Remembering the Three Edmunds on Father's Day

             As a child, June was always the birthday month celebrating the two Edmunds in our family. Dad, Edmund, Jr., was born on June 15. My grandpa, Edmund, Sr., was born on June 16. Grandpa was almost 42 years old when Dad was born in the Bend on their farm located on the Arkansas River. My grandparents had purchased the small farm just two years before Dad’s birth.

          Grandpa had been born in Girard, Kansas in 1877. Grandpa was the first-born child of my great grandparents, John Fredrick and Elizabeth Studebaker Gates, both deaf. Grandpa’s first language was American Sign Language. https://bernadeanjgates.blogspot.com/2022/06/the-first-language-of-edmund-gates-sr.html

          The first Edmund Gates known in our family history was born on May 15, 1805, according to a contribution by his wife, Passingfair Shore Gates in History of Jo Daviess County, Illinois.

The First Edmund - born 1805

          Edmund was born in Iredell County of North Carolina, to Joseph and Elender Traylor Gates in 1805. He married Passingfair Shore in 1828 in Morgan County, Illinois, about 30 miles west of Springfield, Illinois. They settled on a claim in Jo Daviess County in the northwest corner of Illinois. The north Jo Daviess County line borders Wisconsin while its west county line bumps up to Iowa.

          The will of Joseph Gates, the first Edmund’s father, was proved on June 24, 1851, with his wife receiving one-third of his real estate and personal property. The remaining two-thirds of Joseph’s holdings were bequeathed to his son, Edmund.

          The other four descendants living were left one dollar. At first glance, based on the insistence on equity in the 21^st century, Edmund’s will written in the 1850s smacked with unfairness.

          Upon a brief, further investigation, the three of the four adult children, beside Edmund, listed had already relocated to Macon, Missouri, and were doing well in their own right at the time of their father’s death.

Edmund Gates, Sr.  - born 1877

          Edmund and Passingfair’s youngest child, John Fredrick, was around 11 years old when his Grandpa Joseph died leaving the bulk of his assets to John’s father. On June 16, 1877, when John Fredrick’s wife, Elizabeth Studebaker Gates gave birth to their first child in their Kansas home, they named him Edmund after John’s father, Edmund, who had died 2 years earlier in Illinois.

          Edmund, Sr., my grandpa, relocated to the Bend, leasing land until he purchased the Gates farm in 1917. It reached centennial status in 2017 when it marked the 100th year it had been in the Gates family. My Aunt Lou Gates lives on the farm. Her son, Tim Gates, owns this landmark farm.

           In 1919, my father was born on that farm on June 15. Grandpa immediately chose to give my father his name since my father was born only one day prior to his own birthday.

Edmund Gates, Jr. - born 1919

          The meaning of the name Edmund is “prosperous protector” or “happy defender.” The first two Edmunds seemed to fit the first meaning, but my own father was the epitome of a happy defender of our family and all he held dear – his loved ones, his rural way of life, his country for which he served in World War II, and his strong spiritual beliefs grounded in God’s Word.

The father of the [uncompromisingly] righteous (the upright, in right standing with God) shall greatly rejoice, and he who becomes the father of a wise child shall have joy in him. Proverbs 23:24 Amplified Bible – Classic Edition

Led But Not Exactly Following

          Recently, I moved, prepared, and filled the various types of block pans for the cattle. We were planning to allow them grazing privileges in the north pasture.

          After accomplishing all I wanted to do before turning the cattle in the north area, I called them. A couple of cows mooed in answer. I was pretty sure they were preoccupied with grazing the lush green grass that God had blessed us with this spring season.

Some of Mother's herd grazing. Only GSBG (Grand Sir's Baby Girl) looked
at me. She received her name upon being born as the final calf sired by Grand Sir.
Grand Sir was Dad's last bull whose favorite place to graze was the north side of
Big Bend Road outside the fence.

          I drove closer to the herd and parked on a rise. I called the cattle a couple of times with my voice and tapped the horn. A couple began coming. Soon most of the herd were following.

          Then almost as if a light bulb lit up for them, they moved past the truck. I slowed because they had missed the gate. They went straight to the spot where the block pans were. The only problem the fence separated them from the blocks they so wanted.

          I continued moving slowly toward the gate. I inched the truck through the opening and drove in the north pasture almost parallel with the area where the block pans were positioned.

          The cattle took a lick or two of the blocks and headed toward the new grassy pasture. The final one through the gate – a little steer – kicked up his hind hooves as if to signal, I think I’ll like it here!

          Frequently, we are like the cows who eagerly followed the truck, until they spotted the blocks. Don’t we often follow the Lord carefully until we see our prayers in sight? Just like the cattle, we head straight for our desires instead of following the Lord’s slower, sometime meandering, but meticulous leading to get us positioned for the very best for us. The detour we choose to take usually costs us time, delaying receiving our desires, and sometimes resulting in disappointment until we follow the Lord’s leading.

         Let’s obey God’s Voice recorded by the Prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 48:17:

Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, The Holy One of Israel: “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way you should go.

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.