It was hard times, but they were determined folk, and they continued with their sons and daughters growing up and getting married.  It was on September 26, 1869, that James Darlington Mixson, the son of Charles Jones Mixson, married Lois Rachel Smith.  Over the next dozen years, they would have five children, two sons and three daughters: James Gilbert, Mary Talula, Hettie Viola, Julie Estelle and Job Spurgeon.

In 1869 Jules Verne published “Around the Moon” answering the question about what happened to the three men blasted into space in a giant cannon in his 1865 novel “From the Earth to the Moon”. The three men undergo a series of adventures on their journey around the moon before finally returning back to Earth, falling to earth like a like a bright meteor before falling into the ocean and being rescued by a US Navy ship.  It would be over 90 years later before the US sends a capsule into orbit and landing much like Jules Verne described, returning to earth appearing as a bright meteor before landing in the Atlantic Ocean and recovered by a US Navel ship.  Later the two books were combined into one From the Earth to the Moon and a Trip Around It.

1873