Following is the autobiography of Clarice, shared and annotated by a family member. His notes will be given in square brackets. A PDF of the story in Clarice's handwriting will be included soon at the bottom of the page. I've broken the transcription into paragraphs and changed some punctuation for the sake of better readability.
"I was born on Oct. 29, 1907, in the state of Ark [near Berryville, Ark]. Don't know the exact location, but I imagine it was in the northwestern part, as Mom & Dad's parents lived in southwestern Missouri. Mom said we lived about a block from the state line. My first recollections of anything was of living there, & only a few, for I was very young, around two I imagine, for Otis wasn't born yet & I'm just 2 years & 4 months older than he.
"He wasn't born till after we moved to Kansas, to a little town named Neola. I don't remember the move or how long we lived there, but Otis was born there. [Otis L. Botner was born Mar. 9, 1910] I remember only two or three instances while living there: one when Dad left to go to work I cried till he came back & hugged me; another when he gave me some cough drops shaped like big butter beans. Then one evening our house caught fire. Otis was just a little baby then. I remember us getting out.
"Then we lived for a short time in a house they called a "Lodge House". I don't think we were there very long till we moved to Turon [about 6 mi. SSE of Neola, Kansas]. Although I don't recall anything about the move, just vaguely remember being at a train station. [A train does run between Neola and Turon - See map]
"From then I don't remember much till I was old enough to start to school. I do recall once when we & another family, friends of Mom & Dad, & they had children older than us kids... anyway, they decided to go fishing & drove way out somewhere on the prairie. It seemed what they called a creek or river. As I remember it, it seemed more sure like a ditch. Of course I was pretty small & probably didn't see it all. Anyway, I got into a patch of sandburs, & there are lots of them in Kansas. I was bare footed & one of the bigger boys had to get me out. Living in Kansas we were always stepping on those burrs & they really did hurt, & the worst part of it those stickers had a little hook on the end which made it difficult to pull out. Like a loose tooth, we were afraid to pull on it, afraid it would hurt worse. Ha!
"I was five years old when I started to school there [1912] & after I learned to read I would read to Otis before he started to school. Philip was born there too & when he was old enough, his hair was long enough I like to comb it & fix a curl on top. [Philip Q. Botner was born Sept. 22, 1915]
"I saw my first movie there at Turon. Mary Pickford played in it. That was the only movie I saw till I was grown & after we came to Indiana.
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| Nancy Catherine "Nina" Britton Henry Lewis Britton Norine Hagger "Noanie" Britton Source - Paralee Britton Botner Shared by a family member |
"I was 10 years old when Dad left us in the spring of 1918. Left Mom with 5 children & nothing to survive on. Two nieces of Mom, that had visited us before, came & I imagine they had something to do helping Mom getting the job of running a restaurant in a little town about 12 miles from Turon.
[William Isaac Britton's daughters: Nora Hagger Britton born 11 Dec 1893, and Nancy Catherine Britton born 21 Jan 1899... The town of Cunningham is located about 11 miles due South along NW 170th Ave. and is on U.S. Rte. 400. I may be the town mentioned.] It was just a little town & hardly enough business to make a living at the restaurant. But when Mom got kinda settled there, they we kids went. The older one of these nieces (our cousins of course) & neither one was married yet, but the older one had a little place in Colorado that she had homesteaded & the living quarters was what they called a "Dug-Out". Anyway, she took Otis & Philip home with her till the next spring, knowing Mom could hardly work & care for the little ones.
"We had our beds in one room of a house about a block from the restaurant. We had an awful big snow that fall "1918". It drifted almost to the top of one side of the restaurant. I had the flue at the time. That was the year the flu was so bad & so many people died from it.
"We were there till spring [1919] & the man that had been a neighbor in Turon, took up a collection & gave Mom enough to get us to Missouri to Grandpa Britton's (that was Mom's father). [Louis Cass Britton in Stone County, MO about 450 miles by train] I didn't now about the collection until Ted told me not too awful long ago. Of course, Otis & Philip were back with us.
"On our way to MO, we were supposed to change trains in one place, & I guess our train was late, for when we got to where we were supposed to change, the train we were supposed to get had already gone. But there was a freight train that was to go through, so instead of us having to wait till the next day, they let us ride in the caboose. It was late in the evening when we got to our destination, so we found a place for the night & I woke up the next morning with a crick in my neck & crying... was the first time I'd ever had anything like that.
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| Stella |
"One of Mom's sisters & her son [Stella Britton and Vernie Blyen (See 1920 US Census)] was living with Grandpa & Grandma Britton (Mom's father & mother) & they drove in to get us in a wagon. The team they drove was a big horse that Grandpa usually rode & a mule. They had to cross a stream that was swollen from a flash flood & while in it the mule balked & didn't want to go, but the horse just pulled with all the strength he had & got them through. My aunt said if it hadn't been for "Old Doc" the horse, they would have drowned.
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| Hannah |
"Grandpa lived on a farm, & Grandma was ill & bed fast & passed away not long after we got there. [Hannah Catherine (Odell) Britton died 15 Jun 1919]
We weren't at Grandpa's very long. Mom's oldest sister & husband owned some land not too farm from Grandpa's which had a one room log cabin on it. [Sarah Alice and John Thomas Hardman lived in Barry County, MO] They let us live in it. There was a little stream nearby & a big spring from which we got our drinking water. Sometimes it wasn't the best, but was all we had. We kids went to a one room country school which, I imagine, was close to 2 miles away, & of course we walked. Guess I was 12 yrs old by then. [1919]
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| Sarah and John |
"Part of the time "Chick" (your Uncle Chester) stayed at our uncle's, the one that owned the cabin, & worked on the farm there. Didn't make much besides room & board. One winter I stayed at another uncle's, one of Dad's brothers [Millard Elias Botner]. They wanted me to so I could walk to school, another one, with their daughter, Wilma. [Wilma D. Botner born 14 Dec 1907] She had quite a ways to walk too, & through the woods, but the reason they didn't want her to be alone... one of the older school boys had tried to molest her along the way.
"I don't remember just how long we were in Missouri, 3 or 4 yrs I imagine, but they were pretty rough years. We didn't have much, but I don't remember anyone complaining. Grandpa [Louis Cass Britton] had a little mill that he could grind corn & make meal. He would grind for others around & accept some meal as pay. When he had some to spare he would give us some. But there were times when we didn't have any & if the season was right, & the corn in the field was at the right stage, he would let us get some from the field & grate it for bread. Mom or Ted had took a big bucket &, bu taking a nail & driving it through from the inside over quite an area, it made it like a grater. I wasn't crazy about that kind of bread, but we ate it.
"In the house we had a bed & a table & a small cook stove. I don't remember where we got them. Guess someone gave them to us. A couple of orange crates stacked on end made a place for dishes and things. A ladder in one corner led up to the attic where we had a couple of beds. It was really "air conditioned". I remember Chick [Earl Chester Botner] telling about one morning one winter. He wok up & snow had blowed through the cracks & all over his bed. Ha!
"Someone had given Mom a spinning wheel & she loved to spin & make thread for knitting. First we'd have to take the seed out of the cotton. Then the cotton had to be "carded" & made into little rolls & then spun into thread. Mom could make the thread, some fine enough for crocheting or heavier for knitting sweaters, socks, gloves & mittens, all of which she did. I first leanred to do just plain knitting while in Turon, Kansas. It was during the first world war. We children in school learned to knit squares, seems like there were about 6.6 in., for to use making covers for the soldier boys. Mom knit sweaters for them too.
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| Louis |
"Aunt Stell, mom's sister that had been with Grandpa, she & her husband went to Oklahoma & soon wanted us to come down there. [Stella married Sherman Franklyn Lynes on 21 Aug 1920 so the move to OK had to be after that.] Chester & Ted went down first, then the rest of us went. Got on a little farm with an old house on it & raised cotton & some feed. Mom made garden. I don't know where we got the animals & tools to do with. Must of got them on time for we sure didn't have any money. One year there, then we moved a couple miles from there & share cropped for a farmer, & lived in a little 2 room house close to him, & had to carry all of our water from his place. Raised cotton there too.
"We went to a little 2 room school. It only went to the eighth grade, but when us eighth graders finished that, the teacher, a man, the only man teacher I ever had, he got permission to teach the nineth, so that was as far as I got.
"Then we moved to another farm, & Chester got married while we were there. He had got a job in the oil field, & he & Callie lived in a little place on the oil lease. [Earl Chester Botner married Callie Elizabeth Johnson on 22 Aug 1926, in Drumright, OK]
"Our next move was back with the man that we had worked for, only lived farther from him, still on his property & in another little house, 2 little rooms.
"A cousin, one that had visited us in Kansas, now lived in Ponca City, Okla, north of us a ways, & still visited us... she wanted me to come stay with her & her husband & get a job there. I was 19 years old by then. [1926-27] So I went & soon got a job in a laundry. That's where I was when Dad came back. He had found out where our family was through Wilma's family. He first came to where I was & wanted me to go down home with him. I did. He had been in Indiana, I guess, all that time [confirmed by the address on his WWI draft card] & wanted us to go there. So he went back & sent us money to come on, so that is how come we are in Indiana.
"Wasn't here too long till Ted, Otis & I were working for Thompson Symon Co [located on N. 13th St. in Terre Haute - gone now], where I worked till I retired, with the exception of time off when my boys were little. And we've got Dad to thank for getting us out of the cotton fields.
"I met Phil (your dad) at a dance. We were married in 1937, a union that didn't last long & the only good thing that came from it is my boys."
[Note: The autobiographical effort of Clarice Evelyne (Botner) Price was at the behest of her youngest son, Dale K. Price, who is the "your" person referred to, as in "your father", and elsewhere; and, is the annotator of this copy.]
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