| |
Groovin'
at The Grove by
Clay Coppedge | |
THE
GROVE People
who drop by Dube's General Store here expecting to see a ghost town might leave
disappointed. But if proprietor Moody Anderson is there, the visitor won't leave
uninformed.
Anderson is the owner of the store, which he bought lock,
stock and cracker barrel in 1972. Then he stocked it with everything from candles
to coffins. The only place you are likely to find more one-of-a-kind antiques
is at his private warehouse west of Austin.
|
Writer
T. Lindsay Baker included The Grove
in a book he wrote on "Ghost Towns of Texas." Anderson tried to dissuade him of
the notion. "I told him that his idea of a ghost town and my idea of a ghost town
must be about 180 degrees different," Anderson says. "A ghost town is abandoned.
Nobody ever goes there. That's not the case here."
Indeed, The
Grove is the scene of a lot of pickin' and grinnin' especially on Jamboree
night the third Saturday of each month. Once a year, when The
Grove celebrates itself with The Grove Homecoming the town swells to many
times its normal size. This year's celebration begins October 8 and continues
the next two days; Saturday the ninth is the big day, when a parade kicks off
the celebration.
Residents - real ghost towns don't have residents -
marvel that the 76-year old Anderson conducts all the business on Jamboree night
himself, including the lifting and toting. He stays until people are ready to
go home, then puts up the chairs and closes up. More often than not, he sleeps
upstairs in a restored turn-of-the-century doctor's office.
Anderson
started his extensive and unique antique collection about fifty years ago with
some antique blacksmith tools.
Today a partial inventory reveals cigars,
Arbuckle's coffee, cholera tablets, chill tonics, cough syrups, collars and hairnets,
pots, pans, singletrees, tethers, tobacco powder and grits and groceries of every
description, all of it dating back to 19th or very early 20th century. Anderson's
collection has provided movie companies with an almost endless supply of props,
especially for projects with a historical setting like "Lonesome Dove" and "The
Newton Boys."
Cary White, a production designer for the movie "American
Outlaws," said in a 2000 Austin Chronicle interview that he has been working with
Anderson since 1988, when Anderson opened a little shop on South Congress called
The Texas Trader. "Moody's a wonderful guy, and because of him it's been possible
to make movies in this town," White said. "I credit Moody with a lot of the success
the film business has had in this town."
Anderson likes working with
the movie companies but said he much prefers the laid-back and down home atmosphere
of The Grove to Hollywood.
The
Grove, named for its large stand of live oak trees, sits just off Highway 36 on
the fertile, flinty edge of the Leon River Valley.
Anderson notes that
the town's first well was dug with a pick and crowbar by Jim Whitmore in 1872.
Anderson says the first 12 feet consisted of almost solid rock, but at 28 feet
Whitmore hit a source of water that has never run dry, not even during the most
severe droughts.
The town soon grew to more than 400 people and had three
cotton gins and a slew of stores.
"I've got pictures of the cotton wagons
lined up from Wolfe's gin all the way down this road," Anderson says.
In 1936, the Texas Highway Department (now the Texas Department of Transportation)
told the people in The Grove
that they would have to cover the well if they wanted Highway 36 to run through
town.
People in The Grove
refused to cap the well, which still provides water today. That's why The
Grove sits a little way off the main highway.
The town held on, but
was hit with a double whammy. First, Fort Hood took about 250,000 acres from area
farmers and ranchers. Then 50,000 more acres disappeared under the waters of Lake
Belton. Still, the town has survived. In addition to about forty residents, the
community has a post office, bank, ice house and meat locker, all circa 1900.
The upstairs doctor's office is dedicated to J.J. Mitchell, the town's first doctor.
Other buildings include Holcomb's blacksmith shop and the Cocklebur Saloon.
For a few years now, Anderson has talked about hanging it up. But so far
all he has done is talk.
"I can see selling it in a few years, but I
want to sell it to somebody who will keep it going," he said. "I'd hate to see
all this auctioned off a piece at a time." | |
|
