Individual Details

One Genealogical Day Saturday, April 2, 2005 by Donald Lee Gardner He ather Jane, Laurel Kay, and I took a "family history" da y tour. Our t our began with a phone call from daughter Jud ith Prudhomme just befor e we arrived at the cemetery sout h of Covington, OK. She, Tad, Megan , and Ashley were jus t sitting down to a shrimp creole dinner prepare d from Joh n Folse's cookbook, "The Encyclopedia of Cajun Cooking", w h ich Jane and I gave Judith for her birthday May 11, 2005 . This i s the first recipe she has prepared from the boo k and says she is rea lly enjoying it. We found and photog raphed Jacob Beck's marker at t he Covington Cemetery. Jak e was Grandma Ruth Estelle Beck Gardner' s brother. He move d to Covington with William Chamberlain, Ivey Mess enger an d Ruth Gardner, from Billings, MO. Dad (Donald Beck Gardne r ), and his sister, Thelma Irene, were born at Covington . From Covingt on we drove to the 20 acre "farm" near Breck inridge, OK , where Jane , Heather, and I lived in 1974-75 . From there we drove to Billings , OK. Billings was celeb rating its 100th anniversay of the school w ith an all-clas s reunion. I wanted to donate a photograph of the 192 3-2 4 eighth grade class, which included Dad. We drove east o n Highw ay 15 to I-35, where we had lunch at " Dee Dee's" wa tering hole, Dair y Queen. From there we drove to Stillwate r, OK, identifying Miner an d Virginia's house and Grandma a nd Grandpa Hall's home at 1213 West 9 th. We went to the Ha ll markers at the cemetery on east 51 Highway . I photograp hed the markers of Thomas Lee, Florence Eldora, John Ne lson , Miner Culley, and Mark Hall. Thomas "Tom" Leroy is burie d i n the military cemetery at Ft. Gibson, OK. Then we drov e to Yale, O K and took a picture of the house where Lee an d Eldora, Dora Lee, Min er Culley, Thomas Leroy, and John Ne lson Hall lived when Grandpa Hal l was cashier of the bank i n Yale. From there we drove through Cushi ng and Agra and m ade our way to Tryon, OK, Dora Lee Hall's birthplace . I sh owed the girls the building we think was Clarence and Lee' s g eneral store. I drove them by Ada Estelle's home and Je rry Sloan's h ome. Clarence and Stella Hall, Ada Estelle' s parents, lived in Tryo n until their deaths. From Tryon w e drove south on highway 177 to Ma mmoth Baptist Church an d turned east to find Perry and Rena Monhollan d's house. S he lives 1/4 mile east of the church and then south of t h e road. From there I read the notes I had received from Re na whic h suggested that some of our relatives were possibl y buried at the Ro ssville Cemetery, which we had passed o n our way south. We turned ba ck north about 3 or 4 miles a nd found the Rossville Cemetery. We wal ked the cemetery an d found several Halls and Hunnicutts. I took pict ures, bu t do not believe there are any direct connections. I wil l d o more research on the photographed names. From there w e drove sout h to the Hall homestead. It is located 1 mil e north of highway 62 o n the southwest corner of that secti on line road. There were two me n standing in the driveway . I pulled in and got out of the car. Th e younger man sai d his goodbyes before I introduced myself, and he dr ove awa y. I introduced myself to the other man, Roy McMahan, an d to ld him that his home had been my family's homestead a t the turn of th e century. He thought that Nelson Price Ha ll and Martha Paralee Cart er Hall had lived across the stre et north from the house he now owns , since he got the hous e from Troy and Myrtle Hunnicut (Myrtle was Ne lson and Mart ha's oldest daughter, Lee Hall's sister). Troy and thi s ma n's first wife, who died from cancer, were good friends. I t wa s Troy's suggestion that she and her husband move int o this house. T his man's daughter was married to Hal Honey cutt, Troy and Myrtle's gr andson, and Ray's son. Hal now o wns "Ponderosa ", the land that Jea n McClain owned and wher e the cabin and lake were that we all enjoye d before the da m broke. Hal has rebuilt the dam and the pond looks p rett y good. He told me that Delphine's health is failing and h er hu sband is suffering from Alzheimer's. We were tired an d it was gettin g late, or we would have stopped and visite d with Delphine. We too k highway 62 (23rd street) to Oklah oma City. When we got home, Jan e had prepared a deliciou s roast dinner with all the appropriate "fix ins", and it re ally hit the spot. Heather and Laurel stayed and ha d dinne r with us. It was a good day, filled with warm memories a n d melancholy emotions for me. It is such a blessing for m e to be a ble to spend time with Heather and Laurel like thi s and for them to t ake interest in learning about their her itage. The entry below was a n e-mail message 30 Apr 2005 from my 3 rd cousin, Patrick J. Culley. H appy Birthday, Don! My dad was born 5/24/1924 and is declining rapidl y from Par kinson's, which first appeared about ten years ago. Mentall y, he is sound , but physically, he shakes badly and stoops more eac h day. I'll be surprise d if he makes it through 2005. I'll be glad t o ask him anything that you want, and he ha s already mentioned knowin g some Gardners, but he seemed surprised about your O klahoma locale . Do you have any relatives in Windom, KS? My aunt Bonnie Flannigan C ulley, wife of my father's brothe r James Dudley Culley, is the geneal ogist in our family, having spent man y years as an employee at the st ate capitol bureau of records in Missouri . Since the Culley history r evolves around Chilhowee, MO (where John an d Thomas Jefferson Culle y are buried), she was able to gather a goo d many things and had know ledge of how to obtain accurate information. In doi ng this type of re search, memory seems to be one of the poorest sources, bu t I have rec eived a lot of good info from my Dad. Bonnie has a copy of John C ulle y's discharge from service for the War of 1812, for which he receive d sev eral acres of land in Arkansas; having later sold the land witho ut seein g it. Bonnie and Jim replaced John and Jane Culley's headsto nes l ast year, driven by the loss of Thomas Jefferson and Susan Culle y's headston e. The graves are located at the old Shilo cemetary nex t to a Cumberland Pres byterian church, and the place is difficult t o find unless you know where t o look. TJ's brother, also a William an d the first child of John and Jan e, was prominent in Warrensburg, MO . Another interesting fact is that John' s wife, Jane, had been marrie d previously to a man named Wright, and had tw o sons by this man. H e disappeared while returning to Richmond, KY to settle hi s father' s estate. best regards Patrick Culley

Birth	Apr 30, 1938	Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, OK, USA
Marriage	Apr 30, 1960	Anadarko, Caddo, Oklahoma, USA - Mary Alberta Blackwell
Divorce filed	May 4, 1972	Mary Alberta Blackwell
Divorce	May 4, 1972	Mary Alberta Blackwell
Marriage	May 5, 1972	New Orleans, Orleans, LA, USA - Nancy Jane Ekstrand
Marriage	May 5, 1972	New Orleans, Orleans, LA, USA - Nancy Jane Ekstrand
Marriage	UNKNOWN	Mary Alberta Blackwell
Event		Wedding - Orleans Parish Court House - Nancy Jane Ekstrand
Wedding		Orleans Parish Court House - Nancy Jane Ekstrand
Wedding		Orleans Parish Court House - Nancy Jane Ekstrand

Spouse	Nancy Jane Ekstrand (1949 - )
Child	Heather Jane Gardner (1973 - )
Child	Laurel Kay Gardner (1980 - )

Spouse	Mary Alberta Blackwell (1940 - )
Child	Donald Lee Gardner Jr. (1960 - )
Child	Dorothy Anna Gardner (1962 - )
Child	John Blackwell Gardner (1968 - )
Child	Mary Judith Gardner (1970 - )

Father	Donald Beck Gardner (1909 - 2004)
Mother	Dora Lee Hall (1912 - 1994)
Sibling	Mary Ruth Gardner (1933 - )
Sibling	John Nelson Gardner (1947 - )
Sibling	John Gardner ( - )