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| Our ranch is named
after the creek that begins in, and runs through, our property. To our knowledge,
this creek has never been properly named, thus we have named the creek and the ranch after
my grandparents, Cliff and Lotha England. Three separate springs bubble up from the
ground at the northeast end of the property to form the creek. My grandfather, Cliff (affectionately known as Pappy to all us kids), his parents, and a brother and sister traveled from Tennessee to Texas in a covered wagon. They arrived in Jacksonville when he was five years old. After spending the winter here, they moved on to Cisco, Texas, where more family had already settled. After a very short stay, the decision was made to return to Jacksonville, because it reminded my great-grandfather so much of Tennessee. The family struck a deal with a local landowner to work as share croppers and live on the land, which consists of sand and red ironite. The original house on the land was torn down in 1937 and the lumber was used to build the barn (pictured here).
The "new" house, built in 1937, still remains and is what we live in now, with a few modifications of course! This house was constructed entirely of solid oak lumber. Indoor plumbing was added in the late 40's to the kitchen. As a kid growing up here on the weekends and summers we still took baths in a #3 washtub and used a 1 holler outhouse. A bathroom was finally added in the 60's. Window air conditioning was added in the 80's. Remember the old screw in fuses with a penny behind them? Well that's what we found when updating the electical wiring in 2001. We also added insulation to the house in 2002. Pappy was a truck farmer. He had something growing on every square inch of ground, be it tomatoes, squash, potatoes, beans, peas, corn, peppers, okra and (my favorite) strawberries. Shortly after the depression, with help from the county extension agency, terraces were built across the fields to control the water shed. We are working to maintain these terraces in their original state and maybe even improve on their appearance, thus adding to the mystique of England Creek. In the early 60's Pappy built a dam across the creek and created one of the finest swimming holes on the face of the earth. Although his intent was to use the pond for irrigating the crops, as a kid, my interest was to use it for swimming. Days started early on the farm. Usually before daylight, we had breakfast and fed what little livestock there was: 1 plow horse and a single cow and calf. The cow was for milk and the calf for eating. After breakfast, we headed into town to hire some pickers and were back by daybreak. By 9:30 a.m. the picking was finished, with the vegetables separated, boxed and ready to take to market. The market was a vacant lot next to a packing shed in town, the most impressive thing being an old tree on the south side of the lot that had to be at least 200 years old. It was an oak tree that had grown up between the spokes of an old wagon wheel. Around this tree sat numerous cane bottom chairs where the men sat, spit and whittled until a buyer showed up. Typically the whittling, buying, selling and lying was finished by 11:30 for everyone to go home for lunch. The afternoons were spent doing maintenance on the farm, fixing equipment in the shade of a tree or just sitting in the swing. The evenings were typically spent moving aluminum irrigation pipe around the 40 acres to water the plants. Thus, Pappy was able to grow vegetables much later into the summer than most farmers in the area. As we all know the law of supply and demand, when you are the only one that has it, you usually get your price. Farming ceased in 1978. The children were gone, grandkids practically grown and Pappy decided it was time to retire. Over the years, the crop land went back to nature, and I watched from a distance as I saw the old place deteriorate from nonuse. Nevertheless it was still my grandparents home from 1910, until the last ones passing in January 2000.
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