We settled on a place one mile west and a half mile north of the present
site of Hester. My father bought the place from Mr. Beck for twenty-five
dollars. It was a quarter section of land on Salt Fork River. Mr. Beck had
made a dugout in the side of a bank. It was large and roomy and my mother took
some old sheets and tacked them all around the walls and ceiling.
This made it so nice and clean and when these sheets got soiled we took
them down, washed them and put them back on the walls.
Then mother saved all the gunny sacks she could get and made some rugs
for the dirt floors. She opened these sacks up, sewed them together on the
sewing machine and dyed them a pale blue. She used four thickness of sacks and
dyed the two top layers.
Milkweed, which grows flat on the ground, like Bermuda grass, was boiled
until the water in which it was boiled became reddish color. A handful of
copperas was then put into the water and after it was dissolved, the sacks
were put into the solution. When we took the sacks out they were of a pale
blue color.
We lived on this place for three years then Father filed on a claim a
half mile north of the present site of Hester. He hauled gyp rocks from across
the river, west about three miles away and made the old rock house which is
still standing and is in use today.
I used to sit on a box and beat up gyp rocks with a mallet to make
plaster which Father plastered the house with on the inside. These gyp rocks
made good plaster but it sets so quickly that we could not make up more than a
gallon at a time. We used sand and made the plaster very much the same as if
we had used regular cement.
Father raised wheat, owned his own binder and cut wheat for the
neighbors. He also owned a thrasher.
It took about thirty men to operate this thrasher. I have set upon the
separator many times and driven the horses around all day when hands were
scarce. We could thrash two or three hundred bushels of wheat per day. Someone
had to keep the straw thrown back out of the way. I used to go to everybody’s
house during the thrashing season and help cook for the hands. This was for
accommodation and I did not expect pay for it.
When a new neighbor moved into the community the settlers would each
take him a couple of hens or meat of some kind. Everybody was friendly and we
enjoyed our neighbors when they came to visit us.
My father and an uncle each gave an acre of land to furnish a location
for a school house. This school house was located on the northwest corner of
my father’s claim. This was named the Templeton School. Mr. Putnam was the
first teacher. We had long home-made benches to sit on.
My father worked for a railroad company before he settled in Greer
County. He built the first railroad through Mobeetie, Texas.
We came from Coalville, Texas and Father got a job to build a railroad
out in West Texas and he had to buy a right to cross Greer County. He paid
five dollars for the right for him and his men to cross. The officials at Fort
Sill told him it was not safe because the Indians were considered very fierce.
There was a long caravan of covered wagons following us.
At different places the Indians would slip up at night and bob our
horses’ tails. After they did this they usually stole the horses, but Father
talked to them and said he would blow their heads off with his shotgun if they
bothered his horses again. They never hurt any of us and old Lone Wolf was
rather friendly with us.
When we were traveling through the prairie the range cattle would come
bellowing up to our wagons. Oftentimes we children would be walking along and
when we heard a bunch of cattle coming we would hop into the wagons.
After we settled here my father owned some race horses. We rode them
three times a day to keep them in practice. Sometimes two or three hundred
dollars would be staked on the races.
I attended the first picnic at Mangum but I do not remember the date. My
husband played in the first ball game at Mangum.
Submitted to OKGenWeb by Osie King Gibson MGi7747788@aol.com>
09-2000.