Frank Chain was born in Pike County, Ohio, in 1872, in an area that was known
  as Yankee Hill. He came with his parents, John M. Chain and Emily Ware Chain, and 
  three brothers, John, Oscar, and William Alfred, on an emigrant train to Hutchinson,
  Kansas, in 1878.
     His father purchased land five miles southwest of Haven, Kansas, from the Atchinson
  Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad for four dollars per acre. It was here the rest of
  the family was born.
     When my father, Frank, became a young man, he made two trips on horseback to
  the Cheyenne Arapaho Territory in Oklahoma. In 1893 with his brother, Oscar, a 
  friend, Paul Marshall, driving a covered wagon with supplies, went to Caldwell,
  Kansas, to make the Cherokee Strip Run into Oklahoma. They later commented that
  making the run was the greatest experience of their lifetime. Their journey home
  was through Enid, Alva, Kowa, Medicine Lodge, Kingman, the home to Haven.
     In 1894 Frank and his brother, John, and wife, Ella went to Cheyenne Arapaho
  Territory, taking claims Northwest of what was later Oakwood, Oklahoma. Tall grass
  and wild game was abundant in this period of time.
     On January 24, 1906, Frank married Bessie Mae Henderson who was born in a sod
  house in Western Kansas. Her folks moved to Belle Plaine later to Indian Territory,
  where she met Frank Chain.
     Frank and Bessie had four children, Iona born in 1907 the year Oklahoma became
  a state, Aline in 1910, George in 1913, and Lorin in 1924.
     My folks improved their homestead during the years, a new house and a red barn
  were built. This barn was so meaningful to the family for it was in the hay-loft
  in the spring all the family would sit and shell seed corn. We children played on
  the hay and hid our Easter eggs here. Watching the hay fork pulled by a horse,
  taking those large forks of hay back into the loft, and dumping them, was always
  a thrilling sight. The cows were milked here and calves fed. It was home for the
  horses and mules to be fed three thi8mes a day if they were working. We children
  never gew tired of watching the pigeons that lived in the cupola. The barn was
  built in 1906, an addition added in 1910, and it burned in 1917.
     Before and during the First World War, the Industrial Workers of the World,
  wanted to gain their demands and overthrow capitilism formed the I.W.W.'s (I won't
  work) organization. They went from Texas to North Dakota burning barns.
     Our barn burned on Sunday morning in March. This dishartened my parents, so
  they came to Barber County looking for grassland. John Sandy of Sharon, Realator
  showed them the Kemp Ranch, then owned by Alven and Gillespie. The folks bought
  the ranch November 7, 1918, and we moved to Barber County in the spring of 1919.
     My mother and we children drove our Dodge touring car and pulled a small trailer.
  My father and Lee Pearce (the hired man) drove a covered wagon, leading his horses
  behind, and to Kansas we came.
     As soon as the grass was good, we were sent a telegram to Sharon saying our
  cows sould be into Harper the next morning. They put the covered wagon together,
  packed some food and leading saddle horses behind, we started out and drove all 
  night. We children slept in the back of the wagon. We got into Harper at sunrise.
  My Uncle Oscar had come on the caboose of the freight train with the cattle. A
  campfire was built and breakfast was cooked by the stockyards.
     After visiting awhile, the drive to the ranch was started. A kind farmer along
  the road let us corral the cattle one night. We made it on to the ranch the next 
  day.
     We lived three miles from the Mumford School. Alta Powers was the teacher the
  year we attended in 1919 and 1920. Our folks took us to school in the Dodge touring
  car with cloth side curtains. On cold mornings we three children would get down
  behind the back seat and put a quilt over our heads. If our folks weren't there
  to bring us home of an evening, we'd start the three mile journey home.
     Our only neighbors were Beauchamps living on the Singer place a mile North, and
  Luke and Lee Chapin about five mile South. We never got lonesome living there,
  but after one delightful year, the folks thought if we children were to get an
  education, they better move back to our home in Oklahoma where school was only a
  quarter mile away.
     The ranch still remains in the family, a place with many memories.
               
     Source:Chosen Land - Barber County, Kansas,  pg. 125 
     Submitted by: Aline Chain Cargill