Roegiers Family Farm: A Porción of Edinburg i Discovering the Rio Grande Valley Reports from the Community Historical Archaeology Project with Schools Program Report # 1 The Norquest Family: A Porción of Edinburg Report # 2 The Cantu Family: A Porción of Edinburg Report # 3 Atwood Acres: A Porción of Edinburg Report # 4 The Eubanks Family: A Porción of Edinburg Report # 5 Bair Farms: A Porción of Edinburg Report # 6 Roegiers Family Farm: A Porción of Edinburg Report # 7 Fike Farms: A Porción of Edinburg For more information on the CHAPS Program, visit us at www.utrgv.edu/chaps ii Roegiers Family Farm: A Porción of Edinburg A report prepared for The Roegiers Family and for UTRGV and the CHAPS Program class titled: Discovering the Rio Grande Valley: The Natural and Cultural History of South Texas Written by (in alphabetical order): Annaiz Araiza, Stephen Cantu, Sara Chavez, Lizbeth De Leon, Juan Garza, Madelyn Ibarra, Octavio Ortiz, Sandra E. Pichardo, Jennifer Quintero, Aram Rivera, Olivia Salazar, James Severn, Jesus A. Sierra, Mauro Sierra III, Lucas Torres and Cheyenne Uvalle Principal Investigators from the CHAPS Program: Roseann Bacha-Garza, Juan L. González, Russell K. Skowronek, and Kenneth R. Summy Published by CHAPS Program at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Edinburg, TX 2017 Copyright ©2017 by UTRGV’s Community Historical Archaeology Project with Schools Program (CHAPS) All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal. First Printing: 2017 ISBN 978-0-9982070-2-5 UTRGV’s Community Historical Archaeology Project with Schools Program 1201 West University Drive Edinburg, TX 78539 www.utrgv.edu/chaps iv Dedication This book is dedicated the memory of Camiel Roegiers, his brother Alfred Rogers, and all the members of the Roegiers, Rogers, and DeBouvre families who brought their families to the United States from Belgium shortly after the turn of the 20th century and made their way to settle permanently in Edinburg, Texas. vii Contents Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................. xi Foreword ............................................................................................................................... xiii Preface ..................................................................................................................................... xv Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 1 Chapter 1: The Roegiers' Journey to America ............................................................. 4 Chapter 2: This is Our Land: Land History of the Roegiers Project ................... 17 Chapter 3: Family Traditions and Celebrations ........................................................ 25 Chapter 4: Farming and Agriculture ............................................................................. 38 Chapter 5: The Process ...................................................................................................... 59 Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 78 Appendices............................................................................................................................. 79 References ........................................................................................................................... 247 ix Acknowledgements We would like to thank Daniel Cardenas, Assistant Art Director for the design of the front cover of this report as well as to Elisa Flores and Dr. Kimberly Selber of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s The Studio Marketing and Communications Department for their support of all projects developed by the CHAPS team. We would also like to thank all the members of the Roegiers and Rogers families who participated in this project. Thanks to the Border Studies Archive for their ongoing support of this project. xi Foreword Whether the effects of Hurricane Beulah, changes in flora and fauna, evidence for ancient settlers, or the presence of a multi-lingual and multi-cultural populace being transformed into “Americans” it is the nuances derived and identified in the natural and cultural records that provide us with a textured view of the past. For six years the interdisciplinary Community Historical Archeology Project with Schools (CHAPS) Program team of anthropologists, archaeologists, biologists, geologists, and historians have explored a cross-section of farming families’ and their properties which constituted the very foundation of Edinburg’s agricultural past. This book presents a beautiful portrait of the Roegiers family that arrived in Edinburg from Belgium in 1920. Interdisciplinary cross-college collaborations such as the CHAPS Program are critical for moving the frontiers of science and building a more thorough understanding of the universe and human history. I am so very pleased that faculty from the College of Sciences and from the College of Liberal Arts have recognized the value of such interdisciplinary undertakings and have made, and will continue to make, valuable contributions to our knowledge of the history of Edinburg. Through detailed conversations with the early immigrants to Edinburg and examination of their artifacts, the CHAPS Program team not only reveals experiences of early colonizers and pieces of history they are carrying with them, it also documents the landscape changes and needs of the community. The CHAPS Program has documented how early inhabitants of the city of Edinburg transformed the dry brush land into the highly productive agricultural landscape through their hard work. Agriculture, particularly the production of fruits and vegetables, still predominates in the Rio Grande Valley with agriculture and associated industries employing a vast majority of the Valley’s residents and significantly contributing to the region’s economy. The knowledge gained through the CHAPS Program is paving the way for the development of new and locally relevant educational programs including our new Master’s degree in Agricultural, Environmental and Sustainability Sciences and an upcoming Bachelors in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems at UTRGV. The CHAPS Program also provides UTRGV students with an enriching experiential learning opportunity, which is culturally and geographical relevant to the students, their communities, and the university. The disciplinary and inter-disciplinary approaches employed by the CHAPS Program foster professional development skills, preparing students to become engaged leaders for creating new knowledge and building solutions to local and global challenges. With, the Research Relevant to the Rio Grande Valley, Community Engagement and Student Success being identified as three of the top five priorities in the inaugural Strategic Plan of the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), the CHAPS Program is at the forefront in addressing the university’s core priorities. I commend the CHAPS Program leadership, students and community partners for this participatory approach to studying the archeological history of the Edinburg residents and shedding light on the early transformation of the South Texas region into the “Magic Valley” as it has come to be known. Parwinder Grewal, Ph.D. Executive Vice President for Research, Graduate Studies, and New Program Development Formerly Dean of the College of Sciences The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley xiii Preface Commercial agriculture, based on the cultivation of citrus and field crops, was the twentieth century economic foundation of the lower Rio Grande region of Texas. At the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries railroad and irrigation projects turned dry brushland into the “Magic Valley.” As a consequence of these developments century-old ranches were subdivided into 20- and 40-acre parcels and sold to thousands of migrants from Europe, Mexico, and other parts of the United States seeking to make their fortunes in agriculture. By 1940 on the eve of World War II, more than 100,000 people lived in Hidalgo County representing a fourteen-fold population increase since 1900. Of these fewer than 7,000 people made their home in Edinburg, the then thirty-year-old county seat. This is less than ¼ of the current enrollment at UTRGV. Today the citizenry of Edinburg lives in a bi-lingual, bi-national, and bi-cultural environment of Spanish- and English-speaking peoples. Were we to travel back eighty years to the 1930s and visit the ice houses, packing sheds, cotton gins, and streets of Edinburg it would not be unusual to hear people being greeted in a cacophony of languges- “Good Day,” “Buenos días (Spanish),” “Dzień dobry (Polish),” “Guten Tag (German),“ “God dag (Swedish),” and “Goede dag (Flemish).” Through the social process known as “chain migration” friends and family will learn of opportunities and then follow previous migrants to the new community. In this study we learn of Camiel Roegiers, a Flemish-speaking Belgium national who, as a “bird of passage,” makes three trips to the United States at the beginning of the twentieth century to work and live in Texas, Virginia, Kansas, and ultimately Edinburg, Texas. Along the way he was joined by his siblings,
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