DR. HAROLD JAMES SPRINGFIELD

The following bio was taken from page 394 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

We moved from Houston to Henderson, Texas in June 1961. Harold was born in Leakey, Texas on December 21, 1929. I, D. Arleene Rymal, was born in Houston on March 26, 1935. We married August 23, 1952. My parents are Theodore R. Rymal and Doris Rausheck Rymal. Harold’s parents are Gilbert A. Springfield and Mary Damron Springfield.

My father’s ancestry is traced back to the Earl of Marrs of England. When our first-born son arrived, we were unaware of the Rymal Family tradition to name the eldest son Marrs or Marshall. Restitution for this oversight was made when Todd Marshall arrived. The Rymals lived in Ontario, Canada before moving to Michigan. My grandfather, George Marshall Rymal, married Alice Raymond before moving to New Mexico then on to Texas to settle. My father (the youngest son of thirteen children) was born in Michigan. I have one brother, T.R. Rymal, Jr.

My maternal ancestors are descendants of Fredrick the Great of Germany. My great-great-grandfather was Fredrick Von Raushenback. He left Germany during the Kaiser’s reign (World War I) for political reasons. He was a man without a country for seven years in that he had to stay on board ship, unable to disembark because German authorities were searching for him to send him back to Germany. He was able to elude German authorities in New Orleans, Louisiana and settled in Rushton, Louisiana. My great-grandfather married Lucy Wilson. They moved to Marshall, Texas and are buried in the Scottsville Cemetery there. My grandfather, Fredrick Orlando Rauscheck, married Lula Lea Rausin of Palestine, Texas.

Harold’s family on his maternal side, the Damrons came to America in the 1400’s. George Damron was born in Virginia in 1473. He was of Scotch-Irish descent. John Damron was born in Virginia in 1586. He was captain of the ship "The Duty" that set sail for Virginia from London, England with passengers for the New World, arriving in May, 1620. There were only eight hundred and eighty-seven people in Virginia in 1620. A branch of the Damron Clan ventured to Texas in the 1800’s. John Damron and his wife, Sarah Shultz, lived in Henderson, Texas in the 1850’s. Most of the family settled in Fannin County. Harold’s grandfather, Wilson Damron, was born in 1850 in West Virginia. He married Mary Elizabeth Zernial, who was born in 1862 in Bonham, Texas. Harold’s mother, Mary died when Harold was about a week old. Her sister, Agnes, married Gilbert Springfield and helped him rear his three children – Marilyn, Elizabeth, and Harold. Agnes and Gilbert had one child, Gilbert Aaron Springfield. Harold’s father died in 1945.

Harold began his medical practice in Henderson on July 3, 1961, the seventh birthday of our eldest daughter, Gaye Lynn. We had three other children when we moved to Henderson: Taryn Denise, born September 7, 1955; Vicki Dawn, born November 20, 1958; and Scott Rymal, born June 9, 1960. Todd Marshall was born in Henderson on October 28, 1963.

Two or three years after we moved to Henderson, we talked our parents into joining us. Not many years passed until mother’s sister and her husband, Freddie Mae and Charles W. Jackson, couldn’t resist the beauty of East Texas. In the late 1970’s my grandmother also moved to Henderson from Palestine to be near her daughters.

Scott will graduate from Texas A & M and Todd will graduate from Henderson High School this school year. Our daughters have married and are beginning their own families. Gaye married Tony Haskins, M.D., son of Tommy and Linda Haskins. Taryn married James Reagan Fountain, son of H.B. Fountain and Mrs. Robert Smithey, and Vicki married Ricky Lynn Sadler, son of Harold and Mildred Sadler. Each daughter has presented us with two grandchildren, but – that’s their story.

Our dream and plans to live on our Laneville, Texas farm have come to pass. We moved here in August, 1980. We made the right choice when we chose to plant our roots in Rusk County.

Submitted by Arleene Rymal Springfield