Tag: Eula Phillips

Finding Eula – Oakwood Cemetery

February 28, 2015 ·

I've often been asked if I know where Eula Phillips is buried and my answer has always been that I don’t know the exact location, just that she was buried in an unmarked grave in the oldest section of Oakwood Cemetery known as the Old Grounds. And that raises the question, why doesn't her grave have a marker or headstone or why isn't there some indication of where she is buried? I guess it’s puzzling how the last resting place… Read more.

Discovering History at the Travis County Archives

September 22, 2014 ·

Materials in Travis County Archives Collection. The mission of the Travis County Archives is to serve the government and the community of Travis County by documenting, preserving, and making available its records and history. The Travis County Archives documents the functions and activities of the Travis County government, supports the conduct of the government by preserving and providing access to essential county records, and maintains the history of the county and its community through the preservation… Read more.

Mothers and Sons

March 10, 2014 ·

Unidentified albumen print. One morning before dawn in the summer of 1883, a strange persistent cry echoed through a west Austin neighborhood and caught the attention of two women, Sophia Phillips and Sallie Mack, both of whom lived nearby. They went to investigate and much to their surprise they soon came upon an abandoned infant lying in the grass. There was no sign of the mother. Inquiries were made but no one could find where the… Read more.

Mystery Train to Austin

January 31, 2014 ·

One-time Austinite Steven Saylor tells the story of the Servant Girl Murders through the eyes of one-time Austinite O. Henry in the novel A Twist At The End. You think you know people, but you don’t.  A Twist at The End is an old-fashioned mystery novel of people not being who they seem, thwarted expectations and unexpected resolutions. The novel begins in 1906 in New York, with O. Henry spending his last remaining years writing, drinking too much, struggling with… Read more.

Notes on Research

July 25, 2012 ·

I am not the first to delve into this mystery.  The first time I opened the drawer of the microfilm cabinet and saw all the small cardboard boxes of microfilm packed snuggly inside, I noticed that the boxes labeled 1885 were noticeably more worn than any of the others, undoubtedly having been pulled out, opened and put back many times before I got to them.  I wondered who had looked at them and what they had found. What was I… Read more.