By Tracy Gupton
Babe Ruth set a new Major League Baseball record by mashing 60 home runs. Gutzon Borglum began work on sculpting Mount Rushmore. The first TV picture was successfully sent from Washington, D.C., to New York City. And many West Columbians gathered outside Bruno Drug store to listen to the Jack Dempsey-Gene Tunney heavyweight championship boxing match on August Kotzebue’s radio. The year was 1927 when the highlight of that memorable year 98 years ago for Bill Brewer was graduating from West Columbia High School.
William Augustus Brewer Jr. saved many pictures from his high school days and the Columbia Heritage Foundation was lucky to have many of them donated to us in the form of Billy’s senior year scrapbook. Although Bill died over 42 years ago, by his family members safeguarding his photo book those pictures can now be shared with the thousands of other current or former West Columbians and Brazorians who also walked the hallowed halls of the old schoolhouses in our city that was the first capital of the Republic of Texas in 1836 and 1837.
Bill Brewer Jr. was born in San Angelo, Texas, in Tom Green County June 1, 1909, and was a resident of Bowie, Texas, when he passed away June 13, 1982, a dozen days after celebrating his 73rd birthday. His father, William Augustus Brewer Sr., died less than two years after Bill Jr. was handed his high school diploma. Historic Columbia Cemetery in West Columbia was the burial site for Bill Sr. when he died at 53 on January 20, 1929. Billy’s mother, Sallie Byrd Doak Brewer, was a widow for 45 years until she was laid to rest next to her husband at Columbia Cemetery in December 1974. Bill Jr., who is buried in a Dallas cemetery, was the brother of Ida Lee Brewer, Burns William Brewer, Dorothy Brewer Dunn, Lavinia Belle Brewer Gayle and Rufus Hinton Brewer.
When Bill Brewer Jr. died in Dallas in 1982, he was survived by his wife, Ann Mozelle Wood Brewer, and a daughter. Sadly, his widow Ann Brewer would pass away later the same year as her husband. She died in Lake Jackson, Texas, November 16, 1982. A high school female admirer who signed his scrapbook simply as “Beth,” wrote: “How long will it last? I mean our ‘affair.’ When you get kinda ole and are looking over your memory book, and when you look at my pictures in it, and just think who fixed your lil’ and big ‘memories’ all together and oh! who was your best girl? (I think) it’s real funny to think of it even now! Remember: (1) the many dances we have attended together! (2) The many rides we have taken together! (3) The quarrels we’ve had (although, they are very few and those few very small–not lasting but a few minutes), (4) Our feelings of jealousy toward each other — yours and mine — oh! Remember everything! Bill, you’ve been pretty nice and sweet to me and I admire you for it! Next year — or two or three years from now — we may not even let each other cross our minds — but how can it be since we have clung together so long. Then probably we will be thinking of each other more often. Bill, I hope you are successful at whatever you attempt to do and I surely do hope you get your four years of college life — wouldn’t it be grand? I hope you can one way — I’ll always remember you by your beautiful curly hair — that smile — and your manly ways. I hope I always like you as I do now and I promise you I will think of you real often from now on and on and don’t forget.”
In a newspaper clipping stuffed in Bill Brewer’s scrapbook, a supplement sheet to the WCHS Messenger school newspaper from 1927, under the heading, “What My Senior Year Has Meant to Me,” the student editor wrote: “First, it is my last year in high school, my last opportunity to do my best. Of course, other years have offered opportunities for accomplishing something worthwhile, but the senior year has offered the last chance, the supreme effort. Another reason why my senior year will always be first in my affections. When we were freshmen, we were numbered among the members of a large class. Now, that we are seniors, our class is small–but to us, select. Most of us have gone through high school together, and the thought that this is our last year in the same class only makes our classmates seem nearer to us. We expect to bear away many memories of high school, but since last impressions are usually the most vivid, I am sure that our senior year will figure most prominently in our memory. Again, we seniors occupy an enviable position. We have left the freshman, the sophomore, and the junior years behind us, and have almost reached the peak of high school ambition–graduation. Seniors are supposed to provide an example for those classes beneath theirs, and this fact serves as a spur to urge them on to do work that is just a little better than that of any other class.”
Under that story in the school newspaper was a “Last Will and Testament of Class of ’27” story. Fay Clayton, younger sister of Mogene Clayton Hanson whose 1925 senior scrapbook was featured here recently, wrote this story that included the remark: “We do hereby appoint our principal, Miss Alice Mason, the executor of this last will and testament.”
“Frank Arrington and Bill Brewer will their ability as football stars, though they are loath to part with it, to George Lincecum,” the will and testament story said. Lincecum, a former mayor of West Columbia, graduated the following year in 1928 along with Harold Beal, father of West Columbia’s current mayor, Laurie Beal Kincannon.
Another yellowed newspaper clipping in Brewer’s senior year scrapbook is a story penned by Bill Brewer himself for the high school’s paper. Under the heading, “Football Season Closes,” Brewer wrote, “On November 11 the official football season of West Columbia High School for 1926 closed. Winning three games and losing two, the Roughnecks closed their football season with a percentage of six hundred. Handicapped by loss of players and the lack of games, the Roughnecks continued to work, and only by virtue of their fighting spirit were they able to remain intact until the close of the season. Beginning the season with a 20 to 8 victory over Angleton, the Roughnecks started off with a rush. Playing the Bay City game with new men and an injured captain, the Roughnecks were defeated 24 to 0 in the last few minutes of play. After this defeat the Roughnecks received the greatest setback of their career, the loss of their captain. Although they were crippled by the loss of their captain and two ends, the Roughnecks defeated Texas City 31 to 0. The next game, that with Gulf, the Roughnecks emerged victorious in the long end of a 12 to 2 score. During this game we received another setback when Willie Bell, left guard, broke his leg. On November 11 the Roughnecks closed their season by losing a hard fought game to Rosenberg by the score of 19 to 0. This game marked the passing of five Roughneck players who completed their football career in West Columbia High School.
“Those who have finished their high school football playing are as follows,” Brewer went on to write, “Lincecum, fullback, a four-year man; Arrington, halfback, a three-letter man; McElveen, center, a two-letter man; Brewer, quarterback, a two-year man; and Bible, tackle, a one-year man. The following are the players who lettered on the Roughneck squad of 1926: Lincecum, Savage, Borden, Friday, Russell, McElveen, Abbott, Smith, Standard, Arrington, Bell, Brewer, Bible, Hanna, Presley, and an honorary letter for manager Fred Thompson. Besides the above-named players who earned their letters on the playing field this article would not be complete without mention of the faithful practice men, Kay, Gupton, and Weatherby, who contributed their part toward training the regulars.”
That last game of the 1926 football season was played on my Uncle Thurman Gupton’s 15th birthday. He is the “Gupton” Bill Brewer mentioned as one of the “practice men” in his story for the school newspaper. Thurman Gupton, who went on to become a district judge in Brazoria and surrounding counties for more than 30 years, succeeded Bill Brewer as the Roughnecks’ starting quarterback the following season. Thurman Gupton is on the left in the front row of the football team photo below.
Some of the other graduating seniors from West Columbia High School’s Class of 1927 were Violet Mattson, Frank Arrington, Faye Clayton Hopkins, Hassie Mae Greathouse Eastwood, Chlola Dodd Coffey, Frances Harness Carr, Elfrieda Maris McNeill, Clifford Dalbery, Theta Holden, LaBelle Manning Coburn, Mae Wedell McCann, Owen Glover, Mrs. William Bingham and Milam Borden.
My Aunt Gladys Stucker Gupton’s older brother, George John Stucker, was the captain of the football team Bill Brewer writes about having lost during the 1926 season. George Stucker died at 17 on October 6, 1926, from the ultimate tragic sports injury. Former West Columbia High School teacher and coach James Creighton wrote about the incident that took young Stucker’s life in his 1969 book, “The Magic Years: West Columbia High School 1927-1936”:
“Another and much sadder piece of information, of which I was told by nearly everyone, was the death of George Stucker, the popular and talented captain of the 1926 team,” Creighton wrote, adding that Stucker’s death occurred prior to the author coming to teach in West Columbia in the spring semester of 1927. “A clipping in the Houston paper had this story: ‘An overzealous desire to aid his team cost the life of George Stucker, West Columbia High School star, who died at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Baptist Hospital (in Houston). Entering the game last Friday against Bay City High School with a carbuncle on his right arm, young Stucker fought bravely in spite of his injury. Then he was knocked unconscious. Half dazed, he battled through the entire game and that night became ill with high fever, which remained throughout the night. His fever stayed at 105 degrees, physicians said, and blood poisoning set in where the carbuncle had been bruised during the game.”
George and Gladys Stucker were the children of West Columbia High School teacher Myrtle J. Stucker. George’s younger sister Gladys married my father Rex Gupton’s older brother, Judge Thurman Gupton, when they were seniors at West Columbia High School in the late 1920s.
Creighton writes in “The Magic Years” that Asa Griggs was superintendent, Alice Mason was principal and Emmett Dawson, who Creighton said had been a star pitcher for the Baylor Bears in college, was the Roughnecks athletics director and head coach when he arrived on campus as a new teacher in 1927. “Dawson was a tall, lanky guy, slow and deliberate in speech, but a very friendly man in the real sense of the word,” Creighton wrote. “I learned from Dawson that the 1927 West Columbia basketball team had won the county championship and had only been defeated by John H. Reagan High School of Houston at the district level.”
Creighton mentions in “The Magic Years” that Dad Osborn was West Columbia’s postmaster in 1927. Some years later my grandfather, Samuel Morris Gupton, would follow in Osborn’s footsteps as the postmaster of West Columbia for nearly 20 years. Included in Bill Brewer’s senior year scrapbook is a card he received in the mail for graduating from high school in 1927. A one cent stamp is attached to the letter that is simply addressed: For (Curly) Bill Brewer, City, with no street address. I assume in 1927 Dad Osborn knew where Bill Brewer’s family resided.
Creighton wrote in “The Magic Years” that, “As for the graduating class of 1927, it consisted of eleven girls and two boys, Frank Arrington and Bill Brewer. Among the girls were La Bell Manning, Fay Clayton, Chlola Dodd, Mae Wedell, Hassie Mae Greathouse and Violet Mattson, the valedictorian. As economics was a required course for every senior I came into contact with every member of the 1927 class, and introduced the innovation of the annual economics banquet, which was given on the day before the final exam. The conception of such an idea was an act of desperation. In an effort to arouse interest in the final exam I hit on the idea of having a pre-exam meal in the cafeteria, representing it to be the last meal of the condemned before going to the electric chair. On this particular occasion I obtained special permission from Mr. Griggs for a little extra time at the noon meal so that the seniors could have their banquet in comparative seclusion after the other students were served.
“On the back of each place card I wrote out a single question of the exam, depending on the theory that no one would have the gumption to add up the questions and find out that they had the complete exam,” Creighton continued. “And so it was, providing a great deal of relaxation and amusement when the secret finally leaked out.”
My father, Rex Gupton, told me his Mom and Dad gave him a new suit to wear to his graduation from West Columbia High School in 1938. I still have a framed photo of my Daddy wearing that “graduation suit” when he was 17 or 18 years old, similar to the picture above of Bill Brewer in his “graduation suit” from 1927. James “Deacon” Creighton writes in “The Magic Years” that, “School ended May 13, 1927, and on the following day the anti-climactic adventure of the Magic Years began. This was when Frank Arrington, Bill Brewer and myself headed north for Austin College. For I was determined that Bill and Frank should some day be numbered among those who wore the maroon and gold of that school. Actually the trip came near to being a little lop-sided, as Bill experienced some difficulty in getting parental permission, a problem which was solved at the last minute when he was sent to get a chicken–a trip from which he did not immediately return.
“All the way to Sherman was a gale of laughter, especially when my Model-T Coupe struck a rock and a tube in the front tire popped out like a balloon,” Creighton recalled. “Since there was no puncture or blowout we continued after a little bit of old fashioned tire work. Nevertheless, one shadow hung over us the entire trip. This shadow was the possible fate of Bill Brewer when he returned to West Columbia, for the elder Mr. Brewer was a man of quick temper and prompt action. But just as the threat of an impending hurricane may simmer down to a fitfull breeze, so Bill’s predicament came to a peaceful end. ‘What took you so long?’ Bill Sr. asked Bill Jr. upon his return home from the Sherman trip. ‘That chicken sure must have been hard to catch.'”
My father, Rex Gupton, eventually wore the maroon and gold football uniform of the Austin College Kangaroos, as well as playing guard for Texas Lutheran University and East Texas Baptist University after enjoying his high school days in West Columbia wearing the maroon and gray in football and basketball for the Roughnecks like his older brother Thurman Gupton and Bill Brewer had done a decade earlier.
And now, some 98 years removed from Bill Brewer and others receiving their high school diplomas in West Columbia, Texas, a new class of graduates is preparing to finish up their final semester at Columbia High School. I can only hope that more than a few of the 2025 CHS grads will put together a scrapbook of photographs and memories to hand down to their children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren to be viewed and shared with the coming generations.