Person Page - 244

Family History
By: Helen Cramer Shurtleff

My mother died before I was three years old, so I never had many stories about her youth and family. My father married when I was 16 yrs old, so that all my earlier memories and associations cluster around him and his mother who lived with us and brought us up. My sister, Ann, was twenty-two months younger than I, and twins, boy and girl were born just before mother died. They only lived five months, but were a very vivid memory in my young life.

The greatest influence on both my sister and myself, was our Grandmother, my Father’s Mother who as I said came to live with him and became a real mother to us both. She had a most interesting and varied life. Her father –Anderson owned a very large plantation where the city of Montgomery, Alabama is today. My Great-Grandfather’s wife died when my grandmother was a child, and he remarried – a widow, with two girls. My Grandmother whom my sister and I called Mother said that her father’s new wife was always just and never unkind, but was absolutely lacking in emotion and suggestion of loving interest. Mother, my grandmother, was very beautiful, had a wonderful complexion, and deep violet eyes. Her hair was black and naturally curly. Her hair turned white-silver, before she was twenty years of age. No one ever knew why, but she was lovely with her exquisite silver hair.

In telling me of her youth, Mother said that as early as she could remember she wanted to study, and as she grew older had set her heart on going to college, or an advanced girl’s school. Her father had no sympathy with this feeling on her part, as he had the old fashioned idea that women should be charming and beautiful, a gracious hostess and able to direct and control the slaves, and see that everything was done in the most beautiful manner.

She told me once a story which exemplified this attitude of the Southern Gentleman. She said that a group of young people in their teens were taking a long horse-back ride, when a severe storm burst over them. They were soon soaked, and still miles from home. One of the group, a young man, suggested that they were not far from the home of a friend of his. The owners were away, but he suggested that they break a window and get into the house, so as to get dry, and wait out the storm. They all agreed to do this and soon they were in the house where the boys of the party built up a roaring fire. They all thought it was a great fun until they began to get hungry, when one of them suggested that he go out and kill a chicken, if one of the girls could cook it! One girl said that she could, and “Mother” after looking in the kitchen announced that a big bag of rice was there. “I can cook rice which we can have with the chicken. “Mother” was uncertain how much rice to use, but decided that a cup a piece would be about right. But to Mother’s horror the pot of rice began to expand and spill over, so she had to scurry around and find all the pots and pans available to accommodate the expanding rice. At least they sat down to the table, and one of the boys suggested that he carve the chicken. But, alas, one plunge of the knife was enough! The girl hadn’t realized that she had to do anything to the chicken’s interior!

When my Grandmother was 18 years old, she met a young northerner, ten years her senior, who had just graduated from Union College, N.Y., and was on his first trip, south. He fell madly in love with “Mother”, at once, and they were married shortly afterward. Her husband’s sister told me when I was a girl, that when Mother came as a bride to the town in New York State where her husband lived, that everyone was entranced by the beauty of the bride. A beauty, which remained with her during her entire life. When she was in her seventies, she and I were on the elevated (she may have meant elevator) in New York City, when I noticed a distinguished old gentleman who sat across the aisle from us, looking repeatedly in our direction. As Mother was deaf, I thought I must have been speaking too loudly. The old gentleman in his tall silk hat and gray striped trousers, got off when we did. He came up to us, raising his hat, and said to me “Is the lady with you, your grandmother? I answered, “Yes” she was. He answered, “In a long life, I have never seen anyone more beautiful”, raised his hat and departed.

Mother’s husband had fallen in love with the south and wanted to make it his home in the future, so they went to Houston, Texas, where he went into business, and where their four children, three boys and a girl were born. Before Mother was thirty, he died suddenly leaving her to bring up her four children, alone. In the meantime her Father’s wife had died, and he had become interested in the new country, Texas. Traveling there he had been interested and impressed by a certain district, the Brazos Delta, where the river overflowed every spring, leaving behind a priceless gift of rich earth. I have since read that this part of the land around the river, was next in richness to the valley of the Nile – the richest land in the world. In any event my Great-grandfather Anderson, became fascinated with the future potential of this land, and bought large holdings there. He then told his family that he had decided to sell his Alabama plantation, and move to Texas. He told his daughter, my grandmother, he wanted her to go with him, and be his hostess. But Mother did not feel that she should do this, and told her father that she did not feel it would be right to take her four children where there were few opportunities in the way of education. Her father insisted that she go with him, and when she refused, he became very angry and said he would disinherit her, which he did, cutting her entirely out of his will. Mother in the meantime took the children and came to Poughkeepsie, New York, where there was talk of a wonderful new college for girls, which was to be started soon. When the college opened, her daughter Elizabeth entered the first class of Vassar College, the boys were put into Military school until they were ready for Dartmouth College.

In the meantime my Great Grandfather, moved to Texas, with his two sons, and was known as one of the pioneers. A monument to Great-Grandfather Anderson was established in the part of the country he helped to make famous. Just out of Austin, Texas. My grandmother’s two brothers acted very differently when the death of their father revealed the cruel treatment of their sister. One of them shared at once his inheritance while the other one did not do anything, and his family became one of the wealthiest in the state. When the second brother died, his widow who was very beautiful married Judge Turrell and afterwards sent as minister to Turkey, where they had a beautiful yacht and a very interesting and exciting life.¹