Results of searches for "GERDES" in the San Patricio County News starting in 1916
This is just one gallery of 56 (to date) of photos, narratives, and other information that I have posted over the last 10 years. If anybody is interested in perusing my mother's side of the family, click the "Home" icon in the upper left of the screen and scroll down to the gallery named "Family Photos of the William Charles Stephenson Clan".
The site for the paper is operated by the University of North Texas, and they have archives of HUNDREDS of newspapers all over the place, so you can search any of the papers that they have by going all the way back to the home page of the UNT website... LOTS of information for ANYBODY doing any kind of historical date.
As time permits, I'll be searching around on the Hallettsville paper for more stuff....
Click on any picture to zoom in. Any or all images on this site can be downloaded for your own use by clicking the little down arrow under the picture.
Starting with pictures of Casper Sr. and other members of the family.
May, 1919... "Dick" Gerdes, and he was.... was actually Gaylord ADOLPH Gerdes, but back in those days, the name "Adolph" sorta lost its popularity. Anyway, he was a crook. I'm sorry, he just was. He and my dad, "Dilly", were brothers and partners in the Retama Gin Company that dad built 7 miles south of Sinton in Sodville. Dick used to brag about keeping two sets of books. Anyway, the "Oil Mill" (cottonseed in Corpus) were furnishing financing for the gin, and when they did an audit back in the '50's, they caught Dick and informed him that they would not file charges on him if he sold out to dad. So he dodged jail on that one. Crook.
In a previous post, I said that I didn't know of a connection to Victoria, but it shows here. Henry died in 1899, and census data shows that in 1900, Mary Frances lived with one of their sons, Otto in Victoria. So in 1899 perhaps they both were staying with Otto. Also, Otto is shown as a cotton ginner in Victoria. Then in 1910, Otto and wife, Alice, and Mary Frances had moved to San Antonio, where he is listed as being the proprietor of a Bakery, and their address as of 12 Sep 1918, 622 E. Cincinnatti Ave., San Antonio
This is an image of a book I found at the Dallas Library which shows where the ship's manifest was published. I still have not found an original. See the information in the following images on Vincent and Joseph Meyer, Frank Appelt, Joseph Elstner, Frank Schaefer, Frank Hausmann, and K. Schroeder and their families. The publishers picked a single example of the ship's manifest which happened to be the Bark Friedrich Grosse. Pure luck that had that information.
This is not a picture of any of my family, but it IS a picture of a family of German immigrants. These people are TOUGH...Most Americans today can't even imagine what hard work these folks did all their lives ... after enduring 6 weeks at sea.. Study their clothes and their faces, boots, and expressions..And they probably built everything in the background with their bare hands.. no nail guns, no chop saws.. just axes and hammers and the will to make a life for themselves!.... This picture is now my most favored in the WORLD! Colorized by David L Wallace...
