Cecil LewisLeave a comment

A Little Insight Into Cecil Lewis

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I hope I don’t give the impression that Cecil Lewis was an outlaw or something. He was, what can I say, he was Cecil Lewis. Truly a one of a kind. If he liked you he’d do anything for you, if he didn’t like you, he’d still do anything for you. He was liked by most people, respected by many but people knew to give him a wide berth. I owe much of my success to him. Not only in the things he taught me to do, but in the things I learned not to do. He was the nicest … Continue reading A Little Insight Into Cecil Lewis

Cecil Lewis, Crazy Times, Smithwick, The Early DaysLeave a comment

1960s Trucking

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Hauling things were much different back when I was young. Many ranchers and cowboys had a set of sideboards they’d put on the back of their pickup and then a horse and sometimes two would be loaded in the back. I can remember how unstable a 1/2 ton truck was with that much weight swaying back and forth and the high center of gravity. Many of the old-timers weren’t very accomplished drivers, either. While we did that some I think of something now that seems much more risky. Hauling a JD 450 loader in the back of a 5 yd. … Continue reading 1960s Trucking

SmithwickLeave a comment

The Mystery of the Death of So Many Children From One Family

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It was brought to my attention some time ago that in the Smithwick Cemetery there are the graves of 6 children that died during a very short period of time. They all died within 4 years. I found several oddities about this. If they had all died at the same time, perhaps the plague or a house fire may have been the cause. But they died in groups of 2. A boy 8 and a boy 4 died on the same day, Feb. 9, 1859. Three years later a little girl 5 and a little boy almost 4 died just … Continue reading The Mystery of the Death of So Many Children From One Family

Crazy Times, The Early DaysLeave a comment

Jake the Building Trades Teacher

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I always considered Jake pretty easy going, knowledgeable and a good teacher. But if you got him riled up, you better watch out. Some of the older guys and a few of the younger ones were real hoodlums. They would always try Jake on for size. He swung a hard paddle. But the maddest that I ever saw that man was pretty late in the school year. A couple of little young pretties were dispatched from the school newspaper to do a story on the Building Trades Program. Jake had told us they were coming and we needed to be … Continue reading Jake the Building Trades Teacher

Marble Falls and the Area Around it.Leave a comment

Thomas Ferguson

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As I browsed the 100 Pages of Marble Falls History 1887-1987 published by the Highlander back in 1987 to commemorate the Centennial of the Town, I ran across this paragraph from 1922. (Thomas E. is actually Thomas C.) Being curious about what all young Thomas accomplished during his lifetime, I did some digging. I was to find out that he is buried at Cook-Walden Memorial Gardens in Austin. Following is a pretty good summary of his lifelong accomplishments. So in summary I guess you can say the boy that graduated Burnet High School at 14 did go on to accomplish … Continue reading Thomas Ferguson

Amazing ThingsLeave a comment

A Strange and Tragic Happening In Bertram on July 27, 1887

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This was covered on here before. Something was mentioned on another post a few days ago when we were talking about the old lumber yard in Bertram, so thought I’d bring it back around. Joanne Myers added this copy of a newspaper clipping. Complete newspaper clipping on Burnet TXGenWeb here: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~txburnet/Phinney-Sinclair.html Continue reading A Strange and Tragic Happening In Bertram on July 27, 1887

Grandchildren2 Comments

On This Very Day, 18 Years Ago

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We had no idea what the future held. Emma Nicole Lewis popped out into this world and has entertained us all every day since then. That blond hair was always mostly seen sticking out from underneath a cap, worn backwards most of the time. As she entered Kindergarten at Bertram, she wore her cap everyday. Although wearing hats in school wasn’t permitted, they gave up on that rule with Emma, if I remember correctly. It just wasn’t worth their effort to change her mind. She had a very nice early career in Quarter Midget Racing, along with her brothers, Nate … Continue reading On This Very Day, 18 Years Ago