Contributed by J. T. Sears, Lipan Historian
Dear Editor,
Hoping the experience of one who has seen other days might cause someone to take courage in these days of depression and press on to better things. I beg space in your splendid paper.
Sons Olin & Ross in 1900
I was married in 1885 and then came the drought of ’86 and ’87. My father (John F. Elliott) being a poor blind man and my wife’s mother (Sarah Iles Compton) a poor widow woman, we had a swell wedding. My credit was pretty good then for a boy, so I went to Granbury and bought two fine bedsteads at $3.00 each and two mattresses at $3.00 each at J.D. Foster’s furniture store on time. I bought a clock at Dr. E.A. Hannaford’s drug store for $5.50 on time.
I bought two new rawhide bottom chairs, an old cook stove and a few dishes from my half-sister. Then I was ready for the bride (Mary Alice Compton).
I borrowed $5.00 from my brother, John; paid $1.50 for my marriage license; paid Esq. N.J. Gardner, an uncle of the Gardner boys of Moran, $1.50 to perform the ceremony, and the next morning we started on our bridal tour (over the farm to see if the corn was coming up).
In the fall of ’86, I gave J.H. Doyle of Granbury a mortgage on my pony for $20.00 and paid him 20 per cent interest. And, by-the-way, Jim Doyle is still living, and I believe if anyone gets to heaven, Jim will get there with both feet.
During the Cleveland administration, I had two yearlings to sell and got $3.00 each, and sold part of my cotton crop at three cents per pound.
Now I am enjoying Hoover prosperity and have my corn bread and buttermilk at least once a day.
Some people get up in meetings and talk of wanting a blessing. Well, I got a blessing nearly 46 years ago, and that little blessing has stuck to me through thick and thin, and made our little home a paradise.
I bow to the will of Him who “declared the end from the beginning,” saying, “My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.” That was my precious mother’s God.
George W. Elliott
Moran, Texas
Photo Credit: Glenn Elliott
© 1999 GLENN ELLIOTT – ALL RIGHTS RESERVED