>This must have been a very sad time in Taney County. The countryside had >just recovered from the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918-1919, which my >grandmother remembers as several months of not being allowed to go anywhere, >and news of new deaths in the area every day. > >Ingrid > > Ingrid, Was anything ever written about an epidemic that occurred 1909-1910 in Taney County and probably in other areas?? It was my understanding that some of the Logan family died during a Measles Epidemic. I am told that Alunda Alice Logan Clark Laughlin and husband John Laughlin died from measles, as well as her mother Charity Elizabeth Wiggins Logan. All died 1909-1910. Alunda's children were sent to live with others. Benjamin Crenshaw Clark is found with his Aunt Etta Logan Haggard and her husband Denny Haggard and their children in Stone County in 1910. Alumus Richard "Dick" and Charity Matilda "Mae" Laughlin lived with neighbors. Dick changed his surname to the name of the people who fostered him. (I am not at home nor do I have access to the info right now, but I think their name was Scott.) I have not had a chance to look for them in any of the area 1910 Censuses yet. Have you heard of anything about an epidemic of measles that killed then?? Barbara

"A Candle Within Her Soul" tells a long, sad story about the Melva tornado. Stripped to the bare facts about the Box family: Heavy rains on the night of March 11, and rain and hail during the morning. Anna Box, Billy's wife, and the mother of Budgie, five, and two girls, eleven and eight, decided to visit her sister-in-law, Florence Box, wife of Ranzy. Florence lived with her four small children right on the creek bank (Turkey Creek) across the street from the boxcar station. Both women were pregnant. Most of these children would have been in school that day, but the swollen creek prevented the school teacher, Jean Layton, from getting to town. The school was never touched by the tornado. At the time the tornado hit, the Box children and two of the Mahnkey boys were throwing sticks and rocks into the creek. They headed for the Box house, but shortly after they got inside, the house was hit, turned on its side, and flew into the creek before disintegrating. All seven of the Box children and Bill Mahnkey were drowned. Most of them had been trapped under fallen trees or debris from the house. The Box women were both injured, Florence, and her baby was stillborn that night. The book does not say what happened to the Box parents, or if the had other children later. The children were all buried in Branson, in two wide graves. This, by the way, is an INCREDIBLE book. Ellen Gray Massey is the English teacher from Lebanon who started Bittersweet Magazine back in the late 70's or early 80's. The book is the biography of Mary Elizabeth Mahnkey, mother of Douglas Mahnkey and a poet who I find very similar to Emily Dickenson. She was also one of those county correspondents for the Forsyth newspaper, and a woman who was really clear on the essentials of life. I would recommend this book very highly to all of you. This must have been a very sad time in Taney County. The countryside had just recovered from the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918-1919, which my grandmother remembers as several months of not being allowed to go anywhere, and news of new deaths in the area every day. Ingrid

I also would like to know about newspapers around 1910, reporting deaths, My grandmothers sister and husband died around 1910 and we have no idea to this day what really happened to them, they were James Wesley Parton and his wife Edna Bates Parton, they had 3 little children who had to go live with grandparents Charles and LouAnn Pruitt Bates in Fort Gibson , Oklahoma, we don't know if they are buried in Mincy , where they died, or if the parents brought them home to bury. If anyone has any information on the cause of their death, please contact me. Thanks so much. Bonnie

Sorry, Jo, for not getting me act together in my 1st or 2nd message, but there seems to be one additional person listed who apparently also survived whom you may not have noted since you just refer to William: William P. BOX 21 June 1883 - 21 Nov 1959 Annie M. BOX 29 Dec 1889 - 21 Apr 1968 It now appears that perhaps the parents may have survived but not the children! Certainly hope someone has the answer about this tragic loss. Don Houk -----Original Message----- From: Josephine or Peter Dunne [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Tuesday, October 03, 2000 12:12 PM To: [email protected] Subject: BOX FAMILY MYSTERY Every time I get into a project on cemeteries or censuses or anything to do with old records for that matter I come across at least one mystery. The Taney County cemeteries list is no exception. I received my section of pages from Vonda a few days ago. On page 58 there is a family named Box. The name is not one I am familar with. There is a total of 8 of them in Branson Cemetery. Their first names are Georgie, Hubert, Jessie, Johnny, Mearl, Nancy, Oleta and William. Here is the mystery---all of them except one died on 11 March, 1920. The last one, William Box died in 1959. Why did all these people die on the same day? Was it a house fire, a car accident, a flood, a tornado, or some other disaster? Since they were the only ones with the surname Box I had the terrible thought that perhaps William Box was the only one in his family to survive. If that was the case it must have been a heavy burden for him to carry for the next 39 years that he lived. Does anyone know what happened to the Box family? Are there any old newspaper archives in the Branson area that might have the story? It sure would be interesting to know what happened to cause this family to perish on that March day in Taney County. Jo ==== MOTANEY Mailing List ==== ============================== Check out RootsWeb's new threaded archives! http://archiver.rootsweb.com/

Jo, I overlooked this the first time, but I note that on a separate line in that same Index are also the other names you mention--Mearl, Oleta and George with same date and in parenthesis (all died in a tornado) but dates of birth given for any of the 7. What a tragedy!!! Don Houk -----Original Message----- From: Josephine or Peter Dunne [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Tuesday, October 03, 2000 12:12 PM To: [email protected] Subject: BOX FAMILY MYSTERY Every time I get into a project on cemeteries or censuses or anything to do with old records for that matter I come across at least one mystery. The Taney County cemeteries list is no exception. I received my section of pages from Vonda a few days ago. On page 58 there is a family named Box. The name is not one I am familar with. There is a total of 8 of them in Branson Cemetery. Their first names are Georgie, Hubert, Jessie, Johnny, Mearl, Nancy, Oleta and William. Here is the mystery---all of them except one died on 11 March, 1920. The last one, William Box died in 1959. Why did all these people die on the same day? Was it a house fire, a car accident, a flood, a tornado, or some other disaster? Since they were the only ones with the surname Box I had the terrible thought that perhaps William Box was the only one in his family to survive. If that was the case it must have been a heavy burden for him to carry for the next 39 years that he lived. Does anyone know what happened to the Box family? Are there any old newspaper archives in the Branson area that might have the story? It sure would be interesting to know what happened to cause this family to perish on that March day in Taney County. Jo ==== MOTANEY Mailing List ==== ============================== Check out RootsWeb's new threaded archives! http://archiver.rootsweb.com/

Hi Jo, Apparently someone else was also curious because in Vol. 6 of the Index to Taney Co. Cemeteries compiled by Janice Looney, there is a notation after the names of Hubert, Nancy, Jessie & Johnny who died 11 Mar 1920 and were buried in Branson Cemeterythat their deaths were due to the Melva tornado. Don Houk E-mail: [email protected] -----Original Message----- From: Josephine or Peter Dunne [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Tuesday, October 03, 2000 12:12 PM To: [email protected] Subject: BOX FAMILY MYSTERY Every time I get into a project on cemeteries or censuses or anything to do with old records for that matter I come across at least one mystery. The Taney County cemeteries list is no exception. I received my section of pages from Vonda a few days ago. On page 58 there is a family named Box. The name is not one I am familar with. There is a total of 8 of them in Branson Cemetery. Their first names are Georgie, Hubert, Jessie, Johnny, Mearl, Nancy, Oleta and William. Here is the mystery---all of them except one died on 11 March, 1920. The last one, William Box died in 1959. Why did all these people die on the same day? Was it a house fire, a car accident, a flood, a tornado, or some other disaster? Since they were the only ones with the surname Box I had the terrible thought that perhaps William Box was the only one in his family to survive. If that was the case it must have been a heavy burden for him to carry for the next 39 years that he lived. Does anyone know what happened to the Box family? Are there any old newspaper archives in the Branson area that might have the story? It sure would be interesting to know what happened to cause this family to perish on that March day in Taney County. Jo ==== MOTANEY Mailing List ==== ============================== Check out RootsWeb's new threaded archives! http://archiver.rootsweb.com/

Nancy, I'm interested in your BOYD name--is it from Taney County as well? <BG> I got Boyd kin! Here's a basis for comparison. The 1850 Taney Co. Census Enumerator has rolled many times in his grave because he only used initials instead of writing given names and descendants have hurled all kinds of invective sentences at him. But Janice Looney, who has published all but the 1840 and 1920 Census records in books (you can find them at the White River Valley website), has researched this census for years, adding her sources as she finds new information. Barbara Logan is in the midst of transcribing this census as well, for online use. This is what Looney has. I'm adding her research in parentheses. I'm also adding what appears to be related families ("going by gut" LOL). 1850 Taney Co. Linn Twp (this area became a part of Christian County in 1859, I think. They must have moved?) MORRIS, J(ohn) 28 M TN 600 source: 1860 Taney N(ancy) 35 F TN BROWN, W(illiam) 18 M AR J 24 F AR G 18 M AR P 16 F AR Big Creek Twp. (SE corner of county) #570 TABER, A(rchibald) 50 M KY 230 source: 1860 Taney & descendant E(lizabeth Morris) 40 F GA I(saac) 20 M IL M(elinda) 18 F IL J(erimiah) 15 M IL C(Carell) 13 M IL M(atilda) 10 F MO J(ohn) 8 M MO D(olly) 3 F MO E(lizabeth) 1 F MO #571 TABER, H(artwell) 24 M IL missing in 1860 S(usan Smith) 20 F IN 1860 Taney & descendant A(aron) 3 M MO M(elinda) 1 F MO Looney adds here that Susan was married to William BROWN (above) in 1860. Aaron & Melinda are enumerated under Brown (I presume in 1860 census). #572 TABER, J(ames) 70 M VA 150 descendant S("Celia") 65 F VA #573 TABER, T(homas) 48 M KY 1860 Taney & descendant M(ary Stewart) 37 F TN J(ames) 17 M IL E(lias) 12 M IL E(lizabeth) 5 F MO J(ohn) 3/12 M MO #574 MORRIS, R(ussell) 22 M IL 300 1860 Ozark (county MO census) A(manda) 19 F IL N(ancy) 3 F MO #575 MORRIS, T(homas) 24 M IL S(ally) 21 F AR J(ohn) 4 M MO P.J. 1/12 F MO HOLLAND, M 30 F AR M.J. 8 F AR T. 1 M MO #576 MORRIS, T(homas) 64 M GA descendant D. 62 F GA HOOVER, N. 31 F TN #577 ADARE, W(illiam) 45 M TN Turnbo E. 45 F TN M(ary) A. 18 F TN 1860 Stone (Co. MO census) S. 17 M MO H(enry) 15 M AR 1860 Stone N(icholus) R. 13 M AR Stone Co. Marriages W(illiam) 11 M AR Turnbo J. 10 M AR S. J. 8 F MO M. 7 F MO J(ospeph) 5 M MO 1860 Carroll Co. AR J(ames) M. 3 M MO 1860 Stone Then, there's a whole slew of Herrins, McDaniels, and Wadkins families. Then this: #585 SMITH, J. 63 VA E. 58 F VA T.D. 18 M IN S. 16 F IN B(enjamine) H. 38 M VA 1860 Taney M(ariah) 34 F VA LEMING(LEMMON), J(ohn) 28 M KY J(ane) 30 F IN N(ancy) J. 3/12 F MO Now... Just going by my previous research (I've not done any new stuff in eons, it seems), and what I know of Taney during this time frame...also by pob and earlier apparent places of abode... The Smiths in #585 appear to be the parents of Susan, who was first married to Hartwell Taber and then William Brown. Jane, the wife of John Lemmon, also looks to be a daughter of the Smiths. This corner (I can hear the hue and cry now) of Taney in 1850 had many Cherokee/5 Civilized Tribe members who either preceded or left the Trail of Tears in 1838/9. I would imagine that most of this bunch, if they are Cherokee, were in MO and AR before the Trail. The reason I suspect Cherokee (or other NA) for the Morris family in particular is that GA was Cherokee Territory at the time of the parents' birth in the 1790s. Your suspicion appears to be right, as far as Thomas the Younger being the son of Thomas the Elder. The Smiths are probably not Cherokee or NA, but there is a chance. The Chickamauga line of Cherokee started coming from northern GA long before the Trail of Tears. The children who were born in IL and AR also point to a possible NA connection, because my Bilyeu/Clinkenbeard line (who were Chickamauga Cherokee) were in 1830 Sangamon/Christian/Greene Co. in IL in 1830, and moved back forth from there to the region of Carroll and Madison Counties in AR and Crawford/Miller Counties in MO during the 1830s. In 1840, my own line of the descendants of Isaac Bilyeu and Mary Ann Workman were in Miller Co. MO; in 1850, in the SW corner of Taney Co. The birthplaces of many of the children above coincide with those of the Bilyeu/Clinkenbeard lines. I've not explored the Workmans much, but there were many of them in the SE corner of Taney Co. MO, SW corner of Ozark Co. MO, and Marion Co. AR around this time (1850) as well--and many of the Workmans claim NA heritage. Some of the early BROWN families in Taney do, as well. And I would suspect your Sarah/Sally to be connected, possibly sib, to the Browns in the John Morris household--I'm not sure of John's wife, but she could be a Brown, as well. And William Adair--well, there were several of them, but Adair is a prominent Cherokee surname, and there were Adairs in AR from the Old Settlers, and also on the Trail. In other words, if there isn't any Cherokee/other NA heritage in these intermarried families, I'd be really surprised. They were in the right places at the right times. And many came to this particular region long before the Trail. They also moved a lot prior to 1850. Ingenthron notes in "Indians of the Ozark Plateau" that there was a band of Cherokee who lived north of present-day Berryville (in Carroll Co. AR) during the late 1820s and 1830s, after the Old Settlers were forced to move (by treaty) west into Indian Territory. State law in both MO and AR forbid Indians to live in either state by 1840, and they adopted yonega names and sort of melted into the background. Or came to the White River Valley where there were many others like them. I looked in my copy of the applicable Cherokee rolls, but to no great surprise, none of them are there...if they were, they still used Cherokee names, and like my families, we may never know those names. And there have been families who were later noted to be Cherokee who claimed IN as a pob. I've not figured that one out yet. I need to get a grant so's I can study this in depth.... Vonda ListMom for the MOTaney and MO-AR-WRV at Rootsweb http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~moarwrv/

Thanks to all of you who solved the mystery of the Box family. Your comments led me to do a search of the periodicals in the online Shepherd Room. I found a complete account of the tornado that swept through Melva that day. It explains that there were two Box families living there at the time and that the Box children who perished were from these two families. The story can be found at the URL below. It is a gruesome tale. http://198.209.8.166/periodicals/wrvq/v1/n9/f63d.htm Jo

I have William Richard Mahnkey in one of my sheets in the Vanzandt Cemetery. Poor little guy was only seven years old when the tornado took him. I think a tribute page would be a great idea. Bill -- ---------------------------------------------------- Shaun-Michael Morse Bill Dunn check out our home page at: http://www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/Village/8462/

I am quite interested in the Morris families in Taney County 1850. I believe now that my Gr. Gr. Grandfather was born there in 1847 to a Thomas Morris who married a Sarah Brown. Turnbo Tales mentions frequently a Tommy/Thomas Morris who is on the 1850 census with wife Dorothy next door to the Thomas and Sarah Morris household. Is this younger Thomas a son, Grandson, nephew? Its one of my mysteries. Nancy M. Boyd

From "Bright Glowed My Hills" by Douglas Mahnkey Ch. 7 "On March 11th, 1920, a tornado swept out of the southwest, destroyed our house and took the life of my youngest brother, William Richard." Which is all Mr. Mahnkey says about it in this book. They lived down at Melva, which was south of Hollister on Turkey Creek. The entire town was wiped out. Even now, I don't think there's even a foundation left. Elmo Ingenthron's "Land of Taney" has the tornado as the "big" event of the year in his timeline. But he has the date of 12 Mar. Otherwise, just says "many killed and wounded." Melva was on a prominent bald, next to the railroad. It might be interesting, those of you doing the transcribing, to keep track of the ones killed in the tornado. If you think it's a good idea, we could do a tribute page on the Taney site at WRV to those killed in the tornado...or shortly after, dying from injuries, maybe. To my knowledge, there have only been 2 tornadoes which actually touched down in Taney County. The one at Melva, and the one in either 1960 or 1961, which hit Bull Creek in the vicinity of Renshaw Cemetery, up from Rockaway Beach. I'm not sure the 2nd one actually touched down, even, but there were trees downed in that tornado in the cemetery. If you look at the topography of the land in the WRV, you'll see that tornadoes are rather hindered, so to speak, by the hills. Not to say they can't happen--my dad has seen plenty of them up in the sky, but not coming down. And this past spring, the night before the last day of school in Branson, I bedded my kids down in the hallway--and I don't spook in that way, normally. But the 3 young ones' bedrooms are all facing the southwest sky, and that side of the house faces uphill. A neighbor had one of the few big old trees left in the neighborhood come down on his roof--the 4th house down from ours. I'm trying to think--there's another local book that talks about the tornado in more detail, and I think it's Vickie Layton Cobb's "Fallen Leaves, Vol 1." The copy I was using was my aunt's, and I gave it back to her not long ago. The only Box family in 1910 Taney is this one in Jasper Twp. #77 BOX, Richard 43 head m2 MO TN IN Augusta 26 wife m1 2 1 1 IA IA IA Harry 9 son MO MO IA John 7 son " " " Bessie 5 dau " " " Ida 1 dau " " " Since this isn't the same family, my guess would be that the one who perished in the tornado hadn't lived here long. Vonda PS Melva doesn't seem to appear on any map drawn after the tornado, including my topo which normally shows everything...the PO started in 1906, and was discontinued in 1931. It shows up on Terraserver http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.asp?S=14&T=1&X=150&Y=1265&Z=15&W=2 You see Taneycomo snaking through the left. The long straight stretch of road is US Fed Hwy 65. Over to the east of that, you see Turkey Creek and the railroad. The jarring white line in the middle is now paved and a road to an expensive new golf course called Branson Creek (my 17 yr old works there) Melva is somewhere south of that jarring white line, along the creek.

Every time I get into a project on cemeteries or censuses or anything to do with old records for that matter I come across at least one mystery. The Taney County cemeteries list is no exception. I received my section of pages from Vonda a few days ago. On page 58 there is a family named Box. The name is not one I am familar with. There is a total of 8 of them in Branson Cemetery. Their first names are Georgie, Hubert, Jessie, Johnny, Mearl, Nancy, Oleta and William. Here is the mystery---all of them except one died on 11 March, 1920. The last one, William Box died in 1959. Why did all these people die on the same day? Was it a house fire, a car accident, a flood, a tornado, or some other disaster? Since they were the only ones with the surname Box I had the terrible thought that perhaps William Box was the only one in his family to survive. If that was the case it must have been a heavy burden for him to carry for the next 39 years that he lived. Does anyone know what happened to the Box family? Are there any old newspaper archives in the Branson area that might have the story? It sure would be interesting to know what happened to cause this family to perish on that March day in Taney County. Jo

Cute story. Yeah, Rockaway Beach can be pretty tricky. Glad you aren't with that hubby anymore. LOL Best wishes on your trip back here. Warmest Smiles, Pama

This got sent to me by accident, I think. I'm passing it on... V OK Vonda, here is a little story for you guys. I have just started researching my family of Cupp's who lived in Taney Co., MO around 1870 till around 1900. Not till Vonda just wrote about the people who made a full circle did I think of this story. I have been in Taney County one time in my life and that was on my honeymoon. (to my first husband) I was married in Butler, MO and we went to Rock-A-Way Beach for our honeymoon. Now it wasn't very pleasant as the guys at the wedding put Lingberger Cheese on our carburetor before leaving Butler and if you can imagine, the smell, that we drove down there with. I wanted to turn around and go home, but being the macho man that my new husband was, he said no, we could take it, well maybe he could -- but by the time we arrived in Rock-a-way Beach I was tired, hungry and sick to my stomach and was not a happy camper. (He discovered this when it was time for bed--lol.) We started out the next day driving thru the hills and sightseeing everything we could find--had planned on heading back to Butler after only a two day honeymoon as that was all we could afford back then and he had to go back to work. I remember the day of sightseeing as if was only yesterday. The water, the fall leaves, the trees, the road itself just enticed me into thinking we were the only ones who were in the area. We found a small cabin type community while driving around and made reservations for the next night. Not sure where this place even was, but we were headed back north of Rock-a-way Beach when we ran into it. We spent the second night again at Rock-A-Way Beach. Upon checking into the cabin that we had rented for the third night, they had a small bar/restaurant that was included in this community, we went for dinner and a little pool and dancing, that evening. When we arrived back at our cabin, I went to turn the bed down and there was a very large spider in the middle of the bed, I screamed and my new husband came running and I said "Kill it" and he just stood there and it ran off the back side of the bed. I told him, I am not sleeping on the back side of that bed and he said I am not either, well it was a stand off and guess who slept in the chair. You got it, me.! We finally made it home the next evening, and I again was not a happy camper! I can remember these things as if they were yesterday but at that young age was not thinking about genealogy or my ancestors. Probably could not have even told you my G Grandfathers name. (and I wonder why my daughter has no interest in Genealogy) I am coming back to Taney Co., MO in about two weeks and am not bringing that husband! I am looking forward to the visit and will pay attention to the countryside and area this time. Those of you that have had the opportunity of living and raising your children in Taney Co. and areas like this, have not missed a thing, in the rest of the world. If fact those of us that have never been there, are the ones missing something. Ideana By the way I am not married to that husband anymore, so really don't care if he hears me tell this story or not.

Here's the link to Garber again. http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.asp?S=10&T=1&X=2365&Y=20303&Z=15&W=2 We drove off the road you see in the bottom right hand corner of the picture. Those buildings up toward the middle right are about 50 feet up from the bank of Roark Creek. Although my folks say I've been there before, I don't remember it. Grandma's sister Juanita and her husband George HURSH used to own that place, and 500 acres along with it. They sold it back in 1970, thereabouts, bought it in the early 60s. Aunt Juanita ran a beauty shop in downtown Branson during those years, Uncle George was a truck driver. The main house, the big building you see here above the creek from what I can tell, was a restaurant during part of its existence. The building next to it is a concrete-block garage that Uncle George had built. The 3rd building is now an artist's studio, but it was a barn. The fourth building, which you can hardly see, just up from the 3rd, is an old barn built of white oak logs and it has a tin roof. The building below the creek is a hay barn. If you don't know how to get there, you can't find it. There are a bunch of old foundations here. Before they had closed on the place, Aunt Juanita took my dad and grandma down there. One building was stuffed full of furniture and books, they could see through the window, but Aunt Juanita wouldn't let Daddy go in until they signed the paperwork. Daddy was living in Kansas City at the time, and as soon as he could, came back down to go through all the stuff there. By that time, Uncle George had burned all the extra buildings down--and hadn't bothered to go inside to look at what might have been there. No telling what mysteries we have now that might have been solved if Daddy had gotten to it first. This was the old Hardin COX place. (I'm not even going to tell you what they called him for short, but trust me, it's weird to hear your grandmother say those two words together...) Apparently a lot of extended family lived on the place as well, and that's the reason for the extraordinary number of buildings. Hard (b 1875 MO) was married to Martha FRONABERGER (b Feb 1878 AR) 11 Oct 1895 in Taney County. Their daughter Walsie (b Jul 1897) was married to the brother of my g grandmother Sarah, George BULL (b 15 Feb 1894, on Roark). Hard's brother Newt (b Aug 1871 MO) was married to Permilia "Millie" Garber (b 1873 MO), who was a postmistress of the Garber Post Office/General Store, apparently before John Ross re-plotted the town. Their sister Alice (b 1853-1857 IL or MO) was married to Collet McCAULEY (b 1851 MS). Oldest brother William R.'s (b 1854-1856 IL) son William (b 1880 Taney Co. MO) was my step-great grandmother, Dacie JONES's first husband (she was b 1884 MO). Most of these folks are buried down in Gretna Cemetery. On 26 Jul 1919, William and Daisy's daughter Dacie was swimming, and got caught in a whirlpool. William went after her, and got caught as well; neither of them survived. This happened on Roark. You'd never know Roark could have a whirlpool to look at it now. Dry as a bone in lots of places. Dacie JONES COX married Pleasant Andrew WYRE (b 1852 NC), who lived just a short distance away, in 1920. It was a marriage of convenience, apparently. In 1928, Dacie married John Woodrow WILSON (b 1881 Grundy Co. MO), my great-grandfather. She was his 2nd wife, Sarah Elizabeth BULL (b 1885 MO) being his first. And who I got the picture of yesterday... It makes the people real, seeing these places. I never knew any of them, Grandpa John having passed away in 1963. I attended "Daisy's" funeral about 1973, but she'd lived in CA after John died. Grandma Sarah passed away in 1955. When we pulled up, a cowboy-looking fella came walking up, to see what we were doing there. My dad explained it to him, and boy, when you get a bunch of folks talking this kind of thing...we were there 2 hours. The man is Barry Johnson. He is a sculptor, working with bronze and doing Western Art, but that's not all he does. I don't think there's anything he can't do, in the way of repair and building on houses. He designed and built a bridge across Roark Creek in front of his house, and from what we can tell, I don't think that bridge will get washed away like the one Uncle Jim and Uncle George built in the mid-60s, come a flood. Barry's bridge is 82 feet long, built of steel and iron, embedded in rock and concrete. So if you ever see bronze scultures of Western Art, and it's got Barry's name on it, you know...it was designed right here in Taney County. There's much more to Barry's story, but it's not mine to tell. He is not from Taney County, despite the fact he fits right in and has even made good friends with Willard JONES. He is a SD native, but I betcha we get to talkin' someday, and I'll make a connection to MO, better yet, the WRV of southern MO. About Willard JONES. He has been all over the world, building custom log homes. I've not had the pleasure of meeting him yet, but Grandma says he is the son of that Leonard JONES, the one who lived in the place by the trestle downstream. Several of the cabins out at Silver Dollar City were built by Willard. His son works with my dad. So, after all that, I got to see the road leading into Garber, and Barry has said I can come back anytime to go to the old Post Office, a stone building that is supposed to be all that's left. We had to get back to town, and didn't get there today. But you know what? It was a good day, anyway... Y'all have a great week. Vonda ListMom for MOTaney and the White River Valley http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~moarwrv/

Last night, we made plans to go find Garber again today--Grandma was mad that I went without her again yesterday. When my grandma gets mad, a steel rod goes right down her spine, and she grows from about 4 ft 11 in to Mad-Tall. You can imagine her totin' a shotgun sometimes, depending on what she's mad about, but I've not seen her actually do so... My uncle Jim Wilson, his son Chad, and another cousin, Vernon, were sitting outside waiting for breakfast when Greg and I pulled into Grandma's this morning. After me being antsy for a while, we hauled Daddy in the Blazer with us, and Uncle Jim--Daddy's youngest sib--followed in his late-model Chrysler. I knew we wouldn't be going as far as I'd've liked to--Uncle Jim's been living in the Kansas City area an awful long time, and you just don't take some vehicles up some roads...<BG> Drove down "Church" Road again, this time with commentary from Daddy. One of the oldest houses you see is just before you hit the steep part of the hillside; it is a 2 story, with the bottom story rock, and the front-to-back slant-roofed 2nd story wood (an addition after the original was built). My great-grandfather and his 2nd wife had lived in this house in 1934, and Grandma and Grandpa had lived at the same time, in a log cabin across the road from it. Across the road from the house now is a subdivision. This same house was up for sale not long ago, and Ingrid and I had talked about it when we went gallivantin' last week. I forgot to tell you--all the buildings on the Jones place, if I'm remembering correctly--were of plank wood construction. None of them were logs. I don't know where the nearest saw mill was to Garber, but it'd be interesting finding out. Went past the trestle again, and on up the valley. There's a small creek running in the area of the Jones' Place, but Daddy and I couldn't agree on its name. Too far north to actually be Roark. It was totally dry, too. Went on past the backside of the Henning State Forest, crossed the "crick"--Roark--and come on around. By this time, we're on a narrow dirt road. What y'all may not be understanding...there were apparently 2 Garbers. The early one was closer to the Jones' Place, and the gravel road that Terri and I walked yesterday was the old road between Gretna and Garber. The second one, the one that John K. Ross ("Old Matt" from "The Shepherd of the Hills", according to local legend) plotted about 1907 was a bit farther west and north. Step by step, so you can see what I'm talking about... Go to http://www.terraserver.microsoft.com/ and type in "Branson". Click on the aerial photo. The picture you'll get then will have Lake Taneycomo snaking through the right side. Off to the lower left-hand corner you'll see where "back-up" is from Table Rock Lake--the dam is not in view. In roughly the center of the picture, you'll see a valley snaking away to the upper left--that's Roark Valley. BTW, there are NO straight roads here--LOL--what those lines are, if they aren't super-imposed latitude-longitude lines, are where the powerlines for electricity run through the hills. There's a big ole' white spot in the upper 1/3 of the picture. To the right of that is Hwy 248. To the left is Roark Valley. If you click on that, you'll see it's a rock quarry. Play around some, go south, and you'll see in the Valley a long building alongside the railroad track--if you use Royal Oak Charcoal, that's where it comes from, the Keeter Charcoal Factory (I think they actually call it Royal Oak now.) There's where the town of Gretna was. Gretna Cemetery is at the north end of the factory building. If you're on the 4 km view, up the hill to the right of the Charcoal plant is Branson Meadows Factory Outlet center--it kinda looks like a wagon train circled for the night. The road running along it is called Gretna Road...4 lanes. This picture is http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.asp?S=12&T=1&X=595&Y=5071&Z=15&W=2 Getting back to Garber...keep traveling, clicking on the arrows outside the picture, northwest. http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.asp?S=12&T=1&X=593&Y=5073&Z=15&W=2 should get you to where the quarry is in the right center of your picture. Dewey Bald is the lower left hand corner, with a corner of Hwy 76 (the trail no one knows how old) snaking through. Sycamore Log Church Road is on the upper right, coming down and making a sharp turn to the left. The Sycamore Log Church is in that corner, if I'm not mistaken, and there are still worship services held there (they were in services this morning as we went through). Follow the road down to where it veers up again, turning right. That's the railroad trestle at the Jones place. Click on that trestle until you get to the 1 mile view. (It says Zoom on the upper left corner of the map, then what view you're on.) Now click here. I can't tell you how I got here....LOL http://terraserver.microsoft.com/image.asp?S=10&T=1&X=2365&Y=20303&Z=15&W=2 There is a trestle there, crossing the East Fork of Roark Creek (which goes north, I'm not even going to try to figure that out). The houses down to the right from the 2 branches junction comprise a ranch called "Peaceful Valley". Garber, the one my grandmother knew, was just to the west of the trestle. Up over the incline of the railroad, and back down... The ledge rock/shelf rock road that I took the Cavalier up back in August is at the bottom, going up over Cox Bald. You keep clicking that direction, and you won't be able to see it for the trees, hardly, but it comes out on a loop of Hwy 76. These maps are old, for that loop has been cut off, in preparation for the Ozark Mtn. Highroad. Enough geography. I gotta story to tell. Vonda

Howdy! I don't know about y'all, but the changing of the seasons is always an exciting time for me. Of course, I live here in Taney County, where each season gets its just due, if Mother Nature and El Nino/Nina don't fight too much...we haven't had a real winter now for several years. And the White River (the lakes that now ARE the White--Beaver, Table Rock, Taneycomo, Bull Shoals, and Norfolk--5 I believe) is lower than anyone remembers; the creeks can be easily walked across, water appearing and disappearing in shallow pools at will. This weekend was my Wilson Family Reunion. About 50 of us were present Saturday, with folks visiting from all over. A distant cousin, Rod Bias and his wife Suzanne even drove in from Phoenix, AZ, to attend this year. Pama Nash Wilder, one of my double/triple cousins LOL, came down and met her Wilson cousins for the first time ('ceptin' me, of course), and had herself a blast. I found out I'd gone to school with even more cousins (Don, are you listening?), the children of Georgine Boswell Cummings. LOL I don't know if it happens to y'all or not, but I've met folks at funerals and weddings both, after seeing them for years around Branson (likely as customers at WalMart), never knowing we are cousins until those events, when we get to asking how come the other one is there...<BG> My cousin Judy Boyd JOHNSON--her husband's JOHNSON family are from the Ava, Douglas Co. area--gave me a picture of our g grandparents, Sarah Elizabeth BULL and John Woodrow WILSON. Her grandmother, Martha Annis (she md William McKinley "Bill" JONES) was about 3 in the picture, and our g uncle Franklin Sherman WILSON is still a babe in arms. This is the first decent picture of Sarah I've ever seen--and boy, between her and my g grandmother Lula May OVERSTREET MACOMB, you know where I get my looks. Made my day for a week, getting that picture, which was taken about 1906. Most of y'all know, I'm bound to go out "gallivantin'". Just hop in the car and go, seeing what there is to see. Best kind of day there is, far as I'm concerned, is when Greg and I can get up and just jump in the car with my notepad, chalk for any tombstones we might find, and hiking boots, and take off. Well, yesterday, another Wilson cousin, Terri Tindall, and I went lookin' for Garber. Now, I know I've been out lookin' for it before, taking my little Cavalier up the shelf-rock/ledge rock road from Roark Valley to an old part of Hwy 76, close to Silver Dollar City. Don't know what the road is called now, but back when the Railroad first came to Taney County, tourists would ride down to the small village of Garber, get off, and then get a wagon ride up this road to visit Marvel Cave. That was in the early 1900s, and after the book "Shepherd of the Hills" was published in 1907 (if you haven't read it, you really need to), the number of visitors to the area exploded... Anyhow, Terri and I got to talking yesterday, and we kinda snuck out of the Reunion--Greg and my parents had run home for this and that, the kids were visiting friends for the day. Now, if you've seen my picture at the WRV site (click on "About Stuff" if you haven't), you know I'm not much on doodads, and for some reason this year, I've started wearing long broomstick skirts and flats. Which I wore yesterday. Go figure. We went driving out Hwy 248, and just west of where the Old Boston Road meets 248, turned south again down Sycamore Log Church Road. This road, another old road, leads down from an area called Skyline. You can see this if you go to http://www.terraserver.microsoft.com/ , type in "Garber, MO", and it'll come up with 2 maps. Neither are real recent, but you get some idea from the aerial photo of the land we're dealing with. There are a few old rock houses with some excellent rock work along the road. The road travels down, down, down, into the valley; you cross at the bottom under a nearly 100-year-old railroad trestle. Before the trestle, there's some old buildings--a barn, a couple of sheds, an outhouse, a gate with a stile--right alongside the road. Went on past to the backside of the Ruth and Paul Henning State Conservation Department Forest, where there's the 4 mile hiking trail that goes past some other old buildings and glades the Con. Dept is working on. We parked there, and walked to the ford there at Roark Creek, an old cement slab. Then we turned around and went back to the buildings at the trestle. Remember now, I'm in an ankle-length long skirt, with a denim vest and flat shoes, no socks. Terri was smart and wore blue jeans yesterday. We parked at the foot of a gravel road that climbed the hill--it's an extremely narrow "cut" in the valley--the road is blocked off by a cattle gate. First, we went around the gate and walked up the gravel road, and we see the buildings from above. See more that we want to get to, but there's a "bob-wire" fence. So we went back down and walked along Sycamore Log Church Road to the gate, and took the path up this hill. Overgrown with brush, the path had been delineated--not a word most hillbillies use, BTW--with field stone, and steps were laid, again with stone. Wooden hand rail still standing. On the steep part of the bench--we're looking at the buildings all the while--the steps were overgrown with brush, but you can see iris beds and that someone had spent an enormous amount of time landscaping. The bench, while a natural part of the hill, kinda like a pause in the downhill aspect, had been "terraced" with natural stone. The part we were standing in front of, someone had taken flakes of limestone and covered the foot of this part of the bench--it was about 3 ft in height. We climbed it. We were standing on an old roadbed. Didn't appear to have ever been graveled, and right in front of us was what appeared to be an old small barn--but I'm not sure. The front was open, and it was roughly 16 ft tall, built with the hill rising at its back. Two stories, with the bottom part having been built of rock, the top floor of planks. Some of the rock had caved in, but you could make out a short doorway into the bottom floor. Inside this floor, which wasn't tall enough to stand in unless you're under 5 ft tall, there was a crib. Top floor could easily have been hay storage, or maybe it was a corn crib, I don't know. I didn't see a hole in the top floor for hay to be pitched down, but I didn't go inside--the wood was not safe. The floor of the top story was above our heads, and the door on the right led onto a path which met the road we were on some 15-20 more to the right. I would say it might have been a cow barn, maybe for an expectant cow to be penned up. More rock work and iris beds. We turned right, and an old foundation of rock, with 2 concrete porches was on the right side of the road. The path we had been on apparently had led to a door in this house, which was pretty good-sized. Weeds in the roadbed were about knee-high as we walked along, trying to figure out if this was the original site of Garber. Awful lot of buildings--there was an old cabin to the left of the house foundation, with a rock fireplace. Across from it was another shed-type structure, this one open-fronted as well. There wasn't any wood lying there to tell if it had a front. You could tell the big house had burned. A water pump was in the concrete of the front porch, and there were holes in the concrete where the logs had supported the roof. The railroad trestle was not more than 50 feet behind this house, and a path from it led down to the trestle. Made me think it had been a store, with the owner living in the cabin next to it. Even though my grandma has about 8 sheds on her place for storage, she's not a farmer and her buildings are full of stuff. I couldn't see how this wouldn't have been a small village, with the rock work along the old road bed, and the many buildings. The roadbed ran parallel to the graveled road Terri and I had walked up, and went past the cabin into a turnaround. By this time, I realized that my skirt was covered with burrs. Of many kinds. Now, I've never seen a burr plant, don't have any idea what burrs come off of, but I was covered from ankle to about 3 feet high. Made it worse that my skirt is extremely full-cut--lots of fabric. Terri had burrs on her legs as well, and the denim shirt she'd tied around her waist was coated with them. Realizing we needed to get back--Mom had made chili for the clan, and we hadn't told anyone where we were going--we started to go back down the way we came up. Nope. That limestone flake was NOT the way to get back down. There's a couple, three buildings between the old roadbed and Sycamore Log Church Road. An outhouse, a probable chicken coop, something else I couldn't tell you the use of. A really big barn was across "Church" Road, and a couple more smaller sheds between it and the pavement. The front of that big barn appears to be right on the train track. We didn't go look. We followed the roadbed down to the fork where we'd parked. What appeared to be poison ivy blocked the way going around the cattle gate on the left end; dense brush and "bob-wire" was between the right end and the gate that blocked the gravel road. The only thing to do was climb over the gate. These gates neither one had fencing attached, and stand at least 6 feet high. Terri went first, me holding her camera. Then I handed it and my ever-present Diet Dr. Pepper to her, and started up. Heard a car coming, and I honestly don't remember the last time I moved so fast--but I flew over the top of that gate, skirt flyin' as well. Landed with a nice thud, and had gathered my ladylike facade by the time the truck came rollin' by. Terri was still laughin' when we got into the car. The Empty Gas Tank light came on--my gallivantin' buddies know it's always an adventure when I get to goin'--and we made it back to civilization and a gas station just fine. Everyone was rather jealous when we got back to the Reunion late, but they'd left us some chili just the same. Grandma says that that place was the old Leonard Jones place. In the 1910 census, he is 14, living with his parents Calvin age 37 b MO (parents b KY) and Clara Siegal/Siegel age 34 b OH. They were md 4 Dec 1892 in Taney County. There was a brother Lonny age 16, and a brother Elmer, age 1 1/2. This was Branson Twp, although it's not far from the boundary shared with Jasper Twp. Since Grandma was born about 2 miles west of the Jones place in 1915, I'm suspecting she never knew Leonard's parents. The buildings are all, but for the burned house, standing where they were built; some have some roofs fallen in somewhat. The rock work...man, it's something to see. However--I don't advise going onto folks' places unless you know the owner, or if you get permission. There's no one living within 2 miles of this place--can you imagine?--and I knew, because of the good condition it was in, that a native owned it. Not that I'm special, but my Daddy is, and if he isn't related to someone in this area, he knows them! I figured if someone came haulin' after us with a shotgun, seeing 2 women--one wearing a skirt in the woods, for idiocy's sake--we'd just do like always, and ask if they know about this place. Most of the time, that'll get you all kinds of stories, and the natives, if you can't tell, we like to tell stories. I spent the rest of the evening picking burrs from outside and inside my skirt--retaining my facade--and listened to kin singin' blue grass and "Rocky Top". That was Saturday. Boy, wait till you hear about today. Vonda Wilson Sheets ListMom for MOTaney and MO-AR-WRV http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~moarwrv/

Good Day, Does some kind soul have access to the1860 Taney Co., MO census to check for a William KESTER? Any assistance will be greatly appreciated. Vonda, I haven't received my cemetery pages in the mail yet. Am I jumping the gun and should I just wait a couple more days? Bill -- ---------------------------------------------------- Shaun-Michael Morse Bill Dunn check out our home page at: http://www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/Village/8462/

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

Ideana, Wasn't me. Sharron had misread your e-mail. She was reading William Cupp's birth. All just a big misunderstanding. Thought though there for a minute I was really messing up some info to my family. Warmest Smiles, Pama