children Roy, Elmer (Pearl born later)

OKLAHOMA  ODYSSEY

        It was because of my mother's health - she had asthma and the Dr. said a change of climate is all that would help.  They made a bed in the covered wagon and carried her to it - also 3 children and their furniture and their belongings in another covered wagon.  The children were Albert Ralph and Iva.
        When they got as far west as Liberal Kans. she slept all night for the first time in a long time with her breathing problems.
        They continued on until they were in Beaver County Okla. and settled there.  It was 3 miles from the Texas line and called "No Man's land" Indian territory.  Their home was a sod house and that is where Paul was born, the year 1905.  In 1908 I was born but Uncle Perry had come and built onto the sod house so it was really part sod house at that time.
        Papa homesteaded that place then later traded it for a grocery store at Speermore, Okla. which was near there.  We lived there until I was around 4 yrs. old maybe between 4 and 5 yrs., then Papa traded the store for a farm not maybe 2 miles north of Perry Okla.
        The move was on again in 2 covered wagons plus 5 children and a shepherd dog following behind.  Albert and Ralph were driving the first wagon and Albert made music playing the old organ — I can remember the trip of a few things, what it all looked like and the camping at night and my mother cooking on a campfire but I don't remember eating!
        They had to cross the Cimarron River on some sort of a makeshift wooden deal and had to be careful because it was quicksand.  Anyhow we made it to the farm.  I have no idea how long it took and have always wondered.
        It was a nice place with lots of fruit trees but I don't think we stayed 2 yrs. and it was time to move on — Papa again traded that for another grocery store in Glencoe, Okla.
        I would have thought my mother would have died from it all, but her health was good then.  We must not have stayed in Glencoe not quite 2 years because I went my first year to school there and my second one was in Burden, Kans.  The time spent in Glencoe was something else.  One night a fire broke out in one of the stores and burned out one whole side of the main street business places and our store was one of them — no insurance!  But several towns around took up a collection and helped them all rebuild.
        So much for Okla. and now we're on the move again to Burden, Kans. only this time we left by train – Mama – Papa – Paul and Iva and me.  Ralph and Albert had gone to Lamar Colo. and filed on some government land there.
        We stayed in Burden until I believe it was 1927 and it was way past time for another move which was Wichita, Ks. and a hamburger stand this time.  He kept it about 6 yrs.  My mother passed away (60 yrs. old).  Then he moved back to Burden and married Lizzie Triplett.  After she passed away Papa moved back to Wichita and lived with me the last 5 yrs. he lived.
        What is strange about all this moving half of Papa's relatives all went too — We were as I've often said like a tribe of gypsies — There was his sister Aunt Mattie and her husband and their daughter Maggie and her husband — their son Forrest and his Wife and daughter (her name is Beulah too) then one of Papa's nieces and boy came and stayed a short time.  Her name was Mamie Crabb.
        As you well know the size of Burden, Ks. Papa moved his store 5 times — on the west side of Main Street he had been on the north and south corners and 2 different buildings in the middle.  On the east side of Main Street it was the large building at the north end.  When Ralph and Albert were small he had a restaurant on the east side somewhere in the middle of the block.
        Papa was a good hearted and good natured person — Irish and Scotch and believed in not meddling in other peoples business and every one liked him.  My mother was a good woman — good natured and got along with most people and every one I knew loved her — she was a lot of fun.  This about covers the life of your grandparents, to my cousins it was Uncle Ben and Aunt Cass.
        I might add that at the time my mother passed away she didn't have Asthma.  Her death was from surgery for ruptured appendix.  She was in St. Francis Hospital 3 times that year because of the complications of the surgery.  died at 60 yrs. old.  Papa had nothing wrong with him except his heart attacks which was 3.  Died at 87 yrs. old.

Moved from Ohio to Winfield Kans. - 1880.

    Joined the Navy at the age or 17 with his parent's permission, an the condition that he would return to school if it didn't work out. 

    He met Annette Jane Franklin at the Burden High School which he attended following his medical discharge, which he received because of an old wound reopening while jumping off of a diving board. The story behind the wound is that while Eldon was a boy, he was smoking next to a barrel of gasoline, when his parent's and his visiting aunt and uncle came out or the house. Not wishing to be caught smoking, he threw the lit cigarette behind him, into the barrel, resulting in an explosion that sent him into the air, split tine, his leg open.  Needless to say , he was caught. 

    Eldon also had arthritis. After his marriage, he was employed at a gas station, but working in the damp weather affected his arthritis so badly that he had to quit, which is when he went to work at the Boeing Aircraft plant in Wichita, though they didn't move there.

    According to his mother, his littlest sister Kathy was HIS .  baby .He looked after her and helped take care of her.  I'm told he loved babies. He was about 12 at the time she was born.

EVERETT DEWAINE WEATHERS

     Albert liked to write poetry.  He was also an electrician and built probably the first radio in Kansas while living in Tyro,  Kansas where they lived after their marriage. He was the chief engineer on the U.S.S. Mayflower during W. W. I, which was later destroyed by fire.

    He was elected Police Judge in Burden Kansas on April 7, 1953 and sworn in on April 13.

    He had a homestead claim at Lamar, Colorado, allowed on May 14, 1915, serial number 017479, receipt #1575339, north half section 24 Township 25 S Range 46 W Meridian, containing 320 acres.

    He enlisted in the Navy April 26, 1917 at Las Animas, Colorado for four years. He was an expert rifleman, score 152,  had a very good ability to lead men,  sobriety and obedience were excellent.

    He was discharged June 5, 1919 at the Navy Recruiting Station at Denver, Colorado, #151-45-46.  He was Electrician, 2nd class.  The character of his discharge was good.

     He served on the following ships and stations:

Service from April 26, 1917 to June 5, 1919

    He was elected by the Republican Party on November 4, 19__ for the office of Justice of the Peace of Silver Creek Township.  Certificate signed by  J. O. Campbell, County Clerk.

    Ben and Cassie were married on Christmas Day, 1890 at Eaton, Kansas. About 10 months later Albert was born, also at Eaton according to Hilda, although his birth certificate says Salem, in the Pastor's office.   While still living in the area of Burden, they also had Ralph, Johnny , and Iva.   Johnny died at the age of 6 months.  Because of Cassie's asthma, they loaded up their belongings and Case in her bed into two covered wagons, and along with some relatives they set out for Beaver County, Oklahoma. Beulah thinks it was at Liberal, Kansas that her mother could breath well enough to sleep all night for the first time in a long time.

    The house in Beaver County was made of sod, and later Perry Nimrod came out and built on to it.  Paul and Beulah were born there. Cass also had a twin miscarriage there, thought to be a boy and a girl, not named. They are buried there.   They lived 3 miles from the Texas line.

    Eventually Ben traded that place for a grocery store in Speermore, Oklahoma and the family lived in the back of it.  The relatives went back to Burden when they left Beaver County.

    From Speermore, Ben traded his store for a farm at Perry, Oklahoma, and Beulah remembers the move.  She says that Albert and Ralph were in one wagon, and Albert played the old organ, in the back of the wagon.  She also remembers a pot of beans that never got done because of hard  water,  though they were put back on a fire every time they stopped.

    Ben traded the farm at Perry for another store at Glencoe, Oklahoma.  One night the town caught fire, and the whole side of the block that their store was on burned to the ground.  Beulah says they all rebuilt, and her first year of school was there.

    Then they all went back to Burden, this time by train.  Ben had another grocery store there, which he moved 4 or 5 times before he moved his family to Wichita in 1927. In Wichita he ran a hamburger stand for 12 years. Cass's asthma was all but cured.

    Ben and Cass were members of the Burden Baptist Church.  The children were all baptized in the old Silver Creek west of Burden, and rode back to town in all those wet clothes in the back of a wagon, and nobody caught cold.

    Iva died of Typhoid at the age of 18, in Burden.  At the time Albert had been in the Navy for a little less than 3 months.

    Ben and Cassie are buried in the Burden Cemetery.  Baby John is buried with his grandparents,  Mathew and Eliza F