Segelkin Speaks to South Texas Genealogical Society

Local resident, Dick Segelkin, was the guest speaker at Tuesday night's meeting of the South Texas Genealogical Society. The meeting took place at the Joe Barnhart Library in Beeville where Mr. Segelkin entertained a packed room with a tale of old-time Skidmore. The hero of the story was a fictional "crusty cowhand" whose life in the late 1800's was detailed by Mr. Segelkin in a first-person narrative. The audience was led through the character's trials and tribulations as a hired-hand of the Skidmore family for which our town was named. He described first Skidmore's vast acres of grass "standing as high as a cow's belly," then the arrival of the railroad and the resulting local financial boom. In the late 1800s, a pair of boots could be purchased for a mere $2.50, land was sold for $12.50 an acre, and the average ranch hand earned about .50 cents a day. Mr. Segelkin closed his presentation with a recap of the events as related by actual newspaper accounts of the day. All in attendance agreed that it was an excellent account of day to day life in early Skidmore.