10 days to Reunion!

That's right, the time is very near when we will be enjoying the balmy Kansas summer together.

I finally finished the history book. It came to a mere 64 pages. And still I had stuff left over. Thanks to everyone who contributed stories and photos. If I couldn't get them in, I apologize. If I got something wrong, I will ask your humble forgiveness.

Chester and Clarence's families sent me some great new photos, which I will add to their stories soon.

And now, the cover of the book. Don't tell me you don't like the title or I will cry. (Not from hurt feelings, just frustration.)

Willis Harden in the Hutchinson News!

The Hutchinson News caught Willis out in the field harvesting wheat for Paul. I guess they were impressed that someone with Parkinson's could still drive a combine. I'm sure I couldn't drive one, at less than half his age! Well done, Uncle Willis!

A wheat farmer's last stand
As his farming era comes to an end, Ashland man helps sons harvest at least one more time
By Amy Bickel - The Hutchinson News -

ASHLAND - For decades, fate has crept toward Willis Harden.

Combines are bigger than when he first started cutting wheat, pulling a cutter behind a tractor.

Instead of tuning into AM stations while running the combine, one of his grandsons jams to tunes on an iPod.

A fourth-generation farmer, Harden grew up in the days where families made a living off a couple of quarters of land. Those days are long gone, however. While three of his sons returned to the farm, some of his fellow Clark County neighbors went out of business.

Harden has taken this all in for a while, as well as the fact that the climb into the combine isn't as easy as it was a few years ago.
(Read rest of story here...)

Chester and Rayben Harden’s Courtship and Marriage

We are lucky enought to have a first-hand account from Rayben Harden about her early life when she came to Lexington to teach school and her first meeting with Chester (Chet) Harden. Gayle Harden was nice enough to transcribe portions of it for us, so it appears below the way Rayben wrote it -- her grammar and spelling. It contains details of things that are unfamiliar to me, and perhaps many won't recognize the terms she uses. But I'm sure some of our older readers will know something of what she writes about. I only know the term "surrey" from the musical, Oklahoma.
"Chicks and ducks and geese better scurry..."

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In her own words, Rayben A. Hughs-Harden wrote a book entitled “My Life’s Story” about Chester's courtship back in 1913-1915. Rayben was a young school marm coming west from her home state of Missouri to teach at Lexington, Kansas. She had written to her great uncle who was on the school board at Lexington, Kansas and ask for a contract to sign.

Lexington, Kansas 1913

Now, I had not spoken to my parents about applying, when the contact came. They agreed it would be nice. I went to Lexington and boarded with my cousin, Gay Hughs and family the year of 1913 and 1914. I took part in all community affairs and we had an organ and opened our exercises with song and prayer. This school building was used for church services combined with the Methodist church in Sitka, same pastor. Revival meetings were held here too.

At this time the school board consisted of three directors, a Charles Harden was on the board. They had three sons and one daughter. The oldest son had a shying around Miss Hughs but never dated me. Now the Hardens had a lovely Surry and a beautiful team of bay horses they hitched to the Surry and I must mention Surries and buggies in this day had an iron socket on the end of the dash board to hold the “buggy whip” which seemed necessary to tap the horses when you wanted them to step up or hit a trot.

At that time Lexington mail was carried from Ashland in an old topless buggy by an elderly man, Mr. Dyer. Postage was 1 cent to 2 cents and the mail was taken to every home. Mr. Dyer always stopped at school with my mail.

This brings my mind back to a time before Chester and I met – there was a week’s revival meeting at nights in our school house. At this time we had sand table boxes for the primary department. At this season it was time for the pioneer pilgrim program. We had decorated clothes pins, the old fashioned long pins, dressed as pilgrims. This dashing western young man, Chester Harden, never missed a service, but this evening he was getting more eager to meet the school marm and he slips a pair of pilgrims in his pocket.

Chester, having studied out a plan to meet the school marm, takes the clothes pin figures home with him one evening, puts them in a match box and sews it closed around and around. My thought was that he wants the school marm to know that he can sew! Nevertheless, he added this note. “These little pilgrims became home sick so I thought best to return them.”

I answered back, “They had not been missed, but we were glad to have them back home.”

I well remember a revival meeting that was going on at Sitka. The boys put hay in the bottom of a wagon and covered it over with quilts with covers enough, should be it be cold enough, we could cover our heads over. Sure enough, when we came out from the church – was it ever cold! We had nine miles to drive home.

Now, I wore pin-on glasses that pinched on your nose and pinned on to your dress with a pretty pin with the gold chain that hooked onto the left lens. Some way or another, in covering over with the quilts, this one pulling this way and another one that way, the school marm lost her glasses.

It fell in the dashing young Chester’s place to mount his best pony and at the first light of day he rode this road, leading to Sitka, in search of the young teacher’s glasses, as they were a necessity for her to wear. Luckily enough and determined as he was, he found them –whole and not even broken, so school went on in the usual manner.

The district north of Lexington was taught by Miss Lizzie Brown. She was born and raised in north district and great grandfather Harden had built the school house before nails were used. Lizzie and I had our Christmas programs together. The young people, past school age, also took part in the Caroling and Choir. We had a Christmas tree decorated with glistening ornaments, treats, and plays by the children – and of course a Santa that ended the program with delivering the treats.

Back to our Christmas programs, the practices were at the Brown school. Why I don’t know as this school building was smaller and had fewer pupils. The practice was always at night. The Hardens sent word that three of them would be by and pick me up for practice. At evening they came – Chester came in after me and we went to the Surry – the other two were in the back seat, leaving Chester and I in the front. At last we were off to a start of not only practice, but courtship!

Before he met me Chester and his friend, Kenny, had put in an order early for a case of liquor for Christmas holidays. This one evening we had a date to go to another district to a box supper and debate program. I was at the school house and about 2 p.m. up rode young Chester at a gallop on horseback and called me to come out for a few minutes. He had a good excuse why he couldn’t go – but I don’t remember what that excuse was now as I didn’t mind staying home anyway.

Later I learned the boys’ liquor had come in and on their way to the depot which was twelve miles from Lexington, they had put so much liquor under their belts and Chester knew better than take his straight laced gal to a warm school house with liquor under his belt.

After this little episode, I started going with Fred S., a nice quiet young man and one the Hughs family had picked for me before I arrived in Lexington. So I went on steady with Fred, but all the time knowing my desired one was “Fat” Chester Harden.

A family named Shattuck lived in the Brown district and young Willis Shattuck and Chester Harden were good friends. Willis was just a year or so older than Chester. Willis was brought up on the Shattuck ranch and he practiced law some in Ashland. He had met a Missouri girl from Kansas City who taught in Ashland school. They were married this first term of my school and the surrounding country gave the big chiaveree at the ranch.

Fred took me over in a nice two horse team buggy. Of course all went in Willis’ home for a welcoming to Clark County. So many – I remember I had to sit on a "log" with others. Of course the treats were candy and cigars.

Young spry Chester Harden had gone over with three other young men on horseback. Fred and I were among the first to leave, so we didn’t drive too fast. Here came these horsebackers in a hard gallop and passed us. Then, they would slow down until we passed them, and let us get far enough ahead for them to get up another high speed gallop and by us again they would pass. They kept this up until we turned a mile west to go to my boarding place.

I remember, my boyfriend, Fred said, “Shall we sit in the buggy or go in and visit until the Hughs’ come?”

I said, “Neither, as tomorrow is a school day and I must go in and retire to be fit.”

Not another date was made with Fred, for my mind was fully made up – Chester Harden was for me.

Our courtship started, mine and young Chet’s dating started with the Christmas practicing programs which combined the Brown School and the Lexington schools for a program. We went steady from then on.

I was not far from the Harden home, Mrs. Harden, we’ll say Agnes, and daughter, Laura, drove a large mare named Polly to a single shaft buggy. They oft times gave me time to bathe, change clothes and would drive down for me on Friday evenings to stay in their home over the week end.

Usually the Hardens had throughout the week end company from Ashland, and all enjoyed at least one big dinner. Agnes was a wonderful “Scotch” cook.

This dashing young Chester was a very busy man on the farm. He had attended Business College in Salina the winter before and he gave me our choice – if we farm or move to town and he work in the bank, as that was what he finished for. I had lived in town so long and seeing this western prairie land extending from east to west and north to south as far as the eye could see, decided the farm would be much more prosperous, so I gave him my answer, “the farm’. I thought I saw a twinkle of happiness in those gray green eyes.

Now, the 1914-15 term was nearing an end. In the country we only had 8 months term. So you see I taught 1913-14 and 1914-15. While teaching in the spring of 1915, I ordered my trousseau along as I could afford it, for Chester had given me a wicker hope chest for Christmas and I gave him a Hamilton watch and chain.

Chester and Rayben were married May 5, 1915 at high noon in the parlor of her parent’s home in Missouri. Agnes and Laura attended the wedding in Missouri. C.E. Harden was unable to attend their wedding due to farming and ranching. Chester and Rayben returned home by train.

Continued:

I well remember at the Protection depot was father Harden waiting in a cover top Surry, a beautiful span of bays hitched to it. We soon loaded into the Surry and headed north for twelve miles to the Harden home. Here we were heartily welcomed by mother Harden and Laura, for they had come on a few days ahead. The next day an attractive center piece of Chester’s baby wicker buggy and another article or so, were placed in the living room where the neighbor women gathered in for a surprise shower for the bride.


Boy, I was surprised. The gifts were mostly linen, and cooking vessels (utilities). Now we were ready to go to our own four room home and a large screened-in porch. This was beautifully furnished by the groom, nothing lacking. The groom carried me across the threshold door of our own home. Father Harden had bought this well improved 160 acres and given to us as our very own for a wedding gift.

Soon we were in the harvest field cutting with two header barges. A header barge was built with one high slat side and the lower side about wagon side board high, but had a long couplin pole thus the barges were eighteen feet long. It took seven men to run one barge, 2 in the barge to keep wheat heads and straw smooth. One loaded and one drove. One stacker and one scratcher to keep straw on the ground up to the stacker, one header.

Now, I must tell you right now for fear I forget it, how we kept our food cool and from spoiling. We had ice boxes. Ours held 100 pounds of ice and was insulated so it only had to be filled about twice a week. A small pipe ran water out in a bucket which had to be emptied so often or you would mop.

Chester was saved several years after we were married. To be exact, 7 years, I believe. Chester was Superintendent of the Sunday school for a number of years.

Chester and Rayben Hughs Harden

Chester as a baby had curly hair, like siblings Laura and Paul.

Chester with his brother-in-law, Gilbert Coate.

Everyone remembers Chet for his cigar.

Chester (Chet) and Rayben Hughs Harden

Chester Nathan (Chet) Harden was born Nov. 23, 1890, in Lexington Township, the oldest son of Charles and Agnes Gilchrist Harden.

Chet attended Protection High School and then studied banking at a business school in Salina. His father, Charles, owned part of the bank at Protection, but it seems Chet wasn’t suited to the banking life and settled into farming instead.

In 1913 the students at the #U2 School in Lexington got a new “school marm.” She was Miss Rayben Alta Hughs, great niece of one of the school board members. Rayben taught school in Lexington for two years, 1913-15.

Rayben Alta Hughs, daughter of Samuel M. and Lucy Hendricks Hughs of Bois D'Arc, Mo., was born Dec. 12, 1890. She was the youngest of three girls, but later in July of 1893, into this close-knit family came a 10-pound boy they named Webster Wayne – after an evangelist who insisted, "Thou shalt call him Webster." (This being the evangelist's surname.)

Rayben later wrote in a memoir of her youth that, "Early memories were of Missouri forest trees, a natural stone bridge above Sock River one half mile [from] her childhood home, where the neighbor children often met and played. The grapevine swing being the biggest attraction.”

She proved to be an attractive lady with much artistic ability. After a “Revival” meeting held at the schoolhouse, Rayben missed two clothespin dolls from her students’ Pilgrim scene on the sand table. Those dolls had been pilfered by a young Chet who wrapped them up with a note and sent them back to her, saying “These little pilgrims became homesick, so I thought it best to return them.” Rayben had not missed them, but she was, by her own account, charmed by his flirtatious ways.

Two years and many “buggy rides” later, Chester persuaded Rayben to become a farmer’s wife. After the wedding at Rayben’s home in Missouri on May 5, 1915, the young couple began married life on Chet’s farm four miles northwest of Protection. On June 5, 1916, their daughter Amy Margaret Lucille (Lucille) was born. Geraldine Rayben was born March 5, 1920.

The years that passed were busy and happy ones. Chet arose with the sun and ate his evening meals by lamplight. He was able to increase his land holdings, crops were good and more and more cattle were carrying the ‘Rafter H’ brand. When Lucille was six years old and ready for school, their local Bear School had closed, so several of the neighbors bought a small Ford bus to pick up the country children and take them to Protection.

Rayben recalled that there were no paved or graded roads at the time. The bus came for Lucille first in the morning, at 7 a.m., then picked up the other children on the route. So Lucille was the last to be dropped off in the evening, which Chet and Rayben thought was too long a day for her.

“But towards the middle of the term there was an awful mud hole when wet or rainy, just north of the Tinkler home,” Rayben wrote in her memoir. “One morning as [Jack Peacock, the bus driver] came out, he got stuck and turned the bus over. Now, this was too much for Grandfather Harden. C.E. said no more of that, Chester. A nice residence just west of C.E.'s home was for sale, and he would buy it and we would move to town."

Then came the hard times, years of drought, blowing dust, and low cattle prices. It took a lot of courage and faith to farm during these times. Their little girls had grown into young ladies, ready for college, and soon to set up households of their own. Lucille married George Bratcher, and Geraldine became Mrs. Robert Helman. The drought ended, crops were good, cattle prices were better and the farmer was cheerful and confident once again. Life was good.

Chet was a member of the Bit and Spur Club at Protection. They sponsored the annual rodeo and also organized the “Pow Wows.” Chet was president of the club in 1957 when the club put on the Polio Pow Wow to celebrate that the town of Protection was “100% protected” from polio. The celebration was covered by the national news media and included a newsreel of the parade, which was shown all over the world.

Ruth Bratcher, Chet’s granddaughter-in-law, who married his grandson Chester Ray Bratcher, recalled meeting him for the first time during one of these Pow Wows.

“The first time I actually met my husband Chet's grandfather, I was a mere 15 years old, Pow-Wow day, on the back of Chester's favorite horse! His first words to us were, 'Have you watered the horse today? I think you'd better put him in the barn and hoof it back to town'! Needless to say, besides being a very big man and sounding so gruff, I immediately knew I was not only scared of him, but respectful! Then, several years later, I married his grandson, and I found out he could be a kind and gentle man, IF you didn't cross him!”

Ruth recalled what an active and determined man Chet was: “I had worked hard on establishing a lawn, not an easy feat with Chinese elms everywhere. [One] particular summer, my dear husband decided to raise baby pigs. Everyone from a farm knows you cannot keep baby pigs penned! They immediately rooted under my nice woven wood fence and proceeded to demolish my yard. Chester would have none of this. Out he comes with barbed wire, wire cutters, and on hands and knees, he proceeded to fence out those naughty little piglets. He had to have been at least 70 years old then, and I marveled at him and was so grateful. That yard was not small, and I know now, being about that age, that it was no small job! He also could ride a horse like a young man till he was in his upper 70s and always helped with round-ups.

“But, those first years on the farm kept Chet and I both worn out! Chester would come sliding into the place (and I DO mean sliding!), rounding the drive-way at at least 6:30 a.m. If Chet wasn't out and about, he was at our door! After getting us started, he oft-times went back to town, took a nap, had lunch, and was back out at 12:30 to see that we were back at it again! My husband took blood-pressure meds from the time that he was about 28 – could this life-style have had anything to do with that? ”Sometimes, Chester would come in, sit a spell, and would love to see the great-grandkids wrestle! He would promote this! A really good thing, when I was trying to get them down for a nap. He always bet on Angela, as you know how he favored girls!

And are any of you familiar with riding with him in his car? It was definitely an experience! The fast driving, then the creeping-along driving, no air-conditioning on because he was spitting tobacco out the window! If you were in the back seat, watch out! You might get a face full!”

Chet loved his great-grandchildren, Ruth said, and he taught them to ride and bought them cowboy boots for Christmas. He liked to play jokes on his family.

“Chester was a true character – our mentor, good or bad! – and we truly loved him and Rayben. We owed so much to them in our lives,” Ruth said.

Chet and Rayben’s retirement years were filled with happy times, with four grandsons: Chester Ray and Stanley Warren Bratcher and Stephen and Phillip Helman, as well as their eventual great-grandchildren. The trips they went on took them all over this continent. At home, Rayben’s yard showed her green thumb, and as she grew older she studied art. She was adept in her work and generous in sharing her talent. She wrote “My Life’s Story, 1890-1973,” in which she describes in detail her courtship with Chet.

The old farm homestead was turned over to their oldest grandson, Chester Ray Bratcher, and through his years Chet Harden remained interested in farming and ranching, in his horses, and community projects. Chester and Rayben enjoyed more than 61 years of married life together before Rayben passed away on July 26, 1976.

Chet died Oct. 14, 1987. At the time, he was the oldest native-born Lexingtonian left alive. Chester and Rayben Harden are buried at the Protection Cemetery.

Chet with his daughter, Geraldine, at a Pow Wow.

Clarence and Delphine Wyatt Harden

Charles and Agnes Harden with their children, Laura, Chester (back), Clarence (right) and Paul (front).

Clarence and Delphine Harden. They were married March 27, 1920.

Paul, Clarence and Chet Harden.

Delphine and Clarence, better known as Gammy and PaPa, with Pam & Missy in 1955.

Clarence James Harden was born Feb. 23, 1895, in the Lexington community. He was the third child of Charles and Agnes Harden.

He was a chubby little fellow and learned to farm at an early age. He used to sit on top of a horse-drawn harrow, singing at the top of his lungs so that his older brother, Chester, working in the next field, would know that he was still on the harrow and not under it. This was a practical way to use his singing skills. He loved music and singing all his life.

He and his younger brother, Paul, who was born in 1897, were the mechanics in the family. They were both fascinated by the new gasoline engines and other technological inventions of the age. They once tried to make a horseless carriage out of an old buggy. They got it to run by installing a chain drive around the axle, but since there was no differential, they couldn’t turn corners. Apparently, they had also forgotten about brakes, since they wrecked the buggy when they came to a T in the road. Clarence said that Paul was the best mechanic he had ever seen. He also said that Paul invented the first air cleaner for a tractor by using a Mason jar full of water and a small hose through the top. This allowed them to make several rounds before they had to put in fresh water. The early air intakes on tractors tended to clog up with dust so frequently that the operator had to spend as much time unplugging it as he did in actual plowing.

As a small boy, Clarence spent much time with Aunt Ella and Uncle Mont Towner. Aunt Ella was Agnes Harden’s youngest sister. They lived a few miles east of the Harden farm in Lexington. Having no children of their own, they welcomed young Clarence. Uncle Mont was an innovative machinist, having the first threshing machine in the area. (He also built a merry-go-round for the neighborhood children.) Full of enthusiasm, little Clarence joined the threshing crew as a water boy. He loved those big machines that chugged and puffed, and he carried that love of engines with him the rest of his life. Aunt Ella died in 1907 and is buried in the Lexington Cemetery.

Community life was close in those days, mostly church-centered, but Clarence remembered community dances to which they took the children and bedded them down around the room. Most of the children went right to sleep but not his brother Chet. He watched the dancers as they waltzed around the floor. The Hardens purchased an organ and found they had a couple of real musicians: Laura and Clarence. Laura could play anything she heard and Clarence had a beautiful deep bass voice. Laura was called to play at church, literary clubs and other programs by the time she could reach the piano keys. Clarence sang in various quartets and did solo work, which he thoroughly enjoyed until he was in his seventies.

Clarence attended grade school in Lexington, and then he and his sister Laura and Paul all attended high school in Ashland. They had to board with families during the week and ride home on a horse after school on Friday. Clarence stayed with Susan and Isaiah Burkett, whom he dearly loved.

He told a story of how he was headed for the home place one Friday evening, when a bad storm blew in. He said it was snowing and blowing so hard that he couldn’t see where he was going. He gave the horse its head and bundled up and prayed. Long after dark, the horse stopped, and he looked up to see Uncle Henry Harden holding a lantern. The horse had apparently decided to go to Henry’s place. He said that Henry fed him, warmed him up and put him in the bed he had warmed with his own body. Clarence nearly froze to death.

Clarence participated in several school activities. He took vocal music, played basketball and was on the debating team. In those days, trips to basketball games were made mostly on the train, or if they were lucky, they would get rides from men who had automobiles. They played basketball in the Opera House, now the old Odd Fellows hall, which had pole supports here and there on the playing court. This was quite an advantage to the home team, as their opponents would often collide with the poles in the heat of play.

After graduating from high school in 1914, he attended Kansas University at Lawrence for one year. There, he saw his first football game, and he went out for the sport.

In 1917 a new family moved into the Lexington community. Milton A. and Fannie Wyatt arrived from Herington, Kan., with their family. Fannie Delphine (Delphine) was 18 years old and a beauty.

Among the first to welcome the Wyatts was a black-eyed young man named Clarence Harden. Both Clarence and Delphine firmly disavowed any immediate attraction. Clarence had a five days’ growth of black whiskers and Delphine’s heavy gold/brown hair was skinned back in pig-tails. However, neither forgot the meeting that led to 57 years of marriage.

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Delphine, born in 1899, was born and raised in Herington, Kan. The Wyatts were a spirited and gregarious family with ten children. Delphine’s closest playmates were her brothers whom she out-rode, out-ran, and out-swam. She inherited her father’s Irish wit and her mother’s trusting Christian faith.

In Herington her father had been a farmer, stockman and a butcher – he raised his own beef and sold it over the counter after butchering it. Earlier in his colorful life, Milt had learned the butcher trade while working for the railroad. When they laid the track through the “strip,” he would kill and dress at least two head every day – there was no refrigeration. The railroad had a contract with the local ranchers and the butchers would shoot whatever they could find and bring the hide to camp, and each farmer would be credited for his beef by the brand on the hide. Milt, the son of William and Eliza Manning, was born in Edgar Co., Ill. The family then moved to Chrisman, Ill. He was seven years old when the circuit rider came to their farm to tell them that President Lincoln had been shot.

Fannie Wyatt’s parents, William A. and Lucretia Fry Wyatt, came from Ohio by covered wagon, drawn by two oxen, Tom and Jerry. They stopped in Illinois long enough for Fannie to be born and finally arrived in eastern Kansas in the early 1870s, settling around Dickinson Co. They later moved to Plains, Kan., before Milt and Fannie made their trek to Clark County, and are buried in Plains.

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Clarence had a heart defect from a bout with scarlet fever when he was a child, so he was not drafted by the army during World War I. Instead, he worked on his father’s farm until he married Delphine on March 27, 1920, in Liberal, Kan.

Shortly after they were married, they moved to Dodge City where Clarence found employment in the yard of the Santa Fe Railroad. He liked his job and learned to work with dynamite, even how to crimp the fuse with his teeth. Delphine worked at a print shop, setting type and making sale posters. She loved it, especially getting her own pay checks.

Deciding to return to farming, Clarence and Delphine set off in a Model-T Ford for Moscow, Kan., way out in the southwest corner of the state. They took a brand new potato masher and a carving knife to set up housekeeping. Clarence had already taken their most prized possession, a magnificent and powerful Parrett tractor, to Moscow. One can only imagine his trip (some 80 miles) driving the Parrett…hurtling through the countryside at top speeds up to three miles per hour.

Although the two had much in common, with their adventurous spirit and an aptitude for hard work, their cultural tastes were poles apart. For example, when snowed in during their first winter in Moscow, Delphine turned to the Bible and traced the prophecies from the Old to the New Testament. Clarence, on the other hand, and by the same lamplight, committed his machine manuals to memory, asking Delphine to quiz him closely for accuracy. Of course, they had little money and there were few places to buy anything, so Delphine made a saw horse table and covered it with a tablecloth she had embroidered herself. She padded a pair of nail kegs for them to sit on while eating. Their son, Clarence James, Jr. was born here Nov. 13, 1921. To avoid confusion, the family always called him “Sonny.”

After the arrival of Sonny, family ties tugged harder so they loaded up the potato masher and other household items and moved home to Comanche County, where Clarence had the opportunity to buy a machinery store in Protection. Three and a half years later, their daughter Beverly was born March 24, 1925, on that farm. Later that year, Clarence and Delphine bought the farm they would live on the rest of their lives, one mile west of Protection. On Nov. 11, 1929, Maureen was born.

They started improving and expanding a cattle herd that would eventually bring recognition to the “Bar-HD” brand. Clarence busied himself with farming and a machinery store. Delphine, in the midst of cooking for farm crews, washing diapers and sewing, managed to garner blue ribbons with her gleaming White Rock chickens. In his spare time, Clarence sang at social events and funerals throughout the area. Delphine worked hard helping to establish a public township library in Protection.

Unfortunately, during this time, the glorious Parrett was permanently parked. An errant spark from the faithful tractor ignited a 25-30 bushel field of wheat. Needless to say, this incident did not quell Clarence’s enthusiasm for the latest innovations in machinery. It was on to bigger and better equipment as fast as he could afford it. (Not too fast.)

The Depression of the 1930s brought the dust bowl and personal hardship to Clarence and Delphine. The first blow struck when the machinery store went broke and left them saddled with a debt that wasn’t fully repaid for many years. Delphine’s chickens were no longer on exhibit; instead they were on the table. Bangs Disease wiped out all but a remnant of their cattle herd. But worst of all, Delphine was almost lost to lumbar pneumonia so fatally prevalent in those dusty days.

Like most hard-working Americans, the Hardens bounced back leaving the bitter times behind and pushed ahead to new interests and challenges. After raising the three orneriest kids in town, they found time for new avocations. Delphine’s Iris Garden became a showplace for the entire area. Clarence worked diligently to help build a co-op elevator large enough to serve the community needs, and it stands tall today. They belonged to the Christian Church in Protection and volunteered there and supported it all their lives.

Clarence and Delphine had full and productive lives, contributing much to their community and church. Their good times were enjoyed and the bad times were faced with courage and determination.

They built and landscaped a beautiful farm home, and they shared a deep, deep love for the stark red dirt prairies of Comanche County. They treasured the native grasses, the chattering cottonwood trees, the elusive streams and cherished and delighted in the wildlife that shared their cattle pastures. They determined early in their lives together to leave their little corner of Comanche County better and more beautiful than they found it. They succeeded!

Clarence died July 11, 1977. Delphine died in 1994. They are buried at the Protection cemetery.

Paul Robert and Florence Estelle Bard Harden

Paul Robert Harden, born March 14, 1897.

Florence and Laura Bard, 1909.

Paul Harden in World War I uniform.

Paul and Florence were married Nov. 20, 1919.

Paul Harden Trucking.

Paul Robert Harden was born March 14, 1897, in Lexington, perhaps the last person to be born in the town. He attended the District #U2 school at the elementary level (a photo in the Lexington book, taken in 1912, shows him to be the tallest student in the class), and Ashland High School.

He must have met Florence Bard soon after she and her family moved to Protection in 1913. Paul was inducted into the U.S. Army on Sept. 5, 1918, during World War I. He served seven months in the Motor Transportation Corps at San Antonio, Texas. While he was stationed there, his parents, Charles and Agnes, drove down to San Antonio to visit him and took Florence with them.

She had graduated from Protection High School in 1918, and attended the Normal teaching school that summer. She taught in the Harmony School east of Protection in 1918-1919.

Paul and Florence were married Nov. 20, 1919, in the Methodist Parsonage in Ashland. They went to Colorado on their honeymoon, driving in a Model T coupe. There was only a dirt trail, not a graded road, with very limited signage along the way. Every night they had to drain the water out of the car motor because they did not have antifreeze. When they returned, they moved into the farmhouse in Lexington.

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Florence Estelle Bard was born Feb. 1, 1899 to Elgin Daniel Bard and Harriet Louisa Mills. E.D. Bard was born July 25, 1865, in Alliance, Ohio. He was the oldest child of Edward Collins (E.C.) and Alice Ann Mather Bard. It is commonly believed in the family that Alice Ann Mather was a descendent of Cotton Mather, early Puritan minister and writer of Salem witch trial fame. The family moved to Iowa when E.D. was 16 years old, and four years later, they relocated to Washington County, Kan.

E.D. and Harriet were married on Dec. 4, 1886. Harriet (Hattie) Louisa Mills was the third child of Windsor Coman and Amelia Mills, born July 1, 1864 on the Pardee Butler farm in Atchison County, Kan. In 1870 the Mills family came to Washington County where they homesteaded a farm.

Four children, Blanche, Clyde, Pearl, and Glenn were born to E.D. and Hattie while still living in Washington Co.

The Bard family then moved to Topeka, where E.D. went into the feed and grocery business. Florence was born during the time they lived in Topeka. They were members of the Congregational Church where Charles Sheldon was the pastor. He wrote the famous “In His Steps,” a novel that was perhaps the first to ask “What Would Jesus Do?”

The family moved to Pratt County in November of 1901. Laura (known to the family as “Aunt Auckie” after a two-year-old Florence’s attempt to pronounce “Laura”) was born into the home Aug. 7, 1902. They lived on a farm located seven miles northeast of Sawyer, six miles northwest of Isabel.

While living in Pratt Co., Blanche was given a certificate to teach school after finishing a summer of training. The certificate allowed teaching in only the county giving the certificate or an adjacent county, so she found a school in rural Stafford County. In September, Harriet loaded Blanche’s packed trunk onto the buggy, and, taking Florence along, drove Blanche by team and buggy across the country to her school, which was probably 30 miles north of their home. On the return of this memorable trip, a late summer storm came up. Lightning frightened the horses, making the traveling extremely hazardous. They had to stop for the night at a boarding house in Pratt.

In 1909 the Bards bought the Grimes ranch located seven miles southwest of Protection. This move to Comanche County was for more extensive farming and ranching. Clyde, Pearl, Glenn, Florence, and Laura came to the new home with them. Blanche married Jim Corson and remained in Pratt County for a time.

After moving to Comanche County Glenn married Bertha Clark, Clyde married Gertrude Schaubel, and Pearl married Owen Roberts, all in the same year.

In September 1913, Mr. and Mrs. Bard, Florence and Laura moved to Protection for school advantages. E.D. served on the school board and the city council for a number of years. While he was a councilman the city acquired its first power plant. He served on the building committee for the Methodist Church in 1916.

E.D. died in an automobile accident on May 15, 1939. Hattie Bard and a granddaughter, Eva Bard, were injured, but soon recovered.

Hattie Bard continued to live in Protection until her death on October 12, 1950.

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Ten months after their marriage, Florence gave birth to their first child, Laura Frances (Frances), on Sept. 2, 1920, at Protection.

Four boys were to follow in quick succession: Paul Duane (Duane), in 1922; Willis Myron, in 1923; Robert Verne (Bob), in 1925; and Lloyd Russell, in 1927. They would later have two more boys: Ronald Ray (Ray), born 1931, and Charles Daniel (Dan), born in 1933.

Paul was a cattleman and farmer. The first spring was dry and windy; it was difficult for a young bride to keep her house clean and dust free. The wheat crop was poor and Paul harvested it with header. The next year he bought a combine which was powered with eight head of horses. The wagon was driven along the side to catch the threshed wheat, and then pulled by team to a granary where it was scooped by hand into the bins. By 1925, Paul’s farm consisted of 2,000 acres, rented from his father but later purchased.

Paul traded cattle and hauled some of them to Wichita with a 1929 single wheel Dodge truck. In 1931 he hauled nine cows for $25, and at that time the roads were dirt except the last 10 miles west of Wichita, which was brick. During the Depression years, Paul found it necessary to supplement his farming income, so founded a cattle hauling trucking firm to increase the income for his growing family.

Willis remembers the dust storms of the ‘Dirty Thirties.’ During one storm, his mother, Florence, had to hang wet sheets in front of the windows to keep the kids from getting sick from the dust. People in those times died from dust pneumonia, and others suffered long-term effects. He remembers watching the sheets turn dark from the dust. Florence would rotate the dirty sheets with clean sheets. She soaked the sheets in a tub of water, rinsing the dirt from them, and rotated them back and forth on the windows throughout the day.

In 1936 Paul obtained KCC trucking permits, the red, blue, and white tags, the first Common Carrier trucking license for livestock and farm equipment in the State of Kansas, and started the trucking business. The business was eventually enlarged until it included five semi-trailers. Paul continued farming, trucking, and raising cattle until 1953. He then sold the trucking line and license, but rented the farm to his sons.

He was a generally successful farmer, rancher and businessman, but he did suffer a financial setback in 1937. A foreclosure proceeding was started against him, and to get out from under it, he sold the mineral rights on the two quarters east of the Lexington house for 50 years. (It seems he was able to buy them back later, as his son Willis later traded him for some land he had bought, the Davis place. This land was unitized in a gas well which provided Paul and Florence a good income in retirement.)

Florence had her own challenges in those years, raising five children under the age of seven. Dan recalls that when his mother learned she was pregnant with Ray in 1931, she was close to a breakdown. That summer, Paul decided to take Florence to Colorado for a break.

It was a trip that would change their lives forever. Somewhere along the way, Agnes, her mother-in-law, had attended Church of God services, and there was a Church of God camp meeting in Liberal on the day Paul and Florence were returning from their Colorado holiday. Florence stayed for the camp meeting with Agnes, whom she had always been close to. There, she experienced transformation. It was a new beginning. Ray was born in December, and 16 months later, Dan came along.

Florence and Paul would be instrumental in building the Church of God in Lexington, and later in Ashland.

All of Paul and Florence’s children attended District #U2 school, often on horseback. The five older children drove to Protection to high school. Dan and Ray attended Ashland High School after their parents moved to Ashland. They bought a house on the corner of Main Street and Highway 160, which still stands today. Paul took an active part in planning, collecting funds, constructing and equipping the Pioneer Historical Museum at Ashland.

He served as commissioner for Clark County from 1953-1957 and spent many hours working and advising on the construction of the First Church of God building and the historical museum in Ashland. In 1952, Paul built the “Highway 160 Café” in Ashland which he sold in 1975. He was an active member of the Clark County Historical Society and in 1967 helped in promoting and building the Pioneer Museum.

Florence was an active, cooperative companion in all of his endeavors. She crocheted an afghan for each of her children, each grandchild, as well as for many wedding gifts, and gifts to friends. None are alike, and they number well over one hundred. She enjoyed all kinds of needlework, even though her hands became arthritic in her later years. Florence also loved music and played piano and organ for the First Church of God for many years. She encouraged all her children and grandchildren to take lessons and to use the talents God had given them. Many of them inherited her artistic talent – there are a number of wonderful singers in the family.

Mike, Willis’ son, remembers Paul cutting his grandsons’ hair for a number of years, and believes he gave every one of his grandsons a haircut at one time or another. He had to try out his new clippers, and the boys always had “white sidewalls” when he finished.

As the years went by, the family grew and multiplied. Mike remembers how he enjoyed Christmas with all the presents and the family gathering. “Grandfather’s constant reply to Grandmother was ‘Yes, dear,’” Mike said. “Grandfather enjoyed people.” Paul had witnessed and often marveled at the wonderful changes in all aspects of technology. He learned to farm with horse-drawn plows and threshers and lived to watch his grandsons use their huge tractors, combines and sophisticated implements.

In 1989, Paul and Florence celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary. They had 22 grandchildren, numerous great-grandchildren, and that year they were presented with four great-great-grandchildren.

Paul and Florence Harden were some of the founding members of the First Church of God in Ashland. They were outstanding Christian examples for their family. As it says in Proverbs, a head of white hair is a crown of glory, and Paul still had a head of white hair when he died on Oct. 19, 1994, at the age of 97. He was survived by all seven of his children, 22 grandchildren, eight step-grandchildren, 50 great-grandchildren, and 11 great-great-grandchildren.

Florence had preceded him in death Dec. 30, 1992, at 93. They are buried side-by-side in the Protection cemetery, after an amazingly long and blessed life together.

Victorian photography

I have nearly gone blind this week, I think, cropping and resizing and retouching photos for the book. Like the one of Maureen below, which looked like a copy from a newspaper, perhaps. But I have gone through a lot of interesting photos. We all know Victorian era photography from its morose, overly sentimental and ornate style, but take this photo of the family of E.C. Bard, Florence's grandparents. Notice the blank or startled stares, the stiff poses, the look on Josephine's face like someone just dug her up, then add in the morbid backdrop, and for the piece de resistance, the artful spider web in the right corner. Voila! Instant Addams Family! (As always, you can click on the photo to see it in a larger size.)


Grandma Florence wasn't even born yet, but I wonder what her family was like...

E.C. Bard family (circa 1895) left to right: E.C. Bard, Charles Bard (standing), his wife, Helen, Blanche, Pearl, Elgin Daniel (standing), Josephine, Hattie. Sitting in front: Clyde, Alice Ann Mather (E.C.'s mother), Glenn.

Thanks to Maureen

Charles (Charlie) Harden and granddaughter Maureen from 1938. Isn't that a cute photo?

We owe some thanks to Maureen (Harden) Herd for her memories of Charles in the history below. And for her comment that Charles and Agnes lived in a soddy on the Pitcher farm during their first few years. I have added it to the tale. Thanks for keeping in touch with my mom and the stories that helped us get a personal feel for the two. Clarence and Delphine's story is coming soon!

Charles Edward and Agnes Gilchrist Harden

Children of Nathan and Emeretta Harden: Sue, Charles (Charlie), Henry, Rhetta and Belle.

Agnes Gilchrist, before her marriage to Charles.

Charles and Agnes and children with spouses: Paul and Florence in back; Clarence and Delphine; Chester and Rayben; and Laura and Gilbert Coates in front.

Charles and Agnes at their 50th wedding anniversary, with sons and daughter.

Charles Edward and Agnes Gilchrist Harden

Charles Edward Harden was born Aug. 25, 1863, in Clay County, Indiana. He came with his father, Nathan, and brother Henry to Clark County in 1884 and soon entered a claim adjoining his father’s on the west and Ben Stephens’ on the north. He received a patent on the claim in 1890. Charlie built a dugout and dug a well on the north side of his claim, allowing his new neighbor, Ben Stephens, to use his well. He also planted, with Henry’s help, a row of cottonwood trees (taking cuttings from the native trees on Lone Tree Creek) along the one-mile lane in front of his father’s claim.

Farming and ranching being marginal even in the best of times, Charlie left the farm to work in the coal mines of Cherokee County in southeast Kansas during the winter of 1887. (There were bad storms that summer, following a “great blizzard” in the winter of ’86, which killed anywhere from 50 to 75 percent of herds. John Vallentine claimed in his family’s history that, in the spring, the stench of rotting cattle carcasses was so overwhelming that the family was forced to move temporarily.)

When Charlie returned in February 1888, a party was arranged at the home of Jim Pitcher. Among the guests was Miss Agnes Gilchrist, a “pretty and charming” young school teacher. During one of the old-time party games in which it was customary for the boys to pursue the girls, Charlie managed to capture Agnes, which seemed prophetic of their future. Sometime later, their friends say he happened to enter the school building where Agnes was attending the Normal Institute for Teachers in the summer. He discovered her and another young teacher sliding down the banister.

Agnes had lovely gray eyes, and her son Clarence recalled that he loved to watch her brush out her hair at night. It was light brown and slightly curly and reached almost to the floor.

They were married on Feb. 11, 1890, in Coldwater. Agnes taught District No. 40 school from 1888-90, finishing up the last term after her marriage to Charles.

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Agnes was born March 4, 1863, in Hickory, Pennsylvania, the daughter of William A. Gilchrist and Margaret Richardson, both immigrants from Scotland. The 1860 Census lists William as a miner and engineer. They came with their first two children, Jane and William, to Ohio, where three more of their children were born. After moving to Pennsylvania, Margaret gave birth to six more children! – one of whom was Agnes.

The Gilchrists also came to Clark County about 1884 or 1885 and received a patent on their claim in 1891, though William Gilchrist had died in 1888 or ’89. It is thought he is buried in Mulberry, Kan., where several members of the family worked in the coal mines.

Agnes’ older sister, Mary Gilchrist Heaps, had a claim through her husband, who had died prior to 1890. She apparently caused quite a scandal when she remarried a man named Emanuel Unwin. His first wife had been “lost to the rigors of pioneer life in early Clark County.” He then married a woman from eastern Kansas who refused to come out west, and so was granted a divorce in October 1890. He must have been courting the widow Mary at the same time, because they were then married in Beaver, Okla., in December 1890. Upon returning, he was promptly arrested for bigamy by the Clark County sheriff. “It seems he had forgotten or chose to ignore a Kansas law that required a six-months’ waiting period following a divorce before remarriage.”

A settlement was eventually reached, and Unwin remarried Mary at Ashland in April 1891, and they moved to Oklahoma.

The Gilchrist land remained in the family until 1901, when the seven other living heirs quit-claimed their interests to the youngest daughter, Ella, who had married Calvin Clermont (C.C. or “Mont”) Towner. He had been for a year a schoolteacher in the Shattuck School, as had she, and had taught Natie Harden. (Ella died in 1907 at 39 and is buried in the Lexington cemetery; an infant boy or girl is buried with her. Her mother, Margaret, is also buried there.)

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After their marriage, Charles and Agnes rented the farm of Mr. Pitcher, who had returned back East. They lived in a soddy for a time, and Agnes later complained that it was hard to keep the dirt from falling on everything. A hard home to keep clean! Chester, their oldest son, was born there in 1890. Three other children followed: Laura Ethel, 1892, Clarence James, 1895, and Paul Robert, 1897 – all of them born in or near Lexington.

In 1895 Charles, mainly known as Charlie to his friends, was recorded in the census of Lexington township as a farmer with 160 acres, of which 140 acres were cultivated; also 1 horse, 2 mules, 4 milk cattle, 5 beef cattle, and 1 swine. In 1897 the family was living in the Dr. Metcalf office building in Lexington, when Paul was born.

Following a series of crop failures, Charles took his family back to Mulberry, Kan., where he worked again in the coal mines to tide the family over the hard times. The next spring, they returned to Lexington and continued to farm there, making the family home on his father’s claim, his father having moved to Oklahoma. Timber for the house had been hauled from Dodge City and Spearville, which were, at that time, the nearest railway points.

When the children were little, Charles and Agnes used to go to all the barn dances. The children would play, then get under the coats where they were supposed to go to sleep. But Clarence said they watched the adults dance and that Charles and Agnes were the best dancers there. He said they just floated across the floor to the music. They were a popular couple in the Lexington area. Charles was a real gentleman, always clean and neat, with elegant manners.

The Hardens were among the ten families who founded the community of Lexington, and in 1885, some of them decided to form the Aurora Town Company. After it was discovered that another town of that name already existed in Kansas, it was agreed they would rename the town Lexington, after Ben L. Stephens’ hometown of Lexington, Ky.

To attract potential settlers, the “town fathers” promoted Lexington in flyers and ads, claiming the “Finest Climate in the World!” and a country “ALL SETTLED with an intelligent and refined class of people…”

Nathan Harden had been contracted as a carpenter to build Stephens’ two-story house, and when he moved his house to the Lexington townsite, this was the first building in the town. Stephens also had the first business in Lexington. The town quickly grew to include a post office, general stores, drug stores, hardware and blacksmith shops, hotels, livery stables, feed stores, five public wells, a schoolhouse, and a public hall. It had a newspaper, the Lexington Leader, which lasted two years.

The years 1886-89 were the boom years for Lexington. The Clark County Clipper reported that the total population of Clark Co. in 1885 was 5,000. By 1899, it was only 1,672. This reduction was brought on by a series of droughts, foreclosures, the lure of free land elsewhere, and other discouragements; but probably the greatest blow to Lexington was the disappointment felt when the railroad lines were routed north through Bucklin and south through Ashland.

By 1900, most of the lots in Lexington had reverted to the county. Charles Harden was one of the few who decided to stick it out, and as these tracts became available, Charles bought many of them. In February of 1898 Charles bought part of the Lexington townsite which was quit claimed to Charles by Ben Stephens.

Most of the Lexington buildings were sold off and moved. Charles bought and built an addition to the Rock house before the family occupied it in 1900. In 1903 he bought the Lexington school to add on two additional rooms. But by 1908, he had built a new house 200 yards to the west, and that is where successions of Hardens have lived since.

The barn to the southwest was built the previous year in 1907.

By 1905 Charles’ farm in Lexington had been increased to 1760 acres, of which 225 acres were improved, and his livestock inventory was 3 horses, 6 milk cattle, 85 beef cattle, and 6 swine. By 1915 the farm had been increased to 2000 acres. Charles and Ben Stephens worked together over several years in clearing out town lot titles on 120 acres of the original Lexington townsite.

In his lifetime, he owned or partly owned some 32 sections of land, some up in Sherman County where his grandson Lloyd now lives. Charles was apparently a fellow with the golden touch. He saved his money early to buy his own claims, then bought up the claims of people who went bankrupt or just up and left. He particularly wanted the land where the house now stands because he thought the canyons would make a good place to dam up and make ponds to water cattle.

It was important to the early farmers and cattlemen that they had access to water for the stock and crops. Bluff Creek still borders the Harden properties and is still important to us. It has been fairly steady in its location since the 1950s, when family members remember it following an entirely different course than it does today.

Farming back then was best suited to younger men, and Charles and Agnes retired to Protection in 1919. This was just after World War I, and Paul was in the Army. Clarence and Laura and her husband, Gilbert Coate, lived in the house and ran the farm. When Paul returned and took over the farm, Gilbert and Laura moved to a farm west of Protection. Clarence had married Delphine Wyatt, and they lived on a farm near Moscow, Kan., for a few years.

Charles owned part of the Protection Bank and was on the board of directors of the Protection Co-op. In 1929 he opened a shop on the corner south of the former Co-op office. Here he sold Allis Chalmers tractors and Massey Harris combines. His son Clarence was involved in the business, which was sold in later years.

Charles helped his sons Clarence and Chet purchase land northwest of Protection -- land that Hern “Looie” and John Herd, son-in-law and grandson of Clarence Harden, and Chet Bratcher II, great-grandson of Chester Harden, operate and farm today. Charles Harden also purchased land north of Goodland, Kan., which his son Chester inherited.

Charles had started all four of his children in farming by the time he was 53 years old, either leasing his land to them or giving it to them outright. Charles always considered himself more of a cattleman than a farmer, but one occupation supports the other. He never owned a tractor, but he didn't make fun of people who did.

Charles and Agnes were busy members of the community in Protection. Charles mentored several other men as they joined the Christian Church in Protection. He helped to fund the first church built there. Agnes was also very devout and became a devotee of the Church of God message, which she shared with her daughter Florence.

It seems that Agnes’ mental faculties began to decline around the time they moved, as Charles began helping her to dress. He did the cooking and turned out to be a good cook. He also did the dishes, swept the floors and took care of the house. All this, and he was on the board of directors for the bank and the co-op and looked after cattle and his business.

Willis and Lloyd remembered that when they were kids, they would look up from their work to see their grandfather Charles riding his horse, Whirley, across the country checking fences and cattle all the way up from town. The farm is eight miles from Protection as the crow flies, and Charles would ride all that distance on the horse. Whirley got his name because he whirled around when a man was trying to mount him. Everyone remembers that Charles was an excellent rider.

Charles and Agnes were both delighted when their grandchildren began to come along. Maureen Herd, Clarence’s daughter, said that sometimes Charles would call up and ask if she could come over. She said she would walk the block or two to his house, with her mom watching from her end and her granddad standing in the street at his end so that she wouldn't be out of their sight or get lost. When she was little, on Saturdays she would go over and dust the baseboards for Grandpa Charles. He would hover over her to make sure she did a good job, and then she got a quarter. They spent a lot of time looking for things for Agnes. In her advancing dementia, she would put dirty dishes in the pantry and exhibit other inappropriate behavior.

He also continued to help his sons on the farm, as Willis recalls taking the Caterpillar tractor with a cultivator to Protection and cultivating some feed northeast of Clarence's house. He said his Grandfather followed with a hoe in hand, hoeing the weeds the cultivator missed. Charles would have been in his 70s at that point.

Charles developed diabetes, and Maureen said she remembers his giving himself insulin shots in the leg. He would roll up his pants leg and turn down his socks and give himself shots several times a day. He was always impeccably dressed, even when riding, and handsome, with white wavy hair.

In 1940, Charles and Agnes celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary with a party that was apparently a very elegant affair. They were married in 1890, and in those days, it was not common for couples to make it to 50 years. Women died early, from childbirth or from hard work and hardship.

After Charles died on Nov. 20, 1944, the family hired women to live with Agnes and take care of her, but they didn’t feel she was well-treated. She was taken to Alva, Okla., to board with a lady who ran an establishment that took care of ailing elders. She died on Jan. 6, 1951, and they are both buried in the cemetery in Protection.

Painting of the Lexington house by Frances Harden Eubank

Aunt Frances was a famous local artist, and she painted this view of the house she grew up in. I believe it is in watercolor. It hangs today in the house, where Jim and Mary Harden live now.

Laura Frances Harden

Frances, in the middle, with Duane and Willis and some hired hands for the summer. It must have been difficult for Great-Grandma Harden to style her curly hair into the fashion of the day!

Frances, Duane and Willis in their sweet Sunday best.

Here's Frances with her mother, Florence.

Frances and Junior Eubank and their family.

I have been working furiously on the history to the Harden book and so haven't had time to post anything, although people have been sending me lots of great material. Here is the story of Frances, which her daughter Alice was nice enough to share.

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Laura Frances Harden was born September 2, 1920, at Protection, the daughter of Paul and Florence (Bard) Harden. She was born in a house built and occupied by their maternal grandfather, E.D. Bard, as was her brother Duane. They were raised in the house in Lexington built by their paternal grandfather, Charles Harden.

She attended grade school at the Lexington “Little Red School House.” Her family attended the Methodist church and later the Church of God at Lexington. She graduated from Protection High School in 1938. She attended the Dodge City Business College for one term.

On December 2, 1938, she married Junior Eubank at Kingman, Ks. She was a great farm wife and worked hard to provide a loving home for her family. She always had a garden, helped the kids with their 4-H projects and school work. Her children are Terry Eubank and Alice Rich of Ashland, and Paul Eubank of Coats. She had seven grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren. She and Junior were devastated by the death of two very young granddaughters.

Frances is remembered to her brothers as “Sis.” Being the oldest, she helped her mother from an early age to care for them. Her six brothers always held her in the highest regard and sought her advice on many things. She was a wonderful cook and seamstress and a fine homemaker. She was also a great Sunday School teacher for the adult class at the Church of God in Ashland. She was an avid student of the Bible, and very knowledgeable in its mysteries.

After her children left home, Frances began to paint. She was a wonderful artist and her family members have her works in their homes. She received certification from the Famous Artists School in 1968. Her works were exhibited in many art shows, including the Kansas State Fair. Her memberships included the Kansas Watercolor Society, the Kansas Academy of Oil Painters, the Kansas Art Guild, the Topeka Art Guild and the Protection Art Guild.

In her later years, fibromyalgia made it impossible for her to exercise much, but she always maintained her trim figure, and her table was always set with nutritious food. Unfortunately, she developed uterine cancer late in her life. She beat it back for a few years, before succumbing to it in 2003. We all miss her.

Renewed plea for personal histories and Uncle Dan's life story

Mike and I were talking on the phone and he asked me to reiterate how much we would like to get family stories for the history book. You'll be sorry when you see how cool it is, if you're not a part of it!

Of course, some, like me may have totally boring stories that no one wants to hear, but then again, I don't have children who will one day be interested in reading about my early life. I can't see any of my cats really giving a rat's behind. :)

So to get people motivated, with only a month to go, here is the story that Uncle Dan wrote when he moved to his new church to introduce himself to the congregation. He lived through the Dust Bowl, the Depression, the Civil Rights movement, the Sixties, and so forth. I remember Disco and the Challenger exploding. I hope the times I live through are never as trying as these...


From the Dust Bowl to Paradise

I was born on April 23, 1933, on a small ranch 50 miles south of Dodge City, Kansas. I was the 7th child born to Paul and Florence Bard Harden. I was the 6th son. It was the worst of times. My parents had tried to limit the number of children they had, but nothing worked. My mother had even turned to religion for help so that when I was born she said, “Lord, I have enough to raise, this one belongs to you.”

As you know, in 1933, America was in the midst of the Great Depression. My parents were fortunate in some ways because we lived on a farm. We had chickens, pigs, milk cows, a house to live in and plenty of land to roam. There was no market for crops but my dad could grow potatoes and watermelons.

Besides the depression, there was another reason why it was called the worst of times. We lived in what was called the “Dust Bowl”. I knew I had grown up in a deprived area of the country, but I never really knew how bad it was until I read a book which hit the shelves in 2006, The Worst Hard Times. The author, Timothy Egan, did not grow up in the Dust Bowl, but he has done extensive research and found that while the Great Depression was Hard Times, those who lived in the Dust Bowl experienced the “worst” of the Hard Times.

The dust storms began in 1931. Though scientists knew that land west of the 100th parallel should not be farmed, the government had opened up the Oklahoma panhandle (what we called “No Man’s Land”) to homesteading after Oklahoma had become a State. Southeastern Colorado had also been opened up to homesteading. The land was flat and farmers broke out buffalo grass that had endured for thousands of years. Buffalo grass is a short grass with deep roots. It is drought resistant. In dry years, the grass survived and held the land in place. Buffalo grass is rich in nitrogen and had nourished buffalo, and now cattle.

The land was perfect for plowing up. It is flat and treeless and the gasoline tractor had just come on the market. With the development of the one-way plough, the homesteader was able to put all of his land into cultivation. Egan explains that during World War I, there was a ready market for wheat. Wheat had been introduced to Kansas by Russian Mennonite immigrants in the 1880’s. With high prices for wheat, the farmer was motivated to plough up everything in sight.

When the drought of the 1930’s hit, no appreciable rain fell in the area for 7 years. The dust storms began in 1931. No crops were grown...nothing could grow. The wind began to blow the dust. The dust drifted like snow, covering roads and fence posts. The worst dust storm came on Easter Sunday, April 14, 1935. I was 2 years old. The day had started out beautifully. By noon a dark cloud emerged over the northwest and gradually swept south across the plains. The rolling dust was propelled by the wind and static electricity. The cloud extended from the Rocky Mountains, east across Kansas and south through Oklahoma and Texas.

Roosevelt became President in 1933. As most Americans know, he immediately devised plans for putting men back to work with the WPA. But for us living in the Dust Bowl, Roosevelt is best known for his conservation measures. When the dust moved east to the Atlantic Ocean and darkened the skies over Washington, DC, Congress willingly voted for the measures that Roosevelt proposed. When farmers were desperate, he offered them $5 an acre to buy the land back. This program was particularly popular in Cimarron County in the Oklahoma Panhandle and Baca County in Colorado and the southwestern counties of Kansas.

Other conservation measures were crop rotation, in which farmers were paid not to plant their land, planting tree strips, and contour plowing, and some progress was made. On July 11, 1938, Roosevelt made his first and only trip to the Dust Bowl. He scheduled a train stop in Amarillo, Texas. Thousands of people gathered from all around the area. Just before the train arrived, a big black cloud emerged over the western horizon. The officials feared that the President was going to be greeted by another duster. As he stood to speak, thunder roared and it began to rain. Nobody left, they all stood out in the first significant rain that had fallen in 7 years. It was the end of the drought. That fall, the German forces rolled across Poland and World War II began. The Depression was over.

In the 1940’s there was ample rainfall and a ready market with good prices for wheat. Happy days were here again.

I graduated from high school in 1951 and matriculated at Anderson College in Anderson, Indiana, that fall. It was a culture shock. I had grown up in a dry and desolate land. My high school had 120 students. The biggest town within a hundred miles was Dodge City, at that time 5,000 souls. I loved college, it was a new world. I began a metamorphosis. Anderson was a small Church of God college, but it was the primary training center of our church. Thus, we had students from every State and many foreign students. The Church of God was very mission-minded so that we had students from Japan, India and Africa, where we had major missions.

Like the rain falling on the dry lands of the Dust Bowl, education and culture began falling on my deprived soul. As I have stated, I was nurtured in faith -- my mother had dedicated me to God. As I graduated from college in 1955, I really didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. A new movie and book were sweeping the country, "A Man Called Peter." I saw that movie 6 times in the summer of 1955. That fall I entered Seminary. The die was cast, I would be a minister.

I met my wife the next year at Anderson. Myrna Lee Durham was a bright and attractive young woman from the big city of Tampa, Florida. We were married in Tampa in 1956….and we just celebrated 50 years of marriage.

I finished Seminary in 1958. That fall I was recommended to a small mission church in El Dorado Arkansas. Growing up, I had had a low opinion of Arkansas. I suppose most people thought of Arkansas as a backward state. We moved to Arkansas at the worst of times. Orville Faubus was governor and he had closed the schools in Little Rock to prevent integration. President Eisenhower had mobilized the National Reserves and sent them to Little Rock. The racial situation was explosive.

After we moved to El Dorado, it was apparent that I would have to supplement our income. I did some substitute teaching in the high school, where I had Donna Axumn as a student. She became Miss America in 1961. Lee and I learned rather quickly that Arkansas was perhaps the “best kept secret” in the country. It was beautiful and filled with lakes and trees and the Arkansas delta was some of the richest agricultural land in America.

El Dorado had been an oil boom town in the 1920s. There was tremendous wealth in the community. It was a city of 25,000 and the home of Murphy Oil. They have significant oil reserves in Venezuela, the Gulf of Mexico and Saudi Arabia.

We opened a bookstore in 1960. We specialized in religious books and Bibles, but served as a general bookstore for the area. That bookstore provided an entry into the cultural life of El Dorado. We were accepted by the elite, we were invited into the homes of power brokers. It was in the home of Charlie Murphy that my wife and I first met our governor, a young man named Bill Clinton.

Sheila Anthony worked for us in the bookstore. Her husband, Beryl, would become a Congressman. He served as the representative from our area until the Reagan revolution turned Arkansas into a blue state. Sheila had a brother, Vincent Foster, who went with Bill Clinton to Washington. He later committed suicide. They were all friends from Hope. The Republicans tried to point the finger at the Clintons for Vince’s death, but I can tell you that the Foster family never believed that the Clintons were to blame.

By 1967, the El Dorado schools were integrated. Our daughter, Ashlee, was in the first grade and was assigned to the first African American teacher to teach in the schools of El Dorado. Tension was great. I remember the first day of school. Lee took Ashlee to school. Amanda Milner, the teacher, introduced herself and asked for volunteers for homeroom mothers. Silence prevailed. Though we lived in the silk stocking district, none of the socialites would volunteer. Lee broke the spell when she volunteered.

In 1967, Lee became the host for the 6:00AM program in TV, channel 10: Good Morning, ArkLaMiss. The station covered southern Arkansas, northern Louisiana, and western Mississippi.

In 1968 the first African American visited our church, at my invitation. I will never forget the occasion. We were having a revival. On Monday night a lady by the name of Isabel Nunn came to the service. Several of the church members were sympathetic to the KKK and Sam McDuffie had attended several of their meetings. He told his wife that the first time a “N” came into the church, he would walk out. When Isabel came in, he turned to his wife and asked, “Is that a “N”?” Reba, his wife was quick witted and Isabel was light colored. So Reba said, “Maybe she’s Mexican.” In El Dorado, you could get by if you were Mexican at that time. The next night, Isabel brought her cousin, Sylvia McDaniel, to the service. Sylvia was much darker and there was no doubt that she was African American. Sam did not walk out, but he never returned to church. I visited with him and tried to reason with him. In later years, he turned violent and shot a Deputy Sheriff. I was more successful with my other members. No one else left the church over integration. Isabel and Sylvia became members of our congregation.

In 1969, we conducted a Building Fund Campaign. We held the dinner in the best restaurant in town, the Oak Tree. We seated the African Americans at the front table and we had the newspaper put the picture of the dinner in the paper. I stated from the beginning that the church we were building would be for all people. It is God’s church….if you are not accepting of all people, then do not give. We moved into a beautiful new church in 1970.

I was then chairman of the Arkansas Assembly of the Church of God. We had decided to invite an African American as the speaker for the Annual Assembly. It was customary that the state assembly be held in either Little Rock or Hot Springs. All the churches in central Arkansas refused to host the Assembly. All the pastors said, “If we host a black man, the community will burn our churches down.” I replied to them that they were invited to El Dorado. I was Chairman of the State Assembly and I would not allow them to dis-invite, or cancel, a black speaker.

We were fortunate to have the Reverend Dr. Samuel Hinds as speaker. Sam was a pastor in Washington, DC. Actually he was raised in Jamaica and held degrees from Oxford University. He was, without a doubt, one of the best preachers I have ever heard. Lee had Dr. Hinds on her TV program. This was announced all over the Ark La Miss area. People called to ask, “Is that a black man?” No one had ever heard an Oxford educated black man with a British accent speak before. We had large crowds at the sessions. For the first time ever, every black Church of God pastor in Arkansas attended the Assembly.

The next month, Lee received a phone call threatening to burn a cross in our front yard. I went out one morning to find that the KKK had nailed a poster to the telephone pole in front of our house. It announced a meeting to be held soon. I tore it down. I was so incensed that I put my 7- year-old son in the car and we drove down the street and tore every KKK poster of all the telephone poles I could find.

That year, one of the community leaders came and asked me what I thought about starting a private Christian academy. One of the churches in the community had offered their facilities if such an institute was founded. I said no. I ran for PTA president of our school and won. I proceeded to raise money to air condition our school. My platform was: I believe in free public education and I want to make our school a model school. We raised $28,000 to place air conditioners in every room. We had no candy or bake sales, I asked for money. I challenged people to support the school. To this day, there is not a private school in that community and the public schools are good. I like to feel that I made a difference.

In 1981 Lee and I discussed our future. I had been pastor at El Dorado Church of God for 23 years. There was no question of our leadership... We could have spent our lives in that community, but I felt that greater challenges lay ahead.

Roscoe Snowden, Director of Church Service in the Church of God was asked to recommend someone for the Kendall Church in Miami. The church had contacted dozens of ministers, but none were willing to come to Miami. The Mariel boat lift had devastated the city. American whites were fleeing the Miami for the suburbs. The former pastor told me that in 1979, 65 families had moved from the Kendall church to central and northern Florida. The church was struggling to survive.

We became pastors at Kendall in October 1981. In August, the cover of Time magazine read “Paradise Lost.” The state ministers never had an installation service for me. Jim Royster, our Sunday School superintendent said to me that fall, “I don’t know how much longer we can survive. But we’re going to keep going as long as we can.” I am glad he had not told me that when I interviewed for the position.

I grew up in the worst of times. I had pastored in Arkansas during the racial revolution of the ‘60s. I saw social turmoil as an opportunity for the church to make a difference.

That opportunity was not long in waiting. In fact, on the last Sunday of October, my 3rd Sunday, the day we turn the clocks back an hour, an older Haitian lady and her daughter came to church an hour early, not knowing about the time change. I asked if they would like to attend a Sunday School class for women, called the “Golden Girls.” They said they would. I took them to the class and they also joined us for worship. After church, the lady told her daughter, “That’s the church I want to go to.” What is interesting is that the lady did not speak a word of English, and I have never spoken Creole or French. Her son was a doctor, a gynecologist. Soon he and his family joined us. I was Mrs. Charlot’s pastor for 16 years. She never spoke English, I never spoke French except for a few words of greeting. She never missed church. She had 5 married children and all of them joined us at Kendall. Some of the family has moved to Atlanta, but all of the family has worshipped with us at some time.

I pastored the Kendall church for 21 years. In my last year, we averaged 650 people in the morning service. Some 2,000 people called Kendall their home church. Every year, we celebrated International Days. Every nationality represented in the congregation carried their flag in a procession of nations. Scottish bagpipes led the parade. We have had as many as 65 flags in that procession. In 1998, there were 1400 people who attended that one International service. That year, Anderson University presented me with an honorary Doctor of Divinity, a truly grand finale to our ministry. I retired on December 31, 2002.

I have entitled my pilgrimage “From the Dust Bowl to Paradise.” We love Miami. We have found a blessed refuge here at Plymouth Congregational Church. As I look back on these past 50 years, it has been an exciting journey, and I would do it all over again.