52 Ancestors Weeks Challenge: Week 6; The Story of Bessie Langley As Told By Her Granddaughter

When Bessie Della Langley was born on December 4, 1895, in Rayville, Missouri, her father, Benedict Langley, was 43 and her mother, Sarah Jane Hankins, was 39.

This story was related to me by Debra West-Mouze granddaughter of Bessie Della Langley Lane Bowen in 2003. The second generation of descendants in Oklahoma had lost contact with Bessie when she moved to California.  It was a great blessing when she found me on Rootsweb and began to correspond with me. I have lost contact with her, but hope to find her again. She said they have some pictures but we lost contact before she shared. The following is as she told the story to me along with excerpts from my paper trail research. This is long and I hope not too hard for you to read, as I chose to go with the story inserting genealogical proofs along the way.

Debra: My grandmother told me many stories about her life in Oklahoma and in California, most of them were short and many had lessons in them about life. The stories gave me just a glimpse of what her life was like raising 6 children during the 1920s to the 1940s.  They followed the fruit, living in their car, in tents, and in rented homes never having quite enough to buy a home. There were times they went to bed hungry.  I knew her as a private independent woman, with a strong belief in God and doing the right thing.  I never knew her to lie; she would not even lie about Santa Claus (much to my parents dismay), telling me at the age of 5 that there was no such thing!

I don’t know how old my grandmother was when her family moved from Missouri to Oklahoma, but she told me that she remembered the covered wagon trip and walking alongside the covered wagon with her siblings. [Here we can insert what we do know…]

In 1900, her father, Benedict, and mother, Sarah, were in Cloud Chief Twp., Washita County, Oklahoma with 5 of their children enumerated. Bessie would have been 5; she is not on the census. ( yes, I looked on the next page) . The note that Sarah had 5 children and 5 were living was added later, this was not in original pen. This was, however, what prompted me to tell Debra, I had been wondering if Bessie was a niece or something as I could not find her. Maybe it was dad giving the information and he forgot to add the little one, maybe the enumerator forgot to put her on the form. Who knows?  We do know that she was born in 1895 in Missouri and they are in Oklahoma in 1900.  My thoughts are they came to Oklahoma for the Land Rush in April 1899 and apparently did not obtain land as in 1900 he is renting.

1900 census Year: 1900; Census Place: Cloud Chief, Washita, Oklahoma;
Roll: 1342; Page: 10A; Enumeration District: 0207; FHL microfilm: 1241342.

Walter's family said this picture was of the Family Homestead. Bessie looks to have been about 5 or 6 here. The tall man in front of the house is Jesse Brummett... That is another story.

Continuing with the narrative… In Oklahoma, Bessie married Julius Lane when she was 14 or 15 years old, it was an arranged marriage and had something to do with a land deal.

Again, we have a paper trail… Someone was telling a story on the license. The marriage happened at her Sister Annie Bright’s, the witnesses were her brother in laws and brother. She is listed as 18 on the license BUT her birth date puts her at 16, which would go with her story. 

"Oklahoma, County Marriages, 1890-1995," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/XVL1-75X : accessed 10 Feb 2014), Julious Lane and Bessie Langley, 1911

I am not sure about the land deal; Benedict did own a farm in 1920 according to the census. Maybe that is how she felt or maybe it was a deal.  (After hearing this story, I did ask and someone told me this did happen in Missouri… wouldn't you know it… cannot find the reference.)

When she was 17, she gave birth to twin boys, Willie, and Charlie. January 19, 1912. Willie was born small but fine and Charlie was born with cerebral palsy, my grandmother had a very hard time with the births and was in and out of consciousness for several days. [This portion of the story came from Debra’s mother because her grandmother would not talk about her first marriage, so Debra said the information was a little confused at times…]   Julius was very upset about the birth defect and after my grandmother recovered, he was quite mean to her blaming her for the defect. Walter, her brother came over and had a talk with Julius.  Shortly after, Julius left her and she returned to her family.  

Year: 1920; Census Place: Stonewall, Pontotoc, Oklahoma;
 Roll: T625_1480;Page: 2A; Enumeration District: 190; Image: 322

We are fortunate to have pictures of them with their grandmother, mother and aunts.

Left to right: Susie, Annie, Bessie, Emma with Nettie
In front: Sarah Hankins Langley with Charlie and Willie

Back to Debra’s narrative… A few years later my grandfather Lowery Bowen entered the picture. He was a field hand working for her father.  

"Oklahoma, County Marriages, 1890-1995," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/XVLP-T4L : accessed 10 Feb 2014), Lowery Bowen and Bessie Lane, 1920.
Bessie was 22, Lowery was 20 and had to have his mother's permission to marry. 

Lowery Bowen was kind and gentle, but somewhat lazy. Bessie could not get him up to go to work in the morning.  She complained to her family and , late one night a group of men in hoods on horseback came and drug him out of the house and threatened to ride him out of town on a rail if he did not get out to work like a man and care for his family.  After that night, Bessie never had to get him up; he was up and out before dawn. Bessie thought that one of the men was her brother Walter, but was never told for sure.

(Now that I know about the Anti Thief Association, and their documented membership, Bessie's story points to at least who one of the masked men was.)

Debra said Bessie also told her that the territory was very rough, that you never traveled on the road without a handgun for protection against highwaymen, and that she remembered several town hangings.  Her daughter, Debra’s mother, thought they lived with Bessie’s mother after Benedict died.  (Sarah was actually living with her daughter Emma, according to Sarah’s death certificate and Emily’s residence in 1930.) Bessie and Lowery did live in Pawnee County, Oklahoma,  just not in the same area.  They were in Liberty and she was in Burnhaw as was Emily.

Bessie and Lowery left Oklahoma in 1936; their destination was California.  My mother, Oma, says she remembers they were forced to leave because the land was barren, my grandfather and my grandmother’s brothers worked in the oil fields for a while, but Lowery decided to leave for California where they could find work.  (Oma was only 4 when they left. It would most likely be she was sharing parents conversation she had overheard.)

The paper trail puts Bessie and Lowery in Kern County, California in 1935. They  lived in Bakersfield, Kern County, California when they got there and worked in the cotton field. Charlie one of the twins caught pneumonia and died in 1938 and was buried in a potter’s field in an unmarked grave.

Apparently by 1940 Lowery had work as a WPA worker, as listed on the 1940 US Federal California Census.

Year: 1940; Census Place:  , Kern, California; Roll: T627_213; Page: 25B; Enumeration District: 15-47.

That is where Debra left off.

In 1943, Lowery and Bessie are found in Bakersfield, California in the city directory.  Lowery is a mill man.

In 1953, they are found in Modesto, California city directory.  Lowery is working for Max Foster.

On 18 Feb 1969 in Stanislaus, California, Lowery dies.  

Bessie lives until 24 October 1985 when she dies away at Turlock, Stanislaus, California.  

Bessie Della Langley Bowen
She is loved by her family. 

Oklahoma 1940 Federal Census Finds!

I had started out flipping through the Oklahoma 1940 Federal Census and found my Aunt Della Whitaker and their two sons.  I soon tired of flipping through because the size of the image took so long to download.  Thus, I waited. The Oklahoma 1940 Census Index is now online. Click on the link above.
I love FamilySearch Indexers! I help index Oklahoma, Texas, and Missouri, but I am only one person and with my schedule it would be the year 3000 before they were finished.  The power of numbers is awesome!
I started looking for my dad.  I thought he would be in Pawnee, Oklahoma, but was surprised to find him in Saline, Alfalfa County, Oklahoma.  He was with his first wife and he was a section foreman with the Rail Road.  I expected to find this.  He didn't meet my mom until after the war and his divorce.
My grandfather was fun to find, because it proved he was a blacksmith with the WPA project.  As I understood from my grandmother he was working with the builders of highway 64 going through Pawnee.  They were living in Perry, Noble County, Oklahoma.  My dad owned property there.  Next to them was his youngest sister.  Wondering where my Aunt Lynn was.  It was too early for her second marriage and I don't know who her first husband was.  Not a lot of talk about that.
I hope I have peaked your interest in helping with indexing or going and searching for your ancestors.  There is so much to learn on this census.  Click on this #1940Census to see many articles on this census.
Happy Hunting!

Amanuensis Monday Letter of Ray Whitson to Little Sister second installment

Harry O Whitson

We left off with Ray telling Mary that his father didn't know the tarp was coming off the quail until the game...







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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.
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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...to be continued Monday Jan 31.

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.

A Great Example of Never Give UP

Smile for the Camera has an event for "A Noble Life".

When I was 3 years old, my father was a starving farmer. My mother had pushed him to quit his job as a railroad superintendent, because she wanted him home more. After a year of trying his hand at farming it was quite evident that we would not survive. He heard of a job in Des Moines, Iowa as a Building Superintendent and decided that was a good alternative. He would go to Iowa, get stable and then send for us. He made friends with a local farmer, and one week end he went out to the farm with some other men to cut down a tree. It was in the winter. The equipment was an old two man chainsaw. It did not have a safety switch on it. They started sawing the large tree and soon it became evident the tree was not going to go where they wanted it to. They saw it start to topple in their direction and ran for cover not thinking to cut the saw off. My dad chose a smaller tree to get behind thinking it would shield him. He was not a professional logger. He saw the trunk slip, then with a loud thud as it cracked then it slid before beginning to fall. My dad said it was like a terrible disaster picture in slow motion. As the tree fell, its branches bent the tree my father was behind to catch him in the upper limbs. When it dropped, the tree he was behind acted as a sling shot, as its branches bounced back up slinging my father up into the air. When he realized what had happened to him, he looked down to see that he was headed straight for the running two man chain saw. It was going to cut him in half. Partly on self preservation and partly on instinct, he stretched his hand in front of him allowing the saw to amputate his finger so he could turn himself to save himself. It amputated his left leg at the mid thigh. The other men were in shock, so my father once again had to come to his own aid. He took off his belt and made a tourniquet and directed the other men to get the car and take him to the hospital. In a daze, they acted on his command. At the hospital, he assisted the doctor in cleaning the wound for surgery.

 After the long road of recovery in the hospital, he obtained a job in an artificial limb shop while going through therapy. He loved the work, and fashioned his own leg which he wore for 15 years. However, the job had its down side in that it depressed him to see those that would not try to walk with their artificial limbs. He decided to return to Oklahoma and work in a hotel washing dishes to put my mother through College to become a teacher. While working there, a local hardware shop had become interested in air conditioners. The man and my father were great friends and soon, my father was spending hours in the back of the shop learning how to repair the air conditioners. Earl, the shop owner, heard of a program the state had for disabled persons for becoming an Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineer. My father was accepted and once again washed dishes in a College cafeteria while he and my mother went to school. We were dirt poor.

I never knew it until I looked back. He earned his Engineering Certification in Air Conditioning and Refrigeration and was accepted as head of the department in Maintenance of the the College he had washed dishes for.

Unknown, Bobby Cotton, Lester Langley

Lester Langley by an air conditioner on the college campus.

 I grew up friends with professors, and the College was my playground, because he always had me stay with him at work until he got off. He taught me perseverance, stamina, faith, and a belief you can become what you want to if you just try.

Summer Visits and Poignant Memories

When I was little, my father loved living in Pawnee, Oklahoma. We lived there until I was 8 years old, then we moved half a state away. We would go back to visit every holiday or family event. I would often spent several weeks with my cousins during the summer. We would go to the Indian Pow Wow's and fish, and go to the movies. It was always fun.
On the left you see my son, when he was 18, we went back to visit the old town again.


One of the sights to see was Pawnee Bill's Museum. My dad told me he knew Pawnee Bill and that when he was about 8, he would play with Billy, Pawnee Bill's son. He said they would play cowboys. He had lots of fun with him. It was after one of his visits that Billy accidentally hung himself from an old windmill. My dad always remembered the fun with Billy and the sadness of Pawnee Bill and May, who closed up Billy's room and never reopened it while May was alive. I checked out the dates recently and I know that my father was there at the time of Billy's death and that they were of the same age.

The old theater is still there. My father worked next door washing dishes after his lost his leg in a logging accident. He worked to put my mother through college. I can remember going to the movies here. I particularly remember a movie about werewolves and that I got so scared my dad had to take me home.
This was a neat place to take my children back to visit because there are so many historic ties of their family to this place with wonderful stories.