Evelyn Duvall Meek's Genealogy and Historical Books

Evelyn Duvall Meek

Evelyn is married to Walter Meek who is my Father's first cousin.  She has written several books about the places she has lived.  I would classify these books as Genealogy/Family History books.  As you read, you will find yourself caught up in the story.  Evelyn is a wonderful writer!

Evelyn's Woodville Story

Evelyn's Woodville story tells about how her family was struggling financially, often times not having enough to eat when they were living in Comanche, Oklahoma. She tells about their decision to move to California.  She also describes the trip from OK to CA and some of the experiences she had.  She tells the reader how her family moved into "Dewey Meek's Camp".  The Meek Camp was in the town of Woodville, CA.  It was a cotton laborer's settlement where people came and went depending on the work available in the fields.  Woodville is also where one of the Farm Labor Camps is located.

There are several other families mentioned in the book as well as the Duvall family.  This is a wonderful book that gives one a good idea of how the "Okies" had to live when they first came to California.

Evelyn's Poplar Story

From 1947 When we came to Poplar from Woodville to 1950

Evelyn's Poplar story describes the family's move from Woodville to Poplar.  She tells of living in a tent because they had to save money to buy the materials to build a house.  She talks about how life was in Poplar where many families were living in tents.  The reader learns about the bars and the churches in Poplar as well as the various families living there.  She mentions the Bunches, the Poseys, the Fred Smith family (my Grandma, Grandpa, Mother, Aunts and Uncles), the Kaisers, etc.  She describes the town and the culture of Poplar, CA to a tee.  This book is wonderful for anyone who has roots that go back to the central valley of California.                                              

                                              

Evelyn's Poplar and Boron Story

A True Story about the Duvall and Meek Families from 1950 to 1967

In the Poplar and Boron story, Evelyn tells the reader about how her Father finally got their house built and how excited she was about it. She tells about her rigid Christian upbringing, more about the people in Poplar, and having to work in the cotton fields.  She and Walter Meek got married and started having babies.  She talks about Ola Findley Meek and Wesley Meek (my Uncle).  Evelyn provides the reader with a lot of Poplar history and information about the families living there at that time as well as her own family.  She tells about the move to Boron, CA and what her life was like there while raising her children.  In this book she tells how my Mother and Father met and mentions my sister and me.  She describes my sister and me as...."They were beautiful, sweet little girls".
This is a great genealogy/history book!

                                                 

 

At this point and time, Evelyn and I are working with the LDS Family History Library-Donations, to donate her books so they will be available to everyone online for research.

I found these books to be invaluable.  While reading them, it took me right back to my childhood in Poplar, CA, how we lived and the people we knew.  Thank you cousin Evelyn!

The Term "Okie"

Californians Coined the Term "Okie"

According to this article published in the Santa Cruz Sentinel, Santa Cruz, California on Friday, May 12, 1939, it was the residents of California that coined the term "Okie". 

We call them "migrants," scarcely hinting that they are Americans.

One hundred thousand!  Two hundred thousand!  Three hundred thousand!  The ill-clad and ill-fed migrants poured into California in broken down jalopies. 

Californians looked scornfully on this procession of human misery, "Migrants" was not the word to express contempt, and, and so Californians originated the word "Okie"

The article goes on to discuss John Steinbeck's relationship with the migrants, the camps, the "Grapes of Wrath", etc.

Please see attached article below.  My family experienced all of the "Okie" wrath. They hung in there and rose above it. They were still impoverished and lived simple lives, but their lives were better than the one they had before.

 

The Joke was on Us-Grandma Pulled a Fast One!

As a child growing up, my maternal grandmother took care of my sister and me while our parents worked.

I loved my Grandma and Grandpa Smith so much.  I probably spent more time with them than I did with my own parents.  I would follow my grandmother everywhere she went.  I must have listened to them more when they were talking than I knew at the time.  I say this because I can remember quite a bit of family history that I could only have picked up from them. 

My Grandparents and their kids, as well as, other family members immigrated to California from Oklahoma about 1940 or 1941.  They eventually settled in a little town called Poplar in Tulare County.  Before settling in Poplar, they lived in various labor camps staying in places for short periods of time.  They went where the work took them.  Yeah, they were Okies. 

Our parents worked very hard in the fields, hoeing cotton, picking cotton, picking fruit, and whatever  kind of work they could scrounge up.  We were very poor.

Anyway, Grandma always told us that her name was Stella Marie.  I don't know how many times I heard her say that her name was Stella Marie.  Her maiden name was Holland. 

Grandma and Grandpa had six kids, and 30 grand-kids.  I was really close to both of them because they took care of me for so long.  The other grand-kids lived much further away.  

When the grand-kids started having kids, some of them started giving their daughters the name of Marie for their second name.  You can imagine how many great grand-kids they had with 30 grand-kids!  So there are all of these little girls running around who are descended from Fred and Stella Smith with the middle name of Marie.

When my turn came around, of course, I named my daughter Lauren Marie!  My Grandma was in the hospital because the doctors thought she had suffered a stroke.  I was in the hospital because I had given birth.  I spoke to my Grandma several times while we were both in the hospital.  I told her that I had named the baby after her.

I didn't realize how sick my Grandma was.  She never went home from the hospital.  She passed away on February 14th, 1985.  My daughter was 11 days old.  I was devastated.  My beloved Grandmother would never meet my daughter.  What was I going to do without my Grandma?  I was almost 30 years old, and didn't know what I was going to do without my Grandma....

It was after Grandma passed away, and I was reading her obituary that I was even more shocked than I was already from her passing.  In her obituary, it said that her name was Stella Ethel Smith.  I am thinking, Ethel? Ethel?  Where did this Ethel come from?  I called my Aunt Thelma who was responsible for including the Ethel in Grandma's obituary.  She confirmed that Ethel, was indeed,  Grandma's name.

On the SS death index, it has Grandma's name as Stella Ethel Smith.  There was no mention of Marie on the index.  I am not sure if Grandma gave herself the name of Marie and ignored the name of Ethel because she didn't like it, or what happened with Grandma's name.  All I know is that when Grandma said her name was Stella Marie in front of Grandpa, in front of God, in front of her kids, and anyone else who would listen, not one soul spoke up.  Nobody asked her if she wasn't forgetting that she had another name of Ethel. 

I bet when Aunt Thelma got to Heaven, she got a good butt whuppin' for adding that Ethel in there!  She may still be getting them. 

At least we didn't name a bunch of her great granddaughters Ethel!....I'm sure Grandma is happy about that, since she went to such great lengths to never mention the name.