LESTER WADE FIELDS by Carolyn Fields Collins March 2007

Lester Wade Fields was born February 22 1882 in Jack County, Texas. G W Fields
and Francis Julia Farmer named him after Wade Farmer , her Father. They lived
about 7 miles Southeast of Bryson in a great old two story house on a hill
overlooking the Brown Survey.

He always claimed he was the seventh son of GW and he had mystical powers.
People came to him to clear warts and various diseases...He always had a remedy
of some type. He told great stories or tales to all us kids that would sit
still. He told of jousting tournaments held on the Fields lands.

He was a ladies man from early on. He drove to Fort Worth numerous times to the
Stockyards district. He drove a Model T in early years. He dated a Gertrude
Cullars from Jack County, and had a ring for her in his pocket. She accidentally
drowned in a tank, he threw the ring into the tank also.

He married for the First time in Graham, Young County, Texas to an Isabelle S.
Harmon April 1931. She was a well propertied widow much older than he. The
Harmon consisted of 155 acres on the Jack and Young County lines. This property
was known as the McCumber Survey. This property was where HA McCumber murdered
George Farmer cousin to Lesters mother in 1894. Mr McCumber then turned the gun
on Georges mule and killed him, then turned and faced the young son of George
and told him if he were older he would have shot him too. McCumber then turned
the gun on his own dog and then himself. This is well documented in the
newspapers of Young County, Texas.

Another story told in the Young and Jack county area was that one of the Holman
men carried a gun and slept with it under his pillow at night because of Lester
and his marriage to Mrs Harman.

Lester was a hot tempered man, cussing often. One of his fits caused the
probable death of his brother Walter Lee Fields. On that evening he had cussed
Walter at length, and was chased out of the house by Violet with a broom. One
can surmise that he had no patience with Walter the dreamer, because he worked
all the time to make more money and could not understand a man that did not work
as hard as he did.

On the other hand, Lester took in families during The Depression, gave them a
cow for milk for the children. Starving people were taught to mix wheat with
milk on his Foster Survey land. Walters family was one of those families, with
13 children.

One of the Tall Tales told by him consisted of Gold on the Brazos River. Jesse
James and his Gang of Outlaws visited the Crow place in Palo Pinto County,
Texas. They hid gold bars from a robbery in a cave on the Brazos River behind
the Crow Farm where Kate Crow lived. KATE WAS COURTED BY ONE OF THE MEMBERS, HE
NEVER TOLD WHICH ONE. However the gold has never been found that we know of.
Walters children hunted for it for years!!!

Another tale had to do with our family history. He told of GW Fields as a boy,
and his father Abraham with family crossing the Mississippi River on a barge
into Missouri. With them was one black slave that begged to go with them.The
family hid from bushwackers several times, according to family lore.

Lester seemed closest to Edwin, then Glen and then the Twins. He kept the twins
working for years on his ranches. He also got them out of trouble with the law a
few times. There were cattle to take care of and hogs, fence building and
plowing.

My fondest memories were of Lester were after I married, he would spot our
pickup in Bryson, follow it to Fat and Shortys house on weekends. He would make
a bee line to see us and the cooler of drinks that he knew was on that truck.
He would sit and drink the first one without coming up for air. The second would
be much slower and the stories would begin to flow easily. If only I had of
recorded these.....

Lester died of stomach Cancer in August 1971, at the age of 89 years.

Winnie D. Davis Owen was married to Lester on December 21, 1952 in Jacksboro,
Texas. She was a widow with two sons and property in Jack County, Texas. She
was kind enough to give me several pictures as I visited her one evening that
belonged to my great uncle.