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Note: 1894 - 1962
Archie should write up the story on cantaloupes. And on pecantrees. And on the Brahma bull Frank. He volunteered for the Navy in World War I. He was too skinny, andwas rejected for being underweight. So he bought a lot of bananas; atethe bananas and drank lots of water; went back for another physicalexam. This time he passed. And thus he enlisted in the U.S.Navy inWorld War I.
He was sent to Newport, Rhode Island, where he had a serious case ofpneumonia. David Fariss thinks that it was the notorious influenzaepidemic. We have a letter that he wrote home while in the hospital.He said it was taking three to four months for the other boys to getwell. He sounds quite homesick. So he never did get to serve on activeduty. He was discharged after recovering. His parents were keptinformed of his condition by letters from a volunteer serviceorganization.
He went to Southwest Texas Normal in San Marcos. He got a teacher'scertificate, and taught for one year at Blue, ten miles NE of McDade andten miles west of Lexington. This must be a small community, nowforgotten.
From page 122 of "History of Lee County Texas" 1974: The old Libertyschool building was a box house, one large room. homemade desks, andheated by a large cast iron "box" heater. The building was located onthe H. Sorenson land, about two miles north of FM112. Water wasprobably hauled to the school in barrels, but wood for heat wasplentiful nearby. One of the early teachers was Mr. Robert Fariss."
He worked in the Grange Store for a while.
Then he got a mail route. He delivered mail on horseback at thebeginning. The family has a picture of him with the mail horse. Hecontinued to live with his parents while working his first mail routes.
He helped pay for the first year at the University of Texas for littlesister Annie Fariss Ballard.
He and Elsie Wagner were married at the old Lutheran Church in RoundTop, where Esther Wagner and Bill Newmann also had been married.
During World War II, he additionally worked at the Fairmont Creamery.
The strongest language that he used was "Dang." He was plowing afield at the farm once. The mule got spooked and took off running. Thereins tangled around Robert's arm, and he was dragged along, across thefield, into a barbed-wire fence. As he untangled a bloody arm from thebarbed wire, he was heard to say "Dang."
There was a trailer parked at the farm, and the boys camped there inthe summers.
Mr. Tienert had a sugar cane mill and cooking vats. Daddy grew sugarcane, and grew it pretty well, and it was hauled to Tienert's place. Itwas ground (or pressed) in a mill where a mule walked in a circle, andit was then cooked into molasses. It took all of a long, long day toget a batch cooked down. He and Mr. Tienert split the molasses 50-50 byagreement. Max Fariss says instead that the man's name was Mr.Koehler.
This was looking pretty good. Daddy wanted to make old fashionedmolasses, or is it sorghum. He got a loan from Raymond Elledge, andbought a grinding mill (or press) and cooking vats. The grinding wouldbe done by a putt-putt "donkey engine." This independent ventureturned out to be a bust, according to William Felix. Daddy never didmake molasses. The heavy equipment is probably still out on the farmsomewhere in 1992.
In the 1930's there was a Federal Cannery in Giddings, to help duringthe Depression. The equipment was government-owned, and includedpressure cookers and all other canning requirements. Families signed upin advance for their day for canning. People brought their own freshfood, the cans, and lots of family workers. People put up tomatoes,made catsup, and they canned vegetables, fruit, and fresh beef.
Tomatoes at one time were a subsidized crop. Daddy grew his tomatoesall from seed. He had "hot beds" and "cold frames" in town. His hotbed was big; was made of railroad ties; and had a big hood which couldbe lifted up. He put in the tomato plants at the farm. There was anirrigation system made with tiles. He made a big crop but this venturelasted only a year or two.
Daddy signed up to grow corn under a Federal program with a subsidy.The corn crop failed. He then decided to grow peanuts to feed to hishogs. The agents refused to let him feed the crop to the hogs. He hadsigned up for CORN. They made him plow up the peanuts. The hogs gotnothing.Thisis Bill's story. Ira believes he never raised hogs. David says he wasin partnership with Bill Neumann in Carmine. Maybe Bill would providethe place and Robert would provide the pigs. David believes the pigswere at the farm instead of at Carmine. There may be a small bit oftruth in the corn-peanuts story.
Write up the fond memories of Charlie Wilson Jr. here: he rode on themail route several times. Letters in the box with no stamp, only coins.Coins in the mail box: please sell me some stamps. Park, wait: we are 6minutes ahead of schedule now. These people all depend on me to beexactly on schedule. We have 6 minutes to kill right here. SearsRoebuck catalog time is not a good time; they are just too heavy.
Daddy built all the cabinets in the kitchen. William Felix Farissremembers the wood cookstove; then the kerosene kitchen stove was putin; then finally the electric stove. Bill remembers when the house waswired for electricity, when he was in the Second or Third Grade, whichwould be 1931 or 1932.
Some of Eck's Oklahoma group (Ira Milton 1895, Cata 1897, Elmer Jack1902) all visited in Giddings once. Ira Milton and Robert Ernest, firstcousins of about the same age, hit it off real well together at the verybeginning, and became good friends during a short visit.
Daddy played dominoes in a domino parlor near the Methodist Church.
Robert Ernest Fariss died in 1962 after a siege with lung cancer. Heis buried in the Giddings City Cemetery.
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