February 26, 1916, the seventh child of D.V. Woodward (Rye) and May Axtell,
  Virginia Bess arrived in Hardtner, Kansas. Dr. Hammer officiated and wanted
  to adopt me - surley with so many children they could spare one! My parents
  didn't agree.
     We moved to Sharon in 1918. I started school in Isabel the year the school
  house burned. In 1924 we moved to Medicine Lodge. Agnes Elgin (Mrs. Gus
  Palmer) was my teacher. Some classmates throughout school were Agnes Nurse,
  Marie Vaughn, Alive Moomau, Vivian Meckel and Bill Lusk.
     We lived in the "old Hibbard place" on Medicine Boulevard and pastured
  cows where Barber County Lake is now; I helped brother Vernon drive cows
  to pasture where the Peace Treaty grounds are. When Mamma and I took flowers
  to the cemetery, she told stories of people and the "old days" - never a sad
  time but a remembering time.
     My first job away from home (we worked at home, too) was helping Mabel
  Thomas; at age nine, I played with Glen and Milton and helped with the baby
  Howard. Vernon and I were janitors at the Presbyterian Church; he cared for
  the furnace and I cleaned, earning $10 a month.
     May 7, 1927, Mamma came to the church for me, saying "We are going to
  have a bad storm. "With not a breath of air stirring, it was as though we
  were in a vacuum. A terrible tornado hit our town! When the tornado struck
  in 1907, Aunt May Lytle was sick in bed; after the storm she was still in
  her bed with covers in place, but the bed was in the top of a cottonwood
  tree!
     Walking home at night, we would whistle at Fairley's corner and Gypsy,
  the Airdale pup Axtell brought home in his pocket, came to meet us. With
  no street lights and remembering about "ghosts" that scared horses (until
  Uncle Hugh Woodward caought a ghost), Gypsy was good company!
     Our teachers were also our friends: I.V. Martin; Clark McIlree - three
  years of math; Burce Kindig - "its just as far from Watertown to Wintertown
  as it is from Wintertown to Watertown"; Rilla Nelson - "You are the one who
  bites your fingernails." (I never bit my fingernails); Miss Wesley - who
  gave me a good grade on a dress no child could wear because the neck was
  too small; Max Hamilton and an undefeated football team; Miss Cox - who 
  excused me from school the day Richard Newton and I eloped (Nona Mae and
  Mac McDowell went with us to Anthony).
     After graduation in 1934 we moved to Lindsborg, Kansas; Richard Jr. was
  born at McPherson but didn't live; he's buried in Highland Cemetery. When
  we returned to Medicine Lodge in 1939, our daughters Deloris Ann and Carol
  Joyce, were small. After my parents died, I went to Emporia Beauty School,
  then moved to Deming, New Mexico in 1943. Richard and I were divorced; he
  lives in Tucson, Arizona. George (Pete) Measday and I were married and have
  two sons, Henry George and Dan Axtell. Our third son, David Woodward, is 
  buried at Mountain View Cemetery. Our grandchildrean are: Carol Gene (Ruebush)
  Davis, Suane and Frederic Ruebush, Nancy and Anthony Roane; Shawna, Virginia
  Bess, Justin and Sabrina Measday. Great-grandchildren are Deanna Rose, Jonathan
  and Levi Davis; Melissa and Christina Ruebush.
     Arriving "back home,: I miss the old courthouse and grade school. My sister
  Edith Trantham and niece Virginia Chance live in Medicine Lodge and brother
  Vernon is at Sharon. Today I know more people in the "City on the Hill" than
  in all Barber County.
                
     Source:Chosen Land - Barber County, Kansas,  pg. 322 
     Submitted by: Virginia Woodward Measday