J.A. Stapp in the 1950's

For Grandpa, there are also records with his name listed as Orville Stapp.
Born in 1889 in Arkansas.  Died and buried in McAlester, OK in 1960.  I was told that he did poorly in math but if you told him the price per pound of beef he could tell you what to pay for a herd or pen of cattle.  He was a good judge of cattle & horses.  He worked as a farm hand, a cow hand, a prison guard & a deputy sheriff.  He was very accurate with a fire arm and was known to sit on the porch pull his pistol & shoot the chicken he want for dinner through the head.  He was always nice to me but I was told that he was a very stern/rough disciplinarian.  My favorite memory was when he took me to a cattle auction & I watched old men sitting on a fence post & snapping a 16' "black snake" behind the cattle to keep them moving. He had lung cancer & I was told that 2 weeks before he died, he was kicked by a bull which broke a couple of ribs.  He got up kick the bull back and went home to die.