Don, Here is the transcript of the account of Annie Belle Sasser's (James B Sasser family) sojourn from KY to WA and some account of her family. This was told to my father, George Sasser, a year or two before Aunt Annie's death. I have some information to add to the family of James B. Sasser. I will send it ASAP. Sincerely, Phil Sasser Appendix A Family History A bit about the Sasser family as related to me (George Sasser) by Aunt Annie in 1983. Annie Bell Sasser: b April 26, 1899 I am not sure, but I think our parents went to Kansas soon after they were married. The older children were born there. Bill was born in Idaho and Austin in Washington. Hazel Marie was born in Oklahoma, but she lived only about four months. We lived in Manhattan, Kansas when Janie and Mabel were born. I was born in Solomon City and I think we lived in Abilene when Stan was born. At one time, we lived as neighbors to President Eisenhower's uncle. In fact, it was Mrs. Elizabeth Eisenhower who was midwife for our mother when Stan was born. Uncle Dixon also lived in Kansas. His wife died and left four children; one of which was a tiny baby. Mother and Dad took the two oldest, Frank and Rhoda, and kept then for a long time. Father went back to Kentucky to see Taylor at one time and took Frank with him. When Uncle Dixon married again, Frank and Rhoda went to live with them, but since there were other children, problems developed. Years later, when in California, I asked Rhoda how long she and Frank lived with us. She said that she lived with us until almost grown. She never liked her step- mother and felt that my mother was the only mother she could remember. "With your kids, my kids, and our kids, I guess things were rough." Uncle Dixon and Dad farmed together in Idaho, raising fruit, bees and alfalfa. I can never remember Dad getting stung by the bees, but poor Mabel was allergic to bee stings and seemed to be followed by the bees wherever we played. She once stepped on a bumble bee and was stung in the instep. She became swollen with big blue spots all over and the folks really became scared. There were no emergency rooms available at that time and they filled a washtub with warm soda water and soaked her in it. Another time Mabel stepped on a root from a greasewood bush and a piece went very deep into her foot. Mother held her while Dad cut the thing out with a straight razor. But Mabel was a tough little gal and came through all right. Mabel could outrun both Janie and me and was usually the leader. We lived on the banks of the Payette River, which was a swift and dangerous river. Loggers operating up the river from our place would float the logs down the river to a cove below our house. We three girls would get out on those rafts and play. One day a raft got loose at the logging camp and came floating down to settle nicely in our cove. We thought it was tied up as they usually were while the men were waiting to send the entire lot down the river. We were having a great time on it when the loggers came looking for it. It's a wonder our parents did not get gray long before they did. Dad used to say that Mabel never went around a sage brush but always over the top and usually left part of her clothes hanging. While living in Idaho, we also operated a small dairy. Mother was the chief milker. Janie learned to milk when she was only about five years old. She would milk in a tin cup and pour it into mother's milk pail. While living in Idaho, I remember that Dad sent money to Taylor for him to come to Idaho. When he didn't come, the folks were pretty well upset. I never knew why he didn't come. It might have been that his grandparents were afraid that he wouldn't come back, and of course, he had lived with them so long that they didn't want to lose him. Stan was a baby and I was four years old when we moved to Idaho from Kansas. We lived in Idaho for three years and then moved to Oakesdale, Washington. Aunt Rhoda and Uncle Bill Perry, also Uncle Clabe Perry, lived near Oakesdale. Aunt Rhoda was Dad's sister and the two Perrys were my mother's brothers. We moved from Emmet, Idaho to Oakesdale in a covered wagon. I was seven years old and Bill was the baby. There was another family with us and they had as many children as there were in our family. We took with us part of the dairy herd and for this reason we did not make very fast time. Janie and Mabel, along with a girl from the other family, took turns riding horses and driving the cattle. We saw our first Indians on that trip and of course the only thing we had heard about Indians was that they scalped people. I don't know about the grown-ups, but the kids were sure afraid they would be scalped. That was one time that none of the girls wanted to ride horseback and drive the cattle. Roads across the mountains were very poor and only wide enough for one wagon. Every so often there would be a place blasted out of the mountain side where a wagon could pull off and allow others to pass. At that time they did a lot of freight hauling with a ten mule team and the mules would have bells so that approaching wagons could pull off into one of the niches and allow the freight wagons to pass. One time we met some men in a light wagon, turned it sideways and carried it past. They then hooked the team to the wagon and proceeded on their way. The women and children slept in tents and the men slept under the wagons. One night a storm came and blew the tent down upon us. After seventeen days of travel, we arrived at Uncle Bill Perry's. We rented a farm near Oakesdale and began farming. We raised oats and wheat and also still had the dairy cows, so we operated a small dairy. Janie and Mabel, being the oldest, began helping around the barn and soon could harness and drive a team as well as Dad. Mother said I was still too young to work with the horses, so it became my job along with Stan to carry in the wood and water. We girls were all tomboys, but mother saw to it that we were taught table manners and to be polite to our elders. Dad had a few brood mares and when the colts appeared on the scene, we would have them broken to ride before they were weaned from their mothers. I was seven years old when we moved to Washington. By the time I was eleven, we were moving again and this time to Oklahoma where Uncle Perry Sasser lived. Dad bought an eighty acre farm but never attempted to farm it. He rented out the farm, built a store and a cotton gin and became a merchant. Janie went back to Washington a year later where Uncle Bill and Aunt Rhoda lived. Mabel, at the age of 15, eloped and got married to a boy of seventeen. Janie got married also the same year. She was not yet eighteen. When Stan was only sixteen, he joined the Navy for a four year hitch. During the year 1919, Dad sold the store and the cotton gin and we moved to Shawnee where Mabel then lived. I went to work for the telephone company. Mabel's husband died, leaving her with three children and another on the way, so she had to move home. When the baby was five months old, I talked her into going to California with me. I was able to get a transfer with the telephone company to the Riverside area and a few months later Mabel was able to get a job with the company also. Mother came out to Riverside that summer and brought Mabel's children. We liked it so well that we got Dad to sell their home in Shawnee and come to California. Later Mabel ended up in Tacoma, Washington with the telephone company and Mother and Dad moved there. I think that it was about 1933 that Dad had pneumonia and almost died. After that he became depressed and we became quite worried about him. I was then working in Seattle. One day Dad said to me, "I wish I was where I could see the sun shine every day." I asked if he wanted to go back to California and he answered, "yes." I then said to him to get busy and sell everything and I would take them back. Dad and I had bought a car together and after the move back to California, I left the car for them. In the meantime, Bill had got married, but Austin was still living with Dad and Mother. Austin was born with a leakage of the heart and in those days they didn't know what to do about it. He was never able to do any heavy work and was sick much of his life. He helped Mother and Dad as much as he could. Arthur and I were married in 1935, after a courtship off and on for thirteen years. Can you imagine that? Arthur's favorite joke was, "Annie finally caught me in the garage and I couldn't back out." I resigned from the telephone company when we were married. Mother died after a long illness in 1939. I had moved back to take care of her while she was sick and stayed on to care for Dad after her death. Arthur had a two year construction job at Whittier so we bought a home there and took Dad and Anthony to live with us. Mabel had married Bill Norton in 1939 and had moved to Oakesdale, WA. The war came along and Arthur went to work in the ship yards and I went to work building airplanes. Dad passed away in 1944, after which we decided to move to Fresno, taking Austin with us. During the World Peace Conference in San Francisco, I went back to work for the Telephone Company in Fresno. I only intended to stay a few months, but I ended up staying fourteen years, retiring in 1958 with twenty-nine years of work to my credit. ------------------------------