The Fruitful Union of Thad and Mandy

     I know that I’m juggling the Barbeque Stories and the History of Texas back and forth in these posts, but I want to add something to the mix.  A good friend of mine suggested I quit gathering only the “low hanging fruit,” and reach up a bit higher in the tree.  This will be my first attempt to follow his advice and reach up for some of the harder to reach and, presumably, more desirable fruit.

     The first tree that I’ll reach up into will be my family tree.  I come from a large family---oh, my immediate family was average size, but my extended family was much larger than most.  My father’s parents, Thad and Mandy, married young and had many children.  My mother’s parents, James and Alice Morris, did the same, but, for now, let’s concentrate on Thad and Mandy.

     Amanda Cummings married Thaddeus James McLaughlin when she was fourteen and they immediately started having children.  Amanda had one child per year until she was thirty, for a total of sixteen children.  She did cheat one year—she had twins and got to take a year off.  The twins died in infancy, and one son died of a burst appendix at age twenty one, but, otherwise, all the children grew up and continued to populate our part of the globe, mostly scattered around Texas.

     When Amanda died, at age ninety four, she had thirteen surviving children, ninety-six grandchildren, one hundred fourteen great-grandchildren, and something over a hundred great-great-grandchildren, all of which were still busy having kids.  My children were not yet born, nor were my brother’s or sister’s.  The three of us were included in the ninety-six grandchildren and we added seven to the total amount of great-grand children, which pushed that total over one-twenty.

     As you can imagine, family reunions were major productions.  Think about it---I had ninety-three first cousins on my father’s side of the family.  I remember many of them and many, I’d as soon forget.  One of my cousins was decorated for valor in Viet Nam.  I heard that he recieved the Medal of Honor, but I cannot find his name on a list of recipients.  Another cousin, so far as I know, is still in prison in Florida.     

     Dad, and his brothers and sisters, were steady, hard-working, basically honest people who did the best they could with their lot in life.  All grew up under the watchful eyes of Thad and Mandy and learned to work at an early age.  They grew up in an earlier and different world than we share today.   More value was placed on family.  Helping each other was expected.  Of course, they all grew up in poverty.  They were uneasy around strangers, especially if the strangers had money, which translated to power.

     The family came of age during the great depression and that time marked their character.    These were remarkable people, from a remarkable time.  In future posts, I will tell you about some of them.