Castleberry, Walter and Mattie Carl

Lea County Families and History, "Then and Now" Vol I

Transcribed by J Rice 2008

The Walter Ham Castleberry Family

by Berniece Castleberry

          Walter Ham Castleberry, known as Ham, was born in Alabama on December 15, 1887. His parents were Richard C and Catie Prater Castleberry. Catie was the daughter of Joseph and Martha Ann "Hope" Prater. Ham Castleberry married Mattie Carl Daffron in Wellington, Texas in 1908. Born March 1, 1889 in Sherman, Texas, Mattie was the daughter of Zimmerah Henderson Daffron and Ellen Jane Kennedy. Zimmerah Daffron was born in Ragland, Alabama, February 25, 1860 and passed away on February 13, 1945. His fathers name is unknown, but he was a Yankee soldier. Ellen Jane was born June 1, 1862 and passed away October 30, 1938. Her place of birth is unknown.

          Ham with his wife Mattie Carl and their two sons, Ruedolph and Orville Paul, came in a covered wagon, along with Jessie Farris and homesteaded four miles west of McDonald, New Mexico in 1915. Denzil Eugene (Dick) Castleberry was born March 31, 1916 at the homestead site, which is now part of the late Seth Alston Estate.

          The Castleberry's moved to Meadow, Texas in 1918 and back to Lovington in 1949, where they lived until moving to Odessa, Texas until 1972. Ham passed away on September 14, 1977 and Mattie Carl passed away two weeks later, September 28, 1977 in Odessa, Texas.

           There was a Mr. Wiggins who ran a store at the Plainview site, which was located east of what is now McDonald. The L F D Cattle Company had several watering holes in that part of the country, one known as Rat. The Wiggins' store was called the Rat Store. The people applied for a Post Office and wanted to call it Rat, New Mexico. They got the reply, the government said they did not name a post office after an animal, so they named it Plainview. The post office was later moved to McDonald, which is named after the first governor of New Mexico.

          In the eastern states, as we all know, Texans and the western men were supposed to be wild and mean cowboys and ranchmen. Zimmerah Daffron once made a trip back to Alabama and before going to see his family, decided he should have a shave and bathe after getting off the train. The barber was a colored man and said, while he was giving the shave, "boss man where are you from?". Zimmerah replied "Texas" and when the barber had finished he said, "boss man, if I had known you were from Texas, I wouldn't have shaved you.".

          Denzil (Dick) married Berneice Hall on January 28, 1936 in Plainview, Texas. They have lived in Lovington since 1946. Dick has his grandmother's Bible which has written on the fly leaf. "Presented to Catie Prater by her father, dated December 6, 1873."