Ch 5, The Great Depression

It is now 1928. The family moved to Spaniard’s Creek (The road signs show the spelling as Spaniard’s Creek, but other sources and the cemetery sign show it as Spainard’s Creek) and sharecropped a farm on Elm Grove Road. William’s cousins and uncle Robert E. Lee Johnson joined them on an adjacent farm and they all tried their hand at raising sugar cane, cotton, and corn. The bottom had fallen out of the market by this time, and William Freeland's Father (William Henry) and the two older sons Lee and Owen took a trip west looking for better opportunities and they soon found themselves in "The land of milk and honey," Tempe Arizona. After finding jobs in the farming and irrigation industry, they returned and loaded up the whole family and moved them to Tempe. After about nine months in Tempe, the family returned to Oklahoma and ended up on the same farm they had occupied before at Elm Grove Road.

It is now 1931 and the depression is in full swing. The family is farming cotton, corn, and sugar cane. William F. entered "Heard School" and completed the eighth grade there. It is here that their mother Gertie Bell dies of pneumonia on the 10th of January, 1933.

 Gertie Bell and William Henry's monument stone

Gertie is buried in the Elm Grove Cemetery at "Spainards Creek." Five of the Johnson boys including brothers and cousins attended school here. William remembers how his cousin Henry seemed to be very sharp. “He would read the book one time and lay the book down and never have to pick it up again.” “We (William and Johnny, Henry’s brother) read it nine times and still couldn’t get it” William said.

The main thing William remembers about these school years is the aggressiveness of the girls. He said he “couldn’t beat them off with a stick” and had to take refuge in the classroom at times for some peace and quiet. He remembers how they would come up behind him and wrap their arms around him and he would reach back and touch their forbidden places, which is exactly what they wanted.

By this time, most of William’s siblings had spread out and were farming their own plots. Also, the loss of their mother required them to send the youngest son Sosbee to live with his sister Edna in Fort Gibson. As if they hadn’t had enough trouble, the family home burned to the ground in 1934 but they rebuilt and the remaining children, Owen, Francis, and Freeland stayed with their father William at Spaniard’s Creek for another couple of years.

Although the times were hard, it was not all toil. The Johnson boys were typical of the youth at that time and were always into some kind of shenanigans. They managed to acquire a Model "A" ford they called the "tin lizzy" that allowed them access to a wider range of mischief. When the three of them, known as the "naughty boys," were out on the town, the locals knew it was time to get the women and children off the streets. As related to Freeland 40 years later by one of their female companions of that time, they had reputations that preceded them, and parents were careful to protect their daughters from the Johnson influence.

As usual, Owen seemed particularly adept at finding trouble no matter where he went and as a result, Freeland and Francis were hesitant to accompany him on his escapades. When Owen couldn’t find outside trouble it was not unusual for him to start trouble with one or the other of his brothers. Considering the events of the times, they lived a pretty good life until the struggle against the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl forced them, in 1936, to move to Fort Gibson where they helped William’s brother Tom on his farm. Brother Lee had a place of his own and ran a dairy and brother Francis went to work for Roosevelt,s Civilian Conservation Corps. Brothers Robert Owen, Francis Eugene, and William Freeland stayed with “Papa.”