R. L. Teague and Mary Eivine Casper

Then and Now, Lea County Families, Vol I, 1979

Submitted by: R. L. Teague

My grandfather, Reden Stokes Teague, and my grandmorther, Mary Eivine Casper Teague, came to New Mexico about 1900 from Texas. My grandfather was born October 22, 1850 and Mary Eivine Casper was born in Alabama, I think, on January 27,  1856. Their children were: Frances Calhonn Teague born February 17, 1875, died October 31, 1967, buried in Knowles, New Mexico; Lou Ida Teague born February 25, 1877, married a Mr. Jones, died August 17, 1942, and is buried in the Lovinton, New Mexico cemetery; John Joiner Teague born February 25, 1880, died January 13, 1933, buried in Knowles; Thomas Adolph Teague, born April 15, 1884, dield August 13, 1949; Melissa Jane Teague, born March 27, 1886; Bob Robards Teague, born September 3, 1888, died December 25, 1872, buried in Memory Gardens in Hobbs, New Mexico; Reddom Mortimer Teague, January 9, 1891, died March 25, 1960, buried in Memory Gardens cemetery in Hobbs, New Mexico; George William Teague, born September 6, 18xx; Fannie Lea Teague, born July 12, 1895, died in 1930, buried at Knowles Cemetery.

My father was James Henry Teague and my mother was Missouri Ann "Zudie" Neatherlin. When my grandfather came to New Mexico, the Neatherlin's were already here at Monument, which is where my grandparents homesteaded first. My parents were married in Carlsbad, New Mexico, December 16, 1902.

My maternal grandparents were Marion Gwinn Neatherlin born December 31, 1854 in Texas, died Jue 9, 1928, buried at Monument. and Dilly Ann Poyner born October 22, 1863 or 1864, at Little Rock, Arkansas, died November 19, 1903, and is buried in Midland, Texas. They were married February 6, 1879.

The children of Marion Gwinn and Dilly Ann Neatherlin were: Missouri Ann "Zudie", born at DeleonCommanche County, Texas, September 22, 1880, died January 31, 1970, buried in Knowles; Ellie Agnes, born January 27, 1883, married a Mr. Bentley, died June 2, 1968, buried at Monument; Harriet Evelyn, born 23 January 1885, married Frank Dickison, died February 23, 1968, buried at Monument; Lonzo Addison, born March 4, 1887, died in 1930 at Globe, Arizona; Bessie Abbigal, born March 16, 1889, died in 1936 in Spur, Texas; Maude Gertrude, born February 2, 1891, married a Mr. McGlothlin, died in 1911, buried at Knowles; Mathew Pierce, born Febraury 6, 1893, died July 25, 1950, buried at Monument; Walton Bernard, born September 7, 1897, died in 1936 at Spur, Texas.

As I said, my parents were married in 1902 at Carlsbad, New Mexico and had the following children: Ada Lee Teague born September 27, 1903 married Aud Fergason, there children were: Ada Lee Teague, born September 27, 1903, married Aud Fergason, Edna Geneva Teague, born April 30, 1906, married George Martin Hamilton, Beatrice Irene Teague, born February 11, 1908, married Eph Griffith, Oliver Dell Teague, born August 8, 1909, married Gladys Grace Mahan, Heneriette Bess Teague, born December 29, 1910, married Ernest Manning, Harold Elmo Teague, born March 12, 1913, married Juanita Cotton, James Henry Teague Jr., born July 27, 1915, died at age 12, December 3, 1927, buried in Knowles, Marion Joyce Teague, born October 10, 1917, married Iris Valtina Herman, R. L. Teague, born December 14, 1919, married first Hazel Marie Busby on June 19, 1939, married second to Virginia Hughes, Kenneth Clyde Teague, born May 29, 1921, married Eva Lee Williams.

My grandfather, Reden S. Teague, established a horse ranch south of present day Knowles, and he was in the ranching business as long as he lived, which was until 1928. Then the rest of the family moved from Monument to Knowles.

I've spent most of my life in Lea Couny. Kind of funny about that. I wa born in a wagon yard, because my parents were on a trip to Lamesa, Texas and I was born there. When Hobbs built up, my folks ran a dairy until 195. That and farming is all I've known up to 20 years ago when I went to work for a roofing company, and I did sheet metal work about a year or so around 1939 and I was in the service.

When I was a kid we went to school at East Barber, a one-room school house that had up to the eigth grade- School District 21. At the time I was going to school, Lovington had the only high school within, I guess a hundred miles. Everybody who wanted to go to high school had to come to Lovington. Outside of fighting, we'd play baseball or shoot marbles and that was about it. The girls played baseball with us, but mostly giggled.

During my time Knowles had a store, hotel, blacksmith shop, and post office. I guess thats about it, most had already moved to Lovington and Knowles was going down. But then you didn't see hardly anybody out on the ranch or farm.

We had about 2 sections of land. There were about 20 kids at the school most of the time. No school bus. We either walked or rode burros. All you would see were coyotes and antelope. Pretty primitive, but at the time it didn't seem that way. The sand blew, the same as it does now.

For groceries we go mostly to Seagraves, Texas to buy large quantities and haul them in by wagon. W'd by 10 or 12 sacks of flour at a time and sugar and such. Most of what we needed was raised at home.

The Hobbs family was our closest neighbors. Also, there were the Griffins, Blacks, and Tomlinson's-Roy Tomolinson's folks. They lived pretty close to us, about a mile west.

At the time I am talking about Monument was a town - I guess it;s about the oldest town in Lea County. At one-time Knowles was a pretty good sized community. I believe Lovingon was started about 1908 or so and Lea County was formed in 1918. At that time in Lovington there was just a little bit of town around the court house. People down our way thought they ought to have the county seat. Then in later years, 1934 or 1935 there was more trouble over the court house. Before Lea County was formed you had to go to Carlsbad if you wanted to get some papers filed. If you had a good horse you might make it to Carlsbad in one day. Most of the time it took about two days to go in a wagon. That's how my dad kept us alive-frieghting stuff to different ranches.

Before I was born my dad had a clothing store in Knowles. All I remember about it is here-to-say, but I do remember that every dresser drawer had those old celluloid collars, cuff buttons, cuffs, and stuff like that. I don't even know how long he had the store. He went into it because my older sisters got to be school age, they had to moved to Knowles where they could go to school. Later on, East Barber school was started, named for some cattle outfit and watering holes are where the kids were put. I remember it wa School District 21 and it was still a schol district until they consolidated with Hobbs in about 1938 or 1939.

Our home was about half a mile from the school. The first teacher I can remember was Miss Doran. She taught school there and lived with my grandmother. I'm not sure, but I think she taught there two years. Then Ernest Manning taught school. Then there was a Mrs. Walter Denny; she was a Nilbrey from Monument. Then Ernest Manning taught another year or two. In the meantime he had been teaching in Hobbs during the oil boom. Then we had Miss Ruby Isaacs. I went through the eigth grade there and graduated from Hibbs High. Ruby Isaacs was probably the last teacher they had at East Barber.

When oil came in I was about eight or nine years old. As big as our family was, I think we had four rooms and a kitchen. It was very primitive around here compared to now. It was pretty common for the familes to live in dugouts. You could see a lot of the old places caved in back then. But I guess the Asher's were the only ones near us who lived in a half-dugout. They lived about 10 or 12 miles north of us.

Every once in awhile there would be a preacher come through and we would meet at the school house. It didn't matter what denominantion tthey were, eberybody would come. Most of the time we'd have lunch on the grounds and it would be like a picnic all day sunday. Then at night sometimes there would be three or four groups who'd camp out-I don't know if they were preachers or people just passing through. By the time I got out of school there was a Baptist church in Hobbs. Salvation Army, and two or three others that held services. Sometimes it would be in the afternoon after thier regular services.

Knowles ws about twelve miles from what is now Hobbs. By horse it would probably take three or four hours anyway because you didn't want to kill him! All we had in the way of a doctor wa Dr. Dearduff in Lovinngton.

One time my brother James Henry Teague Jr. woke up sick in the middle of the night when he was about 12 years old. The next day my dad brought him to Lovington to Dr. Dearduff who told him he thought he better take him to Carlsbad and by the time he got to the doctor he was dead. We brought him back and buried him at Knowles.

Probably a lot of people around here knew my Uncle Frank Teague. One year come time for the kids to go to school, my grandfather left four boys at home to look after the farm, while he went to Midland. Those boys were fighters and the oldest one, Jack, and Frank got into it. Jack got a butcher knife off the kitchen table and stuck it in Frank's leg. When my grandfather got bad, after a few days, the leg was real bad. They took him to Midland, but by the time they got there, gangreene had set in and they had to cut his leg off. So, the rest of his life he walked around on a forked peach tree limb. He died just a few years ago, buy until that time he lived in a blacksmith shop here in Lovington.

Lovington back then had old wooden walks and the town was built up only around the courthouse square. It seems like old Dr. Dearduff's office was right east of the square.  It was upstairs. I believe over the building that is north of where the museum is now. I remember onr time one of my sisters got her teeth knocked out with a baseball bat. Berry Hobbs had an old model "T" Ford and he brought us to Dr. Dearduff's office. My little brother came on out the door, and not being used to the stairs, he fell all the way to the bottom. We had to take him back upstairs to get him fixed up.

The railroad came through Hobbs to Lovington and the track ran about two or three miles west of us. I remember that we used to ride burro from our place over to watch them lay track. Of course, when they started drilling oil we'd ride out and watch that, too.

When my mother and dad got ready to get married old Pate Boone wa about 16 years old and he went with them to drive the wagon-he was a real good friend of the family. We recently went to his 90th birthday. His daddy and my daddy were real good friends; he was descended from Daniel Boone. We went to school in Hobbs, in '35 we didn't ride the bus, we rode horse. And since he lived right close to the school we'd leave our horses there and pick them up after school and visit with Mr. Boone. He used to tell us tales. One time he told us how he got married. He had a farm and was working and one day he decided he wanted a wife. He went walking, stopped by this place and seen a girl working the the garden. So he stopped and asked her . She told him yeh, she'd like to get married, so they did. And you know what? When old Pate Boone wrote his book, he told that same story in there.

When I was a kid some of the sheriffs were Sam Cain, Wicker Curly, Mr. Owings, and one of the Coopers, then Bilbrey, of course, but I was real little when he was sheriff. When it was time to elect a sheriff it wa a big deal. Everybody turned out to vote and it was usually real close.

During World War II, I was in the Infantry serving in the South Pacific, Phillipine Islands, all in combat. I was lucky. The war was over in August and in November my unit got to come back to the states.

I've been other places but I'd always want to be back here where the sand blows. There's no place better than around here to live. I just wouldn't be home anyplace else.