George GRAUL (1849-1938)was born 2 June 1849 in Buffalo, New York, six months after his parents arrived in the USA. He died Sept. 7, 1938 in Kingsville, Texas. George began working for the Union Pacific Railroad as a cook for the work crews when he was 16 years old.From: George Graul's Bible Records, given to me by Cousin Patricia in Austin:
He first married Tina SNOW. They had one son: Benjamin GRAUL. Some records show that marriage ended in divorce while another story states that she died and he left his young son with another family to care for him while he was away working. Upon his return he was told that the child had died. This he never believed but he never located Benjamin.
George met his second wife, Queenie Fisher, in Arkansas. Queenie's mother had died five days after Queenie's birth. George came to Texas in a covered wagon with Queenie and her father,John Punchard Fisher, and her sisters. On June 25, 1879 in Milam County, Texas the seventeen year old Queenie and the thirty year old George were married. Their first two children, Louis and Emma, were born in Austin, Texas.
They were living in Austin when the first capital burned. They moved to Milam County where he hauled hay from central Texas to the Hay Market in San Antonio; later they lived at Clarkson, Milam County, Texas on a farm; then they moved to Rosebud in Falls County, Texas where he bought the Roundtree Place (sometimes called the "Graul Castle") complete with furnishings. The Roundtree family moved up north for their daughter's health. Emma and Hugh Glass were married in that house.
George and Queenie left Rosebud in 1912 and moved to Kingsville, TX, moving all of their household goods by train. In route, the train had an accident resulting in the loss of a lot of their beautiful dishes and other breakable treasures.
Their first Kingsville home was on a farm. Later they moved into town. Their youngest daughter, Queenie, recalls hiding behind a door and listening to her father speak German to his friends. The grandpa FISHER lived with them until he went to the Confederate veterans retirement home in Austin. The young Queenie recalls sitting in her grandpa Fisher's lap and eating "goobers" while brushing his reddish beard.
Submitted by Rosanna Urban Parra