While looking on the Weatherford Chamber of Commerce Web site recently, the following announcement caught my attention: “27th Annual Shaw-Kemp Open House. Visit the 1856 log cabin, Nebo Valley Jail, Nebo School and Church, Nebo Grocery Store and Post Office, Doc Tanners house and Dentist office, Nebo Valley Bank, and the Nebo Valley Barber Shop.”

My first question was, where in the world is Nebo? I contacted the chamber office and got directions, and Saturday morning we headed toward Weatherford. The directions said to turn off Texas 171 south of Weatherford onto the Granbury Road, go six miles to Kemp Road and turn left.

After we got on the Granbury Road my wife made the comment about there being so much traffic, especially for a Saturday. I told her it was probably because of the Kemp Open House we were going to. Her reply was, “Oh, there won’t be many people there.”

After we turned onto Kemp Road we went about a half-mile and then through a gate onto a gravel drive for another half-mile. All along the drive were pieces of horse-drawn farm equipment, plows, cultivators, etc., sitting out away from the road. At one spot there was a buggy sitting in a field of bluebonnets.

We did not arrive until noon. The early arrivals were leaving, and there was a steady stream of cars leaving to match the stream of cars entering. When we got to the parking area there were at least 200 cars there.

Our first stop was the building that housed the church and school house. Several old-time church pews were here along with several old-time school desks with initials carved in them. In one corner was an old teacher’s desk and chair that the Shaw family had saved that had been used at the Nebo School. Here we met Artie Norman, who was sitting at the desk and visiting with all the children who came by. She had taught school south of Abilene for a while and taught at Aledo for 19 years before retiring a few years ago.

At the back of the school were two merry-go-rounds and two see-saws, which the children were playing on.

Just past the school was the Nebo Valley Jail and Sheriff’s Office. There were two jailbirds in black-and-white-stripped suits sitting on a bench in front of the jail letting the children have their picture made with them.

The Blackwell Grocery also had the post office boxes in one end. They had many old bottles that lineament and condiments once came in sitting on the shelves, along with some old canned goods. In front of the store was an old hand-operated gas pump with the glass container at the top with the gallons marked on the side. Using the hand lever you pumped the gas up into this container until it filled to the amount you wanted and then it was gravity flow down the hose to your car’s tank. There was an old Model A truck sitting by the gas pump with its hood raised so you could examine the engine.

The barber shop and bath house had two barber chairs in it that were each more than 100 years old. There was a razor strop hanging on the wall and several straight razors. In one end of the room was a long, galvanized tub for taking baths. They were also conservative with their water. The sign over the tub read, 15 cents first bath, 5 cents second bath.

The 1856 Shaw cabin is about a quarter-mile on down the drive from the rest of the buildings. The original one-room log cabin was built in 1856, and another room was added later, along with a long porch on the front and back of the house. There is a lot of period furniture here along with bedding and kitchen utensils.

At the back of the house is the old log corn crib with a wagon shed on each side. A covered wagon was sitting under one of the sheds.

Larry Dennis from the Hill Country Furniture Store at Natty Flatt was driving the tractor around with the hay trailer giving hay rides. The weather was nice Saturday, with just enough cloud cover to keep the sun from being too hot. We decided to walk the quarter mile to the Shaw house and back rather than ride the hay wagon.

On the way back, as we neared the jail, a large man carrying his hat in his hands and his clothes with a disheveled look came staggering by. It looked like he might fall down any time. My wife asked, “Who’s that, the town drunk?” Well almost: It was Otis from Mayberry who had just staggered out of the jail. The complete Mayberry gang was there.

Each spring for the past 27 years the Kemp family has invited the public to come take a tour of their family home place and the frontier structures they have collected from around the countryside. The tour is held during the spring while the bluebonnets are in bloom, and the aroma of the bluebonnets wafts across the valley as you tour the structures.

This is a very popular destination as attested to by the large crowd that was there. This is a chance to get out, view the bluebonnets and see what life was like on the early Texas frontier.

The family is already making plans for next year’s tour.

See you next year at bluebonnet time: April 19, 2008.



John Watson is a Cleburne

resident who may be reached at

texastraveler@sbcglobal.net.