Daniel Claude RINN

"In 1908, at the age of twenty-seven, Claude met twenty-two-year-old Anna Mabel Reeves, a young woman selling millenary products for a company headquartered in Kansas City. Part of Anna’s territory included Enid. On one occasion she met the proprietor of the Rinn grocery store. Claude was immediately impressed with this smart-looking young woman from Missouri and, largely ignoring the products she was selling, went to work selling her on the idea of marriage. Anna’s family came to Missouri from Iowa where her father, John, had enlisted in the Iowa Calvary in April, 1862 and went on to become disabled during the Civil War at the mouth of the Yellowstone River in Dakota Territory, when his eyes were injured and his vision impaired during a severe wind storm. Ten months after his discharge, John, age 34, was married to Nancy Williams, age 19, in Iowa on August 29, 1866 and over the years eight children were born, six boys and two girls. Anna, the 7th of eight children, was born on April 3, 1886 when her father was 54 years old. John Reeves died four years later. Anna was raised on a farm in Braymer, Missouri, northeast of Kansas City by her mother and older siblings. Anna and Claude each had a natural instinct for business. Both had Civil War veterans for fathers, each 34 years of age when they married 19-year-old brides. Their widowed mothers never remarried despite each surviving their husbands by 24 years. Like Claude, Anna was industrious, capable and determined. Claude liked what he saw in this young saleswoman and courted young Anna whenever her travels brought her to Enid. He finally convinced her to make a trip with him down to Minco to visit his mother, Marguerite. Claude coached Anna with a smattering of French in order that his young sweetheart could impress Marguerite when they were first introduced. Prepared with the French phrase carefully rehearsed with Claude, Anna, upon being introduced to Marguerite, and surrounded by most of Claude’s sisters, said in perfect French: “….” or “Kiss my ass.” It was a memorable introduction to the Rinn family for Anna, and quite a hit among Claude’s sisters. Anna must have forgiven Claude, for a wedding followed on December 31, 1908, with the mother of the groom in attendance. My father has always said that he wouldn’t be surprised if Claude picked the wedding date for the last day of the year to take full advantage of a tax deduction."

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