Story Contest – ETX Traveler

The Great Runaway

I have deep roots in Texas, thanks to the five generations (on both sides of my family) that came before me. My earliest ancestors came from Kentucky to Texas by covered wagon in 1830. Composed of father, mother, an 11-year-old son, and three younger girls, they probably traveled with extended family, all looking forward to … Read more

My Great Grandfather

My great grandfather, Jefferson Yarbrough was shot and subsequently killed while defending a woman from her abusive husband in Jasper Tx, in 1918. But he didn’t go down without a fight. After being shot he pulled his Colt’s .45 and fired at his fleeing killer striking the fleeing man in the right elbow. The arm … Read more

Hello Electricity: Welcome To The Farm

Most people today would agree that I was raised in a large family. I came into this world in 1940,the seventh of ten children, and never heard my parents complain of having too many children. Having a large family could be beneficial in working a farm during the Great Depression that lasted at our farm … Read more

The Time J. Frank Dobie Came To Henderson

I have to say that I am exceedingly proud that on both my mother’s and father’s sides of the family—we are East Texas pioneers. My mother’s ancestors arrived in Henderson by way of Alabama from Virginia just before the Civil War, with their entire clan in tow. My father’s family showed up somewhat later than … Read more

Stories About My East Texas Family

Why didn’t I ask questions as I listened to the stories being told at our family reunions? Perhaps my great grandmother, Margaret Henrietta (Stanley) Welch, could have told me about the little town of Bugschuffle where she was from. Or do we know if all of great Uncle Kinchs’ moonshine that was buried out in … Read more

Fishing With A Trotline

One of the stories told at night to us kids by our dad Ernest OJ Vaughn while we were camping alone along the river. This is the story as told by him around the campfire. As a young boy I would sit out a small trotline at the mouth of a small creek along Arkansas … Read more

The Life & Times Of Thomas Earl Gentry

A Conroe Leader With A Servant’s Heart Story Submitted By Larry Foerster It was December 8, 1941. Conroe businessman and mayor, Thomas Earle Gentry, wept as he read the headlines of the Conroe Courier. He learned that the day before, the Japanese had bombed the American naval port at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. It was obvious … Read more

The Wind

There is an old dirt road hidden within the piney woods of East Texas…. It’s near the farmhouse I grew up in as a child… It’s lined with fallen brush and debris of those age old Texas pines… It was more than a trail, more than a road; it was a sanctuary, and all mine… … Read more