Thoughts and Ramblings: I saw Ozzy Osbourne in Beaumont and lived to tell the story; the Chambers House; Florence Stratton and Catherina Stengele.

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My taste in music has changed over 50+ years. I will say that I can listen to most things. In the 1970s, it was probably anything that my sisters listened to. Yeah, some Cliff Richard devil woman or Paul Revere and the Raiders. I remember a few things: taking a record player outside and listening to it while sitting in a lot, next to an ash tree that was struck by lightning twice within a year. History tells us that is odd, but that’s what happened. Not me sitting in a lot, but lightning striking a tree twice.

Blizzard of Oz

The first concert I attended was an English guy that had a band with a great guitarist named Randy Rhoads. He was a bit naughty and had a severe drug problem. In his stupor, he apparently enjoyed eating doves at the record label meetings. One time, one of his fans threw him a bat on stage, so in his element, he partook of this fowl delicacy. The publicity was enormous, but I’m sure that those rabies shots in the torso hurt. It was a great concert. There is footage of Randy Rhoads doing a sound check and an interview with the singer, Ozzy Osbourne, on YouTube. I’ll put the links for both videos below.

Randy died a month later in a plane crash, which I’ve always thought was a significant loss to music. Yes, Eddie Van Halen was doing similar things on the guitar, but Randy was classically trained and probably would have ventured further if he had had the chance. As far as Ozzy is concerned, he is still alive and remains healthy, while every other bandmate he has had is dying of some disease. I guess he’s well preserved.

Chambers House Museum

I started my journey through SETX history in 2012, and it’s been a treasure trove of information. I guess it started by clicking on a Chambers House Museum link on my computer. I will say that the Chambers House has always been my favorite museum in Beaumont, not because of the glorious richness in it, but for the simplicity it brings. This is the house where your grandma could have lived—not mine, because she was happy on 18th street in Port Arthur, near her church. But I’m sure that her five boys and one girl would have loved the room of a two-story house. Instead, they had to deal with a 600-sq. ft., two-bedroom one bath priced on Zillow at whoever knows nowadays. There are many unique sites to see there; if you know the stories, it’s even better.

Florence Stratton

I bring up the Chambers House because I need to shout out to Ginny, who used to work there. She was the one who introduced me to Florence Stratton in 2012, and boy, what an adventure it’s been. Florence intrigued me, so I spent ten years researching her. This is why I only post my Thoughts and Ramblings on Sunday mornings—as a tribute to her, because her Susie Spindletop Weekly Letter hit the pages of the Sunday Enterprise from February 28, 1926, to January 23, 1938. I’ve spent many hours (and dollars) researching her, and I can say that it’s been worth it for history on different fronts.

Another person who has intrigued me is Catherine Jeanette Stengele. I learned of her story from a friend while photographing headstones in Magnolia Cemetery. According to him, Catherina was a seamstress who saved all her money and who, upon her death, had paid for an impressive mausoleum as her final resting place. I found this story odd because a lowly seamstress would never make enough to afford a mausoleum that covers 12 plots. So, the research began.

Early Beaumont was home to an entrepreneur in the form of the Dutch-born youthful Miss Stengele. According to her naturalization form, she arrived in this country in 1884, spent a few years in Baltimore learning the millinery business, and then moved to Beaumont in the late 1880s. The form also shows that she was born on February 28, 1856, and not 1866, as stated on her mausoleum. (I suppose that some people need to hold on to their youth even in death.)

Miss Stengele was certainly competent in the world of business. As a single woman in the 1890s, she made a good living with her millinery business and other ventures in the financial and real estate sectors. She had the help of lawyers for living trust claims and property claims, which also seemed to work well for her. Miss Stengele was so successful in finance that she placed an ad in the Beaumont Journal in May 1899 stating that she was “Going to quit the business! I am going to quit the millinery business, and from the date will sell my entire stock at very low prices.”

Catherina Jeanette Stengele seemed to be a natural when it came to finance and the lending market. So much so that she quit her day job, so to speak. Her investments would even finance a return trip to Europe in 1901. See the article in the Beaumont Enterprise dated January 6, 1900.

You may notice the name Stengele Building highlighted in yellow above the article. Miss Stengele also owned a three-story brick building at 345 Pearl Street in Beaumont, which had housed her millinery shop as well as several of her tenants.

Although the records from 1900 until her death in 1909 tell the tale of a successful businesswoman, not every investment she made went according to plan. For instance, around 1905–1906, court proceedings show the bankruptcy of a rice farm in Langhorne in which she held a $20,000 stake.

In April 1909, Miss Stengele left Beaumont for Los Angeles because of an illness. An article from the Houston Post dated September 16, 1909, states that she “underwent two surgeries for appendicitis during the summer.” Unfortunately, Miss Catherina Jeanette Stengele passed away the day before the article was printed, on September 15, 1909.

I found a few articles from the Beaumont Journal that reviewed the highlights of her life and the aftermath of her death, but her will is undoubtedly of considerable interest. According to hearsay, she was at odds with one of her brothers and left him nothing, though technically that’s not true. Browsing through her will, I found that she did leave a detailed list of her heirs and her final wishes. Her wish for the St. Catherine of the Wheel statue was originally included in the first draft of her will in 1908, but the mausoleum was only added in May 1909. She had many family members, both locally and in Holland, to whom she bequeathed her wealth. Her assets were around $120,000. That’s the equivalent of $3.1 million today. Not too bad for a lowly seamstress—or should I say, a milliner?

Well, that’s it for this week, tot ziens!

Chambers House Museum: https://chambershouse.org/

Florence Stratton:

https://www.rediscoveringsetx.com/2017/03/21/a-brief-history-of-florence-stratton-part1/

https://www.rediscoveringsetx.com/2017/03/28/a-brief-history-of-florence-stratton-part2/

Thoughts and Ramblings: We need more Cleo Baltimore’s; Yes, I follow Bigfoot on Dishscapes; Mystery at Hardin County’s Museum; Isoroku Yamamoto in Orange County; Kichimatsu and Taro Kishi offer common sense to a troubled world war.

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Last week, I decided to treat myself to lunch because no one else offered. I went to Billy Joe’s BBQ in Port Neches. I remember my father bringing home plate lunches from there, as Billy Joe’s catered all overtime plate lunches to Jefferson Chemical (Indorama nowadays), and I’ve been hooked ever since. While waiting, I couldn’t help but see the framed newspaper articles on the walls honoring Cleo Baltimore. Until a few years back, if you drove down Magnolia Ave. in Port Neches or MLK in Beaumont, near Lamar University, you might have noticed a guy waving at everyone that drove by—Cleo. It was a simple gesture that meant a lot to many people. Most people who saw him would wave back and honk, acknowledging him. I remember a news reporter who passed down MLK daily and saw Cleo always sitting in front of his apartment and waving to everyone. When Cleo missed a few days because he was out of town, the reporter tracked him down to find out where he was. Again, that simple gesture of waving made a difference to people’s lives.

Photo credit: Port Arthur News

Cleo passed in 2017. He is still remembered by Billy Joe’s BBQ, which has created a scholarship in his name for Port Neches-Groves seniors who enroll in college. In these times of social media, we need to be more like Cleo Baltimore and less like West End Wanda, spewing her venom on Facebook.

Every once in a while, I turn on the TV instead of a computer. Yes, it’s mostly to know what Bigfoot is up to on Dishscapes (people who don’t have Dish won’t get this), or those Cordray kids making history together while restoring Galveston one house at a time. Sometimes I come across other interesting shows, such as Mysteries at the Museum on the Travel Channel. I know they did an episode on the Lucas Gusher at Spindletop, but they should have stayed and done a little digging up north in Hardin County, to be exact, at the Hardin County Museum in Kountze.

Photo credit: www.sfasu.edu

Renee Hart Wells told me this story while I was visiting the Museum a few years back. I’ll put the link to her article at the bottom of this blog (you need to read it!). The mystery concerns a WWII Bataan Death March Medal that was found on a Sour Lake School bus. Rebecca Hill, director of the Bertha Terry Museum, searched for the medal’s Hardin County owner for years, but to no avail. The mystery was finally solved when she brought it to the Museum of Hardin County, where someone looked at it and knew exactly where it came from. It was Grover Lee Will’s medal. Click on the link for the whole story. Better yet, visit the Museum of Hardin County and let Renee tell you the story.

Speaking of museums, the Paul Cormier Museum in Orangefield is definitely worth a visit. There are many interesting things to see at the museum; one item I found particularly fascinating was a photograph. This photograph is also on display at http://hirasaki.net/, which is a website that shares the family histories of Japanese rice farmers who relocated to the United States. Prominent families, such as the Kishi’s, Kondo’s, and Mayumi’s, moved to SETX in 1906 to farm rice. The Kishi’s came to Orange County, while the Mayumi’s and Kondo’s arrived in Fannett. At first, these families were not greeted well. Eventually, though, the locals got to know their new neighbors and warmed up to them.

The Mayumi’s continued to farm here until 1924. However, due to their mismanagement of the land (they didn’t use fertilizer and depleted the minerals in the soil) and the low price of rice, they decided to return to Japan. The Kishi’s, in contrast, stayed and prospered with another “crop” that was unexpectedly found in the ground—oil. With the discovery of oil on his farm, the family’s head, Kichimatsu, became a millionaire overnight and paid off all his debts to the farm’s investors.

The Kishi Family
Front row, left to right: Toki, Moto (wife of Hachitaro), Kichimatsu, Fuji, Taro;
back row: a maid, Hachitaro, Tora, and a cousin. Photo credit: hirasaki.net

In 1923, a boy from his hometown of Nagaoka came calling to see Kichimatsu’s oil derricks. It was Commander Isoroku Yamamoto. Kichimatsu had fought in the Russo-Japanese War with Yamamoto’s brother, Kihachi. The commander was in town with Katsunori Wakasa (an engineer), Commander Kaku of the Japanese Imperial Navy, and Admiral Kenji Ide. The three men were here to oil the fleet, so to speak. Japan was an ally of this country in WWI, but it was not allowed the same tonnage to build battleships as the US or Great Britain. However, the Japanese disregarded this limit and secretly transformed heavy cruisers into aircraft carriers, along with building the two largest battleships ever: the Yamato and the Musashi.

Kichimatsu and his family lived as American citizens, but after Pearl Harbor, he knew that anti-Japanese sentiment would reach its peak. So, that Monday, he turned himself into the FBI in Port Arthur. I guess that’s what you do when you have no idea what just happened but you know how people will react. He spent two months in an internment camp but was released after his hearings because, according to his son Taro, he answered all the questions correctly.

Here is a question the authorities asked Kichimatsu: “If the Emperor ordered you to bomb the oil refinery in Port Arthur, would you do so?”.

Kichimatsu’s response: “First, I am a farmer and businessman and know nothing about explosives. Suppose I was adopted into another family and my biological parent ordered me to harm my adopted family. I could not do so.”

Mic drop!

I have a lot to rant about rounding up US citizens, but I will pass on it here. However, if you see me in person, just ask!

I doubt that Steve M. King, the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas who presided over Kichimatsu’s hearing, knew about the visit by the Imperial Japanese Navy’s representatives back in 1923 and 1924. To my knowledge, there were no more visits during the next 17 years.

I will also state that Taro Kishi’s initial plea to form an Asian-American regiment to show their patriotism in fighting the aggressors was a sign of this family’s loyalty to this country.

Well, that’s it for this week. Be more like Cleo, Kichimatsu, and Taro, and the world will be a better place. Ciao

Museum Mystery by Rene Hart Wells : 

https://www.sfasu.edu/heritagecenter/9329.asp

Dishscapes:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/949470342304306

Kishi Colony:

http://hirasaki.net/Family_Stories/Kishi_Colony/Kishi.htm

Madeline Khan; Remley- Hillebrand and LeBlue Cemeteries; Fatima Sing Hpoo; Wong Shu; Dissing Arthur, and was Mark Wiess a Brownie?

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Smaun and Fatima Sing Hpoo

I’m tired! Not Madeline-Kahn-Blazing-Saddles tired, but tired all the same. Work life and air-conditioned research life are at odds, but we will work through the dilemma, as work life pays for research life.

Remley-Hillbrand Cemetery

During the ongoing Texas Historical Commission cemetery inventory project, we’ve updated the names of known cemeteries in Jefferson County. One problem is when you know of a cemetery that has been bulldozed over the years, and there is no record of its removal. Frankly, there is no record because the bodies were never removed. In Port Neches, W.T. Block wrote of one, and I believe him. I’ll link his article at the bottom of this blog. In the article, you can tell he was ticked off. The Remley-Hillebrand cemetery, located on the Southeast corner of the Dearing and Rachford Streets intersection, was bulldozed and concreted in the ‘40s. W.T. noticed this after he returned from serving in the army during World War II.

This is more common than you think. Remember when I mentioned the fire station on College Street? It was built on land used as a burial ground during the Civil War and following yellow fever deaths. Also, let’s mention Le Blue Cemetery. You can pass over that on past Parkdale Mall, between Dupont Credit Union and Spell Cemetery. Most likely, Le Blue was a part of Spell Cemetery, but it was paved over with no record of removal of the residents. Now you know that when traveling over the LNVA canal toward Lumberton, you are driving through the hallowed ground; hold your breath and hope the residents don’t grab your feet!

One person that is a regular on our Magnolia Cemetery tour is Fatima Sing Hpoo. If you search this name on Google, you’ll see many photos of a Burmese woman who visited Beaumont in December of 1902 but passed away in the Crosby Hotel on December 30th. She was part of a team with her brother, Smaun, both of whom were involved in a show completing gymnastic feats, and the billing stated they were the perfect humans but smaller. Fatima was 22 years old, was 28 inches tall, and weighed in at 15 pounds, and Smaun wasn’t any different in height or weight. The day after, the advertisement in the Beaumont Journal read that Smaun would perform alone. We don’t know where Fatima is buried in Magnolia Cemetery, but we tell her story to keep her name alive.

Another story from inside Magnolia’s borders is that of Wong Shu. I will state that there is a headstone with a “roof” of Asian design near Brakes Bayou. It was always a mystery concerning to whom it belonged, because the writings are Chinese characters. Could it be Fatima? No, because the headstones are distinctly different between Myanmar (Burma) and China. The written characters are different as well. So, a few years back, Mr. Don Smart found an article in the Beaumont Enterprise about a Cantonese sailor who drowned in the Neches. He sailed on the Standard Oil Company tanker Santana. The ship had been docked in Beaumont for some time, on hiatus because of the volatility of the Mexican oil trade. I’ll put his story below. I am almost sure it’s his headstone, but we must do the rubbings and translate.

Thinking about Arthur Stilwell, he was a bit all hat and no cattle. He talked a good game, but if it wasn’t for Bet-A-Million Gates, Port Arthur would have never been built. I’m sure the Scottish Brownies would confirm this, but I’m certain they’re still mad at me for calling them English Faeries in my last blog on Arthur. I do know when I wrote the first draft of “Under the influence of Brownies,” it just disappeared from my computer. Now I know not to engage in politics, especially concerning Scottish and English spiritual entities.

Should I dare call the Brownies’ Mark Wiess, because that’s who tipped off Arthur about buying the land in Port Arthur instead of the Sabine Pass. Those Sabine Pass characters were greedy, and Arthur was a shyster who drafted his books after the fact, but I have no skin in the game, so I will post the links at the bottom of the page.

Like I said, I’m tired, so I’ll leave you fatigued from work life. I would rather be tired from research life, but that won’t happen. Cheerio!

Wong Shu :

https://www.rediscoveringsetx.com/2017/01/03/the-uninvited-guests-the-funeral-of-wong-shu/

Arthur Stilwell: https://www.rediscoveringsetx.com/2016/02/17/under-the-influence-of-brownies/

Mark Wiess, Not Brownies, Told Stilwell Where to Build by Judith Linsley: https://www.sfasu.edu/heritagecenter/9328.asp

W.T. Block:

http://www.wtblock.com/wtblockjr/smith.htm

Thoughts and Ramblings: Books, Books, and More Books; The Tyrrell Historical Library; W.C. Tyrrell, and Remembering Dave

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Tyrell Historical Library

I just finished a couple of books from Ray E. Boomhower—no, not Boomhauer, the guy from the King of the Hill tv show. I discovered him thanks to an interview on the World War II podcast. Both books are excellent and full of information on what a war correspondent and a soldier went through. Dispatches from the Pacific: The World War II reporting by Robert L. Sherrod and Richard Tregaskis: Reporting under fire from Guadalcanal to Vietnam are right in my wheelhouse of World War II history because they leave the John Wayne-style propaganda out of it. If you add Eugene Sledge’s books, With the old Breed and China Marine, you will truly learn what journalists and soldiers endured during and after the war.

Listen Closely Podcast

Speaking of podcasts, I’ve been enjoying one for the past few weeks, and it’s local. If you’re into podcasts and history, you need to Listen Closely. The Listen Closely podcast is based in Hardin County and is worth your time. Their latest episode is about Beaumont’s own Rita Ainsworth. Other episodes include Arthur Stilwell and my favorite, Olive Texas. I will put the link below.

The Tyrrell Historical Library has always been an excellent place for research. Originally, it was an old Baptist Church, but W.C. Tyrrell bought it and turned it into a library for the city of Beaumont—a true act of philanthropy.

W.C. Tyrrell photo credit: SFASU.edu

Some may recognize W.C. Tyrrell as a prominent name in Beaumont. Captain Tyrrell was born in Pennsylvania in 1847 but moved to Iowa with his family at the age of seven. During his youth, he worked on his family’s farm, which readied him for his business ventures. In 1867, he married Helen Rodrick and started his own farm. He accumulated land and led a prosperous life in Iowa. In 1898, Tyrrell came to Port Arthur to purchase more land. He eventually settled in Beaumont, becoming very wealthy through his investments in the oil industry and other ventures.

As I mentioned, Captain Tyrrell was known for his philanthropy. After Port Arthur was flooded in the 1915 hurricane, he sent 8,000 loaves of bread to the victims. In 1920, he donated 500 acres of land for a park. Tyrrell Park was born. In 1923, he bought the building vacated by the First Baptist Church and donated it to the city of Beaumont for a library in his wife’s memory. Captain Tyrrell also mandated that service be extended to black patrons, so a branch was opened in the Charlton-Pollard High School.

Over the years, I have accumulated many regional books about SETX history. The price varies from book to book, and I will add that most were not cheap, but they are a good source of information for my research. Some of my favorites are the pictorial editions. I can and do spend hours staring at old photos. The Port Arthur and Nederland Centennial history books were done very well, along with Beaumont: A Pictorial History by John Walker and Gwendolyn Wingate, Beaumont: A Chronicle of Promise by Judith Walker Linsley and Ellen Walker Rienstra, and Beaumont 175 presented by the Beaumont Enterprise. I also can’t leave out Hardin County: A Pictorial History by Renee Hart Wells and Hardin County Timeless Treasures by Renee Hart Wells and Nancy Brooks Thompson.

I believe the Port Arthur Centennial books are still available at the Museum of the Gulf Coast, and the Nederland Centennial book was at the Windmill on Boston Avenue. To get the others, you may have to go on eBay or an online vintage bookseller. I’ve put the links for the ones I’ve used at the end of this blog.

That’s it for this week, so I’ll leave you with this post from a 27-year-old guy I knew from Houston, whom I consider a rock star just for being himself. He hated Facebook and was strictly on Google+. He posted this a couple of weeks before he had a cardiac arrest and passed away. After ten years, he is still missed because his words are still relevant. RIP Dave, and sorry for posting this on Facebook.

“If there’s something you’ve been meaning to do for a while, start planning to get it done. If there’s something you don’t want to do – find an honorable way to stop doing it. If someone needs something and you like them and you can more than afford it (and they’re not a needy do-nothing)… give it to them. And for gods’ sake – don’t forget to tell people how much you value them before they keel over and die. Funerals are not a particularly useful time to tell someone how much they meant to you. I notice most people’s fears about death have more to do with regrets than anything else.” – Dave Grega

Listen Closely Podcast: https://www.facebook.com/HTTLISTENCLOSELY

Beaumont 175: The Shops of Midtown @ 3145 Calder Ave Beaumont Texas

Ebay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/223464094365

Abe Books: https://www.abebooks.com/

Museum of Hardin County 830 S. Maple St., Kountze, Texas 77625

Museum of the Gulf Coast 700 Procter St, Port Arthur, TX 77640

Dutch Windmill Museum 1500 Boston Ave, Nederland, TX 77627

Reenactors; the Historic Magnolia Cemetery Tour Part Deux; Orlo Greeves; Hubert Oxford; and no reference whatsoever to Star Wars people.

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Dick Dowling Days 2013

Watching the Kate Dorman Scenario video that I uploaded to YouTube from the 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Sabine Pass brought back many memories last week. I hadn’t watched it in ages. The year in question (2013) was special because of many people who planned the event behind the scenes. It was a big deal as most battles were recognized and promoted. At the time, I was learning photography and filming. I was not an expert, but I did what I could for those who would be interested in the future.

Ron Strybos and Darlene Mott Dick Dowling Days 2012

One thing I will say about reenactors is that if you want to know the reality and life of a period, you need to talk to a reenactor and not a historian. I know many reenactors, and I am blown away by how much research these men and women do. They also volunteer their time to teach us about interesting stuff.

A few weeks ago, I mentioned Earl Keith, who passed in September 2021. Ron Strybos, who portrayed Colonel Crocker in the video, was a great reenactor, actor, and all-around good guy. He also reenacted at the Battle of San Jacinto in April. This is one event that I wanted to see him in, but I couldn’t; either I was working or the grounds were flooded that year. Ron passed in June of 2021. I wasn’t close to these men, but dammit, it hurts when you lose two people who gave everything for historic preservation and education. Many other reenactors have left us over the past year, and we will miss them all.

The Historic Magnolia Cemetery Tour Part Deux is in the works. I can’t help but recall the planning of a Cemetery Tour in 2017 that never happened because of Hurricane Harvey. Things were getting a little like Game of Thrones. He killed this guy by accident but was murdered 13 years later by his incompetent friend. Some of this research will be on display on our next tour, but I do want to say that our tour is educational; it is not a ghost tour, as the Beaumont CVB put it. I’m glad that the Beaumont CVB has since updated their website and does not mention us at all. I find things like this hilarious because I make zero dollars from this blog, but some of the people at these local websites have a salary and they haven’t updated the sites in four years. And now, with the rant done, I want to get into the weeds.

Orlo G. Greeves

Someone once asked me who these people were and how they could afford these big mausoleums. They were looking at the Greeves Mausoleum, not too far from Rush B. and Aurelia Norvell’s Mausoleum near the office. I have researched both Rush B.and his wife, Aurelia. In 2017, I looked into Orlo G. Greeves and found that this impressive mausoleum was erected after his death in December of 1920.

Orlo George Greeves was born in Orange County in 1887, but most of his early years were spent in Beaumont. He attended the Peacock Military Academy in San Antonio for a short time, then left the city to go to the Texas Agricultural and Mechanical College (Texas A&M).

In 1905, Greeves returned to Beaumont and entered the business world with a job at the Lumber Machine and Equipment Company. In his obituary, it was noted that the company “has grown until it is one of the largest of its kind in the South.” He was also a director of the Texas Bank & Trust Company and the former president and vice-president of the Beaumont Baseball Association, along with many other civic and business interests.

Unfortunately, Mr. Greeves met his end while hunting near Raywood, in Liberty County, with his friend Hubert B. Oxford, who was married to Sibbie Van Wormer’s daughter Sadie. As the story goes, both men were walking back from a hunt to a friend’s home one Sunday evening when Hubert’s shotgun accidentally discharged, killing Greeves instantly. Oxford managed to carry Greeves’s body for a few feet, then summoned friends from the house to help. The sheriff and the coroner were called, and an inquest was held. The death was ruled an accident.

I believe this was true, not because all of his descendants are lawyers, but because accidents happen—I guess. Unfortunately for Hubert, thirteen years later, he was at the beach and a friend who always needed money shot him in cold blood. All the facts are available in Beaumont Enterprise records. A hundred people got subpoenaed for that trial, even Florence Stratton.

Well, I got through this blog without any references to Star Wars. I’ll give it a rest for this week, but I think that my other interests, including Kaiju (Godzilla) and anime (Sword Art Online) for the gen z’s, will trickle in. Sayonara.

Thoughts and Ramblings: Hurakan Season begins, Miss Jack McDonough, Anahuac, Mr. Austin, or Mr. Crowley

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T.J. Chambers House Anahuac Texas

As I mentioned last week, hurricane season officially began on June 1st, sending me to HEB and Market Basket to stock up on several necessities. I currently have ample stocks of Chef Boyardee Spaghetti & Meatballs and Dinty Moore Beef Stew. What’s not well-stocked is the strategic fuel reserve, and I cringe every time I’m at the pump. Hopefully, Jim Cantore and Hurakan will spare us this year.

Around this time, I usually think of Miss Jack McDonough, Postmistress of Sabine Pass (1885–1886). Her memorial is located in Magnolia Cemetery behind the firefighters’ plot. She perished on October 12, 1886, in Sabine Pass. According to family lore, she met her end after refusing to leave the post office until she counted the money and put it in a bag to take with her. Jack’s father, mother, brother, and nephew used a small boat to try to rescue her. As the father and the brother pushed the boat along, it overturned, and Miss Jack, her mother, and nephew were lost to the waves. The bodies of Adalissa (the mother) and Benjamin Foley (the nephew) were recovered, but Jack’s never was. Adalissa and Benjamin are buried in Sabine Pass Cemetery, along with many others who shared the same date. Jack’s father, Benjamin F. McDonough, survived but died two years later in Wallis, Texas. Her brother, Andrew McDonough, also survived; he erected the stone memorial to his beloved sister at Magnolia Cemetery. Their stories are also interesting, but that’s for another time.

It’s been a while since I’ve gone to Anahuac. I’ve passed it on my way to Houston, but to see a few hidden gems, you need to get off the eternal construction zone that the powers that be refer to as Interstate 10. My last trip was around Christmas 2012 when I visited the area with a friend I would call a Texas Historian, Charles Irwin. He has written a few books on Texas history, which I believe are still available for purchase at the Museum of the Gulf Coast in Port Arthur. I have more info about this at the bottom of the page. We visited Heritage Park in Wallisville and had some interesting conversations, then passed the Archie and Effie Middleton House (circa 1906). I would love to tour this house, but it was privately owned at the time. After stopping at a historic cemetery, we visited the Chambers County Historical Commission Museum. More engaging conversations ensued, but the main reason for the visit was the T.J. Chambers House.

A year before, I had taken a different street when leaving work and noticed this glorious upper window that both Stephen F. Austin and Aleister Crowley would approve of. It was definitely made in honor of the Lone Star of Texas, but the Thelemic crowd would also look at it in awe. We were fortunate to have the house opened on our visit, and it was a great experience. All the vintage furniture and the Christmas theme were perfect at the time. The story and tragic murder of T.J. Chambers are also worth hearing. This area played an important part in Texas history. It was the site of the first armed confrontation between the Anglo-Texan and Mexican troops in June 1830. The bluff where Fort Anahuac was built and defended was a site where immigrants were required to pay taxes upon arrival! (In Texas, that did not go well).

I will say this about Charles Irwin: he taught me a lot about Texas history. Yes, I knew the basics from school, but I don’t recall learning that Texas had a navy. Yes, they were poor and couldn’t pay their shipyard repair bill in the New Orleans drydocks, but Sam Houston did a pretty good job of getting things in order in the end. Or was that Stephen F. Austin? Both men are well represented in my files of Southeast Texas history, as they should be. Heck, Florence Stratton was even related to SFA by the marriage of a cousin and some fuzzy math that I don’t want to get into right now. Only the Bryan family could explain it, and this is why I need to visit the Bryan Museum in Galveston.

The memorial service at Magnolia Cemetery that we held the Saturday before Memorial Day went well. I was very impressed with all who participated—especially the young scouts and the color guard. It gives me hope for the future. I know from a reliable source that this was the first time that a Memorial Day service was performed in Magnolia Cemetery. Things are looking up, and it won’t be the last one.

We are also planning on identifying all the veterans in the cemetery. This is called the Historic Magnolia Cemetery Veteran Recognition Project. It is a massive undertaking since the cemetery has around 30,000 residents. If you have family in Magnolia and they served, please get in touch with us.

rediscoveringsetx@gmail.com

Well, that’s it for this week. Go visit Anahuac, whether you’re on the SFA bandwagon or in Crowley’s bunch.

Miss Jack McDonough:

https://www.rediscoveringsetx.com/2017/02/21/tales-from-hallowed-ground-miss-jack-mcdonough/

Rediscovering Anahuac/Wallisville:

https://www.rediscoveringsetx.com/2012/12/31/rediscovering-anahuac-wallisville/

Chambers County:

https://wallisvillemuseum.com/

Charles Irwin’s books:

Charles Irwin

Unheralded Texas Heroes ISBN: 9781935377009

The Creed Taylor Story ISBN 978-1-4675-4458-0

Peerless Texas Empresarios ISBN 978-1-4675-4760-4

Benjamin Franklin Highsmith (Alamo Courier 1836) ISBN 978-1-4675-8482-1

https://www.museumofthegulfcoast.org/museumofthegulfcoast

Memorial Day

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Memorial Day is a time to reflect on peace and honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice in the service of our country. The origins of this holiday go back to the Civil War, when it was known as Decoration Day.

The official National Decoration Day is said to have begun on May 5, 1868, when General John A. Logan declared the date would be observed as a national holiday. In the South, however, many local ceremonies had already begun in 1866. For example, I found one reference to a group of women from Columbus, Mississippi, who on April 25, 1866, visited a cemetery to honor and decorate the graves of the Confederate soldiers who had died at the Battle of Shiloh. When they saw the bare graves of the Union soldiers, these women decided to place flowers also upon them.

Through the years, people used this day to tend to their family’s plots. They would clean their area since most cemeteries back then were not cared for by staff. They had picnics and spent time remembering their loved ones, which is a tradition I love.

In 1966, Lyndon B. Johnson declared Waterloo, New York, as the birthplace of Memorial Day because on May 5, 1866, people there honored “local veterans who had fought and died in the Civil War.”

No matter when it started or who started it, we all know the meaning of this day: to honor those who fought and died for our freedom. Thanks to their sacrifice, we stand here today and celebrate them on the beaches, at BBQs, and in many other places. They are our family and our heroes, and we remember them now and forever.

Thoughts and Ramblings: Scary Trees, Kishi Colony, Lucian Adams, and a Rant

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I believe we’ve lost a few friends. If you’ve ever traveled down Highway FM 105, west of FM 1442 in Orange County, you might have seen some odd old trees. They looked like they would be perfectly at home on Almira Gulch’s land in Kansas/Oz, ready to grab Dorothy and her little dog “too.” I love Margaret Hamilton. They were Camphor trees planted by Toraichi Kishi, brother of Kichimatsu Kishi, who immigrated from Japan to farm rice. These trees were registered with the Texas Forest Service at some point, and according to the TAMU website, one of them was on the Texas Big Tree Registry. Now, only one colossal tree is left. The others sadly succumbed to the freeze of February 2021. These trees were apparently planted in the 1910s.

Growing up, we had a Camphor tree. When I was 7 years old, the plant was my link to traveling the seas on a boat called the Westwind. Thinking back, I have little knowledge of the TV show, but I do know that my Camphor tree smelled better than that yacht from the 1970s.

Speaking of the Kishis, a few years back, I came across a scrapbook filled with newspaper articles from the 1940s at an estate sale in Port Neches. Its owner, Miss Davis, kept many articles leading up to and during the war. One was a Beaumont Enterprise article about a young man named Taro Kishi, an American born into a family of Japanese descendants (a Nisei). His words in the article spoke of patriotism and wanting to fight against the aggressors of the United States. Still, the U.S. military was not recruiting Japanese Americans at this point. Eventually, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team was formed with Japanese Americans and fought in the Italy campaign.

As I mention the history of WWII and the Italy campaign, I have to bring up Lucian Adams from Port Arthur. He was one of twelve siblings: nine boys and three girls. Eight of the boys served during the war, and fortunately, all of them returned home. Lucian carried out many heroic acts. The first one was during the landing at Anzio, where he knocked out an enemy machine-gun position, leading his unit to advance. Lucian earned a Bronze Star for this. During another campaign in France, he knocked out three machine-gun nests all by himself, two using grenades and the other one with his Browning Automatic Rifle. For this, he received the Medal of Honor. There go a couple of tales from my “Greatest Generation file”—because they were our greatest generation!

I’ve volunteered for many organizations and will continue to do so in the future, but I am a bit irked at a few non-profits in our area. In the past, I’ve had a couple of bad experiences with these Wine and Cheese factories that communicate nice messages about supporting “our history” but treat their volunteers like cannon fodder. Admittedly, the organizations I refer to have gotten rid of the people in charge at the time, but I still have no desire to become one of their winos. I will not mention the organizations here, but if you ever see me out on the street, I would love to tell you about the dark side of this history.

My real gripe here is that someone takes time out of their life to help your non-profit, and you, as the organizer, are being well compensated. I do believe these people should be paid, but please treat your (unpaid) volunteers with respect, and know that if it weren’t for them, your organization would cease to exist. Treat us right, and we will come; treat us wrong, and you will die a horrible death.

Well, I had a whole other rant about volunteers being given a 3×5 card of historical information, but low and behold, I was just emailed three pages of facts about the house I’ll be volunteering at. I like whoever is the powers that be currently. Things are looking up. Hope to see you in Galveston this week and next. Even you, Wanda. Just wear comfy shoes. No heels!

48th Annual Galveston Historic Homes Tour

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1874 Robert and Ellen Hughes House

What a day taking the 48th Annual Galveston Historic Homes Tour; all I can say is booties, booties, and more booties. No, I wasn’t at the beach, but we did visit all nine homes yesterday. There were some fantastic homes this year, which is why I think that this was the Year of Bootie. Five houses, including the cover house, required barefootin’ or using booties. This slowed the flow in some homes, but I wouldn’t let that deter you from having a peek inside these beautiful structures.

Old City Cemetery

After a mandatory trip to Old City Cemetery, our first stop was the jewel of this year’s tour, the 1874 Robert and Ellen Hughes House. As expected, the lines were long, but the flow was good. I arrived about twenty minutes before the tour started, and I was in the sixth group of the morning. To put that into perspective, there were twelve people in a group. This is truly a must-see home. In the future, there may even be a way to spend the night in this treasure. The structure is a work in progress six years in the making, and it will eventually become a bed in breakfast.

Second on the list was the 1897 August J. Henck Cottage, where we experienced probably the longest wait time. The main reason is the small size of the property and the single staircase to access different parts of it. Like the cover house, this is a must-see, but know that booties are involved and the lines may be long. I suggest an early visit to this one.

We arrived at the 1931 Dr. Albert and Willie Dean Singleton House around noon. (Did I mention that eight of the nine houses have working ACs? All the porch docents did. Yes!) It was a pleasure to tour this gem without wait or booties.

The rest of the tour flowed smoothly for the most part. Our fourth stop, the Stubbs- Garrigan Bungalow, had no wait at all. It is located away from the other homes, so I guess this played a role. It’s a beautiful house that I could see myself relaxing in on weekends.

Number five was the 1906 Romanet-Glenn House. I enjoyed all the information the docents gave us here. They did an excellent job—the same goes for the 1894 Adolph and Augusta Helmann Cottage and the 1896 Oscar and Mary Walker House. You will need to wear booties for both these properties. The 1896 Walker House had long lines all day, but it’s worth a visit. However, it may be haunted! (I heard that while waiting in line.)

The eighth stop, the 2020 Magruder Cottage, was a head-scratcher. New construction on a historic homes tour? There were a few minutes of wait because the house is 1,000 square feet, and only six people can go in at once. I really enjoyed this one. It is not often that the owners, who are also the builders/designers, give the tour. This is the first-ever new construction on the historic homes tour. The reason is probably that the couple has remodeled around twenty houses in Galveston over the years. The property was built to be a traditional Galveston raised cottage. A lot of antiques and reclaimed wood were used in the construction. The owners made the floor with reclaimed Red Oak, White Oak, and Maple. I love this property, but feng shui people beware: it is a shotgun house!

Our last stop was the 1866 Thomas and Frances Blythe House—a restoration in progress. This property is similar to The French House in Beaumont, Texas. I say this because of the odd dog trot middle that it may once have had. Anyway, I hope to see this one after it’s finished.

Well, that’s it for now. Enjoy the tour. It was a long day but worth every minute of it. And there was no wait on the ferry! I must be living right.

Galveston’s Historic Homes Tour

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What you need to know

The Galveston Historic Homes Tour begins next week, and I am ready! I hope you are too and look forward to seeing you there. Here I want to offer a few tips on tour etiquette that will make your visit much more pleasant.

  1. Each ticket is valid for one visit to every house on both weekends. If you can go both weekends, taking the tour with family and friends is a great experience. However, if you only have one weekend or even only one day, then it is better to take the tour with no more than three people. Long lines can be an obstacle. One year I took the opening day tour solo, and there was a point when I passed in front of 14 people because they only had enough room for one more person in the group.
  2. Some of the houses are in the same neighborhood, so have a plan to park centrally. You will be able to walk to multiple places without wasting time looking for a parking spot to the various destinations.
  3. NO HEELS! I should have put this up top. This is the one thing I’ve never understood. Why would someone wear heels on a home tour that involves walking upstairs and on lovely restored floors? If you do wear heels, you’ll end up walking through some stranger’s house shoeless. There was an instance when a homeowner had their beautiful restored floor damaged by someone who chose not to wear comfortable shoes. The money raised by the tour paid for the floor to be restored once more.
  4. Booties! Speaking of shoes, it is always inevitable to have one house on the tour that doesn’t want West End Wanda prancing around in heels or people walking on their newly restored floors. I get it, restoration is expensive! But then why have your home on the tour? Anyway, I digress. This will undoubtedly slow down the number of people taking the tour. So, there may be some waiting time.
  5. In popular homes, such as the cover house, it may be better to visit at the opening, during lunchtime, or near the last tour (6 p.m.). I’ve found that these times have fewer lines.
  6. Volunteers. Most of the people checking your ticket, selling you the excellent wares that the Galveston Historical Foundation (GHF) has to offer, and who are stationed throughout the property are all volunteers. This means they are not getting paid. The white shirt-black pants army is there to keep the tour rolling and help you visit these beautiful homes. I say this because when you find yourself in a line, know that most of these people are doing the best they can to give you a great experience. Concerning the historical knowledge of these places, I am looking forward to seeing what the GHF will offer its volunteers. One year, I volunteered to be a docent on the front porch and all I got was a 3 x 5 index card of information. I’ll get into this next week.
  7. Visit the City Cemetery! The wildflowers are lovely and a great photo opportunity for photographers.
  8. Make sure to look for the cemetery tours hosted by Kathleen Maca. They sell out fast! The reason is that she is a great storyteller and has written several books on Broadway’s prominent cemetery.
City Cemetery

Until next week, I bid you adieu! And remember, no heels!