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Ona Lee Arnspiger
d.23 Feb 1965
Facts and Events
References
- ↑ Chapman, Carolyn, Journal, JP Hieronymus.
_TMPLT:
FIELD:
Name: Page
- ↑ Essay||Contest: Old Times in Pioneer KS||Ask and ye shall receive: Contribution of Ona Lee Arnspiger Hollingsworth (1896)
When I was four years old my father was in very ill health and consulted a doctor who said, "Mr. Arnspiger, if you want to live very long, you had better get out of Illinois. I advise you to go to Kansas, as your lungs are in very bad shape and Illinois is too wet a place to live." So, he immediately prepared to start West.
As he had not much money to start with, he started walking and when he felt he could walk no farther, he traveled by train. From Kansas City he walked southwest, occasionally getting short rides with other people. Finally he stopped at a small shanty with only a bachelor in it, Absolam McCutcheon, who was glad to share his home and help my father to find two quarters of land not yet claimed, 17 miles west of Arkansas City, and with his oldest daughter, not yet married, he staked the half section.
My sister said she would give one-half of her share of land to her oldest brother when he became twenty-one. However, eleven days before his birthday he was working in a field with a span of mules and he saw some antelopes coming a short distance away, so he rode one mule to the house for his rifle and he said to his aunt who had come for a visit from Illinois, "I want to get some antelope meat for you while you are here." We had a gentle mule that he was accustomed to hiding beside and laying the gun on her back to shoot.
About thirty minutes later the mule came back with no rider, so my father got on the mule and rode in the direction his son had gone. Grass was very tall so he notified neighbors and soon all were hunting. A cousin who had several greyhounds found his body at sunrise the next morning.
My mother made our soap by using lye with fat from hogs that died of disease. The fat was rendered and made into soap and when boiled to the right stage and cooled, it was cut into bars of hand size. My mother was doing that when a squaw came into the yard and picked up a bar to eat. She made a face and said, "no good," so Mother got a pan of water and showed her what it was for. She immediately took off her shawl and began to fill it with soap saying, "make papoose clothes clean." She took the soap and went back to the trail where others were waiting, after Mother gave her some bread to get rid of her.
The Indians never knocked to enter a house. If doors were not locked they walked in and took whatever they wanted. They would go to the corn cribs and sack up what they wanted or anything they could find but Father told us to never oppose them for they were always armed with knives or something dangerous.
One winder in January we had a deep snow and the ground was froze deep. Six Indians came in and wanted to stay all night. They were very cold as they had driven from Wichita where they had gotten government supplies. Father said, "Pitch your tent and take wood for fire." The Chief replied "Ground froze, no drive stake." My oldest brother went with him to help put up the tent but could not make a dent in the ground. He came in and brought them in. With their buffalo robes and blankets, he made them a bed across one end of the kitchen. We children were afraid.
Mother made a big pan of cornbread and gave them milk, all they wanted. Mother took we four small children to the attic and put us to bed, while my father and brother kept watch at the stairway. As soon as all were quiet the chief knelt down on his knees and prayed in their own tongue and made motions to our Father in Heaven. Father said to us, "Be not afraid now, God is watching us all."
The next morning Mother fed all a good breakfast. And as the Indians took their blankets to depart, the Chief said, "Me give my dog to you." Father said, "No we have a dog." Chief said "Dog make good soup." Father picked up the year-old papoose and kissed it. Then the squaw smiled and waved goodbye as they departed.
Notation written on the back of the essay by Clementine McCoy: "Ona Lee Arnspiger Hollingsworth wrote and entered this in a contest (Old Times in Pioneer Kansas) She was Etta Lorey McCoy's dearest cousin."
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