An Autobiography by Agnes Flansburg McCullough
The following article is copied from the Olean Times Herald, a daily evening newspaper published in Olean, New York. Olean is where Mrs. Agnes Flansburg McCullough and her daughter, Marguerite Alvis Venable, spent the last years of their lives. Marguerite's husband, Paul Venable, remarried and continued to live there many years, but is now deceased. Olean is also where all five of Mrs. McCullough's grandchildren -- in order from oldest to youngest: Susan, James (me), David, Roger, and Bruce -- spent their childhood. The date on the article is January 30, 1982.
"This is my first attempt to write a book. The vast majority of people are ordinary citizens. I have been one of these. I was born that way, and have remained so. Like them, I have suffered much hardship and sorrow, but I have also known a little success and some happiness.
"Now I have arrived at old age with what I hope will be leisure enough to set down memories of the long ago, and some of the ideas and commentaries that the conditions of my life dictate."
THESE WORDS form a portion of the preface to "Pioneer Days Remembered," a recollection of life in the Oklahoma Territory of the early 1900s, authored by Mrs. Agnes McCullough, an Olean resident who recently celebrated her 90th birthday.
"I wrote the book for my grandchildren. I wanted to leave something to my descendants," said Mrs. McCullough who was born in Bates County, Mo., Jan. 23, 1892, one of five children of James Alonzo and Almeda Mason Flansburg. About two or three years after her birth, the family moved to Arkansas City, Kansas. Mrs. McCullough has vivid memories of a later move -- her family's 200 mile trek in covered wagon from Kansas to the Oklahoma Territory where her father took up a land claim he won by government lottery. She was 10 years old at the time and though her primary schooling was interrupted, her continued interest in reading and learning enabled her to obtain her teaching certificate when she was 17 years old.
MRS. McCULLOUGH taught six years in one room country schools, and later instructed upper grades (five-eight) in two room schools. In 1919, she married James Orin Alvis in Oklahoma. He died less than a year later at the age of 35, just before his wife gave birth to a daughter, Marguerite Alvis, who later married Paul Venable and moved with her husband to Olean. Mrs. McCullough continued teaching after her husband's death, and without having attended high school, took and passed college entrance examinations. She then received a degree from Southwestern State College and continued to teach sixth grade in a consolidated school system, the part of her career she enjoyed the most. During the last 10 years of her career as an educator, Mrs.McCullough said she taught English and speech in senior high school.
"I taught the students about America through the use of literature," Mrs. McCullough said, adding that many of the students did not go on for higher education at that time, and she felt it was important they have knowledge about their country.
THE SAME year of her retirement, 1951, she married Ernest McCullough who passed away eight years later. It was in 1961 that Mrs. McCullough moved to Olean to be near her daughter, son-in-law and their five children. Her daughter passed away in 1967. Her residency in Olean has been an active one with longtime memberships in the League of Women Voters and the Traveler's Club. She was also a committee chairman with the Olean chapter American Association of Retired Persons, while the chapter existed in the community.
"Currently," she says as she points to volumes of reference books on shelves in her small house, "I enjoy doing crossword puzzles. And, I read quite a lot, as I subscribe to eight magazines and belong to two book clubs." Also, she is continuing to write a little, as she recalls incidents or experiences...something to leave her five grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.
J.A. Flansburg almost didn't make it to Oklahoma. As a boy in Illinois, he was a student at a Methodist seminary when an army
recruiter came through. Before he knew it, the 17 year old youth was a Union soldier serving in Tennessee. After 6 months, he became
ill. Although his illness wasn't diagnosed at first, J.A. had the measles! He and a buddy, who also had the disease, which first
manifested itself as a fever, waited beside the railroad for the train to take them to the hospital. A skirmish slowed the train, and the two
lay all day in the rain. J.A. was a very sick young man, but survived. If he hadn't, we would have missed a very interesting interview,
as well as the privilege of meeting a unique lady--J.A.'s daughter, AgnesMcCullough.
At 91, Mrs. McCullough possesses the same quality for survival that her father had; a quality that can best be described as a
determination to go on with the business of living, despite obstacles.
After his Civil War days, J.A. married and settled in Kansas. All his family had been landowners, and he had the desire to own his
own land, rather than work for hire. Thus it was that he brought his family to the newly settled land of Oklahoma.
Agnes was then 10 years old. Others in the two heavily loaded wagons that made the 11 day trip from Arkansas City, Kansas included
Mrs. Flansburg, and the children then both in the Flansburg family. There were a total of five Flansburg children born to J.A. and his wife.
Winifred was the oldest and was 14 or 15 at the time they came to Oklahoma. A sister younger than Agnes was Florence who later
became Mrs Joe Kardokus. Brothers were A.A. (Lon) Flansburg, and Leonard, lived on the family homestead until his recent death.
The family arrived April 3, 1902. The last night before they arrived at the homestead was spent at Bridgeport. The next day, they arrived
in Western Oklahoma, where they camped just a few rods from their claim. The next day, after measuring, they found the boundaries
of their farm, just northwest of Exendine.
There was much to do at first. There was the hard job of building fences, digging a well, planting garden and crops, and it all had to be
done with expedience. Spring had come to Oklahoma.
After bringing lumber from Weatherford, a long trip in a wagon, J.A. built the first portion of the home, a 14' x 18' room. The next year,
a 10' kitchen was added, and more additions came later. Mrs. McCullough notes that the only "real" house in the area at that time
belonged to Mr. Oglesby. That house had three bedrooms.
J.A. succeeded as a farmer in part because he kept his eyes and ears open. He shrewdly figured that Indians in the area would
choose good land, so he chose land around and adjoining Indian allotments. He was later able to buy the middle portion and expand his
farm.
He also purchased machinery and equipment second hand from those who had come to the area and left shortly thereafter.
He was here to stay. At that time, Mrs. McCullough remembers, 50 acres of farmland (not pasture) was a large amount to farm,
walking behind a plow. When her brothers in later years wanted "machinery they could ride on," J.A. thought that was sheer laziness.
"One good team and one good wagon" was what he had at the beginning.
The Exendine community centered around Exendine store which was also the cream station, grocery store, blacksmith shop, etc.
The community met near there for ball games, a main source of entertainment in those days. Education was also important to the
settlers. The Oglesbys furnished a house on skids for the first school, so the location of the school changed. J.A. was a carpenter
when the new school, Hopewell, was built. He also served on the school board.
To supplement the family income, J.A. hauled supplies for the Exendine store from Weatherford.
As time went by, Agnes became a school teacher. Her last "formal" schooling was in the fourth grade, back in Kansas, but in those
days, passing a test was all that was necessary to obtain a teaching certificate.
At 17, Agnes got her first school. Agnes married an area man, James Orin Alvis in 1919 and they moved not far from her parents
home. James came down with pneumonia when the couple had been married only 11 months, and Agnes became a widow.
Expecting a child, she moved home with her parents. She knew she must further her education if she was to support herself and the
child, a daughter, Marguerite Alvis. She attended what is now Southwestern University at Weatherford where she got her degree
and teaching became her career.
She has taught school in Hydro, Colony and Eakly, as well as later years in Greenfield and Apache,
at the same time being a homemaker and mother to her daughter.
Agnes and Marguerite had a close relationship, and Marguerite followed in her mother's footsteps, becoming a teacher. Marguerite
Alvis taught at Hydro and Binger. Her first love, probably influenced by her English teacher mother, was poetry and she wrote many,
many poems.
Marguerite met Paul Venable, a "Yankee" from New York who had come to Oklahoma to attend college at Weatherford.
Paul chose the school because his brother Frank Venable made his home in Oklahoma, serving as a missionary to the Indians.
Paul and Marguerite married and made their home in New York. Agnes married Ernest McCullough, who died in 1951. (Grandson's note:
Actually they were married in 1951, and Ernest died in 1959.) After living 8 years alone in Anadarko, she moved to New York to be near
her daughter, who's family consists of 5 children (Grandson's note: They lived together for eight years until Ernest died. Then, after two
years living alone, Agnes moved to New York State in 1961).
Having survived the loss of two husbands and having raised a daughter, Agnes was prepared to relax and enjoy her family. Her
determination to go on with life was tested at this point, because Marguerite became a victim of cancer.
Paul and Agnes helped Marguerite choose her favorites of her poetry and due to Agnes' work, Marguerite was able to see her writing
in print before her death in 1967.
"I never knew how much my life was wrapped up in hers", Agnes says. At 91, however, she cherishes her daughter's memory which
she shares with her son-in-law, who accompanied her recently on a trip back to the Flansburg home place.
She clapped her hands in excitement when she was told of Ellen Garrett's history of Exendine. She and Ellen (then Woods) were neighbors as girls. Her
enthusiasm for life is contagious, and she has written for her family a volume about her first 17 years as a girl in Oklahoma.
Although she lives in New York, she still loves her Oklahoma home as well. She loves to read, and subscribes to several newspapers
and publications.
Her love for life, perhaps inherited from her father, was passed down to her daughter. Marguerite's love of life
is captured forever in her poetry. One poem reads:
"Let us be merry, for love is a summer;
Let us be faithful, for life is so fleet -
Let us together explore its adventures,
Casting out bitterness, keeping the sweet.
Let us find loyalty, grow rich in friendship,
Let us be glad with the beauty of earth.
Let us touch God in our everyday living -
Kindness our lodestar, and loving, and mirth."