When Margaret and Charles left to move to Reed, In Greer Co., OK in 1901,
George Patton, Charles' sister Susan's husband, help them load their
belongings into a railroad car. "This was the last time I saw Maggie",
from a hand written note from cousin Belle Patton - a poignant ending of
their friendship.
LUCRETIA was born in Kimble, Texas, USA 31 Oct 1876. Dates match but 1979 evidence gives birthplace as "Kmbll Txs" while 1982 gives "Brown [County] Tex." [NB, 1982 evidence uses spelling "Kimble"]. 1993 evidence gives Brown Co., TX.. Lucretia told my father, Alvy (2), that she was born in Kimble Co. LUCRETIA was the daughter of WILLIAM FRANKLIN GILILLAND and ROSETTA MOORE.
LUCRETIA died 11 Feb 1962 in Newberg, Yamhill, Oregon, USA, at 85 years of age. The Grace Moody Family Group Record gives inaccurate deathdate of 4 Nov 1939. The Maurine Webb (1982) Family Group Record gives 13 Jan 1962. I use the cemetery record and death certificate date of 11 Feb 1962.
Her body was interred 13 Feb 1962 in Dundee, Yamhill, Oregon, USA, Dundee Pioneer Cemetery. At 16 years of age LUCRETIA became the mother of James William Smith in Cloudcroft, Otero, New Mexico, USA, 18 Feb 1893. At 17 years of age LUCRETIA became the mother of ALVY RAY "Ray" SMITH (1) in Cloudcroft, Otero, New Mexico, USA, 9 Jun 1894. At 19 years of age LUCRETIA became the mother of Rose May Smith in Cloudcroft, Otero, New Mexico, USA, 9 Feb 1896. At 21 years of age LUCRETIA became the mother of George Richard Smith in Cloudcroft, Otero, New Mexico, USA, 10 Nov 1897. At 22 years of age LUCRETIA became the mother of Lucy Grace Smith in Cloudcroft, Otero, New Mexico, USA, 13 Jul 1899. At 28 years of age LUCRETIA became the mother of Albert Leter Smith in Cloudcroft, Otero, New Mexico, USA, 24 May 1905. Lucretia Ann Gililland Smith Schindler Walker Miller. I knew her as a child as Great Grandma Miller, who fascinated me and my sister Rita by her ability to spit her chewing tobacco into a can while she was rocking and talking, without stopping either.
She had several husbands. Smith was her first; Schindler the second; Walker the third; and Miller the fourth. Walker shot himself (see "Transcription of Tape by Mae and Edith" for more details).
She would never tell us (my Aunt Lucy particularly) where Mr Smith came from - she didn't much like him it seems. She would only say cryptic things like "A lot of people changed their name to Smith when they moved west" and "Maybe your name is not Smith".
She lived in northern Arizona and was reputed to have a lot of Mormon friends. She is referred to as "Crishy'' by a granddaughter (Maurine Webb) of her sister Lucy. The granddaughter is Mormon, by the way. [See William Franklin Gililland notes.]
The following is a story related by Maurine Webb: ``Crishy got so tired of Ben coming home drunk with no money that she told him the next time he came home drunk she was going to leave him. So - the next time he was drunk Crishy sewed him up in a mattress tick, put all the kids in the wagon and set out for California. She got as far as the Gila river near Duncan, York, Franklin, Clifton, Arizona and stayed there because she had no money to go on.''
My father Alvy Smith (Ben's grandson) is delighted by this story but says it doesn't fit the facts. She was already married to Schindler when she moved to Arizona, according to him. Mrs Webb, in an older genealogical record (1979, obtained from Grace Moody) lists Crishy's marriage and death dates as 25 Mar 1892 and 4 Nov 1939. I use her more recent dates here (from 1982).
The following is a transcription of a letter from Freeda Costner (whose mother Grace was my grandfather Smith's sister) to my father April 7, 1992. It was written in response to my father's fictionalized story of Lucretia entitled "Crishy's Secret": "...I just can't let Grandma's romances go the way they were explained. "When I was about 17 yrs. old, I stayed w/ Grandma while Grandpa Miller went on some business trip - I asked her about her marriages and this is what she told me. "Grandpa Smith - She cared about him in the beginning - but after awhile they began to quarrel a lot (she didn't say what the quarrels were about - it could have been drinking like you said) but she said, 'After awhile he found another woman - so she had no choice except to divorce him.' She said Grandpa Smith had a bad temper and one time exploded at her about something and she decided no man was going to get the best of her so she took a saw and started breaking out windows - at first he was angrier but he finally began to laugh about it. She said there were a lot of windows to be broken out since it was a 2 storied house - I think this house was in Cloudcroft and a log house. "Mr. Schindler - was like the story says - according to Grandma - he only wanted to work the kids. My mother told me about Mr. Schindler as follows. It seems like he was around some before Papa left and a lot after he left. Anyway after Mama and Mr. Schindler got married, they traveled back to Texas to get some teams and wagons he owned there. Anyway as they came back to New Mexico and passed the turn off to Grandma and Grandpa Gilillands, Grandma went in to visit her parents but left the new husband and horses and wagons at the turn off. Why she did this I don't know unless she wanted to explain about the divorce and remarriage and didn't know how her parents would receive the news. "Mr Walker - Grandma called him 'the only man she truly loved'. She said she didn't know anything about him before she met him - what his background was or anything - but when he died he left her a farm in Duncan and the Quail Springs Ranch. I believe she had another farm in the Duncan area before she met him - but I believe this one was better. That is the farm Grandma gave to Uncle Albert - when she was no longer able to run both the farm and ranch. My Mother said that Grandma had an ornate iron fence put around his grave. "Grandpa Miller - Grandma said she met Tom Miller when she was out riding her fence line one day. He was a game warden who had come upon some men rustling cattle and had been shot and left for dead. She took him back to the ranch house and nursed him back to health. She needed someone to help her run the ranch since it had become quite a big chore for her. He agreed to stay and work on the ranch. By mutual agreement they decided it wouldn't look good for two single people to live out on a ranch together - so by mutual agreement they decided to get married. Grandpa got a percentage of the profits, plus part of the sale price of the ranch when it was sold. Grandpa in turn gave Grandma part of the royalities from his gas wells in Oklahoma. ... Grandma and Grandpa's marriage seemed like a business arrangement to me. Grandma always called him 'Mr Miller'. The family grocery bill and utilities were divided in half and each paid half. They slept in separate bedrooms. Nevertheless, the arrangement was benificial to both. Each had their own peculiarities - besides the tobacco chewing - Grandpa read every detective book and magazine he could get his hands on - Grandma like to spin her yarns, always kept a garden, and even though she was quite well off financially, she lived very frugally. She also like to quote Ben Franklin's ________. Some of the ones I remember were - 'A penny saved is a penny earned', 'don't keep all your eggs in one basket', 'you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar', 'a whistlin woman and a crowin hen always come to some bad end', 'a stitch in time saves nine'. "Grandma Lucretia was quite a character in her own right. She knew how to make and hold on to money. She was a 'womens libber' even before there was a 'womens lib'. She told me if a woman ran for president - she would vote for her. ... In her last years she moved up to Oregon and spent her last years by her son Albert. "There will never be another woman quite like Lucretia Ann Gililland, Smith, Schindler, Walker, Miller."Information courtesy of Alvy Ray Smith, <http://alvyray.com>.