Friday Finds

Like many previous Friday Finds, today’s item comes from the notebook of BRILES items given to me by fellow researcher, Mildred Barby. This item is the obituary for Max M. Briles, author of a Briles genealogy.

Wednesday, July 24, 1985
The Coffey County Reporter page 7

Memorial services for Max M. Briles was held on Saturday, July 20 11:00 a.m. in The First Christian Church in LeRoy and were conducted by Rev. Aaron McCombs, assisted by Rev. Jay Scribner of Branson, Missouri and rev. John F. Briles of Visalia, California.

Virginia Burcham and Jane Rolf sang, “It is Well with My Soul,” and “Joy Comes in the Morning,” accompanied by Virginia Burcham.

Rev. Scribner read from II Timothy and I Corinthians 10:13. He left us with this theme to comfort and challenge us. Max was confident and committed to the Lord’s work and had a crown laid up for him which he would lay at the Saviour’s feet.

One of Max’s favorite scriptures was “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way of excape, that ye may be able to bear it.”

The casket bearer’s were: Jerry Murray; Dennis Crotts; Charles Nickel; Kerry Trostle, George Arnold and Ben Barabas. Interment was in the Crandall cemetery.

Max was born and reared in the Crandall Community and died at the Kansas University Medical Center July 17, 1985, at the age of 66 years, 11 months and 17 days. He left the community to work in the Boeing Defense Plant during the war. It was here he met and married Mildred Lucille Ross to which there were born 3 children; Gene, Diane and Wayne who passed away at the age of 16.

The family lived in San Bernardino, California where Max worked as a machinist in the Sante Fe Diesel Shops for 35 years. They built their home there, but sold it in 1978 upon Max’s retirement.

They spent several month traveling around the United States in their camper before deciding upon a home in Branson, just over-looking Lake Tanneycoma. It was a beautiful country but Max longed to come back to the community where he grey up as a boy.

About two and one-half years ago they bought the old Alexander Briles home in the Crandall area that has been vacant for many years. This was a challenge to renovate the old Briles family home, which had been his great-uncle’s.

Max was staunchly supported by his wife Mildred in this endeavor to make this their home. Just last winter they completed a big fireplace that heated the entire 2-story house.

But the greatest monument, he has left is in the hearts of the people. Many have been touched by his life. HIs talents seemed to have no limits, for as he gave himself to others his talents were increased over and over. He was a faithful Gideon, faithful to all the meetings and the giving away of God’s word. He loved his Lord first and never tired of telling those he met, what the Lord had done for him.

HIs contacts with people were many as a result of writing the Briles Genealogy, supported by Mildred. Because of religious persecution our forefathers left with 20 German Lutheran families in 1717. They came to England and because their supplies ran low; they became indenture servants in order to reach America. But because of a storm they came to the shores of Virginia instead of Pennsylvania. IN 1740 the Hebron Church in Virginia was built as a monument to their endeavor to their heroism. The church still stands and Mas and Mildred visited some relatives there in their travels. He was an enthusiastic vital person who felt life was more thrilling and fuller at 66 than all the previous passing eyars.

Those who are left to mourn his passing are his wife Mildred of the home; a son Gene and wife Jeanie of Loveland, Colorado and daughter Diane and husband Stan Jorgenson. There are three grandchildren, Becky and Eric Briles and Kimberly Jorgenson of Livermore, California.

The brother and sister who will greatly miss him are: Rev. John F. Briles, Visalia, California; Maybelle Harold, LeRoy, Kansas; Betty Langshaw, Kansas City, Missouri and Virginia Mitchell, Dewey, Oklahoma.

Mother’s Day

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom, Grandma and Great-Grandma

Hoover Mine

Do you ever search newspapers to see what was published about a surname in their state of residence? I know I wouldn’t try this broad of a search with many of my surnames, but some surnames, like Briles, are more unique. Wondering what I would find in North Carolina papers, I recently did such a search for my BRILES surname.

This search uncovered several articles of interest. For most of these finds, the multiple uses of a given name will make it difficult to determine who an article references. One article was about the leases for the Hoover Mine which listed a Noah Briles. I have no idea whether the Noah Briles in the article is the brother of my ancestor, Alexander Briles or not.

Gold Mines — The Randolph Herald give the following account of the

Hoover Mine

This mine is situa’ed about 12 miles west of this place, near the Uwharrie, and about two miles from the road leading to Salisbury. It was discovered in February, 1847, and operations were commenced in March following. Prior to this time, Mr. Hoover’s land, being considered of an ordinary quality, had been valued at $800. Cabins have been erected for the accommodation of the laborers. store-houses have been built and filled with goods, large quantities of ore have been taken out, and on every hand there are strong indications of enterprize. Numbers prompted by curiosity now visit the place; a considerable number make it their home, and at all hours of the day the sound of the hammer and pick is to be heard. Mr. Hoover, after having received about $1,200 in toll. (one seventh part of the gold realized.) has sold his entire interest to Messrs. Patten and Woodfin of Buncombe county for the sum of $18,000! Before the transfer, however the following leases have been granted for term of 20 years.

Briles’s Lease, in which Noah Briles, G. W. Floyd, A. M. Pugh, Nixon Henly, George Kinley and J. M. A. Drake, are now interested. — This lot was first worked by Mr. Briles, and has yielded large profits in proportions to the amount of labor bestowed. From 18 bushels of his best ore, he informs us, he realized 956 pennyweights in the amalgram state. The ore, he thinks on an average, will yield about 10 pennyweights per bushel.

A lease has also been taken by Messrs John Thomas, G. H. Lee and _____ Loften; one by Messrs. Ward, Pugh, Henly, B. F. Hoover, and J. T Boyd; one by Messrs Joseph Hoover, Sr., Wm. A. Prevo J. Pool, and William Rush; one by Messrs Allen Keerans, Alison Keerans, Penner Kesraus, Pennel Wood; another by Messrs. Noah Rush, Christopher Hill, and W. Hill; and tow others; one by Avery, Smith & Co., the other by Hawkins Carson & Co.

These leases, judging from the large sums that have been paid for many of them, are all yielding handsome profits, at least exhibiting the most flattering prospects. Which is most productive, is not for us to say, even if we knew. The fact, that about $60,000 have been invested here since the discovery of the mine, will give the reader a more correct idea of the estimation in which it is held, than any account that we could give.

There are fifteen cabins on the hill, two stores and two smith-[?]. Messers. Briles & Co. have two mills on Uwharrie, about two miles form the hill, constructed for the purpose of griding the ore, each of which grinds about 100 bushels per day. The ore is conveyed to these mills on wagons, at an expense of three cents per bushel. — Four good horses can draw 25 bushels, and four trips can be made during the day. Messrs. Avery & Co. are also making preparations for the construction of five mills, at a distance of 1/4 of a mile from the hill. Some of these are to be in operation in a short time. The several companies have large quantities of ore now ready for the mills.

The cost of grinding depends on teh quality of the ore; the ordinary ore costs from 10 to 12 1/2 cts per bushel, while very hard ore costs much more. It must all be completely pulberized, otherwise much gold will be lost.

Leases and interests have been selling here at high rates, and he who gets a place whereon to set his foot, must have the dollars.

Fayetteville Weekly Observer, 23 May 1848 on Newspapers.com

For more information about the Hoover Mine, see

• “Randolph County Gold,” The Greensboro Record (Greensboro, North Carolina). 4 Jan 1946 on Newspapers.com
• “Mr. Lee Briles and His Mining Property,” The High Point Enterprise (High Point, North Carolina). 28 Mar 1914 on Newspapers.com
• “Once-Famed Hoover Hill Gold Mine to Be Tapped,” Greensboro Daily News (Greensboro, North Carolina). 17 Dec 1945 on Newspapers.com
• “Sale of Valuable Real Estate,” Semi-Weekly Standard (Raleigh, North Carolina) 9 Dec 1862 on Newspapers.com
• “Rich Pay Dirt at the Old Hoover Hill Mine,” The Randolph Bulletin (Asheboro, North Carolina) 14 April 1915.
• Hoover Hill Mine on thediggings.com
• Gold (commodity) from Hoover Hill Mine, Asheboro, Randolph Co., North Carolina on minedat.org
• Developers sitting on a gold mine on Go Upstate
• The Workings of a Gold Mine
• Hoover’s Mill on Notes on the History of Randolph County, NC
• Gold Resources of North Carolina

Friday Finds

Below is an article in my notebook of ‘Briles’ information given to me by Mildred Barby. This is an interesting tale of a nighttime ride across the panhandle of Oklahoma.

The Southwest Daily Times (Liberal, KS)
Nov 17, 1966
page 10

Lon Briles, Now of Adams, Okla. Tells of Interesting Early Day Experience in Okla. Panhandle

Lon Briles, who came to this area in 1904, and who now lives in Adams, Okla., is writing a series of articles regarding interesting events which have occurred in his lifetime.
Mr. Briles was born near Neodesha, in Wilson County, Kansas, in 1885, his parents having been Rev. Nathan and Susan Briles. His mother, Rev. Susan Briles, was one of the founders of the South Church of God here, she having passed away over twenty years ago.
Mr. Briles tells of hardships he experienced as a young lad, having to work hard, and being homesick as only a young boy could be in a strange country among strange people.
His story includes the joys and heartaches of school days, financial stress, sickness and death in the family. There were better days, too. Memories of good times fishing, hunting, literaries, dancing and prairie music, tent meetings and many other exciting events with friends.
One interesting story has to do with his experience when he first came to this part of the country with a wagon train from southern Oklahoma, when he was nineteen.
He was too young to file on land that he wanted, but could contest the land that he had chosen to homestead. It was Beaver County Okla. then, now Texas County.
After coming all the way out here, he was told the situation of land laws. Just barely arriving and finding the land he wanted, he directly mounted a borrowed horse and rode all night to try and catch a friend who had started that morning to file for land in No-Man’s Land, at the land office in Woodward, Okla.
This friend, Elmer Vaughn, now of Liberal, was not only needed as a witness, but as moral support.
Young Briles trusted his horse to carry him safely through the night over this unfamiliar country. It was an exceptionally dark night, hardly a star to guide or light the way.
As they were riding along, the horse stopped abruptly and wouldn’t go any farther. Getting down on hands and knees and feeling his way, suddenly he sensed there was emptiness just a few feet beyond.
He decided he was on a high cliff. Standing there looking into the dark hollow, he wa bewildered and lost, because he had taken his eyes off the start that he had been following.
As he stared there in the blackness, he heard cattle bellowing near by, and then caught a glimpse of a light twinkling far below.
He called out in a loud voice hoping some one would hear him. A man appeared in his night shirt, lantern in hand. He called out his plight and the man called back, directing him to a deep worn wagon track which would bring him down from the cliff to his ranch.
He invited him to stay the night, saying he didn’t think he could make the journey in the night. But young Briles knew he must go on if there was a chance at all to catch his friend at Beaver City at sun-up.
He rode on hard, asking settlers along the way who lived in adobe houses and dug-outs if they had seen a man of the friend’s description. He found where the friend had mad camp that night, the embers still burning.
He was worn out from the long ride and the horse was badly wire-cut and worn out too. Doubt crept in his mind as to whether he would ever catch up with him at all.
He looked back as he heard some one calling. It was a stranger who had heard that he was trying to catch up with a friend, whom they had seen pass that way about an hour before.
He said, “Ride to that high hill over there and wait. He has gone down in that deep canyon and will have to come out not far from the hill. Your only chance to catch him is to try to call to him when he stops to open the gate.”
The hill was quite sizable now in the morning light. It was chilly and there wasn’t any wind, which would make it easier to be heard.
He rode on fast to the top of the hill over looking the canyon, getting there just in time, as he saw the wagon coming out of the canyon. He wondered what his friend would say when he saw him riding his horse, which was all lathered and ridden hard all night.
He called at the top of his lungs when Elmer got off his wagon to open the gate. It was sheer luck that he was able to make him hear. It was a happy reunion! A long and difficult journey still laid ahead, but with a lot of luck and willpower they managed to make the best of it.
Many events (there after) occurred in the life of Mr. riles.
He was married to Elsie Miller in Liberal in March 1907. She had come to this country as a young girl with her brother, Clyde Miller, who homesteaded in the Oklahoma Panhandle, when long horn cattle still had free range.
Mr. and Mrs. Briles were the parents of nine children, the first two having passed away very young. Mr. and Mrs. Briles retired form farming operations several years ago, and now reside in Adams, Okla.

Friday Finds

Continuing to dig thru my notebook of BRILES family info given to me by Mildred Barby, I found a photocopy of a ‘Mostly about People’ article written by Wally Trabing. This particular article titled, A Chat with Ray Briles, is like an oral history. Evidently Wally Trabing was a regular columnist in the Santa Cruz, California area. Fortunately, the Santa Cruz Public Libraries has a Local History page with links to 194 similar articles by Wally Trabing.

Unfortunately, I haven’t found a link to the Ray Briles article in the Wally Trabing collection. However, a simple ‘Ray Briles’ search on newspapers.com turned up the article in the 24 Nov 1981 issue of the Santa Cruz Sentinel.

Santa Cruz Sentinel
24 Nov 1981
page 5

“Mostly about People” by Wally Trabing

A Chat with Ray Briles

Ray Briles grew up in small towns in Kansas and came to another small town in California to live out his life — Santa Cruz. If you were around here when this burg was small (‘36), you probably came across the friendly five-foot-four man-about-town for he worked mostly in grocery stores — few of which exist now.
Lots of newcomers know him, too. He’s 67, belongs to all sorts of clubs and his trademark seems to be those packets of undersize U.S. coin replicas that he hands out. They are good for laughs, because you can tell people: “Look what happened to my money; inflation shrunk it!”
a fe of you, but just a few, may have heard of Scandia, Kansas. That’s where he was born. It’s in Republican County.
Ray went back there once tot ake one more look at the old house where he was born — as was his mother before him. But it’s failing now; mostly windowless and dark inside. It took care of a peck of livin’ in its day.
Ray’s dad got excited about the land rush in Florida back in ‘14 and took the family there, but it didn’t take.
“I think my mother got homesick and we went back,” Ray recalls. Later, Ray was to bring his mother ot California after he had settled here, but she was a Kansas girl through and through. He had to take her back home. Homesick.
During his sprouting years, Ray lived in Hutchinson and Syracuse, “’bout 17 mile from the Colorado border — that’d be just the other side of Dodge and Garden cities.”
The Depression years were looming. Ray and a buddy made their living capturing wild horses, breaking them and selling them for about $5 a head.
This buddy was his cousin, Fred Baker. He’s dead now — shot as a prison guard in Wyoming.
“Me and him lived in a sod shanty near the Colorado border. We’d scoot across and buy a gallon of whiskey for $1, then keep it under my bed in the shanty. Kansas was dry, y’know.”
“Because we were breakin’ horses anyway, we began ridin’ in rodeos for money. My specialty was ropin’ but I did some bull ridin’ too. IT was not like today. The bulls were brought in right off the pastures.”
Well it was the good life until the dust began, the big dust that caused the Dust Bowl.
“Those were awful times,” said Ray, cringing at the memory of it. “The sky’d become black. Dust covered the crops. I’ve saw horses chew on fence posts for food. The poor farmers’d cut up tumble week and put it up for hay.
Briles came out West because someone wanted a car delivered to a California town called Santa Cruz.
“I said I’d do it, but up to that time I’d only rode horses. Oh, I drove a bit of tractor. BUt I made it.” This was in ‘36.
It was duly noted, by me, that Ray has muscular hands, and for a reason. He milked a string of 26 Guernseys twice a day at the old Brown’s Bulb Ranch dairy for a long time.
He also did something very few people on this earth have done. He traveled to the World’s Fair on Treasure Island in the late ‘30s, with a prize string of milkfat cows from Brown’s and his job was to milk them there in front of EVERYBODY.
But most of his life was spent working in the local grocery stores. He first worked at a market called Two-Way Food Store that used to be on Pacific Avenue, between Maple and Laurel. Bill Wood was the manager. Briles made $2 a week.
However, Ray had a deal going. “I would sometimes take that 42 and go over to Chinatown on Front Street to one of the gambling dens. Roulette was my game.
“I would put small amounts on numbers not chosen by the big bettors and I seem to win a lot. I think the game was fixed and they were watching the big bettors. I usually came home with more money than I made at the store,” said Ray.
Briles worked for Purity Market for 15 years. He started in ‘46. It was located on Lincoln Street but it is no more. Ray remembered that it was manged by Cliff Meidinger. Ray also worked at Mid-Town Market, formerly Wilbanks’ Red & White Market, in Soquel. That building is now occupied by County Bank.
So then he went with Henry and Marge Stricker at the Shopping Baq in Soquel — now Dossett’s Fine Foods.
And then he retired. He keeps his blood whipped to a healthy frenzy by dancing. You name it and Ray will dance it — rock, fox trot. He even stomps at O.T. Price’s and to Dixie at the Dream Inn.
“When the Mrs. and I get to waltzing, folks sit back and wath. Me and NOra are real good waltzers.
He helps kids with coin collecting when he isn’t dancing. Ray knows some kids have to collect bit by bit from lack of funds.
He remembers like it was back in Kansas. He had a bike, but it came into being by buying second-hand parts bit by bit.
He’s been a go-getter through thick and thin.
“I came out of the Dust Bowl and then through the Depression and you know, I never once went on welfare.”

Friday Find

In my notebook of Briles items shared by Mildred Barby, is a photocopy of a funeral card for Richard E. Briles (1946-1967).

A search for an obituary in Liberal Kansas newspapers was not productive. However, broadening the search to Kansas uncovered several items related to the death of Richard E. Briles. The first was in the 20 April 1967 issue of The Wichita Eagle.

page 5

Man Killed in Wichita Auto Crash

A Wichita man was killed and his teen-age companion injured about 9:15 p.m. Wednesday in a one-car crash on the I-235 bypass near West Street.

Richard Earl Briles, 20, of 2804 E. Douglas, was pronounced dead on arrival at St. Francis Hospital shortly after the accident.

Briles was a passenger in a compact auto driven by John Hayworth, 18, of 2827 S. Elizabeth. Hayworth suffered a broken right leg and chest injuries.

Kansas Highway Patrol Trooper Rich Adams said Hayworth was going north on the bypass when he lost control of the car. The auto skidded on its wheels sideways down the road nearly 300 feet before entering and rolling several times in the medial strip.

Adams said Briles was thrown more than 130 feet beyond the car’s twisted wreckage.

Both Briles and Hayworth were employes of Gold Cross Ambulance Co., Wichita.

The fatality was the sixth in Wichita this year compared to 13 killed on city streets this time last year. A total of 13 persons have been killed this year in Sedgwick County.

On the 21st of April was an obituary for Richard Briles in The Wichita Eagle.

page 14A

Richard Briles, Victim of Crash, Services Pend

Services were pending Thursday for Richard E. Briles, 20, of 2804 E. Douglas, who was killed Wednesday night in a one-car crash in the I-235 bypass near West Street.

Born at Meade, Kan., he was a junior at Wichita State University and a dispatcher for Gold Cross Ambulance Co. He formerly worked for DeVorss-Gard Mortuary. He was a member of Liberal, Kan., Apostollic Church.

Survivors include his parents, Mr. and Mrs. William Briles, Liberal; a brother, the Rev. Ross, Modesto, Calif.; and two sisters, Mrs. Ted Simineo, Paonia, Colo., and Mrs. J.D. Ray, Anchorage, Alaska.

Campbell Funeral Home, Liberal, has charge.

Then on the 25th, a funeral notice appeared in The Wichita Eagle on page 20.

Briles – Richard E., age 20, of 2804 E. Douglas, Memorial services will be conducted at the Devorss-Gard chapel, 201 S. Hydraulic, at 2 p.m. Tuesday, April 25. The Rev. Dr. G. A. Gough, pastor of the First Nazarene church will officiate. Interment Liberal, Kans., cemetery.

A DeVorss-Gard Service

Friday Finds

Today’s find is another article in the notebook of Briles / Rush materials given to me by the late Mildred Barby. It is a photocopy of a clipping that likely came from a Kansas newspaper.

Unknown paper / date

Ernest Briles the Honoree As Kansas Editor of Year

Ernest Austin “Ernie” Briles, publisher of the Stafford Courier, today was named Kansas Editor of the Year.
The citation was made to Briles at a luncheon in the Kansas Union at Kansas University, in connection with the William Allen White Day activities.
Briles, 77, has been a newsman in Stafford County for 54 years since buying the Stafford County Republican, and consolidating it with its rival, the Courier, two years later.
He served six years in the Kansas House of Representatives, eight years in the state senate and for nearly nine years was chairman of the State Board of Social Welfare. He’s also a two-term mayor of Stafford.
John Conrad, editor of the Kiowa County Signal in Greensburg, made the announcement address at the award luncheon. He said Kansas ranked nearly last among the states in mental health programs when Briles began his service as chairman of the social welfare board. After eight years, Kansas ranked first.
“It was the greatest satisfaction of my life,” Briles said of his experience as chairman.
“If I have accomplished anything worthwhile for my fellow men,” Briles said in accepting the White award, “it has been in that field (government) rather than as editor. It is somewhat embarrassing to say this under these circumstances,” he added, “but I believe it to be the truth.”
Conrad, citing Briles’ service to his community and to the profession called him “a great Kansas editor in the full sense of the William Allen White tradition.
“Tell it like it is, they say today, but that is old hat to Ernie Briles, who has followed the beacon of absolute truth for all his 77 years.
“He is completely friendly and open — concealing nothing — and the truth has made him free. It has made him, too, a venerated editor of the White tradition.”
Accepting, Briles said:
“My desire has been to publish a good newspaper but never have I believed I could turn the world upside down with anything I might write.”
He said the first responsibility of a newspaper is “to publish the news of its own community. The short news items of the smaller newspapers may draw the scorn or contempt of the nationally known reporters, but they mean something to the home folks.”
Briles is a native of Coffey County and was born at Crandall, a town which no longer exists. He attended Campbell College at Holton, taught at Winchester High School in Jefferson County and served as an Army teacher in the Philippines for two years before going into the newspaper business in Stafford County.
Last year’s recipient of the award was Herbert A. Meyer Jr., of the Independence Reporter.
The first recipient, in 1954, was the late Charles M. Harger of the Abilene Reflector – Chronicle. Subsequent winners:
The late Will T. Beck, Holton Recorder, 1955; the late Fred W. Brinkerhoff, Pittsburg Headlight and Sun, 1856; Rolla A. Clymer, El Dorado Times, 1957; the late Angelo Scott, Iola Register, 1858; Dolph Simons, Lawrence Journal-World, 1959; Oscar S. Stauffer, Stauffer Publications in Topeka, 1960; Marcellus M. Murdock, Wichita Eagle and Beacon, 1961.
Daniel R. Anthony III, Leavenworth Times, 1962; Clyde Reed, Parsons Sun, 1963; Whitley Austin, Salina Journal, 1964; the late Drew McLaughlin Miami Publishing CO., Paola, 1965; Roy F. Bailey, former editor of the Salina Journal, 1966, and Mrs. Frank Boyd of Mankato, 1967. No award was made in 1968.

A search of Newspapers.com did not produce the above article. However, it pulled up several similar articles:

• “Briles Named Editor of Year,” The Manhattan Mercury (Manhattan, KS). 10 Feb 1970, page 3.
• “Stafford Man Named Kansas Editor of Year,” The Parsons, Kansas, Sun (Parson, KS). 10 Feb 1970, page 4.
• “Stafford Editor Honored,” The Wichita Eagle (Wichita, KS). 11 Feb 1970, page 9.
• “White Award to Stafford Editor,” The Wichita Beacon (Wichita, KS). 10 Feb 1970, page 3.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun

Calling all Genea-Musings Fans:

It’s Saturday Night again –

time for some more Genealogy Fun!!

Here is your assignment, should you decide to accept it (you ARE reading this, so I assume that you really want to play along – cue the Mission Impossible music!):

1) Check out Lisa Alzo’s “Fearless Females 2023” blog post prompts and write about one of them.

2)  Put it in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a Facebook post.  Please leave a link in a comment to this post.

Working girl: Did your mother or grandmother work outside the home? What did she do? Describe her occupation.

How many working women do you have in your family tree? While some might disagree, I consider all of my female ancestors to be ‘working women’. Today, many argue that being a ‘housewife’ should be classified as a job. Any many, including myself, would agree that there is a lot of work involved in keeping a house and raising a family. Thus, when one steps back in time to periods without many of our modern conveniences, my female ancestors worked even though they often did not receive payment for that work. Since many of my female ancestors were also farm wives, they acquired an added workload to help with the farm.

While most of my female ancestors did not receive payment for their work, I have a few that not only maintained a home but helped support the family financially.

• Roberta Crawford — For most of my childhood, my mother worked. City directories from Dodge City indicate that she worked as a stenographer for the Medical Center in 1958. When we moved to Lincoln, Nebraska, my mother’s full time job in a medical center was the primary source of income for the family since my dad had returned to college to work toward his doctorate degree. From Lincoln, we moved to Emporia where my mother took a short break from work. However, she returned to work joining the medical records staff at St. Mary’s Hospital. In 1973, she completed the requirements for certification as an Accredited Record Technician. In 1974, she was named as the director of the Medical Records department at St. Mary’s Hospital.

• Winnie Currey Crawford — My grandmother ‘left’ a children’s home to go to work in North Kansas City around the age of 13. She and her sister, Mary, lived with a cousin near where they worked. By the age of 16, Winnie was living in Dodge City, where she met and married my grandfather, Leon Crawford. During World War II, my grandmother became the operator of a ‘boarding house’. She rented out rooms to the wives of the pilots who were stationed at the Army air field to the West of Dodge City. Between 1953 and 1958, Winnie was employed by the Eckles Department Store in downtown Dodge City. Since Winnie and Leon lived close to the junior college in Dodge City, Winnie again turned her home into a boarding house during the school year, renting out rooms to male college students.
• Pauline Mentzer Briles — After the death of her husband in 1958, Pauline took on babysitting jobs to support herself.
• Mary Foster Crawford — Like my grandmother, Pauline, my great great grandmother Mary Foster Crawford found that she needed to support herself and her youngest son after the death of her husband in 1889. Thanks to the support of her brother-in-law, James H. Crawford, Mary Crawford was the owner of a boarding house at 911 Second in Dodge City. This house is the same one that her grandson’s wife, Winnie, would later live in when renting out rooms to college students.

Friday Find

Materials Firm Founder, Joseph Briles, Dies

Joseph L. Briles, 55, of 1027 Sequoia Avenue died yesterday at Moses Cone Hospital.

A native of Randolph County, he was founder, chairman of the board and general manager of Asheboro Concrete Products Co., Randleman Lumber Co. and Robbins Builder Supply Co.

He served in the Army Air Force in World War II, was a tail gunner for B25s, and flew 78 missions, received a Presidential citation, Distinguished Flying Cross, and Purple Heart.

HE was a member of the American Legion and disabled American Veterans, a Veteran of Foreign Wars, a member of the N.C. Concrete Masonry Association, and the National Asheboro Chamber of Commerce.

Surviving are his wife, Mrs. Mozelle Lucas Briles, daughter, Ms. Andrea Briles of Charlotte; son, Don Briles of Charlotte; brother, Raymond Briles of Franklinville, Fred Briles of Belews Creek, Rudolph Briles of Los Angeles, Calif., and Ernest Briles of West Covina, Calif.; and sister, Mrs. Lucille Rogers of Amarillo, Tex.

Funeral will be 4 p.m. tomorrow at Pugh Funeral Homes Chapel, with the Rev. R. L. Hughes officiating. Burial will be at Oaklawn Cemetery.

The family will be at the funeral home from 7 to 9 p.m. today.

Friday Finds

Mildred (Briles) Barby notes about Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Briles

Mr & Mrs Nathan Briles

Susan Belle Hatler married May 27, 1881, at LeRoy, Kans.
Nathan born ot Branson & Dorcus Briles May 29, 1864 in Randolph Co. N.C. (Must have been born in Kans.)
came to Kan. 1856 ?? His parents Branson & Dorcus came 1856 to Kans.
There is a mistake in the genealogy records.

Susan and Nathan were ordained ministers
Nathan orgained in 1919 Sept. 3
Susan ordained in 1923 at Clinton, Okla. Feb 17th

I can’t remember my Grandfather Nathan, but I do my Grandmother Susan. She was a Goldy woman and influenced my life, other grandchildren, neighbors & friends.
She died at age 78 yr after preaching her last sermon at Lamar, Col. Aug 24, 1944. She made the statement that she may go to to meet her Lord there in the meeting After her sermon, she left the rostrum, sat down, her head fell to one side — She had a stroke and died a few days later. The Southside Church of God was established during the latter years of 1920’s. She gave most of her money for the purchase of it, also preached one year without pay until they could afford a full time minister.
Her father, G. W. Hatler was a Methodist minister, teacher, Civil War Vet and at one time mayer of Baldwin, Kans. They lived at LeRoy, Kans. at one time.
Near Altoona he established the Hatler school, deed the Hatler Cemetery. His wife (Susan’s mother) was the first buried there 1870. Susan and her sister, Lou, were very young at the time.