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| Warren Frakes, 6 yrs old, Comanche County, Oklahoma, October 11, 1916. Photo by Lewis Hine. |
6-year old Warren Frakes. Mother said he picked 41 pounds yesterday
"An I don't make him pick; he picked some last year." Has about 20 pounds in his bag. Location: Comanche County,
Oklahoma / Lewis W. Hine, October 11, 1916.
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| Frakes family (left to right): Warren (6), Velma (14), Clara (11), mother Lula (40), Alma (4), 1916 |
Family of W.T. Frakes, Route 5, Lawton, Okla. Mother said 6-year
old Warren picked 41 pounds of cotton yesterday "An I don't make him pick; he picked last year." Had about 20 pounds
in his bag. She said Clara, 11 years old, averages 75 pounds a day. Picked 101 pounds yesterday, earning $1.25 (they are picking
now for another farmer). She carries 40 pounds in the bag. Velma, 14 years, picks 125 pounds. Has picked over 200 pounds in
a day. Children go to Flower Mound School, District 48 while living here, but they are itinerant, renting a small farm of
10 acres now. "We move about a good deal" mother said. Location: Comanche County, Oklahoma / Lewis W. Hine, October
11, 1916.
"He attended a one-room country schoolhouse until
1922, when he and his family moved to California in search of a better climate and better schools. He always managed to find
jobs, such as carrying papers and picking fruits and vegetables." Lorene Wray, sister of Warren
Frakes
The Flower Mound School that the Frakes children attended
still exists, although it has been rebuilt. According to their website: "The need for a school in the Flower Mound community
was recognized early. Less than one year after the lottery opened the area to white settlement, community members pushed for
organization of a school." It was built and began in the fall of 1902. But a year later, it burned down, possibly due
to arson. It was rebuilt, and reopened in 1905.
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| Flower Mound School, early 1900s. Uncredited photo posted on the school's website. |
In September of 2006, author Elizabeth Winthrop, who had
led me to the search for Addie Card, contributed an article about it in Smithsonian Magazine. It resulted in a letter
to the editor written by a woman named Sally Kapp. She explained that she had recently found her great uncle, Warren Frakes,
and his family in the Lewis Hine collection posted on the Library of Congress website. Elizabeth told me about it, so I contacted
Ms. Kapp, and she sent me some information about Warren and his family.
Warren Debbs Frakes was born on August 10, 1910. He was one of nine children born to William Tecumseh Sherman Frakes
and Mary Lula (called Lula) Crawley Frakes, who were married in 1891. William was a native of Indiana, and Lula was born in
Texas. All of the children were born in Oklahoma, with the exception of Warren, and older sister, Ila (1908), who were born
in New Mexico. Altogether the family had nine children, apparently losing their first two before the third was born.
The family might have been one of more than 29,000 families
that descended upon Comanche County in the early 1900s, when the federal government took over a huge amount of Indian land
and held a lottery for the purposes giving away parcels to "homesteaders." But in the 1900 census, the Frakes are
listed as living in Township 7, Chickasaw Nation, Oklahoma, where they owned their house. It was not in Comanche County. Mr.
Frakes was a blacksmith. But when they were photographed in 1916, they were in Comanche County. According to the 1920 census,
they were still in the Lawton area, and apparently rented their home and farm. Mr. Frakes was still a blacksmith.
In 1922, the family moved to California. Warren married
Bernece Faye Vaughn (date not determined). They had one child, Sheryl Arline, who was born in 1948. Bernece died in 1985.
Warren died in Norwalk, California, on June 29, 1997, at the age of 86.
Warren's story, as told by his sister
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