Francis Clay Barkey

  Noted events in his life were:

• Education, Abt 1901, Beatrice, Gage County, Nebraska. I attended a business school that included military training as well. I was infected with small pox while attending classes there. I was so miserable and homesick that I hitched up my horse and buggy and drove home to Cortland. Unfortunately, the smallpox spread to several of my brothers and sister. We suffered from the normal aching pain and the popular rash that covered our face and other extremities. Relief came when the scabs formed and we all slowly recuperated.

• Residence, 1914, Haxtun, Phillips County, Colorado. We moved our family to Haxtun, Colorado where we lived with my father-in-law and mother-in-law, Monroe Morris and Laura Stanley It was an ordeal because I had hired men, which had to be fed along with the horses. I built a cement home, which the family moved into a year later. Soon after moving into the home, we discovered that Marian was on her way. The day Marian was born was a school day. Belle told Cline to go on to school and to not wait for the school bus. Cline was reluctant to walk to school, as he always rode the bus. Why should this day be different? He obeyed his mother. We didn't have a telephone so I walked to Clarence Stanley's house to call the doctor. By the time I got home from calling the doctor, Marian was already born. I did all the final touches of the delivery. The doctor finally arrived some time later. Shortly later the school bus Cline normally rode to school came by. I went out and stopped the bus and told the driver to tell Edith Spray that the Barkey's had a new baby girl, and that I needed Edith to help Belle with the work around the home. Cline did not like it that John Weer (presumably the bus driver or a child on the bus) was the first to learn that he had a new sister. John broke the news to Cline the minute the bus stopped at the school.

• Property, about 1924 or later. Belle's father, Monroe brought home a donkey, from one of his trips to New Mexico where he owned property, for our children. The donkey he brought back delivered a colt, so now we had two donkeys. Cline and Daniel built a cart for their donkey to pull them in. They would tie the colt in the shed and hooked the mother to the cart so they could go for a ride down to the mailbox. The donkey didn't want to leave her baby, so they had to coax, pound and holler at her just to go 1 ½ miles to the mailbox. However, when they got to the mailbox, they had to make a quick grab for the mail before the anxious mother donkey took off to get back to her baby. She sure gave them a fast ride all the way home.

• census, 1920, Haxtun, Phillips County, Colorado. BARKEY, ANNA M. [VERMAAS] ..................... 1920-4HX BARKEY, BIRDIE M. ............................. 1920-4HX BARKEY, CLINE L. ............................. 1920-5 BARKEY, DAVID F. ............................. 1920-5 BARKEY, FRANK C. ............................. 1920-5 BARKEY, JENNIE L. ............................. 1920-4HX BARKEY, LEON A. ............................... 1920-4HX BARKEY, MRS. BELLE S. ......................... 1920-5 BARKEY, ORPHA I. ............................. 1920-5 BARKEY, PHYLLIS C. ........................... 1920-4HX BARKEY, ROY B. ............................... 1920-4HX

• Recollections: by Cline Barkey. My father took my two boys, Dick and Dave barefooted into the locker plant at Haxtun. Grandma could have rung his neck. the same summer they were riding on the CAse combine and one of them knocked the long stem oil can into the elevator. It took me about half a day to dislodge it. We were trying to get the wheat harvested. We were trying to get the wheat harvested. Frank always liked children. He wanted a large family. Any of the four of us would go to him as quickly as we would to mother, if we were hurt.

My father's arms were as large below the elbow as above, so he never would punish us on the spot. He had fear of crippling us. But he could look at us or speak and we knew to straighten up. One time he sent me on horse back to find our bull. I went around the section and didn't see him. However, he said, "We will settle this tomorrow". I tried to think how I could run away from home before tomorrow. He whipped me the next day. He knew I was deathly afraid of the bull, especially on a horse. All he wanted me to do is find the bull.

Frank was left handed. The teacher made him write right handed, but he always used his left. He never liked typed letters. He would try to read the thoughts by the character of the writing. He was looking for deeper meanings.

He was strong. I have seen him carry two seventy five pound anvils by the horns.

By the mid 1940's, he was crippled in the feet. The country doctors used to take him out of the field to deliver babies. He could pull babies without tearing the mother. Many times when I was just a kid, I would go to the field with the doctor, just to bring back the team of horses, so DAd cold go right from the field. Mother would see me coming and ask who is having a baby. She never could wait to see new babies. He was real good at doctoring animals. Sometimes we had ruptured hogs or calves. A hired man let a team get away and they went through a fence. The smaller horse got cut right through the horse collar and harness. He had the hired man tie the horse short, then hold the skin while he sewed it back. He doused it with oil and kerosene. She healed without a scar.

He was a good feeder. He also never liked anything wild around the farm. Most any of the animals would come right to him. The uncles used to say that Dad should be the undertaker. Uncle Vet was the doctor, Uncle Ed was the preacher, and Dad should be the undertaker.

I came to appreciate Dad most when he was being poisoned by his gull bladder and Doctor McKnight sent him to Lincoln. It was in the spring and he was gone all summer. He got back about in time for us to go to school. We had a bad hail so we didn't have a harvest. I was not really capable of handling the work. Neighbors came in and helped me with the crops. It was rough. We were all glad when Uncle Clith went to Lincoln and brought him home on the train.

He had many ambitions that he didn't get to carry out. He thought the only place for me to raise the boys was on the farm. He wanted to buy the Warner half section for us. That is the farm up on the hill across from Ryhers and east of where Roland lives. I would have farmed Uncle Clith's half section and the half section we had from the estate. But he was counting on me helping him with his. He wanted to buy a new car and travel. I don't know how he planned to do that, because he never liked to be away from home at night. As soon as he had seen everyone he was ready to come back home.

Francis married Belle Stanley, daughter of Monroe Morris Stanley and Laura Melissa Roberts, on 4 May 1910 in Cortland, Gage County, Nebraska. (Belle Stanley was born on 1 Jun 1889 and died on 25 Mar 1969 in Haxtun, Phillips County, Colorado.)