BROWNSVILLE — This is a story about family ties and friendships past and present.
It’s also a story about a book, “Hunting and Fishing in Texas,” published by former Brownsville Herald editor Hart Stilwell in 1946. Stilwell, born in Yoakum in 1902 and raised in the Rio Grande Valley, came to Brownsville in 1925 with a new bride and a new degree in journalism from the University of Texas.
His first job out of college was as a Herald reporter. Stilwell went on to edit the paper for two years, and became good friends with Brownsville residents Hurt Batsell, who opened the city’s first sporting goods store, and Dave Young, who owned the Iris Theater and Teatro Mexico downtown.
The three men shared a passion for the sporting life. “Hunting and Fishing in Texas,” the first book of its kind about the Texas outdoors, is packed with anecdotes of the trio’s adventures, including photos. Stilwell even dedicated the book to his friends.
A reporter sat down with Barry and Gordon Batsell, grandsons of Hurt Batsell, who died in 1974, and Don Breeden, son-in-law of Dave Young, who passed away in 1991. Barry Batsell is a commercial real estate agent with Coastal Realty, Gordon Batsell an educator with the Brownsville Independent School District, and Breeden a principal with Breeden McCumber advertising agency and a well-known wildlife artist.
The three are keeping the tradition alive as avid outdoorsmen and longtime hunting and fishing companions. They’re too young to have known Stilwell during his Brownsville days (the author moved to Austin the same year “Hunting and Fishing in Texas” was published and died in 1975). Still, Breeden said his father-in-law talked about Stilwell, who also wrote “Fishing in Mexico “ and “Glory of the Silver King: The Golden Age of Tarpon Fishing” in addition to novels and numerous articles for magazines like Field & Stream and Esquire.
“When I first met my father-in-law — before he was my father-in-law — I was 8 years old,” Breeden said. “I used to shag birds for him, because I lived out in Southmost where everybody hunted for white-wing.
“They’d pay me a quarter a day to pick up birds and pluck them for them. He always hunted with a .410 shotgun. It always impressed me. This guy could shoot that well. If you can shoot all day with a .410 and get your limit, it’s something.”
The close relationship between Stillwell, Young and Hurt Batsell is obvious in the book’s pages, Breeden said. Gentlemen afield, Batsell and Young both wore Stetsons, Batsell’s perched squarely and Young’s cocked to the side.
“That’s the only way we could tell them apart in the pictures,” Gordon Batsell said.
“These guys had some sort of camaraderie that was like — I want to hunt with those guys,” Breeden said.
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