Lawrence County Missouri - Honeysuckle Farm, LLC

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

Happy Anniversary, Lum and Mary

Today’s blog post is about George Columbus BATES and Mary Ann SEELY, my maternal 2nd great grandparents. They were married on this date (13 January) in 1880. If you’d like to review what I’ve already written about George, you can find posts about George’s apple orchard here and I mentioned George in this post, too.

1860-1869

George Columbus BATES was born in December of 1856 in Dalton, Whitfield County, Georgia, to John C. and Mary Jane (MOBLEY) BATES. George went by a shortened form of his middle name- Lum – and that’s how I’ll be referring to him here in this blog post. By 1860 (4 years after Lum’s birth) he was living with his family in Fancy Hill, 1013th Georgia Militia District in Murray County, Georgia. Hiram GARRETT (possibly SARRETT) was the census enumerator that year and he came by the family home on a Wednesday- 1 August 1860. Lum would have still been a few months shy of his 4th birthday at that time but he is enumerated as 4 years old in the census. His father, John, was a farmer. John valued his real estate at $800 and his personal estate at $1000. These amounts were about “middle of the pack” in comparison the other families censused on the same page.
In 1860, Lum’s older brother, Greenberry BATES was living with the family. Green was 18 years old and was a farm laborer. Just a few years later Green would be serving in the Civil War for the Confederacy.
Mary was born on Sunday, 6 June 1858 in Lawrence County, Missouri, to Charles and Synthia (FOSTER) SEELY. In 1860 Mary and her family were living in Mount Pleasant, Mount Pleasant Township, Lawrence County, Missouri. Their census enumerator that year was John W. PAYNE who came to enumerate the family on Saturday, 16 June 1860. Mary was 2 years old at the time. Living in the home were Mary’s parents plus four of her older siblings including Elijah, William, James, and John. In addition to these older siblings, she had an older brother who died as an infant. His name was George. In the years to come, Mary would help welcome two younger siblings- Elzora Josephine and Charles Harvey. Mary was living right next door to her maternal grandparents, Frederick and Mary (BURNETT) FOSTER. Mary’s dad was a farmer. Charles valued his real estate at $400 and his personal estate at $700. These values were toward the lower end of the spectrum in comparison to the families censused on the same page as Charles.

1863: A Difficult Year

In July of 1863, Lum was 6 years old. That year both his dad and his older brother were fighting for the Confederacy in the Civil War. John (his dad) was fighting at Tullahoma, Tennessee when he was taken prisoner and transported to Rock Island. Rock Island was the Yankee version of Andersonville Prison. It wasn’t a place you wanted to go. In July of 1863 John died. I blogged a little about John’s military service and death here and my cousin did a guest blog post for us here.
Lum’s brother, Green, was taken as a prisoner of war at Missionary Ridge in November of 1863. He was initially sent to Rock Island but was transferred to a different military prison a couple of weeks after his capture. Green survived the war. I’m sure it was a pretty rough year for the whole family. If you want to read more about Rock Island and our part in the Civil War you can follow the links above that discuss John’s service. You can view the Missionary Ridge battlefield here. You can view a dramatic skit that explains the Tullahoma Campaign here. I also recommend Wikipedia for a brief, to-the-point overview of any topic.
Other known siblings of Lum’s were an older sister Martha, an older brother Washington who I think died in 1860, and a younger brother Henry Franklin who wasn’t yet born in 1860. In 1868, Lum’s mom got married again. This time she married Paul E. BRINEGAR.
Side note:
The best I could tell, this was the location of John and Mary (MOBLEY) BATES’ homestead in Georgia. They had a nice view of the mountain.

1870-1879

On Tuesday, 26 July 1870, census enumerator Robert M. ROMBERT visited the BATES family. By this time Lum’s dad, John, had died as a prisoner of war at Rock Island prison and Lum’s mom had remarried to Paul E. BRINEGAR. The family consisted of stepdad Paul E. BRINEGAR, mom Mary J. (MOBLEY) BRINEGAR, younger half brother Franklin (later enumerated as ‘Henry’). In 1870, Paul was farming and he valued his real estate at $850 and his personal estate at $200. If I were to judge based on the information given by other respondents on the page, Paul was in the middle of the pack as far as money and possessions owned by the people in his area. Mary Jane was “keeping house” as were the majority of women that I’ve encountered on older census records. Lum was a farm laborer. Franklin was only 2 years old. He was not working or in school.
On Thursday, 23 June 1870 enumerator John H. STROUD visited the SEELY family. Parents Charles and Sinthia were living in Bentonville, Osage Township, Benton County, Arkansas with their children, James, John, Mary, Elzora, and Charles. The elder Charles was a farmer and valued his real estate at $500 and his personal estate at $250. If I were to judge based on the information given by other respondents on the same page, Charles more well off than most of the people around him. Sinthia was keeping house. Despite their ages, the older children (ages 20 and 17) were not working – or at least no occupation was listed by the census enumerator.

1880

Sometime between 26 July 1870 and 28 June 1880, Lum and Mary met each other and fell in love. I wish I had stories to tell you either from records or family stories passed down through the years. Sadly I don’t, so we’ll skip right to the month of the wedding.
On Wednesday, 7 January 1880 it was warmer than usual in Benton County, Arkansas. The weather was described as “too warm for overcoats and fires”. (Arkansas Democrat, 7 Jan 1880) That was the day that the license was issued for George Columbus BATES and Mary Ann SEELY to marry. The wedding didn’t happen until Tuesday, 13 January 1880. By then, it was “decidedly cooler”. (Arkansas Democrat, 14 Jan 1880) Lum (George) was 21 years old according to the marriage license although other official documents have put him at age 24 at the time of his marriage. (My personal belief is 24 years old.) Mary was 20 years old according to the marriage license.
The first record I have that was dated after the wedding is the 1880 Federal Census. On the Monday, 28 June or Tuesday, 29 June 1880, census enumerator John M. CLAYTON arrived at the newly-married couple’s home. They were living in Dickson Township, Benton County, Arkansas. He was listed as being 23 years old and she as being 22. They lived next door to Lum’s now-widowed mother, Mary and Lum’s half brother who is now listed as Henry. Living on the other side of Mary was her older son Berry, now married and with his own large family. Lum was farming and Mary was keeping house.

A Good Stopping Point

If you work on your own family history then you know that most of the 1890 census was destroyed. So, unfortunately it’s hard to know what Lum and Mary did in the 20 years between the 1880 and 1900 censuses. One thing I do know they did was have babies. Starting with Albert (my great-grandfather) in 1881 and continuing with Charles in 1887, Herman in 1891, and Vesta in 1894.
It is at this point that I’m going to stop their story. I’ll finish it during the year in other blog posts about Lum and Mary as I celebrate their births and write about their deaths.
Until then,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog

William Larkin: Farmer, Mine Owner, and Road Paver

Today we’re celebrating William LARKIN’s birthday which is actually on the 13th but as I said in Sunday’s post, writing about three people on one blog post is just too much- for you AND for me. So here I sit (with my cup of coffee flavored with a little caramel syrup) to write another story for you. William is my 2nd great grandfather and the father of Ralph LARKIN about whom I blogged on Monday.
William was born in 1868 in Ohio to Joseph and Mary LANE LARKIN. Theodore Clay LARKIN (the one with the penchant for baseball bats that I wrote about here) was William’s uncle. William’s family moved to Kentucky about 1870 and then on to Arkansas by 1872. Between 1876 and 1880 they moved to McDonald Township, Barry County, Missouri. It was in Barry County, Missouri that William married Minerva Jane UNDERWOOD in 1889. They stayed in Barry County for a decade or so. This is where most (possibly all) of their children were born. After William’s mom passed away in 1899, William and Minerva moved to Aurora, Lawrence County, Missouri. I’m not sure if it’s coincidence, but on the 1900 census (and only on this one) he gave his occupation as mine owner. So did he inherit a mine from his mom or her family? Did he inherit money and that’s how he bought a mine? Did it just happen to all fall into place about the time his mom died? Or, did he hope to get in on the gold that was discovered in Barry County in 1910? So many questions, so few answers. (If you’re interested in the 1910 discovery of gold in Barry County you can read about it here. You’ll have to scroll almost to the bottom of the page or use your search function. Hey Becky, is this your RICH family mentioned in this gold article??)
William and his family stayed in Aurora for the decade between 1900-1910. 1910 is a little confusing where this family is concerned because the census shows they were living in Hulbert, Cherokee County, Oklahoma (near Tahlequah). But later on down in this post you’ll see a city directory entry that shows them living in Tulsa, Tulsa County, Oklahoma. My opinion is that their residence was in Hulbert but during the work week William lived in a tent in Tulsa. You’ll see a newspaper article toward the end of this blog post that will make this theory more clear.
I lost William and Minerva after 1910 and they were “missing” for a very long time until I found a researcher who told me Minerva died about 1917 or 1918 and is buried in a plot in a cemetery in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The plot was meant for someone else but when Minerva died and they needed a place to bury her, they used the plot they had. It is, as far as I know, an unmarked grave. To be clear I can’t verify whether or not Minerva is there. I can’t verify her death date or place either. Oklahoma just came out with a database yesterday to search births and deaths in Oklahoma and I couldn’t find Minerva on there by her name. There was, however, an unidentified female with the last name LARKIN who died in March of 1917 in Cherokee County, Oklahoma so this could possibly be Minerva. I’ll be checking this out soon.

Unnamed Larkin female on OK2Explore. — Unnamed Larkin female on OK2Explore – Oklahoma’s online vital records index.

If you have Oklahoma ancestors you’re researching you can find the database here. (Thanks to Becky for the link! After she linked me, I got the same link from my cousin Denise LARKIN. Thanks to both of you!)
As for William, he disappeared after 1910 and I haven’t been able to find him. Becky did make this discovery just this week that I want to share with you.

1910 Tulsa City Directory entry for William and M. Jane Larkin.

1910 Tulsa City Directory entry.
Based on images I can find online it looks like 121 N Nogales is now an empty lot:

121 N. Nogales, Tulsa, Oklahoma on Google Maps.

(Thanks, Google maps!)
Along with that new information Becky sent a link so I could learn more about the company William worked for- Tulsa Vitrified Brick and Tile Company. You can learn about it too by going to Tulsa Gal’s blog.
I did not know William was ever in Tulsa so this is a new area to research. I checked the new Oklahoma database I linked to above and found one entry for a William Larkin.

William Larkin entry on OK2Explore. — William Larkin entry on OK2Explore – Oklahoma’s online vital records index.

I will definitely be checking this out further and, if it looks promising, I’ll be ordering a certificate. I’m crossing my fingers and hoping that after all these years I have finally found him (and Minerva, too).
Becky found one more little tidbit that I’d like to share with you from Newspapers.com because I believe there is a strong possibility that this article is about our William LARKIN:

16 September 1906 newspaper article in The Morning Tulsa Daily World about William Larkin. Found on Newspapers.com.

16 September 1906, The Morning Tulsa Daily World
Anybody in the Tulsa area feel like taking a trip over to the old fair ground district to take some photos for us??
So there you have it. Our farmer, mine owner, and road paver summed up in one story. The next time you’re driving around in Tulsa, I hope you’ll think about William. You may be driving on a road he once paved.

Until tomorrow,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives

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: Lawrence County Missouri