178B Richard Donovan
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RICHARD DONOVAN Interview 178b August 2, 2017 at The History Center, Diboll, Texas Jonathan Gerland, Interviewer Patsy Colbert, Transcriber ABSTRACT: In this interview with Jonathan Gerland, long-time Angelina County resident and conservationist Richard Donovan talks about his father, Allen T. Donovan, touching on his early career but focusing on his time at the Xact Clays and Magcobar mining operations near Zavalla. He talks about growing up in Zavalla, spending time at the plant with is father, a childhood accident, interactions with African Americans, and earning money as a child. Mr. Donovan also discusses the changes within southern Angelina County and East Texas at large, as the lumber companies moved in and changed the economy and the landscape and then left again. He talks about farming, hay baling, stock raising and the coming of the stock laws, types of trees, and race relations. Jonathan asks about the current state of the East Texas environment and problems with development and Mr. Donovan discusses these issues as well. Jonathan Gerland (hereafter JG): Today’s date is August 2, 2017. My name is Jonathan Gerland. I’m with Richard Donovan today, we’re at The History Center and we’re going to do an oral history interview. We were just talking a little earlier and Mr. Donovan has been interviewed a number of times. He has given some good interviews with David Todd I think of the Legacy, the Conservation Society or Association of Texas and a number of other places, but this is actually the only interview that you and I have done. He has done a lot of interviews with me as we’ve interviewed people across the community. So, thank you again for coming today, and you’ve talked a lot at times, but you haven’t, I don’t necessarily know on the other interviews about your family, your dad, your mom, maybe just talk a little bit about your father. How did he come to this part of the world? Richard Donovan (hereafter RD): Jonathan my dad to me, and I sincerely mean this, was maybe the most intelligent man I ever saw. My dad came to Texas from Missouri, northeastern Missouri, and he must have come when he was around, I don’t know, in his early 30’s. I’m not sure, but the oil boom I think probably brought my dad to Texas. He first came when he was 16 to Corrigan, Texas as a telegraph operator for the ACWT. He was a telegraph operator there when he was 16 years old for either one or two years, I’m not sure. Then he returned to Paris, Missouri which was kind of his focal point for his family and he did a lot of things, but one of the things I thought was interesting was he and another fellow opened a business where they had a truck with a big platform on the back of it to haul their tools and vises and anvils, and all the necessary equipment they needed. And they would get a message to go to a farm, that was all farming country up there, and they would get a message to go to a farm and they would go out and repair a tractor or an old truck of some kind, combines, all that kind of equipment. But, my dad was a restless type of guy. His mother and father had separated or divorced when he was a © Copyright 2017 THE HISTORY CENTER Richard Donovan Interview 178b 1 of 36 very young boy. He had several older brothers and a couple of older sisters I think, but he had grown up living with one and another and some of his brothers and that sort of thing. But, apparently my dad loved to read and that I think probably caused him to be like he was. Somewhere along in his life span, after the telegraph operator, he became interested in electricity and somehow, I don’t know much about my dad because he never told me anything about himself. Most of the stuff I learned about him I learned about him way later in life. But he became an electrician for circuses, and two circuses in particular. One of them I have a contract he signed with the Christy Brothers I believe it was, but he was in charge of the car that produced the electricity for the circus, because in those days… JG: A railroad car? RD: Yes, they had a special car that the generators were in and towns in those days couldn’t provide electricity for that volume of electricity even if they had electricity so, the two trips he made, one was on the inside of the United States from somewhere up east all the way to the west coast and then they crossed over the line in Canada and came back east, went down west and came back east and he did that twice, two years in a row I think it was. Then he lost interest in that and he came to Longview, I believe it was. I will bore you with an interesting story and if you want me to stop, just give me the signal. JG: Go ahead. RD: He got off the train in either Kilgore or Longview, and once again my memory is hazy on all this. It’s been so long ago, but he got off the train at either Longview or Kilgore and checked into a hotel there and while he was staying there, the train comes in and this guy gets off the train and he has got an awful lot of luggage and the porters are grabbing their luggage and scurrying around with it and they finally get it checked in and gets up to his room and gets all his luggage into his room and he is there for some days sitting in the lobby. And however it happened, some guys invited him to join them in their card game every Saturday night or whatever it was. I don’t remember. He said, well I don’t know how to play cards, and they said well come on you will enjoy the fellowship, the social life, so he said okay. So, they go almost every night and he loses money regularly, you know, because he doesn’t know how to play. That goes on for quite some time and he has lost a good bit of money and of course the other peoplem they all enjoy him being there because they’re getting his money. So one day he packs, this is unbeknownst to everybody at the time, but he gets all his luggage ready and he calls the porter and he says now look, I want you to have these out on the platform out there at a certain time and have everything ready because I’ll be leaving at this certain hour. So, he goes down to the card game that night and he is playing cards and he starts winning, and he wins, and he wins, and he wins, and everybody is, “oh how your luck has changed.” He keeps winning and winning and he is way ahead of the curve and he told the guys, excuse me he had to go to the restroom. He knows exactly what time it is because he hears the whistle and he goes out and tells the guy to get the baggage on the train and he gets on the train and he leaves with everybody’s money. I thought that was an interesting story. © Copyright 2017 THE HISTORY CENTER Richard Donovan Interview 178b 2 of 36 JG: Now was that before he came to Zavalla area? RD: Well actually he went on from there to Browndell. JG: Okay. RD: I thought it was Long Bell Lumber Company that was there, but somebody had a pretty large sawmill there and he went… JG: Kirby did. RD: Kirby, okay. He even went to Pineland and went to work for Temple Lumber Company for one night. JG: One night? (laughter) RD: Yes, he went there and he told them… JG: Did he play poker there? (laughter) RD: No, he went there and made application and told them that he could wind the electric motors and they found that out, they said, “well we have plenty of work for you.” He said okay and so they told him to come to work, it was after hours, I forget what shift it was, but some night shift, and he got there and they took him to a room and opened the room, and he said it was a huge room and he said the electric motors were stacked just as high to the ceiling as they could be stacked and he said a sea of electric motors, and they said, “here is where you will work right here, so get started,” and was about to leave. My dad said, “well what do I do after this?” They said, “don’t worry there will be plenty more motors when you get through with them.” So, he wound motors that one night and left and never went back because he didn’t want a job winding motors, you know, that just wasn’t my dad. So, then he went and left there and maybe worked in Jasper. Jasper had a power generating station and I think he might have worked there some. But I think he was working on the rebuilding of the highway…the highway that runs through Brookland and Jasper and San Augustine.