Taken from Deb Goodrich's recent biography by the same title, her presentation will be an overview of the life of Vice President Charles Curtis, the first person of color to serve as vice president (1929-1933). Curtis was once a household name but has become a footnote in American history. As a mixed-race person who became a public figure in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, his story is more relevant today than ever.
Meet Deb Goodrich
Deb Goodrich is the Garvey Texas Foundation Historian in Residence at the Fort Wallace Museum, Wallace, KS. She has co-hosted a syndicated weekly television show for over ten years and had a radio talk show prior to that. She is chair of the Santa Fe Trail 200, commemorated from 2021-2025. She serves on the boards of: The Kansas Cowboy Hall of Fame, Western Writers of America, and the Smoky Hill Trail Association. She previously served as president of the Civil War Roundtable of Eastern Kansas and the Kansas City Civil War Roundtable, and past board member of the Kansas Music Hall of Fame. She has spoken to hundreds of groups around the country on topics ranging from John Brown to the Lincolns to Jesse James. She has appeared as a talking head in numerous documentaries including: American Experience: Jesse James; Aftershock; AHC's Gunslinger Series on Wild Bill Hickok; The Road to Valhalla (winner of the Wrangler Award), on the Kansas-Missouri border war during the Civil War; and American Artist: George Caleb Bingham (winner of an Emmy).
When Mirabeau B. Lamar left office as president of the Republic of Texas in 1841 after 3 years, the national debt of Texas had increased by $5.6 million, in part because of the failed 1841 Texan Santa Fe Expedition. This commercial and military expedition was attempting to establish a new profitable trade route from New Orleans and Galveston to Santa Fe, to compete with the popular Santa Fe Trail moving large amounts of trade goods from the United States to New Mexico. But the topography of Texas, combined with poor planning and multiple hostile attacks from various sources, thwarted the attempt. Two groups were taken prisoner by the army of the Governor of New Mexico and force marched to prison in Mexico City. While at least 327 men began the journey north of Austin, few survived. Many of the interesting events occurred in the canyons near modern-day Quitaque, Texas.
Meet Bob Saul
Bob Saul was raised on a cattle ranch that was originally part of the Lazy F Ranch, founded in 1876 and purchased by Charles Goodnight in 1882 as part of the historic JA/Goodnight ranches in the caprock canyons of the Texas Panhandle at Quitaque, Texas. It remained in the family for 52 years.
Bob has served as editor, vice-president, and president of publishing companies in Texas and Tennessee. For 26 years, he maintained a dual career as a consultant in volunteer program management for four national non-profits while he owned and operated a custom software business in New York City. He is currently president of History Partners, Inc.; oooMsgs Inc.; and Academy of Western Artists, Inc.; and voluntarily serves as president of two nonprofits, MyComancheria Institute and the Texas Chapter of the Great Western Cattle Trail Association, Inc., as well as Sheriff (President) of Fort Worth Westerners Corral. Bob is also the event producer of the Lone Star Cowboy Poetry Gathering held every 3rd Thurs-Sat in February in Alpine, Texas.