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Note: ************NOTE 1***********
BIOGRAPHICAL AND ANECDOTAL MATERIAL:
Xana Lee Stroud grandson to John Knox Stroud and Bathsheba Lee King.
Occupations: Welder Extraordinary, Construction Foreman, Heavy Equipment Operator, Business Man, Soldier
Member:
Mason Scottish Rite 32nd Degree, Lodge 627, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Baptist
Military Service:
Entered Service February 3, 1944, Ft. Sill, Comanche County, Oklahoma
U. S. Army, Combat Engineers, European Theatre of Operations and Central Pacific Theatre of Operations - P.I. Served from February 1944 to June 1945. Highest rank T-5. See "Anecdotal Tales of X.L. Stroud" on WordPerfect file STROUDXL.J95
Residence's during the war years prior to Army service :
Georgetown, Williamson County, TX working at south Ft. Hood, Tx
Marfa, Presidio County, Tx working on air field
Waco, Mclennan County, Tx working at north Ft. Hood, Tx
Ft. Worth, Tarrent County, Tx working at consolidated aircraft factory
Hagerman, Chaves County, NM working on air field
Artesia, Eddy County, NM working on air field got notice December to report
KNOW ADDRESSES :
1957 322 North 1st Street, Lovington, Lea County, New Mexico. Filed in XLS421
1962 201 N.W. 13th Street, Andrews, County, Texas. Filed in XLS420
1962 307 N.W. 8th Street, Andrews, County, Texas. Filed in XLS201
1964 534 South Hickory*, Kermit, Winkler County, Texas. Source Kermit and Wink, Texas Phone Book pg26, JU6-5403.. jrs2000
1966 626 North Ave B, Kermit, Winkler County, Texas. IBS source. jrs2000
1968 Ranger, Eastland County, Texas, jrs2000 source.
1969 Cottonwood, Callahan County, Texas 76443
1990 Rt. #1, Box109, Cottonwood, Callahan County, Texas, 76443. Filed in XLS101.
1992 Cottonwood Cemetery May 14, 1992, Cottonwood, Callahan County, Texas. Filed in XLS205
*this address is shown as 524 on the back of PSM011.
Property:
Home at 626 N. Ave B, Kermit, Winkler County, Texas 1963 - 1968.
Home at Cottonwood, Callighan County, Texas 1969 - present
Nicknames:
Lee, Kel, XL. The name Kel was given to Daddy by his nephew Joe Bob Stroud who as a child could not pronounce XL and it come out as Kel. Kel was used almost exclusively within the family.
Residence's during Census years:
1920 Chico, Wise County, Texas
1930 Jacksboro, Jack County, Texas
1940 Stratford, Sherman County, Texas
1950 201 E. Plummer, Eastland, Eastland County, Texas
1960 Seminole, Gaines County, Texas
1970 Cottonwood, Callahan County, Texas
1980 " " " "
1990 " " " "
SOURCE: Interviews with living family members and XL by compilier JR Stroud 1991.
**********END NOTE 1*************
**********NOTE 2*************
Anecdotal Tales of X.L. Stroud: SWIMMING THE RHINE
In the summer of 1991 while sitting at mothers dinning room table drinking coffee and watching the hummingbirds fuss over the feeder on the front porch XL told this story about the Rhine River in 1945. I have endeavored to put it in writing just as it was told to me. JRStroud compiler
"In early March 1945, there was still patches of snow on the ground and chunks of ice floating in the Rhine river, when we pulled up on the bank of the Rhine about sundown. All our forward units had orders to cross the Rhine anywhere or anyway that we could. There did not appear to be any German activity on the far bank. Flashes on the horizon and a low rumble of artillery to the south indicated a heavy fight was going on to the south of us. In anticipation of crossing the Rhine we had small landing boats and bridging material with us (Dad served with the 1289th Combat Engineer Battalion). Our commander ordered a scouting party across to determine the feasibility of establishing a bridgehead. The idea was if we encountered any German units or resistance we were to withdraw as rapidly as possible. Sergeant Knof and I were picked to take a group over to determine where to anchor the east end of the bridge. We were selected because we were available and there was an urgent desire on the part of everyone to get across before the Germans could regroup and organize a resistance. We knew that if the Germans ever stopped running and got a chance to dig in there would be hell to pay gett'n them to running again.
The sun set early at this time of the year. It was dark by the time we got three boats and fifteen men to the east shore of the Rhine. The east bank of the Rhine at that spot had about a three foot bank above the water line. We told the boatmen to stay under the lip of the bank and told them if they heard any gun fire to give us ten minutes before shoving off. If they did not hear from us by day break they were to return to the west bank. After we had moved a short ways in from the river we became aware that we had landed in the middle of a German armored unit's bivouac.
At this point we were undetected, but as we were trying to withdrew back to the river one of our men began screaming "don't shoot, don't shoot". Gunfire erupted, people were screaming, Knof and I were yelling and getting men headed for the river. It was very confusing, with the noise and gun flashes. Someone set off a flare, tank engines were firing up, grenades going off, men were hollering and screaming. Suddenly, I was by myself. I began to run toward the river. Suddenly in the light of a flare there was a German in front of me shooting at someone I couldn't see. Without even thinking about it, in less time than it takes to say the words, I shot the man in his back, he turned toward me and I could see blood gushing out of his mouth. I saw that he was a young boy, no more than thirteen or fourteen. All of this took place without my breaking stride in my run to the river. Amazing the detail your brain can recall forty years later of an event that took place in less than ten seconds of terror, fear and confusion. When I got to the bank of the Rhine the boats were no where to be seen. I could hear Germans behind me. So I shucked all my gear except my pants, shirt, toboggan hat, and a .38 pistol in a shoulder holster and jumped into the water. It come just to my hips.
I had to walk all hunkerd down in that ice cold water thirty or forty foot before it got deep enough to swim. There was chunks of ice floating in the water. I was never so cold in my life. I could hardly breath and felt as if my skin was burning, The cold almost paralyzed me. The only thing that kept me going was fear and an intense desire to go home, Right at that time I wanted to see Isla so bad, right then, that only the cold water and fear kept me from crying. I began swimming. After I got to swimming I was cold but I no longer had that paralyzed feeling.
The Rhine was about 800 to a 1000 feet wide at this point. About the time I jumped in the water the Germans began shelling the west bank and it wasn't long before our stuff began working over the east bank. There were tracers and shells just whizzing over my head. It looked like I could have reached up and caught'em. As I was crossing I heard voices calling for help I didn't know if they were my guys are not. I never saw them and didn't have the energy to look for them. I always felt bad about those voices but I just did not have the energy. As I got to shallow water some guys run out to help me. They said they had been watching me a good little while but thought that I was a piece of ice, water had froze on my cap and in my hair. I guess that was why I wasn't shot by either side. It was only a little before 10pm. I had been gone less than three hours. Only eight guys got back. I heard later that four of the seven missing survived as POW's. By morning my unit was moving south to Remagen where the Ninth Army had captured intact the Ludendorff bridge across the `impassable Rhine'. There we began putting up bridges. We put a dozen bridges across the Rhine, most of ours were for tank traffic."
Dad had told me this story many times in my life and looking back I can see that each time he told it he revealed a little more of his coming to terms with his experiences. Dad could always tell a good story and this story had always been told as a humorous event with all the comic excitement of bugging out and swimming the Rhine. This last telling was the first time he told me of the young boy he might have killed or of the voices on the water and his tiredness. I believe my father had finally come to terms with his role in these mens deaths, but the sorrow and tragedy of it all never truly left him."
"The price our fore fathers paid for our nation is high indeed."
Abraham Linclon SOURCE: JR Stroud 1991
**********END NOTE 2*************
**********NOTE 3*************
A REMEMBERANCE
When i was a child my father loved to read out loud from the newspaper or regale us with stories of his past or current experiences. Dad's stories always had a fine sense of self-effacing humor in them. Some of the most vivid memories I have as a child is of XL on those early summer mornings that mother would let me go with dad out to the rock crusher plant or construction site where he worked. A whole day with daddy, away from home and little sister! True happiness. That was always a great day. XL would be setting at the kitchen table and mother would be busy at the stove making breakfast and sack lunches for us. Dad, always in good humor in the mornings, would be reading a story from the Ft Worth Star Telegram or telling of some event that had occurred the day before that he thought was funny and mother would be laughing. These memories of mom and dad talking and sharing over the breakfast table still warm my heart. XL had a fine baritone voice, very distinctive. One that I would recognize any where any time. It carried well and was pleasant to the ear. When he was younger he did sing quite well. In later years his favorite things come to be a cup of coffee, a cigarette, and conversation.
I spent many hours over coffee and cigarettes with Dad listening to his stories and discussing the events of his life. XL thought and I agreed, that he and the men and women of his generation saw and did things during World War II, that have no equal in history. XL's experences in WWII exerted a powerful influence on his life, sometimes not always for the best.
"I have seen things you people wouldn't believe Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion I watched C-beams glitter in the dark, near Tannhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time Like tears in rain. Time to die." Batty, character in the moive "Blade Runner". ( Personally I love movies and feel that the soliloquy of the charactor Batty in the movie "Blade Runner", caught the emotions and wonder that dad had about the things he had done and seen during the war.)
Because of world events, XL felt that he and his generation had been cast in a heroic, larger than life role that none of them wanted, but ready or not they had played their parts. Dad was a Romantic at heart and the terrible realities of war and his role in it had troubled him deeply over the years, but I thank at the end he had come to terms with his errors and his accomplishments. I believe one thing is true about all the Stroud men, like all the WWII guys, they always had big hopeful dreams. XL was at peace with the events of his life and felt a pride in his family's past and had high hopes for the family's future.
I hope that this statement reflects XL's thoughts in the last years of his life. I urged him to put on paper his thoughts and those things and events to which he had been a witness. He agreed and made plans to take up this chore that needed to be done, but time and good health run out before he finished all his chores. So for my father I have taken it upon myself to record some of those events as was told to me by my father.
SOURCE: in the first person A REMEMBERANCE Compiled by JRStroud in January1995
**********END NOTE 3*************
**********NOTE 4*************
COMMENTS ON THE HISTORY OF THE STROUD FAMILY
The history of our branch of the Stroud family is very spotty prior to the year 1917, the year of my father's birth. Any thing before this date is beyond our oldest living relative, Guy Stroud's, memory. We have some key dates of Guy's grandparents-John K. and Basha L. Stroud- beyond that we have only tenuous lines of research. My sources for this period are:
"History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe Counties," by Alfred Mathews, Page 1143
"Lee's History and Genealogy of New Jersey," Vol. 2, Page 524
"History of Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland," by Bernard Burke, Vol. 2, Page 1332
"History of the Rebellion," by Lord Clarendon
"History of the English People," by Richard Green
"A History of England," by Goldwin Smith
"The Strouds A Colonial family of English Descent," by A.B. Stroud
During this long period The Stroud's produced many clerics and soldiers for God, King, and England. Not always in that order, which is how we came to be here, instead of in old bonnie England. Here is a short synopsis of what occurred:
WILLIAM STROUD, M.P.
Prior to and during the period 1640-1653, known in English History as the Long Parliament and the Revolution, William Stroud, son of Sir William Stroud, was a member and leader in the House of Commons. He was recognized as a "member of the five" who were leading the opposition to King Charles I. "On January 4, 1642, Charles the First came down to the commons with 400 swordsmen. His purpose was to arrest Pym, Hampden, Stroud, and two other leaders. "In an hour," he had said, "I will return master of my kingdom." Warned of Charles's coming, the five members had fled by the river. The King asked where they were. The speaker of the commons replied that he had "neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak in this place but as this house shall direct me." Charles , having remarked that "the birds have flown," walked out amid cries of objection to his invading the house. After January 10 he sent Henrietta Maria to France, took up his headquarters in York, and began to gather an army."......
....Charles the First was finally beheaded and the Commonwealth was established under Cromwell. After Cromwell's death he was succeeded by Richard Comwell, who proved to be totally unworthy and incompetent which led to the re-establishment of the monarchy in the person of Charles the Second, the son of Charles the First, becoming King. The consequences being that those who had been prominent under Cromwell fell under the ban and were made to suffer for the past. Pior to this William Stroud had died and had been buried in Westminster Abbey along with Cromwell. As soon as Charles the Second was restored to the crown he had the bodies of Cromwell and William Stroud disinterred and treated with great indignity.
After the restoration of the monarchy, for a number years those who were related to those who had been at all prominent in the rebellion were treated with great harshness by Charles the Second. It is stated that there were no less than seventy thousand political executions in England between the time of the Restoration in 1660 and 1683. Many people left and it was along about this time (1700) that we get our first record of a Barnett Stroud, age 5, grandson of William Stroud, landing on a dock in New York. He was listed as an orphan and was taken to Amwell Township, Hunterdon County, New Jersey where he was raised by relatives. Barnett was raised as a frontier farmer who sired six sons and three daughters. These children split as they reached matureity some going south into Virginia and the Carolinas and the others north into Pennsylvania.
In the year 1760 Samuel, John, and James and their two sisters came to Virginia. Samuel desired to return to Pennsylvania. So, the three brothers decided upon a plan for their descemdants in coming years to be able to recognize if they were of the same family. It was agreed that James and John should name at least one son "John" and "James" respectivly and that Samuel, Jacob, and Barnett would each name at least one son after themselves in the same fashion and all would pass this "tradition" on to each generation of children. There are a lot of Sams, Johns, and James in the records.
SOUCE: Bibliographic Material :
"History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe Counties," by Alfred Mathews,
Page 1143
"Lee's History and Genealogy of New Jersey," Vol. 2, Page 524
"History of Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland," by Bernard
Burke, Vol. 2, Page 1332
"History of the Rebellion," by Lord Clarendon
"History of the English People," by Richard Green
"A History of England," by Goldwin Smith
"The Strouds A Colonial family of English Descent," by A.B. Stroud
Compilied by JR Stroud
***************END NOTE 4********************
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