PHOTO COURTESY OF RED STEAGALL PHOTO COURTESY OF RED STEAGALL
In December 2006 , Steagall was presented with the Charles Goodnight Award , recognizing those who personify the ideals of the Old West and make noteworthy contributions to the preservation of the Western heritage .
His other honors include inductions into the Texas Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame , Western Music Hall of Fame , Texas Trail of Fame , Hall of Great Westerners at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City , Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame , National Cowboys of Color Museum and Hall of Fame , Texas Country Music Hall of Fame , Tex Ritter
Museum , America ’ s Old Time Country Music Hall of Fame and Colorado Country Music Hall of Fame .
In 1991 , the Texas Legislature named Steagall the Official Cowboy Poet of Texas . He is also the official Cowboy Poet Laureate for the city of San Juan Capistrano in California .
He has hosted a one-hour syndicated radio show since 1994 , Cowboy Corner , celebrating the lifestyle of the American West through poems , songs and stories of the American cowboy . Former guests have included Reba McEntire , Charlie Daniels and Barry Corbin .
GAINESVILLE DAILY REGISTER FILE PHOTO
James Bourland
An American businessman and politician , James G . Bourland was born in South Carolina and moved to Texas in 1837 , where he was a trader in horses and slaves , including owning a plantation in Cooke County .
During the American Civil War , the colonel , who served as provost marshal , gathered state troops in October 1862 to begin arresting suspected Unionists in the Cooke County area .
That action would eventually lead to the Great Hanging in Gainesville , whereby 41 men were executed either through conviction by a citizens ’ court , while trying to escape or lynched by a mob following their acquittal .
A memorial at the site off East Main Street commemorates the event , with a state marker soon to be erected by the Great Hanging Memorial Foundation .
James Lindsay Embrey Jr .
Embrey ’ s Gainesville roots go way back . His great-grandfather migrated to Cooke County in 1857 and became
8 GAINESVILLE LIVING