Tillman Howard Loughmiller
Compiled by Nora Perry


     Tillman Howard Loughmiller came with his parents to Jackson County, Kansas, and homesteaded near his father's farm. He built a log cabin on the east side of his farm. Here he brought his bride and they began their new life. There were no screens on the cabin and one day, when Ella was resting by the window, a rattle snake coiled on the window sill. They had a big St. Bernard dog who was faithful in warding off all snakes and rodents, but this one got by this faithful guard. George and Annie were small children then and were guarded by the good dog. Tillman built the big stone house on the west side of his farm, where he raised his family of seven boys and three girls. One day Oscar was lying undder a tree in the orchard, when dinner was called. He continued to lie there. When Tillman went after him, he asked Oscar why he had not come when called. "I was waiting for you to come after me," was the reply. Father Tillman got a switch and switched him all the way to the house. Needless to say, Oscar never waited for father to come after him again.
     Tillman was a patient father though, and Nora, his youngest, remembers when the boys were youngsters and of going to picnics with their father. "Then they saw the merry-go-round, all of them wanted to ride. With four or five youngsters pulling him to the vicinity of the merry-go-round, he would always consent and all would take a ride. There were times when Tillman decided the family could not go to the picnic that day as there were things that should be done on the farm. As many of these community picnics were held on the lower Siegrist place in the timber by the creek, or in the St. Clair Park, the crowds would go by the Loughmiller farmstead. As soon as the Avoca Band Wagon would come into view, Tillman was won over and he would hurry into the house and say, "Mammy, (he always called Ella Mammy), get the kids ready, we're going to the picnic. Nora remembers her mother telling that when the six boys were small, she would dress them in dresses in the morning and would never see them until noon. They spent the morning with their father in the field, and again after dinner they would go with him again until night. Even in later years, when he was partially retired, and Nora and husband, Tom Perry, occupied part of the rock house, he was trailed by his grandchildren. He became an expert baby sitter and was never too busy to take the children with him. In these years he had a pony named Pet, which he hitched to a spring wagon to haul in feed from the fields. He seldom went alone as Lucille or Leroy, or both, were with him.
     Pet was a gentle pony and was ridden often as Lucille began riding when only two. An old slat hammock was slung between trees in the yard. One day Lucille and Tillman were swinging in it when it tipped and Lucille headed for the cellar steps. She stopped rolling before she reached the steps, but it gave Grandfather Till a fright. 93


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