McDOUGALD

Jacob McDougald of Ashley County, Arkansas, about 1875.

A curious connection between the McDougalds and the Durants, was that Jacob McDougald fought over the exact same battlefield as Capt. George Durant, at Mansfield, Louisiana. Later their children would marry and have their own battles.

George McDougald, my Grandmother Cushman's father.

We do not know when George came to Texas or how he met his bride, divorce' Ginny Durant Bering, mother of three. But somehow this good-hearted Arkansas boy found himself working for the Texas Company (TEXACO) at the same time that Major Durant was living with his daughter in Port Arthur, Texas. Perhaps the Confederate kinship was his entre.

Only two of Ginny's five daughters wore the McDougald name, but Nell (my grandmother) and little sister Mildred carried the name proudly.

Sadly George McDougald fell into a vat of hot oil at the Texaco plant and was burned severely. He was crippled for awhile and could not work. They had five girls to raise... The McDougalds were separated and were never successfully reconciled.

 My grandmother Nell with her mother, Ginny Durant McDougald.

Still, my grandmother loved him greatly and he lived nearby all during my father's upbringing. George was a carpenter and built his daughter Nell the Cushman's first home on Park Place Boulevard, just the way she wanted it.

Nell Cushman with Richard, Joy and Ralph Jr, at the home her father built for them.

And he took the time to show my father how to build things, which later enabled his grandson to feed his family during hard times. 

George McDougald, my father's maternal grandfather. Although his legs were terribly disfigured and scarred from an industrial accident, he was still a charming, talented, good-looking man.

Somewhat devil-may-care, and spiced with that Scotch-Irish sense of humor, George  drove my military-minded Grandfather Cushman crazy. George was as adorable as Ralph Cushman was regimented. It was a colossal clash between right-brained and left-brained perspectives. My father learned his skills as a politician early while keeping the two from killing each other.

My Aunt Joy says she knew George McDougald to be a loving grandfather, and was told by her mother that "Granddad" spoiled her and carried her around constantly on his hip, entertaining her and meeting her every need. Whenever she got into trouble, "He was on my side, all the time!"  Once her mother Nell even took her away from him, she was getting so rotten, and put her in bed to just to prove that she did not run the family.

The pocketknife on top was given to my father by his Grandfather George McDougald. The one below by his great-grandfather Basil C. Cushman. 

One of my treasures is his pocketknife, given to my father, and passed down to me.