Page 23 - Senior Link Magazine Winter 2020- Lubbock Online Magazine
P. 23
HISTORY OF LUBBOCK
kept and sometimes treated by local
veterinarians.
I, too, had the pleasure of growing
up around the famed mulberry tree
and windmill. I remember gazing
out upon the tree and windmill
in 1983 when “Return of The
Jedi” was debuting at the Winchester
Kayla Petropoulos, Karin McCay and James Theater, where the ranch had once
Tuttle in front of Winchester Theater – 1996.
resided. Later, I met and fell in
had. She was said to have even love with one of the last known
Early years of the mulberry tree. cooked in the dark, holding an oil persons to have climbed the great
Read the story of this tree on p. 24 lamp, when the electricity went out. mulberry. We have a picture of
Kayla Petropoulos, my future
relatively few still living who were According to Fern, on Sundays, wife and great-great granddaughter
lucky enough to experience its surrounding residents usually of J.K. and Callie Caraway, standing
rugged beauty. gathered for a fish fry, while at Winchester Square in 1996,
the children played in the large with KCBD news reporter, Karin
In 1892, J.K. planted a mulberry mulberry. Friday nights, the adults
tree, brought from a creek near often got together to play “42” with McCay. Karin was interviewing
Austin, out in front of their house. dominos. Kids would tire out and James Tuttle, arborist, the day the
The house itself was situated at fall asleep among the pile of coats mulberry was finally removed at the
what would later become the corner until everyone was ready to go home. age of 104.
of 50th and Indiana. For many Whoever had won the most games Though it marked the end to a
years, an old metal pot for washing would win the set of dominos. Fern century old landmark and a living
clothes and a couple of watering pits also vividly remembers that, when (but silent) witness of Lubbock’s
dug out of the earth for watering prairie fires would spread quickly early formation, images of the great
animals stood by the tree. The tree across the open land, a calf would mulberry, the windmill and the
and the windmill survived long be killed and skinned. The skin Skillet Ranch serve as cherished
enough to become beloved fixtures would be soaked in water and then symbols. They remind us of the time
as the city of Lubbock grew up dragged behind a horse with one of when brave pioneers and settlers
around them. the children riding along to smudge paved the way for Lubbock’s
Many travelers stopped by the the fires out. success and growth and inspire us
Skillet Ranch seeking shade and J.K. Caraway served on the founding to continue to courageously invest
water. They tied their horses board for Lubbock County in in the future – much like planting a
to a snubbing post close to the 1908, and later tree.
house while they relaxed in rocking became County
chairs on the porch. The ranch Commissioner.
was known as “Headquarters” He also opened
because it was often the place up the Livery
where surrounding farmers, Stable in
ranchers or hunters met before downtown
they headed out. It was a popular Lubbock. Ranchers
stop because it was one of the few and farmers
places for travelers to rest up, get would frequent
fed and have ample water. Mammy the stable where
was often found in the kitchen their horses were
cooking with whatever food they
Lubbock Senior Link 23
