My paternal grandfather was T. K. C. Woodhouse, of Anderson County, Texas, near Palestine, and he is buried in that County. He moved from Princess Anne CH (Court House), Virginia, when Father was fifteen or sixteen years of age. Father went into the Confederate Army, served four years, and came out at the age of twenty-one. He died in 1932, and is buried in Riverside Cemetery, Wichita Falls.

I was married to Julius Hartman in 1900, and he died in 1931, and is buried in Valles, Mexico.

My son, Julius Hartman, Jr., was born September 19, 1904, in Mexico City, and now lives in Maracaibo, Venezuela.

His first wife is buried in Riverside Cemetery,. Wichita Falls, Texas. His second wife is the former Martha Newell, of Detroit, Michigan.

My daughter, Alice, was born in Valles, Mexico, August 6, 1910. She married H. W. Aderholt. She was living in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, at the time of her death, December 10, 1956, and is buried there.

My daughter Helen was born April 21, 1915, in New Mexico, and is married to T.E. Webb and is now living in Irving, Texas.

My father came to Wichita Falls when the town lots were auctioned off. He and Dr. S.T. Coffield came on the first train that ran into Wichita Falls, September 27, 1882. He came from Anderson County, Texas, near Palestine.

My mother, my sister Addie and I came to Wichita Falls in December, 1882.

Dr. Coffield lived at 1000 Lamar, where the Postoffice is now. We lived on the other side of Lamar, about the middle of the block. My father owned several lots and I don’t think he paid over $75.00 for the corner and $50.00 for inside lots. Corner lots were not so important then, as there was plenty of room anyway.

Eventually, father sold the corner to Old Man Suddith. Our first house had three rooms and a lean-to. Mamma was very much dissatisfied, as there was no water, no trees, nor anything, but we lived there about two years.

Then father bought a half block in the 1600 block on Travis, and he put in a little garden. He also dug some wells, one close to the house, one about the center of the tract, and one away down. We had five rooms there. We also had room for an orchard, garden and pasture. R. M. (Butler) Moore built across the street from us, but faced Sixteenth Street. W. C. Heath lived on the other side of the Moores. Across Sixteenth from us lived Captain H. T. Coffield, a brother of Dr. Coffield, and next to him was his partner in the real estate business, A.C. Kean. Mr. Kean and Mr. Heath were both members of the School Board when I graduated from High School. Fred Frey, Sr. and his family lived on the corner where the Coca Cola plant is now, at 16th and Lamar. A. H. Harris, owner of the Harris House, built a two-story home at 15th and Travis, or about 1410 Travis.

Father worked for the J. A. Kemp Wholesale Grocery for years. It was on Eighth Street, opposite the Passenger Station. When we first came to Wichita Falls, he sold ice and coal. He had a big ice house and shipped his ice from Colorado. He shipped coal in by the carload. His place of business was in the 600 block on Ohio Avenue, almost opposite the grocery store of C.W. Bean and Son.

It didn’t take nearly as much money to live well then as it does now. We could have a good garden, and if we paid fifty cents a bushel for the finest peaches, we were paying a good price. Eggs were plentiful at fifteen cents a dozen, and many times they sold three dozen for twenty-five cents.

I went to a private school the first few months, at 1101 Lamar Avenue, and it was taught by Mrs. O. S. Preuitt, who had some ten or fifteen pupils. Later she and her husband operated a grocery store at 724 Ohio Avenue.

I then attended school in the Presbyterian Church, while the building at Tenth and Scott was under construction. A big screen divided the one-room structure into two class rooms, and these were taught by Misses Nellie and Kate O’Donnell. Miss Kate did not remain in Wichita Falls very long, but her sister taught in the school for a number of years preceding her marriage.

My sister Addie learned her a-b-c’s from Miss Nellie O’Donnell while school was being held in the Presbyterian Church. She was having some trouble, so Miss Nellie told her to take the book home and ask her Mother to help her. Addie said Mamma couldn’t help her, for she didn’t have red hair. So Miss Nellie said: "If your Mother can’t help you, your father can, he’s red-headed".

I attended the school at Tenth and Scott under Superintendents B. F. Hickey, W.S. Burks, M. F. Yeager and Thos. L. Gladden, who came shortly before completion of the High School brick building at Thirteenth and Bluff Streets. Mr. Hickey was appointed Postmaster in 1888. Mr. Yeager had had legal training, and he served as Justice of the Peace, and then did clerical. work in the Court House for years; retiring a short time before his death. Mr. Burks taught math and history, and he was an expert in both. His keen interest in these subjects and his inexhaustible knowledge of both, made every session in his classes an adventure never to be forgotten. Mr. Burks taught math at Peacock Military Institute until he was nearly ninety years old, then he went to the Masonic Home, where I saw him a few years before he died.

The new building at Thirteenth and Bluff was ready for school in the fall of 1891, so I went there just one year, as I graduated in 1892; my class being the first to graduate. There were five of us, all girls: Callie Robinson (Mrs. C. L. Vickers), Nevie Watts (Mrs. C. B. Pickett), Fannie Burgess (Mrs. I. A. Farris), Eula Bell (Mrs. S. E. Morrison), and I. Mrs. Morrison and I are the only survivors. We had our Commencement Exercises in the Souter Opera House at 501 Ohio; the opera house being upstairs. Judge A. H. Carrigan presented the diplomas. Mr. Thos. L. Gladden was Superintendent, and Miss Nellie O’Donnell was Principal - the first principal in the local school system.

I joined the Presbyterian Church when I was ten years old. My Mother was a Presbyterian before she came to Wichita Falls, and was a member here. The Presbyterian and Baptist Churches were in the 900 block on Indiana, one on the Ninth Street side and one on the Tenth Street side. The space between was sometimes used for camp meetings, under a tent, with straw on the ground and beer kegs with boards laid across them for seats. The Presbyterians built an addition on the rear of their Church and called it the "Endeavor Room", because the Christian Endeavor Society held meetings there.

In 1904, the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A., the Presby-terian Church, U.S. (Southern), and the Cumberland Presbyterians, who were in Wichita Falls, merged to form what is now the First Presbyterian Church, and they used the Cumberland Building at Tenth and Travis, where Kemp Kort is now.

The Marlow family came here shortly after I did. Jim was fifteen or sixteen years old at that time. His father died when the children were quite small, and Mrs. Marlow married Mr. Napier.

Jim Marlow drilled a well about 703 Ohio Avenue, and it was there for several years. There was a trough to water horses and a pump where people could drink and get water; it was a public watering place. People who had no water on their premises hauled it away in barrels, and the supply never failed, though the well was only twenty-five or thirty feet deep.

The Knott brothers, Will, George and Frank, owned the block where the First Baptist Church is located, and had a barn right in the center of it. The barn was hexagon shaped and had a round roof with a cupola on top. It was a landmark for years and was always referred to as Knott’s Barn. The Knotts’ had extensive land holdings on the lower Charlie Road. The barn became the victim of progress, and a number of nice residences were built in that block before the Baptist congregation acquired the property and built their Church.

My children went to school in Mexico but, on account of revolutions, we were forced to leave there a time or two, so all three of my children are graduates of the Wichita Falls High School. My son took his college work in Mexico. The Mexican Schools didn’t teach any United States or Texas History, so when my daughter Helen was a Freshman in High School here, she had to go to Reagan to make up her Texas and United States History and other subjects she lacked. One time we left Mexico was during the Villa Revolution. Alice graduated from North Texas State Teachers College at Denton, and was a teacher at Alamo School here three years, and in the school at Harrold, Texas.

My Mother took care of the sick a lot. We had no hospitals or nurses in the early days, and we had to depend on friends and neighbors, who always came through when they were needed.