We followed Interstate 40 132 miles (212 km) east to Sayre, Oklahoma, then drove State Highway 152 27 miles (43 km) east, State Highway 44 22 miles (35 km) south, and State Highway 9 6 miles (10 km) east to Hobart, the county seat of Kiowa County, Oklahoma.
This part of the trip was for genealogical research. My maternal 3rd-great-grandfather William David Kelley died in Kiowa County in 1909, so I wanted to see what records the county courthouse had and visit his grave if I could learn which cemetery he was buried in.
William David Kelley
I located his probate records in the court clerk's office, but some documentation was missing from the packet. The clerk confirmed it was missing, then said the packet had been complete when someone else requested the records a few weeks earlier. The clerk could only apologize.
I've never found out who that mysterious other researcher was. I later confirmed that none of the genealogists in my family had been there. Rumors have always swirled that Great-Great-Great-Grandpa was a bigamist with a second family, so who knows, perhaps it's true and a descendant of that family was responsible, but why take some of the probate papers over eighty years after his death?
I also learned that he'd purchased a burial plot in a cemetery in the small town of Mountain View, 23 miles (37 km) east on State Highway 9, so that was our next stop.
A cemetery official confirmed the presence of the burial plot. What he couldn't confirm was that my 3rd-great-grandfather was actually buried in it. The record only showed a purchase of a plot, not a burial in it. We were shown the location of the presumed grave (there was no marker). I took a photo of the location, and then we left. More questions were raised than answered that day.
Mountain View Cemetery
Mountain View Cemetery: presumed section of burial
Mountain View Cemetery: his presumed grave is just left of this section marker
We took State Highway 115 and State Highway 54 33 miles (53 km) north back to Interstate 40, which we followed east 70 miles (113 km) east to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
We had reservations at a Motel 6, but we stopped at the wrong one, where we were informed that the correct one was a few blocks away on the other side of the freeway. After we finally reached the correct motel and had our luggage in our rooms, we decided to go out for dinner at a steakhouse we'd seen advertised on a billboard along the freeway.
We got lost on the freeway in Oklahoma City. Unable to find the steakhouse, we returned to the motel and ate at the nearby Denny's. As we retruned to our rooms for the night, the storm clouds seemed even closer.
Total Travel Distance: 287 miles (462 km)
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