by Diane Lowrey
R-T Editor
He may be nearing the century mark, but Trenton resident Max Oyler wants everyone to know he’s not done yet.
Just because he will officially celebrate his 100th birthday anniversary on Monday, June 18, 2018 doesn’t mean he has plans to slow down any time soon. He still lives at home, he still drives and goes to coffee every day and, on Sunday, he has dinner with many of his friends from the Wesley United Methodist Church, where he has maintained a long-time membership and currently serves as song leader.
“I always say the good Lord’s been on my side,” Max said.
Max was born 10 miles north of Trenton in the Forks of the River area, the oldest child of Bert and Mary Blanche Moore Oyler. His family, which included four other brothers (one who died as a baby) and two sisters, lived on the family farm just north of the Hatton Chapel Church. His youngest sister, Mary, is the only sibling alive and lives in the Kansas City area.
Growing up during the depression, Max noted that he learned about hard times and hard work at an early age, which meant farming by horse and by hand.
“I used to drive my dad crazy, wanting to go to the field before I was really old enough to,” he said. “But we never went hungry. We always had a garden and chickens and hogs to butcher. But there wasn’t any extra money to spend.”
But his parents made sure he received an education, attending first through eighth grade at the Shott School, which eventually became one of three country schools that were to consolidate in Grundy County. Max then spent two years in high school at Tindall before coming to Trenton, where he graduated with the Trenton High School Class of 1936. He was also able to finish one year of college before the money ran out.
“That was it. It was back to farming,” he said, noting that he worked not only on the family farm, but spent four years in Abilene, KS before returning back home.
It was back home that he met and wooed the love of his life, Maradyn Webster, who he first knew as a grade school student when her family moved to the Forks of the River Area. But it wasn’t Maradyn who at first caught his fancy. It was actually her older sister.
“I actually dated her sister first, but she dumped me,” Max laughed, adding there was one other girl in between the two sisters, whose name he couldn’t (or didn’t want to) recall.
When Maradyn was old enough to date, she and Max would attend the movies as well as go dancing at the Gables.
“That was the place to go,” he said. “It was great fun and they had great food.”
The couple dated for five years, including one year when Maradyn taught school. After finishing college, Maradyn decided she wanted to go to California and went there to live with relatives, staying four years.
“I didn’t hear from her for several years,” Max said. “Then one day her dad told me she was coming home on vacation. So on June 23, when she came home, I showed up at her house on my way to St. Joseph and asked if she wanted to come along. She never went back to California after that.”
And on Oct. 15, 1948, the couple were married and settled on the family farm to live and work.
After several years on the farm, Maradyn began developing some health issues that, when checked by doctors at Mayo Clinic, turned out to be allergies that were life-threatening and forced the couple to make a decision. They moved to town and on Jan. 1, 1962, opened Oyler’s Locker in Spickard, a business they operated until they sold it in February 1987.
“There was only one house available in Spickard and it was on a gravel street, which affected Maradyn’s allergies,” he said. “We had an apartment over the locker, but didn’t want to live there because we knew we would be at the locker 24 hours a day.”
With their son in school at Trenton and Maradyn already working there, the family “moved to the city” and purchased a home in Trenton. Max drove back and forth to work each day, but missed just one day to weather during that entire time.
When the couple retired from the locker business, Max said he continued to tinker with mowing and carpentry work and continued to get more involved with the Farm Bureau, an organization he joined in the early 1950s after being invited to attend the local annual meeting as guests of Mr. and Mrs. Vern VanHoozer.
“So we went and before I knew it, they had elected me to the board,” Max said. “I told Vern that I couldn’t be on the board because I wasn’t a member and he told me that I could just join later. Which I did.”
And not only has he stayed involved on a local level, serving in many capacities, he is also known for his participation in many statewide activities and has received many plaques honoring his dedication to the organization. He still attends state meetings, being present at the 2017 meeting this past December as well as a legislative meeting in Jefferson City in February of this year.
Maradyn passed away in 2010. But before she did, one of the activities in which she and Max became involved was genealogy. They spent many hours researching their family histories, including a five-week trip back east where they visited Max’s family in Indiana as well as Maradyn’s family in Connecticut. That trip revealed that one of Maradyn’s relatives was the third colonial governor of Connecticut.
The other big project in which she was involved and with which Max helped was collecting information on all of the old schools within Grundy County, including descriptions, photos, etc. That collection eventually became a bound book, with copies available at the Grundy County-Jewett Norris Library. The original, however, still remains in Max’s possession.
“She really worked hard on that project,” he said proudly.
Max continues to be active. In addition to his work with Farm Bureau, he continues to sing with the choir at the Wesley United Methodist Church. It’s not unusual for Max to belt out a solo every few months for special music, which he still enjoys after all these years.
He also attends his monthly class breakfast, which now includes members from the classes of 1936 to 1943.
“We’re lucky to get about six or eight of us there every month, but we still get together,” he said.
Healthwise, Max remains in pretty good shape for 100 years. Yes, he uses a walker. But he gets where he needs to go by either driving himself or accepting the generosity of his many friends and neighbors.
“I have a lot of good people around me who always want to help,” he said. “I had a person tell me one time that I had a lot of young friends. I said that if I didn’t have them, I wouldn’t have any friends.”
Max says he has been lucky healthwise, having had what he considers just two times “that the Lord was watching out for me.” Both times he was able to recover and continue on with life.
“I haven’t got any plans to move,” Max said. “The Lord willing, it will be when they carry me out of here for the last time.”
Max will be the guest of honor at a party on Tuesday, June 19, hosted by the Grundy County Farm Bureau. The public event will take place at the Wesley United Methodist Church, beginning at 6 p.m. and, knowing Max, will go on well into the evening.
After all, he’s not done yet.