Theophilus Bassell Danforth son of Thomas Bassell Danforth

Theophilus Bassell Danforth 1849-1930 

            Theophilus Bassell Danforth was born on 12 March 1849 at Fluellen's Crossroads in DeSota County, Mississippi.  The place of his birth is now known as Independence, in Tate County.   His parents were Thomas Bassell Danforth, a native of Vermont and Lucretia Morgan a native of Tennessee. Both his parents had children by former marriages but "Thee", (pronounced with a soft th like in thistle) Danforth as he was known throughout his life, was their first son.  He was named after his father and his maternal grandfather, Theophilus Morgan who was a veteran of the Revolutionary War, having been present at the defeat of Cornwallis at Yorktown. The Morgan Family Tree included Daniel Boone, pioneer of Kentucky and General Daniel Morgan, the Revolutionary hero of the Battle of Cowspen in North Carolina.

            Thee Danforth's parents were members of the middle class of antebellum Mississippi. Although his father was a shop keeper, his mother was well connected with the well to do society of Desoto County.  His mother's people were horse breeders, and cotton plantation owners.  

            Thee Danforth told his granddaughter, Anne Danforth Williams, that when he was young,  he use to watch large gangs of Negro slaves work the cotton plantations and in the fall, at picking time, the land was white like snow.  Cotton growing was the main industry in the pre-war delta river counties of Mississippi and every one worked in the fields, black and white during harvesting time.  Thee Danforth worked in the fields as a farm laborer for much of his youth when not attending school. His father operated stores in the communities of Fluellen Crossroads, Chulahoma, and Coldwater and his mother kept house with the help of Black servants although the family did not own slaves themselves while Thee Danforth was a youth. 

            Thee Danforth was proud of his family but was closer to his mother's side than his father's, never having grown up around any of them. He knew that they were from New England but had always thought that the Danforths had come over on the Mayflower not knowing the family history that well. Thee Danforth's  half brother Oscar Danforth  seemed like a heroic figure having gone to California in the Gold Rush and returning to Kentucky. 

            When Thee Danforth was a boy of 12 years, Mississippi  seceded from the United States and joined the Confederate States of America to fight a war for Southern Independence.  His parents were conservatives of the Whig Party and believed in the  Southern institutions which made the South the riches agricultural society in the world.  Thee Danforth saw his two older half-brothers, Willie Luce and Elihu Luce don the Confederate Gray uniform and joined the armies of Mississippi.   

            Coldwater, Mississippi was raided several times during the war due to its proximity to the Mississippi River and was occupied by Yankee Soldiers in 1864.  Thee Danforth told his granddaughter, Anne Williams, that his father's store was looted and burned. His father was ill and was taken to the woods in a wagon with his favorite horse, where he was hidden.  His step-daughter Victoria Luce stayed with him as did his daughter Sophia Danforth while the rest of the family walked to Lucretia Danforth's brother's plantation, carrying just a few possessions and the clothes on their back. His uncle Perry Morgan's plantation was about seven miles from Coldwater and his mother carried 2 year old Harriet Brown Danforth while the other children as young 7 years, walked the distance.  At the Morgan plantation most of the African Americans had deserted the farm to join the Federal Troops which they hailed as a liberating army.  Thee Danforth's parents stayed with the Morgans until after the end of the war.

            Thee Danforth was 16 years old when the war ended and he said one of his most memorable images of the war was seeing his father swimming on horseback across the Coldwater River to pay his taxes at the county seat of Hernando because the bridge had been burned.

            Thee Danforth said there was no money to be had after the war with all the large farms in ruin and going back to seed, with the forest reclaiming much of the non tilled land. But the family always had food from the vegetable gardens and the chickens and hogs that were kept for feeding the families that lived on the Morgan farm.  His father clerked as a book keeper and rebuilt his store in Coldwater but later turned the running of the store over more and more to his wife Lucretia, and especially to his step daughter Victoria Luce.  Thomas B. Danforth was especially fond of this step-daughter who was a kind and gentle soul.  She looked after the younger children during these hard times, especially Charles and Lucy Danforth, and when Charles Danforth became rich he remember Victoria Luce's loving nature by bequeathing extra money to her children.

            Thee Danforth went to work as a farm laborer in 1866 at the age of 17 years and while  working for D.M. Jones of Greenleaf he met his future wife Minerva Ann Holt.

            Minerva Ann Holt was the pretty dark brunette hair daughter of Joel Holt and Lucinda Jane Perry. She was  born 6 November 1854 at Arkabutla, Desoto, Mississippi.  Joel Holt was a farmer and sort of a country doctor who married a wealthy young widow, Mrs. Lucinda Jones whose husband had died in the influenza epidemic of 1844.  She was the mother of several children by her first husband.  They were Sarah Ann Jones, David M. Jones, Martha E. Jones and Andrew T. Jones.

            Minerva Ann Holt's mother was formerly Lucinda Jane Perry the daughter of a plantation owner named Daniel Perry of Carroll County, Tennessee. Daniel Perry and Theophilus Morgan and Shadrach Flewellen were all neighbors according to the 1830 U.S. Census of Carroll County.  Lucinda Perry was born 1817 in Stokes County, North Carolina and came west to Tennessee in the 1820's.  In 1834 she married M. Jones of Carroll County.  The Perrys joined the Christian Church while in Carroll County and Lucinda Jane Jones along with her brothers, Evan Perry, Daniel Perry, and Eldridge Perry moved to northern Mississippi about 1836 and settled in DeSota County among friends and family formerly from Carroll County.

            Joel Holt ancestry has not been determined.  He was born in North Carolina about 1820.  Joel Holt and Lucinda Jane Perry were married 9 December 1847 at Arkabutla, DeSota, Mississippi and were the parents of four children, Evan H. Holt, Minerva Ann Holt, Hattie Holt and David Holt.

            Not much is known about the life of Joel Holt.  Anne Danforth Williams was under the impression that he was a country doctor who died during the Civil War. In fact the family Bible states that Joel Holt died in 1865 and "Jane"" Holt died in 1864. David Holt was included in the household of his half-brother Andrew T. Jones and Minerva Ann Holt and Evan Holt were with their guardian and half-brother D.M. Jones.

            Land records of DeSota County, Mississippi show that Joel Holt owned a 165 acre farm at the Greenleaf community near Coldwater.

            Thee Danforth at the age of 24 years married 19 year old Minerva Ann Holt on 8 January 1874 in Coldwater, Mississippi.  They were both members of the Church of Christ and attended services at Thyratira.  Thee Danforth along with his brothers-in-law worked the Holt farm at Greenleaf and made improvements on the land.

            When Lucinda Perry Jones Holt died in 1874 her four children inherited the Holt place.  Thee and Minerva Danforth lived at a place near Coldwater and Thee would walk about three miles to the farm.

            Thee Danforth's first child was born 13 April 1875 at Coldwater in Tate County which had been just recently formed from the southern portion of DeSota County.  He was named Mabry Oscar Danforth after Doctor Oscar Mabry who delivered him and after Oscar Danforth, Thee Danforth's half-brother who died in the Civil War.

            On 11 November 1876 a little baby girl was born to the couple but died only 20 months old of measles. She was named Ora Lee Danforth after the hauntingly sad Civil War Camp Song "Aura Lee".  She died on 11 August 1877  a month before her Grandfather Thomas Bassell Danforth did.  They were both buried in the Coldwater Cemetery.

            In 1876 Evan H. Holt died of tuberculosis leaving a widow Eliza H. Holt and a son William Holt who then moved to Marshall County and lived on rents from their share of the farm.  Thee Danforth continued to farm the Holt place until 1878 when his wife was getting sicker and sicker from tuberculosis herself.

            Thee Danforth, his brother-in-law Bob Nicholson, and his half-brother Elihu Luce were all experiencing financial setbacks in Mississippi and talked of moving to Texas for health and economic reasons.  Elihu Luce had experienced a crop failure in 1877 and a Tate County court ordered that his property be sold to pay off his creditors.  This experience humiliated him and he swore to leave Mississippi and never return.  He was the first to leave for Texas and settled first in Tarrent County but moved shortly to Palo Pinto County on land bought sight unseen from land agents.  Bob Nicholson had his felony conviction haunting him, and Thee Danforth's wife's health was failing in the damp humid air of the Mississippi river bottoms.

            Thee Danforth wanted to sell off their portion of Minerva Ann Holt's inheritance to finance the family move to Texas, however her younger brother and sister, Hattie and David wanted to keep the farm intact but couldn't afford to buy Minerva's share.

            On 8 October 1878 Thee Danforth and his former sister-in-law, Eliza Holt, filed a civil suit against David Holt and Hattie Smith to divide the farm in behalf of Minerva Ann Danforth and his nephew William T. Holt.  In the suit Thee Danforth stated that they all lived some distance from the farm to care for it and make it profitable. He said that the buildings were growing dilapidated and its fences were in need of repair.

            The Tate County Court ruled that the farm should go into probate and sold at a public auction on 4 November 1878 to the highest bidder.  Mr. J.H. Boon bought the land for $665.00 and Thee and Minerva Danforth received $166.25 which they used to finance their emigration to Texas.

            Elihu Luce sent numerous letters to his family in Mississippi urging them to relocate in  Texas saying that land was cheap and that the climate was healthy.  Thee Danforth and Bob Nicholson had Elihu Luce buy a 100 acre place near Gordon in Palo Pinto and the two families left Mississippi in December of  1878 never to return.

            When Thee Danforth, Minerva Ann Danforth (who was 7 months pregnant) and 3 year old Mabry Danforth along with Bob Nicholson, Alice Nicholson and their three children Billy Nicholson age 4 years, George Nicholson age 2 years and Alma Nicholson age 6 months left Mississippi the only posterity of Thomas B. Danforth.

            Charles Danforth and John Garrard drove the wagons which carried the possessions Thee Danforth and Bob Nicholson were taking while Minerva and Alice rode with Lucinda Sophia Taylor and Lucy Danforth in a buggy driven by Dick Taylor to Memphis where the families took a train to Fort Worth Texas after a teary goodbye.

            The train took about three days to reach Texas and Elihu Luce rented wagons to haul the family to their new place near Gordon, in North Central Texas.  Minerva Ann Danforth delivered a baby girl on 4 February 1879 in a covered wagon the family had been living out of with her sister-in-law Alice Nicholson acting as a mid-wife. Grateful Minerva Ann named the daughter Alice Rose Danforth for her aunt and the Yellow Rose of Texas.  Thee Danforth said Alice Danforth was a true western baby having to burn mesquite wood to boil water for the delivery while Texas mockingbirds sang her lullabies.

            The small ranching and farming community of Gordon was situated in the south western section of Palo Pinto County and this area would become the Danforth's home for the next twenty-five years.

            Palo Pinto County was an expansive land of mesquite covered rolling hills, gullies, and dry creek beds under a brilliantly blue sky.  It was quite different from the lush green farm lands and endless woods fed by rivers and creeks of Tate County, Mississippi.  In Palo Pinto County, prairie grass grew as tall as a man and wildflowers known as Texas blue bonnets dotted the countryside in the Spring.

            Wild game was plentiful in Palo Pinto and Thee Danforth and Bob Nicholson hunted quail, grouse, deer and antelope.  Predators like wolves, coyotes, bobcats, and rattle snakes were also in abundance.  All in all Thee Danforth and Minerva Ann Danforth loved their Texas prairie home and a granddaughter Velma Danforth Neville stated that she heard Thee Danforth say that if he had come to the plains sooner that maybe Minerva would have lived longer.

            Thee Danforth built a half dug out shanty with a prairie grass roof for his family in 1879 at Gordon and Thee loved telling the story how a gopher snake dropped down from the ceiling not far from where Minerva had just sat down for dinner.  In true frontier style, she just took an ax handle and clubbed it to death but she wouldn't carry out the snake. She made Thee take it outside.

            Anne Williams said that her grandfather said he and Minerva Danforth would sit outside on hot summer nights to sing old gospel and Civil War songs they had sung in Mississippi.  All the children were taught the songs and sang along.  Anne Williams said that was why all the Danforth kids were so musically inclined from those nights when it was too hot to do much else.

            The Danforths, Luces and Nicholsons made up the core of a small Church of Christ congregation which met at Gordon.  Elihu Luce was an elder in the church and preached most of the sermons although Thee Danforth was called upon to give regular talks from the Bible also.

            The 1880 U.S. Census of Palo Pinto County shows that the Danforths, Luces, and Nicholsons all lived fairly close to each other and family letters show that they kept in touch with their relations  which stayed in Mississippi and Arkansas. These three families raised cotton and wheat and were becoming financial secure when drought came to the plains.

            In the 1880's a decade long drought came to north central Texas which caused an economic depression as crops withered and cattle  sickened.  During this time Thee Danforth had to leave home and went to live in the coal mining camps in Erath County.  He came home sporadically and after a son Wright Evan Danforth was born 20 November 1883 at Gordon, he moved his family to Thurber in Erath County so he could be closer to them while he worked as a coal miner.  Thomas Frederick Danforth was born 14 March 1886 while the family was living at Thurber.

            In 1886 Elihu Luce called it quits trying to farm in Palo Pinto County and moved further west to Dickens County, Texas where Luce was one of the first families to settle there. Elihu Luce claimed to raise the first cotton grown in Dickens County from seeds brought from Palo Pinto County.  He patented land on what was called the shinery strip near the  West Pasture lands of The Spurs Ranch and planted cotton in 1886 three years before the county was organized.   However this cotton failed to mature so he planted seeds brought from Palo Pinto and in 1889 his first cotton crop grew to maturity.  He hauled his cotton to Sweetwater, Texas which had the only gin in that part of Texas at the time.  The land on which Elihu Luce settled in time became the community known as Red Mud.  The only post office in the entire county was at  the Dockun Store. 

            Elihu Luce's son John Luce married Zona Thomas of Hunt County, Texas in 1891. She was out on a visit to Dickens County to see her aunt Mrs. Alfred Manning and grandmother Mrs. Thomas.  John and Zona Luce were the first couple to be married in the newly organized Dickens County and  they made their home in the West Pasture where they built a half dug out.  Their first furniture were home made from any material that was available mostly dry good boxes and nail  kegs.

            Their nearest neighbors  were at Tap twelve miles away and Zona Luce said they would see no one for days and that the days were so long and lonesome with no one to visit with.  When John Luce would be away having gone to town for supplies, she would be all alone and she said the days and nights were endless.  After a time Elihu and Georgia  Luce moved to the West Pasture also, near enough for Zona to walk to their home for a visit.

            On these occasions she would spend the entire day with Elihu and Georgia Luce but would always walk home at night.  One evening while walking home from one of these visits, she came upon the biggest rattlesnake she had ever saw. Zona Luce said it was coiled in the middle of the road and ready for battle. The rattlesnake made a pile as big as a wash pot and stood two feet high. Fortunately she was carrying an unfinished ax handle, which she always took with her because it was "not uncommon to see snakes or some other varmint" on her walks.  She threw the handle at the snake the best she could but she knew the snake was too big to kill with the short ax handle. She had hoped to "addle" it which she did and then threw some bones from the carcass of a dead animal nearby at the snake until it crawled away dazed.  She retrieved the ax handle she had thrown at it and finally killed the snake by beating it too death.  It was the code of the western people to never let a rattlesnake live if it was at all possible to kill it.

            John and Zona Luce lived on the West Pasture farm until 1903 when Elihu Luce bought a store at Tap and sent John and Zona Luce over there to run it for him.  Zona said it was quite a chore to clean the building which had seen years of neglect. She even said she had to scrape gum stuck behind the door facings.

            John and Zona Luce had no children of their own but after moving to Spur Texas in 1912 adopted Durward Woodward whose mother had died leaving a family of small children.  John And Zona Luce were members of the Church of Christ and were always helping carry on the work of their church any time the opportunity was presented.  Zona Luce died in 1969 at the age of 98 years. A dormitory at Abilene Christian College was named Zona Luce Hall to honor her memory as a subscriber to the building of that Church of Christ institution.

            When Elihu Luce left Palo Pinto County, Thee Danforth bought his place and had little luck farming it.  He wrote his mother in December 1886 that he hoped to make some money next year and she wrote back her concern for the financial welfare of her grandchildren if Thee Danforth was not able to provide for them.

            A daughter Lucy Lucretia Danforth was born 24 April 1888 at Gordon in Palo Pinto County but the drought and the drudgery of frontier life was beginning to take a toll on Minerva Ann Danforth's health and her tuberculosis returned.

            On 6 August 1891 a daughter named Myrtle Ruth Danforth was born and a little more than two months later Minerva Danforth was pregnant again.  She became pregnant too soon after having Ruth Danforth and her fragile body was wearing out.  Minerva Ann Danforth was ill during most of her last pregnancy and she was nursed through it by her loving sister-in-law Alice Nicholson.  She carried the baby to term and a daughter was born 10 June 1892 at Gordon but Minerva Ann Danforth failed to regain her strength. Two days later on a Sunday morning 12 June 1892, Minerva Ann Danforth died at the age of 38 years. Her obituary said that she was only sick a few hours before dropping off to sleep and died.

            The death of his beloved wife was a great blow to Thee Danforth and his children. Thee Danforth was grief stricken and blamed him self for her early death.  The baby girl was named Minerva Ann Danforth but she "like a flower cut too soon from the vine"  failed to regain strength and died two days after her mother. Both mother and daughter were buried in a country cemetery near Gordon, Texas.

            Her obituary stated:

Died on Sunday Morning, June 12, 1892, Mrs. M.A. Danforth departed this life 15 minutes after 11 o'clock.  She was sick only a few hours, but dropped off to sleep in a better world to meet a little babe that is gone before. (Ora Lee Danforth)  She was born on then 6th of November 1850 in DeSota County, Mississippi, came to Texas 1879, she leaves a husband and seven children, leaves a little babe to be cared for. She has left many kind friends and relatives to mourn her loss, but their loss is her gain.

            After baby Minerva Ann Danforth died the rest of the children of Thee and Minerva Ann Danforth grew to  maturity, married and had children of their own.

            Minerva Ann Danforth had blue eyes with dark brunette hair.  She was a "fleshy" woman after having babies, a predisposition many of her descendants inherited.

            Times were extremely bleak for Thee Danforth after the death of his wife. His oldest son left home to work on cattle ranches to unburden his father and 14 year old, Alice Danforth assumed the role of a mother to her little brothers and sisters. Wright Danforth was only 8 years old, Fred Danforth 5 years old, Lucy Danforth 4 years old and baby Ruth Danforth was only 10 months old at the time of their mother's passing.

            Alice Nicholson was widowed herself about 1894 and she stayed with Thee Danforth on his farm and the Danforth and Nicholson cousins all lived together for several years.

            Seventeen year old Mabry Danforth's first job was splitting logs for fifty cents a day but later was hired on as a ranch hand working on different Cattle ranches in west Texas including the Spur Ranch in Dickens County where his uncle Elihu Luce was cotton farming.  Mabry Danforth sent most of his wages back to Thee Danforth to help out his father who had gone back to working in the coal mines of Erath County along with his young sons Wright and Fred Danforth who drove mine carts into the mines. To Wright and Fred it was tiring to sit all day and wait for the men to fill the cart.

            Fred Danforth went to work in the coal mines at the age of 6 years and it was his job to drive a cart in and out of the mines while the men loaded and unloaded it.  Fred Danforth told his daughter Velma Neville that the worst part of the job was having to work with the stubborn donkeys that pulled his cart.  Fred Danforth remarked that some times they would refuse to go at all and he would have to get down and pull them  The more he pulled the more stubborn they got and just about when he was about to cry, they would bray at him as if they were laughing at him.  From these early childhood experience, Fred Danforth grew to hate donkeys and would refuse to let his children have one.  After refusing them so many times, Fred Danforth finally told his children of his early trials with them.  Seeing Donkeys for the rest of his life reminded Fred Danforth how hard he had to work and how hard it was on his family.  Fred Danforth said he would sometimes sit down and cry longing for his mother's touch.  Fred Danforth's children never asked him for a donkey again after realizing how they brought back memories of this sad time in his life.

            On 15 June 1897, Alice Rose Danforth age 18 years married Claud Mayo.  She was the first of Thee Danforth's children to marry.  Alice Rose Danforth and her cousin Charley Alma Nicholson married brothers. Alice Mayo moved away from Gordon, Texas to Bowie in Montague County where Claude and Alice Mayo raised a family and lived out the remainder of their lives.  As of 1982 they still had children living in that vicinity. Alma Nicholson Mayo and her husband moved to Plainview, Hale County, Texas and raised a family there.

            Thee Danforth had a short lived second marriage.  He married a 42 year old widow woman named Mrs. Anna Jones on 29 October 1899 in Palo Pinto County.  Anna Jones was the mother of Rosa E. Jones born October 1876, Frank A. Jones born February 1883, Talley Jones born June 1888, John R. Jones born November 1889 and Walter Jones born November 1891.  Thee Danforth's children and Mrs. Anna Jones children would not accept either as step-parents and two  of Anna Danforth's oldest boys according to Velma Neville caused a lot of trouble for Thee Danforth.  After a few months the marriage was annulled in 1900 and Thee Danforth decided it was time to leave Palo Pinto County, Texas.

            The 1900 U.S. Census of Palo Pinto County, Texas shows that Thee Danforth was living in Precinct #3 which included Gordon and married to Anna M. Danforth born February 1857 in Missouri.  Anna M. Danforth must have answered the census taker's questionnaire because little of the information on Thee Danforth and his children is correct except for that for Lucy Danforth.  Anna stated that Thee Danforth was born in February in Louisiana and she even listed her five children  ahead of Thee Danforth's children.  Missing from the 1900 U.S. census is information on Mabry Danforth who was a 25 year old man in that year.  Being a single cowboy working on the Spur Ranch, he may have just been missed by the census taker.

            Elihu Luce was making money from his cotton crop in Dickens County and he persuaded Thee Danforth to move to Dickens to work for him.  Mabry Danforth was already out west working as a cowhand on the Spur Ranch when he courted Minnie Gertrude Peacock the oldest daughter of John William Peacock and Maggie Roden Wilson of Peacock, Stonewall County, Texas.  Mabry Danforth and Minnie Peacock were married on 21 April 1901 in her father's house in Peacock, Texas.  Mabry Danforth went to farming on a rented place near the community of Swenson in Stonewall County, Texas, where both of their children were born. When the community of Swenson dried up their children claimed Aspermont as their birthplace.

            Thee Danforth and his sons Wright and Fred Danforth went to work for Elihu Luce who besides farming, opened a general store in the small community of Tap.  Elihu Luce's lands were surrounded by the Spur Ranch and later a town grew up as a supply station for the ranch and was called Spur.  Wright Danforth and Fred Danforth when not working for Elihu Luce worked as hands for the Spur Ranch.

            Both Fred Danforth and Wright Danforth could play the fiddle and guitar and they also made a few pennies playing and singing for Saturday night dances in Dickens County.  Thee Danforth generally disapproved of this activity since dancing was not permitted for members of the Church of Christ.

            In 1903 Elihu Luce built the first gin in Dickens County not wanting the expense of hauling his cotton to Sweetwater.  The gin was located about one quarter of a mile out in the pasture of Elihu Luce's son John Luce.  Elihu Luce bought the gin at Peacock in Stonewall County where he had it dismantled, loaded onto freight wagons, and hauled to Tap where it was reassembled. He paid $400.00 for his gin and paid "Contrariness" John Hill, Clint and Elve Garrett, Jimmie Johnson and Elzy Cross to haul it to Tap.  The gin was a one stand affair, operated by hand and fired with wood brought out of the Spur Ranch pasture.  The gin was operated by Thee Danforth's son-in-law, Claud Mayo with Sam Smith firing the boiler.  Fred Danforth and Mabry Danforth's brother-in-law Lee Peacock both ran the stand with a water pump to press the cotton.

            With a gin in Dickens County, farmers carried their cotton to Tap in freight wagons pulled by mules which cotton was then transferred into baskets to be carried inside the mill. Fred Danforth and Lee Peacock were both hired to stomp the cotton down with their feet into the press from which the cotton was then ginned into bales.  The cotton bales were weighed on a large pair of scales with an heavy iron pea to balance the scale.  The bales had to be lifted by hand and they weighed hundreds of pounds.  Even the iron pea was heavy and difficult to handle.

            Fred Danforth told a story about Lee Peacock which occurred when they were both working for Elihu Luce at his gin.  Lee Peacock had a habit of walking in his sleep and one night when the two of them were sleeping in the gin on a pile of cotton, Fred Danforth awoke hearing a terrible howl. He immediately jumped up to investigate what had happened and had found Lee Peacock nine feet below on the ground. Lee Peacock thought he was at work while sleep walking and the holler Fred Danforth heard was Lee falling into the press nine feet below.  The press was covered with cotton batten  so Lee Peacock was not seriously hurt. Even so it was hard landing but Lee Peacock said he was more embarrassed then hurt.

            Elihu Luce's cotton gin was ran by a crew of four men Sam Smith, Lee Peacock, Fred Danforth and Claud Mayo. The gin could bale six or seven bales of cotton a day with good luck.  In 1905 Elihu Luce sold his gin however after two years at a  good profit.

            Elihu Luce became quite wealthy in Dickens County where he had a good farm and a prosperous store at Tap.  His farm was known as the West Pasture which was once a part of the Spur Ranch.  The community of Watson grew up around his farm.  Today this area is known as Kalgary but is located on Luce's West Pasture land.  Two of his farm hands were Jeff Smith and Sam McKay.  Sam McKay married Ola Smith, Jeff Smith's cousin and Sam and Ola McKay in later years moved to Ontario, California and kept in touch with Anne Williams, Elihu Luce's great-grand niece.  Sam McKay remembered that some of Elihu Luce's favorite horses were called Old Tom, Old Ben, Dime, and Button when he was working for him.

            Anne Williams remembered that Elihu Luce was quite stingy and that he had a reputation of being very tight fisted and that he "could squeeze a nickel and get a dime." She attributed his miserly nature to his early days in Mississippi when the family had lost everything during the Civil War. She knew that Elihu Luce was a very religious man and quite generous to his church.  Both Elihu Luce and Georgia Luce were devoted members of the Church of Christ.

            Elihu Luce  was a Chaplain and later Commander of the local Camp of the United Confederate Veterans which post he held until the time of his death on 21 August 1920.  Elihu Luce was of great service to the early development of Dickens County where he was buried in the Spur Cemetery.

            Elihu Luce's wife died several years after him and her obituary reads:

LUCE: Sister Georgia V. Luce better known as Grandma, died at her home in Spur, Texas at 10:45 p.m. January 21.  Sister Luce had been in poor health for a number of years, although she was able to be up and about until the last three weeks of her life at which the suffering became so intense  that she was unconscious for several days before her death.

            Grandma Luce was born in DeSota County, Mississippi February 24, 1848 and grew to womanhood in that country. Her maiden name was Dodds.  She married Elihu Luce, May 16, 1866 and spent some eleven of her married life east of the Mississippi River.  Five children were born to this union, three of whom still survives; John Luce of Spur,  Mrs. A.E. Davies of Lubbock, and Mrs. J.E. Glenn of Witchita Falls.
            Grandma and family moved to Texas in 1877, settled in Tarrent County, from there to Palo Pinto County, they moved to Dickens County in 1886, one of the first families to settle this county.
            Sister Luce was a devoted member of the One Body for more than half a century. To know her was to love and appreciate her as a Christian.  Time alone will reveal the good that she has accomplished in her sincere Christian life.
            Funeral services were conducted by the writer. Sunday afternoon at the Church where more than four hundred friends and loved ones assembled for the last rites.
Wright Randolph

            Elihu Luce and Georgia Dodds had five children, John Luce born May 1867 who married  Zona Thomas in 1891 and lived at Spur Texas, Mollie Lucy Luce born January 1869 who married Ross Ringo in 1886 and lived in Gordon, Texas, Laura Ann Luce born 1871 who married J.E. Glenn and lived in Witchita Falls, Texas, Morgan Edgar Luce born February 1874 and married Mary and lived at Tap, Texas, Georgia Elihu Luce  born March 1889 who married A.E. Davies and lived at Lubbock, Texas.

            When Thee Danforth was not working in Dickens County he became quite active in politics and during election years he would ride all over the county campaigning for the Whig Party. Most people thought this was peculiar and amusing because no one in the county knew a thing about the Whigs.

            In 1905 Wright Danforth tired of the cowboy life of Dicken County and left Texas after he bought himself a used automobile.  He headed west and traveled on a road made of wood planks laid upon the sand for miles after miles. He said to himself that if he ever got off it, he would never go across the desert again and he never did until years later when there were paved roads and air-conditioned cars. After days of traveling in the heat and dust his car broke down in Yuma, Arizona and he decided to stay there.  In Yuma, Wright Danforth eventually found work at the Colorado River Water Department and he kept this job until he retired. He told his niece Velma Neville that during the long hours at work where he worked mostly alone, he missed his music so much that he took a cigar box and made himself a guitar. He said it was better then nothing and it helped him pass away the hours. 

            In Yuma, Arizona he met and married Dora Lane and raised a family of six children there.  The rest of the family never knew much of this branch of the family since Wright Danforth's trip across the desert according to Velma Neville kept him from his father's family until he was a very old man.

            Fred Danforth continued to work for his uncle Elihu Luce and on 12 May 1906 he married Mae Turner the daughter of  "Bud" Turner, the blacksmith of Spur.   Bud Turner also ran the mail hack and sometimes Fred Danforth would help him deliver mail.  When Fred Danforth and Mae Turner were first married they had to buy everything on credit from Elihu  Luce's store and it took their first crop to pay off the bill.  Fred supplemented his income by mending fences, drilling wells, and "punching cattle".  Winters were the hardest time for Fred and Mae Danforth but Fred managed to make a little money playing for Saturday night dances.  Some times he could make as much as one dollar  because Saturdays were pay day for the cowboys. Fred Danforth said that at the first of the month he made out pretty good but later it was hard to make even fifty cents.

            On 12 May 1906 Ruth Danforth age 17 years married David Olin Bilberry the son of Esau and Susan Bilberry.  Esau Bilberry was a Baptist preacher and the son of John Bilberry who was Minnie Peacock Danforth's mother's step-father. This marriage nearly broke Thee Danforth's heart according to Velma Neville.  Thee Danforth was a devout Church of Christ follower and believed that if you did not belong to the church you would go to hell.  Ruth Danforth left the Church of Christ and became a Baptist for Olin Bilberry's sake. His uncles had been Baptist ministers and Olin Bilberry was a devout Baptist. Thee Danforth held a grudge against Olin Bilberry for years. Olin Bilberry moved with Ruth Bilberry away from Dickens County to New Mexico Territory where his Bilberry relations were homesteading near Lingo.  In Thee Danforth's later years he went to live with Olin and Ruth Bilberry and changed his mind about Olin because Thee Danforth would not allow any one to say Olin and Ruth Bilberry were not Christians.

             In 1909 Ruth and Olin Bilberry filed on land three miles west of the Texas state line in New Mexico.  Thee Danforth with his only child still at home, Lucy Danforth age 21 years,  followed and also filed a land claim in Chavez County just two miles north of Ruth and Olin Bilberry. Thee Danforth and Lucy Danforth filed on adjoining quarter sections and they built a house on the property line so the same improvements were on each sections. This was done so they could comply with the filing regulations yet not have two sets of improvements on each lands.   Mabry and Minnie Danforth also moved to New Mexico Territory in 1909 and filed on land adjoining Thee Danforth's to the west.

            In 1912 Fred and Mae Danforth saved enough money to buy a ranch in New Mexico with Mae Danforth's cousin Edna and her husband Edd Fuqua.  New Mexico became a state in 1912 and all available land around Portales where Thee Danforth was homesteading had already been filed on. The Danforths and Fuquas loaded up some cover wagons and headed west to the Capitan Mountains in Lincoln County, New Mexico.  The family left in April to begin their search for land and the two families stopped in Roswell, which was the county seat  and the only town off any size for over a hundred miles.  In Roswells they restocked their supplies and camped by a small stream.  Edna Fuqua and Mae Danforth loved to fish and could have spent their lives fishing. "We'll  have fresh fish for supper" Edna Fuqua boasted and after a few minutes Edna yelled "Come help me I caught a big fish!"  When it was finally pulled out of the water it was nothing more then a large turtle.  They all had a good laugh and Edna was never able to live that down and was often teased about her big fish.

            While the women liked to fish Edd Fuqua was a hunter and the families were looking forward to finding a mountain home where there would be plenty of fish and game.  For two weeks the families traveled around Lincoln County hearing from ranchers that the Apache Indians were leaving their reservation in Lincoln County and stealing livestock. This was disturbing news but they eventually found a remote area where they could buy some land.

            The land was on the far north side of the Captian Mountains and Mae Danforth thought it was a beautiful place. That evening as they cooked supper they viewed the pine trees and the fine black land.  There was plenty of water and the sunset was beautiful.  Mae was in love with the place but Fred Danforth was worried about the place being so remote. "But it is so far from everything" he kept saying.  "What if the children get sick?" Just as they were discussing the location, there came a blood chilling scream and they all jumped up to listen. It came again and they grabbed their children, their supper and got into the wagons.  All the things that the ranchers had told them about the Apaches came to their minds. Was someone being killed and should they go see about it?  Just where was it coming from? The noise came again and the sound echoed down the canyon until they could not tell for sure where it was coming from. Fred Danforth and Edd Fuqua loaded their guns and told the women to stay in the wagon until they got back.  The men then rode off into the night.  It was hours before they returned laughing. They  told the anxious families that this settles it. "We're leaving in the morning" because the screams had been a cougar's cry and it had not been not more than a few yards from the wagons. "It could have attacked all of you while we were gone and that's why we are leaving," Fred said.

            So Fred and Mae Danforth returned to the high plains of Roosevelt County and stayed with Thee Danforth. They discovered that a man had just relinquished his claim just three miles west of  Mabry Danforth and that they could have it for $30 filing fees.  It was a good half section of flat farm land.  Mae Danforth hated the place however because there was not a tree in sight for miles.  She never got over her disappointment of not having a home in the pines.  Edd and Edna Fuqua returned to Tap in Dickens County, Texas.

            Fred Danforth and his adjoining neighbor Sam Neville bought a well drilling rig and drilled a well on each of their places. After going through several feet of rock, Fred Danforth was able to get a fine well of pure water.  After this he dug a half dugout and moved his family into a home. He built a small cow lot and a watering tank for the stock. One day he dug a trench to lead the overflow water off from the tank and it made a small pool. His son Odis Danforth had a switch from a cottonwood tree from a neighbors tree and he stuck it in the pool.  The stick was forgotten for weeks until one day they realized that the switch had taken root and was growing.  That limb became a huge tree over the course of the years that shaded our well house and kept everything so nice and cool as long as the family lived on the place.  It was in the way a lot of times and Fred Danforth threatened to cut it down, but Mae Danforth would have fought him over it. It was her only compensation for her lost mountain ranch.  In later years there were more trees on the High Plains but none as big as Fred Danforth's.  Mae Danforth had grown up in a country of cottonwoods and creeks, and she always missed them.  Life was hard on the High Plains in the early 1900's but everyone stayed busy and toughed it out.

            The community in which Thee Danforth and his children lived in New Mexico was called "Nigger Hill".  In 2005 the hill was officially renamed Buffalo Soldiers Hill from the racist term that was used 100 hundred years earlier. One of Velma Neville's earliest memories of her grandfather was visiting with him one hot summer night on his back porch.  They were looking at a hill to the east of Thee Danforth's place and Thee Danforth said to her, "It makes me sad to look up there." "Why is that" Velma asked and Thee Danforth replied, "I found an old bridle rein today up there," and he commenced to tell her the story of "Buffalo Soldier's Hill".

            In the 1870's, Quannah Parker a mixed race Comanche Indian outlaw raided Fort Smith, Arkansas of horses and supplies and fled back to the plains of Texas and New Mexico. A company of African Americans known as "Buffalo Soldiers" was dispatched to capture Parker and his warriors and bring them and the supplies back to Arkansas. In their haste to capture the Comanche the Black Cavalry Troop did not bring enough water and food along for the campaign. 

Somewhere west of what is now Lubbock Texas the soldiers camped while the commanding officer left for the Yellow House Ranch to get water and supplies. He gave strict orders for the troop to stay in camp until he returned however that night  the soldiers saw lights from camp fires in the west and took off to capture the Comanches.  By the time they reached the campsite it  was deserted and their exhausted horses were to weak to return back to where their officer told them to stay put. 

The Soldiers wandered around searching for water and shade from the heat but found none on the High Plains.  They finally came upon a hill which was no more than an half mile in diameter but it was high enough for them to ride to the top and survey the land around them.  Here they thought they could be found easier but eventually their horses ran off mad from thirst and the men began to die from the blistering heat. 

When they were found it was too late. Most of them had died and the rest were too sick to ride.  Those that survived were put in wagons and taken back to Fort Smith.  No one at the time could understand how the Comanches could survive and travel so far without water.

  Many years later a rancher digging a hole just a few miles south of the hill found water seeping into the hole. Digging further he found an underground spring.  The rancher built a box and sank it into the ground and it kept them in water for days when the windmill did not pump.   The Indians knew about the spring and must have covered it so that the soldiers could not find it. 

Thee Danforth said no one knows how many men were buried there since nothing was left to make graves for the Buffalo Soldiers who died there.  Thee Danforth said on occasion he would find bones and parts of saddles as he worked his farm.

            The school house that was built just north of the hill was called the "Nigger Hill School House" and here is where many of Thee Danforth's grandchildren attended public school including Anne Williams, Edgar Danforth, and Velma Neville.  On Sundays Church of Christ and Baptist meetings were held at the school before churches were built in that area of the country.

            A few miles north of Buffalo Soldier's Hill was a store and post office community called Emzy after a wealthy rancher named Emzy Roberts. Roberts wanted to start a town there and wanted the school house moved to Emzy. No one in the Buffalo Soldier's Hill  community would agree to the move but one morning when the teacher and children arrived for class there was no school house.  During the night Roberts ordered his hands to put the schoolhouse on skids and move it Emzy.  No one in Emzy would admit to moving the school house but the community of Emzy refused to move it back.  So the Buffalo Soldier's Hill men ready to fight went to Emzy and moved the school house back the next day.  For years there were hard feelings between the two communities over the missing school house.

            Years later in 1926 Fred Danforth and two other men got the "Nigger Hill school" to unite with two other one room school houses at Emzy and Willow Mill and build a good school in the middle of the  three communities.  The new school was called Midway since it was the middle of the triangle of the three communities. Later the Lingo Post Office was moved to Midway and it was determined that it was easier to change the name of the school then the Post Office so after that the school was known as the Lingo School.

            Most of Fred Danforth and all of Ruth Bilberry children attended school at Willow Mill while Mabry Danforth's children attended Buffalo Soldier's Hill.

            In 1915 the last child of Thee Danforth  married and moved away from home. His 28 year old daughter Lucy married Leroy Baugh at Causey a small community near Thee Danforth's farm.  After Lucy Danforth's marriage, Thee Danforth went to live with his son Fred Danforth who had moved back to Dickens County, Texas in 1916.  After three years of living on their claim, Fred Danforth and his wife Mae were tired of the hard life of the homestead.  The Spur Ranch was laying off a town at their supply station near the community of Tap and everyone was moving there.  The town was called Spur and Fred Danforth built a good house there and went to work for his father-in-law at the blacksmith shop.

            Velma Neville remembered that the family was so happy to be out of the dugout and back into a good house.  Thee Danforth lived with Fred Danforth for the next eight years in Spur.

            Velma Neville recalled that "Things were going just fine for us until one afternoon, Fred stumbled in the door with his head in bandages. He fell on the bed weeping and I had never seen my Dad in a weak  moment before. He was always brave and full of life so of course we were all scared to death. He soon got a hold of himself and told us what had happened. A piece of hot steel had flown up and hit him in the eye.  The local doctor had tried to get it out but couldn't so he gave him something that dazed him.  I guess it was some kind of pain killer for he soon went to sleep.  The next morning he drove to Lubbock with us to see a doctor there.  He calmly sat in the chair while the doctor removed the steel. 'You'll never see in that eye again,' the doctor told him, 'However the other eye will get stronger soon and you will be able to go back to work.' 

On the drive home his vision got so blurred that he had to creep along and stay on the very edge of the road. Mae couldn't drive a car and we were afraid that he would wreck us but he finally got us home.  For several days he could not see well and he would run into things and miss his glass when pouring things.  He became so afraid that he would not be able to go back to work at the blacksmith shop. 'I can't even see a nail,' he would say,' so how can I ever shoe a horse or put a drill in the right place?'  However God was good to him and in a few weeks when his injured eye healed he was able to go back to work and many people who knew him in later years never knew that he was blind in one eye."

            Fred Danforth was able to go back to work and he did well enough that he built his family a new house in 1920 with the help of his brother Mabry Danforth who was a master carpenter.  Everyone seemed happy in Spur except Fred Danforth's oldest boys according to Velma Neville.  They were restless and Velma Neville tells this story about her 13 year old brother.

            " Glen who  had been a good A student now began to hate school. He had inherited his mother's love of fishing and he would play hooking from school to go fishing.  Fred and Mae talked about what to do about the problem with Fred suggesting that they go back to the farm. Mae always said no to this until one day Glen went to the store for something and the manager asked him to carry out some boxes to the trash barrel. Glen wondered what was in the boxes and upon opening one, found a woman's corset.  He put it on over his clothes with the long strings hanging down the back and started for home.  The strings picked up trash and bounced along after him.  It was only two blocks to our house and we heard a lot of excitement outside.  We looked and saw Glen strutting down the street, waving and bowing to everyone he met.  People were looking out their doors and dying of laughter.  The neighbors all knew him and how mischievous he was but it was not so funny to his mother however.  She scolded him and said she would have his dad whip him when he came home.  Glen began to cry and said, 'Oh Mama, I didn't mean any harm. I was just having fun.  I am so bored I could die. I just had to do something.' Fred didn't whip him because he thought it funny too but made up his mind then that they needed to be out on the farm where they could keep busy. Mae agreed finally to  moving from town and we always said it was because she was too embarrassed to stay any longer and face her friends."

            In December 1924 Thee Danforth moved with his son, Fred Danforth's family back to the homestead in Roosevelt County, New Mexico.  Before living Spur they spent Christmas day with Edd and Edna Fuqua and Mae Danforth's aunt Susan Cross.  Fred Danforth's brother-in-law, Pete Turner and father-in-law Bud Turner had  by this time moved to Amarillo, Texas.

            In Texas, Fred Danforth traded his house in Spur to a man who wanted to retire for two teams of horses, a wagon, plough equipment, five registered Jersey cows and a new Oldsmobile or Hupmobile as they were called then.   Fred hired a man who had a big truck to bring the cows to Causey, New Mexico and drove the family in the car.  After settling the family on a rented farm house three miles from the homestead, Fred Danforth and Thee Danforth rode back to Texas with the man who had the truck to bring down the wagon and horses. 

            The winter that Thee Danforth and his son Fred Danforth's family arrived in New Mexico, Roosevelt County just had the biggest snow storm in history and snow was still on the ground. The snow had drifted up against the fences and had froze solid so that the cattle could walk over them.  It took ranchers weeks to get their stock back after the snow had melted.  The ground had turned to dust after the freeze and the family endured sandstorms almost daily until spring.

            Velma Neville recalled that "This old house was almost impossible to keep heated and warm. We had brought some coal with us and it was a good thing because there was no wood in that area. And what wood that could be found was too wet to burn. We all felt like turning around and going back to Spur."

            "We children started school at Willow Mill and walked home. We rode with Fred and Mae in the mornings but as the folks usually did not get back by the time we were out of school so we walked home.  Since Fred and Mae left for the fields by first day light, we were the first to school long before the rest of the children came.

            That school term was just wasted. Texas was a year a head of New Mexico and we entered the same grade we were in there at Spur and so had the same thing that we had in Texas the year before.  It was interesting to be in a one room school with about fifteen to twenty students in all grades. We had been used to thirty or more students all in one grade.  Our only recreation at school was baseball.  Everyone had to play to have enough players for two teams."

            In the Spring of 1925  Fred Danforth built a new home and a large box shape building in which to operate blacksmith shop and  hold the car in a garage on the other side.  Out in the country it was thirty miles to Portales which was the only place to buy gas so the family car sat in the garage most of the time.

            "It was spring by the time we started to build our house. Everyone helped and was glad to do so because we were so anxious to get into a good house.  Even the little children would carry things or hands nails etc.  That is when I learned how to do carpentry work. Fred would mark all the places and Odis and Glen did the sawing.  Then Fred would put up the first piece and we drove the nails.  By the time we were half through we all knew what to do without a lot of supervision.  The house was a framed five room house with painted wood walls inside and plastered walls on the outside.  When we got ready to put the roof on we began at first daylight and we had it finished before we ate our dinner.  The roof stayed there for thirty years until Fred moved the house to Portales and remodeled it. It had cedar shingles and as far as I know it never leaked."

            "While working on the house we moved the car out of the garage and camped in there until after school was out in order to save time traveling between our rented house and our homestead and to save gas.  When our house was finished and the painting done, we spread a light coat of sand over the floors. We then invited all the kids in the community over for a shindig and played games, danced, jumped around, just about anything we could do to walk over that sand.  When we swept it later the floor was so smooth and ready for the satin.  In later years when my husband and I were building houses and running a big heavy electric sander I would often think of how we sanded that floor of my dad's house."

            According to her daughter, Mae Danforth never would use a kerosene stove.  She was afraid of them because of the children and she claimed that she could always taste the stuff on her food.  Her daughter Velma Neville commented about this saying:

            "At last we  were in a good house but we were also beginning to realize what it was really going to be like on our homestead. While we had  nice kitchen cabinets and a kitchen sink, we had no bathroom, no electricity, and worse of all no coal for fuel. Since it was forty miles to town we could not go very often. And since we had no coal or wood we had to stoop to the inevitable and began burning "Cow Chips".  Since we cooked for ten people, three times a day, it took a lot of fuel.  Also by now Aunt Lucy Danforth had married and Granddad Thee moved in with us.  I don't see how we ever cooked that much food or how Dad ever paid for it all because that first summer we did not have much money. After the first year we raised everything we  needed on our own land."

            "We worked ourselves down every day that summer. Always fences to be mended, weeds to be hoed, a garden to be planted and someone had to be out ploughing all day.  Dad had all the work he could do in the blacksmith shop. And there was always a trip to the cow pasture to haul back cow chips.  The boys became good basketball players from the experience they had throwing the chips into a tub.  We kids would drag the tub with a rope

tied to one handle around the wagon and go in a circle, tossing the chips at the moving target.  Sometimes someone would miss the tub and someone would get a cow chip socked upside the head. The chips were light and dry but we didn't like getting hit with them."

            "I think what we missed the most that summer was fresh meat.  We had a refrigerator but no place to buy ice. The only place we had to keep things cool was in the well house.  We had a big trough that cold water ran through which we kept covered with a duckin cloth to keep the dust out.  It really kept things nice and cold but it would only keep meat a day or two at the most.  Sometimes one of the neighbors would kill a beef and divide it with us. Can you imagine someone splitting a quarter of beef today?"

            "I wonder if you have ever seen anyone butcher a hog?  It was one of the biggest days on the farm. We always got up early on hog killing days. We got up an hour earlier and then sometimes it was midnight before we got to bed.  First thing in the morning, a big fire was built under a big vat, then the cows were milked and then we ate breakfast.  After breakfast the water would be hot enough to scald hogs.  Of course I had seen hogs killed before but these we had raised and at first I couldn't stand to see them  shoot them.  But after a while I got used to it.  After they were shot and bled, the hogs were lowered slowly into the hot water with the men careful not to splash water on their feet.  After the hogs were scalded on one side for only a few minutes, they were turned over.  Dad always seemed to know  just how long to let the hogs stay in the water so that the hair would slip off easily.  After being scalded, they were raised out of the water onto flat boards on two saw horses, and each person got a knife which he held in both hands and began to scrape the hogs as fast as we could.  If you did not get the hair off before the skin got cold it would not come off.  After being scraped, the hogs were hung from the windmill tower by their back legs and then cut down the middle.  The guts dropped into a tub and the carcasses swung from the windmill."

            "Now Mama took over and was very careful to collect the fat to make lard for the year.  That night we had liver for dinner.  That might not sound so good now but if you had not had anything but canned meat or rabbits for months, it seemed really good then.  We always killed at least three hogs.  After the hogs were gutted and quartered, we spread them on a table and Dad would rub them with a salt mixture that he mixed himself.  Each piece was carefully rubbed with salt on both sides and laid out to dry.  In a few hours the meat was turned and rubbed again with the salt mixture.  This turning kept the juices from draining out of the meat and if not done properly the meat would be tough. When it was cured enough that it kept from draining it was wrapped in cloth and hung in the cellar.  All this work is why we had to stay up until it was cured.  You did not dare leave it out at night neither, for the coyotes would get it."

            "The next day was also another hard day because we then made sausage.  It took a long time to grind all of it and put it in sacks.  After the butchering the men would go about the other farm work while Mama and I would do the rest.  It was a long HOT day, rendering up the lard. As I had said we did all we could when we had a fire. So while it was cooking we baked or canned and we  always put up seven to ten gallons of lard.  This too had to be kept cool to keep it from becoming stale. 

Even after making the lard we still weren't through as we had to make soap out of the crackling left from the rendered fat.  I hated this day the most of all.  It was so long and hard.  We had to begin before day light in order  to finish in one day. We had two big iron pots that we  heated water in and we would build a big fire under them  to get them ready.  In the pot went 1 gallon of water, 1 gallon of crackling and 1 can of lye.  This we had to stand over and stir until all the crackling was eaten by the lye.  The fire would be so hot that it blistered our shins as we stirred and stirred and stirred.  The more you stirred the whiter the soap would be.  When we finally were ready we poured it into pans and cut it into bars which were left to dry. There was always enough soap left in the pots to do a washing and that is why it took all day.  We never had less then ten sheets, and 25 shirts in a wash.  We filled the pots again with heated water.  We washed the clothes in cold water and then put them in pots to boil. They had to be rubbed again and the soap rinsed off.  We had two one hundred foot lines and we sometimes filled them twice at a wash."

            In the early 1920's there was no Church of Christ at Causey so Fred Danforth got three other families to start meeting together and he also started a Sunday School. Sometimes he had to do everything in the church. He would lead the singing, persuade some of the men to read the Bible, serve the Lord's supper, sing again, then dismiss the meeting.  In the Church of Christ, women were not allowed to speak.  After Church the Danforths all went home with some other family and it was nothing to have thirty people at the homestead for Sunday dinner.  Sunday dinner meant cooking all day Saturday along with ironing. To save fuel the family never built a fire until they could get as much use out of it as possible. 

            At the age of 76 years in 1925, Thee Danforth developed skin cancer and was taken by Fred Danforth to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota to have it removed. However they burned it too deeply and the cancer never healed.  Returning to New Mexico Thee Danforth went to go live with his daughter and son-in-law, Ruth and Olin Bilberry, so as  not to be any more of a burden to his son who was having a rough go at farming.

            In 1927 Fred Danforth decided that it was too much for him to farm, drive the school bus, and work in the blacksmith shop so he rented out his farm and moved his family into the village of Lingo where Fred Danforth opened a grocery store and a cream station.  The town of Lingo had a large brick school house and several shops and stores.  His children Odis and Velma Danforth took the New Mexico state board examination to be licensed to test cream.  Since Fred Danforth's store was across the street from the school Velma and Odis took turns going to  school and staying at the store.

            The state highway came to Lingo that year and the pavement made a big difference in traveling.  Velma Neville said, "You could go to Portales and back in a day very easily.  This meant we could keep ice and fresh vegetables.  However the greatest blessing was when the Rural Electric Company came to Lingo. Electricity is the greatest thing that ever came to mankind.  With it Lingo became a thriving community and each year the Lingo's school graduation classes were bigger."

             Thee Danforth died on 26 March 1930 at the age of 81 years at the home of his daughter Ruth Bilberry at Causey and was buried in the Causey Cemetery in Roosevelt County, New Mexico far from his boyhood home in Mississippi.

            The community of Causey  is about 22 miles south and 11 miles east of the town of Portales, New Mexico and the cemetery is located 2 miles south and 1 mile west of Causey.  The cemetery was created in 1900 and is still used by the  communities of Causey, Lingo, and Garrison.  Thee Danforth has a plain grave marker which simply reads; T.B. Danforth 1849-1930.

            Velma Neville says of her grandfather and of the Danforth family of that period: " He was a very religious man but very dear. I loved him very much. He was a lover of sacred music although if he ever played an instrument I didn't know it.  So our music may have come from Minerva.  My dad says they were Scotch-Irish.  Granddad Thee was docile and kind just like Mabry but he looked like my dad.  Mabry had black hair and Fred's hair was reddish.  Fred was a big tease and full of life.  Mabry was the quiet type.  Granddad Thee's death was one of the biggest heartaches for I loved him dearly."

            "In 1930 a drought came in the area again and things went from bad to worse.  Most of the people in the country eventually put their land in soil banks and moved to town.  After a couple of years Odis married and moved back to our farm.  I quit school then and kept the store for Dad until he decided to close it.  It was too much work for him.

            When World War II came it finished off Lingo.  All the boys in the country went into the service and only those brought back for burial came back.  The rest married and went their separate ways.  The school rolls dropped continuously until they had to close it. Gradually everything that we and other early pioneers had worked so hard for was gone.

Every house in the country was moved to town or burned down and of the five homesteads the Danforths  lived on and worked so hard to build up, there is now not a thing left on them to know  we were there.  The whole country side now is all in fields and here and there, there is a new brick home. Irrigation has made it possible for one man to farm 1000 acres where it took 10 men in the olden days. 

            "Uncle Mabry Danforth was the first to leave the area when he traded his homestead to my husband's father, Sam Neville, for a livery business in Portales.  Granddad Thee Danforth and Aunt Lucy sold their place to Uncle Olin Bilberry. Olin and Ruth were the first to come to the area and the last ones to leave it.  My brother Fred Danforth Jr. owns our old home place.  He bought it from the estate after the folks died, however all us kids own the mineral rights collectively.  There is oil all around us down there but I doubt if I live to see much out of it."

            "Looking back over the years, I realize that there were a lot of happy times along with the bad.  It seemed that no matter how tired we were, we always had time for music before we went to bed.  It seemed to help us relax.  Dad would play the guitar and take the lead and the rest of us played along with some instrument.  I played the piano most of the time but Mama would also play it too.  As the years went by Dad's right hand got to where it bothered him and he could not finger the guitar as well as before. Dad could play any kind of instrument but made the prettiest music on the guitar.  We would sing some gospel sing song and this was sort of the family's hour of prayer."           

Theophilus Bassell Danforth

born 12 March 1849 Fluellen Cross Roads, DeSota, Mississippi
died 24 March 1930 age 81 years Lingo, Roosevelt, New Mexico
married 8 January 1874 for 18 years Coldwater, Tate, Mississippi

Minerva Ann Holt daughter  of Joel Holt and Lucinda Perry

born 6 November 1854 Arkabutla, DeSota, Mississippi
died 12 June 1892 age 38 years Gordon, Palo Pinto, Texas

Children and grandchildren-

1. Oscar Mabry Danforth born 13 April 1875 Coldwater, Tate, Mississippi and died 18 June 1946  age 71 years Hemit, Riverside, California. he married Minnie Gertrude Peacock daughter of John William Peacock and Maggie Roden Wilson married 21 April 1901 Peacock, Stonewall, Texas. Their children were Anne Ruth Danforth born 31 March 1902 Swenson, Stonewall, Texas and died 10 January 1979 Redlands, San Bernardino, California wife of Louis Milton Williams son of Edgar Lewis Williams married 26 September  1921 Dickens, Dickens, Texas and Edgar Earl Danforth born 24 October 1904 Swenson, Stonewall, Texas and died 9 August 1973 Littlefield, Lamb, Texas husband of Beulah Mae Kelley daughter of Jerry Washington Turner married 5  December 1924 Portales, Roosevelt, New Mexico
2. Ora Lee Danforth was born 11 November 1876 Coldwater, Tate, Mississippi and died 11 August 1877 age 9 months Coldwater, Tate, Mississippi
3. Alice Rose Danforth was born 4 February 1879 Gordon, Palo Pinto, Texas and died 6 October 1925 age 46 years Bellevue,  Clay County, Texas. She married Claud Mayo married 15 June 1897. Their children were Ona  Mayo wife of Eb Sweazea of Bellvue, Texas, Elva Mayo  died before 1934 Sweetwater, Texas wife of H C Lane, Floyd Evans Mayo died before 1934 husband of Louise, Claude Estil Mayo-She never married, Opal Mayo wife of Mr. Gillespie of Seymour, Texas, Kenneth Wendel Mayo born 1914 Bellevue, Clay, Texas and Mildred Marie Mayo born 1916 Bellevue, Clay, Texas wife of Cecil McDonald
4. Wright Evan Danforth was born 20 November 1883 Gordon, Palo Pinto, Texas and      died September 1965 age 82 years Yuma, Yuma, Arizona. He married Dora Lane. Their children were Eva Danforth wife of Nick Reese, Fred Danforth, Louis Danforth, Julia Danforth and Theata Danforth
5. Thomas Frederick Danforth was born 14 March 1886 Thurber, Erath, Texas and died 24 February 1970 age 84 years Causey, Roosevelt, New Mexico. He married Edna Mae Turner married 12 May 1906 Spur, Dickens, Texas. Their children were Odis Arthur Danforth born 24 April 1909 Spur, Dickens, Texas husband of Flora Howell and Annie Lee Hamilton, Avery Gleen Danforth born 13 January 1911 Spur, Dickens, Texas and died 17 October 1943 Portales, Roosevelt, New Mexico husband of Jessie Sweeten. Velma Vinelle Danforth born 8 January 1912 Spur, Dickens, Texas wife of Ivan S. Neville 15 September  1934 Clovis, Roosevelt, New Mexico, Oscar Lloyd Danforth born 8 January 1914 Causey, Chavez, New Mexico husband of Patricia Watson, Edwin Ophilus Danforth born 26 January 1916  Causey, Roosevelt, New Mexico died 4 September 1971 Portales, Roosevelt, New Mexico husband of Winnie  Hansaker, Alice Fay Danforth born 4 August 1918  Causey, Roosevelt, New Mexico wife of  John Thomas Montgomery 12 February 1942 Portales, Roosevelt, N M, and Raymond Fred Danforth born 8 December 1920  Causey, Roosevelt, New Mexico husband of Charleyrene Rogers
6. Lucy Lucretia Danforth was born 24 April 1888 Gordon, Palo Pinto, Texas and died 1948 age 60 years Portales, Roosevelt, New Mexico. She married Leroy Baugh married 1915  Causey, Roosevelt, New Mexico. Their children were Dorman Baugh died 1967 Fort Worth, Tarrent, Texas and Elwanda Baugh buried in Oklahoma wife of Mr. Stephens
7. Myrtle Ruth Danforth was born 6 August 1891 Gordon, Palo Pinto, Texas and died 19 September 1975  age 84 years Portales, Roosevelt, New Mexico. She married David Olin Bilberry 1 February 1909 Dickens, Dickens, Texas son of Esau Bilberry and Susan Bilbray. Their children were Grace Bilberry born 19 October 1913  Causey, Roosevelt, New Mexico and 1960 Portales, Roosevelt, New Mexico wife of Ernest Dean and Monta Ruth Bilberry born 15 December 1919  Causey, Roosevelt, New Mexico and died 1998 Lubbock Texas wife of Richard Thomas and Cecil Parkes
8. Minerva Ann Danforth was born 10 June 1892 Gordon, Palo Pinto, Texas and died 14 June 1892 age 4 days Gordon, Palo Pinto, Texas