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To begin with, to the best of my memory, I remember my father telling about our grandfather and grandmother. David and Mary Jane Bennett with their family came to Dickens County in 1884 and filed on some land at Duck Creek. They stayed two years and moved to Indian Territory in Oklahoma when my father was ten years old. He said he drove a yoke of oxen part of the way, but they traveled so slow, about ten miles a day, they sold them and pulled the wagon with mules. They settled at Herd, near Ada, Oklahoma. That is where my father grew up.My father met my mother, Jennie White, and they were married in 1902. To them five children were born; Bessie, who died in infancy, Clyde Rolen, Lofton Edgar, Evelyn Faye, (who is now Evelyn Bingham), and Paul Alton. All of us were born in Oklahoma in a long cabin, not more than a mile apart, near Ada, Oklahoma. Lofton and I were born in Indian Territory.
Our family moved from Ada to West Texas in 1916 and on October 1 we arrived in Girard, Texas. I will never forget the thrill I got out of riding the train. I was eleven years old.
From there we were transported to Gilpin, Texas about five miles from Girard, by my uncle Will Bennett, who was a Baptist minister, in a wagon pulled by two mules named Kit and Kate.
We lived in a tent and shack until we got possession of the place to farm from his Uncle Joe Hagins over on Duck Creek, where we lived for three years. I remember the drouth of 1917 and 1918. We just barely survived those years. Lofton and I walked two and a half miles to school. Then my father rented some land from his cousin Poet Hagins; there we grew up, getting most of our schooling at Duck Creek, where Lofton and I played on the basketball team. Evelyn and Paul graduated from Spur High School.
My father and mother and Paul moved away from Gilpin in the forties, near Dickens in Dickens County. They lived there until the passing of my mother, Jenny in 1949. My father and Paul sold the farm and my father lived with my sister, Evelyn and Abb Bingham. But the last days of my father´s life, he and Paul lived together. My father went to be with the Lord in February 1956.
I married Lois Bilberry in 1924. We both went to Duck Creek School. She was the daughter of Finis and Irene Bilberry. We have two children, Vaundeen King who lives in Carlsbad, NM and Carlon who lives in Portales, NM. I have seven grandchildren and eight great grandchildren. Lois and I belonged to the Baptist Church; she passed away in 1977, after fifty three years of marriage.
Lofton married Eula Mae Gregory; they have one daughter, Gwenella. Lofton in deceased.
Evelyn married Abb Bingham of Spur, Texas; they have two sons, Dennis and Lyndall.
Paul married Ina May Martin from Afton; they live there. I met a lovely woman, Rosetta Lindsey, and we have been happily married since February, 1983.
...Clyde R. BennettSource: "Dickens County, Its Land and People", Dickens County Historical Commission, ©1986
Funeral services were held for Mrs. C.R. Bennett at the First Baptist Church October 2 at 3 p.m. with Rev. Vonzy Walters and C. Melvin Ratheal officiating.Mrs. Bennett was born in Montague county February 6, 1886 and on November 6, 1902 she married C.R. Bennett in Ada, Oklahoma. To this union were born four children. In 1916 the family moved to Dickens County.
Pallbearers were Jess Hagins, Emmett Hagins, Walter Driggers, John Sharp, Frank Murphy, and Frank Adams.
Mrs. Bennett is survived by a husband, C.R. Bennett, a daughter, Evelyn Bingham, 3 sons, Clyde Bennett of Portales, N.M.; Lofton Bennett of Lubbock; Paul Bennett of Spur; one brother, Willey White of Winters and five grandchildren.
Chandler Funeral Home was in charge.
Interment was in the Spur Cemetery.
©The Texas Spur, October 6, 1949
Transcribed June 5, 2005 by DCHC members
The First Baptist Church Spur was the scene of funeral services which were held for Charles Rollen Bennett, February 10 at 2 p.m. Rev. L. R. Pendley, pastor was assisted by Rev. V. D. Walters as he conducted the services.Pallbearer were Jesse Hagins, Emmett Hagins, Chap Reese, Frank Murphy, Howard Thomas and Billy Dan Bingham. Honorary pallbearers were the members of Mt. Bennett´s Sunday School Class.
Mr. Bennett was 79 years of age being born in Randolph County, Alabama on February 20, 1876. He died February 8, 1956. On November 6, 1902 he married Miss Jennie White in a ceremony performed in Ada, Oklahoma. This marriage was blessed with one daughter Mrs. Evelyn Bingham of Spur and three sons, Clyde of Portales, NM; Lofton of Lubbock and Paul of Spur.
In 1916 the Bennett family moved to Dickens County where they made their home until the present time. Mrs. Bennett preceded her husband in death in 1949.
Bennett was converted to the Christian religion when he was 33 and became a member of the Baptist church.
Other survivors include two brothers, Edgar of Phoenix, AZ and Joe D. of Ada, OK; one sister, Mrs. Connie West of Ada, OK; five grandchildren and two great grandchildren.
©The Texas Spur, January 9, 1956
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