Life Story of Milton Yarbrough

FORWARD The truth is, there's never enough time to do everything, even everything of genuine importance. However, some people seem to learn that it's not a sacrifice to give up things of lesser importance for those things of greater importance. In fact it's a bargain. Everyone dies leaving much undone. The setting of priorities is an iron-clad necessity to be successful in life. It took some time to write this journal. It was of genuine importance to me. --Milton T. Yarbrough 1 MY JOURNAL My memory dates back to the year 1928. At the age of three, I only remember a few incidents that stand out in my faded memory. I will try to list a few things that occurred during this period that I am able to remember. We lived on a 160 acre farm in the McAdoo, Texas community in Dickens County. My Uncle Jenk Yarbrough owned the farm. My father Marvin and mother Maurine Long Yarbrough seemed happy, although we didn't have much wealth. I remember our home was a weather beaten shack with no trees. We later planted some trees. My Uncle Minor lived with us most of the time. He was my father's brother, one year older than my father, but unmarried at this time. Marvin and Minor were partners and rented other land besides the farm we lived on. The brothers farmed cotton and grain, and raised livestock. My father enjoyed trading and usually turned profits on most of his transactions. My father's younger brother Darius also lived with us at different times. My uncles took up a lot of time with me and made little things for me. I really liked them both. I was the only child at the time. In the spring of 1928, my mother, Uncle Minor and 2 I went to Arkansas together on the train. I remember very little about the trip. My mother and I went to Little Rock to visit her brother Maurice Long, his wife Adaline and their little daughter Virginia. While we were there, I saw my great-grandmother Bertha Benham Long for the only time. I don't remember her, but I have a family group snapshot that includes her and myself. Uncle Minor went on to Augusta where he had lived as a boy. We also went to Augusta later, as my mother had an Aunt Gayne Preller who lived there. We also visited my grandmother Long who worked for a telephone company in Memphis, Tennessee. Grandmother was a widow at the time. My father decided before we returned to Texas we should journey on to Shreveport, La. to visit his three sisters, Maud, Mable and Libbye. Aunt Mable and Libbye had recently moved from Little Rock and lived with my Aunt Maud and her husband Earl McQuiston. In the summer, my father, mother and I went to visit Uncle Jenk, Aunt Lottie and my cousins Lorene, Jerome, and Penn. They lived in Brown County, Texas, in central Texas. I remember Penn. He was abut 15 months old and didn't like to have his diaper pinned on him. He would kick and scrabble and make it difficult 3 for his mother to diaper him. I remember my mother telling me his name was William Penn. When I thought of William Penn or heard him mentioned, I would remember him kicking on the bed and the safety pin. Uncle Jenk had just bought a new Ford. He sold my father his Model T Coupe. I remember my uncle had a green striped cloth cover over the Model T. I remember the day he took the cover off of the car and Dad took possession. The car was less than two years old. My father and mother were real proud of the car. We drove the car home from Brown County to McAdoo. The roads were dirt and some gravel. We drove into a rainstorm and almost slid into a ditch on the slippery dirt road. Dad didn't have much driving experience, but we got home safe and sound. The car was small and I rode behind the seats on a shelf that my parents called the chicken roost. Most Model T's were black, but our car, one of the last Model T's, was grey. One day on our way home from Uncle Walter's house the car caught fire near a ditch of water. Uncle Darius was with us. He jumped out of the car, dipped water from the ditch with a tin can and extinguished the fire. I think we were able to drive the car home with no more trouble. One day Darius took me with him to visit the Stephenson family in his car. He, after visiting for 4 awhile forgot he had brought me along, and he left without me. I was having a good time playing with my cousins Robena and Charlie, and I didn't see him leave. I was told that Darius had left without me, and I would have to stay all night with them. This arrangement I didn't like and got really homesick. I didn't like staying away from home at night. When Darius got home without me my father saddled his favorite horse Rock, "Rocky Boy" I called him, and came to get me. I was really glad to see him. Dad used to put me on front and took me many places on old Rock. He sometimes took me to school. We plowed with horses and mules. My father and Uncle got several brood mares and raised mule colts to be used as work animals. One day my mother, a city girl, and I went to the mailbox which was about a quarter of a mile distance through a lane in the field. One of the mares had a mule foal. My mother and I went to pet the little mule and he kicked me down. I wasn't hurt bad, but my dad, who was raised on a farm, told my mother to never trust a mule any age, and never get behind one. The mule was just a few hours old. He belonged to Uncle Minor and was named Jerry. Darius was hired at a cotton gin as a bookkeeper. I didn't see much of him. I missed him playing with 5 me. A Mexican family or two moved into a small tenant house behind our house on the farm to pull cotton bolls. They had two little girls, one was a little older than me, and the younger one was about my age. The girls could only speak Spanish, I, only English. We tried to talk to each other. She would say "Que?" and I would say "What?" over and over. We like each other but were never able to communicate. The older girl would run toward me, and I would run home. I'm sure she just wanted to be my friend and maybe try and pick me up. When the cotton was picked the Mexican people (there were several of them) moved back to south Texas. I got a tricycle for Christmas that year. A really big year for a boy of three years old. One day in the spring of 1929, Darius drove down the dirt lane and parked in front of our home. He had been away for a while, and I was glad to see him. He had left two suitcases at our house as this was his permanent home. He had gotten a new job with a telephone company. He was happy as he picked up his luggage, one in each hand. He told mother and me good- bye, and he said with a big smile, "Mom, take good care of him," referring to me. He drove away in his Model T 6 touring. His new job was at Hillsboro, Texas. He had not been working at his new job long, when the telephone office man from McAdoo found my father in the field planting cotton. He told my father that Darius had been hurt in an auto accident. We didn't have a telephone. Darius had listed my father in case of emergency to be notified. Dad and my Uncle Minor called their brother in Mineral Wells, Texas who lived much closer to Hillsboro. As soon as my dad and Minor could get ready, they left for Hillsboro in Minor's Model T. Jenk also left for Hillsboro as soon as possible, and in an effort to get to his youngest brother, Jenk was involved in an auto accident. Jenk's injuries were minor. When Minor and my dad arrived at the hospital and asked about the condition of their brother, the receptionist first told them that their brother's condition had improved. There were at least four people who were involved in the accident. The confused receptionist, after getting the names straightened out, said, "I'm sorry. Your brother is dead." This was a very terrible shock and a sad time for the family to lose a brother. After the death of their father, the four brothers and four sisters were very close, and the older ones helped out the younger ones. Their mother's 7 sister, Aunt Edna, referred to them as "Those poor little orphans." My father later told me about the accident that killed Darius. The owner of the new Model A Ford invited some young men to take a ride in his new car. The young men were delighted and jumped in the car.

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