Copyright © 2009-2010 Bishop Centennial Celebration, Inc. All rights reserved. Updated May 8, 2010

May 14 - 16, 2010

Bishop, Nueces County, Texas 1910 - 2010  One Hundred Years of South Texas Heritage!

~~R. E. Wakeland Family~~

[The following stories are from the Bishop News of 1960 in a series written by Mrs. Gail Tubbs for

 Bishop's then upcoming Golden Jubilee celebration.]

~~R.  E.  BERKMAN  FAMILY~~

Mr. and  Mrs. Robert E. Berkman took their honeymoon trip and moved to Bishop at the same time. Mr. Berkman's

father, Andrew Berkman of Coupland, had bought a 160-acre tract of raw land five miles east of Bishop in 1911. After

the prarie sod was broken, his son, Robert, came down to work the place in 1912, then returned to Austin for his

wedding on May 27, 1913.

"We changed trains at Corpus Christi and at Robstown," Mrs. Berkman tells, "what country towns they were then,

mostly unpaved streets and wooden sidewalks. A horse and buggy was waiting for us at the depot in Bishop for the

drive to our new home.

"Eddie Dutschmann now lives in the same house in which we started housekeeping and in which our three children,

Estelle (Mrs. Stacey Lee Wakeland), Gilbert and Lambert, were born. The children enjoyed farm  life. They liked to

romp with the calves in the barnyard, and often when I would go to look for Estelle I would find her in the hay beside a

little calf, both taking their siesta. Often the children played in the corn patch. We had killed many rattlesnakes there,

and it is a wonder no one was bitten.

"Estelle and Gilbert started school in the East Ward school, a two-room brick schoolhouse about two miles from our

farm. About 1925 the first school bus brought children in to the Bishop school. Our neighbor, Harry Rode, then in high

school, was the bus driver.

"The Swedish Lutheran Church services held in our home were among the interesting experiences of our early days in

Bishop." Mrs. Berkman writes. "There were a few Swedish families here, the C. E. Andersons, John Rolfs, Johnsons,

and Closs and  Verner Carlsons, and we formed a little church which met in the homes, most often in our home. "We

would come together on Sunday afternoon and have a visiting pastor.  After services we would have refreshments and

coffee and enjoy visiting. We carried on these home services until 1920 when we joined the St. John Lutheran Church

in town.

"In 1926 we moved to a 30-acre place which Mr. Berkman's father owned northwest of town and my husband went

into the Texaco Station business with Sam Nelson, a business they carried on together for 30 years—today our two

sons and two Nelsons continue the same business in the same location.

"Both our Boys were overseas during World War II, Gilbert was with one of the first U. S. Medical Units sent to India in

1942 and Lambert was in the thick of things in the Philippines.

"After my husband's death in 1951, I built my home on Sixth Street to be near my daughter and sons, and my eight

grandchildren."

  

Mr. and Mrs. R. E. Wakeland and their children, Irene (deceased), Pauline (Mrs. A.

B. Whitten), Myrtle, Stacy Lee and Milton, came to Bishop in November 1912 from

Waxahachie. The youngest son, Richard was born in Bishop.

The family car had to be shipped by train because there were no highways in 1912.

The car, a Firestone Columbus, when it did arrive, was the only car in the east

Bishop neighborhood where the Wakelands settled on the Martin farm, two and a

half miles from town.

“A real treat was a drive to the King Ranch when we could drive all over the

grounds,” Pauline recalls. “As many neighbors as could pile in would go along.

Stacy Lee declares he did his teething chewing on the rubber horn. When Dad

could crank it (by hand) and the roads were passable, he drove us to school in the

Columbus. The Pearson girls, May and Pearl, were usually waiting at the corner to

ride with us. On rainy days we went to school in the buggy, sometimes driven by our

Negro farm hand, Jim.”

One time when Pauline was seven and Myrtle five, they were sent to the garden to

pick beans for lunch. Beyond the garden was a cane patch, and there was a fence

and big red gate between. The children were warned never to go into the field

because of snakes.

“This time,” Pauline admits, “we left our bean picking for the cane patch, cut some

nice juicy stalks, brought them back to the red gate, climbed to the top rail and sang

and chewed cane happily - until we saw Dad coming with a switch.”

Children in the country were left to their own devices for entertainment, some

phases of which were daring as well as dangerous. The Wakeland children liked to

climb the windmill tower. From there they could tease the milk cow that had a young

calf.

The children were forbidden to ride Stella, a beautiful but very frisky horse.

However, when their father left to go to town, the girls bridled the horse and

climbed aboard, often as many as four at a time if there were visitors. Once

when four girls were riding Stella they stopped to get a drink. A drop of water

splashed on Stella and she took off, leaving four frightened children

sprawled on the grass.

When the family moved to the farm west of town, the children added

rattlesnakes to their list of “playmates”. The girls killed five one morning.

While they were gathering roasting ears the saw a sixth snake, whipped it

into a stupor, and thinking it dead, Pauline decided to take it to the house to

add to the collection. The snake came to, struck her on the ear, and almost

put the Wakeland girls out of the collecting business. Mrs. Wakeland put

carbolic acid on the wound, and Dr. Williams, when he arrived, said it

probably saved Pauline’s life.

“Stacy Lee and Milton, and Dick when he was old enough, were inclined to

be air-minded,” their sister writes. “Every time they saw an umbrella whiling

its time away in a corner they immediately put it to use. They climbed to the

highest window in the two-story barn or to the ridge pole of the garage for a

take-off. Each time when the episode was over the results were the same...

bruised little boys with no bones broken, and an umbrella turned wrong side out.

Once they used their aunt’s gold-handled heirloom umbrella - and there were no

more flights for a time.”

Nell York & Pauline Wakeland

Photo courtesy The South Texas Archives

John Sanford Kelly and Ida Harlan were born and raised in Falls County, Texas, ten miles south of Marlin. Sanford

came to Bishop to farm in the Fall of 1916, but he didn't move Ida and the children, Harlan, Louise, and Joe, until

1917.

Sanford had purchased a car called a Dixie Flyer, but had to hire some one to drive it, as he didn't know how to drive.

Mr. and Mrs. Kelly put their furniture in a box car, and their cattle, horses and chickens in a cattle car. When the train

got to Bishop, the furniture, cattle and chickens were unloaded. Mr. James Eaves ran a dray service, and he hauled

the furniture and chickens to the farm northwest of Bishop. Emory and Leland Lindsey were about 17 and 15 years

old. They turned the horses and cattle out and drove them to the farm. Lindsey had moved to Bishop in 1912.

Mildred Kelly was born to the family in 1918, and Tommy in 1923. The family moved from Palo Alto community to the

sand hill on highway 77 in 1927 to get out of the mud, so the children could get to school.

The children still living today are Mildred Kelly Brown, in assisted living in Sugarland, Texas at age 91; Levi Kelly in

Holmgreen Healthcare Center in Corpus Christi is 89; Tommy in Kingsville is 86.