Website reborn after 24 years!

Somethings are worth more if they are antiques, but a vintage website does not belong in that category! While more and more folks are subscribing to the services of Ancestry to break through those brick walls of research, family websites can still serve a useful place in the quest — publishing manuscripts, research collections, stories, and more. So, browse through the Archives and enjoy our library of Publications — and contribute if you can!

Letter from the TCFA President: James Sterling Cauble

Greetings to our kin,
It is a pleasure serving as your President but more important just being a part of TCFA. I’m not sure how many of you realize how unique our family is in a number of ways. We all know people who know very little about their roots and never have family reunions. If they have reunions, those are maybe every five years or so. We are very fortunate to have had several members of our family that felt the importance of family and spent countless hours researching and collecting data on the Cauble-Rotan (and allied) family and starting having an annual family reunion. The reunions have enabled us to connect with kin from all over the US.

Another item unique to us is we have our own website. It was created by and maintained by our kin and is used to tell our story, preserve history and share data with others!

In addition we have done extensive DNA work in an effort to find Peter Cauble’s parents. That search continues. The Internet has a number of sites containing historical records. Ancestry.com is one of the more popular one and we have a Cauble-Rotan Family Tree and DNA Family Tree on it. Most of our research is looking at the past but we are also investing in the future with the  CPT Todd Christmas Memorial Scholarship program and have been able to help many of our family members further their education.

We also have what I call our “Crown Jewel” – the Peter Cauble House, home of the first Cauble to settle in Texas. With the encouragement of family members Temple Eastex donated the house, family cemetery and five acre of land to the Tyler County Historical Commission. The house was been restored and has served as home to several family reunions. We provide financial help with the maintenance of the house and cemetery. We also provide financial support to several other cemeteries where family members are buried.

As a member of our family you have much to be proud of and I would encourage you to write your own story. I am sure there are things about you that members of your immediate family do not know and would find interesting. Make your story part of the Legacy you leave.

I would also encourage you to continue to support TCFA and share data with us.
James

The Tyler County Historical Commission’s “Tyler County on Tour” took place recently and as you probably remember, the Peter Cauble House was included in that tour and Ernestine and I served as docents.

Period furnishings

We wanted period furnishing for the house and you authorized me to purchase two iron beds. Time was short and I was unable to find any suitable old beds and purchased two reproductions for $843.60. Later one lady in Woodville donated an old bed and after seeing it I decided to use it and return one of the new beds. After shipping and restocking fee the one bed cost us $632.95. Erlene Ingle of Woodville used items from her three antique shops and home to furnish the rest of the house. When you see the pictures I think you will agree, she did a really nice job.

Now to the tour …

I know most of you are living in a drought area but down here we have had very few days in the last few weeks without rain and that also applies to Tyler County. When we arrived at Peach Tree Village Friday afternoon the ground was saturated and water standing in all the low places. It started raining that evening about 7:00 pm and rained all night and continued through out Saturday – non stop. We decided to stop people at the highway and shuttle them to the house and back in order to keep them from getting stuck and help get them to and from the house without getting too wet. 2″x12″ boards were used as a bridge over the ditch next to the road. Unfortunately we only had 16 paying guest and 25 total which included Camp Ta Ku La Staff and Commission members. Those that did brave the weather seemed to really enjoy the house and learn about the history of it and the Peter Cauble family. Huntley mentioned possible having the Cauble House on next year’s tour since very few people got to see it this year.

We hope everyone enjoys this posting of pictures of the event on our website so everyone can see how the house was decorated and get ideas on what we want to do on a more permanent basic. I have attached a picture of the docents which should bring a smile to your face and maybe even cause you to laugh out loud. It will hopefully also serve to increase your interest in seeing the rest of the pictures. Ernestine and I enjoyed dressing up and representing the family. We met some nice people and had a fun day sharing our family history.
Your kin,
James

Tyler County on Tour: Photos

These photos of the Tyler County on Tour event were provided by James and Ernestine Cauble … and don’t they look handsome in these period costumes! Click on the thumbnails to see full sized image.

Finding the Peter Cauble House

Contributed by James Sterling Cauble

While doing genealogy research in the mid seventies I came across an article titled “It’s Dogwood Time in Tyler County”. In the article it mentioned Valentine and James Burch being in the Battle of San Jacinto and that they were buried in the Burch-Cauble cemetery near Peach Tree Village. Since Peach Tree Village is where Peter Cauble and his family lived I assumed this was where they were buried.

In August of 1977 I went to Peach Tree Village to find the cemetery. I had no problem finding Peach Tree but there was no sign of a cemetery. I went past Peach Tree Village a few miles and before turning around, I noticed a house near the road and an elderly gentleman in bib coveralls on the front porch. I stopped and asked him about the cemetery and he not only knew where it was, he also said the old Cauble house was nearby. Finding the cemetery was my objective but finding the house that my great, great, great grand parents lived in was certainly unexpected. He volunteered to show me where they were and we headed back to Peach Tree Village.

There were no signs or markings from the road, only a barbed wire gate and road overgrown in weeds leading to the house. Below are pictures of the house, remains of the smoke house and some headstones. The house was supposedly used by hunters but I can’t imagine anyone staying in it.

The gentleman said it was a hewed log house and looking on the back where siding was missing and under the house I could see the original hewed logs. Obviously the clap board siding had preserved the structure. The smoke house was also hewed logs but not being protected by siding, time and the elements had nearly destroyed it.

The cemetery was so overgrown it was barely visible. Years later Brian Shivers told me his dad had owned the land for many years (his dad was Allen Shivers, Governor of Texas from 1949-1957) and while hunting deer in the 60’s he came across the cemetery. He noticed stones lying on the ground and found some markers and realized it was a cemetery. His wife loved restoring historical sites and quickly cleaned the site up, righted the markers and put a chain link fence around the cemetery and reported it to the historical society. That was probably the last time any maintenance was done by the way it looked when I first saw it.

Some time later I met Julia Cauble Smith and told her about the house and cemetery. Through her efforts and many family members writing letters to Temple Inland, owners of the property, Temple agreed to give the property to the Tyler County Heritage Society. Through a grant from Temple and several others the house and cemetery has been restored and preserved for the historical benefit and pleasure of many.

A Memorable Christmas

This story was sent to us by Puett L. (Cauble) Willcox Jr. who was a Christmas Prisoner of War during World War II

“Seventeen days prior to my twentieth birthday I was in a B24 ball turret flying out of Italy heading for a bombing mission over Weiner Neaustatd Austria. On the take-off roll I saw Jesus, He informed me that something bad was going to happen but He would take care of me.  Six hours later and 29 minutes of flack our B24 was hit and burning.  The fire drove me from the turret, while I was snapping my chest parachute to my harness the plane blew in half and knocked me unconscious.  I woke up hanging from the place that my turret had been with control cables around my legs.  The tail of the plane was trying to fly but was falling and I kicked loose and fell from 25,000 feet to about 3,000 feet when I opened my parachute.  There was a welcoming committee of 30 soldiers shooting hole in my parachute.

Oh! I forgot to mention that this was our radio operator’s 21st birthday and he didn’t get a party for his birthday, we told him that we thought that’s what all the fireworks was about.  The Austrians kelp almost 1,000 American Airmen that they had shot down that day, May 10 1944, for 5 days before putting us in box cars and moving us to Frankfurt Germany.  After being interrogated in Frankfurt for six days they put us plus some 600 more airmen in box cars with 100 prisoners per car and sent us to a new prison camp in Poland.  The camp was about 20 miles from the Russian border and 5 miles from the North Sea.  The camp was named Stalagluft IV and had only 5 barracks for prisoners finished.  They kept us outside until we were processed which was only about 50 prisoners a day. I was the 436th prisoner to be processed so my POW number was 1436.  They added a thousand to our number to tell Berlin that they had more prisoners than they really had so as to get more food.  That didn’t work because there were no supply trains coming to that part of Poland.  I weighted 160 on May 10th and on June 22nd I weighed 92 pounds. This was typical of every prisoner in camp.

Now. Let us fast forward to Christmas Eve December 24 1944 and the camp had grown to more than 15,000+ American and British Airmen as prisoners. Every day the German guards would run us into our barracks at 5:00 PM and put the shutters on the windows and the bars on the doors until 7:00 AM.  Christmas eve they surprised the more than 15,000+ of us and turned on all of the outside lights and let us stay outside until 9:00 PM.  The sky was clear and full of stars; the ground was covered with snow, a sight that we had not seen since our capture.  About 7:30 one of the prisoners started singing “Silent Night” and without a prompt all 15,000+ prisoners joined in.  At the end of the first verse we all stopped and the German guards sang the first in their language.  We continued in this manner from on Christmas carol to the other until 9:00 when the guards politely ask us to return to our barracks.  No one has convinced me that our Lord Jesus wasn’t there that night. ”

Footnote by Puett Willcox, Jr:
I was raised in Longview Texas from 1930 until entering the Army Air Corps in 1942.  My dear mother, Ruby Bernice (Cauble) Willcox moved to Memphis, Tennessee the same time that I enlisted. She received a telegram telling her that I was a prisoner of war and sent the information to our church and friends in Longview.  One of these advised the Longview news paper and somehow in the transmission the paper printed that I was killed in action.  This error was only corrected after I returned to Longview and knocked on a few doors and had a few women faint.  I went to the paper and they took a picture of me and wrote an apology stating that I was very much alive.  I have had 69 very wonderful Christmases since the one in Stalagluft IV, Praise The Lord!

This interview with Bill Cauble and Cliff Teinert was published on the TXBeef.org website in the “Texas Hot Chefs” column.
Get their Chicken Fried Steak Recipe

‘Texas Hot Chefs’ breaks out of the mold a bit with Bill Cauble and Cliff Teinert. Unlike most featured chefs, neither of these gentlemen presently owns a restaurant. Yet either individually or together they have prepared great meals for one Mexican and two U.S. presidents, one First Lady, one Thai Queen, and an array of ranching aristocracy. That’s an impressive resume that few chefs can hope to match.

Where Cauble and Teinert have an advantage over restaurant chefs is that they’re cowboy cooks. Their primary kitchen is a portable one the chuck wagon and their clientele knows what it wants — great tasting meals centered around beef.

Sometimes, they’re cooking on Texas rangeland; other times they’re far away from Texas like at the presidential retreat of Camp David where in the 1980s Teinert prepared a meal for Mexican President Jose Lopez Portillo, President Ronald Reagan and future President George H.W. Bush. And at least once a year Cauble and Teinert cook for internationally recognized events such as the Chuck Wagon Gathering at the National Cowboy Museum and Western Heritage Center in Oklahoma City.

Consumers now can enjoy their unique, delicious style of cooking through their recent collaborative cookbook ‘Barbecue, Biscuits & Beans‘ published by Bright Sky Press of Albany, Texas, and New York, N.Y. To purchase copies, visit the publisher’s web site at www.BrightSkyPress.com or call toll-free 1-866-933-6133.  

The cookbook has many surprises including a foreword by actor Tommy Lee Jones and a chapter on great desserts. Yet the essence of this cookbook embodies Cauble’s and Teinert’s lifelong appreciation of cowboying and the hearty food that fuels it. Best of all, the cookbook converts their longtime campfire recipes into great meals that any home cook can prepare.

Both men grew up in families that knew the value of a good, well-balanced meal. Cauble was raised at Albany, Texas, the oldest of four boys. Combining lessons from his mother’s indoor cooking and his father’s outdoor grilling, Cauble became an expert in preparing beef and baking bread in the oven or over coals.

Teinert was born in Copperas Cove and grew up near Giddings. His German forebears came to Texas in 1854, and adapted their native cooking methods to the plentiful beef supplies they found in Texas. That led to big family gatherings to enjoy barbecued beef. And Teinert’s secrets about how to cook perfect beef cuts were handed down to him from his grandfather and father.

Cauble and Teinert met in 1955 when Teinert visited an aunt who had a ranch near Cauble’s home at Albany. But the link that joined them as partners was legendary Albany rancher Watt R. Matthews who died in 1997 just short of his 100th year.

Matthews, a descendant of two legendary ranching Texas families, was manager of his family’s Lambshead Ranch, the most prominent cattle operation in the area. The Lambshead ranching tradition goes back to the 1870s.

Both men also would help Matthews feed the crowds he invited to Lambshead for the Fandangle Sampler, an annual musical tribute to the region’s ranching heritage. They’d also help him put on special parties at the ranch including the reunion of Matthews’ Princeton class of 1921

In 1984, Cauble became the fulltime cook for Lambshead and Teinert ranched in West Texas. But they always drifted back together for the annual Sampler. Today, both of them make their home near Albany, and they continue to collaborate on catering events across the nation.

The colorful cookbook is dedicated to Watt Matthews and features ranch and food photography from Matthews’ nephew, cattleman Watt Casey Jr., also of Albany.

Which is easier? Cooking beef over a fire or cooking it in a kitchen?
Teinert: I don’t know much about cooking meat inside a house. And I don’t use charcoal. My preference is to get a good bone-in cut of beef, place it 2 – to 3 feet away from live coals and then cook it slow. I think you can regulate the heat better that way. For the coals, I’ll use whatever wood is available in the area where I’m working. I’ll use live oak and post oak. But I prefer mesquite for its flavor.
Cauble: I’m a firm believer about cooking outdoors too. But when you’re cooking outside over a fire in July and August, that air-conditioned kitchen can be a lot of fun too. And outdoor gas grills aren’t too bad either. They’ve become a real popular item.

 What was the hardest part about converting your campfire recipes to the kitchen?
Cauble: Clifford and I grew up the same way. Our moms baked bread and never used a measuring cup or spoon. And the biscuits came out the same way time after time. So anything that you do a lot of, like we do cooking, is difficult to measure. When we started this cookbook, we had to cook some of the recipes three or four times to get the flavor just like we wanted it by using precise measurements. It was a little bit of a challenge, but we made it work.
Teinert: When you’ve cooked sourdough biscuits as much as we have, you know what a teaspoon is just by feel. We had to put in directions on creating a certain recipe or a certain rub, but we think we got it just right.

What made you decide to write a cookbook?
Teinert: A lot of people have asked us for our recipes. We had so many notes and stories about our recipes that each of us has compiled over the years that we decided it would be a good idea to write them down and put a little story to them.
Cauble: It took a lot of time to do it, but we found that it was real enjoyable too. We had to work a lot of long nights, but we didn’t mind the schedule. Our friends have enjoyed it too, because they tell us how many of the recipes they’ve already used.

Of all the recipes in the cookbook, what do you think is the cowboy�s favorite?
Teinert: If you ask the cowboys, it’s a chicken-fried steak. And we have a good one in the cookbook. But for a celebration, it has to be the rib eye. This is a great-tasting meat and doesn’t take much time to prepare. If you use mesquite coals, and get them good and hot, the mesquite gives rib eye a good flavor. It’s better than any other cut of meat.
Cauble: I agree. You take the whole rib eye and slice it, and it can’t be beat. It’s probably the most popular beef cut that we are asked to prepare. It goes great with just a vegetable, bread and dessert. But the rib eye is the real treat; everything else is just a complement.

 Even though you currently dont have a restaurant, you two do occasionally get off the ranch to share your beef creations with others, don’t you?
Cauble: I’ve had a catering business for several years with Clifford.
Teinert: And we’ve looked into the restaurant business several times. It’s something that we may do someday.