Mother's History (3)

Oklahoma, then on to Kansas City , Kansas where we met my Grandparents and all went to Galena, Kansas. Grandpa had all the food in his wagon. Papa was ahead so went into Galena one way and Grandpa another way as he had been there before. Papa only had 5 cents with him with which he bought a loaf of bread, He put his team in the livery barn and borrowed a dollar and a half to buy something else to eat. Next morning he went to work with his team hauling gravel. We had camped on the other side of town from them as I was in Grandpa's wagon. Next day Grandpa started out on a horse to look for Papa and. Mama and Grandma and I started out on foot. We got lost and didn’t know the way back. I remembered the way we had come in so finally talked her into going that way. It was 3 days before we found them. Grandpa riding along on his horse with his dog started down to a camp when Mama looked up a saw him on the road. It was just before Thanksgiving. I started to school at a school at the edge of town at Christmas. Only went a little while when the teacher got sick so we had no more school that year. Nearly all the people, us included, lived in tents, The next year I started to school again but only went until Christmas. The school had to close for the rest of the year on account of smallpox.

The summer when I was 11 years old, Grandpa family went to Kansas City, Missouri. I went along with them. Grandpa would camp a week or two by the big towns and sell notions (pins, needles, thread, etc) from house to house. Will always remember the time we camped at Fort Scot, Kansas. There I met 2 girls and their brother, We would fish for crawdads and clean their tails and cook them. We had a lot of fun together.

In Kansas City them was a young man sweet on Aunt Sallie. I asked him to Sunday dinner, telling him that if we didn't have ice cream, we’d have something as good for Grandma made such good custards on top of the stove. He bragged about his chickens so I asked him for one. I named it Willie but it turned out to be a hen.

On the way, Grandpa had traded for a black hen, He had traded notions for her but after she laid an egg the first day, I wouldn’t let him kill her. I named her Béssie. While there in Kansas City,. a girl named Verna Robinson gave me a small chicken which I named Verna after her. We kept the chickens in a coop on the back of’ the wagon. When we camped I let them out for I could pick them out any time. Strangely after I married, my husband named one of my girls Bessie and one Verna.

We moved back to Galena and Grandpa’s family moved to Joplin and I went to stay with them. I started to school in Joplin and had gone a month when Mama came and I wanted to go home for a week. Grandpa said if I went I could stay. School didn’t start in Galena on account of smallpox so I didn’t go to school any more that year. I had not been home when Aunt Sallie took the (smallpox?) so guess a good thing I went.

The next year I started to school at Empire. One time it had been a part of Galena and the people had fussed and built a high fence between the two parts, but it had mostly torn down by this time. Most of the kids living around us had always gone to Empire but that summer they decided that they should go to Galena when it was surveyed, to see who had to take care of the smallpox cases. They sent us home from Empire every day for a week. Finally we gave up and went to Galena school.

In the summer of 1901, Grandpa’s family and Papa came to Oklahoma to register for land. Aunt Sallie was 21 and could file. None of them were lucky enough to draw a number. There were some small tracts left and Papa got an 80-acre tract. Aunt Sallie an 80 acre tract, and Grandpa a 40-acre tract. Aunt Sallie’s joined what is now Cement on the west, Papa’s was one mile north and Grandpa’s a couple miles west of town. That was a hard time for us. Papa came home before Christmas. Mama

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