Granddad David C. Loe was born near Dayton, Ohio 1832-1922. He married and had one son Ike. His wife died he then remarried and had 3 sons John, Howard, Edward, 2 daughters Mary, Mattie, his second wife died, and he married his housekeeper, Rachel, they had one son Clarence and 6 daughters Anna, Bertha, Ethel, Gertrude, Asenith, Erma, he and the whole family left Ohio and moved to Arkansas around Stuttgart, Ark, in the swamp country where they did timber work such as Rail road ties. The mosquitoes were so bad there, Granddad then moved his family to Kansas, Old Parker settlement three miles from Coffeyville, Kansas, east, he bought 20 acres there with a 4 room house which had been a Saloon before he bought the place. He became a truck farmer raising fruit, vegetables and such. Coffeyville was a bustling city, they had 3 oil refinery’s, 1 glass plant, 5 brick yards, 1 terricola roofing tile plant, machine shops, rail round house to repair steam operating engines (Locomotives, 1 Rail Road carto repair rail tank cars and box cars, 1 paper mill, 1 Ral patterson flour and grain elevator, OCS Oil field supply manufacturing equipment, 1 ice house manufacturing ice. On 14th street, a number of grocery stores, and other livery stables and black smith shop’s to repair wagons, buggies, horse shoeing, 2 banks, First National, Condoor Banks, where the Dalton gang was killed trying to rob both Banks at one time, the W.P. Brown mansion, Mr. Brown built the nata torium swim pool and recreation building, the pool was a salt water bath or bathing swimming hole, the street car’s or electric operation system called the Interurban system had rail system to Nowata, Oklahoma, Independence, Kansas, Parsons, Kansas, the city fare was 5 cents a ride, in town, 25 cents to Nowata and Independence, Kansas, 5 cents to South Coffeyville, Oklahoma. The Oil refining company names were Cudahay Sinclair, Kansas Refining Company, National Refinery Company-now Co.Op. I was employed with Sinclair and National Refg. Co. in the past. Getting back to Granddad David Loe, he was able to deliver fruit and vegetables, butter, milk, etc. to customers in Coffeyville, Kansas by buggy, wagon, horse drawn implements. Grandma Rachel delivered most of the articles to their customers in town, Granddad Loe also had a lumber saw mill on the Verdigris River timbers, the saw mill was powered by a steam bailes to have the power to run the big saw’s. He and Grandma Rachel were divorced in 1921. He came and lived with son Edward for awhile he was a very contentious person, hard to get along with, he went back to Arkansas, lived with son Howard he deceased in 1922. son’s Howard and Ike were Lumber Jacks, in the swamp timber lands, later they both became rice farmers and made a good lot of money in the Rice operation, my Dad Edward Loe left Arkansas with a team of horses, a milk cow, a plow and Harrow, in a wagon , he traveled to near Stilwell, Oklahoma, where he bought some land and he batched and farmed two years before he moved to Old Parker where his Dad and family lived. Old Parker is located on the Kansas and Oklahoma State line, Oklahoma then was Indian reservation, territory of Cherokee Indians. Each Cherokee was allotted an 80 acre of land, before statehood, my Dad worked at the timber and saw mill of Grandpa’s, before he began corn farming on the Verdigris River-farm land, he also cleared acres of timber, and got free use of the land for corn farming for 5 year period. He became the Corn King by name, here around South Coffeyville, Oklahoma in 1908 Dad & Mom Cora, moved to the Indian Territory from near South Coffeyville, Oklahoma where mother gave birth to 10 kids over a period of years. My birth was 1911-3-12 day, I am now at this time in 1999 88 years old. I married in 1932 my darling Audrey Phyllis Loe. We had 3 fine daughters, Patsy, Peggy , Judy, Judy deceased in 1988 she had 3 children a son, 2 daughters, Audrey deceased in 1972. I remarried a year later to Mary G. Marshall, we had a good marriage, Mary deceased in 1996, I am living alone at the present time. during my young life at home we lived on the Cherokee trail the only road between Nowata and Wann Oklahoma, it was a dirt road and in rainy times, we had to help a lot of folks who were stuck in he mud road, by pulling them out with a pair of mules or horses, car’s were not very plentiful in those days. The trail was also used by cattle drives to the stock pens for shipping cattle to Kansas City on the M.K.T Katy Rail Road. Ranchers moved their cattle to the stockpens to separate the Calves from their mother’s then the cow’s were herded back to the blue steam pastures some of the cow’s came back to try and find their calves, very often gypsies caravan passed by on Cherokee road leading old horses, donkeys, goats, etc....folks stopped at our place for water, horse feed etc..., we had to watch the Gypsies very close for they would try to talk you out of something or they would steal anything, after a rain and the road dried. My Dad had the job of dragging the 8 miles of roads with drag’s and mule pulling the drags I did a lot of road dragging with one steel drag pulling earth from the road side and a wood drag leveling the middle of the road, our home was between the Katy and Pop Rail Roads going West to Oklahoma City and South to Texas also we lived between Verdigris River, Vinegar Creek, and opossum creek our house was on the bank of Vinegar Creek we had a water well dug that never went dry. In summer when water ponds went dry. We had water to water our livestock, by using a hand water pump those old cows and horses would drink the cool water faster than you could pump it out to the water trough’s some times I would drive them away till I could get a little water ahead of them, in the trough, Dad took the other two Bros. to the fields, and left me to herd and water the cows, hogs, and keep the cows out of the Kafria Corn field the cows were grazing in the wheat and cot stubble fields, I went home on old Fanny mare and forgot the cows when I came back the cows were in the Kafri field drove them out, and got angry with them, so I went to my house and got the 12 gauge shot gun and when I got back the cows were in the Rafri field again, I shot them with shots but was too close and drawed bloody milk out of one udder Dad said what’s the matter with Daisy giving bloody milk. I knew why but did not answer his question the next morning her milk was OK, also I got tired of the old cows switching me in the face with an old cocklebur tail. So next day I herded all the cows in a lot and I cut off all their hairy tail ends, so Dad was milking a cow and she switched him in the head with a bony tail he got up and checked the others they all had bony tails, he knew what happened and who had did it, boy I was in trouble now, he gave me a bad time over it. I was always trying to be adventurous about everything, trying to do it the easy way. After doing the milking we ran the milk through a hand cranked milk separator, we took the cream to the cellar and took the skimmed milk to some calves and the rest of it we poured it into a swill barrel for hogs. We had 2 Swill barrels, the milk and water was mixed with corn, oats, barley, Kafri corn, we used on barrel and left the other for next day to stop the hogs, we never had a hog pasture we kept them up in a dry lot then next day my job was to pull green weeds and such for the hogs, I also was assigned to be the gardener to keep it attended and weed free and help Mom to do the things she needed to do like picking berries, and go to the corn field and gather green corn ears, we took the corn to the house, shucked it and cooked the ears in a Iron kettle outside with wood fire to cook it after the ears cooled we cut off the kernels and I put it on top of the tin roof of the cow shed to dry in the sun, but I was to keep the sparrow’s from eating the kernels. After drying it mom placed it in cloth bags to keep it dry, and put in the cellar, next winter we had dried corn to eat with all the other things Mom had canned up that summer mostly in 1/2 gallon jars. We never went hungry and ate anything Mom fixed for a meal, sometimes we had corn bread and milk or mush and milk for supper, her home baked bread was so good, sometimes after coming home from school or such she had hot bread and butter. We just broke the bread in hunks, boy was it good and we had buttermilk too, Mom churned the cream and made butter in a pound wooden mold, she had her customers in Coffeyville where she delivered her ware like vegetables, dressed hens, butter, fruit, etc....by way of her horse and buggy as transportation. It was 5 miles to Coffeyville, Kansas. Brother Roy and I did opossum hunting at nite. We trapped for muskrats mink, skunk,etc... Our place smelled like a skunk, we stretched and dried our furs before selling them, we had an old shepherd dog named Kernel and other dog’s, coon hound and such. Kernel treed most of the opossums and skunks for us. And day times he caught many cottontail rabbits too, Kernel died at 12 years old. One mink we sold brought $25 dollars for its pelt. All of our farm work was powered by horse and mule power, all except the grain binder and hay rake and grass mower were riding tools. I plowed 60 acres with a 16 inch walking plow, pulled by three mules. When I was 14 years old it took a lot of walking to do the job. My Dad’s crops were almost weedless, he took we kids to the field with each one a hoe. Dad cut 2 rows and each kid holed one row in the corn field, chopping weed’s. I still hate cockleburs to this day. Horse weeds was good hay feed we hauled home at evening after attending corn and grain crop’s till late evenings, then drove a team and wagon home 5 miles, to do the milking and such, over supper time was around 9pm and get up time around 6am and do morning chores, we were in the corn field at 7:30 am. We ate lunch at 12 noon by the wildcat by whistles at the National refinery, go back to work at 11pm after the wild cat whistle came again it sounded down the Verdigris River 3 miles from us, the Mules and horses knew about time for the noon whistle if we were at the far end of the field we had to walk fast to keep up with them. Dad fed his work animals well, he said he wanted them to do a good job when he needed it, Dad loaned me at sometimes to our neighbors Mr. Fletcher I drove a little sifter plowing lister rows of corn it had a riding seat on it. I enjoyed going to Fletchers to eat. Mrs. Fletcher was an elegant cook her pancakes at each morning was the best I ever ate, and the cured ham was also the best. Mr. Fletcher home cured the hog meat. Mr. Fletcher stored it in wood barrels with oats between it, the hams were mold looking we trimmed it off and it was the sweetest flavor by taste you ever ate. My last year at home was 1927. The flood on the Verdigris River took all of our corn crop in October wee only got about 50 bushels of corn in a high place in the field. Dad promised Brother Roy and I he was buying a 1927 Model T. Ford if we harvested a good crop, after many years of farming river bottom land, he was through with it and he and Brother Roy continued prairie farming on opossum creek on the Lafon and the Anna Hoffman farms, some Cherokee folks owned the land, in early days the Indians had a contract with Dad on farming their land, the contract specified Dad as a white man, Dad tried to get a Cherokee girl to date him but failed. He knew that she had an Indian allotment of 80 acres the girl Minnie Harris told me about the date he tried to get with her, she told me about it, when she was old, Minnie married an Indian man by the name of Claud Folk, they raised a large family, I knew them all as friends. In 1928 I worked for Christine and Bunn Morgan in the summer I went back home in the fall to help Dad and Brother Roy husk their corn crop. In the spring of 1929 I hired out to Gene Hoffman a farmer for $1.00 day I helped him make a good corn crop, he had 3 of us boy’s hired for the summer. I generally got up mornings before the other boys did and I helped Mr. Hoffman feed and harness the horses, he said to me I’m going to pay you $1.25 a day but don’t tell the other guys about it for I appreciate your help. When the corn was laid by I left and went to Bartlesville Oklahoma and lived with kin folks until 1932, we did work in oil fields there, I got part time work there, the depression was on and work was hard to get a job I started bootlegging some to get money, I married a lovely little girl Audrey Lewis at Coffeyville, Kansas. I found work at $1.00 a day through the middle of July 1935 at the Ludowici tile plant for 40 cents an hour until Oct 1941 I then worked for Phillips Petro Company at Borger Texas, till 1943. I then worked at National Refinery Company at Coffeyville Kansas 1943 from Oct to Feb, then moved to Oakland, California worked for pool McGonigal building sea going wood dry docks to raise ships upon to repair damages, Feb 43 to June 43, then worked for USA Army transport services converting and repairing troop ships and hospital ships until I was drafted to the arm services April 1945 taking my examination at San Francis California they gave me 21 days to report for duty. I moved my family back to Coffeyville Kansas to be with wives parents. I reported to my draft board and they told me to go back to California on the work force again. My Dad was dying with cancer and I stayed in Coffeyville and got employment with SinClair Refinery Company I worked for SinClair until the plant closed and moved away from Coffeyville, I then took a position with Coffeyville City Park Supervisor at Walter Johnson Park, until November 1945 to Feb 17, 1951 then I moved to Hansford county, Texas with Phillips Petro Company 16 miles south of Guymon Oklahoma just over in the Texas Panhandle as a gasoline plant operator Feb 1951 til Oct 1956 then was transferred to Bartlesville at Phillips Research Plants I was operating air conditioning and heating to Phillips buildings and such until June 1976 I went into retirement in 19977 I could not be stilled from work so I went to work at the Noel and Maxine Kaiser farms doing all kinds of farm chores and field work, plowing ground planting wheat, cutting hay, feeding cattle and what have you. The Kaisers started raising Belgian Blue Cattle we did all kinds of artificial breeding of the cow’s to Natural breeding. I worked for Kaiser’s until 1996 when Mary my wife passed away March 30, 1996, Maxine Kaiser passed away April 3, 1996 also. I am now waiting for Jesus to come and take his followers home, Jesus is coming back to earth again. When God almighty gives him the time to return to earth again, the Lord has been so good to me, even though I was a sinner for many years, I feel though mother’s prayer’s in my behalf kept me out of a lot of trouble. Mom was an ordained minister with the Pentecostal movement . I was working at Borger Texas with Phillips Petroleum Company and the job I had was helping operate 36 big gas compressors in the power plant, I was sent Oklahoma city to another plant, Mr. Tennison the engineer over the operation at Borger after I left the man that took my place, somehow the engine room exploded and killed Tennison and the man who took over my job. I got a small fire at Oklahoma City two men were burned there severely but survived. I quit Phillips and moved to Coffeyville Kansas and worked a few months at National Refinery Company (now CoOp owned) after leaving National and going to Oakland California the National Refinery Co had a big explosion and killed six workers there. I feel possible the Lord sent a gaurdian angel by my side when I was young and at home I had the job of getting the cows in the milk lot each evening for milking. Dad always had a bull with cows for breeding purposes a few times I had to run away from the herd because a bull was ornery and put up a fight. I carried a three prong pitch folk along and I put the tines in the bulls rear end and it bluffed him away some of our bulls were gentle bulls easy to handle. Poor old Fanny Mare we kids all learned to ride her back when we fell off of her she stopped till we got on again. We boy’s ran her in horse races with other boys she never won a race we used Fanny to pull the double shovel or garden plows she never gave up our horses and mules all had a given name, such as John-George-Pete-Joe-Jack-Nellie, old George mule was a kicking mule he kicked me in the belly one time. Poor old John mule we rode him alot he was also a mule that worked single or double. Brother Roy and I when we were around 9 or 10 years old, Dad hooked old John to a one horse corn planter, we followed Dad in the lister rows planting corn, I rode John one round and Roy held up the planter handles next I held up the handles and Roy rode old John mule. We tried to keep up with Dad but some time we got behind and Dad would say boy’s try to keep up with me, in the tree stump land Dad had cleared the timber off and got free use of the land for 5 years it was a big job trying to cut down the sprouts and plow around the tree stumps in planting time we did a lot of planting by hand, in cultivating we used John or Fanny Mare to pull the single double shovel in cultivating, the double shovel tool had wood pen in the shanks so when we had a stump root the wooden pins broke and we kept an extra pen in our pockets to replace the shank pen and Roy rode on round and I rode one Fanny guiding the plow around the stumps then we had to hoe the weeds in the corn patch Dad’s farming was almost weedless he raised the biggest corn ears you ever saw in husking the corn by hand in the field it was a job to drive the corn wagon around the big stumps while Dad and the other brother’s husk the corn and pitched the ears in the wagon generally it was my job to drive the corn wagon around the stumps, occasionally I got hit with a big corn ear one I was helping husk corn and I got to close to old George mule that was pulling the wagon all at once George kicked side ways and hit me in the belly, he was a kicker till he died. Dad bought these two young mules old George and Joe in 1917 he broke them to work. Joe was a gentle mule he died in his harness after a big days work. Brother David and I drove George and Joe to Sedan, Kansas from South Coffeyville Oklahoma 40 miles to Sedan to work on a dirt moving job on the railroad there, after the work was complete we drove them home. dad always did a lot of dirt moving and stock water ponds for people, etc....Dad was a hard working man he passed away in 1945. Born 1870 near Dayton, Ohio. I remember in 1917 I was 6 years old but had to use a hoe cutting weeds our of Dad’s corn field, a big cloud arose to the North of us my Brother and Sister Francis were all on the hoe handle cutting weeds the big cloud was bumping up and down to the earth the sun was shining where we were 4 miles to the south a it that evening in the news the tornado hit Coffeyville Kansas we were in Oklahoma one mile south of the Kansas state line where our home was on the old Cherokee trail our farm was at one time owned by the Lipe Cherokee family an Indian allotment most of our neighbors were Cherokee’s the Wrights, Currey, Garrison, Young, Hoffman, Walker, two of mother’s borthers married a Cherokee girl and inherited 80 acres of land they both raised a large family 10 to 12 kids, 4 miles to our south was a little town by the name of Howden on the mop railroad and 6 miles west of us was Noxie on the Katy railroad, the Katy disbanded in the Nineties, their tracks were 1/4 mile to the north and the mop tracks were one mile East of our home in early days we could almost set our clock by the Katy passenger train coming or going a engineer on the mop track always blew the whistle on the assumption of lonesome boy, he had killed a young boy with the engine running over the boy one morning in Topeka, Kansas. That old whistle made you lonesome. He could play it so clear, after we found out why we kids mostly walked the Katy rail tracks to go to South Coffeyville, Oklahoma on errands or pleasure, sometimes we had to get off and get in the weeds along the tracks for a big steam locomotive passing with box cars and cattle cars to transport the cattle to Kansas City, Kansas, we could see the Big Long horn cattle in the car's, bawling up a storm. These cattle had been loaded along the rail stock yards from Oklahoma City through Coffeyville and Parson's Kansas to Kansas City, my cousin Perry Loe & I had rode the freight train from Bartlesville and Coffeyville several times hunting a work job or visiting his sister Velma Applegate who lived north of Independence Missouri along the river MO, Velma's husband Dick worked in the underground limestone rock cave's or Quarry there, we never found work there. If we had of it was low pay 10 cents and hour, in the depression day's we had no money and had the cigarette habit, we walked along the highway there and picked up snipes to get our tobacco habit settled, while living in Bartlesville we managed to get a pack of cigarettes at 15 cents a pack and an ice cream cone for 5 cents, some of the men there had fresh beef a big part of the time by going out in the country at night roped a steer and cut its throat they didn't have gun shell's to shoot an animal also rabbits, were plentiful in those days. You could club them or find them in discarded oil field pipe casing, surely God supplied the rabbits as he did in the old Bible days, with manna and quail.

It was not unusual to go rabbit hunting and come home with 8-10 bunnies, times have changed very much now in the 1999’s of today, when I was a boy milk was 10 cents a quart, eggs 10 cents a dozen, good beef steak 20-25 cents pound, Run Jonnay Run tobacco 10 cents a sack, cigars 5 cents, gasoline 20 cents a gallon, kerosene 10 cents a gallon, flour 25 pounds 50 cents, knowledge has increased tremendously, new inventions are in abundance in depression days a model T Ford $600.00 the Government killed hogs, cattle by the thousands at $5.00 a head they were overstocked, Rabb Donaldson a grocery store operator in Coffeyville, Kansas came to the farms where the cattle were killed he skinned the carcass and took the meat and sold it at his store. He would do most anything to get a buck, he even built a gambling house in South Coffeyville, Oklahoma and ran competition with the Old HILL CLAN there, South Town was a open gambling and bootleg joint there were 6 or more joints there plus a host of little bootleggers and moonshiners, it was easy while night hunting to run across a liquor still running off booze we could see the fires and went by to get a snoot full of corn whiskie, we boy’s knew most of the moonshiner’s at a big settlement of folks 6 or 7 miles in the timber hill country around Noxie, Oklahoma allot of guys made moonshine, you could buy it for $2.50 cents a gallon, if you wanted it, the King brothers there were the biggest moonshiners, big men that would fight a tiger, I remember them well, later years they became religious folks. Fine people too.

South Town, Oklahoma was just across the Kansas State line, the old Hill Clan died off and the young Hills kept up the tradition of gambling bootlegging and such, the first Hill Joint was called the TIN PAN. Before my birth, but growing up and getting acquainted I knew all of them, this town was known far and near, when I was in California and mentioned Coffeyville, Kansas they would say South Town Oklahoma and the Dalton Robbery there, Kansas outlawed a theater open on Sundays, so John Tackett owned a theater in Coffeyville, so he built a theater in South Town Oklahoma allowed Sunday Theater shows, he had a girl dance show along with it, I went there occasionally to see the girls dance and perform, that was in the 20-30’s. South Town is a descent place to live since the Hill and Hick’s gang are gone, the big Tackett theater is now a big Grocery store in the 1940’s or so, times have changed so much, I go out to my birthplace once in awhile, but it is not the same the old house is gone and several new homes are on our old farm place, new folks now occupy the land Bill Ball a banker at Coffeyville the Condone Bank, Bill owned 120 acres joining our place on the north and east of our farm, he had the farm plastid with steel signs on the corner posts saying, “POSTED Jb.” I still have one of the posted signs, Bill was in the Bank when the Dalton’s tried to rob it. There now is a big car race track in the middle of the Ball 120 acres patch, it takes up a big part of the farm

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