The Junior Historian, Volume 15, Number 3, December 1954 Page: 2
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THE JUNIOR HISTORIAN
plexion was ruddy, owing mostly to his many
years in the saddle covering most of Harris
County, through wind, rain, and sun. His
natural coloring was dark. He was past
seventy when he died in October, 1914, and
his hair was sprinkled with grey.
But to say George H. Hermann wore chin
whiskers is unfair. To the minds of some,
that would picture him as a typical hayseed,
a man who had never been two miles away
from his own barnyard. Instead, although a
plain man, he was usually neatly barbered,
and wore a mustache and goatee such as the
old fine Southern colonels of his acquaint-
ance habitually wore.
Economy was probably Mr. Hermann's
most outstanding trait. One of the
tales about how frugally he lived was
supposed to have taken place in the
188o's while Mr. Hermann and two of
his friends were riding horseback to
Fort Bend County to look at some
cattle. The two friends said they were
hungry and proposed stopping for
breakfast. "I'm not hungry," Mr. Her-
mann told them, "but you go ahead; I'll
wait for you." His friends went into a
restaurant and ate hastily. When they
came out they found George Hermann
breakfasting on a five-cent bag of
peanuts.
Another story of how economically
he lived is told by Dr. E. N. Gray, who
was a friend of George Hermann. He
says that one morning Mr. Hermann
suddenly announced that he had decid-
ed not to eat eggs for a while. It was
found that he had happened to pass
through the City Market the day be-
fore and had seen that eggs had gone
up to sixty cents a dozen. "That's too
high," said Mr. Hermann. "I'll wait
until they get cheaper. Meanwhile, I'll
eat prunes."
George Hermann himself took note
of this trait of his in a speech at the
ceremony in which he gave Hermann
Park to the city. He said, "My mother
taught me economy, which I have never
forgotten."
Mr. Hermann's one indulgence, per-
haps, was owning a fine saddle horse,
a necessity for a man in his business.
The "old bachelor," who cherished ablack slouch hat and paid little atten-
tion to his clothes so long as he was
comfortable, and his trusty bay were
familiar figures on the streets of Hous-
ton and on the unpaved roads of Harris
County.
Those who knew George Hermann
say that his frugality was not stingi-
ness, and although he practiced econo-
my in his own living, he was generous
with others. His generosity is evi-
denced in the fact that he rented much
of his property to poor tenants for a
ridiculously low price. Even after he
became wealthy he lived in one room of
his house, letting the T. J. Ewing
family live in the rest of it in return
for his board. This was at the old Her-
mann home in front of the present city
hall. After the elder Mr. Ewing died,
Mr. Hermann lived in one room of an-
other house he owned at 117 San Felipe,
and let T. J. Ewing, Jr., and his family
have the rest of the house in exchange
for his board.
When Mr. Hermann died, there was
an old Negro, occupying one of the
houses that he owned, whose rent was
long overdue. The executors tried to
put him out, but he said, "Mist' Gawge
he put me in here his own self. He
knowed mah rheumatism wouldn't let
me work no more. I ain't got no money
and I ain't a-going to pay no rent. Dis
here is mah home and here I is going to
stay."
"And," said Colonel Childress, who
told about this incident, "there wasn't a
thing we could do about it. We had to
let him stay there, knowing it would
have been George Hermann's wish if he
had been alive."
Mr. Hermann also showed his gen-
erosity toward others by spending much
of his time visiting poor people who
were sick, taking them food, and sitting
up with them.
Mr. J. W. Lockett, a Houston at-
torney who was Mr. Hermann's lawyer
and later lawyer for the trustees of the
estate, said that many tales of Mr.
Hermann's being stingy are entirely
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Texas State Historical Association. The Junior Historian, Volume 15, Number 3, December 1954, periodical, December 1954; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth391302/m1/4/?q=%22rep-tex%22: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.