1870-1936

At the age of 10, William Corbon Long, born on January 11, 1870, in Nevenville, Iowa, moved to central Kansas with his parents, John and Rachel Jane (Robinson) Long in the spring of 1880. The John Long biography tells of the move to Kansas and stories of the years living in Kansas.

INDIAN TERRITORY RUN OF 1889

In 1889, it was announced that the Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) would be open for settlement. Great grandfather John Long, who with his family was living in Ellsworth, Kansas, decided to make the run hoping his allergies would be less severe by moving south. He staked a claim east of Dover. My grandfather, Will, made the run with the family at the age of 19. [Adjoining the claim of the John Long Family, on the west, was the C. R. Lones Family, who had also just staked a claim in the run. The Lones Family had come from Harper County, Kansas.] Frank and Will Long, sons of John and Rachel Jane, became acquainted with Cora and May, daughters of C. R. Lones and they later married the sisters.

CHEROKEE STRIP OPEN 1893

When the Cherokee Strip opened in 1893, Joe, Frank, and Will Long, all sons of John and Rachel Long, staked claims about one mile south of the Oklahoma/Kansas line, and five miles east of Manchester. The legal description of the W. C. Long claim was NW /4, Sec. 22, Twn. 29N, Range 7 W, of the Indian Meridian. At this time, Will is 23 years old and a single man.

The Homestead Proof — Testimony of Claimant document for Will’s claim shows that he is William C. Long, age 30, of Manchester, Okla. and that he was born in Iowa.

He built his house and established a residence on March 5, 1894. The first house was a sod house 14x16 with one door and one window. Then he added a frame house 14x24, barn, granary, hen house, shed, well, orchard and 84 acres fenced. Value of $700. He had a wife and two children. He was absent from the claim about three months in 1894 and two months in 1895 at work with threshing machine. He had raised crops for seven seasons. The land is ordinary agriculture land for farming.

The receiver's Duplicate Receipt #1074 in the Receiver's Office; Enid, O. T. (Oklahoma Territory), shows the claim filed on September 29, 1893 consisting of 160 acres. On the 25th day of June 1901 the patent was recorded in the Oklahoma Land Office, Vol. 47, page 461. This claim was the home of Will and May for most of the remainder of their lives.

WILL AND KOTELLA MAY’S FAMILY

Will and Kotella May Lones, my grandparents, married on May 2, 1894 and moved to Anthony, Kansas to live with her parents who had moved back from Indian Territory to Harper County Kansas in 1892. [It was told that Rebecca, wife of C. R. Lones, was lonely for family and wanted to move back to Kansas.]

On December 30, 1894, Hazel, Will and Kotella May's firstborn was a premature baby who lived only six days and was buried at Bluff City, Kansas because there was no cemetery at Manchester. The second child, Charles, was born at the C. R. Lones’ farm in Harper County Kansas on August 25, 1896. Next to arrive was William, who was born on the claim east of Manchester January 1, 1899 -- this was an indication that Will had established a home (a one room clapboard house) on the claim. Clyde was born May 25, 1901. About this time they had prospered sufficiently and built a fairly large two- room house. In the spring of 1903, they added a dining room and kitchen on the east side of the house. Lloyd was born on December 23, 1903, and it was evidently a severe winter as Clyde died of Membranous Croup and a bad heart six days following Lloyd’s birth. Next to arrive was Lois Edith on December 8, 1906 -- Lloyd had trouble pronouncing her name! Don David was born on September 1, 1914 -- he kept everyone busy!!!

FARMING

Will's first wheat crop was a failure; he had to mortgage his team and wagon to purchase seed for his second crop. Many ridiculed him for not planting corn. He felt that if Grant County land would not raise wheat the farmers were in trouble. Corn was selling for less that ten cents per bushel and had to be piled on the ground. His second wheat crop made 50 bushels to the acre.

Will was among the first to use a combine for harvesting his wheat. In 1919 he combined a load of wheat and took it to the mill in Manchester where it was made into flour. He and his family enjoyed biscuits for supper from the same wheat that had been standing in the field that morning.

In the early years, he had a stud farm where he kept a Percheon horse and a Jack for breeding purposes. He attended breeding school in Kansas City and studied new methods of artificial insemination that he later used very successfully. In one day, 18 mares were bred by this method.

Will started a herd of Registered Hereford cattle in 1922 and built one of the first upright silos in the area.

COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES

Will was active in the community. He served on the Victor School Board and took an active part in the community church that met at the Meikle schoolhouse. He was charter member of the local Farmer's Cooperative (1903) and was president of the Farmer's Grain and Supply in Gibbon in 1907.

Memorial Day in Bluff City, Kansas was an exciting event for the entire family. The Governor of Kansas was the speaker and hundreds of people came each year in buggies, wagons, and carriages to the festivities. One particular Memorial Day (about 1910-1912), Will did not want to go home until dark -- which was unusual. None of the family could figure out why. They had purchased a new surrey and finally when it was getting dark they headed for home. When the family was about 6 miles out of Bluff City, Will stopped the surrey and lighted candles in brass holders on the side of the buggy. This was a real treat as they rode home by the light of the candles and Will was very proud!

Will was active in Odd Fellows (charter member -1903), Masonic Lodge and the Grange. He was usually responsible for collecting money throughout the community for people in distress and was known as the 'peace maker' -- serving as arbitrator in disputes that arose in the community. As an example: On June 4, 1907, Will collected $178 for the

A. Slaughter family who had lost their home in a recent fire. He started the fund by giving $25; then the bank gave $25 and the neighbors pitched in the remainder. 

FARM AND HOME DEVELOPMENT

Considerable progress had been made on the farm and a quarter section of School Land was being leased or rented. A drive-thru barn/granary was built and there was a large cattle/horse barn with a hay loft and wheat and corn bins. Also, a chicken house, cistern and two wells with windmills were added. A fruit orchard and various other trees were planted on the farm.

In the fall of 1913 or spring of 1914, the house was completely re-built. The first two- room house was sold to Mel Allen and it was replaced with a large parlor and a bedroom. Then a second floor was built above this -- adding four bedrooms.

About 1912, Will bought his first car, a Flanders EMF which later became the Studebaker Company. Around 1915 Will bought his first Ford, a Model T Touring car.

New farm machinery was added and farming was diversified; they broke ground to plant corn which was stored in the silo to feed out the cattle. The grain from the wheat usually provided the income; straw provided the stuffing for the mattresses. Hogs were raised but principally for food; cows provided milk and butter; chickens were raised to eat and provide eggs and their feathers were used to stuff pillows. A large garden plus a five acre orchard added to 'living off the land.’

Lloyd explains “when cold weather came in the fall, we would butcher hogs, which was an all day affair. Women would clean the entrails (intestines) that would be used later on that night to stuff with sausage. Usually, we would butcher 5 to 8 hogs, letting them cool out to be smoked, or the next day sugar cure would be applied. Some people used dry salt. The next day when the hogs were cut up, they would take the trimmings and lean pieces to be used in sausage. After grinding and mixing the proper seasonings with the meat, we were ready to test by frying some cakes. If they are okay, we would start stuffing the sausage in the casings cleaned earlier. Uncle Clem always worked together with dad who would always go about and twist the casing, making curves like chicken necks. These casings of sausage would be stored in crocks or containers by pouring lard over them after they were cooked. These could be used anytime during the next six months or until the lard would become rancid (strong).

The liver and heart had to be used as soon as possible because there was no way to keep it except by cooking. We would also kill four steers each year. We had what we called a Killing Ring. Four families would feed out the steers to be killed at different times and usually we would kill one as soon as cool weather arrived in the fall. Each of the families would take a quarter of the steer and would rotate quarters at each killing — hind or front quarters. Thus, about every month, we would have a fresh quarter of beef

hanging in the garage to cool out, and fresh meat for the table. Each family tried to have a good calf, weighing about 1000 pounds but corrections were never made if one calf was lighter than the others — even though we weighed each quarter. If the weather turned off warm, we would cook the meat and can it in the pressure cooker in glass jars.

In the Fall of the year, dad would take the wagon to Belle Plains, Kansas, (Southeast of Wichita) to buy a load of apples. When he returned home, he would divide the apples with the neighbors of the community. We would make a place to store ours by putting prairie hay in a 3-4 foot hole in the ground, put the apples on the hay, and cover them with more hay, and finally cover them with dirt deep enough so that they would not freeze.

We raised our own pears and we would pick them while still partially green, wrap them in paper, and bury them in the oat grain in the granary. If we had a good crop of turnips, we would always bury them as we did the apples. We had fresh turnips and apples most of the winter.

The potatoes were stored in the cellar in tins with open bottoms so that the air could pass through. We bought very few potatoes and many times we would use the leftovers for seed potatoes the next spring.” (end of Lloyd Long’s comments)

CHILDREN'S EDUCATION

All the children walked 1 1/2 miles to grade school at Victor #10, except in bad weather when a horse and buggy were used. Charlie went three years to high school at Gibbon but graduated from Wakita. Bill went the first year with Charlie at Gibbon and his second year with Charlie -- on a 1914 Harley motorcycle. Charlie graduated in 1915. The last two years, Bill rode his motorcycle (also a 1914 Harley) to Manchester. Lloyd went one year to Manchester and 3 years to Wakita -- Lois spending all four years of high school at Wakita and Don four years at Manchester.

LAST FEW YEARS

After over 30 years on the farm, Will and May decided to retire and move into town and turn the operation over to Lloyd. It was 1929 and May's health was not good so they rented a house in Manchester. Doctors decided in early 1931 that May had leukemia and she died on October 4, 1931.

Will, with time on his hands, decided to run for County Commissioner and was elected. This was during the "Great Depression", so Will had a lot of welfare people to care for,

as well as the other county work. During this time -- in summer -- Will went to one lady's home to see how she was doing, and she answered the door with her winter coat on. Upon questioning her, he learned that it was all that she had to wear; Will went to town and bought her some clothing.

Will was diagnosed as having stomach cancer at Mayo Clinic. He had surgery in Enid, Oklahoma. He served as County Commissioner until his death on December 23, 1936 at the age of 66 years, 11 months and 12 days. He was buried at Manchester, Oklahoma.

The following comments were in his obituaries.

“Long was one of the Counties best known residents and probably no other one person had as much of the burden of responsibility in the operation of the County affairs during this past year as he did.” “During his lifetime he was always striving to help others. His loved ones and all who knew him will recall the tireless energy he experienced in serving others. Mr. Long was a man of principle and gauged all his decisions after careful consideration, by the simple standard of ‘right and wrong.’”

POST SCRIPT

Lloyd Long shared the following about his folks. “Mom and dad were prim. Dad taught me responsibility and that my word was my bond. I never knew my dad to take advantage of anyone in a trade or sale. If he said that he would do something, you could bet that his word was the answer and that it would happen. I can recall how dad sold a team of horses to his brother, knowing that they could never be paid for. When J. C. Long’s best team of horses broke into a wheat granary and died, dad replaced them and I never recall that he was paid — which was okay with dad.

Dad was always one to take up a collection for people in need. You would have thought he was the richest man in the area — money wise, no — but friends, yes. Dad was always active in the church work and was admired and respected by church officials.”

Of his mother, Lloyd  told “Mother was the one who taught me to tithe. She had a sugar bowl on the clock mantle and that was where she put the money she got from selling eggs and cream. I never knew it to be empty for any length of time — even when eggs could be bought for less than 15 cents per dozen. When there was a need, the money was there.

As a grade school child, when I got home from school, I could smell fresh bread. I would look around but mother was no where to be found, so I proceeded to cut off the crust end of the newly made bread. I would dip the bread into a bowl of milk — only cream would stay on the bread — then add a little sugar and hmmmmmmmmm! I’d run out of the house with my ‘refreshments’, and she would almost catch me. But the game was her hiding and catching me, then make me think that I was getting away with the fresh bread and cream. It was a cat and mouse game, but she always saw to it that I never got caught.”

Kotella May served in all phases of church work, as well, being active in County Home Demonstration Club (now Home Extension Club). She was one of the first in the area to have a pressure cooker which enabled her to preserve all of the vegetables and meat for the table. She also served as mid-wife to many women in the community and found time to be active in the Rebecca's, Eastern Star, and the Grange.

This progressive family was one of the first to have electric lights -- using a 32 Volt Delco battery system. The Delco battery system replaced a carbine gas light system and wind charger (which was used to charge the batteries for the radio.) All of this was very modern and sophisticated in it’s day but soon the R.E.A. (Rural Electric Association) replaced the Delco battery system.

According to the "Finance Account and Petition for Distribution" Case number 446, the estate of William Corbon Long, at the time of death on December 23, 1936, was $17,984.55. [The buying power of Will’s estate of $17,984.55 in 1936 would be equivalent to the buying power of $306,789.66 in 2016.]

* Almost always Will signed his name William C. or W. C. Long. Only two times have I seen his middle name spelled out. His will was entirely written in his cursive hand. It started, ‘I William Corbon Long’ and was signed, ‘William Corbon Long’. The will was dated December 7, 1936. The other time was when W. H. Long, my Uncle Bill, prepared genealogy documents which listed Will’s name as William Corbon Long.

Researched and written by Elizabeth Long Palmer (granddaughter) last edited April 15, 2016 For further information about this family you may contact: Elizabeth Long Palmer at elizabeth@vom.com or Stacia Long Glavas at stacia.glavas@gmail.com