A Kind of a Galveston Story or How My Mother came to be in Galveston

 

My mother's story starts in Mobile, Alabama. She was a Hallet. The Hallet's came over during the reign of Louis the 15^th (1715-1774) as members of the colonial grant to Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, who founded the City of Mobile (1718).

With that said, let's start with my mother's mother, Sue Emily Nichols. Now Sue Emily is a bit of a Cinderella story.

She was born in Meridian, Mississippi October 4^th, 1882, to Mary Blair Dunning,of Hertford, Perquimans, North Carolina, who was 37, and Willis Henry Nichols, member of the 37^th Regiment (strawberry Boys) who got his liver shot up in the war, was already 45.

Sue, the youngest of eight (one died at birth), had a sister Lucy, three years older. Four brothers, Leo, Fred, Ed and Will and the eldest, a sister, Minnie, who was twelve years older than Sue.(side note; Seems Fred got himself killed on a one-way bridge about 1926. He blew his horn, the other fellow blew his horn, they meet in the middle of the bridge, killed them both, burned the cars up and destroyed the bridge. Paper said it was a hell of a fire. - Will was known for carrying a bucket of white-wash in his car. When he went anywhere, he would paint a white stripe on all the dead animals. On his way back, he of course picked up any dead animals didn't have a white stripe... (Make up your own joke.)

As the story goes, Sue learned to walk holding onto her father's cane as he led her around the bed, for he was laid up as his war wounds and age caught up with him... As Sue grew stronger, Willis grew weaker, passing away when Sue was about two. He (her father) had given her a rag-doll which quickly became Sue's prize possession.

This left Mary Blair with seven kids, ages fourteen and under. I don't know how she came along, I wasn't there.

Minnie married when she was about sixteen to a fellow from Biloxi, Mississippi.

When Sue was about eight or nine, her mother, Mary Blair passed away, maybe of yellow fever. The four boys stayed put, a couple of them had work. But they didn't know what to do with Sue...? So they shipped her down to Biloxi to stay with Minnie.

Now Minnie and her husband already had a 4 year old daughter, and Minnie's husband didn't like the idea of Sue being push off on them. He refused to put her in school (most likely cost money), took her rag-doll away and gave it to his daughter, who promptly tore it up. He put her to work washing dishes and scrubbing floors for extra income. She had no clothes to speak of and she wasn't allowed to make friends with the other kids around.

To give you some idea of Biloxi in those days, one of grandma's stories; She (remember, she's 8 or9) had been left there alone, to clean the house, while the family went to town. She was out in the yard hanging up clothes when she saw a man on a horse headed her way across the flat brush. She crawled up under the house to hide. As he got closer, she realized he didn't have any clothes on except for a loin cloth around his wait. He was an Indian. He rode right up to the house, rode around it a few times yelling Indian stuff. Sue kept quiet as a mouse under the house. He got off his horse, went into the house and rummaged through it. Went through all the draws, the wardrobes, the attic and took a gun, ammo, some silverware (real in those days) and some clothes. Then back on his horse, with his goodies in hand and rode away, back across the flat brush. She had seen a real Indian.

Sue was pretty smart, she had already learn to read and write and post a letter. She had done so with her mother.

So after about a year or so, Sue managed to get a letter off to her brothers in Meridian and told them of her plight.

Well the brothers talked about it, they were getting along okay, but what do you do with a little girl. Well.... It just so happens, the Civil War Veterans had created an orphanage just north of Meridian, in Laurderdale, Mississippi. So they figured they could go get Sue, put her in the orphanage in Laurderdale, where they could keep an eye on her, bring her clothes, visit and the like.

Well, they talked about it some more, and decided not to write Sue back. So the four of the them hopped a train for Biloxi and snatched Sue right off the rode on her way to clean a neighbor's house. Then right back on the next train to Meridian, and on to Laurderdale, where they put her in the orphanage.

Seems Sue was naturally happy, and got along well with the other children there at the home. She wrote Minnie, and told her where she was, and she was going to stay there. And that was that.

Back to the Hallet's. Hallet's were a prominent family in Mobile up until uncle Harry passed, he as the last of them. There was even a Hallet Mansion on Government Street. Not to mention a large plotted area in the Catholic cemetery adorned with Hallet.

Somewhere around 1820, John Henry Hallet went west and joined the Austin Colony over in Texas. He married a women named Margaret Lavaca, and was a veteran of San Jacinto. Around 1846, Margaret donated the land for the courthouse and founded Halletstville, in honor of her husband, in the middle of Lavaca County, Texas

Our story begins with George Henry Hallet (1842-1903) who was the coroner for a very large area around Mobile. While on a business trip to St. Louis, in 1874 (he was 32), he meet Katherine Lynch (also 32), who was about 15 when she was brought over during the Irish potato famine of 1858. He fell in love and Married her, right there in St. Louis, Missouri. At St. Johns. He died in 1903 of a heart attack, while running to catch a train in Greenville, Mississippi. Kate died a few months later of a broken heart.

They had four kids, Henry Harrington (grandpa), Laura, Mary Agnes (Aunt Daisy) and Georgie Julia.

When Harry (Henry Harrington) was about sixteen (around 1890) he got a job with the railroad, I believe it to be the L & M Railroad. At first as a brakeman, riding the rails all over the south. After a couple of years, he was a conductor on a regular run, which passed right through Laurderdale, Mississippi, this would have been around 1892.

Now the orphanage in Laurderdale had a unique relationship with the railroad. They had a well, which provided water for the engine, and they would feed the crew of the train, and in return, the railroad provided the orphanage food. It was also the city park, for the orphanage was on a large property next to the railroad.

Now one of the local churches was having a big social there at the city park, and all of the orphans were there, as was the train's crew on it's regular run... Now grandpa was 18 and Sue Emily, 10... Running around like a ten year old. Grandpa said, 'she was just the cutest thing ever. The prettiest little girl he'd ever seen. She was full of spring and joy.'

Well, they got to know each other, as the train passed through there a couple of times a week. Sue always meet the train on days when Harry was aboard, and they would have about thirty minutes together. Grandpa got her a doll, and some clothes. Her brothers told her to watch out, he's old, he could be up to no good.

This went on for some time, and in 1896, an apprenticeship machinist job opened up at the railroad, and grandpa wanted it, because it was better pay, and he would learn a trade, OJT.

So grandpa told Sue, he wouldn't be on the train anymore, but to pack her bags, and he would take her home to his mother. She flat refused, she wasn't leaving there unless she was a married woman, She just wasn't that kind of girl, (advise from her brothers). So he married her, right then and there, in Laurderdale Mississippi, on the 18^th day of November 1886. And he took her home to his mother.

He told his mother, finish raisin' her up, I'm gonna sure enough marry her when she's 16. Well Kate finished her off, taught her to cook, how to kill and clean a chicken, how to can, how to keep a house, how to sew and run a budget... How to shop and strike a bargain. (Just a note, none of these people so far ever drove a car. Mobile had trolleys, as did New Orleans, as did Galveston.)

Grandpa bought a house there in Mobile, and when Sue Emily was sixteen, he took her into his home. When this happened, they were given a mantle clock, which we still have.

In the following years, they had a hard go of, although he was making plenty of money, She was having a hard time bearing children (perhaps because of her youth). The first one died, Henry Harrington, the second one died, George Henry, the third one died, Laura Clare. So they started over, the four one lived, Henry Harrington (Uncle Harry) in 1905, the fifth one lived, George Henry (Uncle George) in 1907, the sixth one died, Gertrude Helen 1910, the seventh one lived, Laura Clare 1912, the eighth one lived, Hazel Emily 1915, the ninth one lived, my mother Ruth Marie, 1919 and the tenth one lived, Mary Sue, 1922. (Side note; Both Harry & George were educated at Barton Academy, Government Street, Mobile.)

Not too long after Mary Sue was born, the railroad union went out on strike, and the railroad locked them out, and that was that... Grandpa had worked for them 32 years. We still have his official Hamilton railroad watch he bought in 1892 when he became a conductor, (it actually has a lock across the stem so it can't be set, only the railroad had a key, and only the railroad was suppose to set it. It would be checked, and if need be, set once a month.)

Let me mention here, Grandpa's sisters all married. Laura married and moved to California.

Agnes May (Great Aunt Daisy, lived to 101years)married Pat McDonough and moved to Whistler, Alabama, just up the road from Mobile. Mom said when they went to visit Aunt Daisy, Uncle Pat would go out and sprinkle the outhouse with lye. She said it was so thick, you could hardly breath.

Anyway; Georgie Julia married a Texan, Buddy Green, and moved to Galveston. He served on the Cone Johnson, a ferry serving highway 87 connecting Galveston with Bolivar. We knew him as the Rabbit man, because also he raised rabbits.

By this time, grandpa's eldest, My Uncle Harry was working for Brown Coal, they supplied the railroad with fuel. Which he later bought, added an ice plant and a warehouse and it became Brown Coal and Ice. Uncle Harry had three girls. As far as we know, he was the last Hallet in mobile.

Back at the ranch, seems Pat McDonough's (Daisy's husband) great uncle was 'McDonough Iron Works' of Galveston. A big deal in Galveston at the time. (The Landes-McDonough Mansion at 16^th and Postoffice).

I think his name was Edward McDonough. When Pat found out that grandpa was out of work, he wrote his uncle in Galveston, and told him about grandpa and him being a trained machinist.

Well, come to Galveston, and we will put him to work, came the reply.

So in 1923 they packed up everything, grandpa, grandma, George, Laura, Hazel, my mother Ruth and Mary Sue and got on a train for Galveston. My mother, Ruth Marie was 4 years old.

They rented a house at 1714 33^rd. Grandpa and Uncle George went to work right away at Todd Ship Yards. Grandpa as a machinist and George (who was 16) as an apprentice ship fitter. Todd had a launch which picked men up at the 23^rd street pier in the morning, and carried them straight across the channel to Todd ship yards,(which was on Pelican Island) and of course returned them in the evening.

Grandma promptly enrolled Hazel (6) in Ursuline Academy there at 26^th and N. Laura on the other hand, was already 10 years old, and didn't want to go to the academy, so grandma put her in the public school. (Later she went to Ball High.) Mother (Ruth) and Mary Sue were yet too young for school.

As the stories go; Grandpa and George were working at Todd, which put them on the docks most everyday. They would bring home a stalk of bananas off the banana boat, I think, which came into Galveston monthly.

Once Grandpa brought home a giant cotton ball, the damn grew into a 70 pound Irish sheep dawg. Mom said, nobody was going to bother them as long as CB(Cotton Ball) was around. Mom (Ruth) said, Her and Hazel and Mary Sue all slept in the same bed, and the dawg slept on the foot of the bed. If any of them moved, CB would growl.

Grandma said, about the time mom was 6, Hazel 8 and Mary Sue 3, she sent them out into the yard, with the hatchet, to kill the Christmas turkey. She watched through the window. Said it was the cutest thing ever.... Mom and hazel were chasing that turkey around the yard with Mary Sue in close pursuit. When they finally caught it, the battle was on, Hazel had it by the body, mom had it by head, and they dragged it over to the chopping block, with Mary Sue jumping up and down screaming with joy.... Nobody had the hatchet. Grandma said she was laughing so hard, she could hardly breath. Well she went out, gabbed the turkey, wrung it's neck and chopped off it head all in one motion, just like she always did, like mother Kate had taught her.

Mom was enrolled in Ursuline Academy in 1925. She graduated class of 1937.

Now in the early days, I mean the early days, back when the Spanish were snooping around these parts, Galveston was on the map as Snake Island, know to be inhabited by cannibals, the Karankawas. Well, Bernardo Del Galvez, the Viceroy of Bolivia was a bit of a crank. So to appease him, they named snake island for him, it was a large island (a sand bar) and it seemed fitting.

Well there was a reason it was called snake island, it was crawling with rattlesnakes... Now years later, it's was still crawling with rattlesnakes (I don't believe it is anymore, they have been run out), and grandpa and George would go out 'west' and build a campfire, and sit there and wait on the snakes to show up. Blame, Blame, Blame they shot a many a rattlesnake, there are early pictures of them holding up a pole with a dozen or more snakes hanging from it. (They Actually never said, but I think they ate them.)

With both grandpa and George working at Todd Ship Yards, wasn't long before they had built they own boat. They became avid fisherman of Galveston Bay.

Come April of 1928, Mary Sue went down with a toothache, which went bad with infection, and so Mary Sue, the youngest, passed away April 25, 1928.

It was very hard on grandma, she had lost four other children, but none she had reared for six years. She was heart broken. Arrangements were made by FP Malloy and Son at 2319 Avenue E.

The whole family put her on a train and took her back to Mobile, Alabama and laid her to rest in the Hallet plot, for she was a Hallet. It was a sad time for the Hallet's, for Mary Sue was filled with Joy, and now that joy was gone.

Around 1930, Grandpa bought house on the edge of town, out west, at 3320 Avenue O. Now this was only seven blocks from Ursuline Academy.

Mom and Hazel would walk to school down the alley behind their house, story was; there was a parrot that live on the balcony of one of the homes, he was a pirate parrot. He would walk up and down the railing calling out, 'trim the sails, ther' a blow coming.' Then he would hop onto the storm blinds, and run his beak up and down, making a clattering noise, calling out, 'let me in, let me in, it's hot as hell out here, it's hot as hell out here.' Mommy and Hazel thought that was scandalizes.

Now George bought a car, a 1930 Dodge, (he was the first Hallet to drive and own a car). It had electric start. He would take mom and Hazel to town to show off his car. Treat them to lunch at the counter, (they thought it stylish to sit at the counter)of the Star Drug Store. Then he would give them each a nickle, and over to the candy display they went. Now in those days, candy was in glass jars, and you bought it right out of the jar. There was a man to pick out what you wanted and bag it up. The prices were three for a penny, four for a penny, five for a penny, depending on what you wanted. If you shopped well, you could leave there with quite a bag of candy for a nickle.

Now grandma of course wrote Harry in mobile and told him George had bought a car. What a wondrous thing it was.

When the Circus came to town, George would take mom and Hazel down to meet the train,(I don't think the Santa Fe Station was there yet.) They would watch as all the animals were unloaded. There was always six or seven or more elephants, and they were not in cages, and they just walked off the train and hung out there with the people. Indeed the girls got to pet elephants. When the train was unloaded, there would be a big parade to the fairgrounds, the elephants leading the way.(I've never figured out where the station or fairground were). When they arrived at the fairgrounds, they would watch the elephants put up the tents. It was an all day ordeal.

The next day of course, they would all dress up in there finery, climb into George's automobile and go to the Circus.

Somewhere in here, Uncle Harry in Mobile, married Clair Louise Fletcher, and of course bought a car. Now there were two Hallet's that drove, and owned a car. Talk about up-town.

Mom and Hazel would walk down O to 25^th and then down to the seawall. On the north east corner of Boulevard and 25^th was the Derby. The Derby was a huge merry-go-round with a brass ring. It also had a winner. When the Derby stopped, there was always a winner, and you never knew who the winner was, until in stopped. If you were the winner, you got a free ticket, if you snagged the brass ring, you could trade it for ticket, or keep it as a prize.

Down a block or two around 23^rd and boulevard was the Wild Mouse. It was an old wooden roller-coaster. From what I understand, it lived up to it's name. And of course there was Murddocks bath house and the beach.

Mom and Hazel watch them build the Sui-Jen (later known as the Balinese Room.) They played tennis at Mernard Park. All right there within walking distance of 3320 Ave O. This would include the Rosenberg Library, and St Patrick's.

Now Galveston was steady growing, and steady adding to the seawall... About 1933, Uncle George bought a seven room house, out west, (Notice how that keeps coming up, that's because out west, kept moving west) at 45^th and R ½ for, brace yourselves, 3300 dollars. He paid cash for it, 3300 silver dollars. He lived there until his death in 1985. More about him as we go along.

Come along 1934 my mother is 15, my dad 16 pushing 17. Uncle George marries Alice Josephine Hegman, who was born Valentine's Day 1906.

I'm going to stop here, for the next story is; 'How to marry your childhood sweet-heart without knowing it.'

April 2023

Gary George Bernius

A kind of a Galveston Story or How my father came to be in Galveston

 

My grandfather, Gustav Adolf Von Bernius was born April 20^th, 1886 in Philadelphia, where he attended the Julliard School of Music, did a stretch in the Army Band during the Great War (WWI) (this is when he quit being Gustav Adolf Von Bernius and became Gus Bernius. He also made a life long friend, Robert Oscar Burgess, (Bob) who was also in the army band. And this is where he meet my grandmother who attended a dance at Fort Morgan, Alabama.

    After the war, grandpa and Uncle Bob (I'll explain shortly), created a vaudeville act. They were Vaudevillians. Burgess and Bernius... They bought a matched set, a guitar and a mandolin by Gibson. The guitar has vanished, no one knows, but we still have the mandolin. I know nothing of the act. Now this is late teens and early twenties... Movies were becoming a thing, as were nickelodeons, vaudeville was fading. They played New Orleans, Mobile, Galveston and many other places. My father was born during this time, December of 1917 in Mobile...

    When his sister, Henrietta Emma Bernius was born in August of 1923 grandfather went to work for C.G. Conn music company in Mobile, were my father spent his younger years. Then for awhile in Cincinnati, and then later on, Birmingham, Alabama. When he worked in Birmingham, they lived in Bessemer, Alabama, about 10 miles east of Birmingham.

    Along about 1928, when My father was about 11, C. G. Conn closed the store in Birmingham and grandfather was out of work.

    Meanwhile, back at the ranch..... My grandmother was born in Shell Banks, Alabama (fifty miles south of Mobile, on the other side of the bay, on the beach, very near Gulf Shores. Francis Amelia Fulford, June 6, 1889, the eldest of ten. She was a quarter Indian for her grandmother was the famed Princess Nancy Ward of the Cherokee Tribe.(I know, some name for an Indian). The Fulford's were members of the 1803 Nelson grant, awarded to Lord Nelson after the battle of Waterloo. Anyway, her mother, Henrietta Fulford put all the girls (Grandma, Winona, Susie, Ruby, Armitta, Roberta and Ilean, in a girl's school in Mobile, Alabama, so they wouldn't marry kin-folk. About 1914, Fort Morgan called on this school of girls to provide company for the soldiers at a dance, and of course, this is where my grandparents meet. They Soon married and dad came along in December of 1917 and my Aunt (Hen) Henrietta Emma in August of 1923. Now here I should mention that grandma's sister, Susie, also attended that dance, and fell in love with Robert Oscar Burgess and married him, thus, Uncle Bob. He was later Justice of the Peace, Gulf Shores, Baldwin county Alabama. He kept an alligator in a pond, in front of the courthouse. He claimed he feed it hooligans. “If I see you in my court again, I'm throwing you in the pond with Chief.” Chief was the alligator name.

    My Grandmother also had three brothers, Elbert, Joseph and Adrian. Adrian was known as Uncle Buck, cause he could dance. Now great Uncle Buck put himself into the chicken business. Fried Chicken business. He opened the fist walk-up and take-out fast food joint in New Orleans (the famous one), in the mid-twenties. It took off, and so he opened a store in Mobile, and it took off and so he opened a store in Galveston, on a triangle shaped piece of property at 15^th and Boulevard. Uncle Buck's Famous Fried Chicken.

    Now if you remember, grandpa is out of work in Bessemer, Alabama. So grandma wrote a letter to Uncle Buck to see if there was work anywhere. Uncle Buck wrote back and told them to come to Galveston and he would put them in the chicken business.

    Sooo...as the story goes.... Grandpa bought a brand new 1928 Ford model A flat-bed truck. Now keep in mind, this is 1928, there where brick streets in Birmingham, but otherwise, no paved roads. They piled everything they owned onto that flat-bed Ford, with grandpa and grandma and Henrietta in the cab and my 11 year old dad sitting atop everything else in the back. Dad said it was like being atop a camel.

    They rambled on through the woods of eastern Alabama and on into Mississippi which was also deep forest, pines, oaks and magnolias.

    Some where around Meridian, Mississippi they managed to get on the wrong road, now keep in mind, there are no paved roads, nor are there signs, least ways a map. After awhile they came across three men with shotguns standing in the middle of the ruts demanding to know who they were and 'what the hell are you all doing on my land..!!!!' Well grandpa explained they were on their way to Galveston, and the men explained there was no Galveston 'round these parts, and they'd better get on back to Meridian and find another way. (grandpa said most likely bootleggers, fearing revenuers, and we was most likely closing in on the still.)

    Now keep in mind, my 11 year old dad was sitting atop the heap which were their belongings, there on that flat-bed truck, watching all of this. Sitting there atop his camel, rain or shine.

    Dad said it was really quite the ride, he was hanging on the whole time as the truck rocked this way and that down the rutted dirt roads. Dad said the small rivers had bridges, a couple of the larger ones had rope ferries, but the Mississippi had a steam ferry at Natchez. (I'm thinking the Sabine River was a rope ferry.)

    Some where around Baytown, in the swamp, they became stuck in a mud hole, and a farmer and his mule pulled them out. They crossed Buffalo Bayou there at Morgans point ferry. Daddy said the first paved road he saw, was the causeway into Galveston.

    Now remember, my great Uncle Buck is down at 15^th and Boulevard selling fried chicken. Grandpa rented a two-story home at 35^th and R (at that time, this was the west end of town)and they lived upstairs and ran a chicken market downstairs, and supplied Uncle Buck with fresh chickens.

    The way it worked is, dad and grandpa would load up that flatbed Ford with chicken cages (which grandpa built), and headed up the ole Shell Road which started at Virginia point the other side of the causeway, they would take it through Hitchcock and over the high ground pass the Alto Loma depot, passed the Arcadia depot and on passed the Algoa depot to the Alvin depot where there was a shell road to Angleton.

    Now in those days, 'chickens' was money. Little grocery stores kept a pen out back, and you could pay for groceries with chickens, 'cause soon, some one like my grandpa would come along and want those chickens. So the grocer would turn those chickens into money (heavy pieces of silver) and wa-la, my grandpa now had chickens for a chicken hungry Galveston.

    Now grandpa was soon up to his ears in chickens, so he opened to the public... and quickly did a business. You would come into their market and pick out a chicken. A live breathing chicken. You could take it home on the hoof, or grandma would kill it and dress it for a fee, and for an extra nickle, my dad would delivery it on his bicycle. To say the least, he rode that bicycle all over Galveston...

    They dumped the chicken guts off of 53^rd there on the east end of Offatts Bayou. That, in those days, was the dump, and that was way out west.

    Now my father was tough, his name was Frances Adrian Bernius, he was named for his mother and his Uncle Buck (both could be considered a girls name at the time) and he shows up in Galveston wearing nickers...(So he was a boy named Sue). He had to beat up every boy at school (with some pointers from Uncle Buck) in order to have any peace. (Peace through strength).

    In the summer, dad said every kid had an ice pick, so's you could chip ya some ice when the ice man came around. The ice wagon was pulled by a horse. Customers had a wooden wheel, divided into colors like a pie, with an arrow on it. Each color was for so much ice. So you selected your color, (how much ice you wanted) and put the wheel in the window and the ice man knew how much ice to bring, and wa-la...you had ice in your ice box.

    Later on, when he went to high school, his mother would give him a dime for the bus, a nickle there and a nickle back. He said he would ride the bus to school and then walk home, thus saving a nickle, and walk down Postoffice. Now in those days, Postoffice was famous. Lets just say, the girls would whistle at him and say, “Hey young feller, want some company, I know ya got a nickle..” Dad said he would keep his head down and just keep on walking. I was grown before I realized Postoffice was two blocks out of the way. Now he walked from Ball High, there at 21^st and Winnie over to 35^th and then down to R. Pretty good walk.

    Well, there were so many new boys in high school (Ball), and he being the boy named Sue, he had to start beating them up all over again, he got so good at it, that Uncle Buck took him down to the wharves were he would fight (Box) on the water front as a welter weight, (and made a little money on the side.) Somewhere along the line, dad won an important fight and made the Galveston Daily News, and that's when grandma found out and put a stop to it.

    Ball high also found out and put him in the ROTC. (which led to dad becoming an officer in the US Army Air Force. He flew B-17's in the war, retired a Major.) Funny how things change. For the record, dad was also in the Ball High Band and played a cornet. Graduated the class of 1935.

    I want to spend a minute on Uncle Buck, James Adrian Fulford, (1891-1974) he was quite a character. They said he made million in the twenties with his Chicken, and put it all in the bank. He was the first of his kind, fast food. No tables, no chairs, no bathroom, no inside, you walked up to the window, ordered your chicken and sides, which were already cooked, and he would bag up your order, and off you went. He lost it all in the 1929 market crash, millions. They said he made millions after the crash, but he spent every dime of it. No more banks for him.

    Now he used to do this stunt, or spectacle to promote 'Uncle Bucks Famous Fried Chicken.' that is to say, draw a crowd. He did it three times, once in Mobile, Once in New Orleans ('Ripley's Believe or Not' was there, and recorded it, and he is in their book) and once in Galveston. When he did it in Galveston, my grandmother, my grandfather and my father witness it.

    It; Uncle Buck would start with a live chicken, he would kill it, pluck it, cook it and eat it in a minute and forty-five second, among-st a flurry of feathers. Look it up. And he did that at 15^th and Boulevard. (People today would Swoon.)

    The chicken business started to slow down, so dad found a job at the Buccaneer Hotel as an elevator operator. (Years later, when they dropped the Buccaneer onto the Boulevard, dad got to see the elevator motors he operated so many years earlier. He said it was not easy stopping the elevator car right on the floor. He was always saying, “Step up please, or Step down please.”

    Then he got a job peddling Purity Ice Cream, you know, one of those bicycle ice cream truck things, he peddled that thing all over Galveston selling Purity Ice Cream. He ran it into a fruit wagon on Broadway and turn the wagon over... Spooked the horse, which dragged the wagon down Broadway. Daddy said there was fruit everywhere, and grandpa had the pay the damage....Twelve dollars. Twelve, one once silver dollars..!!! Of course he kept peddling Purity Ice Cream till he paid it off...

    I'm going to stop here, for the next story is, 'How my mother came to be in Galveston.'

April of 2023

Gary George Bernius

 

BARB-WIRE BILL

At dawn of day the white land lay all gruesome

like and grim,

When Bill McGee he says to me: "We've got to do it

Jim.

"We've got to make Fort Laird quick. I know the

rivers bad,

"But oh the little woman's sick .... why! don't

you savvy lad?"

And me! Well, yes, I must confess it wasn't hard to

see

Their little family group of two would soon be one of

three

And so I answered, careless-like: "Why, Bill! you don't

suppose

"I'm scared of that there 'babbling brook'? Whatever

you say --- goes."

A real live man was barb-wire Bill, with insides copper-

lined;

For "barb-wire" was the brand of "hooch" to which

he most inclined.

They knew him far; his igloos are on Kittiegazuit

strand

They knew him well, the tribes who dwell within the

Barren Land.

From Koyokuk to Kuskoquim his fame was

everywhere;

And he did love, all life above, that little Julie

Claire,

The lithe, white slave-girl he had bought for seven

hundred skins'

And taken to his wickiup to make his moccasins.

We crawled down to the river bank and feeble folk

were we,

That Julie Claire from God knows where, and Barb-wire

Bill and me.

From shore to shore we heard the roar the heaving

ice-floes make,

And loud we laughed, and launched our raft and

followed in their wake.

The river swept and seethed and leapt, and caught us

in it's stride;

And on we hurled amid a world that crashed on every

side.

With sullen din the banks caved in; the shore-ice lanced

the stream;

The naked floes like spooks arose, all jiggling and agleam.

Black anchor-ice of strange device shot upward from its

bed,

As night and day we cleft our way, and arrow like we sped.

But "Faster still!" cried Barb-wire Bill, and looked the

live-long day

In dull despair at Julie Claire, as white like death she

lay.

And sometimes he would seem to pray and sometimes

seem to curse,

And bent above, with eyes of love, yet ever she grew

worse.

And as we plunged and leapt and lunged, her face was

plucked with pain,

And I could feel his nerves of steel a-quiver at the

strain.

And in the night he griped me tight as I lay fast

asleep:

"The river's kicking like a steer .... run out the

forward sweep!

"that's Hell-gate Canyon right ahead; I know of old

its roar,

"And .... I'll be damned! the ice is jammed!

We've got to make the shore."

With one wild leap I gripped the sweep. The night was

black as sin.

The float-ice crashed and ripped and smashed, and stunned

us with its din.

And near and near, and clear and clear I heard the

canyon boom;

And swift and strong we swept along to meet our awful

doom.

And as with dread I glimpsed ahead the death that waited

there,

My only thought was of the girl, the little Julie

Claire;

And so, like demon mad with fear, I panted at the

oar,

And foot by foot, and inch by inch, we worked the raft

ashore.

The bank was staked with grinding ice, and as we scraped

and crashed,

I only knew one thing to do, and through my mind it

flashed:

Yet while I groped to find the rope, I heard Bill's savage

cry:

"That's my job lad! It's me that jumps. Ill snub

this raft of die!"

I saw him leap, I saw him creep, I saw him gain the

land;

I saw him crawl, I saw him fall, then run with rope in

hand.

And then the darkness gulped him up, and down we

dashed once more,

And nearer, nearer drew the jam, and thunder-like its

roar.

Oh God! all's lost .... from Julie Claire there

came a wail of pain,

And then --- the rope grew sudden taught, and quivered at

the strain;

It slacked and slipped, it whined and gripped, and oh, I

held my breath!

And there we hung and there we swung right in the

jaws of death.

A little strand of hempen rope, and how I watched it

there,

With all around a hell of sound, and darkness and

despair;

A little strand of hempen rope, I watched it all

alone,

And somewhere in the dark behind, I heard a woman

moan;

And somewhere in the dark ahead I heard a man cry

out,

Then silence, silence fell, and mocked my hollow

shout.

And yet once more from out the shore I heard that cry

of pain,

A moan of mortal agony, then all was still

again.

Than night was hell with all the frills, and when the

dawn broke dim,

I saw the lean and level land, but never a sign of

him.

I saw the flat and frozen shore of hideous

device,

I saw a long drawn strand of rope that vanished through

the ice.

And on that treeless, rockless shore I found my partner

--- dead.

No place there was to snub the raft, so --- he had served

instead;

And with the rope lashed round his waste, in last

defiant fight,

He'd thrown himself beneath the ice, that closed and

gripped him tight;

And there he'd held us back from death, as fast in death

he lay....

Say, boys! I'm not the pious brand, but --- I just tried

to pray.

And then I looked to Julie Claire, and sore abashed

was I,

For from the robes that covered her, I --- heard --- a ---

baby --- cry ....

Thus Love conqueror of death, and life for life was

given;

And though no saint on earth, d'ye think --- Bill's squared

himself with heaven?

ROBERT W. SERVICE