In 1913, Robert suffered a severe illness in the Spring, and for a few
months his life was despaired of, but he quickly recovered. Soon after
his recovery, his father took him on a fishing trip to Spirit Lake. The
old darky of slavery days went along, and while he was putting worms
on Robert's hook, told the story about this lake and why it was named
"Spirit Lake." The old darky said that the spirit of a beautiful lady
walked on the waters of the lake at night and that was why they called
it Spirit Lake.
Long, long years ago, the daughter of a wealthy planter fell in love
with a poor but honest boy and after many years of courtship, in which
they spent many moonlight nights rowing on the beautiful lake, the
time came when they felt that they could no longer be separated. The
young man pleaded with her father to consent to their marriage, but
he stubbornly refused and threatened to kill the young man if he ever
called at his home again. They then planned to elope one night, and as
her sweetheart was placing a ladder under the window and helping her to
get down, her father shot her lover and killed him. When she found that
he was dead, she ran to the lake and drowned herself. They searched for
days for her body and one moonlight night they saw her walking on the
water. They rowed out on the lake and found her body floating on the
water. He said that the fish would always bite better at full moon,
but the darkies were afraid to fish there because the spirit of this
beautiful young lady walked on the water.
Bobbie came home very much interested and excited and told his mother
all about the fish they caught at Spirit Lake and about the story old
Moses told him about the spirit walking on the water. He told his
mother that the Sunday School teacher had read in the Bible where
Christ walked on the water, and he wanted her to explain how this could
happen. She told him that all of those things happened in the days of
miracles which had passed and no longer happened in these days. Bobbie
had a great desire to walk or ride upon the water, and was enthusiastic
about bicycles. He told his mother that he intended to build a bicycle
some day that he could ride on the water.
In 1914, when war broke out, Capt. Gordon, who had once served in the
Spanish-American War, became very much interested in the conflict and
followed it very closely, reading the papers daily and talking about
it. Robert soon began to take great interest in the war and asked his
father and mother many questions about the foreign countries which were
involved in the great struggle. He would sit for hours, listening to
his mother read the Bible, from the Book of Revelation, the prophecies
of the Great War, where it says that nation shall rise against nation.
Robert's mother told him of his grandfather who distinguished himself
in the Civil War, and the great hardships her mother had to go thru
during the war days; how her great-grandfather fought in the War of
1812. She talked of his grandfather, Colonel Robert Gordon, for whom he
was named, and how he became famous during the Civil War, and how later
Robert's own father went with Colonel Roosevelt and became a Captain
in the Spanish-American War in 1898. Robert's oldest brother, Herbert,
was born in 1894, and his second brother, Ralph, was born in 1898
after his father went to the war. His mother spent many anxious months
and worried with the children while Capt. Gordon was away at war. She
prayed that war would be ended for all time.
She said, "Bobbie, you come from a generation of fighters on both
sides, but I hope that you will be a minister and preach against war.
While the tragic death of your brother Herbert in San Francisco was a
shock that I have never fully recovered from, yet I had rather know
that he went that way than to have him go to war and lose his life. I
remember well the many sleepless nights that I have passed thru while
your father was away at war and how happy I was when he returned. I
prayed to God then that war might be ended and that none of my sons
would ever have to go to war."
"Mother," said Bobbie, "when I get to be a man, I will be a preacher
and tell the people to be peaceful and stop fighting, but why doesn't
God stop the war?"
"My son, war is the work of the devil, not of God, and the Bible tells
us that the old dragon has to be loosed for a little season, but in the
Book of Revelation, we read that Satan is bound for a thousand years.
I hope I live to see that day and I feel sure you will. A few nights
before you were born I had a very strange dream. I thought I saw San
Francisco and Los Angeles destroyed in two days by some war machine,
and that one of my sons came near losing his life there, but was saved
and afterwards he saved his country and made peace with the world. I
suppose I dreamed about San Francisco because Herbert lost his life
there but, somehow, I feel that it was more than a dream, and that you
are born to be a peacemaker."
Bobbie was greatly impressed with his mother's dream and her hopes and
ambitions for him, but his brother would quarrel and try to fight with
him. Bobbie would tell him that Dad wanted him to be peaceful and that
his mother wanted him to be a peacemaker and that he would not fight.
His brother called him "Cottonhead" because his hair was so white, and
accused him of being a white-livered coward, but Bobbie was patient and
did not lose his temper. His mother would commend him for this and tell
him that the Bible said to control your temper and not let your angry
passions rise.
About this time some of the prejudice which little Robert had inherited
from his grandfather and from his father, began to show forth.
Unfavorable conditions thruout the country and the low price of cotton
left Capt. Gordon practically penniless, causing him and all of his
children to labor hard in order to support themselves. He tried to
force young Robert to work in the fields and help cultivate the cotton,
but he stubbornly rebelled. He would play around the house, use his
father's tools and talk about the great inventions that he was going
to make. His mother was always in sympathy with Robert and tried to
encourage him, but she could never get him to take an interest in
working on a farm. He talked of being a preacher, talked of great
inventions and discoveries, but would not work at hard labor.
In 1917, when the United States entered the World War, young Robert
was eleven years old. He had great ambitions to join the Army and go
to the war. His older brother Ralph joined the Army. Young Robert said
that if he could not go and fight for his country he would stay at
home and work on a patent which would help them to win the war. He did
not agree or get along with his older brother and was glad when he had
gone away to war. His parents were still in poor circumstances but they
could not induce young Robert to do any work on the farm. He continued
to tinker around and work with his father's tools, trying to make a
bicycle which he could ride upon the water in the lake nearby. He tried
various kinds of lumber to build wheels for the bicycle but none of
them worked successfully. Finally his mother suggested that he use thin
cedar boards because cedar was durable in the water, was light and
would float easily. He finally succeeded in building the wheels out of
cedar and after heating pine rosin hot and pouring it into the cracks,
he was able to ride successfully across the lake, but in a short time
the wheels sprung a leak and the bicycle sunk with him in the lake,
but he swam out and brought the bicycle with him.
Bobbie was not the kind to be discouraged by obstacles and later his
ingenuity overcame the difficulties. After trying to put inner tubes
from bicycle tires on the inside of the wheels of his water bicycle and
failing again, he finally got some inner tubes from an automobile and
placed them inside his wooden wheels and pumped them up. When they were
filled with air, they pushed against the wooden sides of the wheel,
buoying up the wheel, and he was then able to ride his bicycle around
over the lake without any trouble.
His mother was very proud of him and said "Bobbie, one day your dream
of becoming a great inventor will be realized. You have not been
wasting your time tinkering around with your father's tools trying to
make things." His brother, Ralph, continued to call him "Fool Bobbie"
and "Mother's dream"; said he would never amount to anything because he
wouldn't work on the farm like the rest of them. Bobbie always found
a willing listener in his mother. She helped him with his studies in
school and encouraged him in every way and showed that she believed in
him and had faith that one day he would be a great man. This encouraged
him to do greater things.
The success with the water bicycle had kindled his ambition and created
a desire to complete other inventions that he had in mind. He told his
mother of a dream he had of a white-winged bird that flew across the
ocean thru the air; that he was riding the bird and that he received a
great triumph and reception when he visited the foreign countries, and
how his own people received him in great glory when he returned. His
father called these stories "pipe dreams," but his mother took great
interest in them and always encouraged him. Robert talked very little
to his father or brother but always went to his mother and talked over
things and confided in her. She encouraged him because she felt that he
was an answer to her prayer, after her eldest son had died,--that God
might give her another son who would live and that she might have her
desires and hopes realized which were lost thru the death of her eldest
son.
Robert was entirely strange and different from other boys. He never
seemed to want to play with them, but kept very much by himself; talked
along different lines, and made a confidant of his mother only. She
seemed to understand him as no one else did and he always came to her
for an explanation of his problems, and for consolation in time of
trouble.
Robert's mother often talked to Capt. Gordon about him--told him that
he was a peculiar and most unusual child and that she thought that his
refusal to work at manual labor was not because he was lazy but because
she believed that he had a superior mind, and that if properly educated
and trained, he would become a great man some day, an honor to his
parents. She told him that Bobbie had advanced ideas fully a hundred
years ahead of his time and that he should be educated and allowed to
follow his own ideas. His father, failing to understand him, agreed
with his mother and decided when Robert was about thirteen years of
age, that there was no use trying to keep him on the farm, but that he
should be sent away to Texarkana to school, to learn something and to
become interested in the things along which his mind seemed to lead.
While in this school he met his first real boy chum, one who seemed to
understand him and one who proved to be a help to him in school. Walter
Kennelworth was the son of a wealthy lumberman. He had every advantage
that money could bring and was far advanced in his studies, thus being
able to render help to Robert, who had no interest in grammar but took
a great interest in history and mathematics. Walter would help him with
his work in grammar and geography. They became fast friends. Robert
told Walter of his plans for the future; that he hoped to be a great
inventor; wanted to get an education and travel around the world to
see the country and learn about things and develop the ideas which he
thought would help his country in time of war. He had heard so many
stories about his grandfather's adventures in the Civil War and his
father's experiences in the Spanish-American War that he had the desire
to be a great soldier and serve his country. He spent nearly all of
his time reading the newspapers and following the progress of the war.
He was extremely interested in the victories of our boys overseas, and
when they began to turn the tide against the Germans, he was greatly
elated and told his mother that he knew that the Stars and Stripes
would never trail the dust and that victory was sure as soon as the
American boys went on the other side.
Walter Kennelworth also had ambitions of becoming a soldier and of
making new discoveries and inventions along chemical lines. His hopes
and aspirations were to one day become a great chemist. The vast
difference in the environment and conditions under which these two boys
had been brought up seemed to make no difference in their friendship.
It ripened as the years went by. Robert and Walter were often together
and Walter often invited Robert to his father's home. Walter's father
and mother became very fond of Robert.
When the armistice came in 1918, Robert talked with his mother and
father, asking them if that would be the last war. They, of course,
expressed the hope that it would be, and Robert said that he had read
the Bible and thought that the greatest war in history was yet to come.
He began to express ideas about new inventions, years ahead of the
times. He begged his father and mother to let him leave school and go
to work in an automobile factory where he could learn about machinery
and understand how to complete the inventions which he was always
talking about.
School was over in the Summer of 1919, and Mr. J.H. Kennelworth,
Walter's father, offered Robert a position in his office during the
summer months. After business, Walter and Robert would often go out
automobile riding. Along in July, he met with a serious accident.
The automobile was overturned and Robert's arm was broken, and he
suffered internal injuries. He was taken to the hospital where he lay
for several weeks before recovery. His mother was very much worried
and alarmed over this accident, and thought it was best for Bobbie to
return to the farm and not work in the city any more.
His brother Ralph had just returned from France, where he had met with
many obstacles in the war but had received no serious injury. Robert
went home for a rest after the accident. He had many disagreements and
fights with his older brother, and it seemed to be impossible to get
along. All of the trouble occurred over the fact that Robert would not
work on the farm, or help his brother.
Bobbie prevailed upon his mother to let him go back to school in the
Fall because he was making great progress and hoped to have a big
position some day with Mr. Kennelworth's firm.
In the Fall of 1919, he returned to school, but made slow progress in
his studies. His health was not good; he seemed unable to concentrate
or make much progress. He barely passed his examinations at the end of
the year, but continued to study hard and make progress in mathematics
and history. In grammar, writing and geography he was always falling
below his marks, and Walter Kennelworth had to help him out.
In the Spring of 1920, just before the close of school, Robert's father
obtained help to cultivate the cotton plantation. He thought it best
that Robert should come home that summer and help to work on the farm,
but again the boy refused, and met with stubborn opposition and abuse
from his brother, who called him "the fool inventor" and said that he
would never amount to anything because he refused to work on the farm.
He said that he wanted to be "Gentleman Robert," and called him the
"white-collar boy." These disagreements and disputes with his brother
were very annoying and disappointing to Robert's mother, because she
wanted the children to get along in peace. Robert told his mother
that on account of his brother he would never live at home again;
that he would continue to stay in Texarkana and go to school until
he had finished his education, and then he would go to work for Mr.
Kennelworth. His mother had great faith in him and told him that she
knew everything would come out all right for him, and that he should
study hard, make the most of his opportunities, and prepare for the
position Mr. Kennelworth was going to give him upon completing his
studies.
Capt. Gordon had been very successful during the war growing cotton.
Prices had gone very high and he had accumulated quite a little money.
But in 1920 cotton prices declined rapidly and his cotton brought very
little, which again reduced them to poor circumstances. Robert became
very ill again from malaria during the Spring and Summer of 1920, so
that he was unable to work even if he wanted to. Up to this time he had
shown no ambition for any kind of work, except to try to make something
with his father's tools; talk about inventions and some of the great
things he was going to do in the years to come. His mother had always
petted him because of his severe illnesses and accident, and his father
often referred to him as his mother's burden or his mother's problem.
But she had great faith in young Robert because he clung so strongly to
religion, believing in the Bible. Robert would spend days and hours
reading the Bible and talking to his mother and asking her questions
about it and its meaning. He had a great desire to travel and see the
world and was always planning to visit strange places. While he showed
great affection for his mother, his desire was to get away and see the
world.