What did your great-grandparents do?

[bodine]

I got to thinking about this last night. I can't really say that I "knew" any of my great-grandparents; I can remember a couple, and I remember going to their funerals. But I got to thinking about their lives and their occupations. Both of my mother's grandfathers were cotton farmers in the Boerne/Welfare/Comfort area. Both were dead long before I arrived, and their lands were divided and sold after their deaths.

One of my dad's grandfathers was a butcher; although he had been a coachman for the Austrian royal family before emigrating to Texas. All of his uniforms and horse harnesses were stolen off of the docks at Indianola when they came to Texas. He had apparently believed he could find work in Texas as a coachman. He did not have any money to return to Austria (where he would have been conscripted into the army, the reason he brought his family to Texas); the only work he could find was slaughtering cattle.

Dad's other grandfather was a blacksmith; who transitioned to car mechanic and gas station owner in the early 1910's. He had one of the first Gulf stations in San Antonio; the property remains a Chevron convenience store over 100 years later.

All of my great-grandmothers were housewives. One raised 12 children; 11 to adulthood.

[Red Oak]

Three sets were farmers. Cotton was the cash crop, one set did a lot of truck farming, another set made a little whiskey on the side. The other Great Grandpa was a Carpenter and Saw Mill worker and his wife took care of the Live Stock and Truck Patch.

I knew one Great Grand Pa and all of my Great Grandmothers, one died in her late 70s, two more in their 90s, and one made it past a 100. The weak died young back in those days.

All were Native Born, I have one G-G-Grand Mother that came from Bavaria and married a Confederate Soldier in Georgia.

[LibraryLady]

It think it is very rare to know one's great grandparents. The best we do is know a family story (unless the GGP is famous).

I didn't even get to know grandparents. 2 died before I was born, another when I was 4 and the last was in my life for 5 years (lived away and then moved near us).

GGF on mother's side: farmed but died when my mother was 15.
GGF on father's side: Maker of fine furniture in Switzerland (was told furniture had silver handles/hinges).
GGMs were both housewives.

[GFB]

Great grandmother came from Ireland in 1888... became a chambermaid at the Parker House Hotel in Boston after she learned how to not sound Irish..no Irish were hired.

..eventually married a fisherman, who was later lost at sea..they had a son , my grandfather.

I don't know that far back on my father's side.

[Jami]

I have no idea about my great-grandparents on my mother's side....they all lived and died in Czechoslovakia.

I know that one great-grandfather on my dad's side landed on Ellis Island from France and he listed on the ship's log that he was a chef. That's all I know.

[bodine]

My mother's father escaped the farm and the depression by going to Mexico to work on a crew that electrified rural villages. The family joke is that my mother probably has dozens of half siblings in Mexico; Gpa was a ladies man...

He was involved with the Grange in rural Texas helping electrify rural houses, as well.

He came home and became a deputy sheriff for a while (I think as long as a relative was the sheriff); then he opened a truck stop/gas station/mechanic shop/restaurant that was quite successful until I-10 was built and ran smack dab through the middle of it.

He then worked as a route saleman selling refrigeration supplies; then as a counterman at refrigerator wholesalers in San Antonio and in Ft. Worth. My brother and I went to our first Rangers game with him in the company seats four rows back of home plate in 1972.

[Kiamichi]

On the paternal side both great-grandfathers were born during the presidency of James Monroe, one in Tennessee and the other in Georgia. Both relocated to Mississippi. One farmed and taught school. The other was a carpenter who once a year would load a flatboat he had built with cotton, furs and other local products and float it down the Yocona River ultimately to New Orleans where he would sell the entire outfit, including the boat for lumber. He supposedly had a lot of kinfolk among the French-speaking population there but it is unclear what the family connection was.

On my mother's side one was a farmer, a native of Kentucky and resident of Mississippi, who after the Civil War managed a plantation for a while that belonged to a governor. The other was a native of Virginia who had come to Mississippi to work on a railroad under construction and apparently met his wife while boarding with her family. Her father was a member of the board of directors. He was young enough to be drafted at the start of the war and was severely wounded at Murfreesboro and got out of the hospital in time to be captured at Lookout Mountain and spent the rest of the war in Rock Island Prison. He never really recovered and spent the rest of his life teaching school, dying young.

All died long before I was born, in case you were wondering.

[Red Oak]

It think it is very rare to know one's great grandparents. The best we do is know a family story (unless the GGP is famous).

I didn't even get to know grandparents. 2 died before I was born, another when I was 4 and the last was in my life for 5 years (lived away and then moved near us).
.

The Redoak antecedents "started early" and were hard to kill

[Bob Of Burleson]

Farmers all.

Good thread, Bodine.

[BillB]

All farmers.
Two were from Texas.
Two were from Tennessee.
Two from Virginia.
Two from Georgia.
They all wound up in Texas.
Two GGFs were in the Civil War. One was in Lee's Army. One was a kid who was an Confederate Army mail boy in Tennessee. I think the GGF from Georgia also served but I'm not certain.

I knew a great grandmother. She lived with us. I was about 10 years old when she died.

[bodine]

Farmers all.

Good thread, Bodine.

Thanks. Something we all have in common. Should be very interesting.

I wish my mother's family had kept their farm; a section of land near Waring. But it got divided 11 ways when her grandfather died in the late 30's. No one wanted to farm, no one. My grandmother talked about how hard it was chopping cotton, and picking cotton. She hated it.

[planosteve]

My fathers famiy were farmers in Iowa and Kansas. My father was the first on the the family to leave the farm. Now, there are no farmers left.
Mother's were a miner and a merchant in Missouri. They came to Kansas in the 30'sin the Dry Goods business . One great grandmother was still alive when I was born.
I am the oldest grandchild and great grandchild on both sides of my family.

[Cowman52]

One was a rock mason, he laid the stone steps around the court house square. Like everyone else, the other was a cotton farmer.

[grouchy]

Paternal side. One was an engineer for Santa Fe RR up in the panhandle. I knew him and his third wife.
The other one was a rancher in Colorado. Never met him.

Maternal side. Both were farmers in Western Ellis county. One also did smutty work and the other did horse training. I knew both great grandmothers. We still own one of the homeplaces.

[BigTex]

They made grandparents.

[Red Oak]

In my current family we have five generations represented amount the living.

[knotlazy]

What an I interesting thread!

All my mom's grandparents were poor farmers in east Texas as adults. Some came from Tennessee by way of coveted wagon through Oklahoma.

I'll have to ask my dad about his grandparents...I do know that dad's mother's mom was divorced....back in that day it must have been scandalous. I never thought to ask why.

I'll ask for details & report back...

[FlashM]

Let's see, one of my dad's grandfathers was a blacksmith, the other was a tailor. One of my mom's grandfathers was ship's captain and merchant.

Did anyone have a grandmother with a profession outside of the home?

[Benbrook Susie]

My mother's grandfather worked in a company town ( cotton-related ) in Mississippi; don't know much about that great-grandmother.

Dad's grandparents worked at a textile mill ( as did my grandparents ) in North Carolina. I knew my great-grandfather; he was alive until I was about 14. He was in his 90's and lived on his own ( relatives and neighbors checked on him frequently ) in a trailer.

[knotlazy]

Let's see, one of my dad's grandfathers was a blacksmith, the other was a tailor. One of my mom's grandfathers was ship's captain and merchant.

Did anyone have a grandmother with a profession outside of the home?

Yes, both my grandmother's were working women. And I know my father's grandmother (the one who was divorced) worked in an office till retirement.

My mom's mother worked for Mohr Chevrolet in billing for years. My dad's mom worked in a bakery, making donuts until she and my grandfather had enough money to buy a relatives book bindery. She worked in the office for years until they could afford employees..