Fruits of One Tree

Francis Bruguier, my grandmother’s grandfather, was an unlikely immigrant from east Germany. It’s a mystery why he left his home. As far as can be determined, he had no relatives where he settled in America. Unlike our colonial British ancestors, who left England because they refused to follow the official state religion, or our poverty-stricken Irish ancestors, who survived famine that decimated their countrymen, Francis Bruguier probably grew up in comfortable circumstances. His grandfather Carl Joseph von Bruguier was of the minor nobility. [1] Francis’ father Carl Alexander von Bruguier was a chancellor in the civil service for Prussia, the most powerful of the German speaking countries that later united to form Germany. Francis’ mother was Sophie Henriette Hermine Kleinholz. Francis was born as Carl Ernst August Franz von Bruguier on May 23,1841 in Seeburg, a small town in Brandenburg, a little west of Berlin. [2] A few years later, his father was posted to Senftenberg, a small ...

 This is the first in a new series of essays on the Doss family. To avoid confusion between Curtis’ family and mine, his ancestors will be indicated by a letter instead of a number. This biography was co-written; I found the historical documents, and Curtis supplied the memories and old photos. It seems hard to believe that someone we knew so well and who was a central figure in the first half of our lives was born over a hundred years ago, but Reid Elster Doss was born in rural Grady County, Oklahoma, on August 26, 1923. [1] He was the fifth child of Roy Doss and Jewell Stephens, who lived near Cement, Oklahoma. Ernestine Ellen, Grover Sampson, Herbert Laverne, and Reginald Lowell were older; the youngest was Daniel Riley Doss. [2] Reid was born into a family of farmers and cattlemen who owned property in an area about ten miles southwest of Chickasha where road E1450 now crosses the Bailey Turnpike (US 44). Reid attended nearby Fairview school throughout his childhood and ...