Roy Steen's family history. "George Steen was less than three months old when his father, John Steen, was killed in an Indian battle. His mother, Permelia Steen, married Jim Scott when George was between one and two years old, so George was raised by Permelia Steen Scott and his step-father, Jim Scott, on the Scott stock farm in Bosque County.
George Steen married Cornelia (Nelie) Jane Wood at Fowler, Texas on November 17, 1884 when he was 20 and she was 17. Their first home was located near the Fowler school house, at a bend on Steele Creek. In 1895 they moved to a stock farm known as "the McMahan place", also in Bosque County, lived there 10 years, and then moved back to Fowler in 1905. Eight of the nine children of George and Nelie Steen were born in Bosque County.
The town of Fowler had been established in 1850 by a merchant from Waco who liked the location where Steele Creek flowed into the Brazos River. In 1880, the Houston & Texas Central Railroad built a railroad from Waco to Cisco, with a switch and water service for the steam engines at Fowler. The railroad later became the MKT (Missouri, Kansas & Texas). In the same year, 1880, a U.S. post office was established in Fowler.
At it's peak, Fowler had a post office, a railroad depot with side tracks for loading & unloading, two general stores, a cotton gin, a blacksmith shop, two churches, and a two-story schoolhouse with the upper floor serving as a community center. In 1916 the name was changed from Fowler to Steiner to honor a prominent Bosque County citizen, Dr. Steiner.
In 1950, the U.S. Government acquired the land occupied by the town of Steiner as part of the Lake Whitney development, and the town was evacuated. One of the churches was salvaged by moving it to another location.
George Steen was a cattleman who made his living by buying, feeding, and selling cattle. He would go by horseback on cattle buying trips, herd the cattle
back to eastern Bosque County alone, brand them, and pasture them on leased land or on "open range" in the hills of eastern Bosque County. When it came time to sell, he'd round them up, load them in railroad cattle cars at Fowler, and ride with his cattle to markets in St. Louis and Kansas. George would sometimes butcher a cow and peddle the fresh meat to the families in the area, who seldom had fresh meat due to the absence of refrigeration.
In December 1906, the George Steen family left Bosque County and moved to the Cull Dyer stock farm at "Rico Switch and Flag Station" (later named "Land" and then "Pueblo") near the boundary line between Northeastern Callahan County and Eastland Counties.
The move from Bosque County to Pueblo was made in several leased railroad boxcars, which carried everything the Steen's owned, including household goods, furniture, farm implements, livestock, and kids. The move was made on the Houston & Texas Central Railroad, which later became the Missouri, Kansas & Texas (MKT).
At the time, December 1906, "Rico Switch and Flag Station" was only a switch on the railroad, with a side track where boxcars could be parked for loading and unloading. It was called a flag station because trains would stop there only if someone signaled the engineer by waving a handkerchief or other type "flag".
In 1907 a small combination store and post office was built and the name was changed to Land, Texas. Also, in 1907 the railroad built a storage house for railroad maintenance equipment and a house for railroad maintenance workers, called "section hands". A few years later, the railroad built a depot and the name was changed to Pueblo, Texas.
At it's peak, Pueblo had a combination general store and post office, a railroad depot with loading and unloading side tracks, a church which served all Protestant denominations, and three or four houses, including the Cull Dyer ranch house. The Cull Dyer ranch house still stands, but everything else is gone, including the railroad tracks.
According to the late Evelyn Jones Yeager, a cousin of Alma Gunn Steen who grew up on a nearby farm, the Steen's move from Bosque County to Pueblo was prompted by a business deal between George Steen and Cull Dyer, who owned several sections of land around Pueblo. Cull Dyer had the land and George Steen had the expertise on cattle, so they became partners in a cattle company, with George Steen handling the buying and selling of the cattle.
During the period December 1906 to about 1915 the Steen's lived on the Cull Dyer place, and from about 1915 to 1917 they lived on the "Wallace place" near Cisco and on the "Charlie McClelland" place northeast of Pueblo. Glen Steen was born while the family lived on the Cull Dyer place.
In 1917 the Steens bought 320 acres (half a section) of land adjoining the Dyer property on the west, from a Mr. Hambric. The land was located mostly in Callahan County but partly in Eastland County. George Steen and Guy Steen were equal partners on the 320 acres, although title was placed in George Steen's name. George Steen later purchased an additional 25 acres or so, known as the "Round Mountain" property, which adjoined the original 320 acre tract on the southeast, with no participation by Guy Steen in this purchase.
The Houston & Texas Central Railroad (MKT) ran through the Steen property. The Steen place also included a mile so of a major creek, called "Battle Creek", named for Indian battles which had taken place on the creek in years gone by. The water holes of Battle Creek on the Steen farm were the sites of numerous total immersion baptisms by the Pueblo Church. They also provided water for cattle, cooling for watermelons, and swimming for the Steen grandkids.
While dealing in cattle was his main occupation, George Steen also contracted to break horses to the saddle and harness for neighboring stock farmers. He died at age 55 of kidney failure, and his family suspected that too many hours spent on bucking horses was a contributor to his early death.
Nelie Steen moved to Moran after George's death, leasing her part of the farm to Genie and Dock Griffith during the years 1921 and 1922. Around 1923, she moved back to the Steen farm and resumed farming and raising cattle. Glen, who was 12 years old in 1923, lived with her, and the Guy Steen family lived a few hundred yards away. Jerry and Sam Bullard joined her a few years later and lived with her until their teen years.
In the mid 1930s, when Nelie was about 68 years old, Glen Steen bought a house in Moran and persuaded his mother to lease the farm and move to town. Nelie lived in this house, near the Moran school, until her death in December 1947. Roy Steen lived with her during his senior year at Moran High School, 1939 and 1940. John and Ruth Griffith leased Nelie's half of the Steen farm and lived there for several years following "Big Mamma's" move to Moran. Ernest and Gloria Griffith Cain also farmed Nelie Steen's property for one year.
Nelie Steen suffered from severe arthritis (she called it "rheumatism") during much of her adult life, but she didn't let the pain keep her from chopping wood, milking and feeding cows, "slopping" hogs, or paddling grandkids who got out of line. Sam and Jerry Bullard got out of line quite often while they were living with her. Guy's and Alma's boys also were sometimes on the receiving end of Big Mamma's spankings, although it's highly unlikely that they ever did anything to deserve a spanking.
She liked to be called "Big Mamma" by her grandkids, rather than "Grandma". I don't believe any of us ever knew why, but we didn't question her right to be called by any name she wanted. Big Mamma had strong opinions on politics, home remedies, cooking, and raising kids. She was a strong supporter of W. Lee O'Daniel for governor of Texas because she liked his cowboy music and he promised an old age pension. People on the skinny side looked "puny" or "peaked" and needed a "good mess of grease" to "perk" them up. She always responded with "tolerable" when asked how she was doing. And, she had a sure-cure poultice for most any wound a grandkid had.
Big Mamma made the world's best spice cake, which she called "Spanish" cake, and one of the great tragedies in the culinary world was the loss of that recipe when she died. She had great faith in the Farmers Almanac and believed that planting crops, branding calves, and many other farm events should be done under the proper sign of the Zodiac. She was pretty sure that the new generation of kids would never amount to a "hill of beans" because they went to great extremes to avoid work, had too little respect for their elders, and didn't show much interest in learning to farm.
Big Mamma adapting well to the rugged life of a farm wife in those days by working hard, improvising, and making do with what the land provided. Wood burning stoves were used for heat and cooking, rainwater from the roof was stored in a cistern, kerosene lamps were used for light, and the toilet was an outhouse. Lye soap and lard were made from pork fat in a big black pot on an open Mesquite wood fire. Clothes were washed in a tub by scrub-board, baths were taken in a No. 3 washtub heated on the wood stove, and farm wives spent much of the summer canning and preserving food for the winter. The list of farm chores was endless, but Big Mamma somehow got them done and always set aside time for church on Sunday. "
George Steen married Cornelia (Nelie) Jane Wood at Fowler, Texas on November 17, 1884 when he was 20 and she was 17. Their first home was located near the Fowler school house, at a bend on Steele Creek. In 1895 they moved to a stock farm known as "the McMahan place", also in Bosque County, lived there 10 years, and then moved back to Fowler in 1905. Eight of the nine children of George and Nelie Steen were born in Bosque County.
The town of Fowler had been established in 1850 by a merchant from Waco who liked the location where Steele Creek flowed into the Brazos River. In 1880, the Houston & Texas Central Railroad built a railroad from Waco to Cisco, with a switch and water service for the steam engines at Fowler. The railroad later became the MKT (Missouri, Kansas & Texas). In the same year, 1880, a U.S. post office was established in Fowler.
At it's peak, Fowler had a post office, a railroad depot with side tracks for loading & unloading, two general stores, a cotton gin, a blacksmith shop, two churches, and a two-story schoolhouse with the upper floor serving as a community center. In 1916 the name was changed from Fowler to Steiner to honor a prominent Bosque County citizen, Dr. Steiner.
In 1950, the U.S. Government acquired the land occupied by the town of Steiner as part of the Lake Whitney development, and the town was evacuated. One of the churches was salvaged by moving it to another location.
George Steen was a cattleman who made his living by buying, feeding, and selling cattle. He would go by horseback on cattle buying trips, herd the cattle
back to eastern Bosque County alone, brand them, and pasture them on leased land or on "open range" in the hills of eastern Bosque County. When it came time to sell, he'd round them up, load them in railroad cattle cars at Fowler, and ride with his cattle to markets in St. Louis and Kansas. George would sometimes butcher a cow and peddle the fresh meat to the families in the area, who seldom had fresh meat due to the absence of refrigeration.
In December 1906, the George Steen family left Bosque County and moved to the Cull Dyer stock farm at "Rico Switch and Flag Station" (later named "Land" and then "Pueblo") near the boundary line between Northeastern Callahan County and Eastland Counties.
The move from Bosque County to Pueblo was made in several leased railroad boxcars, which carried everything the Steen's owned, including household goods, furniture, farm implements, livestock, and kids. The move was made on the Houston & Texas Central Railroad, which later became the Missouri, Kansas & Texas (MKT).
At the time, December 1906, "Rico Switch and Flag Station" was only a switch on the railroad, with a side track where boxcars could be parked for loading and unloading. It was called a flag station because trains would stop there only if someone signaled the engineer by waving a handkerchief or other type "flag".
In 1907 a small combination store and post office was built and the name was changed to Land, Texas. Also, in 1907 the railroad built a storage house for railroad maintenance equipment and a house for railroad maintenance workers, called "section hands". A few years later, the railroad built a depot and the name was changed to Pueblo, Texas.
At it's peak, Pueblo had a combination general store and post office, a railroad depot with loading and unloading side tracks, a church which served all Protestant denominations, and three or four houses, including the Cull Dyer ranch house. The Cull Dyer ranch house still stands, but everything else is gone, including the railroad tracks.
According to the late Evelyn Jones Yeager, a cousin of Alma Gunn Steen who grew up on a nearby farm, the Steen's move from Bosque County to Pueblo was prompted by a business deal between George Steen and Cull Dyer, who owned several sections of land around Pueblo. Cull Dyer had the land and George Steen had the expertise on cattle, so they became partners in a cattle company, with George Steen handling the buying and selling of the cattle.
During the period December 1906 to about 1915 the Steen's lived on the Cull Dyer place, and from about 1915 to 1917 they lived on the "Wallace place" near Cisco and on the "Charlie McClelland" place northeast of Pueblo. Glen Steen was born while the family lived on the Cull Dyer place.
In 1917 the Steens bought 320 acres (half a section) of land adjoining the Dyer property on the west, from a Mr. Hambric. The land was located mostly in Callahan County but partly in Eastland County. George Steen and Guy Steen were equal partners on the 320 acres, although title was placed in George Steen's name. George Steen later purchased an additional 25 acres or so, known as the "Round Mountain" property, which adjoined the original 320 acre tract on the southeast, with no participation by Guy Steen in this purchase.
The Houston & Texas Central Railroad (MKT) ran through the Steen property. The Steen place also included a mile so of a major creek, called "Battle Creek", named for Indian battles which had taken place on the creek in years gone by. The water holes of Battle Creek on the Steen farm were the sites of numerous total immersion baptisms by the Pueblo Church. They also provided water for cattle, cooling for watermelons, and swimming for the Steen grandkids.
While dealing in cattle was his main occupation, George Steen also contracted to break horses to the saddle and harness for neighboring stock farmers. He died at age 55 of kidney failure, and his family suspected that too many hours spent on bucking horses was a contributor to his early death.
Nelie Steen moved to Moran after George's death, leasing her part of the farm to Genie and Dock Griffith during the years 1921 and 1922. Around 1923, she moved back to the Steen farm and resumed farming and raising cattle. Glen, who was 12 years old in 1923, lived with her, and the Guy Steen family lived a few hundred yards away. Jerry and Sam Bullard joined her a few years later and lived with her until their teen years.
In the mid 1930s, when Nelie was about 68 years old, Glen Steen bought a house in Moran and persuaded his mother to lease the farm and move to town. Nelie lived in this house, near the Moran school, until her death in December 1947. Roy Steen lived with her during his senior year at Moran High School, 1939 and 1940. John and Ruth Griffith leased Nelie's half of the Steen farm and lived there for several years following "Big Mamma's" move to Moran. Ernest and Gloria Griffith Cain also farmed Nelie Steen's property for one year.
Nelie Steen suffered from severe arthritis (she called it "rheumatism") during much of her adult life, but she didn't let the pain keep her from chopping wood, milking and feeding cows, "slopping" hogs, or paddling grandkids who got out of line. Sam and Jerry Bullard got out of line quite often while they were living with her. Guy's and Alma's boys also were sometimes on the receiving end of Big Mamma's spankings, although it's highly unlikely that they ever did anything to deserve a spanking.
She liked to be called "Big Mamma" by her grandkids, rather than "Grandma". I don't believe any of us ever knew why, but we didn't question her right to be called by any name she wanted. Big Mamma had strong opinions on politics, home remedies, cooking, and raising kids. She was a strong supporter of W. Lee O'Daniel for governor of Texas because she liked his cowboy music and he promised an old age pension. People on the skinny side looked "puny" or "peaked" and needed a "good mess of grease" to "perk" them up. She always responded with "tolerable" when asked how she was doing. And, she had a sure-cure poultice for most any wound a grandkid had.
Big Mamma made the world's best spice cake, which she called "Spanish" cake, and one of the great tragedies in the culinary world was the loss of that recipe when she died. She had great faith in the Farmers Almanac and believed that planting crops, branding calves, and many other farm events should be done under the proper sign of the Zodiac. She was pretty sure that the new generation of kids would never amount to a "hill of beans" because they went to great extremes to avoid work, had too little respect for their elders, and didn't show much interest in learning to farm.
Big Mamma adapting well to the rugged life of a farm wife in those days by working hard, improvising, and making do with what the land provided. Wood burning stoves were used for heat and cooking, rainwater from the roof was stored in a cistern, kerosene lamps were used for light, and the toilet was an outhouse. Lye soap and lard were made from pork fat in a big black pot on an open Mesquite wood fire. Clothes were washed in a tub by scrub-board, baths were taken in a No. 3 washtub heated on the wood stove, and farm wives spent much of the summer canning and preserving food for the winter. The list of farm chores was endless, but Big Mamma somehow got them done and always set aside time for church on Sunday. "
Roy Steen's family history. "George Steen was less than three months old when his father, John Steen, was killed in an Indian battle. His mother, Permelia Steen, married Jim Scott when George was between one and two years old, so George was raised by Permelia Steen Scott and his step-father, Jim Scott, on the Scott stock farm in Bosque County.
George Steen married Cornelia (Nelie) Jane Wood at Fowler, Texas on November 17, 1884 when he was 20 and she was 17. Their first home was located near the Fowler school house, at a bend on Steele Creek. In 1895 they moved to a stock farm known as "the McMahan place", also in Bosque County, lived there 10 years, and then moved back to Fowler in 1905. Eight of the nine children of George and Nelie Steen were born in Bosque County.
The town of Fowler had been established in 1850 by a merchant from Waco who liked the location where Steele Creek flowed into the Brazos River. In 1880, the Houston & Texas Central Railroad built a railroad from Waco to Cisco, with a switch and water service for the steam engines at Fowler. The railroad later became the MKT (Missouri, Kansas & Texas). In the same year, 1880, a U.S. post office was established in Fowler.
At it's peak, Fowler had a post office, a railroad depot with side tracks for loading & unloading, two general stores, a cotton gin, a blacksmith shop, two churches, and a two-story schoolhouse with the upper floor serving as a community center. In 1916 the name was changed from Fowler to Steiner to honor a prominent Bosque County citizen, Dr. Steiner.
In 1950, the U.S. Government acquired the land occupied by the town of Steiner as part of the Lake Whitney development, and the town was evacuated. One of the churches was salvaged by moving it to another location.
George Steen was a cattleman who made his living by buying, feeding, and selling cattle. He would go by horseback on cattle buying trips, herd the cattle
back to eastern Bosque County alone, brand them, and pasture them on leased land or on "open range" in the hills of eastern Bosque County. When it came time to sell, he'd round them up, load them in railroad cattle cars at Fowler, and ride with his cattle to markets in St. Louis and Kansas. George would sometimes butcher a cow and peddle the fresh meat to the families in the area, who seldom had fresh meat due to the absence of refrigeration.
In December 1906, the George Steen family left Bosque County and moved to the Cull Dyer stock farm at "Rico Switch and Flag Station" (later named "Land" and then "Pueblo") near the boundary line between Northeastern Callahan County and Eastland Counties.
The move from Bosque County to Pueblo was made in several leased railroad boxcars, which carried everything the Steen's owned, including household goods, furniture, farm implements, livestock, and kids. The move was made on the Houston & Texas Central Railroad, which later became the Missouri, Kansas & Texas (MKT).
At the time, December 1906, "Rico Switch and Flag Station" was only a switch on the railroad, with a side track where boxcars could be parked for loading and unloading. It was called a flag station because trains would stop there only if someone signaled the engineer by waving a handkerchief or other type "flag".
In 1907 a small combination store and post office was built and the name was changed to Land, Texas. Also, in 1907 the railroad built a storage house for railroad maintenance equipment and a house for railroad maintenance workers, called "section hands". A few years later, the railroad built a depot and the name was changed to Pueblo, Texas.
At it's peak, Pueblo had a combination general store and post office, a railroad depot with loading and unloading side tracks, a church which served all Protestant denominations, and three or four houses, including the Cull Dyer ranch house. The Cull Dyer ranch house still stands, but everything else is gone, including the railroad tracks.
According to the late Evelyn Jones Yeager, a cousin of Alma Gunn Steen who grew up on a nearby farm, the Steen's move from Bosque County to Pueblo was prompted by a business deal between George Steen and Cull Dyer, who owned several sections of land around Pueblo. Cull Dyer had the land and George Steen had the expertise on cattle, so they became partners in a cattle company, with George Steen handling the buying and selling of the cattle.
During the period December 1906 to about 1915 the Steen's lived on the Cull Dyer place, and from about 1915 to 1917 they lived on the "Wallace place" near Cisco and on the "Charlie McClelland" place northeast of Pueblo. Glen Steen was born while the family lived on the Cull Dyer place.
In 1917 the Steens bought 320 acres (half a section) of land adjoining the Dyer property on the west, from a Mr. Hambric. The land was located mostly in Callahan County but partly in Eastland County. George Steen and Guy Steen were equal partners on the 320 acres, although title was placed in George Steen's name. George Steen later purchased an additional 25 acres or so, known as the "Round Mountain" property, which adjoined the original 320 acre tract on the southeast, with no participation by Guy Steen in this purchase.
The Houston & Texas Central Railroad (MKT) ran through the Steen property. The Steen place also included a mile so of a major creek, called "Battle Creek", named for Indian battles which had taken place on the creek in years gone by. The water holes of Battle Creek on the Steen farm were the sites of numerous total immersion baptisms by the Pueblo Church. They also provided water for cattle, cooling for watermelons, and swimming for the Steen grandkids.
While dealing in cattle was his main occupation, George Steen also contracted to break horses to the saddle and harness for neighboring stock farmers. He died at age 55 of kidney failure, and his family suspected that too many hours spent on bucking horses was a contributor to his early death.
Nelie Steen moved to Moran after George's death, leasing her part of the farm to Genie and Dock Griffith during the years 1921 and 1922. Around 1923, she moved back to the Steen farm and resumed farming and raising cattle. Glen, who was 12 years old in 1923, lived with her, and the Guy Steen family lived a few hundred yards away. Jerry and Sam Bullard joined her a few years later and lived with her until their teen years.
In the mid 1930s, when Nelie was about 68 years old, Glen Steen bought a house in Moran and persuaded his mother to lease the farm and move to town. Nelie lived in this house, near the Moran school, until her death in December 1947. Roy Steen lived with her during his senior year at Moran High School, 1939 and 1940. John and Ruth Griffith leased Nelie's half of the Steen farm and lived there for several years following "Big Mamma's" move to Moran. Ernest and Gloria Griffith Cain also farmed Nelie Steen's property for one year.
Nelie Steen suffered from severe arthritis (she called it "rheumatism") during much of her adult life, but she didn't let the pain keep her from chopping wood, milking and feeding cows, "slopping" hogs, or paddling grandkids who got out of line. Sam and Jerry Bullard got out of line quite often while they were living with her. Guy's and Alma's boys also were sometimes on the receiving end of Big Mamma's spankings, although it's highly unlikely that they ever did anything to deserve a spanking.
She liked to be called "Big Mamma" by her grandkids, rather than "Grandma". I don't believe any of us ever knew why, but we didn't question her right to be called by any name she wanted. Big Mamma had strong opinions on politics, home remedies, cooking, and raising kids. She was a strong supporter of W. Lee O'Daniel for governor of Texas because she liked his cowboy music and he promised an old age pension. People on the skinny side looked "puny" or "peaked" and needed a "good mess of grease" to "perk" them up. She always responded with "tolerable" when asked how she was doing. And, she had a sure-cure poultice for most any wound a grandkid had.
Big Mamma made the world's best spice cake, which she called "Spanish" cake, and one of the great tragedies in the culinary world was the loss of that recipe when she died. She had great faith in the Farmers Almanac and believed that planting crops, branding calves, and many other farm events should be done under the proper sign of the Zodiac. She was pretty sure that the new generation of kids would never amount to a "hill of beans" because they went to great extremes to avoid work, had too little respect for their elders, and didn't show much interest in learning to farm.
Big Mamma adapting well to the rugged life of a farm wife in those days by working hard, improvising, and making do with what the land provided. Wood burning stoves were used for heat and cooking, rainwater from the roof was stored in a cistern, kerosene lamps were used for light, and the toilet was an outhouse. Lye soap and lard were made from pork fat in a big black pot on an open Mesquite wood fire. Clothes were washed in a tub by scrub-board, baths were taken in a No. 3 washtub heated on the wood stove, and farm wives spent much of the summer canning and preserving food for the winter. The list of farm chores was endless, but Big Mamma somehow got them done and always set aside time for church on Sunday. "
George Steen married Cornelia (Nelie) Jane Wood at Fowler, Texas on November 17, 1884 when he was 20 and she was 17. Their first home was located near the Fowler school house, at a bend on Steele Creek. In 1895 they moved to a stock farm known as "the McMahan place", also in Bosque County, lived there 10 years, and then moved back to Fowler in 1905. Eight of the nine children of George and Nelie Steen were born in Bosque County.
The town of Fowler had been established in 1850 by a merchant from Waco who liked the location where Steele Creek flowed into the Brazos River. In 1880, the Houston & Texas Central Railroad built a railroad from Waco to Cisco, with a switch and water service for the steam engines at Fowler. The railroad later became the MKT (Missouri, Kansas & Texas). In the same year, 1880, a U.S. post office was established in Fowler.
At it's peak, Fowler had a post office, a railroad depot with side tracks for loading & unloading, two general stores, a cotton gin, a blacksmith shop, two churches, and a two-story schoolhouse with the upper floor serving as a community center. In 1916 the name was changed from Fowler to Steiner to honor a prominent Bosque County citizen, Dr. Steiner.
In 1950, the U.S. Government acquired the land occupied by the town of Steiner as part of the Lake Whitney development, and the town was evacuated. One of the churches was salvaged by moving it to another location.
George Steen was a cattleman who made his living by buying, feeding, and selling cattle. He would go by horseback on cattle buying trips, herd the cattle
back to eastern Bosque County alone, brand them, and pasture them on leased land or on "open range" in the hills of eastern Bosque County. When it came time to sell, he'd round them up, load them in railroad cattle cars at Fowler, and ride with his cattle to markets in St. Louis and Kansas. George would sometimes butcher a cow and peddle the fresh meat to the families in the area, who seldom had fresh meat due to the absence of refrigeration.
In December 1906, the George Steen family left Bosque County and moved to the Cull Dyer stock farm at "Rico Switch and Flag Station" (later named "Land" and then "Pueblo") near the boundary line between Northeastern Callahan County and Eastland Counties.
The move from Bosque County to Pueblo was made in several leased railroad boxcars, which carried everything the Steen's owned, including household goods, furniture, farm implements, livestock, and kids. The move was made on the Houston & Texas Central Railroad, which later became the Missouri, Kansas & Texas (MKT).
At the time, December 1906, "Rico Switch and Flag Station" was only a switch on the railroad, with a side track where boxcars could be parked for loading and unloading. It was called a flag station because trains would stop there only if someone signaled the engineer by waving a handkerchief or other type "flag".
In 1907 a small combination store and post office was built and the name was changed to Land, Texas. Also, in 1907 the railroad built a storage house for railroad maintenance equipment and a house for railroad maintenance workers, called "section hands". A few years later, the railroad built a depot and the name was changed to Pueblo, Texas.
At it's peak, Pueblo had a combination general store and post office, a railroad depot with loading and unloading side tracks, a church which served all Protestant denominations, and three or four houses, including the Cull Dyer ranch house. The Cull Dyer ranch house still stands, but everything else is gone, including the railroad tracks.
According to the late Evelyn Jones Yeager, a cousin of Alma Gunn Steen who grew up on a nearby farm, the Steen's move from Bosque County to Pueblo was prompted by a business deal between George Steen and Cull Dyer, who owned several sections of land around Pueblo. Cull Dyer had the land and George Steen had the expertise on cattle, so they became partners in a cattle company, with George Steen handling the buying and selling of the cattle.
During the period December 1906 to about 1915 the Steen's lived on the Cull Dyer place, and from about 1915 to 1917 they lived on the "Wallace place" near Cisco and on the "Charlie McClelland" place northeast of Pueblo. Glen Steen was born while the family lived on the Cull Dyer place.
In 1917 the Steens bought 320 acres (half a section) of land adjoining the Dyer property on the west, from a Mr. Hambric. The land was located mostly in Callahan County but partly in Eastland County. George Steen and Guy Steen were equal partners on the 320 acres, although title was placed in George Steen's name. George Steen later purchased an additional 25 acres or so, known as the "Round Mountain" property, which adjoined the original 320 acre tract on the southeast, with no participation by Guy Steen in this purchase.
The Houston & Texas Central Railroad (MKT) ran through the Steen property. The Steen place also included a mile so of a major creek, called "Battle Creek", named for Indian battles which had taken place on the creek in years gone by. The water holes of Battle Creek on the Steen farm were the sites of numerous total immersion baptisms by the Pueblo Church. They also provided water for cattle, cooling for watermelons, and swimming for the Steen grandkids.
While dealing in cattle was his main occupation, George Steen also contracted to break horses to the saddle and harness for neighboring stock farmers. He died at age 55 of kidney failure, and his family suspected that too many hours spent on bucking horses was a contributor to his early death.
Nelie Steen moved to Moran after George's death, leasing her part of the farm to Genie and Dock Griffith during the years 1921 and 1922. Around 1923, she moved back to the Steen farm and resumed farming and raising cattle. Glen, who was 12 years old in 1923, lived with her, and the Guy Steen family lived a few hundred yards away. Jerry and Sam Bullard joined her a few years later and lived with her until their teen years.
In the mid 1930s, when Nelie was about 68 years old, Glen Steen bought a house in Moran and persuaded his mother to lease the farm and move to town. Nelie lived in this house, near the Moran school, until her death in December 1947. Roy Steen lived with her during his senior year at Moran High School, 1939 and 1940. John and Ruth Griffith leased Nelie's half of the Steen farm and lived there for several years following "Big Mamma's" move to Moran. Ernest and Gloria Griffith Cain also farmed Nelie Steen's property for one year.
Nelie Steen suffered from severe arthritis (she called it "rheumatism") during much of her adult life, but she didn't let the pain keep her from chopping wood, milking and feeding cows, "slopping" hogs, or paddling grandkids who got out of line. Sam and Jerry Bullard got out of line quite often while they were living with her. Guy's and Alma's boys also were sometimes on the receiving end of Big Mamma's spankings, although it's highly unlikely that they ever did anything to deserve a spanking.
She liked to be called "Big Mamma" by her grandkids, rather than "Grandma". I don't believe any of us ever knew why, but we didn't question her right to be called by any name she wanted. Big Mamma had strong opinions on politics, home remedies, cooking, and raising kids. She was a strong supporter of W. Lee O'Daniel for governor of Texas because she liked his cowboy music and he promised an old age pension. People on the skinny side looked "puny" or "peaked" and needed a "good mess of grease" to "perk" them up. She always responded with "tolerable" when asked how she was doing. And, she had a sure-cure poultice for most any wound a grandkid had.
Big Mamma made the world's best spice cake, which she called "Spanish" cake, and one of the great tragedies in the culinary world was the loss of that recipe when she died. She had great faith in the Farmers Almanac and believed that planting crops, branding calves, and many other farm events should be done under the proper sign of the Zodiac. She was pretty sure that the new generation of kids would never amount to a "hill of beans" because they went to great extremes to avoid work, had too little respect for their elders, and didn't show much interest in learning to farm.
Big Mamma adapting well to the rugged life of a farm wife in those days by working hard, improvising, and making do with what the land provided. Wood burning stoves were used for heat and cooking, rainwater from the roof was stored in a cistern, kerosene lamps were used for light, and the toilet was an outhouse. Lye soap and lard were made from pork fat in a big black pot on an open Mesquite wood fire. Clothes were washed in a tub by scrub-board, baths were taken in a No. 3 washtub heated on the wood stove, and farm wives spent much of the summer canning and preserving food for the winter. The list of farm chores was endless, but Big Mamma somehow got them done and always set aside time for church on Sunday. "
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