First Generation  

1. Percy Brandon Zerby, son of John Horace Zerby and Nancy Hannah Brandom, was born on 21 Feb 1885 in Carroliton, MO and died on 2 Apr 1963 in Oklahoma City, OK, at age 78.



Following is Percy's life story. hand written.

Here is a faithful transcription of the handwritten document as best as it can be read from the image. I've preserved original spelling, punctuation, and line breaks where possible, and I've noted uncertain or illegible words in [brackets].

Started July 27, 1951

This is a history of my life written by me in the 65 years of my existence, written chiefly for the information of my sons, my daughter, and my grandchildren. This is wives and husbands. It is written without any intention at literary excellence, but as a simple recording of one life, I hope has had the affection of those who I have had respect so dearly.

I am the eldest of a family of eight - 5 boys and 3 girls - listed as this in the order of birth:Tony Brandon (myself), Martin Leander [Brandon], Harry Lewis [Brandon], Rosa married (Sarah Elizabeth), Thomas Edward, died in infancy, the only one that is deceased at this date, Edna Allen, Emily, Adeline,

My first remembrance of the stern realities of life and as I look back now from the experience of years is the poverty of the family I was born into and the privations of father and mother. I am told that I was 3 months old when with my mother we joined my father in Comanche County, Kansas where he had staked a claim. My very first recollection is the box trap which my father made to catch what we called snow birds. He sprinkled some small grain on the ground and then propped up the box on a stick to which he had attached a string long enough to reach the door of our sod shanty. When the little birds gathered in large numbers he would jerk the string and suddenly one drop was enough to catch a sufficient number to make an ample meal for the meals - breakfast, dinner & supper.

Even then our poverty as I look back on it was delightfully forgotten by me, the simple satisfaction of a filled stomach. I recall that father would be gone for several days at a time and I would with my mother go out over the prairie and gather buffalo chips the name they gave from the dropping of the cattle dung and this we used for fuel. At last father would return and he would have a good load of logs which he had gathered in the Oklahoma Strip. And by the way this was on the Indian Reservation and near the town of Supply, Okla. to which we many years after moved & lived in. The history of which will come later.

While in Kansas Martin and Lewis were born. Finally the rigors and the poverty entailed in the frontier were too strenuous for a young wife and 3 small children so we packed our belongings into a covered wagon and made the trip overland to Okla City, Okla. Even then in vigor that location gave promise for the great city that is the capital of the State of Oklahoma. Now was born Ross Morris.

I remember but very little of our stay there. Here - get the date we left Okla City? and the reason for leaving? However we again taken to the covered wagon and overland again we traveled back to Wakenda Mo.

My father worked for an uncle of mine, Uncle Ed Brandon. He was the owner of considerable land and had a large two story home, large barns, a grist mill where he ground corn for his cattle and hogs, mules & horses a plenty. He was a large stock man and kept a large number of steers on feed just all the time we lived there.

He was a very resourceful man - He owned a sawmill and flour mill at Wakenda Mo which was just a mile north of his ranch. I go into detail here for the reason that here in this location I received the deep impression of the vicissitude of life. The generosity and the cruel injustice of human conception in relation to one another when among your relations.

Here was an uncle the brother of my mother. Virtually a man of wealth, a religious man. A deacon in the Baptist Church, Superintendent of the Wakenda Baptist Church - A man of influence and as I recall him a gentle man. But with a mental complex about money that I never understood, as evidenced from a period years after, I had made a trip back to Missouri and bought our home in Supply from the party owned it and who lived in MO and on my back home I came through Carrollton MO and Uncle Ed was living there with his only daughter and he drove me down to the old ranch which he still owned and on which his youngest son was now operating and as we passed the old Cary Graveyard named after his first white people, and in which one was buried, and also his eldest daughter Sadie and seeing the weeds covered the cemetery ground and I remarked on the unkempt condition and when he answered with these words "Tush - Tush - it is shameful you know I give them 50 cents a year to keep it in condition" and I almost fell out of the car - But I conceived in my mind then that the man had a mental complex about money - evidently inherited to him - no conception of the value in relation to belief of suffering humanity - No conception of his disgusting miserly hoarding.

This diversion in my life story is made to give you a possible reason for the scenes and events that I now will make.

Remembering California

Percy worked for Road House Restaurants, a chaun of restaurants along the railtracks where peeople could eat and refresh when the train stopped for water, He wrote a number of essays after he retired from the highway department.

My reaction to my first sight of the ocean

In the Spring of 1907 I was taking my vacation from my work which had confined me to the desert areas of Arizona and California - and in this vacation, which was so far removed from the scenes in which I was born and reared, specifically the verdant agricultural areas of Missouri - where I was accustomed to see the green of fields - the grazing lands of the prairie & valley - and the towering trees of Maple, Oak, Hickory, and various other kinds.

You may realize in a way my reaction to a year spent in the blazing sands of the desert, broken only by the sparse bushes of sage brush and the small & also giant cactus plants. I have walked out into this cauldron of heat & sand many, many times just to see the [miracle crossed out] mirage of lakes that's like the tricks of the deities of mythology, lured the thirsty prospector to his death, after thirst had exhausted his mind to the extent that he failed to realize that this picture of lakes of water were but the reflection of the shimmering heat waves in the land of desolation & death.

One day I was allowed to make the trip over the mountains to Bakersfield, California, and as we made the ascent the side facing the Mojave desert was barren but as we continued the descent way my spirit was filled with exultation as my eyes filled with a vision of green trees and miracle; miracle little brooks [crossed out word] with its waters cascading down its rocky bed & sides - wild flowers in riots of color, and then as we rushed into the City of Bakersfield I was wrapped in an estate of rapture at the gardens of Roses, Roses of all kinds - climbing roses that [crossed out] covered the sides of buildings and reaching their very top. Surely the City of Roses which it is called, my spirit was filled with exultation as my eyes filled with a vision of green trees and miracle; miracle little brooks [crossed out word] with its waters cascading down its rocky bed & sides - wild flowers in riots of color, and then as we rushed into the City of Bakersfield I was wrapped in an estate of rapture at the gardens of Roses, Roses of all kinds - climbing roses that [crossed out] covered the sides of buildings and reaching their very top, Surely the City of Roses which it is called.

Leaving the train from Mojave & Los Angeles I was sitting in the observation car reading a deep interesting book. I have forgotten what it was, we went through a very long tunnel and after we had gone through the sudden came there the train almost stopped all the windows up & the conductor came out that shade lifted into the car, and presently I was fast walking my book when all of a sudden I caught the odor of the moist delicate fragrance I turned my head and looked over the observation car thinking that several gardens existed each of such size these were so intense that it would be impossible [illegible] and for just one or two days before Wallace was accustomed to accompany father there in the car I looked out the window and there I saw my first Orange Orchard \endash leaves full grown \endash oranges hanging on the trees and the refreshing of the luscious fruit. Now I realized [line obscured by letterhead]

His parents moved to Supply sometime after 1900. The 1910 census records for Supply show Percy married to a xxxxxx May, the first name not being legible. A note from Maxyne indicates his first marriage was in Carrolton, Mo. The census records also shows Percy was assistant cashier of a bank. The bank was the Bank of Supply which was owned by his future father-in-law, Burrell Million. In 1917 he married Ora Million and their only child, Maxyne Cecilia Zerby Dorr, was born in 1919. Percy eventually became vice president of the bank and was also the treasurer of the town of Supply. The family lived in the largest home in Supply and was very much involved in society life. They would have dances in the ballroom on the second floor of their home. He was very active in the state banking association and was president one year. The bank moved to Woodward in 1929 in an attempt to survive the depression. In 1930 the bank failed and merged with the Bank of Woodward.

Losing the bank had a devastating effect on Percy which he never recovered from. Around 1938 when his daughter entered college, he started working as a clerk in the Oklahoma Highway Department in Perry, OK. Ora and Maxyne moved to Stillwater so Maxyne could attend Oklahoma A&M. He would sleep on a cot in a closet at the Highway Department during the week and go to Stillwater on the weekends. He remained a clerk until he retired 25 years later. He walked to and from the Highway Department every day, he never drove a car.

Percy B. Zerby was a loving and gentle person with a gift for words. He did not go to college but he loved to read and always had a collection of books. He aldo enjoyed writing and would write essays which he would share with frieds, The essay above about seeing the ocean is an example. He was a great grandfather, his grandchildren called him "Nini" and Ora, "Mimi." He loved to work in his vegetable garden while Mimi would work with her flowers. The last few years of his life he and Ora moved to Oklahoma City to be close to Maxyne and Sam.

Percy married Ora Cecilia Million, daughter of Burrell Million and Emma Catherine Kell, on 18 Jun 1917 in Enid, OK.¹ Ora was born on 18 Jul 1876 in Shelbina, MO. Williamstown?? and died on 27 Mar 1968 in Oklahoma City, OK, at age 91.

The child from this marriage was::

          i.  Maxyne C. Zerby was born on 11 Jun 1919 in Supply, OK and died on 30 Sep 2007 in Stillwater, OK, at age 88. Maxyne married Albert Edward Dorr, son of Albert Ernest Dorr and Laura Estelle Boswell, on 1 Jun 1940 in Stillwater, OK. Albert was born on 3 Sep 1918 in Macon, Fayette Co., TN and died on 13 Jul 1995 in Oklahoma City, OK, at age 76.