Warren Gilbert McNabb
1898 - 1975
A Brief History
by Beverly Nan McNabb
Warren Gilbert McNabb was born in 1898 in Greer, Oklahoma Territory. His parents Walter Scott and Birtie McNabb were living in Greer working for an uncle. They later moved back to the family settlement in Central Texas. When Warren was child they moved to the settlement of Hansford, Tx along PaloDuro Creek in Texas Pandhandle. Later they moved to Guymon, Oklahoma.
When Warren was 16 or 17 he was sent to a boarding school in Dallas, Tx. and soon after ran away from the school, lied about his age because the minimum was 18 to join and 19 to go overseas. He joined in EL Paso,Tx. and was stationed army base along TX - Mexico border. Later when USA entered into WorldWar 1 in Europe in 1918 he was sent to France. He was in the front lines of conflict and likely suffered PTSD.
After war was over he returned to Guymon then spent several years wandering from Ok to Canadian border. When he returned home his family had moved to new town of Spearman, Tx built along the new railroad. It was sometime in about 1922 when he began working for his father, WS McNabb at McNabb Land Company, formed in 1902 in Spearman, Tx. They bought and sold land and cattle or arranged sales throughout Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. Also, bought and sold mineral rights to land. Part of their commissions were paid in percentage of mineral rights. These were early days of "Texas Oil Boom".
Warren met Ruth Prutsman a few years later. They married in 1930 and started a family, Nan 1932 then Neil 1934. After his father died in 1936, Warren tried his hand at having a 'cafe' and later a garage gas station. These were days of "great depression" and Warren was not a very good business man as he had difficulity collecting what people owed. Warren soon found work sign painting, house painting, and in summer months he would work at wheat harvest. For several years he took his family on a trek to Colorado while he worked in hay fields and apple harvest.
After Nan and Neil started to school he would work for the railroad painting signs until 1940 when Warren was hired by Santa Fe Railroad as a painter and moved his family to Winslow, Arizona. It was a new and exciting adventure for whole family as Arizona was definitely a lot different from Spearman, Tx. Warren and his family left Winslow in 1950 when he was transfered by the Santa Fe Railroad to Albuquerque, NM where he later retired and spent the remainder of his life.