A Brief Account of the Hetherington and Broughton Families

Compiled by Charlie Tillery

Recollections of John and Margaret Hetherington

Grandpa fed the horses, grafted fruit trees, picked the ripe fruit tended bees and robbed their hives, made baskets and bottomed chairs with white oak strips, brought in the fire wood, and started the fires with kerosene and wood ashes. He snored when he took his afternoon nap, and walked with his feet turned slightly out. He was not a large man, weighing-perhaps not more than one hundred thirty pounds. He was seldom sick with cold or other illness. There was a certain amount of sternness about him, but I know that generally he was generous and kind. It was his custom to keep peppermint stick candy on hand, which he bought by the box, and he seldom forgot to pass it around to the visiting grandchildren.

He had false teeth and glasses, purchased from a transient dentist and a passing optician. He loved to sit in the chimney corner and read newspapers ‘ and magazine stories. He was an excellent domino player. He valued highly a muzzle-loading shot gun, and occasionally would hunt rabbits, squirrels, or birds. He did not smoke or chew tobacco, but loved coffee, which he drank at every meal. If he could not have hot coffee, he would drink it cold.

He was a conscientious father and did what he could to enable his sons and daughters to get started in earning a living. I know that he lived very frugally so that what he had might be left for his children.

He talked a little differently from his neighbors; his pronunciation and phrasing were not quite the same. I have never decided whether this manner of speech was a family trait, or whether it was the common way of talking in the locality from which he came. Grandma also talked differently from the neighbors, often leaving out syllables and contracting words, and failing to sound letters, especially r’e.  When she said John Monroe, it sounded something like “Jaim-ro.” All the Hetherington sons and daughters retained something of this manner of speaking, and it is even noticeable in a good many of the grandchildren.

Grandma did the housekeeping, the cooking, and most of the laundry for her family. She was rather tall and thin and likely weighed about one hundred and twenty pounds. She suffered from indigestion and prickly heat and occasional colds and bronchial ailments. Mama helped her often with the ironing and at times with some of the other chores. I am sure also that grandpa must have helped with the sweeping and some of the heavier tasks. Like grandpa, she enjoyed reading, and like him she had dentures and glasses. She dipped snuff, insisting she started the habit through smoking a pipe for the tooth ache.

She helped her daughters and also her daughters-in-law to bring their babies into the world, staying with them and doing the housekeeping and cooking and nursing until the mother was able to take over.  In her younger days she was a great hand to nurse the sick in the neighborhood, often leaving her own family to do so.

She and grandpa went to bed with the chickens and got up before dawn. I suppose that this had been a life-long habit.

She liked to visit with Aunt Sarah McCoy and her sister, Susan, and other old-time relatives and friends and recall memories of Civil War times and early days in Alabama and relatives and friends they had known.

She was thrifty, and I am positive that it was her desire to do everything she could to provide for the future well-being of her children and grandchildren. I do not remember any incident that would indicate the slightest lack of friendliness, co-operation, and affection between grandpa and grandma, or between them and their children.

As in all families, the Hetheringtons have some strong traits of character and personality and some somewhat below the average. Family ties are close and important. The men are conscientious and faithful husbands and fathers, the women good wives and mothers. Indeed, I believe the mother instinct in these women is unusually pronounced and their love for their children is almost without limit. Those members of the family who have remained at Reagan, Texas, have established a firm reputation of consistently and promptly taking care of their obligations and of being industrious and dependable in every way. They have a keen sense of right and wrong and a profound desire to do what is right.

In general, I would say that this family is somewhat below the average in musical talent and artistic temperament. Few of them have shown natural ability as singers, musicians, writers, artists, or public speakers. They are inclined to be somewhat inarticulate, and do not possess an easy flow of language. They have not excelled as good mixers or community leaders. But they have been substantial citizens and considerate neighbors, standing for right and decency, being thrifty, conservative, and law-abiding, and owning their own homes and making every effort to provide for the future and their old age.