Week 41 - Travel

 

I am more than certain that the mode of transportation for many of my ancestors was horse and covered wagon, but the only branch of my tree that I have a first-hand written account of this are my Pennington ancestors.

Royal Riley Pennington, the son of Revolutionary Patriot Robert Pennington, was born in Virginia, but by the time he started his own family, he was in Kentucky. He married Elizabeth Betsey Kerns in Adair County on 20 November 1817. Around the time of Betsey’s death, the family moved to Missouri, ending up in Andrew County by 1850.   They had at least eight children, one of which was their son, Pryor Pennington, born in 1834. 

In 1853, Pryor Pennington married Mary Elizabeth McGuyer in DeKalb County Missouri. Mary died in 1860, leaving Pryor with two small sons. He then married Barbara Ann Tetherow, with whom he had fifteen more children. Although Pryor registered for the United States Civil War Draft, there is no record of him serving. The family never stayed in one place very long. They moved from DeKalb County to Lafayette in Clinton County where they are found in the 1870 census. Their son, Edward Pryor Pennington was born in Bethany in Harrison County, on 10 December 1872. In 1880, they had moved once more, this time to Jefferson, but by 1889 they were living in Oak Mills, Kansas. Pryor is listed as a merchant and a farmer, depending on which census record you look at.

The Land Run of 1889 is what you’re likely to recall when you think about the early history of Oklahoma (especially if you attended public school there). At high noon on 22 April 1889, eligible settlers were authorized to enter the area which now is present day Canadian, Cleveland, Kingfisher, Logan, Oklahoma and Payne counties. What you might not be familiar with is that there were actually seven land runs between this time and 15 December 1906. The Third Land Run occurred on 19 April 1892 into the Cheyenne and Arapaho lands, which lies in present day Blaine, Dewey, Day, Roger Mills, Custer, and Washita Counties.  It was on this day that my great-great-grandparents, Pryor and Barbara (Tetherow) Pennington stood at the line ready to stake their claim on what would become homestead entry # 7269, with twelve of their youngest children in tow.

The Pennington’s new home was near the town of Winnview, Blaine County, Oklahoma. You won’t find Winnview on any contemporary maps, and very few historical ones. It was apparently a small place, but by 1899 they had a post office which is substantiated by a postmark on a letter (found on eBay of all places!). 

Within a week the Pennington family had made a dugout and began to build a home, a 28’ by 28’ frame house with shingled roof. Back to the last paragraph…twelve children, two parents, living in a house roughly 728 square feet. They must have really liked each other! In order to gain the deed, free and clear, the “Entryman” (Pryor) had to provide proof that within five years they lived on the land exclusively and made improvements. We know that before the claim was finalized in 1902, the family had built a 12’ x 28’ barn, a mill, planted an orchard, had eighty acres under a two-wire fence for grazing, two sheds, a cistern and eighty acres under cultivation.  This information was provided at the five-year mark. 

Pryor died shortly thereafter, in August 1897. This left Barbara and children to continue the establishment of the homestead in order to be granted the final deed. On 3 April 1902, Barbara was issued Final Certificate # 6187 showing her the sole owner of the SE ¼, Section 17, Township 16 North, or Range 10 West of the Indian Meridian Oklahoma containing 160 acres. 

Although the town of Winnview no longer exists, the Winnview Cemetery does. This is the final resting place of Pryor Pennington. No headstone marks his grave.

Sometime around May 1906, Pryor and Barbara’s son, Edward Pryor Pennington, and his wife, Amanda Lee Hollingsworth, decided they, too, would head for Oklahoma to join the rest of the clan. Edward had been a coal miner near Lexington, Missouri. The idea of land and fresh air would have been good enticement. The family, consisting of Edward, Amanda, and four children - Maude, 13; Fred, 9; Mable 6; and Elmer, 4, loaded up a covered wagon and headed to Oklahoma. Amanda was seven months pregnant. Granted Mable was only six, but the memories of this journey never escaped her when she set out to write her autobiography years later. She was able to recall the dust, the creaking of the wheels as they rolled along, and the fear of wild animals and snakes as they slept under the stars. It is almost 450 miles from Lexington, Missouri to what would have been Winnview, Oklahoma. Covered wagons traveled anywhere from eight to twenty miles per day, depending on the road, and weather. If you do the math, you will discover it took the family anywhere from three to eight weeks to complete the journey. For both of these families to traverse the wilderness from Missouri to Oklahoma had to have been quite a feat. One I’m sure I wouldn’t want to replicate. I remember my own kids saying, “Are we there yet?” when driving just across town. I can’t imagine what life on the road was like back then, especially with so many little children. Imagine your own six-year-old daughter or granddaughter making that treacherous journey. But around the turn of the century, this was a normal way of life. My, the times have changed.

Edward and Amanda eventually moved on to an area called Swan Lake, which now sits at the bottom of Fort Cobb Reservoir. They remained in Caddo County, or nearby, for the rest of their lives. They had four more children after arriving in Oklahoma. From coal miner to thresherman, Edward made a living for his family in the fresh air. He died in 1949 at the age of seventy-seven. Amanda outlived him by another twenty years. My Oklahoma ancestors carved out a living in the red dirt. A few cousins did head west during the Dust Bowl, but most stayed. Oklahoma doesn’t have the long, rich history of most eastern states, but the history that our families made there run deep, as do our roots. Our ancestors were pioneers, much like the Pilgrims who sailed on the Mayflower. They left their homes, and all they knew, to forge a new life with the promise of land. These are my Okie ancestors and I will always be Dust Bowl Proud.