STORIES:

1.  Cleve O'Dell tells about how he met Wensel Krebbs.  "We met at a dance in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma.  I was with a friend and I told him that I was going to marry that girl over there (Wensel).  My friend said, 'Short, you can't marry that girl, she's an Indian'".  And dad said to his friend:  "Hell, what do you think we are?"

2. Newspaper Story, undated:

 Robbing Indians: 

"James Hanson, age 20, (Cleve O'Dell's cousin) living at Elmore (7 miles south of Antioch), Indian Territory married Dora Howell, age 17, living at Elmore, Indian Territory, September 18, 1905." (Pickens County, Indian Territory, which is now Carter County, Oklahoma. The marriage record is now located in the Carter County Clerk's office at Ardmore, Oklahoma, Marriage Book I, page 397.)

News report:  "The case of Jim Hanson tried Tuesday and Wednesday for robbing two Choctaw Indians named Bull a short time ago, resulted in a hung jury. From the best we could learn the jury seemed to be unanimously of the opinion that the defendant was guilty, but under Oklahoma law where two or more persons commit a robbery together, the penalty is a life sentence. On account of the extreme penalty the jury agreed to render no verdict. Indicted jointly with Hanson were Jones and Dunn." (From an old Paul's Valley, Oklahoma newspaper, 5 March 1908. NOTE FROM RALPH TERRY: I am not sure if this is the Jim Hanson, son of John A. Hanson, but because of the time and place, it is possible.)

1920 Imperial County, California census: James HANSON, 33, Texas; Dora HANSON, wife, 29, Texas; Etta HANSON, daughter, 17, Oklahoma; Orvil (sic - Arvil is correct) HANSON, son, 8, Oklahoma; Alma HANSON, daughter, 11 month , California; Elizabeth HOWELL, mother-in-law, 76, Alabama (This was Cleve O'Dell's grandmother); Charles J. HOWELL; brother-in-law, 39, Texas; Lauren HOWELL, (wife of Charles HOWELL), 34, Tennessee.

Additional information about the James and Dora Hanson family is from Kathryn Tabor Scheetz, KATHYSCHEETZ@aol.com, 2005.

 

3.  Chilocco Indian School  

Grandad Krebbs (Milton) was forced to attend the Indian school at Chilocco, Oklahoma.  Among other things, he was taught carpentry.  He was always building things for Grannie Krebbs (Daisy), and he did a lot of construction for others (including Cleve and Wensel O'Dell).  

However, Grandad wasn't happy at Chilocco.  He ran away from the school 3 times.  This would have been before 1900 or so.  Roads were sparse, and horse and buggy and wagons were only means of transportation in Indian Territory.  Grandad Krebbs probably followed the Arkansas River home, we speculate.  The river is only a few miles north of Chilocco and he could have followed it down to Short Mountain, a prominent landmark on the river, and just a few miles from Cowlington, where the Krebbs family was located at that time.  Google says the distance TODAY from Cowlington to Chilocco  is 220 miles by road.  Grandad never talked about the school that I heard.  All this information comes from Grannie Krebbs who would tell us kids stories about the old days.

During the family reunion of 1980 in Arkansas City, Kansas, me, Beverly and Judy went to Chilocco. The school was about 20 miles south, just within the Oklahoma border. We toured the place which had been closed. And as it turned out, we had some O'Dell relatives that had worked there.  See photo below.

 

4.  From my notebooks dated July 20, 1980

in a conversation with Uncle Tandy Krebbs about his mother Hattie's  side of the family, the Lowerys.

Hattie mentioned Louisiana a lot according to Uncle Tandy. Said that they may have worked down here or have lived down there for a while.  

She mentioned a brother Richard Lowery who lived in Paris, Arkansas.  He raised a big family there on a big plantation.  He was married 3 times.  He came to Frank Lowery's funeral according to Uncle Tandy.  Frank Lowery lived in the Cowlington area and married a woman named  (Winnie) Hill.  They had one boy Everett who died young.

Hayes was another brother of Hattie's.  He never married and lived in the Henrietta area. 

Hattie had several sisters, 3 that he could recall.  One sister married a Jim Collins, who had a brother Walter Collins.  It might have been Walter that she married, Tandy couldn't quite remember.  They had 3 or 4 boys and girls each. They lived in the Collinsville area near Valliant, Ok.

Henrietta was another sister that lived there, she married a Williams.  She had a daughter that was messing around with a married man and the man's wife shot her and she was paralyzed and used a wheelchair.  There was one other sister that Tandy recalled, but couldn't remember her name or where she lived.

Hattie used to tell Uncle Tandy that the Lowerys were from Tennessee and they were all scared to come to Arkansas and Indian Territory, because they were afraid of the Indians.  And of course, Hattie married Peter Brooks Krebbs, a Choctaw Indian.  

 

5.  From my notes dated July 13, 1980: 

Newspaper article: "Choctaw Indian Law:  If a white man married a Choctaw woman, he had to have 10 witnesses sign a petition stating that they knew the man, and that he was a reputable man. "   Smart.

 

6.  My notes from July 11, 1980: 

John Brown shot and killed Bill Krebbs at Alderson, Indian territory on the 7th.  The dead man was a son of the late Judge Krebbs who died here last fall.  On the same day, in the same neighborhood, Jack Hogan shot and killed a negro named Jim Harris.  Both murderers are at large.

 

7.  Our Piano. 

Beverly remembers picking cotton on Sundays to buy our piano. We would load up Sunday morning early and go out and pick til noon or so.     Moma said that all the kids picked cotton for Daddy to buy the second hand piano from Aunt Flossie for $100.  Aunt Flossie had bought it from their neighbor behind them, but Beverly couldn't remember their names.  I remember when we picked it up.  Daddy, Uncle Runt, and several other men loaded it up in the back of a pickup, and a couple of the men stood in the back of the pickup holding it so that it didn't move around. Charlie Word was one of the men, and he was standing there playing as they moved along.

 Beverly said that she took piano lessons from Mrs. Dumlin, a school teacher.  She went to Mrs. Dumlin's house after school.  Sherrill took lessons for a couple of years from Mrs. Pressure from Bakersfield.  Then Butch, (me) took lessons from the same teacher for a couple of years.  Mrs. Pressure would drive to Alpaugh and give lessons to several students on Saturdays.  Moma loved music, and she didn't mind listening to us practicing on the old piano, sour notes and all.  

  When mom and dad moved to the new house, the piano stayed in a corner of the garage.  Stayed there for 30 years.  Mice and other critters made it their home.  When the house sold, we moved a lot of stuff to storage in Hanford.  Including the piano.  Finally, after several years, we cleaned out the storage unit and dismantled the old piano.  Kimberly has the front sounding board as a wall decoration, and Beverly has the two pillar like legs for candle holders.  I have one of the handles from the back side that was used for moving it around.  The rest, including the metal strings and frame went to the recycle center in Hanford.

 

8. Divvy it up.

Being in a family of 6 kids sometimes made sharing difficult. Especially when it came to cake. But there was a rule. Whoever cut the cake into six pieces got the last piece. That way you made sure you cut them all into equal slices. Worked for just 2 kids too. Candy , cokes, pie, licorice, jelly beans, whatever. Whoever divided it in half had to let the other person choose first. 

 

9. Marilyn and Moma going to Visalia the back way

Judy has a letter from Moma telling a story on Marilyn. The letter was written Nov 13, 1967.  A headlight on the car was out of alignment, and Marilyn was taking Moma to Visalia to go shopping and get the light adjusted.  Marilyn at the time was going with Don B. from Exeter.  They had met at COS.  Moma writes:  Marilyn said... "'Oh Moma, this is the best way to go to Visalia, it's a back-way.  Don goes this way all the time.'  Moma continued to write, "Well, Marilyn started to pass a car on that road, and some Highway Patrolmen were sitting right at an intersection, and sure enough here they come with their RED lights on. So she stopped and she was scared but not Petrified, and anyway, he gave her a ticket for passing a car within 100 yards of an intersection. Well, that was ok, because she had.  We started on, and just got a little ways down the road, and we heard a siren behind us.  I looked back and the CHP Red light had grown at least 10 feet bigger.  Well, Marilyn said, "I'm going to jail".  Well, she pulled over and the patrolman came grinning up and by that time Marilyn was PETRIFIEID because she thought she had been so careful.  Well, he had forgotten to give back the car registration slip, which was a relief, but we (both of us) were so shaken up by that time, we turned around and waited til we got to Corcoran to get the headlight adjusted.  But there was only 1 place qualified to do the work and they were so busy they couldn't get to it.  That was the last straw." So Moma and Marilyn just gave up and went to see Beverly and the kids in Corcoran and call it a day.

 

10. Frank's Birthday cards

Frank and Marilyn were stickers for birthday cards. Especially Frank. When ecards first came out and were popular, I would email them to family. But Frank insisted that they weren’t real birthday cards. He insisted that à real card had to have a stamp on it. He had a point, and not everyone had a computer. So I gave up sending the ecards and just sent out cards through the mail.

Frank also loved to send dirty, risqué cards too. We always wondered where he found such cards. Well, one day I was with him and he decided to stop and get his car washed. It was a hand-wash place and you had to get out of your car and wait in the waiting room. It was the waiting room where he got all those cards. The entire room was filled with racks of thousands of crazy, dirty, suggestive cards that you could imagine. A fun place to wait for your car to be cleaned while you filled your brain with dirty jokes.

 

11.  Rundown gravy:

As told to Beverly by Cleve O'Dell:  Cleve says that in Oklahoma everyone had cows for milking.  But not every cow would give milk every day.  And when it came to breakfast, nothing could beat that old white gravy with biscuits.  However, you had to have someone milk the cow at dawn to get the breakfast milk. 

Sometimes, there would be no milk from your cow.  But, alas, that is where the RUNDOWN GRAVY comes in.  All you had to do was to rundown one of your neighbor's cows and milk it enough for your morning gravy.  Thus:  RUNDOWN GRAVY was born.  True story.

 

12.  Daddy's Scratching

Beverly remembers, and I do too, this about Cleve.  We would all be in the car and ready to go to town.  Of course, we were all anxious to get into town and do some shopping.  But, Daddy would make a stop by one of the fields that was just planted in cotton, alfalfa, whatever.  Usually cotton.  Daddy would stop the car and get out.  He would walk down a long row of dirt and then stop.  He would stoop over and scratch the ground and look for sprouts.  He would go up and down rows and do the same thing several times.  Scratch the dirt, look for sprouts, cover it up.  Scratch the dirt, look for sprouts, cover it up.  When he was satisfied that the seeds were doing what they should, he would come back to the car, and we would head on into town.  Everyone was happy.

13. Mama floating

On long hot summer days, we loved to go swimming in the canals.  We usually went to the Booster Pump as that's where  everyone in town gathered. It was deep and wide there where the north branch canal started.  But, Mama wouldn't let us go alone.  And someone had to drive.  An adult had to go with us, or Mama wouldn't let us go.  But we seemed to always find an adult to take us.  Now, parking on a canal bank isn't easy, and sometimes it was crowded and we had to park on the road and walk down the alkali dusty, weedy canal bank.  Not a problem when the cool water waited.  A couple of times Mama went with us to watch.  She did want us to learn to swim, and as a girl in Shawnee, they went to the City pool and learned how to swim, Mama was an excellent swimmer.  One time when she went with us, she decided to get in and swim with us.  Beverly recalls one time Mama went swimming and she showed us how to FLOAT.  Mama could float like a log.  Beverly said that Mama just leaned back and all you could see were her feet, stomach and head on top of the water.  Bev was amazed and impressed at Mama floating, because when she tried, she couldn't float one bit.  Beverly was so impressed, that at school she drew a picture of Mama floating.  It was all watery blue colors with just feet, a belly, and a head sticking up out of the surface.  She gave the picture to Mama, and Mama laughed and laughed.  And we did learn to swim.

14. Danys and the Exlax

When Beverly's 3 girls were little, they were learning to share.  However, one day Danys found some Exlax in the side table in her parents' bedroom.  She thought it was chocolate candy.  And she wanted it all.  So she hid under her mom's dressing table that had a cubby hole for a chair to fit.  She thought she was hidden from the other girls.  However, sharp eyed Vicci saw her and wanted to Share the chocolate.  But Danys refused.  So, Vicci went and told on her to Beverly.  Beverly saw what Danys had eaten and panicked like most parents would do.  She took her to see the doctor.  There was no way to know how much of the laxative Danys had eaten, so the doctor decided to pump her stomach out.  Danys screamed, kicked and yelled.  Screamed, kicked and yelled.  The doctor put a tube down her nose.  But they got her stomach pumped and all ended well.  As it could have ended a lot worse, with Danys' end blown out.  And Danys has shared ever since.

15.  If you can't say anything nice...

Beverly tells this story:  "All three of us girls (Beverly, Sherrill, Judy) were folding clean clothes with Moma.  We three girls were bickering over something and Moma finally had had enough and told us to stop.  Moma said 'if you can't say anything nice, then don't say anything.'"  Beverly continued "We quieted down and continued to fold the clothes.  Then all of a sudden, someone let out a big windy, and Sherrill yells out, 'shoot, who..?' and she looks at Moma, and Moma looks at her, and Sherrill has a moment of clarity and calmly says, 'shoot, that sure does smell good' and we all crack up and laugh our heads off."  True story.  And no one confessed to letting the windy.

 

16.  Beverly tells this story:  Never Refuse Money

"Often when we went to town, usually Delano, I would drive and take Granny and Grandad Krebbs.  We would park behind Woolworth and shop all day.  Granny and Grandad would usually finish shopping first and return to the car with a big bag of popcorn from Woolworth.  We would sit and eat the popcorn until everyone else showed up.  Moma was usually last.  Granny would always offer me money for taking them into town.  I would always protest and refuse the money, but Granny always insisted until I took the money.  She would say, 'Beverly, don't you ever refuse money.'  And I haven't refused any to this day."  

 

17.  Sherrill tells this story:  Too Hot for School

It was a hot May in Alpaugh.  Classrooms had no air conditioning.  "For one reason, I never came home for lunch starting in the spring of 3rd grade.  I was in Mrs. Kirkpatrick's class.  We had let out for lunch and I ran home barefooted.  I had left my shoes in the classroom.  When I got home, Daddy was there and he was irrigating, probably cotton, and he told me he wanted me to go with him to change the water and move tarps.  I had left my shoes in the locker in Mrs. Kirkpatrick's room.  So, I ran back to school, but they had already gone in from lunch.  I didn't want to go in because she might not let me leave and Daddy was waiting for me.  I stayed in the little girl's restroom right across from the classroom.  Then another teacher came in and she knew I should be in class.  She asked me if I was not feeling good and I said yes, I'm not feeling good... she went and got the principal and he said I think it is probably too hot for her and the rest of the of the students, so let's call it and day and everyone go home. I could not believe it.  Anyway, I grabbed my shoes and ran home, but Daddy had already left for the field and that's all I remember. I guess I wasn't in trouble with Daddy, or I would remember?  So, guess where I had lunch every day after that.  Yes, Grannies...I loved her food.  I don't think Mom ever knew I was stopping there for lunch.  I never told anyone about my closing the school for half a day.  Maybe I told Judy, not sure." 

Now we all know.

18.  Cinco de Mayo

Daddy's birthday is May 5, Cinco de Mayo.  When we were little we would go into town, Delano, to shop on Saturdays.  In May, we would often run into the Cinco de Mayo parade and have to dodge around blocked off streets to find parking.  Daddy used to tell us that they were having the parade for him, because it was his birthday.  Worked for us.  But he also told us that he invented the yo-yo.

Beverly tells about one time Daddy was having a hard time finding any streets open or any parking spaces.  He was having to go around and around downtown searching, and cussing, god-dam, god-dam.  But Mama was just sitting there enjoying the parade and saying what pretty dresses all the girls had.  Mama and Daddy had different perspectives.

19. Flogging

Grannie and Grandad Krebbs always kept chickens in a huge pen in their backyard. Their front yard was surrounded by a green and white picket fence.  Occasionally they left the chicken pen fence open, and the chickens would roam around the side yards and the front yard. Now, to get to Grannie and Grandad’s enclosed front porch, you had to unlatch the picket fence gate, enter the yard, then turn around a fasten the gate.  Then you had to walk up the the front porch, open the screen door and enter the porch breezeway.  This was sometimes made difficult if the chichens were wandering around in the yard as there were roosters that would chase you to keep you away from the hens.  One day, Marilyn and I were going to visit Grannie and Grandad.  I had opened the picket fence gate and was heading to the porch screen-door.  Marilyn had entered the yard behind me and was closing the gate.  Just as I got to the screendoor, I saw a BIG old rooster round the corner of the house and with wings a flapping head toward Marilyn at the gate.  That rooster was upon her in a flash and was flogging her good with his wings.  Marilyn was screaming and hollering.  I was holding the screendoor for her, but she was frozen with panic.  Grandad hears the commotion and comes out of the house.  He sees that BIG old rooster flogging Marilyn and he shoos it off.  Marilyn comes crying into the house.  The next day, we had that rooster for lunch.

20. Busted Water Main

 Mama would sometimes have Jerry watch me while she did laundry or cooking.  One day, Jerry and Bobby Galindo were assigned to watch me outside. I was probably 3 or 4 years old at this time. Recently, there had been a watermain break on the street just east of our old garage.  I was supposed to be playing in the backyard.  However, I wandered past the garage and I fell into the DEEP hole that was left by the watermain break.  The hole was covered in alkali foam and debris. You couldn’t tell that there was hole there. It looked just like dirt to me  I headed across the foam and fell in.  It was a deep hole.  I bobbed to the surface several times.  I remember the green-brown color of the water as my eyes were open taking it all in.  I splashed around and bobbed in that brownish-green water for what seemed a long time.  I finally found a green Iron-weed along the bank of the hole and pulled myself out.  Just about that time, Jerry and Bobby came around the corner of the garage and saw me.  They practically fell on the ground laughing at me because I was covered in the alkali foam from head to foot.  Even my eyelashes were covered with the foam.  However, they didn’t laugh long, because when Mama saw me she got on to both Jerry and Bobby for almost letting me drown. I think now that is why I love to swim.

21. Beverly’s secret beau

Beverly admits that she had a secret beau in the 5^th grade.  She said she admired James M....  at school and often saw him around town.  But of course, she never said anything to him, except he might have seen her show some google-eyes at him.  At school, she sat a couple of seats behind James and a couple of rows over.  She had a good view of him at all times.  She could admire him all she wanted.  Until.  Until the day she saw him stick a pencil up his nose.  She was then grossed out and could never look at him the same way.  No more google-e-eyes for James M....

22. Butchie’s arrival

Beverly remembers a late May day when she was in Mrs. Kirtpatrick’s 3^rd grade.  She was antsy for school to be out that day, because they were bringing the new baby home.  She couldn’t wait to see the new baby boy who weighted 10 lbs and 1 oz when born.  The bell finally rang and she was out the door in a flash.  She ran all the way home across the open alkali fields to get home.  She passed the library, the store, the post office, and the pool hall.  She finally got home and ran to the back bedroom where the baby bed had been placed.  And there he was.  In Beverly’ own words:  “He was the most beautiful baby in the world.  Big blue eyes, big smile, happy baby.”  Still is.

23. Red the cow

Jerry was in high school, and as part of 4H he raised a cow.  He made a pasture pen between our garage and Aunt Elsie’s garage.  It had plenty of room to roam in the enclosure.  Jerry would have to feed it and water it daily.  He would often let me and Marilyn feed it and pet it too.  It had a reddish coat to it and we named it Red.  We loved Red.  He was our pet, and we got to pet it every day when Jerry fed it.  We watched it grow.  But it was always just a calf to us.  Then one day, I was coming home from school, and I rounded the corner of the garage.  There on the ground was a big metal washtub full of guts.  Red’s guts.  I couldn’t believe it.  No one told us that they were going to to Red.  Talk about traumatic.  And to make it worse for me and Marilyn, we would get teased at dinner sometimes, with taunts that we were eating Red.  Needless to say, me and Marilyn didn’t have an appetite.

24. Green unes and pink uns

Often going into Corcoran we would run into sheep herds.  Between Alpaugh and Angiola usually there would be a big herd of sheep crossing the road and we would have to wait for them to pass.  This story is about Judy at a young age.  She was learning her colors.  Daddy slowed the car when they came upon a herd of sheep crossing the road.  There were a lot of black and white baby lambs in the bunch too.  Judy looked out and saw all the sheep and exclaimed: “Look, green uns and pink uns, and every color.”   Judy said that everyone in the car immediately burst out laughing and started repeating what she had said.  She said that it made her mad that everyone was laughing, and she even heard Mama repeating her words to Aunt Emma later in the week.  That’s why to this day between Alpaugh and Corcoran you can still see multi-colored sheep crossing the road.

25. Marilyn and the sour cherries

I remember one time at supper Mama served stewed cherries.  They looked good, but they were more savory and mushy than sweet.  I think Marilyn just hear the word cherries and wanted a lot.   Daddy had warned her that they weren't very sweet, and she would have to eat what ever she put on her plate.  Well, they were cherries and she spooned out a lot.  After one bite, she knew she didn’t like them one bit.  But, Daddy made her sit there and eat every one of those cherries.  I don’t think Mama served those another time.

26. Embroidery Thread

Melissa Jane Blaylock Gazaway, mother to Grannie Daisy Krebbs, used to tell her this story about buying thread for embroidery.  She had gone to the store by herself one day to buy some embroidery thread.  She was returning home when she spied some soldiers up ahead in the road.  They had been warned to stay away from the soldiers.  She dropped her embroidery threads and quickly ran to the bushes and hid.  She had to wait for the soldiers to pass before she dared to come out.  She came out and looked for her threads and finally found them. 

Don't know what soldiers she was referring to.  They lived in Arkansas at the time, and Melissa Jane was born in 1851, so it could have been during the Civil War or after.  Could have been Confederate soldiers during the Civil War, or Union soldiers after the Civil War. When Beverly and I were visiting a cousin, Melissa Jane Richardson in Shawnee, Ok, she told us that she had heard the same story, and that she had an old quilt that Melissa Jane Blaylock Gazaway had made.  She brought it out for us to look at, and every square of the quilt was embroidered.   I took pictures of each square, and you can find a sample below. 

Also noted, quilt square material was often attached to old newspaper as a firm backing to help in the embroidery process.  Most people then removed the newspaper before the actual quilting was done.  But Melissa Jane didn't do that.  She left the newspaper attached to the squares.  Wensel said that as a little girl she would sleep under her grandmother Melissa Jane's quilts, and they would keep her awake all night because of the rustling sounds that the newspapers made.