Meixner Family History #25 - Epilogue Part 8

                                             Granddad Buys His Own Farm

Finally the "Great War" was over and American soldiers were returning home.  After a year of death, the Spanish Flu Pandemic finally subsided.  People were ready to forget about the past misery and get on with their lives.  Many wanted to return to "normal".  But for many that would not be possible.  Young men that left the farms and factories of the United States had  changed after experiencing the horrors of war and found it hard to assimilate back to where they were when they left.  Back home women had entered the job market to help with the war effort.  In Aug of 1920 the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified and became law.  For the first time women had the right to vote. (1)

"Federal Suffrage Amendment Is Ratified Today headline.". 1920. Newspaper. From the Taunton Daily Gazette, Taunton, MA.

http://mitchellarchives.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/suffrage-amendment-hf.jpg. .(accessed July 31, 2012)

By 1923 the Charleston was all the rage and by 1925 "flapper" dresses were in style as was the "Flapper" way of life.  "Even more than a style the word Flapper came to symbolize the new woman emerging in the decade that is known as 'The Roaring Twenties'."  "...a new woman was born.  She smoked, drank, danced, and voted." (2)  She also cut her long hair that had been the style for years into the new "bob" haircut.  America found that the young men and women did not want to return to the "old normal".

Photograph of the Flappers of the Roaring Twenties.

http://www.1920s-fashion-and-music.com/Flapper-fashion.html

This post war decade of the 1920s or "Roaring Twenties" was a time of change, a time of optimism, and hope as people looked to the future.

A new president was inaugurated in 1921.  Warren G. Harding, the 29th President, was only in office 2 1/2 years when he died suddenly in August of 1923.  Vice President Calvin Coolidge assumed the office of president and served until 1929. (3)

Warren G. Harding, by Harris & Ewing. circa 1920

http://www.old-picture.com/american-legacy/003/President-Harding-Warren.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Warren_G_Harding-Harris_%26_Ewing.jpg

Calvin Coolidge.  1923

Photo by John Garo (1875–1939)
http://historical.ha.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=658&Lot_No=25542&src=pr
This image (or other media file) is in the public domain because its copyright has expired.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Calvin_Coolidge-Garo.jpg

In 1927 audiences were amazed as they watched the first talking movie "The Jazz Singer".  That same year Charles Lindbergh thrilled the world with his sensational solo flight across the Atlantic in his airplane "Spirit of St Louis".  The next year, 1928, Alexander Fleming discovered life saving penicillin. (4)

Top Photograph:  Charles Lindbergh, with Spirit of St. Louis in background.  31 May 1927

This image is available from the United States Library of Congress's Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID cph.3a23920.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:LindberghStLouis.jpg

Bottom Photograph:  Alexander Fleming, who is credited with discovering penicillin in 1928. 

Alexander_Fleming.jpg ‎(512 × 385 pixels, file size: 31 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)
Transferred from en.wikibooks; transferred to Commons by User:Adrignola using CommonsHelper.

By 1929 many people across the country were experiencing the prosperity of the 1920s.  Many had gotten "rich" as they watched stocks they owned soar in value on the New York Stock Exchange.  People from all levels of society flocked to buy stocks.  The economy was booming with no end in sight.  By Sep 3, 1929 the Big Bear Market was pushing stock prices ever higher.  The Dow-Jones average reached it's highest point for the year.  Individual stocks had shot up 2,3 or even 4 times higher than what the prices were in March of that same year.  "...on that day (Sep 3) few people imagined that the peak had actually been reached.  The enormous majority fully expected the Big Bull Market to go on and on. " (5)

This 1920 Concho County census record shows the Meixner Family except for Victor, who was not born until 1923.

Source Citation: Year: 1920; Census Place: Justice Precinct 1, Concho, Texas; Roll: T625_1786; Page: 2A; Enumeration District: 87; Image: 297.
Source Information:  Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.
Original data: Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920. (NARA microfilm publication T625, 2076 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C. For details on the contents of the film numbers, visit the following NARA web page: NARA. Note: Enumeration Districts 819-839 are on roll 323 (Chicago City).

As the year 1919 was a turning point for the country so it seems that it must have been the same for Harmon Meixner and Family back in Concho county.  A new beginning with optimism for the future.  Some of the fear and trepidation of the previous few years were swept way with the end of the war, end of the drought, and end of the pandemic.  Granddad's optimism is reflected in what my dad wrote:  "In the fall of 1918, Dad rented 160 acres from a man by the name of Kirby (Millard).  He had lived in the community and was a leading citizen of the community.  He was a Sunday School superintendent for a period of time.  Mother and Dad thought that he and his wife were the very best of people.  He also leased, or rented, 160 acres to the south of this particular place.  All of this forms the east side of the old home place."

"My Dad started plowing the land in the fall as usual. (1918)  He had been through a drought with his animals and naturally they were very poor and weak.  He would hook the teams up in the morning and drive them for about fifteen minutes and they would give out.  They would start swaying from one side to the other.  He would stop them and let them rest for a few minutes.  After the horses had rested, they would go a little further.  That was the key to the way he finally got his land put up for planting the following spring.  I know that it took infinite patience.  How he took it, I do not know."

"The following year (1919) it began to rain and we had one of the most seasonable years that I have witnessed in my life.  The cotton got higher than my head.  It produced abundantly.  My Dad got fifty bales of cotton.  It sold for forty to fifty cents per pound.  I remember Dad sending us kids up to head the federita (grain sorghum) and it was some ten feet tall.  We had to bend the stalks in half to cut off the heads.  Some of the watermelons weighed eighty pounds.  The cantaloupe were a foot and a half long.  We picked all of the cotton.  I remember that we were still picking cotton in March when we should have been in school.  Everyone in the family who was strong enough picked cotton.  Dad did all of the hauling of the cotton to the gin in Paint Rock.  The gin was always crowded.  There were times when Dad would have to stay all night to get his cotton ginned.  He brought the cotton seed back home and threw them in a little shed close to the cow-pen.  It made a good place for us kids to play provided we found time for that kind of luxury."

"Dad made real good on this crop and saved enough money to make a sizable payment on this 160 acres, which he bought from Mr. Kirby.  I can remember how proud he and Mother were.  Of course we kids were proud in our way." (6)

The deed, dated 22nd of Nov 1919, shows M.F. and Elsie R. Kerby sold 160 acres to granddad for $3750, to be paid as follows:  $500 cash paid up front, $1250 due on Feb 15, 1920, and 7 payments due annually for $286 each.

  
Deed for 160 acres as recorded in Concho County.  (Copy given to me by Claudia Brown)

1920 Runnels County Census listing the Millard Kerby family.  By 1920 the Kerby family had moved from Concho County north into Runnels County.

Source Citation: Year: 1920; Census Place: Justice Precinct 2, Runnels,Texas; Roll: T625_1841; Page: 3B; Enumeration District: 216; Image: 878.
Source Information:  Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.
Original data: Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920. (NARA microfilm publication T625, 2076 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C. For details on the contents of the film numbers, visit the following NARA web page: NARA. Note: Enumeration Districts 819-839 are on roll 323 (Chicago City).

My dad wrote about the new farm and how the entire family contributed.  "Mary, Frank, and I had our first little plot of land to work when I was nine years of age.  Papa allotted us three acres between us for our part for helping on the farm.  We reaped three bales of cotton off of this three acre patch.  Papa later persuaded us to give him the money that we got out of the three bales of cotton to help build the old home that we lived in for years.  I am sure that it was a very good investment.  The three bales of cotton was valued at about $1500 at the time.  I am glad we did it, voluntarily or not, I would not say."

"We built our own home, barns, fences, surface tanks, windmill, cistern, and (made) repairs on the house.  We cultivated the fields with horse and mule power.  My Dad had a section of land.  We had two-hundred and fifty acres in cultivation and three-hundred and ninety acres in grass land." (7)

To pay for the land and feed the family the Meixners had to have multiple sources of income.  As my dad put it:  "We kept a conglomeration of things all the time.  We raised mules, horses, cattle, at times we kept sheep, hogs, chickens, turkey and guineas.  Mother always had a flock of turkey.  They brought a good amount of money in the fall of the year.  She also kept a hundred or two of laying hens.  We took eggs to town every time that we went for groceries.  They helped to pay the grocery bill.  Sometimes Pa made pretty good on the mohair and sometimes the wool was selling good.  We always managed to have something to sell that would help out.  One of the main things that enabled us to pay the land out was that we did all of our work ourselves." (8)

Photograph of members of the Meixner and Armistead Families in late 1924 above.  The names of individuals in the picture are listed below the picture.
I based the date of the picture on two things.  I know when each of the babies in the photograph were born.  I then estimated their age at the time of the photograph and came up with late 1924.  This picture was given to me by my cousin Willie B (Armistead) Slaughter who is seated by my father in the front row of the photograph.

"We soon paid this little piece of land off and in 1928 Pa decided to purchase the four eighty which composed all of the land in the home place. " (9)  This purchase brought the total acreage to 640 acres or one section of land.  This was all of the original land comprised in the T. & N.O. R.R. Co. Survey No. 151, Abstract No. 903.  The deed shows the sale of the land from John and Maggie West, dated 4th day of September, 1928. The price was $8880 to be paid as follows: "$1500 cash paid up front, and $7380 evidenced by five (5) certain promissory notes of even date... Note 1 being in the sum of $1500 and due on or before four months after date; Note No. 2 being in the sum of $3400 and due on or before six months after date; and Note No. 3, being in the sum of $826.66 and Notes Nos. 4 and 5 each being in the sum of $826.67, said last three notes coming due on or before one, two and three years after date,..."

Deed for 480 acres as recorded in Concho County.  (copy given to me by Claudia Brown)

1920 Concho County Census listing the John West Family.


Source Citation: Year: 1920; Census Place: Justice Precinct 1, Concho,Texas; Roll: T625_1786; Page: 11B; Enumeration District: 87; Image: 316.
Source Information:  Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.
Original data: Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920. (NARA microfilm publication T625, 2076 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C. For details on the contents of the film numbers, visit the following NARA web page: NARA. Note: Enumeration Districts 819-839 are on roll 323 (Chicago City).

Granddad must have been feeling somewhat prosperous in September of 1928 to have paid off his 160 acres of land and purchased another 480 acres.  Just the same way that the country as a whole was feeling prosperous in September of 1929.  But then the unthinkable started to happen in September and October of 1929.  Stock prices started to slip on the New York Stock Exchange.  Then they started to slide, then drop, and finally the Stock Market Crashed!  The Great Depression would soon hit the country with a vengeance.

Regarding the land purchase in 1928 my dad wrote that granddad "...bought this land cheap, but hard times set in and we had to pay for it during the great depression.  It was a very tight tussle.  I have never figured out how we finally got it all paid for but we did.  I am sure that it was because my Dad was a good manager." (10)

Next time I'll write a little more about the depression, changes within the family, and the decade of the Thirties.

References:
(1)  http://history1900s.about.com/od/timelines/tp/1920timeline.htm
(2)  http://history1900s.about.com/od/1920s/qt/flappers.htm
(3)  http://history1900s.about.com/od/timelines/tp/1920timeline.htm
(4)  http://history1900s.about.com/od/timelines/tp/1920timeline.htm
(5)  Allen, Federick Lewis, Only Yesterday, Harper & Row, New York, 1931, pg 264.
(6)  Meixner, Robert Harmon, Sr., Memoirs of Robert Harmon Meixner, Sr. July 10, 1910 – June 13, 1994.  Unpublished.  Compiled by Margaret Avis Meixner, pg 162-164.
(7)  Ibid., pg iii, 25, 165.
(8)  Ibid., pg 165.
(9)  Ibid., pg 164.
(10)  Ibid.