Red River Memories

In 1881, my great grandfather and my great grandmother were a young couple that had left Missouri and moved to the northeast corner of East Texas along the Oklahoma border. The area just south of the Red River to Lamar County would be their new home. He was a young man, originally from Paducah, Kentucky and his young bride of five years was Emma Miller, the daughter of one of the pioneering families of Millersville, Cape Girardeau County, Missouri. His name was James William Wood and he, along with his mother, had been traveling westward following the death of his father. They would make a home in Lamar County and prosper until the Great Depression caused them to slowly fade but never wither away. Along the way they would have joy and sorrow. A son-in-law (my grandfather), JW Love would be Lamar County Judge in 1902 to 1906. JW Wood would be president of the bank when it failed because of a Depression- fueled run due to overwrought depositors. This was not,”It’s A Wonderful Life,” and no one brought the money back. They endured because they loved each other, they were Democrats, they believed in Justice, and their faith-supplied nourishment. JW Wood would own a lumberyard on the very spot where Paris, Texas was incorporated in 1844, a business long gone. I found this poem and all the love and bittersweet memories of long ago cemented this story.

The Blue-grass & Show Me States by Emma Miller Wood(On the 59th Wedding Anniversary Feb. 10, 1935)

You were born in 1852 in Kentucky, the Blue-grass state
And I was born in Missouri, the Show Me State in 1858:
Many years since then have come and gone.
Life’s pathway strew with flowers and thorn.

More than fifty years ago, we came to the Lone Star State
In 1881, we will long remember the date.
We were young and happy and gay,
But long since my hair has turned to grey,
For years have come and years must go,
And yours is soft like silk and white as snow.

We have children six with devotion sweet,
They greet us with smiles whenever we meet,
Seventeen grand-children affectionate and kind,
And one great granddaughter, sweet and fine.

Five earthly mounds have brought many tears,
In the days of these fifty-nine years.
All though the future years, as we roam
And one by one we are gathered home.

May no word or thought or deed
Cause any aching heart to bleed,
Of kindred, stranger, or of friends,
By any one of us ‘till life’s journey ends.


In July of 2002, my father passed away from Alzheimer’s. A terrible disease that robs someone of everything that makes one human. The ability to walk, talk, swallow, and eventually live had left him. Going through the mementos and letters in an old trunk, I found my great-grandmothers’ poem and began to research their story. My fathers last words to me from his hospital bed were,” Tom, let’s go home, “ and so, by writing this story, I did. For as my father always said,” In life, you take the bitter with the sweet. “