Letter written by Nora Hasseltine (Winfrey) Crews to her nephew, James C. Winfrey

24 December 1975

 

Dad and Mother were married February 2, 1885 in Carroll County, Missouri, bringing into this world 10 children of whom only 7 grew to adulthood.  Their 2^nd child, a little girl, Virgie Lee, died October 11, 1889 at the age of 13 months.  Although I was only 4 years old I can remember when my little 2 year old brother died of scarlet fever January 9, 1902.  Another baby boy was born October 13, 1902 and died December 17, 1902.

 

Soon after this, Dad got a yen to move to Kansas so he made a trip by train to Atwood, where his brother, Lee, was pastor of the Baptist church.  While there he rented a farm near Atwood and we moved to Kansas in March 1905.

 

In 1906 Dad went to Colorado and filed on a homestead and was soon informed that his claim had been approved.  So in March of 1907, Dad, Mother, and six kids ranging in age from 16 years to 3 months, (Jimmie [the eldest] remained in Atwood where he had to work) loaded up our belongings and started our 3 day trek to Colorado in a caravan of 3 vehicles.  Dad and Ed led the way in a wagon with sideboards loaded with farm tools and machinery, followed by Oscar and I in a hayrack loaded with our furniture, straw ticks, feather beds, etc., while Mother, Grace, Hurley and baby Mildred brought up the rear in a one horse top buggy.

 

We spent our second night out with an old bachelor where we made our first acquaintance with the prairie dweller’s heating fuel, the lowly cow chip, which we grew to learn more about later.  I think this good man had an idea, as he just backed the wagon of chips up to the kitchen window and dumped them in the corner of the kitchen.

 

The 3^rd day we got within a few miles of our destination when it began to snow, darkness was upon us and the baby had cried most of the day so Dad drove into a farm yard.  These good people, the Haywards, who were to be our neighbors later, took us in for the night even though they already had an overcrowded house.

 

The next morning we journeyed on to what was to be our home for the next three years, a hole in a bank 36x16 ft with a roof over it.  All one room, but it did have a board floor which not many of the pioneer homes had at that time.  Dad had come out earlier and erected this crude abode.

 

In a short time we were settled and Dad soon got a job at the Cook Ranch at $25.00 a month and we 4 older kids started to school, walking the 3 miles to the old sod school house.

 

The next summer Dad and the boys put in a partition and built on a sod room, quite an improvement even though we had to go outside to get into it.

 

One of the highlights of my childhood on the homestead was when Mother and us kids hitched up a team to the wagon, threw in our bags and baskets and drove to the Cook Ranch to gather our winter’s fuel.  We went after a load every day until we got enough to last all winter which took a huge pile as they burned up almost as fast as one could put them on the fire and we carried out as many ashes as we carried in cow chips.  When they got wet----no problem, we just put them in the oven with the biscuits to dry out.

 

We didn’t have much of a variety to eat, but we didn’t go hungry.  Our daily menu was potatoes & gravy, beans, biscuits, dried fruit, and Karo syrup.

 

At the end of 3 years, in 1910, Dad proved up on the homestead.  (If I remember correctly one had to pay something to prove up in 3 years, but if you stayed 5 years it didn’t cost anything.)  We went back to Atwood and stayed maybe 9 months then back to Colorado where we remained.

 

I can remember 10 moves in 14 years, but in all our moving around I only went to 4 different schools.  One teacher taught all 8 grades with pupils ranging in age from 6 to 22 years.  Usually six month terms.  Our teachers didn’t bother to give us tests or promote us so we promoted ourselves.  When we got to the eight grade we started at the beginning of our books each year for about six years, never getting any farther than half way through, so we didn’t have to study and had fun playing games and sometimes dancing at noons and recesses and there wasn’t anything to do at home so we kept going to school until we were old enough to get married, and I got married the day school was out.

 

When we moved out of the dugout, your Dad [Jimmie] took it for a barn.

 

Aunt Nora

JIMMIE & JESSIE WINFREY
(Biographical Sketch by their eldest son, James Clifton Winfrey)

James Warren Winfrey "Jimmie", the oldest child of John Robinson and Anetta "Nettie" (Hardwick) Winfrey was born in a log cabin 6 miles east of Carrollton, Missouri, on November 21, 1885. He received most of his grammar school education in Carroll County and attended one semester at William Jewell College at Liberty, Missouri in 1904. He accepted the Lord as his Saviour in 1902 during a revival meeting at the Wakenda, Missouri Baptist Church.

In 1905 his father sold their farm, had a sale to dispose of the livestock and some personal belongings, loaded the rest into a box car, and the family, Jimmie included, headed west for Kansas. They arrived at Atwood, Kansas on March 3, 1905 and moved to a farm John had rented. John soon homesteaded about 70 miles west of Atwood in Colorado.

Early in 1907 Jimmie homesteaded 142 acres which bordered his father's farm to the west. His homestead entry No. 4868 and the legal description was Lots 3 and 4 and N ½ of SW ¼ Sec. 33 Township 5 ½ S R43 W. This land was in Yuma County at the time, but a later survey in 1910 moved the county line to the north border of his homestead, thus placing his land in Kit Carson County. He built a small 3 room sod house on his claim less than 300 yards from his parents dugout so he could use his father's well and barn.

The following year, Jimmie got a job at the Cook Ranch 3 miles north of his claim. That ranch is now covered by the Bonny Reservoir. It was there that he met Jessie Mae Biggs, a young lady who was helping Mrs. Myrtle Buraker with the cooking for the ranch hands. Jimmie said he though she was the prettiest girl he had ever seen and the one he would like to marry. She must have shared his feelings as on October 31, 1908 they drove to Burlington with a team and buggy and were married by the Rev. C. A. Yersin.

Jessie Mae was born in a sod house on the Cook Ranch 3 miles west of Hale, Colorado on June 16, 1890, the only child of Jessie Grant Biggs and Lillian E. (Taylor) Biggs. Both of her grandfathers were veterans of the Union Army in the Civil War.

Shortly after they were married they went to Atwood and got a job shucking corn. They both worked and by Christmas had accumulated enough money to start farming their land, so they returned to their homestead. They lived in the sod house for 7 years and the first 3 of their 9 children were born there.

In February 1909 the Homestead Act was liberalized to allow people in this area to homestead 320 acres instead of the original 160 acres. Jimmie was fortunate that there was 160 acres bordering him on the west that had been abandoned so he filed on it immediately. Legal description was SE ¼ Sec. 32 T5 ½ S R43 W.

In 1912 during a revival meeting at the Hale School House, Jessie accepted the Lord as her Saviour. In 1915 Jimmie built a new 5 room frame house 26 ft by 28 ft with a cellar underneath just ½ mile west of the soddy, had a well dug and put up a new windmill and on November 21, 1915, which was Jimmie's 30th birthday, they moved into the new house. The other six children were born there.

Jimmie and his parents had always been church going people while in Missouri so they missed this association very much for there wasn't a church within 10 miles of them in any direction, so in 1916 they managed to get a young Baptist preacher, Rev. E. M. Ayers from Alma, Nebraska to come to the Hale School House for a series of meetings. Meetings were held for 12 nights and 18 people accepted Christ. They decided to try to organize a Baptist Church so they called a meeting to be held at the home of John Winfrey on February 18, 1916. Those present were Rev. Ayers, John and Nettie Winfrey, Jimmie and Jessie Winfrey, and Ed Winfrey (Jimmie's brother). It was decided to organize as the Liberty Baptist Church. Rev. Ayers stayed on for a year during which time meetings were held at various school houses; Happy Hollow, Pleasant Hill, Beaver Valley and Plain View and during that year 32 more persons accepted Christ. They first had church and Sunday school in the Hale school and then eventually decided to use the Happy Hollow School which was 4 miles south of the Winfreys. They called several pastors through the years but never could rally enough support to keep one steady. They would try to raise $600 a year for the preacher but sometimes could not even get that much, but even though they didn't have a pastor they continued to have Sunday School every Sunday until about 1952.

When the military draft started for World War I in 1917, Jimmie was exempt because he was 31 years old, had 4 children, and was engaged in farming. All of their 9 children completed their first 8 grades at Cook School, District 86, 3 miles north in Yuma County, and attended several different high schools, Happy Hollow, Burlington, Idalia, Wray and Bruning, Nebraska. Like most farm families they milked cows and raised chickens for added income.

Jimmie bought his first tractor in 1930 and the wheat he sowed that fall produced the best yield he had ever had, but the price dropped to below 50 cents a bushel. The next 7 years were rough. With the drought and dust bowl days many farmers just gave up and moved away, leaving their land to be sold for taxes. Jimmie had borrowed $3000 from the Federal Land Bank in Wichita, but things got so bad it was impossible for him to keep up the payments and eventually the bank foreclosed, then rented it back to him if he would stay there and keep trying to farm it. Before the '30's were over he managed to buy it back along with more grass land.

Two of their sons, Irvin and Ray, served in the U.S. Armed Forces in World War II.

In 1952 they helped organize the First Baptist Church in Burlington and 1954 a new church building was built at 250 Cherry Street. As the membership grew, they were able to build on to the building and it is now one of the many active churches in Burlington.

Jimmie sold the farm in 1954 and bought a home at 293 Cherry Street in Burlington. He passed away January 17, 1972 at the age of 86 and just 2 months later on March 26, Jessie passed away at age 81 leaving to mourn their 9 children: Clifton "Jim" and wife Mildred (Bain) of Kansas City, MO.; Rev. Everett L. Winfrey and wife Hallie (Miser) of Gadsden, AL.; Iva and husband Leonard Barnhart of Edgewater, CO.; Virgil and wife Iris (Degler) of Yates Center, KS.; Mabel and husband Wade Davis of Kanorado, KS.; Lola and husband Reuben Rhoades of Burlington, CO.; Irvin and wife Maxine (Lohr) of Des Moines, IA.; Ray and wife Beth (Miller) of Des Moines, IA.; Floyd and wife Ellen (Magee) of Independence, MO.; along with 24 grandchildren and 32 great grandchildren.

Jimmie and Jessie are buried in Fairview Cemetery in Burlington, CO.