SACKETT - SCHYLER: Volume 80 - 9 microfiche #6016945, pages 395-397
397
BIOGRAPHY FORM
WORKS PROGRESS ADMINISTRATION
Indian-Pioneer History Project for Oklahoma
SCHEIHING, CHARLES WILLIAM - INTERVIEW
Field Worker's Name: Mildred B. McFarland
This report made on February 24, 1938.
1. Name: Mr. Charles William Scheihing (Shine)
2. Post Office: Guthrie, Oklahoma
3. Residence address (or location): R. R. #6
4. Date of Birth: December 10, 1865
5. Place of Birth: Wurttenburg, Germany
6. Name of Father: John Scheihing
Place of Birth: Germany
7. Name of Mother: Dorothy (Monk) Scheihing
Place of Birth: Germany
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I was three years of age when my parents brought me to America from Germany. Father bought a farm near Burlington, Iowa. We lived there until 1891 when I decided to come to Oklahoma. It had been opened two years then. I bought a relinquishment from Mr. Ward Richey five and a half miles south and a half mile west of Guthrie.
There was a little one roomed log cabin and a well on the place. We did not
bring anything with us except some bedding. There was an old rusty stove in one corner
and we patched it up and made it do. I made a table, bed and corner cupboard out of old
boards and logs. Our chairs were old stumps of trees. We bought a team of horses and a
plow. I got about ten acres of land cleared the first year. I planted it in oats and
Kaffir corn. The first three years were failures. We raised enough from our garden to
barely keep us alive. We had nothing for months except sweet potatoes and cornbread.
When these things gave out we ate boiled Kaffir corn. I would cut wood all one day and
haul it to town the next. Sometimes I received $1.50 and other times 75 cents for a
load of wood. I always had to take groceries in pay.
I made the children a cradle of a dry goods box with barrel staves for rockers.
One winter it was so cold that we almost froze to death. Our babies' feet froze and as
they had no shoes we wrapped their feet in gunny sacks. [The children were Heinrich
William (Henry William), born in Burlington, IA, 31 Dec 1890; and Ada Louise, born in
Guthrie, Oklahoma Territory, 13 May 1893.]
The Indians never bothered us - only to sell us wild turkey and deer meat.
There was a little log schoolhouse about one and a half miles from our place.
We attended church every Sunday at the Lutheran Church in Guthrie. We always drove in
a covered wagon.
My wife helped me in the fields every day. We would take our two children with us,
making a bed for them in the wagon. The second year we harvested fifty bushels of peanuts.
My wife baked bread and washed and ironed for two bachelors who lived close to us. The
money they paid her kept us in groceries for a while. We have worked hard for what we
have and have gone through many hardships, but have been very happy.
bsp;I was three years of age when my parents brought me to America from Germany. Father bought a farm near Burlington, Iowa. We lived there until 1891 when I decided to come to Oklahoma. It had been opened two years then. I bought a relinquishment from Mr. Ward Richey five and a half miles south and a half mile west of Guthrie.
There was a little one roomed log cabin and a well on the place. We did not
bring anything with us except some bedding. There was an old rusty stove in one corner
and we patched it up and made it do. I made a table, bed and corner cupboard out of old
boards and logs. Our chairs were old stumps of trees. We bought a team of horses and a
plow. I got about ten acres of land cleared the first year. I planted it in oats and
Kaffir corn. The first three years were failures. We raised enough from our garden to
barely keep us alive. We had nothing for months except sweet potatoes and cornbread.
When these things gave out we ate boiled Kaffir corn. I would cut wood all one day and
haul it to town the next. Sometimes I received $1.50 and other times 75 cents for a
load of wood. I always had to take groceries in pay.
I made the children a cradle of a dry goods box with barrel staves for rockers.
One winter it was so cold that we almost froze to death. Our babies' feet froze and as
they had no shoes we wrapped their feet in gunny sacks. [The children were Heinrich
William (Henry William), born in Burlington, IA, 31 Dec 1890; and Ada Louise, born in
Guthrie, Oklahoma Territory, 13 May 1893.]
The Indians never bothered us - only to sell us wild turkey and deer meat.
There was a little log schoolhouse about one and a half miles from our place.
We attended church every Sunday at the Lutheran Church in Guthrie. We always drove in
a covered wagon.
My wife helped me in the fields every day. We would take our two children with us,
making a bed for them in the wagon. The second year we harvested fifty bushels of peanuts.
My wife baked bread and washed and ironed for two bachelors who lived close to us. The
money they paid her kept us in groceries for a while. We have worked hard for what we
have and have gone through many hardships, but have been very happy.
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