Person:Lee Dewitt (1)

Lee DeWitt remembers sitting in the wood box by his mother's stove as she started fires in the cold Arkansas kitchen at 4 o'clock in the morning. He then watched his mother, Sallie Ann Hudson DeWitt, bake biscuits and cook breakfast. They would then go out to the garden and Lee would follow behind his mother with his little short-handled hoe and level the dirt over the vegetable seeds she had sown (about age 3).

Lee attended schools in Grand Prairie Arkansas and at the Keyes Institute in Little Rock, Arkansas (1901). He recited the following poem in 1888 at the Grand Prairie School in Arkansas, at age 5:

"You'd scarce expect one of my age to speak in public on the stage;
and if by chance I fall below Demosthenes or Cicero,
don't view me with a critic's eye, but pass my imperfections by.
Large streams from little fountains flow, tall oaks from little acorns grow."

He remembered reciting this poem because it "brought the house down" when he recited it. His granddaughter, Barbara Beachum Kanipe, presented him with a framed copy of it on his 93rd birthday.

Lee was 14 1/2 years old when his baby sister, Mary Ellen was born. Mary Ellen was only eight years older than Lee's daughters, Boss (Lucille) and Deedie (Louella), who were especially fond of their 'Aunt Kid'. Mary Ellen was given a small, leather bottom, carved rocking chair by her father when she was twelve years old. She rarely got a chance to take her turn rocking, because her two nieces lived close by and thought the chair was so cute. The two nieces later rode to school in a buggy with Mary Ellen. After the death of her husband, A.S. Baker, in Alberquerque, 'Ellen', as she was called, lived with Boss and her husband Bill Hodgens in Corpus Christi Texas for a couple of years, before taking her own apartment.

As an 18 year old at the Keyes Institute in Little Rock, the landlady where Lee kept room and board (Mrs. Markham) asked Lee to leave because he ate too much. He carried his trunk on his back and found a place to live several blocks away. Lee had a lifelong fascination with trains. While attending school in Little Rock he would go to the train yard and watch them. He got a job selling food and drinks to passengers when he could not manage to get a job as an engineer. Later, as an adult farmer, he liked to ride the caboose when his produce was shipped via rail to the market. He visited many states in this fashion, including Wyoming, Illinois (Chicago), Montana, Missouri and Tennessee.

Lee taught for a time at Lowe's Creek School in Arkansas. This country school went through the eighth grade. He was first attracted to his future wife as he walked home from school each day, and he noticed her sweeping the porch of her house (much to her father's chagrin).

Lee DeWitt attended the 1904 World's Fair in Saint Louis. The ice cream cone and iced tea were first introduced at this event. There was a 25 story ferris wheel, John Philip Sousa's band played, and head hunting Igorots were on display. 29 million people visited the venue, which covered 1240 acres and had 1500 buildings. Lee mailed his 'intended' a souvenir postcard on 8/3/1904. It took almost a month to arrive and Miss Claudia Cordelia Vest received the card on 9/1/1904. Three weeks later they were married.

After his marriage in 1904, he moved to Oklahoma for a short time. He then moved back to the DeWitt farm, near Peter Pender Arkansas in Franklin County. He had given up teaching and had decided to support his family by farming. His children had fond memories of their father at about this time in their lives, rocking them and singing songs such as "Old Mcdonald" and "She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain". He would then put them "under his wing" as he called it when he would cover their face and head with his coat. They would come up and away for air and bring a smile to their father's face.

In 1917 he bought half interest in the prosperous Fort Smith Commission Farm, located ten miles south of Fort Smith, Arkansas, at Rye Hill. One year a crop of sweet potatoes brought him $60,000 - a lot of money in those days. Lee's children remember their father finding sleigh tracks in the snow on this farm around Christmas-time (belonging to you-know-who!). Lee sold his interest in the Commission farm in December, 1918, during WWI. Jerry D. Abshier, great-grandson of Lee DeWitt, visited the location of the old Commission Farm in Rye Hill, in 2001. The great old rock-walled barn, where Lee probably stored his sweet potatoes after harvest, still survives as a real estate sales office. The farmlands around the barn are now built up with high-end estate homes, each on an acre or more of land.

Lee moved the family to Ursula (Arkansas?), where they continued to prosper during the war years. They drove their cattle to Sleeter Place, between Cavanaugh and Mill Creek, and sold their cattle a few years later. They then moved to a large house at 1118 Lexington Avenue, in Fort Smith, but after a few years the prosperity waned and they moved to south 10th Street. From there they moved to Moffett, Oklahoma and farmed the Arkansas River bottom. In 1924 Lee returned to the Commission Farm at Rye Hill. December, 1933 was the family's last Christmas on the Commission Farm. Lee's children remember him doing everything necessary to keep his farming operation going, including surveying and leveling land, sharpening plows by heating the metal to red-hot and then hammering it on his anvil, chopping wood, dipping cattle in vats, harnessing teams, and killing and butchering hogs and beef.

Lee had visited Texas before, and in 1934 he went again. He wanted to move his farming operation there, and he narrowed the choices to either Victoria or San Perlita. He travelled with his daughter Louella and her husband, Elmo Simpson. They even found time to try deep-sea fishing out of Galveston. He moved the family once more to Cavanaugh, Arkansas before finally moving to San Perlita in 1935. After living through the Great Depression, Lee was starting over at age 52.

The family rode herd from Cavanaugh, Arkansas to Fort Smith. They were to put the cattle, horses and mule team on the train with the furniture and farm equipment. Lee was to ride the train to Texas with their possessions, while wife Claudia was to drive the Dodge and bring Ruth, Amos Thompson II, and Sallie Lee who was then 11 years old. There was no road from Kingsville to Raymondville at the time, so they used the route through San Manuel. According to J.T. Abshier, a grandson of Lee, when he tried to put the cattle on the train in Fort Smith, authorities decided that the cattle would have to be quarantined for some time. Evidently Lee had not anticipated this development and sold the cattle at a great loss. He reportedly arrived in South Texas with a mule, a plow and $68.

John DeWitt, with his sister Luella and Elmo Simpson, already had a crop started in San Perlita when the family arrived. The family rented "The Negro Place" which was a property once owned by ex-slaves, and was now owned by Strong and Lockhart of Luling, Texas. Lee tried to buy the farm after a few years but the owners did not sell it to him until 1970. Eventually, the clapboard house that they originally lived in was destroyed and John DeWitt lived on the property with his wife, Thelma.

Lee sometimes worked 18 hour days in Texas, when the moon was full. He started his farming venture with borrowed money. He had a difficult time getting a signature loan from the First National Bank in Raymondville at first, but later he was well known for his work ethic and was able to borrow money as needed. He eventually acquired large land holdings, oil leases, citrus and cattle. He used horse teams in the beginning but then made the transition to motorized farm equipment. His first tractor in Arkansas was a John Deere, but in Texas he used Farmall's. The family battled gnats when they first arrived in the Rio Grande Valley. Anyone who worked on the farm had to tie handkerchiefs around their faces to protect themselves. Lee worked hard in the fields and lemonade was his favorite drink when he would arrive home, hot and sweaty. Lee was voted Star Farmer of the week in 1941 and the family kept a copy of the June 19, 1941 Harlingen, Texas newspaper article with a photo of Lee on the front page of "The Star Farmer". The article stated that Lee "combines vegetable and cotton growing with cattle raising in such a way to get the most out of his land". Lee once told his youngest daughter that he liked farming because it made him feel "close to the old master".

Lee and Claudia purchased a home and five acres at 610 East Hidalgo in Raymondville, Texas in 1941. His favorite spot in this home grew to be the cozy breakfast nook by the telephone, in the kitchen. From this spot he could glance out and see who was coming to the back door, which was never locked. He lived 37 years at this house and heard of countless family romances, engagements, babies, crop failures, schools, careers, tragedies, sicknesses and complaints. In 1942 the house suffered a flash fire from a faulty gas line. Claudia had just walked outside when the explosion occurred and no one else was in the house at the time. Much of the family's mahogany furniture and old pictures were destroyed or damaged by the event.

Mr. and Mrs. Henry H. and Sibyl (nee Milam) Stewart were good and faithful friends of Lee and Claudia. They were from Low's Creek community in Arkansas, and Lee taught Sibyl Milam and her sister in his earlier years. In fact, Lee bragged that they were his best students. The Stewart's lived in Hargill and Raymondville, and were
eventually buried in the Raymondville cemetery. They were later disinterred and moved to the Low's Creek Cemetery in Arkansas. Many Vest ancestors and baby Louise DeWitt are also buried there. Lee DeWitt retired from farming in 1947 leaving his son Amos Thompson II (A.T.) to run the operation. He charged A.T. crop rents of 1/4 cotton and 1/3 grain. Lee and Claudia then travelled the U.S. for nearly 10 years visiting the Dakotas, Canada, Colorado, Washington, Oregon, California, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Indiana, Arkansas (again), Alabama and Florida. Lee was impressed about crossing the Continental Divide. At first they merely packed their suitcases and left in the family car, but they eventually bought a travel trailer. It was said that they enjoyed their Travelite lightweight aluminum travel home, "like
two lovebirds in a playhouse". They always brought little treasures home to the kids after their trips.

Ester and Clyde Abshier (step-parents of Tony Abshier, who married Nellie DeWitt) hosted Lee and Claudia's 50th wedding anniversary party in Stuttgart, Arkansas. Lee and Claudia then went by the old farmhouse in Branch, Arkansas, where they were married in 1904, and took a photograph. They sent that photo, along with a $50 bill, to each of their children to mark the occasion. Lee and his son John Henry tried to get to 'the old home place in Arkansas" once a year, usually in November. They made their last trip together in 1977, when Lee was 94 years old. The old house on the DeWitt farm burned about 1975 when the renter lit a fire in the fireplace.

Lee was active even into his 80's and 90's. When he was 87 years old he planted and cared for 67 citrus trees at his 5 acre site on East Hidalgo, in Raymondville. When he planted the trees, wife Claudia told him he would never eat any fruit from the trees - this was one time she was wrong. He later enjoyed much orange juice and grapefruit from the trees. After Claudia died in 1971 he continued to tend a garden in the back of his home. They were married for 66 1/2 years!

In 1972 Lee was hospitalized for the first time, for prostate surgery (age 89). He developed palsy shortly thereafter which affected his ability to write legibly. He continued to write letters on his daughter Louella's Olivetti typewriter (she died in 1972), using the "hunt and peck" method. He continued travelling with his daughter
Sallie when he visited his daughter Nellie, and her husband Tony Abshier, in Inglewood California in 1972, and in Orange California in 1974 (age 89 and 91, respectively). He especially enjoyed a motorhome trip with his grandson Jerry Treston Abshier to Lion Country Safari in Irvine California.

One of Lee's trademarks was Cotton Bowl chewing tobacco. He enjoyed it throughout his lifetime. Although he was a quiet man, he is remembered as being kind and selfless, as having a good sense of humor, and as appreciative of the contributions of those who came before him. His daughter Nellie was standing in a supermarket line in California in the 1940's when she had a conversation with another person in line. They discovered that they were both from Arkansas, and the man then
related that he had once worked for Lee DeWitt. The man had a broken arm when he worked for Lee, and no one else would hire him. He was thankful that Lee DeWitt had hired him and allowed him to feed and take care of his family. Farm hands were making about $1 a day and Lee reasoned that he could afford to pay the man fifty cents per day since he had only one arm.

Lee lived alone at the Raymondville home until he was almost 94 years old. He asked his youngest daughter, Sallie, to move from Corpus Christi, and in 1976 she agreed. He gave the home to Sallie on May 31,1977. Sallie hosted Lee's 95th birthday at the Casa Blanca restaurant in Raymondville. It was attended by 90 guests, including his surviving children John DeWitt of San Perlita, Nell Abshier of Orange California, and Sallie. Sallie continued to live with him until he died in 1978. He died just two weeks after his 95th birthday party. The funeral services were held at the Church of Christ in Raymondville, Texas, with interment at the Raymondville cemetary.

When Lee DeWitt died, he owned 600 acres of land in Texas, held certificates of deposit, oil leases, coal and natural gas royalties, and still owned three-fifths of the 225 acre DeWitt farm at Peter Pender, Arkansas (the remaining two-fifths is owned by Bob DeWitt heirs of Dallas, Texas). He gave all of his children a check for $3000 at the big Thanksgiving family feast in 1975. He repeated this gesture at subsequent Thanksgivings in 1976 and 1977. Before his death in April 1978 he set up a ten-year Lee DeWitt trust for his children, with John DeWitt trustee.