Show I i j I r i w I fi i 1 I HOMER i HO E 1 A Ar b. b i iII I 1 r C ROY CROP III tl Cure J t J I i o I 1 I II I was born on a farm tarm near the center euter of the United d States so so when 1 I began making notes for tor this chron chronicle icle idle I 1 decided I would find Just how near the center our farm tarm really was 1 I wrote the United States Stales Depart Depart- Department ment menu of the Interior Geological Sur Survey vey Washington D D. C C. and this Is the answer The geographic center of at the continental United States tes exclusive Ie of ot Alaska lies In Smith County Kansas ansas about two to miles northwest of ot the town of ot Lebanon The did dis distance I tance from tram this locality to Mary Mary- Maryville ville Missouri I is miles I suppose our farm larm was typical of ofa a great many farms In this heart heart- center of the United States tes and that tha t I our way wa of ot life was typical too And AndI I II I suspect that my own personal sto sto- story story ry Is typical of ot a great grent many life stories of this section If It you want to lad where Mary Mary- yule is you'll have to do quite a bit bitof bitof of at looking for tor Its It's still a pretty prelly small place I dont don't know what our cur Chamber Cham Chamber ber of at Commerce Is going to say about that Maryville is 44 miles north of at St St. Joseph Missouri and the farm tarm where here I was born Is 14 miles south of 01 the Iowa line and the I back of at the farm tarm is on Highway 71 The story of at our farm tarm is the story of ot me for In a way I am the farm tarm farmand farmand and the farm tarm Is me Our two to stories are wrapped so closely together that I cannot tell one without setting down the other And that is what I hope to do to tell teU the story stor of ot the farm tarm arm and of at myself A sort of 01 double dou ble ble biography The River pokes along Just east of ot us Friends are always ask asking ing me how a river got that name I suppose I had Just as well tell It now as any time It was the hun hun- second and river the Mormons crossed on their way to what is now Salt Lake City St. St Joseph is where the ox teams were outfitted to cross the Great Plains and where the Pony Express started Also where Jesse James was killed All this was prairie country inthe In Inthe Inthe the early days We used to have an anold anold anold old buffalo wallow but my father tather put a k on It and and leveled It off oft till now its it's Just a plain un un- unromantic unromantic romantic patch of at cornfield My father lather and mother were cov cow covered cowered ered wagon pioneers They left Ohio by ox team for tor California but the theland theland theland land at et Maryville looked so good they stayed But Dut they didn't know each other as they came lumbering out from tram Athens County Ohio They were on different wagon trains and never heard of ot each other until they met in Missouri 1 Many Ohio people came into this prairie section and got to marrying each other Later came from Tennessee and Kentucky and settled down among the Ohio and Indiana people and that Is one reason ours became a Border Dorder Warfare State My ly father tather knew nothing about the Crays except they were Ohio folks My parents were two of ot the thou thou- rands Gands upon thousands during this period in American history who were looking for tor land for tor land represented rep resented Opportunity They were typical of at the time and the way they went about opening up a farm tarm Was Nas I suspect typical too The Ohio people camped together hat first winter and shared work ind shelter while they scouted scanted for Imd Most of ot them wanted timber Because i they had come from timber Ind I nd had always worked in timber glut ut my father tather wanted what he called open land which he had seen Turing luring the Civil War so he went ait a Ii ait it north of at the rest of at the Ohio peo pea people fie and singled out a prairie er section Then he rode In to lawn lown horseback to enter It up but me ne of ot the land speculators of at the period had got there ahead of him tad ind had filed Pa always said It Aras Nas a blow because an soldier ex-soldier ex soldier Nas supposed to have first go at land The land specula speculator tor lor had paid the government an en acre and my father tather had to pay him Sim twenty five cents an acre prof proto It I 1 am sorry that my father tather did not get to enter up the land la nd for tor that would be something to talk about But the land grabber was there first So there is one other name between the United States Government and Croy I wish that tha t was otherwise too But its it's some something thing to have had a farm tarm under one since name 1870 through drouth and depression and easy money seem seemingly and hard times And theres there's always plenty of ot the latter laUer Ask any farmer who pulls a living out of ot the soil 1011 Sometime during that first winter my father and mother met She was the belle of 01 her wagon train and ane he had risen to sergeant in the I Civil War and was considered one of ot the promising young men It wasn't long loni till they were looking each other over Susan Sewell and Sergeant Amos Croy Cro Everybody Was wai Door and money just wasn't Jut Hut there was land and there was youth and strength and will and determination Mother told me about the courting courtin lie He gave Ra her lead leid nod and noda only two taro presents presents-II u pencil I. I twist of ot cinnamon bark My ty fa fa- faher father ther her was always sensitive l about this as If It in some way It reflected on his ardor or his generosity but I'm Im sure it was as much as any of ot the th Ohio men gave their girls In some mysterious way he hl man mat managed aged to find a pair of white calf calfskin skin gloves for tor the wedding I still have nave them and I would not take n a great deal for tor them I sometimes wonder yonder what his farmer r hands must have looked like In those dainty arti artl cles Iles They were married In her brother Wills Will's parlor and und Pa took look oil oft the wagon brake wagon brake und and they the angled across the prairie to their new home I 1 like to say sa It was n a sod sad hut for tor there were many sod sad huts lint Hut it wasn't The und and Sewells had cut the tin lumber themselves and sheared It to the proper pro er thickness and put up a n room one one room house quite a landmark on the prairies They moved In and started to farm tarm and the Crays and Sewells have been farming ever since 1 I still have that farm and I hope I always will Its It's really a wonderful farm tarm I want you to believe that In fact tact any farm larm Is wonderful it If you or your folks have gone through hell for tor It On the farm tarm there was not In Incredible incredible credible as It may seem a stick slick or ora ora ora a stone Not even a stone as big as ns asa asa a marble The soil soli was black prairie loam left during the Ice Age All there was on it was prairie grass N hY Y v lul d r rr ri r I I i Sometimes Som would conic ome to the door and make food tood signs I bunch grass slough grass and wild wildflowers wildflowers flowers And grasshoppers Plenty of 01 them Fuel was a problem But ut my mother as did the prairie women omen of this section solved It to a certain extent by picking up buffalo chips Surely you know what they are If It you dont don't you simply have no pio pio- pioneer pioneer neer veer tradition But ut they did have a sod sad stable Poles across the root roof thatched with slough grass and und slab doors The and Sewells banded to together gether again and sank a well Its It's Its still there and has the finest Onest water In the world That's Thais not just my opinion but everybody's who has ever emptied a tin Un cup And so my father and mother with their well and their room one one room house and sod sad stable started to housekeep And considered them themselves selves lucky Almost envied Now and then Indians would skulk past the and some sometimes sometimes times limes would come to the door and make food toad signs But ut never any real trouble I My father put the first plow in that virgin soil as the fancy tanty writers call it But nut it wasn't easy for tor prairie grass grows deep and slough grass deeper Horses cant can't do the Job It takes oxen and for lor the prairie grass they had to be double double- teamed Again the Sewells to the i rescue I 1 I wish I 1 had some kind of written record of ot those days when Fathers Father's and Mothers Mother's window was the only t light ligh lighon on the prairies but I 1 haven't I So I will have to piece It out of ot what they told me when I was a lad I wish Id I'd paid better attention But ButI I everybody in that section had the I same story to tell so 10 it didn't seem seem exciting The Indian part seemed awfully weak Sometimes I almost I wished one of ot taken a shot ahot at al Pa I Sometimes 1 my father used to talk about how nice it was In the early tarl days dus No chinch bugs no cutworms I Ino no 10 corn borers no black rust mil no Russian thistles Hut But it was differ different ant ent about the grasshoppers They almost got him once He lie would drop his voice volet when he hr spoke of that year ear and so vivid and personal did dide did he e make It that It always alwn's seemed i worse orse than Ulan the thc o of at Chieka mauga mau lie He still had Imd his belt bell as he hl called It And he hr talked about having had his army rifle rille I I but jut I have no nu memory of ot ever hay ha v. v i Ing ng seen It it I expect when I 1 came CI along he gave It away aWI far or he hl was I always afraid his child was going to tobe tobe I be hurt I I II The next thing was ns to start sta rt an nn orchard going go in so they got apple seeds and currant cuttings and I put them In the ground for not one edible thing thin was then growing on that land The next was to get a place for tor forthe forthe the work stock so they hauled in polls poles and made macho a n Jack oak barn tI tIlot lot fence There the horses hores could exercise ex exercise and the lire oxen roam rOll around The first living annual to go KO into the ground in addition to the or orchard orchard chard and low bushes was Osage orange This was designed to be used as ns a fence tence hedge fences they were wert called for tor no one at that time lime knew they were called Osage orange Just hedge hedge and and damnable stuff too After a time lime when the farmers could obtain posts they wanted to get rid of ot the hedge for tor forit forit it sapped d ten feet feel of ot corn and barbed wire was all the style The Tho hedge must be cut In August and Its roots fed ted salt alt Theres There's no hot hot- hotter hotter ter work In the world than grubbing hedge roots along a cornfield In Au Au- gust Dont Don't try it I Once a month my father tather and moth mother er err would get Into the wagon wogan and go ga goto goto to Maryville l the county seat sea t. t It was six miles but shorter than then now because there were so few fences They'd have to hurry with their trad trad- tradIng Ing and get home because there was the stock Grandfather Croy came and built builta a n house half halt a II mile away Then Uncle Jim came and Uncle Al and Uncle Dexter Dexler and Uncle Purl It wasn't long until the were as ns thick as Johnson grass gross The Sewells Sew ells stayed down clown on the other side of 01 the county twelve miles away It II was a tremendous distance The Crays hardly ever over heard from them Neighbors began to filter In Some from Indiana and some from JIll Illi nois A few tew from tram Kentucky and Ten Ten- bear watching Rebels My l mother molher used to tell me about corn shucking In those early lays days My father had no shucking gloves for tor cotton flannel was too expensive so he had to pick bare handed The shucks cut and lashed his hands During the afternoon my mother would bring out some corn bread and an apple Then she would work along with him until time to go In Inand Inand inand and begin on the housework again When the wagon bed was tilled filled Pa Po would come in and scoop out the corn do the chores and eat cat sup sup- per P After Atter supper my mother would pour melted candle tallow Into the cracks and cuts In his hands She always spoke of at this with a n kind of horror It made him moan In his sleep More people moved In and some fool suggested roads rands The old set set- tiers such as they were already being called fought taught It tooth and toe but had to give in so It was not long until nobody went to town over a trail It took Pa years to get used to the idea Mother was more progressive and took It In her stride But Dut when they sold a II load of steers and ond had to take them to town to ship it was all right to drive I them across the country straight for tor their target It was all right too to torun torun torun run ahead and pull down a barbed barbed- wire fence tence so the steers could cross cruss like the children at the Red Sea After the steers were past the fence tence had to be nailed up again A man who didn't properly nail up a fence tence was considered pretty low law One notch lower and end hed he'd poison polson dogs It was not long until somebody suggested there ought to be a school So the farmers met and talked It over Mr Knabb said he would give an acre of land If It they would name the school for tor him The farmers hauled out the lum lumber ber her and dug the corner holes and It ItI I was not long before there was an I II I institution of ot learning on Mr I Knabbs Knabb's land The next year it was painted and there the school school- schoolhouse house still stands The exhausting exha Sting labor Father was sinking into the farm tarm began to pay dividends The orchard was com corn coming ing lag up hens were dusting themselves under the gooseberry bushes and Mother was thinking of ot getting guineas guin guineas to keep her company The sod sad sadI barn bam had lad given way to an pole all I stable and father tather was dreaming I about a hog hOK house But Dut he had to togo togo togo go slow times being what they were and hog hot prices price going up and down like Ilke a scale beam TO 10 BE UP CONTINUED |