by Elaine Thomas | Nov 5, 2021 | Family, Saving Stories
Kassy Matchett went on a search for the name Charles Magrath Fendall at the Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres, Belgium, several years ago. She was excited to find her fourth cousin listed on the wall alongside more than 54,000 other World War I casualties who died on...
by Elaine Thomas | Oct 15, 2021 | Rural Life, Rural Texas, Saving Stories
In the pages of my new book, Stories I’ve Been Told, you’ll meet 25 of my special Texas friends. Most of these personality profiles first appeared in my monthly column in our local paper, The Fayette County Record. Now they’ve morphed into volume one of a new book...
by Elaine Thomas | Sep 17, 2021 | Old Times, Rural Life, Rural Texas, Saving Stories
Only 26 years after the Wright Brothers made their first flight, Schulenburg, Texas, welcomed Carnation Badger the Flying Bull. The dairy yearling reached the Central Texas town after a 1,232-mile journey from Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, on April 3, 1929. That audacious...
by Elaine Thomas | Aug 6, 2021 | Old Times, Rural Texas, Saving Stories, World War II
The lessons that Florence Hertel Farek learned at a two-room country school in Freyburg, Texas, still make her smile. In the 1930s, the Schulenburg, Texas, resident, who turns 95 tomorrow, lived on a farm in the rural South Central Texas community. Most of the kids,...
by Elaine Thomas | Jul 16, 2021 | Rural Life, Rural Texas, Saving Stories
David Koether shapes small pieces of solid rock to create arrowheads which makes him a knapper. After finding a couple of arrowheads on land that he and his wife, Gesine, own northeast of La Grange, Texas, he had the urge to search for others. However, most property...
by Elaine Thomas | May 30, 2021 | Rural Life, Rural Texas, Saving Stories
The late, great Leon Hale would have turned 100 on May 30, 2021. Several generations of Texans looked up to the legendary newspaper columnist who worked for The Houston Post and later The Houston Chronicle. From downtown Houston boardrooms to domino games in the back...