'Buckshot' Lane transports prisoners by plane
From the archives
Janet Hobizal

Wharton Long Ago

Told by Frank Suaste to Renee Suaste

Long ago in the town of Wharton, T.W. Lane was the sheriff. They called him "Buckshot" Lane. The college grounds used to be a cow pasture. Later, an airplane landing field was made for Mr. Lane's piper cub plane. He had gotten the plane by donations of the people of Wharton. He would use it to get prisoners from far away towns. Later in 1946, they built the junior college. It kept expanding across the black-top road where the county fair used to be.

There was just one school (what is now the junior high). It was built in 1920. Students from Boling, Iago and small towns around would come to Wharton School. Later in the summer of 1962, they completed what is now Wharton Senior High School and they moved in. Their first graduating class was in 1962.

The Colorado River Told by Mr. E.E. Macha to Ann Hanslik

The Colorado River today is peaceful and stays in its banks most of the time. This was not true when I was a young man some 70 years ago. The river had no banks and when heavy rains came, it flooded thousands and thousands of acres of land. It caused many to lose their lives and the loss of livestock and poultry was always very great.

We have had many floods here in Wharton County. The flood of 1913 was one that will always live in my memory. The water overflowed and the countryside

from Wharton to Richmond was like a big lake. Many people lost everything they owned and

had to get

on housetops and up in trees to save their lives. The Lower Colorado River Authority built dams on the river in 1934 and this has helped to stop the flooding

1932 Storm

Told by Mr. Phillip Meyers to Deborah Jones

He had a mulberry tree in his front yard that sat up as straight as a silver dollar. The 1932 storm split it in half and took the side of his house. My mother was a small baby.

He said that before the storm my grandmother made wine by the gallon from berries. She made the best pies from them also. The storm ruined the crops that year. Cotton was all over the ground.

The corn was blown on the ground and the ears rotted on the earth. Many people lost their houses from the storm.

Janet Hobizal is an archivist for the Wharton County Historical Museum.