The Trip to California

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Ida Boman Gasaway's recollection of the trip to California:


When John and his son Merritt knew they had tuberculosis, they decided to go to California in hopes of getting better. The family sold their house in Marland, Oklahoma and took a model T Ford truck to California. John built a camper that went on the back of the truck, where they stored the food, an oil stove, and other necessities - including a rocker with no arms.

Three of the children (Merritt - age 14, Harold - age 12 and Ida - age 10) slept in a tent and Henry (age 3) slept in the truck. On the back of the truck they stored the tent and poles and camping cots.

They left about September of 1920. On the way to California, they went through Winslow and Phoenix, Arizona. Near Winslow or Pine, it snowed. They had to stay in that area for 3-4 days, where they worked on someone's truck. They stayed together with these people for those days.

In the Pine, Arizona area they got flour and made biscuits. Breakfast usually included black-eyed peas. At some point, the brakes went out on the truck.

In the Phoenix area, they camped in a vacant lot for 3-4 weeks. They were north of town near a packing house on a hill near an irrigation ditch by an orchard. Law enforcement told them that the children needed to be in school.

Somewhere, they got lumber to make a floor platform for the tent. In Coalinga, California they stayed in a lease house on the property of Guy and Naomi Stine. He was Ethel's cousin, and was an oil company executive. They were bused to school. The family stayed in California until John died.

The family went back to Virgil, Kansas on a train. "Uncle Charley" (Charles Bowman) built a house for Ethel and the 4 kids. It was there that Grandpa Harvey (Ethel's father) came from Marland, Oklahoma to live with them. He had been living with his daughter Jennie.

Guy and Naomi Stine have been researched, and they were found in 1920 and 1930 in California with their children. He is listed in 1930 as a driller in the oil fields. Except for the fact that the Stines were born and married in Kansas, no connection can be found between them and the Bomans. Guy was born 1889 KS and died 1972 CA. Naomi was born 1889 KS and died 1992 in CA.