Memoirs of Marilla "Rilla" Vaughn"
I was born near Bellville, Kansas on June 16, 1895. I was the daughter of James William Vaughn and Mary "Molly" Eunice Montgomery. There were 8 children in the family and I was next to the youngest. There was Clyde, Erma, Georgia Bell, Fern, a boy twin that died at birth and then there was Owen, myself "Rilla" and Lester. Clyde, Georgia Bell and the boy twin, all passed away in Kansas.
In about 1900 we moved to a 160 acre farm in McCook, Nebraska where we lived in a sod house that only had two rooms. Sod houses were cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter but the wind would whistle under the eaves at night and sing us kids to sleep. We had a corn crib and a hand cranked corn sheller that we used every day in order to feed the chickens. The horses and hogs ate off the cob which made it easier for those of us children who were responsible for shelling (?) that corn. We had a windmill and a large round redwood trough and it was always spilling over making a huge mud hole. One Saturday, our folks drove to Culberson, another nearby town, to trade butter and eggs for other necessities. My siblings and I stayed home and soon discovered that we could amuse ourselves by making mud balls and throwing them against the barn where they would stick. After they dried we got scared knowing that our parents would be very upset. We found a long pole and knocked them off but, much to our dismay, they left big dirty spots. We were really expecting to be in big trouble but to our surprise we only got a scolding.
One of my memories during those early years was when my mother made me a sugar sandwich (bread, butter and sugar). We went out to feed the chickens and a big rooster grabbed the sandwich away from me and mother got really mad.
One time we experienced a cyclone (editor's note as it was probably a tornado) and we could see it coming. Dad was cultivating corn so when he saw it he unhitched the team and put them in the barn then came to the house. Everyone had storm cellars in those parts and this was where we kept milk, butter, spuds, etc. We all rushed to the cellar and Dad stood up on the steps watching the storm. It wasn't long before he said that it seemed to be heading south and he thought that it was probably going to miss us. At hearing that, we all rushed back into the house so we could watch it also. Well, suddenly it changed directions and came straight toward us but it was too late to get back in the storm cellar. It didn't hit us directly, but the wind blew with such force that the adults held blankets against the glass door and windows to keep glass from blowing out. Dad was at the east window and when he saw tar paper and sod flying through the air he stated, "There goes the roof of some poor wretch's house!". He didn't realize that it was our house until the rain came pouring into the bedroom section of our house. It was a mess! We had to build a hot fire in the kitchen stove and dry out the bedding. I'll never forget that horrifying experience.
We enjoyed visiting Dad's cousin, Lige Beebe, who lived down on Red Willow Creek. I remember that one time while we were there some of the boys caught a snapping turtle and tied it to the screen door with a long cord. Our parents weren't happy with the boys who did that. We lived not far from Aunt Rilla Bowes, my Dad's only full sister. (I was named after her.) We lived up on what was known as the "divide" and there were many relatives living along the Red Willow Creek. Besides Lige Beebe, I remember visiting many of our mother's uncles; Jim Coyle, Bill Doyle, Dan Coyle and Uncle Thees. My Grandma Montgomery was a Doyle
In the late 1890s we traveled by covered wagon when we moved from Kansas to Nebraska. When we camped at night it was our job to gather up dried cow chips for the evening fire. We had a large grub box that we used as a seat in the wagon when traveling. I still remember the fried potatoes and salt pork that we used to eat on the trail.
When I was about 4 and Fern was about 7, Mother took the two of us to visit Grandma Montgomery. Grandpa Montgomery had already passed away at this time. Grandma lived on a small farm just south of Lincoln and near Uncle Dick Montgomery's ranch. The only thing that stands out in my mind is picking apples under a few trees along the road. Fern and I would take a little red bucket each afternoon and pick up those apples that had fallen on the ground. We would take them in and set them on an old-fashioned hand cranked washing machine on the back porch. We also visited one of Mother's older sisters, Aunt Alice Stricker. She had a large shady backyard and there was a swing with two seats facing each other. We could step on and off and play train conductor.
In the late 1800s the Laguna Lands Ltd, an English Syndicate, purchased all unsold land remaining in the Laguna de Tache Grant, a Mexican Land Grant to one Manuel Castro by the Governor Pico Pico in 1844. (Laguna means slough or swamps and Tache was the name of the largest Indian tribe living along the Rio del Rey (now the Kings River). In 1900, two delegates from the Bellville Kansas Brethren Church attended that National Conference at Hershey, Pennsylvania. The town of Laton had been laid out in about the late 1890s and the Land Company was anxious for more settlers. They had learned that the best way was to form colonies by nationalities or religious beliefs. N.C. Blanchard, one of the Land Agents, went to the Brethren Conference armed with pictures and a lot of literature describing the Laguna de Tache Grant.
In 1900, the urge was strong to go West. The delegates were impressed and returned with glowing reports, resulting in two members of the church going to Laton, California to see firsthand. Joshua and Caleb (need surnames) returned and reported that we could take (??) the land and it resulted in a colony of thirteen families being formed. There were 68 people in the group. Mr. Z.L. Conwell, another agent, went to Bellville to help in the arrangements. Those that owned farms sold them and those, like my folks who never owned land until coming to California, sold their livestock, farm implements, etc. When our family eventually arrived in Laton they had very little capital.
My folks were living in Nebraska but having been members of the Bellville Brethren Church they joined the colony. A special chartered train with day coaches and box cars brought along horses and farm tools. Rena Fike's family also did so. There was no hot food for three days and three nights. Uncle Chris Holsinger stood at the head of one coach and preached a long sermon on Sunday. The train made one stop at Ogden, Utah and everyone walked around the train to stretch their legs.
We arrived at the Lillis Station, about 2 miles west of Laton, on December 9, 1902. The Colony was housed in Laton and the surrounding areas until land could be purchased and houses constructed. Five of us children came west with our parents, James and Mary Vaughn, and siblings Erma (19), Fern (12), Owen (9), myself (7), and Lester (4 1/2). We first settled on Riverdale Avenue near the Camden Store which was about 6 miles west of Laton and adjoining Rena Fike's folks.
The first years were tough and sad. Dad did carpenter work to sustain the family and we lived in a two room board and bat house. We ate and cooked in one room and slept in the other. We bought a team of mules and a spring wagon from Judge Smith (the postmaster) and found a good milk cow. First the cow came fresh and died of milk fever then the coyotes ate her that night. The used to come around the house at night. Next our best mule died with distemper but the saddest thing of all was my sister Fern's death.
It came time for me to start school and it was a three mile walk to the Laguna school that had been built in about 1900.
John Holsinger owned ten acres and 1/4 mile from Grant School and there was a cook shack on this place. So during the week, Fern, Owen, and I stayed in the shack and attended Grant School. There was a well but it was a surface well and we did not know enough to boil the water. It wasn't long before Fern contracted Typhoid Fever and soon after passed away. She was only 15-years old. Dr. Walker and his wife came and stayed at our place for 3 days but could not save her.
We finally made a deal with the Land Company to trade the 20 acres on Riverdale Avenue for 10 acres of good land on Lewiston Avenue where brother Owen and his wife, Leanore, later lived. Here we accumulated a small dairy and were able to rent some pasture land from The Company. Dad still worked away from home doing carpenter work. We children had to milk the cows in the morning and at night and it was my job to wash the cream separator each morning and night. We did all this before we went to school. From here we only had 1 1/2 miles to walk to school.
I graduated from Laguna School in 1910 and attended Laton High School in the fall of 1910. I stayed in the home of Charley and Florence Camp, doing housework for my board and room. In my junior year I attended Lordsburg Academy, a Brethren Church School, eventually called Laverne College. When I was a senior, my brother Lester was a freshman, having stayed home one year to help on the farm. During my senior year we drove a horse and buggy 6-1/2 miles one way to school.
Not too long after graduating from Laton High School in 1914, I married Glenn Bailey. We lived for a short time in Mendota, California where Glenn drove a horse drawn oil tanker wagon, making deliveries to what few scattered ranches were there at the time. We also lived in Lemoore, California for a time where our first child was born. We had a girl and named her Velma Fern after my sister Fern who had died in died in 1905. Between Lester's junior and senior years at Laton High School, Glenn and his dad owned a big sandwich hay-baler. During the summer they traveled all over baling hay for farmers. It took 7 men to operate it. It took a feeder, hoe down forker, wire poker, wire tier spool tender, a bale buck (that was Lester) and Glenn kept the engine running. My brother Lester was also the cook in the cook shack.
My parents eventually acquired more land on Lewiston Avenue. Dad set out fruit trees; 3 kinds of apricots, 3 kinds of peaches, all ripening at different times so we could avoid having to hire help. Picking, cutting and drying occupied all of our summer.
I was born near Bellville, Kansas on June 16, 1895. I was the daughter of James William Vaughn and Mary "Molly" Eunice Montgomery. There were 8 children in the family and I was next to the youngest. There was Clyde, Erma, Georgia Bell, Fern, a boy twin that died at birth and then there was Owen, myself "Rilla" and Lester. Clyde, Georgia Bell and the boy twin, all passed away in Kansas.
In about 1900 we moved to a 160 acre farm in McCook, Nebraska where we lived in a sod house that only had two rooms. Sod houses were cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter but the wind would whistle under the eaves at night and sing us kids to sleep. We had a corn crib and a hand cranked corn sheller that we used every day in order to feed the chickens. The horses and hogs ate off the cob which made it easier for those of us children who were responsible for shelling (?) that corn. We had a windmill and a large round redwood trough and it was always spilling over making a huge mud hole. One Saturday, our folks drove to Culberson, another nearby town, to trade butter and eggs for other necessities. My siblings and I stayed home and soon discovered that we could amuse ourselves by making mud balls and throwing them against the barn where they would stick. After they dried we got scared knowing that our parents would be very upset. We found a long pole and knocked them off but, much to our dismay, they left big dirty spots. We were really expecting to be in big trouble but to our surprise we only got a scolding.
One of my memories during those early years was when my mother made me a sugar sandwich (bread, butter and sugar). We went out to feed the chickens and a big rooster grabbed the sandwich away from me and mother got really mad.
One time we experienced a cyclone (editor's note as it was probably a tornado) and we could see it coming. Dad was cultivating corn so when he saw it he unhitched the team and put them in the barn then came to the house. Everyone had storm cellars in those parts and this was where we kept milk, butter, spuds, etc. We all rushed to the cellar and Dad stood up on the steps watching the storm. It wasn't long before he said that it seemed to be heading south and he thought that it was probably going to miss us. At hearing that, we all rushed back into the house so we could watch it also. Well, suddenly it changed directions and came straight toward us but it was too late to get back in the storm cellar. It didn't hit us directly, but the wind blew with such force that the adults held blankets against the glass door and windows to keep glass from blowing out. Dad was at the east window and when he saw tar paper and sod flying through the air he stated, "There goes the roof of some poor wretch's house!". He didn't realize that it was our house until the rain came pouring into the bedroom section of our house. It was a mess! We had to build a hot fire in the kitchen stove and dry out the bedding. I'll never forget that horrifying experience.
We enjoyed visiting Dad's cousin, Lige Beebe, who lived down on Red Willow Creek. I remember that one time while we were there some of the boys caught a snapping turtle and tied it to the screen door with a long cord. Our parents weren't happy with the boys who did that. We lived not far from Aunt Rilla Bowes, my Dad's only full sister. (I was named after her.) We lived up on what was known as the "divide" and there were many relatives living along the Red Willow Creek. Besides Lige Beebe, I remember visiting many of our mother's uncles; Jim Coyle, Bill Doyle, Dan Coyle and Uncle Thees. My Grandma Montgomery was a Doyle
In the late 1890s we traveled by covered wagon when we moved from Kansas to Nebraska. When we camped at night it was our job to gather up dried cow chips for the evening fire. We had a large grub box that we used as a seat in the wagon when traveling. I still remember the fried potatoes and salt pork that we used to eat on the trail.
When I was about 4 and Fern was about 7, Mother took the two of us to visit Grandma Montgomery. Grandpa Montgomery had already passed away at this time. Grandma lived on a small farm just south of Lincoln and near Uncle Dick Montgomery's ranch. The only thing that stands out in my mind is picking apples under a few trees along the road. Fern and I would take a little red bucket each afternoon and pick up those apples that had fallen on the ground. We would take them in and set them on an old-fashioned hand cranked washing machine on the back porch. We also visited one of Mother's older sisters, Aunt Alice Stricker. She had a large shady backyard and there was a swing with two seats facing each other. We could step on and off and play train conductor.
In the late 1800s the Laguna Lands Ltd, an English Syndicate, purchased all unsold land remaining in the Laguna de Tache Grant, a Mexican Land Grant to one Manuel Castro by the Governor Pico Pico in 1844. (Laguna means slough or swamps and Tache was the name of the largest Indian tribe living along the Rio del Rey (now the Kings River). In 1900, two delegates from the Bellville Kansas Brethren Church attended that National Conference at Hershey, Pennsylvania. The town of Laton had been laid out in about the late 1890s and the Land Company was anxious for more settlers. They had learned that the best way was to form colonies by nationalities or religious beliefs. N.C. Blanchard, one of the Land Agents, went to the Brethren Conference armed with pictures and a lot of literature describing the Laguna de Tache Grant.
In 1900, the urge was strong to go West. The delegates were impressed and returned with glowing reports, resulting in two members of the church going to Laton, California to see firsthand. Joshua and Caleb (need surnames) returned and reported that we could take (??) the land and it resulted in a colony of thirteen families being formed. There were 68 people in the group. Mr. Z.L. Conwell, another agent, went to Bellville to help in the arrangements. Those that owned farms sold them and those, like my folks who never owned land until coming to California, sold their livestock, farm implements, etc. When our family eventually arrived in Laton they had very little capital.
My folks were living in Nebraska but having been members of the Bellville Brethren Church they joined the colony. A special chartered train with day coaches and box cars brought along horses and farm tools. Rena Fike's family also did so. There was no hot food for three days and three nights. Uncle Chris Holsinger stood at the head of one coach and preached a long sermon on Sunday. The train made one stop at Ogden, Utah and everyone walked around the train to stretch their legs.
We arrived at the Lillis Station, about 2 miles west of Laton, on December 9, 1902. The Colony was housed in Laton and the surrounding areas until land could be purchased and houses constructed. Five of us children came west with our parents, James and Mary Vaughn, and siblings Erma (19), Fern (12), Owen (9), myself (7), and Lester (4 1/2). We first settled on Riverdale Avenue near the Camden Store which was about 6 miles west of Laton and adjoining Rena Fike's folks.
The first years were tough and sad. Dad did carpenter work to sustain the family and we lived in a two room board and bat house. We ate and cooked in one room and slept in the other. We bought a team of mules and a spring wagon from Judge Smith (the postmaster) and found a good milk cow. First the cow came fresh and died of milk fever then the coyotes ate her that night. The used to come around the house at night. Next our best mule died with distemper but the saddest thing of all was my sister Fern's death.
It came time for me to start school and it was a three mile walk to the Laguna school that had been built in about 1900.
John Holsinger owned ten acres and 1/4 mile from Grant School and there was a cook shack on this place. So during the week, Fern, Owen, and I stayed in the shack and attended Grant School. There was a well but it was a surface well and we did not know enough to boil the water. It wasn't long before Fern contracted Typhoid Fever and soon after passed away. She was only 15-years old. Dr. Walker and his wife came and stayed at our place for 3 days but could not save her.
We finally made a deal with the Land Company to trade the 20 acres on Riverdale Avenue for 10 acres of good land on Lewiston Avenue where brother Owen and his wife, Leanore, later lived. Here we accumulated a small dairy and were able to rent some pasture land from The Company. Dad still worked away from home doing carpenter work. We children had to milk the cows in the morning and at night and it was my job to wash the cream separator each morning and night. We did all this before we went to school. From here we only had 1 1/2 miles to walk to school.
I graduated from Laguna School in 1910 and attended Laton High School in the fall of 1910. I stayed in the home of Charley and Florence Camp, doing housework for my board and room. In my junior year I attended Lordsburg Academy, a Brethren Church School, eventually called Laverne College. When I was a senior, my brother Lester was a freshman, having stayed home one year to help on the farm. During my senior year we drove a horse and buggy 6-1/2 miles one way to school.
Not too long after graduating from Laton High School in 1914, I married Glenn Bailey. We lived for a short time in Mendota, California where Glenn drove a horse drawn oil tanker wagon, making deliveries to what few scattered ranches were there at the time. We also lived in Lemoore, California for a time where our first child was born. We had a girl and named her Velma Fern after my sister Fern who had died in died in 1905. Between Lester's junior and senior years at Laton High School, Glenn and his dad owned a big sandwich hay-baler. During the summer they traveled all over baling hay for farmers. It took 7 men to operate it. It took a feeder, hoe down forker, wire poker, wire tier spool tender, a bale buck (that was Lester) and Glenn kept the engine running. My brother Lester was also the cook in the cook shack.
My parents eventually acquired more land on Lewiston Avenue. Dad set out fruit trees; 3 kinds of apricots, 3 kinds of peaches, all ripening at different times so we could avoid having to hire help. Picking, cutting and drying occupied all of our summer.
CLICK HERE TO GO BACK TO LATON PIONEERS