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Bertha
(Brown) Keck |
Bertha (Brown) Keck was born in
Kansas on April 11, 1883, the daughter of James
R. and Lydia (Miner) Brown.
In 1889, when she was 6, Bertha and her parents settled near Kingfisher (Crescent), OK, taking part in the great Oklahoma Land Rush. During the winter of 1894-1895, Bertha and her sister Emma attended the one-room, log-hewn Excelsior Schoolhouse. The school was taught by their future sister in law, Nannie (Snyder) Brown.
As a young woman, Bertha and her sister Emma moved with their parents to San Diego, California. She is enumerated with them there in the 1900 federal census, with her occupation listed as "at school." She may have returned to Oklahoma when her parents moved back later in 1900.
Bertha married Curtis Keck (1866-1943) of Standard, OK, who had been born in Indiana. They lived in Crescent, OK, but had no children of their own. The Kecks are said to have raised Ethel Hawkins Fry, of Crescent.
It's said that when they lived on their farm, they did not have electricity. To listen to the radio, they had to employ a battery operated model. "Back then," recalls a nephew, "it took a battery about the size of a car battery. There was a shelf underneath the top of the table but it opened to the rear of the table instead of in front of the table. That way they could hide the cables that went from the radio to the battery from public view."
In the summer of 1923, Bertha and her aging widowed father traveled to California, presumably to visit her sister and brother who resided in the San Diego area. Ten days after their return to Crescent, he died.
Curtis died on July 9, 1943.
Bertha outlived him by 23 years, and died on April 17, 1966, less than a week after her 83rd birthday.
Copyright © 2000, 2002 Mark A. Miner