More News from 1919

Last time I posted a few stories from The Texas Industrial and Commercial News printed here in Sugar Land on Friday, August 29, 1919 -- pretty close to 100 years ago.  Here are a few articles printed 2-weeks later on September 12th.

The first one recounts airplane rides given by a Mr. Cleveland (no first name).  I'm reasonably sure he's either the son, grandson, or nephew of William Davis Cleveland for whom Cleveland Lake is named.  The elder Cleveland was a prominent Houston businessman and connected to the Terry family and Edward Cunningham.  He's an interesting story, and I'll try to dig up more details in the future.

It sounds as if young Mr. Cleveland used the dairy pasture, where Constellation Field is now located, as an air strip.  Or maybe he used the empty field directly opposite on the south bank of Oyster Creek.

This transcription is easier to read:

Ride Airship

Mr. Cleveland, who has been an instructor at Ellington Field and who is now connected with a company that is promoting flying, was in Sugar Land Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning with one of the company planes and gratified the flying aspirations of about two dozen of our citizens.

Among those who went up with Mr. Cleveland were: Bob Hairston, Buddy Boehm, P. E. Flewellen, Mrs. P. E. Flewellen, little Miss Marjorie Flewellen, E. E. Edwards, Mrs. E. E. Edwards, Ben Ross, A. B. Spires, Frank Weiser, Gaylor Deatherage, Dr. S. C. Deatherage, Ed Chandler, Jack Stafford, Steve O'Connor, Jim Guyer, Carroll Scarborough, Earl Cantrell, Harry Redan, Miss Violet Darkes, Mrs. Jack Stafford, Miss Edith Lavendr, Miss Margaret Wright, Miss Inez Gill, and several of these went up more than once.  Mr. Redan sent the mechanician (sic) up the second trip in an effort to get photographs of this vicinity from the altitude of the plane.

Mrs. Edwards speaking of her experience said it was perfectly delightful and except for the instant of beginning descent was not exciting a bit.  She expected a bump on landing but instead says the landing was easy as stopping a car.

Miss Inez Gill is talking about buying her a plane of her own she is so enthusiastic about the flying game.

The next article follows up the story about the reopening of the Imperial Inn.  Notice some guests missed the dinner party because their car was stuck in mud in Missouri City.

A transcription:

Mr. and Mrs. Brauner Give Banquet To Their Friends

On Tuesday evening, Mr. G. Brauner, manager of the Imperial Inn, and Mrs. Brauner tendered a special reception to a few of their friends of Sugar Land and Houston.  Twenty covers were laid but owing to their car getting stuck in the mud at Missouri City, three of the guests did not arrive.  Those in attendance enjoyed one of the most splendidly appointed dinners.  Mr. and Mrs. Brauner personnaly superintended the preparations and no detail was incomplete.  The beautiful new dining room was decorated tastefully, and the new service equipment was superb and the newly organized waiter service was all that could be asked.  The menu, consisting of Queen Olives, Broiled Red fish, French Fried Potatoes, Sliced Tomatoes, Fried Chicken, Creamed Potatoes, English Peas, Asparagus, Ice Cream and Coffee had been so skillfully prepared and was so gracefully served that the guests could hardly realize they were not in a large city where every possible convenience and delicacy were available.

The Inn has just been remodeled and renovated and a spacious dining room added as well as tea rooms and other conveniences of modern hostelry.  The furnishings and lighting are quite appropriate and of a simple elegance that gives the guest that home like feeling so much desired.  A good dancing floor is also a feature and the management plans its liberal use.  Guests arriving early were shown over the grounds and through the elaborate poultry yards and pigeon cotes.  During the summer months when the Inn has been closed, Mr. and Mrs. Brauner have devoted their attention to poultry with results that should be highly gratifying.  Their chickens look like show birds but they are destined just the same to furnish the piece de resistance for many a sumptuous meal at the Inn.

Following the dinner, a colored string band from the State Farm began pouring forth strains of music from an alcove and soon most of the guests were dancing in unison.  The (convicts) sang plantation melodies and popular airs, supplying a delightful close to the evening's entertainment.

The host and hostess received the congratulations of the guests and the heartiest thanks for an evening of such genuine good cheer.  Covers were laid for: Mr. and Mrs. Bond and Mr. Covington of Houston, Mr. and Mr. W. T. Eldridge, Jr., Mr. and Mrs. G. D. Ulrich, Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Blum, Mr. and Mrs. A. M. Waugh, Mr. and Mrs. J. J. Whatley and Miss Juanita Emery of Houston, Mr. and Mrs. E. E. Edwards, Mr. Guenther, Mr. Jackson, and Mr. and Mrs. Brauner.

The next story announces the organization of the Sugar Land Methodist Church, now Sugar Land First United Methodist Church.

A transcription:

Methodists Organize - Officers Are Elected

To Hold Services Every Sunday in School Auditorium

All Not Obligated to Attend Other Religious Services Are Urged to Attend and Take Part

On last Sunday at 2 p.m. in the Auditorium Rev. C. E. Clark, Methodist missionary evangelsit for the Houston district preached and following the sermon  reorganization of the Methodists congregation at this place was made.  Members of the former organization here together with other Methodists participated in the organization and the following officers were elected:

Trustees: C. J. Berney, C. E.
Vellenga, and A. M. McMeans.

Clerk: Miss Lois McGee.

Stewards: C. J. Berney, Mrs. C. A. Dierks, Mrs. C. E. Vellenga, A. M. McMeans, A. D. Jackson.

Announcement was made that services would be held every Sunday, Rev. Clark to preach two Sundays each month and the other two or three Sundays to be filled by other preachers the Presiding Elder may be able to secure until Conference meets in November, after which it is intended to have a regular resident pastor assigned to the charge.  It was also announced that at present no Sunday School or League would be organized, but both organizations are to be perfected as soon as same may be found practicable.  Those present were urged to get into communication with all residents of Sugar Land desiring to affiliate with the Methodist Church and ask their attendance and cooperation.  It is also desired that every one attend those services when not obligatd to participate ini other meetings at the same time.

Rev. Clark in is discussion of the advisibility of organizing active work here urged that no proselytizing be don, but pointed out that active work by the Methodists should bring into play much new timber in the church life of the community.  He expressed the hope that the other denominations already at work here would pursue their activities with increased vigor which, coupled with vigorous work by the Methodists should make ample room for every one so inclined to take active part in religious work, it being pointed out that of several hundred white employees of the Industries there are probably fewer than a hundred taking an active part in church work.

Song books were ordered and a choir is to be organized at once and regular meeting for choir practice will be held on week nights.  Prayer meetings will be also held regularly, announcement of the beginning of which si to be made later.

We'll end with an advertisement.  I wonder how much they charged.

More People of Old Sugar Land

 

This first photo is undated and shows members of the extended Smith-Jenkins-Rozelle-McCord family at the John McCord family home on South Belknap.  It's a little-known fact that the Kellys are connected to this group.  That's my grandfather's sister Mae Kelly Smith on the far right.  (Thanks to Jean McCord Babineaux for the photo.)

L-to-R: John McCord, Hattie Lee McCord, Minnie Jenkins, William Smith, Dubbo Jenkins, Livian Stowell, Monnye Rozelle, Walter Smith, & Mae Smith

The next photo shows the McCord family (with son-in-law, George Andre, on the left) in their front yard on 2nd St.  I think this was taken around 1942.  Jean McCord Babineaux is between her parents.  Siblings John, Carolyn, & Monnye Alice are in front.

 

My thanks go to classmate Linda Hagler Mosk (DHS '68) for these images of her junior high diploma.  I have my diploma, too.

I think this is a photo taken during the '57 football season showing Frankie Rogers, Ray Barton, Jackie Cooper, Jerry Cooper, and Bennie Bono.  Ray and Jerry had graduated from Sugar Land High School that spring and must have returned for a visit with old team mates.

 

Odds & Ends

 

Notice the home games were split between Sugar Land & Missouri City during Dulles High's first season.

Scotty & Dot Hightower gave me the next two images.  At first we weren't sure they showed Kempner Field, but now I'm fairly certain they do.  I think they show it before the 1958 reconfiguration with the cement stands on the west side of the field and the lighted scoreboard behind the south end zone.

I think that's Butch Boyd throwing the shot next to the old visitors' stands on the west side of the field.  Note the old scoreboard in the distance on the left.

The second shows Coach Hightower with some of the track team on the south side of the field.  Note the concession stand and ticket booth in the background.  If I remember correctly, that was the main entrance into the field.

 

 

I've included this final photo showing the corner of Milam & Prairie in Houston in 1945.  (It was posted on Facebook.)
  

Recollection of the Clinic

1940 snow fall?

Late '40s or early '50s?

My brother Bruce sent me the following memories of the old Sugar Land Clinic:

I was looking at these two pictures (see above). The first may have been taken during a famous snowfall in the 1940s, and the second in the late '40s or early '50s, judging from the cars.

In the earlier pic, the building is called the "Carlos A. Slaughter Clinic", and in the latter "Medical and Surgical Clinic”. I think the building may have been designed for Dr. Slaughter.  I don’t know who paid for it, whether he or Imperial, or why it changed names.  I am pretty sure the latter picture was taken before they remodeled it in the mid- to late '50s.

It brought back a few memories.  I still remember the old configuration and where the original exam rooms were.

Remember as a pre-schooler, Mom and Dad thought I was ignoring them when the spoke to me until they finally decided to take me to the doctor to get my ears cleaned out?  They took me in an exam room along the southwest, front side of the building. Dorothy Gandy was the nurse for Dr. Kuykendall.  They came at me with an emesis basin full of water and a large syringe.  They started squirting water in my left ear.  I kept thinking they were running water completely through my skull and it would exit my right ear. Mom had to hold me down.  I pitched a fit, yelling and screaming.

I remember a second time being seen in one of those exam rooms for a body rash.  I didn’t like that either.  They kept trying to pull my pants down so they could see the rash, and that didn’t sit well with me.

The Ebola scare reminded me of something.  Do you remember the special foot-pedaled sinks in each exam room?  I wonder how many old-timers remember details like this about the clinic.  As I think about it, that was pretty opulent for a small town clinic in the '40s and '50s.  You don’t see anything approximating that in doctors’ offices today.

Bruce

Stafford

I gave a copy of A. J. Sowell's History of Fort Bend County to an old high school chum, and he's started reading it.  He asked about a reference to William Stafford, which said he lived at Stafford's Lake and Stafford's Point.  He wondered where Stafford's Lake was.  Could it be today's Alkire Lake?

Here's an informative article Chris Godbold wrote for the Fort Bend Life Style magazine.  (If you receive that monthly magazine, Chris's articles at the back are always worth reading.)  This article gives you good background on William Stafford and the location of his two homes.  It also includes a photo of Santa Anna's Well.

I don't think Stafford's Lake is today's Alkire Lake.  Alkire Lake is located on what was Elijah Alcorn's league.  I found the following map on a State of Texas Web site.  It gives a good suggestion where Stafford's Lake may have been.  Unfortunately, I couldn't link to the page, so I took this screen shot.

 

  

You see the oddly shaped lake in the River Bend Country Club property?  It looks sort of like a tuning fork?  I think that may be the remnants of the lake.  The red box shows the location of Stafford's Cemetery.  I'll bet the Stafford Plantation was somewhere between the lake on the golf course and the horse-shoe bend in Oyster Creek. Just a guess.

An Update

I now think this photo (posted a few weeks ago) shows Henry Buford (West Gate Man) and Tony Sanchez in 1962.  If I'm wrong, someone let me know.

Tony Sanchez was an interesting fellow.  Click here for a very brief bio.  The Sugar Land Heritage Foundation has a file containing interesting details about his life.  I will dig it out and post more about him in the future.

Gulf, Texas

Ken Stavinoha recently posted a photo of Gulf, Texas on Facebook.  (Actually, he offered it to Traces of Texas, which posted it on their Facebook page.)  I was intrigued because I've been looking into the sulfur mines in Matagorda & Brazoria Counties.  I wasn't aware of Gulf, which was south of Bay City.  (It no longer exists.)  Many of you are probably familiar with New Gulf in Wharton County, near of Boling.  

As you can see from the photo, it was quite a place, but it vanished pretty quickly when the sulfur mines dried up.
 

  
Here's the explanatory text that appeared with the photo:

Traces of Texas reader Ken Stavinoha graciously submitted this razor-sharp photo of Gulf, Texas, in 1924. Gulf, also known as Old Gulf, Big Hill, and Gulf Hill, was near the junction of Boggy Creek and the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway, sixteen miles south of Bay City in south central Matagorda County. It was identified on some maps as Gulf Hill. In 1901 the nearby Gulf or Big Hill dome was prospected for oil, and some small production was achieved. More important was the incidental discovery of sulfur, and prospecting for sulfur began as early as 1909.

The community was organized by the Gulf Sulfur Company around 1917; in 1918 Gulf secured its own post office and was a stop on the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe line. Sulfur production actually got underway in 1919. That year the Texas Gulf Sulfur Company operated the country's second largest sulfur mine. Gulf was a company town. Dwellings ranged from "shotgun" houses of two and three rooms to comfortable bungalows occupied by company executives and salaried men and their families. By 1921 a brick schoolhouse had been constructed by the independent school district organized by the residents. A dance pavilion and a dairy were provided by the company. Photographs from that time show the community as a cluster of neat, white row houses. Even buildings housing local businesses were company-owned and rented to the merchants.

By 1928 six pumping stations at Gulf received the sulfur from more than thirty wells in the Big Hill Sulfur field; the next year there were reportedly 1,500 people living in and around the town. The Texas Gulf Sulfur Company operated in Gulf from 1919 to 1932, during which time the company produced 11,804,648 tons of sulphur. After the sulphur played out, Gulf declined. Twelve businesses were listed there in 1933, and by 1936 a bituminous-surfaced road served the community. Gulf's population was reported at 1,500 through 1943, but by 1945 it had an estimated 300 residents and only one business. Those estimates remained constant through 1949, when population statistics for Gulf became unavailable. By 1949 the Gulf school had been consolidated with the Matagorda Independent School District. In 1952 the site was still marked on local maps, but no buildings were shown there. Gulf was not shown on the 1989 county highway map.

Ken has contributed several awesome photos to this page and I know y'all join with me in thanking him for them! Great shot, Ken!

Story Sloane, III

I wanted to commend a fellow, who does a lot to preserve Houston photographic history, Story Sloane, III.  I met him a couple of years ago at a history book fair in The Heights.

Story has a shop in west Houston where he sells prints of old photos.  I've bought 4 prints of the dairy at Sartartia and gave them as Christmas gifts last year.  He has a few photos relating to Sugar Land, but the vast bulk of his archive is devoted to Houston.

Click this link to view a 4-minute clip that appeared on Channel 8 in 2010.  Unfortunately, the aspect ratio isn't correct in places, but it's still worth watching.

Here's another short clip that appeared on a Houston television station recently.  

If you're interested in collecting old photos with local relevance, you should drop by his store at 1570 South Dairy Ashford, Suite 113.  

Story Sloane, Mike Vance (Houston Arts & Media), and John Gonzalez (Bayou City History in The Houston Chronicle) are highly commendable  preservationists of local history.

Traces of Texas on Facebook

Some of you may be Facebook subscribers.  If you are, you may want to follow Traces of Texas, which is a gold mine of old photographs from across the state.  

Here's a photo posted recently.  It shows a mud pit fire near Friendswood in 1938.  The fellow in the dark vest and trousers is John Butler.  The other two men weren't identified, but a fellow who commented on the photo explained what the fire was all about.

It was a control burn of the first 'liquid' to come out of the well.  It was poor-quality, contaminated petroleum, so the driller sluiced it into the mud pit, where it was burned off.  No way he could get away with that nowadays.

It's a pretty good photo for several reasons.

News You Can Use

This Saturday, October 25th, is the date for the 31st annual Texian Market Days out at the George Ranch Historical Park.  The weather should be terrific, and there's plenty to interest the whole family.  If you've never been up-close-and-personal with a Longhorn (4-footed variety), now's your chance.  Click here for more info.

Another event that may interest you is the Coastal Prairie Festival at Seabourne Creek Nature Park across from the County Fair Grounds south of Rosenberg.  You'll find a Web site and phone number on this circular.
     

Updates

A few weeks back I posted an old newspaper article about a pre-trial hearing held at Sartartia in January 1896.  Click here to view the posting.  While doing further research, I learned that W. O. Ellis was the older son of Colonel Ellis, and he would die in a shooting with a tenant farmer the following August.  W. O. sounds hospitable in the January article, but accounts of the August shooting paint a much different picture of his character.  I'll post that story next time.

I posted the following photo (taken in 1935) quite a while ago and wondered who were the men appearing in it.  I recently found ids in a 1958 issue of The Imperial Crown, so now we know who they are.  Here's a reasonably good version of the image.

Rather than retype the text, I'll post The Crown photo with its caption.

News From 1957, 1958 & 1995

I thought this summary from the December 1957 issue of The Imperial Crown was worth posting because it dates several significant events that happened that year: the second Laura Eldridge Hospital opened, as did the Red Barn Cafe and Dairy Queen.  Also note that Visco (now Nalco) was expanding.

This next clipping comes from the March 1958 issue of The Imperial Crown.  Families on Lakeview began buying company homes.

Following the same theme, here's a clipping from The Fort Bend Sun published on December 28, 1995, which reflects on life in The Hill section of Sugar Land.  I have a few quibbles about the article, but something I noticed right away was the statement that the homes on 6th St. were the first built on The Hill.  I take this to mean they were the first built in the grand redevelopment Gus Ulrich led around 1920.  I want to talk with Buddy Blair (SLHS '47) about this.  He may be able to clarify some of these issues about residential development.

The bottom photo shows Mildred Rozelle (SLHS '31) standing in a lot on 6th St.  I got this photo from Jean McCord Babineaux (SLHS '47), so my thanks go to her.  The annotation doesn't include a date.  Regardless, I'm guessing it was taken around 1922 or '23, showing the 'new' houses soon after they were built.  Large trees appear next to the street, but they were probably there before development.  You can see new plants (probably Crepe Myrtles) staked along the sidewalk.

More People Of Old Sugar Land

Who knew the '64 Dulles Band had a bass fiddle? (Thanks Linda Hagler Mosk, DHS '68 for this image.)

This is an undated photo of employees at Visco, later known as Nalco.  Jean McCord Babineaux (SLHS '47) thinks it was taken in the late '30s.  L-to-R: Benny Kinard, ? Koch, Kirk Kirkpatrick, Don Wilson, ?, and John McCord (Jean's father).  (Thank you Mrs. Babineaux.)

These following images come from the 1961/62 Viking Log, which was the Sugar Land Junior High yearbook.  My thanks to Rick Kirkpatrick (DHS '67) for letting me scan his copy.

Technically speaking, he's not an old Sugar Lander, but we'll break the rule for a neighbor.  I think this comes from the spring of 1970.

My thanks to the Helmcamp family for these images.  I think they show members of Dulles High's Class of 1970.  I think I see Pam Tise, Sheryl Gary, Waylon Gandy, Gary Buis, and Shannon Frierson.  Can anyone peg ids in these photos?

News Items From 1919

I've been reading issues of Texas Industrial and Commercial News, a weekly newspaper published in Sugar Land in the early part of the 20th century.  I've selected a few items of interest from the August 29th issue.  (I'll follow up next time with items from September.)  The quality of the images is spotty, so I've included transcriptions to aid readability.  However, I've included the images in case you want to check me.

This first item is about construction of the 'new' power plant, which still stands on the east bank of Oyster Creek near the water tower.  It's the light-colored, two-story, masonry building between Main Street and the creek.  It was officially completed in early 1920 (I think), but this article says Sugarland Industries was preparing the town for an upgraded electrical grid to be supplied by the new power plant.

One inference I'm making from this article is that the town and the refinery were already served by electrical power, which was supplied by an earlier plant inside the refinery complex, somewhere behind today's Char House.  I'm still trying to determine when electricity first arrived in Sugar Land.  My guess is that it was part of Edward Cunningham's new refinery built in 1893, although he may have built a power plant in 1888 when he introduced diffusion processing in his sugar mill.  (I've posted lengthy items about this project a few months ago.)

Town Wiring And Building On Power Plant Progresses

Work on the big power plant is progressing rapidly now.  Material is being unloaded in large quantities at the site.  A pile driver has been erected and the foundation will soon be going in.  Big poles are being set over town and new wiring installed.  The system is to be much larger in all aspects than the present equipment which the town has entirely outgrown.

A very early photo of the power plant. The view is toward the southeast, so Main St. is behind the building and Oyster Creek runs behind and to the right of the camera.  Note the Sealy Mattress smoke stack.  That building is hidden by the power plant.  It sat at the corner of Main and what is now Kempner Streets.

  

This next item is a blurb on renovations to the Imperial Inn, which stood roughly where Bayview intersects Highway 90A.  Here's a photo to help orient you.

You can see the Imperial Inn at the top center of this photo.

A closer view of the Imperial Inn.

And here's a view of it burning in 1946, or '47.  Mr. R. M. Laperouse took this photo when he noticed the fire.  He lived across the Creek from the Inn.  Buddy Wheeler (SLHS '59) told me he remembers this fire.  When he heard the siren, he rode his bicycle from The Hill to the tracks to watch the volunteer firemen battle the flames.  He was 5 or 6 years old.

  

I've mentioned this before, but the Imperial Inn was the old Thatcher Plantation House which sat out near Grand Central (just south of old Sugar Land) until 1908, when it was moved into town to serve as a hotel, restaurant, and town social center.  As you'll see from this brief article, the Brauner family, who managed the Inn, renovated it about 10-years later and were ready to reopen in early September.  (More about that next time.)  I know from early newspapers that the Inn was quite a hive of social activity.  

Tales of the Town
Imperial Inn To Open

Announcement of the opening of the Imperial Inn on September 10 will be noted in our advertising columns.  This commodious hostelry has recently been renovated and enlarged and with the new equipment it is expected that better service than ever before will be possible.  The manager announces that complete information will be published next week.

This next item is about the return of a WWI service man, Frank Loper.  He was discharged later than other local men, so he earned special mention.

Frank Loper Home

Frank Loper got his discharge on the 13th instant at Newport, R. I. and arrived at Sugar Land on the 18th since which time he has been learning the art of boiling sugar at the refinery.  Frank enlisted in 1917 in Houston and was sent to Pierce Island, S. C. and later Quantico, Va. for training.  He was with the 5th Brigade which was sent to Santiago, Cuba and was then sent to West Indies to quell the disturbance in Haiti.  After plenty of excitement his unit returned to the States in August 1918 to get ready for sailing across.  His unit embarked in September 1918 and landed at Brest where the expedition was split up, the Second Batallion going to St. Nizzarre (sic) and Nancy, the provisional unit going to Schleswig-Holstein.  This was Frank's unit and he says they just stalled around, doing picket duty and training and waiting and didn't get a single whack at the Boches.  He was later transferred to the 13th Batallion and in this reorganization on August 9th landed at Newport where four days later he got his discharge.

Frank is enjoying chicken dinners given by his friends here and says the boys who got home earlier have nothing on him even if they did have a barbecue and chicken spread on July 4.

Not long after his return, Frank got back to work and gave the newspaper editor a little demonstration of his skills.
 

Sugar Making Interesting

Mr. Loper, sugar boiler at the refinery, favored the editor with a demonstration of the process of refining sugar Thursday night.  He was operating the three big vacuum pans that turn out a total capacity of some 250 barrels of sugar at each filling.  It takes about an hour and a half to work a charge of liquor through these pans, where it is boiled and kept cool all at the same time till the granules have formed to exactly the desired size and hardness to make the best sugar in the world.  When the granulation is completed the batch is dropped by releasing the vacuum into a bin from which it is taken and washed and put through the sundry processes that turn it out ready to go into sacks and barrels.  It seems incredible that so many tedious processes can be given the raw sugar for such a trifling charge.  Refined sugar is only slightly higher than raw sugar and all that painstaking work must be done to make it ready for the table and at a charge per pound that would cause the butcher or shoe dealer to declare he couldn't possibly do it.

I'll have selections from the September 1919 issue next week.

The First Air Force One - Eisenhower's Constellation

My aunt, Mayme Rachuig Hause (SLHS '48) sent me this clip, which I thought was fascinating.  It's a brief video on the first designated AF One and the current attempt to preserve it.

Click here to see the clip.

More Ancient Relics

I want to thank Julius Baumann for sending me these photos.  They are a blast from the past.  First, there's the roll of caps for a cap gun.  Then there's the jukebox extension that was placed in diner booths.  I'm pretty certain White's and then Haas's Cafe had them.  Who can forget the Smith Brother's cough drops, or the Crayola box.  

When I was in Mrs. Boyer's kindergarten, each student bought a box of Crayolas at the start of the year.  When school ended, Mrs. Boyer collected all the remaining used crayons in our boxes (it was strictly voluntary) and put them in a chest she kept in the class room.  I thought it was gigantic, but it was probable the size of a shoe box.  Anyway, she collected what seemed to me to be a treasure trove of old crayons of various shades.

Naturally, we scrounged the box all through the year.  Didn't have a puce or chartreuse crayon?  No problem; dig through the treasure chest because some one had probably donated one in previous years.

I spent many hours during my college years going through the Fondren Library's wooden card catalog, which looked exactly like the one shown in this album.

Click on the image below to view the album.
 

More People of Old Sugar Land

I have to start off with sad news, unfortunately.  I received news from Charles Farrugia, that his great-uncle, Gilbert Kadlecek (SLHS '48), passed away recently.  Click this link to view the obituary Charles sent me.

I also received word that Olga Mutina, long-time resident on The Hill, died last month.  Click this link to view an obituary.  I know her sons, Louis (DHS '67) and David (DHS '70).  I don't know her younger children, Johnny, Ricky, Susan, and Donald, but I presume they are Dulles alums.

My heart-felt condolences go to the Kadleceks and Mutinas at this sad time in their lives.

My thanks go to Jean McCord Babineaux (SLHS '47) for the next two photos.

Ralph McCord, Sammy Norvic, & Earl Tise, Jr. in front of the Sugar Land Drug Store in 1942.

Louise Stephenson Hall, Jean McCord Babineaux, & Walterene Stephenson Farrell on April 9, 1944.

I'm pretty sure Randy Kozlovsky (DHS '67) gave me these photos, so I'll thank him for providing them.  I think they were taken in the '50s.  Maybe he'll give me the details.

I think that's Randy's mother on the left.  One of the other women is his aunt, but I'm not sure which.

Randy's father is holding his trophy catfish.  I'm not sure who the little girl is. 

I want to thank Linda Cruse Wilson (DHS '65) for this photo.  It shows Diane Broughton Lundell (DHS '65), Becky Cutia, and Linda.

Finally, I saw this article in The Houston Chronicle.  Kind of a stretch, but since it involves Alex and the Freeman Post, it qualifies as old Sugar Land.

Click here to view the newspaper article.