1910- The Farm at "BlackJacks" and a New Family in Oklahoma

When the train pulled into the station at Cleo Springs, there were more than likely folks to greet Jim and Mattie and their children.

Jim's parents, Lewis F. Garrison and Nancy Jane Rodgers Garrison, had moved to Oklahoma from Scotland County, Missouri, around 1901. In 1910, Lewis was 63 years old and Nancy was 59.

 

Lewis Fidel Garrison and Nancy Jane Rodgers

 They had bought two pieces of land in 1901 in what was then Wood County. When the County split, one farm ended up in Alfalfa County, and another in Major County. They must have been glad to see their son and his family move closer to home. And surely the hard work of farming was becoming a heavy burden for them at this age. Jim and Mattie would make their new home on the 160 acre Major County farm, while Lewis and Nancy stayed on the farm in Alfalfa County.

Jim's uncle, Robert W. Rodgers, his mother Nancy's brother, had moved to Oklahoma by 1900. Robert (Bob) and his wife, Katie, also lived in Alfalfa County. Robert had been serving as the postmaster for the town of Augusta, and they had a farm near the schoolhouse there. 

Bob and Katie Garrison

Soon to join them was Nancy's half-brother, Charlie Love.  They had a home in Eagle Chief in Alfalfa County. Charlie was in his early 40's and Clara still in her 30's, so these relatives were closer in age to Jim and Mattie.

Here is Mattie, in the middle, cooling off on a hot day with Clara Love and Ina Woods, another Rodgers relative,  in the Eagle Chief Creek, by the Aline farm.

We visited Major County several times when I was a child. The most impressive feature that I remember was the "Gloss Mountains." These red clay table top structures were covered with thick sheets of mica, which you could take off in chunks. They peeled in layers. We climbed to the top, amidst warnings of watching for the rattlesnakes that liked to sunbathe on the ledges. My father saved me from another danger; I tripped on a rock and started running downhill on the trail, unable to stop with the momentum. He caught me in his arms just before a cliff. I really frightened him; but I was blissfully unaware of the danger at the time. 

(picture of the Gloss Mts)

Another time I remember was taking dune buggy rides in the sand dunes at "Little Sahara" state park. This was in nearby Woods County, Oklahoma. I remember the guide saying "Do you want kind of a thrill ride?" before taking off. It was lots of fun! I see now they also have a yearly hunt there for diamond back rattlesnakes. They must be prevalent around there!

 My two grandmothers, Nellie Allen and Mattie Garrison, at the dunes in the 1940's

1942- The June Trip Home

I don't know how my dad managed to get gasoline and tires during the war for their trip home in June, 1942, but somehow he did! I can't imagine how long the trip took on the roads in those days, especially if they kept to the 35 mph suggested speed. They would have driven first to Jerseyville, Illinois to see Pauline's family-  a distance of nearly 1,000 miles.

Nellie Allen - Pauline's mother

Nellie Allen's home

Hugh and Adah Allen

 

The Allen home, where Pauline grew up

Pauline's mother, Nellie Allen, lived alone now that her son Ken was in the army.  But in another house on the farm were Pauline's brother Hugh and his family; his wife Adah, and children  Patsy 9, Barb 7, Margaret 5 and baby Tommy 2. Pauline's brother Rich, his wife Agnes, and their two daughters, Marjorie Rose 17 and Jean 15  lived in Jerseyville and would have come to visit at the farm, as would her sisters Helen and Margaret, numerous cousins on adjacent farms, and friends from Jerseyville.

 The  June 12, 1942 Alton Evening Telegraph had an article on the visit.

 
From Jerseyville, they traveled 600 miles to Oklahoma, bringing my mother's mother, Nellie Allen, to meet my father's parents, Jim and Mattie Garrison,  and his brother Bob, sister-in-law Louise, and nephew, Stanley Garrison.

 This picture shows Bob Garrison, Pauline Allen Garrison, Mattie Garrison, Nellie Quinn Allen, Louise Garrison, and Jim Garrison standing, with Stanley Garrison sitting with his puppy.


It appears that they took a trip to "Little Sahara" State Park, about 30 miles from Aline, Oklahoma. In later years we went there again and went on some fun dune buggy rides.

Jim and Mattie Garison, Nellie Quinn Allen, Pauline Allen Garrison, Stan and Bob Garrison

                  My two grandmothers- Nellie Quinn Allen, and Mattie Womack Garrison

Nearly every summre of my childhood, we would take this same trip to visit family in Illinois and Oklahoma.

1911- Death of Lewis F.Garrison in Aline Ok

Keepsakes- large diamond from the Arkansas Diamond Mines, silver cup and spoon,  silver watch, crystal cup

kicked by a mule in the barn

probate

move to farm in Aline

My father thought perhaps he was kicked by a mule in the barn.

Lewis F. Garrison died on September 13, 1911. He and Nancy had been in Oklahoma for about 10 years.  

The funeral

His 74 year old sister, Martha Garrison Pedigo, traveled over 500 miles from Scotland County, Missouri for the funeral. She was accompanied by her son, 50 year old John Pedigo. John had leukemia, and would die several weeks after the journey.  

The death must have been unexpected as Lewis died without a will. This projected his widow, Nancy, into an expensive and lengthy probate. Her brother Robert J. Rodgers and neighbor Charles Farabee were sureities for the bonds of administration.  Although the probate process was surely painful for the family, it has left us with specific records which give us some insight into their belongings and lifestyle.

Lewis owned half of the farm that Jim and Mattie lived on in Major County, which still had a mortgage, and his portion was valued at $2000. He owned the homestead in Alfalfa county which was appraised at $7500.

From the personal property we get an idea of life on this farm;

Livestock:

2 adult mules and 2 yearling mules (one of which was likely the culprit); The adult mules would have been used for plowing, etc.

A blue roan mare, and a 2 year old bay colt

One sow and 4 piglets

1 jersey bull, and 3 jersey heifers (for milk)

2 red cows, and 1 calf

  Farm equipment:

riding plow, disc harrow and plow, cultivator, mowing machine, wheat binder, corn sled

Lewis had a half interest in a wagon which was not sold

All items had to be appraised for the auction; and the appraisers paid $1 each.

At the auction, Jim bought the blue roan mare for $160, overpaying his mother as it was appraised at $140...he did this for each item he bought, including the plow, harrow, drill, and harnesses. Friends and neighbors bought most of the other items. A neighbor Dan Elle had been helping with the farm work.

  

Lewis and Nancy had saved $851.37 in the bank. Now Nancy had to begin paying the bills. The probate process went on for over a year, and the fees mounted up. Payments went to medical costs, the funeral and burial fees, accounting fees, court and attorney fees, and payments to the Aline Chronical. 

One of the articles in the Aline Chronical was a search for a missing heir; Jim Garrison's brother, Robert Riley Garrison. He had not been seen or heard from in seven years. 

1910- Leaving Texas

The steam engine would have thundered into the station. Two year old Aleitha and baby Elgin must have been startled as the train whistle pierced the air and  the monstrous engine belching black steam raced toward them. They were both too young to understand that it was going to carry them away from Texas to a new life.

Elgin and Aleitha Garrison circa 1910

Mattie Womack Garrison was no doubt in tears. Her husband, Jim, was going to see his family, but she was leaving hers. 

The Womacks were always a close-knit family, so we can be sure that they gathered at the station to send off a beloved sister.  We can picture them standing together at the depot to say goodbye- 

Lufkin Depot, circa 1910

 Mattie's mother, Nancy Francis Womack was a 56 year old widow who ran a boarding house in the town of Groveton. She was a rugged country woman, but was very close to her children. Seeing Mattie leave surely tugged at her heart. We can only imagine her standing on the platform at the station, hugging her daughter goodbye, and kissing her grandchildren.

Nancy Frances Taylor Womack

  Mattie's  other sisters and many of her neices and nephews would have come to the station as well. Her sister Leona  was 32. Her husband Oscar Kenley, 48, had a prosperous law practice in town. Their children were Bailey 9, Richard 7, Gorman 5, and Harriman 3.

 

Bailey and Richard Kenley

 

Harriman Kenley

 Dona was 35. Her husband Sam Kenley was a cattleman, and their children were Milton 13, Chester 11, Gordon 8, Ila 5, and Raymond 2.

Raymond and Ila Kenley

The relatives living in the country near Centralia and Apple Springs would also  have come to town to see their sister off;

Mattie's 26 year old brother, Edgar, who worked the family plantation in Centralia, and his wife, Mattie Womack, her 23 year old sister Ora, and her husband John Burke, 21 year old Maud and her husband Herbert Eaves, and Mattie's eldest sister, Emma, and her husband William Garrison  (who was not related to Jim Garrison.)

Mattie's two youngest siblings, Holly  18 and Lillian  16 stilled lived at home with their mother in Groveton.

Lillian Womack

As they boarded the train, waving to loved ones, there had to be many tears.
 Young Mattie Womack Garrison, age 29, was the very first in her family to leave her home in Trinity County Texas and move away to another state.

The Lufkin, Texas Depot about 1900

1914-1920 Suffering and Suffrage

                                  

From this card we can see that in 1918 Jim and Mattie were living at R4 D2 in Cleo Springs. Jim was 45 years old, had brown hair and brown eyes, and was missing a finger!

 Jim and Mattie would have followed the news in the Aline Chronoscope. Besides the unrest in far away Europe, the political situation in nearby Mexico had been concerning. For years, Mexico had been in the midst of revolution. Names of prominant revolutionaries, such as Panco Villa, who conducted raids along the U.S. border, were well known. America invaded Vera Cruz after an incident at Tampico and the Mexican government expelled all U.S. citizens, who were sent to refugee camps in Texas City and New Orleans. Relations with Mexico were not good.

The Great War (WWI) had begun in 1914, but the U.S. had stayed out of the conflict until April 1917, when the "Zimmerman Telegraph" was intercepted. This telegraph from Germany to Mexico proposed an alliance if Mexico would aid Germany in the war, and suggested that the Germans would then assist Mexico in restoring the states of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona back to Mexico. We can imagine what impact this had on the Womack relatives living in Texas!

 President Wilson soon declared war on Germany. Jim and most other males were required to fill out draft cards. From this card we can see that in 1918 Jim and Mattie were living at R4 D2 in Cleo Springs. Jim was 45 years old, had brown hair and brown eyes, and was missing a finger! 

Fortunately for American families, the War ended  6 months after the U.S. entered the conflict.

                                   
                            
But the fall of 1818 brought a new and even more deadly enemy. The Spanish Flu. This seemed to attack young people the worst; soldiers in the military camps were some of the early victims, and the Indian reservations suffered some of the worst losses. But every family dreaded this disease. Schools and public places were shut down. Garfield County had over 600 cases. By the end of the epidemic, over 7,000 people in Oklahoma had died from the disease.

The Spanish Flu in Oklahoma- click on arrow for video

video transcript

After the war, women, traditionally homemakers, had begun stepping out into the workforce into new roles.

Women had been calling for the right to vote for sometime and

In 1918-  Grandma got the right to vote!

1912-1923- Life on the Farm in Aline

After the death of Jim's father, Lewis F. Garrison, the family moved from "BlackJacks" to the farm in Aline.  I can't really imagine what their life was like there, but I think it was pretty hard. Children in those days were expected to be, and  were needed as, a part of the workforce. We can see from the inventory of Lewis Garrison's farm, that plowing and harvesting was still done by hand, with the help of  mule drawn farm machinery. Jim blended his own grain to feed his flock of chickens, and there would have been eggs to collect, cows to be milked and butter to be made. Mattie kept a vegetable garden to supply the kitchen. The farm would have been mostly self-sufficient. If you read "Mattie's Blog" you can see my grandmother's first hand account of the life of a farm woman in those days. https://rootsandbloomsgarrisons.blogspot.com/2016/02/matties-blog.html

Jim Garrison and his chickens

My cousin Stan is the best one to give a description of the farm, as he spent a good part of his childhood on it. All I remember of it is a windmill, buffalo wallows, and my father's warning of red ants- which so terrified me that I was afraid to leave the car!  In the summer, when we visited, it was very hot. One summer it went up to 113 degrees- and of course there was no air conditioning in those days so it was dangerously hot. Thunderstorms in Oklahoma could be violent, and there was the occasional threat of tornados. In the old days, there was no weather service or television warning when bad weather was coming. One had to watch the skies.

The farm house near Aline, with Jim, Stanley, and Mattie Garrison

I only know a few stories from the farm; I will leave the rest to Stan and Saundra, who grew up in Oklahoma and surely know many. The first event was a lasting one for Elgin, my father; and one which his parents, as many parents do, surely regretted terribly. They had burned off a field to get it ready for plowing, and the field was still smoldering and white-hot. My father was just a toddler- too young to understand- and wandered a ways onto it before he realized his feet were being burned. At that point any step he took burned again, so he stood there screaming until he was rescued. His feet were badly burned, and he lost his outer toe on each foot. He had sensitive feet all his life, though he never said they were painful.

Recently Stan told me that Bob, his father, also had a lasting injury. He was injured by a hay-rake, and had a bad leg for most of his life.

Aunt Aletheia also told me of a near accident; she was riding the hay rake when the team of mules took off and while they were galloping along the hayrake flipped with the tines upward, so if she had fallen onto them she would have been impaled. She said her father was very angry- likely he was scared half to death that he might have lost her.

There are also funny stories from the farm; once when my father was unhappy with my behavior as a teen, my grandmother calmly reminded him that he and Bob used to race around the dining table on their tricycles.

Bob, Aleitha, and Elgin Garrison

Another time, after grandma had warned them not to go near the bunkhouse, as some of the hands had come down with something contageous, and of course the boys ignored the warning, went in, and both got sick.

The children had many chores to keep up with, and from grandma's narrative, they had a long walk to school. They would have returned to chores, and any homework or reading would have been done by gas lamp in those days. But there were good times as well; swimming and fishing in the Eagle Chief Creek,  visits to town, church picnics. They were always close with Mattie's family, and I know Uncle Jack  mentioned a visit up to Oklahoma, so I imagine the family from Texas came up now and then and the family from Oklahoma went down to Texas as well.

Aleitha, Nancy Rodgers Garrison, Bob Rodgers?, Bob Garrison, Jim and Mattie - this may be one of Elgin's earliest photos!

Bob Garrison standing on the mule- the back of the picture says the other boy was Jim Garrison but he looks too young to me! Elgin was blonde...so perhaps this was him...

This picture was marked "El Reno" which is  a town outside of Oklahoma City- Aletheia on the mule and Mattie in between the two ladies

Nancy Garrison stayed with them part of the time; Grandma told of her helping her in the family vegetable garden. She must have enjoyed being able to spend time with her only grandchildren. In 1920, Nancy was 69 years old and living with her brother, Robert Rogers, and his wife Katie, in Eagle Chief Oklahoma.

As my father, Lewis Elgin Garrison, was the namesake of Lewis F. Garrison, she gave him several family treasures; a red and white crystal cup with L.F. Garrison written on it, a silver baby cup and spoon, a large diamond that his grandfather had found in the Arkansas diamond fields (Crater of Diamonds State Park) and his pocket watch. Unfortunately, the diamond and the silver were lost forever when my parent's home was robbed in Houston one Christmas season after my father was taken to the hospital while suffering with cancer. (Apparently thieves listened in to the ambulance calls.) There was a story about the pocket watch that was a near loss- my father went swimming in the creek and forgot the watch was in his pocket; he dove and dove and couldn't find it; went home to lunch and couldn't eat because he was so upset about it; then returned to the creek and dove and dove again until he finally found it!

The Roosevelt Hotel

(Courtesy the Museum of the City of New York)

  Click to listen to:Guy Lombardo's Orchestra playing at the Roosevelt Hotel while you read!

When my parents moved from St. Louis to New York, they first stayed for two weeks at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City. This grand hotel stood (and still stands) at 45 East 45th Street and Madison Avenue. The hotel, named for President Roosevelt, originally opened in 1924.

(Courtesy of the Museum of the City of New York)

The hotel was right next to Grand Central Station and at the time had an underground passage accessing the train station. I can imagine Gary and Pauline arriving on the train and entering the lobby of this elegant hotel for the first time.

(Courtesy of the Roosevelt Hotel)

This was a convenient place for them to stay; it was situated only half a mile from where Gary worked in the RCA building at Rockefeller Center- so he had just a short walk to work. Many New York attractions were within easy walking distance; shopping on Fifth Avenue, Radio City Music Hall, the Broadway Theater District,  Times Square, and Central Park were all within a mile of the hotel. Pauline could explore NYC to her heart's content during her first few weeks in the city.

(Courtesy of the Roosevelt Hotel)

The Roosevelt Grill provided elegant music, dancing, and dining. Guy Lombardo's orchestra performed at the Grill. Music was piped into the hotel rooms live through the hotel's radio broadcasting system.

(Courtesy of the Museum of the City of New York)

A note of interest: the playing of "Auld Lang Syne" on New Years Eve is credited to Guy Lombardo who chose this song to perform on a radio broadcast from the Roosevelt Hotel shortly before midnight on New Year's Eve 1929. He then continued the tradition every year afterward for many years to come.

Lawrence Welk also began his career in the Roosevelt Grill  in the summers when Lombardo moved his show out to Long Island. My parents were avid fans of the Lawrence Welk show when it came to television!

         Pauline and Gary had an exciting start to their life in New York!