Augusta Sterling

 

 

Augusta Sterling

 

She may not have died on November 5th -- that is the day she disappeared.  Her body has never been found.  March 12, 1986 was set as the day of death by the court.

Augusta Sterling Remembered
by Betty Ann Hughes


Augusta Sterling was a very special person in many ways!  She may have been the best elementary school secretary ever!  She anticipated needs and always had everything ready as far ahead as possible.  When she'd be caught up (which was frequent) she'd read, crochet or whatever.  James Irby who brought her to Sam Houston as secretary ( she had been their baby sitter) was lost!  She quickly caught on and made him look good.  He lasted one year.  Mr. Klemm was next and had all the "book learning" but used to really irritate Miss Sterling because his "high falutin" ideas just didn't work.  I think he was there two years.

Then came former coach, Travis Cook, who knew nothing about elementary school but was wise enough to give wide berth to those who did.  He had a little 2-panel "window" installed between his office and hers.  It was always open except when some student wouldn't respond to the usual discipline methods.  The window would close, the board would come out of the bottom drawer, and either boy or girl would receive a swat.  When this happened, Augusta grimaced with each swat.  I asked once if she objected to this and her response was "It should have happened last week." but she still hated it.  Perhaps the saddest part, at least for me was the students never knew how much she liked and enjoyed them.  Only rarely did they get to see her infectious laugh.  She loved us to tell her student's cute remarks and would treasure each I'm sure.

There was a teacher (Miss Leffland's niece) who strained all of our patience.  She snapped at students, teachers and parents alike.  Augusta tried to remind her of reports due and other requirements and would go pick up her attendance report.  It may have been unimportant to the teacher but not Miss Sterling.  She saved the teacher's hide regularly.  This teacher was someone Augusta had watched grow up so felt protective toward her.

Perhaps her biggest fault was her intolerance of mistakes.  She was quick to remind us of our "sins" but was totally mortified when she erred - which was seldom.

When several of us at school would be absent because of allergy, Miss Steling always looked down her nose, as if allergy was not serious enough to require absence.  As she got older ( although she never aged!) she developed allergies and said she never realized how uncomfortable and unpleasant it could make one.

When I heard she was "lost" and others were looking I gathered some 22 of her former students ( in high school and college by then) and we searched all night and the next day.  What a great unsolved mystery and what a tragic end to an exemplary life!  I'm sure of one thing - she wouldn't go with strangers willingly - and not at all, without a fight!

I am sending this version only to those of you who contributed stories.  Please send your comments to insure the accuracy and tone of this story.  I do not wish to be overly harsh or kind in our judgement of Augusta or anyone else.  

March 13, 1998            

These details were explained to me on 3/13/98 by Sonny Miller, husband of Peggy (Sterling) Miller.  Sonny was Supervisor, Crime Scene Investigation Unit, McAllen Police Department at the time (1985).   Memories of her personality and behavior are from Augusta's nieces, Dorothy Cavanaugh, Fanny Ross, and Peggy Miller.
                                                
Disappearance of Augusta Sterling

Augusta Sterling left home about 10 am on August ?,1985 for her morning walk, wearing a blue dress, and never returned.  Her lifetime friend and roommate, Helen Monney, had gone to the Methodist Church earlier, so had not seen Augusta leave for her walk.  Augusta was in the process of recovering from stomach surgery a few weeks earlier and was trying to regain her strength.  She normally walked a couple of miles every day. 

Helen Monney and Augusta Sterling

 

About Augusta

She was our "old maid" aunt and Charles Sterling's sister.  Her sense of right and wrong was very strong.  She was a heavy-boned, almost masculine woman.  Once a male suitor asked her to marry him and Augusta's reply was that he had to choose: if he would stop smoking she would marry him, otherwise she never wished to see him again.  Apparently, he did not stop smoking.  

When her father died in 1936, she continued to live with her mother -- Grandma Sterling -- and took care of her in her old age.  A broken hip put Grandma in a wheel-chair, then she apparently had a series of strokes before she died.  While caring for her mother, Augusta also milked some cows, grew chickens, maintained a yard full of beautiful flowers and managed the citrus grove.  She became irritated when the green jays pecked the citrus fruit.  She grew phlox, California poppies, larkspur, wood violets and blue plumbagos -- among other things.  She also had a Vitex tree, edible dates, a fig tree by the outhouse, grapes and a large mulberry tree by the chicken pens.  It was under this mulberry tree where she would wring the necks of pullets to kill them for a meal.  They were dipped in boiling water to loosen the feathers, then Grandma would slowly pull off the feathers.  Her arthritic hands allowed her to use only a couple of fingers for the job.

Sacrificing her personal life to the service of her mother gave August credibility in claiming the high-ground in all matters of a moral nature.  She was very faithful in attending the Edinburg Methodist Church, where she taught Sunday school.  She continued to drive us kids in the old Model "A" the four and one-half miles to Church on Sunday morning, long after other kids got to ride in more modern and fashionable automobiles.

As Charles and Esther Sterling's family continued to grow, there was insufficient room in their small, four-room home for the kids to sleep.  Bruce slept at home, but often Dorothy, Peggy and Fanny slept on the porch of Grandma and Augusta's house.  Our mother produced children and Augusta felt responsible for taking care of some of them.  Our mother was a soft, "huggy" type who made few hard and fast rules.  Augusta never hugged and had definite rules.  "Your mother never makes you do anything," she complained.  When little Fanny returned to Augusta's home late one night, she found herself locked out of the house and was forced to negotiate the path, through the dark orchard, to our parents home by herself.  

Before school, the girls were required to wear a large bib to keep their school clothes clean.  Breakfast consisted of a large glass of milk, large glass of fresh squeezed orange juice, oatmeal, eggs, toast, home-made bread, fruit, meat, and potatoes.  Dorothy and Peggy learned to sneak the excess in the swill pail, but Fanny felt compelled to eat it all.  Fanny would do nothing to irritate her aunt.

Bruce was another matter.  He did not share Augusta's sense of morality nor did he believe she was the ultimate authority.  In one disagreement, Bruce threw a corn cob at Augusta and told her to "Shut up."  

Augusta told Bruce to "Shut up."

The sisters were horrified!  How could anyone challenge Augusta's authority and live to tell about it?  Then there was the issue of "hell" where Bruce was now doomed to go.

Augusta's house had no running water or electricity.  Kerosene lamps provided light at night.  Milk and butter were kept in an ice box containing a block of ice.  As the ice melted the water dripped into a pan underneath.  A toad lived in such a pan in our house.  A windmill in the barnyard lifted the canal water from a cistern into an elevated tank to provide water for the cows and to a faucet in the yard where water could be obtained for raising flowers or household needs.  Thus, bodies and hair were washed from a pan on the porch using a wash (warch) cloth.  Augusta would part Fanny's hair and scrub the part in the hair thoroughly without getting all her hair wet.  Thus, in cold weather, the scalp revealed by the parted hair would appear clean when the remainder of the scalp might not be as clean.  In the evening, Augusta sometimes wound Fanny's hair onto metal rollers that were uncomfortable at night.  Fanny would have "Shirley Temple" curls for school the next day.  But, at the bus stop, where Augusta could not see, Dorothy would brush out the curls.  Other times, Augusta would braid their hair so tightly that their eyes were slanted.

The girls slept out on an unheated porch with only a canvas, roll-down shade to protect them from the cold winter "northers."  They used bed caps to keep their heads warm and Augusta heated "sad irons" on a kerosene stove and wrapped them in towels to keep their feet warm.  Augusta slept on an iron bed back in the corner of the porch.  A "slop jar" was provided under the bed.  There was no indoor toilet -- only an outhouse too far from the house for night-time use.

Augusta provided names for each of her milk cows and trained them to come to be milked in a definite order by name.  One was called "Short Horn," another "Sally," and another was "Crooked Horn."  Our father also had a few milk cows that Bruce milked in the same barn with Augusta.  One of the cows -- apparently named by Bruce -- was "Big Teat."  Another was "Bossy."  Dorothy learned the multiplication tables while Augusta milked the cows.  "Give me the five's" she would say.  Augusta could balance her ample frame on a one-legged,"T-shaped stool that we all used while milking.  Bruce taught Winfield how to milk -- but especially how to squirt milk directly from the cow's teat, across the barn, into the mouth of a hungry cat.  Part of the fun was to miss the cat's mouth as much as possible so that the cat obtained a milk-soaking in the process.  The cat gymnastics while trying to maintain the erratic stream of milk flow into its mouth instead of its fur, provided barnyard entertainment.  The cat often got more milk by licking its milk-soaked fur than from the milk that entered its mouth directly.  Bruce was impatient to turn this milking task over to his younger brother, but Winfield was still too young and slow.  The exercise of milking several cows twice each day by hand gave Bruce considerable hand strength.  He could bend the metal cap of a Lone Star beer bottle with the thumb and index finger of one hand -- a very impressive exhibition of strength to his little brother.

When Dorothy learned to "jump rope," she reached the point where she could do 100 "hot peppers."  Augusta warned that Dorothy would "die of a heart attack if she didn't stop."  Dorothy learned to sew on Augusta's treadle sewing machine.  Dorothy would approach Augusta while she milked the cows and ask what to do next.

Augusta was a hard "task-master" but she was very dependable and was always "there" to help the Sterling kids.  She was also something of a perfectionist and a great cook.  She baked bread every Saturday and it came out of the oven about 2 PM.  Hungry mouths were forced to wait till the bread cooled before it could be cut.  Slices of the warm bread would be buttered and "slathered" with fig preserves.  Her fried chicken is remembered as the best ever.  Her Christmas candies were exceptionally good.

When the girls became sick, they found comfort on a wooden, reclining chair in Grandma's living room by the kerosene, heating stove.

According to Fanny Sterling "Aunt Augusta was valedictorian of her class and received a full ? scholarship to Southwestern University in Georgetown."

After Grandma died, Augusta moved into town (Edinburg) to live with her friend, Helen Monney.  She obtained a job as school secretary, where she worked for many years.  She is remembered for her efficiency and competency.

Details of Her Disappearance  

On that fateful morning, when Helen returned from the church, Augusta had not returned from her walk.  Helen waited a short while but became concerned when Augusta did not return.  Augusta was a creature of habit and seldom changed her plans -- Helen knew something was wrong when she did not return home.  Sonny was at work; Helen phoned him and explained the circumstances.  Sonny asked Helen to phone the Edinburg Police Department and have them send someone out to investigate.  Sonny notified Peggy that he was heading to Edinburg and Peggy should meet him there.  Helen explained Augusta's walking pattern ߝ the same each day in the same location.  She normally walked east on Bakers Street on the pavement to 21st street, where she crossed to the east side of 21st then walked on the concrete sidewalk that runs north and south.  After walking the prescribed distance, she would return on Baker Street on the paved surface.  The reason we mention paved surface was because she intentionally preferred smooth surfaces and avoided rough surfaces that might cause her to lose her balance.  

The City of Edinburg was digging (across the street and to the east) a storage pond for excess rain water.  There was heavy equipment in the area.  Sonny's first thought --, which was shared by  Edinburg P.D. -- that she might have wandered into the construction area, fallen down and accidently covered with soil by the heavy equipment.  Helen told Sonny and the police that Augusta would not have walked off the pavement because of her imbalance on rough surfaces.  To illustrate that point, Helen said that even in the front yard, Augusta would not walk on the grass because of her imbalance and preferred the sidewalk.

Texas Law for missing persons required a wait of 72 (possibly 56) hours before a person could be  officially declared missing.   Peggy and Sonny decided that public notification was needed ߝ the sooner folks could begin looking for her, the better.  Peggy called Davis Rankin of KURV radio in Edinburg and asked him to broadcast Augusta's disappearance as soon as possible.  He agreed to make the broadcast in part because he and Peggy were long time acquaintances.  KURV was the most listened-to, English-speaking, AM station in the Rio Grande Valley.  Sonny went to the FM station in Edinburg and asked them to broadcast Augusta's disappearance.  They said that they could not do that until the prescribed time had elapsed as per state law.  Sonny said, "But the sooner we can get this out, the sooner people will come forward if they saw her."  Sonny asked the man behind the counter, "If your mother was missing and elderly, would you wait 72 hours?"  The man saw the issue in a different light and agree to make the broadcast.   

Sonny asked about someone who might have bloodhounds ߝ maybe the Edinburg Police.  Someone recommended a man from San Benito who had worked with law enforcement folks before.  There was no difficulty reaching the owner and soon a huge, loveable bloodhound named "Boss" (who was bigger than his owner) showed up in Edinburg (free of charge).  The owner explained the search process to Sonny and Peggy.  He pointed out that due to very high winds on the day Augusta disappeared, the dog would have great difficulty picking up her scent.  Helen provided some items of Augusta's clothing to provide the dog with a scent.  The owner and "Boss" took off down the street to the east.  They crossed over 21st street and proceeded to search on the sidewalk along the east side of 21st street where Augusta normally walked.  Sonny asked the dog's owner when would he know if the dog picked up a scent.  He said, "When he picks up a scent, he will start dragging me and I know he has found the scent."  The dog found nothing.  The owner was not asked to return at a later time ߝ there seemed no point.   

Lonny Sommers (?), the contractor digging the holding pond was questioned by Edinburg Police and again by Sonny as to whether she could have been hit by a piece of construction equipment and literally scooped up with dirt, and Mr. Sommers told Sonny that at the dumping site, the depth of the dirt was very shallow and that a body could have been seen easily if dumped there.  Augusta's body would not have been covered with enough dirt to conceal her.  Sonny thinks that the Edinburg P.D. went out and searched anyway.  Major Raul Garza of the Edinburg Police Dept. headed the investigation.  

Probably the next day, cousin Dwayne Bair conducted additional searches in his airplane over ponds, orchards, canals, and streets for the body.  Howard Bair also searched over the general area by auto and on foot.

Another suspect area for the search was the Edinburg main canal which was only about one block south of Augusta's home.  Next to the canal was a drainage ditch that was also searched visually. No underwater searches were conducted at the time.  To have been in the canal or ditch, it would have been necessary for her to have been lost or confused and accidentally fallen in the water.  Or if she had been assaulted, she might have been thrown into the canal or ditch.  But there was no evidence that she had passed close to this canal or ditch.  

Witnesses that saw Augusta included a neighbor across the street from Augusta's house who saw her walking east along Baker Street on the day she disappeared.  But the witness did not see her again.  A school teacher who knew Augusta when she was a school secretary, saw Augusta standing on the NE corner of Freddy Gonzalez and 21st Street, looking confused.  That intersection has a stop light.  The teacher was stopped at this light in her auto when she saw Augusta.  The teacher did not see Augusta leave the corner.  As far as Sonny knows, there were no other witnesses who saw Augusta walking that day.  

It is Sonny's opinion that someone else may have seen her and never come forward.  His reason is that on the NE corner of 21st Street and Freddy Gonzalez is the Leal Butcher Shop, where customers and employees are frequently coming and leaving.  Just to the east of Leal Butcher Shop is an elementary school where some children or teachers may have seen her during recess.  

A psychic named Jody from Boerne, TX had a shop where she reconditioned old trunks.  She was reconditioning one of Augusta's steamer trunks for Peggy several months later.  She asked Peggy to whom the trunk had belonged.  Peggy replied that it had belonged to her aunt, who had disappeared a few months earlier.  Peggy does not remember giving any verbal details on Augusta's disappearance.  But a short time later, Peggy received a letter from the psychic.  It asked, "Is there a creek or water nearby?"  

"This could be the Edinburg main canal," thought Sonny.

Pyschic Helps?

Jody (the psychic) said that she "could see that Augusta witnessed something."  An event had taken place in front of Augusta in which she (Augusta) would have intervened.  She used a term that August would have used to describe the situation.  Peggy found this word convincing because it was a term that Augusta might have used, but is not in common use today.  Sonny cannot now remember the term that Augusta would have said.  Augusta would have been knocked down when she tried to interfere.  The psychic said, "I see what appears to be an old green car that may be a Chevrolet."  

In searching for leads, Sonny suggests that there might have been a school child about to be abducted or something on that corner and Augusta might have tried to intervene.  And if she were knocked down by the abductor, she might have hit her head or been killed.  The abductor might have picked her up and placed her in the car and taken her away.  Augusta weighed only about 130 pounds at the time because of her poor health and the surgery she had a few weeks or months earlier, so she was not too heavy for a man, a strong woman or a bunch of kids to pick up.  It is Sonny's opinion that if this scenario is true, a child skipping school might have been the intended victim.  He does not believe that the Edinburg Police ever followed up by checking with the school to see if any children were absent without excuses from school that day.  If a child was skipping school, he/she would not have come forward and admitted that they were skipping school.

The psychic asked, "Is there a shoe lying in the weeds nearby?"  Sonny and Peggy searched for the shoe, but none was found.  Another time Sonny showed the psychic's letter to Major Garza and so they jointly searched the corner for the shoe and other evidence.

"Is there a road going south with a lot of grass on the west side?" asked the psychic.  

"That would be 21st Street which becomes "I" Road outside of town," reasoned Sonny.  Upon examination, they found that on the west side of the road was a grassy, open field.  

The psychic continued: "This road goes south.  Is there a road that branches off of this road to the west?  I see down this road that branches off, a large group of trees on the south side of the road."  She saw the words "down under" on something such as a cistern.  Sonny and Major Garza found a stand of hackberry trees and a concrete foundation with a cistern.  Peggy, Sonny, Garza and Dwayne all searched the area and found no evidence of any digging where Augusta might have been buried.  The cistern and house foundation was located on the south side of Canton Road among several large hackberry trees.

When Sonny described the location of the cistern to Charles Sterling ( who was in the nursing home in McAllen), Charles remembered the site as that of the home of a German couple who had lived there for many years.  The cistern and slab has since been removed and an orchard now occupies the site.

About one year later, a woman's skeleton was found north of Edinburg, but it was not clothed in a blue dress.  An anthropologist at Pan American University said that the skeleton was female and much younger that Aunt Augusta.  For these reasons it was assumed that the body was not that of Augusta.

Later, Peggy checked back with the psychic, who said that the trunk had some kind of aura about it.  An old lady came into the building ߝ she was a very grumpy woman, but exclaimed that the trunk was the most interesting she had ever seen.  She left in a good humor.  It was then that the psychic asked Peggy, "What happened to your aunt?"  (If she really could "see", why would she need to ask she would already know the answer.)  The psychic never asked for or was paid for her services.   

Augusta has never been seen again.  We can only speculate on what happened to her.  Some think she may have been kidnaped and possibly taken into Mexico.  But no ransom was ever received.  Maybe she fell into the construction area and was covered with dirt.  But searching revealed nothing.  It is possible that she became confused, got a ride on a bus or car, and left town.  Or maybe she planned to leave without a trace.  Anyway, this unsolved mystery constitutes a bit of family history that seems worthy of recording.

Winfield

August 17, 1998

Bruce's Memorial Statement at Augusta's Funeral

Marjorie Flanagan recently sent a copy of Bruce's Memorial (through Fanny) that had been filed and saved by Dorothy Bair.  She also included some newspaper clippings and other stuff related to Aunt Augusta's disappearance.  I do not have room to store them in my motorhome so if anyone wants them, I will be happy to mail them all to you.  Otherwise I will be forced to dispose of them.

I find a bit of both Bruce's and Augusta's character in the statement.  Knowing that we share their genes and likely exhibit similar behaviors and personality traits, maybe reading this statement helps improve our understanding of them both and, in the process, learn more about ourselves and our culture.  There is also some family history that may be better preserved if sent to family members by email.  Also, typing and sending this statement is one way of dealing with the pain of losing my older brother and helps soften the hard edges of my memories of Aunt Augusta's personality.  We can only wonder how different her life would have been had she accepted one of the University scholarship offers.

Bruce's Memorial Statement was as follows:

 

L to R: Mary Alice, Annie, Esther, Augusts, Bruce, Winfield and Waitman -- Sterlings all

Aunt Augusta's Story

For 18 years, our house was just across the citrus orchard from Aunt Augusta's.  We were a large family of five boys and four girls.  Since our house was small, the girls lived with Aunt Augusta, sleeping in the open on her front porch.  Every day, Aunt Augusta, my Dad and I milked cows in the same corral.  The girls helped with the chickens, and cared for the smaller children.  There was plenty of time for conversation and confrontation.  Aunt Augusta baked a cake for every birthday.  Your choices were Angel Food with Divinity icing, or Devil's Food with Chocolate Fudge icing.  She made the best Christmas candy, fried chicken, rolls and bread in the world, all of which she prepared on a small, kerosene stove.  So we all knew Aunt Augusta very well indeed.  She was more than an Aunt, being a second mother to our family.

Augusta Sterling was born in 1902 at Dayton, Kansas.  She was the seventh of eight children born to Winfield Lincoln and Mary Alice Sterling.  Her father was a pioneer farmer who decided to move to the Magic Valley in 1920.  His name is inscribed on the cornerstone of the First Methodist Church in Edinburg as W. L. Sterling.  He brought with him a daughter, Aunt Augusta, and two sons, Charles and Marion.  Stella and Chester, Augusta's older sister and brother, had established families in Kansas, and remained there.  The remaining three sisters died in their youth.  After high school, Marion moved back to Kansas.  My Dad, Charley, rode to the valley on the freight train with the family possessions.  He remained in the valley as a farmer, where today, at 88, he is the sole family survivor.

Aunt Augusta was the valedictorian of her high school graduating class of 1922.  Her Valedictory message was entitled "Service, the Call of the 20th Century".  She sang soprano in the Glee Club, with my Mother, Esther Heacock.  They are pictured together as Juniors in the first Edinburg High School Annual, the "Hi Life" of 1921.  After graduation, Aunt Augusta received scholarship offers from SMU, Baylor, Southwestern, TCU, the University of Texas, and others, but decided to remain on the family farm because her parents were in ill health and needed her assistance.  Her father had a small orchard, milked a few cows, and raised cotton and vegetables.  Winfield died at the age of 74 in 1936, and Aunt Augusta took over most of the farm chores, milking the cows and selling eggs.  She always kept an English garden, with Easter lilies, phlox, poppies, larkspur, and Queen Anne's Lace.  She was an expert with her needles, specializing in crocheting and tatting.  She shared her work with her relatives and the community.

For more than 60 years, Aunt Augusta attended the First Methodist Church in Edinburg.  Her social life centered around church activities.  During the war years she drove my Grandfather's old Model T Ford the five miles from the farm to church.  She took us too, whenever she could catch us as we ran through the orchard.

In 1946, we moved away to a new large house on a farm nearby, and there was no longer any need for Aunt Augusta to take care of us.  Grandmother Sterling became an invalid about this time, and Aunt Augusta was her care giver until Grandmother died in 1957 at the age of 92.

Aunt Augusta then moved to Edinburg, and Grandfather's old farm was sold and the house was torn down.  At the age of 55, she began a new career as school secretary at Sam Houston Elementary.  She served the children of Edinburg for about 20 years, retiring in the late 1970's.  Afterward, she lived among her flowers in a comfortable house in Edinburg, with her lifelong good friend, Helen Monney, who is with us here today.  Helen says they were sisters.

On November 5th, three years ago, at the age of 81, our Aunt Augusta went for her daily walk and mysteriously disappeared.  To this day we all have no idea of what happened to her.

We have reviewed Aunt Augusta's history together, and I think we can draw some conclusions regarding her character.  She was caring, straightforward, dependable, modest, faithful, and honest.  She was also a very private person.  We did not know many of these details until my sister Peggy, while attending to the estate, found the documentation.

We miss Aunt Augusta.  And we expect that she is resting peacefully, after a long, useful and rewarding life.

Bruce Sterling
November 13, 1988