My parents, Elmer and Jessie Harris, were early Barber County residents.
   My dad came to Barber County as a small baby with his parents, Alexander
   and Clara Newland Harris, from Lee's Summit, Missouri.
     My mother was born in a cave located i Medicine Lodge between Elm Creek
   and Main Street, just north of Highway 160. Her parents were Samuel and
   Virginia Barbour Cole, also from Missouri. She told stories of her father,
   Samuel Cole, driving cattle to Medicine Lodge from Texas and how skinny
   they were.
     My parents had four children: Ednus, Herbert, Ruth, and Bobbie. Bobbie
   died in infancy. They had six grandchildren and eight great grandchildren.
     My parents farmed between Medicine Lodge and Sharon, Dad raised mostly
   wheat. My mother raised beautiful turkeys and shipped them to all parts 
   of the country.
     I remember the terrible drought and Depression years. One year my dad
   didn't get enough wheat from harvest to reseed. He had a beautiful young
   orchard. During the drought the grasshoppers came in droves. They were so
   thick on the underbranches of the trees, they made the limbs bend and
   break. The orchard was destroyed. During these years, our diet consisted
   of pancakes, eggs, biscuits, sandplum butter, and a bit of bacon square.
     My parents lost their farm as a result of the Depression years. They
   moved to Burden, Kansas, in 1944. My dad started raising cattle. They
   celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, September of 1956.
     My dad passed away in August, 1965, and my mother in April, 1975. 
                 
     Source:Chosen Land - Barber County, Kansas,  pg. 219 
     Submitted by: Ruth Harris Lawhorn