First there had to be a father & a mother so I'll tell you about them. My mother was China Emeline Evans, born in Anderson County Tex. My father was Vaulter Pomeroy Brooks born in Hood Co Tex. Emma as my mother was called, at the age of 16 went to Okla. to live with her Aunt Mattie Brooks -- after her mother passed away -- and Vaulter Brooks went to live & work for his brother Benjamin F. Brooks who was Mattie's husband. So there my parents met & fell in love and married, and they drove in a covered wagon from Indian territory to Paluxy Tex. on their Honymoon. She was 16 & he was 21.
They first lived in a log cabin & there my brother was born in 1898 & was named Bruce Claude Brooks, a beaful boy with long yellow curls. I guess my mother cryed when he had them cut off. Mothers usuly do. Then in the year of 1900 Sep 2, there arrived me & they named me Bessie Ferol. I was fair with blue eyes, and mother said I was all hairy like a little monkey & she cried thinking maby I was one but of corse the fuzz soon went away, and I was a chubby blue eyed girl. Guess I was spoiled because mom said that they had a cradle & Bruce tyed a string on the cradle & set on the stairway where I couldn't see him & he woud pull the string to rock the cradle, & when he stopped I would cry, and he rocked me hr after hour.
I think we had 5 rooms, all were small, and an unfinished upstairs which was floored & had 3 windows. We had a living room with a rock fireplace, a dining room & a kitchen. The front bed room just off the front porch -- opposite the living room -- was my Grandma Rachel Brooks' bed room. I think the house really belong to her & my parents was working it & farming the land & taking care of the stock & we all lived together. There was a bed in the back bed room & there was a trundle bed that slid under the big bed in the day time & pulled out at night. And when my sister was born in July 9, 1902 they named her Mary Margerite, but was called Maggie. She was dark complected with brown eyes like my father. So after she arrived she got the cradle & Bruce & I had the trundle bed.
Oh yes before I was born my parents moved from the log cabin into the house with my Grandma & that's where Maggie & Bessie (thats me) was born, and the little log cabin was moved over to the home place and was used as a barn or stable for old Mack a stud horse that belonged to my Grandma, I think. Of corse I don't remember much of those early days. But there was large liveoak trees & Boisdarc trees in the yard and a well & pump, barns, storm celler, & smoke house. The yard was finced & there was a style our the fence to go to the well & branch, down the hill back of the house toward Paluxy Creek, which ran by the place. And there was a Brooks family cemetary south of the house, that is where my grandparents & great grandparents are berried, the Brooks & the Meeks. My Grandma was Rachel Meek, daughter of John Meek.
Then in 1904 there was a 4th child a boy born Aug 11, and he was named Glen Evans Brooks. Wow, his hair was red like my mother's father, who was William Evans, & Mary) (Mary was a Collings.) They had 4 girls & 4 boys. All the boys died at an early age. The girls were Sally Josephine, Emma, Lucy & Zeula. My grandfather had a son by a first marriage, named William Evans, Jr., Uncle Will we called him. Mom's sister Lucy lived with us for a while. She was married there to a Jess A. Jackson of Blufdale Tex.
And one of Papa's sister's boys, Ben Wan about 16 also lived with us for sometime after his mother passed away. (Synthia Brooks Wan) He use to take us children hunting for rabbits & skunks. He would skin them & hang them on a board to dry on the side of the smoke house. He also took us fishing & swimming in the creek. Maby he went & we tagged along. I really don't know. But I remember the fun we had. We woud dig in the sand near the creek for turtle eggs -- he showed us how & where to dig.
About the time Glen was born I began to have strange dreams every nite, of the trundle bed floating through the air, over house & fields where lots of men were working. I could see them through the white clouds, & I'de cry Mama I'm going off -- I'm going away -- Mama catch me I'm going off -- & I'de be sitting up in bed (trundle bed) and I could see my sister Maggie sleeping peacefully by me, and every nite I'de beg my mother to let me sleep with her & Papa, at the foot of the bed, then I'de not have these awful dreams, of floating away on the trundle bed. I don't [unreadable] remember when those dreams ceased, but they sure did frighten me. I got to where I didnt want to go to bed at nite.
Mama use to turn out the lights -- or I shoud say blow out the lite for we had coaloid lamps -- then she woud set by the fire place with the firelight and shadows dancing on the wall, & tell us storys or sing old songs, like the "Miller Boy" & Barbara Ellan", and others I can only remembr a few lines of them & not the titles, but we loved them. One was Babes in the Woods", and Hello Central Give Me Heaven, for My Mother's there. That's the way it started out, but I dont know the title. But these songs woud bring tears to our eyes -- yet we loved to hear her sing them, & she woud pop corn over the open fire or roast nuts in the hot ashes. My mama was a vry wondeful mother and still is a wondeful person -- every one loves her.
I think I went to school for a little while when I was 7, but as my bithdy was on sep 2 -- and not the 1st -- my parents had to pay for me to go to school. And Bruce & I walked to school over in Paluxy & we crossed Paluxy Creek on a split log foot bridge, & when we came fom school late in pm, my mother Maggie & Glen woud meet us at the creek & sometimes we woud have a little picknic there in the shade of a tree.
Do you remember just how hungry you use to get by the time you got home fom school? didnt food taste wondeful -- maby a big round fat cookie, or maby it was a cold bisquit with cold sausage, or how about lasses in a rat hole? Didnt you ever eat that? take a cold bisquit & stick a hole in it with your finger & fill the hole full of sorgam molasses, or jelly -- oh we just loved it -- try it sometime.
Mama's sister Jossie, (Aunt Joe we called her) lived over in Glenrose tex about 10 mi fom Paluxy & on Sat. Papa woud hitch up the horses to the surray with the fringe on top. We woud drive over to Glenrose to spend the weekend. Aunt Joe had 4 children, 3 girls and 1 boy, and we had wondeful time together. if you are ever in Glenrose go look at the big tracks -- Dynasora tracks I thik they are -- we use to play in them after a rain they would be full of water. And going to Glenrose from Paluxy I thik we forded the creek 7 times (same creek) all rock bottom crossings but one -- dirt roads & no bridges of corse.
We always had a wondeful time at Aunt Joes -- she had 3 children -- Ina, Freda & Mary -- all about the same age as us Brookses. And of corse they woud come & see us. About this time Aunt Joe had a son Weldon we called him Son. We had some Kodak pictures made on top of the storm celler (when Son was about 1 year old). We had a wondeful childhood.
To Be Continued ...
[Note: This material is copyrighted to Bessie Ferol Osborn, Mae Elizabeth Flood, and Kimberly Appelcline.]
