TX BIOS:  Mrs. C. H. Arcineaux
   Selected and converted.American Memory, Library of Congress.
   
   Washington, 1994.
   
   Preceding element provides place and date of transcription only.
   
   This transcription intended to be 99.95% accurate.
   
   For more information about this text and this American Memory
   collection, refer to accompanying matter.
   
   U.S. Work Projects Administration, Federal Writers' Project (Folklore
   Project, Life Histories, 1936-39); Manuscript Division, Library of
   Congress.Copyright status not determined.
   
   00011
   
   Cope, Mrs. Lucile P.W., 500
   
   Beaumont, Jefferson, Dist. #3
   
   FEC 254
   
   Page 1 MRS. C. H. ARCINEAUX REFERENCES
   
   A. Mrs. C. H. Arcineaux (Miss) Florence Stratton Consultant
   
   Mrs. C. H. Arcineaux, who now resides at 1430 College Street, was born
   at Sabine Pass in 1864, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. T. R. Jackson. Mrs.
   Jackson was, prior to her marriage, Mary McGaffey, daughter of John
   McGaffey of New Hampshire and Sara Garner of Louisiana, who migrated
   to Texas in 1825, and were among the first settlers of Sabine Pass in
   its early days as a Port of Entry. They journeyed into Texas in an ox
   cart, over prairie and marsh land, bringing cattle from Louisiana.
   They were granted a league and labor of land from the Spanish
   government and some of this land still belongs to their descendents,
   including Mrs. Arcineaux. ( A )
   
   Mrs. Arcineaux clearly recalls incidents of pioneer days told by her
   parents and grand-parents: how Dick Dowling and his small band of
   Irishmen defended the Pass against a fleet of Northern ships during
   the Civil War; the part her mother played in rescue work, how she
   helped cook for the soldiers of the south; and also of hardships
   suffered following the war. She tells harrowing stories of death and
   devastation wrought by the 3 storms, which she saw sweep over the
   Pass; the 1886 storm, which took a heavy toll of human life and swept
   hundreds of cattle into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico; the 1900
   storm, which destroyed docks and wharves, blasting hopes of the Kountz
   Brothers, northern capitalists who sought to build a great seaport at
   Sabine Pass; and the 1915 storm, which wrecked her family home,
   causing its occupants to take refuge on a rescue train sent out from
   Beaumont in which city they have since that time resided. ( A )
   
     NOTE: C12- 2/11/41 - Texas
     
   00022
   
   Regardless of these storms, which took a heavy toll of cattle all
   along the gulf coast, the Jackson and Arcineaux families have remained
   in the cattle business. In the early days, before shipping facilities
   were available in the territory, they drove their cattle overland to
   Morgan City, Louisiana, for shipment to foreign ports. They were
   forced to swim those herds across the Neches and Sabine Rivers, and
   the manner in which it was most successfully done was for a cowboy to
   swim his pony by the side of a lead steer, holding its horns. The herd
   would then follow. ( A )
   
   Other recollections of Mrs. Arcineaux include the regular visits paid
   to Sabine Pass by ships of the Morgan Steamship Lines, which came from
   New York and foreign ports. Cotton was their main cargo out of the
   Pass, but they brought sugar, coffee and other necessities not
   produced in Texas. She also tells of the mosquitoes which bred in the
   swamp land, how "mosquito bars" or nets were used at night. How
   sometimes the insects would become so numerous that people going
   outside would have to wear nets, drawn down from their hat brim and
   fastened at the neck. Much of the ill health of the early settlers
   were attributed to the bite of the mosquito. ( A )

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