Transcript of Oral History Interview with Ethel Baker Starkey, March 28, 2013 Page: 8 of 18

                                
Ethel Starkey
everything into that building, including Junior's $8,000. About that time their
father died in May 1946. And his mother of course inherited the land but no
income because he'd been - they had cattle or whatever on the land. He had
been, A.L. Starkey, Sr., the county surveyor for 48 years. And he didn't
charge much for surveying, didn't bring - money was not - you know he'd
always lived, been born on that land and just always they had plenty to eat. But
she needed an income. So they decided they would sell part of it to Junior,
using that $8,000. Rankin would pay his mother, that would be part of the
down payment. I don't believe there was a recorded loan because he was
going to then go to the bank to borrow money to put in streets, that was
Starkey Manor No. 1.
FRANCELLE:     So this is the area that is kind of east of Walmart, we would say?
ETHEL:         Not east - north - Lois street goes - Lois Street was not there then, Harper
Road did not intersect Junction Highway. It ended at Jackson Road, which
was the old Harper Road - it curved - or the second oldest, I guess.
FRANCELLE:     And how many acres would you say that was over there? The original?
ETHEL:         Well he bought - oh no, the original was - James Monroe Starkey - we're
getting all mixed up here. James Monroe Starkey bought two-320 acre
connecting pieces of land, making 640 acres - in 1856.
FRANCELLE:     OK. And that was the original Starkey land.
ETHEL:         He bought out two - when they were fighting for Texas Independence from
Mexico, I believe those men who participated in the war were each given 320
acres. And James Monroe, in 1856, there were two widows who had never
seen the land, they just inherited and they lived somewhere else in Texas. He
bought the two 320 acres from those widows, and that's Sheffield, and I've
forgotten the name of the other abstract that they call it. Anyway, where were
we?
FRANCELLE:     We had to go back there to get started, but that's a good place that we went
back...
ETHEL:         So he started selling -- every time he sold a lot, the money would go to his
mother, and the house he built on it, that's where he would make his profit.
FRANCELLE:     OK, so he actually did the building, too. He sold the lots to the...
ETHEL:         He built on them and then anybody wanting to buy a lot, he would sell them a
lot. But that money, until he got it all paid. So by the time 1951 came along,
he thought he had paid his indebtedness down enough to where he could get
married. He wanted to get that indebtedness down before he paid on another
encumbrance.

Kerr County Historical Commission                                                     8                                                                          Oral
History Project