H.L. "Boy" Griffin, Jr. moved with his parents from Opelika, Ala., to Hardeman County, Texas, in 1889 near his tenth birthday. As a boy, he attended school and worked briefly in his father's and older brother John's grocery store in Clarendon, Texas, and later as a cowboy on the famous Colonel Charles Goodnight ranch. In 1897, six weeks before his 18th birthday, his mother died. Boy served for a brief time in the Army during the 1898 Spanish-American War then, when his father returned to Alabama, took over the family ranch in Hardeman County near Lazare, Goodlett and Quanah. In 1907, he married May Eva Ricks who had moved from Missouri to Texas with her family about 1901. Soon after their marriage, the couple moved to Amarillo, Texas, where Boy worked again in a grocery store for his brother John and where the couple's first two sons, Eugene and Houston III, were born. However, Boy was not an indoor type and they soon moved back to the ranch that he loved in Hardeman County. Here, four more children, Merle, Marion, Horace and Fern, were born. Boy and May remained on the ranch for the rest of their lives raising wheat, feed grains and some cotton; but cattle were Boy's main interest and the farming was usually done in support of the cattle and the hogs which he raised for pork. May kept chickens, turkeys and a vegetable garden; and the children all helped perform the necessary chores that living on a ranch entailed. May died in 1943 and Boy followed in 1950 after several years of poor health.
H.L. "Boy" Griffin, Jr. moved with his parents from Opelika, Ala., to Hardeman County, Texas, in 1889 near his tenth birthday. As a boy, he attended school and worked briefly in his father's and older brother John's grocery store in Clarendon, Texas, and later as a cowboy on the famous Colonel Charles Goodnight ranch. In 1897, six weeks before his 18th birthday, his mother died. Boy served for a brief time in the Army during the 1898 Spanish-American War then, when his father returned to Alabama, took over the family ranch in Hardeman County near Lazare, Goodlett and Quanah. In 1907, he married May Eva Ricks who had moved from Missouri to Texas with her family about 1901. Soon after their marriage, the couple moved to Amarillo, Texas, where Boy worked again in a grocery store for his brother John and where the couple's first two sons, Eugene and Houston III, were born. However, Boy was not an indoor type and they soon moved back to the ranch that he loved in Hardeman County. Here, four more children, Merle, Marion, Horace and Fern, were born. Boy and May remained on the ranch for the rest of their lives raising wheat, feed grains and some cotton; but cattle were Boy's main interest and the farming was usually done in support of the cattle and the hogs which he raised for pork. May kept chickens, turkeys and a vegetable garden; and the children all helped perform the necessary chores that living on a ranch entailed. May died in 1943 and Boy followed in 1950 after several years of poor health.
Family Members
Siblings
