Ellis County Texas Archives Biographies.....Ground, Otis William April 28, 1899 - October 24, 1984 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/tx/txfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: T. Bradford Willis http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00031.html#0007638 December 17, 2013, 2:50 pm Author: Otis William Ground & Mary Head Ground Otis William Ground Biography Otis William Ground was born in Midlothian, Texas April 28, 1899. His parents were Henry Carroll Ground and Margaret Hattie Beck Ground. When he was about 2 years of age the family moved to Lawton, Okla., Indian territory, where they lived until moving back to Midlothian in 1905. They lived there until 1910, then moved to the near by town of Venus where Otis grew up learning the meat market trade in his father’s shop –going to school graduating in high school there. They were members of the Methodist Church there in 1916 or 1917. The pastor was Rev. John William Head (my father). Their daughter was Mary T. Head. She and Otis went to high school together, becoming engaged to be married that year. Mary’s family moved to Olney, Texas. Otis graduated from high school, [then] entered Waxahachie’s Trinity University in the students’ army training unit. The war over. He and Mary married in Dallas, Texas July 25, 1920. Otis and Mary lived in Ft. Worth from 1928 until present time. He was interested and worked with county as inspector in bridge and road building, and for the Corps of Engineers, retiring in 1954. Was with the Texas Highway Department until 1966. He then was associated with Carter and Burges Engineers, retiring again in 1974. Otis had been in bad health for a number of years. He entered life eternal Oct. 24, 1984. Buried in Rose Hill cemetery [in] Ft. Worth, Texas. +++ I, Otis William Ground was born in Midlothian, Ellis Co., Texas April 28, 1899. The first I can remember was being lifted up on a high board wagon seat. They tell me I fell off on the horse’s hoofs and cut my chin; I have the scar to show. But really the very first I can remember was in Lawton, Oklahoma. We were living on E Street, next door to the Bruce family. Grandpa and Grandma Ground lived with us. The rail road was just back of our house. When the train came by we ran to the trunks at the window so we could see it go by. The Bruces had a tank that the house drains flowed in. The water was for everything, but drinking. We dipped water out and poured in a tub for the horses to drink. This is where brother Ed died of typhoid fever. The Chappels across the street were good friends. Mr. Chappell was a teller in the Bank. Her father, Mr. Walker, lived with them. Carrie and Carl were the two children. When we moved to Lawton, Dad and my uncle [Roy] Elmer Beck were working, helping build new homes and store buildings. I remember one trip we made to Medicine Creek and Medicine bluff. My Aunt Lena Beck came to visit and Grandpa and Grandma Ground (Ed and Mary), sister Fleta and myself, Uncle Elmer and one of the Bruce girls, also Mr. and Mrs. Chappel and Carl. All camped at Medicine Creek – some of us went up on Mt. ___. There was a spring on the mountain. It was beautiful up there. When we came back down Mr. Walker noticed he had lost his watch. He went back and found it at the spring where we had stopped to drink. We kids went wading in the shallow part of the creek. Elmer, Lena, the Bruce girl were running and got caught in the whirlpool in fast water and Dad had to go in and help them out. That stopped the swimming. The men were fishing and had caught several fish. I grabbed one of the poles when the cork went under and pulled it out. It was not a fish. It looked like a snake so I ran to the bank pulling the line behind. It was an eel. We went up Medicine Bluff. It was straight up from the creek. When we made camp Dad took his rope and shaped it around the camp. It was made of hair. He had gotten it from the Indians on the reservation. Dad said snakes would not cross a hair rope. We went to Ft. Sill and went to see Geronimo. I remember going north of town there in a hack and carried little brother Ed to be buried in the cemetery. Dad was away from home working when Ed died. He walked in to Lawton that night leaving his tools behind and when he went back they were all gone. All he had left was a square and a fine tooth saw which we still have – 1981. Grandpa and Grandma and Uncle Elmer Beck must have returned to Texas to Midlothian as I can’t remember them there anymore. The next I remember of Lawton is living on Ave. A. Sister Fleta went to school in Wichita Falls to live with Aunt Belle Ground who taught in the school there. Events on Avenue A: Fleta took me to the merchandise store of Wolverton. She visited the girl there a good deal. For Christmas we made and filled a box 15” X 8” X 8” with candy sent it back to the Midlothian family – That became a custom of ours at Christmas for a long time. Then there was the time Fleta and I were each given two quarters each to go to the circus – We had never seen a circus. We started walking down the wood sidewalk and about two blocks from home I dropped one of my twenty-five cent pieces and it went through a crack in the walk between the boards. We found a little board and started prying up the boards to get it. The man who was living there came out and stopped us. He gave me a quarter to leave it alone. We went to the circus grounds and had a good time. When we got home, we found out we had gone to a side show and did not see the main circus at all. They were building a court house a few blocks away from where we lived – Sheriff Edward’s boy and myself went to the site. We had been told not to climb around the scaffold. Dad came by on his horse, going home to lunch, I can say my ride home was not too comfortable after Dad used the ends of the reins on me to impress on me the order of minding. Another time a fire broke out in the prairie grass north of town. The wind was blowing very hard. The sparks looked like a heavy snow storm – you could see very little – Bales of hay exploded. Dad placed a wet sack on the horse’s head and tied him up to the south side of the house. We had two barrels of water. Dad used a burlap sack to fight the fire the wind was blowing so hard it didn’t start a blaze on the house. Mother, Fleta and I packed our best small belongings in pillow cases and started walking to plowed ground to the farm in the Butler addition. Dad had started a meat market and was doing good – The Indians traded with him. It was across from the Rock Hotel – He had a small pig dressed – He decorated it, an apple in its mouth, cranberries in its eyes – he carved a few flowers in its skin. The Indians would come in sit on the walk in front leaning against the wall – feet out stretched, and traded blankets for meat and with other people passing by. He had a young man Percy Gibson working for him. There was a fourth of July celebration at the fair ground. They had whole beef sides barbecued. Once on the square. One thing on the program was a (make believe) hanging of an Indian – dad though the rope had hung him long enough and he used his rifle and shot the rope in two in fear it might be real. The people living on A Street was the Cuffee’s and one (Gore?) (unreadable) his wife read to him all the time on the porch. Later he became senator of (looks like “Gore”) Okla – There was also the Wolvertons. Sister went to school at Wichita Falls (previously mentioned). We carried her down there in a hack with a team of small mules. When we went to bring her home they tell me we lost the hack and mules in the Red River. I remember us having to stay in a haystack that night. I could see eyes shining in the dark. Dad came back in the morning with a buggy and horse for us to go home in. We moved to Ave. D in the Butler addition – There were a lot of buffalo wallows on the prairie and after a heavy rain we found small perch in them – This was back of the Chappels. Once we dug up a cotton wood tree sprout and we planted it in the Chappels yard. The year was 1905. I hunted this place up in 1931 and it was about 12” in diameter. This was where I learned about chicken mites – Carl Chappel and I cleaned up a shed to make a play house – We got covered with the mites and I can tell you our mothers tried to kill most of them with a paddle. We got a telephone and that was something. In an electrical storm we were all in the middle of the bed on a feather mattress – a ball of fire came around the room on the telephone wire and the phone bell rang like you were cranking it. Also we saw out the window a ball of fire hit the neighbors house twice. They put the fire out. Boundery St. was the road the Indians came into town on and when we saw them coming in we would go in the house in a hurry. One day at the Chappel’s we were there – a man knocked on the door and our mothers told us to tell him they were not at home. We did and said he was not selling anything but was delivering samples to a new product. He didn’t leave anything. Dad said the Armstrongs across the railroad were drilling a water well and got oil and had to move to get water. We were visiting the Chappels one day May 10, 1905 – It was a very stormy day, we watched a cloud in the west. As we looked we saw the cone shape cloud drop to the ground – It was several miles away. Dad called us at the Chappels and said it was a cyclone that had nearly wiped Snyder, Okla. away and that the people in Lawton were getting a rescue crew to go on a train to Snyder and he was leaving, taking some meat, also he was taking his horse to have a way to get around. He waved from the box car as they passed, going of town. They came back the next day with some wild stories of what they saw, chickens without feathers, a piano music still on it several miles from home. He brought home a silver sugar bowl bent almost flat with the spoon through the bottom. I still have it. Than Sunday we went to the Methodist church to a temperance meeting. They give a small red pitcher with lettering “Lawton O. T.” on it meaning Lawton Oklahoma Territory on it. Still in our possession. Dad said we would be moving back to Midlothian, Tex. to a job running a meat market for a Mr. Walker, and in June he had our furniture and his horse shipped out. He told Percy Gibson to take the market and pay him when he could. He wanted us to wait until he got everything set. But we moved in a store building with the furniture until the 1st of July. While there we bought groceries at Mr. Thompson’s grocery store across the street. As we went in and out we would get a dried peach or apricot or apple from the bins – He put a few pennies on the bill to take care of it. We realized mother was going to have a baby when we left. I only remember being on the train when we stayed all night in a hotel at Wareka H. C. Our brother was born at Midlothian Aug 9, 1905. ___________________________________________________________________ This is written just as Otis wrote it down as he remembered those old days when he was a child and was living in Oklahoma. They seemed to be very vivid in his mind. He did not make any more notes so we have little definite information on his school days. He entered all sports. But as is previously written he lived in Venus until our marriage. We moved to Dallas a couple of years then we, his parents, (H. C. was in Utah), and sister Quinetta moved to Ft. Worth. His sister Fleta and her husband Walter Harley Boteler and children – Carroll, Winston, Elizabeth, and Edgar Lee followed us to Ft. Worth about 1928. Where he ,Otis, worked at a freight co. who transferred him to San Angelo for two years about 1928. His mother Hattie died there (they were living with us). We moved back to Ft. Worth. It was during the great depression. He worked for a Milk Co. then on public works where he was made foreman. They built bridges all over the county as mentioned first part, and he and I and his supervisor and his wife became life long friends. He worked at North American at Grand Prairie as did I during the war years (WW2). Our son Otis Earl worked there after it because Chance _______ he had married and had the two children, Valerie and James Daryl. He died in 1968. Otis and I lived here in Ft. Worth after returning from San Antonio in 1932. It was then he began a new career of the State Highway and Carter and Burgess. We were able to make several nice automobile trips which were always pleasant to remember. His health began to deteriorate by this time and slowly as the months and years passed, he reached his final illness and death. However we can look back on many, many happy times and we can truthfully say he had a good and very useful life just living to do for others and loving and being with his family. Additional Comments: These letters were sent to me in the 1980s in my research on the William Franklin Beck family. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/tx/ellis/bios/ground20nbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/txfiles/ File size: 13.4 Kb