Written in a green steno notebook by Vera Maye Harrison Holley
(17 Jan 1917-13 Sept 1995)
There are no dates as to when it was written,
though the pen and ink changed often
I want to write a few things that come to me about my ancestors that I know personally or have been told by those involved.
In 1933 my grandfather William A. Harrison had prostate cancer and I would stay with them some nights and my grandmother would talk some of her childhood. Her family lived on the North Carolina, Tennessee line on the Hiwasee river where Reliance, TN is now. It is in the foothills of the Smoky Mts. We lived in Olustee, Ok. on the plains and her stories were fascinating to me when she talked of trees and mts. Apparently several of her uncles lived near, for she told of visiting with cousins and had to get home before dark because there were bears in the woods. She didn't like bear meat, it's greasy and had a bitter taste. Her father was a doctor (of sorts) and people came to him for all sorts of illness. She didn't talk about her mother that I remember.
I visited Reliance about 1970 and ate Sunday dinner with her niece Alice Webb and her sons Oliver and Harold, and family. We only stayed a few hours. It was beautiful country and the river was used for floats as well as fishing. The store and PO was made of knotty pine cut from their farm. Thomas Vaughn (Alice's brother) had a farm at Creta, 'tween Olustee and Eldorado, OK. My Dad used to put our milk cows on it to graze for a time each year. Thomas hoped it would have oil -- but it didn't.
When Thomas died, Harold Webb came to Altus and visited Jim and Dad and sold it. He had friends in Tulsa so he came to see me. I took him to eat at the Golden Drumstick -- which was at 11th and Yale.
When Grandpa died in May, all the children came. (He was at home the whole time he was ill.) They sat up with Grandma and helped her care for him. Harold, my brother, was there the night he died and he told me Grandpa was conscious and he raised his hand and waved at those around the bed and said "They've come for me and I'm going."
Grandma was a Christian in Tenn. Before they came to Okla. But Grandpa was converted at Olustee when he was 65. He was buried on Mother's Day, 1933. That was when Max graduated from High School. Mom and Dad had sit up with Grandpa and lost sleep but they felt they had to go to Max's valedictory address after the funeral and they both fell asleep! Mom woke up and jumped and that woke Dad up. He thought he had snored and she poked him. We all had a laugh.
My girl friend Evelyn Carter's dad worked with Tims Undertakers of Altus, so she and I rode in the hearse when we went to the cemetery to bury Grandpa.
Grandma died in 1939, Mother's Day. She had cancer of the stomach. She stayed at home, also. All the kids were with her at the end. Two or three times she said she saw a hand come down from the ceiling motioning for her to come. She must have suffered. I don't remember how long she was sick. Domer and I had lived in Calif. a while but we were there for her funeral. Mary Jo (Irene's daughter) sang -- she said it was hard for her.
I was born at the farm at Friendship (as was Opal, Johnnye and Ray.) It was about 1/2 mile west of the "town" (a grocery, church, 2 gins and a dozen or so houses.) The school was a mile north and about 2 miles east. We got our mail at a box about 1/3 mile west of our house. At one time in the 20's Aunt Rusha, Uncles Frank, Claude and Ben all lived around Friendship. All we kids played together real often. Mama and Aunt Ned joked together a lot. They would mock Aunt Azzie, whose favorite expression was "Lord a mercy, Frank." Aunt May - Uncle Ben's wife, wasn't part of our good time. She was stand offish. She wouldn't let JB and Fay play jacks or marbles or make mud pies like the rest of us kids. They moved to Mountain View Ok. And ran a store and filling station. I never did figure out Aunt May.
In later years JB was friendly, but Fay never was. Aunt Mayme tried to keep in touch. She (Faye) didn't keep in touch with JB or her Dad. Kind of like Max's wife, Imogene and Jeanne Anne and Linda.
Max went to Chicago to Cohen electrical school. He ate Thanksgiving dinner (1933) with a cousin of Dad, Sarah Vaughn who was living with her daughter Mayme Lindrop. They had turkey and all the trimmings, but no bread and I remember him thinking it odd for we were raised on gravy and bread. He also went to the world's fair which they had in Chicago in 1933.
Daddy wanted us to have a college education. Edwin went to A&M at Stillwater a year. Vaughn, Jim and I attended Central State at Edmond for a time. Opal and Johnnye went to Jr. college at Altus. After she was married, Johnnye got her degree in California. Harold got married before he finished high school and Ray enlisted in the Navy after he graduated.
Aunt Mayme went to college and to Baylor in Tex. She taught school and lived with my family both on the farms at Bitter Creek and Friendship. She also taught at Elmer in Jackson county.
Aunt Rachel was sick so Grandma, Grandpa, Dad, Aunt Azzie and her brother Harve Wheeler and Edwin drove to Tenn. In a 'touring' car. 1924. Uncle Frank didn't want to go so he 'hid in the cane field.' I don't know whether he really did or not -- but it was a joke in the family. Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Mayme made many trips -- but always by train. Mayme married there and later while visiting her they got to go to the evolution trial (famous) in Dayton.
By 1919 Rusha, Frank and John had moved to Olustee. It was a bad move financially for Dad. The depression came and the terrible dust storms and drought. We were more fortunate than most for we had a dairy and sold enough butter to buy our groceries, and we had a garden and raised chickens and hogs -- so we had plenty to eat. Dad lost the farm, but salvaged enough to buy a small farm at Victory. We moved from a nine room to a four room house that had a bunk house where the boys slept. (Edwin, Vaughn and Ray.)
Verna died when Eddie Van was a week or so old in 1936. It was tough, but we made the best of it! I married Domer in December 1937. Opal married Clyde Haws in 1939. Vaughn went to Calif. For work and married Marjorie 2-1941. Edwin went to work in New Mex. And married Polly 12-1941. Harold and family went to Bakersfield, Calif. In the summer of 1937. Jim and Max worked at a dairy for a while in Wasco, Calif. Near Bakersfield. Max moved to Tx. Wilma and Jim moved to Mangum -- she was with Bell Tele. And he did sheet metal work.
Domer and I were back and forth to Calif. Both of our girls were born there. He was a roofer. We moved to Tulsa in 1951 and he started work at American Airlines -- we are still here!
I had my first plane trip in 1952 when Joan was born -- Susan, Phyllis and I. Susan was 3, I remember that Ed stopped at a drive-in in Long Beach on the way to the hospital and had a piece of cheese cake with strawberry topping, and she woke up after Joan was born and she said she'd dreamed of eating strawberry jam. We went back the next year when Jan was born and kept Joan. That's when she said I smelled like a mommie.
In the same summer I went to North Carolina to see Aunt Mayme. I flew to Roanoke, VA and caught a bus to Winston-Salem. Uncle Claude Mc was at work all day and Betty Will was away with friends so aunt Mayme and I were on the go a lot. She took me to old Salem and we spent all one day then we went to Charlotte with Uncle Claude one day and one day we went to the tobacco sheds and on to the cigarette factory. On Sunday we went to church and she made me wear one of her hats and wear gloves! They were proper.
After a week she and Uncle Claude packed a picnic lunch and took me to Wythville, VA to catch a train to Chattanooga, TN. I planned to go to Aunt Mae Hudson's, but since I would be in the night arriving, she wrote a letter to Mama's cousin (Ollie Foust Farmer) to meet my train. I didn't know her but I had met her two sisters, Flossie and Jessie. They (Ollie and Mike) were so nice. Her husband Mike was a friend of my Dad when they were boys and he said Grandma had an old pump organ and all the kids would meet there to sing and Grandma played.
I had never heard that, but my Dad could chord and sing. He would sing "Red River Valley" and put the words Sequatchie instead of Red River when I was a kid.
I'm glad Aunt Mayme sent me there. They took me to Lookout Mt. Me and Ollie rode the cog railroad down and Mike met us at the bottom and took us out to lunch. Aunt Mae and Dorothy, her daughter, picked me up that afternoon and took me by a 'Boyd' house in Chattanooga. Several people were there and I just remember Leslie. It may have been his home. I didn't know much about Mama's family then. I had met Aunt Mae when she came to Mama's funeral. I spent that night with Bill and Will Helen -- Aunt Mae's son. Aunt Mae's father-in-law was sick and Aunt Mae was caring for him.
He had built Aunt Mae a house on his land. He and his wife had helped Aunt Mae so much. Uncle Lige was an alcoholic and had drank some sorry stuff and had what they called 'Jake leg.' So the next day Aunt Mae and Sis, her daughter, took me to Flossie at Mt. Airy (up the valley -- where Mama lived when she was young.) I spent two nights there and saw the "jot 'em down" store. They were building a new store for a new road was built from Dunlap to Pikeville and it missed the old store. Flossie and daughter took me to Pikeville to Brown and Mattie (Farmer) Boyd's to a luncheon. Jessie Boyd Lusk and her daughter Hazel were there, also Fannette, Uncle Oscar's second wife.
They all said I looked like Aunt Rachel. Brown Boyd had worked as a bookkeeper for Uncle Oscar's car dealership for years, and for Fannette until he died. After lunch John Vaughn picked me up and I spent the night with he and Elizabeth. They had adopted four children. That night I slept in an antique bed that was so high I climbed two steps to get in it. For supper we had fish and hush puppies -- John was a fisherman!
The next day he drove me all over Cumberland Mt., showed me where Grandpa Harrison lived -- where Grandma went to church, to Falls Creek falls (which later was made into a state park.) We climbed up a fire tower where we could see for miles. He was a story teller and told ones I'd heard Dad and Aunt Mayme tell. I spent the next two days with Aunt Ida. I enjoyed visiting with her. I met Myrtle [Ida's daughter] and her son Edwin. I met a grandson about 10 -- who was Aunt Ida's favorite. He got her place near Pikeville.
Vera, her son Vaughn and friends of his picked me up and I went to Vera's at Crossville. The boys went away and Gene, Vera's husband, was away, so we drove over the country and ate out except for breakfast. She had a lovely new home. I met her daughter, Carolyn, and family. She took me to Pikeville and a fellow who worked for John took me to Whitwell to Aunt Mae's. Mr. Hudson had died, so although it was a sad time, we had a good visit and I got to know her family. We went to Lookout Mt.. I had them take a picture beside the rock where Mama had her picture made before she married.
While there I found out what 'twilight' meant. When I was growing up Mama didn't talk about Tenn. That I remember except once she said they had hummingbirds and that they did their visiting during twilight. I'm sure Edwin and Jim heard lots more and I wished I had been more observant back when I was a child. I think Tenn. is so pretty -- the eastern part. I asked Dad once why they ever left Tenn. He said it wasn't like that when he left. I said OK, wasn't like it is now. Grandpa was a farmer and great stretches of land was to be desired. Besides they thought Grandma had TB. She was wore out having kids! She was short, about 5 feet and I doubt she weighed over 100 pounds.
I didn't go to Tenn. again until 1959. Phyllis had gone to Ridgecrest NC with a bus load of girls to a GA conference, so I flew to Aunt Mae's and met her there and we flew home together. Aunt Mae had cancer and was taking radium treatments. She died the next year.
Domer and I flew to see Aunt Mayme and Uncle Claude and were to fly on to Chattanooga but when we got to Knoxville our plane had been hijacked, so we stayed all night and rented a car and drove by Reliance and on to Chattanooga to Bill and Will Helen's. I met a cousin, Lora Lamb Holloway. Her son came by to see us the next year. He lives in Pensacola, Fl and was in Tulsa on business. Bill and Will Helen took us all over the country. He got me some coal from my great grandfather Boyd's mine -- at least on the place he lived (Atpontly mine.)
Mama lived at Mt. Airy -- near Dunlap. When she went o college (Lusk College) she went by train. It was near Pailo, where her great grandfather settled when he came to Tenn. It was below Pikeville and north of Dunlap. That's where my mother's folks are all buried -- except her father. He was sick and wanted to see Mama so he and Aunt Mae started to Oklahoma by train. He told Aunt Mae if he died east of the Mississippi river to bury him in Tenn. If he died west of Mississippi river to take him to Oklahoma. He lived a few months in Oklahoma (died at Bitter Creek farm , July, 1913) and is buried at Olustee cemetery. Aunt Mae Hudson told me this when I went to see her.
Daddy told me he was riding a horse when he first saw Mama and when he looked into her big blue eyes he fell in love.
I met Domer at his house when Opal and I went to use the phone (they had an Olustee line, the rest of Victory had Altus.) Opal agreed that he was cute -- but kind of silly! He is.
I saw a show on TV that reminded me -- when we lived at Friendship we had two big gardens. It was sandy land and things grew well. We had all kinds of tomatoes and onions across the road from the house. Mama canned a lot and made preserves out of little bell shaped yellow ones. We had a big garden across the creek east of the house where we grew Irish and sweet potatoes. Some of the boys made furrows with a horse drawn plow and we littler kids would drop the Irish potato pieces. Daddy followed us with a hoe and covered them up. The sweet potatoes were what we called 'slips', they had leaves and Daddy would take a hoe handle and make a hole in the soft plowed ground and we would put the slip in the hole and over all but the leaves with dirt.
We enjoyed it for a while -- it grew old! Every few years we would raise alfalfa on the east garden. When we cut it we had a horse drawn hay baler. It was a job for Opal and I to drive the horse. It went in a circle, but it had to step over part of the baler which moved back and forth and made a noise. If we weren't behind the horse it would stop and the baler would stop. We had to jump over it and sometimes the horse nearly caught up with us and we had to run to keep the baler going.
Those were prosperous times in the 20s. We did things as a community. All the churches and school went on picnics, swim parties and fish fries and to the Navajo Mountains. I remember when we tithed and had fruit jars of money (cash) for us kids to take for offerings. After those good years came the crash of 29 and Daddy made a big mistake of moving to Olustee and bought a bigger farm and tractors and stuff and lost almost all we had.
He made a good crop and put the money in the bank and FDR closed the banks and none of the money went on the debt. Then came the drought and sandstorms. The famous dust bowl. FDR started WPA make work and started America on the road to socialism.
My years at Friendship and Olustee were happy and carefree. Laverne Dial was my best friend. Her farm was next to ours and we would meet in the orchard and play for hours. Opal and I played house under the grape vine. We swept the ground and made mud pies. We had play tin dishes.
Johnnye went about her own business. When we teased her she said "It don't make me it!" I would get made and throw any thing. Opal would cry and run to Mama. Johnnye picked up pieces of broken glass (colored) and put it in a sofa pillow case and left it in a chair and Dad sat on it and threw it across the room. Johnnye was good until Ted (cousin) came. They broke all the eggs in the hen house and painted their faces with lye.
One time Mama was washing and heated the water in a big iron pot and started the fire with kerosene and left some in a tin can. Johnnye drank it. Mama called the doctor. He was at a farm near us and he said keep her awake. I remember Mama carrying her and shaking her when she laid her head on her shoulder.
The boys, especially Jim and Vaughn, were the worst teasers. Max and I got mad. One time the folks were away he and Vaughn had a fight. Poor Aunt Margaret was a worrier and she thought they would kill each other. So Opal and Johnnye went out behind the chicken house to pray that they didn't.
I was a fraidy cat. Vaughn would help me climb a tree and run off and I would cry until someone helped me down. With nine it was something going on all the time.
Every Sunday the boys went courting but they had to be home to milk the cows. They would bring the girls with them. I don't know how Mama fed them and then we would all go to church. I remember we would sit on the front and study our BYPU lesson and refresh our daily Bible readings. I never do remember being cold at Friendship! It was a warm happy time for me.
At Olustee we had to walk to school and I remember the snow and north wind. We didn't have money for boots and we wore socks over our shoes to keep snow out of our shoes.
I loved Verna (Eddie's mother.) She would brag on me when I fixed my hair or arched my eyebrows. She loved to hide Ray in their truck and wink at us and take Ray for the night. Eddie will never know how much love he missed when Verna died. Someday we'll understand why she died.
(this was the last entry in the notebook)