Dinosaur Highway: A History of Dinosaur Valley State Park

Chapter Four: Work and Play on Paluxy “Creek”

51 CHAPTER FOUR Work and Play on Paluxy “Creek” As the effects of the stock market crash in October 1929 settled upon Somervell County, to residents, the slogan “For Health and Pleasure” didn’t ring so true as “for survival.” Crop markets and decent prices dried up. Cotton that had sold for as high as forty cents a pound in 1920 brought only five cents a decade later. The price of beef fell as well, spelling a disastrous combination for a little county that depended on farming and stock raising. Somervell was limited in its amount of acreage for crops and livestock because of the sizable areas of unusable rocky hills and cedar brakes. Harvested cropland decreased from a total of 22,894 acres in 1909 to 16,906 acres by the mid-1930s. Total population began to drop, with 3,016 in 1930 compared to 3,931 in 1910.1 For the Dillard Wilson family in the Paluxy Valley, the 1930s literally blew in with a vengeance. The clouds didn’t look so threatening that summer day in 1930, but in a flash the winds whipped as rain and debris slapped the old dogtrot home. Dillard and his son Murry were across the breezeway by the fireplace when the twister dipped down. Most of the family was in the kitchen. The house shifted on its foundation, and the porch blew away as everyone struggled to get to safety. By the time they reached the storm cellar, the tornado was gone, but its fury had exacted a terrible toll. The damage to the old homestead was irreparable. Fortunately, no lives were lost, but John Wilson would never forget the sight of his three-year-old sister Fern, perched on a rain-soaked mattress. “Where are we going to sleep?” she asked.2 For a time the whole family endured days of miserably wet weather in a tent, while landowner Chris Rowland helped Dillard Wilson build a new home. This wooden structure sported a bungalow-style roof that dropped down from a central point to four evenly-proportioned walls. Though modest, the newly-completed box house was a welcome sight!3 Folks up and down the Lanham Mill community came together in good times and in bad. A stubborn self-sufficiency pervaded. Agriculture, so economically fickle, was also their saving grace. Families grew their own food, fed their own stock, mended their own fences, and made their own fun. Novella Wilson, the daughter of Vivian and Dora Ramfield May, fondly reminisced about the simple pleasures of life along the Paluxy. She was born on her grandfather Chris Ramfield’s farm near Murphy crossing, the third river ford. Soon, her parents took their baby Novella back home about a mile away to the May farm. Her father Vivian had been born and raised there on the home place, which was in sight of the Abell house.4 Novella and the other valley children walked the country lanes to the Lanham Mill School. Their treks brought occasional excitement. Novella and her brothers, 52 Lanham Mill historian and artist Novella Wilson recalled her childhood days in the Paluxy Valley. Photo by Laurie E. Jasinski DINOSAUR HIGHWAY George and Marvin, were frightened to stumble across fifty gallon barrels, presumably for moonshine, one day as they took a shortcut through the cedar from school. She remembered another adventure: Another time, a man was parked ... in his open Model T while a buddy of his was out there trying to steal our turkeys. Our turkeys had wandered off.... They were going to catch those turkeys. My brothers and I were on our way home from school. When he saw us, he went on down the hill in his car, and we piled our book satchels on little Billie Jean Rhodes, who was too little to carry them, but she did. She walked ... all the way down to our house carrying all of our books, while we chased the turkeys home. But we were determined the man wouldn’t steal our turkeys! The one-room school served eight grades, and often the teacher lived with a family in the area. The schoolhouse not only fulfilled an educational function but also represented the heart and soul of the Lanham Mill community (in the heart of present Dinosaur Valley State Park).5 “There were plays at the end of school,” Novella Wilson recalled, “and ... revivals in the summertime...