Mr. Willie Backloupe

“Mr. Willie, affectionately called by almost everybody, was born just two years after the Civil War, in a little frame house just across the street from the Schumacher Oil Works. That enterprise had not been born yet, but Henry Schumacher, its founder, had a shop in the same location, where he manufactured doors, window sashes and other items in woodwork.”

That is how Maurine Chinski began her story of Will Backloupe in her Navasota Bluebonnet book published posthumously in 1954 by the local Chamber of Commerce.

Mr. Willie grew up and lived his life in Navasota, not as a founder of a bank, or a giant business, but as a man who became beloved of almost every citizen in the city and area. Usually, it is mostly successful businessmen, politicians, and powerful citizens that are written about. Mr. Willie caught Chinski’s eye as she wrote about him in Chapter XIII of the Bluebonnet book about earliest settlers and “Some Landed Gentry of Early Days.” Willie was a common man about town who became dearly beloved.

Willie was born in 1867, shortly after the Civil War, to parents Joseph and Mary Francis (Abernathy) Backloupe. There were only private schools in Navasota at the time so at about the age of seven Willie was sent to Miss Mattie Cone’s private school. He claimed that Miss Mattie was a perfect “virago.” (A domineering, violent, ill-tempered woman.)

Chinski writes that Willie found Miss Mattie “cross and crabby and pounced upon the children for the slightest infraction.” She once forced Willie to kneel upon hard peas for hours that almost paralyzed him so that he “hobbled” home angering his mother. His next teacher was Mrs. Miller, who was the mother of Mrs. R. A. Horlock, Sr. Willie adored her for the rest of her life.

Willie would graduate from the Atchison Institute in Navasota as the highest-ranking pupil to receive the Peabody medal. It was a huge bronze medal that was yearly awarded to honor pupils by the Peabody Institute of Memphis, Tennessee. Other members of Willie’s class included Ed Ahrenbeck and Jennie Vickers.

As Willie grew up he took up painting and decorating as his profession. He first worked for Schumacher and one of Willie’s first jobs was painting some very heavy blinds that Schumacher made for the first Methodist Church that was built in 1875. The church was a long wooden building with many windows. The blinds were so heavy that Willie could scarcely handle them without help.

At one time streets would be so bad during wet weather that once a huge hole developed on Washington Avenue. One was so deep that Chinski states a wagon was submerged in front of Ernest Perry’s business. She tells that Willie made a “no fishing” sign for it and the next day, then Mayor Charles Stewart, had several loads of crushed rock dumped into the hole for safety.

Chinski also mentions that Willie was part of a Navasota baseball team that was second to none winning many brilliant victories all over this part of the state. Some of the great players were Willie Blackloupe, along with Ollie Preston, Bobbie Horlock, Lewin Brigance, and the star of the team, Virgil Garvin, who became a major leaguer.

Willie also became a member of the Navasota Guards that was reportedly the first militia to enter Galveston after the devastating 1900 hurricane.

Willie, a beloved Navasota citizen, lived to 1961 at the age of 93-94. He was buried in the Oakland Cemetery along with his parents and two siblings, Robert E. Lee Backloupe, 1873-1875, and Beulah E. (Backloupe) Blackshear, 1880-1970; as well as a half-sibling, Emmett M. Backloupe, 1869-1943.

Written by Betty Dunn, Two Rivers Heritage Foundation. See www.tworiversheritagefoundation.org for more info and membership.