While the family lived at Spadra Bottom there were two really big events that impacted the family. First, either Fred Cain or Bird Lasiter (son and son-in-law respectively) heard about oil field jobs available in north LA, and went down to apply for work. They were hired and subsequently moved their families, Fred and Clara moving to the Pine Island oil field, Minnie and Bird moving to Trees City. Second, after Alan’s death, Mary Lou Belle Cain, Ada, Jessie and Bessie moved to their own farm near Scranton, AR (see last issue). It was during this period that Fred and/or Bird also contacted Henry Edgmon, Elmer Ward and Olon Manning, talking them into moving to Pine Island also. May Ward and Ruth Manning did not want to leave Mary Lou Belle and their three sisters without someone to be near to watch out for them, so all were invited to move into their homes at Pine Island. Mary Lou Belle did ultimately sell the farm and they relocated; Ada lived with Ruth and Olon Manning, Mary Lou Belle, Jessie and Bessie lived with May and Elmer Ward.

Pine Island was an oil field, not actually a town. It consisted of the oil field machinery, houses, and a school. The nearest town, Oil City, LA, was walking distance. Jessie cannot remember the actual location of Pine Island, but believes it was just off a bayou, probably either Black or 12 Mile Bayou, but it was not an actual island. Fred and Clara lived on one side of the bayou and May and Elmer, Etta and Henry and Ruth and Olon lived on the other side.

May and Elmer lost their firstborn, Alma, there at Pine Island. Jessie recalls that in those days, children often got diarrhea while teething their second-year. This happened to Alma after a bout with whooping cough and she did not survive. Minnie and Bird also lost their daughter, Eddie, during this time (while living at Trees City). Fred and Clara eventually moved to Oil City and May and Elmer moved into their house. It was in this house on 26 May 1921, that May and Elmer welcomed their second born, Melba Ruth Ward. Fred and Clara also had two sons, Fred Burris and Charles, while living in Oil City. Maggie Edgmon, the fourth born child of Henry and Etta was born at Pine Island, 9 Jan 1920.

Other memories: Jessie remembers completing third and fourth grades in one year at Pine Island, and fifth grade in Oil City after May and Elmer had moved there.

After starting work in the oil fields of north LA, the family eventually became more dispersed as different members took jobs in different oil fields. May and Elmer, Etta and Henry, and Ruth and Olon all moved to the Haynesville, LA, oil field, taking with them Mary Lou Belle, Ada, Jessie and Bessie. Jessie recalls Fred and Clara moving from Oil City to Norphlet, AR, and Minnie and Bird moving to Eagle Mills, Arkansas.

The change in their economic status was welcome, because oil field wages were much better than farmer’s. Not so welcome was the geographical change and the feeling of “not being home,” and the fact that the family could not be as close to visit one another as they would like to have been. Overall though, the transition was beneficial to the family because they no longer had to rely on the agrarian life style for their livelihood, with the Great Depression looming on the horizon.

By: Linda & Jessie Hilburn