My Father: Charles W. McCarroll, Jr.

Charles Wilson McCarroll, Jr. (1919-2013), my father, died yesterday at the age of 93.

As a late stage Alzheimer's patient, he was sometimes aware of his surroundings.  My desire is that he knew he was loved.  His wife of 39 years, Pat, was a caregiver for him in his later years and was truly a steadfast mate.  They weathered many a storm together.  My brother John was always there to lend a helping hand to Dad and Pat, expecially in their later years.  John wrote Dad's obituary:

Charles Wilson McCarroll, Jr., died March 4, 2013 in Georgetown, Texas, following a brief illness.

He was born May 2, 1919, in Miles, Texas, to Charles Wilson McCarroll, Sr., and Ethel Lee Motley McCarroll. He attended all 12 grades in Junction, Texas, and received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1941 from A&M College of Texas (now Texas A&M University).

Charles McCarroll entered the U.S. Navy Reserve in 1941 and served as a ferry and test pilot, leaving the service as a Lieutenant Commander. An especially memorable event during his service in World War II was successfully parachuting from a doomed airplane in 1943. The plane was a FM2 Wildcat fresh from the factory in Linde, New Jersey  that he was to fly solo to its new station in Trenton, New Jersey. Once airborne, cables controlling the elevators snapped, rendering the plane inoperable. Naval investigators later determined that a factory saboteur was responsible for the destruction of this and several other aircraft before being discovered.

From 1946 to 1956 Charles McCarroll served as a vocational agriculture instructor with the Veterans Administration, teaching in Ballinger and Paint Rock, Texas. Veterans returning to their West Texas farms and ranches from World War II and Korea attended night school under the G.I. Bill to learn about modern advances in agriculture. He also operated the family’s successful demonstration stock farm at Mereta, Texas.

Charles McCarroll entered the electrical supply business in Odessa in 1957 and later became business manager of the Odessa Chuck Wagon Gang. He moved to the Dallas area in 1970 where he was a home builder.

He was an avid fisherman and enjoyed flytying, travel and family gatherings.

He was preceded in death by his parents and a brother Arthur Lee McCarroll of Midland. He is survived by his wife of 39 years, Patricia, of Round Rock.

Other survivors include sons Chuck McCarroll and wife Karen of College Station; John McCarroll and wife Charlotte of Georgetown; daughter Nancy McCarroll and husband Gene Kinsey of Grand Junction, Colorado; and stepdaughter Pam Turner of Austin. He also leaves behind seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

To give tribute to my father, I am republishing an article he wrote in his memoirs from 2001 recalling the day he was born in Miles, Texas.  To say the least, things were different almost 100 years ago on a Texas dryland farm.  This is his recollection.

How Things Were on May 2, 1919

The drought of 1917-18 affected the farmers on the Lipan Flat as there were no crops. Charles and Ethel McCarroll (sic, his father and mother) and the Ed Roberts family moved to San Angelo to a house owned by Pa McCarroll to find work. Uncle Ed drove a delivery wagon for a wholesale grocer. Dad worked in the Gulf Gas Station on the northwest corner of Chadbourne and Harris. This Station operated until the l970's.

Aunt Lula was visiting her mother and father at Mereta when they heard that Ethel had a little boy at Aunt Lillie Boykin's house in Miles. The rains were so heavy that the roads were nearly impassable. She managed to get to Miles in a buggy to see the new nephew. She laughed and said "good thing it is a boy, Ethel could not have made girl's dresses".
Aunt Lula was going back to San Angelo on the train but could not get across the flooded creek to the depot. They had the train stop for her near Aunt Lillie’s home on the west edge of Miles, Texas.

Dr. Herndon was the attending physician when I was born. Sickness and births were cared for in the home and doctors made house calls. The horse and buggy was the transportation and the black bag was about all that they carried. The roads were makeshift and through pastures and down fencerows of the farms and ranches. The automobile was scarce in the early 1920's because the roads were primitive and cars were not dependable.

The railroads were the means of moving freight and livestock between cities, but the wagon and team were still used for delivery. The newspaper, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, would reach San Angelo early in the morning with news and stock and cotton reports. The mail and papers were thrown off the mail car at each station. Telephones were in each city and town. Western Union was the way to send messages, delivered by men on bicycles. Railway Express was used for small packages and fast delivery. The railroad operated the Western Union and Railway Express. Telegraph was sent over wire in Morse code and was used to give information used by the railroad systems.

San Angelo became a health center in the early part of the century. Tuberculosis, a lung disease, was treated in a high dry climate. Because it was highly infectious the patients were isolated. Several sanitariums were constructed and operated in and near San Angelo. There was one in northeast San Angelo that consisted of many small houses, but large enough for a bed and a porch. Patients were cared for in these isolated units. There were several medical clinics and hospitals in town with many doctors that made San Angelo popular. The city became a business and transportation center.

A typical day on the farm in 1919 was busy and tiring. After the rooster crowed announcing a new day, it was time to remove the several quilts and touch the cold linoleum, light the coal oil lamp and the fires. The cook stove got the first attention, the fire must be warm enough but not too hot, the stoves were fueled by wood or coal. Water was carried in buckets from the cistern and heated for the morning meal.

With no inside plumbing, we had to use an outdoor privy. This was a little house about four by four feet over a pit. The toilet was located some distance from the dwelling.
There was no refrigeration, and the summertime called for an ingenious cooler made of sheet metal consisting of about four shelves. The top and bottom shelves were about four inches deep filled with water. The middle shelves held the food. Cotton cheesecloth was pinned to the water pan and surrounded the cooler. The water wicked onto the cloth and the evaporation caused cooling. This unit was placed on the shaded porch that caught the breeze.

The livestock must be cared for and feeding was the first chore of the day. Since this was a family farm, the cows were milked first. Other livestock were hogs, horses, and sheep or goats. Horses were essential to the farm as they pulled the implements and the wagon and buggy.

The man cared for the stock and crops, and the wife cooked and kept the house. The garden and poultry may have been the responsibility of the wife and children. Most of the farms on the flat had another family or some young men to help. Everything was done by hand and it took people to make the crop.

The first machine was the thrasher for wheat and oats. It took many people to cut shock and bring it to the thrasher on a wagon. Milo maize heads were cut off and tossed into the wagon which was pulled by a team, then carried to a barn. Cotton was hand picked from the burr and put into a sack pulled along the row. There were many cotton pickers and the pound of cotton weighed in the sack paid them.

The family farm at Mereta was about 320 acres. About 100 acres was cropland, 100 acres of pasture and the rest used for house, barns, garden and such. The planter, cultivators, harrows, and horses or mules pulled wagons. Thinning rows and weed control was done by hand.

An early mechanical tool was the row binder, which cut feed crop and tied it in bundles. These bundles were shocked; a dozen or so were placed upright and allowed to cure in the field. They were tossed onto a wagon and carried to the feedlot and carefully stacked until fed to the livestock.

The washing of clothes was done by hand. The tools included a big black kettle on short legs. A fire was built to heat the water. Large galvanized tubs on a bench with a rub board were used to wash the clothes. Homemade lye soap got the dirt out. Washday was usually on Monday. The clothes were dried on a clothesline strung between posts. Wooden pins held the clothes on the line. Ironing was done the next day with irons heated on the wood stove and almost everything had to be pressed (sic) since cloth was natural fiber.

Most of the food was produced on the farm and prepared in the kitchen. A process of baking bread and cooking. The food was fresh and plentiful. Taking care of the milk was an every day chore. Baking ingredients were the bulk of groceries that were bought.
The McCarroll farm is just northwest of the town of Mereta which is located 10 miles south of the city of Miles and 18 miles east of San Angelo. In 1919 Manse McCarroll lived on this farm. He bred Percheron horses and purebred hogs.

Loraine, the youngest daughter, said Pa built his stud-breeding chute west of the barn so it would be out of sight of the ladies.

The town of Mereta was a thriving community with two Cotton Gins, a general mercantile store, blacksmith, cafe, barbershop and post office. Mail routes were to San Angelo and Miles. The Tabernacle was open edifice, replacing a brush arbor, for church and community activities. The school was a four room wood frame house just west of the town and across the lane south of the McCarroll place.

The people of the community were of mixed European origin, friendly and cooperative. . It seemed that each individual had some talent that another family could use. Trades that were used included: windmill repairs, carpentry, butchers, well drillers, fence builders, and even 'Watkins' drummers. There was always someone to call when a farm animal was sick. Most of these talents were a trade-out: your day for my day. Money was rarely exchanged.

May of 1919 was a time of change, the terrible drought was broken, world war one had ended and the veterans returned. It was the beginning of mechanization farming. "Ford in every garage" would call for new roads and bridges. So, I was born at the beginning of the good times that lasted about ten years.

(excerpted from "The Way It Was..Recollections and Reflections of Charles Wilson McCarroll, Jr."  -2001)

August, 2012

"Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever."  Psalm 23:6