T H E  F I S H  M A N U S C R I P T   Page

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Nancy Almeda Whitmire, daughter of Henry Whitmire and Amanda M. Fish Whitmire, was born November 15, 1854 in Williamson County.  She was married October 17, 1872 to Oliver Hazard Perry McCall "at the home of the bride," according to Williamson County Marriage Book 4, page 6.

 

Oliver Hazard Perry McCall, son of Matthew Morgan McCall and Lucinda Rogers Bowlin Willis McCall, was born in Red River County, Texas June 13, 1851, seven months after the death of his father.  His mother died about 1858 probably in Titus County, Texas, and he and his brother and sister went to live with an aunt [or a half-sister].  When his half-brother William H. Bowlin married he and his brother and sister made their home with him and accompanied him in a move to Flo­resville, Texas.  When his sister married there in 1865 they were employed as cowboys on her husband's ranch.  About 1866 they joined William H. Bowlin in moving to Williamson County.

 

On October 26, 1878 Oliver Hazard Perry McCall purchased from J. M. Bristol 55 acres in the Gravis League for $75, according to Williamson County Deed Book 20, page 466.  It was the first of several land transactions he made in the Gravis League.  His land and the land of other members of the family, located five miles northwest of Georgetown, was later absorbed into Cobb Ranch.  In 1985 the ranch was owned by Marvin B. Edwards.  Landmarks include traces of the Chisholm Trail which traversed the ranch, Cobb's Cavern, "The Blowhole," vestiges of a pre-Civil War hardware store and Chalk Ridge Cemetery.

 

He appeared as the head of Household 166, Enumeration District 159, page 19 in the 1880 census of Williamson County.  The family was enumerated as:

 

        "McCall, Perry          28, born in Texas, farmer, illiterate, [par-

                                                   ents' places of birth left blank]

                        Nancy          25, born in Texas, father born in Louisiana,

                                                 [mother's place of birth left blank],

                                                 housewife, illiterate

                       Lucinda         6, born in Texas, father born in Texas,

                                                 mother born in Texas, daughter

                      John W.         5, born in Texas, father born in Texas,

                                                 mother born in Texas, son"

 

In adjoining Household 167, appeared the family of Amanda M. Fish Whitmire, mother of Nancy Almeda Whitmire McCall.

 

"P. McCall" received a deed to 100 acres in the Gravis League, "beginning at the N.E. corner of a 100-acre tract sold to E. F. Fish August 20, 1885," for $75 down and a $125 note from J. A. Montgomery December 22, 1888, according to Williamson County Deed Book 48, page 171.  He paid off the note November 22, 1893, according to Deed Book 66, page 369.  He deeded an "undivided 1/4 interest in 50 acres in the southwest corner of the J. A. F. Gravis Survey" for $18.75 to Asa C. "Ace" Whitmire October 16, 1893, according to Deed Book 110, page 579.  On October 28, 1899 he purchased 50 acres from Lillie Ilse, "feme sole, daughter of William Ilse and Anne Ilse" for $25, accord­ing to Deed Book 95, page 42.

 

Oliver Hazard Perry McCall received an annual income from his parents' es­tate, according to Amanda Lucinda McCall who reported that "Mr. Woods brought money for timber cut each year."

 

Oliver Hazard Perry McCall reappeared as the head of a household in the 1900 census of Williamson County, Enumeration District 130, page 22.  The family on June 19, 1900 was rendered as:

 

        "McCall, Oliver H.      49, born June 1851 in Texas, father born in Ar-

                                                    kansas, mother born in Tennessee, owns farm

                                                    married 28 years, illiterate

                 Nancy A.             46, born November 1853 in Texas, father born in

                                                    Texas, mother born in Texas, mother of 8,

                                                    all living, illiterate

                 John                     24, born December 1875 in Texas, father born in

                                                    Texas, mother born in Texas, farm laborer

                 Fannie                 19, born September 1880 in Texas, father born

                                                    in Texas, mother born in Texas

                 Mary                    16, born May 1884 in Texas, father born in Tex-

                                                   as, mother born in Texas,

                 Oliver                 14, born February 1886 in Texas, father born in

                                                   Texas, mother born in Texas, farm laborer

                 Ada                       9, born February 1890 in Texas, father born in

                                                   Texas, mother born in Texas, in school

                 Lillie M.              7, born February 1893 in Texas, father born in

                                                  Texas, mother born in Texas, in school"

 

Oliver Hazard Perry McCall died April 28, 1901, at age 51, in a hospital at Burnet, Texas and was buried in Chalk Ridge Cemetery located on Cobb Ranch.  His tomb­stone was the only one remaining in the cemetery of "some 11 or 12 graves" in 1970, according to Mary Alnora "Nora" Cox Drennan who reported that it had fallen face down.  She died April 18, 1926 in Dawson County, Texas at the home of a daughter.

 

Nancy Almeda Whitmire McCall wrote a letter May 2, 1901 to her daughter Aman­da Lucinda McCall Cox describing the death of her father which she retained all her life:

 

                                                        "Gravis, Texas

                                                         May the 2, 1901

Dear Son and Daughter,

 

I will write you all a few lines to let you know we are all well and hope this will find you all the same.

 

Well, Sinda, your Pa died last Sunday at Burnet and we brought him home a Sun­day and buried him a Monday at the school house.

 

And Ider Bowlin's baby got rattle snake bitten, and it died yesterday.

 

Sinda, I had a tough time.  I set up for six weeks, never got much sleep, only what I done in my chair.

 

Lizzy and Asbury went up there with us and came back a Sunday.  Melissa and Fannie stayed a week with me, and then Onie [Melona A. Whitmire Sherwood stayed two weeks with me.

 

He never did get so he could talk.  He never even made any complaints.  I wrote to you the first week and never did get any answer.  I looked for Jim [James Madison Cox and hoped he would come.

 

He lay there so long that they was soars on him as big as the palm of your hand.  He was the porest person I mite near ever saw.  He never did seem like he had his right mind.  The Doctor said it started from his brain.  I didn't have any compny, only one or two at the time.  He never raised his head off his pillar nor turned his self over with out help.

 

Sinda, the last week he lived his legs got so crucked he couldn't have us to move them.  They wasn't any body there when he died but Lizzie and Asbury and Ader.  None of the children at home didn't know he was dead untill I brought him home.  The children was all here but Fan and George, and they had just left.

 

That man that brought me home his name was McCall.  I think he was some kin to me.  His father and mother came from Alabama.

 

Sinda, I have got a mighty pore prospect for a garden.  We have got a very good crop of corn and cotton.

 

Lillie May went home with Mary and Buddy.  I guess she will come back a Sunday.  I wish you all could of been with us.  You all come when never you can.  I would like to see you any time.  I guess I had better close.  Write soon.

 

                                                from your Mother

                                                to Sinda Cox"

 

"Nancy McCall, feme sole of Williamson County, Mrs. Cansada Shed, joined by her hus­band J. Shed and Isaac Whitmire, a single man, all of Lavaca County, Texas" deeded two tracts of land in the Gravis League January 23, 1903 to John Ward Bowlin, their nephew, for $75, according to Williamson County Deed Book 118, page 26.  One tract of 50 acres had been "received from J. M. Bristol October 8, 1882, and the sec­ond tract was for 53 acres.  It is believed that this was an inheritance from their mother.  Oliver Elijah McCall, at age 17, signed the deed for his mother.

 

Children born to Oliver Hazard Perry McCall and Nancy Almeda Whitmire McCall include:

 

        Amanda Lucinda McCall                  born February 12, 1874

        John Hugh McCall                            born December 1, 1875

        Fannie Alice McCall                         born September 2, 1880

        Elizabeth Susan McCall                   born May 3, 1882

        Mary Rosella McCall                       born March 3, 1884

        Oliver Elijah McCall                        born February 6, 1886

        Ada Almeda McCall                         born December 21, 1890

        Lillie Mae McCall                            born February 21, 1892

 

Amanda Lucinda "Cinda" McCall, daughter of Oliver Hazard Perry McCall and Nancy Almeda Whitmire McCall, was born February 12, 1874 in Wil­liamson County.  She appeared in the 1880 census of her father's household as a six-year-old.

 

In 1890 she met at church James Madison Cox who was to become her husband October 13, 1892, according to Williamson County Marriage Book 7, page 545.  They were married by Elder G. D. Teevan at the home of her parents.

 

James Madison Coxle Cox, was born March 15, 1870 on the family farm six miles northeast of Lampasas.  He appeared in the 1880 census as a 10-year-old living in his father's household.  He so disliked his middle name that he changed it, taking his fa­ther's name, "James Christopher Cox," and throughout his life his signature read "James C. Cox."

 

James Madison Cox was a farmer, a mason and a carpenter.  In 1893 they lived at Leander, Texas in Williamson County.  In 1896 they lived on a farm four miles north of Georgetown, Texas.  In 1897 they lived with his mother on a farm at Hylton, Texas.  In 1898 he lived on the farm of his father-in-law in Williamson County.  While living there he took care of Sam Mullen, a smallpox victim, after other members of the family had died from the disease.  Having a natural immunity to smallpox he was able to nurse him back to health without overly exposing himself. While quarantined he would wave to his family across the creek at dusk each night to let them know he was all right.

 

In 1898 James Madison Cox made a wagontrip to visit cousins in Otero County, New Mexico.  While there he was hired by a railroad construction company laying track.  Following his tour as a gandy-dancer he sold his wagon and team and returned to his family in Texas.

 

In 1900 James Madison Cox was enumerated as the head of Household 382-389 in Williamson County, Precinct 5, Enumeration District 130, page 22.  The family was ren­dered as:

 

        "Cox,   James     28, born March 1872 in Texas, father born in Indiana,

                                           mother born in Missouri, farm laborer, married 3

                                           [sic] years, farm laborer, renting a house

                    Lucinda   25, born in February 1875 in Texas, father born in

                                          Texas, mother born in Texas, mother of 3 children,

                                          all living.

              Ora                  5, born in November 1894 in Texas, father born in Tex-

                                          as, mother born in Texas, daughter

              Elmer             3, born in September 1896 in Texas, father born in

                                          Texas, mother born in Texas, son

              Alvie               1, born in Texas in August 1898, father born in Texas,

                                          mother born in Texas, daughter [sic]"

 

In 1901 and 1902 James Madison Cox operated his mother's farm in Nolan Coun­ty, Texas.  In 1902 he bought a butchershop in Hylton when he built a home on five acres of land adjoining the town.  In April 1904 he sold his property in Hylton and returned to Williamson County where he bought a farm.

 

He was baptized into the Church of Christ at Florence, Texas in 1905.  On September 6, 1905 they bought 60 acres of land from I. M. Williams, according to Williamson County Deed Book 110, page 611.

 

In the following year he contracted to build a church building for the congregation, quarrying the stone himself.  In November 1983 Ora Ethel Cox Gowen and Arlee Claud Gowen attended there on a visit.  Members of the congregation did not know the early history of the building and eagerly gathered around her to ask ques­tions after services. 

 

In December 1906 the family removed to Woodson, Texas after arriving at nearby Albany on a train on Christmas Eve.  On July 22, 1907 he purchased 10 acres of land at Wood- son from O. J. and Rackie Wood for $150 in cash and two $50 notes.  On a hill over- looking the town he built a new home.  In 1908 they moved to Young County, Texas set­tling near the Craig Ranch.  In 1909 they moved to Round Timbers, Texas, and in 1910 lived at Masters, Texas.  On December 12, 1910 he purchased a $2,000 life insurance policy from the Modern Order of Praetorians.  Annual premium at his age of 40 was $31.90 per year.

 

They moved in 1911 to Altus, Oklahoma.  Later that year they moved to Throckmorton County, Texas.  In 1914 they were in Menard County, Texas.  In the fall of 1915 James Madison Cox moved his family to Bluewater, New Mexico at the instance of his cousin Arch Van Winkle.  His son-in-law Claud Franklin Gowen and family joined him in the move, travelling in covered wagons.

 

Mary Alnora "Nora" Cox Drennan recalled the 21-day trip across the plains:

 

"We camped one night just east of the courthouse in Aspermont.  Next day on our way to Clairemont, after crossing the Brazos River, we ran into our first sand-storm.  The red dust was so thick we could not see to travel and had to make camp.  We had trouble keeping our wagon sheets from blowing away, and it was impossible  to pitch a tent.  We were discouraged and about ready to return to Throckmorton County, but the next day was a most beautiful day, so we decided to go on.

 

Our road was two ruts with tall grass in between.  It crossed the Plains fol­lowing the course of least resistance.  Quail were so thick there that occa­sionally our horses would kill one with their hoofs.  Frequently on the trip our iron pot suspended over the campfire was filled with quail stew."

 

In 1916 he began homesteading 160 acres on McDonald Flat near Weed, New Mexico.

 

James Madison Cox was killed November 4, 1916 in a gun fight.  He was killed by T. Lester Courtney at a sawmill in Perk Canyon, in an argument over mules which he had traded to Courtney for lumber to build a house on his homestead.  Courtney shel­tered himself inside the mill and opened fire with his rifle.  James Madison Cox stood in the open with his pearl-handled revolver in his belt. The first rifle shot ripped the handle from his pistol, and the second caught him in the side.  He was buried in the community cemetery at Weed with a marble headstone.

 

In its February 1917 edition the "Praetorian Guard" announced that the Modern Order of Praetorians had paid a claim of $1,000 to the widow of "James C. Cox."

 

T. Lester Courtney was indicted for murder by Otero County grand jury April 2, 1917, according to Otero District Court records.  His attorney was able to gain several de- lays in the trial pleading that witnesses essential to his client's defense were in military and naval service [World War I].  His strategy was successful in that defense witnesses could not be located; Horace Resley could not be contacted in Skull Valley, Arizona; Wesley Smith was in France with American Expeditionary Forces and H. L. Far­ris had enlisted in the U. S. Navy.

 

Prosecution witnesses had likewise left the area.  The district attorney had to rely on U. S. mail to notify his witnesses of the trial date.  Included on his list were "Mr. & Mrs. C. F. Gowen, Mrs. J. C. Cox, Mr. & Mrs. J. T. Potter, D. L. Lewis, George W. Lewis, W. F. "Will" Donage, J. R. Ehart, Elmer Cox, J. W. Van Winkle, E. E. Jerni­gan, Tom John, Martin Neuman, and Mrs. Nora Drennan."

 

The prosecution's exhibit "A" was the contract which was the center of the dispute which led to the death of James Madison Cox (C3/4.10).  The contract was typewritten on the back of the letterhead of Penasco Valley Mercantile Company, of which Royal Whitaker was secretary-treasurer.  It read:

 

"Weed, N.M, February 7, 1916

 

To whom this may concern:

 

Agreement entered into by and between T. L. Courtney of Weed, New Mexico, party of the first part and J. C. Cox of Weed, New Mexico, party of the second part.

 

Party of the first part, T. L. Courtney, for and in consideration of the sum of

Two Hundred Fifty Dollars (being one span of mules) agrees to deliver to the party of the second part, J. C. Cox, the following amount of first class lumber as follows:  All first class lumber in outer buildings at the rate of $8 per thousand feet and the balance of the amount of Two Hundred Fifty Dollars in lumber of first class from Mill owned by party of the first part.

 

Party of the first part, T. L. Courtney, further agrees to deliver said amount of lumber on the 1st day of September, 1916.

 

Party of the second part, J. C. Cox agrees to deliver to party of the first part, T. L. Courtney, a Bill of Sale covering title to above span of mules when said party of the first part, T. L. Courtney, shall have delivered to or cause to be delivered to said party of the second part, J. C. Cox, the full amount of lumber as specified above.

 

Royal Whitaker                                  T. L. Courtney

Witness                                         Party of the first part

                                                J. C. Cox

                                                Party of the second part"

 

When the case was finally tried years later in Alamogordo, New Mexico the defendant received a suspended sentence.

 

It was noted that James Madison Cox was left-handed; his first child was left-handed; and her first child was left-handed.  Each first child of her children were left-handed.

 

Amanda Lucinda "Cindy" McCall Cox and her son, Willie Elmer Cox re­turned to Texas in August 1920 and rented a farm in the Brazos River valley in Stone­wall County.  A brother, John Hugh McCall, three sisters, Fannie Alice McCall Holley, Ada Almeda McCall Thurman and Lillie Mae McCall Boatright and her mother, Nancy Almeda Whitmire McCall, lived in that commun­ity.  Another brother, Oliver Elijah McCall moved his family to the area from Haskell County, Texas shortly after their arrival there.

 

All of these families later removed to Dawson County with the exception of John Hugh McCall who remained there, removing to Aspermont, Texas upon retirement.  He died there in 1964, and his wife, Ethel Winnie Brooks McCall died there in 1971.  Both were buried in Old Brazos Valley Cemetery. 

 

In 1921 Amanda Lucinda "Cindy" McCall Cox moved to Roscoe, Texas with her son.  In November 1922 she moved to Lamesa, Texas to live with her daughter Ora Ethel Cox Gowen with whom she made her home for the rest of her life.  In 1952 she moved with her son-in-law Claud Franklin Gowen to Lubbock, Texas.  She died November 7, 1964 and was buried in Lamesa City Cemetery November 9, 1964.

 

Children born to James Madison Cox and Amanda Lucinda "Cindy" McCall Cox include:

 

        Ora Ethel Cox                           born November 3, 1894

        Willie Elmer Cox                     born September 30, 1896

        James Alvia Cox                       born August 12, 1898

        Mary Alnora "Nora" Cox         born December 24, 1900

 

Ora Ethel Cox, daughter of James Madison Cox and Amanda Lucinda "Cindy" McCall Cox, was born in Leander November 3, 1894.  She appeared as a five-year-old in the 1900 census of Williamson County in her father's household.  In 1901 her parents moved to Nolan County, and after three years there, returned to Wil­liamson County.  In December 1906 they moved to Woodson after arriving at Albany on a train on Christmas Eve.  In 1908 they moved to Young County.  While on a visit to the family of her uncle Francis Marion "Buddy" Mullen in Woodson she at­tended a church service and there met Claud Franklin Gowen.  Thus began a courtship of buggy rides, picnics, church socials, par­ties and community dances.

 

Later James Madison Cox moved his family to Round Timbers, Texas, and the young couple kept in touch with frequent visits.  Claud Franklin Gowen moved to Ft. Worth to enroll in Draughon's Business College, but "business" at home was up­permost in his mind, and he returned to Woodson for the purpose of asking for the hand of Ora Ethel Cox in marriage.  To her dismay her family was planning a move to Oklahoma at that time.  The groom's timing was opportune.

 

And so they were married July 4, 1911--in the vogue of the time, seated in a buggy at the front gate of the home of George H. Holley, the bride's uncle.  The mar-riage was performed by another uncle, Asbury Frost Thurman, according to Throckmorton County Marriage Book 1, page 213.  Asbury Frost Thurman baptized her shortly before their marriage.  It is to her credit that all of her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren and their spouses were members of the Church of Christ.

 

Claud Franklin Gowen, son of Jeremiah B. Nunley Gowen and Emma Cath­erine Bailey Hawkins Gowen, was born October 19, 1887 in Red River County, Texas.  He attended school at Milford, Texas and at Pancake community school in Cory­ell County, Texas.  He appeared as a 12-year-old in the 1900 census of Coryell County living in his father's household.  He was orphaned at the age of 16 upon the death of both of his parents in 1904.

 

At that time he and his younger sister, Minnie May Gowen moved to make their home with their brother-in-law, James Harvey Lee.  From the sale of the prop­erty of their parents' property $900 had been realized.  James Harvey Lee in­vested this inheritance for them in farmland in Throckmorton County. 

 

On November 5, 1905 "C. F. Gowen, J. H. Lee et al" had received a deed from D. S. Mc- Donald to 480 acres of land, according to Throckmorton County Deed Book 15, page 13. Total consideration was $3,960 at seven dollars per acre.  Claud Franklin Gowen operated the farm to support his sister and himself, and they continued to make their home with James Harvey Lee.

 

The young couple settled down to a farming life at Woodson surrounded by a large num­ber of relatives.  On November 21, 1911 Claud Franklin Gowen received a deed from S. J. Kelley to 160 acres of land, according to Throckmorton County Deed Book 20, page 264.  Their first son, Stanley Olgee "Jot" Gowen, was born there the following year on August 25, 1912.

 

Three years later Claud Franklin Gowen was influenced by his "itchy-footed" father-in-law to move to New Mexico to homestead free land in a new country.  In the summer of 1916 the Cox and Gowen families loaded their possessions onto wagons and headed westward.  Twenty-one days were consumed in making the trip from Woodson to Bluewater, New Mexico as the party followed the wagonroad from watering point to wa­tering point.  The caravan passed through Post, Brownfield and Seminole, Texas and Hope, Tatum, Lovington, Dunken and Weed, New Mexico. 

 

The wagontrain moved slowly with cows, horses, chickens and turkeys.  Ora Ethel Cox Gowen recalled that when they made camp on the trail at sundown they hobbled the horses and cows to graze around the camp, but turned the chickens and turkeys "scot free."  At dark the poultry wandered back into camp and one-by-one flew up to roost in their cages on the back of the wagon--the only home they knew on the then-empty expanse of West Texas and Eastern New Mexico.

 

When the caravan arrived at Bluewater in Lincoln County at the residence of a Cox cou­sin, Arch Van Winkle, Claud Franklin Gowen admired the cold, blue flow of his spring.  Upon his return for a visit 40 years later he noted that the spring still flowed, cold and blue.

 

Claud Franklin Gowen, along with his father-in-law and a brother-in-law filed homestead claims on adjoining tracts on McDonald Flat--a high-altitude plateau located a short distance from Weed.  They petitioned the Postmaster General for a post office and were instrumental in the establishment of Stellsworth, New Mexico, named in honor of Stella Worth, the first postmistress.

 

When his father-in-law was killed in a gunfight November 4, 1916 additional responsi­bility settled upon Claud Franklin Gowen.  He reported that his little group of settlers, with many hardships, wrested their homes "from the mountain, the State of New Mexico and the federal government."  He recalled their life in New Mexico included a lot of "privation, make-do and barter."

 

While the men bartered their labor at a little mountain sawmill for lumber to build their homes, the women transported it by wagon-and-team up to McDonald Flat.  The long uphill climb with a wagonload of lumber was difficult for the team and difficult for the pioneering women.  Going uphill they frequently had to alight and walk along with their horses, alternately pushing and encouraging their teams.  Going downhill was a different story.  They had to set the brake, tie a fallen tree to the rear of the wag­on for additional braking power, put the team in a trot with a tight rein, and "let the devil take the hindermost," according to Ora Ethel Cox Gowen.

 

The group supplemented their income from their meager crops with work in lumber camps, on adjoining ranches, in a gypsum plant, in apple orchards, on cotton-picking forays back into Texas or "anything else that would turn an honest dollar."  To assist each other, members of the little community gave freely of their time in log-rolling, barn-raising, quilting and nursing the sick.

 

On a cold December night in 1918 Ora Ethel Cox Gowen and her mother were sitting up with Margaret C. Cox Drennan who was critically ill.  When they left for home, a short distance away, at midnight they discovered that a six-inch snowfall had covered the trail and familiar landmarks.  They became disoriented and wandered for hours across the pine-covered mesa, frequently stumbling upon herds of startled cattle.  Finally a light appeared in the window of "Grandma Cantrell's cab­in," and from it they got their bearings again, arriving at home in time to fix break­fast for their families.

 

Names of the early settlers on McDonald Flat appeared in a column entitled "High Mountain Tales" carried in the August 19, 1983 edition of the "Alamogordo Daily News":

 

" On the fun side of things --did you have any idea there was once a neat little town nestled in the MacDonald Flat area? Yep! The name of the town was Stelworth. Maxine Key, a child in the years of 1913Ä1923 recalls the good times in that town and some of the families that lived there. There was a post office, a school and church.  Miss Knowles, then Mrs. Van Winkle, Artie Hick­son, and Elsie Scroggins were teachers there during those years. 

 

Maxine said that with the help of many friends and relatives she was able to round up names of folks who lived there. Her family was Alexander Stephens Key, her father and mother, sisters and brothers, Richard, Marian, Doris, Lex and Malcolm. George Key lived there, also, his wife, Emma and their three sons, Albin, Clarence and Cecil. Others were William and Jane Allen and children, Jimmy, Dilla, Pearl and Oliver, Walter McCleskey and his wife, Alphie Trammel, and their children; Bernard, Mel­bourne, Josie Pearl and Alton, lived there. Kid and Anna Reed bought the place.

 

 There was a large family of Drennans there. Dick  Drennan and wife, Sue Haynes and children, Fred, Earl, Virgil, Jim and Ethel. R.E. Chalk worked there helping the Keys with their crops. A doctor Shields came there about 1920. Nora Cox and her mother [Amanda Lucinda "Cindy" McCall Cox lived there along with Elmer and Avie.

 

The Claud Gowens, the Smiths and a Rodney and a Floyd were there.  Their children were Braxton, Ernest, Coy, Vivian, and Edna. Tom Drennan was a neighbor and had Bessie and Lena. At one time there were five families of Drennans on McDonald Flat.

 

There was a Scottish family named McRae with a son, J.A., and a daughter, Virginia, and a daughter, Wanda.  Mrs. McRae was an artist and served hot rolls to the neighbors and kiddos who stopped by for a visit. The McRaes built fences and outbuildings with rock.

 

Alec Key recalls others who lived on McDonald Flat or near Weed: Alvie Cox, A.J. Fisher the fiddler, Ed Watts, Nelson Jones on down the Penasco, Nelson Jones, Richard and Maggie Watts, Joy, Prathers, Emmet Potters, Buckskin Jernigan on the way to Pinon, Bill Porter, Austin Reeves down on the Penasco, Longbothams, Jack Wasson and a family named Snow. Ad Mad­lock's family lived on McDonald Flat and also his mother. Homer and Lilly Barclay with sons Cyril and Charles lived there and Arthur and Elsie Strang. The Strangs were there during 1913 and 1923. They had a large family.

 

There were school picnics, church picnics, pie suppers and baseball games. Thank you Maxine for all the data you got for me on Stelworth that you could gather. It's neat to look into history."

 

In August 1920 they completed the required four years of tenancy and received title, free and clear, to 160 acres on a "sawed-off mountaintop."  They promptly sold their homestead and loaded for a return trip to Texas.  Ora Ethel Cox Gowen and her widowed mother, Amanda Lucinda "Cindy" McCall Cox were the teamsters on the two wagons.  Claud Franklin Gowen, riding "Ole Bill," and Stanley Olgee "Jot" Gowen riding his burro, acting as drovers, herded the livestock before them.

 

The livestock, grazing and watering as they moved, made slower progress than the fast­er-moving wagons.  The wagons moved along the trail from windmill to windmill, spring to spring, with their wagonsheets billowing out like sails in the southwesterly breeze.  When no landmark could be found on the monotonous prairie the groups ren­dezvoused with the wagon of Amanda Lucinda "Cindy" McCall Cox at nightfall.  Frequently she found it necessary to light a lantern and place it on the end of an el­evated wagon-tongue to guide the others to the campsite.

 

After another 21 days on the trail they arrived in O'Donnell, Texas.  In continuing rainstorms in the summer of 1920 Claud Franklin Gowen inspected land in Lynn and Dawson counties, selecting a quarter-section of ranch land at $27.50 per acre in the eastern part of Dawson County in the McCarty community.  Fifty-seven years later the land sold for $1,000 per acre.  He moved his family to the site and erected a tent to protect them from the continuing rainy weather.

 

The family was a beehive of activity in the remainder of the year.  Up went a wind- mill, a watering tank for the livestock was dug out, a barn was erected and a chicken­house was built.  Virgin sod was turned, a "short crop" was put in, and then thoughts were turned to a residence.

 

In September 1920 Amanda Lucinda "Cindy" McCall Cox moved to Swenson, Texas to make her home with her son, Willie Elmer Cox, but on November 24, 1922, the date of the birth of her grandson, Arlee Claud Gowen, she returned to the household of Claud Franklin Gowen where she made her home for the next 40 years.

 

The life led by the Gowen family on their new farm was typical of that of many of the settlers of the area.  Both the men and the women worked in the field.  Cardboard "splints" reinforced the bonnets the women wore during field work with the strings bowtied under their chins.  Long black stockings with the feet cut out were worn over their arms to prevent freckling and tanning under the merciless West Texas sun.

 

The cool water from the windmill served as the milk cooler.  Watermelons floated in the concrete horsetrough to cool in the summertime.  Pork was preserved in the "salt- box" on the back porch.  An orchard was put in, and peaches were halved and dried on the tin roof of the "car-shed."  On cold winter days the family shelled popcorn around the fire and drew straws to see who would have to go out into the cold and snow to winnow the grain before making popcorn balls.

 

The boys had plenty of pasture to hunt in with Dean Ranch adjoining.  Two dogs, "Jiggs," a collie and "Tippy," a rat terrier, were busy chasing rabbits and killing rattlesnakes on the hunts.  With barbed wire "twisters" the boys twisted rabbits and prairie dogs out of their burrows.

 

Sunday was church-going.  Night services were attended after the advent of the auto- mobile reduced the seven-mile trip to a matter of a 20-minute drive to Lamesa.  On cold winter nights the mother heated bricks and wrapped them in towels for climbing into a cold sedan or a cold bed.  No telephones--the early-day line always seemed to be grounded out on a barbed wire fence anyway.

 

Thunderstorms and sandstorms were frequent--with an occasional cyclone.  When a high wind came up it was necessary to cut off the windmill to prevent the fan from running away and tearing up.  Sometimes the storm broke without warning, and the farmer had to risk the dangerous job of climbing to the top of the tower and avoiding the whirling blades while manually turning the spinning wheel away from the wind so that the cut-off might be engaged.

 

About 1925 Claud Franklin Gowen was baptized into the Church of Christ in a stocktank located on the courthouse square in Lamesa.

 

In the fall of 1925 the family with a lot of excitement installed a radio, the first in the community, and the Gowen livingroom was filled with visiting neighbors anxious to try out the new-fangled gadget.  In 1927 Claud Franklin Gowen bought a new Ford sedan, and quite a few sprained wrists and near-misses on broken bones resulted from hand-cranking the new machine.  In the fall of 1929 Claud Franklin Gowen took a contract as a rural mail carrier on Star Route 2 out of Lamesa, and the sedan began to show the results of traversing "60 miles of bad road" six days a week.

 

In 1929 Claud Franklin Gowen moved his family to a 10-acre tract adjoining the city limits of Lamesa on the east.  In 1940 the family purchased a two-story apartment house built in 1909 at 3l0 South Bryan Street which became its residence for the next 12 years.  During World War II the apartment house was filled to overflowing with workers from the local U. S. Army Air Corps glider training base. During this pe­riod Claud Franklin Gowen was a circulation representative of the "Ft. Worth Star-Telegram."

 

He purchased a quarter-section farm in adjoining Martin County from J. I. Matthews January 15, 1944 for $4,400, according to Martin County Deed Book 51, page 99.

 

In 1952 Claud Franklin Gowen moved his household to Lubbock, Texas to be nearer to the families of his sons who had earlier settled there.  For the next five years, in a period of retirement, he busied himself with great attention to his four grandchildren, with churchwork and with supervision of three farms which he owned in Dawson and Hockley County, Texas.

 

Like many of his forebears Claud Franklin Gowen was soft-spoken, of a gentle nature, fond of teasing and pranks, considerate of his loved-ones, particularly his younger sister, Minnie May Gowen Shipley.  He was unknown ever to have made an enemy and had a deep religious conviction.

 

Claud Franklin Gowen, like his father, was very active in churchwork.  He was appointed a deacon in 1927 and an elder in 1932 in the Church of Christ at Lamesa.  Shortly after his arrival in Lubbock he was made an elder in College Avenue Church of Christ, an office in which he served diligently until his death January 13, 1957 at age 69.  His last words, spoken as he lay near death on a Sunday evening were, "It's about time to go . . . to church."

 

On October 1, 1976 Ora Ethel Cox Gowen sold her home and lived with a cou­sin, Leona Maye Mullen Lamirand in Lubbock.  Two years later she removed to Lamesa where she was living in September 1981.  In 1982 she returned to Lubbock and again lived with the Lamirands.  In the summer of 1986 she suffered a broken hip in a fall and died October 9, 1986.  She was buried beside her husband in City of Lubbock Cemetery.

 

Two sons were born to Claud Franklin Gowen and Ora Ethel Cox Gowen (C2/10.1):

 

          Stanley Olgee "Jot" Gowen             born August 25, 1912

          Arlee Claud Gowen                         born November 24, 1922

 

Stanley Olgee "Jot" Gowen, son of Claud Franklin Gowen and Ora Ethel Cox Gowen, was born at Woodson August 25, 1912.  He and his cousin, Olgee Perry McCall, were namesakes of Olgee Shofner, prize-fighter of Florence, Texas.

 

Early in his life he was subjected to the vicissitudes and hardships of his pioneering family.  At the age of three he was carried on the wagontrail to New Mexico, sometimes on horseback with his father and sometimes jostling along in a bumpy wagon.

 

On the trip he fell out of the wagonseat on one particularly hard jolt, and before his mother could stop the wagon she felt the heavily loaded vehicle lurch as a wheel rolled over the body of her child.  Expecting to find him crushed to death she wept tears of relief to find his only injuries to be broken ribs and a broken arm.

 

While in New Mexico Stanley Olgee "Jot" Gowen adopted an obstreperous burro who became his constant companion on boyhood hunting trips on McDonald Flat near Weed.  When the family returned to Texas he rode his burro "every jump of the way" for 21 days, as he reported it.

 

He attended grade school at McCarty community and was graduated from Lamesa High School in 1929, at the beginning of the depression.  The next ten years he was pri­marily concerned with trucking and construction work.  In his trucks he hauled cattle, oil, gasoline, cotton, grain, tomatoes, sand and gravel--and even a Negro baseball team.  In his travels around West Texas he met Madella Jean Beach, a clerk at Woolworth's in Plainview, Texas and immediately labeled her his "million dollar baby."

 

In California, under the alias of Francis O'Rourke, he helped to build the All-Amer­ican Aquaduct carrying water through the Imperial Valley to Los Angeles.  In Califor­nia during the depression the state government made a stringent effort to prevent Tex­ans and Okies from filling jobs that they preferred to go to California residents.  Consequently Californian Francis O'Rourke, recently deceased, went back to work  In Arizona he worked on the construction of Salt River Dam and Morman Flat Dam.

 

On July 3, 1936 Stanley Olgee "Jot" Gowen and Madella Jean Beach, daughter of Toombs Hamilton Beach and Julia Ann Eggleston Beach of Plainview, were married in Phoenix, Arizona.  She was born March 3, 1911.  Toombs Hamilton Beach was born in Homer, Louisiana June 10, 1866 and died in Lubbock July 18, 1950.  Julia Ann Eggle­ston Beach was born in Whitesboro, Texas Au­gust 15, 1873 and died in Lubbock February 23, 1956.