Knowing our ancestors through their
lives and words can empower us to continue their legacy. Identifying and internalizing
those character qualities that buoyed our patriarchal ancestors through
difficulties beyond imagination will enable us to rise above our own challenges
and flourish.
Fun-Loving, Resilient,
Loving, and Industrious – Character Qualities of My Great Grandpas
The Fun-loving Great-grandfather
 |
One of only two existing
photos of Bill Rainey. I
remember Grandma saying
they had a good photo of
him and his father but
Aunt Emma took it for an
enlargement, got into a
heated disagreement with
the photographer, and he
refused to give back the
original! |
William Marion Rainey, the maternal grandfather of my mother, began life on July 15, 1868, in Stoddard County, Missouri. The family history states “Bill” was the only son of
Andrew J. and Mary Rainey. He and his fine-looking horse caught the eye of Rosa
Jarrell, an impoverished young woman. After their marriage, Bill and Rosa
accompanied his parents to Texas and Indian Territory as Bill and his dad
worked on the crews that built the railroads north. Their first daughter, Daisy
Dean Rainey Rice, was born in Tyler, Texas, in 1893. Lewis Elbert Rainey, their
older son, entered their family at Terral, Indian Territory, in 1894, shortly
after Rosa and Baby Daisy forded the Red River to meet Bill. Bill and Rosa
buried their precious three-year-old, Della in Dale Cemetery in Shawnee,
Oklahoma Territory in 1899. Then the daughter who loved to tag along with her
dad was born. My grandmother, Gladys Vivian, came into his life in 1900, while
they lived in a tent, as he helped build the railroad. Bill’s little spitfire
whom he loved to tease, Alice Vertle was born in 1902 but suffered a horrible
case of measles, rendering her visually impaired but never lacking in
spiritedness. Bill’s youngest daughter, Emma Maryann Rainey Buckley, wrapped
her father around her finger from the moment she was born on the last day of 1903.
According to my grandmother, 1905 brought the last baby and her mother’s
favorite, Eugene Robert Rainey, who shared his father’s love of fun.
1
Our Resilient Great-grandfather With a Linguistic Surprise
Walter Smith, son of the Cherokee Trail of Tears survivors, Callcayah Smith and Rachel Kingfisher Smith, was born in Delaware District, Cherokee Nation, Indian
Territory in 1855. By the time he was twelve, both of his parents had died –
his father as a member of Cherokee Regiment of Mounted Rifles, Company A and
his mother tragically killed in their corn field by a man fearful that she was
bush whacker ready to capture him.2 Young Walter gained fluency in
Cherokee, English, and Spanish. This enabled him to serve as an interpreter for
his Cherokee nation and the United States Government. Calvin Callcayah Smith,
my own maternal grandfather, named for his grandfather, Callcayah, valued
learning, education, and stressed it for my sister and me. I just wish Grandpa
had mastered Cherokee and taught the language to me.
The Loving Great-Grandfather With Just Five Years to Endear Himself to His Daughter
 |
Rufus "Dive" Tripp, father of
Mamie Irene Tripp Gates. Died
at only 42 years of age with
kidney disease, according to
Aunt Mamie Marie Gates
Judkins Tice. |
, Mamie Rufus Tripp, the beloved father of my paternal grandmother, Mamie Irene Tripp Gates, came into this world in 1858, in Illinois. In early 1865, Rufus bid good-bye to his
father, Horace Baron, as he was drafted into the Union Army. By August, Horace
had succumbed to illness, never to return to his little family. On March 2,
1892, Rufus, age 34, married Nettie Ann Venator, age 20. In Great-grandma
Nettie’s letters to her dear husband, the reader can easily detect their love
for each other as well as their oldest daughter, my grandma Mamie Gates, their
only baby at that time. Within eight years of pledging their vows one to
another, Nettie, at only 28, would bury her much-loved husband and father of
her three daughters. Even though Grandma only had her father for five years,
she exemplified daily his loving attitude to her family.
3A Great Loss in Adolescence Didn’t Stifle His Industrious Attitude
 |
John Fredrick Gates lived life on
his own terms until a stroke that
brought paralysis and within
months he died. |
John Fredrick Gates, our great grandfather from the Gates branch of our family tree, was born in Illinois in 1839. After suffering from
typhoid and scarlet fever in his adolescent years, John Fredrick was left deaf
by age 14. In his early 20s, he accompanied his friends to the rail station to
wish them well as they left to fight in the Union Army. John could not go with
his friends to fight for the government of Lincoln due to his deafness. By age
31, John was in Kansas on his own farm. In the 1870 United States Census, his
real estate was valued higher than others, as was his personal assets.
4 Yet
on the census record line for him had three words scrawled “deaf and dumb.” At
age 35, as a successful farmer, a mutual friend told him of a well-educated
young woman who had been deaf from birth. After receiving a letter from her and
one week of knowing her, he married Elizabeth Studebaker with which he shared 41
years of marriage until his death at age 78. My grandpa, Edmund Gates, Sr., worked
his entire life to achieve as his father, John Fredrick, had done.
5
John Fredrick would be pleased with so many of his descendants and the results
of their creativity, hard-working productivity, and diligence.
For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting, and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into His kingdom and glory. I Thessalonians 2:11-12
NOTES
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