Greenwood County History -
Memories Of Pioneer Days,
In 1976, Eudora Nixon Gilfillan wrote about memories of her early pioneering life in Kansas and Oklahoma. In 1989, Raymond Burt of Lancaster, Va., gave this article to the Greenwood County Museum while present to do research on his ancestors who lived in Greenwood County.
“Eudora’s grandparents, W.E.J. Nixon (known as Alphabet Nixon) and his wife, Nancy Henley Nixon, came to Kansas about 1865 and settled in the Verdigris River valley, near where the town of Virgil is located today. The land they settled on was a land grant during the time Rutherford B. Hayes was President. William Edard Jenner Nixon was born in North Carolina in 1817 and died in Virgil in 1894. He was the third Greenwood County Superintendent of Schools from 1869 to 1870.
“Eudora was born on that farm in 1888. Her father was Henry and Saphronia Isabelle (Belle) Conner Nixon was her mother. She was the third of eleven children. Her father developed a love of pioneering that lasted throughout his lifetime. He had been a cowboy in the old days, driving cattle from the Rio Grande River to the great northwest country. In later years, he told of his tales of adventure on those drives.
“Eudora was young when her father (or Papa, as the children called him) decided to move to what is now Oklahoma. He fixed up two covered wagons with the needs of the trip. Uncle Will (who had married Papa’s sister, Lydia) went along to help with the horses and the second wagon. The trip took most of two weeks, as there were no trails and the streams had to be forded. They located near Clarkston, which was located northeast of Guthrie, Oklahoma. (Today Clarkston is a ghost town and all that remains is a cemetery. It was on the north side of the Cimarron River). He pitched a tent for the family while he built a log home, which had one large room, with trundle beds. There would be a fourth child, Edard (or Ed, as he was known).
“Papa heard there was going to be an opening for more land near Guthrie. An opening of the strip, it was called. He decided that was excitement he could not miss, so the family was loaded in an open wagon and headed for Guthrie. It was a great sight. Crowds of people of all kinds and in all modes of travel—carts, wagons, buggies, horseback and some on foot. They all had come to stay and hold their land. Saloons were opened up immediately. It was a boisterous crowd.
“As Eudora remembers, they came down a small incline. On the edge of a level ground ahead was a group of mounted U.S. Marshals riding back and forth to hold the crowd back. All at once a gun was fired and the race for land was under way.
“Eudora remember Papa standing up giving a loud “whoop,” flapping the lines, cutting the air with his whip, and they were rolling along in the opening of the strip, caught up in the excitement. (This may have been the land rush of 1893).
“Papa entered the race for the sport and thrill of the moment. He was not eligible for land, as he was already homesteading. Many accidents occurred during the race. Horses would step in holes and fall, wagons would run together, wheels would come off, etc. Many lost articles were strewn along the way, as they had fallen from the wagons, such as feather beds, buckets, pieces of chairs, but no one stopped. Most everyone had their claims staked off and were rushing for it. In some instances, more than one person would claim the same plot.
“Eudora had no accidents, just adventure, and returned home. Eudora was to learn in later years than she had truly lived a bit of history. While living near Clarkston, she attended her first school. It was a log one-room school house. When she arrived all the seats were taken, so her father cut a tree and made a seat. It had no desk, just a seat where three of the Nixon children could sit together. The school was about one and a half miles through a wooded area. They walked and saw many deer and heard many rustlings in the underbrush.
“Papa was often gone until late at night when it was necessary to go long distances for supplies, so he saw that the family had a good watch dog. Prince was a large bulldog, and of such protective nature that the children were allowed much freedom of woods and ravines near the house as long as Prince was with the children.
“One evening Papa was gone to Mulhall (town about 14 miles north of Guthrie), with a load of posts to sell and would be gone past chore time. Mama, in preparing for the evening chores, was cutting fodder in the field below the house, when the penetrating scream of a wildcat sent Mama and the kids hurrying over the sweet potato ridges and into the house. No more chores were done that evening.
“Another time when Papa had gone to Mulhall and late evening had gathered around our cabin. Mama was busy preparing supper and the children played as Prince lay by the stove. A slight turning of the doorknob and it slowly opened to reveal a blanket-clad Indian. Prince charged immediately, sending the man running and begging Mama to call off the dog, which she did not do.
“’One day Prince came to the house with a terribly swollen head from a snake bite. Mama hurried to the cave, and brought up a much-needed crock of milk, set it before Prince. With tender love from all of us, he survived. Papa had dug the cave, as cyclones (tornadoes) were numerous. He had a hole through the door through which he ran a rope to hold the door shut.’
“Eudora remembers playing in the back pasture that was surrounded by a deep woods and ravine where they loved to swing on the grapevines. Prince gave a startled bark which alerted the children. The children stopped in their tracks as down the incline into the ravine came a hoop snake rolling along, going fast until it was out of sight. No one would believe the children had seen a hoop snake, but no one would explain it to the children.
“During that period there were Englishmen hunting on the prairies, wearing their red jackets and caps and riding beautiful horses. On Eudora’s way to Clarkston on foot one day she met a group of them with their dogs.
“One hot summer afternoon Mama and her children were sitting in the shade of the cabin door, looking down the wide sand-covered path towards the well. A snake slithered out of the grass, and on hitting the hot sand, raised his head and fore-body, hurrying across on his tail.
“Papa hollowed out one of the larger tree trunks, making a trough for the horses to drink water. The children could play in the cool well water in the trough.
“Homes were so far apart that visiting was an overnight affair, families would throw open their doors in welcome for some social life and news. Children were bedded down on the floors. On visiting the MacMahons one time, in their log home, the children were running and playing outside when Clyde, one of Eudora’s brothers, forgot to duck as he raced around the corner of the house, and struck a log left protruding from the wall. Consequently, he could never wear a mustache as a young dude, because of the scar.
“Eudora remembers going to camp meetings in an open wagon pulled by Tinker and Toby. There was lots of swooning, sobbing, and praying at those meetings.
“When any business of consequence took place, it necessitated a trip to Guthrie, which called for overnight lodging. Eudora remembers one such trip. There was a spring seat in the wagon for Mama and Papa and probably a couple of the smaller children. Elma, Clyde and Eudora were riding behind them. The rear of the wagon had been partitioned off to hold a fat hog Papa was taking to market. It was necessary to ford the Cimarron River, and the trail followed along the bank of the river for some distance before descending to the crossing. A group of men on horseback were gathered on the other side. As Papa paused to pick out the tracks to follow into the water, Mama seemed anxious. Papa said, ‘Oh, those men won’t bother us.’ ‘As we started to cross, they yelled, whipped up their horses and splashed us all soundly, and rode off laughing, much to Mama’s relief.’ Memories Of Pioneer Days, submitted by Mike Pitko
Greenwood County History -
“’As we drove up out of the river, Elma began primping and getting ready to reach Guthrie. She puffed up her sleeves, straightened her clothes and did quite a bit of fluffing about. As the ruts were rough, an unusual hard bump sent the hog through the partition, upsetting the seat we were on, and throwing poor Elma onto the muddy roadside.’ ‘Pride goeth before a fall’ quoted Mama. I remember sand plums growing thick along the Cimarron River.
“As we entered Guthrie, there was a high board fence stockade which was an enclosure with accommodations for horses and families as they transacted their business. We drove in and rested and Papa took care of his business of disposing of the hog. He inquired about a friend that lived at the edge of town. We stayed all night with the family. There was a horse thief scare in Guthrie and all the men slept outside with their guns beside them.’
“When they got back home Papa built another room on the log home because Grandma Nixon was coming to visit, and the family had been growing. Later, Grandma Nixon wanted Papa to come back to Kansas and take care of the family farm.
They moved back to the old home place near Virgil, a thriving village located on a hill rising at the edge of the Verdigris Valley. The town was proud if its two-room school with good windows and black boards. It was a nine-month school. There was a grocery and dry goods store, a livery stable, hardware store, resident doctor, cobbler shop and a Methodist and United Brethren Church. The Santa Fe railroad had a branch line through Virgil called the Benedict Branch with a daily round trip to Emporia.
“’The old home place at Virgil had several rooms, and Papa built on until we had eleven rooms. There was a beautiful large maple grove, an orchard and a plum thicket.’ The family had grown by now, and it was an active place.
“Brother Clyde chewed tobacco, and so did the principal. The principal would make excuses to be near the windows when it was time to spit. There were no screens on the windows. Eudora graduated in 1903 at about age 15.
“The Santa Fe was doing some work along the Benedict Branch between Chanute and Emporia. The bid for team work was let to R.S. Gilfillan and Sons of Iola, Kansas. Alvin Gilfillan drove mule teams overland to Virgil, where they had rented from Papa barn room and a space for a tent for the men. Mama was to board the men.
“In order to have money for the table, Mama made and sold to customers such as Aunt Sally (who ran the local hotel) sausage, horseradish, butter, buttermilk, and apple butter. She would order things the local merchant didn’t have from Emporia and it would come down on the daily branch line.
“Papa could not give up his adventurous spirit, so he had decided the family must move farther west, between Cimarron and Dodge City, Kansas. Mama stayed in Virgil and cooked for the men who were working on the railroad with teams. They had brought some men with them whom Mama was boarding. Abe Dalton was one of the men. The boys used to hang around the kitchen on Sunday and tease and flirt with the girls. Abe and Alvan both helped with the dishes occasionally or pretended to. Alvan and Eudora used to walk to the groves and sit under the big tree. He referred to it later in his letters as ‘lovers’ tree.’” “Eudora went to Cimarron to cook for Papa. She went by railroad coach to Dodge City and on to Cimarron, where she was met by Papa in a wagon. She remembers staying in a house with another family and using their stove to cook for Papa until he could build a barn in which she lived while he was building a house. The barn had a loft with a bed and this is where Eudora slept. A stove was set up on the ground floor, and a home of sorts was established. As the house progressed into livability, the stove was moved from the barn to the house.
“Mama and the rest of the children came out on a train, accompanied by Alvan Gilfillan. As Mama was large with child, his help and sweetness with children were not only appreciated, but needed. It also gave Eudora and Alvan a chance to see one another again. The ridge boards on the house were not completed and during a heavy rain the water blew everywhere, forcing Alvan to sleep in the granary on some feed.
“Mama had scarcely landed when she began selling her foodstuff to the railroad people, conductors, engineers and families. The railroad crews were made up in Dodge City. She made apple butter from dried apples purchased in Dodge City, piccalilli from cabbage. She had a talent for cooking. As the word spread, there were always plenty of customers for Belle Nixon’s good food.
“They lived three miles from the railroad. Alvan used to ride the train from Emporia to within three miles of their farm, and then walk over. There were a grove of small cottonwood trees a short distance from our house where Alvan and Eudora would walk for a little bit of privacy. Eudora remembers the mosquitoes being very bad, and laughingly they called it “Skeeter Ville.”
“It was at ‘Skeeter Ville’ that Alvan asked Eudora to marry him. He wanted to be married right away, but Eudora felt she could not leave Mama with all her work. Eudora wanted to be married in June and on a Wednesday, and Alvan said it should be the first Wednesday which turned out to be June 5, 1906. Alvan had an important contract for street paving and laying sewer lines in Bartlesville, Indian Territory.
“Mama made the wedding gown of white satin muslin purchased at Dodge City. Eudora came down the stairs and Alvan met her at the bottom, and they walked into a living room enhanced by a new rag rug. A family minister performed the ceremony. Papa and Clyde cried and boo-hooed all through the reading of the nuptials.
“They went by carriage to Cimarron and by railroad to Emporia, where they spent the rest of the night. It was raining fiercely when they arrived in Emporia. As Alvan took the suitcase from the train and in his enthusiasm gave it a sweeping motion, it sprang open, scattering all her belongings, including her nightgown and dress for the next day, on the muddy wet street. Everyone around started helping them stuff articles back in the suitcase. Of course, Clyde had seen to it that there was plenty of rice in the suitcase, so their secret was out, if it had ever been a secret. No mother would send her newly married daughter from home without a Bible. Eudora picked it up from the muddy street and tucked it under her arm.
“They went into the hotel to register, Eudora was disheveled and wet and carrying the Bible, and Alvan was still trying to hold the suitcase closed, with wet clothing sticking out here and there, Eudora spent a good part of the night drying clothes over the chairbacks to wear the next day.
“The next day they arrived in Bartlesville, Indian Territory. They were living in an apartment with a long hall opening onto the street. There had been much disturbance in this early settlement, between the U.S. Marshals in keeping order and the saloon and gambling casino owners. There was much talk of Oklahoma becoming a state. (Oklahoma became a state in November of 1907). One afternoon Eudora heard lots of shouting on the street below and ran down the hall to look out on the street. At that moment some shots rang out, and after all the confusion had subsided, a U.S. Marshal and a casino owner were both dead. Alvan hurried home when he heard about it. This is the end of the article Eudora wrote.”
