Luther Martin Green Family Stories: by Rena Green Ledbedder

Luther Martin (Bud) Green was born in Sedalia, Missouri, September 20, 1862. Livicia Lucindia Huey was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, May 3, 1872. They were married January 25, 1887.  They first lived in Orr, Oklahoma, where four children were born, Luther T. Green, October26, 1891; Virginia Irene Green, December 17, 1893; Arthur J. Green, October 12, 1896; and Walter Green, June 17, 1898.

In December, 1899, they moved to a farm four miles south of Cordell in Washita county. My parents spent the remainder of their lives on this farm. Five more children were born here; Roy Green, June 20, 1900; Claude Green, September 29, 1903, Floyd Green, April 15, 1905; Margie Green, December 30, 1908; Ovie Green, March 16, 1912.

When our family moved to this farm we came in four covered wagons. My mother and we children came with two of her brothers, Will Huey and his family and Jerry Huey who was accompanied by Allie Anderson whom he married soon after arriving. An uncle, Ike Huey, drove one wagon. It took us several days to travel from Orr to Cordell. My dad had a herd of cattle and stayed behind to drive them on later.  His mother, Mary Ann Green, had filed on the farm adjoining Dad's on the north and had come to this part of the country with us.  Our last night on the road was spent in Mountain view. A hard rain and wind that night blew our wagon out of the wagon yard. I can remember sleeping in the wagon yard on a bed made of loose oat straw.

We reached our farm about an hour before sundown and found the man that Dad had bought the farm from. He said we couldn't move into the dugout because he had pumpkins in it. Finally he decided we could move in but we would have to move the pumpkins into one corner. We moved in that night scared to death.  We lived in our old long dugout only a few weeks when the rains began to come. One night the southwest corner broke loose and the water began to pour in our dugout. Soon it was up to the beds. The next day our neighbors came to our rescue. A Mrs. Crowder who lived on a place south of us had us move in with them and the Stricklands to the south of her had Mother's brother and family move in with them.  A few days later Dad came with his cows and we built a house. It was a large room with a shed attached on the west. We finally had our own roof over our heads. There was a small house on Grandma Green's place and Dad fixed it for Mother's brother and family to move into.

A carpenter from Cloud Chief got our house fixed so we could move in. A barn and shed, started for the cows and horses, was soon completed and the farm work was ready to be done. Our ground was cultivated by plows drawn by the horses. Cotton and corn were our main crops.  There was a nice orchard on the place Dad bought so we were blessed with plenty of fruit that year and for several years after that until the orchard began to die out. The first year we were here, corn was so cheap we burned corn on the cob in our cook stove and coal in the heater.

After a few years the farm on each side of the creek was planted in alfalfa which made lots of feed as well as much hard work to put it up.  We had lots of experiences on this farm. I remember that Mama's turkeys would steal their nests out and that once one stole her nest out in a neighboring pasture. Mama followed her one day and when she got there the turkey was sitting on what Mama thought was the nest.  She reached down to pick the turkey off her eggs and an old snake reached his head up and gave a big hiss. Mama was scared nearly to death and as she came running back to the house, a dried broomweed caught on her dress tail. She heard the noise of the weed dragging on the ground and thought the snake was right behind her. She had to crawl under two wire fences and when she finally got to the house she just fell in at the door and said a snake was after her. Dad went down to the next and found the old snake still on the eggs.

I remember a wagon load of gypsies spending several days by the creek on our farm when I was a young girl. We heard many strange noises from their wagon and imagined all kinds of terrible things happening to them.

Another vivid memory is when my Dad saved our house from burning. A spark from the stove caught the roof on fire. One of the children cried, "Oh , look at the pretty stars falling," and my Dad cried out, "The house is on fire!" He ran into the hall and crawled up through a small opening with a bucket of water and put out the fire. We were so lucky because the wind was blowing so hard that night it was a wonder he got the fire put out.

Only two of the nine children are living now, Ovie Green and I. All nine of us started school at Shiloh. We were lucky as we only had a mile and a half to walk to the school. My seven brothers were mischievous but lovable. Many fun things happened to us along with hard work and sometimes frightening experiences.