Granddaddy William Abner 'Ab' Livingston had been a successful farmer in west Texas in the Post and Spur areas east of Lubbock. He moved his wife, five sons and two daughters to the community of Goshe, in East Texas near Petty, which as you know is just west of Paris, Texas. In 1932 at the age of fifty-six dad was working his rented 200 acres using his state-of-the-art John Deere to disc his fields. ''Now that Deere had steel rear wheels with lugs rather than tires. To lift the implement you would pull a rope 'to trip the bull wheel. ' With one end of the rope attached to the lift mechanism the other end of the rope could hang loose, be tie to the tractor, or be tied around your neck if you wanted it to. ' 'Well, Dad was disking as usual by himself one afternoon. He got to the end of a row, going into a turn and needed to lift the disc. He reached back to pull the rope with his right hand just as the partial turn caused enough slack so that the rope caught on a wheel lug. The slack had allowed the rope to become wrapped around his upper arm. Almost instantly the rope grabbed his arm and was about to pull dad backward off the tractor. Dad was able to hit the hand-operated clutch with his left hand which almost instantly stopped the tragedy about to happen. ' 'Probably in a slight state of shock dad sat beside the tractor for several moments trying to recover. The hide on his arm was not broken, but the muscle from shoulder to elbow had been severely stretched down his arm bone. ' 'After some time Jesse Hutchins, a neighbor, drove by and noticed dad and the stopped tractor in the field. He took dad to the house and then into Roxton to the doctor. Doctor Creed was unable to do anything to help dad other than try and work the muscle back into place. Apparently nothing had been torn loose. ' 'Dad was laid up for a while and we boys finished the fieldwork. Dad recovered and lived to be 74. He passed away while residing in Paris, Texas. ' Harvey McFadden, TX, entered 2002-06-18
My Email Address: Not Displayed | 
