AUTOBIOGRAPHY
OF
SAMMY LEE BARNETT TANKERSLEY
June 1, 1938
PART II; MRS. TANKERSLEY:
Sammy meets and marries Marshall Rush Tankersley.
Editor's note;
The
first part of this seems to have the time frame somewhat confused.
When Sammy returned from working in the sewing shop, she would have
been around 22, the year around 1887. The Herrington's would have
moved to the area around summer of 1881-1882, and Sammy about age
16-17, at the latest if they were neighbors for around three years
before Mr. Herrington died.
When I went home to stay I was told of a new family moving into our neighborhood by the name of Herrington, a man (editor's note; Raymond J. Herrington, 1836-1884) with three daughters and his mother (editor's note; Mary Cummings-Herrington-Tankersley, 1820-1904). Of course, I was
among the first to call and get acquainted with them. As there was one girl near my age and two younger, we got to be good friends and were friends throughout our lives. Things went along about as usual for some time. They were there nearly three years when in May of 1884 ( editor's note; Sammy age 18 3/4), the father died. Several girlfriends got together and planned to go one each night and stay with the girls and their grandma so they wouldn't feel so lonely. The father was buried on Monday and on Thursday came my time to go to stay the night. While the daughters got supper the grandma entertained me. She got out her family album and told me who each picture was and how related to the family. She had ten children and raised eight of them. She handed me one picture and said that was her youngest son
and asked me if I did not think him handsome. I surely did agree with
her for I thought he was (editor's note; very handsome). She then told me that she was looking for him every day to come and stay with her. Then supper was ready and no more was said. We spent the evening very pleasantly and all went to bed, though we girls lay there talking. Then there was a
rap at the door and when grandma said, "Who is there?", a
low voice said, "The Kid!". The family all got up to greet
the son and uncle, but (editor's note; since I was not part of the family,) I didn't get up. Before breakfast the next morning, the oldest daughter came in for me and said to put on my nicest appearance to meet Uncle
Rush. I went out to breakfast and there was the handsome son - my future husband. That was a very eventful summer, though we didn't get very well acquainted.
The new young man in our
neighborhood didn't mix with the younger set, but in the winter of
1884, he began paying marked attention to me. Before the end of the
third year, we had fallen so desperately in love that we decided we
knew each other well enough to go through the rest of our lives
together and make a home for ourselves. We made plans and everything
was ready for a quiet home wedding on April 15, 1888. On Wednesday,
April 11th, my mother passed away suddenly, so our plans
seemed to be at an end. After the funeral when we all had time to
get ourselves together, Father told us to go on with our plans as my
two sisters were old enough to keep house and they, with is guidance,
could get along very well. On April 22, 1888, (a Sunday
afternoon) we were married at home, at 2:00 p.m. By Rev. A. J.
Smith, a Congregational minister. Just my father and my sisters,
Jessie and Rose, and three of Mr. Tankersley's nieces, Dora, Mary,
and Etta Herrington, who were as near to him as sisters as his mother
had raised them. Etta, the youngest of the three was sixteen on our
wedding day. Another guest was Mrs. Eliza Christie, Aunt Eliza as
everyone called her, was very dear friend of the family. Nothing
ever happened in our family without her being present, births,
marriages, and deaths. She was present when Rosa was born and
married.
After the wedding
dinner, over which Aunt Eliza had charge, we went to call on Mr.
Tankersley's mother. Our wedding day was warm and a beautiful day,
not a cloud in the sky from sun up till sun down, and throughout our
lives there were very few clouds.
On Monday (editor's note; the next
day after wedding) we took our belongings and drove twelve miles
to our home. It was a big farm and a big old fashion house of five
rooms surrounded by cedar trees. It had two big long porches, one of
which had a beautiful view of a valley two miles long along the bank
of Shoal Creek. Mr. Tankersley had hired to work for the owner of
this big farm of three hundred acres for twenty-five dollars per
month. We had a nice team of horses and wagon, four cows to give
milk, two nice fat pigs and some chickens. We made a garden and had
all kinds of fruit of which we could have all we wanted. I made good
use of gooseberries, strawberries, the finest I ever saw, and
blackberries, plums, and so on. I made preserves and canned gallons
of fruit. In the fall Mrs. Baucher, the wife of the man who owned
the farm, came and got a collection of my fruit and took it to the
fair. We went to the fair on day, and there was a blue ribbon on
everything I had sent in. That was the first fruit and jelly I had
ever made alone and I was (editor's note; so) proud (editor's note; of my
accomplishments).
We had lots of work to do. I made butter to sell and there were eggs to
sell, so I felt quite proud of myself after my summer was over. We
didn't know anyone in the community so we stayed home much of the
time, but we went back home to visit as often as we could.
In January of 1889 we
decided to go to Auburn, Nebraska, to live. Rush had a brother
living there and work was plentiful and wages better. We packed our
household goods and took them to Joplin, Missouri, which was ten
miles from us, and shipped them to Auburn. We fixed up our wagon with
a bed and stove and a good load of things we needed and drove to
Neosho and on to Auburn. We were two weeks on the trip, and had to
stop twice on the way in towns on account of storms and snow. We
arrived in Auburn the last week in February and rented a two room
house which was very neat and warm, for $4.00 per month. Rush went
to work with is brother (editor's note; I do not know which brother this may be? I know it was not Benjamin Robert, 1856-1904, he had homesteaded
in Oklahoma that year. Charles Preston seems to be the only option,
1856-1928. John Parkason lived just one year, 1853-1854, and George
died before this time, 1849-1878) putting up ice at $2.00 per
day.
We lived in the little
house until fall and then rented a much larger house in the north
part of town, known as the George Mershon house. It is still
standing there. We lived there two years. The second summer on June
28, 1890, our first daughter was born. Our happiness seemed
complete. We named her Vesta Rose and she was a wonderful baby.
The next year Rush
rented a farm and we moved to the country, about one half mile west
of Auburn, known as the Lovelace place. We raised fine crops of corn
and some of our hogs were sold for the highest price that was known
at that time, 8 cents per pound. We were quite well fixed up to this
time and had saved some money.
(this ends PART II
Next PART III, "the land rush of 1893 aka the Cherokee Strip."
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