GOD & TEXAS: Texas Rivalries

High profile rivalries are nothing new in Texas. Since 1894, when the University of Texas plays against Texas A&M, there will definitely be some bodacious trash talking. When supermarkets compete, nothing matches the battle between HEB and Kroger. And then there is the longstanding rivalry between technology titans Dell Technologies of Round Rock and Hewlett-Packard of Houston.

But some of the greatest rivalries in Texas occur between neighboring towns. The rivalry between Midland and Odessa dates to the 1880’s. Midland became known as a white collar town with the corporate offices of major oil companies. Odessa was more of a blue collar town with several industries supporting oil field exploration. In the last 30 years, they have settled many differences until the Midland Lee (Legacy) and Odessa Permian high school teams play.

And there are other rivalries between Texas’ cities like Richmond and Rosenberg, Dallas and Fort Worth, and Plano and Frisco. Most of the competitiveness is all in good fun, but not always.

Duck Creek was part of the original William S. Peter’s Colony and was settled around 1841 in northeast Dallas County. By 1884, Duck Creek had three churches, a school, and several emerging businesses. When the railroad came through the area, a “New” Duck Creek was established with a post office about a mile away from “Old” Duck Creek. Dr. Kelley H. Embree was named postmaster.

In 1886, Embree launched another town nearby named after himself. As postmaster, he arranged to have the post office moved from “New” Duck Creek to his fledgling settlement of Embree. By then, the whole community was in an uproar. Years later, writing about the acrimony among the three towns, Dr. Embree stated: “The contest reached such a pitch of animosity, that the cooler heads saw that something would have to be done to avert bloodshed.”

Cooler heads convinced the embittered towns to ask Judge Joe Abbott to arbitrate the growing quarrel. It was Abbott’s wise counsel to merge the towns into one strong community with a new name. The communities agreed and named the new town after U.S. Attorney General Agustus Hill Garland. Today, the city of Garland is part of the DFW Metroplex and boasts a population of around 250,000.

Some say the term cooler heads was birthed out of Theseus’s famous speech on imagination in Act V, Scene i, of Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream: “Lovers and madmen have such seething brains, such shaping fantasies, that apprehend. More than cool reason ever comprehends." 

But before Shakespeare, we read in Proverbs 17:27 ESV, “Whoever restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding.” And in 1 Peter 5:8 MSG, “Keep a cool head. Stay alert. The Devil is poised to pounce, and would like nothing better than to catch you napping.”

The people of Duck Creek learned that more success can be achieved by working in harmony with others than in bitter rivalry. It’s still true.

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