Our Journey In Life Together - by Anne

When first we met the Knights moved to our neighborhood on the Edmondson place and went to school together for 1 year. There was Hettie (already married), Ben, Fannie, Bill and Jim. I remember Ben was the 1st one out the door when school was out and he was always a way down the road ahead while the rest of us dragged along. So I didn’t see much of him that year besides I wasn’t caring about boys at 13 or 14 and he wasn’t caring for me. I was crazy about Fannie. I thought she was the smartest thing out. Ben is always telling on me now. There was to be a box supper at Pleasant Valley. He told me if I would come he would buy my box and I didn’t linger.

They moved back to Willow Pond and I would see them around. When World War II broke out Ben was in the service. I remember going to Ft. Worth on the train to some big parade of soldiers from Camp Bowie and seeing Ben march by. Jim Coleman went with Dora, Don, Fred, and I.

Just before the war ended word came in that Ben had been gassed and couldn’t talk (lost his speech.). That made me so uneasy for some reason. Wasn’t long until war ended. Dad came in one day and said I saw Ben Knight in town. I said could he talk. He said yes. I heard him talking what a relief. From then on we got to seeing one another. But I wasn’t allowed to go with anyone so he mostly worked away and we corresponded. When he did come in everyone helped us out. Sometime he could come to Grandmamas. One time he came to McEntires. The other kids knew about it and let the air out of a tire. Years later we knew about it.

In the fall of Nov. 21, 1921 we got married in Mineral Wells at the preacher’s house. Fannie fixed supper for us. We stayed all night and next day started for Breckenridge. We got in about a mile of town and twisted a hub out of a little old Ford. (1 seated) We had took off the back end set a trunk on it and some grills. Ben had 40.00 and Grandmama gave us 10.00. So with 18.00 we got a mattress, a sheet, a pair of cotton double blankets, 4 plates, 4 cups and saucers and we set up housekeeping. Ben had a few things as he had been watching. Jim and Em had just got married also. We got a house and lived together. Ben and Jim worked for G M Dady in the oil fields.

We stayed there till the next fall and went to Spur. We had a wagon and team. By then Hettie and Kelse was there. It didn’t bother us that we were poor and had nothing. We were on top of the world. We had no shower as no one knew about our plans and we left out so quick. We went to Spur. We saved our money and made a good cotton crop that year. Louise was born that summer July 15, 1923.

We decided to go to New Mexico and take up a claim. So Ben went during the winter and located, come back and got the baby and I. Annie Louise was 8 months old. We stayed that winter with Armstrong and worked with him. We lived in a cute little house. During the summer Ben got busy on our own little log cabin. Oh we were so thrilled we were going to stay forever and he started two great big rooms while it should have been some little lean-to. We were just camping out by then to be near the new place and were looking for another new baby before Christmas. Ben worked so hard with the ox it caused a boil to come in his hand that turned in to blood poison. That was a big upset, and I couldn’t help much with Annie Louise and expecting. We got in that house before the baby and we found some folks selling out, got all the furniture we needed for 25.00.

December 19, the little boy was on his way. Ben went about 6 miles one way to a nurse we had already spoke for and she had a phone. Called the doctor and he and his wife started in a 8 inch fresh snow. He had to meet the doctor at the road. The car couldn’t travel off the highway.

Out little boy was born dead. Ben went with the doctor and wife and the little baby and they buried it next day in the cemetery at town.

That ended our thrill. From then on I wanted back in Texas. Hettie and K. and family came in the spring and built 2 more rooms and lived with us. But they didn’t last long either, so they cam back. It took 3 years to take a claim and we stayed on. The last year we came back to Tates and Willie Webb to pick cotton to settle us on the claim. Hettie and family and Fannie and family were there. Fannie was sick but we had no idea that it was serious. We left there first. Went on and stopped at Willie Webb and Ben had to go back to New Mexico on business. While he was gone Fannie died. They went to Mineral Wells. Phones were so poor then, they liked to have never got us. But the day Ben cam in Tate came after us so Bud and Tate, Ben, A. Louise and I started to M.W. What a sad thing that was. Left two little children.

We went back to New Mexico, sold out, and came back to Breckenridge. You couldn’t make a living out there on 1 section of land. We bought a piece of land at Breckenridge in Post Oak community. Had to build another house.

The rest of the children were borned and raised there. Eldridge, Alicea, and Stanley. They went to school at Post Oak until they were ready for high school. Had to transport A. Louise but when Eldridge started the school buses were running.

When Eldridge (brother we called him then) was 18 months old a new oil boom started up in Hobbs, New Mexico. Ben and Jim (well all of us) planning to make a big haul. Ben bought a restaurant (the Airdome.) About that time the Longview fields open up and Hobbs just disappeared overnight. Ben had entrusted our New Mexico money in the Airdome. We had made two or three payments on the place and that’s all we got out of that. We had the cattle left and the land not paid for but we were young and stout so we pulled out of that. Ben and the kids hay bailed to get out of debt. Bought a new trailer, paid for it and then a drouth struck. The last year there wasn’t a bale of hay to bale.

Burl and Ben got Arkansas fever so one summer Dora, Burl, Ben, and I and Stanley and Garland struck out and seen Arkansas. Ben was just sold on Arkansas. We looked and looked but you couldn’t do anything until you sold your own.

Dora had took a shot of penicillin for some cause and she was allergic to it. She swelled up as big as a barrel and was sick as a dog. We would stop and ask a doctor about it. They said it wouldn’t hurt her but it did. We were trying to get to Burl’s sister in Harrison, Arkansas. We were in Burl’s pickup and we were to take turns about riding up front. Dora was just on her back in the back and Stanley was carsick and couldn’t ride in the back. So Ben and I had to ride in the back all the time. When we got to Burl’s sister Dora was doctored up. She said she rode all over Arkansas and never got to see any of it.

We had just got our house rocked outside and remodeled inside, a three bedroom house that we had built almost alone. We sold out and Eldridge, Ben and I went back to Arkansas to look again. We located 9 miles from Prairie Grove and 9 miles from West Fork at Hog Eye. We had lived 25 years at Breckenridge. Eldridge had just come in from the service during the Korean War only he was sent to Germany and didn’t have to fight. So he went with us to Arkansas. Stanley had just got a job with Burkett so he stayed in Texas. Alicea was with the telephone company. She stayed in Breckenridge. She and Minnie Jean had an apartment together for a year until she got transferred to Rogers. Then after a year she transferred to Fayetteville. While she was in Breckenridge she managed to get to Arkansas about every 2 months and bring someone with her.

The place had a new house, 3 bedrooms but wasn’t finished inside. So again we had a house to build. We did a little of everything. We was on a milk route so we milked. We had a milker. Sometime the milker would freeze. Would have to do with our hands. Finally we decided it was best to let the calves have the milk. We had a 3 acre berry patch. About the time the berries were gone we would plant 2 or 3 acres of tomatoes and sell them at the factory. As we made more money we dropped the berries and then the tomatoes made money.

Ben and Eldridge also bailed hay. They had so many irons in the fire they couldn’t half get around. Oh yes we had cucumbers 2 or 3 years. That was the worst of all. Alicea and I tried rabbits. We went broke the 1st year and 40.00 in the hole. The 1st 2 or 3 years Eldridge would come back to Texas and work until the hay was ready to bale. Ben went to Arkansas he said to retire – just have cattle and hay. Said he had to take it easier. Well I always said he worked 10 times harder. We leased land beside ours for the cattle and Eldridge would pay the lease by working in Texas.

Eldridge bought land of his own. Alicea helped him get started and he had his own cattle and a room of his own. He soon got work in Arkansas. Now he doesn’t want to come back to Texas to live.

We stayed in Arkansas nearly 20 years and all 4 just loved it in spite of the hard work. When you love the work you don’t mind. The last 5 years Alicea transferred to Little Rock and she dearly loved down there. She could still get home quite often. She met Eli Levitt and they planned to get married April 5, 1970. She found she had a tumor. I went to her on Thursday. Friday she had her operation and died on Monday. We buried her in Little Rock. That was the biggest shock and the saddest we ever had. She was the best of Christians. She went so quick it was so dreadful. We wanted back in Texas again. From then on her daddy’s health failed. We sold part of our property. Left Eldridge and he moved into his house. Without him and Alicea we couldn’t have done a thing and they also needed us.

We came to Azle the next year after Alicea’s death, in October. This time we had a new house built and lived 2 blocks from Louise on the south and about 2 from Stanley on the west. We have all we need on this little spot and as long as we have one another we are okay.

Louise and Thel have gone now to California but they will be back. Ida does our running around. She is really a little angel in disguise. They are all good. Stanley has to be gone all week. Judy’s in school and Stanley Don finished high school this year. All our grandkids are just perfect in our eyes.

April 3, 1974