1979 article about Etta Stewart Brown and her husband Wiley Brown
The Healdton Herald
Healdton, Carter County, Oklahoma
Old Timer weekly series written by HELEN HEDGEPATH of the Herald staff.
March 1, 1979
Browns Here Before Oklahoma Was State
This week we have two old timers who have been truly around for many years. They have owned and lived in the same house for over 64 years. This week we salute WILEY A. and his wife ETTA STEWART BROWN as our Old Timers of the Week.
WILEY AUGUSTUS BROWN was born February 7, 1892 6 miles east of Madill on Little Glasses Creek. His parents were ZACHARIAH A. and LILLIE JONES BROWN. Zachariah was from Georgia and Lillie was born at Scullyville, Indian Territory. The older Browns were married 1891 at Denison, Texas. Wiley is the oldest of seven children. The other children are HENRY (deceased) who lived at Sulphur; ZORA LEWIS at Apache; ALONZO died in infancy; ARTHUR who lives at Healdton; LEATHA of Elisnora, Missouri, and GRACE BARBOUR of Healdton.
The older Browns were farmers and came to Indian Territory in the late 1880’s. Wiley told of attending school near Madill where child paid tuition, only means of paying the teachers. He showed me a booklet from the GRANTHAM School northeast of Madill, for the 1902-03 term. The booklet lists all the students and the cover has a picture of the teacher, EDGAR P. HANEY. He received the booklet as a prize for winning a spelling bee.
I asked why his folks moved here. He told his father wanted to buy some land and so much of the land around Madill and Tishomingo was Indian land. He heard that GRANDPA CHASE (grandfather of EMMITT CHASE) had some land here that he might sell. However they ended up buying 80 acres from GROVER CHASE, father of Emmitt Chase. They bought the land in the spring of 1906. They dug a well and hauled lumber from Ardmore to build a house on the land. They gathered their fall crops near Madill and moved to their new home December 12. Their farm was located two miles north and 1 ¼ miles west of Healdton, just a half mile from where the Wiley Browns now live.
He told that the children attended school at old Chagris and the Staunton schools. It was later he met a neighbor girl, ETTA STEWART, who became his wife. She was born Sept. 7, 1897 near Springer. Her parents were LOUIS and SARAH TEMPLE STEWART. She had brothers, DAVID H. (husband of MAUDIE STEWART), THOMAS (husband of CARRIE STEWART), NEWT, and sisters, ALLIE PAGE, ORA STEPHENSON FANNIN and EMMA EMBERLING / EMBERLIN. Etta is the only one living.
She told of moving northwest of Healdton as a small child and attended the Buckhorn school where they had benches made of split logs. Later the new Buckhorn school was built. She also attended school at Staunton. They first met at the Staunton school, they thought it was a church meeting. They went together about 1 ½ years, but replied there was not much to do or go in those days.
In the fall of 1913, Wiley built a house on the land he owned just west of where his folks lived. On October 25, 1914, they married. He got his marriage license from Mr. TYSON at old Cornish. I asked why old Cornish? He told that he took a bale of cotton to the gin there, and while he was waiting, walked over and got the license. Etta wanted to wait until Sunday to be married. Sunday afternoon, they got into a surrey with her sister ALLIE, his sister ZORA, and Allie’s boy friend, ED MOORE, and drove to the Jefferson County line and were married by a Church of Christ preacher. They ate supper that evening with the AARON DUNNS (parents of R. A. DUNN) then went to a singing at Staunton.
Wiley told that over the years he acquired more land and raised cotton, corn, oats, and always had horses and mules. I asked if he had cattle, and he said beef was so cheap, they did not even pay for their feed. During the Depression, the government paid the farmers $7 for each yearling killed. He said they always had plenty of cured meat. One year they rendered out 40 gallons of lard and had 1 ½ bushels of shelled pop corn.
Wiley and Etta had six children. ARLO, the oldest, was killed in July 1937 in an explosion at GALOOB’S pipe yard. Brown said he and his son went to the pipe yard to get a piece for a plow; SAM GALOOB and two men were working in the yard. One man was using a cutting torch. They were never exactly sure what caused the explosion, but it could have been cutting into used pipe filled with some kind of explosive. ARTO was killed and Wiley was hospitalized eight days. Their other children are WILEY of Healdton; NAOMI (Mrs. ERNEST) PORTER of Borger, Texas; VALA MAE (Mrs. HAROLD) ROBINSON of Lawton; IZETTA (Mrs. RICHARD) BRAWLEY of Lawton; LELA (Mrs. CLINTON) MAULDIN of Healdton. They have 12 grandchildren: NORMA CARTER’S daughters, CHARLOTTE HOGAN and JANICE of Borger, Texas; VALA’S children, CHARLENE BLONGREEN of Parson, Kansas, WILEY FRANKLIN ROBINSON near Boise City; IZETTA’S three, DANNY, CINDY, and DAVID PORTER of Lawton; LELA’S children, NORMA JEAN MARKHAM of Amarillo, CAROL ANN JOHNSON of Lawton, BARBARA MAUDLIN who is attending East Central, MARY and HELEN MAULDIN of the home.
Wiley told that he and Etta worked hard all their lives. He guessed he had baled thousands and thousands of bales of hay. He cut grain all over the county and threshed many bushels of peanuts. She said that he built her a cellar about 1918 and she always kept it full of canned vegetables and fruits….He still drives a 1949 green Chevrolet pickup that he bought new, still with the original paint and in the 67,000 miles since he bought it, only put on one set of new “casings.” He did say the children were never allowed to drive his car. She replied that he wouldn’t even allow her to drive it! … we will look for Wiley next year at the annual Pecan Show which he always enters and wins with his native pecan exhibit