They had problems with one of the two wagons they used to travel to Oklahoma to claim their land. Not a lot of the good claims were left to claim when Reuben filed. Philip was twenty years old at this time. He filed his claim one mile and a half east of the Salt Fork River or five miles west of Hawley, OK. 
My dad went to home dances where he called and played the fiddle at times too. He met my mother Ellen Branson who was there with a girl friend at one of these dances. They became friends at this time. Dad went to see a lady who was having trouble with one of her horses and when it died and her well went dry, she decided she wanted to go back to Kansas. Dad offered her one of his horses and $5. for her claim. She signed over the claim to Dad and left for Kansas. By this time Dad had marriage in mind. My mother told him he would have to have a two roomed house before she considered marriage. There was all of the wild game they wanted to eat. Reuben and Philip killed quail and Prairie Chicken for the open market sales at Jefferson, OK. One day my dad, Philip was shooting a covey of quail when Reuben came over the hill to shoot at the same covey. One of Dad’s stray pellets struck Reuben in the eye and he lost the sight of it. My dad really never ever got over what happened. 
They took quail that Dad killed to the open market after eating their share. Dad and Mom lived in the shanty all winter. When spring came, they put out a large garden. Mom’s mother Emma Branson gave them setting eggs from her chickens and geese. Dad had a cow. By fall Mom knew she was going to have a baby. Dad had been working on their house some when spring came and my brother Orville was born May 25, 1902. They moved into the newly built two room house that Dad built. Dad drove a water well and got good water. Orville was a puny and colicky baby and when Mom got an ear infection, she had to go to a specialist. She was gone several weeks while one of her friends from Wichita took care of Orville. Finally she came home. Grandma Emma Branson helped her can fruit. They dried some fruit on bed sheets on the roof of the house. They also canned field corn for winter food. Dad’s sister Mary Catherine died on May 4, 1904. Reuben and Phil’s mother Catharine sold their place nearby and moved into Nashville now called Nash. (renamed in 1910) Reuben purchased a butcher shop in Nashville. He butchered a lot of animals and Dad helped him when he had time. In the spring Dad put in his crop and planted evergreen trees in the front year. He set out some mulberry trees on the south east side of the house. They put out another garden and mom raised chickens for eggs and meat. 
Dad was working very hard in those days. He planted some locust trees for fire wood. Some tree peddlers told him that locust trees made good posts so he bought some starts. Everyone in the community seemed to be doing the same thing. Soon Mom found she was to have another baby. Myrtle Goldie was born on June 12, 1907 and had yellow Jaundice. She was very sick. We three were close in age and a lot of care for Mom. Reuben’s butcher shop was doing quite well and making a good living for him and his mother. 
After Dad laid in the crop, he told us we would move to Nash so he could help his brother Reuben in the butcher shop and Bill Dunham could add the third room to our two-room house. Soon after we moved to Nashville, Dad got blood poisoning from a wound in the bend of his arm caused by his Sleeve holder. He became very ill. The doctor was concerned that he might have to amputate his arm, but it did not come to that. Dad went back to the farm to harvest corn. Bill Dunham was still working on the house addition so we stayed in town until after my sister Tula Dona was born on May 13, 1909. 
When the seed and pulp started to ferment and became slimy, we had to wash them in a steel vat with holes large enough to let the pulp bleed through. We used the back side of a rake to scrape down the steel vat while someone dripped water on the seeds. After the seeds were washed, we put them out to dry on trays with screen bottoms to dry. We stirred the seeds often to dry them faster and more thorough. After the seeds were dry, we sacked, and stored them for a while then ran them through a fanner mill and re-sacked and tagged them to ship and sell to the C.M. Ferry seed company in Detroit. Then to wait for the check! Orville and I worked at this project the first watermelon crop. One job we had was dipping water or holding the sacks to be filled. It was one big undertaking too. My Dad trapped skunks, coons, possums, coyotes and you name it in the fall. Sometimes he made three to four hundred dollars in a three month trapping season when trapping was good and furs were high priced. But I can tell you Mom did not like it Dad had to skin them, stretch the hides on boards and then change clothes afterwards. Sometimes he had to change his shoes too. By now our family was getting even larger and more work had to be done. Dad had to butcher more hogs to feed all of us. Mom and Dad had us kids turn the meat grinder while she made sausage to can. She fried it then packed it in jars and poured the fat over the top, sealed the jars tight and inverted the jars until they cooled. We had meat almost all summer. 
We also us an onion poultice on our chest when we had a bad chest cold. Sometimes we used a mustard plaster, but it could burn the skin if it was left on too long. Another pack used was used on boils or puncture wounds. It was made by making a stiff paste yet not dry of flour and water. When the wound wept you repeated the procedure. Hot Epson salt packs were used for this as well. When my dad had blood poison peroxide was used for the most part. When a baby was born and the mother’s milk had not come in they were fed sterile water with a few drops of whiskey and a match head sized pinch of sugar every two hours. My mother made hominy during the winter. Something else we kids liked was when she made what she called pumpkin butter which was much like pumpkin pie filling. She flavored the cooked pumpkin with cinnamon a bit of nutmeg and a small pinch of clove and enough sugar not to make it too sweet. She cooked it just enough for the flavor to go through the mixture. We kids like this served cold. We put it out side to chill. Mom did not intend for us to eat it this way, she made it in large amounts to make pies later. All she needed to do was add milk and eggs then put it in a crust to bake. Sometimes she added cream and we ate it as a desert. Mom made the best pickled peaches and watermelon preserves. When we butchered she made head cheese. In those days almost all of a butchered animal was used. She used the tongue and pickled pig’s feet too. She never used the kidneys nor the lungs like some others did. Dad always butchered six to eight hogs the last of January. He hung the carcasses high in a tree to freeze. He started cutting them up in the evening or after we kids were in bed. Lard rendering was a big chore. Sausage was made and fried then added to jars and then inverted to pour the hot grease over the meat to seal. We stored the filled jars in our cellar. The cracklings were saved to make homemade laundry soap. After Dad cured the hams and shoulders, he butchered beef. Mom made a lot of mince meat from the scrappy meat. She added cherries, apples, grape wine, sugar and some spices for her mince meat pie. It was my dad’s favorite pie. My dad soled our shoes with the old leather belting from Uncle Ruben’s threshing machine. Dad got so he could do a good job with half soling our shoes. We did a lot of walking when we went to school. It seemed that he did a lot of shoe repair each night after school. My mother made most all of our clothes. She even mastered the art of making overalls for the boys. She also made their shirts. I well remember the beautiful bonnets she made. The ones made for Sunday School were trimmed in lace with a pretty pink or blue chambray material. Mom’s parents; Jeff and Emma Branson had several fruit trees; peach, cherry, two apricot and a Red Indian peach that turned red when it was cooked. We got most of our fruit from there. One time when we picked almost a wagon load of peaches and drove home; Myrtle and I had eaten so many we got very sick. We were supposed to halve them and put them on a sheet to dry the next day, but we were still too sick to help so a neighbor lady helped Mom and Dad in return for some of the fruit. We dried a lot of field corn for the winter. Mom also salted down cucumbers for making pickles later. She put them in a 10 gallon crock jar. That saved a lot of jars to open during the winter. They also made kraut. That was my dad’s project. We got sweet potatoes from Jonathan Loy. Back in those days they did another thing that is not done now; when a member of a family died, neighbors came to house sit with the deceased. Many of the funerals were held in the home. I still remember when the horse drawn hearse went by our place when Ott and Bob Myers mother passed away. It carried her body to the Hawley Cemetery. My brother Orville was always asking permission to go to Grandpa and Grandma Bransons. He liked to see Uncle Joe use the forge. Orville did a lot of blacksmithing later on. He never really cared much for farming. I could see that when he wanted to follow the threshing crew that our Uncle Reuben Clover had. Uncle Rube had a steam powered threshing machine and threshed every year. Dad was a great school “booster’ He served on the school board and Mom always helped with things if needed. She made costumes for our school programs. Our school term was only 5 months when I was in school at first. It got better after a few years. Teachers back then graduated out of the eight grade and got a teaching certificate to teach school. They received about $21.00 per month for teaching all eight grades. My dad and Claude Reeves were what you called Road Over- seers. In these days we kept our own roads up and paid poll tax that way. I think a man named Scott helped dad and Claude too. Some time passed; Philip Earl was born on Aug 10, 1910 on a hot and steamy week day. It was now getting to where Mom never had to tell us she was pregnant again. Everyone noticed it. `One time we were visiting Grandma Branson and she said “I hope Ellen does not have another baby soon”. Myrtle started giggling so she knew another baby was on the way. She had not noticed it before. Grandma always helped us when she could. The Mulberry trees grew and began bearing fruit which drew flies. We kids were going in and out of the house and let in many of those flies. Mom was always particular about flies and always placed mosquito nets over the baby cribs. During watermelon season the flies were bad as well as our horses drew them too. 
Bud (Phillip) had summer complaint and we nearly lost him. We had to stop eating some of the foods he liked so he would not eat it too. It is watermelon and peach season. I will start school and go with Orville. It will take more clothes for Mom to make. We have to get up earlier and be ready by 7:45 AM to be on time to walk 1 and 1/4th of a mile to Wide Awake School. Joyce Levi was born on July 10,1914. We had Grandma Clover to care for too. Reuben could not care for her. She was in Glen Elder, Kansas for a while. Grandpa Thomas Jefferson is getting feeble and his mind wanders. We built a kitchen on the east side of the house about this time. It is spring again. Grandma Clover is still with us. We had to watch her closely. Mom got upset when she got a lot of clothes out and mixed the clean ones with dirty ones. She took a bath in a galvanized tub and put the clothes in the tub with her. Of course, we washed clothes on the board. It is June now; Mom got word that her dad Thomas Jefferson was found dead in the pasture. The family had looked for him for a long time before finding him where he fell to his death from a cliff in the pasture. He often climbed up to the top of the cliff to see all of the cattle. They called Mom in the evening after finding him. Madge Vivian was born on June 14, 1916 just after he died. 
Now we are hearing a lot of talk about war. Every one seems to be upset about the people being overseas. There are 5 of us in school now. We are eating a lot of cornbread these days. Now it is Christmas time. We have had several bad snow storms and have no mail delivered unless we can get through the snow drifts to meet the carrier part way. We were all getting over the flu and red measles when our little redheaded brother, Howard Robert was born on Feb 28, 1918. We were all very sick. Madge had trouble with her throat and kidneys too. Dad’s mother Susannah died on Feb 05, 1918. Another summer and fall had passed and we shipped more watermelon seed to DM Ferry Seeds. We kids are back in school. This was the winter Dad’s old 22 year old horse Muggins died. Dad’s fur trapping has dwindled and maybe it is because his old skunk dog died. This old dog knew when skunks were in a hole. The price for furs were down too. WW1 ended on Nov 11,1918, but we lost a lot of good boys over there including our friend and neighbor Clarence Hickock. School is out now this spring and we older kids have chores lined out for us to do such as milking, housework, laundry, cooking and you name it. It took over a 48 lb sack of flour a week for us to bake bread everyday for our big family. I started baking bread at 12 years of age. If Orville was not at home Myrtle and I had to do his chores. Anna Louise was born on March 15, 1920, it seemed like time was flying by for us kids. We always had plenty to eat. Maybe we did not have a lot of things, but we had each other. We did have our squabbles as all kids do. 
I stopped going to school and never finished the 8th grade. Myrtle went on. During cold days Myrtle and I shared shoes to attend school. One went one day and the other the next. Tula was getting old enough to help us with some housework. One day Willard and Joyce got into a scrap and Willard got a deep cut close to his mouth. We did not see the fight, but Willard could stick his tongue almost through where you could see it. It finally healed. He said Joyce threw a broken cup at him. Homer Lester was born on Jan 22, 1922. I remember this very well. Doc Tucker was there to help deliver him while Myrtle and I were washing the dishes after supper was over. Pretty soon we heard the baby cry. Doc Tucker asked Mom who was going to wash the baby. Mom told him “I guess you”. He came to the kitchen and said “Come on in you are going to take care of the baby”, so I did. Was I ever clumsy! That was my first experience at age 17. Mom was soon up, but now there was plenty of us to help and did not have to be told what to do. That summer I went out to work. I was not home much anymore only to help out on weekends. I did not see much of what was going on at home after that. Myrtle was called to work once in a while and Tula had to take over her chores then, so you can see we all helped each other. We surely did not go places like young people do now. I was working at the Saline Game Preserve called the Dog Ranch by many when Helen was born on Oct 13, 1923. Orville married Esther Shafer on Oct 09, 1924 they farmed at first. They milked cows and raised hogs and chickens. He raised watermelons for seed like our dad did. They finally moved to where they could raise wheat. I can not remember if he had a combine or hired it cut. It seems he did. Orville finally moved to a farm near Wakita and went to work for Adams Hard-facing. I was told by others that he was very good at his job. When he took the job, I knew it was the right thing for him to do. One day I went to talk to him and it surely a hot place to work. He was working on plow shares. When I read the Clover history I thought this might be inherited trait as Uncle Joe sure liked to do shop work. Then I read of some of dad’s relatives who had the same job. Who really knows what a drive some people have to do certain things. Orville worked for Adams for 32 years before he retired, so I know he really enjoyed his work. He retired in 1971. After he retired, he went to his grandson; Bob Clover’s auto repair shop. He answered the phone and perhaps helped him with car repair too. I worked at the Preserve one summer and winter before going to work at Nashville for Dr. Helsel caring for the children. I met my husband Orville Caywood at the Vining Church when I worked at the Dog Ranch. Orville went to Tucson and we continued our courtship by mail while I was staying at the Helsels. 
The next spring I had blood poisoning and had to stay in the hospital for thirteen days. My mom and dad took Lois and Lila home with them to care for them until I got home. I was not up to any kind of hard work for a while. 
In the middle of August, we got the needed rain, so the seed planted in the dust came up. Now we had the feed, but just a few cattle left. 
Willis returned home from his navy tour and married Thelma Mae Somers on Oct 27, 1949. They built a home just southeast of our house and Willis cut posts and did odd jobs for a living. Douglas Dwayne was born on Sept 23, 1950 while they lived there. Willis applied for a job in Wichita and moved there to live. Jerald LaVerne was born there on Jan 1, 1953 and Ronald Mark was bon on Aug 09, 1954. Willis and family moved to Turley. OK when he went to work for American Airlines there. Then they later moved to Owasso. Pamela June was born on Mar 22, 1957 and Patricia June was born on July 31, 1968 both in Tulsa Thelma died Nov 26, 2006 in Tulsa; Jerry died Oct 23, 2002 in TX and Patty died on Feb 06, 1998 in TX. Lois was like my mom she had a large family of 12 children. A son Danny was killed on Aug 21, 1972 in a car accident. 
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