Oklahoma

Where the wind goes sweeping down the plain

My family has deep roots in Oklahoma, that is, deep for the 21st century. My ancestors settled in Oklahoma during a federal land grab of the Cherokee Strip. My great-great grandfather James and his brother took fast horses from the Kansas border and claimed two adjacent quarter sections on the Cimarron River. That land did not stay in the family. Our current farm, just outside Stillwater, Payne County, Oklahoma became our ancestral home in 1933 through the virtue of my great-grandmother Maggie (Fortner) Hall's family. When my great-grandfather Lester Fayette Hall died, the land was divided between his off-spring. It has been further sub-divided over the years. Soon it will be chopped into smaller pieces and probably fall out of the family's possession. I'm familiar with every contour of that land's topology. The land can seem like another member of the family, who through years of familiarity, has become less important in the press of years.

Links:

1. Oklahoma Archives for the USGenWeb Project
2. Payne County -- maintained by William Arthur "Bill" Cook for the USGenWeb Project Oklahoma Archives [Austin, Fortner, Hall]
3. Major County [Hall]
4. The Cherokee Outlet -- by Betty Jo Gibson Scott

Oklahoma State University

Being natives of Stillwater, Oklahoma my family's connections to Oklahoma State University are extensive. I practically grew up on OSU's campus. During my formative years, both of my parents were enrolled at OSU. The corridors of Miller Hall were a second playground for me. Once I even kissed a girl in the Student Union (we were both 9 years old).

My great-grandfather, Lester Fayette Hall, while probably not an enrolled student, did further his knowledge of agriculture at Oklahoma A&M (as it was called then). According to oral family history, Lester even played baseball with the A&M team (he was a catcher). Neither of my grandparents attended college; their formal education ended at Stillwater High School.

My father and mother did go to college, though not first at OSU. They met while attending Central Bible College in McPherson, Kansas. My mother finished her bachelor's degree at OSU while my father worked on his master's.

[return to top of page]