Let me introduce myself. My name is Daniel William (Watson) Brumbaugh. I was born on March 4, 1948 to Merrell M. and Julia R. Houghtaling Watson,
in a little town called Esbon, in Jewell County, Kansas, which is located in the northcentral part of Kansas. I was born a twin, but my twin brother, David W. Watson, was stillborn at birth. My natural mother was carrying some wood into the house and slipped and fell and started her labor. I believe that she hit the side that my twin brother was on and that caused him to be stillborn. When I was born, I was premature and I weighted only two and a quarter pounds. The doctor who birthed me, put me in a shoe box and lined it with hot water bottles to keep me warm until they could get an incubator from the local hospital. The nurse who was attending me at home, took me to her home and cared for me in the incubater until I had enough weight on me to go home. I guess that took a couple of months to do that. They fed me with mothers milk until I gained enough weight. I have four other brothers, Merle, Tom, Fred and Marvin,
and one sister Rose.
I lived with my natural parents until August 27, 1952. That is when my natural mom left for Miles City, Montana, taking our youngest brother Marvin with her. In fact it was on his birthday she left. He was only 2 yrs of age at that time. He was later adopted out to Nicholas and Sylvia Tracas in Miles City. He was about 7 years old at that time.
It took me over 35 yrs to locate him. He never knew that he had any brothers or a sister while he was growing up, his adoptive parents didn't know anything about us.
Why did our natural parents break up? I later asked my natural Mother that. I asked her if our father drink too much or what? No, she replied, he never drank. She cut him off sexually, and that made him go crazy. He would be mean to her, and us siblings. She couldn't stand it any longer, so she decided to leave. She had left before like this, but came back, at the beckoning of her sisters. That was a year or so before I was born.
There were a few times that our natural dad would line all of us siblings up on the porch by our birth ages, the oldest first, and threaten to shoot us with a shot gun, one by one, starting with the youngest first. The only thing that ever saved us was, our oldest brother Merle, wouldn't be there. He would come later with the sheriff, and the sheriff would take our dad's gun from him. I was under 4 at the time and don't remember too much about it, but my older siblings would tell me about this later.
Our natural Father, Merrell worked for the Rock Island Line Rail Road then in Northcentral Kansas, and worked long hours and couldn't take care of us chidren after mom left, so he had us adopted into familys that he knew or who knew about us. Other family members wanted to adopt us, but couldn't afford the cost of so many children at the same time. So we were adopted to some nice Christian homes. He hated to break us up, but he had to.
Our set of adoptive parents kept in touch with our natural mother, (except Marvins), sending her letters and pictures of us, as we grew up. I didn't know this until our natural mom showed me her photo album years later, when I was visiting her.
The rest of the brothers and I were adopted into different homes. My brother Fred and I were adopted by Paul and Hazel Brumbaugh.
My brother Tom and my sister Rose were adopted by Milo and Rose Tegley, from Burr Oak, Ks.
since they knew our family from going to the church we used to go to in Esbon. They moved to Hastings, Nebraska, and then onto Lincoln, Nebraska, where Tom resides today. Milo and Rose Tegley were C.E.F. Directors of Nebraska. My oldest brother Merle
After being adopted, my adoptive parents moved from Osborne Ks., where we lived when I was adopted, to Paul’s home town of Portis, Kansas, where we lived in a house without an indoor bathroom. He did eventually put one in. The house had two giant lilac bushes in the front yard, and a big corn field in back. I went to school at Portis, Ks, through 4th grade. Dad worked in a saw mill there in Osborne, Ks until he was laid off when they closed it down. Dad landed a job in a saw mill in Phoenix, Az., so the family moved to Phoenix, Az. I went to grade school there for two years at Granada Grade School.
Dad was laid off again, and he went to Page, Az, in 1958, where he landed a job at the new site of a dam being constructed there. It was called Glen Canyon Dam.
Dad was up there a year before he moved the family up to Page in 1959. He was a Security Guard on the Damsite.
I went to Page Jr. High school, through the 9th grade. I remember being initiated into High School then. We had to wear a big diaper to school for one or two days. Then the Seniors sent all of us Freshmen in the gym, the girls too, and made us eat raw eggs. Some of the girls ended up with raw eggs in their hair. The Seniors blindfolded some of the Freshmen and made them eat raw spaghetti, telling them it was worms. Gee that was fun. I joined the Boy Scouts, and hiked the Grand Canyon twice while with them. We did some fine camping out in the desert too. To earn money I delivered the Phoenix Gazette, as did my brother Fred. We arrived at Page about the summer of 1959, and when the dam was almost completed in 1963, we left in that summer.
During the summer of 1963, we went to Muskegon, Michigan, for Dad and mom to take a Child Evangelism Fellowship training course, to become directors.
From there, we moved to Dallas, Texas, where he was a Dallas County C.E.F. Director. I went to Woodrow Wilson High School in my sophomore year,I took ROTC instead of P.E.
During my sophmore year in November 1963, I was sitting in a classroom when John F. Kennedy was shot, and I'll never forget that moment either.
In the spring of 1964, my brother Fred graduated, and joined the U.S. Navy.
During my Junior year in 1964 in High School we moved again, and I went to Brian Adams High School for that year. In the summer of 1965, we moved back into Woodrow Wilson High School district.
So in June 1966 I graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School,
I had enlisted on February 10, 1966 for the Marines, but didn’t go to Boot Camp until June 10, 1966. A very special young lady wrote me a poem when I left called 'Song of Pride'. Please click on the Marine Icon to go read it and view my boot camp picture, and the poem that was written for me before I left for Vietnam, called 'Song Of Pride'. 
I rode the train all the way to Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, California. Now that is another story in My Life in the Marines
me with any comments feel free!!!!
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