D
F
NATIONAL GUARD
ON THE BORDER
(images C and D)
Despite the fact that
Harris felt that the sol-
diers did not need to
be deployed on the
U.S.-Mexico border, or
at least not in the num-
bers in which they
were, he was justifiably
proud of his unit,
Company I of the 4th
Texas Infantry (image
C). But he wasn’t so
sure about the
Pennsylvania National
Guard, which were also
assigned to the Big
Bend region (image D).
E
THE BIG BEND
In August of 1916, the National Park Service was cre-
ated, and this was something that really caught the
attention of Private Harris. He was fascinated by the
beauty of the Big Bend and was one of the first peo-
ple to call for it to be made into a national park.
(Images E and F)
Harris and his fellow soldiers went on to play an even larger role in World
War I, but the time that they spent in the Big Bend obviously made a big
impression on them. Harris continued to reproduce and sell his postcards
over the next few decades and was recognized for the role he played during
the formal dedication of Big Bend National Park in 1955. The entire set of
Harris’ postcards can be seen at the Archives of the Big Bend, on the second
floor of the Bryan Wildenthal Memorial Library on the campus of Sul Ross
State University. They are a reminder that the Big Bend region has been mak-
ing an impression on people for more than a century.
C
1916. That same month, Wilson ordered Gen. John J.
“Black Jack” Pershing into Mexico to chase Villa, in what
is known as the Punitive Expedition.
By June of 1916, with the chaotic and confusing situa-
tion ongoing along the U.S.-Mexico border, Congress
authorized the call-up of National Guard units from all 48
states and the District of Columbia. And in August of that
year, Wilson signed the orders calling up more than
150,000 troops to be sent to the U.S.-Mexico Border. In
early 1917, the situation became even more complicated
when the Zimmerman Telegram was made public. This
telegram, which the government of Germany sent to
Arthur Zimmerman, their foreign minister in Mexico City,
proposed that if the United States should enter the “Great
War” (World War I) against Germany, Mexico should ally
themselves with Germany; in return, upon the successful
completion of the war, Mexico would regain their lost ter-
ritories of Texas and the American Southwest.
So that was the situation that the National Guard troops
encountered when they reached the U.S.-Mexico border: a
complicated civil war ongoing south of the Rio Grande,
thousands of refugees fleeting northward and political
intrigue, including potential German agents and spies.
Among the Texas troops sent to handle that situation
was 40-year-old Jodie P. Harris, a private from Mineral
Wells. Harris was a member of Company I of the Fourth
Infantry Regiment of the Texas National Guard. During
his year and a half on the border, Harris sent a series of
hand-drawn postcards and two hand-drawn newspapers
back to his family at home. Harris’ postcards are full of
humor and biting social commentary, and he is also one of
the first people to call for the Big Bend region to be desig-
nated as a national park.
Joseph (Jodie) Pickens Harris III was born in North
Carolina in 1876, and he and his family moved to Mineral
Wells, Texas when he was quite young. After graduating
from high school, Harris worked as a druggist at the Crazy
Drug Store in Mineral Wells, where he also joined the
Texas National Guard and the Masons. When the Texas
National Guard was mobilized and sent to the border with
Mexico in 1916, Private Harris and other members of
Company I, 4th Texas Infantry, were sent to Marfa and
assigned to patrol the Big Bend region.
After Company I was demobilized in 1917, Harris
went to San Francisco and joined the Masonic Ambulance
Corps, which then became the 364th Ambulance
Company, 91st Division, and sent to Europe during the
Great War. Harris saw action in both the St. Mihiel and the
Muese-Argonne campaigns and received an Award of
Merit for his service.
At the end of the war, Harris returned to Mineral Wells,
where he worked as the secretary and treasurer for the
Breckenridge Oil and Gas Company. During World War
II, Harris worked in the Office of Censorship in El Paso
and later at the Department of the Navy in New York City.
He moved back to Mineral Wells at the end of Wold War
II, and he died at the Big Spring Veterans Hospital on May
6, 1953. He left his hand-drawn postcard and newspaper
collection to his sister, Mrs. Calhoun Monroe, from El
Paso, who in turn donated the collection to the Archives of
the Big Bend, on the campus of Sul Ross State University.
Harris’ 70-plus postcards comment on all aspects of his
time here in the Big Bend, but can generally be broken
down into four broad categories: the political situation
involving the United States, Mexico and Germany; the
mobilization of the National Guard units; general camp
life along the border; and his fascination with the beauty of
the Big Bend region. The six postcards here illustrate these
categories and capture, with his typical humor and wit,
what Jodie was thinking about during those longs months
of duty in the Big Bend.
A version of this story was presented at the 2011 Center for Big
Bend Studies Conference.
Cenizo
Third Quarter 2012
15