My time travel romance, My Heart Will Find Yours, is set in 1880s Waco, Texas. Located on the Brazos River, in its early history, Waco was known as Six-Shooter Junction. Trail drives herded their cattle across the Brazos in Waco and the cowboys usually spent time in the bawdy houses of the Reservation or Two Street as the red-light district was known. Drinking in the multitude of saloons and card games sometimes led to fights, often involving the use of firearms.
When the suspension bridge opened in 1870, and the railroad arrived in 1871, business in Waco thrived. Trail drives repeatedly lost cattle when herding their livestock across the Brazos. It wasn’t uncommon for a man to be caught in the undertow and drown. Cattle bosses were willing to pay the 50 cents per animal to get their cattle across safely.
In her book, A Spirit So Rare, Patricia Ward Wallace broaches the topic of how women forged a path in the early history of Waco. Her chapter on prostitutes is titled Women of Controversy. Since prostitution plays a minor role in my western time travel romance, I’d like to borrow her title and share some of what I learned.
The first noted record of prostitution in Waco is documented in an 1876 city directory. Matilda Davis of 76 N. Fourth St. is listed as a madam with 10 occupants in her house. The women listed their occupation as actress. Waco had no playhouse at the time. In 1879, the city issued the first license for a bawdy house for an annual fee of $200 and a good behavior bond of $500.
Waco officials legalized prostitution within the Reservation in 1889 making Waco the first town in Texas and the second in the United States to condone a controlled red-light district. Madams paid a yearly fee of $12.50 for each bedroom and $10.00 for each bawd. Prostitutes paid an additional $10.00 license fee and paid the city physician $2.00 twice a month for a medical exam. This guaranteed they didn’t ply their trade outside their designated territory and were disease free. The city prohibited drinking within the area. Fines for violators ranged between $50 and $100. With the large number of prostitutes it’s easy to see the city benefited from trade within the Reservation.
Prostitutes were prohibited from being seen on the streets outside the Reservation yet they were allowed to trade with local businesses. No more than two at a time could travel via a city hack to the stores. Usually tradesmen sent clerks to the curb with merchandise. Some store owners required the prostitutes to stop at the back door.
Life was hard for these working girls. Violence abounded in the bordellos as did drug and alcohol use and abuse. Though licensed, the police had little to do with the establishments. The madams disciplined the women in their houses and maintained order among their clientele. On occasion the police were called when robberies or assaults occurred.
Waco’s most famous madam was Mollie Adams. She had worked in another house but in 1890 opened her own three-room operation. By 1893 she had a seven-room establishment. In 1910 she’d obtained enough wealth to commission a house to be built by the same firm that built the First Baptist Church of Waco and the building now the Dr. Pepper Museum. Her home at 408 N. Second St., had indoor plumbing, electric fixtures, two parlors, a dance hall, and a bell system wired to every room. Her portrait, included here, hung over the fireplace. Though wealthy at this point in her life, she died in an indigent home in 1944. Lorna Lane, the madam in Madison Cooper’s epic novel, Sironia, is supposedly modeled after Mollie Adams.
In 1917, the US Government ordered cities with military bases to shut down red light districts to protect the health of America’s soldiers. Not wanting to lose Camp MacArthur and its 36,000 troops, the city shut down the Reservation in August of 1917. It is rumored some bawdy houses managed to continue business through the 1920s.
References: Wallace, P. W., A Spirit So Rare, pp. 148-156. http://wacohistoryproject.org/Places/reservation.htm
Photo: Courtesy of Texas Collection, Baylor University, Waco, Texas
Thank you the Petticoat and Pistols ladies for having me as your guest today. Readers, I love comments. Leave me one and “Felicia Filly” will draw a winner for an e-copy of My Heart Will Find Yours. Visit my website at www.lindalaroque.com to read the first chapters of my books. I give away an ebook every month on my blog at http://www.lindalaroqueauthor.blogspot/
Happy Reading and Writing!
Linda
Tularosa. The word evokes the vision of a charming Mexican village in the desert, which is pretty close to accurate. Tularosa is the name of an actual town in New Mexico (nicknamed Tulie), and it is the setting for my upcoming contemporary romance, Lucky in Love, being released June 1 by Champagne Books.
or the first time. It took only two days for me to fall in love with the flowering desert, the multi-faceted mountains, and the eternal sunshine. I fell so hard, in fact, that I bought five acres of land with the dream of building a ranch on it one day. From the adobe home I imagined on the property, the Sacramento Mountains lay out my back door while the sacred mountain, Sierra Blanca, provided an incredible northeast view from my kitchen window.
from the Spanish word tule meaning rose colored reeds, which grew along the banks of the Rio Tularosa, which still exists along the north side of the town. Original settlers were attracted to this area in 1860 because the river flowed deep and cool year-round in the desert. However, due to frequent raids by the Apaches from what is now the Mescalero Apache Reservation, occupation was untenable and the site was abandoned. Two years later, Hispanic farmers from the Rio Grande valley succeeded in settling the area, with protection from Fort Stanton to the east. Orchards were planted and homes were built. In 1863, Tularosa was formally established and forty-nine blocks of the new village were plotted, with water rights distributed and recorded.
above the 4,500 foot high desert floor. After that short skirmish, in which the Indians retreated, Tularosa was never again attacked, and the Hispanics promised to build a new church to commemorate the last battle with the Apaches. The St. Francis de Paula Mission was started that same year and still stands today, shaded by ancient cottonwoods that line one of the oldest acequias in southern New Mexico.
acequia (ditch irrigation system) remains virtually unchanged and still provides the water for the trees lining the streets, grassy lawns, and a variety of beautiful roses, which grace many private gardens. A Rose Festival is held annually, the first weekend in May, to celebrate the abundance of blossoms. 
as cattlemen, soldiers, Anglos and Apaches, and has managed to weather them all.
Mission Church. This story is near and dear to my heart, as is Tulie. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. You can watch the video and read a blurb and excerpt of Lucky in Love on my website: 
d considering how much I love my food it comes as no surprise I’ve set many books around the ‘foodie’ areas of this restaurant-rich city. Brunswick Street (boho central), Acland Street (home to the best cakes and pastry shops on the planet!), Lygon Street (Little Italy), the Docklands (hip new eateries),all intriguing settings in their own right but once you throw in the food…yum!
E IN THE BOSS’S BED (Harlequin Presents Extra)? 
o Callum’s house after lightning strikes the cottage? Didn’t happen that way for me. My hero was away at the time!!)
Thanks to everyone who stopped by and left me a comment! It’s Spring break, so I was busy all day – caught the early matinee for How To Train Your Dragon (I loved it) and had lunch out again, played Monopoly and put a jigsaw puzzle together.
To claim your autographed book, send your address to me at: SaintJohn@aol.com
I’ve tossed all of your names into the cowboy hat and drawn three winners! Thanks to everyone who stopped by today and watched my book trailer.
I want to thank Petticoats and Pistols for inviting me and giving me the opportunity to share with all of you. This is a favorite site of mine and blogging with you here is beyond exciting!
rican West. He created the persona of a soldier-a private-and I was a governess. Both of us spent scores of hours researching the period:
entury army had rigid sets of rules for being a soldier and complex social codes for how officers, enlisted men, and their women were permitted (or not permitted) to interact. I was amazed at how stratified society was at these western outposts and at how thoroughly officer’s wives observed those social norms. Memoirs, scholarly studies, and the notations left by army personnel all speak to the separation of classes—as defined by rank.
ial civilian contractors with corresponding army regulations detailing their rights to be there.
