“I’ve Been Working on the Railroad”…
“I’ve Been Working on the Railroad”…Samuel Joseph Sutherland
As I outlined in my very first blog entry, I knew virtually nothing about my father’s Sutherland family before I started researching and collecting information. Samuel Joseph “Sam” is one of those who I have been able to find very little information other than some very basics. However there is still a story to be told.
Samuel Joseph Sutherland was born in Sutherland Springs, Texas on September 7, 1899. He was the ninth of the twelve children of Robert and Mollie Sutherland. We are not sure of the origin of the name Samuel or Joseph. He was known all his life as Sam. His older brother Royal Henry gave his youngest son Royal Henry Jr. the nickname of Sam. Royal Henry Jr was my father’s youngest brother.
Sam likely grew up working on the family farm alongside his older brothers. In 1900 he is shown as the youngest child of Robert and Mollie’s growing brood. In 1910, he is living with his mother, Mollie, and his siblings. His father does not appear on the 1910 census with his family. This was likely one of the times that he had run away back to Arkansas. In September 1918, Sam registered for the draft for World War I. He is 19 years old and shown to be of medium build and medium height with blue eyes and brown hair. I have no indication that Sam actually went to war in WWI as the war was over on November 11, 1918.
In 1920, Sam was still living at home with Mollie and two of his younger siblings, Mary and Robert. He is listed as a laborer and not as a farmer like his older brothers. Farming was apparently not his life calling.
Sunset Depot in Sutherland Springs, TX
Sam grew up in the days when Sutherland Springs was known as the “Saratoga of the South”. He would likely have spent time at the sulfur springs swimming pools and attended dances at the big dance pavilion at the Sutherland Springs resort. In 1896, the San Antonio and Gulf Shore Railroad was extended to Sutherland Springs. It was laid on the east bank of Cibolo Creek near what was to become “New Town”. In 1914 an extension of the main line was built out to the bathing pools and right behind the 52 room Hotel Sutherland. It was known as the “Sunset Depot”. No doubt Sam spent some time hanging around the railroad and somehow became interested in railroading. The tourism peak ended in about 1923. With the decline in tourism, the railroad also declined.
Train in Glidden Texas from Nesbitt Library Collection.
By 1830, we find that Sam has moved from Sutherland Springs to Glidden, Colorado County, Texas which is just north of Interstate Highway 10 and three miles west of Columbus in north central Colorado County. It was established in about 1885 by the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway on 159½ acres of land bought from T. J. Oaks as a site for new shops, switching yards, and a roundhouse to handle major east-west traffic and traffic from the La Grange Tap Railroad. By 1925 the population had grown to over 400. Among them was our Sam who had followed the railroad away from Wilson County. In his obituary, it says that he spent 62 years in Glidden and worked as a railroad clerk and rancher.
It was in Glidden that Sam met his future wife Lena Henrietta Schulenburg. Lena was born on May 30, 1900 right there in Glidden. She was the daughter of Anna Mehert and Louis Herman Schulenburg. Lena’s parents married in Austin, Texas in 1888. Louis immigrated with his parents sometime before 1850. They were from Hanover, Germany. Anna was born in Germany and immigrated in about 1882. She was from Prussia.
One of the Schulenburg Painted Churches
After the end of the US Civil War, there was a huge influx of foreign immigrants into Columbus County, many from Germany. In fact in 1890 over 22% of the white population in the county was foreign born. If you look on a map, you will see many small towns with German names such as Weimar, Schulenburg, Dubina, Ammannsville, Hallettsville, and Shiner in and around Colorado County. Schulenburg is the home of many of the beautiful German “Painted Churches”.
Sam and Lena married on April 24, 1934 while living in Glidden. They spent the remainder of their lives living in Glidden and Colorado County. They never had any children that I could find. Sam died on September 21, 1982 and was buried in the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Columbus, Texas. Lena lived on there is Glidden until her death on November 4, 1997. She is also buried in the same Odd Fellows Cemetery in Columbus.
While I do not remember them, I have pictures of Sam and Lena at the 1955 Sutherland Family Reunion in Kerrville, Texas.
Sam is back row right, Lena front row right
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