Pipes Farm History - 12600 FM 916

Map of 12600 and 12700 FM 916:

Barn at 12600 FM 916:

[PHOTO OF FRONT]

Was on the property when Charlie Pipes bought the farm, though Charlie added the sheds on the side. Charlie used the barn to store ear corn and bailed hay for his livestock. The tin siding was added by Charlie, but the tin roof hasn't been replaced since the barn was built, and Kenneth Pipes said that the roof tin is most likely over 100 years old. The lumber currently stored in the barn loft is from an old house at the "North Place" that the help used to live in (located on CR 206).

Hog pen at 12600 FM 916:

Built in 1957 by Kenneth Pipes, made in high school for raising hogs. Used it until he went out of the hog business in the early 1990s. Kenneth took his hogs to sell in Ft. Worth, Newhoff packing plant in Dallas, and Columbia packing in Dallas. 

Destroyed in 2008, vacant since early 1990s. 

Windmill:

Windmill and well was here when Charlie Pipes bought the farm. Circa 1880. About 80 feet deep.

Pecan Trees:

Several pecan trees that are __ years old.

Ponds:

Three ponds. One dried up, source was spring. Charlie Pipes dug the pond at 12700 FM 916 out of a gully. One time the dam broke and you could hear the water gushing out up at the house. They had to rebuild the levee once the pond was empty.

Chambers Creek:

Old Bridge:

CR closed during WW2.  County discontinued maintenance on it because it wasn't as necessary, automobiles people could driver farther. Bridge was dismantled for scrap in 1950s.

Charlie William Pipes

Charlie William Pipes

(July 19, 1901 – October 16, 1979)

Picture of Charlie (baby) and his older brother, Thomas.

Charlie William Pipes was born on July 19, 1901 in Johnson County, Texas to Buford Elbert Pipes (age 26) and Eda Jane McFerrin (age 27). He was the second oldest of seven children, all whom were boys. As a child he attended a rural school house in Salem, located on CR 205 near Grandview, Texas. One autumn he stayed home from school to pick cotton on the farm, and afterward he never returned to school. He had finished his schooling around 5th grade.

Picture of Salem, or Bethel, school in 1903 or 1904.He learned about farming from his father, Buford, and together they worked as tenant farmers on the Mayfield farm. Charlie was a self-employed farmer with his primary crop being cotton.

Picture of Charlie, about 18 years of age

At the age of 36, he married Mattie Beth Stiles (age 24) on July 24, 1937 at the home of Mattie Beth's parents, Jiles and Una Stiles. After a honeymoon in Waco, they moved in with Charlie's parents on the Mayfield farm in the Salem Community (2 miles northeast of Grandview, Texas). Buford's parents and brothers moved out because the landlord ended their lease, yet continued to allow Charlie and his family to work and live on the farm. They lived there until 1943.

On October 24, 1940 Charlie (age 39) and Mattie Beth (age 27) gave birth to their only child, William Kenneth Pipes, who was born at the Mayfield Farm.

picture of Auburn house

When he was 40 (in 1941), he bought the "Kuykendahl" farm, or the "Auburn house", as an investment. There used to be a cotton gin in front of the Kuykendall house, but was gone before Charlie acquired the property. Charlie allowed his brother and sister-in-law, Winston and Betty Pipes, to live in the house for a time. Then his parents, Buford and Eda Jane, moved into the house around 1944, since they were asked to leave the Mayfield farm.

picture of the Pipes (or "Great's" house)

At the age of 42 (in 1943) he bought a house and farmstead at 12700 FM 916 near Grandview, Texas.

picture of cow trailer

Kenneth, his son, remembers when Charlie had bought a custom-made cow trailer in Ft. Worth, which he used to take to the Stockyards to sell his cattle. He could fit two cows and a calf into the trailer that was made of oak wood. He also used this to haul cotton, or to take a group of friends and family fishing.

picture of shack

There was also a small shack out behind their house where he would board hired negro familes who picked cotton in the fields.

picture of Charlie

Charlie was known as "Grandaddy" by his three grandchildren, and he never met his nine great-grandchildren.

On October 16, 1979, Charlie passed away in Johnson County, Texas. He was buried at the Grandview Cemetery in Grandview, Texas.

picture of gravestone

How we are related:

(1) Charlie William Pipes & Mattie Beth Stiles
(2) --- William Kenneth Pipes & Jerry Ann Priest
(3) ------A. Pipes & G. Tatum
(4) ---------L. Ducommun & M. Ducommun