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Sheep
and sheep dog near Flomot
Photo courtesy Eric Blackwell, November 2006 |
A
very brief history of Flomot
The name is an amalgam of the two counties Floyd and Motley. The
post office originally sat on the county line, but was later moved to a private
home.
The town already had a school and store established in the 1890s
before the post office opened in 1902.
In 1915 the post office was moved
to W. R. Welch's home. |
Common
egret in a field 20 miles west of Flomot
Photo courtesy Eric Blackwell, November
2006 |
| "A
picture taken in 1939 of the Frank Garrett family of Flomot, Texas. Front row:
Joe Garrett, Raby Garrett, Calvin Garrett. Back row: Frank Garrett, Dillie Morris
Garrett. Picture taken at the farmhouse of Alexander Shakespeare and Lillie Grimes
Morris, Flomot pioneers, and my grandparents." - Joe Garrett, January 24,
2005 |
Flomot
as Remembered by Joe Garrett
I was born in Flomot, Texas, at home, on July 4, 1933, about one mile east of
town. My parents, Frank and Dillie Garrett, were sharecropper farmers from the
time of their marriage in 1927, then ran the in-town mercantile store of Mr. A.J.
Hudson from about 1937 until his death in about 1941. They then moved across the
street and opened their own dry goods store, which they operated until the end
of WW2. Mr. A.J. Hudson had been one of the founders of Flomot.
My Mother
is still living today, age 99, at the Prarie House nursing home in Plainview,
where we moved in 1945. She is the only survivor of the eleven children of Alexander
Shakespeare Morris and Lillie Grimes Morris. A.S. Morris had come to west Texas
from Charlotte, N.C., arriving in Flomot around 1905, just two years after the
town post office opened. Many Morris descendants still live in the area.
I remember Flomot before electricity or indoor plumbing, with basically two cotton
gins, two hardware stores (one with hitching post), three service stations, one
blacksmith shop, and three general stores, all offering extensive credit. Flomot
also had on school building housing all twelve grades, one barber shop and two
or three small restaurants.
During the war, farmers saved gasoline by
riding horseback to town and some came with horse and buggy rigs.
Our school
was coal heated, with one big stove in the corner of each classroom. Most classrooms
housed at least two grades, with multiple subjects taught by the same teacher.
Many students at the school came on horseback, simply hitching the horses during
the school day. The school fielded six man football teams, and good basketball
squads.
My brothers and I attended Flomot schools until the family moved
to Plainview in 1945, and our store was sold to Mr. Tom Turner. By this time,
I was in seventh grade. Flomot had no paved roads, no medical facilities, and
very few amenities of any kind.
Ernest Fletcher, of Turkey, Texas, picked
up and delivered Flomot mail several times each week as part of his route on to
Matador, then back to Turkey. He drove a carry-all vehicle, and delivered cream
and eggs to the Matador or Turkey markets for my father, Frank Garrett, who bought
these items from local farmers.
Our family store served local farm families
and seasonal Mexican harvest labor. Credit was extended liberally, with payment
expected when crops were harvested and sold. My father often bartered groceries
for musical instruments, farm equipment, or old cars or trucks.
Flomot
was strickly dry-land farming at the time, with cotton and maize the staples.
Farmers slaughtered their own pork, beef, and chickens, often as an extended family
or community effort. The school would close for at least two weeks in the Fall
to allow students to help in harvesting cotton, all pulled by hand.
The
disruption of life brought about by WW2 and the end of the depression, plus improvements
in transportation and communications, basically brought about the end of Flomot
as a necessary, vital community. The school was consolidated with larger communities,
and the town's identity was essentially lost.
- Joe Garrett, La Quinta,
CA |
 |
Mule
Deer in Flomot
Photo courtesy Eric Blackwell, November 2006 |
Flomot,
Texas ForumSubject:
Flomot, Texas
Dear
TE, I have lots of memories of Flomot, I grew up in Quitaque
and Flomot and still have family living and working in both towns. My great aunt
and uncle own one of the gins there in town as well as an insurance agency. My
grandfather was born (1921) and raised there as well as his two sisters. My grandfather
has passed away. My great grand parents settled there and we still have a family
farm house and cemetery. I went most of my school days at the consolidated school
of Valley. I can still see the hazy air of ginnin’ season vividly, but I rarely
get to see that site any more. Anyway I am not sure of the year, but I can tell
you that my great grandmother was also born there about 1898 or 1899. I can tell
you for certain I concur with the other [readers which have made comments], if
there is heaven it is there. The hustle and bustle of raising my children in the
fast-paced world we live in has made me realize that my life then was indeed simple.
It was most pleasurable, but lots of hard work. While I never missed school due
to the cotton being harvested (cus we had strippers), I did my fair share of choppin’
cotton, troppin’ cotton, and pickin’ and shellin’ peas, beans, gathering eggs,
milkin’ cows, all the things that helped keep a family going in our corner of
the world. My children only get small doses of that, now that farming is not a
matter of survival any more. Yes I miss it, and I don’t miss it. I like my cell
phone, my speedy little car, a Walmart a couple of miles down the road. But I
also like the wide open spaces, the smell of Spring coming, and the ever-present
chewing gum and bottle of pop my great Uncle always had ready for my sister, my
cousins and me anytime we went to the gin, or just anywhere we happened to be
with him. - Trisha Appleby, Beaumont, Texas, February 21, 2007
The
man who ran the little grocery store in the late 50's - early 60's was Harrison
George. He is deceased, but his wife Oma Lee still comes back to Flomot for homecoming,
which is held July 4 weekend every third year (Next one will be in 2005). I graduated
from Flomot High School in 1969. My father and grandfather, Wayne and Horace Hunter,
ran a cotton gin there. My mother, Jimmie Speer Hunter, grew up in Flomot and
taught school there for a few years. It was a very good place to live. There are
fewer people living there now, but they are still the best people you could hope
to meet. Mary Ellen ("Dude") Barton still lives there. She was inducted into the
Cowgirl Hall of Fame in Ft. Worth. - Anita Hunter, Lubbock, Texas, October
31, 2004
I
didn't grow up in Flomot, Texas. However I do have fond memories of going there
each fall. If there is a heaven it had to be there. We were cotten pickers and
we picked cotton for Mary Barton and her brother, Francis Barton during the late
50's and early 60's. They were some of the nicest people I ever met. I don't remember
the name of the man who use to run the small grocery store in Flotmot, near the
cotton gin, but he was always very nice to all of us, (always gave us candy).
I guess what I remember the most is that the people there were really down to
earth, hard working, and honest people. Of all the places in the USA, Flomot is
one place I long to go back to. I loved the open spaces, the farms, the cold winters...
I hope it hasn't changed, it was perfect...(no I am not just thinking of how a
child remembers, my brothers and sisters were older than me and they all agree
on how nice it was). Thank you - Linda Merino Foster, July 20, 2004
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