R. Vaughn was born to Jeremiah and Mable Austin in 1891 near Bricklin, Missouri. In 1898, they moved by covered wagon to Cullison, Kansas. A brother, Jesse, sister, Lena, and her husband, Andrew Love, preceded the family to Kansas. In the fall of 1901, Vaughn and his parents, moved to Woodward County. His father filed on 160 acres in sections 18 and 19-22-21. His parents' first home in Woodward County was a combination dugout and soddy construction.
In the spring of 1902, Lena and Andrew settled near Laverne, Oklahoma. Andrew returned to Kansas for the summer to harvest the crops so Vaughn, age 11 stayed with Lena. He made weekly trips to Rosston to pick up the mail for Lena and nearby neighbors. He also purchased needed items for these same neighbors. On one of these memorable trips, he purchased calico for a lady's dress. Her request simply stated "something you think is pretty". Vaughn hand broadcast the feed crop for Andrew. The pay for his summers' work was a young calf and baby pig. That fall, he returned home. He pulled broomcorn for $.60 per day.
That first winter there was no school. In the fall of 1902, he walked four and a half miles to the old Tangier school. This was an especially bad winter consequently classes were not held daily during the extremely bad weather.
Among the many hardships of these early settlers were loco horses, rattlesnake bites and ruptured appendix which were all experienced by Vaughn.
As he was growing up the primary crops were kafir, maize, and corn. Broomcorn was the cash crop.
Ruby was born in West Mansfield, Ohio, in 1888, and came to Woodward County in the late summer of 1907. She and her parents, Perry and Myrta Ballinger, made their first Oklahoma home four and one-half miles west of Woodward. Very soon Ruby began teaching in surrounding area schools; she continued to teach for 12 to 15 years.
Ruby's mother, Myrta, was appointed Post Master at Woodward in 1923 and continued in that position until her death in 1927.
Ruby and Vaughn met at a neighborhood party and were married in 1910. They made their first home approximately eight miles south west of Woodward.
In 1918, they purchased their present farm, previously the "Cooley" Post Office and general store. For several years, this was their home. This was located in Sec. 7-20-21.
Vaughn and Ruby had a family of eight children: Crystal, Delmar, June, Kenneth, Jerry, Myrta, James, and R. V.
All but Delmar and June are still living.
Submitted by Kenneth Austin, Sharon
WILLIAM J. "BILL" AND ANONA ADAMS
William J. "Bill" Adams was the tenth child of Ansyl Monroe and Jane Amanda (Doering) Adams. He was born at Hale, Missouri, in 1898. In 1901 he came to Woodward County, Oklahoma Territory. The family settled in the southwestern part of the county.
Jane Amanda died in 1902, and her sister, Laura, was "mother" to her sisters and brothers. Among her many other duties Laura taught school near their home. Many of her brothers and sisters were among her pupils.
Anona Barbour is the daughter of Edgar Loy Barbour and Ethel Grace Rodman. She was born in Longton, Kansas, and came to Oklahoma in 1915 with her parents. They settled in the southwestern part of Woodward County.
Edgar Loy Barbour was too young to make the "run" into Oklahoma, so he drove a team and wagon for an older brother. Anona was teaching school in Woodward County when she and Bill met and later were married on December 2, 1922.
After their marriage they lived on the farm where Bill's family had settled when they came to Oklahoma.
Two of their daughters, Madelene and Billie, were born on this farm, and a third, Ella LaVon, was born near the Keenan Community.
Bill Adams died in 1956. Anona Adams lives in Woodward.
Madelene married John E. Smith, Jr., and they live in Mooreland, Oklahoma. They have three children: William Edgar, who died in 1963; Barbara Ann married Rhonald Whiteneck III, and they live in Woodward with their son, Jody Alan. Mark Alan married Rhonda Sue Carpenter. They are attending college in Stillwater, Oklahoma.
Billie Edris married Harold Harris and is living in Woodward. Her sons are attending college: William Bradford Smith is at Oklahoma University, Robert Dean Smith is in Oklahoma City University School of Law, and Gregory Scott Smith is at Northwestern State University.
Ella LaVon married Robert LaDue, who died May 1, 1974. She lives in Shattuck, Oklahoma, and has two daughters: Paula Jo, who married Kent Mcintosh, lives in Nevada, Missouri; Peggy Jane teaches school near Kansas City.
Submitted by: Mrs. John Smith, Mooreland, Oklahoma
MR. AND MRS. A. B. BABCOCK
The following remembrances by Glenn Babcock, son of Mr. and Mrs. A. B. Babcock, were related to him by his beloved parents of the good life and the hardships in the new land.
The lure of free homesteading land brought a varied and hardy host of pioneers to the virgin area of Woodward County. In the year 1900, E. J. Babcock and son, A. B. Babcock, traveling in a spring wagon, scouted the western area of the Cherokee Strip, and with the help of a local homesteader, Tobias R. Mix, they located and filed on two claims some three miles south of the Alabaster Caverns State Park, in Union Township 25 North, Range 18 West. This vast area was without roads, only ridge trails, which converged on the few river and creek crossings. It was a land without fences, one of the richest grazing areas in the West, still utilized by numerous cattle barons, whose empires vanished with the advent of the settlers.
After filing the Babcocks returned to their home and herds in the Creek and Sac and Fox Indian Reservation, six miles northeast of Stroud, Oklahoma, to make preparation for the move to the new adventure. The wonderful tales related of the great open spaces, enticed many relatives and friends to join in the migration. In the spring of 1901, the month long trip of the covered wagon and spring wagon, with a herd of 90 head of cattle and horses driven by the son, A. B. Babcock, and relatives arrived on the upper reaches of Slicker and Long Creeks to carve, from the ray gypsum hills, a home and a better way of life.
The construction of livable dugouts, then the breaking of sod were the first order of business. The dugouts were varied and crude, built from whatever material was available at hand, for money was scarce and the source of other building material was day's travel away. The first crops of kafir corn and corn on the new plowed ground were good, yielding as much as forty bushel to the acre.
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