This is the third part of the autobiography of Allie Oen Beymer. He was Born in Elmdale, Chase County, Kansas, 11 June 1882. It covers Chase County Kansas, a short period in Arkansas; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Norman Oklahoma; Colorado; Portland, Oregon; and Eugene, Oregon. I (Mike Beymer) am transcribing this as written with no intentional changes.

On day Willie came home and said he and his chum were going to explore a cave they had heard about down the creek toward White River, and I begged until they let me go along. When we found the entrance it looked frightening. Just a hole under a big rock so small we had to crawl in on our hands and knees. After making a pine torch we crawled in and found it got bigger and bigger; in fact about fifteen feet wide and fifteen feet tall, the ceiling forming an arch, and the floor was almost flat. We had also brought along a lantern, and I was walking along in the shadow of my brother when I suddenly fell into a pit which was about three feet deep and six feet long with a hole at the opposite end too deep to see the bottom. They soon pulled me out but I watched my step after that. After crawling and squeezing into two more compartments, we reached the end where someone chiseled out a bowl shape in the rock over which trickled a little stream of water. Then after taking a drink of water and a rest, we squeezed our way back out passing some places that looked like bear dens. We took back home about half gallon of agate stone which the boys chiseled off the rock in the cave.

The sun was shining brightly on the out side and we decided to go on down to White River which we heard was flooded. Having watched the swirling water, filled with rubbish, from the railroad bridge for a while, we walked back up the railroad to town. I was ready for bed for it had been a long walk for me.

Willie was just outside of town in the hills picking huckleberries and saw a bear. He ran to town to get someone with a gun but when they got back, they never could find the bear again.

Now right in the midst of my good times, I took typhoid fever and thought I surely would die, but after a month's sickness a lady doctor helped me back to health again. While I was sick we had a mule colt that walked right through the kitchen into the living room. When he saw himself in the mirror he got frightened, whirled and ran out.

I finally was able to do chores and went to the spring for a bucket of water. After getting the water, I went by where a bear was chained in the park. I went close enough to pat his head as I had done before. But when he saw the bucket he hit it with his paw, and it went rolling down the hill. I never trusted him again. He got loose once but didn't hurt anyone. The boys got to teasing him and he became dangerous. There was a pen in the park with five little bears in it. I liked to watch them play. Zone dropped his dinner bucket lid in it on his way home from school, and he couldn't get it out. The bears played with the lid and smashed it all up.

I have only found one well in town. Everyone likes the cold fresh water from the springs. I like the grotto springs the best. There is a watering trough there for the horses and the rocks around the spring are so pretty, and it always seems so cool and nice. Many people sit around the springs and visit.

Well this is the year for the presidential election and nearly everyone is yelling "harrah for Cleveland". The democrats just put a cannon on the mountain south of town and shot paper through the pine trees. The mountains and canyons echoed with the boom, and trees were full of torn newspapers. This, of course, was done in the night and the flash from the cannon could be seen across the canyon from the town.

There seemed to be no work except cutting wood and the men are getting tired of it, so the talk is that it is better back in Kansas on the farm where they were. Mama is discouraged too for she had a cancer cut out of her breast, and she suffers a lot with it.

Nearly all of the caravan that left Kansas are in and around here. Finally after many arguments, two wagons are going back. Now the overjets which have been set aside for sleeping purposes has been put back on the wagon and we start packing again. Our wagon carried five people, papa, Dick, Willie, Jimmie and myself.

Early in the morning before we started, papa and Joe Messer stole a hen and a rooster from someone who had the kind of chickens they took a liking to. It was the Hamburg strain and they were real pretty. We also had two trail hounds they had been using to hunt coons while they were in Arkansas. How I liked to hear them baying up in the mountains in the night time.

It was a beautiful day and we got off at daybreak. No women in the crowd this time as they refused to go until we arrived and sent for them later to come on the train. One nice day only and then it turned cold and stormy. The third day it began to snow, and from then on Jimmie and I didn't get out of the wagon. The men would shovel the snow away, build a fire, cook something to eat and hand it in to us. Most of the time we were wrapped up in the bed to keep from freezing. It was a bitter ten days' ride, most of the time facing the north wind. When we did arrive there was no place to find shelter only with the Messers on the old farm. It was crowded and when the woman folk arrived, it was more crowded; but it was a cold winter and we were thankful to have some friends and shelter. Years of association had made the two families like one.

The two hounds brought from Arkansas took distemper and died. Soon after Christmas Joe took typhoid and almost died. How glad we were to see spring once more.

Papa was in the living room cleaning his gun one day and accidentally discharged his shotgun and blew the front part of the heater all to pieces scaring the folk in the other rooms so bad they were almost afraid to open the door to see what was the matter. When they did look into the room, it was full of smoke. He was not hurt.

I made a pig of myself on Christmas night by eating too much candy and had to get up and go out doors to heave up. I resolved never to do that again.

How happy we all were when papa found a place to rent so we could live by ourselves once more. It was a stone house in a deep ravine between Messers farm and Clements, with a ledge of big rocks at the upper edge of the banks. Here is where I had a lot of fun trapping for skunks, muskrats, rabbits, and anything else that would nibble the bait under my deadfalls, set between the rocks.

Papa got a team of mules somewhere by working for them. They were a little ornary things that would run away by the drop of the hat then he would pour the whip on until they were tired out. But that never got any better, so he swapped them for a team of pretty sorrel mares. I found out that any kind of team was better than nothing for before we had the team, papa and I would walk to Clements about three miles and carry our groceries; Sometimes a sack of flour, sometimes a three gallon bucket of syrup, or a side of pork, or maybe salt, raisins, or dried prunes. We had different size buckets which were not as heavy as our wooden buckets.

Early in the spring we moved on to the Dolittle ranch which was a cattle ranch several miles north of Elmdale. There was enough work here to keep most of the family busy, even mama baked the bread for the ranch house. They would buy two sacks of flour and give her one for baking one.

It was in March when I was playing with the hoe and scraped out some angleworms. Then I got the idea I might try fishing in the creek nearby. So finding a hook and line, I whittled off a small pole, ran to the creek nearby and dropped in the line. Within a minute or two I had a nice cat fish and was so tickled, I ran to the house to tell mama, then went back and caught five of them for supper. Most of our leisure time was spent fishing or swimming. Our first swim of the season was the first of May and it was plenty cold.

On his ranch I had a lot of fun watching cowboys break wild horses just off the range. Jimmie worked for two months for a roan pony that was a pacer but was pretty wild. When it was paid for it was herded into a high board corral with others including a pretty one the owner had picked for his grandson. These two were roped and tied to the fence after much fighting. The ranch foreman's son was to ride the one for the city boy, the first time for $5 but when his time came to ride he lost his nerve saying "he looks too mean for me." "All right," said his father, "I'll ride him for $5." Then they took the pony out into the plowed field, with a long rope wrapped around the saddle horn of a trusted pony ridden by a cowboy. About the time someone began to say he was just a dead head, he began bawling like a calf, and flew into bucking. Round and round he went until the back girth broke then the front one. The foreman was thrown into the air to one side lighting on his hands and knees and crawling fast. The pony still bucked for a while after its burden was gone, but the cowboy held him away from the man he had just thrown. This ruined the pony, and it never could be trusted.

Jimmie used another plan for taming his roan; feeding it sugar and petting it a little more each day until he could lay a sack on its back. This way he soon became so gentle that Jimmie was on his back in a few days and the pony's fear was gone. After this he was broke to work single to the top buggy and became so gentle as to be lifted by his back legs.

One day we got word that the cattle had broken into the corn about two miles from the ranch house. A cowboy was sent ahead to drive them out and three of us followed with papa's sorrel teem and wagon. When we were nearly there, one mare balked lying right down on the ground. Two of us were held her down until the fence was fixed, then the foreman tied her tail to the stachain and made her pull us all the way home.

It was this place that we got our first washing machine, operated with a lever across the top. Of course we boys did most of the running of it to take the work off mama. We kept it nice and clean for a long time, wiping it off after each wash day. It was a wonder to us.

Papa bought a cow pony from Mr. Doolittle for $5. It's name is Cricket and it had a ring bone, causing it to limp all the time. This sore spot was on the upper part of its foot. Nevertheless it was a swell pony; so easy to ride and so gentle. It was hard to stick on his back when he was after cattle.

One day a piece of machinery broke and someone had to go to town to get a piece of iron, so I was to make the trip on one of the sorrels, the balky one. We were eating our noon meal when I told papa I was afraid to ride that horse "cause it was mean". They all laughed at me, but I cried and said I didn't want to do it. When our meal was finished Willie jumped up and said "I'll show you she is all right. " The horse was already saddled and as he led her out of the barn he swung into the saddle yelling, "bang, bang, bang," his arms both pointing into the air as if he was shooting and the bridle reigns hanging over the saddle horn loosely. This was enough to start the pony bucking and Willie was not expecting it. The first jump threw his feet out of the stirrups and grabbing the saddle horn, he took an awful beating in the saddle saying "whoa, whoa, whoa" until it stopped. Then he slid to the ground groaning from his bruises. That settled it. I would never ride that one. They changed the saddle to Cricket, and I gladly went to town. Then Jimmie said, "I'll show you how to ride that one" and he jumped on her bareback, sending her down the road has fast as she could go, striking on one side and then the other with his big ten-gallon hat.

This was a hot summer and the ground dried hard in the road with cracked so wide and deep, it made me think of earthquakes I had heard about opening up and letting people fall in.

Well it's getting late in the fall when the bulk of the ranch work is done; now the talk is about going to live in Cottonwood Falls. This is the county seat of Chase County and has a good school. I have missed quite a lot of school now by moving around so much. Papa rented a house about five blocks south of the city school. It has a barn for our horses too. There is lots of farm work on the river bottom land near town, and also on the prairie farms.

I am going to school again and should be in the fourth grade but was put in third grade because of English. Grammar is hard for me, and I just can't see how they divide it up into verbs and nouns and everything else. I like all the rest of school work. My teacher's name is Miss Carrie Breese and everyone likes her.

Papa has found himself a job in the limestone quarry about two miles east of town. He does mostly hand drilling with a big six-foot drill for breaking wide flat rock. It's a hard job and he gets awfully tired and sometimes has to rest on the way home at night after ten hours work.

Well another year has passed and we still live in the same house. I have found out some things about our family. Papa was married before he married my mother, and Dick and Willie are his boys. Mama had been married and Virginia, Lizzie, and Jimmie are her own children. After they were married, I was their first child, then Zone, George, and Inez. They are all just brothers and sisters to me. Just one big family of eleven.

I remember my mother telling me to wash my feet before going to Sunday school, but aside from that I never remember any mention of religion in our family until this year, 1893. Willie had been away herding sheep somewhere and had obtained some Christian literature and had come under conviction.

On a Sunday evening Willie and I were out walking where there were some huge limestone rock. I shall never forget how solemnly he appeared as he turned to me and said, "the Bible tells us that some day the earth shall melt with fervent heat and as for me I am going to get ready for that day." Then he told me some of the things he had read about the judgment. This was the crossroad in my life, and as I looked at the large stones that someday would be melted and the beautiful sunset we enjoyed now, my decision was made for eternity.

From that moment on my love for that brother was beyond expression, and his glorious short life cast an influence over me that will last while I live. We went to the Methodist church that night and at the close of the service the minister asked all who wanted to give themselves to God to come to the alter, and we both went. As we were walking home that night after the meeting was over, I could see a change in him for he would occasionally laugh and told me he was so happy he could hardly contain himself. When we arrived home only Lizzie had gone to bed, the others sitting around the fire. Willie sat down with them for about five minutes, then jumped to his feet with his face shining and said, "Pa, I just can't keep it any longer." "I've been saved, O glory." Then picking up his Bible and holding it against his heart, he went into Lizzie's room shouting "I've got it, I've got it."

And what a change came into our family. As he read the Bible from time to time and sang and prayed, there were less arguments, less swearing with a conviction deepening on everyone in the family. He was baptised and taken into the church.

Next door to us lived Mr. Allen the county school superintendent, with a boy, Bert and a girl, Edna. We enjoyed many pleasant evenings together playing games and reading books. I have always felt it was an uplift to the Beymer children to be with them. Edna and I were in the same classes in school, and almost secretly but knowingly trying to get the best grades in the class comparing our report cards immediately after receiving them. Here I learned never to underestimate the intellect of a girl for behold at the end of the term, she took the exams for the grade ahead and passed. As an excuse and I think it a good one, her parents could help her and mine could not. Anyway she had a nervous breakdown and I didn't, but I had learned to like her and did worry about some until she came back to school about two months later. It was not long after that when Mr. Allen secured a position with the government, moved to Washington and I never heard of her again.

I spent some time fishing in the Cottonwood River ner town. There was a Flour mill which was run by a big water wheel located on the river bank. I was fishing one day below the dam which was about eight feet high, and something kept pulling my bobber slowly under. I thought it was a turtle and was just going to move when zip went my line through the boiling water, then back and forth, pulling so hard I knew it was the biggest fish I ever had on my hook. After wearing it out to where I could get my hand underneath and throwing it out, I proudly took it up to town to have it weighed at a grocery store. It was a cat fish and weighed seven and one-half pounds.

There were so many in the family we all earned our way as much as possible, so this year they are sending me out southwest of town about twenty miles to work on a farm for my board and room and clothes, although it was but very little clothes I received. The mailman has a route out that way with a horse and buggy and I am to ride out with him. I will work for a man whose name is Bartlett, and it is near Veburgs, so it won't be all strange to me; nevertheless it will be a lonesome summer, and I will be glad to get back home. There was a dust storm came one day when Bartletts were gone to town. It got so dark I was frightened and was on my way running over to Veburgs when I met them coming home. It was almost like night. Bartletts have no children so I have no one to play with, but I am kept pretty busy plowing, harrowing, and cutting weeds with the hoe.

Oh, there was a terrible thing happened last night, right here in town. Some one shot the postmaster. They found the man that did it, took him out to a railroad bridge and hung him and then shot him full holes. All the people were mad because our postmaster was killed.

Well the long summer is passed, and I am enjoying myself in school again. Miss Carrie is still my teacher, and I am glad. There was nothing much out of the ordinary happened this winter. I would like to take a ride over to Strong City on the street car which is about two miles, but I don't have a nickel for fare. The street car is pulled by one horse and runs from the Courthouse in Cottonwood Falls to the depote in Strong City. We have a beautiful courthouse here, and it sets up on a knoll with steps leading up from the sidewalk.

Papa is worn out at the stone quarry and has rented another farm. It is southwest of Clements and southeast of Cedar Point, about five miles from either place. It has an orchard and a big two-story and a half house. Insulated with gravel. I don't know what for unless it's to keep it from blowing away. There used to be a barn and a windmill here but a cyclone blew away the barn and took the wheel off the windmill, which stands close to the house and makes things look spooky.

Papa has bought a roan cow for five dollars and a horse so we will have three horses now. It's better to have three horses on the plow. My big brothers work for other farmers most of the time because there is not enough work here at home for them all the time. There were several freight wagons went to the Cripple Creek mining district in Colorado when we lived on the Doolittle Ranch and my oldest brother, Dick went with them. He came back once to see us but is gone back again. Says he makes lots of money driving four and six horse teams on ore wagons but he never saves any of it.

Harrah! School is out again and we have moved to the farm once more, and I like it fine here. Papa and the boys are quarrying rock out of a ravine to make a barn wall to be covered with brush and hay as usual. Then we stack our hay on the north side for a wind break and it does pretty good. Jimmie worked out for a horse they called Boxer. He is an Arabian horse almost white, it is long legged and jumps fences whenever he takes a notion. He never gets cut with wire for if he happens to get his foot over it, he will just stand there until someone comes to help him out. He has been in a show and has been trained for lots of things.

There are seventy acres of plow land on this place and we are planting all of it in corn and cane. Some cane is to make sorgum and will be planted in rows and that for the stock will be sown broadcast. We are going to have good neighbors here. When we first arrived here Mr. Hardie who lives about a mile came over to invite us all over for supper. They are Scottish people and are so nice. Mr. Allen lives about one mile the other direction and papa says he raises his own tobacco, so he is quite interested as his trade was packing tobacco in a hog shed when he was young. It's no wonder he chews so much of it.

Mr. Harve Mowry who lives near a creek about three miles from here came to see if he could get someone to work for him this summer, and papa hired me out to him for fifty cents per day. He is a nice guy and full of tricks and jokes.

Once I was working with him cutting fodder for the cows. It was a hot day late in the summer when all at once he stopped work and said, "Allie, when did you marry that vest you have on?" I don't know why but I have kept that vest on hot or cold all spring and summer.

When the corn was laid by in June one bright sunny morning, Mr. Mowry said, "Well Allie, I hate to have you leave us but the work is all caught up, and I haven't any more for you now; but before you go you better dig some worms and catch some fish to take home." Then with that tricky smile of his said, "Hardie's have two of the prettiest twin sisters visiting, you ever saw. It will pay to go by there and get acquainted with them." "Well I will sure try to get some fish," I said as if I didn't hear about the girls.

After trying to find some worms and failing, I took his shot gun and shot two turtle-doves which were sitting on a limb close together. I never had killed any kind of bird before and when I picked them up my conscience rebelled and I had a hard time using them for bait. Finally decided they were already killed, I could use them but resolved never to kill anymore turtle-doves for that purpose and I have kept that resolution.

I took three hooks and lines, whittled sticks off which I had found along the bank, set them within ten feet of each other and sat down in the sun which had only been up for about an hour. Now is when the fun started. In about an hour I had sun fish and cat fish all over the bank. Sometimes all three hooks would have a fish on at the same time. I never have caught fish so fast before nor since. Then I got a gunny sack and wondered if I could carry them all the way home. Now I never could have a better excuse to see those girls as they were right on my way home, so I decided to stop at Hardies and give them some fish. They were getting heavy anyway. After being introduced and taking out some fish, I proceeded on my way home wondering when I would get to see those girls again. Mr. Mowry was right; they were the prettiest I had ever seen and were on my mind a lot.

However, didn't have long to wait for Rosie and Daisie were at Sunday School as their uncle Mr. Hardie was the superintendent. I often worked for Hardie during the summer and saw them quite often then they were gone. I was to timid to get very well acquainted. Their home was six miles south of Wichita, Kansas.

Before time for school, a farmer we knew near Cottonwood Falls came to see us. He wanted to give me board and room and clothes to work for him on the farm and go to school, taking his little boy and girl in the buggy as he lived two and a half miles from the school.

Papa took me to his place when the time came to go and on the way he talked to me in this manner, "now son", said he "you will be away where we will not know what you are doing and I am going to trust you to do what is right, the same as if you were at home." I promised him he could trust me for I sure did love my parents and kept my promise. I was a good worker and thought that Mr. Barrett took some advantage of me because of it. I now realize that I was young and might have used the right judgment; nevertheless, it was good experience and I learned fast how to take care of myself. I learned to be punctual for I got up at five o'clock and went to the barn to do chores until breakfast was called.

Cold or snow made no difference. After breakfast I perhaps cut wood and anything else that needed to be done, watching the exact time to change my clothes and hitch up old Nell to the buggy. Saturday I was kept busy at something all day, husking corn, hauling wood, working in the garden, and numerous other things.

One job was to ride old Nell across the river every evening to get the milk cows. Once the river became flooded and lodged a tree just above our crossing and the water falling over the log had washed out a deep hole, then taking the tree on down stream. When I discovered this I had some fun. I would drive the cows into the water them rush them quickly into the hole where they would disappear into the water. On a cold freezing day Mr. Barrett was riding across when his horse got too close to the hole and it caved off and down they went clear under. His clothes were forzen stiff before he could get to the house. The stock finally learned until I couldn't drive them into it.

Living here gives me the privilege of going to church at Cottonwood Falls as the Bartletts are members of the Methodist Church. One day as I was playing near town with some boys a man came along and called me out to one side to talk to me. He said his name was Finner Hunt. He had seen my interest in Sunday School and wanted to commend me for so doing. He gave me a big orange telling me he would see me next Sunday. He always made it a point to sit by me if possible. He was a wonderful tenor singer, and I learned to like his company. Calling me out into the hall one day from the school library, he said, "I see you are riding to school in the cold without an overcoat. When school is dismissed today I will meet you outside and we will go down to the store to see about getting one." Just like a boy I said, "Oh, I would rather have a new suit for Sunday." " Well maybe they will have a suit too" he said. I quickly saw my mistake and tried to get out of it but too late. We went to the store that evening and I came away with an overcoat and a new suit also. But I could see that he really enjoyed it so it didn't make me feel quite so badly. It was my first overcoat and it kept me warm for two winters.

I did well in school that winter. Grammar which was so hard at the beginning, was now my easiest study. This was my fourth year of school at Cottonwood Falls. Willie hired out to a farmer joining the place where I stayed and I was able to see him occasionally. I was with him one Sunday when he went home and then he went to Wansaview for church, taking a girl home after the meeting at night. I waited for him there and layed on the hay and went to sleep. He woke me to go about two o'clock in the morning. I will never forget that twenty mile ride back on a warm night with a full moon which made it seem like day. He had a two-wheel cart and one horse. The moon was so bright we could see to read.

This was the second year on what we called the Grover place. Mama raised enough hogs to buy a brand new buggy this year and we had a wonderful buggy horse called Bess. This was a big lift to us all as we had never had only the cart and the old lumber wagon to go places. Of course only about three could go in the buggy and the wagon would take us all if we would crowd up some. Jimmie made some money breaking broncos to ride. He got ten dollars to ride them a week or until they were gentle. Some were pretty bad.