I, Golda (Davidson) Stephens, was born March 31, 1894 in Tarrant County, near Fort Worth, Texas. My father had a dairy farm. My parents had fifteen children, but only reared eight to be grown; this was seven girls and one boy. My brother, Theodore (Ted) was just 17 months older than me; we were like twins, where ever you would see one the other would be near. When we were old enough to go to school, Ted and I carried our lunch together. In those days children carried their lunch in buckets, it is all so different today, and it makes you laugh.

In those days there were no swimming pools, we would find a place not too deep in the creek for a "swimming hole" we called it. I almost drowned in one when my older sister, Ora, pulled me out.

We always lived on a farm, had chickens, turkey, geese, horses, cows, and hogs. We never had to buy lard or meat as we raised it. When we went for groceries our main buy was flour, sugar, salt, soda, baking powder, and coffee. We never thought of buying milk, lard or canned vegetables and fruit. We did our own canning at home. We also made jellies of all kinds. We raised corn, shucked it, shelled it and carried it to the mill in town to be ground for corn meal for our cornbread. We never thought of buying a loaf of bread as our mother baked light bread three times a week. For breakfast we always had hot biscuits. We never thought of skipping breakfast, mother made biscuits, fried bacon, eggs, and homemade butter and jelly and milk. She cooked three good meals a day, unless in the hot summer when we had a cold supper.

When I was eight years old, Ted and I were scuffling and fell back on my left arm, broke my wrist. We lived five miles from town, my father wanted to set my arm but I screamed for him not to touch that arm, so, Georgia’s husband, Sol Ward, got on the horse and went for the doctor. The doctor had to come out in a buggy to set my arm. He put splints on it after he padded both sides with cotton. The splints were like shingles on top of the house. Now that Doc. only charged $2.00 for that five mile out and back—he sure didn’t get rich. I had to wear those splints six to eight weeks. That slowed me down being a Tom Boy. But I soon got over it. My brother and I rode all the cows and calves. The day we were in the pen riding, I was running to catch a calf to ride, stumped my little toe on a rock and broke it. I suffered some time with that but kept on riding.

We left Texas in November 1904, moved to Indian Territory, which is now Oklahoma. It became a state in 1907. Our first school in Indian Territory was a one room log cabin. It set right in front of a cemetery. My mother and we children had never seen an Indian until we crossed the Red River out of Texas into Indian Territory. We felt afraid of them as so many tales had been told of them scalping the white people. We moved from Texas with two covered wagons, one buggy with one horse hitched to it, one saddle pony and seven milk cows. One of us rode the pony at all times to drive the cows. We would camp at night. We had a tent about fourteen square feet to set up. Our dad would tear up a bale of hay and put it all over the ground inside the tent. On this we put big feather beds. Those beds lay good for we never had been used to bed springs. We got our first bed springs when we moved into the house or cabin we were to live in. We had shipped our bedsteads, organ and things. It was December 1904 when they arrived and we got our first bed springs. Our house was one big log room with a fire place. It was made of sticks and clay (the top part) then the rest was made of rocks and clay.

My dad’s brother was with us, that made ten of us….back to our cabin, we had a side room on two sides of this big log room, one we used for a kitchen, the other side room had two beds in it. We also had two beds in the big room. I know this sounds a terrible way to live, but we were all happy. We didn’t know any better.

Of course, we hadn’t lived in Indian Territory long when I fell off a horse and hurt my back. It had always hurt me. That’s what I got for being a Tom Boy.

We raised corn, cotton, wheat and oats. I liked to pick cotton, but did not like to chop cotton. I’ve picked as much as 300 pounds in a day. We burned wood in our stoves, so with only one boy all we girls were like boys, we could saw wood as well as any boy, also use the axe. I sure could split wood. I’ve even harnessed the horses to the wagon, went to the woods alone to cut me a load of wood. Some places we lived we also had to haul our drinking water. We girls did that, too, and thought nothing of it.

There was just one thing I couldn’t do and that was strip cane and shock wheat and oats. It would make me sick so I would have to drive the team hauling it, as I couldn’t work in it any other way. We girls helped pick cotton and corn just like boys. We raised sugar cane to make our sorghum. My dad owned a sorghum mill. It was run by two horses hooked to a lever out on one side. I’ve driven those horses until I was tired out. We not only made our sorghum, but made everybody’s in the community. Of course, we got paid for making other peoples.

When we left Texas we had a ten gallon can of sorghum to break in the bottom of a wagon and we lost about two gallons of sorghum. What a mess! Our dad found jugs enough to save most of it. I remember after we were over in Indian Territory we had to cross a creek of running water with lots of rocks. In those days we all wore long handles; our underwear was cotton with long legs and long sleeves. I tried to walk across the stream on rocks, I had my little three year old sister Ira with me----so, when I fell in I took her with me. We were soaking wet and it was freezing cold. Mother had to get back in the wagon and dig us out clothes from the skin out. (The clothes were in big trunks in the wagon.) She didn’t whip me but I’d rather she had as to have scolded me so. Well, I tried to behave from then on.

I’ll never forget on November 10, 1904 we drove up to this place we were to live in. We had better farm houses in Texas than they did in Indian Territory. There was that three room house, not a window in it. And our lights were kerosene lamps and lanterns. But we were there a short time when our landlord came in and mother let him know we had to have windows. He said tell Papa to get everything he needed and put them in and give him the bill. That was better.

The Indians all walked to town and a string of them would pas through our yard. We all ran into the house when we saw them. The Indian men wore their hair in long braids same as the women did. The women wore a blanket pinned around waist for a skirt and another one around their shoulders for a cape. I ended up marrying a man who had Indian blood in him. December 6, 1916, I married Albert Lindsey Stephens. He was the best looking man in the community and the best. He and I had three boys and girls.

Back to my school days---I have walked two miles to school. Our school days when I first started to school at six, we only had a one room school house for the rural schools, and only went three months out of the year. You would be surprised to see what our schools looked like. Then later we began to have school six months out of the year and we were happy. I always liked school. At first we only had reading, writing, arithmetic and spelling. We studied hard for we had such short school terms, then finally they consolidated the schools, had buses to ride—had larger schools, and nine month terms. The last school I attended was a nine month term.

On Sundays we got up, got ready to go to Sunday school and church. My dad would put the team to the wagon. He and mother rode in front on the spring seat. We kids all rode in the back, some times we would pick up neighbors and all go to church. Most every Sunday someone went home with us for dinner. I’ve known as many as forty to eat with us on Sunday, including our family. We always felt the more the merrier. Lots of folks would stay with us for the night meal, we would milk the cows then all go to church that night.

Our family went fishing a lot. Mother would cook good things. We would go to fish fries, be gone a couple of days, and have lots of fun as there were a lot of other people there. I fell in the river once, almost drowned, but when I came up I grabbed a sprout growing out of the bank and pulled myself out.