The fortunes of the Wilson family changed drastically when Joseph Jerome Wilson died suddenly. He left a wife and three children. Cora, (my grandmother), Murrel, Leroy and Eloise ( Lois).   In 1920 Joseph ( Jody ) Wilson was working in the oilfields of Oklahoma and that is the last I know about him.  His life seems a little shrouded in mystery and I wish I had made my dad ( Leroy ) write it all down for us.  As best I can determine Jody was born in Louisville, Kentucky Aug 13, 1888 and about all I know is that in the 1920 census he listed his father as coming from Kentucky and his mother as coming from Kentucky.  But, a family Bible says his father was from England.  Who they were and where they ended up is a mystery. However, Jody did have a sister, Rilla, and we do know enough about her to make an interesting speculation or two.  Rilla Belle Wilson was born in 1877 in Ky. She died on 1 Nov 1935 in  Sapulpa Ok. She married Rev. Theodore  Berryhill in the Creek Nation Indian Territory.   The curious thing here - how did Rilla Belle come to be living in the Creek Indian Territory?   Given that Grandfather Jody and my father Leroy have some fairly strong Indian features I think I will speculate that Jody's mother was Creek Indian or partially Creek Indian.      The Creeks who settled in and near Sapulpa OK were Lower Creeks and went to OK from the vicinity of the lower Chattahoochie River  ( western GA, eastern AL ).   Google Lower Creeks. 

                                                                                                                                                                   

                                                                                                                                                                   

 Theodore  Berryhill is an entire chapter but suffice it to say he was partially Creek Indian and he had a very colorful life.  He and Rilla together had a family and for some time we know that Jody lived with them as he was listed on the 1890 census.  The Berryhills lived for a time in Buchanan County Missouri which is the county adjacent to where Cora Lee Wilson's mother was from.  The Berryhills   lived in the vicinity of Sapulpa and Cora Isabell Lee lived in Arcadia Oklahoma near Oklahoma City. Exactly how she came to be introduced to Jody Wilson is a guess, but Cora Lee's mother had a sister who married a Berryhill and it is possible that the families became known to each other that way.  Regardless, Jody married Cora Lee in 1910 and for the next 10-15 years he had jobs in the oil fields.  Theodore Berryhill was a principal owner in the famous Glennpool oil strike of 1905 and no doubt Jody found employment in some capacity through a family connection.  Family oral history is that Jody had testicular cancer, went to the Mayo Clinic in MN for treatment, it was not successful and he died.  At this writing I have no other details.  When he died Cora was suddenly on her own and her situation was probably near desperate.  Somehow she met and married Stanley H. Berry and it was not long before Cora, Stanley and  Leroy were on their way west.  It was around 1925-1927.  Daughter Murel was married and living in Borger, Texas and it is thought that daughter Eloise was dropped off there to live with her.  

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Jody, Cora, baby Murel 3, Leroy ( infant ) and Great Grandmother Eliza Jane Johnson Lee
photo taken around Sept 1914 - Drumright, Oklahoma possibly.

I do not know the reason for the circuitous route to Cebolla New Mexico.

I think maybe their original destination was California and that maybe the prospect of free land ( homestead property ) lured them to northern New Mexico.

Around 1927 at about age 13 Leroy Wilson

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