Who Were They?

The photo above is the Pearland High School, in Pearland TX, built in 1912. It’s an impressive sized building for a rural farm town, and was surely intended to last a lifetime. Pearland was a farming town that grew various crops, such as pears, strawberries, oranges and figs. It lies within the Houston area, about 23 miles from Houston. It is also close to Galveston, TX, and in 1915 a hurricane destroyed much of the town. This storm is not to be confused with the massive one in 1900. The Pearland High School was a victim of that storm. The high school was never rebuilt.

This postcard was found in a photo album I have recently scanned and will be posting more out of over the next little while. The postcard was sent from Mazel Reasoner to Verva Sipple. Unfortunately, the card was torn out of the book, but the glue used was strong, as you can see on the scan below.

It is unfortunate we can’t see what Mazel wrote to Verva, but I am able to make out something like “after the storm” toward the bottom of the note. The card is dated November 8, 1915, postmarked in Texas. Mazel Reasoner was born around 1891 in Indiana. Her husband John W Reasoner was also from Indiana, and they may have been attracted to Pearland by an advertising campaign in the midwestern states to attract settlers. I found a little bit of information on their family, as follows:

John Wesley Reasoner, born November 2, 1891 in Sugar Creek Indiana, to Charles and Hester Reasoner. He was the oldest of 5 in the 1900 census. Between 1900 – 1912 there didn’t appear any information.

December 23, 1912, John W married Mazel Melvina McCormick, also born around 1891. They were married in Houston, TX.

November 28, 1914 Mazel was appointed Postmistress of the Pearland Post Office, a position she continued for many years from what I can tell.

November 15, 1918 Mazel was reappointed Postmistress.

May 26, 1918 John shipped out on the Glasgow as part of the US Army.

May 26, 1919 John shipped home from St. Nazair France on the Santa Cecelia. He was a cook in the Company B 345th Machine Gun Battalion, US Army.

The 1930 Census tells us that Mazel is still the Postmistress and John is an electrician. Living with them is their niece Mazel McCormick. Their neighbors were Francis A McCormick and William McCormick.

1940 saw them at the same house as in 1930, but the McCormicks were no longer their neighbors. Mazel’s name was misspelled as Hazel.

In 1942 John completed his World War II draft card.

In 1943 Mazel was once again appointed Postmistress.

After this, nothing turned up until John’s death February 17, 1971. He was buried in Pearland and his marker shows he had been a Master Sergeant in the Army during World War I.

Mazel found her way to Farmingham, NM where she died in June 1978.

I didn’t find any children for this couple, although that doesn’t mean they didn’t have any. I have discovered that old records aren’t always accurate.

Stay tuned for more out of this album, which I think belonged to Verva, who lived in Los Angeles, CA.