Tinney Chapel Today

GEORGE JORDAN & HIS VENTURA GUITAR form a combustible combination that has lighted spiritual fires in the hearts and minds of listeners for 35 years, the same length of time he has been writing original songs, many obviously given to him by the Lord, either as proclamations of The Word, or as musical testimony to George’s own faith journey.

COMPARING THAT TO A SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY, his opening song at Tinney Chapel’s recent meeting of the OASIS group, George shared tunes and testimony about his time as a youth, beginning when he was about seven, at Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch in Amarillo.

“IT WAS A PLACE FOR BOYS IN TROUBLE or whose families, like mine, had split up,” recalls George, who made good grades in the school at Boys Ranch and was chosen as mascot for the school’s football team. “There were 60 of us boys at the ranch then, and we had just about everything we needed on site: school, church, jobs to do, but we were also exposed to quite a few special events.”

THOSE SPECIAL EVENTS INCLUDED appearances by Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Bob Hope, Ernest Tubb and Minnie Pearl, to name a few. Most of all, George appears to have been influenced by Cal Farley himself, founder of Boys Ranch: “He owned a B.F. Goodrich store nearby, and sometimes had to take money out of his own business to keep Boys Ranch going.”

GEORGE HAD EXPECTED TO SPEND ONLY ONE SUMMER at Boys Ranch, during the time of his family’s domestic turmoil. But not until five years had passed, when his family had reconciled and George was 12 years old, did a sister arrive to take him to Grant, Nebraska, where his dad was the town marshal. That reconciliation of his family would be only temporary, and George would have further storms in his life.

“BUT STORMS NEVER LAST,” sings George, who remembers with gratitude his five years at Boys Ranch, where he recalls developing a work ethic and learning the value of cooperation through participation in 4-H. It may be that Tinney Chapel’s own George Jordan experienced a childhood of some instability and occasional abandonment, but he still likes to visit Boys Ranch when he can: “I consider it among my life’s saving graces."

# posted by Joe Dan Boyd @ 5/20/2008

A Tinney Chapel Reflection on Mothers Day, 2008

DOLLY TINNEY WAS BAPTIZED AT TINNEY CHAPEL in 1928 when she was 15 years old, with no idea that she would only live another eight years, during which she would become the wife of Dan Boyd with whom she would have three children: Nelda June, Joe Dan & Tommy Eugene.

JOE DAN WAS HER SECOND CHILD: He was born in 1934 after the death of her firstborn, Nelda June, who had died in infancy without ever having been photographed. Dolly, herself, had first been photographed in a family group at age four in 1917. She must have been heartbroken that Depression-era economic pressures had played at least a partial role in the absence of a single picture of her daughter.

IT WOULD NOT HAPPEN TO ANY MORE OF DOLLY’S CHILDREN, she must have resolved, because Joe Dan was first photographed as an infant in his cradle. Then, somehow, Dolly found the moxie and the money for two studio sessions, during which she posed with Joe Dan for professional photos, before her death in 1936 as the Depression still raged.

A BABY BOOK RECORDS FAITHFUL ENTRIES by Dolly on the details of Joe Dan’s birth, his first words, and other highlights of the first two years in the life of her eldest son. Such entries cease after Dolly’s death, when Joe Dan was two years old, although three surrogate mothers immediately assumed the responsibility of raising him.

ALL THREE WERE CLOSE KIN: Grandma Tinney (Mamaw), Great-Aunt Laura (Yar) and Aunt Maude (Bush), who had also professed her faith and was baptized at Tinney Chapel in 1928 along with her sister, Dolly. The late Lee Crow mentioned some local talk, after Dolly’s death, about the possible necessity of sending Joe Dan & Tommy to an orphanage, but that Grandma Tinney would not hear of it.

NO ONE COULD EVER BE AN ORPHAN with three loving mothers, all living under the same roof of the Old Tinney Home Place, all three motivated by the example set by Dolly’s short but successful stint as a mother. The Lord must have had a hand in all of that, especially Joe Dan’s 1953 decision to walk down the aisle, and be baptized in the original 1900-era Tinney Chapel sanctuary building where both Maude & Dolly had received the baptismal sacrament.

# posted by Joe Dan Boyd @ 5/11/2008