Hide Article Text (OCR)
BigRanchoQuiet In This Yulec.M. Henkel Jr. • rhristmas Sea'thlS unaccustomede iS “when the Southhe ? below the hon-I «e of ‘he Na“Vlt?' r» «rtain a,”:'*o-s. % +v»p hill i^. house on the hiltP [luu;;q empty. The116 ’Tid verandas:W0'StOrond the curling: d°'nand across ther ■? dei°:Rh‘it first time in morea hundred years,I there will be no\ «t Rancho SetoIS’ ‘, ,nV of November!a! ' f the bijr houseresso!er'went lo her «»'VrinM. rollc “P. „I,,,, in 18! t0 “ *1 that was to“ ■ ,, s;ho nevermansion. ■ .other home untilpi* passing.„,t on which the house• ” MilusancnoIh” vountr bridegroomin years of a ire had alt; a part of his%■# *■ a *their middle years. Khaki clad and booted with their weathered Stetsons tossed on the table,they are in appearance andmanner of speech part andparcel of a family tradition that has been story book Texan since before Civil Wardays.Remembering;, they told ahundred stories of their grandfathers, “W 6” Wright and Levi Bitterman who was proprietor of a prosperous general store at Nuecestown. And of course, about their parents, Mary Wright, strong, capable,able businesswoman, a trifle straight-laced, but with adeeply ingrained sense of humor. She preferred a good horse to all the frills on sale at Lichtenstein’s in Corpus Christi where the family usually journeyed once a year for an annual supply of clothes, Christmas gifts and items not available at Nuecestown. Their father was the younfirth e entire family slept. Sometimes, frequently in fact, beds were moved and the other families for miles around gathered for a dance. The room has long since been divided intoIt is reasonable to believethat Mrs. M. P. Wright confined herself to the wagons only when it was necessary. She was an excellent horsewoman and frequently assistedand Mrs. M. P. Wright prospered, pretentiousness was never a part of their pattern for living, if for no other reason than their minds were inured to memories of hardship.est sonof “W 6” and verythe occasion of her 76th birthday when over 500 persons gathered to wish her well. Thepicture made at that time shows a strong, vigorous woman, somewhat stern of visage.To Stiles she demonstrated something of her appreciationfor humor.She had asked Lee Wright to secure her new car license plates and to get plates with numbers she could remember. Lee remonstrated:“I’ll have to take the platesthey give me.”Later he returned with license number 1872. “All anyone has to do,” she quipped, “is look at my license plates to find out my age.” She was bornin 1872.ce from his still hv-,pr. colorful ‘W. 1 iter,the\V 6” wasgam! and many men, elder Wright for al-fetimc and never knewro lUltwWi I, |t:ss what they stoodweeks after the deathmother, two of Mrs.sons, Eddie the elder, Wright, the youngest, .e a roaring fire and bring back memorieslt;tmases at the big they knew them over „ Both are men pastmuch flie counterpart, of his parent, gay, rollicking, businesslike and hard as a man hadto be in an era when a man’s gun was as important as hisboots.The name Rancho Seco properly belongs to the entire ranch, or if to any particular house, to the no longerstanding home of “W 6” \Vlight. However, it is nowadays often applied to the big house where Eddie and Ia'c Wright, their brothers and sister were born and raised.The brothers recalled theirSOUTH TEXAS MANOR — In 1891 when M. P. Wright Sr. rode up the lane to thishouse with his bride it was a two room ranch house. Through the years it becameplace where cildren were born and as they arrived, the house grew' unti w ecompleted as it stands today. This season, for the first time in nearly 70 years, there will be no Christmas within its walls. However, in another year it will be the home ot heryoungest son, Lee Wright and his family.parents’ home first as a one-story house with an indeter-minate number of rooms. Early j in their lives, however, there, was a big 20 by 40 room whereJ. I. C ase TractorsFarm MachineryCrawler TractorsMoving Machinery 'encer Bros. Equipment CoHwv 77 At NinthP. 0. Box 912own. Te\aPhone 2343two. They are the dining room and living room today.Final additions to the house, including the two-story porches, came in 1910. “And that was a cold winter,” Lee said with a shake of his head. “Just before Christmas I went out hunting early one morning. Everything was grazing land then and the brown prairie grass was laid flat and covered with ice. All the game had found cover and I never saw a thing. Almost froze beforeI got back in.”Until 1913 when Grandfather Bitterman passed away, the Wright children always enjoyed two Christmases. The first was on December 23, their father’s birthday. Then on Christmas morning relatives from miles around gathered at the big house and the trek to Grandfather Bitterman’s at Nuecestown began. The womenrode in mule-drawn wagons and the men rode horseback. Wright men rode the finesthorses in South Texas. Whilethe older women bumped along in the wagons, the younger folk, including some f the girls, cavorted wildlyover the prairie on horseback.at roundups.The ride to Nuecestown wasalways the beginning of a gala day, although perhaps a trifle hard on the womenfolk who spent the late morning hours over the big iron stove that was fed with mesquite and slower burning huisache. The men made merry with homemade wine and the children found a thousand ways to gain entrance to the Bitterman store where there were loaded bins of candy. The big Christmas dinner with 35 to 40 people seated at the table came late in the afternoon. Most appetites were ravenous, although there were some that had been abated y the heavy raids on the candy bins.Evening, and in the early twilight, the journey back to the W’right home at Bluntzer began. Some members of the family remained, however, at Bittorman's. Others stopped for the night at the Wrighthome.While over the years Mr.a CorpusThen in and such was lostEven in their first year ofmarriage, their cattle losseswere so heavy that the following year they had to kill cattle and sell the hides to pay the interest on Christi bank loan.1892 the bank failed money as they had until ’98 when the bank paid off 25 cents on the dollar. In 1919, another unfortunateyear, all but 87 head of 500 cattle which the Wrights had purchased at $60 a head were lost in a hurricane.During the great flu epidemic in 1918, Mrs. Wright became something of a heroine as she moved tirelessly about the countryside helping nursethe sick.There are no known photographs of Mrs. Wright, except a faded one from a newspaper clipping. It was made ten years ago by Grady Stiles, Corpus Christi Caller-Times farm editor. Stiles is the only journalist known to have ever interviewed her and that was onSECTION FOURExcept for the last two years of her life when she was ill, Mrs. Wright was always active and displayed the characteristics of her self-reliant pioneer upbringing. “Until about 15 years ago she continued to make even her own soap,” Eddie Wright remembered.Although she drove a car until a few years ago, her sons remember her best in a buggy loaded with children and drawn by two small grays, Benedo and Billy.Her husband, Milus Wright, died in 1937. Until 1908 he followed the stern law of his father. “W 6” Wright moved ouf of Georgia and Mississippi because he hated cotton farming. He was a horseman and cattleman until the end and never allowed a stalk of the fiber that has made the Coastal Bend famous, to be plantedon his land. His son finallygave in.“You know, mother neverhad and time for store-ground coffee,” Lee Wright recalled. “We used to buy the beans in 100-pound sacks, along with flour, sugar and other staples. When we went to town — and it was seldom — we bought for a long time. Then when we were kids, we boys always had a turn, a week at a time. Mother would call from her room at four in the morning and whoever had the turn would have to go down into the kitchen, grind that coffee and bring it to mother and dad in their bedroom. Man, talk about cold Christmas morn-JIMMY SEGERSIf I Had Been In Bethlehem(In Honor of the Small Fry)If I had been at Bethlehem The night of Jesus’ birth,I would have liked to say, And welcome him to earth.“Hello”If I had been a shepherd With a fleck of wooly sheep,He could have had my softest lamb To help him get to sleep.If I had been an angel With wings and halo bright,I would have sung a song for him Most likely, Silent Night.If I had been a Wise Man Who had come from distant lands He could have pet my camel With his tiny, tiny hands.And if I’d been a little starI would have been so proud,I think I would have felt inclined To twinkle right out loud!The Rofestsutti Recordings!” Eddie Wright chuckled.Ruth Adams MurrayRobstown, Texas, Thursday, December 25, 19584
Newspaper Details
Robstown Record
Robstown, Texas, US
Thu, Dec 25, 1958
Page 25
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 03 Jan 2019
Other Publications Near Robstown, Texas
Robstown Record
