Essays written for rossernewton.com on Texas history from the archive and on energy investing through the cycle.https://rossernewton.com/en-ushttps://rossernewton.com/writing/why-texas-drew-its-counties-a-day-ride-wide/https://rossernewton.com/writing/why-texas-drew-its-counties-a-day-ride-wide/Rosser Newton reads an act creating a Texas county and the 1876 constitutional rule behind it, and explains why the state has more counties than any other.Wed, 23 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMThttps://rossernewton.com/writing/what-the-semicolon-court-ruled/https://rossernewton.com/writing/what-the-semicolon-court-ruled/Rosser Newton reads the 1874 Texas Supreme Court opinion that voided Richard Coke's election over a semicolon, and finds a court that read the page as it was.Wed, 23 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMThttps://rossernewton.com/writing/what-a-yard-tells-you-before-the-numbers-do/https://rossernewton.com/writing/what-a-yard-tells-you-before-the-numbers-do/Rosser Newton walks an oilfield service yard in a slow year and reads the equipment, the crews and the office for what the statements will only confirm later.Wed, 23 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMThttps://rossernewton.com/writing/what-a-newcomer-found-in-waco-in-1850/https://rossernewton.com/writing/what-a-newcomer-found-in-waco-in-1850/Rosser Newton on describing Waco in 1850, the year Richard Coke arrived, when a plat, a census, a letter and a memoir each described a different town.Wed, 23 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMThttps://rossernewton.com/writing/the-first-ninety-days-after-the-price-breaks/https://rossernewton.com/writing/the-first-ninety-days-after-the-price-breaks/Rosser Newton on the board meeting after a price break, the decisions a private energy company faces in ninety days, and the one most boards get backwards.Wed, 23 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMThttps://rossernewton.com/writing/the-case-against-buying-at-the-bottom/https://rossernewton.com/writing/the-case-against-buying-at-the-bottom/Rosser Newton takes the case against buying energy companies at the bottom of the cycle seriously, works through it, and lands on a narrower position.Wed, 23 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMThttps://rossernewton.com/writing/the-bureau-records-most-texas-histories-skip/https://rossernewton.com/writing/the-bureau-records-most-texas-histories-skip/Rosser Newton on the Freedmen's Bureau records for Texas, 1865 to 1870, what they hold, why they went unread, and how digitization changed the work.Wed, 23 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMThttps://rossernewton.com/writing/the-1876-constitution-was-written-against-a-memory/https://rossernewton.com/writing/the-1876-constitution-was-written-against-a-memory/Rosser Newton on explaining a document by what came before it, using the Texas Constitution of 1876 and the sources that disagree about the years before.Wed, 23 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMThttps://rossernewton.com/writing/restoring-a-courthouse-means-choosing-its-year/https://rossernewton.com/writing/restoring-a-courthouse-means-choosing-its-year/Rosser Newton on the decision at the center of courthouse preservation in Texas, the period a building is restored to, and how the county record makes it.Wed, 23 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMThttps://rossernewton.com/writing/debt-maturities-matter-more-than-leverage/https://rossernewton.com/writing/debt-maturities-matter-more-than-leverage/Rosser Newton on the maturity schedule, the one line in a private energy company's financing that decides a downturn, and why the leverage ratio misleads.Wed, 23 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMThttps://rossernewton.com/writing/county-brand-register-as-a-record/https://rossernewton.com/writing/county-brand-register-as-a-record/Rosser Newton on the Texas county brand register, a ledger of marks kept since the Republic, and what it proves about ownership that other records cannot.Wed, 23 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMThttps://rossernewton.com/writing/a-town-plat-shows-where-the-railroad-was-expected/https://rossernewton.com/writing/a-town-plat-shows-where-the-railroad-was-expected/Rosser Newton reads a nineteenth century Texas town plat and shows how the drawing records what its promoter expected, including a railroad that never came.Wed, 23 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT