Category: Buckmaster

Eva Evelyna Buckmaster was born less than a year after statehood, the first child of Andrew Jackson Buckmaster and Dovey Alpine Piearcy Buckmaster, probably near Wynnewood, Garvin County, Oklahoma.[1] The new state was not yet collecting birth records and only later family records have been found recording her birth on May 14, 1908.[2] Her middle name has been spelled Evelina, Evelyna and even the rather endearing Everleaner, but most records use Evelyna.

By 1910, the Andrew J. Buckmaster family was renting just outside of Sasakwa, in Seminole County, next door to Andrew’s mother, Mahala Hopkins Buckmaster.[3] Living with Mahala was her youngest son, Richard Lafayette, called Babe.[4]Both families were farming on their rented land.[5] The late Charles Wilson Buckmaster, the father of Andrew Jackson and Richard Lafayette, was a Civil War veteran who served with the Union Army, not a fact discussed since most Oklahoma residents supported the Southern effort.[6]

We don’t know much about those early years for Eva, but by 1917, Andrew Jackson Buckmaster family was living in Calvin, Hughes County, where he registered for the World War I draft.[7] The family hasn’t been found in the 1920 census records, but by this time Eva had two brothers and one sister: Goldie born in 1910, Seth Andrew born in 1911 and Vernon Alton born in 1916.[8] Two more little girls were added to the family with Violet Alpine born in 1921 and Sylvia in 1924.[9] There are some gaps in the births of the children, but no record of any other births or pregnancies.

Sometime in 1928, Dovey died, perhaps from scarlet fever or perhaps from double pneumonia, near Holdenville in Hughes County.[10] No records of her death have been found, neither at the state or county level.[11] From family stories, a wooden marker was near her gravesite.[12] Eva and some of her daughters went back to Hughes County many years later but were not able to locate the cemetery.[13]

Andrew Jackson Buckmaster did not remarry after Dovey’s death, but moved his family in with his eighty-five year old mother who owned her land by now.[14] Andrew Jackson farmed the land, with Seth helping and also doing odd jobs.[15] Eva’s younger sister, Goldie married Malone Wilson in July 1929.[16] Then, on November 2, 1929, Eva married William Musgrove in Oklahoma City with Malone Willson and Golda Willson as their witnesses.[17] When they married, Eva was twenty-one years old and Bill was twenty.[18] As far as an education, both had completed the seventh grade.[19]

William Musgrove’s parents were William Walker Musgrove and Mary Elizabeth Pennington Musgrove.[20] While no birth records have been found for William Musgrove, he was probably born in Labette County, Kansas.[21]  In the days before data bases and with limited education, name spellings and variations of names were not so critical. In the first records of William Musgrove, he was listed as William Jr., then later Bill Jr.[22]^{, [23]}  In family pictures, he was listed as Bill June or June. However, as an adult he was always called Bill. Most likely, his given name was William Walker Musgrove, Jr (after his father) and he called June (a variation of Junior) until he had children of his own, when his nickname changed to Bill. Some nicknames stuck for life; for example, Richard Lafayette Buckmaster had his nickname of Babe on his gravestone.[24] That nickname is the only name my family ever knew for their Uncle Babe.[25]

After Eva and Bill married, they lived for at least a while with Bill’s family in Council Grove, Oklahoma.[26] For the 1930 census, Bill is listed as W. M. Musgrove, a farmer, renting land as the head of household.[27] In the same family is listed Eva, wife, along with W. W., father, with his trade listed as restaurant, Mary, mother, and younger siblings – Nora M., James H. and Gracie.[28] (See an earlier posting for more information on  Gracie.) The family supported themselves with a booth at a market – selling produce they had raised, along with squabs, young domesticated pigeons, meat they had butchered and ice they had cut from the river.[29] Times were tough in Oklahoma during the depression. In about 1934, the family sold out and bought land in Marshall County, near the Red River in southern Oklahoma.[30] Two homes were built – one for the William Walker Sr. family and one for Bill and Eva’s growing family, with a water well dug near William Walker’s house.[31]

The family made the one hundred thirty mile move with a couple of trips in a Model T Ford pickup truck.[32] After the move, the pickup truck was parked and rusted away.[33] Gasoline was just too expensive during those hard times.[34] Their milk cow could not make the trip and was sold to the government for $10.[35] The federal agents shot her in the head and just left her there; no one was allowed to keep the meat.[36] Part of some government program that made no sense to anyone.

By 1935, Eva had borne four children – twins at the first pregnancy, with the baby girl born dead and  buried in a gallon fruit jar in the back yard.[37] So three children, the first born son and two younger daughters girls made the move on the Model T Ford, along with the rest of the family.[38]

Eva was probably happy to have her own home. Living with her mother-in-law may not have been that pleasant with Mary Pennington Musgrove feeling that her son had married down.[39] We don’t know why Mary Pennington Musgrove felt that way, perhaps because of Eva’s rumored Indian blood. Eva never said much about her Indian heritage, just saying the family was Black Dutch.[40] Eva’s children remember their daddy being invited up to dinner with their grandparents, but Eva and the children were never invited.[41] We do know both women shared the same religious convictions – both very devoted to the Holiness Church with Eva contributing money to Oral Roberts and Oral Roberts University much of her life.[42]

With the construction of Lake Texoma, the family had to sell their land to the Corp of Engineers.[43] After a big search in Texas and Oklahoma, which involved a car wreck and insurance money used to buy a Jersey milk cow, land was found in nearby Bryan County.[44] The rich milk from that Jersey cow may have saved the life of one of Eva and Bill’s young daughter’s during an extended illness.[45]

The two Musgrove families moved to farms several miles apart, but before the move, Bill was injured while working on construction of the Lake Texoma dam.[46] He was on crutches quite a while and had on-going health problems including possible tuberculosis.[47]

Grandma Musgrove had a total of twelve children with ten still living today.[48] She always had a big garden, canning and later freezing enough food to last her family until the next harvest.[49] She was one who took care of the milk cow and barn as well, even after she came down with sugar diabetes sometime after her last child was born when she was forty-six years old.[50] She was a hard worker, a religious woman and a kind woman. Her children were the focus of her life; she worked hard to take care of them. Eva appreciated a good laugh and was very proud of and much loved by her extended family. Even up into her eighties, Eva still had long dark hair that she worn in a braid and wrapped around her head, still retaining the olive skin and cheekbones of her mother Dovey Alpine Piearcy Buckmaster.

Thirteen months after Bill died, Eva died on August 18, 1992 at the hospital in Denison, Grayson County, Texas.[51] The immediate cause of death was respiratory failure due to pulmonary edema.[52] At the time of her death, Eva left behind thirty-six grandchildren and twenty-eight great-grandchildren.[53] Her oldest grandsons were her pall bearers and there wasn’t a dry eye in the church for this family matriarch.[54] Eva Evelyna Buckmaster Musgrove is buried at Albany Cemetery, Albany, Bryan County, Oklahoma.[55]