A Labor Day Terrapin Race at the 101 Ranch and Family Connections

            In my lifetime, Labor Day has always been associated with the Ralston Labor Day Celebration. The three-day event transforms Ralston, Oklahoma, annually into a bustling metropolis for the first weekend in September.

             As I have listened and investigated some family stories, I discovered, in the late 1920s and into the early 1930s, the must-attend Labor Day soiree took place near Marland, Oklahoma. The 101 Ranch, owned by the Miller family, during this time in Noble (at its zenith, the ranch stretched into Kay, Osage, and Pawnee Counties, too) County history, hosted the ranch round-up beginning in 1904. Then the Miller family initiated the renowned Terrapin Derby in 1924.

Two uncles of my mother, Bernyce Smith Gates, were Uncle Ernest and Uncle Lewis. Her uncles only referred to each other by the last name. Rice was married to her mother’s sister, Daisy Dean Rainey Rice. Rainey was the older brother of her mother, Gladys Vivian Rainey Smith. These men had an interesting link to that colorful 101 Ranch era.

Virgil Rice told his son, Rick, of how his father, Ernest E. Rice, and his uncle, Lewis R. Rainey, forded the Arkansas River on the northwest side of the Big Bend to get to 101 Ranch located near Marland, Oklahoma. Crossing the Arkansas River this way reduced the travel time by half. Rick, in his own words, related his father’s recollection of fording the Arkansas River in the west Bend:

It's hard to believe that Grandpa and others would cross the river and go places like it was no big deal.

Dad always told of Grandpa taking his Case steam engine and threshing machine and crossing back in the Bend and threshing wheat for people on the Noble County side. They would lay timbers down where they needed and build up a head of steam and go across.

Rick Rice enjoying a local history book.

            Rick’s dad remembered lamenting, when as a little boy, when being told he was too little to go with his father and his uncle that Labor Day. The men went to the 101 Ranch to enter the terrapin derby. Even the lower place winners afforded people more money than a man could earn in a year during this Great Depression Era. Ernest Rice, taking one of the lower place wins, created a buzz in the whole family living in the Bend. His purse of over $100 would be about $1700 in 2022 (https://www.dollartimes.com/inflation/inflation.php?amount=100&year=1931).

Ron Bledsoe, the oldest grandchild of my paternal grandparents, shared that Old Mix was one of his favorite horses owned by our grandpa, Edmund Gates, Sr. Ron related that Old Mix had been acquired when devastating financial events required the liquidation of the 101 Ranch livestock at an auction. Valuable animals were acquired for a fraction of their true worth.

Old Mix with Mary Beth Bledsoe,
Ron Bledsoe, Mamie Marie Gates,
Marilyn Roberts. Ron and his wife,
Stella, still operate a cattle 
operation. My Aunt Mamie and 
cousins, Mary Beth and Marilyn
are deceased.

Here in his own words, as he viewed the photograph to the left, Ron reminisces about Old Mix:

The horse (in the photograph) is probably old Mix who was really a jewel.

He had been a 101 Ranch horse and was very gentle.

Grandpa sold him and bought “Bingo” who was flat out crazy.

He would run off with Jim and Herb.

Once he ran off and dumped Marion on some rocks by the old windmill.

Mom was always mad at Grandpa for selling Mix.

The final connection with the 101 Ranch involved the occupants of the small house located just south of the Rainey home in the Bend on the farm owned by Rosa Rainey. Alice and Gene Rainey, her daughter and son, lived with her. Alice, my mother’s aunt, was visually impaired but never allowed it to interfere with her cooking and farm work. Gene, my mother’s uncle, battled depression the latter part of his life, yet maintained a successful herd of milking cows much of the time. The matriarch of the Rainey family, Rosa Rainey, my mother's beloved maternal grandma, seemed to rise to the challenges of life with an indomitable spirit.

                During the 1950s, Almerine and Bertie (Research revealed her given name being spelled five different ways.) Hamilton lived in the small house south of Rosa Rainey’s house. Gene, Raucie, Billie Jean, and Marilyn Rainey had been its last occupants.

                Almerine and Bertie met when both were employed by the Miller family. Almerine served as a butler to the family. Bertie cared for Little Zack Miller and his sister in the role of a nanny. The 101 Ranch in Louisiana was situated in Catahoula Parish which bordered Tensas Parish where Bertie had been born. The divorce of the parents of the Miller children was granted when the children were around the age of ten and nine, respectively, with their father, Zack Miller, Sr., getting custody of them. School records seem to indicate the children moved with their father to Kay County, Oklahoma.

                One day when visiting her grandma, Rosa Rainey, my mother recalled a fancy car pulling up to Almerine and Bertie’s tiny house. Mother peeked through the window curtains after she was told Little Zack Miller had come to see Bertie. Even after these many years, Mother still remembered what affection Bertie Hamilton and Young Zack Miller had for one another.

                Bertie, a woman of great faith, yet with physical limitations, created a stunning quilt to illustrate truths from the Bible. Mother recounted how she vividly depicted hell as the scripture described it.

                Sadly, I never met Bertie but did meet Mr. Hamilton, as I was taught to refer to him. He was a trusted overseer in the field during cotton picking season. Even as a preschooler, I knew my parents and grandparents valued Mr. Hamilton’s integrity, diligence, and work ethic. Ironically, in my recent research, I discovered his mother had been a slave.

                After Bertie’s death due to a gas range explosion, Mr. Hamilton remarried and moved to Pawnee, Oklahoma. Finally, he conquered the alcohol addiction that had dogged him in earlier years. He and his new wife centered their life together on their faith and service in their church.

                Sometimes I would return from school to find the Hamiltons engaged in lively conversation with my grandparents before they went fishing in one of the farm ponds. The stately gentleman whom I had known all my life and his wife always expressed genuine interest in the latest happenings with my sister, Angie, and me.

                Many people we have never met make up portions of the mosaic of our lives. For Rick Rice, the stories of his grandfather, Ernest, who died prior to his birth, impact his drive to work the land. Rick’s commitment to care for its natural resources emulate the standards of stewardship modeled by a revered ancestor he never got to meet.

                Bertie Hamilton, a strong woman who faced hardships, solidly had her faith in Jesus, the One who never failed her. Her persistency to pray for her husband even though she never saw her prayer answered in her lifetime encourages me to model that same perseverance.

Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that 

they should always pray and not give up. Luke 18:1 NIV

(The entire parable is in Luke 18:1-8)

Additional Notes: Rick Rice sent a video from the Oklahoma Historical Society of the 1931 event. The link is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NryPq9v7fQ8

My mother, Bernyce Smith Gates, attended an event at the 101 Ranch as a child. The only thing that impressed her was the bear that drank pop!