Charley Claypool….It was ladies’ choice, but he wouldn’t let go

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By Eva Hallam Solberg

Published in PCN on May 10, 1979

A huge, juicy watermelon sold for thirty-five cents. Medium ones, just as delicious, cost only a dime. A little black boy bought a good-sized one and came back a short time later with juice on his face, asking for another one just like it.

These are Charley Claypool’s fond memories of his childhood home in Barton County, Missouri, on whose farm his father raised corn, sugar cane and watermelons. Charley was the middle of ten children--seven boys and three girls--born to Benjamin Franklin and Carolina Schildknecht Claypool on Dec. 21, 1892. His mother’s parents were born in Germany.

Charley went to school in Vernon County, near Nevada, Missouri. He taught grade school four years in Missouri and six years in Montana, some of it at Black Coulee near Malta. One year he had thirty-eight pupils in all eight grades.

Read the rest of this story & many more in
"Looking Back Again: Life Stories from the Prairies of Montana"
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Volume 1
Volume 2
Volume 3

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