Below is an email I received on May 14, 2012 from Zoe Smith (FaG member #3418052) in response to my request for tombstone photos for George and his wife, Mabel. Not only did she attach terrific photographs, but took the time to scan the article also. Thanks Zoe. I really appreciate what you have done for me. Happy 12th FaG anniversary!!

Dear Donna,
I'm attaching an article written for our county history book WINDMILLING, (1978), by the Buchenau's daughter Pauline. I passed their house every day walking to school when I was a child, and they attended the same church my family attended.

Over the years the soil had washed out underneath the slabs covering their graves; and this past year they were removed and new soil put beneath them. You can see in the picture how nice they look now.

Sincerely,
Zoe Smith


GEORGE BUCHENAU
In November, 1929, George and Mable Buchenau moved from Amarillo, Texas to Tulia, Texas, with two of their three children, Pauline and Howard. Their older son, Bernie, remained in Amarillo. George Buchenau and Harold Jarvis had purchased the International Harvester dealership in Tulia from Scott Tracy Hardware, and formed the Buchenau-Jarvis partnership. The business was first located in a new vacant building just across the alley west of the First National Bank of Tulia, and was later moved to the north section of the present bank building on Maxwell Street. During the depression years, wheat taken as payment of machinery was stored in the north section of the present bank building.

George Buchenau was active in civic affairs, politics, was a member of the Tulia Kiwanis Club, and served a term as president of the Chamber of Commerce. Mable Buchenau was a housewife, as very few women worked outside the home at that time. The family attended the First Methodist Church. The Buchenaus lived in the W. C. Wimberly home at 306 N. Maxwell, later purchasing the William R. (Bill) Payne home, now occupied by the Floyd Perkins, at 329 N. Maxwell, where they spent the rest of their lives.

Some of the pleasant memories are going to ‘the canyons'at Vigo to cut a Christmas tree, popping corn on cold winter nights ("Granny" Killough, Bill Emmitt's mother, was tops at popping corn and filling a dishpan with it), getting a new console Atwater-Kent radio from McCune Jewelry about 1931, and attending football and basketball games in the early and mid-thirties, as nearly all activities were school and/or church oriented. The City Drug was where most young couples congregated on Saturday nights before going to the midnight movie – this was the ‘in' thing to do. Money was scarce, but people helped each other and everyone seemed to survive.

The Buchenau-Jarvis partnership was dissolved about 1938 and the Buchenaus retired in about 1940, except for farming interests. George Buchenau passed away in 1957 and Mable Buchenau in 1962. After college, Pauline married John R. Sanderson, who was Tulia High School principal, and now resides in Amarillo, Texas. Howard married Bonnie Miller of Otan, and lives in Plainview, Texas. Bernie lives in Roswell, New Mexico.

By Mrs. John R. Sanderson