|
Submitted 4/16/2006 by: Introduction What follows is an undated typescript left by my great aunt, Lilly Mae Grooms Bryant, to her family. This is an exact transcription, which includes spelling errors. "Cooledge" was the original spelling of "Coolidge" in Limestone County. Because most of the information involves the Grooms family, I am including some basic biographical information about them. John Samuel and Charles Gordon Grooms, brothers, moved from Alabama to Leon County, Texas, in 1896. They were two of fourteen children born to John Sanford and Harriet Jane (Locke) Grooms. John Samuel was born at Griffin in Spaulding County, Georgia. He married Alice Corine Matthews on 15 January 1893 at Morgan, Dale County, Alabama. He owned a feed store and a cotton gin in Coolidge. He also ranched on land near Teuhuacana. He died 21 April 1959 in Coolidge. Corine died on 25 March 1958 in Coolidge. They are both buried in Coolidge City Cemetery. Their children included: Alice Pearl was born 19 September 1897 at Buffalo, Leon County, Texas. Pearl died of scarlet fever on 20 February 1900 and is buried at Buffalo Cemetery, where her father's brother, Charles "Charlie" Gordon Grooms is buried. Charles was born at Griffin, Georgia, on 24 December 1878, died from Hodgkin's disease on 22 Jan 1904. Samuel DeWitt "Dee" Grooms was born at Buffalo on 24 March 1899. As my aunt describes, he served at the Great Lakes Naval Station during World War I and contracted the "Spanish flu." He never fully recovered and worked for his father at the cotton gin and feed store when his health permitted until his death from complications he suffered from that disease. He married Clara Rändine Christoferson on 15 August 1919 at the Methodist – Episcopal Church in Coolidge. They had four children. He died at the Veteran's Hospital in Waco on 10 January 1946. DeWitt was also known in Coolidge as "Skipper." DeWitt and Clara are buried in the Coolidge City Cemetery. Burrell Wesley "Bubba" Grooms was born 2 November 1900 at Buffalo. He married Annie Bert Robbins of Teuhuacana. They had two daughters. He died of colon cancer on 11 April 1978 at the hospital in Mexia. Burrell and Annie are buried in the Coolidge City Cemetery. Lilly Mae, the author of this typescript, was born 28 October 1905 at Buffalo and married Robert F. Bryant, Sr. They lived in Louisiana and West Texas. She died 12 October 1999 at Odessa, Ector County, Texas. Harriet Marie "Hattie" Grooms was born in Coolidge on 3 April 1911 and married Milburn Leon Copeland. They lived in Mississippi and had two children. She died at Laural, Jones County, Mississippi on 27 February 1972 and is buried with her husband in the Coolidge City Cemetery. Elizabeth Geraldine Grooms was born 8 March 1918 in Coolidge. She married Hobert E. Gregory, Sr. at her parent's home on 5 September 1927. They had nine children and resided in Louisiana.
Coolidge, Texas Lilly Maye Grooms Bryant Memories of Childhood My memories and childhood impressions are significant of the time our home, my brothers, our friends and relatives, made love and goodness a feeling of righteousness. I remember one neighbor in particular, Mrs. Tom Walker. Mrs. Walker was very kind to me and helped my mother when I had my eyes bandaged. I had run into a barbed wire fence while playing and my eyes were covered for what seemed to me a long time. Mrs. Walker came for me to spend the day with her and read me stories and taught me songs. We sang together. While Papa was working at the gin, I remember Bubba and Dee taking his lunch to him. I remember Papa's carpenter's apron and tools. He did carpenter work. My earliest memories of home was so much love, so much interest in each other and happiness together. I felt loved and cared for. My third brother was born February 22, 1908. As a child, I wanted a sister. Charles Gynne was named for Papa's brother Charlie Gordon. In 1910 my parents bought a new home across town. They bought this home from H. H. and Millie Hill for $1274.00. (Just for the record it was lots #3, 4, 5, and 6 in block #28 in Limestone County in Volume 39, Page 128.) I remember the move and I remember we had a pretty dog. The boys had a big red wagon and they took Charlie in the wagon and I walked. It was all the way, a long way. Especially since I couldn't get in the wagon. The dog ran along, too. Wish I had a real picture of that. Our new neighbors were the Lambs and the Roberts. Papa went into the feed business in Coolidge in 1911 where he bought and sold various kinds of feed and seed. He also operated a coal yard in connection with his feed business. In the meantime he bought land and engaged in farming. Our family grew and my mother had colored help. In time I was taught to help with all the housework. If by chance my brothers helped in the kitchen they always got into a windig, popping each other with cup towels. This was trouble. Bubba and Dee cut wood and attended to the yard chores. Our mother took orders for Larkin Products. Dee and Bubba delivered the orders in their red wagon. They earned a premium for the orders, a big clock which they gave to our church. This clock is in the church now. The boys got "outside" jobs. Bubba delivered meat orders for Mr. John Adams. He drove a one horse shay. I don't remember what Dee did, but I remember they bought their school books. Our neighbors, the Lock Lambs and the Asa Lambs and Mr. Roberts had a grocery store. The Gene Williams run a float line. I remember Mr. Williams got mad at Papa because Papa would not let him put his mules in our patch. Now I know why. The Weavers who were across the street had children our age. They were Leola, Leonard, Thora (Toedy), and Lottie B. Their father was Sam Weaver and their mother was Mae Harris Weaver. Mr. Weaver run a lumber yard on the block for Mr. Bell. We children enjoyed playing hide and seek in the lumber stalls. We like getting in the sand and gravel pits. However we were told this was dangerous.. Toedy and I had lots of good times together. I was a tomboy, due to trying to climb behind my brothers. I like to walk the tree limb which overlapped the porch roof.. My ambition included being able to chin that tree limb just as many times as my brothers. I faintly remember when Dee and Bubba made horses of corn cobs, using string for harness. They built roads in the dirt and must have had fun but that was one game I was not allowed to disturb. The Owens lived below us. Mr. Owens was away from home a lot and I was told often to go see about Mrs. Owens. The thing I remember most was that every time Mama gave me a pail of milk and sent me to spend the night with Mrs. Owens, on my return I found a new baby sister. My grandmother was always there and in my innocence I thought my grandmother helped God send the new babies. (What will my grandchildren think of this?) Our relatives in town were Grandpapa and Grandmama Matthews and Bertie, (Bertie went to Coolidge School and graduate in ). Uncle Henry Matthews and Aunt Alma who married in 1911, Aunt A Bell and Mr. Wallace and the children, Sellers, Albert H., Eloise and Mary. We all had lots of good times together. I remember our grandfathers death and his services. The black hearse with two horses, the surrey, also with two horses. I remember my Aunt Bell's death and how my mother was anxious about the children. Our grandfather died January 5, 1912. Aunt Bell dies April 1, 1918. My sister Marie was born April 3, 1911. It is Harriet Marie – she was named for our Grandmother Grooms, who was Harriet Jane Locke Grooms. I remember our church. The bell rang every Sunday morning telling us it was Sunday school time. Every one went to church. The town had churches of every denomination. There was two kinds of Methodist. Our neighbors, the Weavers, attended the Methodist Protestant and our church at that time was M. E. Methodist. My first Sunday school teacher was Miss Jenny and she was my ideal. She gave the children small cards with a Bible picture on one side and a story on the other side. I had a box of these cards a long time. Miss Jenny married Dr. Pyburn. After Sunday school Albert H. and I would hurry to sit with Grandmama for church. Our Grandmother was very, very dear to us. After Aunt Bertie graduated from high school, she and Grandmama moved to Huntsville. Aunt Bertie attended Teacher's Normal. Grandmama boarded some girls. When they moved back to Coolidge they bought a home, (known today as the Curtis house). Aunt Bertie taught school at Yarborville, Tehuacana and Datura. She went back and forth from Coolidge in a little one horse shay or cart. Mr. Henson and Aunt Bertie married July 16, 1914. They asked me to be a flower girl at the wedding. This made me very happy. I had the prettiest light blue satin dress and wore my hair in long curls. Every one talked so nice and I carried a pretty basket of flowers. Lucille Anderson was the other flower girl. Cooledge had a big train. There was a passenger train going north and a passenger train going south. There was a long freight train. There was a lot of steam, whistles and bell ringing which intrigued me. I remember my first train ride. Our family went to visit with our Uncle Johnny Solomon at Floydada, Texas. Uncle Johnny met the train and we rode to his house in a wagon. There was high seats in the wagon. The boys were allowed to sit on the back and hang their feet down. The boy always had big fun but the girls had to sit in seats and be lady like. Uncle Johnny had a big two story house. There was a wind mill, a storm cellar and much I had never seen before. My folks really enjoyed that trip. My brothers were getting big faster than I and noticed their privileges were much more than mine. When I questioned this my parents told me I was a little girl. My brothers went to Epworth league on Sunday afternoon. I remember they had a Tom Thumb wedding. I remember Miss Nettie Rich was the leader. She later married Loyd Wood. The boys had scout meetings at our house. There was a whole bunch of those boys. Dee started taking piano lessons and everyone was saying how well he played. The electric lights came to Cooledge. There would not be any more cleaning and filling kerosene lamps. There would not be any more firing up gasoline irons to iron clothes. Then came the telephones. Our telephone number was 121 and the store was 91. Uncle Henry's store was 127 and Mr. Wallace's number was 86. Next the cars came and our father surprised us with a Hupmobile. The new garage took part of the garden. Our home was almost rebuilt – with the second floor. I thought the stairs were great. Our home was the first stucco home in the area. The time was prosperous. Our father was doing well in his feed business. He had a new brick building, his own. The farmers drove their wagons loaded with grain on the big scales to be weighed and were told where to unload in a freight car on the railroad track. They returned and weighed the empty wagon and were paid for their load. The store was filled with rows of nice stacks of cotton seed meal, oats and maize. Papa had a truck, a two wheel thing, that he used to load these sacks on customers wagons. I've watched two men take the sacks by the "ears" of the sack and the opposite end and swing and count one, two, three and in the wagon it went. My brothers worked in the store after school hours. I know now they worked hard. During this time I was learning from my mother. My mother could manage the home as well as my father could manage his business. We children learned a sense of value that was more than an education. Papa always had a cow to milk often after dark with a lantern. If he milked before late I went with him and he filled my cup with milk and we talked. This association with my father was a big event to me. Papa had a bunch of hogs, too. My mother didn't appreciate my father's cows and hogs but his purpose in having them was to utilize the great waste of feed at the store and make plenty in the kitchen. The hog killing was a big thing in winter. The weather was the guide for hog killing: a big freeze was good.. The smoke house was filled with ham, bacon and sausage. Again, everyone had a job. Mine was usually on the stuffed end of the sausage as the skins were filled. People who have not shared in an old fashioned hog killing have missed a worthwhile experience. My mother made the best hog head souse. Then there was lye soap that was a must and it must have been good for laundry because our clothes were cleaner. The soap was put on shelves in a shed off the smoke house. Our family grew closer together with every year. There was lots of good times. Fishing at the Cooledge Lake, picking up pecans in the woods at Pecon Crossing and pitching washers and horse shoes in the back yard on Sunday afternoon. The boys played marbles and had tops to spin. We all joined in jumping the rope while one threw the rope. (One end of the rope was always tied to a certain tree.) There was a hole or mark in the yard where there had been many jumps. Hop scotch was on a smooth level place too. There wasn't the grass because the ground was clean and marked with many happy hours. Thanksgiving and Christmas was always a wonderful time. A time of cooking and plans for relatives to visit. My mother dressed the turkey, Papa chopped the turkey's head off and hung it in the yard. Mama had this large can she scalded the turkey in and then picked it clean. I remember how cold it was for Mama to do this in the yard. Her hands would be so red. Christmas was a wonderful time. We hung our stockings on the mantle. We all wore long stockings. Each stocking was filled with fruits, nuts, candies and sparklers. The boys got fire crackers and roman candles. Under the stocking Santa left toys we each wished for. I found my doll and dishes (glass dishes). One outstanding memory was a doll trunk with a tray and in it was clothes for my doll. We decorated our tree with paper chains. We strung popcorn and red berries. The candles were put on with care and lighted only while we received our gifts. Bubba recalls his last Christmas for Santa's visit for him. He said he saw a pop gun in the Wallace Drug Store and he wanted it very much. Mama and Papa told him to wait for Santa. Santa brought him the gun. We all realize now our home gave us all a foundation for strong character and a training of discipline that will always be a part of us. When Dewitte was a senior in high school our family received its greatest shock – Dewitte was to graduate with honors when he joined the Navy. On Good Friday, April 6, 1917, Congress passed a Joint Resolution declaring war on Germany. History was made because it was a world war. The armistice was officially proclaimed November 11, 1918. Dewitte had spent most of his time in service on the Great Lakes. During that time there was an epidemic of influenza. It spread throughout America. Dee caught this disease and was very ill. The war made many changes in our way of life. During the war, March 8, 1918, Geraldine Elizabeth Grooms was born, Dewitte sent the name Geraldine for his new sister. Elizabeth was a family name. This little girl was welcomed by one and all. By this time I decided that pail of milk I carried Mrs. Owens, and my Grandmama was not in any way connected with the new babies at our house. |