Sue's Stories: Holland Nathaniel Brewer

Holland Nathaniel Brewer 1871-1950

How we are related:

Holland Nathaniel Brewer

Ina Beatrice Brewer Johnson

Marion Allan Johnson Speakman

Nat Brewer was the first of his family to be born in Mississippi. His father John Mead Lesir Brewer had come to Mississippi from Pickens, South Carolina as a child in the 1850's. His mother Elizabeth Buenvista Dulaney had also come with her family as a child when they returned from a few years living in Texas, where she was born, and later, Arkansas.

About 1873 Nat's family made the trek from Itawamba County, Mississippi, to Johnson County, Texas, with extended family. In the 1880 census his father lists his occupation as farming and Nat has two younger brothers and a new baby sister.

Sometime in his late teens Nat struck out on his own and went to the Texas Panhandle. There, despite his age, he evidently attended Miss Cappie's School. This became an important connection for him and he often returned to Claude, Texas or nearby Amarillo for the reunions of Miss Cappie's Kids. Nat came home to Johnson County in 1893 when a drought caused many of the frontiersmen to leave the panhandle.

A story from Nat's years in the panhandle was broadcast by Station KGNC in nearby Amarillo. A friend of Nat’s in Amarillo heard this radio program, wrote to see if he was the Brewer mentioned, and sent him a copy. The story was then reprinted by Nat's employer, the Santa Fe Railroad.

A Christmas Story

Ever head of a Christmas story in the middle of March? Well, here is one that all of you will enjoy – and it does concern a Santa Fe fella that most of you know and think a lot of.

This story was presented in Amarillo over Station KGNC, and it is about Panhandle City. Here goes …

“It was the night before Christmas in 1891. A big red cedar tree had been cut in the canyon 30 miles away, and hauled in a wagon to the courthouse. Money had been collected to decorate the tree and to insure a treat for every child in the county. There were only a few families in Carson County in 1891 and the first Christmas tree meant plenty of excitement for everyone. A committee decorated it, putting a pasteboard star covered with tinfoil on all the boughs and hanging a doll there, then one over on the other side. They scattered scarfs, neckties, socks, fascinaters, etc., all over the tree.

After the tree was decorated, all the workers left for home to prepare for the party that night. One man, Horace Hickox, noticed a dark cloud bank in the north and realized he should not wait in town as planned, but go home and put his stock under shelter. Against his better judgment, he decided to stay until his children arrived and he saw that they were all fine.

At home the Hickox children were getting ready to go to town. It was an eight mile journey into town over a road where there were no fences and no lanes. Snow had already begun to fall when they reached town. When they arrived “Papa” had his heart set on seeing his children enjoy their first tree, but the snow changed his mind. Mr. Hickox’s stock were out in the cold and they must be attended to, so he called on a young neighbor, Nat Brewer, to drive his family home and then Horace left.

The party continued, spirits were higher than ever before, and no thoughts were given to the snow storm raging close outside. Packages were opened, horns blown, dolls were hugged close to the hearts of little girls, young ladies blushed as they found a ring or bracelet from different young men, women found the new sewing machines or sidesaddles, needed and wanted, while young men treasured the knitted or crocheted neckties made for them by the girl they loved. Everyone was happy.

The crowd began to dwindle a few at a time. Nat Brewer got the Hickox children together and they started on the slow drive home through the swirling snow storm. The children bedded down in the bales of hay Nat had bought and wrapped up in blankets. Nat was the only unprotected one and he walked half of the eight miles to keep from freezing. When they finally reached the Hickox home, Nat noticed a thermometer on the side of the house and it read “0.”

The afternoon had been pretty, but for some reason Nat had carried his overcoat. This coat kept him from freezing while taking the Hickox children home.

After the horses were fed another Christmas party was held inside the warm house and the children went to bed warm and happy.”

Well, how did you like the story? What does it have to do with the Santa Fe, you ask? That Nat Brewer is H. N. (Nat) Brewer, retired powerhouse engineer. Mr. Brewer retired May 30, 1944, after working for the Santa Fe for almost 22 years.

A friend of Mr. Brewer’s in Amarillo heard this radio program, wrote to see if he was the Brewer mentioned, and sent him a copy.

Mr. Brewer came to Cleburne in 1874 in a wagon from Mississippi. Bet he could tell us some interesting stories about early Cleburne. Hats off to you, Mr. Brewer!

In June of 1893 Nat married May Ellen Pittman in Italy, Ellis County, Texas. May had been born in Ellis County to parents who were also Mississippi emigrants.

In June of 1900 Nat was farming in Ellis County and they had a six-year-old son Roy; but sadly, May lists herself as the mother of 3 children, 1 living. Two daughters, Jennie and Jewel had died shortly after birth and are buried in the Italy cemetery. Also living in the household was May's grandmother Cerena Jordan Little,

May, Roy, and Nat Brewer

Happily, by December of 1900 a third daughter Ina Beatrice had been born and she lived to be seventy-seven. Ina remembered the move from Italy in Ellis County to Johnson County when she was about 5 or 6. She marveled that her family had made the trip in a horse-drawn wagon and that she lived to see a man walk on the moon.

In 1910 the little family has grown to include two younger brothers for Ina, Ollin and Elton.

The Johnson farm was at Lone Willow, about 10 miles southwest of Cleburne.

Back row: Ina, Roy, Nat - Front Row: Elton, Ollin, May

Ina, Ollin & Elton on the farm

In 1920 Nat was still farming, but by 1930 he was employed in the shops of the Santa Fe Railroad and living in Cleburne at 414 Williams Avenue. Ina's daughter Marion told about living through the depression in Cleburne.

Nat holding Marion

Nat and Marion on Old Lady

"I remember a few things prior to the time I started to first grade. The things that I really remember, without somebody telling me that it happened, I guess, was in 1929 when we had the depression and all the banks closed. My grandma and grandpa lived across the street from us and they had two farms. One was a black land farm and the other one was a sandy land farm. There were a lot of people out of work during the depression, and fortunately my dad and my granddad both had work the whole time that the depression was on, but there was a lot of people out of work. There was a lot of what they called soup lines, and there was a lot of chaos back then because people had had good jobs and had means to take care of their families and all at once they didn’t have that money and the financial support that they’d had. They’d lost their homes and times were pretty hard for most everybody. But my granddad had the sandy land farm and, if you don’t know much about farming, you can raise a lot of things on sandy land because it retains the water and it’s a good growing soil for fruits and vegetables.

The Black Land Farm

And we didn’t have many fruits. My grandmother and granddad had a great big lot that they lived on across the street from us and we had quite a few peach trees and things like that we could get fruit off of for our fruit. But down on the sandy land farm, there was a family that lived down there and took care of the farm, and planted the produce and harvested it and my granddad would get part of what they harvested. And we used to go down, my granddad had a great big trailer and a little car, and we’d go down real early in the morning when the things got ripe, ready to harvest, and we’d maybe pick corn - pick a whole trailer full of corn - and we’d bring it back up to where we lived. And my family - I had one brother, Weldon, that was two years younger than I was, and I had an uncle - my Uncle Ollin and his family - and my grandmother and granddad. And we had a pressure cooker and we had a sealer that would seal the tin cans - like you go to the grocery store and buy things out of now. A lot of people didn’t have those sealers to do the tin cans and they would use bottles, but we had the sealer, so we used the tin cans.

My family would buy the cans a hundred at a time and when we would do the corn, we would get all the corn off of the cob, you have to shuck the corn. April, you know what it looks like when you go to the grocery store and buy it with the shucks on it? We’d have to take all that off and clean it and get it ready. And we’d cut it off the cob and can the corn. We canned beans, we canned black-eyed peas, we made soup, and a lot of times we had meat and we’d can the meat. And we’d have that all year long to live on. We used to have tomatoes and we’d can tomatoes, and we’d can tomato juice. And we had just about everything we needed with the fruit and the vegetables that we could can and have for our year’s supply of food. And we were really lucky because we never had to ask anybody for food or help because we were more or less self-sufficient."

Nat behind car, Roy driving, Elton beside Roy, Ina leaning out, May in back, Ollin standing.

The 1940 Census shows the close relationship of the two families. They live across the street from each other and Marion Johnson and Nat Brewer both work for the Santa Fe Railroad.