MORE...Stories of Grandma Nancy Sharp

Today is Sunday and Sunday's always make me think of dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's. Grandma made this AMAZING chocolate cake. No one has the recipe that I am aware of today. It had a frosting on it that was more like fudge. After it got hard, you could actually break a chunk off. She always served it with a jar or two of Pickled Peaches. Oh my gosh, how that peach juice would soak into the cake and taste like heaven. There was always a houseful and I have often scratched my head and wondered how she fed so many people with one chicken and one cake. There was always a huge bowl of mashed TATERS and white gravy and often green beans with bacon in them. We must have just filled up on the taters and gravy. After dinner the dominoes came out. The table was cleared in ten minutes flat and the cracking sound of shuffling dominoes lasted all afternoon. FORTY_TWO was the game. They ususally played partners and as soon as one team lost, another set of two players moved in. Grandma was competitive and SERIOUS about the game. She HATED to lose. Everyone else sat around visiting all afternoon. All us kids played outside on the patio and in the alley. Great memories!

Manuel Pool and son Garvin

My Grandfather Manuel Pool with son Garvin. Manuel died in 1956 of prostate cancer and heart condition in Poteau Oklahoma.

Manuel Pool Sons

Left to Right
Garvin Pool (deceased) Lyndell Pool (age 83) Harvy Pool (age 79)

Manuel Pool Family

Manuel Pool Children-Moses Greenworth and Missouri Eddy Pool Grandchildren
From left to right, Garvin Pool (with 2nd or 3rd wife next to him) both deceased, Lois Pool deceased, my father Lyndell Pool age 83.

Posted by Brenda Pool Vignaroli

Bertha Poole Handy

Bertha, Phyliss (with doll), Gladys, (Annie's mother) Alma, Mollie, Judy, (Orville's sister), and Floy (Woodie's 2nd wife) This picture comes from Annie Ramsey. Bertha was the first of Tyford and Mollie's children to be born in Oklahoma. The others were all born before statehood in Indian Territory. Orville shared with me that Bertha was good solid woman. He said that his mother was good friends with her before they all moved to California. Bertha married Emmett Handy. He was 17 years older than her. Annie shared with me that her Grandma lived with Bertha until she passed at age 94 and they lived in Fresno where they are both buried. She said she was a sweet lady but tough. Annie adored her and stayed in touch with her until she passed away. She remembers that she had a son who had a couple of kids, one of which had polio. I believe that her son was Emet Earl Handy, born June 16, 1929 and died May 12, 1977. He had a son named Patrick Brian and a daughter Tami. I am presently trying to locate and communicate with Brian Handy. I believe he is in California and a pastor????

GRANDMA NANCY TAYLOR SHARP MEMORIES

Grandma.....
She personified everything that a child should have in a Grandmother. Her fried chicken was just mouthwatering. And how on earth did she feed so many people with one chicken. I never learned to cut up a whole chicken myself but Grandma could have that bird out of the wrapper and in the big giant black skillet in five minutes. One time someone brought her a LIVE turkey. They lived in town when this happened. On Antelope Street in Woodlake. I think it was 362 Antelope Street. She was going to kill it and cook it for Sunday dinner. It was full grown. She got two pieces of wood and got that turkeys head in between. She kept saying how badly she needed a good sharp AXE but they no longer owned one. She chopped that turkeys head off with a sharp knife and blood started going everywhere. She jumped back and the crazy bird ran all over the back yard and into the alley. It flopped and flapped its wings. NO HEAD mind you. Blood was just everywhere. She told me to just keep and eye on it while she checked her boiling water and I ran around flapping my own wings so excited about this masacre. When it settled down she dumped it into the boiling water and boy did it stink. She eventually made one of her amazing meals, which I shall talk about in another post.

GRANDPA VERB AND ME

Me, (Sheena Sharp) and my Grandpa Verb Sharp. This is taken at Yettem, California. We had us a Truck Patch there. My Grandma Nancy had to do most of the work. She would chop cotton all day and then come home and tend that garden because Grandpa was crippled and could not do it. She would bag up corn and okra and tomatoes and such and when cars stopped, it was my job to gather it up for them. If we ran out of something I had to go pick it. Hard to believe how much was expected of a three year old then compared to NOW but I loved it and I thought I was so important. Grandpa said I was his right hand man. There was an irrigation ditch across the road and I wanted to go over there so badly and catch pollywogs but Grandpa would never let me near it because he said he could not save me if I tumbled in. He took me fishing with him though and we caught crawdads by the bucketful and Grandpa cooked them for us when she got home.

SHARP and POOLE cousins

Taken in the Fall of 1957 at the Sharp Place in Yettem, California. From the left: my brother, Ronny Sharp, Mike Poole, Me in the back and my hand is on my brother Bobby's head, my brother Dane next to Bobby...the tall boy in the front is Bill Hays, son of Mark and Mirl Hays. Mirl was a daughter of Grandpa Fuzzy and Grandma Vernie (my Grandpa Sharp's sister) and they they lived right here. I do not know the two little boys to the right of Bill. Crazy...I should know them. The last boy is Jimmy Poole, brother to Mike. Mike and Jimmy were sons of Burl and Eva Mae and Grandsons of Ocie and Alma Poole. The hills in the background are the foothills leading up to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. The area behind us and little to the South was known to us as MUD GAP. The Yokut Indians had lived there before us and at that time you could find arrowheads and spears everywhere.

Great Grandpa Fuzzy and Great Grandma Vernie

Great Grandpa Carroll Sharp with his wife Vernie Poole. I believe that she is half Choctaw and never more evident than in this picture. Her mother was Missouri Poole, a full blood Choctaw. This is unproven and passed down oral history only. Everyone called Carroll, FUZZY. He was born around Booneville, Logan County, Arkansas. His dad, Charlie Sharp died when he was only two years old. A bad flu epidemic came through that area of Arkansas in 1882 and his dad, Charlie Sharp and Grandad, Adron Sharp died within a few days of each other. Fuzzy and Vernie married in 1899 at a place called Kully Chaha in the Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory. It was somewhere near Poteau. My Granpa Verb was their firstborn in 1901. They migrated to California in the late 1930's but not before moving around Oklahoma. I found them in 1910 around Jay, in Greer County and then they lived in Stephens County for many years before giving up on farming the blowing soil and heading West. Grandpa Fuzzy died in 1952 and Grandma Vernie followed in 1957. They are both buried in Woodlake, Tulare County, California. I have seen their stone there many many times.

Pooles???????

Can anyone identify ANYONE in this picture?????????

Grandpa Verb Sharp

My Grandpa Verb was one of a kind. I guess we ALL think that about our Grandpas. See his crippled hands. He would sit at his typewriter for hours and peck away one finger at a time to write a letter to the Editor of the local newspaper. Boy did Grandpa have opinions. He was born in 1901 in Oklahoma when Oklahoma was still Indian Territory. His father was Carroll Sharp but everyone called him FUZZY because he clipped his whiskers with scissors instead of shaving. His mother was Vernie Poole. I started my life living with them in a place called Yettem. It was a bunch of little houses clustered together and nestled right up against the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas. Not long before they settled this area, outlaws, train robbers and such had traversed the area hiding in the hills. One famous pair of outlaws, Sontag and Evans stayed in that area often and Sontag was shot to death nearby. Grandpa showed me the place several times. It was called Stone Corral. They came to California in search of opportunity. Oklahoma had failed them. They were Farmers and the dirt on their farm had dried up and was blowing away in the wind. It was the worst of times and they went WEST. Note the television in the background. It was my FIRST television. We did not have one at our home. I spent many Saturday nights with Grandpa and Grandma. We would watch PONDEROSA and Wonderful World of Disney. Grandpa loved the Beverly Hillbillies, he hated Perry Como. Grandma watched whatever HE wanted to watch. They both dipped snuff and kept their snuff cans nearby to spit into. Grandma kept 7-UP in her refrigerator and if you were spending the night with them, you got a whole soda pop. I did not have to take a bath. I had to sit up on the countertop and wash my feet good and then slept with Grandma and listened to her stories until I woke up to the smell of bacon frying and biscuits in the oven.
Posted by: Sheena Sharp

My Grandma Nancy Sharp and Grandpa Verb Sharp always called her, "Aunt Mollie Poole". It sure looks like her and her husband Tyford in the picture. Any comments? Wish I owned that dresser right now.

Here we see MG standing at the gravesite of Missouri and there IS a grave marker up at THAT time. I have heard a lot of stories about MG Pool in my life. Sometimes he was called MG but most often Green. Whenever my Grandpa Verb would do something honery, Grandma would comment that it was the Poole side coming out in him. Once when she was really "put out" with him, she whispered to me that his Grandpa Pool was CRAZY AS A BEDBUG and he was acting just like him. See the things a child will remember. Be careful what you say because one day, someone will write it on a blog or on facebook about YOU.

I think that THIS picture will settle the confusion once and for all about where Missouri is buried. I plan to go there very soon and have a look around. The next picture is HER stone. I have a Great Aunt who was there with her mother (Vernie Poole) and was told that there was NO stone. So something must have happened to her stone over the years.

Verb and Nancy Sharp 1969

This picture of my grandparents, Verb and Nancy Sharp was taken on Easter Sunday 1969. This looks like Ossalee and Wanda Sharp's home in Visalia. I remember that pink dress so clearly. She would struggle to pull in down over her tummy and complain that she was too FAT. She worked so hard all her life with Grandpa being crippled with arthritis, SHE was the only source of income for them. Grandpa was a very creative man. Notice how bent his hands are with the arthritis....with THOSE hands he could create such clever objects. He would always save the backbone from the Thanksgiving Turkey...everyone saved them for him. He turned them into little creatures...I think he called them "GO DEVILS". They had rose thorns running down the back spine and big eyes and he painted and decorated them. He loved to CREATE something out of NOTHING. Just about a year or so after this picture was made, they moved back to Oklahoma where they both lived until they died.

Posted by: Sheena Sharp

Eldon, Woodrow, Gene Poole

Eldon and Eugene (Gene) were both sons of Ches and Ada Poole and both died tragically. Eldon had just come home from WWII and was killed in a plane crash. If someone knows more detail, please share. I think it was a small plane and he was flying it. Gene (funny come to think of it, his name was GENE POOL, he was riding his motorcycle and was hit head on not very far from his parents home. I was at Oss and Wanda's Sharp's home in Visalia California and Gene's wife was there waiting for him. We were having BBQ and making home made icecream when the call came that he had been killed. He was on his way to us. He was very handsome I recall. I remember him being good buddies with my Uncle Verbie Sharp also...they played poker together. I remember he always had a cigar in his mouth. He had two sons with his wife Nadine. They should still be around Visalia, California. In the center is Orville Gail Pool's dad, Woody.

Tyford and Mollie Poole Family

Tyford, Mollie, Emmett, Roy, Ches, Clarence, Bertha, Bill, (Bailey Franklin), Hubert and Woodrow. Ocie is missing or the entire family would be here. Thank you to Annie (daughter of Hubert) for this picture.

Verb and Nancy Sharp Family by Sheena Sharp

This is my Grandpa Verb Sharp, my Grandma, Nancy Taylor Sharp and all five of their children. I believe this picture was taken in Stephens County Oklahoma, probably around Bray or East of Hope. Ossalee is the oldest, born in 1923, Genola (Ginny) is standing against the house on right. Genola was born in 1921. Mirlacoys (Mirt) is sitting to the left of Grandpa. Mirt was born in 1926. Verbie Jr. is standing in front of Ginny. Verbie was born in 1929. My dad is the youngest, Bobby. He was born in 1931. My Grandpa Verb was crippled and in a wheelchair with Rheumatoid Arthritis very young. He went to crutches in his early 30's. Grandma Nancy is standing up on the porch. Every single one of them have gone on to heaven now. Ginny died just this year (2009) and Mirt died last winter I believe. Grandma and Grandpa are buried here where I live in Carney, Oklahoma, Oss is buried in Visalia, California, Verbie is buried in Bakersfield, California, Mirt is buried in Dallas Texas and Bobby his buried in Carney, Oklahoma.

Here is the location of Greer County, Oklahoma, where the Tyford and Mollie family lived in 1910. This may solve a mystery for me. I have wondered what made my ancestors leave the Southeast corner of the state, up near Arkansas, to migrate down into Stephens County. Perhaps Tyfords family was already there and wrote to them to come for land or work or opportunity. I find my grandparents, Caroll and Vernie living nearby in Jay, Jackson County in 1910 census. My Grandpa was only nine years old in 1910. Later they must have gone back to LaFlore County because that is where my Granparents married.

It took me a long time to locate Tyford Pool in the 1910 Federal Census. I knew that they were in Oklahoma. I am still not sure where Quartz, Greer County, Oklahoma is in relation to LaFlore County where so much of the family were settled. I am going to use the exact spelling that the Census taker used because it amuses me to THINK what their Southern accents sounded like to this person. He spells it Teford Paal. So you just have to use your imagination with the spelling PAAL. Makes you SMILE also, I bet! Tyford states that he was born about 1873 and he is 37 years old. Mollie is 35. The children listed are: Emmitt G, age 14, Roy G, age 12, Osa, age 11,
Chester age 9, Clarence A, age 7, Bertie L, age 4, Bertha M, age 2 and Bailey F, age 1.
If not for "soundex" I would have never found Tyford Pool listed as Teford L Paal.
The picture just below is taken just around this time I believe.

This great picture comes from Annie Ramsey. THANK YOU ANNIE....keep em comin!!!!!
Taken in March 1911: Front Row: Bertha, Mollie and Hubert, (baby on Mollie's lap). Tyford Franklin, Bailey Franklin, (Bill), Bertie, died at age 17. Back row: Emmett, Ches, Ocie, Roy and Clarence. This was before Woodrow, who was the youngest one born. Woodrow was just younger than my father.

Ches and Ader Poole

My Grandpa Verb Sharp took me with him to visit with his cousins, Chester and Ada Poole often. They lived in Elderwood, not far from where Grandma and Grandpa lived in Yettem. Their yard and home was immaculate. Chester was the son of Tifford and Mollie Poole and a grandson of Moses Greenworth Poole.
My grandparents always called Ada, Ader...it was always, "chess and ader"
They loved them dearly.

Uncle Bawley and The Hitch Hiker

This is one of my favorite pictures of my Uncle Bawley Sharp. Bawleys real name was Oscar Vansler Sharp. He was my Grandpa Verb's brother. He is on the right. He was a funny man. Full of mischief, great sense of humor. This is a hitch hiker that he picked up. He was famous for picking up hitch hikers. He took this one into a Cafe and fed him and then took his own shirt off and had his picture taken with him. Uncle Bawley bought and paid for the SHARP compound in California where they all lived around Yettem, with money he won playing poker in Reno. The money was a brown paper sack and he gave the original owner the sack of money and the deal was made without him even getting out of his car. Bawley was the son of Caroll Sharp and Vernie Poole.