An Autobiography of Edward Miller Carl, Jr.

May 15, 1909 - Jan 27, 1987

First printed at Christmas 1987; Updated with additional photos Jan 2007

Part 1

1909-1940

Editorial Note

This autobiography is a compilation of three documents. The first, written in ink, was entitled Preliminary Draft of an Autobiography and was composed at an unknown date. The second was a pencil draft entitled An Outline for a Biographical Summary of The Life of Edward Miller Carl, Jr. which he began on November 15 and finished on November 24, 1982. According to a note in the text, this draft was for an audio tape he recorded concerning the major events of his life. (I have not located any such tape.) It was the most complete of the resource documents. The third source was a copy of the Grandparent Book which he received from Beverly Beall for Christmas, 1983, in which he answered specific questions about his history. In combining the information from these documents, I have occasionally used brackets to indicate words taken from other sources. Regular text is from his writing; editorial comments and photo captions are in italics.

I was born May 15, 1909, near Pettys Chapel, in Navarro Co., Texas, [in an oilfield] approximately 3 miles East of Corsicana, Texas where my father was in charge of pumping and gauging the production from 12 oil wells, on my uncle, Tom Carl's farm. My father and mother lived in a house which was located in the back-pasture of the farm.

A photo of Tom and Eva Carl and their children

In 1964, Ed went back to Navarro County and visited his birthplace

My full name is Edward Miller Carl, Jr. I was named after my father. The Miller in the name was to perpetuate the family name of my Grandmother Carl's maternal Grandfather, Robert Richardson Miller of Missouri. I have been called Eddie by my family and relatives all of my life, but I would have preferred to be called Edward or Ed.

My father, Edward Miller Carl, Sr. was born Dec 25, 1881, in Arkansas. He was quiet, reserved, thrifty and very intelligent.

Edward Miller Carl, circa 1903

Euna and Ed Carl on their wedding day, April 13, 1906

He married my mother, Euna Ellerfair Posey, on April 13, 1906. She was born July 2, 1888 in the Rural Shade Community of Navarro Co., Texas. My father told me that he and my mother took a train to Houston, in Harris Co., Texas, where they were married.

The marriage certificate of Ed and Euna Carl, April 13, 1906

From there, they then traveled by train to the Beaumont area, where my father secured employment on an oil drilling rig. This was during the early boom days of the nearby Spindletop Oil Field. My father also told me that he eventually left this employment because of his fear of the effect of the sulphuric gas produced by the wells in the Spindletop Oil Field.

He and my mother apparently returned to Corsicana, where my father took charge of pumping and gauging the oil wells, on Uncle Toms Farm. And sometime thereafter, I was born.

Left: Ed Carl at six weeks in June 1909; photo taken by Chalmers studio, Corsicana.

Ed Carl at three months in August 1909.

Following the discovery of oil in Navarro Co., in 1906, Corsicana soon became a center for the production of oil field equipment, the most important of which was the development of the first rotary drilling rig, which was much faster than the old-style Spudder, which had long been in use. This system employed the use of cable tools, where a long and heavy pipe barrel was raised and dropped to cut through under-ground formations.

On the back of this photo postcard is written: "On donkey E. M. Carl, Jr. Picture taken on Minnies birthday 12/7/10 Left to right Marie and Eva Seton Corsicana, Tex Dec 7, 1910. Age of E.M.C, Jr 18 mos & 7 days" The Seton girls were obviously babysitting Ed while his mother gave birth to Minnie.

The house in Corsicana where Minnie was born in 1910. Photo taken in 1964.

Since my sister, Minnie was born on 1st Street, in Corsicana, December 7, 1910, it is evident that my father and mother had moved into town, after my father had taken a new job with the Johnson and Akins plant which fabricated oil field equipment. [In the 1910 US census Ed, Euna (listed as Enna E Carl) and Ed Jr were living in Justice Precinct 1, Navarro, Texas. He was listed as an engineer at a pumping plant.]

Ed Carl ca. 1910 or 1911

Corsicana ca. 1910

Photo - http://www.rootsweb.com/~txnavarr/business/oil_industry/photos_oil_wells_in_corsicana.htm

Photo of Minnie and Ed, probably taken in 1911

Eddie and Minnie Carl 4-30-1912, 308 East 1st Avenue, Corsicana, Texas

I have no recollection of the events during the 1st year of my life. However in later years I learned that my mother thought that Dr. Shell, who delivered me and my sister, Minnie, was a fine doctor. I remember being weighed in a diaper with hand-scales over a double bed when I was 18 months old. I remember falling over the bannister of our front porch into a pile of bricks when I was 3 years old. I do not remember the year that my father and mother moved from 1st Street to another place, in the south part of Corsicana; but, I do vividly remember that my father had opened a grocery store, in the new location, and that my mother was in charge of the store, while my father was employed in a new job. I also vividly remember that, while we lived in this location, my father and mother had a well-fed and beautiful white horse, named Jessie, and that he was used to pull a fancy buggy, which had a white parasol with yellow fringe on it.

I also remember two other things which occurred, during our residence at this location. One was the removal of my adenoids and tonsils on our kitchen table after I had been immobilized by an application of chloroform, but it required 4 people to hold me down while the chloroform was administered. I do not remember the therapy administered to me after this operation. Judging from a photo I have in my files, I was probably 5 or 6 years of age at the time of this operation which would have been in 1914 or 1915.

The other was the daily delivery of fresh meat for our store. It was delivered by a man who stood on the rear step of a sing-horse-drawn two-wheeled cart. The meat was carried in a full-width cargo box, in front of the driver. There was no ice used to keep meat fresh.

Minnie and Ed Carl ca. 1913-14

Ed, Minnie and Euna Carl ca.1913-1914. Euna was an excellent seamstress and probably made the clothes the children are wearing in the photos above.

Since my sister Minnie and I were then approx. 4 and 5 years old, it is evident that America was approaching involvement in World War I. I do not know whether my father was then still employed at the foundry and fabrication plant of the Johnson and Akins Oil Well supply plant, or whether he had already taken a job in the Corsicana Post Office.

According to a job application Ed Carl, Sr. filled out years later, he indicated that he had graduated from high school and from June 1903 to September 3, 1909 he had done oil field work for Dr. S. W. Johnson, from 1909 until 1913 he was the owner of a grocery store in Corsicana and from 1913 to May 26, 1919 he had worked as a clerk in the post office. We have a copy of the Statement of Case Examination for the United States Post Office in Corsicana for Ed Carl, Sr. He handled 1000 cards with only 5 misthrown, 99 1/2 % correct, in 31 minutes - a very fine showing was noted in the remarks.

My father was a cripple, one leg was shorter than the other. When my grandfather and grandmother were moving their family, from Arkansas to Texas in 1885 they stopped to camp in Dennison, Texas, near the Oklahoma line. It must have been during the winter-time, since my father slipped on ice and broke a leg. The only doctor my grandfather could find was a railroad doctor who set my fathers broken leg improperly, and as time went on, the tragedy of this became increasingly evident as my father grew into maturity.

The Corsicana Post Office. When EM Carl, Sr. registered for the draft in WWI in 1917, he noted on the form he was working as a postal clerk.

So, with the evident approach of World War I, and the anticipated involvement of American in it, the Draft began to deplete the number of younger employees in the Corsicana Post Office and, sometime prior to our involvement in that War, my father became a Post Office employee since he was a cripple and therefore not acceptable for military duty.

A photocopy of a photograph of postal workers in Corsicana. Ed Carl, Sr. is probably at the far right.

Either before, or soon after, this employment, my father and mother left their home and store in South Corsicana, and moved into a rented house on Collins Street, which was situated about 3 or 4 blocks from the local post office, in downtown Corsicana.

This is a view of Collin and Beaton Street in Corsicana ca. 1917.

The photo is from http://www.rootsweb.com/~txnavarr/towns/corsicana/beaton_street/beaton_street_photographs_1.jpg.htm

While we lived at that location, a number of memorable events occurred. In the Fall of 1916 I entered Sam Houston elementary school, which was only two blocks from our house. While in the first grade, I was spanked with a ruler, but I never knew what I had done to warrant the punishment. My mother was furious and wanted to go have it out with my teacher the next day, but instead I received another whipping from my father and my mother did not go to fuss at the teacher.

A photo of a group of students from Sam Houston Elementary. The banner by the right lamppost says, Houston School Thrift Club. The banner by the doorway says Houston School 100% Thrift Club.

A close-up of the Houston School photo showing a boy who might be Ed Carl.

By this time America had joined with Allied forces in the World War I in Europe and, when not in school, I would walk the few blocks to the down-town area, where I could watch the Troop Trains come in and leave town. I was fascinated by this since I was, even then, obsessed with patriotic fervor. Later, and the War in Europe continued I one day went to see my father at the Post Office where he worked, and on the Loading Dock, there was a tagged German helmet with a deep dent in it, as if it had been struck with the butt end of a rifle. The sight of the helmet really excited my youthful imagination and my patriotic fervor was intensified even more.

On the back of the photo above was written, "Edward Carl Jr. and B.W. Vining, Jr. in Corsicana, Tex circa 1916-1917. EMC, Jr age approx 7 or 8 years. B.W., son of Baptist Minister of Collins Street Baptist Ch. Note: The cap & knickers, std boys dress for the times."

Our Home, at that time, was situated across an alley from the First Baptist Church. The Pastor and his wife had two children, a daughter and a son. Their daughter, Lula Ben, was a lovely blonde, whom I adored. Her much younger brother, B.W. was about my age and we were buddies. Ben Vining and I were inseparable. We rode our tricycles together and played in the church. The church had a metal roof and I cans till remember the night of November 11, 1918, when word was received that an Armistice had been signed to end the War in Europe. People seemed to go wild with joy and many started to fire shotguns, rifles and pistols. When the spent bullets and shotgun pellets began falling on the metal roof of the Church, it sounded like a hailstorm.

http://www.rootsweb.com/~txnavarr/religion/first_baptist_church_corsicana/first_baptist_church_photos.htm

A photograph of the First Baptist Church in Corsicana. In the autobiography, Ed said that was the church of which the father of his friend was pastor. But on the back of the photo of BW and him, he said it was the Collins Street Baptist Church. First Baptist is on Collins Street so that explains the confusion over the name.

Another photo showing Ed in knickers, holding his cloth hat, sitting between Minnie and Ed Sr. This was probably taken around 1918.

During these few years, I had a bantam rooster whom I called Boots because he had feathers on his legs, and in addition, I had several bantam hens. Boots and the hens were of the Seabright variety and I thought they were beautiful with their black and white speckled feathers. My sister, Minnie and I also had an orange-colored cat which we called Snookums. He unfortunately came to an unhappy end one day when he had a fit and ran into the fire in our fireplace.

Photo of Seabright birds from http://mileskimball.resultspage.com/search?p=Q&ts=custom&w=geese

I have still other memories of those times, such as when our street was paved and when I first saw a 1-cylinger, chain-driven car which was cranked from the side. [In a 1979 interview, he said it was a Brush automobile.]

http://americanhistory.si.edu/ONTHEMOVE/collection/object_1320.html

Photo of one cylinder, side-cranked 1912 Brush runabout

But the crowning event, in those years, came in the early part of 1919, soon after the War in Europe was over, and while I was in the 3rd grade in school. One day, during our Morning Recess, when most of the boys and girls were playing out on the school grounds, a low-flying airplane came over. It was the first one I had ever seen and since the pilot appeared to [be] approaching for a landing, it was too much of a temptation for many of us boys. We just took off and many of us were able to hitch a ride on automobiles which were also heading to the expected landing spot.

This might be the kind of plane Ed saw in 1919.

Photo from http://www.pilotfriend.com/aircraft%20performance/dehavilland/dehav.htm

I got to see and touch the plane, after it landed in a pasture several miles from town and then I caught another ride back to town and to school, while wondering what was to happen to me for leaving school. That afternoon, I and all of the other boys who had followed the plane were assembled in a school room, where we [were] given a severe lecture but no punishment. I have long suspected that our principal very wisely realized that the temptation had been too great for us to resist.

In an interview in 1979, Ed said the plane was a DeHaviland bi-plane with a Liberty motor and wooden propeller. He also remembered that even though he didn't get in trouble at school, when he got home he got 'worked over' by his father who used a quirt, a whip with a leather thong at the end. Sometimes his father would hit him with his leather shaving strap, but Ed said that didn't hurt as much as the whip.

This photograph of Ed, Minnie, Ed Jr and Euna Carl was probably taken in 1918 or 1919, immediately before the separation and divorce.

This phase of my early childhood years in Corsicana soon thereafter came to an end in April, 1919, when my father and mother separated, and my father took my sister, Minnie, and me with him. I was 9 and Minnie was 7. My sister and I were too young to realize the long-term effect of this event, however in later years we became increasingly aware of what it had denied us of family unity and love. It has accounted for my violent opposition to broken families, when there are children in the family. The children are the ones who suffer most.

The first two pages of a poignant letter written by Eddie Carl to his mother on April 28, 1919, less than a month before his 10th birthday on May 15. Euna had gone to visit her ill mother, but it was also the month Ed later said his father and mother separated. The visit might have also been the beginning of the separation. The mother of Euna died that year, possibly after this illness. In the letter Eddie says, "Dear Mother, I will write you a few lines to let you know that I am all right and hope you will be home in a few days because I am getting lonesome and I don't know what I would do if I didn't have a Father and mother. We got your letter today and I was surprised when I found out you didn't say when you would be home. Have you been over to get my things that Uncle Roy brought me from France. I am anxious to have them. Just how is grandma getting along. Has she got any better since you have been there. Did she ask you how we were getting along and why we didn't come this time. Did you tell her that we so sorry that I couldn't come but would have come if school hadn't been going on when she got sick." He didnt seem to know about question marks. Uncle Roy was Roy Justice, the husband of Euna's half sister, Mattie McDonald Justice. He must have gone to France in WWI.

I never did learn why my father and mother separated. In later years when I was old enough to be aware of the void which this separation had created without the love and care of a devoted mother, I still did not ask my father about this and he never volunteered any information. I do recall that mhy mother was an excellent seamstress, and that she loved pretty and expensive clothes. It could be that their separation was partially due to my father not being financially able to provide my mother with the finery she desired.

Mary and John Carl in their older years. This photo was taken by the Robertson Studio in Muskogee, presumably Okalahoma. (Their daughter Ella married George Wideman in Muskogee in 1905; the photo may have been taken then.) Mary and John moved to Austin, Texas in 1911. Mary was tiny, weighing probably no more than 75 pounds, but she was as "tough as a boot" according to two of her grandsons.

We first stopped in Austin to visit for a few days with Grandpa and Grandma Carl, where they lived across the street from Brackenridge Hospital. Grandpa Carl was then in charge of the Guards on the Capitol Grounds, a position which was created for elderly Confederate veterans. My father then took us to San Antonio, where we lived for a while with his brother Uncle Frank, and his wife, Aunt Annie, in the Beacon Hill section of North San Antonio.

John Franklin, Frank or J. F. Carl was an attorney, an Associate Justice of the Fourth Court of Civil Appeals in San Antonio, and secretary of the State Council of Defense during World War I. But on 1 Sept 1924 he disappeared while in Austin and was only found 10 months later. He was eventually adjudged to be insane and was committed to the state insane asylum. After spending time in the asylum, he returned to San Antonio and resumed his private law practice. Frank also owned an oil lease south of San Antonio and both his brothers Edward and Dave drilled wells there. Frank married Annie Wideman, the sister of George Wideman who married Franks sister Ella.

In due time, my father rented a house on Saunders Ave. in the Prospect Hill section of the southwest part of San Antonio, where we would be in close walking distance to the Prospect Hill Methodist Church, were my fathers elder brother, Uncle Newt, was the Pastor. My family for generations have been Methodist. My Great Grandfather, David Swank was a Lay Methodist minister and Circuit Rider. My Uncle W. N. 'Newt' Carl, graduated from the seminary of Southwestern University and served as a Methodist Minister all his active adult life. My family was not active in Church work or in attendance, but we adhered to the teachings of our church. I was not forced to attend Sunday School and church, but I went because I wanted to go because of [Grandma Carl's] training.

Minnie and Ed in undated photo. This may have been taken in front of  Frank Carl's house or the Saunders Ave house or even the house belonging to John and Mary in Austin in 1919. It doesn't look like the house on Huisache. Minnie and Ed don't look very happy to have their picture taken!

At this time, apparently by prior arrangement, Grandpa & Grandma Carl disposed of their home in Austin and came to live with us. By this time, in 1919, I was 10 and my sister, Minnie was 8 going on 9.

Before school started in September, Uncle Dave, another of my fathers brothers, purchased a 2-story home for Grandpa and Grandma Carl in the Beacon Hill section, within a few blocks of where Uncle Frank and Aunt Annie lived and we then moved from the house on Saunders Ave. My sister and I were then enrolled in the Beacon Hill Elementary School, to which we were able to walk from home. He entered the 4th grade having finished the 3rd grade in Corsicana.

Grandpa Carl passed away the following December at the age of 75 and this left another void in our family. At the age of 65 Grandma Carl continued to care for my father and us children by doing the cooking, mending, housekeeping and washing for all of us. She was an amazing little woman. I thoroughly loved my Grandmother Carls cooking. It was a pinch of this and a pinch of that. Her biscuits were big and fluffy. She used dried fruits to make tarts and diced bacon to make corn bread pone patties and mashed potatoes with onions to make potato patties. [She] had the greatest influence upon my youthful years, in molding my thinking and actions. She was a devout Christian and a strict disciplinarian, in addition to being thrifty and frugal. Whatever good qualities I may have had, I owe to her care and training.

My father's brother, Uncle Frank, a lawyer and a judge, owned an oil lease south of San Antonio near the small community of Somerset in Atascosa County. Uncle Frank evidently gave my father a job pumping and gauging the production of the several oil wells then on that lease. Then in 1921 another of my father's brothers, Uncle Dave, moved to San Antonio. Uncle Dave was an experienced oil well driller and had made a lot of money in the development of the huge oil field near Burkburnett in North Texas.

A photo of Burkburnett in 1919, awash in oil wells.

Soon after his move to San Antonio he and my father formed the Carl Brothers Drilling Company with two drilling rigs and they finished drilling the remaining oil wells on Uncle Franks lease. For the next several years they secured drilling contracts in several areas of South Texas, east, west and south of San Antonio, from which they made a lot of money.

From left, Lucy, Ed, Sr., Minnie and Dave Carl.

During the early stages of my fathers activities on Uncle Franks oil lease near Somerset, he had met a Miss Minnie Marion Fulkes, who was a niece of the landowners of the farm on which Uncle Frank had his oil lease. Eventually in 1922 my father and Miss Minnie were married when my father was 40 and Miss Minnie, born March 6, 1902, was 20 years of age.

Ed Carl Sr., and Minnie Fulkes in 1921 or 1922

I can only surmise what prompted my fathers second marriage. My sister, Minnie, was 11 years of age and she had only my Grandmother Carl, at age 69, to guide and care for her. Minnie then needed the care and advice of a younger woman. Miss Minnie moved in with us after this marriage and she was thereafter always good and kind to my sister and to me. And she was a great help in relieving Grandma Carl from the household duties.

I think its interesting that Ed didnt seem to even consider that his father remarried to have the companionship and love of a wife. He seemed to see Miss Minnie only as a babysitter and relief housekeeper, a strange and distorted view of what a marriage should be.

During this period my father was often away from home for days at a time supervising his oil well drilling activities and my sister and I were kept busy with our school work and playing with the other children in our block. I was by nature reserved and studious, but I played actively with the boys in our neighborhood and had some fights at school when some bully tried to impose upon me. We boys usually played marbles or spun our tops during recess and the worst fight I had was when a bully about a head taller than I tried to mess-up a marble game in which I was playing. I won the fight because I was meaner and faster than he was. He apparently learned a lesson because he no longer bothered any of us. I played Tin Can Shinny on roller skates and hunted birds with my air gun. My favorite hobby has been fishing every since I was a young boy. In the 1979 interview, I asked him about his chores. He cut the grass, took out the garbage, split wood for the fireplace, milked Uncle Frank's cow and was forced by Grandma Carl to kill a chicken, something he said was horrible and was the reason he never liked chicken to that day.

Tin Can Shinny resembled hockey. The object of the game was for one team to hit a tin can into a hole on the opposing teams territory.

My family did not spend lavishly on birthdays, anniversaries or Christmas. As a child, I would receive one or more small gifts, either a small toy or some small bit of clothing. When I was about 6, I received a pop-gun for Christmas. It had a cork stopper. Whenever I caught my sister off-guard I would shoot her on her back-side with the cork stopper. Eventually, the gun disappeared and I have long wondered what happened to it. In an interview in 1979, Ed talked about all the ways he tormented his sister, shooting her with bent pins, green chinaberries and sometimes even buckshot! He liked to see her jump and scream! He also punched tiny holes in her toothpaste tube so that when she squeezed it, it would squirt out all over!

I did well in my grade school studies because I enjoyed learning about new things, but Grandma Carl took a dim view of my playing marbles for keeps and she fussed at me for wearing holes in the knees of my stockings, by playing marbles so much. In those days boys wore knickers and full-length black knitted stockings. During my high school years (1923-1926) the boys began wearing long trousers. [My favorite stories were] Greek and Roman mythology and pioneer American history.

During the summer of 1923 at the age of 14 I finished the last grade at Beacon Hill School. I believe that this was the 7th grade since it was a year or two latter that junior high schools were available in the San Antonio school system. Later, in September of 1923 I entered Old Main Avenue High School, which was located near the center of the downtown business section of San Antonio.

Main Avenue High School, 637 North Main. The photo is from the 1925 annual belonging to Ed, The Sombrero. William Butler Yeats, the celebrated Irish poet, visited San Antonio on a lecture tour in 1920 and spoke at the school. Perhaps someone in the Carl family attended.

At that time there were only two high schools in San Antonio. Main Avenue High School enrolled students from the north part of town and Brackenridge, our bitter enemy, served students from the south part of town. My school was a new experience for me in many ways. We lived about four blocks from the nearest street car line which was the only means by which I could travel to and from school since most family in those days had only one automobile if any at all, and my father used our car in his business. So I walked to and from the street car line twice each school day in all kinds of weather. In the 1979 interview he told a story about mixing potassium and sulpher and putting it on the streetcar rail. It would sound like dynamite going off. Once he and his group of friends put enough to actually blow the wheel off the track!

A San Antonio streetcar from the 1920s

Until I entered Texas A&M College I cut the yard grass, brought in wood for our heating and removed the ashes. I also put out garbage. I did not receive an allowance. My father gave me money upon my request. Most of this was spent on radio parts and street car fares to down-town to see Western movies on Saturdays. I delivered for a drug store during the summers for $10 a week.

During my first semester in High School I had some difficulty in grasping an understanding of my first course in Algebra, but by the second semester I had gained a good concept of it and from then on my grades in all of my courses were straight As. I still have my high school grade cards stored away as proof. I enjoyed all of the six courses I took each semester but of these I enjoyed History, English and foreign languages (Spanish & German) the most. I was too small for any [sport] but track, in which I may have qualified had I been interested. I did not participate in school activities nor did I have any dates with girls although I was a holy terror for my sister and other girls in our neighborhood. I just didnt like them, because I knew they were different from boys. I suppose that I was afraid of them. I was devoted to study and learning and had no interest in other activities.

The high school yearbooks from 1924 and 1925 belonging to Ed validate his comments about not being involved in any other activities than studying. He is not listed as being in any clubs and does not have his photo in either of the books. If we had the one from his senior year, he might have been represented in that in some way.

In the 1979 interview, Ed said (and Minnie agreed) that the family never went out to eat, probably because of how thrifty Grandma Carl was and their rural background. Also Ed Sr. would re-sole his own shoes. He also did all the grocery shopping; Grandma Carl and Miss Minnie never did. He also never bought anything on credit, but always paid cash.

During my high school years there were some new developments in my family. First I became interested in radio, which had first been used for military communication in Europe during World War I, and our government had begun selling off surplus military equipment which included radio parts. When I learned where these parts were available I would ride a street car to the down-town place on Saturdays and buy the few parts I could afford until I had what was needed to put a radio receiver together. In those days there was only one radio transmitter in San Antonio so I would stay up at night after I had finished my lessons for the next school day and try to listen to the few out-of-town stations which I could pick up. There were not yet many radio transmitters in our country in those days and my first was not powerful enough to reach out very far. So I eventually built three other more powerful sets with the help of one of my radio friends. This interest in radio ultimately influenced my choice of a major in my studies at Texas A&M where I eventually majored in Electrical Engineering with any knowledge of what the course would consist of. I later realized that it was the most difficult and complex of any of the engineering courses then offered in any college or university.

Prior to my enrolling at Texas A&M, my father had suggested from time to time that I enroll in a dental school and plan for a career in dentistry. But I was repulsed by the thought of having to spend my future professional life probing in the foul smelling mouths of all kinds of people. As a latter alternative my father suggested that I go into oil well drilling business with him, but I did not want that either. I suppose that, like so many young men of my age, I had not realized that my father was much wiser that I then thought.

My sister Minnie being some 19 [17] months younger than I and having a December birth date, was 2 years behind me in school. By the time she had finished grade school, a junior high school had been completed in our North San Antonio area and she attended that school prior to entering Main Avenue High School, where she also made a good record for herself. Later, in 1928, she married a high school acquaintance [Harry O. Fischer, Jr.] who was then a junior engineering student at Texas A&M where they went to live.

The husband of Minnie Carl, Harry O. Fischer, Jr. from 1928 A&M yearbook

Harry Fischer, Jr. as senior from 1929 A&M yearbook

Left, Minnie at 18 in 1928; right, Minnie Carl Fischer, aka Mrs. H. O. Fischer, Jr. from 1929 A&M yearbook page of senior beauties

In the 1930 US census, Harry O. Fischer, Jr and Minnie E. Fischer were living in Eastland, Eastland Co., Tx. He was 22, she was 19. They were 20 and 17 when they married. Harry Jr. was working as a civil engineer for the city of Eastland.

Soon after my enrollment at Texas A&M in September 1926, a son, John Wesley Carl, became the first-born child to the marriage of Miss Minnie on December 19, 1926.

Minnie and JW in 1927

I entered Texas A&M in September 1926 and that was quite an experience. I had some trying times during my freshman year. It was somewhat like throwing an innocent lamb into a den of tigers, what with the rugged discipline and hazing that was involved. I enrolled in B Battery of the Corps Artillery due to the stories my Grandmother Carl had told me of her relationship to Molly Pitcher of Revolutionary War fame who tore-off her petticoat to swab-out American cannons and brought pitchers of water to the men and her husband in an American artillery battery at the battle of Monmouthe. Somehow I made it through my first year at A&M and passed all of my courses in spite of the radical change in my life-style.

The section from the transcript of Ed Carl showing what classes he took his freshman year and his grades.

Ed from his class photo in 1926-27. He put the arrow on this and his other A&M photos.

The freshman class at A&M, 1926-27. You can see the arrow at the top.

Following my freshman year I spent 6 weeks with Uncle Dave on his farm near Divine. That summer I cultivated 200 acres of corn.

Battery B Artillery Texas A&M College 1926-27

A close-up of the photo above, with Ed partly obscured by the officer in front of him.

I was one of six Freshmen in our Battery who were promoted to Corporal for our Sophomore year. During that year I was one of four in our battery who was awarded the Experts Medal for the Service of a 75mm Artillery gun.

The caption on this photo said

1927-1928

Sophomore - Texas A&M College

Corporal - Cadet Corps

Age: 19

The section from the transcript of Ed Carl showing his sophomore year including the classes he took in the summer of 1928

Left, Ed working at a drilling rig, probably belonging to his father. Right, the rig

Following my sophomore year, I worked on the floor of my fathers drilling rig and we brought in a gas well making 4 million CFI a day.

In my Junior year [1928-29] I was promoted to Cadet Sergeant.

Above, a photo of Battery B Artillery in 1928-29, below, a close-up showing Ed appearing to be wearing sunglasses.

Mercy Ramsey in 1928. Ed met Mercy in 1928 when the Corp came to Austin for the Thanksgiving football game. A sorority sister of hers had arranged the date.

The photo of Ed Carl from his junior yearbook, 1928-29, looking like Harry Potter with his round glasses! He was a member of the San Antonio club his junior year.

The part of Eds transcript that shows his junior year including the classes he took in the summer

That summer all of the Juniors in the Corps spent six weeks in Summer Camp where we trained with units of the regular Army. After this training I was awarded the First Class Medal for calculating the data and firing an artillery of four 75mm guns.

A convivial group around a canon! I think Ed is the one kneeling with binoculars.

At the beginning of my 1929-1930 senior year I was appointed Organization Editor of our A&M Longhorn Annual for 1030. I later learned to my disappointment and sorrow that it was a mistake to accept this appointment since all of the others on the Longhorn staff were majoring in relatively easy courses such as Geology, Agriculture and Architecture while I was taking a tough Engineering Course. As Organization Editor I had to make several trips away from school with our Editor to coordinate our plans and material with the publishers. As a result I dropped behind in my senior EE, Laboratory Experiments and I was never able to make up for the lost time and work. I therefore had to go back for another full year to complete the work and experiments for my Senior EE course. I graduated from Texas A&M College with a BS Degree in Electrical Engineering in 1931.

The 1930 Blue Ridge Staff at the YMCA conference center in North Carolina.

Above left, a close-up of Ed from the group photo; above right, a map showing the center location. He did not mention this trip in his autobiography, but he has this photo and many snap pictures of his time there in his files. The Blue Ridge Association for Christian Conference and Training or simply the Blue Ridge Association, as it was called then, now the Blue Ridge Assembly, was founded in 1906 as a student conference center. Ed was obviously active in the YMCA though he was not listed as being on the YMCA Cabinet in the A&M yearbook. He was listed as being on the YMCA Council on the letterhead paper he used to write a letter to his father in February 1931.

Photos from his senior year at A&M. The one on the left was used for his class photo in the yearbook. It noted that his major was Electrical Engineering, his home was San Antonio, he was 21, 1st Lt. Batt E, F. A; Longhorn Staff 1930. It was also used on the page for The 1930 Longhorn yearbook staff.

Above, his transcript for 1929-30 and for 1930-31. He was considered Class of 1930 since he entered in 1926, but he did not actually graduate until 1931. His name is mentioned in the 1930-31 yearbook only in the section on the batteries. Having already been shown as a senior in the 1929-30 book, I guess he could not have a senior photo for two years in a row.

A cloth patch Ed framed with an annotation indicating his being in the Class of 1930

Battery E Field Artillery

A close-up of Ed from the Battery E Field Artillery photo that was in the 1931 A&M Longhorn yearbook. This was the only place I could find where Ed was listed or shown in that book. He was listed as one of four First Lieutenants.

An Aggieland portrait of Ed in his First Lieutenant regalia

Ed was a First Lieutenant at A&M, but when he graduated in 1931 he became a Second Lieutenant of Field Artillery in the US Army.

Perhaps it was just as well [he took another year to graduate] since our country was by then in the depths of the worst economic depression of all our history following the 1929 Stock Market crash, and there were no professional jobs available for young college graduates. Many had to take whatever employment was available and were working in filling stations and grocery stores for as little as $10.00/ week, whereas the starting salaries for young graduates in 1928 and until the Crash in 1929 had ranged from $130 to $140 / month.

A tragic example of this situation was that of my father whose monthly income prior to the stock market crash had usually ranged from $1,500 to $3,000 which in those days was far greater than most monthly incomes, and during the previous years he had very wisely deposited his savings in three San Antonio banks. I learned later that he was able to recover only 10 cents on the dollar from his deposits in those banks, but it must have been significant since he and his family were able to live independently for many years after the collapse of our national economy following the stock market crash.

In the files, we have a very touching letter Ed, Jr. wrote his father, Ed Carl, Sr. in February 1931. In it he praises his father for what he did for him and said, contrary to his later thinking, that he does not think he suffered for not having a mother. He was obviously reassuring his father about the job he had done as a parent. He also mentions wanting Minnie and Harry to come visit him. His name is on the letterhead as a member of the YMCA A&M Council.

My room-mate during my last year at A&M had a brother-in-law who was Port Engineer for the Sinclair Refining Company in Houston and he was able to find berths for each of us on a Sinclair Oil Tanker out of Houston to Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, where we docked at a wharf in the Delaware River. A round trip involved 17 days at sea and a day in port at each end.

On my first trip I shipped as an Ordinary Seaman on Deck at $42.00 /month with meals and lodging furnished. As part of my duties I was required to spend several hours each day at the wheel steering our ship. I enjoyed this part of my duties, since our ship was over 600 feet long and carried thousands of barrels of Texas crude oil. On the trip up to Marcus Hook, we were fully loaded and our ship laid low in the water, with only about 3 feet of free board.

On my second trip on this ship I shipped as a Fireman, down in the Engine Room at $62.00 /month, but I soon learned that this job had its trying moments especially when we were sailing around the tip end of Florida when the temperatures in the Boiler Room went up to 120 degrees or when we were returning, empty, to Houston and riding high in the water, when we were caught in the fringe area of a hurricane out of the Caribbean. When we shipped out of Houston we went directly across the Gulf of Mexico, to pass the southern most tip of Florida and we then turned and headed north at a safe distance from the Atlantic coast, especially in the vicinity of Cape Hatteras, but as we turned North, along the East Coast of Florida, we were close enough inshore to see all of the luxury beach hotels of that time.

After 4 months of this most of which was spent at sea, I decided that I had had all that I wanted, and I left the ship when we docked at the Sinclair Terminal in Houston and then I returned to our home in San Antonio.

For the following two years I took what work I could find. One job was as a night-operator of a filling station, which terminated after I was robbed one night and locked in a wash room. My next job was with a chain grocery store where I worked for about a year.

Prior to leaving this job I had the offer of managing a 1752 [acre] Farm east of San Antonio for $50.00 /month plus farming 100 acres on the halves, and I took the offer. There were 9 Mexican families consisting of a total of 109 people located on this farm. Since I had 3 years of Spanish in High School, it wasnt long before I was able to fluently converse with the Mexican tenants. In fact, I spoke only Spanish for 6 days of a week and English only when I went to town to buy supplies or on Sundays when I would visit with my folks in town or go to church with some of my neighbors.

Ed was always close to his sister, Minnie. They had several photos taken together. Here are some probably taken in the late 1920s or 1930s.

This is a close-up of a group snapshot showing a frowning Ed and a Minnie who looks spookily like me. The boy in the middle has not been identified.

Above, a pretty photo of Minnie, dated 5/11/37. From the date, she may have given it to Ed for his birthday on 5/15/37.

I spent 3 years on this job, during which time I maintained my status as a Reserve Officer by taking correspondence courses and in the early Fall of 1936 I was ordered to report for duty as a Reserve officer with a company of the Civilian Conservation Corps. Eight of these Texas companies were assembled at Bastrop State Park, some 25 miles southeast of Austin. Being a Junior First Lieutenant I was assigned as the Second-in-Command of one of those companies. Once formed each of these companies was shipped out on a Troop Train to various areas of our country. My company was shipped to an encampment near Medford, Oregon via Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California, from Los Angeles north. While traveling through California we had to post guards at all entrances to the Troop Train to prevent tramps and hoboes from trying to come aboard. This was in 1936, but there were still many of the wandering and homeless victims of the economic depression along the route of our Troop Train through Southern California.

Above, Ed is in uniform kneeling on the left. The development date of this photo is July 1936. That is before the fall date he said was the beginning of his CCC career, but since the men are in uniform, this was either connected to his later CCC project or is a group of his fellow reserve officers.

After we had settled in our camp near Medford, Oregon, it was not long before we began to experience the early rigors of an Oregon winter. There was freezing rain and snow. After several months of this, I developed Lobar Pneumonia and was hospitalized for a month in a civilian hospital in Medford. From there I was sent by train in company with an Army Major, a Medical officer, to Wm Beaumont Army Hospital, at Fort Bliss in El Paso. After several months there I [was] sent to the US Army Fitzsimmons Hospital in Denver, Colorado where I was assigned to the Officers Tubercular Ward, where I remained for approximately nine months, when I was released to live on the outside to continue to receive out-patient treatment at the hospital. As a 1st Lt. my monthly pay was $175/month and I had managed to accumulate a fairly nice savings account. So, once I was released from the hospital, I bought a second hand Ford Coupe. After living at two unsatisfactory places in Denver I decided to move to Colorado Springs where one of my Texas buddies and his wife were living. Initially, I took quarters and meals in a private home of a mother and her daughter but this didnt last long. I soon realized that this mother was looking for a husband for her daughter and I did not want any part of that, so I moved out and took quarters in the local YMCA and ate in local cafes.

During this period I commuted from Colorado Springs to Denver for my monthly check-up at Fitzsimmons Army Hospital. That summer the doctor at Fitzsimmons released me from further out-patient check-ups. Soon after this release I decided to return to Texas via Dallas for a visit with Minnie and her family. From there I went on to San Antonio, stopping in Austin to talk with Mercy. [I met Mercy Ramsey in 1928 when] I was a cadet officer in the Corps at Texas A&M, when the Corps came to Austin for the annual Thanksgiving Football Game with Texas University. My buddy had a date with a [sorority] friend of [hers] and arranged a date for me with her. [She] was a lovely girl, who came from a fine family and had been prominent in her University activities. Our courtship was limited and delayed due to my being hospitalized in various military hospitals.

In the Spring of 1938, Mercy visited Ed in Colorado.

My second half-brother William Paul Carl, was born to my father and his second wife, Miss Minnie, on December 7, 1933. Later my sister, Minnie and her husband became separated and divorced; and my sister came home to live. She eventually enrolled in Westmoorland College, a local Methodist school for young women, where she completed 2 years of college work prior to her second marriage when she and her husband went to live in Dallas where their son, John Allen Ray was born in 1938.

During the Fall of 1938 at home in San Antonio, I climbed up into the large pecan tree in our back yard to thrash out the pecans. I must have torn something loose in my chest because I later began to spit up blood; so I had my father drive me up to the Army Tubercular Hospital at Legion, Texas near Kerrville, north of San Antonio, where I remained for over a year.

In Feb 1939, Ed and Mercy went on an outing with her siblings, Murray Ramsey and Jessie Mary Cate and their spouses.

In August 1939, they got together with the good friend of Mercy, Maxine Fincher [Templar]

I was released soon after Jun 1, 1940, when my future wife, Mercy, came for me and took me to her home in Austin, Texas. During my stay in the Legion Hospital, we had corresponded and had made plans to be married, upon my release. I have long wondered how my future wife and her family were willing to accept me, in view of the unpromising prospects of my future health problems. It may have been due to the two older [actually only one older brother] of Grandma Ramsey having earlier died from Tuberculosis on her ranch in Eastland Co., Texas in NW Texas.

There was a party on May 18, 1940 announcing the June wedding Ed and Mercy. These are still photos pulled from the movie that was made at that time. Mercy Ramsey and Ed Carl, looking very happy.

In spite of the unpromising prospects for our future years my future wife, Mercy [and I] were married in the Central Christian Church of her and her family in Austin Texas during the evening of June 12, 1940. [My strongest memory of the wedding was] the long aisle down the middle of the church. We were married by Dr. M. E. Sadler, the Pastor, who later became President of Texas Christian University in Ft. Worth.

Ed and Mercy Carl with Dr. Sadler

Our marriage ceremony was the first known to have been recorded on [photograph] records in Austin. The most prominent people in Austin at that time [attended].

There was also a movie made at the wedding and reception. The color photos below are stills pulled from it of the happy couple leaving the church and the family at the reception

Mr. and Mrs. E. M. Carl, Jr. leaving the church

The father and stepmother of the groom, Mr. and Mrs. E. M. Carl, Sr.

The parents of the bride, Mr. and Mrs. JM Ramsey.

Left, the sister of the groom, Minnie and her husband, John Ray; right, the half-brothers, William Paul Carl and JW Carl

The cousin of Ed who was the Best Man, C. N. Wideman and his wife Howard from San Antonio

Ann and Martin Reinhard, also from San Antonio; she was his cousin. Ann and CN were siblings, both children of George and Ella Carl Wideman.

Ed and Mercy in the Ramsey living room on their wedding day

Following the ceremony, Mercy and I drove to the Methodist Encampment near Kerrville, Texas, where we spent our honeymoon for several weeks in the summer home of one of Grandma Ramseys TCU classmates.

It is my memory that the TCU classmate who let the couple use her cabin was Callie Miller Freeman, shown herewith Grandma Ramsey at the wedding reception.

Above, photos probably taken during their honeymoon at the Methodist Encampment at Kerrville in June 1940. In the one on the right Ed is holding a cigarette in one hand and a cat in the other!

Ed outside their honeymoon cottage

During the several weeks Ed and Mercy honeymooned, family and friends dropped by to visit, and to fish, including C.N. and Howard Wideman from San Antonio. CN was Eds best man.

When we returned to Austin we lived for a few months with her parents. When Mercy resumed her teaching in the Austin Public Schools, in the fall of that year, we rented a little Normandy Cottage near the intersection of Manor Road and what was then East Ave, which was to later become a section of the future location of Interstate Highway 35 through Austin. A few days after our moving into this location I awoke one morning to see a Negro sitting in his rocking chair on the front porch of the house next door to us. This was too much for me since I had been reared in the traditions of the Southern Confederacy; and soon thereafter upon my insistence we moved to a nice little cut-stone home in the 4500 block of Rosedale Ave which was located on the west side of the street from Ramsey Park.

End of Part 1