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Showtime 1888-2001 The time has come again to celebrate the annual Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. This event is now so large and widespread as to be mind-boggling. I have not found a date to pin down when the idea of a "fat stock show" was first held, but an article in the magazine Farm and Ranch dated 1912, more than eighty years ago, has a write-up about a Harris County man showing a famous Belgian Stallion. The owner, Mr. George Walter, says, "This is the best Draft Stallion standing in Harris County, enabling people to raise the work stock we want and for which we are giving our good money out of State". This was the Livestock Show in Houston 1912 and the article promised to let the public see the colts born from this stallion in the 1913 show. As we are doing today, more than eighty years later, there was a street parade, I’m sure there were no facilities such as the Astrodome for the use of the livestock owners to stall their animals. The above article says the stallion owner will lead the horse in the street parade. I have found no mention of a rodeo as early as 1909, but I did find quite a lot of information about a carnival type celebration that was held in conjunction with the Livestock Show called "Notsuoh" (Houston spelled backwards) a celebration designed on the Louisiana Mardi Gras, a King was selected and called King Nottoc, (Cotton spelled backwards). The carnival was billed as the annual "No-Tsu-Oh" Carnival. An article in the Houston Chronicle last week titled "From Our Files Our First One Hundred Years" tells of this carnival that was dated Nov. 8, 1909, one hundred and one years ago. I know there was a rodeo, in the early 1900's but there were limited kinds of events, mostly bareback or saddle bronc riding, bull-riding and trick riding. The Chronicle item is dated November 8th, 1909 and states "His Royal Highness, the eleventh "Nottoc" runs the date back to the first of this event to 1888. My first memory of the Livestock Show was about 1925. My father was hired by the leading beer company of our area to join the street parade for them with an eight-wheel log wagon pulled by an eight yoke team of oxen with the huge beer barrel laying on its side in the center of the log wagon. The Montgomery, Dobbin, Dacus area was scoured for yokes, working-daily oxen and for several weeks before the parade, the pairs of steers were penned at our house. I think I’m right when I say that a local black man, Rubin Terry, who lived north of Montgomery was the final driver of the ox team. It was pretty hectic at first, as the separate teams of oxen were handled in different ways by their different owners and some of the stubborn animals only wanted to obey the voices they recognized. I have often thought that the time, the penning and feeding of the uncooperative animals, plus the moving of all that livestock in that early time was not a profitable project, no matter what the beer company paid. According to the few accounts I have found on the "No-Tsu-Oh Carnival" this was a popular event and just as in the Mardi Gras people planned elaborate costumes. The Chronicle report says that the event was a part of the street parade and the opening was announced by the firing of cannons and a hundred whistles blew when "King Nottoc, dressed in full armor, with a visor started the parade. There was a stop at the Houston City Hall where he made a speech and was cheered and applauded". The article states that it was the greatest demonstration since the beginning of the carnival in 1888. The fever of the carnival and street parade reached Montgomery and I have a copy of a news item from the Conroe Courier dated November 24, 1911 that will bring back memories to some of us. While reading issues of both the Montgomery and Conroe papers of that early 1900 time, it is very evident that travelers and sight-seers were mostly men. It seems that for whatever reasons, the women stayed home. In this Montgomery news item there is an account that states, "November 24, 1911. The following named took in the Carnival, Monday and Tuesday." This group of fourteen men went on a two day holiday and there was no doubt what the wives were doing while they were gone. Washing, ironing, cooking, cleaning, wood fires, sick children and animals. Note the prominent men of that time in Montgomery; M.G. Price, N.H. Branch, T.C. Simonton, John Harvell, A.L. Austin, W.B. Gay, R.H. Berkley, Hart Addison, Capt. T.C. Packer, R.A. Powell, August Past, J.M. Davis, Dr. F.A. Young, and F.M. Rabon, all returned with high praise of King Nottoc. Although this outing took place nearly one hundred years ago, there are still descendants of some of those who took the trip from Montgomery living in the area. Morgan Price, N.H. Branch, W.B. Gay, R.H. Berkley, J.M. Davis and T.C. Simonton all have descendants either by blood or marriage, many of them taking active part in today’s version of the Fat Stock Show and Rodeo. The main difference in the show today and that of one hundred years ago is that women take as great a part or more than men both as participant or sightseer. |
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©Montgomery
County News, 2004 |
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