| I was first introduced to the stories of Jessie Sluder Guffy when her daughter-in-law, Lois Guffy, posted one of them on the Rootsweb Mailing List, "Back to the Past." I admired it so much that I wrote to Lois, asking permission to post it to another list. "Yes," came the answer, "would you like to see any of the others?" "Others? Absolutely!" One after another, they arrived in my inbox, each more heartwarming than the one before. When Lois said they were not online, I hoped she would give me permission to make pages for them and I was thrilled when she did. I loved reading them and I was sure others would be interested in reading them, as well. Mrs. Guffy lived in Oklahoma, but these stories brought back memories of the stories my mother often told about life in Jefferson County, Mississippi, in the early years of the 20th century. I believe they will give wonderful insight into the lives of our ancestors, in any location in rural America during that time period. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. Nancy |
| The Stories of Jessie Ruth Sluder Guffy |
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| Jessie Sluder Guffy, 1912 |
| Jessie Sluder Guffy, 1909 |
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| Introduction to Stories by Lois Guffy Jessie Ruth Sluder was born on November 4, 1890, at Kingman, Kansas. On October 9, 1912, she married James Luther Guffy, at Enid, Oklahoma. Jim was born on October 12, 1889, in Beaver County, Oklahoma. Jessie died April 29, 1969 and Jim died March 21, 1966, at Cherokee, Oklahoma. Jessie and her parents moved to an abandoned farm that had been staked in the Cherokee Strip Run of 1893 in northern Alfalfa County, Oklahoma. She was the second of four children. She was the one who helped her father most until her baby brother was old enough to take over. When Jessie was 16 years old she took a test to become a teacher and scored the highest score in three counties. She taught for several years before she got married and started a family. Jessie and Jim moved to the Byron area soon after they married. They had 11 children, losing their eldest daughter at age 4. They raised the remaining 10 children on the family farm. Jessie was an old fashioned type lady who cooked and baked bread on a wood stove up until the day she died. She milked cows and raised chickens for eggs and meat, while Jim worked the farm. She raised a huge garden and canned vegetables and fruit from their small orchard for the large family. The only thing she purchased from a store were food staples and material for their clothes. She almost never missed a Sunday going to a little church some 3 miles away, taking her family brood with her. She loved to write and visit friends. She began writing short stories that were published in a local newspaper in the mid-1960's. The stories were copied and made into a booklet by her daughter-in-law, Lois Caywood Guffy, in 2003. Lois is the wife of Wayne, Jessie and Jim's 6th child. |
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