A.C. and Jodie Duke Hairgrove Family Making Cane Syrup Tenaha, Texas, 1909
May 14, 2025 - The photo was taken in 1909 on the Hairgrove Family Farm near Tenaha in Shelby County, Texas. Every November, family, friends and neighbors would gather to cut the ribbon sugar cane and assist in making the syrup with the help of the family mule.
The couple in the center are my great-grandparents, Aurora Council (A.C.) and Jodie Duke Hairgrove. My grandfather Wilburn Hairgrove is the fourth boy from the left who is seated. His older brother Joel Otto Hairgrove is standing to his left (third boy from the left) and three of their sisters (Ima, Bernie and Maureen) and younger brother Willie are seated on the cane in front. Jodie is holding the youngest sister at the time, Mamielou. They would later welcome Josephine.
A.C.’s father Joel Marion Hairgrove and grandparents Stephen Marion & Mary Brown Hairgrove first came to Shelby County, Texas in 1853 from the Duck River Purchase, Bedford County in Middle Tennessee traveling by ox wagon and settling in the Buena Vista community near Timpson. Family members still live on part of the original homestead and many others live on the land that A.C. later purchased in Tenaha.
This family tradition of making cane syrup went on for many years and was very welcome during the Great Depression and World War II years when sugar was rationed. When my Uncle Franklin Hairgrove was born on November 7, 1939, my grandfather Wilburn was unable to be there because they were making syrup, which had to be constantly stirred throughout the night.
The descendants of A.C. & Jodie Duke Hairgrove will gather to celebrate the 100th Hairgrove Family Reunion this summer for lunch on Sunday, June 15, 2025 at the Union Cemetery (also known as Wildcat), very near the spot where this photo was taken.
Submitted by Kay Hairgrove Krenek with the assistance of Frances Hairgrove McIntyre.
