“There are those in America today who have come to depend absolutely on government for their security. And when government fails, they seek to rectify that failure in the form of granting government more power. So, as government has failed to control crime and violence with the means given it by the Constitution, they seek to give it more power; at the expense of the Constitution. But in doing so, in their willingness to give up their arms in the name of safety, they are really giving up their protection from what has always been the chief source of despotism — government. Lord Acton said power corrupts. Surely then, if this is true, the more power we give the government the more corrupt it will become. And if we give it the power to confiscate our arms we also give up the ultimate means to combat that corrupt power. In doing so we can only assure that we will eventually be totally subject to it.” - - Ronald Reagan Wheeler County was officially organized in 1879 by a petition signed by 150 qualified voters and Sweetwater was elected as the county seat. The settlement then applied for its own post office with the town name of Sweetwater. However, the name was rejected because Texas already had a town by that name. It occurred to some to ask the local Indians the name of Sweetwater as spoken in their language. The word was Mobeetie and it became the name of the town. It wasn’t until many years later that a Comanche related that Mobeetie didn’t actually mean “sweet water,” but instead, meant “buffalo dung.” The restaurant was run by Tom O'Loughlin, and his wife, Ellen, who was said to have been the only virtuous woman in the settlement. The only other women in the small town were the dance hall and saloon girls. Numbering about 15, the girls worked the many Sweetwater Saloons, which held such names as the Pink Pussy Cat Paradise, the Buffalo Chip Mint and the White Elephant. One saloon, called the Ring Town Saloon, located about 2 ½ miles northwest of Sweetwater was designated for black men only - primarily those Buffalo Soldiers employed at the fort. The owner of the main dancehall was Bill Thompson, brother of the noted Ben Thompson, gunman of Austin, Texas who was killed in San Antonio.

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The Mobeetie Bunch