An Okie by birth and now by residence, Barber County was home for a
     number of years and is where my folks and family live.
       Born June 12, 1941, at Alva, Oklahoma, the nearest hospital at that 
     time, I, Jerry Maxton, am the third of four children of John and Faye
     Woods Magnison.
       During my eight years at Dry Creek School I remember the older kids
     giving a very short manicure to a girl who scratched everyone, getting
     my head accidentally opened up by a baseball bat when the recess ball
     interrupted Fern Shaddy's turn at bat, and learning The Inn Keeper
     narrative at Christmastime.
       During high school and for a few years after, I was employed at various
     occupations - farming with my dad, oilfield roustabout and roughnecking,
     hauling wallboard from the gyp mill to several states.
       In 1970, I moved to Pawnee, Oklahoma, and began driving for Day Cattle
     Company. We drove blue and white Freighliners, pulling aluminum pot trailers.
     During the five years I drove for Day, I hauled cattle into or through
     every state in the union except Alaska and Hawaii and into or out of Canada
     and Old Mexico. Over two million miles were driven without being ticketed
     for any chargeable accident. The things seen and done on those trips have
     provided me a lifetime of bull-shootin' stories.
       In May 1975, I started work with Rick Caruthers Construction, first as a
     truck driver and now as a heavy equipment operator. There is even adventure
     and excitement in building drilling sites: January 1976, another operator
     and I uncovered remains of a mastodon six feet under a wheat field south of
     Cherokee; and August 1977, my dozer hooked into a six-inch liquid natural
     gas line (unrefined propane), with 900lbs. of pressure. Minutes after I fled
     the dozer, it was encased in ice two inches deep. I was fortunate the gas
     did not spew onto me as it has the ability to freeze a man in motion. This
     ice does not melt like that frozen from water; the day we took pictures,
     the temperature was 103 degrees and the machine was still thickly covered.
       My wife, Debra Fern, is the daughter of Dale and Florence Young Harmon of
     Byron, Oklahoma. Debra's family includes five girls and five boys. She was
     born on Halloween, Oct30, 1975, and Misty Jo, was born the first day of
     spring, March 20, 1978. Both were born at Wakita, Oklahoma.
       My first marriage to Eulela Mae Sexson ended in divorce. We had two children:
     Jerry Lee, stillborn February 6, 1960, and Ronald Jay, born November 1, 1961,
     Medicine Lodge. Lee is remarried and lives with her husband Melvin Beutler
     in Meade, Kansas. A second marriage to Kay Alford also ended by divorce; we
     had no children.
       Debra, Mandy, Misty and I have our home in Cherokee, Oklahoma. Debra enjoys
     bowling and raising our girls, the girls enjoy life, and I enjoy Debra and
     the girls.
                 
     Source:Chosen Land - Barber County, Kansas,  pg. 312 
     Submitted by: Jerry M. Magnison