Carlos Collins –
I don’t need to tell you my age, but I was born in Bell County, Texas, in 1891. So at this particular time I am 91 years and one month old. We lived on a farm in Bell County about 12 miles south of the city of Holland. The farm was located right near and just west of the Katy Railroad.
It was in between the Houston brothers farm and ranch and the Archer farm and ranch to the east of us and the Houston ranch was to the south. And there was also a Parrott farm east of us. Then the Garrison farm was a little bit north and west. I remember that there were two Garrisons. We called them Uncle John and Uncle Joe. I think they were both bachelors. Dad [Albert Buell Collins] worked for them before he married mother [Amanda Jane Perryman]. He was working there and I remember he said that they encouraged him to go back and get married and they would help finance a farm – which he did. We always referred to them as Uncle Joe and Uncle John Garrison.
I remember this – just a year or so before we moved to Fisher County, that I was at the wedding of Governor Jim Ferguson and his wife. (He wasn’t governor then.) His wife was the daughter of Joe Wallace near Belton. We were considered neighbors and were invited to the wedding. I was intrigued to see an artesian well on the Wallace farm. I had never seen water flow out of a well without a pump or being pulled up by a bucket.
Emmilou Edmonds –
Before we found out that I wasn’t recording, you were talking about the cemetery there. I’d like for you to tell me more about that again.
Carlos Collins –
There’s a cemetery near, between where we lived and Belton which is the county seat and it was at a little settlement called Center Lake. There was a school house and some other community activities at the school house. Center Lake – I mean the lake – I remember it was one of 3 lakes close by and it was in the middle and called Center Lake. Was there anything else you wanted me to tell about the cemetery?
Emmilou Edmonds –
Yes, you were telling me about the folks that were buried there.
Carlos Collins –
Oh, yes. I remember that Uncle Mac [Nathaniel Maxwell Collins 1823-1912], my father’s uncle, who was the brother of my father’s father, being buried there and also his wife. Aunt Myra, we called her. And the twin brother of Ray, my brother, died in infancy was buried there and I’m pretty sure there was a stone placed on his grave in a place in the cemetery close to some of the other Collins’ there.
[Note: According to Find A Grave and his death certificate, N M Collins died and is buried in Nolan County, Texas, not Bell County.]
Emmilou Edmonds –
I came across a Perryman listed in the church that you told me you had gone to. I was wondering, did grandmother maybe have a brother who had come there, too?
Carlos Collins –
Yes, his name was Uncle Warren [Warren Perryman 1854-1917]. He didn’t live there all the time. I don’t remember when he came on the scene. He married in Texas there, one of the Archer girls that lived on the farm east of us. I remember being at their house when she was real sick because it seemed that all the neighbors came around. I remember being there when she passed away. He came to Texas after mother and dad did. I remember that.
Emmilou Edmonds –
What do you remember about the church?
Carlos Collins –
Well, it was called Post Oak Grove Church. It was between where we lived and Holland. And I remember that’s where we went to church and I remember they’d have camp meetings – evangelistic services sometime during the year. And sometime they had kind of a brush arbor place to meet during the summertime and there was a church there. And I remember that Dr. Green [William Pinkney Green, 1837-1907, the grandfather of Carlos’ first wife, Golda Prince] preached there once or so.
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