Family Stories
Charlie and Sara Annie Helmer were the first set of two sets of twins to Joseph and Louisa (Lucy) Tindle Helmer. There were three children older than Charlie and Sara. Charlie and Annie were born in Lee County, probably near Dime Box, Texas on January 12, 1877. When the twins arrived, Lucy was frail and unable to supply enough milk to feed both babies. The family found a female Negro field hand who was feeding a young child of her own, and she became a wet-nurse to help feed Lucy's twins.
Charlie and Annie's father died when they were approximately sixteen years old. Lucy never remarried, and she raised her family alone with the help of her older children.
Charlie Helmer first met and married Jose Carlisle in Lee County, Texas on September 30, 1896, to this union one son was born; Gordon Edwin Helmer. Jose Carlisle Helmer, Gordon's mother, died in 1899 when he was about two years old. On the 1900 census, both Charlie Helmer and Gordon Edwin Helmer were listed as living in the household of Lucy Helmer, in Lee County. Gordon continued to live with his grandmother, Lucy Helmer. Charlie left Giddings, Texas and moved to Lueders, Texas to find work. He went alone to find work and a new life after his wife died.
Sometimes my sister (Annie) and I (Lena) would go and spend the night with Grandma. She had a clock that was on the wall it would strike on ever hour and half-hour. We could not sleep with it going so when she went to sleep we would stop the clock for the night. She would see that it was stopped and say she must have forget to wind it.
Another time we went to Grandma's to see her she had some chickens.. The chickens were nearly half grown but did not have any feathers. Someone was having a new house built across the street from Grandmas. The chickens would go over there at lunch time to sat the food the carpenters gave theme Well, one day the men caught one of the chickens and painted it red. It went home that night to roost with the other pen, but Grandma throwed it out of the pen. It kept coming back until she let it stay the night. The nuxt day we went over to the house and was talking about the chicken, they said they had painted it red. We told Grandma what the man said so she let the chicken stay there.
Grandma also had lots of pretty quilts in which she made herself.
She remembered her mother being placed into a wooden box and then put in a wagon. They covered the box with a quilt and the horse drawn wagon moved off to the cemetery with the family and friends walking along behind. Viola remembered several things about her growing up and how alone they all felt when their mother died. The baby who was born when the mother died lived two or three months and was buried beside his mother. Viola said when they were walking home from the cemetery after the burial of the baby that her Papa was sitting in a chair behind the house whittling. She didn't know then and never knew why her Papa did not go to the cemetery for the burial of the baby.
Lillie remembers how all three of the girls played together when they were growing up. Lillie always beat Viola and Eva when they were running a race because she was smaller. She says one night after supper the three girls went to the barn to pick peanuts from some baled peanut hay that Papa had stacked in the barn. While they were there they decided to have a little fun. Viola said she would tie some dry corn shucks to the old cat's tail while Lillie and Eva held the cat. Of course when they turned the cat loose he had a run away and they thought it was real funny, but Papa didn't think it was funny at all and scolded them for mistreating the old cat.
Another time Lillie remembers that Floyd and Jesse Gunnels had a little dog that died. The Gunnel's kids and Eva and Lillie decided to have a funeral service for the dog. Jesse preached the funeral sermon and the other three did the singing. They cried and cried just like they were at a real funeral. Lillie doesn't remember what Jesse preached about but she remembers the prayer. It went like this; "Lord, help us and bind us. Put him in a hole where the devil can't find him."
Viola, Lillie, and Eva spoke many times about fishing in the river when they were young. When Grandma Lucy Helmer stayed with them they always had a lot of fun. She would go with them to the river and they would fish or sometimes pick pecans. The girls would wade in shallow water and do a lot of playing. They would use worms, grasshoppers and crawdads for bait. Lillie was afraid the crawdads would bite her. While grandma stayed with them she taught the girls to make dumplings. Eva barely remembered her own mother but spoke very fondly of her grandmother Helmer. She said that grandma was a dumpling maker and made them out of anything that was available - chicken, ham, backbone, and tomatoes. Sometime there was nothing in the house to make dumplings with so grandma would take a piece of salt pork, put it in a pot with some water and boil it all morning, then make dumplings with the salty broth. Eva could remember grandma putting the salty meat in a pan on the old wood stove, leave and go to the river to fish - they lived nearby - and once in a while send one of the kids back to the house to put another stick of wood in the stove and add a little water to the pot. At noon they would quit fishing and go home and grandma would make dumplings. Eva grew up to be a dumpling maker and dumplings, especially tomato dumplings, came to be a very special dish in the Claude Bennett home. The children would always ask for tomato dumplings and Eva made barrels of them during her lifetime.
Thank you to Ruth Bennett Martin for writing these stories down so that all the family can cherish them for years to come.
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