Came to America as a stow away

  52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 7 (Feb 12-18)
Prompt: Immigration
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Have you heard the story of the ancestor who stowed away on a ship to come to America?

My Dad was pleased to share how his great-grandfather stowed away on a ship. As the youngest son, he was not going to receive any inheritance, so he left to earn his own way never to see his family again.  Primogeniture was the English Common Law which dictated that the eldest son should inherit, which left any other son to find his own livelihood. 

Sadly, this romantic version of John being "disinherited" and stowing away on a ship to make his fortune in America is not exactly true.

He did become successful in America, owning a large farm, two houses in town and a house on the farm. He  seemed to have successfully stayed in contact with his family in England. There are several newspaper accounts in Wellington, Kansas of his siblings visiting from England. 

 Another portion of the story has been proven wrong.  Before census records were available online, I found in the Sedgefield, County Durham, England library the 1841 and 1851 census with John Golightley and his parents.  John was not the youngest son. He was the oldest son. His father was the innkeeper of the Black Bull Inn. 

According to the 1900 and 1920 census, he immigrated in 1871.  The 1920 census states he was naturalized in 1876. He may have been naturalized in Wisconsin before settling in Kansas.

 Since his status in the family was proven wrong, does that mean he really did not stow away? I haven’t found conclusive ship records for him yet.  There is one possibility of an arrival in Canada with the right year of immigration. That John Golightley’s age is 10 years off, but we all know how often ages are listed wrong. Since his father was a successful innkeeper, it stands to reason that he may have helped his oldest son immigrate. 

Many of the stories I was told about my ancestors have proven to be wrong in some ways, but there is usually some truth.  Like the game of gossip, as information is passed down through several generations and over a long period of time, details tend to be misremembered or enhanced. I use those stories as a guideline to various records and enjoy the chase to discover how much of the story is correct. 

Horses, cars, trucks, and helicopters

  52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 6 (Feb 5-11)
Prompt: Earning a Living
#52ancestors

From the time people graduated from foot power to horsepower, my ancestors have been involved with transportation.  I've written about Robert Golightley and his blacksmith shop in the past. He had several other jobs besides being a blacksmith including working at the Winfield Ice & Cold Storage Company (Kansas) in the Engine Room. The entire family seems to have a knack for mechanical equipment. 

As we moved from horses to horseless carriages, family members changed careers.  My Grandfather, Johnnie, owned a gravel pit and hauled gravel to build the new roads that were needed. My father's first transportation related job at age 15 was working on a road crew.  His dad, Johnnie, was hauling gravel when their boss told my dad to deliver a load of gravel. Johnnie wasn't happy about it when he found out, but that was just the start of my dad driving the gravel trucks.  It was a few weeks later that he had his first accident.  He rolled the dump truck on a curve and was lucky to come out of it without a scratch. 

Both Johnnie and my dad, Leeland, were mechanics, too.  Several times they worked together on big equipment usually for Mr. Troutman in Kansas. They were also "shade tree mechanics" in that they worked on cars in the yard under a shade tree. I can't tell you how many times my dad worked on someone's car after he got off work. Often it was for someone at the church, neighbor, or a friend of a friend who couldn't afford to get their vehicle fixed. My siblings and I were all pressed into service holding a flashlight while Dad worked on an engine after dark. 

In the late 1960s, Leeland went to work for Southern Airways working on helicopters in Mineral Wells. The army base, Fort Wolters, was a training facility for helicopter pilots on their way to Vietnam. Along with my Father-In-Law, John Evans, and many other men in Mineral Wells, they kept the helicopters running while the army pilots learned to fly. 

From my Great-Grandfather to my Dad, our family carved out a living with horses, cars, trucks, and helicopters. 

Leeland Golightley, Rozella Lamb & Hutch

 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 3 (Jan 15-21)
Prompt: Favorite Photo
#52ancestors

 

Leeland, his cousin Rosella Lamb, and a friend named Hutch. Rosella was also serving in Germany in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC)

This is a photo that has always intrigued me. My Dad while in Germany met up with his cousin, Rozella, and friend, Hutch.  By the time he shared the picture with me, he didn't remember Hutch's last name. I didn't think to ask if they met in Germany or were friends before they joined the army.

On October 20, 1950, my father, Leeland Johnston Golightley, went to the local recruiting office with a group of friends to join the army. The local selective service board was listed as Duncan, Stephens County, Oklahoma, but his permanent address was listed as Ponca City, Kay Co., Oklahoma. Ponca City is probably where his parents were living at that time.

 After boot camp, Leeland deployed to Germany where he served as an automobile mechanic. He related that he worked mostly on jeeps that were coming from Korea. When he had them running again, the jeeps were shipped back to the war in Korea.

 His duty assignment was Med Co. 8^th Inf Regt. While in the army he completed the Eucom Ord school Auto OM course and was awarded the Army Occupation Medal (Germany).

 Rozella Lamb was Dad’s cousin on his Mother’s side of the family.  I would love to know more about Hutch. Was he one of the friends who enlisted at the same time Dad enlisted? Did they meet in Germany or was he Rozella's friend?

Ghost Story

 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 45  (Nov 8-14 )
Prompt: Ghost Story
#52ancestors

 My paternal great great grandparents were John Golightley and Elizabeth Caroline Johnston. John immigrated from Sedgefield, County Durham, England and Elizabeth came from Canada.  They had two sons, worked hard, and became successful in Wellington, Kansas. They raised my grandfather, Johnnie.

 It is well known in my family that Johnnie was afraid of ghosts his entire life. I don’t know why or how that started but it played a part in his life’s story. 

 John and Elizabeth owned two houses in Wellington and the farm with the farmhouse between Wellington and Belle Plaine at the end of their lives. One of the houses was a two-story brick home with a basement in a nice part of town. The other house was a small wood frame house at the edge of town which included a gravel pit behind it.

 After his Grandfather’s death, Johnnie was in the basement of the brick home working on the furnace.He heard his grandfather call his name.He tried to ignore it but being skittish about ghosts to begin with he became more frightened as his Grandfather continued to call his name.He bolted from the basement and refused to ever go in the basement again.

After his Grandmother’s death, Johnnie was given a choice of the two houses in Wellington as well as inheriting a part of the farm.   Since he was sure that the brick home was haunted, he chose the smaller less affluent house on the edge of town.

 There is a rumor in the family that John had some oil and/or silver certificates hidden away. Speculation is that they were hidden in the basement of the brick house and that he was trying to tell Johnnie where they were located. 

Flower Girl

 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 40 (Oct 4-10)

Prompt: Preservation

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 In 1959, I was 5 years old and a flower girl.  My Dad’s brother, Earl, married my wonderful aunt, Elaine, on December 27^th, 1959. I don’t remember a lot about it other than the dress was kind of itchy and I was not comfortable walking down the aisle by myself. Although I did like throwing out the flower pedals.

 About 3 weeks after their wedding, I was a flower girl for my Aunt Vadie on my Mom’s side of the family.  It was much easier walking down the aisle in that wedding because my cousin, DeWayne, held my hand and walked with me. DeWayne was only 6 years old, but he seemed to know what to do.

 Aunt Elaine’s Mother made her wedding dress, and she made me a dress that matched the bride’s dress.  It was white with lots of lace. About 15 years ago, my mother gave me the dress. She had taken care of it all those years and for several years it hung in my closet. 

 In 2013, I earned a graduate certificate in Archival Administration at the University of Texas. I put what I learned to use by “archiving” several family heirlooms as well as using it at my job. The dress is now protected with archival tissue in an archival box. The box that I bought was really bigger than it needed to be, but it worked out okay. I added the Kimono that my father-in-law brought back from Japan for one of his little sisters later.

 My next preservation project is to make archival boxes or envelopes to preserve the handkerchiefs that belonged to both my Grandmothers and my Mother.

The Day My Grandparents saw a UFO

 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 29  (July 18-24)

Prompt: Fun Fact

#52ancestors

 I've mentioned this before but it is one of the most fun things that I know about my paternal grandparents, Johnnie and Eva Golightley. 

 My Grandpa was a story teller. He loved nothing more than sharing  the fun things that had happened to him or other family members. I loved hearing the stories of how he and my Dad were truckers when my Dad was young.  Dad got his commercial driver's license when he was only 15 and then went with Grandpa when he was long haul trucking. Dad started driving a gravel truck before he was 15 but that is another story to tell.

 My new husband and I were visiting my Grandparents in Oklahoma when my Grandpa told us this story (among others) sitting around their kitchen table. 

Early in their marriage or perhaps it was while dating, my Grandparents were traveling between Wellington and Belle Plaine, Kansas, when they saw something very strange.  A farmer on a tractor was plowing a field, going up and down each row as they normally do. Directly over his head about thirty feet in the air was a round saucer looking object. It was going up and down the rows with the farmer who did not seem to be aware of the object.  My Grandparents pulled over to the side of the road and watched the farmer and the object as they moved up and down several rows. Then all of a sudden the object shot straight up into the air and disappeared. 

Grandma was standing at the kitchen sink, while we were all seated at the kitchen table. She was always the rock of the family, the one who could be counted on at all times. I looked at Grandma and raised my eyebrow in a quizzical manner. Even though she was standing behind Grandpa and he couldn't see her, she carefully nodded her head.  It is possible to think that Grandpa might exaggerate to tell a better story, but my Grandma wouldn't.  I know they saw something that day.

 

From Mother to Daughter

 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 20  (May 17 - 23)

Prompt: Textile

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 In years past our ancestors didn't have time for the creative activities that we do now. Their lives were taken up with more practical endeavors. They did manage to use their creativity in creating some of the practical items needed by their families. They sewed  the clothes their families wore, often copying patterns from New York or Paris if they were from the city or needed a party or church dress.  Clothes for daily wear were practical and sometimes they only had a few outfits depending on their circumstances. The cloth scraps were used to make beautiful quilts that often commemorated an event or family. 

My mother had a red velvet quilt with blue velvet pieces that was made from the scraps of material left from making her wedding dress and bride's maid dresses.  The quilt was used on my parents bed for many years. It kept my brothers warm when they slept on an enclosed porch and it was used for picnics and other occasions. Overtime it became faded and worn and was folded and put away.

My Great Grandmother, Sarah Violet Herndon Sample pieced a wedding ring quilt before 1932 .  My Grandmother, Gladys Mamie Sample McCarley, quilted it sometime in the 1970s. After my daughter was born in 1978, she gifted it to Katharine Meghan.  Gladys was her mother's first and only daughter, my mother, Gwonda Jane McCarley was her first daughter and I was my mother's first daughter. Katharine (Katy) is my first daughter.  This quilt has passed through 4 generations of daughters to the 5th generation daughter.

Check it Out

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 14  (April 8-14)

Prompt: Check It Out

#52ancestors 

 April 8th was my Father's birthday and I couldn't help but think of him as I started thinking about this prompt.  He was certainly a product of the great depression. He saved an incredible eclectic collection of things that he might need in the future or had plans to use at some point.  He believed in saving for anything he wanted and rarely used credit cards for things he wanted as opposed to what was needed.

 When he passed away, he was saving to buy a new pickup.  For things that he wanted, not needed, he would hide away any extra dollars that he had or earned  at odd jobs after his retirement.  Mother knew of several of his hiding places, like his old 35 mm camera case.  Mostly she wasn't concerned about his hiding places as the money always turned up when he was ready to spend it or if they had a minor emergency use for it. 

 He had boxes and boxes of old bills and bank statements with tons of old checks under the bed and in the top of the closets.  A  few months after he passed away, Mother started shredding those checks and bills.  Luckily, she went through each envelope as she shredded them.  In the first box, she found several hundred dollars in fives, tens and twenties stuck in different envelopes. For the next year or two, anytime she ran out of cash, she would shred some more.  Then would say a quiet Thank You to Dad.  She knew that he was still taking care of her.

 It certainly paid off for Mother to check all of the paper files Dad had saved over the years.

Golightley Blacksmith Shop

 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 3  (Jan 18-24)

Prompt: Favorite Photo

#52ancestors

Last year for the Favorite Photo, I chose to share pictures of my maternal grandparents. I thought it only fair to share a favorite picture from my paternal side this year.

From the time people graduated from foot power to horsepower, my ancestors have been involved in transportation.  My great grandfather, Robert, was a blacksmith. The first time I saw a picture of him, he was standing in front of his blacksmith shop with his two sons, George and Robert and my father, Leeland.

Blacksmiths made a wide range of items from kitchen utensils to architectural hardware and even farm equipment.  Most of us think of blacksmiths making horse shoes, although blacksmiths who predominately shoe horses or oxen are called farriers.  I have always thought it interesting that as transportation moved from horses to the early vehicles like Model Ts, my family went from blacksmiths to mechanics.  My Grandfather and Father were mechanics and truck drivers most of their lives. 

Below is a picture of my Great Grandfather's blacksmith shop which states he also does wagon wood work.  From left to right are Donald Wilcox Golightley (my Grand Uncle), Johnnie Golightley (my Grandfather), Leeland Johnston Golightley (my Father), and Robert Johnston Golightley (my Great Grandfather).

 

"Cool Gunmen Rob City Cafe: Pair Escapes Police Following $30 Holdup".

 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 41

Oct 7-13
#52ancestors
Prompt: Newest [find]

 

"Cool Gunmen Rob City Cafe: Pair Escapes Police Following $30 Holdup".

Thus started a search that I finally solved while in lock down for COVID-19. My newest find solved the mystery of the newspaper clipping found in my Grandparent's pictures. The article details a time when my Grandpa Golightley was robbed while eating breakfast at the Farrell's Products Co. Cafe. It mentions how upset he was because he couldn't pay for his breakfast after the robbery.

There were clues in the article, but I could not find where this might have happened. There wasn't a date on the clipping, nor the name of the newspaper.  The article mentioned that John Golightley was 42 at the time which meant

 it would have been in the year 1948 as his birthday was on January 1st, 1906.  Since Grandpa was a truck driver, it could have been anywhere.  I searched the internet for this Farrell's Products Co. Cafe, but it must be long gone. I had searched for other people and things mentioned in the article on Ancestry and the internet, but up until now I didn't find anything. 

 The name of the manager, J. B. Adams, was mentioned but that name gave me too many search results. The two police officers who investigated the crime were A. F. Blackshere and R. F. Gaylon.  Bob Owen Stewart was also mentioned as having had a run in with these robbers outside Stewart's tavern.

 The last time Newspaper.com ran a special, I decided to get a 6-month subscription.  After all, that 2-hour commute that I wasn't doing during the lock down could be put to good use doing research. 

 I started searching for the two police officers.  First I found A. F. Blackshere, a city policeman, in the 1954 Oklahoma City Directory.  Second, I found a sympathy notice in the December 28, 1951 issue of the Oklahoma Star, Portland Avenue Baptist Church edition for the death of R. F. Gaylon, Jr., Patrolman. This newspaper was published in Oklahoma City which put both officers mentioned in the article in Oklahoma City.

 Then I found my Grandpa in the 1948 Oklahoma City Directory, "Golightley, John, driver Gilmore, Gardner & Kirk.  He was also listed in the 1952 Oklahoma City Directory, "Golightley John (Eva), driver Gilmore Gardner & Kirk rPO Box 1069 Ponca City". 

 I still don't know the exact date he was robbed or in which newspaper it was published, but I do know it was probably in Oklahoma City, probably in 1948 but certainly before 1951. I haven't given up because new information pops up every day and I have found one more place where my Grandparents lived, if even for a short time.   

A principal makes a difference

 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 37

Back to School

#52ancestors

 I decided that one story this week wasn't enough because my Dad had an amazing story of going back to school, too.

My Dad's family didn't seem to think as much about education as my Mom's family did. At least I never heard anyone talk about it much.  They weren't against education, just had more important things to do.  My Grandpa Golightley only had a 6th grade education and my Grandma graduated from the 7th grade.  It didn't mean as much then as most people started working very young on the farm and it wasn't as important in making a living. 

My Grandpa wasn't much of a farmer so by the time he was grown he was driving a truck mostly hauling gravel for road construction at first.  That was a time when many of the interstate  and local roads were being built. A time that bridged between a man having a horse and buggy and owning a car.  At one time, he owned his own gravel pit and hauled gravel for local road construction near Wellington, Kansas.

Dad and his Father with the gravel dump truck

 By the time my Dad was 14, he had a commercial drivers license and was working with his Dad hauling gravel.  Then they moved from Kansas to the San Antonio area where they started hauling produce from the Valley up through Oklahoma, Kansas, and North Dakota.  It was while they were hauling produce that the family moved to Marlow, Oklahoma.  Dad started high school in Marlow, but when the harvest started early in the Spring, he was back on the road with his Dad.  Once the Fall harvest was done, he would start school again.  That meant that he usually only went to school from sometime in October until around April each year.

School work didn't come easy for him. He read slowly, but he was good with math. After all, math was something you needed when you worked.  When he retired and had more time to read, he became an avid reader as he started reading much faster.

Dad was very fond of his principal, L.L. Teakell, at Marlow High. He told of several times his Principal came to their house to talk to him and his parents about him coming back to school and how important it was for him to graduate even if it took a little longer. Dad told us if it had not been for his Principal that he probably would have given up. Dad was the first one in his family to graduate from High School.

 

Leeland Johnston Golightley

Note: Updated to include Principals name & scan of diploma. 

Robert Johnston Golightley, troublemaker.

 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 33
#52ancestors
Prompt:  Troublemaker

Sometimes it seems as if our families hide information from us. Often it is because they don't think of it as important or they don't realize we would be interested.  Sometimes it is because they just don't want to talk about it.  This was a hard story for me to publish but it is common knowledge in our family and part of our history. 

When I was 14 years old and already interested in my family history, I overheard my Grandfather tell my Dad that Robert had died. When they realized that I was listening, they changed the subject.  Later, I asked my Dad who Robert was and he told me that Robert was his Grandfather.  I was upset that I had a Great Grandfather that had been alive and I didn't even know he existed. When I asked why we didn't know him, my Dad said he was a bad man and he didn't want him around us. At that time, he wouldn't tell me anything else, but  ever so often, I would ask a question about him and gradually over the years I learned more about him. 

Years later when I showed my Dad the documents from Robert being charged as incorrigible and being put into a "facility" as a teenager, my Dad only commented, "He started early, didn't he?"  The paperwork doesn't tell what he had done as a juvenile so we will probably never know. Everyone who might know was gone by that time. I do know that when he was 15 years old, Robert was listed in the census records twice, living with his parents and in a separate household with his aunt. I would like to think he was there to help her.

My mother told me about the time my Dad was about 12 years old and he "threw his grandfather off of their property".  His great grandmother, Robert's mother, who was old, feeble, and blind was living with them.  Robert came to the house demanding that she sign paperwork to give him the old home place and farm that had been in the family since the 1800s. I don't know that my Dad really understood what was going on but Robert made his Great Grandmother cry so Dad made him leave.  But Robert didn't give up, he came back and brought the "law" with him.  My Dad refused to let them in the house and eventually the "law" told Robert that he needed to leave. 

Robert didn't give up on getting the property but going through the deeds and other records at the courthouse told the story of how his brother, George, and grandchildren enforced Robert's Father's will. Although, Robert lived on the property and controlled it for awhile, he was never able to claim it as his and sell it.  Robert's Dad, John Golightley, willed the property to Robert's brother, George and to Robert's children, by passing Robert. The property is still in the family today. 

Robert was a veteran of the Spanish-American war and married again after his 1st wife, Myrtle Wilcox, died in 1933. He held a variety of jobs. In 1920, he was a boiler maker in the oil fields. On the 1930 census he owned a blacksmith shop.  In 1939, there were several articles in various newspapers in Kansas, describing him as a disabled and unemployed railroad man, who would be in town to paint street numbers on curbs.  Robert died in 1969 in Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas and was buried in Oxford, Kansas. 

Donald, Johnnie, Leeland, & Robert Golightley

Robert Johnston Golightley (5 Aug 1884 - 15 Feb 1969)

Johnnie Golightley lived large.

 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 31

Prompt: Large

My Grandfather lived life large. He wasn't wealthy. He wasn't well educated. More than likely he would have been diagnosed with ADD in this day and age. He always told the best stories.

He was raised by his grandparents as his mother became very ill after his birth and even though she went on to have other children, he was more than she could handle most of the time. I suspect that even as a small child that he was a very active boy.

As a teenager,  Johnnie Golightley had a motorcycle. Once a traveling circus came to town that had a "Globe of Death".  Two, three, or more motorcyclist would race around the inside of the globe, barely missing each other as they raced upside down and around. The circus ring master challenged the locals boys to try it. Johnnie was the only one to take him up on the offer and raced around the globe.  Unfortunately for him, one of the police in town grabbed him as he was coming out of the globe. The officer lectured him and threatened to tell his Grandfather about his recklessness. Knowing that his motorcycle would be taken away from him, he promised to never do it again if the officer would just not tell his Grandfather.  But it certainly wasn't the last scrape that he got into with his motorcycle. 

As a young married couple, my husband and I traveled from Texas to Oklahoma to visit my grandparents. During that first visit with my new husband, Grandpa told us several stories that included his motorcycle, because we owned a Honda at the time. When they were dating and as a young married couple my grandparents had several adventures on his Indian bike.

Grandpa was upset with us when he found out that we had a sissy bar on the back of ours and was adamant that we should take it off immediately. He was  sure that if he had one on his bike that he and Grandma would not have survived an accident that they had. They were on their way to visit a relative in another town when they hit some gravel and were headed off the edge of a steep embankment next to the road. Grandpa slid backwards on the bike, pushing Grandma off backwards with him.  The bike sailed down the embankment while they tumbled in the grass before the embankment. They eventually hitched a ride to the relative's house and then came back later to get the wrecked bike. 

Once my Grandparents were traveling between Wellington and Belle Plaine, Kansas, when they saw something very strange.  A farmer on a tractor was plowing a field, going up and down each row as they normally do. Directly over his head about thirty feet in the air was a round saucer looking object. It was going up and down the rows with the farmer who did not seem to be aware of the object.  My Grandparents pulled over to the side of the road and watched the farmer and the object as they moved up and down several rows. Then all of a sudden the object shot straight up into the air and disappeared. 

Grandma was standing at the kitchen sink, while we were all seated at the kitchen table. She was always the rock of the family, the one who could be counted on at all times. I looked at Grandma and raised my eyebrow in a quizzical manner. Even though she was standing behind Grandpa and he couldn't see her, she carefully nodded her head.  I could think that Grandpa might exaggerate to tell a better story, but my Grandma wouldn't.  I know they saw something that day. 

Albert Johnnie Golightley, (1 Jan 1906- 29 Oct 1979)

Eva Maude (Lamb) Golightley (6 June 1902 - 18 Dec 1979)

My Life Voyage

My Life Voyage

            In 1881 March 13 near Mayfield, Kansas. I was born on a pioneer farm, am about the middle of a large family, grew up on the farm got a little education at Long Branch school enjoyed the hard work and fellowship of Sisters and Brothers and a Christian Father and Mother who tried to teach us the true and living way.

            I gave my life to Jesus at 12 years of age and have tried to follow him ever since although not as close as I should as there has been lots of sorrows, trials, and hardships all along the way although the joys far out numbered them all.

At 20 met a lad I loved and had a great sympathy for as he was left without parents at an early age altho a little wayward and rough. The spirit seemed to say marry him and save him for me. I prayed several weeks before launching on such a voyage but finaly yielded as the Spirit still plead with me to save him from Sin and Destruction.

So there has been years of anxiety and worry yet Jesus has always been near comforting and helping me at all times and the word of Our Pastor (R.L. George) who left the table of a friend and came to the well when I was drawing water and said, "God Bless You", and those words have tided me over many trying places when almost to give up in despair.

At 33 I had the great joy of seeing Hubby Saved by Grace about 14 years later but he has always been faithful and kind and ready to help those in need.

At 34 lost my dear Father in 1915. He had always been true and faithful to his family and God. I will never forget the sweet rememberences of the family alter and the lessons we learned around it in prayer which always helped me to stand the trials and hardships as the family had  [couldn’t read rest of the sentence].

At 35 we now had 8 children all healthy and happy with their share of sickness and trials of a large family, but all were spared through the Love of Jesus.

Many a time when trials pressed hard the tempter would say, give up, but there would seem to appear two pair of little hands at the Golden Gate beckoning me to be faithful. Hands of two little brothers that went on years before I was born but Thank God for his all wise Judgements and keeping power and guidance if we will but follow.

Then I had a severe sick spell in 1916 and but little hope was had for me for several days.  But God through his loving kindness saw fit to spare my life although at times before I had wished for Him to take me Home where all sorrow is over.  During this sick spell 3 times my life just hung on a thread as I had 3 bad hemorages and as I was recovering one day, just after dinner I was lying quiet and there seemed to appear Angels from Heaven and took me up with them a little ways and then I fell back to earth then again they took me higher to fall back and the third time away up in the most Beautiful Clouds I ever saw and the most beautiful peace I cannot express. But the need of the children were so great and they seemed to need me so bad that down I came with a great crash to earth again. But, Oh, if Heaven is just as great and beautiful as those clouds and the sweet experience was it will be worth striving for.

When this sickness came on me I prayed earnestly nearly all night to be spared for the children’s sake. Which prayer was answered.

At 37 lost a dear Brother in a Motorcycle accident in 1918 which was a severe shock to all of us.

Then in October when the flu was raging the Master came to me and said there is a Baby at Jefferson go get it and rear it for Me, or you will go to Hell. How I plead and made excuses but we must obey God rather than man, so lost a dear cousin and took her son, as she was called home to Heaven.

My youngest was born on February 4, 1920 with another severe sick spell but we were spared thro God’s Love took another little baby in 1921 as his Dear Mother went home to Heaven.  He also had a severe sick spell in which he almost passed over to be with her in peace and joy and no sorrow and sickness.

At 42 lost our Dear Mother in 1923, but her precious acts of kindness and self sacrifice still live in our memory. She is now rejoicing in Glory.

Then lost Our Dear Sister Nellie in July of 1923 which left 3 Motherless children which God said to me as each time before take the little babe. But, Oh, what a burden it seemed but I have always tried to obey the masters voice. Each of these little ones had as kind, patient, loving, self-sacrificing, and God fearing Mother as I ever saw. This sinful world was no place for them.

But we have been cencured and ridiculed and held down for taking these, by people instead of being helped.  But God said, “In as much as you did it unto these you did it unto me.” And He has always been graciously good and kind to us always. Altho at times it looks dark ahead but the Master was always present to comfort and help in time of need.

Then in Spring 1927 lost our Oldest Brother who was always faithful to his loved ones.

Then in October 1927 My Dear Hubby had an operation and severe sickness which almost took his life, but God through his Divine Goodness and Answer to prayers saved him for us.

Then in September of 1929 I was operated on. All throught I had passed over but the Master saw fit to spare me again. But as I was taken to the Hospital it seemed the Strong arms of the Master was beneath me bearing me up. I could feel them there all the time during my stay at the Hospital and had no fear for when Jesus is near, “He casteth out all fear and giveth a strong hope of Eternal Life.” My greatest regret is I have not lived closer and did more for Him, but he sees and knows how frail we are.

In the fall of 1930 we moved to Arkansas, have enjoyed the country and dearly love the people and their way. Altho have had sickness, accident, and sorrow. Jesus has always been near to Bless and Comfort in these trying hard times.

Oh, that all would strive more faithfully to do the Masters Will each day and hour. As God has promised to care for his own. And what else matters if we know our names are written in the Lambs Book of Life.

God will care for our own children as he has asked me to care for these little motherless ones that their Father’s have deserted.

Gods Love and a Mothers Love always abideth forever. Also most Father’s Love, Praise God for the Love and sympathy of my Dear Hubby for Motherless children and the oppressed although a great sufferer himself. God through his Great Love is Mighty to save and Strong to Deliver in times of need and destress.

May we all put Our whole trust in Him who can save and delier and seek his forgiveness from Sin and accept the Holy Ghost which is promised to all who will except Him.

                                                                        MOTHER LAMB

Handwritten at the bottom:

Died May 27, 1939 mother died.  58 years old when died.