My grandfather, John Reuben Caywood, was born in Ewing, Kentucky on May 25,1867 on a tobacco plantation. At the age of seven, he and his family migrated to Alden, Kansas where he grew to manhood on his parents Mason and Mary Ann Moore Caywood’s farm. He met Emma Daly from Raymond, Kansas, just a few miles away from Alden, and married her in 1892. When they got word of the free land in Oklahoma, they decided that was a way to get a start in farming. John and Emma set up an overnight camp the day before the September run in Camchester near the Kansas-Oklahoma border south of Anthony, Kansas. Most of the land seekers camped out for the night at starting points along the Kansas-Oklahoma border. Everyone, including John and Emma, was provided stakes to mark their land that had already been sectioned off prior to the run. They were also given certificates that had to be signed and sealed at the land office in Enid, Oklahoma. The overnight border camp ground was filled with settlers. A few disagreements occurred among the anxious settlers. After a long awaited time, a single shot rang out from a US Calvary soldier’s rifle at straight up noon on that September 16, 1893 day. John and Emma joined the thousands of land claim seekers who bolted from the Kansas border to stake their claims on the free land allotted by the US Government. Some people were on horseback, while other men drove horse drawn wagons with wives and children. A few people drove cars. John and Emma, who were expecting their first child in Jan of 1984, chose a team of horses and a buck wagon to make the run. The dust and dirt kicked up by the horses and wheels of the wagons boiled high into the air making visibility at a minimum. John lost his treasured rifle when it fell from the back of his wagon during his short trip. Guns were a vital tool to have for killing game for their meat supply, so losing his rifle was an important loss; he did have his six-gun with him. The Cherokee Strip extended 226 miles from east to west and 58 miles from north to south. Many of the settlers chose to stake land just across the Kansas border just as John and Emma did. They staked land near a place that soon became the town of Gibbon, Oklahoma. John and Emma set up a temporary tent for their first home that was required by the government. They made several trips back to their Kansas homes for supplies and brought back food staples, building supplies, and equipment needed to set up their farm. They did not have a car, so they rode horses and used a buck wagon for travel. For their first home, they built a sod house with mud and grass from the new owned land. The roof was constructed of wood and wooden shingles. They added a cow and some chickens to their farm operation, providing them with milk and eggs. Emma returned to Kansas for the birth of her first child in January of 1894.They planted fruit trees and made a large garden that spring which provided the food they needed. Emma canned vegetables from the garden and fruit from Kansas for use during the winter. Their farm soon became self efficient with bare necessities purchased at Gibbon. Since there were no trees in the new settlement, cow chips were used for stove fuel and heat. After the first crop of corn was harvested in 1994, corn cobs were used. More sod houses were built the next summer as well as a few wood framed homes. The demand for living supplies for the settlers was the beginning of the town of Gibbon. At first, the merchants operated out of crude tents and soon built stores for their businesses. It was not long before the town grew and the farms flourished around Gibbon. John and Emma lived on the Gibbon land for twelve years, where five of their children were born. In 1895 they traded their land for school leased land southwest of Sand Creek. School land was set aside to be rented to farmers and the rental proceeds went to the county school system. The school land had two spring fed ponds from five feeder springs. The good water source is what mainly motivated John and Emma to trade farms. They built a new home by using the roof from the old Gibbon farm, then building a two room frame house under it. Later on, they added more rooms. Three more children were born on this farm, bringing the total children to eight boys and one girl. A son Raymond died at age two. Emma died on December 21, 1948 and John sold his lease to Wayne and Lois Guffy, (John’s grand daughter and Orville’s daughter and her husband). In 1950, Wayne and Lois tore down the old house. They used some of the lumber and chimney brick to build onto the Guffy home in 1951. John died on November 26, 1958 at the age of 91 at Cherokee, Oklahoma. John and Emma are buried at the Arbor AKA Fairview AKA Sand Creek Cemetery north of Sand Creek in Grant County, OK

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Created December 21, 2020

Updated: 13 June, 2021

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