Insurance executive, banker, farmer. Observations on land speculation, settlement, and development in the Coastal Bend area of South Texas, 1910-70. Cotton farming; banking; Mexican-Anglo relations; small town social life.

For the Ray Roberts Lake Oral History Project. Teacher. His reminiscences about life on an African-American farm in Denton County, Texas, 1934-1960. Memories of his ex-slave step-grandfather; his description of old farm equipment; crops and livestock; canning and food preservation; a description of the family sorghum mill; their first radio; home remedies; holidays and social events; the African-American migration to cities and out of state.

One of the founders of Bomber Bait Company, Gainesville, Texas. Family background; farming during Depression in Olton, Texas; employment as a gasoline retailer in Olton and tire repair operator in Gainesville; interest in designing fish baits; development of Bomber Bait Company with Clarence Turbeville; problems obtaining supplies at end of World War II; designing hard baits; expansion of market; sale of company; views on success of Bomber Bait and failures of other bait companies.

Civilian Conservation Corps veteran. Childhood in western Pennsylvania; father’s work as a farmer, coal miner, and WPA blacksmith; life on farms and in mining towns during the Great Depression; decision to enroll in CCC before eighteenth birthday; experiences at CCC camps in Arizona and Pennsylvania; lessons learned from the CCC experience; experiences in the European Theater of World War II as radio operator in the U.S.

Geophysicist. His recollections and experiences as a geophysicist in the oil industry.

For the Ray Roberts Lake Oral History Project. Homemaker. Her reminiscences about rural life in northern Denton County and southern Cooke County, Texas, 1910-1987; her ancestors’ role in the founding of Valley View, Texas; evolution of the family farm; canning and food preservation; rural social activities; lightning storms and tornadoes; traveling peddlers; crops; doctors and folk remedies.

Rancher-farmer, Denton, Texas.

Farmer-rancher.