My grandpa has blessed so many lives. There are two things that stand out that I will never forget. He always made me feel like I was such an important person in his life. I know that he did that for just about everyone he met and cared about which is such an incredible thing. His never-ending love and passion for grandma gave me a great role-model. Somebody that can be married for almost 66 years and still have that glisten in their eyes when they look at each other gives me something to look forward to.
The other thing that I will never forget is the way that Grandpa could talk to anybody. No matter where we were at or who we were with Grandpa could strike up a conversation and be truly involved in it with anybody. He always has some way to relate to people and that is a remarkable thing to me.
I pulled up an email that Grandpa sent my brother James about his past and am pasting it here. It makes this post really long but it is an interesting story. I have also posted some pictures below the story.
Dear Grand son ; My dad was uncertain of his true birthday all he can
remember is his folks putting him in the back of a wagon & telling him
they would come & get him there were several children in a wagon of a
German couple named Schmit he could walk but could barely see over the
tailgate which if right was about 3 ft . high[ Our friend Oscar Snyder
that I grew up with told us that Dad had told him it was at Galveston
Island & my grand parents stayed to help sand bag the dikes & were
drowned ] the German people took him to a town in Texas near Trenton he
always wrote [Dallas county ]were he lived was put in a Catholic school
were he went possibly 3rd grade .The Folks were very strict & punished
Him severely on one occasion he fell & broke a basket of eggs &the man
used a buggy whip & welted his back so bad he couldn't bear a shirt &
that was when his brother came riding in to find his little brother Dad
said he found the welts & said before he left that he had a job to do
out West & he would be back for him before he left he told the German
that if he used the whip again when he returned he would kill him Dad
said he was riding a beautiful black horse with a silver mounted saddle
he had Two pistols tied down . After he left dad was treated better for
awhile & the cruelty started with [we should never have kept an Irish
Kid.] At school in his 3rd year he heard boys talking about the cattlemen
gathering a large heard of cattle being gathered some ten
miles to the west to be driven north ,so early the next evening as soon
as the people were asleep with a pair of jeans & shirt extra put his
Demin jacket & headed to the cattle drive bye running & walking fast he
could arrived at the cattle drive which had several thousand head of
cattle ready to move before day light & hid in the cook wagons fire wood
box on the side of
the wagon which was empty of wood.,Where he stayed till night then
would find left overs& grain they carried for the horses pulling the
cook wagon After several days of this when he was far enough out so he
couldn't be taken back he came out & told the cook about the cruelty &
didn't want to go back so the cook let him stay help him do the cooking
& get fire wood , it took 2 or more years to reach KS where the cattle
on the blue stem grass put so much weight on like feeding them grain He
made several more drives but on the last drive he heard of the free land
in Ok la. the same year he met Grand ma Her name was Catherine
MaudeFairfax she lived some where near Emporia or Carbondale I think her
school records may be in archives in emporia's school records? Any way
they fell in love & at a dance she told dad that her dad was taking the
family & make the
run for land in few weeks Dad said he asked her to marry him & her dad
said it would be ok if he made the run & stake a claim so dad told him
he had came through Indian territory many times & knew exactly where he
wanted showing him where the spot was &that he had Avery fast horse &
tough from the hard work of the cantle drives so they agreed dad would
go ahead stake him a claim & one for moms folks who had two boys & 3
girls Mom youngest Dad leaving the crowd far behind arrived at his
perfect spot the bubbling spring with Two mean looking guys fondling
claim stake they were pounding in the ground before dad thought he
blurted out there is no way in H you could have beat me as he looked in
to the barrels of there pistols quickly adding unless you have some
awful fast horses which you do . Getting that said he Quickly move on
about a mile where his second choice & staked his claim & one for
Fairfax the claim is between Hitchcock & watonga just before you get to
the top of the hill south in the second Canyon is where dad homesteaded
& build a dug out cabin in the side of a hill. Mom & dad was the first
white couple married in watonga They lived there till the proved up
there claim bringing Bud, Roy ,Fred &
[Catherine MaryDiedat 2yrsTyphoid fever] Many stories of his early
life that he only told to me as I was growing up he was quite a man wish
you could have Known him? If able & you ever get time will show you the
claim am not sure if dug out is still there but the land is but I
realize am getting old too fast I could never get Ron interested enough
to even go lookJimLee did try to find it not sure if succeeded Dad spent
his whole Life in Blain county Okla[ Except a brief time in western
Okla]
tell you about it later G&G Love ya Will find out his death &
birthdate can't remember
