I was born at Salyersville , Kentucky , on December 17 , 1849 . I will tell you why it was called Salyersville . A man by the name of Sam Salyers was elected to the State legislature . He was illiterate , didn 't know " B " from " A bulls foot . " But he was a comical smart man , a fiddler , could play with his fiddle behind him or in front and dance after his own music . He was the life of both [ Kentucky legislative ] houses . When the legislative session was near the end , the legislators asked him what he wanted . " I want the county seat called Salyersville , " and the bill was passed without a dissenting vote . Now as to my ancestors , so far as I know , my grandfather on my father 's side was from Scotland and moved to Virginia . Then the family moved to Kentucky and his family included Dabe , Granville , Charley ( my father ) and two aunts . Now my mother 's family , the Suttons , was from Tennessee near Nashville . Their names were Matty , Ed , Louis and Charity Sutton . Matty married a man by the name of Sizemore who shot himself accidentally . The Suttons then moved to Kentucky in the neighborhood where the Pattons lived . Matty , the oldest one of my mother 's family , married Granville Patton . My mother , Nancy , married Charley Patton , my father . Thus , two brothers , Granville and Charley , married sisters , Matty and Nancy . When I was about five or six years old , I had a shock of curly hair which hung down to my shoulders . Mother would comb it and tell me how pretty it was . Aunt Sally , father 's sister , wanted me to go home with her and stay all night . So I went and as soon as we got there she pulled me down on her lap and cut my hair off close to my head . When I saw that her lap was full of my curly hair , I got mad and began crying and started home . On the way home , I fell and stuck a little sharp rock in my forehead . When I got up , I saw the blood dripping off of my face . Then I started smearing it all over my face with my hands . I got home with my head sheared and all bloody . Mother was mad . We didn 't speak to Aunt Sally any more till my hair grew out . My father 's name was Charley and my mother 's name was Nancy . Their oldest child was Marthey , then Ed and John , Betty and Sally , the twins , Farney , Darkey and Snitha and Elic . Charles Patton One of my uncles owned slaves . We lived on joining farms with this uncle . Ben , a Negro boy , about 10 years old , came to our house most every nice morning to play with me . He played like he was a horse . He would get down on his hands and knees with me on his back . He would go around and around the house and the knees of his pants wore out . One day , he thought he would play horse right and we went down to the creek , a swift small stream about 2 feet deep . As I straddled him , he crawled in , put his head down like a horse to drink and rolled over on his side . I fell off him and screamed and went down the stream . Mother heard me and got me out of the stream . I never rode Ben to the creek anymore . When I was nine or ten years , I began school with my first schoolteacher . It was a bright spring morning and father was out in the field . I saw a man coming , a long , lean , gaunt , bony looking man with a Beegram hat on like Giggs wear . He walked up to the open door and addressed my mother and said " Have you any children you want to go to school ? " Mother said yes and invited him in . He leaned over and took hold of his hat and turned it upside down , dropped it on the floor and it sounded like a base drum . Then mother began talking about the school and asked what price he would charge . He said $ 1 for each child . But he added " I will take anything a merchant will take such as butter , eggs , chickens , feathers , tallow , beeswax , or gin sang . " Then she asked where would he teach the classes . He replied that if he could get 20 subscribers , we could build a schoolhouse . Nancy Sutton Patton with her son Alexander Patton . Nancy Sutton Patton , wife of Charles Patton and was the mother of Martha Patton Stewart . She was born around 1824 in Virginia and died in 1906 in Rowan County . She is shown with her son , Alexander Patton . Her son was born in September of 1863 when she was 39 . Oh , she had a daughter three years later . Alexander " Elic " , her son , died in a tragic accident on July 1 , 1927 when he was going home to Clearfield and was hit by a train at a crossing . One of his daughters was named Birchie Patton , ( 1899 - 1991 ) . On that day , Birchie not only lost her father but her second oldest son who also died in the train accident . His name was Stephen Elmo Caudill and Stephen is buried in the Stewart Cemetery on McBrayer . He was eight years old when he died . Mother asked him about his teaching and he took a book out of his pocket and read and spelled out in a ( baritone ) bear tone . Then he took another book out of his pocket and made all kinds or marks . I didn 't know what he was doing , but he was explaining an arithmetic lesson . Then he took a white roll of paper out of his pocket and he tried to unroll it . The paper , however , flew out of his hand , fell on the floor and rattled like pasteboard . He removed a bottle of red ink ( poke berry juice ) from his pocket , turned his paper upside down , held it down with his left hand , then got his goose quill pen out of his hat band , and with the first stroke he made with that pen squeaked like a rat in a steel trap . Birchie Patton when she was 13 years old . The photo is part of the Cora Wilson Stewart Collection at the University of Kentucky . On the back of the photo Cora wrote : " Birchie Patton , thirteen , year , old girl of Rowan County who won the state second in Tomato Club work for canning 150 gallons from tenth of a basket of tomatoes walking through a tomato patch collecting them " Birchie was born in 1899 and died in 1991 . She married Stephen Wilson Caudill in 1916 . Stephen is buried in the Stewart cemetery along with his son Stephen Elmo mentioned above . Brichie was probably named after her Aunt Birchie , the wife of Ed Patton , the author of this piece . Then he went out and got the number of subscribers needed to build a school . He invited the people to come and bring their axes , saws and oxen to the site for the school and they had the school house up in a few days . The building was covered with 4 foot clap boards , not a nail in it . The roof was weighted down with split logs , the flat side layed on the roof to hold it down . Our seats were split logs turned up side down with legs in the round side . We had to set still or the sharp splinters would prick our skins . The seats were on each side of the school room and across one end of the room and the door was on the other end of the room . The school was built around a big tree stump in the center of the building . The day for school came and we all rushed in and discovered that the teacher made a paddle . On one side he wrote out and on the other side he wrote in . He hung the paddle up at the side of the door and said , " Look here , when one of you goes out , turn this out . That will shows that one of you is out . When you come back , turn this side in . That will show that all of us are in , then another one can go . " Now , none of us could read but we could tell when we could go . One morning a little dog came in and the teacher with his long switch made a dive at it . The dog just went out through a crack like a scared rat . So the school went on and we all were studying the same words at the same time . We recited at the top of our voices for it was the one that made the most noise who was making the greatest headway . We learned to read and spell in two syllables . We learned all the same words at the same time . My next teacher was an English man named Stewart . He was a large man with loose skin on his jaws hung that down below his jaw bones just like a chicken 's wings on a hot day . Mr . Stewart stuttered very badly . He , also , had no time piece and so he would go outside when he wanted to see what time of day it was . He would put his hand up over his eyes , look at the sun and then turn around and see if he could step over his shadow . If the sun was straight up and down , it was 12 o ' clock . Then he would start back into the school and his jaw would commence shaking , " pu , pu , pu , put up books , " but we would all have our books up before he could get the word out and school just went on in the same old way . Then my next school teacher was Bill Grigsby . He was our neighbor and was almost like our family . I can shut my eyes and it seems as if I can see them . Their names were Wes , Andy , Sinth , Pats , Elviry , and Barlo . Well , that was in 1861 when the cruel war first began . Then my father was a prosperous farmer . Joseph Alexander Patton and his cousin Winford Caudill . Joe was the son of Alexander Patton who is in the first photo with his mother Nancy Sutton Patton . Winford Caudill was a son of Birchie Patton and Stephen Caudill . Then in 1862 , there were bands of outlaws roaming over the country side taking everything they wanted . We had a dapple - gray horse which we kept in the barn lot . A man that we knew came and took him . In a month and so one of my cousin came to our house and said Uncle Charley , if you will let Ed go with me , we will go and get your horse . So we went several miles across the county . We found the horse at a log cabin between two hills . My cousin went to the house . I didn 't go . I didn 't know how I would take the horse . I saw willow sprouts five or 6 feet tall , not bigger than a pencil . I cut one , pulled out one of my shoe strings , tied it to a willow sprout and the other end around the horses ' under jaw . I called my cousin . We got on the horse and rode to her home where she got off . I got home about dark and there had been a bunch of those outlaws there all day . They had burned the fence rails , killed turkeys and geese , made mother cook all day . They had a prisoner and they put had him in the hen house and nailed him up . About a month later , my cousin came and said that a man had said he would kill , on sight , the boy who took that horse . Father got busy and sold his farm and got Virginia bank money . We had the horses out in the woods at a watering place and carried feed to them . The old blacksmith , Jim Hughes , made shoes and nails . Jim took his kit of tools and shod them . A man we were acquainted with said , " Uncle Charley , I will go with you two or three days to keep the soldiers from taking your horses . " And he went with us for two days and then said , " Well , I will leave you now . " He went on and stopped with an old man by the name or Neem Louis . That night his bunch , or supposed to be , came in and took father 's money and horses . Mother had a part of the money in her stocking leg . They didn 't get that . My brother - in - law [ Alexander Stewart ] and I were behind driving the hogs and cattle . He and I went on to the Buffalo Furnace in Greenup County , Kentucky , before we knew my family had been robbed . Feed was so high we couldn 't buy feed for the stock . We killed all of our stock . To raise money , we boarded wood choppers at $ 16 per month . I will mention one thing I never will forget . On New Year 's Eve night of 1863 , it was a warm evening . My brother - in - law [ Alexander Stewart ] and I went across the county to what they called Old Town . We started back about 12 o ' clock . We were going up a kind of a canyon and we heard a sound like low thunder . In five minutes , a hurricane came and the rain smashed the timbers as it came . We happened to be where there was a cliff of rocks . We crouched under it and a tree top crashed down on the rock . The storm was all over in a minute . We got out and it was raining a little . We got wet . When we got on the top of the hill , our clothes were frozen stiff and when we got home we could just kick the door open . After the storm , we chopped 500 cords of wood and made $ 250 . Then my family moved to Rowan County , Kentucky . We bought a farm in the timber . The farm had no house on it but a vacant house was hWell , by this time my father had built a cabin on his new farm and we had got acquainted with folks . A man lived near us by the name of Alley . He hauled his back yard full of wood . He made a big wood chopping and dance at night . I was included . I was a real chopper and Alley came out and watched us chop . I could cut two sticks to the other choppers ' one . Well , the wood was chopped . Now the girls came to the dance and they got all in full swing . They danced two or three sets and they lacked one couple of having a set . An old maid was there who had cracks in her face that were all puttied up and then starch smeared over that . She jumped at me like a bull at a hay stack . She took me round like a feather in a whirlwind and when we stopped I was out of breath . I jerked my handkerchief out of my pocket , slapped it to my nose and said , " Excuse me , my nose is bleeding , " then I went home . Time went on . I saw Alleys frequently in passing by . In a few days , Mrs . Alley came to our house . She was the mother of two children . One was a blond girl as gay as a butterfly and a good looker . The pretty girl said , " Ed , Mr . Alley wants you to work for him . " Then she asked my father , he said , " Well , if he wants you to work for him . " Then she talked to me so nice . I agreed to go . She was on horseback and she said , " Ed , are you going to ride behind me and hug me or will I ride behind you and hug you ? " I replied that " I 'm not going to do either one . The water in the creek is not over my boots . " I waded it . We went on home . Mr . Alley showed me around what was to do . He wanted me to look after the horses , hogs , cows and many other things . He was gone most of the time , and there were three Negroes there besides me . They had not left after they were freed . There were two old Negroes and a Negro girl mean as old Satan . Farm hands were paid 50 ¢ a day . He paid me $ 1 a day . He lived at the outskirts of Morehead . He had a store and a blacksmith shop . When I was not on the farm , I would be in the shop or in the store . It was 1863 and the war was raging and it was a hard time to get bread . Father bought two bushels of corn . He went several miles to a watermill and got his meal . When he started home , he met a bunch of rebels . They made him get off his horse and one got up on his horse and his meal left at the roadside . One man said to my father " hello Uncle . " He reached his hand out , got father by the hand , spurred his horse , jerked him down . He hadn 't more than got up and another man reached out , caught my father by the top of his head , jerked his hat off with a hand full of hair . My father came home afoot . The family was all going to church one Sunday morning when we met a bunch called Guerillas . They made father sit down and pull his shoes off . They gave father his shoes . Mother had a baby in her arms , a big wool shawl around it and they took the shawl so we had to go back home . I was still working for Alley then . The next year I rented land and farmed for myself . I didn 't make anything . I went back to Mr . Alley 's . Then the great railroad builder , James A . Hill , came along . Hill was getting the right of way through Kentucky for the first railroad in the state . Hill made his headquarters at Alley 's where I was . Mr . Alley had a stone quarry on his place so he made a trade with Alley for stone . James A . Hill gave me the contract of getting out the stone for several miles of culverts and bridges and abutments . He brought his wife and his little girl to Alley 's where he made his headquarters . He came one day for dinner . He ordered his horse . Mr . Alley , he and I went out on what they called the stiles in front of the house . He stooped down , picked up a string , wadded it up and stuck it in his vest pocket . He looked down over the valley where they were grading and said , " 40 years ago , I tramped this road with a Seth Thomas clock on my back . " At this time , the Negro came with his horse and buggy and in those days your driving bridle reins were sewed in the bridle bit . So he stepped down , went to his horse 's head , looked at his rein , and one was ripped . He took that string out of his pocket , wrapped it around his line . He was driving a sorrel horse a high stepper , went off at a 2 : 40 gait . His wife was a fleshy woman . The Hills ' little girl , Nellie , was a blond , and the two little Alley girls were about her size . I had always petted them and when I would come in the evening they would meet me out at the stiles and kiss me . Nellie was with them , and I said , " Nellie , argent you going to kiss me ? " She very reluctantly kissed me . Her mother was sitting out on the veranda , upstairs looking down at us . Mrs . Hill said , " Oh , Nellie , " and Nellie looked up and said , " Well , Mama , she 's been wanting me to kiss him for so long . " Her mother said , " Mama don 't care for you kissing him . " Well , I was still working in the rock quarry and I had a man by the name of Nelson Nichols . Nichols had a short leg and he operated the derrick that lifted stone out and laid it on the wagons . The derrick had cog wheels about 3 feet off the ground . It operated by turning a crank . So Nichols put that short leg up on something close to that cog wheel and ground his big toe into that cog wheel . A man by the name of Donahue , my foreman , commenced teasing Nichols for grinding his toe into the cog wheels . Nichols hit him with a rock . Donahue knocked Nichols down . My brother jerked out an old hawk bill knife . Donahue started for the river . My brother reached for him with that knife and me behind him . Donahue went into the river like a hot steer . I told him to come out and he said " Them laddie bucks will kill me . " I told him I would send them back to work . Donahue came out . He had Nicholas arrested and put him in jail . Nichols broke out of jail that night and burned the jail . We never heard of Nichols anymore . In a few months the railroad was nearing completion . Everybody was happy . Hill and the bosses turned their horses and buggies over to me to sell for them . I took them to Mt . Sterling , Montgomery County , Kentucky . I sold them and brought their checks , and turned them over to Hill . He gave me a pass over the railroad until they put trains on scheduled time . So it wasn 't long till they set the day for the first train to go through . The old grey - headed men , women and children came for miles around and took their stand where the main road crossed the railroad . They saw the train coming running slow on the new road . They began to move and one yelled out , " If that thing turns cross ways it will kill every one of us . " It passed through and no one hurt . They then indulged in realizing their dearest hopes of getting to ride on a train sometime . Well , the railroad was done and I was out of a job . A man came to town who took old tin type pictures . I hung around with him and he saw I was interested . He talked to me to learn me to take pictures and sell out to me . We agreed on a price if I could learn . In a week I could do as good work as he could . So I bought him out and then I loaded up and started out for northeastern Kentucky where you have to look twice to see the top of the mountain in Breathitt County . There are no towns only the county seat , but there were stores all over the country . I went to the merchant , asked him what his best trade was . He said produce such as butter , eggs , chickens , feathers , beeswax , tallows and jinn sang . Well , I made a deal with him to take that trade and pay me cash at 10 % discount . Then I advertised I would take pictures and take anything the merchant would buy . So they started coming . Old grey - headed men , never had seen a picture taken and had never been out of the county in their life . Well , I went to work . A tin type that I sold 24 ¢ cost me 4 ¢ . I sold two tintypes in a case for $ 1 which cost 20 ¢ . I stayed there six months , run short of material , replenished my supplies , went to another store , stayed there till I run out of material and then I went home . It wasn 't long till a man came to Morehead selling a wonderful cement recipe . It was fine , so I bought him out . Then I loaded up the samples , went to the next county seat , put out my samples and commenced barking , " Cement that will cement anything ( except metal ) woods , leather , granite , jewelry , earthen ware , horn or stove . " I would sell a bottle of hair dye and a recipe to make the cement for $ 5 . 00 . I guaranteed every bottle to do the same kind of work you see in my demonstration . I had a patch on my boots and one bridle rein cut in two cemented together . I told those assembled that I would give them a bottle of cement and bottle of hair dye if anyone could twist it loose . Then I promised , " Here is a $ 10 bill . I will wager that I can cut a double tree 12 inches from one point to the other and cement it , and you haven 't got a team in town that could break it loose . Now , if I 'm a fool , my money is not . " I had them hoodooed . I meant what I said and they commenced buying . Some times there would be two or three holding out their money at the same time . I had my vest pocket full of recipes . Handing them out and all the money I got and what I would get out of my pockets , I would hold it in my hand . " I haven 't come here today to go away tomorrow . Try your cement . If it 's not what I say it is , bring the bottle back , and get your money . " I tell you I sold the recipe like hot cakes . I was gone for months . I came home . I started trading in livestock . I bought and sold hogs , cattle , sheep and horses . I will mention one trade I made to a certain man , George Green . Green skinned me out of a good mule . I waited to get revenge on him . I had traded for a fine horse , known by the name of Yellow Dog . He had been strained at the race tracks . Yellow Dog had blood stain on the insides of both hind legs . I cured that up . I met with George Green , the man that had skinned me out of my mule . I swapped with him , got $ 115 to boot . I invested that in cattle , sold them for $ 300 cash . I saw Green after that . He laughed and said , " Pay me what you owe me . " I said , " I don 't owe you anything . I just payed you for skinning me out of that mule . " He just laughed then . Then I opened a store close to the new railroad . I ran it well onto two years . My health was failing me . I went to Dr . Banfield in Morehead , Kentucky . He told me I would have to get out of that store and go west if I wanted to regain my health . I sold the store . Pardon me . I want to go back to relate one thing . A man by the name of Bill Masters came to my store and said , " I want a bill of goods . I haven 't got the money to pay right now , but I have got a beef cow that I can sell at anytime and I will pay you next Saturday if I am living . " Well , Saturday came and he didn 't show up . So , Sunday morning , I got on my horse , went to an old friend , Alex Locker . I yelled " Hello . " He came to the door . I said , " Do you know Bill Masters is dead ? " He said , " No , when did he die ? " Friday night . " What was the matter with him ? " " I don 't know . " " How do you know he is dead ? " " Well , he came to my store , got a bill of goods , and said , " I will pay you next Saturday if I 'm living . " Well , he drew a breath of relief , raised his head , squirted his tobacco juice 10 feet down between his front teeth and laughed and said , " If that would have killed him , he would have died 20 years ago . " Well , I 'm getting ready to leave the many , well - remembered places and faces of my old Kentucky home . My mind goes back as if by magic to the cherished memories of my school days . But I must face the wild West . With a new light in my eyes , and a new determination in my heart , I was going West . I only knew two persons in Kansas . One was a man who had worked for me . I purchased my ticket to Oxford , Kansas , 556 miles west of the Mississippi River . I boarded my train at Winchester , Kentucky and rode to Indianapolis and got there about 11 o ' clock at night . The station was called the Big 4 . All trains from St . Louis , Kansas City , Chicago and Cincinnati went into that depot . I was looking for my train and a man came to me , said " Where are you going . " I gave him my ticket and he took me across several tracks . They looked like I stayed at the Elite Hotel the only hotel in town . I had not been there long when the President of the town site gave me a 21 - meal ticket at the hotel . When that was punched out , I got another one . Well , a convention was on hand as well as an election . I walking down the street and a man came out and said to me , " We want you in the Convention . " I went up and they said , " We have nominated you for Sheriff . " I thanked them for the honor . I am not an office seeker , I 'm a home seeker and I would not have the Sheriff 's office if you would give it to me . Then a man jumped up and said , " Patton hasn 't anyone to care for only himself . If I can get a second , we will nominate him to represent Grant County in the Legislature . " He got his second . I was nominated . I talked them and asked them to withdraw the nomination and nominate a man more competent than I was and wants to serve . They paid no attention to me . I went on with my campaign for county seat . We had a big Sunday School picnic . I went out to my sod house to take Mr . & Mrs . Ham to the picnic . It was a dark morning . We drove 18 miles . I put my team in a livery stable and went to the picnic building . A storm struck . The mail hack blew over . It was dark . I heard a crash . The stairs went up the outside of the house . I rushed up the stairs . The building 's roof was gone . The women and children were frantic . I stood at the head of the stars on the little platform . I caught the door knob with all the power I had and held the door open . I let them out one at a time so they wouldn 't break the stairway down . Women were wringing their hands and crying , " My house is gone . " Well , I wanted to get away for the scene was sad . Men and women were going the way the wind was blowing . They were picking up their garments and other things . Well , I got home and discovered that my area had no rain , only hail . I didn 't go back to town for a few days until they had gotten over the shock . I went back but I didn 't campaign much for myself . I wasn 't interested as much in my own race as I was in the county seat fight . On the election day , I was one of the judges . We got a tip that Ed Short , a noted outlaw , and his crew were located about just across the street in the upstairs of a vacant house . They were going to kill certain men if they came outside of the voting place . I could see them upstairs from where I was . But we stayed in , went out under cover of darkness and not a shot was fired . Ulysses was made the Grant County seat by illegal votes . Appomattox contested the election . The legal dispute went to the Supreme Court . We all had a rest . Then I turned my attention to organizing a town site in the county . The proposed site was about 18 miles from the county seat . We chartered the bank with a total investment of $ 10 , 000 . We received $ 1 , 000 from each investor . I went to Seward County and got a relinquishment for 80 acres at a beautiful location . I had the site surveyed . The next thing was to see if we could get water . We sank a well and got a fountain of water . I paid $ 160 for a U . S . Wind engine pump . We made a big cistern and filled it with water . Then we built a store house , a blacksmith shop and a post office . Now the farmers could come for miles to get water , goods and mail once a week . They were the happiest people I ever saw . They had 160 acres of as good land as I ever saw . They had the world by the tail and a downhill pull . I was notified to come to Ulysses and get my Certificate of Elections . I beat my opponent two to one . Later I went out to my claim and laid out my program for fall and winter . Ham and I went around gathering up anything we could burn , dry cow chips , buffalo horns to use in case of an emergency . Many times you couldn 't get coal at Garden City . One time , men at Garden City waited for coal and a carload of coal finally came in . The men broke the seal , opened the rail car , loaded the coal into wagoWell , I went to Kentucky on a visit and returned to Topeka , Kansas , the capital . The Legislature convened . It was all new to me . I kept quiet until I got the run of things . Then I played my part . I passed three bills which were an average for each member . Governor Humphrey called me into his office to question me about the Grant County election . We also discussed the appointment of a Circuit Judge to fill a vacancy . He had made his views public through the Governor Humphrey press . He would appoint the man who had the most endorsements by the representatives from that district . J . L . Pancost had two votes and Bodkins had one . Humphrey asked me about Bodkins and Pancost . I told him I was acquainted with Pancost and I thought him competent but I did not know so much about Bodkins . He said Bodkins had placed him in nomination that started him out in public life . I returned home . I told Pancost that we have been calling you " judge , " that 's our nick name for you . I told him what the Governor said . I said , " He has a warm spot in his heart yet for that old sot and appointed him . " Well it was over . I went to get my pay . I hadn 't collected a dollar . He stacked my pay up in gold . I said I wanted currency . He said , " Rent you a gold standard man ? " and I said , " Currency is worth 100 cents to the dollar and easier to handle . " He gave me greenbacks . Then I went to Ozark , Arkansas to visit my old friends , the Alley , who had moved from Kentucky to Ozark . In six years they had gone from wealth to poverty . The Alley girls were working in a canning factory . The old Negro and small children tended to the garden . The young man was learning plasters ' trade . The old man was working at the carpenters trade . It looked pitiful to me . I got a letter calling me back to Grant County . Everything was moving along nicely , but we couldn 't get people to move to our town . Everyone had a claim and had to stay on it , as it was a homestead . We kept boasting our new town site . We had three droughts and people were getting discouraged . They had spent all of their money . They could only raise stock feed and had mortgaged their farms and were not able to repay the loans . They begin to leave at once . Four from our town site had left . Now we had a hard problem to solve . We had spent almost all of the $ 10 , 000 . We couldn 't sell anything since no one had any money and everyone wanted to get away . We called a meeting of the town site county . We talked the matter both pro and con . Our town site was a failure . We divided the money we had left . We had $ 750 each , had nothing to hope for and life was too short to spend it on a desert land . Ham and I had a nice bunch of cattle . I wrote on a board and stuck it over my door : " In God we trusted , In Grant County , we busted . " We headed for Arkansas City , Kansas , the town which we had left . Mr . Ham rented a farm . I went into David L . Payne and his Boomers in the Cherokee Strip . I lived in a tent town . We published a paper and called it The War Chief . We were a jolly set . Capt . David Lewis Payne ( December 30 , 1836 - November 28 , 1884 ) is considered the Father of Oklahoma for work in opening the state to settlement . He organized , trained , and led the Boomer Army on its forays into the Unassigned Lands . His actions eventually succeeded in opening the public lands for settlement some four years after his death . The opening of the Indian lands soon followed , leading the formation of the Twin Territories and eventually to the entry of the state of Oklahoma into the Union . Then the government officers came and arrested Payne . They took him to Forth Smith . He was tried for trespassing on Indian land and was acquitted . He then went to the Phillips Hotel , ate breakfast , slumped in his chair , and was dead in five minutes . After Payne 's death , Captain W . L . Couch called the colony together again in November of 1884 . We all went back looking around one evening and we saw some cow boys coming to us . Couch said yonder come some cow boys . You all keep still , let me do the talking and if they want anything else , then you can help . Well , they came to us and said , " What in the hell are you doing here ? " Couch said , " We are going to put some calico in here for you boys to look at . " They said , " We don 't want any calico around here to look at . " Couch said , " It is not what you want that will do you good , but what you get . " They passed a few short words and left . It was almost sure that the territory would be opened soon . A lot of us planned to find out when it was to be opened through a signal . The news of the opening would be flashed to Arkansas City first by planting a bomb outside of Arkansas City . A man with a swift horse would stay at the telegraph office and as soon as notice of the opening of the territory came , he was to run and explode that bomb . One day we heard the bomb go off . We ran over each other and did not take time to get our saddles on our horses or put on our overcoats . We dashed at full speed into the promised land . We went down several miles the Indian territory . We didn 't see any rush of people to get there with us . We looked over our claims . It was getting late and a snowstorm came . We went down into a canyon to get out of the wind . The wind blew and it snowed all night . It kept us busy to keep from freezing . The next morning we went out to look at our claims again . Here came the man who was to set the bomb off . He said the bomb going off was a joke . Someone , we never knew who it was , had exploded the bomb . We had to face the snow and winds to get back home . Well , the government ordered everyone out of the Indian territory and so I went home . Later in the summer , I got on my horse one day and went down to the Arkansas River to pick plumbs . I met two young ladies picking plumbs at the river . We passed a few words , I left them and went home . In a few days I heard about a man from Kentucky by the name of Neal . I wanted to see him or anyone from my home state . In my rambling around , I went to the river again . It had been raining hard . The water was almost thick with mud . I saw fish coming to the river bank with their mouths open . I saw a catfish come to the bank with its mouth and gills open . Its head was almost as big as my head . I went and cut me a stick and cut a limb off of it . I made a hook on the end of it . I hooked it in its gills of the big fish and pulled it out . I dressed the fish and cut out about 10 pounds of meat out of one side . I put the fillets in my buggy and started for my old Kentucky friend who lived in a 2 - story stone house . When I arrived , he came out and I said , " Is this Captain Neal ? " He said , " Yes . " And he said , " Who are you ? " I told him . We talked a while and I said , " I have brought you a piece of a fish . " He said , " A piece of fish ? " I said , " Yes . " He said , " It must have been a hell of a big one . " A girl came out on the porch . I remembered her as one of the girls I had seen in the plumb patch . Neal was known as Captain Neal . He was a captain in the Civil War . Well , I visited them frequently . The girl and I became good friends . On November the 18th , 1891 , we were married and we are still enjoying life almost a half century later . Ed Patton with his wife , Birchie Neal . They were married on November 18 , 1891 , in East Bolton , Kansas . Ed 's brother , Alexander ( pictured above ) was a witness at the wedding . Well , the news from the Cherokee Strip news was getting hot again . Every town along the south side of Kansas was packed full of people and tents and wagons , waiting for the opening of the territory . It was not until April 16 , 1893 . So I wanted to go back and relate one incident that happened in Kentucky . A widow woman had a dance at her house . I never danced and was asked to keep order . Well , the dance was well along about 11 o ' clock . I was standing out in the hall . Some boys came to me and said , " Will Markwell and John Keeton are fussing . " I went out and shamed them and pushed them out of the yard . Keaton said , " When he takes back what he said it will be all right . " I said , " What did he say ? " He said , " He said he could whip me . " I said , " Wait till you get sober and settle your difficulties . " Keaton pulled his knife and Jim Oxley . His uncle caught him . Markwell had been taken 10 or 15 steps away . I was between them . Keaton cut his uncle 's hand and he let him go . He started for Markwell . I knocked him down . Markwell got down over him and began pounding him in the face . Keaton was laying on his back and he was cutting Markwell in the face and head . He stuck his knife through Markwell 's arm . He was trying to cut Markwell 's throat . I grabbed his arm and the knife went through my arm . That would have cut his throat . I had a pair of box toed boots on . I kicked Markwell off of Keaton and then Keaton started to get up . I kicked him over and then men pulled them apart . They were afraid to come in while the fight was on . It was a bloody fight . I felt my arm was weak . I was standing by a fencepost . I pulled my sleeve up and the blood shot out against that fencepost . I watched it run down that fencepost making a black circle as it went . Then the girls came out and commenced to wrap handkerchiefs around my arm . I stopped bleeding . There was a bright moonlight with snow on the ground . The party broke up . I was sick from the loss of blood . I went to the house and stayed all night . Keeton came and he waNow I 'm going back to Kansas . I am idle so I wanted to get something out of my western Kansas property . I traded that property for 80 acres of land in Cowley County , Kansas . Then I struck a real estate man in Arkansas City , C . W . Weaver , who had a hotel in Kingman City , Kingman County , Kansas . I traded him my 80 acres of land for the hotel , subject to a $ 750 mortgage . Weaver said the hotel had cost him $ 5 , 000 . In addition one half of block was set out in fruit trees . He said that he had rented it to a man to apply the rent on the mortgage until the $ 750 was paid . Well , I let it go on till I thought it was almost paid out . I went to see about it . The man had never paid a dollar on the mortgage . The property had been foreclosed upon and another man had a deed for the hotel . Then I went to see Mr . Weaver . He had left Arkansas City . I wrote several letters to different places , got no answer . I went to Guthrie and inquired at the post office if a man got mail there by the name of C . W . Weaver . They said yes . I asked what time the mail was distributed from the north . I was informed that the mail would be delivered in a short time . It was only a few minutes till Weaver came . I greeted him nicely and talked to him for a few minutes . Weaver looked haggard and shabby . I said , " I addressed a letter to you here . Did you get it ? " He said , " For the same reason I don 't write to my wife , I haven 't a penny to buy stationery . " " What are you doing ? " I asked . He said , " Just anything I can to get a meal and a place to sleep . " I told him that man he had rented his hotel to had never paid a dollar on the mortgage and it had been foreclosed and deeded to a woman . He said , " If I ever get able I will pay you . I haven 't only one thing that is my own . I haven 't anything but an office desk in the office where you talked with me . I don 't need it anymore . You can have it if you want it . " I said , " Give me a bill of sale . " He said , " You make it out and I will sign it . " I did so and he signed it . I went and got the desk , I have it yet . That was all I got for the hotel valued at $ 5 , 000 . Then I consoled myself by saying my western Kansas property wasn 't worth a dollar . Then I went back to the Cherokee Strip . The time was set for opening on April 22nd , 1889 . The government had registration offices at different places . We had to register before we went into the territory . We stood in line for many hours . We couldn 't leave . If we did , we would loose our place in line and would have to start all over again . Well , the hour came at 12 o ' clock . The big shot fired . Most of the men were on horseback . Some vehicles dashed off screaming and hollering like demons . Some got a mile or two ahead of others . Those in the lead struck matches and dropped them in the dry grass to hold the people back . We had a fast mule team , one a white mule the other one a dark one . We ran them up within about 100 yards of the fire . We stopped waited for the fire to get in low grass . It simmered down . We laid the whip on and when were in 60 feet of it flared up 6 feet high . There was nothing to do but race through quickly the hot blast . I opened my eyes . I saw a blue smoke rise from the mules . They were both the same color . A dark brown . I looked at my father - in - law and his eyebrows , mustache and hair all singed off and we all looked like we weren 't burnt . We went on and it seemed the farther we went the more people we saw . Settlers in line for the land grab in the Cherokee Strip in September of 1893 . We went back home and didn 't get a thing . After the rush was all over my father - in - law and I made a trip across the Strip to Tecumseh . We went from Arkansas City , Kansas to Chandler and to Shawnee . There was no railroad there yet . We stopped south of where the railroad is now in Shawnee to feed and eat dinner . That was just an Indian trading post , one store , a blacksmith shop and post office . All the men in town were at our camp fire . One man walked round my team and said , " Will you trade me that team for a claim here , pointing back where Shawnee is now . I said , " I 'm not a farmer and if I was I couldn 't make a living on it . " We went on to Tecumseh and went back home . I had a small house . I sold it , loaded two wagons and drove to Tecumseh . I rented a house and stayed there until next spring . I bought several vacant lots . Then they began to survey the Rock Island Railroad . The first survey went through Tecumseh . They went back and another one crossed the river at Dale got into Indian land . Then Tecumseh enjoined them . They made bonds and went on and got to Shawnee to start a town . I knew Tecumseh was doomed . I sold my lots in Tecumseh . The Kickapoo was not opened yet . I found four or 5 acres of vacant land on the south side of the North Canadian River located one mile east of Old Dale site , or one mile south of present Dale . ) I built a two - room house on both sides of the river . I intended to file on it when the Kickapoo came in . It was just a fraction that lapsed from the Kickapoo side . Well , the Kickapoo opened . I dashed across the river , stuck my flag up . No one stopped me . It was low land . I tried to get a filing on it . I couldn 't I wrote to the Land Office in Washington , D . C . They wrote me why I couldn 't They said the North Canadian River was made a government stream to decide the different tribes of Indians for 25 years . While the Indians were here as government wards and no fraction could be filed on to cut them off from water . So I was out . Well , the railroad was a sure thing , and the Dale town was evident . I bought lots and moved my house to Dale . I had an imported stallion and a big jack . I had a good business for 10 years . My stallion died with colic . I bought another one the next year from a man that owed me for a colt for two years and I attached his cotton crop . He said to the officer , " Patton will loose more than he will make in the deal . " My barn was 100 yards away from the house , so I went to the barn as usual before I retired at night . My jack had his mouth open , sweat dropping off of him . I worked with him all night . He died the next morning . Then I went to Texas . I bought another jack and chartered a car at Broonsville . I went in the car with my jack and got to Oklahoma City at daylight the next morning . They run my car up to the freight depot platform and left it there . My car door was open . I heard a slam and my door went shut . I called out , " Open this door , this is my car . I chartered it at Broonsville , Texas . I have a jack in here . " They looked in and saw me and the jack and opened the door and went back to the depot . I followed them back and what I said to them was a plenty . I unloaded my jack and led him home . It took me two days . Then the next year I bought 80 acres of land in three months I sold it for $ 500 profit . Then I had two big mares both had colts . One died and the other one raised both colts . I had a young horse out on pasture and other horses herded him in a corner of the fence and kicked him to death . Then I went back to Texas and bought three jacks . One was ok - the other two I sold . Then by the time the country was getting full of that kind of stock , I had a saddle pony . It died with blind stagers . It seemed like the hand of fate was resting hard on me , so I decided to get out of the livestock business . I had a fine horse and a jack . I sold them for $ 600 . My father - in - law , Captain Neal , died and I was appointed the administrator for the estate . I finished that job , collected my money and started to get investors interested in a bank in Dale , Oklahoma . I got M . L . Caldwell and others were interested in the bank . We got a charter and went to work . Ed Jenner was our first Cashier . He was a better tennis player than he was a banker . We fired him . Then M . L . Caldwell came from Tecumseh to Dale and we put him in as Cashier . One night after he had been here about two years , Joe Stewart heard an explosion at the bank . He told Caldwell and they came and told me . We went to the bank , found the safe blown to pieces and battered coins scattered over the floor . We arrested one man on suspicion but the evidence was not sufficient for his conviction . Well , we didn 't loose any money . We had insurance . Caldwell stayed in the bank for two or three years . Then he bought his partner out in Tecumseh and had to go back to Tecumseh . Then we called Dillard Saylor from Yucon at a salary of $ 150 per month . It was all new to him . He was not acquainted with the elements of lending money . , That made it hard on me . I was acquainted with them . At that time I was a mail messenger but that work came before and after banking hours . Then Saylor got on his job and he was a good cashier . Things went on fine for two or three years . One cold evening , snow was blowing from the north at about 4 o ' clock . Saylor was at the side of the vault door balancing his books . I was in the back room with the door shut . I heard Saylor say , " Don 't shoot . " I turned my head . I saw him go in the vault like a scared rat . I knew that it was a hold up . I jumped uNow when I go over my life I see it has been a warfare , mingled with joy and sorrow . There never was a life so happy , but had its time of tears and never a day so sunny but a little cloud appeared . I can only think of about two things in my life that I have done that were worthwhile . That is what I and my wife have done in raising our family and for the church and family and for Sunday School . That means much to us now . I am ninety years , two months and 13 days old this day . I realize I 'm not going to stay here but only a short time . I 'm far down on the other side of this life , just traveling down the steps of time , thinking over the past and wondering how long it will be till I come to the end . I 'm as confident of my future as I am that I am living . I had nothing to say about coming into this world and I will have nothing to say about going out of it . But when God gets ready to transfer me into the great beyond , where there is no sickness , pain or death , but joy and peace and happiness , throughout endless eternity , and Jesus said , " They will be as the angels in heaven , neither do they die any more . " Well , I 've been sick for a month , hadn 't written a word , my mind goes back to when I came to Oklahoma . It was a new country , a new people , a mixed class going hither and thither , looking for something they hadn 't , lost , no church , no Sunday School . I saw the need of a church . I headed up a subscription list . I canvassed the country . I got money enough to buy lumber , we started a church . Some donated work . Some gave money . Well , we were two years before we got it done and dedicated . We hired a preacher , organized a Sunday School and Ladies Aid and we had a full house . Then we wanted a bell . We got Witty Gentry to build the belfry . He donated his work . The Ladies Aid gave a box supper and I sold the boxes . We got money and got a bell . I had charge of the church . I would go make a fire and ring that bell for five minutes at a time and it seems to me that was the sweetest music I ever heard . I commenced teaching the I have cut my book short on account of my eye sight and health . I thought at one time that I would not get to finish it . I am still here and I 'm going to stay here as long as the good Lord wants me to . It seems that time is almost in sight and I am ready .