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James Colman Christopher was born to Abner C. Christopher and Sara E. (Vincent) Christopher March 17, 1868 near Decatur, AL. His father died a few months before he was born leaving his mother and seven children.
The next account we have of Colman he was living in Fannin county, TX. Delphia Miriam Whitaker was born to Benjamin Franklin Whitaker August 2, 1871 in Flatwoods, TN. The family moved to Fannin County TX in 1887. It was there that Cole, as he was called, met Delphia and they were married in Ladonia, TX in 189l They continued to live in the vicinity of Hunt, Rains, and Wood counties until 1905. during that period nine children were born to them. Four passed away in infancy and early childhood.
Living conditions were hard those years and crops meager, for there was always the boll weevil and crab grass to fight, and always lots of sickness. It was a malaria country and all the family except mother would have chills and fever every two or three days.
Grandpa Whitaker had moved to Dickens County, in West Texas and thought it was a wonderful place to live. He would come to visit us every three or four years and would beg Papa to move west, where we could have health and make a better living. The last time he visited us was in September 1905. Papa never thought he was financially able to make the move, and was to proud to ask for help.
It was the last of September when Papa and a couple of neighbor men were grinding sugar cane and making syrup, I remember Papa was cooking off a big vat of syrup when mother sent for him to come to the house quickly.
When he got to the house he found Fred writhing in convulsions with a high fever. He had had a chill and when his fever got high he would go into convulsions. when he was a small boy, he followed Papa to the field and laid down in the shade of an old stump and went to sleep. The shade moved around leaving him in the hot sun. He awakened delirious from a slight sun stroke.
Now it wasn´t hard for Papa to make the decision to leave, as he felt things couldn´t get much worse. He sent to the syrup mill for the men to come up to the house, and he sat there on the side of Fred´s bed and told them he was going to move and was offering for sale all of his farm equipment and livestock, which consisted of a few chickens, pigs, and a milk cow. He then wrote Grandpa Whitaker to send him forty dollars to make the trip to Dickens County.
In less than a month he had gotten rid of everything. He had fixed up a wagon with sheet and boughs, packed meager supplies of groceries and personal things and was ready to leave. We spent the last night with a neighbor.
The next morning Papa loaded us all in the wagon "there were seven of us, Mamma, Papa, and five children, Beulah, Fred, Cleao, Willie, and Jim who was about six weeks old,"and headed west. We had three little ponies to pull the load. It was raining almost every day, every creek and hollow was full and running over, and as we passed over the bridge near our house the water was just lapping over the floor of it.
In a few days one of the ponies died and the going was really hard through the black sticky mud. There was not even a graded road anywhere those days. It was soon apparent we would never be able to make it. Papa and Mamma had a conference and decided that Mamma with four of us children would get on the train at Jacksboro in Jack county and go to Wichita Falls to stay with his sister, Aunt Babe Carter, during the time it would take for Grandpa Whitaker to receive word and meet us in Quanah, TX. Fred, the little seven year old boy, stayed to come through with Papa in the wagon. Believe me that was a sad parting, I will never forget it.
We stayed about ten days with Aunt Babe, then boarded the train for Quanah. I remember wearing her big boys shirts for dresses while they got our meager supply of clothing cleaned and ready for the rest of the trip. When we got to Quanah Grandpa was waiting for us in a covered wagon to take us the four days trip to Afton, TX. We stayed one night with grandpa´s friends, the Sadlers in Paducah. The rest of the trip we camped out. We arrived at Grandpa´s house about Thanksgiving, I believe, any way I will always remember that big ham Grandma had cooked.
It was several days before Papa and Fred made it in. Later the neighbors said they couldn´t understand how he made it at all with that poor team. It took him about a month to make the almost 400 mile trip from Yantis in Wood country to Afton, TX.
We stayed with Grandpa a while and helped him to gather a crop of corn, which was good that year. Grandpa started out to find us a place to live. He finally bought the Squires place at Midway, which had some cotton on it that had not been gathered.
He helped us get moved and settled before Christmas, and we gathered the cotton. Grandpa financed us and helped us get teams and tools to make a crop. The season´s were good, so we made good crops, and after two or three years we were on our feet financially and living better than we ever had in our lives. It took three years to get the malaria out of our system.
Old Doctor Cheeney at Dickens was our family doctor. We had no more chills and enjoyed good health for the first time. In those early years we hauled our cotton to a gin at Dumont in the northeast corner of the county. Some hauled cotton to Quanah to gin, since this was the nearest railroad and the market center. The neighbor men would usually go in a group for supplies, camping along the way together. I think they usually went about twice a year for supplies and the round trip would take about nine days.
We went to school at Liberty about two miles west and I remember that occasionally a Hard Shell Baptist preacher would come and preach for us. Then in 1908 or 1909 the Amity School was built two miles east of us, and we went to that school. Occasionally there would be Campbelite (as they were then called) preaching services at the school house, and about once a year a revival.
About this time the southern Baptist built a brush arbor and held a revival at a cross road close to our house, then organized a church, and erected a building, calling it Midway Baptist Church. In 1913 a school was built there, Arthur Woodburn was the first principal. It became a thriving little community, with a Post Office and store called Midway. Then there was a cotton gin and cafe, called Dobbs city, built four miles to the north. Later the store and Post office were moved there from Midway and the name changed to Elton.
We lived on the Squires place until 1914, two children were born there, Jewel and Olen. We then moved to Grandpa Whitaker´s home place east of Afton, we were living there the year of 1914 when Mary, the last child was born. Then we moved to the Andy Jackson place west of Amity that fall. We stayed there two years. In 1917 Papa was able to buy his first farm, he bought a farm in Ripsaw Valley east of Afton, about a mile east of the Prairie Chapel School building.
The year 1921 was a rainy year. It came a big rain in the spring and flooded the whole valley, getting several feet deep in the house. When it was dry enough, Papa with the help of his neighbors began the process of moving to higher ground. While moving the house with skids, bock and tackle and pulling with teams of horses, a single tree broke hitting a neighbor, Mr. Bob Ford, and killed him.
In 1929 Papa bought a farm about four miles north east of Spur and moved down there. Papa´s brother, Uncle Bill, made his home with them the last few years of his life, and passed away there in 1932.
Those were droughty years to Papa sold the place and moved back to Ripsaw in the fall of 1933. Papa had been in failing health for several years, and on December 9, 1934 he passed away with pneumonia. Mother and Mary continued to live on the place.
Mary married Lilburn Harvey in 1936. He farmed the place for several years, and mother continued to live with them. But the last several years of her life she spent visiting from place to place with the children. The last three or four years were spent almost entirely in New Mexico where she passed away in March 1959 of a malignant condition.
The following is a brief history of each of the children of Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Christopher:
- Beulah, the oldest was married to Gene Blakley of the Midway community December 22, 1912. To them were born six children including a set of twins. After living at Midway for two years, they moved to NM and filed on a claim 15 miles north of Capitan, lived out the claim, moved back to Dickens for four years before moving back to Eastern NM in 1923 farming in the Inez, Rogers, and Dora communities.
- Fred married Pearl Vugh in 1919, he farmed several years in the Duncan flat community where their two daughters were born. He was elected sheriff for two terms and lived in Dickens during this time, 1940 to 1946. He next lived in Abilene where he owned and operated a tourist court for about two years. After which he moved to Bayard, NM where he was employed in the copper smelter until his retirement.
- Cleao was married to Harry Holly in 1919. They farmed south of Dickens for several years where their two sons were born. She and her younger son were killed in a car accident in 1934.
- Willie was married to Lewis Daniel in 1922. They lived and farmed around Afton until 1941 when they moved to Rogers, NM. To them were born two sons and two daughters. They later lived in Truth or Consequences, NM where they owned and operated the Denver Cottages.
- Jim married Lula Drennon in 1926. They farmed a few years before going to work for the International Harvester Co. with which he has been employed in Spur, McAdoo, and then in Brownfield. They have three sons and one daughter.
- Jewel and Jessie Hale were married in 1926. They farmed in the vicinities of Afton and Spur. They lived two or three years in Weatherford, TX where they owned and operated a laundry. They moved from there to Fort Worth, about the year 1949 Jessie died of a heart attack. In 1955 Jewel married Ed Farmer. She was employed at the State Sanatorium in Abilene. Jessie and Jewel had three children: Billie, Douglas and Harold Gene.
- Olen married Tina Marrs in 1932. They farmed around Afton for a while, then lived in NM and CA for a few years, and made their home in Abilene, TX where they were employed at The State Sanatorium. They have two daughters and two sons.
- Mary married Lilburn Harvey in 1936. To them were born three daughters. They lived on a farm for several years near McAdoo, TX.
Source: Dickens County History...its Land and People © Dickens Historical Commission; Printer: Craftsman Inc. Lubbock, Texas 1986
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