of serving with the people of Texas as Governor.

Certainly we had many opportunities to serve the people progressively on many projects. One of our proudest achievements was than of re-activating the Texas Army.

On this occasion my very best wishes are extended to you on the twenty fifth anniversary of the formation of the Texas Army. Your dedication to perpetuating the the memory of the early Texas heroes has been most exemplary and has caused a resurgence of intrest in our rich heritage throughout the State. For Twenty five years you have given your time, money and energy in bringing to the people of Texas a colorful taste of history “in the flesh” as no other group has done before. I commend your efforts and want you to know that patriotism such as yours truly reflects the spirit of those first Texas Army volunteers who won freedom for Texas at the battle of San Jacinto 158 years ago.

Keep up the good work~the State of Texas is indebted to you.

Sincerely,
Preston Smith

Governor of Texas 1969-1975

by Jack Maguire

The Ragtag Army

Outfitted with tomahawks, Bowie knives and muzzle-loading rifles, the Texas Army manages to stay out of step with the rest at the world’s elite military forces.

It is time that the world — at least, the United Nations — got the message. The Texas Army is on the march again.

Not that the organization of world diplomats can object. Under the treaty of annexation, Texas is the only US. state that has the right to maintain its own army and navy. Texas has reactivated both.

The navy has been reduced to four ceremonial vessels. including the great battleship “Texas” which is moored at San Jacinto Battleground and is a prime tourist attraction. But the Texas Army is another matter. It has 62 muzzle-loading rifles at the ready, and they’re all in working order.

“Colonel” Cliff Zearfoss of Bastrop (every recruit is a colonel) recalls that Gov. Preston Smith officially reactivated the Texas Army on June 24, 1969. Three weeks later, one of its recruits (sans his trusty rifle) became the first man to walk on the moon. He was Neil Armstrong, who doubles as an astronaut.

He also spoke the first word ever broadcast from the moon. Naturally, it was “Houston.” No matter that he was Calling “Houston Control” at the Space Center. To his fellow officers in the Texas Army, he was honoring none other than Gen. Sam Houston himself, who commanded the first Texas Army and beat the daylights out of a superior Mexican force at San Jacinto in 1836. And make no mistake about it – Gen. Houston and the Battle of San Jacinto still are the inspiration that has made the modern Texas Army the unique force that it is.

It’s unique for many reasons. Unlike most military outfits, the Texas Army won’t accept volunteers, never conducts drills and will dismiss any recruit caught marching in step. Colonels have to furnish their own uniforms (just as they did in 1836), and they can’t be store-bought. Most prefer buckskins that they’ve tanned and sewed themselves, although some (like the company’s physician) prefer a black frock coat and a top hat. He also carries a good supply of whiskey in a side bag, since that was about the only effective drug available to Houston and his men.

Naturally, an outfit like the Texas Army has to be commanded by a leader in the mode of old Sam. They chose Carroll A. Lewis Jr. of Houston and gave him a six-star rank. He was given six stars for a reason; they enable him to outrank any military leader in the world. Thus if “General” Lewis is ever asked to sit in with the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff or any other gathering of the world’s top-ranking fighting men, his rank guarantees that he’ll be seated at the head of the table.

The Texas Army is a ragtag outfit and proud of it. “I want us to have no military bearing at all,” Gen. Lewis exhorts his men. “Every colonel is on his own. Our only goal is to be a rank organization. And believe me, when we’re marching in our buckskins in the heat of summer, we are the rankest bunch you ever saw.”

Getting into the Texas Army isn’t easy. Since volunteers are routinely turned down, new recruits aren’t even considered unless they can prove that they are efficient in the use of Bowie knives, tomahawks and flintlock rifles. Then they may be accepted if they’re willing to produce an acceptable uniform and promise to show up, at their own expense, at functions in which the Texas Army is invited to participate.

There are always more such invitations than the army can accept. They have marched in the inaugural parade of every Texas governor since 1970, and they’re already planning to be in Austin in January 1979 to help install either Democrat John Hill or Republican William Clements. “We’re for the Governor, regardless of party,” is the way Gen. Lewis explains it.

Each April 21, the Texas Army assembles at San Jacinto Battleground, regardless of any other duty they may have. In the nine years since they were first mustered by Gov. Smith, they have fired memorial salutes at the battleground, had a role in ceremonies aboard the Battleship “Texas” and, on one occasion, actually reenacted the famous battle on the site where it took place.

One year they formed a skirmish line and traced the exact line of march Houston and his men followed in the battle. Another time they cut down a pine tree and erected a “Liberty pole” at Allen’s Landing, thus recreating an event that emulated the first celebration of San Jacinto Day in 1837.

Like the original Texas Army, the new contingent hasn’t limited itself to San Jacinto, however. At one time or another, they have reenacted the 1835 Battle of Anahuac aboard sailing vessels in Buffalo Bayou and the skirmish that same year in Gonzales that really started the Texas war for independence from Mexico. When folks wanted to reenact the famous Indian massacre that occurred at old Fort Parker in 1836, they asked the Texas Army to do it.

The colonels — all 62 of them were also on hand when a San Antonio television station decided to stage the Battle of the Alamo for its cameras. The Texas Army looked slight (Travis had 184 defenders in the Alamo), but the film turned out so well that it is now shown continuously both at the Alamo and at the Texas pavilion of the Houston Museum of Natural Science.

It was in 1976, the nation’s bicentennial year, that the Texas Army really came into its own. It was the only group in the nation to recreate the firing of “the shot heard ’round the world,” when it staged a Texas version of the Battle of Concord, N.H. — the incident that started America on its fight for independence from Britain. That event was so successful that the Texas Army went on to reenact the midnight ride of Paul Revere, to stage a “Boston Tea Party” in Houston’s Buffalo Bayou and even attempt to duplicate the encampment of Gen. George Washington’s Continental Army at Valley Forge.

When the Freedom Train arrived in the state for its bicentennial tour, it was the Texas Army that formally opened the visit with a cannon volley. And when Houston celebrated the nation’s 200th birthday with a bell ringing at Sam Houston Park on July 4, 1976, the Texas Army was there to raise the flag.

Like the original army commanded by Sam Houston, the modern version is made up of ordinary citizens. Gen. Lewis is a former land developer who now writes about Texas history as a hobby. The colonels are lawyers, doctors, butchers and bakers in their workaday lives. All give their time, talents and the considerable expense that service in the Texas Army costs them because they believe in preserving the past.

Not all of their work is in the field, either. Colonels are always ready to lecture on Texas history at schools, churches and before civic groups. They help dedicate historical markers, served as models for an article on hunting game with muzzle-loading rifles for a magazine and demonstrated the art of throwing a tomahawk for the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States.

Except for their tomahawks, Bowie knives and rifles, the artillery available to the Texas Army is minimal. It consists only of replicas of the “Twin Sisters,” the two cannon which helped Sam Houston win the Battle of San Jacinto. The colonels carefully researched the guns and had their replicas cast to the exact specifications of the originals. The guns are capable of lobbing live shells, but the army, in deference to the public health and the lack of artillery expertise on the part of the colonels, limits the ammunition used to blanks.

If the Texas Army is called upon to defend the state against an enemy, it can call on reinforcements. The Texas National Guard has a crack unit called the Guard of the Republic headquartered in Austin. Its members are all commissioned army and air guardsmen who also wear the uniforms of the Republic of Texas. They also own replicas of the “Twin Sisters” and transport the guns around the state and fire them on special occasions.

While the Guard of the Republic limits its activities to those occasions sanctioned by the military establishment, the Texas Army will take on almost any assignment that is fun. When the owner of a Montgomery County farmhouse complained that two ghosts of veterans of Sam Houston’s force were haunting the place, the Texas Army descended on the farm. Armed with tape recorders and cameras, they spent 24 hours waiting for the wraiths to appear. They didn’t show, but the exorcism apparently worked. The farm has been tranquil since.

If the ghosts do reappear, Gen. Lewis says his men will be on call. Whatever the need, the Texas Army plans to be ready — just as it was in 1836.

I was pleased to read your letter about the muzzleloading firearms and the plans for the San Jacinto Day Celebration.

I noted with interest your suggestion about a permanent Texas Army. If you are in Austin any time, come in and visit me and we’ll talk about it.

Sincerely,
Preston Smith
Governor of Texas