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| "Cub" Britton (1908-1987) Shared by Ellen Britton |
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The following was written by Cub's wife, Ellen Lovicy Waters Britton. Notes were inserted by myself, as learned from Ellen, and from my father and sisters.
Cub was born to William Isaac and Elizabeth Aletha (Lightle) Britton, delivered by Dad Britton and Mother's youngest sister. The doctor wouldn't go, because Mother was in bed with smallpox. They were living in a log cabin in Stone County Missouri, near the little town of Viola. Cub was the 5th of 6 kids. [William often went by "Ike" and Ellen refers to him herein as Dad or Dad Britton. Mom (Elizabeth) was also known as"Lizzie" and Cub was the nickname of Clarence Custer Britton. Given that Lizzie had smallpox during the birth, which must have been nearly unbearable I might add, Cub was born broke out in smallpox. He survived though, but nearly died later, when still an infant, of pneumonia.]
Cub was born to William Isaac and Elizabeth Aletha (Lightle) Britton, delivered by Dad Britton and Mother's youngest sister. The doctor wouldn't go, because Mother was in bed with smallpox. They were living in a log cabin in Stone County Missouri, near the little town of Viola. Cub was the 5th of 6 kids. [William often went by "Ike" and Ellen refers to him herein as Dad or Dad Britton. Mom (Elizabeth) was also known as"Lizzie" and Cub was the nickname of Clarence Custer Britton. Given that Lizzie had smallpox during the birth, which must have been nearly unbearable I might add, Cub was born broke out in smallpox. He survived though, but nearly died later, when still an infant, of pneumonia.]
The family had been instructed that in case of a cyclone, to get out in the brush, lay flat on the ground, “hug” a bunch of brush and hang on. Well, while Cub was still a baby, there was a cyclone in that area. Dad got Cub under him, with Dad down on his hands and knees. Something knocked Dad out. When he came to, he didn't have Cub, but he wasn't hard to find. He had been rolled into the edge of an old tree top. His dress tail was up over his head and he was plenty mad and letting anyone in hearing distance know it.
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| Ike and Lizzie in front of the cabin that replaced the one destroyed in the cyclone in Stone County, Missouri Shared by Ellen Britton |
Their cabin was destroyed by the cyclone, with only the fireplace and chimney still standing. Dad built another cabin, where they lived (and Homer was born) until they moved to Washington, when Homer was a tiny baby and Cub 2 years old. [Cub's son stated, many years later, that "during this cyclone the stove was circling around their heads. Grandad (Ike) grabbed Daddy (Cub) and held him to the ground till the wind stopped. It was all he could do to keep hold of Daddy." Cub's wife, Ellen, captioned the picture as follows: "Cabin in Stone County, Missouri. This cabin replaced the one that blew away in a cyclone when Cub (Clarence) was a baby. Homer was born in this cabin." According to my sister, Peggy, the people in this picture are Ike and Lizzie.]
They went to Big Lake, Washington [when Cub was 2], where Dad and Lewis [Cub's older brother] worked in the timber and in the saw mill [and remained there for 3 1/2 years before moving to eastern Washington]. They had relatives already in Washington, before they went. Uncle Will (Columbus Wesley Lightle) and Aunt Dora Lightle; Aunt Cord and Uncle Mert Crain, and I think one other sister were out there. [Peggy thinks that this older sister might have been Sara Malinda Lightle Cox.]
It was while they lived in Big Lake, that Cub had his first girl friend. She was about his age, and lived across the street. One day, she was playing with another little boy and Cub was jealous. The next morning, he didn't get up and go out to play with her. She came over after him. He told her she played with the other boy, he wasn't interested. She promised that she would not play with the other boy, so he told her to bring him his pants and he would get up and go play. So that settled that. I don't know just how old Cub was when they moved to eastern Washington, up on the Columbia River, above Spokane. They lived up there several years, farming, though I don't think they were on the same place all the time.
Cub started to school at Daisy, Washington. (Site of Daisy is under water in the lake above Coulee Dam now.) I am quite sure it was there at Daisy, that Cub got in fights, with his chum, to side him. They discovered that the 2 of them could whip a bigger boy, that was a bully. One day, when the other boy wasn't there, Cub picked a fight out of the bigger kid and got whipped good. He said, that he never thought about that the other kid had been there helping him and right there. He learned his lesson, not to start a fight with a bigger kid, unless it was absolutely necessary.
He did get into at least one other fight while they lived up there, but I think another fight he told about was after they had moved and he was in another school, likely Rice, Washington. That time, a bigger kid was picking on Oscar, a smaller cousin of Cub's. Cub told him to leave Oscar alone. He told Cub, he would meet him at recess (bell had just run). When Cub went outside, the kid was waiting for him on the porch. Well, they went at it right there. Cub said that he didn't even know the other kid had hit him, till the teacher called him off and told them to go to the pump and get cleaned up. Of course, both were bloody. Walt told Cub afterward that the teacher had stood and watched the whole fight (maybe thought the bully needed it). Anyway, when the teacher called Cub off, he had the other kid bent backward over the porch railing, and thought one more punch would do it, but it was about 6 feet to the ground and maybe the teacher thought that might hurt the bully bad, or kill him. Something like that seemed to be the reason for his fights, mostly. He wasn't naturally “scrappy.”
[The nickname, Cub, evolved while they were Washington because, when he was little, he was chubby like a cub bear. His brothers started calling him Cub Bear, and it just gradually got shortened to Cub. Most people called him that for the rest of his life. I've also seen his name written as C C Britton. My father thinks that Ellen told him that Ike was rather impressed with General Custer and wanted the name to be bestowed upon one of their children. Lizzie hated the idea, but finally relented and allowed Cub's middle name to be Custer. Cub absolutely hated the name. As he was growing up, boys soon learned that, if they wanted to start a fight with him, all they had to do was call him Custer. Cub said he got into more fights over that, than all other reasons combined.]
He did get into at least one other fight while they lived up there, but I think another fight he told about was after they had moved and he was in another school, likely Rice, Washington. That time, a bigger kid was picking on Oscar, a smaller cousin of Cub's. Cub told him to leave Oscar alone. He told Cub, he would meet him at recess (bell had just run). When Cub went outside, the kid was waiting for him on the porch. Well, they went at it right there. Cub said that he didn't even know the other kid had hit him, till the teacher called him off and told them to go to the pump and get cleaned up. Of course, both were bloody. Walt told Cub afterward that the teacher had stood and watched the whole fight (maybe thought the bully needed it). Anyway, when the teacher called Cub off, he had the other kid bent backward over the porch railing, and thought one more punch would do it, but it was about 6 feet to the ground and maybe the teacher thought that might hurt the bully bad, or kill him. Something like that seemed to be the reason for his fights, mostly. He wasn't naturally “scrappy.”
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| L-R: Cub, Walt, Homer Shared by Peggy Boone |
Another thing, that happened to Cub while they lived in Washington was when the fence “threw him away.” He and Walt [his next older brother] were up on the mountain side, when Walt saw a hornets nest in a tree. Well, Walt just couldn't resist a hornets nest. He told Cub to head down the trail and run as fast as he could, to get a head start before Walt threw a rock through the nest. Cub was running down the trail and forgot that they had stretched a wire up across the trail till he hit it. (Wire was to turn cows back.) Well, Cub picked himself up and ran again, but was already far enough away that he didn't get stung.
One place they lived in Eastern Washington, they were close enough to the Columbia river, that they could see the Blackfoot Indian Reservation on the other side of the river and see them stirring around, cooking over camp fires, etc.
It was while they were up there, when Cub was about 6, I think Cub said, when he learned to swim, or rather discovered that he could swim. He had gone to a big pond or small lake with the older boys. The older boys were diving off of the dam and swimming, while Cub played along the ditch, leaning over, trying to catch an eel, when he fell in. He just struck out and swam to the other side. He was so excited about it, that he just jumped back in and swam back across. So he was a natural swimmer.
When the kids were in school years ago, and our washings were done the hard way, school kids changed into everyday clothes when they got home from school. One evening when Cub and Homer got home from school and Mother told them to change their clothes, they “sassed” her, told her they didn't have to. Then they ran to their bedroom upstairs and locked the door so she couldn't spank them, but when Dad got home he called them out and they got it anyway.
Cub said that when they lived close to Daisy, there was an old Chinaman living alone, up the mountain from them. He looked enough different and talked enough different, that Cub was afraid of him at first. He soon got to know the old man and then liked him. The old man liked to stop and visit with Dad and rest awhile, before he went on home. He walked, so climbing the mountain was tiring.
Cub said the first job with any pay that he had, was herding sheep. I can't remember whether it was the old Chinaman or some other neighbor that had a little bunch of sheep, and hired Cub and Homer [his younger brother] to herd them for him. One of the things they did to pass the time while they were herding sheep, was to eat pine nuts. (Cub said they are pretty much like pinon nuts.)
There was a deserted place between where the Brittons lived, and Daisy. Cub said if for any reason he was alone when he passed that place, he ran past it. It seemed “spooky” to him.
After the Brittons had been to the Palouse country, south of Spokane, they went back up on the Columbia. Larry [probably Cub and Ellen's son] says he thinks Cub said “just for the winter.” (Nora [Norine Haggar Britton, Cub's oldest sister] homesteaded the place that you kids knew as Dad's old place, where the big square house was. Dad bought it from her. [Peggy said that she has the land sale deed, and that this is in Las Animas County, Colorado.] Anyway, Nina [another sister, Nancy Catherine Britton] was out there with Nora, and Dad came out there too, but I don't know how long Dad was there before the rest of the family moved there. They had a farm sale and sold stock, farm machinery, etc. [Peggy figures the sale took place in Washington, before they moved to southeastern Colorado by train.] Dad was to have met them [Peggy says "them" referred to Lizzie and the kids] in La Junta [Colorado] with team and wagon, but wasn't there when they got there, so Mother Britton hired a man with a truck to take them and their stuff out there. They met Dad about half way and transferred the stuff and them into wagon or wagons. [Cub was 11 when they moved there from Washington.]
Once when we were at Homer's and Jessie's in Pritchett [Jessica Bernice "Jessie" Guthrie was Homer's wife], and Nina was there with them, I mentioned the letter Cub had written Peggy about the covered wagon trip. Nina spoke up and said, “Yes, they started to Colorado with the covered wagons, got as far as the Palouse County and decide Mother wasn't able to make such a long trip in a wagon, so they went back north. [Lizzie had a severe lung problem. The doctor thought it to be TB, but no one else in the household got it, though that disease was highly contagious. Ellen later said she figure Lizzie actually had Emphysema. The doctor advised Ike to find Lizzie a high and dry climate, or she would not live much longer. That is one of the reasons they left Washington for the high desert country of southern Colorado. She lived quite a while after moving there, but still died pretty young.]
When they got to Colorado, Nora was living in a half dugout on the homestead (relinquishment bout from Ted Lawrence, who then went back to Missouri). Cub learned to milk before they left Washington and was doing quite a bit of it. Right after they got to Nora's dugout they had a bad blizzard. Cub wasn't experienced with such, of course, and almost lost his life in that one. He was going to milk the cow. They told him the storm was too bad, but he thought he could make it. He just got out where the wind got full force at him and he went down. Storm was so bad he could see very little and was confused as to directions. He saw little streaks of light from the dugout door, crawled to it and beat on the door and they opened it and let him in.
I don't know how long they were in the dugout, but I think not long, till they built the shack on the place that Lewis had bought relinquishment on, joining Nora's place. The shack was big enough for 2 nice sized rooms, but they never did partition it. Floor was also of unmatched lumber. They put rubberoid on the roof and sides on outside, and Mother (Elizabeth Aletha) papered the inside with newspaper later. (Cub and I lived in that old house from the first part of June [1930], till the middle of December, the first year we were married.)
When the Brittons got to Colorado, Cub and Homer were still in school. They didn't have the grade Cub should have been in and the teacher didn't want to bother to add in another grade that late in the year, so she (or he) just put him back a couple of grades with Homer and the class he was in. So they were together and graduated at the same time. [Ellen wrote that Cub "finished his grade school education at Long Ridge school. (It was a one room country school about a mile from where they lived.) While he was in school he got into a few fist fights, always for the same reason, taking up for a smaller kid that was being "run over" by a "bully". As I have known him he is even tempered and easy to get along with, but he still takes up for the "under dog".]
Their main way to make any extra money, was to go over into Baca County Colorado or into the edge of Kansas for harvest [each fall]. I think their first harvest was maize harvest [when Cub was 13 or 14, though big for his age, according to Ellen. Cub and two of his brothers would normally go together]. Then they cut it one head at a time with a hoof knife, throwing each handful into the header barge, till they got a load, hauled it to the stack yard and unloaded it, where the threshing machine would come to thresh it. A header barge was a wagon box about twice as wide as a regular box and longer. It had low sides (maybe 24 inches) and high sides on the other side. That way, they didn't have to throw it so high, yet could get pretty big load on. The team was trained to follow the row and walk right along beside them, so they could throw the maize in. Their first maize harvest was while they were in school, yet.
Cub and Homer also went to wheat harvest over in Kansas several years. Then the wheat was cut with a binder, bundles shocked, then when the threshing machine came to their place (whoever they were) men hauled the bundled wheat in the big header barges, to the threshing machine and pitched them into the threshing machine with pitch forks. Hard job and HOT! They went to wheat harvest the year they were in Oklahoma, when Cub was 16. At wheat harvest, was where Cub and Homer earned the money to buy their first car.
Cub was always good at figuring out how to make things. They bought a little homemade broom corn seeder. I don't know how much Cub changed it, but they run it with the old stripped down Model T. The first year we were married, we seeded the broom corn with just the Britton crew, consisting of Dad, Lewis, Walt, Nina, Cub, Homer and I. That is really an ORNERY job. The lint from it makes a person itch worse than anything I know of. Later when we raised bigger crops, we had the bigger seeder come and seed it, trading work with the neighbors, for the crew. It took 20 men for that job. We never did have big enough crop that I had that crew to cook for more than one or two times. Cutting the broom corn was a BAD job. It was itchy and so hard, working all day with your hands as high above your head as you could reach, with load of those heavy heads in one hand, while you cut with the other. Cub and Homer had it a bit easier than most of us, since they learned to cut it walking on stilts. They strapped them to their legs, raising their feet 18 inches or so up from the ground. That way they didn't have to reach so high, and being up higher, they got the breeze better as well as less itchy lint down their shirt collars.
[Ellen also wrote, "The summer of 1924, when Cub was 16, was a dry year, so very little crop. that fall they moved to Oklahoma. They picked cotton near Kenute, then over by Bristow, for Uncle Emery. They farmed raising cotton, in Oklahoma 2 years, then came back to Colorado early enough in the spring that they were in a snow storm, with teams and wagons, as they moved back. They put in a crop there, then left Homer and dad to tend to that and the stock, while Lewis, Walt and Cub went to Idaho where they worked in spud harvest and in grain harvest and threshing. They worked in Idaho till almost Christmas, then went back home. He worked on the farm, (was the "mainstay") until he married on April 16, 1930."
[Note that when they were in Oklahoma in 1924, Cub had to deal with a tragic situation. He was at his Aunt Cora's, and his Aunt Stella was there visiting. Stella had had a child out of wedlock some years before in about 1905 or 1906, so he was two or three years older than Cub. His name was Vernie Blue or Blyeu, and was Cub's 1st cousin. While Cub was in Oklahoma, Vernie and two of his buddies walked into a country store and stole tire patching material. The drunk lawman appeared on the scene. The boys got scared and ran for the brush. The lawman shot at them and missed the other two, but got Vernie in the head. Cub came upon the scene and saw his cousin lying in a pool of blood. When he headed toward him, the lawman hollered for him to stop. Always ready to help those who were being treated unfairly, Cub ignored the lawman and risked his own life to drag his cousin into the shade.
[He went to fetch his grandpa, Louis Cass Britton, who was then living at Cora's. Louis, a former sheriff himself, was prepared to shoot the lawman, but a friend talked him out of it saying, "Don't do it Louis. You'll just get yourself in trouble." They loaded the poor boy up in the wagon and headed for town to get him medical attention, but he died on the way. I'm sure the memory of this event was not soon forgotten by Cub, or by any others that were there.
[Stella was married by then, to a man by the name of Sherman Franklyn Lynes. Sherman was, in Ellen's words "a little scary to look at, because he was blind in one eye, that had been shot out during the Civil War. The bullet went clear through his head, but, as his brother-in-law, William Isaac Britton said, 'Nothing was in there anyway.' Sherman stole a team, then traded them for a car, and then moved to California. I assume with Stella and any children they might have had." I don't know when this occurred. However, surely Cub was around the man while he was there in 1924.]
[Ellen also wrote, "The summer of 1924, when Cub was 16, was a dry year, so very little crop. that fall they moved to Oklahoma. They picked cotton near Kenute, then over by Bristow, for Uncle Emery. They farmed raising cotton, in Oklahoma 2 years, then came back to Colorado early enough in the spring that they were in a snow storm, with teams and wagons, as they moved back. They put in a crop there, then left Homer and dad to tend to that and the stock, while Lewis, Walt and Cub went to Idaho where they worked in spud harvest and in grain harvest and threshing. They worked in Idaho till almost Christmas, then went back home. He worked on the farm, (was the "mainstay") until he married on April 16, 1930."
[Note that when they were in Oklahoma in 1924, Cub had to deal with a tragic situation. He was at his Aunt Cora's, and his Aunt Stella was there visiting. Stella had had a child out of wedlock some years before in about 1905 or 1906, so he was two or three years older than Cub. His name was Vernie Blue or Blyeu, and was Cub's 1st cousin. While Cub was in Oklahoma, Vernie and two of his buddies walked into a country store and stole tire patching material. The drunk lawman appeared on the scene. The boys got scared and ran for the brush. The lawman shot at them and missed the other two, but got Vernie in the head. Cub came upon the scene and saw his cousin lying in a pool of blood. When he headed toward him, the lawman hollered for him to stop. Always ready to help those who were being treated unfairly, Cub ignored the lawman and risked his own life to drag his cousin into the shade.
[He went to fetch his grandpa, Louis Cass Britton, who was then living at Cora's. Louis, a former sheriff himself, was prepared to shoot the lawman, but a friend talked him out of it saying, "Don't do it Louis. You'll just get yourself in trouble." They loaded the poor boy up in the wagon and headed for town to get him medical attention, but he died on the way. I'm sure the memory of this event was not soon forgotten by Cub, or by any others that were there.
[Stella was married by then, to a man by the name of Sherman Franklyn Lynes. Sherman was, in Ellen's words "a little scary to look at, because he was blind in one eye, that had been shot out during the Civil War. The bullet went clear through his head, but, as his brother-in-law, William Isaac Britton said, 'Nothing was in there anyway.' Sherman stole a team, then traded them for a car, and then moved to California. I assume with Stella and any children they might have had." I don't know when this occurred. However, surely Cub was around the man while he was there in 1924.]
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| Brothers, left to right: Homer, Lewis, Walt and Cub Britton Shared by Ellen Britton |
One year Cub, Walt and Lewis went to Idaho for spud harvest. That is also very hard work, especially for tall people, like Cub was. Spuds were picked up by hand then, of course. On the way up there, the old Model T got to making a noise, not running quite right, so they drove off at the side of the road and tipped it up on its side, so they could work on it without crawling under it. While they were working on it, someone came along and stopped and asked if there was anyone hurt in the wreck, of course, not knowing why it was on it's side. While they were in Idaho, some of the men decided to go over to the Snake River, I think and go swimming. On the way over there, someone asked Cub if he could swim. He said, “Oh, a little bit.” When they got there, where they stopped, there was a big rock reaching out into the river. Cub made a run and then dived off of the rock. He said just before he went under the water, he heard one of the men yell, “Hey, that's deep, you fool.” Of course he had known it was deep, but he was a good swimmer.
[In another, much shorter write up about Cub's life, Ellen recalled, "He has been a very devoted husband and father, and then grandfather. He thinks there are just no kids like his grandkids." She also told my sister, Kathy, that Cub would defend Ellen no matter what, even if she was in the wrong, because she was his wife. My father said that Grandpa called his boys Peanuts and his girls Toots. This is also what his grandfather, Louis Cass Britton, called his grandkids, so Cub was probably called this. Perhaps he was fond of the nickname and chose to pass it along to his own descendants.]
[In another, much shorter write up about Cub's life, Ellen recalled, "He has been a very devoted husband and father, and then grandfather. He thinks there are just no kids like his grandkids." She also told my sister, Kathy, that Cub would defend Ellen no matter what, even if she was in the wrong, because she was his wife. My father said that Grandpa called his boys Peanuts and his girls Toots. This is also what his grandfather, Louis Cass Britton, called his grandkids, so Cub was probably called this. Perhaps he was fond of the nickname and chose to pass it along to his own descendants.]
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| Courtesy of Ellen Britton Cub would have been 31 years old in this picture. |
Just to add a bit of background to the life story that Grandma wrote about Cub, I would like to contribute some additional information. Cub was born 14 Apr 1908 near Viola, Williams Township, Stone County, Missouri. His Britton ancestors had come to Missouri from Georgia in 1805, shortly after the Louisiana Purchase. His Lightle ancestors were, as far as I understand, of Irish descent. They came to Virginia before 1790, and then to Ohio before 1809. His maternal grandmother, Nancy Lucinda Brewer (1848-1925) was from Kentucky, and her Brewer ancestors came to Jamestowne, Virginia, possibly by 1616, and eventually migrated to North Carolina, Georgia and other areas throughout The South.
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| Ellen, Violet, and Cub |
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| Hazel (standing), Ruth holding a sibling that is still living - Pinyon Ridge farm |
The following are a few random tidbits that I have been told over the years about my grandfather, Cub:
One of his sons said the following at Cub's funeral: "While in Washington, Daddy snuck out before daylight one morning and went deer hunting. Just as it was getting light, he saw up in a tree, what he thought was a cougar. He made a mad dash for home. Jumped a log or fence, hung his toe, fell, and broke the stock out of the rifle. Later in the day, Uncle Lewis and Daddy went back to see and it was a big bird nest up in a tree. About that same time, Daddy would have been 8 or 9 years old, they rode a horse over the end of a mountain to the little town where they got their mail, once or twice a month. On one such a trip, Daddy was going by himself, riding bareback, and there was snow on the ground, when in the trail ahead, a big white timber wolf appeared. His horse stopped dead, and shook like a leaf until such time as Mr. Wolf walked off into the timber and disappeard. Daddy said he expected the horse to bolt at any moment, and he didn't want to be left sitting in the trail to be made a lunch of. So he held on tight...
"Daddy was in charge of getting the work stock in each morning during the farming seasn, as he was the best rider in the family. He did enough hard riding bareback, and following a plow afoot, that his legs were strong enough, that he could squeeze a horse with his knees hard enough to make it grunt. They didn't have a saddle until Daddy was 16. At one point, Uncle Walt had a pair of mules that would run off while he was working them. they would run until they could straddle a tree or post, where they would very effectively leave the harness, machine, and Uncle Walt. The first time they did it with Daddy, he had a good strong halter on each, with a piece of chain between them. They ran off, straddled a cedar, and about knocked their brains out, when their heads came together on the far side of the tree."
One of Cub's favorite snacks back in Missouri were frog legs, from big bull frogs that had legs almost as large as a chicken's legs. My father and one of his brothers decided one day that they would catch some frogs as a treat for their dad. He can't remember whether they thought to kill the frogs before removing their legs and bringing them home, as the boys were rather young at the time. Cub must have found it amusing, and commented that the legs were hardly big enough to bother with, since they had capture regular frogs rather than bull frogs.
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| Cub and Ellen Britton Photo courtesy of Ellen |
His speech was sometimes colorful, but he was genuine and thoughtful. He was among the kindest of souls that ever walked this earth. He was a good, Christian man with a good heart. At his funeral, it was said of him that he was "a lifelong Bible student and loved nothing more than a good gospel discussion." My dad said that he never knew anyone that read the Bible as much as Grandpa did. I don't think he identified with any particular denomination. I remember hearing that he and Ellen attended random churches, whichever one they felt like at the time, gradually making their rounds to various ones in the area.
My father said that Cub only had an 8th grade education and seldom wrote letters. When he did, he really had to struggle and concentrate because he couldn't remember how to spell a lot of words. He often had to ask Ellen for spellings and for what words he should write in order to say what he was trying to say. Often, in the evenings, if the family was not visiting or busy with something, some of them would work out math problems for fun. Cub's father subscribed to a magazine that had problem solving in the back, and the solution to each problem in the following issue. Dad and his brother would also bring Algebra problems, etc. home from school and challenge Cub to solve them. Though he'd never taken such things in school, they never found a problem that Cub could not solve in his own way, with the well-used sense of logic he possessed.
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| Cub and Ellen, later in life This photo was sent to us by them, years ago. |
My father speaks of when Grandpa used to pretend he didn't know how to do something, just so that it would make Dad feel special and needed when he figured it out. Grandpa let my dad drive the team of horses from a very young age. I think he was about 4 years old. One time my dad decided to hitch up the team by himself, thinking he was big enough to do so, and have the wagon ready before Grandpa came outside. With great effort, Dad accomplished this, and even was able to get the rig turned around without hitting any stumps. Dad was afraid he might get in trouble, but figured it would be worth it. One of the horses was young still, and reared up. Dad swung the end of the lines over his head and slapped the horse on the rump. Come to find out Grandma and Grandpa were watching, scared to say anything for fear there would be a runaway. Surprisingly, the horse settled right down and Dad proceeded to turn the wagon around. Grandpa nonchalantly climbed up into the wagon. Dad tried to hand him the reins. Instead of taking them, Grandpa suggested that Dad continue to drive the team to where they were getting firewood, while he "rolled a smoke". This made Dad feel pretty grown up. That's just the kind of man that Grandpa was. He made people feel special and built their confidence, and was very easy going for the most part.
Grandpa died 29 Dec 1987 in Cortez, Montezuma County, Colorado at the age of 79 after suffering from Emphysema and a stroke. We went down to see him a while before he died. He had a hospital bed at home in the living room and had to be hooked up to oxygen; he also needed assistance to eat. But, even in such a trying state, he was pleasant and patient, and so thankful to see us. Grandpa was buried in the Summit Ridge Cemetery in Dolores, Colorado. Ellen was buried there about 12 years later. Both of them will be fondly remembered for many years to come.
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| Cub and Ellen in front of what was left of their cabin in the Durango, Colorado area Photo courtesy of Cub and Ellen |
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Festus and Matt on Gunsmoke
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I am not sure exactly when the following occurred, so I will just add this at the end here. The man who played Festus in the series, Gunsmoke, also lived in southeastern Colorado. My father said that Cub worked on a haying crew on what they knew as Mormon Mesa, which was south of Breen. Cub worked with this man, while there. This was before his acting career on the TV series. When Cub first saw him on Gunsmoke, as Matt Dillon's deputy, he instantly recognized him and said that he acted just the same in regular life. There was no acting really, in this case, as he only had to just be himself. My sister, Kathy, recalled being told that Cub said, "Hey! I know that guy! And he's not acting either. That's the way he was." She went on to explain that they had to keep the man away from the other guys, or he'd keep them all laughing and no work would get done.
Another point of interest is that Grandpa almost met the former outlaw, Jesse James! Now, some of you will say that this is impossible, for it is widely accepted that Jessie was shot and killed as a young man. However, this is false. The reason I say that is because the father of a neighbor of Grandpa's had a farm on which Jesse used to hide out, back when the gang would split up after a raid to avoid the law. This neighbor was a little at the time, but I guess Jesse kept acquainted with the boy's father, and later the boy when he was older. As the story goes, Jesse's "death" was staged, another man being killed in his stead. Jesse escaped into Canada and remained there until he was a very old man. Toward the end of his life, he ventured back into the States to visit old acquaintances, one of which was this neighbor of Grandpa's. Grandpa missed seeing Jesse James by only a few hours, when he went to go visit this same neighbor in Colorado!
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