G.M.C. “Cade” Massey
My grandfather, G.M.C. Massey, started his career as a teacher in East Texas but eventually taught many places around Texas, notably a memorable year in Asherton in South Texas as well as the West Texas town of Snyder, as described here.
Well we soon landed at Snyder, and when I went to the Co. Judges office to see about the schools that had had no teachers for the Year; I walked in on a man that was of my name, and he said that he was a first cousin to my Daddy; and told me that he lived there and his brother did too; and that they were contractors; and At that time they had 35 houses under construction, and that If I didn’t get something that I really wanted that they would give me work as long as I wanted it; but before he had quit talking the co. judge said that a trustee of one of the schools that was wanting a teacher had just walked in, and we were very soon on a deal; And in a few minutes we had made arrangements to go on out with him, and when we arrived at his house he soon had the other trustees over there; and before we went to bed we had closed out a trade, and our school began on MONDAY, and this was Saturday night; And one of the trustees was sending his daughter to Snyder to school; and when he found out my qualifications; He said that He wouldn’t have to send Pearl to Snyder now as I could teach her too; And that I thought was going to put me to the test; but I soon found out that it was not going to be any test at all; but upon one occasion I really thought that I had flubbed it; for we had an example in GEOMETRY that had to have a figure drawn from the reading of the example; and when worked out by algebra, and I failed to get it for a few days, and when the end of the week came Pearl Ray, the pupil said that she was going to take it to Prof. Hudgens at Snyder (That was the Supt. At the Snyder schools); and he was her math Teacher there; and she knew that he would get it right off; and she took it to him, and he worked on it for hours; and sent me word that he thought that there was a mistake in the statement someway; And when Pearl came to school the next Monday I had worked it out on the board; I had gone down there on the thing and had stayed with it till I had gotten it on the SATURDAY that she had taken it to him; and when she came in and found it worked out on the blackboard; she could hardly believe her own eyes.
Now she was Good in math herself, and when she throwed her eyes on that problem she was frank in saying that that was the best that she had ever seen; And she told me that she was going to take that to Prof. Hudgens for he thought if he couldn’t get a problem that there was always something wrong with the problem; And she knew that this was right for it proved out from every angle; And I told her to be sure to show every bit of the analysis to him in the problem as she copied, and she got it fixed up right away and went to Snyder during the week after hours and gave the Problem to him and he was astounded at the presentation of the Problem, and Pearl said that he tried to pick a flaw in it and that he finally said that that was surely as right as the BIBLE; and he wanted to see me just as soon as I could arrange to come to town. But I was in no hurry at all, and when Pearl asked me a few weeks later if I had seen The Prof. yet; and I told her that I was in no hurry to see him that I thought that we were going to be able to take care of ourselves; and asked her if she didn’t think so; But she said that the Prof. Wanted to proffer me the chair of mathematics in the Snyder high school; And told me that the Prof. wanted her to tell me to come to see him If I was interested in a deal like that; But I didn’t go to see him till my school was out and I was working there in Snyder, and he had questioned around about me and found that I was working for Cousin Jeff, and he came over to see me at his house (Uncle Jeff’s house) and begged me to consider staying out west and taking the place on the teaching staff.
Well as soon as I got started on my school, I wrote to my wife to come on out there and stay with me while I was teaching the school; Fore the people that I was boarding with offered to let my wife stay there and the two babies for the same that I was paying (so that was just double what I was paying anyway), So at the end of my first month they arrived, and they stayed with me for a month, and then they went home and I stayed out the next month; and then moved into Snyder to my cousin’s as it really was and worked with him for sometime before I went home.
Buller's back porch 