The Brazos River
From New Mexico to the Gulf, the Brazos runs 1210 miles, the longest river in the state. 640 miles of it is in Palo Pinto County. The county is just 30 miles across. There are 35 named bends of the river in Palo Pinto County.
The 'Salt Fork' of the Brazos begins in far west Texas. There is salt in the soil in places out there. When it rains and the water evaporates, salt just glistens there, on top. People used to go in their wagons and scoop it up and sell it---or use it their selves. (My Father was born near there, they would get it to use, Anne L Knight Moore) It seldom rains there, when it does, salt water comes down the river, and it makes the Brazos River salty, all the way. It can damage grass and shrubs, if the water from the river is sprinkled in them. Some day they will put a dam there, to hold the salt in place. The Brazos did not run in 1863 and 1864 and there was terrible drought and grasshoppers.
Texans have always had the weather to contend with
1884, 1886 and 1887 were drought years; Cows were so hungry they would eat tree leaves. Cattle would see you head for the woods with an axe, and they would fall in behind, and wait for the tree to fall. They would quickly eat the leaves. Large groves of trees died. Winter 1898, chicken's feet froze to the roost, Cow's tails froze and later fell off. It was 10 degrees in Dallas, even Galveston froze over. 1913 the boll weevil totally destroyed the cotton crop, and had the greatest flood, too. The bole weevil beat the cotton farmer. By the time JM come along, there was no cotton, to be raised profitably. 1935 there was drought and dust storms.
Prickly Pears
We burned the stickers off prickly pears, so our cows could eat them. It is a hard job, to build a fire , chop the prickly pear sections off, and carry them to the fire and hold them up over the fire, until the stickers burn off. They get heavy in a hurry. The cows are waiting and bawling, hungry. The prickly pears always flop around and you get stickers in your own hide. And you have to build another fire--to keep from having to carry them so far, or you have to haul them to the fire. It is a hot hard job, they are heavy.
Billy Sunday
I saw Billy Sunday in Mineral Wells. He was a very famous Baptist preacher. He was preaching from a platform out on the street. Fred and I were way back at the edge of the big crowd, we couldn't hear much. South of Mineral Wells, about 5 miles, is a high bluff that overlooks the river for miles. It used to be a popular picnic and recreation area. There were big 4th of July picnics, with big barrels of lemonade. There was a store, tea room, and a dance hall. It is private now and has a big beautiful home built there, high on the point G.D.Oaks took Billy Sunday out there to look. He was very impressed, and he asked if the place had a name---and it didn't. Billy Sunday said, "I believe it should be called "Inspiration Point!", and so it was---from then on.
Baptized
Most everybody was baptized in the Brazos. Granmama started it about 1885. She was a Baptist for about 60 years.
Dad 'come forward at a revival, the river was up.
He was to be baptized, in the Brazos, 'when the river went down. The preacher was a friend of Dad's, he died soon after that. Dad said, "If God had meant for me to be baptized, he would not have let my preacher die." Dad never would be baptized. Aunt Sude, said, "The river never went down for Mote"
I was baptized at Oaks Crossing in 1914.
When anyone wanted a group picture, away from town, they had the photographer come out in his buggy. He had a big camera, on legs. He put a black cloth over his head, to take the picture. We have good pictures of family groups, Civil War reunions and schools too. There is a good picture of 11 of us, standing in the water with Brother Langham. Fred, Adelle and her brother Ellis, they were my cousins. Us girls pinned out dresses down to our stockings. Ludie was 3, she got tired of waiting. She loudly asked, " Mama, When are they going to start the ducking?"
17 years later, it was 1932, Ludie was 20 and JM was 15. At a big revival, all denominations always came together. JM come forward, the same time as Ludie. JM wanted to be Methodist, like Mama, and he wasn't baptized. Ludie was baptized at the 'Boone Hole', the next hole down the river, from Oaks Crossing. She was the only girl and there were 4 young men. The preacher got mad at Ug Boone because he didn't check the water out good enough. It was more mud than water.
The River Has A Fascination
Dad was 5 when he saw his ten year old brother drown, right there where we lived on the river. If he had his way, none of us would have ever got in the water. Fred (Fredda) and Granmama were visiting us, Mama did a lot of sewing for them. Fred and I got permission to go to the barn. We slipped down the bluff, past the barn. Granmama and Mama were watching us. They caught us just as we got to the river. Granmama said, "I'll whip Fred.---- Julia, you can whip Anne, Cam and Dock. The others were too young to follow us. Granmama never whipped me, and seldom any of the others. She remembered her Mother whipping her in Alabama, when she was a little girl, because her friend broke the big china wash basin.
The Big Seine
The river was on a rise. The fish always come down with it. Mr Brewster in town, had a great big seine. He brought it out, it took about a dozen men to handle it. It was hard work, but the men and the boys loved to get in on it. No girls or women were allowed around, it was for men only. The men just striped off their clothes and left them on the sandbar--wherever they joined the seiner's. They worked fast---the water was rising---they were catching fish. They would draw the seine out, ever so often, to take the fish out. They would put the fish in a sack, leave them up on the sandbar, and then do it again. Finally they hurried back to get their clothes and the fish. That time, they all had been washed away.
The Flood in 1913
The Oakse’s had a nice big two story rock house on the high bluff on the Willow Pond, the east side of Oaks crossing. It burned and they built another just like it. They had one son John. He married Dads sister Sudie, Sue, in March 1892. Across the river, where we lived on the Hittson ranch, the land was low. It was a ways to higher ground. We set out good fruit trees on the ranch. But we would always get a late frost that would kill the fruit on our trees. It would bite the tender young tomato and watermelon plants. We had to plant our gardens a little bit later. Both sets of our grandparents lived across the river, over in Willow Pond community. They had good fruit trees. They told us not to worry about the frost, to come and get all the fruit that we needed. They couldn't sell it anyway.
I was 16 in 1913, it was time to cross the river and go can the ripe peaches. We loaded the wagon with jars. Mama took me, Hanner 9, Etta 6, and Ludie was one. We took clothes to spend the night. It was always my job to take care of the kids. Mama could do the work of two. She just went---'split-tail here' and 'split-tail there'. We crossed the river and canned peaches. It rained, and it rained everywhere, the river rose. It rose higher than it ever had before. The course of the river was altered in places. It come up to the Oakses house on the bluff, it flopped in their yard. There had been big floods in 1833 and in1899. Our house and barns were all built on higher ground. We always kept our livestock out of the bottomland, so they were safe. This time the water come up to the edge of the little 'third bottom', just below our house.
Dad and Cam 14, Dock 13 and Black 11
They were across the river from us. It was the first time we were ever separated. We went to Oaks Crossing, and watched and watched--- Finally we could just make out Dad, waving his coat. We could barely see him. It was a long way across. The river was wide and covered all the low land. Both shores were full of people looking----and wanting to get on the other side. The kids wanted to go home. Oh, how they bawled to go home.
We all had telephones. The wire was nailed to trees or fence posts. Very few posts were put up. Where the telephone wire crossed the river, it sagged a lot. It always washed away every time the river rose. All the rivers in Texas flooded, all the bridges washed away. Along the Brazos---3,000 sq. miles was under water. More than $3 million damage was estimated, all the way to the Gulf of Mexico. At least 177 people died.
I don't remember how long it was before we could cross the river in the wagon and go home. After a flood it usually took two weeks. The rolling, boiling water always washed out deep new holes, changed the sandbars, and it left hidden spots of quicksand. There seems to be less quicksand now. Could it be because the water table is getting lower? It's all being pumped out, not seeping up---Doyle (Hanner's son) thinks so.
Before the wagons could cross again, a 'safe bottom' had to be found. Men on horseback would pick out a roadway that missed deep holes and quicksand. It was never straight across and it was always different. Then a string of men on horseback would ride back and forth---back and forth, on the selected roadbed----- to pack the river bottom down. Men on horseback would ride along-side a wagon when the water was deep. They would hold onto the wagon bed, when it floated up, so that it would not float away. Wagons were built with their beds loose, so they could float across rivers, and not turn over.
A Rise
Sometimes someone that we knew, up around the bridge, would call us, that a 'head-rise' was coming. We would all tear out--- to the top of the bluff, up by the barn. We all always liked to watch it. Oh, it made a noise. Us girls were always kept back. The water would come--- rolling, 4 or 6 foot high, 'a head rise'. That was very seldom. When it rained a lot, in far away Redlands, it would come a 'red rise', "the water as red as spilled blood". It come roaring around the Glidwell bend. We could see it, looking west from our barns. Sometimes big pieces of bridges and docks would float down. The boys could use them. They would go down to the water and rope big boards and lumber. The Glidewell family, John and Minnie, she lost a leg to diabetes, it runs in the family. They lived across the river from us, up in the Blue Pond community. There was Effie, Lorene, Lizzie, Adelle, Bill, Dock, Johnny and Joe. They had a little brother that died when he was about five. Me and Effie were the same age, and we were always good friends. Sis and Lorene were the same age, good friends, too. We liked them all. My brother Dock married Lizzie in 1929.
"We Run and Hid From It"
The Glidewells' lived in the edge of town, before they moved out to Blue Pond. Lizzie told her grandson, David, "Me and my little girl friend were playing outside. Something BIG and LOUD, come down in the field next to our house. It was so--big and it roared--loud. We were scared that it would get us. We run and hid from it.------ It turned out to be the first airplane that we ever saw."
Our First Airplane
Etta remembers the first airplane that she ever saw. One had landed in a pasture by Granny Gill's house across the river. She called us on the phone and we were watching when it took off, and we could see it go up-----it flew up! Just rose up into the air!!
The Whirlpool
They loved the river like we did, and they fished a lot, and were all good swimmers. One time they were all together in the Brazos. Over by the big rocks was a whirlpool. It was not strong enough to take a good swimmer down. It could wear someone down, and eventually they would drown. Lizzie got in that whirlpool, and swam and swam, she could not swim out from its pull. Her brother Bill was 6 ft 4 and 300 pounds--so much muscle. He saw her and swam over and helped her out.
Catfish
In the sharp bend of the river were rocks. Some of the rocks are BIG as a house. The swift water over years, has washed out big holes in and around some of them. Good swimmers would 'noodle' for big catfish, in the cracks and holes. Just grab (grabble) them, through the gills with their hands, 'hand fishing or 'hoging'. It was dangerous---it could be a snake that they disturbed. Sometimes they tied a rope around their waist, so they could be pulled out. A 50 or 60 pound catfish is strong. The noodlers try to jump on the back of one that size.
Seining
Once in a while a bunch of men would get together at the river with a big seine. They would wrap it around a big rock. Then they would punch in all the big holes and cracks to make the big catfish come out. When a big catfish was got out of a hole, it wasn't long before another big fish would move in and make it his 'hidey hole'.
Etta remembers--- watching them seine. As our boys were seining in the river, they would get me, Etta, to dive down in a certain hole. There was nearly always a big catfish, hiding down there. I would disturb him and they could get him in the seine.
Our Boat
Everybody living on the river had a boat. A flood would wash them away. The water would finally calm down. My brothers would sit on the bank and watch. Eventually a boat would come floating by. They would swim out and get it. It would be our boat.
The Bottom (land)
When a rise was coming, a message would come--- to get your cattle out of the 'bottom'. The 'first bottom' was real low, alongside the river, it flooded first. Our cattle were always fenced away from the first bottom. There was 'second bottom', where the river spread out, that didn't flood as often. We had a third bottom, a way up---close to our house. Once in a while, a cow would get in the bog---quick sand, and have to be dug out, and pulled out of the sand. I never knew of us loosing one from drowning or quick sand.
We never went to the river without an adult
Friends would come to see us, there was always a little long hole in the Brazos, that the little kids could play in. The river was down most of the time. Mama was always ready to go with us. One of the Glover boys was playing and held Ludie's head under the water to long. It liked to have drown her and left her with asthma forever and forever. Ludie don't remember it---I can't ever forget it. I learned to 'dog paddle', that’s the only way that I ever saw any one swim.
Tom and Oliver
Tom, our cousin from Palo Pinto, one Sunday evening they drove to our house to swim. Our boys were glad to see them. They all 'tore out' up the hill to the barns and down the bluff to the river. They 'stripped off' and dived in. There never was any danger of being seen. Tom jumped in with the others. The water was deep there. Come to find out, Tom couldn't swim. Somebody noticed him and pulled him out, he was all right. He was grown before he come back to our house again.
We had fish
We had fish, when we wanted, all we wanted. The boys would put out the lines and bait them, earthworms were best. They would have to be in the field by sunup. Mama was always ready to go fishing. I would get the fish off the lines, from the bank.
Hanner' Fish
I was the first to see Hanner, when he come walking up from the river, below the barn. He was carrying about a 30lb catfish, throwed over his shoulder. The tail was touching the ground. He was 12, he wasn't supposed to be fishing by his self. A fish that big, could have jerked him in the water and drown him.
Our cousin, Fred (Fredda) Daniel was spending the night. Dad run the trot line the next morning, He caught one fish and put it in the tool shed in the barn. After breakfast he sent Fred to get something out of that shed. We could hear her hollaring clean from the barn--- when she saw that 48 pound catfish. I remember that Mama had to 'put up' part of it in jars. Nothing went to waste around our house. (I first heard this from Etta, she is 97, on March 2, 2005.
Stuck In the River
One time Dad had his team pulling cars out of Oaks Crossing. Oaks's, who lived there at the crossing, they never would help anybody. When someone was traveling, and come to a river that was up---they had to camp there until the river went down and they could cross it. John Oaks never would let anyone camp on his land. And he tried to claim all the land around him, whether he had paid for it or not. It is easy to get stuck in the sand, wet or dry. Car motors, when they get wet, they drown out real easy.
It is tricky to "Ford" the Brazos.
If a car sets there very long, the water could rise and ruin it, or wash it away. Two women were stuck in a 1920 Ford, Dad was hooked onto it. They asked Black, 18 and Hanner, 16 if they wanted to set in the car with them. What they wanted more than anything in the world--- was to set in a car like that. They were just tickled to death.
The Sewer Pipe
Mineral Wells grew, finally it got big enough, it had to have a sewer system. The town didn't have the money to build a plant to handle it. They run a big pipe, the shortest way, to the Brazos and dumped their raw sewage. Their closest place to the river, was across from our land, a mile up from Oaks Crossing. That big open pipe was high up on the bank. It wasn't so bad when the river was running. It was really a mess in the summer, when the river was dry and it would pile up. Dad and the neighbors fought and fought, for years, before that sewage stopped.
Copyright © 2004-2005 by Anne Louise Moore - All rights reserved.