I, Ella Mae Stephens Clawson, was born December 10, 1914. I am age fifty nine. In this writing I am going to tell you some of the things that happened in childhood. The first time I can remember began when I was about three and a half or four years old. We lived between Comanche and Hasse, Texas. Our family consisted of Papa, Mamma, Debs, Oliver, Seidel, and Silas, and myself. The Silas Moore’s lived about three fourths of a mile from us. Silas was Mamma’s first cousin, and his wife was Ella Doss. Ella Doss’ sister Ollie married William Oliver Alexander who was Mamma’ brother.
One incident that happened was when Oliver was chasing me around the house with a switch and saying, “I am Papa!” We had a cistern where we caught rain water which we drank and washed with. It was fixed in red brick with points jutting out on it. I ran up on the cistern and threw back my head, hitting one of the red brick points and cutting my head open. (I still have the scar from that.)I went crying in the house bleeding profusely. Papa wanted to know what happened. I said “Oliver did it!” It scared Oliver so badly that he ran off. We hunted him and hunted him, and finally found him in a peach tree in Cousin Silas’ orchard. Papa wanted to whip Oliver, but Mamma would not let him. That night, Papa made me sleep with him so he could keep a watch on me. In those days, they did not know about stitches like they do now.
Of course, the brothers were always picking on me. I would go crying to the cow lot where Mamma would be milking. She would take one of the cow’s tits and spray it in my face.
We loved to see the train when it passed not too far away, but there were so many trees, we could not see, so we would either climb on the chicken roost of on top of the barn. Debs and Oliver would always climb faster than I, so sometimes I would miss the train. One time we were climbing a rail fence to the barn, and I fell and cut my leg. I still have that scar too.
Papa always planted us a watermelon patch. Usually Debs and Oliver and Mamma would slip away from me and go to the watermelon patch and bring the watermelons back. One day I caught on and started with them when I suddenly heard something in the sky. I did not know what it was. (It was an airplane.) Debs and Oliver said it was coming to get me, so I ran back to the house crying and told Papa. He told me what it was and not to be afraid, that it would not be getting me.
The next thing that happened was when J.W. arrived on the scene. In this house which we lived, there was a big room upstairs. Mamma had a quilt that she was quilting on up there. The boys were all at Cousin Silas’ house as they had a bunch of children, too. Mamma came down stairs and hollered at Cousin Silas as he was coming across the field. He came to the house. He got Cousin Ella and went for the doctor. I was sent to say at Cousin Silas’ and Cousin Ella’s. They had a hard time keeping up with me there because I kept wanting to go home. Cousin Silas’ girls would let me bang around on the piano and they would let me wear their hair ribbons, which were great huge bows. Late that evening, September 11, 1918, we were told we had a baby brother and could go home. That night Papa took care of supper. We usually had milk and cornbread, but that night we had milk and biscuits. There were some that Mamma had made for breakfast. While Papa was not looking, Debs poured some vinegar in my milk. I told Papa, but I do not remember what he did.
Everywhere we went, like to town or church, we either went in a wagon or a buggy. I remember going in a buggy to Comanche with Mamma one time. I sat in the floor board of the buggy. She got some “Bee Brand Powder” to sprinkle on her little chickens to get the lice off of them.
One time Papa took us to the couty fair at Comanche. I don’t know what kind of shoes Debs and Oliver wore, buy Papa had bought me, Seidel and Silas some canvas white shoes that had a strap and button with a shoe buttoner.
They had a merry-go-round, but I don’t remember riding it. We had a good time. On the way, we passed a silo. I thought that was where they put crazy people.
When Papa would go to town, we would always watch for him coming when he cam up over a hill. Late one afternoon, the boys kept watching for Papa to come from town. They decided it was about time to meet him, so they started out, Debs, Oliver, Seidel and Silas. Mamma heard the train whistle. She was afraid they were on the tracks. She told me so stay with J.W. who was tied in a rocking chair while she went to see about the boys. But, I followed her in place of saying at home. She heard Silas crying. He was in the woods and had grass burrs in his feet. She got them out and told me and him to go to the house. When she heard Silas crying, she said, “Where are you Nigger?” That is what we called him because he was so slow. We went on toward the house. Momma got to the highway, but could not see Debs, Oliver, and Seidel. She saw a man with a Model “TL who had a flat. She asked him. He said he saw two boys and a girl. Mamma knew it was them. The boys use to wear until they were five years old. She caught up with Silas and I. When we walked in the house J.W. was just rocking back and forth. We had to stay with the Moore family again in 1919. Mamma’s brother, Woodson Alexander died, so she, papa, and J.W. went to the Bend for the funeral. Then, sometime later, Ruth Alexander, our cousin, Uncle Will Alexander and Aunt Ollie Alexander’s daughter, visited us. She brought Mamma a blue pitcher that belonged to Uncle Woodson.
The Moore family left and went to The Valley around 1919 or 1920. We also left this place at Comanche and went to the Baggett Creek Community to live. We moved into William Lafayette “Billy” Stephens house: he was our half brother. They moved out to West Texas. I do not remember how long they stayed.
It must have been Christmas of 1920 that I remember about the apples and oranges. (We never did get apples and oranges except at Christmas.) I woke up that morning happy over what Santa Clause brought me. When Papa told me to look at the foot of my bed, I did, and found a gunny sack with apples and oranges. He said I was so ugly that Santa Clause dropped it there and ran off.
One night, I woke up and heard a funny noise. It sounded like someone bending a tin lid back and forth. I was so scared I covered up my head. The next morning, I found out that Billy and his family had moved back and it was their clock ticking.
We then moved to the old Pettijohn place. They were the father and mother-in-law of my half sister, Myrtle Stephens Pettijohn. This place was over run with big rats. In fact, one gnawed a big hole in the kitchen door. To help get rid of them, Papa filled wash tubs with water and put cotton seed on top of the water. He ran boards up to the tubs. The rats would run up the boards and jump in on the cotton seed. They then got a surprise when they found out there was water in there and drowned. Debs and Oliver were going to school at Baggett Creek. They started to school however when we lived between Comanche and Hasse, Texas. Their first school was called Brier Grove. Papa and Mamma had to pay for Oliver because he was not old enough. They did not want Debs to go to school by himself. I don’t remember how long we lived at the Pettijohn house. The next move we made was to a house on the North Leon River. One day Papa, Mamma, Seidel, Silas, J.W. and I went down to this place so we could clean up before we moved in. Some of the children from Bagged Creek played hookey from school and came up to the house to see us. Debs and Oliver were not with them because they knew they would get it if they did. It was Debs job to milk the cows when we weren’t home on time. That day he got home from school and we weren’t there, so he decided to make some cornbread. It was good but he left eh salt out. We were just thankful he did not burn the house down. We used a wood stove (a stove that burned wood) to cook on. I forgot to say that when we lived at Billy’s place, we raised some sugar cane. Papa, Debs, and Oliver cut it and they took it to “Buddy” Robinson’s syrup mill which was across the road from where we lived. We sure had a lot of sorghum syrup to eat. You nearly had to cut it out of the bucket with a knife in the winter time because it was so thick. I went with Papa and the boys and watched Buddy make sorghum. He had an old mucle who was hitched to something like a wheel and the mule turned it round and around to get the juice out of the cane. Then Buddy would take the juice to a little house and cook the juice down in kettles. He would skim off the top ever so often.
We finally moved on the North Leon River. That is when my hoeing and cotton picking days started. We would get up early, chop cotton, hoe corn and come home, eat dinner, and go back to work. Debs always helped Papa plant the crops into the groung. Seidel, Silas and J.W. did not do much of anything since they were too small. We would pick cotton during cotton season not only for ourselves but our neighbors even as far away as Baggett Creek. They Debs, Oliver, and Papa would gather the corn in. We did not do this all the time as we went to school. We had a lot of fun days don on the river swimming and fishing. We would go to Sunday school and church on Sunday. They did not have church every Sunday. Most country preachers had two or three churched that they preached at every Sunday. My first Sunday School teacher was Miss Bessie Rambo, who was also a neighbor. We would have revival meetings under a brush arbor or a tabernacle. At night, they would hang lanterns from the top of the tabernacles. They would use wire to hang them by. These lanterns burned kerosene oil. Some people would get happy and jump up and down and clap their hands. A friend told me one time the preacher called on Papa to pray and he asked to be excused because he held some hard feelings against someone. He got up , left the church, and went down to Baggett Creek to pray. After a while, they heard him coming back. He was shouting and clapping his hands. He said the Lord had forgiven him, and he could pray now.
From time to time I think of something that I should have told earlier. While we lived between Comanche and Hasse, Papa had bought me and seidel and Silas rubber dolls. Seidel tore up his then got mine and tore it up. Seidel’s and Silas’ doll were boy dolls and mine was a girl doll. Papa and Mamma were ordering us some clothes out of the catalogue and he did get after Seidel for tearing up my doll. (I never did get to keep a doll because the boys always broke them up.) We took Silas’ doll with us when we moved into Billy’s house.. All three of us played with it. Billy’s house had two little rooms on back with a porch in between. Mamma had some little chickens in a box in one of the little rooms and that was where we were playing. Mamma had put some kerosene in a container in this little room. When we looked around, J.W. was busy ducking the chickens in it. It blistered the chicks.
Now back to the North Leon place again. Our neighbors were the John Rambos, Billy Rambos, and the Ben Moores. The kids would gather on Ben Moore’s side of the river and go swimming. They had a grapevine they would wing from into the river. Debs and Oliver would slip off from me so I could not go. I got to go one time.
We got our drinking water from a spring which came out of the side of the bank of the river. Papa boxed it in so that it would be easy to get the water. This spring was a mile or more from the house. When the river would get on a rise, we were sent with several lard buckets or syrup buckets to get as much water as we could. One time we would throw the buckets in the river and run grab them up. There was quick sand there and we would bog up in it. One time we were without water and the sun was just about to go down and Mamma sent me to get a bucket of water. I hurried as fast as I could because I did not want to be in the woods after the sun went down. The sun had just set and it was dusky dark in the woods. There were great big tall trees. All of a sudden I heard “who-oo-o”. Boy, I just tore out of there. It was a big owl and another one answered off in a distance.
We did our washing in the river water. Papa fixed up two posts and a board across it so we could stand on it and reach over to get the water. One day Mamma sent me down to get a bucket of water. I got up on this platform and as I reached over to get the water, I fell in. It was not deep so was able to get out.
Ever so often Papa would go to Gustine. I think since he belonged to the Masonic Lodge there, he must have gone on meeting days because it would always be late when he returned home. After dark Mamma would go to the door and listen to see if she could hear the jingling of the harness on the horses and wagon. We were always in bed when Papa come home, but sometimes I would wake up when he came in. He did not always bring groceries every time he went to town, but sometimes he would bring a big supply. Like big boxes of crackers stacked up high. He would buy cans of tomatoes and salmon and a hundred pounds of sugar at one time. Oh, yes, always there was a big hunk of cheese wrapped in cheese cloth. When he would get in, Mamma would open up a can of tomatoes and salmon and we would have some cheese and crackers if we wanted them. The boys were always asleep, so it would be Papa, Mamma and me.
The John Rambos and the Billy Rambos both had telephones. Sometimes when our drinking water was flooded we had to go the Billy Rambo’s well to get water. One time we went there and they were gone. So Debs went in and kept turning the crank on the phone. The operator told him to stop ringing in her ear. He told the operator to have some sugar sent out by Edgar Kennedy. (Mamma always had to put the sugar up high to keep Debs from getting into it.)
The first school I went to was Baggett Creek school. Before I started I remember going to the school one Christmas to a big Christmas tree. Mamma sent along a handkerchief for me to get off the tree because she was afraid I would not get anything. I did get something else. One of the Pettijohn girls got a match box and fixed me up some little crayons in it. That just thrilled me to death even if they were used. Her name was Mary Dee.
My first teacher was Mrs. Emmett Luker. When Debs and Oliver went to her, her name was Miss Gibson. The next year my half brother, Billy’s, girl, Juanita Stephens was my teacher.
Sometimes on Saturday we would all walk down on the river over to Billy’s and spend the whole week-end. Since it was a long way we would stop and visit with friends along the way. We would visit Mrs. Charlie Reise and her children. Her husband was in jail or the pen for making bootleg whiskey. Sometime we would visit Mrs. Lee Pettijohn and her children. It seems Lee was out in west Texas somewhere. Lee was my half sister’s (Myrtle) brother-in-law. When we got to Billy’s, his children (10 children) and our gang which was six, would have a rip-roaring time. On Sunday there would be a whole bunch of other kids come like the Kees, the Smiths, the Reises, and the Pettijohns. By the time Maudie Stephens, my half brother’s wife, got through feeding them all, she would have set three or four tables. Their table was big and long. With just our gang there, we usually had to set two tables. You never saw the like of food. The tables were just loaded down.
Papa always raised a bunch of hogs which he would kill when the first real cold spell came. We did not know what beef was. Mamma raised chickens and turkeys. We would always have a turkey at Thanksgiving. Sometimes when one of her old hens wanted to set, and we did not have the eggs, she would send me to Ben Moore’s for a “setting of eggs”.
Sometimes peddlers would come through the country selling things. It would be night when they got to our house: they would spend the night. One such peddler was selling copper rings. For staying all night, he gave Papa and Mamma a ring apiece. The rings were supposed to help rheumatism.
The last Christmas we had with Papa, I will never forget. We hung up a sck and we told him Santa Claus would just bring him a stick of wood. Sure enough the next morning after we looked at what Santa Claus brought us, we ran to Papa’s sock and he had a small stick of wood in it. We told him Santa just brought him that stick, but he reached under the bed and brought out a box that had candy in it. He said he did not forget me.
On January 7, 1924 as we were getting ready to go to school, he was sitting at the breakfast table and turned around sideways in his chair and fell over dead. Debs ran to John Rambo’s to call the doctor (Dr. Collins). The Rambos had a dog that would bite, so Debs ran and got on the gate. He like to have never got anybody to the door. I ran as fast as I could to Billy Rambos to get help. Some kids were on their way to school and went back and told their parents. It was not long until there was a big crowd at our house. Dr. Collins could not drive his car to our house because of so much sand. He walked from John Rambo’s to our house. They just laid the body out at our home because it was hard to get a hearse down the road. I don’t remember what date the funeral was held on, but it was at Baggett Creek and he was buried at Baggett Creek cemetery. He was buried beside his first wife.
Here I am again, I left something out about Baggett Creek school. There were two boys that lived at Board church up from where we lived who had a donkey and a Shetland pony. They would always chase me to school on the animals and in the afternoon they would chase me home. Mamma wrote the teacher a note asking her to let me get out earlier on account of this. I got home earlier than the rest of the children. The boys were Paul Keith with the donkey and Cullen Banner on the Shetland pony.
Sometime in February of 1924 Billy and John Moore took Oliver, Seidel, Silas and J.W. to the Masonic Home and School at Fort Worth. Mamma’s health did not permit her to raise us. Debs and I did not go as they did not have enough room for us.
Mamma decided to move back to the place between Comanche and Hasse. Cousin Silas spent the night with us before we left the next day. He came with his wagon and team. We loaded up early next morning. Debs drove our wagon and team which was and old grey mule and an old brown mule called Jack. Jack was a gentle old mule that we could ride bare back and without any bridle. Mamma and Cousin Silas lead our cow named Bessie behing their wagon. I put “Old Tom” who was our cat in a gunny sack to keep “her” from getting out. The dog, I forgot his name, followed our wagon. W made the trip by Board Church Community. We had to stop twice and open gates that were shut on the public roads. We made it to the place late in the afternoon and got unloaded. That night Mamma put trunks and quilt boxes by doors as we did not have locks on the doors. She put a big sledge hammer by her bed. She could not have used it if someone got in because it was too heavy to lift. She was afraid of the King boys who lived neighbors to us. When we lived there before they tied our collie dog named “King” to a big oak tree and shot him.
Old man Kin’s grandson married gay Stuteville who was my husband’s cousin. Dr. Collins’, (who delivered me, Seidel and Silas) son, Dale Collins, married Willie Mae Stuteville. Little did I know then I would be in that family.
Debs and I went to a school named Sardis. It was five or six miles from where I lived. Guess who the first person I at that school? It was Paul Keith and his sister. I thought about how he chased me on his donkey at Baggett Creek. The school was a one teacher school and the grades were one through eighth grade. We had double seats, so Debs and I sat together. The only kind of rest room we had was a piece of canvas stretched around some trees. The boys found them a place further in the woods. This Keith girl, I cannot remember her name, sassed the teacher. She was a big girl, so at recess the teacher made her stay in. The teacher closed all the doors and got a switch to switch her with, but this girl ran all over the room. (We watched from the windows outside.) The girl was expelled from school. At the closing of school we had a big to do. The men killed rabbits and made rabbit stew and the women brought the trimmings including pies and cakes. We put on a big program.
That year we had snow on the ground and I did not have any high top shoes. Mamma told me to stay in the house. Debs got out because he had high top shoes. While Mamma was not looking, I slipped out to the smokehouse (that’s where we kept our meat) of Oliver’s old high top shoes. I already had a pair of his overalls, so I got all fixed up and went outside too.
One day, two men came by our house with shot guns. They asked “Little boy, did you see a wolf come by here?” They thought I was a boy because I had on Oliver’s overalls. Mamma and I told them we did not see the wolf. They were looking for a big grey wolf.
I always had to go and get the mail which was two or three miles from our house. I either walked down the railroad track or the highway. Mamma told me never ride with strangers. I was about half way to the mail box, when this man stopped and wanted (me) to ride. I told him no, but he opened the door of his car, and I saw a big black suitcase in the back, so I started running back home. He closed his door and left. I did not get the mail that day.
Most of the time, I would go through the woods to get the mail. Our dog would always go with me. One day, I was just getting into the woods when this big stallion came up barring his teeth and rearing up and pawing the ground. I jumped back inside our field. If I had been in the woods, he would have pawed me to death. I never did go that way again. Most of the time, I would go by the old King place.
We got word that they had room for Debs and me to come to the Masonic Home and School. We were to be there June 15, 1924. Of course, when I went and got the mail, I told old man King we were going to Fort Worth the next day. I told Mamma I told him. She said they would be down and pick every black berry she had. Sure enough, when she got back, all the berries were gone.
Something I forgot to tell you is “Old Tom” had two kittens, but one died.
A few days before we started for the Masonic Home, Cousin Ella took me to the Comanche Courthouse, and showed me the restroom. She told me those round things were toilets, and you sat down on them, and pulled the knob to flush them. You see, all we had was outhouses, and you don’t flush them.
On June 14, 1924, just as the sun was coming up, Billy drove up in his new Model “T” Ford to take Debs and me to Fort Worth.
Transcribed by Wanda Irby, 13 April, 2000.
Used by permission Ima J. Stephens