Melons

Left:  Zanette Stephenson, Queen of the 1940 Peach and Melon Festival is seated among melons being loaded for shipment to  Lubbock.  On the right she is amid a load of 60,000 pounds of melons bound fro Trinidad, Colorado.  Photos provided by Mildred Hansford.

Pyeatts Cafe was located on the north side of Gonzales.  Notice the hamburger stand to the left.  Burgers were 10 cents.

Looking down from Smith’s awning, market street about 10 a.m. with Jones Cafe, W.L. Blair’s Grocery and Feed in the back ground.  The truck is being loaded with yellow-meated melons and cantaloupes bound for Deming, New Mexico.  Pickups loaded with peaches, cantaloupes and potatoes are lined up on the north side of the street.  Notice the device in the street between the car and “1940”.  It was one of several stop signs in the downtown area. Photos probably taken by C.L. Huddleston for the Festival, provided by Mildred Hansford from Fred Harmon collection.

Top: Market street (Gonzales) looking east probably in 1940.  The boy sitting on a truck in the lower right corner is Doyle Huddleston.  The man at the bottom of the photo with his shoulders and head showing is John Tate.  Notice a wagon full of peaches pulled by two horses in the middle of the street and the truck with milk cans parked to the left.  The stone building to the rear of Smiths was the Chevrolet building.  Bibby’s (the Wall of Recall) is on the right. Photos provided by Doyle Huddleston for the De Leon Centennial book.

Below: Market street looking west at 6:30 a.m in July 1940.  The photo was taken from the awning of W.H. Smith’s Dry Goods.  Bibbys Variety is on the left and OM Terrill Grocery on the right.  De Leon Hatchery is immediately behind Terrill’s and Foust Lumber occupies the next two buildings.  Photo probably taken by C.L. Huddleston for the Festival, provided by Mildred Hansford from Fred Harmon collection.

Earl Sadberry with a couple of big melons.

Lon Smith brought his melons to Market Street for years stacked exactly this way.

De Leon Melon Slicing about 1922.

The Carter family having watermelon ca: 1920.  Ben Carter and his mother Marietta Carter are on the far right.  Alice Carter is third from the left.

(L-R) Ralph Terrill, Will Rich and Walt Mathis slice a melon.  Photos provided by Doyle Huddleston for the De Leon Centennial book.

Black Diamond watermelons with Higginbothams in the background.

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Page last updated June 19, 2007