THE SPRING	

I love the Spring months best of all.
Better than the months of fall.
When pastures of grass are green,
And the birds begin to sing.
And we hear no school bell ring
We know that it is the sign of spring.

	-------Billie Tom Wyatt
	(transcribed by Becky Hodges)

The Texas Spur, Thursday, March 4, 1943

Boy Scouts

Those present in the Rattlesnake patrol were Alvin Causey, Hardy Dement, Clifford McDonald, Milton Reynolds, Thural Garner, and Thurman Wright.

Present in the Panther patrol were Mac Brannen, Johnny Dan Wright, Dicky Walthal, and one new member, J.D. Williams.

Presnet in the Bob White patrol were Homer Wilcox, Bill Dyess, Tommy Towels, an a new member; David McAteer.

Present in the flying Eagle patrol were William Gollihar, Ernest Roberts, Howard Wilson, Billy Murrell Randell, Bob Stelle, Dewey Walthal, Eldon Aiken , Bob Lae, and Johnny Cox.

Visitors were Neal A. Chastain, Bunky Adcock, and Scoutmaster Cecil Fox and Senior Patrol Leader Pete Adcock.

The Texas Spur, Thursday, April 14, 1948

Dickens Senior Class Play Friday Night

The gist of the playis that of a country family who inherit a million dollars from the estate of a rich uncle. The mother and elder daughter of the home become society minded and the family moved to a large city against the will and judgment of the father. The foolishness of the mother, the idiotic ideas of the daughter, and the mannerisms of the butler become disgusting to both the father and the son in the hom.

A disagreement in any family usually calls for a family truce. Be at Dickens Friday night and see the results. The play is a scream from the first curtain on through.

The Texas Spur, Thursday, April 14, 1948

Texan Cafe Is Air Conditioned

The Texas Apur, Thursday April 14, 1948

Whittacre-Milam's Store Well Pleased

Front Page of The Texas Spur, Thursday, October 11, 1951

NEGRO QUARTET SINGS AT METHODIST CHURCH FOR EVENING SERVICE

The Negro singers, two women and two men, were brought to Spur by Rev. H.L. Rollison of Lubbock, who is part-time pastor of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church of Spur.

The group sand "Just Jesus", "I Was There When the Spirit Came", "Peace in the Valley," "I´ll Search Heaven for You," "Search Me Lord" and "Down on My Knees When Trouble Rise." By special request they concluded with "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot". The pianist for the quartet was one of the male singers. For "Swing Low" he played the organ.

During an intermission, Rev. Cal Wright, pastor of the First Methodist Church, talked briefly on the background of the Negro spiritual.

Front Page of The Texas Spur, Thursday, April 30, 1953

DUST STORMS HIT AREA CLEAR, CALM SKIES DUE IN AREA FOLLOWING LUSTY DUSTERS

The Texas Experiment station reports that the low barometer reading for the siege was 28.9, recorded Tuesday afternoon. The high for the last few days has been around 30. Gusts of wind were estimated up to 50 mph during the big duster Tuesday and the average for the week has been around 20 mph This is about twice the average wind velocity.

Temperatures during the past week have also gone to extremes with a high of 94 being recorded Tuesday and a low of 40 at the other extreme. The U.S. Weather Bureau, however, reports the moving on of the low pressure area over the state and predicts clear skies with no dust in the immediate future.

Transcribed by Kay Laster

Front Page of The Texas Spur, Thursday, July 5, 1951

SETTLEMENT OF SPUR TOLD BY OLD ARTICLE

The road will go across the famous Duck Creek two miles and the terminal town will be located in the Dockum Creek valley , a little to the north of the Spade Branch and in one of the finest sections in all that region. ...The terminal town will be called Spur, having been given this name to perpetuate the Spur Pasture. Well machinery has been placed on the ground and the Townsite Company will begin work at once on boring artesian wells...The trip from the end of Stamford and Northwestern to Plainview was made by automobile and was without incident and without a hitch, being a trip of something like 150 miles. The party of officials spent one night on the ranch and they were greatly pleased with the novelty of so long a trip by automobile."

The Texas Spur, November 12, 1953

FIRST CHILD BORN IN CO. STILL LIVES HERE

I met Mr. Parish in 1886, in fact, I slept in his front yard, which was a vast area, marred only of five acres of cotton.

On that very night, the first white child was born in Dickens County. That was June 29, 1885 and Butler Manning was the child. The nearest paper was 105 miles away, but Butler did not rate a line...the newspaper man was asleep.

Front Page, The Texas Spur, Thursday, January 15, 1953

INFLUENZA EPIDEMIC HOLDS GRIP ON CITY SCHOOLS REMAIN OPEN THOUGH 175 ABSENT

Although school officials seriously considered closing the Spur schools until the epidemic let up, this action was not taken. Cook stated late Wednesday that this decision came following a discussion with Dr. Bob Alexander about the effect of closing schools during such an epidemic. Dr. Alexander, said Cook, said that he thought closing schools would do very little good in checking the disease because if the well students weren´t in school they would probably convene elsewhere and thus equalize the possibilities for contacting the disease.

Weldon Skinner, principal of the Spur High School, reports that absences in high school have been minimized because it is now final time in his school. He adds that several students have come to school too sick to remain just because they didn´t want to miss their finals. "Every well student is expected to attend school even during an epidemic," stated Skinner, "But we do not expect or want a student who is ill to come to school." Some schools in Texas have closed when the epidemic reached the 10 per cent mark. However, the Spur Schools reached the 22 per cent mark Monday. Wednesday´s percentage was nearly 17 percent. EPIDEMIC HITS 20%; LOCAL HOSPITAL FULL Have a headache? Throat sore? Do your bones ache? Are you rundown? If you have any, all, or some of these symptoms you should go to bed and call your doctor, according to City Health Officer, Dr. J.F. Hughes.

The epidemic of influenza which is sweeping Texas and the Southwest has hit this area as severely as most anywhere and is still claiming new victims daily, according to Dr. Hughes. Reports from Dr. Hughes and from Dr. Bob Alexander indicate that the flu epidemic has possibly passed its peak in the community and that is now on the downward trend. Both the doctors state that the peak was probably reached this weekend. Dr. Hughes states there is very little that one can do to prevent being exposed to the disease which is highly contagious. About all that can be done to prevent it is to avoid crowded places, do not over exercise and get plenty of rest. The most important thing, adds Dr. Hughes, is to go to bed as soon as you think you have the flu. So far there have been no fatalities in the county and fortunately very few serious complications connected with the large number of cases.

Both doctors warned against the dangers of going back to school or back to work too soon after having the flu. Often the more serious cases develop after a patient thinks he is cured and returns to his normal activities too soon. The average patient in the city has been bed-ridden for from three to four days with some of the milder cases requiring only 12 to 24 hours in bed. Some of the more severe cases have necessitated from a week to ten days in bed, and in several cases, hospitalization.

Dr. P.C. Nichols states that at present the Nichols hospital has ten patients with either influenza or pneumonia. He states that the hospital has been full since the epidemic started but that so far they have not had to turn anyone away who needed hospitalization. He added, however, that he has treated several cases in the home where the patient desired to go to the hospital.

Late Wednesday Dr. Nichols reported that the hospital patients in general were improving.

Dr. Cox, state Health Officer, has reported that his office has not yet been able to estimate when the peak of the epidemic in the entire state will be reached, but local doctors are of the opinion that the peak here has passed. Dr. Hughes reports that a very limited number of persons here took inoculations in the fall and winter of last year to prevent catching the flu. This same method of control is being used extensively by the armed forces. As far as can be told, states Dr. Hughes, the shots have been effective as a preventative.

Front Page of The Texas Spur, Thursday, July 26, 1951

THIRD BOOTLEGGER FINED, SENTENCED; COUNTY COURT TO RE-OPEN FRIDAY

According to Judge W.H. Hindman, court will open again Friday morning with two more alleged bootleggers on the docker. County Attorney Alfred Walker secured his third conviction in as many trials Monday in the absence of his colorful opponent, H.A.C. Brummett. Brummett unsuccessfully defended the first two bootleggers convicted but was not in court for Brunson´s trial. Defense attorney in Monday´s trial was Clover Engledow of Kent county.

Just hours before the deadline, both Herbert Love and W.G. "Red" Causey appealed their cases last weekend. Brunson has allegedly appealed his, also. Walker states that it will be possibly three months or more before any of the cases can be brought before the Court of Criminal Appeals in Austin. All three men have posted bond until that time.

In spite of a hot, sultry court room and threatening clouds, the Dickens county court room was again packed Monday with standing room only for late comers. Several prominent church workers, pastors and ladies were among the spectators.

"Memories Lane often leads me back down through all but forgotten things. I recall one of the largest caravans I ever saw passing through Stonewall County, headed west, with no particular destination in view.

Some ten or twelve loaded wagons. I later learned they located at Dickens in 1880 in amply time to vote in the county´s organization election. [1880 is a typo; should read 1890]. There was Old Man Piddlesimer, George, Dolf, Andrew, and likely Red Buck Piddlesimer, also called Picklesimer, two or three Davies families related to the Picklesimers by marriage, George Allen and family, Will Duke, a son-in-law of Mrs. George Allen by a former marriage. There may have been others that faded out of my recollection in the past sixty-odd years. That bunch came from Thurber, Texas, and lived in Dickens while the courthouse and jail were being constructed.

George Allen worked in the stone quarry getting the stone for the buildings and had the misfortune of a thousand pound stone falling on his leg that crushed most of the bone from his ankle to his knee.

The result was that he was in bed for months and Mrs. Allen and I cared for George day and night for four months before he walked again. I learned to know them well and felt like I was one of the Allen family. In a year or two all those people moved into the Indian Territory, leaving the Allen´s behind, and they soon moved to the Tom Dodson place near the Lone Hackberry tree mentioned above.

I chanced to be working with the Matador wagons, when two of them were camped in a few hundred yards of the Allen home, and was told in confidence Frank Johnson and Dora Allen meant to elope that night, and I was invited to aid in the eloping, by awaiting future instructions, which I did by staying at the wagon, while some of the Matador boys went after supper to visit the Allen girls. No one came with instructions to me, when all of a sudden pandemonium broke loose at the Allen home, and the Matador boys that went visiting rushed back to the wagons with the tidings Dora Allen had slipped away in the darkness of the night to marry Frank Johnson, and leaving me to guess that had happened to throw the timing out of kilter. Then I did learn that Frank Johnson went to Dickens and the county clerk of Dickens refused to issue the license so Frank did not have any time left to notify me or any one else of the situation.

That was the nearest I ever came to stealing a woman, either for myself or for any one else, but as far as I know, they made an ideal match, but as little as I had to do with, it, I sort of felt degraded, treating my old friends as I did, for I was something more than just fond of the Allen household. I saw little of them after that, for they soon moved away, going to some where near Bracketsville, Texas."

Dickens County TXGenWeb Project Webmaster Linda Fox Hughes

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