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Willis Leonard Phelps / Mary Alyce Law
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Willis Leonard Phelps / Mary Alyce Law
| Husband: Willis Leonard Phelps | |||
| Born: | 12 Dec 1885 | at: | Quinlan, Hunt, Texas, United States |
| Married: | 23 Dec 1906 | at: | Quinlan, Hunt, Texas, United States |
| Died: | May 1973 | at: | Wilburton, Oklahoma |
| Father: | Lewis Fred Phelps | ||
| Mother: | Margaret J. Goode | ||
| Notes: | [4138] | ||
| Wife: Mary Alyce Law | |||
| Born: | 24 Aug 1889 | at: | Quinlan, Hunt, Texas, United States |
| Died: | 21 Jul 1973 | at: | Quinlan, Hunt, Texas, United States |
| Father: | |||
| Mother: | |||
| Children | |||
| Name: | Edwin L. Phelps | ||
| Born: | at: | ||
| Married: | at: | ||
| Died: | at: | ||
| Spouses: | Petrial Lucille Ingram | ||
| Name: | Wyman Leon Phelps [4147] | ||
| Born: | 9 Mar 1908 | at: | Quinlan, Hunt, Texas, United States |
| Married: | at: | ||
| Died: | 23 Nov 1983 | at: | Durant, Bryan, Oklahoma |
| Spouses: | Eleanor Gertrude Fry , Evelyn Morgan | ||
| Name: | Weldon Yates Phelps | ||
| Born: | 15 Jun 1912 | at: | Quinlan, Hunt, Texas, United States |
| Married: | at: | ||
| Died: | 29 Jun 1961 | at: | Quinlan, Hunt, Texas, United States |
| Spouses: | Captola Lorene Mead | ||
| Name: | Ruth Fayne Phelps | ||
| Born: | 21 Aug 1914 | at: | Quinlan, Hunt, Texas, United States |
| Died: | 10 Dec 1916 | at: | Quinlan, Hunt, Texas, United States |
| Spouses: | |||
| Name: | Myra Valine Phelps | ||
| Born: | 21 Aug 1914 | at: | Quinlan, Hunt, Texas, United States |
| Married: | at: | ||
| Died: | 13 Sep 1980 | at: | Quinlan, Hunt, Texas, United States |
| Spouses: | H. Ehrlix Mayhew | ||
Pedigree Chart for: Willis Leonard Phelps
/--Obadiah Phelps
/--Noah Phelps
| \--Lucy Pelton
/--Lewis Fred Phelps
| | /--
| \--Adelia Antoinette Hoyt
| \--
|--Willis Leonard Phelps
| /--
| /--
| | \--
\--Margaret J. Goode
| /--
\--
\--
Pedigree Chart for: Mary Alyce Law
/--
/--
| \--
/--
| | /--
| \--
| \--
|--Mary Alyce Law
| /--
| /--
| | \--
\--
| /--
\--
\--
[4138] 1885 December 12, born in Quinlan, Hunt, Texas. 1906 December 23, married Mary Alyce Law. 1910 Willis, Alyce and Leon reside in Quinlan, Texas 1913 Listed in Greenville City Directory; Phelps Willis L (Alice), colr Commercial Natl Bank, r 1807 Jones. 1920 Willis, Alyce, Leon, Weldon, Valine and Edwin and Mary Law, residein Quinlan 1920 Census, Quinlan, Hunt, Texas, Vol 98, E.D. 145, Sheet 4, Line 15 Phelps, Willis L. 34 Texas Alice M. W 30 Texas Leon W. S 12 Texas Weldon J. S 7 Texas Valine M. D 3 2/12 Texas Edwin L. S 5/12 Texas Law, Mary M. ML 61 Louisana 1930 Moved from Quinlan, Texas to Durant, Oklahoma 1932 October 25, divorced Mary Alyce (Law) Phelps After leaving Mary Alyce Willis married a bank teller and moved to Apple,Oklahoma to be near his mother where he ran a Grocery Store Lived in Wilburton, Oklahoma -- Recollections of Boyd Phelps, March 11, 1997 1934 February 28, resided in Hugo, Oklahoma during the administration ofL. F. Phelps intestate estate in Quinlan, Texas. [Broderbund Family Archive #110, Vol. 2, Ed. 3, Social Security Records:U.S., SS Death Benefit Records, Surnames Beginning with P, Date ofImport: Apr 8, 1996, Internal Ref. #1.112.3.39058.189] Individual: Phelps, Willis Birth date: Dec 12, 1885 Death date: May 1973 Social Security #: 443-09-1374 Last residence: Wilburton, OK 74578 State of issue: OK More About WILLIS LEONARD PHELPS: P&S Reference: [G716b] Notes for UNKNOWN ( ) PHELPS:
[4147] Wyman Leon Phelps, known to all as Leon, was the eldest of five childrenand was born in Quinlan or Poetry, Hunt Co., Texas in 1908. Quinlan andPoetry are only a few miles removed from each other and the Phelps familyhad relations in both places. 1920 Census, Quinlan, Hunt, Texas, Vol 98, E.D. 145, Sheet 4, Line 15 Phelps, Willis L. 34 Texas Alice M. W 30 Texas Leon W. S 12 Texas Weldon J. S 7 Texas Valine M. D 3 2/12 Texas Edwin L. S 5/12 Texas Law, Mary M. ML 61 Louisana In 1930 when Leon was 22, his parents Willis and Alice, moved the familyto Durant, Oklahoma. Shortly after the move in 1932 his father and motherwere divorced and his father Willis moved to Apple, Oklahoma to be nearhis mother where he ran a Grocery Store and soon remarried. The following is a transcript of an interview with Leon and EleanorPhelps regarding thier experiences during the Great Depression: Q: When did you get married? I married Eleanor April 15, 1934 when I was 26 and we lived on a farmnorth of Durant, Oklahoma. This was during the "Great Depression".Roosevelt was president and was starting to bring the country out of theDepression. Q: Was the depression as bad as we hear it was? Yes, the greatest problems of the depression was lack of work, we didn'tlack for food we just didn't have a source of income. It was pretty hardto buy anything because we didn't have any money. Q: How did you get money to buy the things you needed? I farmed and cut wood with Weldon to make about 60 cents a day, but thatwould buy a lot of groceries. We raised peanuts and hogs to sell or tradefor something to eat. In 1936 we raised watermelons, you could findbuyers but they were so cheap they wouldn't pay nothin after all the workyou put into raising them. We had lots of chickens and cows, we soldmeat, sausage and eggs. We got about 15 cents a dozen for eggs, 25 centsa pound for butter, later it went up to 50 cents which was high. We soldthe extra cream that was left over after we made butter for ourcustomers. We used this money for clothes and what have you. You kidsdon't realize how cheap things were, men's overalls were a dollar to adollar and quarter and good cotton material was 15-25 cents a yard. Wemade all of our clothes, very seldom, like Christmas time, we boughtthings. We bought coats, and shoes were real reasonable a dollar-fifty tofive dollars. they lasted longer than shoes today because they were madeof leather and could be repaired. We had shoe repair shops then. Q: What did you use for transportation? We walked mostly, to school, we were about a half a mile from school. We(Eleanor) had a car that we used for visiting. We were close enough towalk to church. We didn't drive the car often due the price of gasoline.I (Leon) traveled once in a while by car but most of the time we used awagon team. This was all before we got married though. About two or threeyears after we were married we bought our own car. Q: What kind of entertainment did you enjoy? We had parties, concert parties, meeting at first one and then another'shouse, just regular old country meetings where we would dance and playgames. Our music was played on the Victrola or radio. At one place theyhad one of those self playing pianos. Lots of people had fiddles or maybea piano if it happened to be at a place we were meeting. It varied fromten to twenty people, no kids, it wasn't a family deal, just young folksmostly the same age. By the time you married and had babies you didn'tstay in the group. Q: Did you bring food to the parties? Was there any drinking? No, no food, refreshments or drinking. No one could afford it. Q: Did you have any money invested in the stock market? No Q: What do you remember about the day the market crashed? (Eleanor) I don't remember. That's a blank to me because that was our badperiod, that was when my step-mother died and I had to quit school totake care of the family. (Leon) The day the crash came you would thinkthe world was over or something. We heard about it on an old batteryradio, my mother and brothers and sisters were around. In 29' there wereinvestors all over the country killing themselves. I didn't know what tothink, we knew that the stock market was manipulated by the boys with themoney, but it didn't have any impact on us, all we were trying to do waseat and live. Q: Did you ever see any "Hoover Villages", beggars, people in breadlines? Yes, I saw shacks built out of cardboard, metal any kind of scrap youcould find to keep the weather out. I knew some of them. There was a lotof them that had their stock and farms mortgaged and they lost them. In35', I believe it was, the government paid them for their cows and theyslaughtered them because people couldn't feed them. You could go and getthe cow when they killed it and put it up if it was in good enough shape.I saw my neighbors put their hogs out on the public, just let them runwild because they couldn't feed them. We had a dry year and no graincrop, no hay, it just te-todeley burned up. Q: Did you personally have this happen to you? We didn't have any cattle that we had slaughtered. We had pigs of our ownand a few milk cows and we just managed to feed them. We raised our owngrain for the chickens. Q: Tell us about the beggars on the street? Well, we couldn't help the beggars on the street much, we had to takecare of own farmers and our neighbors as much as possible. We tradedsweet potatoes for pigs and took in everything from handguns to shotguns.Trading pigs because we couldn't sell them because people all over thecountry was turning them out. I felt sorry for the people in bread linesbut we didn't have to hit them ourselves. (Eleanor) My father never wouldgive a penny to a beggar, when they begged for a nickel for a cup ofcoffee, he would say "I'll take you in and I'll feed you" but thewouldn't give them money. He had them refuse to go in, they wanted themoney. Lots of those were drinking people and you knew it whenever youwould run on to them and there wasn't no use to give them money, if youhad it, to get drunk on. There was a lot of Hobos then and they wouldjust mooch a meal wherever they stopped, some of them were willing towork, they would cut or split wood for the cook stove, anything. Thereweren't too many on the farm most of them were in town. -- Interview conducted by Mike and Sharon Phelps about 1980. 1935, lived 4 miles north of Durant, Bryan, Oklahoma 1939, lived at 703 S. 3rd Street, Durant, Oklahoma 1940, Mary Mallissa Robinson Law died in bed at 703 S. 3rd 1941, lived at 11th & Beach Street, Durant, Oklahoma Leon Phelps was employed by the Corps of Engineers during theconstruction of the Denison Dam and Lake Texoma. His son Payton (Pat)Phelps stayed in Durant where he raised his four daughters and stillenjoys a successful career in law. Jane Phelps moved to Dallas, Texaswhere she has lived all of her adult life. She is unmarried and is nowpursuing a career in property management. Mike Phelps found employment atIBM Corporation and for 15 years he and his family moved from city tocity following his career. He remarried in 1979 and has now settled inHouston, Texas. Leon was diagnosed with cancer about 1980. He received treatment inDallas for a period of time. In 1983 he was hospitalized in Denison,Texas where he died on November 25th. Leon is buried at HighlandCemetery, Bryan County, Oklahoma. Eleanor, who has survived her husband, sold the house on the south sideof Durant and bought a new home on the northwest side of town about amile from her son Pat Phelps. [Broderbund Family Archive #110, Vol. 2, Ed. 3, Social Security Records:U.S., SS Death Benefit Records, Surnames Beginning with P, Date ofImport: Apr. 8, 1996, Internal Ref. #1.112.3.39038.118] Individual: Phelps, Leon Birth date: Mar 9, 1908 Death date: Nov 1983 Social Security #: 446-05-9406 Last residence: OK 74701 State of issue: OK Zip of last payment: 74701 More About WYMAN LEON PHELPS: Burial: November 25, 1983, Highland Cemetery, Bryan County, Oklahoma P&S Reference: [G716c] Residence(s): 1983, Durant, Oklahoma
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