Wilson County Historical Society

Joey Adcock, Coleman Talley, and Claude Cowan

Joey Adcock, Coleman Talley, and Claude Cowan ..... were upstanding active community members. Mr. Talley owned the grocery store and Mr. Cowan was the butcher while Mr. Adcock was a general employee. They are standing in front of the old "Red and White" grocery store.The store used to stand at the corner of 14th & 4th street in Old Town Sutherland Springs Wilson County Texas before it burned down.

Kimberly Hineman 2nd birthday, circa 1970s

A FUN 50 YEAR OLD PHOTO.... Heres a group of Senior Citizens having fun at Kimberly Hineman 2nd birthday party in Old Town Sutherland Springs Wilson County Texas! Geesh, some of these little ones are grandparents. Birthday celebrations fifty years ago were not elaborate like today. Refreshments served was hand-churned homemade ice cream, birthday cake and Hawaiian punch. The young ones played games such as "Pin the Tail on the Donkey" with the winning child the only one to receive the prize.

The guests were left to right:

Back Row: Leslie Baker, Wesley Baker, Betty Sue Talley, Robbie Wood and Robyn Wilson

Front Row: James Risley, Cissy Wood, Holly Wilson,and Mary Joyce Tatum.

Leona Hosek Moczygemba

Growing up in Three Oaks 90 Yrs. Ago .... Leona Hosek Moczygemba was born in Three Oaks, Wilson County Texas, in 1931. Her father, August Hosek, was born in Moravia in 1885. Her mother, Agnes Lamza, was born in 1896 in Texas. Her family came from the Czech Republic. They married in 1916.

Leona has spoken Czech all her life. When she started school she learned to speak English. But when she came home from school and was speaking English, her daddy reprimanded her and told her to speak Czech. To this day Leona speaks both Czech and English.

There were 12 children in the Hosek family. They lived by the Three Oaks Hall. Her daddy farmed 130 acres. He always farmed with horses or mules, walking behind the horses with the plows, cultivators, etc. When her brothers got old enough, they helped their daddy with the plowing. He bought a tractor in the late '40s.

Like almost all children during those years, when Leona was old enough she worked in the fields, chopping cotton, pulling corn, working in peanut fields, and then when they got home in the evening, they had more work to do — chores around the farm. Then there was homework. It was a hard life.

Sometimes her mother said that Leona should stay home and cook the noon meal while her mama went to pick cotton. Leona had to kill two chickens, heat boiling water to scald the chicken so she could pick the feathers off, then she had to clean them, fry them up, and cook the rest of the meal. Then she said when they all went back in the fields, she had the job of washing all those dishes by herself!

She described to me how her parents made sauerkraut, one of their main dishes in this family. Her mother would shred the cabbage — put the cabbage in a large crock with salt and dill. Then Leona said her mother would wash Leona's feet real good and carry her over and put her in the jar, so she could stomp on the cabbage for a long time. Leona thought that was fun. Then her mother covered it up with a cup towel and a heavy dinner plate and a heavy rock, until the sauerkraut was cured. Sauerkraut was always one of the main dishes in the Hosek family.

I asked her if she was glad when school started and she said, "Well I was glad, but we had to walk 4-1/2 miles to school every day and back, and when we got home there was still lots of work to be done. I had to miss a lot of school, because there was too much work to do."

Leona said, "We always wore straw hats to school except in the winter. We had no shoes and we had to walk to school barefoot. But there was this one time that my older brother outgrew his shoes and my mother told me I had to wear them to school. They were boys' shoes with these pointed toes, and I didn't like them. So I would put them on and walk about where the Three Oaks Store was and I would take them off and put them under a little bridge, and walk the rest of the way barefoot. Then in the afternoon I would come back, and put them on and walk home. My mama never found out."

At Christmas, her daddy went out to the pasture and cut a limb off of a tree. They would decorate it with strings of popcorn and colored paper chains. Christmas presents were a box of apples, oranges, nuts, and sticks of peppermint candy canes. When I asked if they ever got toys like dolls or trucks, she said they never got anything like that. She said probably because there were too many children. But she said they were so happy with the fruit, candy, and nuts.

That was during the Depression, and times were really hard for the Hosek family with all those children.

But Leona said one Christmas, they were all sitting in the house and Santa Claus came down the stairs with a bag over his shoulder with presents of apples, oranges, nuts, and candy. She was about 8 years old. The children were so excited. There really was a Santa.

But later on she went upstairs and found the Santa suit and the mask. Then she knew it had been her sister, Martha! Leona looked sort of crestfallen as she told this story. She said all the kids' dreams were shattered that day.

Leona went to school at Three Oaks until the 11th grade. Mary Ann Stavinoha, Emil Fisher, and Victor Hosek were in her graduating class. She continued to live on the farm and work in the fields for several years.
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COURTESY / Wilson County News Lois Wauson writer of the weekly column "Rainy Days and Starry Nights" December 19, 2012

Talamantez Brothers

Two Talamantez Brothers ...... from Floresville Wilson County Texas recalled their daddy during an interview with Fred Owens of the Wilson County News .

The Senior Talamantez, Pedro "Pepe" , was born in Graytown in 1913, finished school after the fifth grade, worked for 36 years as an ice man, worked many more years in other jobs, was married and raised six children, and died at the age of 87 in Floresville surrounded by his family.

Pete and Sam Talamantez, two of his four sons, remember their father as a very smart man. "He knew everything about every family in Wilson County. He knew where everybody came from and who everybody was related to," Pete said.

"I wish we had written it down," Sam said. "There were so many things he told us, but now it's gone."

When the boys were young, Pepe Talamantez worked for the Spruce family at their ranch outside of Floresville. When World War II started and all the eligible men were drafted, the Spruces held Pepe back from military service because he was an essential worker.

When Pete, the oldest boy, reached school age, the Spruces offered Pepe a job at their ice plant in Floresville.

"We were living out on the ranch at that time," Pete said. "It was more than a five-mile walk to school. There was no other way to get there. They offered my father a job in town so that we could live nearby and go to school."

The Talamantez family moved to a house with six acres on Sutherland Springs Road in Floresville.

"We had a big garden, potatoes, watermelons, onions, tomatoes, you name it," Sam said. "Dad was always away working, but one time a friend came to visit us, and he needed a place to stay. Dad let him stay in a cabin in the back. They never made a deal, but the man just started making the garden."

After moving to town, Pepe began his long service as an ice man, working from the ice plant at 4th and C streets in Floresville, where the offices of Floresville Electric Light & Power System (FELPS) are now located. The building still has thick, insulated walls and windowless rooms that were once used to store ice, although now they are filled with desks and computers.

"That's why Dad knew everything about everybody," Pete said. "It was because he delivered the ice door-to-door. He had a regular route in Floresville, delivering 12 to 25 blocks of ice." One block would last up to a week in the old ice boxes. In the 1940s and 1950s many people in Floresville did not have electric refrigerators.

"Dad started delivering ice with a horse and wagon, but later on he used a truck," Pete said.

The ice plant, the only one in Wilson County, made ice in 300-pound blocks in a process that took three days. When the blocks were frozen solid, the form was removed and the block was cut by an electric saw into 100-pound pieces. The 100-pound pieces were scored and then split into 50-, 25-, and 12.5-pound blocks.

"Dad delivered to all the restaurants in Floresville, too. They needed chipped ice to cover beer and soda in coolers and to serve in iced drinks," Pete said. Pepe chopped the ice blocks by hand for the restaurants. "Later they got smart. They got a machine to make chipped ice and Dad only had to deliver the bags."

Pete worked at the ice plants during summer vacation in the 1950s. Summer was the busiest time. "The farmers all came into the plant to get ice for their coolers. There were a lot of workers in the cotton and peanut fields, and they needed ice water," he said.

Pepe also delivered ice to Poth, Stockdale, and other places in the county, but only in 300-pound blocks. "They would slide the blocks out of the plant and down a chute into the truck. Then Dad would drive it to stores in those towns. The stores would cut up the blocks and sell it to their customers," Pete said.

Life became hard for Pepe in 1953. His wife, Margaret Ramos Talamantez, died, and he had six children to raise by himself.

"Dad never stopped working. He worked seven days a week delivering ice, from noon until 9 or 10 p.m. He also did washing and cooking for the children," Sam said.

The ice plant closed in 1980. Pepe began working for FELPS and stayed active until the last years of his life.

Pete Talamantez is 67. He is retired and works as the administrator for the Floresville Economic Development Corp. Pete still lives on his father's place on Sutherland Springs Road. (December 28, 2005)

Sam Talamantez, 57, owns the La Familia restaurant on Third Street in Floresville. Sam has been blind from diabetes for 14 years. (December 28, 2005)
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Samuel R. "Sam" Talamantez passed away Thursday, Jan. 5, 2012, in San Antonio, Texas, at the age of 63 years, 11 months, and 4 days. He was born on Feb. 1, 1948, in Floresville to Peter and Margarita Talamantez. He was a lifelong resident of Floresville.