27 - The Great Outdoors: Great Aunt Emma, part 2

From the late 1930s until they died, my great aunt Emma Knaus and her husband Matt Oliphant lived on a small farm in Texas. The outdoors was all around her, and it is a key theme in the two 5-year diaries she kept from 1946 through 1955.

"This is me out hunting... killed a grouse"

There was, of course, the weather and natural phenomena to remark on and wonder at: 

1946 Mar 15, Fri: "1st wild geese went north at 12:30 a.m..." 

1947 Apr 9, Wed: "... tornado kills 140 in Higgins Tex & Woodward Okla."

1947 Apr 10, Thu: "Stormy day..." 

1947 Jul 24, Sun: "... we saw a sun dog."

1950 Oct 6, Wed: "Shooting stars..."

1955 Sep 21, Wed: "We saw a rainbow in the clouds in the south west, sprinkled a little between 5 & 6 oclock, got cooler. We drove pipe deeper into the well." 

The land was their source of livelihood, of what they could grow, raise, trap, shoot, or mine. There was an 11-acre wood, and they used this as a source of fuel, and made some money selling cords of woods to people in the county. There was a pasture that they often rented to someone to graze cattle, and they occasionally baled and sold hay. They would gather and sell pecans that fell from trees on their property. They dug a gravel pit, and sold gravel by the load. Sometimes Matt just searched for treasure.

1946, Nov 11. "Armistice Day. We went to town, sold 10 doz eggs = $5.20, 71 lbs pecans $19.88..."

1947 Jun 7, Sat: "... bought mine detector $45."

1948 Jan 7, Wed: "... Matt took Earl Ellington treasure hunting, found nothing."

1955 Jan 27, Thur: "EC Morris of Tyler brought a loader and loaded & hauled 3 loads of gravel for J.C. Brumbels. Matt allows him 20 cents a yard to load. Matt pulled down 1 tree with the loader (ford tractor)."

Emma's relationship to the wildlife was typically that of predator. Additional protein was useful, even if it came in the form of a squirrel or opossum. They would set out traps for game, and various pelts could be sold for cash.

1947 Oct 25, Sat: "Matt got deer hunting license $7.50, went up on the gore road, no meat."

1947 Oct 28, Tue: "... Matt killed a doe..." [hunting deer in Colorado]

1947 Oct 31, Fri: "Canned meat."

1947 Jan 5, Sun: "Went to the traps, caught 2 rabbits." 

1947 Jan 13, Mon: "Caught 2 skunks 3 possums. Ira showed us how to skin opossum up by the bridge where we set 2 traps for mink. Temperature 60°."

1947 Jan 18, Sat: "...Matt went to the traps caught 1 civet cat, 1 opossum..." 

1947 Jan 24, Fri: "Matt went south looking for ducks, got a rabbit..."

1947 Jan 28, Tue: "We went to town p.m... Shipped 1 fox, 9 possum, 2 skunk, 1 civet cat to Sears cost .22."  

1947 Feb 2, Sun: "... got check $5.25 for 15 furs." 

1948 Jan 27, Tue: "Went to the traps, buzzards had eaten the rabbit..."

1948 Jan 29, Thu: "Tommy Curry walked down, ate dinner with us then he & Matt went duck hunting. I shot the 22 at a rabbit but didn't hit it. Matt shot a jack rabbit for the dogs."

1948 Feb 8, Sun: "...Caught a big possum in trap, cooked it for chickens." 

1949 Jan 14, Fri: "We finished upholstering chair, then put out some fish lines." 

Emma and friend with two elk

Sometimes it was just defending her chickens. She trapped foxes, and killed snakes; Matt had to shoot a skunk that bit their dog. 

1946 Oct 1: "... Killed a rattle snake 3 ft 10 inches long, 6 1/2 around, 6 rattles."

1946 Oct 27, Sunday: "I picked up pecans on the west side. Killed 2 copper head snakes, then walked down to the 11 acre place where Matt was hunting pecans."

1946 Nov 15. "I went to the timber to get wood. Saw a fox up in a tree, I came back after Matt and the gun and we got the fox."

1947 Jan 1, Wed: "The snow is glazed over the top, thawing underneath and sleeting. Fox caught in Palms trap. I found it and then Matt went and shot it."  

1950 Feb 7, Tue: "I killed white pullet for wolf bait..."

Matt died at the age of 75, three years and a couple months after the ten-year period documented in these diaries, at the end of March, 1959. Emma lived 9 years after that, passing at age 79 on September 12, 1967. I would have been 14 at the time, but I don't remember meeting her: she lived in Texas, and I grew up in the Midwest. 

I asked my Aunt Gladys about her, and she remembers Emma as being petite and somewhat pretty, and that Emma's father Clemens Knaus did not like her choice of a husband and instructed that her inheritance be put in trust until Matt passed away. Perhaps Clemens, an industrious German immigrant, thought Matt was too much of a dreamer. When her mother Eliza passed in 1935 Emma did get some money, but perhaps there was more when her husband died if her trust investments survived the depression years. 

Emma and Matt are buried next to each other in the New Chatfield Cemetery; there is a FindAGrave entry showing a nice stone with their names and dates of birth and death. If I'm ever close to Dallas, I'll stop by in Chatfield and pay my respects. 

Great Aunt Emma in 1961, about age 72, visiting brother Dan, shortly after Matt's death