Hi, Tom, What do you know about Italians in Marlin and in Erath County? Vince Incardona, McLennan County Deputy, used to be in the West Kiwanis when I taught there. He spoke Czech and played Gituar a lot with McClennan County Sheriff Jack Harwell, who served as sheriff over 40 years. They had also played with Bob Wills and Tommy Duncan and the Texas Playboys in West in McLennan County and Westphalia Hall in Falls county. Seems that once, in Westphalia Hall, they announced to the Audience of all ages ( A Church Wedding Dance for all ages in the Westphalia Catholic Church hall) that various members of the band had learned a tune while in Germany, WW2, I suppose, They asked the group to give the name of the tune in English. Everyone sang or hummed along, but no one knew the name It was a German Folk tune, sometimes hummed to Babies. Since these were the only folk in Texas who knew the song, the Band played and recorded the tune as " The Westphalia Waltz". If I have it straight, Hoelschers who bought the last 90 acres of Grandad's farm in Selden, had cousins in Westphalia and have a Dairy near Kathy Tate on Kay land. Anyhow, in 1970's, Jake Tucker of West Lumber and others kidded Vince as to why he spoke Czech since he had an Italian name? He grinned and said that in Falls County , Italians were at the bottom of the Social and racial ladder and learning Czech raised their prestige considerably. and laughed. This year, in Vince's Obituary in Waco Tribune Herald it mentioned that Vince was born in New York City. That rang a Geneaologist's Bell to me- suggesting that his family may have been some of the Italians who were removed from West and East Coast, WW2, to Relocation camps inland as Security risks during WW2. Wasn.t there an Internment Camp between Marlin and Hearne- maybe 2- ? One for German Army Prisoners, like in Mexia and Cleburne and another for East Coast Italians? Erath County Czech and Italians were mostly brought from the Old Countries by TP Coal and Oil before 1900 to mine coal and make Bricks in Thurber, and upstairs over the Cage and Crow Bank in Stephenville was a Cage and Crow Italian Opera House on Erath County Courthouse Square. Irish Catholics and Czech - Italian Miners in Erath County attended separate Catholic Churches, Company owned in Thurber, and were assigned to separate mines until they learned English. I think the miners in Newcastle near Graham were mostly Czech, based on tales I heard in West from elderly men drinking coffee in West. Some settled in Eastland and Palo Pinto - more moved on. This same pattern shows up in Coal Miners of Northeast Oklahoma. One town nearer Tulsa than OKC still bakes Kolaches, Strudle, Koblasa, and Koblisneik, Guess you know that in Waco you can buy Chitlins and in Marlin it is Cavatini- only difference is in hoiw this part of the hog is seasoned. For more on this go to Google.com and ask for the San Francisco Library site giving day by Day activities of troops removing Japanese and Italian born from the West Coast during WW My next door neighbor was American born. His parents in San Francisco were not. His wife was born in Hiawaii. His family lost their business and home in California and were sent by Train to Louisville, Kentucky Relocation- concentration type camp. He was allowed to go th Seminary in Louisville and went to Japan after the War as a Baptist Missionary. One son now does Language problerms in research and sales of programs of Japanese American Computer programs and spends half his time overseas. He is a Baylor Grad, and dad now works with International Students in Baylor and a local church. I printed several pages- weekly from San Francisco Library site. and gave it to my neighbor for first 3 years. He was thrilled to see it. and rememberred some of it. Take care, Charles A. Wyly On Sun, 6 Apr 2003 07:16:52 -0700 Tom Rogers <[email protected]> writes: > > Gerald, my address is [email protected] My full name is Thomas > Ralph > Rogers (trr). My grandparents, Ralph and Lizzie Rogers, moved from > Marlin to > Dublin Jan. 2, 1902. They lived on a one-acre lot on Mesquite St. > (near the > standpipe) until they died in 1933 and 1935. We lived in the house > some in > 1937 and for several months in 1939. My father, J. Ralph Rogers, > sold it to > Ralls Peacock about 1943 or 1944. Dr. Crabtree owned it at one time. > > > > > > _________________________________________________________________ > The new MSN 8: smart spam protection and 2 months FREE* > http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail > > > > > ==== TXERATH Mailing List ==== > --- Author Retains Copyright --- > -- Copyright 2003 Author -- All Rights Reserved > Post to List: [email protected] http://www.selfroots.com > Unsubscribe request To: [email protected] > ARCHIVES: http://searches2.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/listsearch.pl > >