Yesteryear – La Porte, Texas

Foreword – Gertrude’s Archives

There was limited technology when Gertrude Ackerly collected her early La Porte history documentation. Luckily, photographs were easy to reproduce, but the printed word, not so much, or it was not readily accessible. It was either the real deal or nothing. Because of that, every page of Gertrude Ackerly’s notes is handwritten in No. 2 pencil on varying types of paper, from Big Chief tablet to oversized plain stationery. Think about that.

Imagine Gertrude sitting at her dining room table in her little house on 4^th Street on a warm summer day in 1947, with a couple of No. 2 pencils and a stack of stationery. A copy of the oversized La Porte Chronicle from 1900 is open before her. Her head is down, and she diligently scours each page and every word.

Now and then, she reaches up to adjust her glasses. It’s 2:00 in the afternoon, and the heat has finally burned off the coolness of the morning. She dabs at the moisture on her neck with one of her husband Ves’ old handkerchiefs, then continues writing. The only sound is the scratching of the pencil on the paper, the ticking of the clock, and the occasional meow of the cat.

Diligently, she writes, page after page, transcribing each article, word for word, to preserve for the future so they will know – town peoples’ births, deaths, stories of the storm, government happenings, celebrations, graduations, and the like. Word for word.

Now and then, a breeze through the open window gently moves the pages of the newspaper. Gertrude looks up, smiles, and welcomes the fresh air, perhaps recalling other times, other memories of days spent at Red Bluff or picnics at the San Jacinto Battleground with friends long gone. She sighs, then continues writing and writing until it is time to feed the cat his dinner.