Hugo Robert Reichenau was born March 26, 1882 at the
Reichenau Ranch in Simonsville Community in Mason County, Texas. Hugo
said, "His father, Adolph, was sixty years old when he was born."
Hugo was the second child to be born to Johanna nee Moldenhauer the
second wife of Adolph Albert Reichenau. Hugo's older sister,
Christiana, was born in 1880 and died as an infant and was buried
between Katherine Arhelger Arhelger Reichenau and Henrietta
Moldenhauer's graves in the Reichenau Cemetery located across the road
from the house. Hugo was baptized at a Lutheran Church [Bethany] in
Fredericksburg in Gillespie County, Texas. Robert Arhelger was
his godfather or sponsor, and Stella Moldenhauer was his godmother.
Hugo told me, that you take your 2nd name from your Godfather
in baptism. He had another name but he didn't know it. He said he had
to get it when he got his SS. [Social Security Death Index shows Hugo
Reichenau born March 26, 1883 .WWI Civil Draft Registrations in Menard
County, TX shows: Hugo Robert born March 26, 1883. His driver's license
show him born March 26, 1882]
Hugo was raised on a bottle. His mother would take
him down to the cow pens when they would milk so she could keep an eye
on him.
He remembers his grandmother, Henrietta Moldenhauer,
caring for him while his parents went to the fields to work. She
was very old and gray but never did get bed fast. She died when he was
small, probably about 1886 to 1900, since he remembered her so well,
and was buried in the Reichenau Family Cemetery next to her infant
granddaughter, Christiana His parents had his
sister, Katherine Margareta, "Katie", August 29, 1884 and his brother
William Mathews, "Willie" on January 30, 1886.
Adolph and Johanna would go into the fields and
Henrietta and later Olga would be left to watch after the three younger
children,
Hugo, Katie, and Willie. Hugo said his half-sister, Olga, who was
a favorite of Hugo's, helped to raise him after his grandmother died.
Olga was about 11 years older than Hugo. She he would care for the
three younger children, Hugo, Katie, and Willie, while their parents,
Adolph and Johanna, would go into the fields to work. He told how she
would try to correct and boss him. Hugo said, "Willie,
Katie and I got into lots of trouble like most kids do. Katy and I
fought all the time. Katy had a terrible temper and gave Willie and me,
Hell. Willie was very even tempered and took a lot off
Katy." Hugo said, "I gave Katie back what she dished out."
Hugo must have been very mischievous from some of the things he said he
did. The children use to ride hogs, goats, pigs, cows, or
anything they could catch to copy their father. One day after Adolph
and Johanna left to go to the fields, Hugo caught a calf and tried to
ride it. The calf threw him and he landed with his head stuck between
two pickets in the fence. Their corral was made of cedar pickets.
Willie, his younger brother, and Katie, his younger sister, couldn't
get him out. The younger children got an ax and chopped him out before
Olga caught them.
It is a wonder he wasn't killed with this activity. Hugo said, it
didn't stop him, he kept right on riding. Hugo said, "I thought my
daddy, Adolph, knew everything. Anything his dad told me about I would
try to do." His dad showed him where Indian's had ground corn on
hollowed rock with another rock. Hugo tried this and he had several
places where he would grind corn after that.
Hugo told this about his father, Adolph: Adolph's bi
word, that he used when he got mad, are got after the children, and etc
was
"Saperment". [It is in the bible as sacrement and meant forsaken]
Adolph never cursed, at least Hugo never heard him curse. He would use
the saying saperment. He would also get mad at the kids and say
"Saperment louse youa" [Foresaken lazy boy] [from stories Hugo told
about himself I am sure Adolph told him this often.] When Adolph
said something he meant it, and the kids believed him and were well
behaved and minded without question. Adolph was a peaceful man but he
would fight if he was pushed too far. Adolph was a good fighter and
never ran from a fight. Hugo said his dad was a man of small frame but
he was strong built, muscled. He could lift and load a 50-gallon barrel
of whiskey onto a trailer. They made whiskey at Simonsville. He said
that Adolph raised the wheat at Simonsville. There was a mill at
Fredericksburg that they
carried the wheat to.
The older children had attended the school in Simonsville. Hugo said,
"I had to be eight years old to go to school at Simonsville. The
school was made of pickets stuck straight up into the ground. There was
a dirt floor. It was under a live oak tree. They finally built a rock
schoolhouse. I had an old man teacher named Mr. Volmier, and he taught
us how to speak, read, and write in German. Hugo said, "He was a real
smart old Devil, but I don't remember any, of that now. I don't
even remember how to talk in German anymore." (He was almost 90
then.) "I was one of the first scholars to go to Simonsville
School." The old teacher would go to town on Saturday and get
drunk. He lived in the back part of the school and was a bachelor.
Mondays were called Blue Monday because he would come in and put
examples on the board and if someone missed one of the problems he
would throw his chalk down and stomp on it and go into the kitchen and
stay for awhile. The kids would all be shaking and scared to death. He
used his walking stick on them. He would pull their coat over their
head and whip them. I went through Texas history and then over half way
through United States history in school.
They didn't have grades then. I guess I got to about the 8th or 9th
grade. After my teacher, Mr. Volmier left I had a Mr. Carlisle, and
after he left a Mr. Oehler taught there one year, and then a Mr. Loy
taught one year." Pa said, " Katy Schmidt died a few weeks ago
and she was my last living school friend."
Hugo said that he trapped and skinned anything and
he had skinned many an old polecat (skunk). Hugo told this
story about his
trapping, " One morning before school I got a pole cat in my trap and I
skinned it and went on to school. When I got to school my teacher made
me go home right away and change my clothes. Ma wouldn't let me in the
house. She made me bathe in the cattle tank and then wash my own
clothes." Hugo learn to preserve the hides of animals from his father
and older half-brother, Adolph Jacob. He used a good system of tanning
the hides of animals as rugs and leather or buckskin.
The boys made a wooden boat by hulling out a tree
log and nailing boards across it for seats. They kept the boat tied up
below a huge rock bluff on the Llano River below the house. This boat
was an invaluable form of transportation to them because it enabled
them to cross the river into some of the finest hunting country in
Mason County. Hugo said that a large bee cave inhabited an area under
this large rock bluff. His older brothers used to hold him by his heels
and lower him over the bluff to get at some of the honey and honeycomb.
At other times they would sit in the sun fishing below the bluff. A
loaf of homemade bread was sliced up, and they would fire a 22 rifle up
into the behive, causing the honey to drip down to them. They caught
the honey of the bread slices.
The family belonged to the St. Paul's Lutheran
Church in Mason. Charlie Reichenau told me Hugo said the family
belonged to Hilda
Lutheran Church, Mason Co., Texas. Hugo lived with the Jim
Brandenberger family in Hilda and went to the confirmation classes. He
was confirmed at Hilda, Beaver Creek Parish Hugo
said his half brothers were mostly grown men by the time he became a
teenager. He referred to Adolph Jacob as the best hunter a lot.
He said he was also very good at tanning leather from animal hides.
Hugo went on many hunting trips with Adolph Jacob. He said they would
take a buckboard, two large wooden barrels, and a supply of salt. They
would
hunt for two or three weeks at a time or until the barrels were filled
with deer meat. For their bed, a large wagon sheet was spread on the
ground and folded back over them for cover. It was not unusual for them
to awaken and to be covered with snow. On at least one occasion a
rattlesnake decided he wanted to share the warmth of their wagon sheet
bed. Gus was a tall left handed cowboy of whom Hugo referred to as
being the best he had ever seen with a rope working cattle.
Hugo spent many days of his youth hunting across the
Llano River and over in the Blue Mountains. [Norman and I have sat for
hours
listening to him tell of a particular hunt he had been on in that
area.]He could recall hunting situations to fit almost any situation
being discussed at the time. From looking at some of the big deer horns
adorning his walls and front porch, it was hard to doubt any hunting
tale revealed by him. Once he said, a pack of lobo wolves pursued him
back to the river after a hunt. This time he learned a valuable lesson,
to never use up all your ammunition. On another hunt over in the Blue
Mountains, he heard a distant shot, he sat still and soon noticed a big
buck trotting through the brush. He took steady aim, fired and brought
down the buck. He leaned his gun against a small oak tree while he went
over to the deer. As he was about to cut the deer's throat, an old
Indian man walked up behind him. The Indian said that he had wounded
the deer a few minutes earlier. Hugo said he was frighten of the old
Indian at first because he did not have his gun handy, but the old
Indian kept talking and seemed friendly enough. The Indian had traveled
south to hunt from the Indian Territory in Oklahoma. Hugo said he was
probably an old Commanche who had roamed the Llano River country with
his tribesmen as a youth. After their conversation, Hugo left the deer
with him and proceeded on his way.
A lot of their Sunday afternoons were spent at the
Reichenau Ranch with all of the boys target-practicing. The boys all
owned late model Winchesters which they were firing at a target about
the size of a silver dollar, it was made of tin and was placed on edge
atop a fence post at a distance of about 50 to 75 yards. It was a
difficult target for most of them. The boys couldn't hit it. Hugo was
an excellent shot and the other boys were supposed to be very good also
according to Hugo. Adolph, who was about eighty years of age,
came up and said, "Well I guess I will have to show you boys how to
shot." He went into the house to get his old muzzle loading Spencer
rifle and ball and cap gun. He shot and hit the silver dollar with the
first shot and every time to shot at it, to the astonishment of his
sons. Even when Adolph was a very old man he was a better shot than his
grown sons who were all good with a gun and they all belonged to the
shooting club in Simonsville. The amazing thing to Hugo was how fast
his father could load the rifle for firing. Hugo said, it seemed like
only about ten seconds. I questioned this and found out that about 13
seconds was what had been required of a soldier to load a rifle in the
American Revolution, so I suppose Hugo was correct in his
estimate. The boys sure spent a lot of Sunday afternoons,
practicing, after that according to Hugo.
Hugo said his dad, Adolph was a crack shot. He had a
Flint lock gun and a Spencer type- gun. [Both guns disappeared after
Adolph's
death and were not found.] Hugo said his dad was equally as good a
marksman with a pistol. Adolph was suppose to have learned to shot in
Germany, [this seems wrong because he was only about 14 when he came to
America]."
In Mason cowboys celebrated the Fourth of July
celebrations quite vigorously. Hugo headed into town on one particular
Fourth of July
wearing a new suit. He was riding his old blue filley horse. That night
on the square, a group of cowboys on the upper side of the square
attack a group of cowboys on the south side. They were all on horses
and were firing 25 shot Roman candles at each other. The next day Hugo
noticed that his new suit was burned full of holes.
Hugo loved music and was very musical and taught
himself how to pay a violin or fiddle. Hugo made his musical instrument
a fiddle out of a cigar box and some strings of horse' tail hair. He
would try to practice at home but the music [noise] was so bad Olga and
his mother made him go up to the hill behind the house to practice. He
got very good with all his practice on the hill and later played in the
Hoffman's Band. He played at Cherry Springs, about 18 miles away, for
dances on the weekends. Hugo said he would hang a lantern on the horse
for light. Hugo said that he went to so many dances at Cherry Springs,
that his little old blue filly horse knew the trail back home so well
that he could sleep on the return trip. He said he needed his rest
because he knew his father would always wake him at dawn the next
morning and tell him to get busy. His father would say, "You know what
has to be done." Hugo said it was hard to stay awake at times
during the day.
Hugo's dad got sick so he had to quit school when he
was about 14 or 15 years old. He had gone to school about 6 or 7 years.
With his dad, Adolph, sick and too old to do much work Hugo ran
the ranch since he was the oldest child left at home. He would work all
day in the fields. Hugo was good with machinery. When
someone's machinery broke down they always brought it to Hugo to fix.
He always wanted to get into a machine shop but he never got the chance
to do it. He shucked corn, chopped wood, and anything else to get a
little pocket money. He worked with hogs and sheep and everything else.
Hugo said, "I didn't want to get away from the
river, hunting and fishing until I was about 16 years old. I had lots
of fun on the river
and on the cliffs along the river. There were lots of bee hives on the
cliffs." He said, about two miles from the house was a still pool of
water on the Llano River. He said there were large fish in the pool. He
used to dive off the cliffs into the pool. The cliffs were very high
and steep. There wasn't a very big place to land in the water and it's
a wonder we didn't break our necks. The river was very swift ad
strong. He said they would lower themselves on ropes and rob the
hives on the cliffs of their honey. He said, "Looking back I can
see how dangerous it was but it sure was a lot of fun at the time."
Hugo said, he usually slept in the front bedroom
next to the porch. One night he was sleeping on the front porch
at home, to keep
cool, when a mad dog came right up into the yard and bit one of their
dogs. Then the dog went right into the house and to the back where his
ma and pa were sleeping. Hugo said he kept a gun near his bed, but he
didn't need it. The dog just went right on through the house and out
the back door.
Hugo usually hunted with his half-brothers and they
would camp out. He thought a lot of his oldest half- brother,
Adolph Jacob, who love to hunt and camp out. Adolph Jacob taught him a
lot about hunting and tanning the hides afterwards. They would take a
wagon and kill enough deer for their needs before they would return
home. They hunted in the Blue Mountains, which ran all the way into
Mexico people say. There were a lot of underground caves and holes that
were real deep. Hugo said, he used to throw rocks into the holes and
some times the rocks never hit bottom. Some of them had water in them,
and some had wind in them that made a noise. Some of the holes were big
enough for a horse to fall into.
Hugo said he had killed a turkey without hitting it.
He said he shot and hit a rock and it split the rock and hit the turkey
in the neck and killed it. He naturally said it was what he had wanted
to do Hugo was out hunting on a horse and had shot
up all of his shells
when he ran upon a Mexican mountain lion. It had a long mane hanging
way down. The lion didn't see him and his horse didn't see the lion and
so he ran his horse at the lion scaring the lion and he got away okay.
Hugo was hunting by himself in the Blue Mountains
and shot a buck. He started to cut his throat when an old Indian man
stepped out of the brush. He motioned to Hugo that he had killed the
deer. Hugo said he didn't know what the Indian might do so he left him
with the deer. Hugo's older half-brothers had been born and had fought
Indians but things were calm by the time Hugo was born.
Hugo went deer hunting with his half- brothers and
his pa, Adolph Albert. His pa came into camp and he was real mad. Hugo
said his dad waited to say anything until Hugo had fixed him a cup of
coffee and had given it to him. Finally, his dad said, "I saw a big
buck and I got buck fever." Hugo said, he didn't know what his dad was
talking about until years later.
Like most young men in Mason County, Hugo had
learned the traits and skills of a cowboy. Mason County like other
surrounding counties, at that time was involved in cattle
producing. Hugo's half sister, Ida, married Charles Louis Martin.
His family was the owners and operators of the famous Blockhouse
Ranch.The block building was constructed around 1863 by H.
Boethge. Hugo said, a placque hung over the south door with his name on
it. Several Texas Rangers under a Captain Bieberstein had a hand in the
construction of the blockhouse. In the early days it served as a
trading post and a fort for protection against the Indians. The
old house became the headquarters for the Max Martin ranching empire.
It was located on the banks of the San Saba River, about three miles
off Highway
No. 10 between Brady and Menard. The 35,000 areas of the Blockhouse
Ranch played a large role in the development of Hugo from a boy into a
man. He woked for many years on roundups and cattle drives at the
Blockhouse and other drives.
When he got to be about 18 or 19 he began to ride
wild horses and went on roundups. He went on cattle drives to San
Antonio three times. The cattle were driven through the main
street of Fredericksburg. About 1905, on one drive from the Blockhouse
Ranch to market in San Antonio there were herding about 3,000 head of
range wild cattle. They had lots of red cattle with them on this
drive. This was a hard herd to drive and they had already
stampeded six times before they reached Fredericksburg. Hugo and
another cowboy named Schmidt were riding close to the front of the herd
when they came to Fredericksburg. They just got into the edge of town
when a lead steer got them started running again. The cattle were
nervous and one of the steers snorted and the entire herd of 3,000
cattle stampeded into downtown Fredericksburg. Hugo hollered for
Schmidt to turn the lead steer, but Schmidt was unable to get him
turned. Hugo said when this happened, all they could do was to ride
with the herd. Hugo said, "If you get at the head of the herd you
better just let your horse go and get out of their way." Hugo
said when this happens, all you could say was, "Here, I am Lord on a
horse". The entire herd ran down the main street of Fredericksburg.
They ran up on the sidewalks and into yards. Hugo said," One thing for
sure, you didn't have to tell all of those Germans to get off the
street". People cleared the sidewalks quickly. On the east-end of town,
the road turned south toward San Antonio, but all 3,000 cows went
straight across and ran to the Pedernales River, tearing down every
fence in their path. A crew of trail drivers had to stay there almost 3
weeks fixing fences the cattle had tore down. On this same drive he tied
his horse near him one night in case of another stampede, and sure
enough they did stampede again. The rest of the men had to run and get
into the wagon for cover. Hugo had been smart and had his horse near
by. Hugo said once the drives from the Blockhouse ended in San
Antonio, the Mason cowboys usually whooped it up for a couple of
nights. One interesting thing about San Antonio, at that time that Hugo
mentioned, was that the streets downtown were as slick as glass. He
said their horses were constantly slipping out from under them if they
whooped it up too much on horseback. The streets were paved with
mesquite wood posts driven into the ground close together, and the wear
of horse hoofs and wagon wheels made them slick. These posts are still
under the pavement in the old downtown section.
Hugo always used the cowboy expression, "Outfit"
when he referred to some ones ranch or company. Back around the time of
the
Fredericksburg stampede when he worked a lot for the Martin outfit on
the Blockhouse Ranch, another incident took place that is quite amusing
and typical of the times. Hugo said they were rounding up cattle on the
Blockhouse Ranch when one of the cowboys rode in and told the straw
boss that an old hermit was living in a cave on the ranch. The straw
boss rode off in the direction of the cave. He returned shortly
telling Charlie Martin that the old man had told him that, "If I had
any business to take care of it and that I had best be on my way and
leave him alone in his cave". Charlie was riled up and rode off
toward the cave himself. In a few minutes they heard a distant rifle
shot. Upon Charlie's return a cowboy hollered and asked him if he ran
the old man off. Charlie gruffly answered, "Naw, just leave him alone,
he's not hurting anything". Hugo said he looked at Charlie's saddle
horn and saw where it had been splattered with a lead shot. It seems
that the old hermit turned out to be an old mountain man that was just
passing through and decided to camp there for a few days and he
definitely didn't like being bothered or told what to do.
At the Ranch Branch in Brady he was helping the
Schmidt boys divide their cattle and they had to rope most of them and
drag them into the pen. After they got them into the pen Henry Schmidt
and Hugo went into the pen and the cattle ran them out. Henry's brother
found them sitting on the fence. He thought it was real funny until he
went into the pen and a cow got after him too. The cow came toward him
and he ran for a tree. He grabbed a limb on the tree and the cow ran
right between his legs just as the limb broke. He fell on the cow and
she threw him. He landed face down in a big pile of manure. Hugo
said, "We about laughed our heads off, that fence was just fine for
Henry and me."
He worked on roundups the Martin's, Kothman's,
Schmidt's, and Zesch's ranches. They had to give cattle shots.
Hugo was working for the Martins and they had about 500 or 600 big
calves to vaccinate. The guys had made up a deal, the first one not to
throw his calf had to buy a quart of whiskey. Hugo had an ingrown
toenail at the time. He started to throw a big old calf and the calf
stepped on his ingrown toenail. Hugo didn't make his throw. The men all
started yelling a quart of whiskey because you let it go. They went and
got the whiskey and he had to pay for it. That night they had a big
dance at old man Zesch's house. Hugo said, "My toe was awful bad but
after a few drinks of the whiskey I danced all night." He said, "My toe
never hurt again all night, but oh the next morning!"
On cattle roundups they would start as soon as they
could see the cattle and work until about 10 at night. At Blockhouse
Ranch, which
belonged to Charlie Martin, on one of the roundups they had to draw for
their horses. Fritz and Hugo got two apiece. Fritz who worked for the
Martins and was a good rider said he was quitting. He wasn't going to
ride them and that the horses were outlaws and killers. The horses the
cowboys used to get were pretty rough and bad. Hugo said he used
to go out and rope cattle and horses and ride them when his parents
were gone on Sunday afternoon visiting. He could stay on a horse until
it reared back. He made a pretty good rodeo rider. Hugo said, " Horses
are dangerous when they rear back or fall back. The saddle horn will
hit you in the chest." Frying pan saddle horns were large enough
that you could eat on them. He said, "Pa had one and it took a long
time to wrap a rope around the saddle horn."
They used to rope cattle in the pasture and throw them down and doctor
them and then let them go. One day Hugo roped a bull and it went around
a tree and jerked the saddle off his horse and put him on the ground.
The bull kept on going. He hurt his hip when the horse fell. He was
riding a filly one time and a bull attacked her and she stepped into a
ditch with her front legs and threw him over a fence. Hugo said, " I
cleared that fence."
He helped take cattle to Brady where they were
shipped to Fort Worth. They took hogs to Llano for a fellow named
Teague. One day they had about 600 head of hogs and when they got to
the Llano River it was up and they wouldn't cross. Teague said to rope
them and throw them into the river. They did and when they threw them
into the river they died as quick as they would hit the water. He lost
about 75 head that time. Another time they crossed a bunch of
goats at the some place. They wouldn't cross so they built a shoot and
put them into the water. A bunch of the goats went down in the swift
water and they found them hanging on the Llano Bridge. They nearly lost
the whole herd.
On weekends Hugo rode on his old blue filly mare to
Cherry Springs, about 18 miles away on a dirt road. He would get
there about 9 p.m. and dance or play with the band, and he would get
home about daylight. His horse knew the way home so he would sleep in
the saddle almost all the way home. He would carry a lantern on the
horse. He would be tired and sleepy and his pa would say, "Hugo, you
know what's got to be done." and he went right to work in the fields.
He said lots of times his head would be spinning due to lack of sleep
and he would hear the music in his head. He went to Fredericksburg
sometimes to dances. They danced sometimes four nights in a row. There
were seven different places in town to go dancing. The boys would get
together and each one would buy on pass to the different places and
then they changed passes and this way they made all the dances on one
pass. Hugo said he played a French harp. He made a drum out of an old
raw hide outfit and played it. He wanted to learn how to play a fiddle
so he made a fiddle out of a cigar box and a bow out of horse's tail
hair." His mother wouldn't let him learn in the house so he went up on
the hill behind the house to learn to play it. Hugo said, "One
night they had a dance at the house and he bought a fiddle from Johnny
Mayo, who was playing there." Hugo said, "Katie tattled and ma hid it
because she didn't want me to play it." He said, " I sounded pretty
terrible when I first was learning to play and
it sounded like someone stepping on a cat's tail." He had to go up to
the hill behind the house to practice playing the fiddle after he found
it. He later learned to play a cornet, alto horn, and the
clarinet. Hugo said, "I wasn't allowed to play his fiddle for a
year after dad
died because of the mourning period."
His dad had received a bullet wound during the
Mexican War. The old wound would act up about every ten years. Adolph
finally got so sick he became bedfast for two years. Hugo said he and
would sit and talk to his dad for hours. Hugo remembered a lot of the
stories his father told him. His dad and finally passed away on
December 23, 1904, at the age of about 83 years, at their home in
Simonsville and was buried in the Reichenau Cemetery.
Hugo lived at home in Simonsville, Hugo bought a
stump puller but it got to dry for business so he sold it and went to
work building houses. He helped build old Ed Keller's house. Hugo
said, "I don't think there is a rock in it I didn't get a hold of."
August Arhelger ran a blacksmith shop just off the
northwest corner of the Mason town square. Hugo went to work and became
an apprentice under August so he could learn the blacksmith trade. Hugo
often said that August was a good blacksmith, but a hard taskmaster.
Hugo moved into Mason when he went to work for August Arhelger.
Sometimes around 1907, during the period Hugo worked
for Arhelger, he was an eyewitness to a shootout between the Mason
sheriff, Sheriff Gibbs, and a local man. The local man, Bud
Garner was well known to everyone. Hugo said Bud was a good man but
became pretty unruly after a few drinks at the local saloon. As the
situation developed, Deputy Gibbs, son of the sheriff, had told Bud to
leave the saloon and to go home because he had too much to drink and
was trying to start fights. It seems that heated words were exchanged
between Deputy Gibbs and Garner whereby Gibbs returned to the jail on
the lower side of the square and mentioned to his Father Sheriff Gibbs
what had happened. The sheriff had started on foot toward the upper
northeast side of the square when he spotted Garner with his mother. As
the sheriff was walking toward the two, and had gotten to within about
75 feet from them, Bud drew a six-shooter and fired at Sheriff Gibbs.
Hugo said if Garner had not been drunk he would have know better
because everyone in Mason knew how good
a shot the sheriff was. Sheriff Gibbs carried a .45 semi-automatic Colt
and was extremely accurate with it, always firing it from a braced
position on his hip. Hugo said Bud's shot hit the dirt between the
sheriff's legs which caused him to jump, but when the sheriff hit the
ground the .45 was out and braced against his him and he had fired
three times in such rapid succession that it sounded like one roar. All
three slugs hit Garner, square in the face. Hugo said that you could
have covered the three holes with a silver dollar, the pattern was so
close. Hugo said everyone in town regretted that this incident had
happened because Sheriff Gibbs and Bud were both well liked by everyone
in Mason.
After Hugo completed his apprenticeship with August
and he had learned the trade he bought half interest in a blacksmith
shop, on the
square in Mason, he was in partnership with Benno Keller. I am
sure the young men must have had to work very hard since August
Arhelger also had his shop in town and an established business while
they were just starting out. A picture of Hugo was found. Hugo said it
was taken in 1910 in front of the shop. Jim Searcy's horse was being
shoed and got caught in a board in the doorway of the shop. There was a
bit of trouble involved in freeing the animal without harming it.
Helping free and hold the horse was Lorenzal Schmidt, Benno Keller, Jim
Searcy, Hugo Reichenau, Bill Searcy, and Jess Johnson. After the horse
got up he thanked them by kicking Hugo in the leg. Hugo said, " It left
a horse hoof print on my leg." He said he felt like using the hammer on
the horse for awhile.
It was while Hugo had a partnership in the
blacksmith shop in town that saw his first automobile. It was a buggy
with a stick for a
steering wheel, and the wheels were chain- driven. A doctor owned the
automobile. He lived up on Post Hill. Hugo said you could hear it
clattering loudly coming down the hill. As the doctor pulled onto the
square, Hugo said that every horse that was tied to a tree around the
square would try to climb the trees. Hugo boarded in a boarding
house and was in the blacksmith business for about half a year when he
met his further wife.
The big entertainment in those days was dances and
picnics. Several homes in different areas of the county had dance
platforms built in their yards. These family would give parties and
dances for the young people and of course the music was always
furnished by local musicians. Hugo was nearly always invited to the
dances because he was a very good musician and could play the fiddle,
coronet, alto horn, and French horn and a few other instruments. Hugo
was also a member of the Hoffman's Band. It was at one of these social
functions that Hugo first saw Mada Annie Otte. Hugo noticed Mada when
she was going into the house and stepped in front of her. She couldn't
get through the door. She said, she thought he was crazy because he
didn't move to let her in. Hugo said, "She looked at me like she was a
wildcat, so I moved out of her way." They never spoke to each other, he
just finally moved and she went inside.
The second time Hugo
saw Mada is when he went to visit his neice Erna Reichenau at, his
half-brother Gus Reichenau's house. Erna and her guest Mada Otte
, who was going to spend Saturday night with Erna , while her parents
went to Kerrville to look for a place to buy. The girls were out in the
yard when he rode up. Erna introduced Hugo and Mada. Hugo liked Mada's
looks right away. They sat out in the yard against the house and
talked. Hugo was flipping or shooting little rocks at Mada and Erna
because he was kind of bashful around Mada. Hugo said, "I even flipped
some larger rocks to get her to say something." Erna finally got
up and went inside to get a drink and left them by themselves. Hugo
said, "Erna was playing matchmaker." Mada who was very bashful sat
there for awhile and then got up and nearly ran into the house. Hugo
left and went back to town to practice with the Charlie Hoffman's Post
Hill Band that afternoon. He was a member of the band. Charlie
was married to his half-niece Ellen Keller. His half- nephews Arch and
Ernest Reichenau were band members. Arch played the big drum and Ernest
played the tenor horn. Hugo usually played the French horn
and cornet in the band.
Later, that night there was a school
program and entertainment at Simonsville at the Schmidt's place. Some
of the band boys decided to go down there after band practice. The band
played for them after the program. The band members were sitting on the
porch playing. Hugo was playing the cornet, he played other instruments
at different times his last note. Hugo saw Mada and told the members of
the band, "He was going to take that gal home tonight." Mada and Erna
were leaving the program just as he played the last note. He hurried
out to the buggy to talk to Mada and she went around the buggy to the
other side, this went on a couple of times, and he didn't get to talk
to her. Erna, her mother, and Mada had to leave right away
because the skies got dark and it had started to rain and there was a
lot of lightning and thunder. The horse got spooked and ran off the
road into a mesquite flat. The traces came loose and they had a hard
time getting back home that evening. He went back to the band and
told some of the men, "See that little girl, I'm going to marry her."
The next they saw each other was at a box supper at Katy
Ischar's house. Mada was a niece to Katy so she was there. One of the
members of the band was going out with Tekla Ischar. Mada had
gone home with her Aunt Katie Ischar after the Catholic Church service
to visit for awhile. Katie had a box supper at her house in
Simmonsville the next Saturday. The girls all fixed boxes of food
and then then drew for a boy's name. She drew Hermann Ischar's
name so she ate supper with him. While they were eating the Hoffman's
Band and Hugo showed up. Mada and Hermann were still eating when
Hugo walked up behind her. She had a dove in her hand and was about to
take a bit when Hugo said, Give me a bite." She didn't turn around she
just reached over her shoulder and handed him the
dove. No one said anthing else and Hugo just walked off. They played
games later after the supper.
The next Sunday Mada went to the Methodist
Church and then to lunch with her parents, Charles Worlderly and his
sister. After lunch they went to look around at the new courthouse that
was being built on the square. That night they went to the Church of
Christ ad after church they stopped at the big well on the square for a
drink. Hugo was there and drew some water and handed it to Mada. On the
way home Charlie was mad because she had taken the drink from Hugo.
Charlie came back the next Sunday and demanded to know if Mada wanted
him to come back. She said she didn't care if he came or not and they
broke up.
Hugo started writing letters to Mada and she finally
answered them. He would go to her house and visit but he
continued to write her
letters. This went on for a long time. After several months of bashful
meetings at different social funtions around Mason the two of them
started seeing each other by they still wrote letters. Hugo
had to borrow an old wild horse from Arthur Keller to go out to
Greenwood Farm to see Mada for the first time. After that he finally
got him a horse and buggy and they went to Kress Creek to a fish fry. He
carried Mada to visit his sister, Katie, and to meet his mother at
their He asked to take her to his mother, Johanna Reichenau's house,
and asked if she could spend the night with his sister, Katy Reichenau.
she was allowed to go and that afternoon they went to a school
picnic at the creek with Katy and Emil Itz. That night they all went to
a dance at Been Reichenau's house. Mada took Katy home with her for the
week and then, Hugo and Mada carried Katy back home. Coming back to
Mada's horse they got to within two miles of her house in the Kothmann
pasture when they had to stop at the Double Gates near her father's
farm. Before Hugo got out of the buggy he asked her to marry him. She
thought about it for a few minutes and said, "Yes". Hugo waited about a
week before he built up enough courage to come back to talk to her
father. Hugo asked Henry to come outside even if it was dark. He asked
him for permission to marry Mada. Henry told him, "If they thought they
would get along all right together, it was all right with him." Then
Hugo had to go into the house to ask permission from Alice, Mada's
stepmother. Hugo and Mada became engaged in the fall of 1909.
Hugo said Mada would then allow him to kiss her on occasions. He said
she was too bashful to let him his her anywhere except on her cheek.
On Christmas Day, Hugo went to the house
to see if Mada and Minnie Polk, a friend of Mada's who was spending the
week, could go to the Christmas tree in town. She asked her father and
he said to ask Alice, who said, "No". Mada told Hugo and he got
mad, so they walked to the Kothmann's tank and back to the house. Hugo
was still angry so he got on his horse and left. They planned to
get married on Christmas Day but the Hoffman Band members were going
hunting and wouldn't be there to play for the wedding. They
decided to marry between Christmas and New Years Day instead.
They got their marriage license Dec. 23,
1909 from Ben Hey Clerk. in Mason, at the Mason County
Courthouse. It is recorded in Marriage Book 4 page 99 (it was
returned and filed for the record Jan. 19, 1910 and recorded on Feb.
16, 1910 by Ben Hey Clerk)
Their marriage was also recorded at St.
Paul's Lutheran Church in Mason page 45. It read, Hugo Reichenau and
Meta Otte [her name was spelled the German way on this] signed by her
father Heinrich Otte of Mason,. Standing up for them was Benno Keller
and Erna Reichenau. The Court house record shows: Mason County,
Marriage Book 4 page 99 saws license got on Dec. 23, 1909 from Ben Hey
Clerk. It was returned Jan. 19, 1910 and it was recorded, on February
16, 1910, by Ben Hey. They married at Henry Otte's house
Tuesday,Dec. 27, 1909. ( license says they married 28 but the bible
says 27th) The Lutheran preacher, Carl Ziehe from Mason officiated.
Marriage is recorded at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Mason on page 45
Mason County Court House shows Mada Otte and Hugo Reichenau Dec. 28(?)
1909 by Carl. Ziehe at Henry Otte home- filed on Dec. 23, 1909 to Ben
Hey Clerk
Write up that was in the Mason
Newspaper:
Reichenau_ Otte
Tuesday of last week at 4 o'clock p.,m., Mr. Hugo
Reichenau and Miss Meta Otte were united in marriage at the home of the
bride's father, Henry Otte, 4 miles west of Mason, Rev. Ziehe of the
Lutheran church officiating, the ceremony being witnessed by a large
number of friends and relatives who tendered the happy young couple
congratulations and good wishes. The groom is an honest, energetic
young business man who is to be congratulated upon winning such
an attractive and womanly young lady for his bride. The young couple
have set up housekeeping in the residence of Clerk Hey on Post Hill.
Mada was seventeen and Hugo was twenty-seven when
they got married on Dec. 27, 1909 (date in Mada and Hugo's bible) at
Henry Otte's home in at Koockcville. with the Luther preacher,
Carl Ziehe from Mason officiating. The Hoffman Band got back in time
and came to play for their reception. Hugo had to take care of their
liquid refreshment. He bought some beer for the band to drink. They
served cake and punch to the wedding guest.
Mada's wedding dress was made of white silk. The
fitted bodice was made with many tiny pin tucks up and down the wide
front
panel which was trimmed in lace.. The top half of the panel (from
shoulders to waist) was trimmed with a lace edging The waist band was
made like a cummerbund (a wide sash or band around her waist) with many
pin tucks going around the waist. The collar was high and fitted and
made of lace and trimmed with a lace edging. The dress had long fitted
sleeves that were trimmed with lace edging at the wrist. The dress
featured a long straight shirt was only trimmed with the long panel
with pin tucks. [it is the one she wore for her confirmation according
to Izora]. Her veil is the one she more for her confirmation at age 15.
The veil was finger length. It was trimmed with a half wreath of small
white daisies with green leaves. She wore a small gold cross around her
neck, that hung just below the lace collar, that had belong to her
mother, was her only jewelry. It was the same one she wore when
she was confirmed. Erna Reichenau was her bride's maid and also
wore a silk dress. Benno Keller was the best man for Hugo.
Mada Annie Otte was born Nov. 2, 1892 at the home place west
of Mason, Cooksville, in Mason County to Henry Otte and Marie
Kruse Otte. Mada was baptisted Nov. 22, 1892 at St. Joseph's Catholic
Church in Mason as Anna Marie Otte. Mada's sponsors were Anna Kruse,
Anna Wartenbach stood in for her aunt, and Ernest Naber. Her Godfather
was Frank Harper, and her Godmother was her aunt, youngest sister of
her mother, Anna Kruse. Mada's mother died when she was seven
years old, on May 12, 1900 Mada's mother died when she was seven years
old, on May 12, 1900 shortly after the birth of her sister
Minnie. Mada's ,older married sister, Rosie,
came from near San Angelo with her baby, Walter for the funeral.
Walter got sick and it turned out to be Scarlet Fever. Alfred and Mada
caught Scarlet Fever from Walter. Alfred's fever settled in his ears
and caused a hearing loss. Mada's fever settled in her neck and she had
to have her neck lanced four times. She had a scar on the right of her
neck the rest of her life.
Mada's mother, Marie and Marie's sister, Katie
Kruse Ischar had made an agreement. If one of the sisters died and had
child, the other sister would raise her children or help to raise them.
Katie came after Marie's death and carried Minnie home with her. She
raised her until she was four.
Alfred, age 13, and Mada, age 8, stayed with their
dad and then with Granny Cook when Henry had to go with the Ranger
group shortly after Marie died. They stayed with their Aunt
Katie for about a year and went to school. Mada went to first
grade in Simmonsville and her teacher was Miss Streigler. The next year
they stay in Mason with the Henry Reugner family and went to school in
Mason. Henry paid for their room and board.
Henry Otte married a second wife, Virginia
Alice Banner Jan. 29, 1904. After the wedding they went to Katie
Ischar's house and got
Minnie, age 4, and carried her home with them. This was very hard on
Katie since she had had Minnie since she was a newborn.
The year Mada was in third grade she stayed with
Mrs. Hasper at Cooksville and Mrs. Hasper's daughter and Mada walked to
school
together. Then Mada stayed with her brother Jacob and his wife Annie at
Long Mountain and went to the 4th grade. Her teacher was Miss Valley
Leslie. She only had two dresses to wear to school and when she needed
some new shoes, Alice made her come back home instead of getting her new
shoes since the kids didn't need shoes at home.
The family worked oxen in the fields on the farm.
The kids used to work in the fields with bare feet. There were lots of
grassburrs and
they would stick into their feet and hands. They didn't bother the kids
because their feet were so tought from going barefooted.
Henry and Alice had two sons who only lived for a
short time. The boys were called "blue babies" because of breathing
problems.
Henry Otte, who was Lutheran, had made a promise to
Marie to raise the children in the Catholic faith when they married. He
kept his
promise and raised the children in the Catholic religion. Alice was
Church of Christ and the children attended her church sometimes
and the Lutheran church sometimes as well as the Catholic church. Mada
and Alfred were confirmed and received their First
Holy Communion at St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Mason on Nov. 10,
1907. Mada was 15. Mrs. Cook gave Alice white material and lace
to make Mada's dress and helped Alice to make it. According to Mada it
was one of the prettiest dresses there. After the confirmation the
family went to Henry Reugner's house for dinner.
Alfred left home because he didn't get along with
Alice. He lived with Jake and Annie. After he left Mada helped do
his job. She said she planted, plowed, picked corn, and helped with the
crops, since there was no one else to help. Minnie had gone to stay
with their Aunt Katie Ischar so she could go to school at Simmonsville.
She became sick with Dropsy and died May 5, 1909 at the age of almost 9.
Mada went to stay with her sister Rosie near San Angelo
for about two months when Robena was born. Mada dated Dr. Woodardson
and Sil Templeton while there. Sil and Mada wrote for a long time after
se came home. He wrote and asked for permission to marry her.
Mada stopped writing to him but he kept on writing. (Mada was very
bashful and shy as a teenager, according to her husband, Hugo. She
dated two brothers, Joe and Charles Wonderly. She dated Charlie for a
long time and was good friends with his sister. Once she got very mad
at him because he kissed her on the cheek. She didn't go with him for
awhile then. She was dating Charlie when she met Hugo Reichenau. She
dated other boys but no one was special. When Mada was about 16
years old she worked for Max Martin, a stockman
and banker. She cooked and kept house for the family including three
children. She only worked there a few months because they were so
strict and cranky. Mada said, " They wanted things cleaner than clean."
She had to polish the kitchen stove everyday if it needed it or not.
She had to get up at 4:00 a.m. everyday and go out to the cowpens to
milk the cows. They had a negro man working for them and Mada said she
was afraid of him since she had never been around any colored people
before. Mada was very homesick and when Mrs. Martin went on a trip back
to Germany she quit and went back home. Then Mada when back to working
in the fields again. Henry had a gray mare that pulled a walking
planter. The mare was very hard to handle. The mare would turn so
sharply that she would turn
the planter over. Mada said, "She finally learned to manage that
hardheaded mare." She met and married Hugo Reichenau.
After spending the night in
her parents home. The following morning Mada and Hugo they gathered
their things together and moved to their first home. It was a rented
house, belonging to Ben Hey, on Post Hill near old Fort Mason and
overlooked Mason. This home is still standing on Post Hill next to the
remodeled Fort Mason.
They lived on Post Hill for a couple of years
and Hugo worked with his partner Benno Keller and ran their blacksmith
shop on the corner of the square in town. He had the shop for about
three years. Hugo decided to sell his half interest in the
blackshop to Benno's brother He went into drilling wells for awhile.
They sold out the blacksmith shop and moved to Blue Stretch or Wagram
located north of Mason. There he entered into the blacksmith business
again when he went to work in Cap Bellow's blacksmith shop. They lived
lived in the Bellow's house with the Bellow's family. Mada had
the job of helping with the housework.
Their first
child, Elgin Oscar was born in October 26, 1911 while they were
in living in Wagram in the Bellow's house. Elgin was
christened on Dec. 10, 1911 at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Mason. His
sponsors were Oscar Reichenau, Willie Reichenau, F. Alex Reichenau, and
Matilda Gross.
Later Clinton Allen bought
out the shop from Bellow and so Hugo worked for him. When Allen sold
out, and bought a shop and moved to Fredonia. Hugo and Mada moved to
Fredonia, several miles from Wagram, and roomed with Mrs. Elison who
lived near the blacksmith shop. Allen sold out ,in Fredonia, to
Willis Nowland and Hugo ran it for him. Hugo worked there about a
year or two. The blacksmith shop was located on the corner across from
Wood's Store (now called Fredonia Store). Mada, said the Elison
daughter thought Elgin was something else Miss Elison was crazy about
Elgin and wanted to carry him everywhere. She took him into town with
her one day. He filled his diaper and she never asked to carry
him to town again. Mada never went into town except once to the
doctor at Wood's Store for a risen in her ear.
They decided to move to Doss in
Gillespie County. They bought a blacksmith shop there and moved. They
lived in the Lange's house and Hugo opened his own blacksmith shop.
Buttery and Walkins equipped the shop and he paid them back as he
could. They lived in Doss about three or four years before Hugo decided
he wanted to farm in 1915.
Mr. Tom Nixon
told Hugo about farm for sell near London. Hugo and Mr. Nixon went to
look at it. Mr. Charlie S. Vedder owned the farm, he had bought
from J.G Trimble. H Vedder owned the drug store and didn't use the
farm. He rented it out. Hugo sold out his blacksmith shop in Doss and
they bought the farm located in Little Saline Community in Menard
County.They sold out their shop in Doss and bought a 320 acre farm in
the southeast corner of Menard County near to the Little Saline from
Charlie Vedder. They paid $6,000 for it. The ranches high elevation
afforded them a panoramic view of the mountains at Reichenau Gap and
some of the Big Saline Valley and had a view Blue Mountains in the
distance. I'm sure that during hard times Hugo could glance toward
those mountains and remember that his father had to endure toughter
conditions 65 years before him.
Mada and Hugo moved from Doss on
Thanksgiving Day in 1915. The wind was from the west and blowing so
hard they could barely move. They moved everything in two wagons. They
camped on Beaver Creek the first night and got the wagons stuck. It
took four horses with the mules to pull the wagon out. Charlie Doyle
got on a horse and headed them off. They got out finally and then
had to do the same thing with the other wagon. They had more problems
when they got to Mason. One of the men helping them move, said he
wasn't going on to London with them. Hugo told him if he didn't go with
them he would have to fight him. The man said it would be easier to go
on than to fight Hugo. Another problem was deep sand. Hugo had the
wagons loaded very heavy with his blacksmith tools and seed plus the
household items. The mules almost couldn't pull the load through the
sand. The second night they camped at Streeter.
After three days they reached the Little Saline Community. They
couldn't move into the main house because a family had it rented or
leased and wouldn't leave until the first of the year when the lease
was up. They moved into a log cabin near the house. The cabin was later
used as a corn crib. The fences were down and only about 60 acres was
in farmland. (They later had over 120 acres in farm.) The field was
full of stumps. They had to fix up the house before they could move
into it.
After January the first they
started to move into the main house. They found it had no window glass,
and had red bugs, chinch bugs, and rats. Hugo bought a little spotted
dog that was a good rat catcher. Hugo, the dog, and two men went
into the house with sticks and knocked down and killed the rats. Elgin
had a little red wagon and he would pick up the rats they killed and
put them into his wagon. There were so many rats that the wagon was
filled and they fell out. Elgin got upset and cried because he couldn't
keep them on his wagon. Hugo worked on the house after he worked in the
fields all day. There were so many red bugs and chinch bugs you could
catch and fill a matchbox in one minute. They pulled down the
cheesecloth and wallpaper from the walls and burned it, then he burned
sulfur in the house to help get rid of the pest and kill the
bugs. They finally got the house ready and they moved in. Mada
was busy making lye soap in a large kettle when Elgin was about four or
five years old. Elgin wandered off following the dogs. He climbed
through the fence on the farm and got lost. The dogs returned home but
he didn't follow them. The hill country was very primitive and wild at
that time and had lots of wild animals. Elgin could only speak German
at that time. He finally came up to a farm and found old hat he picked
up for his dad and was watching the hogs in a pen when the people
discovered him there. The lady at the house understood some German. They
carried him to the store at Ernie and they knew that the Reichenau's
was the only German family in the area. His parents and Uncle Alfred
had been looking for him everywhere. Alfred and Hugo went out on
horseback searching. Alfred had spotted some wild hogs fighting over
something and thought it was Elgin. The people at the Ernie store got
in touch with his family and they came and took him home. If Elgin had
missed the farmhouse he would have never been found since it was the
only place for miles around. The family decided they would start
speaking only English after that. Elgin has even forgotten most of his
German. (He was even unable to talk to his grandmother much because she
only spoke German.)
Elgin was by himself until H. C., his brother, was born
when he was 6. He had to entertain himself. He made a small size hay
baler that
worked and would make small bales of hay. He made his own wagon and
other toys to keep busy.
Henry Carl their second son, was
born at the farm in Little Saline Community on October 31, 1917. He
always went by the name H.C. H.C. was named after Henry Otte, his
grandfather.
I don't think any
family was ever exempt from something, hilarious happening to them. The
Reichenaus were no exception. Around
1917, Hugo owned a 1915 Maxwell car. One Saturday, like everyone else,
they loaded up the children and started for Mason. They usually stopped
off to pick up a neighbor or two and one or two of their children. The
old Maxwell was a touring car with a canvas top that could be let down
like a convertible. Hugo parked the car on the lower southeast side of
the square in Mason. The streets were not paved and he had parked where
the sand was deep. When time came to go home, everyone loaded up in
back seats while Hugo attempted to crank the car with a hand crank.
Somehow Hugo ad left the key on and the spark advanced, with the
transmission in
gear. When Hugo gave the crank a spin, the old Maxwell fired off and
almost ran over Hugo who dove out of the way. The deep sand caused the
wheels to turn sharply making the car go in a large circle. The women
and children started screaming and Hugo would grab at the steering
wheel every time the car passed him but the centrifugal force would
throw him off again. Elgin was about six and knew to turn the key off
but every time he reached over the seat to turn off the key, Mada would
pull him back down. Finally after about ten attempts, Hugo was able to
hang on and get the key turned off. This spectacle drew quite a crowd,
being on a Saturday. Needless to say, this was one time Hugo wished he
had come to town, as he did when he was young on his little blue filly
horse, because it was a long time before all of those Mason
cowboys let him hear the last of this event.
Hugo wasn't the only one becoming educated in the
mechanical age. One of his close neighbors came over with his
family on a Sunday morning to take Hugo and Mada to church. The
neighbor's daughter, who was rather heavy, was seated in the back of
the Model T touring car in her Sunday dress and hat. For some reason
her father got the car stuck in reverse and backed out toward Hugo's
hog pen. He hit a tree that had the five-gallon slop bucket hanging
that was full of slop. The bucket did a flip off the tree and dumped
itself all over the young lady. Hugo laughed a lot as he was telling us
this story.
The winter of 1918 brought
on misery and sadness for many of their neighbors, in the Little Saline
and the London area. Hugo said
that the flu epidemic that winter was killing people off like flies. It
got so bad that he and one other neighbor were the only men left on
their feet in the community and to them fell the unhappy task of
digging most of the graves in which their friends and neighbors were
buried.
Hugo had to register for the
WWI Civil Draft Registrations in Menard Co., Texas by 1918. His card
shows him as Hugo Robert born March 26, 1883; Ethnicity White;
Registered Menard Co., TX Description of Registrant: Race White; Eyes
Gray; Hair Gray; Complexion Light
World War I was raging in Europe and many
young men from the area were also gone and serving their country. There
was some anti-German sentiment expressed by Anglos in the area, but not
necessarily by anyone who had known the Reichenau family for many
years, or any of the other German settlers whose ancestors had resided
in the surrounding counties since the mid 1800's.
Elgin started to
school at Little Saline School and had to walk the first couple of
years. Then they got Elgin a black colored donkey
and he rode it to school. Elgin experienced some of the anti-German
sentiments first hand. World War I had started and the kids were mean
to Elgin because he was German. Knowing children they were probably
expressing the things they had heard at home. Elgin had lots of
problems with the boys because he was the only German child in school
there. They would poke sticks at the donkey and make him pitch and
throw Elgin. Elgin got into fights over this. He was very easy going
but enough was enough. Elgin missed a lot of school because he had to
help work on the farm. He was very good with machinery and help fix
things. He was still in school when H.C. started to school.
H.C. would ride on the back of the donkey behind Elgin. Elgin said if
the children started picking on them H.C. would start swinging his book
bag and clobber a few of them and they would leave them alone. H.C. got
a dirty white colored donkey to ride to school. Some Mexicans came by
the farm with it and they paid $1.00 and a bag of dried pinto beans for
it. Hugo said, "I remember when Elgin was about 12 years old I
got my arm caught in a hay combine. I nearly had blood poisoning set
in. I had to stay in Mason for a week and I nearly lost my arm. I had
to keep it in a sling. I let Elgin drive home from Mason, and it was
his first time to drive. Our car was a Ford. He made a turn too fast
and nearly went into a deep ditch. I had to grab the wheel with my sore
arm. It sure hurt and
I got mad at Elgin."
Harold Ervin was the last child born to
Mada and Hugo. He was born November 11, 1924 at the farm in Little
Saline Community. Harold started to school in September of 1930 when he
was almost 6 years old. He rode with H.C. Har He came home sick from
school right before the Christmas vacation and was carried to the
doctor the who said it was flu. He continued to get sicker and they
carried him to the doctor in Brady. The doctor there said it was
pneumonia, but they sent him home. Harold died at home, right after
Christmas, on December 27, 1930 at the age of 6 years, one month and 16
days. This was the 21st anniversary of Mada and Hugo. Harold was
buried in the Gooch Cemetery in Mason, Texas.
During the 1920's and 30's the Reichenau
family toiled from daylight to dark like everyone else in the area.
They went to town on
Saturdays, church on Sundays, and to the fields again on Monday until
the following Saturday. The family still had work to do after coming
from the fields. They had animals to feed, cows to milk, eggs to
gather, food to prepare and many more daily chores after a long day in
the fields.
The boys all attended school at Little
Saline School. Hugo was school trustee from 1917 until the kids were
out of school. Hugo was a trustee for the Little Saline School for
about 20 years. Around 1937 (1951) when they consolidated with London
schools, he refused to be a trustee for the London schools since
his children were out of school. They attended the Little Saline
Community Church. The family attended church at the Saline Community
church.
Hugo said, "I remember when Elgin was about 12 years
old I got my arm caught in a hay combine. I nearly had blood poisoning
set in. I had to stay in Mason for a week and I nearly lost my arm. I
had to keep it in a sling. I let Elgin drive home from Mason, and it
was his first time to drive. Our car was a Ford. He made a turn too
fast and nearly went into a deep ditch. I had to grab the wheel with my
sore arm. It sure hurt and I got mad at Elgin."
Hugo leased the Judge Slatter's Place for several
years and both Elgin and H.C. worked the place for awhile after they
married.
Ranching and farming was no easy task in those days,
and I doubt that many young men could have made it unless they had been
raised by fathers and mothers that taught them the skills necessary to
carve a living from the land. Hugo built a blacksmith shop at the ranch
and continued to ply his trade to surrounding neighbors in the area,
along with raising cattle, sheep, goats, and hogs. After half of his
ranch was cleared for cultivation, and the other half left in a wooed
pasture state with two mountains bordering the north line for grazing.
Equally important then as it is now for successful ranching was the
skills of the rancher's wife. Mada helped raise a vegetable garden,
watered the fruit trees, canned fruits and vegetables, raised and cared
for many chickens and turkeys, kept expensive work clothes mended,
washed all of the family's clothes with a rub board after chopping the
wood and building the fire under the wash pot. After all this and much
more, she still had three good hot meals on the table each day for her
family.
As the years past, ranchers became more
adapted at operating machinery and equipment. When the Rural
Electrification Administration brought electricity to the country
people, the men and women were freed up from a lot of the time
consuming jobs, and it made life a little more pleasant for them. Both
of the Reichenau's sons were raised in farming and ranching. They
both worked at trying to make a living as a farmer or rancher but the
time was not right for them.
Elgin was introduced to Elon Russell by
his first cousin Ernest Pool. Ernie was dating Wilson Russell, Elon's
brother. Ernie described
Elon and Elgin made the remark, "That's the girl I'm going to marry",
without even seeing her. Elgin married Elon Russell Nov. 25, 1935 at
the Little Saline Community Church. Elgin and Elon presented Mada and
Hugo with their first grandchild, Kay, born 1938 in Taft, San Patricio
Co., Texas. [Hugo and Mada had to wait for eight years before they got
another grandchild.] Elgin tried many jobs trying to make a living but
good jobs were not easy to find. Since Elgin had always leaned toward
electrical work and it seemed to come easy for him, they decided to try
their luck in Baytown, Texas. Geana was born in 1947 in Baytown. Kay
and Geana both attended the Goose Creek Independent School district
schools. Kay married William Norman Ponder in 1956 and had three
children, Norman Dwayne, Rance Layne, and Kathryn D'Laine. Kay taught
first and second grade in Baytown for 33 years. Geana married Wilburn
Phieffer and they had G'Anna Gay and Shanna Denae. Geana is a teacher
in Baytown. Elgin worked as a machinist until he retired. Elgin 89 and
Elon 83 still live in Baytown.
H.C. married Genevieve Durst on Aug. 2, 1941 at Art,
in Mason County. They lived with Mada and Hugo for awhile and then
moved over to the Judge Slatter place. Hugo was leasing the Slatter
place and they lived there and worked it. H.C. worked the place and Gen
owned and ran a beauty shop in London. They were living there when
Charles was born in 1946. Then they moved to the Johnson Ranch on South
Concho River near San Angelo. Don was born in 1949 while they were
living at the ranch. They moved to San Angelo and rented a house and
H.C. went to work for the Texas State Highway department. Then they
bought the house they were renting and moved it to where they are now
living. They remodeled the house after they moved it. Gen worked for a
store for awhile while the
boys attended the San Angelo schools. They are both retired now.
They moved to Mason, Mason Co., Texas in Feb. 2000 Hugo and Mada
finally got three more grandchildren after waiting for eight years
after the birth of their first grandchild, Kay.
Mada was a true Texas pioneer who worked side by
side with her husband, Hugo, clearing their fields and working their
crops. She loved to quilt, and do needle work. She canned fruits and
vegetables, and entertained friends, family and neighbors in her home.
Her granddaughter, Kay, remembers many parties while she was growing
up. There would be as many as 50 to 100 people at the a Bar-B-Que. Her
big old round table was always loaded with more food than any one
family could eat. Her daughter -in -law, Elon, said that when they
lived with Hugo and Mada, that they would work in the fields and Mada
and her would go home to fix lunch. Elon said about lunchtime that cars
would start showing up to eat. Many times they would also have to cook
for the field hands that were helping. Elon said many times they would
help in the fields, come home cook a big meal , and then clean up the
kitchen before going back to the
fields. The men would take a nap while the cleaned up the kitchen. Elon
said Ma, Mada, could run circles round her when it came to working
hard. Mada and Hugo butchered their own meat. They made homemade
sausage, and smoked their own meat in a smokehouse at the back of the
house. Mada made lye soap in a big kettle with the grease from the hogs
that they butchered. Mada continued to work hard until she was in her
late 90s.
Hugo and Mada remained on the farm and worked
it until 1972, when Hugo had a heart attack when he was ninety years
old. He was still driving his tractor, planting and harvesting crops,
and riding a horse at the time. Since Mada couldn't drive and they had
outlived most of their neighbors they had to move into Mason.
H.C. moved them into a rent house on the Fredericksburg Highway. They
remained there until they could find a house to buy. They bought a
house on Live Oak Street, near the foot of Post Oak hill where they had
their first home.
Mada had a big garden and grew flowers. She had
chickens for a couple of years. Hugo did a lot of visiting on his front
porch swing.
Hugo went deer hunting at the age of 92 with his son, Elgin, and
granddaughter, Kay and her husband, Norman and great granddaughter,
D'Laine. Even though his eyes were getting bad Hugo could still spot a
buck quicker than his grand daughter, Kay. He said, "It's the way they
act, they hold back and wait for the does to check things out for
them". He said, "Even though you hadn't hunted in years you never
forget how it feels to see a big buck." He claimed he got buck fever
when he saw the biggest buck he ever saw and couldn't shot. After that
he just gave up hunting.
Mada had a garden and grew flowers. She had
chickens for a couple of years. Hugo did a lot of visiting on his front
porch swing. Hugo had been raised in the Blue Mountain area and deer
hunting and fishing were a part of his early life. Hugo
remembered what his father, Adolph had told Hugo years before and said,
"I saw a big buck and I got buck fever." he now understood what he
meant by "buck fever and I got buck fever Hugo said. He was
living in Little Saline Community and the biggest buck he had ever seen
was about 150 yards away from him. Hugo said, he took a shot, but he
hat gotten buck fever and missed him. Hugo decided if he was that bad
of shot, he would quit hunting. Hugo was a very good hunter. He
sent 250 pairs of deer horns to the Buckhorn Saloon in San Antonio and
still had over 300 pairs of horns at home. He had killed two big
bucks that were fighting, and had their horns hooked together and those
are in the Buckhorn Saloon. This had been over 40 years before and he
hadn't hunted again until about 1962. He went to Doss with his
granddaughter, Kay, her husband, Norman and his son Elgin. He saw
some deer but his gun wouldn't work. He decided again that he was too
old to hunt. A grandson, Charles sad Hugo had killed his last deer when
he was 89.
Hugo was about 93 or 94 and had bad eye sight when
he went out to the farm with Elgin, Norman , Kay and D'Laine hunting.
The men went to their deer stands and Hugo wanted to go too. He talked
Kay and D'Laine into going hunting in the field behind the house. It
was very cold so they parked the car in the field and watched. They
watched as a lot of deer came out on the field. Hugo told Kay that he
had spotted a buck. He said to watch how the buck was very careful
coming out. He wanted Kay to shot even if it was too far away. Kay shot
right at dusk and naturally missed the shot, but Hugo was real happy to
have spotted his buck and have her try to shot it. Hugo could still
spot a buck quicker than his grand daughter even though his eyes were
getting bad. He said, "It's the way they act, they hold back and wait
for the does to check things out for them". He said, "Even though you
hadn't hunted in years you never forget how it feels to see a big
buck." He claimed he got buck fever when he saw the biggest buck he
ever saw and couldn't shot. After that
he just gave up hunting.
Mada and Hugo lived together in
Mason for eleven years, until 1983, until Hugo was put into the
hospital in San Angelo and Mada stayed home. Hugo died on Saturday,
July 30, 1983 at Shannon Memorial Hospital in San Angelo, Tom Green
County. Hugo was 101 years old. Hugo's funeral services were held
Monday, August 1, 1983 at 10 a.m. in the Mason Funeral Home Chapel. The
Rev. Bob Huie, assisted by the Rev. Janice Huie co-pastors, of the
First United Methodist Church officiated. He was buried next to his
son, Harold, in Gooch Cemetery in Mason. Mada continued to
live at home by herself. In 1988, age 96, Mada was hoeing tomato plants
when she fell and pulled a herna trying to get up. She had to
have surgery to repair the hernia. She stayed by herself again until in
the fall of 1989. Her heart started to act up, and went to live in the
Mason Nursing Home around the corner from her home on Live Oak Street.
Mada died Wednesday, March 22, 1995 in the Mason Nursing Home in Mason,
Texas, at the age of 102 years. She had lived in the nursing home for
five and one half years. Her funeral service was held at 10 a.m. on
Friday, March 24, 1995, in the Mason Funeral Home
Chapel with the Rev. Clay Hall officiating. Mr. Chris Hooten wrote and
read "A Ballad for Hugo and Mada" at the service. Mada was buried at
the Gooch Cemetery in Mason next to Hugo, her husband of 74 years and
their son Harold.
Norman Ponder, his grandson-in-law wrote:
It is hard to describe a man like Hugo Reichenau
because he lived such a full life and a remarkable length of time. I'm
sure he must have had a few bad virtues, like all of us, but the many
good ones far outnumbered the bad ones. He was a man that enjoyed
people, loved the area he live in, always found a little humor in
everyday life occurrences and was a God fearing man. He loved his
neighbors and all of his relatives, and was always available for a
helping hand. Hugo killed his last deer when he was 89 years of age.
The thing I cherished most about him was his ability to always tell a
good hunting story on cold winter evenings after we had returned from a
hunt and were warming ourselves by his fireplace. He always seemed to
preamble the start of his stories by saying, "It's like the time me and
one of my nephews were hunting over in the Blue Mountains". When you
heard that opening statement, you knew you were in for a good hunting
tale. With smoke swirling from his pipe, he would captivate several
people's attention while he was able to roll back time to the early
days of Mason County when life was simple, work was long and hard, and
deer had bigger horns. The days when a cowboy had to hit the
saddle by four in the morning and work cattle until dark that night for
a wage of fifty cents a day; and how in later years he was considered
to be the town specialist in the art of "Shooting an Anvil". This lost
art involved taking two blacksmith anvils and placing the bottom one
upside down on the ground and filling the recessed bottom with
gunpowder, then placing a fuse into the powder and setting the other
anvil on top of it. This special event was usually reserved for the
Fourth of July. The roar was deafening and the sight of
a large anvil shooting about 100 feet into the air was
astounding. Everyone who knew Hugo Reichenau loved and respected
him as a sincere person. It goes without saying that he will be missed
by all of us.