Author Archives: Susan
Neighbors-in-History, Part 3
Updated September 25, 2023 Copyright 2012-2023 Susan Burneson. All rights reserved. Kindly talk with us before reproducing any website content. Final blog post in this series, in which we introduce a few special neighbors-in-history who have contributed to our sense of place here. (See links for more info.) KOENIG • McCULLOUGH By 1946, Dr. Joseph Samuel Koenig (1885-1951) and Clarence McCullough (1898-1992) developed Section 1 of Violet Crown Heights, between Payne and Ruth in the … Read more
Neighbors-in-History, Part 2
Updated December 4, 2024 Copyright 2012-2024 Susan Burneson. All rights reserved. Kindly talk with us before reproducing any website content. The second in a three-part series, in which we introduce a some neighbors-in-history. (See links for more information.) A number of African-American families lived in our area in the 1800s and early 1900s. A 1928 city plan established a “Negro district” in East Austin, and many, but not all, African Americans moved there. Segregation throughout … Read more
Neighbors-in-History, Part 1
Copyright 2012 Susan Burneson. All rights reserved. Kindly talk with us before reproducing any website content. As we researched the history of the Brentwood and Crestview area—in newspapers, abstracts of title, the census, various websites, oral history interviews, and many other sources—we discovered more special Austin neighbors who have contributed to our sense of place here. In the first in a three-part series, we introduce you to just a few of them. We provide links, … Read more
WABAC Machine, Part 2
Copyright 2012-2023 Susan Burneson. All rights reserved. Kindly talk with us before reproducing any website content. We begin our WABAC trip with selections, old and new, from our neighborhood history exhibit and booklet, with links included for more info. (What’s a WABAC Machine? Find out here.) ABOUT 500 B. C. • The Greek poet Theognis is among the earliest writers to describe Athens, Greece, as the City of the Violet Crown. By the 1890s, Texas writers … Read more
“Sherman, Set the WABAC Machine!,” Part 1
Copyright 2012-2023 Susan Burneson. All rights reserved. Kindly talk with us before reproducing any website content. In the 1960s, Mr. Peabody and Sherman, cartoon characters on The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, traveled back in time to visit famous historical events through Mr. Peabody’s WABAC (“wayback”) machine. This week’s blog is an intro to our local WABAC trip, beginning next time. We include excerpts from our history exhibit and booklet, with new info, too. You might … Read more
A Voice of the Violet Crown
Updated December 4, 2024 I had a friend, Coleen Grant Hardin, who was fascinated with genealogy, just as I am. She once told me the story of her great-grandmother, Dr. Elizabeth Durbin Irby Crow Smith, one of the first woman physicians in Northern Louisiana. As Elizabeth passed away at age 73, she said to those around her: It’s a shame for me to die and take all this knowledge with me. Few of us will … Read more