Volume 11 , Issue 51

Autobiography: Laura Margaret (Westfall) Fox

The following autobiography was written by Laura Margaret Westfall Fox and sent to the OkieLegacy by Scott Stewart (email: scottstewart555@gmail.com). The autobiography begins below: I was born near Doniphan, Nebraska, July 30, 1892; the first child of Daniel sylvester and Rozella (Burger) Westfall.

The autumn of 1893 in September, my father and Uncle Louis Levi Westfall went down to Oklahoma Territory which had been thrown open for settlement. They filed on land for a homestead each of 160 acres. The following spring of 1894 in April, they moved there to start a home.

My grandmother, Eliza Jane Westfall, went with Uncle Lou to keep house for him. My aunt willie Tillie Ann was still with her mother, who was a widow. Her husband William Levi, having been shot on a train, of which he was conductor. Jesse James and gang had boarded the train and grandpa reached up to get a ticket from a man's hat band. Jesse thought he was going to ring the bell, to have them put off, so he up and shot him. So grandma moved to Nebraska with her three children, Daniel, age 12; Louis, 9 or 10; and Aunt Willie, 3 or 4.

I heard Mama tell how the horses always followed a horse they called "Old Kit." And two or three times they got away and started back to Nebraska, Old Kit in the lead. The men discovered they were gone and took after them with the help of neighbors and brought them back.

We generally went places in the wagon, which was broken down to only one board. At first the men drove 30 miles to Kiowa, Kansas, for supplies and later to Alva, Oklahoma which was a few miles closer.

When the state was divided into counties, we lived in Woods County and Alva was the county seat. Later when I was a girl close to the teens, Woods was divided into three counties: Woods, Alfalfa and Major. We were in Alfalfa and our county seat was Cherokee.

A little town, Augusta, was our trading post for a number of years. The men of the community got ball teams organized and I remember on Saturday P.M.'s, we would go down to Augusta to watch the games.

And in the "fall" the Veterans of Civil War had a Reunion, generally three days. We always went, generally put seats on wagon and take a load.

After a few years, some of the same carnival attractions we see today at the Fairs began setting up booths and Aid Societies had eating booths. They always had programs and get-togethers on memorial Day and Fourth of July.

The first railway that came through near us and stopped at Augusta was the Chocataw (sic). Before 1910 another town called Carmen, which was about 2-1/2 miles east of Augusta was started. It was the result of another railway called the Orient and Mexico. Carmen was only about 1-1/2 miles from us and we went to trading there. One of the principal stores was Ebert and Henry, which was a general store. They would give credit from one harvest and threshing of wheat to next, which was some time in September.

My father would go to Kansas and shuck corn for 50-cents a day in order to feed his family. Also, after the corn was gathered, he returned home and would go down about 25 miles southeast of us where the trees called Black Jacks grew. He would leave before daylight and generally got back the next evening with a load of wood on the frame work of the wagon, after getting the winter wood in for our needs. Then they (Uncle Lou and Pa) would each take a wagon and get loads and take them to Alva and sell them. After a few years the wheat harvest began to take care of our actual needs. Sometimes the wheat would be nearly a complete failure, so we had hard times occasionally.

When I was 4 years old, my brother William was born. There was a Danish lady, Mrs. Geist, that was a mid-wife and she took care of Mamma.

When I was 6 years old, my father had managed to haul enough lumber from Alva to build a house of lumber - 2 rooms downstairs and 2 upstairs. It was called a story and a half. In July the year I was six, my bother George was born.

Going back to our start in Oklahoma, my father had taken what they call a breaking plow and plowed the virgin soil; then they picked up the pieces of soil, about 12"x18", and laid them each on top of the other with a mixture of sand, lime and water between them, to build our house.

We lived in this house for six years. Part of the walls were plastered. When we first went there, my mother would put me in a little wood wagon she had and pull me over to grandma Westfall's, two miles from our house. Grandma generally drove Old Kit to a buggy they had brought from Nebraska, and brought us home.

Mamma was about 22 years old when they came from Nebraska. There were rattle snakes, quite a lot and Mamma was very watchful and killed many with the hoe. We had an old dog we called Shag; and sometimes if he was watching me, he would grab a snake by the back of the neck and shake it to death.

Our nearest neighbors was about 1/2 mile north of us. He was a Methodist preacher and she and the three oldest boys did most of their farming. There were seven children. The youngest girl was a year or so older than I, but we got along fairly well, unless there were older children present, then they tried to shut me out of the play. Their name was Lakey. And after I was old enough to take to Sunday School, they took me each Sunday to Augusta until I was about 9 or 10 years old.

About 1903 the Christian church started a Sunday School in our school house about 1-1/2 miles north of us. I started going there, generally walking. Visiting Christian church preachers came through and preached for us. After the church started in Carmen, the preacher came out in the P.M. and preached to us. Sometime between 11 and 12 years of age, I made the beginning of a christian life. I was baptized the same day my mother was at Shockley's Pond.

Some time between 13 and 18 years old, we began driving to Carmen on Sunday A.M. to the Christian church. My grandma Westfall came from the Christian church. She had one brother who was a preacher in the Christian church.

I walked to school 1-1/2 miles from the time I was 7 years old to a school in the country with all eight grades. About 30 to 5 pupils attended with one teacher. My 1st teacher was Loren Neal. When I was in 3rd grade we had a teacher who drove to school each morning in a wagon. As he went past our house, we children rode with him.

My school days in the one room school lasted from 7 years old to 15 years. Then as there wasn't many high schools, my father decided to let me go to Carmen to high school. It was a pleasant year.

But the past County Superintendent, Mrs. McGreevy, talked Pa into letting me go back out to our own school as she was going to teach, so she took special interest in three of us girls and trained us to take Teacher's Exams in the spring.

There were three grades - 3rd grade certificates; 2nd grade and 1st grade. A person started by trying for 3rd grade certificate. I passed the Exams and the year I was 18 I taught my first term of school, about 12 miles from home. My father would take me over on Sunday P.M. and I boarded with a Mrs. Griffin who lived right near the school house.

When I think of how little I knew, I marvel that I ever taught that school. The youngsters in 8th grade, some were nearly as old as I. My 2nd term was right near Kansas border, Waldron, Kansas. I did not come home on weekends very often as I rode the train.

My 3rd and 4th term was at West Clay about 3 or 4 miles east of our school. I drove a buggy and horse back and forth and boarded at home. My 5th term was at our own home District and I walked back and forth.

My 6th term was up at Keystone. I boarded with the Frank Ice family. Their daughter Bertha was about my age, so it was a real pleasant year.

I attended the M.E. Church there and that is where I met Fred. He walked me home to Ice's several times, leading his horse. He finally got a new buggy and drove me home near Carmen on Friday evenings and came after me on Sunday afternoons. These were very pleasant trips. We were married on June 11, 1916. We drove to Yewed, Oklahoma on Sunday P.M. to our pastor's home. Bertha (Ice) Davis and her husband was our witnesses. My brother, William, and Mamma and Raymond also were present.

Fred and I began our married life in an old house about like the one we are now living in (1966). It was his grandma Hopkins place. 80 acres to seed to wheat. He had 3 or 4 horses, the one we thought the most of was "Old Don." He was the one we drove while courting. He had a cow or two and we raised a few pigs and chickens.

I became pregnant soon after marriage. In those days the women knew very little about the care. At 5 months I visited our Dr. Welch who was in a little town of Dacoma. He didn't tell me to come back and so I didn't. At a little past 8 months I was so bloated and swollen with excess water that Fred's mother told me I'd better go to the doctor. As my eyes were so swollen and blurred, I said, "Yes."

So Fred took me down that P.M. The doctor was horrified, but said very little. He gave me some pills, which brought on labor and also caused the passing of much water. I got so sick in a day or two I called Fred's mother and when she came over and saw me, she sent for Fred, who was working down at the church helping clean up after a small fire there.

When he came home she told him to call the doctor. As the doctor was quite busy that night (5 babies he delivered) going from home to home, he couldn't come right away. When ours came they were twins. One of the babies we named Louis and the other Lawrence. Louis only lived 2 days.

Lawrence was quite frail and slept so much we were worried he wouldn't live. I was so flighty and crazy and up on the chamber passing water that I couldn't sleep; so after 2 days and 1 night at high pitch, Fred got in bed with me and soothed and talked till finally I fell asleep for a small nap. Then I began to have sleep off and on until I was sleeping normally. It was nearly month before my eye sight got back to normal."
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