Gladys & Thomas Osa (aka O.C. or Ocie) McCarley

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 4 (Jan 25-31)
Prompt: Favorite Picture
#52ancestors

I have so many favorite family pictures that it was really hard to choose.  I decided to share the two favorite pictures that I have of my Grandparents.  I've shared them before at different times, but I'm not sure that I shared the story behind the second one.  The first is my grandparents with my mother. My Grandmother was 15 when she got married and was probably 16 in this picture. The picture was probably taken in Marlow, OK. So if any of my relatives in OK know where this gas station is or was, please let me know. 

    

The second picture is of my Grandparents after their children were grown and married. You can see their children's pictures on the piano behind them.  All of them took lessons and practiced on this piano.  As you can see, Grandpa has a twinkle in his eyes.  Grandma told me that he was pinching her on the behind at the time the picture was taken, which explains the look on her face, too. 

On the Road Again: Search for the Cemetery

 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 38
Prompt: On the Map
#52ancestors

 Several years ago, my family had a camping weekend on the old family farm.  Though the house was gone, it was the perfect place for a relaxing fun filled family campout. As with most family reunions, we had really good food, lots of conversation, games, and fun.  You can't imagine the fun of having a hide and seek at night with family from preschoolers to those in their 70s.

 As we sat around the fire one night, we went around the circle telling stories about the farm and what we remembered. There were both funny and poignant memories. The older generation remembered their brother, Bobby Glenn, who only lived a few hours.  Gwonda was almost 8 years old when he was born and she remembered her Grandmother lovingly wrapping him up and putting him near the stove to stay warm.

 When Bobby Glenn passed, his father and grandmother took him to a country cemetery near their farm. His mother was very sick after he was born and when he passed she wasn't able to go to the cemetery.  Months later, when she was well enough to go, neither her husband nor mother in law could remember exactly where they buried Bobby Glenn. 

 As memories of Bobby Glenn were shared around the campfire, I mentioned that I wished I knew the name of the cemetery where he was buried. To my surprise, two of my Uncles said that they knew where it was but couldn't remember the name.  They offered to take me there the next day. So the next day, we loaded up the car, two uncles, an aunt, a cousin, and me to set off for the cemetery that wasn't very far away.

 We drove up and down the country roads looking for the cemetery with first Teddy Mac giving directions and then Teddy Gene.  The rest of us were along for the ride and more family stories. After awhile, it seemed like we were going up and down the same roads, but both of my Uncles were sure that it was around there somewhere.  Neither one are the type to give up. The three of us in the back seat, cousin Nancy,  Aunt Sadie, and me were perfectly happy driving around, talking and teasing the Uncles about their directions.  I'm sure that those left at the farm wondered what happened to us because the cemetery was supposed to be only 15 minutes away. 

Eventually, we saw a farmer on his tractor in a field.  He had to be local and hopefully would know where the cemetery was located.  My 70 something year old Uncle, stopped the car on the side of the road and traipsed across the field to talk to the farmer. He came back with new directions.  It turns out that we were turning around one road short of where we needed to go, so the cemetery was just a little farther than we had gone up to that point.  We went up to the next cross road, traveled about another mile to the next road and turned left.  Sure enough, there was Denton Cemetery on the right.  Now I knew the name and where it was located. 

We spent some time walking in the cemetery and found near the back fence a row of children and infant graves. None of the graves had names, but all were marked with natural stones. The chain link fence is obviously a new addition and wasn't there when Bobby Glen was buried, but the chances are that one of those graves is his. 

Recently, I was back in the area and had a little time before heading home to Texas. We decided to visit Denton Cemetery again.  This time because we knew the name of the cemetery and had Google Maps, we were able to drive straight to it. But it was not nearly as memorable as that first trip.

 

 

Bobby Glenn McCarley

May 24, 1938

Son of Gladys Mamie Sample and Thomas Osa McCarley

Life on the Farm: Gladys & Thomas Osa McCarley

 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 36

Prompt: Labor
#52ancestors

Life on the Farm

Labor Day became a federal holiday in 1894. It was created to honor the American labor movement and the works and contributions of laborers. It seems only right to talk about the laborers in our family this weekend.  Most of the members of my family were farmers, so while there doesn't seem to be much to write about, they fed their families, often sold their produce to others, moving when they needed to move.

My Grandpa McCarley was one of those men. He worked hard and moved from being a tenant farmer to owning his own land and farming for himself. Before and after owning his own land, he worked on the railroad and in the oil field, made pies in a restaurant, and other jobs. Eventually, he bought some land between Marlow and Lawton, Oklahoma very near Central High School. A  small community built up around the school and many years later incorporated as a town named Central High.  When Grandpa bought the land there was a small tank that rarely went dry for the few horses and cows. The tank was the center of many of the adventures and happenings on the farm.

Grandpa had a gift that he may have inherited from his Father which manifested in several ways. One way was that Grandpa was a water witcher.  He often helped neighbors and others in the area to find water on their land, but no matter how many times he walked his own land he wasn't able to find water.  The water for the tank must have come from very deep underground. There was a well on the far north east corner of the land, far from the house, but there were never lines laid to bring water to the house. Grandpa dug several wells around the house but they were dry. His gift that helped so many others was not able to find the water they needed near the house.

 All of the children worked on the farm. They helped with hauling water, branding, hoeing, picking cotton, feeding the chickens, and cows and all the other chores that had to be done to keep a farm afloat. Everyone developed a strong work ethic, whether they worked outside or inside the home making sure that there were good meals, clean clothes, and a comfortable place to sleep.

When we moved out into the country, the one thing my mother refused to have on our one acre "farm" was chickens.  One of my mother's jobs growing up was feeding the chickens and gathering eggs. She hated the chickens, having been chased many times.  Another favorite job was milking the cows. The evening milking came at just the wrong time when she was dating. She couldn't milk the cows before she got ready for a date because that was too early and if she waited until after milking the cows, then her date would get there before she was ready. I'm sure it was a pretty picture to watch her pick her way across the barnyard to milk the cows in her old boots and party dress tucked up out of the muck. Then hurrying back to finish getting ready.

When she was younger, most Saturdays the family would load up and go into town. They would go to the store if they needed flour or other types of supplies and visit family that lived in town. They didn't get treats very often, because Grandpa said there wasn't money for foolishness. One Saturday, the billboards at the theatre got his attention and he decided a special treat was in order for everyone.  During that time, the movies were shorter and would end in a cliff hanger. The cowboy hero would be hanging off a literal cliff or maybe was headed into an ambush. It was always very exciting. The next Saturday, the movie would take up where the last one finished. For many Saturdays after that, they would go to the movies every Saturday.  It was a welcome break from the farm labor. 

 Gladys and Thomas Osa McCarley  

One of my favorite pictures of my Grandparents.

Sarah Violet Herndon

I feel very blessed. Thanks to Don Ivey, I now have pictures of my great grandmother, Sarah Violet Herndon. She died at age 34 when my grandmother was only 15 years old so no one in our family had ever seen a picture of her. James Wesley Ivey was Violet's 3rd husband. I found them on the 1920 census record several years ago in Cotton County, OK. See my posting on March 11, 2011.

James Wesley Ivey who normally went by Wesley was living near Gladys in the 1930 Stephens County, OK Census. Gladys had recently married Thomas Ocie McCarley. They were living next door to Sid McCarley, Ocie's Father, and the next family included Wesley Ivey, his brother, and his wife, and his parents. His brother, Grady, was listed as the head of the household.

The second picture is of Wesley Ivey with Violet driving. Did you notice the rose in the radiator?

Finding the hidden in the census

Tonight I did a program for the Lancaster Genealogical Society on ancestry.com. In getting ready for the program, I recreated some searches to make sure that they illustrated the techniques I was going to demonstrate.

I could not find my grandmother (Gladys Mamie Sample) on the 1920 census. She told me that she moved to Comanche County, OK when she was one year old and she lived there until she married my grandfather. I had even searched the census microfilm for Comanche County page by page looking for her at one point.

But things have changed. You can do searches with ancestry that cannot be done otherwise. The search box on the 1920 census (and all of the other census years) allows you to search by first names without the last names. This was important in this case because my great grandmother had been married at least 4 times and I wasn't sure that I had all of her married names. My grandmother was about 5 years old in 1920, so I put her first name and age 5 with a +/- 2 years and her mother's first name, Sarah in the appropriate search boxes, then I limited it to Oklahoma. The search did not bring me anyone that seemed right. Sarah's name was Sarah Violet and a few records had her name as Violet so I tried the same search with Violet as the mother's name.

EUREKA! That search brought back Gladys M Ivey, age 5 with a mother, Violet Ivey, and father, James W. Ivey. I knew that my Grandmother considered James Ivey, her only father, even though he and her mother divorced. Why didn't I find them before? I didn't know when I first did this search when Sarah Violet was married to Ivey and they were not in Comanche County. They were in Cotton County, OK. My Grandmother didn't know that when she was 5 years old she was not living in Comanche County.

I miss her and wish I could share with her the amazing things I have found out about her family.