Mr. Byrom’s grandfather first came to Texas when the region was under the control of Spain and was very well occupied by several tribes of Indians who were occupying the state while under the control of Mexico.

Mr. Roden came in the 1820's as an individual on horse back along with a few friends. They first went to the western part of Texas and didn’t like the area they saw out there, so they decided to travel back to the eastern part of North Texas, where they came upon the cross timbers area. They liked the beautiful trees and the land and decided that the land was suitable for cotton farming and the establishment of a gin, which they were familiar with.

These early day pioneers were accustomed to talking with the natives of this area; their backgrounds were similar and they were both looking for the opportunity to seek new land and establish a livelihood for the future.

Mr. Roden rode back to Tennessee where he decided to get married; he brought his new bride back to the cross timbers area and began a new life. While he was back in Tennessee, his newly acquired in-laws decided that they wanted to travel back to Texas with him and made their settlement with him in the Sandtown area, and on over to the newly established Blue Ridge community where a school was later started.

They discovered that the land to the east of Onega was black loam and especially good for growing cotton. Mr. Roden built a cotton gin and purchased the first steam engine in the area which was a Buffalo Pitts engine. Cotton growing and ginning was the principal crop from this period on into the 1890's.

J.H. Byrom recalls how the steam engine and the thrashing crew made the round harvesting the grain. He remembers that Perry Ratchford, Slim Crawford, J.D. Melton, and Bud Spencer were a part of the thrashing and ginning crew. Bud Spencer was the crew cook and made the tastiest biscuits with butter and best seasoned brown beans served with fresh onions.

He laughingly said that it might take a little practice for him to get back in condition to follow this crew around, but he has many happy memories of the good times that the crew of 20 or 30 men had as they ventured from one place of harvest to that of another.

While I was visiting with J.H., he told me that when October of this year gets here, he will have been married 69 years. I told J.H. that this makes me feel like a young person, since I have only been married 53 years. He says that his wife Ruby is visiting with their son Jerry in east Texas.

The photo is of a working crew as they stood outside the old gin that Mr. Roden Built during the cotton growing period of the 1890's.