Part 8, Note 12
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Colorado County District Court Records, Civil
Cause File No. 3429: Henry Ilse for the use of James H. Simpson & Co. v.
Reinhard Dick and Charles W. Rau, Civil Minute Book G, p. 135; Colorado
Citizen, October 18, 1877, November 15, 1877, February 14, 1878, August 1,
1878, September 11, 1878, October 10, 1878, October 17, 1878, February 13, 1879,
July 3, 1879, July 10, 1879, July 24, 1879, June 17, 1880, July 15, 1880. The
Citizen of November 15, 1877 indicates that Dillon had appeared in Galveston
in two productions, "Our Boys" and "Lemons." The first was performed at the
Tremont on October 29 and 30, the second on October 31, November 1, and November
3 (see Joseph S. Gallegly, Footlights on the Border (The Hague, The
Netherlands: Mouton and Co., 1962), p. 190).
It has been assumed that Dick hired Ilse to run the theater
because (1) after November 1877, the theater was known as Ilse's Hall, and (2) a
contract by which Dick hired Ilse to run the theater for three years beginning
on October 1, 1883 is on record, and if, as seems reasonable, this was Ilse's
third consecutive three-year contract, then Ilse's employment would have started
on October 1, 1877, a date which fits in nicely with the date of the theater's
change in name (see Colorado County Bond and Mortgage Records, Book M, p. 122).