JOHN
BENJAMIN CHANDLER
1873 - 1946
A Biography of John B. Chandler 1873- 1946
By Snow Castleberry Chandler, September 1967
John Benjamin Chandler was born in Saline County Arkansas on April 18, 1873, and moved with his parents, Joel and Mary Margaret Clift Chandler to Howard County Arkansas when he was a child.
He grew-up on a farm and early in life learned that living was a lot of hard work. He early learned to handle a double barreled shot gun and enjoyed hunting the squirrels that were plentiful in those days in the Hickory and oak trees near the farm where he was raised. He, too, loved setting traps for the otter, mink, and raccoon in the Arkansas creek bottoms and along the Saline River which was nearby. Fishing was another of his great loves, and all through his life nothing made him happier than sitting on the bank of some stream or lake, patiently waiting for the fish to bite.
When he was about 24 years of age, he met and married Katie Craddick, a sweet, gentle, brown-eyed girl, who lived in the adjoining county of Hempstead. They were married on August 18, 1897, at the home of her father and step-mother, Isom and Fannie Craddick. There was a wedding supper that night, and the next day they traveled by wagon to the home of his parents, a distance of some 25 or 30 miles. All of the kinfolks and neighbors had been invited for what was known as an enfair party and supper. One of Johnnie's aunts, who lived with the family, had baked a cake for the occasion and as his oldest brother, Vaughn, at that time was away from home in what was then known as Indian Territory working with a cattle drive, and was expected home anytime, this Aunt wrapped a piece of the cake in a napkin and put it away in her trunk so Vaughn could have a taste of it when he got home.
Eventually, several months later, he did return, but brought with him a typhoid germ, which was contracted by almost every member of the family, and resulted in long weeks of sickness and in death for four members of the family, including the Aunt who had saved the cake. More than a year later someone found the dried up cake and by then Johnnie and Kate's first child was three or four months old and someone gave her the piece of cake to hold. She clenched it in her little fist and, naturally, put it in her mouth, so she was told when she was older that she ate some of her father's wedding cake.
For several months Johnnie and Kate lived with his family, but the next spring, 1898, they moved into a two room house nearby. This first baby, a girl, was born on July 12, 1898, and was named Snow. Joel Chandler, her grandfather, liked the name and asked them to give it to this his first grandchild.
Johnny continued to farm with his father and on January 30, 1900, they were blessed with a baby boy whom they named "Joel Isom" for his two grandfathers, but that summer he became ill and on August 17, 1900, he died, and was buried in County Line Cemetery on August 18 on Johnnie and Kate's 3rd wedding anniversary.
Life went along for them and with hard work and careful management they started saving a little money along to buy a home of their own. On August 29, 1901, another baby arrived, this time a little girl who was named "Mary" for her grandmother (Mary Margaret Clift Chandler), who never saw another grandchild, as she died the following year on March 23, 1902.
That year Johnnie and Kate finally got enough money together to buy a tract of land nearby. The land had an abandoned school house on it and the neighbors came in and helped him tear down the school house and use the lumber in it along with pine boards sawed at a nearby saw mill from logs he cut in clearing his land, to build a 3 room house. There were just 3 rooms and a front porch but the rooms were large and it was all paid for and was home to them. There was a big fireplace in the front room and a wood burning stove in the kitchen. They soon had flowers growing in the yard, and planted a vegetable garden that furnished them with fresh vegetables in season, and Kate canned, dried, pickled, and preserved food for the winter.
Johnnie soon had a nice little orchard of peach, apple and pear trees and the rail fence corners were full of blackberry vines that produced quantities of blackberries each year for the blackberry jam and especially the delicious blackberry cobbler that Kate knew so well how to make.
They raised a few hogs every year and when winter came they were butchered and the meat, first put down in salt, then taken up and hung across the rafters in the smoke house to cure. A smothered fire of hickory chips was kept going for several days and nights until the hams, bacon and sausages were smoked just right.
There was always milk and butter from 2 or 3 cows that were milked night and morning and allowed to run free during the day on the free range.
On August 8, 1903, another son was born. They named him "Elmer Dean" for two of Johnnie's sisters, Zerelda Elmer and Daisy Dean.
Life was full of hard work as the land was rocky, full of persimons sprouts and stumps, but it produced well and Johnnie was a good farmer and a good manager. He worked in the winter clearing more land and keeping wood cut for the fireplace and the cook stove. He found time for some hunting and trapping and sold the furs from the animals he caught in his traps to get a little extra money. Along toward spring the neighbors would gather for a log rolling. They would pile the logs and brush from the winter clearing, in heaps and burn it, and that made a new field for planting that year. The log rollings were real events especially for the children. The women all came in and helped cook a big meal that was served to everyone at noon.
Life was hard but with a lot of good times too. When the children were old enough they helped with the work around the house and garden and in the fields too, but when school started they were never kept home for any reason except when they were sick.
There was usually about 3 months of school in summer and 4 months in the winter. When the first 3 children started to school they only had to go about 1/4 of a mile but later the school consolidated with another district and they had to go 1 1/4 miles. This wasn't too bad in nice weather and when it rained, snowed, or was extremely cold Johnnie hooked up the team and drove them to school in the wagon and, if the weather was still bad, came after them in the afternoons. He didn't have too much education but always helped the children with homework, was real good in mathematics, so could solve any problem that came along in the arithmetic lessons.
On March 5, 1906, a third daughter was born and was named "Bessie JoeEtta". The Bessie was for the heroine in a novel and the JoeEtta for two aunts, Johnnie's sister, Joanna and Kate's sister, Etta Jane.
Seventeen months after Bessie another boy arrived. The doctor who delivered him was named "Luther Luck", so they gave that name to the baby altho from the very start he was called "Jack." He was born on August 6, 1907.
When Jack was almost two years old, on July 3, 1909, another baby boy was born and was named "John Hubert". The John for his father and Kate just thought Hubert went well with the John.
Time went on about the same. Some good years and some bad. Everyone went to Sunday School each Sunday and once a month a preacher came and preached at the little Rosedale Baptist Church. There was a service at eleven o'clock on Saturday and again on Sunday. For about 2 weeks in the summer after the crop was "laid by" and before harvest time, they had a revival meeting. There would be services each morning and again at night. The little kids would get sleepy, of course, so the mothers always carried quilts and made pallets for them to lay down and go to sleep, leaving the mother free to concentrate on the sermon and enjoy the singing.
For almost 6 years no more babies arrived, then on April 7, 1915 another baby boy appeared on the scene and was named "Hugh Edgar". Again the Hugh was from a novel and Edgar for Johnnie's youngest brother Roy Edgar, who died in November 1918, when little Ed was a few months (years?) old.
The whole family was very happy to have a new baby in the home and the two older sisters liked nothing better than sitting and rocking him until he fell asleep, and I'm afraid kept holding him even while he slept, because if they laid him in his cradle asleep, then there was usually some other chore waiting which they didn't like as well as tending the baby.
On June 12, 1917, the last son of the family was born and named "Lester Carlton", think everyone just liked the name, no special reason for it.
In July 1918 the oldest daughter was married (Snow married Birt Castleberry), then in November of 1918 the second daughter married (Mary married Carter Boggs).
Kate's oldest brother, John W. Craddick, died in 1919 with tuberculosis and as her health was bad and fearing she might have the dread disease, the doctor recommended a change of climate, so they decided to move to West Texas, where John's brother, Vaughn had gone a few years before. So they had an auction sale and sold the livestock, farm tools and household goods, and a few days later boarded a train for Memphis, Texas.
They rented land for a crop in 1920 in Floyd County Texas and made a real good crop but the bottom dropped out of the price of cotton and they almost had to give it away, but Johnnie was never a person to give up, so he rented land on the same farm for a crop in 1921.
On September 18 of 1921 a little, redheaded baby girl was born rounding out the family of ten children. By then they had 3 grandchildren. They named the baby girl "Katie Elene". The Katie of course for the mother and Elene because Kate liked it.
Johnnie rented land for a few more years. Then in 1924 went back to Arkansas and sold the old home place to a long time friend and neighbor, Jessie John. Then came back to Texas and bought 160 acres of land in Briscoe County in the fall of 1924. With the help of a son-in-law, Carter Boggs, the husband of his daughter Mary, he build a comfortable stucco house and early in 1928 moved into it and was at home on his own land again.
One by one the children married and went to homes of their own.
Bessie had married Otis Purcell in March 1922. In November 1925, Elmer married Avis Tiffin. Then in November 1933, Ed married Mildred Fergurson. In December 1933, Jack married Adis Hendricks and John married May Cooper. That left only Carl and Elene at home with the parents. In 1938, Carl married Morine Ebbs and in 1942 Elene married Bob McAninch. Elene stayed home with the parents while her husband was away in World War 2. Then when he returned in late 1946, she too went to her own home. And for the first time in almost 50 years Johnnie and Kate were left in the home alone.
In 1946 they decided to sell the farm and move to town. They had made the sale and were in the process of moving when Johnnie was stricken with a heart attack and died suddenly on December 23, 1946. He had lived a full life of almost seventy four years, had been a member of the Baptist Church since early manhood, and for many years a deacon in that church, had been a member of the Masonic lodge for some 35 years. He was buried on December 25, 1946 in the cemetery at Quitaque in Briscoe County.
Note: Snow Chandler Castleberry wrote this biography for me when I first began working on the family history. At that time Kate Craddick Chandler was still living.
After Johnnie's death, Kate went to live with her youngest daughter, Elene McAninch, and her family in Lockney, Floyd County, Texas. They later moved to Plainview in Hale County Texas, and Kate died there on January 26, 1968, less than a month before her 91st birthday. She was the gentlest, kindest, lovingest, most fun grandmother any little (or big) girl could have ever had. Some thirty-one years later, I still miss her very much.
June Chandler Everheart
The items in (brackets) have been added by me.
World War II – B. L. McAninch-husband of Elene Chandler.