How Texas came about her name
A. John, her father, was born in1898 in the Territory of Oklahoma where the family was homesteading a farm. When A. John was a baby, several Indians, including their chief, came to their home while the father was away and snatched him away from his mother. She immediately rode horseback to tell the sheriff, and together they went to see the Chief. His defense was that she had many children and his wife had none. After she and the sheriff reasoned with the Chief, the baby was returned to his mother.
When A. John was five or six, his parents move to New Mexico and homestead a farm near the small town of Moriarty. Times were hard and for a season the family survived on pinto beans for breakfast, lunch and supper. As a teenager A. John joined his older brother Milan in working for the Santa Fe Railway. When WWI began in 1917 his older brothers left to serve in the war, but A. John was not allowed to enlist because he was needed to help farm. When his brothers returned from the war, local work was hard to find, so A. John left with a friend to find jobs in Texas due to the oil boom around Wichita Falls. Awhile later he followed the boom to find work in Breckenridge, TX, where he became acquainted with Judge Caldwell who urged him to get a college education. First, he had to finish a few more classes in high school, graduating at age 22.
Judge Caldwell urged him to go to Simmons College (later named Hardin-Simmons University) in Abilene. With sheer determination, hard work, and thrifty living, A. John put himself through college, married a co-ed, Frances Hicks, and had a successful career. When they were expecting their first child, it was decided that Frances would list 10 girls names and 10 boys names, and A. John would select a favorite from each list. After seeing the name “Texas” on the boys list, he declared whether it was a boy or girl, the name would be "Texas"; because life was better in Texas!