JERRY PERSON -- A Look Back

In the next two columns, we are going to look at the life of a

remarkable lady.

You may have driven Goldenwest Street, between Slater and Warner

avenues, and, nestled between much newer homes, is a much older home.

This was the Stricklin ranch house that belonged to Oscar and Sadie

Stricklin and their family.

This week, we will look at the early years of Sadie Stricklin and

learn of her many hardships. I contacted Sadie’s daughter, Phyllis

Bartimore, who graciously supplied me with a good deal of information on

her mother.

On Oct. 28, 1889, Sarah “Sadie” Jane Hatfield was the fourth child

born to Robert and Jane Hatfield. The Hatfield family also consisted of

eight other children -- Grace, William, Maude (who died in infancy),

Charlie, Pearl, Nell, Bob and Gertrude.

The family lived in Sand Ridge, Ill., in a one-room,

20-foot-by-30-foot house. It was heated by a wood stove. Sadie’s father

died at 48, and her mother cared for the family by working in the nearby

fields with her older children to supply food for the table. Once while

attending a one-room school, Sadie’s teacher wanted to come over to her

house, but Sadie made up an excuse because she was embarrassed by the

family’s poverty.

When Sadie was 11, she quit school and went to work keeping house at a

neighbor’s home. While working for Jimmy and Dessie McManus, 16-year-old

Sadie met a coal miner, Oscar Stricklin, who was related to the McManus

family and lived nearby. Oscar asked Sadie if she would go with him to

see a play.

Since neither had a horse and buggy, they walked. They saw each other

for a while, but the relationship cooled.

Two years later, she saw Oscar at the Murphysboro fair in southern

Illinois, and later, as they sat in the McManus’ swing, Oscar asked Sadie

to marry him.

Two weeks later, they were married in her sister Grace’s home by a

justice of the peace. While they only had $5 to their names, it cost

$2.50 to get married, cutting their finances in half.

That night, a group of young miners “shivareed” them -- shouting and

banging on the doors until they were given money to stop. Oscar gave them

their last $2.50. A short time later, a typhoid epidemic hit, and it was

Sadie who nursed six of Oscar’s family back to health. Sadie also was

stricken, but she recovered.

Oscar and Sadie were eventually able to buy a two-bedroom house on two

acres for $750 in Murphysboro, Ill. Their first child, Carl, was born

there in January 1910, and later a daughter, Wanda, and another son,

Pete, was born.

The family sold their house and moved to a larger one in Harrison,

Ill.

Sadie’s sister, Nell, and her aunt and uncle moved to California. Nell

wrote Sadie in 1919, telling her how wonderful it was out West, even

sending Sadie and the family oranges at Christmas.

Oscar was convinced that California was the place to see, but it took

some time to convince Sadie to make the six-day train trip. But before

Sadie would go, she had Oscar buy round-trip tickets.

My next column will focus on Sadie’s life in California and her life

and friends in Huntington Beach.

* JERRY PERSON is a local historian and longtime Huntington Beach

resident. If you have ideas for future columns, write him at P.O. Box

7182, Huntington Beach, CA 92615.