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. 

Leeland Golightley, Rozella Lamb & Hutch

 

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

Check it Out

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

Prompt: Check It Out

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 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.

Courting: A Love Story

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 8  (Feb 22-28)

Prompt: Courting

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My late cousin, Nancy (VanHoozer) Bradley, shared this with me after our Grandmother passed away.  It was hand written on a small notepad by Gladys Mamie (Sample) McCarley. I hope one of her daughters still have the original. I am just very happy that Nancy let me copy it. 

To give you some context and a timeframe.  My Grandmother got married in 1929 when she was 15 years old and my Grandfather was 25 years old. Loda Stout was my Grandfather's 1st cousin.

 To my Granddaughter, Nancy, who has asked for a love story. 

How well I remember the first time I met your Grandfather. It was at a dance at my Grandparents house. They had recently moved to a farm S.E. of Marlow. My Mother and Step Father and I went over for the dance on Sat. night. They left me to spend a week with my Step Grandparents who were the only Grandparents I ever knew. 

Any way I saw this guy dancing and thought, "I want to dance with him".  Later, I learned he had looked at me and said "There is my wife."  He did come and ask for a dance and of course I said yes. But just then they broke for a 5 or 10 minute intermission. When the music started again he came after his dance, but I didn't recognize him and told him I had this dance. My Aunt told me this was the one so I had to apologize and we danced & danced & danced mostly all the rest of the eve. 

Next day Loda Stout who lived 1/4 mile from Grandma's came and asked me if I would go with your Grandpa to the circus that night.  I told a little fib to my Grandparents in order to get permission. I told them I had been going with boys for some time and I had, really, in a group. Loda had not been going with boys either but because she would be with her cousin & I she was allowed to go.  So it was a blind date and double date. Your Grandpa made a date for Loda & she made a date for him. We went to the circus every night that week. Never did get your Grandpa on the Ferris Wheel. 

He started coming to Lawton to see me and of course I came to Marlow every excuse which was parties that turned into dances. 

We even gave a few "parties" ourselves after we were married and moved back to Marlow. Had to stop because a group of boys from Rush Springs started coming and getting drunk. The last one we gave all four of the McCarley boys almost got into a fight trying to get them to leave. 

I'm getting ahead. 

Grandpa for some reason (I think he was testing our relation) failed to come over for 3 or 4 months. Any way I thought I had lost him when one day a knock was heard on the door and I answered. I was so shocked & happy. I almost didn't ask him in. We just stood and looked at each other. 

After that he was over every weekend until he got a job on railroad at El Reno?, then when he couldn't come over he sent your Uncle Floyd. Floyd & I had some good times together. I thought, and still do, a lot of him. He has always been more like a big brother. As you know I was an only child and welcomed a big brother or sister but Viola never accepted me as her sister. Sister-in-law, yes. 

Your Grandpa never said "I love you". He never asked me to marry him. He did ask me to take a trip with him and I said not unless we were married. Somehow we just started planning our wedding. Never did take that trip. 

As I said your Grandpa never said, "I love you" in so many words but his actions said so beyond a shadow of a doubt. He literally gave his life that I and our children might have a good life. It wasn't his fault that I wasn't completely happy with the kind of life I had to live to be with him, the man I loved with all my heart. I'd do it all over again if given the chance. He would have given me the moon if he thought I needed it, but if I asked for it he would have laughed at me. 

I think your Grandpa was born to help others. It seems that when a tragedy occurred he was always there.  Once a bridge (RR) was falling and he ran in under it, held it up till 4 men could get out. and as he jumped back it fell.  He was there to pick up a man from under a load of sand that had been dumped on him from a dump truck. He was there to pick up the broken bodies of some kids who had a head on from playing chicken. If anyone in the neighborhood was sick or dying, he was there. 

After we married we lived in El Reno for a while. Then he was (bumped) that is, a man who had been with the railroad longer took his job. He had to go to Ft. Worth to (bump).  We lived in Ft. Worth the rest of that winter and he brought me back to his Mother to have my baby - Gwonda.  That was a lonesome time for me I spent a lot of time on the creek crying. .... After she was born I only had to look at her to see your Grandpa. But finally he took us home with him. Then he got bumped again. 

He got a job baking pies in Bowie, Texas. But he decided to come back to the farm he had leased at Marlow. I'll never forget that trip. We had a sport coupe. (I don't know the make). We put everything we owned in the car. I sat on top of quilts, holding Gwonda all the way from Bowie to Marlow. Was I ever glad to get there. 

Since your Great Grandpa had rented his farm & house and was living in your Grandpa's, we moved in with them until first of the year when they moved back into their own.

 

 

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

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

Japanese Language

 

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 46 (Nov. 11-17)
Prompt: Different Language
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 This week I am not writing about my ancestors, but about my grandchildren’s ancestors.

 As I sat at the dining room table with my mother in law and her friends, I let the conversation wash over me as I cut vegetables in the precise manner for sukiyaki. I didn’t understand what they were saying so it was easy to zone out.  Suddenly, my mother in law turned to me and asked me a question in Japanese, and I answered in English.  I don’t know what she asked me, but my answer satisfied her, and she turned back to the conversation. Neither she nor her friends ever realized the question was in Japanese.  I knew by the tone that it was a question and replied, "I don't know".

 My father-in-law met and married Asa (Smoky) Inage while he was in the army and stationed in Japan.  He had gone to Japanese language classes and he frequented areas outside of the military base and tourist areas.  They moved to the United States when my husband, Robert, was about 4 years old.  At the time he spoke Japanese and very little English.  Once Robert started to school, he learned English rapidly and mostly forgot the Japanese that he once knew. 

Robert in a cornfield in Japan

Robert did remember a few words. He had a Japanese pet name for me, but he refused to tell me what it meant.  I knew whatever it meant; it wasn’t flattering.  Eventually I became so annoyed, that I started threatening to ask his mother if he did not tell me.  He would just laugh saying, “You wouldn’t dare”. 

One day, we were gathered around that same dining room table, when I ask Mom what “ketzu magare” meant. She started giggling and covered her mouth with her hand. My father-in-law laughed out loud. I waited, while my husband blushed. Eventually, while  turning just a little red, Dad told me that it meant “dumb head”.  I did not believe  that for one minute. I still don’t know what it really means. The spelling is probably very wrong as the Japanese translators online won't tell me either.  

 Smoky taught our daughter the Japanese word for bathroom (benjo), because it was more polite to use in public. We use a few other Japanese words, like hashi (chopstick).  Once when I was singing “London Bridges” to our young daughter, Robert started singing along with us in Japanese. He was just as surprised as we were because he didn’t know the song until he started singing it.

 I wish now that we had learned more while we had the chance.

A principal makes a difference

 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks: Week 37

Back to School

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 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.