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In the early
days in Blaine County, wild animals were very abundant,
especially coyotes and wolves which caused the farmers
many problems. J. R. organized an annual Wolf Hunt
with every man who wanted to participate to meet at the
windmill on what you all know as the Howard Bird place,
on a given day. They would set out on their hunt
early in the morning with a set time to meet back at the
windmill. They killed off many predatory animals
in this way.
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The picture
tells the story of the 1915 hunt but this is just a
small part of the crowd that attended and of the animals
captured during the day. Take notice of the
huge jackrabbits and the coyotes and wolves hanging on
the poles. J. R. is the man in the middle front
holding the gun.
After a few years the
hunt became a neighborhood affair, they would choose up
sides and the loosing side would have to buy the oysters
for an Oyster Stew Supper held at the school house for
the whole community. This was the big event of the
winter and held on New Year's Eve. In order to
determine which side would buy the oysters for the
supper, points were set up for each type of animal or
bird brought in. More pints were given for the
hard to catch coyotes and wolves and less points for
such as the cottontails and crown which were plentiful.
However, any kind of animal or fowl helped add up
points. They would set the day for sometimes in
December and meet and set their hours to hunt before
meeting back at Enterprise School to count points and
determine the losing side. The edible animals and
birds were donated to the needy in Watonga. quail,
dove, cottontails and jackrabbits were in abundance so
they always had plenty to donate to the needy people.
During this period of the
time of the annual hunts, J. R. owned the 160 that was
later called the Howard Bird place. Around 1919-20
he traded, probably through the government, this 160 to
Howard Bird for 160 acres of wheat land on the South
Canadian river. He leased more land nearby this
river place and farmed many acres of wheat during the
late teens and early twenties.
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| Robert relates
another family story:
"In October 1915, Mother
and Dad went to San Francisco to the World's Fair.
Uncle Leslie and aunt Goldie came to stay with us
children while they were gone. Uncle Leslie
spent his time painting the house and some of the
barns. One day Jane, Jimmy (their girls) and I
decided to paint the dog house. We used both
the red barn paint and the white house paint and by
the time we got through, all of us and the dog house
surely looked like some of Dad's roan shorthorn
cows. We all got a spanking but I guess it was
fun while it lasted. I think I just remember
this incident by it being told so many times,
especially by Uncle Leslie. He got a bang
telling this story every time we saw him to the day
he died. |
Around 1916 J. R. bought
the first horse-drawn combine that came into Blaine
County. He used 56 head of horses and mules in
harness. There were 4 or 5 teams to each binder and
header, 16 head on the combine, 2 and sometimes 4 on
the wagons with boxes that hauled wheat from the
fields.
The North Canadian
River flood of 1922 ruined most of their pasture so
the cattle had to be pastured out the summer of '23.
J. R. began to search
for grassland and located some in Osage County near
Hulah. He bought out a rancher, crops and all,
that lived on a good place. So in the spring
of 1924, they were in the process of moving to the
Buck Clausen place on Big Caney River in Osage
County. |
About 1919, J. R.
bought a home in Watonga to live in during the
winter months so the children could attend school in
town. They always returned to the farm in
summer months to help with the harvesting.
Everett lived there during winter to keep farm
chores going. In 1920, J. R. was one of the
Directors of the Southwest American Livestock Show
so he was kept pretty busy with that.
In 1928, J. R. sold
out in Osage County and moved back to Blaine County.
Ralph moved south of them a couple of miles.
the other boys, Maburn, Everett and bud remained in
the Osage. by the end of 1930, all of their
children had married. They had a total of 15
living grandchildren. |
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The 30's
were depression years and people stayed closer to
home and made do with the simpler things of life.
They had their daily newspapers, radios, rural
Sunday Schools, neighborhood clubs, pie suppers and
socials, school entertainments and went to town
about once a week for groceries and supplies.
Once in a while they took in a movie if they could
spare the money. They raised most of their
food, Nora always raised a bunch of chickens for
frying and to replenish her laying hens.
January would find Nora pouring over seed catalogues
and ordering seeds, waiting for spring to arrive to
plant garden and flowers.
J. R.
was civic minded and any election day found him
ready with his car to haul loads of people to the
polls to vote. He and Nora were both leaders
in their community - Nora served as president of
Home Demonstration Club for a few years and attended
all the club meetings as long as her health
permitted. About 1932 she had major surgery
that affected her health for several months.
They always supported the neighborhood Sunday
School, helped with the annual Oyster Suppers and
attended all pie and box socials that were held for
any benefits.
After
returning to the home place, J. R. bought a new
tractor so wheat farming was much easier and faster
to do than with the horses and mules. He
rented some of his land out to cotton share croppers
and Robert helped him with his farming operations as
well as farming for himself. J. R. still raised
Shorthorn cattle but didn't participate in sales and
fairs any longer, he left that up to his sons.
J. R.
suffered a few mishaps during this period of time,
he accidentally cut off a finger in the combine, he
suffered a heat stroke one summer and was very sich
from it and he got struck down by lightening but
other than making him dizzy and weak for awhile he
seemed to suffer no ill effects from it. About
1938, due to their ages and the toll on their health
from these set-backs, they decided to retire from
farming and move to Watonga where they owned a
house. Ralph and Maude moved back on the homeplace
and lived until Ralph's death. Moving to town
didn't keep J. R. away from the farm, he returned
every few days to see how things were going and was
always ready to run errands. After Ralph died,
Maude and Fritz moved to a smaller farm, we (Robert)
moved back from the Osage onto the home place.
Nora and
J. R. like Osage country very much and made frequent
visits to the ones still living there. But in
the early 40's the part of the country where they
had lived changed considerably with the building of
Hulah Lake on Big Caney River for flood control.
The dam was built about a quarter of a mile from the
McKinley place where they once lived, putting most
of the place under water except where the house and
barn once stood on the hillside. That area is
now a picnic area and the old hand-pump they used to
pump water for the house still stands. |
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