1933 - Mrs. Tidmore Burned Down The Town !

(adapted from the book "The Last Frontier", by Bill Neal)

By all accounts, Jim Tidmore was a respected and successful entrepreneur in the bustling little village of Medicine Mound. With business interests in real estate, insurance, banking, and cotton, and retail, the Tidmore family were social and religious leaders as well. The Tidmore family had a fine home and even a fancy automobile used to tour the area during the course of business.

Their daughter, Lena, was a beautiful and gifted girl of just fourteen when she began dating her nineteen year old school teacher, Thurman Bellamy. Thurman was the handsome and popular son of another prominent family, the W.H. Bellamys. In spite of Lena's youth, the couple seemed madly in love. On September 21, 1913 Jim Tidmore forbade his daughter, Lena, to ever date Thurman Bellamy again. Some townsfolk speculated that it was because of her youth, others thought the Tidmore's considered themselves "better than" other folks. Regardless of motive, the result of his ultimatum led to tragic consequences for the entire town.

The day following her father's dictum, Lena went over to Charlie Whittle's drug store and somehow obtained a bottle of carbolic acid. After leaving the drug store to walk back home, some railroad workers reported seeing Lena drinking something. In fact, Lena drank the entire bottle on her way home and died in her mother's arms while expressing her love for Thurman Bellamy. Interestingly, it does not seem that Lena's mother, Ella Tidmore, expressed any opposition to the relationship.

A final love letter to Thurman Bellamy was mailed by Lena dated September 22, 1913. She wrote that by the time Thurman read her letter, "your little Lena will be no more. She will already be passed over the dark river of death" and added "If we cannot live together on Earth, I know we can in Heaven. So I want you to live a true Christian life and I will be standing at the gate with outstretched arms to welcome you home."

Most of those that remembered Ella Tidmore believed that Lena's suicide was the main reason for her downward slide into insanity. But fate had even more harsh tricks to play on Mrs. Tidmore. In the mid 1920's, rumors persisted that Jim Tidmore was having an affair with young Clara Boyd, daughter of the local bank president. Clara was nineteen, while Jim Tidmore was forty-six - the same age as Clara's father ! All the while, Ella Tidmore's behavior became increasingly eccentric, including instances of well poisoning, petty thefts, and arson.

In January of 1933, Jim Tidmore died unexpectedly after a short illness. To make matters worse, he left little behind for Ella and their two children. In the midst of drought and depression, Ella Tidmore's last "torch job" was a grand success. In March of 1933, in the wee hours, Ella set fire to the town's business section. Starting at the south end of town, Ella took advantage of the Texas wind which "blew like a gale" and set fire to the three-chair barber shop. In all, twenty-two businesses burned to the ground, with damages estimated at around $50,000.00 - a huge sum in 1933. At the height of the inferno, neighbors reported seeing Ella Tidmore laughing hysterically in her front yard. With no organized fire department and little or no water, the entire business district was left in ashes.

For Years, Ella Tidmore shuffled between family members that would tolerate her, finally dying destitute in California and buried in a pauper's grave. Some forty years after Dorothy Tidmore's death, her voluminous scrapbook miraculously appeared in the hands of a Los Angeles Times reporter who salvaged it from a junk shop or garage sale. That reporter, Patt Morrison, used the scra pbook as the basis for a 1993 column in which she mused about lost roots and the destinies of disconnected lives. She wrote, "Who was Dorothy Tidmore of Medicine Mound, Texas, that I ended up salvaging her scrapbook ; a paper napkin from the Rabbit Hutch Sandwich Shop to remember the field trip in 1935 ; a letter from a jilted suitor who is sorry 'for doing you as I did', and wedding gift receipts (Montgomery Ward throw rug $2.19)?"

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