| Notes |
- Notes from Yvonne Prough:
Called Bertha.
Told by Bertha to her daughter Dorthy, 28 Feb 1987. "When she was about 10 years old, she (Bertha) was picking cotton barefooted. She reached down unther the cotton plant to get some boles. She felt a scratch on her foot. She sat down on heer cotton sack to check her foot. The she saw the snake raised up. She hollered to her brothers who where ahead of he. They came running and killed the snake. Henry picked her up and carried her to the house. Will road a horse 7 miles to get the doctor. He wasn't in so he rode back to tell them and then went several miles in the other direction. In the mean time Henry and the other brothers tied a string around her leg and killed a chicken and put her foot in the still warm chicken. (This is an old Folk way. The warm chicken blood pulled the poison out). The doctor finally came in a one horse buggy. He treated the bite and bled more poison off. He told them if they had not done what they did she would have been dead by the time he arrived."
By Bertha Frock - "Father had the kindest, best personality and temperment of any man born." As to why we moved to Oklahoma - "I could tell you but I'm not suppose to know that, but I do, but I can't tell." This statement made in 1986. She gooes on to say "We just moved one time from Lafe to Tuskegee, OK, lived in one house till my Dad passed away, then my step mother, my brothers & I separated, it was the best thing for us to do. If the pastor Bredehoeft were still living he served us the last few years while we were at Tuskegee and then at Broken Arrow, he could tell you why it was good for us to move."
Bertha had to take over the house hold chores at age 14, but she had had to do them while her stop mother was there also. "Yes I remember when my Dad was sick with Diabetis for so long and had to have his leg amputated." Her father died, shortly after that, step sister Alma got married, Ssiter Catheran died, then her step mother announced she was going to leave them and live with Alma & Lee. Bertha was in the summer kitchen getting dinner ready and Henry came in and told me not to cry, we would be better off without her, that they, her brothers, would help her out if she needed help. So just then Henry saw their step mother come so he left,. She said what were they talking about. But he told her that they would be betteer off without her. Bertha didn't say anything, so her step mother hit her and said all kind of bad things, she was always mean to Bertha. Bertha knew she would be better off without her. She had to cry when she left, she was always happy when Bertha cried. in about 2 or 3 months the step mother came on her hands and knees crying for them to take her back. But the boys said no they couldn't do that. At that point is when they moved to Broken Arrow.
Written 24 Jul 1986; This by Berthat about after she and Albert had started their life together in a letter to Yvonne. "We girls picked cotton. We sure did, that was the main thing about having cotton fields, the whole family worked at that. i for one missed that when we quit growing cotton. I don't think I could do it anymore now. Did you ever hear us talk about when Betty got lost in the cotton patch? It scared us, we had 2 or 3 Mexicans helping us pick. Betty was little over 1 yr. We begin to think some of the Mexicans kidnapped her. It was over the noon hour but they helped us hunt for her. Finally I went up to the other end of the field and there she lay, she was asleep, thats why she didn't hear us call herer. We said a prayer of thanks and went on with our work. That was at Broken Arrow Ok. We lived on your Grandpa's place south of town (R.W. Tammen farms) For a year we lived on your Grandpa Tammen place north of town, the he decided he wanted to move that was a bigger farm."
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1899 - 1989 (90 years)
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