Page 14

BURIAL CUSTOM IN THE 70'S 
MADDUX FAMILY IN LIVINGSTON COUNTY - 1857 
THE JACKSON FAMILY IN RAY COUNTY IN THE SIXTIES AND SEVENTIES
THE BORDEN FAMILY IN CALDWELL AND DAVIESS COUNTIES 
COVERED WAGON TRIP TO DAVIESS COUNTY - CHEROKEE STRIP
THE McCLELLAND FAMILY IN DAVIESS CO. 1859 AND CALDWELL COUNTY 1863
THE MANN FAMILY IN DAVIESS COUNTY 
IN DAVIESS COUNTY IN THE SIXTIES AND SEVENTIES 
OLD STYLE WAGONS AND OLD CEMETERIES NEAR HAMILTON ON THE NORTH
LIFE IN INDIAN RESERVATION

BURIAL CUSTOM IN THE 70'S 
Narrator: Irvin Harper, 73, Hamilton, Missouri

Mr. Harper's father J.W. Harper kept a furniture store in
Hamilton about 1870 and took on the undertaking duties that went with
it. He had to make the coffins. He measured the body then cut
varnished black walnut boards which he kept in stock for the required
length and width. The box was narrow at the feet and was lined with a
figured muslin made for that purpose. There was no padding but a row
of fringe hung around the edge. The lid might be hinged or simply
laid on. It took about a day to make a coffin. There were many home
made coffins, especially in the country. The undertaker did not
have the laying out of the body. He did no embalming. The family and
friends renewed the clothes, moistened with soda and water on the face
and hands to prevent discoloration or "mortification settin' in" as
the expression was. This explains the necessity of "setting up" with
the corpse and on which occasion refreshments were laid out for the
friends. In the late 60's and early 70's there was a frequent
custom of burying the dead on one's premises. The Harper children who
died then were buried in the front yard of their home because the
family were not in sympathy with the Rohrbough Cemetery management.
When the new (Highland) cemetery started Mr. J.W. Harper moved his
children there. Most front yard graves were abandoned about the same
time. George Putnam's son was buried in a field back of the present
Dawson home (the old Putnam place) but was moved to the old cemetery
when the field was sold 1875. The first Mrs. Wm. McCoy was buried in
the McCoy yard on the Kingston road, then removed to the old and later
to the new cemetery. These few examples illustrate the custom.
When the new cemetery was planned the Railroad Company would not sell
them land for the purpose lest it spoil the sale of lots out there.
J.W. Harper bought the land from the Railroad and then sold it to the
town at the purchase price. Of course there was a simple hearse
those days but often it could not be used since the roads out there
were so bad that it took a lumber wagon to carry the coffin.

Interview taken July 1934.

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MADDUX FAMILY IN LIVINGSTON COUNTY - 1857 
Narrator: M.W. Maddux, 73, of Breckenridge

Mr. Maddux was born 1861 in Mooresville, Livingston County,
Missouri. His parents were Thos. B. and Abigail Reynolds Maddux. The
father was born in Kentucky, the mother in Tennessee. Both were
brought when about two years old to Missouri. The fathers parents
went to Ft. Peinich, Howard County, the mother's to Livingston County.
S.W. Reynolds was in Mooresville township in 1835 and Henry in 1836.
Thomas' mother was left a widow when he was two years old, for his
father was shot down by an Indian arrow when he was returning to Ft.
Reinich after giving a woman medical aid. So the widow took Thomas
back to Livingston Co., near Mooresville where she died at the age of
ninety-six. Thomas and wife settled on eighty-three acres of land in
Section 31, Twp 38, Range 25 in 1857 which M.W. Maddux of Breckenridge
still owns. Thomas was murdered by bushwhackers Nov. 28th, 1865
on his way home from Breckenridge where he had gone for a doctor. He
left a widow and five children, the youngest having been born the
night of his murder. His widow continued to live on the farm,
renting out some land and raising cows, sheep, hogs and saddle horses
to support her young brood. She carded her own wool, spun it, wove
it, and cut and fit it into clothes. She made yards and yards of
linsey and jeans. She died in 1880. M.W. Maddux, the narrator,
started to school at the Watson District to Eliza A. Davis of Daviess
County, who was the first teacher in that district. Later this
district, which at first covered several miles, was divided into
three. He was married in 1885 to Lizzie Lutz. For six years,
they lived in the hewed log house his father had built for his family.
On Jan. 20, 1895, a violent windstorm turned this house over with two
and half revolutions but the family, who were in it, were not
seriously hurt. Mrs. Maddux was the daughter of Benj. F. and Rebecca
Lutz who moved from Pennsylvania to Daviess County in 1872. The
Maddux family have ten children, five boys and five girls.

Interviewed June 1934.

~~~~~~~~~~

THE JACKSON FAMILY IN RAY COUNTY IN THE SIXTIES AND SEVENTIES
Narrator: Mrs. Malvina Leabo, 71, of Hamilton, Missouri

Civil War Troubles 
Country Churches

Mrs. Leabo is one of sixteen children born to Jacob Jackson and
Martha Ford, being born at Knoxville Ray County Missouri 1863 on a
farm one mile from town. Jacob Jackson and wife made the trip to
Knoxville from Nashville, Tennessee in a big wagon, in the middle
fifties, to make a better living. They rented awhile as they looked
around for a bargain in land. Then War came Jacob enlisted in the
Southern Army and left Mrs. Jackson with the oldest boy six years old
to care for the corn. She plowed and taught the six year old boy to
run the plow too. It was all they could do. The child would cry as
he looked at his bad furrow. While living near Knoxville, they had a
neighbor John Forson who used oxen to pull wood to town. In the
early seventies her father bought one hundred eighty acres of land in
Ray County near Taitsville very near the south line of Caldwell
County. Here her old neighbors were: John File, Norton Switzer (kin
to the Hamilton Switzers) Cleveland Kelsey (Uncle of her husband Sam
Leabo). Dr. Gant of Knoxville was their Doctor and after his death
Dr. Wilkerson. Mrs. Leabo's parents and brother lie in the Pleasant
Hill Cemetery, connected with a Methodist church (formerly) on the Ray
County side. The Baptists in the seventies had a church nearby at
Cottage Grove and near it is the Cottage Grove Cemetery, both in
Caldwell County. Every church in that community used immersion
for baptism those days and Mrs. Leabo (then Miss Jackson) was immersed
in Greenwood Creek, commonly used as a baptizing hole. It was near
Greenwood School. In the seventies country churches had no organs
unless some member would loan their organ into a wagon and haul it to
the church. They ordinarily had six months tax school and three
months extra for those who were able to pay the subscription. There
was too much work at home for any girl to go to school long those
days. The feminine labor of the farm in Ray County of the sixties
and seventies was told by Mrs. Leabo. Mrs. Jackson raised enough
cotton to stuff comforts for the big family. The children gathered
cotton in the bolls (hulls) and picked out the seed. The Mother
flattened it out in pads about elbow length to use in quilts and
comforts. Then there was the wool work. On the first day of May
sheep were shorn. The family picked out the burrs. The wool was
carded on carding machines into rolls one yard long and spun into yarn
and wound on broaches. Each girl (they had three of working age)
would spin enough for three yards of cloth every day. That was the
old rule for their labor to supply the constant family use. Then they
reeled it off in hanks of yarn. Then it was woven into cloth on the
family loom. They made blankets, wool cloth an linsey cloth for the
small children. They knit wool socks and stockings and mittens
for every one in the family. They colored the hose with diamond dyes
making a dull red. They often sold knit stockings and mittens for
cash or traded them for "boughten" things. Living at Taitsville
their trading place was Hamilton. Often Mrs. Jackson would get up
before sun up to get a good start for Hamilton and not get back till
nine o'clock in the evening after all the chores were done. They
might use the spring wagon or a lumber wagon if many were to go, using
chairs or boards for extra seats. They took along dinner for man and
beast. They always went to Fourth of July Celebrations. You
could not keep her father at home on that day. It might be at Black
Oak, Polo, Richmond or Hamilton. They got mail about once a week
usually arranging to visit their Post Office (Taitsville) when their
weekly paper, Richmond Conservator was out. At the age of twenty
Mrs. Leabo became the wife of Samuel Leabo whose father was Isaac
Leabo of Ray County and Tennessee. At the time of her marriage to
Samuel Leabo, he could span her waist - a highly desirable waist line
for a young lady of that day. 

Interviewed July 1934.

~~~~~~~~~~

THE BORDEN FAMILY IN CALDWELL AND DAVIESS COUNTIES 
Narrator: George Borden, 76, of Hamilton

Railroad Land 
Farmer's Troubles in Early Days 
Early Roads

Frank Borden, father of George, came into Caldwell County in 1869
and bought forty acres of railroad land, two miles south of Hamilton.
When the Hannibal and St. Joseph railroad went through the country,
the railroad had been given every other section ten miles north and
south of the tracks by the government in return for their risk. Then
they sold or rented this land to new settlers. The Bordens sold this
land and rented 160 acres south of town; later they moved to the south
part of Daviess County where they bought land again. They had all
sorts of bad luck common to the earlier settlers, chinch bugs,
droughts (never any as bad as the present one of 1934), army worms,
hog colera, grasshoppers in 1875; in fact, many a settler those days
became discouraged and sold out at a cost below what he had paid, and
went some other place hoping for better luck. That accounted for the
large number of mover-wagons in the late 70's and early 80's, many
headed east. Those days in the 60's and early 70's, few roads
were laid out in these parts. If one avoided creeks, he could ride
over open prairie-land from the Borden home south of Hamilton to Dawn,
near Chillicothe. Mr. Borden traced the old road that led from the
old Borden home to the very small town of Hamilton. It came
"cat-a-corner" from John Gibson's farm across the prairie and through
the corner known as the Wilmot house, south of the Park. Rev. Wilmot
did not live there then but on his farm further south -- the present
farm known as the Walter Whitt place. The Wilmot 80 there was the
last prairie land to be fenced in between Hamilton and Kingston. He
did it about 1880. Mr. Borden has been boring wells around
Hamilton for over fifty years. He is a practiced "water-witch" and
believes thoroughly in the value of "water-witchin'" in locating water
by the time tried means of a new-growth fork from a peach tree.
He recalled when the park was planted with trees. It was given as a
gift to the town by the railroad as long as it should be used as a
park. That was in 1856. But little attempt to plant it with trees
was made till about 1870. Then James Mapes, who died here a few years
ago, brought in trees from the woods and planted them.

Interviewed August 21, 1934.

(Mrs. Komora Thornhill says she too knows that for a fact. Mapes also
planted all the trees in the present Thornhill-Cheshire yard where he
once lived in the Baptist Church yard.) Interviewer's note.

~~~~~~~~~~

COVERED WAGON TRIP TO DAVIESS COUNTY - CHEROKEE STRIP
Narrator: Mrs. Aurora Williams, 72, of Kidder, Missouri

Mrs. Williams is a daughter of Wm. A. Morrow and Mary F. Huttram
who came in a covered wagon eighty years ago from Kentucky to Daviess
County. They had two horses to the wagon and a riding horse hitched
behind. It took six weeks to come, for there were really no roads,
mainly trails through the prairies. They stopped off in Indiana to
see some kin, fearing that they would never get back to see them
again, nor did they. At first while "looking around" they rented.
Finally they bought land on Grand River north of Lick Fork, from
Thornton Talbot. Mr. and Mrs. Morrow and a daughter are buried in old
Lick Fork cemetery which is still in use, though many of the old
stones are down. Mr. Morrow died 1872 and the family lived in
Daviess County till 1885 when Mrs. Morrow and those children who were
still at home moved close to Cowgill, four miles north west of the
town. They lived in the first house south of the Excelsior School
house (there are two Excelsior Schools in Caldwell County, this is the
south one). This school district was named by Mary McCoy of Hamilton
who was the first teacher in the new school house. Before Mrs.
Williams married she learned the dress making trade in the dress
making and millinery shop of Mrs. Cosgrove and Martha Glasener, on
south Main street in Hamilton in the late eighties. She then married
and became a participant in the opening of the Cherokee Strip 1894.
Her husband already owned land which touched the roped line. The
cowboys and soldiers lived with them. On account of benefits
received, the soldiers offered to let Mr. Williams go into the strip
the night before as a "sooner" but he wanted to be fair. He got a
good claim but there was no way of making any money there. They
stayed on the claim as long as they had any money, then sold out and
came back to Missouri. Her Mother pioneered in Missouri and she
pioneered in Oklahoma. 

Interviewed August 2, 1934.

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THE McCLELLAND FAMILY IN DAVIESS CO. 1859 AND CALDWELL COUNTY 1863
Narrator: Andrew McClelland, 84, of Long Beach California

Mr. McClelland is the son of James McClelland who in 1835 came
from Smith County Va. to Grundy County Missouri; but there was no
chance for the childrens education there, so in 1859 he moved to
Daviess County where Andrew attended the Singleton School north of
Hamilton. (It was in the Singleton School at a church session that
John Singleton announced in Andrew's hearing that Lincoln was shot).
Andrew recalls many incidents of his boyhood in Daviess County.
He used to go horseback to the Lenhart Mill with his father. They put
one of their own horses to the sweep and ground the meal. (Customers
customerly used their own horses.) The old millstone at the Hamilton
Library grounds is the grist stone from the Jeremiah Lenhart Mill,
which has come from an older mill - the Hardin Stone Mill. The two
stones at mills always were different color: one red one gray.
Lenhart was a preacher, miller, farmer, and wheel wright. He also
recalls the log rollings. People would cut good walnut logs half a
foot in diameter to clear off the land. At night they would roll them
together in a big bonfire and have a good time. Sunday Schools came
into his experience in the late 50's in Grundy County. They used
testaments. Sunday School was held in homes or the School House.
There the Baptists, Campbellites, and Methodists were strong, but any
preacher was welcome. Everyone turned out to hear any kind of a
sermon because they were treats. He attended school first in
Grundy County when he had puncheon seats and desks (split logs) around
the room resting on logs. At Singleton School in Daviess County
he had split log seats. When he came to Hamilton 1863 to live. Wm.
Goodman's sister was teaching the first public school on the site of
John Morton's tin shop. Then he went on in school here in Hamilton;
his last teacher was Prof. Helm in 1867-8. James McClelland
having moved his family to Hamilton opened a harness shop in 1863 in
the second floor of Davy Buster's saloon-grocery on the Broadway right
of way. James had been in the Union Army although he was over the age
limit. Two of his sons had already been in the war and spent some
time at home as paroled prisoners. During the war Young Andrew 13 or
14 years old spent much of his time at the Union Camp at Hamilton
placed about where the City Park now stands. It usually had about 200
men. He longed to enlist as a drummer boy but he was the oldest boy
at home. He, his mother, and sisters tended to the crops. When the
McClelland first came here the father bought a house on the southwest
corner of what is now the North School Building. There Andrew planted
four trees which still stand. A few years later, the father bought
the present Emma Doll place (Mrs. Alice Doll her mother-in-law was a
sister of Andrew). Andrew with the help of Henry and William Atherton
built the house. Andrew was a carpenter at 18. He worked in a bunch
of John Courter plaster, Lee Cosgrove painter, Andrew lather, Martin
Bros. (Clark and Sam) carpenters. This bunch built the first
Methodist Church. In the old McClelland house (Doll home) the
sills resting on stone foundations are made of oak spleced together
with wood pegs. He carried 9 saplings at once on his back from
Marrowbone to plant in the yard in April 1869. One still stands.
In 1869 he decided to teach school. First he went to Mr. Bostaff,
County Superintendent of Schools at Gallatin. Bostaph asked him
questions for forty minutes and gave him a second grade certificate.
Then he visited the trustees of different schools and finally got a
school. He slept in a kitchen of a home where he boarded. Next year
he got a better job and a better room. He drew from $35 to 150 for ?
months a year and paid $6 for board, and room and washing provided he
chopped the wood for his own fire. In the summer of 1869 he taught a
summer school here at Hamilton of 3 months at 35 dollars a month. The
winter term had been 5 months with another teacher. Dot Morrow had
the primary, Mr. Mc. the intermediate, and both were in the building
east of the M.E. Church. Prof. Leander Theodore Hill was the head of
the school. Some of Mr. McClelland's pupils were the Richardson
children, Mrs. Allee (Miss Whitt), Lottie Reed. Little attention was
paid to courses; Algebra, Geography, History, Grammer, were some of
the higher branches. In 1863 there were few stores in Hamilton
and most of these were north of the depot. There was the John
Burroughs general store in the present picture show corner with Judge
Richardson as clerk and postmaster, then a space kept by Chine Manuel,
then a gunsmith Goodwin, and the McAdoo drugstore. Claypool Hotel
stood north of the present Martin Grocery. The Davy Buster Saloon
on Broadway on the right of way; above which was James McClelland
harness maker. The lumber yard in 1863 was where it is now on the
north side. Main street had not begun to be a business street and
farm houses were standing where town streets now run. In 1863 the
church condition in Hamilton was very poor. Some early services had
been held at the depot without an instrument and few attended. Some
groups were holding ocassional meetings in homes or the schoolhouse as
the Methodists. He recalled a debate here between a Campbellite
preacher (hand) and an Adventist over a Bible verse. People became
greatly excited when talking over religious questions.

Interviewed June 1934.

~~~~~~~~~~

THE MANN FAMILY IN DAVIESS COUNTY 
Narrator: David Mann, 79, of Hamilton, Missouri

Journey in Ox-Wagon 
Home Made Furniture
Linch-pin Wagons 
The First Home 
Game In the Fifties and Sixties.

Mr. Mann's parents were Milton Mann and Julia Leech married 1851
in Kentucky whence they came later 1853 to Daviess County by a small
ox-team. They were six weeks on the trip. The wagon was a linch-pin
wagon; the wheel had no iron around it but had a spindle which made
the wheel revolve and they locked it fast by a key. If the key
loosened, the wheel came off. He said that Milton Mann his "pap"
always declared that all they had on arrival in Daviess County was a
"little feather bed, a rifle gun, a $45 debt and nary a cent in his
pocket." But they did have more. There were two spring seats in the
wagon - a part of one they now possess; there was a hickory home made
chair, bought by Pap for his Wedding outfit, which was one hundred
years old and yet strong (the interviewer sat in it 1934). It had a
split bottom or rather hickory bar bottom. The chair was made without
nails or glue. The rungs were seasoned. The forms with the holes
were green. The latter dried and held the rungs in forever. The
spinning wheels were absolutely necessary for their existence. The
Mother did all the weaving and sewing for a big family, the boys
filling the spindles for the loom. They went to mill at Groves's
Mill. Once a week (Sunday morning) they had white flour biscuits as a
treat. Even later than 1865 they saw deer. When they moved to
Harrison township (still Daviess County) near Breckenridge in Caldwell
County early one morning they ran down three wet young turkeys and ate
the three for breakfast. Milton Mann was in Daviess County two or
three years when he saw his first blue grass since he had left
Kentucky. It was a small patch and he thought "It won't live long
here" for everywhere else was prairie grass. He entered timber
land from the Government at $1.25 an acre for forty acres. He chose
timber because he had no plough heavy enough to cut the prairie sod.
In former timber land they used a jumping shovel plow made by a local
blacksmith, which jumped over a stump and went on. His first home
there was a log cabin, in November 1855 built by him and his neighbors
- no floor and a rag being at the window instead of glass. They built
the stick and clay chimney too rapidly, since winter was on them, and
it fell down part way but they used it that way all winter. At
their first farm, David often walked to Gallatin (nine miles away) to
do the trading since it was quicker to walk and carry groceries than
to use the ox-team. While living there, he was in school when the
pupils heard very plainly the big guns at the Battle of Lexington in
Civil War. The pupils were so upset that the teacher dismissed school
for the day. At the second home near Breckenridge Mr. Mann
recalls an early church at Lick Fork made of logs with clapboard roof
in bad repair and parts of the wall fallen in. His parents are buried
in the Lick Fork graveyard; also his grandmother Rhoda Mann
(1809-1878). The Mann family traces from Maryland to Virginia and
from Virginia to Daviess County Missouri and then to Hamilton. He
says that they are not related to the other Mann families in Daviess
County or to Jesse Mann who made the first settlement in Caldwell
County. 

Interviewed July 1934.

~~~~~~~~~~

IN DAVIESS COUNTY IN THE SIXTIES AND SEVENTIES 
Narrator: Mrs. James Brookshier, 80, Hamilton, Missouri

Horse Back Riding 
Primitive Baptists 
Barter

Mrs. James Brookshier was born Ursula Drake 1854 in New York
State. The Drakes came to Daviess County when she was fourteen. The
father had died in New York and the mother yielded to the desires of
the sons to come west. Of course there were no fences and few roads
then; you could ride for miles across the prairie. She and her sister
went horse back to Kidder one day 1869 and passed a building just
being erected. The workmen told her it was going to be a College.
(It was the present Thayer Hall.) On that whole trip to Kidder they
did not use a single road. Girls rode on side saddles with long
black calico (domestic) skirts, which they took off at their
destination and tied to the side saddle. The horse was hitched to a
hitching post, which were very common. A few girls could not mount a
horse from the ground. But most wanted a stump or a block which also
were common sights. Once in a long while out in the country, a girl
would mount from a man's hand - he boosting her up in the saddle. But
most men refused to do it. Mrs. Brookshier was twice immersed.
She joined first the Christian, then the Methodist the church of her
first man, and lastly the Primitive or Hard Shell Baptist, when she
was again immersed, since they did not accept other sects baptism.
This church was the church of her second man, James Brookshier, whose
people always had been of this faith. To this day, she is
faithful to this sect. One Church was and is near Polo and another is
at Richmond. In Polo, once a year is held the "June Meeting" a sort
of a camp meeting. The Primitive Baptists have certain peculiarities.
They use no musical instruments in the church house. They allow no
eating in the church. They do not take up collections or have
sociables to raise money for the preacher. He supports himself
although they pay his traveling expenses. This Primitive Baptist
Church was an early one in Caldwell County. The Penney family, who
were here in the Fifties belonged to it and Rev. Eli Penney farmer and
preacher near Mirabile was a leading light. His son James was also a
farmer and preacher without pay for preaching. J.C. Penney, the Chain
Store man is a son of James. He sometimes attends these "June
Meetings" at Polo in honor to the memory of his father and
grandfather, although he does not belong to the sect. When Mrs.
Brookshier was a young woman she knitted two pairs of double-knit
mittens and took them to a Hamilton store taking in return two calico
dresses, the calico being twelve and one-half cents a yard. Barter
was common at the stores then. When a farm wagon drove up before the
board platforms in front of stores the wife usually carried in farm
made commodities to trade for muslin, calico, thread, sugar and
coffee. Butter was graded in price by the name of the woman who
churned it. One woman could get twenty five cents another only
fifteen cents a pound, for the trade knew their butter makers.

Interviewed January 1934.

~~~~~~~~~~

OLD STYLE WAGONS AND OLD CEMETERIES NEAR HAMILTON ON THE NORTH
Narrator: Frank Stewart, 78, of Hamilton, Missouri

Frank Stewart, a retired farmer lived as a youth three miles
north of Hamilton near the Daviess County line. He knows much about
the old graveyards and burial places in that vicinity and also is
acquainted with old style wagons. He recalled seeing a few
Conastoga wagons pass the farm in the sixties when he was young, but
he knew the old style type without knowing the name. He said they
were boat shaped, high back and front. But the wagon used here in the
sixties and early seventies was the stiff tongued wagon, the rear end
of the tongue absolutely immoveable without the several joints between
the tongue and the wagon that mark the present limber tongued wagon.
The front of the tongue was very loosely attached to the horse. The
horse wore no yoke and the tongue was attached to the chest girth by
chains nearly a yard long, yoke-chains. If the front wheels of a
wagon went in a rut, up flew the tongue and hit the horse in the nose.
Mr. Stewart said that men used to drink whiskey heavily before
going into the woods and deep weeds for "whiskey killed the poison of
a snake bite." There were many private burial places near his
fathers home. On the farm known as the Harve Bainter place or old
Lewis farm north of town, two slaves were buried north of the house at
a gateway to a pasture. You still had to drive over the mounds in
1865 to get into the pasture. On the old Charley Morton farm the site
of several unmarked graves is known. Once they were said to have been
fenced in, but the fence fell down and now people farm over them.
Charley Morton moved his dead from there. On the old James place
stands a lone slab stating the name of a girl and giving her age as
eighteen; it is very old. In the Sell graveyard over in Daviess
County near Marrowbone Creek Bridge are said to be forty eight graves
and fifteen years ago but one stone was left. The Whitt graveyard in
Daviess county toward Honey Creek received many early Hamilton dead.
It existed in the sixties. The Singleton graveyard four miles
north on the Gallatin road lies in the timber. The stones which are
left lie flat among the trees. Hamilton people were often taken there
in the time between the founding of the town and the start of our
first cemetery (Rohrbough) in 1868. When that cemetery was started,
some of these bodies were moved to Hamilton, as the Penney boy,
originally there but now in the Highland Cemetery (two removals); the
Thornton child (Jamie's Uncle who died 1866) was first buried in
Singleton. Singleton graveyard started in the early sixties and was
on the Singleton farm, later the Prouty farm. The Singleton family
used to be well known here. A Richardson girls married a Singleton
and one of their sons Otis Singleton was for years a Government
printer in Washington D.C. McCrary cemetery was started almost
one hundred years ago, when the original McCrary died of typhoid fever
ninety nine (99) years ago and a burial plot was begun on the McCrary
family land. It now lies in the timber in South Daviess County near
the county line. Hamilton People continued to bury there even after
our town cemeteries started, because their people lay there.

~~~~~~~~~~

LIFE IN INDIAN RESERVATION 
Mrs. Ellen (Johnson) Primm, 65, New York Township

Mrs. Ellen Primm daughter of William and Susan (McKean) Johnson
was born in Williamsburg Kentucky. She attended the schools in the
Cumberland Mountains. Most of her teachers were men as the big boys
went to school until twenty or twenty two years old and were rather
difficult, at times, to manage. There were no High School close so
the eighth grade was as far as they went in their education. At
the age of fifteen Mrs. Primm (the baby of the family) ran away from
home and married Henry Floyd a neighbor boy. They lived in Kentucky
three years and then moved to Dunbar Oklahoma then an Indian
Reservation. Mr. Floyd bought and sold stock while Mrs. Floyd "run" a
store and the Post Office. Mrs. Floyd says the Indians would travel
twenty to thirty wagons at a time going by there to Texas and would
stop at her store for provisions. She could not understand them so
they would go to the shelves and get what they wanted but always paid
her. She was frightened at first but soon become accustomed to their
habits. The Floyds lived there for about seven years then one day
decided to leave. They started out with their babies (three) in a
covered wagon and traveled twenty eight days. They finally
settled in Cherokee Nation another Reservation. The Comanche, a full
blooded tribe lived across the river from this tribe. Mrs. Floyd
recalls one day seeing an Old Indian Squaw from this tribe come to the
Floyd's spring and dipping up a pan of water to wash her hand, she
washed and washed then finally turned up the pan and drank it. These
Indians were dirty and "way behind times." Henry butchered and sold
meat to them as they had no idea of how to butcher a beef. She says
the little papooses would come to the butchering block and grab
entrails and eat them right down. The Floyds had folks living in
Caldwell County so decided to come to Missouri. They settled in New
York township and farmed until Henry died 1905. Mrs. Floyd married
Ceph Primm 1913. The Floyds had eight children living around near by,
but have scattered since. Mr. Primm died 1934 and is buried in the
old Cox Graveyard. Mrs. Primm is a little, stooped woman which
she says is caused from hard work and so many trials and tribulations.

Interviewed August 1934.

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This page was last updated September 24, 2006.