Minnie and Jess - The Early Years of Their Marriage

Minnie and Jess began their marriage in Vincent, Texas. From what I heard, money was very scarce for most people during those years, but Jess was always known as a man who worked hard for his family. Their first baby, a daughter, was born in 1911. I don't know her name but I know Grandpa never forgot her. I first heard about her in the Fall of 1962. The husband of one of Jess and Minnie's daughters had died in Midland and my mother, dad and I had taken Grandpa(Jess)to his funeral. Granny(Minnie) had only been gone a little over a year at that time and Grandpa had taken her death really hard. We had begun our trip back home to Abilene from Midland. It was late in the day, there was a chill in the air and our moods were somber. Somewhere between Stanton and Big Springs Grandpa told Daddy (Raymond) to turn off the highway. We began following a series of directions given by Grandpa. "Turn here, turn there, follow that fence line." We wound up in a pasture. No kidding, we were driving in a pasture in the middle of nowhere when we stopped near a small, long deserted graveyard. Grandpa didn't say anything. He just got out of the car and walked straight to a spot where he kneeled down on one knee and began pulling the weeds from a tiny grave. When I asked what was going on I learned that Daddy had had an older sister and that was her grave. I learned something else that day also. I learned how some events are burned so deeply into a person's memory that those memories can come to visit as though the person was still in the day they occurred.

On August 20, 1912, Minnie and Jess had their first son, Archie Raymond. He was fond of saying that he had been born in the back of a wagon on the Colorado River. His is the baby picture on this posting.