OKLAHOMA  ODYSSEY

        It was because of my mother's health - she had asthma and the Dr. said a change of climate is all that would help.  They made a bed in the covered wagon and carried her to it - also 3 children and their furniture and their belongings in another covered wagon.  The children were Albert Ralph and Iva.
        When they got as far west as Liberal Kans. she slept all night for the first time in a long time with her breathing problems.
        They continued on until they were in Beaver County Okla. and settled there.  It was 3 miles from the Texas line and called "No Man's land" Indian territory.  Their home was a sod house and that is where Paul was born, the year 1905.  In 1908 I was born but Uncle Perry had come and built onto the sod house so it was really part sod house at that time.
        Papa homesteaded that place then later traded it for a grocery store at Speermore, Okla. which was near there.  We lived there until I was around 4 yrs. old maybe between 4 and 5 yrs., then Papa traded the store for a farm not maybe 2 miles north of Perry Okla.
        The move was on again in 2 covered wagons plus 5 children and a shepherd dog following behind.  Albert and Ralph were driving the first wagon and Albert made music playing the old organ — I can remember the trip of a few things, what it all looked like and the camping at night and my mother cooking on a campfire but I don't remember eating!
        They had to cross the Cimarron River on some sort of a makeshift wooden deal and had to be careful because it was quicksand.  Anyhow we made it to the farm.  I have no idea how long it took and have always wondered.
        It was a nice place with lots of fruit trees but I don't think we stayed 2 yrs. and it was time to move on — Papa again traded that for another grocery store in Glencoe, Okla.
        I would have thought my mother would have died from it all, but her health was good then.  We must not have stayed in Glencoe not quite 2 years because I went my first year to school there and my second one was in Burden, Kans.  The time spent in Glencoe was something else.  One night a fire broke out in one of the stores and burned out one whole side of the main street business places and our store was one of them — no insurance!  But several towns around took up a collection and helped them all rebuild.
        So much for Okla. and now we're on the move again to Burden, Kans. only this time we left by train – Mama – Papa – Paul and Iva and me.  Ralph and Albert had gone to Lamar Colo. and filed on some government land there.
        We stayed in Burden until I believe it was 1927 and it was way past time for another move which was Wichita, Ks. and a hamburger stand this time.  He kept it about 6 yrs.  My mother passed away (60 yrs. old).  Then he moved back to Burden and married Lizzie Triplett.  After she passed away Papa moved back to Wichita and lived with me the last 5 yrs. he lived.
        What is strange about all this moving half of Papa's relatives all went too — We were as I've often said like a tribe of gypsies — There was his sister Aunt Mattie and her husband and their daughter Maggie and her husband — their son Forrest and his Wife and daughter (her name is Beulah too) then one of Papa's nieces and boy came and stayed a short time.  Her name was Mamie Crabb.
        As you well know the size of Burden, Ks. Papa moved his store 5 times — on the west side of Main Street he had been on the north and south corners and 2 different buildings in the middle.  On the east side of Main Street it was the large building at the north end.  When Ralph and Albert were small he had a restaurant on the east side somewhere in the middle of the block.
        Papa was a good hearted and good natured person — Irish and Scotch and believed in not meddling in other peoples business and every one liked him.  My mother was a good woman — good natured and got along with most people and every one I knew loved her — she was a lot of fun.  This about covers the life of your grandparents, to my cousins it was Uncle Ben and Aunt Cass.
        I might add that at the time my mother passed away she didn't have Asthma.  Her death was from surgery for ruptured appendix.  She was in St. Francis Hospital 3 times that year because of the complications of the surgery.  died at 60 yrs. old.  Papa had nothing wrong with him except his heart attacks which was 3.  Died at 87 yrs. old.

Moved from Ohio to Winfield Kans. - 1880.

    Joined the Navy at the age of 17 with his parent's permission, and the condition that he would return to school if it didn't work out. 

    He met Annette Jane Franklin at the Burden High School which he attended following his medical discharge, which he received because of an old wound reopening while jumping off of a diving board. The story behind the wound is that while Eldon was a boy, he was smoking next to a barrel of gasoline, when his parent's and his visiting aunt and uncle came out or the house. Not wishing to be caught smoking, he threw the lit cigarette behind him, into the barrel, resulting in an explosion that sent him into the air, splittine, his leg open.  Needless to say , he was caught. 

    Eldon also had arthritis. After his marriage, he was employed at a gas station, but working in the damp weather affected his arthritis so badly that he had to quit, which is when he went to work at the Boeing Aircraft plant in Wichita, though they didn't move there.

    According to his mother, his littlest sister Kathy was his  baby.  He looked after her and helped take care of her.  I'm told he loved babies. He was about 12 at the time she was born.

    Ben and Cassie were married on Christmas Day, 1890 at Eaton, Kansas. About 10 months later Albert was born, also at Eaton according to Hilda, although his birth certificate says Salem, in the Pastor's office.   While still living in the area of Burden, they also had Ralph, Johnny , and Iva.   Johnny died at the age of 6 months.  Because of Cassie's asthma, they loaded up their belongings and Case in her bed into two covered wagons, and along with some relatives they set out for Beaver County, Oklahoma. Beulah thinks it was at Liberal, Kansas that her mother could breath well enough to sleep all night for the first time in a long time.

    The house in Beaver County was made of sod, and later Perry Nimrod came out and built on to it.  Paul and Beulah were born there. Cass also had a twin miscarriage there, thought to be a boy and a girl, not named. They are buried there.   They lived 3 miles from the Texas line.

    Eventually Ben traded that place for a grocery store in Speermore, Oklahoma and the family lived in the back of it.  The relatives went back to Burden when they left Beaver County.

    From Speermore, Ben traded his store for a farm at Perry, Oklahoma, and Beulah remembers the move.  She says that Albert and Ralph were in one wagon, and Albert played the old organ, in the back of the wagon.  She also remembers a pot of beans that never got done because of hard  water,  though they were put back on a fire every time they stopped.

    Ben traded the farm at Perry for another store at Glencoe, Oklahoma.  One night the town caught fire, and the whole side of the block that their store was on burned to the ground.  Beulah says they all rebuilt, and her first year of school was there.

    Then they all went back to Burden, this time by train.  Ben had another grocery store there, which he moved 4 or 5 times before he moved his family to Wichita in 1927. In Wichita he ran a hamburger stand for 12 years. Cass's asthma was all but cured.

    Ben and Cass were members of the Burden Baptist Church.  The children were all baptized in the old Silver Creek west of Burden, and rode back to town in all those wet clothes in the back of a wagon, and nobody caught cold.

    Iva died of Typhoid at the age of 18, in Burden.  At the time Albert had been in the Navy for a little less than 3 months.

    Ben and Cassie are buried in the Burden Cemetery.  Baby John is buried with his grandparents,  Mathew and Eliza Franklin.  Iva is with her parents.

    Ben and brother William were in the Cherokee Strip Land run or l893. William's claim was half mile west of Newkirk, and Ben got two claims one for himself and one for sister (widowed) Sallie.  While settling Sallie's claim, his own was taken by claim jumpers.

    Benjamin and Cassie were Baptists. She had a twin miscarriage.  Ben also had twin brothers who died at birth, Iva died very young, age 18, of typhoid.

    Ben moved with his family when he was a boy from Portsmouth, Ohio to Chillicothia, and from there to Winfield, Kansas in 1878.

    Ralph, Esther, and Paul are buried in the Wichita, Kansas Park Cemetery.

    Catherine's twin miscarriage was before Beulah's birth, but thought to be a boy and a girl, lost in the early stages, not named. They are buried in Beaver County, Oklahoma.

    Beaver County was Indian Territory, called "No Man's Land".  They lived three miles from the Texas line, Beulah believes that Ben (her father) was the youngest of eight children.

    Beulah said, we were all baptized in the Old Silver Creek west of Burden in November,  rode back to town in all those wet clothes and no one caught cold (She thinks about 1920)

    Ben and Case were members of the Burden Baptist Church.

   Cass had asthma, and they moved around a lot. (See Beulah's letter of April 22, 1980).

    They had a sod house in Beaver County, Oklahoma.  They traded it for a grocery store in Speermore, Oklahoma, and lived in the back of it. They traded this for a farm at Perry, Oklahoma, which they traded for a store in Glencoe, Oklahoma. It burned to the ground along with a large part of the block, no insurance, so they went back to Burden. They ran another grocery store there, and moved it 4 or 5 times.  They moved to Wichita, Kansas in 1927 and ran a hamburger stand for 12 years.

Letter from Beulah (Franklin) Greider describing moves:

    Papa's folks moved from Ohio to Winfield in 1880.  Papa said there were two stores there and the railroad was put through and he got a job working on that (about 15 years old).  He also worked as a bellboy at the old Britton Hotel (no longer there).  They lived east of Winfield on the way to Burden-they later moved to Burden west of the old High School. They both passed away there.

    The move from Burden to Oklahoma was because of my mother's health she had asthma and was carried from bed in a covered wagon or rather put in the covered wagon.

    I believe it was Liberal, Kansas she said she slept all night for the first time in a long time (able to breath) they kept going until they got to the place in Beaver County and settled.  It was a sod house and later Uncle Perry came out and added on to it.  When they made the move it was Albert, Ralph, Iva, then later Paul and I were born.  Anyhow they traded that place for a grocery store at Speermore. Oklahoma and we lived in the back of the store.

    I guess I was about 4 or 5 years old when they left there and started again  in 2 covered wagons for Perry, and Ralph and Albert played the old organ.  Imagine!  And I remember Mama trying to cook Navy beans in a big iron kettle and every time we stopped the beans were put on a bon fire again!  I asked Ralph one time if those beans ever got done because I don't remember eating them.  He said it was gyp water (hard water).  Anyhow, we finally got to Perry, Oklahoma.  Don't remember how long it took we had to cross the Cimarron River on a make shift ferry of some kind that river was quick sand and I guess they sure had to be careful not getting in that.

    Papa had traded the store in Speermore for a farm at Perry-well we lived there for a year-about then he traded that farm for another store in Glencoe, Oklahoma so on we moved again there-everything you own in 2 covered wagon's!  Then this was an experience there;  the town caught fire one night and the whole side of the street our store was on went up in flames-no insurance.  They all rebuilt and I went my first year of school in Glencoe.  Well it was time to move on again!  So we moved to Burden again- I don't know what year it was but I think my second year of School was in Burden.  We stopped in Ark City stayed in a hotel-Mama got me a new coat and shoes and I had never rode in an elevator before and I got real sick.  The folks were going to take Paul and I to circus that was in town but I got too sick and we didn't get to go Anyhow we landed in Burden and it was a grocery store again and on top of that Papa moved his store 4 maybe 5 times while there-then the move here to Wichita in 1927 to a Hamburger stand!  He stayed 12 years in it so that was a record- I always said we were like a tribe of gypsies  and more so because relatives went with us to Oklahoma-Papa's sister Mattie and husband Wilbur, their daughter Maggie Mount-husband George and their son Forrest and wife Lizzie and their daughter Beulah then Papa had a niece Mamie Crabb and she came-then they all left and went back to Burden when we left for Perry, Oklahoma.

    But the climate all but cured Mama's asthma she had a few spells after going back to Burden but not bad.