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Let's see... This?
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Or This?
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Did you ever wonder where the term "Winter Texans" first originated? Of course, there's probably thousands of stories out there to explain it. But few pre-date the one from Barbara Pybus who published a personal account on the Texas State Historical Association Web site concerning the winter immmigration of her grandparents starting back in 1925.
According to the story, it was Edward Horace Tate and Lucinda Amanda Tate who may have been the first "Winter Texans". Grand-daughter Barbara reports in 1925 the Tates joined a real estate excursion train at Roosevelt, Oklahoma, traveling to McAllen, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley. Convinced of the health benefits of the region and after being impressed by the tour of the Valley, the tates decided they liked it enough to purchase a parcel of property to be used a place to escape the Oklahoma winters.
Mrs. Pybus writes:
"Granddad had been stricken with tuberculosis as a young man. Several times he stayed for treatment at a sanitarium in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Usually he was able to return to the farm to continue his livelihood, but it seems he was never completely free of the disease, which recurred often.
In the mid-twenties realtors and land developers were offering property in the Rio Grande Valley. They arrived in western Oklahoma and advertised train trips and accommodations. Granddad encouraged some of his neighbors to take the trip with him. Mr. and Mrs. Edmondson agreed and were eager to go. On the morning they departed from the Roosevelt depot my grandmother Mannie came to see them off.
Mrs. Edmondson said, "Lucy, you just must come with us!" Amazingly, my grandmother boarded the train with the group, without a change of clothes or a toothbrush, and happily made the long trip to the valley.
This was the ideal location for Granddad to spend the winters away from the cold Oklahoma weather. It was a remarkable decision for his health. He purchased ten acres near Alamo, Texas, on Tower Road. Soon he built a comfortable little two-room house. While I was growing up, Granddad and Mannie left for South Texas about October 1 and stayed until springtime. This was their winter home for nearly twenty years.
My mother tells that I had my first birthday with her and my grandparents in the valley. In fact, we were stranded there. The winter of 1929-30 was one of the coldest on record. There was so much snow in western Oklahoma that the roads were filled to the top of the fence posts. My dad wrote that he could drive the Model T pickup above the fences on the packed snow. Even the trains were snowbound.
Granddad found workers to plant the acreage in citrus, especially orange and grapefruit trees. During the depression years, there was little market because there was little money. However, Granddad generously shared much of the fruit, sending it by train to Kiowa County, Oklahoma. He sent fruit for family and friends alike. There were also baskets for the churches, schools, the black church and black school, the banker and the minister, and the mothers-in-law, Grandmother Davis and Aunt Cleo. I can remember going to the depot, waiting for the train to come with the wonderful baskets of oranges and grapefruit. Most children only had an orange or an apple at Christmas time and we were truly blessed by Granddad's thoughtfulness.
I was eleven years old when my family made a trip from western Oklahoma to the Rio Grande Valley for Christmas in 1939. Dad was driving a new 1939 Chevy. Grandmother Davis and Aunt Cleo came along as well as Mother, Dad, younger brother Ted, and three-year-old Frances. The valley was like another world with the lush foliage of the citrus trees, grapefruit outside the back door for the picking, the warm sunny days, and many Mexican residents. We visited the fruit stands and markets and made a trip to Matamoros.
Mother even managed to hide the Christmas presents in the car with so many passengers. But on Christmas morning Santa had left gifts for each of us while he was bringing special ones for little Frances, who truly believed he would find her. I received roller skates and found sidewalks in Alamo to speed along. Ted was tremendously favored with a Lionel electric train. (Only the year before in 1938, we had been extended wonderful electric power by the REA.) Frances was given a beautiful Christmas doll."
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Rio Grande Valley
