Bain Honaker House in Farmersville Texas - Historic Houses

Nestled into a quiet rural street east of the Farmersville square, the Bain Honaker house is a reminder of the struggles of daily living in the 1800s. Constructed just after the Civil War, its builder and first owner, Anna Melissa Bain, was the widow of John Alexander Bain, 1823 - 1862. She was a woman of vision who with keen foresight, bought nearly seven acres in a small town fifty miles northeast of Dallas.

Inside the house there's a collection of items from workers, gun owners, revolutionaries, widows, orphans, musical instruments and lasting architectural design. Visitors can browse through antique books, old photos, vintage clothing, parlor-style furniture, and the remnants of lives well-lived.

Decorated in period-correct wallpaper, the interior is warmed by a shared fireplace in the wall between the parlor and the sitting room. 

"Mid-nineteenth-century homes included a formal parlor, sometimes described by social historians as a sacred space, where weddings, funerals, and other public events were held."

At times, it might hold the body of the deceased on display for visitation by friends and relatives prior to the funeral. The parlor was likely the most expensively furnished and elegant room in the entire house.

"The parlor furniture was made of richer materials and included the piano for entertaining guests. The cozier sitting room was used by the family for reading and sewing."₂

A ceramic and enamel container held excess ashes from the hearth. As the fire was the primary source of heat, it would need to be emptied on a regular basis. 

"A family would gather in the sitting room in the evening, drawing close together to share the light of an oil or kerosene lamp.

Reading was a popular activity during which the family was likely to listen to someone reading aloud. Typically, the man of the house would read aloud, while women engaged in some form of sewing or handwork."

A writing desk and a comfortable chair were highly valued items in a sitting room.

Anna Hicks Bain, born in 1834, was eleven years younger than her husband, John Alexander Bain, who passed away in November 1862. A widow at twenty-eight years old, she raised five daughters in the house following his death. She smartly supplemented her income by dividing the 6.7 acres into smaller plots which became commercial properties and by taking in boarders in the spare rooms upstairs.

This room offered entry to the house through the back doors, possibly used as the servant's entrance, or to allow boarders a private access to the stairs. It served as a mud room in inclement weather to store wet boots and outer garments or in summer as a place to cool off. Off the screened porch is a brick path leading to the outhouse and the fresh-water well.

The porch allowed access to the informal dining area, possibly an eat-in kitchen where food was prepared. Cold food was stored in the wooden ice box in the corner. A sign would be put in the window to let the ice man know what size block to bring in from his truck.

Many of the daily chores revolved around cooking, baking, cleaning, washing, mending, raising chickens, planting a garden, gathering the harvest. In the absence of modern appliances, most work was done by hand. Sundays were a day of rest and worship.

When the Bain-Honaker house was built in 1865, it was a time of national unrest with the war between the states just winding down. Supplies were scarce, tensions were high and many wounded men were returning home after battling neighbors and brothers over issues of States' Rights versus Federal Authority, Westward expansion and slavery. The years 1860 - 1864 marked some of our nation's most difficult times, certainly a difficult time to lose a husband and raise five children alone.

Music played a large role in daily life in the absence of telephones, television or radio. Books and reading, singing, sewing and hand crafts kept idle hands busy.

Anna Bain's daughters, Mary and Catherine (Cassia) married brothers Henry Honaker and Andrew Honaker. Cassia lived in the house until her death in 1928. Five generations lived in the house.₃

The bathroom was upgraded over the years. There's an upstairs bathroom with the old cast iron bathtub and another remodeled bathroom downstairs.

The house was donated to the Farmersville Historical Society by a descendant in 1989.

Farmersville, Texas is the place to visit if you enjoy quaint, old-fashioned towns with antiques and curiosities. Located near Highway 380 and Highway 78, the town has friendly merchants, good food, a quiet laid-back environment and the largest yarn store in Texas.

Sources:

1. John Alexander Bain, March 15, 1823 - November 1862. Facts from Ancestry dot com
2. Anna Hicks Bain, 1834 - 1906
3. Collin County Texas dot Gov, Bain Honaker House

Cruising to Alaska in August 2024

Glacier on the Inside Passage of Glacier Bay

August, with temperatures sweltering in Texas, it's a great time for a cruise to someplace cool.

Our trip to Alaska started with a flight from Dallas to Seattle. The flight would have been better if my window shade had worked. Sadly, flying isn't what it used to be. Most passengers keep their window shade down during the entire flight, making it dark and dreary in the cabin. Are electronic devices more fascinating than the view from 30,000 feet? Not for me.

We spent the night at the Westin, Downtown after a car ride from the airport. The trip to the hotel was eye-opening. I'd heard about the "housing challenges" but wasn't prepared for the number of seemingly unhoused people lurking in doorways, walking aimlessly about and hanging around the area. It was enough to make me stay inside the hotel.

But we were pleased to arrive safely at the port where 3 cruise ships were disembarking. The entire process to offload and embark thousands of people would rival the best days of theme park guest management. One particular lady, Bonnie, made sure people didn't hang out in the wrong areas or wait for ride shares where passengers were waiting to get onboard. We watched her in action for over an hour. At the end of our wait, she came over and gave me an unexpected hug. That was nice. We also met a drug-sniffing dog whose tail never stopped wagging. Behind us in line was a family of 5 with 3 teenage boys who were so well-mannered it was refreshing to see. We ran into the Wilsons several times on board, at meals and even shopping in Ketchikan.

Food onboard was spectacular, particularly breakfast at The Catch by Rudi where we met another couple and enjoyed talking over French toast, eggs and a fruit plate for my hubby. We ate there for a specialty dinner also, and wow! The service was amazing, the food was more than plentiful and way too much for us to finish. My Dover sole was deboned at the table with expertise by our waiter, Virgilio, with a nice visit by the Maître d, Johannes who was incredibly personable and a lot of fun.

The ports of Juneau and Skagway were not easily accessible for us. Due to recent damage to the port, a tender boat ride was necessary to get ashore. With the brisk wind and splashing seas, we opted to stay on board, warm and dry. We did make if off the ship for one port, Ketchikan. With an average rainfall of 270 days per year, we were fortunate to enjoy a sunny day with mild temps in the high 60s.

Thankfully, our trip was a couple of weeks before the devastating landslide that damaged property and took lives. A sad outcome in a breathtakingly beautiful place.

Despite the fun, food and friends we enjoyed, a cold cruise would not be the top choice for our next adventure. We were raised in tropical climates and found the temps a bit too brisk for us.

Onward, to the Caribbean in October.

Don't Know Jack - by Diane Capri - A Book Review

Don't Know Jack is the first book in the Hunt For Jack Reacher Series by Diane Capri. Its corollary book by Lee Child, Killing Floor, was made into a TV Series starring Alan Ritchson.

This fun read is a find for Reacher's die-hard fans who yearn to keep the Reacher story going. Diane Capri's novels give fans exactly they're hoping for, reuniting the reader with familiar characters and introducing new, memorable ones.

In this story, Kim Otto, Special Agent with the FBI, is assigned is to track down a trained killer, Retired Army Major Jack Reacher who's suspected in the murder of multiple people in Georgia.

Otto is a tightly-wound, overachiever. The daughter of a Vietnam veteran and a Vietnamese woman, Kim Otto is ninety-eight pounds of dynamite in a ten-pound package.

As the senior agent on the Special Personnel Task Force, she's paired up with Agent Carlos Gaspar, a 44-year-old with four kids. He's recovering from an on-the-job injury that keeps him in constant pain. Otto at times questions his suitability when she catches him limping and popping pain killers.

Gaspar hopes to put in his remaining twenty years and retire to Florida with the family. His calm demeanor both agitates and calms his new partner as he eats and sleeps his way along passing out deadpan remarks like candy.

The pairing of this odd couple adds a light-hearted element as they weave in and out of tricky situations and grow more efficient at guessing one another’s strategies.

Kim Otto finds no track record of Reacher in any of the alphabet agencies. No one seems to know where Reacher is and, more than likely, he doesn't want to be found. He has no footprint on social media, no known address, no phone, and no financial ties. He was last seen 15 years earlier in Margrave, Georgia after a crime syndicate was busted and a bunch of criminals were left dead, likely Reacher’s doing.

“Reacher had investigated, arrested, subdued, and otherwise dealt with some of the most highly trained soldiers on earth, all of them capable of extreme violence. He had done it by matching their violence with his own. He was a killer.”

Flying white-knuckled aboard a pre-dawn flight from Detroit to Atlanta, Agent Otto uses the time to review the case files sent encrypted by her boss. She's been instructed to keep the assignment completely off-the-books and under the radar. There will be no official acknowledgement of her duties which makes her job more difficult. 

The more she studies the scant files the less comfortable she becomes with the case. She knows if she messes up her career is in jeopardy.

Before she left home, street-smart and business-savvy Kim Otto had copied the documents into a separate file on a non-shared device. Too many people had access to the general FBI files and too many careers had been destroyed by loose lips.

She’d learned to CYA when it came to assignments.

Otto and Gaspar begin their search by conducting interviews of Reacher’s last known associates starting with Chief Roscoe of the Margrave Police, one of the few remaining officers that were on staff at the time.

To cover their real mission, Otto explains that the FBI Specialized Personnel Task Force is conducting a thorough background investigation of retired major, Jack Reacher. Having been in direct contact with Reacher in the past, Roscoe's was one of the case files sent from the boss.

The secrecy and urgency of the assignment worries Otto as too much information is missing. Having reviewed Reacher’s military file, she knew her task would not be easy. He would be like no candidate she’d investigated before.

“Reacher had investigated, arrested, subdued, and otherwise dealt with some of the most highly trained soldiers on earth, all of them capable of extreme violence. He had done it by matching their violence with his own. He was a killer.”

There had been one strongly-emphasized point in the 3-minute pre-dawn telephone call from Otto’s boss. They were to arrive at the interview location of the first subject no later than 11:30 am. Gaspar and Otto arrived at the Margrave police station by 11:15 am, giving them fifteen minutes to chat up the local Chief of Police before the deadline.

The timing of their arrival proved to be a key factor of the entire operation, putting them in position to investigate a local murder alongside of local law enforcement.

At precisely eleven-thirty a call came into the Chief of Police’s office. Someone’s been murdered and Otto and Gaspar’s interview is interrupted. They convince the Chief to let them tag along to the crime scene. While still in pursuit of their main target, clues took them down a  new path that revealed a stash of hidden cash, a treacherous wife and the murder of another police officer.

After taking some photos and making their own private observations, they drive back toward Atlanta to rest and regroup. As they’re checking into their hotel, Otto’s phone rings. It’s her boss. She feels certain he’s planted a GPS tracking device since he always seems to know where she is. Sleep deprived, rain soaked, and hungry, she’s ordered to submit a complete report by ten pm. By ten-thirty, they’re to be on a plane headed for Kennedy Airport in NY.

Their second target interview also has precise timing built into their two am arrival. As time ticks away and their plans falter. Elegant, immaculately dressed, politically well-connected, Finlay shows up late with cryptic bits of knowledge that he keeps close at hand. In a short twenty minutes, the agents realize this assignment goes far deeper than expected and their hopes for a swift conclusion to the assignment are dashed.

Weaving in and out of tricky situations, twists and turns keep the reader turning pages as the agents grow closer to their ultimate target, Jack Reacher.

This fun read meets the needs of Reacher's die-hard fans who want to keep the Reacher story going. A fast-paced crime thriller Diane Capri's novels give fans exactly they're hoping to find when searching for Jack Reacher.