Hill County Texas Archives Biographies.....Beck, Elizabeth "Bessie" Lethella Howell October 25, 1891 - December 8, 1986 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/tx/txfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: T. Bradford Willis http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00031.html#0007638 September 19, 2012, 9:01 pm Author: T. Bradford Willis, oral history interviewer in 1984 Oral History Memoir of Elizabeth (Bessie) Howell Beck Date: January 2, 1984 Place: The Regis 400 Austin Avenue Waco, Texas Interviewer: T. Bradford Willis ++ Willis: Today is January 2, 1984, at the Regis, 400 Austin Avenue, Waco, Texas. This is the first interview with Mrs. Beck today. "Dash", who were your parents? Beck: My father was Joshua Calhoun Howell and my mother was Adelaide Smith. Willis: And who were their parents? Beck: There was a Howell; I don’t know their names exactly. There were Smiths who lived in Georgia. They lived close together. Willis: Now, you said something about your grandfather Anthony Garnett Smith [Jr.] fighting in the Texas Revolution battle. Can you tell me about that? Beck: Well, I don’t know too much about that, but I know one thing, that they were calling for people to volunteer, to help the Texans. There was a corps from Georgia that came and my grandfather was in that corps. Anthony Smith was one of the people from Georgia that came. Willis: What do you remember about your grandmother Eliza Howell, Eliza Martin Howell? Beck: She was an old lady and dressed like an old lady. She smoked a pipe. She did a lot of sitting(?) and she would come and stay at our house so many months or so many days, I forget, her allotted time. Then she would go on with some of the other children. And we always hated to see her come because she liked clabber, and we liked ours not broken. We didn’t want any broken clabber. We wanted to dip it out, clear and smooth. She would take it and beat it with a spoon until it was ready to make butter. We didn’t like that. Willis: Was she a large lady or a small lady or a tall? What did she look like? Beck: She’s a big-boned person, medium-sized, and she was the mother of 16 children. Willis: Did she die here in Texas? Beck: Yes, she died out at the … I don’t know where she was. She was with one of the boys; I think it was Don Howell. I don’t know where she died. Willis: And where’s she buried? Beck: She’s buried out at Bell Springs, I think. Willis: Bell Springs Cemetery? Beck: Yes. Willis: What church did you grow up in? Beck: The Methodist Church. Willis: Where was it? Beck: In West [West, McLennan Co., TX]. Willis: Where were you born? Beck: I was born 4 miles west of West, October 1, 1891. Willis: And who were your brother and sisters, and where were they born? Beck: I had two sisters and one brother. Willis: What were their names? Beck: I had 3 sisters and 1 brother. Willis: And what were their names? Beck: Their names are little Winnie Davis Howell, Mamie Ross Howell, Jewell Howell, and Robert Calhoun Howell. Willis: Where did you go to school? Beck: I started to school at Vaughn. I got sick and I didn’t finish out that term. I had kind of a fever. Then the next year, we moved to … My father died and I went to …, moved to Hillsboro and I went to the Franklin school on Franklin Street. I went to school there that one year. We moved to West and bought a place, and we did all of our schooling days were done at West. Willis: What did your father do? What do you remember about your father and mother? Beck: My father, when he first … my father was a teacher. He taught school at Gholson several terms. I couldn’t tell you just how many. Willis: What age group did he teach? Beck: He had the whole school. Willis: I see. Beck: It was a country school, and he had the whole school. Willis: How long did he teach? Beck: He taught about 2 or 3 years, then he went to farming. Willis: What kind of farming? Beck: Agriculture. Willis: Cotton farming? Beck: Cotton farming, I guess. I’d call it cotton farming. Willis: Did he have any helpers? Beck: No, he didn’t have anything like that, but he always had…, hired a man. He lived in, to help him with the farm. Willis: Where was your farm? Beck: Four miles west of West. Willis: In Hill County? Beck: In Hill County. Willis: About how many acres did you have? Beck: About 130, I think. Willis: How did your parents come over? Did they come over on wagon, on horseback? How did they come over from Georgia? Beck: Train. By the train my father. Trains were running then, darling. Willis: Yeah. Willis: Tell me about the story when you went to West, Texas, looking for land. You told me about that the other day. Beck: Well, we lived in two different places. I wish I could, was able to see and show you the place that we first lived, and it is up on a hill as you come in. Our other home was on this side. We had a small two or three room house up on this hill, and there was a place where we always played. A Mr. ______ bought that place from my father because it wasn’t big enough. He wanted a bigger place. Willis: How old were you when he bought it? Beck: I guess I was about eight years old, maybe, and then we moved to this place that we kept until the here, the last not too many years ago. We sold it. Robert bought it. So we lived at this place, and we only lived out there about 2 years before my father died. Willis: What did he die of? Beck: He died at the … He had surgery, and it was malignant. Willis: Where was the surgery? Beck: On his neck. Willis: Was it in Hillsboro? Where did he have the surgery done? Beck: He got the surgery here in Waco. Willis: After your father died, what did you do? Did you move to town? Beck: My uncle Jim, my uncle who had no children and he had a nice home in Hillsboro. We went, which was wrong, but he wanted because we were kids. He thought he was going to get a lot of help for Aunt Betty. We would do a lot of work for her, and we would have, but anyhow, that didn’t work out. Two women living in the same house. Three women living in the same house. Because my aunt, my old maid aunt, was also living there. His sister. Willis: Who was that? Beck: Aunt Emily… was living there. Willis: What do you remember about Uncle Jim and Betty and Emily? What did they look like, and what kind of personalities did they have? Beck: Well, they were men of positive thinking. They were religiously inclined. Willis: What church did they go to? Beck: They went to Methodist Church. Uncle Jim was a … I don’t know how to word this. Willis: A lay preacher? Beck: He was, you might call him, a preacher. Yes, what kind of preacher do you call those? Willis: A lay preacher. Beck: Well you might call him a lay preacher. Willis: Where did he preach? Beck: But he never did go into like he should have. He never had a church. But he just preached when he was asked to preach. Willis: What did he do for a living? Beck: Nothing Willis: He didn’t … Beck: No, he lived off his farm. He had a big farm, a section of land out in Hill County. Not very far from where we all were living. He hired that out, and it made good cotton. A cotton farm. He lived off the products of this farm. Willis: What did he look like? Beck: He was a nice looking man. He was a very proud fellow. He liked to look nice. Always had a nice looking coat, a summer coat. They call them alpacas. Willis: What do you remember about your Aunt Betty? Beck: She was an old maid when he married her, and they never had any children. She was jealous. She had the money, and he spent it. She got kinda, well, worked up over that. She hated to see her money go. Uncle Jim would give his folks, anybody that came to him and wanted some money, he would let them have it, and they never paid him back. Willis: What do you remember about your Aunt Emily? When did your Aunt Emily and Uncle Jim come over to Texas? Beck: Well, they came when the family did. Willis: All of them came about the same time? Beck: All about the same time, or Uncle Jim probably came first and then he sent and got them to come. Willis: What did Aunt Emily look like and what did she do? Did she live with them? Beck: She lived with Uncle Jim. She was a very nice looking old maid. Willis: Did she ever help take care of you? Beck: Oh, yes. She had no money. She had no way of making a living. She would go around and if people had sickness in their home, they would hire her to take care of them. And she did that. Willis: Now, what about your Uncle Don Howell that’s buried at Bell Springs. What about him? Beck: Now I don’t know anything about him, only he died. I think he must have had a fever. Willis: Now you had one uncle who fell off a horse. What about him? Beck: Now that was Charlie. He was the one that lived down there; they all lived down there close in the locale. Willis: Hill County? Beck: Yes, in Hill County. Willis: What kind of accident did he have? Beck: Well, he went to shoot a mad dog, and the horse reared up and the pistol went out his nose. Willis: Hum. How old were you? Do you remember? Beck: I don’t remember that. In fact I was told. I just knew that. Willis: Well, tell us, was your father a large man, or a skinny man? What did he look like? Beck: He was about the size of David [David Parker Willis]. Willis: Was he kinda bald? Beck: No. Willis: He wasn’t? Willis: Tell us about your mother. What did she look like? Beck: Well, they say I look like mama. Willis: What about the Smith eye. Don’t they have a kinda droopy eye? Beck: Yes, that’s an inherited thing. Willis: What about, did she have any hobbies like quilting or handwork? Beck: Oh she was very … She was a good seamstress, dressmaker. She could crochet; she could do anything. She was a good cook; she was a good housekeeper. She could take a broom, and she could make a room look like it had been polished. Willis: Now what about there was a teacup or something that she her tea out of every morning. Tell me about that. Beck: Well, she had a certain cup that she had. Mama was a little bit selfish. She brought these… Now when her people divided their … everybody instead of saying now auntie you take these plates or so-in-so you take the folks’ knives… now they had sterling silver. Mama had a spoon, a knife, a fork, a tablespoon, and a teaspoon of… Now this way they took it. Everybody took a… Willis: A place setting? Beck: A place setting of the dishes and the silverware. Willis: Did the silver have any monogram or initial on it? Beck: It has an S; I think it was. Willis: Was it a fancy silver or real plain? Beck: Very plain. It wasn’t ornate. Willis: What about that cup, don’t you have the cup? Beck: You’ve got the cup. Willis: Hum. Beck: Grandmother’s [Elizabeth M. Smith’s] dishes were a good piece of china. It’s got a number on it. Mother had a plate, a cup, a saucer. She had a place setting of that, which was ridiculous. And that is a pretty cup. Willis: Now what happened to the plate and the other pieces? Beck: Now, they got broken. Just handling things like that. Now the cup, I took the cup and put in some Clorox water. Now you know it had a crack around it. Now I put that in that, and it cleared up. It got the grease and dirt. I got it all nice and clean. Then I took awhile it was warm, I rubbed in glue. Had it … so it would stick. I think the cup is a pretty cup now, but where do you have it? Willis: We are keeping it at the house. Beck: Your house? Willis: The china cabinet at my folks’ house. Mother’s house. Willis: Well, tell me when your father died, what happened to the farm? Where did you move to? Did you move to West? Beck: We moved for the first year. Uncle Jim took us up to Hillsboro. He wanted us up there, which was wrong. We didn’t stay there very long until mama had bought, the man had bought… owed mama some money. He lived on the farm, and he had a house in West. He traded his…Mama took the house for the money he owed her. I think it was $300-$400. That he bought implements and horses and everything else that we would have to sell and he bought it. That money… Mama got the house and she didn’t have to pay any money for it because he bought … her sale… at the sale… I don’t know how to word this, Brad. Willis: About when did you move to that house? What year did you move to West? Beck: My father died in 1901. We moved about 1902. Willis: How long did you live there? Beck: Well, I think mama lived there until about 1911, because I know I graduated in 1910. While I was in Huntsville that year, well mama… now let me see now, while I was in Huntsville… we lived there and then that year and mama sold the little house and bought a bigger house because that one had one big bedroom, a little room on the side, and then two bedrooms in the front Uncle Jim had built. Willis: Where was that first house? What street was it on? Beck: Stringtown Street. Willis: What about the house you bought, where was it? Beck: It was on Davis Street. Willis: Davis Street. Ok Willis: Tell me what you remember about your Uncle Wesley Smith, your mother’s brother any other Smith children that you remember. Beck: Well, mama had two brothers that were doctors, Hull Smith and Wesley Smith. Wesley came here and settled in Texas at Hearne, and he had married Nellie who lived in Hearne. He married her. She didn’t live. They had one child, and I think she must have died with childbirth. I don’t know what it was. Anyhow, they had this little girl Alline. She is my cousin. Willis: Did you visit them very often? Beck: Oh, he’d come now and then, and mama would go down there. We kept in touch. He’d come every now and then to see us. Willis: Did you take a trip to Upson County, Georgia one Christmas, you and your family? Tell me about that. Beck: When I was about 6, or 7, or 8 years old. Right in there. My father and mama, we all went back to Georgia for Christmas. And Mamie… We had just two children then. I was the oldest and Mamie, was next. So there was just two children then, and we all had a good time back there. Willis: How long did you stay? Beck: Oh, we stayed through the holidays, but Mama never did go back there. That lasted… let’s see, mama never did go back anymore until I was about sixty years old. She decided she wanted to go back to Georgia, so she borrowed the money, $50, I think it was $50, and went to Georgia and spent a couple of weeks. (Pause) Beck: One of the fellows, kids pulled my cap off and threw it up on the house. I thought I would die. I was so hurt over it, I didn’t know what to do. Finally somebody got the cap down, and I got my cap back. Willis: Hum. Was that in Texas? Beck: That was in Georgia. Willis: In Georgia. Beck: Now, Mama always thought that we were the wildest ___ kids there ever was in the world. One year, Jewell and I and Bobby [Robert S. Christian] and Hester Mae, I had a Ford, and we drove and went to Georgia to see the people. And I came back; Mama was sitting on the porch in that big swing that we had, and said Mama. I said you’ve always sold us short; you always told us that were the worst of all the children. We were the worst, but I said we can draw circles around those kids, and we’re just ten times as energetic and as good looking, as nice as they are. Willis: Where did you stay when you went to Georgia? Beck: Oh, we stayed with Pete’s [James Anthony (Pete) Vining] mama. Willis: Hattie? Beck: Hattie Vining. Willis: Did you ever see the old family homestead? Beck: No, I never did see that. Willis: Do you ever recall seeing any pictures of your grandparents, Anthony and Elizabeth Smith? Beck: No, no, never did and you know you’re just down right lucky boy to have a copy of my father’s letter. Now I can’t understand; I don’t know how Jewell got a hold of everything like that, but she did. Well, I never was interested in it, and I did not hold on to it. So she… if Mary had not looked and found and maybe known you and Bobby were in that, you never would have known about the letter. Willis: Tell me, who was the first one in your family to get married? Where did everyone get married in your family? Beck: Now Brad, mama was like your mama… I don’t know where Mamie… I imagine they went to the preacher’s house. She married DeWitt Smith, and she was the first one to get married. Willis: What preacher married them? Beck: The Methodist Church; the Methodist preacher married them. I don’t know whom, and then the next one to get married was Mamie. No, no; Jewell, Jewell. Willis: Who did she marry? Beck: She married Shirley Christian. Willis: How did they meet? Beck: Oh, just going around, going to school. Shirley was wild about Jewell. Jewell was a cute thing. She was just as cute as she could be. Willis: Where did they marry and when? Beck: I don’t know what year it was, but they were next to get married. Willis: Did they marry at your home or where? Or the church? Beck: They married at the preacher’s, I think. Willis: Where did you get married? Beck: I got married in the church. Willis: Which church was that? Beck: At West. Willis: The Methodist Church at West? Beck: Yeah. Willis: How did you meet grandfather Beck? Beck: I met him; a preacher brought him up to meet me. Willis: Was that Brother Cole? Beck: Yeah. William Cole. Willis: How long did you date before you got married? Beck: About six or seven months. Willis: Hum. Beck: Should have been longer. Willis: What do you remember about grandfather Beck? What did he do? Beck: He worked for the Interurban Texas Electric, and that’s all I can say too much about him because he sure didn’t try to get out and find … make... He loved to eat, and he loved to save his money. He was satisfied with what he had, and he didn’t want anymore. Willis: Who was his father and his mother? Beck: Well, I didn’t really know them. Willis: What were their names? Beck: They were named Beck. I don’t know anything about them. I just know one thing about his family, and he had a sister, she was a half sister. She was the loveliest thing I ever saw. I thought a lot of her. Willis: Who was she? Beck: Mrs. Grounds. Willis: Who was Otis Grounds’ wife? Beck: That was Otis Grounds’ mama. Willis: Oh, his mama. Beck: Yeah. Willis: I see. I see. Willis: Tell me about yourself. Where did you got to school, and did you become a teacher? Is that right? Beck: Well Brad, now let me start to tell it and then are you taking it down as I tell you? Willis: Hum. Beck: Well, I want to say one thing. I am really pleased with my voice. It sounds good as it comes back. I heard somebody else tell me I certainly did have a good voice over the telephone. Now I don’t know. My father was teacher before me, and as I grew up I always said I loved books and I loved to play like I’m playing the organ and I taught school when I was a child. Because I always said all of my life, I’m going to be a school teacher. I graduated in a class at West in 1910, with twenty-one in the class, the graduation class. And we were people that didn’t have very much money. We had enough to live. We had plenty of food. We never did go hungry, but we didn’t have any surplus money. Mama made me a beautiful, white, all over embroidered (foot lace and stuff) dress. When I got through school, graduated, I wanted to go to Huntsville. I knew I was going to be a teacher. I went to Huntsville, Sam Houston Normal. It was called Sam Houston Normal Institute, and I stayed one year there. I got a certificate, a first grade certificate where I could teach. I taught one year, taught two years, then I went back and . Willis: Where did you teach? Beck: At West. At a place out in the country. I taught there and then went back and they had raised the standard of the school and instead of going to graduate, I was only a sophomore. Well, I … after I married, I saw that Mr. Beck wasn’t going to provide a bigger job for himself. He didn’t care. He was satisfied as he was. So I decided I’d go back to teaching; I wasn’t going to do all the housework and everything like that and never… we didn’t have the money because he only made $200 a month. So I went back and got… was teaching school. I had taught eight years, and I taught two years as principal out at Elm Mott, and then I married. I stayed out of school which was the worst thing I ever did. Instead of going on and teaching, I lost ten years, and then went back to the schoolroom. I then had to find study, and I started to Baylor as a sophomore and did a lot of work by extension that means you didn’t pay so much for a major. I went to school, in order to get myself ready for teaching and getting ready for the state so I could hold a good job. I went to school at night, in the afternoons, and on Saturdays and summer till I got my degree which was in 1938. I think it was ’38, I got my degree. I taught thirty-one years at North Waco [Elementary] School. Willis: When did you retire? Beck: I retired in 1962, when I was seventy years old. Willis: Tell me how many children did you have? Beck: One, that was your mama. Willis: When was she born? What is her name? Beck: She was born February 2, 1924. Willis: Was she born here in Waco or where? Beck: Yeah, born here in Waco. Willis: What church did you go to? Beck: Herring Avenue (Methodist Church). Willis: Did grandfather Beck have an office there? Was he on the board of stewards or anything? Beck: Oh yes, he was steward. Willis: What about yourself, were you active? Beck: Well yes, I taught classes. Willis: What was the name of the class you taught such a long time? Beck: The Dorcas Class. I was a member and teacher of the Dorcas class, a class of young ladies, entering twenty to thirty years old. And that class is still in existence, going fine. Willis: When did you move to Waco? Beck: 1919. (End of tape) Additional Comments: Elizabeth "Bessie" Lethella Howell was born on October 25, 1891 in Hill County, TX, the daughter of Joshua Calhoun Howell and Adalade "Addie" Smith Howell of Upson County, GA and Hill County, TX. She was baptized on April 30, 1902 by the Rev. Edward R. Barcus at the Methodist Church in West, McLennan County, TX. She attended elementary school in Hillsboro and West, TX. She graduated from West High School in 1910, attended Sam Houston Normal (now Sam Houston State University) for her teaching certificate, and later graduated from Baylor University in 1938. She taught at Rogers Hill, Brownfield, West, Elm Mott, and North Waco Elementary School. Beginning in 1931, she taught at North Waco School for 31 years. On December 23, 1919, she married Roy Elmer Beck in West, TX. They were later members of the Herring Avenue Methodist Church in Waco, where he served as a steward and she taught the Dorcas Sunday School Class for many years. She died December 8, 1986 in Waco and was buried at Oakwood Cemetery in Waco. This is an obituary for Elizabeth Lethella Howell Beck, the daughter of Joshua Calhoun Howell and Adalade Smith Howell of Upson County, GA. This obituary is located in the Waco Tribune-Herald on Dec. 10, 1986. Mrs. Roy E. Beck Mrs. Roy E. (Bessie H.) Beck, 95, of Waco, a longtime teacher, died Monday [Dec. 8, 1986] at a local nursing home. Graveside services will be at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday at Oakwood Cemetery, the Rev. John Lightfoot officiating. Mrs. Beck was born Oct. 24 [25], 1891, in Hill County. She attended schools in Hillsboro and West. She graduated from West High School, Sam Houston State University and Baylor University. She taught at North Waco Elementary School for 31 years. She was married to Roy Elmer Beck Dec. 23, 1917 [1919]; he died in [Aug. 24,]1944. She was a member of Herring Avenue United Methodist Church, where she taught the Dorcas Sunday school class. Survivors include a daughter Mrs. J. Todd (Hester) Willis, Jr. of Waco; and two grandchildren, Dr. T. Brad Willis of Waco and David P. Willis of Houston. The family will be at 4804 Hillcrest Drive. The family has designated donors' favorite charity for memorials. Wilkirson-Hatch Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. 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