Papa was so distressed when the doctor's suggested that they take her legs. She had suffered a stroke and was surviving as a vegetable in the Vernon Convalescent Home on Texas Street. He declared that she would go to Heaven with her whole body and soul.
Charles Franklin McNair and Ella Vermell King McNair suffered the loss of their daughter, Benona.
His Words - His Blog
GRANDDAD’S LIFE PART 10 Posted on January 15, 2013 by Martin Jones
Daddy was a
generous man. He was a deeply religious man. He was a deacon in the church and
was very active in the Masonic Lodge. In those days the church and the Lodge
were influential in helping people, and there were plenty of people to help. I
remember one family in Thalia that had about ten kids. I know that Daddy bought
many of their groceries. I know of one time he brought two older men to live
with us through the winter. They stayed in the cellar. All they had to do was
keep wood for the stoves. Us kids thought they were OK. One of them played the
Jew’s Harp, and the other would sing folk songs to us. Another time he brought
home a young couple who stayed in the cellar. The woman was pregnant. They
stayed with us until she delivered, and he bought them a ticket on the bus to
get to where they needed to go. I relate this stuff to illustrate the kind of
man my daddy was. My mother would sometimes complain that if he did not give
everything away, we could have more. But I remember that we did not want for anything.
Daddy bought
groceries by the case... and flour and sugar by the 50-pound bag. He always had a
hog to slaughter, and a cow for milk. Mother made sure that every old hen that
wanted to set was able to do so and raise a bunch of little chickens. We had
plenty of meat and milk and eggs. Looking back, it is easy for me to see why we
did better than most of the people at that time. My daddy was a hustler and a
provider.
The depression began to let up, and
Daddy bought a refrigerator that ran on kerosene. It was a huge thing that had
3 burners under it that had to be lit every night. When they were lit, we had to
leave home because of the heat. I cannot tell you how that silly thing got
cold and made ice, and even ice cream from heat of the burners. But it did. It
must have exploded while we were gone one evening. We had gone down to our
grandparent’s house. You could see the fire from their house, and we loaded up
and started home. When we got there the whole house was afire. Daddy was able
to reach through the front room door and drag out the sewing machine, which was
sitting beside the door. That is all that we saved. All we had was the clothes
on our backs. I had come in from plowing and took off my shoes and shirt. I did
not even have a shirt or shoes.
His Blog - His Words
GRANDDAD’S LIFE PART 9 Posted on December 26, 2012 by Martin Jones
In the late l920’s
or early l930’s as his family grew it became necessary for my dad to provide a
larger house. There was a 90 acre, more or less, farm that bordered the town of
Thalia. It was owned by J.H. Laneer who lived in Crowell. There was a pretty
nice 4 room house on it. I remember also the smoke house, and a big barn with a
loft for storing feed for the animals. Daddy rented the land and bought himself
a team of 4 horses, and we moved to what we called up on the hill. It is
important to note that he did not give up his trucking business. He did a lot
of the farming at night. This all happened at the beginning of the great
depression. Not only was daddy working night and day providing for his family,
he was making sure his father and mother were taken care of. They moved into
his 2 room house and lived there until after the depression.
The depression worsened, and Daddy
leased his trucks to the State, which was leasing trucks to build highways etc.
At that time the state did not own trucks or mowers for the highways. He also
bought a small tractor with a mower and leased it to the state to mow the sides
of the highways. I do not remember how many trucks he had when the depression
hit, but I know that at one time he had bought 3 trucks, and his 3 brothers
were driving them. I do not remember us having to do without any thing. I guess
we were considered along with the men with mail routes and other government
jobs. Compared to the population I guess we were considered rich. Daddy was
fortunate to have been in the trucking business and get on with the state. I
remember him having trucks working on highway 70, Highway 287, and the highway
being built between Lubbock and Wichita Falls.
His Blog - His Words
GFANDAD’S LIFE NUMBER 8 Posted on November 29, 2012 by Martin Jones
During school time, he would remove
the bed of his truck and install a wooden school bus body on it and run a bus
route. I remember one cold winter morning that his truck would not start. The
way to start cars those days, was to insert a crank into the front of the
engine. It had to be turned by hand. He even built a fire under it to try to
warm it up thinking maybe if it was not so cold it might start better. No luck.
He removed the crank and gave that truck a good beating with the crank. The
scars were still there when it was ready for the junk pile. One of Daddy’s
faults was his high temper. When his temper flared up his language became a
little foul. It was during this time that daddy had an accident one night while
working at the gin. Actually, it was when I was a baby. He got caught in the gin
saws of one of the stands, and almost lost his life. He ended up getting his
left hand and arm almost mutilated to the point of amputation. Dr. Clark and
Dr. Hill at Crowell were taking care of him. Dr. Clark wanted to amputate, but
Dr. Hill thought they could save all the hand and arm except the left thumb.
After a long battle with infection, lack of healing and pain, the arm began to
heal and movement in the fingers began to come back, and it was saved. There was
limited use of the fingers but at least they were still there, and he learned to
use them very well. He was naturally left-handed and had to learn to write and
use his right hand as the primary hand.
His Blog - His Words
GARANDAD’S LIFE PART 7 Posted on November 21, 2012 by Martin Jones
GRANDDAD’S LIFE PART 7
I think that my father must have been born into the first generation of Joneses
that did not have a son named Martin. Daddy was a very enterprising man. They
tell a story on him when he was a kid. He was with the group pulling bolls
(harvesting cotton by hand and putting it into sacks which were dumped into a
wagon to be taken to the gin.) A cold front blew in. Carroll told the bunch
that the first thing he was going to buy with his earnings was a good pair of
long handles. As he grew older, he managed to find him a way of earning a
living without pulling bolls. He was an admirer of his grandfather, Martin E.B.
Jones. When his grandfather was older, he retired off the Indian Reservation.
By that time Frank McNair, my other grandfather, who was a Baptist preacher in
the area, became acquainted. I do not know how Martin E.B. Jones managed to
have a little nest egg laid by, but evidently, he did. At an early age Daddy and
his grandfather became owners of a truck, and Daddy started in the trucking
business. He hauled cotton bales to the compress, and cotton seed to Vernon. He
would go to Bridgeport, which was some distance east of Thalia and get a load
of coal and peddle it out. I have forgotten whether he and his grandfather were
partners, or he borrowed the money from him. But knowing my Daddy I would bet
that he soon bought out his grandfather and got out of the boll pulling
business. When there was nothing to haul with his truck, or even when there
was, he would get a job at night working at the gin. Trucking in those days was
a daytime thing. Trucks had no headlights. His first trucks did not even have
a cab.
John's military service was in Tennessee. His pension numbers were: pension number #1 WO30367 pension number #2 WC25181 Roll # 62 A...
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