Ranch Hand Returns Home to 101 Ranch Resting Place
Ponca City News June 4, 1986
Cowboys and Indians, wild west shows and ranch hand rodeos were all a part of the memories of Odis James Farmer, who came home to the 101 Ranch on Memorial Day. Farmer's ashes were scattered near the site of Cowboy Hill Cemetery by his stepdaughter Merry Crook, her husband, Sam and their daughter Alice.
The family was fulfilling the last wishes of Farmer, who as an impressionable youth of 14, left his native Missouri to work on the fabulous spread of the Miller Brothers.
Located on the banks of the Salt Fork River, Cowboy Hill, the cemetery, once part of the legendary 101 Ranch, was serene on this sunny Memorial Day. There were no crowds decorating graves, just the Crook family reflecting on Farmer's stories of the once great empire.
One could almost hear the hoof beats of a bygone era when cowboys galloped over the grassland and Indians roamed up and down the Salt Fork. Odis himself was part Cherokee on his mother's side.
Odis was one of many young hands who labored on the ranch. It would have been about 1918 when he joined up with the 101 gang. His work was mostly building roads through the 101,000-acre ranch.
This experience would be the springboard for a lifetime of building roads and bridges all over the world, although Farmer's education probably never extended beyond the fourth grade.
The Crook family wandered about premises of the cemetery where Zack Miller, one of the founders of the 101 Ranch, and Jack Webb, well known cowboy and sharpshooter, are buried. They recognized the old cemetery sign from a picture of Farmer's.
As they stood on the Cowboy Hill site it was easy to imagine the zealous whopping and hollering of cowboys, engaged in in rodeo high jinks, drifting up the hill from the arena across the road from the old White House. Only the crumbling foundation remains of the once proud ranch house headquarters.
The ranch, started in 1879 by Col. George W. Miller, father of the Miller brothers, Zack, Joe and George L. went into receivership in 1931 and was eventually parceled off into smaller farms.
Looking across State Highway 156 from the cemetery hill one could visualize a herd of buffalo grazing in the distance as they did almost three-quarters of a century ago.
The Crooks recalled Odis telling them "the people lined the fence like blackbirds," to watch the rodeo and wild west shows. He used to tell them about Bill Pickett and his peculiar style of bulldogging by biting the steer's lip, and about knowing Pawnee Bill and other performers of the Miller Brothers Wild West Show.
The show played to packed audiences all over the United States, climaxed by performers in Europe before the queens of England, Italy, Spain, Greece and Denmark. The outbreak of World War 1 ended the European tour.
The Crooks feel certain the stories "Poppa" told are true, because he is always told them the same way each time. He retained a life-long interest in horses and kept horses stabled in Downey, Calif. where he lived until his death on April 29 at the age of 82.
A well-traveled fellow, Odis built tunnels, roads and bridges all over the world. In 1955 United Airlines recognized him with a 100,000 hour plaque. Working in construction for Koering Construction, Borg-Warner and Caterpillar Farmer engineered in Finland, Venezuela, Canada, and was in England for the queen's coronation in the 1930's. He was recognized as an engineer, although he had no formal training.
Odis loved Oklahoma and the 101 Ranch, and visited here several times-the last time was about 10 years ago. Sam Crook said, "Odis talked mainly about his construction work and the love of the 101."
While working in Alaska on a job, "Poppa flew in, went by train and finally by dog sled until he reached his job," his stepdaughter said.
Farmer's wife Lois, who still lives in Downey, sent a check with her daughter for the 101 Ranch Restoration Foundation as a memorial to her husband. The check was accepted by Clarence Vaughn of the Foundation, who with his wife, escorted the crooks around the area.
Mrs. Crooks, upon finding there really was a "Cowboy Hill" and it was not just a nomenclature her stepfather put on something at the ranch, said "I have goose pimples."
Like the 101, Odis is gone but not forgotten.