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W. A. Oatman ~ Master Craftsman |
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By C.W. (Bill) Smith When young Art Oatman was growing up along the banks of Cherry Creek in Kerr County, Texas, amidst the lush oak, mesquite and juniper forests of the Texas Hill Country, it never occurred to him that he might spend the rest of his life in the arid desert of West Texas. His father, Sheppard Oatman, was an itinerant school teacher who taught one-room schools all over the Hill Country, and whose family had immigrated to Bastrop, Texas, from Indiana and Missouri in 1850. His mother, Clara Banta Oatman, came from pioneer stock, and was used to the rigors of frontier life. Her family came to Texas from Indiana in 1837. Art and his nine brothers and sisters lived an idyllic life on the banks of the Cherry, born into an extended family of scholars, physicians, diarists and devout Christadelphians who delighted in spending family reunion time holding debates, reciting poetry and staging impromptu plays. But that sweet time of youth all too soon turned sour on Art's 12th birthday in 1899, when his mother collapsed and died from childbirth complications. Art's family disintegrated a week later when the youngest children were farmed out to Banta aunts and uncles, and the older children stayed with their father. Art left home at 13 and drifted for several years. Eventually opportunity arose and he apprenticed to a building contractor in San Antonio who was constructing fine Victorian homes in the King William district. |
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Over the next few years he taught himself geometry, trigonometry and drafting from books in the library and practiced his manual skills on the job, all to perfect his craft. But he yearned to go into business for himself. So, early in 1913, Art reduced his belongings to a few handbags, hopped the first west-bound train and soon landed in Marfa, Texas, where building was booming. It didn't take long for an experienced cabinetmaker to land a job at the construction site for the palacial Brite Home, which was being built on the west side of Marfa for prominent Presidio County ranchers. His skill soon became known and he hired on for other jobs, but he wanted to be his own boss. When he was awarded the contract for the Anderson Gift Store in downtown Marfa, his career was off and running. Art worked on many Big Bend homes and buildings that were constructed in the early ‘teens and ‘twenties. He was a gifted craftsman and an able supervisor and people quickly learned to appreciate his abilities and his quick wit. But he was a tad wild and especially loved to play practical jokes, so his workers had to be vigilant. In mid-1913 he was hired to work on the new Limpia Hotel annex being built in Ft. Davis, Texas, so he moved his operations to that city. Ft. Davis was a smaller community than Marfa (and to his consternation, dry!), so he found himself attending the Baptist Church on Sundays, probably more to check out the local young ladies than to replinish his spirit. Though raised a Christadelphian, a small sect centered in central Texas and whose most famous adherents were Sam Johnson and his son Lyndon Baines and family, Art had led a controversial life in his church. A church tenet required total immersion baptism for salvation, and young Art caused a stir at his baptism when one arm stubbornly refused to go under the baptismal waters, remaining high and dry. Church elders were divided. Some thought the baptism valid, others wanted him to be rebaptized and still others thought that baptism of the recalcitrant arm was all that was necessary to give him full standing. But he convinced that his baptism was valid, refused to be re-immersed, and coupled with his mischievous nature, was forever under a cloud of suspicion by the faithful. His brother wrote him seventy years later, wanting him to be rebaptized before it was too late, but he would not reconsider. Given his past, Art had no qualms about visiting other faiths, and Baptist theology fit very closely with Christadelphian theology on many points. He did have a bad habit of arguing theological points in a stage whisper during the sermon, but most people thought it charming. So one fateful Sunday morning in 1914 at First Baptist Church, Ft. Davis, Texas, Mr. William Arthur Oatman made the acquaintance of Miss Lessie Gertrude Odell, a young schoolteacher from Balmorhea who was serving her first term of duty as a governess/teacher on a Jeff Davis County ranch. Soon the Sunday afternoons before evening worship services were filled with courting on the grounds of the old Fort, usually picnicking under the huge cottonwood trees and climbing on the palisade rocks behind the Fort. He and Gertie were married in a parlor ceremony at the Odell home in Balmorhea on December 5, 1915. Even though one of his sisters-in-law referred to him as that "jack-legged gambler from Fort Davis who stole our Gertie away,” the family absolutely adored him. The newlyweds set up housekeeping in Marfa. Though they lived in other places as the work required, they always called Marfa home. In 1917, shortly after their first child was born, they moved to Sanderson and he built railroad bridges. While living in Alpine in the ‘20s, he contracted out of the old Story-Whiteside Lumber Company and built many homes and public buildings, including the new First Methodist Church building. He hand-built all of the interior woodwork and cabinetry in that building. He also worked on the Holland Hotel at its expansion in the ‘20s. In Marfa, in addition to the Brite Home, he built, remodeled or worked on many buildings, including the St. Francis Hotel, the Paisano Hotel, the Avant home, the Captain Gillette home and thirty-odd other homes. In Ft. Davis he worked on the Limpia Hotel Annex, contracted the Anderson School Building and built or remodeled numerous homes. In Balmorhea he built many hay barns, homes and public buildings. In Marathon he built the last school building on the hill before the new brick school was built in the ‘30s. In the late ‘30s and early ‘40s they returned to Marfa and he worked on construction at Fort D.A. Russell, construction at the Marfa Air Base and built the Crews Hotel (now the Judd Foundation Building.) After the war they moved to El Paso and he worked for a dozen or so years on FHA housing. To say he was a prolific builder is an understatement. And in his free time he built furniture and cabinets and he and Gertie raised a family of five. In 1959 the Oatmans retired to Marathon where their daughter lived, but he kept right on working. Although he never took on public building projects after that point, he did have a thriving business remodeling homes and ranch houses. As the years wore on he reduced his workload, but he spent every day in his adobe workshop in Marathon, building inlaid picture frames and refurbishing old furniture, anything to keep busy. He cut his smoking back to a pack a week and cut out the hard liquor on which he had thrived, but he still put away a six-pack of beer a day. In fact, a few years ago the Gage Hotel tore down his old shop building, and as it came crashing to the ground the workers were astonished to see literally thousands of beer cans pouring out of the disintegrating attic. Now it was known where he threw his empties! Art Oatman passed away in Marathon at the age of 86 on May 21, 1973, preparing to spend another day in his shop. He literally dropped dead in his tracks, as sharp as a tack and with no hint of illness. Thus ended a life of great accomplishment but little fame. We often hear praises sung to the architects and dreamers who had a vision for an edifice or a place. But the unsung hero was the builder who took the dream and gave it form and substance. In the early days the Big Bend had a select few who could execute the plans and bring the dream to life with style and craftsmanship. W. A. Oatman, the little man from Marfa, was a prominent and shining example.
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