Our Stories - Legend of the Mounds

The definitive book on the colorful history of this little frontier Texas village. What sets this work above the rest is the fascinating stories of the settlers themselves, much of it in their own words. If you are even remotely intrigued by early Texas history, the Great Depression, and the Dust Bowl days, you won't be able to put this one down !

The book itself is beautifully bound with gold-stamped lettering, but it's what is inside that will fascinate. Once opened, the reader is transported back in time through the pages of real, raw Texas history. Much of it is gleaned from old newspaper stories, told by the early pioneers themselves or the direct descendants of Medicine Mound residents, warts and all.

Some excerpts are included below in order to entice our viewers into learning more or purchasing the book online. Ready to buy ? Get it here.

"Medicine Mound Has Electricity" (Quanah Tribune-Chief, 8/3/1928)

The Quanah plant of the West Texas Utilities Co. made connections today with Medicine Mound and electricity from here will gladden the lives of the people in the southeast part of the county. They are starting off pretty well with 50 regular customers, nine stores, etc . Later in the season the gins will probably take power as well. [Editor's note : This brought electricity to the town of Medicine Mound itself - but not to the surrounding rural areas which had to wait another 20 years until after World War II for the Rural Electric Co-Op Association to bring power to rural homes.]

"It Took A Whole Family To Make A Living" (circa 1931)

Carroll Hull can tell you about hard times during the Great Depression years and afterwards....He recalls that the day before he went into the service in World War II, he pulled 1,036 pounds of cotton. At the time, it was considered a good day if you could pull (harvest) 500 to 600 pounds. Pay was 25 cents per hundred pounds, so if you pulled 500 pounds you made a $1.25 for a day's back-breaking work. "When they later started paying us 35 cents per hundred, I thought I was rich", Carroll recalled with a chuckle. [Web master's note : Carroll Hull was a "Mounder" that served as a B-24 tail gunner with 24 combat missions to his credit.]

"The Games We Played" (by Myna Gayle Hicks Potts)

....we used to get a mouthful of bubble gum - cheapest kind we could buy - and chew all the sugar out of it. Then we would put it on the end of a string, dangle it down a tarantula hole and "fish" for tarantulas. We'd jiggle the wad of gum and pretty soon the tarantula would strike it and we'd pull him out. We would have contests to see who could catch and kill the most tarantulas."