Ansedel Lloyd Maywood Staley

1895-1983

Född 1895-09-10 i Franklin Co, USA, Kansas
Död 1983-12-15 i San Louis Obispo Co, Atascadera, USA, California

Lloyd Maywood Staley Född 1895-09-10 i Franklin Co, USA, Kansas Död 1983-12-15 i San Louis Obispo Co, Atascadera, USA, California

Levnadsbeskrivning

Lloyd M. Staley (1895-1983) An Autobiography If it had been
possible to choose the period in the eons of time in which to
live, this one into which my lot has falle n would certainly have
been considered among the first. There is no need to enumerate the
many scientific advances tha t h ave been made. Sufficient to say
that it has advanced from the horse and buggy to the jet airplane
age and I have travel ed in both in my lifetime. It is a matter of
record that I was born on September 10, 1895, at the farm owned by
my parents and, earlier, by my moth er's parents. This farm is
located six miles south of Wellsville, Kansas, and between the New
Hope Church on the south a nd the Evergreen District School on the
north. The school has fallen to the march of progress and has
disappeared from t he scene, but not from the memories of its
former pupils. A toddlerThe first memories of anyone's life are
hard to place in order of time. Some events have been related by
othe r members of the family until the person really believes he
remembers those events. Like the time I either fell or climb ed
into the pen of a huge boar. Then my two older brothers ran
screaming to my mother that I was being devoured by said hog.
Suffic e it to say that I escaped. I am sure that I do remember
one event quite well: That is the one concerning the purchase of a
new corn binder by my fa ther. This took place in the dry year of
1901, for it was necessary to buy this machine in order to save
some of the fod der for livestock feed the following winter. There
is no explaining what will stick in the memory of a child. I am
sur e this one has stayed with me. My school life began in the
fall of 1900 when I was five years old. As the school was only
one-fourth of a mile from hom e, it was quite easy to walk there,
even for a small boy. Many of my schoolmateswalked as much as two
miles, which was q uite a test of fortitude for sure. My first
school teacher was a man by the name of Sam Frazier. There were
more men tea chers in those days, partly because of the ruggedness
of the life then, and also because women had not entered the teac
hing profession as they have today. I can remember four other men
teachers during my school life at this country school . One was my
Uncle Ira C. Staley. I believe he taught my second year. Our
activities in this country school were normal for the period. We
arrived at school as much before the nine o'clock b eginning of
classes as possible in order to play the usual games of "move up"
ball, blackman, shinney, darebase, etc. We all carried our noon
lunches in dinner buckets; usually a gallon syrup bucket. Our
lunches were eaten outside during fin e weather -- hurriedly done
in order to get in more play time. The school consisted of all
eight grades in one room. Sometimes there were as many as thirty
or more pupils enrolled. Th ere was always one class reciting from
the long special benches in the front of the room, placed there
for that purpose. It was a case of trying to concentrate on your
own work if you were to escape the wrath of the teacher for not
having yo ur lesson well prepared when it came time for you to
recite your lesson from that same long bench. The country
schoolhouseThe schoolhouse was a rectangular building, probably 25
by 40 feet. A large double door opened on to an uncovered porch.
Inside the door, there was a long hall across the front end of the
building. To the right and t o the left of this double door were
two doors leading into the main school room. This long hall was a
favorite play room when the weather was to o bad to play outside.
In the front of the schoolroom was a platform about eight inches
higher than the floor. This contained the teacher's des k which
was made of iron scroll legs supporting a work top that had a
sloping lid that lifted up. When this lid was down , the teacher
did his writing on top of it. The space beneath was used for book
storage. There were blackboards behind t he desk. Directly in
front of the desk was the huge Round Oak stove which was literally
our central heating system. Two rows of desks were placed on each
side of this big stove with the smaller ones near the front of the
room. In the rear of the room was a door that opened into the coal
shed. This shed was a lean-to attached to the back end of t he
building. There were four windows on each side of the building
which were covered with hail screen -- more to protect the windows
from stray rocks and baseballs than from the hail. This building
was the original one for that location. The first school building
was located one-half mile west of this o ne off the main road
which was no problem as there were no roads then. This was before
my school days. Our drinking wate r was obtained from a well
located across the road and beside a small slough. According to
modern standards, we should h ave died from typhoid fever or some
other dire disease. This building was destroyed by fire several
years after I gradua ted. A man's workMy school life in Evergreen
School did not end with graduation from the eighth grade in 1910.
My older broth er Glen was still in high school at the time, so I
spent another year in our country school. This last year I did not
st art at the beginning of the school year as this was silo
filling time and my help was needed to get this autumn task com
pleted. I will add that I was doing a man's work on the farm at
this time and had been doing so for a year or more befor e. This
work included the hard labor at harvest, when we shocked all our
wheat and oats in the field and left them there for a curing
period before threshing. Final harvest was done by an old steam
engine operating a grain separator. The act ivities moved from one
farm to another until all in the neighborhood were finished.
Threshing time was a period of grea t excitement for the whole
family. Meals were prepared by my mother, usually with the help of
a neighbor lady, Lou Merce r, who was m other's favorite assistant
on all special occasions. There are many more activities that
could be related of boyhood on the farm. One I especially like to
remember was swimm ing at the old swimming hole, located about a
mile from home but in a very secluded spot in the woods far from
any roa d or dwelling. This was preferred because swimming suits
were not the vogue for small boys in those times. My brothers a nd
I and the neighbor boys spent many happy hours on hot summer days
in this swimming "pool" on Turkey Creek. It was str ic tly a
segregated affair -- no girls allowed. Another favorite boyhood
pastime was hunting rabbits and squirrels which were more
plentiful in that country in those da ys. My brother Glen and I
would hurry the wood cutting chore which we did every Saturday so
that we could take a few hou rs for hunting. The results of our
venture were not always successful, but often we did add variety
to our farm diet. Th ere were other interesting activities, like
apple butter time. The apples were cooked in boiling apple cider
in a huge c opper kettle on an open fire out-of-doors. A
half-dozen or so crockery jars of delicious spread were the reward
for ou r efforts and it tasted wonderful on hot biscuits later in
the winter. Butchering time was an event not to be forgotten . I
well remember coming home from school to see four or five freshly
butchered hogs hanging from a scaffold. This entaile d a lard
rendering which usually took place the next day along with sausage
grinding. Ottawa High SchoolMy high school career began in the
fall of 1911 at Ottawa High School. I had a little exposure to
Lati n and Algebra my last year at the country school so the new
subjects were not sounfamiliar. My study assignments for m y first
year were: Algebra, Latin, English, and Manual Training. I lived
with my Grandmother Lamb as my two brothers bef ore me had done.
This was the principal reason that I went to Ottawa for my high
school work. At the beginning of the se cond half of the first
year, I was accepted into one of the Literature societies as a
reward for receiving grades abov e acertain limit. Also, I began
to play football which activity I continued all through high
school. The sophomore and j unior years went by in much the same
way. In my senior year, I was captain of the football team and
also president of th e senior class. The most significant event of
my high school career was that I met my future wife, Mary Gray.
She had mo ved to Ottawa from K ansas City with her parents and,
as a new girl in school, caused quite a surge of attention from
the boys of the class . My attention was included in this wave of
interest in the girl from the city. The graduation exercises for
the Ottawa High School class of 1915 were held in the old
Rohabaugh Theater while the rai n rattled the roof of this ancient
building. That spring, there was another flood on the Marais des
Cygnes River that ra n through the town, flooding Forest Park and
a number of residential areas. The following summer I went to
central Kansas to work in the wheat harvest to earn more money to
go to college the nex t autumn. It was my ambition to attend
Kansas State at Manhattan but a shortage offunds caused a change
of plans. So I e nrolled at Ottawa University along with two of my
best friends, James Gasaway and Douglas Walsh. This school period
last ed for only one semester but I did get toplay football for
that year. The next year I returned to Ottawa U. after workin g
the summer in the oil fields that were drilled on the farm that
produced considerable oil for a good many years. I hav e some
newspaper clippings that will explain some of my athletic
accomplishmentsat Ottawa University. While I was attending school
in the spring of 1917, there was much excitement concerning the
possibility of war with Ger many so, in a spirit of intense
patriotism, I enlisted in Company 1st Infantry Kansas National
Guard which was being rec ruited at the time. This is the best
explanation I have for my action. On looking back on this display
of patriotism , I do not now believe it was done in the exercise
of the best judgment. War!My army career began August 5, 1917, at
Garnett, Kansas, which was the headquarters for Company K. Our
company of ra w recruits stayed at Garnett all of August and most
of September until our training camp at Camp Doniphan, Lawton,
Oklah oma. Company K left Garnett for our training area on
September 30, 1917. I spent the winter of 1917-18 in camp at this
O klahoma cantonment. We lived in tents which had wood floors.
They were heated by small conical stoves set in the cente r of the
tent. The stovepipe went through the peak and there was no spark
arrestor. As a result, there were many tent fi res throughout the
camp. It was an unusually cold and snowy winter and it seemed the
wind blew constantly. Because of th e stro ng wind, we lived in a
continual dust storm. It was a common saying in the camp that
Texas blew by one day and Kansas ca me by the next. (Editors note:
Featured on Becky Cazares' website are "Letters home from World
War I", Lloyd Staley's letters written t o his sweetheart and
future wife, Mary Beatrice Gray.) Our company was now part of the
35th Division U.S. Army and Company K became Company K 137th U.S.
Infantry, formed by re cruits from the states of Kansas and
Missouri. The 35th Division entrained for Camp Mills, Mineola,
Long Island, New Yor k, on April 14, 1918. We went aboard the
White Star Liner H.M.S. Adriatic for overseas duty April 24, 1918,
arriving a t Liverpool, England, May 7th. From this port, we went
by train to Southampton and crossed the English Channel the nex t
day. On the 9th of May, the Division landed at Le Havre, France. I
will not enumerate the many places in France we wer e stationed. I
will say that I was fortunate enough to be detailed to the Postal
Detachment of the 35th Division, A.P.O . 743 , where I served the
rest of my army enlistment. I was discharged from the army May 4,
1919, at Camp Funston, Kansas, wi th the rank of Sergeant. After
my discharge from the army, I returned to the home of my parents
and helped on the farm for the summer of 1919. Th is was the year
of the big wheat crop so this was my principal job for that
summer. The business worldIn September of 1919, my brother
Clarence and I enrolled at a business school in Quincy, Illinois,
whe re we studied until December of the same year. The school was
forced to close atthat time because of a strike of the coa l
miners and, as a result, there was no coal to heat the building.
After returning home from Gem City Business College, I went to
Kansas City, Missouri, to work for my future father-in-la w,
George Gray, who had just started a business manufacturing
furniture for banks. I became his bookkeeper and office he lp.
After this business slacked down, Mr. Gray (now my father-in-law)
did some house building in which I assisted in var ious
capacities. MarriageOn September 15, 1920, my high school
sweetheart, Mary Gray, and I were married at her parents' home at
5409 Cle veland Avenue, Kansas City, Missouri. The next spring we
moved to 57th and BalesAvenue, Kansas City, into a house Mary' s
father had built a few years before but did not own at this time.
We lived in this house a short time and then moved t o a house on
62nd Street, just north of Swope Park. Our first son, Warren G.,
was born July 8, 1921, while we were livin g in the house on 57th
Street. The second son, John D., was born November 2, 1922. During
this time I had been working at various jobs, mostly in the
building and construction industry. Not satisfied wit h the
prospects in this business, I decided to move back to my father's
farm as he was desirous of retiring and moving t o Wellsville.
With my small family, we moved to my parents' house in Wellsville
in order to do some remodeling that my m other wished to have done
before they moved from the farm. The fall of 1923 and the winter
of 1924 we lived in this hous e while I built on two more rooms.
The family farmIn the spring of 1924, after my father held a farm
sale to dispose of his personal property (most of whic h I bought
over the auction block), we moved to the farm. We continued to
live on this farm through many and varied expe riences of good and
bad years until 1928 when we moved to another farm a mile and a
half east which was owned by our nei ghbor, Frank Miller. The farm
price depression really hit us here so we held a farm sale in the
spring of 1929. We lef t the farm for Garnett, Kansas, in
considerable debt to work for my father-in-law, who was now
manager of the Garnett Ch urch Furniture Company. We lived in
various houses in this town and did quite well until the
depression stopped the chur ch furniture business. Then making a
living for the family became really hard. While we never lacked
for food and a plac e to live, it did take considerable scheming
and close planning to make ends meet. I might add this was not
always accom plished. However, our Lord was good to us and did not
allow His own to beg bread. His promises we found to be sure and c
ertain. At one time I worked for fifteen cents an hour. Whatever
was convenient to do, if it brought in a little money f orthe
family lar der, I did it. So we came through the hard times. In
March of 1936, the U.S. Post Office Department held an examination
for the position of Railway Mail Clerk. I took thi s examination
and passed with a high enough grade to be accepted for a position
as a substitute clerk. On August 25, 193 6, I began my first
assignment at the Kansas City Missouri Terminal Post Office. In a
short time I was working as a Rail way Postal Clerk on the Santa
Fe Railroad, known in postal language as the K.C. & Albuquerque. I
was more than thrilled to receive my first check for seventy
dollars for two weeks' work. However, there were times when the
depression reache d even to the mail service and, as a substitute
clerk, I did not always get to work at a steady job. The family
now consisted of five boys and three girls and sometimes my wife's
parents or my father, so it was necessar y to have a steady income
to keep the family provided for. However, we did quite well and
never lacked for any of the ne ce ssities of life. Our first home
after moving to Kansas City, Missouri, was 142 South Kensington,
in what was known as the Northeast distr ict of the city. We
rented a big eight-room house for twenty-five dollars a month and
the owner was happy to get it, eve n from so large a family of
children. After living at this address for a few months, we moved
to 3231 College Avenue - - another rented house directly west of
Central High School. The children were all in school, attending
the various inst it utions of the neighborhood. Our own homeIn
June 1940, with the assistance of an aunt of my wife's, Mrs.
Jeanne Thomson, we were able to make a dow n payment on a house at
2714 East 36th Street. This was quite an experience to be the
owner of a home and it was the bes t move financi ally that I had
ever made. I was now a regular clerk in the Railway Mail Service
so that I now had a regular job wit h a steady income which made
things considerably easier than we had had it up to this point in
our lives. World War II was now going on and our oldest son,
Warren, had gone into training at Camp Robinson near Little Rock,
Arka nsas. He had enlisted in the 110th Engineering Regiment, a
unit from Kansas City. Our second son, John, after working fo r a
time for the North American Aviation Company in Inglewood,
California, came back to Kansas City to work for the sam e company
in the Fairfax district of Kansas City, Kansas. He was called into
service in the spring of 1944. He chose t o serve in the Navy. Our
lives went along very much as most families of the time. Warren
decided to transfer to the Ai r Corps as an aviation cadet. He
received his wings as a pilot with the rank of second lieutenant
at a training field i n Yuma, Arizona. Promptly after receiving
his wings, he married his boyhood sweetheart, Bonnie Crippen. They
were marrie d at the Air Base in Yuma. After duty at several
different air bases in the United States, he left for an overseas
assig nment in November 1943. He was now serving as a co-pilot on
a B-25 bomber. Missing in actionIn February 1944 we were shocked
and grieved to get the official news that Warren was missing in
actio n after a mission flown over the Dodecanese Islands of the
Mediterranean Sea. We never heard any more officially as to w hat
happened on this last mission. He was later declared killed in
action and is so listed now in the War Department rec ords. John
served his enlistment time in the Pacific theatre on board the
aircraft carrier Thetis Bay. He made several c rossings of the
Pacific Ocean during his navy career. Robert T. also served in the
Navy as a student in officer trainin g but did not receive his
commission as the war ended before his graduation. Malcolm
enlisted in the Navy, too, but wa s in boot camp when t he war
ended. He did serve overseas in some of the Pacific Islands after
the war. Benjamin chose the Air Force, servin g for a time at a
base near Ramsgate, England, and also at a base near Rapid
City,North Dakota. While we were still living at the 36th Street
address, our oldest daughter, Marjorie Ruth, was married. She had
complete d junior college in Kansas City, then planned to finish
her college work at Fresno State in Fresno, California. But she
met a young man who changed her mind. She and Glenn L. Layton were
married at the Troost Avenue Gospel Hall in Decembe r 1947. We
were pleased that she came back to Kansas City to be married.
Merriam, KansasIn the summer of 1950, we made another move, this
time to Johnson County, Kansas, to the town of Merria m (834
Goodman Road). We bought this house new -- the first all-new house
that thefamily ever owned or had ever lived in . Only four of our
children were living at home at this time. Two of them, Malcolm
and Ben, both left home soon after fo r military service. This
left only Ida Mae and Mary Lou as the remnant of our once large
family. These two daughters wer e both married while we were
living in this house. Ida Mae left immediately after her marriage
for Fairbanks, Alaska, wh ere her husband, Gerald V. Keller, was
stationed. They spent two years there. Mary Lou also married a man
in the service , Lawrence A. Bu sh, whom she met at a young
peoples' conference at Hutchinson, Kansas, where he was stationed.
They left for Pensacola , Florida, soon after they were married.
Now the family was reduced to my wife and me. Also living with us
was my mother-in-law, Mrs. Georgia Gray, who was an in valid by
this time and was cared for in our home as long as was possible.
Later on it was necessary to have her cared fo r in an old folks
home until her death in the summer of 1962. California, here we
come! As most of our sons and daughters were living in California
or Arizona, we sold our house in Merriam. Placing our househ old
goods aboard a moving van, we took up our residence in Atascadero,
California, in 1962. Here we expect to live until the Lord calls
us home or He comes for us in the air. Epilogue (by Jeff Staley,
December 16, 1983): Grandpa was an elder, treasurer (I think), and
missionary secretary at Atascadero Gospel Chapel in his later
years. He r esigned in the late 1970's. He loved to garden, write,
and visit his family. Lloyd M. Staley passed away December 15,
1983, at 1:00 p.m. after a two-week illness. He had fluid building
up in his lu ngs due to an irregular heartbeat. Marjanne (Layton)
Claassen, his granddaughter, and her two children had just been
vis iting with him. After they left, he fell asleep and never
awoke.

Relationer och barn

Gift 1920-09-15 i USA, Missouri, Kansas City
Mary Beatrice Gray.

Född 1897-05-01 i Phelps Co, "Ashgrove" Homestead, USA, Nebraska
Död 1974-10-11 i San Luis Obispo, Atascadero, USA, California

Framställd 2025-09-21 med hjälp av Disgen version 2025.