Mildred Virginia Jackson

SSN: 553-09-3886

Letter from Mildred Oats Jackson to her neice Priscilla Oates Nitzke .

1985

Dear Priscilla,

I could get more names and dates if I wanted to correspond with Vera Schoefer Harrigan or her mother Ellen Mathews Schoefer. I would rather see Ellen. She is nine months to the day older than Ces [Cecil Oats - Mildred's brother] and one day she told us about Harvey (Oats) driving them to school in the buggy or light wagon. And Ces jumping off and cutting up on the way to school.

You can do the Oatses by using the list from the reunion in 1983. [Tom Oats reunion] You can figure the approximates of birth dates from their ages. I have most of their birth dates. If I look them up I will send them to you some time. Page 3 on my list (What list) ?

Alfred (Oats) was married to Nell and they had Mary. She had children and grandchildren. Most of them live in Davis.

When Alfred was killed, she, Aunt Nellie, had a miscarriage. Uncle Johnny (Oats) was worried about her and said to Poppa (Tom Oats - Mildred's father) "We'll have to look out for Nell." So later he married her. And Mary grew up thinking Johnny was her father. And when she was grown up and was going to a music conservatory in San Francisco, a fortune teller told her that the man she thought was her father, wasn't. So she went right home to Fallon to find out about

it. Grandpa (John Oats from England) had at least one sibling (actually eight including Mary). (Mary Oats married a butcher by the name of Olds.) Our Aunt Mary said her Aunt Mary's house was like a little bazaar. We all take after her, I guess.

Poppa left England when he was 17, and the ship was becalmed for several weeks within the sight of England, and Poppa was homesick. He was in Australia seven years and ther came to Sacramento. Ces said he was on the train going to Folsom to work in a mine there, when the train passed the Strong Ranch and Pappa saw all the beautiful fruit trees. He pulled the rope to stop the train and got off and asked for a job. Later he and Mahlon Williamson negotiated to buy the ranch. I see the Strong Ranch advertised in the Union (Sacramento Union newspaper) whenever the paper prints an old copy back about 1890 or so.

Momma (Julia Poage Oats) had an "Aunt Mattie", who's second husband might have been a Williamson. Anyway, Momma's Aunt Mattie invited Momma to come visit her, and maybe help packing cherries. And that is how Poppa and Momma met. Momma said that when she saw Poppa walking by the packing shed she thought Poppa had the most beautiful blue eyes she had ever seen.

They first lived in the little house down in the orchard. Momma's mother (Mrs. Poage) lived with them until she died in 1903. I think, I'm not sure, that when they lived down there Momma's mother might have done most of the cooking. She was a wonderful cook I hear. That is where Ruthie (Ruth Oats Breuner - sister to Mildred) got it. The four older kids were born down there (I'm not sure about Bob). Then when Grandpa and Grandma (Oats) were planning to come from England Poppa built the house we call "Out Home" where we four youngest were born. Later when Harvey and Ces were in their teens Poppa had a little two room house built for them in the back yard - a bedroom and a room for their bird eggs, skates, and stuff. We called it "The Boys House"

Sometime after the folks moved to the new house (around 1900) Momma started having help with the housework and cooking. Mrs. Rickard was one lady that she used to tell us about. Sometime ask me about Willie Rickard.

Sometime after Mrs. Rickard, Maud (Oats Leet) came to help us. I thought she was wonderful. She was so good. Washed the floors, cooked, baked bread, did the washing. We had a wash house with an old range in it. Later one day when Momma wasn't home Bob Oats -(Mildred's Brother) sold the stove to someone who came by for a quarter. She let me make butter when she was making it. Let me make jelly that I put in little glasses that Poppa bought for me, and when we were hurt we cried for her. Momma was generally busy with a baby.

After Maud married the second time (Henry Thomas) and moved away we had a Mrs.Hartman. I think she has a child. I'm not sure. That was around the time Toot (Laurence Oats) was born.