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)