GEORGE W. WINDLE

The following bio was taken from page 449 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

My grandfather, John A. Windle, was born in Virginia in 1804. He came to Henderson, Texas, in 1840 and married my grandmother, Mary Harmon, in 1854. She was from South Carolina. Their son, George W. Windle, my father, was born April 5, 1859, on a farm three miles south of Henderson. George married my mother, Emma Colwell, in 1884. She was born January 11, 1866. Her father was John Colwell, and her mother was Ann Colburn. John Colburn had a freight line between Shreveport, Louisiana and Henderson. He hauled the lumber use to build the Howard-Dickinson house in Henderson. Oxen were used to pull the freight wagons.

My parents had six children: Georgia, Edgar, Bonnie, Lois, Gladys, and Lucille. Their home was built in 1895 on the land where my father was born. We drove a horse and buggy, and later a car into town to attend school. My father was a farmer and stockman. He grew cotton, corn, ribbon cane, and all our vegetables and fruit, which were canned or dried, for the winter. Hogs were killed and cured in a smokehouse. Mother made soap for washing clothes and carded cotton to go into the beautiful quilts she made. She loved her flowers and was very artistic. My father died in 1945 and mother died in 1956. After their deaths, five oil wells have been drilled on our land.

I have married Lawt O. Gothard, April 3, 1928. He was a meat cutter for Dennard’s Grocery in Henderson. He was the son of John S. Gothard and Daisy McCauley. They were married December 23, 1900, and had nine children: Don, Lawt, Connie, Searcy, Avis, Lurlene, Francis, John Howell, and DeWitt.

In 1930, my husband and I moved to Jacksonville, Texas, where Lawt worked for Tom Shank as a meat cutter. On December 30, 1932, our daughter, Mary Elizabeth was born. In 1933, we moved to Houston, where Lawt went to work at Port City Stockyards as a buyer and seller of cattle. In 1940, Lawt went into business for himself as an order buyer, shipping cattle to Florida, Arizona, and California. We raised cattle, furnished stock for rodeos and owned an auction sale in Smithville, Texas. Lawt was active with the Houston Livestock Show, where he also was a cattle judge for several years. We retired in 1975 and moved back to Henderson, and bought a home on a road east of town. I have always enjoyed flowers, cooking, sewing, needlepoint, and crocheting.

Mary married Anthony (Buddy) Montalbano on April 17, 1958. He worked for Southwestern Bell Telephone Company for thirty-two years and then retired in 1980. They have two children, John Allen and Sandra Elaine. They moved from Houston in 1977, and lived near Oak Hill where they are raising cattle.

Submitted by Mrs. L.O. Gothard