SOGUE ROUSSEAU

The following bio was taken from page 377 of the book entitled "Rusk County History" compiled and edited and used with permission of the Rusk County Historical Commission.

Transcribed by Claudia Schuster

Submitted by Gloria Briley Mayfield, Rusk County TX Coordinator

I, Thelma, was born and raised on a farm in the Wood Glen Community. I came from a long line of early pioneers to Texas. I am the daughter of J.H. (Sogue) and Georgia Welch Rousseau, who were married in 1900. On September 26, 1936, I married Floyd B. Little, son of Georgie and Hettie Rainwater Little. We have two daughters, Jean Gaylor and Gay Horn, both of whom live in Waco, Texas.

Papa was one of eighteen children of Travis and Julia Iverson Rousseau. Mama was one of eleven children of Andrew Jackson and Nancy Buckner Welch. My great-grandmother Welch was the first one buried in Welch cemetery. My great-grandmother Buckner was the first one buried in the Bridges Cemetery.

My parents had four girls: Lorna White, Gertie Hutto, Lorene Hunt, and Thelma Little and four boys: Dennis, Leo, Oswell, and Verdell. They adopted another boy, Cecil, at the age of three months when his mother, Aunt Linnie Rousseau, died. We never think of Cecil as a cousin but always as our brother.

To feed and clothe nine children was a job our parents always managed to do. We learned to have fun even while working. Mama would get us all seated shelling peas or peeling peaches to can; then she would tell us funny things that happened in the early lives of her and Papa. She said that Papa used a team of oxen to haul logs. He used his voice as much as his whip so he got real hoarse. Newt Swain, a co-worker, told him to take a tablespoon of Watkins Liniment and it would clear his voice. Papa did not question the advice and turned the bottle up and took a big swallow. He did not say a word for a week.

When we were growing up, people had square dances in their homes. Papa and Mama loved to dance, but as they grew older they settled for having Saturday night dances in our home. Papa did the calling; Mama played the organ; Leonard Welch played the violin; and Frank Toon played the guitar. The house was always full, and young and old enjoyed the dance. Papa’s deep laugh was often heard as he greeted friends and exchanged jokes. He especially enjoyed a night of fox hunting with his friends. He spent winter afternoons trying his skill and knowledge at playing dominos with a neighbor.

For extra money in the fall, Papa would drive to Henderson, get a wagonload of apples, and peddle them over the county. He gave away most of his profit to little children for if the parents could not buy apples, he always managed to find a few he figured would not ride much farther.

A few years before Papa died, he leased his land for the drilling of oil. He watched the drilling activity and dreamed of better days. He voiced two of his dreams. One was for the oil well to make him enough money so that he could stand on the street in Henderson and pass out dollar bills to little children. This dream did not come to pass for the well was not a gusher. The other was to get electricity so he could have a radio that would not go dead during the news report. He had the house wired and ready, but this dream failed him too. He took sick and died three weeks before the rural electric company turned the electricity on. He died March 6, 1947 at the age of seventy-six. Mama died January 2, 1956 at the age of eighty. Both are buried in Welch Cemetery.

Submitted by Thelma Little