Talk of Wilson County TX Historic Towns

by Barbara J. Wood

FAMILIES

Duelm sisters recall 'Old La Vernia

La Vernia News
By Susan Richter, La Vernia Heritage Museum

"I can just close my eyes and see how La Vernia was back then!" said Louise Duelm Farris, who will be 102 in October.

Louise, born in 1917, and her sister, Evelyn Duelm Belk, born in 1921, are a couple of local "girls" from "way back when." They toured the La Vernia Heritage Museum this summer. It was my honor as their niece, and the museum director, to be their guide.

Their museum visit sparked memories of their life on their farm on F.M. 539 near La Vernia with their parents, Emil and Erna, and five brothers.

"We had to pick a lot of cotton every day when [we] were young," said Evelyn, who was born in 1921. They would have been 6 or 7 in the late 1920s.

"We would walk with our parents with our own little sacks and when we got older, we had to fill a larger sack," recalled Louise, as both tried on the cotton sacks from the museum's display. Everyone worked hard, they remembered. Louise said her sack would get very heavy; it held 105 pounds of cotton.

In addition to picking cotton, the children helped in the fields with other crops and milked the cows.

As well as cotton, the family grew sweet potatoes, sugar cane, corn, and other crops.

The Duelms were the first La Vernia family to have molasses-making equipment. Other local families would arrive at their farm early in the evening with their sugar cane, pitch their tents, and get up early to make their own molasses.

The older Duelm children helped make molasses, putting the sugar cane in the hole, turning the machinery to produce juice, and watching so the molasses didn't burn as it cooked down. The Duelms later sold the machinery to the Frimels next door.

Life wasn't all hard work, however. The children would roll an old tire up the hill, jump inside, and roll back down together. Evelyn, now 98, and Dora Witte Wyatt were best friends and played this way a lot.

They also went swimming in a stock tank lined with caliche. Louise remembered the Willie Witte children visiting and all the children went swimming. They stirred up the water so much that they came out "white" with caliche from head to toe. Their parents were so mad, but later laughed at how the kids looked, covered with the mud!

They also enjoyed going to local dances.

"If we were not finished with our chores, we would not be able to go to the dance!" Evelyn said, of the dances held at County Line Dance Hall, and in New Berlin and St. Hedwig.

In the evenings, their dad — they called him Papa — would play his accordion on the porch and some of them sang. It was so quiet out in the country at that time of day, Louise and Evelyn said all the neighbors could hear the music and would go out on their porches to listen.

The sisters attended the one-room Pleasant Hill School near their home on F.M. 539. Louise attended until the fifth grade. The museum has a photo of the school, showing the girls sitting on the steps.

The museum's "Holy History" exhibit also brought back memories. Evelyn spotted her 1933 confirmation photo at Immanuel Lutheran Church in La Vernia. Both sisters named many familiar faces in the photos. Their father, Emil, made his confirmation at the same church in 1922.

Louise recognized the train and depot in a photo in the museum, and remembered riding the train to La Vernia from San Antonio one day, just to go to Mary Mattke's Beauty Shop to get her hair "fixed."

The Dr. Martin exhibit reminded Louise and Evelyn that the renowned La Vernia doctor had delivered both of them. When Louise was 10 years old in 1927, she and her brother, Fritz, had diphtheria. Louise said she almost died; it was Dr. Martin who took care of them.

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COURTESY/ La Vernia News

Flores family from Graytown

Flores family from Graytown, Wilson County, Texas... credit to Robert Tarin from Alamo Legacy & Missions Assoc.

Remembering Christmas on the Zook family’s farm

Wilson County News | December 22, 2010
Lois Wauson
Rainy Days and Starry Nights

(Lois Zook Wauson who was the oldest of eight children who grew up on a farm in Wilson County in the mid-20th century. She passed away in 2022.)

No matter what the circumstance, we always had Christmas on the farm.

When I was growing up, we decorated our Christmas tree on Christmas Eve afternoon. We rushed to do all the chores early — milking the cows, gathering eggs, and all the farm chores.

The little tree sat on a library table in the bedroom, in front of the window, waiting for the homemade decorations and tiny candles.

My family lived during the 1930s and '40s on 100 acres of sandy farmland and pastures with scrubby mesquite trees and lots of cactus. Our little house was always cold in the winter and we had to wear several layers of clothing in the house and sometimes our coats too. We only had a wood cook stove and a wood-burning heater to heat the house.

We didn't have any money, but Daddy worked a little extra for someone in order to get a small Christmas tree in Floresville.

We just knew there had to be a Santa Claus because they had no extra money for presents under the tree on Christmas morning. But in later years, I learned somehow they always managed to get us something for Christmas. Santa Claus always came.

I remember the bedroom in that house. There were two double beds on each side and a library table between the two by the window. That was where Daddy put the tree. Four of us kids slept in the one bed. Mother and Daddy slept in the other bed. The baby slept in his crib at the foot of our bed. The room was cold in the winter.

After we did our chores, we spent the rest of the afternoon making decorations for the Christmas tree. We were all excited with the anticipation of going to bed at night, and waiting for Santa to come.

We made all our decorations, cranberries that Mother had bought, and we popped the popcorn for popcorn strings, and made colored paper chains and stars from bright construction paper.

We had little clips to clip on the tree for candles to light the tree, and some shiny silver tinsel rope that was very old. Sometimes we collected little bits of tin foil from gum to make tiny little ornaments that shone and reflected the lights of the tiny candles on the tree. We saved limp icicles from the tree every year to use again the next year, but it was always the most beautiful tree I ever saw.

Finally the tree was finished and Mother lit the candles. With only a kerosene lamp for light in the room, the tree glowed with the light of the candles, and sparkled like a beautiful mirage. We all sat transfixed, not saying a word. I think it was the most beautiful tree I have ever seen, even to this day. One time I remember Mother and Daddy taught us to sing "Silent Night."

I can still remember the smell of the little fir tree, as Mother tucked me in that night, always rubbing my chest with Vicks VapoRub to guard off cold and congestion. When I smell Vicks VapoRub these days, I always think of life on the farm in the wintertime, and I remember my mother, the warmth of her hand on cold winter nights as she tucked us in and said our prayers, and what I remember is love.

Somehow Mother and Daddy always seemed to come up with one gift apiece for us. The girls got little baby dolls, and the boys got a little truck or a ball or a cowboy pistol. And we all got a big rubber ball to share. It wasn't much, but we kids knew the gifts had to have been from Santa Claus. My parents certainly didn't have any money for gifts, I thought! No matter what, during the Depression years, we always celebrated Christmas.

In later years when I wasn't home for Christmas, it was a lonely, homesick feeling. Even after I was married and had children of my own, I would still miss Christmas on the farm with my family.

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COURTESY /Lois Wauson who was a columnist/journalist for Wilson County News. She wrote two books which are available from the Wilson County News office.

https://www.wilsoncountynews.com/articles/remembering-christmas-on-the-zook-familys-farm/

Prairie Lea and the Richter family of Wilson County Texas

by Odell Richter Zarsky

The first mention of the Richter Family was in 1785. The

country was called Prussia at this time. It is a country in

Central Europe bordering on the Baltic Sea. The Richters came to Alt Karmunkau and settled there. No one knows exactly their country of origin, but research is being done to

determine their early origins.

Prussia was centrally located in Europe between Germany and Russia. Its borders have changed many times over the centuries through conquests, usually by their neighbors. It is now a country named Poland. It has been a large country,

a small country, and no country at all. The area in Poland the Richters immigrated from is called Silesia. It is an area of open plains and gently rolling hills and an agricultural region of farmers with a few livestock. This was how the Richters

earned their livelihood – farming. Silesia had a very temperate climate. It had winter temperatures of about 30 degrees and summer temperatures of about 70 degrees. It was quite an adjustment for the new "Texans," especially during the

summer months.

Exactly why the Richters left for America is not known. However, they received letters from an earlier settlement in Texas. They told them of their freedom to grow whatever

crops they wanted, breed whatever animals they wanted, and worship in the religion of their choice.

Our ancestor is Johann Richter, who immigrated to the United States in June of 1855. Johann had married Barbara Anders and they had seven children in Poland, two of whom had died in Poland. They came via Hamburg via Liverpool aboard the Isaac Wright and landed in New York City. They sailed from New York City to Indianola in Texas. Johann arrived with four

children, having lost his wife and one child en route from New York to Texas.

Johann and his four children their way inland and settled

in Yorktown, Texas, in 1855. He eventually remarried about three years later and had many more children. It is not known exactly when his family moved to Wilson County, but there are cattle brands registered to him by 1875.The Johann Richter

family settled about 3 miles west of Stockdale on both sides of the Cibolo Creek with a pur-chase of 375 acres of

farmland which had to be cleared for farming.

The Richters were Catholic, and when St. Mary's Church was destroyed in a storm in Stockdale, it was never rebuilt. In 1891 fifteen families desiring a church began to build a Catholic

church on land donated by Johann Richter. Subsequently, one acre of land was donated by Vincent Richter for a cemetery, which is still in use today. The church was built just north of the railroad track on the 3 acres donated by Johann. Later a

country school was built south of the railroad for all the families in the neighborhood to attend. The church

was to remain until 1951. The third St. Mary's was dedicated in 1952 where it remains today. This area was known by another name before it became the Richter community. It

is believed to have been called Prairie Lea, but this is without certainty.

Today, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of Richter descendents scattered across the United States in many different professional fields – breaking away from their early agricultural roots.

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COURTESY /Wilson County Sesquicentennial 1860-2010

One girl and her horse

December 07, 2016
By Lois Zook Wauson
Wilson County News

Addie Harrell was one of 12 children in her family and grew up in Camp Ranch and went to Green School. William Green donated the land where the one room schoolhouse was located on Farm Road 1344, which is west of Floresville in the Camp Ranch community. The land Green School was built on was bought for $12 an acre.

She and three of her siblings had to milk cows in the morning before they went to school. And there were 28 cows in all to milk! It took a long time to milk those cows. And they were usually late for school because of that.

She said, "When it was real freezing weather, we'd turn the cows out to pasture so they could get behind the brush, because we didn't have no barn for them to get in out of the cold. I remember one morning I had to go down about 4:30 in the morning and get the cows, and I kicked into a pear bush and got full of prickly pears"

"When we got through milking, the others would go to school and I would have to herd the cows on my horse, down to this field and keep them there for about 3 hours, and then take them back. Then I would go to school. I wouldn't get to school until about 11:30 in the morning. I rode the horse to school. The younger kids had gone on and walked. My horse's name was Filly. She was a little Spanish type horse, and when she was young, when you got that one foot on the stirrup, you better hang on, because you was gone! "

She went on, "My daddy and I was the only one who could catch her. I would carry a string in my pocket and would got down in the pasture and call her to me and I would put the string in her bridle and climb on her and take off".

"My brother couldn't get her", she said, "My brother Buddy and Henry Tieken would go riding. Henry had his horse and Buddy would take Filly, and they would ride them all the way to Poth to the dances and tie them up with the saddles on them, leave them while they danced, then ride them back that night. So, she wouldn't ever come to Buddy."

"But when I got through riding her, I would take her in the barn, and unsaddle her and take everything off of her and take her down to the pasture and let her go and give her a rest. I loved that horse. Sometimes if I was upset about something, I would go down there and put my arms around her and put my head on her and cry."

All the Harrell children had to work on the farm. When they came in from school in the afternoon, they would always find left over bacon and ham on the shelf above the stove, which had been fried for breakfast that morning, and they would grab a piece of bread or a biscuit and put that meat between it, and take off to do work in the fields. They picked cotton, pulled corn, worked with hay bundles and lots more things. Every one had to work hard.

Some of their neighbors were the Alberts and the Noltes. She said she and her family lived "toward Dewees", in a small house. The kids had very little playing time, but when they did they played outdoors.

Addie Harrell went to Green school with some of my aunts, Ellen, Sallie and Fay Goode. She and Ellen were especially close, because they were the same age. She would spend the night with the Goode sisters at their house, and sometimes the girls would spend the night with the Harrell's. This was about 1930 or 1931. The Goode's, my grandparents, had a little house too and a bunch of kids. I am sure with 10 people in Grandma and Grandpa's house several kids slept on pallets on the floor.

UPDATE: Addie met Werner Adolf Wahl when he visited her family's farm. It was love at first sight when she saw the handsome stranger walk across the field. They married in San Antonio on Oct. 11, 1937, and celebrated 54 years of marriage until his passing. Described as a "pistol" by one of her doctors, Addie earned a special place in the hearts of many. Oh, the stories she would tell and pictures she would share. She enjoyed yard work, going to church, and visiting her sisters. She was extremely active until age 97.

Addie Lea Harrell Wahl of Floresville, Texas, passed away peacefully in her home at the age of 100 on Tuesday, May 22, 2018. Addie was born on March 12, 1918, in the Camp Ranch community to Lon and Annie Hollub Harrell.

(Courtesy of Wilson County News)

Arthur "Spitz" Richard Roemer

Spitz was born on Sept. 11, 1918 at home on Jackson Gulch in the Labatt Community, north of Floresville. He was the son of Harry and Ida Pfeiffer Roemer, grandson of Theodore Charles and Marie Schmidt Roemer.

Spitz was born a normal child, but at 18 months of age, Infantile Paralysis struck, leaving him deaf, mute, and crippled. He eventually started walking on his tiptoes when he was 7 years old.

Spitz's formal education consisted of 1 year at the School for the deaf in Austin, Texas. He developed a "homemade sign language" that everyone in the family and community easily understood. Tragedy struck when Spitz was 20 years old; his father was killed in an accident; he continued to live with his mother.

He enjoyed country living on the family farm. He loved to do

small jobs for neighbors with his tractor and especially enjoyed visiting these neighbors. He could take apart a small engine, repair it, and have it running smoothly again.

Spitz could get very upset and angry; at such times he would run away from home. He would get on his tractor and go to the river bottom or to the sandhills and hide. One time, crippled as he was, he climbed to the top of the windmill and sat on the small platform while the wheel was turning at full speed, causing the family much anxiety. He came back home with a big grin on his face and acted as though nothing had happened.

Spitz loved family gatherings on Sunday, community parties, family reunions, parades, and peanut-threshing time. He loved to stand at the highway and wave at passing cars. He had many friends and was liked by all in the community. He always had a dog by his side; they even slept together.

Spitz was a "people person," very easy to know and love. A pat on the back and a handshake made his day special. He was very honest.He was baptized in November 1957 and knew that Jesus loved him. In April 1997 he went to live at Floresville Nursing Center until his passing November 9, 1999 at 81 years of age.

I want to share part of my story with you about my Uncle Spitz. My parents Alfred and Manilla Roemer married November 1933 and moved into a new little home built just for them by Alfred's dad, Harry Roemer. I was born there December 1934.

Spitz lived with his parents and siblings in a large home in Jackson Gulch. Tragedy struck in 1938 when Spitz' father was killed, leaving his mother to care for their special-needs son alone. The family decided that my parents, Alfred and Manilla, should move in with Spitz and his mother in the big house. I remember my mother cried, not wanting to make the move because life would not be easy.

In 1941, a small home was built for Spitz and his mother, and

there they were cared for. In his later years, when Spitz became mine to care for, my wife and I took care of his every need.

Green trees never grow on mountain tops... only in the valleys. God gives each one of us strength to endure as we grow into HIS likeness.

— Respectfully submitted, Bennie Harry Roemer

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COURTESY / Wilson County Sesquicentennial 1860-2010

Rose Zahn Polasek, A Wilson County Woman's Story

Part One:
(Courtesy of Writer & Historian Lois Wauson)

Rose loved her daddy. Leo Zahn's life was filled with sickness, pain and disappointments. But his life was also filled with joy because of his children and his beloved wife Stella. I am sure he was especially grateful to have the love of his wife and children, who tried their best to take care of him through years of a major illness.

Leo Zahn, even as a young child, had some serious illnesses. He had typhoid fever and a burst appendix before he married Stella Mazac. They got married in 1925 in Wilson County. They immediately started to farming. They had six daughters and one son. Rose smiles and says, "But I was my daddy's pet!"

Rose said, "I was born at home in Wilson County when they were living near Sokol Hall. We moved around a lot, all over Wilson County. Daddy planted cotton and corn. I went to school in Rideout and Picosa, and Three Oaks, and Dewees and then to Sacred Heart. We walked to all the schools we went to. Sometimes we would walk through pastures and fields to go to school. My parents moved around and never owned their own farm. We had it hard, but we didn't know it was hard. We always had food on the table. We worked hard as kids, working in the fields. I remember when we lived on the Wiseman place. We would have a long way to walk out into the field. Once I got bit by a poisonous spider. They poured a bunch of coal oil on it and took me to the doctor. We kept going to school and working in the fields."

Leo began to have problems with weakness and walking when he was in his 30's. Rose remembered her mother going with him in the wagon to Falls City to the doctor who diagnosed his illness as "low blood pressure". But he continued to get worse. He was on crutches and still trying to farm. They had mules to farm with. He could still plow and plant walking behind the mules on the crutches. Rose and her sisters did the harvesting. Her brother was too young at the time. Finally, he got too weak to walk at all even with the crutches. It was much later when they finally knew the nature of the illness.

When Rose was in the 7th grade her father moved them out south of Floresville. She said, "My mother wanted us to go to Sacred Heart School to learn catechism and confession. So these ladies would come pick us up down by the highway to take us to school. But half the time they didn't pick us up so we would have to walk all the way into town to school. It was a long way! Finally, we got so tired of walking and our mama needed us at home, so we quit school. By then my daddy was in a wheel chair. We told the nuns we had to go work in the fields."

"Finally, my mother couldn't take care of my daddy any longer. By then they knew what was wrong. He had multiple sclerosis. He had to go to the State Hospital. We used to go see him all the time. My sister and I would go see him on the bus. We finally moved my mother into Floresville and she became a practical nurse at the old hospital. She worked really hard for many years at the hospital as a practical nurse."

Taming the Texas Frontier

PART ONE

For those of you who know your Texas history, Mexico allowed a total of 41 empresarios including Stephen F. Austin, Green DeWitt, Benjamin R. Milam, Sterling Robertson, and others to bring families from the United States into what is now Texas to settle. These emigrations began in 1821 and extended through 1835. After the Texas Revolution established Texas as a Republic in 1836, many more Americans began the journey to the new land, but significant migration did not occur until Texas became a state in 1845. This is the first part of the story about two very old ancestral families, the Jacksons and the West's, who were among the first Texas pioneers.

Mollie Jackson, wife of Robert Henry Sutherland was born March 24, 1863 in Stockdale, Texas. She was the daughter of Ancil McDonald Jackson (1832-1904) and Seletia Ann West (1843-1868). The Jacksons and the West's are among those very oldest Texas settlers of Bexar and Wilson County. This is the story about the Jacksons. Thanks to Jackson descendant Jack Jackson we have a detailed account of the life of the Jacksons. While Jack has passed on, we all owe him a debt of gratitude for documenting his family history in a book that is available at the Texas State Archives, Genealogy Collection, titled, "The Solomon B. Jackson Family in Wilson County, Texas" dated September 1978. Another book worth reading is called "The Rising and Setting of the Lone Star Republic" written by Mattie Jackson. It is also available at the Texas State Archives in Austin.

Mollie's father was Ancil McDonald Jackson, son of Solomon Batchelor Jackson. Solomon was born in about 1800 in Spartanburg, South Carolina. We believe he was the son of David Jackson and Martha Batchelor. Solomon married Susanna Marvina Sifford in Cape Girardeau County, Missouri in 1831. He appears in the 1840 Stoddard County, Missouri Census records with a number of children and his wife Susanna. We believe that he arrived in Texas in 1844 traveling down the "Wagon Road to Texas" from Kansas City through Ft. Gibson in Indian Territory. Susanna died this same year Solomon arrived in Texas. We see Solomon again on the 1850 Bexar County Texas Census with six children including Ancil who was born in 1836 when Solomon was still in Missouri. Solomon was a rancher and as such had his own brand that was registered in the Brand Book A, Bexar County on October 5, 1850. The brand is a simple "SJ" and shows Solomon living "near the head of the San Antonio River", which would be the springs located in present day Brackenridge Park. He later moved some miles south of San Antonio to land on Calaveras Creek before finally moving to Sutherland Springs.

(Courtesy of Sharon Sutherland, writer of the "Sutherland Family History" blog) PART ONE

Taming the Texas Frontier

PART TWO

At that time the land around Sutherland Spring was a rich green paradise with lots of pure spring water including a number of mineral springs that included sulfur that drained into the Cibolo River. There were lots of fish and game available and even brown bear were found. Ancil recalled later on in life that the fields were knee deep in bluebonnets in the springtime. Anglos only began to settle the area on the Cibolo and Ecleto Rivers during the 1840s and families were few when Solomon and his family moved there in the 1850s. Indians were still living all through this area.

Sutherland Springs was established by Dr. John Sutherland who was actively involved in the Texas fight for independence and lost one of his sons at the Battle of the Alamo. He is not related to our line of Sutherlands from Arkansas. To the east of Sutherland Springs, isolated cabins were built along the Ecleto River in an area that was known as "Free Timbers" because of the available of free lumber from the land of an early member of the J R King land grant who was killed by the Indians. Free Timbers evolved into the town we now know as Stockdale.

Solomon built his house on the Ecleto six miles east of the present city of Stockdale around Caddo. Solomon's land adjoined the land of Creed Taylor. Solomon was stricken with cholera, which was raging in San Antonio and before he and his sons could complete their house, he died on July 8 1852. Since there were so few settlers in the area, the inhabitants were fearsome to let the Indians know that their number was reduced, so Solomon was buried in an unmarked grave.

Solomon left behind Ancil, aged 20, Nathan 19, Melissa 16, and Aaron 14 as well as two orphaned Sifford children who Solomon brought from Missouri. Creed Taylor and a nearby doctor, Thomas Batte took in the younger children to raise. The story of Creed Taylor is a story into itself.

In October of 1853, Ancil bought 200 acres of land on the Ecleto about four miles southeast of Stockdale for about $100. In December of 1854, Ancil enlisted in Company C of the Mounted Volunteers, Texas Rangers (attached to the US Army) and served until March, 1855. Since Indian depravations were still very common in this the traditional hunting grounds of the fierce Comanche Indians, it is likely that this three month enlistment was to deal with the Indians. Later that year, Ancil served under Texas Ranger Captain Nat Benton and Captain William Henry in an expedition authorized by Governor Pease to follow the raiding Indians into Mexico and punish them at their base of operations to ensure that the raiding stopped.

Ancil as a result of his experience as a Texas Ranger was chosen by the local citizens to conduct various dangerous tasks such as delivering bank deposits on horse-back to the bank in San Antonio. Ancil and his brothers were all well respected within the community. The two younger brothers, Nathan and Aaron as well as the two Sifford orphans moved to Kerrville in about 1860. Descendants of Joshua and Jenkins Sifford married into the Robert Henry Sutherland family at a later date. Family history says that the boys were sent to live with Green Sifford who was related to their Mother and well-to-do. This area was also subject to continual Indian attacks from the Comanche and Lipan Indians until the mid 1870s.

(Courtesy of Sharon Sutherland, writer of the "Sutherland Family History" blog)

Taming the Texas Frontier

PART THREE.

Ancil stayed behind in Wilson County most likely because he had found a wife. He bought the very first marriage license issued in Wilson County on September 19, 1860 and married 17 year old Seletia Ann West, daughter of Wade Hampton West and Susan Humphries West. In 1860 the two families were living only three houses apart on the US Census record.

Ancil and Seletia had their first child Frances Mahala "Fanny" Jackson on September 13, 1861, the same year that the fighting began in the Civil War. All three of the Jackson brothers saw service on the side of the Confederacy during the Civil War. They served at Camp Davis which was one of 18 posts established to protect the Texas frontier from Indian depravations. Camp Davis is located in Gillespie County. Nathan and Aaron re-enlisted after their first year for the duration of the war. These mounted volunteers were in all true sense volunteers. They had to provide their own horses, weapons, and clothing in typical Ranger fashion.

Ancil's service is not so clear as it is said that he suffered from tuberculosis. "Our Heritage", Volume 1, No. 1, pages 13 and 14 grants Ancil relief from military duty because of an injury sustained from a fall from a sorrel horse. He was later discharged on October 7, 1862 from Matamoros, Mexico. For the rest of the war, he served in the Quartermaster Corps, supplying beef to the confederate Army.

After the war, Ancil and Seletia expanded their family. Mary Melvina "Mollie" was born March 24, 1863. Mollie is my Great-Grandmother. Aaron W "Willie was born October 30, 1864; Elizabeth J "Lizzie" was born September 29, 1866; and Susan Maria "Susie" also called "Sudie" was born October 7, 1868. Then tragedy struck on December 20, 1868 when Ancil's beloved Seletia died at just 25 years old. Seletia was buried at the Steele Branch Cemetery five miles east of Stockdale with her father, Wade Hampton West, mother Susan Humphries, and her Grandfather James, "Old Man West" West.

After Seletia Ann's death, Ancil was a widower with five very young children to raise. For a man who made his living running cattle from Fort Mason in the mountains to the Gulf of Mexico, an immediate remarriage was a requirement for survival of his family. Ancil went to East Texas where he met and married Temperance Ellender Wallace, "Tempy", who was also a widow. Seletia Ann's brother Martin Sparks West was married to Temperance's sister Martha "Polly" Wallace. It is likely that Martin was instrumental in linking the widow and widower. They were married December 9, 1869 and lived on the Jackson Ranch. Tempy was an industrious sort and soon had the entire ranch planted in flowers and shrubbery as she loved in East Texas and Mississippi where she was born. She and Ancil had another 8 children after their marriage, Missouri Carolina, "Carrie" 1872, Martha Malissa, "Mattie" 1873, Laura 1874, Ancil McDonald Jr., "Bud", 1876, Phenecy, "Necy" 1879 and Narcissus, "Narcy" in 1883.

Ancil and Seletia Ann's second daughter Mary Melvina "Mollie" Jackson married Robert Henry Sutherland at the Jackson Ranch on September 9, 1880. Mollie's step-sister Maggie tells all about it in "An Old Time Wedding Feast" in her book, the "Rising and Setting of the Lone Star Republic".

(Courtesy of Sharon Sutherland, writer of the "Sutherland Family History" blog)

Who Knows? 1940s Sutherland Springs

WHO KNOWS .... this photo was taken the 1940's in Sutherland Springs Texas. If you recognize the location, reply in comments. Have fun. Hint: You've seen this area if you've been through Sutherland Springs [FM 539 & 4th St. intersection]

Old House story

MARK CAMERON SHARES "OLD HOUSE" STORY ... Mark , Wilson County Historian, received this note from JoAnn Garcia Herrera along with photo. Thanks for sharing with "Talk of Wilson County Historic Towns".

Photo and letter courtesy of Joann Garcia Herrera -

Hi Mark,

Not sure what you want to know about the old house. All I can tell you is my experiences there.

First of all, the property was owned (and I think it still is) by Mr. Schellhase (that would be Lee and Terry's grandfather). My parents must have moved there when I was really little; I was born in 48 at the old Blake Hospital off 181. And we lived there till I was in about the 4th grade.

This is not a memory but a story that my elder Aunt Mary tells. She and my Uncle Don lived with my parents when I was around 2; my grandmother had been diagnosed with TB and was in the sanitarium in Kerrville. This house had a big porch that was several feet off the ground. The story goes that I was riding my trike on the porch and my Aunt Mary was supposed to be keeping an eye on me. Mom would check on me every once in a while and would warn my aunt 'if she falls down, I'm going to spank YOU'. Keep in mind my aunt was only 8 or 9 years old than me. Well, the inevitable happened. I fell off the porch. They say that Mom flew out of the house madder than a hen and went after my aunt. Dad was hammering something and he yelled at mom to leave my aunt alone, that it was an accident. Mom didn't stop and dad warned her that if she didn't get back in the house he was going to throw the hammer at her. Mom didn't stop - Dad threw the hammer at her. He didn't hit her but it scared the beejeebers out of mom.

The house was just two rooms. It had a huge room that was our living area and bedroom and the kitchen. Don't ask me about sleeping arrangements - I don't remember. All I remember of the physical part is that the kitchen was in the part that slopes down and we had a kitchen table in there. I remember two things about the 'big room'. In one corner there was an upright piano that I would periodically bang on. I guess it belonged to the Schellhase's but I don't know. Yes, that little bitty house had a piano. And I vividly remember two Christmas' there. I can see our little tree against the window. I remember on one of those Christmas' my sister and I got large walking dolls. They were fashion dolls with heels and a little purse. Another Christmas we got these beautiful stuffed clowns. Their faces were made of some sort of hard plastic or maybe there was resin at that time.

In the back of the house there was a small shed where dad kept his tools and stuff. Although Dad was never a farmer, he had all the stuff farm people had. One year, he cleaned out that shed and I remember wondering what was up. One morning we got up and I found out. He had gotten my sister and I two little baby goats, one was white and the other was black. We had the most fun with those goats. I don't remember what happened to the goats. I'm sure we didn't eat them because for poor people, we were spoiled. We never ate anything we didn't like. And when we were little, there was a lot of things we didn't like.

I started school there and the school bus would pick me up. I would cut across the field and catch the bus right off the highway. I'm sure that's the way it's still done. I remember my Grandpa Manuel (they lived across the road) took burlap sacks and wrapped them around the barbed wire fence so I would snag my clothing or myself went I went through it. Grandpa also built me a little house, sort of like the old outhouses to wait for the school bus in. He didn't want me getting wet or cold.

If I think of anything, I'll let you know. I don't remember if I have any old pictures of the house. I'll look for some and let you know. What I do have is a pastel painting that was painted for my about 30 years ago by a well known artist here in San Antonio. He has since passed. That house used to be one of the most popular places for artists to paint, especially when it would get surrounded with blue bonnets.

– Jo Ann Garcia Herrera

A life pieced together in love

November 11, 2015
Special to the Wilson County News

By Toney Lothringer

A LIFE PIECED TOGETHER IN LOVE .... written by Toney Lothringer in 2016.

Toney Richter Lothringer, a lifelong resident of Wilson County, will celebrate her 85th birthday this month. Quilts and quilting are among her cherished memories and traditions.

I was born in Loma Vista on the farm Nov. 13, 1930. I still have the receipt for $30 from the doctor that delivered me. I was the fifth child of Eugene and Ella Rehfeld Richter. I had five sisters — Hilda, Rosie, Lillie, Elenora, and Helen — and one brother; Eugene Leroy "Sonny" was the baby of the family.

Throughout the week, all of us kids had chores. I had to clean the globes on the kerosene lamps. Sometimes I had to slop the hogs or milk the cow, all before I went to school. We had to walk to school, 1-1/2 to 2 miles away. We grew up speaking German; I could not speak English when I started school.

Sonny was allowed to finish school, located 2 miles away. You could say that the girls finished their education at the school of hard knocks. That is just the way it was.

My father was a farmer, as were all of my relatives. Everything we grew was picked by hand: corn, milo (sorghum), high gear used as hay, peas, cotton, and sugar cane. All of the local families would help each other harvest crops. I remember that my sisters and I were the only girls that worked in the field out of all of the families in our community.

We would raise cows and chickens to eat; therefore we didn't buy any meat. We had a Butcher Club in the summertime, where 14 families would go together and one family would butcher a calf on Friday nights. The following day, all families would come to claim their share. The families rotated each week the chore of butchering in order to share with the other families. This helped the families out during the summer because they spent a lot of time in the fields.

In the fall and winter, we would sew. We sewed our own clothes. Mom made all of our dresses from flour sacks. When we bought flour, we bought it in colored decorative sacks.

Our family also made quilts. My mom would always quilt and my sisters and I helped. This is where I got interested in making quilts. Mom had a frame that would hang from the ceiling and she took a piece of solid material as large as the bed, batting, and a second piece of material that would serve as the bottom layer. This was stretched out on the quilting frame. For a pattern, she would take a white chalk tied to a string and hold the string in one hand and then with the other hold the other end of the string at different lengths to mark the patterns on the solid color cloth. The pattern she used the most was a fan. We would then sew the pattern by following the markings.

I received a quilt for our wedding from Glenn's mother, Myrtle Lothringer. It was made with a butterfly pattern and this became a family tradition for me. Every time one of my children or grandchildren gets married, I make them a butterfly quilt.

My quilting has continued over the years. In addition to the butterfly quilt tradition for wedding gifts, I make quilts for the children and grandchildren when they graduate from a college or university. I use their alma mater's colors and motto to design the quilt.

I also make quilts from patterns of my own creation. The family name quilt that I made, I got that idea from a friend who showed me some quilts one day. I drew the pattern and kept it. I can just look at a quilt or have an idea for a quilt and make the pattern. I make the pattern according to the blocks I want to create and the amount of material I want to use.

As of Christmas 2014, I have quilted 40 quilts. My handiwork is my legacy that I leave to the next generations.

Family ties

"People used to get married on Tuesdays when I was growing up, not Saturdays like today," Toney recalled.

Her sister, Elenora, married Beak Swift, who was Glenn Lothringer's best friend, which is how Toney met her future husband.

They were married in 1948.

"I had never been to a wedding before I got married and I have to admit, I did not know what I was supposed to do," she said. "As children, we stayed at home while our parents went to weddings and funerals."

In 1955, Glenn and Toney bought the property where they now live. In early 1958, they began construction of the home they still live in.

"My only requirement was that we have running water," Toney said. They built the shell, then stopped to harvest a crop; once field work was complete, they finished building the house.

"We moved in Thanksgiving Day 1958 and have lived here ever since," she said.

Glenn and Toney raised four children. Sons Jimmy and Jeffrey were born in the hospital in Floresville; daughters Linda and Cindy were born and raised in the home their parents built. All are Floresville High School graduates.

********************

COURTESY / Wilson County News

Voges family

Mr. and Mrs. Richard (Mary Guenther) Voges are the parents of the former Wilson County Texas Attorney, D. Richard Voges (youngest son) and Walter Voges (oldest son). They lived in Poth, Texas. Mary Guenther Voges is Viola Guenther Henke's Grandfather's (George Guenther) sister.

The two young boys are: Walter Voges and (County Atorney's Father)Richard Voges.

A taste of farming history

A taste of farming history... in an article written by Lois Wauson.

Daddy Always Went Back to the Farm ........ • Daddy always went back to the farm. He loved farming. When he graduated from Floresville High School in 1919, he decided to go to Kansas State, where he played football, for a year. But then he left and went to California to work in the orange groves his uncle owned. He loved working with the orchards there and being near the soil he loved well.

• But then he went back to the farm in 1924, when his mother was dying. After she died, he stayed to help his father run the family farm. He had come from a long line of farmers in Kansas, and ancestors who farmed in Pennsylvania before that. Farming always seemed to be beckoning and calling him back to the life of a farmer.

• In 1925, his brother Everett had gone to Del Rio to work and go to school. The drought was so bad and Daddy and his father were struggling to eke out a living when the seeds didn't even sprout that year. Everett sent him a telegram telling him that Magnolia Petroleum needed a "really strong man" who could lift 55-gallon drums and who could drive a truck. The first person Everett thought of was his older brother, Lawrence who was known as the "strongest man in Wilson County". He told Daddy the job paid $75 a month.

• Daddy took off for Del Rio, hitch hiking and walking. When he got there, the company hired him, and he worked until the man who owned the company hired a relative to take his place, so Daddy went back to the farm again. But he was ready. He was itching to get behind a plow again, and start growing things. He farmed with his father until 1927.

• In 1927, there was an oil boom in West Texas, and they were building pipelines from the oil fields there, to Corpus Christi. Some of the pipeline workers played football at Del Rio High School with Everett. They told him they sure did need some strong workers on the pipeline. He thought of his brother Lawrence again, and wired him to come, because those pipelines liked to hire big old strong country boys. They didn't have a ditch-digging machine back then, they used pick and shovel. That is when he thought of Daddy. Daddy went back to Del Rio again.

• The workers got paid $4 a day and all their meals and they lived in tents. $4 a day was a lot of money IN 1927. Daddy worked hard with the pipeline company, laying pipe past Del Rio half way to Corpus Christi. He worked for a year. Then he decided to go home again. His father had passed away of cancer.

• It was springtime and he could smell the earth as they dug down deep for the pipes. He wanted to plant some seeds. So he went back to the farm.

• Daddy took over the farm, after his father died. He married my mother in 1931 and farmed the old Zook farm until 1936, when they sold it and bought a 100-acre farm in the Kasper School community, west of Poth.

• He tried to make a living there for 20 more years. Most of those years he struggled with drought, low farm prices, boll weevils, grasshoppers, and those things that plague farmers. Every day when he left the house, his eyes turned to the skies to watch for rain clouds. He raised cotton, corn, maize, peanuts and watermelons, and even black-eyed peas one year. If it rained it was a good year. Most of the time it didn't rain. The life was hard, backbreaking and heartbreaking. Raising eight children added to the burden, although us kids helped with all the farming, and at times we were hired out to neighboring farmers to work, for $3.00 a day, and Daddy and Mother had to use the money to buy groceries and chicken feed. Daddy became a very angry man. It was too much for him.

• Finally, in the drought of the 50s' the bank finally took the farm, so they moved to San Antonio and he got a regular job, he began to plant gardens full of vegetables, and flowers. He was happy and cheerful most of the time. But he had running water with a hose to water the plants when they needed it, and he had a green thumb. He didn't have to depend on the weather to grow things. Everything he planted would grow and flourish! The earth and soil was in his blood. He watched the seeds sprout and grow and he grew the biggest vegetables and the most beautiful flowers and roses in the neighborhood. He still loved to watch it rain, and he could smell rain miles away when no one else could.

• I wish Daddy could have had one good year of farming. The rains came to Texas late that winter of 1957. One year that he didn't have to worry about farm prices, or whether it would rain and the hot sun would beat down and kill his shrinking plants, or stunt their growth. I wish he could have had one year that was "raining at the right time, sunshine at the right time, paying off the banker on time" years. But, he didn't and he finally gave up and moved away from the farm. But if he had had one more chance, he would have gone back to the farm, because he loved farming.

Pete Kaczmarek of La Vernia, 1914

Pete Kaczmarek sitting on his front porch in LaVernia Texas has his rifle is in his lap while petting a dog with each hand. Deer horns and bottle of whisky are next to him. On the house wall behind him is a saddle next to window with lace curtains.The photograph is circa 1914. (Courtesy of UTSA Library)

Reader, Tina Mullins-Gordon... writes, "I thought you would love this. I sent this picture you posted to my sister because I knew she would love it even though she doesn't live here. She just sent this to me from the Bass pro shops in Garland. She said that she glanced and told her husband I know that picture. So she went up and sure enough it even says Lavernia". (Thanks Tina for sharing this so funny)

Snow, 1949

Snow pictures are from February 1949. Kathy Robinson says that the ladies are Martha Garrahan Robinson and Addie Ables. The snowman was the handmade creation of Kathy's daddy, Woodie Robinson.

Robinson hunting dogs

A dapper little gentleman with his grandfather's coon dogs. Do you recognize that grin? His daughter says, "Susan-Mitchell Deagen and Jane Wiatrek y'all are correct. Those are 2 of Grandpa (Arren) Robinson's, dogs. Grandpa was an avid coon hunter. Kind of funny, since poor Daddy ( Woody Robinson) couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with a bullet."

Family unearths cistern beneath living room in historic home

Wilson County News, July 21, 2010
By Nannette Kilbey-Smith

Floresville – The circular saw blade whined as it cut through the floorboards of the Marshall home on South First Street. Kendle Marshall inched up the boards with the help of family friend Joseph Canady and gasped as daylight revealed what lay hidden beneath the century-old floor.

All eyes in the room were riveted to Kendle's movements. The view elicited a collective gasp of amazement and a quiet "Wow!"

"Kendle Marshall lowers a light into the hole under the living-room floor as family and friends peer into a 19th-century cistern hidden beneath the floor of their century-old house, built by Judge John E. Canfield in 1910."

One mystery was solved, but another had been revealed by lifting up the old floorboards.

Kendle and his wife, Maria, often had wondered, during the five years they had lived in the old Canfield/Williams house on South First Street, what caused the odd bump in the living room floor. As they prepared the grand old house for sale, they decided to resolve the bump and lay carpet in the living room.

They were unprepared for the sight that met their eyes the morning of June 15. When Kendle lifted the floorboards, a huge cistern was revealed.

Cisterns were common in the days before city water became common. Many homes had a small cistern to catch rainwater for household use. Sometimes, several households shared a large cistern.

The one beneath the Marshalls' home has been measured at 18.3 feet deep. Shaped like a giant amphora, the Marshalls said they have heard it called a bottleneck cistern. It may have been built by German craftsmen in the late 1800s.

"I can't believe we've been walking over it these past few years," Maria said.

Maurine Liles and LaJuana Newnam-Leus, members of the Wilson County Historical Society, were on hand for the revelation. Both were amazed at the find.

Liles speculated that former Wilson County Judge John E. Canfield, who built the house in 1910, had it placed over the cistern to make it easier to provide indoor plumbing. Canfield's daughter, Kathleen, married Dr. Silas Williams. She lived in the house until she moved into a nursing home when she was in her 90s, Liles said. That was the end of one era and the beginning of another in the home's history.

The Marshalls moved to the area after living in California. Kendle and Maria had purchased property in Eagle Creek after visiting San Antonio on their honeymoon. They decided that, one day, they'd live here.

That day came four children and several careers later. Kendle was a high school history teacher, then an officer with the Long Beach, Calif., police department. Maria worked in real estate. Together, the two had been buying, rehabbing, and flipping houses. They had also owned several Thomas Kinkade galleries.

Kendle retired from the police department and they decided to move to Texas. Among his retirement gifts were a double-barreled shotgun and a riding mower.

"The guys figured I'd need them," Kendle said with a laugh.

The family bought a home outside Floresville and settled into their new lives, attending church and school, and rehabbing houses to sell. Maria opened and operated the Coffee & Creamery ice cream shop next to H-E-B for a short time.

They passed the Canfield house each Sunday on their way to church. One day, seeing people come out of the house, they stopped and discovered that Kathleen Williams' heirs were preparing for an estate sale.

On a whim, Maria asked if the house was for sale. Before they knew it, the Marshalls were the proud owners of a historic Floresville home.

Inside, "it was dated, but livable," Maria said. Outside, however, was a different story.

"It was like a jungle," Kendle said. Plants and shrubs hadn't been trimmed or cared for in some time.

Undaunted, the Marshalls set to work, taming the overgrown yard and settling into their new home. Over time, they became acquainted with some of the historic building's other occupants.

"We have a ghost cat," Cambria, 7, whispered.

"Our aunt said a striped cat slept next to her [in the guest bedroom] and we don't have a striped cat," added her older brother, Dawson, 11.

"Our grandma's afraid when she comes, because she stays in the 'ghost room,'" Colton, the oldest at 12, said. He said there's another ghost in the upstairs of the carriage house that sits behind their home.

Cambria likes the spookiness of the house. Her big sister, Carmella, 9 this month, agreed.

"I love the ghost cat!" she said.

Maria said they've found a few artifacts, such as a porcelain inkwell, a china doll, and other small items, while working on the house.

Now they're preparing to sell the house and move back to California. They have enjoyed living in the house and being surrounded by so much history, both at home and nearby, Maria said.

"I'm going to miss living so close to the Alamo," Colton said.

The Marshalls, avid fans of the Old West, have visited many Texas historical sites, including the Alamo, Goliad, San Jacinto, and Washington-on-the-Brazos, Kendle said.

They're going to miss the local history and their spacious home, with its quaint nooks and ethereal occupants.

Kendle is placing Plexiglass over the cistern, with a movable carpeted panel, so the new owners can marvel about the home's recently discovered oddity.

"The most fun has been the history of it," Maria said. "You couldn't build this house today if you wanted to, with all the craftsmanship. It's survived a lot. This house has a lot of character."

And characters, too, with the striped cat that jumps onto beds in the night and the ghost who walks the carriage-house floors ...

Judge John E. Canfield

John Edward Canfield was born in Goliad County on July 1, 1870.

He became a well-known attorney and served as a member of the Floresville City Council and the Floresville School Board before becoming Wilson County judge.

He was a member of the Kenedy Commandery Knights Templar, the Modern Woodmen of America, and the Alzafar Shrine Temple, and was a Scottish Rite Mason and an Odd Fellow. He served as a steward in the Floresville Methodist Church.

Judge Canfield died Nov. 11, 1924, and is buried in the Floresville City Cemetery.

Floresville Wilson County Texas Family ..... unearths cistern beneath living room in historic home

Wilson County News
July 21, 2010

By Nannette Kilbey-Smith

The circular saw blade whined as it cut through the floorboards of the Marshall home on South First Street. Kendle Marshall inched up the boards with the help of family friend Joseph Canady and gasped as daylight revealed what lay hidden beneath the century-old floor.