I remember Daddy talking about getting to New Mexico, too. After his dad died in Granbury, he took the family back to Gainsville where Grandma's brother Jim lived.
This was in 1927, a couple of years before the big crash and the coming of the depression. When he found he couldn't support the family where he was, Daddy decided to go to San Angelo where Leoder and Luther lived. They did travel by wagon from Gainsville to San Angelo and on to Hobbs where Knox and Rosie lived. They traveled just as you see the pioneers in the movies traveling - camping each night, cooking on campfires, sleeping outside. Sometimes they were able to camp on ranches or farms, but sometimes they just had to find a place by the side of the road to stop for the night. This meant carrying water with them.
When they finally got to San Angelo, Daddy looked for work but couldn't find anything but temporary jobs. Grandma wrote to Knox in Hobbs to see if there was work around there. Knox sent them some money to come on to New Mexico. Daddy said that about the time they were getting ready to leave, a man came and offered him permanent work. However, Grandma said that they had already spent most of the money from Knox on getting ready to go, and didn't have a way to pay him back. So, they came on to New Mexico. I always think that if Daddy had found work there, they never would have moved on, and then Mother and Daddy would never have met. And that means that none of us would be here!
They finally ended up in Roswell working for Bogle Farms, the same people Mother's brother Louis worked for most of his life. Daddy said they couldn't believe how green everything was around Roswell. Roswell is on the Pecos River, and besides that there were hundreds of artesian wells to water the farms.
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