Brownings in The Last Run Niki, As a lover of history, I so appreciate Gracies teachers having their students learn history by recreating it and participating in it. Its a wonderful pedagogical strategy and it WILL stick with them! I thought (you and) Gracie might want to know this story in light of her “3rd Grade Land Run” (she might also find a lot of this boring). Im also going to share it with as many Brownings as I can, in case they haven’t heard this story. Everyone: If I have neglected to tag someone, please share this with them, if you think they will be interested. Feel free to share it with your kids, etc. Aunt Gwen and Aunt Naomi did a whole lot of research on the Browning family’s genealogy. If I’m not mistaken, our cousin, Ron Nuckols, has all of their extensive research. I have a copy of the (genealogical) family tree that my dad gave me. I also have a book titled, “The Last Run” which contains stories of (as told by) all those who participated in the last Oklahoma land run and then settled Kay County, OK. Uncle Bud is also an interesting and accomplished man (we have many of those, dont we?), but we’ll leave that story for another day. ********************** John Wesley Browning was born in 1839, to Braxton and Margaret (nee Lively) Browning somewhere in southern Illinois. He married Mary Ann (nee Teeter b. 1847) Oct. 1, 1863, when he was age 24. She was 16. Im not certain how many children they had. She died in 1887 at age 40. John Wesley died in 1921 at the age of 82. In his telling of the last run, John Wesley makes a reference to “Mother.” Since Mary Ann had passed when he participated in the land run, he was either referring to his own mother or he had re-married. I’m thinking the former, although I’m not sure. Copied here (below) is the portion of the book that applies to our family’s involvement in the last Oklahoma land run. It reads: “One hundred years ago, back in 1839, J. W. Browning found gay delight in stuffing his wee, chubby, pink toes into his little round mouth.He little cared then that fifty four years later these same feet would set about the business of establishing a home for his family in the Indian Territory on land successfully won in the famous Cherokee Run of 1893. Mr. Browning was born in southern Illinois and lived there for thirty six years. He then moved to Cowley County, Kansas, seven miles southwest of Winfield. Twelve o’clock noon, on September 16, 1893, found him astride a fine saddle horse named Belle, and in company with Charlie Guyer, Sheridan Teeter (I presume a relative of his late wife’s family), John Hughes, Tom Constant, Hiram McMilliam, Albert W. McMilliam, Elliott Constant, and R.M.Browning, he was off at the crack of the gun. After riding hard for forty five minutes, Mr. Browning won a claim sixteen miles from the starting line, six miles east and and one half south of the present city of Blackwell, Oklahoma. Equally fortunate were all the other members of his party with the exception of Elliott Constant and R. M. Browning who were under twenty one years of age and consequently not eligible. Mr. Browning said, ‘We did not suffer from not having enough to eat but sometimes suffered from having to eat what we had, such as kaffir corn ground for meal and sorghum molasses for sugar!’ ‘We had the best neighbors in the world. During the fall and winter of 1893 we built a six room one and a half story house. The boss carpenter was from Indiana and was not used to the wind and did not even appreciate it. He claimed the Cherokee Outlet was open at both ends which was why the damned wind blew so hard. Building material was less than half the price it is today. [The date this story was written is unknown to me.] Religious life consisted of early day Sunday school held in school houses or in groves and settlers of any denominations were welcome. One incident remains in my mind of the moving of the family to Oklahoma.The weather was zero the first of the year in 1894. Mother was bed fast so we had to wait, and bad weather continued until the last day allowed to make settlement on the claim which was the 19th of February. Every wagon was loaded and mother was placed in a feather bed in a wagon, and soon we were all on the way. Snow drifted as high as hedge rows, but we traveled on and made the trip of 35 miles with just one stop for lunch.’ As valiantly as he led his family through the snow in the bitter cold weather, he led them through the trials, dangers, and hardships of pioneer days. His large family was happy, and although each member of the family learned to accept and carry his share of responsibility, they also learned to know that joy, laughter, recreation and good times without number could be had within the family circle without the need of outside devices. [would they survive present day?] That Mr. Browning was a good leader was attested by the high citizenship of his descendants. Two of his children, Mrs. D. E. Gilbert and Mr. Roe Browning, nine grandchildren and eleven great grandchildren are still living in Kay County.” ********* The preface of the book states that “the purpose of this volume is to preserve for posterity the stories of the pioneers told in their own language.” Acknowledgment: . . . No attempt has been made to present the subject matter here assembled with any faultless literary style. Rather,every effort has been expended in preserving the idiom of the people. This is the life of the pioneers exactly as they lived it and as they told of it. The dedication reads: “To those pioneers who made the last“run” when the Cherokee Strip of the Old Indian Territory was thrown open to white settlement; to the pioneers who followed in their tracks; to the brave and hardy spirits whose courage tamed the prairie wilderness and whose labor laid the sturdy foundations for our beautiful Oklahoma, this volume is dedicated in loving memory.” “The Last Run: Kay County, Oklahoma,1893. Stories Assembled by The Ponca City Chapter Daughters of the American Revolution.” Ponca City: Courier Printing 3rd Ed. 1970. p. 255-56.
Posted on: Sat, 17 May 2014 01:51:53 +0000
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