Earleen Simons
Earleen Simons
Interview May 2013
Earleen Simons 01
Ken: So, we’re sitting here in the mall in Bastrop, TX and I’m talking with Earleen Simons on, what is it, May
Earleen: 24th
Ken: May the 24th (2013). I’ve never been very good at that. OK. So, you’re gona walk me through this family tree here.
Earleen: Uh, Dick Simons was Clarence’s father and Edith Simpson Simons, and she also is kin to the Roberts. Uh
Ken: Do you know how she was kin to the Roberts?
Earleen: Um, her mother was Francis Roberts
Ken: OK
Earleen: And it’s the bunch that’s over in the Roberts’ Cemetery.
Ken: Yes
Earleen: This cemetery here.
Ken: Yes
Earleen: I’ve only been there one time. Um
Ken: Isn’t that book Eanes?
Earleen: Yes
Ken: Yes
Earleen: She’s in this, um, this is where a lot of her family is located. Um, I’ve only been out there one time, with Clarence. She has a sister that’s buried there. I have no idea where his dad’s buried. I don’t think he ever said. Um. ___
Ken: Dick Simons--
Earleen: Uh, well, I know where Dick is buried. But Dexter, his father
Ken: his father
Earleen: I don’t know where he is buried. I don’t even know when he died. But I’m pretty sure that Francis is buried out there at, um, Roberts’ Cemetery.
Ken: Do you happen to know how she would be related to Joe Roberts and all those Roberts that were out there in Oak Hill?
Earleen: OK. I think
Ken: OK
Earleen: I’m not positive on that, but as far as I know that’s what it is. I have some pictures. I need to go see Virginia.
Ken: You know Virginia?
Earleen: No. But another lady I carpool with is next-door-neighbors with her in Buda.
Ken: OK
Earleen: And, Verna Pool is Virginia’s niece. And she’s kin to my husband and, they’re cousins or something down the line, I’m not sure exactly. Verna is one that gave me the book.
Ken: OK
Earleen: She came to work at the Teacher Retirement System, and she came up to me one day and she said “I think your husband is kin to me.” And we got to talking and, sure enough, they were kin. So she gave me this book, and, um
Ken: That’s great. That book is out of print now.
Earleen: Oh, is it?
Ken: It’s very difficult to get.
Earleen: OK. Um, she gave it to me, I don’t know when she gave it to me, she just --- Skipper is her husband, last name’s Poole, but, um, anyway, if I’m not mistaken, Francis and Uncle Ollie were brother and sister.
Ken: Uh-huh
Earleen: So, I’m pretty sure that that’s where she’s buried. Now, Edith, um, Charlie, Edith, and (? Beth) and Clarence and his brother, Dexter, are all buried at Oak Grove Cemetery on Bull Creek.
Ken: And that’s when they had the reunion on July 4th, isn’t it?
Earleen: Right. Right.
Ken: That’s when we have our family reunion.
Earleen: Yeah
Ken: And then I’m going to be up Colorado.
Earleen: Yeah
Ken: So, that’s – do you go?
Earleen: Uh, not much. My husband’s been gone seventeen years.
Ken: Um-hum
Earleen: And, uh, he, he was 80, he would have been 80 this year. Um, and so many of ‘em are gone. I just, I don’t know the people. Now there is, um, Dick and Bill were brothers. And I think Lee was a brother. I don’t know how many brothers there were. I think Vernon was a cousin. Now Vernon is deceased. But he has a son, Vernon Jr. Simons that lives in Bastrop County.
Ken: OK
Earleen: And he might be able to help you. I can see if I can contact him. I thought, I want to contact Ann again. Shirley is a cousin to Clarence. Her sister and Edith were sisters. Her name was Bertie. She’s gone too. But Shirley probably would know a lot of the Simons’ history
Ken: And Shirley is
Earleen: Shirley is a cousin to Clarence.
Ken: OK
Earleen: It was, uh, Edith’s niece. Um, let me put here to call Vernon. Um, I did call Vernon, uh, ‘cause I did go up to the reunion, I guess it was last year, or the year before last, because I wanted, I’m going to be buried there and you don’t have to pay for a lot or anything, you just say where you want to be buried.
Ken: Um-hum
Earleen: And my son is buried there. Uh, it’s my parent’s ____ _____
Ken: OK
Earleen: Um, anyway, I will be buried there. So I just put my headstone up there. I just kind-of wanted to find out who I needed to contact because the people that I knew to contact aren’t around anymore
Ken: Um-hum
Earleen: Uh, that really would be a good place to go. But if you’ve met the Boatrights then you’ve met ___
Ken: It says there on the cemetery “Contact Lee Boatright”. Do you know whether he, you know, know more information on the cemetery? I was just out there about a year ago. I wonder if he’s still alive.
Earleen: Um, I don’t know because that’s not the person that I have, um, he has a wrecking company, in wreckers.
Ken: Cantwell?
Earleen: No, it’s not a Cantwell. And there is, the lady, that’s his secretary. I mean, I’ve got some numbers at the house
Ken: Um-hum
Earleen: They are numbers that you probably could contact because they’re people that go to the cemetery and the July 4th thing. She even, I think, did some, uh, uh, in the history, in the history, what do they call it when they go in and
Ken: genealogy?
Earleen: Yeah. Did some of that.
Ken: Oh, wonderful!
Earleen: She, she has some of that
Ken: I’d love to get that number from you.
Earleen: I put the genealogy on Clarence’s family. I kind-of typed it up and I mailed it to her. Because his mother remarried and her last name is Gibbons on her headstone.
Ken: G I V V E N S?
Earleen: G I B B. There’s Alvin Gribbon GRIBBON Uh, and they didn’t know exactly where she was. You kind-of loose with the old people. So I sent that to them and I did put my side on there too. I remember it was Francis’s step-son because Johnson stuck in with the sign. It said he’s buried just below Clarence.
Ken: I’m very sorry to hear your son died.
Earleen: It’s been hard for me.
Ken: How long ago was that?
Earleen: Thirteen years and he committed suicide, so, um, it was, um
Ken: Yeah
Earleen: Anyway. He and Clarence were very, very close. He loved Clarence. Clarence was a good step-father.
Ken: We had this happen in our family just last year.
Earleen: ____
Ken: Nineteen year old girl. And, um, yeah, it’s just so sad, you know.
Earleen: My son was thirty-five. He left behind two children. So I took ____
Ken: Hum. Isn’t that something
Earleen: Yeah, it is.
Ken: Yeah The hardest thing for a parent, I think, ever ____
Earleen: Yeah, it’s, um, you never get over it.
Ken: No
Earleen: You learn to cope with it better, some days better than others
Ken: Yeah
Earleen: But, uh
Ken: By the way the Boatrights I spoke to might be the same ones, John T., uh, John T. and Jim were brothers and they grew up, you know, in the Bee Cave area, I mean in the Bull Creek area, just grew up as kids, but then they moved out to Leander pretty quickly
Earleen: Um-hum
Ken: And, uh, his father had a cedar yard there and, uh, Jim Boatright was heavy machinery guy, and John T. ran the pig farm for the State of Texas
Earleen: Oh, OK
Ken: The time when all the prisons and everything was supplied by them
Earleen: Right
Ken: So he’s living in Liberty Hill. Those are the only ones that I, I really just talked to John T.
Earleen: But there are some Boatrights that sing, I might have, the first names totally escape me, they sing Gospel, and I think they’ve even done some recordings. Um, and of course, they’re out there every year singing at the reunion.
Ken:Um-hum
Earleen: I probably can call the girl, and if she is not the secretary, I’m sure she’ll get me whoever it is. And get their names.
Ken: That would be wonderful
Earleen: And maybe you could talk to them
Ken: I would like to talk to them because I think this is a different, I think they’re all related, but I don’t think they know each other. John T. didn’t put me onto anybody.
Earleen: John T. does not sound right to me.
Ken: You’ve talked to him?
Earleen: No, but I mean
Ken: John T., the name?
Earleen: John T. does not sound like the group that I know.
Ken: Uh-huh
Earleen: Um, and I know their names. I’ve heard it a hundred times. But they do Gospel singing.
Ken: Oh, that’s sounds terrific. You know there’s a story about Frank Boatright that was written in the paper, um, ten, fifteen-years ago. And his daughter, Marie, I don’t know if you’ve ever know him, but
Earleen: I haven’t been out there, like I said,
Ken: Yeah
Earleen: Eleven times in seventeen years
Ken: Do you read John Kelso? Do you ever read him in the Austin paper?
Earleen: Uh
Ken: I don’t either, but someone gave me this and she hunts some coyote, she killed some coyotes there on Bull Creek. She still lives there. Hung the coyote, you know, just like you did in the country.
Earleen: Right
Ken: hung the coyotes there on the fence, and
Earleen: Someone got upset?
Ken: I think, well, it was kind-of funny ‘cause Kelso writes these funny stories about how -- The Shotgun Funeral for Three Coyotes was the title of his story (laugh)
Earleen: (laugh) One hell of a name!
Ken: (laugh) Anyway, she must be a character.
Earleen: Yeah. Well, some of ‘em really were characters
Ken: Yeah
Earleen: Back then. They had a hard life
Ken: Oh, I know.
Earleen: So, um, I know that this Lee Simons, who was a brother to Dick
Ken: Um-hum
Earleen: He had seventeen children and a step-son. And his step-son was, um, Charles Franklin Pruitt . He’s the step-son. And there was eighteen kids and he and his wife lived in a tent. Clarence would tell me about it. I can’t imagine living in a big tent
Ken: Yeah
Earleen: with eighteen kids.
Ken: Eighteen! And that was, was that on Bull Creek?
Earleen: Somewhere up in that area.
Ken: Uh-huh, Huh!
Earleen: I don’t know exactly where. Uh, it had to be a hard life
Ken: Oh! Yes!
Earleen: You know, uh, I, I just can’t imagine.
Ken: Yeah. I have a picture of Ronnie Roberts as a young child in their camp. He calls her Aunt Virginia, Virginia Turner, and Uncle Ollie
Earleen: Um-hum
Ken: And I think they’re, really weren’t his Aunt and Uncle, but were -- Uncle Ollie is really his grandfather’s brother or something like that.
Earleen: Um-hum
Ken: See, that’s a pretty sad story on that side. His, his brother, his older brother by a couple of years got a brain tumor when he was about seven, died, and then his mother did not get over that
Earleen: Yeah
Ken: And then she committed suicide a few years later. And the Roberts kids moved in with uh, their grandfather who had a cedar yard in Oak HIll
Earleen: Um-hum
Ken: And so that’s how he
Earleen: A lot of ‘em, if things were not good at home, they’d move in with just, a friend or, whoever. Family friend, it didn’t make much diference
Ken: Um-hum
Earleen: I know that Sonny, the step-son moved in with, uh, Dick and Edith for a while. And he and Clarence were pretty close. Um, Sonnys been dead for a long long time, but he does have a son and I will try to contact him. Is it OK if I give him your telephone number and address?
Ken: Yes, yes, yes. You can set it all up.
Earleen: And you sent me a card.
Ken: OK, good.
Earleen: This is the brother. These two brothers married cousins.
Ken: Bill and Dick?
Earleen: Bill and Dick married cousins, Edith and Edna Roberts were cousins.
Ken: OK
Earleen: Um, so, all of this bunch and Clarences’ brothers and sisters were double cousins, double first cousins
Ken: Um-hum, um-hum
Earleen: This boy and this boy and Willie all moved up to the Medina area. And then Millie moved up there. This is her sister
Ken: Eddie, Connie, and Lonnie, you said Lonnie ___
Earleen: Yes
Ken: all “ie’s”
Earleen: Yes. Everybody was “ie” but Mildred.
Ken: Um-hum
Earleen: And they used to tell Mildred that she was adopted because she didn’t the “ie” on her name like the rest of ‘em.
Ken: That’s funny
Earleen: And they did lose one other child, but that was many, many years ago and I don’t reme – don’t know what that child’s name was, but she was named for a school teacher that Edna had
Ken: OK
Earleen: But, she truly believed she was adopted because all of them were “ie” but her.
Ken: (laugh)
Earleen: Um, Donnie and Lonnie were twins. This boy’s deceased, but his son lives in Austin somewhere. I understand he’s a preacher.
Ken: Hum
Earleen: Um, I’m not sure where Donnie is. He used to live out there by me, but his wife died about two years ago and he sold the place and moved. I think Minnie is still in Medina. I can call, uh, Mollie’s daughter, they live here in Bastrop County. And find out about Minnie. But if you, uh, you might could talk to Lonnie’s son.
Ken: OK
Earleen: Minnie probably could help you too.
Ken: OK
Earleen: If I can get them to agree, I’ll see if I can get some telephone numbers and get them to call you
Ken: Great! I’ve been out to, um, the Medina area and Leakey
Earleen: Um-hum
Ken: And there are, there are Simons out there. I’ve got a picture of a Rex Simons. They didn’t know , its not in this book. He has got a cedar log on his shoulder that must be twelve inches across and twelve feet long. I mean it must weigh four hundred pounds
Earleen: Yeah
Ken: And, uh, he’s a big man.
Earleen: Uh-huh. Clarence’s father was a big man.
Ken: Uh-huh
Earleen: Clarence was a big man.
Ken:Uh-huh
Earleen: Um, when he was born he only weighed two-and-a-half pounds. And he was born at home. Um, Edith was pregnant with him, and her brother-in-law shot her sister Billie, who is buried at the Roberts Cemetery. And
Ken: Her brother-in-law was who?
Earleen: Her brother-in-law, and I don’t know his last name, but Billie was a Simpson, a daughter of Francis
Ken:OK
Earleen: Anyway, but
Earleen Simons 02
Earleen: her husband shot her, and she didn’t die right away. Edith was pregnant with Clarence and then Charlie, um, his brother was in the hospital with pneumonia. And she went into labor with all of this going on and had him early. So he only weighed two and a half lbs. and they kept him at home and put a pillow in a chest of drawers and didn’t think that he would lived. But he lived.
Ken: Is that why they call him “Baby”?
Earleen: He didn’t have a name. They didn’t put a name on his birth certificate for some time.
Ken: Um
Earleen: So most of the family knows him as Baby Simons
Ken: Oh, my goodness!
Earleen: So, uh, and he turned into a big man, like 6’3”, two-hundred and forty pounds
Ken: That was his mother, Francis, that was shot?
Earleen: No. A sister to Edith. Her daughter, Billie, was shot.
Ken: OK
Earleen: Billie was a sister to Edith, and she was shot.
Ken: I kind-of got lost here
Earleen: Yeah, I know. It’s. I just remember …
Ken: But that was Clarence, “Baby Simons”, so he was born to, that wasn’t
Earleen: OK. This is a child of Dick and Edith. OK.
Ken: Clarence, right.
Earleen: This was my husband
Ken: Yes, yes.
Earleen: OK. This was their child.
Ken: Oh, it’s Edith’s child. All right. Yes
Earleen: Edith Simpson Simons and Dick Simons. This is their child.
Ken: So Edith was shot.
Earleen: No, no. Billie, sister to Edith.
Ken: OK. So, just the trauma made her
Earleen: She was pregnant and the trauma of this sister being shot
Ken: I see
Earleen: I don’t know what happened . She was shot by her husband and then she also had this child in the hospital with pneumonia.
Ken: Uh-huh
Earleen: Who was three years older than Clarence. And she went into labor and delivered him ___.
Ken: I wonder how many months she was pregnant at the time.
Earleen: I think she was seven months. Because I think he was two months early. Weighed two-and-a-half pounds at birth, you know. And, uh, they put him, like I said, in a drawer with a pillow. Just a drawer with a pillow. And he survived.
Ken: That is amazing
Earleen: Yeah. He had seizures for quite a while. He would just black out. But I understand that’s real common in a premature baby
Ken: Um-hum
Earleen: Uh, but they didn’t name him because they didn think he would live. So, then several months later they did name him. And, when Dexter Simon, Dick’s father, died, apparently Ida married a Toungate, and I don’t know when he died, but that, his name was Clarence Toungate. And that’s how Clarence got his name. He said “You mean I’m named after that old son of a bitch” (laugh)
Ken: (laugh)
Earleen: I don’t know because I never saw him again. Anyway, uh, she was, this girl is buried up in the, Roberts Cemetery, but I do not know what the last name is.
Ken: Uh-huh
Earleen: I was there
Ken: Um-hum. I think I have, somewhere, maybe in that book, a list of all the people that are buried there. If not there, there’s something else that I have with the list.
Earleen: It might have been a Simpson
Ken: Uh-huh
Earleen: Another name, I don’t know, but she was a Simpson, and she was their daughter, Francis.
Ken: Francis Roberts
Earleen: Simons
Ken: So the Roberts and the Simpsons, and the Simons. Big names in that Oak Creek.
Earleen: In the Bull Creek area
Ken: Yeah, in the Bull Creek area. Oak something cemetery?
Earleen: Oak Grove
Ken: Oak Grove Cemetery.
Earleen: Um, did I put this there or not? Oak Grove Cemetery.
Ken: I know that
Earleen: I wrote it here I guess. It wasn’t in the book. Yeah Now, I don’t know that any of the Boatrights were actually any kin to Clarence or if they’re just there. Um, yeah, this is the cemetery where
Ken: Right
Earleen: All of Clarence’s family is buried. Now I imagine most of these are buried up in the Roberts Cemetery. And they may not be. They may be buried in Medina. But I can check with ___ie and find out.
Ken: You know, when I called, when I called you on the phone, I said “Margie and I “ Margie Simons. Do you know Margie? She was a Carlton. The Carlton’s had land on the Colorado River near Leander and Liberty Hill.
Earleen: Um-hum
Ken: So that they, she married a Simons. And, uh, he cut cedar. And do you know where, which Simons she would have married? And I probably have it somewhere in my notes, but
Earleen: No
Ken: OK
Earleen: Now, Mildred, I think lives in either Cedar Park or Leander. I’m not sure. And she married, I know him by Jigger, and I do have a last name, but it’s
Ken: Jigger?
Earleen: Jigger! (laugh)
Ken: There’s a Chigger out there (laugh)
Earleen: No, this is jigger.
Ken: (laugh)
Earleen: I don’t know why he got named Jigger, but, um, what do I say the last name is ___ Goodnight, something like that. I don’t have it. I looked for that book on making the charcoal.
Ken: Um-hum
Earleen: I cannot find it. I cannot find it anywhere
Ken: Oh
Earleen: Because that’s what Edith, the Simpsons did. And I would think that maybe Virginia might know something about that.
Ken: Um-hum I know how they did it. That’s for sure. But it’s good to know that the Simpsons did that. Now Dick was a pretty, Simons, was a pretty famous guy, wasn’t he? ‘Cause I’m hearing from Boatright, I think it would be
Earleen: He did a lot of things. I, uh, you know, he was dead before I ever got in the family
Ken: Uh-huh
Earleen: He died in, I think, ___ was born in 58 -- Clarence’s baby daughter -- and I think Dick died in 1960
Ken: Um-hum
Earleen: Clarence and I didn’t get married until __,
Ken: Um-mum
Earleen: so, I mean, I really did not know them. I knew his mother. ____
Ken: I think it’s Dick Simons who would be delivering charcoal to the capital? Does that make?
Earleen: That’s right.
Ken: And, um, underneath that charcoal was moonshine, back in the thirties.
Earleen: That would not surprise me one bit. Edith would make moonshine
Ken: Um-hum
Earleen: From, you know, these were stories, you know, this was way before my time. I didn’t witness any, it’s just stories that I heard.
Ken: This is from John T. Boatright, so. Hey, it’s raining
Earleen: Oh, how wonderful!
Ken: Yes!
Earleen: Um, she made moonshine and she kept it in the wood burning stove during the summer. And the men that would drive the train through Austin would give signals with their horns, or whatever you call them, I mean they’d blow the whistle. And she would send Baby to the train, send him to the track, with a pint, two pints, or whatever, of moonshine
Ken: Um-hum
Earleen: So, it’s probably very, very likely that Dick did deliver moonshine in charcoal. ‘Cause I know that his mother made it. And that’s how they paid for any ____.
Ken: Absolutely! This is a serious rain. It’s the best way to turn corn into money.
Earleen: Right.
Ken: If you’re growing the corn. That is a wonderful rain. I wish we could get that at our place
Earleen: We have had so little rain down here. But, um, I’m sure that it probably was Dick Simons, like I said, he died in nineteen sixty. And, up there at Bull Creek, not on the cemetery side, but on the other side where they had put up the, kind-of an arbor king-of thing where they barbequed
Ken: Um-hum
Earleen: There is an old pit that some of these Simons boys and Clarence, and I can’t -- their initials are on this, they put a concrete thing, they put a piece of, like rebar, so they could BBQ for their first reunion up there. And they would, and they would, um, they had cedar posts in between trees and they would kill deer or goats there and gut em and barbeque em
Ken: Uh-huh. Cabrito.
Earleen: That was before my time.
Ken: Did you ever live on Bull Creek, at that time, at all?
Earleen: No
Ken: You never did.
Earleen: Clarence’s family did.
Ken: Uh-huh
Earleen: And a story that Clarence had told me, that his dad got into it
Man: _____ (all laugh)
Earleen: I’ll run right out there
Ken: Oh It’s not that bad.
Earleen: Its wonderful for it to happen.
Man: Oh, I agree with with you
Earleen: Um, he got into, um, some poker game, and lost some land up on Bull Creek in a poker game.
Ken: Who’s this?
Earleen: Um, Clarence’s dad.
Ken: Oh, Dick, Um-hum
Earleen: I don’t know where the game was, I don’t know who it was with, I just know that he lost the land that was on Bull Creek.
Ken: Um-hum. Did you ever see Bull Creek back in those days?
Earleen: No
Ken: My wife and I used to, uh, go out there and, you know, you could drive out below Mt. Bonnell, and the road would cross Bull Creek a number of times before it got to where 360 is today, and, just crystal clear, not a bit – now it’s all algae, and I think that’s all from the fertilizer
Earleen: Um-hum
Ken: It was beautiful swimming, and we would wash our car, and drink beer
Earleen: Yeah
Ken: It was so fine.
Earleen: Um, back behind the cemetery, we used to crawl over the fence, and back there the water is still very clear.
Ken: Uh-huh
Earleen: And I have not done that in quite a few years, but you can still see fish in it
Ken: Um-hum
Earleen: It’s pretty
Ken: It really is.
Earleen: It is beautiful. But now, now, there used to be a, where they had the reunion, there was a building that was, um, a school at one time. And it belongs to the Round Rock ISD. Or did. And then they turned it into a church and that’s where Clarence and I got married.
Ken: Oh, OK
Earleen: It was at the Oak Grove Church. And there were bullet holes through the door, but then it burned down
Ken: Um
Earleen: But they weren’t of been able to get the permits to rebuild it, so it’s just a slab
Ken: When year did yall marry?
Earleen: Nineteen eighty five.
Ken: You were married before?
Earleen: Yes.
Ken: And was Clarence married before as well?
Earleen: Yes, yes he was. I ____of his brother’s and sister’s names
Ken: Sure.
Earleen: Um, his sister was Mary Lena Simons McConkey. She married a military guy. And then there was Dexter. And he is also buried up there at Bull Creek. Simons. This was the baby that died of pneumonia. He died, He was born in nineteen thirty and died in nineteen thirty, nineteen thirty three. He died, um, I think, a couple of days after Clarence was born or before Clarence was born. I don’t know, I’ll have to go look at the headstone, I forget. Like I said this was just stories that I hear and I, I really wish that you could talk to some of the Lentz in San Antone.
Ken: OK
Earleen: And I’m gona call ___ again because Buford’s mind is still as sharp as a tack, but he is in a nursing home. He is hard of hearing, and Ann told me that Rodney needed to be there.
Ken: OK
Earleen: Um
Ken: Rodney is his brother?
Earleen: There is a Rodney brother and, I think, a Rodney grandson. So, I’m, I’m assuming, yes, they’re brothers.
Ken: You’re assuming she’s talking about the brother, or the grandson?
Earleen: Yes, I’m thinking she’s talking about the brother. I get kind-of lost. You know, there’s so many names!
Ken: You have a great memory of all this. So Buford Lentz is related, where does he come into all this?
Earleen: Bufordis, I think he came and lived with Dick Simons for a while. No kin.
Ken: OK
Earleen: Uh, but they stayed like brothers, you know, forever. They were just really good friends.
Ken: Um-hum
Earleen: And, I met Laura, or I call her Ann, um, oh my gosh, probably twenty-five years ago. She and Clarence
Ken: She knew him
Earleen: had, uh, dated at one time. A long, long time ago. And, they just have stayed friends all over the years. Anyway, Ann, um, is living up in San Angelo. And Dorothy is in Austin. Now, Dorothy is eighty, no, Ann is eighty, so Dorothy is older. And Buford, I think, is ninety.
Ken: Hum
Earleen: So, you really (emphasize), and I’m really pushing Ann, you really need to talk to him because he went to the cedar brakes.
Ken: OK
Earleen: So he could tell you what went on. Now Ann went, but she was just a little girl and she just tagged along. She didn’t work. But they worked.
Ken: Um-hum
Earleen: And Sonny Pruett, I’m not sure where Sonny is, and I don’t know if I can find him or not, um
Ken: That’s that Sonny?
Earleen: That was a step-son to Lee, the one that had the seventeen children.
Ken: Yes
Earleen: Plus this one stepson.
Ken: Is this Charles Franklin, called Sonny?
Earleen: Yes
Ken: Oh, that is Sonny.
Earleen: That is Sonny.
Ken: OK
Earleen: Uh, but he, uh, he probably didn’t know a lot because he moved in and lived with them
Earleen Simons 03
Earleen: I understand, and this sounds so ugly to say, but I understand that this Uncle Lee was mean
Ken: Which was Uncle Lee?
Earleen: Uh, Uncle Lee was a brother to Dick.
Ken: Oh, uh-huh
Earleen: Uh, this was the one that -- Uncle Lee with seventeen children
Ken: Oh, OK
Earleen: But I understand he was a mean man. Just ornary, I don’t know
Ken: Um-hum right
Earleen: His wife’s name, I think, was Lillie. I don’t know why that’s even coming to me.
Ken: You know the name Cantrell, living here, as well?
Earleen: This is, yeah, this is part of his family. There’s some Cantrells that married, yeah
Ken: There is a Cantrell that I talked to named Lee, Lee Cantrell. And, uh
Earleen: There’s some that live in New Mexico, too
Ken: OK
Earleen: Uncle Tom is buried just a little bit from Clarence. Uncle Tom was one that knew everybody in that cemetery
Ken: Um-hum, um-hum
Earleen: Uh, but, his grandson, is was Tom and Rosey that are buried just below where Clarence is. But their grandson is ____, ___ is moving out ____ Clarence has been gone for 17 years
Ken: Um-hum
Earleen: I don’t know where these people
Ken: Your memory is wonderful for all this stuff. Really good.
Earleen: But, let me get ahold of, um, I’m gona call Ann again, and then I’m gona call Shirley and see if I can get Shirley to call you. And I want Shirley to also go over and, uh, meet with, uh, Turner. Because they
Ken: Is Shirley on this list here?
Earleen: No, Shirley, um, Shirley is the daughter to one of Edith’s sisters. And Bertie’s gone too. But I think Bertie lived with them for a while. I know that Shirley did. And ___ie is the daughter to Mollie, who died, I think, Mollie, about two years ago. And they’re in Bastrop and her daughter came in the drug store. I work at ___ Drug downtown
Ken:Um-hum, um-hum
Earleen: And she, I mean we just met, we aren’t really close or anything, but I did go out to the house to see Mollie and her dad her husband is was not doing realy well. So Mollie comes in, I mean, ____ (Woodie) comes in and fills me in on what’s going on
Ken: Um-hum, um-hum, OK
Earleen: But, uh, those people right there are the ones that I think could give you the best information
Ken: Right. When you talk to these people – I am going up to Colorado on Saturday
Earleen: OK
Ken: And we’ll be, like I say, we have a big family thing up there pretty much is going on all summer.
Earleen: OK
Ken: So I’m kind-of hanging around up there. It’s gona be a while before I can get in touch with them.
Earleen: OK
Ken: But, if you’ll just, you know, tell them I will, and if they are willing, give me, do you do email by any chance?
Earleen: (laugh) I hate the computer, but I do have an email
Ken: Well, that’s OK. Uh, but if you want to write me
Earleen: OK
Ken: That would give us
Earleen: Do you text
Ken: What?
Earleen: Do you text?
Ken: I do not text (laugh)
Earleen: (laugh) OK. I do that with my grandchildren
Ken: I know it. But, I don’t think I have my, um, home address on here.
Earleen: Do you have a post office box
Ken: In Liberty Hill, um-hum. I’m gona write that down on this card, if you want it there
Earleen: Oh, you can put it on the card, that would be good.
Ken: OK
Earleen: Let me get my purse
Ken: Good (writing). Yes, I just retired from Southwestern.
Earleen: That’s good. I have a daughter that lives in Colorado.
Ken: Oh
Earleen: I keep in contact with her
Ken: Where does she live?
Earleen: She lives outside of, uh, Denver in, uh Centennial.
Ken: That’s where my son lives. In Westminster. 672 Liberty Hill.
Earleen: But unfortunately, I feel really ugly saying this -- Clarence’s first wife and I would appreciate it if you never repeat to do this, and now you’re taping it
Ken: Right, I won’t
Earleen: Um, did not, um, like, the lifestyle of his parents
Ken: Um-hum
Earleen: And, so, um, she didn’t go to the reunions and things and the girls don’t know any of their kin folks.
Ken:Uh-huh
Earleen: I know (Hi!) I know more than they do. They’ve never met any of these
Ken: Uh-huh, right
Earleen: Um, I don’t know if she was ashamed of ‘em or what.
Ken: By the lifestyle, do you mean, the physical appearance of their house? Or
Earleen: No, I think the education, um, I mean, most of the people that chopped cedar did a lot of drinking and smoking and chewing and, you know
Ken: Um-hum
Earleen: Um, anyway, she, I think, I don’t know if she was embarrassed or she just didn’t want to associate. I was told by Cindy that her mother married her daddy to get away from home. And, to me, that’s sad
Ken: Um-hum
Earleen: But the girls knew Edith and Dick. But they never met any of the rest of ‘em.
Ken: Um-hum
Earleen: Now, as the girls got older, um, Terry, the baby, uh, she did go to some of the reunions with us. But she really met these people -- she doesn’t know them, you know, they never go to the cemetery. So, they couldnt give you no history or anything.
Ken: Um-hum, yes
Earleen: Which is sad. I really am sorry that you never met my husband.
Ken: Yes
Earleen: He would loved to have talked to you. And he would have given you lots and lots of information.
Ken: Right. Well, you know, this, I have the greatest respect for, you know, some people drank and some people were Pentecostals, you know, they never touched liquor. But all of ‘em worked very, very hard
Earleen: They were good, honest people.
Ken: Yes, and raised their families with a double-bit cedar axe. And I have the greatest respect for them, so. You know, that’s
Earleen: It’s a hard life
Ken: It’s a hard life and it, it was a, it was a cruel life. I talked to a woman, and her name is Alice Oestrick. And she’s a Patterson. So that Roberts Cemetery is where, is the Roberts Patterson Cemetery. And that’s at Bee Caves, right.
Earleen: Um-hum
Ken: And she, uh, she raised her family, her fa- her husband chopped cedar for a while, her parents did, but they lived in little, she called it, she said “it was just a shack” She finally just said “it was a shack, right near Lake Austin, and I’d either have to she said there was a single spigot of water we could go to on Bull, Bee Cave Road, or we could go to the lake and do that with a bucket
Earleen: Uh-huh
Ken: But she raised her five children in that, and now she lives out in a real nice house in Lake Buchannan and she’s just the finest woman
Earleen: Um-hum
Ken: You know, and yet she says that, she said “I’m proud of my upbringing, but two of my sisters aren’t.”
Earleen: Right
Ken: You know, so you just never know how someone’s gona react to, to that background.
Earleen: That’s the thing, you know,
Ken: Right
Earleen: you know, you don’t choose your family
Ken: You don’t!
Earleen: You choose your friends, and sometimes they’re not friends.
Ken: Uh-huh, yeah.
Earleen: But, um, I can remember Clarence talking about, um, living in a house and you could, they would be playing poker or whatever, eating, and there were holes in the floor where you could see the hogs underneath the floor.
Ken: (laugh)
Earleen: I mean, you know, gracious.
Ken: Yeah, yeah
Earleen: Cold!
Ken: She said her husband picked her up one time and the way that they came together, they went both through the floor.
Earleen: (laugh)
Ken: (laugh)
Earleen: Clarence tells a story of Edith and Birdie, that was her sister taking, I guess, a number three tub of water outside the house and the porch collapsed with them carrying that tub of water (laugh)
Ken: (laugh)
Earleen: So, yeah, they lived a hard life.
Ken: Uh-huh
Earleen: And they, you know, you just do the best you can
Ken: You do. And, you know, I met a man, about six months ago, and he still hauls cedar. He’s in his late seventies. And, uh, he lives in a place, that, uh, you know, I hadn’t seen any place like this in a long time. But he is the sweetest man, I mean, just the sweetest man, he was, he chose that lifestyle and he, he’s oblivious to his, his surroundings.
Earleen: Right
Ken: And I just, you know, I just have the greatest respect for him. There is a woman that goes with him to haul his cedar and she’s quite a bit younger. She was an RN and, uh, she likes to honky tonk, apparently, and when she goes into a honky tonk, eventually some guy’s gona say “so, what do you do for a living?” Right. And she says “I haul cedar.” And if, she says, if they look away, if they do anyting, I mean, after she tells them that, she’s through with ‘em.
Earleen: Yeah
Ken: That’s it.
Earleen: Yeah
Ken: ‘cause she loves the independence versus the eight to five
Earleen: You know, and it, it’s, um, you’re with nature, and it is dangerous
Ken: scorpions and rattlesnakes
Earleen: Clarence talked about some place up there on Bull Creek, I don’t know where, could have even have been over by Tom Miller Dam. I’m not sure exactly where this was, but they would go chop cedar and it stunk at certain times of the year when the rattlesnakes were moving.
Ken: Oh
Earleen: And he said there had to be a den there. He said it was - they were just everywhere. And they had to be so careful, but they would put gas in there to make them come out and they would kill em, you know, because it’s, it was dangerous
Ken: Yeah
Earleen: And he said it was just, there were so many of ‘em , you could smell it.
Ken: Did he ever talk about cutting himself, cause that’s a pretty common occurrence.
Earleen: No, he had, um, a couple of Uncles that did
Ken:Uh-huh
Earleen: Um, and, of course, they kept their axes just razor sharp, yeah. Uh, no Clarence never did. Of course, I, he probably, he was born in nineteen thirty-three. And he did go to the cedar brakes and he did work, but later he went to work for UT. But, um, so he probably was not in the roughest part
Ken: Um-hum. How far did he go in school?
Earleen: You know, I’m not sure. He didn’t graduate. Tenth or eleventh grade
Ken: Um-hum. That’s good
Earleen: Yeah. Um, now, his mother, Edith, got to about the eighth grade. Now, I know that Dick Simons went to the little school there at Bull Creek.
Ken: The one you got married at?
Earleen: Um-hum. He did go to school there. When he was a little boy. And I met his teacher one time, uh, out there, I can’t remember her name though. She was still living and Clarence introduced me to her. It was his daddy’s teacher. It was one room school then.
Ken: Probably in all the grades.
Earleen: Yeah, yeah. Now, I don’t know how far he did go
Ken: Um-hum, um-hum
Earleen: Uh, don’t remember. But he did have several uncles that, you know, cut themselves, and they would just poor kerosene on it
Ken: Um-hum
Earleen: And when they got that snake bit they used kerosene too.
Ken: A cure-all
Earleen: I remember my grandmother stepping on a a nail and pouring kerosene on her foot.
Ken: Uh-huh
Earleen: Well, let me try to get a hold of these other people and see if I can, um
End
Ken: So, we’re sitting here in the mall in Bastrop, TX and I’m talking with Earleen Simons on, what is it, May
Earleen: 24th
Ken: May the 24th (2013). I’ve never been very good at that. OK. So, you’re gona walk me through this family tree here.
Earleen: Uh, Dick Simons was Clarence’s father and Edith Simpson Simons, and she also is kin to the Roberts. Uh
Ken: Do you know how she was kin to the Roberts?
Earleen: Um, her mother was Francis Roberts
Ken: OK
Earleen: And it’s the bunch that’s over in the Roberts’ Cemetery.
Ken: Yes
Earleen: This cemetery here.
Ken: Yes
Earleen: I’ve only been there one time. Um
Ken: Isn’t that book Eanes?
Earleen: Yes
Ken: Yes
Earleen: She’s in this, um, this is where a lot of her family is located. Um, I’ve only been out there one time, with Clarence. She has a sister that’s buried there. I have no idea where his dad’s buried. I don’t think he ever said. Um. ___
Ken: Dick Simons--
Earleen: Uh, well, I know where Dick is buried. But Dexter, his father
Ken: his father
Earleen: I don’t know where he is buried. I don’t even know when he died. But I’m pretty sure that Francis is buried out there at, um, Roberts’ Cemetery.
Ken: Do you happen to know how she would be related to Joe Roberts and all those Roberts that were out there in Oak Hill?
Earleen: OK. I think
Ken: OK
Earleen: I’m not positive on that, but as far as I know that’s what it is. I have some pictures. I need to go see Virginia.
Ken: You know Virginia?
Earleen: No. But another lady I carpool with is next-door-neighbors with her in Buda.
Ken: OK
Earleen: And, Verna Pool is Virginia’s niece. And she’s kin to my husband and, they’re cousins or something down the line, I’m not sure exactly. Verna is one that gave me the book.
Ken: OK
Earleen: She came to work at the Teacher Retirement System, and she came up to me one day and she said “I think your husband is kin to me.” And we got to talking and, sure enough, they were kin. So she gave me this book, and, um
Ken: That’s great. That book is out of print now.
Earleen: Oh, is it?
Ken: It’s very difficult to get.
Earleen: OK. Um, she gave it to me, I don’t know when she gave it to me, she just --- Skipper is her husband, last name’s Poole, but, um, anyway, if I’m not mistaken, Francis and Uncle Ollie were brother and sister.
Ken: Uh-huh
Earleen: So, I’m pretty sure that that’s where she’s buried. Now, Edith, um, Charlie, Edith, and (? Beth) and Clarence and his brother, Dexter, are all buried at Oak Grove Cemetery on Bull Creek.
Ken: And that’s when they had the reunion on July 4th, isn’t it?
Earleen: Right. Right.
Ken: That’s when we have our family reunion.
Earleen: Yeah
Ken: And then I’m going to be up Colorado.
Earleen: Yeah
Ken: So, that’s – do you go?
Earleen: Uh, not much. My husband’s been gone seventeen years.
Ken: Um-hum
Earleen: And, uh, he, he was 80, he would have been 80 this year. Um, and so many of ‘em are gone. I just, I don’t know the people. Now there is, um, Dick and Bill were brothers. And I think Lee was a brother. I don’t know how many brothers there were. I think Vernon was a cousin. Now Vernon is deceased. But he has a son, Vernon Jr. Simons that lives in Bastrop County.
Ken: OK
Earleen: And he might be able to help you. I can see if I can contact him. I thought, I want to contact Ann again. Shirley is a cousin to Clarence. Her sister and Edith were sisters. Her name was Bertie. She’s gone too. But Shirley probably would know a lot of the Simons’ history
Ken: And Shirley is
Earleen: Shirley is a cousin to Clarence.
Ken: OK
Earleen: It was, uh, Edith’s niece. Um, let me put here to call Vernon. Um, I did call Vernon, uh, ‘cause I did go up to the reunion, I guess it was last year, or the year before last, because I wanted, I’m going to be buried there and you don’t have to pay for a lot or anything, you just say where you want to be buried.
Ken: Um-hum
Earleen: And my son is buried there. Uh, it’s my parent’s ____ _____
Ken: OK
Earleen: Um, anyway, I will be buried there. So I just put my headstone up there. I just kind-of wanted to find out who I needed to contact because the people that I knew to contact aren’t around anymore
Ken: Um-hum
Earleen: Uh, that really would be a good place to go. But if you’ve met the Boatrights then you’ve met ___
Ken: It says there on the cemetery “Contact Lee Boatright”. Do you know whether he, you know, know more information on the cemetery? I was just out there about a year ago. I wonder if he’s still alive.
Earleen: Um, I don’t know because that’s not the person that I have, um, he has a wrecking company, in wreckers.
Ken: Cantwell?
Earleen: No, it’s not a Cantwell. And there is, the lady, that’s his secretary. I mean, I’ve got some numbers at the house
Ken: Um-hum
Earleen: They are numbers that you probably could contact because they’re people that go to the cemetery and the July 4th thing. She even, I think, did some, uh, uh, in the history, in the history, what do they call it when they go in and
Ken: genealogy?
Earleen: Yeah. Did some of that.
Ken: Oh, wonderful!
Earleen: She, she has some of that
Ken: I’d love to get that number from you.
Earleen: I put the genealogy on Clarence’s family. I kind-of typed it up and I mailed it to her. Because his mother remarried and her last name is Gibbons on her headstone.
Ken: G I V V E N S?
Earleen: G I B B. There’s Alvin Gribbon GRIBBON Uh, and they didn’t know exactly where she was. You kind-of loose with the old people. So I sent that to them and I did put my side on there too. I remember it was Francis’s step-son because Johnson stuck in with the sign. It said he’s buried just below Clarence.
Ken: I’m very sorry to hear your son died.
Earleen: It’s been hard for me.
Ken: How long ago was that?
Earleen: Thirteen years and he committed suicide, so, um, it was, um
Ken: Yeah
Earleen: Anyway. He and Clarence were very, very close. He loved Clarence. Clarence was a good step-father.
Ken: We had this happen in our family just last year.
Earleen: ____
Ken: Nineteen year old girl. And, um, yeah, it’s just so sad, you know.
Earleen: My son was thirty-five. He left behind two children. So I took ____
Ken: Hum. Isn’t that something
Earleen: Yeah, it is.
Ken: Yeah The hardest thing for a parent, I think, ever ____
Earleen: Yeah, it’s, um, you never get over it.
Ken: No
Earleen: You learn to cope with it better, some days better than others
Ken: Yeah
Earleen: But, uh
Ken: By the way the Boatrights I spoke to might be the same ones, John T., uh, John T. and Jim were brothers and they grew up, you know, in the Bee Cave area, I mean in the Bull Creek area, just grew up as kids, but then they moved out to Leander pretty quickly
Earleen: Um-hum
Ken: And, uh, his father had a cedar yard there and, uh, Jim Boatright was heavy machinery guy, and John T. ran the pig farm for the State of Texas
Earleen: Oh, OK
Ken: The time when all the prisons and everything was supplied by them
Earleen: Right
Ken: So he’s living in Liberty Hill. Those are the only ones that I, I really just talked to John T.
Earleen: But there are some Boatrights that sing, I might have, the first names totally escape me, they sing Gospel, and I think they’ve even done some recordings. Um, and of course, they’re out there every year singing at the reunion.
Ken:Um-hum
Earleen: I probably can call the girl, and if she is not the secretary, I’m sure she’ll get me whoever it is. And get their names.
Ken: That would be wonderful
Earleen: And maybe you could talk to them
Ken: I would like to talk to them because I think this is a different, I think they’re all related, but I don’t think they know each other. John T. didn’t put me onto anybody.
Earleen: John T. does not sound right to me.
Ken: You’ve talked to him?
Earleen: No, but I mean
Ken: John T., the name?
Earleen: John T. does not sound like the group that I know.
Ken: Uh-huh
Earleen: Um, and I know their names. I’ve heard it a hundred times. But they do Gospel singing.
Ken: Oh, that’s sounds terrific. You know there’s a story about Frank Boatright that was written in the paper, um, ten, fifteen-years ago. And his daughter, Marie, I don’t know if you’ve ever know him, but
Earleen: I haven’t been out there, like I said,
Ken: Yeah
Earleen: Eleven times in seventeen years
Ken: Do you read John Kelso? Do you ever read him in the Austin paper?
Earleen: Uh
Ken: I don’t either, but someone gave me this and she hunts some coyote, she killed some coyotes there on Bull Creek. She still lives there. Hung the coyote, you know, just like you did in the country.
Earleen: Right
Ken: hung the coyotes there on the fence, and
Earleen: Someone got upset?
Ken: I think, well, it was kind-of funny ‘cause Kelso writes these funny stories about how -- The Shotgun Funeral for Three Coyotes was the title of his story (laugh)
Earleen: (laugh) One hell of a name!
Ken: (laugh) Anyway, she must be a character.
Earleen: Yeah. Well, some of ‘em really were characters
Ken: Yeah
Earleen: Back then. They had a hard life
Ken: Oh, I know.
Earleen: So, um, I know that this Lee Simons, who was a brother to Dick
Ken: Um-hum
Earleen: He had seventeen children and a step-son. And his step-son was, um, Charles Franklin Pruitt . He’s the step-son. And there was eighteen kids and he and his wife lived in a tent. Clarence would tell me about it. I can’t imagine living in a big tent
Ken: Yeah
Earleen: with eighteen kids.
Ken: Eighteen! And that was, was that on Bull Creek?
Earleen: Somewhere up in that area.
Ken: Uh-huh, Huh!
Earleen: I don’t know exactly where. Uh, it had to be a hard life
Ken: Oh! Yes!
Earleen: You know, uh, I, I just can’t imagine.
Ken: Yeah. I have a picture of Ronnie Roberts as a young child in their camp. He calls her Aunt Virginia, Virginia Turner, and Uncle Ollie
Earleen: Um-hum
Ken: And I think they’re, really weren’t his Aunt and Uncle, but were -- Uncle Ollie is really his grandfather’s brother or something like that.
Earleen: Um-hum
Ken: See, that’s a pretty sad story on that side. His, his brother, his older brother by a couple of years got a brain tumor when he was about seven, died, and then his mother did not get over that
Earleen: Yeah
Ken: And then she committed suicide a few years later. And the Roberts kids moved in with uh, their grandfather who had a cedar yard in Oak HIll
Earleen: Um-hum
Ken: And so that’s how he
Earleen: A lot of ‘em, if things were not good at home, they’d move in with just, a friend or, whoever. Family friend, it didn’t make much diference
Ken: Um-hum
Earleen: I know that Sonny, the step-son moved in with, uh, Dick and Edith for a while. And he and Clarence were pretty close. Um, Sonnys been dead for a long long time, but he does have a son and I will try to contact him. Is it OK if I give him your telephone number and address?
Ken: Yes, yes, yes. You can set it all up.
Earleen: And you sent me a card.
Ken: OK, good.
Earleen: This is the brother. These two brothers married cousins.
Ken: Bill and Dick?
Earleen: Bill and Dick married cousins, Edith and Edna Roberts were cousins.
Ken: OK
Earleen: Um, so, all of this bunch and Clarences’ brothers and sisters were double cousins, double first cousins
Ken: Um-hum, um-hum
Earleen: This boy and this boy and Willie all moved up to the Medina area. And then Millie moved up there. This is her sister
Ken: Eddie, Connie, and Lonnie, you said Lonnie ___
Earleen: Yes
Ken: all “ie’s”
Earleen: Yes. Everybody was “ie” but Mildred.
Ken: Um-hum
Earleen: And they used to tell Mildred that she was adopted because she didn’t the “ie” on her name like the rest of ‘em.
Ken: That’s funny
Earleen: And they did lose one other child, but that was many, many years ago and I don’t reme – don’t know what that child’s name was, but she was named for a school teacher that Edna had
Ken: OK
Earleen: But, she truly believed she was adopted because all of them were “ie” but her.
Ken: (laugh)
Earleen: Um, Donnie and Lonnie were twins. This boy’s deceased, but his son lives in Austin somewhere. I understand he’s a preacher.
Ken: Hum
Earleen: Um, I’m not sure where Donnie is. He used to live out there by me, but his wife died about two years ago and he sold the place and moved. I think Minnie is still in Medina. I can call, uh, Mollie’s daughter, they live here in Bastrop County. And find out about Minnie. But if you, uh, you might could talk to Lonnie’s son.
Ken: OK
Earleen: Minnie probably could help you too.
Ken: OK
Earleen: If I can get them to agree, I’ll see if I can get some telephone numbers and get them to call you
Ken: Great! I’ve been out to, um, the Medina area and Leakey
Earleen: Um-hum
Ken: And there are, there are Simons out there. I’ve got a picture of a Rex Simons. They didn’t know , its not in this book. He has got a cedar log on his shoulder that must be twelve inches across and twelve feet long. I mean it must weigh four hundred pounds
Earleen: Yeah
Ken: And, uh, he’s a big man.
Earleen: Uh-huh. Clarence’s father was a big man.
Ken: Uh-huh
Earleen: Clarence was a big man.
Ken:Uh-huh
Earleen: Um, when he was born he only weighed two-and-a-half pounds. And he was born at home. Um, Edith was pregnant with him, and her brother-in-law shot her sister Billie, who is buried at the Roberts Cemetery. And
Ken: Her brother-in-law was who?
Earleen: Her brother-in-law, and I don’t know his last name, but Billie was a Simpson, a daughter of Francis
Ken:OK
Earleen: Anyway, but
Earleen Simons 02
Earleen: her husband shot her, and she didn’t die right away. Edith was pregnant with Clarence and then Charlie, um, his brother was in the hospital with pneumonia. And she went into labor with all of this going on and had him early. So he only weighed two and a half lbs. and they kept him at home and put a pillow in a chest of drawers and didn’t think that he would lived. But he lived.
Ken: Is that why they call him “Baby”?
Earleen: He didn’t have a name. They didn’t put a name on his birth certificate for some time.
Ken: Um
Earleen: So most of the family knows him as Baby Simons
Ken: Oh, my goodness!
Earleen: So, uh, and he turned into a big man, like 6’3”, two-hundred and forty pounds
Ken: That was his mother, Francis, that was shot?
Earleen: No. A sister to Edith. Her daughter, Billie, was shot.
Ken: OK
Earleen: Billie was a sister to Edith, and she was shot.
Ken: I kind-of got lost here
Earleen: Yeah, I know. It’s. I just remember …
Ken: But that was Clarence, “Baby Simons”, so he was born to, that wasn’t
Earleen: OK. This is a child of Dick and Edith. OK.
Ken: Clarence, right.
Earleen: This was my husband
Ken: Yes, yes.
Earleen: OK. This was their child.
Ken: Oh, it’s Edith’s child. All right. Yes
Earleen: Edith Simpson Simons and Dick Simons. This is their child.
Ken: So Edith was shot.
Earleen: No, no. Billie, sister to Edith.
Ken: OK. So, just the trauma made her
Earleen: She was pregnant and the trauma of this sister being shot
Ken: I see
Earleen: I don’t know what happened . She was shot by her husband and then she also had this child in the hospital with pneumonia.
Ken: Uh-huh
Earleen: Who was three years older than Clarence. And she went into labor and delivered him ___.
Ken: I wonder how many months she was pregnant at the time.
Earleen: I think she was seven months. Because I think he was two months early. Weighed two-and-a-half pounds at birth, you know. And, uh, they put him, like I said, in a drawer with a pillow. Just a drawer with a pillow. And he survived.
Ken: That is amazing
Earleen: Yeah. He had seizures for quite a while. He would just black out. But I understand that’s real common in a premature baby
Ken: Um-hum
Earleen: Uh, but they didn’t name him because they didn think he would live. So, then several months later they did name him. And, when Dexter Simon, Dick’s father, died, apparently Ida married a Toungate, and I don’t know when he died, but that, his name was Clarence Toungate. And that’s how Clarence got his name. He said “You mean I’m named after that old son of a bitch” (laugh)
Ken: (laugh)
Earleen: I don’t know because I never saw him again. Anyway, uh, she was, this girl is buried up in the, Roberts Cemetery, but I do not know what the last name is.
Ken: Uh-huh
Earleen: I was there
Ken: Um-hum. I think I have, somewhere, maybe in that book, a list of all the people that are buried there. If not there, there’s something else that I have with the list.
Earleen: It might have been a Simpson
Ken: Uh-huh
Earleen: Another name, I don’t know, but she was a Simpson, and she was their daughter, Francis.
Ken: Francis Roberts
Earleen: Simons
Ken: So the Roberts and the Simpsons, and the Simons. Big names in that Oak Creek.
Earleen: In the Bull Creek area
Ken: Yeah, in the Bull Creek area. Oak something cemetery?
Earleen: Oak Grove
Ken: Oak Grove Cemetery.
Earleen: Um, did I put this there or not? Oak Grove Cemetery.
Ken: I know that
Earleen: I wrote it here I guess. It wasn’t in the book. Yeah Now, I don’t know that any of the Boatrights were actually any kin to Clarence or if they’re just there. Um, yeah, this is the cemetery where
Ken: Right
Earleen: All of Clarence’s family is buried. Now I imagine most of these are buried up in the Roberts Cemetery. And they may not be. They may be buried in Medina. But I can check with ___ie and find out.
Ken: You know, when I called, when I called you on the phone, I said “Margie and I “ Margie Simons. Do you know Margie? She was a Carlton. The Carlton’s had land on the Colorado River near Leander and Liberty Hill.
Earleen: Um-hum
Ken: So that they, she married a Simons. And, uh, he cut cedar. And do you know where, which Simons she would have married? And I probably have it somewhere in my notes, but
Earleen: No
Ken: OK
Earleen: Now, Mildred, I think lives in either Cedar Park or Leander. I’m not sure. And she married, I know him by Jigger, and I do have a last name, but it’s
Ken: Jigger?
Earleen: Jigger! (laugh)
Ken: There’s a Chigger out there (laugh)
Earleen: No, this is jigger.
Ken: (laugh)
Earleen: I don’t know why he got named Jigger, but, um, what do I say the last name is ___ Goodnight, something like that. I don’t have it. I looked for that book on making the charcoal.
Ken: Um-hum
Earleen: I cannot find it. I cannot find it anywhere
Ken: Oh
Earleen: Because that’s what Edith, the Simpsons did. And I would think that maybe Virginia might know something about that.
Ken: Um-hum I know how they did it. That’s for sure. But it’s good to know that the Simpsons did that. Now Dick was a pretty, Simons, was a pretty famous guy, wasn’t he? ‘Cause I’m hearing from Boatright, I think it would be
Earleen: He did a lot of things. I, uh, you know, he was dead before I ever got in the family
Ken: Uh-huh
Earleen: He died in, I think, ___ was born in 58 -- Clarence’s baby daughter -- and I think Dick died in 1960
Ken: Um-hum
Earleen: Clarence and I didn’t get married until __,
Ken: Um-mum
Earleen: so, I mean, I really did not know them. I knew his mother. ____
Ken: I think it’s Dick Simons who would be delivering charcoal to the capital? Does that make?
Earleen: That’s right.
Ken: And, um, underneath that charcoal was moonshine, back in the thirties.
Earleen: That would not surprise me one bit. Edith would make moonshine
Ken: Um-hum
Earleen: From, you know, these were stories, you know, this was way before my time. I didn’t witness any, it’s just stories that I heard.
Ken: This is from John T. Boatright, so. Hey, it’s raining
Earleen: Oh, how wonderful!
Ken: Yes!
Earleen: Um, she made moonshine and she kept it in the wood burning stove during the summer. And the men that would drive the train through Austin would give signals with their horns, or whatever you call them, I mean they’d blow the whistle. And she would send Baby to the train, send him to the track, with a pint, two pints, or whatever, of moonshine
Ken: Um-hum
Earleen: So, it’s probably very, very likely that Dick did deliver moonshine in charcoal. ‘Cause I know that his mother made it. And that’s how they paid for any ____.
Ken: Absolutely! This is a serious rain. It’s the best way to turn corn into money.
Earleen: Right.
Ken: If you’re growing the corn. That is a wonderful rain. I wish we could get that at our place
Earleen: We have had so little rain down here. But, um, I’m sure that it probably was Dick Simons, like I said, he died in nineteen sixty. And, up there at Bull Creek, not on the cemetery side, but on the other side where they had put up the, kind-of an arbor king-of thing where they barbequed
Ken: Um-hum
Earleen: There is an old pit that some of these Simons boys and Clarence, and I can’t -- their initials are on this, they put a concrete thing, they put a piece of, like rebar, so they could BBQ for their first reunion up there. And they would, and they would, um, they had cedar posts in between trees and they would kill deer or goats there and gut em and barbeque em
Ken: Uh-huh. Cabrito.
Earleen: That was before my time.
Ken: Did you ever live on Bull Creek, at that time, at all?
Earleen: No
Ken: You never did.
Earleen: Clarence’s family did.
Ken: Uh-huh
Earleen: And a story that Clarence had told me, that his dad got into it
Man: _____ (all laugh)
Earleen: I’ll run right out there
Ken: Oh It’s not that bad.
Earleen: Its wonderful for it to happen.
Man: Oh, I agree with with you
Earleen: Um, he got into, um, some poker game, and lost some land up on Bull Creek in a poker game.
Ken: Who’s this?
Earleen: Um, Clarence’s dad.
Ken: Oh, Dick, Um-hum
Earleen: I don’t know where the game was, I don’t know who it was with, I just know that he lost the land that was on Bull Creek.
Ken: Um-hum. Did you ever see Bull Creek back in those days?
Earleen: No
Ken: My wife and I used to, uh, go out there and, you know, you could drive out below Mt. Bonnell, and the road would cross Bull Creek a number of times before it got to where 360 is today, and, just crystal clear, not a bit – now it’s all algae, and I think that’s all from the fertilizer
Earleen: Um-hum
Ken: It was beautiful swimming, and we would wash our car, and drink beer
Earleen: Yeah
Ken: It was so fine.
Earleen: Um, back behind the cemetery, we used to crawl over the fence, and back there the water is still very clear.
Ken: Uh-huh
Earleen: And I have not done that in quite a few years, but you can still see fish in it
Ken: Um-hum
Earleen: It’s pretty
Ken: It really is.
Earleen: It is beautiful. But now, now, there used to be a, where they had the reunion, there was a building that was, um, a school at one time. And it belongs to the Round Rock ISD. Or did. And then they turned it into a church and that’s where Clarence and I got married.
Ken: Oh, OK
Earleen: It was at the Oak Grove Church. And there were bullet holes through the door, but then it burned down
Ken: Um
Earleen: But they weren’t of been able to get the permits to rebuild it, so it’s just a slab
Ken: When year did yall marry?
Earleen: Nineteen eighty five.
Ken: You were married before?
Earleen: Yes.
Ken: And was Clarence married before as well?
Earleen: Yes, yes he was. I ____of his brother’s and sister’s names
Ken: Sure.
Earleen: Um, his sister was Mary Lena Simons McConkey. She married a military guy. And then there was Dexter. And he is also buried up there at Bull Creek. Simons. This was the baby that died of pneumonia. He died, He was born in nineteen thirty and died in nineteen thirty, nineteen thirty three. He died, um, I think, a couple of days after Clarence was born or before Clarence was born. I don’t know, I’ll have to go look at the headstone, I forget. Like I said this was just stories that I hear and I, I really wish that you could talk to some of the Lentz in San Antone.
Ken: OK
Earleen: And I’m gona call ___ again because Buford’s mind is still as sharp as a tack, but he is in a nursing home. He is hard of hearing, and Ann told me that Rodney needed to be there.
Ken: OK
Earleen: Um
Ken: Rodney is his brother?
Earleen: There is a Rodney brother and, I think, a Rodney grandson. So, I’m, I’m assuming, yes, they’re brothers.
Ken: You’re assuming she’s talking about the brother, or the grandson?
Earleen: Yes, I’m thinking she’s talking about the brother. I get kind-of lost. You know, there’s so many names!
Ken: You have a great memory of all this. So Buford Lentz is related, where does he come into all this?
Earleen: Bufordis, I think he came and lived with Dick Simons for a while. No kin.
Ken: OK
Earleen: Uh, but they stayed like brothers, you know, forever. They were just really good friends.
Ken: Um-hum
Earleen: And, I met Laura, or I call her Ann, um, oh my gosh, probably twenty-five years ago. She and Clarence
Ken: She knew him
Earleen: had, uh, dated at one time. A long, long time ago. And, they just have stayed friends all over the years. Anyway, Ann, um, is living up in San Angelo. And Dorothy is in Austin. Now, Dorothy is eighty, no, Ann is eighty, so Dorothy is older. And Buford, I think, is ninety.
Ken: Hum
Earleen: So, you really (emphasize), and I’m really pushing Ann, you really need to talk to him because he went to the cedar brakes.
Ken: OK
Earleen: So he could tell you what went on. Now Ann went, but she was just a little girl and she just tagged along. She didn’t work. But they worked.
Ken: Um-hum
Earleen: And Sonny Pruett, I’m not sure where Sonny is, and I don’t know if I can find him or not, um
Ken: That’s that Sonny?
Earleen: That was a step-son to Lee, the one that had the seventeen children.
Ken: Yes
Earleen: Plus this one stepson.
Ken: Is this Charles Franklin, called Sonny?
Earleen: Yes
Ken: Oh, that is Sonny.
Earleen: That is Sonny.
Ken: OK
Earleen: Uh, but he, uh, he probably didn’t know a lot because he moved in and lived with them
Earleen Simons 03
Earleen: I understand, and this sounds so ugly to say, but I understand that this Uncle Lee was mean
Ken: Which was Uncle Lee?
Earleen: Uh, Uncle Lee was a brother to Dick.
Ken: Oh, uh-huh
Earleen: Uh, this was the one that -- Uncle Lee with seventeen children
Ken: Oh, OK
Earleen: But I understand he was a mean man. Just ornary, I don’t know
Ken: Um-hum right
Earleen: His wife’s name, I think, was Lillie. I don’t know why that’s even coming to me.
Ken: You know the name Cantrell, living here, as well?
Earleen: This is, yeah, this is part of his family. There’s some Cantrells that married, yeah
Ken: There is a Cantrell that I talked to named Lee, Lee Cantrell. And, uh
Earleen: There’s some that live in New Mexico, too
Ken: OK
Earleen: Uncle Tom is buried just a little bit from Clarence. Uncle Tom was one that knew everybody in that cemetery
Ken: Um-hum, um-hum
Earleen: Uh, but, his grandson, is was Tom and Rosey that are buried just below where Clarence is. But their grandson is ____, ___ is moving out ____ Clarence has been gone for 17 years
Ken: Um-hum
Earleen: I don’t know where these people
Ken: Your memory is wonderful for all this stuff. Really good.
Earleen: But, let me get ahold of, um, I’m gona call Ann again, and then I’m gona call Shirley and see if I can get Shirley to call you. And I want Shirley to also go over and, uh, meet with, uh, Turner. Because they
Ken: Is Shirley on this list here?
Earleen: No, Shirley, um, Shirley is the daughter to one of Edith’s sisters. And Bertie’s gone too. But I think Bertie lived with them for a while. I know that Shirley did. And ___ie is the daughter to Mollie, who died, I think, Mollie, about two years ago. And they’re in Bastrop and her daughter came in the drug store. I work at ___ Drug downtown
Ken:Um-hum, um-hum
Earleen: And she, I mean we just met, we aren’t really close or anything, but I did go out to the house to see Mollie and her dad her husband is was not doing realy well. So Mollie comes in, I mean, ____ (Woodie) comes in and fills me in on what’s going on
Ken: Um-hum, um-hum, OK
Earleen: But, uh, those people right there are the ones that I think could give you the best information
Ken: Right. When you talk to these people – I am going up to Colorado on Saturday
Earleen: OK
Ken: And we’ll be, like I say, we have a big family thing up there pretty much is going on all summer.
Earleen: OK
Ken: So I’m kind-of hanging around up there. It’s gona be a while before I can get in touch with them.
Earleen: OK
Ken: But, if you’ll just, you know, tell them I will, and if they are willing, give me, do you do email by any chance?
Earleen: (laugh) I hate the computer, but I do have an email
Ken: Well, that’s OK. Uh, but if you want to write me
Earleen: OK
Ken: That would give us
Earleen: Do you text
Ken: What?
Earleen: Do you text?
Ken: I do not text (laugh)
Earleen: (laugh) OK. I do that with my grandchildren
Ken: I know it. But, I don’t think I have my, um, home address on here.
Earleen: Do you have a post office box
Ken: In Liberty Hill, um-hum. I’m gona write that down on this card, if you want it there
Earleen: Oh, you can put it on the card, that would be good.
Ken: OK
Earleen: Let me get my purse
Ken: Good (writing). Yes, I just retired from Southwestern.
Earleen: That’s good. I have a daughter that lives in Colorado.
Ken: Oh
Earleen: I keep in contact with her
Ken: Where does she live?
Earleen: She lives outside of, uh, Denver in, uh Centennial.
Ken: That’s where my son lives. In Westminster. 672 Liberty Hill.
Earleen: But unfortunately, I feel really ugly saying this -- Clarence’s first wife and I would appreciate it if you never repeat to do this, and now you’re taping it
Ken: Right, I won’t
Earleen: Um, did not, um, like, the lifestyle of his parents
Ken: Um-hum
Earleen: And, so, um, she didn’t go to the reunions and things and the girls don’t know any of their kin folks.
Ken:Uh-huh
Earleen: I know (Hi!) I know more than they do. They’ve never met any of these
Ken: Uh-huh, right
Earleen: Um, I don’t know if she was ashamed of ‘em or what.
Ken: By the lifestyle, do you mean, the physical appearance of their house? Or
Earleen: No, I think the education, um, I mean, most of the people that chopped cedar did a lot of drinking and smoking and chewing and, you know
Ken: Um-hum
Earleen: Um, anyway, she, I think, I don’t know if she was embarrassed or she just didn’t want to associate. I was told by Cindy that her mother married her daddy to get away from home. And, to me, that’s sad
Ken: Um-hum
Earleen: But the girls knew Edith and Dick. But they never met any of the rest of ‘em.
Ken: Um-hum
Earleen: Now, as the girls got older, um, Terry, the baby, uh, she did go to some of the reunions with us. But she really met these people -- she doesn’t know them, you know, they never go to the cemetery. So, they couldnt give you no history or anything.
Ken: Um-hum, yes
Earleen: Which is sad. I really am sorry that you never met my husband.
Ken: Yes
Earleen: He would loved to have talked to you. And he would have given you lots and lots of information.
Ken: Right. Well, you know, this, I have the greatest respect for, you know, some people drank and some people were Pentecostals, you know, they never touched liquor. But all of ‘em worked very, very hard
Earleen: They were good, honest people.
Ken: Yes, and raised their families with a double-bit cedar axe. And I have the greatest respect for them, so. You know, that’s
Earleen: It’s a hard life
Ken: It’s a hard life and it, it was a, it was a cruel life. I talked to a woman, and her name is Alice Oestrick. And she’s a Patterson. So that Roberts Cemetery is where, is the Roberts Patterson Cemetery. And that’s at Bee Caves, right.
Earleen: Um-hum
Ken: And she, uh, she raised her family, her fa- her husband chopped cedar for a while, her parents did, but they lived in little, she called it, she said “it was just a shack” She finally just said “it was a shack, right near Lake Austin, and I’d either have to she said there was a single spigot of water we could go to on Bull, Bee Cave Road, or we could go to the lake and do that with a bucket
Earleen: Uh-huh
Ken: But she raised her five children in that, and now she lives out in a real nice house in Lake Buchannan and she’s just the finest woman
Earleen: Um-hum
Ken: You know, and yet she says that, she said “I’m proud of my upbringing, but two of my sisters aren’t.”
Earleen: Right
Ken: You know, so you just never know how someone’s gona react to, to that background.
Earleen: That’s the thing, you know,
Ken: Right
Earleen: you know, you don’t choose your family
Ken: You don’t!
Earleen: You choose your friends, and sometimes they’re not friends.
Ken: Uh-huh, yeah.
Earleen: But, um, I can remember Clarence talking about, um, living in a house and you could, they would be playing poker or whatever, eating, and there were holes in the floor where you could see the hogs underneath the floor.
Ken: (laugh)
Earleen: I mean, you know, gracious.
Ken: Yeah, yeah
Earleen: Cold!
Ken: She said her husband picked her up one time and the way that they came together, they went both through the floor.
Earleen: (laugh)
Ken: (laugh)
Earleen: Clarence tells a story of Edith and Birdie, that was her sister taking, I guess, a number three tub of water outside the house and the porch collapsed with them carrying that tub of water (laugh)
Ken: (laugh)
Earleen: So, yeah, they lived a hard life.
Ken: Uh-huh
Earleen: And they, you know, you just do the best you can
Ken: You do. And, you know, I met a man, about six months ago, and he still hauls cedar. He’s in his late seventies. And, uh, he lives in a place, that, uh, you know, I hadn’t seen any place like this in a long time. But he is the sweetest man, I mean, just the sweetest man, he was, he chose that lifestyle and he, he’s oblivious to his, his surroundings.
Earleen: Right
Ken: And I just, you know, I just have the greatest respect for him. There is a woman that goes with him to haul his cedar and she’s quite a bit younger. She was an RN and, uh, she likes to honky tonk, apparently, and when she goes into a honky tonk, eventually some guy’s gona say “so, what do you do for a living?” Right. And she says “I haul cedar.” And if, she says, if they look away, if they do anyting, I mean, after she tells them that, she’s through with ‘em.
Earleen: Yeah
Ken: That’s it.
Earleen: Yeah
Ken: ‘cause she loves the independence versus the eight to five
Earleen: You know, and it, it’s, um, you’re with nature, and it is dangerous
Ken: scorpions and rattlesnakes
Earleen: Clarence talked about some place up there on Bull Creek, I don’t know where, could have even have been over by Tom Miller Dam. I’m not sure exactly where this was, but they would go chop cedar and it stunk at certain times of the year when the rattlesnakes were moving.
Ken: Oh
Earleen: And he said there had to be a den there. He said it was - they were just everywhere. And they had to be so careful, but they would put gas in there to make them come out and they would kill em, you know, because it’s, it was dangerous
Ken: Yeah
Earleen: And he said it was just, there were so many of ‘em , you could smell it.
Ken: Did he ever talk about cutting himself, cause that’s a pretty common occurrence.
Earleen: No, he had, um, a couple of Uncles that did
Ken:Uh-huh
Earleen: Um, and, of course, they kept their axes just razor sharp, yeah. Uh, no Clarence never did. Of course, I, he probably, he was born in nineteen thirty-three. And he did go to the cedar brakes and he did work, but later he went to work for UT. But, um, so he probably was not in the roughest part
Ken: Um-hum. How far did he go in school?
Earleen: You know, I’m not sure. He didn’t graduate. Tenth or eleventh grade
Ken: Um-hum. That’s good
Earleen: Yeah. Um, now, his mother, Edith, got to about the eighth grade. Now, I know that Dick Simons went to the little school there at Bull Creek.
Ken: The one you got married at?
Earleen: Um-hum. He did go to school there. When he was a little boy. And I met his teacher one time, uh, out there, I can’t remember her name though. She was still living and Clarence introduced me to her. It was his daddy’s teacher. It was one room school then.
Ken: Probably in all the grades.
Earleen: Yeah, yeah. Now, I don’t know how far he did go
Ken: Um-hum, um-hum
Earleen: Uh, don’t remember. But he did have several uncles that, you know, cut themselves, and they would just poor kerosene on it
Ken: Um-hum
Earleen: And when they got that snake bit they used kerosene too.
Ken: A cure-all
Earleen: I remember my grandmother stepping on a a nail and pouring kerosene on her foot.
Ken: Uh-huh
Earleen: Well, let me try to get a hold of these other people and see if I can, um
End
