John W. Bierman, an Early Bender

The early day Bender and focus of this blog, Mr. Bierman has a great-great grandson and his wife, Mark and Dawn Anson, who continue to farm in the Bend. I attend church with Mark Myers, the great grandson of Mr. Bierman, who has stayed active this spring as he serves with the Oklahoma Baptist Disaster Relief. I think Mr. Bierman would be pleased with these descendants.

                Many people visited cemeteries all over the United States this past week. On our annual trip to Pixley Cemetery on the northside of the Bend in Osage County, I saw a tombstone that I had seen for many, many years, but this Memorial Day I viewed it in a different light.

Tombstone of John W. and Ella J. Bostick Bierman in Pixley
Cemetery as I viewed it this spring.

                During the past year, Lester Anson shared photos from the collection of his late wife, Tomasine Rainey Anson. Tomasine’s paternal grandpa, Lewis Rainey, and Gladys Rainey Smith, my maternal grandma, were siblings. Digitizing these treasured photos was like discovering a genealogical gold mine, and I am so grateful for Lester's generosity in sharing these priceless pictures. The portrait of Tomasine’s great grandfather Bierman prompted this blog post.                                                                                     

                Great Uncle Lewis met, courted, and married Pearl Bierman after the Rainey family moved to the Bend in the first decade of the  20^th century. They raised their children, Leo and Johnny in the Bend.

                The Bierman family members were recorded in the 1910 United States Census as living in the Bighill Township (the legal description of the Bend). John, the head of household was listed as 44 years old and interestingly both parents were categorized as German immigrants. His wife was recorded as Ella J. Bostick Bierman, nine years younger than her husband. She descended from French Canadian, Potawatomi, and Scottish ancestors.

Portrait of John W. Bierman - from
Tomasine Rainey Anson's collection.

                Grandma Gladys admired Mr. Bierman, as she referred to him, for providing leadership in the Bend. The community was so far from the Osage County Seat in Pawhuska. The men of the community intervened when a domestic abuse incident occurred with a couple. Even though the area was settled in that era by those of a pioneer spirit, with much determination, and indomitable endurance, men were not to strike women. They were to be respected and treated as the weaker sex. Even coarse behavior, crude joking and rough language were unacceptable in the presence of ladies in those days in the Bend. The men of the early Bend were not perfect but had respect for women.

                Mr. Bierman died in 1925 just a year after my mother’s birth. Grandma commented how pleased he was to hold my mother. Benders still value the birth of little ones and joyously welcomed our newest neighbor.*

                Finally, Mr. and Mrs. Bierman’s tombstone took on a renewed interest for me after seeing Mr. Bierman’s portrait, made over 100 years old. Their epitaph read:

Friends as you pass by

As you are now so once was I.

My grandma often quoted two additional lines to this brief rhyming epitaph because of its sobering tone:

As I am now soon you will be.

Prepare for death and follow me.

                Jesus gave us the clear way to prepare to have everlasting life in John 3:16 with these words, For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.

 *On May 1, 2024, another little Bender was born to Tiffany and Casey Goad. Little Gatlin Babe Goad was given his middle name to honor his great great-grandfather, Otis “Babe” Goad, one of his “Bend” ancestors.