'Petrified wood Adds Solidity to Home' by Clay Coppedge.Temple Daily Telegram

All articles from the Temple Daily Telegram are published with the permission of the
Temple Daily Telegram.
All credit for this article goes to
Clay Coppedge and the Temple Daily Telegram

Petrified Wood Adds Solidity to Home

by Clay Coppedge

HOYTE - When H.B. Pressley began breaking up the land in 1911 for a farm he would call

Vineyard Hill, he kept coming across pieces of petrified wood.

Some pieces were the size and shape of the tree trunks they once were. Twenty years

later, Pressley used that petrified wood, including the large trunks, to build a house.

Considering that these former trees and bushes had lasted millions of years to that

point, it's not surprising that the house still stands, solid as a rock.

Pressley's daughter, Paulie Pressley McDermott and her husband, Dr. Lyle McDermott, a

long-time Milam County veterinarian, live there. The house, and the imagination and

labor that went into it, are still a source of pride for Mrs. McDermott.

'The house is really a tribute to my father,' she said during a visit last week. 'I've

gathered that he started building it about the first of the year. The date he finished

it is inscribed as June of 1931, so it would appear they got it built pretty quickly.'

The McDermott house, on High way 36 south of Cameron, is not the only house or

structure in the area built of petrified wood - the visitors center in Rockdale is made

of the same stuff - but it stands out because of the size of the long columns that

support the front of the house. They're as big as tree trunks because that's what they

once were.

One of the large columns came from about five miles away, near the community of

Maysfield.

'I remember when that piece was brought here,' Mrs. McDermott, 81, said, pointing to

the 'imported' piece. 'I was six years old. They brought it on a Model T truck.

'Everything else came from this place. My father found it when he plowed and saved all

of it.' She pointed to several pieces of petrified wood she has found over the years.

'Now, as you can see, I've got the same habit.'

Petrified wood forms when plant material, such as a tree or bush, is replaced by a

mineral.

Underground water carries dissolved mineral matter through sediments where the plants

or trees are buried, and the minerals take over the living cells of the material

without changing the shape or pattern. It still looks like wood, but it's a rock now

and as hard as steel.

The men who helped H.B. Pressley build his house found that out the hard way when one

of the pieces cracked and they decided to just cut it in half. Nothing doing. They left

it like it was.

'From what I've been told, it didn't take them too long to give up on the idea of

cutting,' Mrs. McDermott said.

According to a 1931 article in the Cameron Herald, all of the men involved with

building the house, other than Mr. Pressley, were named Roy.

Mrs. McDermott remembers Roy English the best. He was in charge of laying the stone.

'He came with a big bag carrying all of his possession and a trowel and he stayed with

us until the house was finished,' she said.

Joining Roy English and architect Roy Lane was Roy Jeter and Roy Weems along with Roy

Pressley, Mrs. McDermott's brother, who is described in the newspaper article as the

'reliant water boy.'

Trace minerals in the living substances of petrified wood can add bright and beautiful

colors, but most of what we find in Texas comes in varying shades of brown, like the

wood itself.

Sometimes, as in the case of some of the columns in front of Mrs. McDermott's house,

the petrified wood is found with the outer bark pattern still visible.

Some of the smaller pieces that went into the construction of the house are pieces of

petrified palm which, incidentally, is the state stone of Texas, so deemed by the Texas

Legislature on a presumably slow legislative day in 1969.

'My parents went to Galveston in 1953 and my mama came back with all these sea shells,'

Mrs. McDermott said, pointing to some that were incorporated into the house. 'She just

stuck them in while the mortar was still wet.'

The McDermotts moved to the house in 1983 after her parents passed away. The setting is

complimented by a towering, 70-year old pine tree and wildflowers that are blooming

despite less than ideal weather conditions.

A small outbuilding made of petrified wood served as Mr. McDermott's office for many

years. A barn made of iron ore sits behind the house, adding to a rural ambience that

here, more than most places, is set in stone.