The Story of a Family
1911-1913
by Helen Erwin Campbell
In 1911 Irving Berlin’s Alexander’s Ragtime Band was stirring American music lovers; Madam Curie was awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry; the first practical automobile self-starter was developed; and Dad and Mom homesteaded in Oklahoma on land about ten miles from Grandpa Hayworth’s farm in Cleveland in Pawnee County. According to Mom’s recollection, they lived in a little one-room shack with Goldie, three and Flossie, one.
Dad had a big team of mules, one of the crops he planted was watermelon. He broke the sod, dropping seeds as he plowed. Evidently conditions were right, as he produced huge watermelons that year. He would often bring one to the house, cut it open, and set Goldie on the ground with her legs circling the melon. With spoon in hand, she would be busy, quiet, and happy for thirty minutes or more.
There were lots of snakes on that place. Dad had undoubtedly tried to warn her about them, but at three and a half, Goldie was afraid of very little.
One day Dad heard her laughing and calling, “Came, Dad. I got him.” He went to investigate. There was Goldie with her foot firmly planted on the head of a squirming snake.
“I got him Dad!” She looked up proudly at her father. He grabbed her, killed the snake, and probably swatted her bottom a time or two.
Dad never proved the claim. As Mom said later, times were hard, and they decided to leave it. In later years Dad and Grandpa Heyworth were not on the friendliest terms. Perhaps Grandpa Hayworth was disappointed when his son-in-law did not stick it out on the homestead, and his disappointment and disapproval caused the strain between them.
After they left the claim our parents moved into Fargo where Dad ran a dray (light delivery wagon), delivering freight from the depot to merchants. Since they lived only a few blocks from town, Mom would often push Flossie in her go-cart and, with Goldie, walk to the stores.
One day when Mom went outside to get Goldie to dress her for the planned outing, Goldie was nowhere in sight. She put Flossie in her cart and started out looking. In a few minutes she spotted Goldie. She was walking down the street in her stocking feet, carrying her shoes.
Another time Mom was in a store in town shopping when she missed Goldie again. After several anxious minutes, Mom found her out back playing with a little red wagon which had caught her eye inside the store. Dad later bought the wagon for her.
Goldie frequently wandered off, and Mom had to look for her. Mom would often look out the kitchen window and see Flossie but not Goldie. She’d as Flossie where here sister went, Flossie would point, and Mom would know in which direction to start searching.
As well as liking to wander, Goldie seemed to have more trouble than most in just sitting still. It was not unusual for her to get away from the restraining hands of Mom and Dad and walk up front to be with the preacher. Dad, more than once, had to spend the church service outside with her. Of course, the time wasn’t entirely wasted, for Dad could have a chew while he waited for the preacher to wind down.
In 1912, Woodrow Wilson was elected President, moving picture shows were becoming popular, the F. W. Woolworth Company was founded, the first successful parachute jump was made, the S.S. Titanic sank on her maiden voyage after colliding with an iceberg, and Mom and Dad had a son.
That year they were in Wakita, Oklahoma, when Clifford was born on June 29. Wakita is in Grand County just south of the Kansas-Oklahoma border.
After the birth of this third child Dad asked the doctor what he owed him. Dad had butchered a hog that morning, and the two halves were hanging on the back porch. “Well,” the doctor answered, “I could sure use some fresh meat.” Dad took a half down, laid it on the table, and cut it in two. The doctor was paid with a hind quarter of pork.
During the time in Wakita Dad worked for the railroad. He had his own team and pulled a skip loader, moving earth and preparing the railroad bed. He was paid $2.50 a day for himself and his team. When that job finished, he signed on again, this time with his father as well.
Goldie was a very active child. Her energy and curiosity were often responsible for getting her into trouble, especially when the family lived close to Grandma Erwin – as was often the case during their early marriage years. Grandma was known for her temper, and a child’s antics did not please her.
On one occasion our Uncle Jack, Dad’s younger brother, was turning a churn. The churn was barrel-shaped, with the opening spout on one side, the opening being closed with a stopper. Goldie, walking around the churn during the churning process, spotted the stopper, and, without any warning, grabbed it and pulled it out. Cream spurted out, covering Goldie as well as the surrounding floor. Goldie looked surprised, but stood there licking the cream off her face, at least as far as her little pink tongue could reach. Grandma was furious, not only for all the lost cream, but for the mess that had to be cleaned up.
Another time Grandma had her light bread sitting on a table close to the stove, put there in that warm spot to rise. It was rising nicely, and was almost ready for the oven when Goldie went around back of the table, pinched a piece out of the bread dough, and popped it into her mouth. It must have tasted good, because she kept going back for more bites. No one noticed what she was doing until all those pinches of dough caused the whole thing to collapse. Grandma was again infuriated.
Grandma always had lots of houseplants. She seemed to have a “green thumb,” and she Was proud of her plants. When Goldie was visiting, she’d often surreptitiously break off pieces of branches. When Grandma discovered the damage to her prized plants, she’d explode. Poor Goldie got a lot of spankings when she lived close to Grandma Erwin.
If Grandma was annoyed with Goldie at times, Goldie was also sometimes angry with Grandma. One time, when Goldie was five, Mom and Dad had stayed all night at Grandma and Grandpa Erwin’s and were to leave the next morning in the covered wagon. While they were loading up, Goldie burst out of the house, mad as hops. Grandma had “cut a chunk out of Clifford’s hair!” Years later Grandma gave that lock of hair back to Clifford, and he still has it.
In 1913 the 16th Amendment to the Constitution brought us income tax, Woodrow Wilson became the 28th President, Charlie Chaplin appeared in his first movie, Tipperary was a popular song, the diphtheria immunity test was discovered, and zippers became popular. Also, that year Henry Ford pioneered new assembly line techniques, fashionable people were dancing the foxtrot, a Ford Roadster was advertised for $600.00, a loaf of bread cost 10 cents, and gas was 20 cents per gallon.
Oil had been discovered in Oklahoma and Kansas several years earlier, and Grandpa Erwin and his son found they could make big money working the oilfields. They owned the horses and wagons necessary to haul the heavy equipment, and had the expertise to handle the teams. Grandpa Erwin had handled horses all his life, and he had taught his sons as well.
Dad owned his own team and wagon and followed the oil booms. Goldie recalls a trip they made by covered wagon, probably going from Kansas to Oklahoma to join up with Dad’s parents and some of his brothers. They carried all of their possessions in that wagon. It was their home when they traveled, and when they arrived Dad used the same wagon for his work.
Clifford was a baby, and Goldie remembers he had been crying for milk, but they didn’t have any. Dad spotted some milk cows in a pasture alongside the road, so he grabbed a pail from the wagon, climbed the fence, and milked one of the cows. He came back to the wagon with enough milk for his children.
On another trip there was a similar problem. Mom complained to Dad, “We have almost no food left. I don’t know what I’m going to fix for supper.”
Dad didn’t answer her. He evidently didn’t know either. But, as they cleared a turn in the road, Dad spotted a farmhouse, with several of the farmer’s chickens scattered alongside of the road, scratching and pecking for possible tidbits. He slowed the wagon and said, “Here Hazel. Take the reins. And let them poke a bit.” He added, “How’d you like a nice fat hen for supper?”
While Mom handled the team, he dangled a hook and line out the back. On the hook he had placed a kernel of corn. When a hen grabbed the corn, Dad yanked her up into the wagon. With a quick hand over her beak to silence any possible squawks of alarm, he then wrung her neck and handed her over to Mom. They had their supper.
At one point they were traveling through Indian territory. Although the local Indians were friendly, Dad and Mom would have preferred being farther from them when night came, but they had no choice. It was getting late, so they camped a short distance from a bend of the road in a clump of trees. They could not see very far, but they could not be seen either.
Dad claimed the team he was driving could smell Indians, and they were especially restless that night, all night. Dad and Mom were not fearing physical danger to themselves, but it was not unusual for Indian braves to sneak into a camp and steal the horses. Without their team they would have been stranded.
While his family slept in the wagon, Dad spent the entire night on the ground underneath with his rifle cradled in his arms. Nothing happened, except that he got little or no sleep. At daybreak he roused Mom. “Come on, Hazel. Let’ s get going.”
Mom fixed a quick breakfast, and they broke camp, wasting no time in getting underway. Just around the bend in the road they almost gasped as a startling picture burst upon their vision. There, a short distance from where they had spent a restless night, was a large encampment of Indians. Dad drove straight past them, never slackening his pace, while Mom and the children watched the passing scene with wide eyes. The Indians did not bother them, but Mom, especially, was much relieved when they were well past the camp.