Notizen zu dieser Person
From the "Life Story as Told by Louis Samuel Waddell" by Rose Marie McCluskey:
On the fourteenth day of March 1897, a young minister by the name of John Sprague joined together in marriage, Samuel Waddell and Sarah Catherine Ammons. This marriage took place in the city of Chilicarthe, County of Livingston, State of Missouri. This was the marriage of my mother and father.
Three years later, my brother Jesse Robert Waddell was born to the Minthe Indian Territory of the state that is now called Oklahoma, on the nineteenth day of July 1900. Jesse was born in a coal-mining town called Colgate.
Four years later, on the twenty eighth day of December 1904, I was born in what is now called Old-Hartford, Arkansas, in Sebastian County. At the time, it was only a tent city and was noted for coal mines.
My father's occupation was what you might call a "Jack-of-all-trades". When I was born he happened to be the only cattle buyer and butcher in this town. He slaughtered cattle, hogs, and sheep for three different butcher shops including his own.
When father was twenty years old, he joined the Army of Grand Republic and fought on the Northern side. Abe Lincoln was commander in chief. He told me he fought many battles in the war between the north and the south.
The north fought for one reason, to stop the sale of Negro people for slaves. I shall always remember one of the famous battles he told me about. It was the battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas. There were one hundred and one men in his company, and all but sixteen of them were killed in this battle. General McQuellan and Captain William H. Logan were father's commanding officers.
My father was captured in the civil war and was placed in prison at Tyler, Texas for one year and one day.
After the war was over he became a wheat farmer in the state of Indiana.
Father and mother took their children and traveled over the country after I was born, for three or four years. There is a picture of father, mother, my brother Jesse and myself and the wagon in a little Baton Glen setting there. The two horses are one a sorral, Frank, and the other a bay called Charley.
When I was five years old my parents settled in a city called Fort Smith, Arkansas. Mother and father cut wood to sell. It was called hthe Abie Niece Forest. The name is now the Bonneville Addition.
When they settled there it was my first year in school. The school was built of logs and my teacher was Miss Herd.
Father and mother moved to a farm which father bought from Mr. Reburan. There was a nice orchard of peaches, apples, pears, plums, and cherries there. The house was very large with six rooms and a beautiful front lawn with a large cedar tree in the front. The distance to the school from our house was about five miles, and of course I walked all the way summer and winter alike. It made no difference.
Five and one half years after my birth, my sister Ella Mae Waddell was born on the twenty-first day of June 1910. Eight years after her birth my father died. He is buried in the National Cemetery at Fort Smith, Arkansas. HIs headstone is number 2112. Mother had to take in where father left off. She helped me to finish school and go to Fayetteville University where I studied law and engineering.
My school days were like those of any other boys in those days... Some good and some bad. I was a fair athlete then and played football on the famous Razorback team. I carried papers on horse-back to help with the expenses of my education.
I learned to be a carpenter and contractor. I contracted lots of work. A firm in Wichita, Kansas still uses my name... Waddell Construction.
When I was in my teens, I was stricken with pneumonia and was placed in the Saint Edwards Hospital. While I was there a vision came to me. I came to a big road which was made out of black-top and was like rubber. The other was a small narrow road. Most of the people were traveling down the big, wide road, but I took down the narrow road. I saw the most beautiful place. It was all fenced in, with what looked like wrought iron but it was silver and gold upon a rock base. The rocks gave out a light and shone brighter than I can describe. There was a gorgeous gate and they were opened. I started through the gates but the gates closed. At this point I tried to climb the fence in order to get on the other side, but I fell back off the fence. It was at this very moment that I jumped out of my hospital bed and regained consciousness.
My first job as a carpenter was working on the Free Bridge at Fort Smith, Arkansas. This bridge is three fourths of a mile long and unites Arkansas and the state of Oklahoma.
At the age of twenty one, I met a girl by the name of Cecil Bertha Ortner. We were married immediately as I knew her approximately an hour or more when the ceremony took place. We were married for nearly sixteen years or more when this marriage was disolved by a divorce. We had no children even after all of those years of marriage. The divorce became final on the ninth day of July 1941.
While buying some cattle around the state of Oklahoma I chanced to meet a little country girl or farm girl by the name of Pearl Lorraine Cowett. She was the daughter of George Cowett and Sarah Catherine Shephard. She was very shy and afraid of people and especially men, because she had never been with fellows much. She was twenty one years of age at the time, while I was thirty seven. I fell in love with this little country maiden. We were married soon after. It was on the Seventeenth day of July 1941.
It was right after this marriage that I was able to hold down some good positions in the construction field due to the fact that there was a boom in building and construction work about then. During this time I held different positions as a carpenter, foreman, superintendant, and some surveying adens.
On the twenty fourth day of July 1942 my first child was born. It was a little girl and we named her Emma Mae Waddell. Emma was given to her after my half-sister, Emma, and the name Mae, was given to her after my full sister, Ella Mae Waddell.
Next, or second born to use was Josie Maggie Waddell, born on the ninth day of November 1943, another daughter. We named her this after my half-brother's wife.
It was shortly after Josie's birth that Emma, the first born contacted polio and was confined to Los Angeles General Hospital for several months. It was at this time that Emma lost her hearing and her ability to talk.
The third daughter born to us was Sarah Catherine Waddell, named after my wife's mother. She came to us on the twenty ninth day of March 1945. The baby cost the least of all my children. At birth, the fee of delivery being around thirty five dollars. She was also named Sarah because my own mother bore the name Sarah along with my wife's mother.
The next child to come to use was a boy on the ninteenth day of December, 1946, and was named William Wesley Waddell. The name William was given to him after my half-brother William Campbell Waddell, and the name Wesley was given him after my wife's brother, John Wesley Cowett. Thus, he was named after his two uncles.
Our fifth child, and fourth daughter, Patricia Ann Waddell was born on the twenty ninth daqy of February, 1948; it being the leap day of the leap year. The name Patricia was a chosen name, but the Ann was given to her after my wife's sister, Annie.
In January 1949 my wife Pearl miscarried twin girls named Louisa Waddell and Louella Waddell.
Sandra Lee Waddell our sixth child and fifth daughter was born on the fifteenth day of January, 1950. The name was picked out by two nurses at the Los Angeles County Hospital. Sandra was born at the county hospital because I had been involved in an accident previously and been out of work a long time. She was the only child of ours born in a county hospital.
The next child born to us was another daughter which we named Lorraine after my wife, who's name was Pearl Lorraine. She was born on the thirtieth day of October, 1951.
Last of our family came Melba Kay Waddell. Her Aunt Fannie named her and she was born on the first day of August 1954. Shortly after the birth of Melba, my wife became very ill quite suddenly. In fact, she got sick one night after resting and was rushed to the hospital. It was only a matter of days and minutes before she passed on into the next world, and out of sight from mortal eyes. She suffered and succumbed from a blood clot on the brain. She passed away on August twenty second, 1954. Melba was just twenty two days old at the time of her mother's death. We buried our wife and mother in Bell, California, in the Park Lawn Cemetery.
With our mother now gone from us, the struggles became almost overwhelming to survive and stay together as a family. For months the children were here then they were there. First one party had to keep them and then another. Most of the time the children were separated and apart from one another.
Doris
Henning /Waddell
