Throckmorton County, Texas - History - Interview of, Hardy Mae LeBleu Burton
============================================================================
Interview given on 5/26/81
by Mrs. Howard Burton
Baptist Manor
900 N.E. 81st street
Portland, OR  79213

Prepared and Submitted by: Jo Ann Curbo (jcurbo@llano.net)

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My name is Hardy Mae LeBleu Burton.  I was born August 20, 1891 in
Throckmorton Co., Texas.

My Parent had eleven children, but three died shortly after birth.
The oldest was William Alphonse, then came Maude, Fred, Octivia, Ivory,
Mae, Robert, and Edward.  Maude was Blinded when she was three days old
due to a drunken Dr. putting the wrong medication in her eyes. Ivory was
bitten by a rattlesnake and died when he was nine years old.  I was
seven at the time and was with him when it happened.  I can still see the
snake. My Dad raised wheat, corn cotton & sorghum cane.  He had a mill
to grind the juice out of the cane to make molasses.  We kids would ride
the horse.  We would go around & around.  Dad boiled the juice and we kids
would eat the foam.  We thought it was real good. In cotton picking time
Bob & I were too small to pick up cotton so we would have to go to the
house for things the pickers wanted.  One time our Dad wanted a plug of
tabacco.  We wondered what it tasted like so we peeled a dried leaf off
and chewed it  We sure were two sick kids.

I remember when I was three years old and Bob was one.  Our mothe and
Dad went to Albany to do their winter shopping and left our Grandmother to
take care of us.  They were gone for four days and when they got home we
kids were asleep and they woke us up.  My Mother was so glad to see her
baby but Bob was too sleepy and wouldn't have anything to do with her.
She had some red shoes for him but he wouldn't let her put the shoes on
his feet.  I thought the red shoes were the prettiest things I had ever
seen and wished they had been for me.

When the folks stayed overnight they stayed in a big wagonyard and slept
in their wagon.  They cooked over a campfire.  If a lot of people were
staying in the yard several families would share a fire. There were a
lot of Pecan trees along the Brazos River.  In the Fall Dad & the boys would
take the wagon and gather pecans. They would be gone several days and
come back with a wagon load.

One day as my brother Fred and I were going to school we saw a Mad dog
on the road.  Even though we were closer to the school we ran home and
didn't go to school that day.

One of my baby cousins died and we went to the funeral.  We heard
screaming which we thought was my Aunt, but our Dads knew better.  They
put all the kids in the wagon and took out their pistols.  It was a
panther screaming.  It came close but went on by.

We had four dogs.  Hip-Hop, Nip-cat, Rip & Tanner.  Our team of
horses were Longfellow & Snip.  The Mules were Kate & Jenny.

One of my Uncles and Grandmother came out to Oregon and they would write
how wonderful it was, the grass and the trees were green the year
around.  My Mother & Dad decided to sell and move out there.  Uncle John
Lowe and his boys came with us.  He was not our real uncle but in those
days children called adults aunt & uncle.

My folks sold their farm and everything but the furniture and
clothing.  They loaded up everything that was going and we kids were in
the back of the wagon looking back at our home thinking we would never
see it again.  The wagon ran over our old Tanner and broke his back.  I
remember him looking at us as we pulled out.  I can see the look in his
eyes yet.  He knew we were leaving him alone.  One of our neighbors said
he would take care of him when we were gone.

We went to Albany and stayed all night with my Dad's sister, Aunt Kate.
The next morning we took the train heading for Oregon.  Everyone had
something to carry.  Some had blankets, some food.  I carried the coffee
pot.

In those days the cars had wood & coal stoves for heat and the
passengers made coffee on them.  We had a big basket of fried chicken, after a
couple of days what was left spoiled and had to be thrown out.  From
then on we ate sandwitches (sic) we bought at the stops.  We little kids
would sleep on the floor between the seats.

When we saw the white sand in New Mexico, Alphonse got off the train to
get some.  The train started up and he had to run to get on.  He held on
to the sand.  When the train had to be taken across the Bay in
California, we had to stay all night in the depot. Everyone bedded down
on the floor to sleep.  During the night I saw a man crawling across the
floor toward us.  My Dad, Alphonse and Uncle John Lowe also saw him and
they each had a revolver drawn and pointed at him.  When he was close enough 
to see the guns he jumped up and ran off.

We had to take Taxi's (sic) to go to another depot.  We got separated
and Dad had some time getting us all together again.  Finally we all got on
the right train and in the right car.  Now we were on our way to Oregon.
We got to Eugene, Oregon late October 1900.  We took two livery hacks to
get us all.  We stayed there a week, then we went to Uncle Bake's and
stayed a few days.

Dad bought the first place he looked at.  It had a log cabin.  One
room down and one room up with a leanto for a kitchen and dining room. 
A little crowded for nine people.  Uncle John Lowe and his three sons only
stayed a week with us then left for a place of their own. We had a lot
of timber on our place and Dad planned to build a new house after he bought
horses, cattle, plows etc.  He also bought a sawmill.

Shortly after we bought the place Octivia, Bob & I got sick at once.  
We had Pneomina (sic).  Dad & Alphonse had chills & Fever.  Our mother,
Fred & Edward were the only ones that stayed well.  Fred would have to ride
horseback ten miles to get the Dr., some days he would have to go two times.
Everyone got well in a month's time, that is all but me.  I just laid there
for three months, about half the time I didn't know anything.  
When I could get up and walk I had an absecc (sic) on my side.  I had to go 
to the Dr. to get it lanced, so I stayed with my Aunt Prudie and Uncle Bake
Hampton in town.  I had to see the Dr. daily.  
My Uncle Bake bought me a pair of red shoes with soft soles and some material
to make a dress.  The Dr. gave me a fan, a ball, a top, and a pretty umbrella
with ruffles around the edge.  He said he gave me the things because I was good
and didn't cry much.

After we all got back to normal Dad started to build the house.  It had a large
living room, a large kitchen and dining room together, two bedrooms down and 
two bedrooms upstairs.  The boys all had one room and we girls had the two 
bedrooms upstairs.  The boys all had one room and we girls had the other.  
Mother & Dad had one downstairs room and Grandma Teague had the other.

Dad had a lot of horses.  Bob & I rode them all.  Sometimes we didn't stay on,
but we would get up and get on again.  We rode anything that came on the place,
even the bulls.

By this time Alphonse, Fred & Octavia were married.  Alphonse lived at
Indian Creek, Fred at Goldson and Octavia at Leaburg.  Maude died about
five or six years after we moved to Oregon.  I never knew her very well
because she lived mostly at the school for the Blind in Oregon and Texas
too.

Now just Bob, Ed and I were left at home. I never had to work in the field, 
but one day Dad came into the house and asked me if I would drive the team for
him.  It looked like rain and he was afraid the hay would get wet & spoil it.  
I drove the team and Dad & Bob pitched hay but we got in a yellow jacket's nest
and the horses ran away.  I couldn't stop them so Bob helped me pull on the
reins.  Just as we got the hay in the barn it started pouring down.  We were 
glad the rain held off till the last load was in.

The first warm days in May Bob & I took our guns and lunch and went to the 
rattlesnakes dens and shot the snakes as they came out in the warm sun.  
We did that until we got tired then we fished awhile.  We would build a fire
on the rocks by the water and cook our fish.  After that we would climb up the
cliff and roll big bolders over and watch them fall to the bottom.  Then we 
would catch the horses and ride awhile, by that time it was time to go home.
We did that on Sundays.

One time in Texas a big snake was under our dining room floor.
Anytime we walked across the floor it would rattle, so one day Dad put the 
little kids on the table and got his gun.  He tore a board from the floor and
shot the snake.  Dad said it was the biggest snake he had ever seen.  It had
14 buttons.  I don't remember how long it was.

I forgot to tell that Dad raised big fields of watermelon & Muskmelons in Texas.
Alphonse would load up the wagon and go to town and sell them. In Oregon in the
Fall, Mother, Bob, Ed & I went camping at the Hopyard.  Dad would take us and 
put up the tent and get wood. Then he would go back home and in two weeks he 
would come get us.  I made enough money to by my clothes and books, also a trunk.

When I was thirteen I went to Lorane and stayed with an old lady and went to 
school.  Dad didn't like for me to be there so he came and took me back home.
When I was fourteen I went to Eugene to take care of a sick lady.  She had a 
son who was 35 years old and he wanted to marry. He asked my Dad who said, 
"No," and told him never to come around again. We later heard that he had 
married a sixteen year old girl.

Our house was only about 200 yards from the school house.  Our house caught 
fire two or three times a month and mother would run to the door and call Fire.
Everyone at school, including the teacher would empty their lunch pails and 
scoop a pail of water as they passed the spring. I would run ahead of everyone
and climb the ladder.  The others would form a chain and pass the pails up to 
me.  After the folks sold the place the house burned down.  The folks bought a 
place in Junction City after they sold the first place on Spencer Creek.  
It was an eight room house.

I cooked in a logging camp, then in a rooming house and also in a hotel at 
Blue River.  I also taught school for two weeks until they could get a teacher.  

When I came back from Missouri, I married Howard Burton. In our first few years
of married life we lived in Marcola, Sumpter, and Newport, Oregon; Cheyenne, 
Wyoming; Medford, Oregon; Dunsmuir, Calif.; Vancouver, Washington; and Portland,
Oregon.

Our first child was a beautiful baby with long black hair.  We named her Inez.
She died shortly after birth. Our next child was a baby boy, born three years 
after the first baby died.  He was named Edward Clifton and was a lovely baby.
He used to do lots of things that kept me jumping.  Like when he was 18 months
old he climbed up a ladder and got on top of the house.  We put a high wire
fence around the backyard, but he would climb over and I would have to hunt 
all over for him.

He started Sunday School when he was two.  We lived only two blocks from 
the Church.  He loved to go see my mother, he called her Mamaw, she
always had a cookie for him.  When our son was five years old we had a
beautiful baby girl.  She had blonde curly hair and blue eyes.  Her dad
thought she was the prettiest baby he had ever seen. She was my big,
beautiful doll.  I would make her so many pretty dresses.  We named her
Janice Mae.

My mother died when I was pregnant with Janice and Howard's mother died
two years later. We moved to Huber, Oregon when Janice was a baby and
lived there about 8 years.  We had a nice home built for us but lost it
during the Depression.

We moved back to Portland and Edward went to Jefferson High School and 
Janice to Ockley Green Grade School both in walking distance.
When Edward was a baby he was sick a lot and cried at nights.  I would
walk the floor two nights and Howard one night.  He had to work days and
he had to have enough sleep so he knew what he was doing.

We couldn't find any food that the baby could keep down so one day
someone left a sample of Dene baby food.  We had tried everything we
could find so I made a batch of that and he could keep that down.  Then
we could all get some sleep.  He was a sweet baby.  When he was two
years old my Dad taught him his letters and to count.  He was his Grandmother
Burton's only grandchild.  She was alway buying him things.

Howard's sister's name was Mary Lou.  His brother's name was Kenneth.
After both of our children were married we bought a small house in
Southeast Portland and lived there until Howard died July 3, 1973.
Howard & I was married a little over 57 years.  He died on my Dad's
birthday.

When Edward was eight years old his class in school had to memorize "The
Village Blacksmith" and one boy couldn't seem to learn it and Edward
said my little sister knows it.  His teacher asked him to bring her to
school. So I took her around 10 the next morning.  She got up to say it for
the class.  Then when she came to where he went to Church she said, "And he
sat up on his boys,"  and of course the whole class laughed. Edward was
very proud of his little sister.  He called her Siser and she called him
Sonney.

After we moved to Portland we lived eight blocks from the Christian
Church.  Howard & I both belonged to it and when we went up to put our
memberships in, I was suprised when both of our children followed and
joined the Church.  We was real happy about us.

I met Howard in 1914.  We would quarrel on every date, but we fell
in love.  I thought I was in love several times before and I wanted to
be sure. So, that is how I went to Missouri and stayed with my aunt one and
one-half years.  By the time I  come home I was really sure that I loved
Howard.  On the trip back we had a big snow storm in Billings, Montana.
The train was stuck all day till the tracks were cleared.  I was the only
woman on the train.  The men would get out an buy fruit and candy for
me.  I had so much I had to leave most of it on the train.

I didn't tell anyone I was coming home.  I stayed the first evening with
a friend in town. (Eugene)  My brother Ed saw me and told my mother he
saw a girl that looked like me.  When I called home the next day to get
Dad to come and get me Mother said she thought I was home because Ed had
told her.

I  got home in January. Howard & I were married in April (16th).  My
mother made my wedding dress.  It was white satin with crepe sleeves and
yoke.  We were married in Springfield, Oregon at my sister house.  My
mother & dad, Howard's mother, sister & brother and five friends were
there.  Our wedding was the only one of their children's that my parents
saw.  I was glad they could be at mine.  It pleased them so much.  We
lived in Marcola for three months after our marriage.

I lived with Janice & Howard for 4 and one-half years after Howard died.
When Harold retired from the railroad I went to live in the Oregon
Baptist Retirement Home on Flanders St.  I like it very much.  It was a
very homey place, but when the manager was replaced the food got very
bad, and I moved to the Baptist Manor 900 N. E. 81 st Street where I
live now.

I made a good friend at the first place.  His name is Ray.  He is almost 
blind, we used to go for walks.  He has a good sense of direction
and kept me from getting lost and I could see for the both of us.  Since
I have moved he has come to see me several times and we talk on the phone
often.

Another good friend is Gertrude Baty, she lived at the first home when I
did and moved here just a couple of weeks before I did.  She is a lovely
person.  Through her I got acquainted with Alice Lee.  She lives here
too.  We sometime go out and have Pizza.

My Mother Rachel Eliza Teaque was born in Iowa.  My Father Jo LeBleu was
born in Louisana. My mother's family moved to Missouri when she was
three.  Her father was killed in the first battle of the Civil War in
Springfield, Missouri.  The carpetbaggers were going through the country
side taking anything they wanted and burning many homes.  When they came
to grandmother's home, they saw grandfather's Mason passbook.  The leader
told the men they could take anything they wanted but not to burn a brother
Mason's home.  They took what they wanted but didn't burn the house.  
Grandmother had just finished a pair of red stockings for my mother and one 
of the men took them.  My mother followed him around the corner of the house
as he went away with her stockings.  She never forgot that.

Jefferson Davis was my grandmother Teague's cousin.  She lived with us
after we moved to Oregon.  She lived to be 79 years old.  John Paul Jones
& Robert E. Lee were also cousins of Grandmother's.

Grandfather Teague had thousands of acres of land in Missouri when he
left to go in the army.  He left his manager in charge of everything and
he cheated my grandmother out of all she had.  She was left only her home
and the 40 acres put in each child's name.  Grandmother sold the home
when she moved to Oregon.  My mother had four brothers and one sister.
They were: Billy, Labe, Van & John and sister Prudie Jane.

My Dad's father also had a big farm and lots of grazing land.  He was 
cattle King in Missouri.  He also had a manager who stole from my
grandmother.  Grandfather fought in the war and come home safely.  A few
months after he was home he was killed while breaking a wild horse. My
dad was the oldest in the family.  He was 16 when his dad died. He took
over and tried to take his father's place.  Dad had three brothers and
two sisters.  Brother's names was Martin, Ardand, and Louie.  Sisters
were Kate & Minerva.  His sister Kate's hair touched the floor.  My Dad
was an excellent swimmer and so was grandmother.  The Brazos River
flooded and grandmother saved all her children by swimming them to safety.

Dad & his brothers would go alway to the panhandle for the round-up.  
They rode and broke wild horses.  They would bull dog and run races, do 
anything in the Rodeo.  All of Dad's kids were good riders.

When Dad was 80 years old he went back to Texas for a Rodeo.  He took
part in everything but the bull-dogging.  They wouldn't let him do that.
He even won a Clog & Shuffle dance.  He was also a wonderful shot with a
gun.  He furnished wild meat for the army for sometime.

When Mother & Dad were first married they worked in a Hotel.  Dad cooked
the meat.  He sometimes barbecued a whole beef or hog.  Mother was a
pastry cook.  Another woman cooked the vegetables.

Our son Edward & wife Lorene had one child, a daughter named Dorothy Mae.
She sure was a sweet baby.  She grew up and married a man named Bill Bowle.
They have two precious little boys. Janice & Harold had one child named Mary 
Lee.  She married Richard Small and they have a sweet little boy named Jason 
Allen.  I have alway felt very close to Jason.  I was with him more than the
other two great grandsons.

Mary Lee & Richard lives in California.  Bill & Dorothy lives in
Alaska.  Mary Lee was such a darling baby.  When she would cry, I would
go out of the room and she would stop crying and call Nanny.  Then I
would have to stand there and watch her cry.  I would walk the floor
with her.  I would think she was asleep and lay her down.

My brother Alphonse was married twice.  His first wife was Lizzie.
She died 6 years after they were married.  He then married a woman named
Mercy and they had a son named William Gail.  He was married twice.  His
first wife's name was Mary.  They had one son.  He then married Linda
and they had one son, Robert Perry.
Maude was never married.  She was 25 when she died.  She had the most
beautiful voice.  She could reach the highest note and an octave above.

Fred married Bessie Morgan.  She treated me as if I was her own sister.  
She was good to our Mother & Dad. Edward married a girl named Agnes when 
I was in my teens.  Her older sister was my friend and her name was Mae.
I had a cousin Mae and my name is Mae.  We all went around together.

Bob married a woman named Margaret.  They had three girls named Rachel,
Tinnie & Stella, and a little boy named Sherman who was two years old
when he died. 

Fred and Bessie had 6 sons & three girls.  Sons were: Robert, Walter, 
Joseph, Tom, Harold, and Roy.  Girls named Sylvia, Lucille & Bessie Mae.

Bob's daughter Rachel married Jessie Surface.  They have 2 daughters: 
Linda & Steffeny.  

Stella has three girls: Bobbie Jo, Cara & Kathy.  

Tinnie adopted a little boy then had one of their own, Dormen Cannon. when
Howard died Margaret and Rachel was so good to me.  They took me out to their
home for a week and tryed (sic) to make it easier for me.  
I will always be grateful to them.
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