Well, about the first thing I can know about our family is that my mothers father and mother, Grandpa and Grandma Davis, took a train near Kingfisher when the opening days in Oklahoma were and they were there and so we know that some of our ancestors lived in Oklahoma. We didn't move here though until about 1899 and they had not been there for some time and they had moved back to Missouri. And I think my Grandfather had died already. It was just a horse and buggy age that they had then. And as little time as they had, we didn't ever get to go back to Missouri to see them and they didn't get to come to see us. I know when my grandmother died, my mother went home to her funeral. And that is all I know about my mothers family other than that they worked and that they were good people.

 

My father was born in Illinois. He had two brothers and five sisters and they were school teachers and they finished school.....I think they finished college. And he had good schooling too. His parents are buried in Berwick, Illinois. My father moved to Nebraska. That's where he met my mother. They got married and moved to Missouri. My sisters, Hazel and Mabel were born in Nebraska. Bertha, Ethel and I were born in Missouri.

 

My Aunt and Uncle, John and Elizabeth Cooper, came to see us. They had taken a claim in Oklahoma near Garber. So Mamma and Papa decided that they would move to Oklahoma. Aunt Lizzy and Uncle John said how nice every thing was and how every thing was going so well. So they moved to Oklahoma in 1902 and my Papa bought a farm about half way between Garber and Covington and we lived there for one year. Then we decided that we just couldn't live on a farm. Papa had a feed store for years and made a pretty good living for the family. Later, he decided to work for the government. He carried the mail to and from the three railway depots to the main Post Office and to the East Enid Post Office.

 

So we grew up there in Enid. My sister Hazel married J. C. Rahm who had a farm near Kremlin. She had a printing office at Kremlin and she was working there before she married him. They lived on the farm and had three sons. After a few years, she had an operation and her lungs collapsed resulting in her death. My sister Ethel and my Mamma helped raise the three boys. JC would come and stay there for a while. I was not living there at that time so I didn't know much about it. But the boys always liked them so we think they were good to them. The three boys are very nice.

 

My sister, Mabel, married Will Turner. They lived on a farm a few miles north of Enid. They had three children, Frances, Tom and Robert (Bob). Frances passed on just a couple of years ago. My sister, Mabel, is still living on the farm. My sister, Ethel, never married. She had a printing office and she did quite well. Mother lived with her after my father died. My mother died just seven years before Ethel did. Mother was 85 when she passed on. My father died while I was carrying Robert.

 

I had one brother, Kenneth. He worked with Ethel in the printing office for a few years and finally he decided he would go off on his own. He visited our home in Sapulpa. He didn't stay very long. He left a shirt which I washed and sent to him in Oklahoma City. He didn't have much to do with the family after that. He left his wife and four children. We never did know why he did those things. (Note: He finally disappeared for good.)