Caton Jacobs of San Angelo

Good Morning, Lolyn,



Thank you for the wonderful online photos and blog time you have donated to the rest of us!

When I found it ,I thought of grandmother Grace’s quest for family records that yielded her a treasure book of information and pictures .

You are seven years my junior ,so you likely do not remember me well. Glenn or Duane may.

I am Caton and Thelma’s seventh child ,Gloria . I was approximately a year old when Grandmother finished and distributed her “Papa’s Family” book.



I can trade a few stories with you . Uncle Glenn brought the family to San Angelo several times.

One of those times, we lived out on the Christoval HWY or HWY 277 . We went to a country school called Fairview located out in a Farmer’s field along a caliche road. Glennie and Duane went along to visit our school with us that day and rode the school bus with us. The German farm boys challenged them to talk by asking them what their names were over and over.

Duane told them his name but Glennie wouldn’t . He just said “John Brown! Ask me again and I’ll knock you down!” Well, of course they asked him again and he lunged across the seat and landed a few good solid punched before the bus driver pulled over to the side of the road . As I recall, the driver’s name was Ernest Broadnax and he was usually a patient man but this time he had had enough and glaring into the rearview mirror he said,

”If you don’t all settle down I’ll hang your underwear out over the radiator! ” Well, everyone stayed remarkably quiet for the remainder of the trip!.

I loved reading the Sunday Funnies with Duane . Duane was always smiling and quiet . Glennie was gregarious and so funny . He wanted to make rockets out of fire crackers (and did) .



Gloria Hale R.N., I.B.C.L.C

COSA WIC Manager - Local Agency 56

San Angelo, Texas 76903

gloria.hale@sanangelotexas.us



Lolyn ,

Thanks for the reply. I didn't know your personal e-mail addres so I wrote to your website.

I am impressed with your writings and your accomplishments, Lolyn. God has blessed you.

The message at the bottom of the page of my e-mail is standard for the city I work for. You may put anything in your blog that you feel would apply..

I remember you and your sis. Very pretty, totally well behaved, good sense of humor and together all of the time.

Julia Francis was with Dawn that visit. She is two years younger than I and has been mentally ill now for years with Schizophrenia.

She stays with Dawn and Buck out at Dove Creek. They decided to live the austere, non-materialistic, sparse lifestyle. They read the Bible and pray .

Alvin and I support her as they will not accept Social Security or government money. Helen Ann also gives them money . Buck is in his eighties but still

gets around well. Dawn is well over six foot tall and takes care of them both .Julia has managed to stay functional without institutionalization. She was

once institutionalized in the 70's and they did ECT which changed her forever. Buck and Mama went and got her home before she was totally erased

emotionally.

Back when we were kids together in school , Julia was a genius and would teach the teachers in algebra and trig class. She could type faster and more

accurately than any one in school . She gradually declined after Dad's death and then Jerrel's. She had two daughters Dawn and Rachel, a Nurse

Practitioner in Dallas who was raised by her father. Dawn was home schooled and is quite well read and intelligent. But her life has been isolated and

limited by her devotion to Buck and Julia. She seems happy though.

I am the one Dad called "Bumps", took to the babrber shop with him for dutch boy hair cuts and essentially raised like a boy (ranchhand). I loved it and

credit it for much of my inner confidence. Bumps was my nickname because I was always climbing , jumping and super active and got my share of

bumps.

When I reached teenage, he retired me to my mothers care and teaching. But during those early years, Dad told me many of his vivid memories as

we drove out to Cristoval to look after the ranch.

Have you ever heard that Grandpa Frank Jacobs tied Granmom Grace to the railroad tracks and my dad and your dad or Emmet had to go untie her

before the train came through?

Did you hear about the time the Jacobs boys running a circle around the house chasing each other with sheep drenching tools filled with water . It was a

really hot summer day. They would stop just long enough to fill the sheep drenchers by sucking up water out of the horse trough then resume chasing

each other, yelling, screaming, soaking wet and laughing . Boys will be boys, so they stripped off all the wet clothes and continued the wild chase around

the house. Grandpa Frank inside the house had heard enough and fell in line after them effectively swinging a wet rope which stopped that wet merry go

round, with just one more circle around the house.



He told me about a train trip to Texas from South Dakota when as a child, he had to ride back in the box car to care for the horses while his mom and

others rode in style in the pullman car. He tried pushing newspaper and straw into the cracks to keep out the cold. He was worked very hard from an

early age and caught the wrath for most of what went wrong but it made him tough and wise . You can bet your dad had the same.

Grandfather Caton Hoblit took my dad to town with him many times with him in his buggy. Dad remembered his grandpa Caton seeing someone who

had welched on a debt walking on the side walk downtown . Grandpa Caton Hoblit drove the team of horses along side him , got out his whip and flailled

the swindler from the buggy . The welcher attempted to run away, sprinting down the walk, but Grandpa Caton kept along side him and kept whipping

him for a block. My dad learned it was good to pay your debts that particular day . He also learned he had a grandfather with a temper. He was quite

young to witness such trauma and it impressed him as a vivid experience he never forgot.

One afternoon his dad sent him to fix a "mill" windmill way over on another part of the ranch . He got his stuff together and rode to the pasture where

the broken mill was and worked to get it fixed. He got it working just as it was getting dark so he started back home. Through the twilight trees he

heard the howl of lobos so he trotted his pony back to the windmill. He made a makeshift platform up in the mill and slept there over night.

Tough as boot leather .

Well, didn't mean to write so much.

Get back with me when you can. If you have an extra DVD on family please consider sending it to me .I'll be happy to pay for it.

Thanks,
Gloria