MOM

We seem to be a paternalistic society. Our culture deems it proper for the family name to be carried on from the male partner in the marriage. Perhaps this is because of our Judeo-Christian background. Of course a family name is usually not lost because there is usually a male child to carry it forward. I wonder how often we American's as a whole tend to lose sight of the maternal side of our background. The Holmes family became linked with the Morgan line when Grandfather Alexander Samuel Morgan married Jane Eilze Holmes. I have a photocopy of Grandfather's birth certificate. He is listed as being born on the Isle of Wight,(no that is not supposed to be Wright), sub district of Newport, County of Southampton in 1844. Note the spelling of those places carefully. He was the son of John Morgan, yoeman. I have no knowledge of the origin of the Holmes family. They are English perhaps. I do know that the family migrated from Canada in the 1870's. Grandmother was quite young when they came. She married at age 18. He was much older. I believe the home town in Canada was Canton or perhaps Clinton. They were farmers and were certainly not welcomed by the cattlemen like Grandfather. I have personally heard her account of their first meeting. She would tell, with an amused expression, how she and her siblings spooked a herd of cattle driven by Grandfather and some other men. These men were attempting to drive the herd over a field thereby ruining the crop that the Holmes family hoped to harvest. Incidents similar to this were not uncommon in those days. Survival of the strong was the law of the land. As my father was apt to say, "One did not ask a man about his past. If he wanted to tell you that was all right." A man was accepted for what he proved himself to be .1 believe many men made a new start and became respected here on the frontier. Grandmother outlived her husband by many years. I knew her. I visited her brother, Uncle Phil Holmes who lived to old age at Studley, Kansas. He worked as a blacksmith and was among the last of the breed. When he closed his shop, the era of the blacksmith was over. They served a useful purpose, such as shrinking iron wagon tires over wooden wheels. Theirs was a fascinating trade. I never tired of watching John Conard at Tasco as he plied his trade. When I delivered something to him for reapair I tried to linger as long as I could. Of course I brought it by saddle horse if it was not to heavy. In Uncle Phil's earlier days he worked as a cattle driver with a freight company in the Oklahoma Territory. I could sit by the hour and listen to him recall the old days. For how many centuries and how many places were the oxen powered freight wagons used? Oh what a time it was when a boy could relive the days gone by through the eyes and words of the elders. What is life without a family? I feel something is amiss. The young seem to have little time for their heritage. They are so busy planning how modern man can conquer the future. Allow me an observation. They never,never will! I am very certain the Holmes family came to the U.S. from Clinton, Ontario. Apparently Mr. Holmes came first and established some sort of claim. Once she told us about it. As I remember her account, Mr. Holmes sent word to his family that they were to come by train to Buffalo. With their very limited knowledge of the geography of the United States they thought perhaps he meant Buffalo, New York. Sometime later they understood that they were to come and get off the train at Buffalo station on the Union Pacific railroad in Kansas. The town is now known as Park. When I was a boy it was so named because the hunters supplied the crews who built the railroad with buffalo meat. My own mother came to Kansas by covered wagon at the age of two years. Her father settled in Mitchell County near Beloit. He was a farmer. By the time he arrived,
Mitchell County was fairly well settled. He came from Beloit to Sheridan County in the early nineteen hundreds. Mother came here ahead of him and taught school. She and Dad were married in 1904. Even though the area was well settled by then she certainly knew the stress of pioneer life. My parents raised ten children. She never owned a power washing machine or anything but a wood burning kitchen range until her family was grown. I can see her yet, mending clothes, making rag rugs and washing clothes by hand. When the dry years of the thirties came it was very hard to put food on the table but we always had something to eat. It was very plain food and our clothes were patched. Surely during those years my parents were under severe stress. I didn't realize it then but I know it now. Sometimes we went to church in a wagon. Just as the drought and the depression were sort of winding down she was widowed. Dad worked on the roads to put food on the table. He came home from work on Monday and died the following. She had three children at home, no money and no income in sight. The bank took the livestock and the Federal Land Bank took the land. My older sister, Vera, was teaching school. She put food on the table. Mom lived fourteen years as a widow and supported herself by doing housework. She died of colon cancer in nineteen fifty one.