THE INSTITUTE OF TEXAN CULTURES
ORAL HISTORY PROGRAM
INTERVIEW WITH: Sammie Quarles
(Marie and Jack Fleming present, also)
INTERVIEWER: Walt and Janie Sargeant
31 October 31, 1986
Nederland, Texas
DATE:
PLACE:
JS: Sammie Quarles has been active in Scouting and she has
lived in the community for many years. Sammie, when and
where wer e you born?
SQ: In Warren, Texas in 1906.
JS: Let's see, where is that?
SQ: In Tyler county.
JS: When did you came to this area?
SQ: I earn e here 50 years ago.
JS: Were you married, is that the reason you came?
Married, and your husband came here?
SQ: Yes.
JS: What was his occupation?
SQ: Well , he went to work for the Pure Oil. He r eti red from
Jefferson Chemical as a supervisor .
JS: So the oi l business b r ought him here.
SQ : Yes, marn.
JS: That's why he was here.
QUARLES 2
SQ: Depression.
JS: Is that right? How many children do you have?
SQ: I have seven children and I ra ised two grandchildren.
JS: Are they all living around in this area?
SQ: Well, the oldest boy died and the rest of them are
either in Jefferson or Orange County.
WS: Your parents, were they native of that area?
SQ: My parents were natives of Orange County.
WS: They were born and brought up in Or ange County.
WS: They were born and brought up in Orange County?
SQ: Yes, si r .
WS: And where were their parents fran?
SQ: They came down f r an South Carolina, down through
Calcasieu parish, Louisiana, then poled thei r way down the
Sabine river to Orange in 1856.
WS: Poled, did you say?
SQ: You know, flat boats.
JS: We're not native of a sea a r ea.
WS: Just asking because I want to clarify it myself. Then
what were they, farmers, your folks, then?
SQ: Yes. Cattle and farmers. They used to own Dupont Drive,
not Dupont Drive but Chemical Row. It started r ight on the
other side of Adams Bayou and went all the way down into a
cemetery that we have there that my great, great grandfather
gave, Harris Cemetery .
WS: Harris?
SQ: Harris.
QUARLES
WS: H-A-R-R-I-S?
SQ: Yes, si r .
3
JS: I see you're living down town here, near the center of
town. Near the business district. Have you lived here
quite a few years?
SQ: Fifty.
JS: Oh, you came to this house and you've lived here all
these years.
WS: Who built the house? Was it already built or did you
build it?
SQ: No, sir. That's a long tale, too. It was first bought
for the Peveto Baptist Church from the Freemans who built it
for a beer joint. And then people in the neighborhood voted
Nederland dry so they sold out to the Peveto Baptist
Church.
WS: How do you spell that P .••
SQ: Peveto .
WS: Then you bought it f rom the ••• ?
SQ: No. There was one or two lived in it before I did.
JS: How old would you think the house is?
SQ : Well, I really don't know. I think it's about the
fifth oldest in Nederland.
MF: I was thinking back to the history of the Baptist
church. They really had it out there. The Baptist started
in 1906, I think, here in Nederland. And they started at the
Dutch Reformed like the Methodist church d i d. But I believe
they bought this, oh , about 1908 or 1909. And at that time ,
QUARLES 4
MF: they only had $250 and the whole thing cost $500. Mr.
Peveto paid the other $250 and that's why they called it the
Peveto Baptist church.
SQ : They really have the history of it down at the church .
WS: I understand you had paved streets at that time.
SQ: No, sir. (laughter) No , it was shell. And we had a
sewer ditch out there. My boys used to •• they'd get to
playin' and fightin' and they rolled in that ditch. It was
qu ite a problem.
WS: Sewer ditch, in other words, •• •
SQ: No sidewalks. I don't know when they put the sidewalks
in.
MF: But you did have to pay ••.
SQ : I did have to pay for my sidewalk.
WS: Then you did have e lec t ricity when y ou first moved in
here?
SQ: Yes. Dropped from there that sort of ••.
WS: You said your husband was with Pure Oil , was it?
SQ: Yes , sir.
WS: And retired from Pure Oil?
SQ : No , s i r . He retired from Jefferson Chemical.
MF: Tell them how he got in Jefferson Chemical. What
happened?
SQ: Well, he left Pure Oil and that was during shipyared
days and he went up here in Beaumont and he was outfitting
superintendent up there . He left there after that was over
with the Jefferson Company .
QUARLES 5
WS: What period are we talking about here? World War II
time?
SQ: Yes, si r . World War II.
One of the things that irritates me about this town now
is the way they do their flags. You know we had the honor
board over there and my boys and children raised the flag
and they took it down every evening. If it rained they went
over there a million times a day. They do not do that now
down at the Post Office. That worries me.
MF: Well, I think they have relaxed that law or whatever.
But I'm with you, Sammie.
SQ: I don't think it should be up in the rain.
JS: I'm like you. Can you give us same impress i on of early
Neder land? Say in the twenties ••. I know physically it
looks different from what it does now but was there quite a
bit more business; was it more active right in the middle of
town?
SQ: Well, we didn't have as many buildings. We didn't have
as many vacant buildings as we have now, too. We had two
drug stores: Cammack's and Nede r land Pharmacy.
WS: How about department stores as such . Did you have ••• ?
How about earlier, was there a combination of grocery store
and department store?
SQ: Bill Haizlip had o ne down the street there, the
Haizlip Brothers.
MF: How many residences were there through here when you
lived here?
'·
QUARLES 6
SQ: Well, Jack Fortenberry and let's see ••• I think that
was about all.
MF: And of course the Dale Hotel.
SQ: Yes, the Dale Hotel. Now you know Miss Margaret and
Bill Haizlip first time they met was in this •• in here.
MF: Oh, they met in your house?
SQ: Yes. There was a dance going on and there wasn't too
many males and everybody kept saying, "Wait 'til Bill gets
here." And pretty soon Bill cane in on his motorcycle and
that's when Bi 11 and Miss Margaret met. She told me.
MF: This is interesting. This is Bill Haizlip she's
talking about. And his father was one of the early doctors
here. And he (Bill) always called his wife Miss Margaret,
never called her Margaret. She was Miss Margaret 'til the
day she died.
SQ: Yes, that's what we always called her, like we used to
say Miss Anna.
JS: We have a note that you were active in the scouting
program. Is that Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts?
SQ : That was Cub Scouts . The Methodist Church sponsored us
and my boy who is 52 now, came hane when he was nine years
old and he said , "Mama, I'm going to be a Cub Scout. You
will have to be a den mother." And I stayed in 13 1/2
years . I have doctors , and lawyers and airplane pilots and
all that 's gone on were in my den. I must say that I got
much more out if it than I ever put in it, though.
MF: And they all love Sammie.
QUARLES 7
WS: It makes a big difference if your leader is .••
SQ: Well, you knew Ellen Shearer and Clara Norton started
Pack 53.
MF : I didn't know that.
SQ: Yes, we started it. I had Roger (Rienstra) in my den.
WS: I would like to back track just a second to your
schooling. Did you go to a .•. did you have a junior high
and high school?
SQ: I went to the Warren School as a small child. Then my
folks moved back to Orange and I went to School i n Orange.
WS: Was that a one building for all the grades? High
School or ••• ?
SQ: Yes. Old Henderson School in Orange .
WS : Down here, when you got here, was there just one school
or •.. ?
SQ: One school. Yes, there were two schools , the high
school and down here at Langham Elementary. One building,
one big, big wooden building.
WS: Kindergarten, they didn't have kindergarten .
SQ: Oh, no, sir.
WS: What was about the average age of starting school ,
about seven?
SQ : Six.
JS : What was the chief occupation , was it still the
r e finery?
SQ: Yes, roam, the refinery.
JS: And quite a bit of farming?
QUARLES
SQ: Yes , mam,
JS: Rice Farming?
SQ : Dairy farming.
8
JS: I suppose you've seen changes over the years in that.
SQ: Oh, yes, honey. Yes, mam.
We used to have Wallings, Terweys, and then Grandmother
Quarl es had a dairy out here at the airport.
JS:
SQ:
JS:
SQ :
WS:
city
SQ:
How many cows did she have , do you know?
Oh, no.
Was that a dairy farm or just ••• ?
It was a dairy farm.
Did they distribute the milk with the people in the
or • . • ?
They took their milk to Townsends Dairy in Port
Arthur.
WS : What was ther e ••. a bottling plant or something?
SQ: Yes, sir.
JS: Somewhere I read they had to take twice a day; had to
take the milk in to the creamery twice a day. Do you
remember that?
SQ: No. Now at first Grandmother Quarles bottled her milk
herself and then some kind of deal where they had to take it
down to Townsends in these big ten gallon cans.
JS: When they kept it at home, how did they keep it cool?
SQ: Well , they took it in the mornings and in the evenings,
I believe , I'm not sure.
WS: What did you do for your own refrigeration in your own
houses in those days?
QUARLES
SQ: I had a re frige rator when I moved here .
WS: An electric refrigrator?
9
SQ: Uh huh. One of those kind used to have that deal on
top.
MF: General Electric, I believe, had that.
WS: Were there any ice plants in the area?
SQ: Yes. Down across the track and one over here on Twin
City.
JF: Mr. rimes (Jiamaes ??) had one over here on the
Beaumont Highway.
SQ: There was three.
JF: And he used t o make ice and deliver it to the
refineries .
WS: What did they use it there for?
JF: For cooling drinking water and also in the laboratory.
WS: In those days did they get their water from the same
• • • ?
SQ: No, sir. Mr . Carrington ove r here had the water deal.
Do you rem ern ber ?
MF: We had a man who came in and was an independent ••. he
opened up a water supply; he was an independent dealer. He
was not connected with the city. But the city finally
bought him out and that was when we started having city
water . Wasn't it over there wher e the fire station is now?
JF: Right behind the fire station.
WS: This was water from the Neches river then?
SQ : I assume it was.
QUARLES
JF: That was well water .
SQ: Well; that's right.
WS: Have you any idea how fa r they had to go for this
water ? Several hundred feet, or ••• ?
10
Somebody commented earlier they though t it was around 300
feet t ha t they went.
JF: I know there have been same wells in ope ration in this
area for a number of years at about 300 feet ; between three
and four.
WS: Was there much rice fanning still going on when you got
in the area or was it pretty much ••• ?
SQ: I c ouldn' t answer that; I don 't know .
WS: This was about the time that •••
SQ: I was pretty busy raising seven children and two
grandchildren and taking care of cub scouts.
JS: Ot her than your house in the downtown a r ea , these
stores right by you, were t here many houses around here?
I'm thinking of t he school and .•• as big a complex as that
is now .
SQ: You mean t he school (Centra l J r . Hi School)? There was
a house there ; big two s t ory house , the Johnsons .
MF: My grandfather built that house.
JS: Were there many other houses right a r ound this
neighborhood?
SQ : In the back , yes . In the back , but not o n the ••• I t
used to be 435 Mai n Street , this add ress , and now i t ' s 1232
Boston .
QUARLES 11
JS: When did they change that, do you remember?
SQ: I told you, I can't remember. Mr Whelply brought my
number I know that. It's been a long time.
MF: Actually I think the streets have, the ir names have
been changed about three or four times.
WS: I notice going out to the airport ••• a different name
SQ: This was 435 Main. It's 1232 Boston. It started out
being named strasse. It had the Dutch name to
begin with. Had it on the post there.
WS: How do you spell that?
SQ: Heerenstraat .•. one crossing down there. Got two of
'em, this is the 13th here and they've got it named that
way, to.
MF: They have the Dutch name. We did t hat in 1982, when
the United States and Holland ce lebrated two hundred years
of diplomatic relationship and it was the longest continuous
trading held between the United States and some other
country.
SQ: You have 'em across the track, too.
MF: We put up all the Dutch names of the original townsite.
And we did that for the celebration . We had had them up
before the Diamond Jubilee in 1973 and at that time, we just
used wood ones a nd they rotted . But the ones a re up now are
just like the regular street signs. Metal.
JF: Of couse, the original Dutch names were on the o r iginal
p lat of the town. Sometime later, I have no idea when,
QUARLES 12
JF: names wer e changed and as Sammie says, it became Main
Street and others took more American type names. Then in
the early 1940s, the town was incorporated. The Lions Club
was the moving force behind getting the streets named and
numbered in logical sequence. So at that time, the streets
were given the names and numbers that they have now. And
the Lions Club put up markers on each intersection in town
as a civic project with the new names.
WS: How about the police and fire department?
SQ : They've been everywhere. The police was once out there
in that little building of mine.
WS: How many men were on the force then? A couple or •.. ?
SQ: I don't remember how many were on the ••• not too
many.
MF: When Pop Jensen was here (laughter ) he was the only
one.
WS: Firemen the same, I suppose •••
SQ : They had volunteers ••• complete. You remember when
they moved the old wooden post office over here across the
street? The police were in there and the city hall. The
the police moved over here. And out of here, they moved
down across the track over there in that old house, building
down there.
MF : That was Peterson 's building; I think they had lived
over there.
SQ : Yeah. Pete Peterson.
QUARLES 13
WS : Did you have a big garden in the early days?
SQ : No, sir, My boys was kinda minded on 4 -H Club calves.
We r a ised grand champions. They walked ' em up and down on
the driveway .
At that time the calves had to have a nurse cow and we
had a nurse cow. And we used to put 'em over there during
the day and stake ' em out where the old Chamber of Commerce
is.
WS: How rn uch land did you have here?
SQ: We had 2 blocks.
WS: You had two blocks.
SQ: Not two blocks; two lots.
WS: You were still able to . . . did you have to buy feed?
SQ: Oh yes. We had to feed ' em certain things.
little syrup in their feed every day.
WS : What breed of cow?
Put a
SQ: We liked mostly the Black Angus but we did have one
White Face. Every time we went to the Fair, the boys won
something. They were standin ' behind ' em makin ' 'em walk
all right.
WS: You speak of the Fair. Where was that held?
SQ : In Beaumont. The one that just finished in Beaumont.
WS: That's the State Fair then?
JF: Southeast Texas State Fair.
JS: Did they have fairs here in Nederland?
SQ: Remember the first one we had over here? That's about
the only one we ever had , wasn't it?
QUARLES 14
MF: Isn't that when Tex Ritter came back and he rode his
horse?
JF: He was here that year.
MF: We had a big parade on Nederland Avenue.
SQ: You know that's a highlight of my youngest daughter's
life is she got to hold Tex Ritter's horse there during •••
when they weren't quite ready for the parade. She got to
hold Tex's horse.
JS: Have there been many changes in this house since you 've
been in it? Have you added on to it?
SQ: Oh, yes, roam. It was only three roans. Like a little
shotgun house. You know what a shotgun house is? A lot of
changes. It wasn't like this when we got it, either.
JS: With seven children, what did you do? Add on as you
needed the space?
SQ: We did not build on to it . When it started out it was
just a small ••. but it has the same amount of roans. Now
in my kitchen there , of course the ceiling is over it now,
there is a place for a stove pipe.
WS: You said you had a stove pipe. What did you use f or
fuel?
SQ: we did not use that; we used gas.
WS: I see. What did the people prior to that, did they
burn wood of ....?
SQ: I don't know. Their name was Dubose. You remember the
Duboses?
MF: Well, in my home, we burned wood in the early days.
Had the wood stove.
QUARLES 15
WS: Did you have much forest around you then? Or did you
have to bring it in?
MF: It's amazing how many trees are here now. There were
no trees here at all when the first settlers came. It was
just marsh land.
SQ: This tree out here was about five years old, when we
moved here, this pecan tree . All the trees in the back,
which is very large is ones that we planted. And there's a
lot of trees in the back. People had to plant their own
trees. I don't know where the wood c ame from.
I read in the paper yesterday morning some fellow was
saying that this wasn't a country for pecan trees. It
wasn't the right ••• You read that?
MF : How came we have so many pecans? He ' s wrong.
JS: Did you go out of Nederland very often. I suppose you
had just about everything you needed right here. I was
thinking did you go to Beaumont very often for shopping or
?
SQ: We had a grocery store on the corner here, Gardners.
Had a drug store on the other corner , too. Church used to
be here , First Baptist. Ruth Vivrett used to ••. every time
she sees me , she tells me about how I used to starve her to
death. The girls would go in the morning, the children ...
of course no air condition in church or here either, the
windows open and I 'm cookin ' dinner.
JS: They could smell it.
(laughter)
SQ : Ruth tells me about that every time she sees me.
QUARLES 16
WS: Well, what did you do for ••• just open the doors and
windows and •••
SQ: Oh, yes. I want to tell you sanething else . Remember
the time they wanted us all to evacuate? we couldn't lock
our doors. We'd never locked 'em. And I can't get used to
it yet. I really can't. My children stay behind me, say,
"Mama, keep your doors locked." You see, I live alone "keep
the doors locked, Mama." And I can 't get used to that. Of
course, I really see they 're locked at night. There's
nobody downtown but Mrs. Forbes.
MF: The police are pretty close.
SQ: They take care of me. They're around, they're around.
JS: You've had quite a few hurricanes in this area, but
it's surprising, you've never been damaged by them. Was
this when you had to evacuate?
SQ: I didn't want to; my children made me. Jerry McNeill
was standing out there on the corner. (Jerry McNeill is
Civil Defense Coordinator)
JS: Have you had any damage here?
SQ: No, roam. I lost my pecan tree; I lost more 1 imbs than
normally in the summer. It's been pretty well thinned out.
But no damage whatever fran storms. I'm sittin ' in a pretty
good place. Church used to be here you see. And then the
Dale Hotel, there was nothing between me and the Dale. But
it was big, too.
JS: Were there lots of families around with children? In
the neighborhood?
QUARLES 17
SQ: Some in the back. Of course the people that lived
across the street, they only had one boy , Fortenberrys. No,
there weren't too many children downtown then.
JS: Your children must have been pretty busy with their
scouting and their 4H projects.
SQ: You keep 'ern busy , they stay out (of trouble). And
then even though I lived here and had all those children ,
they each one had a job. They graduated from one
dishwashing they'd go to something else . The youngest boy,
who i s a principal in Orange County Schools, he still talks
about how he graduated from washing dishes to mowing the
yard.
WS: You said the first telephone was where?
SQ: In Nederland Pharmacy.
WS: Just the one and you all had to go down there? To make
a call or something?
SQ : Anybody wanted anything or anybody had a message or
something, they ' d call Nederland Pharmacy and they'd send
somebody.
WS: Where was your Central , way up in Beaumont or
something?
SQ: I really don't remember. When they did put in the
telephone , the office used to be right down here on 12th.
MF: The number was number one for years; the drug store
number was one.
WS: You mean the phone number.
MF : The phone number. And then the Yentzen's Bakery was
six .
QUARLES 18
SQ: I remember them; boy it smelled good when he used to
bake.
MF: Well, tell a little bit about the drug store. You said
how you used to call and Gussie would tell you things.
SQ: When I couldn't get Dr. Hines and of course with that
many children , you do have emergencies, I was much younger
then, but I would call down there and if I couldn't get Dr.
Hines, he went around to your house then , I met him many
times at that door , made him tell me what was wrong with my
kids. He would came in and doctor 'em. Anyway, if I
couldn't get hold of him, Miss Gussie would help me out;
she'd tell me what to do.
WS: What were your first newspapers? Were they from
Beaumont? Or did you have your own local paper?
SQ: I don't remem be r ••• Over here was the first newspaper,
wasn't it Marie?
MF: I think Red Wilkerson may have had the first one, Port
Neches, but he served both
the Nederland Review here .
but then Alvin Barr started
SQ: Our first newspaper.
MF: Was called the Nederland Review , I believe.
WS: Was that a weekly?
SQ: Yes. Weekly.
JS : I 'd like to get back to the scouting program. You said
the boys were nine y ears old?
SQ: Yes. You could came into cub scouting when you were
nine years old. Later on they changed. it. It was from
QUARLES 19
SQ: nine to twelve. You were a boy scout then. Later on ,
they changed it from eight to eleven.
JS: Now I think it's even younger then t hat, isn' t it?
SQ: I really don't know. I've been out of it so long. I
had a nice little invitation yesterday from the Elliots.
Mike is going ••• his daddy used to be my cub scout leader.
And Sibyl sent me an invitation not long ago.
MF: What's he going to do?
SQ: Get his Eagle Scout. Court of Honor. It used to be
that if you were an Eagle Scout, I had a Texas Ranger to
tell me one time that he had never picked up anyone that had
ever been an, that was, an Eagle Scout. And all his years
that he'd been in it, many a day. If an Eagle Scout
slipped, the pape rs sure do hang it up.
WS: That reminds me, where was your jail in those days?
Have a regular police department?
JS: You didn't have a jail?
SQ: No. They had a little old deal down there in Port
Neches but I don't think any Nederland folks ever got in
it.
MF: I think if they had to take anyone to jail , they t ook
them to the County jail in Beaumont.
SQ: Well, they still have to do that. We don't have a
jail.
JS: Is t here anything in the scouting program , any
projects, or any special year that you remember over the
others?
QUARLES 20
SQ: Well, there was one thing I rem ember. There was one
achievment in the cub scouts that you had to do your part in
your home, your church, and your school or you didn't get
that arrow. It was a silver arrow. After they got their
badge, they had one gold a rrow and you could get as many
silver as you did achievments. But you do your part in your
home, in your church, and school. And next to your church,
scouting builds characters. I say it every time.
JS: Do you have any one scout that's outstanding that you
can think of?
SQ: Well, I have one, Berthold Spencer's a doctor and then
I have one, Tommy Hanna's a lawyer in Beaumont and Wendell
Radford is a judge in Beaumont. Right now I can't think of
any others but I know there are .•• they all done good.
WS: What church did you attend?
SQ: First Baptist.
\vS: Is that a member of the Southern Convention?
SQ: Yes .. They were here then. Big old two story building.
WS: Several pastors have been there since you •••
SQ: Oh, yes, very much. Now when I got my grandchildren,
they needed a little extra help so I sent ' em down here to
the mission with Brother James and then when they built the
Seventh Street, they wanted to go over there. At that time,
I couldn't go because I had Euwell, Jr., this oldest boy was
an invalid. When he died, well then I started down here. I
changed my membership because they wanted to stay there.
MF: That's where you go now, Sammie, Seventh Street?
QUARLES 21
SQ: Smaller , too. I was telling Sibyl when I was sitting
in that auditorium when the lady came from the historical
deal to speak .• • this is a far cry from that other
auditorium. You know we used to have our Pack meetings in
that little building in between. But on Scout Sunday, we
met in the church. And she said the eight boys got through
(laughter)
WS: I want to get back to this heating, cooking. Did you
use gas for basically everything?
SQ: Yes.
WS: You had electric light but you used gas for ...
Up north, we had to use kerosene. I wondered , there
wasn't much use for kerosene around here probably in those
days. Maybe you had a different name for it.
JS: Gas was so ••• you had so much gas didn't you?
SQ: When Southern Union came in down here ••• what year was
that?
MF: I don't remember. But e lectricity and gas both came
fairly .•• I think in the early 30s.
JF: Nederland had both gas and electricity when I first
came here in 1934. I asked someone this earlier, but did
this rural electrification that Franklin Roosevelt •.. did
that give ... you didn 't need it?
SQ: We already had it.
WS: In the area I come from, there were so many remote
farms , couldn't afford to put it ••• finance
MF: Gulf States used to be across the track over there. I
worked over there.
QUARLES 22
WS: You say you worked at what again, please?
MF: I worked at Gulf State Utilities. That's where you
said your son worked, wasn't it?
JS: Yes. They are in Louisiana
WS: St. Francis. They're building a nuclear plant there.
JS: We 're jumping around, it seems like, this morning. I'd
like to get back to the stores that were here. You said
that there were two drug stores and a department store. Of
course, now, same of them are empty . But there must have
been stores like the milliners that you don't see at all?
Ladies hats? Were there any of them? Of course, I think
when you came, that was in about 1936 when you came ••• so
that really wasn't that far back.
WS: Did you have a shoe shop?
SQ: Yeah, Minoldi's. Always been here.
JS: They're still there now then?
SQ: Yes .
WS: Did you have a bakery in town?
SQ: Across the street, where the Dollar Store was . The
building belongs to Rienstras. The man that lived across
the street over there had a bakery - Yentzen.
WS: Was a blacksmith still here or were they pretty much
gone when you •.• ?
SQ: I don 't think so.
MF: They were gone.
JS: What stores were here that are vacated now; what stores
were in there?
QUARLES 23
SQ: Until lately. We had a sewing machine shop owned by
the Caldwells. How many years was that ther e? And then you
know all these buildings wasn't here. All this back this
way where the Thompson Florist is now, it used t o be just a
little kind of a shack and the Rackleys had their cleaning
and pressing shop there. Then Jack For tenberry lived in the
house across the street over here. And then we had the
Yentzen's bakery. Across the street you had Gardner's
grocery. And the r e was same vacant places in there, too.
MF: That big brick building, I think, was vacant for a long
time. That's where
SQ: Now that McNeill store down here, now that's
historica l. The one on the corner her e. And then you
didn't have anything between here and the drug store,
Cammack's.
MF: Was Kamatz on the side of the street as Nederland
Pharmacy? They weren't here very long, were they?
SQ: They came after Nederland Pharmacy, after we moved
here.
WS: How do you spell that Kamatz?
MF: Cammack, I think.
WS: That was a chain or just a ••• ?
MF: No, just an individual.
MF: No chains. It was a long time before we had any chain
operations in Nederland.
JS: In 1936, I suppose the roads were paved, most of them.
SQ: No out here, they weren't.
QUARLES 24
JF: They were still shell at that time.
SQ: And when they widened the street, they put in the
sewer, you remember. First we had an outside toilet, then
septic tank •• . my hole is sinkin ' out there now , where the
kids didn't fill it in too good ••. and then we had a ...
you remember it was such a mess. Seemed like they tried to
do it when the weather was bad. I don't know. But when
they widened the streets , that's when they paved the
streets.
JS: And that was probably just the main streets.
WS: This was in the late 30s , probably?
SQ: Oh , I told you I couldn't remember.
MF: It was paved part way; it wasn't very wide. They tore
down that building that roy grandfather built and opened
Boston Avenue up to the High School. It's the junior high
now.
WS: I would like to ask a quick one on this shell which is
a little bit new to us. Was this pretty durable; wouldn't
rut out too badly if it rained?
JF: It was oyster shell. I t would wash out and get big
chug holes.
SQ: It would smell, too.
JF: It didn't hold up well at all. They had to keep
continually filling up the holes. Replacing it.
MF: Between 1910, I think, and 1925, we had quite a few
shell contractors. And they would get the contract to put
the shell in.
QUARLES 25
SQ: And what we have out there now ..• they put that down;
was it this year or last year? This year, they put this
asphalt down.
JS: Where do they get so many oyster shells?
JF: Out of the Gulf. We're just 30 miles from the Gulf.
There are a lot of oyster reefs along the shores.
JS: I didn't know but what somebody had a business that
they sold oysters and then the shells •••
JF: They dredged for the shells and hauled them in here on
the railroad; gondola cars. The first day's work I ever did
out there in Pure Oil Company was unloading a load of
shell.
SQ: Know what my husband did? Pulled coke 18 months,
straight nights.
JF: Now that makes an interesting discussion as to how the
refineries used to operate back in the early days.
SQ: And the kids was little ••• ooh he had
JF : When you first came here, were there a lot of cars in
1936?
SQ: Not too many. Everybody didn't have a car like they do
now.
JS: A lot of horses or ...
SQ: No, no.
JS: I suppose the t own was so small they could get •.•
MF: From 1913 to about 1932, I think it was, the e lectric
company, which later became the Gulf States, it wasn't at
that time. It was Eastern Electric I think. They ran an
QUARLES
MF: interurban between Beaumont and Port Arthur . That
station was jrust right down here j~st a little bit.
26
SQ: You know when she said cars, before I thought of that,
that little Ford truck Mr. Terwey used to drive .
MF: I have a picture of that.
SQ: You do?
MF: Uh huh. Martha gave me one day not long ago and I had
same copies of it made. She wanted to send some to her
relatives and I kept a copy fo r the museum. The Terwey
Dairy 1921 Ford t ruck.
JS: Your husband, when he worked at the refinery , did you
have a car?
SQ: Yes, marn.
JS: I was wondering how they would get back and forth to
work. How far is that from here?
SQ: They call it Union Oil now. How far is it, Jack?
JF: About three miles.
SQ: Jeffereson Chemical is
JF: J efferson Chemical is five or six.
SQ: And of course , during the war , he had to go to the
shipyard when he was Outfitting Superintendent out there.
For the mine sweepers .
JS: That was in Port Arthur?
SQ: No marn . That was in Beaumont.
WS: One quick question on your train schedule. You run
passenger service from Port Arthur up to •.• ?
SQ: It was down here but that has been cut out now.
QUARLES
WS: In the old days, did they run mail and passenger
train?
27
SQ: They run a passenger train from Port Arthur to Beaumont
and it went on in to Louisiana.
MF: It went all the way to Kansas City.
WS: Was it on a twice a day run or ••• do you know?
MF: I think there was only passenger service. Once a day
going out and once a day coming in. And you know that old
whistle still blows at five o'clock every morning.
SQ: I heard it this morning.
MF: Flagged down the train. It did not stop here unless
there were passengers getting on.
SQ: Who used to be the agent down here?
MF: Mr . Hackworth was for a l ong tim e , then Mr. Brown.
SQ: Like I said, I can't remember names and dates too much
anymore. You knew when the train came in and you knew when
it went out because, if there was somebody to get off, it
stopped and if there was somebody to get on, they flagged
it.
WS: Most of your produce was brought in probably by train.
There weren't many trucks running around bringing stuff in.
SQ: I just don't rem ember.
MF: We had a lot of truck farming in the area then. People
with gar dens that were larger than they needed for their own
families. They would just load their produce on their
trucks or a wagon and just sell it from house to house.
JS: So you didn't s hip anything in like that.
MF: Not too much in the early days. I think everything was
QUARLES 28
MF: pretty self- contained.
SQ: We had a lot of space, too. That's mostly why we had
gardens. We canned . I know we had a garden out here one
time. With a
WS: What did you raise mainly? Corn? Peas?
SQ : Tomatoes and peas, butter beans and radishes, onions,
potatoes.
WS: Irish potatoes or ••• ?
SQ: Yes sir. Too much room for sweet potatoes to run.
WS: Peanuts never got in to this area?
SQ: No. I had a little bunch out in the back one time.
JS: Marie, can you think of anything that we should bring
out?
MF: I can't think of anything right now.
JS: Samm ie, do you have anything? Sometimes we skip over
what's on your mind that's inter esting and that you would
like to tell us.
MF: Sammie, did all of your children stay pretty close
here?
SQ : Well, I have one in Orange, the principal over there.
Last year Opal married George Beard. He was elected State
Teacher's President. She moved to Austin. Tessie lives out
in Cheek on a quarter horse ranch. One of the boys lives in
Vidor and I have one that lives in Indian Springs.
MF: I didn ' t realize that Charles Bear d was your
son-i n-l aw .
SQ: He was born down there right across from the high
school.
QUARLES
MF: Is that Doris and Bill?
SQ : Charles had no brothers or s iste rs .
JF : That ' s another Beard.
WS: Quarles name, what is that ••• ?
29
SQ: That's Scotch-Irish. Down in Tennessee you find a lot
of them there. I had a good name for that name, Harris.
When I tel l you my name , I j!ust start spellin ' .
JS: How abou the population here? Most of them were Dutch
when you came into the area?
SQ: Yes mam. A lot of them's gone.
MF: There were just a few years that the Dutch were
predominate. It wasn't long before there were a lot more
people of other nationalities.
SQ: The Yentzen ' s that lived across ••• they were French.
A lot of French people.
JS: I understand that t here were.
SQ: I don 't think they had any more to do with building
Nederland than I did and I've been here 50 years.
END OF TAPE I, Side 1, 45 minutes.