Black Gold, Volume 3, Number 2, 1977 Page: 38
52 p. : ill. ; 22 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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I was still a single man then. Houses was
scarce, but now Beckville really looks like a
town. The present population of Beckville is
seven hundred and four,
There were about 5 or 6 houses at the time
when we came. Two of the families were named
Hockley and Bowman. All the families here now
have come since Mr. Gladney moved with his fam-
ily to Beckville. There were a time very few
blacks owned their homes," he said. "Its been
like 50 years or better since we have built our
homes. We are here now, making our own prog-
ress. What you see here is all the improvements
we have made in the last 50 years. We are liv-
ing in a big change now. Transportation and
roads was a big improvement. We didn't have
any streets through here when we came. Now you
can just see how many streets there are. For
transportation, we would walk or ride a horse.
No one rides a horse. Automobiles is present
now. "
"With the growth of the railroads, stores
hit the town of Beckvil le." ''!hen the rail-
road came, said Gladney, "there were four trains
a day passing through here-- two passengers,
two freight. They came from Longview and went
through here to Beaumont. One freight train
also took a southern route." Gladney went on
to tell Black Gold how it was like working on
the railroad (Santa Fe) and also the growth of
the community. "We had no certain hour to
work. I was 35 when I started. Santa Fe was
paying the big salary of $1.35 an hour at the
time. It was 1942. The railroad brought a
new growth into existence. Our school went
from a plank room to a brick building; seven
stores were created; a cotton gin opened. Cot-
ton was .5 a pound. Big days were popular.
We didn't have conventions, but we do now. We
have four churches, two Baptists, one Methodist
and one Church of Christ. As children for rec-
reation, we had a see-saw. We sticks planks
through a fence and one would et on each end38
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Panola College. Dept. of Communications. Black Gold, Volume 3, Number 2, 1977, periodical, 1977; Carthage, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth151415/m1/40/: accessed April 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Panola College.