CHAPTER FOUR

THE SECOND DECADE AT RED MUD

The second decade at Red Mud would witness a rapidly changing community life style as the town of Spur grew into a thriving trade center for the ranches and farms. Young children who first witnessed the mesquite and shinnery from the back of a wagon, or who drew their first breath in the lamplight of a dugout would grow up and marry, and began that search for their own land. Community solidarity and dependence upon one another would continue to fade as isolation from the rest of the world diminished. Young men and women would continue to "Go West" to find "a place of their own."

The little community of Red Mud continued its transition. In 1911 the Sebe Lamberts moved from the farm west of the Alf Manning place to Sam Smith's first place, since Sam had bought the Williams farm in 1907.

In 1912 John and Zona Luce decided to move into Spur. The closing of their store at Red Top (Tap) would signal the demise of that little community center which had begun decades earlier as a buffalo camp and dance hall.

Belle Martin, wife of Will, sold their farm just to the north of the cemetery and bought a quarter section of land from W. J. "Scotch Bill" Elliot in upper Red Mud, about ten miles west of Spur. Her son Forrest married Mamie Garrett and eventually owned over three sections of land in the same area.⁽¹⁾

Jack Godfrey established Godfrey Motor Company in Spur in November of 1913. His first ad featured a five-passenger Ford touring car priced at $595.00. Of course, a runabout could be bought for under $500.00. Jack would eventually purchase farm land in the Red Mud area, but his first interest would always be selling the first Fords to the growing county population.

Lugenia is Buried At Red Mud

Things continued to go rather well for Ambrose and family until 1914. Lugenia became quite ill from gall stones, or possibly appendicitis, and her doctor recommended surgery. She developed complications following surgery and died on January 23, 1914.

Life's reaper claimed the bouquet in her beauty,

In the fullness of bloom, at midseason.

The mother of eight found rest much too early,

Leaving the young man to wrest with the reason.

(Lugenia, a flower, shedding sky-petals earthward,

to grandchildren she never knew.⁽²⁾

Genie was 46, and, as so often happened in those times, she had not lived to see her first grandchild. Her last words to Kay were, "Be good, and keep the wood box full."⁽³⁾

The loss was tremendous, as the energetic and dynamic Genie had provided much of the leadership for the family. It seemed that time stood still for a while as the family began coping with this great loss. Ambrose became very despondent. He traveled back to Robertson County in East Texas and stayed for an extended period, perhaps about two years. The family was simply left to manage as best they could. Carl, 23, had to assume a stronger family role and Ray Lil, two years younger, had to run the household.⁽⁴⁾

Kay recalled that they were left without money or food. All they had to eat was wild game and corn meal. He said, "We all nearly starved to death." As an adult, Kay never would eat cornbread.⁽⁵⁾

With the loss of their mother, the other children would also have to bear more responsibility. Reba, 20, would marry later that year. Ruth, 18, and Ruby, 16, would be at home for a few more years. Fifteen-year-old Kay would quickly learn that childhood was over as he assumed a man's role in the general welfare of the family. Coy was 12 and John was 7.

Ambrose returned to Red Mud, but he never fully recovered from the mental setback.

In Wise County, eight miles out from Bridgeport, Lon and Ada Hoover had been tending the cows on one of his cousin Billy Scott's ranches for forty dollars per month during 1914. Lon farmed the cotton and feed on the halves. The boll weevils were bad and Lon had heard about good cotton growing weather in West Texas. That fall, after the feed and the meager cotton crop was harvested, the Hoovers and two other families loaded up their families and belongings in four wagons and headed west.⁽⁶⁾

There were a lot of kids making the trip. Lon and Ada had seven ranging in age from Marie, 11, to Troy Edgar, just born that year on September 13. Marie recalled that the wagons had bows and sheets over them to protect them from the rain and sun. The older children walked and chased each other and thought the trip was a real adventure. They cooked over campfires and the men and boys slept on the ground at night.⁽⁷⁾

They stopped in the community of Red Hill, about eight miles east of Spur in Dickens County, and settled on the Will Young farm. Marie "had never seen such big farms and so much cotton." They stayed on this farm for about two years and Lon then bought a small farm and built a four-room house on it.

In reflecting on his school days at Red Mud, John Brantner recalled wearing "a pair of too-big yellow shoes" in the winter. One of the male teachers once whipped him so hard that blood ran down his legs and made his feet slide around inside those big shoes. The whipping was for a minor infraction of the rules and it was not a fond memory for John.⁽⁸⁾

In October of 1914 Reba Brantner married Joe Thornton, a young Spur Ranch cowboy. He was 24 and she was 20. Joe had come to Dickens County in 1910 with his parents. He and Reba started farming after they were married. Their only child, Joe Lavon, Ambrose's first grandchild, was born August 15, 1915.⁽⁹⁾

Sam Preslar sold his stock farm in upper Red Mud to Mr. Craddock and moved to New Mexico in order to expand his cattle operation. They left behind two of their seven daughters. Leah, who died at age 21, and Ophelia, who married Lee Johnson after his first wife died.

West Texas weather in 1914 was good for the farmers and bad for the ranchers. It was a wet year, which meant good crops and good grass. It would also be remembered as one of the worst screw worm years for the cowboys. There were 14,928 bales of cotton ginned in the county, more than double the previous high of 6,302 bales ginned in 1911. It would be 1919 before crops of this size would be realized again.⁽¹⁰⁾

It was about 1916 that the Baptists, who had been sharing the brush arbor near the Red Top school house, decided to build an arbor of their own. P. Hinson donated land for the arbor just south of the school house, under the hill. They used this arbor for about two years before building a tabernacle near it.

Robert Eugene "Gene" Fry had moved to Garza County, not far from Red Mud, in the fall of 1914, when he was eighteen. He was ranching and farming on his father's place when he met Ruth Brantner. They were both twenty-one when they married February 21, 1917. Gene worked on the Brown ranch for about six years, then returned to farming with his father. Doyle, their first of ten children, was born December 17, 1917.⁽¹¹⁾

In 1917 the Church of Christ building (old Airhart school) was moved two miles south of Red Top and placed on the corner of Luce's land, later known as the Perkins place. A brush arbor was built nearby and services were conducted there for a number of years. John Martin eventually bought the building and moved it to his farm. Services were held there as late as 1950.

It was about this time that Kay Brantner, 17, went to work for the Spur Ranch feedlots in Spur. Next to wrestling, his favorite pastime was wagering another cowboy that they could not shoulder two sacks of cottonseed meal. They usually failed, but he seldom did.⁽¹²⁾

The great influenza epidemic hit Dickens County in 1917 and continued through 1918. Almost every family had someone sick and there were few doctors. Sulfa was about the only medication of value. As Kay Brantner would make the ride from Red Mud to Spur for medicine and supplies, he would take orders from other families who were too sick or tied down to go. Others who made the ride did the same.

Coy Lee Brantner died from the flu January 23, 1917 at age 15. Carl Homer Brantner died December 13, 1918. He was 26 and had never married. Both boys were buried with their mother under the blooming willow tree in the Red Mud cemetery.

Younger brother John fell heir to two of Carl Brantner's personal possessions--a Hohner harmonica and a yellow-handled Schrade two-blade pocket knife that is now known as a "trapper" style. Today, they are prized possessions of the author, one still in tune, the other still sharp--reminders of the redheaded uncle that left the sand and red clay of Red Mud much too early in life.

John was a keeper of "treasures," as he called them. These were special keepsakes from his childhood. Among these were the old family coffee grinder, the above-mentioned knife and harmonica of Carl's, some marbles, and his slingshot. The latter, minus the rubbers and shoe tongue leather, was a tree fork, probably mesquite. It had separate rows of notches for the various critters killed; one row for rabbits, one for skunks, etc.

Ambrose Brantner continued to be despondent and in poor health following the deaths of Genie and two of his sons. Kay, now 18, operated the farm. He had managed to finish 7 or 8 of the eleven school grades. Ray Lil, Ruby, and John were still at home.

As the war raged overseas in 1918, a severe drought that started in 1917 was taking its toll back home. Only 3,178 bales of cotton were ginned, and a brief, but severe blizzard increased cattle losses that winter.

To aid the war effort, savings stamps could be purchased for $5.00. A booklet held ten, and would be held to maturity, like a war bond. Kay bought one stamp.⁽¹³⁾

A fad during the war years was for the men to wear a matching brown shirt and pants--similar to the army uniform, with a brown hat. The pant legs were, of course, stuffed in high-topped boots. Silk shirts were prized Sunday apparel. Ray Lil said the shirts cost about $18.00--when good field wages were 50 cents a day. Never-the-less, Kay and Son McKay each owned one, and had their picture made in them.

Kay and Son McKay spent a lot of time together during these younger years and developed a strong relationship that continued all their lives. One bit of tomfoolery was to peek in on nighttime church services and make faces at the girls, trying to make them giggle while the preacher was trying to convince all that repentance from devilry was the order of the moment.

In 1918 Joe and Reba Thornton moved to Roswell, New Mexico to run a dairy farm and apple orchard.

Lon Hoover and family returned to the Comanche County area in the fall to visit relatives and pick cotton. Double tragedy struck near the end of their stay. Troy Edgar died in Marie's arms from a ruptured appendix on January 9, 1919. He was only 4. And then, just a few days later, on January 21, they lost two-year-old Ester Wynona to influenza as that epidemic continued its toll on the family. Although they were away from their new home in West Texas, they were back in their old home area and had the comfort of parents and close relatives. Lon and Ada, expecting their next child soon, endured the grief of two funerals within two weeks as they buried Troy and Ester in the Hanson Cemetery near Proctor with their great grandfather Larkin Scott, and where Lon's parents and other relatives would later lie.⁽¹⁴⁾

In early 1919 Lon moved the family to the McArthur farm in Red Mud. On March 5 Travis Bernard was born. The Hoovers liked the close-knit community with its one-room school. They attended the Church of Christ. Ada felt compelled to visit Dublin that fall to see her younger brother, Carl Embry, who had been overseas in the war. Because the events of the year had taken their toll on Ada's health, Lon had Marie accompany her to help with baby Trav.

Lon's parents, David and Mary Jane Hoover, also lived at Dublin. Being in their mid-seventies and unable to care for themselves, they asked Marie to stay with them three months until one of the sons could move in with them. Ada had always baked Marie a cake for her birthday. For Marie's sixteenth birthday that September 18, Ada baked and mailed her a cake, which made her very homesick. Marie returned to Red Mud November 1st.⁽¹⁵⁾

In spite of the war and the drought, the Baptists at Red Mud started a building fund for a tabernacle to be built near the arbor. The building was completed in 1919. Those active in the church included Sebe Lambert, Johnnie Sparks, P. Hinson, Lis Scott, and Bob Smith. In later years, after these leaders were gone, the church stopped meeting and the building was moved to the Cemetery and donated to the Red Mud Cemetery Association.

It had been a banner year for the struggling farmers as good rains boosted cotton yields. The County ginned 15,362 bales of cotton, the largest crop to date, and almost five times as much as was ginned in the disastrous previous year.⁽¹⁶⁾

During the year Johnnie Sparks sold his farm just south of the cemetery and moved to the Highway community northwest of Spur.

In 1920 the census recorded 5,876 residents in Dickens County, a gain of 2,784, which almost doubled the 3,092 count of ten years earlier.⁽¹⁷⁾

In this same year Kay and Marie began to notice each other more seriously and began dating. There were lots of parties, dances, and singing on Sunday nights following those long afternoon horseback rides through the shinnery and creek bottoms. "Kodaking" was also a part of the Sunday afternoon buggy or horse rides.

The Brantner children, now grown, continued to reflect the love for singing that they had inherited from their mother Genie. Kay had a rain barrel bass voice while John would be known for his down-in-the-bottom-of-the-cistern bass that could make those old country tabernacle foundations shake and send shivers of delight when he hit the "bottom."

When E. Luce died that year, Red Mud lost one of its pioneers and community leaders. He, along with his son John N., had contributed much to the development and well-being of the community. He would be remembered as a farmer, rancher, merchant, ginner, church leader, and financier of many a cowboy's first few cows.

It was also a wet year, which brought on a scourge of screw worms. Cattle and wildlife losses were heavy, and 1920 would be remembered alongside 1914 as the worst years for screw worms for a long time to come.

ENDNOTES

1. Arrington, p. 289. Scotch Bill Elliot, an early Spur Ranch cowboy from Scotland, wrote The Spurs. See the Bibliography.

2. Brantner, C. R., And I Held His Hand As We Said Goodbye. (Unpublished poem, 1987). See Appendix.

3. Wooten, Joyce Morin, Memories - The Brantners. 1998

4. Pace. Also Kay Brantner to C. R. B., June 1973. Information about the East Texas trip is vague. Kay said he thought Ambrose tried to remarry there but, because of his mental state, he was "encouraged" to leave the area before that happened.

5. Wooten.

6. Clay and Bass. The family history in this source indicates 1913. Marie Brantner remembers the date as "about September 1, 1914."

7. Marie Brantner, "Family History," Unpublished notes, 1977. Original in author's file.

8. John Brantner to C. R. B., 1959.

9. Erit Fry.

10. Arrington, p. 203.

11. Erit Fry.

12. Kay Brantner to C. R. B., 1962. Notes say "sacks of cow cake," but it is doubtful that the pelleting process was being done at that early date.

13. In author's possession.

14. Leeoma Hoover Cross to C. R. B., March 5, 1989. Marie Brantner, "Family History."

15. Marie Brantner, "Family History."

16. Arrington, p. 203.

17. Ibid., p. 41.