I am an old lady now - with a vivid young memory, and I'm going to tell you the fantastic true story of the fabulous family pictured here. The little short girl on the top row grew up to become my precious mother, Emily Stockton Carothers. All the others in the picture, taken in 1886, were her 7 brothers, 6 sisters, and the perfect parents of this family. (I wonder how they ever got that many people in one group to look so sad and solemn?) I remember them as such a jolly, happy family.

They are all dead now except the baby on Grandma's lap, and she is 81 years old. She still lives on a part of the original big plantation in Central Texas where they were all born and buried. Some of them were shot, some were hung, some drowned and a few just died of old age. The true stories of these people of early Texas days is far stranger than fiction and much more interesting.

My writing teacher once said that when beginning a story we should grab the attention of the reader in the first paragraph, if possible. lie suggested we put something about the Diety or Royalty - or even something risque as a beginning. Next week one of the boys handed in a story beginning, "My God" cried the Queen, "let go my leg!" "That is perfect," said the Teacher, "for goodness sake, let's hear the rest of it!" So I have tried to whet your interest in this fabulous family because I want you to read on.

Before the Civil War my Grandfather and Grandmother Stockton left Washington County, Texas in a covered wagon to look for a place to settle and rear their family. At that time they had 2 small daughters and one slave girl, "Ead".

After many long weary days of travel they camped one night under a great elm tree by a pretty little spring creek (this elm tree is shown in the painting my father made 67 years ago). Next morning as Grandma looked out over the beautiful rolling countryside, covered with blue bonnets and a few scattered buffalo, she exclaimed, "Hayden, this is the place - the spot I want to live" and Hayden bought the land - hundreds of acres for 50c an acre. (It now sells for $300.00 an acre. It is in the "black land belt of Texas". The finest deep black soil in the state - ideal for cotton and corn.)

I do not know how much of the old plantation house they managed to finish before winter, but I know the house as I remember it, and here I'll give a brief description of it, its well as a floor plan. You see I was also born in the same old house. My mother married my lawyer father and they lived in Houston, Texas. My mother was always homesick for the old plantation, deep in the heart of Texas, and so my father sent her back there to 'born' me. It was almost the same story with all the married Stockton girls. They all wanted to go "Home" to bear their babies, so most of us grand children were born there too. What a happy family we were! Often 30 to 40 of us sitting around the roaring fire in the old rock fire place.

There were two quaint 20' x 30' bedrooms upstairs with dormer windows and another rock fire place. All bedrooms contained 2 double beds and hand made rag carpets on the floor. The beds were spread with fancy homemade quilts arid, always spotlessly clean. Everything had a sweet sunny country smell I'll never forget. Strange how we recall certain beloved smells - all our long lives. The smell of the old smoke house, full of winter meat, the smell of the cotton seed bin where we children loved to play, arid even the old cow lot and pig pen where we loved to

sit on the fence and watch our Uncle milk the cows and feed the pigs. Memory - what a miracle it is where is it all stored away in our small heads I often wonder?

I am not sure, but I think there were 4 children when the Civil War broke out and Grandpa had to go off and leave Grandma with only Ead, her slave, and maybe "Old Rob" a Mexican hired man, I often heard the family mention. I could write chapters of this book about the wild tales that have come down in the family about what poor Grandma went through those 4 long war years. Years when she was left alone to struggle with the stock, the planting, the elements, and the children. What a woman she must have been! She must grow cotton, spin the yarn and weave the cloth for everything they had to wear. She must can her peaches in honey or black strap molasses (no sugar). She must breed the cows, so as to have some always fresh. The garden must be planted just right, and the hog meat cured in the smoke house for winter. The nearest doctor was 50 miles away and their only transportation 2 horses and one old mule so no one must dare get sick!

One story I remember well, the time Ead scared off a big mountain lion with chunks of fireplace wood she threw out the window. The lion had already killed the two watch dogs and had his fill of their blood. There were no fences in the whole country in those days and wild buffalo often came tip to eat with the plantation cattle. Grandma seldom heard from Grandpa - never knew just where they were fighting - or even how the war was going. It is hard for us to realize today just what meager means of communication they had back there. Just a "runner" on horseback might come by 2 or 3 times a year, bringing letters and news.

The two little boys Jim and Dee were the "men" Grandma leaned on. They were such smart bright boys (the two tall ones on the back row of

the family picture) Grandma grieved because they were not getting any schooling. However, the school of life must have fitted them very well because, as you will see later on in our story, they both turned out well. The two oldest girls "Gus and Matt" taught them how to read, write and figure.

Here I will tell you about the oxen Uncle Jim traded for and trained. The road between the house and barn pictured in the painting was a part of the famous "Old Chishom Trail" where large droves of cattle were driven from South Texas up to Fort Worth and Kansas City for market. Uncle Jim would store up eggs in the cool spring house and when the cattle droves came by, he would trade them to the cowboys for little calves too weak to make the trip. These he raised and trained for yoke oxen. When the war was over and Grandpa came home, he used these very teams of oxen to haul groceries up from Houston (150 miles away).

This is how he got his start again after the war. It was a slow 3 months' trip with no roads, only black sticky mud and trails across the rolling prairie. He said he often had to build a fire under the oxen in the morning to make them start out with the heavy wagon, and the going was so slow, he often camped within sight of his last night's campfire!

More children soon began to bless the Stockton plantation (and children were really a blessing on a large plantation - not a disaster as they are in cities today).

Another remarkable thing about this family, the children all came in pairs. 2 girls, and 2 boys, 2 girls and 2 boys, all the way to the end - and no twins, First Aunt Agusta and Aunt Martha, then Uncle Jim and Dee, then Aunt Sophia and Emily (Mama), followed by Andy and Douglas, next came Mootie and Marybell, then Sim and Welborn and Hugh and Ada.

We intend to devote a chapter to each one of these 14 Stockton children so we will begin with the oldest one:

Aunt Gus was married and gone from the plantation when I was a little girl, so I do not remember her too well. She was very beautiful in soul and body, they all said. She married "Buck" Perry, who owned a large cotton farm on the San Gabriel River some 30 or 40 miles south of the Stockton place. She had 3 sons and 2 daughters, Mary Belle, Edna, Guy, Milton and Hayden*. She died when these 4 children were very small and Grandma Stockton took them "home" to the old plantation and there they grew up with all my other Aunts and Uncles. They have always seemed more like my Uncles and Aunt than my cousins. I came to love them so very much - and now, even they are sleeping with their parents in the old Stockton Cemetery. All four of these Perry children (died financially independent* - altho they had the saddest, hardest time when they were small. The three boys rented farms, near the plantation, when they were only in their teens. They "batched" and did their own cooking, etc. With their hard-earned money, they saved and bought land from the big King Ranch in South Texas for $5.00 an acre. They discovered this land would grow even finer cotton than the Bell County land, and soon the land shot up to $200.00 an acre. Because they and others made profits in cotton, farmers began to flood down to thot part of Texas and the prosperous towns of Bishop, Kingsville, Robstown, etc., sprang up. Soon they struck oil - yes, they were growing cotton over a lake of oil! Their fortunes were made of course. They never acted as if it was all their money, however. One of them said to me one time "This oil was one of Gods' gifts to mankind, and I wish to share it with mankind."; I would not dare to tell of all the good things they did with their money. They never wanted anyone [Next Page]

*See Note 1, page 34
*See Note 2, page 34

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