Blackford Children in the 20's

This picture was probably taken in the Fall of 1921. Alvin (Tex) was about six months old and he was born in April, 1921. Notice all the boys in their standard issue overalls. As I think about it, my dad spent a large number of his days on earth in a pair of overalls. As a carpenter for most of his adult life, he wore them to work every day. I can remember hanging out overalls on the clothes line and how they smelled like sawdust before shaking them to put them in the laundry. After my dad died, the one piece of clothing of his I couldn't give away was his overalls.

These are the Blackford children right around 1920. Opal, who was born in 1919 looks about a year old. The boys, left to right, are Clarence(Charlie), Raymond, and Chester.

Back to Texas- The 20's

Jess and Minnie and now four children were back in Texas by the early 20's. These two pictures show them with their children. Alvin is the baby and he was born in Big Springs on April 20, 1921. The backsides of each picture are also shown. Notice the spellings of the children's names are different. Do you think the handwriting is the same?
Last week I was talking by phone to my Aunt Opal, born in 1919. We were talking about Nettie, Grandpa's mother. She said Grandpa didn't "approve" of her. Shortly before Granny and Grandpa moved back to Texas, she "showed up" in Ardmore. Actually, she had been living there for a while but didn't realized her first son, Jess, lived there too. Once she discovered, she made her presence known to Jess. Opal said Jess had three houses he had built there in Ardmore by that time, one he lived in and two he rented. Opal said she knew that he had sold them as quickly as he could to go to Texas in order not to be around Nettie.
Another of my Uncles, Roland, told me in an email that he remembers hearing that Grandpa sold Maytag washers in Big Spring.

Jess, Minnie, Raymond, and Chester in 1914

Up to Oklahoma!

Some time between 1912 when Raymond was born and 1914 when their next son, Chester, was born, Minnie and Jess moved to Ardmore, Oklahoma, 350 miles from Vincent, Texas. Oklahoma had been a state less than ten years at that time, becoming the 46th state on November 16, 1907. (For a quick thumbnail history of Oklahoma, go to: http://www.state.ok.us/osfdocs/stinfo2.html) Oklahoma was still a rough and tumble place at that time. In the summer of 1963 Grandpa accompanied us on a trip to Ardmore, Oklahoma. As we drove through the town Grandpa was pointing out sites to us. I remember him saying, "There's where I lay down in the street to keep from being shot by two men who were in a gunfight."

It is clear, though, that there was plenty of work for Grandpa to do. He was working as a carpenter in 1917 according to his World War I Draft Registration Card that I found on Ancestry.com.

Click on the image to see a larger view. I can also tell you what was written on it. Name: Jessie Smith Blackford, Age:29, date of birth: July 5, 1888(still giving himself an extra four years of age), Address: can't read number, Moor Street, Ardmore, Oklahoma; Where born: can't read name of town, state, Arkansas, country, United States. Occupation: Carpenter, By whom employed: Charley Willey(brother in law of Minnie and his own step-cousin, but that's another story), Where employed: Ardmore, Oklahoma. The next line asks "Have you a father, mother, or wife, children under 12 or a sister or brother under 12 soley dependent on your support (specify which)?" Jess wrote: Wife and 3 children. The next question on the card asks "Do you claim an exemption from draft? (specify grounds) He wrote: Wife and 3 children.
On the adjoining side of the draft card is the Registrar's Report. In section one are these categories to fill out followed by what he wrote. Tall, Medium or short- Medium; Slender, Medium or Stout- Medium. In section two: Color of eyes - blue; color of hair - light; Bald- No. The card was signed by A.F. Cisco, registrar on 6-5-17 in Precinct 9 in Ardmore, Oklahoma.
Raymond had been born in 1912, Chester in 1914 and Clarence in 1916. That accounts for the three children in 1917. From the draft card we also can see that Minnie and Jess were living near other family, Minnie's sister, Maggie who was married to Charles Willey, Jess's half 1st cousin. Charles Willey was the son James Willey, the son of Martha Jane by her first husband, Edward Willey. The mother of Jess's father, Nathan, was also Martha Jane by her second husband, William Carl Blackford. To put it another way, Jess and Charles had the same grandmother, but different grandfathers. At some point, when I don't know, Minnie's parents also moved to Ardmore, Oklahoma.

Raymond Blackford: About 2-3 Years Old and Close up of Baby Picture

Minnie and Jess - The Early Years of Their Marriage

Minnie and Jess began their marriage in Vincent, Texas. From what I heard, money was very scarce for most people during those years, but Jess was always known as a man who worked hard for his family. Their first baby, a daughter, was born in 1911. I don't know her name but I know Grandpa never forgot her. I first heard about her in the Fall of 1962. The husband of one of Jess and Minnie's daughters had died in Midland and my mother, dad and I had taken Grandpa(Jess)to his funeral. Granny(Minnie) had only been gone a little over a year at that time and Grandpa had taken her death really hard. We had begun our trip back home to Abilene from Midland. It was late in the day, there was a chill in the air and our moods were somber. Somewhere between Stanton and Big Springs Grandpa told Daddy (Raymond) to turn off the highway. We began following a series of directions given by Grandpa. "Turn here, turn there, follow that fence line." We wound up in a pasture. No kidding, we were driving in a pasture in the middle of nowhere when we stopped near a small, long deserted graveyard. Grandpa didn't say anything. He just got out of the car and walked straight to a spot where he kneeled down on one knee and began pulling the weeds from a tiny grave. When I asked what was going on I learned that Daddy had had an older sister and that was her grave. I learned something else that day also. I learned how some events are burned so deeply into a person's memory that those memories can come to visit as though the person was still in the day they occurred.

On August 20, 1912, Minnie and Jess had their first son, Archie Raymond. He was fond of saying that he had been born in the back of a wagon on the Colorado River. His is the baby picture on this posting.

Wedding Picture 1910

Recently I was looking through a cigar box that my dad had kept with cards and letters that were important to him. After he died, my sister, Royce, kept it. If I had ever seen the contents, I do not remember it. About eight years after Royce died (in 1995) the box came into my possession with a number of other similar items. I had never gone through them, piece by piece, until just the other day. I was absolutely surprised to find this picture. I believe it was taken in 1910 on or close to the wedding day of Jesse Smith Blackford and Minnie Lee Jones Blackford.

Jessie Smith Blackford 1892 - 1976

If you are wondering if you had any colorful, dynamic, larger than life ancestors, I’m here to introduce you to one! Meet Jessie Smith Blackford! He was a man of action, a force with which to be reckoned. Born on the 5th of July, he wasn’t a day late or a dollar short: he was a real firecracker!

His mother, Nettie, was always described as a strikingly beautiful blonde woman that clearly wasn’t too interested in settling down. His father, Nathan, as the story goes, came back to check on Jess after his marriage with Nettie had ended. He found Jess not being cared for in a manner he found suitable, so he swooped Jess up and rode off with him. (I love that “swoopin’” part!) In the 1900 Census taken on June 22, Jess is shown in Horsehead, Johnson County, Arkansas (which is less than 20 miles north of Clarksville, Arkansas) as a seven year old, a couple of weeks shy of his eighth birthday. He lived with his father Nathan, step-mother Ethel, and a baby step-brother, Carl, one year old. By the 1910 Census, Jess no longer lived at home. The family story is that Jess and Ethel were sort of like oil and water and that by the time Jess was thirteen, he was on his own. It is said that during those years he worked as a saloon sweeper, as a stable boy, and as a cook’s helper on a cattle drive. In the 1910 Census, there is a Jessie Smith Blackford working as a trainer for race horses in Okemah, Okfuskee County, Oklahoma. (Remember, Nathan his father, was in the same county by 1920) Interestingly enough, although all the markers are correct to make this our Jessie (his correct birth place, correct full name, correct birth place of his father), his birth year is shown as 1888. I saw his birth year listed again as 1888 on his World War I Draft Registration card. My guess is that if you leave home at 13, it’s much easier to get work if you tell people you’re 17 than 13 and if it gets down to it, you decide 1888 was a good birth year a you stick with it for several years.

By July of 1910 Jess had come to Texas! Once I asked my dad why Grandpa (Jess) came to Texas. He said Grandpa was living up in Oklahoma and had gone to a barn dance. He and another man got into a fight. The fight was so bad that Jess thought he had killed the man. Those close to Jess at the time advised him that leaving the area would be a wise idea and told him about some of their family out in West Texas he might find. After telling me this story, my dad put his feet up on the porch rail where we were sitting and slowly, matter of factly said, “So, I guess you could say he came to Texas for his health.”

Another family story I’ve been told has to do with this time in Jess’ life. The story goes that Jess was told to get off at a certain train stop in Texas and walk due north for a certain number of miles and there he would find the farm of a family where he might find work and stay. It was said that the grass in that part of Texas was waist high as far as you could see. He walked North and came to a farm where lived the prettiest dark haired, dark eyed girl he had ever met and he loved her from that day on. So, who was that girl?

In the 1910 Census, a man named Jeptha Lorenza Dow Jones is shown living in Borden County, Texas with his wife Mandy (Amanda Simpson Jones) and their eight children ranging from Edna, 25, to Robert, 2. Borden County is just North of Howard County where Big Spring, Texas is located. From various stories I’ve heard over the years, I think they lived North of Vincent, Texas which is about twenty miles Northeast from Big Spring close to the border of Howard and Borden Counties. The Colorado River runs through that area. Among those eight children of the Jones, there happened to be another daughter, 19 years old at the time, named Minnie Lee Jones. She was the beautiful girl he loved. If Jess was the firecracker, then she was the dove. Jess had blond hair and sky blue eyes. Minnie had black hair and dark eyes. Jess was a live wire and Minnie had a gentle, quiet spirit. It must have been a case of opposites attract because they were married on July 27, 1910 in Vincent, Texas.

Nathan Blackford - 1900 to 1936

In the Twelfth Census of the United States on June 22, 1900, Nathan was on his own living with his wife, Ethel and sons Jessie S. and Carl A. in Dist. 37, Horsehead, Johnson Co., Arkansas. His parents William and Mary Jane were in District 40, King, Johnson Co., Arkansas. Nathan’s occupation was listed as farmer.

[Side note: I was hoping to find those locations to see how close Nathan lived to his father and mother in 1900. On my trusty Mapquest.com, I am unable to find either Horsehead or King, Arkansas. Perhaps we could find District 37 and 40 in Johnson County to determine their proximity, but at any rate, I expect they were within a few miles of each other.]

District 148 in Springdale, Washington County, Arkansas was where Nathan and his family lived at the time of the 1910 Census. Springdale is 67 miles North of Ft. Smith and 100 miles Northwest of Clarksville. By that time, Jess no longer lived at home, but Ethel and Nathan had four children. The children were Angus, 11, Silas, 9, Buster 5, and Paul 2. Nathan’s occupation was listed as farm laborer on a fruit farm.

By 1918 Nathan and family had moved to Paden, Oklahoma. Carl Angus Blackford, age 20 at the time, completed a World War I Draft Registration Card and listed N.T. Blackford as his parent living in Paden. The 1920 Census shows Nathan and family in Dist. 21 of Paden, Okfuskee County, Oklahoma. Paden is 126 miles due West (young man) from Ft. Smith, Arkansas. His sixth and last child, Ruby, was 8 by then, and Angus, Silas, Buster and Paul were all still at home. Nathan worked as a clerk in a store in 1920.

Paden, Oklahoma had a population of 446 persons in the 2000 Census. From the listings on the Internet, it appears to be a typical small town. It’s so “due West” from Ft. Smith and “due East” (about 53 miles) of Oklahoma City one would wonder if it had been a stop on a railroad line. One could guess that Nathan and family bought a ticket on the railroad and Paden was the furthest West they could afford. They got off and Nathan got a job. Remember, those are just guesses on my part.

Sixty-one years old and still in Paden, Nathan worked as a laborer in 1930. Only two of his children were still living at home, Paul 21 whose occupation was mail carrier and Ruby, 18. Ethel was still alive then, too.

By 1936 Nathan lived in San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas because it was here that he died. I know that his son, Paul, worked at the Pearl Brewery in San Antonio. My father, Raymond Blackford, told me that his Grandpa Blackford (Nathan) used to love to spend time sitting at the San Antonio Zoo in his last years. The San Antonio Zoo is within walking distance from the site of the former Pearl Brewery. I expect he lived close to it. I’ve often thought of Nathan when I have visited that zoo over the last thirty-one years I’ve lived in San Antonio. I’ve wondered the zoo’s location in the early ‘30’s and which parts were built by then. I’ve always had a particular bench in the present zoo at which I pictured Nathan sitting. In looking at the history of the San Antonio Zoo, I noticed the following quote: “In November 1929, two of the first cageless exhibits in America--the Barless Bear Terraces and the Primate Paradise--opened, offering visitors unprecedented views of animals.” The Barless Bear Terraces are still there, and the bench I always thought would have been Nathan’s turns out to be by, you guessed it, the Barless Bear Terraces.

Nathan is buried at the Mission Park South Cemetery at 1700 S.E. Military Drive, San Antonio, Texas. Years ago, my dad and I visited his grave there. It’s in a beautiful, shady area not far from the San Antonio River.

The Life and Times of Nathan Blackford Prior to 1900

Nathan Blackford
1869 - 1936

Nathan Blackford represents the generation furthest back of the Blackfords for which I have a picture. Born in Illinois, he married Nettie Mae West Smith in Ft. Smith, Arkansas. Their marriage resulted in only one son, Jessie Smith Blackford. Our cousin, Eunita, tells a wonderful family story about Nathan. She said he had gone to check on Jessie’s situation after Nettie’s and his marriage had ended. He found Jess was not being cared for in the manner he wanted for his son. As the story goes, he swooped Jess up onto his horse and rode away with him. Clearly that suited all involved because Jess lived with his father, step mother and their children thereafter. At age thirteen, Jess left that home, but that’s a story for later in these chronicles. So is the story of Nettie!

In the 1870 Census, Nathan is a two year old living with his parents William and Martha Jane in Mt. Erie, Wayne Co., Illinois. His father was farming and his real estate was valued at $1200 and his personal belongs, at $620. I would say they were financially comfortable but not wealthy. He had an older brother, William R. who was eleven, an older sister, Amelia J., ten, and twin younger siblings, Ada and Edward who were six months old.

The next hop takes us from Mt. Erie, Illinois to Spadra (near Clarksville) Arkansas. How the Blackfords traveled is not known to me, but I would assume covered wagon. It’s 522.62 miles from Mt. Erie, Illinois to Clarksville, Arkansas. I heard once that the covered wagons would cover about 12 miles per day. At that rate it would have taken the family 43 and a half days to make that trip. So I guess if they started early one morning, about six weeks later, they would have arrived ….about noon. There were at least five children and maybe more by then. Can you imagine how many times Martha had to answer the question “Are we there yet?”

In the 1880 Census, Nathan was living with his parents William and Martha Jane in Spadra, Johnson Co., Arkansas, District 92. Nathan was eleven, but already he had an occupation listed, farming, the same as his father’s. The following is a brief history of the area in Arkansas where Nathan lived.

Brief History of Johnson County
A history of Johnson County by Lillian Mickel
Johnson County was created from a portion of Pope County, by the Act of November 16, 1833, and was named Johnson honoring the first Territorial Judge of Arkansas, Judge Benjamin Johnson. The Act creating the County, directed the temporary seat of justice should be held at the home of Elijah Alston, one of the pioneers of the County and whose home was at the Spadra Boat Landing.
In 1836 the County Seat was established here, after Mr. Josiah Cravens offered 1/4 mile square on Spadra Creek free to the Commissioners if they would locate the County Seat here. Clarksville was named honoring Lorenzo N. Clark another large land owner of the County, and one of the Commissioners who was chosen to locate the County Seat.

As early as 1828 there were a few white settlers here and still some Indians. The river boat landings at Spadra Bluff, Morrisons Bluff and Pittsburg Landings were the main river landings in our County. Those who came on barges, had to land at one or the other of these places. Numerous wagon trains from Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Kentucky brought many of our early settlers. They were all looking for good farm land and plenty of water.

Johnson County covers 700 square miles, there are five incorporated towns in our County, our population is 18,221 and Clarksville's population is 5,833. The first blind school in the state was organized here in Clarksville; also the first deaf-mute school was here in 1850. Clarksville was incorporated December 21, 1848. The College of the Ozarks originated in Cane Hill, Arkansas, Washington County in 1834, was chartered in 1852, then was moved to Clarksville in 1891.

Our first Spadra Creek Bridge was built in 1852, the same location has been used for every bridge that has been built ascending east hill, on east main street, as have the same locations been used for the Court House as the first one built in 1838, and every Methodist Church since the first one built in 1843, has been built in the same location. The College of the Ozarks School of Pharmacy in 1946 was the first in the State.

The first free delivery of rural mail in Arkansas was begun in Johnson County in 1896. We've had one or more banks in Clarksville since 1901. The first Educational Association organized in the State was organized in Clarksville, April 12, 1869, and was incorporated on February 23, 1881.

Many Indian signs can be found over the county. One called "the Rock House" is a cove of red sandstone. On the walls are many figures of turtles, lizards, and other reptiles. Other places too numerous to mention have turned up arrow heads and Indian relics.

There is no region of this state where the towering ranges of the Ozarks loom up more majestically. The Boston and Mulberry mountains traverse the northern areas of the county to the Arkansas River. The Mountains afford the widest and loveliest prospects it is possible to conceive.

This above information came from the following internet address:

http://www.oklahoma.net/~pvtspark/history.html


We are unable to determine where Nathan was living in 1890 because most of the 1890 records were destroyed by a fire at the Commerce Department in Washington, DC on 10 January 1921. The surviving fragments consists of 1,233 pages or pieces, including enumerations for Alabama, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, South Dakota, and Texas. The records o f only 6,160 of the 62,979,766 people enumerated survived the fire. The original 1890 census enumerated people differently than ever before that time. Each family was enumerated on a separate sheet of paper. 1890 was the only year this was done. [This information comes from Loretto Dennis Szucs and Sandra Hargreaves Luebking, eds. "Research in Census Records." The Source: A Guidebook of American Genealogy, rev. ed. Ancestry, Inc.: Salt Lake City, 1997.]

We do know, however, in 1891 he was married to Nettie in Pope County, Arkansas and that in 1892, Jessie Smith Blackford was born in Ft. Smith, Sebastian Co., Arkansas. Pope County is the county bordering Johnson County on the East side. So it seems Nathan and Nettie married near the area where Nathan had lived ten years earlier. It is interesting to note, however, that by the time Jessie was born, at least Nettie was living in Ft. Smith, Arkansas. The Ft. Smith City Birth Records from 1892 show no Blackford baby born, but a “Smith” without a first name. The site states, however, “Many local births were never recorded.” Ft. Smith is about sixty miles West from the area in which Nettie and Nathan were married. From many accounts, Ft. Smith was a lot more exciting than rural Arkansas. The following is a thumbnail sketch from the Ft. Smith Museum of History site:
From the founding of the first Fort in 1817, through westward expansion, the Civil War and the Gay Nineties, the remarkable stories of this roaring frontier city are told in fascinating exhibits and programs. Fort Smith was the point of departure for pioneers, peacekeepers and outlaws by horse, steamboat and rail.
http://www.fortsmithmuseum.com/
At www.fortsmith.org/ there is the following description of Ft. Smith:
Welcome to Fort Smith, Arkansas - an exciting travel destination that uniquely combines the history of the wild and wooly "Old West" with the gentle charm of the antebellum "Old South".
The best site I found for getting a flavor of Ft. Smith is the “Ft. Smith Minutes – Sketches from the History of Ft. Smith” on the Ft. Smith National Historic Site (National Parks Service)
http://www.nps.gov/fosm/history/radio/index.htm

Nathan Blackford and 2nd Wife Ethel