From Elliott County To Oklahoma By John A. Stegall < johnstegall@hotmail.com “Coy Kentucky Maid of 37 Summers Comes 1000 Miles to Wed Oklahoma Parson”. That was the headline to a news item that appeared in the Muskogee, Oklahoma Times Democrat on Sept. 5, 1908. When I came across the article recently, my first glance revealed nothing of interest, but then I saw the name “Horton”, followed by “Sandy Hook, KY” and that really caught my attention. The article began: “After a two-year courtship by mail and a journey of 1000 miles in dusty ‘choo-choo’ cars, Miss Rhinda Horton of Sandy Hook, KY was united I marriage to Rev. Thomas R. Houghton of that place.” The next paragraph described a major problem that the prospective bride encountered: “It had been arranged that the prospective groom should meet her in St. Louis and accompany her to Muskogee to secure the marriage license, but fate decreed it that they should miss connections and the Oklahoma liver had to take the back trail from the Missouri Metropolis in hot pursuit of the bride, who managed to come on unattended.” But all ended well, as the article explained: “The marriage license was procured yesterday afternoon of Mr. Wells, clerk of the county court. The groom is a Methodist minister at Warner, aged 61 years, and the bride has spent 37 summers in the Blue Grass State.” By the time I finished reading the article, my curiosity has been stirred, so to my records I went to see if there had really been a Rinda Horton in Elliott Co, and sure enough, there had been! After a thorough review of my records, I began to suspect that Rinda had been an aunt of Emery Horton. When I saw Emery a few days later, I made mention of the article and asked him if Rinda was his aunt. That Familiar smile came on Emery’s face as he answered, “She was. She was Dad’s youngest sister.” He continued to tell me that his aunt Rinda had fallen in love with Thomas Houghton, who had been pastor of the Sandy Hook Methodist Church. He said Rinda had slipped off from her parents and went to Oklahoma to marry Rev. Houghton, who had been reassigned to a church in that state. I found the name and address of the lady who had the original 1908 news article , and suspecting that she might be a Horton descendent, I wrote to her. In a short time, I received her reply. She was indeed a Horton descendant – the only daughter of Thomas and Rinda Horton Houghton. Rinda Horton was born on Doctor’s Branch in Elliott County and was given the name, Dorinda Cecile, but the name was soon shortened to “Rinda”, the name she answered to for the rest of her life. Her parents were Richard Lee and Lillie Greenwood Horton, both from Virginia. Rinda was one of their ten children. Her sisters were: Lucy, Lettie and Nancy; brothers were: Henderson, William, “Tom”, “Wick”, and Charlie (Emery’s father). The story of how Rinda and Thomas Richard Houghton met is an interesting one, having begun when Rev. Houghton was assigned from WV to pastor the Sandy Hook Methodist Church in 1905. The Hortons were stedfast Methodists and attend the Walnut Grove Methodist Church. Undoubtedly, they attended the Sandy Hook church from time to time. Emery Horton stated that his grandmother Lillie was a “loyal Methodist”, and that “her home was always the preacher’s home. To minister to God’s Messengers was her delight and often she would shout over her work as she prepared a meal of which they were to partake.” It may well have been on just such an occasion that Rinda Horton and Rev. Thomas Houghton met and began their intimate friendship. Rinda’s only daughter, Lillie Houghton Ghormley, wrote that, “Even though Thomas was several years older that Rinda, they became good friends and began a romance. Rinda’s parents were not happy about the romance and refused to let her marry the ‘preacher’. So Thomas decided to move to Oklahoma. He was assigned to the Methodist Church in Warner, Oklahoma in Feb 1907.” Rinda Horton’s parents probably thought that this would be the end of her romantic relationship with the ‘preacher’. But not so. As her granddaughter, Marilyn Nichols said, “Rinda clasped a secret to her heart”. She loved the Methodist minister and intended to marry him. Lillie Ghormley’s description of the courtship continued: “The sweethearts continued their friendship by letters. Eventually, Thomas sent Rinda a ticket and money for a trip to Warner. He planned that they meet in St. Louis and marry there.” Unknown to her parents, Rinda was making plans to leave home and make the long, perhaps frightening, journey to Oklahoma. Her granddaughter said, “Having never been out of Kentucky, Rinda’s heart race in anxiety, but there was no turning back; she obtained a one-way ticket for Muskogee, Oklahoma.” Apparently the parents suspected nothing out of the ordinary when Rinda announced that she “Was going to visit a cousin for a few days”. In order to prevent her parents from being suspicious, she wore two sets of clothing and took only what would be considered necessary for a few days visit. But Rinda had made careful plans with the help of some friends. Her granddaughter said, “She walked to a neighbor’s home where she had secretly sewn other clothing, and packed them in a bag.” Picking up her bag, she headed for the railroad station. I imagine Rinda boarded the train at either Wrigley or Morehead where she began her westward trip to St. Louis. But the best laid plans do not always work out, as Rinda was to discover. In the early 1900s, trains did not always run on the exact schedule and such was the case with Rinda’s train. It arrived late in St. Louis and according to Lillie Ghormley, Rev. Houghton thought she had not come and made his way back to Oklahoma. Rinda was not deterred. According to her granddaughter, “Rinda did not fail him. Showing the faith she had in him, she continued her trip to Oklahoma. They were reunited in Muskogee and married on Sept 4, 1908.” Mrs. Ghormley said that in Oklahoma at that time it was a custom to charivari (shiverer) newly-wed couples, just as it was here in our own area. Shortly after the Houghtons had retired for the day, the serenade began outside, and if it was anything like some I have heard of in this area, it was very loud and raucous. But since one of the newly-weds was a preacher, the revelers may have kept the serenade a bit subdued. Lillie said that her father had grown some large watermelons that summer and had taken one into the house to cool. She continued: “So when the group came to charivari the couple, he pushed that watermelon onto the porch and went back to bed”. In describing her parent’s marriage, Lillie said, “it was like a fairy-tale marriage because they lived happily. They never got angry or argued during the fifteen years they lived together”. After their marriage, Thomas and Rinda continued to live in Warner for two years, and it was there that their only child was born. She was given the name Lillie Lee; “Lillie” for her grandmother Horton; “Lee” for her grandfather, Richard Lee Horton. In most of the organized denominations, pastors were frequently reassigned, and the Methodist Church was not an exception. Lillie Ghormeley said that her father’s moves “came more often that not”. “Through all of the moves, though, Rinda was patent, always helping others, as well as caring for her family and assisting her husband in his ministry. Lillie mentioned that I one town where her father was pastoring, the mother of a small infant came down with typhoid. The family’s doctor asked Rinda if she would take the baby and care for it, a challenge she gladly accepted. But eventually the mother recovered and took the baby back home just before the young couple moved to Texas. The mother was young and inexperienced in motherhood, and within six months the infant was dead. Having become attached to the baby, it was a very sad day for Rinda when she heard of its death. In still another community, the Houghtons answered the call to help when a child became ill with diphtheria, perhaps one of the most frightening and dreaded diseases of that time. Neighbors avoided contact with the family out of fear that they, too, might contract the disease. But not the Houghtons. They carried food to the family, ran errands, and sat with the sick child, even putting their own eight year old daughter at risk to the extent that she was suspended form school for two weeks. Lillie said, “Even though the child died, Thomas and Rinda continued their daily ministering to the family”. And so it went as the Houghtons moved from one community to another. Through the years the “Coy Maid from Kentucky” stood by her pastor husband, teaching Sunday school classes, providing for quests in their home, and assisting Rev. Houghton in his ministry to the community. In Lillie’s words: “Services such as these went on all the time until Rev. Thomas R. Houghton died on May 24, 1923. He was buried at Walnut Grove, WV, where other members of his family were buried”. After the death of her husband, Rinda continued to live in Warner in the small retirement home she and Thomas had built. Both the Horton and Houghton families offered Rinda help is she wanted to move back east, but she refused, preferring to remain in Oklahoma. When Lillie Lee graduated from high school in 1926, Rinda was determined that she would attend college. There being no institution of higher learning in Warner, Rinda moved to Tahlequah so Lillie could continue her education. While living in Tahlequah, Rinda managed an apartment house to supplement her small pension and finance Lillie’s college expenses. After Lillie’s marriage, Rinda again moved back to Warner, where she lived until 1936. Rinda’s son in law, Roger Ghormley, had been employed as Superintendent of Schools in Cherokee County, Oklahoma, and Lillie, now the mother of two small children, had reentered college to complete work toward a degree. A baby-sitter was needed who could be better for the job than “Granny Rinda”. So, again Rinda packed up and moved back to Tahlequah to be near her daughter and grandchildren. Speaking of Rinda’s relationship with her grandchildren, Lillie said “She did so much to form these two lives into the persons they are today”. From what Rinda’s granddaughter, Marilyn Nichols, told me, there must have been a very strong bond between Granny Rinda and her grandchildren. Apparently she had a very strong love for children and was, in return, loved by them. Marilyn stated that she was a “Pushover for children”. By standards of the early 1900s, Oklahoma was a tremendous distance form Elliott Co, KY. One would have thought that once Rinda Horton Houghton was settled down in that western state, her contact with the folks back home would have been minimal. But not so. In 1910, when Lillie was barely a year old, Rinda made her first trip back to Doctor’s Branch to visit her folds. Then again, when Lillie graduated from high school in 1926, Rinda brought her to Elliott County for a visit. Lillie said, “We visited George and Emery (Horton) most every time we came”. About 1934, Rinda made what was perhaps her last trip back to her childhood home, but her daughter has made a few trips since that time. Rinda continued to live in Tahlequah, Oklahoma until her death on May 21, 1956. She was laid to rest in the Tahlequah City Cemetery. Speaking of Rinda’s death, Marilyn Nichols wrote: “In my heart I held her close and invoked God’s mercy and love as she began her final journey”. When I read Rinda Horton Houghton’s story, I found it so interesting I wanted to share it with my readers. I hope they find it just as interesting as I did. For helping me with this, I must extend thanks to Lillie Ghormley and her daughter, Marilyn Nichols. Despite her 84 years, Lillie has made a special effort to make this possible, and I truly appreciate it. Finished USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free genealogical information on the Internet, data may be freely used for personal research and by non-commercial entities as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may not be reproduced in any format or presentation by other organizations or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for profit or any form of presentation, must obtain the written consent of the file submitter, or his legal representative and then contact the listed USGENWEB archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store this file permanently for free access.