Linnie Evelyn Stephenson Standley

Smith Point’s oldest living resident is Linnie Evelyn Stephenson Standley who will turn 100 years old next month. She arrived in Smith Point with her parents, sister Eula Mae and brothers Ralph and Walter (Snook) in the year 1927, at the tender age of five.  The following information has been collected from interviews at different times with Evelyn and may have some repetition, but it is all so informative, I wanted to include all of it.

My maternal grandfather Karl Mathais Nielsen came to America from Arendal, Norway as a young cook on a sailing vessel into Galveston, Texas in 1881. 

He changed his name to Charles Martin Nelson when he received his citizenship papers in Galveston, Texas in 1890.  They came for religious liberty and a better way of life, because America was known as the "Land of Opportunity."  Evelyn wrote in her story of how she became an avid Indian enthusiast, "Mary Floyd met Karl (Charles M.) Nelson while working in the cotton mill in Galveston. Karl had come into Galveston in 1881 as a young cook on a sailing vessel from Arendal, Norway. He received his citizenship in Galveston, March 10, 1890. 

He changed his name from Karl Mathais Nilsen to Charles Martin Nelson. From then on he was known as Charlie.  He had to walk by the cotton mill on his way to his longshoreman's job. After some days of being whistled at, he and Floyd met and married shortly thereafter.  Charles, and Mary Floyd, and two children moved from Galveston in a sailing vessel to Anahuac, TX. around 1900. 

They then moved to Double Bayou until Nov. 12, 1912, when they arrived with seven children in a motorless sailboat named "Nancy" on Smith Point. " 

My parents, Jessie Ralph Stephenson and Ruby Lena Nelson were born in Double BAYOU, Texas. They married on 26 Oct. 1921.  

Most families had at least nine children. In my immediate family, I was the eldest of four brothers and two sisters with one brother dying at childbirth. Our house consisted of kitchen, large living room with two day beds and two bedrooms and a porch made into a bedroom. My oldest sister, and I being the oldest, had a bedroom together. My oldest two brothers shared the bedroom on the porch. My younger sister and brother had the day beds in the living room. My baby brother slept in a crib in my parents' room.  

We made pallets on the floor in the living room in the summertime, as we would rather sleep on the floor than in the bed. Mom would have to make us go to bed at times.  

We did not have electricity where I lived. Smith Point did not have electricity until 1948 or 1949. We did not have indoor plumbing but had a little house out back.  We did not have toilet tissue, we used old catalogues.  

I was a teenager when we acquired a radio run off batteries and our music were records played on a hand wound Victrola phonograph. We did everything by hand, because we had no need for electrical appliances.  

On a cold morning with no heat in house, Mom would kindle a fire in the kitchen in the wood stove. We had a tin heater in the living room that we called "Snuffin' Billy" because if it didn't get hot fast enough, we would throw in some paper and it would dance while getting hot. We would back up to the stove and burn on one side and freeze on the other.  

We had running water when we ran with it! But, we did consider ourselves being uptown, because we had a pitcher pump and sink on a porch attached to the kitchen while others in the community got their water from a well, or had to carry it some distance from a windmill.  If the house would have caught on fire the water bucket would have been the first thing to burn because it never had any water in it.  

There were only thirteen families on Smith Point until the thirties. Our family pets were cats, dogs, chickens, and pigs. We had one pet pig that we called Porky and we rode it. Of course, my dad was raising it for meat. When we killed it my sister never ate a bite of Porky.  

We never heard or saw any store bought games with the exception of jacks or marbles. So, we made out own playing cards out of cardboard. We would build kites with sticks, brown paper, and homemade paste of flour and water. We also had fun building stilts, then known as "Tom Walkers" and walking on them. We also built tin can wheelers by nailing a syrup can lid on the end of a stick. We also had old tires that we could roll around and make tire swings.  

My name Linnie Evelyn is not used very frequently any more.  I guess the funniest nickname I ever knew was what we called our oldest brother Willard at times. It was "Pill Jerk Pete." It came from my dad telling about a man named Pete, and he was told to take a pill three times a day. So he tied a string on the pill, swallowed it and jerked it back up, swallowed it again and jerked it back up. We thought it was funny and started calling our brother "Pill Jerk Pete."  

Dad had a humorous side. When he was asked what my brother's Willard and Walter's names were he replied, "Poker Pete" and "Ekelie Zeke."  

We had no grocery store on Smith Point until the late thirties, so our staples came by boat from Galveston.  

I made bread when I had to stand on an apple box to reach the top of the table in order to knead the dough. Knead is to place your dough in a pile of flour and work the flour into the right consistency to make loaves or rolls. The you let them rise & bake. We made bread about three times a week and had homemade biscuits for breakfast. We even made our own yeast cakes with hops (Dad bought in Galveston) and cornmeal. We rolled them out, cut them with a biscuit cutter, and dried them. When they were dry, we would place them in a flour sack and hang then on the wall in the kitchen. If we didn't have the hops, Mom would pick fig leaves and boil them with Irish potatoes for yeast. We also made sourdough bread by saving a little dough for a starter. When the dough became where it didn't rise well, we would add yeast cakes to the dough. 

My husband's first car was a used Model "A" Ford that he bought for about $25.00 in 1941 and repaired it. It served us well. The second car was a 1938 Ford that I bought in 1943 on time for about $200.00 during World War II, when my husband was fighting with "Merril's Marauder" in Burma. He was one of one hundred out of a platoon of three thousand to survive. A movie of his outfit was made, and I still have it. It has shown on TV numbers of times.  

After I married, we lived in rented houses for about $15.00 a month until we bought a home on two lots in December 1959 with electricity and propane tank included for $7,500.00. It had three bedrooms, living room, dining room, kitchen, bath, glassed in den, and carport, which is appraised today at $30,000.00 

One of the funniest things was when our son, Ronnie was too small for a pocket knife that was given to him. He was so excited over it, so I told him that he could keep it until he cut himself with it. Then one day I heard him making unusual noises, and I asked him if he had cut himself. He said, "Yes, a little but it doesn't hurt," so, he got to keep the knife. 

Evelyn has a great love of travel and that has been one area she has indulged herself. I believe she has visited 9 different countries, a few of which are: Africa, Hawaii, Greece, Mexico, Italy (Rome), The Holy Land, and one very special trip she took along with cousins Necil Nelson Kelley, Ruth Nelson, and Mary Edith Nelson in 2004 to Norway. They traveled to the birthplace of their grandfather, Karl Mathais Neilsen in Arendal, Norway and were able to visit the Church where he was baptized as well as the resting place of ancestors long gone. On every trip Evelyn kept such explicit diaries that one could actually experience every aspect of the trip through her literary skill. Speaking of literary skill, Evelyn always wanted to write a book, but couldn't quite seem to find the time, I think you can see why! She did write several short stories.