Super Sunday

What a great day!!! The weather is beautiful, life is good. The whole family is excited about Jord getting his internship.....he's worked very hard and its nice to know that finally it will pay off. We had a great Sunday meeting. Lots of visiting brethern from DeWitt, OKC, Hobart. We actually had Ruben, Manthy and the kids in church with us which is always a treat to have family with you. They came home with us dinner along with Bro. Johnny Trevino (Sis. Dana is on a baby case in Hobart), and as usual....I went overboard with the food. BBQ Ribs, Chicken, Baked Acorn Squash, Fried Potatoes, Corn and Broccoli Salad....Oh and Brownies. It was great!!! You all know how I love to cook for a large group. Manthy's kids love to come and play with the kids and we love it when they come....it turned out to be a great exciting day for everyone.

Gotta Love FAll

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Tithonia an Oklahoma native and Castor Bean an Oklahoma favorite

Softball Rules!

My internship search is over!

I'm pretty excited tonight. I got an internship with Guernsey Engineers & Architecture. I will be working under a licensed Landscape Architect, which is as rare as hens teeth in Oklahoma.

Happy Birthday Oklahoma

100 Years since Statehood.

What a great day and a great parade. It was our Centennial Parade this weekend. We got up to the performance square about 9:30 and watched rehearsals until the parade started at 2pm. It was great. It was the biggest parade for OKC and probably will be for a while.

Putting it in Perspective

Ok, here is the family tree from Mom. Well, the retyped family tree from Mom. (Mom, you need to check it over for misspellings and other errors so I can correct it.)

As you can see, this fan chart starts with my grandfather, Marvin Leroy Shockley. It starts with Creston and Katarina's Great-grandfather.

Thomas Guideon Shockley, and Susan Melinda O'Briant/Bryant are buried at Shilo Cemetery about a mile north of our house. Do you think it is purely coincidence that I live on Bryant Road? They would be Katarina and Creston's Great-great-great grandparents.

Now, My Grandpa Shockley's mother's parents, or my Great-great-grandparents John and Lectar Boydstun homesteaded 160 acres on the NE corner of 96th and HWY 39. Johnny and Dana Travino live in a development on that site. John Boydston's Dad, William Boydstun homesteaded the property that borders 108th and its North border is Bryant Road. It is just a little over 2 miles east of my driveway. He deeded the Cemetery, Willow View, from his land and William and Jane are buried on that property. Other Boydstuns are buried on the property also.

John Boydston

I found the Section that John Boydston homestead. It is the SW corner of Section 34.

Google Earth image of Section 34

Boydston Family Homestead

The coolest thing today! I decided to drop by the Historical Museum (how many of you do that on your day off?) and do a little digging into Slaughterville. I was just getting ready to walk out after spending about an hour digging through pictures, when one of the librarians asked me if I needed some help. I asked her if there was any records on the land run.

Yep! So, after digging through a few books, and reeling and spinning through some microfilm, here is what I come up with:

Here is my information

This information is out of the Homestead records at the history museum in OKC.
William Boydston Township 7 North, Range No. 1 West, Section 22
NE Corner
160 acres
Date of Sale: Feb, 22 1890
Reciept Number 6577
File No. 1877 October 5 1893 or 1895
(It looks like 1893, but the lady at the historical museum said it was probably 1895 because you had to wait 5 years to get or prove your patent.



William B. Boydston Township 9 North, Range 2 West, Section 11


John Boydston Township 7 North, Range 1 West, Section 4
160 acres SW
Date of Sale July 22, 1889
Number of Reciept 3983
File No. 2205 March 24, 1896


This info is from the Cleveland County Court House
William Boydston Trustee of Willow View Cemetery, which is 1 acre out of the center of his homestead.

James Shockley F. Owned property Township 7 North, Range No. 1 West, Section 22 (NORTHWEST--SW AND SE Corner.)

Here is a little farm house on the north side of the 160 acres. I'm not suggesting that it is where the old homestead was, but it is possible that it is the site of the actual old farm place.

Barns out buildings of the little farm

This is the Google Earth view of the full 160 acres. The north side is Bryant road and the East side is 108th street. Willow View Cemetery is in the center on 108th street.

It may be hard to see with this, but the old homestead is just a little over 2 miles, east, up Bryant road from our house. The Slaughterville place is only a mile North.

This is a picture looking West onto the homestead site

Here is the cemetery where the Boydston family is buried.

This is a picture of the corner at 108th and Bryant.

For my siblings that are not in the know (that would be most or maybe all of you.). The William Boydston family is our great-grandparents. Maybe Mom can clear this up, because our other great-grandparents are buried at the cemetery a mile north of us.

Rain, frogs and spiders

I think the news said tonight that we have had 52 inches of rain this year. That doesn't seem possible. However, I do know that it has been a very good year for frogs and toads. I have had frogs on my windows every evening eating bugs. The roads have been littered with frogs and toads and at night they are hopping every where in the car lights. It has also been a good year for the orb spider, Charlotte's Web Spider. They have been hanging in the trees and off of the eves. Tonight I stepped outside around sunset and the the ground was covered in spiderwebs. The picture only shows the reflections of the sun. But it looked like my whole lawn had a fine veil of glistening web covering. It was really quite stunning.

Current Rain Fall

It was 90 degrees this last weekend. It finally cooled down today to a beautiful 78 degrees. However OKC's current rain fall for the year is just over 52 inches. And you thought you were all wet. Isn't that unbelievable.

jlw