Story of Laura back up

We Remember Laura Allen Hall Hering

June 1, 2022 will be the 50th anniversary of the passing of this well loved mother, grandmother, great grandmother, and great great grandmother.

And so the story goes… written by Lisa Hering with research and stories by Lee Hering

Credits: Henry “Lee” Hering, Youngset son of Laura Allen Hall Hering

Just thought it might be good timing to give credit for much of this information to my father, Lee Hering, who has been researching his genealogy for about 60 years. His interest began when his mother, Laura Hall Hering, showed him a list of all her in-laws which she had made when she got married in order to keep them straight. When Laura and Albert married, he didn’t have much to learn in the way of in-laws since she had been raised an only child. But Albert, on the other hand, was one of 12 children, 10 of which grew to adulthood. And they were all married with children. And both his parents were still living and both his grandfathers. Lee loved puzzles, and when she showed him the list back in the 1960’s, he was hooked.

Lee has a database with about 4000 names, most with copies of public records, headstones, photographs, paintings, and personal letters. He is dedicated to accuracy and only lists those people he feels are certain. His information on the Hering/Hall ancestry goes back to the mid 1600’s in Germany and on my mother’s side it goes all the way back to King Edward I of England.

The greatest genealogical library in the world is in Salt Lake City at the Mormon library. Several times, Lee moved there, renting an apartment for about 3 months at a time, in order to do research. He claimed that “ancestors were falling off the book shelves!” He has gone to many a cemetary on his travels looking for ancestral headstones. He has been to Junction, TX and seen Warren Hall’s headstone, to the Berlin community near New Braunfels to see some of Albert’s ancestors, and even to London and Germany to see where ancestors lived and perhaps to find their homes still standing. Many of the Hering ancestors have their roots in a small town in Germany called Oberkaufungen. We have been to the church where our ancestors were married, and seen the parsonage with the name “Christoph Hering” inscribed in stone above the door, and in 1984, because of his research, I was baptized there at the Stiftskirche which is over a thousand years old. The community did a newpaper article about me on an American finding her “roots” and at the ceremony they played Home on the Range because I was from the wild west! In that same town, Lee found the home of one of our ancestors and was taking a photo of it when an angry German woman came out and asked him what he was doing. In his broken German, he said, Ich bin Hering. And her whole attitude changed. She said “Ich bin auch Hering!” I am also Hering! She invited him in and showed him all sorts of photos. He has dozens of 3 ring binders full of data, and now helps others with their family history. At the time of this writing, he is 96 and still sharp as a tack.

Post 1: Laura Allen Hall Hering

I want to honor my grandmother, Laura Allen Hall Hering, by posting a photo and tribute to her each day until her birthday. If anyone else wants to help contribute, please feel free. On May 10, 2022 she would have been 127. On June 1, 2022, she will have been gone for 50 years (1895-1972). I still remember the day she left us. Funny thing is, I didn’t live near her, and only saw her a few times a year. Why I felt so strongly about her, I don’t know. But I did. There was something magical about her, comforting, caring, grandmotherly but just good human being, mother, and wife. I have so many stories about her through my dad. But none of them convey the feeling I have about her knowing her personally. Maybe it’s a false feeling because I didn’t see her that much, I didn’t grow up with her right next door. But my love for her is fixed in my memory, and that will never change. She had a younger brother and an older sister both who died as small children. She was raised as an only child. She lost her father at age 4 to tuberculosis. She was born in McGregor, TX. Her mother and grandmother moved there in 1884 when the town was 2 years old. Laura Hall at about 18 months. *BTW, my dad just told me this… the reason this photograph was made was because she was ill and her parents were afraid she wasn’t going to live. Wow.

Post 2: Laura Allen Hall Hering

The marriage of Laura’s parents, Warren J Hall and Augustine Meier in 1892, was not to be long nor happy. Their first child, a daughter, died before Laura was born and is buried in the McGregor cemetery. Laura was born in 1895 at 707 W 2nd St. in McGregor. Warren contracted tuberculosis and the family moved to San Antonio for the beneficial climate. While there, they had a son who died at 7 months. He is buried in San Antonio. Warren’s illness did not improve, and the family of three moved further west to Junction, Texas where Warren eventually died and is buried there. Laura remembers the silver dollars on his eyes.

Their money was used up. Augustine, or Gustine for short, and Laura headed back to McGregor taking a stage coach from Junction to San Antonio and then the train to McGregor to live with the older Augustine on the corner of Adams and W 2nd St. Gustine didn’t have a dime to tip the porter, and so kicked the suitcase from the carriage to the train, with Laura on her hip in one hand and a bag in the other hand. Laura was 4. Gustine was just 23, a widow with two lost children. Gustine became a dressmaker, and Laura was raised primarily by her grandmother, Augustine Jahnke Hayes, between whom there was mutual adoration.

Post 3: Laura Allen Hall Hering

Remember how you could get in a photo booth and take 4 silly poses straight in a row? Well, these 4 photos were in a long strip less than an inch wide. Isn’t she adorable? I can definitely see a family resemblence in her sweet face. She was a happy girl with a positive attitude.

After Laura and Gustine returned from west Texas, Laura shared a room and a bed with her mother in Gustine’s mom’s house for 3 years. For a little girl, that’s pretty comforting having mommy always there, especially when you’ve lost daddy.

But her dream spot came to an end when a very nice man by the name of Jacob Smith fell in love with Gussy, and… they got married! For Laura, that meant someone else was taking her place in the bedroom, and she was out! I don’t know where she went, (possibly her own room in the new house Jacob built) but she threw a fit. She wanted her spot in the bed, and she wasn’t going to give it up without a fight. No wonder step parents have it so hard sometimes, new dynamics at home where it’s supposed to be safe. Apparently, she said some harsh words and made “Daddy Jake” cry. But once she got to know him, he was the nicest, gentlest, good man to both her and her mom, and she loved him dearly. For the rest of her life, she regretted those words. They became very close. It was really the only father she knew. And he loved her very much. My dad also knew him as the only grandfather he had, and called him Daddy Jake since it wasn’t a real grandfather. And to him, Gustine became “Mama Jake”.

Post 4: Augustine Jahnke Hayes, grandmother to Laura Allen Hall

This is a photo of Augustine Jahnke, Gustine’s mother, Laura’s grandmother, who immigrated from Posen, Germany. Family lore goes that Augustine’s father died young leaving the mother and about 5 children very poor. In about 1869, a local doctor who had emigrated to New Jersey came back for a visit. He and his wife fell in love with Augustine who was 13 at the time. She didn’t have much of a future in Germany, and the doctor and his wife couldn’t have any children, so asked to bring Augustine back to the USA with them. What a decision for a mother to make, knowing she would likely never see her daughter again! So they say Augustine boarded a ship to America with them and came to New Jersey to begin a new life.

In 1875, she married a Mr. Jacob Meier who had emigrated to New Jersey from Switzerland. They had a daughter they named Augustine in 1876. In 1878, they had a second daughter, Huldah.

The next thing we know, from the 1880 census, the two Augustines are in Throckmorton, Texas working on a sheep ranch. Mr. Meier appears to no longer be with them. Here, tragedy has touched their lives. Huldah, less than two years old, dies. Family legend says she choked on her food, turned blue, and was gone within a couple of hours.

Augustine was our “marrying” ancestor. She married twice more before her 4th and last husband, Frank Hayes in 1896. He was the grandfather Laura knew and loved. But not before we have some interesting romances (plural) in the family. Mr. Warren Washington Joseph Hall and his brother had a second hand shop of some type in McGregor. Warren’s age was half way between the two Augustines. Hmm, which one is a man supposed to date? Family legend says he dated mom first, and then, the younger Gussy, whom he married. Their first child was born 8 months after the 1892 wedding. The child, a girl, Leafy Ione Hall, sadly died in childhood and is buried in McGregor. Their next child, a girl, was our Laura.

Frank turned out to be a very good man whom Laura adored. Augustine (now Hayes) never wanted her age known and listed it differently in each census. She told Laura she was about ten years older than Frank and didn’t want him to think she was an old woman, so she always said yes to going out dancing even if she was really too tired. She died in 1920 claiming she was 63. You can find her grave in the McGregor cemetery next to her daughter whose headstone reads: “Gustine”.

Incidentally, Augustine probably couldn’t write because we know she asked someone to write a letter for her to her sister, Paulina, in Germany, asking her to come over and immigrate. That is another great story for later, all about the Great Galveston storm of 1900.

I believe Laura’s grandmother Augustine must have been a charming, lovable person, a lot like Laura, because they were very devoted to one another. I don’t really know, but it makes sense to me.

Post 5 Laura Allen Hall

This is Laura, age unknown, but probably about 10 years old. When Gustine married Jacob Smith in 1901, they built a new house at 715 W 3rd St. and moved into it. Here, Laura certainly would have had her own room.

She attended McGregor Grammar School which was just about a half a block away at the end of W 3rd St. The street was affectionately called “College Avenue” because it dead ended into the school. There were 11 grades all in the same building. Grammar school was grades 1-7, and high school was 8-11. There was no 12th grade. The building wasn’t very old, having been built the same year she was born, 1895. Each grade level had a separate room. The ceilings were high and the windows were big, so it was easy to cool in the summer. But winter wasn’t quite as comfortable. They had a gas stove against the wall which had a one gallon water humidifier. If you were close to the stove, you got hot. If you were far away from the stove, you stayed cold. My dad says they were miserable but that they didn’t know it. And he would know because he attended the same school many years later. That one is no longer standing.

Post 6: Laura Allen Hall Hering

Life settled down for a while after Laura’s mother remarried. The town, McGregor, was growing and new buildings and invetions were coming along. They had electricity (a drop cord in the middle of usually only one room in the house, with one receptacle on it) and running water fairly early on, as well as a flour mill, a school and a post office (no home delivery except to rural areas). Around the turn of the century, they had two hotels, a national bank, a tannery, and a cottonseed oil mill. Daddy Jake was a good businessman with many interests. He was a good provider and eventually had numerous buildings and acreage. He owned a paint store, a lumber yard, a steam laundry, and a wood lot. Laura’s step-grandfather, Frank Hayes, was a blacksmith and did repairs and made many things out of steel for the townspeople. What the town did not have was indoor bathrooms. Only outhouses and chamber pots!

Laura learned how to sew from her mother who was a dressmaker and Laura would have been making some of her own clothes, maybe even her own hats (how do you like this one?). They had one of those treadle sewing machines that you pump your foot on to make it go. And it was black with that pretty shape that old machines have, but it wasn’t old back then … it was the newest thing! They didn’t have closets or clothes hangers. Laura said she made her own clothes hangers by rolling up a magazine, tying it with a cord and then making a loop in the cord. She’d hang the dress on the rolled magazine and hook the loop on a nail hammered into the wall. Voila, closet. She was very creative and could crochet and make roses out of ribbon.

I think she is very pretty in this photo. She is about 14 years old. She would have been in high school by this time, in the same building as the grammar school, as the new high school wasn’t built until 1916.

Post 7: Laura Allen Hall Hering

There were no telephones until about 1914, and so the townspeople of McGregor would send a written letter that had to be delivered to the post office. If the note was to someone local, often parents would send a child to hand deliver it to the recipient. Although the streets had names, there were no street signs as of yet, and so you just had landmarks and verbal directions based on people or buildings you knew. We have little notes that were shared between some of our ancestors, just nice anecdotes saying if they were sick and wanting to visit and such. Laura often walked to Main Street to do errands like getting the mail and picking up groceries. There was a little girl about 5 named Katherine Perkins who lived along the way, and the little girl’s mother always told her to wait for Laura to pass by the house so she could walk with an older girl. If you had to go any distance, you took a horse and buggy, but that took a lot of time to get set up, so if you could walk or ride a bike, so much the better. But most of the streets were dirt. And that made it hard to ride a bike sometimes.

One day, when Laura was 16, she rode her bicycle to town. She slipped and fell off the bike. Standing nearby was a quiet young fellow named Albert Hering, son of the German farmer Charles Gustav Hering. Albert too was in town doing errands. This 17 year old worked on his father’s farm which was situated some 5 miles northwest of town on the Crawford Highway (now known as the “Old” Crawford Highway, but it wasn’t old back then). He was a farm boy with only a 4th grade education, tall, slender, and broad shoulders used daily for lifting and plowing. Laura was a city girl who was already in 10th grade. He didn’t say anything, but he remembered that day and the pretty city girl.

Today, May 10, 2022, Laura would have been 127. Happy Birthday Grandmother Hering! A lot of people still love and miss you. The legacy you left is in the faces of many a bright young child.

Post 8: Laura Allen Hall Hering

Photo at age 17, 1912, High School Graduation

High School Diploma

In the first couple of decades of the 1900’s, McGregor did not have a theater for entertainment. Movies were silent at the time, but not yet available in McGregor. Laura’s step father, “Daddy Jake” loved stage plays and short skits. He rented the upstairs of one of the buildings downtown and produced performances. He convinced Laura to be in some of the plays, and for him, she accepted, but, she was not altogether comfortable doing so. Some of them were quite silly, she thought.

Laura graduated from high school in 1912. She was a grown lady now, and it was time to decide her future. In truth, she wanted to live on a farm and be a farm wife. But as a city girl, there was not much possibility of that. She really knew nothing of farming. But she wanted to live in the wide open spaces. For now, however, she would learn to be a teacher. And Baylor University, established long ago in 1845 while Texas was still an independent nation, was just 20 miles away in Waco.

Post 9: Laura Allen Hall Hering

Life for Laura at Baylor University. At that time, not many women were lucky enough to get to go to a university. Women were not even allowed to vote. They were barely allowed to work and only in certain fields. So it was a very serious thing to go to college. Now, what type of a student do you think Laura was?

I cannot tell you what kind of grades she made, but I can tell you that she was a woman of … fun. Laura and her camera captured just about everything, silly times, goofey times, memorable times. If there is one thing she did, she made a lot of friends. She’s the middle one in white on this train made of young women. Names of the engine and caboose are unknown. But there is a likely chance that this was a dignified, serious, and instructional purpose for this unlady like behavior. On second thought, no there wasn’t. No supervision, no watchful eyes of mother or grandmother, her first time away from home was simply fun. Not so different from modern day kids! Except I don’t think there was sex, violence, alcohol, or drugs. Laughter was about the extent of it, and Laura loved laughter. I think that’s what I loved about her so much. She was simply a happy person. You could see that in her. It was genuine.

Fun Times at Baylor University

Post 10, Laura Allen Hall Hering

Laura spent the 1912 and 1913 school years at Baylor University in Waco. Apparently she had her own personal camera, undoubtedly a rarity. This enabled her to produce even more silly things. She always had a good sense of humor and sillyness fits her personality. I know because my dad still repeats a lot of her “phrases”, for example, “He who tooteth not his own horn geteth his own horn not tooteth.”

Laura most definitely had fun at Baylor. She was good at making friends and she made a lot of them those two years she spent at Baylor. Look at this series of 5 staged photos. What an actress! She must have gotten her training with Daddy Jake back in McGregor as we do see a number of photos of her in costume, so she must have liked it some. Something tells me she instigated this crime scene, seeing as how she was the designated “Victor!” (She is the one in the sailor type collar. One thing I have noticed about old photos is you so often can’t see faces. ) Click on the photos below to see them in detail with captions.

Post 11, Laura Allen Hall Hering

Here are a few Interesting local sites, photographs taken by Laura about this time -1912-ish. Laura had decided to become a school teacher. Although Baylor was a four year college, she didn’t need 4 years to become a school Ma’am or “marm” in the rural areas around McGregor. She only needed two. So, at the end of the second school year, she was ready to go back home. A four year degree would have been nice, but expensive and it really didn’t warrant the time or expense. In fact, she would end up only teaching one year, so she made a good decision.

Post 12: Laura Allen Hall – Back Home, 1914

Laura left Baylor and her friends at the end of her second school year there, which would have been in May of 1914. In the fall, she became the School “Ma’am” at a place called Wasp Creek. If you follow the Crawford Highway about five miles northwest of town, there was a creek called Wasp Creek. The people who lived near it were farmers and couldn’t easily get into town. So they had a little one room school house built right out there near them. This was the Wasp Creek School. They had six grades and not many more children than that.

Five miles away from town is a pretty good distance if you don’t have a car. So, it would have been a bit cumbersome for Laura to live at her parent’s house. By horse and buggy, a horse can walk 3-5 miles an hour, so could have taken her an hour to go go between school and town. But there was the dust and the rain and the creek crossing and of course, getting the horse hitched to the buggy. She loved the country anyway, so she rented a room in a home near the school, and paid for meals at the home of none other than a Mr Charles Gustav Hering, a German farmer and his ten children, less than a mile away. It wasn’t long before she caught the eye of one of his older sons, Albert, age 20.

Many of the kids at Wasp Creek rode to school on horseback, sometimes several kids to a horse, or walked. There were stalls, hay and a water trough at the school for the horses. There may have been a few automobiles, but not too many in 1914 and it was unlikely that a farmer would bring his/her kids in every day in a Model T. In any case, Laura did not have one.

Laura would go home to visit her family each weekend. And that did require getting the horse and buggy ready. One week end, as she was crossing Wasp Creek, something spooked the horse, and it reared up completely out of control. Laura wasn’t able to control the horse and she was in danger of the buggy tipping over. Both she and the horse could have been hurt badly, not to mention the buggy. But, as the story goes, she said a gentleman appeared out of nowhere. He took the reins and calmed the horse down. Once all was well, he handed the reins back to Laura, and said, “You’ll be OK now, ma’am.” Then he walked away back to wherever he’d come from. She never saw him again.

Post 13: The Story of Laura Allen Hall

Joseph Johnson Hall and Hannah Billing Hall, paternal grandparents

In 1832, in the small town of Wisbech, England, near the eastern shore north of London, a little girl named Hannah Billing was born to Rebecca Bellamy and Warren Billing. In Ramsey (for Ram’s Eye as it was a hill surrounded by wet lands), a town less than 20 miles away, Joseph Johnson Hall was born in 1883 to Joseph Hall and Jemima Stokes. He was one of twelve children. The two children eventually attended four grades of schooling at the same school. They were destined to meet. Hannah had ringlets in her hair, and they caught Joseph’s eye. He would always remember her ringlets. At age 18, Joseph, along with an older sister, Jemima, made the huge decision to go to America. Hannah would remain in England and wait for him to return. He and Jemima traveled to the west coast of England and boarded the ship “Roscius” in Liverpool. He was listed as a grocer as his father owned a grocery store, and she was listed as dressmaker. This was the year 1851, well before the Civil War and before Ellis Island or Castle Garden opened for immigrant processing. When they arrived in New York, as was usual, the passengers paid any customs due and were free to go. How different from today!

Joseph went to Cleveland for his apprenticeship which took six years. Upon completion, he was a carpenter master. And the first thing he did was to board a ship back to England to get married to Hannah. His ship arrived in England on July 9, 1857, and the marriage records show the wedding on July 10, merely one day later.

Joseph Johnson Hall became an inventor, builder and architect. Not only is his life work interesting, but his love story is a great one as well. Together they had at least 15 and possibly 17 children. They remained married for 45 years until Hannah’s death in 1902 in Los Angeles. Their son, Warren, named after Hannah’s grandfather, married Augustine Meyer, Laura’s mother. Neither Gustine nor Laura ever met Joseph or Hannah, as the distance was far and money was scarce. However, Joseph replied to a letter of condolence that Gustine wrote to Joseph in 1902 upon the death of Hannah. JJ wrote about his memories of the ringlets in her hair when they were just children in grade school (you can see she still had them in the photo below). He was in love with her then, and remained so throughout their life. Gustine carried that letter in her apron pocket for many years. He died two years later in 1904. He was described as an affable fellow by a reporter discussing one of his inventions.

If you ask me, I think we get that recognizable “Hering” look not from the Albert’s side of the family, whose facial features were long and rectangular, but from Laura’s. And I believe Laura got it from her paternal grandmother, Hanah Billing. Seen in this photo here with her ringlets, Hannah shows a very round face and smallish nose. I think she looks very related.

This is the bank building in Woodland, CA designed by JJ Hall. The red stones were hauled in from Flagstaff, Arizona.

Below is one of the houses designed by JJ Hall. This is an example of his fine draftsmanship. The detail is amazing.

Joseph and Hannah remained in London where he worked for several years. Their son, Warren, was born in London during this time. The growing family returned to the US when the Civil War ended. The voyage was difficult for Hannah and she lost a pregnancy soon after arriving. During Joseph’s lifetime, he filed at least six patents we know of for his inventions. He invented a washing machine that was operated by a boiler, the sales model of which we purchased at an auction of the patent office, a steam engine, and numerous others. His architectural drawings were highly detailed and works of art. After a fire in Woodland, California, he designed the new bank building, several offices and shops, and a variety of residences. One of them in particular was restored in the 1990’s to it’s original condidtion, painstakingly rebuilding it after a fire down to removing multiple layers of wall paper to find the original pattern and having that reproduced. It is a 5000 sq foot house and is said to have cost $500,000 to restore. It won the first prize by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the early part of the 2000’s. My father and I went on the homes tour there in 2006 and were acknowledged as his descendants.

Sadly, the bank building was torn down in the 1970’s, only a few years before preservation became big deal. However, many of the shops and other homes were saved. An artist painted renditions of his bank building and the train station, both of which were up for sale when we were there, the proceeds of which would go towards their new community center. As the purchaser of the painting of Joseph’s building, I was allowed to hang it in the community center with a plaque dedicated not only to JJ Johnson, but also to Laura Hering and my father, Lee Hering. It hangs there today.

Post 14: Laura Allen Hall – A Trip to California, 1915

We believe Gustine met her first husband, Warren Hall, who died in 1899 from tuberculosis, in McGregor, but we’re not really sure what brought him there. Warren’s parents, Joseph and Hannah, and much of his family, had moved from Cleveland to the bustling and progressive west coast city of Oakland, California just on the mainland side of the bay of San Francisco, for which there was not yet a bridge. Neither Gustine nor Laura had ever had a chance to meet Warren’s parents or any brothers or sisters who lived in California. Warren’s mother Hannah died in 1902 and his father Joseph died in 1904. They would never have the chance to meet them. But Gustine had kept up by mail with some of the family, and I can imagine there was an invitation to come visit. Laura very much wanted to meet her father’s kin and so she, Gustine, and Jake Smith decided to take a trip to California.

In 1915, train was the main form of overland travel and McGregor certainly had the trains being at the intersection of two major railroads. Cars were rare and undependable. There were only 40,000 vehicles registered in Texas in 1915, for a population of just over 4 million. Highways were dirt or gravel, and tires wore out often. Radioators used up water quickly and it would have been dangerous to cross the desert. Thus, undoubtedly, they would have taken a train out to California. Joseph and Hannah had 15 and possibly 17 children, 12 of which lived to adulthood. And most of them lived in Oakland, so there were plenty of kin to meet. And there was a lot of name learning on her father’s side of the family. Laura made some very good and long lasting relationships.

Photos below are Gustine, Laura, and Daddy Jake in California, other members of the extended family (the Sayers) and the train depot. Of Note: the Panama Canal opened in 1914 and in 1915 there was a big exposition and World’s Fair in San Francisco to celebrate it as well as the rebuilding of San Francisco from the great fire of 1906, so it was a busy city that year.

I don’t have many stories about Albert from his youth. When he was young, with so many siblings in the house, he and one of his older brothers, Luther, would go sleep out in the bunk house or barn that was normally saved for the hired help during harvest season. It was their man cave away from the women! From what I understand, they were pretty good pals. Uncle Luther lived to be 104, and when he was just 100, he continued his routine of buying a 5 year subscription to the McGregor Mirror newspaper. I am so glad it is still in business.

One year when Albert still lived at home, Luther and Albert got a job hauling gravel for the county to pave the highway. They loaded up their own wagon with the county’s gravel and took it to the work site with their own team of horses. To unload, they had a trick. The floor boards in the trailer were not nailed down. So they would get on either side of the wagon and each grab an end of a board and twist it from the horizonal position to the vertical position, thereby allowing the gravel to simply spill out onto the road. Not a bad idea, eh? By the way, a gravel road is considered an “improved unpaved road”. It was an intermediate stage to the building or our country. Comapred to dirt, it was a raceway!

Post 15: Laura Allen Hall Hering – Laura meets Albert

When Laura became a school teacher at the one room school house on Wasp Creek in McGregor in 1914, she boarded, that is, took her meals at a nearby farm owned by German farmer Charles Gustav Hering and his wife, Louisa. Since they were already cooking for at least 15 people, one more for pay was a help without really any extra work. Charles was second generation American, and he and his wife spoke English with a German accent. Both Charles’ parents and Louisa’s parents had emigrated to Texas through the port of Galveston in 1846, only one year after Texas because a state in the union. Texans were trying to populate Texas and its wide open ranges. Germany was experiencing poverty and famine at that time. So American entrepreneurs advertised in Germany the prosperity they could have in the newly formed state of Texas. Inviting posters showed a mountain range at the port which looked good in the picture, but did not exist anywhere except on that poster. Still, many immigrants were willing to give up their homeland for 40 acres and a mule. Imagine, advertising for immigrants. What a difference!

Charles and Louise had 12 children, 10 of which grew to adulthood. Albert was 20 years old at this time, handsome, tall and slender at the hips, but shoulders so broad he had to have his suits tailored. He had been working full time on the farm since the end of his 4th grade education. He was a farmer, but that work was back breaking and hard, dirty, and highly dependent on the weather. He had ideas of supplemental businesses in town to ensure his income.

It was at this country farm of Charles and Louisa that Laura officially met Albert. Laura was not only attractive, but had an irrestible personality. She had no lack of friends and suitors. However, she and Albert were developing a very special relationship. They soon became friends, and their friendship soon deepened into something more.

Albert’s family, unlike the only child experience of Laura, was large. Photographing that many children would have been difficult and possibly considered frivilous. We have no photos of Albert before he met Laura, the amateur photographer.

Typically, Germans were not demonstrative in their show of affection. Even though their personal bonds were strong, this family did not often hug, kiss, or say “I love you”. Though there was love between Albert and my father, he says they never told each other that they loved each other. It was simply understood by action. A handshake sealed a deal, but a mere word would have been just as good. Albert himself was quiet, honest, trustworthy, wise, and respectable. If there was one thing he was, it was his word. When he spoke, he meant what he said. He never overextended himself financially and always lived within or under his means. He was never pushy. He once told Laura that if he asked a woman to marry him, and if she refused, he would not ask again. He was his word and he took people at their word.

Post Not Posted Yet: Laura Allen Hall – The Ship Painting

Warren Hall, Laura’s father, did a number of things to earn money in the growing years of Texas. One of his talents was drawing with both hands, at the same time! Another was painting. He painted signs on the inside of glass windows of stores, advertising inventory, events and sales. For this, he would have had to write backwards, a talent we know he possessed from Laura’s own words. But one thing that we find odd is that we have one painting, a magnificent ship in the San Francisco bay prior to the building of the bridge (naturally) which he did, and have never seen another. The painting of the ship was done and signed by him in 1893 during the time he was in McGregor and married to Gustine. We know they had little money and they would not have bought frivilous supplies. In fact, for extra income, we know at that time they took in a renter in their spare room at their home on 2nd street where Laura was born. His artistic painting ability is excellent. And a former sailor who sailed actual sailing ships in the Navy noted that all appeared appropriate in the painting. We believe this would have either been painted on a trip he made back to California to see his parents or from a photograph he took. But it makes sense his inspiration would have come from the location where his family resided in California. Why no more paintings? Did he do any more? Did he sell them? Is this the only one he kept? Where did he learn? We have no others.

When Laura died, my father expressed interest in only two things, the family albums and this painting, allowing his brothers to have first choice on the farmlands. They were that important to him. Laura inherited it and had it hanging above the fireplace in the home where my father grew up, pictured below, on 3rd St. and Harrison. We have always had it handing above a fireplace, and still do today, as pictured below. Laura didn’t know any of the history on it until one day a man came to visit her. He had been the “roomer” who lived with Warren and Gustine in 1893. He saw the painting hanging on the wall and in astonishment asked, “Where did you get that painting?”

Laura replied, “My father painted it.” To which the man replied, “I know. I was there. I watched him paint it. They were so poor at the time, he had no paint brush, only the chewed up end of a wooden match stick and the tip of his little finger. And he painted it after work by the light of a gas lamp.”

Post Not Posted Yet: Laura Allen Hall: Heinrich Wilhelm Hering

In the 1890’s, a man by the name of Heinrich Hering, son of Heinrich Wilhelm Hering and Bertha Stern Hering, moved to McGregor in its early days and started a cotton mill and a compress. He was from a smaller German community near Brenham called Welcome. His grandparents had settled in the nearby Berlin community after immigrating from Oberkaufungen, Germany in 1846, the year after Texas became a state in the union. They came in through the port of Galveston and headed towards central Texas after purchasing oxen, wagon wheels, and building a wagon in Houston. Many Germans were settling in Texas at that time, so many of the women never had to learn English, although the men did for business. Heinrich, anglicized to Henry, convinced his brother, Charles Gustav to come take a look at McGregor and join him. Charles was ready for a larger town and thought McGregor had good potential, so he brought his wife, Louisa, and several children, one of which was Albert, age 2. They moved into a rental house along the Crawford Highway in 1896 only a mile out of town (Boyd and Debbie I believe own that land now) and began farming. By 1902 the Herings were doing well enough they could afford to build a new home of their own. They purchased land a few miles further on down the highway where it took an abrupt right turn. Albert, age six now, was charged with bringing the men water each day while they were digging the well, a horseback ride of about 4 miles, – by himself. That house and land were inherited by the Witte’s, one of Albert’s sisters.

So it goes Albert William (1894-1974), Charles Gustav (1878-1919), Heinrich Wilhelm (1834-1921), Johann Heinrich (1804-1892) son, father, grandfather, great grandfather, and all common family names. Just for fun, let’s keep going … Christoph Hering (1742-?), Johann Henrich (1702-?), Hans Ludwig (1671-?), Christoffell (1630-1700). That’s pretty far back. And by the way, Christoph’s wife, Sophie Willon, married 1790, was a French Hugenot and her great great grandfather’s generation fled France in 1685 when the king made it illegal to be protestant and over 200,000 French protestants fled France to neighboring countries including Germany. Heinrich Wilhelm, or Henry, retired at the age of 51, and so did Charles. After Henry retired, each summer he and his wife, Bertha Mathilda Stern, (her father’s name was Charles Gustav Stern, so you can see where the name came from) would load up 2 barrels, one with clothes and one with beer bottles, get on the train, and ride to McGregor for about 6 weeks during harvest season to help Charles. Being a farmer himself, Henry knew exactly what to do. Now he was German, born in Germany, and sailed to Galveston harbor with his parents, Johann Heinrich (John Henry) Hering and Maria Schroeder, and siblings when he was 12. His father bought two oxen and two wheels in Houston and built a wagon they used to carry them further. They migrated to the Berlin community just one mile west of present day Brenham, and Henry took up farming in this new land. But in Germany, he wasn’t a farmer. Oh no. He had a much different profession, one that was as common in Germany as a smith in America. He was a beer brewer. And he liked his product. Well, at least, I mean, he had to taste the product before selling it, right? It was a dirty job, but someone had to do it, as do all good Germans, for business and medicinal purposes. In truth, that’s what Germans drink like Americans drink milk. It’s such a family drink, Germany is the only place in the world where McDonald’s actually sells beer! Otherwise, they’d go out of business. Also, of some potential interest, as a farmer, they had farm animals, including milk cows. Living near Brenham, the cows were quite contented with all that lush green grass. And while we have no proof they sold cream to the creamery, you would think they might have been the original “contented cows” that supplied the Brenham Creamery, which opened in 1907 and later became Blue Bell ice cream, with their original contented milk. Henry William later became a county commissioner in Austin County and would have been one of the voters on building the origianl Austin county courthouse.

Of note: The above photo of Heinrich Wilhelm Hering was owned by one of the many cousins. One of Heinrich Wilhelm’s sons was Otto. Otto got the photo. His children moved to Mart, Texas and still live there (not the same ones). Grandson Edmund moved back to McGregor and lived right across the street from Laura and Albert many years later. Laura told Lee he needed to go meet his cousin. So, my dad did, and this cousin showed him this photography. My father asked if he could take it and make a copy, which he did, and returned the original. This is during the time that my dad got hooked on genealogy. Don’t the two have a strong family resemblence? It’s a very tall, long faced, and slender look. Why didn’t I get that ?? Anyway, when my dad brought the photo back to the house, he showed it to Albert, and said, “Do you know who this is?” Albert looked at the photo and immediately said, “Oh, that’s granddaddy.” Confirmation on validity of photo.

I don’t have many stories about Albert. He was a reserved, quiet, but well respected man. When he was young, with so many siblings in the house, he and one of his older brothers, Luther, would get together and go sleep out in the bunk house or barn that was normally saved for the hired help during harvest season. From what I understand, they were pretty good pals. Uncle Luther lived to be 104, and when he was just 100, he continued his routine of buying a 5 year subscription to the McGregor Mirror newspaper. I am so glad it is still in business. It closed briefly during Covid when the owner died of the virus. Anyway, one year, Luther and Albert got a job hauling gravel for the county to pave the highway. They loaded up their own wagon and took it to the work site with a team of horses. To unload, they had a trick. The floor boards in the trailer were not nailed down. So they would get on either side of the wagon and each grab an end of a board and twist it from the horizonal position to the vertical position, thereby allow the gravel to simply spill out onto the road. Not a bad idea, eh? I wonder, is a gravel road considered paved or dirt? If I was driving on a gravel road, I don’t think I’d consider it paved, but back then, it was probably a raceway!

Heinrich and Bertha had 10 children. One was Henry, one was Albert, one was Otto, one was Andrew. Andrew moved to west Texas with his handicapped son. Henry was the one who first moved to McGregor and convinced Charles Gustav to move there. Albert is where Albert got his name, and Otto is the one who had the photograph of Heinrich Wilhelm (I know, which one?)

Albert was very tired of the name Heinrich aka Henry and didn’t want any of his children to be named such. The family names were very repetitive. Look at this:

Hans Ludwig had a Johann Heinrich, Johann Heinrich the elder had two Johann Heinrichs, Christoph had a Johann Heinrich, that Johan Heinrich, the younger we’ll say, had a Heinrich Wilhelm, and his wife, Maria Schroeder, had a father named Johann Christian, and that Johann had a son named Johan Heinrich, Heinrich Wilhelm had a Robert Heinrich and a Henry William and a Johann Herman, and even a daughter named Louise Heinriette. Charles Gustav, the younger, had a Heinrich Andrew, Robert Henry, Herbert Henry, and a daughter named Louise Henrietta. And in addition, Albert and all of his brothers received the name Henry either on their birth certificate as an additional name, or as a name at their baptism. Albert did not want any Henry’s. When my dad was born, Laura had a senior moment and named their third child Henry. She didn’t tell him. Albert had said he wanted to name the kid Lee. Absolutely no one in the family had that name. They called him Lee. That was his middle name though. And that’s why he goes by his middle name. He eventually found out. Laura, what were you thinking when you got mad at 7 year old Lee and yelled, “Henry Lee Hering, you come here right now!” and Albert happened to over hear. He stopped, looked at Laura, and said, “What did you call that boy?” Cat was out of the bag.