My mother, Eliza Jane Chenoweth, was a teenager when she entered the
     Normal Training School in Medicine Lodge, received her Teachers Certificate,
     then taught in a school near Medicine Lodge. Later, her younger sister,
     Sally, and brother, Charlie, came to stay with her and attend the normal
     school. When Charlie graduated, mother wanted him to look his best, so
     she spent a whole month's salary of $25, to buy his graduation suit and
     shoes.
       My dad's parents, Mr. and Mrs. George Roots, settled on a farm between
     Coats and Sawyer when he was 17. Mother taught school near their place
     and roomed with them. A romance developed and December 24, 1893, Frank
     Roots and Eliza Chenoweth were married.
       The spring of 1894, they moved to the Oklahoma Territory to homestead
     near Kiowa and farmed there about 15 years. Their children, Leslie, Ralph,
     and myself were born there.
       The little town of Hardtner had been established, and my folks decided
     to leave the farm and move there. They built a house and moved in December
     1909.
       Before the railroad was built into Hardtner, Dad, my brother Leslie, and
     a cousin, Ray Roots, had a drayline hauling freight from Kiowa to Hardnter,
     using his team of horses named Dandy and General, brought from the farm.
     Dad helped lay the rails across the Santa Fe tracks to Hardtner.
       Hardtner grew and bujsiness flourished. My parents opened a grocery store 
     and meat market with Newt Tucker as butcher. John and Marcia Gerstner helped
     in the store. Dad had a pretty bay horse named Tribley, who pulled the
     grocery delivery wagon around town. When he was through with her, Dad would
     toss the reins across her neck, tell her to go home, and when he got there,
     Tribley would be waiting by the barn to be unhitched.
       After the folks left the store, Leslie worked for Charlie Molz's grocery
     and dry goods store. In 1918 he married Ethel Campbell. They lived in Hardtner
     for awhile, moved to Anthony, Kansas, and then to Oregon.
       Dad did carpenter work and several summers worked for Charlie Sternberger,
     cutting wheat with a header pulled by 6 horses. Mama worked at the Hardtner
     Supply when Charley Achenbach was manager.
       During the summers, I wanted to earn money to spent at the Fair. Mama asked
     Mrs. Sturnberger if she had anything I could do. She said yes, and at the 
     age of 10, I had my first job at 50 cents a week. I washed dishes, peeled
     potatoes, gathered eggs, and was busy keeping track of Wilford and Gilbert.
       Ralph, age 8, started working summers; his first job was with Jake Sternberger
     for $1.50 a week, helping with chores.
       In 1927 the folks bought Mary and Sherman Myer's Cafe and ran it for 17
     years. In 1927 a dinner of meat, potatoes, gravy, a vegetable, dessert and
     drink cost 35 cents. A hamburger, pie, and coffee was 25 cents.
       Ralph married Mildred  Nicholson in 1972; they live in Hardtner.
       I married Ted Scharr in Perry, Oklahoma. Ted died in 1967, and in 1968.
     I returned to Hardtner. No matter where I lived, Hardtner was always home.
     
                
     Source:Chosen Land - Barber County, Kansas, pg. 391 
     Submitted by: Vivian Scharr