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Ancestors of ELMER MEARKLE KARNS "Under Construction"

Generation No. 1

      1. ELMER MEARKLE KARNS, born July 14, 1893 in Everett, Bedford Co., PA; died July 20, 1977 in Bethany, OK. He was the son of 2. ALVA [ALVAH] HIXON KARNS and 3. SALOME MEARKLE. He married (1) VERNA MABEL DAWSON August 14, 1921 in Hutchinson, KS. She was born December 9, 1901 in Stafford Co., KS, and died August 24, 1978 in Bethany, OK. She was the daughter of ISOM MARTIN DAWSON and ALFRETTA MARIAH 'ALLIE' CANNADY.

Notes for ELMER MEARKLE KARNS:
Elmer Mearkle KARNS was born July 14, 1893 near Clearville, south of Everett, Bedford County, Pennsylvania. On August 14, 1921 he married Verna Mabel DAWSON in Hutchinson, Kansas. Their first daughter, Winifred Colleen, was born February 21, 1926. Melva Jean was born March 9, 1927. Elmer died July 20, 1977 in Bethany, Oklahoma.

His mother died of pneumonia in Clearville, Bedford County, Pennsylvania on Sept. 16, 1896. After her death the care of the younger children at home was too much for Alva. The two youngest children, Elmer and Carl, were placed in foster homes. It is likely that Elmer lived with the Jacob Grubb family, along with their daughter Olive Grubb. He attended public schools in Pennsylvania and later in Kansas.

In 1903/04 Alva began the journey west to Kansas with five children, including Elmer. They lived first in the Englevale, Kansas region, and later moved to western Kansas. Elmer attended the Kiowa County Teachers Normal School, completing his training as a teacher in 1912. He taught in the Shuman School, District #7, near the town of Wright in Ford County, Kansas during the 1912-1913 school year. He had 19 students that year. His occupation then shifted to farming and raising livestock.

The Church of the Nazarene of Ford, Kansas was organized in 1924. Elmer was Sunday School Superintendent for many years and always was a faithful member until he moved from the community.

Following their marriage, Elmer and Verna lived in the vicinity of Ford, Kansas from 1921 until his retirement. They first lived south of town on the Clark Place, then in 1927 moved to the west side of Ford on the Taylor Place. They next lived on the Madison Farm just east of Ford. They moved to the Dawson home place northeast of Ford in 1943. They lived there until retirement in 1956, when they moved to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

They lived in Oklahoma City until Elmer's health failed and it was necessary for him to go to a nursing home. Verna did not want to leave her husband, so they lived together in the nursing home for a year. Elmer's heart was weak, and the end came when he passed away peacefully in his sleep of heart failure in 1977. Verna survived him, living until August 24, 1978.

SOME THINGS I REMEMBER . . . by Melva Jean KARNS LADD, daughter

About Elmer--
. . . His habit of checking the car for flats in time to change a tire and still be on time.
. . . Always stopping the machinery on the Sabbath--even though the crops were ready for harvest and storms might threaten.
. . . Always dependable.
. . . Starting the day with family Bible reading and prayer following breakfast.

About Verna–
. . . Christmas programs at church . . . white sheets on the platform to look like snow; angel costumes.
. . . Curling hair with a hot curling iron heated over a kerosene lamp--or making long curls by winding on rag rollers.
. . . Teaching Sunday School and leading evening young people's service.
. . . Gardening for vegetables.
. . . Flowers for the yard and cut flowers inside our home.
. . . Cooking for Sunday guests--or a harvest crew.
. . . Winter projects of quilting, sewing clothing.
. . . Summer canning of grapes, and "fuzzy" peaches.
. . . Varnishing floors--and the fun it was to walk from carpet to carpet bridged over the varnish with table leaves.

About the family–
. . . The yearly trek to church assembly in August--sometimes staying in homes of community people, a few times sleeping in a tent, always meeting old friends from earlier years.
. . . Trip to Colorado to see Pike's Peak and crossing the Divide--first time to see a mountain.
. . . Trips to take Grandmother Allie Dawson to Missouri to visit relatives--always looked forward to roasting ears and visiting the well to draw water with a bucket at the home of Roy and Audra Dawson in Sarcoxie, Missouri.

------------------

A LETTER TO ELMER KARNS FROM HIS NIECE, SARA JEAN RILEY

Oct. 31, 1970
Dear Uncle,
      The attached article from the November Reader's Digest [concerning early memories]--together with my heartfelt wish that I could have come with mother last weekend--prompts this letter. I read the article Monday night after everyone was in bed; and, slowly at first, then almost rhythmically like waves rushing up on the sand, memories began tumbling in on the shores of my mind . . .
      Of course I remember the special days, the holidays, the reunions; but there are so many others, too.
      Some I've thought of often, and shared with many friends and loved ones. First in this category is the penciled postcard, the delightful loving poem about the harvest and the newborn kittens, you wrote to me. I still recall the thrill that long-ago day of discovering--for the first and only time--that instead of a card or letter quoting you, I actually had one from you. That was not only a childhood treasure but for many years an adult one as well, one still treasured in memory. [See a copy of the poem below.]
      Also oft-repeated is that hilarious (in retrospect--it wasn't all that funny then) episode of the tiny baby mice you carefully gathered up out in the granary and put in a box for me, telling me they were baby pigs. (I saw some baby mice that size in the LSU [Louisiana State University] animal lab last week, and with a little imagination they still look like baby pigs!) I rushed to the house with that box, down the basement stairs to show Auntie, Colleen and Melva Jean, and spilled them every which way to the accompaniment of mild but definitely outraged feminine shrieks.
      Poignantly, with awesome clarity, I remember what must have been the only times in childhood when I was truly, desperately, despairingly sorry for something I'd done. The time in the basement when I played with that forbidden temptation, your round shaving mirror, and broke it. You eyed me sadly and told me where you'd gotten it and how many years you'd had it. And I wished miserably that I could just disappear. Then there was the time you found a tiny not-even-any-feathers-yet baby sparrow out by the chicken house before I'd caught up with you. You turned with it hidden in your hand, said 'shut your eyes and hold out your hands'--I was so startled at that shivering, palpitating naked little bit of life that I dropped it, and once again, so ashamed, made you sad.

Very-little-girl memories, from the time of the old two-story farmhouse:

      You rescuing kittens from the basement during the flood, the water slowly but inexorably rising step by step.
      Getting caught sucking the corners of the new cloth sugar sacks after a trip to the store; also getting caught out in the corral in my best dress licking the new salt lick--and scaring the daylights out of everyone when I was discovered 'cause the bull was in the corral.
      Being given a penny, or pickle, tied in the corner of a hankie, to keep me quiet in church.
      You shaking powder inside my cast before bedtime when I had my collarbone broken.
      The bewildering excitement of the stubble field catching fire.
      Learning to ride the full-size bike--and my surprise the first time I looked back to find Colleen far behind me no longer holding on to the back fender.
      Mixed-up pride and stage-fright the first time I had a "piece" in the Christmas pageant at church.

      What seems to be one of my very earliest memories is being hoisted up to the top of whatever-model-Ford-had-a-sort-of-rubber-roof to watch the 4th of July fireworks.
      You giving me one of Fluffy's kittens to take home when I left--reluctantly--to go to Dodge City.

And later:

      I remember being taught to drive the tractor (at the ripe age of 9); the big truck a year later--and a lesson learned that day lingers still, "A good driver should be able to go up and down hills without losing or gaining speed"--; the new, blue '48 Plymouth?
      I remember learning to drive the black '46 pickup (and you shooting at winter rabbits out the window). There's a sequel to this. About 3 years ago Bob went shopping for a pickup to use for hunting, camping, etc. He bought one, brought it home, and hollered 'come see!" A light green, 1946 Chevrolet pickup. I took a startled look at its grill, the windshield that opened outward, the floor shift and the big floor starter button up to the right of the gas pedal, then climbed in. Bob innocently asked "Think you can drive it?" And I burst into almost tearful laughter (the poor man probably wondered what he'd done wrong!) and finally sputtered out, "Honey, I learned in it!"

All sorts of big and little memories, unconnected chronologically:

      The fun you had with the new record player, mirroring my own delight at "I'm My Own Grampa" and Spike Jones' "All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth."
      The jokes at Christmas, particularly Uncle Arthur's multi-wrapped boxes which finally unwrapped down to a walnut filled with Carter's Little Liver pills.
      "Pull a pig's tail and he says unh-huh"'--and now I'm saying that to Marie's 'huh?'
      My chuckles as you, with unerring accuracy, splattered a cat's mouth with a stream of milk clear across the barn. And the splashing, butting struggles of weaning a calf to a bucket.
      The baby skunk with eyes still closed that you put with the new litter of barn kittens--and Jean's squeamish surprise when she realized what it was.
      The night Shep barked "snake!" and you found the big bull snake hanging nearly at eye level over the chicken house door.
      The big, beautiful, orange and white goldfish in the cattle tank.
      The fun of watching for rabbits when the haystacks were broken up and loaded.
      The truck rides to the 'far' pasture to feed the cattle, and my apprehension of 'Old Horny.'
      Carrying skinned, gutted rabbits in to the house for you and watching them jump in the sink--just like you said they would.
      The hog-butchering when you tried to give me an eye and I wouldn't take it.
      The delicious yet scarifying smell of the poison mash--for grasshoppers?
      The taste of water out of a tin cup at the windmill.
      How grown-up and important I felt when you took me to the cattle sales.
      The 'big flood' of '43. I'd hoped it would keep me at the farm, but we drove thru what must have been over a foot of water across the highway back to Dodge.
      The scolding you gave Dwight when he frightened me with a snake during the post-hole digging.
      The early pre-dawn sound of you shoveling coal into the furnace--and the times I got sent back to bed 'til the house warmed up.
      Turning the ice-cream freezer; and licking the butter-churn paddles.

I remember the squishy feeling when you put my hand print in the porch step cement. (Four years ago I satisfied the Sitton's curiosity as to where that print came from).
      I remember being utterly terrified at seeing you in the hospital when you got cement poisoning.
      I remember you coming for me, standing there in my 3rd grade classroom, when grandmother died.
      I remember you teaching me to find the North Star, and the Big and Little Dippers, and answering my never-ending stream of questions. (I also remember believing a rabbit could be caught by putting salt on its tail)
      I remember my first trip out-of-state--to Bethany with you for the graduation.
      I remember 'keep quiet now' when you listened to the farm market reports on the old radio. (They still sound like Greek to me)
      I remember the old crank wall telephone, and the general ring for frost warnings and such.
      I remember--with unspeakable nostalgia--SNOW. Snowdrifts, three feet of snow in the driveway, snowmen, the big sleigh, delicious forehead-splitting cold, blizzards . . . I haven't seen over an inch of snow in 10 years!
      I remember the sound of your voice leading the evening prayers.
      I remember. I remember so many things. You, more than anything or anyone else, were responsible for my continuing bump of curiosity and my childhood sense of wonder. And I wish there were still a farm, and that my not-quite-four Marie could be "Tag-Along-Too Lou" with you, making memories. . . .

What do you remember best? I'm still asking questions . . . please, to satisfy my curiosity, and for little Colleen's baby book--who picked the name 'Colleen', how, and from where?

I remember the distaff side of things, too; the sewing, cooking, the garden--but that's another letter.

Much love,
Sara Jean

NOTE: Sara Jean RILEY is the niece of Elmer KARNS. At the time of his death in 1977 she rewrote this letter in essay form. She was librarian for the Ventura, California Star-Free Press at that time. The essay was printed by the Dodge City Daily Globe and by The Bucklin Banner. Sara's preface to the article in The Bucklin Banner follows.

      Elmer Karns was far more than "uncle" to me--he was the only "father" I know. My own father, Eugene C. Riley, died Christmas of 1938 in a disastrous house fire at his mother's home in Kinsley, Kansas. Where do I fit in? Mrs. Elmer Karns (Verna) is my mother's sister. My mother, Elta J. Riley, was clerk of the district court in Dodge City from 1940 to 1967. Unless it's been sold again since 1972, the "old home place" referred to is the farm now owned by the Sittons northeast of the Ford bridge across the Arkansas river. It was the original Dawson farm started by Isom Martin Dawson in about 1904. Elmer and Verna Karns rebuilt every building on the place in the early 1940s, and it stayed in the family continuously for nearly 60 years.

A POEM WRITTEN BY ELMER KARNS FOR HIS NIECE, SARA JEAN RILEY:

The newest things down on the farm
Are two new calves around the barn;
A dozen kittens are in the hay,
All are yellow if they're not grey.
Plums all picked and corn all gone
Peaches are green and still hanging on.
Long wet harvest wasn't funny,
Lots of work and not much money.
            Uncle

More About ELMER MEARKLE KARNS:
ADDR: Lived in Ford, KS area; Retired in OKC, OK
Burial: Bethany OK Cemetery [age 84]
Cause of Death: Heart Failure
EDU: Public Schools in PA and KS; Normal school for teacher certification
INTERESTS: Family, Home, Church
Medical Information: Heart disease
OCC: Teacher, later Farmer and Stockman
REL PREF: Church of the Nazarene

Notes for VERNA MABEL DAWSON:
Verna DAWSON KARNS spent grades five through twelve in the Ford, Kansas, public schools. She attended Lincoln school, a rural school north of Ford, Kansas, for grades one through four. After graduation she attended Normal School in Emporia, Kansas to earn a certificate to teach. She taught for a few years in rural schools near Ford.

Verna and Elmer Mearkle Karns were married August 14, 1921. They first lived on the Clark Place south of Ford, Kansas, although at that time the address was Kingsdown, Kansas. While living there they experienced a tornado on their property, though it did not do extensive damage to the buildings.

While there, Verna had two close friends--Edna Patterson Haley who was a schoolmate through their school years, and Nancy Karns, wife of Carl. One of the family pictures, for example, shows Verna and Nancy working on a car engine together. Along with their husbands and children, they kept busy with farm, church, and community activities. She was active in the various ministries of the Church of the Nazarene.

In 1924, they joined a group of their fellow community friends in establishing and building a new church, the Church of the Nazarene. Both she and Elmer were very involved in the activities of the church until they retired and moved to Oklahoma.

About 1930, Elmer and Verna moved west of Ford to the Taylor Place where they farmed for several years. Their two girls, Winifred Colleen and Melva Jean, began school years in the rural Wilroads school, a mile or so north of their home. Later they moved to the Madison farm about two miles east of Ford where the family lived in a home with their first basement, first indoor bathroom, first upstairs--and one very small room [only a few feet square] with windows and a step-down floor level! It made a perfect doll-house for the girls! The Madison farm adjoined the Arkansas River and as one approached the river area a beautiful pasture with large cottonwood trees made a wonderful place for picnics, etc.

In the early 1940s, one last farm move was made to Dawson Farm north of Ford. Elmer and Verna completely remodeled or rebuilt all the buildings which had stood there since Isom Dawson came to this area in 1903/04. A large pasture of native buffalo grass lay to the west of the house and they had farm land to the north.

In 1956, Elmer and Verna decided it was time to retire. They had spent their lives in this same community and were very highly involved in the activities of the church, community, and lives of their families. They were involved either with playing or singing at many of the funerals in the area for many years. The farm was sold and in 1956 they moved to Oklahoma City to be near family. Verna managed the Bethany Book Store, a branch of the Nazarene Publishing House, for several years until her retirement in 1971. Elmer kept busy maintaining some rental properties which they had acquired along with caring for his yard at their home.

Both are buried in the Bethany, Oklahoma County, Oklahoma cemetery, just north of the City of Bethany.

More About VERNA MABEL DAWSON:
ADDR: Lived in KS and OK; retired in OKC, OK
Burial: Bethany OK Cemetery [age 76]
EDU: Ford KS Schools [1-12]
EDU-2: Normal School, Emporia, KS
INTERESTS: Church and Family
Medical Information: Heart disease
OCC: Teacher, later Homemaker; Store Mgr.
REL PREF: Church of the Nazarene

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