History of James Young Boulter Family

This is the history of the James Young Boulter portion of the Boulter family. James Young Boulter was the youngest child of Young Lacey and Julia Alvina Bowles Boulter. .Young Lacey was a son of James Boulter, the patriarch of the Boulter family in America. James Young was born July 2, 1889, and died September 5, 1965, at the age of 76.
These are the remembrances of Gussie Mae Boulter, wife of James Young. She is now 88 years old and lives in Denver City, Texas. She is the only remaining member of the Young Lacey Boulter children and their spouses.
My family moved to Causey, New Mexico in the winter of 1906 to file on a 160 acre homestead being offered by the government. We lived in a half dugout about three miles from Causey, which is some 30 miles from Portales, New Mexico. The dugout was about 30 feet by 20 feet and was made by digging some four feet down, then a wood frame was added and a tin roof; it had a dirt floor. When it rained or hailed, the noise was intolerable. My mother, father, five sisters,and I lived there.
The Young Lacey Boulter family moved to Causey about two years after we did. They moved from Goldthwaite, Texas and had come for the same purpose we had, to file for homesteads. The Boulters built one of the better houses in the area, dug a well, and put up a windmill. Not long after the Boulters arrived in Causey, Mr. Boulter became ill and died. It was the custom for all in the area to go to the funerals. I attended Mr. Boulter's funeral, and this was my first contact with the family. My husband-to-be was not in Causey when his father died, he was back in Goldthwaite visiting his sister.
James Young returned to Causey a few months later, and I met him at one of the parties that were occasionally held at someone's house. I think I fell for him instantly because I told a girl friend, "That one is mine,or I'm going to know why."I was 13 years old, and he was 19.. When we started dating, he would come in his»buggy and take me to the parties, and we would meet at the school programs.We held hands, but did no necking as young people do now. About a year after we started going together, he asked me to marry him, and I accepted. We were married on Sunday evening by Tom Chrisite, the Justice of the Peace, at his house. I lacked one week being 15 years old. We were married April 24, 1910.
There was no work around Causey, the land was poor and very dry, and crops would just dry up. In July of that year, we left Causey in a covered wagon with my husband's mother, sister and her son to i*eturn to Goldthwaite. My husband went to work on the Colorado River bridge. While he was working, I made a home in the covered wagon and cooked on a campfire. This job lasted about three months. When it was finished, we picked cotton and lived in a tent. After that, he worked on the railroad, and in the fall,we picked cotton again.
My family had left Causey and moved to Tallequah, Oklahoma. After about three years, we joined them there,and my husband and father farmed. Our first baby was born and died at birth. My mother was also pregnant., She died in childbirth, but her baby lived, so I took her baby (my sister) when she was three days old, and we raised her as our own child.
My husband did something to the cultivator, and there was a disagreement between him and my father, so we left and went to Waco where my husband worked for Camaron Sash and Door for $1.50 per day. We barely subsisted on this wage. In addition, the Brazos River backed up in the creek we were living by and flooded our house with seven feet of water. Following the flood, my husband went to work for the City helping to clean up the mess. Afterwards, he had severe chills every 17 days for almost a year.
After living in Waco about a year and a half, we moved to San Saba County, where we lived in a tent again, picked cotton, and my husband cut cedar posts for $1.00 per day. Our second child, Emogene, was born during this time. The land owner loaned my husband his horses and equipment and enough land to plant and raise a couple bales of cotton. He was one of the best friends we ever had. His name was Tom Matsler.
During this year our third child, Elta, was born. She died a year later of the whooping cough. The oil field in Electra opened up about this time, and we moved there and.Jim, my husband, went to work for Gulf Oil Company. He made $90 a month. We stayed in Electra about a 'year. After the death of our daughter Elta, we left and went to see my father at Waggoner, Oklahoma. After this visit, we went to Healton, Oklahoma where my husband went to work for another oil company. Our fourth child and first son was born here. From fiere, we moved to Ranger, Texas where the oil boom had hit. Jim worked for the T.P. Oil Company. We lived in Ranger about four years. Our fifth child and second son was born in Ranger.
My husband again got the wanderlust, and we headed for California in a Model T Ford. The oil field workers were on strike when we got there, and there was no work, so we turned around and cone back to Ranger. In later years when someone would ask Jim why he went to California, he would say, "To see the sun go down on the Pacific Ocean." We left Ranger again and moved to Strawn, Texas where our sixth child, another daughter, was born. My husband and his brother-in-law heard about the oil field in the Panhandle of Texas, so in 1926 the two of them pitched a tent just west of what is now Borger. They went to work for Phillips Petroleum Company. The kids and I followed in March of 1926 and lived in a tent just east of where the Phillips Refinery is today. When it would rain, I would put the kids, the sugar, and the flour upon the bed and just let the water run through. Eventually, we got the first company house built on the Smith-Caper Lease. Our last child, a son, was born here.
We lived in Borger approximately 11 years where we saw all but the last two of our children grow into adults. In 1937, we moved to the Denver City area where our last two children graduated from high school. Our roots are deep in the sand ofthis area. We love the people here. My husband is buried here, and I am sure I willlie beside him.