Introduction
This project was undertaken because of a promise I made to my Mother (Joyce Marie Sullivan) before she died. When I began I didn't even know my maternal grandfather's given name, or anything about him except he died before I was born. I knew my maternal grandmother Rubilee Frances Carman, and I knew a few of the family that came from Shamrock and Wheeler, Texas.
What I mainly inherited from my mother was the cooking that had been passed down. I was somewhat surprised at some of what I found doing this research. I would expect someone to have come fairly recently from Ireland. Paddy's day was like Easter when I was young, later that seemed to fade, but not the corned beef and cabbage, Irish bacon, soda bread, or potato farls, corned beef hash, Irish stew, or the use of potatoes in just about everything. - David Paul Oller
Overview
Tracing my ancestors is different than I expected. I always liked puzzles and many people in my family would buy them as gifts for me, bent nails, rings and ropes, sliding boxes of numbers etc. Mom's final gift to me was this endeavor, the ultimate puzzle of who we are and where we came from.
This begins, of course, with the Ollers and Sullivans. To put things in some personal perspective I am going to put an asterisk behind the people I actually knew. This page is going to be a somewhat narrative style because I would like to record for future generations some sense of more than just birthdates and statistics; and even photographs fall short in communicating the depth that a family story contains. There are a lot of stories and often I remember something else, so I will start with a few and expand them with time.
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Mom and Dad
Dad was known as Junior to his friends, he was in the Navy during WWII (photo available) the story I was told by my grandmother was he was injured in training in a plane crash in California and left behind when his squadron went aboard the USS Bunker Hill (CV-17). All of his shipmates were killed in action.
Paul entered the family business (Oller Heating Co.) after leaving the Navy. He worked on several major projects in Oklahoma City, OK. and in various projects in Oklahoma and Texas.
Mom believed in teaching independence to her four sons, she was a good cook, but dinner was the only meal she often made, you were "on your own" for breakfast and lunch. When I was either four or five she pulled a chair up to the stove and taught me to cook bacon, then she taught me how to extinguish a grease fire! By age six I could do my own ironing and when I became a Cub Scout she taught me how to sew. I remember being embarrased at our first pack meeting seeing the neatly sewn patches on my friends uniforms, mine looked like they were sewn on by a small child - exactly what they were.
Grandparents
Paul Francis Oller Sr. * -- Hazel Shockely *
Mama Hazel was a small woman, not quite five foot tall. Papa (all the grandparents first names were prefaced by either Mama or Papa except "Papa". I couldn't say Grandpa, so what came out was "Papa" after I named him the rest followed suit) anyway, Papa called Mama Hazel "Buttercup" and the name stuck with all her friends. In a Wallace Berry movie there was a stubborn donkey named Buttercup. Papa kept his jokes to himself and he laughed to himself, I never saw him laugh out loud. I figured that one out when I was watching the movie with him. When I heard the jackass called Buttercup I whipped around and looked at him, he grinned and I knew. He liked to keep his joke to himself, nobody to this day knows why he gave her a broom on Valentines, but he made my mom promise to keep doing it after he died. Papa enlisted and went to France in WWI when he was sixteen, coming home he married my grandmother and they were always deeply in love. Papa died in 1966 and Mama Hazel lived another thirty-two years, and cried every night she missed him so much. She was small but physically strong, and in her eighties could still hold her end moving a couch or dresser, if you were there to help and she hadn't moved it by herself. Hazel is who my children think of as their grandmother because she was the one who had the most time for them. They loved going to her house because she interacted with them constantly, the way you only see another child be able to do, she gave them her undivided attention, and she loved it.
Hazel never preached the Gospel or even simple human kindness or generosity, she never talked about Jesus or God. She lived it! She worked tirelessly for the church and being fortunate enough to still drive in her eighties, she delivered meals to those who were not so fortunate, she did this and worked as an office volunteer at least 30 hours a week for over 30 years. I imagine many people have done much more, but what was special about "Buttercup" was she loved it, and so she became one of the recipients of her own compassion.
Owen Washington Sullivan - Rubilee Frances Carman *
I didn't even know the name Owen until I started this research. I found his name on my Mom's birth records on the Texas Birth Register. In doing this research I found a living cousin, Ottice, who played with Mom as a child and knew him and my Great Grandmother Eula. She said he was a very large and handsome man. Owen died before I was born from some kind of intestinal problem that could have been cured if he hadn't waited too long to see a doctor.
Owen supposedly owned the largest Automobile Dealership in Amarillo with a huge inventory of used cars just before WWII. Family rumor is he let it go to the bank after Pearl Harbor believing all was lost. Used cars became very valuable in the next three years making his decision a huge financial mistake.
It was Mama Ruby that finished what Mom started with the sewing. She showed me tricks on tying the thread and threading a needle and how to use the sewing machine. When I went in the Navy I was amazed how my mates couldn't even sew on a button. Most of the things I had as a child were lost, but one thing my mother saved was that Cub Scout Uniform full of perfectly sewn patches.
Mama Ruby married Joe Rives after Owen died, Papa Joe was who I thought of as my maternal grandfather. They lived in California when I was very young and my first airplane flight was out to see them with Mom. I remember the flight, the ocean, the orange trees, and listening to the Lone Ranger on the radio. I must have been four or five. I remember clearly how beautiful Southern California was then, no smog, less people, and a tropical look and feel. I also remember going into a store with my Mom and a little girl who came up and talking to me, she was a little older than I was. What I remember the most was her Mom saying "Get back over here and stay away from that Okie boy. Later I asked Mom what an Okie Boy was. "It's a mean thing to say," was all she said. Today people in Oklahoma refer to themselves as Okies but I still don't like hearing it, it is a disrespectful term still used in California today describing what they consider to be white trash.
Later they moved to Riodoso New Mexico and ran a curio shop. I loved that place, there was a creek that ran by the store, they lived upstairs. I would sit by the creek and play Hi-Q all day.
Mama Ruby made the best Pecan Pie I ever ate, even better than the famous Fields Restaurant in Paul's Valley, Oklahoma. You can still get a Fields pie, though they have made some commercial substitutions in ingredients from what I'm told. The restaurant is long since gone, and so are Mama Ruby's pies. Ruby also collected Chicken and Rooster figurines, and she handpainted dishes with beautiful flower patterns.
Ruby had a sister named Letty Grace*. We called her aunt Gracie, and she was married to Grady Fox. The Fox's were our closest relatives on Mom's side. Mom was very close to Gracie's daughter Bonnie*. We even lived in the same apartments when I was small. Bonnie's brothers (Wayne* and Chester*) also lived in Oklahoma City off and on over the years. They both became executives of Leeway Motor Freight, I believe one became President years before Leeway was purchased by Pepsi Co. and liquidated. Family rumor was Owen Sullivan was an early partner in the company.
We were also related to the Renegar's of which I have some vague memories.
Great Grandparents
Frank Christian Oller * - Katherine Williamson*
Katheryn was known as Kate. She was raised in Lee Co. Illinois by Harlow & Emaline Williamson. She was either a foster child or adopted. Adoptions could be informal in those days, and you just took the name because birth certificates weren't even required. Harlow has a biography which can be found at Lee County Genealogy Trails website. Kate scarred the hell out of everyone except my uncle, my father, my cousin Linda and me. My Grandfather was especially terrified of her, maybe because he defied her and married a girl from "The wrong side of the tracks." Dad went over there almost every morning for breakfast, and I loved it over there. It was like an adventure in a far away place. There was a tool shed that was full of Frank's things. Fishing rods, tackle boxes, tool boxes, vices, a switchblade fishing knife, tools for working on Jewelry. There were secret passages and hidden gates. I used to go over and mow her lawn with a push mower; I still use a push mower, why burn gasoline so you can burn more gasoline going to the gym to get the exercise you missed pushing the mower! Inside the house there were a few toys I loved, an old wooden top, a snake that jumped out of the box and bit your thumb when you slid the lid, and no less than six million dominoes to be set up to knock each other down in the most creative fashions. Kate buried money under the house, I don't know if we ever found all the cans of silver dollars buried in the crawlspace. There were also a number of clocks; there was a cuckoo and another where little people came out of two doors. It was an old house with fences falling down and everything showing its wear. Now I realize where I became comfortable with things that showed some wear. In Japan, the Zen Center I was comfortable at was a small and worn place in Sakai city. It was clean, but it was worn. It seems natural to me, "Everything is Going Somewhere!"
Kate didn't fight aging, and to a small boy she seemed stately, almost royal. Hold that chin up! she would say.
I don't remember much about Frank Oller, I do remember him sitting in his chair and watching Milton Berle. Frank & Kate had the only TV when I was young and I remember going there on Tuesday to watch TV. I didn't care about the television so I played with the dominoes or explored as much as they would allow. I was the only child at that time, no brothers or cousins except those in cribs. I remember Frank's funeral just barely, and I remember taking him down to McAlester and the Shockleys being down there. I don't know which ones; there were a lot of Shockleys!
I was able to read one of his diaries once, and got some sense of him. Each day he would record the time he "Arose" and the time he "Retired." He also recorded the amount of work he did. "Down spouted six houses, roofed two houses, made 26 elbows and five buckets" I know I was amazed how much work he accomplished each day. He would also record historical events like the first electrocution. Rarely something on a personal note, "Had supper at Kate's house." but never anything about how he felt about something. The closest I saw was this entry which followed a number of days of daily routines. I was shocked, it came right out of the blue.
"Arose 5:30 A.M., went downtown for flowers. It is a fine day for a wedding." It was the day he married Kate.
The next day the diary read: "Down spouted 11 houses. . ."
Frank M. Shockley - Delore Hammell *
Grandma Dody I remember pretty well, a small lady who dipped snuff and loved Popcorn. I think she might have liked the whisky a little bit as well. She used to go with us to the ranch in Indianola when we went hunting. The ranch and the cabin deserve a chapter of their own, so I won't say too much now, but there is one story, as I recall we were out picking blackberries, most people seem to prefer blueberries or raspberries, and we liked them too, but primarily we were blackberry people because they grew wild on the ranch and we had tons of them, enough for Moma Hazel to put up enough jelly and jam to last everyone the year, along with some applebutter and crabapple jelly. Mama Hazel was the pie, jelly, jam, and pickle expert of the family, she wasn't too good with the other cooking, that was Mom and Mom did most of the extended family dinners. She made great turkey, dressing, and all the main dishes, but she couldn't do pies, cobblers, jellies etc. To this day I have not had a decent jelly or jam since Mama Hazel died. I do know her main secret, but I haven't got around to trying the jellies yet, I can do her famous garlic-tarragon pickles, and a decent cobbler, which brings us back to the blackberry bush. Now I don't know about other areas, but in Oklahoma the only things that liked blackberries more than the Oller's was Copperheads and Rattle Snakes. So when we were pickin' Grandma Dody says to Papa, "Paul, I wouldn't move your feet." "Why?" says Papa. "Because you're standing on the bizness end of that Rattlesnake." She was pretty calm about the whole affair and never stopped picking or looked up as she said it. Papa wasn't so calm.
A Word about Jelly
Hazel's jellies always had a great flavor, but sometimes they didn't gel right, and were runny. This was because she didn't use Sure-Jell, and some fruits don't have enough natural pectin, or you don't add enough sugar. I never saw a runny crab-apple or orange marmalade, but many of the berry jellies seem to be a problem. Today, virtually everyone uses pectin additives in making jelly, it's hard to even find a recipe without it. The Kraft people advertise Sure-Jell actually preserve a more natural fruit flavor. I don't buy it, check your local gourmet market or Cost Plus - World Market for a product made in Switzerland called "Hero" and see what you think.
For me, Frank Shockely was the greatest mystery of all. I had no idea he was Choctaw. I am still researching the records to find as much information as possible.
Seaborn Samuel Sullivan - Eula Kimble
I never met either of these great grandparents, but one thing about a Sullivan lineage is that all Sullivan's (O'Sullivan - Usuileabhain) originate from the same man who lived in Southern Ireland, and the majority of Colonial Irish originate from one Irish immigrant named John Thomas O'Sullivan of Virginia whose children migrated to South Carolina. Some Colonial Sullivan's descend from John Sullivan of Maine father of General John Sullivan. There is also a possibility that Captain Florence Sullivan left some descendants. Most likely, our Sullivan's are descendants of John Thomas.
Henry Tilden Carman - Letty Grace McBee
I never met either Henry or Letty, however Letty had a sister Silva who married Fred Rathjen and lived in the Texas panhandle. I visited them when I was young with my Mom. I remember the milk was fresh every morning and wasn't refrigerated. Almost everything they ate came from the farm, including the Sunday chicken.
Henry and Letty came from Braymer, Mo where they were married, still today there are several McBees in Braymer. The history of the McBee and Holder families is better told at the following websites: McBee Family Homepage and Holder Family Homepage.
Great Great Grandparents
Note: Kate Williamson was adopted by Harlow Williamson & Sarah Emmaline Starks. You can follow their ancestry going to the link on Kate; otherwise I'm leaving them out.
Jacob Warden Oller
Jacob is a mystery, it is hard to know where to begin. His life has becomes more mysterious as this research progresses. In a closet of Kate's house I found a tin box, I don't recall all the contents. I do remember a small iron ball my father told me was "Grapeshot" apparently during the Civil War dozens of these balls were loaded into canons and fired into opposing soldiers like a huge shot gun. There was also a small bible which appeared to have been shot with a bullet. In another box were pocket watches and spare parts. Outside in the shed was a box of Jewelers tools. Also in that closet were two large family bibles. These are the artifacts of our mystery. One of the bibles gives Jacob's birth as 29 Feb 1837 in Hamburg, Germany. In searching Census records I found Jacob in every one beginning 1870. Jacob consistantly listed Hamburg as his place of birth, and 1840 as the year he immigrated. The first record I found was his marriage to Mary Ellen Lehman in 1866. The family stories on Jacob amounted to this: "He was born in Hamburg, Germany and immigrated to the USA as a small child. He was in the Civil war where the bible he carried in his breast pocket stopped a bullet that would have killed him. Jokingly it was told by my Grandmother that he had been hit in the head during the war and had some degree of amnesia and perhaps wasn't even sure of his name. This story which I always took as Tongue N' Cheek turns out to be the epitome of Jacob's mystery. It was told he was a jeweler, and the watches and tools were his.
As I continued to collect census and other records on him I found it odd he was so consistant of filing census records, only in 1920 was his place of birth different, showing Pennsylvania.
Mary Ellen Lehman