Hunt Co., TX - Mrs. Steel Notes Birthday ***************************************************** This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb by: Sarah Swindell USGenWeb Archives. Copyright. All rights reserved http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm ***************************************************** Mrs. Steel Notes Birthday by Mrs. Lois Lacy Lewis Mrs. Mattie Steel was eighty-four years old Monday, September 17, 1962, and enjoyed her celebration of the event on Sunday in the Lem Warren home with the three young Warren boys and their wives for the day. Mrs. Steel has spent all of her life, except four years, in this community. She says she does not feel at home any place else. She was born the oldest of the children of I. S. Warren and Sarah Elizabeth Warren, at Hickory Creek on the old Silas Yarbrough place in 1878. Lem is the youngest of her brothers and sisters—only four survive—and it is with him and his family that she makes her home now. Their brother, John, will be eighty in October. Mrs. Steel, Aunt Mattie or "Matt," as she is affectionately called, doesn’t see too well, but her health, keen mind, perfect hearing, and lovely voice, firm in low pitched tones, compensate, in part, for the lack of good vision. She is a good conversationalist. Her memory is better than many who have not reached her years. Mattie talked of her family—Mrs. Grace Claunch Byers of Fort Worth, her son, James Claunch, in Denison, and two deceased sons Bob Claunch and John Claunch. She was married at her parents’ home in Hickory Creek in 1898 to Burl Claunch, the father of her children. Mr. Claunch died and in later life, she was married to Jim McMillian of the Prosperity community. After his passing away, she was married to Henry Steel in the year 1938. Back in the years when she and Burl Claunch were rearing their children, they lived in the Hogeye community. The roads were muddy, life was hard on the farm, but the family maintained an interest in community affairs. Mrs. Steel remembers that Harrison Baker was a frequent visitor to their home when he was beginning his pastorate at the White Rock and Lane Methodist churches and preached at Hogeye also. She also remembers the first cars that came to Celeste. Dr. G. B. Norris had a small red roadster—probably the first, and he made calls over the country roads more promptly than with his horse and buggy or on horseback. Mrs. Steel’s sense of humor is great. She spices her conversation with clever remarks and remembrances. In referring to her family, she mentioned that the late Bob Claunch was Celeste’s iceman, making house to house deliveries for the late Bill Taylor. Her late husband, Henry Steel, was a barber, having worked for John Cawthon the last eleven years of his life. There are seven grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren, and one great-great- grandchild. Mrs. Steel is a member of the Baptist Church here and has been for many years. Many more happy birthday, Matt. (September 21, 1962, The Celeste Courier)