Hattie Nora Barton

I have no pictures of my father's mother at this time (I am attempting to locate one), but I am anxious to share her memories of her childhood. Following is a copy of the notes found in my father's files shortly after his death in 1984.

Hattie Nora Barton was born near Gordon in Palo Pinta County, Texas on November 13, 1880. She was the sixth of the twelve children of Joseph E. and Sarah G. Barton. They moved to Oklahoma Territory in 1893.

They started their journey from Bowie, Texas. Hattie's Father, Joe, her mother, Sarah, and four younger ones: Charlie, Henry, Jody, and Mittie rode in a wagon drawn by a team of horses. The wagon contained their household goods, bedding, and a four-cap stove with two oven doors which opened to the back. They led a milch cow behind the wagon. Hattie and Wood drove the second wagon, pulled by a team of oxen. It contained the food supply. They had a barrel of molasses (31 gallons), 200 pounds of hog meat, a stand of lard, a 100-pound meal sack full of dried fruit, and some sacks of meal. They bought other foods at stores along the way.

They camped at night. They ate pancakes with butter and molasses. Sometimes they had biscuits cooked in the skillet and lid on the campfire. They milked the cow at night, drank what milk they wanted, and put the rest in a stone churn. They tied a cloth over the lid to keep out the dust, and set it in the wagon. The movement of the wagon churned the milk so that they had buttermilk to make their bread, and butter to eat.

They crossed the Red River at a ford. They had been discussing Indians with fear because Joe and Sarah remembered Indian raids near them in Alabama, where they had lived as children. After they had pulled up on the Oklahoma side of the river, and were waiting for the team of oxen to cross, the horses relieved themselves. Jody said, "Pa! Pa! I smell Indians." That expression was never forgotten in our family.

Joe and Sarah Barton arrived near a place called Slusher, north and east of Norman. They brought six children with them. Mattie remained in Texas with her family, and Marion had gone to Arkansas. Sam and Andy were already here, and Lizzie and Maggie had died. They moved into a half dugout with Sam and Jocie and their two children.

Joe and Sarah had sold everything they had in Texas. Sarah had made herself a quilted petticoat, into which she sewed $800.00. Soon after they arrived, Joe traded one of the horses to Mr. Smouse for 100 bushels of corn and something else they needed -- Hattie couldn't remember what. They made a crop the first year, and besides gathering their own cotton, they picked 21 bales of cotton for Mr. Smouse. They all lived together on Sam's claim for one more year. During that year the men cut logs and built a big house in front of the half dugout. It was 18 by 20 feet, with a fireplace in the east end, and was joined to the dugout by a hall about eight feet long. They covered the hall and used it for a kitchen.

The big house was built about a foot under the ground, and was floored with boxing planks. It was level with the hall, but two steps down to the dugout. The roof was made of clapboards cut from redwood blocks. The red oak was sawed into blocks about 18 inches and rived (split) with a frow. They were put on like shingles. They would shed water, but snow would blow under and follow the grain of the wood and come into the house. The hall was walled with lumber sawed at the mill. A door in the south wall was the outlet. Its shutter was made from oak boards nailed to a z frame. It had a wooden latch with a string through a hole so it could be opened from the outside. The big house had a window in the south. It had no glass, but it had a shutter made from three planks that opened back like a door. The floorboards were loose, and when a storm came they opened them up and crawled under. Once, during a storm, they were all under the floor and Jocie said, "Somebody hand me a pillow!"

They all lived there and farmed what land Sam had cleared, and they cleared some more. They worked out for other people at times. After two years they decided that their $800.00 was going so fast that they had better get a place of their own.

Joe bought a relinquishment from Dan Guthrie, and filed on 80 acres. It had a small house and a large dugout. The house had a small window in the south and a fireplace in the north. The door was also in the south. Later they built a bigger house south and west of the old one. It was 14 feet by 16 feet, faced the west, and had a fireplace in the north. Mr. Harrison built the fireplace. Sarah and the children farmed, but Joe made shoes.

In those days many people tanned their own leather. When the leather was ready, they would get a shoemaker to come to their home and make shoes for the whole family. Joe would take his tools and stay with the family until all the shoes were made. That brought in a good deal of the money for their living. As it became easier to buy ready-made shoes, this method of making shoes became a lost art. Shoe mending held up for a long while.

For making shoes, Joe used linen or cotton homespun thread, and treated it with beeswax. They spun the thread at home, and also made the beeswax from honeycomb. The pegs for fastening the upper to the sole were made from seasoned white pine or from sumac. (The leaves and roots of the sumac were used also in tanning hide to make leather.) Joe sewed with an awl. The awl had an eye like a needle eye, through which the thread was dispensed. It made a hole through the leather and formed a loop on the other side. He ran another thread through the loop and locked the stitch.

They lived on their farm until just before their youngest daughter married. They lived on the farm with Hattie and Edgar for a while, and then broke up housekeeping and lived about with their children. They rented the farm out to pay debts that they had accumulated over the last few years. Later, they sold the farm and saved the money to pay their burial expenses. Joe died at the home of Hattie and Edgar Hulse on November 22, 1919. Sarah lived about with her children and grandchildren until 1927. She came back to Hattie's and lived until her death, May 11, 1937. At the time of her death she had one girl and five boys still living.

As the Bartons came from Texas, they camped once where there was a walnut tree. They had never seen nuts before except at Christmas time. They ate so many nuts that they were all sick. They had to prolong their camp, but they didn't eat any more nuts for a while. When they reached the farm in Northern Cleveland County, they found a grove of hickory nut trees. They filled two big sacks with nuts and tried to carry them home but couldn't. They went back every day and carried all they could until they had a mountain of nuts in the back yard. The squirrels had to come to the house to get nuts.

They had church services in the homes. The Bartons and the Binghams usually had the services. Young people carried the chairs back and forth. They often laid a chair down and two people sat on the back of it. They often sat on blocks of wood, and sometimes they put a board across two blocks of wood and made a bench.

Brother Hannah, a Methodist circuit rider, came about once a month and preached. Two young men and an old man came through sometimes. Any preacher that came through held a service, and the people met in one of the homes.

Some people had dances. The music was furnished by anyone who had something he could play. Sometimes they just called. They had singing on Sunday nights. Each person or family brought his own book. Jim Bingham ordered the books, but each person paid for his own book. Young people attended everything, and they walked wherever they went.

They built a schoolhouse at Oak Grove with lumber they brought from Norman. Miss Victoria, from Tecumseh, was their first teacher. This building was on Mr. Steve's land, about 1/2 mile south of where they later built. Stella was a log house. It was started before Oak Grove but finished about the same time. It was on A. V. Hulse's land. Euriah Farthing was the first teacher at Stella.

Hattie Nora Barton was married to Henry Edgar Hulse on May 3, 1896. They were married by Martin Dickerson, Justice of the Peace, in the half dugout where he and [his wife] Diannah lived. Jack and Edgar had helped him build the half dugout, and he had promised to marry them for half price. He kept that promise and married Hattie and Edgar for one dollar and fifty cents.