The Big Move.

Here we area on Week 10 of the 52 Ancestors blogging challenge and the theme is 'Stormy Weather'.
So this will prompt me to write about a story I've heard most of my life. Its about the winter storm that happened about the time my Dad's family first moved to Arkansas.

But first let's start at the beginning.

My grandfather, Charles Bryant Nall was the oldest child born to Benjamin Rufus and Willie Belle (Foster) Nall. He was born May 13, 1935 in Crowell, Texas. Then there was "Dena", "Bo", George, and Larry. (My Uncle George always called me 'Sugar Baby')






Myrtle Lou, Sue, Charles, Frances, Edwin

My grandmother, Winnie Sue Jones, was the next to youngest child born to John Arthur and Lurie Myrtle (Rutherford) Jones. She was born July 14, 1936 in San Antonio, Texas. Her older siblings were Francis, Edwin and Charles and the baby of the family was Myrtle Lou. Their father, Johnnie, was a mechanics helper for the Humble Oil Company and on his way home from work on April 25, 1940 his vehicle was struck by a passenger train carrying soldiers from Fort Bliss. He died almost instantly. This would prompt Winnie's family to move back to their home of previous years in Knox County. Winnie Sue would attend school at Truscott until it burned down around 1945. She then continued her education at Benjamin, where she would meet, fall in love with, and marry "Charlie B."
Sue had a lilac prom dress and her sister-in-law Faye cut it off and hemmed it up for her wedding dress. She and Charles were married in the front room of  the little farmhouse belonging to Charles's parents, eight miles West of Benjamin, on  September 18, 1952. Charles and Sue shared an anniversary with her parents and older sister, Frances.

Charles started working on a ranch and made very little money. Eventually they moved to Seymour, Texas where he began working for the grocery store chain 'M System'. He quickly worked his way up to where he had an interest in the company and would have to travel from store to store. In 1958 'M' System had stores in Abilene, San Angelo, Brownwood, and Coleman Counties. The drive and time became so much that he ended up purchasing a small plane, a Cessna 172 Skyhawk, to make travel easier. My Uncle Mike can remember when his dad first got his pilots license. They would get up early of the morning when it was still dark out and make the drive to Wichita Falls, where Charles would take lessons.

Charles Nall with his plane and his nephews Mike* and Ronnie Chilcoat

That small plane would eventually fly the family to Arkansas a few times where they were in the process of buying land.  Why Arkansas you may ask.  Charles had a friend and former brother-in-law, by the name of Odell Brown.  He was a "ramblin' man" and had found 3 rather large parcels of land that were 'dirt cheap' in Northwest Arkansas. He convinced Charles, and Charles's dad Rufus, to go in with him and purchase 2 of the parcels, while he purchased the third. In the Washington County archives in 1963 I can find a Quitclaim Deed for 527 acres between Mr. Brown  and my grandfather's sister, Dena. And in May of 1961 I can find where Charles and Winnie Sue Nall  purchased 310 acres.

It would be a long process of nearly 10 years before the entire family (extended family included - Charles's father and brothers, Larry, George and Bo) would be completely moved in and settled - making several trips between Texas and Arkansas on that small plane and by truck. My Uncle Mike recalls that it was the last day of May 1968 when they loaded up the last of their belongings into a 14' U-Haul trailer pulled by their '63 Ford pick-up and made the final trip to their new home on Blue Mountain, just South of Prairie Grove. Before that final trip there were several summers spent trying to get everything in order. In fact there are shared memories of Odell having a barn that Rufus, Willie Belle, Larry, my dad and his brother (probably several others) stayed in while they built houses for everyone. The old barn was said to have been full of copper head snakes, and that my dad's uncles would take turns at night keeping an eye out to make sure no one was bitten while they slept. Mike recalled that even though it was summer time, the mornings would be cold, foggy, and damp. They kept a wood stove burning in the middle of the old barn, but it would only heat an eight foot circle. He said once you got out of range the only way you knew a fire was burning was because you could see the flames.  My dad recalled a trip made in '64 that he, his brother and Uncle Larry took a rented  bob truck  loaded up with about 15 head of cattle, while Odell drove another, for a total of about 30 head of black baldy cattle and headed to Arkansas with what would be the beginning of the families cattle herd. He remembers stopping at a store and buying weenies, bread, and milk for the trip. My uncle recalled that it took two bob trucks with two trailers to haul the 30 head.

It was the winter of  '66-'67 (possibly '68) and that herd of cattle that the writing prompt reminded me of. That winter was brutal.  When going through old newspapers and online data I can see that Nationally that winter was bad. There were blizzard conditions in much of the north in Colorado, the Dakotas, New York and D.C. and I found this statement from the National Weather Service out of Little Rock referencing this time period:

"THE SNOWSTORM OF JANUARY 28TH 1966 WHEN THE STATE SAW NEAR BLIZZARD CONDITIONS. IN THAT STORM...NEAR-BLIZZARD CONDITIONS WERE FAIRLY WIDESPREAD AT LEAST OVER PORTIONS OF CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN ARKANSAS. EIGHT TO TWELVE INCHES OF SNOW FELL IN A BAND FROM NEAR BISMARCK TO EAST OF PINE BLUFF...WITH ALL AREAS OF THE STATE SEEING MEASURABLE SNOWFALL"The Fayetteville  History Facebook page responded to my inquiry with the following:

"Fayetteville had a significant snow on March 12, 1968. Drake Field recorded 12 inches overnight, the largest recorded up to that time, and the university closed for the first time in its history as a result of weather."

Regardless, it is this winter that my uncle recalled being so bad that the cattle had to be fed hay by horseback. Rufus and George took two horses that carried 3 bales each. It took them all day and when they woke up the next day, they had to do it all over again. My dad recalls that during one of these snowstorms the cattle, trying to get out of the driving cold wind and snow, made their way to the little porch on the front of their newly purchased home, that they were not yet living it at the time. As many cattle as could fit climbed up underneath the overhang to get out of the weather and needless to say, between the weight of the snow and the weight of the cattle the porch couldn't hold that much weight and it collapsed. Several of those cattle died from either the impact of the collapsed roof or from being trapped underneath and smothered to death. It was a hard hit for the family trying to make a new life in a new place while living so far away, but they had no shortage of perseverance. Once this family made their final trip to their new home and settled into this new state, this Texas family would get another dose of an Arkansas winter. My dad recalls that they had a small single story farm house and my grandfather built a small room in that attic for him and his brother. There was so much space between the boards and lack of insulation that they woke up during winter mornings covered in snow. At that time Charles worked at EPC and one winter day the snow had fallen so hard and so fast that when he tried to make his way back home he could only get as far as his dad's place (about a mile or so down the road). He borrowed one of Rufus's horses and rode it the rest of the way home. Dad remembers the horse being in really bad shape by the time it trudged through all that snow and delivered my grandpa safely home. Dad remembers that it was also that time that the propane trucks couldn't make it up the mountain to deliver propane so his mom, Sue, was trying to heat up the house and cook on their wood stove. They didn't have any wood cut so they were out there in the snow digging for scrap wood that had fallen from the trees and Winnie was boiling potatoes in an old coffee can on the stove. He also remembers a neighbor Mr. Kelly that had milk cows and the milk truck getting stuck from the snow and ice, was stuck in the road for weeks, leaving the road barricaded and they had to pass through my grandfather's field to get back and forth. There were many obstacles to overcome living this new life but my grandfather went on to purchase several more acres, operate chicken houses, buy a Processing Plant, raise a few hogs and with the help of his sons, grow his cattle herd to several hundred.

When I found the above newspaper snippet, I couldn't help but laugh at the notion that my grandfather would "retire to his farm", for he rarely stopped. There was always something to check on or work on, or animals to tend to, or supplies to buy. Not what I envision retirement to be like.

Charles and Sue are no longer with us, but the many memories that we all share of their lives will live on, especially if we take the time to share them.

As always, I invite you to comment any additional memories below. And be sure to check out my SIL's post about the Second Dust Bowl and Abilene, Texas, over at Days of Our Lives.

Until next week,
Becky

*Mike was a boy that Aunt Frances and Uncle John Chilcoat raised.