Medicine Lodge is our home. Carl and I have lived our married lives here,
  worked and built our home, raised our family here, and enjoyed being involved
  in community activities.
     Carl, youngest of seven children of Fred and Mable Culver Melkus, was born
  September 14, 1920, on his father's homestead near Farry, Oklahoma. He attended
  grade and high school at Farry.
     I am second of seven children of Dennis and Martha Tidwell Reed, born Sept.
  10, 1923. My schooling was at Flag, White Horse and high school at Farry.
     We worked summers on the same ranch - Carl as hired man, me as hired girl.
  Carl's monthly wages were $30; I earned $4 a week.
     We were married November 23, 1940, Alva, Oklahoma. June 1941, we moved to
  Medicine Lodge. Carl's brother, Ernie, encouraged him to work at National
  Gypsum. June 1979, Carl completed 38 years, with more seniority than any
  present mill employee.
     Carl's beginning wage was 38 1/2 cents an hour; he felt we "could never
  spend that much money!' From dumping 100# sacks of gypsum into the hopper, 
  Carl has worked most other jobs and is now board plant superintendent.
     Barbara was born October 3, 1941, Medicine Lodge, and was just two months
  old when we learned of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Carl left for service 
  October 2, 1941. Basic training completed at Camp Campbell, Kentucky, and
  Camp Barkley, Texas, Carl was sent to Germany as a tank commander with the
  12th Armored Division. I returned to Oklahoma, to work and care for Barbara.
     Carl was discharged January 1, 1946, and we returned to Medicine Lodge. 
  Betty Jo was born November 17, 1946, at Hardtner Hospital.
     February 1958, my sister Vona, was killed in an auto accident. Her husband,
  Melvin, had been electrocuted on an elevator job, Sept. 1957. Their children
  Stanley and Linda Percival, joined our family.
     Stan was born September 3, 1949; Linda, March 3, 1946, Hardtner.
     I have had full-time employment most of our marriage; 1949-1958 with Parker's
  IGA; twenty years (March 1979) with Forsyth's Furniture and Morturary, as
  bookkeeper, salesclerk and memorialist; and nineteen years with Southwestern
  Bell Telephone. I began part-time there in 1960, after Carl contracted 
  tuberculosis and spent a year at the Norton Sanitorium.
     We have always lived on Orchard Street; first in apartments; then in our
  own flat top basement, four years; and now in our completed home.
     The children are married, with families of their own: Barbara and Fred Geary,
  Kansas City, Missouri, James Carl, Deana and David Everett; Linda and David 
  Waller, Somis, California, Carla Sue, Lori, and Davy; Betty Jo and Robert
  Mitchell, Park Forest, Illinois, Tyson, Coy Ann and Jodi; Stan Percival, Helena,
  Montana, Jason and Chris Ann.
     We've participated in Peace Treaty Pageants - Carl, the children and I. Carl
  is an avid sports fan; he played high school baseball and basketball, and with
  the local American Legion team. He also loves to read. I played high school
  basketball; have chaperoned local Miss Kansas contestants; and share a new 
  interest with Carl - learning to play the organ.
     Sharing the work and raising our family has made a good life. 
    
               
     Source:Chosen Land - Barber County, Kansas,  pg. 324 
     Submitted by: Wanda Melkus