Sandy Ault ponders her heritage.

Not everyone has ancestors that were hanged during the Salem Witch Trials.

Sandy Ault of Port O’Connor had three: Samuel Wardwell, Mary Easty, and Rebecca Nurse.

Samuel Wardwell was born to a Quaker Family in Boston Mass. When he was grown he moved to Andover, Mass., and married a beautiful wealthy widow named Sarah Hawkes. They lived on a prosperous farm and Samuel also earned money working as a carpenter. He helped build the House of Seven Gables in Salem, Mass. It only had three gables when he worked on it. The other four gables were added later when a wealthy man bought it.

The Puritans in Salem resented the marriage of Samuel and Sarah Hawks because she was from the gentry and he was not. She loved him anyway and they had seven children.

Samuel dabbled in telling fortunes, which was not popular with the Salem Magistrates. Samuel foretold that one couple would have four girls before having any boys. That turned out to be correct. The boy was born about the time Salem Witchcraft hysteria was at its peak. That was enough to get him, his wife and two of his daughters arrested. The rest of his children were fostered out while the couple were in jail except for the tiny baby, Rebecca, who was less than a year old when they were arrested. She had to go to jail with them because she was too young to be separated from her mother.

Samuel Wardwell was found guilty on September 17, 1692, and hanged along with seven women on September 22, 1692.
The judges decided not to hang the tiny baby Rebecca because she probably wasn’t a witch. They also let her mother and two sisters go as well. Sandy Ault is descended from the tiny baby, Rebecca Wardwell.

When the Salem authorities cut the eight victims down from the hanging tree they threw them into a ditch. No one now knows what became of their remains. Today the Salem graveyard built each victim a stone bench with their names engraved on it. Sandy had me take her picture (shown at above) when she sat on Samuel Wardwell’s bench as she pointed to his name
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Rebecca Nurse and Mary Easty were sisters of Sarah Cloyce; all were arrested for witchcraft along with their mother, Joanna Towne. Sarah Cloyce and Joanna Towne were released, but Rebecca Nurse and Mary Easty were hanged. Rebecca was hanged on July 19, 1692. Mary Easty was hanged on September 22 1692, on the same day and on the same tree as Samuel Wardwell.

Arthur Miller wrote a play about the Salem Witch Trials in 1953 and Rebecca Nurse was one of his characters. Years later a television movie was made named “Three Coins for Sister Sarah”. When the authorities in England came to Salem, Mass. they proclaimed the verdicts in the trials were very wrong. They told Sarah Cloyce they could not bring her sisters Mary Easty and Rebecca Nurse back so they gave Sarah three gold sovereigns, one for each of her sisters and one for herself to prove their innocence. Sandy is descended from Sarah Cloyce.

The Salem Witch Trials occurred in colonial Massachusetts between 1692 and 1693. More than 200 people were accused of practicing witchcraft—the Devil’s magic—and 20 were executed. Eventually, the colony admitted the trials were a mistake and compensated the families of those convicted. Since then, the story of the trials has become synonymous with paranoia and injustice, and it continues to beguile the popular imagination more than 300 years later. smithsonian.com

Danny S. McGuire

Danny S McGuire, Age 53

I was raised in Weinert, Texas farming cotton until graduation in 1983. Moved to Ft Worth and became a Ft Worth police officer leaving in 1995 from the detective office in the Fugitive Squad unit. Started Twin Pines Seafood restaurants and opened 2 locations. Sold Twin Pines in 1999 and along with 3 partners opened Texas de Brazil restaurant in Ft Worth, Texas. Owned and operated TdB growing it from inception to a 12 million dollar per year restaurant with over 100 employees in less than 3 years. Texas de Brazil now has 70 locations world-wide with over 7000 employees and remains a privately held family owned company. While still maintaining my ownership in TdB I turned the reigns over to my partner and started from inception 3 more corporations. Ft Worth Promo, Just Right Imports, Just Right Boots and HTG restaurant holdings. Built these companies into a combined 8 million dollar per year revenue generating ventures. In 2007 I sold these companies and retired. I have served on numerous boards and commissions both elected and appointed. Moved permanently to the paradise of Port O’Connor in early 2017.

POCID is a business! The Board is elected by its citizens to be the CEO of that business. It needs to be operated as such. If elected I will utilize my knowledge and skills of running large and extremely successful companies to make POCID run in a manner that we do not suffer the consequences of the current board.

The Board’s job and my first priority is to hire the best engineer and the best operator possible then get out of the way and let them do their job! The Board’s job is not to micro manage the day to day business. Another priority is to repair the damage done by this current Board to it’s citizens and previous employees. Communications are a priority- starting with changing the Board meeting to a time that everyone who works can attend; holding town hall type meetings to address issues that can not be addressed in regular or special meetings that are controlled by open meeting rules; and using social media to communicate regularly with citizens. Information is knowledge and if the citizens have knowledge of board and district actions, solving problems will come with ease and support.

Last, planning for the future. POC is growing and if we don’t plan and prepare for the future we are doomed to repeat and suffer the consequences of the last few weeks. Unfortunately this will take time and money. It’s the job of the district engineer to advise the Board of updates and improvements needed and to prioritize them. It’s the Board’s job to approve, fund and authorize the operator to implement those recommendations. I will do my best to do what is right for POC and what is right for its citizens. I also pledge to be available to every person that has a connection to POCID service and to not disappear when a crisis occurs.

Ricki McKinney

Ricki McKinney
• Born in Victoria – 1947
• Graduate of Texas A&M 1969
• Started McKinney Construction Company 1971 – Utility Contractors specializing in water & sewer construction and installation all over Texas
• Retired and sold company assets in 1998 (27 years)
• Served on Victoria County Appraisal Board for three years
• Have owned property in Port O’Connor since 1957
• Moved here to retire permanently 9 years ago
• Presently live in Dolphin Point
• Married for 35 years (wife, Francey). 2 daughters and 2 sons

We love Port O’Connor; I always have, and hope my water and sewer experience for 27 years will be a benefit to the POC Improvement District.

I look forward to representing your wishes and needs in this great community.

Thank you for your vote.

Sincerely and Respectfully Submitted,
Ricki McKinney

Mike Clifton

Hello, I am Mike Clifton and I am running for a position on the POCID board. I have lived and worked in this area for 32 years. In that time I have worked as a certified professional fire fighter and served time in the Port O’Connor Volunteer Fire Department and EMS. I feel like I have experience in community safety and would be an asset as liaison with Calhoun County officials. I am a USCG Master Licensed Captain and have owned and operated an Offshore Marine Transportation company for 18 plus years. I currently own a business in Port O Connor and am very aware of the issues facing the community. I am running for the POCID board because I believe Port O Connor is a wonderful place to live, work, raise a family, and to retire. No matter where you are on life’s spectrum we have something to offer here. The current situation has been a huge blemish on our beautiful community.

I believe we must actively address these issues now and resolve to work together to ensure the health and safety of our citizens and visitors and to protect our natural environment.

I believe in an effort to address the higher rates, which was one of the concerns of ratepayers at the time, that the board made decisions hindering the day to day operations and infrastructure upgrades and we are now dealing with the results of those decisions.

I believe we need to address the sewer operation immediately and work directly with TQEC to correct these specific issues immediately.

I believe we need to employ trained and licensed personnel from this point forward to assume the daily operating of the plant in accordance with TQEC requirements.

As board member I will commit to work diligently and respectfully with operating professionals to keep systems operating and functional and to listen and address any problems in a timely manner.

I believe we must implement and adhere to operational procedures in the office to help the current staff navigate and disseminate any issues presented in a cost effective manner.

I believe we must have a more open and line of communication with the ratepayers and community including county officials and our first responders.

Fire safety in this community is very important and impossible without water supply.

There should be absolute transparency regarding any service interruptions especially in times of emergency or hurricane preparedness.

I believe I can work to move us forward with the infrastructure improvements, voted on by the ratepayers and to have an operational system going forward that is constructed to handle the exceptional future this community has ahead.

I work well with others and I certainly don’t mind getting my hands dirty! My wife and I have raised 4 boys that hunt and fish in this wonderful community. We have a great future here, including a beautiful beachfront, community school, churches, State Park, a beautiful new library, exceptional Park & Wildlife facility, US Coast Guard, and lets not forget all wonderful people and business that rely on POCID. I’m asking for your vote on November 6, 2018.

It’s your right and your duty!
VOTE NOVEMBER 6
National, State and Local  Leadership will be determined.
For voter information, go to: calhouncoelections.org

High Tides and Windy Days

Greetings from the island everyone. I hope that all of you are doing well, and enjoying this breezy and very cool first real norther of the Fall season. I sit at my little kitchen table on Saturday afternoon, Oct 13, knowing that the forecast shows a hard blowing norther coming down in about 36 hours. The winds today are blowing very briskly from the south, easily 25 mph, and strong south winds this time of year are typical of a soon approaching norther.

I’m hoping these north winds will blow those winged demon mosquitoes out of here! In total, the island received 27” of rain for the month of September, so the ground is very saturated. Any small amounts of rain since then cannot soak in quickly, causing a continuous hatching of mosquitoes. I sure wish that Noah would have swatted those two suckers before boarding that ark!

I’ve had a bad string of luck lately with having to replace mechanical things, the outcome of living in a harsh saltwater environment. Last month I had to replace both of my Dish receiver boxes and my older outside porch TV. Well the NEW 39 day old TV on the porch went out as well, but luckily Best Buy agreed to give me a new one. And then just two weeks ago, my generator stopped working! When I found my Harbor Freight receipt, I noticed that it was still under the 2 year replacement warranty for 12 more days. Yay! So after hauling it to Victoria, I walked out with a brand new generator.

The tides, up until this writing anyway, have been extremely high. Strong east winds and then the development of Hurricane Michael in the Gulf of Mexico, caused the tides to rise very high, covering my pier with water. The tides also pushed all the way up to the dunes, making it impossible to drive along the beach. I’m hoping these strong north winds will bring those tides back down to normal.

About three weeks ago I received an email from the producer of the television show, Texas Country Reporter. I’m not familiar with this program, but apparently they travel Texas and do filming segments of unusual and unique people and places. Somehow they had heard of my years of living full time on this barrier island and wanted to come out and conduct an interview and film about my life out here. I was hesitant about doing it at first, but finally decided to go forward with it. On Wed, Oct 10, a crew of three from Texas Country Reporter came out to the island for 4 hours and did the filming and interviewing. Thank you to POC resident Otto Haardt for providing boat transportation for the TV crew. I will let my Island Life readers know when the program will air, but it will be several more months.

Of course prior to the TV people arriving, I did my best to clean up around the place, inside and out. While picking up debris in the yard area before mowing, I came across a 40” rattlesnake that was none too happy to be disturbed. That was the first rattlesnake I have seen in over a year in my yard. I hate those things! I think that my guineas have been doing a great job of keeping them away.

With Fall in full swing on the island, I’ll be using my crockpot much more to prepare meals. Please email me any good and simple crockpot recipes that you might have, I would certainly appreciate it. You can reach me at ccbennetsen@yahoo.com.

That’s it from the island for now, everyone take care and enjoy this nice cool Fall weather.