Biographical Sketch of Paris Clark Martin, Crawford County, Missouri
PREFACE
(by William Lawrence Hilton, son of Paris Clark Martin)
Paris Clark Martin was a man of dignity and compassion who respected human
values. He was well educated for a man of his time and circumstances; this
means that he could communicate by the written word; it does not mean that
his grammar, spelling, and punctuation met any recognized standards. In 1935,
when he was seventy eight years old, he began writing the story of his life.
It told of a time in Missouri during the civil War and of the many moves which
his father and family made when the lawlessness of the Bushwhackers caused
many of the settlers to flee their homes. The narrative continues until Paris
left home at the age of fourteen to work for wages; at that point, he digressed
to discuss his current situation in the 1930's. He was then living in
Nickerson, Kansas, during the Great Depression, too old to work and thankful
for the government benefits made available by the New Deal of President
Franklin D Roosevelt. His wife was allowed to work in a Works Projects
Administration sewing room for a few hours each week for a few cents per hour.
He ended this portion by writing, "I'm going to resume my boyhood days now."
This was the last he wrote in that narrative although he lived until 1944.
This present work includes Mr. Martin's narratives supplemented by letters
which he wrote to his daughter, Bertha (Martin) Hilton, in 1925, 1926, 1936
and 1937, as well as notes about her early life which Bertha wrote to her sons
in the 1970's. There is also a genealogical chart, a chronology of events,
and extracts from an autobiography and family history written by Mr. Martin's
youngest son, William. The present editor has supplemented the narratives and
letters with explanatory notes in an effort to cover various time gaps.
This is what we know of the life and times of Paris Clark Martin, 1857-1944,
a natural gentleman.
Kenneth Hilton
Parents of these siblings Unknown.
Father born KY, mother born VA
Mother died abt 1821 either in KY or TN
Father died abt 1825 in TN probably middle TN
(Note: Children of first marriage were bound out in TN probably Warren,
Smith or De Kalb.)
Known siblings of William Nelson Martin
William Nelson Martin b. 1816 KY
Jemima Bethane Martin abt 1815 KY (married Lorenza Dow Linder)
Rachel Martin b. abt 1820 TN
Alvis (probably not his first name) may be half brother.
The Martin Family
William Nelson Martin
b. 4 Jan. 1816 "mountainous area of Kentucky"
d. 10 Oct 1901 Shell Knob (possibly Golden)
buried Viney Cemetery, Golden
Children by his first wife "Unknown":
1 Martin, John Marshall "Dr. Marsh" (7 children known)
b. abt 1837 TN
d. abt 1900 Barry County
buried Viney Cemetery next to his father
m 1. Lydia Ann Martin
m 2. Emily Louise Odell (Toadvine)
2 Nepthial "Neph" B Martin (2 children known)
b. abt 1839 TN
d. 1864 Crawford Co. MO (Civil War Union)
marriage: Martha Adeline Kitching (step sister)
3 Josiah "Joe" Martin (2 children known)
b. abt 1842 TN
d. ?
m 1. Celia (Selah) Toadvine
m 2. Rebecca Parsley , DeKalb Co. Tennessee (Smithville)
4 James Robert b. 1844 TN "Dr. Jim" (10 children known)
d. 1921 Baker, Oregon
m 1. Susan Cornelius Daniels
m 2. Elizabeth Simmons
5 Jasper Newton Martin (9 children known)
b. 26 May 1847 TN
d. April 1928, near Haskell , Okmulgee Co., OK
m 1. Nancy Ann Morgan Harbison (previously married to a Martin.)
m 2. Rebecca Jane Sanders b. Dec 1865, White River, Barry Co., MO
6 Mary Jane Martin (2 children known)
b. 1850 TN
d. 29 June 1887
buried Viney Cem, near Golden Mo with husband David F. Mills
William Nelson Martin's Third marriage to Elizabeth Ann (Mrs.) Kitching
nee Merritt
b. 27 Dec 1822
d. 1 Sept 1901
buried in Pierce Cemetery, Aurora , Lawrence Co.,
1 Paris Clark Martin (5 children survived)
b. 11 Oct 1857 TN
d. 28 Apr 1844 Nickerson, Reno, Ks
buried Wildmead Cem, Nickerson, Ks
m 1. Emma Ryan
m 2. Amanda Jane Street
m 3. Hannah Cordelia Heathcock
2 Josephine "Jocie" Henryetta (5 children)
b. 1861, Dent Co. MO
d. 1954 Barry Co.,
buried in Painter Cem, Barry Co.,
m 1. Joseph Steward Brazle
m 2. George Redmon James
Elizabeth's Kitching nee Merritt's Children:
1 William Kitching/Kitchen (4 known children)
b. 7 Mar 1841(OR 42) TN
d. 14 Feb 1924 Boise, Ada Co., Idaho
m (2) Julia A Caldwell abt 1882 in Barry Co. MO
2 Martha Adeline Kitching (6 known children)
b. abt 1840 TN
d. bet 1876 and 1878 , place unk
m 1. Nepthali B Martin
m 2. James Cook
3 Henry C. Kitching (3 known children)
b. Oct 1844 TN
d. bet 1920 and 1930 TX
m 1. Martha J Martin (sister of John M's first wife)
m 2. Mary L LNU
4 Mary Ann Kitching (had 12 children, 8 known living)
b. June 1847
d. bet 1920 and 1930 Aurora Twp, Lawrence Co, MO
buried probably near Aurora
m 1. David F. Mills
5 James Fleming Kitchen (had five children all died by 1901,
no descendants)
b. 21 Jan 1851 TN
d. 20 Nov 1920 Aurora, Lawrence Co. MO
buried in Maple Park Cemetery, Aurora
m 1. Martha Levina Chastain
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PARIS CLARK MARTIN'S NARRATIVE 1816-1872
Compiled from original manuscript by his grandsons,
Kenneth L. Hilton and Curtis Eugene Hilton
Nickerson, Kansas November 20, 1935
I am asked by some of my children to write some brief sketches of my life
from my earliest recollections up to the present time so I though it would be
proper to tell them a little in regard to my ancestors just my father and
mother and my Grand Mother on my mothers side are about all that I know of
personally and not a great deal about my Grand mother and as this is something
new and unexpected to me I do not promise any thing very interesting but as I
have lived seventy eight years I have saw many changes in all walks of life
some of them very interesting to me but how they will appear to other people
I will have to let them be the judge.
"My father was born January 4, 1816 in Kentucky in the mountanius region but
otherwise I do not know any thing of what portion of Kentucky it was and about
all I know of his life up to the time I was about three years old I learned
ffromhim he was the oldest of six children his mother died when he was a small
boy and his father married another woman they had two children a girl and a
boy then his father died after they left Kentucky and went to Tenn. When my
grand father died the children by his first wife were all bound out and father
lost track of his half sister and he never heard of her any more but his half
brother growed up to manhood went to California and finally came back MO and
by some means heard of father and came to visit us. I was then past 13 years
of age he came early in March and my father asked me if I could catch a mess
of fish for Uncle Alvis there was some ice in the creek and I had never
fished before in cold weather but I put out three bank hooks and caught one
ten pound catfish after that we had all the fish we wanted we lived near a
large creek and the fish were plentifull I caught a great many while we lived
there and seldom caught one that weighed less than six pound the largest one
I caught weighed twenty pounds I sold it for one dollar as we had no use
for it.
Wel my uncle went home he lived in Cedar county MO was married living on a
farm he was a large fine looking man weighed more than two hundred pound but
got over heated that summer in the harvest field and died so I only saw him
the one time.
"Well as I will probly refer to my father and Mother occasionally along what
little I write in regard to my self I will first say now my Mother was born in
Old Virginia December 27,1822 and like my Father moved with her family to Tenn
when she was 10 years old her father was a farmer and a contracting carpenter
he lived in Nashville a while then settled on a farm in Smith County where he
died aged 59 years he owned a farm of two hundred acres all fenced off in ten
acre lots all sowed to red clover he would plow what he wanted to cultivate
and the next year it would go back to clover as clover never died there if
taken proper care of they used bulltong plows them days to break their ground
grandfather in his last years used a turning plow made at home from a tree that
growed as twisting as they could find the mould board was made of wood and a
black smith would put a steel shear on-grand father would not use a turning
plow for some years as he said they would kill the land but he finally was
converted to the idea and made himself a turning plow I myself have seen plows
with wooden moulboard in Dent county Mo but was too small then to use a plow
and I would guess it took a man with a beard on with plenty of patience to use
a plow with a wooden moulboard.
I don't suppose any of my children will be very much interested in regard to
my grand parents but will tell here how they come to live in Kansas and the
West My uncle Louis Merritt went to Cal when he was a young man and staid two
or three years and came back to Tenn he saved up one thousand dollars in gold
after paying his expenses home and that was lots of money them days when men
would work by the month for six dollars a month. I have heard my father tell
of a man that owed him four dollars and that man came to him and told him he
would work a month to pay the debt and he told him all rite and he went to
work and worked a month thinking he would only pay the debt but father said
when his time was up he gave him two dollars and the man was very proud to
get the two dollars I have just wrote about this circumstance to show the
difference in times now and about one hundred years or less ago.
Well this by the way
When uncle Louis came home he soon had the folks all in the notion to go to
California but I think it was several years before they all got ready to make
the trip Grand father Merritt died and the estate had to be wound up and they
never started for California till the spring of 1857 my father was not
financialy able so did not try to make the trip but all others of my near
relatives started and got as far as Bates County Missouri near the Kansas line
there they heard the Indians were on the War path and killing a great many
people so they stoped there in Bates County Mo and I think staid there till
the civil war was ended I am not sure just when they left Mo but think it was
about the end of the civil war.
Well the big scare about the Indians was caused by Mormans killing a large
train of people from Ark in order to get what they had at least that is
according to history they were camped near Salt Lake City where there was some
good grazing and were letting their teams rest up before starting across the
mountains they persuaded the people to give up their arms then proceeded to
murder all of them but three little girls whom they thought were too young to
remember the killing but one of them did remember.
But it stoped my folks from going to Cal and my grand mother and one daughter
staid in Miami county Kans one daughter married a man from Iron County two boys
went to California but soon came back to Mo and died in Iron County.
Of my brothers and sisters I will sketch along as I tell of my own life as
myself is what I started to write of. With this page I am going to start
telling a part of what I know of my own life I am going to leave out most of
the gad things that I can and tell of all the good things that I remember of
I have read the memors also the histories of several great men and have never
read of any thing bad any of them done except in the life of Daniel Webster
by Theodore Rosevelt and some other man don't remember his name now but he was
a united states senator at one time and in the life of Alexander Hamilton
authors name forgotten but he told some rather hard stories on Hamilton but
they are both dead now and so are their Biogripheres so it don't make any
difference. But the case with my self is a little different for I mite
live till some folks would read what I write and I don't want to have to
take anything back or even blush to hear of it.
But I may have to do either but most that I write will be of things that
happened long ago that is some of them happened and some of them just took
place for part of the time it was with me like to old man said about allowing
the pigs in his garden he said he allowed them in there just because he
couldn't help himself and I think that is the way of most people as they go
through life some things could be prevented and some things could not and just
to illustrate this one thought I will relate what happened to me last Sunday
was a week ago the preacher wanted to take a collection for a thanks giving
offering he set the basket to hold the collection on the table near the
rostrum and he stood near the table then he said for the people every body
to march by the basket whether they put in any thing or not but he was
standing near by where he could see who put in and who did not well I had put
in a little for the Sunday school and a little for the regular expenses and
had no more to spare so I did not march around and would not if I had the
same chance again I have just wrote of this to explain the difference there
is in some peoples disposition.
And will now start in on my early child hood but cannot promise any thing very
interesting nor any thing unusual from a great many other children if they only
remembered things that took place in their lives as I have and I remember many
things that was interesting to my self at the time but would not be
interesting to any one now I will just cite one case to prove this assertian
before I start in on my early history and that was when my dady gave me a
sound thrashing for what he termed sassing him I did not mean it that way
and I don't know of any Father now that would pay any attention to the
language I used but it was the only whipping my father ever gave me and my
half brother Henry Kitching was really the cause of that whipping I was
12 years old and when my father quit whipping me I told him if he ever
struck me again I would leave home and never come back.
Well I must start now and tell what I can more of my own history but will rely
on my mother for what I know of my self before I was about two and half years
old I was born some where in middle Tenn Oct 11 1857 and when I was four
weeks old my Father and family started for Crawford County MO my father had
been to Mo twice before but would get home sick for Tenn and go back but would
soon tire of Tenn and want to go back to MO where the streams were full of
fish and where there were lots of deer and wild turkeys also most all kinds
of small animals such as coons possums minks and orters
I can remember my self when all such animals were very plentifull in MO where
we lived I heard my mother say one time she had eat deer and fish till she
hoped she would never see another one that was in time of the civil war but
I don't remember the date our trip from Tenn was uneventfull so far as I kno
but I will tell of one circumstance that happened while on the road to
illustrate Brother Jaspers disposition my fathers team that he was moving
with consisted of two yoke of oxen probla rather small but I never hear
them say about that but one nite they camped near a farm house and the
next morning the man came out to the camp and asked my father if he would
trade one of his yoke of oxen for another yoke that he had said they were
good large steers but he had to keep them up all the time as no fence would
turn them one yoke of my father did not match very well as one steer was
larger than the other one and that was the ones my father wanted to trade
but the man noticed the difference in their size and said he did not think
the small steer could pull up with the larger one but Jasper was there
ready to help out with the trad and spoke right up and told the man o yes he
can he goes a head of the other steer all the time that fixed that part of
the trade and father let him have the other yoke of oxen but then made a good
trade as they hitched the large yoke to the wagon and let the others follow
I have always heard that it was bad manners to tell tales on dead people but
my fathers and mothers family are about all dead so if I write anything about
my self I will have to mention them occasionally Jasper was at home longer
than any of my other Brothers and will come in for more criticism but I will
leave them all now for the present and tell a little about my self but will
depend on my mother mostly for dates up till I was abut eight years old then
she fades out of the picture my earliest recollection was in the spring of
the year after I was two years old in October before my father built a large
hewed log house they put up the wall and laid the loft and would carry the
boards up a ladder and throw them down on the up stairs floor then hand them
up to the men that was on top nailing on the board it was Brother Jo Martins
job to carry up the board and hand to the ones that was nailing them on My
brother Joe was a great hand for children and he probably carried me up to
where they were covering the house this happened before he was married Well
I was up on the loft with him and he took me in his arms put a board in my
hand and held me up so I could reach it to one of the men that was covering
the house so I told my mother what I had done as most children do and she
always remembered the circumstance and how old I was at the time.
The next circumstance that I remember of was the next winter the house I have
been writing of was burned down with everything we had in the way of household
good my brother Nep and his wife were living with us and between them and
our family they had nine feather beds and five counterpanes some of them very
costly they would be called bedspreads now in that day people took more pride
in the way their beds looked than they do now a front room or parlor (only
the rich had parlors) as there was always one or more beds in a front room or
what we call living room the majority of people of the poor class them days
had one or two rooms cooked on the fire place and as the saying goes had all
things common I will just add here that when that house was burned we were
all gone from home was at Marsh Martins at a candy pulling Marsh and my
father asked my mother to go and make the candy she did not want to go but
went to please my father they all thought the house was burned by a young
man that had received a licking a few days before by my brother Nep.
The next spring or early summer we moved to Tom Hows mill I was then past
three years old and remember the trip but don't remember any one that was
with us except my mother and Jim Kitchin he was then about ten years old and
I think drove the steers that pulled the wagon We stope at noon to get some
dinner and I complained of something hurting me about my stomach so mother
picked me up laid me across her lap and round a tick in my nable I told
mother I was nearly dead We staid at Tom Hows mill till I was about five years
old I think Jocy my sister was born in April after we moved there at any rate
she was small all the time we lived there and I had no one to play with
consequently I put in a great deal of my time at the mill with my Father
watching him pore up the grain in the hopper and looking at the big wheel turn
that run all the machinery they ground corn and wheat and carded wool and
made rolls out of the wool for the women folks to spin and weave into cloth
one of my favorite playing places was at the mill race near where the water
poured down over the big water wheel it was what was called an overshot wheel.
Where they do not have sufficient fall for an overshot wheel they turn the
water on to eh underside of the wheel and call them an undershot wheel but
they don't have as much power as on overshot wheel such power wheels are
about out of date now and have been replaced by the turbine wheel as they
have more power
Tom How's mill is situated near the head of the Merimac river a fine stream
of water it rises in Dent County MO about 12 or 15 miles nearly east of
Salem the county seat the south part of the country is rough and hilly and
when we lived there had very few inhabitants but all the north part is
smoother and is made up so far as I can remember of low hills and small
valleys heavy oak timber covered the hills quite a bit of large white oak
trees I have seen the white oaks loded with acorns and under some of them
the ground would be covered it was a paradice for hogs as the white oak
acorns are large and rather sweet and when properly roasted make fairly good
eating for people when my father moved to Tom How's mill Mr how put him in
charg of the mill also a small country store and he organized what they called
a home guard of about one hundred men but it turned a little from a home guard
Mr how had been a soldier in the Mexican war the civil war was going on at
that time in the United States but my father was past the age to surve in the
war and was probably glad of the fact but the people now that are getting up
in years all wanting the time to come when they will be seventy but I am
thinking most of the aged will be out of the way before seventy comes Well the
last few lines does not belong to this write up but I will put it down any way
I believe I left my self playing at the mill race that comes along the side of
a steep hill and started at the head of the river and ran I think about three
hundred yards along the side hill to the mill it was about four feet wide and
enclosed with lumber except the top which was left open and made a fine place
for children to dable and otherwise play at one time a woman that lived in the
neighbor hood brought some home made maple sugar to the store to sell and my
father bought it It was moulded into cakes some what larger than a dinner
plate and probla about 4 or 6 inches thick my father gave me one of the cakes
and told me to take it home which I did by carry it on my head carrying
things on ones head was very common in those day many of the women would
carry a bucket of water on their head and one in the hand
Well you see the women was not allowed a vote them days and some of them
actually done more work than their men a good many of the men of those days
were passing through the transition period or rather living in those times and
thought a good deal as the American Indian did and thought it a mans privilege
to fish and hunt a good part of the time and woman was depend on as much or
more than the man to rustle the clothing that was among the poor class of
people but the poor class were numerous in some countries in that day and
time but all the men were not of that class Well we are still at How's mill
and I will soon be to where I can depend on my own recollection for what I
write for in the spring of the year before I was five years old my mother took
me and Jocy to visit a family by the name of Murray they had a boy about my
size and while we were there he asked my how old I was but I could not tell
him for I did not know but on the road home I asked Mother how old I was and
she said I would be five years old the eleventh of next October and I never
forgot my age after that the reason I know it was in the spring of the year
the weather was warm and the little Mury boy (Hinus was his name) had a new
hickory bark whip and just as we got ready to start he brought it out to show
me how he could make it pop Mother started on and I think had went about
fifty yards after he had poped his whip a few times I asked him to let me pop
it but he said he was afraid I would run off with it that was fatal to me for
it put an idea in to my head that I had not thought of but he gave me the whip
and I could pop it so easy I just scampered after Mother and him after me
squaling but I could beat him running and got to Mother first I thought I
would be safe when I got to Mother as I always had been but greatly to my
surprise she took the whip and gave me what I thought was a pretty hard
whipping with it and then gave it back to Hinus That was my first lesson in
etiquette that I remember of. While we lived there my Fathers widowed sister
and her two boys John and Ike came from Tenn on their way to Webster county Mo
their name was Linder I may have something to say later in regard to them.
While we lived there near the mill Jim Kitching and Mary Martin afterwards
Mary Oliver hunted and caught several rabbits my folks had two good hunting
dogs named She and Crocket every one kept a dog them days most people kept
2 or more Jim and Mary caught most of the rabbits alive and would bring them
to the house and let me kill them with a stick they kept for the purpose that
was great sport for me and I suppose they enjoyed seeing me kill them Jim and
Mary were about the same age and were about seven years older than my self I
always thought lots of them and when I was growing up I thought Jim Kitchen
the best boy I had ever seen I though lots of Mary also but loved my sister
Adaline as well as I did my Mother if not more so she was my mothers oldest
child by her first man and a very kind hearted woman
Along in the summer before I was four years old she made me a suit that is
pants and waist of oil red calico her and mother aimed it for a Sunday suit
I had always wore dresses before When my sister finished making it she took
off my dress to try my new clothes on but when she went to take them off she
got in trouble for I would not have them off till she made me another suit
and never would wear dresses any more
I guess I was peted too much as I was the first baby in the family for more
than seven years my Mother told me that when I was a baby and a long time
after that I was peted a great deal more than any of the other children
because it had been so long since there was a baby to pet Well we were
leaving Thom Howes mill late in the summer before I would be five years old
the coming Oct father rented a farm or rather the buildings about five miles
from Hows mill and I think we staid there til the next spring Just one thing
I will mention while we lived on that place and that to show what a bad boy I
was my sister had a little girl two years younger than myself and I did not
like her very well because I though they, that was her mother and my mother,
peted her more than they did me and made me wait on her so one day they told
me to take a tin cup and Bell a drink of water from the spring It was just a
few steps from the house so I took the cup and went away a few steps and drew
a little from my own faucet and brought it and give it to Bell she drank a
little and called to her Mother and told her this water was salty so her
mother and my mother came and looked in the cup and then is when I met up with
my second licking but it did not make me think any more of Bell I will state
here that Bells Father was my half brother and her mother was my half sister.
Bells father was away in the union army and Bells mother was staying at our
house the man that owned this farm was named Buter Ball he came to our house
once while we lived there he had a very heavy beard that completely covered
his mouth the day he came to he house I was out doors and saw him as he came
up to the house and I ran in the house and told mother there was a man coming
that did not have any mouth and that was what I thought. One other little
incident while we lived on the Beuter Ball farm there was a neighbor lived
about a half mile from there and they had a little girl probly a year or two
older than myself and I went there one day to play with her and as I came
home I felt something on the back of my neck so I felt back there with my
fingers and caught a big louse and when I looked at it it was a stranger to
me and I took it home and showed it to mother she said my that's a grayback
it being the first one I had ever seen, their son had served a term in the
army under Lincolns first call served his time out and was discharged and
came home.
I don't remember the date that we left the Buter Ball place but while we
lived there my father bought a farm about two miles from where we lived
over on Hutcheons Creek that creek emptied into the Merimack river about
six miles below Hows mill the creek and also the Merimac river were very
fine little streams of water and contained a great many fish I could see
them swimming around in the water and one day told mother I wanted to go
fishing so she made me a hook from a pin and put a line to it and I tied it
to a small pole and struck out for the creek I could see the fish but they
would not bit my hook but after I got older I could catch a few they called
silversides they were a small kind of fish well my trouble with Bell was not
over as they were still with us the place my father bought we always called
the Severes place, that was the mans name that my father bought the farm of
it had a large hewed log house on it the house was a full story and a half
high soon after going there father built a room for a kitchen while we
lived there I had trouble with Bell again I had a cat I thought a great deal
of it was gentle and I loved to play with it one day Bell caught the cat while
I was out of the house and tied several string around its tail she used sewing
thread she had the cat when I came in so the evidence was genuine but I took
the cat and cut the strings from its tail and turned it loose thinking that
would be the last of my trouble about the cat and went on about my play but
soon caught Bell tieing more strings around the cats tail so I gave Bell a
pretty hard slap and took the string from its tail for I thought they hurt the
cat but Bells squalling soon brought her mother and she commimicated my evil
doing to my mother and the result was I received my third dose of correction
which in that day and time a little switching was considered the only remedy
to stop such behavior as I had been guilty of Well as time went on my sister
Jocy and Bells sister Phronie soon got large enough to play with us and we
four would go to the woods make play houses and enjoyed ourselves fine Bell
and I would gather sheep sorrel each one would cram their mouth full and chew
it up good and see which could make the sourest face while we lived there my
brother Jo Martin shot a hawk and just crippled its win so it could not fly
and he brought it to our house and gave it to me (I think he was married then)
I was very much pleased with the hawk and thought I would have a fine pet so
I took the hawk on my left arm and started up in the timber where Jasper and
James Kitching were cutting wood but before I reached the boys the hawk sunk
his bill into my left hand the scar was there till I was nearly grown when I
got to where the boys were thy asked what was the matter I told them I
wanted them to kill that hawk so Jasper took it and cut its head off
It was a warm drizzly day the two boys cut down trees would chain them to the
front axel of a wagon (they just used the front wheels) and drag them down to
the house they worked at this wood hauling until very late that evening. I
know there is nothing interesting about his but that nite and the next day was
long to be remembered for that day was the last day of December 1863 and
about dark the wind went to the north west and snow began falling I don't
know how long it snowed but I know the next morning there was quite a snow
on the ground and the weather was bitter cold we had a truck patch probla
an acre fenced in just south of the house and the men folks had stacked some
wild hay there and would turn the cattle in there of nights. The next
morning after the change in the weather father sent Jim Kitching out to see
about the cattle and he came back and said the steers were all dead we went
out to see them and there they lay just as they had laid down with their heads
up father said the reason they froze was because they were tired and warm
and soon laid down non of the other cattle died that nite but there were
thirteen all told and they all died but two during that cold spell they had
no feed for them except that wild hay and the cold was so sudden they were
not able to endure the cold on the feed they had I have read of that cold
January several times since I was a grown man my father had several head
of hogs running in the woods as he had bought all the hogs that three men
owned for people that is most of the sold everything they had and went to
where there was an army or some place where they thought they would be more
secure than where they were for there were a great many bad men in that
country Well my fathers hogs all died but two he was feeding them for meat
one of them belonged to my sister Adaline it was a big white sow I well
remember seeing them butcher that hog.
There was a drouth in that country the summer of 63 and all the corn they got
they hauled it from Patoria I think that was as far west as the Railroad came
at that time I heard my father and mother say there was frost in August that
summer but I don't remember seeing it but that was the first yellow corn bread
I ever remember of seeing I suppose it was shipped in from the north but I
thought it tasted pretty good the reason my father left from Hows mill some of
his friends told him if he did not leave there he would be killed as he was
doing business for people on both sides so he turned the mill over to an old
man by the name of Lamkins and left there I was sent back there to mill the
summer before I was seven years old with a turn of corn tied across the horse
the old man came out and helped me down off the horse and said I was a might
little boy to send to mill but father and the older boys said they were afraid
to go as there had been on sixteen year old boy in that neighborhood killed
some time before that people now can hardly imagine what a civil war means
they are called a civil war but they are anytning but civil some men get so
hardened they will kill a boy because his father is fighting on the other side
and I heard of a boy being killed there in Barry County Mo when asked why they
killed him they said he was siting on a log and they just wanted to see him
fall off the log I knew both the men after the war such things are to be
deplored but I just wrote the above to show what a low grade human nature
will get to and to warn any one that reads these poorly written pages what
they may expect in case there is ever a war to come up in this country of
ours. During the summer before I was seven years old I went to brother
Marsh Martins to stay over nite and some time in the nite his wife took sick
Marsh said she had the colick but I did not know what was the trouble and
don't know now but Marsh told me to go home and tell mother to come it was
a half mile or more the night was dark and there were plenty of timber wolves
in that country at that time but I went home and told mother what Marsh told
me and she went I thought of them wolves but did not mention it. Some time
after that there were a lot of soldiers stoped at our house and staid over
nite I heard my father tell them about me coming home in the nite and one
of them said I wuld make a good solider. Well I don't remember the date but
some time during the war there was a man come to our house my father was
well acquainted with him it was near noon and soon after they sat down to
dinner the man said well I killed the devil last nite he said some one come
to my house and knocked on the door and I got my gun and said who is there
and he said the devil so I let him have it that impressed me very much but
that is all I remember about the circumstance but it goes to further
illustrate what war is I will tell one more incident of the war in that part
of the country. There was a man by the name of Broox live several miles from
us but father knew him well he came to our house one day and staid quite a
while he had the largest shot gun I ever saw I heard him tell father it
weighed twenty pound he also told father that seven men came to his house just
a few nights before hunting him but said he was about fifty yard from the
house behind a rail fence said they come and asked his folks where he was and
when they would not tell them they got some fire and come around to the back
end of the house in plain view for him and he turned his gun loose with both
barrels and killed two and crippled one more he said they got away as soon as
they could.
Such things as the above made quite an impression on my mind but I was young
and don't remember only the main points in the narative about such things.
We lived on what we called the Severes place until the war closed in fact till
the winter of 1865 and while we lived there I staid quite a lot with sister
Mary Ann Mills as her husband was gone from home quite a lot of the time
there were lots of timber wolves in that country then we could hear them howl
quite often after dark. One nite I dreamed the wolves come to our house and
crawled through a large crack that was above the bed and come to my bed and
eat my head off and I said to myself well I am dead now but when I awake I
was surprised to find I was still alive. While there with Mary Ann I had
another dream I thought the Devil come and built a big fire under an over
hanging rock there near the Mirimack River I thought there was a hold down
through that rock large enough to admit a man and the Devil had gathered a
great crowd of men (there was not any women in the crowd) he was taking the
men one at a time putting them down through that hole in the rock I was
standing near the devil very much interested watching him put the men through
that hole and he finally grabed me and started to shove me down but one of
my legs caught on top and he said oh I'll let you go and hoisted me back and
stood me up near the hole but it so flustrated my dream that I woke up and
I don't know yet whether the Devil really aimed to cast me into the fire or
was just funning a little with me but I know I run a pretty narrow risk
keeping out of that hole and I know I have run just as narrow risks and come
just as near geting killed 4 times since then as I did in escaping that hole
but I will not recite them at this time but may tell of one or two later.
Well we are still on the Severes farm but my brother Nep come back home on
sick leave I think that was the summer of 1864 his home and sisters were
in Crawford County probla twenty or twenty five miles from where we lived in
Dent county MO they went down there but he got gradually worse and died some
time that summer father and Mother took my sister Jocy and went down to
where my Brother and family lived and left myself and James Kitching and
sister Mary to keep housel I think we staid at least two weeks I know we had
nothing to eat the last several days but corn bread and green onions I also
know the fire went out one day and Jim and Mary sent me about two miles after
a chunk of fire matches them days were not much used there were too in a
box and they cost ten cents a box and the ten cents were hard to get them day
I can look back now and remember that Jim and Mary was good to me as they
would not try to whip me for any thing although they were seven years older
than I was but they would make me mad occasionally and I would get me some
rocks and throw at them but they would run from me and never offer to strike
me or anything I might do but they were good children and were good people
as long as they lived at that time Brother Jasper was in the army and the
others were scattered around My Mother came and took us children down to
Neps a few days before he died then we all went back to Dent County and I
still had Bell to contend with but don't remember of having any trouble with
her but one time after that and that was the next fall my father went off one
day and brought back a meal sack full of apples he rode up near the barn
I could see he had a sack full of something up before him on the horse he
took it down and put it in the corn crib when he went to the house I went
to the crib to investigate there were a lot of cornshucks in the crib and
he had covered the apples with the shucks but I could smell them so I opened
the sack and took one out and put it in my pocket Bell never followed in the
crib but was spying around outside as soon as she knew that I had an apple in
my pocket she ran to the house and told her grandpap that I had got an apple
out of the sack I went along behind her and heard her tell on me I thought I
mite get scolded or possibly a little whipping but father just said to me I
must let the apples alone and not get any more but never told Bell she could
have any so then I was doubly pleased and happy well it seems strange to me
but I don't remember another thing about that sack of apples but I remember a
circumstance that took place soon after we came back from Crawford County
after Nep died times were awfull hard at that time our cattle had all died the
winter before but one cow and she died in the spring of yellow murrin so we had
no cow and had not raised anything but a little garden and some turnips in the
fall but what I had in mind to tell was what I thought was the best meals
vituals I ever ate and do not think yet I have ever ate one that done me as
much good or tasted quite so well this took place soon after we come home
from Crawford county Marsh Martin my oldest half brother had joined the army
and was stationed at Salem the county seat of Dent county so one day father
and mother went to Salem and took myself and Jocy along and when dinner was
ready we all went to the table I looked the table over but did not see
anything to eat but biscuit bread and fried bacon and at that time I would
not eat a bite of fat meat but seen there was a lot of fried meat grease in
the dish and thought I would try it and took out some into my plate and I
thought it the best stuff with them hot biscuit I had ever tasted and I have
never forgotten that meal I know it had been a long long time since we had
either flower bread or meat no milk or butter and yet we fared better than
some other people in the neighborhood I remember going late that fall to a
neighbors house they had two little girls they had on dresses made out of an
old badly worn quilt a pile of corn shucks and the boots pulled off the
stalks were laying in one corner of the room opposite of the fire place and
that was their bed that was civil war and drouth combined but there was one
good thing that probla kept some people from starving there was quite a lot
of wild deer in the country so people that had a gun and could hunt could kill
a deer occasionally and have some meat but my father never hunted I heard
him say he never shot at a deer in his life but Jasper Martin was quite a
hunter and when he was at home killed a few deer the boys also caught some
coons and other fur bearing animals in the winter time when the fur was good
and generally eat the coons unless the coon is pretty old they eat fairly
well so do the ground hog they are an animal that will weigh probla 20 or
25 pounds it has been a long time since I have seen one but suppose there
are some yet back east.
Well in the spring of 1865 the war closed and a young man that had been raised
by one of our neighbors came home and pretty soon him and my widowed sister
married and they soon moved to them selves and that relieved me of Bell that
summer of 1865 is almost a blank in my mind I can remember hoeing corn down
on the lower field and that is about all that I know of that summer but
father got the Kansas fever that summer and a long in November he was ready
to start to Kans and I certainly remember that trip We had traveled a while
on the second day when we came up with a man by the name of Smith he had
lived in our neighborhood so they stoped to visit with him and the same
nite it fell quite a snow so we staid all the next day they had a boy
about my size and I thought eh was awfull mean he would slip up to me and
pinch me and do other mean things to me they had old time wooden bedsteads
they were made high so a little bed could be pushed under them so I sat on
one of the beds people them days always kept one or more beds in the living
room well I was siting on the bed and he walked up and pinched me so I gave
him a kick in the mouth and knocked out two of his front teeth. I thought
AI was sure of a whipping then but father asked me why I kicked the boy
I told him he pinched me and that ended the trouble but father went out and
got an empty house and we moved into it and we staid there several days till
the weather got better and used water out of a small stream of water that
run through a channel of solid rock in a cave We went from there to James
town in Phelphs County MO there I saw my first railroad train also the first
burying of a Free Mason we camped near the cemeterry and saw the Masons march
with their uniforms on.
WE staid at Jamestown a few days the weather moderated and we struck out
again for Miamma County Kans there was some snow on the ground and the
weather was rather cold you may ask how do I remember such things as how the
weather was but I will tell you I walked nearly all day to keep warm and that
nite my legs aked to bad I could not go to sleep when I first lay down but
father had got a house with a fire place to camp in and there was a weavers
loom set up near that fire place and mother made a bed on the floor between
the loom and the fireplace and James Kitching and myself occupied that bed
and I struck my feet out near the fire to warm them and they soon got warm and
my legs stoped aking that was a valuable lesson to me I always knew after
that how to cure the leg ake if I could get to where there was a fire or fire
heat of any kind such writing as the above may sound simple to some people;
but I am not writing these pages for the public but just for my children to
read when they have nothing else to do and partly to show them the difference
in the times when I was a child and the times of today But I am not a
General Sherman and cannot write entertaining like he did but I will tell a
little more of that first days drive from Jamestown my father took the wrong
road when he left Jamestown and instead of going north west he went northeast
and late that afternoon we met an old gentleman and I suppose his wife and
father stoped and inquire about the road and told them where we wanted to go
the old lady done the talking she told father he was on the road to St. Louis
and told him he had better turn around and go back and get on the right road
but he would not do that and took the first left hand road he came to as it
was going north west well we did not go far till we come to the house I
described of staying at it was on the breaks of the Osage River and just
below where the Gasconade empties into the Osage and I think about two miles
above where the Osage empties into the Mo river we ferried the Osage at that
place and the country is surely rugged I never had saw such a rough country
and it looked horrible to me when we got to where we could see the river it
looked horrible to me when we got to where we could see the river it looked
like it mite be the jumping off place the hill was so long and steep it did
not look as though a waggon could ever get down to the river but we made the
trip safely and drove the next day and camped on top of a big hill because
there was a big dead log there my mother tried to get father to drive down
in a hollow where there was plenty of timber as there was no timber on that
hill except that log but father was boss and there he staid my mother and
myself talked about camping on that bald hill almost as long as she lived
that nite the weather turned colder the wind went to the north west and some
snow fell I don't know how much but next morning was very cold so much so
that mother brought mine and Jocys breakfast to the waggon and Jocy and myself
just raised up in bed and ate our breakfast we had coffee made partly from
coffee that cost one dollar a pound and partly from what they called essence
of coffee I have read since I was grown that what they called essence of
coffee was made by boiling sorgum molasses till it would form a crust then
crushing or grinding it very fine and adding a small percent of a good grade
of finely ground coffee the essence was put up in small tin boxes and sold
for 35 cents per box Neal Mills was with us then also Mary Ann and their
baby John they come to us while we were at Jamestown father went back to
Dent county while we were at Jamestown on some business mother and they come
back with him while we were at Jamestown Mills bought a box of matches
paying ten cents for them and when we would camp they would use his matches
to kindle a fire and most every time Mills would call fathers attention that
them matches cost ten cents I heard father laugh and tell mother that he
aimed to pay Neal for half the matches but was going to wait till they got
through I know father just loved to hear him grumble about paying ten cents
for those matches Well I will go back to my story on the old Bald hill
father got on a horse that morning and hunted up a vacant house and we moved
to it We staid there a few days till the weather got better so many people
had left their homes in Mo in time of war that empty houses was not hard to
find but after we left that house my mind is almost a blank till we drove up
to uncle Bill Yorks in Miamma County Kans but one thing I remember there were
5 or 6 men passed us driving or leading a horse with a saddle on his back and
father said he supposed some one had stold the horse and the men had followed
and killed the man as that was in the winter after the civil war ended in the
spring of 1865 that seems a long time back to me and I am not as old yet as
Mathusely was but we don't read of them having any wars them days we went
through the town of Butler on our way that was the county seat of Bates
County Mo We noticed there was not an old house in town they had all been
burned in time of the war there were just a few houses there when we went
through but several men were there putting up new houses.
When we drove up to Uncle Bill York and aunt Nan York came out with her
first baby on her arm grandma Merritt was there also but uncle Bill York
was off some distance from the house diging a well he was down six or
seven feet and had struck a little water he stoped diging and him and
Jasper talked a few minutes and a little water run in while they were
talking uncle had a tin cup down in the well and he picked it up and
diped up a cup of water and drank it I said to him my that's muddy and
he yes it's a little riley but that don't hurt it it tastes good but I
always remembered uncles water that was a little riley We landed at uncle
Yorks the first day of Feb 1866 and therefore was on the road something
over two months the weather was so bad bad quite a lot of the time we could
not travel and Father seemed to love to travel as he never staid in one place
very long as long as he was boss we staid in Kansas just a year as we
started to leave there on the first day of Feb 1867
When we arrived at uncle Bill Yorks father went I think the next day and
rented a farm of a widow by the name of Brinkley but probla no kin to the Dr
of that name there was a log house on the place set back from the fence about
fifty yards as well as I remember I was walking as usual and was the first
one over the fence (there was no gate) when I got pretty close to the house
a large gang of Prairie chickens came out of the house and walked away and
seemed as gentle or more so than our tame chickens do now they were very
plentifull there at that time as there was no market for them and people just
killed a few for their own use I seen Brother Jasper kill three at one shot
with a rifle gun they were sitting on the fence and he got in range of them
and just clipped their heads off they were right in front of our door on
the fence
I was fairly pleased with Kans as the country there was fairly level and no
rocks in the roads or fields it was a comparatively new settled country and
very little land in cultivation the land was mostly prairie and when warm
weather came all those prairies was covered with green grass and wild flowers
the flowers were small but were a beautiful sight and I thought it the most
lovely country I had ever seen and cannot say to day that I have changed my
mind to any extent there was something else about the country that pleased me
about as much as the beauty of the landscape I was then eight years old and
had worked in the field with the hoe the last two seasons hoeing corn as where
we had lived in Missouri people plowed their corn with one horse and a small
shovel plow and could not get all the weeds and the corn had to be hoed I mean
cultivated with the hoe by hand that part of the work generally fell to the
lot of the women and children in the summer after I was six years old in the
fall I was given a hoe and had to hoe half as much as the older children and
there was plenty of exercise about that job.
Well Kansas when we first went there the year of 1866 was rather newly
settled as I have said before and comparatively no weed in the field and
along in the spring of the year father said to me one day Paris I am going
to send you to school this summer as there is no weeds in the fields here
and no hoeing to do and of course I was delighted to think I would get to
go to school instead of having to work in the fields with the hoe Father
plowed 40 acres that spring planted it and cultivated it with a double shovel
plow which was more than all the family could of done where we lived in Mo
I could not understand then why he ever thought of leaving there and don't
really know now as we just staid there one year to a day but his oldest son
got shot accidently and they thought he would die and they sent for Father to
come and he went he had started back to Crawford County Mo but had stoped in
Benton county some time in January father went to where his son was (a half
brother of mine) and concluded to move there and did it is a rich farming
country but was very sickly at that time when his son got well he went on back
to Crawford county where his wifes folks lived he staid there a while his
wife died he married again and moved back to Benton County Mo where we lived
but did not stay there long until he went back to Crawford County and was on
the move often as long as he lived I could write a great deal about his moving
and escapades but I did not start in to write anything in particular about any
one but myself only as it concerned my self Well I went three months that
season to a subscription school and that fall I went three or four months to a
free school four months them days was the limit as we lived in Miamma County
just a year I don't remember much of interest but one or two things mite prove
a little about what I thought of the netroes them days there was a family
near us that had a white boy about my age and he visited me occasionally so
one Sunday I went to spend the day with the boy they had a negro girl about
grown and when dinner come on they showed me where to sit at the table so I
sit down and noticed there was a place beside mine for some one but I never
thought much about it and went to eating my dinner but when I had eat a few
bites that negro girl set down beside me and that was more than I relished so
I got up and left the table the folks tried to get me to eat more but I
declined I hardly know why but when I was a boy I seemed to have a horrow of
negrows and while I think of it will go back to the Buter Ball place when
I was a little less than five years old I may of wrote about the circumstance
but don't remember if I did it was customary them days if a young girl wished
to go a trip on a visit to send a boy with her so siter Maryann was going some
distance to visit some people horseback and they put me up behind her so we
went to visit the Cantly family and everything went off all right that nite
but the next morning I went in the kitchen to wash my face and hands they
had a negro also a middle aged woman and she was mixing the bread doe with
her old black hands and that was something I could not endure so I would
not eat any breakfast I did not tell them why or what my objection was so
they thought I was sick and Maryann went home before dinner Well I have not
completely reconciled to eating a negros cooking yet and am getting pretty
well along in years and one reason is they are black and one cannot tell
whether they are clean or dirty but I don't mean any harm towards the negro
One thing happened to me while I was going to school the fall we lived in
Miamma Co Kans the first day of school the teacher put me and another little
boy on the same seat that seat was rather short but long enough for three our
size the boy would pinch my leg and I would move over till I got near the end
of the bench he had pinched me three or four times and the last time I give
his face a rake with my finger nails that brought the blood his sister saw
me and asked the teacher if she could leave her seat she was a grown girl
teacher told her she could so she came over to where we was and pulled her
little brother over away from where I sat and that ended the trouble the
teacher had his back to us and never saw anything of the trouble that was
the first day of school he proved to be very strict and did not spare the
rod in fact he seemed to delight in whipping I was siting back in the
corner of the room one day and as there was no one near me so I threw my
feet and legs up on the bench I did not know the teacher or anyone else was
near me be soon found out as the first thing I knew the teacher gave my legs
a couple of raps with his switch which he always carried with him and he
always kept a good supply laying up in the loft they were swamp dog wood and
very tough I never saw but one boy geting a whipping in school that I was
proud of and that was at that school he would steal part of some of the
scholars dinner most every day and one day a growen girl gave me an apple at
noon and that boy saw me with the apple and when he got a good chance he took
the apple from me and told me if I told on him he would whip me he was 18
years old but he sure got licking some of the children had told the teacher
that the boy was stealing their dinner and the teacher watched him and caught
him stealing so invited him out on the floor and told him to take off his coat
which he did then the teacher told him in regard to his stealing and proceeded
to his job of thrashing him he had a switch that was partly worn but he gave
him a few licks with it and threw it down and steped up on a bench an got one
that had not been used and I know they were at least four feet long and were
a good size and he wore that switch mostly up on that boys back but there
never was any trouble came up about the whipping the boy lived in town and
his folks were running a good size store I have took up quite a lot of time
telling of this incident but I wanted to show the difference in the way
schools were run when I was a boy and at the present time
Well I am done with Cans for the present having lived there a year when Father
went to Benton County where his son got accidently shot he sent for the family
and we all moved there my Father rented a farm on the Osage River he signed
me to a three months subscription school he took my mother and Jocy my sister
and went to Hickory County and rented a carding machine but I staid with the
children till the school was out there was Jasper Martin and Jim Kitching to
do the farm work then there was my half sister and Aunt Rachel my fathers
sister who lived with us to do the house work I was then coming ten years old
while we lived there uncle Bill York and his wife came to see us I had always
wore my hair bobed like the women do now but never had a permanent unless I
forgot to comb it for a few days but one day uncle Bill York said he would
cut my hair for me and of course I supposed he would just shorten the bob and
make it easier to comb but imagine my surprise when he gave me a shingle
about as short as he could cut it with the scissors so I have never had a
bob since
While going to that school I had my first love affair and came out as I
generally do at the little end of the horn there was a girl about my age and
pretty going to school her and me soon got acquainted and her name was Emma
Akins our teacher lived about a half mile from the school house and always
went home for dinner when she came back from dinner it was always books she
was a good woman and a good teacher about 50 years old there was a spring of
water some distance from the house and when the water bucket was empty some
one or two would ask the teacher to let them go after water so one day just
after noon two of the scholars went for water and when they came with the
water my sweet heart asked if she could pass the water her request was
granted and she proceeded to pass the bucket and dipper I suppose as she
thought to all the scholars but did not come to me and I was sure mad and
my feelings hurt besides so I asked the teacher if I could get a drink and
she said yes so I went to the bucket but there was no water in the bucket so
I went back and took my seat I did not want water very much any way but am
satisfied my girl had been watching me and when I took my seat she asked the
teacher if she could bring a bucket of water the teacher told her she could
so she went by herself and brought a bucket of water and as soon as she got
in the house she asked the teacher if she could pass the water and was given
leave to do so and brought the water directly to me but I was mad then and
would not drink any but have never got over that piece of foolishness yet as
the girl never spoke to me and I soon was convinced that she was right but it
never done me any good but we left the country the following fall so all the
difference it made with me was with my conscience
I had a little experience with a bad boy at that school that turned out a
little differnet and I got a little satisfaction from it we went the same
road about two miles he was a little older than I was and was taller and
I suppose he thought he could lick me very easy and as we went home of
evenings he would grab my hat and throw it as far as he could I was afraid
the teacher would whip me if I struck him but told him I was going to whip
him the last day of school but he only laughed at me but the last day came
and as we went home he grabed my hat and threw it away as usual I just set
my dinner basket down and grabed him and threw him to the ground and pounded
him to my hearts content his name was Rufe Turner as I have said before we
left there that fall and went up to Moniteau County Mo but moved back to
Benton County Mo the next spring about 15 or 20 miles from where we had
lived I went to a subscription school about two months the following summers
and in the fall started in to a free school they had built a new log school
house and we all thought it was fine and it was a good house for them times
it had glass windows and good seats the first school that I had ever went
to that had any seats made of lumber but my surprise was to see Rufe Turner
and his sister Lucy there but Rufe let me strictly alone and we got along
all right but I always hated the name of Lucy because Lucy Turner was so
miserable ugly some people; call it homely but I don't think homely would
fill the bill with that girl I was eleven years old that fall my father
had bought a farm on the Osage River him and my half brother Jasper
Martin worked in the timber all summer and fall and till about the first of
April they rafted some saw logs to Warsaw and sold them there they also
made clabboards to cover houses most all the houses in the country them days
were covered with clabboard and some of the houses in town were also covered
with the same material though some people; shaved the boards with a drawing k
nife and a few people made shingles they were made in different ways some
split them out by hand while others made what they called cut shingles they
were not so good as split or sawed shingles but much faster made than shingles
that were made by hand they were cut from blocks of wood after the blocks
were steamed they used a machine run by horse power it consisted of a large
knife probla 14 or 16 inches wide and moved up and down and worked in a slot
which held the knife in place and every time the knife came down it cut a
shingle off the block provided the block was held in the right position I
knew one man that got part of his hand cut off by not holding the block in
the right position
That summer that I have been writing of was 1868 I think that was the year
that General Grant run for President the first time and was elected it was
also a locust year the woods was full of them a bell on stock did not do any
good as you could not hear a common bell fifty yards that year of 1868 my
half brother James Kitching got married some time along in the fall he lived
a while with his wifes mother and then move on a Mr. Cuninhams place and built
a cabin near the river he made ax handles that winter also finger rings from
mussuls shells and I suppose worked some for Mr Cuningham at any rate they
managed to live some way and made a crop of corn on shares the next summer
along in the fall I went to visit them he had just sold 20 bushel of corn
for five dollars he was so proud of the money he got the bill and showed it
to me they had just one knife and fork to eat with and we all slept in one
bed that nite but we all fared fine of course they cooked on the fire place
and had a very limited supply of cooking vessels but they seemed to be happy
and I think the last 20 or 30 years of that brothers life was spent happier
than any of his near relatives he was an Elder in the Christian Church at
Aurora Mo where there was a large congregation and I am satisfied that he had
more influence in the Church than any member in the Church one of the members
told me he rum that Church but that is or was his life and not mine
In the spring of 1869 father sold his farm and moved several miles north and
rented a small farm on what was called tarrapine neck prairie so called
because the prairie was narrow between two skirt of timber one skirt of
timber bordered grand river and the other one a creek called Teho there were
a great many squirrels in the woods those days and my father was fond of
squirrels but never hunted them or any thing else so he bought me a gun
an old army musket which was a wise thing to do as I could fall down or throw
the old gun around any way without being in danger I had to use a government
cap that was very hard to explode they were about three times as large as the
small cap on a common gun but the old musket would explode them all right
they were made for soldiers and there were no danger of them going off
accidently but I soon tired of the old musket and father bought me a good
mussle loading rifle and I soon became an expert shot I could kill a
squirrel off hand from any tree I have shot numbers of quails heads off with
the rifle gun it was splendid gun and would carry a ball two hundred yards
on a level on the 10th day of Oct 1869 I went to visit my sister and her
family I was fond of her children as her husband died in time of the civil
war and they had lived at our house some time before she married the second
time her oldest child was a girl about two years younger than myself she was
called Bell her and me had several scraps but were good friends I speak of
this because the nite I was there there was a snow fell it was five or six
inches I deep I had never saw a snow so early in the season people had not
gathered their apples and some of the apples were ruined the reason I
remember the date so well was because the next day the 11 of Oct was my
birthday well I got something I did not want at my sisters that was the
Whooping cough which done me more harm than all the sickness put together
I ever had I had been so stout and healthy my father did not think any thing
would harm me so I was sent out to cut wood or do any kind of chores no matter
what kind of weather there was and when a spell of caughing come on if I was
not where I could hold to something I would have to lay down for I could not
stand up while caughing I have wrote this as a warning as whooping caugh is
a dangerous disease where children are exposed to bad weather it weakened my
lungs that I never entirely got over it.
When I arrived home on the 11 of October my uncle Louis Merritt and family
were there they had three children the middle aged one a bad boy he was
about 8 years old and could do more little mean tricks than any boy I ever
come in contact but all unbeknown to his parents his mother I thought was
a good woman and his father my uncle tried to be a good man he was a fanatick
on religion would not send his children to a publick school would not allow
his wife to wear any kind of jewelry and perswaded my mother to discard her
jewelry but after he left and when I got a few years older I explained to
my mother there was no harm in wearing what jewelry she had and she discarded
her brothers notion We lived in a quarter of a mile of the school house and
father tried to get my uncle to send his children to school they were siting
by an open fire place when father started the conversation about the school
and my uncle said he would run his arm in that fire up to his elbo before he
would send his children to a free school
My uncle and his wife were good scholars both taught when they were young and
how such notions got into his head it was hard for me to comprehend I heard
him tell my mother in speaking of my self he said lisebeth that boy is bound
for hell if you don't do something to curb that temper poor man he had a boy
I think fully as bad as myself but he did not know about it I have wrote
this about my uncle to show how foolish some people are about religion
While we lived on the place on tarrapine neck Prairie my father bought a tract
of wild land most of it covered with heavy timber during the winter he built a
large log house on the land and moved to it and I did not get to go to school
any more that winter as free schools them days were only for three to four
months in the year they just had school for what time the money lasted that
the common taxes brought in I don't think there was a high school in the
state of Missouri when I was a boy at least I never heard of one there were
no women teachers employed to teach free schools them days but some times
women would teach what they called subscription schools that was every man
paid so much for each one of his children that attended school but there were
good teacher man to teach school had to know the third part arthmatick so he
could teach it easily and like wise all other studies taught at that time he
also had to know how to keep order in the school room and use a good stout
switch when necessary Well I will now go back to the new land farm while we
lived there that winter after the house was built all hands of us cleared of
about two acres of land most of the timber was used for house logs ad fire
wood and rail timber as all the land cuiltivated them days had to be fenced
with rails as that was long before barbed wire were invented the first wire
fences were made of smoth wire to keep stock from crawling through the fence
all very simple when you know how it is done
When we moved on the new place my half brother Jasper Martin was at home and
him and Father and my uncle Louis Merritt done the chopping of the timber on
the two acre piece and I burned the brush and when plowing time came I took a
large horse my father owned at that time and broke up the new ground and
planted it to corn and father thought it would make 50 bushel to the acre I
had never plowed but little but the horse was well trained and knew more about
farming than I did when the corn got large enough to plow I could plow him
without a line some people them days used only one line on a horse to plow if
they wanted the horse to go the right they would say ge and jerk the line but
if they wanted him to go to the left they would pull ;the line and haw and
after the horse was well trained it worked all right but I always used two
lines but did not need any on old Fox that was the name of the horse While
we lived on the new place my fathers brother came to visit us it was about
the first of March and very cold for the time of year there was considerable
ice along the creek bank but the evening my uncle came Father asked me if I
would catch a fish so Uncle Alvis could have some fish to eat I had never
tried to catch fish when there was ice on the stream but told Father I would
try so I set out three bank hooks that evening the most of the fish there
were cat fish and we never tried holding a pole to catch them they were
mostly large fish weighing from 6 to twenty pound well next morning after
I set out my three hooks I went to the creek and had one fine cat fish as well
as I remember it weighed 10 pounds we had a pair of handy scales that would
weight as much as fifty pound I weighed most all the fish I caught while we
lived there and don't remember of catching any that weighed less than 6 pound
the creek was very deep and had a mud or clay bottom just what a catfish
likes that spring that my uncle visited us I caught all the fish the family
could use and mother salted down a ten gallon jug full I had a fine time
catching fish and playing in the water as father had a good canoe I learned
to paddle I had a neighbor near by that learned me how to paddle a conoe
without making a noise and when floating time came for the buffalo fish he
would come with gig and I would paddle the boat and he would kill the fish
I had a fine time all summer but when fall of the year came the chills also
came and I could not go to school much that fall but about the last of
November my father had a trip to make to make to Washington County MO to do
some collecting for some horses he had sent there by his boys to sell and as
I had had the chills occasionally all fall he decided to take me along and it
was a fine trip for myself I did not have any more chills and after visiting
my brothers in the Pineries of Washington county I went back to Crawford
County to where my aunt and uncle lived they had a boy almost my age they
lived in a deep hollow where they could not see the sun till about 8 am and
it went down behind a hill equally as high but there was a fine little
stream of water run down the narrow valley about 50 yards form the house
and no matter how cold the weather was my uncle would throw a towel over his
shoulder and go down to the little creek to wash his hands and face they
did not have any fruit but my cousin told me there was a hackberry tree up
the creek and we would go and get some of them I did not care much for the
hackberries but I went with him and I think it was about a mile but we got
all the hackberries we wanted and he seemed to think it quite a treat my
uncle raised turkeys the boy told me they were going to take a hundred
turkeys to market before Christmas and he was going to get himself a pair of
forked top boots but I left before they sold their turkeys and have never
heard if got the boots or not he wrote me a letter after I was grown but I
was not at home when it came and my folks had lost the letter and did not
know his address and if he is alive now he is getting along pretty well in
years I think he was about two month older than myself When he was little
and may be yet if he is alive I staid at my uncles several days had a good
time and then went to where my brother Marsh lived in Crawford County Mo
several miles from my uncle and was aiming to stay there till my father was
ready to go home in Benton County MO but when I had been at my Brothers a
few days my Brother in law Neal Mills came along and wanted me to go home
with him and as I had no boss there I went he lived in Dent county not very
far from Hows Mill where I lived until I was eight years old my sister
Mary Ann Mills at that time had four children the youngest a baby girl which I
s the one they call Allise she was a young baby at that time but the other
three were all standing outside the gate waiting for us when we drove up
they were very proud to see us and I have thought of the incident many times
in my life I thought they were the dirtiest children I had ever seen I think
they had been playing in the dirt as their faces were as dirty as their hand
and they did not look as though they had ever washed.
When we arrived at their home my sister was out of soda but made what I
thought was awfull good flour bread without soda when I write my cook book I
will tell how she made it after I had been there several days my Father and
Jasper Martin my half Brother came for me and the day they came a young man by
the name of Lamkins came also and as my sister was short of beding she made a
bed on the floor for myself and the young man and put a feather bed for us to
cover with and as I was so much smaller than the young man I suppose most of
the feathers sliped down over me and some time in the nite I suppose he woke
up cold and called to me he said Paris have you got any feathers over there
if you have give them a pat or two I haven't got any it wasn't funny to me
but my brother Jasper was awake and heard him and he never forgot about Jim
Lamkins wanting me to give the feathers a pat or two I think we started for
home the next day but had to go back to Crawford County to get my sister Mary
and James Cook my Brother in law they had been down in Washington county
working in the Pineries and had come up with father to my brother Marshes
When we started home to Benton county MO there was my Father and myself
Jasper Martin and Mary Martin my half sister and Jim Cook my Brotherinlaw
when we had been on the road two or three days Jim Cook said one morning he
had a chill well we drove along till about camping time and father spied a
dead tree hot far from the road and just drove out near enough to camp and
told Jasper and Jim Cook to get out and cut the tree down it was a dead post
oak the bark had fell off and it looked like it mite be awful hard to cut
and I guess it was Jasper got out gut Jim Cook said he had a chill father says
look here Cook you had a chill this morning you can't have two chills in one
day git out and help cut that tree down and Cook got out and went to work and
we never heard any more about the chill we all arrived home all right and my
Father took out a piece of bacon from the waggon and Father showed it to
Mother and told her he had to pay 20 cents a pound for it and they all thought
that was awfull high for meat.
Early the following spring Father (I think it was the spring of 1871) traded
his land to a man for two double carding machines and the house they were in
and about an acre of land all situated in Leesville a small town in Henry
County Mo it would have been a good trade but times had changed in that
country and Father did not know of the change he was like the fellow said
he was in Ark he did not read any papers but there had been a factory where
they made most all kind of cloth put up in Clinton Mo they would buy the
wool from the people or swat them cloth for the wool that was about the first
move that was made towards spoiling the women before that they had to spin
the thread and weave it into cloth and make their own clothes but just
skiping about 60 years of time you all know now in 1937 what the fair sex
have to contend with they get their bread all ready sliced and their coffee
ready ground and sealed up in a nice little can ready for use
My Father moved to Leesville in Henry county Mo the spring of 1871 and took
charge of his carding machines he took two of my half Brothers with him;
Jasper Martin and Henry Kitching they were both grown men and Henry Kitchings
had been married and two children but his wife had died and he came to live
with my parents but Father rented another farm and left myself and James
Ketching there to cultivate the farm he had rented Jim Kitching was married
then and him and I made a corn crop on the farm father had rented after the
crop was done father took me to Leesville to cook for him and my two half
Brothers as mother was in poor health and my sister Jocy was to young to cook
there was no market for eggs then only a home market and eggs were cheap
the merchants would pay 5 cents per dozen for them in goods and sell them
for 5 cents in money well I could cook egg easier than anything else but I
had to frye them all the time as a great many of them were spoiled and I got
so disgusted breaking spoilt eggs I thought I never could eat another egg and
I think it was about two years before I ate any more eggs but I am 79 years
old now and still eating egg but my wife does most of the cooking but I can
even cook and eat them now.
After the carding season was over about the first of September my father moved
back to the farm he had rented on Tarrapin neck Prairie and I got to go to
school that winter I made friends there with a man and his wife that had no
children they would have me come and stay all nite with them pretty often
they seemed like kinfolks and I enjoyed visiting them they were a little
above the average in intelligence the man could preach a fairly good sermon
in case of emergency in case the preacher failed to come or for any cause
that we had no one else to listen to
Well the next spring when warm weather came my father moved back to Leesville
to run his carding machine but did not get much wool to card and hired me out
to a farmer near Clinton MO that was the county seat of Henry county I
worked four months for the at 13 dollars a month while staying the folks went
visiting one Sunday and left me there alone and there was a man with his
family came by moving and wanted to buy a bushel of corn for his team I told
him Mr. Doyle had bought the corn and did not have any to sell but the man
said this was Sunday and he had tried several places to get corn but on one
would sell him any and his horses had not had any dinner so I sold him a
bushel of corn and took the fifty cent price and put it in their bible
(there was no silver money in circulation those days as silver had been
demonitized but there was paper money 5- 10-20-25 and 50 cent pieces there
were one and two dollar bills) I never thought any more about selling the
corn but some time after Mrs Doyle asked me if I put fifty cents in their
bible and I told yes I did and I also told her and Mr Doyl all about the
circumstance MR Doyl asked me how much corn I gave the man for a bushel and
I told him a sack full it was ear corn and he never said any more about the
corn but more than once after that he tried to get me to stay and work for
him til I was grown said he would insure me one thousand dollars in the bank
by the time I was twenty one years old and let me go to school 4 months the
year and I wanted to stay but Father would not hear to such a bargain so when
crops were finished I went home and saw plenty of hardships and plenty of
hard work and some fun along at times Mr Doyle was a good man was raised in
Tennessee on a farm but went to California when a young man and made a stake
there he owned about a half section of land near Clinton MO and a farm on
grand river and had a herd of Texas cattle on each farm he and his other
hired man and a man that come work on stock were castrating some young mules
one day they had them in the stable of an underground portion of a large
barn they had attended to all but one mule but every time they would try
to rope that mule he would stick his head under some of the other mules
so I finally told Mr Doyle I could catch the mule and he asked how I could
catch him and I told him by the tail and his other hired man said he would
bet me ten dollars I could not catch him that way so I asked Mr Doyle to
lone ten dollars and he pulled out a ten dollar bill and handed it to me
but the fellow backed down on the bet so I gave MR Doyle his money back and
sliped up back of the mule and grabed him by the tail and held on till the
men could get the rope around his neck I had been playing with the mules
before that on rainy days when they were in the barn they were two years
old but I found I could grab any of them by the tail and hold them without
any danger to myself I don't know how it is but is just seems to scare
them so they don't know about kicking or doing anything but Mr doyle was
well pleased about the job and laughed at Levi about me catching the mule
Levi done all the milking as long as he stayed there but after I had been
there about a month he got tired of his job and left so MR Doyle done the
milking but I would drive up the cows Mr Doyle would let me turn out a
little early and get on his horse and go after the cows I generally had
to go about one mile it was a prairie country and it was fun for me to go
after the cows as he had a good saddle horse that knew more about driving
cows than I did and when I would get the cows home Levi would milk them but
after Levi left Mr Doyle asked me one evening if I could milk well I had
always said if I had to work out I would not milk so when Mr Doyle asked
that question I was stumped don't remember just what I told him but I
guess it was a fib but he told me to come and go down to the milk lot
with him he had three stripper cows all hard to milk but I had watched
Levi milk and knew which was the hardest one so when he told me to take
that bucket and see what I could do I said well I'll try old Speck
she gave such a small stream it took a long time to milk her but I started
on her and sqeezed her tits and when he done the other two I had about a quart
Editor's Narrative
1872 - 1909
In 1872, When Paris was almost fifteen, he "hired out" to do farm work for
thirteen dollars per month. From then until his second marriage in 1884, our
information about his whereabouts and activities is very meager and comes from
the hearsay statements remembered by his children. Sometime after 1872, his
father, William Nelson Martin, with several of his children (probably
including Jasper , James Joseph, and Paris) moved to Barry County in the
extreme southern part of Missouri and settled on a farm northwest of the
village of Golden. He remained there until his death in 1901, just fifty days
after the death of his wife.
About 1877, Paris was hired by the federal government to help return Indians
from South Dakota Territory to a reservation in Oklahoma Territory. These
Northern Cheyenne Indians had surrendered after the 1876-1877 Sioux and
Cheyenne campaigns under Chief Crazy Horse. This was an experience to be
long remembered. During part of the 1870s, Paris taught school and he also
worked for a short time in the lead and zinc mines near Joplin, Missouri.
He may have contracted his first marriage in that locality. We do not know
the name of his first wife. The couple had a son, Harvey, born about 1877.
Tragically, it became apparent that the young wife was an epileptic and that
the son was not normal. To prevent the birth of additional children in those
circumstances, Paris sent his wife back to her parents and took his son to his
parents to rear. Harvey lived in the home of his paternal grandparents for a
few years and later was placed in an institution where he remained until his
death in his late teens. Ws there a divorce"? "Who knows" answered Paris'
younger son a century later. "Things were done differently in those days?
On April 27, 1884, Paris married Amanda Jane Street. She may have been pushed
into the marriage by her sister, Molly Sidall, a young widow who had hired
Paris, then a Justice of the peace, to settle up her business affairs.
Amanda's parent did not approve of the marriage and Amanda is said to have
preferred another man. In any case, they married and made a home on 40 acres
of land that he owned at Hickham Prairie near Golden in Barry County,
Missouri. The land was south of Viney Cemetery near the home of his father.
Paris was twenty six and Amanda was eighteen when they married. Seven
children were born to this marriage of whom five lived to be adults. The
first, Ida Frances, was born on August 19, 1885.
The land was poor and rocky. By about 1887, Paris was bitten by the "free
land" bug and was tempted to move to the West where free or cheap land was
available. Two of his half-brothers moved to Oregon at about this time.
Amanda was pregnant again and Paris is said to have gone to Washington State
alone to exam the possibility of moving out there. He was impressed by the
country and returned to Missouri to sell his land and prepare to move his
family. A second daughter, Maggie May, was born January 25, 1888, while they
were still in Missouri; she died in Washington on September 18, 1890.
Paris moved his household to Washington by "emigrant train," a scheme the
railroads used to provide cheap transportation to people willing to populate
the railroad's vast land holdings in the West.
Two couples of relatives moved with them: they were Amanda's sister Margaret
"Maggie" Murphy and her husband, and Paris's sister Henrietta Josephine
(Aunt Jocie) with her husband George James. Paris homesteaded 160 acres of
land near Waterville in Douglas County. It was there that a third daughter
Bertha Lee, was born on June 15, 1890, and where little Maggie, the second
daughter, died of pneumonia.
Paris proved up on his homestead and obtained the title, but Amanda was
homesick and it appears that the other relatives shared her feelings for all
three couples returned to Missouri. Paris sold his land in Washington and
bought 107 acres of land 1 1/2 miles northeast of Golden adjacent to Kings
River bluff. In later years, Paris often spoke regretfully of leaving the
quarter section of good land in Washington for the rocky farm in Missouri and
blamed his wife for the move.
The new farm was beautifully located near the confluence of the White and
Kings rivers. The Martins lived in a small log house which they later
enlarged as the family grew. The existed by subsistence farming as did
almost everyone else in the area. They kept a cow for milk and butter,
chickens for eggs and fryers, and they raised hogs for their winter meat.
There was a small orchard of assorted fruit trees and berry bushes. They
grew corn and wheat which they carried to a mill to be ground into meal
and flour. They also raised sheep which Amanda sheared for the wool which
she knitted into sweaters, mittens, caps and stockings. She was a work
driven woman who, until the day of her death, could not stand to be idle.
Paris was more relaxed but he worked hard and was a good provider. Money
was always scarce and he took advantage of every opportunity to obtain cash
to purchase those items which could not be produced on the farm. During
the winter, he often hewed cross-ties to sell to the railroad company. He
cut down the oak trees and shaped the ties with a broadaxe to meet railroad
specifications (8' long and 8" by 12" ) . The company paid twenty-five cents
each for perfect ties and fifteen cents for those that did not quite meet
their exacting standards/ Paris could produce six ties in a long day of
work but it took another full day to haul them to the railroad.
Additional children came along regularly. Waldo Norman was born
April 27, 1892, and another infant son was born about 1894 but died at birth.
Nellie Mildred was born September 30. 1905 and William Lawrence followed
April 22, 1898. In 1975, when she was almost 85 years old, Bertha Martin
Hilton wrote about her childhood in Barry County in a letter to her sons.
Note: There are many more pages of letters back and forth between Paris and
his daughter Bertha and a Memoirs written by his son William who migrated to
Colorado but came back about 1930 to take his father to see all of the
places he treasured in his memories. They visited Howe's Mill and found it
with a metal wheel but all boarded up. They visited Golden and Barry County.
There was a separation or a divorce for Paris and Amanda and he eventually
married an Indian Woman whom he had hired to help out in the house. They
moved to Nickerson in Kansas not far from where his daughter Bertha and her
Hilton family had moved. Paris is buried near Nickerson, Kansas.
Part Two
NARRATIVE OF WILLIAM LAWRENCE MARTIN,
son of Paris Clark Martin
While information about my grandparents is meager, I will set down here
the facts told me by my own father. I may have seen my grandparents
when I was very small. I do not remember seeing them. They passed away
around the turn of the century. I was only two years old at the time.
I was born April 22, 1898.
Each of my grandparents had been married before. Each had children of
their own. They had lost their mates by death and were now to form a
union themselves. Their children were nearly grown. The youngest
being around twenty. (Note by CR. They merged their families in 1854-7
and the oldest child was almost 20) It was quite a family when united,
but for the most part, it seems they got along quite well. Later a
step sister and a step brother were wed. They settled in the area and
raised a family of their own.
They were a farm family, and while some settled on farms nearby, others
migrated west. Some settled in California, some in Oregon and
Washington, while some came to Colorado. I have had the pleasure or
meeting some of the later generation. I still visit with some. Two
of the boys became doctors, and practiced medicine. (Note by CR They
probably apprenticed and were probably homeopathic type doctors)
Now, after the children had left home my grandparents settled in to
raise another family. The first, a son, later to become my father,
they named Paris Clark. The second a girl, they named Jocie. A very
lovely person. As a youngster, I used to love to visit my Aunt Jocie
and Uncle George James. They lived in a log house with a spring of
water nearby. They were a farm family. Raised a small field of
tobacco for their own use and both smoked it. That wasn't uncommon
then.
My grandfather, a farmer by rights was a restless sort. He traded
farms frequently and moved around seeking better land and living
quarters. At one time in a trade he acquired a grist mill. It was
known as Howe's Mill, situated on route 32, East of Salem, Missouri,
in Dent County. Around it there was a small settlement called Hows
Mill also. As for now the name is still on the Missouri map. In
1936, my wife and I took my father to see the old mill. The huge
three story building was still standing, but long abandoned as a grist
mill. It was a joy to let my father stroll about the area and recall
his childhood days playing there.
The mill was water driven. The water running over the big wheel gave
the power to turn the burrs which ground the grain. I visited the site
some years later. The building was now removed, giving way for a fish
hatchery. With the fresh cool water previously used by the mill, now
used to produce fish, it was ideal for the purpose.
It might be interesting to know why my grandfather disposed of the
mill. Renegades from the army would raid this area, it being near the
dividing line between Slave and Free States. These men were vicious,
and would do murder to obtain anything of substance, such as food for
themselves and their horses. My grandfather felt for the safety of his
family, he had better clear out.
He moved back to southern Missouri and settled on a small farm. It was
here that my father grew to manhood, married and later settled nearby,
building a small house on his land into which he moved my grandfather
and my grandmother into retirement. They passed away there around 1900
and were buried in the local cemetery, known as the Viney Graveyard -
still in use. (Note by CR. In 1900, Elizabeth Martin was living with
her son, James Kitching in Aurora and is buried in Pierce Cemetery in
Aurora and William Nelson Martin was living with his daughter Jocie..
I have not been able to find his grave in Viney yet)
I should like to write some about my mother's parents. I never knew
them of course. I have a vague idea that I may have seen them but I'm
not at all sure. As to them, I can only tell you what my parents
imparted to me. They were farmers of course, gaining their living from
the use of the soil. They raised grain for their bread; both wheat
and corn. They grew the regular farm animals for their meat. They
also supplemented their food with small game which they hunted. My
grandfather had a way with wood, and in the winter would produce
handles for various farm tools which he would trade or sell.
Grandfather was a kindly man, always looking out for his children,
four in number. All girls, they were perhaps not too much help on the
farm. Although in those days the women often did the milking of cows.
The names of their girls in order was Molly, Margaret, Amanda and
Ellen. They all grew to maturity, married and raised families of
their own. My records show my mother to have been born
February 4, 1866. Her parents died around 1900, and were duly
buried in the Viney graveyard, only a few miles away from where they
lived.
The way of life in those days in that area was entirely different to
what we know now. It was sort of a backwoods country. About all a
family expected to do in life, was to just live and raise a family.
They were usually non progressive. Travel was difficult and
communication it's equal. They visited among themselves. but with
little projection of new ideas.
I might mention here, that alcohol, while well known, was seldom found
in the home of either of my grandparents. Some brewed their own, but
none here. Tobacco though was grown and used by most people - women as
well as men. Sometimes the men folks would treat themselves to a plug
of store chewing tobacco; Horshoe, Star , or Picnic and likely others.
Anyway, that was a real treat. Pipes for smoking were usually made of
corn cobs with a cane stem. Some used a clay pipe for smoking.
My mother's family name was "Street". My grandfather's name was
William; my grandmother's, Sarah. I believe her maiden name was Sarah
Gray.. Their nationality, mostly English, likely had a mixture of
blood of the British Isles. My mother thought they might have had a
little German blood also. She wasn't sure, and I don't know.
I heard from somewhere, that my grandmother never quite accepted my
father as a full fledged son in law. I don't know why unless it may
have been the differential in their age, or that dad was a "widower",
having been previously married. The parting of this marriage, I will
explain later.
My grandparents lived near the trading post of Golden, about 20 long,
long miles over rough roads from the county seat of Cassville. They
lived near now famous "White" river. My mother says they lived at
the town of Seneca, in the southern part of the state when she was
born. They were never far removed from Golden during my Mothers
lifetime. Travel was very difficult, and the roads often impossible -
rivers were too high to "ford" during wet season. They drove their
live stock to market, and often carried a "turn" of grain to mill, on
horseback. Time was unimportant only results counted. But in spite
of all, they seemed to accomplish their purpose-to live and perpetuate
their race. That is about all I can write with certainty of my
grandparents on my mothers side.
On this page, I should like to set down a few incidents in the life
of my parents as I know them in most part, also as told to me by my
Father and my Mother during the time I personally spent with them
during their lifetime.
My father was born October 11, 1857, somewhere in western Tennessee
and was given the name of Paris Clark. His family soon moved to
western Kentucky when he was there on a farm. As previously
mentioned, his father, tho a farmer, was always trying to improve his
situation. He sold out his small holding in Tennessee and went west,
via covered wagon and an Oxe team (two Steers) settling in southern
Missouri. (Notes CR. This is the only mention anywhere of a western
part of TN or Kentucky. All other Martin descendants mention De Kalb
or Nashville TN which is Middle TN. I believe in the retelling of an
old story, there has started to be some discrepancies from the
original.) The exact location is unknown to me, but perhaps in Barry
county. (Note:CR. Crawford and Dent). My father grew up there, mostly
the son of a farmer and did what needed to be done on a small farm,
some of the duties I will describe in the next paragraph.
The land was new - that is, most of it was covered with timber; trees
of all sorts, sometimes just brush. It had to be cleared to plant a
crop. This meant the cutting of trees, the grubbing of brush. And, in
many instances the removal of rocks. Farming wasn't easy in a new,
rough country, but it was rewarding in a way. Land had to be plowed,
and since the soil contained roots and rocks, plowing of the land was
done with a "Bull tongue" plow. This was not a " turning moldboard"
plow as we use today. It was a single tongue blade some 3 to 4 inches
wide, and would bite into the soil readily, turning roots and rocks
and whatever came into contact with it to the right or left at will.
After this operation, the roots and rocks that were loose would be
picked up and hauled. The roots would be used as fire wood - the
rocks often for building rock fences. Next the operation would be to
cross plough the field, loosening up the remaining roots and rocks,
which again were gathered up and removed. Following these operations,
the land had to be "harrowed" and leveled up a bit. This was often
done with a home made "A-frame" harrow, the teeth often being made of
wood. Later on they used iron teeth. These implements were drawn
across the field with Oxen as draft animals. They were slow, but
ideal for this sort of work. The crop was then planted, usually corn,
then cultivated, often with hoe and mattox (a heavy tool which also
would cut sprouts) using the same "Bull tongue" tool for plowing
between rows. The above explanation is given, not to burden the
reader with detail, but to explain briefly the life of an early day
farmer. Come harvest time the grain would be hand gathered, some of
it taken to a grist mill for grinding into meal, the rest would be
stored in a building for the purpose, to be used as needed both for the
family, and as feed for the live stock. Such conditions as I have
described were those under which my father and all other farmers were
reared to manhood of that time.
During my father's childhood, he was moved from place to place, but
always to a farm, except on the one condition described on a previous
page, where his father traded for the grist mill at the location in Dent
County. For reasons given, this venture was short lived. Back to farm
life in southern Missouri now, the family was settled, doing what they
knew best.
My father grew to manhood in this area, Barry county. When he was
grown, for a short time, in seeking a better life, he went to Joplin,
the center of the Zinc producing area, and tried his hand in mining.
He didn't care too much for public work. Long working hours then
prevailed. His associations were not satisfactory. His life habits
were too controlled to suit, so he soon left the mines and went back
to doing what he knew best. He managed getting a fair education,
however, and for a while became a school teacher. This he could do
in conjunction with the operation of a small farm. Along about this
time he met and married. Perhaps this union might have continued, had
it not been for the fact he discovered his new wife was an epileptic.
This fact he knew nothing of until a son was born. His wife had been
able to conceal, her sickness, as all epileptics usually do. The son
was an epileptic also. They were both heartbroken with little left to
do but to dissolve their marriage. This they soon did.
Since my fathers unfortunate selection in marriage, was now dissolved,
I will write a few words about the union as told me by my mother and
older sisters. I cannot say how long this union lasted. But at the
most only a few years, or even less. The son, named Harvey, was taken
to the county center set up for the treatment of such conditions. He
was given the best attention available at the time, but he never
recovered. He became a permanent resident of the institution.
Permanent until his death in his early teens. I saw him only once.
I was around seven. I knew very little of the circumstances at the
time, nor did I have much interest in the situation, then. My father
never spoke to me of his early marriage. What I learned later in life
was told to me by my mother and sisters as mentioned before. What I
learned from them was more of a hushed subject. I did not pursue the
matter for that reason.
Now my father was alone again. He may have read in Genesis, the
statement that "Man should not live alone". At least my father
believed that. He wanted a family. In his quest for a wife, he met,
courted and married the lady who was to become my mother. But not
yet. Many incidents and more children came before me. My father was
twenty six and my to be mother was eighteen when this union occurred.
The difference in age seemed negligible then, as it would today under
similar circumstances, and so they were wed. My mother being the third
child of William Street and Sarah Street. I will speak of her again.
They set up housekeeping in a small house on a small farm in Barry
County Missouri. They were accustomed to the area. Their folks and
friends lived near. The situation seemed normal enough. However, my
father aspired to doing more than being a farmer in a small way. He
looked for a better way of life. He had a regular education of the
time and he taught school for a while. That occupation was not
particularly to his liking. School terms were short and the pay very
low, although he could do this in conjunction of operating his small
farm. He looked ahead. He had started his family again and was now
the father of two girls. It was at this time that some thing extra
happened. I will tell you about it.
In the state of Washington, away to the northwest, free land was
being offered by the Government. All one needed to acquire 160 acres
of good land, was to get to it, file a homestead lien on it. Within
three years, the land was his. Filing on the land was not quite all.
He had to improve it, with a place to live, fences; he was to break
out a few acres of native sod each year and in effect be a settler.
This procedure was quite standard, and he knew the rules. However,
the first thing to do was to get there. The agreement was made
between my mother and my father, to go to this promised land. They
booked passage on an emigrant train for the new country. With some
preparations, they embarked. A "grub" box was prepared into which
they placed their food for the trip. The food consisted mostly of
cured pork, fruit and biscuits. There was no refrigeration, so the
grub box, placed between the seats on the train, became their
restaurant for the next several days. Traveling was slow, and
accommodations were almost nil. However they had two seats assigned
to them, with the seat backs moved apart, with two seats facing each
other; they rode, slept and ate, and perhaps enjoyed the journey.
Their train ran in between schedules of other trains, and they were
often sidetracked for some time. My mother told me her biggest thrill
on the trip was when she saw electric lights for the first time. That
was in Cheyenne Wyoming. But this was not their destination. They
were only half way there. Eventually they got to Waterville,
Washington, which was and still is the county seat. There they
located their land and filed. Fortunately, because some other
ambitious pioneer had filed on this quarter, lived for a time and gave
it up, he was accommodated by finding a one room sod house and small
sod barn already on the premises. This was his first break. They
moved in. Try and picture this situation. It was far less
comfortable than what they had left in Missouri. Their nearest
trading post was four miles across the prarie. The nearest store was
Douglas, for Douglas County. The county seat, Waterville, was eight
miles away. There were better stores there - still a country town,
but they had a doctor there. I will later explain why a doctor was so
important to them.
Somewhere previous I told you that my parents started west with two
little girls around the ages of three and five. Much to their sorrow,
during period of residence on the homestead, due mostly for need of a
doctor nearer than eight miles away, with no communication, one of their
little girls passed away. They think it was pneumonia. The Doctor was
reached too late to save her. The little girl named Margaret was duly
buried in a country graveyard, long since abandoned as to suitable care.
Fortunately, soon after my Mother gave birth to another girl baby to take
the place of the one lost. The grave site was never visited by either
parent again owing to far away removal.
I should like to inject a personal note at this point, relative to the
graveyard on the prarie of western Washington. My Mother overtaken
with grief at times would relate the circumstances of the loss and
burial of her little girl. She well informed me of the location of
the cemetery, and how to locate the grave, should I ever be privileged
to visit the area. Many years later when I was a grown married man,
I went with my wife Rose on a tour of the West. We located the farm,
the graveyard, and are certain with all the information we had, we
stood by the grave of my unknown to me, sister. We photographed the
grave and all the surrounding area. On showing these pictures to my
mother on return, she thoroughly agreed, we had indeed found the site
of her little girl, where her remains would rest thru eternity. My
efforts were well appreciated, you can be sure.
Back now, to life on the homestead - you can imagine how my parents
struggled on this new found land; How they endured privation; how
homesickness overtook them so many times. However, they didn't do
all this to fail in their venture. In due time, a title was acquired
to the land, and their mission apparently accomplished. They were
not to remain much longer however, for of course they wanted to be
back with their friends and relatives, and perhaps the quiet life
which they had left. Physical and financially they had won their
battle. Not mentally. Their minds were back in the Missouri Ozarks.
By this time, the choice pieces of land were taken, making a market
for the improved pieces. A purchaser was found and a deal was made
to sell theirs. They were soon on their way to those beautiful hills
of southern Missouri.
A personal note - My father often spoke of his homestead in
Washington. I asked for his personal reasons for leaving it.
Naturally, he placed the blame on my mother, which may have been
justified. He said she became so homesick for her home land in
Missouri, together for her parents, her sisters and other friends and
loved ones that it became no longer pleasurable to endure the life
they had sought in Washington on their homestead. I rather believed
his story, for it was entirely feasible knowing my Mother as I did.
I rather felt sorry for him - he was more of a pioneer than was my
mother. Like all good husbands, he acceded to her wishes.
After arriving back in Missouri, the act of accession began as to what
their next move should be. They knew the area quite well, and to find
a suitable farm they could purchase as a home was first consideration.
They had a family, two little girls, and they were to add more later
on. Needless to say, they located a small farm of 140 acres some two
miles NE of the small town of Golden, and purchased it. What the
consideration was in dollars, I never thought to ask. They took
possession of the place and began the process of building a home and
raising a family all over again. On the following pages, I will
describe the location, and dwellings as best I can.
Continuing with my narrative, I promised to describe the farm and
location of my parents choice after returning from Washington, and
their homestead. As to location, I may have stated previously, the
farm of 140 acres was situated on the north bank of Kings river, in
Barry county, Missouri, some 1 and 1/2 to two miles NE of a very small
town. The town was Golden, not to be confused with Golden City. Our
Golden, consisted of a Post Office, a Drug Sundry store, a Blacksmith
shop and a General Merchandise store. There were two churches and a
grade school house. Of course, a few houses dotted the area, where
some noted souls of the land resided. It wasn't much. It was a
trading center for the community, and there you have it. The town
site sat on high ground, with one Main Street leading in and out, also
one street taking off to the west, toward Cotter ford of White river.
A ford is a shallow place in the river where a team can pull a wagon
across. Wagons were the chief means of t4ransportation in those early
days. You could ride a horse, or you could walk. Those were the
choices one had for travel. It was slow, but there was time, then.
About 1 1/2 miles to the north, the great White river flowed to the
east. It was only about one mile to the confluence of the two great
rivers-White and Kings. Our farm lay between. It was a beautiful
location. It still is beautiful. At that time there was timber
almost surrounding the location. Wood was for the taking. Water was
free from a spring near by. Most standard foods could be raised on
the land. Wool, for knitting into sweaters, mittens and stocking
caps also socks, was sheared from our flock of sheep. Chickens
provided eggs, cow gave us milk for milk and butter, while pork was
raised and butchered on the farm. There was an orchard of assorted
fruit, as well as berries on the place. Money hadn't come into style
as we now know it, but very little was needed. It was as pioneer set
up indeed. What little cash that was needed, came from the sale of
hogs and cattle each year, and there was a market for chickens and
eggs which added to the cash income.
The house was of logs, not large, but large enough for the family
thus far. Later, my father was to build on to the house, which
doubled its capacity. The problem then almost, was finding use for
the extra rooms.
I will leave this short description of the property and the way of
life where they resettled in Missouri, after returning from the state
of Washington. I shall now try and inject some description of my own
life and family after I graced the world.
But before I launch into my own trials of life, a few words more about
my father. I have stated at some point in this narrative, that my
father had been a school teacher. I mention this only to indicate
that my father perhaps had fortified himself with a little better
education than most. He held the small office of Justice of the Peace
for some time. With no court within twenty miles, with a poor way to
reach a court, my father tried most cases of the area. He was versed
in law, and was known to use good judgment where the law was vague.
Had he so desired, he might have been selected for County Judge. He
had no further desire toward law enforcement. He eventually removed
himself as JP. Thus ended the career of school teaching, and law
practice for my father. The pay for school teaching was negligible.
The adverse notoriety of law enforcement was not to his liking. Dad
was knowledgeable in politics all his life but never pursued them
beyond his own pleasure.
It is my belief that my father possessed excellent judgment in life
when a decision was needed between right and wrong. Both he and my
mother were very well versed on the teachings of the Bible. That
wasn't bad. Still isn't.
(A word about the town of Golden. Now we left that part of the
country in October 1906. The following year, the business district
of Golden was blown away by a tornado. One stone store building
remained. I do not believe any lives were lost but many hearts were
broken. The town was partially rebuilt, but it was never like the old
one. Later, a new golden was built on the highway, one mile south.)
There is still a Post Office in old Golden, but no stores. Several
houses remain;.some built after the tragedy. The new location has a
large general store and service station.
It would seem too formal to name what I am about to write an
autobiography. My memory would not serve me to start from the very
beginning, and since I am still living, I could not quite complete the
story. Form previous writing, you would know I was born in a log
house. That alone should qualify me for something big. It didn't.
My birth date is April 22, 1898. This would indicate I crossed the
border of two centuries. That's some distinction, for everyone
doesn't do that. They gave me the name, William Lawrence, naming me
after both grandfathers. The birth of six other children preceded me.
Only five survived to maturity. There were five, and that would do.
I am now, past 82. The first incident in my life that I can remember
was at age two. I have mentioned that my father built an addition to
our house. This was in the year 1900. I was two. The logs for the
addition were drawn into the yard and hewn and notched at 4 each end.
I can recall sitting on a log, watching my father and some neighbors,
hewing the logs and placing them. The incident is vague in my memory
but I do recall it.
The next few years of my life were likely very routine. Kid troubles
such as falling into the wood box was standard. I only lost two teeth
on that one, but back they came-eventually. We had a little dog named
Nigger. They said it was mine, so I looked after her. Not too well,
tho, for she soon brought us some more little Niggers. I loved them
all of course, but some had to go. It was along about this time I
concluded my first business transaction. One of our neighbor ladies
was visiting us one day, a Mrs. Hill, and she asked me what I would
take for one of the pups. I think I was about four. Of course money
had never crossed my path by then, and I simply said I would take one
gallon of sorghum molasses. That was a staple, and certainly,
something to eat, and that was important. She agreed, and the deal
was closed. She delivered the sorghum the next day, and picked up one
of the pups. The rest of the litter was given away.
West of our house we had a plum thicket. Under these trees was a
beautiful place to play. It was shady, and in the springtime it was
sweet smelling from the blossoms. We had to look out for the bees.
They were numerous and not too friendly. Occasionally I would get too
adventuresome, and get a sting. I would run to my mother, who would
mix some soda and salt with water and apply to the sting. Soon it was
forgotten, so back to play. My sister Nellie is 1 1/2 years older than
me and we were almost constant companions. We built play houses,
climbed the smaller trees and we walked in the nearby woods. We had
most kinds of fruit trees, and those we climbed most as there was
always a reward waiting, apples, peaches or plum. We also had a berry
patch but for bare feet it wasn't too inviting. We had cats. Lots of
cats, some large enough to hunt in the woods. One of them would catch
rabbits and drag them to the house for her kittens and other cats. One
day while walking in the wood with my sister, my little Nigger dog
jumped a rabbit which ran into the hollow of a fallen log. The tree
trunk had lain there likely for years and was rather rotten and soft.
After sizing up the situation, I decided to try and cut a hole in the
log with my pocket knife. I manage to do that and extracted the
rabbit. We would run home and show my mother now clever I was. My
sister said she had better carry the rabbit, as I was too small. She
took the rabbit and together we started for home. The rabbit gave a
quick lunge, and away he went. I never quite got over that misplacing
of confidence. I learned a lesson. Do it yourself.
I know kids are a chore, but on the farm, they got some good out of us.
We carried water from the spring and we carried wood from the wood lot.
I soon learned to cut wood for the stove. About this time, my uncle
Murphy who rather liked children bought a medium sized ax and presented
it to me. I became rather adept at using an ax and it has been
beneficial thru life. I never forgot where I got the ax.
On our farm we had what I suppose every farmer had - fields and trees
and rail fences. We had bird houses set up on top of long poles set in
the ground. We had rather tame Marten birds that nested in the bird
houses. We had many colored birds. The most attractive little birds
were the wrens. They were not very wild, and would nest in hollow
rails of the fence. They were so little and cute, I loved to watch
them tend their little ones. We also had "snow birds" that would come
in the winter. They, smaller than a dove, but were a game bird, and my
mother used to trap them. When she would get a dozen or so, she would
dress them out and make a pot pie of them. With gravy, they made very
fine eating, and comprised a good meal for the family.
In the timber we had o'possum. They would make raids on our hen house
tho, so we sought to eliminate them. My father liked to eat them. My
mother would fix them for him, but didn't enjoy it too much. I think we
had other varmints too, as sometimes we would smell a skunk around.
We kept what you would call a family flock of sheep. We would shear
them, and have fleeces carded into rolls, from which my mother would
spin yarn. From this yarn she made mittens, socks, etc. She also wove
the yarn into blankets which we used for covering the bed. These
blankets, together with feather beds made for warm sleeping in the
winter. We also raised cotton. We would pick the cotton and gin it
(remove the seeds) and my mother would card it for quilt filling. We
also raised tobacco. My father would cure it and chew it. All these
facts aren't so thrilling, they do show one how we lived in the early
part of this century on the farm in the Ozarks. It was primitive, but
wholesome, whatever that means.
When I became seven in April, I started to school the following Sept.
I was late, but walking to school thru the woods was a chore,
especially in bad weather. So they waited a little to send me. Each
fall, someone would say they saw some wolves in the neighbor hood,
and that frightened the mothers. Our neighbor a mile from us, slew a
big grey wolf one fall. I sailed right thru the first grade and was
designated for second grade for the next year. I started my second
term, but I was not to finish it at that school. I hated to leave my
nice teacher - a lady about twenty, but my parents were to move in O
ctober to Jasper County. Near Carthage, I entered school again. My
teacher using my age as a guide instead of my ability, to enter me
into class, made a grave mistake and put me too far in advance; it
proved a disadvantage to the rest of my school attendance. I lost
interest in school, and had much rather have dropped out and gone to
work on the farm - young as I was at the time. However, when my
classmates graduated from the eight grade, I realized I had better
do something, or forever do nothing. I perked up, went back to
school and eventually graduated from High School, late of course,
but graduate I did. High School was an interesting experience. I'm
so glad I did it. I will dwell on some of these experiences later.
I want at this time to go back to my childhood before I was school age and
relate a few occurrences and information of my younger life and that of my
father as I was growing up. My father, to supplement his income, or just to
earn a little cash, would hack ties for the railroad. He would cut the trees
down, saw them into the proper length for the RR ties, and hew them on all
four sides. When he had twelve done, about two days work, he would load them
onto a farm wagon and haul them to Grand View Arkansas, about twelve miles
south. At that time, the railroad company had a spur, (short line) coming in
to Grandview. They bought RR ties there. If the ties were perfect, he would
receive 25 cents for them, however, if they had a flaw in them, the price was
15 cents each. Dad was a good woodsman and usually received 25 cents each.
That made his three days efforts bring in $3.00. He could do two loads a week
in good weather. The sum total for his work was small, but gratifying. It
gave cash where cash was needed, as it sometimes was, even most business
transactions were in commodities. After all, some Christmas must be provided.
Both Mom and Dad were dedicated workers, and they managed. Life went on in
spite of poor circumstances, such as meager earnings, poor crops at times, due
to poor seasons. In spite of everything, a farmers life and hard work goes on
to the end-or nearly to the end. Life spans were shorter then, indeed people
just "wore" out in the later years, and often retired into the home of one of
their children.
Now, how did all this struggle and strife affect me? There was some
discouragement of course, not only for the children, but for themselves. My
parents were aware of this and decided to leave the Ozarks for a better
farming country. In October 1906 they sold out. They loaded their family,
together with most of their household belongings into two covered wagons, and
headed West. Their destination was predetermined, owing to some relations
living around Carthage, Missouri. I personally think my parents didn't want
my two older sisters, dating age, to marry and settle in the area. They felt
better opportunity was ahead, father west. No one told me this, but in
retrospect, I assumed it. They moved into Jasper County. Fields were larger,
land was smoother, and in general opportunity looked greater. We settled in a
small four room house for the winter. Dad had a job with a dairy farmer
earning $20.00 a month. They also gave him a large bucket of skimmed milk each
night to bring home for the family. But the trip was interesting. My Uncle
George James drove one of the wagons, and we led, drove and hauled furniture,
live stock and provisions for the trip in the wagons. Each night we would
build a camp fire, and cook our supper. Some how we managed bunks of some
kind and slept the night. The distance wasn't great, but our speed was slow.
We spent about one week on the road, and for children it was fun. It was
pioneering travel you can be sure. I think the older folks had fun also.
Now, we were in another promised land. The RR tracks were near, and it was a
thrill for us kids every time a train passed. The engines looked so big and
powerful and noisy. They would blow the whistle for the crossing, and
sometimes just for our thrill I think. Now, near out little house in the
country, there was a church house. We attended that church. My brother, then
fourteen procured the position of janitor for the church. He was paid 35
cents a month. I helped him clean up the building, for I often found
pennies, or even a nickel dropped by accident by some one fumbling in their
pockets for an offering.
In a small field, adjacent to our place, some one had grown a field of
pumpkins. They didn't harvest them, but let us have what we wanted. My
mother made pumpkin butter from some of them, also pumpkin pies. It was a
help. That winter we butchered a beef. We had driven it from Barry County.
We sold some, but kept considerable for our own use. We had chickens and
eggs of our own. We made out. It wasn't easy, but we all came through the
winter in good shape. We children entered the "High Point" school nearby.
Now, I had only been thru the first grade thus far, but the teacher judging
my position by my age instead of my past accomplishments, started me out too
far in advance. It was a handicap. I was behind, and never caught up. Still
haven't, but I keep trying. Those days a young lady with a grade school
education could obtain a license to teach in country schools. I ran into
several of such teachers as I tried to make it thru each day. These girls,
you might call them were totally inexperienced. I'm sure they did the best
they could, and many of them were wonderful people. Eventually, I presume
they became ok. At this first school in our new country, we attended only
one term, as to improve our position in life, my father saw fit to remove us
from that district to still another. This move was not for the benefit of
we children so far as school was concerned, but to get a better and a larger
farm. Our school district was known as "Lone Star" and here is where I
completed my education.
On this first farm to which we moved and made one crop, I was introduced for
the first time to a vegetable called, "celery". We didn't raise it, but the
people who preceded us did, and left considerable of the "stuff" on the
place. I learned to like it. I can also recall a fruit to which I met for
the first Time, "bananas". I had never seen one before, and again, I didn't
like them. I liked them later on, and do still. I spent my entire summer
with my sister in a strawberry patch. Not the kind you pick berries from,
but a new field of them, too young to bear. They required our time
constantly, hoeing and weeding. We left the next year, and I never reaped
a single berry as reward for all my love and attention. The farm was
equipped for chicken raising. Lots of chicken houses, and brooder houses.
We went for it. My mother mostly attended the brooders and hatchers. The
hatching of eggs was done by the heat of oil lamps made for the purpose.
They were dangerous, for the wicks would creep somehow and had to be turned
down. One night between circuits of attendance, one over heated. We lost
a few hundred eggs and chicks on that occasion and the profit for the year,
chicken wise went up to heaven - or somewhere.
The next spring we moved away. We were now in the "Lone Star" school
district, where I remained thru grade school. Again the teachers were young
and inexperienced. I was learning nothing, and didn't care too much.
However, my dad, having been a school teacher in his younger days decided
something was wrong. I wasn't progressing well at all, and he thought I
had better be removed from Lone Star. He sent me to school in town that
winter, to the Carthage public school system. It was there that I learned
for sure that my education had been neglected. It could have just been me,
but really it wasn't and I learned that, and my dad learned that. From then
on things were better. Our school at Lone Star acquired the services of a man
teacher. He had taught school all of his life, and was around 50 years old.
R.J. Knight was his name, and he knew the score. I like him, and he appeared
to take special interest in all the children. From Mr. Knight we learned.
He knew what we needed, and he knew how to impart it to us. I spent two terms
with him. I should have entered H. S. after my first year with him but chose
to go back another term. It was a good move for me. However time did not
stand still and I was getting older. I was sixteen when I left Lone Star.
To say I was considerable behind is putting it mildly. Some children are
thru H.S. then. My age however, did something for me at last. I had the
edge on the other kids in athletics. I made the football team the first
year, only to be removed by my dad to help on the farm. They next year I
made the basketball team, and since that sport was played at night, I was
allowed to participate. I played the next three years and captained the
team my senior year. Basketball was the only thing in which I excelled.
I was selected on the "all-star" team of SW Missouri, but never was able
to sell a drop of it towards earning a living. Basketball wasn't big then.
No commercial teams but was confined strictly to school pleasure. That
was that.
Two years after leaving the "chicken farm" we moved to a 160 acre farm, known
as the Pleasant Valley Farm. We raised corn, oats, wheat and hay, and
diversified the crops. Dad was a good farmer and worked hard. So did the
kids. However, beside the work on the farm, we had something else. In one
corner of the farm was an abandoned zinc mine. There had been no restoration
of the mine fields, so it grew up in underbrush, weeds and trees. There were
three big cave-ins filled with water. They were of considerable size, of
fifty to 100 yards across. Two of these small lakes had an abundance of perch
and catfish. The larger cave-in was a crystal clear lake in which we swam.
The water was deep, and the banks straight down, but we installed ladders to
get out when we had finished swimming. Of course, it was no place for one
who could not swim. This area was a playground for myself and our neighbors.
It was also a good hunting ground. We had quail, rabbits and wild ducks
galore. It was on this place that my dad bought me a Winchester 12 gauge,
repeating shotgun. I literally wore the gun out by the time I was about 60.
It was the pride of all my possessions. No one else in my crowd had one.
I had the pleasure of lending it to friends who were less fortunate.
I wish to inject at this time, a little something of my mother's life, thus
far not related in my manuscript. This should start, no one knows when, but
I will use the summer of 1918. I had been in the Kansas harvest fields that
summer. When I returned home, and just before entering High School for my
senior year, I noted all was not well at home. There was plainly a situation
about which I felt I could do nothing. It was off and beyond my ability to
change at that stage of my life and theirs. With more wisdom and experience
in life which I have later acquired, things might have been different.
The personalities of my parents differed greatly. The quiet independent life
of a farmer suited my Father. It didn't suit my Mother. Not anymore at least.
She aspired to some outside activity. She wanted to mix with people. You
might call her a "Social climber" in the embryo state. She had asked my
Father several times to quit the farm and move into town. She suggested
trying to procure a job in the Post Office. Dad was well acquainted with the
Postmasters at the time. Dad would have none of it. My mother felt she had
served her time in the country. She left, never to return to farm life. The
rest is history to the family.
Some time later, my Mother met up with an old lifetime acquaintance, a
Mr. Witt. I can't say who promoted the idea, but they alter married, and my
Mother went to Cassville, MO., to begin a new life with her new husband. For
a short while things seemed to go alright. Not long tho, for Mr. Witt had
retired, was settled into his surroundings, which again displeased my Mother.
The union dissolved later, leaving my Mother free again.
My mother sought to support herself by getting some work. Her age and
inexperience was against her. She moved about but had no anchor. My sister
Nellie and her husband Clarence came to her rescue. A great deal of her later
life was spent there. She tried to relieve the situation somewhat by moving
to one or the other of her children. However, her best home seemed to be with
her daughter Nellie. She eventually realized this was doing her daughters
family an injustice. Thru the help of her son Waldo, a home was found for her
with a private family, on a boarding basis. She retained her pride to the end.
However, her incompatibility with life, her ambition for independence, her
inability to cope with the very life she sought-to be with people on an equal
basis told on her health. She passed away, but not until she had attained the
age of 92. She was my Mother. I loved her but did little to show it. I am
sorry. It takes too long for some of us to find out what life is all about.
I'm sure things would be different again.
Now I should like to write a few remarkes additional about my Father. He has
been described as somewhat in the body of my manuscript, but something more
personal will be written here.
Now, after my Mother left the nest, departing forever her home on the farm,
Dad was very much alone. He had a crop in the field, and his heart in the
soil. He did what was most natural - he continued on with what he knew best,
and what he liked most. It was on this farm where I helped him harvest,
before my own final departure for the west. Dad continued on the farm for I
believe either two or three more years. He mostly raised wheat which was a
fair price at that time, and he accumulated a little money. He was alone.
The family was gone. Presumably at his own discretion, he "sold out" his
possessions and retired? Not exactly, he lived here and there, and worked
some. He was a fair carpenter and followed that trade some. Then he moved
in with his other son, Waldo, SE of Carthage. It was at this time when I
contacted him by letter about going into farming again. He agreed and my
wife Rose and I returned to Carthage to join him. We also stayed on the farm
at my brothers until we located a suitable farm on which to move. Most of
our time there has been described before, and for the reasons given, Rose
and I moved out, while my sister and her husband moved in. It was not exactly
a partnership, but an arrangement, which existed I think one year. My sister
and family moved out to themselves and again Dad was destined to be a bachelor
again. Not exactly a desirable situation, but one in which he found himself
for a second time.
It must have been sort of a lonely existence. He advertised for a housekeeper.
He found one in a kindly old lady named Cordelia Heathcock. She had lived a
hard life in Oklahoma, having reared a family there, and had become widowed
there owing to the demise of her husband. She was looking for work and found
it as housekeeper for Dad. She was a very good woman- homely to be sure, but
a good cook, a hard worker and the love of God in her heart. I suppose the
inevitable happened. A match was made and they were married. This was Dad's
third attempt to finding comfort with a woman. The match turned out not too
bad for either. Both needed a home and companionship. They found it together.
God Bless Them.
Shortly thereafter, Dad visited my wife Rose and myself in Denver. He brought
"Suzie" as he named her, and we had an excellent visit for a few days. Dad
drove his 1922 model Ford on the trip. I think they enjoyed the trip
together, as well as his visit with Ida, my sister who was also living in
Denver. While visiting me, he revealed certain things he had planned.
He told me his children had about all left Missouri, and he was about to do
so. I think my brother Waldo, living near Lyons (Kansas) had located a
place for him to buy and settle. At least he did this, settling on a
ten acre tract, in Nickerson, Kansas. His daughter Bertha (Mrs. Hilton,
was also living near there. This seemed a suitable arrangement to me so I
rather encouraged it. He bought the place and moved there. I believe he
spent some pleasant years there, raising some crops such as watermelons,
sweet potatoes, -they seemed adapted to the climate. Mother Sue passed
away later and not too many years later Dad passed away April 28th, 1944,
and was buried in the Nickerson Cemetery.. May peace be with him. He was
a good and wise man. I loved him sincerely. As with my Mother, I wish I
had been with him more. He was almost 87 when he passed away. My Mother
made it to 92.
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