 1935
JOHN WESLEY FLOOD, BORN DECEMBER 28, 1910,
his wife, Wenona Mae Medler Flood, born December 6, 1913, with their son,
who was eighteen months old. Rodney Lee Flood, their son, was born April
30, 1934.
Wenona's parents were living in Fort Smith,
Arkansas in 1923. Her father, Roy Harkens Medler was born in Grand Rapids,
Michigan, June 1892. He died 1949 at Tonkawa, Oklahoma. Roy Medler's wife
was: Lenora Grace Reid Medler. She was born June 1892. She died 1967 at
Valadosta, Georgia.
Lenora's father was William Walter Reid.
Lenora's mother was Soaphirnia Alice Jobe.
Roy Harkens, Wenona's father was a water
well driller when the drought caused him to leave Arkansas in 1923 to come
to Oklahoma for work. The family first came to Barnsdall, Oklahoma, then
on to Three Sands, a small oil town, close to Ponca City, Oklahoma. He
first worked "in the ditch," digging ditches, until he had the
opportunity to go to work in the office.
While the family lived at Three Sands they
lived in the back of a store for one whole summer. There wasn't much of an
environment, because when the gushers would come in they would blow all
over everything, the shrubs, all vegetation, and the streets. Everything
was covered with oil, making for bleak surroundings.
The town, Three Sands, was named because
oil was found in three levels of sand. There would be three derricks in a
group for each level, hence, the reason for so many derricks, looking like
trees in a forest. The head plant made gasoline, not well refined.
"Mother made things pleasant in spite
of all the grimy oil," Wenona remembers. "My sister and I loved
to go to the store for a Hershey bar. The candy bars were a nickel
each." Mrs. John Flood reflects.
The family moved to Stroud, Oklahoma and
then on to Braman, Oklahoma. "There we had a company house with two
bedrooms, quite a move up. However, my Grandparents came to live with us,
having to take one of the bedrooms. This left the glassed in back porch
for my sister and I. Mother was fastidious to a fault, sometimes putting
things away before they were used. She kept the small area pleasant."
Wenona Flood continues, "It was very
cold in the winter, when the wind blew the curtains would stand out from
the drafty walls. We had all the gas we wanted to use to heat with, but it
often had air in it and was not a very hot fire. You stayed in Oklahoma
because you had a job and a paycheck."
"We moved to Drumright, Oklahoma, and
Dad retired with ill health. He passed away at Tonkawa, in his late
50's."
Lenora, Wenona's mother, was of the Medlers
of Grand Rapids, Michigan. They family was bent towards learning and
literature. They were owners of a newspaper in Grand Rapids. |
