Chapter I
It is my contention that everyone has a story to tell but not everyone gets
around to
telling it. Of course, some that are told are more interesting or dramatic
than
others, but all are important because they are the stuff of which life is
made. One
person who has garnered the facts of several families who came to Clay County
in its
early days and are still here is C. H. Dowdy of Thornberry. His wife is Joan
Fleming
Dowdy, daughter of the late Marvin Fleming and Edith Matthews Fleming. C.
H. has
graciously granted me permission to use his family stories. As you read
these,
perhaps you will realize that you have comparable stories to tell and be
motivated to
write them down or record them on tape. The museum is delighted to help you
and to
store them in family files. They are good research material for
genealogists. -
Lucille Glasgow
The following stories were told to C. H. by Eva Matthews, Edith Fleming’s
older
sister:
"Eva had a lot of stories about their childhood. She always made good stories of
them
and admitted that she had told them for so many years that she no longer
remembered
exactly what happened. They remain good stories though. They lived a rather
isolated
life, only going into town once or twice a year for supplies. Sometimes the
children
were taken, but most of the time, the parents went alone, leaving Eva, the
oldest
child, in charge.
"The trip to Wichita Falls was a long one by wagon and usually, to have time
for the
shopping and whatever other business that had to be done, necessitated an
overnight
stay in the wagon yard. The kids would go back to the wagon when they were
hungry or
tired, lie down, or eat from the basket of chicken or whatever they brought
along.
"The kids would go down to the railroad station and ‘play like’ they were
going on
trips, or for a dime they could get on the trolley and ride all day. At night
they
were awed by the bright lights of town, for at this period of time the term
properly
indicated the vast contrast with the darkness of night in the countryside.
"On this particular trip Eva and Leona saw an automobile for their first time
ever.
She didn’t know what kind it was but since it had three seats, it must have
been a
limousine. The driver was selling rides for 10 cents each. Eva said, ‘Mister,
can I
ride in that automobile?’ And he said, ‘Sure, for a dime.’ So they each paid
their
dime and off they went on their first auto ride.
"By the time they got back, Mr. Matthews had finished his business and was
looking
for them, along with a big square jawed Irish cop who was following in his wake.
When
he found them, he took them across the street, bought them something to drink
and set
them down in the hotel lobby while he went to the bank.
"It soon came to their attention that people were going in a door into this
little
room; then the door would open again and they would be gone. The two girls
looked at
each other and decided they had better investigate this. They peeked into the
door
and finally got up their courage to try going in to see if they would disappear
too.
When they stepped into the elevator, the operator asked them where they wanted
to go.
They didn’t know where it was going, but remembering the trolleys, they told him
they
wanted to go as far as it would go. He took them to the top. They sucked in
their
breath as the elevator took off and definitely felt a little light headed and
alarmed
as it rocked to a stop. As they got off the elevator, the operator told
them the
restroom was to the right, thinking that must be what the girls were looking
for. Eva
thanked him but informed him that she didn’t need to rest. They found a
window and
were amazed and excited to find how high they were. Now all young ladies had a
lace
handkerchief with them and they soon discovered what great fun it was to
wave the
handkerchiefs out the window in the breeze. Naturally, it wasn’t long
before Eva
dropped hers. But the floor below extended out past the window and the
handkerchief
landed on the roof. Eva climbed out the window to retrieve it, looked over the
edge
and spotted her father stalking down the street looking for them with the same
Irish
cop in tow. "They went back down and soon were all herded back into the
wagon and
headed home. Their father was too mad to speak on the way home, but when
he got
there, he told their mother that he was never taking those kids to town again."
DOWDY STORIES -Chapter 2
Both parents had gone to Wichita Falls for supplies and left all the children
in the
care of Eva.
"Eva said her mother had a good Sunday corset that she had been dying to try
on. In
spite of an admonition to stay out of the trunk, she headed for it as soon
as her
parents got out of sight. It was great fun to parade in front of the
mirror and
admire herself all fancied up. Naturally she got it laced up all crosswise and
tied
in a knot so she couldn’t get it off. That was somewhat of a hindrance for the
rest
of the day, but not an insurmountable problem.
"The next thing on the agenda was a rodeo, and for that event there were two
hogs
fattening in the pen for butchering. They got one of the hogs in the chute, and
with
all the rest of the kids lining the pen, Eva crawled on and yelled, ‘Open the
gate!’
Off they went, with the hog squealing and jumping and the kids yelling. Eva
soon bit
the dust (not doing the corset any good) and the hog, now free at last,
headed for
the corn field. The kids were wondering what they were going to do now,
when Eva
finally said, ‘Oh well, bring out the other one.’ He soon joined his companion
in the
corn field and the corset was somewhat the worse for the wear.
"That item of wear soon added a tear or two during jumps out of the hayloft and
games
of hide and seek, so that by the time their parents returned, if was no
longer a
useful commodity. No wonder their parents didn’t leave often.
"As a teenager, Eva became the Church pianist and as such, she played for
both
morning and evening services at the summer revivals. At one of the morning
services,
the visiting song leader brought with him a guest singer, a lady who
impressed all
the girls with her new hairstyle. The feature that caught their attention
was a
single pin curl, hanging down over the forehead. Jewell Wineinger was
visiting at
this time, and that afternoon, all the girls went home to work on their hair.
They
tried every thing, even a clothespin
to hold the curl in place, but nothing worked. They would make a pretty little
curl,
but as soon as they turned it loose, it fell out. Someone got the idea of
trying a
drop of molasses to stiffen the hair and it helped, so, with the aid of
molasses,
they soon all had a pretty little pin curl on their foreheads and were ready to
go to
church. The revival meetings were held outside because of the summer heat and
summer
evenings were still rather warm. To make matters worse, there was a hot
electric
light bulb right by her head, placed there so the pianist would be able to
see the
music. The heat soon made the molasses begin to run and there she was, trying to
play
the piano, wiping away the molasses that was running into her eyes from a
drooping
curl, and shooing away the flies that were beginning to gather. It must have
been a
crushing experience.
"Once, when the circus came to town, the family was working in the cotton
field and
that’s exactly where Mr. Matthews thought they should be, but Eva thought they
should
go to the circus and she said she ‘ reared back on her heels,’ and told him
so. To
her surprise, he let them all go.
"It seems one time that they had planned an ice cream social at the A. S.
Matthews
house. Mr. Matthews went into town for a wagon load of ice and the neighbors all
came
over, mixed up the ice cream, got ready to freeze it, and waited for the ice.
They
waited; time went by and they still waited. About the time they were about to
give
up, someone heard a noise out back and investigated. Mr. Matthews had picked
up a
bottle for the road home, come in drunk and was out in back dropping the ice
down the
well. It seems that he had always wanted ice water from that well. Everyone had
to go
home without their ice cream and Mrs. Matthews was humiliated before the
whole
community. Edith said that the water always tasted bad from the well after
that,
probably from the sawdust the ice was packed in."
DOWDY STORIES - Chapter 3
"Grandpa A. S. Matthews was an interesting character in his own right. He lived
until
in his early nineties, became so hard of hearing that he was hard to converse
with.
Some of the girls swore that he could hear better than he acted, that he could
hear
when he wanted to. When he didn’t want to do something, he conveniently
couldn’t
hear. That is taking advantage of your infirmities.
"Some of the more interesting stories about him concerned funerals. After his
wife
died, he began to be missed for periods of time, but wouldn’t tell anyone what
he had
been doing. Finally, his son Bo followed him and discovered he was digging a
hole.
When he was questioned, he admitted that he was digging his grave; he was so
sure he
was going to die of a broken heart, that he would need it.
"When his cousin’s husband, Vernon Short, died the girls decided it would be
better
not to tell their father about it for a while. Somehow, though, he found out
about it
and decided to attend the funeral. Since the girls had already left for the
funeral,
there was no one to take him (he was now living in Wichita Falls at this time),
so he
decided to walk. He reached Owens and Brumley Funeral Home (the only one he had
ever
considered) and went to a funeral in progress. Being hard of hearing, he
did not
realize that it was the wrong funeral until they opened the casket at the end
of the
service. He probably had created a commotion when he discovered it and those
people
are probably still wondering who that old man was. At any rate, he left,
wondering
what to do next. It was a hot day and had already been a long walk, so before
long he
gave out and sat down on the curb to rest. A patrol car came by and spotted
the old
gentleman and stopped to check on the problem. From his story, they realized
what was
wrong and took him to the Hampton-Vaughan Funeral Home. He came into Mr.
Short’s
funeral late, creating a disturbance partly because older people who can’t hear
don’t
realize how much noise they make and partly because he never did quite
understand why
the cops had him. Crick and Reba saw him come in but felt like ducking and
claiming
they didn’t know the old gentleman. They finally got him corralled and settled
down,
but not before he announced, rather loudly as deaf people are prone to do,
that ‘My
gosh, Short would turn over in his grave if he knew Hampton-Vaughan was burying
him.’
"He had several ‘spells.’ though I never knew whether it was his heart or
something
else that was the problem. If I remember correctly, some neighbors called
Crick at
the beauty shop and told her that Mr. Matthews was having some trouble. She was
right
in the middle of a customer’s permanent at the time and since she couldn’t
stop, she
called an ambulance and sent it out for him. The old gentleman, not hearing very
well
and not quite understanding what was going on but never the less very excited
by all
the action, was loaded into the ambulance and taken to the emergency room.
Meanwhile
Crick rushed through with the permanent and hurried down to the hospital with
some of
the other family members to meet him. When she arrived, Mr. Matthews was
in the
process of being examined, but the doctor couldn’t find anything wrong with him.
When
Crick asked him very loudly what the problem was, he said, ‘Oh,’ and showed
them his
foot. It seems that he had an ingrown toenail. Crick was so mad at him she
could
spit. She decided that he was just bored and wanted a little attention.
A $50
ambulance ride was a little too much excitement though."
Onetta (Crick) Matthews and Reba Nolen, Eva’s sisters, added their stories:
"Reba told us that Mr. Matthews had measured the kids’ feet with string in
making
preparation to bring home the annual supply of new shoes. When he arrived
back at
home with the boxes, Eva discovered that her box contained a mismatched
pair of
shoes; one a dress shoe and the other an everyday shoe (apparently lucky enough
to at
least have a right and a left shoe, though). That was just the breaks of the
game;
there wouldn’t be another shopping trip for another six months, so that was
what she
wore (I can imagine how disgusted the shop keeper was to discover the other
half of
the mismatched pairs). At least she was proud of the fancy dress shoe. Dresses
were
long and she said that when anyone was around, she tried to remember to stand
with
the toe of the dress shoe peeking out from under the hem of her dress so
that it
could be seen."
DOWDY STORIES - Chapter 4
"Since their parents only went to town a couple of times a year for
supplies, it
naturally was a big occasion. Groceries were purchased in case lots, flour and
sugar
by the 100 lb. sack, material by the bolt (or at least in large
quantities), and
other supplies in similar amounts. This meant dresses, shirts, aprons, etc.
were all
made of the same material, but this was the same for all the farm
families so
everyone expected for the ladies in a family to have dresses alike. If the
fathers
made the purchases of the fabric, I suspect that not too much time and thought
were
put into the effort.
"One pair of shoes per person was purchased each year with the children being
allowed
to go barefoot during the summer. Since the children were not taken to town to
try on
the shoes for size, this was done by drawing an outline of the child’s feet
on a
piece of paper and the drawing taken in for the fitting. Their parents would
come
around at night after the kids were in bed asleep and pull the cover up to
make the
drawings so as not to get the kids too excited. That was how they always knew
they
were going to get new shoes. The salesman measured the drawing and tried to
fit the
shoes to them. If they didn’t fit, it was too bad, for that was your pair of
shoes
for the year. A few judicious slits were made in the shoes during the year to
allow
for growth of the foot.
"Christmas time was celebrated by a big community gathering at the church
for the
community Christmas tree. Here was where Santa came and brought gifts
for the
children. This was where the girls traditionally received their new Christmas
dolls.
One year, Santa brought all the girls in the family dolls with China faces, but
when
they opened the boxes, they were all cross eyed. That really didn’t matter
though;
Edith (Joan’s mother) thought it was the most beautiful thing she had ever
seen.
Since they would be easily broken, they had to be very careful playing with
them. In
fact, to keep the babies from breaking them, they couldn’t play with them
much at
all. They were kept hanging high on nails, safely out of harm’s way and Edith
said
the kids would stand and look wishfully at the row of dolls, longing to play
with
them. Eventually, the inevitable happened and the dolls were broken.
"Most children received only one orange a year and Christmas was the time
for the
treat. It was such a novelty that after the orange was eaten, the rind
would be
consumed so nothing was wasted of the treat.
"While the ladies and children were inside attending the Christmas program,
the men
would make visits to the wagons and imbibe a little ‘Christmas Cheer.’
Occasionally,
things would get out of hand and a fight would break out, especially
between
teenagers if there were visitors from another community. In later years, boys
would
mischievously let the air out of peoples’ tires.
"If both parents went to town, the children were generally left home so the
shopping
could be done quicker. At these times, Eva, the oldest, would be left in
charge and
all the rest had to mind her. Eva became a tyrant, cutting her a switch to
enforce
her authority. Once, she put bowls on the kids’ heads and cut their hair.
Some of
them didn’t want their hair cut, but Eva ruled with an iron hand. Guess the
hair
finally grew out again and probably wasn’t that much different from the home
hair
cuts they were getting anyhow, though considerably shorter."
DOWDY STORIES - Chapter 5
"One time the girls had been left at home with instructions to clean up the
kitchen
while their parents were gone and they flew in to finish the job and get it over
with
and were feeling real proud of themselves. The Shoemakes had given their
parents a
set of Rogers silver plate that was their mother’s pride, but the girls didn’t
think
much of it because the knives were too dull to cut anything. There was a
grindstone
at the end of the bench and the girls decided to take care of that problem while
they
were at it. By the time they had finished, the knives were sharp, but were
ground
away half way to the handles.. They put them away, very proud of their job
and had
forgotten about them by the time their parents returned. Some time
later, the
Shoemakes came for dinner; their mother got out the new silverware to set the
table
and made the discovery. I expect it was about that time that the girls found out
that
they had done something wrong.
"Sometimes the girls felt very put upon to have to clean the kitchen. One such
time
happened when their parents had a forty-two party; all the adults were having a
good
time and they had to go clean up the kitchen (must have had a dinner along
with the
dominos). They must have finished the chore quickly because they discovered
the new
Perfection cook stove was still hot and decided to see what would happen
if you
sprinkled black pepper on the hot stove. They soon found out and were
coughing and
trying to get their breath and realized it was time to step outside for some
fresh
air. Their father spotted them out there and warned their mother that she had
better
see about those kids. In a few minutes the whole house discovered the
problem. Mr.
Matthews tried to sweep the pepper off the stove but nothing worked. The party
broke
up.
"They had to cut their own switches when they misbehaved and said that was
done
carefully to try to find one that wouldn’t hurt so bad. Cedar switches were
avoided
because they lasted too long. Mr. Matthews never punished them himself but left
that
to their mother, saying, ‘Ida, see to them girls.’
"Mr. Matthews didn’t think Crick made a good field hand so her job was to work
inside
the house while Poodle worked in the fields. Crick would get bored with the
household
chores and beg to trade places with Poodle and be allowed to do field work
for a
change. One fall, as they were picking corn, she was finally allowed to go with
them
to the fields to drive the team of mules. Crick was all perched up on the wagon
with
the reins in hand and all set while the others were picking corn. All went well
until
Poodle, knowing what was going to happen, took dead aim and hit one of the
mules
square in the rear end with an ear of corn. Predictably, as the runaway began,
Crick
bailed out. Mr. Matthews was so mad about her not keeping the mules in
hand and
allowing the runaway that there was no explaining to him what had happened. He
sent
her back to the house saying, ‘Ida, that girl doesn’t have sense enough to
come in
out of the rain!’
"The girls dropped by Marvin and Edith’s house (an older sister) one
Saturday
afternoon to discover that they had gone to town. On the table, though, were
fried
chicken and lemon pies that were ready to serve the preacher the next day for
Sunday
dinner. The girls sat down and helped themselves. Don’t know how Edith made
out for
Sunday dinner. "
DOWDY STORIES - Chapter 6
"Seems to have been a rivalry between the younger girls, with Crick and Reba
ganging
up on Poodle. Poodle may have asked for it though; she would talk the other two
into
doing something and then threaten to tell their parents when they did it. She
would
finally relent, saying,’ If you will do my chores for a year or two, I
might not
tell.’
"The other two were always trying to get even. Once they talked Poodle into
trying a
chew of Mr. Matthews’ tobacco. They assured her that if she sat behind the big
coal
heating stove that no one would be able to see her (thinking that the
combination of
heat and tobacco should do the job). Poodle tried it, and to their surprise,
she was
chewing it right along without problems. Then they told her that they
bet she
couldn’t swallow the juice and Poodle couldn’t resist a dare and that did
it. The
problem was, the plan backfired. They had to do the sick Poodle’s share of the
chores
that night.
"Mr. Matthews saved the corn cobs from the horse trough and put them in a crib
in the
barn to be used for kindling for winter fires. The girls were playing in the hay
loft
one day when they noticed the pile of cobs half filling the crib that opened
from the
top into the hay loft. Poodle dared them to jump into it, knowing that it was
against
the rules to jump from the hay loft and then threatened to tell on them when
they
did. The other two had enough of that and ganged up on her and whipped her.
"The girls would be playing house and Bo would come by and say, ‘There’s a
cyclone
coming through,’ and here he would come. There wouldn’t be anything left
of the
playhouse.
"Maybe that’s what gave them the idea of hiding their playhouse. There was
always a
cane patch by the hog pen and Mr. Matthews would cut it to feed the animals.
As it
got big enough to hide them, the girls would sneak into it and cut rooms out
of it
for a playhouse; they took a wash tub out for a table, buckets for chairs,
their
toys, and in general furnished it. It was a great place to hide and play
until Mr.
Matthews started to cut it and found all that stuff that he had to clean
off his
field. His comment was, ‘Lordy, Ida, come look at what these kids have done
now!’
"The twins were pretty small when this incident happened. It seems that Mr.
Matthews
had been on the roof repairing it and failed to take the ladder down
when he
finished. The twins decided to check out the situation. They must have climbed
over
the peak of the roof, because after they got up there, Mr. Matthews took the
ladder
down without seeing them and trapped them. They were afraid to call for help, so
they
just stayed put, wondering what to do. Finally they could stand it no longer;
they
just had to go to the bathroom, not knowing that they were above their
parents, who
had moved out to sit on the porch. Sharp eyed Ida Matthews spotted the
trickle and
asked in wonderment, ‘Is it raining?’
DOWDY STORIES - Chapter 7
This chapter is taken from an interview C. H. Dowdy had with Jewell Teague
Wineinger,
a second cousin of his wife, and a cousin of the Matthews girls, whose
escapades
while growing up in Thornberry have been the subject of the past chapters.
Jewell was from a fairly large family who lived in Commerce. They were in the
process
of moving to Clay County along with some other families when her father
became ill
and died; her mother took the family back to Commerce and stayed there.
With her
mother a widow with very little money, Jewell had to work very hard to
support
herself and go to college. Jewell eventually married Lee Wineinger and lived the
rest
of her life in Clay Co., where she taught in the Fleming School.
"Jewell recalls the excitement of her first trip alone to visit her cousins in
Clay
County when she was about 10 or 11 years old. A young lady had some
relatives who
worked at the old Ball Glass Fruit Jar Factory in Wichita Falls and she was
coming up
on the train for a visit. She invited Jewell to come along and the two of
them
prevailed on Jewell’s mother and at last the trip was planned. They caught the
train
and Jewell began to worry about whether she would recognize her cousins Eva and
Edith
who were supposed to meet her. Even so, to get the task out of the way, she
wrote her
obligatory postcard while on the train, telling her mother that they had met
her, she
was going home with them and all was well. Everything went as planned. The girls
were
there, she recognized them and the card was mailed.
"At the time, the Matthews lived near the Fleming school, on the south side of
what
was known as the Waggoner pasture and the mail box and mail route were on the
north
end. They did not subscribe to a newspaper or correspond regularly with anyone
so no
one went to the mail box very often. With the mail box at an inconvenient
location
and no one thinking to remind her to write, kid like, she failed to correspond
with
her mother. After a few weeks, her mother began to imagine the worst. The
Matthews
did not have a phone, but at her mother’s request, Jewell’s uncle began
trying to
contact neighbors to find out what had happened. With the telephone operator’s
help,
he was able to contact Mr. Ellis, who had seen the girls the day before
and he
reassured them that all was well. During the phone call, Jewell’s mother
was so
distraught that she took a long walk to avoid hearing what she thought was
going to
be the inevitable news for as long as possible.
"The visit lasted for 6 weeks. The Matthews must have been an interesting
group of
cousins to visit with all the stunts they pulled. Jewell told about the time
Eva and
Edith had new taffeta dresses alike and both had dates for the evening. Eva had
worn
hers that day, caught it on the door handle of the car and torn a big hole in
it. She
went in first to dress and left with her date. When Edith went in to
dress, she
discovered that Eva had put on the good dress, leaving her with the torn one.
Since
it was probably her only Sunday dress, I suspect it was quite a problem.
"Since the visit lasted so long, Jewell became very homesick. She would cry
herself
to sleep and pray and pray that she would get home. She had not heard from the
lady
who brought her since they arrived and she was beginning to be afraid that she
would
never see home again. Finally, the homesick girl received word that the family
was to
bring her into town for the return home. They toured Wichita Falls for a
couple of
days to let Jewell see the sights, then she went home. Jewell said it was her
first
answered prayer."
DOWDY STORIES - Chapter 8
Edith was born near Commerce, Texas, in 1902, the daughter of A.S. and Ida
Matthews.
They and some other relatives moved on west to a little community called
Thornberry
in 1906. They traveled by wagon and would stop in late afternoon to set up
camp. Ida
would cook supper over a campfire. After supper she would put their money in a
baking
powder can and toss it on the ground and cover it with leaves, so in case
thieves
came they would not get their money. One night while the family was sleeping,
they
were awakened by a loud, frightful sound and bright lights. Unknowingly,
they had
camped right by a railroad track.
"As they approached the town of Bellevue, a bad storm came up. Mr. Matthews
put the
team and family under a bridge. When they came out, Bellevue had been
flattened.
Though Edith was only 4 years old at the time, she never forgot the experience.
"There were 7 girls and 2 boys in the family but a daughter and a son died in
their
teens.
"The Mathews were a very musical family, going back to grandmother Deliah
Teague, who
would play a violin while mother Ida Matthews played the pump organ and a
harmonica
along with it in the parlor.
"Her mother Ida always told Edith that God had an all-seeing eye. They had a
picture
of Jesus in the parlor that, regardless of where you stood in the room, his
eyes
seemed to be looking straight at you. As a child, Edith would hide behind the
organ
and peek out at the picture to see if he was looking and decided her
mother was
right.
"As a child, Edith went to a revival meeting where a preacher said the end
of the
world may be coming that night. She went home and worried about it. That
evening she
slipped outside and went to the hen house, where she waited and watched to see
if the
end of the world had gotten there yet. She reasoned that if the end of the world
came
down the road, it would reach the hen house first and if she saw it, she
would run
back to the house to be with her family. She went into the hen house and just
then
the old rooster fell off his perch and hit the floor dead as a hammer. That
scared
her to death and she just knew that the end of the world had come to the hen
house so
she hurried back to the house and family, but the end of the world never made it
that
far.
"When they had a chance to go to town, they would go to the train station while
their
parents shopped and pretend that they were meeting relatives or going some
where. If
they had a nickel, they could ride clear to Lake Wichita and back on the street
car.
(Remember, she would have been along on most of the escapades related in an
earlier
article about her older sister Eva.)
"As a girl Edith had a favorite horse. Sometimes she would go out to the
pasture, lie
down on the grass, put Post Toasties on her stomach, and both she and the horse
would
eat them.
"As a teenager, she attended large parties all over the area. All the young
people
would gather and play games, pull taffy, or whatever. She had met a certain
sandy
haired boy when she attended Fleming School. He sat behind her and
pulled her
‘pigtails.’ His name was Marvin Fleming. As they grew up, they began to date
and go
to parties together. He started going to church with her occasionally and
after a
while decided to join because he liked the Baptist idea of ‘once saved,
always
saved.’ He had been raised as a Methodist and was a member of that denomination.
When
the two decided to marry, that was one problem that they didn’t have to
work out
because they were already of the same denomination. They married when
she was
eighteen and a half and he was twenty-one.
"Edith told about Marvin asking her father for permission for them to marry. She
said
that the only request her father made was that Marvin not make her work
in the
fields. Edith said she had never considered that; she had grown up used to the
hard
work, but she knew the Fleming women didn’t do field work. It made her feel
good to
realize that her father hated to make the girls do heavy work but it was
necessary
for the family’s survival since there was only one boy in the family and
there was
too much work for him to do alone. Marvin honored his promise and Edith never
worked
outside the home, though she did help out during wheat harvest a couple of
times by
driving a truck, just for the fun of it."
DOWDY STORIES - Chapter 9
"Edith (Dowdy’s mother-in law) had dress problems that started while she was
still a
child. Her mother had done the wash and had it hanging out on the
clothesline.
Hearing a noise later, she looked out the window just in time to see a bull
that had
gotten out run through the wash. He had Edith’s Sunday dress hanging on
both his
horns. They found it in the field later, torn to pieces.
"Another time during the early days of World War II, Edith rinsed out her only
Sunday
dress early one morning and hung it out on the line to dry. The wind was
blowing, the
clothesline was close enough to the fence that with the wind the milk cow could
reach
the dress. When Edith went running out in her slip to get the dress, she
found the
cow contentedly chewing away on the skirt. Edith had to stay home that day and
missed
her doctor’s appointment.
"Edith had other problems with animals too. About the time Joan and I
married, she
was taking a couple of pies over to the Isaacs at a time when there had been a
death
in the family. The front door was locked as the family had gone to the funeral
home.
The custom was to leave the back door open so neighbors could leave
food.
Accordingly, Edith started around to the back to leave the pies in the kitchen
when
she was met by two barking dogs and set upon by a big black bird. In the
melee, she
threw the pies down while trying to fight off the bird, and the confusion so
excited
the dogs that one of them bit her. Later, the Isaacs came home, saw the
remains of
the pies, and wondered what had happened. It turned out that they had a pet
crow, for
which they apologized, but only one dog. Since no one could identify the missing
dog,
she had to go through a series of very painful rabies shots.
"Edith’s troubles with animals started early and continued unabated. Once as a
girl,
she remembered stopping plowing, feeling sorry for the poor old mule, which
just
looked worn out. As the mule rested, she patted the animal and consoled
him. She
scratched his head; then as she tickled his ear, the old mule came alive,
reached up
and kicked her a winding. She picked herself up two or three rows away,
dazed and
wondering what had hit her.
"Once, when Marvin and Edith were living in Stratford, Texas, she had been
left at
the Pronger Bros. Ranch Headquarters to visit and when it came time to go
home, she
was told to just go out to the barn and have the foreman saddle her a horse.
They
explained that when she got home, just to turn the horse loose and it would come
back
home to the ranch. On the way the horse pulled a runaway and Edith was just
hanging
on, making no attempt to control the animal. They headed for a fence and
Edith
wondered if they were going to run through it, but the horse stopped just as
they got
to it and she went flying over the horse’s head and landed in a hay stack. I
suppose
the horse went home.
"Early marriage brought other animal problems also. As a girl, Edith had never
been
responsible for killing a chicken to prepare for dinner. Sunday dinner
approached and
she had done everything possible, putting it off as long as she could, but
finally
she had to go catch an old rooster. Now there is a definite art to
wringing a
chicken’s neck that has to be mastered. As she swung the chicken’s body, its
neck
just seemed to get longer and longer in her hand. Finally, she gave up and
turned it
loose; the old rooster flopped around a few times, go up and staggered off, very
mush
dazed by the experience. They had something else for dinner. Chickens continued
to be
a jinx, though. Another time when she was wringing a chicken’s neck, when she
turned
loose of him, the chicken hit the well and went down in it. They had to fish
him out
and clean the well.
"Edith was always very fast at any work she was doing. Hub Fleming, a
brother of
Marvin, said she was the only person he ever saw that could turn out a wash,
hoe the
garden, clean a couple of chickens, bake a couple of pies (which she was famous
for),
cook dinner and still have time to go visiting that afternoon. Her theory
was to
hurry up and finish the work so she could do what she wanted to and she
certainly was
not opposed to sitting down and resting (She always said she had rather rust out
than
wear out.) In fact, though, she has been known to make work. When she was
first
married, she didn’t have many dirty clothes with just the two of them and
she was
embarrassed by the small size of her wash hanging out on the clothesline
compared
with that of the larger families of her neighbors. So she would wet some clean
ones
and hang them out to make her wash look a respectable size. Once this
backfired
though. The clothesline broke, dropping all the clothes in the dirt and she
had to
rewash everything.."
DOWDY STORIES - Chapter 10
"For the first 6 months of marriage, Marvin and Edith lived with the Flemings;
then
they moved to the Hull place in the valley, living there and making a crop
for a
year. Then the ‘weaning house,’ as Hub (Marvin’s brother) called it, was
built and
the young couple moved there. It was from Mrs. Fleming that Edith learned the
art of
cooking and she was soon making Marvin’s favorite dishes. The Fleming
family was
quite different from her own. She had grown up in a home where there was very
little
reading and she was amazed at the amount of reading material in her new home.
There
always seemed to be a book or magazine lying open and Mrs. Fleming would
carefully
dust and replace it in the same position so that whoever was reading it
would not
lose his place. The rough and tumble of 5 rowdy boys took some adjustments.
Marvin
said his father never worried about getting the boys to eat; instead he would
try to
find out what brand of syrup, etc., that the boys liked; then he would buy
something
else so they wouldn’t eat so much. They always bought groceries by the case.
"Mrs. Fleming worked at a slow methodical pace and was a person who never
finished
her work. Edith would fly in and try to get through with the work so they
could do
something else. This, of course, delighted Mrs. Fleming, for she had this
long
backlog of things that she had never been able to get to, and now with their
daily
chores finished, they could get them done. She brought out the quilting,
embroidery,
etc., until Edith finally realized that she would always have another task in
mind,
that they would never get finished.
"Hub was about 5 years old when Marvin and Edith married so as far as
he was
concerned, she had always been around - more like a big sister than a
sister-in-law.
Edith said she was just a big overgrown kid herself, so she often played with
him to
help entertain him. Once she was outside barefoot, playing hide and go seek
with Hub
when a neighbor came by and asked which of the kids she was. They
were all
embarrassed when Mr. Fleming had to admit that she was Marvin’s wife. She
decided it
was time to stop that.
"When they moved to the new weaning house, they went to town to buy new
furniture.
They were able to strike a deal with a furniture dealer for 4 rooms of
furniture for
$89.00. This included congoleum for the kitchen and living room floors and a
straw
rug for the bedroom. There was a wicker couch and chairs for the living room,
and the
bedroom dresser had moveable mirrors. They bought a modern oil cook stove and
table
and chairs. Then, because they paid cash, the salesman threw in a pie safe
too.
Instead of having screens on the doors, it was a new style with glass in the
doors.
"After they had been married about six months, they moved to the valley to the
Hull
place. Marvin bought a crystal set radio, one of the first radios in the
community.
At that time radios did not have speakers, but came with a couple of headsets
that
everyone always took apart so four people could listen instead of just two.
Since few
of the neighbors had one, Marvin and Edith understandably had a lot of visitors.
Each
night there would be a different family visit to hear the new radio and stay
late,
fascinated by the new device. Each family would stay until midnight to be
able to
hear Hawaii come on the air so they could listen to it by short wave. This meant
that
Marvin and Edith were up late each night entertaining until they finally
began to
wear out. It finally got to the point that they could hardly get up the next
morning
to work. They gave up and went to bed one time with a family that had stayed too
late
still there listening to the radio. Grandpa G. P. Edwards also had a radio
set.
Marvin called it a ‘tetradiene’ set, or some such thing; at any rate it
had the
peculiarity of broadcasting a whistling noise as he was tuning the set that
could be
heard on all the neighbors’ radios so everyone was always relieved when he
finally
found his station.
"While living at the Hull place, an oil well was started nearby. There was
nowhere in
the area to eat, so the drilling foreman came by the house and asked if she
would
cook for the crew. The deal was made and Edith was to be paid a dollar a
day for
feeding the crew, and she felt like she was really making money. You have to
remember
that as a girl, she had always worked in the fields and hadn’t learned to
cook and
the only instructions were given during the 6 months that she lived
with the
Flemings. This meant that though she could cook, but like many newly weds, she
didn’t
have a big variety of things that she knew how to cook. Still, the basics
were all
the hungry drilling crew were interested in and all was going well
until
Thanksgiving. The crew came up with the proposition that if they would
buy the
turkey, would she fix turkey and dressing? Now she had no idea how to cook a
turkey
or fix dressing, but instead of admitting it, she storied to the crew and told
them
that they wouldn’t be at home for Thanksgiving. She doesn’t remember what
she and
Marvin did that Thanksgiving, but the drilling crew didn’t get their turkey
and she
still seems embarrassed by her fib."
DOWDY STORIES - Chapter 11
To continue C. H. Dowdy’s stories of his wife’s parents’ life in Charlie in the
early
1900's, he focuses on Joan’s father, Marvin Fleming:
"Marvin’s bent for mechanical construction showed up early. When he was about
four
years old, he set the pasture on fire while he was heating water in a tea
kettle in
the process of trying to construct a steam engine. The fact that he was
actually
trying to construct something rather than just playing with fire so
impressed his
parents that they didn’t even punish him for it.
"During World War I, his father gave him about 200 acres of cotton land on
which he
made a bumper crop. One of the things he bought with the proceeds was a
motorcycle
with which he used to cut a dashing figure in the community. He and Edith
rode the
motorcycle on dates.
"The local schools were not accredited so could teach only through the 10th
grade.
(Out of 11 years total back then) Consequently, unless country children had
relatives
in town willing to take in extra kids while attending their final year of
high
school, they usually just did not graduate. Marvin stayed in Wichita Falls
with an
aunt and uncle and finished, then went to Austin College in Sherman. It was
very
military in nature and hazing of freshmen was the order of the day. It
seems the
freshmen only submitted to this if clubbed in the head first. Marvin and his
buddy
worked in a butcher shop and soaked their hands in the salt brine in which the
meat
came packed in barrels until they were as tough as shoe leather.
"During an all-school reception in the back yard of the President’s house, a
fight
broke out between the freshmen and upperclassmen, the cops came rushing in
and the
last thing Marvin saw as he and his buddy cut through the hedges toward the
dorm was
a body floating face down in the swimming pool. Marvin came home for the
holidays and
never went back. After that experience, none of the other Fleming boys even
tried
college.
" Many of Marvin’s adventures seemed to have occurred during his batching days
on the
Hull place down in the Wichita River valley. He often heard a lot of spooky
noises in
the night. For a time he would hear this rattling noise just after he went to
bed. He
would get up, investigate, find nothing and go back to bed. This went on every
night
for some time until he heard in in the daylight and could see what was going
on. The
last thing he would do before going to bed was to get a drink of water
from the
dipper in the water bucket. The dipper had a hole in it and would slowly fill up
with
water and sink to the bottom of the bucket and make the rattling noise. When
Marvin
got up to investigate, he would get another drink of water before returning
to bed
and the same thing would happen.
"Another time the young man living alone was rattled by unexplained noises, he
heard
unusual sounds coming from inside the house as he approached it. He crept
up and
peeked in and decided the noise was coming from under the bed. He grabbed the
shotgun
and ordered the person out. When no one responded, he shot under the bed and
killed
the neighbor’s old sow which had gotten out of its pen and wandered into his
house.
He said he never knew a pig had so much blood.
"During this period the Burkburnett oil boom was in full swing, attracting many
young
men to work in the oil fields there. Marvin got a job in a booming machine shop
where
his mechanical skills were badly needed. The problem was a shortage of
rooms. A
fellow took pity on him and let him sleep on the hay in his barn. All was going
well
at work until Friday of the first week on the job, when an accident
occurred, and
something hit Marvin on the head, knocking him out and giving him a rather nasty
cut.
He was taken to the doctor in Wichita Falls and decided to catch a ride home
for the
week end. The following Monday when he went back to work, everyone looked at
him as
if they were seeing a ghost. There had been a boiler on a rig behind the barn
and it
had exploded and burned down the barn. The metal clasps on Marvin’s suitcase
were
found in the ashes so everyone thought he had burned up. Having no place to
stay, he
went home, thus ending his oil field career. Mr. Mooring went to work in the
same
shop the same week, continued his work as a machinist, eventually owned his own
shop
and became a millionaire. Marvin said he probably couldn’t have stood the
prosperity
anyway.
"Marvin and Edith moved to Stratford in the Panhandle, where they lived for
about 10
years. He farmed and worked for relatives on the Pronger Bros. Ranch. They spent
most
of the depression there and weathered the worst of the dust bowl days. The
owners of
the ranch were Englishmen, sons of English squires, who first came to Florida,
then
to Wichita Falls, then to the Panhandle where land prices were cheap. In
Wichita
Falls, Fred Pronger had met and later married Marvin’s aunt, Ivy Pinkerton.
By the
depression era they had amassed enough wealth to be able to escape the harsh
winters
of the Panhandle and return to Florida. Other people wondered how anybody
could
afford to do this as hard as times were at this time. They had a Buick in which
they
made to trip to Florida and kept in the garage the rest of the year when they
drove a
Plymouth over the rough ranch roads.
"The Prongers had introduced Hereford cattle on their English estates and
were
credited with introducing registered Herefords to the Texas Panhandle. Of
course, on
a ranch the cattle are the most important thing and the horses and ranch
hands are
merely means to further the central purpose of the ranch. Accordingly, the
hands
suffered during long hours in the saddle on cold winter days, and Marvin never
liked
cattle after that.
"During this time a group of the younger Fleming brothers and Ranel White went
out to
Stratford to work too. They lived in a half-dugout. They had been to town
on a
Saturday afternoon and John D. had bought a pair of new shoes. It rained that
night
after they were in bed. The next morning they discovered their beds
standing in
several inches of water and saw John D’s new shoes come floating out from
under the
bed."
DOWDY STORIES - Chapter 12
Marvin and Edith had gone out to the Panhandle to work on a large ranch
during the
dust bowl days of the 30's and some of his brothers had also gone out there to
find
work.
"The large fields of the Texas plains caused some problems when one was
plowing at
night. As long as there were lights in the houses, there was no trouble,
but as
people went to bed and turned out the lights, it was easy to become
disoriented. If
you finished plowing the land before daylight, it meant you had no idea
what
direction the gate was in so you could leave. The best you could do was to
start out
in some direction until you reached the fence, then follow it until you
found the
gate. One of the boys told about plowing one night on one of the big
wheatland
tractors. It had a platform under the seat so if you got tired of sitting, you
could
push the seat out of the way and stand for a while. On this particular night,
Nick
Stanley, their plowhand from Charlie, was plowing along about midnight half
asleep
when a dog jumped up on the platform with him to ride. He nearly had a heart
attack
when the animal appeared out of the darkness. Apparently he had been
following the
plow unseen for awhile and just got tired of walking. At any rate the dog
stayed
around Marvin and Edith’s for some time and became the subject of another story.
"It seems that Nick had a good friend by the name of Shorty Watkins, a little
fellow
that also was sometimes called ‘Pee Wee,’ a fact that Edith was unaware of.
Nick was
looking for Shorty one day and using the other nickname, asked Edith if she had
seen
Pee Wee. Since the dog hadn’t been named, just called ‘Dog,’ Edith assumed
that he
was referring to the dog and said, ‘No, but he must be around. I put out some
scraps
this morning and they are gone.’
"The dust bowl days kept the farmers busy digging out their plows and
other
machinery. If they didn’t keep it cleared, the dirt being blown in would
eventually
cover it and they would not be able to locate it. They couldn’t park a plow
close to
the fence because tumble weeds would pile up on a fence, catch dirt and maybe
cover
the plows up in a single storm. One year it was so dry the wheat that was
planted
never sprouted but finally came up the second year and made a crop.
"A big camp meeting was held nearby to pray for rain and people came for
miles
around. It was a bright sunshiny day when the preacher, Doctor Scarlboro,
showed up
with a heavy coat and umbrella and wanted to know how many others believed
enough in
the power of prayer to bring one. Naturally, with a crowd that hadn’t seen a
rain for
a year, no one had even thought of an umbrella. A cloud appeared before the
service
was over and it began to rain on them as they left to drive home. It soon was
coming
down in torrents and washed out a bridge so they couldn’t get home. It also
washed
away the piano at the meeting ground. However, it didn’t break the drought and
soon
everyone was needing rain again.
"Under such conditions, it was not surprising that many people gave up and
left.
Marvin said that it seemed that land was not ready to be turned back to grass
until
it had first been listed up into furrows. They tell me you can still see
evidence of
miles of furrows from the air in many of the pastures there today. They
probably
prepared the land for spring planting but gave up and left when no rain
came. It
surely made for rough pastures as the land went back to grass.
"During their time at Stratford, little 5 year old Bill Fleming suddenly
became ill
and died at the Dalhart hospital. His pet dog was so grieved that he howled for
days
and kept the family very upset. Three months later, Edith gave birth to Joan.
DOWDY STORIES Chapter 13
"Because of the terrible dust storms in the Panhandle, where Marvin and Edith
Fleming
had been living, they moved back to Charlie when little Joan (later Mrs. C.H.
Dowdy)
developed dust pneumonia. One of the first jobs Marvin had was cutting wheat
for C.
H.’s dad, Claude Dowdy, on the Corn Farm between Charlie and Byers. Being
accustomed
to the coolness of the higher altitudes on the plains, he was bothered by the
heat
and humidity of this area. He said that each morning was fine, but then as
the day
began to get hot, his vision would seem to close in around him and he could see
only
about two hundred yards by the middle of the day. His vision became normal
again as
the afternoon cooled off.
"They stayed with Marvin’s brother John D., who lived on the original Fleming
home
place, until they got a place of their own and settled. Like all children, Joan
loved
her uncle and called him ‘Donnie.’ He soon had to do everything for her,
dress her
and all.
"The house had a delco for generating electricity in the days before REA.
They had
been through a hot spell during the summer and had moved a bed springs and
mattress
out into the yard and had been sleeping there. When it cooled off, Marvin
moved the
mattress back into the house but was tired after working all day and didn’t
bother
with the springs. The delco engine ran out of gasoline one night and Marvin
came
charging around the house to see about it and ran into the bedsprings. He
thought a
burglar had clubbed him for sure.
"Another night, as he was preparing to go to bed, he went out to turn the delco
plant
off and stepped on the blade of a hoe that was leaning against the wall of the
delco
house. The hoe straightened up, with the hoe handle hitting him in the
head. He
thought he had another burglar.
"Edith and Marvin had left Stratford in such a hurry because of Joan’s dust
pneumonia
that they were unable to pay the doctor’s bill but assured him they would.
During a
visit to Stratford, they dropped by the doctor’s office to show him how much
she had
grown and to pay the bill. The doctor was astounded. Many had left still owing
their
doctor bill, and despite assurances, Marvin and Edith had been the only
ones to
return to pay. He had long ago thrown away the records and had no idea how much
they
owed. They knew and were ready to pay. In the end the doctor would accept only
half
the amount and was amazed to get it.
"Marvin always liked steam engines and conceived the idea of building a small
steam
locomotive that would be capable of pulling people around in a car, similar to
those
in children’s amusement parks today. Joan, naturally, was quite excited by it.
Marvin
was not interested in building a kit type of thing, but the fascination for
him was
to design, cast, and machine the various parts of the engine. He had acquired a
metal
lathe, so, accordingly, he built a furnace for casting and collected the
necessary
materials and equipment.
"After casting the first few pieces of the train, he realized it was taking
much
longer than he had anticipated, so he sat down and calculated the hours he
estimated
it would take to complete the job and decided he wouldn’t live long enough to
see the
finished product. He quietly shelved the project.
"He and Edith regularly attended the Thornberry Baptist Church. He was the type
that
quietly lived his religion, though he did once write a somewhat humorous
story on
religion that was carried in the local newspaper. He had been reared as a
Methodist,
though the family had strong Presbyterian ties, a background that
colored his
religious philosophy. He loved steeples on a church, jokingly saying that they
helped
point prayers toward heaven, so a church with two steeples would be twice as
good.
Once, while attending an evening service at the small church, he was
absentmindedly
fiddling with the song book rack and had just stuck his finger through the hole
where
the sacrament glasses are placed when the pastor asked him to take up the
offering.
It so startled him that he jumped up, hung his finger and almost jerked the book
rack
off the pew.
"When C.H. and Joan’s little Beth was born in 1960, she quickly became the
apple of
her Grandad’s eye. She learned to talk early and became a real companion to him.
They
had crawling races; he read to her and loved to photograph her.
Photography had
become his hobby by this time and he had built a combination office and dark
room.
Beth became the most photographed child around. To divert her attention
when her
parents left her for the grandparents to baby sit, Marvin would take her
outside in
the back yard to ‘stomp the crickets.’ "
DOWDY STORIES - Chapter 14
He switches from Joan’s parents to Joan, his wife, herself.
"Joan was the first living grandchild in the Fleming family and one of the few
girls
in a family of predominantly boys. As such, she received a lot of attention
as a
child. There were a lot of older members of the family, which included her
great-
grandmother Pinkerton. When her grandmother was ill in bed, Joan picked some
flowers
and put them in a little green thing for a vase. They had trouble making it
stand up.
Years later, she saw a telephone pole insulator and realized that was what her
‘vase’
was.
"When Joan was three years old, she had her first Easter egg hunt. They had
only 3
eggs so they colored them and Marvin hid them. Then they brought little Joan
out and
helped her find them and put them in her Easter basket. As she found them,
Marvin
slipped them out and hid them again so that she found them over and over without
ever
discovering that her basket never filled up.
"With so many older people in the family, funerals became common for a few
years.
Since there was no one to leave Joan with she was taken along with her parents.
Edith
became concerned when Joan would come home and put one of her dolls in a box and
play
funeral. The preacher convinced Edith that this role playing was normal and
would not
adversely affect her.
"With Edith being the church pianist, the family spent a lot of time in church,
where
Joan heard a lot of sermons. She would go home and play church, playing each
part in
turn. She played the piano, led the singing, climbed up in a chair and
preached the
sermon which she had just heard, almost word for word. She preached her first
sermon
at the age of three.
"The church was observing the Lord’s Supper and Edith was wondering if Joan
would
behave. She was quiet and attentive, but after Edith had partaken of the
juice, she
asked in a hoarse whisper, ‘Is that beer good?’ Edith was terribly
embarrassed and
didn’t know where Joan had picked up the word.
"Most of the pastors of the small churches were students who drove up
from the
seminary in Fort Worth and stayed in the homes of members who fed them a lot of
fried
chicken for Sunday dinner. At breakfast one Sunday morning the visiting preacher
took
another generous helping of good homemade jelly under the disapproving eyes of
Joan.
‘Save a little for the rest of us,’ she announced, much to the embarrassment
of her
mother."
DOWDY STORIES - Chapter 15
C.H. Dowdy’s stories of life in the early days of Charlie and Thornberry
comprise a
socio-economic history of the communities. By relating his and his wife’s
families’
connections and experiences, he is telling the stories of most families of that
area
at that time in history. Most were farmers who came for better
opportunities for
their families from more thickly settled and worn-out farms from East Texas or
parts
of the South farther east. They worked hard, lived frugally and gradually
prospered
financially. They generally held high moral values of honesty, loyalty,
godliness,
generosity, hospitality. They revered family, church and education. Neighbor
helped
neighbor to weather the harsh conditions of the Depression. In spite of
troubles,
there was a vibrant hope for a better future but also fun and excitement
along the
way.
"One family that came to Charlie to make a new life was the Pepper family
around
1908. Several young men, or boys really, came and worked for the Flemings
on the
cotton farms. Then the mother and sister, Lizzie, came. The father had died
before
Lizzie, now 17 or 18, was born. She cooked, kept house, and chopped cotton
for the
boys, the mother seeming to be worn out by the work and events after the
death of
their father. There were a lot of parties in the neighborhood and Lizzie
could go
only if one of the boys went along to chaperon. She eventually married Warner
Barger
and their family are still among the staunch upright citizenry of Charlie. The
boys
got other jobs and moved away. They were kin to the Dr. Pepper Bottling Co.
Peppers.
"Lizzie’s daughter, Bernice Burnham, remembered when Mr. Allison, the co-owner
of the
drug store, was shot in Charlie. One of the young men of Charlie (whose family
hadn’t
lived there long) came up on the porch of the drug store wearing a bandana
around his
face and holding a gun. He told Mr. Allison he was going to rob the drug
store. Mr.
Allison thought he was joking as kids were always kidding around with him,
called him
by name, told him to leave, and hit at him with his cane. Being threatened
by the
cane caused the young man to fire in a panic or the cane hit the gun, causing
it to
accidentally fire, which ever, Mr. Allison was killed. After an exciting
all-night
search, the young man was captured and went to prison for a while. His
family, in
embarrassment, soon moved. In later years on a visit they expressed deep regret
that
such a thing had happened, that the family was not the type to do such
things and
still felt deep shame over the event.
"Joan Dowdy’s great uncle, Willis Pinkerton, co-owner of the drug store
continued the
business and mixed medicine for 3 or 4 doctors around Charlie. That is an
indication
of how many people lived in the area then."
Another family that came to Charlie was that of G. P. Edwards, whose
daughter Amy
married Claude Dowdy,fs and they became the parents of C. H., our current
narrator.
They came from Alabama, where they had had a large farm and a small general
store,
along with a freighting business and a grist mill. A financial panic brought the
loss
of their businesses and homes, so they moved west, first to Sherman,
later to
Oklahoma, then to Charlie in 1914.
One little tale to illustrate the determination and perseverance that may have
been
the key to the eventual success and prosperity of many folks of this era:
"In 1916, Mr. Edwards was able to build a new house on the farm he had
bought and
ordered a boxcar of lumber of various sizes from the mill for that purpose. It
came
by railroad to Petrolia, from where it was hauled by wagons to Charlie. Though
he had
to fill in with some orders from the local lumber yard to finish after this was
used
up, this order was enough for most of the work. When the story and a half
structure
with a wide front porch was completed, Mr. Edwards was busy in the fields
with
harvest and didn’t have time to move in. After a few days of this, Amy and her
sister
decided it was time to move into the new house so they got a wheel barrow to
move the
furniture and moved in."
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