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.)

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. 

52 Ancestors Weeks Challenge: Week 4 Walter P Lane Vance: The Man.

When Walter P. Lane Vance was born on May 20, 1890, in Pine Mills, Texas, his father, George, was 37 and his mother, Susan Harper Vance, was 34.

The first picture we have of Walter is a family portrait when his father’s mother, Elizabeth Porter Vance, came to visit from Mississippi in about 1905. Walter looks like a clean cut kid.

Given to the Hero by Mildred

In 1910, Walter L. Vance was 19 years old and lived in Wood, Texas with his father, mother, 2 brothers, and sister.

1910 United States Federal Census:

Year: 1910; Census Place: Justice Precinct 6, Wood, Texas; Roll: T624_1601; Page: 14A; Enumeration District: 0133; FHL microfilm: 1375614.

The Texas Criminal Reports: Cases Argued and Adjudged in the Court of Criminal Appeals of the State of Texas ...1893-1963, Volume 63 By John Preston White

Page 431 Give us an indication of what the laws about liquor in Wood County was like.

...Pendergast, Judge, -- The appellant was indicted, tried and convicted of unlawfully selling intoxicating liquors in Wood County after prohibition had been properly carried, declared  in force, etc. on March 12, 1910.

Two things we know about Walter from this time period. One a picture tells all,

Walter and Oscar Vance creating Moonshine
Picture owned by Michael Vance Woods Texas

Also, he liked to party and go to clubs to dance. According to Mildred, his oldest daughter and the Hero’s mother, it was at a club that he met Mary Annie Reynolds.   They both liked the night life.

This apparently was the time period that Walter began to indulge in alcohol which destroyed his personal relationships and his health.

Walter and Mary Annie married on 8^th of January 1911 in Wood, County, Texas

Record found on FamilySearch.org Texas Marriages.

 I found his residence and birthplace on the U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 5 Jun 1917. Walter P. Lane Vance was living at a rural route in Hawkins, Wood County, Texas, when he registered for the World War I draft. He listed 3 children, a wife,  and that he was a farmer.  His description was that he was of medium height, medium build, with brown hair and light brown eyes. Mildred said his hair was dark auburn, and he had greenish brown eyes. The Hero had brown hair and greenish brown eyes.

Registration State: Texas; Registration County: Wood; Roll: 1983876.

 

In 1920, Walter Vance was 28 years old and lived in Camp, Texas with his wife, Annie, 3 sons, Thurman,Archie,Arnold, and daughter, Mildred, age 6mos. The indexer had enumerated him as Walter G. 

Year: 1920; Census Place: Justice Precinct 1, Camp, Texas; Roll: T625_1785; Page: 6B; Enumeration District: 24; Image: 62

When Mildred was 2, Walter and Annie were divorced.  Mildred was sent to her mother's parents to raise. Walter apparently left the area, because 2 years later in 1923 Water met Vivian Welch in the panhandle of Texas. He married her in Greer County, Oklahoma.

found in Oklahoma marriages on FamilySearch.org

 Vivian had a child by a previous marriage. This son was Kenneth Dial, but was enumerated in the 1930 census as Kenneth Vance. How I found this is another story.

Year: 1930; Census Place: Precinct 5, Wilbarger, Texas; Roll: 2410; Page: 10B; Enumeration District: 0010; Image: 1017.0; FHL microfilm: 2342144.

In 1930, W.L. Vance was 39 years old and lived in Wilbarger, Texas with his wife, Vivan, son, and 3 daughters. Mildred’s grandparents went to live with a son, and gave Mildred back to her mother, who sent her to Walter to live for a while.  It was during this time Mildred developed respect and love for her father.  He was still farming, but drank heavily.  Mildred said he was hard on Kenneth. To her the worse part was when he would start drinking, although, I could tell she felt the drinking was because there was so much weight on his shoulders. On the other hand, she was frank that he was not a pleasant drunk.  She said when he was not drinking; he was a loving, caring man, who was not afraid of hard work.  He worried about supporting his large family, would come in from the fields looking tired and beat.

The April 1, 1940 US Federal Texas state census showed W.L. Vance was 49 years old was a WPA  worker and lived in Wichita, Texas with his wife, Vivian, and 3 daughters. Kenneth had left to join the Army. We also find that he only had a 7th grade education, and was renting.

Year: 1940; Census Place:  , Wichita, Texas; Roll: T627_4164; Page: 4B; Enumeration District: 243-51.

 It was not long after this that Vivian and Walter were divorced and Walter went to the oil fields in Kern County, California to work. It was while in Fresno, California that Walter died in his hotel room of complications of a compromised liver.  

His son Dutch was in the service in California, and made the arrangements for the funeral  and burial in Bakersfield. [The search for the grave was written here... (click on here.)] Here I learned the degree that Walter had a penchant for nicknames.  I knew Archibald had been called Button, Arnold had been called Dutch, and here I found Walter called himself Bob for no purpose other than he liked it. Mildred laughed when I said "Mom, I would never have found him if it wasn't for his death certificate! Why did you put Bob on his tombstone?"  She smiled and replied, "Because that was what he liked to be called." Go figure.

Green lawn Cemetery, Slumberland area, Bakersfield, Kern County,California

Picture taken by myself in 2011

He was remembered by his daughter with tenderness and love.  

Writing Family History

I have been slacking as of late and have been trying to get myself motivated again.  In answer to my need, enters Lynn Palermo of The Armchair Genealogist returning with the Family History Writing Challenge .
This is a great!  Just the push I needed.  Well, that along with the fact I am helping my cousins family motivate their mother to write her stories.  I know, that is a bit selfish on my part too, as she is the last person old enough to remember my gr grandmother, who heard her stories.
If you have been in a slump, or over technicalized or thinking about writing your family history, this is a great motivation blog to assist you.  Lynn has many writing helps on her blog.
Thanks Lynn for caring to share and motivate others!
The Hummer is motivated, now I have to start writing again.  Hmmmm...  which line of genealogy shall I start on.  Watch for a new Hero post on Sunday, already have that scheduled.  Get Ready... Go!

Missouri family collage and resources for research