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The country
road that ran north and south through Beattie was in poor repair. It was full
of ruts left over from the last rain. In places it had chug holes as big as a
wagon bed with loose sand traps here and there. There were a few small spots of
gravel and adobe dirt in the road that had been put there by the road commissioner
just before the last election. On the west side of the road there was a general
store called Blair's Store. A little north of that was a blacksmith shop operated
by Uncle John Kelley. I think at that time Dan Bingham's barber shop was on that
side of the road. (It was a small building and he moved it two or three times
on either side of the road.) There were two or three dwelling houses on that side
of the road, including Cousin Kitty's house.
The East side of the road
had two service stations with grocery stores in them. One of these stores bought
produce such as cream and eggs from people that farmed in the area. There was
also about four more dwellings and a church house on that side of the road. At
one time there was a garage which offered auto repair and gas and lube. At one
time there was a cotton gin which operated in down town Beattie but at that time
only the old earth pond called the gin tank was the only visible reminder of the
cotton country before the bole weevil.
About a hundred yards south of
the Beattie Branch there was a dirt road going east. John Andress and Dan Bingham
lived a short distance down this road. A little farther down the road, Aunt Polly
and Aunt Ruthy Butler lived to be about a hundred years old. Elmer and Boyd Butler
lived near by and Roy Butler moved from there to DeLeon later. The road that ran
west from Beattie went by Jim Wright's house and another house just across the
road. If you went on west on that road you would come to the old Carter place
and Egbert Teague's place. Just a little farther up was the Auvenshine place and
the George Moore place. Located north of downtown Beattie was the two story school
house which was just across the road from the Halbrooks place and not far away
was the John Welch place. If you went west from the school house to the first
corner and turned north, Uncle Ben Keith's place would be on your left and B.
Ray McCorkle's place would be on your right. He had planted several acres in pecans
and fruit trees. Mr McCorkle was superintendent of the Beattie School for a good
many years and then he served as County Supertendant for a while.
There
are a lot of incidents and interesting stories and events that need to be recorded
about Beattie. They need to be written and kept for our descendants and future
generations. Some of them are tragic and sad, others are comical and some are
unbelievable. I will try to record some of them as I remember them or as they
were told to me. next
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