Fannin County Folks & Facts Page: 190

                                
with a three-inch wire stuck in it and a tiny disk of flint on its
end could, when pricked in the right spot, bring faint music
from the new radio station KRLD in Dallas. In 1924 a two-
tube radio, the first in the community and the crossword
puzzles the Dallas News began publishing daily made leisure
hours more interesting. The regular routine of long walks
through fields and woods with the big dog when time al-
lowed or bringing in chips and wood; cleaning kerosene
lamps, straining milk and churning, raising chickens and
turkeys and feeding hired hands daily was broken in winter
by hog-killing, sausage grinding and lard rendering when
neighbors often came by to help. The coming of the
"thrasher' was the big summer event when neighbor
women came to help cook and serve the hungry men. A new
product on the market, a sealer and pressure cooker, bought
with some skepticism, proved efficient in sealing jelly pre-
serves and all vegetables safely in tin cans. Running water in
kitchen, bath and barn was made possible by water pumped
by the windmill from the spring at the creek and stored in a
large tank by the house. The regular visit of the peddlin'
man was expected, selling shoestrings, men's overalls and
dress materials and buying dairy and poultry products. Soar-
ing prices in the late 1920's, corn selling at $1.25 per
bushel and no sale for farm products persuaded George to
sell his thoroughbred hogs at three cents a pound and dis-
continue farming.
As licensed Texas real estate appraiser, he as county
surveyor made a road map of Fannin County for the govern-
ment. Placed in charge of the purchase of 18,000 acres of
submarginal lands and 2000 acres of resettlement land in
Fannin County in 1935, including the big lakes in the county
for land acquisition by the Department of Agriculture; surve-
yor for the seventh region including Texas, Oklahoma, New
Mexico, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi for Soil Con-
servation Service; chief of appraisal, branch of Southwestern
Division, Corps of Engineers for seventh region 1946, and
the same Office in War Assets Division after the War II and
then with public housing a few years led to his retirement in
1965. As member of Texas Real Estate Board and Dallas
Real Estate Board, he carried on appraisals from his home
office. For hobbies he had roses growing and genealogical
research. He wrote two books, The Paxton Lead Mines and
The German Story. He was listed in Who's Who of the South-
west three years, had a coveted membership in American
Appraising Institute, member of Church of Christ, Bonham
Rotary and a Mason for 52 years. He died at his Dallas home
July 1970. BY MRS. GEORGE GERMAN

JAMES LAFAYETTE GERMAN
James L. German born 1835 Morgan County, Missouri
near Versailles, had graduated from the Missouri University
and almost completed law school when the governor's order
(Missouri was a border state) forced all men of draft age to
register in either the northern or southern army. Reluctant
to fight against relatives in the North, he did enlist June
1865 and fought at Pea Ridge under Sterling S. Price and in
Louisiana where he was wounded and paroled June 1865.
He came to Fannin County, near Bonham where relatives
had settled and began teaching school at Kentuckytown with
"Uncle" Charley Carlton. Carlton moved to Bonham to
found Carlton College, leaving Professor German in charge
of the school. A man of dignity, wearing a Prince Albert coat,
shiny boots and with hair and full beard nicely trimmed and
carrying a gold-headed stick, he was popular. With teachers
and money scarce older pupils usually assisted the teacher.
Eliza Paxton, who had come with her family from Missouri,
assisted in teaching in 1867 but went to Bonham to gradu-
ate from Carlton College, returning as assistant teacher in
Kentuckytown and to marry the professor. The ceremony
took place in Bonham with Rev. Charley Carlton officiating,
January 1870. They bought a 120-acre farm in Fannin
County and lived in a log cabin until a house was built. Here
the first of their 11 children Laud was born. James contin-
ued teaching at nearby county schools. By 1877 using good
judgment and royalties from the productive Paxton lead
mines in Missouri, his holdings in one block were 1200
acres. A neighbor said, "Mr. German don't want all the land
in Texas but jist the land dining hisn."
Here the 20-room house with all necessary barns and fix-
tures served as home until all the 11 children completed col-
lege, the boys taking up law, banking or teaching; the girls
accomplished in piano, voice and art. Thoroughbred horses
and sheep with plenty of hay and small grain for feed were
raised. He bought the first threshing machine in the area.
Cotton was the principal crop. He built and operated for
many years a cotton gin on the farm to care for his own cot-
ton as well as that of neighbors over a large area. When in
1878 the Katy Railroad was built through Whitewright 1
miles from the farm, that town grew rapidly and James Ger-
man became one of its most prominent and influential citi-
zens, at the same time living on the farm and keeping in
touch with affairs of his own county.
Sentiment led him to move into Whitewright the old school
building from Kentuckytown, in which he and Eliza had

Family of James Lafayette German and wife, Eliza Paxton German - 1901
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