A Summary of a Taped Interview
Of Gordon Blackburn (1918-2002)
By John L. Blackburn May 7, 1999
Gordon was born on the farm. He was delivered by Dr. Simmons, the family doctor. As a child, he attended school at Steele School. He started in 1924 and attended there for eight years. At that time, there were about 40 pupils attending which was a lot for a rural school. He commented that it was a nice looking school. His first grade teacher was Mamie Curran. Dorothy (Dyer) Kiser was his cousin and second grade teacher. He noted that he got into trouble with her for shooting paper wads and received a whipping for it. He said it was the only one he received in 12 years of school. He went to high school in Malta Bend3 and graduated in 1936. He remembers going out on dates in high school for 50 cents. He and his friends would all chip in and buy gas on their way to Marshall2. They never thought about stealing gas even though they didn't have any money. He had a 1929 Chevrolet and a 1931 Roadster with a rumble seat. It was dark green with yellow wheels. John commented that he seemed to like the Chevrolet better because he drove it more often. Gordon stated that Professor McCroy would tell him to fill up his car at Benny Fulton's station and take the players to the ball games and that would give him some free gas and he got to see the game so that's why he drove the Chevrolet more often, because it held more people.
Life was pretty good on the farm until about 1929. That's about when the depression started. He started helping out when he was only five years old. All Blackburn land was farmed as one until Louisa (Nye Blackburn 1857-1930) passed away and then it was divided between Bess (Blackburn Dyer 1882-1945), Mabel (Blackburn Sailor 1886-1952), and Clarence (Blackburn 1889-1961). John W. (John William Long Blackburn 1845-1914) had given Clarence 160 acres when he was a small boy. He got 53 1/3 acres including the home place upon Louisa's death. Aunt Bess and Aunt Mabel got the rest. There was some dispute as to this distribution but it was not. This was deeded to him by John W. and stated that it was his until he was gone and then it would pass to his heirs. Gordon did not feel that this was right because they considered Clarence as their son and he and Vivian (Mitchener Blackburn 1894-1980) took care of her for many years until her death. He said that Bess and Mabel came in and took a lot of furniture and things after Louisa died. She had always told Gordon that he could have the four mustache cups that she had but after Bess and Mabel came through there were only two left. There was no will but she had told him that he could have them.
He recalls that being told that John W. was coming home from Marshall in a buggy and it turned very cold and snowy and when he got home he was sick. He ended up with pneumonia and died several months later. He was looked up to in the community and was on the board of directors at Wood and Huston Bank. Louisa took his place when he died in 1914.
Gordon has very fond memories of Grandmother Louisa. He remembers taking food up to her when she didn't feel good enough to come down to eat. She was a very important part of his life. He would sit by the south window with her in the south bedroom and play the card game Flinch (?). she loved to play that game. They were the best of buddies. She gave him a rocking chair when he was a year old which he still has, and a rocking horse that he also still owns and has refinished. All four boys used that horse and so did two Kiser boys. She always sat in a rocking chair by that south window in that bedroom. He remembers once walking in on his mother with her foot on Louisa's back and Louisa hanging on to the bedpost putting on her corset. He said that she always wore a corset. He says that the house was built in 1903-04. There is some dispute about this.
Some of the early vehicles that the family owned was a Model T Ford pickup. In the winter time they would have to jack up the back wheels to get it to start. They also had a black Buick that they took on a trip to Colorado. While there, they got rid of it and returned with a red Buick. This was in 1923. The Mitcheners were living there at the time and they went to visit them after the harvest. They lived in Boulder, Colorado. He remembers another car that they used to have in which his mother used to heat bricks to warm her feet if they had to go very far. The Mitchener family, Vivian's folks (Matthew Bishop 1872-1948 and Marguritte Mitchener 1874-1947), lived in Atchison, Kansas for a time after Colorado where they farmed for while. Gordon remembers visiting there in which he and Morris would have to drive the geese to the lake to eat and then back to the house. They eventually came back to Missouri. Wilfred and Papa Mitchener drove teams from Kansas to Missouri, right through Kansas City. He didn't recall what year that was when they came back. He stated that he couldn't wait to go visit them when they came back so he could be around the boys. Forrest was working at Western Auto at that time. The Mitchener boys made some home brew for a time. Pop Mitchener didn't know anything about it until it exploded once and that was the end of that. He remembers that grandma Mitchener went with Hope when she taught in North Dakota one winter. The next year she taught in Independence and she went with her again. This may have been because Hope had broken her back on Highway 20 and may have needed her help. Hope also taught in Wakenda1. He remembers that she used to drive a Nash vehicle.
Every summer they would go to HaHaTonka with the Mitchener and Weaver families. The last time they went Bill Weaver and Gordon got into a hornet's nest or yellow jacket nest and got stung pretty badly. They ended up getting pretty sick and that ended those trips. HaHaTonka was a park with log cabins to stay in.
Gordon doesn't remember much about Clarence Mitchener's birth. He does remember that when David was born, they were all sent to the Dyers to stay. He remembers being told that they had a half grown boy up there weighing about 11 ¾ pounds. He commented that he didn't know how daddy got the doctor since it was on Christmas Eve.
In 1929, south of the house, they had 300 Jersey hogs. They were all cherry red and beautiful. He remembers having to get up at 4:00 one morning to drive the hogs to the railroad tracks to load and sell. They always took wagons along in case some of them wore out. He remembers that they ended up with 2 in the wagon by the time they got there. They were paid 3 cents a pound for them and ended up using all they earned just to ship them. He also recalls that that was what broke their daddy. He had to sell some land to recover.
Gordon bought 26 2/3 acres from Earnest Dyer for $140 per acre in about 1930. This was the rest of the acreage that went with Clarence's 55 1/3. Mabel and Earnest (Sailor) received 80 acres from John W. when they got married. It is known as Clyde's Corner.
The depression and the droughts of 1934 and 1936 had a big impact on the farm. Corn got really cheap during the depression – 15 cents a bushel. In the drought of '34, the crops were the best looking crops they had ever had and then just burned up. This was also the time of the Dust Bowl when the dirt started blowing in from Kansas and Oklahoma. He can remember the dirt blowing in the side screened in porch and he would hold a scoop shovel for his mother to sweep the dirt into. There was so much dirt.
He remembers making about a dollar a day during the threshing season. He started out as a water boy. They would work for 12 hours and then have to go home to feed and milk and would then eat at about 9:00 PM. They would thresh at various farms and would have big noon meals at whatever farm you were on during that time. There was a cook shack where they cooked beans and the host farmer would provide the rest. They were huge meals. The drought of '36 started out dry a lot earlier than in '34. The grasshoppers were really bad, worse than the drought. Once the workers had stacked hay behind the baler and when they went to eat lunch, they stuck their pitchfork into the bale. When they came back C.O. (Clarence) had to go buy new pitchforks because the grasshoppers had eaten it so much that they couldn't handle it. He states that the grasshoppers have never been so bad as then. He remembers that when they took off, you couldn't even see the sun. They ate everything in sight.
Some of the workers that helped out were Bud White who lived in the basement. One of his jobs was to keep the furnace stoked at night during the winter. He remembers traveling to Lexington to get coal (green label) and then John Whitlock started selling it around there and he would deliver it. There was a couple by the name of Shannon who also worked for them. Their names were Bud and Rose Shannon. He remembers that she made his birthday cake. Bud would feed the cattle and work on the far5m. Rose would help Vivian serve when entertaining, especially at Christmas. He also remembers going up to Louisa's room at Christmas time. She had bought presents all year long and there would be a big stack in her closet.
Buster Krick was Gordon's good friend and he worked for his parents during the depression years pumping gas at their gas station. He would stay with them if there was a snowstorm or something. It might be up to a week. Krick's gas station was the place to gather in town. Fred and Bill Weaver, Buster Krick, and Austin Montgomery (Fuzzy), were all friends of Gordon's. He remembers that they used to go to Carrollton to a nightclub called The Vox. They would go on Saturday nights. On Sunday, they would go to the Peckerwood Club. You could get beer on Sunday and all kinds of sandwiches. Another hangout was Turtle Lake. They would also go to K.C. to listen to the big bands such as: Dorsey, Tiny Hill, and Glenn Miller. He remembers going once to a place called The Frog Hop in St. Joe in a pickup truck and the parking lot was full of Cadillacs and such. He commented that it had such a ballroom!
He has some memories of his brothers and sisters. He stated they didn't know much about Aunt Lou Blackburn (1879-1959); just that she went to New Mexico because of the tuberculosis scare at that time. Clarence went out there also for about a year. He remembers that when she would come for a visit, she would make great chili and she would make it hot! Uncle John (Arthur Blackburn 1874-1950) went to Oklahoma to farm. He raised beans or corn and married Rachel Peters (1883-1931) there who was half Indian. They eventually moved back to Malta Bend and he owned a hardware store around 1928. Uncle Frank (Blackburn 1877-1928) was a mule dealer. He would go buy unbroken mules and bring them back and they would break them. The depression or when automobiles and tractors came is what ended that business. In 1928 he fell out of an (grain) elevator that he was managing along with his mule business, and died. Some people thought he committed suicide but Gordon and C.O. didn't believe that. His son, Harris, did commit suicide later in his life. Frank's wife Mary Killion (1875-1971), taught at Baker School before they were married. She was the postmaster in Malta Bend for several years and taught (actually was house mother for a fraternity) at Baker5 University after that. Uncle Ed (James Edgar Blackburn 1876-1950) had a farm out by the cemetery in Marshall south of where Yerby Street is now. He married Fanny Marley (1876-1948) and his son Marvin (1903 - ) had a drugstore in Omaha. Another son, J.W. (1907-2001) lived in Colorado Springs.
Gordon married Helen Lubensky in 1946 in Sweet Spring. Her father had a beer joint on North Street. He opened it as beer became legal to sell again. They dated for about 2 years. They first lived on the Clyde place for two years and then moved to Marshall on North Street. Gordon bought most of the block and then sold the lots off. Then they moved to West Summit Street after that. Two years before she died is when she started having trouble. They took a cyst out of her breast and told her she would be fine and a year later she was sick again. She was in her early forties when she died.
Gordon states that Uncle Earnest (Dyer 1884-1956) was a big influence on him when it came to business. He once told him after his first loan that when a note came due if he couldn't pay it all at least pay the interest and he always remembered that.
Gordon went into a partnership involving 180 acres of land in Sweet Springs with John Huston. He can't remember when but Papa was still alive. John owned it and Gordon rented it and they ran cattle on it. After about two years, he bought it. It was kept as grass and he fed cattle on it. He sold it sometime in the 80's or 90's.
He married Dorothy LaRue Jacobs in 1976. They met at the Plowboy Club in Marshall being fixed up by her friends.
All the Blackburns loved to play Pitch. He states that it all started way before that with Rook. Pitch took over after that. Every time C.C. (Blackburn 1912-2003, John Arthur's son) would come to town they would have a big Pitch game.
In his final comments, he stated that he thought that it was very important to note what all his parents had done to hang on to everything. Papa could not sell the house as it was to pass on to his heirs. He could borrow against it, but not sell it. He did pay off all leans on it before he died.
Transcribed by Shelly Blackburn Mills
December 23, 2003
Note: Bob Blackburn has added clarifying dates and last names to the first names so that unfamiliar readers will have a better idea of who is being discussed. Also the footnote about the location of Wakenda, Marshall, and Malta Bend.
1 Wakenda is an unincorporated community in Carroll County, Missouri. It is located about eight miles southeast of Carrollton. (information from Wikipedia)
2 Marshall is a city in Saline County, Missouri, United States. The population was 249 at the 2000 census. is a city in Saline County, Missouri, United States. The population was 12,433 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Saline County. It is also home to Missouri Valley College. Marshall was named after the statesman and jurist John Marshall (1755-1835). (information from Wikipedia)
3 Malta Bend is a city in Saline County, Missouri, United States. The population was 249 at the 2000 census. Malta Bend is named after a nearby bend in the Missouri river. The land is surrounded on three sides by the Missouri river. (information from Wikipedia)
Of Gordon Blackburn (1918-2002)
By John L. Blackburn May 7, 1999
Gordon was born on the farm. He was delivered by Dr. Simmons, the family doctor. As a child, he attended school at Steele School. He started in 1924 and attended there for eight years. At that time, there were about 40 pupils attending which was a lot for a rural school. He commented that it was a nice looking school. His first grade teacher was Mamie Curran. Dorothy (Dyer) Kiser was his cousin and second grade teacher. He noted that he got into trouble with her for shooting paper wads and received a whipping for it. He said it was the only one he received in 12 years of school. He went to high school in Malta Bend3 and graduated in 1936. He remembers going out on dates in high school for 50 cents. He and his friends would all chip in and buy gas on their way to Marshall2. They never thought about stealing gas even though they didn't have any money. He had a 1929 Chevrolet and a 1931 Roadster with a rumble seat. It was dark green with yellow wheels. John commented that he seemed to like the Chevrolet better because he drove it more often. Gordon stated that Professor McCroy would tell him to fill up his car at Benny Fulton's station and take the players to the ball games and that would give him some free gas and he got to see the game so that's why he drove the Chevrolet more often, because it held more people.
Life was pretty good on the farm until about 1929. That's about when the depression started. He started helping out when he was only five years old. All Blackburn land was farmed as one until Louisa (Nye Blackburn 1857-1930) passed away and then it was divided between Bess (Blackburn Dyer 1882-1945), Mabel (Blackburn Sailor 1886-1952), and Clarence (Blackburn 1889-1961). John W. (John William Long Blackburn 1845-1914) had given Clarence 160 acres when he was a small boy. He got 53 1/3 acres including the home place upon Louisa's death. Aunt Bess and Aunt Mabel got the rest. There was some dispute as to this distribution but it was not. This was deeded to him by John W. and stated that it was his until he was gone and then it would pass to his heirs. Gordon did not feel that this was right because they considered Clarence as their son and he and Vivian (Mitchener Blackburn 1894-1980) took care of her for many years until her death. He said that Bess and Mabel came in and took a lot of furniture and things after Louisa died. She had always told Gordon that he could have the four mustache cups that she had but after Bess and Mabel came through there were only two left. There was no will but she had told him that he could have them.
He recalls that being told that John W. was coming home from Marshall in a buggy and it turned very cold and snowy and when he got home he was sick. He ended up with pneumonia and died several months later. He was looked up to in the community and was on the board of directors at Wood and Huston Bank. Louisa took his place when he died in 1914.
Gordon has very fond memories of Grandmother Louisa. He remembers taking food up to her when she didn't feel good enough to come down to eat. She was a very important part of his life. He would sit by the south window with her in the south bedroom and play the card game Flinch (?). she loved to play that game. They were the best of buddies. She gave him a rocking chair when he was a year old which he still has, and a rocking horse that he also still owns and has refinished. All four boys used that horse and so did two Kiser boys. She always sat in a rocking chair by that south window in that bedroom. He remembers once walking in on his mother with her foot on Louisa's back and Louisa hanging on to the bedpost putting on her corset. He said that she always wore a corset. He says that the house was built in 1903-04. There is some dispute about this.
Some of the early vehicles that the family owned was a Model T Ford pickup. In the winter time they would have to jack up the back wheels to get it to start. They also had a black Buick that they took on a trip to Colorado. While there, they got rid of it and returned with a red Buick. This was in 1923. The Mitcheners were living there at the time and they went to visit them after the harvest. They lived in Boulder, Colorado. He remembers another car that they used to have in which his mother used to heat bricks to warm her feet if they had to go very far. The Mitchener family, Vivian's folks (Matthew Bishop 1872-1948 and Marguritte Mitchener 1874-1947), lived in Atchison, Kansas for a time after Colorado where they farmed for while. Gordon remembers visiting there in which he and Morris would have to drive the geese to the lake to eat and then back to the house. They eventually came back to Missouri. Wilfred and Papa Mitchener drove teams from Kansas to Missouri, right through Kansas City. He didn't recall what year that was when they came back. He stated that he couldn't wait to go visit them when they came back so he could be around the boys. Forrest was working at Western Auto at that time. The Mitchener boys made some home brew for a time. Pop Mitchener didn't know anything about it until it exploded once and that was the end of that. He remembers that grandma Mitchener went with Hope when she taught in North Dakota one winter. The next year she taught in Independence and she went with her again. This may have been because Hope had broken her back on Highway 20 and may have needed her help. Hope also taught in Wakenda1. He remembers that she used to drive a Nash vehicle.
Every summer they would go to HaHaTonka with the Mitchener and Weaver families. The last time they went Bill Weaver and Gordon got into a hornet's nest or yellow jacket nest and got stung pretty badly. They ended up getting pretty sick and that ended those trips. HaHaTonka was a park with log cabins to stay in.
Gordon doesn't remember much about Clarence Mitchener's birth. He does remember that when David was born, they were all sent to the Dyers to stay. He remembers being told that they had a half grown boy up there weighing about 11 ¾ pounds. He commented that he didn't know how daddy got the doctor since it was on Christmas Eve.
In 1929, south of the house, they had 300 Jersey hogs. They were all cherry red and beautiful. He remembers having to get up at 4:00 one morning to drive the hogs to the railroad tracks to load and sell. They always took wagons along in case some of them wore out. He remembers that they ended up with 2 in the wagon by the time they got there. They were paid 3 cents a pound for them and ended up using all they earned just to ship them. He also recalls that that was what broke their daddy. He had to sell some land to recover.
Gordon bought 26 2/3 acres from Earnest Dyer for $140 per acre in about 1930. This was the rest of the acreage that went with Clarence's 55 1/3. Mabel and Earnest (Sailor) received 80 acres from John W. when they got married. It is known as Clyde's Corner.
The depression and the droughts of 1934 and 1936 had a big impact on the farm. Corn got really cheap during the depression – 15 cents a bushel. In the drought of '34, the crops were the best looking crops they had ever had and then just burned up. This was also the time of the Dust Bowl when the dirt started blowing in from Kansas and Oklahoma. He can remember the dirt blowing in the side screened in porch and he would hold a scoop shovel for his mother to sweep the dirt into. There was so much dirt.
He remembers making about a dollar a day during the threshing season. He started out as a water boy. They would work for 12 hours and then have to go home to feed and milk and would then eat at about 9:00 PM. They would thresh at various farms and would have big noon meals at whatever farm you were on during that time. There was a cook shack where they cooked beans and the host farmer would provide the rest. They were huge meals. The drought of '36 started out dry a lot earlier than in '34. The grasshoppers were really bad, worse than the drought. Once the workers had stacked hay behind the baler and when they went to eat lunch, they stuck their pitchfork into the bale. When they came back C.O. (Clarence) had to go buy new pitchforks because the grasshoppers had eaten it so much that they couldn't handle it. He states that the grasshoppers have never been so bad as then. He remembers that when they took off, you couldn't even see the sun. They ate everything in sight.
Some of the workers that helped out were Bud White who lived in the basement. One of his jobs was to keep the furnace stoked at night during the winter. He remembers traveling to Lexington to get coal (green label) and then John Whitlock started selling it around there and he would deliver it. There was a couple by the name of Shannon who also worked for them. Their names were Bud and Rose Shannon. He remembers that she made his birthday cake. Bud would feed the cattle and work on the far5m. Rose would help Vivian serve when entertaining, especially at Christmas. He also remembers going up to Louisa's room at Christmas time. She had bought presents all year long and there would be a big stack in her closet.
Buster Krick was Gordon's good friend and he worked for his parents during the depression years pumping gas at their gas station. He would stay with them if there was a snowstorm or something. It might be up to a week. Krick's gas station was the place to gather in town. Fred and Bill Weaver, Buster Krick, and Austin Montgomery (Fuzzy), were all friends of Gordon's. He remembers that they used to go to Carrollton to a nightclub called The Vox. They would go on Saturday nights. On Sunday, they would go to the Peckerwood Club. You could get beer on Sunday and all kinds of sandwiches. Another hangout was Turtle Lake. They would also go to K.C. to listen to the big bands such as: Dorsey, Tiny Hill, and Glenn Miller. He remembers going once to a place called The Frog Hop in St. Joe in a pickup truck and the parking lot was full of Cadillacs and such. He commented that it had such a ballroom!
He has some memories of his brothers and sisters. He stated they didn't know much about Aunt Lou Blackburn (1879-1959); just that she went to New Mexico because of the tuberculosis scare at that time. Clarence went out there also for about a year. He remembers that when she would come for a visit, she would make great chili and she would make it hot! Uncle John (Arthur Blackburn 1874-1950) went to Oklahoma to farm. He raised beans or corn and married Rachel Peters (1883-1931) there who was half Indian. They eventually moved back to Malta Bend and he owned a hardware store around 1928. Uncle Frank (Blackburn 1877-1928) was a mule dealer. He would go buy unbroken mules and bring them back and they would break them. The depression or when automobiles and tractors came is what ended that business. In 1928 he fell out of an (grain) elevator that he was managing along with his mule business, and died. Some people thought he committed suicide but Gordon and C.O. didn't believe that. His son, Harris, did commit suicide later in his life. Frank's wife Mary Killion (1875-1971), taught at Baker School before they were married. She was the postmaster in Malta Bend for several years and taught (actually was house mother for a fraternity) at Baker5 University after that. Uncle Ed (James Edgar Blackburn 1876-1950) had a farm out by the cemetery in Marshall south of where Yerby Street is now. He married Fanny Marley (1876-1948) and his son Marvin (1903 - ) had a drugstore in Omaha. Another son, J.W. (1907-2001) lived in Colorado Springs.
Gordon married Helen Lubensky in 1946 in Sweet Spring. Her father had a beer joint on North Street. He opened it as beer became legal to sell again. They dated for about 2 years. They first lived on the Clyde place for two years and then moved to Marshall on North Street. Gordon bought most of the block and then sold the lots off. Then they moved to West Summit Street after that. Two years before she died is when she started having trouble. They took a cyst out of her breast and told her she would be fine and a year later she was sick again. She was in her early forties when she died.
Gordon states that Uncle Earnest (Dyer 1884-1956) was a big influence on him when it came to business. He once told him after his first loan that when a note came due if he couldn't pay it all at least pay the interest and he always remembered that.
Gordon went into a partnership involving 180 acres of land in Sweet Springs with John Huston. He can't remember when but Papa was still alive. John owned it and Gordon rented it and they ran cattle on it. After about two years, he bought it. It was kept as grass and he fed cattle on it. He sold it sometime in the 80's or 90's.
He married Dorothy LaRue Jacobs in 1976. They met at the Plowboy Club in Marshall being fixed up by her friends.
All the Blackburns loved to play Pitch. He states that it all started way before that with Rook. Pitch took over after that. Every time C.C. (Blackburn 1912-2003, John Arthur's son) would come to town they would have a big Pitch game.
In his final comments, he stated that he thought that it was very important to note what all his parents had done to hang on to everything. Papa could not sell the house as it was to pass on to his heirs. He could borrow against it, but not sell it. He did pay off all leans on it before he died.
Transcribed by Shelly Blackburn Mills
December 23, 2003
Note: Bob Blackburn has added clarifying dates and last names to the first names so that unfamiliar readers will have a better idea of who is being discussed. Also the footnote about the location of Wakenda, Marshall, and Malta Bend.
1 Wakenda is an unincorporated community in Carroll County, Missouri. It is located about eight miles southeast of Carrollton. (information from Wikipedia)
2 Marshall is a city in Saline County, Missouri, United States. The population was 249 at the 2000 census. is a city in Saline County, Missouri, United States. The population was 12,433 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Saline County. It is also home to Missouri Valley College. Marshall was named after the statesman and jurist John Marshall (1755-1835). (information from Wikipedia)
3 Malta Bend is a city in Saline County, Missouri, United States. The population was 249 at the 2000 census. Malta Bend is named after a nearby bend in the Missouri river. The land is surrounded on three sides by the Missouri river. (information from Wikipedia)
A Summary of a Taped Interview
Of Gordon Blackburn (1918-2002)
By John L. Blackburn May 7, 1999
Gordon was born on the farm. He was delivered by Dr. Simmons, the family doctor. As a child, he attended school at Steele School. He started in 1924 and attended there for eight years. At that time, there were about 40 pupils attending which was a lot for a rural school. He commented that it was a nice looking school. His first grade teacher was Mamie Curran. Dorothy (Dyer) Kiser was his cousin and second grade teacher. He noted that he got into trouble with her for shooting paper wads and received a whipping for it. He said it was the only one he received in 12 years of school. He went to high school in Malta Bend3 and graduated in 1936. He remembers going out on dates in high school for 50 cents. He and his friends would all chip in and buy gas on their way to Marshall2. They never thought about stealing gas even though they didn't have any money. He had a 1929 Chevrolet and a 1931 Roadster with a rumble seat. It was dark green with yellow wheels. John commented that he seemed to like the Chevrolet better because he drove it more often. Gordon stated that Professor McCroy would tell him to fill up his car at Benny Fulton's station and take the players to the ball games and that would give him some free gas and he got to see the game so that's why he drove the Chevrolet more often, because it held more people.
Life was pretty good on the farm until about 1929. That's about when the depression started. He started helping out when he was only five years old. All Blackburn land was farmed as one until Louisa (Nye Blackburn 1857-1930) passed away and then it was divided between Bess (Blackburn Dyer 1882-1945), Mabel (Blackburn Sailor 1886-1952), and Clarence (Blackburn 1889-1961). John W. (John William Long Blackburn 1845-1914) had given Clarence 160 acres when he was a small boy. He got 53 1/3 acres including the home place upon Louisa's death. Aunt Bess and Aunt Mabel got the rest. There was some dispute as to this distribution but it was not. This was deeded to him by John W. and stated that it was his until he was gone and then it would pass to his heirs. Gordon did not feel that this was right because they considered Clarence as their son and he and Vivian (Mitchener Blackburn 1894-1980) took care of her for many years until her death. He said that Bess and Mabel came in and took a lot of furniture and things after Louisa died. She had always told Gordon that he could have the four mustache cups that she had but after Bess and Mabel came through there were only two left. There was no will but she had told him that he could have them.
He recalls that being told that John W. was coming home from Marshall in a buggy and it turned very cold and snowy and when he got home he was sick. He ended up with pneumonia and died several months later. He was looked up to in the community and was on the board of directors at Wood and Huston Bank. Louisa took his place when he died in 1914.
Gordon has very fond memories of Grandmother Louisa. He remembers taking food up to her when she didn't feel good enough to come down to eat. She was a very important part of his life. He would sit by the south window with her in the south bedroom and play the card game Flinch (?). she loved to play that game. They were the best of buddies. She gave him a rocking chair when he was a year old which he still has, and a rocking horse that he also still owns and has refinished. All four boys used that horse and so did two Kiser boys. She always sat in a rocking chair by that south window in that bedroom. He remembers once walking in on his mother with her foot on Louisa's back and Louisa hanging on to the bedpost putting on her corset. He said that she always wore a corset. He says that the house was built in 1903-04. There is some dispute about this.
Some of the early vehicles that the family owned was a Model T Ford pickup. In the winter time they would have to jack up the back wheels to get it to start. They also had a black Buick that they took on a trip to Colorado. While there, they got rid of it and returned with a red Buick. This was in 1923. The Mitcheners were living there at the time and they went to visit them after the harvest. They lived in Boulder, Colorado. He remembers another car that they used to have in which his mother used to heat bricks to warm her feet if they had to go very far. The Mitchener family, Vivian's folks (Matthew Bishop 1872-1948 and Marguritte Mitchener 1874-1947), lived in Atchison, Kansas for a time after Colorado where they farmed for while. Gordon remembers visiting there in which he and Morris would have to drive the geese to the lake to eat and then back to the house. They eventually came back to Missouri. Wilfred and Papa Mitchener drove teams from Kansas to Missouri, right through Kansas City. He didn't recall what year that was when they came back. He stated that he couldn't wait to go visit them when they came back so he could be around the boys. Forrest was working at Western Auto at that time. The Mitchener boys made some home brew for a time. Pop Mitchener didn't know anything about it until it exploded once and that was the end of that. He remembers that grandma Mitchener went with Hope when she taught in North Dakota one winter. The next year she taught in Independence and she went with her again. This may have been because Hope had broken her back on Highway 20 and may have needed her help. Hope also taught in Wakenda1. He remembers that she used to drive a Nash vehicle.
Every summer they would go to HaHaTonka with the Mitchener and Weaver families. The last time they went Bill Weaver and Gordon got into a hornet's nest or yellow jacket nest and got stung pretty badly. They ended up getting pretty sick and that ended those trips. HaHaTonka was a park with log cabins to stay in.
Gordon doesn't remember much about Clarence Mitchener's birth. He does remember that when David was born, they were all sent to the Dyers to stay. He remembers being told that they had a half grown boy up there weighing about 11 ¾ pounds. He commented that he didn't know how daddy got the doctor since it was on Christmas Eve.
In 1929, south of the house, they had 300 Jersey hogs. They were all cherry red and beautiful. He remembers having to get up at 4:00 one morning to drive the hogs to the railroad tracks to load and sell. They always took wagons along in case some of them wore out. He remembers that they ended up with 2 in the wagon by the time they got there. They were paid 3 cents a pound for them and ended up using all they earned just to ship them. He also recalls that that was what broke their daddy. He had to sell some land to recover.
Gordon bought 26 2/3 acres from Earnest Dyer for $140 per acre in about 1930. This was the rest of the acreage that went with Clarence's 55 1/3. Mabel and Earnest (Sailor) received 80 acres from John W. when they got married. It is known as Clyde's Corner.
The depression and the droughts of 1934 and 1936 had a big impact on the farm. Corn got really cheap during the depression – 15 cents a bushel. In the drought of '34, the crops were the best looking crops they had ever had and then just burned up. This was also the time of the Dust Bowl when the dirt started blowing in from Kansas and Oklahoma. He can remember the dirt blowing in the side screened in porch and he would hold a scoop shovel for his mother to sweep the dirt into. There was so much dirt.
He remembers making about a dollar a day during the threshing season. He started out as a water boy. They would work for 12 hours and then have to go home to feed and milk and would then eat at about 9:00 PM. They would thresh at various farms and would have big noon meals at whatever farm you were on during that time. There was a cook shack where they cooked beans and the host farmer would provide the rest. They were huge meals. The drought of '36 started out dry a lot earlier than in '34. The grasshoppers were really bad, worse than the drought. Once the workers had stacked hay behind the baler and when they went to eat lunch, they stuck their pitchfork into the bale. When they came back C.O. (Clarence) had to go buy new pitchforks because the grasshoppers had eaten it so much that they couldn't handle it. He states that the grasshoppers have never been so bad as then. He remembers that when they took off, you couldn't even see the sun. They ate everything in sight.
Some of the workers that helped out were Bud White who lived in the basement. One of his jobs was to keep the furnace stoked at night during the winter. He remembers traveling to Lexington to get coal (green label) and then John Whitlock started selling it around there and he would deliver it. There was a couple by the name of Shannon who also worked for them. Their names were Bud and Rose Shannon. He remembers that she made his birthday cake. Bud would feed the cattle and work on the far5m. Rose would help Vivian serve when entertaining, especially at Christmas. He also remembers going up to Louisa's room at Christmas time. She had bought presents all year long and there would be a big stack in her closet.
Buster Krick was Gordon's good friend and he worked for his parents during the depression years pumping gas at their gas station. He would stay with them if there was a snowstorm or something. It might be up to a week. Krick's gas station was the place to gather in town. Fred and Bill Weaver, Buster Krick, and Austin Montgomery (Fuzzy), were all friends of Gordon's. He remembers that they used to go to Carrollton to a nightclub called The Vox. They would go on Saturday nights. On Sunday, they would go to the Peckerwood Club. You could get beer on Sunday and all kinds of sandwiches. Another hangout was Turtle Lake. They would also go to K.C. to listen to the big bands such as: Dorsey, Tiny Hill, and Glenn Miller. He remembers going once to a place called The Frog Hop in St. Joe in a pickup truck and the parking lot was full of Cadillacs and such. He commented that it had such a ballroom!
He has some memories of his brothers and sisters. He stated they didn't know much about Aunt Lou Blackburn (1879-1959); just that she went to New Mexico because of the tuberculosis scare at that time. Clarence went out there also for about a year. He remembers that when she would come for a visit, she would make great chili and she would make it hot! Uncle John (Arthur Blackburn 1874-1950) went to Oklahoma to farm. He raised beans or corn and married Rachel Peters (1883-1931) there who was half Indian. They eventually moved back to Malta Bend and he owned a hardware store around 1928. Uncle Frank (Blackburn 1877-1928) was a mule dealer. He would go buy unbroken mules and bring them back and they would break them. The depression or when automobiles and tractors came is what ended that business. In 1928 he fell out of an (grain) elevator that he was managing along with his mule business, and died. Some people thought he committed suicide but Gordon and C.O. didn't believe that. His son, Harris, did commit suicide later in his life. Frank's wife Mary Killion (1875-1971), taught at Baker School before they were married. She was the postmaster in Malta Bend for several years and taught (actually was house mother for a fraternity) at Baker5 University after that. Uncle Ed (James Edgar Blackburn 1876-1950) had a farm out by the cemetery in Marshall south of where Yerby Street is now. He married Fanny Marley (1876-1948) and his son Marvin (1903 - ) had a drugstore in Omaha. Another son, J.W. (1907-2001) lived in Colorado Springs.
Gordon married Helen Lubensky in 1946 in Sweet Spring. Her father had a beer joint on North Street. He opened it as beer became legal to sell again. They dated for about 2 years. They first lived on the Clyde place for two years and then moved to Marshall on North Street. Gordon bought most of the block and then sold the lots off. Then they moved to West Summit Street after that. Two years before she died is when she started having trouble. They took a cyst out of her breast and told her she would be fine and a year later she was sick again. She was in her early forties when she died.
Gordon states that Uncle Earnest (Dyer 1884-1956) was a big influence on him when it came to business. He once told him after his first loan that when a note came due if he couldn't pay it all at least pay the interest and he always remembered that.
Gordon went into a partnership involving 180 acres of land in Sweet Springs with John Huston. He can't remember when but Papa was still alive. John owned it and Gordon rented it and they ran cattle on it. After about two years, he bought it. It was kept as grass and he fed cattle on it. He sold it sometime in the 80's or 90's.
He married Dorothy LaRue Jacobs in 1976. They met at the Plowboy Club in Marshall being fixed up by her friends.
All the Blackburns loved to play Pitch. He states that it all started way before that with Rook. Pitch took over after that. Every time C.C. (Blackburn 1912-2003, John Arthur's son) would come to town they would have a big Pitch game.
In his final comments, he stated that he thought that it was very important to note what all his parents had done to hang on to everything. Papa could not sell the house as it was to pass on to his heirs. He could borrow against it, but not sell it. He did pay off all leans on it before he died.
Transcribed by Shelly Blackburn Mills
December 23, 2003
Note: Bob Blackburn has added clarifying dates and last names to the first names so that unfamiliar readers will have a better idea of who is being discussed. Also the footnote about the location of Wakenda, Marshall, and Malta Bend.
1 Wakenda is an unincorporated community in Carroll County, Missouri. It is located about eight miles southeast of Carrollton. (information from Wikipedia)
2 Marshall is a city in Saline County, Missouri, United States. The population was 249 at the 2000 census. is a city in Saline County, Missouri, United States. The population was 12,433 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Saline County. It is also home to Missouri Valley College. Marshall was named after the statesman and jurist John Marshall (1755-1835). (information from Wikipedia)
3 Malta Bend is a city in Saline County, Missouri, United States. The population was 249 at the 2000 census. Malta Bend is named after a nearby bend in the Missouri river. The land is surrounded on three sides by the Missouri river. (information from Wikipedia)
Of Gordon Blackburn (1918-2002)
By John L. Blackburn May 7, 1999
Gordon was born on the farm. He was delivered by Dr. Simmons, the family doctor. As a child, he attended school at Steele School. He started in 1924 and attended there for eight years. At that time, there were about 40 pupils attending which was a lot for a rural school. He commented that it was a nice looking school. His first grade teacher was Mamie Curran. Dorothy (Dyer) Kiser was his cousin and second grade teacher. He noted that he got into trouble with her for shooting paper wads and received a whipping for it. He said it was the only one he received in 12 years of school. He went to high school in Malta Bend3 and graduated in 1936. He remembers going out on dates in high school for 50 cents. He and his friends would all chip in and buy gas on their way to Marshall2. They never thought about stealing gas even though they didn't have any money. He had a 1929 Chevrolet and a 1931 Roadster with a rumble seat. It was dark green with yellow wheels. John commented that he seemed to like the Chevrolet better because he drove it more often. Gordon stated that Professor McCroy would tell him to fill up his car at Benny Fulton's station and take the players to the ball games and that would give him some free gas and he got to see the game so that's why he drove the Chevrolet more often, because it held more people.
Life was pretty good on the farm until about 1929. That's about when the depression started. He started helping out when he was only five years old. All Blackburn land was farmed as one until Louisa (Nye Blackburn 1857-1930) passed away and then it was divided between Bess (Blackburn Dyer 1882-1945), Mabel (Blackburn Sailor 1886-1952), and Clarence (Blackburn 1889-1961). John W. (John William Long Blackburn 1845-1914) had given Clarence 160 acres when he was a small boy. He got 53 1/3 acres including the home place upon Louisa's death. Aunt Bess and Aunt Mabel got the rest. There was some dispute as to this distribution but it was not. This was deeded to him by John W. and stated that it was his until he was gone and then it would pass to his heirs. Gordon did not feel that this was right because they considered Clarence as their son and he and Vivian (Mitchener Blackburn 1894-1980) took care of her for many years until her death. He said that Bess and Mabel came in and took a lot of furniture and things after Louisa died. She had always told Gordon that he could have the four mustache cups that she had but after Bess and Mabel came through there were only two left. There was no will but she had told him that he could have them.
He recalls that being told that John W. was coming home from Marshall in a buggy and it turned very cold and snowy and when he got home he was sick. He ended up with pneumonia and died several months later. He was looked up to in the community and was on the board of directors at Wood and Huston Bank. Louisa took his place when he died in 1914.
Gordon has very fond memories of Grandmother Louisa. He remembers taking food up to her when she didn't feel good enough to come down to eat. She was a very important part of his life. He would sit by the south window with her in the south bedroom and play the card game Flinch (?). she loved to play that game. They were the best of buddies. She gave him a rocking chair when he was a year old which he still has, and a rocking horse that he also still owns and has refinished. All four boys used that horse and so did two Kiser boys. She always sat in a rocking chair by that south window in that bedroom. He remembers once walking in on his mother with her foot on Louisa's back and Louisa hanging on to the bedpost putting on her corset. He said that she always wore a corset. He says that the house was built in 1903-04. There is some dispute about this.
Some of the early vehicles that the family owned was a Model T Ford pickup. In the winter time they would have to jack up the back wheels to get it to start. They also had a black Buick that they took on a trip to Colorado. While there, they got rid of it and returned with a red Buick. This was in 1923. The Mitcheners were living there at the time and they went to visit them after the harvest. They lived in Boulder, Colorado. He remembers another car that they used to have in which his mother used to heat bricks to warm her feet if they had to go very far. The Mitchener family, Vivian's folks (Matthew Bishop 1872-1948 and Marguritte Mitchener 1874-1947), lived in Atchison, Kansas for a time after Colorado where they farmed for while. Gordon remembers visiting there in which he and Morris would have to drive the geese to the lake to eat and then back to the house. They eventually came back to Missouri. Wilfred and Papa Mitchener drove teams from Kansas to Missouri, right through Kansas City. He didn't recall what year that was when they came back. He stated that he couldn't wait to go visit them when they came back so he could be around the boys. Forrest was working at Western Auto at that time. The Mitchener boys made some home brew for a time. Pop Mitchener didn't know anything about it until it exploded once and that was the end of that. He remembers that grandma Mitchener went with Hope when she taught in North Dakota one winter. The next year she taught in Independence and she went with her again. This may have been because Hope had broken her back on Highway 20 and may have needed her help. Hope also taught in Wakenda1. He remembers that she used to drive a Nash vehicle.
Every summer they would go to HaHaTonka with the Mitchener and Weaver families. The last time they went Bill Weaver and Gordon got into a hornet's nest or yellow jacket nest and got stung pretty badly. They ended up getting pretty sick and that ended those trips. HaHaTonka was a park with log cabins to stay in.
Gordon doesn't remember much about Clarence Mitchener's birth. He does remember that when David was born, they were all sent to the Dyers to stay. He remembers being told that they had a half grown boy up there weighing about 11 ¾ pounds. He commented that he didn't know how daddy got the doctor since it was on Christmas Eve.
In 1929, south of the house, they had 300 Jersey hogs. They were all cherry red and beautiful. He remembers having to get up at 4:00 one morning to drive the hogs to the railroad tracks to load and sell. They always took wagons along in case some of them wore out. He remembers that they ended up with 2 in the wagon by the time they got there. They were paid 3 cents a pound for them and ended up using all they earned just to ship them. He also recalls that that was what broke their daddy. He had to sell some land to recover.
Gordon bought 26 2/3 acres from Earnest Dyer for $140 per acre in about 1930. This was the rest of the acreage that went with Clarence's 55 1/3. Mabel and Earnest (Sailor) received 80 acres from John W. when they got married. It is known as Clyde's Corner.
The depression and the droughts of 1934 and 1936 had a big impact on the farm. Corn got really cheap during the depression – 15 cents a bushel. In the drought of '34, the crops were the best looking crops they had ever had and then just burned up. This was also the time of the Dust Bowl when the dirt started blowing in from Kansas and Oklahoma. He can remember the dirt blowing in the side screened in porch and he would hold a scoop shovel for his mother to sweep the dirt into. There was so much dirt.
He remembers making about a dollar a day during the threshing season. He started out as a water boy. They would work for 12 hours and then have to go home to feed and milk and would then eat at about 9:00 PM. They would thresh at various farms and would have big noon meals at whatever farm you were on during that time. There was a cook shack where they cooked beans and the host farmer would provide the rest. They were huge meals. The drought of '36 started out dry a lot earlier than in '34. The grasshoppers were really bad, worse than the drought. Once the workers had stacked hay behind the baler and when they went to eat lunch, they stuck their pitchfork into the bale. When they came back C.O. (Clarence) had to go buy new pitchforks because the grasshoppers had eaten it so much that they couldn't handle it. He states that the grasshoppers have never been so bad as then. He remembers that when they took off, you couldn't even see the sun. They ate everything in sight.
Some of the workers that helped out were Bud White who lived in the basement. One of his jobs was to keep the furnace stoked at night during the winter. He remembers traveling to Lexington to get coal (green label) and then John Whitlock started selling it around there and he would deliver it. There was a couple by the name of Shannon who also worked for them. Their names were Bud and Rose Shannon. He remembers that she made his birthday cake. Bud would feed the cattle and work on the far5m. Rose would help Vivian serve when entertaining, especially at Christmas. He also remembers going up to Louisa's room at Christmas time. She had bought presents all year long and there would be a big stack in her closet.
Buster Krick was Gordon's good friend and he worked for his parents during the depression years pumping gas at their gas station. He would stay with them if there was a snowstorm or something. It might be up to a week. Krick's gas station was the place to gather in town. Fred and Bill Weaver, Buster Krick, and Austin Montgomery (Fuzzy), were all friends of Gordon's. He remembers that they used to go to Carrollton to a nightclub called The Vox. They would go on Saturday nights. On Sunday, they would go to the Peckerwood Club. You could get beer on Sunday and all kinds of sandwiches. Another hangout was Turtle Lake. They would also go to K.C. to listen to the big bands such as: Dorsey, Tiny Hill, and Glenn Miller. He remembers going once to a place called The Frog Hop in St. Joe in a pickup truck and the parking lot was full of Cadillacs and such. He commented that it had such a ballroom!
He has some memories of his brothers and sisters. He stated they didn't know much about Aunt Lou Blackburn (1879-1959); just that she went to New Mexico because of the tuberculosis scare at that time. Clarence went out there also for about a year. He remembers that when she would come for a visit, she would make great chili and she would make it hot! Uncle John (Arthur Blackburn 1874-1950) went to Oklahoma to farm. He raised beans or corn and married Rachel Peters (1883-1931) there who was half Indian. They eventually moved back to Malta Bend and he owned a hardware store around 1928. Uncle Frank (Blackburn 1877-1928) was a mule dealer. He would go buy unbroken mules and bring them back and they would break them. The depression or when automobiles and tractors came is what ended that business. In 1928 he fell out of an (grain) elevator that he was managing along with his mule business, and died. Some people thought he committed suicide but Gordon and C.O. didn't believe that. His son, Harris, did commit suicide later in his life. Frank's wife Mary Killion (1875-1971), taught at Baker School before they were married. She was the postmaster in Malta Bend for several years and taught (actually was house mother for a fraternity) at Baker5 University after that. Uncle Ed (James Edgar Blackburn 1876-1950) had a farm out by the cemetery in Marshall south of where Yerby Street is now. He married Fanny Marley (1876-1948) and his son Marvin (1903 - ) had a drugstore in Omaha. Another son, J.W. (1907-2001) lived in Colorado Springs.
Gordon married Helen Lubensky in 1946 in Sweet Spring. Her father had a beer joint on North Street. He opened it as beer became legal to sell again. They dated for about 2 years. They first lived on the Clyde place for two years and then moved to Marshall on North Street. Gordon bought most of the block and then sold the lots off. Then they moved to West Summit Street after that. Two years before she died is when she started having trouble. They took a cyst out of her breast and told her she would be fine and a year later she was sick again. She was in her early forties when she died.
Gordon states that Uncle Earnest (Dyer 1884-1956) was a big influence on him when it came to business. He once told him after his first loan that when a note came due if he couldn't pay it all at least pay the interest and he always remembered that.
Gordon went into a partnership involving 180 acres of land in Sweet Springs with John Huston. He can't remember when but Papa was still alive. John owned it and Gordon rented it and they ran cattle on it. After about two years, he bought it. It was kept as grass and he fed cattle on it. He sold it sometime in the 80's or 90's.
He married Dorothy LaRue Jacobs in 1976. They met at the Plowboy Club in Marshall being fixed up by her friends.
All the Blackburns loved to play Pitch. He states that it all started way before that with Rook. Pitch took over after that. Every time C.C. (Blackburn 1912-2003, John Arthur's son) would come to town they would have a big Pitch game.
In his final comments, he stated that he thought that it was very important to note what all his parents had done to hang on to everything. Papa could not sell the house as it was to pass on to his heirs. He could borrow against it, but not sell it. He did pay off all leans on it before he died.
Transcribed by Shelly Blackburn Mills
December 23, 2003
Note: Bob Blackburn has added clarifying dates and last names to the first names so that unfamiliar readers will have a better idea of who is being discussed. Also the footnote about the location of Wakenda, Marshall, and Malta Bend.
1 Wakenda is an unincorporated community in Carroll County, Missouri. It is located about eight miles southeast of Carrollton. (information from Wikipedia)
2 Marshall is a city in Saline County, Missouri, United States. The population was 249 at the 2000 census. is a city in Saline County, Missouri, United States. The population was 12,433 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Saline County. It is also home to Missouri Valley College. Marshall was named after the statesman and jurist John Marshall (1755-1835). (information from Wikipedia)
3 Malta Bend is a city in Saline County, Missouri, United States. The population was 249 at the 2000 census. Malta Bend is named after a nearby bend in the Missouri river. The land is surrounded on three sides by the Missouri river. (information from Wikipedia)
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