Individual Details
Lillie Laura Stephens
(Feb 17, 1909 - Dec 2, 1989)
THIS IS OUR LIFE By Lillie Laura Stephens Francis
New Mexico
In the fall of 1925 I started to high school at Manskerr(1) but becaus e I had to leave home so early to meet the bus and get home so late th e folks decided to let me go to Stevenson´s and help out there for m y room and board and go to school at Seneca. The evening I arrived th ere I was told to cook supper while Mary milked the cows, while I wa s preparing the meal, the telephone rang and just then a strange man(2 ) came in and said you better answer the phone and I said to him, yo u answer it. This was about the middle of October and of course when w e got to know each other we started to keep company, mostly just talki ng after others went to bed.
March 24, 1926 we were married in Clayton at Ethels(3) house; Roy(4) a nd Elsie were married there at the same time. Buster borrowed $6.00 fr om John Brown for the license. We went in debt $300.00 to buy 4 horse s and 2 mules and feed to make a crop on. We went to Lake and Mary Ste venson´s and worked awhile to pay for some chickens we bought and whil e there they had a shiveree for us and Buster rode 6 miles horseback t o get treats. Borrowed some cows from Lake and Mary to pasture and mil ked some of them. Mamma gave me 6 hens too and some chicks.
Started housekeeping at Seneca NM - Had a folding bed, a cot, 2 tables , some old chairs, a cook stove and a cabinet. Traded Len Slack 3 bu . of corn for the cookstove. Went in debt $28.00 for grocers.
Skunk got into the chickens. Buster and dog went after the horses on e morning and had ran across a skunk and tried to get him. He went i n a hole and they tried to dig him out and finally had to get him by t he tail and pull him out so he really got a good dose both he and th e dog came home sick and stinky
Buster planted our crop and then went to wheat harvest. Buster´s siste r Fan helped me and we layed the crop by. My brothers Chester and Lest er(5) took turns coming to stay with me as Mom didn't want me stayin g alone. During this time we had a storm and while the storm was in pr ogress our best horse started running in the pasture like he was craz y and finally ran into a fence and fell over it dead and I cried. Whe n Buster came home he said he must have had blind staggers. He then we nt to the cedar breaks to get wood and he made enough money to pay of f some debts. We spent Christmas Eve at Ethel´s and Christmas day at P op and Morns. Of course, I got pregnant and was expecting in April. Ha rvested crop and then moved south of Clayton in the spring of 1927 an d lived in a half dugout. We had to keep the bed out where it would no t touch the wall as we had centipedes between the paper and the wall . The paper was heavy building paper tacked on and whenever I hear d a centipede under the paper I would get the scissors and hold him do wn and cut into the paper so I could cut him in two and I don´t know h ow many times I have got up in the night to do this. .
Moving for me was an ordeal as it was about 12 miles and I rode on th e wagon. I was worn out when we got to the folks and Morn put me to be d, we spent the night. Buster was plowing getting ready to plant but o f course come Sat everyone went to town so he had to go too. One of th e twins stayed with me as I was having some nagging pains, so I cleane d house and got everything ready. That night the pains got bad. Buster ´s Mom came and my Mom and the Dr. came and we labored all night and a bout daybreak on Sunday, Leonard was born April 24, 1927.
Mom came every morning and took care of me and the baby. Then Buster t ook over the rest, washing and all, and also worked in the field som e too. While Buster put in a crop I made a garden and set hens and hat ched little chicks. Had prospect of a good crop and hail came and almo st ruined us had made some crop, only made fifty lbs. of beans to acr e could have made 1200 lbs. had we not been not hailed on.
In the fall of 1927 sold all our things. Our next move was a mistake a nd I knew it but that is what Buster wanted to do. We sold everythin g and moved in with the Jud Smith´s. We had a small bedroom, worked fo r room and board $25.00 a month and I was pregnant again. This just di dn´t work out so we got hold of an old Model T Ford and moved to tow n to an apartment next door to Mom Francis. Buster was working for th e Ekland Ranch, the largest spread in that part of the country.
California
Feb 1928 we boarded a train to California. Arrived in Lindsay Feb 12 B ought an old Model T again and loaded our few clothes and bedding on i t after staying in a hotel the night and went to Ida Mae's(7). Staye d with them till Buster got a job and a house. He started to work fo r C.O. Cowles. Lived in a small house on Homassel for a short time th en moved out on Freemont Trail on Cowles Place.
On April the 22 1928 I began having pains as I was due. Ida Mae and th e lady that was to take care of me came and made me walk nearly all da y till I was exhausted and would stop and vomit sometimes, I was so si ck. The doctor came but said I wasn´t ready so went back home till lat e in the night and then came again. Percy wasn´t born till morning an d I was so tired, I was ready to give up. I had a lot of problems wit h my stomach but I think it was because I was so homesick. It got wors e as time went on.
June 1928 we moved to Ray Behrens Place and Buster worked for him $100 .00 a month per and house. That summer I canned fruit for Mr. Behren s on the halves. They gave us a big beef roast for Thanksgiving. Whil e we lived here I learned to drive by driving down the driveway and th en backing up. I did this till I had confidence then I drove to the ed ge of town to the grocery store and wasn´t long till I went and got m y license, We traded for an old Star car and sold the Ford.
The Fire
Jan 1-1929 we moved to E. Tulare Road on C.O. Cowles´ hill place worki ng for $110.00 per mo., in Feb Buster was pruning and it was misty rai n, we had a little sheet iron stove for heating and Buster had starte d a fire that morning using kerosene and had left the nearly empty ca n sitting back of the stove. It got warm and formed gas as it had a li d. In the meantime the fire burned low and was nearly out I put more w ood on the fire and it was damp and wouldn´t light so I tipped the ker osene can up and poured some of the remaining oil on the smoldering em bers and Pow! The whole thing exploded, blew the top off the can as sm ooth as if it had been melted, blowing what oil was left onto the wal l where I had clothes hanging to dry and of course it burst into flame . Fortunately Buster was a short distance from the house and I yelle d for him.
I gathered a boy under each arm and took off for the barn which wa s a safe distance away and put both boys in the car and shut the doo r so they could not get out. Ran back to the house and went in the fro nt door and drug out the trunk that had only a lot of junk in it as on ly a short time before I put our keepsakes and pictures in a suit cas e in the closet. So we didn´t get anything out but the trunk, a rocker , and my new sewing machine. We had no in(7) and no telephone so the h ouse just had to burn. Only the clothes on our back. Buster had bough t a new set of dishes and we could hear them falling. O! How the Lor d was watching over the ignorant then both boys could have had the oi l thrown on them but instead it was thrown on the wall.
Some neighbors took us in by the name of lngleking out of the weathe r till we could call Ida Mae. She came and got us and tore up some thi ngs to make diapers for the boys. Mrs. J. C. McClure brought some thin gs and the Red Cross also. The Baptist people helped us too. A group o f ladies met at Ida Mae´s house and made us some quilts.
One lady brought her machine and going home they had it in the back o f the pickup. They turned a corner too fast and the machine fell out a nd tore it up. I am so sorry about that.
Just east of the place that burned was a house and the people moved ou t and we got the house till they built a new one. While living there , Percy got the intestinal flu and we nearly lost him and he didn´t mu ch more get over that till they both had whooping cough. It didn´t hur t Leonard but Percy was weak from being so sick, it really did hurt hi m. He was a very, very sick little boy- could not keep even water on h is stomach he got so very thin and weak couldn´t even cry loud enoug h to hardly hear him. By and by he did get well but both boys coughe d for a long time.
I used a box about three and a half feet square for a play pen for Per cy and we were using a two burner kerosene stove that had to sit o n a box and the stove had a sharp edge. Leonard would run around the b ox and Percy would get a kick out of that. So that was how Leonard ra n into the stove and it was just the right height to catch him on th e nose between his eyes and laid it open and the blood just gushed . I took him to Buster and he ran him to the doctor and had it sewed u p. Finally moved into the new house. It was four rooms and a screene d porch across the front but how nice it was so clean and new. No bath room still used the outhouse. I got my driver´s license while living h ere. Traded the old Star car and got a big old Cleveland car. While li ving here we joined the Baptist church but was soon discouraged becaus e of some of their teaching not according to the scriptures.
Back to New Mexico
I was getting so I couldn´t keep things on my stomach a lot of the tim e I was so homesick, it was awful. So we loaded up the old Cleveland c ar and headed for N M. June 1930. We broke down I think it was in Ariz ona and had to stay several days for repairs. We still had trouble, s o traded it off and got another Model T roadster and went on to New Me xico.
After we got there we were lucky getting a job for $50.00 a mo. and i t was fifty miles from town and no neighbors, south and west of Clayto n and several miles from any neighbor. This was out near the canyon co untry and lots of soap weeds sagebrush and rattlesnakes. We lived i n a one room shack with no screens. Up to this time, I hadn´t had an y luck toilet training Percy so I turned him loose without any pants i n a little short dress, he broke himself.
George and Dorothy took turns staying here with us and while George wa s there the little dog we had ran in the house and just as far under t he bed as she could go and barking like something was after her. So w e went out to investigate and the car was parked right beside the hous e and under the car was the biggest diamond back rattler I ever saw Ge orge and I together rocked him to death. He was six feet long and as b ig around as my arm above the elbow.
Buster soaked grain in a bucket at night for the horses and in the nig ht the pack rats would come and carry it off. We later found that the y had been carrying it to an old dugout and hoarding it. Also, anythin g else that struck their fancy. Dad(8) got rid of pack rats by catchin g one and carrying it all about the dugout and pinching it with pliers , making it squeal. Then killed it and burned it. The rats left. Raymo nd(9) was there part of the time doing some farming for Jake. We rod e a saddle horse then that belonged to Jake that was death on rattlesn akes. He could smell them before he got to them. He would rear up an d hammer them to death with his front feet and he acted like he hate d them. We did have some neighbors but not close. We went to their pla ce one day for Buster to work on a tank and an old rooster got Percy d own and was flogging him when we heard him scream and rescued him.
In Nov we moved north of Clayton to the Big Spring area to work for Fo rest Towers. We had to live in an old cement house with high ceiling s and cracks around the windows and doors, two rooms down and one upst airs. When it snowed, it would sift in around the windows and cover ou r beds. When we had the money we buy a sack of coal but it wouldn´t la st long so we had to burn cow chips to keep from freezing. It was awfu l to try to dry clothes. We didn´t have many, but both boys wet the be d in spite of us getting them up. Buster was working away from home st aying away a week at a time for $1.00 a day, for him and his team pull ing corn so it was up to me to keep us warm so we picked up cow chips . Many, many times I loaded both boys on the saddle horse and hung a s ack on each side of the saddle horn and went out and gathered cow chip s, once in a snow storm. Leonard had tonsillitis that winter very bad . Run a high fever. Aunt Julie gave me some scraps and in them was so me material of green wool, so Pet Towers helped me make a skirt and bo lero from it and, Say, did I feel dressed up. While we were at the Tow er´s house to sew, we had a bad thing happen. You see everyone kep t a five gallon bucket in the kitchen to put dish water and table scra ps in for the hogs and we were getting ready to go home. One evening , Percy backed up and got over-balanced and sat down in that full buck et of slop! It made him so mad he just bawled was only about 3 years o ld he was wet and cold and we had to go home like that besides the mes s it made on that lady´s floor. In the spring, we moved up near thei r house to a
small house they fixed up for us. Moved to the Lay´s Place a short tim e till we could get the Barton Place. It was a two room house also an d at Seneca.
This is now the spring of `32, farmed with Earl Myers. I think while w e lived here, the
Lindbergh Baby was kidnapped and the Dionne Quintuplets were born.
Frank(10) came in the fall. We butchered a calf and Frank wanted to ma ke what he called son-of-a-gun. Taking all parts of the calf intestine s and all he mixed it and I cooked it while they were at work and whe n they came home they ate till they nearly busted. During the night th ey both got sick and wished they could die, they were so sick. I woul d not eat any so I was not sick. While we lived here, Ossie Myers ha d a miscarriage and I took care of her and put the baby in a box for E arl to bury.
We read everything we could get hold of in cold weather.
Spring of 33, we moved to Tixier Place just a few mi South east of Cla yton to farm again. Old Dan and Buster was to farm together and Dan wa s nearly blind. He had horses and cows and we pooled our resources. Th e house was one large room and a lean-to. We put a bed in the lean-t o for Dan. We had to cut his hair, shave him and make him clean up an d bathe. We had a pet lamb that was the cutest thing and the boys real ly loved that little lamb. But, a pack of dogs were running around th e country and killed our little lamb besides other people´s stock.
Traveling by Covered Wagon
During this summer we failed to get rain and our crops burned up. Sol d everything we had but the wagon and horses and fixed to go to Ark(11 ) Buster put overjets on the wagon fitted it with wagon bows and a ta rp, in other words made a covered wagon. I wouldn´t hear of going of f and leaving my sewing machine as we had shipped it from Caly(12) s o Buster made a two wheel trailer with car wheels and put the machin e and bales of hay in the trailer. It came in handy as a place to carr y feed for the horses, as we took four. We traded for an outlaw hors e by the name of Slim and many things happen with this horse and us. W e hitched 3 horses to the wagon and took our little saddle horse brown ie. Loaded up and left for Ark in Aug 1933. Frank had gone to Ark so h ad Jake and Mary Stevenson and they urged us to come.
Texas
Went to Sedan(13) and spent a night at Viola's(14) but hadn´t much mor e than got started than Old Slim jumped and busted a singletree. Had t railer hitch trouble by the time we reached Calvert´s. When we left th ere we got into sand took us all day to go to Roy's(15) at Dalhart. Mo n - When we got to Roy´s it had rained the first in a long time.
Tues - Went thru Hartley camped about six mi out of Hartley, had an aw ful storm. It rained with wind, thunder, and lightening blew so hard i t broke one wagon bow and we had to hold the tarp or it would have gon e too; we were really scared the boys and I cried some.
Wed - today a car hit our little dog and killed him and the boys wer e heart broken, spent the night east of Dumas; another storm coming up , the horses drifted off and Buster had to hunt them.
Thurs - Travelled all day on plains, no grass, no water except in mu d holes camped near
Stinnett ; good grass the first since we have been on road.
Fri - we crossed the Canadian river. Got caught in rain looks like w e will have to stay beside the road but no grass so went on to Borge r and stayed the night. At this river there is a long bridge and the w ind was blowing pretty hard. I was riding Brownie the saddle horse a s I did a lot of the time and he didn't want to go over that bridge. H e could see between the cracks in the bridge and it frightened him . I thought for sure he was going to dump me in the river but he final ly went but very carefully and trembled as he was really afraid Sa t - went through Skelly town camped before we got to Pampa rained in t he night again.
Sun - was going to wash but still looks rainy Camped between Pampa an d Mobeetie.
Mon - Went through Mobeetie camped before we got to Wheeler.
Tues - Stayed here by the creek and washed. Buster cut Johnson grass f or the horses, trying to get them filled up. Made it through Wheeler.
Oklahoma
Wed. Made good time today went through Sweetwater
Thurs. Traveled all day in hilly country, horses very tired. Camped ab out five mi. east of
Sayre. Pretty weather.
Fri Finished shoeing two of the horses this morning looks like rain ag ain and the wind is blowing I am afraid of the wind since the first ni ght out. I hope we find a good amping place.
Sat. Came through Cordell bought some feed and a watermelon camped a t a house and put the horses in a pasture. Slim and Brownie fought a c ouple big horses to keep them away from two mares. I was so afraid Bro wnie would get hurt, 0! How I love that little horse.
Sun traveled all day, got awful hot on the horses for a while gettin g into timber country.
Mon Came through Binger just travelled half a day, found a good plac e to camp on a school section in timber all took a bath and cleaned up , nice country in here like it fine. Just over the ridge is a school h ouse we got settled down to go to sleep and heard what sounded lik e a banshee whooping it up, found out it was a crowd of holy rollers h aving a meeting in the school house. The noise scared the horses and t hey ran off, had to get out and hunt for them next morning.
Tues. Traveled all day in sand up and down hill, camped late. Out of c orn for horses, bought some hay. Percy sick all day, very hot and hors es very tired.
Wed. Went thru lots of good cotton country, every body full up for han ds, went up and down hill all day, in after noon crossed the Canadia n river again. camped at a place by a vacant house had to herd the hor ses in the road because the old devil that owned the place wouldn´t le t us put them in his corral. Just an old crank.
Thurs. got into heavy timber people here don´t farm but very little th ey make whiskey.' Went over some of the worst roads I ever saw or eve r expect to see don´t think they have been used for ages. Almost impas sable in places like six or eight inches drop and there are rocks. Poo r horses I feel so sorry for them and if it had not been for Slim, w e would never have made it. I was sick all day and the rough, rough ro ad only made it worse. Also, we had to doctor Slim before we got on th e road as he was sick too. I hate this part of the country. Made cam p by a little creek. Man invited us up to house to camp and rest.
Fri. Pulled up to a man´s house and washed some. Nice people old man a nd woman. Got
water out of a living spring first I ever saw.
Sat Caught my first fish this eve.
Picking Cotton
Sun. went fishing this morning and caught a mess of fish. Buster sic k today. These people gave us milk for the boys. May go back a ways t o pick cotton. These peoples name is J D Handwork. Went to Fred Basden ´s place to pick cotton.
It was at this time we got word that my Brother Roy had died on the op erating table at the Mayo Clinic for a brain tumor and we boarded a bu s and went to Dalhart for the funeral he left a wife and a son and a d aughter, Leroy and Susan. Susan was three months old. We were short o n money so Buster hitched a ride back. The boys and I stayed a short t ime and then went back on the bus. I am glad we went but we spent abou t all our money. If we had been fair to the boys we wouldn´t have gon e as from then on we had terrible hardships.
We thought we could surely make enough in cotton to tide us over, I ne ver got so I could pick 100 lbs., don´t recall what the pay was but i t wasn't much. So, we sure couldn´t get ahead. 6 weeks in cotton patch . these people let us milk a cow so the boys could have milk and let u s have a turkey house and a stove to cook on so I cleaned up the she d and we set up the stove and I had a place to cook which sure beat co oking over an open fire like I had done and the time we sent the boy s to school and never even went with them the Basden children looked a fter them, but they sent word that Percy was too young so he didn´t ge t to go. The boys were five and six then and I
want to put something in here that we forgot till now and that was w e had the boy´s tosils(16) out while we lived in the last place i n N M and it cured them both of bed wetting if it had not we would rea lly been in trouble, I know we had a guardian angel watching over us . I was having a lot of trouble with my stomach so Buster said he woul d cure it so he got some whiskey and fixed me a toddy every morning s o one morning he must have increased the dose, well I always made a pa n of biscuits for breakfast while he milked the cow but when I got m y biscuits about made all I could see of them was like looking thr u a knot hole in other words I was drunk. One minute I thought it wa s funny and the next, I was mad and cussing. That´s the condition he f ound me in when he came back from milking. That ended the toddies. Whi le here
Frank(17) joined us. Instead of the horses getting fat from not workin g they were getting thinner as they were eating acorns.
Back in the Wagon
Thurs Nov 16 we started east again. The weather is chilly and the hors es are thin and weak. Went thru Norman camped by side of road. Good gr ass warmed up some night. All this time we are working over an open fi re with just a frying pan have to make pancakes for bread every meal O ! What a chore
Fri - much warmer today but clouding up. Traveled in river bottoms tod ay camped beside a shop and mill. Burmuda grass for horses. Tried to b uy feed for horses but no one would sell but they finally gave us fee d and let us glean corn Had enough corn for several days.
Sat - warm today. taking our time. quite a few hills, timber getting l arger camped in a pasture bought hay for horses. Sat around camp fir e till bed time. Frank with us.
Sun - Still nice but clouding up came through Tecumseh camped at edg e of Shaunee
Mon. Rained on us this morning found pecans at noon today. Camped a t a house in a weed patch, bought hay for horses, look stormy.
Tues. went thru Prague, got some things at Prague, Frank got shoes, ca mped other side of Boley by a creek
Wed. Shod one horse this morning got to a negro settlement by noon, ca mped east of
Okemah at night by filling station.
Thurs. Shod another horse this morning, cloudy again. Camped in oil fi eld by the road.
Friday - Wind blowed hard last night and cold this morning. in minin g and oil country
camped in a negros pasture bought hay.
Sat. pretty this morning, but frosty, shod Slim, we thought he would g ive us trouble but he was the easiest one to shoe. camped by a creek a nd filling Station, talked to a man in covered truck going to Ark
A New Doggie
Sun. Traveled all day in country without timber folks caught up with u s. (Don´t know who this was) Camped below a hill by side of road timbe r here. Went to man´s house to get water got to talking to him about t he boys dog getting killed and he had a pup he wanted to give away, h e had two named Amos and Andy but Amos died and Andy looked like a dir ty little possum had coal dust all over him and was full of fleas. W e put him in a tub of water and bathed him and he turned out to be a p retty yellow with a black nose but so skinny and ugly but we put him i n the tub in the wagon during the day and at night we tied him to th e wagon wheel right away he let us know when anyone or anything came a round. He was English shepherd and police mixed and
was a very intelligent little dog as we found out as time went on.
Mon. Not much timber today pretty weather crossed the Ark river and br anch of the Ill.
Camped by the Ill branch.
Tues. Cloudy this morning. hills and timber, camped west of Salisaw.
Wed. Cloudy part of day camped just before we crossed bridge of Ark ri ver.
Arkansas
Thurs. Crossed Ark river this morning going thru Ft Smith on Thanksgiv ing Day. Arrived at Veldie Smith´s at Cedarville and stayed two weeks . Percy said when he grew up he wanted to be tall like Uncle Veldie. C orrection we spent one week at Veldies and a week at Uncle Charlie Rog ers. When we left Cedarville we spent the night at Rudy18 Next day st arted up Boston Mt. Raining snowing and O! so cold. Had to get out wal k behind wagon to keep warm. got our feet wet clothes too. Camped on t he Mt before we got down and it was so cold and so wet I stopped keepi ng a diary every day and to this day I don´t know why. But one day bef ore we got to Huntsville we camped by a school house and a lady came d own from her house up on the hill to talk to us. It was getting clos e to Xmas and she saw the boys and she asked if they were going to ge t anything for Xmas and of course we hadn´t given that a thought becau se there was no
money for it. She said she had a boy and he had some things he didn´ t want any more and could she give them to the boys. I told her of cou rse and she brought a dump truck and a football and that was all the X mas they had. We arrived at or near Truthl9 xmas eve with high hopes i n our hearts but we soon found out things were as bad or worse here i f you hadn´t been here and raised what you needed.
Xmas day - it drizzled rain all day Frank and Buster out looking fo r a place to live the boys and I alone most of the day cooped up in th e wagon. The most miserable lonely day I can ever remember. I cried so me but I knew that was not going to get us any place.
Moved up to Jake and Mary´s on the hill, while here she cooked bacon b ut had to put grease in with it to fry it as the hog had ran out and a te acorns. But the meat was sweet but no fat . Finally Buster made a d eal with Henry Waldon to live on his place and farm on the shares. Th e house we moved into was two rooms down and 1 upstairs the main hous e was made of logs and was a hundred yrs. old. The kitchen was a singl e wall lean to and the water would freeze hard in the water bucket ove r night. sure was cold. the main room was large and had a huge fire pl ace we had a small cook stove Buster traded one mare tor a bushel of c orn, one gal of sorghum, a forge, a bedstead with no springs and a cro ss cut saw. Some where we picked up another bedstead and no springs s o we lay boards across where the slats go and filled some ticks with g rass and that was our beds. There was a cane bottom chair with the bot tom out an old rocker in the house and we had picked up a stove in th e cotton patch. We made a table a cabinet and used nail kegs for chair s. I found an old car cushion and made a frame for it to have
something comfortable in front of fireplace. worked pretty good. We ha d very little to eat for the next few weeks, Buster and Frank trying t o work, for a time we lived on $1.00 a wk, by buying a bu of com, usin g some for chickens and grinding some for
meal so our food was for a long time corn bread and corn meal grav y 3 times a day. One pan of bread per meal for five of us and the dog . This pan measured 7 1/2 X 11 inches and, at this writing some 28 yea rs later, I still have the pan. Meantime we planted a garden and whe n I could I did a neighbors wash and she would give me soap and canne d berries. Boy did they taste good even if they were not sweet.
We carried water from a nice spring, down the hill a short distance. W hen I washed I had the big iron kettle down by the spring under a tree . It was to heat water in and to boil the white things in. Then we wo uld carry the soapy water to the house and scrub the floors. Not far f rom the house was a small hay barn Buster fed the sheep some hay ever y day and among them was an old ram. One day Percy went with him whil e Buster was up in the barn getting hay down, the old ram backed off a nd butted Percy down. of course it didn´t hurt just scared the dayligh t out of him because it just sat him down the old buck just stood ther e till Percy got up and then butted him down again by this time Perc y was mad and scared too and was howling Buster looked to see what wa s going on and saw the old buck butt him down again and I was watchin g from the house, Buster came down and stopped that kind of nonsense . Another time the boys were in the corral where old Slim was and Perc y raised his coat tail up over his head and shook it and Old Slim didn ´t like that so he started after Percy with his ears back and his mout h open. I yelled and Buster saw what was going on and all he had to d o was
say SLIM and he stopped dead still, he was a one man horse. I was afra id of Slim because he always tried to bite me. That same day I shooe d the chickens and Andy our dog took after them and nearly caught one , right there he got his ears pulled, ever after that he would chase t hem if we shood them but never tried to catch them again He was so sma rt we just loved the little fellow. He was death on hogs he would catc h them and if they were too big to hold, he would manage to get a tre e or sapling between he and the hog and hold them that way. He would c atch and hold a hog twice his size. If he didn´t stop, he would tear t heir hide. All we had to do was holler sooey and he would hunt a hog . Andy learned to chase the sheep and the goats too, but we had to wat ch or he would catch them too. Buster and Andy was up on the mt. one d ay and ran across a badger Buster tried to get Andy to kill him but h e was afraid till Buster began to yell like he was hurt Andy tore int o that ground hog and killed him he got him by the throat and just wou ld not let go till he was dead. I had worn out what shoes I had and wa s barefoot and there was a porch on the side of the house and the floo r was a few inches lower than the house floor so, Buster layed the bad ger right there in front of the door and then he called me to come the re he had something to show me and of course I went out and when I di d I stepped on that warm furry soft thing and I jumped and
screamed thought I would go through the roof wow' I can feel it yet. I t tickled Buster so he lay down in the grass and rolled and laughed , I guess it was funny alright.
Another time Buster and I were walking down the road and of course th e road was grown up in grass and weeds til the only place to walk wa s in the ruts the wagon wheels had made and, again, I was barefoot an d I looked down and there coming toward me was a pig dumpling. I yelle d and said what is that? It was a tumble bug with a pig turd on his ba ck coming down the road. The dung was so big I couldn´t see the bug pu shing it. Slim the one time outlaw horse and the saddle horse Browni e is all we had now to make a crop with. Slim had never worked singl e and Brownie had never pulled a plow. O! How it broke my heart to se e a collar put on my beloved Brownie. It was just beneath the dignit y of a good cow pony to be put into harness and I shall always fee l a hurt every time I remember Brownie in harness. But put in a crop w e did nothing else to do. We raised a good garden and had a lot of goo d things to eat out of it. In time, we had all the vegetables we coul d eat. But sure was tough going till we did get the garden going. Befo re our garden grew we were out of food. So we went to the relief offic e and asked about it the woman that I talked to said we were aliens an d were not entitled to it she said they would pay our way back to N. M . but we had a crop planted then I showed her a paper that said transi ents were entitled to one bill of grocers, and
when I showed her that she said well we will use our own judgement abo ut that. I said you mean we can have it and she said no. That made m e mad so I said well I guess we can go to a store and take what we nee d for our kids that way they will be fed if they put us in jail. Well , I went away crying for our kids were hungry. Fleas nearly ate us u p and then began to have blood boils. I had 16 before I got through al l below my waist. Pop sent me $5.00 to go doctor. We finally after wee ks did get some assistance after Buster went in several times walked t o Huntsville bare foot as his shoes were gone had boils too. Finally , a preacher working in relief office came out and investigated and w e got some help. I would not have gone back anymore had I starved. Whe n Mr. Walden found out we were out of food, he told us to kill a goa t and we did, and I know that was the most delicious food I ever ate.
We went to some parties while we were there and one night we went to F ronie Jones to a party Frank had ordered some shorts that said they ha d a baloon seat and he had ate a lot of pinto beans and we played ru n for your supper and Frank and Joe Walden puntuated every running ste p with some audable wind and we just simply like to have died laughing .
O! yes Dad made a two wheel cart out of the trailer by going out in th e woods and cutting a timber for a tongue then put the double trees o n it from the wagon. That´s what we used to go to town in. I think onl y twice I and the boys went to town.
During winter months we cut wood in day played cards a lot with Joe, L es, and Merle
Walden Sometimes we played till the roosters started crowing for morni ng and that by lantern light. For a long time we got seven eggs but ju st had six hens finally found out an old hen that was wild was comin g in the barn and laying with ours. We told folks the old rooster mus t have felt sorry for us and was doing his bit. Ha,.When we first move d to the Walden place the old mares were so weak they couldn´t hardl y pull the load and when we came to a steep incline the old bay mare f ell down and we had to help her up. Later the old black one got her he ad fastened in the manger and fell down and broke her neck.
Late in the summer the county set up a deal where they would furnish t he cans and equipment and people could bring their fruits and veg an d can them on the shares so we and some others went and picked toms an d took them to Marble and canned them. It was late when we got home an d was dark but that Andy heard the wagon and met us a long way from ho me. While we were gone the Walden boys came and Andy would not let the m in the yard when we were home he didn´t mind.
Back to California
We decided to go to Calif so we sold my sewing machine two horses cann ed toms, sorghum and everything we could and got on the train with ou r bed roll and a few clothes had some dried fruit rolled up in the bed ding.
Feb 12 1935 we arrived in Lindsey we stayed with Raymond and Helen an d she was
pregnant with Clinton. In about two weeks Buster got a job with Mr. Mc Indoo Lived at First and Poppy till July 4th_35. Moved to Fresno on Ch urch and Chestnut then in Nov of 35, Mr. Mac wanted us to go to Lindsa y and work that winter we lived in the little green house and that wa s the winter it was so cold Dad smudged 21 nights and filled pots in t he day. would come back in and fall in bed and sleep two or three hour s and go back to work he got the trench mouth and had to live on soup , later lost his teeth on account of it.
Jan 36 moved back to Fresno. The boys went to school in Calwa put the m in the same grade. Percy had Pleurisy and was in the hospital fort y days and was there over Xmas. They tapped his lungs seven times an d he never cried a time. the Lions club I think it was came around an d asked each child what they wanted for xmas and Percy said a wagon an d he really got a nice one with rubber tires even before he got to com e home, he and a colored boy rode up and down the hallway and had rea l fun. Leonard really missed him while he was there he didn´t get to s ee him. In the summer, I drove a team in the vineyard and got too hot . And in the fall, I ran a grape crew and made out the payroll for 2 5 cents per hr. Raymond and Helen came up and worked. Velma was a bab y and I bathed her nearly every day. This made me want a little girl . Buster went to work for CO Cowles and lived at 5th and M avenue.
Norma Lea was born here Oct 2-1938. Dr. Fillmore attended she was bor n at home, same as the others. 1 started to work in the packing hous e in the spring of 1940. We moved to Orange Avenue in town 1941 and we nt to San Jose in the summer with Perkins(20) to find work. We foun d a place where they lived upstairs and we lived downstairs. Wilda(21 ) and I finally got a job in the cannery working nights Dad had a har d time getting a job but finally did so the kids and I went home whe n Perkins did but Dad stayed awhile longer
Real Estate
We rented a house on Cambridge then later we bought a place on North H arvard our first home. 1943. Lived here seven and one half years the n we bought a place on south Harvard we rented the other one for a whi le bought it for $1200.00 sold it for $4000.00. Gave $8000.00 and late r sold it for $7750.00 cash and bought one on Gale Hill for $6200.00 c ash. Sold it in 1972 for $14,000.00, bought in Madera for $15,000.00.
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1 - Manskerr was near Clayton.
2 - Claridus Oliver Francis. AKA "Buster"
3 - Ethel is Lillie's sister
4 - Roy is Lillie's brother.
5 - Chester & Lester are twins
6 - Ida Mae is Lillie's sister.
7 - Insurance
8 - Lillie sometimes refers to Buster as "Dad."
9 - Raymond is Lillie's brother.
10 - Frank is Buster's brother.
11 - Buster & Lillie had heard there was employment in Arkansas at a b arrel stave mill. They did not know the mill was closed.
12 - California
13 - Sedan, New Mexico
14 - Viola is Lillie's sister.
15 - Roy is Lillie's brother.
16 - tonsills
17 - Buster's brother
18 - Rudy is a town.
19 - Truth, Arkansas no longer exists.
20 - The Perkins Family
21 - Mrs.Perkins .
New Mexico
In the fall of 1925 I started to high school at Manskerr(1) but becaus e I had to leave home so early to meet the bus and get home so late th e folks decided to let me go to Stevenson´s and help out there for m y room and board and go to school at Seneca. The evening I arrived th ere I was told to cook supper while Mary milked the cows, while I wa s preparing the meal, the telephone rang and just then a strange man(2 ) came in and said you better answer the phone and I said to him, yo u answer it. This was about the middle of October and of course when w e got to know each other we started to keep company, mostly just talki ng after others went to bed.
March 24, 1926 we were married in Clayton at Ethels(3) house; Roy(4) a nd Elsie were married there at the same time. Buster borrowed $6.00 fr om John Brown for the license. We went in debt $300.00 to buy 4 horse s and 2 mules and feed to make a crop on. We went to Lake and Mary Ste venson´s and worked awhile to pay for some chickens we bought and whil e there they had a shiveree for us and Buster rode 6 miles horseback t o get treats. Borrowed some cows from Lake and Mary to pasture and mil ked some of them. Mamma gave me 6 hens too and some chicks.
Started housekeeping at Seneca NM - Had a folding bed, a cot, 2 tables , some old chairs, a cook stove and a cabinet. Traded Len Slack 3 bu . of corn for the cookstove. Went in debt $28.00 for grocers.
Skunk got into the chickens. Buster and dog went after the horses on e morning and had ran across a skunk and tried to get him. He went i n a hole and they tried to dig him out and finally had to get him by t he tail and pull him out so he really got a good dose both he and th e dog came home sick and stinky
Buster planted our crop and then went to wheat harvest. Buster´s siste r Fan helped me and we layed the crop by. My brothers Chester and Lest er(5) took turns coming to stay with me as Mom didn't want me stayin g alone. During this time we had a storm and while the storm was in pr ogress our best horse started running in the pasture like he was craz y and finally ran into a fence and fell over it dead and I cried. Whe n Buster came home he said he must have had blind staggers. He then we nt to the cedar breaks to get wood and he made enough money to pay of f some debts. We spent Christmas Eve at Ethel´s and Christmas day at P op and Morns. Of course, I got pregnant and was expecting in April. Ha rvested crop and then moved south of Clayton in the spring of 1927 an d lived in a half dugout. We had to keep the bed out where it would no t touch the wall as we had centipedes between the paper and the wall . The paper was heavy building paper tacked on and whenever I hear d a centipede under the paper I would get the scissors and hold him do wn and cut into the paper so I could cut him in two and I don´t know h ow many times I have got up in the night to do this. .
Moving for me was an ordeal as it was about 12 miles and I rode on th e wagon. I was worn out when we got to the folks and Morn put me to be d, we spent the night. Buster was plowing getting ready to plant but o f course come Sat everyone went to town so he had to go too. One of th e twins stayed with me as I was having some nagging pains, so I cleane d house and got everything ready. That night the pains got bad. Buster ´s Mom came and my Mom and the Dr. came and we labored all night and a bout daybreak on Sunday, Leonard was born April 24, 1927.
Mom came every morning and took care of me and the baby. Then Buster t ook over the rest, washing and all, and also worked in the field som e too. While Buster put in a crop I made a garden and set hens and hat ched little chicks. Had prospect of a good crop and hail came and almo st ruined us had made some crop, only made fifty lbs. of beans to acr e could have made 1200 lbs. had we not been not hailed on.
In the fall of 1927 sold all our things. Our next move was a mistake a nd I knew it but that is what Buster wanted to do. We sold everythin g and moved in with the Jud Smith´s. We had a small bedroom, worked fo r room and board $25.00 a month and I was pregnant again. This just di dn´t work out so we got hold of an old Model T Ford and moved to tow n to an apartment next door to Mom Francis. Buster was working for th e Ekland Ranch, the largest spread in that part of the country.
California
Feb 1928 we boarded a train to California. Arrived in Lindsay Feb 12 B ought an old Model T again and loaded our few clothes and bedding on i t after staying in a hotel the night and went to Ida Mae's(7). Staye d with them till Buster got a job and a house. He started to work fo r C.O. Cowles. Lived in a small house on Homassel for a short time th en moved out on Freemont Trail on Cowles Place.
On April the 22 1928 I began having pains as I was due. Ida Mae and th e lady that was to take care of me came and made me walk nearly all da y till I was exhausted and would stop and vomit sometimes, I was so si ck. The doctor came but said I wasn´t ready so went back home till lat e in the night and then came again. Percy wasn´t born till morning an d I was so tired, I was ready to give up. I had a lot of problems wit h my stomach but I think it was because I was so homesick. It got wors e as time went on.
June 1928 we moved to Ray Behrens Place and Buster worked for him $100 .00 a month per and house. That summer I canned fruit for Mr. Behren s on the halves. They gave us a big beef roast for Thanksgiving. Whil e we lived here I learned to drive by driving down the driveway and th en backing up. I did this till I had confidence then I drove to the ed ge of town to the grocery store and wasn´t long till I went and got m y license, We traded for an old Star car and sold the Ford.
The Fire
Jan 1-1929 we moved to E. Tulare Road on C.O. Cowles´ hill place worki ng for $110.00 per mo., in Feb Buster was pruning and it was misty rai n, we had a little sheet iron stove for heating and Buster had starte d a fire that morning using kerosene and had left the nearly empty ca n sitting back of the stove. It got warm and formed gas as it had a li d. In the meantime the fire burned low and was nearly out I put more w ood on the fire and it was damp and wouldn´t light so I tipped the ker osene can up and poured some of the remaining oil on the smoldering em bers and Pow! The whole thing exploded, blew the top off the can as sm ooth as if it had been melted, blowing what oil was left onto the wal l where I had clothes hanging to dry and of course it burst into flame . Fortunately Buster was a short distance from the house and I yelle d for him.
I gathered a boy under each arm and took off for the barn which wa s a safe distance away and put both boys in the car and shut the doo r so they could not get out. Ran back to the house and went in the fro nt door and drug out the trunk that had only a lot of junk in it as on ly a short time before I put our keepsakes and pictures in a suit cas e in the closet. So we didn´t get anything out but the trunk, a rocker , and my new sewing machine. We had no in(7) and no telephone so the h ouse just had to burn. Only the clothes on our back. Buster had bough t a new set of dishes and we could hear them falling. O! How the Lor d was watching over the ignorant then both boys could have had the oi l thrown on them but instead it was thrown on the wall.
Some neighbors took us in by the name of lngleking out of the weathe r till we could call Ida Mae. She came and got us and tore up some thi ngs to make diapers for the boys. Mrs. J. C. McClure brought some thin gs and the Red Cross also. The Baptist people helped us too. A group o f ladies met at Ida Mae´s house and made us some quilts.
One lady brought her machine and going home they had it in the back o f the pickup. They turned a corner too fast and the machine fell out a nd tore it up. I am so sorry about that.
Just east of the place that burned was a house and the people moved ou t and we got the house till they built a new one. While living there , Percy got the intestinal flu and we nearly lost him and he didn´t mu ch more get over that till they both had whooping cough. It didn´t hur t Leonard but Percy was weak from being so sick, it really did hurt hi m. He was a very, very sick little boy- could not keep even water on h is stomach he got so very thin and weak couldn´t even cry loud enoug h to hardly hear him. By and by he did get well but both boys coughe d for a long time.
I used a box about three and a half feet square for a play pen for Per cy and we were using a two burner kerosene stove that had to sit o n a box and the stove had a sharp edge. Leonard would run around the b ox and Percy would get a kick out of that. So that was how Leonard ra n into the stove and it was just the right height to catch him on th e nose between his eyes and laid it open and the blood just gushed . I took him to Buster and he ran him to the doctor and had it sewed u p. Finally moved into the new house. It was four rooms and a screene d porch across the front but how nice it was so clean and new. No bath room still used the outhouse. I got my driver´s license while living h ere. Traded the old Star car and got a big old Cleveland car. While li ving here we joined the Baptist church but was soon discouraged becaus e of some of their teaching not according to the scriptures.
Back to New Mexico
I was getting so I couldn´t keep things on my stomach a lot of the tim e I was so homesick, it was awful. So we loaded up the old Cleveland c ar and headed for N M. June 1930. We broke down I think it was in Ariz ona and had to stay several days for repairs. We still had trouble, s o traded it off and got another Model T roadster and went on to New Me xico.
After we got there we were lucky getting a job for $50.00 a mo. and i t was fifty miles from town and no neighbors, south and west of Clayto n and several miles from any neighbor. This was out near the canyon co untry and lots of soap weeds sagebrush and rattlesnakes. We lived i n a one room shack with no screens. Up to this time, I hadn´t had an y luck toilet training Percy so I turned him loose without any pants i n a little short dress, he broke himself.
George and Dorothy took turns staying here with us and while George wa s there the little dog we had ran in the house and just as far under t he bed as she could go and barking like something was after her. So w e went out to investigate and the car was parked right beside the hous e and under the car was the biggest diamond back rattler I ever saw Ge orge and I together rocked him to death. He was six feet long and as b ig around as my arm above the elbow.
Buster soaked grain in a bucket at night for the horses and in the nig ht the pack rats would come and carry it off. We later found that the y had been carrying it to an old dugout and hoarding it. Also, anythin g else that struck their fancy. Dad(8) got rid of pack rats by catchin g one and carrying it all about the dugout and pinching it with pliers , making it squeal. Then killed it and burned it. The rats left. Raymo nd(9) was there part of the time doing some farming for Jake. We rod e a saddle horse then that belonged to Jake that was death on rattlesn akes. He could smell them before he got to them. He would rear up an d hammer them to death with his front feet and he acted like he hate d them. We did have some neighbors but not close. We went to their pla ce one day for Buster to work on a tank and an old rooster got Percy d own and was flogging him when we heard him scream and rescued him.
In Nov we moved north of Clayton to the Big Spring area to work for Fo rest Towers. We had to live in an old cement house with high ceiling s and cracks around the windows and doors, two rooms down and one upst airs. When it snowed, it would sift in around the windows and cover ou r beds. When we had the money we buy a sack of coal but it wouldn´t la st long so we had to burn cow chips to keep from freezing. It was awfu l to try to dry clothes. We didn´t have many, but both boys wet the be d in spite of us getting them up. Buster was working away from home st aying away a week at a time for $1.00 a day, for him and his team pull ing corn so it was up to me to keep us warm so we picked up cow chips . Many, many times I loaded both boys on the saddle horse and hung a s ack on each side of the saddle horn and went out and gathered cow chip s, once in a snow storm. Leonard had tonsillitis that winter very bad . Run a high fever. Aunt Julie gave me some scraps and in them was so me material of green wool, so Pet Towers helped me make a skirt and bo lero from it and, Say, did I feel dressed up. While we were at the Tow er´s house to sew, we had a bad thing happen. You see everyone kep t a five gallon bucket in the kitchen to put dish water and table scra ps in for the hogs and we were getting ready to go home. One evening , Percy backed up and got over-balanced and sat down in that full buck et of slop! It made him so mad he just bawled was only about 3 years o ld he was wet and cold and we had to go home like that besides the mes s it made on that lady´s floor. In the spring, we moved up near thei r house to a
small house they fixed up for us. Moved to the Lay´s Place a short tim e till we could get the Barton Place. It was a two room house also an d at Seneca.
This is now the spring of `32, farmed with Earl Myers. I think while w e lived here, the
Lindbergh Baby was kidnapped and the Dionne Quintuplets were born.
Frank(10) came in the fall. We butchered a calf and Frank wanted to ma ke what he called son-of-a-gun. Taking all parts of the calf intestine s and all he mixed it and I cooked it while they were at work and whe n they came home they ate till they nearly busted. During the night th ey both got sick and wished they could die, they were so sick. I woul d not eat any so I was not sick. While we lived here, Ossie Myers ha d a miscarriage and I took care of her and put the baby in a box for E arl to bury.
We read everything we could get hold of in cold weather.
Spring of 33, we moved to Tixier Place just a few mi South east of Cla yton to farm again. Old Dan and Buster was to farm together and Dan wa s nearly blind. He had horses and cows and we pooled our resources. Th e house was one large room and a lean-to. We put a bed in the lean-t o for Dan. We had to cut his hair, shave him and make him clean up an d bathe. We had a pet lamb that was the cutest thing and the boys real ly loved that little lamb. But, a pack of dogs were running around th e country and killed our little lamb besides other people´s stock.
Traveling by Covered Wagon
During this summer we failed to get rain and our crops burned up. Sol d everything we had but the wagon and horses and fixed to go to Ark(11 ) Buster put overjets on the wagon fitted it with wagon bows and a ta rp, in other words made a covered wagon. I wouldn´t hear of going of f and leaving my sewing machine as we had shipped it from Caly(12) s o Buster made a two wheel trailer with car wheels and put the machin e and bales of hay in the trailer. It came in handy as a place to carr y feed for the horses, as we took four. We traded for an outlaw hors e by the name of Slim and many things happen with this horse and us. W e hitched 3 horses to the wagon and took our little saddle horse brown ie. Loaded up and left for Ark in Aug 1933. Frank had gone to Ark so h ad Jake and Mary Stevenson and they urged us to come.
Texas
Went to Sedan(13) and spent a night at Viola's(14) but hadn´t much mor e than got started than Old Slim jumped and busted a singletree. Had t railer hitch trouble by the time we reached Calvert´s. When we left th ere we got into sand took us all day to go to Roy's(15) at Dalhart. Mo n - When we got to Roy´s it had rained the first in a long time.
Tues - Went thru Hartley camped about six mi out of Hartley, had an aw ful storm. It rained with wind, thunder, and lightening blew so hard i t broke one wagon bow and we had to hold the tarp or it would have gon e too; we were really scared the boys and I cried some.
Wed - today a car hit our little dog and killed him and the boys wer e heart broken, spent the night east of Dumas; another storm coming up , the horses drifted off and Buster had to hunt them.
Thurs - Travelled all day on plains, no grass, no water except in mu d holes camped near
Stinnett ; good grass the first since we have been on road.
Fri - we crossed the Canadian river. Got caught in rain looks like w e will have to stay beside the road but no grass so went on to Borge r and stayed the night. At this river there is a long bridge and the w ind was blowing pretty hard. I was riding Brownie the saddle horse a s I did a lot of the time and he didn't want to go over that bridge. H e could see between the cracks in the bridge and it frightened him . I thought for sure he was going to dump me in the river but he final ly went but very carefully and trembled as he was really afraid Sa t - went through Skelly town camped before we got to Pampa rained in t he night again.
Sun - was going to wash but still looks rainy Camped between Pampa an d Mobeetie.
Mon - Went through Mobeetie camped before we got to Wheeler.
Tues - Stayed here by the creek and washed. Buster cut Johnson grass f or the horses, trying to get them filled up. Made it through Wheeler.
Oklahoma
Wed. Made good time today went through Sweetwater
Thurs. Traveled all day in hilly country, horses very tired. Camped ab out five mi. east of
Sayre. Pretty weather.
Fri Finished shoeing two of the horses this morning looks like rain ag ain and the wind is blowing I am afraid of the wind since the first ni ght out. I hope we find a good amping place.
Sat. Came through Cordell bought some feed and a watermelon camped a t a house and put the horses in a pasture. Slim and Brownie fought a c ouple big horses to keep them away from two mares. I was so afraid Bro wnie would get hurt, 0! How I love that little horse.
Sun traveled all day, got awful hot on the horses for a while gettin g into timber country.
Mon Came through Binger just travelled half a day, found a good plac e to camp on a school section in timber all took a bath and cleaned up , nice country in here like it fine. Just over the ridge is a school h ouse we got settled down to go to sleep and heard what sounded lik e a banshee whooping it up, found out it was a crowd of holy rollers h aving a meeting in the school house. The noise scared the horses and t hey ran off, had to get out and hunt for them next morning.
Tues. Traveled all day in sand up and down hill, camped late. Out of c orn for horses, bought some hay. Percy sick all day, very hot and hors es very tired.
Wed. Went thru lots of good cotton country, every body full up for han ds, went up and down hill all day, in after noon crossed the Canadia n river again. camped at a place by a vacant house had to herd the hor ses in the road because the old devil that owned the place wouldn´t le t us put them in his corral. Just an old crank.
Thurs. got into heavy timber people here don´t farm but very little th ey make whiskey.' Went over some of the worst roads I ever saw or eve r expect to see don´t think they have been used for ages. Almost impas sable in places like six or eight inches drop and there are rocks. Poo r horses I feel so sorry for them and if it had not been for Slim, w e would never have made it. I was sick all day and the rough, rough ro ad only made it worse. Also, we had to doctor Slim before we got on th e road as he was sick too. I hate this part of the country. Made cam p by a little creek. Man invited us up to house to camp and rest.
Fri. Pulled up to a man´s house and washed some. Nice people old man a nd woman. Got
water out of a living spring first I ever saw.
Sat Caught my first fish this eve.
Picking Cotton
Sun. went fishing this morning and caught a mess of fish. Buster sic k today. These people gave us milk for the boys. May go back a ways t o pick cotton. These peoples name is J D Handwork. Went to Fred Basden ´s place to pick cotton.
It was at this time we got word that my Brother Roy had died on the op erating table at the Mayo Clinic for a brain tumor and we boarded a bu s and went to Dalhart for the funeral he left a wife and a son and a d aughter, Leroy and Susan. Susan was three months old. We were short o n money so Buster hitched a ride back. The boys and I stayed a short t ime and then went back on the bus. I am glad we went but we spent abou t all our money. If we had been fair to the boys we wouldn´t have gon e as from then on we had terrible hardships.
We thought we could surely make enough in cotton to tide us over, I ne ver got so I could pick 100 lbs., don´t recall what the pay was but i t wasn't much. So, we sure couldn´t get ahead. 6 weeks in cotton patch . these people let us milk a cow so the boys could have milk and let u s have a turkey house and a stove to cook on so I cleaned up the she d and we set up the stove and I had a place to cook which sure beat co oking over an open fire like I had done and the time we sent the boy s to school and never even went with them the Basden children looked a fter them, but they sent word that Percy was too young so he didn´t ge t to go. The boys were five and six then and I
want to put something in here that we forgot till now and that was w e had the boy´s tosils(16) out while we lived in the last place i n N M and it cured them both of bed wetting if it had not we would rea lly been in trouble, I know we had a guardian angel watching over us . I was having a lot of trouble with my stomach so Buster said he woul d cure it so he got some whiskey and fixed me a toddy every morning s o one morning he must have increased the dose, well I always made a pa n of biscuits for breakfast while he milked the cow but when I got m y biscuits about made all I could see of them was like looking thr u a knot hole in other words I was drunk. One minute I thought it wa s funny and the next, I was mad and cussing. That´s the condition he f ound me in when he came back from milking. That ended the toddies. Whi le here
Frank(17) joined us. Instead of the horses getting fat from not workin g they were getting thinner as they were eating acorns.
Back in the Wagon
Thurs Nov 16 we started east again. The weather is chilly and the hors es are thin and weak. Went thru Norman camped by side of road. Good gr ass warmed up some night. All this time we are working over an open fi re with just a frying pan have to make pancakes for bread every meal O ! What a chore
Fri - much warmer today but clouding up. Traveled in river bottoms tod ay camped beside a shop and mill. Burmuda grass for horses. Tried to b uy feed for horses but no one would sell but they finally gave us fee d and let us glean corn Had enough corn for several days.
Sat - warm today. taking our time. quite a few hills, timber getting l arger camped in a pasture bought hay for horses. Sat around camp fir e till bed time. Frank with us.
Sun - Still nice but clouding up came through Tecumseh camped at edg e of Shaunee
Mon. Rained on us this morning found pecans at noon today. Camped a t a house in a weed patch, bought hay for horses, look stormy.
Tues. went thru Prague, got some things at Prague, Frank got shoes, ca mped other side of Boley by a creek
Wed. Shod one horse this morning got to a negro settlement by noon, ca mped east of
Okemah at night by filling station.
Thurs. Shod another horse this morning, cloudy again. Camped in oil fi eld by the road.
Friday - Wind blowed hard last night and cold this morning. in minin g and oil country
camped in a negros pasture bought hay.
Sat. pretty this morning, but frosty, shod Slim, we thought he would g ive us trouble but he was the easiest one to shoe. camped by a creek a nd filling Station, talked to a man in covered truck going to Ark
A New Doggie
Sun. Traveled all day in country without timber folks caught up with u s. (Don´t know who this was) Camped below a hill by side of road timbe r here. Went to man´s house to get water got to talking to him about t he boys dog getting killed and he had a pup he wanted to give away, h e had two named Amos and Andy but Amos died and Andy looked like a dir ty little possum had coal dust all over him and was full of fleas. W e put him in a tub of water and bathed him and he turned out to be a p retty yellow with a black nose but so skinny and ugly but we put him i n the tub in the wagon during the day and at night we tied him to th e wagon wheel right away he let us know when anyone or anything came a round. He was English shepherd and police mixed and
was a very intelligent little dog as we found out as time went on.
Mon. Not much timber today pretty weather crossed the Ark river and br anch of the Ill.
Camped by the Ill branch.
Tues. Cloudy this morning. hills and timber, camped west of Salisaw.
Wed. Cloudy part of day camped just before we crossed bridge of Ark ri ver.
Arkansas
Thurs. Crossed Ark river this morning going thru Ft Smith on Thanksgiv ing Day. Arrived at Veldie Smith´s at Cedarville and stayed two weeks . Percy said when he grew up he wanted to be tall like Uncle Veldie. C orrection we spent one week at Veldies and a week at Uncle Charlie Rog ers. When we left Cedarville we spent the night at Rudy18 Next day st arted up Boston Mt. Raining snowing and O! so cold. Had to get out wal k behind wagon to keep warm. got our feet wet clothes too. Camped on t he Mt before we got down and it was so cold and so wet I stopped keepi ng a diary every day and to this day I don´t know why. But one day bef ore we got to Huntsville we camped by a school house and a lady came d own from her house up on the hill to talk to us. It was getting clos e to Xmas and she saw the boys and she asked if they were going to ge t anything for Xmas and of course we hadn´t given that a thought becau se there was no
money for it. She said she had a boy and he had some things he didn´ t want any more and could she give them to the boys. I told her of cou rse and she brought a dump truck and a football and that was all the X mas they had. We arrived at or near Truthl9 xmas eve with high hopes i n our hearts but we soon found out things were as bad or worse here i f you hadn´t been here and raised what you needed.
Xmas day - it drizzled rain all day Frank and Buster out looking fo r a place to live the boys and I alone most of the day cooped up in th e wagon. The most miserable lonely day I can ever remember. I cried so me but I knew that was not going to get us any place.
Moved up to Jake and Mary´s on the hill, while here she cooked bacon b ut had to put grease in with it to fry it as the hog had ran out and a te acorns. But the meat was sweet but no fat . Finally Buster made a d eal with Henry Waldon to live on his place and farm on the shares. Th e house we moved into was two rooms down and 1 upstairs the main hous e was made of logs and was a hundred yrs. old. The kitchen was a singl e wall lean to and the water would freeze hard in the water bucket ove r night. sure was cold. the main room was large and had a huge fire pl ace we had a small cook stove Buster traded one mare tor a bushel of c orn, one gal of sorghum, a forge, a bedstead with no springs and a cro ss cut saw. Some where we picked up another bedstead and no springs s o we lay boards across where the slats go and filled some ticks with g rass and that was our beds. There was a cane bottom chair with the bot tom out an old rocker in the house and we had picked up a stove in th e cotton patch. We made a table a cabinet and used nail kegs for chair s. I found an old car cushion and made a frame for it to have
something comfortable in front of fireplace. worked pretty good. We ha d very little to eat for the next few weeks, Buster and Frank trying t o work, for a time we lived on $1.00 a wk, by buying a bu of com, usin g some for chickens and grinding some for
meal so our food was for a long time corn bread and corn meal grav y 3 times a day. One pan of bread per meal for five of us and the dog . This pan measured 7 1/2 X 11 inches and, at this writing some 28 yea rs later, I still have the pan. Meantime we planted a garden and whe n I could I did a neighbors wash and she would give me soap and canne d berries. Boy did they taste good even if they were not sweet.
We carried water from a nice spring, down the hill a short distance. W hen I washed I had the big iron kettle down by the spring under a tree . It was to heat water in and to boil the white things in. Then we wo uld carry the soapy water to the house and scrub the floors. Not far f rom the house was a small hay barn Buster fed the sheep some hay ever y day and among them was an old ram. One day Percy went with him whil e Buster was up in the barn getting hay down, the old ram backed off a nd butted Percy down. of course it didn´t hurt just scared the dayligh t out of him because it just sat him down the old buck just stood ther e till Percy got up and then butted him down again by this time Perc y was mad and scared too and was howling Buster looked to see what wa s going on and saw the old buck butt him down again and I was watchin g from the house, Buster came down and stopped that kind of nonsense . Another time the boys were in the corral where old Slim was and Perc y raised his coat tail up over his head and shook it and Old Slim didn ´t like that so he started after Percy with his ears back and his mout h open. I yelled and Buster saw what was going on and all he had to d o was
say SLIM and he stopped dead still, he was a one man horse. I was afra id of Slim because he always tried to bite me. That same day I shooe d the chickens and Andy our dog took after them and nearly caught one , right there he got his ears pulled, ever after that he would chase t hem if we shood them but never tried to catch them again He was so sma rt we just loved the little fellow. He was death on hogs he would catc h them and if they were too big to hold, he would manage to get a tre e or sapling between he and the hog and hold them that way. He would c atch and hold a hog twice his size. If he didn´t stop, he would tear t heir hide. All we had to do was holler sooey and he would hunt a hog . Andy learned to chase the sheep and the goats too, but we had to wat ch or he would catch them too. Buster and Andy was up on the mt. one d ay and ran across a badger Buster tried to get Andy to kill him but h e was afraid till Buster began to yell like he was hurt Andy tore int o that ground hog and killed him he got him by the throat and just wou ld not let go till he was dead. I had worn out what shoes I had and wa s barefoot and there was a porch on the side of the house and the floo r was a few inches lower than the house floor so, Buster layed the bad ger right there in front of the door and then he called me to come the re he had something to show me and of course I went out and when I di d I stepped on that warm furry soft thing and I jumped and
screamed thought I would go through the roof wow' I can feel it yet. I t tickled Buster so he lay down in the grass and rolled and laughed , I guess it was funny alright.
Another time Buster and I were walking down the road and of course th e road was grown up in grass and weeds til the only place to walk wa s in the ruts the wagon wheels had made and, again, I was barefoot an d I looked down and there coming toward me was a pig dumpling. I yelle d and said what is that? It was a tumble bug with a pig turd on his ba ck coming down the road. The dung was so big I couldn´t see the bug pu shing it. Slim the one time outlaw horse and the saddle horse Browni e is all we had now to make a crop with. Slim had never worked singl e and Brownie had never pulled a plow. O! How it broke my heart to se e a collar put on my beloved Brownie. It was just beneath the dignit y of a good cow pony to be put into harness and I shall always fee l a hurt every time I remember Brownie in harness. But put in a crop w e did nothing else to do. We raised a good garden and had a lot of goo d things to eat out of it. In time, we had all the vegetables we coul d eat. But sure was tough going till we did get the garden going. Befo re our garden grew we were out of food. So we went to the relief offic e and asked about it the woman that I talked to said we were aliens an d were not entitled to it she said they would pay our way back to N. M . but we had a crop planted then I showed her a paper that said transi ents were entitled to one bill of grocers, and
when I showed her that she said well we will use our own judgement abo ut that. I said you mean we can have it and she said no. That made m e mad so I said well I guess we can go to a store and take what we nee d for our kids that way they will be fed if they put us in jail. Well , I went away crying for our kids were hungry. Fleas nearly ate us u p and then began to have blood boils. I had 16 before I got through al l below my waist. Pop sent me $5.00 to go doctor. We finally after wee ks did get some assistance after Buster went in several times walked t o Huntsville bare foot as his shoes were gone had boils too. Finally , a preacher working in relief office came out and investigated and w e got some help. I would not have gone back anymore had I starved. Whe n Mr. Walden found out we were out of food, he told us to kill a goa t and we did, and I know that was the most delicious food I ever ate.
We went to some parties while we were there and one night we went to F ronie Jones to a party Frank had ordered some shorts that said they ha d a baloon seat and he had ate a lot of pinto beans and we played ru n for your supper and Frank and Joe Walden puntuated every running ste p with some audable wind and we just simply like to have died laughing .
O! yes Dad made a two wheel cart out of the trailer by going out in th e woods and cutting a timber for a tongue then put the double trees o n it from the wagon. That´s what we used to go to town in. I think onl y twice I and the boys went to town.
During winter months we cut wood in day played cards a lot with Joe, L es, and Merle
Walden Sometimes we played till the roosters started crowing for morni ng and that by lantern light. For a long time we got seven eggs but ju st had six hens finally found out an old hen that was wild was comin g in the barn and laying with ours. We told folks the old rooster mus t have felt sorry for us and was doing his bit. Ha,.When we first move d to the Walden place the old mares were so weak they couldn´t hardl y pull the load and when we came to a steep incline the old bay mare f ell down and we had to help her up. Later the old black one got her he ad fastened in the manger and fell down and broke her neck.
Late in the summer the county set up a deal where they would furnish t he cans and equipment and people could bring their fruits and veg an d can them on the shares so we and some others went and picked toms an d took them to Marble and canned them. It was late when we got home an d was dark but that Andy heard the wagon and met us a long way from ho me. While we were gone the Walden boys came and Andy would not let the m in the yard when we were home he didn´t mind.
Back to California
We decided to go to Calif so we sold my sewing machine two horses cann ed toms, sorghum and everything we could and got on the train with ou r bed roll and a few clothes had some dried fruit rolled up in the bed ding.
Feb 12 1935 we arrived in Lindsey we stayed with Raymond and Helen an d she was
pregnant with Clinton. In about two weeks Buster got a job with Mr. Mc Indoo Lived at First and Poppy till July 4th_35. Moved to Fresno on Ch urch and Chestnut then in Nov of 35, Mr. Mac wanted us to go to Lindsa y and work that winter we lived in the little green house and that wa s the winter it was so cold Dad smudged 21 nights and filled pots in t he day. would come back in and fall in bed and sleep two or three hour s and go back to work he got the trench mouth and had to live on soup , later lost his teeth on account of it.
Jan 36 moved back to Fresno. The boys went to school in Calwa put the m in the same grade. Percy had Pleurisy and was in the hospital fort y days and was there over Xmas. They tapped his lungs seven times an d he never cried a time. the Lions club I think it was came around an d asked each child what they wanted for xmas and Percy said a wagon an d he really got a nice one with rubber tires even before he got to com e home, he and a colored boy rode up and down the hallway and had rea l fun. Leonard really missed him while he was there he didn´t get to s ee him. In the summer, I drove a team in the vineyard and got too hot . And in the fall, I ran a grape crew and made out the payroll for 2 5 cents per hr. Raymond and Helen came up and worked. Velma was a bab y and I bathed her nearly every day. This made me want a little girl . Buster went to work for CO Cowles and lived at 5th and M avenue.
Norma Lea was born here Oct 2-1938. Dr. Fillmore attended she was bor n at home, same as the others. 1 started to work in the packing hous e in the spring of 1940. We moved to Orange Avenue in town 1941 and we nt to San Jose in the summer with Perkins(20) to find work. We foun d a place where they lived upstairs and we lived downstairs. Wilda(21 ) and I finally got a job in the cannery working nights Dad had a har d time getting a job but finally did so the kids and I went home whe n Perkins did but Dad stayed awhile longer
Real Estate
We rented a house on Cambridge then later we bought a place on North H arvard our first home. 1943. Lived here seven and one half years the n we bought a place on south Harvard we rented the other one for a whi le bought it for $1200.00 sold it for $4000.00. Gave $8000.00 and late r sold it for $7750.00 cash and bought one on Gale Hill for $6200.00 c ash. Sold it in 1972 for $14,000.00, bought in Madera for $15,000.00.
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1 - Manskerr was near Clayton.
2 - Claridus Oliver Francis. AKA "Buster"
3 - Ethel is Lillie's sister
4 - Roy is Lillie's brother.
5 - Chester & Lester are twins
6 - Ida Mae is Lillie's sister.
7 - Insurance
8 - Lillie sometimes refers to Buster as "Dad."
9 - Raymond is Lillie's brother.
10 - Frank is Buster's brother.
11 - Buster & Lillie had heard there was employment in Arkansas at a b arrel stave mill. They did not know the mill was closed.
12 - California
13 - Sedan, New Mexico
14 - Viola is Lillie's sister.
15 - Roy is Lillie's brother.
16 - tonsills
17 - Buster's brother
18 - Rudy is a town.
19 - Truth, Arkansas no longer exists.
20 - The Perkins Family
21 - Mrs.Perkins .
Events
| Birth | Feb 17, 1909 | IL | |||
| Death | Dec 2, 1989 | ||||
| Marriage | Claridus Oliver Francis |
Families
| Spouse | Claridus Oliver Francis (1900 - 1984) |
| Child | Percy Andrew Francis (1928 - 2016) |
| Child | Norma Francis ( - ) |
| Child | Leonard Francis ( - ) |