Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Stories About Your Grandparents?

My grandfather was born in 1905. Went to Seminary College in the 20's. He bought his first new car in '29, grabbed a few friends, and drove from Maine to California then down to Mexico before heading home. I've got some pictures from his trip as well as his sales contract on his car. He passed away in '95. That man saw some changes in his lifetime.

always heard different stories, finally tracked down the death certificate of my grandfather who died when my dad was very young. Took several days of digging around.

died of consumption.

found out where he was buried. Been meaning to go there and visit the grave, but its several hours away. Haven't found the time.

no idea what kind of man he was.

My great Grandad killed the last bear on record in Western Oklahoma back in 1919. Saw something up a tree while they were picnicking by the creek, retrieved a single shot shotgun out of the wagon and toppled him with a load of birdshot.

He was a great man, kind, fair, smart, and adventurous. He literally came from nothing, born in a Soddy in SW OK in 1903 to emigrant parents, and died a wealthy successful man in 2001. Never met a person who knew him that had a bad word to say. He loved to hunt, fish, and camp. Could build or fix anything, he used to charge $.50 to overhaul a tractor engine back in the 30’s when times were tough. He outlived 2 of his 6 children as well as his wife, lost his house in a tornado among other farming disasters. But nobody ever saw him without a smile. Anytime things went wrong he’d grin and say, “ Ah it’ll be alright” as he’d get started making whatever it was right.

I had the privilege of knowing and spending time with him until I was 14.

To All,

My maternal grandfather was born sometime in 1883 & was a "survivor" of the LAST Comanche raid into Eastern Texas, as a "babe in arms".
(As I've found no certificate of his birth, he was well under one year old at that time but I'm not sure exactly when he was born..)

His mother, who the family always called "Little Grandmother" (She was about 4 foot 10 inches tall & about 75 pounds. She also spoke LITTLE English, as she was a "mail-order bride" from about 100 miles east of Berlin & until her death at 94YO spoke mostly German.), saw the Comanches coming, grabbed the 4 children, a double barrel 14-gauge shotgun & a .44 BP revolver & hid in the outside fruit cellar.

When the Comanches broke the door open, she started shooting up at them, as she was in the dark & shooting up the narrow stairs into the daylight. = Not wanting to look like cowards, the Comanches continued to try to rush my great-grandmother, down those narrow/steep stairs but never succeeded in reaching her or the children.

According to an article that I found in THE FRANKLIN WEEKLY MESSENGER from the next Friday, when neighbors arrived to see what was happening, they found numerous "- - - - - dead & dying Comanches littering the family door-yard and on a stairway".
(I had always assumed that the story that my grandfather told us as children was a "made up story for children's enjoyment" but it evidently happened just as he said. = My grandfather was an excellent & spellbinding story-teller.)

Note: My 2nd cousin, Mary Leigh Fox-Parker, inherited & still owns the Model of 1860 Army revolver; she won't even talk to me about selling it.
Also the old fruit cellar has collapsed long ago but the sand-stone stairs still exist & in 2009, I measured the width.= 22 inches wide & evidently very steep.
ADDENDA: My grandfather was one of 11 brothers & had 10 sisters & 5 step brothers/sisters

yours, tex

Dad's side,
Grandfather was born in Missouri very near St Louis in 1871, was a jockey as a young man. his father owned horse racing stables.
Went to and homesteaded in New Mexico near the White Sands taking his sister for her health, I think she had TB. He Died when my father was 11, early 1930's.
My Aunt did an ancestry search that found his family had landed in Jamestown VA in 1732.

Grandmother was born 1890 in Texas, was named "Arta" after Buffalo Bill's daughter, went by wagon train to New Mexico where her father homesteaded in Lincoln County.
The man she was married to when I was young had been born in Prussia? and had escaped by swimming a river at the changing of the guard when he was 19.
I recall him telling the story but it was 1970's, I wish I recalled more with more detail.

Mom's side
I wish I knew more about my Grandfather, mostly that he was from Arkansas
Grandmothers maiden name was Newton, from Newton County Arkansas.
They went to California in the 1920's prior to the crash that caused the great depression, crossing the Colorado River on a ferry, then on to Idaho in 1940's

I was told a story as a young man by an Uncle that some of our blood relatives had been killed at Mountain Meadows Massacre Southern Utah in 1857.
He was young and was told by older relatives that said they had known some of the Children that had been returned from that incident.
I never told anyone about that until one-day searching Ancestry. com I found it to be true that we indeed had family slain there.
As a side note and we can't prove this but there are claims the wife's family was there that day on the other side.
Interesting history that would have happened over 160 years ago.

My maternal grandfather was born in 1858. Family legends have him one hell of character. It seems he loved the 'sporting' life and his whiskey more than life itself.
According to legend he would walk 6 miles (each way) to town at least twice a week to visit the local cat house...until his death at the age of 94! Not real sure he remembered why he was there or could still do what he was there for. Perhaps just reliving fond mammaries.
At any rate my mom swore he died with a smile on is face!

To All,

I guess that I should tell you what little that I know about my father's father, my paternal grandfather.

He was born in Jay, Indian Territory (now: Jay,OK) at Christmastime in 1888. - He attended the local school for Indian boys in Jay until he completed "4th Reader", when he was needed to work on the family farm.
When he turned 16YO, he went to work as a manual laborer for the KATY RR, worked his way up to Freight Conductor, met & married my grandmother in 1909.
The RR transferred him to Parsons, KS in that same year.

In late 1913, the IWW insisted that he resign from the Federated Railway Brotherhood, of the AFL & join the IWW. He refused & on 11JAN1914, he was shot in the head & shoved under a moving train by 4 men. - Two other "refusers" were murdered in that manner on that same day, for failure to join the Union.
(The 4 men were arrested & tried but well over 20 witnesses, who were all IWW members, testified that the 4 men could NOT have killed my grandfather & the other 2 murdered men, as they were all in Ft. Smith Arkansas that week. - The jury "hung" & the 4 defendants were not retried.)

My father was born about 2 weeks after his father's death.- My grandmother took the 3 children to her FIL's farm, to take care of & went to Tulsa to teach school. - My father generally only saw her during the Christmas Holidays.
My dad lived on the family farm near Grove, OK until he went to LSU to play football, then played tackle in the NFL until he joined the USAAC on 08DEC41.
(He met/married my mother while playing pro football in Dallas.)

yours, tex

grandpa on my dads side he passed in 1983 blood clot got him after surgery at va hospital in Phoenix. From I been told he joined the Army in 1937 breaking horses in ft bliss Texas, when they got rid of horses and went to tanks they were asking for volunteers for the Army air Corp so he went that route. He was in a B24 flew missions in North Africa. Again can't confirm the breaking horses at ft bliss but being part of b24 crew is true. My grandpa on my mom side last I saw him was 1982 when he went back Texas for treatment of Alzheimer's his kids from his first marriage came and got him. He passed a couple yrs later.

Funny story on my grandpa on my dads side after world war 2 he got back to the states. They were in New York City, him and his buddies who were from Arizona, said heck with this stuff let's get home. So the 5 pf the, hopped a train and made it all the way to Arizona. Few months later, some fella from Army showed up looking for him. He told the guy he was no longer in, the guy told he was still in because him and his buds never were properly discharged lol. So that's what he was there for..

My step grandpa was the one I knew the best, he was from point, tx. Joined army air Corp/Air Force at the age 16 was shipped off to Germany after the war was over. He was shot by another Airforce guy that went bat chit crazy shot up the barracks. his best days in the service were his time being stationed Ladd Army airfield at Ft Wainwright in the 50's. He told my wife before he passed last year. His biggest mistake was not staying in Alaska after his time in the service. He always talked about the land The territory of Alaska was giving folks to entice them to stay. He was a tough ol Texan, he was a gentleman, knew how to treat a lady. My wife was in Arizona for training I found out he had cancer, his time was short. So her and her sister went over visited him. He was very happy to see her. As sick as he was when her and her sister were leaving he walked them too the door and too there car. They don't make them like that anymore. Oh and he dropped the N word like it was nothing lol.

My paternal grandfather was born of a halfbreed woman on a reservation in Oklahoma in 1920. After she died when he was about 3 years old His white father left him with an uncle whom my grandfather (Pocka) described as a mean bastard. Said he'd feed his kids beans for dinner then go cut down a side of pork out of the smokehouse and give it to his hound dogs. They were sharecroppers during the depression and Pocka remembered how when they moved to a new farm it was good hunting with lots of squirrels and rabbits living in the rock fences close to the house, after living there for awhile the game got further and further away. They didn't have a gun but used the dogs to help catch food. Said when it was raining too hard to work the fields his uncle would say "Buck, get your pencil and go to school." Pocka said he'd go hide in the brush down by the creek till about time for school to be out.
He was drafted in WWII in what he described as "a rich mans war" where he learned to drive a car. Landed at Normandy D+1 and said a lot of the guys from the day before we're still laying on the beach. He was in a reconnaissance unit and didn't think much of Patton. Didn't think much of the Army Air Corps either, said they killed a lot of our own men. Said he bent his spoon on a can of frozen meat for Christmas dinner during the Battle of the Bulge. He ended up the highest ranking guy (seargent) in his group by the end of the war after the leadership had been killed or taken prisoner. Said Germans were lobbing artillery rounds that weren't detonating into town at night and said you could hear them skipping down the cobblestone streets. One hit the brick wall of the church they were sleeping in and my grandfather was saved by the piano he was sleeping under. His Leutenant was buried under the bricks but alive and ended up ordering the men to leave him as the Germans were right on them. He was taken prisoner but survived the war. Said they were pretty hard on SS troops when they took them prisoner.
Said a Colonel offered him an officers commission after the war but he wanted out. Told me when he was an old man "I sure hope I didn't hurt any of them fellers over there but I sure shot at a lot of them!"
After the war he came out to California and became a timber faller which he did for 33 years. Back then the strength of your back determined how well your family lived. Shot a lot of big bucks over the years and had a severe dislike for government or authority till the day he died.