I was born in Barber County, six miles west of Medicine Lodge. My parents
  were John and Nellie Lonker Bloom.
     My father's parents came from Germany and settled in Pennsylvania, where
  my father was born. My mother was born in Iowa. Both families lived in Sumner
  County for a short time. My father's family moved to Barber County in 1882 and
  proved up a place. The patent to this is still in my family. My mother's 
  family came to Barber County in 1884, settling southwest of Medicine Lodge.
  Grandfather Lonker was a Civil War veteran, and Grandmother was a school 
  teacher, having taught ten terms.
     I was the oldest of three children, including my brother, Glenn Bloom and
  sister, Louise Vanderwork, who passed away in 1975.
     We all attended the Doles School. There was quite a group of us close
  enough to walk to school. Evenings as wwe walked home, we would talk over the
  events of the day and occasionally an argument would cause a fight. One of our
  former teachers was Mrs. Myrtle Warren Watkins, another was Cora Springer
  Warren. She boarded with us and on Sunday evenings her boyfriend, Oren Warren,
  who she later married, would bring her back to our place.
     Some of my former schoolmates were the Aubleys,Kimballs, both the Davis
  families, and Levi Strickland. We attended church and Sunday School in the
  school house. Later on the Riverside Church was built nearby. The ministers
  from Medicine Lodge would come out Sunday afternoons, and we would gather in
  the evening for choir practice.
     I attended Barber County High School and graduated with the class of 1919.
  I took the State Board and was granted a Normal Training Certificate. My 
  brother and I drove a horse and buggy to school. Our father bought a Reo car;
  but we were not permitted to drive it, only on very special occasions.
     I taught four terms of school. I either drove a horse and buggy or rode
  horseback. I never had a side saddle; I wore a divided skirt, which I removed
  when I got to school. Some of my students wer the Willms, Bertie and Freda
  Nurse, Noble Soper, Harry Kimball boys, and Lloyd Clarke.
     In 1922, I was married to Thomas J. (Mike) Parr. We bought and moved to a
  farm which ahd been proved up by my Grandfather Bloom.
     Our two children, Harold and Peggy, were born there. We endured lots of
  hardships, such as the Dust Bowl and doctor and hospital bills.
     Harold, after graduating from high school, served four years in the Navy,
  on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific during World War II. He is married to
  Bernadean Williams, and they reside in Sterling, Colorado, where he works as
  an oilfield pumper. They have four children, Glenna Morita, Sheri Margheim,
  Michael and Donna, and four grandchildren. Peggy, a Medicine Lodge High School
  graduate is married to Delbert Zimmerman. They have two children, Jan Hanson
  and Randy. Peggy is employed at the First National Bank.
     We retired from our farm in 1967 and moved to our home in Medicine Lodge.
               
     Source:Chosen Land - Barber County, Kansas,  pg. 359