Some Sugar Land Kids At Play in the 1950s

I created this short video from home movies (Kellys, Lairds & Sheltons). You'll see some Sugar Land kids enjoying life in their home town.

Link to YouTube video.

Shelton Home Movies of a Combined Church Vacation Bible School & Picnic

This video comes from the Herb & Mary Shelton family, long time-residents of Sugar Land. It shows a combined Methodist & Presbyterian Church vacation Bible school & church picnic held sometime in the mid-1950s. I've posted pieces of the video of the church picnic, but I've included more footage. The VBS footage is all new.

The digitization comes from a VCR copy, so the resolution isn't as good as it could be. At some point, the Sheltons will have a digitization made directly from the original film. We may be able to pick out more people then, but if you think you recognize anyone now, feel free to send me a note.

Many thanks to the Shelton family for letting post this.

Link to video on YouTube

A History of M. R. Wood School

Ella Jenkins Patterson sent me this brief history of M. R. Wood School. Ella was a member of the last class to graduate from M. R. Wood in 1965. Later that fall Fort Bend ISD schools integrated & all high school students in the district went to Dulles.

The author of this history is Mrs. Jean Sampson Johnson. I don't have an exact date, but I think she must have written it in the 1980s or sometime after. My thanks go to Ella for sending this to me.

The Marshall Canning Company of Texas, Sugar Land, Texas

This picture shows the Marshall Canning Company of Texas sometime in the 1930s. The building stood on the northwest corner of Main & Sugar Land streets. (Sugar Land Street is now named Kempner Street.) It's called Marshall Canning Company of Texas because headquarters were in Marshalltown, Iowa.

I'm not certain about the business arrangement between Marshall Canning & the Sugarland Industries, but it was a co-operative one. The plant processed vegetables grown by Sugarland Industries.

This building was originally the Sealy Mattress Company site. When the Sealy franchise in Sugar Land ended, Marshall Canning moved in. They moved to another building a few hundred feet north on the east side of Main in the mid-1950s.

I can barely remember the building in this picture. I think they'd taken the galleries off the front of the building on the left, and they may have changed the gables on the roof. All I can remember distinctly is the building seemed to be filled with lights when they operated at night. I remember seeing very bright lights through the many windows on the various floors. I recall it was noisy & seemed like a bee-hive of activity.

(Update) I forgot to say this picture plus explanatory text appears in the pictorial history entitled: "Images of America: Sugar Land." (See the info in the left-hand column of the first page of this blog, if you're interested in a copy.)

The Old Power Plant & The Sealy Mattress Factory

The first photo shows what I believe to be the first Power Plant in the Imperial Sugar Refinery. (I'm not certain how the Cunningham Sugar Co. generated power. When Imperial was re-organized from the Cunningham Co., it may have inherited an earlier power plant than this one. ) The building is still standing to the west of Main & just across Oyster Creek from the Imperial Refinery site. I think the developers intend to use this building in their redevelopment plans.

Note the signage painted on the smoke stack. I'm certain the stack was part of the Imperial Power Plant, although it advertised the Sealy Mattress Company, whose building is just out of view behind-and-to-the-right of the Power Plant. (See the blog entry above for a picture of the building.)

Sugar Land had the first Sealy Mattress manufacturing franchise. It's an interesting story. I've included an ad that must date sometime between 1915 & 1925, give or take a few years. I don't know anything about the magazine (The FRA), but note the Sugar Land address for the company.

Cleveland Lake Before WWI

I don't have a date for this photo, but I'm sure it was taken well-before the 1920s when the Kempners & W. T. Eldridge began modernizing Sugar Land. (That modernization included dredging Oyster Creek & other prominent bodies of water in Sugar Land, like Cleveland Lake.) I think the current location of the Wood Street bridge (in front of the Auditorium) is just to the right of this view. The houses (seen faintly on the horizon) are on 2nd Street. They may not be permanent structures -- they may have been elaborate tents or light, wooden shacks with canvas roofs. All this is conjecture on my part.

Snow Falls In Sugar Land from 1940 to 1973

I thought this was a good time to post an entry about Sugar Land's brushes with snow storms over the years. The first link below lists official snow falls in this area since 1895. You'll see that the first one was a doozy - 20". The first one in my life time was in 1958. I was excited about it because I'd never seen snow, but there wasn't enough to cover the ground. My first big storm was on February 12, 1960. It was a Friday and we had our Valentine's Day party at school. It began snowing in the afternoon and continued through the night.

We had plenty to play in the next day, as you can see from the pictures in the photo album. I'm not real happy with Picassa's approach to photo albums, but it'll have to do for now. I have a 1-1/2 minute video of a brief snow in the winter of 1963, I think. It may have been 1964, but my best guess is 1963. The banner year was 1973, when we had 3 snow falls. Unfortunately, I have just one picture from those snow storms.

My thanks to the Helmcamp, James & Laperouse families for sharing these photos. Note the detailed annotations Boots Helmcamp put on his photos. Great stuff.

Link to Weather Research Centers List of Houston Snow Falls

Link to Photo Album of Snow Falls in Sugar Land

America's Got Talent, 1950s Style

My aunt sent me this video link to acrobat/comedian Larry Griswold's performance on Frank Sinatra's television show that aired on November 13, 1951. I thought it was amazing. (If the audience screams, it's got to be good.)

I don't think this kind of act still exists.

Imperial Sugar Bake It Forward Project

Imperial Sugar has launched a campaign to send baked goods to people who'd welcome a little sunshine. Here's the link to the Web site. All the info is there. They'll give you a tin which you can fill with cookies, etc. They'll send it to a deserving person(s). You can track it's progress to it's destination, which may be anywhere in the world. (Men & women serving in the armed services are among the recipients.)

Bake It Forward Web Page

Pappy O'Daniel & His Hillbilly Boys Radio Broadcast from 1939

I listen to a lot of old radio programs, but I hadn't found any of Pappy's noon-time programs until recently. This is a recording from 1939. Bob Wills & other prominent members of the Light Crust Doughboys had quit working for O'Daniel well before 1939, so this is another band O'Daniel formed to promote his Fort Worth-based flour company. If I've got my dates correct, Pappy was Governor of Texas while he did this show.

As a national magazine reporter wrote at the time: "At twelve-thirty sharp each day, a fifteen-minute silence reigned in the state of Texas, broken only by mountain music, and the dulcet voice of W. Lee O'Daniel."

One More Video About Imperial Refinery Implosion

I've included this video because it contains interview with the Mayor of Sugar Land, a descendant of I.H. Kempner, the director of the new Sugar Land museum, old timers like Connie Morales Meza (DHS '65) and Carol Goehring Terral (DHS '67), plus others. It's just 4-1/2 minutes long.

Robert Brandon's Photos of Prison Rodeo (1962) & Ship Channel Tower

Some of you who have Facebook accounts may have seen these pictures Robert Brandon posted on his page. The first 4 pictures are slides his father took at the Texas Prison Rodeo in Huntsville in 1962.

I never got a chance to see this rodeo although I attended the Houston Fat Stock Show & Rodeo many times. I've shaken hands with Roy Rodgers, Gene Autry, Chuck Connors and who knows who else.



Here are Robert's comment about these photos: "Awhile back a barge knocked over a highline tower supporting a line across the Houston Ship Channel. I noticed this tower looked familiar and remembered some pictures a lineman I worked with had given me to scan. I thought I'd share them with all of you." Robert also commented that the lineman took these photos with a disposable camera, and Robert was NOT up on the tower with these guys.

Billy Cason, SLHS '54

Many of you know that Billy Cason died last month. I didn't know till recently he won the first Kempner Scholarship awarded in the spring of 1954. I've posted an abbreviated newspaper article from an unknown paper. I've also posted scans of a more detailed Texas Coaster article. I thought the account of the ceremony and Mr. Louviere's speech was impressive.

My thanks to the H. L. Jenkins family for copies of these articles, and of course my condolences to the Cason family.

Mayfield Park Photos & Memorabilia

My thanks to Ella Jenkins Patterson (M.R. Wood '65) for providing me with the following 5 pictures of Mayfield Park history. Any pictures relating to M. R. Wood School are very hard to find. I know the Sugar Land Heritage Society would like to have copies for their collection. I'll be happy to arrange contacts if anyone has pictures or memorabilia to donate.

1. Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church Choir: Top row: Deacon H. L. Smith, Deacon Leon Weams, Brother Chester Harris, Brother Connie Upson, Brother Heywood Davis. Bottom row: Sister Lillian Matthews, Sister Essie Smith, Sister Doris Scott (pianist), Sister Ella B. Jenkins, Rev. Eddie Thomas (Pastor) , Sister Mae Esther Thomas (Pastor's wife) Sister L. W. Williams.



2. Rev. Eddie Thomas pastor's anniversary - 1980's. Note: September 2010 was Pastor Thomas' 49th year at Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church. People listed: Rev. C. G. Wilkins (speaker), Sister Ella B. Jenkins, Rev. Eddie Thomas (pastor), Sister Mae Esther Thomas (pastor's wife), Rev. Jewell Jenkins Sr. and Brenda Robinson (pianist). Note: Rev. & Mrs. Jewell Jenkins escorted the pastor and wife into the Church for the anniversary ceremony.



3. Class listing 1965 - the last class to graduate from the old M. R. Wood High School.



4. Two pages - May 1965 graduation program - noting Attorney Barbara Jordan as the Speaker.



5. M. R. Wood School in the 1940's, maybe. The lady on the top row behind the boys with the bats in their hands was Miss Annie Scott. She was the principal at that time. Note: M. R. Wood was grades 1 through 12 even in 1965.

Carlos Cantu Retires from Imperical Sugar in March, 1986

My thanks to Irene Cantu Amaro (DHS '71) who sent me this copy of the Imperial Crown. You'll see on page 5 that her father, Carlos Cantu, had just retired. Unfortunately, he died shortly afterward. These company newspapers are very interesting if you come from an 'Imperial family.' I recognize a lot of names and people in these photos.

Link to Imperial Crown for March, 1986

Priscilla Coleman Harden (DHS '68) May Be America's Worst Cook

Marsh Krause Smith (DHS '68) sent me a note a few weeks ago saying one of our Dulles classmates, Priscilla Coleman Harden, was a contestant on the Food Network's program, "America's Worst Cooks." (There's a link to the newspaper article below.) I thought this was a hoot because Priscilla sat right behind me in Mrs. McGinnis's home room for two years. I presume Bytherd Varnau would have a fit if she knew one of her girls was on a show like this.

I don't have cable television, so I haven't kept up with the competition. If you watch the Food Network and tune in to the show, vote early and often for Priscilla. (The bottom link will take you to the show's Web site.)

(Update) I got a note from Robert Brandon, also in the Class of '68, saying Priscilla was eliminated a few weeks ago. I guess you can view that as good bad news or good news.

Link to Houston Chronicle article about Priscilla Coleman Harden (DHS '68)

Link to Web Site for Food Network's America's Worst Cook

Mr. Earnest Retires

I found this article about Mr. Edward Earnest in Dot Hightower's files. (My thanks to her & Scotty for letting me scan it.) I don't know the date. The paper was obviously the FBISD in-house bulletin.

A few months ago I posted a brief history the Earnest children wrote about their parents. If you haven't read it yet, you may want to. It contains some interesting details about two educators who were very important to this area.

"Never Going To Leave"

I'm not certain when this article appeared or which paper it appeared in. Of course, I'm biased, but I liked what Dugan & Dot had to say.

Mirror Article on Sugar Land Parks, October 21, 1970

Here's an article from the Fort Bend Mirror published on October 21, 1970. The City of Sugar Land had recently announced the creation of two city parks, one just west of the Wood Street bridge on the north bank of Cleveland Lake and the other north of Kempner Stadium.

Both parks still exist. The park on 7th Street north of Kempner Stadium is a beehive of activity to this day with its athletic fields and swimming pool in virtually year-round use. (Not the pool, of course. No polar bears here in Sugar Land.)

Dulles Class of 1960 Online Album (revised)

I posted an earlier version of this several months ago. This has a few more pictures, plus images of a 1960 class ring and a charm. I'd never seen these before. In fact, I'd never seen a Dulles ring with a red stone. As I recall, the Class of '68 had two options: a blue stone or an onyx one. Everyone got a blue stone because the company rep said, "You don't want an onyx stone. It'll chip."

Thanks to B.J. Binford Pitts (DHS '61) for creating the album. I guess the Class of '60 needed a youngster to help them with this new technology.

50th Anniversary Reunion of Dulles Class of 1960