Pruitt's came from Lancaster, Kentucky to Gainesville, Texas around 1900.
The Beebe family came from the eastern seaboard very early to Ohio, then to Iowa, Kansas, back to Iowa, then to Missouri, then to Gainesville, Texas before 1905. We don't know why they came.
Beebe and Pruitt married in Gainesville, Texas 1908 which they they soon left for the Indian Nations in section 8 of the Oklahoma map.
The country of origin for the Pruitt surname is still unknown. Grandma Pruitt only knew that they were here for a long time. The Pruitt surname is found in Germany, England and Ireland.
Gainesville in 1900 was still a rough cattle town on the route of the cattle drives through Indian lands to Kansas City. The town may be better known for frequent hangings. The Great Hanging
The first documented record for Pruitt placed them in Lancaster, Cooke County, Kentucky as late as 1882.
Grandfather Melvin Henry Pruitt was born May 25, 1882 in Lancaster, KY.
Great Grandfather Methias Pruitt was born 1830 and died October 16, 1910. His brother was Silas. Their places of birth and other familial details are still unknown.
Great Grandmother Martha Elizabeth Taylor, Meadows, Pruitt, Busby was born 1857 died in late 20's. Her Meadows children were William and Martha Meadows. All came to Gainesville, TX.
More about Great Grandma Martha Elizabeth Taylor, Meadows, Pruitt, Busby. Her second marriage was to Methias Pruitt with whom she gave birth to Carrie, Henry, Julia and Mollie Pruitt.
Martha's siblings were Jim Taylor and aunt Sarah whom also came with the family to Gainesville.
My mother Gladys Pruitt knew them all so the whole Pruitt and Taylor families must have traveled west together.
We do not know why they left Kentucky, but mom thought the reason was economics, lots of work on the railroads and with construction of towns along the railroads.
Sometime before 1905 the Beebe family of seven arrived from Belton, Missouri. They were my great grandparents Cornelius Alvero Beebe and wife Elizabeth Williamson Beebe, and their five children Milton, Rosie, Floy, Perlene, and baby Leonard.
Grandma Beebe and Grandfather Pruitt married in Gainesville April 8, 1908. Their four children were born in Thackerville, OK. It seems the whole family moved together
Mother Velma Gladys Pruitt Kelly was born Dec 24, 1908. Her son and three daughters are living.
Cleo Arthur Pruitt was born Dec 6, 1910. He had four sons all living.
Cornelius (nickname Son) Avero Pruitt was born Mar 30, 1913. Son had four daughters, three living.
Mollie Ann Pruitt Lewis was born Dec 3, 1914. Mollie had one son and three daughters all living.
So I still have lots of cousins whom are close to my age group.
About 1915 the family moved north to Marietta, OK.
We don't know much about Marietta except that mom spoke of a tornado which spun their house off it's foundation. It took four teams of horses to move the house back.
NOTE: How did they get here from Kentucky?
Mom never said, but as a child I imagined by wagon train, or by steamboat down the Mississippi river and up the Red River to Gainesville. But the fastest way west was by the Santa Fe Railroad which snaked west from St. Louis then south through Kansas and Oklahoma, passing through towns they would later lived in, to their final destination, Gainesville, TX.
Before 1918 the family again moved north, this time to Ardmore, Oklahoma.
We know they moved for work because Grandfather Henry was a construction worker.
On Feb 25, 1918 Henry was killed when a brick wall fell on him and other workers. while they were eating lunch.
We don't know what cemetery Grandfather Henry Pruitt was buried in.
Mom spoke of living near a place called Devil's or Hell's Kitchen, which is now under a lake. Perhaps Henry's burial place is also under the lake.
Sometime after grandfather Henry was killed the families moved north again. Mom mentioned Henryetta, but that town is quite a ways west of Marietta, and they were moving gradually northeast.
She also mentioned passing through a town named McAlister which was a long ways north of Ardmore.
I believe they followed the railroad north to McAlister then east to Stillwater, OK.
A few years later they were in Arkansas which may have been their intended destination all along. So stopping at Stillwater for several years makes more sense. I'll have to search for records there to verify they lived there, tax or census records or other type of documentation.
Mom spoke of living in a town called Stillwater, OK, but never said much about it.This Stillwater is off the main Santa Fe R.R. line which generally runs north and south, but it is still on a railroad line that runs east and west, and closer to where they ended up in Arkansas.
After grandpa Henry was killed, grandma Beebe Pruitt married men named Loving, Long, and in old age, to Mr. Root of Mena AR. To our knowledge grandma had no other children after Henry died.
She must have basically moved her family wherever her current husband wanted to go.
Before 1930 the families moved to Arkansas. They lived on a farm called the Old Bird Place. I have not found that farm, but it was near Garfield and Rogers.
In 1932 my father Oscar Kelly born 1910 Garfield, AR met my mother Gladys Pruitt from OK and they were soon married.
Cleo and Son fancied themselves cowboys, (they told me so) and as young men they went to Bowie, Texas in search of work. They found wives, started their families, and moved to Buena Park California where they joined the Kelly family.
Mollie, the youngest, married Connie Louis, probably in Benton County, AR, and During WWII they moved to Los Angeles where their children still live.