Texas Connection
We are so grateful to our loyal subscribers and readers. It might surprise some of you to learn that In Our Age has a readership far wider than Herefordshire. Each quarter, copies are posted out across England, Scotland and Wales. And they don’t stop there. We have readers in Australia, Canada, and the United States. We were curious about these connections to the ‘home country’ and got in touch with some of them. Subsequently, we were delighted to hear from Mr Stephen Saunders from Texas and hear more of his family’s story. Thank you, Stephen!
“My paternal grandfather, Charles Saunders, was born at Penrose Green, a farm just south of St Weonards in a humble labourer’s cottage and attended the National School in the village. By 1913, he was living in Pontypool, from where he emigrated to the US in 1913 for a new life in America. He followed his older brother Albert, a Presbyterian minister, to the US. But they left behind first cousins who were brothers, one of whom was Will Saunders, who was a policeman in Hereford.” (Pictured here in High Town).
Charles joined the US Army to fight in the Great War, which automatically secured his US citizenship. While serving in France, he also met his future wife, US Army nurse Anna Crouse from Ohio. They went onto build successful businesses in Colorado and Houston. Charles always credited his work ethic to character traits developed in his native county. During the Second World War, with food rationed in the UK, the Saunders family sent food parcels to their family now living in Tupsley.
The connection to Hereford has never been forgotten by subsequent generations of the Saunders family, who set up the Charles & Anna Saunders Family Trust Fund to honour them at the Herefordshire Community Foundation. For more details on funding, visit Herefordshire Community Foundation.
Funding Success
We’re excited to share some great news! We’ve successfully secured funding to update our website. This has been made possible through funding from the Herefordshire Community Foundation.
Over the coming months, we’ll be working with a local focus group to ensure our website continues to serve our readership and remains digitally inclusive and continues to record stories, preserves memories and celebrates our shared heritage.
Keep an eye on our website and social media for progress. If you would like to be part of our focus group, please drop us a line. Meanwhile, a heartfelt thank you to the Herefordshire Community Foundation for their support.