There is a grave in the middle of a farm road in southeast Stephens County near the community of Necessity.\u00a0 My maternal grandfather, Gus Haskins, owned the farm adjacent to the grave at one time.<\/p>\n
One day manly years ago, an elderly cousin went to the Necessity cemetery to place some flowers.\u00a0 There were some other people there walking around looking at tombstones.\u00a0 She approached them and introduced herself.\u00a0 They began a conversation about some of the pioneers of the community.\u00a0 A woman in the group asked the location of the grave in the middle of the road as she wanted to see it.\u00a0 She said that her mother had told her about the grave and Mr. Haskins who lived next to it.\u00a0 She pointed to my grandfather\u2019s grave and said, \u201cThat is his grave right over there.\u201d\u00a0 She proceeded to tell my cousin that her mother said that Mr. Haskins had taken boards from the underpinning of his house to make a \u201cbox\u201d (coffin) for the woman.\u00a0 My cousin told her that her maiden name was Haskins and that Gus was her uncle.\u00a0 The cousin immediately told family members this wonderful story about my grandfather.<\/p>\n
My grandfather was not \u201ckid friendly.\u201d\u00a0 His grandchildren definitely were to be seen and not heard.\u00a0 (We were not sure he even wanted to see us.)\u00a0 We cherished this story that humanized him in our eyes.<\/p>\n
Several years later I stopped and read the marker at the grave.\u00a0 The woman died in 1884.\u00a0 Oh dear!\u00a0 My grandfather was born in 1872.\u00a0 He would have been only 12 years old and had not yet arrived in Stephens County in 1884. He was not<\/u> farming in Necessity then.\u00a0 My cousins and I were disappointed.\u00a0 One of my cousins asked me not to tell anyone because \u201cit is such a good story.\u201d\u00a0 We all wanted to believe it.<\/p>\n
Yes, it is a good story.\u00a0 It is just not a true story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There is a grave in the middle of a farm road in southeast Stephens County near the community of Necessity. My maternal grandfather, Gus Haskins, owned the farm adjacent to the grave at one time. One day manly years ago, an elderly cousin went to the Necessity cemetery to place some flowers. There were some […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,1],"tags":[176,177,178],"class_list":["post-566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-other-things","category-uncategorized","tag-good-story","tag-grave-in-road","tag-necessity-texas"],"yoast_head":"\n