Martha Naomi Woody was born April 3, 1884 in Big Cabin, Indian Territory, now Vinita, Craig County, Oklahoma, the daughter of Milligan Clark Woody, 1842-1892, and Susannah Ann Hallum 1854-1886. When Susannah died Martha was less than two years old. Her sister, Lillie Belle Woody (1879-1971), was passed around to relatives because she was old enough to help the mothers with small children. Martha Naomi or Oma, as she was called, and her brother Homer Milligan Woody (1882-1944) were raised by an elderly couple who had no children, Samuel Arthur Duree and Rhoda Lauderbough Duree. They were good, Christian people and were very special people. They never adopted the children, so they kept their Woody names. Oma thought her mother died when she was born, but later when her grave was found, she discovered she was two years old--so if her mother died giving birth to a child, it wasn't ever known by her. She also didn't know that her father, Milligan, had been previously married and she had some half brothers and sisters.

She had beautiful auburn hair that was naturally wavy. The only child who inherited her beautiful hair was Samuel Arthur (Art). She married Orrin Chandler "Chan" Usher the 30th of May, 1900 in Minneapolis, Kansas, and became the mother of 8 children, losing one, Homer Fernleigh Usher (1917-1920),when he was 3 years old. He had whooping cough and double pneumonia; she was in bed with her newly born daughter Geneva R. Usher at the time of his death, nursing and recovering from the birthing experience. She said it was some time before she could really recover; the grass didn't even have any color for some time. She raised seven children and saw them all married and settled.

After living in the Barnard, Kansas, area for some years, they moved to the panhandle of Oklahoma around 1910 in Adams, Harper, Kiowa and Gate cities. Orrin ran a grain elevator there, but it was destroyed by fire. The notorious dust bowl struck in the late 1927's and Orrin traveled east to central Oklahoma and ran grain elevators in towns such as Yukon, Oklahoma. Eventually he secured work in Sedan, Kansas, and brought his family to there in the early 1930's. Everything they owned was piled onto a Model T truck for the trip, according to my mother Ocie Lee Usher, and on steep hills she and her sister Geneva would have to place rocks behind the back wheels to prevent it from rolling back down.

Martha passed away November 30, 1952, at Sedan, Kansas, where she had lived since the early 1930's, mostly on the farm owned by Hap Casement. The barns were later renovated by Don Armstrong in the late 1990's and the property became known as "The Three Barns". It is now private property and no longer hosts local events. Suffering many years from angina, she was in poor health prior to her passing. When she died her husband Orrin moved to Neodesha to be near his daughters Ocie Lee Usher Elkins and Geneva Usher Goode. He passed away a short time later there.

The couple that raised Martha and her brother Homer, Samuel Archibald Duree and Rhoda Lauderbough (Lauderbaugh)were married January 25, 1876, in Putnam County, Missouri. Rhoda died at the age of 74 and was buried in Lincoln, Kansas, in the Elkhorn Cemetery. Samuel died shortly thereafter in 1930 in Elk City, Oklahoma, and was buried in the Fairlawn Cemetery there. He lived just a short distance from Martha in Gate, Oklahoma. It is my opinion that Samuel Arthur Usher, son of Martha and Orrin, was named after Mr. Duree.

Martha was a Christian and after her health failed she regularly listened with her husband to the local sermons on the radio.

Following her marriage to Orrin Usher on May 30, 1900, in Minneapolis, Ottawa County, Kansas, they found themselves in Gate, Oklahoma, where Orrin worked at a grain elevator. The elevator burned down and the dust bowl forced them to move. Orrin found work in Oklahoma and the family slowly moved through Oklahoma, including Yukon, until he finally found employment in Sedan, Kansas, for the Casement family and at Ackerman's Hardware Store, among others. It was there many of his children and their families relocated married and had children of their own.

Martha and Orrin (Oma & Chan) always had company on weekends as the children and their families would come in droves to spend the weekend in the 6 or 7 bedroom farmhouse. Relatives often hunted and fished near there and brought home their game to share for the Saturday evening meal. Martha was a very good cook and many of us remember her chicken and home-made noodles.

Cousin LeeRoy Haynes, son of Viola "Vi" Usher, remembers climbing into the big barn to the Pigeon roost high in the top, and bringing back squab for grandma to fix for supper for the group. This tall barn had lightning rods and when hit the lightning would form a ball, run down the rod's grounding wire and raced into the yard, snapping and popping. LeeRoy climbed the steep barn roof and replaced three of the globes for grandpa after the rods had been hit and broke the glass globes.

Gas for the home came from gas wells up on Copper Hill. Heat and light came by way of gas, and wall mounted gas jets with mantles lit the rooms.

Today the big house is gone, as well as the row of barn red outbuildings along a sidewalk near the house, one possibly a smokehouse. At the end sat an old pedal grindstone and a seeder that could be horse-drawn. A mule, Blue, lived in the pasture near the barns.

Kerry Elkins, son of Ocie Lee Ellen Usher, April, 2013.