Taking the Children's Portraits in 1881

Last September I posted about The Hendrick and Hodges Families that owned and lived in the Tiner Hendrick House from 1901 to 1994. I have been transcribing the diary that Gertrude wrote when the family was living in Stockdale, Texas in 1881, before they purchased the Tiner Hendrick House.

Gertrude Hendrick 1881 Diary

In the diary, Gertrude tells about the family's trip to San Antonio to have the children's photographs made. 

Gertrude Hendrick diary 1881, p. 33

 

We had the girls' photos, but we didn't know the story about how the photographs were taken in 1881 until the diary was transcribed. Here's the transcript of the diary entry for October 17, 1881.

[33]

                                                      1881

           Monday October 17^th

           Set out at 2 p.m. for San Antonio

           [via] Messrs H & S’s arrive at

Lavernia at 6 p.m.not fatigued

Tu       18 Leave L. before day – just com

fortably within 6 miles of S.

rains come on – follows mud

and every other inconvenience

dreary dreary evening in [my rooms]

Wed   19 Have the Childrens photographs

           taken – Three years we have

           been trying to effect this – not for

           our own gratification but for

           Sr. N. P. ‘s – price of pictures 36/0

           incidental expenses [pound sign] 15..0..0

           leave S. in the afternoon -Seek

           shelter for the night at the house

           of a German 4 miles on our way

Thu     20 Again on the road – weather

           good though threatning – dine

           at Lavernia – Supper and stay

           over night at Mr. H. which we reach

           by [oc nine]

Fri       21 Home T. G. arrive in slight

           rain which quickly grows heavy

           continues all day

 

You can see from the entry that having the children's photographs taken in 1881 was quite an ordeal. The trip from Stockdale to San Antonio and back took them 5 days!

 

On November 1st Gertrude records her response on receiving the photographs. The family was Catholic and were celebrating All Saints Day in their home in Stockdale, 145 years ago.

 

Nov        1 “All Saints Day”

                  We invoke the Saints at the

                  little altar draped for All Souls

                  This is all that remains to us to do

                  J. returns late having the long

                  talked of pictures of the children

                  May’s is bad Angeline’s good. Baby’s

                  middling. May tastefully dresses

                  our candle for “all Souls” which

                  burns at the foot of the little altar

 

 

 

August 28, 1887

 

Here are the latest photos from the restoration of the Tiner Hendrick House. The house has been disassembled, moved, and put back together. The porches and the breezeway covering the stairs have been reconstructed. The roofing process has begun. It's costing a little more than we expected. Some carpentry work has to be done because of all the complicated angles on the back of the house. 

We would appreciate any financial donations you would like to make to see us through this part of the restoration. You can donate through Zeffy in the right hand column or make a check to the Sutherland Springs Historical Museum. Thanks for your support!

139 years ago, Jesse Lane Tiner was only about half-way finished building the house. In his diary, 28 August 1887, he writes:

I have been busy all year on my new Residence which is only about half complete. Yet we moved into it last month. No doors finished yet and only 4 windows finished. I have the lower rooms and Hall Sealed on sides but not overhead and all the floors laid up and down stairs. 

We think the flooring now on the house is the same flooring that Tiner installed all those years ago. He had purchased the flooring in December of 1886.

He bought some additional flooring in July of 1887.

 

 

In August of 1887, he had only finished four windows. We are just beginning the process of restoring the windows and shutters. These are the same windows and shutters that Tiner purchased in November of 1886.

 

 

 

We have created an inventory of all the windows and shutters. The windows and doors from the upstairs had to be removed when the roof was cut off for the move in order to preserve their integrity.

 

 

 

In September we will begin working on restoring the 24 double-hung windows in the Tiner Hendrick house. If you would like to be a part of the Window Restoration Workshop, please contact me at mjcreech@mac.com. We will be making repairs to the wood, removing old glazing, reglazing, sanding, priming, painting, and hanging the windows with their weights.

 

Preserving the old wood is important to us. These windows are made from old growth timber that was closer grained, making them last, for the most part, for 140 years and more, we hope. The engineering of the windows is also quite amazing. Weights, that are hidden inside the wall beside the windows, were attached to the sashes of the windows, making it easy to lower the top sash and raise the bottom sash. The windows were designed to allow the hot air, which rises, to move out of the house, and the cooler air to come in through the bottom sash. I'm sure this made the hot South Texas summers a little more bearable.

 

 

 

Help us Save the Tiner Hendrick House by your financial contribution or joining our restoration team. 

 

 

 

If I had a hammer...

 

We are nearing the completion of the major restorations on the Tiner Hendrick house. We disassembled the porches and the breezeway, took down the chimneys carefully and prepared them for reassembly, cut the house into pieces for the move, moved the house to a new safe location, and rebuilt the porches and breezeway. We are in the middle of re-roofing the old house and will soon reassemble the chimneys. There is still work to do: restoring windows, staircases, banisters, siding, doors, painting, etc.

 

As the roofers were taking off the 17,000 wood shingles Jesse Tiner bought in 1887, they found an old hammer in the soffit near the attic. It was only 8 inches long. The head was made of iron. The handle was worn smooth from years of use. The head was held on to the handle with 3 square nails. We don't know the story of how the hammer ended up in its hiding place and remained there for 139 years. But we can imagine.

 

I was remembering some stories from the diary that might have been related to this little hammer. So I thought I would just look them up to remember them better.

This story is about the time when Jesse Tiner's brand new house almost burnt down. He was working on covering (roofing) the new house when the fire broke out in the kitchen. Jesse and his family were using the first little cabin that they had built in 1881 as a kitchen and dining room as they moved into the two-story house.

 

From some old photographs we have been able to tell that there were two small brick chimneys in the little house at one time, one in the back room and one in the front room, in addition to the fireplace at the very back of the house. 

 

The roof of the house was covered with tin later, making the evidence of the chimneys unavailable. When the roofers took the tin off, we were able to see the holes where those chimneys to the stoves had been.

 

 When the fire broke out in the kitchen, Jesse and his helpers, who were working on the wood shingles on the new house, rushed over from their position on the roof of the new house to put out the fire. They knocked down the chimneys and saved the entire house from being engulfed in flames. He was pretty shaken up about it. He or one of his helpers could have dropped the little hammer in the commotion and, if it had landed or rolled into its hiding place in the soffit, might never had been able to recover it. It's a good story, anyway.

But the story gets even more interesting. On July 9, 1887, 139 years ago, one day before the fire in the kitchen, Jesse hired Jack Wilson (colored) to work on covering (roofing) his house. 

 

 

Jack Wilson is the father of Jesse Wilson, the man who built and was the principal of the two-story Black school in Sutherland Springs in 1899. You can read the story of the building and the burning of the school and the lives of Jesse and Coral Wilson in the blogs below. The school is described as the handsomest building in Sutherland Springs. It was burned down the next year, and Jesse Wilson, the principal of the school, was accused of arson. Court records show that the case was dropped a few months later. Jesse Wilson married Coral Lott, another educator, and they moved to San Antonio where they were schoolteachers and principals in Black schools for 40 years.

 

The Enterprising Folks of Wilson County

 

A Sad Day in Sutherland Springs 

 

Meet Coral Lott and Jesse Wilson 

But in 1887, Jesse Wilson, the son of Jack Wilson, was sixteen. Perhaps he was helping his father put the wood shingles on the new house Jesse Tiner was building. Were he and his father part of the "we" that were "covering on the new house"? Did that experience inspire him to build a two-story Black school eleven years later? It is a shame that, although Tiner's community was able to put out the fire in his cabin and save his house from burning down. The community was not able to save Jesse Wilson's school from burning to the ground.

 

In 1903 Richard Nobles, another Black tenant farmer of Jesse Tiner and later a purchaser of Mr. Tiner's property, rebuilt the school next door to the Tiner property, and there was an attendance of 100 Black students at the school that year. Richard Nobles wife, Rachel Nobles, was the great grandmother of Pastor Ray Warren of the Haven Oaks Community Bible Church in Sutherland Springs. He is also the great nephew of Carol Lott Wilson.

 

I am a child of the 60s. I remember fondly Peter, Paul, and Mary's rendition of Pete Seegers's protest song.

 

If I had a hammer, I'd hammer in the morning
I'd hammer in the evening, all over this land
I'd hammer out danger, I'd hammer out a warning
I'd hammer out love between my brothers and my sisters all over this land

 

If I had a bell, I'd ring it in the morning
I'd ring it in the evening, all over this land
I'd ring it in danger, I'd ring out a warning
I'd ring in love between my brothers and my sisters all over this land
 

If I had a song, I'd sing it in the morning
I'd sing it in the evening, all over this land
I'd sing it in danger, I'd sing out a warning
I'd sing in love between my brothers and my sisters all over this land
 

Well I got a hammer and I got a bell
And I got a song to sing all over this land
It's the hammer of justice, it's the bell of freedom
It's a song about love between my brothers and my sisters all over this land

 

Jesse Tiner probably spent a long time wielding the little hammer that was found inside the soffit of his house before it became lost. From what I know about Jesse Tiner from his diaries and from my acquaintance with his descendants, he was an advocate for justice, freedom, and love between his brothers and sisters all over this land. He has passed down to us a song to sing and a story to tell.

 

Help us to preserve those stories by contributing whatever you can to the Tiner Hendrick House Restoration Project. You can donate through Zeffy in the right column or by writing a check to the Sutherland Springs Historical Museum, P. O. Box 334, Sutherland Springs, Texas 78161.

 

Thanks. 

Putting it back together again...

For those of you who missed the amazing work of LV Crane and Rigging of LaVernia and the Fowler House Movers, here's the show speeded up a little.

 

Restoration Begins

 

The restoration of the porches has begun! Some of the lumber from the porches was rotten and damaged beyond repair. 

 

 

 

 

 

However,  we have been able to reuse and reinforce some of the materials from Jesse Tiner's original construction. 

 

Some of the joists and rafters have been reused. 

 

Some of the original ledger boards were able to be used again. 

 

We are hoping to reinstall the banister boards and some bits of the decorative edging from the original construction.

Here's a little glimpse of the restoration of the front porch.

 

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

 Thank you so much to all those who helped us to relocate the Tiner Hendrick House.

Wilson County Historical Society

Clay Maeckel

Keith Muschalek

Robin Muschalek

Robert Creech

Chris Taylor

Sutherland Springs Historical Museum

Tammy Tiner

Cassandrea Tiner Hager

Katherine Goldberg

Tambria Read

Lorry Tuttle

Fowler House Moving Company

Wilson County News 

5C Concrete

Trejo Framing

LV Crane and Rigging Company

Judge Hank Whitman

Commissioner Jeffrey Pierdolla

Wilson County Commissioner’s Court

Anthony Delgado

Kenneth Hafertepe

Preservation Texas

Evan Thompson

Jesús Najar

Chuck Duplant

Hood’s Texas Brigade Association Re-Activated

Estella Muschalek

Glenn Carroll

Richard McCaslin

Melinda Kilian

D. L. Grant

Ann Rhew

Frances Fehribach

Kate Ruckman

Ken Tiner

Andrea Roberts

Tiffany Rasbury Burlison

Raina Powell

Rita Hodde

Jennifer Johnson

Wayne Tiner

Roxanne Tiner 

Richard Hall

Sandi Bjerke

Samuel Hastings

Curtis Hunt Restorations, Inc.

Attoyac Energy Services, Inc.

Abel Burgos

Isaac Burgos 

Butch Roberson

John Ideus

Bobbie Head

Shawn Ferguson

Baldy's American Cafe

Watco Tanks Inc.

Roberta Pegues Tandy

Dr. David Woodcock 

several anonymous donors 

The house has been saved! 

The relocation phase is complete. The restoration phase is beginning. We have raised enough money to rebuild the porches and the chimneys. We almost have enough to fund putting a new roof on the house. There are other renovations projects awaiting us: restoring the 27 windows in the house, repairing and restoring the shutters, interior restorations, exterior restorations, painting the house inside and out, a bit of plumbing and electrical work. I'm sure there will be much more. If you would like to contribute to the restoration fund, you can do so through Zeffy on the right hand column of this page or through the Sutherland Springs Historical Museum. If you have skills -- woodworking, carpentry, painting, plumbing, electrical -- we would love to have your help. Please contact Melinda Creech 832-978-8501 or mjcreech@mac.com.

Again thank you, thank you, thank you! 

Bee-leaving

 

If you have been following "The Friends of the Tiner House" Facebook page, you may have learned that last week we had to have two colonies of bees removed from the little house before we could proceed with setting it on its new foundation. The bees had moved in after these late spring rains and the proliferation of flowers at the old site. Maybe those bees were the descendants of the bees that Mr. Tiner kept in 1900—126 years ago. You can read more about "Mr. Tiner's 'Bees' ness" in an earlier blog.

The procedure, accomplished by Abel and Isaac Burgos (supported at times by my husband, Robert)  

required moving ten boards from the exterior of the house, 

vacuuming up the bees, 

 

and removing the combs with brood and honey. 

They harvested 31 pounds of honey. 

And the bees are leaving the Tiner Hendrick House for their new home on the Burgos Ranch in Mineral, Texas, Bee County.

A friend of ours commented on the post with a pun. He's quite famous for puns.

"He doesn’t need to vacuum those bees up, he should just take a close look at them. That’s because seeing is 'bee leaving'!"

It's taken quite a bit of "believing" to imagine saving the Tiner Hendrick House. We imagined that this, on the cusp of demoliton,

 

which 141 years earlier looked like this 

  

and now looks like this 

could one day look like this.

Thanks to the generosity of the Wilson County Historical Society, Tiner and Hendrick family members, Robin and Keith Muschalek, members of the Maeckel family, other members of the community, and some of you, we have raised enough funds to disassemble the chimneys, porches, and roof, move the house, set it on a new foundation on its new site. Soon we will rebuild the porches, reassemble the roof, rebuild the chimneys, and replace the old roof.

We will need more help with the restoration of the house. We hope to engage community members and other interested parties in restoring the windows and doors, rebuilding and restoring the staircase, replacing or repairing external siding, cleaning the interior, painting, and any plumbing and electrical work that needs to be done.

If you have any expertise (woodworking, plumbing, electrical) or inclination and would be willing to donate your time to restoring the Tiner Hendrick House, please contact Melinda Creech, mjcreech@mac.com, 832-978-8501.

If you would like to make a donation, any size, you can do it through Zeffy on the right sidebar. 

Thanks for all your help. Seeing is believing and believing is seeing.