George then decided to move from Illinois. He rented two railroad cars, taking livestock and farm machinery. The story is, that he allowed Dora to take only one piece of her nice furniture, an ornate, hand-carved, walnut stand table. The family moved to Fowler, Kansas, in 1886.

From early childhood, George had a Negro servant boy who was only a few years older than he. They went everywhere together and the Negro man wanted to leave with George to go to Kansas. The story is, that when the railcars pulled away, George’s black servant was hanging onto the train, then running beside the train and crying because he was so attached to George. It was said that he couldn’t go because no blacks were allowed in Kansas at that time.

Pride and arrogance was said to have been a Bloxsom family trait. George was a very proud man and he was extremely angry at having been forced from the land which he considered should have been his. When he left Illinois, he vowed never to have contact with his family again. Not only did he refuse to have contact with his family , he would not allow his wife, Dora, to correspond with her family. One can speculate that because his fortunes declined after he left Illinois, he might not have wanted his wealthy family to know that he had lost status in life. It was a great sadness to Dora that she had no contact with her family from the time they left Illinois until after her husband’s death.

In Fowler, Kansas, three children were born to George and Dora: Lawrence “Dutch” (B: 5-23-1890, D: 5-8-1967), Zella (B: 3-2-1892, D: 5-14-93), then Virginia Lee (B: 10-7-1895, still living). The family moved onto land being opened to settlers and staked a claim. This was a difficult time, crops and grass dried up for lack of rain. Soon the horses and cattle died from heat and starvation. Eventually, the family gave up in Kansas and moved to the Osage Indian Territory in Oklahoma. However, the family would go back to Kansas for three months out of every year in order to retain their land claim.

At one point during the family’s move from Kansas to Oklahoma, a wagon wheel came off. After repairing the wheel, George left out the can of axle grease. Virginia, or “Virge” would have been about two years old at the time. She took a stick and smeared axle grease all over her mothers beautiful walnut table, the last vestige of Dora’s gentler life in Illinois.

In Oklahoma, George and his family camped on the Tommy Rogers ranch and worked for him. Tommy Rogers was part Indian and had Indian Head rights, so owned land in Oklahoma. On the Roger’s ranch, the family lived in a log cabin which eventually burned down. They lost many things in that fire and the few things that they saved were very precious to them. Virginia still has some dishes which were saved from the fire.

There is a family story which reflects an event which probably occurred while the family lived in Osage Indian Territory. The story goes that an Indian chief’s wife was ill and he had come to fetch Dora to take care of her. Virge, still very small at the time, went with her mother to the home of the Indian chief. While Dora was tending the chief’s wife, the Chief picked up Virge and set her up on a big, high trunk. When they were ready to leave, the Chief took Virge down from the trunk and opened the trunk to show her what was inside. Inside the trunk was a collection of scalps.

At one point, George hauled freight for the government from Arkansas City, Kansas, to the Indian lands in Hominy and Pawhuska, Oklahoma. This was mostly food supplies for the Indians, flour and sugar. If the load became wet, it was ruined because in those days there was no way to keep the cargo water-tight. This as a trip over wild country with few roads and bridges and many rivers, creeks and ravines to be crossed.

Page 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

Index Previous Page Next Page