The Crystal Lady 

Genealogy  

William Maynard Goolsby worked for the railroad in Hughes Springs, Texas when he first met and dated Arrie Nena Pattillo. Arrie's sister Fannie was dating Manco Morrow, who also worked for the railroad, and Arrie had gone along with her and the two couples double dated. Arrie came down with Typhoid fever and lost all of her hair, which later came back in real kinky and curly. Maynard heard that she had died from the fever and one day he again met Arrie and was shocked since he thought she had died. They renewed their acquaintance and started dating again. They were later married at the Pattillo home place in Avinger, Texas on Dec 21, 1902, by Reverend Babe Williams.

Arrie was helping run her father's (J.Z. Pattillo) Dry Goods Store, during this period of time when she met Maynard. Arrie was from another old, well-established pioneer family that had a Brick Yard, Lumber Yard and Dry Goods Store for businesses in Avinger. William and Arrie moved to Buffalo Gap, Texas where he tried his hand at farming. Here a son, James Zacariah Goolsby, was born on Nov. 24, 1903. They then moved north to Delk, a small community near Hawley here a second child, Arrie, was born on Aug. 5, 1905. Something happened and the young girl died at 10 months of age, on June 26, 1906,  this was a hard blow to the family.

They moved to Hawley where Maynard operated a cafe. Here he met and befriended a Dr. H.H. Fatheree.  Daddy, not being in the best of health, read a lot of the doctor’s medical books.  Finally the doctor told Maynard he must go West to a higher climate, so he and Arrie started the move.

Uncle Ben told me that when Grandma and Grandpa moved from Texas to New Mexico they were quite a sight. Grandma never threw anything away and in addition to all the household goods they had, they took along two old automobiles, which would not run. They were pulled along with the wagon by the team, just one long caravan.

They headed West in a covered wagon (sometime around 1910) looking for a place to homestead, and J.Z. (my dad) was about 7 years old. He related the following to me - Grandpa Goolsby headed for Roswell, New Mexico, looking and hoping. One evening he came to the top of a hill and said, "Here's where we homestead." Well he crawled down from the wagon and the first thing that happened was a rattlesnake started to buzz, I guess Grandma Arrie came apart. She refused to get off the wagon and told grandpa, "There's no way I'm going to live in a den with snakes!" So in the morning they headed North looking for a new home.

 They crossed back into the Pan Handle of Texas when they got near Claude, Texas as their money was running low. So Grandpa looked to find work and got the job of tearing down the old railroad station, he got to keep all the materials as well as receiving some money. While removing the old railroad building, he found an old key-wind clock on the wall. He repaired the clock and it's still in the family and is still running (after some late date repairs). Daddy bought several lots in Claude and parked the wagons on them.

Daddy worked for a few years for the railroad in Claude and it was during this time that the third child, Frances Cornelia was born on Feb. 19, 1911. They stayed on in Claude for awhile and then moved on up into New Mexico, stopping to live in Mt. Dora for awhile. It was here that the second son, William Maynard Jr. (Bill) was born on Oct. 31, 1913. The Family then moved on to Pasamonte, New Mexico where they homesteaded 320 acres.
 
There Daddy built a dugout-house of dirt & rocks as there was a rock quarry near by.  The house was finished of quarry rocks that Daddy and J.Z. hauled by wagon from the quarry. The house had two windows and a door, which provided the only natural light for the dugout, and sat on a hill overlooking a nice lake (Playa or Buffalo Wallow) and it looked very promising. Daddy built a combined barn, feed storage, chicken house and blacksmith shop from the rocks in the quarry, dug a well and erected a windmill. Daddy ran an underground water line to the stock tank and one into the dugout, so we had water in the house to drink and use. He raised horses & cows and farmed some corn, pinto beans, cane, maize, sharpened plow shares and did a lot of trading with neighbors far and near. He had some Game Chickens, which were his pride and joy. He had a syrup vat and made syrup out of cane they grew, raised vegetables and skimmed cream from the cow’s milk. Daddy and Bud built a round water tank with rocks from the quarry and ran an underground pipe to carry water to it. Mama kept the milk in a wooden trough as the water was pretty cool and kept the milk from going bad. The trough was made to hold water up to the neck of the milk can and then overflowed, this water was used to water our garden. Daddy would load our wagon with syrup and corn and he or Bud would take it to Clayton where they would trade for coal and groceries.

In the winter when it was cold and Daddy couldn't get outside, he would repair clocks and watches for extra money. He and the neighbor men played a lot of "Flinch" and "Checkers" to pass the long cold days. J.Z. said Daddy would talk him into playing checkers to see who would go out and feed the stock -- guess J.Z. did a lot of the feeding. Mama told of a time that Daddy was making wooden frames for screens for the door and windows. He thought up an idea to make them stronger at the corners by cutting small pieces of tin about 1 inch long and driving them into the wood across each corner. While working on the screens a city man came by, asked what he was doing, saw the pieces of tin and then left. The man later applied for and received a patent on the idea.

 Daddy was handy with his hands and made mama a rolling pin out of a cedar wood log. While living on the homestead the nearest town and doctor was fifty miles away. Injuries often befell members of the family, so mama became quite good at bandaging hurts. There was a deep canyon that ran near our place and one day Bud and some friends went there to watch the water rise in the canyon as it had rained further North of us. Some sheep herders had built a rock wall to protect their sheep from falling into the canyon. J.Z. was leaning against the wall looking down into the canyon and the wall collapsed, letting him fall into the canyon. He broke his leg in the fall and his friends had to pull him up with their lariat ropes. About the time they got him out a big wall of water rushed down the canyon where he had lain. The boys tied him to his saddle and brought him home to Mama and she nursed him back to health.  Our sister Frances was driving our cows home one day and the horse she was on stepped in a prairie dog hole, fell and ran the small metal saddle horn into her side, Mama nursed her through this injury also. It was here in Northern New Mexico that the other two of us girls, Totsie and Oreta, were born.

When Totsie was due to be born Daddy sent J.Z. by horse back to get the doctor. A neighbor lady acting as midwife and Daddy as the doctor, brought Totsie into this world at the homestead in Pasamonte on Feb. 3, 1917. Now to back up a bit in time! While Daddy was living in Hawley he had acquired some medical knowledge by reading a lot of Dr. Fatheree's medical books, which really came in handy at this time. Totsies birth was unusually hard on Mama, so they placed the baby to one side and was tending to Mama as she had gone into a convulsion. Daddy turned around and Totsie was "BLUE", the knot in her navel had slipped causing her to lose a lot of blood and she had quit breathing! Daddy remembered reading about mouth to mouth resuscitation so he started breathing into Totsie's mouth and revived her. She says she literally owes her life to her father. The doctor got there when she was 3 days old and things were going fairly normal. To our great joy she is still alive and doing real great - 86 years later!!

The next to be born was Oreta Juanita (grandma wrote Waneta in the Bible), born Nov. 25, 1920 at the homestead in Pasamonte. When the baby was due J.Z., Frances and Bill all slept in the barn. Totsie remembers that when Oreta was born, her Daddy sent her to tell the other kids they had a new sister. Totsie said she crawled in bed with Bud to get warm as it was pretty cold. J.Z. got to name his sister and boy was he proud of this honor. Oreta says that since their birthdays were only one day apart, Mama would bake him a chocolate cake and me a white one and we would celebrate together. She can't recall too much because of her age but she does vaguely recall that on one very windy day when the tumble weeds were rolling along, her ever present bonnet blew off. She and Totsie gave it a chase for a long way. She can't recall whether they got the bonnet back or not but they did catch a spanking when they got home. Mama said Oreta could predict weather sometimes at that period of her life. One morning before daylight a neighbor came by to buy some milk, and she told him he should get his crop of beans out as a big storm was coming. The weather was clear so he kinda laughed and humored me, but he did get his bean crop in and a big hail storm came and beat the crops to the ground. Each morning after that he would come and ask about the weather and she would be right in her predictions. Totsie recalls neighbors named Peas, Lemons, Sinks, and Fosters.

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