Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - March - 2007 Issue
Texas and Ranching from Maggie Lambeth Rare Books
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Mollie Bailey was a pioneering woman of another sort. Serving as a nurse and spy for the Confederates during the Civil War, she and husband Gus formed a circus after the war, moving to Texas where it became a famed attraction. They would travel from town to town, Mollie evidently being quite an adept businesswoman. After Gus died, she continued to run the circus for many years with her second husband, but the show quickly folded after she died. Her story is retold in Mollie Bailey, Circus Queen of the Southwest, by Olga Bailey, published in 1943 (25 years after Mollie died). As an aside, husband Gus Bailey wrote the musical standard "The Old Grey Mare." Item 19. $250.
Here is the story of a remarkable Texas cowboy, albeit one who moved to New Mexico to manage a ranch: The Life and Legend of George McJunkin: Black Cowboy. McJunkin was born into slavery in Texas, but moved to New Mexico after being freed by Union forces during the Civil War. It was as a ranch foreman that he made a remarkable discovery, some large bones he found buried deep in a gulch after a particularly bad storm. McJunkin was something of an amateur paleontologist, and attempted to have experts visit his find, but without much success. It turned out he had discovered some prehistoric bison, and further searches in the area discovered evidence of humans from a time earlier then they were then believed to exist in the New World. Unfortunately, McJunkin didn't live to see the importance of his discovery. Item 127 is a second edition of Franklin Folsom's biography of McJunkin from 1973. $20.
Maggie Lambeth Rare Books may be found online at www.texanbooks.com, telephone 830-833-5252.
