Floyd County Historical Museum presents:
MEMORIES
SULLIVANS
My father, Thomas Isaac Sullivan, was born in 1873 in Woodbury, Tennessee. He came to Hillsboro, Texas, in 1887
in a boxcar filled with stock. He was a farmer. He married my mother, Hattie Ardella Ball, in 1894. She was born
in 1876 in Bosque County and Moved to Hillsboro when she was five.
My family moved to Jack County near Gibtown in 1906. We drew water from a well for the stock and the house.
We went to Whitney for material for our clothes which Mama made. Food was what we canned.
In 1913, we decided to move to Floyd County and left Sept. 10 in two covered wagons pulled by mules. All the first night
we fought off wolves. It rained most of the trip. I slept in the wagon springseat. We were three weeks on
the road. When we got to Devil's Backbone below Dickens the lead team decided to go back down the hill. We came
up the Caprock on the Dickens and Crosbyton highway and camped at McAdoo.
We were happy to see the plains. We stopped 2 1/2 miles east of Floydada at Budley Thornton's place. (Mrs.
Thornton was my mother's niece) We slept in the wagons and cooked on a campfire. Mr. Thornton let my sick father sleep
in the house. Dad lived only two weeks after we arrived. That was the first casket I ever saw as the men usually made
boxes. Dad is buried at Floydada.
Mr. Thornton built us a two-room house. My sister Vee stayed with the Thorntons. We burned coal or cowchips and
carried water from his house. We walked or rode in wagons to church and school in Floydada.
About 1915 we moved to a dugout near Fairview, where some of our relatives lived. My brother R. C. "Buck" worked
for wages and my brother Oscar farmed. Vee and I went to Fairview School, but our sister Velma "Jot" was too young.
Near us lived the Tally and Perry families and we met from house to house for church. (Church of Christ)
In 1916 Oscar bought a new Model T. I taught myself to drive in the pasture which was rough because of a prairie dog
town. Rabbits stayed around the holes. We ate a lot of rabbit and quail. Mama raised chickens, turkeys,
guineas, and ducks. We always had cows to milk, so made butter. We took butter, eggs and fryers to Duncan Store
to trade for other groceries.
We kept our milk and butter cool in a trough made of 2x2x6's and a plank. We built a shade on the windmill tower.
A pipe ran from the water barrel to the trough and another pipe ran to the tank where the cows and mules drank.
In 1919 Mama married a widower, A. F. Finley. His first wife was my father's sister. He had seven boys; Ike,
Charley, Elmer, Millard and Glen "Jack", Will, and Forest, who are all buried at Floydada except for Glen. I never saw
Glen after he came home from the army. He was married in Washington State.
We had to have more land, so moved to McCoy. Two of my cousins and my sisters Velma and Vera went to school there.
We attended church there. Mama and Abbie farmed 15 years. After he retired they lived in Floydada until he died in 1938.
My mother lived in Lockney the latter part of her life, dying in 1965. They are both buried in Floydada.
I am the only living child. I married General (given name) Delmar Fulfer in 1922. He was a World War 1 veteran. In 1924,
we spent a weekend with Mama and our son Bobby arrived unexpectedly. We farmed at McAdoo a long time. We lived
in Lockney 25 years until Dell died in 1972. He is buried in Lockney. I live in DeWitt, Arkansas with my
daughter, Maxine and Harold Jeffcoat. My son, Dickie lives in Plainview. My son Bobby died in 1977.
Oscar Sullivan, b. 1897 d. 1961 m. Alma Kelly; Grace Sulllivan b. 1902 m. Dell Fulfer; Buck Sullivan b. 1904 d. 1971;
m Laura Wigley, Vee Sullivan b. 1908 d. 1972 . Dwight Jackson; Jot Sullivan, b. 1910 d 1945 .m. Clarence Smith, Henry Simmons.
By Grace Sullivan Fulfer
