First husband: Jonathan "Jon" Lafayette/Lafait Rogers. Ella was his 2nd wife.
Second husband: William "Bill" Jefferson Allen. Ella was his third wife.


ROGERS STORY:

Jon Rogers filed on land one mile north of Bessie, Okla. (or bought someone out) in 1892. He was a carpenter working near Kansas City at that time and returned to Kansas to move his wife, Ruthie May (Travis) Rogers and daughters, Maude Evalee Rogers and Pearl May Rogers to the new home.
The young wife became sick as they traveled. They stopped at a home in Bellflower, Kansas and asked if there was a doctor near. The lady invited them in and Mrs. Rogers died before the doctor arrived.

After burying his wife, he sold his possessions and brought the girls to Bessie, Oklahoma by train. Pearl was five months old and very sick then. The aunts, Missouri E. May and Lillie Beens (or Bins?) soon nursed her back to health.

Three years later, he married "Ella" (Martha Ellen) Hatchett and they lived on the claim. Four children were born to them. A son {James Carr Rogers) died with croup and is buried in Union-Hatchett cemetery. Other children were: Ethel Cleo, {"Cleo"} Rogers, William ("Will") Cornelius Rogers and John Marvin Rogers. These children attended Sunflower school.

The Cyclone

Soon after the family went to bed on the night of March 27, 1901, a storm came up. The Rogers were asleep and didn't see the cyclone coming; it demolished the house. Mr. Roger's neck was broken and the house burned. Ella Rogers and Pearl carried the dead father from the wreckage and tried to revive him, while Maude rescued the three young children who were crying and covered with mattresses, broken glass, etc. She carried them out to safety near their mother. This was Maude's 14th birthday. Her feet were cut and bleeding, but she started walking across the fields to the Creswell home for help. The Creswell's heard the cyclone and saw the fire and were coming with wagon and team. They met Maude on the dark path. These young boys, Tom, Joe and Jim, put the father and family in the wagon and took them to their home. Their father, John Creswell, was freighting supplies from Weatherford.

Mr. Rogers was a carpenter and had made all the caskets for settlers in their neighborhood. But friends did the best they could, making a casket and the ladies lined it with muslin. When all was ready, the body was moved to his brother-in-law's ( James Sterling Hatchett) home where the funeral was conducted. The burial was one of the first in the Union-Hatchett Cemetery.

The neighbors and relatives built a new house for Mrs. Ella Rogers and her family.

SECOND MARRIAGE

On 1 January 1904, Ella married her 2nd husband, William Jefferson "Bill" Allen (1857-1938). She was his 3rd wife, he having been twice widowed. Bill married 1st wife, Sarah Ann "Annie" Brunson, in 1880 until her death in 1892 at age 39; they had 4 children: Thomas Jefferson Allen , Dorothy D. Allen, William Calvin Allen, and May Belle Allen. Bill married 2nd wife, Sarah Irene Burkhalter, in 1892 until her death in 1897 at age 30; they had 2 children: Buel Ethan, Sr. and Dessie Gertrude.

Together, Bill and Ella had 7 children: Esther Allen, Bessie Allen, Charles "Charlie" Allen, Etolla Allen, Doris Allen, Buena Allen, and Wilma Kathleen Allen.

Total children = Bill Allen at 13; Ella Rogers-Allen at 11; and Jon Rogers at 5.

From notes of: Beulah Creswell Kent, and additional research of Phyllis Medeiros.