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 1987