In a country where Toad Suck, Arkansas not only exists but has its own special celebration, there can be darned few impossible things and even fewer merely improbable.
(Sadly, Toadsuck, Texas wimped out at some point and changed its name, vide: "William Henry Davis Murray was born in the town of Toadsuck , Texas [renamed "Collinsville" in the 1880s], on November 21, 1869." A right bastard, too; a poster boy for government excess and Wilsonian-style racism. So perhaps they felt he'd irreparably harmed the good name of Toadsuck, before even attaining his majority.)
You need to come visit sometime.
ReplyDeleteTSG is short for Toad Suck Guy.
Since I only live about 8 miles up the road (US 377) from Collinsville (nee Toad Suck) I'll have to say you've unearthed a fact little known or seldom mentioned around here. I'll have to query some old timers to see if anyone remembers. I prefer the more bloody history of the region such as the Great Gainesville Hangings, or the burning of the Sherman Courthouse in a riot that merited the dispatch of TWO Texas Rangers.
ReplyDeleteAmazing. I'm tellin' ya, the connections found on this-here Innernet are nothin' short of serendipitous! :D
ReplyDeleteResearch showed me that Toadsuck TX was a "part" of Collinsville--which is saying something, because the current town is only two blocks long. But, here's where the name came from:
ReplyDeleteToadsuck, located in Grayson County, took its name from the Toadsuck Saloon, or alternately, was so named by mill owner John Jones in honor of his birthplace, Toadsuck, Arkansas. Most notable Toadsuckian was William "Alfalfa Bill" Murray, who stepped across the Red River and served as governor of Oklahoma.
I went to college not far from there. Somewhere in an old box I've got a sweatshirt for the University of Arkansas at Toad Suck Ferry.
ReplyDeleteEd, Toadsuckian? I suppose that beat out Toadsucker at some point...
ReplyDelete