Individual Details

Edna Tacoma Springer was born May 15, 1907, to William Dennis and Minnie Edna Hughes Springer at Antelope, Jack County, Texas.
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Following is a letter that Tacoma Springer Draper wrote to her grandson, Kelly around 1980?

Dear Kelly,
As the Christmas season is here again, it brings back so many memories of times, both at Christmas, and other times in my life. I will try to share a few of them with you.
I was born Edna Tacoma Springer on May 15, 1907 in Antelope in Jack Co. Texas. I was the youngest of seven children, four brothers and two sisters. My oldest brother's name was William Benjamin, the next one John Preston(Pete),then my sister Lillian, the next one Dennis, then Roy Hughes we know as "Bill", then Martha Leota nicknamed Pat.
I never knew any of my father's family except one uncle, Uncle John Springer. The rest of his family all died before I was born. Uncle John never married. He lived with us most of the time, but did haul freight in West Texas in the late 1800's and early 1900's.
My mother's Maiden name was Minnie Edna Hughes. Her father was killed by a horse falling on him, when she was two years old. Her brother Uncle John Hughes, was born soon after his death. Grandmother, we called her Mammy, taught school to make a living for them. Then when Mama was four years old, Mammy married Benjamin Deckard Uselton. We called him Pa. He was shot in the arm in the Civil war, a confederate soldier, taken prisoner. He later escaped, but his arm was not treated so it was shrunken and his hand was stiff. He was so good to all of us as we grew up.
After I started to school, I stayed with them when it was cold and bad. We lived about three miles from school, walked part of the time, but went in a buggy most of the time. Mammy and Pa lived about a half a mile from Antelope and school. Pa would take me to school in the buggy, and would be there when school was out to get me. I loved to stay with them because I got all the attention.
Mammy's maiden name was Martha Jane Wilson. Her father was a druggist in Waco. He sold all he had during the Civil war and got it all in confederate money, all in cash. Of course, after the war it was worthless. He didn't live long after that.
Uncle John Hughes and wife Aunt Belle, had a large family. I really did like to go to their house, so many cousins to play with, some older and some younger than me. They lived at Jacksboro, not over twenty-five or thirty miles from us, but it took nearly all day to go in the buggy or wagon. They had a tank of water near the house, and we kids would fish for craw dads, using a string and a bent pin, with a piece of bacon on it for bait. We always caught a bunch and Aunt Belle let us cook the tails. We kids ate them and thought they were good. I'm sure we made a mess, but what fun we had.
At Christmas time I remember how excited we would get, looking forward to Santa Claus coming. We had a big fire place, all the heat we had except the wood cook-stove. On Christmas morning our Daddy would get the fire going and start calling "Christmas Gift." We would jump up and hurry to see what Santa brought. We didn't get a lot like children do now, but we didn't know the difference. We were so proud of what we did get, fruit, nuts and candy, and maybe one or two other things. I usually got a little china doll from Santa. Sometimes Mammy and Pa gave me a doll. They always came to our house for Christmas. We got to go to town on Christmas Eve to do our shopping. We didn't have much money to spend, but what fun we had trying to get something for everyone. Maybe a nickel handkerchief for the grown-ups, or even a pretty picture postcard. I think we enjoyed Christmas then as much as kids do now, maybe even more, for we didn't get things all year like they do now.
I can remember going to town with Mama (Pat and I). She would give us a nickel and we would buy a nickels worth of candy, which was a pretty good little sack full. We would set on the store porch and eat our candy while Mama shopped. Antelope had two general mercantile stores, a post office, blacksmith shop, and a Baptist and Methodist Church.
One time I must have been four or five years old, but I can remember it well, I went to town with Mama in the buggy, just she and I. My Daddy had bought the horse a short time before, Mama had not driven him before that day. He got scared at something and started running. We were in a no-top buggy, so when Mama saw that she couldn't control the horse, she picked me up and climbed over the back of the seat and jumped out. Fortunately neither of us was hurt. Some man on horseback saw it and ran the horse and buggy down, then drove us home.
When I was eight years old my brother Ben's wife died when their second child was born, leaving two little boys, Forrest four years old and the little baby Dee. They lived on a ranch near Spur. Mama went out there on the train and after the funeral she and Ben brought the little boys back home. Mama and Dad raised them so they seemed more like my little brothers than nephews. Later Ben married again, but didn't take the boys.
Lillian married when I was about seven years old. She married a school teacher, John Glenn, he taught there in Antelope, but his home was in Duncan, Okla. so they went there to live. I really missed my big sister, for she took me with her so much. She didn't get to come home very often. It was a two days trip in the buggy. Mama, Pat and I went to see her one summer on the train. I thought that was a lot of fun.
When I was ten years old we moved to Windthorst in Archer Co. My Daddy bought a gin and small hotel there. It was a German community and nearly all Catholic. The only school there was taught by nuns. I had never seen a nun in my life, they wore black habits and I was scared to death of them. I was left-handed, so the sisters made me change to right hand. It was so hard, but if I thought the sisters wasn't looking, I would take the pencil in my left hand, but she would see me and she always had a ruler in her hand. She would tap me on the hand with it, not really hard, but I was so scared I kept on trying. They taught penmanship, and I couldn't do the exercises with my left hand, so I finally became right handed, for writing only. I would go home and cry but my mother wouldn't interfere. In those days the teacher was always right.
Pat married while we lived there. She married Frank Brenneis. He was Catholic, the priest wouldn't marry them unless she became Catholic so they ran off and got married. They went to Duncan, Okla. to Lillian and Johns. I missed Pat so much and didn't see her again for a long time.
Then when I was sixteen we moved to Brownfield. It was the Fall of 1923. We went in three covered wagons. It took us about three weeks to go. We met up with some other people, who also had three covered wagons they were moving to Ralls, Texas. One of the men was a veterinarian and was going there to open up a practice. They had two girls, one my age and one older. At night we all got together and would play games or build bon fires. We were young and had a good time. I hated to leave my friends at Windthorst. We wrote to one another for a while but then I began to make new friends so we finally stopped writing.
When we first moved to Brownfield we didn't have a house. My folks had bought a half-section of land without a house. They had to put in to cultivation for farming. We lived in a big tent and the covered wagons until we could get a house built. They got it built pretty fast. We were happy to get into a house at last.
Our nearest neighbors were the Harreds. They had four girls, Ruth who is now Ruth Draper, Hallie, Edith and Hazel. We all rode the school bus together and were good friends. Hallie and I were the same age and in the same grade at school, so we were close friends. There were not many things to go to for entertainment. We had parties at different houses. It was understood that all who knew about it were invited. They were usually planned at school, as no one had telephones. We played different games and had a good time. I didn't go with many boys. There was one boy who my mother didn't object to me going with. I didn't like him much, but would go with him in order to get to go.
About a year after we went there, the Drapers came. They lived about two miles down the road from us. Mr. & Mrs. Draper and two boys Roy and Otis. All the girls wanted to go with the new boys in the community. I didn't meet them for some time. Ruth liked Otis and I didn't think much about either one of them. Roy went with a neighbor girl some. She was a friend of mine also.
In the summer, all denominations held revivals under a big tabernacle. One night Roy and this Neighbor girl and her younger sister came by and asked me to go to the revival, this tabernacle was in Brownfield. I went and rode in the back seat with little sister. When we got back to my house, Roy said he would walk to the door with me. When we got to the door he asked me for a date the next night. I went with him, just the two of us, back to the revival. Neither of us ever went with anyone else after that. When this neighbor girl saw his car leave that evening (it was before dark), she climbed up on the windmill and saw him stop at our house. We married the next Jan 21, 1926. Otis and Ruth married later that year.
We lived in a little house near the Drapers. Roy had furnished it. We didn't have much furniture, but were happy. We went to our house right after we married. It was cold, and snow still on the ground, so with nothing but dirt roads, we couldn't go anywhere.
Your Daddy was born in that little house Sept 27, 1930. We lived there until he was three years old, moved close to Brownfield lived there until Bill was five years old, then moved to another place near Brownfield called Lakey, where your Daddy started to school. Then we moved to town(Brownfield) for a year then to Lubbock.
We bought a house in Lubbock on the same street and same block as the Simpsons lived. There your Daddy who was twelve met Helen Lois, your mother. They were married in 1949. Roy passed away in 1948.
How I wish he could have known you and David. He would have been so proud of you both. He loved all kids and they loved him. I had never worked in the public but had to go to work after he died. Your Daddy was just seventeen, but had a job when not in school. As you might know, a job in a flower shop. I went to work at Montgomery Wards at first, worked there two years, then at Cobbs Dept Store for one year. A girl I had worked with at Montgomery Wards had gone to work for Hemphill's. They needed someone to work with her, she told them I might be interested so her boss told her to ask me and if I was interested to come over and talk to him. I went and took the job, worked for them as you know till I retired. I was so happy when I got the transfer to Big Spring so I could be near my family. You have all been such a pleasure to me.
There are probably a lot of things I could tell you, but have forgotten a lot, but these are the things I think of often.
I do want to go back a little and tell you when I was saved. I was saved in a revival in the school house when I was seventeen. I didn't join the church until after I was married. They had built a little Baptist Church there at Union, so I joined the church the summer after we were married and was baptized in a big stock tank.
Kelly, I love you dearly and hope you will have all the happiness possible, and have a long useful life.
Your Grandmother
Toto

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Tacoma Springer Draper was a member of the First Baptist Church of Big Spring, Texas at the time of her death in 1994. She had worked for the Hemphill-Wells Department Store in Lubbock and in Big Spring until retiring in 1972.

Birth	15 May 1907	Antelope, Jack, Texas, United States
Marriage	21 Jan 1926	Brownfield, Terry, Texas, United States - Eugene Roy Draper
Death	16 Aug 1994	Big Spring, Howard, Texas, United States
Burial		City of Lubbock Cemetery, Lubbock, Lubbock, Texas, United States

Spouse	Eugene Roy Draper (1893 - 1948)
Child	Living

Father	William Dennis Springer (1859 - 1936)
Mother	Minnie Edna Hughes (1873 - 1941)
Sibling	William Benjamin (Ben) Springer (1889 - 1949)
Sibling	John Preston (Pete) Springer (1891 - 1980)
Sibling	Lillian Irene Springer (1894 - 1975)
Sibling	Dennis Springer (1896 - 1953)
Sibling	Roy Hughes (Bill) Springer (1898 - 1985)
Sibling	Martha Leota (Pat) Springer (1902 - 1969)