Author: William

by Linda Stewart, 4 September 2019

Isla Paschall Richardson (1885-1971) was the daughter of John Monroe Paschall (Samuel, Silas, John, William) and Daretula Dewitt Sanders.  John was a Professor at the University in Nashville and Daretula was a music teacher.   Isla became a noted author and poet.  When Frank Sinatra died, the movie star, Gregory Peck, recited Isla’s poem “To Those I Love” at his funeral.  Peck said he chose the poem as a tribute to Frank’s widow, Barbara, who made his old friend happy for almost 25 years.

“To Those I Love” by Isla Paschall Richardson

If I should ever leave you whom I love

To go along the silent way,

Grieve not,

Nor speak of me with tears,

But laugh and talk of me as if I were beside you there.

(I’d come – I’d come, could I but find a way!

But would not tears and grief be barriers?)

And when you hear a song

Or see a bird I loved,

Please do not let the thought of me be sad

For I am loving you just as I always have

You were so good to me!

There are so many things I wanted still to do

So many things to say to you

Remember that I did not fear

It was just leaving you that was so hard to face

We cannot see beyond

But this I know;

I love you so

‘twas heaven here with you!

by Linda Stewart, 27 August 2019

The Tribune (Coshocton, Ohio), Sunday, Dec. 19, 1943, Pg 9

Paschal Comes From Nowhere To Put Pro Giants in Playoff by Sam Davis

New York – Dazed and amazed by it all, William Avner Paschal Jr., who was out two years after playing all of three minutes of college football – as a freshman – as the National league’s leading ground gainer.

Shy, blond and blue-eyed Bill Paschal came from nowhere as a nobody to put the New York Giants in the eastern division playoff for the right to battle the Chicago Bears for the championship.

The recurrence of a knee injury suffered while starring for Tech high of Atlanta put the 22-year-old, six-foot, 1930-pound Paschal on the sideline at Georgia Tech, where he matriculated on a scholarship.  Bill Alexander knew what he had.

“Oddly enough, smiles the personable Paschal, who is just a big kid. “I didn’t hurt the knee playing football.  I hurt it falling out of a double-decker bed while asleep at the University of Georgia, where my high school team was having fall practice.”

Young Paschal made the all city, state and southern teams in 1929, was coached by Gabe Tolbert, who turned out such luminaries as Tom Hargrove of Alabama and Stumpy Thomason of Georgia Tech.

Christmas of 1940 found Paschal minus the knee cartilage.  Georgia Tech paid the bill, but Bill married comely Carolyn [Brown], whom he met in college, had to drop out of school to be a bread winner, worked in the railroad yards.  From the time of his operation until August of this year, Paschal did not have a football in his hands.  But he possessed campus fever, hung around the Tech grounds, elbowing and chewing the fat with youngsters who would have been classmates.  Last March Coach Alexander asked Paschal if he would be interested in returning to football.  “Sure,” said Bill, “if my knee –”

Alexander buzzed Grantland Rice, who wrote Steve Owen.  Paschal arrived in New York in May, got a job in Brooklyn shipyard.

Professional players of any kind – especially the football variety – are hard to get these days, so you can imagine Stout Steve Owen’s delight when at Bear Mountain in August the unheralded  unknown snapped right into it – as tho he’d been playing all the while.  Whatta pickup!

Modest Bill Paschal gives all credit to Tuffy Leemans.  The Giants have the old college try, he points out, are nervous and tense before each game, fight for death ole Steve.  The lad talks with a pronounced southern accent.

Paschal played only briefly when Sid Luckman set records as the Bears smothered the Polo Grounders, 56-7, was grounded for practically three full games as the result of injuring his ankle in the match with Green Bay.  Yet he carried oftener than any other back in the circuit – 147 times for 572 yards and an average of 3.9.

Paschal assisted in coaching Trinity high of New York this fall, will be head man next season.  He is anxious to complete his education, plans to be a college coach.  At home he fiddles with a motion picture camera just purchased, taking shots of Billy III and Diane, eight weeks.

He is fond of mother’s cooking especially southern fried chicken, but his pretty missus better not hear of this.

His only idiosyncrasy is that his socks must be neatly straight in football shoes that fit perfectly, which is precisely how Bill Paschal fits into professional football.

William Avner “Billy” Paschal Jr., inducted in the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame in 1979 for Football.  Georgia Tech Football Letterman ’42.  Pro Football with the New York Giants ’43-’47 and the Boston Yanks ’47-’48  Paschal became the first player to win back-to-back rushing championships in the NFL, gaining 572 yards in nine games his rookie year and 737 yards in 10 games his second year.  Named the Rookie of the Year in ’43 when he scored 12 touchdowns.  Named All Pro ’43, ’44, ’45.  He played through the 1948 season and had 2,430 yards for his career.  For more information , read the news article “Pascal Comes From Nowhere To Put Pro Giants in Playoff.”

William Jr. (William Sr., Samuel Pinkney, John, Ward Edmund, John Seth, Samuel, William), born in Atlanta, GA  (28 May 1921 – 25 May 2003) to William Avner Paschal Sr. and Mary Thelma Strickland.  He married Carolyn Louise Brown and they had a son and four daughters.

Sources: http://georgiasportshalloffame.com/site/our-inductees/

The Tribune, (Coshocton, Ohio), Sunday, Dec. 19, 1943, Pg 9

Republican and Herald, (Pottsville, Pennsylvania), Wednesday, Dec. 15, 1943, Pg 8

Obituary – Associated Press Archive – Tuesday, May 27, 2003

by Linda Stewart, 13 August 2019

Emily Lavisa Paschall Dool (Dennis Potter, John T., Anderson, Dennis, William), was raised on a ranch in the Zayante district in the San Lorenzo valley in California.  Her father Dennis Potter Paschall acquired 143 acres in 1872.  His property was located in the area of the Big Basin Redwoods State Park.  Established in 1902, it is the oldest state park in California.  Emily married William H. Dool, who became the second warden of the Big Basin Redwoods State Park.  He established the roads, trails, and campsites that are still used today. She grew up looking at this beautiful landscape.

Pictures courtesy of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Basin_Redwoods_State_Park

Below is William’s obituary, which describes his incredible life.

W. H. Dool, Warden of State Big Basin Park, Dies At Boulder Creek – William H. Dool, 20 years warden of the state redwood park at the Big Basin, in the northern part of this county, died suddenly of a heart attack last night at his residence in Boulder Creek. The body was today at Wessendorf’s mortuary and it was said that funeral services will probably be held Wednesday afternoon from his home in Boulder Creek, although the plans had not been definitely completed. Mr. Dool had been a resident of Boulder Creek for more than half a century.  In his younger days he worked as a “flume walker” to watch and keep in repair the old flume which carried lumber down the San Lorenzo valley from a point five miles above Boulder Creek to Felton, where it was loaded on the trains of the old narrow gauge railroad.  Born in Ottawa, Canada, June 30, 1857, he worked for a short time in the timber producing regions of Michigan until he came to California, where he first operated a hog ranch at what is now the intersection of Fourth and Santa Clara streets in San Jose.

Fifty-three years ago he came to Boulder Creek, where he had made his home since.  He became the first butcher in Boulder Creek, opening a meat market on the main street of Boulder Creek with A. H. Stagg as his partner.  Later Mr. Dool sold his interests to his partner.  In 1888 Mr. Dool was married to Miss Emma L. Paschall, whose parents [Dennis Potter Paschall and Lavisa Ellen Francis] owned a ranch in the Zayante district in the San Lorenzo valley. 

For the past twenty years Mr. Dool has been warden of the big Basin state reserve and made countless numbers of friends among those who came to the park.  In 1911 Mr. Dool succeeded S. H. Rambo, who had been warden of the park for only a short while, taking that position when the reserve was set aside as a state park.  When Mr. Dool became warden of Big Basin there were not even any roads leading into the state park.  All of the present entrances and trails have been constructed during his administration.  The Big Basin Inn, the cottages, the warden’s office and the social hall were all erected under his supervision.  Scenic trails were laid out and the unusual trees named and marked. From a jungle of trees and heavy underbrush, the state park has become one of the most attractive in the state, under the direction of its warden.

Mr. Dool took an active interest in all civic affairs of his community, leading all movements for the betterment of the town.  He was an active member of the Santa Cruz order of I.O.O.F, a member for many years of the Foresters of America of Santa, a member of the Santa Cruz blue lodge No. 38 F. & A. M., … He took an active interest in the Boulder Creek volunteer fire department, the improvement club, the San Lorenzo Valley chamber of commerce and the Boulder Creek community church.  Many of the families of Boulder Creek will remember Mr. Dool with an added appreciation, for he was always the first of offer assistance to any one in need.  His charitableness and kindliness was known throughout the San Lorenzo valley.  Mr. Dool was president of the board of trustees of the Boulder Creek community church for a number of years.  Mr. Dool is survived by his wife, two daughters, Mrs. Arthur Watters of Boulder Creek and Mrs. Tom Cullen of Huntington Park; a sister living in Canada, and a brother in Pennsylvania.

Dool had walked to town early yesterday evening to purchase groceries for the lunch he planned to take to the park with him this morning.  He walked briskly up the steep hill to his home and it is believed that he over-exerted himself.  He picked up the paper to read before the fireplace and dropped suddenly to the hearth.  Death came almost instantly.  Dr. R. B. Hoag of Boulder Creek was called, but Mr. Dool was dead before he arrived. Santa Cruz Evening News, (Santa Cruz, CA) – Monday, December 7, 1931, Page 3.

by Clarence McDaniel, 5 August 2019, Casa Grande, AZ

This is a true story of Alexander Paschall (Hx) and his wife, Susannah Morgan.

Alex (Elisha, William) was born in Caswell Co., NC, as was his wife, Susannah. He was a distiller of whisky, and could write his name very well as evidenced by his signatures on deeds. About 1832, he and his wife, and children moved west to Henry Co., TN, then to Weakley Co., TN. where he bought land. He was well off from the sale of whisky and decided to have a home built. This home was later called, a mansion, as it was elaborate for the area.

In later years it was the subject of an article published in a Weakley Co. newspaper, ca 192x.

In this same newspaper was published an interesting story of the same family. It is this story I will relate here.

It seems the people living in Weakley, for the most part, were very poor farmers, their wives had only one dress to wear to go to church. They wore daily, dresses made from dyed gunny sack and these were often ripped and very patched up.

When their home was finished, Susannah, decided she wanted to celebrate by giving a party and invited the neighbors to it.

This caused a problem and the neighbor wives met at Susannah’s house to explain the situation. It seems they felt they could not go because they had nothing to wear, being unwilling to go in their Sunday dress.

Susannah had six dresses and she suggested they all meet at her house and alter (temporarily) the other 5 dresses for the ladies to wear to the party.

This was done and the party was a huge success.

Note: The newspaper was published at the county seat; a lady in Weakley then published articles from the paper for genealogical purposes in the local Weakley genealogical society where I accessed them. All this is from my memory; I had copies/photos in my notes which I gave to the Henry Co., TN Genealogical Society Library where they are today.   https://www.henrycountygenealogy.org/

by Linda Stewart, 30 July 2019

Chicago, August 22, 1892 – The Times states that the young woman who, according to the evening papers, was left at the detention hospital on Wednesday a “raving maniac” by a young man giving an assumed name, was in reality Miss Lillian C. Paschal, a reporter for The Times, who had been sent to the hospital to investigate certain charges against the institution.  The treatment of the helpless inmates, according to her experience, borders upon brutality, but the worst feature brought to light was the amazing stupidity of the physicians in failing to detect the ruse.  Argus-Leader, (Sioux Falls, South Dakota), Mon. Aug. 22, 1892, Page 2

Around the turn of the 20th century, Lillian Catherine Paschal was an undercover reporter for the New York Times.  She wrote and published many stories.  Born in 1874 in Winfield, Iowa, she was the daughter of James W. Paschal and Mary Jane Hale.  Lillian married Guy Warren Day on 2 May 1908 in Manhattan, New York, the son of Buel H. Day and Mary B. Whitcomb.  Guy died suddenly in 1911. Per his obituary in The Burlington Clipper, (Burlington, Vermont), 18 May 1911, Thu, Page 4, he and Lillian had no children.  In 1940, Lillian was listed on the Los Angeles Co., census as a writer of songs, stages, and stories.  Lillian died on 15 December 1958 and was buried in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, Los Angeles Co., CA, PLOT: Eventide, Map 1, Lot 141, Space 1.

Lillian’s father, James W. Paschal, was the son of Joseph Paschal and ? Ramsey.  He married Mary Jane Hale on 19 December 1861 in Henry Co., Iowa.  According to the Census records, James and family were living in Scott, Henry Co., Iowa in 1870, in Union, Grant Co., Iowa in 1880.  James was born ca 1842 in Ohio.  He was a farmer in Iowa.  Their children were Howard T., Clyde P., Eugena, Mary, Eva Irene, and Lillian Catherine.  He married secondly to Miss Lydia A. Hale in 1895 in Creston, Union Co., Iowa and their child was Roy Blakeway Paschal.  According to the 1856 Iowa State Census Collection, Joseph Paschal was born ca 1800 in Virginia and he was a clergyman.

by Linda Stewart, 23 July 2019

On November 14, 1963, the rivalry between R. L. Paschal High School and Arlington Heights High turned not-so-friendly.  Dozens of students were arrested in a day-long struggle that involved a large bonfire, flaming mattresses lashed to an old car, an airplane loaded with toilet-paper bombs, and alligators kidnapped from the Fort Worth Zoo and set loose at school.

“High School Youths Clash in Near Riot,” read the lead headline in the Star-Telegram the next day. The melee included an estimated 500 students, 40 lawmen and four fire trucks with water cannons.  Police arrested 46 students and seized shotguns, knives, baseball bats, ax handles, clubs, chains fashioned into whips, and Molotov cocktails.  Those arrested were released to their parents, according to news reports.

It made headlines across the country. The toilet paper bombing run, in particular, made an impression at the White House. Speaking in Fort Worth just hours before his assassination, President Kennedy was reported as having asked someone if they were from the “school with its own air force.”

Cliff Barnhart, now a psychiatrist, said the longtime rivalry between Paschal and Arlington Heights often turned weird as their homecoming football game neared, but in 1963, it got really wild.  Some Paschal students kidnapped an alligator from the zoo and set it loose at Heights. The story goes that students at Heights responded by snatching another gator and setting it free in the atrium at Paschal.

The bonfire, however, was where everything broke loose.  The students at Heights traditionally built a bonfire on the shores of Lake Benbrook as part of their homecoming celebration, and the students at Paschal traditionally tried to burn it down early.  “We were always looking for new and novel ways to sneak over and burn down the bonfire,” Barnhart said.

Two Paschal students who had pilots’ licenses buzzed the bonfire and bombed it with purple and white toilet paper. Some say the toilet paper was burning when it was dropped, although it failed to set anything on fire.  Barnhart said that left destruction of the bonfire to a 350-pound student or former student who had a grand scheme to ram it with a car covered with flaming mattresses.  Barnhart said the guy — John Hall, location unknown — bought an old 1948 sedan clunker at a used-car lot on Jacksboro Highway with money donated by fellow students. Some put the car’s sticker price at $35. To the front of the car, students lashed several old mattresses doused with gasoline and set ablaze. “John, all 350 pounds of him, was to leap out before crashing into the bonfire,” Barnhart said.

Authorities, however, got wind of the plan and were out in force.  A fire unit headed off the ramming attempt, and the car with flaming mattresses was sidetracked and got stuck in mud.  Reports at the time said hordes of Paschal students on foot tried repeatedly to storm the bonfire.  “They looked like the bunch of Indians you see coming over the hill in practically every Western movie,” Tarrant County Fire Marshal Mason Lankford had said.  The students were dispersed after about two hours, and Heights touched off the bonfire on schedule.

The following day, Paschal Principal Charles M. Berry told the Star-Telegram that some of those arrested were just “driving around.”  He told students over the public-address system: “This does not help us win the sportsmanship award.”

Extra police were called in the next night for the big game at Farrington Field, but there was no hint of trouble in the crowd of 11,000-plus. Paschal stomped Heights, 20-0.

John Tucker said that even with reports of guns and other weapons, it was never as violent as the reports suggested.  “It was just crazy, fun times,” said Tucker, who was arrested but released without being charged. “It is a wonder that no one was hurt, but, boy, what a great time and story.”   Only one injury, when wrecker driver Junior Slayton, 33, was grazed by buckshot while towing away a student’s car.  Charles Davidson wrote on the Paschal reunion Web site. “It has to be one of the great folklore’s of Fort Worth.”

In 2013, a year of 50th anniversaries, Paschal’s band will commemorate one of Texas’ most notorious school pranks on Saturday when it marches to South Hulen Street to meet the Heights band and play together for a special neighborhood concert on the morning of their 91-year-old football-rivalry game.  Paschal band boosters decided to remember the prank-gone-wild and Kennedy’s good-natured joke.  They are selling “Air Force” T-shirts with the message “Paschal Soars.”

“The students are amazed at how times have changed and what was considered fun back then,” said band director Bryan Wright, son of a graduate from that class.  “It’s funny to retell, and it’s part of a tradition, but the students today wouldn’t want to do anything like that.”  It’s also something of a mystery. Nobody involved has ever given an interview.

By that Sunday, the Star-Telegram devoted two page-length columns to editorial commentary and letters about “The Heights-Paschal Affair.”  In November 1963, it was the talk of Fort Worth.

Sources: http://www.paschalclassof70.com/HeightsBitesPaschalSoars.html,(excerpted from Star-Telegram story by Paul Bourgeois)

https://www.star-telegram.com/news/special-reports/jfk/article3835890.html, “50 years ago, Paschal flew into history, with a high school prank gone wild” – by Bud Kennedy – Sept. 5, 2013

By Linda Stewart, 15 July 2019

Sheffield Sheep Man Visits Lamar – H. C. Noelke Jr. of Sheffield, Texas, a recent visitor to Lamar County, revealed interest in the increased number of sheep in the county. Noelke owns a 20,000 acre sheep ranch in West Texas, near Sheffield. He stated that about half of his flock are registered Rambouillets. The Noelke family pioneered the sheep industry in West Texas. The sheep man was keenly interested in the abundant rainfall that credits the Red River Valley with much grazing vegetation for sheep. He said it continues very dry in the West Texas area. Mr. and Mrs. Noelke were visiting her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Gus Cothran, 434 North Main, Paris. The Paris News, (Paris, TX) – Sunday, July 6, 1952, Page 7.

Hebert Clayton Noelke Jr. (1913-1955) was the great grandson of Mary Angeline Paschall and Letherage James Francis. (Kennie Holmes Noelke, Sarah Ann Francis Holmes, Mary Angeline Paschall Francis, John T. Paschall, Anderson Paschall, Dennis Paschall, William Paschall)

By Linda Stewart, 19 June 2019

The profession of a blacksmith has a very old and interesting history.  It has been in existence since the early beginning of humanity.  In the book of Genesis 4:22, Tubal-Cain, the 7th generation from Adam and Eve’s son Cain, was the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron (ESV) or an instructor of every artificer in brass and iron (KJV).  The first iron used for forging was meteoric iron, a metal found in meteorites made from iron and nickel.

History author Sarah Pruitt, wrote in her article Researchers Say King Tut’s Dagger Was Made From a Meteorite, “Most archaeologists agree that the handful of iron objects that have been found from Egypt’s Old Kingdom (third millennium B.C.) were probably produced from meteoric metal, a substance the Egyptians of Tut’s era reverently called “iron from the sky.”  Researchers from Polytechnic University of Milan, the University of Pisa in Italy and the Egyptian Museum in Cairo led the new study, which compared the iron of the blade found in Tut’s tomb with 11 meteorites that fell within a radius of 1,250 miles. Made of mostly iron, plus 10.8 percent nickel and 0.58 percent cobalt, the blade matched up closely with the meteorite known as Kharga, which was discovered near Marsa Matruh in 2000.”  To read the full article and see a picture of the beautiful dagger see https://www.history.com/news/researchers-say-king-tuts-dagger-was-made-from-a-meteorite

Charles James Cook Paschall, as well as his son, John Columbus Paschall; his brothers, William Thomas Paschall and Dennis Potter Paschall; his brother-in-law, Henry D. Jones; his sister, Mary Francis’s son-in-law, Franklin Augustus Hamer Sr., were all blacksmiths.  Wrought iron and some steel iron would be the metals used by these men.  A blacksmith shop was necessary for every rural community.  In the spring of 1855, James set up a shop in Veal’s Station, Parker Co., TX.  In 1862, he enlisted in Hardeman’s Cavalry, First Regiment, Arizona Brigade, Thirty-first Cavalry.  The Confederate armies were employing blacksmiths to shoe horses and repair equipment.   In 1863, a letter was written from the Captain of the First Regiment, to the Colonel of the Brigade, requesting that James receive a discharge citing the reason that he was the only blacksmith in the large farming community of Veal’s Station.  His discharge was granted.

The Paschall men continued the blacksmith trade throughout their lives.