This is Jim Moroney interviewing Mrs. Blanche
Duplantis on February 9th, 1976.
Mrs. Duplantis, perhaps you could tell us when
you came to Baytown and under what circumstances
and a little bit about your background prior to
coming to Baytown.
I was born and raised until I was 18 months old
in Port Arthur, Texas.
We moved to Cleburne, Texas, stayed there until
I graduated from high school in 1921.
Ready to go to college.
My mother had a complete nervous breakdown and
had to postpone college.
As a consequence, I took postgraduate work
under Olins Burlock in business, who was a
graduate of MIT and went to work.
We moved to Baytown or then it was known as Old
Town, New Town, and Middle Town in 1923,
Holy Week.
The first church service I ever attended from
Baytown was the greatest Methodist church
on Easter Sunday.
I was primarily interested in the Episcopal
Church, but I came here and found none and
immediately started looking for people who
might belong to the Episcopal Church and found
Mr. Deputy Terry, for whom I worked the next
eight or nine months in a real estate office.
In that time, the Goose Creek State Bank,
located in, I guess you would call it Middletown
or Pelley, started looking for someone to keep
books that knew how to operate a borough's
posting machine, which seemed in those days to
be quite an accomplishment that had not
been very popular by a lot of the girls who
were working.
So I went to work for the Goose Creek State
Bank as bookkeeper in early 1924.
I stayed with the bank until the bank was
merged with the first guaranteed state bank
in what was known at that time as Goose Creek
in the 1930s after the moratorium.
After that, I stayed with them for just a very
short time and then I kind of retired.
The coming to Baytown or coming to Goose Creek
in the old days was a hazardous thing.
I arrived in Houston by train, my uncle met me
there, we came out by car as far as Lynchburg
Ferry, got on the ferry, it was the largest
bottle of water I'd ever seen in my life.
The cable to the ferry broke.
We drifted almost to the old Baytown docks
before a tugboat finally came along and pushed
us back up and I was frightened.
Then our furniture had to come by barge from
what was known as Morgan City, Morgan's Point,
and brought over by barge.
Incidentally, the piano that I brought on that
old barge is in Randy's home.
Randy Cooper is now Father Cooper, the minister
of Trinity Episcopal Church.
We came primarily due to my mother's health, we
lost her in 1925.
There still being no Episcopal Church here,
Bishop Quinn, whom we deeply love and whom
many people in this community knew, came from
Houston, muddy highways, a very bad day to
hold the services for my mother, as a
consequence he was very dearly loved by me.
Some very odd things had happened when I worked
in the bank, the monies of the payrolls in
the oil field came down to the citizens bank
which was in Newtown at that time.
I had an old open ford and I used to get in
that Ford by myself and go to the citizens
and get that money that's on the seat by me,
came down.
I had no apprehension at all that I might be
hijacked, that I might be run off the road.
I just brought the money back down to the Goose
Creek State Bank and we carried right on.
Could you describe Baytown still being the oil
boom days at that time, how long did they last?
Definitely, there were long, decent roads.
In front of the bank we had kind of a board
sidewalk, ditches, you didn't dare get off
the road.
This went on until, I would say, about 29,
improvement started in that particular part.
Newtown was in a better shape than Pelly was,
at an earlier date.
Newtown would be what we know as Goose Creek,
and it was in better shape then than Pelly.
Pelly was still bearing the earmarks of an oil
boom with the oil derricks right at its
back door.
What oil companies were active at this time?
Gulf Oil was the largest in the field.
There was some humble activity, but of course
theirs was mostly refinery.
I think you would find that the Gulf Oil
Company was the largest at this particular time.
They had quite a colony down in the field where
their superintendent of the Gulf production
lived, and quite a number of the people the
company had built their housing area down there.
Comparable, well not exactly comparable, but
similar to the one Humble had set up for their
people out in East Baytown.
And some of these shacks, if you might believe
it, are still down there in that field today.
There was a major labor strike in the oil
fields in 1917.
By the 1920s was there any sort of difficulty
of this type?
None, to my knowledge.
Were there still new strikes, do they call it excitement?
I have never known a strike.
I mean strikes of oil in the 1920s.
Oh, I beg your pardon, I misunderstood you.
I think I saw one well come in and blow while I
was there.
So by the 1920s was just sort of a steady
drawing of the oil that had already been found earlier.
I thought you'd say the oil boom days were
still, since it was a steady.
You mentioned that you came from Cleburne?
Where is Cleburne exactly?
Cleburne is about 25 miles southwest of Fort
Worth, Santa Fe Railroad headquarters at that time.
Now I found it rather interesting that doctors
had recommended this area for your mother's health.
What was the reasoning for that?
Frankly they thought just a change would be
good for her because her condition was more
or less a nervous one.
And incidentally my father had transferred to
the Pacific Railroad and he was to be stationed there.
So the railroads were a major activity in
Baytown at that time?
At that time they were extremely busy.
The access by railroad from Dayton, Texas was
the only access by railroad.
And the other way you came in here had to be by
boat or by this one road to Houston.
And that was down towards the Beaumont Highway,
Highway 90 and in that way.
There was a ferry and as I said previously the
cable would break and sometimes you didn't
feel too safe.
So to go to Houston from Baytown you either
went across the Lynchburg ferry or you didn't
have to go all the way to Dayton did you around
the 90?
No you could cut through nearby, you'd go
through what is Highlands and through that
way and you would hit 90 at that old bridge.
I think the old bridge is still standing but
it's not in use, it's close.
Yeah so almost across people, all right.
There was a bridge across the river at that point?
Central Central River, sure there was.
So either way it was not really direct like we
have today?
No, no it took hours to go.
And the roads were like you said narrow?
They were narrow, they were muddy and in real
bad weather you just didn't go.
Now to go by Dayton you went by train.
What sort of place was Baytown like in the 1920s?
It was sad, I think is about the best word I
could use for it.
Having come from an old, old town, well
established town, I was quite amazed at the way
the towns operated.
There were still people who lived in the oil
field who had to go to what they call public bathhouses.
They didn't have the bathhouses or the
accommodations that people were accustomed to
more or less
of that day.
It was rugged but it was so interesting.
There was always something interesting happening.
We had an extremely interesting person right
across from the bank, Mr. Leggett who owned
the drug store and had owned it from early,
early days and he was a colorful character.
We had two doctors in Middletown, Dr. Robbins
and his partner and it's unfortunate I cannot
remember that partner's name, he was a very
short person, very outspoken.
He reminded me a great deal of the movie Act of
Fields, he was that type of character.
He was very colorful and he was in the bank
every day of the world, we just had a good time.
In the bank we had a table set up, a desk set
up for the collector of the water rents
of Middletown at that time, Jimmy Riggs owned
the water works in the early days down there.
And Mr. B.C. Porter was his collector and at
the same time he was constable, he sat
there at the desk with his gun around his waist
and we felt rather secure.
The library was in the back director's room of
the old bank down there and Jesse Mabry
Davis was the librarian and she's still living
in Middletown.
She is Bitsy Davis' mother, she lives like a
hymn over there and we would clear off the
desk back there for the director's meetings and
then she would conduct the library in
there all the rest of the time, it made it interesting.
During that time churches were beginning to
build better buildings, people were coming
in constantly, there was a flow of people and
it just seems like that has been the history
of Baytown, there's still a flow of people
through here.
We think, well, we've reached the saturation
point and about that time something else happens
and that was just the same as it was back in
the 20s.
Several people have told me that in the 20s
during the oil boom days there were numerous
boarding houses, can you tell us something
about those and hotels?
There were two particularly large ones, the
Allen, we called it the Allen Hotel and Boarding
House was right on the main street of Pelley.
It was occupied later on by R.C.
Stevenson's grocery store and I believe at the
present time it has a used furniture store
in the bottom part of it, but this was quite a
popular boarding house.
This is the Allens that founded Houston, some
of their descendants, that was their home
and a boarding house and a rooming house.
Then there was Mrs. Compton down on Pelley
Hill, they called it, had a boarding house
and a rooming house, that's where Mr. Duplantis lived.
Then there was another large one about halfway
in between those two, I do not recall the
name of it but it was quite large, but those
three were very prominent in the life of Pelley
and a lot of people lived there.
At the time I came to this part of the country
the building that the bank was in had just
been finished.
It was a one storied stucco building and it was
looked upon with a great deal of delight
by those who lived here because it was quite an
asset to the town and the town had suffered.
I'm sure you have had someone tell you about
the post office having been moved.
Not really? No.
The post office was a small post office down in
deep Pelley or between Middletown and Old Town.
When they decided that they wanted Newtown to
be the town, one night somebody came down
there, I don't think they ever did name
anybody, but they put rollers under the post office
and moved it and they found it the next morning
up in what is now, what did become Goose Creek
is now Baytown proper.
Now were these names New Town and Middletown
and Old Town, were these just in common usage
or were they official names?
I really don't know whether they were ever
shown on a map.
I think it was Baytown, Goose Creek, and
Pelley, but before those were officially named
that they were just Old Town, New Town, and Middletown.
People called them.
Yes they did.
And they did for years after this, they got
their names.
The Old Town was actually down where the Gulf
had made its location down in the oil fields,
down there on the banks of Goose Creek stream,
and that was kind of Old Town, and then Pelley
was Middletown and Goose Creek was New Town,
and where the refinery was built was just
the refinery.
Okay, when was the refinery built, do you recall?
I think they put the first spade and granite in
1990, thereabouts.
So there was nothing out in what is now Old
Baytown except the refinery.
And what is East Baytown was nothing but a
swamp because I walked down there and we took
walks into that area.
Well, while we're still on the 1920s though,
what could you tell me maybe about the social
life in Baytown in this period in the 1920s?
What was there to do?
Did people go to Houston?
That's quite a question for any entertainment
at all, you had to go to Houston.
Really, you made your own entertainment.
I was quite young when I came here, and as I
recall it, the churches more or less had
the entertainment for the young people, and
there were some places out towards Cedar Bow
which was an old, old settlement, some homes in
which the young people of this area would
gather for dancing and for kind of Saturday
night parties, but these were small due to
having no real facilities, but for theaters and
for good entertainment, one had to go
to Houston for meals in a restaurant, one had
to go to Houston.
The old Euler Theater was built and had movies,
and these were highly patronized by the youngsters
of the theater. Yes.
Where was this theater, the Euler?
The Euler Theater was on the corner of Deceitie
and Commerce, North Commerce.
Incidentally, that little building to the side
of it was where we had our first services
with our church.
For tragedy of the school church.
That's where I worked for Mr. Terry.
What about the effects of the radio, when the
people began to get radios in the 1920s?
I really couldn't answer that.
I believe the national hookups and networks,
people began to listen to those in the mid-20s,
but before that, there were local stations, but
I just wondered if you remember what sort
of role that played in socializing.
No, really I don't.
Perhaps we can move to the 30s then.
I might ask you, when were you married? 1926.
And can you tell us a bit about your husband's
career, what he...
Well, Mr. Plance came here to start work at the
refinery in 1919, and he worked in the
dock area, but having graduated from LSU with a
degree in business finance and statistics,
he moved to another field, they were
establishing this bank, some of the old-timers
here, J.
W. Riggs, M. H. Bostic, Mr. Thompson from
Houston, who was president of the first organization
of the bank, Dad Morrell, were the first people
who saw the need for a bank in Pelly, and
they established this bank, and then they were,
of course, looking for someone who could
operate the bank for them, since none of them
wished to go into the bank per Se, and that's
when Mr. Plance went into the bank, and that
was in 1921.
And that's the name of the bank now?
The Dush Creek State Bank.
Dush Creek State Bank.
And there is a picture of that bank that I gave
to the museum over in City Hall, the
outside of it and the outside, and then he,
along with his directors coming in and out,
rather, operated the bank until 1923, and so
far as I know, I was the first bookkeeper
employed by the bank in 1923, and then he
stayed with that bank, as I had said before,
in the moratorium in the early 30s, and moved
to the first guaranteed state bank, and stayed
there until 1935, went with the Citizens
National Bank and Trust Company in 1935, and
then the
People's State Bank, owned by Mr. Florence, or
Gene Florence, of the report, was put on
the market for sale, and Mr. Plance and Mr. W.
Whitmer, of Sillsby, Texas, bought the
majority of the stock in the bank, and he was
with that bank then until he died.
And that's the name of that bank now?
People's State Bank. Right.
And we were married in 1926, and we were
married in Trent Episcopal Church in Houston, and
we've lived in Baytown the entire time.
Perhaps the 1930s then, what effects did the
Depression have in Baytown on the local scene?
Well, it was devastating to some, to others.
It did not seem to be too bad.
As you know, an industrial town never suffers
like the farming town or town that's away
from industry, and I think the history of
Baytown has repeated itself several times
during the Depression.
We have never actually felt a Depression like
other places.
There has been some troubles, for instance, the
bank could not survive.
At that time we had three banks, and there just
simply was not enough flow of money for
the three banks, so that's why this one merged
with one in Goose Creek.
Other than that and a few small business
failures, I doubt that there was too much repercussion
from it.
Would you say that most of the people in a
community of this sort were here with refineries
or jobs of this sort, that they continued to
have jobs?
Yes, they surely did.
Of course, in that time your production was
still good in the field.
Your refinery was still building to a certain
extent, so people were very well occupied.
They didn't.
I don't recall any really deep suffering during
that Depression.
But in terms, it would have been different had
we had a lot of factories or things that
might have shut down and had a number of
unemployed people.
No, our life is extremely dependent upon oil industry.
What about maybe the banking business specifically?
You mentioned that there were several bank
failures and mergings.
Just the one.
Okay, one.
In terms of business and loans and so forth.
You could always loan money, but it was getting
the people to deposit the money and leave
it there for you to operate on.
It was a big problem.
Of course, salaries were a cut.
We do know that.
Some of these people who had worked out at the
plant for years and had real good paying
positions all of a sudden found themselves in
the labor game.
But they were not without a job.
This was their bread and butter.
But they didn't have any money to put in the bank.
They were living, existing, you might say,
until the day became brighter and things picked up.
I know quite a number of persons in that category.
Do you recall what time in Baytown that things
began to pick up?
Oh, yes.
I would say that 34, 33, and 34 were real good years.
Good years?
Yes, I sure do.
Because I was employed down in Goose Creek
proper and the businesses were doing very well.
My son was born in 1935, and I do know that
things were really in rather good shape downtown
in 33 and 34.
Real good shape.
And things continued then to be?
OK, so actually from 1929-32 were the bad parts
in Baytown.
What about the effects of the beginning of war
in Europe in 39?
What sort of, with an oil town?
Actually, it made a boom.
Yes, OK.
It actually did.
And I had, this is a bit personal, I had a
commission from the government in Otterfield.
And one day I had a wire, I received a telegram
from Washington, D.C. asking me to come to
Washington, D.C. that people with my rank in
their files were needed badly.
I immediately wired back and told them I was
not interested, but if anything opened in
Baytown that I would be interested.
And I immediately received another wire to
report to BOW.
They had come in here with the TNT production
out here.
And Homer Wilson and Mr. Snyder and all
transferred into that area.
And then I worked for the government with
Colonel Murchison as the head of this particular
assignment, and Bob Razor as the chief
accountant, and I worked under him auditing
records for
purchases made then.
And it was a boom.
A lot of people came in here.
That's in the late 30s, but is this all through
the war?
Yes, yep.
It sure was all through the war.
And until they closed down after the war.
Right, OK.
What sort of effects did you have with the war
other than the boom?
Things like air raid drills and other...
Complete air raid drills and lessons in how to
black out, in fact, the offices in which
we worked out at BOW.
We had the blackout curtains and we were
drilled to, upon certain signals, to completely black
out the area because it was an extremely
important area in the production of TNT.
And we were taught these things in our home.
We had neighborhood drills.
And there would be one person in the
neighborhood in charge of this and we'd have to
meet and
we'd have to have our homes fixed so they could
be blacked out.
Because we were considered in a highly
dangerous spot.
Well, yes, I've heard there were some rumors
about attempted attacks and so forth.
Can you tell me anything?
We had two rather bad scares, as far as I can recall.
We were told that there would be some bombing.
And as a consequence, the community stayed
rather quiet.
And there was no display of electricity at night.
In fact, we were encouraged not to leave our
homes at night on both instances.
Nothing ever happened.
This was a specific incident, not just general?
No, no, no.
This was a specific area.
They felt that they were going to bomb the plant.
At what time?
Do you recall when this happened?
No, I couldn't give you a date on it to save my life.
Was it fairly early in the war?
It was, no.
Were they supposed to be, or did you hear, were
they supposed to be maybe from aircraft
carriers or what explained how these planes
could get here?
They said that they would probably be just bombers.
I see.
Just bombers.
And I think that if we would go through it
again today, that we wouldn't pay too much
attention to them knowing.
But we know now that this could not be done.
But at the time.
Of course, with long range missiles, we have a
little bit different situation.
But with bombers, right.
We should have known better.
But what was the other incident you mentioned too?
The similar.
Oh, similar.
The similar incident.
And it happened within the year.
It looks like that, I'm trying to recall a date
for you on that.
When was Pearl Harbor?
December 41. 41.
That's what I was thinking.
I believe it was in 42 because, I'm sure that
it was in 42 because things were very active
out there at that time.
And there would have been no point for them to
be prior to that.
I'm just bringing that up for you.
I've heard several stories about submarine
sightings and so forth off Galveston and New
Orleans and maybe even closer.
Did you hear any stories about that?
We heard and read in the paper that there's
some general excitement, but there was never
anything to see.
Never anything to see.
I think the most apprehension you would get
would be when you watch the ship channel and
see the ships gliding through without lights on them.
Almost gruesome, like ghosts in the night sure enough.
Perhaps anything else we can think of during
World War II that might be, what about the
rationing and so forth?
Was this a great hardship at this time?
It was for some.
I resigned from the refinery, my husband,
during the storm, hurricane, received an injury
and was put to bed for nearly a year.
I resigned my position with the government and
by myself involved the chief clerk of
the rationing board almost overnight.
It didn't want to be.
We had problems there because it's only human
to think that you're the only one that needs something.
This is just being human.
The gasoline rationing board had a terrific time.
Mr. C.E.
Rodekate was the head of that and he was
perfectly marvelous in handling this.
Mr. Howard Brunson was overall a rationing board.
We had food, I would say an ample supply of
food stamps for those that were here.
We do know that there was some abuse of this
and we did try desperately to help the little ones.
The Goose Creek Hospital that was here located
over on D Street because they had so many
patients there.
They were the largest hospital at the time.
Lilly Duke was still in existence, was in
existence, but it was smaller.
As far as problems were concerned, I think our
biggest problem was trying to decide who
actually needed what they were requesting.
It sounds like maybe gasoline was the biggest problem.
In fact, they had their own individual group of
men over there.
It had nothing to do with the rest of the
rationing board because it was such a terrific problem.
The general feeling was, we're making gasoline
here, why can't we have all we want?
Sort of similar to the more recent problems of
natural gas and so forth shifting out of
the state.
In relation to the gasoline rationing, and
being head of the chief clerk of the Gasoline
Rationing Board, one Christmas we wanted to go
to Louisiana.
We saved rations, we hoarded them, really.
We saved them for a month ahead of time so that
we could make this trip.
As a natural consequence, we were, I don't know
whether you'd say accused or accosted
about possibly using somebody's rationing staff
that we did not have as our own, which
was one of the incidents connected with someone
that was working directly with that.
I'm sure that during the operations there, some
of our food clerks had similar experiences.
They'd see them in the grocery store.
I'm sure you do have.
So far as the boys' health was concerned, we
tried to be extremely cautious.
Incidentally, this rationing board was in the
old building where the Citizen's Bank
originally started, and they moved to their new quarters.
Perhaps you could sort of summarize
developments in this post-war period since
1945, economic
or other growth in the city.
I can best summarize this by saying what three
drug detail men who were having a conference
at the hospital today, we were sitting there
and we were discussing the welfare of Baytown
as a whole.
These were men who traveled extensively in all
parts of the state and the lower coast
area, and they said, frankly, Baytown did not
know what the meaning of a depression
was, that we were in the best financial
situation, we were people that were far more affluent
than in other areas that had gone that we
frankly didn't know what a depression meant.
What time period was this?
I would say it was in the middle 50s.
Do you think this is pretty well the case in Baytown?
I think it's the story of Baytown.
Because we're still bringing in new industries,
we're still bringing in new businesses, we're
still bringing in new people, and as long as
you're moving, you're progressing.
In summary, can you think of any other stories
that might be of interest?
Certainly you've had a long and varied
experience here in the city.
I don't know whether this would be particularly
interesting to the community at large, but
having been raised as an Episcopalian, I think
that the establishment of the Episcopal Church
and its life in the community is one of the
most interesting things that's ever occurred
in my life, having been with it all the years
that I've been here.
Its growth, which has been slow but sure,
actually the love of the community as expressed
through the church means a great deal, and as
you grow older these things do mean more
to you than they do as young people.
There have been many, many incidents in
Baytown, humorous, sad, and in retrospect you wonder
if you have done everything yourself that you
could have done for your community, but
again that is life.
Could you tell us a little more about the
development of the Trinity Episcopal Church
in Baytown?
In 1423 there were, I would say, 10 or 12
families of Episcopalians.
We got together and out of these 10 or 12
families, 14 of us signed a request for the
establishment of an Episcopal mission in
Baytown, and we were received with a great
deal of enthusiasm, encouragement by the
diocesan Bishop, Bishop Quinn, and we were told to
I have records in there where our first budget
was about $546.14.
Who were some of these other original families?
Mr. Terry, R. R. Zurline, who was a lawyer and
a funeral director, Mary Bell Truxell,
who was Mary Bell Duke from Duke's Hill, my
sister, Mrs. Olive Doyle, myself, were some
of those.
Incidentally, out of the 14 who signed for the
first time the desire for a church in
Baytown, there are three still living, Mrs.
Truxell, Mrs. Doyle, and myself.
Mrs. Truxell and I have been working with the
church since the day of its inception.
Mrs. Doyle moved to Houston and was not with
the church for a number of years, but upon
her husband's retirement she moved back in an
hour active again with the church.
We started out in the little shotgun building,
which was an office building, moving the furniture
out on Saturday afternoon, bringing the church
furniture in, changing it back Sunday afternoons.
Mr. Terry and I did that.
Then we moved to the McElligot building, which
still stands in Old Baytown.
Then we moved to the Humboldt Community Center.
Then in the early 30s, we started the
construction of our own.
The Humboldt Company gave us the first lot for
the church.
We started our own building.
This building was completely destroyed by fire
in 1936, lightning struck it.
We rebuilt, and from then on it has been a
growing church and Parish.
New buildings.
Which we'll be very proud of.
Well, we thank you very much.
You're just more than welcome.
We would like these tapes, you understand, the
master tape will be placed in Lee College
Library, and two copies will be made for
circulation purposes.
They will be placed in one in Lee College
Library, one in Sterling Municipal Library,
and perhaps at a later date in the Baytown Museum.
We would like to consent that researchers and
others may listen to these.