Saving Glory's Storage Box

This little storage box was made for Granny’s friend Glory Lovelace by her second husband Charles Vermillion. He was a violin maker and made this box for her to store her woolens during the summer.

Granny loved Glory, without reservation. She was the only person I knew of that Granny loved in this way. Glory certainly was a good sweet person. I remember her as always being sunny and smiling. She was in the Lovelace compound on Fontana Ave. in Tucson when my mother and I went there for a new start in 1947. There were four Lovelace siblings there, Olin, Law, Glory and Truman Grace and “the old mother”. The other sister, Willow used to visit from Texas. They were decedents of Daniel Boone who had gone to Texas after the Civil War. The Father who led the migration was a former “Slave Driver” in the south.

They got to the Mississippi and the rest of the wagon train decided to postpone their departure due to information about Indian raids and attacks in Texas. (probably due to the preoccupation of the Federal Army with the Civil War) The Tribes through out the southwest had a reprieve from Army reprisals and were attacking migrants. I heard this at Ft. Bowie and concerning the Butterick Stage route through the Chirichuas and Apache Pass. The Lovelace family decided to continue on to Texas alone. A cattleman asked them to take a herd of cattle with them and they would divide the herd upon delivery of the Cattle in Texas. They delivered the Cattle and were told that they would “settle up” in the morning. In the morning the cattle and the receivers were gone. The Lovelace clan was afraid to pursue the “rustlers”.

The family lived a hard scrabble life. The mother, a daughter of the original settler, was a sort of matriarch in the family, reading and teaching her own interpretation of the bible to the the family. My mother was kind of fascinated with her interpretation. I remember the reference she made to “blood and water” associating the bible reference to childbirth, where there is both blood and water. She was in her 90s when we got to Tucson and bed ridden. Truman and Glory cared for her, turning her every two hours day and night and working full time too.

They were all very good to me. Helen, Law’s wife taught me to iron shirts and to sew, using a pattern. I played with their 3 little girls, Carol, Genowyn, and Dorothy. My mother taught all 3 the piano and said they were excellent pupils.

I have held on to this little box, given me by Truman to help furnish the “Little House on the Prairie”. Glory always said how much she loved Charles. A real sunset years love story. If you have a corner, hang on to it.