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- Born in an ox cart while his parents were on a trek from Alabama to Texas, Jeff came into the world around Little Rock, Arkansas in 1850. He spent the first years of his life growing up in Beaumont and after the War of Northern Agression (aka: Civil War) his family moved to Taylor's Bayou, better known today as Fannett.
According to Jeff, growing up in Jefferson County was quite an experience as times were back then. In those days, Taylor's Bayou was full of alligators and the woods around where he lived and hunted contained a variety of wildlife including panthers. Jeff was a "fire hunter". Fire hunters attached a burning knot or pan of fire to their headdress to aid them in night forays after animals. Hunters then were excellent marksmen and were taught to shoot as soon as they were big enough to handle a gun.
As a young man, he was among the ranks of the early Texas trail drivers and was employed by early cattlemen in the area. His job was to drive the vast herds across the state to points of delivery after they had been sold. He made many trips on horseback driving herds to Abilene and New Orleans. A few years later he went to work for some panhandle cattlemen who made periodic trips to the Neches to buy cattle. While working for the panhandle firm, he became a full-fledged cowboy wearing chaps, two six-guns and eating food from the chuckwagon.
In later years he decided against farming for a living and engaged in carpentry building many homes and business establishments in Beaumont.
On one occasion during his retirement years he made a trip to visit his daughter in New York. While there he managed to slip out on his own to do the town and late in the evening his daughter received a call from the police station to come and fetch her father. It seemed that he and an officer had disagreed on the proper way for a pedestrian to cross the city streets. One can only imagine what the old cowboy thought of New York!
In 1936 a reporter from the Beaumont newspaper interviewed Jeff and was given a description of what life was like in the old days of Jefferson County. Jeff died three years later at the age of 88.
Source: "The Landrum Family of Beaumont, Texas", written by Kathryn Slatten 1989
http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/874493/person/-1757429442/media/2?pgnum=1&pg=0&pgpl=pid%7cpgNum
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1850 - 1939 (88 years)
