Trish and JoeyVille: Leaving Oklahoma on into Kansas

Leaving Oklahoma Hwy #64 to NorthEastward on #81 on into South Haven, Kansas. Where we camped for 3 nights with plans to visit several small towns within a 50 mile radius or so.

Kansas is the temporary destination in my search for some family tree information.

My Great Great maternal grandfather, EB Wingate, had been a civil engineer that not only headed some KS railroad planning & construction in 1885 & 1886 but he worked on the Panama Canal too.

My idea is to visit libraries in some of the towns where I've seen his name mentioned online in town newspapers.

Most newspapers in small towns have not yet been digitized & shared with Ancestry.com so I'll try to see what I can find.

All of my "older" relatives are already gone so I'm on my own unless I run into some other Wingate family members searching as well.

Not hoping for much but it's a small adventure that is taking us to some small Kansas towns & country roads we never would have seen but for this quest.

My darling husband has been more than patient with my endeavor.

I thought he'd be bored to death but mostly his iPad was his salvation! Mine too because I stopped feeling guilty about all the time I was spending trying to find my grandpa!

Here he is all cozy in our "shoe box" of an RV watching TV on the laptop.

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July 24, 25, 26

Oasis RV campground South Haven, KS.

( Some maps don't even show this town. )

This camp's moniker does NOT fit how it looks! Anything BUT an oasis.

BUT it has a nice Passport America 50% discount with great WI FI & is right in the middle of a 50 mile radius of four towns I wish to do some library exploration:

Caldwell ( LOTS of history here )
Wellington
Winfield
Arkansas City (nickname Ark City) What's funny to me was to find out that they do not pronounce the first word in "Arkansas City" in the same way as the state of ARkansas is pronounced. (where we don't pronounce the final "s" They say "arKANSAS City" like Our- Kansas City.

Maybe that’s why they gave it the nickname Ark city, eh?

As I mentioned the Oasis RV camp has FABULOUS internet so we are staying three nights in order to catch up on things online & just rest a bit.

Now off to the library in Caldwell, KS

The 30 something librarian was a volunteer who is a city girl from St Louis, MO, who married a man who had inherited 300 acres of farm.

She said she had a REAL awakening with the life style change from city to really county life but it's worked out.

They now own 7000 acres! She loved to telling her story….we loved to hear it! Her name is Lisa Moreland…& laughs when she says it because she'll say "Lease More Land", asked if we "got it" & laughed again. Just darling. (I'm still mad at myself for not taking a photo of her)

From being a city-girl she now farms More Land than she ever could have imagined!

She told us they just recently hired their first employee. SAY WHAT??? 7000 acres farmed by her husband, two teenage boys & herself!!!???

Plus she volunteers twice a week at the library for 12 hours. My oh my!

When she told me THAT I was dying to know if she actually got to drive the big John Deere machines…I was jealous just thinking of it….I know, I'm weird.

She said she DID but only as a back up when needed.
Actually, she said they use CASE machines (the red ones) I love that kind of detail being the Virgo that I am….just hope my brain can take it all in & keep it there; probably not but I'll enjoy the moment anyway.

This gal was the real-deal. I just loved her. I could have listened to her for hours but we only got to listen for about 20 minutes because the library was closing & she had an appointment…..for a massage. I'm SURE she needed it!

She was able to answer a question about some plant fields we didn't recognize (there aren't many we DO recognize….corn was the easy one..teehee) Their farm is just across the Kansas border into Oklahoma & they have been luckier than most with the crops this year.