Who is my granddaddy?

TRAGIC LOSS OF THREE SISTERS

When I came home from school on May 20, 1950, I found a note from my dear mother.

Dear Jimmy,

I decided to go to St. Louis and went to city with Lucile (Howell) this afternoon.  Will be back Sunday night or Monday.   Can you buy a cake at A&A for your party, get it in the morning or a noon.  I hate to leave you but think you will get along alright.  There is steak in the refrigerator and eat most of your meals out.  I will give you some money next week.  Feed Ted (our dog) tonight.

Love, Mom

PS Get large envelopes to send pictures and invitations ( my high school graduation was the following week).

The next day a family friend, Waldo Porr, came to our home with the sad news of the plane crash.  Even after 61 years I find it very difficult to write about that day.  But as cousin Dorothy Lee said the event would be of “little reality” for our children and grandchildren and should be told.

Below is our late cousin, Dorothy Caffey McGregor’s story about the plane crash that took the lives of Pauline Guernsey, Luella Caffey  (Dorothy, Gene and Bill’s mother) and Alida Anderson, the mother of Marjorie and me.

Story from Dorothy Lee

Picture before loading. Left to right, Elmo Innes, Alida Anderson, Luella Caffey and Minnie Innes. This is my favorite picture of mother.

Pilot and Alida (my mother) in the seat next to the pilot, before take-off.

Picture taken the day of the wedding. I believe the picture above the sisters is one of their Aunt Beth Honderick's watercolors. Seated left to right, Alida, Pauline, Minnie, Luella.

As Dorothy said it was a day the world fell apart.  I had turned 18 and was suddenly on my own.  I was probably going to our local Phillips University as mother was not certain we could afford Oklahoma A&M.  My dear sister Marjorie and her husband Bud Anderson packed me up (one suitcase) and took me to Washington D.C. where they lived.

I only wish Luella and Alida’s grandchildren could have known what sweet and loving their grandmothers were.

I can honestly say that I can not ever remember my mother raising her voice to me, though I certainly deserved it.

Jim Lee

VISITING STRONG CITY  BEFORE MEMORIAL DAY

Dear Kinfolk,

This week I took my grandson Hayden Lee Shaw (Patricia, Jim Lee, Alida, Elmer J.)  a fifth generation Oklahoman, to visit the place where it all began, Strong City, Oklahoma.

It did not take long to tour Strong City consisting of a Community House, Baptist Church and about a dozen homes.  Remember the earlier blog showing a hotel and shops taken in the early 1900’s?

Guernsey Homestead

Next we viewed the Guernsey homestead from a distance.  I can still remember getting in trouble with Granddad for making my horse jump over that cattle guard.  The original home has been replaced and I did not see any of the prairie dogs that my cousins and I would try to catch.  I showed Hayden the culvert under the highway that we would ride our horses through.

Then we went to the Strong City Cemetery.   For a country cemetery, it is very well-kept.  I think some of the oil lease money has helped.  Cousin John Innes suggested that we might solve the correct spelling of our grandmothers name, (Madalena, Madelena, Lena, May)  by looking at her gravestone.  Sorry John they just shortened it to Lena H.

The large shrub by the Guernsey gravestones took a beating from last winter’s freezing storm.

Hayden took the clippers and removed the dead stems.

To continue Hayden’s family history lesson we drove about 7 miles to Cheyenne, Oklahoma.  At the Court House we saw the County monument to all Roger Mills County Veterans.

We  found Uncle Mike’s name with a bad mis-spelling of his last name.

While at the Court House we took the opportunity to try and solve another mystery that our blog has brought up, did Granddad ever re-marry after Grandmother passed away in 1909?  We looked at both the marriage and divorce records from 1910-1930.  We could not find any records to verify this story.  However, the 1920 census showed Elmer J. Guernsey as married?   We found another record where Granddad sold land to the  Cheyenne Short Line Railroad Co., 100 foot wide strip, for $900.00.  No mention made of mineral rights.

The Roger Mills Court House has a beautiful large painting of the Battle of the Washita by Gene Dougherty, a good friend of mine.  The picture is the scene of the tragic killing of Cheyenne Indians by Col. Custer.  On Nov. 27, 1868, at daybreak, The 7th Regiment of the U.S. Cavalry commanded by Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer, attacked with several hundred troops a small band of Cheyenne Indians under Chief Black Kettle.  The scene was along the Washita River, only a few short miles from where the Washita River ran through the Guernsey ranch.  Chief Black Kettle thought his tribe was at peace with a treaty from Washington.  When he saw the troops coming from several directions, he waved a white flag of surrender. Custer’s troops massacred more than a hundred men, women and children.  The village was burned and nearly 800 horses were shot.  If you would like to read more about this part of our history I would recommend the book     THE BATTLE OF THE WASHITA by Stan Hoig.

In the Court House next to the painting is a life-size statue of a Indian maiden trying to escape, wrapped in a buffalo blanket, with her baby.

After a short visit to the new Museum of the Washita Battlefield Park, we got a call from my wife Jane saying we should head home as tornadoes were being spotted in central Oklahoma.  It turned out we were about 20 minutes behind the tornado that caused 10 deaths.

As we passed through El Reno, Ok. there were six semi trailers turned over on our highway..  We followed the storm all the way to Stillwater where it destroyed several homes.

I believe the good Lord and several Guernsey angels were looking after Hayden and I that day.

Jim Lee