of
Haskell County Oklahoma
Pontotoc County Oklahoma
Kingfisher County Oklahoma
Oklahoma County Oklahoma
and
Lincoln County Oklahoma
Ross HOOVER, eighth child of Manson McManus and Nettie Pearl (McMACKIN) HOOVER, was born June 4, 1905, at Climax, Greenwood County, Kansas. He was nine years of age when his mother died. His maternal grandmother, Loucinda Jane (HAINEY) McMACKIN, came to stay with the motherless children for awhile, but they basically raised themselves.
On October 25, 1926, at Stigler, Haskell County, Oklahoma, he married Cecil Louella EATON, daughter of Grafton Tanquary EATON and Maud (HAVENS) EATON.
The chronological information on this page was obtained in bits and pieces during conversations with my parents, Ross and Cecil HOOVER. There are gaps, and probably some misinformation, but it's all I have, so I will record it here.
After their marriage Ross and Cecil Hoover, "set up housekeeping," at Davenport, Lincoln County, Oklahoma, where he worked for Magnolia Oil Company. After a time, they moved to St. Louis, OK, where their first child, Gerald Wayne HOOVER, was born on September 27, 1927, and their second child, Ramona Joyce HOOVER, was born on September 7, 1929. (These are the two children pictured at the top of this page.) Ramona died on March 20, 1930. She was a beautiful, happy, healthy baby, and then she was gone. The very worst thing that can happen to parents happened to this young couple. Who can say how their daughter's death effected the rest of their lives? Certainly no one who has never experienced such a tragedy.
At some point during this time, the Hoovers decided to move to Oklahoma City. I am not certain whether it was before or after the death of their daughter. The way it was told to me is that they just, "took off." And they took, "their stuff," with them. Their friends, Audie and Everett McPHERSON, went with them, but not realizing that the Hoovers intended to stay, did not take their belongings. My father said that the McPhersons were very surprised and said, "Why didn't you tell us you were going to stay?" So the McPhersons went back, got their things, and also moved to Oklahoma City. (Audie McPherson was a niece of Ross Hoover's brother-in-law, Ben BOYD.)
Two sons were born in Oklahoma City, Harold Ross HOOVERon May 10, 1931, and Vanda Lee HOOVER on July 5, 1933. Polk's Oklahoma City Directory, 1932, has the following entry, "Hoover, Ross R. (Cecil) slsmn West Side Dairy Products Co h3509 S Hudson av." (Ross Hoover had no middle name or initial. He told me that he started using "R" as a middle initial because so many forms and papers asked for a middle name or middle initial and he got tired of saying he had neither.)
Sometime after July 1933, Ross Hoover went back to work for Magnolia in the oilfields. Lived about a month in Maud, Oklahoma, then bought a little house in St. Louis and moved it out on a lease. His brother, Keith HOOVER, and sister and brother-in-law, Ben and Gladys BOYD, also lived there at the time. The Hoover's next residence was in Fittstown, Oklahoma, where a daughter, Shirley Maud HOOVER, was born on April 24, 1936. When she was about two months old, a second tragedy struck. Harold was hit by an automobile. The Hoover's house was near a highway and the five-year-old little boy was playing at a neighbor's on the other side of the highway. He wasn't supposed to cross the road by himself, but when he saw his father come home he ran to meet him. He was in the hospital in Ada for a very long time. I've been told that Harold had to learn to walk and talk again. Cecil Hoover, holding her two-month old daughter, stayed at his bedside. Gladys BOYD took the boys home with her until their grandmother, Maud Eaton, came to stay with them. Our father rented a place in Ada where our grandmother took care of the children.
When Harold was able to leave the hospital, the Hoovers moved to Stonewall, about 12 miles from Ada, and never went back to Fittstown. They rented a house in Stonewall for awhile and then built a house. Once again, they moved their house, "out on a lease." Later, they moved back to town and bought a house. Another daughter, Linnie Luella HOOVER, (me) was born in Stonewall on October 6, 1938.
About 1941, the Hoovers decided to move to Texas. We don't know exactly when that move took place. They were living in Whiteface, Texas, on April 12, 1942, when their daughter, Anna Louise HOOVER, was born. Ross Hoover was working for Magnolia Oil Company in Texas. He quit that job and on Thanksgiving Day in 1942, the family was enroute back to Stonewall, Pontotoc County, Oklahoma. They met cars loaded with mattresses, household goods, and all sorts of belongings, headed for California and the better life everyone expected to find there. When the United States became involved in World War II, there was a great demand for people to work in the "shipyards" in California. Ross Hoover went there for that reason.
Sometime in 1944, the Hoovers moved their family to California and lived about three months near Wasco, approximately 20 miles from Bakersfield. I have only a few vague memories of living in California. I remeber that "someone" tried to place the entire family under quarantine because of an infectious disease. I don't remember whether it was mumps or measles. I do remember that I had chicken pox and mumps at the same time while we were there. I also remember that grapes and other fruits grew wild along the sides of highways and we would sometimes stop to pick them. And that my father sometimes brought home wooden cases of other fruits. I thought it was wonderful!
Cecil Hoover's sister's family, Faith and Max MELHORN, were living in the same area. Our stay in California was brief. By the time school started in the fall, the Hoovers were back in Stonewall, Pontotoc County, Oklahoma. Gerald W. HOOVER began his senior year in highschool and I started first grade that year.
Before school started the next year, we had moved again. This time to Cashion, Kingfisher County, Oklahoma. Our father was working for either Phillips or Sohio, I don't remember which. We were there three years and then moved to the West Edmond Oil Fields. We lived in a company house, just off MacArthur Road, one mile south of Hopewell Baptist Church. We were living there when the last of our parent's children, Larry Don HOOVER, a very special baby, was born on October 17, 1949.
Our brother Harold had graduated from Cashion High School in the spring of that year. The next school term we went to the Campus School on the grounds of Central State College in Edmond. In the fall of 1950 we enrolled at school at Deer Creek, Consolidated School #6. It was two miles north of Hopewell Baptist Church. I was in the seventh grade; Vanda was a senior. He graduated at Deer Creek in the spring of 1951; Shirley in the spring of 1954; and Linnie in the spring of 1956. In the summer of 1957, Ross and Cecil Hoover, with their two younger children, moved one last time. He had retired from oilfield work and bought a small farm near Chandler in Lincoln County, Oklahoma. Anna Louise HOOVER and Larry Don HOOVER both graduated from Chandler High School.
All the children of this mountain couple graduated highschool, and five graduated from Central State College at Edmond, Oklahoma: Gerald Wayne HOOVER; Harold Ross HOOVER; Shirley Maud HOOVER, Anna Louise HOOVER, and Lary Don HOOVER. Both our parents had a firm belief in the value of education and the educating of their children was, perhaps, the second most important of the many accomplishments of their lives. Teaching their children the value of family being the most important.
Ross HOOVER died January 14, 1989. Cecil EATON HOOVER died September 26, 1992. Both are buried at Sans Bois Cemetery, Haskell County, Oklahoma.