Koeltzow Family in Grimes County (Part 5)
“Our first year at White Hall was a good one production wise, but the price of cotton was down, and after paying the ground rent there was not much left. Yet we did not suffer since we had milk cows, chickens, hogs, and vegetable.”
Young Otto goes on to tell that farming changed somewhat for us in 1892. “That year horse traders started bringing in horses and mules from west Texas and New Mexico. If the farmers couldn’t pay for a team of horses or a mule, they would take oxen in exchange. These were wild animals that had to be broke. The boys enjoyed taking on the challenge despite bruises and some broken bones.
This change of animals also brought a German harness maker into the community, as well as the Huntsville prison soon opened a saddle, harness and wagon shop. They made fine equipment that sold for less than the German harness maker.
“Huntsville prisoners were also leased by the state to big landowners. Most were used for clearing timber to open farmland. One proprietor four miles from our place had 200 prisoners. The guards bought eggs and butter from us, and I made deliveries to the camps every night. It was an interesting trip, as the guards frequently gave me a quarter or so extra.
“One of our best cotton years was 1897, the forest furnished logs for practically all our buildings and by 1890 sawmills moved into the south Texas forest with some land-owning farmers building substantial two-story homes from sawn lumber. Tenant farmers bought the low-grade lumber for from two to three dollars a load that could be pulled out of the sawmill with one yoke of oxen.”
“When we arrived at White Hall, there was no Lutheran Church. In the fall of 1894, two additional German families settled in the community. We decided to build a church and persuaded Pastor Herman Forster, the pastor of Cedar Creek Church, 15 miles away to take the church. When we had gathered from here and there lumber and other materials, the men set to work on five acres donated by C. B. Stoneham. In a few short weeks we had erected a structure that contained, besides a 20-by- 30-foot room for a church and school, four rooms for Pastor Forster and his family.
August Meinike, the railroad station master agent, managed to purchase lumber from a local mill at a substantial saving, and the railroad company donated 15% of the freight from the mill to Yarborough Station, where we hauled it to the church site. In no time we had finished, besides the church and parsonage, a smokehouse, stable, and chicken house.
“It was a happy day when we moved Pastor Forster and his family to White Hall. The ladies prepared a big supper and we celebrated. The following Sunday, right after worship, we had the first business meeting. My father, Ludwig Koeltzow, was elected elder, Frank Lang, treasurer and secretary and Ludwig Mett, Carl Voelter and Fred Weber as trustees. Pastor Forster salary was set at $360 per year with each church member providing the customary bundles of corn, bales of hay and two bushels of corn for the pastor’s horses and chickens during the year.”
Soon the church was also a community center for recreation with the highlight being a Christmas Eve program as well as picnics. The young people organized a local Walther League group. A youth event at the Lutheran Church in Navasota with Washington County youngsters led to young Otto meeting a girl who would become his wife.
Next, we conclude the Koeltzow’s family ties to Grimes County. (Koeltzow Biography & Sandbar by Betty Dunn, Two Rivers Heritage Foundation. Go to www.tworiversheritagefoundation.org for more info and membership.