Texas History, Family History, and Scratching the Itch

                            Day One:  The Alamo and The Travis Letter

I have found that my passion is History.  This encompasses Texas History, U. S. History, and of course Family History.  I've had this yearning, this itch, if you will, to see, experience, read about, document, and share history, especially family history.  (That sharing thing is much to the chagrin of the family sometimes - in other words I tend to go on and on and on ....... but I digress.)

Now that I am retired, I am finding more time available for my passion.  Last year I made a visit with some of the family to our grandparent's home in Concho County.  I've been to Virginia with Kay and her cousin Tom to visit the place where their great-grand parents lived and I visited Jamestown, Williamsburg, Yorktown and other historical sites while in Virginia.  I've been to Washington-on-the-Brazos and other historic places in Texas.  I'm starting to really pursue my passion or "scratch the itch".

Last February 22, 2013, I was reading the newspaper and came across an article about the letter Lt. Col. William Barret Travis wrote at the Alamo, Feb 24, 1836.  Travis sent the letter out by a courier, Albert Martin, who slipped through the Mexican Army lines that encircled them.  Travis addressed the letter to "The People of Texas & All Americans in the World".  He then asked for reinforcements and concluded the letter with his now famous "Victory or Death".  Of course sufficient help did not come.  On March 1st, John Smith led 32 brave men from Gonzales into the fort but the large numbers hoped for and needed by Travis never came. On March 6, 1836, the fort was overrun by the Mexican army and all the brave defenders of the Alamo were killed.

Now, here it is, the letter was was going to be returning to the Alamo for the first time in 177 years.  It was to be on display for a very short time.  My first thought was "I've got to see this letter!  If I don't go see it now I may never get another chance."  Since we were traveling to California to see Wes and Jeoffery and the grandchildren the next weekend, I only had a limited window of opportunity, March 4th - 7th, to go. I asked Kay if she wanted to go to San Antonio.  She said she was working that week, so I started my plans to go alone.

I set out early on Tuesday, March 5th, heading to San Antonio.  We had just gotten back from California on Sunday and the exhibit ended on Thursday.  I didn't want to go on the last day and Wednesday, the 6th was the anniversary of the fall of the Alamo, so I thought those two days might be really busy.  That left Tuesday the 5th as the day to go.

As I drove closer and closer to San Antonio I got more and more excited.  I found my way downtown and cruised into the parking lot behind the Alamo.  Kay would have been shocked to know I made it there so easy.  The lot was not packed and I quickly found a place to park, so I was feeling good about my prospects.  As I walked around the corner to the front of the Alamo, my heart sank a little seeing the long line.  My first thoughts were to hit the restroom, skip lunch, grab a candy bar, and get in line. I took care of that as quickly as I could (or as quickly as a 62 year old man can, if you know what I mean) and got in the line around 1:00 pm and was ready to go.

Waiting in Line in front of the Alamo Church, March 5, 2013.  The really long part of the line is off to the right side and not in view in this photo.

It took a few minutes standing there chatting with other people in line and looking around before I fully grasped the situation regarding the length of the line.  I had not paid close enough attention to where the line actually went.  This long line I thought I was in was only a small part of the actual line.  Instead of going straight ahead and then turning toward the door, the line traveled to the edge of the Alamo Church and disappeared back into the deep recesses of a covered area, where it wound like a snake, back and forth, back and forth, before re-emerging to head toward the door.  Okay, add at least another hour to my 30 to 45 minute estimated wait time.  (A guide later said the wait was more like 2 to 2 1/2 hours.)  I wasn't sure the old bladder could hold out that long.  Just as I was starting to despair about getting half way through the line and then needing to go to the restroom, thus losing my spot in line and having to start all over, I caught a lucky break.  A man standing by a small kiosk was explaining to the lady in front of me that if you were a member of "Allies of the Alamo" you received expedited entrance to all Alamo exhibits, including this one. "How much?",  I asked.  "Forty dollars," he said.  I handed him my credit card, became a member, and headed to the front of the line.  Within 10 minutes I was inside.  Man, best 40 bucks I ever spent!  I went through the exhibit, toured the grounds, spent money at the gift shop, and was heading to the parking lot, all before the time that it would have taken me just to get through that long line.  It was a fantastic deal!!

Next in line at the door with mounting excitement, March 5, 2013.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.  I was excited as I stood before the door, waiting behind only a couple people, for my turn.  Finally, I was ushered through that big wooden door that leads into the Alamo Church. I got that same feeling I get every time I go there.  It is a feeling of pride mixed with a sense of recognition of the ultimate sacrifice that brave men made there. There is even a feeling of reverence for what this shrine means to Texas, and many more feelings that are just too hard to explain with my limited writing ability. When you walk in, there is a quietness that overtakes you.  People are asked to remove their hats.  Everyone speaks in hushed tones.  You are not allowed to touch the walls or any part of the structure, and of course there are no photographs allowed.

Most of us think of this building as "The Alamo", but this is really only one small part of what the Alamo Fort actually consisted of in 1836.  This iconic building, that is so widely recognized, is the Alamo Church.  This and the long barracks are all that are left of the original Alamo which consisted of the outer walls and cannon placements, the men's quarters, Travis' quarters, the low barracks, cattle pens, the long barracks, and the church.

Source:  "The Alamo". The Portal to Texas History. http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth30285/. Accessed January 20, 2014.

I added the location of Lt. Col. William Barret Travis' headquarters and the location where he was killed.

Once inside the Alamo Church, there was an exhibit of various period artifacts as well as some of Lt. Col. William Barret Travis' personal items.  I couldn't help but be transported back in time as I tried to imagine things as they were then.  It was all very interesting and my excitement increased until at last I was in front of "The Travis Letter".  If you don't like history it's okay to tune out now, because you will think I am crazy when you read what I have to say next.

Standing a couple feet away from this 177 year old letter, I tried to let my mind imagine the scene on Feb 24, 1836.  Lt. Col. Travis was sitting in the Alamo with a hand full of men surrounded by Santa Anna's Mexican army of one thousand or more.  Santa Anna had sent Travis a command to surrender or be put to the sword There would be no surrender, no survival if he lost the battle.  Col. Travis had this very piece of paper on his desk in front of him, pen in hand.  What thoughts must have been racing through his mind?  Did he realistically think they would be able to survive this siege and fight their way out?  Did he believe help would come?  I think he new exactly what was going to happen, though I do believe he held on to a small glimmer of hope by writing the letter.

As I stood and looked at this creased, faded, aged, and fragile, 177 year old piece of paper, I could feel a presence that is hard to describe. This is the very place, the Church, where the women and children found safety in the Sacristy, the very place where the last defenders of the Alamo made their last stand and died. How can one not feel their lingering presence?  Realizing Travis had handled this paper, as well as other great men of that time in Texas history who would handle it later, and that Travis had written these words that would be read and quoted for 177 years, by thousands of people, these words that would take on such deep meaning for Texans.  Travis' letter to the world, along with the martyrdom of the men at the Alamo, became the catalyst that ignited the people of Texas to fight and eventually win Texas' freedom.

I only took a few minutes to read and ponder the letter before I moved on outside the church into the bright sunshine that greeted me.  I walked around but my mind was still inside the Alamo Church, inside with the subdued lighting and quiet stillness, reflecting on Travis' words.  His words took on so much greater and deeper meaning to me as I stood there reading, inside the Alamo Church, 177 years after Travis wrote:

Commandancy of the Alamo
Bejar, Feby. 24th. 1836 -

To the People of Texas & all Americans in the world -   

Fellow citizens & compatriots-

I am besieged, by a thousand or more of the Mexicans under Santa Anna - I have sustained a continual Bombardment & cannonade for 24 hours & have not lost a man - The enemy has demanded a surrender at discretion, otherwise, the garrison are to be put to the sword, if the fort is taken - I have answered the demand with a cannon shot, & our flag still waves proudly from the walls - I shall never surrender or retreat.  Then, I call on you in the name of Liberty, of patriotism & everything dear to the American character to come to our aid, with all dispatch - The enemy is receiving reinforcements daily & will no doubt increase to three or four thousand in four or five days.  If this call is neglected, I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible & die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his own honor & that of his country -  Victory or Death.

William Barret Travis.
Lt. Col. comdt

P.S. The Lord is on our side - When the enemy appeared in sight we had not three bushels of corn - We have since found in deserted houses 80 or 90 bushels and got into the walls 20 or 30 head of Beeves -

Travis

William Barret Travis' letter from the Alamo, Febuary 24, 1836.  Archives and Information Services Division, Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
https://www.tsl.texas.gov/exhibits/texas175/travisletter-2.html

The content that is published on or collected via our (TSL) Web site is public information as described in the Public Information Act. The following discloses the information gathering and dissemination practices for the Texas State Library and Archives Commission Web site: Effective Date: April 22, 2013.  See website for full disclosure. 


I will continue with day two of my trip in another post.

Armistead Family History #2 - Armisteads in England

                                                         Early Armisteads

My grandmother on my father's side, or my paternal grandmother, is Alice (Armistead) Meixner.  She married Harmon Meixner (my paternal grandfather) in 1905.  Over the last year I wrote on this blog about the Meixner family history.  I am now going to attempt to write about my Armistead line.

 Alice Armistead as a young woman.

When I was trying to decide which line or branch of my family tree I would write about next, I kept trying to avoid the Armistead line.  I was (and still am) intimidated by the Armistead family.  The Armistead family has a rich history of men and women of significant importance.  They were a part of the founding colonists that came to Virginia, they held, with honor, positions of leadership in the legislative offices of Virginia. Armisteads served with distinction and fame in high positions of the military in the English colony of Virginia, in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the Civil War, as well as other wars.  Armistead women are at the head of the maternal line of many well known and historical family lines. A number of books and countless papers have been written on the Armistead family.  Even though I was intimidated by all this previous material, I finally decided it was a natural progression to write about the Armistead line next, so here I go.

I hope that anyone reading this blog will feel welcome to send me corrections or additions.  Just put it in the comment section or if you prefer, send it to me in an email: dmmei27@gmail.com.

I will attempt to be as accurate as possible, just as I always do, but there are many different theories out there about various lines of the Armistead family.  I have read and will be relying on many learned scholars of Armistead genealogy, many from the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, that contributed greatly to the discussion of genealogy in general, as well as Armistead genealogy specifically. They did not always agree in their conclusions though, so I have tried to piece together information from the sources that I believe to have laid down the most convincing arguments.  I will also endeavor to list in the references all sources for the conclusions I came to.

My immigrant ancestor, William Armistead (usually named as "The Immigrant"), moved from Kirk Deighton in North Yorkshire, England to the royal colony of Virginia in 1635. A shire is like a U.S. county.  North Yorkshire is located about 200 miles a little northwest of London.  William's wife is Anne (Ellis) Armistead. He arranged for her passage to the colony in 1636. (1)  Before delving further into William and Anne's descendants though, I am going to go back a few years and write a little bit about the Armisteads in North Yorkshire, England.

On the map below I drew an arrow approximately to the lower boundary of North Yorkshire, one of the largest shires in England.  

Google Map of The United Kingdom.  Arrow points to North Yorkshire.

There are many spelling variations of the Armistead name.  A few variations include Del Armsted, first noted circa 1379, Ermystead, Armsteed, Armststead, Armstead, and Armistead to name a few. (2)  One Armistead or Ermystead of note is William Ermystead. A few weeks ago Pat Lyons sent me information on this William Ermystead.  Pat is my cousin-in-law.  She is married to a cousin who is descended from the Florida Armisteads. (You will read more about this family in future blogs.)  It turns out Pat is the genealogist in the family so she is the one working on the Armistead line.  We connected several years ago through the internet and on-line postings about the Armistead family.  I don't know if I am related to William Ermystead but I think the probability is good due to the name and the proximity to the other Armisteads in this area.  At any rate he is a very interesting person that I hope to document a relationship to at some point.  I'm going to relate a little bit of information about him before I go on to the line I am directly descended from.

Located in Skipton, North Yorkshire, England, is a school called Ermystead's Grammar School.  The school was established by Peter Toller in 1492.  Yeah, that would be the same year that Columbus sailed the ocean blue.  However, years later, a second, and very significant benefactor, made a very important contribution toward establishing the ongoing viability of this school. It was so significant in fact that the school was given his name.  This benefactor was William Ermystead.

In the map below I have arrows to the location of Skipton and Kirk Deighton.

Google Map with arrow pointing to Skipton in North Yorkshire, where Ermystead's Grammar School is located.  Also, an arrow pointing to the parish of Kirk Deighton where my Armistead ancestors lived.

Quoting from the school website:  William Ermystead, "had been a prominent figure in Henry VIII's London, as Canon of St. Paul's, 'clerk of the Kings Chancery', and Master of the Temple.  On the 1st of September 1548 William Ermystead's re-foundation deeds for the Chantry School (this is the school name as established by Toller) were executed and on the 12th of December 1551 the deeds were enrolled on the Close Rolls." What this means is, "Essentially these documents recorded the land which he wished to present to the School in order that it be supported in the future,..."  So the Rev. William Ermystead gave his possessions to support the school on a sustaining basis and the school assumed the name of Ermystead's Grammar School.  After more than 500 years in existence, this school continues as a vibrant, growing school. (3)

If you would like to read more about the history of this school the website is:  http://www.ermysteds.n-yorks.sch.uk/general/history.htm,

To better understand William Ermystead's importance, here is a little additional background about The Temple Church in London.  The Round Church was built by the Knights Templar and consecrated in 1185 (The church has two parts.  See photos below.)  I'll save you the math, that's 828 years ago.  Between 1536 and 1540, King Henry VIII abolished the monasteries and confiscated their property.  After that, the Temple Church belonged to Henry and it was up to him to provide the priest for the church.  The term "Master of the Temple" was given to the priest of the Temple Church by Henry.  It has been said "The Temple Church is one of the most historic and beautiful churches in London."  (4)

Description:   Temple Church, Temple, London 
Date:              24 March 2009
Source:           en.wikipedia.org, geograph.org.uk
Author:           John Salmon
Permission:         This image was taken from the Geograph project collection. See this photograph's page on the Geograph website for the photographer's contact details. The copyright on this image is owned by John Salmon and is licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license.

Description:    Temple Church in London - exterior view of the church
Date:               9 December 2004
Source:            en.wikipedia.org: 17:48, 29. Mai 2005 
Author:            AlanFord
Permission:           This work has been released into the public domain by its author, AlanFord at the English Wikipedia project. This applies worldwide.In case this is not legally possible:AlanFord grants anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.

Description:         Temple Church in London - the knight effigy tombs· 
Date:                    9 December 2004
Source:                 en.wikipedia.org
Author:                 Alan Ford
Permission:                  This work has been released into the public domain by its author, AlanFord at the English Wikipedia project. This applies worldwide.In case this is not legally possible:AlanFord grants anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.

According to the book The History of the Knights Templars, The Temple Church, and The Temple, "William Ermstead (spelled without the y) was the Master of the Temple at the Dissolution of the Priories (the action mentioned above taken by Henry VIII), and died in 1559" (Master of the Temple was a lifetime position). (5)

The Ermystead coat of arms is posted on the school site and is shown below.  It is the same structure as later Armistead coat of arms. Later renderings have additional items added around the edges, but the basic description of the Armistead Coat of Arms is the same.  This would be another piece of evidence that tells me I might have a right to claim being related to William Ermystead.

Coat of Arms from Ermystead's Grammar School website.  Suivez La Raison means Follow Reason. This was sent to me by Pat Lyons.

Armistead Coat of Arms copied from the book The Armistead Family, by Virginia Armistead Garber. A note at the bottom of the picture says this was taken from a drawing by Tiffany, New York.

As for my documented Armistead ancestors, I used a couple of sources that have concluded that ROBERT Armetsted (note the spelling) of Kirk Deighton, North Yorkshire, England, is the earliest ancestor found of William Armistead, "The Immigrant". Kirk Deighton was a church parish at that time, it is now a civil parish. (See map above for location.)  ROBERT was born circa 1490.  (Circa meaning:  "sometime around".)  His will was probated 10 March 1533, in which he named three surviving children:  JOHN, William, and Christopher.  His wife was listed in the will only as:  "Executors:  Wife and children..."

JOHN Armistead's will (again note the change in spelling) was probated 2 Oct 1567. My best guess is he was born circa 1510 - 1520.  He listed six children living at the time his will was written.  They are Robert, Edmund, John, ROGER, Anthony, and Mawde. Again, no wife's name.  For the first three generations of Armisteads we have Robert, John, and Roger Armistead. (6)       

King Henry VII  (1457 - 1509)  King from 22 Aug 1485 - 21 April 1509.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/Henry_Seven_England.jpg

In the late 1400s in England the "Wars of the Roses" had been waging for years between the house of Lancaster and the house of York. In 1485 a decisive battle between Richard III and Henry Tudor was fought.  Henry won the battle and Richard was killed.  Henry Tudor was crowned King Henry VII, he then married Elizabeth of York, bringing together the two houses and solidifying his hold on the throne.  This was the beginning of a more than one hundred year reign of the Tudors.  Henry had 7 children by Elizabeth of York. The second son, Henry born in 1491, was the eldest surviving son when Henry VII died in 1509. Henry ascended to the throne as King Henry VIII. (7)

King Henry VIII  (1491 - 1547)  King from 1509 - 1547.

Source:   http://www.britannia.com/history/monarchs/mon41.html  

Upon accession to the throne, Henry VIII married Catherine of Aragon, the widow of his brother Arthur. She gave him one child, a daughter, Mary.  Early in his reign, the young king defeated Scottish forces at the Battle of Flodden Field, in which James IV of Scotland was killed.  In 1515, Thomas Wolsey, Archbishop of York, was made Lord Chancellor of England and Cardinal. The youthful king preferred to rule by traveling the countryside hunting and reviewing his subjects.  Cardinal Wolsey virtually ruled England until 1529. (8)

In 1517 Martin Luther nailed his "95 Theses" to the church door at Wittenberg protesting the Catholic practice of selling indulgences.  With this action, the Protestant Reformation was launched. (9)  By the late 1520s, Henry's involvement in governing was growing and he was obsessed with having a male heir to the throne.  Henry sent Thomas Wolsey to see Pope Clement VII to convince the pope to annul Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon.  An annulment would free him to marry Anne Boleyn.  Wolsey tried repeatedly to get the marriage annulled but was unsuccessful.  Henry dismissed Wolsey and began cutting ties with the church of Rome. In 1533 he divorced Catherine of Aragon and married the pregnant Anne Boleyn.  Henry VIII was promptly excommunicated by Pope Clement.  In 1534 Henry orchestrated the passage and enactment of the Act of Supremacy and the declaration of Henry VIII supreme head of the Church of England. Henry dissolved the monasteries or priories and confiscated their lands and revenues.

Unfortunately for Henry (but mostly for Anne Boleyn) his new wife delivered a daughter, Elizabeth, rather than a male heir. Anne fell out of favor with the king and was charged with infidelity and was executed in May 1536. By the end of May, Henry was married again, this time to Jane Seymour.  She delivered Henry's only male heir in Oct. of 1537. The little baby survived but Jane died in child birth.  As I stated before, this was the time when Henry began the dissolution of monasteries in England and confiscating their property. William Ermystead (who I mentioned in an earlier paragraph) would have been the Master of The Temple at this time.

By 1540 Henry married again.  This time to Catherine Howard, who would last less than two years until she was executed for infidelity.  Catherine Parr was his last wife.  She survived past Henry's death, which came in 1547. (10)

Next time I'll continue with the Armistead line and English history that covers the next 80 or 90 years.

References:
(1)  Boddie, John Bennett, Historical Southern Families, Vol II,  Genealogical publishing Company, Baltimore, 1958, pg 5.
(2)  Harris, John Michael, Camberwell, London, England.  Article placed on the Enchanted World website:   http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~enchantedworld/Armistead/index-english.htm
(3)  http://www.ermysteds.n-yorks.sch.uk/general/history.htm
(4)  http://www.templechurch.com/history-2/
(5)  Addison, Charles G., Esq., The History of The Knights Templars, The Temple Church, and The Temple, Longman, brown, Green, and Longmans, London, 1842.  http://www.gutenberg.org/files/13139/13139-8.txt
(6)  Boddie, John Bennett, Historical Southern Families, Vol II,  Genealogical publishing Company, Baltimore, 1958, pg 3-4.
(7)  http://tudorhistory.org/henry7/
(8)  http://www.britannia.com/history/monarchs/mon41.html
(9)  http://britannia.com/history/reftime.html
(10)  http://www.britannia.com/history/monarchs/mon41.html

Meixner Family History #28 - Epilogue Part 11

                                                           1950 to 1962

The year of 1950 is a very important year to me.  It is the year I was born.  I don't know about you but everything I encounter in studying history is referenced to or compared to my birth year.  It is a year I count from each birthday so I'm always aware of it.  Each historical event is either BIWB or AIWB in my frame of reference:  Before I Was Born or After I Was Born.

As I have researched and written about each decade, I have found there have been more things I was familiar with as I got closer to 1950.  But as I started looking at the 1950's, where I remember things first hand, I found many more things to relate to.  Okay maybe not starting with 1950 to 1953 but somewhere after that I started to remember things and of course it all became more personal and of more interest.

So, as I write about 1950 to 1962, I will be listing a lot more items of significance to me than I have from the previous decades.  Please bear with me.

From a national perspective the year 1950 starts off with yet another war, as the Korean War begins when North Korean forces invade South Korea on June 25, 1950.  In January of 1953 Dwight D. Eisenhower was inaugurated as the 34th president of the United States.  President Eisenhower is one of my favorite presidents because I was named after him.  My first name is Dwight.  General Eisenhower was immensely popular during and after World War II.

Description:  Dwight D. Eisenhower photo portrait.
Date:  29 May 1959
Source:  www.eisenhower.archives.gov/audiovisual/select_list_of_portraits.html Metadata] - 
Author:  White House
Permission:  This image is a work of an employee of the Executive Office of the President of the United States, taken or made as part of that person's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.

The Korean War finally ended on July 27, 1953. It's conclusion produced a dividing line between the two Korea's along the 38th parallel.  That is the same dividing line that had been in place before the war began. Though classified as a "Police Action" by the U.S., the war would claim an estimated 5 million lives before it's end.  More that half of those deaths were Korean civilians.  The U.S. casualties included more than 40,000 dead and 100,000 wounded. (1)

Description:  Korean War: A gun crew checks their equipment near the Kum River. 15 July 1950. Korea. Signal Corps Photo #24/SIG-FEC-50-4242
Date:  15 July 1950
Source:  http://www.history.army.mil/photos/Korea/kor1950/SC343463.jpg
Author:  Signal Corps Photo
Licensing:  This image is a work of a U.S. Army soldier or employee, taken or made as part of that person's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.

Another ratcheting up of the ever escalating "Cold War" came on Oct 4, 1957. On that date the Soviet Union launched the satellite "Sputnik".  The implications of what this capability might mean in terms of an attack on the U.S spread fear across the U.S.  In 1958 the U.S. founded NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) to compete with the Soviets in the "Space Race".  A revolution in Cuba occurred in 1959 and produced Fidel Castro as Cuba's dictator. (2)

President Eisenhower served two terms so 1960 was an election year.  The United States held it's first televised presidential debates during that election year and in January 1961 John F. Kennedy was inaugurated as the 35th president of the United States.

Description:  John F. Kennedy, photograph in the Oval Office.
Date:  11 July 1963
Source:  http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset+Tree/Asset+Viewers/Image+Asset+Viewer.htm?guid={B9C835C6-2EF1-4C3F-A600-B4BE064F1A20}&type=Image
Author:  Cecil Stoughton, White House
Licensing:  This image is a work of an employee of the Executive Office of the President of the United States, taken or made as part of that person's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.

President Kennedy's first year in office would be one for the history books.  Yuri Gagarin of the Soviet Union became the first person to travel into space and the first person to orbit the earth on April 12, 1961. Alan Shepard would become the first American to fly into space on May 5, 1961, but it would be Feb 20, 1962 before the U.S. would have someone orbit the earth when John Glenn orbited the earth three times. (3)

Space was not the only area where the USSR was active in 1961.  East Berlin had been controlled by the Soviet Union since the end of World War II and West Berlin had been controlled by the Allies.  In the summer of 1961 the U.S.S.R. demanded that all western Allies leave West Berlin.  Of course the Allies refused and tensions quickly escalated. The Soviet Union then built a wall separating and isolating West Berlin from East Berlin to prevent anyone from fleeing East Germany or East Berlin into West Berlin. (4)

President Kennedy and the U.S. were not exactly inactive in 1961.  In February of 1961he authorized the go ahead of a CIA plan formulated the year before, during President Eisenhower's last year, to invade Cuba using Cuban exiles.  On April 17, 1961 the invasion took place at the Bay of Pigs and resulted in complete failure.  Also, in 1961 around 900 military advisers were sent to South Vietnam.  Some point to this action as the official start of the Vietnam War. (5)

In 1962 the United States and the U.S.S.R. came dangerously close to nuclear war during the "Cuban Missile Crisis".  The U.S. discovered the Soviets were building missile installations in Cuba and immediately demanded their removal and moved to isolate Cuba.  Intense, behind the scenes negotiations averted this looming nightmare. (6)

My long list of additional items of note during this time frame are as follows:

1950:  First modern credit cards issued.
           First organ transplant.
           First "peanuts" cartoon strip.
           The beginning of "McCarthyism" (1950 to 1954).
1951:  "I Love Lucy" premieres.
           Color TV introduced.
1952:  Car seat belts introduced.
           Princess Elizabeth becomes Queen of England at the age of 25.
1953:  DNA discovered.
1954:  Scientific report says cigarettes cause cancer.
           Supreme Court hears "Brown vs Board of Education" and rules segregation illegal.
           The "Tonight Show" premieres.
1955:  Disneyland opens.
           McDonald's Corporation is founded.
           Rosa Parks sparks the Montgomery Bus Boycott when she refused to give up her seat on a bus.
           Jonas Salk develops a polio vaccine.
           Rock and Roll enters mainstream with Bill Haley and his Comets song
           "Rock Around the Clock".
1956:  Elvis appears on the Ed Sullivan Show.
           The remote control is invented.
           Velcro is introduced.
           President Eisenhower's Interstate Highway Act is passed leading to our present
           Interstate system.    
1957:  Dr Seuss publishes "The Cat in the Hat".
           Little Rock, AR school desegregates.
1958:  Hula Hoop becomes popular.
           LEGO Toy Bricks first introduced.
           Peace Symbol is created.
1959:  Alaska and Hawaii become the 49th and 50th states, the last two admitted up to
           this date.
1960:  Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" is released.
           Lasers invented.
           Birth control pill is approved by FDA.
1961:  John F. Kennedy gives his "Man on the Moon" speech.
1962:  First James Bond movie released.
           First Walmart opens.
           James Meredith admitted to segregated University of Mississippi.
           Johnny Carson takes over as the "Tonight Show" host.
           Marilyn Monroe found dead.
           Rachel Carson publishes "Silent Spring". (7)

Each time, as I have looked at a particular time frame in history, I have tried to imagine how those events during that time were viewed by Harmon and Alice Meixner.  It is difficult trying to put yourself inside their minds and trying to think like them.  Generally it is more what I think based on other things I have read. Sometimes I have had what my Dad wrote and that helped me understand the times a little better.  This time I do not have the perspective of my dad because he was married and gone from home.  My cousin, Dale, has a much better perspective of the 1950's in this area around Concho County because he and his parents lived through this time and lived in this area.  Dale's father, Frank Meixner (Harmon and Alice's oldest son and my Uncle) farmed some of the north part of granddad's land for a while before buying his own farm just to the north of the old home place.  I'm sure he was a great comfort and help to Harmon and Alice as well as a great help to the rest of the family.  Dale mentioned to me his dad helped support each brother and sister that chose to go to college.

From articles I've read about the late 1940's, it appears that the economy had improved after the end of the war.  People seemed to be optimistic about the future.  I think Harmon and Alice were probably feeling good about their prospects going into the 1950's.  Once again, optimism and good feelings would turn into struggle and pain.  No one could have predicted in 1950 that Texas was moving into a seven year drought, a drought that "drove people to town" (8).  This phrase was heard often during this time and was a phenomenon that happened all over Texas.  Many people left their farms and moved to the cities to try to find work.  During this decade the rural population dwindled from more than 33% to just 25% of the total population. (9)  Dale said his dad, who had been a barber part time while farming in earlier years, was forced to go back into the Barbering business during this drought.  He was a barber and part time farmer. He bought his own Barber Shop in 1958 and continued to ranch part time after that.

I am sure granddad struggled during this drought, but the biggest blow of all came on September 13, 1953, when Harmon's wife of almost 48 years, partner in raising seven children and managing the family farm, passed away, probably of cancer, at the age of 72.

An early photograph of Alice Meixner sent to me by Claudia Brown.

Granddad and Grandmother Harmon and Alice Meixner.  Sent to me by Oneta Eubanks.

Grandmother Alice Meixner in her later years.  Due to my bad record keeping I lost who sent this to me but I think it was Claudia.

How did granddad survive these years?  Somehow he did.  I am sure it was a comfort and a great help to granddad that their youngest child, Victor, stayed on to help him farm.

Finally, in 1957, the rains came and when they did, they did not stop.  The drought ended but it ended the only way it ever does in Texas, it Flooded!  It proceeded to rain so much and so long that the ensuing floods caused $120 million in damages and claimed 22 lives. (10)  Granddad made it through the drought and continued to farm through the 1950's in to the 1960's.  This is a picture of granddad that was given to me many years ago. It was said he was in his 80's when it was taken.  He told the person that took it that he was about to go down and bring a bull up from the pasture.

Harmon Meixner in front of his house.  Sent to me sometime in the late 1970's by my Aunt Peaches.

Harmon Meixner in the living room of his home.  Picture was in my Dad's possessions.

A lifetime of change from one part of the world to another, a lifetime of hard manual labor, a lifetime of tragedy, heartache, and pain, but, I believe, also, a lifetime of joy in living and enjoying his work building a family and a family farm, came to an end on April 15, 1962 when my granddad, Harmon Meixner, died from a heart attack at the age of 83.

Harmon and Alice Meixner's tombstones at the Eden Cemetery near Eden, TX.  Photograph was copied from my Ancestry.com family tree.  I originally copied it from drslogan1 family tree on Ancestry.com as it was submitted to the Gatewood Logan Family Tree on 2 Feb 2013.

My dad had so much love and respect for his father.  I will let his words be the final words about Harmon Meixner.  Here is what he said as a tribute to him:

"My Father only went through the third grade in school.  He never had an opportunity to go further in school, but he did have a chance later in life to learn.  My mother, a school teacher, began to teach him to read and write after they were married.  He must have been an apt student because he learned a lot.  Dad learned to read and write and how to figure.  No man was able to beat him in a business transaction.  When he sold his cattle he got the top price for them.  Cattle buyers made it a practice to go all over the county back in that day.  They would go to people's homes and in a very real sense just beat people out of their herds.  The buyers would go to a man's home and in most cases have a quart or two of whiskey along with him.  His objective was to get the seller to take a few drinks of the booze and get him a little woozy and then purchase his cattle for a low price. My Dad would tell them straight off, 'You are not coming out here and get me intoxicated and beat me out of my cattle,' and they never did."

"When Dad went to town in Ballenger, San Angelo, Paint Rock, Eden, Millersview, Eola, Melvin, Brady or other places he would talk for hours with his friends.  He not only knew the ranchers and businessmen, but he knew the cowboys and others.  Dad knew where ranchers moved to if they had relocated in some other county.  Dad knew ranchers around Menard, Junction, back toward Sonora, and in all directions.  He had a masters degree in connections and in keeping up with people."

"One could not begin to tell all of the skills that my Father was efficient in doing.  Dad knew how to drive cattle, rope them, dehorn them, castrate them, skin them, butcher them, feed them - in fact Dad was a master hand at many things.  He was not timid or afraid to tackle anything.  Dad knew everything about cattle, horses, sheep, goats, hogs, turkeys, chickens, cats, dogs, and you name it.  If he were riding a horse and the horse was running and bucking toward a bluff and there was danger of him running over the bluff, Dad would take his rope down and rope the front feet of the horse that was out of control, bring him to the ground and then the horse would get his feet tied up and would receive a good whipping with the lariat.  The horse would never forget that experience. Dad worked as many as eight horses and mules at one time.  He was little but loud.  We built our own barns, fences, and even the old homestead.  He repaired all types of machinery, including breaking plows, binders, cultivators, harrows, disk harrows, wagons, buggies, hacks - or you just mention it."

"My Father was a community oriented man.  When there were prairie fires, he went out and helped to put them out.  If a neighbor's house burned down, he donated generously to help them.  Dad took his boys and helped tear the old schools down and build new ones.  We helped build the community tabernacle and (classrooms at) the Methodist Church.  When a neighbor died, Mother and Dad helped.  We helped dig graves for all the neighbors that died in that community.  He served as trustee for the Longview and White Point schools for years.  When school began, we cleaned the school, including rooms, toilets and the grounds.  We hauled most of the fuel, which was coal for the schools, and sometimes the water.  My Dad detested any person who would not do his rightful part.  Whether it was a rabbit drive or a sick room, Dad was there to do his part."

"My Dad was a real man.  He was honest, upright and a man of integrity in every respect. I never heard him tell a lie or misrepresent the truth in any respect.  He, in a real sense, was a man made of steel.  He was small, but he was very, very strong.  Dad had a life time of hard work and hard knocks, but he was the kind of man who could take it." (11)

This is my final post about the "Meixner Family History".  When I started aver a year ago, on June 20, 2012, with my first post, I had no idea that over a year later I would still be writing about this family's journey from Bohemia in the Austrian Empire to Concho County, Texas in the United States.

I have developed a much deeper understanding of the tremendous sacrifices that my ancestors made and a much greater appreciation for those sacrifices.  Certainly I have only scratched the surface of the lives of the Meixner Family but it has been a wonderful learning experience for me writing about them.  I feel a lot closer to them and it has helped me appreciate and love them so much more.

Pedigree Chart for Harmon Meixner printed from my family tree on Family Tree Maker.

I hope to write on another line of my family tree sometime in the next few months.  I have to pick the line and do some research first.  Let me know if you have a suggestion.

Thank you for following this blog over the last year.

References:

(1)  http://www.history.com/topics/korean-war
(2)  http://history1900s.about.com/od/timelines/tp/1950timeline.htm
(3)  http://history1900s.about.com/od/timelines/tp/1950timeline.htm
(4)  http://history1900s.about.com/od/timelines/tp/1950timeline.htm
(5)  http://history1900s.about.com/od/timelines/tp/1950timeline.htm
(6)  http://history1900s.about.com/od/timelines/tp/1950timeline.htm
(7)  http://history1900s.about.com/od/timelines/tp/1950timeline.htm
(8)  Burnet, John, "How One Drought Changed Texas Agriculture Forever", July 07, 2012
       6:08 AM

       http://www.npr.org/2012/07/07/155995881/how-one-drought-changed-texas-

       agriculture-forever

(9)  Ibid.
(10)  Ibid.
(11)  Meixner, Robert Harmon, Sr., Memoirs of Robert Harmon Meixner, Sr. July 10, 1910
        – June 13, 1994.  Unpublished.  Compiled by Margaret Avis Meixner, pgs
        18,19,23,24,26.

Meixner Family History #27 - Epilogue Part 10

                                      World War II and The 1940s

As I have worked on the last several blog posts, one thing has really struck me about the Meixner family and that is the number of difficulties they had to overcome.  After Harmon and Alice's marriage in 1905, they had to endure World War I, a severe drought, a flu pandemic, and the Great Depression, and that is only the first three decades!  Now comes the decade of the 1940s and another World War.

War officially started in Europe in 1939, by most accounts, when Germany invaded Poland.  Many countries were involved in two opposing military Alliances:  the Allies and the Axis powers.  World War II as it became known would evolve into the most widespread war in history with the vast majority of the worlds nations involved.  The Allies major countries would eventually end up as Great Britain, France, the United States, and the Soviet Union.  The Axis powers consisted of Germany, Italy and Japan.  Entering into 1940 the Unites States was supplying material aid to Great Britain but had resisted entering the war.  Early on the morning of Dec 7, 1941 everything changed for the United States. (1)

Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii on Oct. 30, 1941.

Description:  Aerial view of the U.S. Naval Operating Base, Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii (USA), looking southwest on 30 October 1941. Ford Island Naval Air Station is in the center, with the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard just beyond it, across the channel. The airfield in the upper left-center is the U.S. Army's Hickam Field.
Date:  30 October 1941
Source:  Official U.S. Navy photograph 80-G-182874, now in the collections of the U.S. National Archives. Also U.S. Navy National Museum of Naval Aviation photo No. 1996.488.029.051
Author:  USN
Permission:  This file is a work of a sailor or employee of the U.S. Navy, taken or made as part of that person's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pearl_Harbor_looking_southwest-Oct41.jpg

In early December Japan moved a huge contingent of air craft carriers and war ships 3000 miles across the Pacific Ocean completely undetected.  They maneuvered into a position 230 miles from the Hawaiian Island of Oahu.  At 7:55 a.m. on Sunday, Dec 7, 1941 Japanese war planes completely surprised Pearl Harbor with a devastating attack. For almost two hours 350 Japanese planes pounded Pearl Harbor.  When the destruction ended the United States had lost more than 2,400 American lives, 21 ships were either sunk or damaged, and more than 188 US aircraft were destroyed.  Reaction in the United States was swift and determined.  War was declared by the United States against Japan the next day.  Little did Japan know what horrible devastation would be unleashed on two of it's cities just four years later.  An end result that was set in motion by this attack in 1941. (2)

A Berlin street on July 3, 1945.

Description:  Scene of destruction in a Berlin street just off the Unter den Linden
Date:  3 July 1945
Source:  This is photograph BU 8604 from the collections of the Imperial War Museums (collection no. 4700-30)
Author:  No 5 Army Film & Photographic Unit, Wilkes A (Sergeant)
Permission:  This artistic work created by the United Kingdom Government is in the public domain.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Destruction_in_a_Berlin_street.jpg

World War II continued into 1945 and would claim 40-50 million lives. (3)  The year of 1945 would turn out to be one of the most momentous years in history.  President Franklin Roosevelt, who had just been reelected to an unprecedented fourth term in office, died suddenly on April 12, 1945.  Vice President Harry S. Truman was sworn in as the 33rd president.

Harry S. Truman (1884–1972)

Description:  Harry S. Truman (1884 – 1972), 1945 – 1953 the thirty-third President of the United States
Date:  circa 1945
Source:  http://www.trumanlibrary.org/photographs/view.php?id=2267
Author:  Frank Gatteri, United States Army Signal Corps
Permission:  This image is a work of a U.S. Army soldier or employee, taken or made as part of that person's official duties. As a work of theU.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Harry-truman.jpg

Upon taking office, President Truman was given details of a project he had not been briefed on while Vice President.  This project had been authorized years earlier by President Roosevelt to try to develop an atomic bomb.  It would become known as the Manhattan Project.  Germany was finally forced to surrender on May 8, 1945.  A short time later President Truman would be informed that members of the Manhattan Project had finally been successful in coming up with the means for making the atomic bomb. President Truman authorized a test of the new technology that project members thought would create a tremendous explosion. As it turned out, the test proved it to be even more powerful than most had expected.

Photograph of the first nuclear test explosion known as the "Trinity" shot.

Description:  Famous color photograph of the "Trinity" shot, the first nuclear test explosion.
Date:  16 July 1945
Source:  This image comes from the Google-hosted LIFE Photo Archive where it is available under the filename 96ad5a9a5c94664e
Author:  Jack W. Aeby, July 16, 1945, as a member of the Special Engineering Detachment at Los Alamos laboratory, working under the aegis of the Manhattan Project.
Permission:  This image is a work of a United States Department of Energy (or predecessor organization) employee, taken or made as part of that person's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Trinity_shot_color.jpg

After the surrender of Germany, Japan continued to wage war and continued to show their willingness to fight to the death.  They refused to surrender.  With the thought of having to invade Japan, and understanding the potential for the loss of thousand and thousands of US solders' lives, President Truman had a terrible choice to make.  He could continue with the conventional war with the resulting loss of US soldiers or he could choose to drop the atomic bomb on Japan, with the expected loss of many thousands of civilian lives. President Truman decided to go forward with dropping the atomic bomb.  On Aug 6, 1945 the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and on Aug 9, 1945 a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. Japan surrendered on Aug 14, 1945, and finally, World War II was over. (4)

Of course that is far from the end of the story.  Instead of leaving those areas they occupied after the war the Soviet Union stayed, and by dropping what Winston Churchill described as "An Iron Curtain" across huge parts of Europe, they were able to impose their communist government on the people of those countries. Then in 1949 it was learned that the Soviet Union had their own Atomic Bomb and the "Cold War" started in full force.

Although the war dominated the 1940s I want to point out several important things that were invented during this decade that are in use today.  Also, a couple of events that had an impact on our present lives.

     1941 - The JEEP was invented.
     1942 - The T-Shirt was first introduced.
     1944 - Ballpoint pens went on sale.
     1945 - First fully functional digital computer was built.
     1945 - The microwave oven was invented.
     1946 - The Bikini swim suit is introduced.
     1947 - The Polaroid Camera was invented.
     1948 - The "Big Bang Theory" was formulated.
     1949 - The first non-stop flight around the world was completed. (5)

In 1940 granddad was 61 years old and grandmother was 59.  The age of 61 is only a couple years younger than I am now.  I don't think I could go out and work a large farm like they did at their age and in fact they would continue to work it for many years to come.  (Of course I couldn't have done it in my prime either but that's another story.)

I would think granddad had a tractor by sometime in the forties and a vehicle to drive but I don't know for sure.  (My cousin, Dale, said his dad, Frank Meixner, bought his first tractor in 1948.)  Also, at some point I would guess they got running water and electricity but, again, I don't know when that took place.  I'm sure some of you reading this might know more about that.  If you do you can add a comment at the bottom or e-mail me.  My email is at the top of the page.

1940 US Census for Concho County listing Harmon, Alice, Robert Harmon, Alberta, Emma, and Victor.

Source Citation:  Year: 1940; Census Place:  , Concho, Texas; Roll: T627_4012; Page: 9A; Enumeration District: 48-1.
Source Information:  Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.
Original data:  United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1940. T627, 4,643 rolls.

As I mentioned last time, by the end of 1940 four of the children were married.  In the 1940 census shown above there are six people listed in the Meixner household.  My dad is listed with the family but it is noted he was away from home.

At the end of 1940 some of the married children were still fairly close by.  Frank and Naomi were farming just to the north of the home place and Mary and Joe were living in Paint Rock.  Others were farther away. Harmon and Avis were in Haskell where Harmon was teaching school.  Alynn and Ross were living in Dallas.

In May of 1941 Emma Meixner married Jim Bob Cox and moved to a farm in Concho County.  In 1946 Alberta (Peaches) Meixner married Vernon Neve and moved to a farm near Melvin in McCulloch County.

In 1945 the youngest son, Victor, enlisted in the military.  He would return home safely from service but I am sure that was a great worry for Harmon and Alice while he was away.  Once back from the service, Victor stayed at home and helped granddad farm.

By the end of the decade Alice and Harmon had seen six of their seven children leave home and marry. Also by the end of the 1940s they had 11 grandchildren.  So, as the decade was coming to an end, I wonder if granddad was looking forward to the new decade and hoping it would be better, with not so many challenges.  Every decade of granddads life had been filled with difficulties.  As it turns out, the decade of the 1950s would present the most difficult challenge he had ever had to face.

Next time the 1950s and 1960s.

References:
(1)  http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/648813/World-War-II
(2)  http://history1900s.about.com/od/worldwarii/a/Attack-Pearl-Harbor.htm  
(3)  http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/648813/World-War-II
(4)  McCullough, David, Truman, Simon & Schuster, New York, New York, 1992.
(5)  http://history1900s.about.com/od/timelines/tp/1940timeline.htm

Meixner Family History #26 - Epilogue Part 9

                                         The Great Depression Years

Early in 1929 Herbert Hoover was inaugurated as the 31st President of the United States.  Everyone believed that Coolidge-Hoover prosperity, as some called it, would continue indefinitely.  Then came the stock market crash in October of 1929.

Herbert C. Hoover, 1928? 

Credit:  Library of Congress
Source:  http://teachpol.tcnj.edu/amer_pol_hist/thumbnail339.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Hoover

Fredrick Lewis Allen writes in his book, "Prosperity is more than an economic condition; it is a state of mind.  The Big Bull Market had been more than the climax of a business cycle; it had been the climax of a cycle in American mass thinking and mass emotion. There was hardly a man or woman in the country whose attitude toward life had not been affected by it in some degree and was not now affected by the sudden and brutal shattering of hope.  With the Big Bull Market gone and prosperity going, Americans were soon to find themselves living in an altered world which  called for new adjustments, new ideas, new habits of thought, and a new order of values.  The psychological climate was changing; the ever-shifting currents of American life were turning into new channels."

"The Post-war Decade had come to its close.  An era had ended."  (1)

Even the weather conspired to deepen the depression.  In 1931 an eight year drought started and temperatures were hotter than normal.  In the areas of southwest Kansas, the Oklahoma panhandle, the Texas panhandle, northeastern New Mexico, and southeastern Colorado the land was devastated during this decade by drought and soil erosion.  Years of poor soil conservation by the farmers in the region set the stage for the disaster.  Huge dust storms called "Black Blizzards" blotted out the sun, destroyed crops, and made the area unbearable for people living there.  Millions of people were forced to leave their homes and move west looking for jobs.  John Steinbeck wrote his classic novel "The Grapes of Wrath" about the plight of the migrants as they moved west from this area looking for work in a time of great depression in the country.  His book won the Pulitzer Prize in 1940.  The horrible conditions in this area improved some after the passage of the Soil Conservation Act of 1935 and a concerted effort in the area towards soil conservation.  But their bleak situation was not alleviated until the rain came in 1939. (2)

Dust storm approaching Stratford, Texas. 

Photo Date:  April 18, 1935
Credit:  NOAA George E. Marsh Album

http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/historic/c&gs/theb1365.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dust-storm-Texas-1935.png  

T.H. Watkins wrote "It was the worst of times, a terrible, scarring experience that changed this country and its people forever."

"Consider fear.  Even if they did not lose their jobs or go hungry themselves, even if the terror of want passed over them without touching them, most Americans felt its passage like a cold, unforgettable wind." (3)

I know The Great Depression had a profound effect on my parents.  They were 12 and 19 when it started in 1929 so they lived through it during their formative years.  As I was growing up I realized the depression had made an indelible impression on their lives and the way they viewed the world.  Surviving The Great Depression was a part of who they were.

President Hoover struggled for four years to make a dent in the depression. Unemployment in 1932 stood at more than 24%. (4)  Fear and hopelessness gripped the nation.  So in 1932 the nation voted for a change in leadership and in 1933 Franklin Delano Roosevelt was inaugurated as the 32nd President of the United States.  He would go on to be the only person ever elected to more than two terms as president.  He would serve until his death in April of 1945, a few months after his inauguration for his 4th term.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1933.

Photo Date:  27 December 1933
Author:  Elias Goldensky (1868-1943)
This image is available from the United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID cph.3c17121.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:FDR_in_1933.jpg   

In President Roosevelt's campaign for the presidency he had promised "a New Deal for the American people". (5)  At his inauguration he gave his famous speech stating his "...firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is...fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance." (6)  After his inauguration, he moved swiftly.  "During the first 100 days of his presidency, a never-ending stream of bills was passed, to relieve poverty, reduce unemployment, and speed economic recovery." (7)  Some of the most successful New Deal programs were the Civil Conservation Corp (CCC), and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) but many more programs were enacted, some more successful than others.  Conditions improved and unemployment went down but still stood at an unacceptable high rate of 17.2% in 1939. (8)  Finally, after massive spending by the government for the war effort in the early 1940s, the depression came to an end.

Other interesting events of the decade included the completion and opening of the Empire State Building in May 1931 in New York City.  At the time it was the tallest building in the world. (9)

Amelia Earhart became famous in 1932 for being the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.  Tragically she and her plane vanished over the Pacific in 1937 as she attempted to become the first woman to fly around the world. (10)  (I have read that researchers may have found clues to where she disappeared but no official announcements that I have seen as of this date.)

Amelia Earhart and Lockheed Electra 10E NR16020 c. 1937 

Source:  http://news.uns.purdue.edu/images/earhart.newdocs/earhart.electra.jpeg)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Earhart_and_electra.jpeg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelia_Earhart

Also, in this decade, the United States corrected a situation that had existed since it's founding.  The country did not have an official national anthem.  On March 3, 1931, "The Star Spangled Banner" was made the official United States National anthem.  The song came from a poem by Francis Scott Key titled "The Defense of Fort McHenry" written in 1814, during the War of 1812.  At the time of the battle Key's ship was being detained by the British.  He had gone out to attempt to obtain the release of a friend being held by the British.  The British would not release his ship due to their impending attack on Fort McHenry.  Key was forced to witness the British bombardment of Fort McHenry.  On the morning of Sep. 14, 1814, after a bombardment that lasted an agonizing 25 hours with more than 1500 shells fired into the fort, Key saw the flag of the United States still flying proudly over the fort and was inspired to write his poem.  The flag that provided Francis Scott Key's inspiration is now on display at the Smithsonian Institution. (11)

Flag that floated over Fort McHenry in 1814.  The flag has been restored and is now in the Smithsonian Institution.

Date of Photo:  Published 1914
Source:  National Star-Spangled Banner Centennial, Baltimore, Maryland, September 6 to 13, 1914 (1914).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Spangled_Banner_Flag

In June of 1813 Major George Armistead arrived to take command of Fort McHenry.  One of the very first things he did was to order a flag for the fort.  He wanted the flag to be "...so large that the British will have no difficulty in seeing it from a distance." (12)  He ordered the flag to measure 30 feet by 42 feet.  When the British attacked the fort in September of 1814 this was the flag that was seen from a great distance by Francis Scott Key.  Major Armistead and his men held the fort, returning as many rounds of shells as they received.  After 25 hours of bombardment, the flag waved in victory and the British withdrew.  Armistead would be promoted to Lieutenant Colonel for his part in the heroic defense of Fort McHenry, and for the important role this defense played in winning the war. (13)

Yes, the last name of Armistead should be familiar to you.  Colonel Armistead is related to our family, although it is a distant relation.  But more on that topic at a later date.

A modern county map of Concho County showing the location of Harmon and Alice Meixner's "Old Home Place".

When I left off last time I had mentioned granddad bought more land in the year 1928 that would give him 640 acres or one section of land.  This is what made up the "old home place".  You can see the location in the map above.

The year 1928 was important for another reason.  Harmon and Alice raised 7 children and as children seem to do when they get older, they get married and leave home.  In September of 1928 their oldest daughter, Mary Lorena Meixner, married Joe Taylor Skipper.  In December of 1930 their eldest son, William Frank Meixner, married Naomi May Yarbrough.  Next to marry was Alice Alynn Meixner.  She married William Ross Bush in June of 1933.  My dad, Robert Harmon Meixner, left home in the fall of 1932 to go to college.  He went for a couple years then stayed out a few years to make enough money to return.  After he completed college in 1940, he married my mother Margaret Avis Galbreath in August of that same year.

Photograph of the Meixner family taken in the early 1930s:  Robert Harmon, Victor Rudolph, Alice Alynn, Alberta May (Peaches), William Frank, Emma Ruth, Mary Lorena, Alice, and Harmon.

1930 United States Census for Concho County listing the Meixner family.  Mary is the only one missing at the time because she married in 1928.

Source Citation: Year: 1930; Census Place: Precinct 1, Concho, Texas; Roll: 2311; Page: 4A; Enumeration District: 1; Image: 416.0; FHL microfilm: 2342045.
Source Information:  Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002.
Original data:  United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1930. T626, 2,667 rolls.

I would think that granddad and grandmother felt the labor drain that took place during the 1930s with so many children leaving home.  Of course they had less mouths to feed but they also had less hands to help around the farm.  My guess is that granddad used more hired help to handle all the demanding jobs of farming.

They worked very hard on the farm and a lot of that work went toward raising the food they ate.  As hard as they worked and as large as the family was it must have taken a lot of food to feed the family.  Dad talked about how they got the work day started, "We always had a good breakfast and it was during the breakfast time that we received our instructions for the day's work.  We had almost anything eatable for breakfast some time or the other.  Alternately we had biscuits, flapjacks, corn dodgers, light bread, bacon, eggs, ham, steak, fried beans, oatmeal, cream of wheat, back-bone (out of the hog), spareribs, syrup, butter and bread, and you name it... fried chicken, etc."

"We did not have much horseplay around the table.  Dad always required us to wash our faces and comb our hair before we came to the table.  We did carry on a lot of little pranks like slipping a bean or two into some other person's milk or coffee." (14)  Nice to know kids were still kids even back then when they worked so hard.

Dad listed in his book a few of the things that had to be done on a farm:  "There were dozens of jobs to do on the old farm."  You had to have "...expertise at using the ax, the hoe, milking the cows, feeding the hogs, feeding the horses, handling the horses and cows, plowing, harrowing, building fences, heading maize, pulling corn, riding a horse, building a surface tank, building a cistern."  You also had to be able to "...grub up a tree, to cut a tree down and cut it into stove wood lengths, to head maize, to shock different kinds of feed, to run a broad cast binder, to run a row binder, to sharpen different kinds of tools, to draw water from a well, or cistern and (know) how to treat the water that came off the roof into the cistern, to run a breaking plow and a cultivator, to run a planter, to harness and hook the teams to different implements and to the wagon, buggy or hack.  I learned something about building certain structures like a barn, a house, a chicken coop, a lot fence or corral, how to feed the animals, horses, mules, cows, sheep goats, turkeys, chickens, guineas, and even the dog and cat.  I learned how to butcher a hog, to cure the meat and smoke the meat.  Rendering the lard was generally my job.  I also helped my mother make lye soap.  Frank and I learned how to carry water from the old dug well or the bored well.  We carried water for the whole household for years.  I learned how to fix the wind mill.  It was my job to keep it greased.  We also pulled the pipe from the well to fix the suction rods or put in a new valve.  We patched the harness and the saddles on rainy or real cold days.  We learned how to place the bundles in the stack of hay, to place the bundles of hay on a bundle wagon, to sack oats coming off a spout from the threshing machine at the rate of five thousand bushels of oats per day. We learned how to clean out a dug well, we learned to bull dog a steer or a cow and how to milk a cow.  We learned how to pick cotton, to drive a load of cotton to the gin, we learned to clean a chicken or turkey, to build the fires in the living room heater and in the cook stove.  We learned to do the house work and the cooking.  We learned to dig a post hole and tamp the post in a straight line.  We learned to chop and hoe cotton and other field plants; we learned to sucker the corn and how to top the corn; we learned some of the work that is done in a blacksmith shop, and many other things."  In addition to all that I've mentioned before the fact that they built their own home, barns, fences, surface tanks, windmill, cistern, and made repairs on the house.  They also had a large garden to tend to and they canned the fruits and vegetables that they raised.

Dad concluded by saying, "On the farm we learned by doing.  We did not learn it out of a book, we simply watched the other fellow do it and did likewise.  Father and mother both taught us." (15)

Dad gummit, I feel like such a wimp!!  It is amazing enough to read through this list, which I am certain does not cover everything they did, but to try to imagine actually doing all this work, every day, all day long.  This makes me appreciate my parents even more.

It is hard to imagine the amount of hard work they did back then.  Somehow Harmon and Alice made it through the decade of the 1930s, the time of "The Great Depression".  They had three children still at home by the end of the decade, they had the joy of a grandchild that was born along the way, they paid for land during the hardest times imaginable, and yet they just kept on going, ready to face more challenges.  And of course the challenges would come.  In 1939 war broke out in Europe and the United States was drawn into it with the bombing of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

Next time: the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s.

References:
(1)  Allen, Frederick Lewis, Only Yesterday, Harper & Row, Publishers, New York, N.Y. 1959, pg. 281.
(2)  http://history1900s.about.com/od/1930s/a/Dust-Bowl.htm
(3)  Watkins, T.H., The Great Depression, America in the 1930s, Blackside, Inc., 1993, pg. 12.
(4)  http://www.shmoop.com/great-depression/statistics.html
(5)  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/dustbowl-new-deal/
(6)  Ibid.
(7)  Ibid.
(8)  http://www.shmoop.com/great-depression/statistics.html
(9)  http://history1900s.about.com/od/timelines/tp/1930timeline.htm  
(10)  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelia_Earhart
(11)  Sheads, Scott Sumpter, Guardian of the Star-Spangled Banner, Lt. Colonel George Armistead and The Fort McHenry Flag, Toomey Press, Baltimore, MD.
(12)  Ibid., pg 33.
(13)  Ibid.
(14)  Meixner, Robert Harmon, Sr., Memoirs of Robert Harmon Meixner, Sr. July 10, 1910 – June 13, 1994.  Unpublished.  Compiled by Margaret Avis Meixner, pg. 22.
(15)  Meixner, Robert Harmon, Sr., Memoirs of Robert Harmon Meixner, Sr. July 10, 1910 – June 13, 1994.  Unpublished.  Compiled by Margaret Avis Meixner, pg. iii - v.