Notes for Bates McFarland * Allen: Member, Texas Society, Sons of the American Revolution National # 66941 and Texas # 727 (October 20, 1946)
In Cleburne Texas, Bates went on wagon ride quail hunt with friends, and to keep warm they share a bottle of whiskey. After the hunt, he stopped to visit his fiance in her home adjacent to the railroad roundhouse. Her home was heated with steam piped in from the roundhouse. Apparently her home was more than comfortably warm. When Bates was greeted by her father James Collinson, he collapsed upon stepping into the warm home. This almost ended the relationship with Lucy.
While Bates was in Cleburne as an apprentice attorney, he was required to defend a suspected murderer. After reading the evidence, Bates became convinced the suspect was guilty, and declined to defend him. Therefore Bates changed jobs and became a railroad personal claims adjuster.
Lucy's father was transferred to the Santa Fe Railroad offices in Topeka, Kansas. In order to marry Lucy, Bates followed her to Topeka, where they were married. He took a job with the Kansas City Southern RR in Texarkana, Texas, where Janet was born. Bates was subsequently transferred to Memphis, Tennessee. At about this time, Lucy's parents, James and Agnes Collinson, came to live with them. Bates was on the road a lot with claims adjusting, and Lucy's parents came to help with the baby. James had a high position with the Santa Fe railroad, and resigned due to conflicts with superiors.
Bates and family moved to Houston about 1912, as a result of a transfer with the KCSRR, after its merger with the Southern Pacific RR. They lived at 2205 Crawford, immediately across the street from the Ralph Rupley family, at 2208 Crawford (a multiple family unit). At 2204 Crawford on the corner, the Rupley family relatives, "Aunt Netta Powars" and "Auntie Nan", had a boarding house. While in this neighborhood, Jim Allen was born (in the Baptist hospital which later burned down, destroying Jim's birth record). This was the first contact of my parents, Jim and Betty, where Jim is pictured riding on the back of Betty's tricycle.
The family owned a Model T Ford coupe and a 4-door Dodge touring car with a canvas roof and a spare tire on the side. Bates and his son Jim would drive out to the two Fort Bend County farms in the Model T. In those days there were no paved roads in the countryside, even on the main highway from Houston to San Antonio. The model T would have frequent breakdowns, and Bates would work on the four cylinder engine electronics (spark coils taking electronic current from the magneto). The road ran along the railroad tracks, and the engineers would blow the whistle when they recognized Bates.
In 1926, the Bates Allen family moved to 5509 La Branch. After 4 months, the Ralph Rupley family also coincidentally and providentially moved into the corner house at 5504 La Branch. Both houses on La Branch Street were brick, two-story houses with covered front porches with solid brick banisters and tile floors. Each house had a detached two-story garage with servants quarters upstairs; a driveway side entrance; and a back terrace adjoining a sun parlor. The Rupley's home had a drive-in covered portico, a basement, and three bedrooms and a large room with dormer windows over the sun parlor. The Allen home had a ground-level furnace-laundry room. Upstairs there were four bedrooms and a large screened sleeping porch. Jim Allen would sometimes sleepwalk off of the sleeping porch into the hallway.
Bates worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad until his retirement in about 1946 (44 years with SPRR). (Note: Document dated April 3, 1947, shows Bates employed by the Texas and New Orleans Railroad Company as claims agent. This was a division of the Southern Pacific Railroad.) In Houston, his office was on the seventh floor of the Southern Pacific Building on Franklin Street between Main and Travis. During his tenure in Houston, Bates had many changes in territory, sometimes Houston to Orange, Texas, Houston to Columbus, Texas, and Houston to Wachsahatchee, Texas. Summers, Jim would travel with his Dad to visit clients in lots of small Texas towns and backwoods.
Shortly after moving to 5509 La Branch, Bates and Lucy hired a maid, Luella (later married to Rev. Watson) who lived in the servants quarters over the garage. Luella worked all day Monday through Friday and half-day on Saturday and Sunday. She was paid $7 per week plus room and board. She cooked, cleaned house, and babysat Jim. There was a buzzer under the carpet in the dining room to ring for the maid.
The city block at 5509 La Branch was only partially developed, leaving about half of the block vacant for playtime activities of the neighborhood kids. All the kids climbed pine trees, built tree houses, and cable slides from the higher tree limbs down a pipe on the cable to the ground. Beyond this block was open piney woods, and Jim (age 10), along with an adventurous friend, decided to scale a large pine tree by nailing board rungs to the tree trunk. In this manner, they were able to construct a platform between two pine trees about 12 feet up. This was only a small challenge, so they decided to go higher with more board rungs. Jim had climbed about 15 feet above the platform, when the rung he was standing on pulled loose from the tree, and he fell to the platform and bounced off to the ground. Jim's friend panicked and ran away, leaving Jim lying there unconscious. Fortunately, a member of a surveyors team working in the area discovered the unconscious Jim and carried him home, having seen the children previously in the neighborhood. Jim was unconscious for three days. During prohibition, Bates took a liking to brewing his own blackberry cordial, and he would buy fresh blackberries from roadside stands. in the furnace room, he had a wine press where he would put the blackberries into a 10 pound empty sugar sack, and use the wine press to press the juice out. He would put this in a 5 gallon glass water jug and put it under the house to ferment. When fermentation was complete and the flavor was to his liking, he would transfer the wine into small charred kegs with appropriate corks. He would bring the finished product into the house. After a workman was working on the foundation under the house, one of the kegs disappeared. Jim's Grandmother Allen like her "little nip" and was trying to find some to drink. She accidentally got the wine vinegar instead, and finding it sour, she added sugar to it, drank it and suffered the consequences.
During prohibition, Bates made beer from hops, which he called 'near-beer.' He made this under the house as well. After it was properly brewed, he would put it into brown glass bottles. He would keep the beer downstairs in the closet. The devout Baptist neighbor came to visit, and enjoyed sharing the beer behind tightly closed shades.
About 1928, Bates and Lucy purchased a lot on Galveston Bay. For a short time the family camped there on summer weekends, sleeping under mosquito nets. Then they built a summer home with a kitchen, a bathroom, two living rooms, surrounded on two sides by a screened porch. The house was reached by crossing Cedar Bayou on a self-operated hand-pulled ferry which held three cars, and then three miles of shell road and five miles of dirt road; the family was wary of heavy rainstorms and would quickly evacuate when they saw a thunderstorm coming. In a back corner adjacent to the bathroom was a small screen porch which served as servant quarters for Luella. Several years later some distance from the house they built a two car garage and separate servant quarters. The house overlooked Galveston bay from a 32' sheer bluff. Wooden benches were set on the bluff facing south over the bay, where there was normally a cool breeze. From 1932 to 1941 the family spent about six weeks every summer at this beach house. Jim had a small sailboat and sailed with his friends. Bates would go back to Houston and come for the weekends. There was a long pier out over the shallow water and a boat house on the end. The family went crabbing off the pier. The Rupley family sometimes came to visit in the summer. Eventually a bridge and paved road led to the house. The family sold the house in 1943 during World War II due to gas rationing.
After his retirement, Bates spent his time looking after the family farm interests in Fort Bend County and Fayette County. Bates loved to tinker and had a workshop in the woodshed adjacent to the garage. In 1963, Bates and Lucy moved to Clarewood House in the Sharpstown area of Houston, where they spent the rest of their years. Jim and Betty Allen moved back to Texas from Alabama in 1965 and made frequent trips from Lake Jackson to Clarewood House helping and checking on Bates and Lucy. Bates died in 1969 and Lucy died in 1964. ______________________________________
Bates Allen Park, Fort Bend County Park - dedicated July 15, 2000 A Brief History
First legal reference to this part of Texas is noted in the Fort Bend County deed records when on March 8, 1831 the Mexican government through the state of "Coahiula and Texas" (under Stephen F. Austin) did grant to Isaac McGary possession and ownership of one league of land, the southern-most portion of which was bordered by the San Bernard River.
In 1868, shortly after the end of the Civil War, S.A. Hackworth and W.E. Kendall, land agents, brought groups of freed Negroes from Colorado and Washington Counties into the southwestern part of Fort Bend County, selling them land for farming (at 50 cents per acre). Each tract of prairie land included a timber tract, adjoining the San Bernard River. Twelve of such timber tracts are included in the park land.
At about this same time, the town of Oak Hill was established on what is now the park land. Two churches Baptist and Methodist, were situated in the town. These churches were evidenced by two cemetery plots found in the park. Some of the streets in the town of Oak Hill carried names such as Williams Avenue, Henderson Street, West Broadway. Hudson Street, and Sherman Street (and Texas Avenue and Main Street).
In conjunction with the town of Oak Hill was an area some 300 feet wide extending back from the river bank some 1000 feet or so, referred to as "The Reservation" (also known as Blue Hole). This parcel of property served as a park. At the riverbank was a sandy beach used for church baptisms.
The town of Oak Hill lasted only a few years. Occasional flooding of the river and the construction of a railroad into the area caused the residents to abandon the town and to move up along the railroad track. The new town was given the name Kendleton, to honor W.E. Kendall who had done so much for the area.
The ALLEN name first appeared on the property in 1910 when Clement Allen, father of Bates Allen, bought a 110 acre portion of the now existing park. Included on the 110 acres was a two-story box-type house with smoke house, tool shed, barn, and a hand-dug bucket-style water well. (The house was destroyed by a hurricane in 1933.)
Clement Allen farmed the land until 1918, when ill health caused him to retire. After he left the farm, his son, Bates Allen, took over management of the property. He worked through local residents who acted as his agents. Notable among these people were Albert Foster, Chris Ludwig, and then Reuben Ludwig. Through the years the use of the land changed, mainly to the pasturing of livestock. (There was a herd of 38 cows, and the offspring were sold each year to pay the property taxes.)
As time went on, storms and hurricanes destroyed the house, barn and sheds and they were never replaced. The bucket-type well eventually caved in, and its exact location was lost.
Jim Allen, the son of Bates Allen, inherited the park property in 1974 and continued to pasture livestock. Jim and his wife Betty came to realize that the unique character of this land would make a wonderful setting for a public park. As a result, you see today what the Fort Bend County parks department has been able to accomplish.
by James Bates Allen 6/19/2000 _________________________________________________________
The Bates Allen Fort Bend County Park consists of 235 acres of rolling terrain, 1.5 miles of river-front property along the San Bernard River. The park includes 85 acres of bottom land, a 4-acre man-made lake, a fishing peer at "Blue Hole", a canoe launch, a one-mile asphalt trail which provides wheel-chair access, three observation decks for bird-watching, Jim Allen nature trail, two pavilions, playground area, sand volleyball court, 14 picnic tables, numerous benches along the trails, restroom facilities, and two turn-of-the-century cemeteries. Ben F. Williams, the first black Texas legislator is buried in one of the cemeteries.
Ann Bagley wrote the grant for the park, and it received the number one rated project in the state. DeWayne O. Davis, Director, Fort Bend County Parks and Recreation Department, supervised the park development. Jim Allen worked with Darrel Schwebel, president, Cradle of Texas Conservancy, to donate the land over five years in five sections and to assist in transfer of land to Fort Bend County. Bud O'Shields was County Commissioner. Texas Parks and Wildlife funded the park with a half-million dollar grant matched by the county in labor and land (valued at $274,000). County Judge James Adolphus declared July 15, 2000 as Bates Allen County Park day.
Vegetation includes blackjack and live Oaks, Winged Elms, Bitternut Hickory, Cotton Wood, and Bald Cypress trees; blackberry, yaupon, palmetto palm, green hawthorn, Japanese honeysuckle, myrtle, and muscadine (wild grape) shrubs; more than twenty kinds of grasses; and almost thirty varieties of wildflowers. On the property were observed deer, armadillos, red-ear turtle, terrapins, squirrels, coyotes, snakes, mockingbirds, cardinals, hawks, crows, and egrets. Fish include catfish, bass, sunfish, and alligator gar.
At the dedication, Kendleton mayor Carolyn Jones was present. A woman told a story of her memories of being baptized in Blue Hole in 1941.
At the park dedication, Jim Allen cut the ribbon for the park with his wife Betty Allen, daughter Millie Allen Clarke, son John Allen with his wife Leah and daughter Kim. Also attending the park dedication were many Rupley relatives, including Bob Rupley and his wife Jacci, Rae Rupley and her sister Edith, Robin Charlesworth and daughter Allison, Robert Rupley and son Christopher, Pharr Rupley and fiance Barry Kile, Randy Rupley and wife Britta, Vera Hensley, Bill Hensley and sons Alan and David.
More About Bates McFarland * Allen: Burial: Unknown, Buried at Glenwood Cemetery, Washington Ave., Houston, TX. Comment 1: Attd St. Edwards Acad., Cath. prep. school, in Austin. Comment 2: Ran away from school to grandmother's at Barton Springs, near Austin.. Comment 3: 02 Jun, Cadet Bates McFarland Allen received first honors from Asheville, N.C. Military Academy. Comment 4: Bingham Preparatory School in Carolinas. Degree: 1902, Graduated U. of Texas law school. Education: Abt. 1898, Cadet officer at Bingham School, N.C.. Ethnicity/Relig.: Protestant Christian without church affil.. Event 2: 1902, understudy for law firm in Cleburne TX. Event 3: Grew up in La Grange, Texas. Event 4: Member Sons of the American Revolution. Occupation: Claims adjuster, So. Pacific RR. Personality/Intrst: Masonic Lodge. Residence: 5509 LaBranch St., Houston, Texas.
More About Bates McFarland * Allen and Lucy Booth * Collinson: Marriage: 09 Apr 1902, Topeka, Kansas. Marriage contract: Form of Solemnization of Matrimony of the Protestant Episcopal Church, by Rev. Wm. K. Berry, DD, Rector of Hope Church, Fort Madison, Iowa.
Children of Bates McFarland * Allen and Lucy Booth * Collinson are:
+Janet Garner Allen, b. 19 Oct 1904, Texarkana, Texas, d. 23 Dec 1991, Denver, Colorado.
Bates McFarland * Allen (b. 18 Aug 1875, d. 04 Sep 1969)
Notes for Bates McFarland * Allen: