Dear Kinfolk                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Augusta I. Metcalfe, 1881-1971, was known as the “Sagebrush Artist”, she rendered paintings that depicted her first-hand knowledge of ranch life at the same time that the Anderson, Wilson and Guernsey families lived nearby in Oklahoma Territory.  She lived on the 640 acres her father homestead on the Washita River near Durham, Oklahoma.  Her husband left her with an infant and invalid mother in 1908.  The strong, determined young woman continued to perform the ranch operations, stringing fence wire, planting, harvesting, roping and branding and then cooking evening meals on her wood stove.   She would have to set her painting set aside, but she always returned to her art.  At the FIRST Oklahoma State Fair she won two first prizes for her paintings. In 1949, the Oklahoma Art Center featured her paintings in a one-artist exhibit and in 1950 LIFE  Magazine printed two full color pages of  her work. Augusta I. Metcalfe is included in the Oklahoma Hall of Fame and the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame (ENCYCLOPEDIA OF OKLAHOMA HISTORY AND CULTURE).

Of particular interest to us is her painting of the PRAIRIE WEDDING.  Myrtle Hammond,  whose father started the town of Hamburg, OK , wanted to marry Pat Wilson.   Due to their difference in age and Pat Wilson’s wild reputation, her father objected to the marriage.  According to Lloydelle Lester, of the Metcalfe Museum, “they tried to get married several times but the father would find out about it and stop them”!  They finally made it happen in a prairie setting.  Her two sisters, the Shaw family and Augusta Metcalfe were in attendance with Preacher Dougherty.  Augusta was inspired to do the following painting of the wedding.

In September, 1903, Augusta captures the actual event of the forbidden wedding of local couple, Pat Wilson and Myrtle Hammond,in the sandhills several miles north of the Corson home. Augusta, far left, is seen wearing her signature white bonnet.  Myrtle had arranged for a local hat maker to make three bonnets, two for her sisters, standing behind her, and one for her.

NOW FOR THE REST OF THE STORY…………Pat Wilson is our “kinfolk”!  Our great grandfather Albert Anderson’s wife Nancy Wilson,  was Pat Wilson’s aunt!  Pat’s father  a brother to Nancy.

Myrtle’s father, Mr. Hammond, had good reason to question his daughters choice of Pat Wilson.  It was written “if there was ever a fight in the Blue Goose Saloon in Hamburg, Oklahoma, Pat Wilson would be in the middle of it”. 

When the town of Hamburg died out later, the Blue Goose Saloon was donated and moved to the Metcalf Museum, in Durham OK., as shown below;

  Joan Wilson Crawford, a granddaughter of Pat and  Myrtle, wrote that her grandparents ran the post office at Hamburg.

 Joan also wrote,”Pat was good friends with Temple Houston and her father was named Temple Houston Wilson, as a result of this friendship”.

“Pat and Temple used to rustle cattle and do other things that outlaws did.  After theses episodes, they would hang out at the Hamburg Post Office as if nothing had happened.  They were apparently never caught for their rowdy ways, their actions settled down later in life”.  This story taken from THE CANADIAN, TEXAS newspaper article, METCALF MUSINGS, dated July 27, 2006.

Temple Lea Houston was an attorney who had a flamboyant reputation for taking on controversial cases.   He was the last-born child of Sam Houston, the first elected president of the Republic of Texas.  In 1882, Houston was appointed  the District Attorney of the 35 Judicial District of Texas, based in Mobeetie, Wheeler County, TX.  This may have been where Temple and Pat first crossed paths.  Lloydelle Lester, Director of the Metcalf Museum, in Durham, Oklahoma, stated that “when Pat Wilson would get in trouble, Houston would defend him in court, and this happened often”.  What better  reason for Pat and Myrtle to name their son Temple Houston Wilson?

 Our great grandmother Nancy Wilson came from this “colorful” family.  Her brother William, Billy “one-arm” Wilson, whose cowboy adventures were in the movie, Lonesome Dove.  Her rowdy nephew Pat Wilson, whose Prairie Wedding gave Augusta Metcalf material for a great painting.  Like Augusta, our great grandmother Nancy was a strong  and determined woman.  She operated a hotel in Laurel Montana in the early days while Albert was out looking for gold.  The picture below is Nancy and Ada, her niece who  she raised after her sister died.

    Always looking for another kinfolk story, got any ideas cousins?                                                                                                                

Jim Lee