THE INSTITUTE OF TEXAN CULTURES
ORAL HISTORY PROGRAM
INTERVIEW WITH: Mr. Kenney
DATE:
PLACE: Somerset, Texas
INTERVIEWERS: Sarah and Hardy Cannon
SC: Mr. Kenney, when were you born?
K: 1904.
SC: Here in Somerset?
K: No, mam, Bexar .
SC: That's the fi r st question I have. Why is it called
Bexar? in the place of Bexar (Bear)(Behar)?
K: They just did it by the sound, in the county, see? So
my g r andfather always told me.
SC: To s eparate it?
K: Yes . Spelled just the same. They called it Bexar just
to designate the town instead of the county. They'd know
what you' r e talking about. That's my understanding.
SC: A long time ago the town of Somerset, of old Somer set,
was on the other side of this Somerset we're in now. Do you
know why they moved it? Why did it come here?
K: The railroad.
SC: Oh, all right. The railroad is what caused it. All
r ight, do you know of a running stream of water or a spring
or anything like that in the old Somerset?
K: Not that I know of.
KENNEY 2
SC: Why do you suppose the people settled there a long time
ago?
K: I wouldn't know.
SC: You never have heard?
K: You see we had a lot of communities here: Senior, which
we call Old Rock now, the old Somerset. And several others
scattered around here.
SC: Small communities.
K: Yes.
SC: How long would it take to go from one to the other with
a horse do you suppose?
K: Oh, I would say an average of seven (six) miles apart.
SC: And it would take a while to go from one on to •••
K: Yes. With a horse and buggy.
SC: About how long, do you know?
K: Well, probably 45 minutes or an hour, sandy roads about
this deep.
SC : It was sand between here and Senior and •••
K: You're on the edge of the Black Jack.
HC: Why was it called Black Jack?
K: vvell, it was Black Jack tree.
HC: Named after the tree, itself.
SC: Was your father a farmer or was he always a merchant
I know he owned the store.
K: He was more or less in the general mercantile business
from about 1902 or '03 that he had his own place; owned the
store . Previous t o that, he worked fo r a man that used to
KENNEY 3
K: have a store in Bexar (not Bear). And also, the old
Nixon store, which is over close to old Somerset. There's
still a store there.
HC: Still a store there?
SC: Now, there were really two communities then. There was
Old Rock Baptist Church which was old Somerset.
K: That's right.
SC: And then there was the Bexar community that had a
store.
K: Jim Dixon.
SC: Jim Dixon •. D-I-X-0-N. And what was the one in Old
Rock community? That one, what was that store's name, do
you know?
K: I don't remember. I don't ever remember a store being
there in my time.
SC: When were you born?
K: 1904.
SC: 1904. Your father was already in business then.
K: Oh, yes.
SC: Your earliest memories of the store; your father owned
the store and you just grew up in it.
K: Yes. That was in Bexar.
SC: When did he move it to •••
K: About 1912.
SC: About 1912. Now the railroad came in between
K: That's right. It was just in here I remember the first
train that ever come out here. Right down below Somerset,
KENNEY 4
K: below where the school is, you know, where the right of
way, old right of way •••
SC: Yes.
K: Well, after you're going like to the refinery, you know
where the old refinery was •.. ?
SC:
K:
farm.
SC:
K:
SC:
K:
SC:
Yes.
Well, just on the left, it went in to my grandfather's
That's my mother's people.
Now, what was their name?
Pyron.
Pyron, O.K.
Pyron.
All right.
K: That was as far as the track went at that time. I
never will forget that. Everybody in this whole section of
the country was here to see that damn train come in.
SC: What did it .•. ?
K: It just pulled up there. Of course, it scared
everybody and all the horses and everything else. But
nevertheless, it was the first one and they were •••
HC: Was it fired with coal? Or with wood?
K: It was fired with coal.
HC: Coal.
K: This whole mine up here was worked for years.
SC: Now that's a coal mine.
HC: I 1 ve heard there were two coal mines here; one older
than the other. Is that .•• ?
KENNEY 5
K: The oldest one belonged to my grandfather who just
after the Civil War, not too long, when he opened that mine
up there.
SC: Well, was that Pyron or Kenney?
K: No, that's Kenney.
SC: Kenney. Now, the Pyron store that was in Somerset ten
years ago, that was your uncle?
K: The boy that owned it then was a cousin.
SC: A cousin.
K: George Pyron.
SC: But then part of the time, your grandfather, your
mother's father, owned a store and your father owned a store
across the street from one another?
K: Oh course my father was here a long time before •••
SC: The Pyrons.
K: You see he had the store at Bexar.
SC: Yes.
K: And the railroad came through, he came down here and
bought some lots •.• we'll say 1912 ••• that's pretty close.
And he operated both of them for a period of- we'll say
three years. And I know I was about eight years old •••
that makes it 1904 •.•
HC: 1912
K: '12, I was haulin' freight before the railroad was
finished here. We picked it up at Kirk, that's on the old
line gin wagon and I'd come by Bexar and leave off all he
wanted and then I'd come to Somerset and leave the rest of it.
KENNEY
K: I was 7 or 8 years old - something like that.
SC: You had it in a wagon? Is that ••• ?
K: Oh, yes.
SC: And somebody helped you load it.
K: Oh, yes.
SC: You just drove that
K: Oh, yes. The Ingin - he'd help me load it.
6
SC: Can you imagine some of the young boys doing anything
like that now?
K: That's right. You know now people wouldn't think about
a 7, 8 year old kid, startin' him out with a wagon and team
6 miles over there and back.
SC: Right. It took nearly all day.
K: 2 miles down here, you know.
SC: Well, now, did you have a quirt - was it mules or
horses?
K: Mule and a horse.
SC: A mule and a horse together . And did you have a quirt
?
K: I had a buggy whip.
SC: (laughter)
HC: Wasn't that rather strange, a mule and a horse team?
K: You needed that for the mule to keep up with the
horse.
S: Did you take your lunch with you?
K: No, we never took a lunch . Have a can of sard ines or
can of potted meat or something like that. We never heard
KENNEY
K: of sandwiches then, you know.
SC: You just ate whatever you had.
K: Whatever was available.
7
SC: Did you take water with you or did you just stop along
the way if you got thirsty?
K: Oh, no. You'd stop at a tank, one of these old
groundtanks and get you a drink of water.
SC: And let the animals drink •••
Push the moss back?
K: You pushed the moss back; the top of it back a little
bit. (laughter)
SC: And drink.
K: Oh, yes.
SC: Did you wear cowboy boots? I mean did you dress like
we think of • ••
K: No. Most of the time in those days, I didn't have even
a pair of shoes; goin' barefoot.
SC: You just went barefoot. The bottom of your feet got
tough enough that
K: Oh, yeah. I could walk through these grass burrs and
scrape 'em off on a horse blanket.
SC: Well, now, when you got back home, did you curry the
horse to get the cockle burrs out of it or •••
K: This particular team never had much time to get out and
get any cockle burrs. They were in the pen and fed because
they were used every day.
SC: Oh. Oh. All right.
KENNEY 8
K: They were not grazed to speak of at all. They stayed
in the pen.
HC: Do you remember how large Bexar was? Like 10 or 12
families?
K: Oh, yes. That, or more. You see there were 3 churches
there, Baptist, Catholic and the Methodist.
Do you know where my grandfather's old rock house is up
there?
SC: I'm not sure which one was your ••• Now that was your
g randfather Pyron? No, that was the Kenney
SC: Now the Kenney is where the coal mine was.
K: Yes. The back side of the section of land.
HC: How did they discover coal? Do you have any idea •••
?
K: Any what?
HC: How did they discover coal? Were they digging water
wells? digging for water ?
K: It's only 40 feet.
HC: The coal is only 40 feet. Well, is there a l o t of it?
K: Well, there wa s .••
HC: I mean •••
K: There's about 300 acres that were completely mined
out.
HC: In other words -
K: I've still got about 100 acres there that has ••• well,
you're talkin' about strippin' 3 foot - about where to stop,
from 3 to 8 foot. -
KENNEY 9
SC: But it's not worth mining, is that ••• ?
K: . . . from No. No. I still have about 100 acres.
SC: It's not worth mining. Is that what .•• ?
K: No. You know a few years back when everybody got so hot
on coal, they tried awful hard to lease it.
HC: Now, this is the same coal that was in Peeler's place
down San Miguel, isn't it?
K: I don't know. It's a soft coal.
HC: I mean to say runs all through here.
SC: Now, is there oil in the same property? Area?
K: Not necessarily. This road right down here that goes
to Lytle -
SC: The Lytle highway.
K: Most everything on that side of that road you've got a
fault line. This house sits right about in the center of
that fault line. And on that side of your fault, you don't
get any oil to speak of.
HC: The north side of the fault?
K: Yeah. To a certain point. Now, you get o ve r around
Elm Creek, Von Ormy, and over in there, they're gettin' some
little oil over the re. But it's not as good oil as we g o t
here.
HC: At one time Somerset was the largest shallow well in
the country, wasn't it?
K: Largest shallow oil field in the world.
HC: In the world? Now, Kurtz, wasn't Carl Kurtz diggin'
for water?
KENNEY 10
K: That's right. The way I understand it, he and my
grandfather, of course, - ther e was just a road separatin'
them.
HC: That's grandfather Pyron.
K: Grandfather put in with him to dig a thousand foot
well.
SC: Water well.
K: See if they could get some water. That would be good
for irrigating, see?
HC: Yeah.
K: And they got that oil and they was the maddest ole men.
I r emember that day they were really put out. They didn't
want no damned oil, they wanted a water well. (laughter)
HC: That's what happened when Walter Drake dug up in
Pennsylvania. He was diggin' a water well and got oil.
K: They'd shut that end and get a little gas pressure ,
good gas pressure.
SC: Yes.
K: But they'd shut it down over night, say 24 hours and
then get these suckers (men from San Antonio) out here next
day to open that thing up and they'd blow oil up there about
30, 40 feet. And man, they sold that stuff 'til the world
looked level.
SC: Well, how did they, did they cap it like they do now
and put it in a big container or did they ••• how did they
• • • ?
K: They was just selling there. They had a big earthern
KENNEY
K: tank and caught the oil that blowed ou t and pump it
into a tank.
11
HC: Now, in dr illing that well, did they d r ill by rotary
rig or a drop auger or do you know?
K: That I could not answer for sure. But I would r ather
think it was an old rotary rig.
SC: How old were you when that happened?
K; Well, that was 1916 or somethin' like that.
SC: .•• was when that was?
K: Uh huh.
SC: But there weren't many cars at that time?
K: Oh, god, no.
SC: And what did they .•. they wanted it to make grease for
the wagons and things? Would they want •• ?
K: Well, yes. That was about all the use for it because,
you know, I can count there was four automobiles and here in
our territory ••• we're talking about 25, 20 mile circles
here.
HC: Were they Model T Fords?
K: Oh, no. They were all ••• I think one of 'em was a
Rambler, if I remember right. Another one was a Overland.
and Jonas up here had a ••• what was it, German-made •••
had wheels 'bout ••• very near 4 foot high ••• tires 'bout
that wide.
HC: Little narrow tires •.• they wouldn't do much in sand,
would it?
K: No. It sure didn't.
KENNEY 12
SC: Well, now, did the doctors ••• what was the doctor ••.
where was his office?
K: In Bexar.
SC: In old Bexar?
K: Yeah.
Bexar.
SC: Did he have a car? Was he one of the first one to get
a car?
K: No. He was still driving a buggy when several people
here had cars. I know Father got his first car in about
1914, if I remember right. And it was a Model T.
SC: When did you get your fi rst one?
K: Oh, god, I can't remember now. I learned to drive on a
two cylinder Maxwell.
SC : I know what that is.
K: Just like a buggy, you know, with a motor in it. And
that's what I learned to drive on. I was just a kid. This
old uncle of mine was a German married my father's
sister ••• and he was a mechanic ••• you know, it was just
natural with those Germans, being mechanics, you know. And
he had that thing running just like your watch. Kept it for
years and years.
SC: Took good care of it?
K: Yeah. First car that I remember ever seein' in th is
country was a ••• what we called drummers.
SC: Yes?
K: And Ed Mergel, was the old drummer's name, great big ,
fat feller. I never will forget him.
KENNEY 13
SC: What did he sell?
K: Ah. I believe he he worked for Hughes Vinegar
Company out of Houston. I think that's right. And he'd
make it ••• about 3 times a year; by here, you see . And you
••• he had one of those two-cylinder Maxwells. And when
he'd get ready to leave, why , he'd come down this way goin'
to Old Somerset and then over to Senior , you see, where
there was a couple more stores. And I'd make it a point to
ride with him from up there, down here to where this caution
light is down here by the Feed Store now. And then walk
back through that sand just to get to ride in that
two-cylinder Maxwell. (laughter)
SC: Did he let you drive?
K: No. No. Good lord, no.
SC: He just let you ride. Did it have a running board on
the outside?
K: It had a step.
SC: A step?
K: Uh huh.
HC: Well, the old Maxwell looked very much like a wagon.
K: Looked just like a buggy. It was just a buggy, you
might say, with a motor in it, was all.
SC: Very interesting.
HC: Well, now, when you were growing up, was there ••. do
you remember anything about the Ku Klux Klan be ing out her e?
Was there a Klan group out here?
K: There was at one time, but it never did get too much
notoriety, no.
KENNEY
SC: There were no ••• not very many black people in
Somerset ••• or Old Somerset?
14
K: Well, up to the oil boom, we didn't have any. But
outside of some old ex-slaves. Old Man Carruthers out here
••• old man George Carruthers he had a ••• old Aunt
Ellen, we called here ••• she was an ex-slave, and she •••
SC: She live there?
K: She lived there, and he gave her a half-section of land
out there, and they lived there. But they were good people.
Wasn't no
SC: It's in old Bexar Cemetery ••. it's hard for me to
say that name ••• I nearly said it wrong ••. there's a grave
west ••• by itself, sort of. Now we didn't go out there
because we didn't feel like we had enough time to look at
it. But is that a ••• where some of those people are
buried? Or would she have been buried on her own property?
Or do you know?
K: Well, she left here right after the oil boom got going
good. They got a lotta wells on her place •••
SC: And she sold?
K: ••• Worth a lot of money, and then of course, all the
nephews and nieces and what-have-you wanted to keep her
then, you know.
SC: Uh huh.
K: And she disappeared. I don't know where she went. Went
down to what we call Ditto. That's 'tween here and Poteet.
SC: Yes, I know Ditto. And she's ••.
KENNEY 15
K: That's an old Negro settlement, you know.
SC: No, I didn't know that. Ditto was a black community?
K: Yeah.
SC: No, I didn't know that. That's interesting. Did the
Carruthers ••• now, that had the slaves •• they were part of
the original or at least Car ruthers is at least one of
the names of the original settlers •••
K: That's right.
SC: And that was part of that family?
K: Yes. Yes.
SC: Well, did they have ••• do you suppose they had slaves
here before the Civil War?
K: Naw. I don't think they were in here that early. I
don't think so.
SC: They just brought her from where ever they .••
K: Most all of this was after the Civil War that they come
in her e and got there. My grandfather ••• well, both
grandfathers •••
SC: Both grandfathers?
HC: The indication that we have is that several Baptist
families moved from Somerset, Kentucky, to northern Atascosa
County and settled there and named their community Somerset,
and that it occurred between 1849 and 1852.
K: Well, let's see. My grandfather was originally from
Somerset, Kentucky. On mother's side. Pyron.
SC: The Pyrons was one of •••
K: You see, he was •.• He and Mr. Kurtz and two or three
KENNEY 16
K: more of 'em bought this place where Somerset is now ••
the old Norris farm.
SC: N 0 R I E?
K: N 0 R I S.
SC: N 0 R I S?
K: Might be two R's in that; I'm not sure.
Anyhow, they bought that place, where Somerset towns ite
is now. And they sold out lots and things and when they got
around to naming it, why, my grandfather went for the
Somerset, on account of that's where he was from in
Kentucky.
HC: He was from Somerset, Kentucky?
K: Yes. I've been in Somerset, Kentucky.
SC: You have been?
K: Oh, yes.
SC: Well, how did they happen ••• do you have relatives
still have relatives ••. in Somerset, Kentucky?
K: Oh, no. No.
SC: You just went there for vacation. Mr. Kenney, did the
people of Somerset, Kentucky ••• do you know if they came
from Somerset, England? We have heard that.
K: That was the story that my grandfather always told.
His people came from over there, see.
SC: I see.
K: And it was named Somerset there and he brought it on
down here. That's my understanding.
SC: And named it. Now there's a Somerset, New Jer sey. A
Somerset County, New Jersey.
KENNEY
K: There's a Somerset, Colorado, too.
SC: Oh, really?
K: Yes, ma'am.
SC: Well, are they all .••
K: I don't know.
SC: Settled by the same people?
17
HC: Well , your grandfather that was from Somerset, Kentucky
his name was Kenney?
K: No.
SC: Pyron. That was the Pyron family.
K: No, my grandfather Kenney was in the a r my when the
Civil War started, see.
HC: Confederate or Union?
K: What?
HC: Was he in the Confederate or the Union Army?
K: No. He was in the United States Army.
HC: Oh, U.S. Army.
K: Yeah. And his job was driving a mule train ••• what
they called mule trains .•• you've heard of them? ••• six
mules and a wagon •• • he'd leave El Paso, make every fort
••• deliver and pick up ••• you know, whatever •••
HC: Supplies.
K: Through San Antonio and down to Old San Patricio, then
on to Brownsville.
SC: To Brownsville.
K: Brownsville.
SC: Brownsville. Oh, down south. Yes, he'd go on down •••
KENNEY
K: Extreme end of the United States.
SC: Well, for goodness sakes.
K: And he made two trips a year.
18
SC: A year. Well, now, what did your
just stayed at home and took care of •••
your grandmother
K: He wasn't married.
SC: Oh, that was before he married.
K: Before the Civil War. And when the Civil War broke
out, he was down here in South Texas somewhere. So he took
two of the best mules, turned the others loose, went down
there and crossed the border and went up into the territory
of New Mexico, you know, and went across and got back to
deliver his papers, like, you know •.• had to report in.
That's how come him on the other side. He had a brother
that was on the south's side.
SC: Oh, really.
HC: Your grandfather was on the Union and his brother was
K: He said he took an oath when he signed up, and he
stayed with it.
HC: That was truly a divided family.
K: Yeah.
SC: Well, now, did they later on ••. did they both sur vive
the ••• they both survived.
K: Yeah.
SC: Then how did they ••• did they talk about •.•
K: Oh, they might have had a few a rguments , but they got
along all right.
KENNEY
SC: It really was not anything serious.
K: No.
19
SC: Did ••• were there any Indians ••• have you heard your
grandparents speak of Indians?
K: Oh, yes. They were here after ••• well, to do any
damage, I'd say, up to probably in the ••• late '70's •••
1870 something, I think it was.
On a place I own right down here south of Somerset,
there was two graves there that they said •. two Mexicans
that were working for the Mudd family used to own that piece
of land before my grandfather bought it, and that the
Indians killed. But, I had that bulldozed out and we marked
the thing.
Later on, why, there was a feller that's got it leased,
went in there and did some bulldozer work, knocked all the
stakes down. So I don't have an idea where •••
SC: Where they are?
K: Know 'bout where they are. Big ole oak tree down
there.
SC: Well, what Indian tribes, do you know?
K: I don't know. I sure don't.
SC: But there's a lot of stories about the Indians?
K: Oh, yes. Yeah.
SC: Can you remember any of them? Or did your ••• either
grandfather tell about the Indians ••• anything about the
Indians that you
K: Well, he talked more about the bandido Mexicans. You
KENNEY 20
K: know, when he'd leave San Antonio, going south, that's
what he had to contend with. You know, when they still
claimed everything from the Nueces River on. And he had to
go through that country, you know •• through the King Ranch
and on down there.
SC: And that was more dangerous
K: Yes. One story he told me. Said he was sleeping under
the wagon where he could watch his mules, 'cause that ••• he
had to take care of those mules, you know, to get that wagon
on down there.
SC: Right.
K: And said he woke up and this Mexican man was untying
one of the mules. So I've got the old gun in there ••• it's
an old cap and ball pistol. And he said he throwed it over
his arm and pulled down on this Meskin, and some way if they
mis-fired, it'll set that whole thing off, but don't go
through the barrel.
HC: Oh
K: But it's just like a shotgun. And I said , "Well,
Grandfather, what's that Mexican look like?" He said,
"There wasn't a damned thing there but a greasy spot."
SC: Just really got him, huh?
HC : Well , before we leave, I'd like to get a picture of you
with that pistol.
K: I've got it sealed up in a box.
It's another s tory that •.• pertaining to my
grandfather , and it so happened that I'll tell you as I go
KENNEY 21
K: along, but he was in between San Antonio and old San
Patricio •• that's where my wife's people wer e from ••• see,
they're all Irish immigrants. You can get the papers on
them. Get 'em registered. They're Irishmen.
But anyhow, on the way down there, why, he took a
bullet through his leg, here somewhere ••• muscle, but time
he got to San Patricio that thing was swelled up and he said
he figured he's gonna have to get some doctor to chop it
off, you know. And it was an aunt ••• a great-aunt of my
wife ••• you know, they didn't have any doctors then. She
was the doctor.
So she took him in and there's a lake out there ••. mud
about so deep, you know . . . well, she treated it with
something ••• I don't know what ••• some old remedy, you
know. And then made him stand in that water for 4 or 5
hours at a time, and he said •••
SC: What kind of water was it?
K: Just ordinary old lake.
SC: Just the lake. She just made him go out there and
stand in the lake.
K: In the mud.
SC: In the mud.
K: You know.
SC: Up to, ••• covering •••
K: To cover that up. And he said in two week's time ,
well, he was on his wagon and never did limp.
SC: Well, I declare •••
KENNEY
K: You know it shows ••• it's funny how it all worked
around and she married into the same family, you know.
SC: Later on.
K: 75 or a hundred years later.
22
SC: Later. That •.• but you don't know what the ••• you
have no idea what medication she used. What herbs or
anything?
K: Oh, no. He didn't know either. Those o l d people didn't
tell everything they knew.
SC: Well, that's true. Can •.. how did ••. can you
remember your mother treating you all with home remedies?
K: Oh, yes. Sure.
SC: What were some of her favorites?
K: Oh, god, I don't remember ••• the kinds of stuff they'd
gather up, you know.
SC: Weeds?
K: Yeah.
SC: And the doctors usually prescribed what? Calomel?
K: Yeah. That was one of your main medicines. Castor
oil.
SC: Castor oil and calomel.
K: Yeah. Antiphlogistine for pneumonia, you know. They'd
rub it on you. Looked like mud , you know.
SC: And flannel cloths •. did you have a flannel cloth on
you?
K: Oh, yes. That's pretty modern.
SC: Well, true. True.
KENNEY
HC: Did you go to a one room school house?
K: Huh?
HC: Did you go to a one room school house?
K: Well, the first one I went to was up here at Bexar.
They had two rooms there. That was a bigger school.
23
SC: Well, now, was it connected to one of the churches in
Be~ar, or was it just a separate building?
K: No. No. It was public.
SC: Three churches and a school building.
K: Yes. Oh, yeah. And a big gin. I didn ' t finish while
ago, and oh, there was a big store ••• two stores ••• Oh,
there was quite a settlement there.
SC: Well, now, is that where sometime I've heard that
your father had a shoe repair man in the business •••
K: That's true.
SC: That was in the new Somerset. And what was that man's
name? Do you •••
K: Covert.
SC: Covert. All r ight. And he repaired shoes, or did he
make shoes from scratch?
K: Well, he could make 'em, too. But mostly repairs. He
was up in years at that time.
SC: He was? And he just came into Somerset and your father
hired him?
K: Yes.
SC: In the one room ••• I mean, in the school building at
old Be~a r , tell about your earliest memories of that. Do
you remember anything?
KENNEY 24
K: Oh, I don't remember too much about it. I do in a way,
but nothing in particualr.
SC: Did the school .•• how long did you go in a year?
K: I was there one year ••• up there ••• and then one year
after we moved here. We had to walk back up there.
SC: But I meant how long was the school? Did it start in
September or did you wait till the harvest season
K: No. No. It started 'bout like just now.
SC: 'Bout like ••• and lasted till May?
K: I think so.
SC: Did they stop for cotton picking or anything like
that?
K: No. But the teachers let 'em off when those times come,
you know. They didn't stop school.
HC: Did they raise much cotton in this area then?
K: Yeah. That was a big crop.
HC: That was the main crop.
K: Main crop.
SC: That's why there's so many gins then?
K: Yeah. Yeah. There was a gin in every little
community.
SC: Now, what caused the change from cotton to peanuts?
K: Cotton ••• cotton got where it wasn't worth anything
for a long time and then boll weevils, too.
HC: Boll weevils.
K: They had no insecticide or anything to treat your
cotton with, see. They were about the same shape we're in
KENNEY 25
K: now, with these do-good people, you know, that've done
'way with everything.
SC: Only thing is
just can't use it.
take
we know what we're killing ••• we
Did the •.• did you ever pick cotton or
K: Not enough to even make a decent bed. That's one
occupation I never could take a liking to.
SC: Well, who picked the cotton mostly?
K: The Mexicans.
SC: And they were ••• they came in and picked and then went
on to West Texas?
K: Well, say like my grandfather's place up here .•• two
sections down there ••• and he had tenant farmers. A man ,
when he first marreid got one team and 50 acres , see . And
as he accumulated a kid every year, you know, or a little
sooner, why, he'd give 'em a hundred acres and two teams.
And they all had big families, so you might say, he'd have
he had probable six or seven big families lived on his
place. Well, they'd all pick for one another, see.
SC: Oh, they traded
K:
...
Well , not necessarily. They'd ••• one would pay one
in other words, grandfather would take it all and then
pay them, see. That's the way it was.
SC: Oh, Oh. I see what you're saying.
K: They worked on the halves
SC: On the halves.
K: There's several old Mexican families •• descendants ••
KENNEY 26
K: that's still here now. All lived there on that place
and raised big families.
SC: How many acres did your grandfather have, do you have
any idea?
K: Well, it ••• originally he had two sections up there.
At the time he died, he had one section. And there was a
section down here my older son •••
SC: And then the other grandson
HC: A section was 640 acres?
K: Yeah.
SC: How many sec ••• how many acres did the other
grandfather have?
K: About the same thing. At the time ••• you know, not in
my time.
HC: What was land selling for when you were a little boy?
Do you have any idea?
K: Oh, I'm not sure. Even up when I was ••• after I'd
married and lived up here, I'd say in the '30s, I could have
bought everything from here to Poteet for $10.00 an acre.
HC: Ten dollars an acre.
K: Uh huh. Yeah.
SC: Well, now, the water situation is so treacherous in and
around Somerset. Has it always been that way? Has there
always been iron and oil in the drinking water?
K: That's right.
SC: And when you dug it •••
K: When you get oil, you don't have good water. You can
just check a nywhere you want to go and it's thataway .
KENNEY 27
SC: Well, is there always iron connected with it?
K: Well, in shallow water, yes. Then you get down a
little deeper, you get into sulphur and you get into a lot
of other things .
SC: See, we have sulphur and oil and iron in the water all
around here.
K: Yeah. This is shallow water at 40 to 60 feet. Now
there's a ••• this Bexar territory, there's lotta water
wells there I was raised on and everybody else that lived up
there, 40 foot deep. They had as good a water as you ever
drank in your life. Of course, now with the pollution and
everything, it's got surface water and it's not considered
good. But at that time , it was as good a water as you ever
drank, and there's no mineral in it, to speak of, at all.
SC: And it was just 40 feet under the ground?
K: About 40 feet.
SC: And they hand-dug those wells?
K: Oh, yes.
SC: And then pulled the water up with a pulley?
K: With a bucket , yeah.
SC: Did your family have a cistern?
K: Oh, yeah. We had. That's all the water we had right
here for several years after we moved in this house.
SC: And you drank the cistern water?
K: Oh, yeah ••• sure. That's all we had.
HC: Did you put fish in that cistern to keep the mosquitos
and larvae out?
KENNEY 28
K: No. I never did. Put a little kerosene oil in there.
HC: We used to always . . . where I lived my father
always kept two or three fish in there.
K: My grandfather down here, he had an underground system,
you know •• plastered walls. The neck down and then widen
out. And I was lookin' down to own that country down there
(?) ••• bought out some of the heirs, and one of them old
cisterns is still down there.
HC: Still down there.
K: Uh huh. There's one over there in my sister's yard,
still cistern ••• where the old store used to be.
SC: Now, where Miss Nellie Kenney, your sister, lives, that
was the home •• the old home?
K: That's my father's home, yes.
SC: Home site.
K: Yes.
SC: And they .•• the church next door to it there, was
built ••• he gave the land that that was on?
K: My grandmother gave the land, on my mother's side.
SC: On your mother's side. The Pyrons?
K: See, the f irst store he had was replaced the
railroad from the house, as you come in Somerset, and pass
the old house, why the store was on the right. That's where
the old original store was built.
SC: Oh. And then they moved it on down to where the
building is now that has the front porch?
K: Well, where SuperS is now. We built that in ••• we
KENNEY 29
K: built that in '31 and '32. And it's built for three
stories. The foundations' built for three stories.
HC: They never did add the two stories above it, huh?
K: And we were ••• you know, ••• gonna add on to it.
SC: Well, Mr. Kenney, I thought that your father's store
was across the street, cater-cornered from the SuperS •••
in that building that has the front porch. What was that
building?
K: That was Chavez. That's the man's name. (The building
called the Blue Goose. It was demolished July 1988.)
SC: Well, I didn't know that.
K: But that was a store and a market at one time.
HC: That's right near where the Shannon's drug store was.
K: Well, that's further down. You see, there's an old
uncle of mine that had a store right down there ••• still
there ..• it' s still there, but no store. Across from where
the old washateria and bank was
SC: Yes, yes.
porch.)
(This is what I referred to as having a
K: Well, that was also ••• my father's brother.
SC: That was (?) Kenney?
K: No'm.
SC: But not your father's store? Well, I was just •••
K: No. We've put up that brick building, like I say, '31,
'32. And the total cost on that was a few dollars over
$8,000. If you're talking about price
SC: $8,000.
...
KENNEY 30
HC: You couldn't buy the brick to start the face of it now
for that price .
K: Ordinary brick layers, we were paying $5.00 a day.
That's ten hours. And finish man ••• we had one finish man
that put the front bricks on, you know, fancy brick and all
that.
HC: Yeah.
K: On the windows and doors. And we paid him eight. And
I know my father shore raised hell about that.
SC: Did they get the brick from D'Hanis or •••
K: D'Hanis, yeah.
SC: Did somebody
part of the deal?
you all had to go get it or was that
K: No, they were s hipped down by rail.
HC: Railroad. My uncle lived in Somerset , here, down •••
or lived out on the Medina River at the crossing down there,
where the highway crosses. Lived on the old Jess Rock Farm.
And he worked there and there is a Jess Rock in Cotulla,
LaSalle County. Do you know whether that's the same one or
not?
K: No, I don't.
HC: Was there any Rock ••• people by the name of Rock up
here in this area?
K: Not that I remember.
HC: In other words, the Baptist Church got its name from
being built of rock. The Old Rock Baptist there .
K: That's what I always thought.
KENNEY 31
HC: Well, then, the main crop around here changed from
cotton to oil and then from oil to peanuts. Is that the way
it went?
K: That's right. That's right.
SC: When you were little, did they dig a storm cellar in
each one of the •••
K: Lotta people had 'em, yes. And they used 'em ••• dual
purpose ••• they used 'em for their ••• like their jars of
peaches and pears and whatever you're gonna put up. Because
it was always cool in there, you know. I remember
grandfather down here had one, and that's where grandmother
used to keep all that stuff.
SC: But now, your father didn't always dig a storm cellar?
K: No.
SC: Well, how did they ••• in your grandmother's ••• how
did they keep the sand •• did they put railroad ties or
something in it to keep the walls ••• nearly everything here
is sand ••• the question I'm asking is how did they •••
re-enforce the walls or what kept it from caving in?
K: Most of the ones here ••• I know my grandfather's down
here •• made a wall, and then they put whatever they used
for caulking, you know ••• putty is what they used ••• mixed
it up ••• they caulked it good and then put, say a foot or
two foot of dirt on top of that and just kept ••• You know,
if it washed off . . . throw a little more dirt back up there.
And then you get the grass to grow on it, and it's there,
you see .
KENNEY
HC: Yeah. ?
K: Yeah. It's made out of logs.
SC: The logs, uh huh. I didn't know
32
K: You talking about one-teacher school . I did go to one,
and that's Wildman School. I don't know whether you ever
heard of that or not.
SC: I haven't heard of it. No.
K: Well, up here at this school, that old building set out
there was the old Wildman School. That was the new one.
When I first went down there it was a little old tiny thing.
And that was one teacher, a hundred and twenty kids, seven
grades.
SC: And now that was W-A-N-A-N, Wanan?
K: No, no. It was W-I-L-D-M-A-N.
SC: Wildman.
K: Wildman School.
SC: How interesting. And that •••
K: That was my third year in school
SC: All right. Now that school was named Wildman because a
man by the name of Wildman gave the •••
K: Yeah and
SC: And what was the teacher's name?
K: Oh, we had two or three there. Black was one of 'ern
there, the man, and then we had •.• which later was an aunt
of mine ••• Mabel Smoot , and then another one in there, but
I don't remember her name.
SC: All right. Is that Smoot related to the Smoots that
Mr s. • . • ?
KENNEY
K: No. These people were from Sutherland Springs.
SC: Oh. Uh huh.
K: That's where they originally •••
33
SC: Well, now, could the teachers be married? Could the
lady teachers be married and teach ••• and still teach, or
do you
K: I don't know. She wasn't married at that time. We had
two women teachers. I know neither one of them were married
SC: Were married.
How did they dress? Can you remember
K: I haven't the memory, particularly.
SC: Did they wear long dresses?
K: Oh, yes.
. . .
SC: Long dresses. Did the •.. how was the school •.• the
building heated? With a •••
K: Wood stove.
SC: Wood stove. Did you all •••
K: Had a big hood around it. You've saw those, haven't
you?
HC: I've seen 'em.
SC: And you had ••• did the children have to bring the wood
in and ••• ?
K: Oh, sure.
HC: ..• build a fire?
K: You betcha.
SC: What ••• Tell about your chores when you were a little
KENNEY 34
SC: boy. When you came in from school , what did you have
to do? Did you work in the store itself, or did you have
other things ••. ?
K: Not ••• not so much. My father had an orchard up
there, about 10 or 12 acres, lots of peaches and plums and
pears. And my job was taking care of that orchard.
SC: And did you do that every day? Did you have to go up
there and do something every day after school?
K: Oh, sure. There's always something to do. Chop weeds
or plow it or, you know, planting the trees or doing
something. Something to do every day.
SC: And you just got out of school, went down there, and
started to work.
K: Sure. You didn't run around like •••
Now I've got a grand-daughter lives right over there,
Kathy. She ••• I bet she drives a hundred miles a day
taking them two kids to play somewhere. (laughter) That's
right.
SC: I know it is.
HC: About the school ••• did you walk or r ide a horse?
K: Well, we did ••• very little horse riding we did then
because ••• (grandfather clock chiming in background) •.•
they needed those horses to use at home.
HC: To work
K: And the kids would walk. And we walked to Be~ar, all
the way. After I started to school down here, why, I was up
here at my Grandfather Kenney's one day and he uh • •• he
KENNEY 35
K: never rode an automobile. Said it was too dangerous.
He lived his whole life to be 93 years old. He never rode
an automobile. As long as he lived, we had somebody had
to drive him and he had to go to San Antonio in his ole
buggy team. Somebody had to drive him to town •••
HC: In the buggy?
K: Oh, yes.
SC: Well, how long ••• when did he die? What year did he
die?
K: I can't tell you off-hand. In the '30s, I guess. No.
Now let's see. My older daughter was born in '37 ••• it was
'bout '30, '31.
SC: He did not ride in the car?
K: Never rode in the car. All his boys did •••
END OF TAPE I, SIDE 1, 45 MINUTES.
TAPE I, SIDE 2.
K: The old man ••• he liked his whiskey, as all Irishmen,
you know. And he'd been to town and come back with 4 or 5
jugs in the back of the buggy, you know. Then he got out
and instead o'tying the horses ••• he just pulled up and was
gonna take his whiskey and put it in the cellar, and the
hor ses broke and run, and turned the buggy over and just
stripped all that top part off ••• seat and all, you see.
Well, it was a brand-new buggy, so he just went and bought
another one.
It was out there unde r a big old shed and I was up
there one day, and that was right after we'd moved down
KENNEY 36
K: here, and I started school down here ••• and I said,
"Grandpaw , what are you gonna do with that ole buggy you
tore up right there?" He said, "I'm not gonna do anything
with it. You can have it if you want it." I said, "Fine."
So at that time I had a jackass ••• old Ginny was a good
'un, too ••• and so I rushed back down here and got my
donkey and went up there and he gave me a set of old
harnesses ••• pretty good old harnesses ••. old buggy
harnesses and he had one of the Mexicans up there to fix
it where it would fit the donkey, so, man , I was in
business.
So ••• brought it down here and I got thinking ' bout
it, and that's be just right to go to school on. So I got a
couple of 1 by 12s, and we bolted 'em on that frame ••• just
a frame, you know, the axles ••• didn't hurt that part of
it, just the top ••• and I started and some of them kids
wanted a ride. Well, I finally said, "Well, by god, I'll
just go to chargin' ' em." Next day ••• or whatever it was
I don't think I ever got many nickels. But anyhow, I
had the first school bus in Somerset. (laughter)
SC: How funny!. You made •••
K: No. They had to come to my place to get on the buggy.
I didn't go pick 'em up. But I left down from there, right
straight down the old Somerset Road ••• it was a mile and a
half down there ••• toward the school there.
HC: Well, 'bout how many did you take? About 4 or 5?
K: Oh, 6 or 7. Downhill, you see , going .
KENNEY
SC: Wait just a minute.
(tape adjustment)
37
SC: I wanted to be sure I got that started. That's very
interesting.
HC: Well, I've been told, Mr. Kenney, that the Somerset
Road was the first paved road in Bexar County.
K: First paved road out of San Antonio.
HC: San Antonio. Now why was that ••• was that to haul the
oil in?
K: Oil.
HC: Haul the oil in.
K: It was originally paved to ••• from the city limits to
the Leon Creek. vle're talking about the old Somerset Road.
HC: Yeah, yeah.
K: And then ••• I'd say in 2, 3 years ••• it was paved to
the river. Medina River .
HC: Yeah.
K: And then from there it came on in here.
HC: Well, what's that crossing called down there?
K: Garza .
HC: Garza? Garza Crossing. And there were two oil
refineries in Somerset?
K: Yes.
HC: There was 2 oil refineries in Somerset and then
Grayburg built a pipeline to pipe their oi l in, didn't
they?
K: Yes.
KENNEY 38
HC: And
SC: Mr . Kenney, do you remember Judge Roy Bean's hangout in
San Antonio ••• between Somerset and San Antonio •••
somewhere along in there? [S. Presa St and Glenn, EGM.]
K: No. No. I never did, •cause that was a little before my
time.
SC: What about Kirk? There's a community ••• Virgie
Johnson was telling us about going on the train from
Somerset to Kirk, and it cost a quarter. They charged her a
quarter. Where was that community?
K: Do you know where Aldrich's nur sery is?
SC: Yes .
K: That's it .
SC: That's Kirk?
K: Right where this railroad that comes through here,
crosses the old I & GN (International and Great Northern)
. . . I don't know what they call that railroad now ••• the
one that goes t o Laredo ••• all right. Where they cross,
that's where Ki r k was. It never amounted to anything, you
know, never ••• there wsa never anything ••• oh, two, three
houses and the depot ••• that's all there ever was •••
SC: But there was a depot?
K: Yes. That's where I used to pick up the freight.
SC: At Kirk? You picked up with the wagon and came in
K: Yeah.
SC: At Kirk. That's interesting. Did you go to San
Antonio much when you were ••• ?
KENNEY 39
K: Not too often.
HC: Well, now, for entertainment ••• was there any theaters
or any movies, and like that, in Somerset? Or did you all
have to go to Lytle?
K: Well, there wasn't any anywhere.
HC: Wasn't anywhere?
K: Not then. Not where we're talking •••
HC: But I mean later on •.•
K: Later on you went to San Antonio. We had cars, you
know.
HC: But now there were ••. there was a theater ••• a movie
in Pleasanton, or one in Poteet?
K: Yeah. They're a little further away from San Antonio,
see. Out here, even with horse and buggy, it only took
about three hours, you see.
SC: Yes. Take a trip to go ••• Your ••• you and your wife
went to school ••• both of you went in Somerset ••• I mean,
that's how you met?
K: Oh, no, no, no. My wife was from San Patricio, down
here ••• you know where San Patricio is?
SC: Yes.
K: Over there on Hiway 87? Well, that's where she was
raised.
SC: And she went to school ••.
K: And I ••• I drilled a bunch of gas wells down there in
well, we went there in '22 and stayed till '26. I was
there four years.
KENNEY
SC: And that's where you met her.
K: That's where I met my wife.
40
SC: And then she came back here. Now did her family •••
did they speak English?
K: Oh, yes. Yeah.
SC: But they were originally from Ireland?
K: Oh, yes. Sure. Yes.
SC: Well, did they talk with an accent?
K: Oh, yes, very much so.
HC: Very much so.
K: Very much so. Yeah. Yeah.
SC: Well now, was her father •• • ah, did he work in the oil
field too when it ••• when they •••
K: Her father? No. No. We drilled those gas wells. That
was all high pressur e gas down there, you know, and you used
nothing but professionals. We didn't hire any local talent
at all then because it's too dangerous, you know. We worked
only professionals.
HC: Well, did you ever have any serious accidents, working
in the oil fields?
K: Had some close calls, yeah.
HC: Close calls, huh?
K: Yeah, I remember one time, I was ••• that was ••• still
working here and I was wor king derricks . And you are
s upposed, 'cause insurance, you know, you're supposed to
wear a belt all the time, tied with a rope, you know, to the
side of the derrick. And we never did wear one ••• It's
KENNEY 41
K: cumbersome, you know, and you're jumping around up
there like a monkey, you know.
And so an insurance fellow was out there one day, and
he caught me up there without a belt, and he just raised
sand. Like to got me fired. So the driller told me, "You
got to wear that belt, that's all there is to it." It
wasn't two days till my foot slipped one day, and I fell,
and it was about 8 foot of rope, you know, slack so I could
get around in that area, and I tied that knot in a slip
knot. I didn't tie ••• I thought I'd tied it solid, but I
was danglin' 80 feet from the ground, looking down here at
rotor, you know, in the center ••. one of them old rotor
r igs ••• my head down ••• and that rope begin to slip.
Well, there was a few things in my life, you know, that
I wanted to forget, and I thought about danm near all of
them. It seemed like an hour, but it wasn't but two, three
minutes till that rope, you know, took up and was holding,
but I thought it was comin' loose, you know. (laughter)
SC: So that was a close call, wasn't it?
K: Yeah. 'Bout as close as I ever was.
of close calls, bringing those wells
Aw, we had a lot
we had one get away
from us down there that blew 27 days and nights. Didn't
have any casing, no surface pipe or nothing.
HC: Were you always plagued with fires?
K: Luckily, we never had a fire.
HC: Never had a fire.
K: Never had a fire, no.
KENNEY 42
SC: Well, that is something.
HC: Well, I have a friend that was burned seriously in a
fire.
K: Oh, yes. I thought those rocks cornin' out of there and
hit a piece of steel or something, sparks ••• but there was
so much water corning out, that it just ••• put it out.
SC: Oh, that's what causes the fire, is the pressure?
HC: Rocks hit the metal, yeah. Makes them sparks, yeah.
K: Are you familiar with a drilling rig?
HC: Yeah.
K: Well, you know what the Kelly joint is? It has a one
inch hole in a two inch pipe. Well, this thing •• it cut in
two, and they cut the lines up here and it fell again and
that Kelly joint was in four pieces when that was all over.
HC: That's a lot of pressure.
K: Yeah. Cut it right off. Well, that gets away from what
we were talking about. But ••• ?
SC: The fruit trees ••• there was a packing place in
Somerset for a while
K: Oh, yeah.
...
SC: The fruit trees here •• why do you think they didn't
replant them?
K: Disease. When this thing was booming on the fruit,
they were shipping from one to two car loads of plums
that's many a plum ••. a day. And ever'body got
over-anxious, particularly the fellows who went out and
bought some nur sery stock that wasn't inspected. We had our
KENNEY 43
K: own inspectors, and, but they went around 'em and there
was nuthin' you could do; and they owned the place and did
as they pleased, especially then. And got that disease in
here and it just absolutely ruined everything. I had 30
acres, right around this house.
SC: And they just ••• they just ••• they were diseased •••
K: Yeah. Yeah.
HC: Was that what happened to Alamo Orchards, down the way
here?
K: Aw, no.
HC: Or did they just not replant or what?
K: They just ••• that down there in that blackjack,
'course it's not ••• just not a place for a t r ee to start
with. You need a clay subsoil. You don't have a subsoil
down there.
HC: You mean that sand down there is 100 feet?
K: Well •••
HC: Or more, huh?
K: It's not that deep, but I'd say it varies from 20 to
so.
HC: That deep, huh?
K: Yes.
SC: Did you have any springs on •• in your land after a
rain?
K: No, ther e was no springs in this country.
HC: Well, do you have any quicksand?
K: Well, them old blackjacks get where it acts like
KENNEY
K: quicksand. 'Course that's not what we term it.
HC: We've got quicksand in two places on our property.
SC: It's just ••• after a rain
44
K: Well, down there, you'd just ••• you can take where
that sand gets saturated ••• all the way down •.. you can
just keep working your foot, and you can go down just like
that, you know. But it's not don't act like quicksand.
SC: It's not real quicksand, but it's . . . but you go down.
You can lose a boot in it.
K: Oh, yeah. Very much so.
HC: Yes, she lost a pair of boots in it.
K: I ... first . .. talking 'bout this ole oil field, I've
got a little story on my place I've got down there, I can
I can show it to you. I just can't ••• not this
morning.
As a kid ••• I was 'bout 13 years old when I went to
work in the oil fields. And my first job was assistant to a
nigger mule skinner.
HC: Oh.
SC: What . . .
K: Well, that's taking care of the mules, cleanin' 'em up,
be sure the shoulders, you know, are clean, seeing that the
harnesses are all right, and all that kinda stuff, see.
'Bout all the dirty work. Cleanin' out the stalls, you
know, and those kinds of things. But anyhow, I was
graduated up to where they let me drive a team, and my first
main job was driving a pair of horses that we pulled these
KENNEY 45
K: wells. We pulled the rods and tubing with a team •••
HC: Yeah.
K: And that was quite a chore. But now we went from that
to ..• on this partic'lar lease down here, we have a pumping
unit there that's computerized ••• works all by itself. It
can pump this well 10 minutes or 20 minutes or an hour. You
leave it off for two hours. All you do is tell the computer
what you want it to do. And it does it. Now there is quite
a change.
HC: It really is.
SC: It really is. I didn't •••
K: Now that's on the same piece of land, now, I'm talking
about that I helped pull ••• drove the team and pulled the
rods and tubing with a pair of horses. And now we're doing
it with a computer.
HC: That's from about 1916 to 1987. Is that the span in
there?
K: Yeah.
SC: Now has that oil been ••• is the oil ••• I don't know
how to ask the question. Is it ••• have you been pumping
out of that well all along, or did you start
K: Well, most of those old wells that were drilled back
when I'm talkin' 'bout, they're gone. In other words, the
casing rotted out and you got nothin' but a mud hole. Yeah.
Because, you see, we didn't have a proper cement job. We'd
run maybe 20 sacks of cement in there and pump it up to
around the edge of the casing down there, and then this
KENNEY 46
K: ole mineral water at 60 feet eat a hole in the tubing
and that all went down in there. It'll eat a hole in there
in two years.
SC: Right. It even will in a water well.
K: Yeah. Well, that's the same thing. That's right. But
now with this new • •• and no fracking {slang for fracturing
or cracking rock formation), you know. They never heard of
that. And they just drilled down there to the pay, up above
it a little bit, and core in, ••• you know there ••• and set
your casing; then go down, drill a smaller hole down in it
and put a packer ••• I mean a screen in there, see. And
that's all you had. You had no penetration into your pay.
See, we've got three pays here. You got the Escondido and
Olmos and the Anacacho. Three different veins of oil.
Some's better, in some locales, and some's better in others.
Where we are down there, our best pay is the Escondido,
which is a shallow well ••• which it don't •••
HC: Shallow? How, I mean, about how ••.
K: 800 to 900 feet. And your next one would be 60 to 80
feet lower , and the other one is right at 2,000. That's
your lime, you know.
SC: Well, now, about how close is one of the wells that you
worked on with the mules, and the one that's computer ized
now? How close are they together? tvere they a city block
apart?
K: No. They're not ••• some of those old wells, say, just
the length of this room. But they're cemented from top to
KENNEY 47
K: bottom now, see. You know, they pump that cement in
till it comes out the top.
SC: Well, now, you have a seismograph, I guess that's what
you call it, picture of the oil vein in
K: After you set your pipe, ••• you see, you go on down
through your pay, and set your pipe ••• set the cement from
top to bottom •.• then you take your machine and go in there
and get a picture of all of it, and you decide where you
want it and then you shoot it. Then you're just like a
bullet in a gun, only it's larger, you know ••• more
powerful ••• that goes through the cement and out into this
out into your pay zone.
SC: Yes ••
K: Now, like Escondido, down there, we got 5 stratas.
Well, the top one is mostly water. We leave that out • ••
don't shoot it ••• and the next one has a lot of gas in it.
Now we shoot it and then we pick up three that has oil.
SC: All right. Now do you use any of the natural gas?
Like the . . .
K: No. There's a lot of natural gas there ••. you'd think
it was a lot. In other words, shut it in a little while and
it'll hurt your ears when you open it. But that's no
volume, see. You've got to have volume with gas.
SC: Well, now, the Taylors ••• I've understood that the
Taylors, that the Taylor fire ••• you know several years ago
there across the street from the bank, cater-cor nered
that they were using natural gas from their oil wells.
KENNEY
SC: Is that true? Have you ever heard that story?
K: Oh, I don't know. We used to use it here.
SC: And is it relatively safe?
48
K: Well, it is if you ••• if you if you do it right.
Put in traps, you know. 'Cause you've got a certain amount
of foreign things that'll get in there. And not only would
it be dangerous from fire, but not so much that ••• but this
little ole tiny jet that goes through, it's stopping it up
all the time, you see. But you can put a trap in. I had a
well down here ••• a gas well ••• that one of the oil
companies drilled years ago ••• and I used it here for 30
years. Lights and everything
SC: Oh.
K: But I had a good gas trap and had a regulator on it.
It held about 200 pounds, with 4 or 5 houses on it.
HC: That's gas and lights and •. gas heat then?
K: Yeah.
SC: Well, now, is that the light that they use in Somerset,
is that ••• say 50 years ago ••• did they use the gas
lights?
K: No. No. They never used them in town. They've had
electricity there
SC: They had electricty? Can you remember your first
radio?
K: Lord, yeah. Sure. Yeah, I remember.
SC: Was it a crystal set?
K: Huh?
KENNEY 49
SC: Was it a crystal set?
K: I don't know what it was made out of, but I know I
thought it was the greatest thing that ever happened. You
know, talking about radios, I've got one out there on the
back porch, in the den out there, my office, that I know was
bought in the early '40s, and it still plays. And it
probably cost 7 or 8 dollars. It's a small one.
SC: Is it a Philco • • the kind with the round •••
K: No. No. It's just a small one, you know, like •••
HC: During World War I and World War II, did many people
from Somerset go into the military?
K: Oh, yes. Yeah, there were a bunch of 'ern. Now what was
that outfit in that ••• what was that outfit that was
cleaned out pretty well, you know •• that got in the heart
of that fighting over there? In Europe?
HC: In World War I, or II?
K: World War I.
HC: That was in the Argonne?
K: Yeah, well, ther e was one company, you know, that was
reserve, that come out of this ••• whole lot of 'ern carne out
of here.
HC: Came out of this area here?
K: Yeah, they lost many and many of 'ern.
SC: Somebody had said ••• several people said that your
father was a very honest person ••• that his word was his
bond •.• that if he told you that he'd do something, you
could very well depe nd on it to be true. Do you remember
KENNEY 50
SC: hearing that as a child? Do you remember that he •••
K: Well, that was ••• anybody that was anybody at that
time, when I was a kid, if their word wasn't any good, they
wasn't considered a good citizen of the community. Even
when I started to buying cattle, after I quit the oil field
••• I'm talking about '27, '28, along there ••• I bought
many thousands of head ••• say we agreed on 10 cents a
pound, delivered ••• maybe that was January ••• delivered
in June ••• and he lived up to it. If he didn't, he ••• he
couldn't sell his cattle. And if I didn't do it, I couldn't
buy his cattle ••• I couldn't go back to buying his cattle.
No, it's strictly done on your honor.
SC: Can you ••• when you were young, did they ••• did you
ever lock your house, or did you
K: Oh, no. Wasn' t no locks on the ole house. I don't
ever remember seeing a lock on my grandfather's old house,
you know. Got a relatively big fami ly, somebody there 99
percent of the time.
HC: How large was your family? How many brothers and
sisters did you have?
K: Oh, in my family?
HC: Yep.
K: Just had one sister.
HC: You just had one s ister?
K: Yeah.
HC: Well, you all were a small family then.
K: Yeah. Yeah. Let's see. On the Kenney's side, I guess
KENNEY
K: Dad's brothers and sisters ••• I think there's 9;
mother's side there's 8 or 9.
51
SC: Well, now, were you close to your cousins? Were the
cousins all • ••
K: No. Never. I learned a long time ago, when I first
started out ••• Like I say, I was 13 years old when I •••
when I graduated from college •••
SC: You were how old?
K: 13.
SC: 13, from college. Where was it?
K:
HC:
SC:
Seventh grade.
Seventh grade.
Oh, seventh ...
K: That's when I graduated, you know, and went to the oil
fields. And it didn't take me long after I got up to where
I would learn things from working, that there's two things
you don't want to ever hire. First, is your kin folks,
second is a calf roper.
SC: A calf roper?
HC: I can see why the kin folks, but why the calf roper?
K: It's all they got on their mind. He can be out there
wo r king on a gas well ••• it might blow him all to pieces
and he's thinking ' bout that old horse or calf or somepin'
else.
HC: Oh, oh.
K: They're a breed all to himself.
HC: This is kinda changing the subject, were there many
KENNEY 52
HC: deer in this area around here when you were young?
K: Never too many because it wasn't ••• you know, I'd say
settled up. It was, you know, and they cleaned out all this
brush. See. And there wasn't any place for them. They all
went to these blackjacks. There's still a lot of deer in the
blackjacks. Lot of 'em. They got to have a place to hide.
HC: Yeah. I know that.
SC: Now did ••• the cemetery at Be~ar, is that where your
family is ••• your mother and father are buried?
K: Yes.
SC: Now, are any of your relatives buried at Old Rock?
K: No.
SC: All of yours were settled up
K: Either the Catholic cemetery or the Baptist cemetery,
one of the two. Got 'em in both of 'em.
SC: Well, wher e? ••• I thought there was just one cemetery
up there. Where is the Catholic cemetery up there?
K: Back where the old church used to be. In other words,
when you get down past the cemetery that's on the road,
where the roads come together •••
HC: Yeah.
K: You turn right, square back to your right. In other
words, that comes down to a point like this •• you're going
west •• then you turn right, square back northeast, see, and
it's just about a mile back there where the old church was.
HC: Oh, yeah.
SC: Now was the church ••• is the church foundation still
there?
KENNEY 53
K: No.
SC: No. All of that's gone?
K: It was all tore down, I imagine, oh, god, in the '40s.
HC: Got a match for Mr. Kenney? (He was trying to light a
cigar)
K: I have ••• I have the old organ that my grandfather
gave to the church. It's an old pump, you know ••. the kind
you pump. My grand-daughter has it over there now. We had
it here for years. Still have •.•
SC: And now Kathy's little girl has it?
K: Kathy's.
SC: What's her name?
K: I believe ••• I believe Irene is keeping it there ••
that's her mother. I think Irene is keeping it on account
of •.• let the kids get up a little older, you know, so they
don't use it for a play thing. I think that's Kathy's idea,
leaving it down there.
SC: Now, Kathy is actually your grand-daughter.
K: My grand-daughter, yes.
SC: Oh. I was thinking ••• OK. Then Irene is her mother?
K: Yes.
SC: Irene. I didn't have that straight in my mind.
Well, Mr. Kenney, I know you talked all you want to.
We appreciate this so much.
HC: May I get a picture of you?
K: That'll probably ruin the whole damn thing.
END OF TAPE I, SIDE 2, 25 MINUTES.