Oral History Transcript - Emett and Addie Cowan - April 26, 1974
Interview with Emmett and Addie Cowan
Interviewers: Stan Siler and Linda Chapple
Transcriber: Cathy Sappington
Editor: Kris Toma
Date of Interview: April 26, 1974
Location: Wimberley, Texas
___________________
Summary: The conversation with Mr. and Mrs. Cowan includes Wimberley floods of 1900 and 1929, ranching and farming, and the Depression years.
[Start tape, 00:00]
Linda Chapple: The following interview is being conducted with Mr. and Mrs. Emmett Cowan on March the twenty-sixth, 19—April 26, 1974 in Wimberley, TX. The interviewers are Stan Siler and Linda Chapple. Mr. Cowan will you tell us when you were born again please?
Emmett Cowan: September the 26, 1891.
Stan Siler: Where were you born?
Cowan: Born in Wimberley.
Siler: Who were your parents?
Cowan: My parents is Mr. Anders Cowan and Mrs. Nancy Ellen Cowen. Ellen Wolter Cowan. LBJ Cowan and … Cowan
Siler: When did they come to Wimberley?
Cowan: When did they come to Wimberley? Whooo-he. I don't know. Way back yon-- before I was born.
Mrs. Cowan: Well, didn’t they come here when Harvey was a baby?
Cowan: No. I reckon they must have come here in about 1885. Somewhere along there.
Chapple: And what did they do here in Wimberley?
Cowan: Bought a farm and ranch.
Siler: Was Wimberley a good farming and ranching location?
Cowan: Huh?
Siler: Was Wimberley a good ranching and farming location?
Cowan: Is this a good farming—
Mrs. Cowan: Was it--
Siler: (overlapping) Was it back in those days? (Mrs. Cowan tells the interviewers “you’ll have to talk louder.”) What was the main farming crop?
Cowan: The main farmin’ crop? Well it raised cotton and feed stuff. Mostly feed stuff, corn, and hay and the like.
[2:31]
Chapple: Can you tell us a little bit about your life? Have you lived in Wimberley all your life?
Cowan: All except two years.
Chapple: Did you go to school here?
Cowan: Yes, ma'am, what school I went to. Which was very little (chuckles).
Chapple: And then what did you do?
Cowan: Ma’am?
Chapple: Well then what did you do? After you stopped going to school? Or was-- Start farming here after you stopped going to school?
Cowan: Yeah. When I married, I started farming off—
Mrs. Cowan: Well you farmed with your Daddy before then--
Cowan: Yeah, I farmed with him at home.
Chapple: Where was that farm?
Cowan: Where was it?
Chapple: Mm-hmm
Cowan: Back here about three miles from Wimberley.
Chapple: Do you have brothers and sisters?
Cowan: Yeah.
Chapple: How many?
Cowan: Four brothers and four sisters.
Chapple: And did they all stay in Wimberley also?
Cowan: Ohhh, no. Had one brother that stayed here practically all of his life. One brother in and out, and another brother— he left early—when he was just a young fella went off and taught school. And another brother died when he was 39 years old. And I lost another brother—which would have made five brothers—in 18… and— when he died in 1890.
Chapple: Would you say that Wimberley has been, when you were growing up, was it mostly a farming—
Cowan: --As big as it is now? (All laugh.)
Chapple: --community?
Cowan: Yeah, yeah. A farming community.
Mrs. Cowan: It’s a farming community. Had its own gin.
Siler: What else have you done besides farming?
[5:06]
Cowan: Hunt for a wife. (All laugh.) Oh, I was in business some. Business for about—since—let’s see it will be about 20 to 25 years now since I went in business.
Chapple: What kind of business?
Cowan: Running a feed store and a cedar yard.
Chapple: When did you build this house? Did you build it?
Cowan: Yeah. (19)58.
Chapple: It’s a nice little house, I like it.
Cowan: 1958.
… (indistinct chatter)
Chapple: How many children did you have?
Cowan: Five.
Chapple: Are they still around this area?
Cowan: No.
Mrs. Cowan: Three of them is—
Cowan: Three of them is. One of them live in Wichita Falls, one of them live in Austin.
Siler: What did you use the cedar posts for? Building fences mainly?
Cowan: Yeah.
Siler: Was it a very big business?
Cowan: Huh?
Siler: Was it a very big business?
Cowan: Pretty big business at one time. Good business.
Mrs. Cowan: Had two acres…
Cowan: The only way I ever made any money was with the cedar posts.
Siler: How did you get the cedar posts?
Cowan: I bought them from different people. People’d go out in the country and cut them out of the cedar break, then they’d bring them in and I’d buy them from them.
Siler: And when did you begin running this business?
Cowan: I begin cedar in 1940. Running the cedar yard in 1940 and running the store business 1949.
Siler: Is this the feed store? Right across from—
Cowan: Yeah. I built that 1949—1950 is when I built that building.
Siler: When did Wimberley become sort of a tourist attraction?
Cowan: Oh, tourists.
Mrs. Cowan: … Harrison’s the first one to ever have a tourist—
Cowan: Yeah, about 1924.
Siler: And I guess the main attraction was not only the scenery but the Blanco River.
Mrs. Cowan: …people come up from San Marcos--
Cowan: And Wimberley didn’t have nine houses in it.
Siler: In Wimberley?
Cowan: And Wimberley didn’t have but nine houses in it.
Chapple: When was that?
Cowan: I don’t know-- When I started school 18-- by 1899, or 1900.
Mrs. Cowan: You wouldn’t know it.
Chapple: No, you sure wouldn’t.
Mrs. Cowan: (laughs)
Siler: What kind of school did you go to? Was it a one room school or…?
Cowan: Well, I went to school that had two teachers for a while. And then I went to a school that had one teacher.
[9:00]
Siler: And were all the grades mixed in together?
Cowan: Yeah.
(unknown speaker talking in background)
Cowan: One teacher taught all the grades.
Siler: I guess it was pretty good. When did you finish your schooling?
Cowan: 1908.
Siler: And you went in with your father?
Cowan: Yeah.
Siler: In Farming.
Chapple: When did you marry?
Cowan: 1912.
Siler: So, you've been married for 62 years.
Cowan: Yeah, 62 years--
Mrs. Cowan: You didn’t quit in 1908, did you? Quit school?
Cowan: Huh?
Mrs. Cowan: You didn’t quit in--
Cowan: Well that’s what I told him.
Mrs. Cowan: …years before we were married.
Siler: How long were you a farmer? How long did you farm?
Cowan: How long did I farm? Well for all my life I suppose. Until 1940 and farmed some more after that. 1946 I guess about—1900— about forty-six years.
Siler: How big a farm did you have?
Cowan: Well, I owned 316 acres. The biggest place. It wasn't all farm. It was about 50 or 60 acres of farm.
Chapple: Did you ranch also? Did you have stock?
Cowan: Had some stock, yeah.
Mrs. Cowan: Cows—
Cowan: Had some cows. Sheep, goats and cattle. Finally got some sheep.
Mrs. Cowan: Guess we didn't really do the ranching—we wasn’t really in the ranching business until 1928.
Cowan: Huh?
Mrs. Cowan: You really went in the ranching business 1928.
Cowan: Yeah.
Siler: How many cows did you have one time?
Cowan: How many what?
Siler: Cows. Cattle.
Cowan: Oh, I never did have very many. Twenty head possibly. Twenty or twenty-five. I wouldn't know exactly.
Siler: And I guess you used mules on your farm?
Cowan: Yeah. And horses.
Chapple: How often did you get into town?
Mrs. Cowan: Once a week (laughs).
Cowan: Go into town. Well, once a week I hauled wood to town. And I'd go in there nearly every week with a load of wood. When I quit hauling wood, I would go once a month, maybe twice a month.
[12:28]
Chapple: Did your children come into Wimberley for school?
Cowan: Yes.
Chapple: Did they help you on the farm?
Cowan: Yeah.
Siler: Since you've been around this area for quite a long time, have you ever seen any floods at the Blanco River?
Mrs. Cowan: Got in our house one time. Three feet deep.
Siler and Chapple: Really?
Siler: When was this?
Mrs. Cowan: 1929 wasn’t it?
Cowan: 1929 we had a big flood.
Mrs. Cowan: What was it March? No, May. May the—
Cowan: May 29, 1929
Mrs. Cowan: Yeah, that’s right. We was living in—
Cowan: And another time in 1900. Sometime in September.
And the latest big flood we've had was in 1957 and (19)58. But they didn't do much damage. One flood back in (19)29-- we lived pretty close to the river. So, it got three-foot-deep in our house.
Chapple: Did you have to evacuate?
Mrs. Cowan: Yes, we did (all laugh).
We started out-- We lived on a ranch. It was about three miles—or about seven miles from here. And we started out-- we saw it was going to get in the house, so we went up to the goat shed. Well not a goat shed, just a little shed just outside of the yard. Somebody built it, well they built it just right up close to the house, so we went to that. We thought well now that will keep-- next thing we knew we had to move. So, we went way up on the hill to the goat shed to keep— and it kept a raining. And water come up to around the goat shed.
Chapple: Did that flood destroy much in the community? Do you remember?
Cowan: No, no. The stores never been flooded in Wimberley since I recollect.
Mrs. Cowan: What did that river make-- do much damage. Yes, it did quite a bit of damage. In 1929.
Cowan: Where? To the stores?
Chapple: Just to anything.
Cowan: Oh, it damaged things. Crops--
Mrs. Cowan: Crops, fences—
Cowan: Fences—fences mostly.
Mrs. Cowan: Timber
Cowan: Tore down fences everywhere.
Chapple: Really?
Siler: How long had some of the buildings in Wimberley been here?
Cowan: The what?
Siler: How long have some of the buildings been here, around the square?
Cowan: Oh—
Mrs. Cowan: 1890, wasn’t it?
Cowan: Oh, it was before that—
Mrs. Cowan: Well Mr. Sanders was the first one.
Cowan: Sanders was the first building, but this rock house right down here was the first building.
Mrs. Cowan: Is it older than the Sanders house?
Cowan: Yeah. It was build in --
Mrs. Cowan: I mean the Sander’s store, not the house.
Cowan: No, I don’t know when it was built. That house down there. That old rock store there right on the corner as you come this way, that was built in about 1890.
Mrs. Cowan: I believe that house was built in 1850. (shuffles) What are you hunting? The Wimberley …
Cowan: It’ll tell when it’s built.
Mrs. Cowan: Just a minute, I’ll get it.
[16:37]
Chapple: When did the community in Wimberley really start to grow? You said you can remember when there was only nine houses?
Cowan: Well, it really started grow in 1924. 1922, the road-- used to go down the river here. About two miles, cross the river and go out through a big ranch over—what’s known as the Whren(?) Ranch, and come out way down there five miles this side of San Marcos. And this changed in 1922 came the present location where the road is now changed, and not as open as in 1922. And since that time, Wimberley began to grow about the time that road was opened. And it's grown pretty much ever since. For the last 20 years—The last twenty years is the main growth. 20 years ago, I was on-- I was only business-- 25 years ago in 1949, I was the only business on this side of the creek.
Chapple: Oh, really?
Cowan: Yeah. Now there's seven business on this side of the creek, besides the school.
Mrs. Cowan: And Churches. Beside the school and the churches.
Cowan: And the churches. Now there’s three—no, two churches on this side.
Siler: Did Wimberly have a bank?
Cowan: Do now.
Siler: They didn't back in the (19)20s?
Cowan: No, no. Just opened the 15th of March this year.
Siler: Did they have a newspaper?
Cowan: Yeah, we got two newspapers.
Mrs. Cowan: It didn’t for a long time, though.
[18:40]
Cowan: Have two newspapers now. 1966 was, I believe, was when the first paper came out. It was called The Wimberley Mill. Now they’ve got what they call the Wimberley Crier.
Mrs. Cowan: 1900 was when that house was built.
Cowan: Huh?
Mrs. Cowan: 1900 was when Miss Susie's house was built.
Cowan: 1900.
Mrs. Cowan: That’s what you said, about 1900. William C. Winter’s home about 1900
Cowan: That picture was taken-- the first picture was taken about 1900. It was built before then.
Mrs. Cowan: Miss Suzy came in-- this was taken when Miss Suzy came in, because there’s trees and things she’d planted when she was there.
Siler: When did the automobile first get to Wimberley?
Cowan: I think the first automobile that ever came to Wimberley was about 1910.
Siler: And when did it begin being used as main transportation?
Cowan: Oh, 19-- seven or eight years later. 1920 everybody had automobiles-- nearly everybody had a automobile in 1920. Up until that time, there were a good many buggies.
Mrs. Cowan: The first car we used was in 1918.
Cowan: Up until that time you used wagons to do the freightin’. And again, I think you used trucks until about 1920. Now yes, understand I'm doing a lot of guessing. I don't remember all these things. I didn't write them down as they happened. If I’d known y’all was coming out (all laugh).
[20:45]
Chapple: How did the Depression in the (19)30’s affect you living in Wimberley?
Cowan: Pretty much yeah.
Mrs. Cowan: We lived in Wimberley… Lived in Fischer Store (clock chimes)
Cowan: 1932 and 1933 we didn’t—that was the worst of the depression getting a little better in (19)33, but (19)31, 29, 30, 31, it was awful.
Chapple: How did it-- What was it like? Like what was your daily life like? How much did you have to sacrifice?
Cowan: How much did what?
Chapple: Well, how bad was it for-- you know for just living?
Cowan: People living?
Mrs. Cowan: Yeah, bout—pretty bad.
Cowan: Yeah, about-- pretty bad if they didn't raise for a living. If they raised for their living it—
Mrs. Cowan: We raised ours.
Cowan: --wasn’t so bad. People lived on a farm and had— raised all their stuff. You know what I mean?
Mrs. Cowan: We canned at lot of stuff.
Cowan: We raised meat, corn to make corn bread. Sugarcane to make molasses. And so forth and so on. That was in 19-- between 1932 and 31.
Mrs. Cowan: We sold eggs for three cents a dozen.
Chapple: Really? Least you got to eat though, didn't you?
Cowan: Oh yeah. We had plenty to eat because we raised it. We lived good—
Mrs. Cowan: We didn’t have to go buy anything, we raised stock.
Cowan: --We lived good. People that was on the farm lived good. But people that had to buy everything. Had to put out their thumb. I don't know what-- I just— we didn’t buy anything – we didn't have anything to buy anything with.
Chapple: Yeah.
Mrs. Cowan: We put 1400 cans through our kitchen one year doing that. We canned beef and just everything. We canned everything. We canned our own beef instead of having a deep freezer. We didn’t have ice. That's one thing we had to go to town and buy. Bring it home and put it in a little ice box. We canned all of our everything—chickens and everything.
Siler: You said at one time Wimberley had a cotton gin?
Cowan: Yeah.
Siler: When did it start operating?
Cowan: When did it start?
Siler: Uh-huh.
Cowan: When did it start? Long before I recollect. 1927 I think was the last year it operated. And they tore it down in 1934, I believe it was. It stood right down there. Right out in front of the Baptist Church.
Siler: And I guess it used waterpower for energy.
Cowan: It did at one time, but it finally got to where they couldn't get enough water and they put in a steam engine.
Mrs. Cowan: It was faster. –I thought the gin was in this (looks through photo album).
Siler: So, cotton has never really been very—
Cowan: What?
Siler: Cotton has never really been very big around Wimberley.
Mrs. Cowan: Oh yes, there used to be lots of cotton. We planted cotton.
Cowan: Yeah, planted lots and raised little (chuckle). 1906 was a good crop year. Good cotton year. And 1912 was a good crop—cotton year. 1919 was a good cotton year. After that, it had begun to let off on cotton considerably. They didn't make much out of cotton, and began quitting it in … 1927 was the last cotton I planted. I don’t know—there was some cotton planted after that, but I don't think I planted any of it.
Mrs. Cowan: No, you never…
Chapple: What crops did people go to then? Did a lot of people move to different farms, or something?
Cowan: Did they what?
Chapple: A lot of people that had been previously been cotton farmers, did they leave or-- After they stopped, did they leave? Or did they start-- did they start raising something else?
Cowan: They started raising livestock and feed stuff--
Mrs. Cowan: Working for wages.
Cowan: --which paid much better, livestock paid a lot better than cotton.
Siler: When did the first tractor come to Wimberley?
Cowan: First tractor? Lord, I don’t know.
Mrs. Cowan: Who did have the first tractor in Wimberley?
Cowan: I wouldn't know.
Siler: Did most of the farmers turn to tractors during the 1930’s instead of using mules?
Mrs. Cowan: In the 40’s—
Cowan: No. There never was much tractors used here. They practically quit farming. And I own the place-- we own place right back out here about three miles. And we had 50 acres in cultivation, and the fella that owns it now—He don't plant none of it. Oh, I think he plants a little, but very little.
Chapple: Why is that? Is the soil not good or what?
Cowan: I think he’s too lazy to work it (laugh). Oh, the soil is alright. Of course, now where they doing the farming, they got fertilizer. I never did.
Chapple: Yeah.
Cowan: I never fertilized any in my life. One little piece I fertilized one time, one little piece.
Siler: How many mules did you keep? Or horses?
Cowan: Oh, about four. I usually had two work teams. Four workhorses or mules, and a saddlehorse.
Mrs. Cowan: A buggy horse…
[28:08]
Chapple: When did you move into town here?
Cowan: 1949—
Chapple: That's when you started your store?
Cowan: --No, no 1956 when we moved in here.
Mrs. Cowan: (flipping pages in album) Oh. Here it is. I thought it was in there.
Cowan: What?
Mrs. Cowan: The gin. A picture of the gin (chairs creak).
Siler (28:42): Do you appear in that book? Wimberley’s legacy…? Is your name in this book?
Mrs. Cowan: Yes, there’s pictures of me as a child.
Cowan: My picture’s not in it.
Mrs. Cowan: But was when you was a child.
Chapple: Are you one of the oldest residents of Wimberly?
Cowan: I’m the oldest native of Wimberley. Man—oldest native man. I’ve got a sister-in-law that’s older than I am, and she and I are the oldest natives of Wimberley.
Chapple: Wow.
Mrs. Cowan: Let me have that book. I’m going to look to see—
Cowan: Wait just a minute.
Mrs. Cowan: --when that gin was… He has a … in that book.
Siler: Mrs. Cowan where you born in Wimberley too? Where were you born?
Mrs. Cowan: Oklahoma.
Siler: When did you come to this area?
Mrs. Cowan: You mean to Wimberley? When I was about 14.
Chapple: Did your parents move down here?
Cowan: Yeah, they lived here.
Chapple: What-- did they farm too?
[30:00]
Mrs. Cowan: Yes, they farmed. We’re both from farming groups.
Siler: How did you and Mrs. Cowan come to meet?
Cowan: She started out-- Oh, come on now—she started out hunting a husband (laughter) And I was the first one she (laughter) that suited her. Oh, they just moved in here. And I took a liking to her. She took a liking to me. I reckon she—either that or she took me to get rid of me (laughter).
Mrs. Cowan: …
Siler: Did you ever have any problems with coyotes or wolves?
Cowan: Yeah, quite a little bit. They used to catch our goats. But when we had goats, they done a lot of trapping, and they killed—killed them out. When goats weren’t very—Wolves weren’t so numerous then as they are now. Now you can't hardly raise of goats for the wolves.
Siler: What about rattlesnakes?
Cowan: Rattlesnakes—they’re still plentiful.
Siler: I guess you've had a couple of scares with them on your farm.
Mrs. Cowan: We’ve had a lot of them. A lot of scares from rattlesnakes.
Cowan: We had a grandson that got bit by a rattlesnake.
Chapple: Oh, dear.
Mrs. Cowan: At just 18 months old. I don’t know when that was—1949? Bit him on the knee.
Siler: What changes have you guys seen in Wimberley in the last 40 years?
Cowan: The last four years?
Siler: 40
Cowan: Oh, my goodness alive. Forty years, when will that be?
Siler: Oh, 1934, 35?
Cowan: Quite a few.
Mrs. Cowan: All these buildings come in since then. Just lots of it.
Cowan: 40 years ago, there wasn’t but two buildings on this side of the creek, and that’s that rock house down there, and that old lumber house right the other side of the church house. That’s the only two that was on this side of the creek. ‘Till you got way up here about—oh about half a mile up here there was a house. And then about another half mile is another house. And I imagine in 1934 whether there was one house in Wimberley, I don’t know where it starts, or where it begins, but I'd say there was 10 times as many houses now as it was 40 years ago.
Mrs. Cowan: Near twenty times.
Cowan: And you take—I don’t know. Forty years ago, there wasn’t as I say, there wasn’t two houses on this side of the creek. Until you got to here. And now I don't know how many there are. Oh, I expect there’s forty or more houses on this side of the creek.
Chapple: Did you have a church? Back then? You always had a church?
Cowan: Yeah.
Chapple: Did a lot of activities of the community kind of center around the church? Was that?
Cowan: Oh, not too much. Not--
Mrs. Cowan: More on the schools. Activities was more for the schools than it was the church. Schools used to have lots of programs. They call them plays now, but we used to call them dialogues. We would go to them quite often at the school. Things like that, take boxed suppers. You know what a boxed supper is? Candy breakings, things like that.
[34:55]
Siler: What kind of candy would they break?
Mrs. Cowan: Peppermint sticks. You know get peppermint sticks and then it gets solid color. You’d get one that was solid colored, or different stripes, and break it up in about half—Well the sticks used to be longer than they are now. They used to be, oh about so long. And they would break them up. Oh, you know, about half, or just wherever it broke. And they’d put them in a box. Put them in-- oh any kind of a box with a hole in the top of it. And you would choose your partner to go there—The boy would usually take the first piece, and then the girl went. And if you got a match, you could draw a second time. You could draw as many times so long as you got a match. If you draw a mismatch, then you couldn’t draw anymore until the next go-around.
Siler: What other school activities were there?
Mrs. Cowan: Well they had plays, like they do now. And he was always good in a play. He did lots of them-- he was in lots of plays. I never did do too many plays. But he was a good speaker and could remember things. He had a—well, it was different, different things like candy breakings or plays? Sometimes they had ice cream supper. Everybody would make ice cream and take it to school. We had our own cows. After ice got in, of course before then, we didn’t have things like that. We would have cakes and …
Chapple: What kind of plays were you in Mr. Cowan?
Cowan: Oh, well then it was called a dialogue, you know what a dialogue is, don’t you?
Chapple: Not really.
Cowan: Well that's where two of us is in a play, and they each have a part. Something to say. And I don't know. I don't know how many of them I was in. I was in several.
Mrs. Cowan: What was that one you were in where they tell you-- when you had… so many times what do you call it?
Cowan: I don't know what they called it. I don’t remember the name of it. Hmm.
Mrs. Cowan: I thought you might remember the name of it.
Cowan: No, I don't remember the name of it. I was— I acted the nigger.
Chapple: Oh yeah?
Cowan: And I guess I was pretty good at it. Guess I was a better nigger than I am a white man. (all laugh). That schoolteacher, oh he’d just die laughing at me. And the boy that I had this dialogue with was the best-- I guess it was the best they ever had in the school. And his name was McClanahan. So, it was about a— he was a Englishman, and he was talking about the fine things that they had in England. And I said they had a gun over there, and they had taken a keg of powder and a bullet to the barrel. And they had tamped it with telephone posts. So, I says, that gun ain’t knocking this … washing machines job is it worth? How much did it take for a single charge? 150, 200 … hole as big as a courthouse. Said what they tamp that gun with? I said well they tamped that gun with the North Pole (laughter). And then he got after it and everyone just fell down.
Oh, it was good ol’ days.
Siler: You said you were going from Wimberly for two years. What did you do for those two?
Cowan: I was ranching. Outside of Wimberley. Yeah, out in Hays— Comal County.
Mrs. Cowan: Fischer’s Store.
Cowan: I noticed some news, Mother, in the Wimberley Crier some news of Fischer’s.
Siler: Do you know anything about Fischer’s Store?
Cowan: Do I know anything about it? Oh, not a lot. Like what?
Siler: Well, how long it’s been here.
Cowan: How long has Fischer’s Store been there? Ever since—ever since time started, I reckon. About 1876—
Mrs. Cowan: No, it was 1881.
Cowan: I think they had a store there in 1876, somewhere way back there.
Mrs. Cowan: I guess it was.
Cowan: Somewhere way back there. A hundred years ago or so it was.
Siler: Did you ever go into San Marcos for anything?
Cowan: Yeah, we had to.
Chapple: How long did it take you to get in there before you had the good roads?
Cowan: Oh, we’d make it a day. Make a round trip in a day.
Chapple: Well, that’s not bad.
Cowan: When we went—in the wagon or the buggy, or whatever it was.
Mrs. Cowan: We used to carry eggs and butter to San Marcos once a week.
Chapple: Oh yeah? Do you remember any— going to any social events in San Marcos, or traveling anywhere? Were there any political speeches or anything? Was there ever any occasion to go somewhere else?
Cowan. Nuh-uh.
Mrs. Cowan: Shows long time ago, Barnum and Bailey’s Show—carnivals. The shows a long time ago. Circuses.
Cowan: In San Marcos.
Mrs. Cowan: Yeah, that’s what I said. Some people went.
Cowan: Ringling Brothers.
Siler: Has there ever really been any politics in Wimberley?
Mrs. Cowan: Oh yes.
Cowan: Oh yeah.
Chapple: Have you been active in it?
Cowan: No.
Mrs. Cowan: He always voted. He’s always voted.
Cowan: I always voted, but never was in politics. Never run for no office. They tried to get me to run for Commissioner one time, but I wasn’t interested.
Siler: What do you think about Wood Creek?
Cowan: What about it?
Siler: It being helpful to Wimberley growing. Or do you think it will just be mainly a tourist—
Mrs. Cowan: It’s all for tourists.
Cowan: It’s both. A liability—it’s both. It’s got its good face, and it’s got its bad one. It’s alright, I guess it’s just a part of Wimberley. Just a little bit different from what most of us was used to. They’re – seem like kind of on the selfish side. They don’t want much to do with anything other than what happens in Wood Creek.
Chapple: How do you and other long-term Wimberley residents feel about all the tourists coming up here now and buying land, and everything? How do you feel about it?
Mrs. Cowan: It’s just one of those things.
Cowan: Oh well—I don’t know. Nothing to do but to feel alright about it because you can’t do anything about it whether, we like it or not. We get some pretty good residents. Pretty good people in, and I don’t know of anybody that is a liability. Pretty nice folks that have moved in in recent years. And what we hope won’t happen—or what I hope won’t happen—is they won’t build that dam. I hope they won’t build it.
Chapple: What dam is that?
Cowan: This Cotton Crossing dam.
Chapple: Where would they put that?
Cowan: About two miles up the river here.
Chapple: Why wouldn’t you want to see them build that?
Cowan: Because it will bring in a lot of things that we don’t like. That we ain’t got no use for. A lot of vice, and all kinds of people that goes to these places like a big resort. And then another thing and the main reason with me is it will cover up so much good farming and ranch land that we need worse than we need the water. We got the water there, it just runs on through. And all you got to do if you don’t like the way it’s running is go down there and get a pickle bucket full of it. But to build a dam—I know every bit of land it will cover—
Mrs. Cowan: It will cover about 4000-5000 acres, won’t it. For a dam.
Cowan: Oh, I expect it will cover 10,000 acres.
Mrs. Cowan: Twelve thousand acres of good land here. Right on the river. Good ranching land.
Cowan: Some of the best farming and ranching land in the community is right up there where that dam will be.
Mrs. Cowan: Where the lake will be.
Chapple: Do you think they’ll bring it in, or no?
Mrs. Cowan: Yeah, it’ll come. We may not see it—
Cowan: Oh, I don’t know—
Mrs. Cowan: They’ll bring it in. Cause they’ve already got the money for it.
Cowan: It’s up now for congress to pass on. President Nixon, he vetoed the last time, but I don’t know what he’ll do this time.
Mrs. Cowan: Well you said that it had already went through—
Cowan: No, it hadn’t went through.
Chapple: Has there ever been any trouble with crime in Wimberley?
Cowan: Yes. When I was just a kid, about six years old. There was a fellow mysteriously murdered over here. Right back over here about three miles from here I recon. And he was a … they claimed a fella with a name of Gib Gaye got him to come here and they went into the cow business together. Finally, Gib Gaye killed him and burn him— they found where they burned him. People around Fisher Store—he was a German—and people around Fischer Store they came down here by the dozens and hunted. And a lot of them camped at our place, we lived back here about three or four miles.
Another time, there was a fellow at a dance one night. Him and another fellow—him and a boy. This was a grown man and a boy— he broke the boy’s collar bone. And his brother took it up and came in here—we was living back out here when I was a kid. And one evening, this brother of the boy that got his collar bone broke came by our house wanted to know the way to Wimberley. There was church going on—a meeting. And we told him, so he wanted a drink of water, and we give him a drink of water. He started out, and my sisters—two of them—that day they stayed down there with somebody. Spent the evening down there, they were going to stay at the night service and so we started after them—that is we went back to service, me and my brother. We went to church to pick them up and we got just a little ways down and met somebody bringing them home. And this feller had come by that evening—his name was Hooper(?), and this feller came by name of Meeks, Dee Meeks, was there that day, and he come around the corner of the building from this church house, and come out shooting. Caught him five times, just right there in front of the church house.
Chapple: Wow.
Cowan: Shot him five times, and every shot went in. …(loud truck passes by) And that was about 1901, I reckon. And that’s I think all the crime we’ve had here (clock chimes). I don’t know of anything else that amounts to anything. I guess there have been lots of fist fights that I don’t know about.
Chapple: (laughing) There always are, aren’t there.
Cowan: Yeah.
Siler: Who were some of the people who are still around Wimberley that you’ve known for most of your life?
Cowan: Well, are any of the Dobie’s here, Mother?
Mrs. Cowan: Mrs. Jim Dobie is here, but not any of the men. Johnny Dobie is here, but he’s young. I don’t think you had too much to do with Johnny. Of course, we know him, but still—just not any of the old folks here that we know. Only Mrs. Jim Dobie.
Cowan: What was the question you asked?
Siler: Are there any people still here that you’ve known most of your life?
Mrs. Cowan: Oh yes…
Cowan: There ain’t a lot of them. Most of them done gone on of course. I’ve known all these people here that are younger than I am.
[pause in recording]
Siler: Mr. Cowan this tape will go into the Southwest Texas Library. Do you have any objections to the information being placed in the library?
Cowan: No, I don’t think so.
Siler: Thank you.
Cowan: I want to show you another picture here—
Mrs. Cowan: Maybe he wants to ask you another question—
Cowan: --that’s me right there in the middle—
End of recording