"My Mother, Mary Magadalene Smith, was born February 26, 1887, at the old Rock House, daughter of 'Uncle and Aunt Hank' Smith. She married Charles Vernon Lomax. There are four Lomax children, Louise Enrica, Charles Curtis, H.C. and Mildred Edith."In 1919 Mother was married again to James William Kirk. We children went to shcool at Ralls in a buggy. When we were living in Ralls later, Mr. John R. Ralls would come by in his buggy and take H.C. and me with him to do his surveying. He would have a lunch fixed and we would be gone all day. We were living at this place when the I.W.W. scare got so bad. I remember Mother and others telling that the I.W.W.'s were burning depots, wrecking trains and beating up people. Well, we had an old telephone line tied to the house and when the weather was bad and cold this line would moan and make all kinds of weird sounds which would scare us kids to death as we thought it had something to do with the I.W.W.'s. In this same spell of cold weather, Mother cooked on an old stove which burned coal. One day she made a pot of soup and we got our bowls full and had to go back in the living room to eat it. I went back to get another bowl of soup and static electricity generated by the blowing snow discharged to my body and knocked me down. It did not hurt me as there was no amperage in the charge and we had a lot of fun seeing who could get the pot lid off the soup pot.
"One day Eldridge Seldon and I were up on the windmill platform eating cane that we had swiped from the Travis place; the wind was still and when we were sitting there eating cane, all of sudden a whirlwind hit the windmill, the wheel spun around and very nearly knocked us off. We did not eat cane on the windmill tower any more.
"In 1920 we moved across the canyon to Mother's half-section that Grandpa Smith gave her. Mr. Kirk had bought an old shotgun house and we lived in that for several years. It was just a frame covered with 1x12 inch boars with 1x1 inch boards nailed over the cracks. When the wind blew real hard the walls would go in and out like a bellows. Sometimes we would think it was going to blow over, but for some reason it never did.
"We kids went to school at Mt. Blanco and for a while we rode in a buggy, but after a few days we tore the buggy up and had to walk the three miles to school, winter and all. My oldest sister, Louise, would ride old Pet and carry my youngest sister, Mildred, in front of her, when she started to school. Sometimes Old Pet would be carrying all four of us.
"On June 6, 1921, we were presented with another brother, Billy Kirk. He was a cute little brown-eyed rascal and we all fought over who was going to hold him and rock him to sleep.
"During the sumer vacation from school we turned into a wild bunch and as we lived about three hundred yards from the bank of the Blanco Canyon we spent our time chasing cottontails and road runners. We would take off down the cnayon and without benefit of shoes we could run down the best of road runners. We would have some of the most painful of bruises on our heels, some on each heel, but we soon learned to run on our toes without letting our heels touch the rocks. The hide on our heels would get so thick that the stone bruises would have to lanced before it would come to a head. Mother would practice with various kinds of poultices that ranged from bread and milk to baked cactus, and finally in desperation and on the advice of a good helpful neighbor she finally tried green cow manure. This was an unholy mess but after all gagging and near vomiting from the administrator and patient alike, the darned things made a good poultice. I wouldn't advise recommending this to a modern doctor though. We were just on the dividing line between the old school, represented by my grandmother, "Aunt Hank" Smith, and the new school as represented by our schoolteachers. Grandmother would send us to school doped up with sulphur and molasses in the spring with a ball of asafoetida tied around our necks on a string. We would raise such a stink in the schoolroom that the teacher would make us take them off. We had lot of fun in those days. We would catch the itch at school and Grandmother would take a plug of chewing tobacco and cut it up and boil it then smear the thick juices all over us and after wearing this for two or three months the itch would finally go away. I always did think it would have worn itself out without the tobacco juice, but we couldn't tell Grandmother that.
"My brother was always an unlucky boy it seemed to me; he was always the one to step on the old broomweed stumps, or fall off the Cap Rock while chasing roabbits or get stung by wild bees on the creek. We were staying a week with our uncle and Aunt, Mr. and Mrs. John Wheeler, at Emma and while we were feeding green feed to the horses one evening, H.C. had his arms full of green feed and could not see where he was going. He walked behind one of the horses; it stepped on his foot and then whirled around, taking the top of his foot off. The foot got infected and went to his knee and had to be lanced several times. I took some red pickets out of a fence and made him a pair of crutches. He used them till his knee got well enough to use. In the spring of 1923 it came a big rain and the Blanco River, or White River, as shown on the map, got on a rampage. H.C. and a neighbor boy, Riley Teague, went down to see the creek and they were out on an island between the new channel and an old one when a head rise came down and cut them off before they knew it. Riley swam across and was reaching for a long stick to H.C. cross. H.C. was feeling for the edge of the bank, which was under water and was drowned. This was May 26, 1923. My youngest sister, Leila Eris Kirk, was born exactly two months later on July 26, 1923. She was another brown-eyed, olive skinned little cutie.
"Grandmother Smith was living with us when she passed away, June 5, 1925. With her passing went one of the most colorful eras of the great Plains history.
Source: "Through the Years, A History of Crosby County, Texas" by Nellie Witt Spikes and Temple Ann Ellis ©1951; The Naylor Company, San Antonio, Texas
Mary Magdalene Smith, the youngest of the Hank Smith children was born February 26, 1887, at the old Rock House in Blanco Canyon.She was named after Uncle Hank´s sister, who immigrated to the free state of Ohio May 14, 1851. The family´s favorite name for her was "Hun." Charlie Hawes who lived with the Smith´s, helped Aunt Hank with the children when Hank was away for supplies. Charlie was very fond of Mary and never let her out of his sight.
The Smith children enjoyed picnic outings at Silver Falls. They rode horse back up and down the river. They attended dances held at the surrounding ranches.
Mary attended the Mt. Blanco school built across the creek from the Rock House. A young man, George Mayes, was her favorite teacher.
She married Charles Vernon Lomax Feb. 4, 1906, at Old Emma. Charles was manager of the C.B. Livestock, -N- Ranch at the time. The young couple moved into the Ranch headquarters at Silver Falls. Mary was an excellent cook. She prepared food for all the cowboys stationed there.
Children of Mary and Charles are: Louise Enrica Lomax, born March 13, 1908, at the Rock House; Charles Curtis Lomax, born April 23, 1910, on the W.H. Oran farm near Ralls; H.C. Lomax, born July 11, 1912, drowned in White River near the Rock House May 26, 1923.
Mary and Charles moved to Medford, Oregon, where Mildred Edith Lomax was born June 26, 1914.
Mary and the children returned to Crosby County in 1915 where they resided with Aunt Hank. Mildred remembers her grandmother as only a child of tender years can. Aunt Hank, by this time, was an aging idol who had time to spend with an inquisitive child.
Mary Smith Lomax married J.W. Kirk June 8, 1919, and moved to the family farm north of Crosbyton. Billy Kirk, Jr., was born June 6, 1921, on this farm. Leila Eris Kirk was born July 26, 1923, on the family farm.
Mary was a member of the Presbyterian Church and the Order of the Eastern Star. She died January 15, 1951, and is buried in Crosbyton Cemetery.
50th Annual West Texas Pioneers and Old Settlers Reunion Program, Saturday, August 21, 1976
Crosby county paid its last respects Wednesday afternoon to Mrs. Mary Magdalene Kirk, 63, a native daughter of the county and the youngest child of the late Mr. and Mrs. Hank Smith, the first white settlers on the South Plains. The services were held at 3 p.m. at the First Baptist church with Rev. T. R. Elder, Presbyterian minister, of Spur, officating, assisted by Rev. Alvin Hamm of Mt. Blanco and Rev. Carl Grissom of Crosbyton.
Mrs. Kirk died at Crosbyton Clinic hospital Monday at 5:15 p.m., following an illness of three weeks. She made her home on part of the land her father homesteaded in 1876.
Only Mr. George Smith, brother of Mrs. Kirk, remains of the five children of Mr. and Mrs. Hank Smith, and he was the eldest of the children. His home is also on part of the Hank Smith original holdings.
Mrs. Kirk was born Feb. 26, 1887, in the old rock house started by her father in 1876 and completed the following year. Other brothers and sisters besides Mr. Geo. Smith who preceeded her in death were Mrs. John Wheeler, and Mrs. Charlie McDermett and Mr. Bob Smith.
In her childhood Mrs. Kirk first attended school at Old Emma and later at Mt. Blanco after that school was organized. Among her teachers at Mt. Blanco were Mr. Geo. E. Mayes of Crosbyton, now county surveyor. She was a member of the Presbyterian church and the Order of the Eastern Star.
Burial was in Crosbyton cemetery under direction of King Funeral home.
Survivors are three daughters; Mrs. J. C. Caldwell of Donna, Mrs. Clay Campbell of Ralls and Mrs. W. W. Lowry of Kansas City, Mo.; two sons, C. C. Lomax of Sunray and Billie Kirk of Crosbyton; her brother, Mr. George Smith; 12 granchildren and five great grandchildren.
Pallbearers were nephews; Alvin Smith, Ruben Smith and Allan Smith, all of Crosbyton; J. A. Wheeler and Roy Wheeler, Ralls; J. Wilson McDermett and Chas. McDermett, of Morton; Frank Smith of Lubbock, and H. C. Smith of Oregon.
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