At the new millennium Dip Fox and Dale Young are the care takers of the Estacado Cemetery. To Dip the area around Estacado is 'God's Country'.
At 92 years young, Dip Fox is in his prime of helping out the community. On a regular basis he makes sure the cemetery is taken care of. Dip says, "I am going to live past the year 2000". He feels that the year 2000 is going to be OK and looking forward to seeing it arrive.
For those who know Dip Fox, not many know how he came by his name. One of his Uncles, Charlie, went to his mother before Dip's birth and asked if she would name the next baby after him. At the time there were three boys and one girl. She agreed. His Uncle Charlie had been given the nickname Dip by his family. It was not his real name, but most all the people thought it was. The same goes for Dip himself.
So, how did Uncle Charlie get the nickname Dip? It seems when Uncle Charlie was a boy about five or six years old, he was helping with the milking. The family had a white cow that was as pure as flour. In fact her name was 'Dip n Flour'. The cow as so tame that she could be ridden without any problem, and often by Charlie. The farm hand, Noble, was milking 'Dip n Flour' and Charlie stood a little too close to her tail, and the cow had been feeding on Sudan and it made her a little runny. At this point in time, she raised her tail and let go. Charlie got the full effect of her release and ran to the house. From that day forward, he was called Dip.
Dip's grandfather purchased land for a dollar an acre, fifty cents down and tax on the other fifty cents. As long as you paid the fifty cents you did not have to pay the interest. You could stay a life time as long as you paid taxes on the other fifty cents. He purchased part of a section with maize on it for a dollar and a half an acre and later sold the maize for feed.
His grand daddy, Austin Fox, built the Presbyterian Church in Estacado. Later, he moved it to Lorenzo, marking every piece of lumber and its location. He got pneumonia and dided in 1906 before the church was finished. The church members came in and completed the church. The church is located at the corner of Jackson and Fifth Street. In 1920 the Methodists purchased the building and later it was sold to the V.F.W.
Dip was the fifth child of nine born to Nat and Gussie Iona Ellis FOX who were married in 1900. He was born in Estacado near the Pleasant Hill Gin in a ranch house due north. Today it is fields of cotton. They lived out there before the depression hit. This was a time of very little money.
About 1910 a railroad track was laid. It was supposed to go through Estacado from Lubbock, but it went straight to Crosbyton, making Lorenzo a reality with a rail depot. This made Estacado a ghost town. The railroad had been expected to run through Estacado. The townspeople moved everything from Estacado including, government buildings, houses and stores. The court house, built in 1887, was moved to old Emma. The mover wanted five hundred dollars to relocate the courthouse. The people of Estacado simply tore it down, took the nails out and straightened them and numbered the boards. People did not want this to happen. Actually, it was moved in the night to avoid any conflict. Crosbyton had been chosen to be the county seat. The first county in West Texas had included the land from the New Mexican border and one hundred and fifty miles to the east.
The family is athletic and Sam Ellis, Doc and dip with a cousin all played golf. Tex Woods played golf with Doc regularly and they are like brothers. Nat Fox, Dip's father, was a gifted athlete and excelled at baseball. He was offered a scholarship at West Texas State College in Canyon, Texas, but had children to take care of and it would cost too much money. He played and managed several amateur teams in the area. The family enjoyed games and participated when possible.
Dip's brother Sam was a year and a half younger and they did a lot of buttinto into Dip and he would yell for mother and complain about Dip. Their mother punished them by making both of them lie under the bed. They argued who did it and who didn't and it did not matter to her, they both had to get under the bed. They would get out when she felt like it. The mother did the disciplining of the children and insisted they go to church every Sunday. Dip went all through school at Estacado. He was on the basketball team and they had a good team, so the coach asked that the trustees add an eleventh grade so they could play the next year.
His mother was the doctor of the community. If someone was sick she would find out about it; if someone was having a baby, she found out. She would go to the barn, get her horse Croppie and leave, sometimes overnight. She told the family that, if the person is all right she would come back and if she didn't return that meant they needed her help.
Cotton prices got so low, they started milking their twenty cows and separating and selling the cream. This was a chore done by the family. All had their jobs. Every time Dip's dad went to Ralls, a man selling milking machines was there to greet him and try and sell him one of the machines. He finally, after many tries, got Dip's dad to try the machine. Dip's father said, "I will try it out for ten days. If I don't like it, you can come and pick it up."
There was no electricity or water in the house and they had to wash the machine with hot water. This was a real chore as they had to heat before and after each use. Using the machine required that they put chains on the back legs of the cows with a u-shaped piece of metal and a piece of chain holding it together.
They could milk four to six cows at a time. All they had to do was just sit there and watch the machine do the milking. This was easy, but all the labor of washing the cows teats before and then when the machine finished they had to strip each cow so she would not go dry. After considering that they had to haul hot water and all the extra labor, two days later Dip's dad and brothers voted to send the machine back.
It was easy to sell milk because of the need for it. The only problem was when it rained. The man who came around to pick up the milk and cream could not make his rounds in rainy weather so they had to pour the milk out because it would sour. They went into the cream business only, because it could be kept longer. They carried the cream down to the railroad depot and shipped it to Trinidad, Colorado.
A description of the land was: South of Lorenzo out to Robertson the land was sandy and full of mesquite. North of Lorenzo had tight land (land that had little sand and did not blow). If they had rain, they could grow corn.
Fred Wiese, local banker, said "That if you had cows north of town you could make it from eggs, milk and cattle." A case of eggs sold for a dollar a case. A can of cream sold for one dollar and fifty cents.
Dip worked for Mr. Arthur Bryant and made four dollars and fifty cents a week. He had to eat at home because he gave his mother all the money for the family.
He found his wife in Lorenzo. Charles Robert and Sarah Bell Soules MICHAEL, her parents, moved to the Estacado area around 1900. Her grand daddy Ellis moved to the Estacado area in 1879.
Jennie Lynn and Dip were married January 2, 1930 in Clovis, New Mexico. The law in Texas said that you had to get shots and a permit to get married, but if you went to New Mxico, they just married you right there and then. Dip still gets a laugh out of that today.
Jennie Lynn was named from the Linn family. They shared together 64 years and 20 days. He still feels her presence today. They had lots of fun, joy and two hard years. Chances are if you saw Dip, Jennie Lynn was not far behind. However, he did go to basketball games without her, until the grandson Mike played basketball and then she won a trophy for the best attendee at the games. She had broken her hip and had to be carried up and down the stairs at the games by Herschel.
Jennie Lynn had six sisters and they would gang up and work hard on any project.
Their house cost two hundred and fifty dollars. It had four rooms and a stucco finish. It was located across from where the school is. It cost them twenty-five dollars to have the house moved to the farm. They had to put in a windmill for water.
Dip was farming a hundred acres and decided to leave farming. He and his brother Clarence opened a filling station and purchased a truck to haul the fuel. Dip sold the teams and only kept two or three cows. A good milkc ow sold for a hundred dollars, the others for about thirty dollars. They did pretty good but not really great. His brother started selling on credit. This was the first part of the depression. It got down to people working from sun up to sun down for fifty cents a day.
About this time Dip was asked to be put on the ballot for the Board of Trustees at the Estacado School. He served twenty years as a trustee, seven of them on the Lorenzo Board.
Dip and Jennie Lynn were married for nine years before their first child, Mickie, was born in 1939. Times were rough. When Dip found out that Jennie Lynn was pregnant, he was in "Hog Heaven". They would have a baby and their own place. They saved their cream sales checks to pay for the baby.
The doctor came from Lubbock for the birth and a nurse came with him. After the birth, the doctor said that Dip needed a nurse to stay with Jennie Lynn. Dip asked where could he get a nurse, and the doctor replied, "There is one right here". They only had one other bed. The room was so small the bed took the whole room, but she had a place to stay.
They purchased an ice box which required fifteen or twenty pounds of ice and where did he get ice?...at Hughes Grocery.
Jennie Lynn loved to can food. When they sold their place and moved to town, they retained the rights to keep the food i the cellar on the farm, and to pick it up later. The cellar caught fire and caved in and covered all the canned goods. Jennie Lynn insisted that Dip go out there and dig out a case of the canned food. She gave the food to the neighbors around town and all she asked was that the jars be returned... Jennie Lynn wanted the jars to refill. She kept the deep freezer full at all times, but still went to the store on a regular basis. Every so often she gave the food away and restocked her supply again only wanting the containers back.
After sixty-four years and twenty days of marriage, going through life and living in a seven room house by himself, his daughter Mickie found a smaller place for him to live in. He said there were no places where he could move, but she said that Van Cypert had built some apartments in Lorenzo. Dip's first thought was that Cypert could not rent them, but Mickie told him that he had already rented one. Dip tasked to whom and she replied, "To you, of course."
However, with the smaller place, he had to have a yard sale so he called all his grand kids to come and see what memories of his they would like to have first.
However, on moving day, Mickie again stepped into the picture and had Doc take Dip for a ride around the countryside and out to his place to convince him that he needed to spend the night. This was accomplished. When Dip came back to town the next day he had a new home, along with his collection of foxes still in tact. The most obvious is located by his front door as a weather vane with a fox on it.
He found out Jim Norris, Mickie, granddaughter Gay, grandson Mike and his wife Kathy had moved him into his new home while he was out riding around and sleeping the night away.
Dip and Jennie Lynn's daughter Mickie has two children, Mike and Melna Gay Hargrove. Mike is married to Kathy Ahrens. They have two sons, Brendan and Steven and live in Lubbock, Texas.
sMelna Gay married David Quisenberry and their children are Katie and Leslie Nichole. They live in McKinney, Texas.
Other members of the family are a nephew who is Mayor of Albany and another nephew who is Mayor of Petersburg both of which Dip is very proud.
Mickie's son, Mike, started calling Dip, 'Old Dipper', a nickname that he cherishes. He remembers that Jenni Lynn also had a nickname, Pa.
The first Fox family reunion was held in 1985 in Eastacado. At that time it was decided to keep the cemetery there in good condition.
Submitted by Dip Fox and Mickey Fox Hargrove"Once Upon A Plain" by Carroll Wayne Wallace, Sr. and Sydna E. Wallace ©2000
Charles "Dip", born 1907, son of Nat Fox and Gussie Ellis Fox farmed at Estacado for many years. He and his wife, the former Jennie Michael, daughter of Charles R. Michael and Sarah Belle Soules Michael, lived in Lorenzo in their latter years. Their daughter, Mickey Hargrove, has two children.Dip loved to play golf and devoted many hours to maintaining the Estacado Cemetery.
LORENZO (Special)- Services for Jennie Lynn Michael Fox, 86, of Lorenzo will be at 2 p.m. today in First United Methodist Church with the Revs. Don Boren, pastor, and Sid Parsley, pastor of Haskell First United Methodist Church, officiating.Burial in Estacado Cemetery will be directed by Carter-Adams Funeral Home of Ralls.
Mrs. Fox died Thursday, Jan. 20, 1994, in Ralls Nursing Home.
She was born on Jan. 1, 1908, in Estacado and was a longtime resident of Lorenzo area. She married Charlie "Dip" Fox on Jan. 2, 1930, in Clovis, N.M. She was a homemaker and a member of First United Methodist Church.
She is survived by her husband; a daughter, Mickie Hargrove of Lorenzo; two sisters, Ruth Young and Jack Michael, both of Lorenzo; two grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
Pallbearers will be Wilburne Gray, Herbert Boyd, Willie Williams, Dena Andrews, Jim Norris and Herschel Bird.
©Lubbock Avalanche Journal, January 1, 1994
Record provided by Crosby County Pioneer Memorial Museum
transcribed by Linda Fox Hughes
Graveside services for Charles Leslie "Dip" Fox, 96, of Lorenzo were held at 10 a.m. Friday, Feb. 6, 2004, at the Estacado Cemetery. A memorial service will follow at 11 a.m. at the United Methodist Church in Lorenzo with the Rev. Don Boren and the Rev. Jerry Williams officiating. Arrangements are under the direction of Adams Funeral Home of Lorenzo.
He died Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2004, at the Crosbyton Hospital.
He was born May 25, 1907 in Estacado, Texas to Nat and Gussie Iona Ellis Fox. He married Jennie Lynn Michael on Jan. 2, 1930 in Clovis, N.M. She died Jan. 20, 1994.
He was a graduate of Estacado schools. He was a farmer and a member of the Lorenzo United Methodist Church. He served on the Estacado and Lorenzo School Boards of Trustees for 21 years and never missed a regular meeting. He also served as caretaker of the Estacado Cemetery for many years.
He is preceded in death by four brothers, Clarence, Leonard, Sam and J.D.; and three sisters, Dollie Elizabeth Bowron, Gladys McDonald, and Jennie Ione Merchant.
Survivors include a daughter, Mickie Hargrove of Lorenzo; a brother, H.L. "Doc" Fox of Ransom Canyon; two grandchildren, Mike Hargrove and his wife, Kathy, of Lubbock, and Gay Rainey and her husband, Robert, of McKinney; four great grandchildren, Brendan and Steven Hargrove, and Katie and Leslie Quisenberry.
Pallbearers will be Steve Fox, Jim Fox, Troy Fox, Les Bowron, Bobby Clark and Brendan Hargrove.
The family will received friends from 5 to 6 p.m. Thursday at Adams Funeral Home in Lorenzo.
The family suggests memorials to the Estacado Cemetery Association c/o Peoples Bank, P.O. Box 490, Lorenzo, Texas 79343.
©The Crosbyton Review, Friday, Feb. 13, 2004, page 8
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