Cumberton's Gold

By Jeanette Howeth Crumpler

Jeanette Howeth Crumpler is a freelance writer living in Dallas, Texas. She has written several books, articles, features and other material. Jeanette is known as The Tomato Lady because of her lifelong association with gardening, growing, researching and writing about tomatoes and other gardening facts. In addition to articles in several publications, she has written The Lakewood StarWalk, Lakewood Memoirs and Spirit, :Street of Dreams, A History of Dallas Theatre Row and most recently Tales of Jewels and Precious Metals.:

The Theatre Organ Murders is a wickedly delightful tale set along Elm Streets fabulous Theatre Row in Dallas during the heyday of theatre organs, gorgeous movie theatre palaces and the many colorful characters associated with them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Feb 26, 2010
• ISBN: 9781450049627

Jeanette Howeth Crumpler

Jeanette Howeth Crumpler is a freelance writer living in Dallas, Texas. She has written several books, articles, features and other material. Jeanette is known as The Tomato Lady because of her lifelong association with gardening, growing, researching and writing about tomatoes and other gardening facts. In addition to articles in several publications, she has written “The Lakewood StarWalk”, “Lakewood – Memoirs and Spirit”, :”Street of Dreams, A History of Dallas’ Theatre Row” and most recently “Tales of Jewels and Precious Metals”.: “The Theatre Organ Murders” is a wickedly delightful tale set along Elm Street’s fabulous Theatre Row in Dallas during the heyday of theatre organs, gorgeous movie theatre palaces and the many colorful characters associated with them.

Book preview

Cumberton’s Gold

A Novel by

Jeanette Howeth Crumpler

Copyright © 2010 by Jeanette Howeth Crumpler.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Photos by Don Reasons

www.calldon.com

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Xlibris

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

76416

Contents

FOREWORD

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

BIBLIOGRAPHY

DEDICATED TO:

Bruce, Dotsy, Patty, Mike, Charles and other special friends but most of all, to my son, Dean

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Disciples of Holy Trinity (DOT) is a 501c3 grassroots organization serving more than 2600 terminally ill children, women and men since 1994. All types of terminal illnesses such as AIDS, heart disease, leukemia, cancer, failed transplants and other catastrophic illnesses afflict DOT’s clients. DOT maintains a food pantry, provides clothing, household goods, geriatric and infant diapers and other medical supplies and offers many other helpful services to its clients.

There are many deaf and handicapped clients served by DOT as well. Jim Davis, President and Executive Director has a deaf mother and had a hearing impaired father who are written about in the introduction to this book. For more information, please visit DOT’s website www.dallasdot.org or email at [e-mail] This book is available at the DOT store, 5810 Live Oak, Dallas, TX 75214. Phone: [phone] Proceeds from the sales of Cumberton’s Gold will go to benefit DOT’s clients.

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FOREWORD

Over a lifetime of being privileged to know special people including my own profoundly deaf son, who often asked, "Are you ever going to write about people like me, you know, deaf and different?" Each story has people in it that are compilations of characters based on those that I have been fortunate to know and love and some through my own experiences in meeting and/or interpreting for the deaf and serving other handicapped people. This includes my more than 30 years of interpreting for the deaf, volunteering in special classes and schools and from just working in a hospital setting for more than 11 years.

Other experiences included knowing carnival people and hearing their stories as well as having Doctors tell me case histories and give me articles concerning special and different people. The rest is a writer’s privilege and imagination.

Each person in this book is truly based in many ways on persons who have the general characteristics described and who had more than some of the problems I have written about. Circumstances have been accurate as to what happened to some of them, but places, characters and settings like Cumberton and its history are completely fictional.

Cumberton’s Gold is a collection of stories representing these special people; those who are different in some way, whether it is mental or physical differences. Like gold for coins, they are malleable and sometimes easily tarnished but having been refined again and again in the crucible of life, when the dross is removed, they are poured out and stamped by life’s pressures, and most times, fine coins are the result.

My own experiences with my deaf son inspired this book. Dean was born deaf, was a breach birth and had other problems, but we were not told anything was wrong. I had Asian Flu when I was about 4 months pregnant with him and was given Tetracycline. It was not known then the effects of that drug on an unborn baby. He also had trouble breathing when he was born which accounted for his minimal brain damage and future learning difficulties. But again, we didn’t know any of this. It was not the practice in 1958 to let fathers into the Delivery Room, and at that time there were few, if any, tests to determine whether a child had a hearing impairment nor much else wrong. Many of the experiences described in the chapter about Tiny happened to my deaf son and me. We didn’t find out how profoundly deaf Dean was until he was over a year old, and we were never encouraged to use sign language with him. We had taken him to several doctors, including a well-known Audiologist; all of whom told us we were over-anxious parents and should just go home and enjoy our normal son.

When he was nearly 2 years old, and he still wasn’t talking but kept making high-pitched eeeee sounds and had flat toneless attempts at speaking, we took him for therapy at the Crippled Children’s Center here in Dallas. While there, I met two deaf women who were communicating with their deaf two-year olds by using American Sign Language, and I was not. I knew then that whatever else Dean’s problems were, he needed a way to communicate and learn and so did we. The two ladies came to my home three times a week and taught me sign language which I in turn taught Dean and his brother, Bruce (who was seven years older and had normal hearing). Dean’s Dad also learned signs, and before long we were at least communicating beyond the pointing and screeching stage. It was a blessing, yet ALL of the therapists, doctors and caseworkers said, Don’t sign and don’t let him sign. I then began researching all about deafness, signing vs. oralists and reading everything I could about deafness and its ramifications. By the time Dean was three years old, I was learning to be an interpreter and becoming aware of his other problems, ADD, petit mal epilepsy and minimal brain damage.

When he was four years old, he began attending the first pre-school classes for the deaf in Dallas at Stonewall Jackson Elementary School. I formed a volunteer group of fourteen people to help in the classes, and because back then there were no teacher aides, we would go to the classes for the deaf and help in the classrooms. Although sign language was not allowed, I was called on again and again to interpret because the teachers of the deaf could not communicate with their students! Almost all of them refused to learn sign language, and all of them wanted their students to talk and speech read. This was the way they had been trained as teachers of the deaf and hearing impaired.

While this was admirable, they literally could not communicate with most of their deaf students. Meanwhile the deaf students were signing among themselves and communicating very nicely with each other. Many times I had teachers tell me which students would succeed in life and which would not. I didn’t believe they could predict that, and to my mind, they were more or less giving up on those who were profoundly deaf or who had additional problems. Dean had a terrible time during his school years at more than one school here in Dallas. Usually he and many others were kind of shuffled to the side. I taught him more at home than he learned in the classes. Other parents did the same, and we all began finding out about legislation to force teachers of the deaf at least to have one year of sign language as a requirement if they were going to teach deaf and hearing impaired students. It was a struggle but a wonderful victory when that changed. Alas, it was too late for a whole generation of deaf people and more.

There was some humor in the situations. One incident in particular stands out. A teacher who had been teaching the deaf for eighteen years called me to come interpret, and the first thing she said was, My students have a name sign for me, and I let them use it every morning. I asked the students to sign it for me, and they were signing Good morning, Bitch. Their name sign for her was Bitch, and they were enjoying her not knowing what it was. When I explained that to her, I also told her she needed not only to learn sign language, but she needed to learn the slang signs right away since most of them were also cussing about her. She refused and said she couldn’t learn sign language. I told her a gorilla had learned sign language and I thought she was probably smarter than Washoe. Thankfully the next year, she finally resigned from teaching the deaf.

As the years went by, Dean was punished in classes several times for signing, sometimes having his hands slapped, sometimes having to sit on his hands, and one time being put in a dark closet as punishment for signing. He developed some stress related anxieties from that. We were fortunate to find a therapist who not only explained how damaging all of this was for deaf students but was delighted to learn we were using signs and speech with Dean at home. He knew and used sign language in his practice, and although our time with him was short, we all learned a lot on how to help Dean.

One year Dean had a teacher that not only punished him physically, yanking his broken arm because she didn’t believe it was really broken but also was physically hitting him and the other deaf children. The sad part was that she knew sign language and had deaf parents herself, although she was not deaf. She was excellent at teaching the deaf, but the physical abuse was horrible. We complained, and finally she went somewhere else. By the time Dean was fourteen and was eligible to go to the Texas School for the Deaf in Austin, Texas, he was so far behind that it was impossible for him to catch up. He also had trouble reading, but his reading and writing did improve at TSD. He left TSD when he was 17 with the equivalent of a fifth grade education. Still, he was able to work at menial jobs, his reading level improved, and later he was able to get a driver’s license and worked at several jobs, but his health was never good. In time, he was able to live in his own apartment, take care of his own cooking, cleaning and daily living. But when he was in his early twenties, he developed mental problems, was hospitalized several times and finally diagnosed as schizophrenic. Sadly he died at age 35. He often asked me if I was ever going to write about deaf people or people who were different and how other people looked at them. This book is about that.

I make no apologies and in fact am very proud to have known many of the characters, both fictional and truthful in this book.

I wrote Cumberton’s Gold for a specific purpose and that was and is to present a compassionate look at what it means to be different in a sometimes unforgiving and intolerant world.

Thankfully, deaf people began to demand that deaf teachers be allowed to teach the deaf, and that deaf schools be staffed with deaf people and yes, even a deaf President at Gallaudet College. Also after years of frustration, it is wonderful to know that once again sign language is accepted and encouraged in many schools and classes for the hearing impaired. And most importantly that deafness is no longer equated with mental deficiency. Thank God too that babies can be tested for hearing impairments and other problems earlier, that fathers are allowed in the delivery rooms, and that much more is known about deafness and its ramifications in a hearing world.

Jeanette Howeth Crumpler

Dallas, Texas, 2010

Proverbs 16:16

INTRODUCTION

Tiny, the main character of this book, is indeed a special person as are all who are different. While you are reading about Tiny and her life as well as the other characters in this book, try to put yourself in their places and see things from their standpoints.

From my own knowledge of life with a hearing impaired parent, let me tell you a story.

I can’t seem to find anything wrong with your daughter healthwise, but she is deaf and dumb. She cannot hear or speak and make any sense. I don’t know what you are going to do with her except maybe put her into an institution of some kind for the remainder of her life. You certainly can’t raise her. You don’t have the time with farming and taking care of the other children you have. And it is not good for them to be around her.

This was in the 1920s and a doctor was speaking about my mother who was three years old at the time. And that was the diagnosis he gave to her parents.

They lived in a farming community in East Texas with very little to look forward to except milking cows, harvesting enough food to keep on the table and raising six children, all girls. Maybe we should say five girls and one who was considered deaf and dumb and mentally deficient.

The children playing with my mother would have death/funeral games and my mother was always the one who had passed away. If they played hide and seek, she was the one put in a far away place and left there, sometimes for hours before she was allowed to come out and be found.

The minister of their church told them there was an institution in Austin that took in deaf and dumb children and would be the place to take her. At the age of five and a half years, she was taken to the Texas School for the Deaf in Austin. The school was not named the deaf, dumb and mentally retarded school. She was in fact taken there to be left and not always allowed to come home again or so her parents thought. Three years passed and my mother was not brought home even for summer breaks, Thanksgiving or Christmas holidays. Other classmates’ parents would take my mother home with them for the holidays, but her own family did not have the time nor money to have her home, so they said.

Finally after four years, she was brought home one summer to help in the fields. It was almost impossible for them to communicate with her. Not one member of her family ever made the effort to learn sign language. After all, she wasn’t going to be around any more than necessary as she didn’t fit in.

Mother made many friends at the school in Austin and liked the people with whom she associated. She didn’t want to go home during the summertime, but she worked hard and looked forward to returning to the school as soon as possible.

In 1940 she graduated from the Texas School for the Deaf and did not return home. She moved to Dallas, attended a church and met my father who was hard of hearing. They got married two weeks later but only one of her five sisters came to their wedding.

Attending the Texas School for the Deaf in Austin had given Mother an opportunity to survive in a world which was often cold, cruel and had a lack of understanding and knowledge of the many trials and facts of life for the deaf or anyone who was different.

My parents had three children, all of whom had normal hearing. I was eleven years old when my father suddenly passed away. My mother had the responsibility of raising three children and running the family drapery, slip covering and upholstery business. With my Dad’s mother’s help, they worked very hard continuing to operate a very successful business.

When I, the oldest, was thirteen, my maternal grandmother passed away, and at the funeral home while standing over her casket, one of my Mother’s sisters introduced my Mother saying, This is our deaf and dumb sister.

I spoke up and told all of them that my Mother was deaf but far from dumb and that she did speak if the time was taken to understand her. I further explained that she had worked with the public for fifteen years and had a successful business. Then I said to my aunt, You’ve never worked, so who is so dumb?.

As children growing up we were not encouraged to use sign language but were taught to speak and talk with Mother naturally. She was an excellent lip reader and talked with us just as any normal, hearing person would. The pediatricians felt it was more important for hearing children to put sign language on the back burner so to speak. Mother became a more communicative hearing-impaired lady. Unlike her own family my Father’s family welcomed my Mother with open arms, learned to communicate with her and loved her as their own. Mother never was interested in spending much time with her own family and never spent Christmas or other holidays with any of them. Christmas gifts were always sent back to us and oddly enough, we never received any gifts from them until June or July.

At the time of my maternal grandmother’s death, the estate was misrepresented to my Mother. She was told by her sisters to sign certain paperwork which gave the sisters control because my Mother was not told how to handle certain affairs. But my Mother hired attorneys and she finally received what was her rightful inheritance. Before that settlement, three of her sisters came to our home to take her and us, the children, away. We were to be placed in an orphanage and the sisters were to take legal control of my Mother. They felt she was not capable of raising children nor managing money. After all, she was deaf and dumb.

This was a woman who helped run a business, raised her children, took care of her household, attended church, worked with the public and communicated with hearing business associates successfully.

The world is full of people who are misunderstood, are unknown and not given a chance to prove themselves. Hearing-impaired individuals are many and they are gentle, loving, caring and giving individuals who, given the opportunity to learn and develop, can be the most dependable people alive. Their circumstances, acceptance, eagerness to learn and opportunities to grow as individuals depend on those surrounding the hearing impaired and should not to be considered deaf and dumb.

Those who are truly deaf and dumb are the people who do not know the call of those who are different; those who are asking for help and acceptance. Those who are deaf and dumb are those who will not take the time to share, teach and encourage those who are different.

Wake up! Make the world truly a better and more accepting place for all peoples. Learn and then do something about it. Get to know Special People.

Jim Davis

Dallas, Texas

2010

SETTING:

The major setting is Cumberton, Oklahoma, a fictional town in South Central Oklahoma. It is a small rural township of 2,000 people.

TIME: From 1900 to the 1950s

CONTENT:

Each chapter in this novel is a complete story with a central character and several minor ones. Each is filled with vivid descriptions and richly drawn personalities. The main story is TINY, the story of a profoundly deaf from birth girl, growing up in Cumberton.

ALIKCHI

This is the story of Whitson Boyd Cumberton, pioneer and founder of Cumberton. His story traces his journey to the Oklahoma Territory before it became a state and his life with the Indians before he incorporates the town in 1907 when Oklahoma became a state.

TINY

Her story explains what it is like to be born profoundly deaf and how other people view her and her relationships with them. She grows up to be one of the first deaf teachers of deaf children. Other characters in this chapter are those who have the closest connections with Tiny and their impact on her life.

HAPPY

This unique little boy, who was raised on a farm near Cumberton, has the uncanny gift of being able to remember and say anything he has read or heard. He is developmentally retarded except for this gift. What seems to be a curse to his family becomes a blessing under the right circumstances. A very colorful picture of carnival life and the people in it is also presented as part of the story.

DELL AND MAY

The story of Dell and May describes a couple who live in Cumberton and are owners of the general store. Dell’s increasing problems with alcohol and gambling are presented with deep insight, and his wife, May who tried to cope with these.

NORTHWIND

This is the story of Ivar Bergitt, a woodcarver and farmer, his wife and their hard times during the Depression. It is also the story of his wife’s bouts of depression and how that affects his family.

THE ANTELOWS

A humorous account of what happens when oil is discovered on a poor farmer’s land, and how they react to being rich. It also deals with how grossly obese people are viewed.

POLLY BLUE EYES AND THE RIVER ROAD

Polly Blue Eyes has a cleft lip. She grows up in a cabin in the woods near Cumberton. There is folklore, herbal and nature information, soap making and other old timey crafts, and the story is about her joys and sorrows growing up in that setting.

THE KINDEST ACT

This is an unusual story of a young man who becomes the town’s undertaker, his experiences and life challenges.

LIFESTONES

The closing chapter of the book sums up the lives and destinies of the people in the town of Cumberton and surrounding areas.

CAST OF CHARACTERS:

WHITSON BOYD CUMBERTON—He is a pioneer and founder of the little town. His story traces his journey to the Oklahoma Territory which was called the Indian Nation before it became a state. His eagerness to pattern the area and the politics within it strengthens the interests of the farmers and ranchers who were the settlers coming from Kansas, Louisiana, Arkansas and Missouri. He incorporates the town and for many years, remains a great influence on the town and its citizens.

NORWIN BELLERTON—He has family money from cattle lands and oil income. Bellerton owns the bank and is Mayor of the town. He is smart, slow moving and very perceptive on how to use people. Quick thinking, though he sometimes acts the part of a good old boy, he is much smarter than people comprehend. He can’t always control his personal life and sometimes tries to buy love and loyalty.

SHELL HOLDEN—The County Surveyor and Judge of Cumberton. He is also an Elder in the Baptist church and was one of the first settler families in the area. Much respected and an acting Judge, he never went past the fourth grade in education but was a highly self-educated man. He is stern and somewhat narrow-minded.

DOCTOR—Though he is never given a name, he brought Tiny into the world, raised and provided for her and loved her deeply. He was instrumental in teaching her sign language. He also helped many people in the small town and is very concerned with the health and living conditions during the Depression years. Through that compassion, he tries to establish a clinic to promote health and hygiene. He is an old man when he brings Tiny into the world, but he lives long enough to see her on the road to learning.

TINY—A small deaf girl, who grows up in Cumberton, then leaves to go to the School for the Deaf in Sulphur in 1937. Her adjustment to the school and experiences there change her. Her growing up in a small town and its attitudes toward people who are different are told in her story. Her desire grows to become a teacher of the deaf, particularly in the rural areas. Her story tells of her struggles to be accepted for herself in Cumberton, Sulphur and later in Austin, Texas at the Texas School for the Deaf.

TESSA—A light-skinned, part gypsy, golden-eyed Negress who, after going through trials of her own, comes to Cumberton and ends up caring for Tiny, learns sign language and teaches Tiny many things. She provides love, stability and nurturing in Tiny’s life.

THE McIVERS:

WARREN—the father typifies the Oklahoma farmer. He loves the land that his parents settled on in 1901. He farms the land and tries to manage it wisely, seeing much of it suffer from drought and poor farming practices, and later the Depression years of the 1930s. He undergoes personal tragedy and through that learns compassion for different people.

DORA, Warren’s wife—A good, hardworking farm woman of the land. Loving but not demonstrative, she has lost two babies but has two strong sons and one daughter, Ivy, who suffers a hearing loss.

TODD—The older of Warren’s two sons is strong and intelligent and wants to make farming his life. He has great pride and is very stubborn about staying on the land.

MACKLIN—He is a follower, not a leader but is a hard worker who sometimes dreams of another way of life. He is gentle with a poetic nature, which doesn’t always fit into the harsh realties of farm life.

IVY—Young daughter of the McIvers who loses her hearing through Mastoiditis when she is six years old. She had good speech, but now she must cope with being completely deaf. She is a pretty child and is very bright. She and Tiny become good friends despite the age difference of her being six years older than Tiny. She learns sign language and although she will not attend a school for the deaf, she tries to bring an understanding of the deaf world into the public school.

JOHN STODDARD—The undertaker of the town. He has a close relationship with the Doctor. They remain good friends until the Doctor’s death. Stoddard is a strong kind man, rather a loner, both because of his profession and by his own choice. He is extremely intelligent but yearns for the old frontier days of the territory. His story is told in The Kindest Act.

DELL AND MAY CUMBERTON—Owners of the main general store in the town and they are relatives of the founder of the town. Dell is rather sour-faced and grumpy, always on the defensive. He is addicted to gambling and drinking. He and May are the poor relations of Whitson Cumberton. May is the hard working one but not able to gain wealth. She is ruddy-faced with feathery gray hair and is plump and jovial. May has strength but can’t stop Dell’s drinking and gambling. She has no children but is drawn to children who are different.

THE BERGITTS:

Their story is told in Northwind.

IVAR BERGITT—The father is of immigrant stock who first came to New York, then he comes finally to farm the land near Cumberton. He has a great love for the land and is a talented wood carver.

LARISSA BERGITT—Ivar’s wife is a dreamer who is quiet and depressed. The land to her is joyless, and she hates the wind and cold of the Oklahoma winters and the dust and drought of the summers.

BERTINE and WILOMENA—The Bergitt daughters. They are faced with early responsibility and are hard working and quickly maturing girls.

THE ANTELOWS—Anson, Mertha, Corene and Irene. Theirs is a funny yet poignant story of what can happen to poor farm families when oil money comes in.

MERWYN HAPPY OLIVER—Happy is the story of a unique little boy from a farm near Cumberton. He has the uncanny gift of being able to remember and say anything he has read or heard. Being so different, he is not understood by his family, although they love him. They just don’t understand what to do with him. The reactions of others are varied and surprising. This story also presents a very colorful picture of carnival life and the people in it.

POLLY RANKIN—Her story is told in Polly Blue Eyes and The River Road. There are wonderful descriptions of what it was like to be a child growing up in a log cabin in the woods. Her mother and grandmother give Polly a real love of nature, plants, animals and other joys of the outdoor world. There are lots of herbal lore, gardening, soap and candle making and other folklore in it.

HOLMES DAVIS—He is one of the two deputies in Cumberton. He is good looking and a bit of a rake.

GLENN RED DODD—The other deputy in the town. He is a decent family man who tries to personify what law and order are all about. He has high morals and brings much courage and devotion to his job.

There are various other minor characters involved in each of the stories.

CHAPTER ONE

ALIKCHI

His real name was Whitson Boyd Cumberton, and he founded the little town about 1899. Alikchi meant Medicine Man in Choctaw,