Aunt Oaksie

Aunt Oaksie was the next to the youngest daughter of Granmama and Grandad Gill.

1882 My Mama's Mother, Granma Hess was visiting Granmama Gill, my Dad's Mother.
Oaksie was her baby, just walking and getting into things. She was playing with her cat.
Granmama was churning, she stopped to go draw a fresh bucket of cold water.
Oaksie slid the top off the churn. She had her cat by the tail.
She started plunging him up and down---up and down--- into the churn.
Granma Hess got away from there as quick as she could--- Oh, she liked to tell that story.

The Ice cream Cone
1912 Aunt Oaksie, Mama and Etta were in town together. Etta was about five.
They bought her an ice cream cone. She was so tickled.
It was the first one that she ever had. They set her down on the steps outside to eat it.
A woman at the top of the steps, had on a stylish hobble skirt. She tripped and come
rolling down the steps. She knocked Etta down and her ice cream cone was smashed.
Etta--- she was bawling and squalling.

Aunt Oaksie wanted to whip the woman. Mama told her, "That won't do any good,"
The woman had a hard time getting up. Aunt Oaksie kept telling her how bad she was.
She left as fast as she could hobble.

Oaksie married well.
At sixteen, she and John Daniel was the biggest love couple.
His father was Lenox Russel Daniel, the first commissioner in Palo Pinto County.
His mother was Frances Elizabeth Edmonson, the daughter of Stith Edmonson, the
first sheriff of Palo Pinto County. She was real tall and part Indian
When she was older, she wouldn't leave her home except to go to church.
John Daniel had an uncle, Taylor Daniel, who was a judge in Stephenville, Texas.
The Gills and Daniels had grown up neighbors and were good friends.

Oaksie and John were married in 1894. Less then two years and their first child,
Fredda Mae, {Fred] was seven months old. She and John separated.
Oaksie brought Fred and stayed six weeks with Granmama.

One day a little boy just appeared at the house. He just stood around. They finally
asked him what he wanted. He said he was fishing in the creek and come up to the house
for a drink of water. He left after a while.
Granmama looked out, and saw the baby just settin' in the yard. Oaksie was nowhere around.
They later figured that the little boy had brought Oaksie a note from John.
So--- Oaksie and John were back together.
Granmama kept Fred from then on, and never asked any questions.

Matilda Abby [Tid] was their next child. She was named after Granddads sister, who
lived in Alabama. She had earaches like me, and was kinda deaf, but not as bad as me.

Tid's, Daniel grandparents lived closer to school.
From the first grade on, Tid stayed with them all the time.
The teacher would take cute little Tid up in her arms and make her the smartest one.

Fred and Tid loved their grandparents and no one thought anything about them living with them.
Their last two children were LM, (Lenox Marshal), [named after both his grandads] and
Alex who was named after his Mothers brother, who died with the earache.

John was jealous of Oaksie, he watched her. She was careful not to speak to any man.

Indian Treasure
The Brazos River run behind our two big barns. There were high steep bluffs with big rocks
along the river. Some of the big rocks, have Indian figures and writings on them.
Lots of Y X N and V's. Lots of people have been interested in them.

"The Spaniards running from the Indians, with pack mules of treasure, burying it."
"Indians hiding what they took back, and marking where they buried it."
Gold and silver was always in 'them old tales'---A fortune, for the finding---
Dad was always right in for it, "Come on and dig" He would stand around and talk.

1908 John Daniel and Aunt Oaksie were visiting us.
Dad had bought the big Hittson ranch, two years before.
John and others were digging for gold under some of the Indian writing.
Mama always cooked dinner for everybody, Aunt Oaksie helped her.

Then she asked Mama, "Have you got some old pot and dishes that I can bury?"
Mama sent her to the trash pile, and she found just what she wanted.
Oaksie asked my brother Cam if he would go and help her. The men ate dinner.
Oaksie and Cam hurried up to the barns and down the bluff.
They buried the pot and broken dishes, at the place they were digging.

The men set around, after their big dinner and decided not to dig any more
The bank has since slid off, and the ground is level. Lots of digging has been done since,
just not right there---The pot and dishes are still waiting.
Aunt Oaksie was just as full of the devil as anybody----any thing for fun.

Cotton Picking
"Once, at cotton-picking time, John Daniel asked me and Cam to come and pick cotton
with them. It was the only time I ever spent the night with Aunt Oaksie.
Oh, we had cotton to pick at home. Dad would bring a crew to our house and they would
camp and pick all we had. That was before us kids got big enough to do most of the picking.
I remember that we all had a good time that week."

Fred lived with Granmama. She had to go to her parent's house every spring, for two
weeks to hoe cotton, and every fall for two weeks to pick cotton. She did not want to go.
I saw her lay on the floor and kick and scream, "I'm going to kill myself!"
Granmama told her that she had to go, and in two weeks she would come and get her.
And she always did.

Tid had to come for those two weeks too.
Tid was quieter and got along with her Father better. Fred would speak up to him.
I heard him tell her, "If you don't pick faster, I'll whip you."

JULY 24, 1916--- STARTED OUT A BEAUTIFUL SUNNY DAY
Granmama and Fred started early. They were going to spend the day at our house.
We had bought the big Hittson ranch, in the Hittson bend of the Brazos River.
The river was down and they crossed Oaks Crossing in their buggy.

Mama started dinner early. I couldn't cook, because I always took care of the babies.
Mama could turn off work faster, when we weren't trying to help her.
She wanted to spend all the time that she could, sewing for Fred. Granmama' eyes were
bad and she didn't sew much---- besides make pillowcases and sheets.

Fred had something new, that she wanted to show us. Granmama had sent off and got
some 'Cupie Doll' patterns, to be embroidered on cup towels. 'Church on Sunday',
'Wash on Monday', 'Iron on Tuesday'--(I have them if you want a copy, Anne Louise Moore)

Gran Ma Hess, Mama's Mother, was there. Ludie (Rip) was 4 and Sis (Etta) was 9,
Hanner 12, Black14, Dock17, Cam18 and I was 20, the same age as Fred.

Granmama and Fred got to our house, Fred jumped out and helped Granmama.
We were all out in the yard, glad to see them.
Dad got in the buggy with Fred and they drove up to the barn. Dad unhitched Old Coot.

The phone rang, Mama answered. A woman asked for, "Mr. Gill".
She come out and asked Granmama.
She said, "Tell her that he went to town, she might try Howard and Whites Hardware."
Mama hung up. It rang again in a minute, and a man said he had to get hold of Mr. Gill.
Mama said, "He is in town, Mrs. Gill is here."

[Anne Gill, 20 did not ever remember any more of this--- ever.
She told a very shortened story--- I read what she had told me, to Aunt Etta.
She said, "No! That’s not the way it was. I'll tell you how it was".
Etta was 9 and Ludie was 4. It's as vivid to them now as it was 83 years ago.
They remember every detail. Anne Louise Moore, written in 1999]

The man on the phone said, "John Daniel shot Oaksie and killed her."

Mama, turned out the door and repeated it to Granmama.
Granmama told her,
"Get back on the phone and find Grandad--- John had threatened to kill him."

Mama did and----- "John killed his self too."

Granmama and Gran Ma Hess both throwed their hands up and screamed.
Dad and Fred were walking back from the barn and heard them. They come running.

"John shot Oaksie"

Etta especially remembers, Fred kneeling and praying, then Fred screamed.
(Our Aunt Oaksie and Uncle John, they were Fred's, Mama and Daddy)

Ludie remembers how high Granmama jumped--straight up. (Oaksie was her daughter.)
Ludie can't forget her Dad's whirling break, to get into the house and get his gun.
"I'll go kill him."
They told him," You won't have to, he shot his self."
And then Dad screamed. (Aunt Oaksie was his sister.)

The Glidewell family lived three miles up, across the river, over in Blue Pond.
They heard the screaming.
Dad hitched Old Coot back up to the buggy.
They rushed back over the river, to John and Oaksie's home.

JULY 24, 1916
Oaksie cooked breakfast for her family, husband John and sons, LM 14 and Alex 11.
She made the beds and had a churning to do. It was pleasant outside, so she set the
churn in the shade, out the back door. She set and churned, up and down, up and down.
She had on her pretty little blue earrings.

John told LM and Alex ,"Go tell your Uncle Walter that I am going to shoot myself.".
Then he cut the telephone wires to their house.
Oaksie said, "If you are going to shoot yourself---shoot me too."

LM and Alex jumped on a horse and rushed as fast as they could.
Before they got there, they heard a shot---- Rushing back--- another shot.
John had put the shotgun in the fork of a tree and pulled a string that he had tied onto the
trigger.---------

Hours later---Lenox Daniel, John's father, told Grandad Gill,
"The hearse that I called for, from town, is here. Let's put them in together."
Grandad said, "We'll get our own hearse. We'll take care of Oaksie.
You take care of John, and don't you bring him across the river."

Feelings were starting to run pretty high already. That helped stop it
She was buried in the Hittson graveyard, across the river.
The Hittson was in our pasture, a quarter mile from our house and from Oaks Crossing.
He was buried in the Sturdivant grave yard.

JULY 24, 1916 started out a beautiful day.
Vern and Rosie Hudman were the closest neighbors of John and Oaksie Daniel.
Opal (she told this version) was about the same age as LM,
There were three younger children. Rosie made butter to sell, like Oaksie did.
Verne was at his fruit stand to sell the peaches they raised. He sold her butter there too.

Rosie was sitting in her kitchen door churning.
She was looking out the back door, toward the little way to the Daniel's house.

Suddenly!!----Clara, Walter Daniel's wife, was coming-- Fast!- Frantic!- "In Fits"
Rosie cried, "Oh, I bet those two boys have drown in that pond."

Clara couldn't talk and motioned that she wanted to use the phone------Then they knew.
They all went over to the Daniels' house. They stayed under a tree in the front yard.
John was at the side of the house. Oaksie was just out the kitchen door.
They had sheets spread over them.
By then, others were coming in. Tid come rushing through the house and out the back door.
She nearly stepped on her Mother.

Uncle George Hess, Mama's brother, was their neighbor in the other direction.
He heard the shots and didn't pay any attention to them.
But he rushed over when he heard the screaming.

After everyone left the house; Uncle George and Vern Hudman cleaned
the splatters from the outside walls.
They never did find her other pretty little blue earring.
While they were doing that---Opal's Dad, had her to wash the breakfast dishes.
She didn't like being in that house alone.

---July 23, the day before, Oaksie took her butter to town to sell.
My Dad, (Mote Gill, her brother), come along and asked her to go in the café and eat with
him. Opal's Dad, Verne Hudman and some other neighbor men said that
John Daniel saw Oaksie eating with her brother. They said he acted real jealous.

Hudmon's went to Oaksie's funeral, they did not go to John's.
Mote Gill and his family went to both funerals.
Granmama and Grandad did not go to John's funeral because they were not physically
able to go. They did not blame the Daniel's family.
John's parents were not able to go to Oaksie's funeral.

Fred already lived with Granmama and Grandad. Alex come to live with them.
Tid already lived with her Daniel grandparents. LM moved in with them.

Copyright © 2004-2005 by Anne Louise Moore - All rights reserved.