The Call to Go West

by LaEtta Copeland Youst

In the year 1873 Gilford E. Youst and wife Virginia Victoria and their blue eyed baby girl Delphia Olive who was one year old, left Wellington West Virginia to go to the middle west.  They had received letters from brother Lenard Youst in Sumner County Kansas, encouraging them to come to Kansas to farm and raise cattle.

This part of the middle west was very new, and those young people were strong and hopeful, ready to challenge whatever it takes to help settle a new community.  They first came to the home of the Hildreths.  Mrs. Hildreth a sister of Mrs. Youst later they live in a sod house, the kind early settlers had to build. 

They raised cattle, corn and wheat.  Their fuel was a course grass, twisted tightly together to burn more even.  This grass grew in large bunches.  They also gathered buffalo chips from the prairie for fuel.  They hauled their wheat to Wichita Kansas, a distance of fifty miles - their nearest market.  They lived near the state line south toward the Indian Territory, which is now Oklahoma.  They could go some distance into this territory and get wood for fuel.  It was a days journey with a team of horses or oxen.  They could not make that journey very often.  In 1874 the grasshoppers took their crops and a new baby was expected that fall.  The future did not look as bright for this couple as it did before their crop was destroyed.

September eleventh, a blue eyed baby boy was born named James Albert.  He had brown curly hair, and fair complexion.  Three years later, 1877 another boy was born named Claudius D., who had dark brown eyes and auburn curly hair, with very fair skin and chubby build.  This family lived near the Chikaskia River where most of the people who lived in this community would have chills and fever.  It was most prevalent in the spring and early summer.

The brother Lenard went farther west, and kept in touch with his brother Gilford.  The spring of 1879 Mrs. Youst took the children and went back to West Virginia to visit for the summer while Gilford went to Leadville, Colorado.  From there he went to Chico Springs, New Mexico (then a territory).  He worked for a big cattle man by the name of Dorsey.  He was called Senator Dorsey.

This part of the county was considered a very good healthy climate.  He found a place for his family to live.  Gilford was an energetic individual, was dependable and worked very hard.  Those who became acquainted with him like him.  He worked for a number of cattle companies; for some he worked as roundup cook, and later as foreman over their cowboys.  He had a way of getting along with men.  This cattle company was called the Tinsley Brothers, their horse and cattle brand was TA.

In August 1880 a baby girl was born, Lena Alice.  She had dark brown eyes and black hair with an olive complexion.  She grew up to be a very pretty young lady, very quiet and refined who was loved by all who knew her.  In 1883 another boy was born, George B.  He had dark brown eyes and black hair, with the same complexion as his sister Alice, three years older.  He was rather a sensitive child and cried easily.  He grew up to be a very likeable young man, a very kind patient person.  I can say this with authority for when he was twenty-three I married him and he kept all those good qualities of character (as above mentioned) as long as he lived.