Mrs. J. Frank Keith Interview

PIONEERS IN TEXAS OIL Topic: Early days in Beaumont. Name: Keith, Mrs. J. Frank; [Mrs. Taber, Mrs. Owens, Mrs. Easley, Dudley Sharp] Interviewer: Owens, William A. Place: Rollover [near High Island], Texas. Tape No.: 105 Date: July 9, 1953 Restrictions: None

O.- We are now going to have an interview with Mrs. Keith, Mrs. Owens, Mrs. Easly and Mrs. Taber at their home, their summer place, on Galveston Bay. The undertone of sound is the sound of the waves on the beach outside. Mrs. Keith, would you give us your full name, please?

K.- Alice Carroll Keith.

O.- And where were you born?

K.- Natchitoches, Louisiana.

O.- When was that?

K.- 18 and 62.

O.- 1862? That's quite a time back.

K. - Yes, sir. I'm getting to be an old woman.

O. - Do you know where your parents were from?

K.- One was from- my father- my mother was a Georgian and my father an Alabaman. They married and came to Beaumont. No, they didn't. They come [sic] to Louisiana. Got that wrong. And-- near Natchitoches, 14 miles from Natchitoches. And we lived there until he-- his brother-in-law in Beaumont wanted him to come from Louisiana to Beaumont to go into the

mill business with him. He was a mill man, lumberman; had a very small mill. And so he [Mrs. Keith's father] said, 'Well, he believed he'd come.' And he brought myself and my little sister, Mrs. King. She was Minnie Carroll King, and she is dead now, been dead about five years. So I'm the only member of the family left. My brothers are all gone. Ed Carroll, my youngest brother, died last year and he was 75 years old. He was the baby. So you see how long it's been since I started out.

O.- Yes, well, before we go ahead to ask you about Beaumont, I'd like you to tell us a little about this place that you have here.

K.- Well, let me see. I've forgotten, just really, what year we moved down here, when we started this place.

T.- This present house was built in '29.

K. - This one was when?

O.- 1929 ?

K.- '29.

O.- Yes. K.- You see, we lost-- we've had the property a long time, long time. We had our relatives living here and the Heberts living next to us and the McFaddins next to- and all for many years. So now we're standing on our lots which we bought many, many years ago.

O.- Yes'm.

K.- The railroad and highway were in front of us. The Gulf is the only thing in front of us now and the beach.

O.- Yes'm.

K. - We're almost in the water.

O.- What is the name of your place?

K. - The Cedars.

O.- The Cedars?

K. - Yeah, we had a great many cedar trees here and we thought we'd name it The Cedars.

T.- What happened to the first house?

K. - Well, the first house was blown away In 19.....

T.- 15?

K.- What? 15? Yes, '15, 1915.

O.- Were you down here by any chance, when that happened?

K.- No, sir. T.- We went up on a special train to_______[muffled] Falls.

K.- Special train. They got us out. It was reported the storm was on hand.

O.- Yes'm. Now, the name of the community is what?

K.- Gilchrist is what they call our postoffice now.

O. - Yes' m.

T.- It's Rollover.

O.- Yes, Rollover is the name that I'd heard.

K.- Rollover is-- it ought to be Rollover now, but they took

that away from us, and called it Gilchrist.

O.- How did it get the name Rollover?

T.- In the old abstracts from the Spanish days- in the abstracts, this place is spoken of, written of, as the place known as the 'rolling over' place, Some people say by the pirates, and some the water.

O.- What about the whiskey barrels? Is there something about that also? [laughter]

K.- Well, they brought this whiskey in barrels in front of where I'm sitting today and rolled those barrels over to the bay which was back of us, very narrow strip in there, and loaded them on boats and took the whiskey into Galveston. That was what I knew years and years ago. And they called it Rollover because they had had this rolling over place.

O.- Yes'm.

K.- Which, I think, we ought to be the Rollover yet, because it's a historical name.

O.- I agree with you.

K.- Yes, sir.

E.- I had two young sisters in here___[muffled] through the 1900 Galveston storm down here.

O.- In 1900 storm?

K.- In the 1900 storm.

E.- Mother and Father were taking me to boarding school and...

K.- Been to Europe. E.- ...we hardly had gotten, reached our destination, before the news of the 1900 storm received a flash. And my two sisters, young sisters, had come down here to stay with relatives during Mother's and Father's absence. And so, of course, they were panic stricken when they got this news the morning of the storm, so they came immediately home. And I guess it was days, two or three days anyway, before they could reach them here by boat.

Of course, there were rescue parties out from every direction. And-- so finally, when the children were taken to, I guess, up to Hoyt's Ranch, as far as the rescue trains from Beaumont could get. A tramp had saved these two children. He saw them floating in the water and he had been just passing down in this vicinity and he put these two youngsters on a kitchen table and ride [sic] the waves with them and rescued them, saved them that way. And so, anyway, Mother and Father met the rescue train out there. And Olga had on a little sheer apron and the other one just had on, I don't know what, with a little cap on her head. And they really did look like refugees. And so my father took this tramp, and all he knew was to call him, "The Tramp." We never knew his last name. So he was injured by falling timbers.

K. - He had epileptic fits.

E.- Yes, he was not himself for a long time. So my father took him up to his sawmill and built him a little house and took care of him up there until he died. And he is now buried on our lot out at Magnolia Cemetary. And on his stone is carved, "The Tramp." That's all we ever knew.

O.- That's a fantastic story.

K.- Isn't it interesting? Just called him The Tramp.

Mrs. Owens.- They were actually at Paton Beach, [muffled speeches in background]

O.- Yes. Now, I'd like to ask-- ask some questions about Beaumont. You were about ten years old when you came to Beaumont then?

K.- Yes, sir. I think we come [sic] down about '72.

O.- In '72? K.- I think so.

O.- And you went to school there?

K.- Yes. O.- What kind of school did you go to?

K.- Well, it was just a little-- where our library is now In Beaumont was a little schoolhouse. And there's where I went to school. My- I started school in Louisiana, and I went one day and the teacher slapped me. I don't know what I did, never did know what happened. Slapped me and I fell on the floor. And my father and mother said, "You don't go back to school anymore." And it wasn't too long before

we moved to Beaumont. And that was my first schooling, was in Beaumont.

O.- What was,...

K.- Mr. Stovall was the teacher.

O.- Only one teacher?

K. - Just had one teacher, Mr. Stovall. Then there wasn't anybody-- We had one street in Beaumont when we moved there.

O.- One street?

K.- One street.

O.- About how many people?

K.- Oh, I don't know. Maybe-- see, there were Heberts, and Broussards and some of those old families were there when we moved there. And quite a good many. I guess maybe there were a hundred families, or maybe more.

O.- Yes'm.

K.- But Long & Company -- they called it Long & Company -- my mother's father was a Long and he got Mr. Fletcher, who married my mother's sister, Mrs. Fletcher, and Mr. Long and formed a company and called it Long & Company. And they had a little shingle mill when they moved there, but they wanted him to come in and help them build a mill and --a sawmill - and run the mill. But he didn't do that. As I can remember, to help them build the mill, he may have done that, but he did form a company of his own and they called it _[muffled] [Nona?]

Mills Company and that is in existence today. So my father moved to Waco. Well, my mother said, "I don't know whether we're going to move to Waco or not." But says, "We have four boys-- five boys and one girl to go to school and they have the best school in the country there in Waco. So I'll go up there and see about it."

Well, they made such a grand offer for my father, and he wanted to retire anyway from the lumber business, so it just suited him to go to Waco. So they showed him what they wanted him to do. He says, "Now, there's a place here on First Street, with a beautiful red brick house, two story, and we can let you have that. You can buy that and it has a lovely peach orchard that's full of peaches. I'll show it to you while you're here, and I'll show you what we want you to do. We want you to take charge of the school." "Why?" he [her father] said. "Why do you want me to take charge of the school? I'm not an educated man for that kind of work."

Says, "Well, you're a good business man and we want you to get us out of debt." Says, "We owe too much money up here and we haven't anybody to get us out of debt and Frank Carroll can do it."

T.- What school was that?

K.- That's the Baylor University.

T.- What did you say?

K.- That was the Baylor University.

O.- Baylor University?

K.- Yeah, Baylor University.

O. - Oh, my goodness.

K.- So he tackled that and he went up there; moved and took all these childrens [sic] and he bought the house and he went to school every day that the children went to school. And he built a- they did not have a dining room; they ate in the hall, Sister was there. Mrs. Easly was there and saw that, didn't you? Well, you lived with Grandmother?

E.- [muffled speech] K.- Well, she lived with Grandmother, anyway, when she went to school up there and there wasn't any dining room. They ate in the hall up there in the girls' dormitory, place? So he added a kitchen and got everything going and paid them out of debt in three years. My father, F. L. Carroll. So things were going on pretty smooth and he got sick. Well, this happened a long time ago. Anyway, on his-- he thought he was going to die, and he wanted to do this and do that for the church and for everything. He helped them with the school and then he helped them with- build the new Baptist Church that was there. That was being dedicated about the time he was going to die, was sick. But he did get better and he lived two or three months. And, finally, we had to give him up. So that's-- that's that as far as that goes, that part of the thing.

O.- Well, when did you come back to Beaumont then, after that?

K.- Well, I'll tell you, I didn't go with them. I married.

O.- Oh, I see.

K.- I married. And I hadn't been married but just a little while when they left.

O.- I see. Well, I'd like to hear about your marriage then. If you would tell us all about it.

K.- Well, we went up to Village Mills. Frank.....

Mrs. Owens.- How did you go to Village Mills?

K.- On the train. There was a little train running up there. Southern Pacific run a little train up there. Anyway, the Long and Company, they wanted to have a mill - I guess they called it Long and Company at that time - and sent Mr. Keith, Frank Keith, up there to build them a little mill, cut some lumber and build some houses. They built a store and a boarding house and our house which was a little bit nicer than the others. There were six other cottages, men that went up there to help run the mill, and build the town up, and did. And we had three babies up there. Mrs. Easly was born up there, my son was born up there, who is now in heaven, and Olga, Mrs. Weiss, was born up there and she was about two years old, I think, when we left Village Mills. Come [sic] down to Beaumont and bought us a little home that stood right in front, a little cottage, that stood right in front of our library today, which was our Baptist Church at one time, this library.

O.- Is that right?

K. - So, we lived in that little cottage until 1901. Then we bought some land out there on Calder, a block and a half, and built us a mansion, you might call it. It was a two story, three story house, and it was lovely and we [were] just getting ready when he died to go up to this little farm. We had a little farm up there where we lived--

Mrs. Owens.- At Voth. K.- At Voth. See, Mr. Keith had a _ [muffled] mill himself. Got too far ahead of my story. He went up-- he built a mill and called it Keith Company and we lived there-- I never did live there. Our son helped run the mill after he'd finished his schooling.

O.- Well, when you were..... K. - And then. .... O. - Excuse me. K.- Go ahead.

O.- I was just going to ask you what life was like in Beaumont when you were living in this house where-- in front of where the library is now.

K.- Well, we had two more childrens [sic] and we enjoyed life and went to church- was right across the street there, in those days. And then, when we did build it, the Baptist Church was a little wood building right there where the Sun-- where

the school building used to be. So that was our church there until we built us a lovely church, which is now the Tyrrill Library. Captain Tyrrill bought it and gave it to the city. After-- and then we moved out before that time and built this house out on Calder Avenue.

T.- How many more streets were there in Beaumont then than [muffled] when you first came?

K.- Well, I think you might say two other streets when we moved.

O.- What were the names of those streets?

K.- Pine and Main and Pearl.

T.- And Pearl.

O.- A very small town still.

K.- Yeah, it was. But it's a big town, too big now. I'm ready to leave it.

O.- Yes'm.

K.- It really has outbuilt itself. It really has.

O.- Well, in 19..... K.- We..... O.- Oh, excuse me..... K.- We had a lovely place to live in a way. We sold our home two, three years and a half ago and renting for our first time a house to live in, that was built by Harry Weiss and Olga,

my daughter, when they married. They built this house and lived there until they had two children. Then they were-- he was transferred and sent to Houston to take charge of the - he was made president, I think, of the Humble Oil Company.

Taber.- He moved to Houston when the Humble Company was organized.

K. - Organized. He was sent over there to take charge, and he was president of it when he died.

S.- Did he meet Olga in-- over there in Beaumont during the early oil boom days, or was it before?

T.- He was raised in Beaumont, also.

S.- Oh, was he raised in Beaumont?

T.- Yes. K.- Yes, he was a Beaumonter. His mother and father lived there until Harry moved and then, well, his father died before they left Beaumont. Then when Olga and Harry moved and all, why, they brought Mother over there and got her an apartment and she lived until she died there in the apartment over in Houston. So, Harry, of course, died. And Olga is living in the house by herself with her lovely maid and her servants. And she has a beautiful place.

T.- Well, were you still living in the little house down on Pearl Street across from where the library now is when Spindle-top came in?

K.- Yes. T.- You had not moved until that time? K. - We hadn't moved. T.- At that time.

K.- That's right. And the gas and oil from the wells and everything made the silver and everything black. You had to scrub silver every day.

T.- It made all the oil paintings turn black, didn't it?

K.- Yeah, uh huh. I had two oil paintings that I had to have, really, made over. And the houses that were down near Spindle-top, they were white. And anybody asked how to get down there, why, they'd go to that white house and then turn to the right. Well, those white houses become [sic] black houses before you knew it. And they had a time finding Spindletop. Now, that's the way it was at Spindle top.

T.- At one time, didn't you plan to build out on the hill where Spindletop later was brought in, where the field was brought in?

K.- No. I don't think so. We were-- I tell you, we thought we was [sic] going to build on Broadway where there was [sic] some trees, and someone wanted us to get out farther, out there with the McFaddins. They offered us some lots pretty cheap. We bought a block and a half and that's where we built this big home.

T.- I thought Grandaddy had some lots at Spindletop that he once considered.....

K.- Well, he had-- he had some lots where the springs were, and had fenced it and rented it for cattle to be in, down there when they brought in that well.

O.- Yes, the well was brought in on part of his track, wasn't it?

K.- It was right next to it, right there on it. O. - Yes 'm. K.- Right close to these wells.

O.- Well, before we get into a discussion of Spindletop, I'd like to get a little clearer picture of what Beaumont was like before the boom started, because I would like to ask you later about the contrast after the boom came. Now, when the boom....

K.- As I say, when we come to Beaumont, there wasn't any church there but one Catholic Church and it was a very small church. On Orleans now. It is Orleans, but I don't know-- I don't think there was even a street. They just put this little church there, little Catholic Church. So I remember well when we first come [sic], we went to church in the courthouse. I remember sitting on those seats, a little girl that couldn't hardly touch the floor. And we worshipped there until the Baptists and the Methodists got together and built a small church on Main Street- on- where the Reed Store is now?

T.- Main Street. K. - Main Street. And there was where I was married, in that little bity church.

O.- Is that right?

K.- 1882.

O.- Well, I wonder if you'd mind describing your marriage, your wedding ceremony, in the church. Can you remember?

K.- Well, to get down there, we had a hack man that drove a little hack and he come [sic] and took us down there. Didn't have but a man and his little girl, Miss Goodhue, stood up with me and George Polk, the young man that stayed in the store down there, and they were our only attendants. And we rode down there, and when we were married-- Dr. Stephenson was the pastor of the Baptist Church-- and everybody went on and we were going to have something at the house, I reckon, when we got there. And we decided, well, we wasn't [sic] going to ride back; we were going to walk back. And we had a plank walk that was just two planks from where the church was to where we lived up on this- what do you call that street now, way up there where Lucrece and all of us lived?

T. - On Pine Street?

K.- Yes, on Pine Street. And they wondered why-- what had be-come of us. And we were so late coming, everybody up there waiting to have their-- whatever they were going to have, refreshments. And we said, "Well, we're gonna walk up there."

And that's what we did. And the next morning, we got up too late, I reckon, to get my trunk on and I went up there in my bride's dress. Had this lovely little sweet dress to travel in up to Village Mills. Took us about two hours to ride up there.

T.- Well, Grandie, tell him about after-- how you got up to Village Mills, you took "Dr. Gunn's Book," wasn't it called, on medicine, and she acted as the doctor. She took care of all the sick and everything while she lived in Village Mills.

K.- Well, let's see. I been doing that kind of work ever since in a way of helping the other fellow.

T.- Did you have your trunk on the train going to Village Mills?

K.- No, it didn't come till the next day. And Lela Grice, a friend of mine-- the Grices were up there-- and Lela, who is dead now, she came in to help me - we knew her in Beaumont -- to help me get my kitchen straight and everything. So Lela just helped me all that day. And I didn't have a cook for, oh, a year or more. Before I went up there, I thought, "Oh, I can cook. I just know I can cook." I took care of things pretty good.

O.- Well, I'm interested in the kind of doctoring you did of the people up there. What were their illnesses?

K.-Well, I'll tell you. If they were gonna have a baby, I'd get a midwife and see that she got there and do things like

that, you know. O.- Yes'm.

K.- And if they died, why, I got somebody- I had a Negro woman that her husband was an undertaker, so Carrie, she would come and help me dress these folks or anybody that I had to. And I really did have some of that to do.

O.- Is that right?

K.- And get a coffin for them and everything. So, that's the way I just got in in a big way in charity work.

O.- Yes'm. K.- So it wasn't too long, that is, while we lived downtown, before we built this house, too. I called Miss [Mrs.] Greer and a whole lot of the folks there, and organized United Charities. And the United Charities is in existence today and they've helped more people and [are] doing more than any other organization I know of. These girls can tell you what it means.

O.- Yes'm.

T.- Well, you must have learned to be a pretty good cook in Village Mills. I understand you used to have the train crews stop in and have Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner when you first got there.

K.- Well, the first dinner we had up there we had the train stop up there and had two or three of them come in there and eat dinner with us. We did. The first Christmas.

O.- The train didn't bother much.....

K.- The train would just stop, you know. Every time they'd come out there, they'd say, "Isn't Mrs. Keith going to have us today?" Well, we'd- we'd have them.

T.- That was the end of the line, wasn't it? The train changed cars and.....

K.- Almost. They just went not too far ahead of.....

E.- Stopped just beyond [muffled],

K.- Just beyond. The railroad wasn't completed. It just stopped and went that far. We had a lot of fun in old Village Mills anyway.

E.- Mother used to say she'd put the rocking chair just on the wide boards so it wouldn't go through the cracks.

K.- You see, this green lumber, I tell you, that we couldn't have a-- long time before we had a really good floor. After the mill got there and got a planer and a _ [muffled] and all like that, why, we had a good floor in our rooms, house.

S.- Just old green lumber?

K.- Green lumber. And you know how it shrunk. There was [sic] holes that big in the floor.

T.- Grandie, was it up at Village Mills where you used the little brass bell that you lost down here just last year? I guess you called them all to dinner with that bell.

K.- Um humm. I used to ring it for Mr. Keith. The mill wasn't too far from our house and I'd get out on the back porch and ring that bell for him to come to dinner or when I wanted him.

T.- And she's used it continuously all these years, and had it down here at the beach house and it was stolen just last year.

O.- Oh, my goodness,

T.- Little brass bell. K.- I'd just give anything for it. O.- I guess.

K. - 'Cause I lived with it ever since I was married, you see.

O.- Yes'm. Well, what were the schools like in Beaumont just before the boom came? You described the school you went to..

K.- Well, Stovall, George Stovall, had the school and there were quite a good many because the people had lived there before we moved there, you know, quite a good many, but they were most of them Catholics and had their little-- they didn't have a Catholic school.

O.- Was it a public school or did you have to pay to go there?

K.- Just public. O.- A public school.

K.- George Stovall was the teacher.

O.- When you went there they didn't have grades, I suppose?

K.- No. O.- You studied whatever you were in?

K.- Mmm hmmm. See, I hadn't ever been to school. The other boy and the sister that was younger than I was, well, she wasn't either. They-- George and Monroe were the two oldest sons and they went right on to school and they were sent to Waco school, too, after that.

O.- Oh, yes'm. K. - Really, before my father moved up there

T.- Didn't you go to Independence to school, Grandie?

K.- Yes, I went to Independence when I had my fourteenth birthday there.

O.- At Independence? K.- Independence. You know about Independence?

O.- Yes, my great grandmother went to school there.

K.- Mmm hmmm. Well, we had a homecoming last year. I didn't get to go this year, but it was out of this world. We had such a good time.

O.- I can imagine.

K.- Met so many that I knew, you know. The girls, they come back to school, too, like I did, see things. And we had a lovely time. I didn't get to go this year. I wasn't able to go.

T.- What about the little church?

K.- Oh, and the little church is just like it was when we went to church and Sunday School there. Really, Mrs. Reed, Mrs. T. S. Reed, the boy's mother, was my mate to go to school, to Sunday School every Sunday and we walked. The college was way up here and there's a hill and come down to this little church. So Ida and I went. Anyway, last year when I was there, we went in and that little church is just like it was when I was there when I was a little girl. I was there three years. Left there when I was fourteen.

And the little rugs that was on the aisles, from the door to the pulpit and then across this way- and our class stood there on this side of the seats. That carpet is as pretty as the day it was-- as the day I left there. I told them it couldn't be and I asked the man at one of the - Dr. Crane's sons lived there. Dr. Crane was with the boys' school over there, you know, Baylor University. He lived on that hill and the girls' school was on this hill. So that's all gone now. All the houses and everything. But the- the bell and everything for the university is right up there yet as a monument. Beautiful.

Well, I enjoyed it, but by going in that church and I said, "Well, girls, come on now" -- all that was here, of which there were four or five of us there--"let's sit over here where we used to sit." On those same benches and we did enjoy it. Had a big dinner outside. Had tables there for everybody to bring their dinner and we had a big dinner. Oh, It was such a good time. Then, afterwards,

while everybody else wanted to go rest or do something, they wanted us to have services. And we all come [sic] home that afternoon. Independence.

O.- Well, had your school in Beaumont prepared you to go to Independence all right?

K.- No. Well, we had a little school there, the Long Company, as we called it. We had a little school over there where you cross the bridge now, the bridge there to go over to Orange and all around. And that little schoolhouse stayed there for a long, long time. We called it Long Company School, Miss Mamie Trainum was the teacher. And I went there, I guess, well, until I wanted to go to school, get off and go to school. But my mother and father saw that Frank and I were kinda sweethearts and they wanted to take me out of Beaumont and send me-- they wanted to go to Georgia.

Mrs. T. S. Long was a sister-in-law, married my mother's brother, Mr. Long, well, they wanted to go to Georgia and they said, "Now, Alice, we're gonna take you and have a nice little trip." Didn't say what we're gonna do with you. I said, "Oh, that'll just be nice. Then when we get back I'll go on to Independence and go to school and that'll be all right." Well, they had in mind I was going to stay there, and they tried to get me to stay in Georgia to go to school. And Alice come [sic] back home with them. So that's when I started to Independence. I was a little fourteen year old girl.

We shouldn't have been sweethearts that early, you know. But we wasn't [sic] sweethearts much. We went together a lot. [laughter]

O.- Well, I know that you had your school activities and you had your church activities; what other things did you have for entertainment?

K.- Oh, we'd have sociables. We'd call them in the house and have sociables. Everybody'd get together and have a good time.

O.- What did you do..... K.- We didn't have anything much in Beaumont to do. When on Sundays, our sweethearts would take us walking or riding or something like that. That was about all. We didn't have anything much in activities when I was a girl.

O.- At the sociables, did you play games of any sort? K.- Yes. O.- What sort? K.- We played dominoes.

O.- Dominoes. K.- And one time I went and they wanted them to dance in one room and play dominoes in the other room. And I knew my mother didn't want me to see that dance. And so I just played dominoes. And there was one of the little girls, Mrs. Alexander's daughter she gets up and goes home 'cause she wasn't going to stay there because they were going to dance in that house. And that was Mrs. Lamb. She's dead and gone and she has a son living there now. That was a long time ago.

O.- They had a fiddle to dance to?

K. - Yeah. O.- And guitar?

K.- So Sidney said, Alexander, says, "I'm going home. I'm not going to stay here and dance because my mother wouldn't like it."

O.- Do you remember any of the tunes the fiddlers played?

K.- No. I was playing dominoes and that's all. [laughter]

T.- Refused to listen, huh?

K.- Yes, my daddy was a dyed-in-the-wool Presbyterian.

O.- How often did they have those sociables?

K.- Oh, I don't know. Not too often.

O.- You had church Sunday morning?

K.- Sunday School and church Sunday mornings. O.- And..... K.- Baptist and then the Methodist. We'd have two Sundays and then the Methodists'd have two Sundays. That's the way we'd divide it up till we had our own churches.

O.- Yes'm. And then what did you have for evening services?

K.- Oh, we had preaching service.

O.- And then on Sunday evening..... K.- Mmm hmmm. Sunday evenings. We had Sunday School and preaching in the morning.

O.- Did you have anything during the week? K.- No.

O.- No meetings during the week at all? Just on Sundays.

K.- Just on Sundays.

O.- About how many people were in Beaumont do you suppose in 1900? It had grown considerably.

K.- I don't know. It had grown considerably by that time. Several thousand, I don't know. Good big city.

O.- Yes'm.

K.- Streets had been opened up and things were going on in a nice way.

O.- Yes'm. Well, what were the-- how did the people chiefly earn their livings then?

K.- Well, working at the mills. There was a shingle mill and sawmill and-- different ones, I reckon. Some worked, some on the farms with somebody, something.

O.- Did they have much rice land there then?

K.- No. Very little. Hadn't planted rice then much.

O.- A great deal of cotton? K.- Mrs. Ward said she was the one that started the rice in Beaumont, but I don't know whether she did or not. Anyway, it's really rice country now. You see..... O.- Yes.

K.- Run the cattle out of the way. They have rice fields now in place of the cattle.

0 . - Well, you mentioned a number of French names a while ago. Were those chiefly Louisiana French people?

K.- Well.....

T.- The Heberts.

K.- Well, the Heberts-- No, they weren't really French folks, were they? [muffled voice] K.- No, the Heberts wasn't [sic]. [muffled voice] K. - Hmmm? [muffled voice]

K.- Hmmmm? Who else? [muffled voice]

O.- Mrs. Keith, your work in Village Mills indicated that you were very much interested in charity. Would you tell us just when you got interested in charity and how?

K.- Well, I-- I guess I was before I married.

E.- Goes back to her young days. K. - Goes back to way yonder when I was a little girl. We had a friend, a Mrs. Miller, who came to Beaumont with her daughter and her husband and on her way to Beaumont, she was injured and she never did walk. So I, with Miss Teck [?] Ward and Lucy Ward, who were great cronies of mine - we were girls together and all about the same age - we got together and we

got our nickles and dimes together and bought this little chair, wheelchair, so Mrs. Miller could get in it and do around and not be in bed all the time. That's how I started, really, my charity work, in a way. And that chair-- that chair was given to a friend of mine and she said not too long ago that it was worn out. And I said, 'Oh, I wanted it in pieces. If I can't have it any other way, just let me have it' and I've never gotten my chair back yet. But I'm gonna see if I can't find my chair yet, because it has done so much good. So that's that. And.....

O.- Now, I'd like to ask about the beginning of Spindletop at this point. Where were you when Spindletop came in?

K.- Well, I was living in the little cottage downtown. Where the T. S. Reed store is now on Main Street.

O.- You knew that they were drilling out there? K.- Yes.

O.- Did you expect them to get oil?

K.- Well, we thought so. There was indication in these wells down there to show that there was gas or something there so we thought there might be. So we was [sic] so interested in everything and took an interest in it.

E.- You weren't in Beaumont when the well came in, were you?

K.- Mmm hmmm. Mr. Keith-- Papa wasn't. That was.....

E.- You were living on Pearl Street?

K.- Yes, I was on Pearl Street then.

O.- Did you see..... K.- Papa wasn't there. O.- He wasn't? Mr. Keith wasn't there? K.- No, he was just on a little trip.

O.- Yes'm. Did you see those wells before they started drilling out there?

K. - Oh, yes. Mr. Keith owned some land right where-- connected to these springs and this well came in right on this side of the springs.

O.- Yes'm. Well, could you describe the springs for me?

K. - Yes, there were four, as I remember, and all the waters were different waters. This was different and all, just like it is at Sour Lake now, I think. The same way.

O.- Well, before the..... K.- And we went to- we used to have a little house down there and we'd all go camp out down there and drink this water in place of leaving Beaumont to drink the water, why, we used that. We stayed down there a day or two and drank the water.

O.- Yes'm. What was it called then?

K.- What was that springs called?

E.- Spindletop Springs. K.- Spindletop Springs, I reckon.

O.- Yes'm. Had it begun to be called Gladys City then? That was later?

K.- I don't know.....

E.- That was from Mr. Higgins.

K.- Mr. Higgins brought that up then.

O.- Yes'm. All right. On the day of Spindletop, when did you first get the news that there was a gusher?

K. - Oh, I don't know. I guess it was told all over town so quickly, I really don't know how I got my news. Anyway, everybody that had a horse or a buggy, anything, went down there to see it.

O.- Did you go?

K.- Yes. I was there, too.

O.- Well, describe that trip over to Spindletop for us, would you?

K.- Well, I was in a-- I had a horse and buggy, you know, and I had someone get in there with me and we drove down there. And I don't know. It just spurted out of the ground and before you knew it, it was going way up high. Over the derrick.

O.- Yes'm. Did you talk to other people around?

K.- Oh, I guess so. I guess everybody had something to say.

O.- You don't remember what the - just general excitement?

K. - General excitement and what was going to become of the things, and who's going to do this and do that. And Mr.- now what is the man that come [sic] there and built that, drilled that first well? Anyway..... O.- Mr. Lucas?

K.- Lucas. Lucas. Yes, Lucas. Why, he-- I had a block of land out there. It wasn't a block; it was two acres. My father had given me. So Papa asked me if I'd let Lucas have it and he offered a hundred dollars for the lots. Well, I thought, a hundred dollars sounded big to me then. And he sold those lots. Now, that is my fault, maybe. I don't know. Cause we never did have a well. We drilled a well down there and never did have one. The man that-- he just really corked up the thing and didn't want it to bring in while we were around there and everything, so we lost the well.

O.- Oh, that's too bad. Well, you- after you had seen the well, how long do you suppose you stayed out at the well?

K.- Oh, we stayed out there two or three hours watching things to see how it was going to develop. And they had the driller make a great big pond way out this way to catch the oil so it wouldn't run all over the grounds everywhere, you know. They really dug a great big place for this oil to run into.

O.- Yes'm. K.- I remember that well.

O.- There were no buildings out there at the time, practically, were there?

K.- No, just a few lived out there, just a very few, not many. A few little huts.

O.- When did the excitement-- when did the people from the outside start arriving, do you know?

K.- Well, I tell you, it must have been the next day after it started, because they could not take care of them in the hotels anywhere. They'd pay you a dollar or two to get in the bathtub and sleep in the bathtub. That happened, too.

O.- That really happened?

K.- And I took a couple myself. Everybody that had an extra bed took in somebody at that time. And give it to them. I know I gave mine to Mr. and Mrs. Richardson. Mrs. Richardson is still living.

O.- What was their business there, the Richardsons?

K.- Well, I've forgotten what Mr. Richardson's business was.

E.- He was an accountant. K.- Hmmm? E.- A public accountant.

K. - A public accountant.

O.- But he had come because of the boom, too?

K. - Yes, come from Waco. They heard about it and they just come [sic] right along and before you knew it, they were living there.

O.- Well, how soon before the town began to show a marked change?

K.- Well, it wasn't very long. Certainly wasn't because so many people got half-way rich, you know. Had money they didn't ever thought they'd ever have by renting, you know, out rooms and the horses and the buggies and things like that, 'cause I tell you, everybody had to have some way to get out there. And

a lot of people that didn't have much money, they just really made something.

O.- How much did they charge for taking you out to Spindletop in those days?

K.- Oh, I don't know. I never paid. I had my own horse and buggy and everything, somebody and my childrens [sic]. Had a son.

O.- Mrs. Easly, you were there when it happened, were you not?

E.- Well, I was away at boarding school. I came home shortly afterwards.

O.- Do you know how soon you came home?

E.- A detail. No, I just remember-- came in in January and I came home, of course, when school was out. S.- A big change. E.- Quite a boom town here then.

O.- Yes. How much pavement was in Beaumont when Spindletop came in?

K.- None. O.- None at all?

K.- None at all. O.- Well, what was-- T.- What was the first street paved with?

K. - Oh, uh... Blocks, wooden blocks.

O.- Wooden blocks? K.- Yeah. We had a long, long time. You remember that.

[muffled voices]

O.- How about the mud then?

K.- Oh, you could bog down. After a rain, you just had to stay home, I guess, or do something.

O.- Did they.....

K.- It used to rain in Beaumont a whole lot, too.

O.- Did they have to haul the equipment by your house out to Spindletop?

K.- Well, I guess so.

E.- Oh, yes. Heavy loads of pipe and equipment being hauled out to Spindletop were pulled out of the mud in front of our house every day.

S.- They'd all bog down.

K.- Bog down, yes. S.- But I guess they had mules then, huh?

E.- Sometimes over the hubs of the wheels. S.- Big mule teams.

O.- Mule teams. Any ox teams then?

K.- Yes, both. Both kinds.

S.- Did Mr. Farish come over there about that time? Do you remember Mr. Farish?

E.- Yes, Mr. Farish..... O.- Mr. Will Farish? E.- And Lee Blaffer, Ben Andrews...

K.- If we could have just kept them there, we'd have had a Beaumont before they had Houston.

O.- Yes, that's right. T.- I was going to say, the Sharps were among the very first to come. K. - Yes, the Sharps there, too. E.- Among the very earliest ones. S.- Mr. Prather was over there, too, wasn't he? K.- Prather was there, too. S.- Ed Prather.

O.- Do you remember when you first met Mr. Walter Sharp?

K.- Well, it was soon after the boom. E.- Right during the boom. K - Just within the boom times.

O.- Yes'm. Did you see him a great deal during those days?

K. - Well, I guess we did. We all knew each other so well. There was so few of us and some new people and we all wanted to see them. O.- Yes'm.

K. - Through and everything.

O.- Well, can you tell me about the conflict that grew between the Beaumont people and the outsiders who came in? Was there something of the sort?

K.- Well, we lost of Beaumont-- Houston folks because we wouldn't

E.- That was later. K.- Hmmm?

T.- That was much later. E.- That was later. That was after the oil companies moved to Houston.

K.- Yes. No, they wanted to stay in Beaumont and they asked them such big prices for things, they said-- Mr. Cullinan said, "Well, I can go to Houston and buy all the ground I want and I'm not going to stay in Beaumont and be-- pay such a big price for things." And that's what happened.

O.- Is that how they moved out of Beaumont?

K.- They moved out because they could not get things like they wanted at the price they wanted and everything, cause they did hold them up, I reckon.

O.- Well, I'd heard that..... K.- Didn't see any of that going on, myself.

E.- The social life of Beaumont during those boom times centered around the Oak Hotel.

O.- Yes, I'd like to know about.....

E.- You remember the old Oak Hotel, do you? You're too young, too? S.- I don't remember it.

E.- You remember your mother and father speaking of the Oak Hotel, haven't you? That's where all the social life centered. And all these very interesting people coming in, you know, the out-of-town people. Some of them stayed at the Oaks

and that was out on Calder Avenue. And they used to have very gay parties out there, dances. Some say there was [sic] many interesting people moved here and lived at the Oaks Hotel.

O.- Well, what about the Crosby House during that time?

E.- Well, that was the, I guess, the business center. That's where all the offices were. K.- That was the only hotel we had.

S.- Well, you didn't go down to the Crosby House?

T.- Dudley [Sharp] said, "You didn't go down to the Crosby House very much, did you?"

E.- No, I don't remember going to the Crosby House. I only remember the Oaks.

Mrs. Owens.- Didn't it burn here? E.- Yes, I think [muffled].

O.- Well, what were the most remarkable changes that you saw in Beaumont in 1901, during that year of the boom?

K.- Well, I don't know, So many people moved in there and changed Beaumont so. Stores were built and.....

E.- Began developing on everything.

K.- I saw the first engine come on the Southern Pacific Railroad there in Beaumont. They had it on a big- what you call these big boats that haul things in the river?

O.- A barge? T.- Barge. K.- Barge. O.- Yes.

K. - Well, that was-- we all had to go down to the river to see that engine come on the Southern Pacific track. And I saw it. And that was a big day for Beaumont, see that engine come to get ready. And they didn't build much of a track, either. Got out this side of-- little mile or two- just so they'd have something to run a train on. That was Southern Pacific.

T.- That was long before Spindletop, though, wasn't it, Grandie?

K.- Yes, that was. That was. That was a long time ago. Not too long.

O.- Would you take part in any business ventures yourself during the boom?

K.- No, I don't think so. Helped take care of the sick and things like I'd always been doing.

O.- You chiefly stayed at home then?

K.- Oh, I had childrens. [sic] I had to stay home. I had an old Negro mammy, though, that come [sic] to me up at Village Mills and she stayed with me until after my children were school age children and I loaned her to my brother- two brothers - and old Mary stayed with me, and come back to me after Clyde and Catherine were born, my two brothers, and Mary stayed with me and she had a stroke and she had a sister living there in Beaumont. So I said, "Hannah, you're gonna let me build a room onto your house for Mary because she's gonna be here maybe a long time and maybe she won't, but I'm gonna build a room and

put her in it and provide everything and pay you for the room and everything, for her being taken cared for." And she said, "All right, you can do that." So Mary died. She lived about a year, though, and couldn't talk or anything. I just hated it 'cause I'd had Mary ever since I was married. Nursed my children and my brothers' children and everything. Anyway, she died and I sent her to Mansfield and buried her and put her away over there where she was raised. Come from Mansfield, Louisiana.

O.- Did most of the people in Beaumont have Negro servants?

K.- Yes, all they had were Negroes.

O.- Mmm hmmm. What percentage? How many Negroes lived in Beaumont at the time of the boom, do you suppose?

K. - I couldn't tell you that because everybody had a Negro nurse, or-- nurses and cooks.

T.- All worked in the sawmills.

K.- Sawmills and shingle mills and.....

O.- Did the Negroes come in on the boom just as the whites did or not?

K. - Well, I guess, uh huh. Those that come [sic] in brought their Negroes along with them.

O.- Uh huh. They were [sic] not jobs in the oil fields for the Negroes as there were for the whites, of course?

K.- No, I don't think so.

O.- So they came to be servants for the whites who worked in the fields. [muffled speeches in the background] [break] [muffled speeches in the background]

O.- Mrs. Keith, how many children did you have?

K.- Oh, I raised four boys and one girl, three- no, I'm sorry. Got it all mixed up. Four girls and one boy, raised them. But I had two or three, three died in infancy.

O.- How did you get names for them?

K. - Well, I tell you, Cecil was a favorite name by-- who did I say just now? Mrs. Curly, a friend of mine who lived with me, thought it was a pretty name and I did so we called her Cecil, but I don't think she was named for anybody. And Olga was Olga just because we liked the Olga name. And Azalee, Mrs. Curly was living with me and she said, "Let's call her Azalee, if it's a little girl."

And she went to Texarkana when the baby came. She wasn't at home. So she wrote me and said, "Are you going to name the baby Azalee?" So I told her, "Yes." But when she come home, she seen [sic] that I hadn't written the name right. I had spelled it wrong and we corrected it. So she's named Azalee because Mrs. Curly, a friend of mine that lived with me and helped me with the children and all, named Azalee. She married Mr. [muffled] Clark and had three children.

Three little girls. Jane, that's one of them. She's the oldest one. And Sarah married a Mr.-- what's his name down in Port Arthur?

E.- Holly. K.- Holly. And little Camelia, the youngest one, lives in...

T.- Indianapolis. K. - Indianapolis. And she has two little boys. Jane has a little boy and a little girl which we met the other day. And Sarah has a little girl, a little boy and a little girl that she had to buy. Couldn't have children of her own and they are beautiful children. Proud of them. We all love those two children. And this little girl was ten days old when they got her and they've had her about two months. And she's a beautiful child and a sweet child. Everybody would want that baby. She's darling. Well, that's...

O.- Did you read-- excuse me. Did you read novels any when you were living in Beaumont?

K.- I didn't have time to read novels.

E.- She was too busy raising a large family.

K. - I married young and I just had to work. I just haven't have time.....

E.- She had not only her own family but everybody else's.

O.- Did any of your friends read novels very much? K. - No.

O.- Not much reading of novels there? K.- No.

E.- Just got all these odd names. O.- Yes. K, - Just odd names. Well, I think they all have pretty names.

O. - Yes'm.

K.- And my boy was named Carroll. See, I was a Carroll.

O.- Yes'm. The Carroll Hall at Baylor, is that named for your husband?

E.- No. K.- No, George, my brother. O.- For your brother? K. - Yes.

E.- Then the Carroll Stadium there- isn't that his son, Lee Carroll, gave the athletic field, I think?

O.- Oh, yes. Now when the boom came, you had a houseful of children, grown and half-grown, did you not?

K.- Yes.

O.- What problems did you as a mother have in raising those children during that period? Do you remember any difficulties?

K.- No, not that I know of. E.- I don't think that they gave her much trouble.

K. - I had old Mary there and she-- if I wanted to go anywhere, well, I could leave my children with Mary. And I knew they were going to be taken care of. So I never did have any trouble raising my children. Mrs. Curly, my friend, she was

there with me. And if I wanted to take a trip, why, she'd be there and old Mary would be there. So that's the way we went.

O.- Well, I've heard that there were a number of saloons opened up, that there was considerable drinking and gambling in Beaumont after the boom. Is there any truth in that?

K.- Oh, I couldn't tell you anything about that. Never had a saloon.....

E.- A little out of her line.

O.- Completely out of your line? K. - We had one saloon there a long, long time. I knew who run it but I.....

E.- [muffled speech] in all boom towns...

O.- You didn't worry about the saloons in connection with your children then?

K.- No, not a bit. O.- No reason at all for that. [muffled speech in background]

D.- Did you watch any of the fires that developed at the field?

K.- Well, I don't know. We were interested when there was one burning there. See, everybody was interested when they had that big fire down there.

O.- Did you go out? K.- Yes, we all had to go out and see it burn.

O.- Uh huh. Would you describe what you saw at that fire?

K.- I don't believe so. A big lot of people.

O.- Big lot of people went out. Was it a big fire?

K.- Yes.

O.- Who were the most influential people in Beaumont in that oil period do you think?

K.- I couldn't tell you, I don't reckon.

O.- A great number of them?

K.- A great many.

E.- That's when we first knew the Sharp family. K.- Yes.

E.- They came to Beaumont.

O.- Well, you mentioned earlier.....

E.- They were quite many interesting people.

Mrs. Owens.- Did you really know_____[muffled].

K.- If we had a [sic] let people come in there, the Sharps and everybody, we'd a had a big town before Houston was a big town.

O.- Yes'm. K.- But they held them up on the price and they went off.

O.- Yes 'm. K.- Now, Mr. Cullinan told me this himself. Said, "I just went over there and bought half of Houston then." You know how much he has.

E.- I think the Sharps and the Heywood brothers, the Cullinan family.....

K.- Oh, there was a lot of them, [muffled speeches in background]

O.- Well, earlier we mentioned the founding of the YWCA there.

Would you tell me about that?

K.- I don't know. I was interested in doing something for the girls who didn't have nowhere. And we all together, a lot of us, and decided we'd have a building if we could get a lot. So we secured the lots where the house is right now on Pearl Street, downtown.

E.- Name the board. K.- Huhn? E.- Name the original board. You, Mrs. Reed.....

K.- Well, Mrs. T. S. Reed, Mrs. [Lipscomb] Norvell, Mrs...... E.- Streich. K.- Mrs. Streich, Charles Streich, and who else?

E.- I don't know.

K. - Oh, I can't recall all of them. Mrs. McFaddin, Mrs.-- oh, who is [sic] them others? I don't know. I just can't recall them right now.

Anyway, we got the money together and they didn't do a thing but put me treasurer, when the notes come due for the ground and the building and everything, for me to get the money. Honey, whenever that note was due, I had the money in the bank. Believe it or not, I did.

I've been in that building ever since and been doing things, just the best I could. We did not-- we had a cafeteria downstairs when we opened up and run it several years. Finally, the lady that run [sic] it died and we couldn't get anybody else to go into it. And so I told them that if they would give me a room upstairs

that had been furnished by Mrs. Weiss as a little parlor up there, Mrs. William Weiss, Harry's mother. Well, she put a lovely rug on the floor and a piano and pretty curtains and we had a lovely little parlor but we soon found we didn't need a parlor up on the girls' floor, our resident girls. I said, "Now, you give me this room and I'll make a kitchen out of it."

And so I did. And I made-- got a stove and a refrigerator and dishes and cabinets to put in there and places for everybody to have a locker of their own and it is running today and they all just love the little old kitchen. And all the resident girls can go there and cook and they have a lovely matron over them and they just enjoy the Y building.

O. - Well, this makes me jump back a long way. What kind of cookstove did you have when you first came to Beaumont?

K.- Beaumont? Had a wood stove. O.- A wood stove? K.- Yes.

O.- Well, when did you first use a gas stove?

K.- Well, I don't know.

O.- Was it fairly soon after the boom?

K.- I guess so. I guess we had gas pretty soon after that. O.- Yes. Did it make a great deal of difference in your way of living?

K.- No. No, we just cooked like we always had and went ahead.

O.- Considerably easier.

K. - This little cottage that we lived in down there when we come from Village Mills, why, we really made a nice little building of it. We decided when we wanted a big home, we'd just settle-- get rid of it. So it was moved away and put a store there. The White House had a store there for many, many years.

O.- Yes'm.

K.- So they moved off several years ago and had a building of their own.

E.- Now Walgreens is there.

K.- Now Walgreens has it as a drugstore right in the corner where we had our building.

O.- Well, you were building your big house when the boom came, were you?

K.- Yes, I guess we were right building it.

O.- Uh huh. Did that create.....

K.- I think in 1901.

O.- Did that create a number of problems for you in building?

K. - No.

E.- Yes, we had no water there and we had to.....

K.- Oh, yes, water. We had drilled a water well down on the place and our neighbors would really send over there and get good well water, the McFaddins. They lived next to us over

there. They'd send over there and get our well water in preference to drinking cistern water.

E.- What about the high water out there and the little terrace?

K. - Oh, yes. When Mr. Keith was to build the house-- I was started out early-- a Mr. Guitez [?] from Knoxville, Tennessee, had accepted-- made his plans and was going to build a house. So he come [sic] over to see about where we were going to put the house and do things, everything. And we had had a big flood.

So they both had to ride horses out there and they almost swam to get to the place where the house was going to be put. So they sat up on the saddles of the horse [sic] there and said, "Now, Mrs. Keith, what are you going to do? What did you buy this kind of land for?" Well, I wanted a block and a half and I couldn't get it where I thought I was going to build over on Broadway, and they sat there and talked and talked.

Well, Mr. Guitez said, "Well, let's do this. Let's build a nice big lake out here on this side and build you up a terrace and put your house up on a terrace, two or three steps to get up there, and I believe you can use this space." That's what he did.

O.- Is that right?

K.- So, finally, we had an artesian well, drilled an artesian well to take care of the water. Well, it went into the swimming pool. We had a lovely swimming pool downstairs, so that well

flew [sic] into-- went into it. Then it, the drainage, went into the lake, kept it going. So, we finally stocked it with fish. Sent some orders to somewhere, anyway, and told us what kind of fish to get to put in there, and we put trout in there.

And when we wanted fish, why, we just-- and we built a little bridge over this lake and we'd stand on the bridge or get in a boat, had little boats in there, too. I have a picture in my house at home with the lake in it. And-- where did I stop?

E.- Father always had a swimming pool. We even had one down on Pearl Street.

O.- Is that right?

K.- Yes, he drilled a little well and had one down there on Pearl Street. And we had a lovely one where we give up. We hated to give up the place, but Mr. Keith was gone and Mrs. Jones, she was the last one lived with me, wasn't she?

You. No, you and Chester. They were living with me and Chester died and then we decided..... [muffled speech]

K.- Mmmm hmmm. That be enough?

O.- I have one more question to ask and that is, what made the people who were the pioneers in those days keep on working the way they worked? They seem to have had a great deal of energy and drive. Do you know what it was?

K.- Well, I don't know. Planting rice and doing things like that, you reckon?

O.- Well. K. - I really don't know, [muffled speech]

O.- What made-- we have a general saying now that young people are softer than they were in those days. Do you believe that?

K.- No. E.- I think they work harder.

K. - They work harder now than they did then.

O.- You think so? K.- Lot of the girls working now and we didn't have girls going in stores and work like they do now.

O.- Yes'm.

K.- And jobs and all. We didn't do that at all. They stayed home... [end of tape ]