CHAPTER 45: David Noel’s Accident, Confusing Church Mixups and Rabbits for Dinner

Ed. note: We are in the Fall of 1929.  Pearl begins on a light note with the three young children and some touching happenings.   Then, she follows with the heartbreaking story of a terrible accident that happens to David, the 18-year-old son of Grandma Noel,  the youngest child of seven from the union of Jim and Amanda Jane Noel.  In order of birth: Frank, Austin, Oma, Viola, Lona, Lavada and David. Then, we read of how Frank goes through some confusing church membership experiences. The year of 1930 arrives with large, record breaking snowfall for Oklahoma and the harbinger of the beginning of the Great Depression economic time. Thus, she ends with the humorous tale of rabbits. RAN

 

                                                                                     Learning To Talk, or Not

    Calvin was three years old, and J.T. was only one year old when Mildred first went to school.  Calvin had talked from his first year, just about, although one could not always understand him.  J.T. would not even try to talk.  He motioned to communicate with us, pointing to food or drink to show us what he wanted.  In the Fall of 1929, 5-year-old Calvin talked constantly, full of questions, as most 5-year-olds are.  But he struggled to speak Mildred’s name.  He began somewhere back in his two-year-old “mumbo-jumbo” to call her “Bunh”.  It did not sound like “fun”, rather it sounded more like “buh”.  The expression had a nasal quality that was difficult to describe.  Around this time, he decided to try saying “Mildred”.  Mildred and I both tried repeatedly to lead him into speaking it.  He came in the kitchen to me and announced, “I can say ‘Mildred’! I didn’t know that I could.  See? ‘Mildred’!”   That was a milestone in Calvin’s vocabulary development!

 

Ed. note: In this 1929 photo we find Calvin, 5, and Mildred, 8 up in the tree and J.T., standing in the foreground, is 3. Apologies for the poor quality of this 97 y.o. old photo. RAN

   The 1929 cotton harvest burned up in the late, hot summer, so there were no funds to buy land in West Texas, which was a hope that had promised so much in the early summer.  Again, the farmer’s hopes and dreams are blasted!

                                                                               David’s Tragic Accident

 

Ed. note: The image above shows a “strip-down” Model T.  So, David is driving something similar to this when the following tragic accident occurred. RAN

   On November 28, 1929, a gun blast changed the life and plans of Frank’s younger brother, David, nearing 19 years of age.  He was out hunting on the river, driving an old Model T “strip-down” with no mats on the floorboards.  Kenneth Bailey, around seventeen, was riding with him, and David was driving with the loaded shotgun sitting beside him on his left side, the barrel pointing skyward.  As they bumped along the road, full of chuck-holes, the gun slipped down into the slot in the floorboard.  When the trigger of the gun hit the board, the gun discharged, sending the charge through David’s left elbow.  David, stunned and numbed by the impact, didn’t realize what had happened for several seconds.  The vehicle stopped; Kenneth, seeing what the gun blast had done, began running for help.  He knew where Frank was plowing and ran more than a mile across the fields to him.  He could have gone to two different neighbors, each one-half mile away, but stunned as he was, he couldn’t think of that.  David, becoming faint at the car, climbed out and walked to the nearby creek and got into the water.  Dousing his face with the cool water, which revived him somewhat, he walked on to the Dan Sutherland residence.  The Sutherlands or the Smiths summoned Dr. Foshee.  Possibly the Smiths, as a Smith came to our house, as David was brought there. 

   They carried him into our bedroom where Dr. Foshee soon arrived to examine him.  His brief examination revealed that David needed the attention of a surgeon.  Dr Foshee bandaged the wound as well as could be accomplished, with strips of old, clean sheets.  Frank made a bed for him in the back seat of the car and sped him to the Frederick Hospital in Frederick, Oklahoma, for the services of Dr. Fisher.  Meanwhile, Dr. Fisher was alerted that the gunshot victim was on his way there.

   Upon the initial examination, Dr Fisher thought he might save the arm by performing an operation that would leave the elbow loose, leaving the arm of little use to David.  This operation was not feasible, however, so he took the arm off, leaving as much of the bone as he could.  He did not leave enough tissue and skin to cover the bone, which necessitated a second operation a while later, during which another length of bone was removed, and the tissue and skin were properly sutured to prevent any other physical problems.  This time the arm healed nicely.  Of course, there is always the emotional and psychological feature to deal with.  I recall that David had a sensation that his hand was itching, and his mother wondered if ants were on the hand and arm, buried in the plots at Dunkard Cemetery, where his father and sister were buried.  It was generally concluded that ants were unlikely to live as deep underground as the arm was buried.  After the second operation relieved David of the pain he had suffered due to infection, he appeared to be happy to be at ease and thankful that the accident was no worse than it was.

                                                                The Benevolent, Kind Staley Family

   In the winter and spring of 1930, J. A. Staley, an old friend and benefactor of the Noel family through the years, persuaded David and Frank to allow him to take David into his home to live and enroll in a public school in Wichita Falls, Texas.  After much consideration, they decided to try it, as with only one arm for his life ahead of him, he did need more education.  So, David moved into the Staley mansion with the family and enrolled in elementary education at some level.  It wasn’t easy, as school, both books and discipline, were always difficult for David.  He had discontinued his formal education upon moving to Carnegie, Oklahoma.  He had not attained farther than the fifth or sixth grade at that time.  He did attend classes for some weeks at the Wichita Falls school, but as I recall, at some point in the spring, March or April, David decided to call it “quits”.  Mrs. Staley was so gracious to us all.  He bought new clothes for David; I recall a beautiful gray flannel suit and other casual clothes.  Moreover, at Easter, the Staleys invited us to attend Easter service on Sunday morning.

   This Easter service was not in their church but at a pageant on the bare slopes of a shallow canyon near Wichita Falls.  I had heard of the outdoor Easter Pageant; in fact, I had read about it in the Wichita Falls newspaper, and we were honored to be asked to attend the event with the Staleys.  As we reached the amphitheater that cold, clear morning, I got my little brood of three out of the car and found our places to sit on a low bank, but high enough above the scene of the pageant for a good view.  I had made spring clothes for the children that didn’t include any jackets or windbreakers against the chill of that Easter morning.  J.T.’s little Pongee suit, with short sleeves and pants, was quite inadequate for outdoor wear, as I realized while we sat out and enjoyed the pageant.  The Staleys were good hosts, pointing out some of the principal figures responsible for this magnificent production.  The warm breakfast back at the Staleys was a welcome sight as we returned from the pageant.  While we said our goodbyes and expressed our thanks for their hospitality, they were preparing to attend their Easter service at their church.  As we began our trip back to Grandfield, Oklahoma, we realized that our humble home was truly “home sweet home” to us.  In retrospect, I assume that David had experienced the same emotions many times.  He could not accept the luxurious residence as his home, and moreover, he found himself pressured by the Staleys in spite of their grace and cordiality.  Their intentions were pure, and J. A. Staley recalled his humble beginnings, having started out in life with only a fourth-grade education, speaking of it in David’s presence.  Nevertheless, the transition was just too great a gulf for David to span. 

   David came back to our home, then to his sister Viola’s home a few miles from ours and then to another sister, Lona’s, up in Carnegie, where he seemed to spend much of his time in those years.  He would help out on the farm as much as he could, as he began conditioning himself to making his way with only one arm.

                                                    Some Experiences with Church Membership

Ed. note: This narrative could be a bit confusing, as several churches are involved, which is Pearl’s point in the story.  There is humor, but somewhat disconcerting discoveries for Frank regarding the important fact of belonging to more than one church.  Also, there seemed to be some arcane rules about letters of transfer among the churches, which were not always followed closely.  Geographically, from the Noel home, Pleasant Valley School, where many of the Noel children attended elementary school through 8th grade,  a one-room school building, was a 1.5-mile walk. A group of Christians rented this building for Sunday worship in 1910 and called the church Pleasant Valley School Church.  Pleasant Mound Baptist Church was 4 miles east and 0.5 miles north of the Noel farm home.  This church is where I spent much of my childhood, as did my 6 older siblings.  The Pleasant Valley church, in the mid 1920s, merged with Pleasant Mound, moving to the latter’s campus and using the name Pleasant Mound Baptist Church. RAN

   Our family had turned over a new leaf that spring of 1930, a few weeks before Easter, by joining the Pleasant Mound Baptist Church, located some 5 miles east of our home.  Frank and I were members at the Antioch Baptist Church, another country church some 9 miles west of us.  Frank learned, however, while talking with the pastor of Pleasant Mound church, that the church had not lettered him out of that church to the Antioch Baptist, when he joined there on the promise of a letter some years before.  Frank was a member,  therefore, “in good standing” of Pleasant Mound Baptist Church, so only I would transfer my membership.  Frank had become a member of the Pleasant Valley School Church in 1920 by baptism.  Meanwhile, the Pleasant Valley School Church joined the fellowship of the Pleasant Mound Baptist Church, thereby combining the two churches.

   An interesting, though bizarre, situation existed regarding Frank’s church membership.  We recalled that, when I made a profession of faith at the Sanford Methodist Church in 1923, Frank and I both committed ourselves to membership there.  This was without consideration of church doctrines or policies, because our hearts and attitudes seemed so closely intertwined with the fellowship there.  

Ed. note: This photograph and description below are from a history of Tillman County: Sanford Methodist Church was built in 1923, 9 1/2 miles east and one mile south of Davidson. The church was built on two acres of land in the southeast corner of a quarter section belonging to a Kiowa Indian. Located on the crest of a hill, the church could be seen for miles in all directions. The location was chosen because it was in the approximate center of four school districts: Hackberry, Chateau, Rita, and Sanford. Previously, religious services had been held in the school buildings and pastored by minister-farmers in the area. RAN

I thought about it more seriously within the two weeks I was awaiting baptism; however, I reasoned that it might not be wise to become a Methodist, because the Baptist church was all I had ever known.  Furthermore, I assumed that as I matured, being 18 years old at the time, I would likely lean towards the Baptist church teaching and finally move into the church of my upbringing.  In such a case, why not correct the mistake now by joining the Antioch Baptist Church, which I did, at the baptismal waters’ edge before I had been baptized.  But Frank was baptized at Sanford Methodist Church and remained a member there.  That winter, living in Frederick in early 1924, we attended the Antioch Baptist Church on the promise some Sundays, on our way to visit Mandy or my folks, so one Sunday Frank joined Antioch church, on the promise of a letter from the Pleasant Valley School Church, where he joined in 1920 by baptism.

 

   No one thought of notifying the Sanford Methodist Church of the change of religious persuasion at that time.  But, one day in the winter of 1929-30, I believe, two young women visited our home and asked about our church attendance.  They were from the Sanford Methodist Church, conducting a survey of the community to locate some of their members.  To Frank’s consternation, they informed him that he was still a member of the Sanford Methodist Church.  Then, when being informed in the spring of 1930 that he was a member of Antioch Baptist Church; well, I could not repeat his words, if I could recall what they were; they would be so profane!  The meaning of what he said was this: “There I was, belonging to three churches at the same time and not attending any one of them!”  Frank was not a regular church-goer at any time in his life except at revival time, about two weeks at a time.  That’s the way he was brought up through his boyhood years, back in Texas, early in this (20th) century.  On the other hand, church attendance was a fulfillment in my life; not only a fulfillment, but a joy and a desire for participation that grew as I became more mature in the years that followed. 

   Frank attended church quite regularly throughout the year 1930; we all did, I should say, because Frank enjoyed the pastor, Dan Green, who was just “an old farmer,” as he was, Frank remarked.  He marveled at how well Dan handled the language, wondering how he had learned to read the Bible so well and to interpret its passages so skillfully.  Summer brought busy, tiring days for Frank, the farmer, and he gradually began to drop out, telling me and the kids to go ahead.  He would rest, look over the crops, or maybe a neighbor or two would come by and sit in the shade and visit until it was too late for him to go to church.

   We had actually begun church attendance at Pleasant Mound Baptist Church, when Taylor Hill and family dropped by either in the fall of 1929 or in the early spring of 1930.Taylor had heard about Dan Green, a farmer-turned-preacher, and how well he proclaimed the gospel.  He said to us, “Why don’t we all go over there to hear him preach tonight?”   So, we did.  I don’t recall whether they attended again, but it was a beginning for us.

.

Ed. note: This scene, just outside the Pleasant Mound Baptist Church, as the sign reads if you zoom it in, shows Pearl, far right, speaking with someone and shaking hands. The date was in the early to mid-1950s.  Farm fields surrounded the church. There was a parsonage on the grounds. This is the church I grew up in most of my childhood through early teens (1940-1955).  It is located 4 miles east of our farm home.  We went twice on Sunday for worship and every Wednesday evening for prayer service. My father, Frank’s funeral was help here.  A reminder: this church merged with Pleasant Valley School Church after 1920. RAN

                                              Beginning of Economic Downturn and Eating Rabbits

   Rainfall had been insufficient during 1930, so the fall, 1930, cotton crop was poor.  Frank brought home some cotton sacks, and Frank and I picked the few bales of cotton on our place.  Then we drove three miles to the Morton place, where Uncle Charley(the youngest of Pearl’s Thornton uncles) had moved, and we gathered a patch of cotton there, for one-half of it. Times were becoming hard for us, as farm products were selling for low prices, in addition to poor production.  The infamous Stock Market Crash had occurred in October of 1929,  but reverberations were just now beginning to be felt in the farm belt.  With the exception of the heavy snowfall on the first of January, 1930, which remained on the ground for the entire month, moisture must have been negligible for the remainder of the year. 

 

Ed. note:  I grew on the farm with jack rabbits and cotton-tail rabbits as the most commonly sighted.  These photos show an actual “cotton-tail” on this name-sake small mammal, which the Noels ate briefly in 1930. We rarely ate one in the 1950s, when a family member or friend hunted and killed too many.  Tastes like “chicken” Never a favorite.  RAN

That month, at the beginning of 1930, made history in our family.  Lee Nash, Frank’s hired hand, who lived alone that winter in a shack on the farm, went out rabbit hunting every day.  A sure kill was made each day as the cotton-tail rabbits could not hop so well in the deep snow.  Lee caught too many rabbits for his own use, so he began bringing rabbits to us.  He would have them skinned and dressed, ready to fry.  They were quite like young chickens, ready to cook.  We had never tasted rabbit before, and soon we had had enough.  We let him bring them on, keeping them frozen in a north window box until Frank finally said it was enough!  He amused the kids by repeating the old cowboy’s prayer! 

    “Lord, we’ve had rabbit young, we’ve had rabbit old; we’ve had rabbit hot, and we’ve had rabbit old; we’ve had rabbit tough.  Dear Lord, don’t you think we’ve had rabbit enough?”

                                                             Rare Deep Snowfall and Family Visits

   During the deep snow in January 1930, Lavada Noel, Frank’s youngest sister, and Frank Scott were married.  Roads were impassable in some areas, but somehow they made it to see us and her big sister, Viola (Frank’s nearest sister in age and geography) and her husband, Ueal Bowman.  They walked in, out of the snow, to our great surprise!  We were happy to see them, but I thought it was an inopportune time, as I had the mumps. Yes, I had contracted it from the school kids, a sore throat from tonsillitis, and a boil on my arm! But we made it through!

  Also, that January, toward the end of the month, when it was clearing and thawing, my brother, Billy, and his wife, Verly, came by while preparing to move up to Carnegie to farm Austin’s land.  They had married a year before, having lived in the Thornton’s first little house on the farmstead.  Billy considered this a good move; perhaps, he would do better up there in Carnegie than if he stayed in Tillman County farming.  I’m sure it proved out to be dry in that area, too.

Ed. note: We look forward to some enjoyable, lighter reading in Chapter 46, with children’s antics and a good crop, along with learning to pressure-cook vegetables grown in the garden. Stay tuned. RAN

 

 

 

 

                                                             Chapter 44- 1929 A Big Family Journey to West Texas

Ed. note:  Frank is succeeding in farming on Oklahoma-leased Indian land, with an uncertain future of owning any farmland in Tillman County, Oklahoma, in 1929.  Upon hearing from an uncle of Pearl’s about cheap land for sale in the Texas Panhandle, Frank and Grandpa Pete Thornton yearn to go check out the possible purchase of a farm for both families.  This narrative describes four different family visits in the High Plains(2) and Panhandle(1) and NW Oklahoma(1). These two parts of Texas are somewhat overlapping parts of western Texas. See maps.   I will try to help show where these uncles, cousins, etc., fit into either the Noel or Thornton family tree. Bear with me.  These connections will be of special interest to those who are in these trees. RAN

                                                     Family Links of Persons Mentioned in Order of Appearance

                                                             Family Relationships of Persons Mentioned

                                            Thornton                                                                                  Ware                              

                                         Bert Thornton                                                                       Denford Ware                  

                            First son of W.I.and first wife                       Little brother of Lasiphene Ware/Thornton

                                Oldest brother of Peter                         The Wares lived Neosho, Mo., where W.I. met Lasiphene.

                                Uncle of Pearl                                         They married and had their first 5 children there.    

                         (See photos below)                                                           (See same photo below)

                                 

 

                                                                                              Savage

                                                                                    John Savage & Noel Savage

                                                                 Both are brothers of Mama Betty Savage/Thornton

                                                           All moved out from Tennessee; first to western Oklahoma

                                                           Peter mets and marries Betty in Tillman County, Oklahoma

                                                           Then several brothers moved to west Texas.

                                                                                      Thornton

William Issac Thornton (b1837) was married to Margaret Carr (age unknown)  m 1857 in Bonham, North Texas, near the Red River. They had two children, Alton Burton, b. 1859, and Mattie Ellen, b. 1865.  Sadly, Margaret died in 1867.  Wm. Issac, two years later, married Lasiphene Ware,1868, and had 5 children. So, Peter Thornton, b. 1875, being born fourth in the second family of Wm. Issac had this much older 1/2 brother, Alton Burton, (Bert).  We meet him briefly while traveling home from West Texas, in western Oklahoma. RAN

 

                                                                                                     Ware

Pearl’s Grandma Thornton’s maiden name was Elizabeth Lasiphene Ware.  She was born in 1848 in Neosho, Missouri, and grew up in this town, located in the southwest corner of the state. She married William Issac Thornton three years after the end of the Civil War and had the first five of their children in Neosho before moving, eventually to western Oklahoma. In this chapter, we meet Lasiphene’s younger brother, Denford Ware, who was born in 1850, the 8th child of Merritt and Sarah Ware.  He, along with several other family members, moved out to Texas for opportunities and adventure.  By 1929, Lasiphene had been dead for more than 10 years.  Denford is almost 80. 

                                                                                                 Savage

In this chapter, we meet two brothers of Mama Betty (Savage) Thornton. This family is from Tennessee, as earlier narratives have described.  These two brothers, John Savage and Noel Savage, moved from middle Tennessee to western Oklahoma  where they met Peter Thornton.  Noel Savage, a few years later, invited his older sister Betty, who was 35 years old, out from Tennessee to Oklahoma.  Betty Savage married Peter Thornton in 1913, when Pearl was almost 9 years old.  Now, 16 years later, Peter and Betty , with a teen aged son, Arthur, go out to visit her younger brothers’ families both having removed to West Texas. 

                                                                                         

Image above was taken in 1892, has been previously seen.  Seated from left: William Issac Thornton,55, Charlie,4, Lasiphene Ware Thornton,44, Maggie,9, and Bea, 6.  Standing from left: Dove,12, Mattie, 27 (From W.I.’s first wife ), Allen,21, Peter,17, Bob,19, and Jim,15.  Uncle Bert, the oldest, who is not in the photo, is now 31 and married and has moved away.  Nor do we see Almeda May, b1869, first child of Issac and Lasiphene, who sadly, died at age 16 of “dropsy”.  

 

photo above shows Peter and his new bride, Betty Savage Thornton, in 1913, soon after their marriage in Randlett, Oklahoma.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This photo on R shows the 1924 group from left to right: Betty Savage Thornton, Pearl, Arthur, Billy, Peter, and Mildred.

 

  This photo, taken in 1931, two years after the 1929 narrative, shows all the Thornton brothers, except Bob, who is absent.  From left, Charlie,43, Uncle Bert, 72, Peter, 56, Allen, 60, and Jim, 54.  No photos of the Savage brothers or Denford Ware’s photos are available.  RAN

Pearl’s narrative begins:

                                                               Noel and Thornton Travel out to West Texas

I’m not sure how this came about, but Papa had correspondence with his Uncle Denford Ware at Wheeler, Texas, located in the Texas Panhandle near the Oklahoma border, earlier in 1929.  Cheap land was to be had (purchased) in the area where he lived.  So, we planned a trip to the summer to drive out and explore the prospects there.  Mama Betty (nee Savage) had two brothers living in the general area as well.  We all rode together in the big Dodge touring car;  Papa, Mama, Betty, Arthur, Frank, and I with our three kids.

 Ed. note: Ed. Note: The car above is a “big”1930 model Dodge Touring Car, similar to the car in which these two families travelled in the hot summer! No air conditioning!   This map features a small red dot located below Lawton along the Red River, marking the Noel farm site. Wheeler is in the Texas Panhandle just west of the Oklahoma-Texas border. This is approximately 180 miles NW of the farm. This modern map shows Interstate 40 passing just below Wheeler. RAN

     On the day we headed for Uncle Denford’s, I recall stopping for a few minutes to talk with our neighbors, Loyace and Dollie Hicks, early that morning.  We reached our destination before nightfall, but it had been a long, tiring ride, and we had run out of drinking water.  As we wound along the curving, sandy roads nearing Uncle Denford’s farm, there were many crooks and ruts which made the heavy car difficult to handle.  Calvin, going on 5, was subject to motion sickness, became very nauseated.  Frank stopped the car and took him out for a few minutes.  Papa suggested giving him a drink of water.  As there was no water, I’m sure that Calvin’s discomfort became more intense, so he began to yell, “Water, water, water!”.  Arthur, 15, never let Calvin forget that. It was a bit funny, but really serious for Calvin.

     Uncle Denford Ware, brother of Grandma Lasiphene Thornton and an uncle of my father, welcomed us cordially, happy to see us all, as he greeted each of us individually.  Born in the mid-1800s, he was now approaching 80 years, but still recognizable with his natural stoop in the shoulders and bushy eyebrows, now as white as his thinning hair.  Aunt Violet, his second wife, was much younger than he, and his daughters, Annie and “Dink,” were gracious hostesses, feeding us well and tucking us in for the night.

     In our present lifestyle (in the 1980s), this would have been nearly impossible.  But in this home, it seemed easily arranged.  The family did not live luxuriously, but the comfortable home bespoke the wealth Uncle Denford enjoyed. His land surrounded him, his sons on hand to help in the care of it, as well as plenty of livestock, a large quantity of poultry on the premises, and no doubt, an abundance of garden produce.  Apparently, this would indeed be a good area in which to buy land at a reasonable cost, and make a good farm-ranch type of home.   That is what Frank and I longed for!  

                         Traveling on some Rough Roads Southwest to the Caprock, High West Texas Plains

     The men discussed the possibilities of buying the land in the area and drove around the next forenoon to Wheeler, the nearest town, arriving home in time for a sumptuous meal at noon.  When we left Uncle Denford’s home, after bidding them all goodbye, we traveled along an uncharted trail, or so it seemed to me.  But Frank and Papa assured us that we were on the right road.  Suddenly, in this “cow-trail” we came upon a stream, a river, to be exact! We have found the headwaters of the North Fork of Red River!  It is difficult to believe that this small, insignificant stream could be the start of the river that forms the boundary between Jackson and Tillman Counties in Oklahoma.   But, it is true; moreover, this tributary of the Red River is quite significant in times of heavy rains and much run-off water, as this drainage system of the Texas Panhandle into western and southwestern Oklahoma landmass contributes huge volumes as it empties into the Red River near Tillman County.  This stream was only a trickle where we were to cross; there was no bridge, so we had to drive across!  Another new experience for us.

 

Ed. note: On this modern map, you can see the meandering headwaters of the North Fork of the Red River south of Wheeler and just north, above Shamrock.  And we find McLean and Groom to the west.RAN

 Perhaps one reason for our insecurity on this apparently uncharted road was that we were traveling in this heavy car, which could get stuck and be buried in sand and muddy conditions, whereas the Model T Ford could go anywhere!  However, we would soon be in a more secure environment as we approached the U.S. Highway 66, which would lead us to McLean, Texas, then to Groom, Texas, after climbing the Caprock.  We hardly realized that we had climbed the Caprock because, although we were not seasoned travelers, we had been exposed to a far greater severity of the “breaks”, a prelude to the tableland of the Plains, when we traveled from Spur, Texas, to Floydada, Texas, in the year of 1924.

 Ed. note: Looking ahead, it is in Groom, and then McLean, Texas, we are reintroduced to the Savage families, brothers of Mama Betty. We were told about Betty’s story, back when Pearl was 9 years old. They are Tennesseans.  Pete Thornton met Betty Savage, who was out in Oklahoma visiting this same brother, around 1912-13.  So, now we meet Betty’s brother, John Savage, and his family, who, along with his brother Noel Savage, are making their home on the West Texas high plains. RAN

                                         Visit to Groom, Texas, to see Mama Betty’s oldest brother, John

     We by-passed McLean, Texas, for some reason I don’t recall, and made our way to the town of Groom and the home of Mama Betty’s brother, Uncle John Savage, and his wife, Aunt Annie.  We had visited them in 1914 while both our families lived in Cotton County, Oklahoma.  That had been fifteen years earlier.  Arthur and Uncle John’s youngest son were born that year, after our visit.  Their daughter, Mable, was married and lived some distance from their home.  Herbert, a son in his late teens, amused us with his invention, made from an old sewing machine chassis, as he had belted the flywheel of the machine to other moving parts above.  I really don’t know what it was worth, but apparently, it could be made quite useful.  The possibilities were there, at least.  

     Aunt Annie was a slight-built lady, quite busy about the cooking and other chores in the kitchen, where Mama and I helped when we could.  I remember as Mama and I watched her take quilts down from an upper closet as she prepared pallets and bedding for the night, we admired those quick, patient fingers doing each task so skillfully.  Uncle John, on the other hand, was quite the opposite. Aunt Annie had fried steak for supper, and Papa chided Uncle John about how he expected to eat the delicious steak without his teeth.  His description of how tough his gums had become was hilarious!  He had learned to eat everything without teeth, he said he had had two sets, maybe three, of teeth made, but couldn’t use them.  So, he gave up on false teeth.  He continued the discussion by saying that if he ever found a set of teeth that could chew beef steak, he would peddle them by passing the teeth around in a crowd of people, then passing the steak around, guaranteeing the teeth would work.  Well, he could make a fortune selling those teeth!  We could hardly eat for listening to his lecture. What fun!

                                                Visit to McLean to see Mama Betty’s second brother, Noel Savage

     We spent two nights and portions of three days with Uncle John and Aunt Annie, then retraced steps to McLean, Texas, to Mama Betty’s second brother’s home.  In this home lived Uncle Noel Savage and his wife, Aunt Vesta, along with their daughter, Versie, 22, their son, Chester, 20, and another daughter, Vineta, 15 years old.  A revival was in progress in their church, but we didn’t attend the services.  Our second day there was Sunday, and Papa may have gone with Uncle Noel and the young people.  I recall the activities of that Sunday afternoon in their living room; while Versie played hymns on the piano and Chester led the music, some of us joined in the hymn-singing.  Chester, half-clowning, as he sang, became disgusting in his antics, until his mother saw it fitting to calm him down by a sharp reprimand!  In later years, he became a preacher and could boast of friendships and close fellowship with some of the finest clergy.  Aunt Vesta proved, also, to be faithful in her Christian walk, when, after nursing Uncle Noel through a siege of leukemia to his death, and was herself, lodging in a nursing home, she, in this frail state, attended her church in McLean, and played piano for her Sunday School Department for some time.

Ed. note: By the early 1920s, McLean contained two blocks of brick commercial buildings containing a variety of businesses. This is what is now known as the Historic Commercial District. The streets in that part of town are still brick.  The designation of U.S. Route 66 through the town on First Street in 1926 spurred additional growth and development, and by the 1940s, the town supported a number of gas stations, automobile repair shops, motels, and restaurants. RAN

 Versie, the oldest daughter, married, had one child, and then had the tragic misfortune of losing her husband to a nervous breakdown, requiring his hospitalization until the end of his life.  Vineta, the youngest, became somewhat of an evangelist, to the consternation of her brother, Chester.  Versie and her son, both at the time of this writing, are said to be in poor health.  Aunt Vesta passed away some years ago.   This visit, in the summer of 1929, to their home was the last time for us to see their children.  Uncle Noel and Aunt Vesta visited Mama in later years and stayed briefly.

                                                              Young Arthur Thornton Learns a Lesson 

     I must relate this incident as Arthur, my brother who was 14, remembers that trip, and told it to me.  It must have been that afternoon, while we were singing around the piano, that the men and some boys were all gathered on the front porch.  They saw a baby bird fall from a nest, under the eaves of the porch.  Uncle John’s family had driven over for the day, and he was viewing the scenario when one of the young boys picked up the bird.  Uncle John said, “Put it back in the nest”.  Uncle Noel said, “No, kill it! It just carries mites!”  Arthur made a comparison between the two brothers.  He saw Noel’s heartlessness, John in his compassion.  John was one who enjoyed his fun and foolishness in their place.  Noel, on the other hand, was a preacher.  The boy replaced the bird in its nest.  Arthur judged Uncle John to be the best man!  We are reminded of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s words, “How can I hear what you are saying, when what you are doing is thundering in my ear?”

 

                                                         Meeting Uncle Bert Ware and Family

     On our way home, we stopped at Elk City, Oklahoma, to visit Papa’s oldest brother, Bert Thornton, and his wife, Aunt Dora.  They operated a small grocery store and resided in the back portion of the building.  Uncle Bert had been in the grocery business a couple of times in earlier years; he went broke both times, Papa told us, from selling too much on credit!

     The air was cool on the outside, beside the store, so we all gathered out there and sat visiting, while Uncle Bert served a few customers at closing time.  Clint, Uncle Bert’s oldest son, and his wife, Lee, were over for a visit with us, and invited some of our crew to stay the night with them.  They had a pleasant, comfortable home, three children, all still at home.  Inez, 21, was their only daughter, a very pretty and personable girl.  O.C., age 14, and B.H., who was a little younger, were very active boys.  We had little time to get acquainted with them, as we were on our way home early the next morning!    

                                                      Some Final Thoughts on this Big Trip

The trip to the Wheeler County, Texas area was a good experience; Papa and Frank were well pleased with what they saw.  I’m not so sure about Mama Betty.  At age 55, a move from one home to another was not a welcome venture for her.  But, at my age of twenty-four, I knew I could make a home wherever Frank could provide the support and a place for us to live.

Ed. note: Moving into the 1930s in upcoming chapters, with a growing family, Pearl has many interesting stories of the young farming family as they, and their community has growing pains. Also, a tragedy involving young David Noel. Stay tuned. RAN

                               

 

 

 

                             

                        Chapter 42: 1927-1929 Brings Prosperity, School, A New Car; Austin Aspires to be a Doctor

     Ninteen Hundred Twenty-seven was a prosperous year for the farmers.  The year before was a poor crop, the fall was wet, raining when we least expected it.  We had the flock of white Leghorns which were doing well, but sometimes one of the roosters would crow at noon to ten O’clock in the evening.  I remembered some older person-either Mama Betty or Mandy-saying that this was a sign of rain.  And, sure enough, it proved to be so!  About the time it was getting dry enough to gather cotton, Frank would be heard to say, “Uh-oh! That old rooster is crowing.”  The next morning we would awaken to rain dripping off the eaves of the house.  That was in 1926.  The $4,000 debt Frank owed to Austin was still hanging over our heads.  Now, now in 1927,  it seemed that we could get out of debt, a year late!

Ed. note: This recent photograph of White Leghorn rooster shows an impressive bird. Imagine this big rooster crowing at odd hours of the day. RAN

                                                                           First Child Off to School

     This was a joyful Fall, in 1927, for me, as Mildred was starting school.  Most mothers cry when their firstborn leaves for school, but not this mother.  I think I welcomed the event because I loved school so much.  I was always ready for the children to reach school age, as it seemed that I could communicate with them more easily when they reached that age.  Some mothers are ready to get them out of the house or from underfoot, but that was not my reasoning at all.  Mrs. Royce Sampler was the elementary teacher during the school year of 1927-28.  She was Mildred’s first teacher.

Ed. note: This rural one-room schoolhouse is quite similar to Pleasant Valley School near Frank and Pearl’s farm home where all seven children went to grade school. It did close in 1947, so my two nearest sisters and I did not complete all eight grades there.  We were transferred to Consolidated School #11, Victory Elementary and High Schools for the remainder of our primary school education. RAN

That was the beginning of taking shots before entering school.  Later, these shots were DPT, which represented the three threats to school children, but in the beginning, diphtheria was the disease the health authorities hoped to do away with.  The slogan that caught on went something like this: “Eradicate by Twenty-eight”. I welcomed this remedy as I still carried in my memory the nightmarish experience of losing my two-year-old sister, Jewel, to the dreadful disease!

     I sewed, making Mildred many pretty little school dresses to begin school.  I got all of the necessary supplies, such as tablets, pencils, and books for the first grade.  Mildred approached the time with mixed emotions.  One day she surprised me by saying, “I can’t go to school”.  When questioned, “Why not?”, she replied with, “I don’t know how to learn.”  I think this problem was not solved in one session.  I recall thinking about this and wondering what I could say to explain learning.  The subject came up again, and I said, “Mildred, you learn words in your books just as you learn to know people.  Remember, you once didn’t know Mrs. Davidson, but when you saw her and heard her name, you now always know who Mrs. Davidson is.  It’s the same way with words.  You will learn to know them by seeing them, learning their names.  Then, you will always know them.”  She still remembers that apprehension, but she had no problem with her school work or with people.  She could always hold her own, wherever or whatever the situation.  Well, there was one thing that Mildred couldn’t cope with, which we learned in the Spring of 1928.  It was storms, or the threat of storms.  She had been conditioned to this fear by her daddy, who awakened us, hurrying us to the cellar when a threatening storm appeared at night; we learned to take shelter whenever a storm was threatening.  Mildred would become hysterical at school, making it difficult for the teacher to control her.  The teacher was careful to take the children to the cellar if conditions warranted it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ed. note: Southwestern Oklahoma, where we lived, was called “tornado alley” when I was going up on the farm.  This is the “storm” against which Daddy feared so much and was acting to protect his family. Homes and barns, as this photo illustrates, were/are destroyed and people were/are killed in these violent storms on the plains of Oklahoma. RAN

”                                                     King Cotton, Loans Paid off, and a New Car

Ed. note: This photo of a cotton field nearing harvest time, with the bowls opening to show the fluffy, valuable cotton bulging through.  School started in late August so that there could be a two week late Fall “harvest break”, which allowed the older farm youth to go into the fields and “pick cotton”, filling our cotton sacks, as we bent down and labored up and down the rows to harvest “King Cotton”. I am recalling my childhood and teens in 1940s and 1950s.  It was no different in 1927.  The cotton was taken to the cotton gin and the fibers was separated from the burrs. It was and still is a major cash crop for farmers in that area of Oklahoma. RAN

     Cotton harvest came in the Fall of 1927. Frank marketed sufficient cotton to pay all debts at the banks and grocery stores, plus the $4,000 he owed his younger brother, Austin.  When he handed Austin the check, he said to him, “Aus, this is enough to pay off the debt on the land you bought.  Go straight to the company and clear that up right now!”  Austin didn’t do that, to his sorrow, but that is a later part of the story. Frank decided to trade cars.  When men get these trading notions in their minds, nothing will change that but making a trade.   He traded our 1923 Model T in on a Dodge Touring car, which served us well. But, looking back after a couple of years, it was agreed that we should still be driving the old Model T!  Austin had bought his new Dodge sedan, which was labeled “The Fastest Four in America”, as it was still a four-cylinder engine.  This may have influenced Frank to trade for a second-hand Dodge, but it meant that I must learn to drive all over again on a “gear shift” car, as I had driven only a Model T, which had no gears.

    

 

 

Ed. note: The top image is a modern photo of a recently renovated 1927 Dodge Touring Car.  The advertisement below the dotted line is a 1927 Dodge with the price $945 for Special Sedan, non-deluxe sedan. RAN

                                       School Singing and Square Dancing

As the school year progressed and the holidays approached, the teachers began to plan programs.  The Christmas program included the entire student body in plays and songs.  First-grade students were cast as singers; some may have been angels or elves, but it seems that Mildred starred as a singer.  She had learned to sing as I had sung to her all of her life, beginning with Day One, when I sang to her in bed.  But on the stage at Pleasant Valley School, that six-year-old lifted her voice and sang as big as any student there!  Mr. Davidson, a singer himself, dubbed her his “little singer”.  She was amazing!  

     Early in 1928, Uncle Charley Thornton (younger brother of Pearl’s father, Pete) with his wife, Aunt Kate, and children Arthell, Vineta, Ivy, and Charley Jr., moved into our community.  They settled about a mile and three-quarters from my folks, some 3.5 miles from us.  We enjoyed them and visited with them quite frequently.  I recall that Uncle Charley turned 40 years old that year on February 22.  He decided to quit smoking cigarettes, a habit he had cherished for 25 years.  He possessed tremendous willpower as he had a 15-year-old son living in the home who also smoked.  This could have been a temptation to smoke again, but not for my Uncle Charley!

Ed. note: Before learning of the serious threat of lung cancer from smoking cigarettes, they were promoted freely and with great glamor and as “healthful for breathing”, even recommended by doctors. RAN

     They were full of fun, this Uncle and Aunt.  Their close neighbors were the Sterling Bacons, with a son and two daughters of similar ages to the three older children of the Thorntons.  These two families were instrumental in forming a neighborhood square dance which met on Saturday nights in various homes.  Frank, the kids, and I went to Uncle Charley’s home for one of these dances.  Of course, neither of us danced, but it was fun to watch the skill of the dancers as they moved through their routines, keeping step to the beat of the music of guitar and fiddle with either Uncle Charley or Sterling Bacon calling out the movements to the dancers.  Quite entertaining!  Viola and Ueal hosted one of the neighborhood dances, which Frank and I attended.  However, this event was saddened for me by the presence there of Uela May (Kidd) Hasenmeyer, who had just lost her husband, Sidney, in a tragic accident.  She was probably persuaded to come to the party to get her mind off her trouble, but she was there only a short time, when she took her two-and-a-half-year-old son and left.  Her grief was too recent and too intense to be replaced by such frivolous entertainment.  That was the end of my attendance at the neighborhood parties.  Frank went to Viola’s and Ueal’s one other night, but I didn’t feel like going, so I stayed home with the kids.  Mildred and Ivy had a good time playing together, even though Ivy was 3 and a half to 4 years Mildred’s senior.  They played paper dolls, Ivy helped Mildred to read from some of her school readers, and they played games of some sort.  They just had good fellowship in general.  

                                                           Home Demonstration and P.T.A.

     School year 1927-1928, Miss Lela Smith of our community, daughter of J.M. Smith, was a teacher in the public schools of Stillwater, Oklahoma.  She took a leave of absence from her teaching that year to stay at home and work in our community.  Pleasant Valley took on a new look, primarily due to her skillful leadership.  The Home Demonstration Club was in a developing stage, which encouraged the organization of a Parent-Teachers’ Association.  Some members could see hidden talent in P.T.A. members, so it was proposed that they sponsor a play, performed by members of the P.T.A.  Whew!  What a large order!  But, we did it!  I don’t recall the title of the play, but I, a nursing mother (J.T. was 15 months old), played a young lady.  It was necessary to borrow a couple of young fellows in our community to fill the male roles, so George Beavers and Jim Kinzer were persuaded to join the cast.  I remember rehearsing one night, and while I was playing opposite George Beavers, J.T., back there with Frank, needed his mama.  He was sleepy and tired and wanted to nurse, so he could go to sleep.  In a quite romantic scene, my “boyfriend” and I went through our lines.  You talk about a hilarious experience, embarrassing for some of us.  We had plenty of laughs as we rehearsed for this P.T.A. play, which was, by the way, a tremendous success.

                                                                            Basket Lunches

     On Easter Day, 1928, we met on Sunday for a basket dinner served at noon.  A sermon and hymn-singing occupied the morning hours.  Then, on the first Sunday in May, we celebrated Children’s Day, as we heard the Methodist pastor from Grandfield’s Methodist Church preach a touching and unforgettable sermon on “The Finding of Moses”, stressing the importance of the child in our society.  Another basket lunch was enjoyed at noon.  The close of school brought another celebration when we met for a program presented to our children, of songs and poems, enjoyed by us all.  Incidentally, the Sunday dinners were attended by persons from the school districts around us!  So, we were able to meet many parents of children in the schools nearby.  A very good school year ended in June 1928.

                                     Visiting Carnegie to see Grandma Mandy, Austin, Lona, and their families    

We made visits to Austin and Lona’s families in Carnegie County in 1927 and 1928.  We have a snapshot of James, age 6, Calvin, age 4,  Lona’s sons, Lloyd, age 4, and Cletis, age 2, and J.T., age 2.  These five boys were all seated astride James’ shetland pony, a winter scene.  Calvin recalls the visit to Austin’s following Christmas, when their son James had received a pedal-operated airplane.  Calvin confesses that it was the pedal airplane that he was most interested in when visiting James. The beginning of Calvin’s love affair with airplanes, he says!

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Ed. note: The photographs were recently discovered in Mama’s photo albums. On the left is James mounted on his pony, Ted. James is six years old.   On the right, is the photo mentioned by Mama, of inventive, daring Uncle Austin mounting 5 very small boys up on Ted, the very good- natured pony.  Mama gives the order of sitting on the pony from right to left, beginning with James, 6, Calvin, 4, Lloyd, 4, Cletus, 2 and J.T., 2 year!! RAN

 

 

 The image on the top left is a 1927-30 era, refurbished model of a toy pedal-airplane, designed after Charles Lindberg’s Spirit of St. Louis airplane, which he had flown across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927.  On the right is a 1928 newspaper ad for toys; note the upper right corner of the ad is a toy airplane. Calvin’s dreams of becoming a pilot are sparked.  During WW II Calvin earned his wings as a US Navy pilot, flying off aircraft carriers.  RAN

      I recall a visit in the summer, also, when Mr. and Mrs. Colyer, Lillie’s aging parents, were there.   Someone had the idea to camp out overnight in the river bottom of the Washita River.  So, there we were!  After our supper, preparing to make our beds on the ground, guess who was yelling the loudest over that?  Not the elderly Colyers, with their supposedly arthritic joints, but “little ole me!”  I’m sure breakfast was good the next morning at sunrise, one of the nicer experiences of that trip.  The high points in our trips to Carnegie were being with Austin’s family, due to the strong relationships between Frank and Austin.  They were always inseparable until they each married, but still worked closely together until Austin’s move so far away.

                                                                    Magnetic Masseur Sanatorium

     Following the Fall, 1928 bumper cotton crop, Austin decided to move to Hobart, Oklahoma, some forty miles west of Carnegie.  Dr Abel, a former associate of Dr. Milling, the Magnetic Masseur at Mineral Wells, Texas, was at Hobart establishing a business, a “sanatorium”.  On some occasion, Austin’s family had visited him there; perhaps to take James, 6, who was afflicted with asthma.  At any rate, the “good doctor” prevailed upon Austin to come and “train” with him as a Magnetic Masseur.  Dr. Able pointed out the money that could be made at the business, which was, apparently, relatively simple to learn.  Austin and Lillie were sold on the idea.  They, in return, bought a nice home there and moved to Hobart.  He had not yet paid off the mortgage of $4,000 on the land, which he could have done, in Fall of 1927, had he not let other priorities take precedent over it. Anyway, they were there.  

                                                      Out With the Old, In With the New, Farming in 1929

     In the winter of 1928, Frank had the flu, which left him with a bothersome cough.  Numerous trips to the doctors didn’t seem to help.  Finally, the doctor told him that he was prescribing the strongest medication he could give as a cough suppressant, but still Frank coughed.  Frank, as most of his neighboring farmers, plowed with mule teams.  It was hard labor and required a lot of strength.  So, as tractors were becoming affordable, and much less sweat to get the farming work done, Frank had made a deal for a “FarmAll” tractor.  So, in the first part of March, 1929, Frank sold the four mules.  Bill Ward, a one-time neighbor of ours, bought them.  He and a helper arrived, as planned, and led our four mules away behind their automobile in a spring snow shower.  I felt a heaviness in seeing them go.  But realizing the time had come, I became reconciled. 

Ed. note: Mules are sterile, being the product of cross-breeding with a donkey and a horse.  They have strong, durable bodies and were indispensable for farm work, breaking ground with the “moleboard” (above left) and pulling wagons and other farm equipment.  The photo on the right is a modern photo of a 1927 Farmall tractor, refurbished, but appearing as the original. It would be very similar to Frank’s new tractor, 1929.  RAN

      In March or April, Frank decided to go to Dr. Abel and Austin in the Sanatorium in Hobart.  His mother, Grandma Mandy,  was also taking treatments there at this time.  Frank had plowing that needed to be done, so he hired Jim Kinzer to come and plow while he was away.  Frank’s youngest brother, David, was staying with Viola and Ueal, helping them with farming.  Frank spent six weeks at the Abel Sanatorium, but he began to improve immediately.  He came home after a couple of weeks for a visit.  David and the kids and I drove up to Hobart for a couple of days and nights after another two weeks.   In spite of the intervening visits during the six weeks, it became really lonesome at home with the three young children.  Of course, Mildred’s attendance in school broke the monotony, but this time seemed even lonelier than when Frank was at Dr. Milling’s Sanatorium in Mineral Wells, Texas, some four years before. 

                                                                         Pearl, Dealing with Loneliness

      In seeking sympathy and comfort in being alone, I found Aunt Kate very helpful.  Unlike Papa, when I tried to express to him my aloneness back in 1925, he brushed me off, assuring me that the time would soon pass, and when Frank did come home, he would be in better health.  I knew all that, but Aunt Kate understood without my saying much.  As a matter of fact, she had experienced such loneliness while Uncle Charley was absent from her and her three children, as he served his country in the Navy.  So, one Sunday, they planned to go to Burkburnett, Texas, to visit Aunt Kate’s sister, Aunt Jane Powell, and her husband, Tom.  They invited me and the kids to go along.  It was a beautiful day, a beautiful visit to Aunt Jane’s beautiful home!  She prepared for us a delicious meal, and sitting around the table after Uncle Charley and Uncle Tim had moved into the living room, and the kids had gone, Aunt Kate voiced to Aunt Jane, in my presence, my aloneness without Frank.  All in all, the day seemed to be the remedy for my depressed condition.  When I awoke the next morning, I found that I had brand new ideas for my days ahead.

     First, I would start the incubator.  I was quite aware of this operation in which I could collect enough usable eggs from our production flock of hens to start the egg setting by the time the incubator was ready to go.  The new lease on life I experienced was indeed enhanced by bringing new life into being, even if it was baby chicks.

Ed. note: Pearl, ever industrious, will begin a money-making chicken raising and egg enterprise. Prospect of moving back to West Texas and visiting several relatives in the Texas Panhandle and western Oklahoma. Stay tuned. RAN

 

 

                                                                                               CHAPTER 41

                                 1926: Three Noel Families Move Away From the Farm, to Carnegie, Oklahoma

Editor’s note: The numerous sibling given names, especially of Frank’s large family,  that appear may be a bit daunting for most readers.  Please refer to the insert below for names and ages, which may be helpful.  Frank’s mother, his brother, Austin, and his sisters, Viola, Lona, and Lavada, as well as his young brother David, are all mentioned. I hope this helps navigate these connections. RAN

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                                  Frank’s and Pearl’s Parents and Siblings Mentioned in writings             

Jim Noel m. Amanda Jane Long, 1893                           Peter H. Thornton m. Melvina Watts, 1896

                   Frank  b. 1894                                                                         Pearl b. Jan., 1905

                   Austin  b.1896                                                                         Billy   b. April, 1909

                   Oma    b. 1898                                             (Melvina-entered Texas State Asylum-Feb.1910; dies there 1965 )

                  Viola    b. 1904                                                  Peter remarries- Betty Savage-1913

                    Lona    b.1906                                                Arthur Thornton b. 1914

                   Lavada b.1908                                                                                 

                   David   b. 1910                                           

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Pearl’s narration begins here:

All of the changes of the new year seemed to fall into place.  Frank helped his brother, Austin, Arthur (Lona Noel Crossland’s husband), and Grandma Mandy Noel haul all their household things because the move to Carnegie through the Wichita Mountains was quite a trek.  In the caravan were wagons, teams, plow tools, agricultural supplies, and one Model T truck, which had to be helped up a hill or two with its load.  I don’t recall the exact length of time spent on the venture. But logically, it would have to be three days with two nights camping out beside the mountain road.  The women and children waited at convenient places until the men returned to drive the families in loaded automobiles along the mountain way to their destination.

Editor’s note: This is a modern map of the section of Oklahoma described in this chapter.  In 1926, highways and roads were less developed, often consisting of dirt roads. The Noel farms were located 10 miles southwest of Grandfield, , just south of US Highway 70, near the Red River.  Traveling to Lawton first, then north and west on State Hwy 58 to Carnegie at junction of Hwy 58 and Hwy 9. This route through the Wichita Mountains is most likely the mountainous roads along the path Pearl describes to get to Carnegie.  RAN                                     

     We made a few trips through the mountains to visit the folks in Carnegie, but we soon drove a few miles out of the way to avoid this tiring drive.  At first, the mountain drive was interesting.  We learned a few familiar places: Beers was a country store and post office in the Wichita Mountains.  This place still exists as I write in 1980.  You can find it on the map.  We learned where to expect “pow-wows”, meeting places for some Indian tribes who lived in the area.  Saddle Mountain began to be welcomed as a herald, telling us we were coming out of the mountain wilderness soon.  The children never liked the road through the mountains.

The year 1926 was about to become quite an eventful one.  Around the end of January, my elderly neighbor, Mrs. J. M. Smith, 3/4 miles to the south, stopped by that wintry afternoon to visit, while her husband drove to the county seat to render his taxes for the new year.  The ladies of the new community, Pleasant Valley School District # 255, were trying to stir up enough interest to organize a Home Demonstration Club.  This plan sounded very wonderful to me; also, very vague, as I had not the slightest idea of what it might involve!   Mrs. Smith assured me that when the committee decided to organize, I would be notified.

                                                      Pearl and Frank are expecting a baby again!

     Sometime in April, I discovered that I was pregnant.  Viola and Ueal were expecting a baby in the summer, and our baby would be born in the winter.  There were many new neighbors.  The Ab Davidsons lived up on the hill west, less than a half mile.  Neither the Davidsons nor the Smiths were total strangers to us, as Papa had known both families near Davidson, Oklahoma, when we lived a short while on granddaddy Ware’s place when I was 2 years old (1907).  More recently, the Davidsons and younger members of the Smith family helped organize a church that met at the Rita Schoolhouse. The church meeting location was later moved to Pleasant Valley Schoolhouse, closer to where the greater number of members resided.  There were other neighbors whom I had not known before.  The Alfred Parks family lived across the intersection from us.  The Loyace Hicks family, including their two-year-old daughter, Mozelle, and Loyace’s father and mother, lived nearby.  Some of these were known, some we had not met:  Emory and Blanche Hagy lived a mile north; Sutherlands lived two miles south; Hoyt and Bertha Clemmer lived some two and a half miles west.  All of these newly arriving neighbors would become well-known to Frank and me within a year.  

                                                              Home Demonstration Club Organized

     At the organizational meeting of the women’s club, I also met Mrs. W. E. Brister, who lived just east of us, over in the Fort Augur school district.  We enjoyed being with Mrs. Bertha Clemmer, and the meeting took place at the Smiths’ place.  The Smith’s daughter, Icy, and Minnie Germany, Mrs. Smith’s spinster sister, were among the Charter members of the club.  Mrs. Brister was elected president, and Miss Icy Smith was elected secretary, with the other officers to be elected at a future meeting.  I can recall feeling very good and very fortunate to be a member of the newly organized Home Demonstration Club when I returned home that day.

                                                                High Risk and Fear of Childhood Diseases

     Sorrow and sadness darkened our community that spring when Loyal and Dollie Hick’s two year old daughter came down with a case of croup. Dr Fuqua was summoned, as they couldn’t seem to control the attack with home remedies.  Frank was in the home visiting them when her sore throat began, but neither he nor the family considered it a serious case.  Little Mozille’s condition didn’t improve.  It only became steadily worse, despite all that the family and the doctor could do.  She died in only a few short days with what was diagnosed as membranous croup.  It was the same disease that Billy was afflicted with at age 5,  when the doctor administered the proper antitoxin, which saved his life!  I recall that we attended the funeral services for Mozelle, which were painful for us, as neighbors with young children, too.

                                                                Sewing Machines and Mildred’s Humor

     In early 1926, Alta and Jim Green and their two daughters, Thelma and Dorothy, moved into Grandfield.  Jim had become an agent for Singer Sewing Machine Company and had an office in the corner of the large second-hand furniture store.  As he went about his work, contacting prospective customers and knocking on doors to make appointments for later dates to catch husbands at home, he wore a straw sailor hat.  Of course, he dressed in a jacket and tie, and the hat topped off his costume, proper for a respectable sewing machine agent.  Mildred, four-going-on-five, was fascinated by the straw sailor hat.  We saw very few of these hats, but some businessmen wore them in the summer.  Each time Mildred saw a straw sailor hat, she would say, “Look, he’s wearing a Sewing Machine hat!”  That was her name for Jim Green’s hat, a Sewing Machine hat!  We spent much time with them during the Greens’ stay in Grandfield.  We bought a new sewing machine, which served us well until electricity came to our rural area.  Then, we traded the treadle machine in for an electrically powered Elgin machine. 

                   Ed. note: This image is of a 1926 model of the Elgin Sewing Machine, similar to what is mentioned. RAN

                                          Frank Is Wrongly Accused by Native American “Indian” Land Owner 

Frank was enjoying his new farm, and we were both happy with our large flock of white leghorn hens, which we had purchased from Charley Wrenchy.  He had moved from his farm located on the highway between our home and Grandfield.  He had resettled in the West Texas Plains and, for some reason, could not move the flock of chickens with him.  Frank and I could envision those lovely white hens making our living in the near future.  A bit of unrest developed on the adjoining farm that we had just vacated.  The Indian owner, William Wyatt, accused Frank, through the Indian Department, of removing the “two large wooden gates” from his fence and relocating them as part of our present fence.  Frank was very troubled at first and discussed it with others, getting their opinions.  Finally, after reading the “fine print” on the lease contract, he found that it read thus: 

           “You shall not remove any structure or portion

             of the structure if it has been permanently 

             fastened to another structure…”

Obviously, the gates, which Frank had constructed, installed, and used there, were fastened to nothing more permanent than fence posts.  They were Frank’s, and he moved them to his new farm.  Consequently, when Frank presented his case to the Indian Department, he was found to be “Not guilty” of any wrongdoing.  Frank and the neighbors had many laughs at the poor Indian fellow, an educated man, but lacking knowledge of Indian Lease contracts.  He had requested, in the accusation, that Frank bring those “two large wooden gates” back and replace them in his fence.  When he found his accusations to be false, he not only failed to get the gates back, but also had to build new gates, if he really needed them.  His face was probably quite red from both embarrassment and anger!  He never really found his place in the community in his year or two on his farm.

                                                   Best Friend and Sister in Law, Viola Has a Baby

     Frances Jo was born to Viola and Ueal Bowman that year on August 4, 1926.  I don’t believe that Mandy came down from Carnegie at Frances Jo’s birth, but she and young David, now 16, came down later in the fall and were there in the winter.  Lavada, now 18, stayed up in Carnegie, as she was socializing with young people, making new friends readily.  She was also a help to her big sister, Lona, in Carnegie, who was expecting a second baby that fall.  After the illness and death of Dollie’s and Loyace’s little girl, we learned that Dollie was also expecting that winter.

                                                           Pearl and Frank’s Third Baby is Born: JT

     The day after Christmas, 1926, Frank and I had sat around our house all day with only Calvin, our two-year-old.  Grandpa Thornton had begged for Mildred to stay with them that day when he came over to check on my welfare,  in my time of late pregnancy, in the morning.  Papa had brought her home before nightfall.  About 8 pm, I went into labor, and Frank went to Mr. Parks’ telephone to call Dr. Fuqua.  He also went to Viola’s and picked up Mandy.  On December 26, around 10 pm, a “bouncing baby boy” was born, weighing eleven pounds, the doctor said.  Mandy always said the baby was not that big; the doctor’s scales must be wrong.  During the process of our second son’s delivery, Loyace Hicks appeared on the scene, asking the doctor to stop by his home, as they believed Dollie, his wife, was ready to give birth.  Once he had completed examining the baby and me, the doctor visited the Hicks’ home. However, upon examination, Dr. Fuqua judged that Dollie’s delivery was some hours away, so he returned to town.  The next evening, though, Loyace was calling Dr. Fuqua to deliver Theresa, a baby girl, for Dollie and Loyace.  Jokingly, the doctor asked why she couldn’t have saved him a 12-mile trip!  Dollie, with her good sense of humor, assured him that she did try!           

Frank and I disagreed on a name for the baby.  Frank wanted to name him Thomas Grover, but that sounded, to me, like such an ancient name for a baby.  I really didn’t have a choice, but Mandy saved the day by suggesting the initials “JT” in honor of her husband, James Thomas,  who was, of course, Frank’s father.  She had wanted to name one of her sons for him, but he wouldn’t allow it.  She sold us on the idea, so “JT” it would be.  Lola, Frank’s first wife, had a baby brother who died, whose name was Grover, and that was probably the reason this name came to Frank’s mind.  More than once, something pertaining to his dead wife would surface during our life together.  I suppose this is understandable, as she was an important part of his young adult life.  J.T. was an easy baby to care for.  He was healthy, so he spent much of his time lying in the baby bed we had used for both Mildred and Calvin. 

Every time Viola came and found him in bed, she picked him up, commenting on how he was being neglected.  She said that Frances Jo, her baby daughter, who was about five months older than J.T., was being held by a family member constantly.  She did admit that there were four adults present, including Mandy and David, in their home, which was drafty and cold.  As soon as JT was old enough, however, we put him in the high chair, which he enjoyed very much. 

            Ed. note: This image is from the 1920s, according to Almay.  Imagine J.T. sitting happily there. Of interest, JT weighed 11 pounds at birth, according to the doctor.  Daddy gave him the nickname “Heavy” at some point soon thereafter.  I wonder if Daddy got the nickname from that fact? RAN

                                        The Young Two Year Old Calvin’s Frightening Adventure

I recall an occasion when JT was about five months old; we had come from Viola’s and Ueal’s, and put him in his chair.  A young neighboring couple, Ora and Taylor Hill had come by, and we were all enjoying JT, as he laughed and played with us for the first time! Taylor and Frank had stepped outside, but Ora and I were still in the kitchen talking when Calvin, two and a half years old by then, came in the door.  I saw that he had been crying, but I forgot, momentarily,  and then recalled, that he had been visiting with Viola and Ueal.  I looked out to see if they had brought him home, and not seeing them, I asked Frank if they had dropped Calvin off.  Frank and Taylor had seen him, but they, too, failed to realize, for the moment, that he was not supposed to be there.

Then we became alarmed and began to question him.  How did he get home?  Did he walk? He said, “Yes,” “Were you afraid?”, we asked.  He shook his head, “yes”, and then said, “I cried ‘Mama’ at the bridge!”  Calvin, 2 and 1/2 years old, had walked one and a quarter miles, uphill and downhill, crossed two bridges that spanned Cooper Creek!  We knew we must let Ueal and Viola know, as they would be frantic!  Just as Frank and Taylor went to the car, Ueal and Viola drove in and soon saw Calvin.  They explained that Ueal had gone to the barn, and Viola thought Calvin had gone with him.  She didn’t miss him until Ueal came in and they began to question each other.  Of course, their first thought was that he might have fallen into the creek. What a relief to us all that he was safe after the ordeal he had gone through!  Even though Aunt Viola favored Calvin Wayne, I don’t recall another time he stayed with them alone; perhaps, after he was older.  He and Aunt “Vi” really loved each other, and she would tease him by saying, “Calvin’s a rotten tater!”.  Then, he would respond with, “You’re a rotten tater!” One day, when he was a little older, he would sit down beside me, playing with something while I sewed, or maybe I was holding JT.  Anyway, right out of the blue, he said, “Mama, Aunt Vi’s a rotten tater!”. That indicated their affection for one another!

 

Ed. note: We look forward to 1927, a prosperous farming time with many new events in the Noels’ lives. Stay tuned. RAN

  

Chapter 40

Summer of 1925 – Mineral Water Cures

In the spring of 1925, Mandy, still feeling the weakness of her broken leg, began to think of going to Mineral Wells, Texas, to get some treatment for her leg and her health in general.  She had nephews and nieces in Mineral Wells, as well as her sister Emily’s children.  Before I ever knew of the Noel family, Emily had passed away in the spring of 1916.  So, Frank drove Mandy down to Mineral Wells to Mandy’s niece, Lydia Wediken, whose husband, a doctor, was deceased.  Living nearby were old friends of Frank, Jim Walters and his brother, Henry Walters, and their families.  I believe Henry had two sons, eight and ten, by a former marriage.  Jim was in his second marriage, also, with a wife named Lola. 

 

  Ed. note: These photos are not dated, but the one on the left has a street scene, and the Crazy (Water) Hotel is in downtown Mineral Wells.  The automobiles appeared similar to the Ford Model T, so this was around 1925.  The right image is an advertisement, showing a large mansion, which seems to be a later location of the Dr Millings’ Sanatorium, absent Dr Abel.  The link below is to modern Mineral Wells, Texas, and the healing waters they still advertise. RAN.        https://visitmineralwells.org

At Mineral Wells, with offices in the “Crazy Water Hotel”, were Dr. Milling and his brother-in-law, Dr. Abel.  They were called Magnetic Masseurs, who treated all illnesses by massage, akin to chiropractic methods.  Mandy had planned to stay a few weeks in the niece’s home, travel to and from the doctor’s office, but she decided that was a drain on Lydia and the nephews, so she just took up residence in the sanatorium.  The treatments were getting desired results after a few weeks for Mandy.  Frank was not feeling so well that spring, and as the summer came on, following the planting of crops and getting them off to a good start, he decided to go to Dr. Milling and take some treatments for his general condition, which hopefully would relieve his heart condition some.  It was very lonely being at home alone, with the two babies.  Of course, Mandy’s children still at home included Viola, now 21, Laveda, 16, and David, 14. (Pearl, though married with two children, is just 20 years old.) They lived across the road from us.  Lona, two years older than Viola,  married Arthur Crossland the year before, now with a baby boy, Lloyd Dale, born in February 1925.  We enjoyed the Noel “kids”, as we called the sisters and brother, and spent much time with them.

                                                                Pearl Learns to Drive The Model T 

 

Ed. note: 1924 Frank purchased a 1923 Model T Ford Touring car, like this one.  So, Pearl is learning to drive this model  car, with her dear friend and sister-in-law, Viola teaching her. (Thank you, Getty Images.) RAN

     One day, out of the blue, Viola announced that she would teach me to drive the car while Frank was gone!  Frank had taken the public bus to Mineral Wells so that we could have the car for our use in his absence.  Viola was a good driver and a good teacher for me.  She surmised that Frank was not the one to teach me, as the husband is always too much of a perfectionist, finding faults that were not important.  So, one day we all loaded into the car and drove to Hollister, 9.5 miles away.  Part of the road was curved, and rough in places where we crossed a small creek with a narrow bridge.  So, Viola waited until we came to the highway, six miles from Hollister, before she gave me the wheel.  I wobbled back and forth across the road a few times, until I got the feel of it, but I soon straightened out into a rather smooth driver.  I think Viola took the wheel a short distance from Hollister,  but she let me drive a portion of the way back home.  We were both very proud of our accomplishments of the day. 

I don’t recall how many driving lessons I had before she let me out alone,  but I was driving well when Frank returned from Mineral Wells.  Mandy stayed on for a couple of weeks in Mineral Wells after Frank came home. So Frank decided that the kids and I would go with him to pick her up.  It was a nice trip and the Walters were very hospitable people.  We stayed in Lydia’s home the two nights we were there and socialized with Jim and his “current” wife and Henry and his wife and sons.  We had taken our camera, so photographs were snapped to strengthen our recall of a vacation to Mineral Wells, Texas, in the summer of 1925.

Ed. note: This is an old 1925 roadmap of Texas and Oklahoma.  Your job is to find Mineral Wells, Texas!! Look west of Dallas, through Fort Worth to Parker, then Mineral Wells. Oklahoma border is the green squiggly line, The Red River. Grandfield and the farm are just west of the work Nest.  RAN

 

   Ed. note: This map is up to date, showing names more clearly. Find Mineral Wells just above Weatherford.  Burkburnett is just below Red River and the Noel farms are just west of there on the Oklahoma side of the river.  RAN

 

       Frank was disappointed at the condition of the farm crops on our place when he returned to take care of things.  It seemed that Austin’s hired hand had spent too much time “combing” Austin’s place and had neglected the cotton crop on our place.  Austin also took care of Mandy’s place except for hoeing the weeds in the cotton rows, which Viola, Laveda, and David did.  Viola was the responsible leader and manager, but I suppose the hoeing (also called  “cotton chopping”) job on their place was about all she could manage.

     That fall, Melvin (Jack) Savage (the younger brother of Pearl’s stepmother,  Mama Betty)  and his wife, Inez, with daughters, Katherine and Geneva, came to visit my folks (Grandpa Pete and Mama Betty, Billy and Arthur Thornton) from Tennessee.  You may recall that fun-loving Jack and Viola Noel dated for a while, many years earlier, when he lived briefly with the Thorntons on the farm, near the Noel farm.   We visited and had fellowship with them while they were there, but I don’t recall that Viola and Jack ever met up while he was there.  

     “Bumper” cotton crops were in evidence throughout Tillman County in the fall of 1925.  Austin was going to accumulate enough money to buy a farm somewhere.  For some reason, I cannot recall why he was drawn to the Carnegie, Oklahoma area.  Frank’s second younger sister, Lona, and her husband, Arthur Crossland, with their son Lloyd, lived near Grandfield, perhaps, with Arthur’s folks.  So, he, too, was ready to go adventuring, and he did find a place to rent a few miles from Austin’s farm, which he had purchased north of Carnegie.

Ed. note: Cotton was a major “cash crop” for southwest Oklahoma farmers in 1925.  “Bumper” crops far exceeded expectations in yield.  For two weeks in the 1940s and 1950s in October my siblings and I were let out of our rural Victory grade school and high school for “Harvest Break” so we could “pick cotton” (or “pulled bolls”) RAN

 Suspense at Cooper Creek crossing 

     In the fall of 1925, Mandy, the girls, and I had a suspenseful few minutes as Frank brought a high load of hay home on a Model T truck.  He had bought the hay from Carr Staley, who lived and farmed near Frederick.  The hill south of our premises was the least steep of the other hills heading to the creek crossing.   At any rate, this was the route he chose.  We saw him turn the corner at the top of the hill by the mailboxes, and began to watch him closely as he made his way slowly down the hill towards the creek.  I had my children out in the front yard, and Mandy and the girls and David were standing in their front yards; David, with curiosity aroused, began making his way down toward the action.  At one point in the road, the truck came to a full stop, where it appeared to us that the top-most hay bales were just ready to topple off.  The person riding with Frank was now on the road, well ahead of the loaded truck, motioning this way and that,  guiding Frank down the hill to the bridge.  At last, he was there, and we all breathed a sigh of relief as he climbed the hill on our side of the creek and pulled the truck into our driveway.  We all met him when he came to a stop, and as he climbed down from the truck cab, we all talked at once, unleashing our pent-up excitement of the past few minutes.  Frank smiled and looked at the truck over and under to see it had weathered the trip well.  He returned the truck to Austin in good shape.

 

Ed. note: This modern photo, part of a video, shows a 1925 Model T Ford truck, similar to Austin’s truck that Frank borrowed to haul this big load of hay bales that Pearl is describing with excitement and suspense. RAN

 

 

 

 

 

     Also, in the fall of 1925, with the good cotton crop on Mandy’s lease, she and the girls decided to spend some money on furniture and dishes.  A round oak extension dining table, chairs, and a buffet were acquired.  One day, when Mandy had us all over for Sunday dinner, somehow, the extension table was not divided evenly on the pedestal.  At the close of the meal, all of the pretty new dishes were stacked on the long end of the table, ready for washing when the table tilted with its load on the long end and without warning the dishes all slid off onto the floor, breaking a great number of them, while everyone stood helplessly by!  

     Frank and I suffered a blow that winter when the owner of our Indian lease, William Wyatt, decided to move on the land himself and farm it.  Again, Austin’s generosity came into play. He would let Frank have his lease, even though Frank still owed Austin $2,000, for the lease where we lived. Austin offered to sell Frank his lease contract for another $2,000, amounting to $4,000, which we now owe Frank’s kind brother.  Frank would be in debt to him at the beginning of 1926.  Mandy would sell her lease to Viola and her new husband, Ueal Bowman, who she had married in the fall of 1925.  As Lona and her mother, Mandy, were always so agreeable, Grandma Mandy and the two younger children, Laveda and David, would move away to live with Lona, Arthur, and their baby, up in Carnegie.  So, the scramble began in 1926. (The next chapter will feature a map and photos.)

                                                                            Some high points of 1925

       Mildred, born in December, 1920, is now 4 and a half years old.  She recalls that her earliest memory is of being in the house where we lived in 1925: she remembers sitting in her high chair at the table eating dried apples. She loved these apples cooked and mushy and sweet.

       I had learned to drive the Model T Car, but obviously, I hadn’t had much training in driving in reverse. One day, I was backing out of the garage—I will never forget this—and I turned the steering wheel before I had the car out of the garage! As a result, I hit the door frame, causing no permanent damage, but I learned my lesson!

     It was 1925 when I cut my hair.  When Frank came home from Mineral Wells, where he had been among all the stylish cousins, he watched me comb my long, dark hair one day and said he was glad I had never cut my hair.  It sounds almost ironic that I would cut it so soon after Frank said he liked it uncut. But, I was influenced by my sister-in-law, when Lillie, Austin’s wife,  had cut her hair and gotten a permanent wave.  At first, she went to the beauty shop once a week for a Marcel-wave with curling irons, but a permanent wave was less expensive in the long run.  I got Marcelles for some two years before I got a permanent wave.  Our first haircuts were “Buster Brown” style, cut straight across the back with bangs in front.  Viola’s hair, naturally curly, took a cut better than our straight hair.  Frank was not antagonistic, wanting me to leave my hair long.  He wanted me to look like other women, and “bobbed hair” was the style!

 

             1925 photographs and an advertisement for short haircuts, possibly similar to Pearl’s Buster Brown and Marcel Wave styles.

 

Ed. note: So ends 1925 with that interesting note on women’s hairstyle and a hint of some major family moves, dramatically altering the Noel and Thornton family “community” .  The next chapter will bring an adventure of these new living situations, traveling up into the Wichita Mountains north of the Noel farms to visit Mandy and family. Stay tuned. Leave a comment.  RAN

                                               

                                                                                         Chapter 39

                                                     Summer 1924- Back Home to Tillman County Family

Mandy and the kids were all happy to see us.  We had notified them of the day we would come,  but they hadn’t waited up for us. But they got out of bed for us!  So, we all rejoiced together at the reunion, even though we were away only a brief time.  The family joke was that “this was the shortest time a family ever lived on a rented farm”.  Frank would always top it off with the remark that “it rained twice in the two weeks we were there, but didn’t rain a drop; it hailed both times!”

     Frank made the final arrangements for the trip with Mr. Hogan’s harvest crew.  Meanwhile, Austin and Frank were transacting business, or at least planning for the future.  Austin had a 25-acre field of cotton that needed hoeing out, so if Frank would get it cleaned out, it would be his to harvest.  He hired the Noel sisters and brother to hoe it out as he prepared to leave for the harvest.  Also, Austin was on a deal to buy out the man whose lease joined him on the east.  He would sell out his present lease to Frank if his deal went through, allowing Frank to repay him at harvest time the following fall.  That was generous of Austin and good news for us, as we were in doubt as to what we could do for a home. 

This modern photograph of rows of cotton in Oklahoma shows the plant leaves up close.  This field is irrigated, but, of course, the 1925-era farmer did not have that option.  Weeds were rampant among the younger tender cotton plants, so “hoeing” the weeds was very important to allow the cotton plants to reach maturity, and the cotton bolls produce the wonderful fiber, which is processed into what we enjoy as “cotton”. 

 

     Before Frank left on harvest, Frank and I got an appointment with Dr. C.C. Allen, who formerly practiced out of Grandfield but now had set up an office in Hollister, some ten miles west of Grandfield. According to his examination, the pregnancy was going well, so it was safe for Frank to be gone for four to six weeks.  

                Ed. note:This photo shows the1920s era wheat threshers pulled by a tractor which we learned about in past chapters. Frank would have been working with one of these on his commercial wheat harvest.  

Interesting observation: Frank (Daddy) went on this harvest at age 30.  He made commercial harvesting a part of his overall business during most of his farming life, hiring out to harvest many neighbors’ wheat and other grain crops near our home without traveling far from home.  I grew up still doing this with my brother, Rusty.  We went from southwest Grandfield, Oklahoma, “where the harvest begins”, up to Kansas, Colorado, and Nebraska every summer during my high school and early college years on “the wheat harvest”.  Rusty continued this into his later farming career.  This was a family tradition!     RAN   

Frank left for the wheat harvest, and we heard from him a few times by letter, but his crew’s whereabouts were uncertain.  So much so, that it was doubtful that a letter from us would overtake the crew.  Depending on communications from him, we could locate him if it became necessary. Frank left for the wheat harvest ard from him a few times by 

Everything went smoothly at Mandy’s home while Frank was away.  Oleta, Austin’s and Lillie’s daughter, going on six, spent much time down at Grandma Mandy’s.  And Mildred, going on three, enjoyed her very much.  She would visit across the road with Oleta sometimes, as they played with her little brother, James and attended him.  He was almost two years old.  Oleta said “Mama” for mother.  Mildred picked up the term from her.  So, “mother” was not my designation anymore!

 

                                         Noel and Thornton Names and Relationships Map up to 1924 

This scheme attempts to give some clear kinship links of the persons mentioned by Pearl in Chapter 39.  Curiously, two generations before Frank and Pearl, there were four Williams as heads of each of these families:

      William/ Narcissa Noel    William/Hettie Long           William/Elizabeth Thornton      William/Melvina Watts

                            Jim Noel m 1893    Mandy Long                         Peter H. Thornton m 1899-Melvina Watts

                                                  /                                                                                                       /

                                    Frank b. 1894                                                                           Pearl b 1905

                                     Austin b.1896                                                                          Billy   b 1909

                                     Oma   b. 1900                                                          (Melvina-asylum 1909-1965 d.)

                                     Viola.  b. 1904                                                                    ————

                                      Lona.  b.1906                                                         Peter remarries—-Betty Savage m.1913 

                                      Lavada b.1908                                                                             /

                                      David b. 1910                                                                 Arthur b 1914

Jim Noel dies 1911, leaving Mandy widowed with five children.  Frank, oldest son, is responsible for their support, with full support of his two year’s younger brother Austin.

 Frank marries Lola Colyer in 1917.  Lola, while pregnant, dies of Spanish Flu-Feb. 1920.

 Austin marries Lillie Colyer ~1917, Lola’s sister. They have Oleta, now 6 and James, 4.

                                                  Frank m Jan.1921- Pearl Thornton  

                                                                       /

                                                Mildred Viola b Dec. 1921

                                                Calvin Wayne b Nov. 1924

                This Family Relationship Scheme-birth and marriage years are approximate. Purpose to show relationships of the individuals Pearl is writing about in this section.  Ed.

     My folks lived a mile away, so Papa and Mama Betty visited us; also, Papa came and took us home with him a few times.  He was a proud grandpa, and Arthur, going on ten, enjoyed playing with Mildred.  Billy, now fifteen, was the big uncle but didn’t have much time to spend with a two-year-old.  He did make a scientific prediction concerning his niece.  One day, he observed that Mildred was the exact height of the oak table on the porch.  He got the yardstick and measured the distance.  He told us that Mildred would be five feet tall when mature, as the height of the table was two and one-half feet.  Science, he said, told us that at two years of age, a woman’s height was one-half of her mature height.  My height was 5’2”, so we assumed that she would be as tall as her mother, at least.  Once grown, Mildred was two inches taller than me!   

 

 This 1924 early summer photo, used in the last chapter,  helps relate to the individuals mentioned in the above paragraph.  Can you pick them out?   Hint: left to right: Mama Betty, Pearl, Arthur, Billy, Papa, and Mildred.  Frank is sitting on truck cab in a Stetson hat. Ed.

     The summer harvest passed, and Frank was home, busy helping Austin with his chores of feeding and caring for the stock and anything that needed to be done. 

     When the school opened at Rita (pronounced “Right-ah”) School, Laveda, 16, and David, 14, started school, and Oleta started with them.  She would be six on November 2,  but in those years, by Oklahoma’s school law, if a child was six years of age before January 1, he/she could begin school in September.  So, that was a red-letter day for us all.  Lillie had sewed and otherwise provided Oleta with all the wearing apparel to fit her out neatly and stylishly, as that was their way.  Oleta’s Colyer grandparents were aging, but they came over from Davidson quite frequently as they doted on Lillie’s children, for she was their youngest granddaughter.  

Second Baby Comes

     Our second baby was due to arrive in early November, but Dr. Allen, upon removing his office to another town, left us in the care of Dr. Foshee, with whom he had shared offices in Grandfield.  Dr. Foshee was a quiet, easy-going man with a dry humor.  He came readily when we called him on the evening of November 11, 1924.   He was recognized for his cleanliness and his thorough scrubbing before touching his patient each time.  He made the necessary examinations and told us that it would be a while, yet.  He gave me medication to increase labor and sat quietly with the expectant father, making little conversation.  He went to his car for several minutes (he may have had a smoke), came back to tell us how cold and frosty the air had become since he arrived.  After scrubbing again and seeing that enough hot water was in readiness in the kitchen, he came back to see if he could be of some help to the mother.  Mandy was still not strong on her leg, which she had broken two years ago, so she was limited in helping out.  She supervised in the kitchen mostly and asked the doctor questions, I’m sure.

     Around 2:00a.m., on November 12, 1924, our first son was born.  Our first child, a girl, weighed nine pounds.  This boy weighted ten pounds! Quite a big fellow!  

     Everyone was up bright and early at the morning light, getting a glimpse of the new baby.  Mildred, in her third year, was the most excited of all.  She had to be watched very carefully or she would hurt him by “loving” him and giving her attention fully to the baby.  Viola suggested “Calvin Wayne” for his name.  We jokingly asked her if she named him for the president!  Calvin Coolidge was the current president of the United States.  

     The baby grew and all was well with us both.  He was fifteen days old on Thanksgiving Day, and Austin and Lillie invited us all to eat with them.  That was Calvin Wayne’s first visit away from home.  Other visitors were there also: Lillie’s parents and a niece of her brother’s wife.  The niece was named Bryan (nee Carrigan), and her husband was Jasper, whose last name was Hayes.  They had a son a few months old who was their first child.  Bryan was one to keep up with currently popular songs and we heard for the first time “The Wreck of Old 97” and “The Prisoner’s Song”, a double on a disc recording.  I don’t know the artist.  We were to sing and appreciate the songs for many years to come.

The link below is for Hank Snow’s recording of “The Old Ninety-Seven”. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNo0cGi1xZU

     Through the remainder of the fall and the month of December, plans were completed for Austin’s family to move to the lease a mile and a half away.  Frank and I shopped for furniture; first, a dresser, as we had let our dresser go when we left Frederick for West Texas.  It was a handsome piece of furniture, massive, with a beautiful square bevelled-edge mirror.  We sold it to a furniture dealer in Frederick.  I remember a terrible accident just after we sold it, when the dresser flipped over and the beautiful mirror slipped out of the frame, shattering into a thousand pieces on the sidewalk!  Such a loss.  From our West Texas trip, we had a small dresser plus an iron baby crib for Mildred.  She had always slept in the same room near us.

      Well, upon Calvin’s arrival, as we attempted to move her into Grandma Mandy Noel’s room, she would wake in the night and cry for Mama and Daddy.  Mandy told the story many times of how Mildred stood on the foot of her bed, looking back at her grandma with her large eyes filled with tears.  I had made her flannel pajamas, rose-colored, in a sort of heather pattern.  So, she reminded Mandy of a big Teddy Bear, as she stood there in Mandy’s dim lamplight.  Frank would go and get her and try to keep her on his side of the bed, as we feared she might get on the little baby, on my side of the bed.  So the plan to sleep with grandma never succeeded very well.  With our move, Mildred had her own little bed of which she was not very pleased at first.  Finally, she was consoled as she couldn’t get out of the bed’s high sides.  Also, we were sleeping in the same room with her which made a big difference.

     Mildred was loved and doted upon, but she is remembered as a tot who poured her Aunt Viola’s face powder out more than once.  Upon another occasion, she tried her small scissors on Aunt Viola’s new sheet which she had just put on the bed, cutting a slash twelve to fourteen inches across the end, just below the pillows.  We were all so upset, but the damage was done!

     One day as the Christmas holidays were approaching, Viola and Laveda were grooming their fingernails, using fingernail polish.  Out of the blue, “That Smells Like Christmas Cakes” Mildred said.  We never quite understood that Christmas cakes smelled like nail polish. Nor why she would recall the smell of cakes at that time of the year! 

 Baby Calvin-Pneumonia

     I have no particular impressions of Christmas of 1924, but I recall an experience in February, 1925, that I shall never forget.  It was a dull cool day-not really cold, but skies were partly overcast on that short winter day.   I was doing my wash out on the north side of the house where Lillie had always set up her wash tubs when she lived there-we had moved to Austin’s former home by then. Mildred was probably across the road at Grandma Mandy’s.  Calvin, three months old, sitting where I could talk to him and keep him happy, but he wasn’t so happy toward the end of the wash.  He was in a baby buggy with a top that sheltered him from the northeast wind, and as he fussed and cried some, I noticed that his cry sounded hoarse.  I soon finished washing and took him in to feed him before hanging out the clothes.  He didn’t seem to suffer any ill effects from sitting out on that winter day, but by the next evening, his hoarseness increased and he began to have a fever.  He was feverish and uncomfortable throughout the night. 

                             This early 1900s wicker baby carriage is an example of choices for parents in Calvin’s infancy.       

      So, the next morning Frank went to a neighbor’s telephone and called Dr. Foshee.  Grandma Mandy insisted that we bring him to her house, so she could help care for him.  Dr. Foshee came out later that day, examined Calvin closely and diagnosed a congestion in the bronchial area that bordered on pneumonia.  The medication he left seemed to help keep him comfortable, but he still had a hoarse cry and some fever.  Mandy, who now had raised seven children, remarked that a baby’s illness usually develops rapidly, and the cures seem to work in the same way.  Dr. Foshee made another visit in a couple of days and found the congestion considerably improved.  He cautioned us, however, to take care to keep the baby away from cold drafts and exposure to the winter winds, as he could have a relapse.  At that visit the doctor told us that he did have a light case of pneumonia.      

     Those were anxious days for us.  In my inexperience of treating or caring for the sick, and specifically, a sick baby, I felt totally helpless.  I could only pray, as I depended on the Higher Power to intercede.  I was impressed to make a promise to God at that critical time, that I would give my son to him to use in his work.  I have been convinced that throughout Calvin’s life, God’s Spirit has dwelt with him in marvelous ways!  So, my feeble dedication at that time was not a vain petition!

Ed. note: We are seeing this growing Frank and Pearl Noel family. What comes next is more rural life, a visit to Mineral Wells, TX, to Crazy Hotel for treatments for both Mandy and Frank in the Summer of 1925. Stay tuned.

   

 

 

Editor’s note: I begin this chapter with an image that Pearl labels as ‘our first home’, named romantically “little grey home in the west” in Chapter 33, where Mama wrote about the first year of their marriage.  After staying for the first month with Grandma Noel and family,  they moved on Feb 25, 1921,  into this old house on a lease Frank was farming. This humble home was pretty old and tattered, so Frank and Papa Thornton fixed it up.  Pearl asked Frank for a better house a year later as they now have a new baby.  So, in the Summer of 1923, Frank had the option of renewing the lease with an “improvement bid,” committing him to build a new house as part of the lease contract.   Enjoy! RAN

 

Chapter 38: December 1923 to Mid-Summer, 1924- Four Moves, Five Homes

     Frank had obtained an improvement bid on the lease, and the year 1923 was the year to build “the improvement” or the new house.  But, sometime that fall, he decided that if he could sell the lease. He and a friend at Hollister, whom he had known for many years, would go into a garage business in Frederick. (Ed.note: We recall that Frank had taken automobile mechanic training in Wichita, Kansas, just before he proposed to Pearl in 1920.RAN)  Frank found a buyer for the lease, Mr. Sullivan, but we must build the house.  So, everything was set; we would move to Fredrick, the county seat.

     We also experienced another joy that fall as we bought a new 1923 Model T Touring Car.  We felt that the Lord had really smiled upon us that year; to build a new house, buy a new car, go into a new business!  And we were happy in our renewed faith and spoke of it often.

 

                                                      Courtesy of Getty Images-A 1923 Model T Touring Car

     We had a siege of rain that fall.  Roads were almost impassable in places, and one of these spots was at the intersection near our house.  One evening, just before going to bed, we heard a knock on the back door.  Upon investigating, we saw a couple standing there in the rain.  We invited them in, and learned that their car was stuck in the mud down at the bad spot in the road.  As the hour was late and the poor facilities with which they had to work, it would be impossible to move the car.  The decision was to put the couple up for the night.  Their home was Electra, Texas, across the river to the south, but they had come by way of Grandfield, traveling west, headed for Frederick.  They had missed their curve two miles back, which would have kept them on the U.S. 70 highway.

     Ed. note: In the early 1920s, roads in these rural southwestern Oklahoma counties, like Tillman County, were built of the local sand and dirt, with rainwater ditches on either side.  But, there was a fair amount of red clay mixed in with the usual sandy loam soil, and that clay was terrible for getting your wheels stuck after a big rain, even on the packed dirt road.  The highway, U.S. 70, two miles away, was “paved” with a high concentration of gravel and well-canted, so it was passable in rainy weather. RAN

     The man was a Canadian by birth and a delightful fellow.  His wife told us that his nickname was “Happy.”  I don’t recall the family name, but as it rained the next day, which I believe was Sunday, we had the opportunity to become acquainted with these nice people.  Flax was a main crop in the area of his Canadian home, and he related incidents of threshing and storing flax seed, which we had not known before.  Having no children of their own, the couple found Mildred quite a delight and brought to our attention her astuteness, which we had taken for granted.  I had raised some fryers that fall, and as we ate chicken for dinner (lunch), MIldred, still not quite two years old, said, “Pass the chicken, please.”  They were amazed, and remarked that they had never heard a two-year old say things such as that.

Ed. note: The term “fryer” denotes tender young chickens, under one year of age, meant for food, not laying eggs. This image shows a few chickens, some older layer hens.   I grew up with this ready supply of two (eggs and fryers) healthful poultry sources of protein. Tasty “Southern fried chicken” was a favorite.

     The clouds cleared away that Sunday afternoon, so Frank and Happy pulled the car out of the mud, dragging it to the house.  They found a broken axle, so Happy knew that his work was cut out for him.  So, on Monday morning as the sun was shining, Mr. “Canadian” sat out on foot for Grandfield, as roads were too soft to drive on in our area.  Grandfield is 10 miles east of our home.  He returned after dark with the necessary repairs, so he and Frank put the car back together.  We sent them on their way, rejoicing, with memories that would not soon be forgotten.

MOVE ONE

     As the autumn months merged into winter, plans were completed for our move to Frederick.  The men, Frank and Pete Fry obtained a building suitable for an automobile repair garage business, and we each rented a house for our homes.  The new house on the farm lease, a few feet from our little house, was being built as we moved away from “our little grey home in the West” without ever knowing the joy of living in the new home, which we had so fondly anticipated.  We moved on December 11, 1923, Mildred’s second birthday.

     The home we rented in Frederick was at 121 North 13th Street.  It was a large house, too large for our house furnishings, so we closed off the front room with its folding French doors, which boasted a front bay window with a stained glass panel across the top.  This style was one of the older homes in Frederick, as styles similar to this are still found here in Frederick. (Writing in 1980).

Above is the second Noel home, but the first home in Frederick, Oklahoma, Tillman County seat, about 22 miles northwest of the farm and “the little grey house in the west”.  December 11, 1923, is move-in day into this home.  In the margin at the bottom, Pearl writes “our second home” for this Noel family.

     The owner of the house operated a tailor shop and cleaners, and he would be satisfied with rent payments of $50 at the first of every month.  But, accustomed, as we were as farmers, to paying rent in advance, we plunked down six months of rent all at one time, which amounted to $300.  About the middle of February, Mr. “tailor-man” announced that he had sold our rented home to be torn down, making way for a brick residence.  The new owner demanded possession by the middle of March.  We began to search for another house as we had only a month in which to give up the present location.  When Frank asked the owner about the refund, he said he couldn’t afford it but would make Frank a vested suit with two pairs of pants.  The total amount for 6 months was $300, so the man still owes us $150.  But, he did make the suit which Frank wore, and was still wearable some thirty years later. When he passed away-at least one pair of trousers was still good.

MOVE TWO

     The second home in Frederick, which we occupied from March 15 to June 15, 1924, was at 410 South 10th Street, or Main Street as it is commonly known.  This house was a three-room structure.  The three rooms in a row, with a bungalow-type porch roof, facing the street.  It was a neat little place, large enough for our furniture and our family. 

Ed. note: Frederick is a growing town, with many new farmers moving into the county in the early 1920s.  These small homes were needed and adequate, as Pearl describes.  This date indicates they vacated this last Frederick house on May 24, 1924.  

I remember that it was here that we bought our first icebox.  It had a 75-pound capacity, which we needed to keep our butter and milk as the summer days began to appear.  Mrs. Kemp was a lovely neighbor on the right, Barbers on my left, and the Frank Barber family north of Mrs. Kemp at the end of the 300 Block.

Ed. note: 1920s Icebox advertisement. The ice blocks are placed in the left upper compartment, cooling the other compartments. The ice man would deliver fresh blocks of ice every few days.  My wife recalls having one in their home in Detroit, MI, in the 1940s. 

The garage business began to be unsatisfactory. The partners, Frank Noel and Pete Fry decided to sell out and quit the business. I am unfamiliar with the details of the equipment sale, but as the two closed their shop, they were satisfied that they had just about broken even during their six-month business period.

West Texas visit to investigate

     Mandy’s brother, T.I. Long, better known as “Cranky,” was involved in selling land that was opening up on the West Texas Plains.  Uncle Cranky and their family lived in Plainview, Texas, where he had invested in the land some years earlier.  His land venture had proved unprofitable for his family for explainable reasons.  The reasons for his failure were sufficiently explained for Frank to become interested in a land venture himself.  So, we traveled to Plainview, Texas, through Spur, Texas, where we visited Mandy’s sister, Hettie Calvert.

Ed. note: To give some idea of the trip:  Pearl, now expectant with her second child, with Mildred, age 2, Grandma Mandy, and teenaged David are riding with them; Frank was driving in the Ford Model T Touring car from Mandy’s farm home (red bubble on map), Tillman Co., OK to Plainview, TX (directly west on the map).  It is “comfortable” for all of them, Pearl reports. They traveled along the nearby US 70 highway westward, where it crosses the Red River just east of Vernon, TX, then straight to Plainview, TX on US 70.  This trip is about 200 miles.  They do add a detour to visit Mandy’s sister in Spur, TX, 15 miles south of US 70 and about 30 miles southeast of Plainview along the way. 

When we began our trip, Mildred had just finished with a siege of whooping cough.  As I had not had whooping cough as a child, I contracted the childhood disease from her.  I began a hacking cough, which persisted, and Mandy remarked that I “probably had whooping cough, while hoping against hope I didn’t have!”

     Mandy and David went with us on the trip.  We traveled comfortably in our 1923 Model T Ford Touring car. I had purchased a camera and expected to snap some interesting scenes, as we had not visited the areas we were to visit.  The visit with Aunt Hettie and Uncle Jim Calvert near the town of Spur was pleasant.  Sisters Hettie and Mandy kept everything lively, recalling their girlhood years which brought laughs all around. Frank and Uncle Jim had always had a fondness between them, so their visit together ended entirely too soon.  The Calvert’s only son, Willie, and wife, Thelma, with their two children, Dorothy and Mildred, lived with the older couple in the same house.  By our present standards, their family of six and our crowd of five could not have been comfortable with a visit of a few days and nights.  But, there seemed to be no conflict in accommodating us all. Willie and Thelma, Frank and I, and David, along with the three babies, drove around the Spur area, where we took pictures before a backdrop of a high cliff.  Back at the house, we snapped pictures of us all, Frank and I taking turns with the camera.   We enjoyed the drive up to Plainview,  on the High Plains.  Although the views of “The Brakes” are not a novelty now, back in the early Twentieth Century, the winding, climbing roads revealed many unusual scenes to our eyes.  There were dramatic cliffs and broken landscapes.  Frank, however, as most men are, was not willing to stop for every “ooh” and “aah” of the hills, so I snapped only two scenes of our trip on the way to Plainview.  The West Texas Plains, on the other hand, presented a breathtaking scene to us all as we viewed, for the first time, the boundless plains in all directions.  All of the hills and valleys seemed to have suddenly disappeared into nowhere!

           A recent aerial view of The Brakes entering the High Plains of West Texas which Pearl is witnessing and photographing.  West is to the left.  

This box camera is from the 1920 era Pearl is writing about.  Mama used a similar Kodak Brownie box camera in my early childhood in the 1940s. She was great at capturing family activities on film. 

     Uncle Cranky and Aunt Laura Long’s family consisted of three boys; two were the same ages as Viola and Lona, 20 and 18 years old.  Then, a younger boy, Ernest, age 14, also called “Jim.”  Their daughter, Fern, was 11 years old and very active in pageants and other school activities.  I snapped her picture with her wearing a fairy costume and tiara, and a wand in her hand, which was tipped with a star.  She was a delightful little girl.  Aunt Laura was a wisp of a woman and made up for her lack of stature with jolly conversation and ready wit.

     Beulah was the oldest child of Uncle Cranky and Aunt Laura.  She was married, lived in Plainview, also, and had a son and a daughter.  We saw much of Beulah and her son but not much recall of her daughter.  Beulah possessed an engaging personality, and the son is well remembered because of an unusual nickname: “Sweetie Pie.”  He acquired the name during a critical illness while he was quite young.  He was nursed at home, with limited visitors, but every passerby, school children and adults alike would call from the sidewalk: “How’s Sweetie Pie?”  So, the nickname caught on, and he still carried it at age 10.  I don’t remember his real name.

     Two things concerning myself were somewhat shrouded in mystery; I knew I was pregnant.  Some others knew, some didn’t.  Also, I have whooping cough, or didn’t I?  So, while sharing a meal in the Long’s home,  this episode happened.   Uncle Cranky, in his well known tradition, said grace at every meal, reminding Frank of other days when he, Jim Walters and Frank’s brother Austin, joked behind Uncle Cranky’s back, that he had everybody waiting while he “talked to his plate”, and the boys starved in the process.  I admired Uncle Cranky’s faithfulness and consistency.  But one day as we were partaking of a noon meal, I began a coughing spasm as I started to eat.  I left the table for the bathroom, as I was fearful of losing the food I had just eaten. When I returned, Aunt Laura exclaimed, “Yes, you have the whooping cough! It always comes on when you are trying to eat.”  She was probably right. It was, by that time, firmly established that I had the disease.

     Frank and Uncle Crankey spent a couple of days looking at land as they were being informed of the virtues by land agents.  At the end of the visit, Frank and I had selected 80 acres of raw land by Muleshoe, Texas (Frank always referred to it as “Jenny Slipper”), some 70 miles west of Plainview, twenty miles east of the New Mexico border.  The 80 acres adjoining our 80-acre tract was for rent, with a shack of a house where we could live; not a very promising situation, but we were young and venturesome. We headed the Model T back toward Oklahoma, with goodbyes to Uncle Crank’s family, promising our return in a few days to take possession of the rented place near Muleshoe, Texas.  

Move Three

 

Editor’s Note: This old photo from Mama’s collection shows the beginning of this big move to Muleshoe and The High Plains of West Texas is taken at the Thornton home. This is the borrowed truck from brother, Austin. From left to right, Mama Betty Thornton, Pearl, Frank on the cab above, Arthur, 9 years old (Peter and Mama Betty’s son), Billy, 14 years old (Pearl’s 4-year-old younger brother), Papa Pete Thornton and Mildred. This is June, 1924, making Mildred a two and a half year old little girl.

     Frank planned to bring our furniture to Texas in Austin’s truck, along with enough cottonseed to plant the acreage on the rented land.  So, a few days later, we departed Tillman County, Oklahoma.  By getting an early start, we drove to Plainview in one day.  I recall Frank, Mildred, and I spent a day or so at Uncle Crankey’s again.  Aunt Laura had received a bite from a poisonous spider on her right arm a few years before, which affected the muscle.  So she couldn’t use a broom.  She needed someone to help out. I swept and cleaned the house for her.  The hardwood floors throughout the house were bare, except for the kitchen and bath, so the sweeping was no problem for me, although there was considerable lint and dust collected as I swept it up.  In her joking way, Aunt Laura remarked, “Well, I see that you got a pretty good turnout!”  She added that she always said that to her girls.  

 

 

                   Ed. note: The fourth home.  Barren appearance of landscape, not a tree in sight.  The Windmill to the right of the home was the single source of fresh water for the home and farm.  They only stayed two weeks, but the dates on the photo indicate that they owned it until Feb., 1925.  RAN

     We left Uncle Crankey’s and headed for our new place.  Frank and I felt a bit discouraged from the beginning seeing the shack again.  With his hammer and saw, he patched a few holes in the floor and around the windows where mice and even small snakes could crawl in.  There was a nice place to our west, some three-quarter mile away, with good buildings and plenty of shade trees and shrubs.  This gave us hope that our place had promise, perhaps. We made a few trips to Muleshoe, a few miles to the west, for supplies.  But we never made any acquaintances there.

     Frank set about planting cotton with a mule team and planter hired from the neighbors, or maybe the land owner furnished these, I vaguely recall.  Planting in the ash-like soil without sufficient moisture in June was a doubly discouraging experience for Frank.  After lunch, as he lay and rested on our little porch on a folded quilt, I felt very sorry for him.  As days passed, when we heard thunder and saw clouds move in our direction, our hopes were increased, and our discouragement was relieved for a short while.  But, when a few drops of rain fell and a shower of hailstones, our hopes were again dashed to pieces.  We had two such showers as we sat by our windows and hoped for sufficient moisture to sprout the cottonseed that Frank had so faithfully planted.

                                             Two-mule team pulling a planter, dated 1924.  That could be Frank!

     I had the experience of every expectant mother while we lived at Muleshoe.  The life within me moved!  Now, in four and one-half to five months, we would have another child!

     I had another experience while we were there, which was frightening.  Mildred and I had to stay close to the house, so one day I proceeded to take her for a walk.  To the Nortwest of our house was a hill of sorts-a rise in this very flat terrain.  We were climbing slowly up this hill when suddenly, from a bush just ahead of us, a large snake moved rapidly away!  It wasn’t moving in our direction, thank goodness; nevertheless, Mildred and I made an about-face and retraced our steps as fast as we could!  Needless to say, that was our last walk among the cacti and sagebrush!

     We stayed only two weeks at Muleshoe, Texas.  Frank’s mind had been at work while his hands had been trying unsuccessfully to make a go of it there.  He broke the news to me that we were going back home.  “Where would we live?” I asked.  ” I guess, with “Ma” and the kids,” he said.  I wondered what we would do with our furniture: a kerosine cook stove, a small icebox we had bought in Frederick, the round oak table, six chairs, and a bedstead and mattress.  Maybe we could store the cookstove, the remainder of the items could be used in Mandy’s home.  Frank would take Austin’s truck and follow Mr. Hogan’s steam-engine wheat thresher crew up into northern Oklahoma, hauling wheat from the thresher to the elevator.  In this way, he could make some money to keep us going through the summer.  Mr. Hogan had asked him to go with the threshing crew before we left for West Texas.  The plans were not perfect, but I was homesick, so it was worth a try.  

    Uncle Crankey’s family could hardly believe their ears as Frank told them we were going home as he outlined his plans for the summer.  He hated to see us go, but there was no future for us, as we learned during this summer at Muleshoe.  The eighty acres of land were secured, and that meant something.  We had come out of the garage business with $4,000 and had put most of the amount on the land.  I don’t recall the exact amount of the down payment.  

Ed. note: The bridge in the photo is near Davidson, built in 1924, just west of the Electra Bridge in the story. These bridges are narrow, wooden, and often more than a mile long structures that cross the wide Red River.  There is no toll gate or chain in this photo, as Pearl describes in the narrative. 

     The trip back to Oklahoma was faster but not smooth, with the cottonseed unloaded from the truck.  We probably didn’t get an early start from Plainview, as midnight overtook us by the time we came to the toll bridge that crossed the Red River at Electra.  Frank had to awaken Mr. Glasgow to lower the chain, to let us across, and receive his toll of one dollar.  Frank and I both had an elated feeling as we crossed the river back into Oklahoma.  We are only four and one-half miles further to drive.  We were all very tired.  Away back, somewhere on the road, Mildred wanted to get out and walk!  I think her daddy had suggested it, and she thought it was a good idea!  Of course, she couldn’t visualize what it would really be like, out walking, but it was a cute remark for a two and one-half year old!  We thought so!

 

Ed. note: Next we learn of a new baby arriving, a new home on the lease after living with Mandy for a while. Stay Tuned.