Jasper County Missouri - Honeysuckle Farm, LLC

Week 19- Orphans, A New Blog, and Podcasts

Welcome to week 19 of 2018 and week 2 of my short hiatus from blogging about my own personal family (and my husband’s). Just this week and one more and I’ll get back to blogging about our families. During my hiatus, I’m posting information that is not easily found elsewhere. In case you’re just joining me I’ll let you know that I’m posting records of children who passed through the Jasper County Alms House (the “poor farm”) near Carthage, Jasper County, Missouri. Today I’ll be posting about one family and I’ll also be recommending one blog I just found and a couple of podcasts I’m enjoying.
Let’s start with the blog. I just finished watching the most recent season of Relative Race on BYUTV. (If you don’t get BYUTV, contact your satellite or cable company. It’s a family-oriented channel with lots of genealogy and family-friendly programming available.) On episode 8 of Relative Race (Season 3, original air date 22 April 2018), there was a brief mention that Team Black (Johnathon and Rebecca HOYT) had met a relative who podcasts her family history and this relative (Dru MATTIMOE) interviewed Team Black for her podcast. For a long time now, I’ve been thinking about creating a podcast that goes along with my blog so this bit of information caught my attention. I did a little internet sleuthing and found Dru! Before finding Dru though, I found her blog- Coffee and Headphones. The first post I read was entitled, Relevé, Plié. The link above will take you right to that post. Before I could read even a word of her post I was immediately taken back to my childhood ballet and tap days. Some of my friends and I were in dance classes when I was little. Here is a photo of my friend, Genita (on the right), and I in our dance costumes for the tap portion of our dance classes. This was right before a performance. We were standing in her grandma’s yard right next door to my house on the “old highway” in Jay, Delaware County, Oklahoma. Her grandma was my babysitter for several years when I was young. I was probably about 8 or 9 years old in this photograph.

I happen to work at the same high school where Genita’s daughter attends now and I saw her within a day or so of reading Dru’s post and thinking about Genita and our dance days. Maybe I’ll take a copy of this photo to her daughter one day before school’s out.
Yesterday I got to talk with Dru. (I was trying to fix the lawnmower yesterday so I hope I didn’t look too wild and crazy for our video chat!) I enjoyed our conversation and I’m looking forward to following her blog as well as her podcasting adventures. So GO READ DRU’S BLOG! I’m enjoying it and I think you will too, especially if you like a little ‘Hollywood’ to go with your history! Speaking of podcasts, I’m in the car often so I listen to a lot of podcasts. I was recently listening to an episode of Always Listening and the host, Joel SHARPTON, recommended Tyler Mahan COE’s podcast Cocaine and Rhinestones (which is both a podcast and a blog that follows along with the podcast). Tyler podcasts the history of country music. Now, I’m not the world’s biggest country music fan but something Joel said caught my interest so I flipped over to Cocaine and Rhinestones and I was hooked on the first episode (which for me, by the way, was Season 1, Episode 3, The Murder Ballad of Spade Cooley). I’m about halfway through Season 1 right now. Go take a listen. Season 1 is all about the old names in country music- the ones my dad played in the cassette player of that dinky little Datsun pickup that my parents somehow managed to fit two adults and three children into back in the days when seatbelts were optional (and rarely used). Sure wish I had a photo of that pickup truck. Here’s a similar one found at CFI America:

Don’t make the mistake of looking at this pickup as anything close to a full-size pickup truck. These things were TINY!!
Now for the orphans. If you aren’t interested, you can cut out now. It won’t hurt my feelings. If you are interested, read on.

Above is the cover and description of the records for anyone interested. Below is the first page of the transcription. I’ll be skipping the second child (#2- Elija ROBINSON). Just yesterday I made a breakthrough on Elija so I’m saving that for next week so I can research it a little more. This week I’ll be discussing children Rhoda and Eva MALONE and their mom, Mary MALONE (#5-#7 on the list).

Here’s what I know about the MALONE sisters. Mary MALONE came to the alms house with her two daughters- Rhoda and Eva- in February of 1883. Mary was born in 1842 in Illinois. She died (presumably at the alms house since it’s in their records) in August of 1886. She came in with her daughter Rhoda who was born in 1863 in Illinois and her daughter Eva who was born in 1874 in Illinois. I want to be clear here, I am presuming relationships based on the same last name and that they were all admitted to the alms house in February of 1883. There is no disability listed with Mary’s name or the girls’ names. Perhaps Mary was too sick to continue caring for herself or the girls anymore or perhaps she was too poor to do so and couldn’t find enough work. I don’t know. The above is literally all the information I had to go on.
So Mary would have been about 41 years old when she was admitted and 44 years old when she passed away. Rhoda would have been about 20 years old and Eva about 9 years old upon admission to the alms house. There is no discharge date for Rhoda or Eva. Looking at all the MALONE families in the area at that time, I think the most likely family for these people was the family of John and Mary “Polly” (HENDRICKS) MALONE. This family (at least the mother and children- I’m not sure about the father) moved from Adams County, Illinois sometime between 4 July 1870 and 15 June 1880 to Jasper County, Missouri. In 1880, Mary (sometimes listed as Polly) had the following children: Rhoda (born about 1863 in Illinois), Adam (born about 1866 in Illinois), Hiram (born about about August of 1869 in Illinois), and Eva (born about 1874 in Illinois). With this information, the gap in age from Rhoda to Eva makes a little more sense! Mary was a widow in 1880. She and her children were living in Preston, Jasper County, Missouri. I can’t find Rhoda in 1900. Eva is a servant in the Arnold household in Golden City, Barton County, Missouri. Adam is living with Hiram and Hiram’s family in Richland, Barton County, Missouri. Hiram, Adam, and Eva all married and had children. Adam passed away in 1921 (of Paresis), Eva in 1943 (of Myocarditis), and Hiram in 1950 (of Pneumonia and infirmities of age). I have contacted a member of this family and am exchanging information with her in an effort to figure out if this is the correct family and, if so, to link the family’s alms house years back into their historical record. In case you’re wondering why I didn’t bring up the death record of Mary, there isn’t one that I can find.
If you’ve made it this far- thanks for reading. Don’t forget to check out Dru’s blog, Coffee and Headphones. Also check out Tyler’s podcast, Cocaine and Rhinestones (or, if you just aren’t interested in country, maybe check out Joel’s podcast, Always Listening, which introduces you to new podcasts). You can also check out my sister-in-law’s blog at Down in the Root Cellar.
Take care of YOU this week!
Until next time,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog

Week 18

Last week was so busy! The last two or three months of each school year are always insanely busy. I think I’ve finally hit that point where I won’t be blogging for a few weeks until all this craziness is over. I’m proud of the fact that this year I’ve been able to hold off the “no blogging” streak for a month to month and a half longer than normal. I’m going to cut myself some slack and not have a schedule for the next three weeks or so. I will blog when I can and I will try to tell a very short story and/or photograph on Sunday rather than provide a schedule. Hopefully in a month or so I’ll be able to tell some of the stories that were put on hold (like John BATES’ final years). For now, I’m going to back off because I think any schedule at this point would be too much.
Today’s short story is about one of the earliest tenants at Jasper County Alms House (the “poor farm”) in Carthage, Jasper County, Missouri. While I was at Joplin researching a couple of weeks ago I spent most of my time looking through a book containing a list of people who stayed there. One of my strongest thoughts when going through this book was how many of the children who came there ever made it back to their families? How did they get separated? What happened when they left there? I had so many questions. I’ve found that there isn’t much information online about a lot of the children that came to the home. For many of them I can’t even find out who their original families were.
The first person on the list was Clarissa YOAS. Clarissa was born 157 years ago. She was 14 years old when she was admitted to the alms house in 1875. She (or whomever brought her there) gave her birth year as 1861 and her birth state as Pennsylvania. She was single. Later in the book there is another entry for Clarissa. It said she was the daughter of Henry YOAS. She died on 30 December 1942 and was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Galena, Cherokee County, Kansas. No other family members were admitted with Clarissa. If she was born in Pennsylvania, how did she get to Missouri? She had to come with someone. Why did they leave her at the Alms House? Did she have any family left? Do her descendants know about what happened to her? Does she even have any direct descendants? So many questions! So I did a quick search on Ancestry.com, Google, and Newspapers.com for Clarissa.
The majority of records that Clarissa appeared on were census records. Other than those records, I found her in the alms house record and I found her death certificate. There were no newspaper articles about her that I could find. Clarissa’s surname was spelled a variety of ways (YOAS, YOES, YOSE, and YOOS). Her first name was written as Clarissa, Clarisa, and Clara. Although the alms house record, death certificate, and some of the census records gave her birth year as 1861, at least one census gave her birth year as 1857 and another as 1851. Her birth state never varied- it was always Pennsylvania. Clarissa never married. She remained at the alms house from age 14 to the end of her life at age 81. If she ever had a child, it was not recorded in the alms house record and is not in any record I could locate on Ancestry.com.
In the 1880 census, Clarissa was marked as being “idiotic” which would explain her presence at the alms house and would also explain why she never left. In 1880, the definition of “idiotic” for purposes of the federal census was, “a person the development of whose mental faculties were arrested in infancy or childhood before coming to maturity”. Additional information found on Genealogy.com about this subject says, “a number of known disabilities would have fallen under this category, including Downs Syndrome”. Clarissa was also marked as a pauper on this census. It is interesting to note that in 1880 just across the state line in Lowell, Garden Township, Cherokee County, Kansas (only 5 miles from where Clarissa was buried) is another YOAS family with a son, Francis YOAS, who is listed as “insane”. He was born in Ohio in 1863.
The alms house went through a number of superintendents in the 67 years that Clarissa lived there. The earliest superintendent was Benjamin HAMMER along with his wife, Tennie. In 1900, it was James NALL and his wife, Laura. In 1910, I couldn’t find Clarissa (nor could I find anyone else I expected to find living at the alms house). In 1920 George W. MAXWELL was superintendent. Jud HOWELL and his wife Eva managed the alms house in 1930. The final available census is 1940. It was unclear who was managing the alms house in 1940. In the 1940 census, Clarissa declared she worked 4 hours a week. At the poor farms, every individual worked at a certain job and the job was tailored to what the individual was able to do. One additional thing I noticed in these census records is that people living at the poor farm were called “inmates”.
On 30 December 1942, Clarissa died. Her cause of death was listed as Senility. Her body was held for 13 months- possibly so family could claim her body if there were any family. Her death certificate listed her dad as Henry YOAS but did not list her mother. Clarissa was buried on 31 January 1943 at Oak Hill Cemetery in Galena, Cherokee County, Kansas.

I’ve been unable to figure out who Clarissa’s parents and other family members were. There are several families that I suspect are either parents or are closely related to Clarissa. The family whose son was “insane” is one of the families I feel is closely related to Clarissa. They are buried in a cemetery a few miles away from Clarissa (except for the “insane” son who ended up in an insane asylum and is buried in that asylum’s burial ground in Osawatomie, Kansas). That family is Ernst and Lucy YOAS’ family. They could be Clarissa’s parents but I don’t think so. I think Clarissa’s parents may be Henry and Elizabeth YOAS. Another possibility for her parents are Georg Heinrich and Elizabeth YOAS. I have messaged a person on Ancestry.com who I think may be able to answer some of my questions about Clarissa. If I hear back from her I’ll let you know.
Until then,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog

Belgium Calling…

This week I’m trying to ease back into blogging after a couple of busy weeks. I’ve had a couple of stories sitting on the back burner waiting on their turn so I’m telling those this week. (Actually, I have a BUNCH on the back burner! I’m hoping the summer is less busy so I can get those written and pushed out to you all!) Today I want to tell you about a sweet person I “met” via email last month. This guy’s kindness really moved me.
Around the middle of March, I received an email from a man named Koen BOLCKMANS. Koen lives in Belgium. This guy is awesome! Here’s his pic:

So, that’s Koen. He’s pretty amazing. That gravestone he’s kneeling next to? That’s our family. Let me tell you the story.
I’ve heard that many Europeans adopt the graves of American servicemen (sometimes for that person’s lifetime and then they leave care of the grave to a relative to care for when they’re gone). I didn’t know anyone who did this but I’d heard stories. I couldn’t have told you if the stories were true or not but it was a nice “feel good” story. Then Koen emailed me. For the last 23 years (plus a little) he’s been taking care of this grave. The man buried in the grave is Henry CONN- the son of Daniel and Myrtle (BAKER) CONN. Myrtle was the sister of Mary Anne BAKER. Mary Anne was married to Ervin Alonzo (“Poppy”) DRAKE and the two of them were my paternal 2nd great grandparents. Henry CONN is buried at the American War Cemetery in Henri-Chapelle, Belgium. Henry was a Private in 78th Lightning Infantry Division, 311th Regiment, Company G.
BEFORE I FORGET: IF YOU HAVE A PHOTO OF HENRY CONN OR YOU KNOW SOMEONE WHO DOES AND WOULD SCAN AND EMAIL ME A COPY, I WOULD LOVE TO PROVIDE KOEN WITH A PHOTOGRAPH OF HENRY!
Koen told me that he’s tried to research Henry. (Just a note: he’s done more than try! He knew a lot about Henry before he ever contacted me!) Koen said Henry was killed in action on the second day of the assault on Kesternich, Germany inside the village clearing houses on 31 January 1945- the same day Henry’s brother, Ernest, turned 26. Koen sent me a link to Henry’s online memorial. I encourage you to go visit it at the Fields of Honor database. Like I said, I have always heard that Europeans adopted the graves of American service men who died overseas. I just never thought about them caring for one of our family members. I think Koen is doing a fabulous job, don’t you? I do need to mention that his friend, Astrid van Erp, helps him with this endeavor. Astrid had asked a question on a public forum that I answered prior to Koen’s email so I actually “met” Astrid first.
Henry Aubrey CONN was born 23 July 1914 in Reeds, Jasper County, Missouri. His parents were Daniel and Myrtle (BAKER) CONN. Henry was the fourth of six children born to Daniel and Myrtle.
In 1922, when Henry was 7 years old, he wrote a letter to Santa that was published in the Galena, Kansas newspaper:

I have had a lot of trouble following the family through the census records but I do know that in 1925, the family was living in Lafayette, Chautauqua County, Kansas. In 1925, Henry was 10 years old. He was not attending school and he couldn’t read or write.
On 19 April 1940 when the census enumerator (Benjamin RYBURN) came to the CONN home, the family was living in Beaty, Delaware County, Oklahoma. Henry was single, still living with his parents, and was working as a mechanic’s helper at a local garage. In October of that same year he completed his draft card. He listed his residence at that time as San Leandro, Alameda County, California. There are several issues with the draft card. Henry originally listed an Oakland, California address. That was crossed out in 1941 and the San Leandro address was typed in. He listed his mom as living in South West City, McDonald County, Missouri. This is only a small discrepancy because the Beaty area of Delaware County, Oklahoma connects to South West City, McDonald County, Missouri. Apparently the discrepancy between San Leandro, California and Oakland, California is also minor. Henry did state that he worked in Oakland for a man named Billy Rose.

Just over a year later, in November of 1941, Henry enlisted in the Army and eventually went to war in the European theatre in World War II.

He went missing on his brother Ernest’s birthday – 31 January 1945. Henry was 31 years old when he went missing. According to Koen, Henry was “killed in action on the second day of the assault on Kesternich, Germany, inside the village clearing houses on 31 January 1945.” Henry was awarded the Purple Heart. He was buried in American War Cemetery in Henri-Chapelle, Belgium. Koen provided me with this news article giving Henry’s MIA status.

You can read a detailed account of the battle at Kesternich, Germany in this PDF document:
kesternich germany battle henry conn week 16
The day before and day of Henry’s death is detailed beginning on the report page numbered 14 (on the PDF it is page 15 of 50).
If you’d like the Wikipedia version, go here. You can also read the historynet.com version at this link. For some great photos, try the Facebook group. You can read about the 78th Lightning Infantry Division at Wikipedia here. A booklet was published about the 78th and you can read that online here. You can find a photo of GI’s with the 78th here. There is a lot of information on the internet about the 78th and about Company G. I encourage you to Google it and take a look at the links.
Before closing, I want to provide this article from The Sarcoxie Record about Koen. He emailed it to me so I thought I would provide it here so you can learn a little more about Koen.
sarcoxie record page 1 henry conn week 16
sarcoxie record page 2 henry conn week 16
To Koen, I’d like to say thank you for taking care of Henry’s grave and for contacting me to let me know where Henry is buried. I hope someone returns the favor to you one day.
Until next week,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog
Sources for this post include:
Koen Bolckmans & Astrid Van Erp; Newspapers.com; Ancestry.com; Fold3

Jehue Baker

Today’s blog post is about my paternal 3rd great grandfather, Jehue BAKER. Jehue died on this date in (10 March) in 1924. I have mentioned Jehue before in a blog post about his daughter but I haven’t specifically blogged about him so today I just want to introduce him to you. The line of descent is through Jehue’s first child Mary Anne (who went by Annie), Annie’s son Mark DRAKE, and Mark’s son Eugene who was my grandpa.
Jehue Baker was born on 27 September 1850 in Bolivar, Polk County, Missouri. According to his death certificate his parents were Bets BAKER and his mother’s last name was BAIR ~~but her first name was unknown. I have never been able to find either of his parents. Some researchers have speculated that her name was Judy or Judith.~~ The children I know that belong to this couple are Mary Anne, Cora Belle, Jesse Washington, Myrtle, John Henry (who died as a toddler). Jehue’s siblings were Martha (who married a POWERS) and Thomas.
~~I haven’t found any census records for Jehue prior to 1900.~~

Jehue and Annie

Jehue married Mary Jane LITTRELL in 1876 in Jasper County, Missouri. I’m assuming she died around 1890 due to Jehue’s remarriage in 1891. I have not found an 1880 census record for them.

Jehue and Lillie

STOP THE PRESSES!! It’s 3:45 a.m. on Sunday March 11th. Yeah- I’ve been up all night. And yes- I’m still hoping to make it to church. But I have to tell you- I think I’ve made a breakthrough on Jehue!! I now believe I know who his parents are and if I’m correct, we’ve found a whole slew of new siblings. Folks, it’s been a few decades since my Mam first told me about Jehue. That’s a long time to search and never find anything. This is one reason I love this blog so much! But I digress….
I now believe Jehue’s parents are Jesse BAKER and Mary BAIR (possibly spelled BEAR). Many researchers still maintain that Mary is Native American and while I would believe that, I can’t prove that yet. Here’s what I know about his parents.
In 1850 they were living in District 47, Lawrence County, Missouri at census time. This does NOT match the fact that on Jehue’s death certificate his birthplace is given as Bolivar, Polk County, Missouri. I can’t explain that but bear with me. In 1850 the family consisted of Jesse, his wife called Polley in 1850, and children: William, Ellen (first name is Sarah), Robert N., (later called Newton), Daniel, and James. There was also a woman named Judith Newlis living in the home and I have not been able to place her yet.
In 1860 the family is living at Dunkles Store (later known as Lawrenceburg), Ozark Township, Lawrence County, Missouri. At that time the family consisted of Jesse, his wife now called Mary, and their children: William, Sarah E., Newton, Daniel, James, John (later called Jahue), Thomas, and Judy (whom I believe to be Jahue’s sister, Martha Judith).
In 1870 the family is living in Lostine (later called Petersville and now no longer in existence), Cherokee County, Kansas. The family consisted of Jesse, Mary, Sarah E., Newton, Daniel, James, Jahue, Thomas, and Martha.
I believe this is the correct family due to the ages and successive birth order of Jahue, Thomas, and Judy. I’ve searched so many families over the years and this is the only family that fits. I’m going to continue my research and hopefully have updates but I couldn’t wait to tell you.
I know I don’t have any photos in this blog post so I’m going to include one here of my Mam and Pa- Audrey and Eugene Drake. Eugene is in my direct line back to Jehue BAKER.

Jehue will have a birthday coming around later this year so I’ll finish telling you about him then but for now, I need to get to bed!!
Until tomorrow (um…I mean later today),
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog

Messages for Madeline #2

Madeline,
HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!
So last week, I talked about old friends and new friends. I want to expand on that a little this week. When I was a teenager, I was eager to get out of this small town and see the world. I wasn’t very good about keeping up with old friends. Now, 30 years later, I really regret that.
My best friend when I was growing up was Jenni. She lived about a block and a half away from me and if I wasn’t at her house, she was at mine. Always. We would play weeks-long games of Monopoly. We loved playing the game Life, too. Her mom was our Girl Scout leader- I talked about that a little last week. I miss Jenni.

This photo was taken at Girl Scout camp one year, if I remember correctly. Top row left to right: Kim C., Karen H.. Bottom row left to right: Me, Jenni P..
In the last few years of high school I let our friendship slide in favor of hanging out with my boyfriend. After graduation, we went our separate ways. There were a few letters and a couple calls over the years but life happens and we lost touch.
Around 13 years after high school I found out she lived near Saint Louis. I was traveling through there once so I called and arranged a visit with her. It was so great to see her after that many years. But again, we each had our own lives that didn’t intersect and we tried to keep in touch (with email this time, which was much easier). We were in touch more often but still, after a few years the emails dwindled to yearly Christmas cards with family photos and eventually there was no contact again. I searched for her occasionally on Facebook since that is by far the easiest way to keep in touch but I could never find an account for her. Then a few days ago I received a notification on Facebook that she had created an account. I was so excited to finally have the option to keep up with her life and stay in touch with her. But, she has her account locked down and isn’t even receiving messages.
I’m telling you all this so you don’t make the same mistakes I did. Sort of like an older sister who’s “been there, done that” trying to help you navigate all the parts of life that you don’t really think about.
Anyway, I hope to hear from you again soon, Maddie. I don’t have any messages for you but I think you’ve probably heard from everyone already. So, have a great week!
Your friend,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog

Ralph Larkin and the Mystery of His Missing Sibling

Today’s blog post is about Ralph LARKIN. I’ll be going off the information I have available to me online (and not digging out my records or any additional information online) as well as going off stories from my Dad to create today’s blog post. Ralph LARKIN is my paternal great grandfather. He died on this date in 1963. I wasn’t born for another 6 years so I don’t have any personal stories about him to tell. Any stories I have come from others and from records.
RALPH’S CHILDHOOD
I have tried to stick with Ralph’s childhood but a big part of childhood is siblings and Ralph has a sibling that’s a big mystery so today I’m going to talk a little about the siblings.
Ralph was born in 1898 in Barry County, Missouri to William and Minerva UNDERWOOD LARKIN. By 1900 (just two years later) the family was living in Aurora, Lawrence County, Missouri. Ralph had two siblings that I can name with certainty- Emily and William. (Alice is another child that some researchers assign to Minerva. We’ll talk about Alice in a minute.) In the 1900 census Ralph’s mom was 48 years old and she stated she gave birth to four children and all four were living. There are only 3 children living in the home, though- Emily (who later goes by Emma; 10 years old), William (who later went by Jess or Jesse; 8 years old), and Ralph (2 years old).
Ten years later in the 1910 census, Ralph’s mom says again that she gave birth to four children but in 1910 she says one child is deceased. The children listed in her household in 1910 are Emma, Jesse (spelled ‘Jessie’), and Ralph. I did a search of pre-1910 Missouri deaths at the Missouri archives database for a possible record of the baby that died but couldn’t find anything that seemed to fit with the information above.
Now let me throw another kink in things. Jess died in 1956. His obituary lists the following siblings: Mrs. Emma SPILLERS of Southwest City, Missouri; Mrs. Alice EDENS of Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Ralph LARKIN of Southwest City, Missouri. So, were there actually 5 children total and one died? Did they think Alice was going to die and told the census taker she was dead but then she pulled through? Was there a misunderstanding on either the census taker’s part or the part of the person giving answers to the census taker?
Let’s go ahead and talk about Alice now. Some researchers have Alice listed as Minerva’s sibling (Ralph’s aunt) and some have Alice listed as Minerva’s child (Ralph’s sibling). On the FindAGrave website Alice is listed as belonging to Minerva’s parents. I believe this is incorrect for a couple of reasons including Alice being listed as a granddaughter of Minerva’s mom on the 1880 census and the fact that Minerva’s mom would have been approaching 60 when Alice was born so biology would make it improbable that she gave birth to Alice.
On the records I’ve found for Alice, she had UNDERWOOD as her last name. So was Alice the illegitimate daughter of Minerva or one of Minerva’s sisters? Was she Minerva’s niece that Minerva ended up raising (a daughter of one of Minerva’s brothers)? Minerva’s brother just happened to get married the year Alice was born so maybe something happened to Alice’s mom and Minerva’s brother couldn’t care for the baby? Allow me to tell you what I think. I think we can safely rule out all of the brothers because in the 1880 census Alice’s father’s birthplace is not given but her mother’s is and her mother’s birthplace is North Carolina. If one of Minerva’s brothers had been the dad, the family would have been able to answer the question of Alice’s father’s birthplace so I think we can safely rule out all of the brothers (Ralph’s uncles). Minerva was approximately 19 when Alice was born so I think it’s most likely that Alice is either Minerva’s or one of the sisters’ illegitimate child. Minerva and Mary are the only ones I’m showing as being born in North Carolina so I think we can safely narrow it down to one of those two women. In looking at these two women, I notice that in 1874 (when Alice was born) Mary was married and going by the name BUTLER. So I think we can finally narrow it down to Minerva as being Alice’s mom. That equals four biological children for Minerva so you would think that would solve the problem, but it doesn’t because Minerva said one of her children was deceased by 1910 and yet Jess’s obituary shows there were four siblings and all were still alive in 1956.
I have yet to figure out this mystery. If you get it figured out- please let me know! It’s difficult for me to imagine that Alice and Ralph were ever very close. Alice had her first two children before Ralph was ever born and she had her third child the same year Ralph was born. We’re going to stop right here with Ralph’s childhood and move on but first, I want to show you some photographs of two of Minerva’s children.
This is Ralph:

This is Ralph’s sister, Emma LARKIN SPILLERS:

RALPH’S ADULTHOOD
In 1918, at age 20, Ralph married Bessie WILLIAMS STEELEY.

Ralph and Bess
Bessie had been married already once at the age of 14 to Otis STEELEY and that marriage ended in divorce almost as soon as it began. I think for Ralph, this was his first marriage. Ralph’s mom signed the application for a marriage license and Bess’s mom signed the marriage certificate as a witness to the marriage.
Ralph and Bess had 10 children together that I know of. The stories of their children are interesting but I’ll get to those another day. Ralph worked as a mine laborer and then later as a miner in Miami, Oklahoma. He was also a farmer. He always lived close to his family as far as I can tell.
When my Dad talks about Ralph he often recalls that Ralph was very devout in his faith and was of the Pentecostal faith. Ralph loved to fish and was a hard worker.
food and memories blog post ralph bess larkin fishing.jpg
Ralph and Bess fishing.
Dad says Ralph died when my dad was only 19 so he doesn’t have a lot of memories, but as he recalls it Ralph died of miner’s lung disease from all his years working in the mines. He says Ralph wasn’t a coal miner. My thought on this is that given that Ralph mined in the Miami, Oklahoma area, Ralph would have worked in the zinc or lead mines. Dad said he always thought one contributing factor to Ralph’s death was lead poisoning. Dad says he’s never seen Ralph’s death certificate but basically Ralph suffocated to death. Ralph moved to Arizona on the doctor’s advice in hopes of restoring his health. He didn’t feel like the dry climate helped him so he moved back after a few years. Dad recalls that at the time, it seems the doctors thought Ralph might have asthma.
Ralph was also very strict. Dad says he loved and respected Ralph but always kept his mouth shut around him! Ralph was stern, but not mean. Dad says Bess was somewhat irreverent and opinionated and was a handful for the strict and devout Ralph.
RALPH’S DEATH
Ralph died in January of 1963. Bess, whom my cousin has affectionately called ‘the serial bride’, remarried in August of the same year. She married James R. BRIGGS of Joplin, Missouri. I’m going to end Ralph’s story here since I’ve previously written about Ralph’s official cause of death. His birth date is in April so we’ll be visiting him again in April and hopefully we can flesh out his story a little more then. Until then, click on over to Becky’s blog. She’s posting a photo a day that is genealogy related.
Until tomorrow,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog

Category: Jasper County Missouri