ROCKWALL, TX (Feb. 23, 2015) More than 60 people showed up to hear Patty Canup share recollections of Rockwall County’s history, including personal stories from two well-known and longtime area African American residents during its first Sheri Stodghill Lecture Series on Friday, Feb. 13.
Patty recounted her talks with Sam Buffington and Gloria Williams in regards to their thoughts on slavery and segregation within Rockwall County, as part of an oral history book of Rockwall County she currently has in the works.
“My granddaddy and his parents grew up in slavery times,” Patty quoted Buffington as saying. “They didn’t talk about it because they always wanted to bind the wounds up, not make it open wounds. People need to have open minds about things like that.”
In 1850 there totaled 65 slaves in Kaufman County (Rockwall was a part of Kaufman County back then). By 1855, that number grew to 329.
Patty recounted some of her talks with Williams, who recalled that back then it was “hard for freed slaves to have freedom” because “all they knew was slavery; they didn’t know how to be free.”
Patty came to Rockwall in 1953, when her father, Richard Pickens, opened up an aluminum plant in what was then the small town of Rockwall. The plant was only the second business located in the area then. Born in Alabama, Patty has two sisters (one born in Virginia and the other Arizona) and graduated from Rockwall High School in 1963. When she eloped with her husband David Canup, she said she “married into half of Rockwall County.” David’s great great great grandfather was Sterling Rex Barnes, who operated the toll bridge crossing the Trinity River; great grandfather was Terry Utley Wade, who was one of the three men digging for the water well and found the rock wall for which the county is named.
Patty taught kindergarten at Rockwall schools, loves genealogy and is currently working on an oral history book of Rockwall County, from which she shared her interviews with Sam Buffington and Gloria Williams to the big crowd inside the third-floor courtroom at the old historic downtown courthouse.
Patty spoke of her father and how the aluminum plant he opened helped bring jobs into Rockwall. It was a small town back then with not a whole lot of job opportunities available, but when her father opened up the plant, it offered people a chance to stay and work in Rockwall. Over the years, he also opened up a window company and plants in Terrell, West Covina, CA, Washington State and Puerto Rico.
“One of the things I’m most proud of is that in all of these plants he operated, he gave scholarships to students to be able to go to college,” Patty said. “I think he gave away over 250 scholarships over the years.”
The lecture is the first in a series that continues next month when folks can come hear the history of the Florence Ranch and Lawrence Homestead on Friday, March 13 at the historic downtown Courthouse in Rockwall, 901 E. Washington St., from noon to 1 p.m. All lectures are free and open to the public.
By Austin Wells, Blue Ribbon News reporter.
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