I am the daughter of Lloyd G. Hoppes and came with the family to
     Barber County in 1920. We sold our farm in Sumner County and bought
     the half section from the heirs of William Maddox. The farm is located
     in Cedar Township and about eight miles northeast of Hazelton, Kansas.
     Sand Creek crosses the eastern part of the farm.
        I was twelve years old then and lived there until my marriage in
     1927. I married Carl W. Curtis of Attica, Kansas. We now live in Bluff
     City, Kansas. We have four children, eleven grandchildren, and five
     great-grandsons.
        On the farm we raised corn, using horse drawn cultivators. My mother,
     father, and sister each rode a cultivator, and my twin brothers, which 
     were only seven, pulled weeds in the rows. I did the housework and cooking
     while the rest of the family was in the field.
        It took a lot of food to feed our hard working family. Some weeks I
     baked twenty loaves of bread and churned the butter to go with it. We had
     a garden and plenty of fresh vegetables. As I recall, salt pork and eggs
     were our only source of protein, except for fish we caught when we had
     the time. We had peach, cherry, pear, and apple trees and an abundance
     of sand plums in our pasture.
        We milked seven cows and had a cream separator. The cream was put into
     cream cans and taken to Crisfield and shipped by Santa Fe Express to
     Wellington. We also had chickens and shipped eggs to Kansas City.
        I attended Sand Creek rural school. To attend high school in 1923, I
     had to ride horseback eight miles to Sharon. I didn't finish the term on 
     account of illness. In 1924 I stayed in Attica and finished my freshman
     year. In the fal of 1925, my sister and I enrolled at Hazelton High School
     where I attended until my marriage in 1927.
        Our recreation was parties, square dancing, fishing, and horseback
     riding with our friends. We had no radio or television. Nearly every
     family had a care in the early 1920's, but it was rare for a teenager
     to own a care in those days.
                
     Source:Chosen Land - Barber County, Kansas,  pg. 237
     Submitted by: Opal Hoppes Curtis