WILL GANTZ FAMILY'S REMEMBRANCES

 Mr. & Mrs. Matthias Gantz settled by the Twin Hills. They loved the spring of water. They came from Willow Springs, Kansas. There they were short of water so they came to Indian Territory. They built an L-shaped house and a two story barn, the lower part was made of stone in the side of the hill. From the north. they used it as a garage and stored feed and hay there. Papa stayed there above the barn until he was married.

Fred Gantz settled on the place just north of Chappels. They lived there a number of years.

When grandfather died he had the family to promise to take his body back to Kansas. He didn't want to be buried with the Indians around.

Will settled on the southwest side of the Antelope Hills. Up in the east part of the pasture a family lived in a dugout. Another dugout was south of the Antelope Hills. Behind the hills on the northwest side close to the spring lived the Wiley family. Across the creek south was the Nichols place, they also lived in a dugout. There used to be a road along the section line a mile east of Durham clear to the northwest corner of our place. It was too hilly, too hard to keep up. Then they changed to what we called the ridge road which is still used That's when the cattle guards came in, since the road went through pastures, so you didn't always have to stop and open and close the gates.

Mr. Fay had filed on land that was in our section. Gotliebe Gantz filed on land in the section where Mr. Fay lived, so they traded. Then Will bought out his brother. The home place belonged to Dan Gantz and he decided to go to Colorado. His wife was Fred Churchill's sister. Fred Gantz's wife was the sister of Will Thomas and sister to Mrs. George Watson.

Our house burned in October 1915, so papa built a dugout down by the garden near the creek.

People were attracted to see the Antelope Hills. They came on Sundays and asked us children to guide them to the top. We used the trails that the Indians used. Around the Square Top Hill we found many an arrow head. There were many battles fought there.

On top of South Antelope Hill is a government marker. As they were surveying the land and laying out sections, they had a tower built of wood and had a lantern on top. It was easier to get the sections laid out by light signals at night. This marker is under where the tower once stood.

There were many trees on our place and the grass came up to the stomach of a horse. The riders many times had to take their feet out of the stirrups so the grass wouldn't pull them off. They put their feet on top of the horses neck.

The Canadian River was just a little stream. There were beautiful hay meadows on each side and many large trees . The river gradually got larger. They put a ferryboat on the river near the Fay place. Just south of the ferryboat was a sawmill. They cut big cottonwood, chinaberry, and walnut trees and made lumber for the settlers. Our first house that burned had some of that lumber in it.

Our county was all of Roger Mills and Ellis County. It was called Old Day County. The courthouse and post office for the county was on the north side of the river at Grand. Dr . 0 . C. Newman started his practice there and was a very close friend of Will and George Gantz. The mail was brought over in a buggy. We had three mail carriers; Mr. Potter, Bob Christian, and Grady McReynolds. When Mr. Potter retired the mail route was divided between the other two. Then when Bob Christian retired, Grady assumed the whole route for now they had cars and there were better roads.

Mr. Leonard Weiger had a dugout just north of the Watson place along the old hilly road on the west side. A little further on the east side was a small house with a windmill and a cement tank. Just north of Fred Gantz's place in the hollow lived Nobletts. When Fred moved to Pampa, Goodwins moved to his place. Bob and Obera had their house just south of his parents place.

Andrew Wylie developed the apple orchard along with help from Papa for he had grown up on a 35 acre apple orchard in Kansas. Mrs. Wylie was a sister to Guy Gabbart. The town site was a mile east of Durham on the creek on the northwest corner of that section. They call it "Little St. Louis". Rains were a problem so they moved it on the hill along the 100th Meridian.

Ames had a cafe and rooms for rent. Brewers had a hotel and served meals. Mr. Ogle was postmaster and lived behind the post o f f ice. Clintons had a general merchandise store. They had a pretty home covered with vines at the end of main street. Next to the post office was a hotel'and Dr. Paynes office. His house was a beautiful yellow two a tory house. His home was the prettiest in town. Mr. Blurton had a barber shop and they lived behind it. Thompson's store was a two story with stairs on the south side. The upstairs was used for elections and community meetings. Guy Gabbart had a cream station and beside it was his home. He sold us ice and chicken feed and he also bought and sold poultry. The first flour mill was where Butlers lived. There were apartments above it. Mr. Krueger who was a teacher lived there when it burned. George Bruninga kept pushing until we -got another mill, the one that Elzie Campbell sold and it was moved to Cheyenne. Mr. Briggs had a blacksmith shop. It was fun to see him shoe horses or sharpen lister sheares.

Our first school was made of wood and was two stories. It stood where the gym is now. It burned down. They they built the school out of cement blocks. We had four rooms south of the auditorium. On the east side of the auditorium were sliding doors so we could have more room for programs. During school time science was taught there. The principals office was behind the stage. There were only two rooms on the north of the auditorium. A tornado came through the last of August on a Friday evening in 1933 and blew our school away along with our tin gym which served as a bus garage in the summertime.

My first teacher in 1932 was Ruth Margaret Herring. Cora Wesner was our second and third grade teacher. The teachers had everything ready for school to start when the tornado came and blew our records away. What wasn't blown away was standing in water. There is no record of who was in that first grade.

When Thompson's store burned he hired men to come and make cement blocks and then the store was built further north and a new post office was put where the store had been. Obera Goodwin was our new postmistress.

Reddens had a beautiful two story home northwest of the cotton gin. it was built in the hill so it really was three stories. They had two big long barns. The barns burned as they were grinding feed. Later their house burned.

The town well was beside the Ogle property. Many people had their own windmills; Dr. Payne, Thompsons, Reddens, the blacksmith shop and our school.

On the northeast corner of our old school property was built the community church. During the week it was used for extra classrooms until it was blown away with the school. At that time it was called the Methodist Church. Across the road from the school Cordells had a baseball diamond. It was fun to see the games. They had a wood fence all around it.

We had a telephone office and the operator lived behind it. Later the old office was sold to Harry Gantz and he moved it north of the Twin Hills on his place. We built a new office. I remember Mrs. Goodwin, Mrs. McKean, and Mrs. Dale being operators.

Jack Powers built the filling station where Windy is now and his house was there. The teachers had rooms at the Cordells and at Ames.

Amy Churchill's father was the first one buried in our cemetery under the big cottonwood tree. His grave was unmarked and no one knew where it was. Papa had helped in the funeral and Iater helped locate the lost grave. Ray Churchill for years brought the mail from Canadian to Durham. Later we got the route also from Sayre. Mail always went by train.

Papa had a land patent on our place. He came in 1904 and lived there on the same place for over sixty years. He plowed all around the house to protect it from prairie fires. Our first house Papa built of sod. He cut the blocks of grass a foot square and one-half foot thick. He said it was warm in winter and cool in summer.

The Antelope Hills are all named; Square Top, South Antelope, the Horseshoe, North Antelope, and the Twin Hills where Grandpa Gantz settled.

Beecher Focht was the well digger and well repairman. Soon Dorus Briggs, Mr. Butler, and Bob Goodwin joined the windmill digger-service people.

The old flour mill was rebuilt to be a repair-garage shop and on top there were apartments.

During 1932-34 were very sad years. People were losing their farms because of the drought, they couldn't make their land payments. Every few days we would see children crying at school. We would ask what was wrong and they would say they had lost their farm and had to move but didn't know where.

Mountain goats and antelopes were seen around the Antelope Hills. Their favorite place was around the Square Top Hill. It was fun watching them scramble over the rocks. Prairie chickens and wild turkeys were around us, too.

Across the south edge of our place was a covered wagon trail. They crossed the river near Fred Churchill's place. We found some things that had been left behind. Some were on their way to California to dig for gold.

Many people crossed the river by Glen Focht's place. Glen was always ready to help you across. His crossing was called Little Robe Crossing, named after an Indian. Fred Churchill and Huey Brown were helpers to cross the river, too. Then we would tell them when we would return, and they would help us back across. The Kennedy and Brown boys were always at the crossing of the river to go to the picnic at Old Grand.

I well remember going across keeping my feet high and the horse had to swim. I aIso remember going across at Churchill Crossing going over the ice and far out the horses and wagon broke through. You always had an axe and wire on the wagon to repair it. This time Papa used the axe to chop the ice so he could turn around and go back home.

Papa was a freight driver at first. He hauled things and grain to Higgins, Shattuck, Strong City, Canadian, or Allison.

Papa was a custom cutter with his binder and his header. Charlie Godfrey was the custom grain thrasher and then Heck Bullard.

Jack King was our school bus repair-maintainence man. The bus drivers had to live no further than one-half mile from the end of the school route. Our buses were homemade. The school board bought the chaises and our carpenters built on the cab. There was a bench on each side and one down the middle that you could straddle. At the time when I started to school we had seven bus routes and the buses were numbered so we would get on the right bus. There were no heaters on the buses. We had steam heat in school. Guy Hensley and Frank Smith were ones I remember being on the school board for a long time.

1935 my fourth grade teacher was Zelma Thompson. In fifth grade, Lloyd Taylor. In sixth grade, Ray Clay, and in seventh and eighth grade, Lloyd Taylor. The teachers that our class liked were Zelma Thompson and Lloyd Taylor. The principal that we liked the best was Fred Cordell. I believe it was because they were hometown people and loved and wanted the best for our school.

Out in front of the school was a fenced in flower bed. Shorty Blaylock took care of these and also the flower beds along the sidewalk under the windows of our classroom on the east side. We had a pretty drinking fountain in front of the fenced in flower bed. We had two pipes parallel for our fence. We had a swinging pipe gate for our front entrance and arched over head was a sign saying: DURHAM SCHOOL CON. DISTRICT I

On Arbor Day we planted trees along the front fence. We loved to play or just sit under their shade. We had a janitor's home in the southeast corner of the school grounds. I remember C.B. Aubrey being the janitor.

When the school was destroyed by a tornado the parents came in and in a month were able to begin a new school.

Each family had the responsibility to repair the road to the next family. They also helped clear the snow for the school buses. My dad always had a team harnessed ready to help the school bus when it was rainy or snowy. Also each family kept the telephone line from his place to the next.

Our school became too crowded so they built on four classroom on the north These were woodwork shops and across the hall, home economics, two class rooms, library, and a science lab. The home economics room was used as a class room, also.

When the community church was built, services were held in it on Saturday by the Seventh Day Adventists; then on Sunday the Methodists, Baptists, and Church Christ all met together.

We all planted a few rows of sorghum cane so we could have sorghum. We hauled it either to the Baxter place or the Poindexter place, one mile south of Durham. They kept a stated amount of gallons for their pay.

In the room behind the auditorium science was taught. We just loved to peek in to see caged owls, snakes in a jar, and other animal life. Mr.Quattlebaum was the science teacher. He was always willing to talk to us kids about animal life.

A pool hall was built south of the gin. It was used for many things such as elections and church services. Then when it wasn't used much, it was sawed in half. A Keahey from Crawford bought the east half and moved it to their house and remodeled it into a home. The other half was used by the Baptist church and for elections.

The gin was rebuilt several times because it burned from flint rocks that was accidentally picked up with the cotton that fell down on the ground. The gin built a row of houses along the street on the north end of main street. There were many hitching posts in front of the businesses on main street to hitch our teams or the saddle horse. We came in wagons to get our supplies and rode horses when we mailed letters or needed a few supplies. Wagons had sideboards, these were used to haul our corn, wheat and maize to Strong City or haul our cotton to the gin. The farmer then brought loads of cotton hulls home to use for bedding down the cattle in the barn in the winter.

School started the first of August so it could have time off to pull broom corn, pick cotton, and head maize. We were out from two to four weeks according to how we faired with the weather. All this was done by hand.

The hay was cut by a mowing machine and raked into piles or was bound by binders. All was powered by horses. Wheat was harvested with a header and hauled by header barges. It was stacked like loaves of bread in rows in the field. Then the threshing machine was pulled along the stacks and men pitched the wheat, rye, barley, or oats into the machine. Men had wagons with sideboards catching the grain then hauling it to the graineries. Unloading was hard with scoop shovels. Finally an auger was made to unload or be used to load the trucks to haul to the elevators.

Charlie Godfrey had a thrashing machine.He thrashed in the summer and fall and the other part of the year he hauled cattle to Oklahoma City.

The farmer when he was cutting wheat, rye,or oats with a header used six horses to pull it and one man driving it.The header barge went right along with the header so the elevator pushed the wheat into the barge. Each barge had a driver to drive the team and a pitcher to load the barge. The farmers had two pairs of crews with barges and a man called a stacker who stacked the wheat. when thrashing a tractor powered the engine and at least four men pitchforked the wheat onto the platform and a man just running the thrashing machine. He had at least three drivers hauling it in wagons that had sideboards. The women were busy cooking on wood stoves to feed the crews.

When broom corn was pulled, we gathered a big handfull and placed it in bundles in between the stalks to dry. Then it was hauled by wagons and then it was stacked.

Later a man who had a broomcorn seeder came. The broomcorn was put in the machine. The seed rolled into the wagons and the broomcorn was bound into bales. It was often hauled to market to be used to make brooms.

The cotton when ginned was made into bales and hauled to market. The seeds were used for planting and other seed was ground to make cattle feed. Cotton was picked by hand. Each picker had a canvas bag with a strap on it to be place over the shoulder and pulled along as the person either snapped or picked. There was a stand in the field to weigh the cotton. Each picker kept count of the pounds. Then he was paid a certain amount per pound he picked.

The maize and cane were headed by hand. It took a barge to pitch the heads of maize into it as two persons were cutting the heads with a knife. The corn was put in wagons with sideboards and hauled into corn cribs then was hand shucked and then corn was run through a seeder. The hay was either cut by mower or bound into bundles by a binder. Mowed hay was put into round small stacks. The bound hay was put into shocks. Later it was all hauled in hay wagons to be stacked by the barn or corral.

The wheat and other grains thrashed, the straw came out of the auger and formed huge round cone shaped stacks. They were called straw stacks and were usedin winter. The cattle could eat the straw and be in out of the wind. Some straw was used for bedding in barns for livestock. Also, some was used to line the nests in the chicken house. In summer the nests were lined with sagebrush.

All the stores had porches in front. Long benches with backs on them were placed against the store fronts. Here many people sat and talked about news, the weathers, and etc. Ule Butler came to town and put in a "Help Yourself" laundry with electric Maytag washers. Soom farm homes purchased gas motored washers and gas motored cream separators, and kerosene cook stoves and refrigerators.

The Rural Electric Association put in the electric lines. Before that some had wind charger or Delco motors for lights. Farms now had yard lights and even lights in the barns. If you were outside you could see your neighbors lights.

Albert Bell was the first to sell ice cream in town. He fixed places where you could eat ice cream or drink a cold soda. Then Powers put in a small snack room next to the gas station and served hamburgers. Aubreys sold chili and hamburgers.

Farmers used to drive their cattle to sale. They crossed the river and drove them to Higgins or Shattuck. From there they were loaded in cattle cars and shipped to Kansas City.

One time when the settlers were having a picnic at Grand a dam broke. Many had come in wagons. It was a terrible roaring noise. The ground trembled under your feet. Mr. Haydo had been over to ask if any of us at Grand had seen any of his stray cattle. We worried about him making it back alright and he did. We came home over Packsaddle bridge. The wagons were helped over by trucks.

Bill Creech was a very good roper. When the river was up he took lariat ropes and he and his boys would rope the wood and pull it to the bank. One time a bridge was being built up the river. They had the wood piled close by for the bridge. The river swept the wood downstream. Bill roped the pilings and the boys snaked it on the bank. They got enough to build a three room house and a barn.

Families enjoyed going to Fred Churchill's place for picnics. In front of his house was a small creek with running water. Which the children enjoyed playing in and the tall trees gave lots of shade.

One day as Fred Churchill was riding across his pasture checking his cattle he came near the north part of his pasture to a house. Mrs. Clay was standing with her dishpan ready to empty it when a wolf reared up with its paws on her shoulders and its mouth open in front of her face. He was afraid to shoot but took careful aim and shot it in the head. The shot killed the wolf instantly.

Fred Churchill was a man of many talents. He was a great cowboy, an excellent roper, helped brand, dehorn, and castrate cattle and helped with the sick animals. If Fred couldn't help the sick ones the farmers called Tom Haight.

Fred also spent much time resurveying the county to adjust the taxes. No longer did they have to pay taxes on canyons, creeks and unusable land.

Farmers needed help getting their machines f ixed. Frank Batchelor and Ralph McKean had a shop to weld and sharpen discs and shears.

The first airplane in our area was flown by Ordd Thompson. On pretty days he would come flying over. It frightened the animals. He had a motorcycle with a side car and took people riding.

There was a story told that Indians said that gold was in the hills and that someone had buried treasure there. Day after day, the men took turns digging. Late one evening the digger struck the chest. He suggested that all go home to rest for it was late. All went their way. He hurried home and loaded his wagon with his things, came back and got the treasure and fled. When the men came back the next morning they saw the imprint of the chest in the dirt. They went to his place but he was long gone.

Our community had many Home Demonstration Clubs. Mrs. McReynolds lead in organizing people from the clubs and high school students to roll bandages and making things that the Red Cross sent to help our soldiers. We felt it was a privilege and our duty to do all we could to help our servicemen.

Along the creeks the settlers found wild plums, wild grapes, persimmons, hackberries, and black walnuts. On the sandy areas were sand plums. In some places there were mulberries. There were red, white, and black mulberries. They also looked for poke and lambs quarter weeds to use as greens and even young thistles. Thistles were even used to build barns and animals shelters. They would build two fences parallel about two feet apart and then stuff the thistles in it. For the roof they used shinnery. Shinnery was also used to make arbors in from of houses for summer porches. Even the churches were made with shinnery arbors.

Submitted by Genevieve Gantz Ehrlich.
Assisted by Ula Potlin, George, Marianna Chastain, Ruth Weis, and Esther King.


Return to Gantz-Weis History
Return to