P.O. Box 373, Hebbronville, Texas 78361
My grandfather, C. W. Hellen Sr., came to the southern gulf
plains of Texas in 1894 at the age of 16 years from his home in
Washington, D.C. He began a cattle ranching career that is
continued by my family today. This area of Texas is very dry
semi-desert, and the primary limitation to cattle raising is water.
There is very little surface water, but abundant well water is
available and is primarily brought to the surface by windmills. We
enjoy fairly constant winds off of the nearby Gulf of Mexico, but
even those breezes fail us seasonally during the ‘dog days’
of summer, also known locally in the Spanish language as ‘La
Canicula.’ At those times of the year, thirsty cattle forced
the ranchers and cowboys to shut down their old Eclipse windmills
and either herd the cattle to pastures with rare surface water or
find some other way to pump water to the surface watering troughs.
One of the solutions used by ‘Old Mr. Charlie’ Hellen was
this 1928 model Fuller & Johnson pump jack that I found while
cleaning out an old barn on the ranch!!
Several years ago, I met a very fine gentleman by the name of
Mr. Ray Ward at a reunion of my wife’s family. He and I had an
interesting discussion about his hobby of restoring old gas
engines, and I contacted him about my grandfather’s Fuller
& Johnson. Ray agreed to tackle the job and now I am so proud
to display and even run the old machine at our local Natural
Resources Conservation Office of the U. S. Department of
Agriculture in Hebbronville, Texas. I hope that someday I can
donate it to our local museum about the area ranching heritage of
south Texas.
Ray lives in San Antonio, Texas, and can be reached at (210)
696-0918. I hope to find a way to properly thank him for me and my
family.
