The Ultimate Mail Order Package & Other Tales of Old Round Top

Cordell Levien of Round Top is framed by timeworn trunks of a crepe myrtle planted by his parents nearly a century ago. In the late 1930s, Cordell recalls traveling to La Grange with his father, Alfred. When Mr. Levien stopped to see his friends in the courthouse, they asked if the youngster he had by the hand was his grandson. “No,” Alfred proudly told the sheriff and the judge, “This is my youngest son, Cordell.”

Cordell’s three older brothers served their country in World War II. The Levien brothers in about 1945 (left to right) are: Hershel, Cordell, Leroy and Kenneth.

For generations, rural families placed orders for items not readily available locally. Cordell’s father, Alfred, was one of them. In 1916, he ordered a new home from Sears, Roebuck. The unassembled kit with instructions and materials arrived on a freight train at nearby Carmine. Alfred built his new home on one acre in the A.E. Baker League, across the road from the 96.5 acres in the James Winn League, where Cordell lives now. It was once the home of his Levien grandparents. The photo of the Levien’s Sears,

For generations, rural families placed orders for items not readily available locally. Cordell’s father, Alfred, was one of them. In 1916, he ordered a new home from Sears, Roebuck. The unassembled kit with instructions and materials arrived on a freight train at nearby Carmine. Alfred built his new home on one acre in the A.E. Baker League, across the road from the 96.5 acres in the James Winn League, where Cordell lives now. It was once the home of his Levien grandparents. The photo of the Levien’s Sears,

Cordell always has been naturally curious. In 1944, Texon Drilling Company moved a rig into the fi eld behind his parents’ house to drill a wildcat oil well. One day when the metal structure was covered in ice from a storm and very treacherous, he and a friend played all over the rig. He still marvels that neither he nor his pal was hurt.

Cordell’s father, Alfred, a second-generation Round Top native, married Adele Ander on June 27, 1917. Cordell credits his father with the innate ability to analyze a situation and come up with a logical answer that could be relied upon.

Cordell spent many happy hours plinking tin cans and homemade paper targets with the air rifl e that his sister, Novie, bought him in 1941. When Novie married and moved to Chicago in 1942, Cordell missed her a great deal.

Cordell’s maternal grandparents, Carl and Caroline Ander, lived adjacent to the Rummel House in Round Top. Mr. Ander, who had served in the German military, came to America seeking the freedom of a new life. In 1937, when Cordell was sick with a fever, his grandfather, who never owned a car, walked out to the farm to check on his grandson. He left a $1 coin for Cordell, who has never forgotten that kind gesture. Like most people in those days, Cordell’s grandfather Ander had very few dollars to call his own