Ch 3, Farming In Oklahoma

William Freeland was born on a farm in Hitchita Oklahoma. He was the eighth of 10 children born to William Henry Johnson and Gertrude Bell Amos.

 The Johnson kids, about 1927

Back row, L to R: Leonard Nicholas, Edna, Lee Maskel, Iva Mae, Robert Owen.

Front row, L to R: Francis Eugene, Charles Sosby and William Freeland

When only six months of age, his family moved to Checotah Oklahoma but Freeland was too young to remember much about that location. When William was about 2 years old, the family moved again, to Webbers Falls Bottom (Dirty Creek), just across the Arkansas River from the Johnson family’s first settlement in Gore, OK back at the turn of the century. It was good land for growing cotton, but it always flooded during the rainy season. Freeland was very young, but recalls the first steel bridge being built after one of those floods had washed out the original wooden bridge.

As a child, Freeland remembers crawling under his mom’s sewing machine and grabbing hold of the vertical rod that was connected to the treadle and stopping his mom’s sewing progress. The family lived about five miles out of Webbers Falls and Freeland remembers wanting to ride the “Red Ball” bus into Muscogee, but never got the chance. The “Red Ball” was a privately owned limousine that was “Big and Black.” The owner was a local entrepreneur who provided bus service between Muscogee and Webbers Falls, and often picked up residents of the outlying farms on his route.

Freeland was too young to work in the fields, but he would often be sent out to the fields with a gallon bucket of water for his brothers, and remembers that on most occasions it sloshed so much that the bucket was only half full by the time he got to them. Turner Harwell, the boyfriend of Freeland's sister Edna, worked for the county road department as a grader. often, William got to ride on the horse-drawn road grader with his future brother-in-law and sister Edna who was 16 years older than Freeland. The Harwell family had an adjacent farm and grew pecans in their orchard.

Freeland also remembers tagging along with his older brother Leonard and his girlfriend, Miss Shin when they would go swimming at “Dirty Creek” and swing out over the water on a rope. Leonard was eleven years older than his younger brother. Freeland was the baby of the family at this time, and “ruled the roost” as he says.

 

The Johnson Boys, about 1921

Back row: L to R: Leonard Nicholas, Francis Eugene, Robert Owen

Front: William Freeland Johnson

Freeland remembers his dad as being quick to “back hand” the kids if they got out of line. As a consequence, Freeland was averse to saying much on their frequent drives to the town of Webbers Falls for fear of being “backhanded.” He would wait until they got to the “King and Hays” store in town before he would pester his father for candy. He figured out that his father would not “backhand” him in front of other people, so Freeland would wait until he was in conversation with friends and then pinch his dad on the back of his leg to get his attention, without fear of the dreaded “backhand.” “Gertie, I’m not taking this kid with me anymore” is what Freeland's father would say when they got home. “He pinched my leg until it was black and blue!”