The Crystal Lady

Genealogy

The Goolsby Family History
By James Z. Goolsby
© 2003

After we moved back to Hawley, J. Z. and Buster came from Abilene out to pick cotton around Delk. It was here that he met Blanch Randolph and married her on Dec. 26, 1926. This upset Mama and Daddy as they were very much against this marriage, the reasons were never known to us kids. She was a very pretty girl with long black curly hair, Totsie found out that she rolled it on rags and that made it curly. Oreta recalls that she spent one Christmas with J.Z. & Blanch and there received her first Christmas gifts. Mama never told us about Christmas, guess there wasn't very much money for gifts. After their marriage J.Z. and Blanch moved to San Angelo where he was employed as a mechanic. While living here Blanch became pregnant and was very upset, so much so that she jumped off their porch and caused a miscarriage. Things started going down in their marriage from then on. They then moved to Midland and after a while Blanch left a note on the table and took off with half of their belongings, leading to a divorce.

 J.Z. then met Lillie Crowson who was working in a cafe in Midland, they dated and were married on May 18, 1930 in Carlsbad, N.M. While living in Midland a daughter, Dorothy Viola Goolsby, was born on Oct. 18, 1930. The family moved to South Texas around Raymondville where J.Z. was hired as a Peace Officer to patrol near the Mexican Border. While living in Raymondville a second daughter, Nena Elizabeth Goolsby, was born on June 12, 1935. About a year later the family moved back to Abilene where J.Z. was employed as an auto mechanic and later as a welder. A son, James Zacariah Goolsby Jr., was born at the Goolsby home in Hawley on May 6, 1937, Totsie helped with the delivery.

About 1939 the family moved to Artesia, New Mexico where J.Z. was employed as a mechanic for Boulton Chevrolet Company. He also worked for Moutry Moore Oil Refinery as a welder and general repairman during this period of time. Just before the out break of WW II the family moved back to Abilene where J. Z. worked as a mechanic and welder until War was declared.

Being as he was a family man and welder he was not drafted into the war but instead went to Houston where he worked in the shipyards as a welder on large Battle Ships. It was during the war and while living in the vicinity of Pasadena, Texas that a second son, William Arthur Goolsby, was born on Nov. 22, 1943.

After the war was over the family moved back to Abilene where J.Z. worked again as a mechanic and later as a welder for the Onyx and Moutry Moore Oil Refineries. In 1947 J. Z. followed his brother Bill to Grants, New Mexico and worked as an auto mechanic & service manager for Orbison Chevrolet. He worked here for awhile then got a job as a welder for the Petroleum Products Oil refinery at Prewitt, New Mexico. Bill also worked for this same refinery at this time, Bill was partly the reason for our family to move to New Mexico. During our life at Prewitt, dad met an old prospector named Alfred Hutton who was prospecting for copper and mining coal on Mt. Taylor, an extinct volcano. The old man talked dad into filing on a claim which turned out to have uranium on it. Dad named the claim "The Last Chance Mine."

About this time the Uranium Boom was starting up in the Grants area, later to become known as the Uranium Capitol of the World. Dad made quite a bit of money from the mine and bought a Peach Orchard in Farmington, New Mexico with proceeds from the mine. About this time mother took sick, she had a ruptured blood vessel on the brain, this caused a severe stroke and the medical bills took almost all the money dad could rake and scrape. Mother never did fully recover and it was several years before she could walk again. Dad sold the Peach Orchard and after getting back on his feet financially he bought a farm homestead of 160 acres at Oxford, Colorado in 1954.

In 1955 he quit the refinery at Prewitt and they moved to the ranch in Colorado, what he had always wanted. J.Z. had a mare horse named Trixie that he brought to Colorado, from Prewitt. He bred her and she had a very pretty Dun filly with four black stocking feet and black mane & tail. This horse, named Goldie, was his pride and joy and he rode her in many parades in and around Durango while a member of the La Plata County Sheriffs Posse.

 Colorado is a beautiful place in the summer but hard winters made making a year round living on the ranch impossible. Dad again went to work as a welder at the Vanadium Corporation mill in Durango, Colorado. He worked at this until the mill shut down and he was forced to find a job welding at American Tank and Steel in Farmington, New Mexico. He commuted back and forth 120 miles a day for several years and finally was able to get a job with the La Plata County Sheriffs Office. They were forced to move into Durango and live at the jail as his job was a 24 hour on call jailer. He was able to keep the ranch and spent as much free time as possible out there. He retired from the Sheriffs Office and they moved back to the ranch in 1968. They lived there for a couple of years and he sold out as he was no longer able to work the ranch as his health was not good enough for the hard work.

After selling the ranch they moved back to Grants, New Mexico where they bought a home at 725 Gunnison. The main reason for moving back to Grants was to be near their family, daughter Dorothy and her family, son Arthur and his family, and his brother Bill and his family who all lived there. He spent his retirement years counting cows for bank auditors, serving legal papers for the sheriff’s office, fishing, and making silver and turquoise jewelry. J.Z. Goolsby passed away on Jan. 31, 1983, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, of a massive heart attack. His wife, Lillie Viola Crowson Goolsby never fully recovered from her stroke injuries, and followed him in death in Albuquerque on Nov. 10, 1989 after a long illness spent in a nursing home. They are both buried in Grants Memorial Cemetery at Grants, New Mexico.

Continues  the story with Frances Goolsby

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