Bend, Texas
Chapter 5 - The Fry Family

by Harland Moore

‹ Chapter 4

In the nearby county of Burnet, William Peter Fry and his wife Louise had a grown son by name of Charles Thomas Fry. Charles went over around Smithwick and eloped with the fifteen year old daughter of George Lafayette Jackson and his wife Frances (Fannie). The Daughter was Mary Belle Jackson. I understand that Grandpa Jackson tried to stop them but that they changed directions and went to another county seat to get the license. After they were married, they lived with Grandpa and Grandma Jackson, or near by, for at least a year or two. The 1900 Burnet County census shows them living near by and they had a daughter, Fannie.

Some time later, Charles and Mary Fry moved their family to Irion County where they homsteaded a ranch and lived there for several years. Jonnie Irene Fry and some of the other children were born there on that homestead. Some time later they moved to Nix, in Lampasas County. I don’t know how long they lived there, but Mother went to school there for a while, I think. Some time later, they operated the telephone switch board at Bend. Mother went to school at Bend for a while and had Lee P. Burkett for a teacher. Some time along about here, Mother went to Burnet and stayed with Great Grandpa William Peter Fry, and went to school at Burnet for a while. Charles and Mary Fry later bought a farm on the Colorado River about two miles northwest of Bend. I think that they bought it from Bob Lewis. The 1920 census shows Charles and Mary Fry living there with the following children: Fannie, Alfred, Jonnie, Jackson, Marie, Lois, Jaunita and George. It should be noted here that their youngest child, Doris, was born in August of that year. Dr. Edward Doss, my great grandfather was the attending physician. He retired shortly after that and moved to Ralls, Texas.

Uncle Alfred Fry and my dad, Jarrell Moore, got jobs as cowboys and rode the range about eight or ten miles down the river from Bend on the Lower Heller Ranch. The ranch is now the Colorado Bend State Park. Daddy said that they used to ride horseback from there down the river to Tow Valley. That is some of the most rugged country in Texas. There was no road from the Heller Ranch to Tow Valley and there still is no road through there. Uncle Alfred married Edith Lewis, Bob Lewis’ daughter. Jonnie Irene Fry was married to Silas Jarrell Moore on July 29,1921. Jarrell and Jonnie were married under an elm tree on the Colorado River near Bend by P.C. Key, minister of the Church of Christ.

Their first child was born Sept. 20 1922 at the home of my maternal grandparents, Charles and Mary Fry. and they named him Harland Francis Moore. The old Fry home place was located about two miles NE and across Cherokee Creek from Bend. It was a short distance up the river from Cal Crossing. At one time there was a railroad crossing near this location. The railroad was built from near Lometa to a point 5 or 6 miles SE of Bend called Tanyard. It was used to haul cedar post to market. The railroad was torn down and moved away before I was born but I still remember seeing the remains of the old railroad dump in several places when I was a child.

My parents lived in a small two room house on the Fry place about two or three hundred yards from the Fry home. There was no well or water supply at that house so Daddy used a wagon and team to haul barrels of water from the Colorado River at Cal Crossing. On one occasion it was very cold when he went after water but Mother put a heavy overcoat on me and let me go in the wagon with Daddy. He drove the wagon and team into the river until the water was up close to the wagon bed so he could stand in the wagon and dip the water up with a bucket and pour it into the barrels until they were full. I stumbled around and fell out of the wagon into the water which was well over my head. Daddy said that I went under but my coat tail floated up and he grabbed the coat tail and pulled me into the wagon. He said that the temperature was near freezing so he removed my wet coat and put his jumper around me and whipped the mules into a run all the way home to get there before I froze. I was soon in dry clothing and seated by an old wood heater with a roaring fire of cedar wood.

My dad worked some with Grandpa Fry on the farm. They raised sheep, cows horses and mules and of course chickens and meat hogs. They raised hay, cotton ,corn and sorghum cane. This farm had an irrigation system that pumped water from the Colorado River. It was powered by a large one cylinder gasoline engine. The fly wheels on that engine must have been at least five feet in diameter and it made a terrible noise that could be heard for a mile up and down the river. It would go " POW----POW----sush --sush POW --sush --POW--POW---shush." Such noise was frightening to a young lad. the water was pumped from the river up into a flume. The flume was a long elevated water trough mounted on cedar posts. It started at the pump and sloped downward gradually and carried the water to the upper end of the field. Here it was routed into a ditch and eventually down the crop rows.

Most or the irrigation was used to water the sorghum cane. When the cane was ripe for harvest, it was stripped of the side leaves , cut and hauled to the syrup mill which was located near by. The syrup mill looked like a large metal clothes wringer mounted on the end. It was powered by a mule hitched to a long pole . The mule walked around and around turning the mill to squeeze out the juice. A man was seated at the base of the mill to insert the stalks end ways into the mill. The long pole passed over the man's head every time the mule came around. The juice was caught in a vessel at the base of the mill. It was then placed in a large cooker pan where the expert syrup maker cooked it just the right amount of time. It was then put into buckets and sealed. Grandpa Fry labeled the buckets with a printed label which read " CHAS. FRY'S HONEY DRIP SORGHUM' He would then haul the syrup to other towns and peddle it out.

We must have lived in the little house on the Fry place for three years or so because I have a picture of me standing on the front steps on the house. I also have another picture made in the yard. I am seated in a little red wagon with Orlene Bagley and W. R. Bagley is pulling the wagon. It is interesting to note in these pictures at the age of three my hair is white. Of course it turned dark later on then white again much later.

Chapter 6 - Pecans & Devils Hollow ›