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Top of cotton wagon: My father Sherman Avery Wood holding
Floyce Pamelia Lee Wood
Standing, left to right: Iva Mae Wood, Alfred Dallas Wood, Mother Melvina Clementine Wood, Harold
William Wood in front of mother, Ralph Archie Wood.
This remarkable image was selected for the official poster
for Oklahoma Archives Week 2005
Buy t-shirts and postcards of this image on my CafePress Site!
Free Lesson Plans from Oklahoma State Libraries
This photograph is an enlargement of a postcard picture of my family. My boyhood girl friend mailed this postcard to me some fifty years after my moving from Oklahoma to my Laguna Hills retirement home.
Father Sherman Avery Wood
Our Oklahoma farm, bordered on the east side by Oklahoma Indian Territory,
was marked by rock piles until my pioneer father erected the first barbed
wire fence in Lincoln County before Oklahoma statehood in 1907. According
to the story told to me, my father came to Shawnee, Oklahoma from Iowa with
two cousins with the intent of entering the Oklahoma Run in 1889 to acquire
homestead land. However, soon after his arrival at Shawnee by railroad he
became acquainted with Mr. Roberts, a man who had homesteaded a 105 acre
tract of land. He had built a rustic one bedroom, two-story house with a
high roof and drilled a water well. He had a team of horses and one milk
cow. Mr. Robert's wife became ill and was homesick for her original home
and relatives. She begged to go home.
My father believed this to be a good opportunity to purchase/trade rather than wait until the Oklahoma Run which started in a few days. He traded his 23 silver dollars, a gold watch and chain, which amounted to the total of his worldly possessions, for the land, wagon, house, animals and possessions of Mr. Roberts' home. The former Iowa farm boy now owned his own Oklahoma farm!
It took one week to drive from three miles east of Prague, Oklahoma to Oklahoma City fifty miles west and return. The road was rough. Many creeks and the North Canadian River had to be forded. These obstacles did not stop Dad from the trip to buy the barbed wire for fencing his property.
Floyce Pamelia Lee Wood
The infant child held by my father on top of the load of cotton ready for
ginning is my sister Floyce Pamelia Lee Wood. We were close friends, especially during high school and ever since. She grew up to be a sucessful mother, housewife, and church secretary, in Oklahoma City.
Iva Mae Wood
To the far left on the lower row is my eldest sister Iva Mae Wood, who assumed the role of mother's aid. Iva knew how to control her younger siblings if they resisted her by an "Indian finger hold" she utilized by catching
the resisting siblings little finger in its bended closed position. She could apply sufficient pressure to lead the muley kid to the task at hand! She was wirey, yet kind. She
grew up to be a maid for a wealthy family in Oklahoma City, marrying at age 50.
Alfred Dallas Wood
My brother Alfred Dallas, two years older than me, displays the strap of
his cotton picking bag which he was so proud to fill by picking a hundred
pounds a day of that white fluffy crop. When he grew up he became a bee-keeper in south-central Oregon.
Mother Melvina Clementine Wood
My mother Melvina Clementine Wood was not only a housekeeper, she shared
in the toils of fields, especially at harvest time. As a kind, loving mother
she worked many hours caring for each family member. Our food supply was
mostly home grown. Our cattle, hogs, turkeys, chickens and wild squirrels,
quail, and rabbits provided our meat supply. The great variety of fruits
and berries grown in the new orchard kept us healthy during seasonal crops
and by home- canned products of all sorts during the off-season periods.
Harold William Wood
In this photograph I am standing in front of my mother near the center.
What appears to be my bow tie is really an unopened cotton ball. I was handicapped
by crossed eyes and "tongue tied." I was just beginning to talk
after having the frenum of my tongue clipped to correct my blurred speech
resulting from being "tongue tied". At three years and three months
of age, I had just started to remember such events and family experiences.
I am only about three years old in this picture. Please note the difference in my size compared to my brother Alfred, just a bit over two years older. My hair was blonde and I had been called "The Runt" or "banty rooster".
"The Runt" had to be a fighter to cope with older siblings and neighborhood boys and girls all older than me during school age.
Ralph Archie Wood
To the far right my oldest brother Ralph Archie stands strong. He was a
hard worker and shouldered many of the responsibilities of a farm boy. He grew up to become a prosperous farmer near Boise, Idaho.
More siblings not in this photograph
Two other members of the Wood family would appear in later family photographs.
My sister Ruth Armenta Wood was born three years after the child Floyce
shown in my father's embrace. She grew up to be a nurse, and
lives in Fort Smith Arkansas. Then the youngest brother, Weldon Asbury Wood finished our family member group. Weldon grew up to become a successful house contractor in Idaho,
and lives in Nampa, Idaho.
The Horse Team
The team of horses in this photograph were purchased along with the 105 acres of land my father had bought.
The horse in the front foreground was named "Ole Kate". She lived to be well over thirty years old. Not only was she an important work mare, "Ole Kate" was a family favorite. The gentle horse allowed as many children that could get on her back to ride her. She seemed to take pride in these eventful times. "Ole Kate's" reward was two handfuls of green apples coated with sugar especially on her birthday on May 4th of every year as long as she lived!
The all-leather harness on this team was always cleaned and treated with hot linseed oil especially after getting wet in the rain. I cherished a set of harness and collar of the style seen here which I have kept polished and fitted with a mirror for an attractive item of furniture!
The Cotton Wagon and Crops
The brake lever seen near the center of the wagon was used to hold the big
back wheels from crowding the horses when going down steep hills. These
wheels were always kept well-greased with axle grease. " Oil is cheaper
than machinery," my father always advised.
The wagonload of cotton displayed here would probably yield a five hundred pound bale which would be sold for cash. The cotton seed would be ground up for cattle feed. It was especially nutritious and good when sprinkled with cotton seed meal.
Cotton was the main cash crop for the Wood family, however, other crops played an important role in the family economy. These consisted of peanuts, cow peas, sorghum cane, corn, milo maze, melons, oats and wheat.
To promote cooperation of each family member as a unit, each member was allotted a specified plot of ground to be used for a crop of his choosing. This was usually cotton or corn.
Proceeds from the small plot of cotton assigned to me for which I was personally responsible were sufficient to purchase my first suit of clothing for $13.00, when I was 13 years old! I was at the Dry Goods Store owned by Blumenthal Brothers. I paid cash only on the promise that a tie was include with my new suit. This store was still in business in 1995.
When I was a senior in high school my five acre plot yielded enough baled cotton to provide cash for my first new car --a 1926 Chevrolet Touring car at the purchase price of $600.00.
Each member of our family was pressed into family service at an early age. I recall the chicken wire pen which held the newly picked cotton until it was loaded on the wagon to go to the gin. This pen had a double purpose. It served as quarters for babysitting. I served as babysitter in this fluffy filled structure which offered unlimited romping and a soft bed on which to sleep when play turned to sleepiness.
The big yellow spiders with black stripes, which often accompanied the cotton, frightened me at first. Then I learned they would not attack me. So I began to study their circular web forming activity. Warm sunshine formed rainbow colors in the spider web which I learned to appreciate.
Thunderhead clouds promised dry, good weather favoring cotton picking time!
Oil leases did not bring in much cash until 1928 when the 105 acres was leased for a tidy sum which provided money and a new car for a trip of the remaining family members to visit the three boys in Idaho, including myself.
Trees along Rock Creek in background
The wooded area along Rock Creek had multi-purpose benefits. Trees provided food, shade and nesting areas for birds and small animals.
Bird songs and calls filled the warm air. The mocking bird perched high in the tree top sailed from his perch 10 -15 feet above then back to his post of dominance. All the while he was mimicking the sounds of other birds with cheerful music. The blue jay chattered while robbing food from his neighbors and the crows threatened with their loud caw - caw - caw. Overhead, buzzards floated with the breeze in search of carrion.
Blackjack and burr oak trees provided fuel for cooking, heating the house in winter, posts for fences and to boil water for laundry, rendering lard, making hominy and lye soap.
These trees provided many varied experiences for me growing up. To me these trees appeared as a huge forest. Within this forested area there were naturally growing pecan nuts, black walnuts, wild plums, wild grapes, persimmons, and acorns, all of which provided food items of various amounts and seasons.
Rock Creek became a wide stream during the flooding and rainy season. The pools of water dug out of the sandy creek bed provided pool habitation for bullhead catfish and frogs. Insects were plentiful. The fire fly, "lightning bugs" display was in its season always an exciting nighttime scene. Birds filled the trees along with tree squirrels and flying squirrels. The hollow trees were sometimes home for honey bees. Another wild fruit was the luscious mulberry.
In addition to the black walnut meaty morsels, those nut trees provided other benefits. Shade from the hot summer was always a delight! Homes for birds' nests, bees and other insects found comfort in their limbs.
However, the one use which came to me unexpectedly occurred when my father was about 80 years old. I had not visited my parents for a long time.
On this visit early one morning my father asked, "Harold, will you take me to Shawnee?"
"Of course, Dad. Let's go."
When we reached the city I was directed to a lumber mill, for what reason I did not know.
"Is it finished?" my father asked the lumber man.
"Yes but it's empty" he replied.
"That's the way I want it," responded my Dad. "Let's have a look".
On our way to the finished product the lumberman said, "We had to buy two small black walnut boards from Missouri to finish it."
"How come?" Dad said. "I brought logs from my farm plenty big enough to do the job."
"Yes, but there were knot holes to consider," he said.
Dad replied, "It doesn't matter if there are knot holes in my coffin. Everything eventually forms dust." We had arrived at the coffin. "Here it is, son. I cut the tree for my own casket. I don't believe in the dead robbing the living," Dad said.
"We will arrange storage at your funeral home until you are ready to use it, Mr. Wood," the lumberman promised.
© Copyright 1997 Harold Wm. Wood
This page is maintained by Dr. Wood's son, Harold W. Wood, Jr., of Visalia,
California.
My E-mail address is: harold@planetaryexploration.net
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