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Note: My lifes record, by Ella May Felker (Parks):
Time of birth, July 10, 1885 at Kansas City Missouri. At the age of three months my
parents moved to Sumner Nebraska, where we lived till I was 12 years old. Then my
father bought a home in Kearney Nebraska, where I recieved my education and graduated
from high school. I also attended the Kearney normal school and obtained my certificate in
collage and my first grade teachers certificate and taught school 6 terms in Kearney.
There I met Mr. Parks, he had a ranch at Kearney and we were married in the year of
1907 in April 16. We farmed north of Kearney untill 1911. We bought a 640 acre ranch.
The ranch at Grant Nebraska and went into the cattle business, and as there was 320 acres
of farm land on the ranch, we put it into production and raised our own winter feed for
our stock. We lived there three years then traded this home for a larger ranch two miles
north of Ogalla Nebraska.
We lived and operated this ranch for three years, sold out and moved to Brush Colorado
where we bought a 960 acre farm. Here we invested in cattle raising and farming. We built
all new buildings: A nice 6 room house, a large barn for 18 head of horses, and a cow barn
for our cattle, a 3 car garage. Dug three weeks for irrigating and to supply the stock with
water. Put in a new lighting system to light home off of the other buildings on the farm.
We also fenced the whole farm and opened up lanes to drive from one field to another.
Well we lived on the ranch until our family was pretty well grown up and then we sold
all of our belongings including stock and machinery, household furniture, rented our ranch
and moved to Los Angeles California, and decieded to go to school and take up our old
trades. Here Mr. Parks went into Molars Barber school and graduated in 1929 and
recieved his diploma in barbering. And I enrolled in LaRay Acadimy, also Margie enrolled
with me and we took up theory and graduated from LaRay Acadimy, and was transferred
to Sullivans Beauty Collage and took up cosmiltology and beauty course. And we both
graduated in all courses of cosmitology in September �29 from Sullivans Beauty Collage.
Courses #putting in pearmnents. 1 pearment waveing, 2 facials, 3 barbering, 4 manicure 5
marceling, 6 fingerwaveing, 7 shampoing, 8 hair drying.
Then in 1929 we returned to Colorado and bought a large building and put in a barber
shop and a beauty shop also put a resturant in and conficturnary shop in and sold candy
and soft drinks and ice cream and all kinds of things thats required to run a counter. By
this time all went well. We were near our ranch which we still owned but the children
were prety much all grown up now and business was more than Mr. Parks and I could
manage. So we decided to sell out the business and moved back to the ranch. Help was
scarce so we traded our place of business for a farm west of Brush. Our pasture land ran
alond the south Platt river, so we moved out there. And as we had a good pumping plant
on the place. We again improved this place, and in June a big resivoir near Denver
Colorado broke and a big flood came down the river and destroyed our nice crop and
garden and washed our nice young horses down with the high water and all our nice fat
hogs and all my nice chickens, and left us nothing but our milk cows, house and barns and
pumping plant. Covered our farm land with a sandy film, well we didn�t give up. We went
ahead and started over again.
We bought six head of beautiful black horses and as this was decoration day we plowed
the fields, and planted corn and feed crops so we could feed our stock and we decided to
get more chickens. So I went down to our banker and made arriangements to buy 100
laying hens so that I could make a liveing for us and I bought 100 young chickens to
ghrow up for the next year. And the lord prospered us, my chickens grew up and we again
got a good start, but then sleeping sickness came after the flood had dryed up. And all
those beautiful black horses came down with it, all died but one and she never got over it,
she lived a year and then died. So then we decided to buy a tractor.
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