Bishop's First Families - R. E. Wakeland Family

May 14 - 16, 2010

Bishop, Nueces County, Texas 1910 - 2010 One Hundred Years of South Texas Heritage!

~~R. E. Wakeland Family~~

Mr. and Mrs. R. E. Wakeland and their children, Irene (deceased), Pauline (Mrs. A. B. Whitten), Myrtle,

Stacy Lee and Milton, came to Bishop in November 1912 from Waxahachie. The youngest son, Richard

was born in Bishop.

The family car had to be shipped by train because there were no highways in 1912. The car, a Firestone

Columbus, when it did arrive, was the only car in the east Bishop neighborhood where the Wakelands

settled on the Martin farm, two and a half miles from town.

“A real treat was a drive to the King Ranch when we could drive all over the grounds,” Pauline recalls. “As

many neighbors as could pile in would go along. Stacy Lee declares he did his teething chewing on the

rubber horn. When Dad could crank it (by hand) and the roads were passable, he drove us to school in the

Columbus. The Pearson girls, May and Pearl, were usually waiting at the corner to ride with us. On rainy

days we went to school in the buggy, sometimes driven by our Negro farm hand, Jim.”

One time when Pauliine was seven and Myrtle five, they were sent to the garden to pick beans for lunch.

Beyond the garden was a cane patch, and there was a fence and big red gate between. The children were

warned never to go into the field because of snakes.

“This time,” Pauline admits, “we left our bean picking for the cane patch, cut some nice juicy stalks, brought

them back to the red gate, climbed to the top rail and sang and chewed cane happily - until we saw Dad

coming with a switch.”

Children in the country were left to their own devices for entertainment, some phases of which were daring

as well as dangerous. The Wakeland children liked to climb the windmill tower. From there they could tease

the milk cow that had a young calf.

The children were forbidden to ride Stella, a beautiful but very frisky horse. However, when their father left

to go to town, the girls bridled the horse and climbed aboard, often as many as four at a time if there were

visitors. Once when four girls were riding Stella they stopped to get a drink. A drop of water splashed on

Stella and she took off, leaving four frightened children sprawled on the grass.

When the family moved to the farm west of town, the children added rattlesnakes to their list of “playmates”.

The girls killed five one morning. While they were gathering roasting ears the saw a sixth snake, whipped

it into a stupor, and thinking it dead, Pauline decided to take it to the house to add to the collection. The

snake came to, struck her on the ear, and almost put the Wakeland girls out of the collecting business. Mrs.

Wakeland put carbolic acid on the wound, and Dr. Williams, when he arrived, said it probably saved

Pauline’s life.

“Stacy Lee and Milton, and Dick when he was old enough, were inclined to be air-minded,” their sister

writes. “Every time they saw an umbrella whiling its time away in a corner they immediately put it to use.

They climbed to the highest window in the two story barn or to the ridge pole of the garage for a take-off.

Each time when the episode was over the results were the same - bruised little boys with no bones broken,

and an umbrella turned wrong side out. Once they used their aunt’s gold-handled heirloom umbrella - and

there were no more flights for a time.”

[The following is from the Bishop News of 1960 in a series written by Mrs. Gail Tubbs for Bishop's

then upcoming Golden Jubilee celebration.]