My husband and I had the pleasure of talking with Joshua Furry and his lifelong friend Clint Tunnell last weekend. Joshua and Clint grew up together in Blanket, and are best friends since kindergarten, which they both attended locally. They share not only deep roots in the community, with both families dating their presence here from the late 1800s, but they also have a deep and abiding passion for local history. I’m convinced there is not a scrap of Blanket history Josh and Clint can’t tell you about, and they have amassed a collection of historical photographs, papers and objects to match their knowledge.
Blanket historian Doris Teague, who was also the town CPA, put together much of what Tunnell and Furry have today in their collection. “She collated probably 90% of this stuff. So when she passed away, she basically left it to me and Clint to sort out. We have a lot of family histories, records, that type of thing,” Josh said. “One of these folders has Blanket obituaries for years. They go pretty far back. The fencing wars of the 1800s started down here in Blanket. Somewhere we’ve got some pretty good documentation of all of that,” Clint added. The two friends work well together, which is unsurprising since they’ve been doing so their whole lives, and when they tell the stories of Blanket’s history, it’s like listening to a well-rehearsed play. They know all the parts, and both take delight in sharing what they know about their town.
I was able to hear about some of the things Furry and Tunnell have collected. It’s interesting to me how a simple object from the past can carry with it a powerful ability to evoke images and connections, bringing to life much that might otherwise have been forgotten. This duo is still adding relics to their storehouse, and mentioned that they’re planning to get the old town switchboard to add to it, as soon as they can get around to picking it up.
In a book Clint loaned me, called Blanket, Texas Community History by Estill Allen, mention is made of the switchboard by contributor Ruth Ingram. It says, “Mr. Smith’s family also operated the telephone exchange in the front part of the ice plant building. Later the telephone exchange was moved to Mr. Smith’s residence west of the Methodist church. The Smiths were all Methodists. Their children were: Electra, Mary, Flora, Sarah and Clara, so the switchboard was well manned by the ladies. Em and Irene Falls Routh took over the telephone switchboard about 1925 when the Fred Smiths moved to Brownwood. When Em and Irene moved to Stephenville the George Eoff family took over in 1948. Lucille McLaughlin who married Goerge Eoff operated the switchboard until the automatic dial system came into operation.”
Not only can a piece of history like an old switchboard help to connect us with what has taken place in the past, but for some of us it can form a live wire memory within that adds to the link. “At the farm we had thirteen families on the telephone line. If the phone rang late at night people would lift the receiver and listen as a late call was usually bad news. On 25 June 1921 at 10:00 p.m. Uncle Marion Dickie got a call that his son, Zack, thirty-eight years of age had drowned at the north dam on the Bayou.” Although that is a sad story, it does remind me of the phone system when I was young that was in place for our rural mountain area of Virginia. There were still party lines, and you could pick up the phone to find others having a conversation ahead of you. A call could not be placed until those talking were finished. I recall one night trying to call my grandma, and ending up listening to my math teacher talk about how difficult her class was. I was very quiet then, realizing she might mean me.
Furry and Tunnell’s dedication to sharing and preserving Blanket’s history might someday help to keep the town alive. They have plans to reopen the Blanket Museum sometime in the future, and they have the knowledge and visuals to make that a success. While many communities in our area have faded away without much being known about who lived there or any events that took place, that won’t happen to Blanket. Relics are not the only tools Furry and Tunnell employ to keep the town’s past alive–they also run a popular Facebook group called Blanket TX – History in Pictures. The page is well visited because of the wealth of information compiled there, including an extraordinary display of vintage photographs donated by members of the community.
Josh and Clint know all Blanket’s stories and love to tell them. Clearly they’ve conveyed told tales together before, as each takes the reins smoothly from the other at certain points, trading observations and lines like true professionals. One recounted was regarding an old hermit who lived in a cave near Blanket 100 years ago. No one knew who he was or where he came from, but people sent him food and tried to help. One day he was found dead near his cave. When I asked what happened to him, both Furry and Tunnell answered at once, with the gleam of the true storyteller in their eyes, and an innate sense for perfect timing, “Rattlesnake!” assuring there is another tale from Blanket history that will likely never die.
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Diane Adams is a local journalist whose columns appear Thursdays on BrownwoodNews.com. Comments regarding her columns can be emailed to [email protected].
