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JUL 17 1937
Mrs. Telle Kilgore
718 ':allace Street
Clovis, Lew Mexico
TiOM.i“- N. P-1D"RG',.SS
917 itclell Street
CLOVI' PL7,ST NEWSBOY
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1100 Words
"I was born in 1900 near ,eed, Mw Mexico, not very far from
Artesia. It is very mountainous there and the New Mexico Boy
Scouts' summer camp is boated nere ead. e lived there and at
Lrtesia until 190b, wnen 1)ad moved to Toxic°. 7arly in 1907, he
decided to move to Clovis which had been made the division point
of the Santa 70 railrod. It was a shack town then and it took
Dad three months to get us a house built so we could move there.
The first week I was in elsvis I couldn't find any boys of
my go to play with. One day I was wway down the railroad track
where the underpass is now -t the end of Prince Stree in the
southeastern part of town, and I met a boy. We had a fight, I
do not wh t we fouz t 0)olJt or ,-,Ach one got licked, but we just
quit I suprose.
-le asked me if I wanted to ride. "Where is your
horserI ked. "There," he s id, rd pointed to an old red bull
with a rope on his he d. The boy who's name was Pat, threw the
rope reins over the bull's head and we crawled on. The rope was
fixed just like a bridle, and Pat guided kite, the bull, just
like you would a horse. iste was very old T,ricl gentle. We rode
him all over the town, and later we found some more boys and
they got on behind me. When Pete got tired, he would just start
out in a jog trot Aid off would come the boys, for it was the
iendergrass .2.
roughest riding I ever tried to make. Pete was very old and I
don't remember how long he lived but we missed him very much.
A traveling photographer made pictures of us boys and Old Pete,
and I suppose he sold a thousand of the postcards. I would be
glad to get one, but no one in Clovis h -s a postcard picture of
tild Pete.
The first nickles I ever made
Record, Fort Worth, Texas paper.
a man who ran a pool hall. I went
morning, and the boys told me th!A
w's by selling the Fort Worth
The agency wrs in the hands of
down to r7et his papers one
the old man wqs found dead in
bed. The employecs refused to tell me what to do, so I just
took t,e papers and sold them. -uud was running a confectionery
and he helped re take over the agency. I also sold the 6aturday
Evening iost and tle Ladies Home Journal. t one time I had
300 subscriptions of both of these paper or magaziles, and ped-
dled them all myself. Dad then put in the news stud and I stil
delivered papers. I am sure th-t I have the honor of being the
FIXTT N7WSBY IN CL VIP? and I am proud of it. I think that a
boy should always have something to do.
"Yes, I had lots of fun. The ol' marble grounds were where
the Hotel Clovis now st.nds. H11 the little tikes in town would
congregte thert-nd play marbles. Sometimes some one would want
vs to do something, and if we they did not see ms around they
would come to the marble grounds and c-11'Snooks' and I would
h've to run for I knew it was some 'kind of business."
une day a. man came in town and wnted to get sore one to
ilendorgrass
collect for him. I guess we had been here several yers, for he
was a club subscription agent, a "man who s paying his way
through college," and he wanted some one to help him collet.
'e..came to the marbles grounds and called "Snooks." and so I went
to see wilr,t he w. nted. I did not like it much when. I found he
was hornin' in on my xamity. business, but I went with him andtold
him where his subsL;ribers lived. Sometime we would Ivare to go
up the eame street twice, and i s id, "Give me your list ,aid I
will collect 'em for you." he let me have the list alci soon
showed him that I knew the town. -t first, he was afraid to let
me do the oollectilv for him, but I never failed to make of the
people come across, so he wanted me to go in with him. I told
him that "selling magazines and papers was my business also."
He euViod did look funny !bout it.
My dad was too busy to collect, so he sent my sister out
with the bills, bit she was so timid, th t she would not pre-
sent them. "Snooks," do you think th t you can collect fot
me?" Dad asked, I Sid that I would try, so I went out after
the bills and collected every one of them. I think that was be-
fore the mavzine mnri had me to do :ork for him. Everybody laughed
at me %Aad asked me if T could red. ..D.A1 had the bills made out
and their names on each slip soon la rned the names, and
of course I knew where tie: lived.
mas lots to amuse a boy in Qlovis then. e had an
sole smmin'hole," up near where the athleko Pield north of
the Junior high school. We had wade through the mud before we
could d'et to deep vuAer, and when we ot out there in the middle
Pendergrass
-4.
w s an island, we would stay out there throtee the long hot days
and come bok with blistered b eke, ...nd oh, so tired.
The first hook and lAder fire department was the ere test
excitement for me I would ride on the nose cart to keep the
hose froe felling off. Lany a fire have I gone to riding that
a. rt. I remember when there were sever 1 fires right °lose to-
gether, and the men in Clovie thought there was a 'fire kug in
town.' sure, enough there was and what they did to him was a
plenty. I think that theyintended to hang him, but he law took
hold of him and he wes run out of town.
Mt. Jack Lewis used to drive the fire horses, Bo b nd Bill
was the names of the amertest end finest horses that were ever in
Clovis, They 'ere alw ye re dy to go et the sound of the fire
whistle. When the horses were gettin too old to be used, they
were put in a p-stere aboit two miles, from town. But when they
Nerd that wnislle of alerm they would bre k through any kind
of fence end come to torn and go right to eeeee the fire was,
i do not krow whether they re still living or not. Mr. Lewis
could drive them through the parked o re, and at a run too, and
never nit a nub or make a st ke, that les been a long time
ago.
have grown up with this town and many things that interest
me have been forgotten by the older people.
I graduated in high school .boat 1917 -nd wanteeto Join the
army then, but Dad wouldn't let me. But later when the war got
:endergrass
so hot, Dad tried to get in the army and couldn't and he told me
that I could but the war clos“1 before I got to enlist.
I went to the Military university one yeyr but dad wasn't w
well so I h:.d to come lome. Dad died early in 1922, and 1 did
not Fet to go to school much more.
I am now brakeman on the .p_ssenger run.frar. Amarillo to
Bolen on the 12.910 and am at home on Tsesdays nd .Sundays.
The roads re in muoh Wettercondition than when I first
began to go on the runs. There w1, -s not any ball±st on the road
bed, ,,nd the rile roiqd np ed, lo-etimes the tr-in would
be derailed.
"I like dogs VieV much,"he rinn brought him dog
th t h d been given to his little boyfilnr or five ye- rs old.
Thisa a 3oston -crew i1. nd he z,nd my boy re insuperable."
iendengrass is a very ple-sLnt talker, he loves the
pet of elovis, bat he is just s interelAed in the growth now.
But elovis is his "Old liome Town."
'.ehis is a very su ttered sketch of Lir. .eendergrass, but I
do not think that any one could be a better booster of his own
than this rairo d man who strted out as a "Newspaper Boy."