The Kit Birdwell Family - Family Histories

     Eli Moore Birdwell (1886 - 1959), was better known as "Kit," remembered by many as a merchant in Novice during the Depression and World War II years. His wife, Mattie (1887 - 1956), was constantly at his side. Kit was the fourth child of pioneer farmers Eli G. and Sallie (Hoffman) Birdwell (see Eli G. Birdwell). Mattie's parents, John and Susie (Farmer) Pringle, ran a store in Novice (see John Pringle). In 1905, Mattie Beatrice Pringle was a new girl in the community, her family having just arrived from Tarrant County, when she first met Kit. On April 19, 1908, they were married.

During their early years together, Kit and Mattie lived briefly in Dallas and Kennedale, but mostly farmed near Novice. In 1918, they were living in Kennedale. helping Mattie's father and two maiden aunts take care of her two youngest sisters, when Kit was notified by telephone that his brother was critically ill. He understood it was his mother who was ill. Unable to get a jitney, he set out walking, then got a ride to Fort Worth, and took the train to Novice. Kit was just getting over the flu himself. His brother, Burt, died soon afterward, and Kit's family moved back to Novice to be with his mother.

     Opal Inez and Susie Alene, the two daughters of Kit and Mattie, attended Novice schools. As a school assignment, Opal once wrote a history of Novice - with the help of a retired teacher known as Professor Rickard (see Rickard) and some rare back issues of the local newspaper, The Novice Nugget - but the paper she wrote has unfortunately been lost.

     In the 1930's, Kit and Mattie bought her father's general merchandise store in Novice. Alene found great delight, as a teenager, in driving her father's Model A Ford pickup truck to make deliveries.

     Early in World War II, Kit and Mattie relocated their grocery store in a new building near the highway. Those were the days when the main highway went through Novice. Convoys of army trucks carrying soldiers often stopped there. About 1945, they retired to the farm. Later they lived briefly in Abilene, then returned to Novice and opened another store, retiring from business in the early 1950's. They built three houses in Novice at various times. The Birdwells were life-long Methodists.

     Opal married John B. Daniel of Novice in 1928. They left Coleman County in 1943, but returned in 1961 after their three children were grown (see Tom Daniel). Opal was Novice Postmaster in the 1970's.

     Alene, now Mrs. Dale Dorman of Abilene, was graduated from North Texas State Teachers College and Hardin-Simmons University and taught school in Silver Valley, Coleman, and Abilene. She retired recently after 34 years of teaching. The Dormans have two daughters, Charlotte (Mrs. Randon Ely) and Deborah (Mrs. Ricky Bass).

pictures to be added

Kit and Mattie Birdwell, April 19, 1908