The elopement
On Sunday, your grandpa Jobe wouldn't let your mother [Julia (Jewell) Jane Jobe] go to Sunday school. Edna and I went by to get her. She told us that her Daddy wouldn't let her go. He was afraid that she would see your Daddy [Emery Lee London]. So, she told me that she and Em are fixing to get married this fall and her Dad said we wouldn't and I couldn't ever see him again. And he give her a whippin' because he found out that she had gone to the Fourth of July with him.
He gave her an awful whippin' with a rope. And so, she said, I'm ready to leave right now if I could see Em. She said will you tell him what I have told you? And I said yes. So Edna and I went on to church.
After church we went home and told Daddy about it. Em wasn't there, he was up at Austin's. And Daddy said, that's a shame - poor girl. He said, I'll go up and tell Em what Jewell said. So he went up there and told him and said whatever you want to do. Him and Austin and they all agreed for them to run off and get married. That evening Edna and I had to go back and tell Jewell, how they was going to work it. So Austin and Em went to Lawton and bought the license Monday morning and that night Jewell slipped out and hid in the orchard.
Austin parked his buggy and horse up at the corner of the section line and he had it turned to where he could take off when Jewell came out of the house. Em heard her coming down the road, it was gravel, and when she got even with him he stepped out of the orchard and I mean they made a dive for the buggy and Austin went under whip.
The rest of us were a mile and a half up where Austin lived and we were going up to Mrs. Roberts. Up there to a preacher. They stayed all night at Mrs. Roberts - that's Annie's mother's house (Austin's wife). We knew that if we ever got through that reserve, Mr. Jobe would never find us. We had to go through the reserve, that's the Wichita Mountains. Oh, what a relief when we opened that gate and got through that gate and locked it.
There was three buggies of us, let's see, there was Clarence Roberts, Edna Loyd and I were in one. Sam Roberts and his wife and Annie were in the other. Then there was Austin, Emery and Jewell.
Of course, we didn't come back till Tuesday - Tuesday we came back home. That morning when Mr. Job hollered for Jewell to get up and build a fire, Mary said "She's not here." He says, "They've played a Christmas trick on me!" He jumped up and grabbed his gun and went out and put the bridle on his horse and he came over to Daddy's. Well he first went over to Mr. Loyd's and he was out after his team. Then, he came over to Daddy's and said, "Where is Julie?" Daddy said, "They left here last night to go get married." Mr. Jobe said, "I'm bloodthirsty." Daddy said, "Mr. Job, that's an awful bad feeling." He said, "I don't like the stunt they pulled." Daddy said, "If you loved your wife well enough and her folks wouldn't let you marry, you'd run off wouldn't you?" We did! That's the way he put it.
Well, he went on back home then. So when the postman came by that afternoon Daddy told him how Mr. Jobe acted and said he was really mad, said he was bloodthirsty. He asked the postman to talk to him if he came out to the mailbox. He said he would. Of course, Daddy told him what had happened.
Naturally Mr. Jobe came out. The postman said "I hear you lost a daughter last night." "Yes," he said and downed his head. He said "she run off and got married." He said, "I was ashamed of myself when I went over to talk to Mr. London this morning." He said, "He was so nice about it." So that evening he sent Mrs. Jobe over to our house. She said that they had talked it over and they had given Lucy a wedding dinner and they should give Jewell one. He had sent Mrs. Job over there to see if we would come over. When she came out to talk, we were all chopping cotton right there at the house and Daddy was plowing. So, she asked Jewell and Jewell said, "Well not if Mr. London and all of them will go we will come. Of course, Em left it up to her. We waited for Daddy to come out to the end of the row. Jewell went over and told Daddy what he wanted us to do. Daddy said, "It was time to make peace, and the quicker the better." We'll get it over with. He said, "Yes, I'll be glad for us all to go over, which we all did. We all got ready Sunday morning and went over there.
We got ready to set down to the table and he never said anything. Oh, they did come out when we got there; he spoke and never raised his head. Of course, he spoke to Daddy and the rest of us but Em and Jewell; he never said nothing to them. When we set down to the table to eat he never hardly looked at Em or Jewell either.
When Daddy told Em it's about time for us to go, you'd better hitch up the wagon. Of course, we had to go in the wagon cause there wasn't enough room in the hack for all of us. When Em walked out of the door, Mr. Jobe took after him and Jewell jumped up out of her chair. She looked at her mother and daddy and away she went after her Daddy. He said, "What did you come out here for?" She said, "I want to know what you have to say to us." Of course, she included herself, you know. He says, "Em now that you've got her what are you going to do with her?" Em said, "I'm going to make her a living." He says, "Well, if you need any help or an extra horse, I'd be glad to help you in any way I can."
So, that was the last of his madness. He got over it in a hurry. When he couldn't do anything about it - it was all over. Later on, he said that Em was the only son-in-law he had. He didn't like John Hahn or Lem Walden.
Reference: This information was given by Aunt Maude (London) Dixson, who is 82 years of age [to (Dorothy) Lorene (London) Davidson orally who recorded it and then transcribed it]. This date is August 16, 1975.
