--V. Junita McClurkan
I. Introduction
II. My Ancestors
A. My Father's People
B. My Mother's People
III. My Parents
IV. Life on the Farm
A. Work
B. Fun
V. Education
A. Elementary School
B. High School
VI. Spirituality VII. College
VIII. Teaching Profession
IX. Our Marriage
X. Our Life as a Married Couple
A. Rita and Maxine Growing Up
B. Our Travels as a Family
XI. The Girls' Schooling and Marriage
A. Jobs
B. Their Children
XII. Declining Years
A. Death of o.r Parents
B. Our Retirement
C. J.D's Sickness and Death
Today is November 8, 1994. I am seventy - eight years old. I reside at 127 Vanderbilt Lane, Waxahachie, Texas. Today I have run errands, been to the bank, saw and chatted with people, got some boxes from the attic, covered the outside faucets for winter, picked up broken limbs caused from high winds which are a remnant of a tornado that hit an apartment complex down the street from me, and talked over the phone several times. Oh, yes, I took a nap sitting in the chair. Tonight I am alone and lonely. No one to talk to, no one to fix supper for, no one to argue with over the election returns as they are coming in over the television. Programs are not good tonight because almost all of them are giving election returns. I look over to my right and start to say something to my husband but find no one there; the chair is empty, the room is silent except for the ticking of the big French clock sitting on our mantel over our fireplace. You see, the girls are married and have homes of their own and my husband of forty-three years has been dead for seven and one-half years. If he had lived we would have celebrated our fiftieth wedding anniversary last year on August 14, 1993. My two wonderful daughters and their families had me over to Maxine’s to celebrate the memory of our wedding date. We had hamburgers and all the trimmings --and enjoyed it-- and the girls gave me a big bouquet of flowers. I often cry as I think about the good times we had together with our two adorable girls. I cry at night when I go to bed and start thinking about his death and how I wish I had him back again, even knowing that he was very ill and miserable here on earth.
At night I often think about my life and the events of it; my life when I was young and at home and the farm, then my life as a career woman, and my life as a married mother of two daughters.
To my surprise just last week I received a letter from my eldest grandson, Tim, who is attending Texas A&M University, asking me to write on paper some events of my life so my grandchildren and great-grandchildren can read about them. Consequently, I have decided to do just that. Events may not be in the correct order and there may be some mistakes in dates and figures but I shall tell them as I remember. I have no one to corroborate my statements and events. Even my typewriter is no help.
Each day as we rise it is a new beginning, yesterday is gone, and tomorrow has not come. I like to start my day with this thought.
God has given me this day to use as I will.
I can waste it or use it for good.
What I do today is important,
because I'm exchanging a day of my life for it.
When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever,
Leaving in its place something I have traded for it.
I want it to be gain, not loss; good, not evil;
success, not failure; in order that I shall not
regret the price I paid for it.
WOOD
What’s in your NAME?
One of the names for which we have received many requests from our readers is the popular surname WOOD. According to government figures over a decade ago the name ranked 59th in the United States. The meaning of the name is quite simple for it was originally applied to an individual who lived by the edge of the woods or in a wooded area. Since he and his family might live there for his lifetime and several succeeding generations, the designation had sufficient time to evolve into an hereditary surname the name is derived from the Old English word 'wudu" and the Middle English "wode" meaning "wood." In the very early records this type of name usually appears with a prefix such as ''de, atte, or by. By the 13 or 14th centuries, however, the prefixes had either been dropred or had been absorbed into the name. As a result we find the present surnames Wood, Woods, Atwood, and Bywood to mention but a few.
English records show a Walter de la Wode ln Herfordshire in 1242. Thirty-two years later a John Atew~de was reoorded in Essex. In Scotland the name Wood evolved in a sirilar manner and is found quite frequently in early records. One such record advises that a horse was stolen from Adam Bictus Wode ( Adam called Wood) in 1398. Another record indicates that a Hugo o' the Wode was granted a royal pardonl in 1407. William Wood left his home in Derbyshire, England and was settled in Lynn, Massachusetts by 1631.
Grant Wood, the distinguished American painter, is best known for his classic "American Gothic", while Leonard Wood, for whom Fort Leonard Wood in Kansas was named was a physician, army officer and colonial administrator. Highlights of his career included service as Military Governor of Cuba and as U. S. Army Chief of Staff (1910-1914). The Wood name has many coat of arms recorded. One has a gold shield on which is displayed a black lion rampant.
II. MY ANCESTORS
I was one year old when my family moved from Malone (Rienza no longer exists') to Mart. My parents bought 84 acres of good farm land which was to be our home until all the children left the nest and made lives of their own and both my parents died. World War I was raging in Europe when this happened. Dad escaped war because he was a farmer with a family and I believe, he had a heart condition at that time also. Times were hard for everybody. A few years after we moved to this rolling black land farm located twenty-three miles east of Waco and about five miles east of Mart, Texas my mother's parents moved just across the creek from us. (Our farm was sold in 1972. Ruby and Alford negotiated the sale). Grandpa. Tyler bought 47 acres.
Grandpa Henry Tom Tyler was born in Many, Lousiana on October 10, 1858 and died on November 19, 1946. Grandama Amanda Georgia Self was born in Darnell, Louisiana February 14, t860 and died October 19,1938. At the age of 17, Henry T. Tyler, was married to Amanda Georgia Self in Darnell, Louisiana with two witnesses, Tom Largen and Mrs. Tuggie. Twelve children were born to this union, the seventh of which was my mother, Ida. Some of the children were born in Louisiana, others in Texas and Arkansas. I do not know why they migrated to Texas. The children were:
1. JAMES HENRY TYLER, born the 30th day of October, 1876 in the state of Louisiana.
2. J.W. (WILL) TYLER, born the 20th day of December, 1878 in Sabine Paris, Lousiana.
3. ISSAC NATHANIEL TYLER, born the 3rd day of February, 1881 in the state of Louisiana.
9. HATTIE TYLER, born the 20th day of May, 1894 in Milford, Texas.
County, Texas. They could neither read or write.
My father's parents ware born in Georgia. I knew very little about them. Some, I never saw and some, I saw only a few times. His father, Henry Palmer Wood, was born on July 9, 1860 and died June 25, 1936. His mother, Louanna Wood,was born May 11, 1861 and died August19,1920. To this marriage was born five children.
1. Charles D. Wood, born on July 27, 1882 in the state of Georgia and died June 9, 1949.
2. John Bunyan Wood, born September 17, 1886 in Birmingham, Georgia and; died October 15, 1967.
3. Earl J. Wood, born February 18, 1889 in the state if Georgia and died on January 27, 1956.
4. Rosie Wood, born in Georgia. Married to Rafe Burgess. Dates Unknown.
5. Mentoria Wood, born in Georgia. Married to Wade Curry. Dates Unknown.
After his first wife died, Grandpa Wood married Julia Blair. She
was born July 18,1876 and died March 9, 1933. She was the grandmother I knew. I never saw my first grandmother. Grandma Julia was an excellent seamstress. When we went to Georgia to see them, she would make Ruby and me a dress. She needed no pattern to cut them out. A wonderful lady she was. All of these people lived in and around Roswell and Alpharetta most of the time.
When Granpa's first wife died he broke up housekeeping.
He sent each grandchild in Texas an item from his house. I don't remember
what all was sent, but some got little bowls, some got antique syrup pitchers,
and I got a beautifu1 antique sugar bowl that has been on my china cabinet
shelf for years and years. It is a treasure as well as a family heirloom
now.
III. MY PARENTS
My father, John Bunyan Wood,was born in Birmingham, Georgia on 5eptember 17, 1886 and died of heart failure and hardening of the arteries on October15,1967.
Mother, Ida Tyler, was born on September 20, 1890 at Milford, Texas and died of cancer January 10, 1981. She was a young woman of 18 when she married my dad.
My father had an uncle Daniel Wood who lived in Malone. I do not know when, or why, Uncle Daniel came to Texas but he and his wife raised a beautiful family there. When my father was quite young he came to Texas to visit his uncle and possibly find work. While here he met my mother, fell in love with her and they were married in the Ashcreek Baptist Church at Rienza (Malone) Texas, on December 6, 1903 with the Reverend Jesse Powell officiating. Eight children were born to this union.
After they married, my parents moved back to Georgia where J. B. Jr. was born. My [ather worked in a store for awhile. Sometime, somewhere he took a business course and I believe it was from Draughn's Business School. Pop very smart in math--arithmetic it was called in those days. He could figure problems in his head quicker than we could on paper. My father was a quiet, unassuming man, not big on jokes or chit chat but he was a deep thinker and was serious-minded. When he spoke one did well to listen to him. He demanded obedience from his children and had very little getting it. If the boys got a whipping at school, they got one at home also even though Pop thought the teacher might be wrong. I got the other end of the switch one time from Dad. He told me to get up out of bed and I did not do it. The second time he called me he, came in with a switch in his hand and was whipping me at the same time he was pulling me out from under the covers. Needless to say
he did not have any more trouble like that from any of us.
My dad had an authoritative manner of presenting himself and speaking. He never raised his voice and never explained things to us. We did it because he told us to. That was all that was necessary.
After we grew older my brothers owned an Overland car. J. B., Emorv, Ruby and I usually went to parties and gatherings together. My parents always told us what time to be home. If we did not get home when they told us to, my dad did not say a word but the next time we wanted to go somewhere he would not let us ---and we knew why. When we would ask for the car he would either shake hls head "no" or never answer us at all. We did not have to ask a second time---we dared not to--- because we knew why he was refusing us.
I never saw my father smoke, drink whiskey or beer nor did I ever hear him use a curse word or fowl language. When he was shocked or disappointed he usually would say, "I'll be Joe Billy''. He was never a violent man although he had a quick temper. I never heard him raise his voice to or strike my mother although, like other couples, they had their disagreements. He would give her the "silent treatment`' I remember days would go by without his saying anything to any of us. When we aensed it' we all stayed out of his way. Mother would just sing and go about her business at home. Dad loved his family very much: but did not show outward affection but showed it in many other ways. When Ruby was small and had a fever which required medicine all during the night, Dad slept by her with his watch in his hand so that he could give her medicine at the correct time.
My mother had a different personality than my dad. She had a smile and personality that drew people to her. We always thought that Pop was somewhat jealous of her because of her winning ways. She never learned to really drive a car althougn Pop tried to show her a few times, she seemed to be too nervous to practice and, frankly, Dad did not have enough patience to help her enough. So anytime she went anywhere Pop would have to take her. consequently, she went very little except when we went as a family.
Mother loved church work, especially the Women's Missionary Union which met once or twice a month at church. If Dad took her, he would have to quit his work on the farm, dress and take her, then go back to get her. She would have to take a bath, dress and get there on time. This usually took too much time from their farm work . It got to be such a hassle she, and other farm women did not go. Farm people had too much to do on the farm to try to make a living.
Mother always said she wanted to be a missionary, but it seemed she was a missionary to the seven children she raised, teaching them caring for them, kissing their sore elbow and stopping fights between them. Mother spanked us a few times but usually dad was the disciplinarian, and he used the "stick" very few times. He did not have to.
If mother got angry, worried or sad, she would get that churn full of milk and her Bible. She would sit there and churn and churn until the butter formed on top of the milk while she read her Bible. Then sometimes she would sing as she churned.
Mother was a kind, good-hearted, patient, forgiving, loving christian woman. Both parents were christians. As we had our family devotion each morning at the breakfast table, Mother would do the Bible reading and Pop would pray. At these times we all felt so close to God, and to each other.
When dad bought the farm in 1917 World War I was raging in Europe. Times were so hard?almost no money was floating around. My father did not go to war as he had a farm on which to raise food for the country and children to raise. I believe he had a physical disability also, probably an unhealth heart. Since I was born during the war, I know very little about life then. Woodrow Wilson was our president then, so our parents named our brother Woodrow Wilson after the president since he was born near the end of the war.
Neighbors helped neighbors. We had little food to eat, few clothes to wear. Hand-me-downs were common. I remember one tine Wilson had to wear a pair of girl's shoes one year to school. I felt so sorry for him because he hated so bad to have to do that. They were shoes that Ruby and I had worn and outgrown them. We never went hungry but beans, cornbread, garden vegetables and milk were commonplace on our table. Often if there was no meat in the house to eat for breakfast, mother would go out in the barnyard and kill a fryer and cook it for breakfast.
In those days everything was worked with mules and plow. There were no tractors. Whole families worked in the field to eek out a living. After my grandfather died at our house of tuberculosis, my father bought his land, as it ioined ours. That gave us a few more acres to work, We would chop or pick out our crop then to make a little money would chop cotton for other people for $2.00 a day. My daddy and my two older brothers would chop on our rows to help us so we could keep up with them.
Men wore jumpers, overalls and straw hats to protect themselves from the sun. Also when they sweat the wind would blow on the wet clothes and so would be cool to their bodies. Sometimes people sweated so much their clothes turned white from the salt that escaped their bodies. Women did not wear pants in those days. (They started wearing pants to work in in 1941 when World War II started). We wore thlck, unusually long, dresses to protect our arms and legs from the sun as well as the cotton and corn leaves. We wore bonnets with card board in slits at the top, called split bonnets, to protect us from the sun. At this time people wore feed sack underwear. We would buy flour in a flowered sack and would use that sack to make things with.
We started chopping cotton and hoeing weeds from the field when we were six or seven years old; we also started picking cotton at that age. When mother was not in the field herself she would send cool water out to the field in a half-gallon bucket so we could have a fresh drink. Wilson would be the carrier of that bucket and that was all he could carry at one time. The big depression followed World War I. Many people starved to death, long soup lines were common. In the 1920s Ruby, Wilson and I would chop cotton at home while Dad and J. B. and Emory worked outside our farm trying to earn some much needed money. We would get tired hoeing so we would stop in the at the end of a row and have a funeral using bugs and grasshoppers as victlms, as we buried them, Ruby and I would sing and Wilson would preach the sermon.
Another time I remember J. B., Emory, Ruby and I were left to chop
cotton by ourselves. Our father had a good watermelon patch growing nearby. He had two or three good ones covered with leaves and vines so the sun would not ripen them too quickly. We got hungry for a hot watermelon but knew our daddy would be umhappy if he found out we got one without his permission, so we decided to fake a steal and he would not know we were the thieves. We waIked in each other's footsteps so, we thought, it would look like one person did it. We did not fool our father at all. He noticed the footsteps and even found the rinds we had carelessly tossed over in the field. He confronted us with it. We admitted it but he did not punish us. The next dav he went to the patch and pulled the two big melons, put them in the icebox and chilled them. At the end of the day our family gathered out in the yard under a tree and had cold watermelon for dessert.
Prices were so cheap in the 20s and 30s. In the 1920s sugar
was 5 cents a pound, eggs 5 cents a dozen. everyone had their own chickens. Once in a while we would have steak, but not very often. Many times the boys would catch a hen or two and take them to town to sell in order to get Just a little spending money. Then sometimes mother would send them to town with two or three dozen eggs so she could have some spending money. The boys usually hitchhiked to town. It was common in those days for young boys--and men too--to hitchbike. It was not dangerous and they nearly always given a lift by somebody traveling in a car. Very few people had cars in those days and no young boys had them. Later eggs went up to 10 cents a dozen. I remember we sold kerosene to our cotton pickers for 10 cents a gallon. In the 1930s, or there about, five gallons of gasoline cost 85 cents, one gallon of kerosene was 18 cents. One quart of oil was 15 cents. A haircut was 25 cents, a roll of toilet paper was 25 cents, although those of us who lived in the country ,used the Sears and Roebuck catalogue in our outdoor privy for toilet paper. The paper got pretty hard and scratchy sometimes but that was all we had. Those who had telephones would have a monthly bill of $2.25; country people had no phones for quite some time. A gallon of milk was 12 cents, two pounds of butter was 25 cents. The farmer fed
his cow, milked the cow, churned the milk until it made butter, separated the milk and butter, molded the butter, took it to town and delivered it for that price. When Ruby and Alford married in 1933 Alford had 10.00 dollars. He worked on the road for $3.00 a day to help put food on the table, and pay $5.00 a month for house rent. At hat tine there was no electric lights, phones, or running water in the rural area. A letter could be sent for 3 cents and a postcard cost 1 cent.
Our mother always went to the barn morning and evening to milk the cows until our brothers got old enough to do the job. When they left home she returned to milking twice a day. Dad fed the animals, got the cows ready to milk, but as I, he never could seem to get the cow to give milk. Milking was just not his cup of tea.
As soon as we were large enough the boys took care of the barn work —feeding animals, milking cows, and feeding pigs night and morning. Ruby and I usually cooked breakfast in the morning and fixed supper and washed and dried the dishes at night. One night while we were washing dishes we got into a fuss. Ruby got so mad she threw the dish towel at me. It went passed me, hit the windowpane, knocked it out and fell outside on the ground. One time Emory was teasing me or playing with me somehow and he told me to hlt him. He had a knife in his hand but I did not notice it. As I started to hit him on the back side he held the knife behind him so I hit the knife and cut a deep gash on my thumb. I carry that scar on my thumb today. That is another example of children not thinking properly when they do some of the things they do. Our parents-taught us and taught us well how to do things. They worked right along beside us until we were old enough to do things by ourselves. Actually we made fun out of work. We had each other to talk to, play with, work with, and fight with. We never had to be alone. There were no flowers in our back yard; we kept it clean by sweeping it with home made brooms made out of certain tall weeds called broom weeds that grew on the farm. There was no grass to mow we did have flowers in the front yard, usually petunias and lark-spurs. We wanted the yards to be neat for Sunday in case we had company. Most farm people went to church on Sunday morning and went home with someone after church and visit ed on Sunday afternoon.
The smaller ones in the family would gather the eggs each evening and bring in cobbs with which to start a fire the next morning. Each evening someone would shuck some corn, usually dad or the boys, to feed to the hogs. The little ones would have to go in the pig pen to collect the cobbs. And each evening there was wood or coal to be brought in to use in the heater or cook stove. The special bucket we used to bring coal in was called a "coal scuttle."
There were only two stoves in the entire house. On cold days in the winter time our father would get up early and build fires in both the stoves then he would return to bed until the rooms warmed up. One morning when mother went in the kitchen to cook breakfast she started to reach down into the coal scuttle to get some coal to put in the stove and there was a snake all curled up in the Scuttle. It would have scared me to death but she calmly called my dad and he got the poker, with which we punched the fire, took the handle of the bucket with the end of the poker, carried it outside and killed it.
After the rooms warmed up he would call us girls
(Ruby and me) first and let us dress by the fire. Then he would call the
boys (J. B. and Emory) who
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