"Uncle Duncan"

   

Growing up I heard stories about "Uncle Duncan" from my mother. He had lived with her family in his old age, and she and her siblings were very fond of him. His full name was Duncan Livingston Nichols (1848-1934) and he was a first cousin of mother's gr-grandfather Miles Livingston. Around 1870 Miles Livingston, his wife Jennie, and Duncan and possibly another relative or two emigrated from Leeds County Ontario, Canada to the American West - Miles, Jennie and Duncan are listed in the 1880 Census as living in Richland, Iowa. They moved to Nebraska at some point, and were living in Cedar County near Randolph in the 1900 Census. Duncan continued to live with Miles and Jennie, or at least shows up in the various census with them, in 1910 they were in McIntosh, Oklahoma, and in 1920 he was living with Jennie, now a widow, in Muskogee. In the 1930 census he is shown as living with Maud and Marvin Croom in Dallas, Texas. (Maud was his cousin Mile's granddaughter.) 

   The stories I recall were as follows. Uncle Duncan, like many then, was a smoker, but he rolled his own cigarettes one handed, cowboy style. He is listed on his death certificate as a "retired farmer," but he apparently worked as a cowboy in the old open range days. He told Alison, my mother and her siblings Miles, Carolyn and Janet stories about riding on the range, like riding night herd and reciting Robert Burns poems to the cattle to keep them quiet! (A great example of the Scottish traditions of those Loyalist descendants in Ontario.) Aother cowboy story was how the cowboys thought a great treat was to get canned tomatoes, they would open them with their pocket knives and eat them out of the can. One other story I recall is that Uncle Duncan would take the children out to ride around Dallas on the street cars. My guess, reading between the lines of stories of my mother and census records etc., is that Duncan may have gone off cowboying on his own, and also worked for his cousin Miles, who had a ranch and farms in Nebraska and then Oklahoma. Duncan is buried in Greenhill Cemetery in Muskogee, Oklahoma along with other Livingston and Croom family members.

   

Uncle Sox

    Mother's mother Maud Livingston had one sibling, her sister Dorothy. Dorothy and Maud mostly grew up in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and Dorothy continued to live there until her death in 1983. I met her just once, as a small boy visiting her with Mother, flying to Muskogee from Kentucky. I wish I could remember more about the visit, and her and her husband "Sox." His name always stuck in my mind, as it seemed funny to me as a boy!

Sox's full name was William Sargent Gage. At some point as a young man he was so enamored of the Boston Red Sox ball team that he started being called "Sox," and was known by that name the rest of his life, and even when he died in 1964 his tombstone read "W. S. 'Sox' Gage." (He is buried in Greenhill Cemetery in Muskogee, with Dorothy and many other Livingstons, Gages and Crooms.)

This photo is from a 1926 newspaper story about him. I wish I had a better photograph, but this is all I have. I never knew much about his life other than a few stories my mother told. Researching him it turns  out that he was born in Gridley, Kansas in 1894. His father, also William, died in 1950, in Muskogee, and his obituary said that he came to Muskogee in 1919 as the manager of "...the old Mackey Telegraph Company." William Sr. was from Kansas, had worked as a telegraph operator, and over time acquired a fair amount of real estate. 

Sox followed in his father's footsteps and was a telegraph operator in the Navy in WWI. In an April 15, 1929 article in the Muskogee Daily Phoenix, Sox recounted some of his wartime experiences as prompted by reports of a new ambassador to Great Britian. It turns out that Sox had spent two years in London, 1918-1919, at the embassy, as the chief Navy telegraph operator there. In that capacity he met many prominent figures of the day, including King George V, General Pershing, and many others. 

After the war Sox came to Muskogee and began a career as a newspaperman. He worked for the Muskogee Daily Phoenix and later for the Oklahoma Gas and Electric Company. He also managed a number of real estate properties he owned. He was active in the Elks, American Legion and Presbyterian Church.

   He seems to have been quite a lively and colorful man who was well known about town. In one rather startling 1922 article, when he was a bachelor, he is described as having staged a hoax wedding to a girl he was acquainted with a way for them both to attend a couples event! (In 1926 he married, for real, Dorothy Livingston.)

   Even after his wedding his reputation from his bachelor days lingered, as a newspaper article from about six months after his wedding headlined "Sox Gage Issues SOS Call For Fifty Dancing Beauties" would seem to indicate! Apparently Sox had thrown out his old bachelor address book and needed help lining up girls for a Lions "Night Owl" dance. The article said that in his old bachelor days finding girls would have been "soft custard" for Sox...

   He and Dorothy only had one child, a daughter who died as an infant in 1934. They lived a full life it seems like, with much socializing, bridge parties and more. They were dog lovers, and a 1932 article mentions Sox and his white "spitz" dog named Doodle. Apparently Doodle had gotten loose and Sox looked for him for a day or so, when, walking through downtown Muskogee, he "heard a happy bark" and there was Doodle. There were a couple of stories over the years too about Sox finding a stray dog and taking them in until their owner could be found. In another story it was said that Sox and Dorothy invited another couple over, telling them there would be a special guest that evening. When the couple arrived Sox ushered them into the dining room where Doodle sat in a chair at the table!

 In an April 1937 article entitled "Trailer Tripping" the Muskogee Daily Phoenix described Sox and Dorothy as having taken a trailer from Muskogee down to Galveston Texas, to New Orleans, and then to Daytona Florida. Sox was quoted as saying, "This trailer life is funny, we went to Houston to stay two days and stayed three weeks..." It would be fun to know what kind of a trailer they had, perhaps a teardrop style like the one in the accompanying illustration.

   In a July 1939 article Sox and Dorothy were said to be managing the heat by leaving their house at 10pm, driving out to Honor Heights park with the trailer and sleeping there! While they were the only people there with a trailer, they said there were many other people sleeping up there on blankets and such to escape their hot houses in those days before air conditioning became common.

 

This blog is dedicated to my mother, Alison Croom Cowling. She was an avid family historian and genealogist, and her family tree research was foundational for my own genealogical work. 

My reseach has been on two separate trees which among other places reside on Ancestry. "Cowling Croom" for my side of the family, and "Del Giacco Stafford" for my wife Claudia's family. (To view these trees you will need to create a guest account after clicking on the link if you are not aleady on Ancestry.)

This blog will be a place where I can share stories, images, tree details, links and more.