CALF_News_June_July_2021

40 CALF News • June | July 2021 • www.calfnews.net R ecollections BY BETTY JO GIGOT PUBLISHER I n thinking back on my visits with Eugene Schwertner, I am not at all surprised the family business is celebrating 75 years in a very tough business. Survival was the name of the game for generations of the Schwertner family. One of my favorite stories was about his grandpa, Adolph, and the Depres- sion. In our January 1994 CALF News story, he talked about banking in those days. My grandpa had already set up his bank and I was just a kid during the Roosevelt administration. This was during the Depression, when Roosevelt came in and closed every bank in the entire country for two weeks. So, my grandfather got on the train and went to Washington. He was going to see Roosevelt. But first he saw Senator Connally, who told him, ‘You go on back home. By the time you get there, you’ll be okay. Your money is safe.’ Eugene went on to tell how they reorga- nized the banks to have stockholders so that one man could not own a bank – it was the beginning of the FDIC. A couple of years later, Eugene’s uncle, who ran the bank, called Adolph to tell him the examiners were there and were closing the bank. ‘They say all these loans you’ve got here are no good. We don’t have any collateral.’ ‘What do you mean we don’t have any collateral? I know all those people.’ ‘I know, but the examiners say they don’t like the way you’ve done business here,’ my uncle said. Man, was my grandfather hot. Grandpa went roaring down to the bank and marched in and asked, ‘Which one of these loans doesn’t smell good?’ He was told none of the loans were any good. They didn’t have any collateral and their finance statements weren’t finance statements. ‘They’re not going to close my bank. How many dollars do I owe you?’ They told him … whatever it was, I don’t remember … and my grandfather said, ‘You sit down there. I’ll be back in a bit.’ So, we went down to his office. I didn’t know it, but he had a big concrete vault in the sample room, underneath that build- ing. He told me to watch the window while he opened that door, went down there and came out with sacksful of money … gold and all kinds of money. Then he went back to the bank and said, ‘Give me those notes.’ So, they didn’t close the bank. My uncle said, ’Adolph, the only way we can make any money is to loan money out.’ ‘Well, we’ve got to figure out something else then,’ he said. They didn’t have any loans. And do you know, every one of those people paid my grandfather? School and Military Born in 1920, Eugene went to Texas A&M College. I asked my dad what classes he reckoned I should take. He said, ‘You sure as hell don’t need any agriculture. Cotton is $20 a bale, a big cow is $14 or $15, and a hog is $4. You’d better go down and be an engineer.’ I didn’t know what an engineer was. I thought the engineer ran the train! My schooling had been one teacher for two grades. We had five teachers for about 350 kids. We didn’t get a whole lot of learning, but I went to Texas A&M college anyway, to be an engineer. EUGENE SCHWERTNER ... A TEXAS TRADER World War II was on and, in 1942, engineering students were invited to join the Navy Seabees, a Naval con- struction battalion. Eugene only lacked one semester but he joined. Trained by the Marines, their job was to go right behind the Marines when they made a beachhead and lay down the steel matting to make airstrips. They also fueled planes and put up ammunition for them. “ I landed at Guadalcanal and ended up at Okinawa. I did that for 49 months.” He spent a 30-day furlough in Aus- tralia and wanted to stay but his mom disagreed. “You’ve got too much to do around here.” Eugene’s two brothers also fought in WWII. One of them was badly injured and the other came back with malaria. NEXT ISSUE: CAPITOL IS BORN. 