In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

THE TEXAS FOLKLORE SOCIETY WAS PART OF MY LIFE, LONG BEFORE I KNEW IT by Jean Granberry Schnitz  I didn’t join the Texas Folklore Society until 1990, but I now realize some of its members were part of my life before I ever even knew about the organization. The first person I knew of from the Texas Folklore Society was J. Frank Dobie, though I never met him in person. I remember reading some of his books when I was young, when we lived in Raymondville in the 1940s. My favorite place to read at that time was in a big mesquite tree in our yard. There was a place high on the deep, shady side of that tree that was shaped exactly right for me to lean against while holding and reading a book. That was where I discovered J. Frank Dobie—through his writings. J. Frank Dobie was born September 26, 1888, near Lagarto in Live Oak County, on Ramirena Creek near where the present Lake Corpus Christi is located. The house in which he was born sits on part of the “Dobie Ranch” property that comprised 4,162 acres of land, which was purchased in 1951 and 1952 by a group of six men, five of them from Houston, and Ralph Semmes Jackson of Beeville.1 In the process of the negotiations, Jackson showed his notes and writings about the Jackson family history in Chambers County to Dobie, who strongly urged him to write a book. Mr. Dobie wrote in the Introduction to Jackson’s book: Land has been personal to me from the time I began having feelings. Certain live oaks, certain patches of grass, certain bends in Ramirenia [sic] Creek, certain mustang grapevines draping trees along the bank, certain hills on the ranch where I was born and reared remain more vivid to me and are more a part of me than numbers of people I knew while I was putting down roots into that plot 55 of earth. One time when I came home (several years after the family had moved from the ranch to Beeville) and, a few hours later was setting out for the ranch, my mother said, “Why, Son, you think more of the ranch than of your own people.” Whatever in the land pulled me, it was not property values. They were meager anyhow. But after my mother died in 1948 and the ranch was inherited by six brothers and sisters, it had to become property. My sister Fannie and I were executors. In 1951 we sold it to Ralph Jackson and five other men associated with him. He was the leader. From the minute I looked at his features of cultivated intelligence and heard his gentle voice, I was satisfied with the inevitable transference of deeds to the land. I had strong feelings on who should possess the deeds and would not have transferred them at any price to a certain individual who came trying to buy.2 Dobie summarizes in the Introduction how Jackson came to write an account relating his life experiences to the land in which they occurred. Dobie says, “The writer is a part of the parcel of land about which he writes . . .”3 Both of these men felt strongly about that land, and I eventually came to appreciate just how much through my involvement in the Texas Folklore Society. My connection to the former leader of the Texas Folklore Society is through Ralph S. Jackson and his family. I remember Mr. Jackson quite well. His sons Jimmy and Ralph, Jr. (called “Brother” and now deceased) have been my good friends for more than fifty years. His daughter, Dauris Ann Jackson is married to my brother, Bill Granberry. Bill and Dauris owned a ranch in Live Oak County they called “The Huisache” that had a camp house or two. Back in about 1978, we visited the Huisache and drove down a dirt road to the Dobie birthplace to have a look around. There was not much left of the back part of the house, which had apparently been built of stone 56 What’s the Point? Why the Folk Come in the First Place and bricks. The wooden portion was still standing. After visiting the area a time or two and re-reading some of Dobie’s stories, it became apparent that some of the scenes he so eloquently described were right there! Ramirenia Creek, which is dry much of the time, looks like...

Share