Project Overview

“I applied to all the dry goods stores in Huntsville for a job, but I couldn’t get one.  So, I went to Southwestern Bell in the Spring of ’24 and they gave me a job.  We were putting down a line from Huntsville to Madisonville.  Oh, it was hot; it was dry.  We had to dig those holes by hand with post hole diggers.  In the fall, Jesse E. Bryan, who owned Bryan Dry Goods Store, got a hold of me and gave me a job.  And I was delighted to get out of that hard work so I could dress up, you know?”  And so begins an account by JN Scarborough of his long and successful entrepreneurial career on the Square in Huntsville, Texas.

“The Square” is one of 24 stories collected thus far in a 4-volume set entitled Walker County Stories.  The brainchild of David Carpender, the “stories” were begun in 1993 as a collection of oral histories chronicling  life within historic Walker County.  Working in collaboration with his wife, Kay, the pair has recorded hundreds of hours of conversations with various long-time residents of the county on a wide variety of subjects. 

Careful editing with regard to general interest and diversity of topic follow.  The stories are illustrated with archival photographs and produced in a slide show format which is eventually transferred to video cassette or CD ROM.  Each story requires many hours of production time and is definitely a labor of love for the Carpenders.