take me home

living conditions
We stayed there until spring. Frank and another fellow wanted higher wage and caused a lot of trouble at the refinery and they were fired. Frank was going to Casper, Wyo. to find work. He moved us in with his friend wife. There were men there all the time.

Papa came to take me home.

I would not go. I felt that I should stay there.

I was raised that you were to do what your husband wanted.

belongings
Frank and his friend could not find a job in Casper, they were ‘black balled’. Frank friend came back to Graybull. Frank finally found a job out in the oil fields, then he sent for me. I put everything I had in my trunk, and put it on the train for Casper. When he pick me up at the train station, Frank did not take my trunk off the train. I lost all of my belongings.

nervous wreck
It was hot and I was sitting in the shade on the side of the house with Toots and Johnny, there comes somebody around the house running, then here came two or three other guys saying “catch him, we will catch him on this side. We will kill him if we get a hold of him.” Boy it scared the pants off of me, so I grabbed the kids and in the house I went and locked that door. I was a nervous wreck when Frank came home.

bank robbers
The next day I went to the Post Office to see if I had a letter from mommy. While at the Post Office I read a description of two man who had robbed a bank in a little town outside of Casper, about 30 miles. The deception fit Frank and his friend.

help
At the Post Office I found out were Johnny Large a friend was working. He was on an oilrig. I walked out to where he was working. I asked Johnny if I could borrow some money so I could go home. I was not going to stay there no more. I told him the shape I was in. He said he would give me the money.

I told Johnny to pick me up, that I would have everything ready. But that night Frank came in and bundled us up and took us to Casper. We stayed in a Hotel there. Johnny Large did not know what happened to me.

* * *

a job
Frank got me job, “washing bottles” at a barbershop. The old duffer wanted to give me a shampoo. Dummy me, I go up on the old stool and let him give me a shampoo, he started to climb up on top of me. I jumped up and told him no. I’ll wash your bottles or I will go home. The hotel was right next to the barbershop, he told me to go ahead and wash bottles. He gave me $2.00 or $2.50 for washing the bottles.

I went to the Hotel; Frank was taking care of Toots and Johnny. I throw the money in his face and said there is your money. (Years later when I think about what happen, I think Frank set me up.

Frank sneaked us out the back window so we did not have to pay the hotel bill. We started back to Cowley in an old beat up Ford. We got part way to Casper when we run of gas or something; I don’t know what happened. Somehow he was able to get me on the train and I went to Thermopolis, where the hot springs were. Frank stayed with the car.

Franks friend’s father was supposed to meet me there, so I got off of the train and since my trunk was lost (I never did get my trunk, it still somewhere out in Casper) I just had a few little things to take care of Toots and Johnny. There was nobody to meet me; there I sat with two kids, nowhere to go, did not know anybody and no money. (You know this is not funny, when I was going through all that)

I was standing there in the depot wondering what in the world to do, here comes a man in a wagon, he did not know me and I did not know him. He asks if I was in trouble and I said yes. A man was supposed to meet me here, I said. I do not have any money and I do not know where to go. He says I got a ranch out in the country and my mother would be tickled to death to have you come help her on the ranch. I looked at him and thought boy that sounds good. I said no that I needed to know where this here house was. I gave him the address, and I said would you take me there. He said yes and we got in an old lumber wagon and he took me to that address. (He was a good-looking man, why didn’t I hang on to him?)

I stayed there with them for awhile and then Frank came and rented a house for us. All we were living on was tea and toast. One night here the old man came in with a dish of supper for us, it was the first good meal we had to eat in a long time. I was nursing Johnny; I was there for a week or so. Frank came up with the car, picked me up.

We stole gas from the tractors that were used to work on the roads; he would fill it up at night. He did this until we get to my parent’s place in Cowley. Frank help papa on the ranch, I help with the hay and help mommy. Papa, Alvin and Frank decided that they would go to Douglas Creek, Colorado to file on 150 acres of land.

they took frank away
When Frank returned from Douglas Creek, he rented a house for us to live in, it was down the river. He would leave in the mornings and come back at night. Sometimes he would leave at night. A lot of time he would bring furniture back to the house. One day the sheriff came to the house, (his name Earl Marchant) and took Frank away. Frank and Jim were sent to Worland to a reformatory, Frank was to cook and Jim was over seeing the farming. I found out that he and Jim were taking furniture out of homes that had been empty. I went back to papa and mama.