Among the very first to settle on the Palo
Duro Creek in Hansford county was Stanley
Cushing Tyler, my grandfather, from Lowell,
Massachachusetts write an outstanding
and colorful pioneer experience.
The son of a wealthy banking family and
a student at Harvard University, he was
found to be in poor health and was advised
to come to the Western plains, which he did
in 1879, a youth of twenty years.
Upon his arrival he bought four sections
of land from the state for $1 an acre and
another four sections from an individual for
an undisclosed sum. He also leased some
100,000 acres from the State. This ranch
took the name of the V-Z Bar Ranch and he
called the V-Z Bar his cattle brand.
The first improvements Tyler built were a
small two-room sod house, a pole barn and
corrals. Because rock was easier to find
than wood, a major portion of the corrals
were made of rock. After five years of learning
the business of cattle ranching, Tyler returned
to Massachusetts to claim his boyhood
sweetheart, Mary Elizabeth Ayers,
daughter of a prominent Charleston,
Massachusetts family.
Following the marriage, the long trip from
the East to the Panhandle of Texas began.
The couple took the train as far as it would
take them. that being Dodge City, Kansas.
some 185 miles from their destination. The
rest of the trip was made in a buckboard followed
by wagons carrying their belongings.
The Tyler's assembled in that sod house
rich antique furniture and drapes, creating
an oasis like atmosphere in the midst of the
stark plains country.
In 1885, Mr. and Mrs. Tyler were blessed
with their first born child, a girl. They christened
her Mary Elizabeth. For this blessed
event Mrs. Tyler went back to her family in
New England where she might receive the
best of medical attention.
When baby Mary was a few weeks old,
the young mother, accompanied by a
nurse, boarded the train back to Dodge City
where they were met by the new father and
buckboard for the overland trip to the
ranch. For the birth of the second child.
Ethel, the trip was repeated. The last three
children, Stanley Cushing, a son who
passed away at the age of five months; Oliver
Stanley "Ollie" a second son; and a
daughter, Fanny Stanley, were born on the
ranch with the attendance of community
physicians and nurses from Kansas City.
Following the birth of the children, Judge
Tyler, as the rancher became known
through serving Hansford County in that
capacity for some time, built for himself and
family a spacious new home. Located in a
vast grassland on the Palo Duro creek near
the old sod house, the Tyler home was one
of the area’s first stone buildings. The Victorian
mansion was built in 1891. With solid
rock walls and high gabled roof, the two
storied mansion was an impressive sight to
early day cowboys and settlers. Built in a
land and time when reinforcing iron was difficult
to acquire, gothic arches were of necessity
used above each window and door.
The house had a floor plan that is impressive
90 years later. It had seven bedrooms,
a parlor, a dinning room, kitchen and full
basement.
Tyler imported a stone mason and carpenter
from Dodge City. It took the craftsmen
and eight cowboys a full year to complete
the job. The stone was cut with a large
cross-cut saw and hauled about three miles
from the quarry to the building sate. The
nails, window glass, hardware and lumber
were hauled from Dodge City by freight
wagons. Large cottonwood logs, brought
from the Canadian River by teams, were
placed in the basement for support.
The furnishings, also brought from
Dodge City, had originally come from the East.
Life was stern and full of hardships during
those early years, but it was for the most
part, an enjoyable life. The Tyler's had many
parties and dances in their home. The
neighbors would come from miles around
bringing extra food and blankets for their
children to sleep in the buggies.
In 1907, after 28 years of the austere life
on the high plains cattle ranch, Judge and
Mrs. Tyler decided to move to Guymon in
order to enjoy the comforts of city life. Here
they built a new home and furnished it with
many of the New England antiques and
pieces that had been brought to the ranch
by way of Dodge City and freight wagon.
But Judge Tyler was not ready to retire
and immediately plunged into the activities
of building a new town. He instigated the
construction of the town’s light and water
plant and organized and owned the telephone
company in Guymon. He was a diligent
and devoted worker in the Masonic
Lodge. He served as President of the First
National Bank and ,was involved in the dry
dry goods business with his son-in-law, L.E.
udge and Mrs. Tyler were confirmed in
the Episcopal Church as young people and
were ever-firm believers in the teachings of
that church. But as there was no organization
of that church here, they united with
the Presbyterian Church and were active In
the work of this church
The Tyler's resided in Guymon the remainder
of their lives, Judge Tyler passed
away in 1927 and Mrs. Tyler in 1936.
The two older daughters, Mary and Ethel,
attended school in the East where they
stayed with their grandmother. Some of the
two girls’ earlier years were spent in the
country schools with Ollie and Fanny. Ollie
also attended St. Johns Military Academy in
Kansas and business college in Valparaiso,
Indiana. Mary was married to L.E. Latham in Guymon
where he was a retail merchant. Mary passed away in
1974  and her husband died
in 1968. Their children are Mrs. Gilbert
(Mary Lou) Peppers and Tyler Latham, both
of Guymon. Ethel married Rutledge Henderson and
had one daughter, Mrs. R.L. (Ethalinda)
Valdez of Guymon. Ethel died in 1952 and
Rutledge passed away in 1955.
Ollie married Rose Cook, daughter of
T.A. Cook, an early day Hansford County
rancher and had two sons, Stanley and Oliver,
Jr., both of whom were born at the
ranch, Rose died in 1919. Ollie later married Thyra
Owen and had two sons, Owen
of Odessa and Byron of Amarillo. Ollie died
in 1971, Ollie was honored as Parade Marshall
by the Guymon Pioneer days in 1970.