This account by Mrs Annie Tschatschula first appeared in A History of Lee County, published in 1974 by the Lee County Historical Survey Committee.



The following are some of the names of the old settlers around Northrup: To the south there were the families of Christof Mitschke; John Bigon; Christof Hottas; John Vogel; George Schmidt; Herman Schulze; Mathes Krause; Andreas Lorenschk; Ernst Hielscher; Ernst Miertschin; Ernst Menzel; John Miertschin; Peter Fritsche; John Gersch; Peter Kieschnick; Henry Wenke, Sr.; August Driessner; Herman Noack; Mathes Bohot; Mathes Jakobik; John Bohot; John Mrasko; -- Hollas (the place is now owned by Elmer Fischer); August Zoch; the father of Herman Noack, I only knew him as Schlosser (Locksmith) Noack; Paul Noack, a son of the aforementioned; also living close by my great-grandfather was Johan Wenke and a family by the name of Eisfeld. These were all families in the immediate trading circle at Northrup. More or less on Pin Oak Creek lived Johan Gersch, -- Schelnick, Johann Mitschke, Ernst Mitschke, and Ernst Mertink who lived on the farm of his wife's grandfather Schubert.

My former old neighbor lady, Mrs. Agnes Schubert Schiewart, told me she was just a girl about ten years old when the Civil War was going on. She said she took many meals down to the creek bottoms of Pin Oak Creek and Knobbs Branch for the local draft dodgers. She would usually put the platter of food on a fairly high stump, out of the reach of dogs. After dark, the men would come out of their hiding places to claim the food. The men often hid in trees thickly enveloped by grape vines or Spanish moss. One man hid upstairs under a big cotton basket, while another stood between rows of drying tobacco leaves upstairs in his home while the Government officials were searching the premises to get them for military service. Other men donned dresses and bonnets to plow the fields without being recognized. Captain Schneider was the man responsible for them out in these parts, but he always tried to protect them and keep them at home on their farms so there would not be a food shortage or shortage of cotton for fabrics. These were not pleasant days for the early settlers. Although Mrs. Schiewart never gave any names, probably some of the above names were among these “draft dodgers.”

Mrs. Schiewart's father would drive to Mexico with cotton and bring back flour and sugar. The only sugar they had was brown sugar, in a cone shape which weighed about ten pounds. Sometimes just two or three of these cones had to suffice for a whole year. It was so hard that her mother would chip off little chunks with a knife and hammer. Her father, M. Schubert, had bees so they used lots of honey for sweetening. They knew nothing about jelly, but would eat honey very thinly spread on bread. Agnes would always watch for the honey to drop through the bread and then lick it. The family only had coffee cake at Christmas and Easter time. She could never eat all she wanted, for it was meted out to each person by her mother. Some forgotten owner had a molasses mill down in their bottom land, where lots of molasses was cooked up.

To go for a visit with neighbors, they would walk or the father would hitch the horses to a sled. Since most of the farmers had only oxen, they could not go very far away to visit. To church they would go on foot most of the time, carrying their shoes in hand until near the church.

Another quite interesting story is that of Mutter Mathijetz and her girls who went all the way to McDade to work for a big land owner there by the name of Smith. Mr. Smith came to Reverend John Kilian and asked if any of his church members would care to have work. He would gladly furnish transportation. He met them at the St. Paul's Church late Sunday afternoon so they could get an early start on Monday morning, and returned them to St. Paul's Church late Friday evening. From there each family would go to his respective home. It is said this is how we first got our little red and yellow plums. Mutter Mathijetz always brought a big apron full of plums with her on Fridays. Mutter Mathijetz was the great-grandmother of Mrs. Alfred Sander, Mrs. Ruth Schatte, and Fred Wenke.

The family of Zwahr lived around Big Pin Oak where it runs into Knobbs Branch. Mrs. Carl Miertschin is a direct descendent of the Zwahrs, also John Symmank of Giddings. Another settler in that area was Speck (“Bacon”) Kasper, the grandfather of E. A. Wiessenhuetter. Mr. Kasper always butchered big fat hogs and sold the bacon, therefore the nickname.

My old colored neighbors were faithful and hard-working. “Uncle” Dennis and “Aunt” Sarah Bailey were the parents of fourteen children. “Aunt” Sarah was my mother’s “Nanny” who taught her how to keep house and cook, as she lost her mother when she was a little girl. My mother was Mrs. Lena Wenke Paulick. Another old “Mammy” was “Aunt” Rosa Small, and “Uncle” Ben Dobbins, his wife, and big family, including son John. “Uncle” Ben once told me that he had seen a shower of stars fall to the ground like rain, and it lasted for several minutes. He was a good horse doctor.

Also not to be forgotten are the families of Andreas Biebas, August Groeschel, Johann Reinhardt, and Meter Wukasch.

This is about all of the old timer's names, among them some of the Wends who emigrated on the Ben Nevis sail ship.

Northrup was at first called “Old Serbin” or more often “Serbin Switch,” since the S. A. & A .P. Railroad came through. Mr. and Mrs. Michael Zoch who lived near the present town site, suggested to my father-in-law, Mr. Mathes Tschatschula, that he come to Northrup and open a business as the railroad personnel would need many things. Between 1890 and 1895 M. Tschatschula opened a general merchandise store. He was also a cobbler which helped him along a lot in those early days.

When the railroad trade progressed John Schiewart moved his blacksmith shop here and did a big business. He also made coffins, usually at night by lamp or lantern light. Since there were no undertakers in those days, John’s craft was a needed service.

Messrs. J. W. Gibson, C. C. Niles, and T. A. Lester on February 3, 1891, through their agent R. H. Northrup, subdivided their land along the S. A. & A. P. Railroad, and filed a plat of the new town of Serbin (present Northrup) in the Lee County Clerk's office, recorded in Book Q, page 564. There are still signs of the originally laid out blocks which are now only lanes. By 1900 we had a post office named for R. H. Northrup, and a population of fifty, chiefly Wends.

After a number of years, a Dr. Foster came and practiced medicine here with the assistance of my mother-in-law, Mrs. Louise Tschatschula, who would mix and put into capsules the medicines the doctor measured. Dr. Foster also boarded with the Tschatschula's. He had an odd method of resting during the day when not at work. Several strands of barbed wire were wrapped with cloth and strung between two trees with a big knot at one end for a headrest. He would lie on the wire hammock and balance his body with one foot on the ground.

A convict gang helped lay the railroad track through our community, which was a long drawn out procedure. They also worked m the gravel pit which provided material for the right-of-way.

Northrup at one time had a cattlemen's association called “Die Schweine Brueder.” Many carloads of cattle and hogs were shipped from Northrup as well as many bales of cotton from Serbin, Warda, and Nechanitz bound for Fort Worth and Kansas City.

With the years of progress here, there were at one time three shifts of telegraph operators. C. T. Kasper was the first depot agent, followed by many others.

The section foreman usually boarded with the Tschatschula's until a house was moved in so they could bring their families to town. Santiago Lara, now retired and living in Giddings, was among the last to leave here after the Section was moved to Giddings. In the early years of the 1900s, there were quite often many extra gangs. Some consisted of as many as seventy-five men and some “mule gangs” or “scraper gangs” to keep up the tracks.

There are three graves on the railroad right-of-way. One man was killed when he got into a fight, one section hand was overcome by a heat stroke, and one man was killed by the train on which he was trying to catch a ride to Giddings when he accidentally fell between the cars and his head was severed. Originally these graves had wooden crosses to mark their location, but through the years, grass fires on the right-of-way have destroyed them; however, the writer still knows the location.

Oh! There were pleasant days also. My husband, Charles Tschatschula, the extra gang foreman or the section boss and I would sometimes on a moonlit night get on the pump car and ride several miles down the track, taking turns at pumping the thing.

At one time Northrup consisted of the store, blacksmith shop, butcher shop, gin, garage, beer house, stock shipping pens, and a post office.

Charles Tschatschula would take the mailbag to the depot, put it up on a sturdy pole and the trainman would grab it as the train passed, and throw off a sack of mail for Northrup’s citizens.

The owners of the store were: Mathes Tschatschula, Charles and H. P. Tschatschula, H. P. Weiser, and presently, E. R. Bigon. The blacksmith shop has its third owner, Louis Malke. The garage is under the management of E. A. Dunk. The gin, beer house, butcher shop, and depot have all been moved away.

M. Tschatschula bought many a bale of cotton which he in turn sold to E. M. Coller in Giddings. There were as many as 150 bales of cotton on the platform at times. Cord wood too was shipped out from here. During the lean years, many carloads of cotton seed hulls and corn shucks were shipped.

During the severe drought in 1925, many carloads were unloaded here. Among those shipping out cord wood were Mathes Bohot, Andreas Moerbe, Mathes Krause, Herman Schulze, and Henry Dunk.

Mr. Ernst Falke of Warda lost his life when he accompanied a shipment of hogs. Another train rammed the back of the car he was in. His only daughter, Della Mae Falke Giese lives in the Warda community. She is the wife of Louis Giese who owns a big farm there.

Cotton was ginned in Warda by Mathes Kasper; in Serbin by Andreas Moerbe; at Sand, first, by Albert Peter, the son-in-law of Rev. John Kilian, next by Ernst Hielscher, next by Paul Kessel, and finally by Gerhardt G. Zoch who moved to Northrup. I think the ginner at Nechanitz was Matejowsky. All this cotton from the surrounding gins was shipped out from Northrup.

Around the turn of the century there was a store on land presently owned by Jimmy Oltmann. The business was known as Schubert's Store and the owner was the grandfather of the late Ewald Schubert. The only remaining evidence of its location is a hole or indentation where an underground cistern served the premises. The Schuberts probably lived in back of the store.

Zac Gerhard and M. Tschatschula were operating businesses in Northrup in 1910 when the population was 25. By 1930 the post office had been replaced by rural delivery from Giddings. In 1940 the population had increased to 100 and there were three businesses.