Alice Rainey - The Valentine Baby

A Special Aunt

  On February 14, 1902, in Sacred Heart, Oklahoma Territory, Alice Vertle Rainey was born to Mary Rosetta and William Marion Rainey. She already had two older sisters, Daisy Dean and Gladys Vivian along with one older brother, Lewis E.
  When just a young child, Alice contracted measles, and complications from this disease caused a permanent visual impairment. Seemingly, even though she could read large print and could write with larger letters, her education was limited due to her limited vision.

Left to right - Emma Maryann Rainey, Eugene Robert Rainey, & Alice Vertle Rainey. In the
forefront is Ethel Robinson, a family friend. (Thanks to Lou Brock for restoring this photograph.)

  This didn’t stop Alice from being a terrific cook, good housekeeper, and quite handy with the outdoor chores. One family story associated with her scrumptious cream pies involved her younger brother Gene. Alice had made a couple of cream pies anticipating “company” coming for Sunday dinner. To her chagrin, she set them out to cool, went for a visit, and returned to find her generous brother had taken them and shared with neighbors. She had a few choice words for him.

  Alice loved a good laugh, joking, and teasing, but as the above recollection reveals, she had the quick temper and tongue known to be present in the Rainey DNA! During an incredibly bitter cold snap, she was milking a cow, shivering in the frigid temperature and battling the howling wind when her father, a known prankster and joker, advised off-handedly to her, “Why don’t you get behind that barbed wire fence to warm up?”  No disrespect was intended, but Alice retorted to him using words that women in the early 20^th century were never to use.

Alice Rainey in her teens.

   William Marion Rainey died in August of 1931. Gladys and Alice were impacted by the death of their beloved father. Perhaps for the first time, the two of them faced their own mortality. Because of this, they were both converted under Brother Stalling’s preaching at the Belford Sunday School in September of that same year and then baptized. The word converted in that day and time meant that Alice and Gladys, my maternal grandmother, recognized they were sinners on a wrong path and asked Jesus to convert or change their lives enabling them to walk in His way.
   Alice’s youngest sister, Emma became a young widow and was alone without her adoring husband, facing providing for herself. She accepted a position of responsibility in the Government Printing Office in Washington, D. C. Emma had many suitors from bankers to railroad conductors to other men of prominence from many walks of life. Alice took great delight in teasing her sophisticated sister about these high-class, big city men.
    Alice died on July 8, 1951, in the Pawnee Hospital following a diagnosis of stomach cancer. Mother recalls the void her death left in the Rainey family, especially for her grandmother, Rosa, age 81, with whom Alice had lived all her life.
    I have heard from family members who knew and loved Alice how spirited and fun loving she was. She loved children, and they responded to her. My mother spent much time with her and never heard her complain about her blindness or use it as an excuse for being unable to attempt and accomplish a task. Over sixty years ago, Alice died before reaching the age of 50. Yet her life stands as a life to be patterned, with an absence of grumbling but a commitment to bring happiness and love to others.
    Valentine’s Day, Alice’s birthday, is all about love and giving love to others. Alice Vertle Rainey stands as a “Sweetheart” of expressing love, never seeking to receive love in return, but just loving others with all her heart.

Alice Rainey visiting with Edmund Gates, Jr. in the yard of the Rainey home.

Early Jobs of Edmund Gates, Sr.

   Edmund, Sr. came to Fairfax in the early 1900s and helped A.C. Hunsaker on plumbing jobs. In the book From a Field of Cane, The Early Years of Fairfax, Oklahoma 1903-1913, A.C. Hunsaker is identified as one of the early founders of Fairfax starting his long-running hardware, furniture, and undertaking businesses. Initially, these all operated out of the same building. Whether you needed a casket or gasket, you could get it from A.C. Hunsaker in the brand-spanking new town founded on February 16,1903! The forward-looking pioneers who had relocated from Gray Horse to this new government townsite would have kept Edmund, Sr. busy installing plumbing in their new homes and businesses.

   Edmund, Sr.’s cousin, Edith Gates Harrington, and her family had settled in Fairfax. Her husband A.C.--who coincidentally  had the same initials as Mr. Hunsaker, Grandpa's boss-- was installing acetylene lights. In the early 20^th century, streetlights and lights in buildings were often acetylene lights.
  In Edith's preteen years, Edmund, Sr. had been taken to her family's home from his own home where only sign language was used by his deaf parents.  For a period of time in Edmund, Sr.'s young life, in order to learn to speak, he had lived with Edith's family in Illinois. Edmund, Sr. seemed to have been influenced to come to the new town by his closeness to Edith. (My blog on December 1, 2013  Early Days of Edmund Gates, Sr. details the time Edmund, Sr. lived with Edith's family.)

Edith Gates Harrington and her husband, A.C. in

a photograph taken in 1936. Edith was a daughter

 of Edmund, Sr.'s uncle, Robert Bell Gates. Edith was

 seven years older than Edmund, Sr. She was born in

Woodbine, Illinois, in 1870.

  Edmund, Sr. evidently then headed back home to Kansas only to be once again disillusioned with a family farm partnership with his father, John Fredrick, and his brother, John. (See blog post of September 1, 2013, entitled He Was Paid for His Wheat in GOLD! to read of an earlier business disagreement with John.) My grandfather, Edmund, Sr. was driven to succeed and wanted to reinvest as much as possible in the family farm operation to increase productivity. John, his brother, wanted to sell cattle to buy a ring for his girlfriend, Ethel. Grandpa viewed this as a frivilous, extravagant, and totally impractical reason to sell livestock, and therefore a business move he could in no way support.

John Fredrick Gates, Jr., the only brother of Edmund, Sr.,

was born on September 12, 1882, in Mulberry, Kansas.

   Upset over John's decision, Edmund, Sr. went to Montrose, Colorado, to help dynamite out and build the Gunnison Tunnel. History shows this project took the lives of many men who built it. The Gunnison Tunnel was constructed from 1904-1909. He mentioned later to Edmund, Jr., my father, that he damaged his ears working on the Gunnison Tunnel. Evidently, Grandpa’s hearing impairment was not entirely due to heredity.

James Franklin Gates and His First Trip With the Big Boys to the Arkansas River

James Franklin Gates, a Memory in Honor of His 83rd Birthday

    Edmund Gates, Sr. and Mamie Irene Tripp Gates lived most of their 54 years of marriage on the Arkansas River on the west side of the Big Bend Community west of Ralston. Their children, especially their sons learned to love the river, primarily by hiking to the riverbank of their 95-acre farm located in Osage County in Oklahoma. Edmund Gates, Sr. taught his children from an early age to respect the river. He helped them learn the river was always more powerful than they were, and they must think any time they were near it or in it. When the boys became responsible enough to be trusted to go to the river unaccompanied by a parent, my grandmother, Mamie said she always began counting heads as soon as she could see them emerging from the river bottom. In my opinion, Grandma preferred the ponds that were later built on their place far more than the Arkansas River, but that’s a story for another day.
   One of the favorite stories of my father connected with the Arkansas River is about his brother, James Franklin Gates who was born on January 28, 1931. My father, Edmund Gates, Jr. turned 12 years old the following June of that year James Franklin was born.

William Herbert and James Franklin Gates- from the
collection of Lou Dixon Gates and Jeannie Spurgeon Gates

   Two years later in the summer of 1933, Dad age 14, and his brothers - Fredrick age 12 , Jess age 10, and Herbert age 5 were headed out on one of the most exciting outings possible on the farm in the summer – a trek to the Arkansas River for wading, swimming, and just on all-out good time. Little Jimmy, as they referred to their baby brother, began begging his mother to go with the big boys. Grandma, who feared the river more than respected it, was adamant that Little Jimmy was far too young to go to the river, but my father intervened for his baby brother, “Mom, let Little Jimmy go. I’ll look after him.” Evidently, Dad, the oldest living son, had shouldered much responsibility at a young age, having by this time four younger brothers, two older sisters, and a younger sister. He must have proven his trustworthiness to his mother over the years because she surprisingly agreed to let Little Jimmy go with the big boys.

   It is important to know my father looked little two-year-old Jimmy in the eye and with an tone exuding seriousness and sincerity, said, “Jimmy, you better do what I say, or you’ll never get to go to the river again with us.” Edmund grabbed his hand, and Jimmy walked with his big brothers to the river bottom.
   Once they arrived at the river, Dad found a safe, little pool for Jimmy to splash and play in the water. My father reiterated again, “Jimmy, stay right here and play. If you move, you’ll never come to the river with us again.” Little Jimmy obeyed perfectly. That was one of many fun-filled trips made by the brothers to the river bottom.

Jim and Edmund, Jr. in their childhood home in 1990

   One of the principals under whom I taught thought my father would have only needed a couple of weeks to shape up some of the students’ behavior. Based on this family story, Dad learned to be an effective disciplinarian early in his life. Uncle Jim learned early what he needed to do to spend time having fun with his brothers.
  I am still astounded that a 14-year-old would be willing to take on the responsibility for a little one as well as successfully get the two-year-old safely home. Even as a teen-ager, he worked seven days a week rarely getting time off to do activities like going to the river, yet was so unselfish and thoughtful of the wishes of his baby brother. How amazing that a little two-year-old was already so well trained that he could comprehend what was being expected of him by his mother and oldest brother and then even more unbelievable that he had the self-control to do it! I'm not sure that they make them like these two anymore!