Where was our grandfather Exie, who had been born in 1882? I looked for a very long time before locating him in 1900. Since the 1890 Census was burned, there was the long 20 year gap of time between the 1880 and 1900 to account for.
To fill in that 20 year gap, let’s regress a bit to see where John and Mary Ann, and their ten children had been and what they had been doing during that time.
Evidently John and Mary Ann left Benton County, Arkansas, after Exie was born in 1882. By July 1885 when Theodore (Dode) was born they were living east a ways, in Carroll County, AR. Phoebe and Will both married in Carroll Co. in the 1890s. We don’t know exactly when John and family moved to OK, but it would appear that it was mid to late 1890s.
Daughter Louisa (Lou) and husband John Sims had moved 170 miles or so to the east, to Ripley County, Missouri sometime before 1892. They had 5 children in 1900, all but the oldest born in MO. The youngest son was Oran Sims. I think I may have found a death record for Oran in Dupo, St. Clair, Missouri. If it is correct he died in 1972. I have not found any further records for the Sims family. Dan Hancock has told me that Louisa died in 1910 at age 48, which was mentioned in her mother’s obituary. I’ve yet to learn more, but I suspect they remained in Missouri.
Daughter Harriet (Hattie) married John Archer two months before her younger brother, Exie, was born, in 1882. Hattie and John were married in Benton, Arkansas, but by 1883 they were living in Indian Territory, as Oklahoma was called before statehood (an alternate later was Oklahoma Territory). Four of their children survived those years of farming in Cleveland, daughter July (born in May, so maybe her name was really Julie?), Mattie, Jessie, and John. Last year I made contact with a slew of Archers. Betty Gleffe and Aunt Alice Gleffe helped me sort it out so I could finally find these families. There are a lot of interesting stories to tell about them. In 1900, the Archer family lived in Canadian, Cleveland, OK, near Hattie’s parents John and Mary Ann McFarren.
Eldest Son, Frank, married Cora Kennedy in 1889. They had no children. In 1900 Frank was a proprietor of a Hotel in Twp 13 on the Creek Nation in Indian Territory. Cora’s sister, Dolly, was living with them, and their boarders included a waitress employed at the hotel, a newspaper printer, a bookkeeper, dentist, carpenter, coal miner, and a stone mason. Seems you could get just about anything taken care of at that hotel. Frank was quite an enterprising sort. He would divorce Cora before 1907, and marry Nellie Morgan. More about Frank later.
Son, Benjamin (Ben) had been wandering too. I know relatively little about Ben, but in 1900 he was living with his sister Della’s family, who also were living in Cleveland County, OK. Ben was 32 years old and already widowed then. I suspect he was residing with Della at that time because he had a baby daughter, Ophelia May, born in December 1898, to take care of, and I’m sure he needed help with that. This baby had been born in Texas, as was her then departed mother, so evidently Ben had been south to Texas for a time. I have found no further records for Ben. “May,” his daughter, was living with John and Mary Ann in 1910. What happened to Ben? This little girl’s story sounds a little like our Grandmother Cornie’s. A mystery to solve.
Della married James Hugh Williams about 1888 in Arkansas. Their two oldest children were born in 1889 and 91 in AR. The third, Albert, was born Missouri in 1892. More wanderers! The next child, Paul, was born in OK in 1896. As mentioned, in 1900 they were living in Cleveland, OK, near parents John and Mary Ann, and brother Ben McFarren was living with them. Nearby was sister Hattie Archer and family. By the way, little Paul, died before 1910, but Della and James would stay on in OK for many more years, producing 6 more children by 1911. Talk about clockwork! They had a total of 11 kids.
Daughter Phoebe married Lewis C. Brodie 6 September 1891 in Carroll County, AR. Their daughters Beulah and Blanche were 6 and 3 years old in 1900 when Phoebe and Lewis were running a retail Liquor store in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. The census notes that Phoebe had lost a couple of pregnancies or children by this time, in addition to the two who survived. It appears they stayed in AR at least through 1902 when Norman was born. Eventually they would join the others and head for OK.
Son William Henry McFarren (Will) also married while in Carroll County, AR. His wife was Rebecca Ellison who was only 15 when they married in March 1897. Their first child, Alta, was born in January 1898 in OK, so they probably migrated with the rest of the McFarrens. Evidently Indian Territory didn’t suit Will and Becky at that time, because the second child, Bessie, was born in January 1900 in Golden, Missouri. But then, by Census time, June of that year, Becky was found living in the home of her parents back in Carroll, AR, with her two babies in tow. She was 17 years old.
Where was Will in June 1900? I found his whereabouts just recently. He was in Colorado Springs, CO., with 18 year old Exie. That’s a good method of birth control…move several states away! Will and “E. Moore” McFarren are listed as “day laborers.” What was the draw to Colorado? Will McFarren did return to Becky. Or, they met up again, in OK. Ruby was born in OK in 1903, and Roy in 1906.
Son Edward Walter McFarren (Uncle Ed), 20, unmarried, as mentioned was at home helping the parents farm in OK in 1900.
Son Exie, 18 in 1900, was never on census with his parents. He would have appeared with them in 1890, of course, but we’ll never see that, since that census burned. It appears that he had the McFarren wanderlust and struck out with brother Will as early as possible.
Son Theodore, also as noted, was with the parents, and was still attending school. Mary Ann must have breathed a sigh of relief after he was born and no subsequent pregnancies ensued. She was 41 years old when “Dode” was born. She had her first child, Louisa, at age 17. With 10 healthy children, that’s 90 months of pregnancy. In those 24 fecund years she spent seven and one half years pregnant, and probably nearly all of the remaining 16.5 years nursing a baby, as well as making all those moves and enduring the rigors of their pioneering life. Wow. Hat’s off to her!