Volume 9 , Issue 46

An Oklahoma Heritage

"Speaking of the Oklahoma Centennial reminds me just how proud I am of my heritage.

I wonder if I'd mentioned to you that I am 3rd generation Oklahoman? I've told lots of folks about it but cannot remember whether you knew. My great-grandfather, William Harvey Burdick was a sometimes cowboy, sometimes deputy marshal who came into the badlands looking for outlaws and brought his family with him (my great-grandmother said they traveled like gypsies a lot), but because of this, my grandmother, Martha Elizabeth (Burdick) Kendrick was born in a covered wagon at Stonewall (it's southeast of Ada), Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory in 1886 (3 years before the first land run).

Just before the run in 1889, my great-grandfather went just outside the border in order to make a legitimate run and then staked his claim in downtown Oklahoma City but sold his land for a years wages ($100) to a fellow law officer, Charlie Colcord who later became OKC's first police chief and also became a land developer. Charles Colcord eventually built Oklahoma's first 'skyscraper' (the Colcord Building) on the land that he'd acquired from my great-grandfather; and in other parts of the city he built a race track (for trotting horses), a park, and a huge mansion for himself.

My grandmother married Ernest Chasteen Kendrick and they soon had a daughter named Fay and settled on a farm in Lindsay where my dad and his twin brother were born on September 23, 1907 (just before statehood). And yes, the Kendrick twins were so identical that a necklace was placed on my dad so they could tell them apart. While they were growing up they frequently were enrolled in separate classes (to keep from confusing the teachers) but had fun taking each others classes since folks couldn't tell them apart, and they sometimes switched 'dates' with the girls for the same reason. My dad was named Chasteen (after his father) since he was the first born, and his twin brother was named Chester. Later their parents had two other girls and one additional son. All of them are now deceased. The oldest daughter, Fay was the last one to die.
,br> I am the oldest of three sons born to my parents, and I was born in the town of Britton, Oklahoma which is now part of Oklahoma City. Out heritage is mostly Irish with some Scottish, some English, and just a little bit of Dutch (my great-grandmother was Nancy Isobel (Greer) Burdick and had married William Harvey Burdick at the age of 13! She was born in Illinois (as was he) and they traveled through Missouri, Arkansas, and Texas before coming into Indian Territory.

It is unusual these days to be an American with out some Indian heritage so you can imagine how unusual it is for me to be a "white guy" and third generation Oklahoman. My 3 sons are 4th generation (the two oldest were born in OKC while the youngest was born here in Perry) but cannot claim 'all white' because their mom is 7/8 Irish but her grandmother was part Cherokee and I think part Otoe. My ancestors have been in America since the 1720s having arrived in Virginia and Illinois in the early days.

I hadn't intended to write so much but I've noted in your newsletters how so many folks are interested in family history and that so many of us are searching for more ancestral connections, that I felt I should tell a portion of my story here. The relatives mentioned here are just on my father's side. My mom's ancestors were the Joseph Warner family's in Maryland, Virginia, and Ohio (fought in the Revolution), the Lewis's of Virginia, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri and Kansas; Mills of Kentucky, etc. and now I need to end this bit of history. Thanks for your interest." -- Roy Kendrick
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