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Mother's Move to Imogene
My mother, Johnie Mae Dunaway Shoemake, was a storyteller. Mother never
stopped when going from one story to another and she insisted that you
hear all the details. At some point I started taking notes when she
would start one of her stories and this is one of them. It is from the
viewpoint of a seven-year-old, remembered many years later.
It
was in the winter of 1924 and I was seven years old. It was very cold
and rain and sleet were coming down. It couldn't have been a worse time
for moving, but the move had already been planned.
We were
leaving our family home at Fairland in Burnet County, Texas, and moving
south to Imogene in Atascosa County. My Dunaway grandparents had
recently died and everyone wanted to get away from the old home place in
Fairland and the memories. My mother had died on January 26, 1919, and I
guess that Papa (John Elvin Dunaway) felt like there was nothing left
for him in that country.
Papa had purchased a 400-acre farm in
Imogene, sight unseen, from Jourdan "Old Jourd" Campbell, who had
described the area around the Imogene community as "God's beautiful
country." I remember that I thought "Old Jourd" was a weird-looking
sight. He was a tall, skinny man, and wore a cowboy hat and boots. In my
little world around Fairland, I had never before seen cowboy hats or
boots, so to me Old Jourd was sure enough weird.
In preparation
for the move, Papa sold our Fairland ranch. The cattle and furniture
were taken to the train depot and loaded into boxcars for shipment. Papa
also shipped nine cows and three teams of mules by train.
Papa
bought a new Model T Ford for the move and there were seven of us that
made the trip from Fairland: me, Papa, my sister Ruthie, my brother
Weldon, Papa's sister Vickie, and Papa's brothers Conley and Webbie.
Ruthie, Aunt Vickie, and I rode with Papa in the Model T. Uncle Webbie
and Weldon rode in Uncle Webbie's car with the dogs (two stock dogs) and
our clothes and quilts. Uncle Conley traveled on the train with the
furniture and livestock.
It was a long trip--the longest that I
had ever made. It took us three days to get to Imogene. The roads were
terrible. They were unpaved, rough, and narrow. I remember that the
roads followed fencelines and creekbeds and sometime crossed the same
stream several times. We went up and down hills and more hills. The
hills were steep and the roads crisscrossed and zig-zagged. We went back
and forth and up and down, and all around. It was definitely "Texas Hill
Country." The rain and sleet made the roads even worse. I didn't think
we would ever get to Imogene or that I would ever get warm again.
We had very little protection from the cold; Papa's Model T didn't have
a heater or windows--not even curtains. Our coats and quilts could only
help in keeping us from freezing. Uncle Webbie's car had curtains.
As we traveled south, I could see a definite change in the scenery. All the
beautiful trees that I was used to seeing in the Hill Country were
disappearing and were being replaced by mesquite, live oaks, and other
varieties that I was unfamiliar with. It was awful. All of the leaves
were off the trees and there were no evergreens. Everything looked
dreary and dead. I could see prickly pear cactus everywhere and it was a
strange sight. I had never seen catcus before. I thought my world was
coming to an end.
On our way south we stopped and spent a night
in Blanco with family friends and then spent a night in a hotel at
Pleasanton. For me, the hotel was the best part of the trip. It was the
first hotel that I had ever stayed in and I was really thrilled. Our
hotel room was upstairs on the second floor and I had never been that
high before. I stood and looked out the window and could see all around
town.
Finally, around noon on Christmas Eve 1924, the third day
after leaving Fairland, we arrived at the Imogene farm. None of us were
prepared for what we saw. We all remembered that Old Jourd had referred
to the Imogene area as "God's Beautiful Country." We were now all
bewildered by what we saw. As we drove into the yard, Weldon summed up
everyone's thoughts with his comment, "This God-forsaken place." It was
really terrible to think that this miserable-looking place was to be our
new home. The yard was all gown up and covered with brush and "careless"
weeds. There were sunflower stalks in the yard higher than Papa's head
and huge icicles were hanging from the roof of the farm house and
outbuildings. It was obvious that no one had lived there for years. We
all knew that our world had come to an end.
That first night at
the Imogene farm, we had to improvise for heat and we had to sleep on
the floor. There was no stove or fireplace; we filled the old tubs we
found in the yard with dirt and made fires in them to help keep us warm.
The next day things began to change. Neighbors were coming by bringing us food
and other household items to help us get by. When the boxcars arrived
with our furniture and animals it was quite an event. The Imogene
neighbors came from all around with their horses and wagons to help haul
our goods.
After we settled, got to know our neighbors, and
acclimated ourselves to the changes in our environment, we slowly
changed our attitude and learned to love Imogene and the wonderful
families who lived there. I have wonderful memories of Imogene.
Elerie Bowman
San Antonio, Texas
Published:
November 14,
2005
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