Chapter 26

                                   CALLING THE RED LAND……HOME.

 Aunt Minnie Guernsey Innes wrote “Growing up in and with the Cheyenne-Arapaho country,was not and easy life.  It was crammed full of hardship caused by the 1930 Dust Bowl, insect infestation, low livestock price and long distances to market. There was joy with sorrow, pleasure with the pain.  That country demanded and received a very special breed of people.  They worked hard for and earned the right to call the red land home”.  Among those hardy pioneers was our grandfather, Elmer James Guernsey.  A cattle rancher faced with making a living  selling his Hereford cattle for $4.80 per cwt. (compared to today’s price of $125.00 per cwt).

Minnie wrote“Papa (E. J.) got land for our first house and until a home could be built, it was a half-dugout and half-log house with an arbor in front to shield it from the sun”.   Mama Madelena “Lena”, was heartbroken at having to live in a half-dugout, so my father hastened to have a 5-room house built”.  John West built our (permanent) home for us in 1901, the year Pauline was born.

Pauline sitting on their new porch.  The neighbors said “such a folly to build one so large” ( a five room home for family of eight).

“Mama Lena made the carpet with rag loomed in strips which were sewn together in room size, she made fancy work of crochet and embroidery, hung pictures, added house plants and cut flowers to make our small home attractive”.  With four girls Mama thought a piano was an absolute necessity, so one was ordered and shipped from New York to Elk City, where Papa hauled it from there in a wagon”  Missing from their wonderful home was…. running water,  indoor plumbing, bathrooms and electricity.

 “  We all went to church in a farm wagon, Papa sat on the spring seat and we children sat in the back on quilts over clean hay”.  Papa helped start a church in Strong City.

“In 1909, two years after statehood, Mama Lena died of blood poisoning. It became Papa E.J.’s responsibility to bring up his six children.  Mike was just five years old.  That was such a terrible loss for all us”.

Back row, Curt & Luella, front row Alida, Pauline, Mike, and Minnie

 Luella, at the age of 15, dropped out of school to help her dad, but the next year she  graduate from the Strong City High School. Mike was  sent to Kansas City to stay with his grandmother and aunts until he was old enough to go to school.

 Papa was President of the Strong City School Board. He took it upon himself to hire and architect to design a new 8 room brick school building.  All  but Curt of his children, graduated from that high school.  Curt wrote “I often remember now of my father’s habit of reading to his family news items and stories from the Kansas City Star,  read by the light of a kerosene lamp”. He was determined that his children would receive a good education, beyond the 8^th grade…. and they did!

Curt Guernsey was sent to Kansas City to live with his grandmother and attend high school.  He won a scholarship to Law School and passed his bar examination. His schooling for Civil Engineer came later. Curt served in the Navy in World War I. He married Cora Lee Evan in 1918.  In 1928 he founded the C.H Guernsey Consulting and Engineering and Architectural  firm which bears his name to this day. Ranked in the 250 largest firms as its kind in the nation.

Luella Guernsey attended College at Weatherford, Oklahoma where she received her teaching certificate.  She taught school and moved to Mangum Oklahoma where she married Lee Caffey in 1920.

Alida Guernsey attended College at Weatherford, Oklahoma where she received her third grade teaching certificate.  She married Orren Anderson in 1919.  Many years later she became  a “Civilian Soldier” as a parachute rigger during World War II.

Minnie Guernsey attended College at Weatherford, Oklahoma where she received her teaching certificate. Later she continued her education at Washington University in St. Louis.  She married Elmo Innes in 1925. 

Pauline Guernsey attended College at Weatherford, Oklahoma where she received her teaching certificate.  Pauline never married, she taught in many schools in Roger Mills County and was such a good influence on many lives.  She remained at the ranch home to assist her father.

Mike Guernsey was the youngest of the  six children. He studied engineering at what was then Oklahoma A&M College. He joined the Navy during World War II.  Since he was a Certified Professional Engineer, the Seabees offered him an officer’s commission but he turned it down so they made him a Chief Petty Officer. He was involved in heavy fighting on Okinawa and other islands.  After the war he became a very successful turnpike engineer(including Oklahoma’s  Turner Turnpike and the Washington D.C. metro system).

 Our cousin, Dorothy Lee McGregor wrote “our mothers (Luella, Alida, Minnie and Pauline) and their brothers Curt and Mike were raised in Western Oklahoma where they retained the rich heritage of their pioneer ancestors,   a spirit filled with courage, integrity, friendliness and pride”.

A note to E.J. and Lena’s great and great-great grandchildren.  We have the opportunity to be givers (build a school house for your children) or takers (depend upon others to provide our needs).  Be thankful for your grandfather, E.J. and grandmother , Lena “giving genes”!