Daviess County MO Archives News.....Overland Trip to Oklahoma November 15, 1906 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/mo/mofiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Brenda Abplanalp brendaab@grm.net October 29, 2005, 4:13 pm The Hamiltonian, Vol 29, #21, P. 6 November 15, 1906 "Overland Trip to Oklahoma Kendrick, Oklahoma Editor W.J. Clark Dear Sir: As several requested me to write an account of my trip I will try and do so. Having rented my place I thought I would go south and look at the country. We left Marrowbone Creek at 9 o'clock a.m. Tuesday, October 2nd, and arrived at Kidder at noon, took dinner with out aunt, Mrs. Eliza Castor. We joined the rest of the crowd at Kidder and left there at 1:30 o'clock p.m. We camped the first night three miles southwest of Cameron. We got up early and got ready for our second day's journey. We traveled until one o'clock and then stopped and ate our dinner by a house that used to belong to Jesse James. We killed two squirrels for dinner. We then went to Lathrop and stopped to see Mr. John Teegarden and wife. We passed by a house where there were about twenty dogs. We called that the dog farm. We camped close to Waxford crossing where we could see the trains go by. We went through Liberty, Wednesday, and arrived at Minnaville at four o'clock. We spent two nights and one day with our cousin, Elsie Armstrong and family. We then started for Kansas City. We reached the bridge that crosses the Missouri River and a train came along above us and scared the horses. They broke one wagon tongue, tipped the buggy over and broke the tongue and run one wagon into a small creek that runs into the river. No one was hurt but some were badly scared. We then had to take one team over at a time. We went on through Kansas City until we came to Kansas City, Kansas, were we stopped to see our cousins, Will Armstrong, and family. We got there about 2 o'clock and stayed all night. We had a fine time in the city. The children saw so many things they had never seen. We crossed the Kaw River twice. We passed through Turner at 10 o'clock and camped on the bank of the Kaw west of there. Then we passed through Holliday, Morris, and Mountly and camped two miles southwest of Mountly. We started Monday morning at 6 o'clock a.m. and went through Prairie Center, De Soto and Cater and camped half a mile west of Cater. Thueday morning, it was so cold we didn't eat much breakfast. We went through Wellsville and Ottawa Tuesday and camped 21/2 miles west of Ottawa. We went through Homewood, Houtville, Williamsburg and Agricola. We passed by Union Cemetery, which is fenced with rock, and twenty acre mull orchard. We spent Thursday night and Friday at Emporia, Kansas, with our cousins, John Brown and family. Saturday morning we got up early and started on, and ate dinner on the plains of Kansas, and could not get any water for dinner nor any for the horses until about two o'clock in the afternoon. We went through the Wilson Ranch, it was awful nice; we got water there for the horses, we saw many cattle there. We passed by another cemetery fenced with rock, and went through Bezar and camped one mile south of there on the bank of the South Fork Cottonwood of the river. There are miles and miles of rock fence in Kansas and many of the houses and barns are built of rock. Lampey brothers own a ranch in Kansas which is fenced with 72 miles of rock fence. The house is built of rock and cost $30,000, a rock barn three stories high, the third story you have to drive on a bridge to go in, the second you drive in from a hill and the first from the road. They also own many cows, horses, hogs, mules and poultry. Sunday morning it was cloudy and about noon it began to rain. We got our dinner and traveled until five o'clock and then we spent the night with a man named Martin. Monday morning it was still raining, but we had plenty of fun, we chased jack rabbits and killed five. We traveled about six miles across the prairie Monday and camped 3 miles northwest of Eldorado, Kansas. It was still raining Tuesday morning but it never rained very hard any of the time. We went through Eldorado Tuesday and camped one mile north of Augusta. We went through Augusta, Gordon, Douglas, and Rock, Wednesday and camped on the bank of Rock Creek, about one mile south of Rock. It never rained any Wednesday but it was cloudy all day. Thursday morning one of the colts was sick and we didn't get to go on until noon. Thursday night we camped north of Winfield, close to the park where they are having an old soldier's reunion. The band played until 10:00 and at 12:00 a graphaphon began to play and played until morning, so we had music all night. From Winfield we went to Arkansas City. The roads were awful bad. We met Missourians who had been to Oklahoma and were coming back to Missouri. The street cars in Winfield and Arkansas City are run by a couple of little mules. We crossed the line between Arkansas and Oklahoma about 6:30 Saturday. We passed through Newkirk about 8:00 and ate dinner in Kildare; from there we went to Ponca City, Oklahoma and camped southwest of there. Saturday night one of the horses took sick and we sat up all night with her; we doctored her but it did no good; she died about 8:00 o'clock Sunday morning; we then had to hitch one of the colts to the buggy and take one of the old horses to the wagon. We started at noon and got to 101 ranch and camped there on the bank of Salt Fork River; the water in it is red. On one of the houses on 101 Ranch they had a buffalo head and a Texas cow head nailed on it. We crossed Salt Fork River Monday morning and passed through Bliss about 10:00 o'clock and ate dinner in Otoe Agency; we camped southwest of there. The towns are few and far between. We went through Otoe Reservation Monday and through Stillwater Tuesday. Arrived at Uncle Merrit Givens Wednesday and stayed until Friday. The boys helped (unclear) Uncle (unclear) at noon. From (unclear)w (unclear) Young's dinner and then went home. We were just three weeks and two days on the road. We are about two miles south of Kendrick and all like Oklahoma fine. The cotton looks very nice but they have raised better. There is plenty of good water but not much corn raised in this part of Oklahoma. This is all for this time. Yours truly J.T. Goodwin and family (Copied from the microfilm at the Hamiltonian-Advocate Newspaper Office, Hamilton, Mo. on 21 Aug. 1986) Additional Comments: The above is the newspaper account of the trip to Oklahoma taken by John T. Goodwin family (Martha Goodwin was Isaac's sister) and Isaac Givens family. Isaac Givens returned to Missouri a year later; John T. Goodwin also returned to Missouri but several years after Isaac Givens came back. My father, Virgil Givens, was about 1 year old when the trip was made. In the accident described above with the wagon and buggy my father fell out of the buggy, rolled down the hill, and almost fell into the river. His sister, Effie Givens, rescued him before he made it to the river. He was unhurt. The Goodwin family kept a diary along the way and this account in the newspaper is taken from that diary. Verna Goodwin, one of the daughters, was primarily responsible for this diary. I was fortunate enough to be told about this trip before my cousin Verna and my father died. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/mo/daviess/newspapers/overland7gnw.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/mofiles/ File size: 7.9 Kb