Thanks, Dad

After reading my post on The Pioneer Woman and after receiving a request from me for some family history, my dad did not disappoint. He sat right down, penned the following, and sent it to me. As a novice genealogy buff, this kind of stuff is like hitting the jackpot. Dates and names of unknown faces might fill in the tree, but this is the heart of it all. Hearing where your family came from and how they lived is an absolute treasure. And for the sake of my kids (it's their family history, too), and because this is the easiest way to disseminate information to them, I'm pasting my dad's memories as the latest piece of the family history pie. Read and enjoy!

I just read your blog concerning the pioneer woman and your desire for more information about my life "way-back-when", so here goes. I'll start with your great grandfather. He left grandmother with three babies, Frank, Mary and Grace in a small Kansas town and made his way to the Kansas-Cherokee Strip line on the 16th of September, 1893. When the cannon was fired, mounted on a fast running horse he had acquired for the event, he raced to an area a few miles south of the line to an area where he staked his claim. He then rode to Alva where he signed the appropriate papers or ownership, then rode back to Kansas, picked up the family in a wagon, with chickens in crates and a milk cow tied behind and proceeded to their new home. Mother and I have visited the homestead and it is nothing but flat, flat country for as far as the eye can see. Since this was the middle of September, winter was soon to come. Granddad put together a "soddy" in which the family lived until a proper home could be constructed. The homestead was located one mile south and two miles east of a town known today as Burlington. Before Burlington, the nearest town was a place called Driftwood, a few miles north of Cherokee. Those Pioneer Women were a tough group of ladies. I can't imagine taking your mother out in the boonies like that and telling her, "Well Dorothy, how do you like your new home?" Dad grew up like all the young men of the day, on the farm. Later, Granddad sold the homestead and moved the family to Cherokee. He was influential in building the town and was a hands-on builder of the First Methodist Church, which still stands today. We took you by the old "big house" when we were in Cherokee for your grandfathers funeral. Remember it? Mom and Dad married when both were eighteen. Dad had been farming while in school and sold a team of mules to buy Mother's engagement ring. It was know as Mom's Team of Mules Ring! The folks continued to farm for several years so, yes, your grandmother was at least an Oklahoma farmer's wife, if not a pioneer woman. Aunt Dot was born a couple of years later and eight years later, in Cherokee's hospital, I was born. As you know, I grew up on cattle ranches. Although Dad did many things to make a living, selling cars, managing a movie theater, farming, managing ranches, etc., he always had cattle. I remember the mornings at the age of eight or nine, sitting on my cow pony waiting for the sun to come up so we could see to start gathering cattle. A child by today's standards, I was expected to do a day's work like a grown man. I learned the greatest lesson a young could be taught, you have to work for everything you get in this life. Success comes from hard work, don't quit, when you get to the end of the rope, tie a knot and hang on. In 1943, Dad bought a 5,000 acre ranch about 20 miles east of Tulsa, the nearest town was Inola. We had 300 mother cows, 15 herd bulls and ran a successful cow/calf operation for several years. I went to school in the fair city of Inola, even played on the high school basketball team, although I spent my time on the bench, I gave everybody fits during practice! To the east of our ranch was one of the Brainerd Ranches. This was a huge operation owned by a conglomerate back east, but the foreman was an old man known as Ben Johnson. His son was Ben Johnson, the movie star who made many movies with John Wayne. Ben, Sr., was one of my heroes (mentioned in my book, The Rancher from Slapout. I knew young Ben, but he spent most of his time at rodeos and he was about five years older, so I was just a dumb kid in his eyes. When Howard Hughes made his movie, Billy the Kid, he sent horse buyers all over Oklahoma looking for stock. They bought several from the Brainerd ranch with the proviso Ben, Jr. accompany them to California. Ben, Jr. made the trip, fell in love with movies and never came home! Another large ranch operation was the Drummond Ranch. I knew the "Marlboro Man's" grandfather and great grandfather. They were typical ranchers of the day. They word was their bond. Another interesting side bar to this story. The doctor I used for my cataract surgery was the Marlboro Man's brother, Jonathan. He has a great practice here in Stillwater. His office is decorated with large photo murals of the old Drummond Ranch.He told me there were too many boys in the family for all of them to make a living on the ranch, so he went to medical school. But we shared many memories about the good old days. Yeah, the pioneer women we quite a bunch and so much a part of my own heritage. I'm proud of them and proud of sharing a bit of this with you. You are very much a part of this heritage, always be proud of who you are! Love you, Dad