During my many trips to Oklahoma, I have had the pleasure of meeting a very rare individual. His name is Robert “Tot” Calvert and he lives with his wife Wanda on his farm in Atoka, Oklahoma. Tot’s farm is located on Wards Chapel Road just 1 mile north of Boggy Depot Road, the path followed by the recent tornado of May 2011. Tot and Wanda are lucky to have emerged unscathed from the devastation that engulfed their neighbors.
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| Tot, surveying his many acres of prim pasture |
Tot was born in 1925, and is a man of many talents. Two of his talents are that of an amateur historian and a good writer, and these have allowed him to preserve much of the history of his friends and the area they call home. After chatting with Tot for a while it becomes apparent that he would have been more at home with the generations that preceded him. He is an excellent rider and roper and is often called upon by his neighbors to help with cattle that have wandered too far astray. This might seem strange in an era of 4-wheeled utility vehicles, but there are some places only a horse can work. He can also handle a team of mules when it becomes necessary for the local parades.
Tot is a prolific writer and has written many articles for the local newspaper. His writing is steeped in the vernacular of the “cowboy.” Varmints, hounds, punching cattle, are terms he is at home with. He once wrote the rather lengthy tale of William Henry Cummings, an early settler to Lehigh, Oklahoma. Bill, as Tot called him, was born in 1875 and moved with his family to Oklahoma when he was about 9 years old. That would have been about three years before Lehigh achieved the status of being called a “town.”
It was only ten years later that the Calverts, Tot’s grandparents, moved to the area in 1895. The Calverts produced two children, Clara Etta and Tot’s father, Robert “Bud” Calvert. Bill Cummings, after a long courtship, married Tot’s aunt Etta and Tot’s father married Effie Hotama Williams.
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| Etta Calvert, William Henry Cummings' wife & Tot's aunt |
Tot was named after his father, Robert “Bud” Calvert, who was born in Lehigh in 1901. Bud was killed in a terrible accident when Tot was only a month old. It seems that Bud was harnessing his mules when one of them bolted and dragged him for two miles before finally dragging his lifeless body back to the farm where his battered remains were discovered by Tot’s mom, Effie. The newspaper story about the incident goes into graphic and grizzly detail, but suffice it to say, it was not a pretty sight.
I hope to visit with Tot more during our next trip.
