Coming Attractions at the Sugar Land Heritage Mueum

Click the image to magnify the flyer.

Friends of the Sugar Land Heritage Foundation will have a social at the museum on the evening of August 9th. The theme is the history of education in our town. Its title is Back to School: Then and Now. I'll have more information as we get closer to the date. Click this link to view info about the Friends organization on the SLHF's Web site.

Tommy Laird recently sent me an 'appetizer,' which I'll try to use in a talk at the event. He found it among his mother's collection of memorabilia. I have never seen a copy before, and it has some intriguing points in it. Retiring Superintendent of SLISD, E. K. Barden, sent this letter to local residents just before he died in 1950. Click the image to view the letter.

SLISD Superintendent, E. K. Barden's valedictory letter at his retirement in 1950.

Milton R. Wood

I received a request recently about information on Milton R. Wood. I've posted quite a few things about him, so I thought I'd collect them here. He was a fascinating person, sort of a renaissance man, who was influential in early Sugar Land history.

Click this link to view a brief profile my brother Bruce wrote on Wood. It focuses on his involvement in the design of Sugar Land's school on Lakeview Drive, where Lakeview Elementary is now located.

This next link accesses a post quoting from Bob Armstrong's book, which also includes brief info about Wood's role as Imperial's chief engineer and chemist in the company's very early days. Note the embedded link to a short history of M. R. Wood School by Mrs. Jean Sampson Johnson. The school in Mayfield Park was named after him. It served Sugar Land's African-American students before integration in 1965. Nowadays, the school serves FBISD special needs students.

Here is a photo of Mr. Wood taken in 1932, when construction began on the Sugar Land School gym, which still stands today. (You can see houses on the north side of Lakeview Drive in the background.) Note the two men in white suits. The one on the right is M. R. Wood. The other (wearing sun glasses) is W. T. Eldridge, Sr., co-owner of Imperial Sugar and Sugarland Industries. He died later that year. The man identified as Albrecht is Mr. A. H. Weth, Imperial Sugar's chief engineer at the time and WWI German fighter ace. (I think.) The man in white shirt and dark pants, standing in front of the women, is Gus Ulrich, general manager of Sugarland Industries.

M. R. Wood died in 1940 (I think, I'll have to check the exact date) in the Rio Grande Valley while visiting relatives. I've no doubts we'll learn more about Mr. Wood in the future.

More People of Old Sugar Land

I've posted several of these images before, but I wanted to see if anyone can help identify people in them. The first photos are of Hispanic elementary school children from the early 1940s. (My thanks go to the Matlage family for letting me scan these photos.)

If you'll look at the captions (click the 'i' icon), you'll see dates, grades, and graduation years from Sugar Land High School. If anyone can help, please comment on this blog, and I'll get back to you.

Click the photo below to view the album.
 

  Children attending the elementary school (grades 1-4) on Ulrich St. in the 1940/41 school year.

A Profile of M. R. Wood

While researching Sugar Land's history of water management and flood control, my brother Bruce sent me some info on Milton. R. Wood.  I've posted items about Wood before, but as Bruce pointed out, he was quite a renaissance man.

Here is Bruce's extended comment:

Milton R. Wood

Somebody should write a book about him. He was not only a competent irrigation engineer but also a sugar chemist, architect, and educator. Notice the desk in the photo below: Jess Pirtle rescued it, left it to (his son) John, and now John’s son is supposed to have it.

A photo of M. R. Wood at his office desk in the mid 1920s.

In 1916, he went with W. T. Eldridge to visit the latest in school designs in California.  He came back and designed and built this school which opened in 1917-18. He also served as president of the school board until the early 1940s. For those who aren’t familiar with the school, it is a cottage-style school with 10 individual buildings, each serving as a classroom—kind of like a crescent of one-room schoolhouses tethered by a columned, covered, pergola. The larger building at the apex of the crescent was the auditorium. There was a movment at the time called the School Center Movement, where the school served as the social center of the community, too. He designed the auditorium to accommodate silent movies, traveling shows, and the roof was a tiled terrace where dances were held.

I have a theory why Wood created and Eldridge approved this design. Sugar Land had to overcome its image. Prior to Eldridge and Kempner taking over the refinery and town, the area was known as the hellhole of the Brazos. As we know, many company towns bad reputations then, exploiting families and using children as fodder for their factories. In the midst of this, they needed to attract a permanent workforce for their expanding enterprises. 

At the time, many schools were one monolithic structure looking not unlike a factory, where children went in one end and came out the other. They were often hot, unsafe, and poorly lit. This cottage-design was safer, cooler and unlikely to catch fire from the cement used in construction. If a fire did occur, it would more likely be contained to one building and not spreading through one large building that would take longer to evacuate and stood the chance of killing children from fire. You’ll also notice that this design allows for more windows per classroom, allowing for better natural light. 

The hospital is the building sitting on the street behind the school. Sugar Land was segregated; the large building on the left was for whites and the one right of it for blacks. The smaller, third structure to the right of the hospital was built to be the residence for teachers (a 'teacherage'), but the teachers felt they were too close to their work, so many opted to rent rooms from families.  It was later turned into a residence for the nurses working in the neighboring hospital.  At times it was rented out to families, too.  And M. R. Wood’s house is the one nearest the school on the left side of the picture. The Presbyterian Church is also in this photo.

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.)
  

Follow Up on Mr. A. H. Weth

I received messages from two men who have fond memories of Mr. Weth.  The first was from Lou Payton (SLHS '46).  Here's what he said:

  

Chuck, I would like to add a couple of stories about Mr. Weth.....When Earl Tise, Jr. and I were at Southwest Texas State, Mr. Weth allowed us to go to his ranch on the Devil's Backbone to hunt and spend time on weekends.....Later, when the Sugar Company was one of my customers I had some dealings with him and he invited me to his home to see his World War 1 trophies when he was a fighter pilot in the German Air Force.......I wonder what happened to all those items....

  

Thanks again for reviving old memories......Lou Payton

I agree with Lou; I wonder what happened to Mr. Weth's WWI memorabilia.  I don't think the Weths had any children, but I could be wrong.  BTW, I'd always heard Mr. Weth was an ace.  That's something I should investigate.

I got a note from David Wickersham (DHS '63).  Here's what he said:

Johnny Friend and his Dad invited me to go hunting with them and Mr. Weith at his ranch.  I was about 14 at the time.  As I remember it was 1000 acres in Fredricksburg on the Devil's Backbone.   Being a city boy who had just two years before moved to the country (Sugar Land), I knew very little about the outdoors and wildlife.  One morning I got up early and went exploring by myself.  I soon saw a flock of turkeys on the next hill.  I decided I would kill one with a big stick I had.  I was sure the men would be very impressed.  I ran down the hill and up the next one only to see the turkeys were already on the next hill.  I ran faster this time but again they had beat me to the next hill.  I ran with all I had and got to the top of the next hill just in time to see them gliding into the valley like a squadron of B-25s.  I never knew they could fly.

  

Mr. Weith had a WWII army jeep that he had the machine shop at Imperial weld a solid metal plate on the undercarrige and install a substantial roll bar on the top.  With that protection, he would run over anything.  We had some wild rides that week with him.  Several times he rolled it over.  We would get out, roll it over on it's wheels and go again.

Thanks for the memories.

David

 

It sounds as though Mr. Weth was a generous fellow.  Here's a photo of him at the ground breaking for the Sugar Land Gym on Lakeview in 1932.  It looks as though someone (probably Frau Weth) annotated the photo.  It says 'Albrecht.'

Gus Ulrich is standing near the stake (in shirt sleeves).  W. T. Eldridge, Sr. is in the white suit and white hat.  M. R. Wood is in the white suit next to Mr. Eldridge.

The Weths lived in the building on Eldridge Road that was once the transmitting station for KPRC radio.

More People of Old Sugar Land

I want to thank the Earnest family, particularly Judy and Carolyn, and Haroldetta Robertson for letting me scan these images for the blog.  Mildred and Edward Earnests were mainstays of Sugar Land ISD and FBISD.  They lived on 6th Street, and you can see some of the area in the backgrounds of these photos.

 

Judy or Carolyn provided identifications of the women in the following photo.  Back row left to right: Edwina (Mrs. Archie) Milam, Beth (Mrs. LeRoy) Mills, Margaret (Mrs. M. B.) Watson, and Mildred Rozelle.  Front row left to right: Helen Rozelle, Dorothy (Mrs. Joe Bob) Hughes, Eva Beth (Mrs. Don) Williams, and Marjorie (Mrs. T. C., Jr.) Rozelle.

 

I failed to note the exact date for this article, but I think it came from a 1968 issue of The Imperial Crown.

I found the Crown article that goes with the Dulles HS Junior Achievement photos I posted a few weeks ago.  Here it is.  (Note there are a few typos in the identifications.)

Updates on Recent Postings

Jackie James (SLHS '57) suggested the man in the following photo with Mrs. Moye was Mr. Huffman, SLISD bus driver and custodian.  I got a note from H. G. Bossley (SLHS '57) suggesting the man looks like Fred Sciba.  We're still investigating.  If anyone has an answer, please send me a note or post a comment.  Hold the presses!  I just got word from Jackie and H. G. that Tommy Cason (Fred Sciba's stepson) has confirmed that is Mr. Sciba in the picture.  

My thanks to all concerned for help in identifying him.  I always appreciate assistance in getting things correct.

  
I noticed an earlier post about Cosme Gonzalez, Imperial's oldest retiree in 1970, was incomplete.  I failed to post the second part of his profile which appeared in an issue of The Imperial Crown published in October 1970.  Here is the complete article plus a high-res image.  The missing portion of the article is important because it says Mr. Gonzalez 'mowed' his yard with a hoe!
  

 

I got a note from Tommy Laird identifying the unidentified man in the photo of Imperial's Sales Department in 1951.  His name is Hope Miles.

Sales Department in old General Offices in 1951. (Ken Laird, Oscar Armstrong, Hope Miles against back wall, Bob Armstrong seated at desk, Buck Herder behind him, Lily Mae Hickey, and Vlasta Fatheree in white blouse.)

     

Sugar Festival, April 1956

The following article appeared in the Imperial Crown published in April 1956.  It describes that year's Sugar Festival, an annual event held each spring through the 1950s.

  
The program below is a little hard to decipher, but essentially, members of each class (first graders through high school seniors) were presented at the festival's royal court.  The night's events included entertainment performed by other students.  I recognize many names listed in the program.

 

    Page 4 left - Page 1 right

      Page 2 left - Page 3 right

2nd Grade Nobility: Jody Frierson & Calvin Rozelle

5th Grade Nobility: Bobbye Zalokar & Joe Middlebrooks

Elementary Court

 
A personal note: I'm the little twerp sitting on Dr. Wheeler's left.  Gregory Muehr, William Hollemon, and I were commandeered from Mr. Boyer's kindergarten to act as scepter bearers and crown bearers.  I remember the event real well, or so I thought until I found this program.  

I always thought Joan Chambers was Queen of the Elementary Court, but I was wrong.  She was Joan Tupper.  I suppose I was dazzled by her beauty and never got her name right, but then I was just 6-years old and had never met royalty before.

    

Old Photos of the Lakeview School Campus

I've collected many pictures of Sugar Land Elementary School children.  The following picture shows a portion of Dulles High School's Class of 1960 when they were in the 1st grade in 1948.  I recognize several of them.

You see them standing in front of a class room on the west side of the 1st circle.  Everyone called the semi-circles of class rooms 'circles' even though they weren't actually circles.   

The next photo shows the east side of the 1st circle across from the room where the 1st picture was taken.

1st Circle in 1960

Carroll Smith Rome taught me the 2nd grade in the room behind the left side of swing set in the distance.

The following picture is a long shot of the west side of the circle where the Class of '60 is standing in the 1st picture.  The auditorium is on the right.  You get a good view of the covered walkway that linked the school rooms.  It looks like Mr. Wanjura missed a few spots with his lawn mower.

1st Circle in 1960

This last photo shows the 2nd circle sometime before 1952. The gym, which still stands on Lakeview Elementary's campus, is in the center.  In 1953 SLISD added 4 class rooms to the left side of this circle.  Those class rooms still stand.  A band hall and new complex were added on the right side of this circle.  Those buildings still stand, too.  This is not a particularly good picture, but it shows the complete circle of class rooms under a dramatically cloudy sky.

  

Sybil Fowler's Short Paper on Sugar Land Schools

This is another of Syb Fowler's short papers that T. C. saved.

I noticed I made a mistake last week.  Hansel Addison, the only member of Sugar Land High's first graduating class in 1919, was a young woman.  I had mistakenly thought Hansel was a young man.  I wonder why her parents didn't name her Gretel?

  

An Update on the 1920s Aerial Photo of Mayfield Park

Bettye Anhaiser and my brother have given me some interesting details on the Mayfield Park aerial photo I posted a few months ago.  

Bettye identified the prisoners' quarters which housed convict labor used by Imperial Sugar and the Sugarland Industries before the practice was outlawed around 1915.  (The State of Texas contracted convicts to various enterprises who paid the State a daily labor rate.  These enterprises provided room and board for the prisoners.) I've marked the 6 barracks-like buildings which were still standing in the 1920s -- no doubt they still served as employee housing.

Bruce said several people identified the old Hispanic school located in the Quarters (Mayfield Park). I understand that it served as a bi-lingual school to help children prepare for classes at the school campus on Lakeview.  It's the two-story building I've marked in the photo.
 

The 1st Circle of Sugar Land Elementary

I saw a question on Facebook recently about the number of school buildings in the 1st circle of Sugar Land Elementary's campus on Lakeview Drive.  Some low-level photos make it seem there  were just 8 classrooms in the semi-circle.  Actually, there were 10 rooms from the inception of the school in 1918.

Here's a quote from Bob Armstrong's book, Sugar Land, Texas and The Imperial Sugar Company (1991):

In 1916, it was evident that larger and better school facilities were needed to replace the enlarged combination school and church building on Wood Street.  Kempner and Eldridge instructed their chief engineer, M. R. Wood, to go to California and inspect a school plant which was reported to be one of the finest in the nation at that time and to draw up plans for a similar school plant in Sugar Land.

Wood copied the layout. Construction was started in early 1916 and completed in 1918.  Located on the north bank of Cleveland Lake, the plant consisted of eleven individual buildings arranged in a semi-circle with a large and airy auditorium at the center. All buildings were finished in white stucco on the outside with a flat roof and large windows. The buildings were connected by paved and covered walkways and each contained a classroom and a restroom. In cold weather they were heated from a central system; the large windows provided cooling breezes in warm weather. The auditorium seated 500 people, adequate for civic meetings and gatherings.  It had a raised stage, complete with curtains and backdrops and a moving picture screen, a projector room at the back and a piano. Occasionally, the community was treated to silent movies twice a week at minimum charge.

The 1st photo below is an aerial from a video Judy Harrington Diamond (SLHS '59) gave me.  It shows very clearly all 10 classroom cottages around the school auditorium.  You see Kempner Stadium at the upper right.  There's a fence around the field and a stands on the east side.  The field has no track.  You'll also notice the 1953 additions to the school campus don't appear.  All this suggests the photo dates from 1947 to 1952.  (Also note the baseball/softball field adjacent to the west side of Kempner Stadium.)

This next photo is a postcard made from an aerial photo.  It comes from T. C. Rozelle's archive.  He annotated the photo as taken in 1924.  Note there's no football field although there's a baseball field with stands.  They don't appear in the aerial above.  I think they were moved to the west-end park off Imperial Boulevard sometime in the 1930s.  Also note the 2nd semi-circle of the Sugar Land School has not been built.  It was constructed in 1932.

 

 

I also noticed some discussion of M. R. Wood School on Facebook. Mrs. Jean Sampson Johnson wrote a short history, which I posted here.  As she indicates, the M. R. Wood campus was formed in 1927 when three colored schools were consolidated in Mayfield Park.  The school was named after M. R. Wood sometime during his leadership of the Sugar Land school district.  I'll guess it was probably in 1927 when the new campus was constructed.

Here are some relevant aerial photos I have.  This 1st one shows the school house before the consolidation in 1927.  The school house in Mayfield Park (known as The Quarters in those days) was a community center, which also served as a church and civic meeting room.

The next photo was taken sometime between 1950 and 1952.  It shows the campus before new construction in 1953. 

Old School House in Mayfield Park

I received a message this week from Carmen Flores Perez (DHS '67) asking if I had any info on the school for Hispanic children located in Mayfield Park back in the '20s through the '50s.  

I can't find the references right now, but I know T. C. Rozelle had these photos of a building that was said to be the school house in question.  (I'm still researching this topic, so I hope to get an answer.)  

I think I have a photo of the Hispanic school out at Grand Central.  I'm almost certain Roland Rodriguez, Sr. (SLHS '49) is in it.  I understand these schools were early bi-lingual programs.  Children whose primary language was Spanish and whose English was limited, attended these schools.  As soon as their Engish skills improved, they went to the main campus on Lakeview Drive.

I know from a biography of Felix Tijerina (the Houston restauranteur) that Sugar Land had a Little School of 400 in the mid-1950s.  Tijerina was the driving force in this state-wide effort.  He attended the opening of the school.  I'll dig out the quotes from the book and post them in the future.  It's an interesting story.

 

SLHS Campus Chatter, February 8th, 1929

Here are a few articles from the SL ISD's student newspaper, Campus Chatter, dated February 8th, 1929.  I've finally got an answer to a nagging question.  Sugar Land High School didn't have an indoor basketball court.  They must have practiced on the tennis courts behind the first circle of class rooms.  Apparently, they played few (if any) of their games in Sugar Land.

I have the impression that Superintendent Caryn Foreman wasn't big on sports.  She didn't want to provide any school funds for football or basketball.  The players, their families & local supporters apparently collected funds for these programs.

I noticed in a later article they played Richmond High in their new gym.  I presume it was on the school grounds where Jane Long Elementary now stands.  However, even another article says they played a game in the old court house, which is pretty wild.  I'll have to check when they demolished that building.  It stood where the old Richmond swimming pool was located.  It's the same block where the water tower now stands.