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He brought in two immigrant familes form
Note:
Jesse grew up during the depression in the 1930's.<br />His father worked for Haliburton in Duncan Olahome, where Jesse was born.
He went to high school in Durant and was in the State Champon Choir.(1933) He said his choir director later joined Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians.
He went on to college in Durant and played tackle for the Southeastern Oklahoma Savages 1938/39
He met Lucille Bell there and they were married. He dropped out of school and went to work for a car dealer as a mechanic. He didn't stay long before he got a chance to join the Border Patrol.
He had a good career of 30 years in the immigration service interupted only by a stint in the Navy during World War II. In the Navy he served on a sea going tug that took part in the <span style="text-decoration: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; text-transform: none; float: none; color: #222222; text-align: left; font: 400 13px/22px sans-serif; orphans: 2; display: inline !important; letter-spacing: normal; background-color: transparent; text-indent: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">Battle of Okinawa. </span><span style="text-decoration: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; text-transform: none; float: none; color: #222222; text-align: left; font: 400 13px/22px sans-serif; orphans: 2; display: inline !important; letter-spacing: normal; background-color: transparent; text-indent: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">His duty was to go to the bottom of the ship and take orders to guide the ship if the bridge was damaged during combat. He said hs captain had standing orders not to fire at the enemy planes so not to draw attention.</span>
<span style="text-decoration: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; text-transform: none; float: none; color: #222222; text-align: left; font: 400 13px/22px sans-serif; orphans: 2; display: inline !important; letter-spacing: normal; background-color: transparent; text-indent: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">After he was discharged from the Navy he returned to duty as a border patrolman in San Antonio.</span>
<span style="text-decoration: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; text-transform: none; float: none; color: #222222; text-align: left; font: 400 13px/22px sans-serif; orphans: 2; display: inline !important; letter-spacing: normal; background-color: transparent; text-indent: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">He was stationed in Zapata, TX in 1947 and went on to Laredo, San Antonio, Grand Forks, ND, Del Rio, TX, San Antonio, TX and Dallas his last stop before retirement.</span>
Loved his work as a Border Patrolman and later as immigration Investiigator handing smuggling cases as wide ranging as parrots, ammunition, illegal aliens and heroin.
He always dreamed of retiring to a farm so a few years before retiring he and his son Pat began looking for land in Arkansas because it looked like the most afforable. On the way to Arkansas they noticed some land near Bogota, Texas so they bought 400 acres of grassland.
It was a nice property with a year around fishing pond. To keep people from fishing on the pond he put up a sign that said "Fishing two dollars." When asked why not just say "No fishing" he said people would ignore that sign but every now then he might make two dollars. He brought in to two men and their families from Mexico. The first man "Chon" worked on the ranch. Jess let his family stay in his house until Chon's quarters were completed. They burnt a hole in the kitchen floor because they cooked on it. They did not know how to cook on a stove. The second man was Chon's brother in-law and Jess got him a job with a local butcher.
<address>While still living In Richardosn, Texas he noticed condos being built with fire places and saw there was no room to store firewood. So he started cuttng firewood off of his Bogota property and selling it by the bundle. One day an executive from the 7-11 stores while shopping at the drug store and contacted Jess about selling firewood at 19 of their stores. Itr was a big success and grew to over 100 stores in Houston and Dallas. Later 7-11 went nationwide but Jess got out of the firewood business because it got to competive. Anyone with a chainsaw and a splitter could get in the business. But Jess deserves credit for introducing bundled firewood you see in stores today. see firewood.pdf in documents</address> Mexico. Chon and his family lived on the farm in a house that Jess provided. He got his Chon's brother in law a job at a local meat packing business. Chon had several childern and the eldest daugter babysit for Jesse's grandchildren. Jess gave Chon some goats to keep. When asked why he gave those goats to Chon, he said "Chon will leave me but he won't leave those goats".
Was a strong Republican and worked hard on campaigns for Ronald Regan in a largely democratic part of the state. He also fought corrution in local government. Especally a scheme to use skim federal grant money to be used for local public housing. He made a number of <span style="font-family: Segoe UI; color: #111111;">enemies as a result of his effort to clean ul government.</span>
Liked to get together with friends have a few beers and play cards or Moon dominios, and usually won.
Played a lot of golf in retirement.
He liked to hunt and spent a lot of time at Ray Kilman's place (his long time college friend.).Took his boys to Mexico a couple of timesto hunt bear in the mountains of Mexico.
Had lots of fun fishing in the Texas Gulf.
He flew in an ultra-light flight airplane at least once.
Took a dare and skydived at the age of 72.
Never heard a curse word from him at home.
Made sure his boys went to church.
Jess enjoyed life.
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