| Hi, I have a biography written by Jack Garrett who
was the son of Rev. C. H. Garrett that I want to submit to the Mason Co.
site. It had been given to us several years ago. It is untitled
and undated, but I know for a fact it was written after 1980 and before Jack
Garrett died in 1988. It is all about Jack growing up in Mason County
and about his father's experiences there. Rev. C. H. Garrett lived his
last 40 years in Mason County and is buried there. (C. H. Garrett is my husband's
great-grandfather.)
I retyped Jack's paper and I didn't change anything he had written but I added a couple of notes to give background information. Everything added is in italics and in parentheses. I am attaching it. I hope you can put it on the Mason County GenWeb site. Thank you for your time, Mary Jackson |
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Written by Jack V. Garrett
I remember quite well the
day we moved to Mason. I was 6 years old in October and school started
in September. I had to wait until I was nearly eight to start to school
in Sept. 1912. Dad (C. H. Garrett) had a house rented on the edge of
town on the Fredericksburg road. I can not think of a worse location.
There were about a half dozen little “toughies” all around us and that is
from whom I received my early education in the facts of life.
Dad was pastor at the Mason Baptist Church which was a pretty small church. They had no salary for him---a jar of preserves, a few chickens, an occasional “Pounding” and sometimes one of the more affluent would hand him a dollar or two. He was very faithful to this little church, but we could not live on what they were able to pay him. He promptly went to doing carpenter work, and since he was a pretty good carpenter, he had no trouble finding work. He started out working for Mr. R. Grosse, and Mr. Henry Hoffman. He worked at this all week and preached Sundays. It soon became apparent that he wanted and needed more people to preach to than the small church in Mason. He started going out to small communities like Katemcy, Grit, Double Knobs, Streeter, Captolia, etc. on one Sunday each month. This continued for a few years. Incidentally, he started conducting revival meetings in these communities as well as one in the Mason Church. He was a very busy man. Working as a carpenter six days a week and preaching every Sunday somewhere. He also preached many funerals. After a few years it was just accepted that Bro. Garrett would be preaching the funeral if it was in any part of the county. He also preached many in Mason. It was once said the Bro. Garrett preached more funerals than all other preachers in the county. He was always handy when there was a wedding. I guess I have witnessed more weddings than I could count. Sometimes they would phone and say they were coming, sometimes just knocked on the front door, usually after supper. He must have done a pretty good job of it. Nearly all of them stayed married. After two years, Dad moved us to a much nicer part of town. I have never known why Dad didn’t buy this place. Mr. Brandenburger practically tried to give it to him. Anyhow, he didn’t. Along about this time the Baptist Church in Mason decided that they needed a preacher who was better educated and could give the church full time. They got one, and Dad gave full time to building houses and preaching in the small communities on Sundays. I remember we were awfully poor at this time. Dad’s small churches did the best they could and Dad worked at anything he could get that would pay anything at all, but there were times when work ran out and crops were bad. I remember many times when he picked cotton practically every fall until it was all gathered. We got by somehow, but I wouldn’t care to live those days over. In 1915, Dad moved us to a place up near Post Hill. It was known as the Lemburg place. It contained a very good orchard, a piece of land he could do a little farming on, and lots of pecan trees. This place was a real treat for us, plenty of fruit, pecans, a pasture to run around in, a cow, and some hogs. We ate pretty well, but with all of Dad’s hard work we were always in debt. The Mason Church had had several pastors since Dad left and they asked him to come back, which he did. This was just before we got involved in World War I. We moved from the place we were living and moved to a small rock house just off the square in town. Mother was always sick, and most of the time Dad had to have someone to stay with her. Even though help was cheap, it was more than Dad could come up with. Our older sister, Dora, had gone off to college, and that left me and my younger sister (Opal) to do the housework, cooking, and keeping the place clean. During these years, Dad had made a host of friends. In 1917 they came to him and asked him to run for County Judge. He felt that his education was inadequate for this job, and was hesitant to consider it. They kept insisting, so he finally entered the race. He was elected by a landslide. I am not sure of my dates, but I am reasonably sure he took office in Jan. 1918. This was all a new kind of work for Dad. He worked hard at trying to learn, and with the help of some of his friends, he did fairly well. Being County Judge did not stop Dad’s preaching. He held his appointments at the country churches every Sunday. He also continued to conduct as many funerals and marry as many people as he always had. I don’t know of anyone objecting to this, but I have a feeling that he thought that they did. In his own mind, he was first and foremost a preacher. When his first term ended, he did not re-enter the race. I remember I was very disappointed about this. I felt that he could have held this office for the rest of his life, and he was getting along in years to do carpenter work. He left office in Jan. 1920 and started back to building houses and preaching. I never knew it at the time, but I have learned since---There is no way of telling how much good he did for so many people in Mason County. He was back with the Mason Baptist Church. He preached part time there and went to his country churches part time. He held revival meetings every summer. Usually he held two or three. Sometimes we went with him, but usually we stayed at home. There were untold numbers of people he led to Christ during this period. It was at this time I had to quit school and go to work. I stayed out three years and then my sister, Dora, who was teaching in Alabama, came home for the summer. She persuaded me to return to school. I did this very reluctantly at first. I had not saved a dime from three years work, and I didn’t have decent clothes to go back to school. When I decided to go back to school, I also decided to finish as soon as possible. The Supt. of school outlined my courses in such a way that I graduate in two years, if I could carry such a schedule. By having just one study period at school, working at the Mason Drug Store mornings, evenings, and Saturdays, and attending two summer sessions, I graduated in May, 1926. I have never since then had such a happy day. At this time, Dad was building many farm houses. He was away from home most of the time. He still preached somewhere every Sunday and held revivals during most of the summers and still conducted funerals. They would come to him and he would come down from on top of a house, wash dress, and go and attend a funeral. I left home Sept. 1926 to attend Pharmacy School in Dallas. I had a few friends who loaned me enough to get started. From there on, it was pretty lean living. During the summer of 1927 on Aug. 1st a real tragedy struck Dad. He was in the country building a house when we had to get word to him that his youngest daughter (Opal) had drowned. (Note: Opal Garrett was 20 years old at the time of her death.) First, it was his only son (Claude Penn) many years before, and now, his youngest daughter. (Note: Claude Penn Garrett was C.H. Garrett’s only son at the time of his death. He drowned while swimming alone in a stock pond in San Saba County on June 8th 1904 when he was 8 ½ years old. Jack Garrett was born about 4 month after Claude’s death.) I had to get word to him, and with the help of several friends I found him and told him. I was apprehensive as to how he would be able to take this, but I had overlooked his abiding faith. He was crushed, remained very calm. Only his faith, and the help of his loving friends, carried him through this in this manner. After this was over, time came when he had to go back to work, and I had to return to finish my Pharmacy Degree. This was the time when Mother had to realize that she was able to take care of herself, and do it alone. She was able to do this with the help of some of her friends. I finished school in 1928. I never came home to stay again. Dad was getting older and he decided that his work was getting too hard. He just couldn’t continue the pace he had gone most of his life. He decided he would run for County Commissioner in 1936. He never made it. He was defeated by a narrow margin. This defeat aged Dad more than anything I realized at the time. He tried to make a come-back and even tried picking cotton, or anything in the way of carpenter work he could handle. He still preached when he could, and never turned down a funeral. They would come and get him. He didn’t have a car and couldn’t have driven it if he had. Times had changed a lot. Every family in the county had a radio and could listen to sermons at home. Roads were better and they came to town more often. Dad would sometimes get a group together near the old post office and preach his sermons there. Things went like this until 1947. At that time they had to carry Dad to Brady for surgery. They found it malignant, treated them the best they could and sent him home. He recovered his strength after a while to where he could walk to town. He continued to preach to a few of his friends any time he could find a few together. In November, 1949 Dad suffered a massive stroke. He lived until the day after Thanksgiving and died at 7 AM, Nov. 27th, 1949. After Dad was brought home from Brady, I went by the hospital to arrange paying his bill. To my surprise, they told me that all had been taken care of. I tried to find out who had done this, but could never find out. Nobody seemed to know anything about it after his death. I went home and back to my job. Three weeks later I went to Mason and out to the cemetery. There stood a beautiful marker. It was exactly like the one over Opal’s grave. I couldn’t imagine who had done this. I tried to find out. Mother did not know, and no one would talk about it. All I could do was say, “God bless the people of Mason County”. They are the only ones who could have done this and I knew it was an act of love. He had served them the best he could for over 40 years. They were sincerely grateful for this and were showing their gratitude and love. My only living sister (Mina Garrett Jackson) and I can only say, “God bless you and keep you”. |