Abernathy Returned to Tillman County, 1921

John R. "Jack" Abernathy

Jack Abernathy recuperated at Crossroads Ranch

    A brief note in The Frederick Free Press's March 10, 1921, edition told that Jack Abernathy had returned to the family ranch west of Frederick to recuperate following surgery.

PIONEER SETTLER RETURNS

Mr. and Mrs. John R. Abernathy, who formerly resided about 14 miles northwest of Frederick, but who left a number of years ago for Wichita Falls, Texas, where Mr. Abernathy has been engaged in the oil business, returned a couple of weeks ago again to make their home on their 640-acre farm. 

John was U.S. Marshal for Western Oklahoma during Roosevelt’s administration.

Only one of Mr. Abernathy’s children, Temple, returned with the family. Temple is now attending the Frederick high school. Pearl is attending the Wichita Falls school, while Louis is a junior in the Oklahoma State University law school.

John has been in a hospital three months, where he underwent two surgical operations, leaving the hospital but two weeks before moving to Frederick.

He starts out right by ordering the Free Press sent to him on Route C.

He already has 150 acres planted in corn.

Jack Abernathy had served as a U.S. Marshal until December 1910.

He later moved to Wichita Falls with his second wife. His first wife had died while the family lived in Guthrie during his service as U.S. Marshal.

How long did he remain in Tillman County during his period of recuperation? That's uncertain, but he lived for two decades after the 1921 Frederick Free Press article.

John R. "Jack" Abernathy died in California in 1941. His body was returned to Wichita Falls for burial in Riverside Cemetery.