Document text
Itt. Ada Davisf
ennan C_Ainty, Texas.
P
DUtrict 8
Reference
M. Alia ascot Waco, McLennan County, Texas.
No. of words1000
File No. 240
Page No. 1
Charles Marion Yawell was born in Missouri, August 6, 1858. At
the close of the Civil War, his father went to Mexico city with a eon..
situation company to lay the first street car tracks in Meld** City,
tho cars were drawn by mules. On the way to Mexico City they were
twelve days out of sight of land. The mules were unloaded at Vera
Cruz, and Mr. Towel.], remembers how the mules were swung on cranes, or
something of that type, while they were being unloaded. The trip was
mode overland from Vera Crus to Mexico City. While in Mexico City,
*toy lived in a large stone structure, The Cathedral, that faeed on
tile main plans or what is now known as the anal°. Often times they
played on the steps of the National Building, or the capitol. They
also played around the -House of Tiles", which was built in the six-
teenth century, by the son of the old Count of the Valley of Wrisoba
wito said, "My son, will never build a house of tilest" Fifty thousand
blue and white tiles cover the building, which are valued at five
dollars each. Today there can be no market value placed on the building,
because the government has ordered that the building be preserved as an
awchitectural monument. Today it is occupied by Sanborns, and is the
meet famous meting place in Yexico for tourists. On one omission,
wkile the boys were at play, a cannon ball was shot through a brick
wall near them. This was when Napoleon's soldiers and the Spanish were
hewing their skirmishes. At this time, Maximilian, the Archduke of
Alstria was made Estero, and he reigned from 1864 to 1867. Mr. ?well
FeLKLO.,
ers la )evi,
LcLeenan County, Texas
eistrict
elle No. 240
Page No. 2
remembers the eold carriage in which faximilian rode on special occasions.
C. L. Yowell vividly remembers the elaborate costumes worn by the nobles
during Leximillan's reign, and the magnificent balls which were given
by the emperor. They gethered oranges, lemenst limes end fruit growing
wild; often they ceueht a seen fish from a nearby stream and roasted
them in a shuck.
er. Yowell remembers very well the peculiar sensatioe he had from
trying to run on the ground during an earthquake. :-any times. the dielea
were s:aken out of the safe but he doesn't remember any buildings fall-
ing. He remembers the famous aqueduct with nine-7eundred end fohr arches
built by the eztecs eni the rbol de Yortezumn, also, the famous cypress
tree, now measuring forty-five feet in circumference and close to two
hundred feet igh, which stands in the park at the foot of Chapultepec,
meaning the "Hill of the Gras -hopper." Vaximilian spent his summers
in Chapultepec Castle. Lany of empress Charlotte's personnl belong
Ines nnl furn!.shings far her room tire still there. The wonderful aque-
duct built by eortez was in use at the time het Yowell lived in exico.
Yowell nlso pinyed under the oche Triste erce, under which Cortez.
set an eopt when his army had been shattered by the eztecs en the ceuse-
wey. This tree is presumnble five hundred years old and hes a protection
railing, hammered from menanles, chains, and implements of torture that
came from the quarters of the Inquisition in Lexie° City.
r. Yowell was very apt in picking up the 6eanish language and wee
se ,n oat:aged -s en interpreter, 0% market days, the sale veeetagles,
fruits, and other products.
FUKLOliE
Lris. Ada Davis, T.
McLennan County, Texas.
District No. 8
File No, 340
Page No. 3
In January, 1868, a few families started for Texas. They drove six
mules to each wagon. They were paid forty dollars to bring the corpse of
a soldier some distance out of the city and to bury it in order to keep
the body from mutilation. Soldiers accompanied them on horseback.
The journey back to Texas took three months. They crossed the border
at Laredo on a ferry (or maybe forded it --he can't remember). They arrived
at Waco, Aril, 1868, and took up their residence in the log cabin on the
east bank of the Brazos where the Washington Street bridge now stands. As
a coincidence, he was county commissioner (1901) when they had the Washing.
ton Street bridge built and also the court house on Washington Street,
which is in use now, In April, 1658, they spent the first night in the
little log house. Towell's grandfather got a job on the ferry, which
crossed the river between Washington bridge and the Interurban bridge. A
road wound around, out of Rat Row (now Bridge Street). There were trees
along the river on the west side, the east bank was savored with timber.
His ferry charges were: wagon and team, twenty-five cents, or if heavily
loaded, he some times charged fifty cents; foot passengers, five cents;
horse, ten cents. If they didn't want to take the horse across, he took
them in a skiff for five cents each way; tore were usually three or four
passengers at a crossing. One of Ur. Yowell's favorite passengers was
Miss Kellum, who later married Ed Rotan, later president of the First
National Bank in Waco. She was a teacher and lived in Seat Waco. Several
people used their own skiffs to go to school. Among these were Judge and
John Sleeper, B. H. Hatcher and Cal Shelton. Cal had to wash his mouth
FOLKLORE
Mrs. Ada Davis, .17.
McLennan County, Texas.
District No. 8
File No, 140
Page No. 4
with a big white and red cob in front of school because he celled the
teacher a liar. Later in '71 or '72 Twill moved up on the hill in ,3-ast
Waco to about the end of Elm Street, Miss Mary Beatty was Mr. Yowell's
teacher at that time. She "took him through the "Blue Back" Speller
twelve times, and MoGuffey's Second Reader thirteen times. Vise Mary
Beatty's niece, Miss Adene Beatty teaches in East Waco schools now, (1937).
In 1869, the suspension bridge was started; Yowell's father and a
negro moved the first shovel of dirt for the bridge. His father kept the
toll bridge about a year. Mr. Oglesby, Mr. weatbrooks, and Mr. Cassiday
assisted.
ur. W. G. Trim's' mother visited Yowell's grandmother; (Simon Tries)
they lived between 06eond and Third on Franklin Street. They lived in
piers on the west side of the bridge about a year. They then moved up at
Sally Mann place. The H. and T. C. Railroad built in 1872.
From there they moved to Sally Mann's farm on the east side, down the
river and lived there for three years; this fern joined the Clinton farm.
Crockett Vaughn owned the land at that time.
C. M. Yowell bought a pities seven miles east of waco on William's
Creek, three miles east of Tehuaoana. It consisted of eleven leagues and
cost seven dollars an acre. There were little huts of squatters on it,
and all kinds of game. You could see ton to twelve deer near the yard most
any time, also wild turkeys. C. M. Towel lived in the hut two years;
then he bought lumber in Waco and built a real Colonial —style home that
stood till 1937, when a crazy negro set it afire; he worked horses and
mules and raised cotton and corn. He gin-ed at Waco. His grandfather
died April, 1886. They moved on the farm joining, December, 1887. They
FOLKLORE
Yrs. Ada Davis, F. W.
McLennan County, Texas.
District No. 8
File No. 240
Page No. 5
got their mail at Waco. This farm joined his father's place.