First, I will start by letting you know who I am. My name is Melba Ruth Ward Dupree. I am the second child of Elmer Fieldon and Rosie May Rebecca Cain Ward. My older sister died when she was eighteen months old - before I was born. Her name was Alma Virginia Ward.

When I look back I am overwhelmed by the love I felt and still feel from all of the Cain family members. My earliest memories go back to the period of time when we were living near Haynesville, Louisiana. The community was in the oil field and was called Oil Center. I remember a grocery store. If there were other businesses I don't remember them. (Jessie says there were other businesses.) Aunt Ruth and Uncle Olon lived near the store. I suppose our home was a mile or so away. Aunt Etta and Uncle Henry also lived near - perhaps four or five miles away - in a community called Baucum Spur. Grandma (Mary Lou Belle Cain) with Bessie, Jessie and Ada lived near Aunt Etta. Grandma cleaned the bunkhouse and warehouse, similar to a hotel, for the men who lived away from home to work in the oil field. She may have cared for their clothes, also, but I am not sure of this. (Jessie says she did not.) Her work gave her a small income and allowed her to maintain a home for herself and three younger daughters. This made a total of four homes in this area with Cain family members living in them. We visited with all of them in the afternoon when my daddy got off work. I don't ever remember any harsh words or problems. It was just a good time. The kids all played and the adults would come out also and play with us. I can remember playing "Anti-Over", "Musical chairs" and other games which I don't recall the names. (Jessie adds "Drop the Handkerchief" and "Blindfold".) We had a lot of fun. .This is very impressed in my memory.

I didn't realize it at the time - but in later years I did - we had a very young family. My mother and dad married when she was sixteen. Aunt Ruth married when she was fifteen, almost 16. Bessie, Jessie and Ada were younger than Aunt Ruth. So, I suppose we were all kids together.

I recall how I loved to visit Grandma at Roxanna Camp. I can still see her feather beds made up so pretty in a long room (Grandma and Bessie slept in one and Ada and Jessie slept in the other). Occasionally, Mom would allow me to spend the night with her. She had her chickens in the back yard and it seems there were always baby chicks to play with.

Aunt Ruth's house was the closest to us, so I think we went there more than anywhere else. I recall Uncle Olon having an old coon in a cage in the front yard. (Jessie adds - Uncle Olon would let the coon in the house sometimes and the coon would really bite you. He escaped once, but he had a chain on and Uncle Olon found him. However, he escaped once again and although Olon hunted and hunted for him, he did not find him.)

I also remember Olon having the first radio in the family. There was a presidential election and several gathered around to listen .There was so much static I couldn't understand a thing, but the adults seemed to know because they discussed as they listened.

Uncle Olon also had a car with a rumble seat. I thought I had really arrived when I got to sit in it. Aunt Ruth and Mom seemed close – maybe because they were next to each other in age.

I loved to go to Aunt Etta's and Uncle Henry's home. Maggie and Marie were there to play with and the younger children - probably Faye and Nita - running around. Louella and Russell were older and I think I stood in awe of them. (Strange - but at the time I was still in my pre-school years.) There was always a lot of good food on Aunt Etta's table.

I am jumping around in my story but just remembered something about Jackie and Polly - Aunt Ruth's children. They could do hand springs and I couldn't. This made me feel sad. I thought there was something wrong with me. They would throw their hands on the ground and their feet in the air and walk around on their hands. In my mind, this was quite a feat!

All this background is probably boring to you - especially our younger family members - but, I am just trying to explain the happiness, love and kindness I felt as a part of the Cain family.

Our grandfather Cain - James Allen - passed away before I was born. I would look at his picture and feel sad that I never knew him.

Uncle Fred and Aunt Minnie were older children in the Cain family. They never lived near us. Uncle Fred was in the El Dorado - Norphlet area of Arkansas. Aunt Minnie and Uncle Byrd lived further north at Eagle Mills, Arkansas (close to Camden). We didn't see Aunt Minnie as often as we did Uncle Fred because she lived further away. Uncle Henry, Aunt Etta's husband, was transferred on his job from Haynesville, La., to Smackover, Ark. Mom would take us - Babe, Junior and me (James came along when I was thirteen) to spend a week with Uncle Fred and Aunt Etta each Summer. These were always good times, too.

Back to Grandma now - I loved her so much and felt that she loved me, too. At one period of time, she sold fabric to people living in the community (This was when she lived at the railroad crossing in Cotton Valley adds Jessie). Her only mode of transportation was walking. She would go door to door with her samples to take orders for fabric. When the fabric order arrived, she would take it to her customers. I can remember walking with her to take orders and also deliver it. She knew I thought the fabric was so pretty, so she told me she would make a dress for me. I could hardly wait. She kept her promise and I was so excited. The dress was a predominantly green silky fabric. Grandma sat down and cut it out without a pattern. It had a long bodice with a circular skirt and a Peter Pan collar. I still had the dress in my drawer when I left home to come to Beaumont. My mother and dad moved to Rodessa, La., and evidently left that piece of furniture in Cotton Valley, so, I don't know where my dress is today.

Grandma was in a car accident when I was ten. As I recall, she passed away from blood clots that resulted from the accident. She was in our home when she died. I remember kneeling beside the bed and really calling on God in her behalf. I felt I couldn't bear for her to leave us, but the Lord saw fit to take her. I remember her funeral. Aunt Ruth's pastor, Bro. Pair, preached. One of the songs that was sung was "What A Friend We Have in Jesus". I kissed her when I passed her coffin for the last time. She was the only grandparent still living when I was born. It lets me know just how special grandparents can be to their grandchildren. I have tried to be that kind of grand parent.

The Ragan Hill is between the family cemetery and the Arkansas River (refer to the map on page 12). Editor’s note: The cemetery where the Cain family is buried is called Ware’s Chapel, but used to be called Tokalon Chapel; we mistakenly published the converse in Issue 1.

Allen farmed the river bottom just down the Ragan Hill (see the picture of the river at flood stage). A side story: One day he and Ada rode mules down from the house on Ragan Hill to the bottom where they raised the crops. When Allen started to hook the mules to the harrow, the mule Ada was riding, got his foot tangled in the harness. This scared him and he threw Ada off. She landed on the harrow and it knocked her out. Allen was so afraid of her condition that he ran all of the way up the long hill carrying her. Evidently she had regained consciousness by the time he got her back to the house, but was somewhat worse for wear with aches and pains for several days.

The next picture shows caves or little recesses in the hillside along the road where Allen carried Ada after her injury.

First airplane! Another side story happened at nearby Scranton. Scranton hosted an event called a country picnic. The country picnic was more like a festival as we know it, but nevertheless it was then fashionable to refer to this event as a picnic. The Cain family, as well as many others saw their first airplane during one of these picnics. It was quite a show — the mules were so scared, they sank to their bellies. The people were also scared. Jessie stayed close to the wagon or near the edge of the woods when the plane landed, but Allen went closer by to get a better look. This took place about 1914 or 1915. Jessie would have been 4 or 5 years old then. Editor’s Note: For the younger generations, remember these were the days of no electricity, no ice boxes or refrigerators, no telephones, and no running water, unless you were “well off,” which a sharecropper family was decidedly not!

Also when the family lived at Ragan Hill, Allen would get block ice on the 4th of July and they would make ice cream. This was the only time that Jessie remembers them having ice cream.

The other big events Jessie remembers about the Ragan Hill is that Willie Cain’s daughter Mary was born there in 1914, and Willie died there (See Ask Jessie, this issue). After Willie’s death, Dave and baby Mary lived with the family until Dave remarried. Shortly after Mary’s birth, Jessie and some of her sisters (probably May, Ruth and Ada) contracted whooping cough. To protect the baby from getting ill, Jessie and sisters were not allowed to be near her. However, as little girls love babies, and these girls were no exception, they figured out a way to be able to see Mary despite the restriction. The large house at Ragan Hill was a two-story dwelling; it had a porch on the first floor and a smaller porch on the second-story. By going to the second story porch and climbing down over the rail onto the roof of the first level porch, they were able to look through the window into Dave's bedroom! No doubt, if found out, they would have had a lickin’ because they could have fallen off of the roof and hurt themselves, never mind the possibilities of infecting baby Mary!