My Memorial to My Grandfather: part 5

Normally, what the people of Greeley Colorado expected of Oscar Sexton was a quiet man, with deep set blue eyes, a charming smile, and the diligent work ethic of a mechanic who loved the work he practiced.  Following Anna Jane’s departure, he grew increasingly moody, sometimes barking out with an overt stern growl whenever even simple matters would go awry.  His partner in the garage, as well as the owners of the café, knew it all revolved around Anna Jane; and even though Oscar would never discuss his feelings for the girl with anyone, they nevertheless persisted in demanding, if he loved the girl, he needed to run after her; which, eventually, the inspiration struck him to do precisely that.

Oscar, however, was never one to plan things out.  He was more for the spontaneity of the moment, climbing aboard inspiration wherever it landed and modifying actions whenever circumstances would dictate.  Thus, when the idea to follow Anna Jane hit, he leapt for his things to pack and go.  Then, he considered what money the trip would take.  Not enough lay in his pockets for a train ticket in order to cover the distance like Anna Jane and her brother Eddie (Eddie proved himself as intuitive toward business and the art of making money as did Oscar towards the art of making an automobile sing).  Even including the money he was owed for his work at the garage, he could manage little more than a ‘down payment’ on a ticket for a future date.

It was decent money he made, working as a defacto “apprentice” mechanic as he learned and honed his skills; but it was far from the good money needed in order to travel anywhere at any given time.  Thus, the only course of action open was hoboing it across country, from one train station to the next, jumping aboard the first open boxcar on its way out of Greeley.  Not an easy way to travel, not a safe way to travel; but Oscar was a young man with a stocky build and a stern resolve.  Like his grandfather decades before him, he could present himself as an intimidating presence simply by the manner with which he stared in your direction.  People knew he was no man with whom to mess, a test to which only fools dared subject themselves.

Anna Jane lived in a boarding house with her brother when Oscar arrived in Long Beach.  It was the address she gave him that final night in Greeley before she left.  Oscar took a room in the same boarding house, and was recommended by her for the open job of dishwasher the café where she worked offered.  It was not the work he sought, of course, but as the rent for the room consumed his final sliver of money, it became the work he took while searching for anything closer aligned with the mechanic work he loved.

In the meanwhile, he and Anna Jane picked up precisely where they left off in Greeley.  Nothing had changed.  They were growing closer together, and they even began talking of getting married one day.

Before marriage could become more of a substantive reality, Oscar looked to make a better living than he currently did.  Eventually, he attained work at a garage; but it paid him little more than what he made in Greeley – and considering the change in cost of living from Colorado to California, he may even have been earning a bit less.  Nevertheless, he remained optimistic for the future.  The burgeoning automobile market developing in California offered a multitude of new opportunities for growth and advancement.  He only needed to bide him time and be prepared to leap ahead when those doors flung open into his direction.

One day a letter arrives for him in the mail.  It came from his mother back in Kansas.  The unexpected appearance stymied him a bit.  He thought he managed to leave all his family troubles back in Kansas.  How was his mother able to find him all the way out here in California?  Why was she writing?  What on earth could she ever want?

Oscar found himself unable to open the letter, so he asked Anna Jane to read it for him.  She did so, and told him his mother was writing to inform him of his brother, Alvin’s death.  His appendix ruptured, and he was gone.

First, there was the shock receiving the letter; now, Oscar’s stunned to hear of his oldest brother’s passing. Forty was far too young an age to leave behind a wife and dependent children.  What would Alvin’s widow Sarah do?  How would she manage?  Would she remarry?  It was the course most young mothers took when faced with the death of a spouse.  She was Alvin’s same age, so she wouldn’t be able to offer any new husband children beyond her own.  Perhaps, she could meet a man who was looking for a wife, a wife to help raise the kids his own wife left when she passed away and left them behind.

Within a few days, Oscar wrote out a letter or response to his mother.  Part of him wished his mother’s letter had never found him, as he still hoped to put all his family troubles behind and build a new life with Anna Jane there in Long Beach.  However, another part of him felt some allegiance to family, despite being stepped on as the runt who never garnered respect for any of his opinions on anything.  A soul enters this life a part of only one family.  Never should that soul ever run to quickly dissolve whatever ties may remain.

In his letter, he chose not to ask his mother how she found him.  He already knew she was a strong-willed woman capable of innumerable resources.  To attempt such would have proven a waste of his pen’s ink.  Rather, after inquiring into Sarah and the kids, he closed with an adamant declaration that he would not be returning to Kansas.

A second letter from his mother arrived weeks later.  She answered all his questions on his sister-in-law Sarah by telling him she and the kids left the farm and moved in with her parents.  Some people were gossiping she would make a good wife for William Gfeller from Smoky Hill, as William’s wife laid grievously ill and was expected to pass on any day now.  The man would then have a house of ten kids who needed a mother, just as Sarah now faced the situation of four kids who needed a father.  This all meant Alvin’s farm lay in need of a tenant who could farm the land.  Oscar could return to Abilene and begin farming it, his own farm, just like his brothers, his cousins, and everyone else within the family.

My Memorial to My Grandfather: part 4

The café owner declared emphatically , that very moment, the two of them were heading down to the local dress shop to buy Anna Jane a new dress – and for some inconceivable reason, the woman made the new dress Anna Jane’s pay for the week. 

This did not sit well at all with Anna Jane’s father.  The boys were doing their part, working the farm.  She was supposed to do her part, earning money at the café and delivering that pay to her father for the family – not buying selfish items for herself.

Without a word of discussion on the matter, she was kicked out of her family home; and she had been living at the hotel there in Greeley ever since.  She paid for her room with what money she made from the café; and the lady owner of the café felt somewhat responsible, so she gave her meals at no cost.

Oftentimes with the gallant young man, whenever hearing such damsel-in-distress stories, the young man’s chivalrous nature will rise up, seeking to right the wrong and save the beautiful princess from the dragon.  Such was certainly no different a matter facing Oscar, listening to Anna Jane tells her tale.  He wished to help her; but how?  Was there anything he could do?  And if so, what?

One thing he knew for certain was he definitely wished to continue seeing the girl; which they naturally did; and the more they saw of one another, the more they talked and the more he learned.  This was a young woman of incredible inner strength, who never uttered a single harsh word against her father, nor expressed outrage at the injustice of it all.  There existed a measure of pain in between the words, a sadness he felt simpatico with due to his own family troubles, which made her humanity all that more appealing.

Anna Jane could not continue living in a hotel room forever; yet what could be done?  What should be done?  The thought of asking the input of others: his partner, some of the men he knew in town, the café owners who knew Anna Jane longest – he considered, but quickly dismissed when recalling his own family troubles back in Kansas.  The people he should have been closest to, they chided him ceaselessly over his interest in mechanics, rather than the farming.  Why should people in Colorado prove to be any different?

His family’s argument stemmed from the fact Oscar came from a long line of farmers.  He was meant to be applying his energies tilling the land, raising the crops, tending to the farm animals.  Let others waste time with these foolish motorcar contraptions!

No, Oscar would ponder over how to help Anna Jane on his own.   Coloradoans were probably no different to the Kansans back home.  If Anna Jane were an automobile, it would prove a simple matter of applying basic mechanical reasoning to discern the trouble. His confidence in his mechanical ability had grown significantly in the short time.  Yet Anna Jane was no automobile, and troubles like hers were more substantial than something contained underneath the automobile’s hood. 

Ironically, as Oscar mused over these family problems, the similarities between with what he faced, and what she was forced to endure, were eerily striking.

One night following a typical walk home, Anna Jane dropped a bombshell into Oscar’s lap.  She told him her older brother Eddie contacted her, informing her of his intent for moving to California on the next train heading out of Greeley.  There were two tickets in his hands – one, of which, was for her passage.

Accompanying this startling news was a simple piece of paper she handed Oscar as they parted that evening.  On it was written the address she and her brother would be staying at in Long Beach California.  She hoped he would write.

The next day, the girl was gone.

My Memorial to My Grandfather: part 3

Yet, as Oscar learned the first night he walked her home, Anna Jane did not reside at the family farm.  She lived in a Greeley hotel room a block down and on the opposite side of the street.  This revelation answered for him one of the initial curiosities nagging at him since the first coffee break he and his partner took in her café.

Anna Jane always engaged in small talk with customers – especially brand new customers stepping through the door for the first time.  She was a young woman absent any fear.  She would ask them all the standard questions, plus some originals of her own – anything to get them talking.  She believed a talking customer was often a happy customer; and a happy customer was clearly a repeat customer.

The day Oscar and his partner walked in for the first time, she greeted them with her usual friendly charm.  Seeing they were new to the café, she asked them what their names were, where they were from, what they were doing in Greeley, etc. etc.  Oscar’s partner explained they were the two guys opening the garage next door.   If the food was as good as the help, she would clearly be seeing a lot of them from now on.  She answered by confessing her total ignorance on these automobiles covering the Greeley roads.  She was a horse girl.  She rode her horse wherever she needed to get.  When she and her family crossed the Kansas plains to reach Colorado from her home state of Missouri, it was by covered wagon all the way.

Oscar chimed in at this point, telling about his grandfather, a man who was known as one of the best horsemen in all the state of Kansas.  He passed away some two and a half decades prior to Oscar being born; but his father, and all the family who knew him, often regaled the young kids with stories of the family patriarch’s exploits.  Along with knowing good horse flesh, with the good horse sense the man apparently had, he was also acquainted with Wild Bill Hickok and Buffalo Bill Cody.  He also was known for standing fast and fighting strong against the Texas Cowboys treading their beef across farmers’ land, destroying their crops.  James Sexton the elder was certainly no man with whom to trifle.

Such inbred familiarity with horses must have made the absence of any horse about Anna Jane a glaring void Oscar could not help but notice. There were no signs of horses anywhere near the café that first day.  When she explained to him she lived at the hotel, it made a bit more sense.  When she told him she lived at the hotel because her father kicked her out of the family house, there was no sense whatsoever.  Why would a father force his own teenage daughter leave?

Anna Jane explained to him it all revolved around a dress.  The wife of the owner of the café, a most pleasant woman who also was a true lady in all regards, asked Anna Jane one day as to the condition of her dress.  She always showed up for work wearing the exact, same, tired dress as the previous day.  Why was that?

Anna Jane explained she had one dress for through the week and one dress for Sunday.  Her father would not permit any of his children to wear their Sunday things on any day but the Lord’s holy day.  She apologized if the dress was looking a bit ragged.  She cleaned it as often as she could; but with work there at the café, and then work at home, sometimes she wasn’t able to get to keeping it clean as often as she would have liked.

My Memorial to My Grandfather: part 2

             Also at this time, the first automobiles began to dent the rural Kansas marketplace, capturing more of Oscar’s fertile curiosity.  How was it possible for this smaller beast of iron and metal, these four wheels supporting an internal combustion engine, filled with gasoline as a fuel, rather than the coal he knew as a train’s fireman, how was it possible for this automobile to propel its smaller carriage down the road?

The man charged with the responsibility of training Oscar, a coworker who observed his steadfast inquisitive nature and diligent work ethic introduced him to a young man he knew, a young man a few years older than Oscar himself, who was planning on opening a garage in Greeley Colorado.  All this young man needed was a partner to help see things established.  It would pay little at first – most likely, nothing beyond living expenses – yet if Oscar sought a means through which to learn how automobiles functioned, what caused the internal combustion engine to propel these wheeled motorcars down the road, no better way existed for him than to follow this new friend.

It was a decision which took no deciding whatsoever.  It was a solid go all the way around, as Oscar’s life, up to the point of working as a fireman, had been nothing but farming.  He had grown up on farms.  He had watched his father and brothers farm.  All his uncles and cousins were farmers.  Every female relation he knew of, with the exception of his sister Lillian, married farmers.  Farming was a trait in the Sexton family brand he knew backwards and forwards, asleep and awake.  Yet never did it excite his senses, nor stir the passion of his fervent curiosity, like the mechanical workings of an engine complicated, yet capable of bringing an inanimate object to life.

Downtown Greeley Colorado was lined with mechanic shops, car dealerships, and cafes.  It was a small town metropolis bustling with enough activity and work for any young man to learn all he could possibly learn of these new internal combustion engines.  Oscar worked at a distinct advantage over those plying their trade since automobiles came to be.  When a car was brought into the garage, he not only viewed it as an opportunity to further his understanding of what made that vehicle run; but, even more so, he used it as a chance to dig into its framework and clearly diagnose why it was not performing as it should.    His diligence and incessant curiosity made the garage a success.

Oscar’s partner discovered a location for the garage which was both ideal and convenient.  While most of the other garages in Greeley situated themselves in the same general downtown area, he found a building next to a café they fashioned into a workable garage.  It was at this café, a place he and his partner took all their lunch and coffee breaks, Oscar first met Anna Jane Welch.

Four years the younger, Anna Jane was the daughter of a farmer from nearby Weld County.  Her time at the café began only a few short months prior to Oscar arriving in Greeley.  It was a decision of her father’s in an attempt to alleviate some of the family’s financial problems.  The farm was not producing as well as he needed; and his work as a brick mason was highly irregular.  He thought moving to northern Colorado from the south where they homesteaded would show signs of improvement.   It did not.  Thus, with Anna Jane now of age, this open job at the café was a perfect fit.  She was pretty.  She was friendly.  She knew how to cook and serve food.  It seemed a simple way to bring in some extra money the family needed.

My Memorial to My Grandfather: part 1

I became interested in the life of my grandfather, my father's father, after learning stories of his life and instances where it seemed I carried more in common with this man I never met (he sadly passed away nearly two decades prior to my being born) than I ever would have guessed.

Being that I enjoy writing, and being that my interest in family genealogy has blossomed over the last few years, I wondered if I could write a biography of him, based upon what my dad and my aunt, both children of the man, could tell me.  What follows from here is the first part of that biography:

Oscar, circa 1920s

A Memorial to My Grandfather:

Oscar Olen Sexton

My grandfather sadly passed away nearly two decades prior to my own birth.  What follows is a compilation of facts and stories of the man I have attempted to weave into some form of biographical sketch.  While the story I tell is not necessarily how the events of his brief life played out, I do hope these few pages will stand as an honor to a man I have yet to meet.

Oscar Olen Sexton was born into this life on a farm south of Abilene Kansas, the 10^th day of August in the year 1899.  His father, James Taylor Sexton, moved into the area three decades earlier; and his mother, Emma Ann Holt Sexton, the second wife to his father, followed shortly thereafter.  Her family, of which she was the eldest child, preceded the Sexton family, taking residence within the state when it was still yet a territory.

The two initially became acquainted through their families’ sojourn in Johnson County Illinois, a gateway to the West for Southern families seeking escape from the issues of civil war and land good for farming and raising a family.  The two remained in contact over the ensuing two decades; and when James’ first wife, Mary Ann Sharpe passed away from pulmonary consumption, he and Emma married a year later – their honeymoon being the one-hundred mile wagon trip from Butler County Kansas, where the Holts emigrated in southern parts of the state, to Dickinson County, of Abilene, where the Sexton finally settled.

The James Taylor Sexton Family, 1900

Oscar became the youngest of their children.  His birth arrived, in order, from Myrtle Mae, the eldest of James’ first wife; Omeso, who passed away in infancy; Alvin Allan, the eldest son and first-born of Emma; Burton Bradley; Vesta Vera; Harvey Hughey; Lillian Louise; Jasper James; and then Oscar himself: four brothers and three sisters, all of whom resided within the family hearth upon his entrance into the world – though, prior to Oscar being old enough to be aware, his two eldest siblings, Myrtle and Alvin, would be married and starting families of their own.

It was during Oscar’s formative years the same naturally followed with his brothers Burton and Harvey, as well as his sister Vesta.  All married and moved from the family farm, leaving just Oscar and his brother Jasper to help the parents farm the land.  Their older sister Lillian, also still lived at home, but her time she divided between attending school and working part-time as a music instructor.  One of James Sexton’s promises to his children was all the boys would receive 80 acres of land, while every girl would receive a piano.  This stirred an interest for music within both Vesta and Lillian, causing them to practice their teaching techniques upon their youngest brother, instructing him in the fine art of piano playing, as they themselves also learned.

Oscar’s first job outside of the farm came shortly after his schooling ended when he was hired as a fireman on the trains pulling into and out of Abilene. 

The trains had always proven a fascination to him, as his mechanically-inclined mind remained fervent with a curiosity to their inner workings.  Every time one would pull into the depot, and every time one would leave on schedule, he wondered with a youthful zeal how that colossal beast of iron managed to cease its movement and grind to a complete halt, only to spur itself back into life with a forward motion that propelled such massive size and weight down the railway.  He eagerly sought to understand this.  No one in his family knew – nor did they really care – but this job as fireman, shoveling the coal into the furnace of a locomotive’s engine, it began to creek open that door and give the young man his first views.