To: My Children and Grand Children and Great Grand Children
I am putting my thoughts on paper primarily because I knew so little about my grandparents lives prior to me knowing them. For example, my Mother was born in Sinton, TX. She was the second child (my uncle Hugh being the first), Now what was the Martin H. Wagnon (my Mother’s Father) family doing in Sinton, TX? I have no idea! (Susequent to writing the above, I have found a photo of the Central Hotel, in Sinton, TX. On the back is a note that my Grandmother, and Grandfather Wagnon ran the hotel with the Rallets.) 
There is a town in TX named Appleby. According to a Tyler College senior thesis, the town was named after a train conductor, My grandfather Wilson Otho Appleby was a train conductor before he went blind. Was he the one the town is named after? I have no idea! After writing this, I have discovered that the town of Appleby was named after James Appleby, who was my greatgrandfather and Wilson Otho’s father. However, is this the same James Appleby, for whom the town was named?
Had one of my grandparents put their memories on paper, perhaps we would know the answers to the above. Hence, my desire to give you some information that may answer some of your questions you might have in the future.
My Mother earned a teaching degree from McAlaster Normal School when she was 18 (not sure of the date, but based on my brother Dale’s birthday, and that she had been teaching when she got married, and it was illegal, at the time, for females to be married and teaching! (Do not ask me for the logic of such!) Dale was born in May 1930, and Mother was married in Oklahoma City on June 29, 1929, and the marriage was kept secret while she was teaching. Well 9 months before Dales birth would have been about the start of the school year, so I am assuming she taught a full year before getting pregnant. Which would have made her 18 when she got her teaching certificate.
I had always thought that the family moved to California at the same time. However, the Martin Houston Wagnon family (Clyde, Dorothy, Iris Estella (Essie, my Grandmother)), were already in Tulare County, CA, as that is what was put on the Marriage License of my Mother and Father. According to Clyde (at this point my only surviving relative of my Mother’s generation), the family lived in Asher, OK, before moving to California.
I do not know when my parents and brother moved to California. I was born in December 1931 in Visalia, CA, so sometime before then. I wonder whether she lost her job when her pregnancy became evident, or whether they let her teach until Dale’s birth? I assume my Father lost his job as a result of the Great Depression.
So many questions and so few answers!
A photograph of my brother playing around a filling station gas pump (Shell Oil was the company and maybe a forecast that he would work for Shell for 40 years.), and he appears to be about 2 years old at the time. I have been told that I was 6 months old when the family moved back to Oklahoma. I assume that the photo must have been fairly close to the time of the move back to Oklahoma.
I will not bore you with the problems people faced during the Great Depression, but needless to say, times were hard
and money scarce. Because of the Dust Bowl in Oklahoma the family had moved to CA, and I am sure that when my Mother lost the teaching job, finances were most likely strained. I do not know what my Father did for a living, or how he lost his income, but he was searching for work in Los Angeles, when the family moved back to Oklahoma.
Why the move back to Oklahoma? My uncle Hugh had a good job with the Associated Press in Oklahoma City. He was single, and 29 years old when this happened. He told the family that if they would move back to Oklahoma, he would insure that they had a roof over their heads and food on the table. That was a pretty big commitment for a 29 year old to make. He did make one stipulation to the offer – my Mother had to divorce my father. I do not know if there were other than financial considerations for my Mother’s decision to return to Oklahoma. That still was 7 people that Hugh was giving support for their abode and food.
My paternal grandfather, Wilson Otho Appleby, was blind when I first met him. I believe that I only met him twice in my life. He worked for the railroad, and I am not sure in what capacity, or what railroad. There is a town in Texas called Appleby. According to a paper written by a senior at the Tyler Community College, the town was named for a conductor of the railroad. I like to think that it was my grandfather, but not proven. My paternal grandmother’s maiden name was Galbreath, and I know absoutely nothing about her family background. (From the genealogy I have researched, you will read a little about the Galbreath family.) However, her
family is buried in the Fort Scott Cemetery, and I have photos of their tombstones – grave markers. My Grandfather was able to make brooms and when I visited him, we would walk downtown. Do not reminder much about that, except we had to cross over the small river to get into town, and he would hold my hand as we walked.
The move back to Oklahoma City found us living in a house at 419 West Park Place.
This is a picture of that house with Dale and I, and my Grandfather sitting on the porch.
This photo is of Clyde, Dorothy, Dale and I, but do not know the others in the photo.
Not sure when we moved to 1510 NW 15th St, but I have no recollection of that move, nor any recollection of living in the house on Park Place.
Grandfather Wagnon was a Methodist Minister, and he frequently was a homilist at our church, Epworth Methodist in Oklahoma City. He had three brothers who were also ministers. He died in 1941 at age 86. I remember visiting him in the bedroom when he was near to death. One story I remember is that he was a circuit rider in Indian Territory, but do not know if that was before he married my grandmother, or after they were married. I have a letter (my Mother had it in her belongings) that indicates he was married before and had a child, but do not know anything about that first marriage, or children from that. (Insert copy of letter!)
In Oklahoma City, my grandfather was a avid croquet player. The public park, was only 3 blocks from our house, and there were 3 croquet courts there. The courts were something I have never seen anywhere else. They had concrete sidelines, which were about 6 inches high and six inches wide, and the wickets were set in concrete so they could not be moved. The wickets seemed to be more on the order of reinforcing rods, as they were about 1/2 inch in diameter. The playing field was sand and well maintained. Kids were not allowed on the courts. His croquet mallet was wood on one end and hard rubber on the other end. I made the mistake of using his mallet to hit a tin can around the yard, and put a dent in the wood end of the mallet. I lied so he would not know who had done the foul deed, as he was very upset over that damage.
I could get wrapped up in many stories, but as this is a prolog to other chapters of my life, I will leave you, knowing that you will have some inkling of my life, before you came to be. I trust this effort will be appreciated. I also hope to make a chapter about McKinley Park, where we spent many hours doing lots of things. Some good, some bad, but that is what children are.