Transcription of Ray Whitson's Letter Describing His Father

Page 1: This is a few things that I remember about our dad. He was born in Terre Houte Ind. Had five brothers, (to my knowledge he never mentioned any sisters) [this was added to the side in his handwriting... but one] They scattered going to Missouri, Luisianna, Texas, and so on. Uncle Lute and his sister settled in Custer Okla., just south of Fay about 40 miles by the Frisco RR.

Page 2: Most of the boys served in the Spanish American War. Dad was a "Sooner" He cowboyed a lot. For a while he ran a 'quail route'. He would furnish the shells and pay them about 75 cents a dozen. One time while going over the route he had a large wagon load of quail, the tarp that covered them had come loose and the quail could be seen. Dad did not know it until a game...

Page 3: warden passed by and looking back saw it and almost fainted. "I would think". Dad shipped them back fast and to Guthrie, Okla. One time at Fay, he shipped two truck loads and the deputy tried to arrest him; Dad told him to come and take his guns, he wore pistols at that time. By the was the deputy was a man by the name of Boyd. Later became Lester Morse's father in law, your cousin dad's , married a Morse. Boyd never liked Dad after that.

Page 4: Historical thought. Jessie James married a Whitson, "his only wife" in Missouri. So by shirttail relation we are related to him. After he met mother he settled down and became foreman of the Davidson ranch, just out of Arnett Okla. There were over 350,000 acres in the ranch. Part of it was government land. Today over half of it is a game reserve. The day Dad married...

Page 5: Mother they had to cross over the south Canadian River. They attempted to cross just below the Fresco RR Bridge. The bridge had been washed out earlier. In crossing one of the horses drowned the other horse in a deep pot hole. Dad cut the horses loose, lost nearly everything. Mother had to strip down to her red flannels, "it was in the winter". If the men working on the bridge had not come...

Page 6: to their rescue, mother might have drowned. The river was near flood stage. My memories of him. Cotton Cake I was the fourth child. At my first recollections as I look back dad was a kind family man, and was until his ordeal with cancer. On the ranch he took me (only 4 or 5 years of age) with him. Sometimes on the saddle with him, sometimes in a wagon loaded with cotton seed cake. They would pour the cake out the back of the wagon onto the ground.....

Page 7: ...for the cattle to eat. One time we were at the watering place (windmill and tank). Mr Davidson and dad had pure alcohol from Canada hidden near by. They would delute the alcohol with water and sugar. They were very secretive about it. One time just as the moon was coming up, dad let us kids fire his pistol. I thought I had hit it because of the fire from the gun. Another time he came racing up on a beautiful ...

Page 8: ....blaze faced horse, grabbed and kissed mother and told her about the *Champion Jack Johnson being whipped by Jefferies. He always brought us kids something. One time he brought me little red cowboy boots, they were too small. Shortly before that I had gotten caught in a cyote (coyote) trap, a large bump had formed and I couldn't get the boots on. Dad was quite a bronc buster.. He had many fine horses. We left off as Ray was telling Mary that their dad was quite a horse buster and always and fine horses.

Page 9: Dad decided to move to Arnett so the kids could be close to school. There were only one seven miles from home. There were about 6 kids by then. Mr Davidson offerd dad a junior partnership if he would stay, but dad wanted us kids to get an education. Ive always thought he could have hired someone to take us. He went into the freight business. It never turned out like he thought it would. He tried farming...

Page 10: He had a model T FORD rigged up with tractor wheels in the back, also had a barrel of water connected up to the radiator o keep it from heating up. He would take one of us kids to be with him while he plowed. On time I got sick on eating too much of the lunch. In the winter time, he would come in from the cold and warm himself at the kitchen wood stove. Often he would let me sit on his lap during these times. This shows the kind of father he was.

newspaper article from that time period. Must have been what the tractor looked like.

Page 11: We moved to Fay in three covered wagons, took several days, onto grandmother's homestead. It was close to the Frisco River Bridge. World War one broke out and dad went to Fort Sill to help as a taxi driver, his own cab, The car did not have a door on the drivers side. He would climb out over his side of the car hitting his knee on the mechanical horn, bruising it. Which caused the cancer to start in the knee area.

 Page 12: Doctors didn't know much about cancer at that time. They thought at first it was only pain cause by the continued knocking. He had a nervous breakdown and had to be rushed to Oklahoma City where they cut the leg off at the knee. They tried to get him to cut the leg off at the hip. He wanted to have an artificial leg, being an outdoors man all his life. I think he would have lived many years longer if had. It was at the time...

Page 13: that he became irritable and short tempered. No one will ever know what he went through in the suffering, later he would hold his stump in his hands to keep it from jerking. He didn't have the pain pills we have today. His body finally rejected aspirins. He got to where he would take a dozen at one time and it did not help much. I think this would adversely affect anyone, don't you?

Page 14: Dear Mary I will quit for now. I will tr to fill in gaps that I have overlooked. I have always loved the memory of my kids but like my dad I have accepted it as something I had to give up and live with. Your Brother Ray P.S. it the other kids would like to read the details of dad's life will you let them?

(My notes on the historical background: I researched the Davidson Ranch. On page 43 of Notes from Ellis and Cimarron Counties, it says part of the land was 12 miles southeast of Arnett. This Popular Science in 1894 explains about Cotton Cake and Cotton Seed. *This was "The "Fight of the Century" in 1910 and my grandfather apparently had not stayed to the end. Champion Jack Johnston was the first African American world heavyweight boxing champion (1908–1915) I researched and found that there was a kit sold that utilized the Model T and a tractor wheel. I have made a collage of newspaper articles and ads. Surgery would have been done at St Anthony Hospital. This was the hospital I worked as an Inhalation Therapy Tech during the Viet Nam War.)