Notes: Frank and Nellie were married in Chandler, Lincoln County, Oklahoma,
on 5 Feb 1907. They then moved to the Sapulpa oil fields where
they acquired a cleaning, pressing ship — and a pawn shop on
the side. This was a busy place with all the men working the oil
fields and quick money needed for their gambling, etc.
They stayed there one year, and then moved on to Coweta.
Frank and Nellie went into the same business in Coweta and stayed
there until 1910.
In 1911, Frank and Nellie lived near Porter, Oklahoma, in Wagoner County.
Frank there became a Watkins Products salesman and their first child, Eugene Carl,
was born in September. Their second child, Jessie Lorraine, was born three
years later in Ponotauk County, and their third child, Elva Jewel, arrived in
Muskogee County, Oklahoma, in September 1916.
In 1919, the family ventured out West to California for the first time. They
traveled by train to Holtville, where their fourth child, Francis Earl, was born
in 1920 and died four months later. Their fifth was born there in 1922.
After a couple of quick trips back to Oklahoma, they headed West again in 1923 to
stay — in an open Model T touring car with Frank, Nellie, and their four kids.
Two other cars of relatives also came with them. On their way while in a prairie,
a cyclone struck with rain so hard it was impossible to travel as the road was mostly
just dirt. The three car loads of relatives found shelter in a one-room school
house — with no heat or lights. Finally, after three weeks of traveling,
they arrived in Garden Grove, California.
Frank and his family then headed North to Napa — as they had relatives there:
Uncle Ed and Bess McFarren. Daughter Fern Elvira was born there in July 1924.
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