Oklahoma Rocking

By TAPS. - About Me - E-mail this page - Add to My Favorites - Add to Blog List - See other blogs in Family & Parenting

Saturday, December 13, 2025

2. The War Was Over

It was over, but nothing was the same. Having seen an over-abundance of death and dying in the wake of the more than 3,200 battles and skirmishes fought in what was probably the most divided state in the Civil War, the Sanders brothers of Tennessee were ready to fight for life and living. They... Sign in to see full entry.

Friday, December 12, 2025

"King Cotton Reigns"

The State of Tennessee was the last State to leave the Union and join the Confederacy at the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. Tennessee furnished more soldiers for the Confederate Army than any other State and more soldiers for the Union Army than any other Southern State. The sons of James and... Sign in to see full entry.

Thursday, December 11, 2025

XI. Everything In Its Own Time

At the last years county fair Ivory had found himself a wife. She was a hard-working, sweet little thing and the family loved her. When they found themselves expecting a baby, they wanted a place of their own. They moved off to Roff in the Chickasaw Nation Indian Territory thirty miles from... Sign in to see full entry.

Wednesday, December 10, 2025

X. Freedom From Prejudice

The Simpsons, especially the three ladies, were feeling high, ecstatic from their feeling of freedom from the prejudice that they had lived with in Missouri for the last twenty years. Dora and Ollie had never felt that freedom from the shame of rejection that they had felt from their extended family... Sign in to see full entry.

Tuesday, December 9, 2025

IX. A Bit of Excitement

.....McAlester, Oklahoma was a lively town in 1899. It was a busy town, active, welcoming, friendly, helpful and the largest town in the Choctaw Nation, one of the Five Civilized Tribes of Oklahoma Indian Territory. When the Simpson family pulled their wagon train into McAlester, they intended a few... Sign in to see full entry.

Monday, December 8, 2025

VIII. On The Trail

The Oklahoma Land Run of 1893 and The Oklahoma Land Rush of 1898 began the disposal of Federal Public Land in Oklahoma and turned attention of those with "ants in their pants" to see what they could do, and go where they could go, and be what they could be. The year after the Land Rush, all of them... Sign in to see full entry.

VII. Time for Change

"I love to watch how the day, tired as it is, lags away reluctantly, and hates to be called yesterday so soon." ~Nathaniel Hawthorne -- 1851--"House of the Seven Gables" Mary had a hard life, John not so much. He worked hard, was a good husband, father and provider and to him life was good in the... Sign in to see full entry.

Sunday, December 7, 2025

VI. The Wedding

.....Mary and John met often, secretly and soon were determined to marry. John bought a small Ozark cabin in the hill country of Miller County outside of Etterville. He found work, and he and Mary eloped to Tuscumbia, the County Seat. Mary Wyrick Simpson thought her Grandmother Etter was... Sign in to see full entry.

V. Continuing Saga -- Etterville

Etterville, a tiny village in the Ozark Mountain wilderness of Missouri looked promising to John Simpson. It was named after the Etter family and everyone in it was named Etter, or married to one, or the progeny of one. There was one really big house that needed painting and repair and upkeep. In... Sign in to see full entry.

Saturday, December 6, 2025

IV. No End to Prejudice

John grew up with "The People". After a year or so, his father came no more and eventually "The People" received word that he had died in Lachine, Montreal. "The Métis" (the mixed-race person) as John was called did not talk a lot about his childhood to his grandson later. There was prejudice... Sign in to see full entry.

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