W.C. Aubley came to Barber County from Pennsylvania in 1887 with his parents.
  He was eleven years old at the time. They settled on a farm west of Medicine
  Lodge, which is still in the family. At age 16 he made the Cherolkee Strip run.
  W.C. was one of the old-time cowboys. He rounded up cattle for the Comanche
  Pool Ass'n.
     W.C. married Lucy Lukens in 1903. She was born at Black Oak, Mo., in 1884,
  the first daughter of Frances and Anna Lukens. To this union four children were
  born: Carl, Madge, Guy, and Ralph.
     All four of us children attended Doles school, which was only three-fourths
  of a mile from home. Sometimes Cedar Creek would get so high, our father would
  take us to school in a grain wagon pulled by horses. Mr. F.M. Shell, Fern Shell,
  Joy Tedrow Elliott, Mrs. Olive Gordon Shepherd were some of my teachers.
     Summers were always busy. We had 20 cows to milk, and I worked 6 head of
  horses in the fields. We had a threshing machine and a "cook shack" crew of 12
  or 14 people. Since I have owned my own truck since 1925, I hauled the grain
  from this rig. The hired men always came from Arkansas a week early to cut 
  weeds and hoe corn to earn their board and room. They slept in the haymow. My
  father usually sent the men money so they could buy shoes and pay for their
  transportation to our place.
     My mother had two hired girls to help do the cooking during harvest. She had
  her own gun to kill the frying chickens. We had a large orchard, so there was
  much canning to do.
     One summer we took a trip to Colorado in our 1914 Model T Ford. There were
  seven in the car, six of the family and the hired girl. We traveled as far as
  Mingona school (3 or 4 miles from home) and camped the first night.
     I grew up knowing the Gyp Hills like a book, because of my brother, Ralph,
  and I rode them many times on our horses.
     In winter, when we butchered beef, we always hung it in a tree and covered it
  with a sheet and used it as needed. Butchering and curing port was something
  else. We always butchered at least 6 or 8 hogs at a time. The lard was rendered
  in an iron kettle outside. The pig tails and ears were cooked while the lard
  was rendering. We kids relished these. The smokehouse was always full of hams,
  shoulders, and bacon curing.
     My father spent several weeks each spring traveling with Jeff Mills, a country
  Vet. We castrated horses for the ranchers.
     In the winter, when snow covered everything, my dad would take the hired men
  and hunt rabbits. These would be dressed and packed full of snow and used for
  food. If we had too many, they would be used to feed the hogs. There were no
  mineral supplements then.
     In 1931, I married Bertha Singer, and we moved north of Medicine Lodge to a
  farm where we still live. I still truck for friends and neighbors when needed,
  besides farming our own place.
               
     Source:Chosen Land - Barber County, Kansas,  pg. 90  
     Submitted by: Guy Aubley