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Mary Leland
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The City of College Station, Texas
Memory Lanes Oral History Project
INTERVIEW AGREEMENT
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Good morning the City of College Station Memory Lanes Oral Histories Project. This is
Wednesday October 11, 1995, I am interviewing for the first time Ms. Mary Leland in her home
at 1307 Walton Drive in College Station, Texas. This interview is sponsored by the Historic
Preservation Committee and the Conference Center Advisory Committee of the City of College
Station, Texas.
Ms. Leland will you introduce yourself so that we can learn a little bit more about you and where
you grew up and how you enjoyed your young adult life and then we'll go later into your adult life.
Mary- I'm Mary Leland and I was born in Houston, Texas. Because we didn't have hospital
facilities here that would take care of my mother and so I was born in Houston and then I came
back here and I was raised in College Station. I lived on the campus and my house was located
across in the parking lot, where they park for the MSC and G. Rollie White. We would go around
the corner and go to school and the school a little white stucco building, a grade school. And
huh, I lived next door to the Frank Anderson's and the Carper's and across the street was Mr.
Ritchie who was head of the civil engineering department and Mr. Anderson was Physical
Education and then the Gammons lived on the Corner. I think he was in the history department,
and then around the corner was the William's, they had two children Janette and Buddy.
Jannette lives back here I think, her mother died and she is living in her mothers' house. And huh
let's see, the Bolton's lived on the corner and he later became President of the University.
Ethel- And this is still on the campus?
Mary- yes, this was all on the campus and huh in that block behind us with the F.L. Thomas, I
think Helen was there for your interview and she lives two doors down from me right now and
huh the Connors, and the Silvies were across the street and it's hard to remember. The
Shepardson's lived in the next block, well they lived two blocks over and then Mary Hursch who
you interviewed, was a Munson and they lived on the next block over. She was quite a bit
younger than I was, about 5 or 6 years.
Ethel- Now Mrs. Leland did your family move here from another state?
Mary- My folks came from Wisconsin huh they came in 1921, I do believe and my dad was
head of the business administration at the college for 39 years and he died in 1963 of a heart
attack and was president of Texas Society of Certified Public Accounts for 2 terms and then he
was Secretary- treasurer for about 30 years. So he was responsible for a lot of the certified public
accountants' affairs in the state of Texas. And he was a wonderful man, I miss him still.
Ethel- Now your Mother and you still have her with you?
Mary- Yes.
Ethel- Did she always stay at home. Did she work?
Mary- No, she did not work.
Ethel- She always just stayed in the home.
Mary- Yes, she worked in the home and huh my brother and I were the children. We both went
to Consolidated and graduated from A &M Consolidated schools. My brother never did go over to
the new school on Jersey Street which is now George Bush and huh he went to high school in
Pfieffer Hall. And at that time they had college professor teaching huh, they taught chemistry
and physics and that sort of thing because they did not have equipment at the high and huh
that's where he got interested in chemistry. He became a chemical engineer and he taught at
Rice for 30 some odd years. But he got cancer and he passed away several years back.
Ethel- How many members was in your family?
Mary- Just the four of us, my dad, my mother, my brother, and myself. My brother was four
years older than I was.
Ethel- With life on the campus, the way you were brought up, what did you do there during the
summer time and what activities did you have? I suppose it was a lot of campus activities.
Mary- Well actually there was very little as for as just everyday activities but huh the girl across
the street Florence Ritchie she was interested in getting plays together and we use to be in the
play, Preston Bolton, my brother and myself. And the Thomas', Helen and her older sisters,
Edith, and huh also the Thomton's, I don't know if you remember them. She would write these
plays and we would have a stage in her back yard because they had a big area and so she'd put
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up a clothes line and she'd put a blanket across it and we would havea stage and then we would
put on these plays and huh I know I was very small, I mean I was very young and they would
make me be the soldier or just stand around and look like I was necessary and huh my brother, I
remember he was the cunning whale he had to sit in this tub of water and he said I don't want to
be the cunning whale anymore. And we had this old mule that they found, I mean some old
mule that was wondering around and was real old and somebody had evidently let him loose or
something and he was there so we fed him. In the play we would get on him and ride but not
really ride he never did move very far. That was a lot of fun. With the Anderson, the Gammon
boys and Knox Walker lived across the street I don't know if you knew the Walker's.
Ethel- No, I didn't.
Mary- But huh all of those we played in the Chinaberry trees and we would play fox in the
morning, and games like that what was that one White Flag or something like that in the
evening, that was what we did. And then with my family we like card games we played lot of
card games and huh we played chess we played lots of chess and huh and my mother played
the piano and I played the violin and my brother played the cello, so we had a trio. We often
times played together, at least we did quite a bit of playing and my brother liked the cello he
always played it even when he was at Rice being a chemistry professor.
Ethel- Oh.
Mary- And huh he always had a quartet and huh and I played the violin and Mr. Dunn, Colonel
Richard Dunn started an orchestra in Consolidated and we met behind the little white stucco
house where the grade school was there was a big temporary building and that's where we met
and that's where those dorms are now. I don't know if you know I mean there's that big section of
dorm's that had Duncan Hall, was it, as the cafeteria or the food thing Duncan Hall, those were
not built yet and we had this temporary building that we played our orchestra in. It had a wooden
floor he met us before school every morning and we would have to go and my mother and Mrs.
Gaber and Mrs. Billsing, all those ladies were real interested in the children learning an
instrument and learning to play. So they came and tuned all the instruments and spent their time
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doing that you know. And huh that went on until 1945. I graduated from high school in 1944 and
in '45 they elected to have a band rather than an orchestra. And now the orchestra has come
back and we've got the band and the orchestra so were doing well. We moved over from that
little stucco building when I was in the seventh grade.
Ethel- And that was more on the campus, wasn't it?
Mary- Well it was on Jersey Street. There was a high school building, you know where your
community building is?
Ethel- Sure
Mary- Well the high school building was the wooden building behind that and when we moved
over there then starting in high school I remember the war came and we would go and fold
bandages in the afternoon and I was in Girl Scouts and the Girl Scouts did that too. We were
very patriotic and we had tires rationed. And sugar rationed and meat rationed and we had to be
very careful. We didn't go a whole lot of places.
Ethel- This is what I was wondering about, the trips and your excursions.
Mary- Well we all went together with the football team if we went somewhere. In other words
the one bus took us all. I think there were twenty -eight in my class and let's see, Jimmy Cashion
and Betty Joyce Outlaw, and it's hard to remember, Jane Ringhoffer, huh there weren't very
many people and huh so we just all I mean there weren't very many people in the high school, I
think there was a little over a hundred. And not very many of them went to football games. We
played Bedian and Iola, we were a B, I think we were a B school. And huh it's lot different than
it is now.
Ethel- Now with your family with transportation huh with transportation in going places.
Mary- Now my family, huh...
Ethel- Did you ever get to go back home to your family's home to your parents home?
Mary- We went every summer.
Ethel- Did you?
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Mary- Yes, my mother drove up there my dad often times couldn't come because he worked in
the summer as well as in the winter. And huh we drove up and we spent our time with both sets
of grand parents in Fondolac, Wisconsin and in Osh Kosh, Wisconsin and I had quite a few
relatives out and about. So we...
Ethel- It was a nice drive for your mother?
Mary- Oh yea, we went often times, sometimes we'd tag with Mr. Ritchie, he'd go up to Illinois to
see his sister so we'd went kind of in the car too. And huh well we just spent every summer up
there so I didn't have too much in summer things later on when i was older because World War II
kept us from going up there, when I was sixteen we didn't go anymore and I would see my
cousins who lived up there.
Ethel- Do you still have a little small family left?
Mary- I have a cousin who lives in Arkansas and another who lives in Alaska and then my
cousin Mary who lives in Missouri. I see them maybe once or twice and then my cousin
Margaret part of my dad's family she lives in Knoxville, Tennessee. And she has been down
here a couple of times. But the immediate family is all gone. My mother had three sisters and
they are all dead and my dad had one brother and he died. My dad died first and I had cousins
but they're all gone except for the ones I've mentioned.
Ethel- I know you mentioned about they didn't have facilities in hospitals here. Do you
remember the early doctors?
Mary- I think my mother's doctor was a Dr. Black, but I'm not sure. I mean I don't really know.
And a Dr. T. Turner Walton was our family doctor, when he got his that was the son of President
Walton at Texas A &M. T.O.Walton was his son too. But we went to T. Turner the older one and
my dad went there and my mother too.
Ethel- And his office was in Bryan rather than the one on Texas Avenue.
Mary- T.O. was the one that had it on Texas Avenue. But T. Turner was in Bryan. They had St.
Joseph Hospital but its just that my mother had to have special work that's why I went to Houston
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and my brother was born in Illinois, cause she went home and he was born in May. May 21st, so
she was up there.
Ethel- She meant to be there.
Mary- Yes, she had a best friend who was a nurse in Chicago, so she went to that Chicago
Presbyterian Hospital and had my brother. So that my, her friend her best friend could help her.
Ethel- Well that's wonderful.
Mary- And I don't know what you'd like for me to say.
Ethel- Well I'd like to get now to the shopping and huh...
Mary- We always had to go to Bryan to shop. They had Charli's Food Market over in North
Gate and hey had Luke Patranella huh but we usually went to Bryan to shop at the Humpty
Dumpty and the A &P. And huh we went on Saturday I remember everybody else went in there.
There were horses and buggies and everything else. You know, and I was always fascinated by
the horses, I thought they were wonderful. Mother would do all her shopping and come back and
we had a maid Mame I can't remember her last name but she was there and she would help my
mother with the cooking and the cleaning and everything.
Ethel- Sure, sure.
Mary- We lived in an old house that was the former railroad station and my folks added on to it.
They added two -three room, one was on the back and two to the side because my grandmother
came to live with us, after my grandfather died. She spent 4 months with us a year. We had
those added on because my brother needed a room. I needed a room and huh so that worked
out real well.
Ethel- Living on campus, did your parents get to have a little garden or did they bought and
shop for everything?
Mary- They bought and shopped for everything and huh no my mother wasn't a gardener. We
like flowers and she planted lots of flowers and two china berry trees in the front yard. I
remember that. I used to climb up and read.
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Ethel- Oh yes, we had mentioned a little bit about World War II, how it effected all of our
communities.
Mary- It was really something you know it was a lot of different attitudes and very patriotic. And
the people pulled together for everything. I mean it was really really a good atmosphere. We
had love for country and we thought a lot of it and all of that. Activities also when I got a little
older we didn't spend all the summer in Wisconsin but we would come back and I use to swim at
Adamson Pool when Mr. Adamson. It was built in 1935 or '34 something right then and then we
use to go over there and swim in that indoor pool. I don't know if you remember that indoor pool.
And also they offered horseback riding it was the calvery they were across the road from you
know where the...
Ethel- Across he rail road tracks on Wellborn Road.
Mary- I don't know whether you remember, it wasn't Wellbom Road. You remember where they
had, they had farm stuff and huh the horses were there too and they had a regular calvery unit
and huh this Sergeant Segar offered the children of the faculty members a way to ride. And we
use to go over there on Saturdays and we would take care of the horses and curry them and oh
we just thought it was wonderful. We had one horse named Hitler, because he had a mustache
and so that was part of the times. And I rode a horse that had a number, old Eighty -Six and we
had a lot of fun. We use to do platoon work, like, to the right flank hold, left flank hold and gallop
hold. He gave all the instructions, taught us how to ride and everything. We used English
saddles like the army did.
Ethel- How interesting.
Mary- And then we would go on trail rides, for the most part we would do platoon work. We
would jump, we did some jumping that I thought was wonderful. That was a big part of my life
cause I loved horses so much. And huh, what else we did. We'll we rooted for the Aggies but
we didn't often go to the ball games.
Ethel- Oh you didn't get to?
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Mary- Well we went on knot hole tickets sometimes, you know, and we'd sit on the end but for
the most part I can remember us rooting for the Aggies. And we could hear the loud speakers
cause we were right there close to Kyle Field. And we would say, "oh good Johnny? John
Kimbrough made a touchdown ". You know, I remember that when I was a kid.
Ethel- I did hear that Pugh, Marian Pugh, but did he play in the time of John Kimbrough?
Mary- I'm not sure, cause I don't remember about times, but he was a very good player.
Ethel- Your parents did go to the games.
Mary- Oh yes they did go to the games. My mother entertained, huh, always people would
come in like the accountants or people connected with my dad's accounting division would come
in to go to the games because they would be ex- Aggies and he started, I wish I could remember
the names of these things. Because I wasn't here when he did it, but dealt with accounting, or
business. They would come in here and discuss how to run businesses, IBM. They had
executives, it was an executive development course, that's what it was called, Executive
Development Course. And he started that and now they have, huh, when he died they have a
chair for him over at the county.
Ethel- Really.
Mary- Yes, 'The Leland Chair ", and they hire a professor every now and then for him.
Ethel- That is quite interesting.
Mary- Oh, he was really well thought of. People all over the country knew him. Because he
went to New York and wrote a book for returning veterans or helped write a chapter about
accounting, for the longest time we kept in touch with people who were responsible for that.
Ethel- Did he get to take his family sometimes when he would go on trips, business trips?
Mary- No, rarely. Well, he took my mother, but we didn't go and yeah, he went all the time. He
was just a very busy man. And, huh, my mother, she would, like people would come for
Thanksgiving, we had all these people coming for the Aggie game, Texas and the Aggie game. I
can remember just mobs of people coming in and out.
Ethel- And they still had the bonfire too during that time?
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Mary- Oh yes, that was where the MSC is right now. You know where they almost built it right
there and the YMCA was just around and then there was a circle where they had the Silver Taps.
We used to go to yell practice. When I was a kid we would go to yell practice and that was held
on the steps of the YMCA.
Ethel- Now, did your whole family go?
Mary- Oh yes.
Ethel -You would go with your parents.
Mary -Yes, my parents, I never went alone. And we got our mail at the old main building, you
know the one with the big dome that has Lawrence Sullivan Ross in front, that statue. We'd go
down there, I'd go with my dad down to get the mail.
Ethel- Well, they did have a post office, didn't they?
Mary- Well at that time we got ours through faculty exchange, so we went there and got our mail
and I can remember going with him. That was a lot of fun. And we went to movies.
Ethel- That's what I was just getting ready to ask you, was the campus theater there?
Mary- No, it wasn't there when I was a child. It was the assembly hall, which was you know
where Law Hall and Puryear Hall is?
Ethel- Not really.
Mary- You know where All Faith's Chapel is?
Ethel- Sure.
Mary- All Faith's Chapel was not there. There was this wooden building right beside those
dormitories. If you stand and look at All Faith's Chapel in the front, then the dormitories were on
the left, Law and Puryear Hall, and then these wooden buildings was where we went to see the
movies and and all the Aggies went to and they would set up in the balcony and throw peanut
shells down stairs. And we sat downstairs so we got just rained with peanut shells.
Ethel- The cost was mostly just change, wasn't it?
Mary- Oh yeah, it wasn't hardly anything.
Ethel- Maybe twenty -five cents?
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Mary- I don't have any idea cause I didn't do it. We would go to these movies and they were
always B movies, you know, like the 'Thin Man ", if you have any idea what those movies are
like. But anyway, it was a great occurrence, we just really liked it. And then we would come
home and my parents would play some bridge with Mr. Ritchie and his wife. She was a lady who
had some kind of disease, multiple scorosis, that's what I think she had but I'm not sure and she
couldn't even hold up her card. So he built a frame and he put a rubber band around it and she'd
point to a card and he'd play it and they'd have lots of fun. And we use to go to sleep over there
and then they'd carry us back home across the street. And they had a bridge club which was
wonderful, Mr. McGinnis and the Andersons, Helen and Frank Anderson and, it's hard for me to
remember the people's name but they were very close knit. Mr. Sheperdson and his wife, he
was the dean of Agriculture. And so they were couples and they would go to the Aggieland Inn.
The Aggieland Inn was across the street from Sbisa Hall. And it was there and it was the only
eating place in town really and so they would go there for Sunday dinner or they would go there
in the evening and then go to someone's house to play bridge. That was their fun.
Ethel- And since we are in the home again, the modem appliances.
Mary- Well we had a gas stove and we had, I'm trying to remember all the things we had. I
remember my grandmother.
Ethel- The refrigerator , did they bring ice at that time?
Mary- It had ice, yeah, it had ice. It was a General Electric. It had a big dome on the top and
they had to take the melted dish out of the underneath and throw out that and then get fresh ice.
I can remember that. And then later on we got a regular refrigerator that had a little bittie place
for ice here and you had to; we use to make ice cream. Because you see you didn't have the
butter products and all that. But we got our milk from the college and it was raw milk and all the
time I was growing up, we drank raw milk. It was F &B, F &B raw milk, it was marvelous. It had
cream that would come up to the top and we would make butter. My mother always, we would
churn that butter up. But we had most modem facilities, the house was the old railroad station
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and we fought termites from the time we lived there til the time we moved out. And it was
something we couldn't get rid of it, was just terrible.
Ethel- I don't know whether you mentioned where you went to college. I know they were not
having females here at A &M at that time.
Mary- I went with my dad to New York for a year when I had just graduated from high school
and he was educational director for the American Institute of Public Accountants. And he took a
leave of absence for a year from A &M , and so he wanted me to go up there and not go to
college. I was only sixteen because we only went eleven years to school. The state didn't pass
that law for twelve years until I was already into school so I only went eleven years. I went seven
years to grade school and then four years to high school. So I was a little young to be going to
college, so I went there and he said, "well you need to be doing something ". So I went over and
tried out at Juliards School of Music. And they accepted me and I started playing a great deal
and really enjoyed it. I played in orchestras up there and played with people and had some
friends that went over to live in New Jersey. I went over to New Jersey to see green grass, but
New York City was really an experience for me. And so I got so home sick I wanted to come
home to Texas. But it was wonderful getting to see all the museums and go to the operas. I saw
all the operas and lots of plays.
Ethel- Seems like you stayed there for a little while.
Mary-
A year, a whole year and we went to the various things that are famous for New York, you
know. Then I went to Sophie Newcomb, which is in New Orleans, it's a part of Tulane, it's a girls'
school. And I went there for two years but I was the only violin major in the whole school. And I
wanted to get like it was Juliards. My dad didn't want me to stay at Juliards because they only
gave a certificate, they didn't give a college degree and he thought a college degree was the
thing. So I went to Sophie Newcomb for two years and got my undergraduate things out of the
way and I learned a lot there. And New Orleans was a very interesting city. I thoroughly enjoyed
that. And we did get to go see many, many things.
Ethel- And you do play the piano.
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Mary- No the violin.
Ethel- I thought you played the piano.
Mary- No, my mother played the piano. And she sang. She worked with the choir. We were in
the Presbyterian church, which met in the YMCA building first and then they got the building that
their in now, the A &M Presbyterian Church there on Church Street. And they went to that church
and I grew up in that church.
Ethel- Oh, did you.
Mary -Yes, and my mother was the choir director for a long time and then she kept on singing for
a long time and played the piano up until she was seventy or eighty.
Ethel- Can you remember Mrs. Luther?
Mary- Oh yes, oh yes. I played with her, played for her because her daughter was here and she
called me and she said, "would you play some music for my mother with me ? ", and I said sure,
and so I brought some duet for a five minute show.
Ethel- Has that been that long ago?
Mary- Wasn't that long ago, it was last year.
Ethel- So, She is still here?
Mary- Mrs. Luther is in a nursing home, Sherwood.
Ethel- Is she?
Mary- I think she's in Sherwood. And so I went in there and we played.
Ethel- Wonderful!
Mary- Beatrice, her daughter Beatrice and I.
Ethel- And she does have a son here doesn't she?
Mary- I'm not sure because I don't know her children. I just know Beatrice because she plays
the cello. And I played with her in a quartet and then just for fun, when she was here. And so
she wanted to play for her mother, so she said, "would you play with me ? ". And so we went in
there and we played and her mother loved it, she just loved it.
Ethel- I bet so, I imagine she's up in age.
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Mary- Yes, she had a stroke so that's why she's living in a home, it's sad. She was a big worker
with music and I use to play in a quartet she had and she use to play the piano.
Ethel- I can remember her in the school district and back earlier.
Mary- Right.
Ethel- I don't know if you can recall or if you were here at the time of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Mary- Yes, I saw him come off the train, I was standing right there. They had this wooden rail
and they had all this ramp and he could hang on to this rail and swing his legs, you know, and he
did. I could remember you know it was impressive. The president is going to review the troops.
So we were all, you know, the President of the United States. I was young, that was before the
war he came here in the thirties but I'm not sure exactly what the date was because dates didn't
mean much to me as a child. And then you had a review, he reviewed the troops here.
Ethel- Did he?
Mary- Yes, they had the Cason's, and the horses and of course guess where I was. I was in
there petting all the horses. I knew...and that was very exciting because everybody was there.
And it was on that drill field where...
Ethel- And then you had the train depot.
Mary -Yeah, the train was there. You could set your whistle by 10 o'clock and 6 o'clock.
Ethel- Wasn't about 12 o'clock. Didn't we have four, two going south and two going north?
Mary- Right, 10 o'clock and 12 o'clock.
Ethel- 8 o'clock, 6 o'clock, and 8 o'clock.
Mary- Was it six or eight? I know there was one in the evening but I can't remember but you'd
hear it, we'd know it was the train. It was the passenger train that did that , of course we did
have a lot of trains then.
Ethel- Because we did have two tracks. I can recall them saying bend over so often seemingly
that they would say there was a passenger train on that second track over.
Mary- Right, when we went to Bryan to shop for groceries or anything, we had to go on that road
that was the Wellbom Road, there was a big curve, I don't know if you remember it, it was rather
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a dangerous curve. And if you went over the Old College Avenue and went downtown that way.
And then after a while we went to, after we quit going to Humpty Dumpty and A &P, we went to
On's Grocery which was downtown. Do you remember?
Ethel— Yes, there was one in Bryan.
Mary- He didn't do the one on Texas Avenue til much later. But we went there, I can remember
that one time Mrs. Lancaster's car had stopped and she was riding in an open car, it was like a
convertible or something but it was old timey. And she was just sitting out there. I can
remember being with her, we'd stop and she was taking me to Bryan for some reason maybe to
the library because we didn't have a library here and I can remember sitting out there in the sun
and she was real calm, she never got excited about anything. Do you remember the
Lancasters?
Ethel- Oh, sure.
Mary- Bill Lancaster is her son, one of her sons, there was Cynthia.
Ethel- Oh, on Dexter.
Mary- Yeah, that's where they lived then, I don't know where they lived when we were growing
up.
Ethel- And you see the principle of South Knoll is Brad.
Mary- Brad, well I taught Brad in school.
Ethel- And his dad Bill is on this committee.
Mary- Oh really. That was so funny because we were just sitting out there in the sun just waiting
for someone to come along and help us.
Ethel- Now, restaurants can you recall?
Mary- Well now the only restaurant I can remember is the Aggieland Inn. And then there was a
family that had originally had been, he had run the Sbisa Hall and he opened up a kind of a
family cafeteria type in Bryan. But I don't remember the name but I remember going to it but for
the most part we went to the Aggieland Inn, which was a very nice restaurant you know. And
let's see what else, oh they made "We Never Been Licked" here, the Aggie movie and we went
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over and danced when they made that movie. You had to take off your shoes and not make any
noise and we just went in and danced. You know Aggies and everything, it was fun. Also, I
remember we played summer musicals which were Gilbert and Sullivan. There was a guy in the
Post Office which was a tenor, he could really sing, I don't remember his name. And what was
the guy that did it before, Bob Boone, whoever had the Aggieland Orchestra, I don't remember
his name. Isn't that awful? But anyway, we did all the Gilbert and Sullivan like HMS Pentilgal
and I would play in the orchestra and that was fun. It was something to do in the summer time.
Ethel- We haven't gotten, we've talk off and on about your mature life. And you told me earlier
you had a son.
Mary- I have three.
Ethel- Three sons, O.K.
Mary- They all live in College Station. Bob is the swim coach for the AAU, the age group
swimming. The Aggie Swim Club, I don't know if you've ever seen that advertise in TV, but he
coaches and he's very good. He was a world class swimmer and went and swam for the United
States. He swam in Berlin and he swam in Holland and he swam in Russia.
Ethel- Well I'm sure I remember hearing your son's name.
Mary- He was a breast stroker and he was very good. And he said he would never be a swim
coach but now he's a swim coach he has his degree in landscape architecture so he is a state
licensed landscape architecturer.
Ethel- Now does he have a company here?
Mary- Well he did but then...
Ethel- Was it Contemporary?
Mary -No, it wasn't Contemporary. Contemporary is still going. He worked for Contemporary for
a while.
Ethel- They had done some church work for us.
Mary- He worked for them for a while. Then he decided to do his own business but it was very,
very difficult. And so he decided he didn't want to keep doing that. And so he does landscape
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drawings and things like that for people and landscape their yards. But, he doesn't do the labor
work. And he's really a wonderful coach, the kids just love him.
Ethel- Now were they all born here? You said they are all living here. You have come back
home. You have not always lived here.
Mary- Right, I lived in New Hampshire for a few years. I lived in New York City for three years
and I lived in Indiana for a year or two. And Bob was born in South Bend, Indiana and Tom was
born in Fort Smith, New Hampshire and Bill was born here in Bryan. And Bill works for the City
of Bryan, he works for the electric department and he has a very good job. And he likes that.
He's married and has stepchildren, his wife was married before. But he is very happy. They are
doing real well and I just love having them here. They come take care of my yard. They come
take care of something that breaks down. Tom helps me with my mother. They're wonderful,
they really are. The sweetest people I really enjoy them a lot.
Ethel- And you don't hear that much now because everybody is so busy.
Mary- That's right, that's right. They seem to take time to help me.
Ethel- They're still here near you to help.
Mary- Well I really enjoy them. You know I taught school at Consolidated for thirty years, taught
math. Mr. Bright was next door to me. We were first here at this facility on Jersey or George
Bush. I started teaching on that lower section down there didn't have any air conditioning. And I
taught remedial math first and then I started with Algebra I and Mr. Osmitt was my principle.
Ethel- Yes.
Mary- Did you know Mr. Osmitt?
Ethel- I did, I did.
Mary- He was a wonderful man.
Ethel- They moved to near the Austin area.
Mary- His wife died.
Ethel- His wife passed, O.K.
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Mary- Then we had some new buildings built and I think they still keep some of those, it was
along with that gymnasium. You know that gymnasium, the brick gymnasium, and the football
fields were right behind and then there was these two long buildings. O.K. well I was in the
second building on the left there and I remember cokes you have cherry cokes and vanilla
cokes, but had the tile floors. It was an old fashion pharmacy type and drug store or whatever
and I remember going over there and getting soda water when we took our break from playing.
Ethel- Now did you get to grow up here in this spot.
Mary- No, I mostly grew up on the campus. We didn't move over here until 1940. I think it was
summer of 1940. And we had to move out in 1939 and my folks bought this lot and over here
Dr. Thomas built and I built and the Thorton's down the street and the, wasn't the Moses it was
Rollins was next door. So there was those two houses and then Mr. Greenland's house was a
little farther along. Next to Dr. Cooper's house was his house and then Mr. Hayes had the next
house that looks like a California house. Now he was from California, he had three polo horses
over here where the College Hills School is. He had all that fenced in with facilities like stables
for his horses and I use to take care of them when he was gone for the summer time. That's the
reason I remember them. The Munson's were right here next door. And the Cristy's, they were, I
don't even remember them real well but they lived down a little ways where Mr. Bud Denton lives
now. They lived in that house it was a two story house. And those were the houses I remember
because there was nothing behind us. See and none of the stuff was built. And Mr. Dominik's
farm was over here. It was like walking into another century to go over there. His wife use to
come and sit. So I use to go over there and ask her if she could sit for me with my children. And
she had to wash her clothes outside and hang them up on the wire out there. She boiled them
you know and like that. They didn't have electricity, they didn't have running water. They had a
well. You would walk into their house and there was this bedroom that had a heater you know
that had a central pipe that went up. And...
Ethel- Probably the wood heater.
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Mary- I guess they bum wood and you would just propped your feet up. They had a ring and
then they had the chairs all around the stove you know and you could just prop your feet up. And
huh she would heat her iron, they had a regular wood fire and she would heat her iron on that.
And iron her clothes.
Ethel- The street has it's name from the family.
Mary- Oh yea, there was three Dominik brothers. And the one who lived up here he was quite
elderly and he married someone who was twenty years younger than he was. And huh so he
died and that's when she sold the land to Mr. Culpepper and huh the other two brothers lived
back. And one of them had two sons Edgar and Christine. Dominik and her husband was the
owner of Weingartens. You know Weingartens'?
Ethel- Sure, in Bryan.
Mary- In Bryan or rather he ran it. I don't remember what her married name was. But she did
real well. I don't know what happen to Edgar. And I didn't know the other family. The other man
didn't want anyone coming on his land and he use to take a shot gun. So we didn't bother him at
all. But I use to go back here and you know they had the graves of Carter, the Carter Lee
graves. Now they said there here but when I was I guess passed '39 or so I was a teenager we
went back in those woods back there that belong to somebody in Bryan. We use to go back
there just for fun you know hiking in the woods you know, pick wild flowers and things, but they
had the parts of the old house and the well. The well was there and this iron reel that had
Richard Carter and his wife's grave. And then off to the side he had his daughters grave
because it said "Earth has one spirit less, heaven one angel more" and I always remember that.
She was 33 years old when she died thats what the grave said and then there was lots of
unmarked graves, I can assume maybe slaves. I don't know. Because he was the one that
started. It was back this way. Now they have a sign that says these are the Carter graves but it
really wasn't. Because they took a bulldozer and bulldoze those graves down. That was horrible
to me. I thought that was terrible. You can't do this your destroying history, but they did it
anyway.
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Ethel- And I guess they named the creek from the Carter family.
Mary- Right, right it was the Carter Legan. I don't know how many thousands of acres there
were but you know they claimed alot and his home was up on that hill and you could see where
the ground had been plowed you know and there was if you went around you could find a piece
of a plow chair, different tools and things rusted and almost gone. It was interesting.
Ethel- I bet
Mary- And huh I use to take the kids back there and they thought that was wonderful. Here's
this grave and here this one. And that was an exciting experience.
Ethel- A lot of these streets are named for these people too that lived in this area.
Mary- Right, Right, they never named one after my dad beacuse he didn't have his doctorate
elect, his disertation he never went back and got it. Isn't that funny he went back to Philadelphia
and he never went back and got it but they made him head of the division anyway. He was a
remarkable man.
Ethel- Sure, sure
Mary- Really busy, he was into CPA work and then he did his work at the college and I never
knew him when he wasn't working he was always so busy.
Ethel- And your mother had done great thing for...
Mary- Oh yes she worked with Gladys Stuart and Florence Caldwell with the young children and
she help out with that. She was always a member of the Garden Club and she did the music on
the campus, she really did get involved. And something I never done because I was teaching I
just had to work. Raise my boys and work.
Ethel- Now did you meet your husband here in Texas?
Mary- Yea, I met him in Texas but he wasn't the marrying kind so before Bill was born he left
and I came home. So I took my dad's name back because he was going to adopt the children.
He never did adopt them. But he was going to. So they have the Leland name rather than my
married name. And I didn't want to have a different name so I took my name back. But anyway,
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I love teaching, it was fun. And then mother got worst and the house burned down. So I decided
I'd better stay home and take care of her.
Ethel- I can recall, I think they took pictures on T.V.
Mary- I lost my violin, my viola. Yes and they were worth lots of money and I can't get another
one like that, it cost too much. Now days the instruments just keep going up in price. You have
to pay a whole lot. My violin was a Gond which was a French violin maker family and I had the
old man's Gond was made in 1850 And it just was wonderful, it was incredible. And my viola
was made in 1769 in England, by Henry Jay.
Ethel- You didn't even bury them here in this area did you?
Mary- Well I bought my violin from a man in Austin who was 90 something and he said before
he died he was going to get me a decent violin. He got me one it was a sick one and he was
always gluing it back together and so then he sold me that Gond and oh it was incredible
instrument. And I wish I still had. I mourned over it more than anything.
Ethel- Well at least you all weren't even here I suppose
Mary- Yea we were here working on the floor. And we caused the fire, what happen was we did
what they told us. We were going to take up this linoleum off the old house's floor because it
was, the linoleum people said they would not lay a new one they said they would have to put
down plyboard, it meant my mother would have to step up like this and I was afraid she'd fall
because she was much older, she was 93 then. And so we just have to get then linoleum up and
so when we got down to the bottom, there was this black tar paper. And all this black tar paper
and they still would of put the plyboard down see so we had to get that tar stuff up. And so we
called the hardware store and they said you can use paint remover. And you know that very
volatile and so we put the paint remover down and Bob was helping and Tom's wife was helping
I was helping. We were working to get that stuff off the floor and we did everything they said.
We turned off all the gas jets and we turned the water heater off and everything, we forgot to
pull the plug on the refrigerator and a spark came from the motor when it came on and it just
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caught the whole thing on fire. And it all went just like lightning there wasn't any way. On the
porch was a heater, a gas heater and I guess there was some gas flames in there and anyway.
Ethel- I guess all you can do is save yourselves.
Mary- That's really, we got mother out. And I was afraid Tom was upstairs, you know so I went
racing up to get him and my dog was shut in the rooms so he wouldn't smell the fumes from the
paint remover and I had two cats up there. I couldn't catch the cats but I got the dog out. And I
didn't even think about my instruments until after the fire. It was terrible I just kept thinking about
the living things so I lost two cats and one dog was out on the porch and so it went. Mark
Robinson and Bob built my house, and its just beautiful and I really like it. I taught Mark in
school, he was wonderful. He's the custom builder now so he took the insurance money and
built the house.
Ethel- And that makes you very proud of him.
Mary- Oh yes and Bob helped him. Bob could draw the plans as well. So we did it all. I just
had to plan it instantly snd then I had to buy all the furniture all with in that short period of time.
Ethel- Now where did you live during the time?
Mary- We lived next door. Helen let us live in Dr. Thomas' house because her daughter had
been living there and her daughter wanted to move out. She moved a into a trailor home. Now I
don't know where she is now. I think she's some place else, she lives somewhere down on the
coast. But anyway we lived over there and my mother was so confused she didn't know where
she was. She kept wanting to go home. Her father was a blacksmith when he lived up in
Wisconsin and she kept saying now the Blacksmith Shop is right around that corner and she kept
trying to get everybody to take her there. She really went downhill after that. Then when we
moved back here it was strange too. It was like a new house it was nothing familiar. She was
really something. I mean it was a nice house and I'm glad we have it. I have room to take care
of her. And Mark was very thoughtful he said you have to have larger doors so later on when
she's not walking she can get through them with a wheelchair.
Ethel- You don't bother with stairs anymore.
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Mary- That right I use to run up those stairs.
Ethel- It's something good that comes out of...
Mary- Right well you know I think its part of God's plan anyway.
Ethel- This is one of the positive ways of looking at any disaster that happens try to find out the
good that was in it.
Mary- There's alot of good there really is. I lost alot of my music. I have a lot of it left, partially
burnt but I still use it. But we were fortunate not to lose our lives. And so I really think there's a
plan for everything and there must have been a plan for that
Ethel- Mrs. Leland, it has been so nice talking to you.
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