sweet home conservation and historical society
Reclaiming History Through Culture, Ancestry, Communication, and Art.
sweet home conservation and historical society
Reclaiming History Through Culture, Ancestry, Communication, and Art.
the Society
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Founders
Partnerships
Founders
The idea for Sweet Home Conservation and Historical Society (SHCHS) was established in 2000, when a group of local history enthusiasts came together to discuss the need for a dedicated organization to preserve and share the history of our communities and state.
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Programs
Partnerships
Founders
At SHCHS we offer a variety of genealogical and historical research programs and events throughout the year, including heritage events, genealogy research and consulting, workshops, tours, gallery shows, and more. Our goal is to engage the community and provide opportunities for everyone to learn about our shared history.
Partnerships
Partnerships
Partnerships
We are proud to work with a variety of local organizations and businesses to promote the history of our community. Our partnerships with the military, schools, museums, corporate, and other local nonprofits help us reach a wider audience and make a greater impact.
Seguinite
Cyclone Joe Williams
Joseph Williams became a right-handed pitcher in Negro League Baseball and is considered one of the greatest pitchers of all-time. Williams was born at Sweet Home in Guadalupe County around 1886 and with one of his parents black and the other Comanche, he was barred by the color line. Williams spent his entire 27-year career from 1905–1932 pitching in the Negro leagues, Mexico, and the Caribbean and entered professional baseball with the San Antonio Bronchos. He became an immediate star, posting records of 28-4, 15-9, 20-8, 20-2, and 32-8 and later, the Chicago Giants, a team higher in the pecking order of black baseball acquired him in 1910. Giants owner Frank Leland pronounced him the "best pitcher in baseball, in any league."
In 1911, Williams joined the Lincoln Giants of New York, helping that club become one of the premier Negro League teams of the era. Cyclone Joe took part in a championship series in 1913 that matched the Lincoln Giants against the team considered the best of the West, the Chicago American Giants. From July 18 to August 13, the two teams played fourteen games and Williams had a decision in Games 1, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10, 11, winning five of the eight appearances as the Lincoln Giants won eight of fourteen games in the Series and in Game 5, he hit a home run. Three different times, he faced the eventual National League champions, winning two of those games and losing number three, 1-0 to the 1917 New York Giants despite throwing a no-hitter. Ty Cobb stated Williams was “a sure 30-game winner in the major leagues.”
After the Lincolns finished l fifth (out of six teams) in the Eastern Colored League's inaugural season, he was released in the spring of 1924. He then joined the Brooklyn Royal Giants for a season, and signed with the independent Homestead Grays where, except for a brief turn with the Detroit Wolves in 1932, spent the rest of his career in top-level black baseball. After joining the Homestead Grays in the late 1920s, his nickname became "Smokey Joe” and the older "Cyclone" appellation was rarely used after that.
On August 2, 1930, at age 44, Williams struck out 27 Kansas City Monarchs in a 1–0, 12-inning, one-hit night game victory. His mound opponent, Chet Brewer, struck out 19 men. That same year, he beat a younger Negro league star who was just bursting into superstardom, Satchel Paige, also by 1–0, in their only meeting against each other. Williams retired from baseball two years later.
In 1950, there was a "Smokey Joe Williams Day" at the Polo Grounds and the following year Williams died at the age of 64 in New York City. There has been considerable debate over whether Williams or Paige was the greatest of the Negro league pitchers. Most modern sources lean toward Paige, but in 1952, a poll taken by the Pittsburgh Courier named Williams the greatest pitcher in Negro league history. In 1999, after extensive research on the early years of black baseball revealed his outstanding record, Williams was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
“The important thing is that the long fight against the ban has been lifted. I praise the Lord I’ve lived to see the day.” - Joseph Williams (1947)
San Antonian
Johnny W. Banks
J.W. Banks was a black folk artist born in 1912 in San Antonio and raised at Sweet Home near Seguin. He was known for his mixed media paintings that drew inspiration from his memories and visions. Banks, a self-taught artist, relied on his own intuition and personal experiences rather than formal artistic training. He frequently used a variety of materials, including felt markers, watercolors, pencils, ballpoint pens, and crayons, often on paper or poster board. His artwork often reflected religious themes, historical events, and the daily life of black Texans, particularly in rural communities. Banks’ primary source for inspiration was his own visions and memories, including scenes of baptisms, church meetings, hog killings, funerals, and Juneteenth celebrations. He also depicted more somber subjects, such as slave auctions and inner-city ghetto scenes, offering a commentary on social issues. Many of his paintings featured rural life at Sweet Home where lush landscapes, tree-lined rivers, and strong visual elements were created. Some of his works depicted communal activities in idyllic villages, showcasing a sense of community and working together.
As a child, his favorite pastime was drawing pictures on his Big Chief tablet while living on a small farm. He later recalled, “As a kid, I used to lie flat on my stomach, drawing and drawing…. My mother had to kick me off the floor to sweep.” At the age of five, his parents brought him to San Antonio where he attended Holy Redeemer School until the age of nine, but when his parents divorced, he and his mother returned to his grandparents’ farm in Sweet Home. Known as ‘Johnny’ his favorite activities during his youth were singing in the Sweet Home Baptist Church gospel quartet and playing baseball. While still working on the farm, he completed 10th grade and on his own headed for the cities. He worked in the oilfields and cottonfields, drove a truck, and tended a service station in San Antonio. During World War II, he was drafted into the army and was stationed in the Philippines holding the rank of sergeant. After World War II, he returned to San Antonio and worked as a custodian at Kelly Air Force Base, Fort Sam Houston, and later a local television station.
Banks' art career began in 1978 while he was recuperating from an illness which left him hospitalized and his wife Earlie secretly took several of his drawings to a San Antonio laundromat. There she hung the artwork on the wall and offered them at a price of fourteen dollars each. Several of the pieces were taken to a gallery for framing where a San Antonio physician and collector of black art saw one of the drawings and contacted Banks directly to see his work. The physician and his wife; possibly obstetrician and gynecologist Harmon Kelly and his wife Harriet, began to advise them on Banks’ art career. His first solo exhibition was held at Caroline Lee Gallery in San Antonio in 1984, when Banks was seventy-two years old. His art was influenced by his early, rural memories that included baptism scenes in Sweet Home, Elm Creek, and Boerne Stage Coach Road, Other paintings told more somber stories of slave auctions and urban, inner-city life revealing personalities and psychological state.
These works serve as first-hand account and documentation of rural black life in South Texas. In keeping with his Baptist upbringing, other works were a result of inner visions that led him to revelations depictions of the Second Coming of Christ, Noah’s Ark, and Adam and Eve. When Banks died in 1988, he left behind several hundred drawings many of which were later lost to a flooding event.
