07-13-05

One of the people who lived in Aubrey during this period had parents born in Germany and another’s parents were born in Denmark, while 26 had parents born in Mexico. Five had parents from Oklahoma and the remaining 40 had parents who were born in Missouri, Kentucky, Illinois, and Indiana.

Many of these households in Aubrey had grandparents who were 75 to 88 years of age when this Census was recorded, which meant that they were born several years before the Civil War.

The average age of the Head of the Household at this time was just slightly above 51 years of age which included several 20 and 30 year olds that had already started a family.

The people in the record included two medical doctors of general practice, six public school teachers, one attorney of general practice, two insurance agents, one county commissioner, one lumberman, one druggist, auto mechanic, filling station operator, one barber shop, two restaurants, two blacksmith shops, grocery retailing, one private practicing nurse, telephone operator, bank president, public elected weigher, one medical surgeon, one school janitor, two cotton brokers, one college professor, three postal employees, one telegraph operator, railroad depot agent, many railroad workers and county road workers, bookkeeper at gin and many odd jobs and farm workers.

One of the things that stands out is the fact that the above group of people most certainly depended on the local constituents for a livelihood. The Great Depression was beginning and the needs of the local people certainly depended on each other to take care of their family responsibilities.

The heavy clouds of the Great Depression were forming and the disaster would take its toll on the people as the Republicans were in office and promising a better time is just ahead, and for everyone to fear nothing not even fear itself. But fear itself, was in the making and the lesson learned during this time means that what has happened in the past can surely be a part of our future and we should be aware that while fear is in the neighborhood we can learn from history. But there is an old adage from long ago that what had gone around can come around.

Cherry Street was a short street during the 1930's. The residents listed on the short street lived just to the south of what is now North Street. North Cherry street stopped at the highway behind the Baptist Church.

William W. Curry was head of the house, his home was valued at $1,500, and was a large Victorian house that was on the west side of the street. He was 50 years old and his wife, Gussie A., was 49. They had one son named Fred A. He was 11 at this time. Mr. Curry’s parents were from Tennessee and his wife’s family was from Alabama. He performed odd jobs for an occupation. He was not a veteran of the military.

I remember Mr. Curry from the mid-thirties. He was the Aubrey School bus driver. He drove a little Black T Model hand-made bus that he used on the Black Jack route.

Mr. Curry’s son Fred came into the hardware store some 3 or 4 years before he passed away. He was a regular attendee of the Aubrey School Reunion that is held in June of each year.

The next family living on Cherry street in a rent house owned by Mrs. May Edwards was the family of Joseph E. Nixon. Mr. Nixon was 48 and his wife Mamie was 37. They had a family of six children from ages 14 down to 1 month. The family paid $6 a month for rent. Mr. Nixon was an odd job laborer. The children were as follows: Edmond, 14; Joseph D., 12; Mary, 11; Lorena, 8; Alene, 5; and James B., one month.

The next family listed on the report was Ida R. Maxwell, age 49, head of house, who had in her household her mother, Mary Blanks, age 69. Mrs. Blanks parents were born in Tennessee. They owned their home and there was no value placed on the home at the time. It was a large Victorian house that was originally built by F.E. Tobin some time just before the turn of the century.

I have had many nightmares about this old house. Mary Alice Coffey Reding owned the old house back during the 1960's and 70's. She wanted to get rid of it; she wanted to clean the land off where the house was located. She told me that I could have the house for $500. I dumbfoundly wrote her a check.

The next step was to move the house. The house movers came and raised it up. The mover estimated that it weighed 60 tons. When the house was moved out into the street, they determined that the house was ten feet too tall, and it would not go under the telephone cables crossing the street. Their suggestion was to cut at least ten feet off the top of the house. I objected because I wanted to house to stay together.

The mover unhooked from the house and left it in the middle of main street. The house was directly in the center of the street and occupied about 75% of the street. The traffic had to pull around on the side of the street into the ditch to go around the house.

This is where the nightmares began. I had this large beautiful Victorian house out in the middle of main street waiting patiently for the ten feet to be cut off or the phone cables raised so the house could pass under it. The beauty of the old Tobin house far outweighed the hassle that I was enduring while waiting for the local phone company to raise the cable.

I crawled up on top of the tall house, and as I felt the wind blowing against the tall structure, I thought about how I would cut the ten feet off of the top of the house. I couldn’t allow this to be done.

I will continue next week with how the telephone company just didn’t care about whether my house was moved or that the auto traffic on main street was having to drive in the ditches to go around the house parked in the middle of the street.

Next week I will tell you more about this haunted beautiful Victorian house during Halloween in the middle of main street.

I am at the recalling stage of my life. As I study the census taker’s report from the 1930 Census, I recall that times were hard. By saying that times where hard is an easy way of stating how extremely hard the times were during this part of my life. I was born in 1930 and I remember how difficult it was for my parents to provide for our family. It was during this period that they were paying a meager three and four dollars a month rent to Mae Edwards. Mae Edwards owned many rent houses that we now refer to as shanties.

According to my older brothers, Mae Edwards owned many of the poor people’s two and three room homes that the large families had to live in. There are not many of Mae Edwards’ small little houses left. If they are, they have had several rooms added so that you can hardly see the resemblance of the shanties as they were then.

Many folks of our age remember living in various houses in the community. Some people say that they moved almost every month, when the month’s rent came due. I asked my brothers what we did at the end of the month when the rent came due while we were living in Mae Edward’s house, when we didn’t have the three or four dollars to pay our rent. They said that the landlords were very generous and sympathetic and would just let it ride. There is no telling how much that dear honorable landlord failed to collect, and helped the poor folks. Her generosity can’t be ignored, and I feel I must share it with you, because these people were so thankful for her help.

As I was taking Jackie out on our weekly Sunday afternoon drive, we were flagged down by Sally Hunnicutt. She had some visitors at her home who were in town looking for the house where Mae Edwards lived. I looked up out of my car and there stood Marcella Henderson Nelson and one of the Tobin girls with several others that were visiting Aubrey. They are relatives of Aunt Mae Edwards.

Sally Hunnicutt has so graciously restored the Mae Edwards home. It has become a beautiful handiwork of architecture and the design. The old Mae Edwards home is just barely more than 100 years old. The home is still located in the original location where the home was in the 1930 Census.

Jackie and I drove on, but not before I invited these young descendants of Aubrey to help me form a monthly or bimonthly visitation at the hardware store. We can meet when the Cherokees are not meeting. It would be fitting for former friends and residents to gather and visit. I am waiting to hear more from them. I promised them cookies and coffee (I would do the serving).

I will pick up on the Lanfords next week. They are the next home on the 1930 Census roll.

The photo shows some of the small dwellings as they were in the ruins of the tornado that came through town back in 1918. They were similar to the small houses that Mae Edwards so diligently provided to the poor renters back in the first 30 or 40 years of the twentieth century.
 

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