Heritage, 2009, Volume 3 Page: 6
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PRmSIDN'S MSAG
By Tom C. Doell
tThe primary focus of this issue of HERITAGE magazine is oral
history. Most of the universities in our state have oral history
programs where they conduct interviews and teach theory and
practice. In this issue you can read about several of the projects
that those groups have undertaken. "Amateur" historians, local
historical groups, and museums are also engaging in their own
oral history programs. A great example is the Sophienburg Mu-
seum in New Braunfels. Their Reflections program has recorded
more than 2,000 interviews of local citizens since 1976.
Like many of you, I have enjoyed the recollections of older
family members. I was fortunate to have dozens of great aunts and
uncles to listen to and a grandmother who lived to be 101. All of
them were willing to share their memories with me. My grand-
mother was especially cooperative and actually wrote a small
book about her life. She knew I wanted to know about her life
and family history, so she had one of her nieces help record her
memories, complete with captioned pictures. She gave a copy
to each of her grandchildren as Christmas presents in 1996. Her
book is a great recording of rural life in Fannin County during
the early 1900s.
The special value of oral history is the personal connection
one gets from hearing a story firsthand. My grandmother was able
to recall not only the details of her life but also all of the stories
her parents and grandparents had told her about their lives. She
disclosed that her paternal grandparents had operated a planta-
tion in Louisiana and that her grandfather was a U.S. senator.
She went on to tell me that her grandfather disappeared, presum-ably murdered, while on a business trip when her father was just
a young man.
This particular piece of oral history was of great interest to
me. After all, how many of us have a great-great grandfather
who was a U.S. senator? With a little research I was able to find
their Coushatta, Louisiana, plantation and the burial plot of my
great-great grandmother. However, the surprise came when I dis-
covered that my great-great grandfather was a state senator, not
a U.S senator, and that he wasn't murdered after all. It turns out
that he ran off with his foreman's wife and established a new fam-
ily in Washington State.
The best part of my grandmother's oral history was her recol-
lections of daily life. She recalled farm life with seven brothers
and sisters-picking cotton, washing clothes in a big pot of boil-
ing water, her move by wagon from Fannin County to Lubbock
County, fording the Canadian River, butchering hogs in the fall,
and gathering wild plums. She talked about teaching school in
a one-room schoolhouse with a big coal stove, meeting her hus-
band, and moving all across West Texas with Shell Oil Company
as the company drilled new prospects.
Thanks to my grandmother, I have had the opportunity to de-
velop a trans-generational connection to the past. I hope each
of you have the same opportunity and that you share your own
recollections with your children and grandchildren.
Tom Doell is a businessman from Dallas. Send comments about this
column to P.O. Box 50314, Austin, Texas 78763.HERITAGEf Volume 3 2009
'b/
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Texas Historical Foundation. Heritage, 2009, Volume 3, periodical, 2009; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth254214/m1/6/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas Historical Foundation.