1860 Census Tennessee, Maury Co. 5-360
McShan Johnson M 43
Elizabeth F 331880 Census, Alabama, Green County, ED 78, sh 2 line 3 Eutaw
McShan Johnson Head M 56 Plasterer Al KY Ky
Mary Wife F 34 GA GA Ga
Mary Dau F 8 Al Al GA
Ashbury Son M % Al Al Ga
David Son M Al Al Ga
Ralph was creamated and a small graveside service was conducted at the Gridley Cemetary. Sheila Adams gave and opening prayer, Jolene and Paul presented a life history, A song was sung "Love one Another, Then Richard Adams gave a short talk and dedicated the grave.
Those attending the funeral included: Mette Adams, Dick & Sheila Adams, Jolene Briggs, Paul Adams, Susan Hare, Cathy Braucht, Chris & Patty Heidman, Jack & Doris Hammons, Tom Hammons, Jim Adams, Danny Lee Johnson, Ginger and Husband, Dan Bozo, Tanamoto Brothers.
Everyone felt good about the service.
The Story of My Life by Elida June Hammons Adams Braker Written in 1981
I was born in Meredith, Kansas in 1922. All my life I thought i was born on September 1st, but my birth certificate says August 1sy, so i guess somebody goofed.
When I was 6 weeks old my folks moved to Yuba City, California And that is where my early years were spent on Smith Road. We didn't have mail delivery or phone at that time. Our post office box was 384. The first car I remember was a 2 seated model T and then we got an Essex. It was called the Blue Streak, and Uncle Earl had one called the Brown Streak. Then Uncle Earl traded his off for a star. It was a 3 seated convertible and boy did we have fun riding in it.My dad worked at the Del Monte cannery for $9.00 a week. It was during the depression and Uncle Earl had a grocery store in town. Mom and Grandma Hammons raised white leghorn hens and Uncle Earl sold all their eggs. They had 1000’s of them.
My dad and Uncle Earl made moonshine and sold it at a dance hall they ran at Sutter City, which is about 8 miles from Yuba city. I can never remember ever going hungry or without anything we needed. Also fur were pretty high so they trapped and hunted lots of coon, skunk and fox. They made lots of extra money to pay for the 5 acres and two houses on Smith Road.
Grandpa and Grandma Hammons and Uncle Earl lived in one house and we lived in the other. We went to Lincoln school, which was 1 1/2 miles from our house. We walked until finally when I was in the 5" or 6" grade we got bicycles.
Mom and Dad went to the first talking movie in Yuba City. I remember crying because they took my dollar I got for my birthday to go. I think 1 was three. It was an Al Jolson movie, Sonny Boy, I think.
My Grandpa Hammons was a Baptist preacher and held services on his front lawn in the spring and summer and in his living room in the winter. He baptized me before I went to school. I was probably 4. Mom made my dress out of flour sacks and starched it. It had lots of lace.
The times I liked best were when Dad would pop popcorn or roast pecans on our peach pit stove. That’s what we burned for heat. Dad got the pits at the cannery and put them out and dried them.) Mom and Dad would tell us stories about when they were kids.
When I was 14 Dad taught me how to drive our flint and mom also learned. She drove us to school and back and to the edge of town. She never did drive very much as she was to nervous.
When radios first came out they were battery operated and we got one. It's name was Airline. Mom use to listen to porcha faces live, and whenever there was a prize fight, all our neighbors would come listen as they didn't have one. This was before I started school.
Dad took us fishing a lot at the bypass. We went on lots of picnics and swimming. My brother Tom and I were always very close. When I started dating boys I wouldn't go if they didn't take Tom along. So most of the time he went with me.
There was a new skating rink in Yuba City and in 1937 1 went and met Clarence Adams and went with him until 1 met his brother Ralph just before Thanksgiving. Then I started going with him and we got married on February 23, 1938 in the court house by a justice of the peace in Yuba City. Of course we were both under age and had to lie about our ages. I was 16 and he was 19. Ralph bought my wedding ring in a hock shop in Sacramento for $3.00. Jolene may still have it.
Times were hard and there wasn't much money or jobs so we fixed up the old Honey House at Grandpa Bills and stayed there until just before Dick was born when we moved into Grandpa house. Dick was born on November 11, 1938 in the same bed his dad was born in.In January 1939 we moved into a house of Clark Stowe's and on Feb. 26'h it burned down and we lost everything we had. Ralph was in the hospital 2 days, dick 3 weeks and I was in for 3 months. It was really bad and I hope to write a detailed story of it soon. We lived in another of Stowe's rent houses unti1 1940. We moved down to my dads. He had a 2 bedroom rent house and Ralph had a job in Hay. Jolene was born while we were them on June 10m 1940 in the county hospital in Yuba City.
Then we moved back to Grandpa Bill again in the summer of 1941 and Judy was born on Oct. 30th 1941 at the county hospital in Oroville.
Then on Dec. 72h We were in war with Japan and moved to San Francisco in March 1942. Ralph worked in the shipyards. Jacquelyn Marie was born Feb. 23, 1943. She only lived 10 hours. Ralph got his greeting from Uncle Sam, so we moved back to Gridley. Ralph didn't pass the physical.
Dick went to kindergarten in San Francisco and then the 1st and 2nd in Gridley. Jolene went to kindergarten in Gridley then we sold our house and moved to Manzanita and built our house out of cement blocks. We bought the cement maker for $30 and sold it for $65 1 year later. It only cost us $150 to make all the cement blocks for the whole house. Bet you couldn't do that now. We moved into our house which wasn't finished the week before Judy's 8th birthday.
We had lived in the garage while we built it. I worked in the cannery, the almond huller and the packing shed so Ralph could stay home and build the house.
It was a good place to raise kids and Manzanita had a really good school. We had to fight to keep it when they moved all the other little schools into Gridley, but it is still there. I use to enjoy the ball games we had at school on sundays. Everybody played and sure had fun.
Grandpa Bill sure enjoyed having the kids close to him, especially when they were old enough for 4-H and had cows. It was good for the kids to have a grandpa so close.
Dick used to bring home lots of fish, frog legs, ducks and pheasants. Jolene used to hunt some with him, but Judy never liked guns.
We had a farmer's telephone line and the old crank phones. We had 6 people on our line and our ring was 2 rings. To call someone on our line we had to ring them ourselves and for anyone else we went through the operator in Marysville. We had to keep our own line in repair and finally Ma Bell put a line on Larkin Road and we had a regular phone around 1948, about the same time we got our first TV The only vacations we ever got was going deer hunting, if you can call that a vacation.
We always went out on New Years Eve and that was our night life. We did visit friends and my mom and dad. My mom died in 1954 and that was when our marriage broke up soon after. It had never been very good anyway. It was hard but it couldn't go on.
I traveled a lot and worked when I wanted to, drank when I was thirsty and did everything I wanted to. I was always on the go and having fun, and right now I wish I could do it all over again. I wouldn't give up all the things I learned about people from the moon shiners in Kentucky to the movie stars in Hollywood, to the country music in the Grand Ole Opera in Tennessee. I've seen it all and met some really great people.
If I'd ever get a chance I'd like to go back to Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia. I sure liked that part of these United States. But all good things come to an end.
So on Sept. 10, 1968 1 got married to Dee Braker. Why I still don't know, but he is happy and needs someone to take care of him.
He worked for Diamond Match in Chico for 28 years and retired when he had his stroke. We lived in Live Oak for 4 years and sold out and moved to Montana. We sure don't like it here but don't know what we are gonna do yet. It costs too much to live here. One thing I have learned out of life is that you should live your life the way you want to, not just to make other people happy. If you want to do something do it while your young as sometimes your health breaks before you retire, so live while you can.
Born at Cottonwood Hospital, Weighed 9 Lbs, and was 21" Long
Born at 12:30 p.m. , weighing 7 pounds 8 Ounces, and 19.5 Inches Long
Weighed 8 Lb 5 Oz, and born at Methodist Hospital.
Ralph was creamated and a small graveside service was conducted at the Gridley Cemetary. Sheila Adams gave and opening prayer, Jolene and Paul presented a life history, A song was sung "Love one Another, Then Richard Adams gave a short talk and dedicated the grave.
Those attending the funeral included: Mette Adams, Dick & Sheila Adams, Jolene Briggs, Paul Adams, Susan Hare, Cathy Braucht, Chris & Patty Heidman, Jack & Doris Hammons, Tom Hammons, Jim Adams, Danny Lee Johnson, Ginger and Husband, Dan Bozo, Tanamoto Brothers.
Everyone felt good about the service.
A HISTORY OF WILLIAM SAMUEL ADAMS
WRITTEN BY WILLIAM SAMUEL ADAMS
ORIGINAL IN POSSESSION OF RICHARD ADAMS
THE ORIGINAL HAD NO DATEI changed a little of the sentence structure, but left most of it as is. This is obviously a draft that was never finished, and seems to have been written just before his trip to Plains in 1967 (Richard Adams).
I was born in what is now Oklahoma, between the Wasatch Red River and the Red River which at that time was in a dispute between Texas and Indian Territory over the boundary line. It was in Prairie County, and very few people lived there, and was 45 miles from the nearest railroad. The only transportation we had was a wagon team and horse back riding. My folks went from Texas to Oklahoma with a horse and ox hooked to a borrowed wagon. They built a house of cottonwood logs, and covered it with boards and dirt. There were no people in the county at that time, but they did have a little town with a store or two and a drug store and a Doctor. Trail drives drove cattle from Texas north into Kansas and Nebraska. One trail went near the town where we lived and the cowboys stopped quite often when they were going by. The town was also close to
to the Indian Reservation and when the Indians would get a little money to spend, they would come across the river and stop at the town. I saw as many as 5,000 Indians camped around town at one time. In those days the Indians wore blankets. They didn't wear any other clothing other than the blanket. They would wrap the blanket around them, and roll and twist them and they would stay pretty good.The first thing I can remember was a flood on the River at my grandmas place, where the water came up into the dugout. My Uncle and I were pulling weeds and putting them around the well and bagging it with dirt. When he came out of there the water was halfway to his knees, he backed up and started building a levy around the front door, but it soon went over that. My grandmother was moving the stuff out of the house. We got everything out but the cook stove, but it was hot so we couldn't move it. The next morning when I woke up my Father was in the house. They had already taken the boards out of the floor when the water had gone down, and when they finished with the floor they started on the roof. They used the logs and salvaged boards to build another house up the hill farther which my Uncle had already started. At that time Aunt Mal was down at Verna, Texas going to a summer school which is the best thing I can remember. I know she was away from home but she went anywhere she could get a school to teach. She would also go to those summer schools in the summer time.
I was riding horses and driving horses before I was able to get on them. They would have to pick me up and set me on, and then I could ride it. I guess that's the reason I have no use for horses today, because we have no use for them, and they are an expensive luxury. I use to have to ride them in the spring to bring in the cows with young calves. We put them in the corral for a week or ten days to keep the coyotes from getting them.
I put in about two hours each morning looking after the cattle. They ranged over about two square miles of land. We had a few head to start with and built up to where we had over 100 head, which we disposed of in 1903. We got $11.00 a head for some, $20.00 for some, and $25.00 for a few.
I spent more time with my grandmother and Aunt Mal than I did at home up until I was 12 or 13 years old. I had an attack of Minal Meningitis when I was about seven years old. I wasn't able to do a great deal after that except ride that horse around and look after the cattle, until I was about 12 or 13 years old, then I got so I could work fairly good.
In the fall of the year when the cotton was ready to pick everyone picked cotton. People in those days lived on little or nothing, but there wasn't anyone on welfare. We would take corn and grind it, and make corn meal and use it to make cornbread. If we ran out of corn we would use wheat and even milloe or capricorn. We always had something to eat and we raised 10 or 12 hogs and killed them and had enough meat to last a whole year. We always kept a few chickens and had eggs, and chicken to eat, but there wasn't any market for them. Eggs were worth a nickel a dozen.
In 1896 they settled the country up for homesteading. There were people that came in there from all parts of the country that homesteaded land. At that time my Mothers Father nearly came there to get homestead land. My Fathers folks were already there.
In about 1903 they started moving out and going to other parts of the country. Most of them went to Texas. In 1901 or 1902 Uncle Will Snell went to Old Mexico. In 1903 Uncle Rob Snell and Grandpa Snell went to Western Texas.
In those days there were lots of highway robberies and desperados that came through the country. One time I remember Aunt Mal took me with her to Atlas. There was glass all over the sidewalk. We found out that the desperados had come in there that night and made the storeman open the store. They got some grub to eat and told him to open the safe. When he went back into the office where the safe was he ducked through the back door. They shot at him, and hit him in the arm, but they didn't get the safe open.
It was ten miles to Atlas and quite often I would have to ride over there on horseback to get something or do something to keep from loosing time on the place that my father had to do.
There wasn't much wood in that country to burn, so they would go across the river into Indian territory to get wood. The federal marshall would come in once in awhile to catch them. When the Federal Marshal was around they would try to keep from going over there, but when they would catch them they would haul them around for maybe a month or six weeks before they would turn them loose, and they wouldn't do anything with them. That was the only way we had of getting anything to use in the stove, until the railroad came through in 1903, and then they brought coal.
I went to Blue Valley to school and my Aunt Mal was the teacher. We went about three months that fall and then the next spring we had another school at Besel that was a little closer to home. We stayed in Besel for 2 or 3 months , and then in the fall we went to Union school for 3 or 4 months. That was in 1896, but Blue Valley school was in the fall of 1895. In 1897 I went to Navajoe school for a couple of months. In 1897 we went down through Texas, Fort Worth and Johnson County where Aunt Rose Hastings lived, and also Uncle Charlie Snell, and then on into Boskie county where Uncle Jim Adams lived, and also Aunt Laura Deaton. We came back through Chalk Mountain Texas in Navaroe county. That is where my Grandmother Snell is buried. There we spent about 5 or 6 weeks on that trip using a wagon and team.
We made another trip up through the northern part of Oklahoma into the northern part of Texas down through Amarillo, and back through Qualla Texas, and we were gone about 5 or 6 weeks on that trip.
We used wheat and oats and cotton malimaze with sardam. We would use the sardam for feed for the cattle in the winter time and also feed them a little cotton seed when there was snow on the ground. The uplands where we lived didn't grow very good corn, so we used to rent land down near the river (sandy land) to raise Capricorn on.
In 1894 we lived on my Uncles place on the river. That was where they had the flood in 1891 and we had a crop of corn there that year. That was about 7 or 8 miles from where we lived on the uplands near the Navajoe Mountains. That fall after we harvested the crop my Uncle traded that piece of land for a piece up by where we lived. He only lived for about a year after that and he died of a heart attack about June 1895. He started to Quasta Texas with a wagon and team and had a heart attack. He met a sheriff from the county and he told him about it and the sheriff told him to turn around and go back home and I'll follow you. When they got home it was about dark. They unharnessed the horses and turned them loose in the corral and he turned to the sheriff and asked him to help him in the house and said he didn't feel very well, but he died before they got him into the house.
There wasn't very many wells in that country and we had to haul water 3/4 of a mile from grandmas well. In the summer time we would make a trip and haul a barrel of water every day, and that was to eat, wash and water for the hogs. We didn't waste any. All water that we used was poured into a pail, and was taken
out and given to the hogs. That was the way they got their water to drink, and even at that we raised good hogs.We had a piece of land about 3 or 4 acres, but it was sage and trees and the peaches were small, but we sold the peaches for 50 cents a bushel, and they came to get all we had. We never lost any or threw any away. That was the only fruit in the county. We would go down on the river and there were wild plums, and we would go up on the mountains and pick wild currents. We also had a row of currants in the peach orchard, and that was good eating for us kids anyway. We also had a few gooseberries, but they didn't do to well.
In those days we could get 8 or 9 pounds of coffee for a dollar, and anywhere from 16 to 19 pounds of sugar for a dollar, so it didn't cost much to live. We always had a garden and cabbage, potatoes, onions, and vegetables in the summer time, also okra and peas. The wild game we had in that country was Bobwhite and Partridge, and there wrnt to many of them. They were pretty well scattered, but we did have a flock that stayed around the orchard because there was some protection in there.
I was the oldest and my first brother younger than me died when he was 4 years old. Two of my sisters died when they were infants. My Mother was killed in 1910 when a horse ran away with her. It was on May 8th when she died. She was unconscious for 3 days after the buggy turned over with her and fractured her skull.
My Mothers death happened after we came to Gridley California in January 1906. We went back to Blue Valley Texas for about 3 months, but we came back to California because we liked it better than the Texas country.
The old grain growers were all broke. They had anywhere from 800 to 1500 acres of land, but still couldn't make a living. They started to irrigate, but didn't have any use for irrigation districts, and said they couldn't see how anyone could make a living on 20 or 30 acres of land when they couldn't make it on 1200 acres. They started growing alfalfa and fruit, and some of them made it through until the depression of 1932. The there was a lot of them that went broke, and were forced out. Everyone had a few cows, and milked them and sold cream. That way they had something to eat, and they also had eggs. In those days they had it fixed so you couldn't sell the eggs, and also they put the dairies all out of business, so there wasn't anything left but fruit crops where we lived.
There was different kinds of work from what we had in Oklahoma, but I always had a job on a farm somewhere, but I never saw a time when I couldn't get a job. I pitched hay, worked in the fruit. I worked in the nurseries, and worked in orchards pruning. I also had to learn to irrigate. That was quite a trick when the land wasn't leveled. In those days we didn't have any way to level the land. We had horses and scrappers which were slow, and also expensive because it took a lot of time to move a little dirt.
The first thing I did when I went to work for myself was to rent 40 acres of alfalfa and had 10 or 12 cows to milk and I'd milk cows, and put up the hay, and do the irrigation, and work outside besides. That way I managed to get by.
In 1911 after I farmed the area I went up to Plains Montana and Married Helen Maude Cobeen. They had lived down near us for several years, but her father had drawn a homestead allotment on the Flathead reservation, and they moved up there in 1910. We raised 5 children, and my wife died of a paraltie stroke in 1934.
It has been 57 years since I have been in Plains Montana, but my granddaughter Jolene Briggs who is a school teacher in Plains wants me to come up , and see them, and I couldn't resist the temptation.
This is my last long trip for travels and when I get off of this I am staying close to home because I am now past 80 years old and its hard to get around after you get to be that old. My ancestors have been in the United States for 300 or 400 years. One branch came in 1611 and another in 1712. A few of the lines I haven't been able to trace to far back, but still the grandchildren of mine have got me working on their ancestors and I found it quite interesting.
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