Do you remember when I wrote about the YOACHUM Silver Dollar legend? You can find that story here if you need to refresh your memory. You can also find a SCHELL/YOACHUM family photo in this post. This weekend I’ve been thinking about and researching that family again and I came across a website I’d really like to share with you. I found a photo of Henry SCHELL’s trading post and water mill on the website. It gives a lot of history about the SCHELL/YOACHUM and related families as well as the surrounding community of Shell Knob, Missouri. You can find the website at https://sites.rootsweb.com/~mobarry/shell/schell.henry.htm. Here’s their business that founded Shell Knob, MO:
Henry SCHELL’s trading post and water mill at Shell Knob, Missouri. Photo comes from https://sites.rootsweb.com/~mobarry/shell/schell.henry.htm.
There are many other family photos at the website. The individuals are not named but are part of the SCHELL family. I hope that some day people can identify the individuals. In addition to the brief story and all the photos on the page above, there is an additional link to a newspaper article about the family that can be found at https://sites.rootsweb.com/~mobarry/data/news/schell-BigSugarCreek.htm. That page also contains this photo:
Photo to be Henry and Elizabeth (YOACHUM) SCHELL’s home and Henry’s burial spot.
I encourage you to go read the websites to learn more about the SCHELL-YOACHUM family and take a look at those photos. Do they resemble any of our BAKER or DRAKE ancestors? I was excited to find all of this information freely available on the internet. Take advantage of it before it’s gone.
This week’s theme is ‘fortune’. I don’t know about you but I love a good buried treasure story! I’ve been waiting a while to tell this story and now is the perfect time! Back in August of 2019 I told you about my DNA adventure with the BAIR/BEAR/BARE family. See this post:
In that post I briefly mentioned Henry and Elizabeth (YOCUM) SCHELL.
Elizabeth (YOCHUM) SCHELL, about 1885. Genetically, we are related to her but I don’t know how. I know that SCHELLs married BEARs, BEARs married BAKERs, and BAKERs married DRAKEs. That’s as close as I can get right now, but DNA (combined with genealogical research) says we are her family. I believe Elizabeth is the daughter of Jacob Levi and Sarah YOACHUM. Jacob Levi is said to have made the dies with which the family minted the YOCUM silver dollar. If you’re thinking Elizabeth is highly identifiable as Native American, you would be correct. Elizabeth’s mother is said to be full-blood Cherokee.
I mentioned that Henry was murdered by bushwhackers and I believe the murder was tied to a hidden treasure called “Yocum’s Silver Dollars”. I didn’t really go into much detail in that post because I didn’t feel I could bring you a good enough story about it at that time. I’ve since done some more research and it fits perfectly with this week’s theme so we’re going to unpack and dig into the legend of Yocum’s Silver Dollars!
The First Non-Indian Residents in Stone County, Missouri
There are so many YOCUM family stories online that it took me two days to locate and read through the stories about JUST the Stone and Taney County, Missouri YOCUMs. I’m still finding stories so I know I haven’t gotten them all. The abundance of information about this family is almost overwhelming. At the bottom of this post I will link to a crude bibliography I created so you know what information I looked at to get this post written. One of the links I found identified James YOACHUM as being the first non-Indian resident to live in Stone County, Missouri.
Some say the YOCUM family (then spelled YOACHUM) was in northern Arkansas and southern Missouri as far back as the 1790’s. I can neither confirm nor deny this information. I can say with some degree of confidence that James YOACHUM/YOCUM left Illinois shortly after the death of his first wife and moved to Taney County, Missouri by at least the very early 1800’s, some say after the War of 1812. He left his son with his brother Solomon (who went by Sol). In the spring, James would return to Illinois to see his son, Jacob, and then return home in the summer with provisions. By 1815, James had convinced Sol and Jacob to move to Missouri with him. Around 1818, the US Government signed the St. Mary’s Treaty with the Delaware Tribe which ordered the tribe to move to land west of the Mississippi. Two governors got together and declared the area around Taney County, Missouri to be Delaware Indian Reservation land so that’s where the tribe settled. This was the same land/same area that James YOACHUM lived on and farmed. James eventually married a Delaware Indian woman named Winonah. In 1825, the government’s Indian Sub-agent, John Campbell, got the YOCUMs evicted off the Delaware Reservation land by writing a letter to his superior stating that James YOCUM and other “outlaws” were distilling liquor and selling it to the Indians. Specifically, he had this to say about our YOCUM family:
“Solomon Yoachum has erected a distillery… and has made a quantity of peach brandy and has been selling it for some time in quantities to the Indians. There is a number of those outlaw characters all below him who are selling whiskey constantly to the Indians.”
The previous year, John Campbell- the Federal Indian sub-agent who had sole jurisdiction over the Delaware Indian Reservation land, had complained about “relations between whites and Indians” and said,
“I think it bad policy to permit traders to cultivate so much of the Indian soil and to keep such large stocks of horses and cattle in the neighborhood of the villages and they pay the Indians no rent and sell their corn at an extravagant price to them… Some of the traders are now clearing more land, those who have Indian families of children I think ought to be allowed to cultivate soil sufficient to support their children but nothing more.”
It was, however, seemingly acceptable to Sub-agent Campbell that the likes of John Jacob ASTOR had a monopoly on trade in the area via a trading post that “extended credit” to the Delaware people. ASTOR maintained quite the lucrative venture from 1823-1827. The YOACHUMs weren’t going to win this particular battle against the government. They were evicted from their land by the government and they moved just southwest of the reservation to the mouth of the Kings River where it empties into the White River.
The Silver Mine Enters the Story
The Delaware were later moved off this land to a different location and sometime before the Delaware Tribe left, James traded horse, blankets, and soap to the Delaware in exchange for a silver mine (or cave, depending on who is telling the story). Eventually, James was joined by both his brothers as well as his son. The three brothers built the first cabin across the valley from the mine entrance so they could guard it. Later they built James’ cabin directly in front of the mine entrance and made a secret mine entrance so they could access the mine from inside their home.
In the early 1800’s money, especially silver, was scarce. This is where the story diverges. Some say it was because of the scarcity of silver that YOACHUMs decided to make their own from the ore in the mine. Others tell a different story about how the YOACHUMs came into possession of the silver. In either case, it wasn’t illegal at that time to coin your own money and many did it. (Minting your own coins wasn’t illegal until 1862 when Congress got involved and started passing laws.) There are so many versions of the story and they all start to diverge right about this point in the story. Some people believe James’ son, Jacob Levi YOACHUM, was responsible for making the dies with which they struck the coins. Some believe the coins don’t exist at all. Several of the YOACHUMs were expert blacksmiths so it’s very possible that one or some or all of them did create some dies and use the dies to mint some silver coins.
Again, the country as a whole was very short on physical money in the early 1800’s. The government had forced the limiting of the production of coins. President Jefferson had imposed a moratorium on production in 1806 and maintained that limitation until 1837. There was a great deal of private coinage in circulation during this time. Privately minted coins in circulation at the time bore the name of the creator of the coin and was generally accepted as money. There were no banks in Missouri at that time – not until 1837 would there be a bank in Missouri. Bartering was a normal way of life and if you minted your own coins, provided they met a certain standard, they were a very welcome way of paying for goods. YOCUM dollars were used by everyone in the area. No one objected to the YOCUM dollars until one day a group of 6 men went to Springfield, Missouri to the land office there because they’d been told that even though they’d been living on their land a long time, now they had to go pay a filing fee to the government land office and homestead their land if they wanted to keep it. So they arrived in Springfield with their Yocum dollars to pay up. When they presented their YOCUM dollars, the land agent objected to them and said they were counterfeit. The settlers refused to leave without title to their land. The land agent confiscated the coins and sent one to Washington, D.C. for assay and a judgment on the legitimacy of the coins. The coins assayed at almost pure silver – worth more than the federal silver dollars. The government ordered the confiscation of all Yocum Silver Dollars, ordered agents to locate the silver mine/cave then confiscate it and not homestead that land to anyone.
Sticking It to the Man…Twice
Some time after that, James and Winonah YOCUM were said to have been killed when the silver mine caved in while they were inside it. This was about 1846-1848. Around this time, a federal agent showed up looking for the YOCUMs’ silver dollars, the mine, and the minting equipment. He didn’t find any of it. The YOCUMs refused to tell him the location of any of it. If anyone else knew the location, they didn’t give it up either. YOCUMs advised the agent to leave the country and never come back. The agent left. However, 8 years later the same government agent showed up again with 8 more agents. The agents and the YOCUMs did eventually arrive at an agreement that the YOCUMs would not mint any more coins and the government agent would go away and never come back. This was, apparently, the only concession made by the YOCUMs. (Way to stick it to the man, Sol!) After the death of James and Winonah, Sol packed up his family and left for California to see if they could strike it rich in the California Gold Rush. The silver mine/cave has never been located. Sol was the last surviving YOCUM who knew the location of the silver mine or any remaining hidden caches of YOCUM silver dollars. After having a stroke, Sol gave his grandson William a map with the location of the silver mine on it but the grandson was never able to find the mine. William’s son, Joseph, took up the search in 1958 but was also unsuccessful. Joseph gave the map to Artie AYRES who owned the land where the cave/mine was supposedly located. Artie never found the mine/cave either. Artie did, however, write a book which is now so rare it sells for $100 if you can manage to find a copy to buy. Eventually the White River was dammed and Table Rock Lake was created which covered up the alleged location of the mine and the alleged location of hidden caches of YOCUM silver dollars (along with the hidden dies used to mint the coins).
Adapt and Overcome
That’s the basic story of the Yocum Silver Dollar that I believe to be truthful. There are a lot of background details and side stories that are missing though so I want to fill in a few holes in the story. For instance if you believe the government and their experts, there are no known silver mines in either Stone or Taney County, Missouri that actually produce silver and professional geologists have said there will never be a producing silver mine in this area due to the geography of the land. They say it isn’t possible. I’m not an expert so I can’t say one way or the other. I can only ask myself if anyone offering a story has a reason to mislead and then base the “believability” of a statement on the conclusion I come to. (I can say that as recently as this week, I’ve found the government and one of their agencies being less than truthful about the existence of something. So there’s that.) I will say, some stories mention a silver mine or silver cave that had solid silver walls. I excluded that detail because I don’t believe it to be true. All of this to say, you’re getting the details *I* believe to be true. You’ll have to make up your own mind for yourself.
I did find someone on a message forum who said they were family of the YOACHUMs. This person told the most believable story of all and said they got it straight from other members of the family. It makes the most sense to me of all the stories I’ve read so far. This person says the truth is there was no silver mine. That story was created and perpetuated to throw off the government and to explain how the (very impoverished) YOACHUM family came into so much silver when it was so hard to come by. The truth is they distilled whiskey and brandy and sold it to the Indians which was an illegal act at the time. The Indians received payments from the federal government because of the treaties and the government paid the Indians with…you guessed it, silver dollars. So when the Indians got their government money, the YOACHUMs (being the wise entrepreneurs they were) brought out the peach brandy and whiskey. The Native Americans paid for the alcohol with the government silver. Now, the government silver would have proved the YOACHUMs to be criminals so they melted down the silver, re-minted it with their brand, and then were able to use it. Yes, the YOACHUMs laundered money…in a 19th century kind of way. They illegally sold homemade liquor and then laundered the silver coins they received in exchange for goods. They likely laundered money in this same way for other illegal distillers in the area as well. They did what they had to do to survive. There was a severe economic downturn in 1837. They adapted and overcame.
If you’re still doubting the YOCUM silver dollars ever actually existed, perhaps it will sway you to know that at some point there was a witness who said they visited YOCUM’s blacksmith shop and reported seeing a barrel full of YOCUM silver dollars. Again, you have to make up your own mind based on the information you find and the bias of the people offering the information.
Missouri…The Show-Me State
Perhaps, like me, you’re wondering what the YOCUM silver dollars looked like. There are a multitude of descriptions. I’ll give them all to you and you can decide which you find most likely to be credible.
Description #1: “Same size as a Spanish Silver Dollar coin”. (per yoakumrendezvous.pdf)
Description #4: Each was roughly 2 inches in diameter and embossed with the YOCUM name.
Description #5: There is outlined a number ‘1’ in the center with ‘DOLLAR’ curved below the ‘1’. Also there are some very small letters at the bottom which are illegible. It looks like there are about 4 numbers or letters that are illegible.
Description #5: The coins had hand punched denticals on both sides resembling a half circle pattern of connecting shapes that go completely around the outer circumference on both sides. The dies were primitive and crudely lettered. The die rod ends opposite the devices show expansion from being hammered on. Obverse has ‘YOACHUM’ punched halfway curved around the top while the curved date of 1822 is at the bottom. There is a single central star in the middle of the coin with 8 stars going around the central star. Two other stars are located on either side and connect ‘YOACHUM’ with the ‘1822’ date. The lettering is crude, resembling a chisel impression and not that of a lettered punch. Reverse has ‘UNITED STATES OF AMERICA’ going around and having smaller lettering than the obverse. (Yoachum Dollar (or Yocum) information desparately saught. — Collectors Universe)
There was one coin found in an old trunk in Kansas and it was reported to have been displayed at Missouri State Archives several years prior to 2017, according to Bob DERRYBERRY, the great-great-grandson of George YOCUM. Four coins were found under the floor of an old cabin that was being razed in 1923. There was allegedly 236 coins found in a metal box in South Branson, Missouri by a St. Louis, Missouri man. These 236 coins match up with Description #4 above.
J. R. BLUNK of Galena, Missouri, found YOCUM dies on 11 March 1983 while digging along the White River on property adjacent to the YOACHUM Settlement. The dies were buried and were preserved in a waxy substance that resembled animal fat. (More about this below.)
Final Details
Although most stories credit James YOACHUM with being the first YOCUM in the Stone and Taney County, Missouri areas and they say he owned the silver mine, the family story that I found most reliable says George W. YOCUM (nephew of James) was the one who minted all the YOCUM silver dollars, not James and his son Jacob. The family says George and his wife came to Missouri from Ohio in the 1820’s. Many YOCUMs came to the area from Illinois and Ohio and all settled along the White River. Later, some moved north to the James River west of Branson, Missouri. I cannot tell you which version is correct on this particular detail.
A side note, the James River in southern Missouri is said to have been named after James YOACHUM. As of today, I still have not found a Taney County, Missouri map of the right time period with James River on it but I did find this 1830 map showing where the Delaware tribal reservation land was.
A more interesting side note: on Underground Ozarks forums there’s a post which ties together a lot of Branson area locales. For instance, I had no idea (and never really thought about it) that Silver Dollar City took it’s name from the YOCUM silver dollar legend. In the 1980’s when Branson was still a small-town attraction, there was a small outdoor amphitheater called Lost Silver Mine Theater that told the story of the YOACHUM family and the lost silver mine. If you’re looking for a podcast to listen to, I recommend Episode 4 of Ozarks Haints and Hooch where one of the hosts discusses her time as an actress at the Lost Silver Mine theater in Branson West (which was then called Lakeview and not Branson West). Dogpatch and Li’l Abner both based their main characters off the YOACHUM family as well. In addition to all this, there used to be a Camp Yocum in the Galena, Stone County, Missouri area. It was a summer resort on the James River during the 1920’s.
As of 2009, YOCUM descendants still lived around the Shell Knob, Missouri area.
On the Above Top Secret forums, someone who once saw the maps that Sol passed down to William (the maps that ended up with Artie AYRES) suggests the silver mine/cave is actually in the Reeds Spring, Missouri or Galena, Missouri area rather than in the Branson, Missouri area. Oddly enough, this fits in with other details I’ve read that were more obscure. Even odder, this is where my 3rd great grandfather, Jehue BAKER, lived and is buried. Jehue’s mother was Mary BAIR/BEAR and is our connection to the YOCUM/YOACHAM and SCHELL/SHELL families.
For those of you interested in the Native American heritage, it is said that YOCUMs have Osage, Cherokee, and Delaware blood.
Final Thoughts
There is so much more I’d love to know about this family. I wouldn’t mind trying a sip of that peach brandy either. Unfortunately, I’ll have to settle for reading my copy of a magazine I just scored off eBay this past week – the November/December 1988 issue of Treasure Search magazine which carried the article about the “Yoachum Dies” being found. Sometimes you have to take what you can get.
I could not believe I found this on eBay at exactly the time I chose to write this story!! #Serendipity #TheAncestorsLoveMePics on first page of the magazine story.In case you wondered what Mr. Blunk looked like in 1988…reminds me of the BeeGees. Restrikes from the found dies. I love that they did this. There used to be a coin minting company that did reproductions of these but they no longer do it and said they probably won’t do it again.
This week I hope you don’t have to settle for just “what you can get”. I wish you the best of the best and no being forced to settle. Make it a great week, friends. And if you do have to settle – just know that your turn for something perfect is coming. Make the best of it no matter what you get this week. Your attitude is the only thing you get to control.
A few days ago I wrote a post about my 4th great grandparents, Jesse and Mary (BEAR) BAKER. In the post I discussed where all the children went after they were orphaned. I’ve continued researching since I wrote that post and have discovered more information about that. I’ve discovered that the oldest sister Nancy (BEAR) LITTRELL, who was married when her mom (her last living parent, Margaret Jane) passed away, took in her youngest sister Ellen Adaline BEAR. Siblings Sarah and Hugh moved in with the James and Isabel FRAYSER/FRAZIER family. Sarah was listed as their “hired hand” on the 1860 census. It turns out Isabel FRAYSER was Margaret Jane McCUISTION’s sister- Sarah and Hugh’s maternal aunt. I still haven’t found Hill or Thomas yet. You’ll recall that Eliza Jane was a live-in domestic servant for the Isaac and Jane (HINDS) ANDERSON family. I have not yet found any connection between the HINDS-ANDERSON family and the BEAR family other than location so perhaps they were trusted family friends or neighbors. However, I also don’t know the majority of their father Hugh F. BEAR’s family.
Now that I’ve updated a little bit, I also chose this family to write about for this week’s 52 Ancestors theme: Namesake. This family has been difficult to research in part because they had a tradition of re-using family names. Generations of the family will have many with the same names. Let me give you a couple of examples. I used Eliza Jane BEAR SCHELL as my “homebase” person since I’m most familiar with her family and I know for sure that we connect with her. Jane is a common BEAR family name. Eliza went by Jane and so did her mother even though Jane was a middle name for both of them. Eliza also had an aunt (her mom’s sister) who was named Jane M. In addition to Eliza, her mother and her aunt, Eliza Jane had a niece named Rebecca Jane, two first cousins named Margaret Jane (Eliza’s mother’s exact name!), three first cousins named Mary Jane, and first cousins named Elizabeth Jane, Darlutha Jane, and Patsy Jane. Eliza Jane also had a first cousin name…Eliza Jane Isabel! Thankfully some of the ‘Margaret Jane’, ‘Mary Jane’ and ‘Eliza Jane’ women had different last names. In addition to all of this, some BEAR family researchers believe Eliza Jane’s sister Sarah also had the middle name Jane! The earliest Jane I can find in the family at the moment (keeping in mind I have no information about Eliza Jane’s paternal family) is Eliza Jane’s maternal great grandmother Catherine Jane TENNANT (for whom several females in the family are named) so it’s likely this is where the ‘Jane’ name originated.
This naming tradition holds true for the men in the family as well. Eliza Jane’s maternal great grandfather was James McCUISTION. He was married to Catherine Jane TENNANT. Like Catherine, he had quite a few namesakes in the family. Eliza Jane had a nephew named James T., a nephew named James Hill (Hill was a name repeated frequently in this family), a nephew named James Isaac who went by Ike, uncles named James Conway (Conway being another frequently repeated name in the family) and Thomas James P. (Thomas is another repeated name in the family), and first cousins named James Holland, James O., James Marion, James Rankin (Rankin being a family surname and also often repeated among both the males and females of the family), James L., James Stanley, James Lafayette, James J. who went by Jethro or Jim, and James Berry. It seems like every child and grandchild he had must have named at least one son James!
James McQUISTION’s (Eliza’s maternal great grandfather) birthdate. Found on Ancestry.com; From the book The McQuiston, McCuiston and McQuesten families 1620-1937, complied by Leona Bean McQuiston…Louisville, KY., The Standard press, 1937; submitted to Ancestry by ‘jojoyful1’.
I have so many more examples of namesakes in this family but names without stories is no fun. So I’m going to leave you with this small update and just an inkling of how complicated it can be to research this family because of the namesake situation. I’m continuing to do in-depth research on the family trying to find our BEAR/BARE connection. The phrase “so close, yet so far” certainly sums up the research situation.
I woke up early this morning to discover that the overnight storms had knocked out the power. I have no internet to continue researching today’s blog post either so I decided to use the remaining power in my computer to go ahead and type out the blog post and also to charge my phone which was almost dead by the time I got up this morning. I can’t afford to be without an alarm clock/flashlight/contact with the outside world! So, even though my current research isn’t finished, I’m giving you an update as to where it stands right now.
Several years ago I took a DNA test and was fortunate enough to get my parents, daughter, one sibling, and a great uncle to test as well. Later, a second cousin and his daughter also tested. It was fun to see origins details and I’ve blogged about that here and here. In the 3 years following the receipt of my results, I haven’t gotten very far in advancing my family history. I have tons of matches and for a few of those with family trees online, I can see how we were related. For those without trees, I made efforts to contact some of them. Sometimes people responded and sometimes they didn’t. Sometimes their response was that they didn’t know their family history. Overall, I’ve made disappointingly little progress in the 3 years following my DNA results. This frustrates me. My goal was to further my genealogy. Why spend the money if it didn’t further my genealogy?
About 3 weeks ago I decided either the DNA could help my genealogy or it couldn’t and I was going to find out. I formulated a theory that perhaps I could match a particular chromosome to a particular surname and if I could do that then maybe I could tell which line of the family I needed to be looking into for those DNA matches who matched on a certain chromosome but didn’t have family trees online.
I began with a male match to my dad’s line. The guy descended from the second wife of my ancestor and my dad and I descend from the first wife so I thought perhaps it might be easier to find a specific chromosome for the male ancestor’s line and without worrying about genetic interference from the female’s line. I spent some time working on that angle and moved on to other surnames as well. It was more confusing than fruitful. My document looked like this for 2 pages of surnames:
Matching chromosomes to surnames.
I spent 2 weeks working sporadically on that project and I was about to give up when I listened to a podcast about an adoptee who didn’t know a single person or even a name of his biological family. He sent in his DNA and was able to find his parents, siblings, and extended family. I told myself I have thousands of names and this guy had none yet he got somewhere with DNA and if he could, then surely I could too! I formulated a new plan and set to work. I can’t say I’ve gotten where I wanted to be, but I made some exciting advances that I’d like to share with you.
My first tactic was to change course. I decided to start with the stronger/closer DNA matches. I chose a woman named Joyce. As it turned out, I had tried to contact this person a few months back (long before I started this project I’m writing about today) to ask about her family tree and see if I could figure out how we were related. She had no family tree on Family Tree DNA. Her Ancestry tree had less than 5 people on it and none of the surnames matched my family. Her husband messaged me back. He said Joyce had passed away recently and he didn’t know anything about her family tree. She was an only child and all of her family was deceased and he was sorry but he couldn’t help me. I sent my condolences for his loss. I attempted to find more information online but was unsuccessful and set it aside at that time. Based on her Ancestry tree, I could see that the line she was focused on at her death was a Schell family. This Schell family came from a location where my family had lived in recent history (my grandparents lived in that area until their deaths) and it was a place I was very familiar with. On top of that, they’d lived for a while on Sugar Creek which I recently visited and blogged about here! However, I could find no connection to my family. I narrowed down my thousands of matches to only those who also matched Joyce in some way. Based on the shared matches, I could tell that somehow she connected to me through my paternal Baker family (the same family as the guy above who descended through the second wife instead of the first).
I reset the search and focused on just Joyce. We were matched at a 2nd -4th cousin level which meant we shared a great, 2nd great, or 3rd great grandparent (or possibly a 4th great grandparent depending on DNA recombination). I didn’t want to consider half-cousin levels as I was already feeling overwhelmed so I stuck with the above. I found all other matches who shared the Schell surname with Joyce. I was able to figure out her tree that way. I wrote down as many of her great, 2nd great, and 3rd great grandparents as I could find (which was most of them, thankfully). I then made a list of all my great, 2nd and 3rd great grandparents. Out of all those names (and there were a lot!) I could only find a single surname that I recognized which simplified the process greatly. And, as luck would have it, it was a surname that I have struggled with for 30 years – to the point that I wasn’t even sure if I had the correct surname. So already I was very excited about the process. The surname is Bear/Bare/Bair (depending on who was doing the spelling). Several decades ago when I first began researching my family history, my grandmother told me that my 3rd great grandfather Jehue Baker’s parents were Bets and Mary (Bair) Baker. I have yet to prove that or to definitively prove who exactly “Bets” Baker was. There is a Baker who marred a Mary Betts but the details don’t fit. There is a Jesse Baker who married a woman named Mary (who sometimes went by Polly) and they are the only couple I’ve found in the right area and timeframe who have a son named Jehue so I’ve listed them as his parents because I’ve found no other viable possibilities at this point. But now, I had this exciting new DNA lead that matched me to a BEAR/BARE/BAIR family!
Joyce’s ancestor, Philip Schell, married a woman named Eliza Jane BEAR. Her parents were Henry and Margaret Jane McChristian Bare. I have searched this family ten ways from Sunday and still can’t find how they connect to my family but DNA doesn’t lie and I’m still looking. I was able to connect with a DNA relative of Joyce’s, Gayle Foster, who knows the Schell/Bare family history and I’ve been corresponding with her trying to figure all this out. For now, I’m forced to be content with the fact that finally, after 30 years, I have learned we do indeed belong to a Bear/Bare/Bair family. This information is one of the few remaining things my Mam told me that I haven’t been able to back up so I was very excited to not only have confirmation of one more thing she told me but also to find the very elusive Bear family at last. I did make a couple of interesting revelations while trying to figure out the family connection though. Let me tell you about those. As I’ve said in a previous post, at my funeral I want the song I’ll Fly Away to be played. Interestingly enough, that song was written by Albert Brumley who married into the Schell family AND who lived in the area my grandparents lived – McDonald County, Missouri. I went to church every Wednesday and Sunday of my childhood at a little country church that borders McDonald County called Poynor Baptist Church. So many memories!
An Easter Sunday at Poynor Baptist with some of my cousins. I would have been about 7 o 8 in this photo. I miss those Easter sunrise services. Back row: Rick Drake holding my youngest brother Jared Drake, Robert Drake, Chris Bennett, me, Mechelle Drake. Front row: Bradley Drake, Allen Drake, my other brother Cortney Drake, and Gina Drake.
It always amazes me how connected everything is in this world. The Schell family was one of the pioneer families of McDonald County, Missouri. Schell’s were connected to Nichols. Nichols brothers were the owners of the grocery store in Southwest City, Missouri for many years- they were a prominent family in that area. Nichols also connect to my family. Additionally, one of the Schell sisters, Nancy, married James Littrell. One of my ancestors also married into the Littrell family. There are so many connections between the Schell’s and my family that I’m stunned as to how I have still not solved the mystery of exactly which two people connect my Bear/Bare/Bair family to the Schell family.
Shell Knob, Missouri, was named after this family. Henry Schell, the original Schell family member to come to McDonald County, was murdered by bushwhackers. I also learned that there’s a legend about the Yocum silver dollars which I believe is related to Henry’s murder. Henry was married to Elizabeth Yocum. By the way, I just learned that Gayle Foster (with whom I’ve been corresponding to figure out this family mystery) wrote a book about the Schell family. You can purchase it on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Schell-Family-Descendants-Ancestors-Elizabeth/dp/1502745100.
If you have any suggestions about how I might speed up the discovery of who, specifically, I’m related to in the Bear family, please let me know. It’s been a struggle to get this far and I don’t have another 30 years left to let it sit. Perhaps in the end, it will be up to the next generation researchers to figure it out but I’d love to do it myself if I can or at least see someone else solve it before I leave this Earth.
I know I gave you very little new information in this post but I hope it’s been interesting for you to see how I got to where I am right now. By way of apology for the lack of content, I’ll leave you with a photograph I found online.
Philip and Eliza Jane (Schell) Bear family. Seated on the far left is Elizabeth Yocum Schell. Next to her is Philip Schell and the woman sitting to the right of Philip is Eliza Jane Bear Schell. Photo was shared by Jim Barnett on Ancestry.
By the way, if you like podcasts and you’d like to listen to the podcast I mentioned above, you can go to Ohio Mysteries‘ website to download/listen to the episode. It’s an interesting story. I’ve enjoyed binge-listening to the Ohio Mysteries podcasts. The beginning ones are not the best as far as sound quality (as is common in podcasting). I’d recommend starting with the most current episodes and working backward.
Wishing you all the Yocum’s legendary buried treasure,
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
This blog post is about my paternal great grandfather, Ralph LARKIN. If you’d like to read past blog posts about him to refresh your memory before moving on, you can find information about him in these blog posts: Week 4- Weekend Wrap-Up (has a couple of newspaper articles) Weekend Wrap-Up for Week 2 (includes a document) Ralph Larkin and the Mystery of His Missing Sibling (includes photographs of Ralph and Bessie) Savory Saturday- The Kitchen is the Heart of the Home (includes a section about Bessie and Ralph plus a photograph) Medical Monday- Know Your Health History! (includes a document) Black Blizzards- The Second Dust Bowl, Abilene, Texas, 1954-1957 (includes photographs) Close to Home, Close to the Heart- Part 2
This past week I traveled down to Texas to spend some time. Bart and I enjoyed the beach in Galveston and I researched in a couple of different places. If you are ever in the Houston, Texas area I highly recommend the Clayton Library Center for Genealogical Research at 5300 Caroline Street. I barely scratched the surface of all they have there. I didn’t come away with anything I feel like I can share here on the blog yet but it was worth the trip. I had hoped to make it to the Sterling Municipal Library in Baytown, Texas but didn’t quite get there. On Thursday and Friday, in addition to visiting family, I got to go to the National Archives in Fort Worth, Texas. I had called ahead and let them know what I wanted to look at and to make an appointment so they were ready for me when I got there. I definitely recommend doing that if you get to go to the Archives. It will make your trip go much more smoothly. When you get there, you can expect to spend a few minutes getting a researcher card. You’ll have to provide state or federal photo identification and go through a short tutorial before getting your card and being allowed to research so plan your trip accordingly. Also, their last document pull is at 2:00 p.m. Anything you request after that time will have to wait for the following day. You should call ahead to confirm they will be open. While I was there they were talking about a potential shutdown as of midnight tonight due to the federal government not being able (or willing??) to finalize a budget for this country. So those types of things do affect the National Archives and you need to be aware of that. One last thing to be aware of- they do have restricted documents. Most times these documents will be removed before you get to see the files. From what I understand though, sometimes the documents are simply placed in an envelope and marked restricted but left inside the file and you are not allowed to photograph those documents. If the envelope is sealed you cannot unseal it to take a look.
Researching in the National Archives requires a different strategy than researching in a genealogical library. In the National Archives, you’re looking for records created by a government agency so you have to think in terms of how your family interacted with that agency. It takes a bit to become accustomed to the different way of thinking but it’s worth it. In this case, I went in knowing that I was looking for records created by the Bureau of Mines. Both mine and Bart’s families, as well as our daughter-in-law’s family, had miners who worked in the tri-state mining district of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Missouri. Specifically, I had seen photo identification/health records that another researcher had obtained and I believed these records were held by the National Archives. The Bureau of Mines operated a health clinic in Picher, Ottawa County, Oklahoma. The clinic had two sides. The side where they did examinations of miners for employment in the mines and for other issues (especially Tuberculosis and mining-related lung diseases) called the Picher Clinic as well as a second side of the clinic that treated venereal diseases. Apparently in the heyday of mining, Picher had a massive outbreak of syphilis and gonorrhea and the government felt it needed to bring the situation under control so they set up both a health clinic and a sexually transmitted disease (STD) clinic. The STD clinic was called the Picher Cooperative Clinic. It was called this because it was a cooperative effort between the Tri-State Zinc and Lead Ore Producers Association, the U. S. Public Health Service (office of the Surgeon General), and the U. S. Bureau of Mines, along with the help of various medical researchers. So, you’ve got medical researchers, the U. S. government, and an association that was led and governed by mine owners. What could go wrong?? Seriously though, they did a lot of good but they were also doing some experimental work on the miners. Having said that, we didn’t get where we are today in the medical field without experimental drug trials and studies, etc. Overall, I think there was a lot of good done by the Clinic and the head doctor, Frank V. MERIWETHER, whose official title was Acting Assistant Surgeon and who was appointed by the then-U. S. Surgeon General, Hugh S. CUMMING. Both Dr. MERIWETHER and Surgeon General Hugh CUMMING served under President Woodrow WILSON.
It really was so interesting to read all the letters and reports and studies talking about the work that Dr. MERIWETHER did. (I’ll admit I reminisced a little about my time as a paralegal at Hawley, Troxell, Ennis & Hawley law firm in Boise, Idaho where I worked on Superfund cases with reports similar to these.) Dr. MERIWETHER was constantly conducting medical research studies and trials on various health issues, traveling around the country to conferences, observing other doctors and allowing other doctors to come in and observe his work. He was even involved in a First Aid and Mine Rescue Contest. He was one of the lead researchers on Psuedo-Military Tuberculosis which you can read about on Wikipedia. The exact photo that’s on Wikipedia is in his files at the National Archives. I held it in my hands just yesterday! He led an interesting life. But I’m not here to talk about Dr. MERIWETHER today. I’m here to tell you what I found about my family!
It was more than 3/4 of the way through the second day and I was a little discouraged. Then I opened up a hand-tabulated chart for one of the studies that Dr. MERIWETHER was working on and there it was- ‘LARKIN, RALPH’!! I was so glad to find something!
(I apologize for the photos. When I pulled out my camera to take pictures it wasn’t working so I had to resort to cell phone photos. Also, names of other persons have been marked over in case any of them are still living.) There is no title to this chart nor any letter that I could find to explain it’s existence. So, going off the general work that Dr. MERIWETHER did and including the column titles on this chart, it looks like my great grandfather (Ralph LARKIN) went to see Dr. MERIWETHER about his teeth. Or at least, on the day Ralph went that’s what Dr. MERIWETHER was concerned about. The chart tracks the following information for the patients listed: Name, Occupation (at the mines), Eye health, Ear health, whether the miner had artificial teeth, whether the teeth were dirty, whether the miner had pyorrhea (another term for periodontitis, or an inflammation of the tissue around the teeth – Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary, 25th Edition), whether the miner had any teeth missing, whether the miner needed or wanted his teeth clean (I’m guessing on this one based on the fact that he already covered whether the teeth were clean and this column basically is yes or blank; the actual column title is ‘Clean’), whether the miner’s teeth are decayed, and a column each for Silicosis and Tuberculosis diagnoses both of which were a major reason for the Picher Clinic in the first place (and both were major areas of clinical research performed by Dr. MERIWETHER). Silicosis (also called Pneumoconiosis or Miner’s Lung or Black Lung Disease for coal miners) is a lung fibrosis caused by the inhalation of dust from stone, sand, or flint which contains silicon dioxide. (Dorland’s Illustrated Medical Dictionary, 25th Edition). The study of silicosis was a major, and apparently career-long, undertaking of Dr. MERIWETHER so I would not be surprised at all if the whole reason for checking patients’ teeth was because he had learned or suspected that silicosis caused certain dental conditions.
Miners with silicosis would eventually develop a cough that would progress into difficulty breathing and sometimes sharp chest pain when breathing. It could cause death if contact was continual and long term and the condition wasn’t treated. The disease would present very much like Bronchitis and when the doctor listened to your lungs he would hear them wheezing and crackling when you breathed. Miners with silicosis had an increased risk of other problems such as Tuberculosis, lung cancer, and chronic bronchitis. (Lung.org) Chronic silicosis might eventually lead to your legs swelling, an increased breathing rate, and a bluish discoloration of your lips. Chronic silicosis created an angel wing pattern on x-rays that was called “Angel of Death”. The disease ultimately led to respiratory failure and death if left untreated and/or with continued, prolonged exposure. Remember, in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s there was no OSHA to force your employer to provide you with health protections like breathing masks. They were also still trying to make advances on controlling and healing Tuberculosis and other diseases. (Also, just a little side note that surprised me: I say “him” when referring to miners but there were female miners as well. I was surprised by this. When you see photographs it’s always men but I did see at least one woman identified as a miner in Dr. MERIWETHER’s records.)
Photo is an example of the wing formation called “Angel of Death” that is caused by silicosis. Photo was found at Learning Radiology.
But, back to Ralph LARKIN. Ralph’s exam gave the following information about his health. He was a machinist. Ralph’s eyes and ears were “ok”. Ralph didn’t have any artificial teeth. His teeth were dirty (as were the majority of miners’ teeth according to this chart). He had pyorrhea. According to how I’m interpreting the chart, he was missing one upper tooth and 3 lower teeth. His teeth were not marked to be cleaned. There is no notation why they weren’t cleaned. He had several decayed teeth including 2 upper and 2 lower teeth. He had Late Stage 1 Silicosis. He was Class C for Tuberculosis. I’m not sure what Class C means. In regard to the silicosis diagnosis though, this is what I learned. Silicosis.com is a lawyer’s website for both Silicosis and Mesothelioma. Even though this is a legal and not medical website and their goal is to make money, it really put it into perspective for me when a site coupled Silicosis with Mesothelioma. I hadn’t realized that Silicosis was in the same class of disease as Mesothelioma. Although I haven’t been able to find stages of Silicosis, the Silicosis/Mesothelioma site did list stages of Mesothelioma and that website makes it seem as though the two diseases are extremely similar- enough so to be able to compare stages of the two diseases. Stage 1 of Mesothelioma means the disease is still “localized” or confined to the area of origin. Ralph was late stage 1. I’m guessing it was still localized to one small area of his lungs but he was on the verge of the first advanced stage of the disease. He would have experienced shortness of breath with physical activity. Possibly a fever and possibly some chest pain when breathing. Ralph had to have already had large amounts of silica dust in his lungs just for the disease to even be detectable. If Ralph smoked, the effects of the disease would have been worse. My dad always told me that Ralph had a lung disease. I really didn’t realize the extent of the lung disease until I found him on this chart this week and started researching silicosis.
The work that Dr. MERIWETHER did was so important to miners. He not only was expert enough to be appointed by the U. S. Surgeon General to a clinic specializing in diagnosing and treating miners, he was educating his peers all across the country and doing specialized trips to other mines across the country to help diagnose other miners. Even so, it wasn’t until the 1960’s that miners started demanding protections for their health. In 1973 (some 55 or so years after Ralph was diagnosed and 10 years after his death), coal miners received their protections via the Black Lung Benefits Act of 1973. Those who mined something other than coal were apparently not covered under these protections. (Black Lung Benefits Act of 1973)
Here are a few short YouTube videos on the subject.
If you’d like to learn more, I’ve read that you can look for a 2006 documentary by Shane Roberts that features interviews with miners suffering from silicosis as well as footage shot in the mines. I haven’t been able to find that documentary myself. NPR did an episode on this topic. If you prefer lighter entertainment, you might try watching the 1939 movie Four Wives in which actor Eddie Albert plays a doctor studying pneumoconiosis- much like Dr. MERIWETHER. I’ve tried to locate some of Dr. MERIWETHER’s studies and journal articles that were published but I’ve been unsuccessful. Quite a few recent researchers cite his work in their papers but I haven’t been able to find any of his actual published studies for you to look at.
Ralph’s family always believed it was the lung disease that killed him even though his death certificate does not bear that out. I’m sure the lung disease was never treated and did give him trouble since he was on the verge of the disease moving from Stage 1 to the initial advanced stages of the disease. Ralph was diagnosed with late stage 1 silicosis around October of 1927 as best I can tell. He had been working in the lead and zinc mines of Ottawa County, Oklahoma since at least 1918. My guess is he was probably already working there earlier than 1917. In 1918 he was working for Black Hawk Mining Company in Picher, Ottawa County, Oklahoma.
The screenshots below were found at Schehrer at homestead.com. This is a great website for learning about old Picher mining history. You could spend hours here just looking at photos.
On the same website I took a screenshot of the photo below of Quapaw, Oklahoma. The photo was taken about 1920 when Ralph and Bessie LARKIN would have been living there.
I believe the section of a Superfund government report below gives a better description of where Black Hawk Mine was located based on a more recent geographical description of Picher. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to find the business ‘Picher Express’ without the help of someone who knew what the town looked like before it was demolished. The last time I was there, there was practically nothing left of Picher Express except the shell of a building and an old pay phone. However, for those who remember Picher, it’s a good description of the location of Black Hawk Mine.
You can get your own copy of this report at the DEQ Superfund website.
Ralph left mining work sometime around late 1929 to early 1930. I’m sure 10-15 years in the mines without any kind of health precautions or proper medical care took a toll on his health. I’m going to leave you with a couple of photographs of some minerals found at Black Hawk Mine.
These photos were found on Minerals.net. Enjoy your weekend.
Peace and health,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog
This past Sunday (18 March) was Ervin Alonzo DRAKE’s birthday. He was better known as Poppy, or Lon.
Above is a photo of Poppy and Annie with three of their children.
It seems Poppy was named after his grandfather, Ervin Alonzo DRAKE. I used to think Poppy’s name was Alonzo Ervin since he was sometimes called Poppy Lon but I’ve since come to think his name really is Ervin Alonzo and he was, perhaps, called Poppy or Lon to distinguish him from his grandfather. Poppy Lon was born in 1875 in McDonald County, Missouri, to William and Hester Ann Eglentine (MITCHELL) DRAKE. He was the first of 10 siblings. It was a known fact that back in the day the DRAKE’s liked to drink and fight. If you want to know just how rough some of them were, take a look at my series about his brother, “Red”, starting with part one. It’s quite a story!
I’ve written about Ervin, or Poppy Lon, here: Poppy Makes a Comebackand mentioned him here Live by the Sword, Die by the Sword, Part 4- The Finale. Today I’m going to highlight the most recent released census that includes Poppy.
Screenshot from Ancestry.
The year was 1940. Poppy was living in Beaty Township in Delaware County, Oklahoma. Beaty Township includes the area of Delaware County East of Jay, Southeast of Grove, West of South West City, McDonald County, Missouri, and Northwest of Maysville, Benton County, Arkansas – exactly the area I would expect him to live at. It’s a rural area with no present-day towns. You can find it on this map.
The original of the above map was found at OKGenWeb.
I’ve circled the name Beaty in red to make it easier to find. Also notice in the upper left corner of the map I’ve circled (in green) the town of Echo in Bernice Township. This is where Poppy Lon’s grandfather, Ervin Alonzo, lived before that area was flooded to make Grand Lake. I’ve written a little about that in this blog post. (This was one of my earliest blog posts about my family so it will be a little different than what you might read from me currently.)
In 1940, Poppy Lon was listed as the head of household. He is listed as Ervin L. Drake. Living with him were his wife, Annie (Mary Anne BAKER), his married son Roscoe, and Poppy’s grandchildren (Roscoe’s children) – Lulla Bell (age 14) and James E. (age 12). (Note: Even though he is listed as “married son”, the same entry says he is a widower.) I’m not sure where Roscoe’s wife was at the time. Just a quick glance at records looks like possibly the wife left Roscoe and the children and moved to California and remarried but I’m not certain and I haven’t asked. Interestingly, Nancy wasn’t living with Roscoe in the 1930 census either.
I did find this photo (sorry for the quality) of Nancy and hers and Roscoe’s children. Lulla Bell and James Ervin William are both in the photo. James is on the back row and Lulla Bell is the girl with the darker hair and white blouse on the far right next to her mother. The other girl in the photo is identified as Jolene Lavinia DRAKE (her middle name probably being given in honor of Poppy Lon’s grandmother, Lavina (PILGRIM) DRAKE) and the young boy is James Woodrow LANG and he looks to be from mom Nancy’s second marriage (after Roscoe). Additionally, Lulla Bell’s name is spelled “Lulu Belle”, contrary to the 1940 census.
This photo was shared publicly on Ancestry by Tori Hobbs. I have tried over the years to get in touch with Tori without success.
This is what the 1940 census tells us about Poppy Lon. He was the 79th (and last) family to be censused on 15 April 1940 by enumerator Ben F. Ryburn. Poppy Lon owned his home. When asked the value of the home, the response recorded was “3.50”. I don’t think that meant $3.50- possibly $3500 instead? I’m not sure. Poppy Lon’s place was a farm. His race was listed as “White” and he was 65 years old at the time of this census. He was born in Missouri. He completed 4th grade in school. He was farming that year as his employment and was working 40 hours a week on the farm. He worked 45 weeks out of the year. He earned more than $50 but an amount was not specified. He is person #68 on the farm schedule. Unfortunately, I have not located the farm schedule and it may not exist anymore. In 1940, Roscoe was a laborer with WPA. About this time last year I wrote for WPA records for my grandpa, Troy BATES, and their response was that there was no employment record for Troy even though I know he was hired by WPA. I may decide to write for Roscoe’s employment records to see what type of work he did but I haven’t done that yet. Roscoe was unemployed 20 weeks in the year preceding the census before he gained employment with WPA. That’s almost half the year so I’m sure he was very happy to get a job with WPA given he had a couple of children to support and was living with his parents.
A final note about the 1940 census. Living near Poppy Lon was Raymond Hubbard. Raymond was the brother of Edith (HUBBARD) DRAKE. Edith was married to Mark DRAKE- Poppy Lon’s son and my great-grandfather. So while Raymond wasn’t technically a relative, I’m sure Poppy and Raymond knew each other and had visited each other at Edith’s and Mark’s home. Living next door to Poppy Lon was Poppy’s brother, Henry Arthur (who went by “Ned”) and Henry’s family. You can find a photo of Ned in one of my blog posts here.
I’m going to leave Poppy Lon right here in 1940, farming and taking care of his family. He has another 24 years of life ahead of him. I think that’s a good spot to leave him in.
Until next time,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog
Minerva Nancy BRINCEFIELD is my paternal 3rd great grandmother. She was born in North Carolina in February of 1813. One researcher believes her parents were Anderson BRINSFIELD and Francis DYE. I have nothing to prove or disprove that theory. My line of descent from Minerva goes through Minerva’s daughter Minerva, and the younger Minerva’s son (and my great grandfather) Ralph LARKIN. Since I haven’t talked much about Minerva (the elder one and the subject of today’s post) on the blog, I’m going to stick with introducing her through the census records today. That gives a background of her life and also fits in with this week’s blog theme of “in the census”.
I know nothing of Minerva’s younger years. The first record I pick her up on is her marriage to Bartlett Yancey UNDERWOOD. Minerva and Bartlett’s marriage bond was dated 4 May 1843 in Rockingham County, North Carolina. The bonsdman was Edward WHITT. The witness was Sampson L. CRYER. I don’t know at this time how these men are related to Minerva and/or Bartlett or even if they are related at all. At the time of their marriage, Minerva was 27 and Bartlett was 25. It’s within the realm of possibility that this was not Minerva’s first marriage.
Next, I found them in the 1850 Federal census for the state of North Carolina. They were living in the Eastern District of Rockingham County, North Carolina with three children- a girl and two boys. The only clarification I can give on the location is that in 1850 there were to North Carolinian districts- Eastern and Western. So take from that what you will. Bartlett gave his age as 35 and Minerva was 33. Bartlett was farming but I was unable to find an agricultural schedule that would describe their farm. Although Bartlett could read and write, Minerva could not. Everyone in the family was born in North Carolina. If you scroll down the page you will find Anderson and Fanny BRINSFIELD living with two adult males and two adult females- possibly their children (or two of their sons and their sons’ wives). In an effort to cover all the bases, I browsed many census schedules including agriculture, manufacturing, slave, tax rolls, mortality, etc. to see whether Bartlett or Minerva were listed there and they were not listed on any other schedules, censuses, or rolls available on Ancestry for the 1850 time period.
By 1860, Bartlett and Minerva have moved to Thomasville, Woodside Township, Oregon County, Missouri. Bartlett was still farming and Minerva was listed under the name Nancy. Both were listed as being 45 years old. Bartlett gave the value of his real estate as $200 and his personal property $200. Minerva was still the only one in the home who could not read or write. In 1860 Minerva and Bartlett had seven children living with them ranging in age from 1 to 14 years old. The children’s names were Jefferson, Mary, Worth, Dallas, Jane (my 2nd great grandmother whose name was Minerva but who went by Jane when still living with her mother), Brown, and Missouri. Again, after reviewing a variety of different census schedules, Bartlett and Minerva weren’t on any other schedules besides the US Federal Census for the state of Missouri.
The map above shows you the location of Thomasville as well as Alton- both were places that Bartlett and Minerva and their children lived. Thomasville Post Office was closed down in the 1970’s. One blogger calls the old Thomasville post office building “the goose”. You can find out why by reading her blog post at Claudia’s Surf City blog. (And that flood she’s talking about? Yeah- we got that one, too! It was terrible! We had to evacuate. I’m thinking maybe that story should be a future post for the “Stories for the Boys” series on my blog!)
By 1870, the family had moved to Alton, Piney Township, Oregon County, Missouri. I’ve marked Alton on the map above. In 1870, Bartlett is no longer living with the family. Minerva gave her age as 52. T. J. was marked as the Head of Household and Minerva along with her children (George, Minerva, James, Francis, and Washington) were living with T. J. The siblings (including T. J.) range in age from 7 to 22. I don’t know for sure what the ‘T’ in T. J. is short for but the ‘J’ stands for Jefferson. Worth A. UNDERWOOD and Missouri Ann UNDERWOOD are no longer living with the family in 1860. George is George Dallas UNDERWOOD; Jane is Minerva Jane UNDERWOOD (my 2nd great grandmother); James is James Brown UNDERWOOD. Francis is Francis Elizabeth UNDERWOOD and Washington is Washington Davis UNDERWOOD. Both Francis and Washington were born after the previous census was taken. T. J. was farming and Minerva was keeping house in 1870. T. J. listed his real estate value at $700 and his personal property at $400. On this census, the entire family is marked as unable to read or write which conflicts with previous census data on this family. Neither T. J. nor Minerva were in any other census schedules in the 1870 timeframe that I could find.
In 1880, Minerva was living in Elk Horn Township, McDonald County, Missouri. She gave her age as 64. Living with her were her children Jane, Washington Davis, and her granddaughter Alice (see note at the end of this paragraph). Living next door was Minerva’s daughter, Francis Elizabeth who was married to George BOWEN. Minerva was listed as being widowed. I’m assuming she had been widowed since at least 1870 when Bartlett was no longer living with the family. Minerva was keeping house. Washington was working as a laborer. No one in the family could read or write. I’ve blogged about whether or not Alice is the elder Minerva’s daughter or granddaughter. You can find more information about Alice and an explanation as to whom I think Alice’s mother is here and here (at this second link you’ll need to scroll down about ¾ of the page to find the section on Alice). The family was not on any other extraneous census schedules that I could find for the 1880 time period.
In 1900, at 87 years old, Minerva shows up in her final census record. She is living with her son, George Dallas UNDERWOOD and George’s family. They lived in Township 24 Range 23 East, Cherokee Nation, Indian Territory (now Oklahoma). This area was “West of the Grand River”. Looking at a map, this would be the area west of Monkey Island- between Monkey Island and the Bernice/Cleora area in what is currently Delaware County, Oklahoma. No extra census schedules were found for the family.
Minerva passed away in 1905. She is buried in an unmarked grave in Oaklawn Cemetery in Tulsa, Tulsa County, Oklahoma. If I’m remembering correctly, the grave was meant for her daughter (Francis BOWEN) or son-in-law (George BOWEN), but they buried her there first. The BOWEN’s ended their life in the state of Washington and are buried there.
I’m looking forward to future stories about Minerva and her family. I hope you are, too. I hope your week is fantastic!
Until next time,
Lisa @ Days of Our Lives blog
I’m postponing Joseph LARKIN’s blog post until tomorrow. Today I’d like to take a day to remember my paternal Grandpa’s (Gene DRAKE’s) sister, Ruby DRAKE WETZEL. She passed away this weekend. Her daughter married into my mom’s family and is my maternal aunt so this affects both sides of my family. Please say a prayer for all of my family.
