What can you tell me about the company ranch, south of town?
Some big cattle buyers from Dodge City Kansas used to drive cattle. They loaned money to buy up a big herd of cattle. Then a drought came and cattle went down, and they got diseased, and they lost it (the ranch).
Who were the men?
Bill Moore and Bill Dale. They owned the ranch. They drove the cattle to Dodge City, before they had the railroad, (and the Kansas loan company was their backer.) There' a company ranch north of town, too, that's 1100 acres. The one south of town had 7600 acres. I don't know why the one north of town is called the company ranch. But the one south of town is called the company ranch because of the Kansas City Loan Company. I've hunted on it ever since I was a boy until I left here about 50 years ago.
Where were you born?
About a mile and a half out of town on the old Bertram Road.
Who were your parents?
William and Evelyn Rogers. Her maiden name was Ramsower.
How old were you when you left Burnet?
About 36. I went to school at the old rock house school at Oatmeal.
Can you remember who any of your teachers were?
Minnie Josephs and Effie(?) Stewart, and Will Chamberlain, Emma Henson. It was a one room school house and one teacher taught from the first grade on up.
How many people went to school there?
About 50 at that time.
Did they all live close to it, or did some live pretty far away?
We lived about 4 _ miles away. In bad weather we went in a hack, and in nice weather we walked. If we went in a hack, then at dinnertime I had to see after the team and didn't have time to play ball, so I preferred to walk.
Who were some of the other people who lived around you?
The Stewart Wilks, Heines, Thorps, Biggs, Lewis, Gilcrease, Schooleys, Fields, Warwicks, Harris, some more.
Are any of those people still around?
The Warwick girl is still living, and one of the Cromeans. Kate Davidson is still living and I went to school with her. Ramsey(?) and Mattie Massey. The Masseys and McFarlins passed their land down to family members who are still on it.
How long did you go to school at Oatmeal?
Then we only had ten years of school. Then you went to Bertram the last three months to graduate. I went through the 10th grade but never did go to Bertram. After that you could go to Burnet to the teacher's institute and take a test to become a teacher, but I didn't do that. Professor Richey and Jim Parker were on the examing [examining] board. Parker was on mathematics and Richey did something else. There were 2 or three different ones.
Do you know who some of the teachers were who got their certificates there?
Dora Massey did. The teacher's institute lasted several years. The first state superintendant [superintendent] I knew was Tom Blanton. Then M. N. Marrs, and R. M. Edgar who just retired. He was raised at Briggs. He married Sue Oakley from here. As far as I know, Edgar is the only one from Burnet County.
Who do you know of who lived on the company ranch?
Henry Whitehead, and John Crow. Then a fellow named Pitkins.
Was it as big then as it is now?
Yeah, there was a pretty good farm on Hairston Creek, and the house there used to be the only house on it (the ranch). Then the Orville Corker house was back in there, but I guess it's gone. That didn't belong to the company ranch until later years.
Do you know about the gold that's supposed to be buried out there?
No, I don't know anything about that.
Can you remember any election that got everyone in the county really interested?
Well, prohibition elections were about the biggest issues I know of. This town used to be called Hamilton Village. It and Oatmeal had the first two post offices in Burnet county. They had an election to see where the county seat would be, and they outvoted them here and named it Burnet. The Capitol was finished in 1888, the same year I was born. It's standing' up straighter than I am. They quarried the rock at Granite Mountain. Right down here at the Y in the railroad that's where it was dressed (cut and polished?). They built a narrow gauge railroad. Burnet was a wide open town then, with gambling and saloons. I guess there were more people here during that time than there are now. Sam Holland's oldest boy George was the first white child born around here. He married a woman named Scott. His first wife is buried in the old Oatmeal cemetery, 1855. There's a lot were [?]. Scott, Holland's father in law, was the first county judge. He was a yankee. When the civil war broke out he took a lot of money and started to leave here but he was killed somewhere between Oatmeal and the Colorado River. It might have been on the Company Ranch. His body was thrown in a cave and they took him out of there years later. He wasn't killed by Indians, but by outlaws or Confederates. Noah Smithwick was a blacksmith. There was a Mormon Colony, with a flour mill and sawmill. Smithwick bought that out. Then he went to Smithwick on Cow Creek. The old lodge hall is still there. He built the Smithwick Mill. He was a Yankee, but he got away and went to California.
Who did he sell his land to?
When I was big enough to remember there was a man named Cox that owned it.
Which direction from the lodge hall was the mill?
I reckon it was a little southeast, about 150 yards. The area of town at the Y was called Wilkieville, but I don't know why.
On the other side of the railroad tracks, out toward the pork farm, was there a saloon and dancehall?
That was in later years, on Hay Branch(?), but that was after I left here. That beer joint was the Bloody Bucket. I was born close to there in a little log cabin on Judge Blackburn's place. He was the first district judge in this district. He held the first term of court in Kendall County under a live oak tree. I don't know about any hanging, but back in the earlier days they'd hang any horse thief. When I big enough to remember there were still horse thieves. I guess they got fair trials but it was sure they'd get convicted.
Would you tell me the names of your brothers and sisters?
They're all dead now. My older brother was __________ and then my sister Lena, then Abbey, then me, then Ora, then Pearl and Evelyn(?).
Were your parents from here?
No they came from around Center Point. They were here before my oldest brother was born. My father was a farmer. I used to deer hunt with Judge B. Pogue's father, and I knew his grandparents, and his great grandparents on his mother's side. We hunted on that company ranch. The road through there has been changed. It used to go on the east side of a round hill, and now it goes on the west side. There's a windmill where we had our camp grounds. That was from the time I was about 15 years old until I was 30-odd years old. It was good hunting. There were lots of wolves, too.
Do you know how Hickory Pass got its name?
No, but we used to call it Hickory Gap. My brother and I bought a little over 700 acres of land down there one time, two tracts. We were going to fence it and raise horse and mules. Horses and mules brought better prices than cows then. But people around raised so much sand that we sold it. That was about 1913-14, and the land cost $3 and 3.25 an acre. Then a man named Harris from Brownwood that bought it. We didn't want to live down there, but it was too far off from schools, town and everything, so we sold it.
Did you raise cotton?
When I was little we raised a little cotton. And hogs, that ran loose, and cattle and horses. A little corn and wheat.
Did you grind it yourself?
We fed the corn to the livestock and used the wheat for bread, but we didn't sell any. The hogs would get about half fat on acorns, then we'd feed the corn and haul them to Austin on a wagon and sell them.
Did you raise any sugar cane?
No, we raised sorghum and made molasses. You plant it kind of thin so it will make a big stalk, strip the leaves off it when it gets ripe, and cut the heads off. You hauled it to the syrup mill-way back then they had a horse hitched to one-and squeezed the juice out of it. They had a copper pan to cook it in.
How much syrup did you get?
It depends on the weather. It takes about as much rain as for corn. There's lots of land that didn't make good syrup. Nearly everybody around did the same thing (made sorghum molasses). We all raised corn for meal, and wheat for flour. There were grist mills around, and a flour mill here in Burnet that was still running in World War I. I don't remember any vaudeville show here, but I did see some in Austin. They had silent pictures there, with the actors that would come up on the stage and they'd entertain some. The first pictureshow here that I can remember was on the east side of the square, and Mr. Ollie Cole had it, the Burntex. The first picture show I ever saw-I was about 16 years old-was at Lampasas. I came to Burnet, left my horse with my uncle, got on the train to Lampasas. I stayed all night at the old Keystone Hotel and went to the picture show. There was a screen up in the old park north of town (Sulphur Springs). There were old 2 by 12 planks laid across for benches and no roof.
Did anyone famous ever come to Burnet?
A movie star, or politician? I think some of the national candidates did, but no movie stars.
When Governor Ferguson was in office did the people around here get interested?
Did they take sides on the issues about him? Yes, I don't know when he went in office but he was impeached in 1916. That's the year I started reading the Austin paper. He was impeached and she ran for Governor. Felix Robertson of Dallas ran against her (Mrs. Ferguson). He was a Ku Klux, and she won.
Did the people around here get involved?
Oh, yes. It was a hot issue. I was opposed to the Klan.
Was there a Klan here?
You're doggone right there was. There were lots of good men in it, but they dropped out (after they found out what its purposes were).
Did they do any destruction that you know of?
Not here, I don't thin, but down in Williamson County, when Albert Burleson was postmaster general (of the US) he had a brother that lived in that country [county] (Williamson Co.). He was a salesman of some kind. They caught him and tarred him. Dan Moody was district attorney there then, and he sent a Baptist preacher to the penitentiary for lying. That's when Moody was elected Governor, after prosecuting that case.
Can you remember what was on the square when you left Burnet?
When I left Bertram did more business than Burnet, Llano and Marble Falls. Burnet was a pretty dead town. Bertram had 4 banks, two or three gins and they bought and sold everything. Burnet was a dead town until they built the dams.
What was on the northeast corner of the square before B. Pogue's store?
There used to be a wagon yard behind it, and a feed tore and grist mill were there. Bunk Gibbs had the grist mill. The wagon yard used to be what tourist courts are now. You'd tie your team up and get feed for them. There were cabins you could camp in. There was another wagonyard where Super Save is. There was a hardware store there too. H. A. Burns(?) owned the hardware store and leased out the wagon yard. The first bank I can remember was on the south side of the square. Westfall and Boogess had a private bank, and it went broke. On the corner where the coffee shop is (SE corner) there was a hardware store, and then a National bank opened in there. It went broke. Then Judge Taylor organized the state bank here on the east side of the [not legible]. Then it moved over here (where it is now) in the last 10 or 15 years. The old Jones Hotel used to be there. I've eaten many ameal there for 2 bits. They used to have a bout three weeks of court here twice a year, and all the people involved in the court proceedings at the Jones Hotel. Hill Logan owned the old Burnet Hotel.
Can you remember any particular court case?
Yes, they used to transfer lots of cases from San Saba and Llano. Before they had cars, there were two factions there. Don Dray killed a feller at ______ springs in Llano county and they tried him here. To get the people here they took the train. Llano didn't have a train so to get here from San Saba, they had to go to Lometa, then get on the Southern Pacific and come to Burnet on the H&TC (Houston and Texas Central). That's who bought out the narrow guage that they had used to haul rock for the capitol. In 1901 and02 they extended it to Lampasas, and them from Granite Mt. to Llano. When the circus came to Austin we'd go on the train from Bertram and it was $1.00 for a round trip ticket. They'd run two special trains, one to Burnet and the other up to Llano, and they'd come back loaded and we'd go to Austin. About once a year the whole family would go to Austin in a covered wagon to do a lot of trading. We'd go down Congress Avenue and camp in Jake Snider's wagon yard. Col. Stevens published the paper for a while. He had two sons, Lexey and Harvey and they ran that press by hand. I think it was in 1901 that Louis Chamberlain bought it and moved it to the south side of the square. There used to be a saddle and harness shop where the Bulletin is now. He bought that. (This refers to Oliver Cox and the Bertram Enterprise.) He had the first lineotype machine in this part of the country.
What else was on the south side of the square?
There was a livery stable [stable] just about the center of the square, a saloon, dry goods store, bank, furniture store where Sears is, Churchill hardware. Meat market on the corner where the ASC office is now.
Did you ever go in Schnabel's bakery?
Lots of times. He was here when they built the capitol. George was his oldest boy, and Charlie next, then Herman and Eddie. George went to Fredericksburg before the first world war. Charlie stayed here and worked in the bank. Herman stayed here, and Eddie went to Ft. Worth, or somewhere up there. No kiddin' about it, they had good bakery goods. This little frame over here at the city park (country store) that stood over Schnabel's well. Mrs. Schnabel was a small woman. She never did wait on the customers.
