(1907 - Present)
CHAPTERS 7. A Loessin Leaves Family Compound
for Williamson County
8. "Uncle Mike's" Three Sons:
Edgar, Walter (Babe),
& my grandfather - Oscar (Sug)
9. "Sug's" Education - THS, another THS,
& Texas A&M
10. The Loessin Cotton Gin in Circleville
- Abstract of Title Provides
Fascinating History of Property
- Loessin Gin (1925-1975)
11. Disastrous Floods, "That Damned River Be Dammed"
Conflicting Paths, and Sug's Death
New Directions Puts Loss Behind
12. Strong-Willed Lib
13. Les & Rubie Adapt to Change
14. New Generations
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A Loessin Arrives In Williamson County
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| My great-grandparents: Oscar Waldimar Loessin Sr. aka "Uncle Mike" and his wife Martha (Templin) at their home in Thrall, TX. |
A year after his father's death, "Uncle Mike" and Martha sold their farm at Black Jack Springs in 1907 and announced they would be moving to Thrall in Williamson County.
On the day of the announcement at an after-church-barbecue it is said the newly widowed Marie turned to Martha and said, "Is this wise? Particularly with you carrying your third son?" Martha and "Uncle Mike" were quite shocked apparently, as they had told no one this news, having decided to wait until settled in their new home before doing so. Yet, Marie was often credited with having what was known back then as a 'second sight' about many things. It is said that she even predicted the great storm of 1909 that would destroy the old Loessin Gin at Black Jack Springs.
Marie's prediction turned out to be right. Oscar Elmer Max was born the day after Christmas in 1908, six months after "Uncle Mike" and Martha had settled in Thrall.
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| My grandfather, Oscar Elmer Max Loessin, born Dec. 26, 1908. |
Contrary to common misconception, my grandfather "Sug" was the baby in the family while the one who was called "Babe" (Walter) was actually the middle child.
I once asked my Dad to explain to me how grandpa got his name "Sug." He bent over the table into the microphone of the tape recorder and provided that etymology: "For the very reason you'd guess, it stood for 'sugar!' Now, you certainly recall what a sweet tooth daddy had -- him and those damn root beer candies! I got the same love for sweets as he and clearly you now got it too. The story goes that as a baby he spent a lot of time with Aunt Emma who looked over him while his mom and pop worked in the gin. She claimed that his two older brothers would enjoy her grits with good homemade butter as she served it up each morning. But not daddy. He wouldn't eat his until she sprinkled sugar on top! And so began calling him "Sug"..."
I suppose "Sug" is quite a bit easier to call out than Oscar Elmer Max. It seems great-grandma Martha had a desire with each pregnancy to honor as many of her deceased Templin ancestors as possible. Hence there was also Walter Lee Louis and Edgar Hermann August (although, as you see, Great-Grandpa had a hand in Edgar's naming.)
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| Their three sons: Walter Lee Louis (Babe), Edgar Hermann August, and my grandfather Oscar Elmer Max (Sug) |
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| Interesting that my grandfather's birth certificate notes his parent's residence in Thrall yet beside great-grandfather's typed name in a signature line the birth residence is Rt. 2, Granger Texas?! |
My dad provided the most sensible explanation for these confusing address entries on this document. It was not uncommon for parents who had a child born at home to only make the journey to the county office some years later in order to make application for an official birth certificate. A pragmatic hesitation in an age when infant mortality rates were so high. Thus, grandpa was born in Thrall and would attend Thrall schools. Likely not until an official birth certificate was necessary for him did grandpa apply for a birth certificate and by this time they had moved to Circleville (which, lacking its own post office, the mailing address was Rt. 2 Granger).
After only two years in Thrall, in 1910 they moved to Noack to farm the Charles Zieschang place for two years and eventually back to Thrall where great-grandpa got a job doing his first-love, working in the Thrall Gin Co. My grandfather and his three brothers attended school in Thrall and I still have yearbooks that have all three of them featured in it -- they were quite active in academic clubs, theater, and athletics.
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| My granda 'Sug' in his bedroom of the family's Thrall home, his Thrall school banner can be seen on the wall behind him. |
Through a series of fortuitous circumstances my great-grandfather Karl Oscar "Uncle Mike" Loessin would hear about a gin for sale west of he and his wife's Thrall home in a place called Circleville and he began personally petitioning for the property by calling upon its owner at the gin in Circleville, so earnestly he wanted it -- not surprising given his upbringing in his family's own ginning enterprise back in Black Jack Springs.
A.C. Stearns**, who had built and operated his own gin in Circleville for several years, was solely interested in selling to someone with suitable experience in the ginning business.
[**The Stearns family were among the earliest white settlers in the early 1800s to Williamson County and had from the beginning made Circleville their home. A.C.'s daughter, Clara Stearns Scarbrough, would author Land of Good Water: A Williamson County History, which laid the foundation for a preservation movement that sprung up across the county in the 1970s.]
It would be a gradual transition. First, in 1925 Stearns insisted on observing my great-grandfather at work in his gin and it was in that year that the family moved from their home of 18 years in Thrall to a home "in much need of repair" on the north bank of the San Gabriel River in Circleville.
And thus my grandfather "Sug" has the rare distinction of receiving two diplomas and two class rings (both with a T on them). He completed 10th grade in Thrall in 1925 (which, at the time, was the final level in that school) and then proceeded to attend two more years in Taylor and "again" graduating. I still have both of his class rings!
After his graduation from Taylor High, my grandfather "Sug" attended Texas A&M in College Station.
On May 2, 2024 I found in an old trunk his 1928 and 1929 Texas A&M yearbooks -- called at that time, believe it or not, "The Longhorn."
They are beautifully leather bound, embellished with amazing student artwork, and look at the size of these yearbooks!
Grandfather was in Company B - the Corps of Engineers, as you'll see on that page's roster.
Included in the trunk was a leather pouch, lined inside in blue velvet, secured on either side when opened were 8 fine precision instruments - the tools of a draftsman. A silver tag on the front reveals their German craftsmanship.
And tied to the pouch are his A&M notebooks. My grandfather's beautiful cursive script is interspersed with intricate drawings related to chemistry and physics experiments, as well as architectural designs, and electrical circuitry.
But the irony that I should make this find on May 2 - 95 years later!
Do you see the small card my grandfather affixed to the inside cover of The Longhorn '29? May 2, 1929!
__________________
Another Prized Family Artifact
The parcel of land the Stearn's Gin set upon and that my great-grandfather would purchase turned out to have a fascinating lineage.
The parcel of land the Stearn's Gin set upon and that my great-grandfather would purchase turned out to have a fascinating lineage.
The Abstract of Title is one of my most prized family artifacts.
It traces the property's century of ownership back to the William Ashworth survey of 1842.
Ashworth's story is fascinating:
- ...a free Black Colonist and landowner, born in South Carolina about 1793...In 1831 he moved from what is now Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana, to Lorenzo de Zavala's colony in East Texas. East Texas would remain his home base for the rest of his long life while he traveled and surveyed throughout Texas, often into lands teeming with unfriendly natives and Mexicans... William and his brother Aaron Ashworth obtained an order of survey from early Land Commissioner George Antonio Nixon...
[https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/ashworth-william] - ...a black man of considerable means thanks to the great number of horses and supplies he provided the Texas Army during the war with Mexico's Santa Anna. Ashworth was rewarded by Sam Houston a First Class Headright in 1838, receiving 4605.5 acres. He obtained special legislative permission to have a Headright since laws at the time excluded African Americans from obtaining land grants.
- In February 5, 1840, Texas had made it unlawful for “any free person of color to emigrate to this Republic” and required all free blacks then residing within the Republic to leave within two years, or risk being captured and sold into slavery. Ten months later (with some influence provided by the state's new General Land Office) on December 12, 1840, the Ashworth Act was drafted in response. [https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/ashworth-act]
[https://medium.com/save-texas-history/the-ashworth-act-an-act-for-the-relief-of-certain-free-persons-of-col or-e7f92a782acd]
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| Ashworth profile flyer courtesy of TSHA. |
The land my great-grandfather had purchased was part of this formerly much larger parcel originally surveyed by Ashworth. The Abstract of Title my grandfather received dates back to his subdivided parcel first purchased in 1848 by Absalom Jett.
Absalom Jett was born in Louisiana in 1812, arrived in Texas in 1824 and served in the Army of Texas in 1836. A member of Capt. Ben Harper's Company of Texas Rangers, he patrolled frequently along the cattle trails through central Texas. He died in 1878.
Jett had granted his Circleville parcel to James Eubank in 1870. After Eubank's death (curiously, also in 1878) his wife Mary -- along with her daughter Rosa who had married J. T. Butts -- provided Warranty Deed to H. T. Stearns in 1878. Stearns' and his wife Frances' Designation of Homestead was filed with the county tax office in 1888. (Also noteworthy, according to the Abstract of Title, Eubank provided the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railway Company the Right-Of-Way deed to run their rail line along the east line of this tract in 1881).
Stearns proceeded to annex more nearby parcels, including those to the east belonging to "Circleville nobility" - the McFadin family - and parcels to the north belonging to Carrol Cavanaugh (1900) and Cora Cavanaugh Paech (1901) - daughters of the "Circleville aristocrat" Ellen Cavanaugh.
A. C. Stearns inherited these parcels from his parents by 1915. He sold my great grandfather the parcel with the Stearns cotton gin on it in 1928, 3 years after my great grandfather had come with his wife Martha to work in that gin.
The Sales Contract would be drawn up between them by W. C. Wofford, Attorney at Law in Taylor TX, and my great-grandfather agreed, as follows:
"and binds himself to pay to the party of the first part the agreed sum of $12,000, with interest thereon from this date until paid at the rate of 8% per annum, interest payable on January 1 of each year...and agrees to pay on the first of January of each year, a sum amounting to not less than $2.00 per bale for each bale of cotton ginned during each year..."
The only time I remember my grandfather "Sug" speak about his father's purchase of Stearn's gin he shook his head, and said: "Many times in life you will wish you had a crystal ball to see the future. I'm sure my papa wished he'd had such an opportunity before he bought it." I recall he then tried to explain to me - a lad not yet versed in the history of global economics - about the stock market crash that happened a year after the gin sale was finalized, the Great Depression, and worst of all the drought in the 1930s -- aka, the Dust Bowl.
Think about it: Great-grandpa had worked in Stearns' gin for almost 3 years during a period of great productivity and profit. As soon as he purchases it come these disasters my grandfather listed. The first few years my great-grandparent's faced severe hardship and, I'm conjecturing here, this might have had something to do with why there is no evidence of or mention of any large celebration observing my grandparent's wedding. The early 1930s were a very difficult period of economic hardship.
There were many dust storms in the 1930s, however few extended all the way down into central Texas. Yet, one such storm in 1935 lingered in the minds of my paternal grandparents. Grandpa 'Sug' and Grandma 'Lib' had only been married a short time, recently settled into the small bungalow house that sat beside the gin, and would describe the laborious exercise of each day in that summer trying to seal fully the doors and windows and trying to wipe, sweep, mop away the dust along the sills, thresholds, and porches. One day in particular was impressed upon their memory -- April 14, 1935 -- as the worst of all. "You couldn't go outside at all!"
Hmmm... I often wondered if that was what led to the birth of their only offspring nine months later, my dad in February of 1936!
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| My great-uncle Walter "Babe" Loessin holding yet another big catch pulled out of the Gabriel. |
But what was particularly unique about Babe's store he ran was the place was also an ice house. Babe bought the ice from an ice plant and stored it in the cave located there along the limestone bank of the river I showed you when you were young. He'd sell it by the block or chip it for the customers."
[Sidenote about Uncle Babe: I have fond memories of Mom and Dad taking me to Thrall to visit with Uncle Babe and his wife Goldie. Babe had inherited the home in Thrall where he and his two brothers grew up (the one pictured at the top of this page where my great-grandparents are seated on the front porch). The house was small and I recall even as a child sitting quietly in the corner studying the low ceilings and tiny rooms and wondering how my great-grandparents and their three sons had moved around in it. Babe and Goldie never had any children of their own. And a final memory, it was thanks to Uncle Babe that my Mom discovered my love of hot and spicy foods. Babe made the best chili and chicken soup, loaded with pepper. Mom would often politely decline while I was beggin' for more...and I haven't let go of the pepper shaker yet!]
Did you know it was originally powered by man and mule?
And then became the first steam powered Cotton Gin in Texas?
Read about this history in this old newspaper clipping from the Taylor Daily Press.
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| History of Loessin Gin provided in this news article, 1956. |
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| My grandmother Elizabeth "Lib" sits on my Dad "Les" Harley motorcycle, 1958. The Loessin Gin bale platform behind her. |
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| According to my Dad, "one of the last things the three brothers would work together on at the gin before your grandpa Sug bought out Babe & Edgar was to do that bright red paint job." Indeed, the bright red gin was to then become the familiar landmark in Circleville. Folks gave directions to those heading to Georgetown passing through Circleville on Highway 95. "Heading to Georgetown? Don't miss the turn on to 29 at the Loessin Gin! It's big and red!" The red paint would fade over the years, particularly after the San Gabriel flood of '57. A close inspection of this 1961 photo one can see the line the flood waters rose to well above the second story. The left side of photo you'll note the 2nd story balcony where the bales exited and, as a youth, I would "spin the hoist" around to load them on to the flat bed trucks. |
My grandfather "Sug" eventually bought out the whole gin and store operation from the rest of the family. When this separation was finalized, great-grandfather "Uncle Mike" and his two eldest Edgar and Babe went into the construction business in the late 1930s, finding a great deal of work thanks to President Roosevelt's New Deal programs -- in particular, the Works Program Administration and the CCC (their invovlement in the latter included construction of the Granger school gymnasium). Later, more remarkable projects came their way thanks to such wartime projects at Camp Hood, Camp Swift at Bastrop, and Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. "Keep in mind, son," my Dad mentioned, "there were no 'power' tools in those days."
Eventually Edgar Hermann Loessin went into the wholesale lumber business, filling orders all over the country while running two retail lumber businesses in Houston. Edgar's son Larry Loessin would own the Pearland Lumber Company. A second son, Edgar Ray Loessin (who attended Southwestern University as I did 40 years after him), would have a rather remarkable career in theater.
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| My grandfather Oscar "Sug" Loessin the mayor, postmaster, and telephone operator at Circleville, TX. This photo taken one year before he bought out his Dad and brother's shares in the family-owned cotton gin in Circleville. |
In the meantime, Grandpa "Sug" took over a role that formerly belonged to his dad there at the gin -- as the Circleville 'Operator.' It's unclear whether or not great-grandfather had inherited this Circleville responsibility from the gin property's previous owner, A.C. Stearns. Regardless, the family owned and operated the crank rural telephone service for years whose lines ran the length of Highway 29 from Circleville to Georgetown. This was the kind in which one winds the crank and holds the earpiece to one's ear until "Central Operator" (grandpa) came on the line seated at his switchboard and asked what number you wanted. The caller would respond by speaking into the long 'horn' mouthpiece of his phone at home the call letters and numbers - i.e. BL8-419. (which was my grandparent's own number for years at their home and gin business there on the San Gabriel river).
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| Switchboard similar to the one my grandfather and great-grandfather sat at when in their role as the Circleville "operator" |
[Interesting sidenote: I have my grandfather's letter from the Texas Highway Department dated December 3, 1940 granting permission for his application to erect a new pole line "along and within the right-of-way limits of Highway 95 in Williamson County." This new pole line was for the more 'modern' system of 'exchanges' being installed and would increase the number of households grandfather provided service to.]
Usually the 'Operator' had the 'privilege' of receiving all the local gossip while on the line. And so it was, so the story goes, that my grandfather "Sug" initially began courting my grandmother, Elizabeth Komandosky. Her and her two step-sisters, Frances and Helen ("Sis") Quebe, (see pic the three below) would get on the line and "they'd whoop and holler all evening" at all the scoop grandfather had acquired on the phone that day or down at the gin. Eventually, with her step-sisters listening in, grandma "Lib" consented to a date with "Sug." Pictured below are the two of them dressed up and about to take an evening drive out to the "haunted" Hoxie bridge. What a date!
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| My grandmother, Elizabeth Komandosky (left) with her sister Frances (right) and her step-sister Helen - aka "Sis"- (foreground). My grandmother's father, sadly, left home when she was 3. A year later my great-grandmother Helen married Joe Quebe of Taylor. Below my grandmother stands beside her new sister Frances. |
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| Above: Grandma "Lib" posing in the lovely white cotton dress she chose for her first date with "Sug." Below: "Sug" posing in front of the Loessin home in Circleville. |
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| My grandparents Oscar "Sug" and Elizabeth "Lib" married December 27, 1934. |
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| Loessin Gin at Circleville, ca. 1940. |
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Grandpa’s Selective Service document, |
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| After my grandfather Sug bought out his Dad and brother's shares in the gin and his brothers and Dad went into their own construction business, his Dad and Mom still lived in their own home beside Sug and Lib on the gin property and his Dad was always ready to lend a hand at peak ginning season. Here is my great-grandfather tagging another bale that's about to be loaded on to a waiting flatbed truck below the 2nd floor deck; 1949. |
In May 1952 my great-grandfather Oscar Karl Waldimar "Uncle Mike" Loessin passed away at age 72. His registry book has 10 pages of 16 lines each filled with the signatures of "Mr. & Mrs. ....and their children" - family, neighbors, gin clientele, and local dignitaries -- who attended his services at Condra Funeral Home. He would be the first of the Circleville Loessin's interred at the Taylor City Cemetery. Three years later his wife Martha would join him there.
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| Oscar Waldimar Loessin Sr. and his wife Martha (Templin) Loessin are buried in the Taylor City Cemetery. |
Grandma Lib's story: (In Progress, gathering artifacts)
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| My Grandmother was 3 y.o. when her dad left. She always refused to elaborate. After she passed in 2012 I sifted through her Bible and found a yellowed envelope containing a love letter from her Mother's 2nd husband (Joe Quebe) and tucked into the love letter was her own parent's divorce announcement Taylor Daily Press June 6, 1919. |
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| My grandfather Oscar E. "Sug" Loessin sits in the family home built 1929 at NW corner of the Gin property, home was relocated in 1962 .5 mile north to my parent's new property. |
After my grandfather "Sug" passed away in 1969 when I was 6 years old,
Dad decided he no longer wanted to continue either of the pair's joint endeavors -
the Cotton Gin nor the TV Radio Repair Shop.
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| Grandpa Sug on his old tractor at the Gin property. Dated Sept 1959, only a few months earlier the San Gabriel had flooded the entire property - the second flood in 2 years - and the family's home had also been washed off its blocks a second time. |
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| Grandma Lib. After the two consecutive floods, Dad got out of the Army, married Mom in '61 and insisted on moving his parent's home out of the flood-prone Gin property on the Gabriel and up to the new property Dad and Mom bought only a half mile north. Grandma Lib said she fought with Les, "I didn't want to leave our place of 30 years. I loved that river. Les hated that river. He said he wouldn't help us clean up if a third flood came. So Sug and I did as we were told." |
PREVIEW OF MORE TO COME:
5. Disastrous Floods, Conflicting Paths,
Sug's Death, and a River Be Dammed
A New Direction Puts Loss Behind
6. Strong-Willed Lib
7. Les & Rubie Adapt to Change
8. New Generations
Sug's Death, and a River Be Dammed
A New Direction Puts Loss Behind
6. Strong-Willed Lib
7. Les & Rubie Adapt to Change
8. New Generations
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| Elizabeth "Lib" Loessin gave Oscar "Sug" Loessin their only child, my dad Leslie Eugene Loessin, Feb. 25, 1936. Here they sit on an unknown bridge location. Below, the two are on the former Highway 29 bridge that crossed the San Gabriel river behind the Loessin Gin in Circleville, TX. |
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| My dad, Leslie Loessin. |
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| My dad, Leslie, with his grandma Martha Templin Loessin |
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| My dad, Leslie Loessin, dressed up as his idol Gene Autry. |
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| My dad, Leslie Loessin attended grade school at the old Circleville Schoolhouse before transitioning in 8th grade to Taylor High. Above, his Circleville classmates attend his birthday party at the family's home place down on the Gabriel. Below, his 1st grade class. Can't find Dad? In both of these pics he is second from the right. |
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| Grandma caught a 40 lb. catfish i n the San Gabriel, 1952. |
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| Sug, Lib, Dad; 1960. Before they built their new TV & Radio Repair Shop in 1962 (that I remodeled into my home in 2012) Dad and Grandpa Sug began this new enterprise from home, having completed together their Certification in Electronics correspondence course through Texas A&M |
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| I was so excited in 2020 while cleaning out an old shed and finding the old sign that lit up on a pole outside the TV Shop (now my home). I enjoyed long hours in the old TV Repair Shop playing on the floor with my Tonka trucks - or, the opportunity to roll a cig for Sug, or prep his pipe while he studied a SAMS Photofact schematic trying to get somebody's radio or "boobtube" repaired. |
Sug's Death, and a River Be Dammed
A New Direction Puts Loss Behind
6. Strong-Willed Lib
Her mother-in-law Martha had tried to forbid it, "Whores alone bathe strange men who ain't their lawful husband. No daughter-in-law of mine is gonna be doing that!" Grandma Lib recalled it was the morning after that statement that she finally had the courage to pick up the phone with Sug in the room and made the appointment to sign up for nursing school.
When asked what experience as a nurse had the greatest affect on her she said "That's easy to answer. Finding out Sug had terminal cancer and having to play the roles of both wife and nurse at home..."
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| Great-Grandma Helen Quebe Lib's Mom. |
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| Sug on the right with Lib's two brothers to his left Joe & Richard Quebe |
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| Grandma Lib's second husband her former childhood sweetheart from Circleville school days Alfred Vitek |
7. Les & Rubie Adapt to Change
8. New Generations
8. New Generations
Enjoy looking through my Library:
- | HOME and FAMILY
- MATERNAL FAMILY
- PATERNAL FAMILY
- Mom & Dad
- 2023 Spring Patio Pics
- 2023 Ice Storm
- Home Remodel Projects
- Favorite Recipes
- Pets
- 2022 Holidays
- 2022 Family Reunions
- 2022 Estate Sale & Tornado!
- | NEWS and UPDATES
- | TRAVEL and DAYTRIPS
- | READING and WRITING
- | FAITH and SPIRITUALITY
- | LISTENING and VIEWING
- | EDUCATION and CAREER
______________________________Terry’s “Good Living” Guide:
Body:
Avoid the 3 PsBsSs
Processed Foods, Phthalates, Plastics;
Beef, Butter, Breads;Sedentary activities, Sugars, Salt.
Trust me,
you’ll be feeling better in no time!Mind & Spirit:
Avoid the 3 F’sManufactured in these mediums are
misinformation, fear, anger and hate!
Enjoy looking through my Library:
- | HOME and FAMILY
- MATERNAL FAMILY
- PATERNAL FAMILY
- Mom & Dad
- 2023 Spring Patio Pics
- 2023 Ice Storm
- Home Remodel Projects
- Favorite Recipes
- Pets
- 2022 Holidays
- 2022 Family Reunions
- 2022 Estate Sale & Tornado!
- | NEWS and UPDATES
- | TRAVEL and DAYTRIPS
- | READING and WRITING
- | FAITH and SPIRITUALITY
- | LISTENING and VIEWING
- | EDUCATION and CAREER
______________________________
Terry’s “Good Living” Guide:
Body:
Avoid the 3 PsBsSs
Processed Foods, Phthalates, Plastics;
Beef, Butter, Breads;
Avoid the 3 PsBsSs
Processed Foods, Phthalates, Plastics;
Beef, Butter, Breads;
Sedentary activities, Sugars, Salt.
Trust me,
you’ll be feeling better in no time!
you’ll be feeling better in no time!
Mind & Spirit:
Avoid the 3 F’s
Avoid the 3 F’s
Manufactured in these mediums are
misinformation, fear, anger and hate!
misinformation, fear, anger and hate!
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