*Joseph Lucian Gordon was a school teacher at Grandview and Center Ridge schools. For a short time the family lived in Cleburne county and he taught at Davis Special and Greer's Ferry. His son, Robert, remembers his father going by horseback on Sunday, staying Monday through Friday and coming home for the weekend. They farmed but always had a hired man and of course the manual labor of the children. He helped to build the Grandview Church and School, as did his father-in-law, Joseph Taylor Paxson. He was very active in the Church of Christ, teaching and leading singing.
Leona Stripling Bradley, in The Valentine of 1899, her book of memories of her life in Conway county, wrote on page 6, "Chloe Paxson and Lucian Gordon went to church at Center Ridge. Some of us can remember when husbands and wives didn't sit together at church. The mothers sat on one side and took care of the little ones and Daddies sat on the other side. It was different with Chloe and Lucian and it made a very deep impression on me as a young lady. I remember saying, "If I ever get married, how I hoped I'd get a man like that."
*In the summer of 1931, the Gordon family moved to Lonoke county near other relatives. They loaded their belongings into a truck, in which the parents and three youngest children rode. The other children and belongings were placed in their wagon, which was pulled by mules. The cows were tied to the wagon and they made the long, 3 day journey down to Oldham, Lonoke county, camping out along the way. Arlie Clowers, Lucian's farm hand, moved with the family to assist in planting crops. The family later moved to Bain's Chapel. Lucian farmed full time at these locations. When they moved to the town of England, Lucian went into contract construction work. In 1939 they moved to Lonoke AR where Lucian worked as a case worker for a government social service agency. During WWII, he did carpentry work on a large defense plant in Pine Bluff. Lucian continued to work in his carpentry and cabinet shop in Lonoke until his death.
Lucian and Chloe felt blessed that all five of their sons served their country in the Pacific and all returned alive and healthy. Chloe and Lucian enjoyed singing. It was always church songs and we would often have a singing whenever there was a family gathering. Lucian and Chloe had seven children.
~ Peggy Gordon

When Lucian Paxson Gordon & Opal Fae told Dad Gordon (Joseph Lucian Gordon) that they were moving to Beaver OK, he told them this story.
Dad Gordon and his family lived in Indian Territory, near the McAlester area, around the turn of the century. He and a friend, as teenagers, hunted and dressed squirrels to sell to the miners. One time, the squirrels were scarce and they could not find any, so they killed some pack-rats, prepared them and sold them to the miners as squirrel! After they thought about what they had done, they were afraid to go back, even with squirrel. Later on, they saw one of the miners who asked why they hadn't been back. He really wanted some more of that squirrel, especially like the last kind!
1989 ~ Lucian Paxson Gordon