Traveling Texas with Nancy Deviney             February 2007

On a recent visit to the most interesting place in Orange Grove, I found out how to make a quilt from Bull Durham tobacco pouches, the original name of Alfred, Texas and how many feed sacks you need to make a dress.

During my seven hour visit to this one-of-a-kind site, I also learned that I am a Blue Star Mother, how my friend, Wig Adams of Freer, is connected to the historic Tecolote Ranch of Jim Wells County and saw Saddam Hussein’s image on some Iraqi paper money

Orange Grove Area Museum…

The banker and I moved to the Orange Grove/Lake Corpus Christi area in 1999 but it took me almost eight years to find my way to the delightful depository of local history known as the Orange Grove Area Museum.  Located in historic downtown Orange Grove, the Museum has been open since 1999.  Orange Grove is located about 30 miles west of Corpus Christi and 17 miles northeast of Alice at the intersection of Highways 359 and 624 in Jim Wells County.

Betty Box, curator of the Museum, describes it as a Teaching Museum where senior citizens can reminisce and schoolchildren can learn.  Her modest description does not include the fact that the Museum also functions as the unofficial Chamber of Commerce and as a library that includes the written family histories of over 100 local pioneers plus numerous copies of magazines and newspapers, past and current.

Volunteers are plenty (even Betty is a volunteer!) at the Museum and they include young and old alike.  Most are there because they want to be but some come as part of the Community Service program.  Local residents who have been ticketed for speeding or lack of wearing a seat belt can “work off” their assessed fines with time helping at the Museum.  High School students with too many tardy slips or similar infractions are allowed to do the same. 

1976 Bicentennial Celebration…

It was during the 1976 Bicentennial Celebration year that the idea was born to establish a museum in Orange Grove.  Several of the pioneer residents who had roots in Germany and other European countries decided that they wanted to preserve their history for the generations to come. 

One hundred and more families sat down to write the stories of their homeland, their ancestors, how they came to the Orange Grove area plus details of their family tree.  Most included copies of photos of family members as well as of the homestead. The stories and photos were put into loose-leaf notebooks and displayed at the high school during the Bicentennial Celebration.

Once the Celebration was over, the notebooks were carried home for safekeeping and there they stayed for over 20 years.

Christmas Tree Forest…

In 1998, retired school teacher Betty Box went to area resident Mack Armstrong and his wife Corolyn and told them that she was ready to establish the long-dreamed of Orange Grove Area Museum but didn’t have a home for the Museum.  Mr. Armstrong took care of that by buying a building that was once a café in downtown Orange Grove and donating it for use as the Museum.

In December of that year, the building was cleaned and ready.  To kick off the idea of the Museum and show the townsfolk the locale, Betty went to all the merchants in town and asked them to donate and decorate a Christmas tree for display in the new Museum building.  The Christmas Tree Forest idea was a success, and the Museum opened shortly thereafter.

Items were brought into the Museum on loan and as gifts from people all over the Orange Grove area.  The collection soon was a reflection of life in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  And, finally, the notebooks of family histories had a home.

It wasn’t too long before the Museum outgrew its new home as the donated items continued to come in from all over the area. Betty, never one to be shy about asking for something to benefit her beloved Museum, approached Lucien Flournoy, Alice businessman and entrepreneur, and asked for and received a generous cash donation to fund the first Museum expansion.

Today the Museum contains approximately 5,000 square feet of display area and is ten times its original size.  The most recent addition was once Roth’s Mobil Service Station on the corner of Eugenia Street and was purchased by Mr. Armstrong and donated to the Museum in 2002.

Alligators and Alfred…

The Museum defines the Orange Grove area as the community of Sandia and the once-flourishing towns of Lagarto, Alfred and Casa Blanca/Wade City.  Alongside the notebooks of family histories in the Museum are loose-leaf notebooks filled with the history of each of these towns. 

Lagarto is located about 12 miles north of Orange Grove on FM 534.  The name is Spanish for “alligator” and was named so because numerous alligators were found along nearby Lagarto Creek. Established in 1856, it once had a college, churches, hotels, a cotton gin and gristmill, a newspaper, three general stores and a population of 350.  Lagarto began a decline when the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway bypassed the town in 1888.  Today the population is about 80 people.

Alfred is on Highway 359 about 12 miles northeast of Alice.  The community was founded in 1888 and was originally named Driscoll.  In 1904, when the St Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway built a line through the Robert Driscoll ranch to the east, Mr. Driscoll wanted the station to be named for him.  Since there could not be two post offices with the same name, the postmaster of old Driscoll agreed to change the name and went on to re-name his community Alfred after his father, Alfred Wright.

The Texas and New Orleans Railroad came through the town in 1907 and the population peaked at 300 in 1927 with a school district, general store and six cattle breeders.  Today it is estimated to have a population of ten.

In 1869, two brothers named Robert and William Adams, originally from England, established the Tecolote Ranch near Alfred.  They fenced their land and began to breed and raise cattle.  The Adams brothers were among the first to bring Durham bulls to Texas.  My very good friend, Bernard “Wig” Adams of Freer, is a direct descendant of those Adams brothers.

Wade City and Watermelons…

Casa Blanca was twenty miles northeast of Alice and two miles southwest of Sandia.  It was originally established in 1754 by a Mexican captain from Laredo and was once used as a mission.  In 1807 the Montemayor family purchased and used the caliche block building as a ranch house until 1896 when John L. Wade bought it.  Mr. Wade established Wade City adjacent to Casa Blanca, and the two had a combined population of 150, with a Methodist Church, a general store, a gin and a lumberyard.

Wade City did not prosper and the post office ceased operation in 1922.  In 1936, the heirs of John Wade petitioned for the site to revert to them as pastureland.  Casa Blanca continued to be an independent community, but by 1945 only ruins remained.

Sandia is on Highway 359 twenty-two (22) miles northeast of Alice. It was originally part of the Casa Blanca/Wade Ranch.  Upon Mr. Wade’s death the ranch was divided among his heirs and, in 1907, a portion of it became the town of Sandia.  The name Sandia, Spanish for “watermelon”, was chosen because of the large number of watermelons grown in the area.

In 1927, Sandia was home to 500 people and had a lumberyard, hardware store, two grocery stores, a meat market, general store and cotton gin.  In later years a fungus settled in the soil and watermelon production ceased. 

During the 1950s and 1960s, Sandia was home to the Knolle Diary Farms, the World’s Largest Jersey Herd.  The family has since divided the farms and a portion of it is now the Knolle Farms Bed, Barn and Breakfast.  Today the population of Sandia is estimated at 215.

Fallen Heroes Memorial…

Fast forward to the present day and my recent visit to this cornucopia of collections.  It would have been difficult for me to decide which display to visit first, but Betty had a plan in mind (as always, I found out) and introduced me to one of the Museum volunteers, Cliff Kesinger. 

Cliff lost his son in Iraq in 2005 and has dedicated himself to the Museum since that time. He is active in the Gold Star Fathers organization (fathers of US military “fallen warriors”) and maintains the Fallen Hero Memorial located in front of the Museum.  This memorial was dedicated on September 30, 2006 and currently lists the name of 236 Fallen Heroes from Texas.

The Museum Military Room was a favorite of mine, and I know I will visit it again and again in the future.  Not only does it tell the story of Orange Grove area veterans but it also houses the family history notebooks and related material.  Betty told me that these archives are often used by area students and local historians for research projects.  The comfortable tables and chairs do invite interested persons to “sit a spell” and read.  I was pleased to see that one of the notebooks told the story of the Hillmer family.  Geraldine Hillmer Miller has been one of my dear friends for many years.

Blue Star Mothers…

Uniforms dating from World War I and to the present day line display cases and are hung on the walls of the Military Room.  There is also a display of foreign paper money that has been brought home by the local soldiers.  A bill showing the likeness of Saddam Hussein caught my eye right away.

As Cliff was telling me about the Gold Star Fathers organization, he asked if I was familiar with the Blue Star Mothers.  Without much thought, I told him no.  He went on to explain that Blue Star Mothers (and Fathers) are those whose children are serving in the military.  And, it has been a custom since World War II for these Mothers to hang a flag in the window displaying a blue star to show the world that a member of the family is protecting our freedom and our country. 

Recently this custom has been revived to show that these children are serving in Iraq or Afghanistan.   It then dawned on me that the banker and I displayed just such a flag when our Navy son served in Afghanistan during 2005.  So I guess that makes me a Blue Star Mother. 

Arrowheads and Beauty Shops…

I next met Museum volunteer Rick Stowers.  Rick not only has a room full of remarkable Indian arrowheads but also serves as the Museum jack-of-all-trades.  His collection of over 2,000 genuine arrowheads is located in the Southwest Room, and it also includes a teepee and deer hides.  A recording of a babbling brook and bird sounds add to the authentic feel of this impressive display.

Artifacts donated from the local residents reflect life in the Orange Grove area in the late 1800s and early 1900s.  You will find reproductions of an early parlor, hotel lobby, barbershop, kitchen, beauty shop, bank, hardware store and much more. 

One of my favorite displays was the Permanent Wave Machine in the beauty shop area.  This interesting electrical contraption of wires and rods was invented by Marjorie Joyner and patented in 1928.  Ms. Joyner was the first African-American woman to receive a patent.

In short, the hair was wrapped in heavy brass rods that were attached by wires to the machine suspended overhead.  A processing fluid was applied to help create a “permanent” curl to the strands of hair.  Once the rods were fastened and the fluid applied, the electricity was turned on.  The process could take several hours and often burned the customer’s hair.  It could be said that these Permanent Wave Machines were the forerunners to the now popular electric curlers designed for home use.

In 1939 these Permanent Wave Machines sold for $700.  Today you can order your own on Amazon.com for a mere $3,000.

The Oil Industry, Quilts and Feed Sacks…

Another exhibit that caught my eye was the Salute to the Oil Industry, a re-creation of the early oilfield Boom Town of Burkburnett located in North Texas.  This display also included a newspaper article dated May 1982 about the Energy Industry of Jim Wells County and Alice.  Featured in this article was another friend of mine, Bernie DeLaune, president of DeLaune Drilling of Alice.  I also can’t help but mention that my daddy was born in Burkburnett in 1923 during this very boom era recreated in the Museum.

The part of the Museum that was once Roth’s Mobil Service Station now houses numerous vehicles of the past including a 1928 Model A owned by Earl Nesloney.  This shiny, blue vehicle is in tiptop condition and appears in various local parades.

Near the Model A is the Log Cabin filled with authentic pioneer furnishings.  Numerous quilts, once used by a local family, are hung on the wall.  Sewing supplies are in a basket and Bull Durham tobacco pouches are on a table.  Betty pointed out one quilt on the wall and told me it was called a Bull Durham quilt. 

It is so named because it was made by sewing together scores of the Bull Durham cotton tobacco pouches.  Once empty of tobacco, the threads are pulled from the seams and the gold string at the top of the pouch is also removed.  When done, you have a square of material for your new quilt.  Then the unused thread and gold string taken from the pouch are saved to use as thread to sew the squares of cotton together.  Waste not, want not…..

During the same lesson, Betty told me that those early settlers had numerous uses for several items including feed sacks.  Once the sacks were empty, they were laundered and used to make dresses, shirts and underwear.  One sack would make a pair of underwear, two sacks would make a shirt and three sacks would make a dress.  Oh, and sugar sacks were used to make baby dresses. 

Gee, there are so many things to see at the Museum, and I haven’t even scratched the surface for you, so I guess you’ll have to make plans to visit one day.  They are open Wednesday through Saturday, 10 am to 4 pm.  The Museum welcomes special group tours and school children, and their research room of family histories is always open to the public.  There is no admission charge but donations are welcome. Call 361 384-1300 for more information.

And, be sure and take time to visit the restored 1915 Rock Island Train Caboose.  Volunteer Larry Taber did a lot of that restoration work (and he was one of those folks caught without a seat belt!).  Another regular volunteer is Gar Bradshaw and a couple more of the faithful are Diana McLaglen and Effie Schacherl. Thanks to Betty Box and all of these people for an educational and entertaining day!