TWO MULES AND A MUDHOLE

Another experience in the continuing saga
of the history and development of
Montague, Montague County, Texas

Uncle Lynn Rudd was a normal poverty stricken dirt farmer.  He managed to keep his 160 acres of farmland out of the hands of the bankers by rotating crops of cotton and corn.

Only equipment he had was two mules a double tree, a plow and a water wagon that was rigged from an old wooden cistern tank he borrowed from a nearby abandoned farm.  The water wagon came in right handy during the frequent dry spells and saved his corn crop a few times.  Never did help the cotton much.

There never was much cash around and Uncle Lynn struck it more or less rich when he found out some of the newcomers moving into the abandoned farms was willing to pay ten dollars for a 500 gallon load of water to put in their tanks for drinking water.  Wells were expensive to drill and they mostly were coming down from the cities and playing gentlemen farmers on the weekends anyhow and were not interested in growing crops.

If he got started real early he could deliver two loads of water in a day. He had to pump it out of the cistern barrell with a hand pump and that took a while.

The old dirt road winding around the area has several hollows or washes in it caused by the few rainstorms that challenged the area.   It never rained right.  Never was a slow steady downpour that would soak into the ground, was usually a gulley gusher that just washed the top soil away and ruint the roads.  The county maintainer which was a big road grader would come by and dig out the drainage ditches on the side of the road to try and stop the road from washing away.  They never bothered to fill in the hollows. When they cleaned out the ditches it left a big ass low spot in the road which became a big ass mudhole next time it rained and pretty much closed the road.

One morning Uncle Lynn was trotting his mules down the road with a load of water and when he hit the biggest hole, the axel on the wagon broke and the cistern barrell cracked and all the water spilled into the hole.  Uncle Lynn was pretty distraught about losing his days earnings because of this and was sitting on the side of the road trying to get the damned axel fixed and get the cistern barrell back on the wagon.  He was cussing the County Commissioner pretty good for not fixing that damn hole when along came one of them Gentlemen Farmers putzing down the road in his new Stutz Bearcat and plopped right in the middle of  the wash in the road which had by now become one big ass mudhole.  The sixteen inch wheels on the Stutz sank right upto the axels and was totally stuck.

The driver walked over to Uncle Lynn and was cussing about the mudhole. Uncle Lynn was cussing about the County Commissioner and about losing his $10 load of water.  When  they finally both got through cussing the gentleman farmer offered Uncle Lynn $10 to hitch up them mules and the double tree and pull his car out of the mudhole.

No sooner had he pulled him out and another one of them fools came barrel assing down the road and naturally got stuck even worse cause now the mud had really got slick and sticky.  By the end of the day Uncle Lynn had made $60 and got several IOUs from some people who didnt have any cash on them. Next morning was good for another $40 but by noon,  it had all dried up and he was outta business.

Uncle Lynn never did tell Aunt Eula where he got all the money.  I doubt he even told her he had it. After that, he didnt even haul water to the farmers anymore.  He just left the house every Friday morning with a load of water and usually didn't come home till around Saturday noon.

Was a lot of talk in Fort Worth among the gentlemen farmers about this big ass old mudhole in the road going to they farm and how lucky they was that this nice old gentlemen and his team of mules was nearby to pull them outta the hole.

manny
Aug 11, 1998

To the Rescue - 13x17 inch print showing a farmer
surveying the predicament this city dweller has found
himself in. Hitch up the mules and drag that feller out!

By Artist Joe Vick
http://www.muleprints.com

I received permission to use the print on my website from Joe Vick. 4 Feb 2002

Donna
AKA DAB