Gray Co, TX - News: Mrs. Heiskell's 'Old Timer' *********************************************************** This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Diane Richards cdr1@ev1.net USGenWeb Archives. Copyright. All rights reserved http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm *********************************************************** Mrs. Heiskell's 'Old Timer' Claim Rest on Solid Ground October 13 1952 Pampa Daily News by Shirley Morgan, Daily News Correspondent PAMPA, Oct. 13 - Asked if she is an old timer, Mrs. Kate Heiskell - an active participant in the Gray County 50th Birthday Celebration - is apt to flash her twinkling eyes, tilt her head in such a way that the gray in her hair isn't noticeable, and retort vigorously, "Why, no, I was just born and raised out here. But my parents were old timers..." Later on she may qualify the coy remark by letting you know things weren't quite as they are today when she made her first appearance in Gray County. As a matter of fact, she was born in a dug-out on Talyhone Creek, about 24 miles north of Pampa. The dug-out was situated on her father's ranch which he had bought from her maternal grandparents, the J. H. Newbys. Mrs. Heiskell's father, A. L. Lard, a noted Indian Fighter, came to Old Mobeetie in 1881 when it was an Indian fort. Before him, her grandfather, William T. Lard, had settled in the Panhandle and was known to Indians and whites alike as "Uncle Billy." Mrs. Heiskell's memories of growing up center around difficulty of getting to school. It took a lot of getting up at daylight, riding horseback, or sometimes walking on ground that for weeks at a time was covered with snow or frozen hard. Weather trends of the High Plains have chnged greatly during the last 50 years, she will assure you. She remembers 18-inch snows that would lie on the ground for three months. When her father filed on land near Texhoma in 1904, the children had to walk two miles and ride horseback an additional two miles to reach school. They had no conventional overshoes, so their father wrapped their feet in diapers of gunny sacks. The fibre of the sacks tended to draw heat in and keep cold out. The year that Mrs. Heiskell attended school at Ivan in Graham County [*Graham is a town in Young County], she was required to walk two miles and ride five before putting in the daily stint with the textbooks. "But school terms were short in those days!" she recalls with a sigh of relief. Another clear memory of Mrs. Heiskell's childhood was that of moving. "Daddy tried out all the ranch land in the state and some beyond before he came to Pampa to stay. He was a roving type of person." she remembers. Being the eldest of 10 children, Mrs. Heiskell often helped Dad with the task that went along with building a home on the prairie. As early as 1898 when they were living on Indian Creek, the neighborhood was bothered by coyotes. Her mother would dress her in old clothes and her daddy would take her out in the old hack as close as they could drive to the holes or caves where the predatory animals were known to hide. Mrs. Heiskell would stay at the hole while her father, armed with his gun, went after the coyotes. The coyotes, noted butchers of young calves, brought a dollar a scalp. "It was dirty work", she recalls. "I would get so full of fleas that when we got home, mother met me in the cow lot, stripped off my clothes and completely redressed me before I could go into the house." "It is a wonder I didn't get killed, staying so near the gun, but fortunately we never had an accident," she mused. In 1902 Kate and her brother John helped their dad drive a covered wagon through 53 counties. The trail went from Texhoma to Edwards County - within 18 miles of the Mexico line - then to Graham, southeast of Wichita. In the early days of Pampa, with few entertainments, families thought nothing of driving 30 miles to attend a Christmas tree. The children in the family were never left with baby sitters, but were taken right along to enjoy the festivities until their little heads began to drop. "That was a decent time," Mrs. Heiskell recalls. "Women weren't insulted with offers of drink or cigarettes, and they never left their children to the care of someone else. The Panhandle of my youth wasn't a wild place!" But as much as she enjoys recollecting those early days, Kate Heiskell has by no means buried herself in them. And old timers' celebrations aren't the only occasions on which she is apt to find herself on several committees. Her civic responsibilities had theis beginning when she met and married H. H. Heiskell - better known as "Shorty" who is also a true Texan, all 5 feet 17 inches of him. ("We give his height that way so it won't embarras the folks who aren't tall.") Kate first saw Shorty at a baseball game, part of a Forth of July celebration in 1907. He was on the panhandle team, playing Pampa. The opportunity for formal introduction didn't roll around until a dance in 1908, and they were married in 1911. Pampa has been home to them and their six children since. The Children are Mrs. H. N. Sanchez [Avis Katherine], who lives southeast of Pampa; Orville Heiskell, who lives south of Pampa; Mrs. J. T. Hassey [Bessie DeAun], Pampa; Claude Heiskell, Pampa; and Grover Heiskell, recently recalled into the Marines. One child, Winifred, died 18 years ago. All of the boys are in business with their father who is a water [well] contractor. Additional Comments: *notations contained in brackets [ ] were added to text Jennie Katherine "Kate" Lard was born 10 April 1892 in Roberts County Texas on a branch of the Canadian River. She died in Pampa on 03 Nov. 1960. Her parents were Albert Lee "Bert" Lard and Annie Zeporia Newby. Harmon Howard "Shorty" Heiskell was born 04 Oct. 1886 near Kyle in Hays County Texas. He died in Pampa on 11 Jan. 1973. His parents were William Hurst Heiskell and Fannie Howard Rice.