ROUND-UP CLUB
aka KSOK
Alan Kimball <kimball@uoregon.edu>, composer/editor [ID],
with the vast input of many kith & kin who hold old Piedmont in their spirits,
especially Gloria Ratcliff, Jackie Gene Gill, Lois Bestgen, and Trey Hutton
(CF=GLOSSARY for more acknowledgments)

Names here are often capitalized and reversed (e.g., KIMBALL,WILLIAM HEILIG), a rare concession to genealogical usage
Hypertext suggests a LOOP [ID]
How can this website grow?

Table of Contents =

* INTRODUCTION
* GENEALOGY (with some observations and further explanations)
* KIMBALLS MIGRATE FROM NORTH CAROLINA TO WICHITA KANSAS
* Stories about the Arnolds, McEwens, Bartlows and Sellers of southern KS
* MATHEWSON TOWNSHIP, OKLAHOMA, CHRONOLOGY
* Some features of the legendary William Heilig Kimball
* PIEDMONT, OKLAHOMA, CHRONOLOGY
* 1867:IL Clay Co.| The "Doc" Long LOOP begins
* 1928-1930 Piedmont HS scrapbook
* 1928+ Fred Hugh Kimball's Environmental Farming
* 1933+ Dust Bowl Era
* 1935 Beginnings of Canadian Co. CCC projects
* 1935-1937, E.H. "Doc" Long's final two years
* 1943: Fannie Couch's letter to Jess Pearson
* 1947 Harvest was Good (extended family in Craterville)
* 1948 Conditions on Kimball Farm
* 1948 The Great Hennessey Horse Race
* 1962 Livestock Adventure
* 2001 Celebration of Ruth Roberts' 90th Birthday, w/ commemorations of Harold Collett & Thelma Ratcliff
* 2003 Piedmont Centennial

This website takes its name from an actual 1940s organization in Piedmont OK [ID]. But it is in no way officially related to that Piedmont Round-Up Club in days gone by, nor is it officially related to the current actual Club back there on the rolling red-shale plains. This club does not ride the open range, it surfs in the ether-sphere. Here's a recent announcement from the current actual club =

I'm sure the current Club back in Piedmont is the natural heir to the older Round-Up Club, even though Moyer Dunbar and other founders of the original Club likely never uttered the expression "equine sports". They uttered a lot, but probably not "equine sports". Also, Thelma Ratcliff [ID] would have noted the use of the hyphen in the old Round-Up Club and its absence in the new Round Up Club. And she could explain why one might chose to use the hyphen or not.

We try to keep the distinction between our club and that club, even though we feel a close kinship. We will abbreviate our self identification to "Round-Up Club" and we are tempted to designate it with the acronym "KSOK" (pronounce "Kay-Sock").

This world-wide-web or internet Round-Up Club draws together several interrelated families who have direct or indirect ties back to, or through, or from Piedmont OK. Most of us, however, have continued that very movement toward distant points that brought people to Piedmont OK in the first place. We now live in about a dozen US states, and some of us have at various times lived on the other side of the globe.

For example, HUNSAKER,BEVERLY (née KIMBALL)
and her husband HUNSAKER,ROBERT
for about a decade worked in the Baha'i administration in Israel [W]
2010se: Son Erik Hunsaker created a YouTube show celebrating Bev and Bob's 50th wedding anniversary

The main activity of our Round-Up Club is not a rodeo, even though at least two members of this electronic Round-Up Club actually rode in the Piedmont Round Up many years ago =

RATCLIFF,GLEN and GILL,JACKIE GENE
are two website Round-Up Club members
who actually entered the Piedmont Round-Up Rodeo. Here are two photos =
Just after WW2, Club members lined up for opening ceremonies
On that day, Gene entered the bull ride.
Both Glen and Gene rode in the famous 18-mile horse race.
(Yet Gene Gill's nephew, GILL,VINCE, is still more famous than Gene)

Our purpose with this world-wide-web Round-Up Club is presentation of a variety of narratives,
some historical some in the more explicit tradition of the good truth-based yarn, garnished here and there with historical photos.

No one of us knew or knows everyone who is represented here.
But we continue the tradition of "round up", now on the web, wobbling close to alphabet heaven.
"Tail 'em up; head 'em out!"

 

The old rodeo grounds in Piedmont OK are now subdivided to accommodate expansion of Oklahoma City
*--"The City" we called it then, and it now spreads over more acreage than just about any other city in the world
*--It has not always been so =
*--One evening not long after World War Two blackouts ceased, Fred Hugh Kimball trained his binoculars on a faint and distant line of light along the south eastern horizon
*--We all sat on the front porch of the family home, situated on a plot of land acquired at the time of the great land rush [ID] from Kansas into Oklahoma Territory in 1889

1960ca:OK P farmhouse front porch with pater familias Fred Hugh Kimball facing east
[Photo supplied by Trey Hutton]

1946c:Fred Hugh Kimball poses on Raymond's Triumph Motorcycle

Fred Hugh was the son of the original Kimball Boomer, KIMBALL,WILLIAM HEILIG, whose widow, KIMBALL,EMMA JEANETTE (née BLACKWOOD), sat with us this very evening
*--We on the porch were an extended family returned to help with harvest
*--Some of us were young enough to have as our only main responsibility riding in the wheat bin by day and eating dewberry cobbler by night
*--Oklahoma City was nearly 20 miles away.
*--Fred Hugh Kimball said, "Look at the City grow!" He was gladdened by what he saw.
*--It was a rocky road from '89 to that fine evening [EG]

A Piedmont grain elevator illuminated by fireworks on the Fourth of July
(possibly the Simpson elevator)
[SOURCE]

 

BACK TO TOP

 

For those whose interest is genealogy,
an old website, The Kimball Family Ring,
fabricated linkage back to England in the 1370s!
A point of special genealogical interest =
KIMBALL,HARRIS (15th),
father of KIMBALL,JOEL who was in turn
father of KIMBALL,WILLIAM HEILIG
More on KIMBALL,HARRIS [W]
This genealogy identifies Harris as a member of the 15th generation of identifiable Kimballs.
We can pick up the genealogical descent from that point and bring it down to the 21st generation,
and beyond.
That's because we know a bit more about Joel's birth date and place.
Here, for example, continues one slender patrilineal line of males named KIMBALL,
from KIMBALL,HARRIS (15th) to the present =

**1799au11:NC Randolph Co. Birth of KIMBALL,JOEL (16th) [W] to
KIMBALL,HARRIS (15th) &
KIMBALL,DORCAS WOOD (née LEE).
[Source = personal communication from Mrs. Rachel Sykes, with info from
a DAR application made by KmbJoel & wife LentzSS (Sarah Sallie)]

**1831fe28:[place unknown]. Wedding of KIMBALL,JOEL &
LENTZ,SARAH SALLIE  (This was JOEL's second wife.)

**1850se28:NC Iredell Co, Statesville. Birth of KIMBALL,WILLIAM HEILIG (17th) to
KIMBALL,JOEL &
KIMBALL,SARAH SALLIE (née LENTZ)
[website on Iredell Co.]

**1875mr30:IL Hillsboro. Wedding of KIMBALL,WILLIAM HEILIG &
BLACKWOOD,EMMA JEANETTE

**1890no07:OK Canadian Co, Mathewson Twp. Birth of KIMBALL,FRED HUGH (18th) to
KIMBALL,WILLIAM HEILIG (17th) & EMMA JEANETTE (née BLACKWOOD)

**1912fe14:OK El Reno. Wedding of KIMBALL,FRED HUGH &
RUSSELL,LAURA ELLA

**1916au21:OK Piedmont. Birth of KIMBALL,LESLIE GLEN (19th) to
KIMBALL,FRED HUGH (18th) & KIMBALL,LAURA ELLA  (née RUSSELL)

**1937se28:OK El Reno. Wedding of KIMBALL,LESLIE GLEN &
FRY,EULA MARJORIE

**1938de19:OK Yukon. Birth of KIMBALL,ROBERT ALAN (20th) to
KIMBALL,LESLIE GLEN & EULA MARJORIE

**1960se10:KS Wichita. Wedding of KIMBALL,ROBERT ALAN &
McEWEN,MARTHA BARTLOW

**1964ap15:WA Seattle. Birth of KIMBALL,WILLIAM FREDERICK (21st) to
KIMBALL,ROBERT ALAN & MARTHA BARTLOW (née MCEWEN)

 

At least
Four Critical things
should be said about this particular extension of the "Kimball" genealogy

First

Two other hearty branches grow into the 21st generation
via KIMBALL,LESLIE GLEN (19th) & FRY,EULA MARJORIE (i.e., Marge Kimball) =

KIMBALL,PHILIP GLEN (20th) &
BROWN,JENNIFER have two daughters =
KIMBALL-BROWN,CORINNA &
KIMBALL-BROWN,LAUREN

**2000 Spring:KS Topeka. KIMBALL,PHILIP GLEN, here seen as Old Testament Prophet,
protested School Board decision to teach "creationism" as Biology

KIMBALL,STEVEN LYNN (20th) &
KIMBALL,SARA JANE ("Sally" née YOUSLING) have a daughter and son =
KIMBALL,JESSICA ROBIN &
KIMBALL,RICHARD LYNN.

**2000oc16:KS Wichita Eagle | Father STEVEN LYNN and bullsnake at Exploration Place =

 

 

Second Critical Point

We must make note the following farthest actual extensions of this particular gnarly branch of that big family tree =

**1961au24:KS Wichita. Birth of KIMBALL,MARY CAROLINE (21st) to
KIMBALL,ROBERT ALAN &
MARTHA BARTLOW (née MCEWEN)

** 1988je18:OR Eugene. Wedding of MOYER,FORREST MERLE II &
KIMBALL,MARY CAROLINE (21st)

** 1991my18:OR Eugene. Birth of MOYER,MADELINE MARLENE (22nd) to
MOYER,FORREST MERLE II &
MARY CAROLINE (née Kimball)

** 2001jy:AK.Anchorage. Wedding of KIMBALL,WILLIAM FREDERICK (21st) &
NAYLOR,JENNIFER

** 2006jy16:AK.Anchorage. Birth of KIMBALL,MURPHY ALAN (22nd) to
KIMBALL,WILLIAM FREDERICK (21st) &
KIMBALL,JENNIFER (née Naylor)

**2011je08:AK.Anchorage. Birth of KIMBALL,SOPHIE ANNE MCEWEN KIMBALL (22nd) to
KIMBALL,WILLIAM FREDERICK (21st) &
KIMBALL,JENNIFER (née Naylor)

*--Maddie, Murphy and Sophie represent the 22nd biological generation in the line that runs through
KIMBALL,HARRIS (15th) [ID]
*--Sophie Anne is 212 years younger than Kimball,Joel (16th),
who in his own turn was about ten years younger than the US Constitution

**2000au26:3pm NY NYC Times Square. Image of Forrest and Mary Moyer
saved by their daughter Madeline Moyer (22nd) & her grandfather
via the skycam of Web View WORLD

Many of the names that appear on the website "Round-Up Club" are members of the 17th to the 22nd generation in that line, but fewer and fewer are named KIMBALL. For example, check the photo of family members at a 1999jy04:Ohio picnic, then hop on back here [ID].

 

 

Third Critical Point

Don't you think that concentration on patrilineal descent is a weak feature of genealogy as practiced all around us?

• This yields such a thin thread, beaded only with the male or husband family name
• For example, look again at MOYER,MADELINE MARLENE (22nd)
• She numbers KIMBALL,JOEL (16th) as one of her 32 great-great-great-great grandfathers
• Now consider this = Only one of these 32 gggg-grandfathers was named Kimball
• For that matter, only one was named Moyer
• Furthermore, she had 32 gggg-grandmothers
• None of these 32 gggg-grandmothers were born with the name "Kimball" or "Moyer"
• Only one of them became "Kimball" by marriage
• Only one became "Moyer" by marriage
• Thirty other couples, and thus thirty other "family trees", intersect or intertwine with Maddie's family tree in the gggg-grandparental generation
• Sixty-four different natal "family" names are present among Maddie's gggg-grandparents.

A man and a woman together as biological parents can be called a nuclear family
*--With this in mind, again consider the previous 2-century-long, 6-generation "tree" of MOYER,MADDIE =

• The full "tree", KIMBALL,JOEL (16th) to Maddie (22nd), displays 63 loving couples (126 indiviuals)
• Only six of these 63 nuclear families would have borne the last name "Moyer"
• Only five of these 63 nuclear families would have borne the last name "Kimball"
• Maddie's family tree taken back six generations contains 126 individuals born with 118 different family names
• With appropriate substitution of specific names, this bio-rhythm is the same for just about everyone.

Now try this =

• The longest KIMBALL genealogy we are working with here, with 22 definable generations since the 14th century, requires that there have been 8,388,606 men and women involved in 4,194,303 procreational acts over a nearly 700-year period.
• Each procreational act at the same generational level equally contributed to the biological production of Maddie.
• [NB! Microsoft spell-check wanted me to write "recreational acts" above]

So we see again, not only that time flies when you’re having fun,
but also that we’re all related if you go back far enough

• Maybe it’s much more important to know one another well -- to be good friends, to form Round-Up Clubs together
• That rather than simply to be related!
• In the long haul, maybe blood’s not always thicker than water
• For sure, we all need a defined quantity of both.

Also we have to realize that the numbers above are based largely on an abstract mathematical calculation,
taking no account of the possibilities of overlap,
marriage of cousins,
brothers of one family marrying sisters of another,
spontaneous self-generation,
emigration from another galaxy,
etc
[If this website employed smiley faces, one might have been placed at the end of the previous sentence]

• We have no way of accounting for overlaps and redundancies =
• One mother in 1370 might produce several daughters whose daughters gave birth to daughters
• These daughters might marry into different or same families, and they might take husband names
• After a few generations, family contact can be stretched very thin or lost altogether
• Over six centuries any family line might weave in and out of contact with itself
• This is the "point" = Over time, "family trees" don't just sharpen to a point, as in the case of this one Maddie Moyer
• They branch out from a briar root, reach up and terminate in the sky
• And they sag at the edges to the ground and re-sprout time and again
• Humans are replicated in ways that are much more like root systems on Papaw Kimball's Bermuda fields than they are like NCAA basketball tournament brackets =

 

Fourth Critical Point

A fundamental truth that is obscured by the central concept of genealogy is this =
*--Husbands and wives (the fertile core of the reproductive nuclear family) are not, nor should they be, related.

In modern times, in our world, the nuclear family itself has become a voluntary association

• The nuclear family is no longer a natal or genealogically or authoritatively determined association
• It is formed and dissolved largely by the decision of the two parties
• We need to maintain something beyond "blood" ties between kin
• And we must do it via voluntary association, as in the modern formation of loving couples
• Every family needs something like our Round-Up Club

Genealogy concentrates on biology without much concern for historical experience.
Historical experience is the main accent here on the electronic Piedmont Round-Up Club website.

Two more fleeting and -- so far as anyone can tell -- disconnected observations =
A lot of the folks close to this web-based Round-Up Club have gone by their middle names
In addition, the people whose lives have been variously rooted in Piedmont often go by unexpected nicknames.

BACK TO TOP

 

 

KIMBALLS IN LAURINBURG NC BETWEEN 1880 & 1884

© Alan Kimball

A first draft: 1997mr30
Revised for website: 2000au24

The William Heilig Kimball family lived in Laurinburg NC between (circa) 1880 and 1884. That nuclear family included =

• KIMBALL,WILLIAM HEILIG
• KIMBALL,EMMA JEANETTE (née BLACKWOOD)
• KIMBALL,WALTER ROY (their son)
• RATCLIFF,DAISY (their daughter, née KIMBALL)
• RATCLIFF,JESSIE (their second daughter, née KIMBALL [these two sisters, you see, later married brothers])
• KIMBALL,JOSEPH (WH's brother)

We learn something of the brief sojourn in Laurinburg from several sorts of documents. Some were given to me over the years by Laura (Russell) Kimball who lived until 1966 in Piedmont OK, some are in the possession of Lois Bestgen in Cameron MO, some came from a letter to Beverly Hunsaker from the Fort Supply OK State Hospital where WH died, some are from other letters and phone conversations with Onie Blackwood in Bozeman MT and Hugh Peddicord in Yakima WA. Ruth Peddicord, in Oklahoma City OK, has been in touch with a NC genealogist, Mary Ellen Allen, whose family was related to the Kimballs of NC [ame]. RATCLIFF,THELMA -- the daughter of RATCLIFF,DAISY (née KIMBALL) -- wrote several brief historical pieces in CH1 and CH2 that are very interesting and useful.  Finally, I had the privilege to accompany my son KIMBALL,WILLIAM FREDERICK and to serve as his "coach" during the Olympic Trials for the marathon, held in Charlotte NC in February, 1996. (I as coach represented a continuation -- indeed a triumph -- of the grand Olympic tradition of amateurism.) I found a few spare hours to peek into the fine Charlotte library, and to travel to the pleasant small town of Laurinburg and look through its library.

I’ve only scratched the surface, but this should be of some interest to all of us who called Piedmont OK home -- even after years of living in distant locales. I would like to think of this as a very rough draft which could benefit tremendously from any general advice or detailed addition or correction which anyone might be able to send my way.

My own approach is more historical than it is genealogical. I am curious about these North Carolina families, the Kimballs and the Blackwoods. Some time before the early 1850s, certain members of the Blackwood family left NC and headed west. These were the parents of Emma Jeanette [variously spelled in the historical documents, this the person we cousins -- and nearly everyone else -- called "Granny"]. The Blackwoods appear to have moved from the upland townships of NC and settled in Hillsboro IL, not so many miles NE of St. Louis on the other side and inland from the Mississippi River. That’s where EJ was born on August 26, 1851 [1880 US Census record suggests that she was born in 1853]. She was the oldest daughter of BLACKWOOD,W.M.

William Heilig Kimball, the future husband of Emma Jeanette, was born in September, 1850, in Statesville Twp, Iredell Co., NC.

NC Census records for 1870 suggested that WH’s father Joel was 70 years old and still living in the place of his birth when WH was born. [WH pronounced his father’s name "Jewell", according to WSH1.] Sources tell us that WH’s mother Sarah Sallie Lentz [ame] (Lents, according to srs.1; Cerah Linch, according to WSH1) was born in NC & lived beyond her 70^th year (i.e., 1877+) [WSH1; but NB! the 1870 census does not list her]. She and Joel were married in NC Rowan Co. on 28 Feb 1831 [NC.wdx]

WH remembered that two of his brothers fought in the Civil War. We know of two brothers, KIMBALL,HENRY IVEY (17th) and KIMBALL,JOSEPH (17th). I do not know the age of Henry Ivey, but Joseph was one year older than WH, which would make him only 16 in the last year of the Civil War. Of course, young boys are sometimes drawn into combat. I have searched an existing internet site that purports to include the names of every soldier who fought for the Confederacy. That’s one big list. I skimmed it & used the computer search feature, finding no apparent brother of William Heilig, but I think that search needs to be done again more thoroughly. I found two entries (possibly indicating one person) of possible relevance:

KIMBALL,HENRY J. Co B, 2 North Carolina Cavalry (19 State Troops) Private
KIMBALL,HENRY L. Co B, 2 North Carolina Cavalry (19 State Troops) Private

The family historian of generation #19, RATCLIFF,THELMA ("Auntie"), said that WH remembered leading blooded horses to a remote area "of the plantation" (!?) to conceal them from approaching Yankee cavalrymen [CH1:256]

I do not know when, where or how WH met EJ. After the Civil War, WH went to IL Hillsboro (is this plausible?) and worked on the BLACKWOOD,W.M. farm. 1875 March 30, in Hillsboro, WH and EJ were wed and found their way, sometime and somehow, back from IL to the hill country of NC [Thelma says to NC Salisbury in CH1]. Their first child, Walter Roy, was born in Mocksville NC in 1876. Their second child, Daisy was born two years later, still in the hill country but in Rowan County. The history of Rowan County seems rich in Kimballs (e.g., KIMBALL,WHITSON, a well known Lutheran preacher there).

Had members of both the Kimball and Blackwood families left NC for IL? Had they left because they did not support the Southern slave-owners and the secessionists? The general histories of NC politics in the Civil War era note that many hill folk were anti-slavery and some actually took up arms against the Confederacy. Probably that does not explain the migration of the Blackwoods West to IL, because they migrated before the Civil War. I have not found a complete listing of those who fought on the Union side. Such a list of Union soldiers might not, in any event, include the names of those who fought in the irregular anti-Confederacy forces that rose up in the South itself. It is perhaps not out of the question that WH’s two brothers served in the military after the Civil War, perhaps in connection with Reconstruction.

This puzzle is important, because it may help explain what happened between 1876 and 1884 in Laurinburg. Reconstruction, forced on the defeated South at the end of the Civil War, created a lot of bitterness. The old establishment was defeated and discredited. New people naturally came to the fore, not just northerners seeking their fortune (cf. Carpetbaggers) but also southerners (cf. Scalawags). Laurinburg was not formally incorporated until February 2, 1877, so the town itself was an expression of tensions and enterprise in the new post-Reconstruction South. At the time of its incorporation, Laurinburg was a model railroad settlement, with a rowdy, saloon-lined main street [WSB]. Within a few short years, Laurinburg experienced a big growth in population as folk streamed in from everywhere [GSC:155-7] At the same time, Laurinburg was becoming a more stable community. In 1879 Wm. G. Quakenbush reopened the Laurinburg High School. The Laurinburg Presbyterian Church thrived under pastor John H. Coble (1872-1888), as you might expect in a region dominated by folk of self-conscious Scottish descent. WH continued late into his life to identify himself as "Presbyterian" [WSH1]. I would have liked to find my way into Laurinburg church records where some trace of WH &/or EJ must remain. [We know of the strong Kimball attachment to the Piedmont OK Methodist Church, which might have been because there was no Presbyterian or Lutheran church in the neighborhood. I never went to church with Granny, but I remember her sending me to the radio to switch on the broadcast services, usually 5-10 minutes before the scheduled program: "They might start early", she would say. Or was she hoping to hear "The Grand Ole Opry"?]

Could it be that WH & EJ came back from IL to NC seeking opportunities in the new open situation of NC in the aftermath of the Civil War? This would be a tense situation if it were only a matter of coming back from Illinois to take advantage of opportunities in the defeated South. It would be an especially tense situation if the Kimballs fought for the North.

By 1880, WH & EJ found their way down from the NC highlands to a territory called "the Piedmont" (foothills) between the mountains to the West and the coastal plain to the East. It was there and then that the national census caught up with them in Laurinburg.

The town Laurinburg was at a significant crossroads, the North-South stage line from New York City through Washington DC on the way to New Orleans, but also on the important East-West business route from the upland regions of NC to the sea. Laurinburg was evolving into a booming transportation and mercantile center. Many of the families today prominent there and in the surrounding mills and farmlands experienced a new prosperity in connection with the termination of Reconstruction. WH and his family came down from Rowan Co., sometime between 1878 and 1880, to try their entrepreneurial luck in the world of the new South. In 1880, the average age of the most prominent businessmen of Laurinburg was 39. J. C. Morgan was 22, J. Everett 23, Angus McCall 23, Howard Peden 23, Berry Bryant 26, A. F. Bizzell 26 [GSC:155-7]. WH was 24 that year, according to the 1880 US Census [other indications put him at 29; the same census puts EJ at 26]. Laurinburg businessmen were young on average, but WH was a greenhorn even among them.

Something else. This was a time of national transition from overland stage transportation to the steam railroad. The livery business might well have experienced "down-sizing" in a time of technological advance in heavy transportation. Yet livery was the business WH set out to build for himself and his young family.

The record of deeds shows that WH and EJ did quite a bit of buying and selling of real estate. I found records of ten real estate transactions, four purchases and six sales. Does the incongruity of sales with purchases suggest that the Kimball family owned land in Laurinburg before 1880? How otherwise could they sell more than they purchased between 1880 and 1884? (I had no time to check for Blackwood transactions in the area.) Or does this simply reflect double recording or subdivision? In 1881 there were four transactions (two purchases and two sales). In 1883 there were four (one purchase and three sales). And in 1884, two (one purchase and one sale). I had no time to do more than locate the index numbers of these ten transactions and cannot say what any of the buying and selling was about.

Surely, one purchase was the livery stable, possibly one was a house. Branson’s North Caroline Business Directory in its 1884 edition, page 559, lists W. H. Kimball as the owner of a livery stable in Laurinburg. I have in my possession a billfold stamped "W. H. Kimball, SALE & EXCHANGE STABLE, Horses & Mules Constantly on Hand for Sale". The 1880 US Census lists the WH Kimball household as consisting of wife EJ, son WR, daughter Daisy, plus WH’s brother Joseph (listed as a "hostler"), and Enock Roper (?), a black servant and stable boy.

The records of deeds suggests that William Heilig and Emma Jeanette made a vigorous entrepreneurial effort to succeed in Laurinburg NC, but they appear to have failed. Jessie, their third child, was born on September 9, 1883, in Hillsboro IL. Some mystery surrounds the fact that KmbWH was still in (or back in) Laurinburg in 1884 to complete his final two recorded transactions. He may have come back only briefly, or maybe the transactions were completed in absentia, or recorded late. We cannot know until we read the actual documents, and even then it may not be possible to answer questions about these five years in the life of KmbWH & KmbEJ, those years between NC Laurinburg and OK Mathewson Twp.

The names of the persons from whom KmbWH (sometimes with KmbEJ & sometimes alone) bought and to whom they sold are suggestive.

In 1881, KmbWH received a deed from Jacob Thomas, from Mollie P. Thomas, from M. L. Thomas, and from Joe F. Ritch. We can identify the first of these, Jacob Thomas, who was owner of a general store in Laurinburg in 1877 [B77:258].

In 1881, KmbWH & KmbEJ transferred two deeds to Jas. G. McEachin. I think Jas. G. might have been the Deacon the Laurinburg Lutheran Church. The McEachin family was prominent in Laurinburg. J. C. McEachin owned the Laurinburg Corn-, Saw- & Gin-Mill [B84:559].

In 1883, Eleanor Butler transferred a deed to KmbWH. A certain Mrs. E. V. Butler owned the Laurinburg Millinery [B84:557].

In 1883, KmbWH transferred three deeds to A. A. Jones. "A. A." is unknown., but J. H. Jones owned the Laurinburg Steam Corn- & Sawmill [B84:559].

In 1884, W. H. [? W. K.] Walters transferred a deed to KmbWH. A Henry Walters owned a general store in Laurinburg [B84:558].

That same year, KmbWH transferred a deed to J. R. Britt who was a manufacturer of plows, wagons, and carriages in Laurinburg [B84:557].

These final two 1884 transactions appear to mark the end of the Laurinburg adventure.

Throughout most of the time KmbWH & KmbEJ were in Laurinburg the town had a newspaper. I’ve seen references to the Eagle in the 1870s. In December, 1880, the Enterprise was founded by H. I. McDuffie in December, 1880, and edited by H. G. Jones and Julius H. Avant. In 1882, Bundy and Covington bought the paper and renamed it the Exchange. That has been its name up to our own day. I’m told that the original editions of the paper have survived in some archive or library, but all formal bibliographies of NC periodicals suggest that it has not. I am certain that this newspaper would help clarify the picture of WH & EJ Kimball in Laurinburg.

The story that follows shifts first to IL Hillsboro, then KS Wichita (with curious shift back toward the old home region, NC), then on to OK as William Heilig Kimball and Emma Jeanette Kimball continued to "seek their fortune".

BACK TO TOP

 

FROM KANSAS (WINFIELD & WICHITA) TO OKLAHOMA

**1867jy:OK.UL | MATHEWSON,WILLIAM M. (the original an authentic Buffalo Bill) helped a company of TX cowboys he met not far from OK Ft.Reno to find what has come to be called the "Cattle Branch" of the Chisholm Trail
*--CHISHOLM,JESSE and Mathewson helped blaze that trail which would be used over the next quarter century by hundreds of cowboy companies to drive hundreds of thousands of head of cattle to the grazing lands and rail heads of central and northern KS.

William M. Mathewson grave stone

The Cattle Branch of the Chisholm Trail ran north from the Native American trading posts on the border of Indian Territory and Unassianged Lands (in the area around Ft.Reno)
*--It continued past the neighborhood of future settlements in Canadian Co. -- one a township to be named after Mathewson (where, in 1903, the current town Piedmont would be incoporated)
*--The Cattle branch continued along a path over the Cimarron River at the site of the future town Dover, then further north across the Arkansas River at a crossing that would soon become the heart of the "cowtown" KS Wichita
*1889,Easter Day, the Cattle Branch was almost certainly the path William Heilig Kimball took from Wichita south and over the Cimarron. Then after the canon opened the run, he rushed onward to his Mathewson Twp claim

But back in 1867, still 22 years before that great land rush, Mathewson was on his way to KS Medicine Lodge to serve as translator and expert adviser at the great peace conference which brought together regional Native Americans and the US government [ID]

**1867au:OK.UL | Mathewson headed back into the Oklahoma Territory, down to the Washita River, with fourteen wagon loads of trade goods
*--His wife Lizzie came with him.

**1867de:OK.UL | GREIFFENSTEIN,WILLIAM (a Wichita associate of Mathewson) followed down the Chisholm Trail with goods
*--Then came a third Wichita pioneer merchant, MEAD,JAMES.R
*--Now three Wichita trading outfits operated deep in OK.UL

**1867:IL Clay Co.| Birth of LONG,MARGARET CATHERINE (Maggie) to
Doctor ("Doc") LONG,ELISHA.H &
LONG,KATHRYN (née SMITH) (some sources say "Catherine")

• "Doc" was 27 when we only now come across him and his growing family in Illinois
• Here are some main events in "Doc" Long's life leading up to this time of of his daughter Maggie's birth =
• 1840oc12:IN Washington Co. Livona [Livonia] (circa 35 m. northwest of KY Louisville) Birth of Long,EH to ??
• EH was next to youngest of 7 kids (2 girls & 5 boys) "of whom he is the only survivor" [as of 1935] [KSB:50v]
• 1853:1858; IL Effingham Co. Mason -- southeastern corner of IL, (circa)75 m. east of MO St.Louis -- was home & place of EH's earliest education. He lived in the Co. for 17-18 years
• 1858:IL Clay Co. (next Co. east of IL Mason) where he "began reading medicine under a demonstrator by the name of Dr. W.W. Duncan" [KSB:50v,53v]
• 1860jy04:IL Clay Co. Bible Grove | Wedding of Long,EH & SMITH,KATHRYN (KSB:52) ["Catherine" at KSB:50v & 53v]
• 1862:KY Louisville medical "institution" granted EH "a permit to become a [medical] practitioner" [KSB:53v] NB! IL Clay Co. has town "Louisville"
• 1864no:IL Clay Co. LONG,EH, now "Doc Long", voted Democratic ticket in his first national election [KSB:51]

**1876ja29:IL Clay Co. to KS Fall River (on Elk Co. line, ca 15 m. east of KS Piedmont and 12 m. northwest of KS Fredonia in Flint Hills) | "Doc EH Long" & family lived in KS for 11 years, to the day [KSB:51]
*--There were dgt Maggie's 9th through 18th years, the bigger part of her school years

**1876oc31:MO Tipton(?) in  central MO, 20 miles south of the Missouri River| Wedding of FRY,WILLIAM VALENTINE to
EMBRY,MAE HOOD (daughter of EMBRY,WILLIAM RASHLEY)

*1855de11:MO ?? | Birth of FryWV
*1884:MO Tipton to KS Avilla | The Fry family moved to a farm near KS Coldwater

**1881sp:KS Caldwell, just across the northern border of the Cherokee Outlet | The cattle ranchmen of the [Oklahoma] Cherokee Outlet met and organized the Cherokee Strip Live Stock Association
*--The organization wielded great influence in Indian Territory until the 1889 land rush
*--Cattlemen who leased land from the Cherokee had reason to oppose the opening of any part of the territory to homestead settlement
*--They had no use for farmers with barbed wire fences.

**1882:IL to KS Elk Co. | RUSSELL,WELDON & his nuclear family made its final move West [RLR2:4] Was 23-year-old son RUSSELL,JAMES S. still "living at home"? He was in the region, and the "Doc" Long,EH family lived already only a few miles away in Fall River. Maggie was 15

**1882:IL Chicago | First performance of Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen's "Ghosts". The controversial play offended many. It sought to shed light on the dark places in the life of a decorous and conventional family and community. In Act II, the lead female, Mrs. Alving, says, "Whenever I take up a newspaper and read it, I fancy I see ghosts creeping between the  lines. There must be ghosts all over the world. They must be as countless as the grains of the sands, it seems to me. And we are so miserably afraid of the light, all of us."

**1885jy15:KS Winfield | Wedding of RUSSELL,JAMES S. and LONG,MARGARET CATHERINE (Maggie)

**1886c?:IL Hillsboro to KS Wichita| William Heilig Kimball & family were moving west, from NC, through IL, to KS, on their way to OK

• CF=1884:NC real estate transactions
• Some evidence suggests that the WH Kimball family (or some part of it) was in Wichita KS by 1886
• Thelma Ratcliff says that the Kimballs set out from IL Hillsboro for KS Wichita when her aunt RATCLIFF,JESSIE (née KIMBALL) was a "baby" [CH1:256]
• Thelma wrote that they "took the baby and moved"
• Jessie was born 1883se09. William Heilig had just turned 33. Jessie was 15 months old by 1884de09, and she was 27 mo. old by 1885de09
• Would you call her a "baby" still as she approached 2 1/2 years old?
• Might you call her a "baby" even later if you wanted to emphasize William Heilig's unwisdom and recklessness as he pulled his family away from the Blackwood farm in IL Hillsboro?
• In Wichita, William Heilig possibly found employment with William M. Mathewson [ID]
• 1886su:1887sp; KS Wichita, across Arkansas river on the west side| Sometime in this period and at this place, William Heilig lived (?by himself) in a tent. Here's how the Wichita city directory reads =
• “Kimball,WH, fr Ill, teamster, r tent ws” [87:DCW:219]
• This translates as “W. H. Kimball, from IL, a teamster, resides in a tent on the west side of Wichita” [F/KSOK/Livery G/88:DCW:256 F/KSOK/grd.tpt]
• 1888ap08:NC.Iredell.Co. St. Michael's Evangelical Lutheran Church| Church records reveal a most unexpected moment. On this day, Pastor Whitson Kimball received from William Heilig Kimball an enrollment card, certifying that he was a communicant in this NC church
• 1888su:KS Wichita| 88:DCW:256 reads in the following way about William Heilig =
• Kimball,WH “wks St. Car Co r 341 n Walnut, ws”| That may be translated to read =
• Kimball,WH “works for the Street Car Company and resides at 341 N.Walnut on the west side of Wichita”
• DCW could mean “a street car company”, but probably it means “the” since caps are used. Good to see that he is out of the tent and in a real house
•  1887:DCW indicated that 341 Walnut (the 6th St west of the Arkansas River and running from Cedar to Maple) was occupied by Tuders,S [G/89:DCW:215]
• William Heilig was quoted as saying "I made the run from Kansas", which, if true, puts him in Oklahoma Territory at the southern edge of the Cherokee Outlet (also known as the Cherokee Strip), prepared to enter the Unassigned Lands on April 22, 1889 [WSH1]
• The OK run opened almost one year after 88:DCW located William Heilig (?and his whole family, including the "baby") on Walnut St. in Wichita
• The OK run opened one year almost to the day after William Heilig submitted his card to the Reverend Whitson Kimball back in Iredell Co. North Carolina
• William Heilig Kimball traveling widely back and forth as he sought to wrap up loose ends, to find a place to settle his young family and seek a new livelihood away from NC and IL

**1887ja29:KS Fall River to AR (apparently not far from the KS, MO & OK borders) Maggie's parents, "Doc" Long,EH & Kathryn moved suddenly and stayed in northern AR "only a few months" [KSB:51]. This was a year and a half after daughter Maggie's wedding

**1887sp or su: from AR to OK Benton [Beaver] Co. (in the OK panhandle) "Doc" Long,EH & Kathryn soon pushed on to "No Man’s Land" [KSB:51]

**1889ap19: Into OK Indian Territory, prospective settlers were allowed to enter and move up to the borders of the Unassigned Lands, in anticipation of the big land run three days later. Some walked, some rode horses (a few, bicycles), some came in wagons, some rode the train. At Ft.Reno, about 500 wagons pulled into campgrounds located on Cheyenne and Arapaho lands at the border of the remote SW corner of the lands about to be opened, the edge of future Canadian Co.  Some camped on the grounds of the Darlington Indian Agency there. They were joined by an ominous colony of 150 men from Denver with weapons [CH2:28]

**1889ap21 (Easter Sunday):KS Winfield or in KS Elk Co.| Birth of RUSSELL,LAURA ELLA to RUSSELL,JAMES S. & MAGGIE [RLR1&2:4]

Margaret (Maggie) Catherine Russell, née Long
She was the mother of Fred Hugh Kimball's wife, "Mamaw" Laura Kimball.
She was the daughter of "Doc" Long,EH
On the backside of the original photo is written:
Mamaw Kimball's Mother. Born 1867. Died 1904
Maggie Long Russell, daughter of Dr. E.H. and Catherine Long.
In 1885 (July 15th) married James Russell at Winfield, Kansas.
James S. Russell died February 4th, 1901.
Maggie (Margaret Catherine) died June 23 1904 (age 37)

One hundred ten years after Laura's birth =
1999jy04:OH.
Maggie's daughter Laura's son KIMBALL,JOHN RUSSELL (19th)'s own daughters [three of four =
GRUNDMAN,BARBARA RUTH & HUTTON,KAREN & SCOTT,KAY (all née KIMBALL [20th]),
at center & white teeshirted], with their families flocked about,
plus some children (22nd) of their daughters and sons (21st) (likewise flocked),
and including Maggie's daughter Laura Kimball's son Russell Kimball's sister
BESTGEN,LOIS ARLENE (19th) (crouched leftward & all beflagged),
celebrated the Fourth of July together.
The youngest here are Maggie's great-great-great grandchildren.You figure it out.

Top: Mark Taylor, Trisha Hutton Taylor, Stevie Taylor, Dave Hutton, Trey Hutton holding Kelsey Hutton
Next tier: Susan Grundman, Barbara Grundman, Karen Hutton, Kay Scott, Reddy Wilson, Kent Wilson
Lowest tier: Lois Bestgen, Brittany Hutton, Emily Hutton, Lane Wilson, Evan Wilson, Tanner Wilson

Maggie Russell's son's son RUSSELL,EDWIN & his wife NORMA
raised children who make up the biggest part of a country and western band called in earlier times "Way Out West"
RUSSELL,SHAWNA [W#1 W#2] is Maggie's great-great granddaughter
Here she is in video with other family members = "Should've Been Born with Wheels"

**1889ap22:OK territory called the Unassigned Lands | At noon (as it turns out, the day after Maggie gave birth to Laura Ella back in KS), soldiers touched off cannon to signal anywhere from 50,000 to 100,000 "Boomers" that they could race forward to claim homesteads. They were  lined up on all borders of the Unassigned Lands, north, south, east and west. William Heilig Kimball was among them
*--The expression "Boomer" is also used to describe a very different group, those who pushed hard for the opening of Indian Territory and who frequently moved into that territory before the opening. Famous Boomers of this sort were PAYNE,DAVID.L and COUCH,WILLIAM.L. Moving in too soon is also the basis of the expression "Sooner"
\\
*--[W#1]

Here were the rules of the rush: Any  man or woman 21 or older, head of household or single, could claim 160 acres (a quarter section, 1/4 miles by 1/4 miles square). The homesteader had to be a US citizen or willing to declare intention to become one. The person had to be an actual settler, not an agent claiming for someone else. No one who already owned 160 acres was allowed to stake a claim. To receive title to the claim, the person had to "prove up" the homestead, i.e., show that they lived there at least six months in each of the next five years, cultivate the land, construct permanent improvements (e.g., house, well, barn), and pay the land office a fee of $15. The process provided a way of skipping over the five-year wait by paying the government $1.25 per acre, the amount the government paid the Indians a few months before the rush.

The claims process proved to be very clumsy. Some argue that as many as one out of three claimants violated the law against being a "sooner" (staking a claim before noon on 22ap) or staking land already chosen by others. There are serious questions about the prior arrangements made by powerful interests, KS Wichita merchants and bankers (like William Mathewson himself), the railroads. It wasn't a simple, fair horse race, victory to the swiftest.

For example, there's the sorry beginnings of the run as made by GILL,SARAH JANE (aka "Byrd"). In 1885, she was 12 years old. Homelife for her and her 8-year-old brother was pretty miserable, so they up and ran away to KS. Then on 1889ap22, she made the run as a 16-year-old maiden. She found a suitable site and tore her petticoat into strips in order to flag her stakes. Later she discovered that someone had pulled up her stakes and stolen the claim from her. "Alone, alone, all, all alone, alone on the wide, wide"...prairie. But a saint did take pity, and the story ends well. Along came SIMPSON,ISAAC("Ike") seeking a homestead himself and in need of some companionship and help, and he got a lot of both in Byrd. They were soon married and settled into a fine homestead. The Simpsons became "pillars" of the Piedmont community [CH1:454-5]

Years later, confined in the Western State Hospital in OK Fort Supply at the eastern borders of the OK panhandle, William Heilig Kimball told his nurses, "I made the run from Kansas" [WSH1] What he meant was this: like most boomers, he set out from KS a day or so before that dramatic noon and crossed 60 miles through what was then called the Cherokee Outlet or Cherokee Strip -- the ranch lands of the northern part of today's Oklahoma (not to be "opened" for yet four more years). He then lined up with the crowds at the northwest edge of the Unassigned Lands to await the cannon. Most gathered on that northern border. They surrounded about 2 million acres at the heart of today's Oklahoma.

At the sound of the cannon, William Heilig almost certainly crossed the Cimarron River just south of present-day OK Dover and followed the Chisholm Trail into Mathewson Township in Canadian Co., a trek of about 30 miles. An interesting possibility is that William Heilig was an associate at this time of Mathewson. Mathewson resided now in KS Wichita where the Kimball family had also resided these past three or more years. Mathewson headed an investor group who wanted to found a settlement in OK. They chose a township site [6x6 mile square] and named it "Mathewson". It seemed to them that his site was destined to become a significant railroad crossing of two important lines, one northwest from Oklahoma City toward the expanding Western Frontier, and the other from the territorial capital Guthrie southwest to El Reno. [CH2:131]

1895:OK MAP, below,
abridged to show a cross-section of the central 1/3 of the territory
from the Kansas border to the Red River border with Texas.
(The map must predate 1895je24, the day the Racine post office was founded.)
If you wish, click on the whole map (big and slow to load).
On the 1889 land run, William Heilig Kimball's route approximated
the Rock Island railroad line to Dover at the Cimarron River crossing.
This was also called the Caldwell Trail.
At about the site of the future Kingfisher, he angled south-southeast
(the wagon trail or the Cattle Branch of the Chisholm Trail),
over Sand Creek (Cottonwood Creek) and Deer Creek
onto the domed highlands between the Cimarron and North Canadian rivers, site of future towns Mathewson, Racine, Eda & Herron

<>1889my10:OK Unassigned Lands, NW4 1 13/6. William Heilig Kimball filed his claim for this 160-acre homestead. Definition=

NW4 = Northwest corner or quarter (160 acres) of
1        = Section one (section=square mile or 640 acres) within
13/6   = Township #13 North in Range #6 West (36 sections, 6x6 miles)

A more customary way of writing this formula is this:
      NW1/4, Sec.1, Twp.13N, Rg.6 W.I.M

The numbers 13 and 6 locate the township with reference to a surveyor’s "zero point". Twenty years before the land rush, government agents established the "zero point" in south central Oklahoma (near Ft.Arbuckle, over 75 miles south of Mathewson) and surveyed the land to the north, marking off square mile sections and grouping them in townships that were 6 sections by six sections (36 square miles). The wild Oklahoma Territory was being squared off in rows and columns like a checkerboard. The longitudinal "zero point" was the 98^th meridian. (The north-south tending Chisholm Trail and, later, US Hwy 81 run east of this meridian.). This line was called the Western Indian Meridian (W.I.M.). The directions "North" and "East" in the formula above therefore indicate that William Heilig settled in a township that was the thirteenth to the north (row thirteen) and the sixth to the west (column six) above the zero point. Mathewson Township was only one township (6 miles) east of OK.IT.

The formula works from the smaller individual 160 acre farmstead outward to the square-mile section of which it is a part, then to the 36-square-mile township within which the quarter-section is found. In addition to the technical surveyor’s way of identifying place, the townships were given names. William Heilig Kimball staked his claim in township "13/6" or Mathewson Township. The farm was not so far from where the little trading, urban service and administrative center would soon spring up with the same name as the township=
   Mathewson [NE4 25 14/6] 7 miles east of OK Indian Territory

Over the next six years other local small trade centers sprouted=
   Racine       [SE4 29 14/6]
   Eda           [SE4 34 14/5]
   Herron      [SW4 14 14/5]

In the county as a whole, El Reno, Yukon and Frisco were the biggest early urban centers and townships

• 1889ap23:OK Frisco founded south of Mathewson near the left bank (north bank) of the North Canadian River, one of the first towns in the region after the opening [NE4 1 12/6 and NW4 6 12/5] Like Mathewson, Frisco was a KS Wichita business venture
• Mathewson remained the most important center in its township until Piedmont boomed fifteen years later
• Fred Hugh Kimball, born not far from Mathewson, was nineteen years old in 1909 when Mathewson disincorporated itself and transferred its urban functions to Piedmont [SE4 32 14/5] The 20th anniversary of the great land rush was celebrated that year
• Mathewson was a town of the land rush and of the Territory; Piedmont was a town of a maturing new State.

Several townships together were bundled into counties. Mathewson was in Canadian Co.

Three unexpected features of the rush into Canadian Co. [CH2:37] =

• A large number of Czechs settled in and around OK Yukon (6 miles south of Mathewson). Yukon calls itself "The Czech Capital of Oklahoma".
• A large number of German-speaking Mennonites, recently immigrated from Russia, left the KS Wichita area to resettle in the OK Okarche area (NW4 4 14/7, nine miles northwest of Mathewson)
  *1900 US census listed 26 residents of Canadian Co. born in Russia
• Several black homesteaders settled on claims north of Mathewson, the families GROOMS, HUNTER, ROGERS, SELECTMAN, HARRIS, COLEMAN, CARTER, PROCTER, and CHILDS. CHILDS,BETTY and CHILDS,LENORA were teachers in Possum Hollow and Excelsior schools

Back to William Heilig Kimball as he staked his claim =

• He dug a well
• He excavated a cavity into the bank of the creek that ran through the claim
• He erected sod walls with a door that opened onto the creek embankment
• He roofed over this small one-room enclosure with planks and covered them with yet more sod "bricks", lapped to shed the rain, at least the light rain
• This "half-soddy" was the original home, completed in 1889fa [LTB]. That's probably when Emma Jeanette and the younger kids came down from Wichita
• Son KIMBALL,Walter Roy might have come down earlier to help set up the homestead (he was after all 13 years old)
• The "soddy" home was not uncommon in the early years [CH2:48-49]
• CH1:269 displays a photo of Czech emigre family KOUBA's dug-out half-soddy, not unlike the William Heilig Kimball soddy
  The Kouba soddy was a short ride SW from Yukon OK =

• 1972sp:OK P Kimball homestead, called "The West Place" | KmbFH showed the well-head to KmbRA & family

**1889my18:Harper's Weekly 33:391-94 | HOWARD,WILLIAM WILLARD, "The Rush To Oklahoma"

**1889je24: ?? | FRY,WILLIAM VALENTINE bought homestead rights for $20. Record of the patent on this land shows the following [Roll 1 Page 174]:

SW 1/4 8-14-5 Box 1 South Half SW 1/4 of Section 8 and North Half NW 1/4 of Section 17. All in Township 14 North Range 5 west

[SW4   8 14/5 (only south half of sct 8, or 80 acres) plus
NW4 17 14/5 (only north half of sct 17, 80 more acres)]

HD Apt 2534 June 24, 1889
FC# 1043 Kingfisher, Oklahoma February 26, 1895
[Source: The National Archives, HD Papers, Patent Bureau of Land Management]

<>1889fa:OK Mathewson Cemetery established

** 1890fe:KS Coldwater to OK Mathewson Twp | FRY,WILLIAM VALENTINE & MAE moved to their160 acre homestead [CH1:168]
*1895fe26:OK Kingfisher | Homestead proof given five years (perhaps to the day) after occupying the claim
*1935ap28:OK P | Death of Fry,Wm.V
*1943my28:OK P at home of dgt STOUT,IRENE(Mrs) | Obit [KSB:54] recorded the death of "May" Fry | 84y old, survived by 3 ssn~ & 2 dgt~ =

• FRY,JASON
• FRY,ELBERT
• FRY,WILLIAM OTIS (all 3 sons living in Piedmont)
• VAN WAGGONER,W(Mrs) (née FRY) El Reno 509 S Evans Ave
• STOUT,IRENE (née FRY)

** 1890mr25:OK Canadian Co, Mathewson Post office founded with GRAVENHURST,JOSEPH postmaster
*--BENNETT,JAMES WASHINGTON opened a store on the south side of the east/west section line [CH1:35, with photo of post office]
*--The store served as a "cracker-barrel" community center. Legend has it that the store was once robbed by the Dalton Gang
*--CH1:35 lists the family names of the main participants=

RATCLIFF
SNYDER
WIEDEMAN
RICHARDSON
KIMBALL

WIEDEMAN,WILHELM FRIEDRICK set up his blacksmith shop across the road. (Hereafter WIEDEMAN,BILL = his Americanized name, though he did not become a US citizen until 1926)
*--RATCLIFF,MILES also worked as blacksmith in Mathewson [on the role of blacksmiths, see CH2:52-4]
*--Soon there was a school [CF=RtcTR memories of early school days in Mathewson]

** 1890sp:KS to OK Mathewson Twp (164th St & Mustang Rd) | WASHECHECK,JOHN & ANNA settled with children, including 1-year-old WASHECHECK,EDDIE

** 1890ap:KS St.John (24 miles straight south of Great Bend on the Arkansas River in the utter plains of south central KS) to OK Mathewson Twp | Family of RATCLIFF,JOHN RILEY & MARIA (née CUMMINGS) continued its migration south from NE Ayres into OK. Straight away the parents and their children set about construction of a house. They had four walls erected, but no roof, when a strong April snowstorm hit. They stretched tarpaulin as temporary roof. Granddaughter RATCLIFF,THELMA remembered the story about how "The menfolk twisted bluestem grass to burn for fuel" [CH1:401; also see 35] Maria was ill with TB and died three years later. John and his son RATCLIFF,MILES set up a blacksmith shop at Mathewson store. They cut sod with other local farmers to build the original Mathewson school

** 1890my02:Washington DC. US government passed "Organic Act" that created Oklahoma Territory. Among its provisions, it created a tri-part government, legislative, executive, and judicial. The US President appointed a territorial governor for a 4-year term. Guthrie was made the capital. Six counties were defined and given numbers until locals chose names. (Canadian Co. was number 4.) The public lands of OK No Man's Land (the panhandle in far northwest OK) were opened to settlement and added to the six counties of the Unassigned Lands at the center of the territory. The laws of Nebraska were accepted until the first Territorial Legislative Assembly might decide otherwise. OK Territory was now divided into two parts, separated temporarily by two sizeable sections of Indian Territory -- the Cherokee Outlet and the Cheyenne & Arapaho lands. Native Americans still had dominion over eastern and southern OK

** 1890no07:OK Canadian Co, Mathewson, in that creek-bank soddy| Birth of Fred Hugh Kimball -- first Kimball born in OK -- to William Heilig Kimball & EMMA JEANETTE

** 1890:1891; Canadian Co. suffered bad crop years. US Congress passed relief laws which, for example, provided wheat seed at cost, without added transportation costs
*--The government and the railroads were playing a big role in early OK. But some settlers went bust and others had to find means other than farming to survive
*--Life was parsimonious in the soddy. At hog butchering time, nothing was wasted except the squeal [more details than you want in CH2:50-1]
*--Matches were an unaffordable luxury, so "seed fire" was carefully maintained in each soddy, to start the fires in the morning or to share out to a neighbor whose hearth had grown cold
*1893:OK Mathewson Twp | "Combination dugout and soddy" of MEIGS,LOOMIS.G("Lum") located not far from the Kimball soddy

*1893:OK Mathewson Twp | Photo of MEIGS soddy (slightly expanded?) from another angle [CH1:49]
NB! dog & pigs. Was it hog butchering time?

*1897mr23:OK Canadian Co, Mathewson| Kimball,Wm gave "Homestead Proof-Testimony…." [LTB] If this was for the original "West Place", it would be about two years tardy. Possibly this proving-up was for the quarter section that became the Kimball farm
*--Was William Heilig a farmer? RATCLIFF,THELMA remembered hearing that her grandfather William Heilig freighted from OK El Reno to KS Wichita. "Once when he was 20 miles from Wichita, one of his horses died. William took the horse's place and delivered the freight" [CH1:256]
*--In some versions of the story, William was freighting from OKCity to Wichita, and it is said with a bit more color that "he took up the dead horse's neck yoke himself" and delivered the load
*--More information about his business contacts in KS Wichita, before and after the run, might help us understand his intentions as he set off for OK. Emma Jeanette always said free land was the motive. What if William's goals were mercantile rather than, or in addition to, agricultural? Perhaps he hoped to try again something like his NC Laurinburg venture [ID]. Maybe he was associated with the Mathewson group in KS Wichita. Les Kimball used to say that his grandfather owned a livery stable on the banks of the Arkansas River in KS Wichita, on the spot where the grand hotel Broadview stood in later days. This yarn might be rooted in a truth of some kind [EG].

Harvesting of Buffalo and cattle bone also provided a meager livelihood during the first hard years in OK. The Buffalo had been slaughtered randomly in the great plains since the coming of the white man. And the huge cattle runs over the previous quarter century left a marketable trace of bones, a sign of the steady attrition as the herds moved north. Emma Jeanette once had to fight a prairie fire started by bone hunters. The story presumes that William Heilig was off freighting, or horse trading, or something less praiseworthy. "Emma hitched an old horse to a plow and plowed a fire guard, saving the home, the stock, the straw barn, and winter's feed" [CH1:256].

Another crisis is recounted, also by implication in the absence of William Heilig. A severe thunderstorm struck one night. The wind and rain weakened the barn to the point of imminent collapse. Emma sent her eldest son KIMBALL,WALTER ROY for help to save their horses trapped in the barn. As Roy left, a bolt of lightning struck the dugout home, splitting the pillow on which Roy had just been sleeping. Young brother Fred Hugh was knocked unconscious by the strike. Emma dragged him senseless onto the creek bank. He regained consciousness in the rain. She saved his life [CH1:256]. This story has been told many times, in different ways, by various members of the clan. No version tells of the fate of the animals, but one version has Emma sending Fred Hugh Kimball out for the animals as the storm came up. He was struck by lightning and knocked unconscious as he performed that duty, and Emma revived him. The youngster listening to this version was free to conclude that the little calves and ponies were also saved.

Other stories recounted horses lost as a result of William Heilig's bad business dealings in far-off markets and misbehavior in sordid neighborhoods. He left once with a brace of prize draft horses, fitted out with fine leather tack, and he returned all hung over with a hemp rope halter in his hand. He claimed, as the story runs, to have sold the horses at a very fine price, only to be knocked on the head and robbed.

These stories prefigure the fate of William Heilig, Emma Jeanette and their homestead. The rhythm of the stories was set = His behavior threatened the farm; her valor saved it.

William Heilig has always been remembered (or forgotten) for his controversial behavior. See the novel based in part on the Kimball family in OK written by Philip Kimball, Harvesting Ballads (Dutton, 1984; reprinted by the University of Oklahoma Press, 1994. Website). Everyone interested in the history of the Kimball family should take a look at the novel Harvesting Ballads. It's not only written by a family member but contains some original music written by another family member, Steven Lynn Kimball. [Some ID]

In Harvesting Ballads [21-4], an old man sits in a frontier tavern hustling drinks and talking up a storm. A couple of family legends related to William Heilig blend into the tall tales the old man shares with the bartender =

“ [...] Spent a lot of time in the bars and gambling houses. Seems I lost and drank gallons more than I won though. Had to find some kind of work. Well, one night I sees this drunk swineherd out in front of a saloon. Needs a drink real bad, just him and a horse. Damn fine horse too. So I sidles up nice and friendly, start a friendly conversation. Well, you know there are two things you can't talk to, and that's a preacher and a drunk, but I start admiring the horse and ask if it's his. He blinks at it couple of times, says hell yes. I tell him I'd sure like to have a horse, but all I had to my name was a fifth of real good drinking whiskey. I keep a talking, he a blathering, me bout how much I like his horse and he bout how much he needs a drink. Before you know it, I was the owner of one of the finest cow ponies ever come up the trail. And I had found my job. My career. Took that pony, and before the day was out I'd horsetraded it up to three, sold one, put the others in the livery stable and had one hell of a celebration. A horsetrader, goddamn. See this." Fumbles, pulls a gold watch from his vest pocket by the chain.

Takes it, examines impatiently. "Pretty nice watch."

Retrieves watch. Bartender still holding chain, looking at the fob. Old man opens the back, displaying engraved factory. "But look a here. Illinois Watch Company. And there's..."

"What's W.O.W.?"

"What?" Looks at fob. "Oh. That's Woodsmen of the World."

"Maple leaf with a crossed ax and hammer over a tree stump. And what's that?"

Taking fob. Squinting. "A bird with a twig in its beak."

"A dove and olive branch."

"Olive?"

"Yeah. For peace." [EG]

Holds at arm's length. "You don't say. All these years I wondered bout that. And the stump has a wedge in it. But I want to show you the back. See that?"

Takes watch. "A horse." Sudden smile. "Your horsetrading watch."

Impatient. "Yeah. But look at that horse."

"Yeah. He's grinning, isn't he?"

Laughs. "That's what first tracted my attention. Some feller down in Coffeyville, Kansas, was a looking for a horse. Didn't have much, wanting to get a wagon and some supplies to go down and stake him a claim. All the Boomers were gathering in Coffeyville and Independence in them days, 18—what was it—1879 must of been. Feller name of Carpenter [ID] come down from the Dakotas to organize. You see, in them days ever body was moving west. Lots of excitement. I mean to tell you the hotels and boardinghouses was full, the saloons a bustling, wagons ever where, tents and lean-tos. Campfire smoke. Steaming stews. Folks milling around, talking, singing. All looking for a homestead in the territory they all figgered was gonna be opened up soon. You see, Carpenter was encouraging ever body to come an join in an invasion. He figgered to force the opening. He'd already opened up the Black Hills few years back when they found gold, and the government really didn't do much to stop him, kind of like they really didn't care. In fact, sort of wanted the territory opened up. Needed a railroad and so on. Couldn't come right out and tell the Indians they was taking it back though. Set up another, friend."

"Okay." Goes below the bar, pours, sets glass before the old man.

[...]

"You betcha." Takes a shot, wipes mouth with back of hand. "Anyway. This young feller with the watch I was telling you about had a pretty little wife. Not many women and childrens around, but some in them days, and this feller had need of a horse, but could scarcely put food on the table, and I notice his watch. Well, I was bout half drunk at the time, and I sees this horse grinning golden and reckoned I just had to have that timepiece. Sort of took a liking to the feller anyway, so I give him a dandy Appaloosa for it, even trade."

Impatient. "How did you get from Chicago to Coffeyville?"

Gazing at watch. "Yeah, look at him just a grinning."

"How did you get to Coffeyville?"

"Well, I was in Chicago."

"I know."

"Like I was telling you, I was a horsetrader. Damn good one too. But had the urge to move on. The frontier opening up. Where'd be a better place for a horsetrader. And besides, I was making a few enemies. Chicago was a pretty rough town. You see, I was getting tired of paying for all my good times, and those of some of my worthless friends, with my horses. I had developed by this time quite a taste for whiskey and figgered I knew a better way of paying for it. I'd come into a place and bet the barkeep, or any other sucker. Scuse me, no offense intended. Anybody that wanted, I could identify any glass of spirits set before me. And I could, as you know."

Bartender plunks down another jigger. "Try this."

Tosses it down in one swallow. "Remy Martin."

"Sonnuva bitch!"

"Well, one day I walks into this bar and challenges the bartender. He says okay, goes under the bar and comes up with a tumblerful. I takes a sip, notice ever body standing around kind of snickering and laughing. Like I was about to be fooled or something. Had quite a reputation you know. But they couldn't put one over on me. I sips again. Looks around says hey, this hogwash is homemade. Ever body hoots and hollers.

" 'Not too bad either. For poison. Onliest thing wrong is it tastes a little too coppery and leathery.'

" 'What!' says the barman, 'I made that personally, and happen to know it's the best goldurn sipping whiskey this side of Kentucky. The recipe my ol granddaddy give me.'

"I takes another slash. 'Did your granddaddy say to spice it with copper and leather?'

" 'Look, buster.'

"Goes to a hogshead he's got in the corner, draws off another glass of amber liquid, holds it up into a ray of afternoon sun piercing the smoky innards of the place and it shines like a torch in his hand.

" 'Mighty perty,' I says. 'And I can see the copper and leather stain from here. Whatcha do to your granddad that he'd want to kill you?'

"Ever body round laughing now. The man behind the bar getting powerful mad. I down the glass. 'But never mind the copper and leather. Where's my ten dollars?'

" 'You didn't win no bet, there ain't no copper and leather.'

"Now I'm getting mad. The man's refusing to pay up. And the people around getting mad, arguing over the side bets, jeering and a funning the bartender pushing and a shoving. Pretty rough place in the best of times and the barkeep pulls out a ax handle from under and pounds the bar. Someone crashes a glass on the floor. And I duck, not being a violent man myself, ten dollars ain't worth no cracked skull, just as someone tosses a bottle a hooch flying, and I'm wondering why such emotions is being displayed over a glass of moonshine. But don't think I'll stick around to find out. Crawling along the brass rail toward the door, raining glass, beer, wine and whiskey, I picks up a fifth of Tennessee's best rolling my way among the boots and shoes kicking and scuffling. I mean, after all I did win the bet fair and square. Meanwhile up above all hell is breaking loose. Yelling and cursing, tables and chairs crashing all over the place, a real knock-down drag-out I still can't understand, when a feller falls spitting teeth beside me, wipes the blood away with his sleeve sputtering 'goddam union fink,' jumps to his feet, two hands pound on his chest and he's back down. I looks out across the floor. Workingmen's boots, blue-and-white-striped billed caps with floppy tops. Dawns on me I'm in a doggone working man's railroad bar down by the roundhouse and they're fighting about the strike. It was, what was it, sure, bout fifty years ago, 1877. Big strike. Unionizing the railroad." [ID]

[...]

"I didn't want no part in no union brawl, so I commence to scurry cross the floor on all fours again. Bout the time I reach the end of the bar some big ol feller picks up a guy standing right in front of me by the throat and crotch and heaves him crash bang against the wall behind the bar knocking the goddam shelf down with the hogshead of homemade Kentucky rolling down the plank, jumping the space between, bouncing along the bar and busting onto the floor. Man alive I'm a telling you the whiskey splashed every which a way, washing folks off their feet and slosh out into the street. And right there in the middle of the iron rings and oaken staves on the whiskey wet floor was a copper washer with a leather strap hitched to it!"

"Aw. Come on, old-timer."

Laughs till he coughs. "I wouldn't kid you."

*1999no16:IA Iowa City. Philip Glen Kimball read from & discussed his second novel, Liar’s Moon [tape dms]. He identified four "premises" as revealed in four passages, beginning on p5 p50 p26 & p71.

The following passages, beginning on p5, introduce the first of the five premises. Here we get to know something about “Ole Woman” and “Ole Man”. These two are a recognizable έπιτομή of the couple Emma Jeanette Blackwood Kimball and William Heilig Kimball. Much churned like butter, their higher sense is blended and flavored to perfection with the destinies and qualities of others of those who were projected out onto the short-grass plains =

[T]he Ole Woman was at heart an adventurer. It was what always got her into trouble. The Ole Man a little bad to drink, footloose, what to a young strapling fifteen-year-old girl slopping hogs in Indiana would look dashing and chivalrous [...], but what to a strong-willed woman, one of the first to try to break the plains, digging in on the Great Bend Prairie to keep herself and her fourteen kids from blowing away, would be clearly recognized worthlessness.

Left her for months at a time to fend for herself. The only childhood memory I have of him in the flesh: a trip into town, I must have been nine or ten, he wanted to do a little horse-trading. We'd stop off at every shack and dugout along the way to see if there was anything we could bring back from the general store, and every place we'd stop the man, if he was around, but more often than not the woman, would come out to meet us, first living thing other than the skinny cow and a goat or two she'd seen in over a month sometimes, offer a dram, a road-shortener, a belly-warmer, antidote to bilious fever or to snakebite. Trip that should have taken two days there and back lasted seems like a week. Started out with a buckboard and a team of Morgans, returned on foot leading a pissel-tailed mule. When I worried, the Ole Man would tell me the reason we came out west was to escape suffocating social restriction and unreasonable regulation, but some rules necessary to avoid the slippery slope into barbarity, and one of the most essential is: never refuse a drink. Even at the last supper Jesus served up wine. Can't hold it against the man, Kentucky sour mash wasn't available. But think how much more impressive it would have been, instead of this is my blood, he holds up a gleaming amber shot: this is my spirit!

He was no-account. Said the prairie was wild and woolly and full of fleas, and a man to get by had to be the same. Only more so. While the Ole Woman and us kids were keeping the homestead from total ruin, he was out speculating, either with our livestock or with the Preemption Act [ID]. Carried a little log cabin carved out of blackjack oak just for the purpose, twelve inches by fourteen, could put it together in a few minutes, had an old army-issue latrine shovel, from his days in the Mexican War, to dig a well with. They never did ask at the land office how deep or if he'd actually struck water, just if he dug a well, and the promise of a little snort in town got him a witness to come along and testify to the nifty twelve-by-fourteen cabin he'd erected. Sometimes he'd just split a stick, wedge a piece of glass in it, drag in an old two-by-twelve, cover it with a blanket to sleep under, next day claim he'd built a house with glass windows and a plank floor and he's off to the old states to collect the family. Get a half section for sixty to eighty cents an acre, sell it at a hundred and fifty. But don't think he was exploiting the territory, like a parasite sapping the economic strength of the prairie. He was actually doing a lot of good, to hear the Ole Woman tell it. Keeping the assets liquid, so to speak. No sooner close a deal than he'd head to the nearest ridgepole, hay-thatched goat-house saloon, set himself down, not rise again till he'd put his entire profit back into local circulation. Amiable, hell of a good storyteller, and, from the evidence, at least adequate in his conjugal duties. But, no two ways about it, a good-for-nothing ne'er-do-well.

2000 winter:KS Lawrence | KIMBALL,PHILIP GLEN (20th)
plays the harmonica [photo by daughter Corinna]

Listen to and watch Philip Kimball play the blues at the Steel Horse Saloon north of Seminole OK

Continue the William Heilig Kimball LOOP

 

** 1891:OK Guthrie| OK Territory legislative body, "Doc" Long,EH was elected among first representatives as Democrat from OK Benton [Beaver] Co. (in the far western OK panhandle). The territorial legislature met 120 days "and whipped the pioneer territory’s first laws into shape". "Doc" was chairman of the territorial judiciary committee [KSB:52v] Worked 120 days at $4/day, then 60 days at $2 [i.e., $560 for nearly a half year] [KSB:51,51v]

** 1892:OK Kansas Cemetery established near another town site a few miles east of Mathewson

** 1892ap19:OK.IT | Cheyenne and Arapaho lands just west of Kimball homestead opened to rush of homesteaders

** 1892oc:OK Mathewson Twp | STOVER,JOHANN.B & ANNA MARIE moved into home built by carpenter LUSCHEN,DIEDRICH on their 163 acre farm recently purchased for $900= NW4 2 13/6 [CH1:484] (Three years earlier, homestead rules valued this farm at $204.) Their neighbors=
HUGGLER,JOHN
MEIGS,L.G.
HOLLMAN,HENRY
CAREY,SAM
KESSLERS,ERNEST

1890s?:OK.Mathewson Twp | Drama group
Standing =
KIMBALL,WALTER.ROY | BENNETT,LOLA | RATCLIFF.MORRIS | MONTGOMERY?? | RATCLIFF,MILES | KIMBALL,DAISY | BOOTH,BOB
Seated =
? | ? | ? | BENNETT,LUM (w/fan) | ?

** 1893ap19:OK Cherokee Outlet opened to a land run by homesteaders

** 1893:OK Cleveland Co.| First territorial Anti-Horse Thief Association formed

** 1895no16:OK Beaver to Canadian Co. near present-day Piedmont | "Doc" Long,EH & family moved back toward the center of action

** 1898c:OK (El Reno studio?)| Photo portrait of original OK pioneer nuclear family Kimball. Only little Fred was born in OK [pix in possession of Mary Ellen Allen, cf. ame]
*--Jessie and Daisy soon married neighbor Ratcliff brothers, Morris and Miles, respectively

1895c:KIMBALL,WALTER.ROY | KIMBALL,JESSIE | KIMBALL,DAISY
 KIMBALL,WILLIAM (father) | KIMBALL,FRED | KIMBALL,EMMA (mother)

*--In a few years the oldest boy Roy left his parental home to seek his fortune. Glen Ratcliff remembers that Roy was a very stout man. Roy Kimball had hopped a train, and a railroad "Bull" with a long stick came up. Roy told him, "If you are man enough to throw me off, that is something I want to see." The bull turned and walked off.
*--A few years later, the four Kimball children were photographed together =

1910c:Four Kimball children together = DAISY, ROY, JESSIE, and Fred Hugh Kimball

** 1899my17:IO Dedham to OK Mathewson | Twenty-one days in two covered wagons pulled by mules brought SNYDER,HENRY CHARLES and sons GEORGE and ARTHUR. In OK, "Hank" changed the spelling of the family name from SCHNEIDER  [CH1:470]

** 1899se:OK Mathewson | RATCLIFF,JOHN RILEY was working in the shop on the farm. "He stepped to the door as a bolt of lightning struck, killing him instantly" [CH1:401]
*1899se14:ElR.News [8x11:Gloria] =

STRUCK BY LIGHTNING | FARMER KILLED IN MATTEWSON (sic!) TOWNSHIP LAST WEEK | Last Friday, J. R. Ratcliff, living about two miles this side of Matthewson (sic!) was struck by lightning and instantly killed. His son standing near was stunned but not seriously injured. || Mr. Ratcliff was a blacksmith. On the afternoon of the accident he was setting a wagon tire. A storm was threatening but had not yet arrived and overhead the sky was clear, but suddenly from the approaching clouds a bolt of lightning sped on its way ahead of the storm and struck Mr. Ratcliff as be leaned over the wheel, the bolt striking him on the head passing the the [sic!] full length of the body and tearing the soles from his shoes into the ground. || Mr. Ratcliff was a highly respected citizen in the neighborhood where be lived. He was one of the oldest citizens there having taken claim when the country opened. He leaves a wife and three sons.

*1964:Right next door lightning struck the family home and burned it to the ground. John Riley's grandson RATCLIFF,HAROLD("Tub") & his wife IRENE (née CORNETT) worked the farm in these later days, but were in CA on vacation. When informed of the fire by phone, Tub said, "It's high time we got ourselves a new house"

BACK TO TOP

 

 

A PIEDMONT CHRONOLOGY

** 1889ap22:OK land run from KS | Future Piedmont town plot soon homesteaded by DEAN,JAMES [Gardner]

** 1889no06:OK Eda will "soon be a thing of the past", a local paper predicted. The Miller store was enroute to Piedmont, "hauled by a thresher engine". NcNINCH bought the COUCH & CRAWLEY store and will move it to P & open a new meat market there. RIDER meat market will move too. LAMB Blacksmith Shop too. HIGBEE Building coming to P also, where it will be a "short-order house and restaurant". The whole town of Eda will soon come to P [CH2:88]

** 1899:OK Piedmont [hereafter in chronology, "OK P"] The homestead of DEAN,JAMES (upon his death) purchased by "Doc" Long,EH [Gardner]
*--Portrait and Biographical Record of Oklahoma, w/ emphasis on Canadian.Co (1901, 1908, ETC) [W] Featuring Long,EH [W] | Meigs [W] |  Russell,JS [W] | Simpson,EE [W]

** 1901:OK Yukon Mill and Grain Company founded, became largest single milling plant in OK [Gardner]

** 1902oc01:OK El Reno | Wedding of Texan STOUT,JAY DAVID to FRY,IRENE

** 1903no06:OK P | Gardner quotes "the local newspaper" about Piedmont, founded just that fall = "The townsite of Piedmont is one of the prettiest in Oklahoma. The town is laid off on smooth but gently sloping ground, with the best residence portion considerably higher than the business district; and from the higher ground a splendid view can be had of the valley farms away to the southward. No more beautiful location for a town can be found anywhere."
*--The original town site was first laid out on a quarter section (160 acres) owned by "Doc" Long. It was clear now that the railroad was coming through Piedmont, not Mathewson, and the wily ex-Territorial Legislator "Doc" Long,EH saw an opportunity. Over the next weeks lots were auctioned along the railroad right-of-way. PALMER,JUNO moved his blacksmith shop from Banner

** 1903de26:OK Piedmont [SE4 32 14/5] Post office founded, with CUYKENDALL,JOHN.R the first postmaster. Less than one week later =

** 1904ja01:OK P first visited by St.Louis-El Reno-Western Railroad [CH2:299; Gardner] The railroad stopped at Piedmont between Guthrie & El Reno. Caused merchants and even some settlers in original outlying communities (e.g., Mathewson, Racine,  Eda, and Herron) to move closer. Urban structures moved. See the inventory of Piedmont businesses [CH1:35 & 93]  Just a few months earlier, the Fort Smith and Western Railroad Company [FS&W.rrd] completed its line from Ft.Smith, Arkansas, to Guthrie [Winters in RiO:31f; map of the line on p.43]

** 1904fe29:OK Mathewson Post office moved to OK P. Soon the First Methodist Church was founded [CH2:157 with photo]

** 1904je23:OK P| Death of RUSSELL,MARGARET CATHERINE (Maggie), daughter of "Doc" Long,EH, mother of RUSSELL,LAURA ELLA (future Laura Kimball)
*1911:OK P | Death of LONG,KATHRYN (née SMITH), wife of "Doc" Long.EH

** 1905:OK P | Piedmont State Bank hired 16 year-old   WASHECHECK,EDDIE to work as teller. Later Ed served in WW1, married COUCH,HAZEL and became president of the bank

** 1905:OK P | 2-storey 4-room school constructed. Marked beginning of the end of schools in smaller communities around Piedmont
*1893:OK (location according to contemporary Oklahoma City addresses= south of NW 150^th St on State hwy 4) Starr School founded; now (1905) abandoned & later sold

** 1905fe20:OK Frisco dissolved. Today, only a marker in a field remains where once a city stood [CH2:124]
*--Website devoted to Frisco Cemetery

** 1905my12:OK Piedmont Post reported the WIEDEMAN,BILL was producing fine bridge irons in his local blacksmith shop [CH2:53]

** 1906:FS&W railroad bought Guthrie-ElReno line. FS&W was a subsidiary of Carnegie Steel and was run by Henry Clay Frick. Its goal was to get access to the coal of eastern Oklahoma. In the early days, a train ran in each direction from ElReno to Ft.Smith, Arkansas. Guthrie traffic good so long as Guthrie was the territorial capital. Piedmont traffic depended on the lines through Guthrie

** 1906my26:OK P | First Baptist Church founded [CH2:156]

** 1907:OK P | DUNBAR,EMMETT and DUNBAR,PEARL arrived and built unusually large 4-bedroom house on west edge of town. Emmett was a successful veterinarian
*--His son DUNBAR,MOYER rode the dray wagons that brought merchandise from the railroad terminal to the Mulvey Mercantile Store
*--He hunted rabbits with ammunition purchased at Whelen's Store. He sold dressed rabbits for 20 cents
*--Moyer Dunbar married DUNBAR,LOUISE who served as the Piedmont correspondent for regional newspapers. They had four children =

DUNBAR,MAURICE
DUNBAR,BARBARA
DUNBAR,FREDDIE
DUNBAR,ROXIE (author of an emotional autobiographical account of her early years in the Piedmont area, Red Dirt)

CH1:139 notes that all four became scholars and owe much to their Piedmont school teachers COLLETT,HAROLD and RATCLIFF,THELMA [GO CH1:93 for COLLETT,JOHN family]

** 1907no16 (10:17am):Washington DC | President Roosevelt signed Statehood Proclamation. OK now USA state #46

** 1909:1911; LL.RXV holds scores of postcards, including Fred Hugh Kimball's correspondence from MT with future wife Laura Ella Russell [KmbLE] back in OK.P

** 1909:OK P formally incorporated, supplanting all urban services (all government services below the Co. level) earlier provided by Mathewson
*--Same year, WHELAN,JOHN VINCENT arrived in OK P to work in uncle's stores, Mulvey's Mercantile

** 1910:OK P population=255|Over previous 7 years, P the home of 28 businesses [Gardner]:

• newspaper
• Piedmont State Bank
• doctor’s office
• blacksmith shop of WIEDEMAN,BILL 1903:Mathewson to P
• Piedmont Mercantile Co. The WHELEN's "bought and sold all farm products except hay and grain, being the largest old-style mercantile in the county" [CH1:539; also see 139]
• grocery
• butchers (2)
• drug store
• MULVEY Mercantile Company [CH1:139] 1909:WIEDEMAN,BILL bought out Mulvey [CH1:543]
• undertaker
• hotel
• millinery shop
• harness & shoe shops (2)
• livery (2)
• grain elevators (3)
• LUSCHEN,MARTIN's flour mill [CH1:139]
• cotton.gins (2)
• railroad depot
• ice house
• dentist office
• pool hall
• TAYLOR,DAVE's Barber Shop, 25 cents per haircut [CH1:139]
• telephone exchange. BURKHEAD,JOHN ANDREW got the exciting news by phone that his sister would soon arrive at the Piedmont railroad terminal. After frantic housekeeping and other domestic measures to prepare for the surprise visit, the Burkheads discovered that it was the "lister" he'd ordered, now delivered by rail [CH1:69] No plow had ever been met by such a dignified greeting party

Also the following institutions:

• Post office
• church
• jail
• school

** 1912ja01:OK P (?)| William Heilig Kimball suffered first onset of alcohol induced "psychosis" [WSH3 | WSH4]

** 1912fe14 (Valentine's Day):OK El Reno| Wedding of William Heilig Kimball's son Fred Hugh Kimball &  RUSSELL,LAURA ELLA
*--Russell,Maggie was Laura's mother and "Doc" Long,EH was her grandfather [ID]
*--Laura worked at the time of her wedding as a clerk at Mulvey Mercantile Co. in Piedmont

** 1913fe06 [16?]:OK P| Birth of KIMBALL,JOHN RUSSELL to Fred Hugh Kimball & LAURA ELLA

** 1913my14:OK El Reno Catholic Rectory | Wedding of WHELEN,JOHN VINCENT to PALMER,ELLA. Her brother was PALMER,GEORGE ORIN("G.O.")

** 1914no20:OK P| Birth of KIMBALL,RUTH GERALDINE to Fred Hugh Kimball & Laura Kimball

*1915:OK Canadian County map

1915:OK Canadian Co. | Railroad line through Piedmont to El Reno
Mathewson, Herron, and Eda were gone.
Frisco still stood between Piedmont and Yukon, but the railroad had passed them by.
[SOURCE]

** 1915se30:OK Norman, Central State Hospital| William Heilig Kimball admitted [WSH3, WSH4]

** 1915oc09:FS&W (and its line from Guthrie to ElReno) went into receivership with Arthur L. Mills in charge. He shifted attention from the Guthrie-ElReno line, in fact from Guthrie itself, and worked to tap into the greater rail traffic through OKC, for six years the state capital. He switched traffic at Fallis (two stops east of Guthrie) southwestward to OKC. Mills sold some of the ElReno-Guthrie equipment. Traffic through Piedmont declined [RiO:35]
*--The fate of early Piedmont was determined by the fortunes of the FS&W

** 1915oc27:OK El Reno | Anti-Horse Thief Association held 2-day state convention. Not limiting itself to horse thieves, the Association was also committed to "aiding the civilian authorities to uphold the law" [CH2:334]

** 1916au21:OK P | Birth of KIMBALL,LESLIE GLEN to Fred Hugh Kimball & Laura Kimball
*--Les always liked to tell the story about how he was delivered on this scorching hot day. A shed tent was fixed outside against the shady side of the farm house to keep mother and child from roasting. Fred washed the tent over with a periodical bucket of water
*--Les Kimball had no difficulty remembering early events in his life; he remembered events before his birth. He experienced much from the womb

** 1916se19:OK El Reno | Wedding of William Otis Fry and LANGFORD,JUANITA WEWOKA (daughter of LANGFORD,WILLIAM PERRY, and Fannie Casto) [KSB:70a | Mark.file]

1916se:FryWO and FryJW weddiing photo

1916fa:OK.Lake Overholster | FryWO and FryJW take their brief honeymoon

** 1918mr04:OK P | Birth of FRY,EULA MARJORIE (Marge Kimball) to William Otis Fry and JUANITA WEWOKA (née LANGFORD). Juanita's mother COUCH,FRANCIS ETTA("Fannie"; née CASTO) was at this time married to her second husband COUCH,"Ikie"

** 1920my:OK Piedmont continued to be the focus of school consolidation: Joined by Bell Diamond and Kansas school districts, then by Pleasant View and Mathewson districts
*--The wooden Mathewson school, which had replaced the original sod structure, was purchased by RATCLIFF,MILES, and then by Fred Hugh Kimball, and moved to his father and mother's farm where it was converted into a barn that stood and worked into the 21st century [CH2]

** 1920:OK P | WESSEL,JOHN purchased the Piedmont Cream Station. In that same year, LEONARD,ADDISON("Ad") & MARY JANE purchased the Ford Garage and dealership from BLAIR,TOM & ELLICK. Son BLAIR,JOE moved from OK City and brought new Piedmont Hotel
*1923:Ad became ill and sold the Ford dealership to WIEDEMAN,BILL. Bill installed electrical power plant in his Mercantile store

** 1921de31:OK P school construction,9-room brick building, ½ m north of old school

** 1923:OK Canadian Co. | Wheat delivered to the grain elevator fetched only
                  $0.89 per bushel
*1925au:$1.58
*1944:    $1.38

** 1923ja:OK City Governor Walton's inauguration | The Casto Blue-grass Band played

GULLETT,VERN | CASTO,VIRGIL | CASTO,JOHN | CASTO,BILL
2001mr28:Connie Gullett Stevens transcribed the backside of her original photo: "This photo was taken by the committee of the Inaugural Ball and Barbeque Jan 7,8,9,10 1923 Oklahoma City, Okla. pictures left to right Vern Gullett, Virgil Casto, John Casto and Bill Casto"
2000oc29:KIMBALL,STEVEN wrote that CASTO,BILL was the older brother of CASTO,Fannie (who as second-born of these siblings)
In birth order, these followed: GULLETT,MABLE (née CASTO), CASTO,FLORA, and CASTO,JOHN. CASTO,VIRGIL was a cousin.

** 1923je27:OK El Reno District Conclave of Ku Klux Klan | One hundred delegates met in the "Klan Hall" above Tompkins Motor Company. TOMPKINS,C.H. was a big figure in the regional KKK
--That year in OK P | The son of WHELEN,JOHN.V and ELLA recounts how "Catholicism on the paternal side created prejudice in the Piedmont area. The Ku Klux Klan donned hoods and sheets in 1923. We witnessed the burning of a cross south of the school. But John and Ella would not be run out of the community. They weathered not only prejudice, but dust and depression, often extending their hands in love and even credit to help hold the community together" [CH1:539]

** 1923de08:OK | "Unmasking law" restrained activities of Ku Klux Klan which flourished throughout OK over the previous two years [see newspaper articles in CH2:200]

<>1924jy17:OK Norman, Central State Hospital to OK Fort Supply, Western State Hospital | William Heilig Kimball transferred to the more distant facility, on the eastern edge of the OK panhandle. [WSH4]

** 1924ca:OK P | Fred Kimball built 1^st terraces [cf. 28mr22:Article "Our oldest terraces are four years old"]

** 1925fe15:OK El Reno Canadian County Courthouse steps | Bankrupt Fort Smith & Western Railroad auctioned
*--This was a blow to Piedmont and the dreams of folks like "Doc" Long who had banked on a big economic boom there. Within eight years "Doc" Long.EH was broke and living with relatives
*--At this time Canadian Co. farms numbered 2263 [Gardner]
*--More than two decades of railroad service in Piedmont now at an end
*1925:In this year, "Doc" Long,EH ceased medical practice [KSB:51 dates this as 10 years before 1935; KSB:53v confirms 12y before 1937 | Therefore, constant reference to 73y practice assumes he began in 1852, but he was licensed only in 1862. Thus "73" should be "63"]

** 1925mr26:OK Canadian Co. [El Reno] IN THE DISTRICT COURT | KIMBALL,EMMA JEANETTE signed "APPLICATION TO CONVEY HOMESTEAD" [which can be described as the North Half of the Southwest Quarter of Section Thirty-one and Lots 3 and 4 in Section Thirty-one, all in Township Fourteen (14) North of Range Five (5) W.I.M. Canadian County, Oklahoma, more simply as "N 1/2 of SW 1/4 of 31, and Lots 3 and 4 in 31 14/5"]
*--Emma Jeanette declared that her husband -- William Heilig Kimball -- was "hopelessly insane" and "confined in an asylum for the insane for a number of years" [ID] Emma Jeanette desired

to sell the above described premises and relieve herself from responsibility involved in looking after and caring for same; that all the improvements on said premises, except the barn [ID], are about thirty-four years of age [since 1891], and said farm is now in such a condition that it will require the expenditure of considerable sum of money in order to make it at all profitable; that this petitioner has not the means with which to improve said farm, and unless it is so improved, that it will become in a worse state of repairs and less valuable, and that [p1/p2] she desires to sell it at this time; that said farm is of the value of approximately $3000.00. [... signed:] Emma J. Kimball

*--The land was not sold at this time. Possibly these were the days in which Emma Jeanette and her 35 year-old son Fred Kimball came to an agreement that the farm could be his if she could live on it the rest of her life. It is not clear that the three other children -- Kimball,Walter Roy, Ratcliff,Jessie, or Ratcliff,Daisy -- felt good about this settlement of the farmstead upon Fred alone
*--Nor is it clear just what Laura Kimball thought about assuming the role of second in command of her own home
*--With a new house [ID] soon built toward the SW corner of Section 31, this became what everyone called the "Kimball farm". This was not the original Kimball homestead where William Heilig Kimball built the half-soddy and where Fred Kimball was born, where he was struck by lightning. That all happened at what was called "The West Place", a mile or so west of the farmstead. The plot here slated for sale is where the farmhouse that stands to this day was built and where the children of Fred and Laura were born and grew up

** 1925ap08:OK P| Birth of KIMBALL,LOIS ARLENE to Fred Hugh Kimball & Laura Kimball

** 1926ja:OK State officials named RATCLIFF,MORRIS a Master Farmer

Morris Ratcliff's commercial thrashing operation

** 1926ja16:WIEDEMAN,BILL became USA citizen. His sons Johann, Heinrich and Dietrich("Dick", who ran the store into the 1980s)

** 1926je17:OK P, one and one half miles west on Edmond Rd | Big wind storm. STOUT,JOHN WILLIAM("Bill") had to drag the trees and limbs from the road so that "Doc" Tompkins could get in from Yukon to aid in the delivery of twins, STOUT,WANDA JOAN & WILLA JUNE [CH1:482]

** 1926au05:Where? | Wedding of DANNEHL,WILHELM FREDERICH to WIEDEMAN,MARTHA. Okarche German family united with Mathewson/Piedmont German family and ran a large mercantile company in P [CH1:113]

** 1928mr04:1928je02; CA Los Angeles to NY New York City largely along the route of the fabled US Hwy 66, passing through OK El Reno and OK Yukon | One-hundred ninety nine runners at the start of the first Transcontinental Bunyon Derby. Fifty-nine days later, only a handful finished the race. PAYNE,ANDY won, a 19-year old Cherokee youth from OK Foyil [CH2:48]

** 1928:1930; OK Pdm High School | John Russell Kimball's Piedmont High School scrapbook (in the possession of Trey Hutton) [Code = KmbJR.SB]

The scrapbook covers news of events over two academic years, 1928-29 and 1929-30. What follows here is Trey Hutton's transcription, a partial summary of the scrapbook he inherited from his grandfather Russell Kimball [KmbJR]. The opening page is a handwritten note to Russ =

"The mission of this little School Scrap Book is nothing more or less, than to wish a former pupil of mine success and happiness - Nana Cary"

Many newspaper clips relate to Russell's and Piedmont's 4-H Club and their many honors. Russ was champion 4H club boy in 1930 and left El Reno Thanksgiving day for the Chicago International Livestock Show. At a banquet for the delegation in Chicago, President Hoover made a radio address to them. The only expense for the delegates was meals, cab fare and hotel. $29.50 for Russ.

It is not clear how many of these clips are from "The Prairie Schooner". A title page from this paper is glued across the top.

News clips describe how the small Piedmont high school did not really excel at sports; with Frank Kennedy and Orlan Castro both placing second in the high jump and 100 yard dash, respectively, being the only Piedmont winners. The track meet was held in Piedmont against Lone Star, Emerald Valley, Concho, Moss Grove, Frisco, Lovely Valley and Sunny Side. Lone Star seemed to have the edge. El Reno, however, did defeat Chickasha in basketball that year 23 to 21. Notable scorers for El Reno included Peck, Renfro, Thompson, Roberts, Ramey, Holden, Young and Meyers.

The small Piedmont High School did, however, excel in the arts. Melvin Casto won 1st as Tenor Solo, and Otha Basey for Baritone. Claudia Ohnsman won 3rd for Standard Oration. Piedmont won 2nd for mixed chorus, Juanita Wessel 1st Soprano Solo, and Irene Wessel 1st Alto Solo. For curricular events, Geography went to Virgil Peterson, English to Marguerite Dickerson, Arithmetic to Dan Kennedy, Algebra to Miriam Gilmore and American History to Leslie Fry.

The neatest collections in this scrap book are the Jr/Sr banquet programs, complete with menus, dance cards and signatures of many of those in attendance. The first one is 1929-30. A hand written note or toast says: "A farmer's daughter you will wed, and live no simple life. Of you two it will be said, they're happy man and wife"

The toast to the faculty was given by Nellie Wray, Address to Father and Mother by Velma Dickerson, Girls Toast by Glenn Cline, Boys Toast by Mary Fickess, Toast to the Seniors by Leslie Fry and Answer by Irene Wessell. The Farewell was given by Marguerite Dickerson.

Russ' collection of autographs include Melvin Casto, Velma Dickerson, Mrs. Phil Every, Annie Hampton, Dan Kennedy, Alma Fraim, Harold Collett, Phil Every, Lottie Fain, and Claudia Ohnsman.

The 1929-1930 banquet included a welcome from Elva Jennings, Toast to the Faculty by Marguerite Dickerson, and Toast to Seniors by Joe Weaver, a Toast to Juniors by Juanita Wessel, a Toast to Father and Mother from Leslie Fry and Farewell from Sarah Every.

Autographs include Genevieve Long (see photo below), Maw Washecheck, Phil Every, Gordon Bennett, Eva Deal, Juanita Wessel, Davis (or Daris) Fry, Wild Bill (!), Elva Jennings, Irene Wiley, Chas Clark, Marguerite Dickerson, Mrs. Phil Every, Louise Smynter, Opal Brown, Willie Lynch, Sarah Every, Leslie Fry, Miss Bartosk (sp), Mabel Lynch, Ida Kennedy, Ada Kennedy, Glen Cline, C. Miller.

There are many more clips and references to the folks mentioned above. There are also a couple quality photos of the boys basketball team and some 4-H members.

Another interesting page in the scrapbook has all of the name cards for what I presume is either the senior class for Russell's year, or the attendees at the banquets. There are twenty and they are beautifully written. Many of the names above are included plus Slusher, Campbell, Smith, Shepherd, Lane, Brown, Long, Miller and Bennett family names.

Kimball,John Russell (??) and "Doc" Long,EH's daughter Genevieve before some big event -- perhaps graduation banquet
(It is thought that the young man might be Genevieve's brother, not KmbJR)

** 1928mr22:El Reno American 34#17:12 (32 column-inches) article with the following headline=

Terracing Is One of Biggest Needs on Our Farms
Fred Kimball, County’s Leading Exponent of Soil-Saving Art, Gives Valuable Suggestions on Process

"A dependable farm level is the first piece of necessary equipment. Don’t guess. It just can’t be done." | His advice to beginners: "be sure you have the ‘terracing bug’ so you will be willing to do some very hard work, build good terraces and have a lot of patience when you have some troubles crossing with your drills and binders". He promised that each year they will be easier to cross as they get wider and not too sharp.

You should have a good slicker, rubber boots and a light shovel as you will want to be right out there in the biggest rain to ‘watch ‘em work’.

He cautioned that a terraced field is not as easy to farm as a smooth, level one, but he insisted, "it is much better than farming thin land over gullies" and clinched his argument with emphasis on "the satisfaction of doing a good thing well". [xrx in 8x11]

** 1929fe16:WDC| Congress approved the Buchanan Amendment, initiating a nationwide effort to protect public and private lands from erosion damage. The Amendment appropriated $160,000 for establishment of 10 erosion control experiment stations =
*--That year, near OK Guthrie, the Red Plains Station was the first established
*1936:WDC: Outline of investigations in soil erosion control and brief summary of principle result for the 5-year period: 1930-1935, Red Plains Soil Erosion Experiment Station, Guthrie, Oklahoma, serving the Red Plains region of Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas.
*1945:1947; Conservation and Land Use Investigations at the Red Plains Conservation Experiment Station, Guthrie, Okla. - and the Wheatland Conservation Experiment Station, Cherokee, Okla  
\\
*2004:OKC: Out of the Dust: The History of Conservation in Oklahoma in the 20th Century

** 1929c: Article by Fred Hugh Kimball [dated by reference to the Red Plains experiment station in Guthrie and the reference to terraces for 10 years, which keys to another phrase in Fred Kimball's article above] [KSB:139]

Fred Kimball, Champ Terracer, Gives Arguments For Conserving the Soil
By Fred Kimball, Piedmont

The geological survey shows that only ten per cent of Canadian county farm land has not been damaged by erosion.

Fifty per cent is being damaged by sheet erosion, not gullied, but the top soil with its supply of plant food and organic matter is being dissolved and carried away by flood water. Thirty-five percent is slightly gullied and five per cent is badly gullied.

Much of this five per cent is of no value as crop land, as it could be reclaimed only at a great expense.

We have, then, 85 per cent of the farm land in the county that needs protection from washing. After ten years’ experience with terraced land I am fully convinced that it works, that it pays, and that the advantages so far outweigh the disadvantages that it is mighty hard to find a good reasonable excuse to own sloping land not protected in this way.

We have the use of this land now but when we are gone it will have to produce a living for another generation. [!!] It seems to me we would be violating a trust if we do not keep it in the best possible condition.

We have farmed in this county for more than 40 years and have come to the point where we must begin to pay back to the soil some of the things we have taken from it. [NB! 1889 plus 40 = 1929. Later article refers to loss of organic matter greater in past 5y than in previous 35y]

[...]

When we built our first terraces it was on land that was so badly washed that it was not profitable to farm but after ten years of farming it with terraces it is making very satisfactory yields while land in the vicinity that was good 10 years ago is very badly washed now.

[...]

We in this section are fortunate in having the federal erosion experimental farm near us where we can get all the facts in a very interesting way. They measure accurately run-off water and soil carried from all soil and crop conditions.

All land owners should see this demonstration. The farm is located four miles south of Guthrie on highway 77. People should go in groups where possible and make arrangements through the county agent for a guide to conduct them over the farm as you can’t get the full information without it.

It is a grand and glorious feelin’ to know when the rains come – day or night – on our fields the water is going just where we have planned for it to go, and moving so slowly that very little soil is carried off the field and when it is all over there will be no ditches or gullies. Terraces will hold the soil but unfortunately they can’t bring back what has gone. It will have to come now or later, so let’s get goin’! [...]

More on Fred Kimball's terracing and land conservation

** 1929my04:El Reno American| A photo of Meigs,LG sod house with accompanying story which includes KIMBALL,EMMA JEANETTE [reproduced in CH1]

** 1931no06:OK P | Les Kimball became a member of the Boy Scouts of America, Troop 1 [verso on certificate it says Troop 85] Beaver Patrol, GRAY,N=Scout Master [8x11; CH2:153 says the first B.S. Troop in the 1940s]

** 1932????:OK newspaper feature on a conversation between original Territorial Legislator "Doc" Long and current 2-term Canadian Co. representative and nephew Palmer,Herbert M (whom "Doc" delivered 27y earlier!) Photo of L w/cane [cropped for 36oc12 article]
*1933:OK P to OK El Reno | "Doc" Long,EH moved in with daughter-in-law Long,Cora Mrs & her daughter,Genevieve [KSB:51]

** 1932????:OK P | "Fire Sweeps Piedmont Business Area Friday Morning", a newspaper article with a photo of "EARLY DAY STREET SCENE IN PIEDMONT" [KSB:140v] Gardner describes fire that burned portion of north side of Main St

** 1932:1938; OK Canadian Co. Sheriff was HARRISON,JOHN DALLAS [CH1:204; CH2:61] John's mother HARRISON,JIMMIE HODGES was active in the WCTU
*1916mr31:OK | Wedding of John and RUSSELL,CORA LILLIAN

** 1933au15:WDC| Sec. of Agriculture Henry Wallace forwarded a six-page U.S. Forest Service report to FDR entitled Forest Planting Possibilities in the Prairie Region. The report recommended that forest strips, 100 feet wide and not more than one mile apart, be planted in a 100-mile wide belt from the Canadian border to the Gulf of Mexico
*--Measures like windbreaks, terracing and other land conservation measures were recommended, but warnings went largely unheeded despite the great environmental disaster then looming

** 1933oc03: Wedding of KIMBALL,JOHN RUSSELL to RUSSEY,JOHNNIE

** 1934my09: Wedding of PEDDICORD,CLYDE & KIMBALL,RUTH GERALDINE

** 1935ap14:Northern Texas Panhandle, Oklahoma Panhandle, SW Kansas the scene of “Black Sunday” dust storm driven by 60 mph winds
Many serious dust storms preceded that day on the Great Plains =
*1932:14
*1933:38
*1934:ca.100 million acres of farmland by now had lost topsoil
*1935sp:Weeks of dust storms preceded “Black Sunday”

** 1935ap15: The term “Dust Bowl” first appeared the day after Black Sunday in an article by Robert Geiger, an Associated Press reporter traveling through the region. The U.S. Soil Conservation Service [SCS] later used the term on maps to describe the western one-third of Kansas, southeastern Colorado, the Oklahoma Panhandle, the northern two-thirds of the Texas Panhandle and northeastern New Mexico. Others included an even larger area when describing the Dust Bowl — an area that covered one-third of the Great Plains, close to 100 million acres

*--The general collapse of the capitalist market system in 1929 and this great environmental disaster on the plains, called for large-scale action

** 1935ap19:1935my22; OK Fort Supply, Western State Hospital | William Heilig Kimball contracted erysipelas and died 33 days later [WSH4]. He was nearly 85 years of age and had been in psychiatric confinement for nearly 20 years (one fourth of his life). Erysipelas is "St.Anthony's fire", an acute febrile disease accompanied with a diffused inflammation of the skin and mucous membranes. It is contagious, and often occurs epidemically. After everything, William Heilig Kimball was brought down by an outbreak of Streptococcus erysipelatis in the hospital. The disease is known as St. Anthony's fire because it has been popularly supposed that prayers to St. Anthony might bring cure.
*1988je18:OR Eugene | BESTGEN,LOIS ARLENE (née KIMBALL) offered a prayer to St. Anthony for the return of the wedding ring of KIMBALL,MARY CAROLINE which KIMBALL-BROWN,CORINNA just dropped somewhere unknown along a 30 yard stretch of high grass as she and 5-year-old KIMBALL,RICHARD LYNN practiced the ring-bearer role. Richard Lynn was expected to perform that role in 20 minutes. Aunt Sally (Richard Lynn's mom) found the ring in ten.

** 1935ap27:WDC| FDR signed a bill sponsored by NM Rep. John J. Dempsey to establish the Soil Conservation Service(SCS) as a permanent agency in USDA| The bill was passed by both houses of Congress without a dissenting vote

** 1935jy29:Yukon, 1 mile SW| Civilian Conservation Corps [CCC] Camp Progress established as Project #SCS-20, Company #3815-V (V=veterans of WW1) [W#1] [W#2]
*1933ap17:VA Camp Roosevelt was the first CCC camp. Labor leader and scholar Robert Fechner was the director of CCC camps [W]
*1933my16:OK Sulpher = First OK Project
*1935fa: Fred Kimball joined forces with the CCC program =

** 1935fa: El Reno American | [KSB:140] Letter writing contest on ‘My most Profitable Farm Practice in 1935" sponsored by El Reno American
*--Headline = How the Soil Conservation Service of the Yukon CCC [Civilian Conservation Corps, a Roosevelt New Deal project] taught him there really is a Santa Claus

Kimball Wins $5 Prize for Writing Letter on Profitable Farm Practice

The most profitable operation on our farm in 1935, or in fact any year, was our co-operation with the Soil Conservation Service.

When we terraced our land I didn’t realize how troublesome an unprotected outlet could be, so I dumped the water into roads, over banks and in fact wherever the line happened to end.

Ruining County Road

After ten years’ experience, I found myself facing a job so much too big for me, it really had me beaten. I was wrecking a lot of county road, and the terrace channels were working back into the fields at an alarming rate.

I had made some attempts to construct rock baffles, but my engineering ability seemed pitifully weak. The job just required more skill, labor and material than I was able to put out. At this point a strange thing occurred. Some fine looking men with green hats and brass letters on their shirt collars, came out and offered to take this big job off my hands, without any charges, just some reasonable co-operation on our part, and they seemed very anxious to do it.

Of course, I agreed readily, even eagerly, but I still thought the deal was too good to be true. We signed the five year co-operative agreement with Mr. Parker, the contact man from the Yukon camp, and Mr. Chase, the chief engineer, planned our system. Glen Douglas was the camp superintendent, and all these men are capable, energetic and fine fellows to work with.

Make Permanent Structures

With Civilian Conservation Corps labor, they quarried the rock, hauled sand, crushed rock, reinforcing steel and cement, made the excavations and completed a beautiful system of structures that should stand and do their work for centuries, a monument to soil conservation. [!!]

The service doesn’t stop with the cultivated land, but builds structures in pastures where large gullies are getting troublesome. They also survey lines for contour ridges in pastures, set trees for windbreak, posts and wood lots, rip-rap pond dams, build spillways for ponds and all this without any expense to us except for labor

S.C.S. Furnished Seed

We have used nine horses, three four-foot fresnos, tractor, plows and dirt wagons, but the service has put at least $40 worth of work to every dollar we’ve put out. The Soil Conservation Service furnished us seed of Austrian winter peas and hairy vetch for five acres, also nitrogen with which to inoculate this seed. These are winter legumes that will surely have an important place in our crop rotation for soil building.

We have enjoyed working with the S.C.S. men and the veterans in the CCC camp have done us some fine work. This all seems like a very pleasant dream, but it is here to show for itself.

Come up and see it some time. FRED H. KIMBALL

** 1935fa: Newspaper article [KSB:137v-138]. Headline:

Yukon CCC Boys Built This

Scenes at the Fred Kimball Terrace Project
[two photos:]

• a portion of the extensive baffle project constructed on Fred Kimball farm, three miles west of Piedmont to carry off the waters which would otherwise continue to ruin the roadway as shown in the second photo=
• the lower picture, showing what happens when terrace waters are dumped into the ditches along highways

The article text begins, Fred Kimball owns the farm and "he admits now that he knows there is a Santa Claus". Article continues=

He had exhausted his farm engineering talents in attempting to control the waters. Then one day a group of the officials from the Yukon CCC camp came along and after viewing the situation, offered to install the necessary control structures to eliminate the damage permanently.

The result was the construction of a series of nine masonry baffles as shown in the picture. This is the last and largest of the series and cost approximately $1,000. The total project is estimated at $3,600, Fred having furnished a tractor, truck, and considerable time. The dams run in a series paralleling the roadway and the water is dumped into a small creek.

Furnishes Free Seed

Native stone was used in the construction, being hauled from a quarry on Fred’s home place, a mile east.

[...] The CCC crews have also assisted in plowing contour ridges and have built several ponds on the Kimball farms. This particular project has been much more elaborate and expensive than is required on land which is less rolling.

The stone quarry on the Kimball place is being used for structure work throughout the Piedmont section.

The article lists B.E. Wright in charge of the quarry crews and Forrester, Supt. of the CCC camp

RATCLIFF,THELMA remembered that Fred Hugh gave terracing demonstrations on his farm [CH2:334]

** 1935fa:1937fa; Sometime in this 2-year period, as Marjorie Kimball remembers it, Les Kimball and Long,Orin worked as CCC hands to help survey farmlands

Leslie G Kimball in his uniform with CCC badge on left side of shirt, above pocket
Hat is also indicative of CCC uniform (see pix below)
Fred Kimball and Kimball,JohnRussell are at center and right

Wisconsin CCC watershed construction crew

 

<>1936:OK Bethany | Baker Utilities provided 1^st commercial electrical service to Piedmont

<>1936mr:TX Dalhart | Arthur Rothstein photographed approaching dust storm in the Texas panhandle

1936mr:TX Dalhart
[SOURCE]

<>1936ap:OK Cimarron Co. | Arthur Rothstein photographed "dust storm damage" of the sort OK Piedmont was spared

1936ap:OK Cimarron Co.
[SOURCE]

At that time, in that same Cimarron Co., Rothstein took his most famous dustbowl photo:

1936ap:OK Cimarron Co.
[SOURCE plus MORE Rothstein]

 

*1924:1937; A decade and a half of intense soil conservation activity, perhaps spared the farmers of central Oklahoma the severe ravage captured in Rothstein's famous photos
*--The difference in the western and central Oklahoma experience was reflected in a wry but bitter joke that William Otis Fry liked to crack about how when the "Okies" by the thousands fled Dust Bowl OK to CA they immediately caused the doubling of average IQs in both states

 

 

** 1935fa(?) thru 1936su(?):OK El Reno newspaper ran feature article on "Doc" Long,EH w/photo [KSB:50v-51]:

Dr. E.H. Long, 95, Oldest Resident of Canadian County
Pioneer Physician Served With First Territorial Legislature
Attributes Long Life To Rigid Adherence To Nature’s Laws

Favorite hobbies of Dr. E.H.Long, believed to be Canadian county's oldest man at the age of 95 years, are talking and reading, which can be seen readily in a few minutes' conversation with this well-versed, historical personage even before he admits it.

Dr. Long, who practiced medicine for a period of 73 years [sic] in four states and in two territories and who served as a member of the first legislative body in the territory of Oklahoma, now makes his home in El Reno at 311 North Evans Ave, with a daughter-in-law, Mrs. Cora Long, and her daughter, Miss Genevieve.

Firm in Opinions

Despite his many years, Dr. Long is still active, keeps up with present day events, both national and international, and has very firm and unbiased opinions on any number of subjects. He claims without boasting that he can talk with any person on any subject for at least two hours.

Attributing his long life to the adherence to the laws of nature, Dr. Long disagrees heartily with some of the modern theories of medicine. He thinks the Townsend bill would be the solution to the nation’s financial problems, if and when the supreme court declares relief programs of the new deal unconstitutional.

[Website note= Townsend Plan introduced in CA in 1934 by Dr. F.E.Townsend. It proposed a pension of $200/mo. to all US citizens 60 or older (and not habitual criminals), excluding those currently working but including those who had "personal income". The money had to be spent in USA within the month. Cost would have been $20-24 billion/year, raised by national tax on business transactions, i.e., a national sales tax]

Baseball "Not Bad"

Speaking of the present day educational institutions, he expressed the belief that too much time is being devoted to non-essentials, that football is brutal, basketball too strenuous on the participants with the exception of a few. "Baseball" he added, "is not so bad." [...]

"Reads" Medicine

Then he went to Clay county, Illinois, where he started reading medicine under a demonstrator by the name of Dr. W.W. Duncan, he recalls. To fill the requirements of the law at that time he studied under Dr. Duncan for four years and at the age of 22 was given his permit to become a practitioner. He was awarded the permit from an institution in Louisville, Ky., through Dr. Duncan. [...]

Settles Near Piedmont

It was during his residence in No Man’s Land that Dr. Long was elected on the Democratic ticket to the first legislative body of Oklahoma in 1891.... [After moving to OK El Reno] "he was engaged in the real estate business, but he explained with a chuckle and without apparent misgiving he ‘went in too deeply’."

Votes Democratic 70 Years

Dr. Long is a Jeffersonian Democrat. He has voted a straight party ticket for 70 years [i.e., since 1864 election, the first national election for which he would have been qualified by age to vote] and has cast his ballot for every president during that time, he says.

[Article wraps up with summary of his family: 3 living children all daughters= MOORE,LILLIE OLIVE (Beaver City KS [KSB:51v])
HULIT,LAURA K. (CANADA Alberta Warner)
HULIT,BESSIE Mrs (TX Pampa) (Last 2 "married brothers, it was explained")
30 living grandchildren, 36 great-grandchildren, and 3 great-great-grandchildren]

1930c:OK.P| Long,EH("Doc")

** 1936oc11:OK P, Wiedeman building,surprise bth.day party for L, 96 Guests [if "w/fmy" means at least two guests, a minimum of 97 in list blw] Were they trying for one guest for every one of L’s years? [KSB:52] =

Palmer,John&Mrs w/dgt~Agnes,Anna Belle&Norma Jean (Okarche)
Mendenhall,Cash A &Mrs w/ssn Earl (Verden)
Mendenhall,J.A. (Verden)
Worten,Dick Mrs w/dgt (Verden)
Allen,Kitty Rae & Frankie (Verden)
Edwards,Ruth Mrs w/ssn Harold (Anadarko)
Harrison,John &Mrs w/dgt Florence ssn Dallas (El Reno)
Chilcott,J.H. &Mrs (El Reno)
Palmer,Harry E. Mrs w/dgt Phyllis (El Reno)
Palmer,Olin &Mrs w/ssn Gilbert (El Reno)
McCumber,E.L. (El Reno)
Whelan,Alberta Mrs (Yukon)
Peddicord,Clyde &Mrs w/ssn PddHK (Yukon)
Holliday,Ivan (Yukon)
Edmiston,Susie Mrs (Yukon)
Whelan,James &Mrs (Yukon)
Turner,John &Mrs w/ssn Martin (Yukon)
Russell,W.E. &Mrs w/ssn Edwin (Yukon)
Underwood,Maude Mrs (Yukon)
Miller,Mattie Mrs
Harrison,Jimmie Mrs
Garten,L.E. Mrs (family in CH1:173; more below)
Garten,Blanche Ms
Kimball,Fred &Mrs w/ssn Les Kimball & dgt Lois[Bestgen,Lois]
Whelan,Mary A. Mrs
Specht,L.F. &Mrs w/fmy
Steele,Earl &Mrs
Ratcliff,Miles &Mrs w/dgt Marjorie & g.ssn Roy
Garten,Roy & Mrs w/dgt Maxine
Roberts,T.F. (Rev.) &Mrs w/dgt Roberts,Ruth [Collett,Ruth]
Tackwell,Gerald &Mrs w/fmy
Meigs,L.G. &Mrs w/g.dgt~ Vivian & Helen
Whelan,John &Mrs w/fmy
Palmer,Anna Mrs
Thomason,J.H.
Thomason,B.F.
Palmer,G.O. &Mrs w/fmy
Basey,L
Fry,Ella Mrs w/dgt~ Vesta Mae & Shirley Ann
Goldsmith,Goldie
Palmer,F.S.
Palmer,Vera
Childers,Troy Mrs
Sparkman,Marie Ms
Jennings,C.R(?). Mrs
Cook,Belle Mrs

*1936oc12:OK P, home of g.dgt Laura Kimball = all-day 96^th birth day party for L. "More than a score of friends and relatives" brought basket dinners. "He doesn’t see as well as he used to, he explained, but he’s still active". Article includes photo of white mustached L w/thick glasses and cane (cropped frm 1932 photo abv) [KSB:51v] Only other survivor of original legislature= Peery,Dan at the Oklahoma State Historical Society
L counted his "children" =

6 ggg.chd~
40 gg.chd~
20 living g.chd~
3 living dgt~:
Hulit,Bessie Mrs & Hulit,Laura K. (CANADA Alberta Warner)
Moore,Lillie Olive (KS Beaver City)

*1936no03:OK P| "Doc" Long voted for 18^th time in USA presidential elections, for Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt, of course [KSB:51]

** 1937se28:OK El Reno| Wedding of KIMBALL,LESLIE GLEN & FRY,EULA MARJORIE (Marge or "Skeet")

** 1937oc12:OK P home of granddaughter Laura Kimball | Birthday party for "Doc" Long.EH (recovering from fall 6 weeks ago) [KSB:54]
*--Guests [N=26 or 27] =

HARRISON,JOHN & Mrs and family (El Reno)
LONG,CORA (El Reno)
Russell,William & Mrs (Yukon)
RUSSELL,EDWIN (Yukon)
PEDDICORD,CLYDE & Mrs and son [i.e., PEDDICORD,HUGH] (Yukon)
Kimball,Russell &Mrs and family [i.e., HUNSAKER,BEVERLY and GRUNDMAN,BARBARA] (Chickasha)
MENDENHALL,CASH & Mrs (Verden)
Whelan,John & Mrs
Whelan,Roberta
Hulit,Laura Mrs [Hewlit here] (CANADA) caring for "Doc"; Mrs.Cash Mendenhall "will assist her for the next week or so"
KIMBALL,LESLIE & Mrs [Marge Kimball]
Fred Kimball & Mrs with daughter KIMBALL,LOIS

1937oc12:Photos of members of the Fred & Laura Kimball families, most likely at "Doc's" party
Adults left to right = Peddicord,Ruth | Peddicord,Clyde | Marge Kimball | Les Kimball | Kimball,Russ | Kimball,Johnnie | Laura Kimball | Kimball,Lois
Children left to right = Hunsaker,Beverly (shy) | Grundman,Barbara (pulling away) | Peddicord,Hugh (in Aunt Lois' arms)

Kimball,Marge wore a shark-skin wool suit designed and tailored by her mother, Fry,JuanitaWewoka
The wool was recycled from Banker Ed Washecheck's fine suits which wore out in the seat, leaving much valuable material for Juanita's craft

Another photo = Three Kimball children with their spouses (the middle couple married only two weeks earlier)
Left to right = Peddicord,Ruth | Peddicord,Clyde | Marge Kimball | Les Kimball | Kimball,Russ | Kimball,Johnnie

 

** 1937fa:OK Verden home of granddaughter Mrs Cash E. Mendenhall | "Doc" Long,EH died at age 97, the oldest resident of Canadian Co. after long illness, buried in Mathewson Cemetery
*1884je19:OK | Birth of MENDENHALL,CASH 1964ja: Death [Mendenhall genealogy website]
*1886jy25:OK | Birth of MENDENHALL,KATIE 1975jy:OK Death [Mendenhall genealogy website] Reason to doubt OK births in these years
--In his last years, Doc made his home with daughter-in-law LONG,CORA Mrs in OK El Reno at 811 North Evans Ave | Obituary [KSB:53v]:  "He kept abreast of present day events, both national and international, and claimed without boasting that he could talk with any person on any subject for at least two hours. [|] Attributing his long life to adherence to laws of nature, Dr. Long disagreed heartily with some of the modern theories of medicine." [Other sources quote his "rigid adherence to nature’s laws" (e.g.,KSB:51v)]
*--Three daughters survive =

Hulit,Laura Mrs (CANADA Alberta Warner)
Moore,L.O. Mrs (CO Las Animas)
Hulit,Bessie Mrs (MT Kalispee [sic])
[Russell,Maggie [ID] (mtr of KmbLE) = a daughter not then living]
[Long,G?? (husband of Long,Cora) = son not then living(?)]
--Plus 20 grandchildren [e.g., RssJS&M’s chd~ RssWE KmbLE]
--Plus 39 gg.chd [e.g., RssE RssD(?) KmbJR PddRG KmbLG KmbLA]
--Plus   7 ggg.chd [e.g., Hunsaker,BA Grundman,BR (both née Kimball) and Peddicord,HughK]

*--"Doc" Long,EH led a long and full life

** 1938:1939; Yukon Road hard-surfaced to Piedmont

** 1938oc:OK P | Newspaper article announced installation of an assembly of Order of Rainbow for Girls to meet in the Masonic Hall [second floor of the Piedmont Bank, current site of the P Historical Museum] [CH2:152] N=21

KELLY,LORENE Mother Advisor
HARRISON,EDNA Worthy Advisor
GARTEN,MAXINE Worthy Associate Advisor
EADES,JOAN Charity
WHALEN,ROBERTA Hope
YOWELL,ELEANOR Faith
DICKERSON,CAROLYN Recorder [family in CH1:1 & 123]
MADDOX,JUANITA Treasurer
TACKWELL,VIRGINIA Drill Leader
WELCH,KATY PEARL Chaplain
THOMPSON,ESTELLA Red
BURKHEAD,BETTY JEAN Orange
WASHECHECK,EVELYN Yellow
BALLARD,LAVERNE Green
MCKINNIS,HAZEL Blue
SNYDER,ALMA HELEN Indigo
LONG,MAE Violet
EICHOFF,HELEN Inner Observer
HAMPTON,IVA Outer Observer
USSARY,MARCENE Organist
KIMBALL,LOIS Choir Leader

** 1939je29:MT Bozeman Deaconess Hospital | BLACKWOOD,EDWARD.L (brother of KIMBALL,EMMA) died | RATCLIFF,THELMA (of OK.P), RATCLIFF,MORRIS (of OK.Chickasha), and KIMBALL,WALTER.ROY (of WA.Pateros) traveled to funeral [Bozeman news clips in 8x11:Gloria]

** 1939au04:CANADA Quebec | Boyd H. Simpson, 34-year-old Piedmont school superintendent, was killed and his brother, Royce Simpson, Piedmont grain dealer, was critically injured [and later died], in an automobile crash. Mrs. Royce Simpson, her 8-year-old son [SIMPSON,GOODER] and her mother, Mrs. B. Gossett, 56 years old, escaped with minor injuries. They were vacationing in Canada after a trip to the New York World’s Fair [KSB:48v]

** 1941oc14:KS Wichita, Hilltop Manor housing project designed and then built for war-time industrial boom. USA did not officially enter the war until after the 1941de07:Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. These prescient and efficient Wichita units were called "demountable houses". Surely the coming war would not last very long
*--KIMBALL,JOHN RUSSELL and Les Kimball families at various times lived in this project
*--These two sons of Fred Hugh Kimball left the Piedmont area and took jobs with Wichita military-industrial contractors and sub-contractors
*1946fe:1954se; KS Wichita | After the war, the Les Kimball family returned a second time to live in Hilltop Manor for nearly nine years.

[SOURCE]

Over these years in Hilltop, weekend after weekend, Kimballs drove south "back home" to the Kimball farm, retracing on US Hwy 81 very nearly the exact route taken by William Heilig more than a half century earlier [ID]. They still had "shares" in the annual wheat harvest which they earned by staying and working on the farm until the combining was done, the granary scooped full, and all remaining wheat sold at the grain elevator.

One vehicle that made this trip more often than any was a '36 Chevy coup, carrying Les Kimball and Marge Kimball with their three boys. The boys entertained themselves in the first miles by reciting the names of every hamlet that lay ahead (beginning as a rule with the last KS town, one of the big take-off points for the '89 run) =
*--Caldwell, Renfrow, Medford, Pond Creek, Enid, Waukomis, Bison, Hennessey, Dover, Kingfisher, Okarche, home
*--For some reason the correct recitation of this itinerary in trio gave Leslie Glen great pleasure as he drove non-stop

All the young cousins gathered at harvest. They ate watermelon from Rush Springs. They stood at the edge of the crowd around the piano in the evening to join in the old songs. They slept on pallets spread out on the parlor and living room floor. One Saturday evening early, awaiting their turn in the bath, before the crowd assembled, Robert Alan and Philip Glen were by themselves at the piano singing "My Bonnie lies over the ocean". Steven Lynn came to fetch them by singing "My Bonnie lies over the bathtub". EMMA JEANETTE was seated in her comfy rocking chair in the living room and protested, "No, boys, it's 'ocean'! It's 'ocean'!". She was 99 years olds. We were sure no one that old could possibly have an ounce of humor left.

** 1942:OK El Reno | Canadian County Farm Bureau founded [CH2:195]. Of the 26 charter members, three were from Piedmont=

• EVERY,PHIL (Mason & member of the Baptist Church; wife=Emma [CH1:156])
• EADES,STEWART
• Fred Kimball

** 1943:OK P school remodeled to include indoor restrooms and locker rooms w/showers

** 1943de20:OK.Piedmont| COUCH,FANNIE wrote a letter to her friend PEARSON,JESS (?recently gone to California to work on a mountain-side orchard north of Los Angeles?). Fannie's granddaughter Marge Kimball loaned the original of this letter to 8x11

• Fannie dated the letter "11-20-19-43", but that seems an error, based on Kimball,Steven's birth date and the clear sense of imminent Christmas in the text
• Fannie was 61 years old at this time [some genealogy]. She had been married twice before
• The first marriage was to the run-away Cherokee house painter (and ex-scout for the US Army), Langford,William
• Langford was father of Juanita Wewoka, mentioned as "daughter" in the letter below
• Langford was, via Juanita, great-grandfather of Kimball,Steven (1943de05:Birth) whose birth is mentioned below
• Fannie's second, 31-year-long marriage was to Couch,Isaac "Ikey" who died 16 months before the following letter was written
• Fannie was fond of saying that there were simply too many men on this earth for her ever to have to live alone
• So, she writes =

  Dear Jess
  
  As I haven't heard from you, I just have to write and send you a greeting. I and [?am] sending you a gift in a few days. I and [?am] having a Picture made to send you. I had them taken the first of last month and have [not] been able to get them as yet. I think I can get them tomorrow. Are you still working nite and day. I have been real busy myself this week. I been doing all the house work and keeping the girls [?Fannie's granddaughters Fry,Joy and Fry,Willa?] in school, and my son-in-law is helping in our other son-in-law's store [?"other son-in-law"?]. Every one is down with the flue. My daughter [Fry,Juanita] is up to Wichita Kans. She has a new grandson [Kimball,Steven].
  
  I asked Otis [William Otis Fry -- Juanita's husband and Fannie's son-in-law] if he thought if I was good enough cook and house keeper to make some good man a ! good wife ! and he said -- and he looked at me and said -- who ever the man is that ! can get you ! he would be the luckiest son of gun in the world. I just walked on air all the rest of the day, for he is a man of few words. And I thought, if a son-in-law would say that to his mother-in-law, it really meant something.
  
  Well if you don't come or write, I will still be looking for you. You have a great lot at this end of the line to come to see -- Mother, Father and Your Sweetheart. It will be worth the time and money. You never will regret it. I know one that would be very very happy.
  
  Yours. Love. Fanny [sic!]
  

  Over Page [i.e., see verso]

  It's Sunday Evening [i.e., 1943de26, the day after Christmas]
  
  and I have just come in from walking slowly through the woods [!?].
  
  It was beautiful. The leaves were falling fast, and the air was cool and crisp.
  
  I walked into the house and into the Pantry. I saw Rows of Jells and jams on the shelves.
  
  In the kitchen on the table was a large bowl of beautiful red apples. And near by stood a jar of delicious cookies. In the windows were Potted red geraniums. Tied back from the window were crisp yellow curtains.
  
  And I thought of You Dear so far away.
  
  In the living room, I lighted a candle on the Christmas tree. From a small table I chose with care, a record softly playing a much love[d] tune. As I lighted each, I noticed how the moon has slowly risen.

  This is a little game your house and I play.
  As I think of you ... so far away.
  Since by old Patterns do your house and I,
  Make ceartian [?certain] what we are, and what we'll be
  When you come, though it be night or day.
  Just as you Picture us from far away.

  Your Dearest Pal
  Fany [sic] Couch
  
  PS. I was writing Powems [Poems] for the girls, so I thought this one up for you.
  Merry merry Xmas
  ! love !

Within a few months of this letter, Fannie Couch joined Jess in California
*--1945au:They returned together to that game-playing Piedmont house
*--They traveling eastward in their 1938 Packard roadster across the Mojave and Sonoran deserts and over the Rocky Mts
*--Their dog Mitsy and another of their great-grandchildren, KmbRA, rode with them

1945su:CA orchard | Marge Kimball has just dropped off her oldest son, KmbRA for the trip
She is also mother of KmbPG & KmbSL (grandson in letter above)  [ID]
She stands beside the Packard roadster of
Jess Pearson and Fannie Etta (aka Ettie) Casto-Langford-Couch-Pearson

** 1945se05: "THE PIEDMONT METHODIST CHURCH, Piedmont, Oklahoma ... Dee W. Walburn, Pastor" =

On Mar. 5, 1945 Mr. Loomis G. (Lum) Meigs resigned from the Board of Stewards of the Piedmont Methodist Church. His resignation was not voluntary, or due to weriness [sic] of serving the church he loved with all his heart, mind, soul and body. He had walked with God so long and so far that ‘he was not for God took him.’ [sic] He had been a member of the Board of Stewards continuously for over forty years. [...] He was not one that lived, that when he stepped out from under the responsibilities which were his, that the structure fell, or was badly damaged. He so inspired others that his spirit in the lives of others is such that the structure still is strong. [!!] [...] Signed, Dee W. Walburn [and] Fred Kimball [KSB:106]

** 1946:OK Piedmont Round-Up Club | CH2:153 sports a photo of the "Ranger Round-Up Club". The text below the photo lists 35 people, but this is not a list of those who competed in the famous and victorious race [G/1948se09]. This list appears to be a fuller list of members, perhaps founding members, of the Piedmont Round-Up Club, which was formed two years before the big race, in this year 1946 (* indicates presence in photo below) =

* STOUT,ALVIN president
JONES,BERYL
* YOWELL,CLAY
* WHELAN,JOHN.V
* RATCLIFF,HOWARD
* RATCLIFF,HAROLD("Tub")
CLINE,GLEN
* STOVER,RAYMOND
* STOVER,OTTO
*DUNBAR,MOYER
* LITTLE,BUD
* LITTLE,TED
DIXON,H.S.
* DIXON,ROY
GLEICHMAN,ALBERT("Bud")
WOLFKILL,LEONARD
WELLS,ELMO
* GARTEN,ROY
* JECH,ERNEST
STOUT,BILL (STOUT,JOHN WILLIAM)
YOWELL,LODELL
MCCUNE,STEVE
CLINE,KENNETH
* GILL,JACKIE GENE
* MOFFAT,ALLEN
* RATCLIFF,DOUGLAS
* RATCLIFF,GLEN
YOWELL,VERLYN
BRISTOW,BO
EVERY,REX
* BALLARD,HOWARD
*TRINDLE,ELDEN
MOLER,BILL
MOLER,BILLY
MOLER,GORDEN

** 1946ap22: Wedding of BESTGEN,LEO & KIMBALL,LOIS ARLENE. Leo was Catholic, and that caused some discomfort in the family
*--While still in the Army Air Corps stationed at March Field CA, Les Kimball tried to ease anxieties back home
*--He wrote his and Lois' parents, Fred Hugh Kimball & Laura Kimball, that this Bestgen guy was a good old Missouri farmer [8x11]

** 1947au:Craterville Park, near OK.Lawton = the site of two summer retreats organized by the extended farm families of Piedmont [W]

** 1948????: ""Fred Kimball Begins Third Year in Conservation Work" | He was elected a member of the board of supervisors of East Canadian County Soil Conservation District. "Kimball has a landing strip on his farm and invites his friends to bring their planes and he guides them on an aerial tour to observe erosion and conservation measures on his and his neighbors land."
*1944:OK Canadian Co. | BOMHOFF,H was a leading figure in the creation of a flying farmers organization. He had a reputation as a successful aerial hunter of coyotes. The government insisted that the flying farmers stay tight during the war. By 1948, they were into the wild blue yonder again [CH1:45]
*--The article on conservation work continues: "Kimball is interested in establishing wildlife areas on his farm with the prospective in view to increase quail and other wildlife population. Twelve ponds have been build on the Kimball farm and have been stocked with fish." [NB! 12 ponds helps date] [Same txt in another rtl titled "MEET YOUR NEIGHBORS"] [KSB:136a]

** 194?????: Clipping of a newspaper article [KSB:139v] =

Poultry Pays Profits

Poultry on the Kimball farm near Piedmont brings in an important part of the income. In glancing over the monthly reports of farm flock record keepers who send their reports to the home demonstration agent each month, the record of Mrs. Fred Kimball [Laura] was found to be outstanding. During the month of April, Mrs. Kimball had a gross income of $116.83 from her flock of 330 birds. The net income, after feed costs were deducted, was $82.63. the average price of eggs that Mrs. Kimball received for the month was 20 cents per dozen. Of course eggs used in the home were considered in the gross income.

[...] Mr. Kimball is very active in community affairs as he is a member of the Piedmont school board, is vice-chairman of the county advisory council, a member of the land-use planning committee on soil conservation, for many years. All of the land he farms is properly terraced and he is cooperating with his soil conservation district. He has had a lot of experience in laying out terrace lines and farm ponds and often does this type of work for his neighbors. [!!]

1960ca:OK P | Laura Kimball and Fred Hugh Kimball candling eggs
[Photo supplied by Trey Hutton]

** 1948ap14: oil drilling in neighborhood of Kimball farm [KSB:137]

** 1948au??: Newspaper = ??-Stockman [KSB:138v] Clipping from article with photo of Fred Kimball at well in front of his farm house (old oaken bucket)
*--Kimball’s "test irrigation system" is small and was installed only last year [1947]

But it produced green pasture for 400 hens and they in turn produced more eggs than Kimball’s hens had ever laid before.

Sold on System

"For my part, I’m sold on irrigation systems," Kimball says. "I wouldn’t sell mine for any amount of money if I didn’t know where I could buy another one."

In fact Kimball is so sold on irrigation systems that he as just completed another big pond, his twelfth on his 440-acre farm. He plans to irrigate alfalfa this year and will expand his system considerably

** 1948se09:OK.Hennessey Hennessey Clipper account of the big horse race won by the Piedmont Round-Up Club, text supplied and augmented by Otto Stover, supplementing and refining this earlier Round-Up Club account = The race was run from OK Marshall to OK Hennesey. The horses were hauled into Marshall the night before the race. Horses and riders formed an encampment. Ninety thoroughbred horses were entered, all fitted out with racing saddles. At the end of each one-mile stretch, these spirited mounts were to halt completely, then cross the line. But many of them came to run, not stop. These had to be turned around and brought back to the line so that the relay could continue properly. The Highway Patrol kept the roads cleared. A plane circled and reported to a radio station. Gene Gill says that John V. Whelan was in the plane.

The photo of the victors shows six crouched in front of 19 "riders" (only 18 took 1-mile stretches apiece in the 18-mile race)=
Crouched left to right= Roy Garten, Melvin Dunkelberger, Buddy Little (Club president), Verlyn Yowell, John V. Whelan (Club Veep), Clay Yowell
Ahorse left to right= Howard Ballard, Ernest Jech, Alvin Stout, Marvin (Shorty) Yowell, Douglas Ratcliff, Elden Trindle,
Glen Ratcliff, Gene Gill, Roy Dixon, Raymond Stover, Allen Moffat, Cleo Kephart, Otto B. Stover, Howard
(Tub) Ratcliff, M.H. Dunbar, Virgil Smith, Howard Ratcliff, Ted Little, Joe Hoobse [Hobza?]

** 1950:OK P population=150

** 1952:GILL,JACKIE GENE remembered the wheat harvest [2007je16:GllJG email-KmbRA] =

Glen Ratcliff, some others and I visited the Blackwoods in Montana one year (about 1952) during our "trips north" on the wheat harvest. I do recall the ranch and am not sure which Blackwoods they were but they sure acted gracious and fed us like kings the time we stopped over there to see them

*1949:TX & OK|Russell Lee's photos of the winter-wheat harvest | More Russell Lee photos

1957ca:OK P at the door to the farm's "new garage" | Laura Kimball & Fred Kimball go to church
[Photo supplied by Trey Hutton]

 

<>1960s:Wichita builder of earthmoving equipment, Davis Manufacturing Company, had by this time discovered that Les Kimball was simply the finest machine operator anyone had ever known. He was "the Mozart of the backhoe". He moved out of the plant and onto the road, traveling the world around to show off Davis products =

Les Kimball gestures with baton toward a noteworthy feature of the Hydra-Borer

Les Kimball demonsrates the "Davis Fleetline"

Les Kimball demonstrates the Davis Mini-trencher

 

** 1962wi:OK P | A livestock adventure =

WATCH THE BULL
or
Shooting the Bull
[2009je01:Gloria Ratcliff emailed the following tale which she transcribed from
Glen Ratcliff's and Raymond Stover's oral spinning of the yarn.
Round-Up Club editor has made minor adjustments to harmonize with website style]

The black bull was about 5 years of age and belonged to Ed Taborek who lived in Sec 22 of Reno Township, 4 miles south of Glen Ratcliff's home on the Simpson place and south of Raymond Stover's home.

Raymond and Glen both did all types of hired work. Raymond had a big 2-Ton cattle truck with a lift under the bed. They both had good horses. Glen had a black named Maude which had cost him $140. Raymond had [??]. Both men could rope well.

Ed and a friend drove in at Raymond's on a winter day about 1962. Ed had a bull they had been trying to catch for two days. Ed wanted the bull caught, loaded, and hauled to the Oklahoma City Stockyards to sell. In payment they would get ½ of the money the bull sold for.

The job sounded easy enough, so Raymond asked Glen to help.

The bull went on the rampage (as bulls do). He left home and went 5 miles south to the N. Canadian river bottom in the middle of an alfalfa field by Stanley Burris' property. Raymond remembers a concrete cellar, one of those with the concrete dome.

Raymond roped the bull. Glen threw another loop, and it was perfect but caught one of the bull's front legs. He was fighting. Glen's saddle turned, and he let go of his rope.

The young Taborek man was there in Raymond's truck. Glen cinched up tight, and Raymond said, "Glen, catch my rope when I throw." He caught it, and Raymond went to the truck while Glen and his horse held the bull. Raymond told Taborek to raise the truck bed and be prepared to lower it when Raymond told him. Taborek parked near the bull, raised the truck bed to a slant so the end was near the ground, and opened the gate. Raymond took off his chaps and dragged them in front of the bull. The bull charged past the man and the chaps, and entered the truck bed behind Raymond. Ray grabbed the cross bars above and climbed over the cattle racks. He yelled to Taborek who lifted the truck bed to level. Ray shut the gate.

In his hurry he forgot to cotter key the bar that held the gate in place.

The men left their horses and drove to the OKC Stockyards. As they entered the unloading area, about three to four feet from the unloading spot, the gate came open. The bull was out of the truck and loose in town. Raymond called the police.

All Glen and Raymond had was a single shot bolt action 22 rifle. Glen took it and ran after the bull shouting, "Watch the Bull!"

In the 1960s there were several slaughtering plants along the street. At "Armour & Co." a man opened a gate and drove his truck out. Before he could close the gate, the bull entered. He went into an area 8' by 100' between a chain link fence and a brick building. They used the truck to block the end.

Glen was exhausted from running. He tossed the rifle to Raymond as he ran past.

Raymond began shooting the bull with the single shot. It only served to make the bull madder and gave him a nose bleed. He shot him in the ear, thinking it would enter the brain. After 5 shots the gun jammed. Raymond still has the gun in 2009, and it has never jammed since.

A man from "Wilson & Co." said, "If you will kill him, we will buy him."

Raymond had some hay ropes in his truck. They are about 1½" thick. They roped, throwed and tied the bull, so he would stay down.

A large crowd had gathered! There were about 25 to 30 people, and it was too dangerous. They would not move back.

A man from Armour & Co. came with a large hammer and said, "Here, son, kill him with this!" The man from Wilson & Co. said, "If you kill him with that hammer, we won't buy him." Raymond remembers he wanted to slit the bull's throat with a knife, but the Wilson man said, "We won't buy him!"

Glen and Raymond were nervous and shook up. A policeman walked up with a 57-magnum pistol. He said, "Here, son, shoot him with this."

Glen refused. He had heard some tale about Carl Wiedeman putting a ball bearing in a shotgun. He fired it, and the bearing bounced back and hit him in the head. Raymond said, "I will do it." He shot, and the bull never moved again.

A man from the packing plant came with a two wheel cart and took the bull away.

The police car arrived, one hour and twenty-two minutes after being called. All Glen and Raymond had to do was return for their horses. Later Troy Bailey told them he heard the story on the radio.

Raymond and Glen thought the bull weighed 1200 pounds, but they were paid for only 1000 pounds. They received $68 each. They were grateful to be paid.

Boy, what a day! Raymond slept like a baby that night, but Glen told Raymond he did not sleep all night because when he closed his eyes he saw that Bull.

** 1964de:Amsterdam| Alan and Martha Kimball took a midnight bike ride, later the subject of a "post-card" novel contest entry submitted to the 1975au22:Willamette Valley Observer (Eugene OR) =

** 1966fa:OK Canadian Co.| Original KmbWH & EJ OK homestead "West Place" sold [LTB]

** 1966oc26:OK Oklahoma City| Death of Laura Ella Kimball (née Russell)

** 1967je24:OK Canadian Co., Pleasant Hill School District| Family Record submitted by Fred Hugh Kimball [LTB]

** 1970:OK P population=269

** 1972no13:OK Canadian Co, Piedmont| Death of Fred Hugh Kimball, six days after his 82nd birthday

** 1972no17:El Reno American | Editorial =

Canadian County boasts in its rural population some of Oklahoma’s outstanding farmers. Fred Kimball, who died last week was one of these. He resided southwest of Piedmont and his farm was a model in modern agricultural practices. It was boasted one time that no water ever left his farm as he had a system of terraces and ponds which caught and retained most of the rains. Fred was outstanding as a farm leader as well as an all-round community booster. [8x11; NB! "no water" & "most of the rains"]

** 1973ap02:OK P | Trust Indenture formed the Piedmont Municipal Authority. In this decade, population from 269 to 2016; area of city from 1,400 to 23,330 acres [Gardner]

<>1973su:MT Gallatin Valley visit described by KIMBALL,PHILIP [2007je17:KmbPG email-KmbRA] =

i believe the year of the last visit to the gallatin valley blackwoods ranch was 1973, and it included me (philip kimball, alan's brother, middle son of les and skeet [Leslie and Marge Kimball]) and the first wife, curman mcelrath kimball (since remarried and living in Seattle, Washington), we spent one night out on the open range, cooking over an open fire, mama caught trout for breakfast from the stream that ran through the blackwood place, we all admired the charolais bull and attended the ncaa rodeo finals at montana state, all and all a visit to remember. that was the summer of yellowstone park camping where the mosquitoes were the only thing thicker and more churlish than the campers, we were so tightly packed into our space we could barely get the driver's door open on the old vw bus without banging up against the air conditioning unit of the winnebago next to us. daddy, never one comfortable around dense gatherings of overwrought people, was stressed, to say the least, then will [KIMBALL,WILLIAM], exiting from the vw into the attached side tent, kicked over his [Leslie Kimball's] coors sitting in the doorway, will paused, steadying himself in the threshold, watching the can, which turned out to be empty, roll harmlessly across the tent floor to daddy's feet, said, quietly to himself: boy, was i lucky

The Blackwood barn

** 1980:OK P population=2016

** 1981:OK Canadian Co. had 926 wells producing 12,463 barrels of oil per day and 804 wells producing 402,918,000 cubic feet of natural gas per day [Gardner cites Oklahoma Corporation Commission]

** 2000au06:MT Bitterroot National Forest | John McColgan, a fire behavior analyst from Fairbanks, Alaska, took the picture below. Since he was working when he took the picture, he cannot sell or profit from it, but we can at least acknowledge and salute him as the photographer of this once in a lifetime shot. This was the summer of fire out west.

 

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GLOSSARY
Hypertext citations to these sources are in brackets in the text above

8x11 = In the personal possession of (Robert) Alan Kimball <EMAIL> | Includes 8x11:Gloria = Folder of materials from RATCLIFF,GLORIA

ame = 1996oc15:NC Pantego|Letter from ALLEN,MARY ELLEN to PEDDICORD,RUTH GERALDINE (née KIMBALL), containing questions (and Ruth's answers) about family tree of Kimballs & Ratcliffs in OK, and a copy of a (circa) 1898 photo of the KIMBALL,WILLIAM HEILIG nuclear family (WALTER ROY, WILLIAM HEILIG, JESSIE, FRED HUGH, EMMA JEANETTE, & DAISY) which Mary Ellen's grandmother, KIMBALL,ADELAIDE in NC, had received from OK. In order to complete Ms Allen's version of the family tree, Aunt Ruth organized an expedition with RATCLIFF,THELMA, daughter of RATCLIFF,MILES & DAISY (née KIMBALL). Thelma then lived in OK Yukon, Spanish Cove Retirement Center. Ruth also consulted Thelma's sister-in-law, RATCLIFF,IRENE (née CORNETT), wife of RATCLIFF,HAROLD MILES ("Tub", he was called, an active member of the Piedmont Round-Up Club until his old age and death [1981mr19]) This Irene was always called "Tub’s Irene" to distinguish her from the wife of another of Thelma's brothers, RATCLIFF,HOWARD ODELL, who was RATCLIFF,IRENE (née MCCRAY). Ms Allen's grandfather was KIMBALL,SJ, her g.grandfather was KIMBALL,HENRY IVEY. Further connections [8x11]

B84 = Branson, Levi. Branson’s North Caroline Business Directory. Original edition, Raleigh NC:Branson & Jones, 1832. B77 = 1877 edition; B84 = 1884 edition; etc..

DCW = Directory of the City of Wichita ...
*--86:DCW = ...for 1886|Wqt:Compiled and published by F. A. North [North,FA],1886
*--88:DCW = ...for 1888
*--etc
*--TITLE VARIES. EG= Third Annual Directory of the City of Wichita for 1887 [87:DCW; contains 14,500 names]
*--In all years, pbd in early summer ca.jy

CH1 = Family Histories of Canadian County Oklahoma| Compiled by Canadian County History Book Association| ElReno OK:1987| ((LCo#87-70043|>CH1|))

CH2 = = History of Canadian County Oklahoma|Canadian County History Book Association,Inc|El Reno OK:1991| ((LCo#87-070046|>CH2|))

Gardner = Gardner,David (co-president of Piedmont Historical Museum),"A Brief History of Piedmont"

GSC = Gibson, Joyce M. Scotland County Emerging, 1750-1900: The History of a Small Section of North Carolina (Laurel Hill NC: 1995)

KSB = Kimball,Laura. Scrapbook | Materials pasted into a published book, War on the White Slave Trade, an anthology of 478 pages, 6x8.5 inches. Repeated pencil entries at front and back, "94-19-10", probably represent the date, 1994oc10, when the scrapbook was given to the Piedmont Historical Museum. Every bound leaf is numbered (142 in all). One leaf has torn loose (67), but is numbered. Many items inserted in KSB are loose (paste having given way, or item originally inserted loose). These are numbered by the leaf they follow with an alpha indicator (EG= "57a" means inserted loose after bound leaf 57)

LTB = 1891897je07:OK |Land Tract Book & 1967je24:Family Record submitted by KmbFH [8x11]

NC.wdx = KIMBALL PAGE www list of Kimball marriages, taken from North Carolina Archives. CD 4, 1st Edition

PHR = Petrucelli, Katherine S., ed. The Heritage of Rowan County North Carolina. Salisbury NC: Genealogical Society of Rowan Co. [PO Box 4305 Salisbury NC 28145-4305], 1991.

RHR = Rumple, Jethro, Reverend. A History of Rowan County North Carolina…. Salisbury NC: Daughters of the American Rev., 1881.

RiI = Richmond Co. Index to Real estate microfilms

RLR = Russell,ZT [RssZT]. "The Life of Russells". MO Neosho:1924. 2 versions in 8x11 file, thus RLR1 & RLR2

srs = Personal communication from Mrs. Rachel Sykes; srs1 info RE=KmbJoel & wife frm DAR application (8x11)

W48 = 1948:Piedmont High School yearbook Wildcat| Other years, EG=W49

WSB = Wright, Marilyn. Sketch Book of Scotland [earlier Richmond] County. 2 volumes. Lbg:[1983-84] in the Lbg public library

WSH1 = 1989jy28:OK Fort Supply | Letter from Western State Hospital to HUNSAKER,BEVERLY ANNE [copy in 8x11]

WSH2 = 2000je30:OK Fort Supply, WESTERN STATE PSYCHIATRIC CENTER | CONSENT FOR THE RELEASE [to KmbRA] OF CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION [about KmbWH], signed by Director of Medical Records [8x11]

WSH3 = 1915se30:OK Norman, CENTRAL OKLAHOMA STATE HOSPITAL [today=Griffin Memorial Hospital, PO BOX 151 73070 | attn: Medical Records Dept, ROI officer] "STATISTICAL DATA" [8x11]

WSH4 = 1924jy17:1935my22; OK Fort Supply, WESTERN STATE HOSPITAL | "STATISTICAL" [record of KmbWH's nearly 11-year stay] [8x11]

WSH5 = 1925mr26:OK Canadian Co. [El Reno] IN THE DISTRICT COURT | "APPLICATION TO CONVEY HOMESTEAD" [8x11]

 

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HOW CAN THIS ELECTRONIC ROUND-UP CLUB GROW?

This site seeks from Round-Up Club members electronic versions of old photos or other texts and materials that illustrate Mathewson/Piedmont history up to about 1972, but especially the earlier years. More recent images and materials are useful when they can be integrated with the historical record. I invite all who have electronic versions of relevant photos or other materials to send them as attachments to me at the following email address = kimball@uoregon.edu

Please provide in the email text fullest possible ID of when, where and who/what is pictured. As time allows, I will integrate them here with an expanding chronology and narrative. Any and all personal "hard-copy" materials that need to be returned to owners will be, of course.