Column/Opinion
Pauline Rodke
Weather? Same ole, same ole, summer weather at 98 degrees!
Paoli Schools are off to a good start with all their good teachers in place and busy with the new year. Student numbers are about the same as last year. So far no flu problems!
The Pugs’ first home football game has been postponed because of electrical problems at the football field. “Recently, the
“Recently, the football field lights were struck by lightning. We have brought out an electrician and a lighting specialist to evaluate the damage. They informed me that one pole has wires melted and hanging low enough to touch (electric is off),” Supt. David Morris said on the Pug Nation Facebook page this week. “The electrical professionals also expressed concerns about possible damage underground. This is a safety/shocking hazard if the lights were turned on. We have been asked not to turn the electric on to the football field until they can acquire the materials to make repairs. Due to shortages in materials we will either move games up (to be played during daylight hours) or play games away until repairs can be made. We will keep you informed about changes in schedules each game.”
Check the Pug Nation Facebook page for updates to the schedule.
The Academics Team sponsored by Randy Shackleford had their first meet with Purcell on Thursday, September 9.
The Elementary classes are also off to a good start.
PAOLI HISTORY #76
Today we are going to give you one of Maurice Anderson’s WPA Interviews about the first citizen of Paoli – the first James Dulin. Though it does not say whom he interviewed, since the first James Dulin was not living in 1938 when Maurice did his interviews, it must have been the first James Dulin’s children.
Biography of James Dulin, father of Mrs. Lee McCrumman of Pauls Valley and Simp Dulin of Paoli, Oklahoma.
Their father, Sugar Dulin, was a native of North Carolina and was born around 1801.
His mother’s maiden name was Miss Tabitha Howard. She was a native of Henry County, Georgia, and was nearly the same age as James Dulin’s father.
They became the parents of six children, James being the only son. When James Dulin was quite young, his mother died and his father broke up housekeeping, placing his six children with people who were able to care for them. James went to live with his aged grandparents, but in a few years they both died, passing away nearly at the same time and being laid to rest in the same coffin. James was then taken care of by one of his uncles.
During these early years so full of trouble, James Dulin received very little schooling, but this was partially his own fault. When he was seventeen his uncle offered to send him to school a year if he would stay with him and attend carefully to his studies, but James had the usual boyish fancy for a wandering life. As a party of emigrants were on the point of starting with wagons to Texas, he joined them and in the course of time found himself in Rush Country, Texas.
We may say, with truthfulness, that James Dulin started in life without means, for, upon leaving home, he had not a dollar in his pocket! His baggage consisted of an extra suit of cotton clothing tied up in a big handkerchief. He was neither richer or poorer when Texas was reached, for he had “worked for his passage” and earned his board while on the way by assisting with the team and doing something more than his share of the work around the nightly campout.
His stay in Rush County was short, for he had an opportunity to join his fortune with the Hittnon family, they were bound for the Crow Crook country in Hill County.
Mr. Dulin accompanied Jess Hittnon to transport several loads of lumber the following year which was 1856. James Dulin and his friends, the Hittnon’s, moved to Parker County and located on Grindstone Creek where they were engaged in making grindstones.
(To be continued next week)
Yours truly, VPR, also searching for all these counties in Texas!