Hello! Well...we have new folks aboard, and hardly any posts lately. Nothing new, but don't go figuring I'm going to let y'all rest on your laurels. The Taney Co. Cem pages have gone out in the mail, and hopefully, we'll have them online this winter. Thanks in advance to all who volunteered to transcribe! The White River Valley Historical Society will be celebrating its 40th anniversary next year (2001). Many of the folks who started the society, or became members early in its existence, are still out there, writing and documenting and doing what they can to preserve our past. As the years have crept up on them, the ability to do as much as they did in earlier times has slowly gotten away from them. They are still energetic, knowledgeable, and excited about history and genealogy. It is time to honor them, the Jerry Gideons, the Bob Mileys, the Pauline Layton Bartons, the Viola Hartmans and Phyllis VanderNaalds, the Ruth Ashers and the others whose names I'm not as aware of. They've kept the society going in times of apathy and seeming disintegration, writing articles and books, finding cemeteries and transcribing them, attending any and all historical conferences and gatherings--staying involved. They've quietly gone about their passions and obsessions, and should be able to look with pride on their work and feel a deep satisfaction that it was important. For it is due to them that we have the wealth of material available to us, the younger generation coming up behind them. There are meeting minutes with Elmo Ingenthron; quarterlies with interviews with those who actually settled the White River Valley; and the memories of this Banner Generation are a gold mine in themselves. Plans are in the works to make some noise next year. Expansion of Law Day, in conjunction with the annual Bass Roundup in Forsyth. Membership drives. Community activities, aimed at involving the younger families. A Trail and brochure marking historical places in Taney county; plans to do the same in other counties eventually, which we'll need help from everyone on. Marking where the old cemeteries, cabins, stores, roads, and other spots of historical interest are located. Other parts of the USA might be in danger of losing their pasts to "progress", new building and new residents. I only know about this part of the US, the White River Valley of Missouri and Arkansas. The new folks move here because there is still an aura of the ages, an essence of timelessness, even while the latest technology is available in the hospitals and homes. But they don't know about the Bald Knobbers, Murder Rocks, the old newspapers, the teamsters being trapped in one camp for days on end because the White and its tributaries were flooded. They don't know about free range hogs, Harold Bell Wright, Bonniebrook, bushwhackers, shelf-rock roads, Kimberling and Hensley and Moore ferries, the first bridge across the White, moonshining, cabin fires that destroyed the family Bibles and pictures that we wish we had today. They don't know, and we tend to not tell them, jealously guarding our past without making it visible that we are proud of the fact our people were tough enough to eke out a living here for a time. Some of us had people who only stayed here for one or two generations; the land and the frontier drew them here, and when another place called them to move on, they did so, leaving parts of themselves behind in the rough hills and narrow valleys that later generations "remember". I met a lady at the Forsyth Library a couple of weeks ago, in the genealogy department. I was there for another reason, but reasons sometimes get lost in events mysteriously taking place in a pattern you only see in hindsight. This lady was the age of my parents, maybe a bit older; she had been born and raised in CA, I believe, and had moved to Taney County 10 years ago because she and her husband decided to retire here. She said she had been gratified to feel like she was coming home. In recent years since, she started doing her genealogy, and was shocked to discover that her grandfather had been born and raised in Taney County, not far from where she currently lives. She had never known, and marveled at the fact she had, in effect, come full circle. Totally unaware. I've never lived anywhere but Missouri, and I haven't traveled much. I've talked about that before, and I've talked about "primitive memories", the kind Jack London attributes to Buck the dog in "The Call of the Wild". I believe that our bodies retain, somehow, "memories" that pull us to live in certain places, in a certain manner, and act/react in a certain way to certain events in our lives. Those of you who haven't been able to come back--and I say come back, because a part of you "knows" this place, even if you've never been here--when you are finally able to, I believe you will also feel like you are coming home. There are places--the lookout just north of Forsyth, where you can see the former resort community of Long Beach across Taneycomo and DOWN--straight down, almost; the bridge over the James River at Galena in Stone County; marveling at Berryville, down in Carroll County, set on a small hill in the middle of a valley, surrounded by much higher hills; traveling the ridge roads, and hearing the teamsters' yelling at their mules and the creaking of the wagons as they rock over the ruts and the shelf rock. Many more places, the old fords and the ridge tops, the cemeteries, the ruins of cabins and ghost towns like Denver; War Eagle; others I'm not mentioning for space, and because they all speak to that part of us that remembers. The founding members, and members who joined in the early years, of the WRV Historical Society, they know what I'm talking about. Yes, it's mystical, heart-rending, magical, and obsessive...but it's home. Even if you've never been here, or if it's been years since you grew up swimming in the numerous creeks called Bear and Beaver and Indian and Turkey, it's home if you had people here. I invite you to get involved by submitting a couple of paragraphs of family lore to the WRV quarterly, telling the story of how your people came here, and why they might have left. By doing so, you get involved--heavy word until you think about it--and you preserve a piece of yourself, and honor those who came and went before you. Tell your stories here, on this list, and let me know if you'd like it submitted to the quarterly--I'll do it for you. Join the society, and read about others who might have known your people... I invite you, if you ever get the chance, to come home. Vonda

My father was from Sulphur Springs AR. Now before I get a map or check a history book, Is this area part of White River Valley? Vonda, I loved reading your message! Charles ==== MO-AR-WRV Mailing List ==== Visit the White River Valley web! http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~moarwrv/ ============================== Search over 64,000,000 records in the Social Security Death Index: http://ssdi.rootsweb.com/