I
remember Papa had a weekly newspaper in Pontotoc. One spring Mama was helping
in the office. We children were playing out under some large trees. One was
a mulberry laden down with ripe berries. Dodson climbed up into the tree
and ate his fill of them. He began having stomach pains, turned white, then
blue around his mouth. We rushed him to the printing office. Mama quickly
ran her finger down his throat to make him vomit. Those swollen berries came
up in a hurry. None of us ever wanted to eat mulberries again. She put some
in water and showed us how they were covered with hundreds of tiny worms
or some kind of insects.
Papa was a church and civic leader wherever we lived. He was soon superintendent of the Methodist Sunday School in Pontotoc; therefore, he went early on Sunday mornings. Mama would get us ready and send us on our way. The second spring we were there Mama had gotten out spring clothes and dressed us in white clothing. Papa always went down the long row of seated children greeting each and shaking his or her hand. He came to a little boy with his head down. He patted him on the head and said, "Whose little boy are you?" Dodson raised his head and replied with a twinkle in his big brown eyes, "I'm Papa's." Papa put his hand over his mouth and grinned and laughed inside as was his habit when he was amused.
The time came when Papa and Mama began to think of moving to a location better suited to his vocation as a teacher combined with the establishment of a weekly newspaper. After much thought and investigation, they decided to go to Eden in the southern part of Concho County. So we made the move at the end of the school term of 1906. Eden is in a very picturesque part of Texas where there are many native pecan and oak trees and a good supply of water.
We practically camped out when we first arrived in Eden in a small house on the west side of the town. The boys' beds were put in the yard under some post oak trees. But before school started we were settled in a house on Brady Road which was almost adequate for our family. There was a Dee Woodard who came with us from Pontotoc but he must have changed his abode.
Ross Powers faithfully clung to us. The water supply at this home on the Brady Road was from a windmill. There was no storage tank, so we had water only when the wind blew. The day we moved was a still day and we had no water. But Ross Powers, the foster brother of our home, came to our rescue. He climbed the windmill ladder, stood on a narrow platform, and manually turned the windmill. As the cool clear water began to flow from the outlet pipe, we children and all hands available caught water in many containers - including wash tubs and a three legged iron wash pot. We soon had a storage tank put on a platform.
That iron pot was always along when we moved. Mama abhorred dingy clothing and household linen. All white things were washed and boiled weekly; homemade lye soap was used. Mama and later Grandma Richardson, took pride in the nice white lye soap they made. I many not have let my mother know it; but I surely was proud deep down in me to see those clean white things hanging on our clothes line.
But when cold weather carne, I was the one who did the abhorring. We girls had to wear black sateen bloomers over our underwear. Did I hate them, those bloomers!!! I disliked the long underwear too, mainly because we couldn't go without them until after Easter. When hot spring days ocasionally appeared, I'd get so hot during our lively running games at recess periods.
I like the modern way of adding more clothes during blizzards or icy weather.
We were regular Sunday School and church attendants in the Methodist church wherever we lived. After services one Sunday night, we left my sister, Llewellyn, asleep on one of the long benches. We had walked several blocks on the way home when we missed her. In the meantime, Mr. Frieble, the caretaker, had done some straightening up, then closing the doors he locked them. The quietness with which Llewellyn was surrounded awoke her. She made her way to the doors and began pounding on them. Luckily Mr. Frieble heard her and came to her rescue. The two of them started down the hill toward our home and met Papa coming back for her. Through it all Llewellyn still gripped in her hand a small Japanese fan - a prized possession of hers.
My parents brought with them from Pontotoc to Eden a printing press - a George Washington model - and other printing supplies they had acquired.
On July 20, 1906 the first edition of the Eden Echo came off the press. My mother named the paper. It has been in continuous operation, except when in suspension in April and May of 1943, to the present date.
On September 9, 1976 the owners Walter and Dorris Dufrain published a forty-four page edition in connection with the National Bicentennial celebration of our country. Under the weekly Eden Echo heading is the updated statement: "Eden's Oldest Business Establishment…. Seventy-two Years Old... But New Every Thursday."
The first Methodist church building of Eden was erected in 1909 and served the town forty years. When the corner stone was opened in 1949 our father's name was on the building committee. A beautiful light colored brick building was ready for Easter services that spring. In Eden I thoroughly enjoyed a children's Missionary Society under the direction of a Mrs. Walker.
Papa began teaching in Eden in the small wooden building close to or under the huge liveoak trees. Mama sent him hot lunches which he seldom touched. He was too busy helping a slow student with problems, or he would be occupied seeing about things pertaining to his teaching.
Miss Beulah Evans was my third and fourth grade teacher in those early years. Charlie Latham, who had taught with Papa in Pontotoc, also taught with him in Eden.
It was during Papa's tenure in Eden that a nice rock school building was completed in 1910 on the hill in the northeast part of the town. I remember the laying of the corner stone celebration in 1909. A large crowd was present. The town and community were very proud of the school's new facilities.
I was in the fifth grade in the new building with my half brother, John S. Broyles, as my teacher. At the end of the term I had not passed. When Mama found out I failed, I remember she cried. Her tears touched my heart. Failing and my mother's concern truly made a different person out of me. I set my heart and head to the task and became a better student. I went to summer school and was able to enter the sixth grade that fall. Otto Armor was my teacher. Mama and Papa kept in contact with Mr. Armor as to my progress, I learned later. I never failed again.
After we moved into a large new home in Eden which Papa had built for us, close in and next to the new Evans Hotel, more boys were part of our household. This home had gables and the upstairs was one large room for the boys.
Country boys near Eden needing help in order to get to attend school were given that chance by my father who let them work in the printing office for room and board in our home.
Wilford Faver and John S. Broyles, both teachers under Papa, were upstairs. Ross Powers was still with us - he may have been a paying boarder - I never knew. There was a Willie Giles who lived in the country and stayed with us on school days going home on weekends. Finley Cope came from Mason, Texas, and was in the upstairs room. My mother and Aunt Nellie Conner cooked and served bountiful meals, delicious, too. They made a crustless pie from green gage plums and it truly was a favorite with all!
I recall when I was about eleven-years-old my father read aloud after the evening meal. Listening would be Mama, Aunt Nelia and Aunt Florence. The two younger children were in bed. I was playing with some quiet game. The women would be mending, crocheting or making quilt squares. My father's voice was pleasant and easy to listen to. I became very interested when he was reading "Quo Vadis" by Henryh Sienkiewicz (a novel about Rome under Nero.)
Papa was a good provider. He would buy bananas by the stalk, boxes of apples, boxes of oranges and crabapples by the bushel. The latter we made into preserves. They were cooked whole and stored in a three gallon crock churn. Delicious!
It was while we were living in Eden that my mother's grandmother, Martha Richardson, carne from Junction, Texas to make her home with us. She was elderly, in poor health, and lived with us thirteen years. When we moved, she moved with us. Our home was her home.
In the summer of 1910 I had the good fortune to go to Sparta, White County Tennessee, to visit my paternal grandmother and other relatives. I accompanied Aunt Florence Cope. That was a joyous summer for me!! That trip created in me a lasting desire to travel. I am grateful to have had opportunities to take some extensive trips in the United States as well as abroad. Most were made after I retired from teaching for thirty-seven years in Texas Public Schools.
One of the highlights of the Tennessee trip was to enjoy my first train ride. We took along "shoe box lunches" of fried chicken, sandwiches, fruits, and cookies. We could not afford to eat in the diner.
While in Sparta, Tennessee my Aunt Bell Moore and daughter Virginia, about my age, carne to visit Grandmother Broyles. They lived in the beautiful Cumberland Mountains, in Clifty, Tennessee. They took me home with them. We picnicked, played in the shallows of a river, and her brothers and I slid down slag dumps from coal mines where Uncle Tom Moore worked. One day he took us on a tour to show us how coal is mined. We entered by walking into an opening in the side of a mountain with guides who had lamps on their caps. There was water, under foot in shallow holes; so I was warned to walk between the rails on which little cars brought out either coal or slag. Mules, blindfolded to protect their eyes when coming out, pulled the cars in or out.
I enjoyed living on a farm while visiting my grandmother. Her youngest son, William Broyles, a bachelor, lived in the home with her. I remember picking and eating all the raspberries I wanted. I had never seen any before. The room I slept in was a "lean to." The bed had a corn shuck filled mattress. The bed ticking was made of a heavy domestic or ducking. Each summer it was emptied, washed, and refilled. This was done while I was there. The freshly filled mattress was so high it nearly reached the ceiling. For safety's sake they let me sleep on a pallet a few nights until the shucks packed down some.
When Aunt Florence Cope and I returned home in late August, I welcomed another member to our household - this time a precious baby brother born August 4, 1910, named Nile Clifford Broyles. The "Nile" was for an uncle of Papa's. Aunt Nelia Conner chose that name from a list of Papa's uncles. Our new brother became the pet of our family and the whole neighborhood.
A great part of Mama and Papa's married life was lived with kith and kin from both sides of the family, as well as young men boarders. The acceptance of these outsiders was mutual between them.
Papa married Mama in September after her sixteenth birthday in August. He was seventeen years older. She was a very mature person for her age. She proved herself capable and willing to cope with the many moves from place to place. She accepted her fast increasing family of three babies close together and the fourth one in 1910 with loving tender care. She welcomed and loved half brother John S., and coped with the many additions of outsiders and kinfolk to our household from time to time. Events that are outstanding in my mind while living in Eden are that we three Broyles children went with friends to San Angelo to see our first electric lights. We went in a covered wagon and camped out one night on the way. Edenites saw their first automobile which came roaring through the town. The whole community of Eden as well as the whole world was excited to view Halley's Comet in 1910. This comet has been visible since 240 B.C. It will be visible again in 1986.
As was his way of life, Papa took part in various civic, religious, and Masonic fraternity activities besides being superintendent of the public schools, and editor and publisher of the Eden Echo. The following short editorial he wrote expresses his views: "Cement your memory in the hearts of posterity by devoting a part of your time to promoting the welfare of the city."
Since my father and mother had purchased the Concho Herald plant in 1910 while living in Eden, our next move was to Paint Rock, Texas in the summer of 1912. Paint Rock is in the northern part of Concho County and is the county seat. The original courthouse building of native stone is in use today. Paint Rock is located on the beautiful Concho River. The town was named for the famous Indian paintings on a bluff overlooking the landscape to the south. These bluffs, a mile from town, were a regular Sunday attraction for the young people of the area. The following article appeared in the February 23, 1978 edition of the Concho Herald: "PAINTED ROCKS APPROVED AS HISTORIC PROPERTY. Congressman Omar Burleson recently announced that the National Parks Service has approved Paint Rock Indian Pictograph Site, Concho County, as historic property for National Historic Preservation Program in Texas and entered in National Register of Historic Places. National Register is official schedule of Nation's cultural property worth saving and protecting inventory of irreplacable resources across the face of the land.”
Although our family had moved from place to place, we each had learned to adjust. In Paint Rock we easily made new friends and soon entered into various activities of the church, school and community. The Concho Herald was operating effectively after having been closed during 1908 to 1910. The paper became a vital part of our lives.
Papa had been converted to Methodism at an early age and lived a consistent Christian life. My mother was reared a Baptist but chose to join the Methodist Church with Papa after their marriage. One of the first things they did after arriving in a different town was to join the church, which they did in Paint Rock in the summer of 1912. I accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior in 1913. My sister and brothers followed suit as time went by. The family always contributed of our means for the support of our church, as well as to any good cause of the town, state, or nation.
Papa was a natural born teacher and leader. He was soon chosen to teach the adult class in Paint Rock Methodist Sunday School. After he had taught the class a few years the group surprised him one Sunday morning by presenting him a lovely reading lamp in deep appreciation of his faithfulness to the class and the church. In presenting the lamp it was suggested that Papa could now burn midnight electricity instead of midnight oil in thinking kindly and often of his friends while preparing his Sunday School lessons.
In Paint Rock we three older children soon were teenagers. Our parents had given each a chance to learn to play a musical instrument. After I learned to play the piano, we would gather in the parlor and have "singsongs." I could play Church music that didn't have more than three flats or two sharps. I could play war songs in those keys too. When Llewellyn and I had dates, we would sing popular war songs. Both parents often joined us. It was fun. Papa was an excellent song leader. In fact, he loved to sing. He had a sweet voice and could sing tenor, bass, or take the lead. His tenor was most beautiful. We loved to hear him sing "Swing Low Sweet Chariot," and we often asked him to sing it for our pleasure and he did so and enjoyed singing it.
Llewellyn loved to have Papa tell ghost stories. He made them sound eerie. He would build up to a climax and say "boo" and we'd jump and squeal even though expecting it. Papa was not the "atheletic type." But he would join in "parlor games" such as pitt, flinch, checkers, forty-two, dominoes, and carom board games. No playing cards were ever allowed in our home. Mama was more interested in handwork or household duties. But she was pleased that Papa played games with us.
"A happy family is but an earlier heaven" - Sir John Browning.
Papa was a member of Eden Lodge No. 875 Ancient Free Accepted Masons. He was a Past Master of the lodge in Eden. After moving to Paint Rock he received a grand demit from Eden Lodge No. 875 and joined Paint Rock Lodge No. 613 AF and AM. Mama and Papa both were members of the Eastern Star No. 391 in Paint Rock. Both soon held certificates of competence as instructors in the local chapter work. Papa obtained the first certificate among Patrons. He was a past worthy Patron of the Paint Rock chapter also.
Mama had progressed to Assistant Deputy Grand Matron in District No.5. She was invited to assist in the Kerrville Chapter and in the San Antonio Chapter for district meet. She accepted each invitation. In her "keep sake" box I found four certificates awarded her with 100% perfect on three of them and 98% on the fourth. Mama's and Papa's interests were mutual and pleasurable in the chapter work.
Time passed. Papa taught one year in the Concho school located near where the Concho River empties into the Colorado River. I don't remember the year. He taught the Paint Rock School in 1920-1921.