The Life of Me: an Autobiography

CHAPTER 1. Parents, Grandparents, Our First Farm

PARENTS, GRANDPARENTS, OUR FIRST FARM

My Johnson grandparents reared nine children. Andrew was the oldest and was a half brother to the other eight. Joe was Grandma's first born, second was my father, William Franklin. All but one of them lived and thrived and raised children. That's why I have dozens of cousins.

When my father was born, the family lived in Bosque County, Texas, somewhere about Meridian. They were ranchers and owned a bunch of cattle. Some 20 years later we find the family in Concho County somewhere near Paint Rock or in between Paint Rock and where the little town of Melvin now stands.

At least two of the boys, Joe and Will, worked for the Melvin brothers on their ranch. I have heard Papa tell of breaking saddle horses for the brothers as well as trail driving near San Angelo.

In the meantime the weather turned dry, grass became scarce, and the Johnsons drove their cattle to Indian Territory, (Oklahoma) looking for grass in about the year of 1894--that is, all but Joe. He stayed with his job in Texas.

About a year after the family moved to Oklahoma, Will Johnson got a neighbor boy to go with him back to their place in Texas to bring another wagon load of household goods. They were gone about two weeks.

While the family was in Oklahoma, Will--who was about 20--taught school two terms at Nubbin Ridge, somewhere near Duncan. Simpson, being about 17 at the time, was not about to go to school to a teacher who was his older brother, so he saddled his horse and slipped away back to Melvin's ranch, to be with his brother Joe. He said he got tired of riding but not nearly as tired as his horse. The journey was about 300 miles. He was on the trail three days and nights and had to stop at times to let his horse rest. When he got to the ranch, Joe wrote to the family saying that Simpson was with him and for them not to worry. They had suspected where he had gone but were not sure.

My Gaddie grandparents reared five children, three boys and two girls. Emma, my mother, was next to the youngest. Hugh was her younger brother. When my mother was born the family lived in Larue County, Kentucky, near Hodgensville. Their farm joined the Lincoln farm. She and Abraham Lincoln drew water from the same well but not at the same time. The Lincoln family had moved away some years before the Gaddies moved there. The well was on the fence row between the two farms.

When Emma was four years old her family moved to Dallas County, Texas. Then they moved to Grayson County, where Emma started to school at age seven. When she was nine they moved back to their old home place in Kentucky. Again, when she was 13, they moved to Dallas County, and at age 16 the family moved to a farm some eight miles southeast of Duncan, Oklahoma.

About the same time the Gaddie family moved to their farm near Duncan, we find the Johnson family leaving Texas where the weather turned dry and the grass became scarce and the Johnsons drove their cattle to Indian Territory looking for grass, and they found that grass near Duncan, Oklahoma.

They stayed in Oklahoma about four years and during that time at least two of the boys were busy at things other than sitting around watching cattle grow. Andrew had married a girl named Mary, and Will had met this pretty little freckle faced girl from Kentucky.

So then, as you can see, here in farming and cattle country near Duncan is where the Johnsons met up with the Gaddies. This is where a schoolteaching cowboy named Will met a country farmer's daughter named Emma Lee. This is where the falling in love took place. And this is where Will married Emma in the fall of 1896. She was 18, he was 22. They were my parents.

After living in Oklahoma that four years, Grandpa Johnson went back to Texas looking for land to buy. He found what he wanted and bought 1,000 acres of unimproved land in Jones County about three miles southeast of Hamlin. Then he went back to Oklahoma to get the family.

So by the time Grandpa Johnson was ready to start his journey back to Texas with his family, the family had increased by two daughters-in-law and two grandchildren. Will and Emma had a son, Frank, six weeks old. Andrew and Mary had a daughter, Ruth, only three weeks old. Some thought that Ruth was too young to make the trip in the cold of winter. But they all came through in wagons and drove their cattle. That was in January of 1898.

In later years Mama told me that she thought she would have frozen to death if it had not been for Frank in her lap to help keep her warm. The trip took two weeks in the dead of winter and it rained every day of the trip.

Since there were no improvements on the Johnson land, they all rented other farms for a year or two while they made improvements. Papa and Mama rented and farmed one year in Fisher County. Much of the well water in that county tastes so strongly of gypsum that people have to haul their drinking water from the better wells. So, the story is told that when they were driving their covered wagon to Fisher County, they stopped and asked a man, "How far is it to Fisher County?"

The man said, "You are still about ten miles away."

"How can we tell when we get there?"

"You will see farmers hauling water in barrels in wagons."

"Have they always had to haul water in Fisher County?"

"Yes, but during the World Flood they didn't have to haul it so far. The flood water came within a half-mile of Roby."

I guess Grandpa farmed at least one year in Fisher County. They tell me that Ed, one of the younger boys, went to school in that county at White Pond one year.

Grandpa had bought the l,000 acres for all the family. Andrew and Will were the first ones to buy their portions of 100 acres each. The raw land had cost $3 an acre. Papa's farm cost him $300.

Papa was fast becoming a good carpenter and he did his part in helping build a two-story house on Grandpa's portion of the land. The house is still in good shape and has a family living in it 77 years later.

Andrew first lived in a dugout on his 100 acres. They used the dugout for a kitchen and storm cellar many years after they built a house beside it.

Papa's land was in the southeast corner of the 1,000 acre tract. He built his house about a quarter-mile south of Grandpa's house. It is still standing also. Since that time some of the Johnson boys and girls have bought and sold and swapped portions of the land. But most of it is still in the hands of the Johnson boys and girls or their sons and daughters.

After farming in Fisher County in the year of 1898, Papa moved to a farm in Jones County, a mile northeast of Neinda, and farmed there in 1899. And there, in a half-dugout, my sister, Susie, was born.

Many years later as we would drive by the farm in our hack, on our way to church at Neinda, our parents would point out the old dugout and explain, "There is where we used to live." Year after year as the old dugout deteriorated and began caving in, we still went by it on our way to church and there was always something fascinating about it to us kids as one or more of us would point to the old dwelling and say, "There's where Mama and Papa used to live."

During the two years my parents farmed away from their own farm, they spent many days of hard work driving back and forth, building a house, clearing some of the land, and building fences on their land. And of course they had to have a well drilled and put up a windmill and water tank.

At the end of that two years, they took their two children and moved into their new house on the first farm they had ever owned. And Papa, with the aid of an efficient helpmate, continued to improve the farm. They built a big barn and shelters for cows, hogs, horses, poultry, a hack, buggy, harness, and other things. And the family continued to grow. George was born in 1900 and a daughter in 1901. George lived 26 months and died with the croup. The daughter lived only two weeks. Earl was born in 1902 and Joel in 1904. This was the state of the family in 1906, the year Grandpa died in his home, and the year I was born. Aunts, Uncles, and cousins lived on three sides of us, and Grandma lived in the big house a quarter-mile north of us.

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