Laredo, Texas, Feb. 23.--Colonel T. C. Nye, the "father of the onion industry" around Laredo, was born in Matagorda, Texas, in 1844, while Texas as a republic was flying the flag of the "Lone Star." He was reared an orphan in that county, both his father and mother having died during the year of his birth. Miss Elizabeth Forrester, an elderly English lady, reared him to maturity. There were no public schools there during his boyhood. Miss Forrester was highly educated and it is to her that he is indebted for all the "book education" that he received.

 

When the Civil War developed Colonel Nye went from the cattle ranges on the coastal plains into the army of the Confederate States. He joined the Sixth Texas Infantry, under the command of Colonel Garland. He with his regiment was captured at Arkansas Post, but was soon exchanged. He was again captured at Missionary Ridge carried to Rock Island, Ill. and held as a prisoner there until after the surrender at Appomattox. In the Rock Island prison his rations were scanty, and he suffered much from the extremely cold weather.

 

 Here the daily rations of the prisoners were cut to one-half. The Federals stated this cut was made in retaliation for the treatment which they said their captured soldiers were receiving in the Libby and Andersonville prisons.

 

Returning home after the cessation of hostilities, Colonel Nye again engaged in the live stock industry, not knowing, as he stated, anything else that he could do. He continued this vocation until 1898, when he gave it up to engage in farming.

Speaking of antebellum days, Colonel Nye said:

 

"People then lived as friends and neighbors. The people were sociable and hospitable, and every house was open to the stranger and the traveler. Food and entertainment were gladly given in country homes for company."

 

In the years gone by Colonel Nye says, he has seen the streets of Indianola lined for a mile with Mexican mule teams that were hauling hides, wool and ores from, and goods, implements, etc., back to Mexico. In those palmy days times were lively in the ill-fated old town. Everybody had money and want was unknown.

 

After the Civil War and previous to the days of wire fences and enclosed pastures, he remarked that an unbranded calf, if not following its mother, was regarded as common property by most men, and some of them would brand it, even if it was following its mother.
 

"My best luck," said Colonel Nye, "Was when I caught a girl, and my worst luck came when she died in 1912, after we had lived together 46 years."

 

In speaking of the onion industry he said: "The onion statistics show that it takes an average of two acres to make one carload. The industry has not been a bonanza because growers have not followed proper methods. I have never made a failure. I have done much 'book farming.' I take many agricultural journals and when I see a good idea or suggestion I follow it. I use my mind to sift the good from the bad. In all of my farming I have never plowed a furrow.

 

"In 1913 I and my youngest son, C. W. Nye, from thirty-two acres secured a yield of thirty-eight carloads, or 16,880 bushel crates. Eight of the thirty-two acres did not belong to us, so what we made came from twenty-four acres, and he and I realized a net profit of $6,780, which we divided between us. One of my son's boys made $1,340 from four acres. But we planted, worked and handled our crops right. I have a Negro on my place who has been with me twenty-four years. I do not pay him any salary, but I give four acres and water for irrigation gratis, and he pays me in work, and he works as if he was being paid cash for his services. From his four acres he made 2,440 crates, but I do not know how much money he made."

 

"To make a success in the onion industry is no easy matter. It is necessary to understand thoroughly the planting, the cultivation, the harvesting and the marketing of the crop. Out of fifteen crops I have sold all of them by contracting them before their maturity, and some of them before the onions were planted. In the spring before the onions ripen I become so anxious about them that I forget to shave and when you see me shaved you may know that the crop has been harvested and sold."

 

In speaking of his worldly success, he stated that he has never got rich but that he is well satisfied; that he has been able to start his four boys and one daughter in business, and does not owe any man anything save good will. "What more," he remarked, "should I want?"

 

He has a well improved farm four miles from town, with a comfortable dwelling supplied and equipped with all necessary comforts and conveniences. He has his own pumping plant, and on his well kept place are fig trees, dates, a beautiful grove of bearing olive trees, and splendid crops of growing cabbage and onions. He has in his possession a chart of Matagorda Bay that was made by his father.

 

Incidentally he remarked that he had been reared under the "Never leave home after night" rule, and he thought it was still a good one to follow.

 

Editor's Note: [Carey Smith]