Ashley Meek was tired from a long day at work and had a million things on her mind when she attended a parent meeting about Tolar’s Project Graduation.
She listened as Keith Kunkel spoke about an item he was donating for Project Graduation’s Friday, Feb. 10 auction: a pair of spurs that he found at the Montgomery Street Antique Mall in Fort Worth. He figured there must be a story behind them because they have the word “Tolar” on them.
Meek suddenly became more alert.
“Did the spurs have a dollar sign on them?” she asked.
“And did the dollar sign have just one line through it?” she asked.
At that point, both of them got chills, Meek related. Kunkel, because he realized there must indeed be a story behind the spurs, and Meek because she realized that the spurs had been made by her late grandfather.
Meek’s daughter Reagan is a senior at Tolar High School. She and her classmates will benefit from the $2,500 raised from the sale of the spurs.
Meek’s grandfather was Charlie Cash, a master spur and bow maker. A longtime Tolar resident, he was the great-grandson of a saddle maker who was with General Hiram B. Granbury, for whom the city of Granbury is named, when Granbury was killed in the Battle of Franklin during the Civil War.
Cash died years ago after a three-year battle with Multiple Myeloma. He was a beloved figure in Tolar and the subject of articles in the Hood County News and Fort Worth Star-Telegram because he generously donated spurs to local youth rodeos and agricultural contests at the Hood County Stock Show.
He was “a giving and gifted and amazing man. He was always very active in the community and rallied behind all the kiddos,” Meek said of the man she called “Papaw,” who also had a talent for making pocketknives with leather sheaths, belt buckles, rocking chairs and other items.
Meek said that the spurs donated by Kunkel to the Project Graduation auction were purchased by Justin and Judy Cherry whose son Cody, a Tolar High School graduate, was killed last year in a motorcycle accident. Cash had once given the young man a pair of handmade spurs, but they were destroyed in a house fire, she said. The couple purchased the Project Graduation spurs as a way to honor both their son and Cash.
Project Graduation coordinator Stacey Stillwell Willmon confirmed that the Cherrys purchased the spurs.
“Totally God orchestrated from beginning to end,” she said.
Willmon said that the live and silent auctions netted almost $7,500. The money will be used to fund a fun, safe night for seniors that will include food, a DJ, casino games, a mechanical bull, movies, yard games, prizes, a photo booth, and more.
Meek said that her grandfather made more than 700 pairs of his handmade spurs after developing the skill while in his 50s. They are now all over the world, she said, and the dollar sign with one line identifies every pair.
Cash died on July 29, 2003 — a long time ago — but his granddaughter still misses him greatly. She feels that her Papaw found a way to be generous to kids one more time, including to the great-granddaughter he never met.
“His legacy lives on,” Meek said. “We think it’s pretty darn amazing that he left this earth almost 20 years ago, yet he is still finding a way to give back to our town and our family. That is just how he was, and that is what makes this story so special.”
