by Glenn Etta Thornton Nutt
It’s good to remember the past. Somehow, with time, even the sad things are put into perspective for example, the 1917-18 flu epidemic that in one night took eight people in Granbury, one of them my mother, Nell Glenn Thornton. There had been difficult periods before for my family and many others. Letters from my grandmother, Mary [James], to my grandfather, Columbus B. Glenn, written in a “Small Pox Camp” near Cresson will attest to earlier problems. I’ve been told that she went to the camp to help care for the sick; fortunately, she escaped the disease.
However, most of the memories are pleasant. There was grandmother’s garden with Rocky Ford cantaloupes and the ever present smell of sage. And, there was my grandfather’s arrowhead collection (most from the Comanche Peak area) outside on the stone chimney ledge south of their house at 203 S. Crockett St. overlooking the sandy Brazos river. I remember the arrowheads were almost hidden by an oleander which survived cold, heat, and draught for years.
As for the river, it was a “no-no”. I was admonished that the banks were dangerous because of quicksand. So, I was never allowed to go down the hill to swim in the Brazos. Among the local boys who enjoyed that pleasure was my future husband, J. Newton Nutt.
The Christian Church played an important part in my upbringing. My father attended Add-Ran College, and I saw Randolph Clark in person at my baptism in Stephenville, Texas.
In looking back, it seems my father, James W. Thornton, was somewhat ahead of the times. He loved nature and, I suppose, would be called a conservationist. He often took me on walks that now might be called “Nature Hikes,” one of which included a view of a hummingbird’s nest. Since he was a pharmacist he knew the Latin names for the wild flowers he pointed out to me. We read the National Geographic together and marveled at the pictures, especially those of Siam which interested him.
I finally made a visit on my own to Thailand – beautiful historic places well kept along with modern hotels.
I have pictures, letters, post cards, my grandmother’s heavy iron, as well as other keepsakes, but most of all, good memories of my early years in Hood County.
| This family biographical note was scanned from the Hood County Genealogical Society Newsletter No. 13; February 1987Editor: Merle McNeese |