In September 1908 Beauregard Mills came to Kansas from his home near
     Lewisport, Kentucky with the prospect of buying a farm. He bought a farm
     two miles north of Hazelton from a Mr. Smith. My father, Beauregard returned
     to Kentucky and late in December of that year the family (my father and
     mother and three young daughters, Mary, Alice and HOlmes) came to Kansas to
     live on the farm my father had bought. Father wanted to raise wheat; the
     principal crop in central and western Kansas was wheat, with some corn and
     feed grains.
          In 1911 there was a crop failure in this area. It was so dry that fall
     that the wheat didn't come up. My father had a promising corn crop that
     summer, but it was hailed out. That was the only year that there was a
     complete crop failure, but there were some dry years. My father harvested 
     his wheat with a binder; then it was shocked and threshed. My sister Mary 
     and I helped shock the wheat some years. Later combines came into use.
          My father made some improvements on the farm after we moved here. He
     had a cement storm cave dug for protection against the Kansas tornadoes,
     should they occur. He also had a smokehouse built, as my folks butchered
     and cured their own meat. My father would salt down the meat and let it
     lie for several weeks, then hang it up and smoke the meat.
          For several years after we came to Kansas, we would see covered wagons
     going along the road on their way to the west.
          My two sisters and I attended the Mable Grove School. We walked the
     two miles to and from school for several years. Later we drove a horse and
     buggy. After rural school we attended and graduated from Hazelton High
     School.
          I taught school for several years. I graduated from the University of
     Kansas with a B.A. degree in 1927. I was a member of the Barber County
     chapter of AAUW for a number of years and was chapter secretary four years.
          My sisters graduated from Wichita State University. My sister, Mary, 
     made a career of teaching, first in Barber County and then inINdiana, after 
     she married Lines Ballard of Indiana.
          My sister, Mrs. Charles Ballard, has two daughters: Mrs. Mary Ella Foster
     of Hayesville, Kansas and Mrs. Charlotte Kern of Wyoming.
          Our father passed away in 1941 and our mother in 1952.
          The farm that my father bought in 1908 is still in the family. The
     present owners are Alice Mills and Mrs. Charles Ballard.
     
               
     Source:Chosen Land - Barber County, Kansas,  pg. 328 
     Submitted by: Alice Mills