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."