T. Fred Archer Remembered

My daddy was Thomas Frederick Archer, more commonly known as T. Fred Archer or just Fred.
He was born January 11, 1906 in Kingsley, Kansas where his father worked for a short time as a butcher. The family eventually settled north of Grenola, Kansas. Daddy’s parents were Tom and Angie Archer and his siblings were Dale Archer, 1901-1963, and Bula Archer Lemert, 1910-2000.

Daddy had two aunts and one uncle. The two aunts lived most of their lives in Anaheim, California, where the oldest, Lena and her husband, Rocky Fay, had moved in the teens. Uncle Rocky grew to be a somewhat wealthy business man when he sold his orange farm. Ethel, the sister who was a maiden lady school teacher, moved to live with them in California.

The two boys of this generation included my grandfather, Tom Archer, who was a farmer, and his brother, Alex Archer, who became a doctor and practiced out of his office in Grenola. Early in his practice he traveled the area by horse and buggy to treat ailing folks, many times accepting produce, livestock or whatever the families had to give for his fee. Uncle Alex married Jennie Fay, sister of Rocky and they had one daughter, Fay, who was daddy’s only cousin.

Daddy enjoyed hunting and trapping as a young man and I have a picture showing him posing with his snares. An earlier story relates his eagerness for an education. There was a school house across the road from the family’s home and at about age two, Daddy sprung loose from the house, stark naked, and ran across the road, bursting into the one room school. Reportedly this caused a small ruckus and gave opportunity for an impromptu class in anatomy.

He graduated from Grenola High School in 1924 and began teaching at Shiloh country school the following fall. He taught there for eight years and each summer attended Pittsburg State Teachers College in Pittsburg, Kansas. He then went to Anaheim to stay with his aunts where he enrolled in the University of California at Davis, graduating in 1932 with a bachelors degree.

Upon returning to Kansas, he taught school at Fort Scott, Kansas. I don’t have many facts about his life during this time period, but after a few years he met my mother who lived with her parents north of the Spring Branch school house which is still standing east of Cedar Vale.

Mother, Opal Farris Duke, was born August 3, 1913, (dod:7/12/81) to Debbie and Alec Duke at Cedar Vale. She graduated from CVHS in 1931 and was then required to stay home to take care of her mother who had poor health. For this reason she was unable to fulfill her desire to go to nurses training. Her sister, Jewel, was eight years younger and a brother, Harold, who was twenty-one was helping with farm work and still at home. Another older brother, Wayne, had been killed in an accident at age 12. He was hit in the head with a horseshoe and although he seemed fine at the time, he died later that day.

I think Mother and Daddy met in connection with social activities at the Cloverdale School. A story Mother liked to tell was about contracting mumps during their courtship. When Daddy came calling she hid so he wouldn’t see her with a swollen face, a fact she was able to laugh about years later, telling how embarrassed she had been.

They were married in April of 1936 and lived on a farm south of Grenola where Linda Kay was born on September 11, 1938. Uncle Alex was the attending doctor, accompanied by his wife, Aunt Jennie. It had long been Aunt Jennie’s desire to go with her husband to a birth and he finally relented for this case even though he thought her too genteel for such things.

The little family moved to Sedan in 1939 where Fred served as County Clerk and made many friends and business acquaintances. Judy Diane was born October 19, 1941 at Newton Memorial Hospital in Winfield. They continued to live in Sedan until about 1943 when they moved to a farm between Sedan and Longton. Linda attended first and part of second grade at Crum School.

Daddy went to auctioneering school in Indiana and in 1945 we moved to Cedar Vale into the last house in which my dad would live. The move was prompted by a partnership being formed between O.D. Mills, Ralph Snyder and Daddy as owners of the Cedar Vale Sales Company which had a livestock sale every Friday. Daddy’s main duty was that of auctioneer. Apart from the partnership, he also did many farm and estate sales and branched out to own a cattle truck to provide hauling services to sales barn clients on sale day. He eventually bought a semi rig for hauling and hired Lyn Casebolt, Sr. as driver.

Much of the time he had a herd of cattle on leased land but eventually bought a farm about a half mile south of Wauneta. I learned to drive going with him to feed and had a great time fishing farm ponds with him for small perch which he used for bait in setting lines on the river. He often set lines with Hugh Sweaney, father of Verne whose mother Vergie was my mother’s first cousin. When I would go along, Hugh got great pleasure in rocking the canoe to scare me and he was the only person to call me Judy until years later when Verne picked up the habit.

Daddy enjoyed playing poker with a distinguished group of gentlemen nearly every Saturday night. The group consisted of Mike and Brady Meldrum, Lincoln Robinson, Cecil Humphries, Dr. Herbert Stone and others. A few of these men also fished together in Canada and the Gulf of Mexico. I’m so glad Daddy went on a few of these trips as he worked hard and didn’t allow himself many such leisure activities.

Daddy wanted to visit Aunt Lena and Aunt Ethel in Anaheim and to have a nice family vacation, so in the summer of 1954 we drove to California by way of Carlsbad Caverns and a trip across the border from El Paso to Juarez, Mexico, where we attended the bull fights, an experience never to be forgotten. In California we stayed with the two aunts and saw many sights, even the early, unfinished Disneyland. This was a wonderful time for all of us and will always bring a smile to my face.

Daddy opened a Ford dealership in Cedar Vale in 1955 which was made possible from an inheritance from Aunt Lena’s estate. The business lasted only about three years due to Daddy’s failing health. He had several heart attacks and on June 2, 1958, while playing croquette at Wauneta, he suffered a massive heart attack and died at age 52.

He was a young man but had accomplished much in his life. He jokingly referred to himself as jack of all trades and master of none, but he was a capable business man and had many successful business ventures and occupations. At the time of his death he was running for county commissioner. He was well respected and had extended credit to many in his business of trading cars, and some debts were never repaid. He was often approached by a quiet man who worked on a local ranch asking for a small loan. The man always repaid Daddy as soon as he had his salary, and Daddy was always there when he needed the loan again.

My dad was a quiet man at home. He held high standards of behavior and when I defied him he only told me to “Always do what you say you’re going to do.” In this case I had not followed this mandate and I felt like I broke his heart. I never forgot this rule and tried to follow it in my life.

T. Fred Archer was my dad. I loved him and after 50 years I still miss him. I was lucky to have had such a dad.