Lydia Ann Houston

Lydia Ann Houston

May, 1874 - November 3, 1956

Lydia Ann (Houston) & Samuel Joseph Gribble

Lydia Ann Houston, the 9th of 11 children was born in 1874.

Lydia married Samuel Joseph GRIBBLE a native Texan, also born in Dallas County, Texas. Samuel’s grandparents Joseph and Elizabeth (Curtis) Gribble along with their son, William Bovey Gribble immigrated to America from England in 1859. The name Gribble or Gribol means "Place of the Crab Pot", and indicated origin on the Southwest coast of England.

William’s biography was written in 1872 in the Memorial and Biographical History of Dallas County, Texas, (The Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, Illinois):

    William B. Gribble, son of Joseph Gribble, was born in England in , 1817. Coming from England to America in 1859, his father located in Cooper County, Missouri where he remained two years, and from there went to Moniteau County, same state. In 1881he moved to Texas, and here died in 1883. He was a liberal almost to a fault. Socially, he was a member of the Masonic order; politically, a Democrat; religiously a member of Methodist Episcopal Church South. He was engaged in speculating in live stock, having been successful in all his various undertakings. At the time of his death he was a contractor on the construction of the Kansas City, Fort Scott and Memphis Railroad.

   In 1844 Joseph Gribble married Miss Elizabeth Curtis born in England in 1816. She too, was a member of the Methodists Episcopal Church South. She was a very unpretentious woman, but was always to be relied upon in times of need or distress. She and her husband were the parents of seven children of whom only the subject of this sketch reached adult age. The mother died about three months after the father, apparently of a broken heart.

   William B. Gribble was born in Devonshire, England. In 1848 he went to Cardiff, Wales, where he remained until 1859, when the family came to America. He remained with his parents until he was twenty-four years of age, but engaged in the furniture and lumber business. At the age of twenty-four he left the parental roof, went to Indian Territory, and for two years and a half was engaged in farming there. He then moved to Dallas County, Texas, settled about four miles south of Wheatland, Texas. From there into Wheatland engaged in the general merchandise business. Not withstanding he has again established himself in business and now has a thriving trade.

   In 1871, Mr. Gribble married Nancy Spence, daughter of Elijah and Nancy M. Spence and their union has been blessed with four children: Samuel J., Charles M., Fannie L., & George L.

   Mr. Gribble is in comfortable circumstances. He has not made it the goal of his ambition to accumulate a fortune, but rather to do right; consequently, he has the unlimited respect of the entire neighborhood. Both he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopalian Church South. He is a steward and trustee of the church and secretary of the Sabbath school. For a number of years he has been a member of the Masonic fraternity, and is now Postmaster.

In 1903 the Gribble families decided to move to the Oklahoma Territory, as it was then known, to live. The Oklahoma panhandle, land that was unassigned by congress, was opened to settlers on April 22, 1889, and officially designated Oklahoma Territory on May 2, 1889. The area they immigrated to, this Oklahoma panhandle, was known as "No Man’s Land" until 1890. From 1850 to 1890 this area had no local administration under the United States government. No Man’s Land pioneers built ranches, farms, and towns under difficult conditions. About 2/3 of the settlers here before 1890 either died within four years or left for milder places. Those who stayed had to deal not only with a sometime brutal environment, but also with various kinds of banditry. The met the challenges of nature with plain grit and courage. They met banditry with legendary harsh and abrupt measures, sometimes in one-on-one confrontations and sometimes as vigilante groups. (Copied from The Creation of No Man's Land, Brochure Series, No. 1, No Man's Land Historical Society, Kenneth R. Turner, (June 1944).

The 1903 wagon train was led by the elder William B. Gribble and included his wife, his two younger sons George L. and Charles M. with his wife Minnie and their infant son Jess. By today’s roads the trip would be approximately 520 miles. When they arrived, they filed and settled on three-quarters of section 30-6-15 in Texas County only 4 miles from the Kansas border, and about 20 miles north of the present town of Guymon. There they dug "half-dug-outs" (earth covered shelters) for their first homes.

After they were settled, the oldest son Samuel J. & Lydia Ann (Houston) Gribble, along with their first two children Leroy and Joseph Alvin, left Texas in a covered wagon to join them in Oklahoma arriving on Christmas Eve, 1904. In his memoirs Joe could remember parts of the trip even though he was only 3 years old. They brought two horses, one mule, one cow, some chickens, and a walking plow plus $1300 in money. They also had a stove in the wagon. Samuel then filed on the SE ¼ of 30-6-15 and dug a "half-dug-out" to live in. They hauled water from the Wild Horse Wind Mill where there was a big reservoir.

Minnie Gribble taught their first school in her home where they sat on benches around the table. They met in different homes for worship service until the Block School was built. Two more children were born to Samuel and Lydia: Virgil Spence (1906) and Cleo Irene (1911).

In 1913 George L. Gribble married Anna Meyer and they moved to Kansas where they lived for the rest of their lives. George died in 1957.

William B. Gribble, the father was evidently not one to settle down. He died in Bakersfield, California in 1932, and his wife Nancy died there in 1936.

They did not have to endure the famous drought that hit the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles. Farmers had begun to plow up the natural grass cover and plant winter wheat. The area suffered from severe drought between 1934 and 1937, and without the complex root system of the grasses to anchor it, much of the soil was picked up by the winds. The resulting dust storms and sandstorms were so severe that roads and houses were buried and clouds from the storms were observed hundreds of miles away. More than half the population left the area. The hardships and migration of the Dust Bowl farmers were very well described in John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath (1939).

Samuel and Lydia survived and raised their four children on the homestead and lived there until bad health (he was totally blind from glaucoma by the time he was 42) caused them to move in with their son Joseph and Margaret Gribble (pictured here). Samuel died on May 21, 1956 and Lydia followed shortly afterward on November 3, 1956.

Descendants of William B. Gribble still farm (2001) the old homestead raising corn and winter wheat.

Lydia Ann Houston Descendants

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