Well. The copper-turtle server is still down, but at least there's something there now that tells you it will come back...! SO...if you e'd me asking for the links to the Townsend Godsey books, and I've not answered you...there have been some unforeseeable complications. The server containing the business website was physically moved Friday evening, and while our mailing server wasn't supposed to be upset about it, apparently it was. I've not been able to check my email since then. Then tonight, techno-guru Greg managed to find our mail (everyone in the family has a mailbox there) and I darn near had a stroke when he told me I had 1200 emails. I've been fretting over getting kicked off my own lists, but that didn't happen (dream on...LOL). I've been fretting over not getting requests from folks onlist for the book links, which I couldn't give you since the server was down. Incredible, impossible timing. Not very funny. Then my puter, which doesn't seem to appreciate Greg as much as I do, threw a hissy and wouldn't let him download my mail. In retrospect, I wisely took off and drove around with my visiting sis-in-law for an hour, just long enough to stay out of Greg's hair and let him figure out the mess. Part of it is figured. For the time being, if you happen to have my addy for copper-turtle in your address books, please use mailto:[email protected] . I changed my settings to use that for the "reply to" button, so any e you send should go to that mailbox. If it goes to copper-turtle, please be patient... I did get kicked off some of my lists, and the bad part is, I don't remember which ones...but they were the busiest ones, and so I'm sure I'll get to missing them. For those of you receiving doubles of messages, I often send posts to both lists at the same time. If you are on both lists (MOTANEY and MO-AR-WRV), you get doubles. I was getting 4 of them...and it's hard not to think you're boring folks when you read the same subject line 4 times in your own mailbox. I have managed to get through all the emails, believe it or not...for some reason, although I checked my mail every day last week, a lot of it was the same mail I got last week. So if I wrote you in reply to a message you sent last week, just realize I didn't dare drink coffee to stay awake, and my frazzlement isn't necessarily catching. Else I'm having a bad dream in which the same emails are going to haunt me forever. Gots to git. I told the kids I was going to get them up earlier than usual in the morning, but that only works if I hear the alarm clock... Let's have some genealogy and some local stuff! Brighten my day tomorrow! And thanks for letting me sob on your shoulders... <mutter, mutter, 1200 emails...> Vonda ListMom for MOTANEY and MO-AR-WRV http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~moarwrv/

I just discovered something that should be discussed with genealogy people. My 2nd cousin was or is in town from Missouri and we just got back from having breakfast with him and his wife. In our conversations this morning, he made the remark that our distance cousin who died penniless and had moved to another state after the death of her husband was upset the last years of her life as she kept saying I want to be buried in the same cemetery beside my husband, but cannot afford to go back now and have no money for plot and services. Anyway to make a long story short she died, and my 2nd cousin knew of her despair and he was told that she was cremated to cut costs. He knew of her desire to be buried beside her husband so he went and had a headstone made and planted it beside her husbands tombstone at this cemetery. He said he put "in memory of" on it and her name and date of birth and death. He said that there was another cousin that he was going to do the same thing with but she is actually buried in Washington but he is going to put a headstone in the local cemetery so that she is with family even thought her body or remains are in Washington. Am I confused or what here. Won't this very confusing to the future generations who find them supposedly buried in one place but headstone in another? If he wants to go to the expense of headstones for their memory, shouldn't it be worded a special way? I told him I would check into it and get back to him--can I have some feed back on this. Maybe I just don't understand and it will be recorded or something about the cremations. As all of you know cremation is getting to be done more and more because of less expenses. My own Mother wants to be cremated but told her I wanted her to buy a burial plot and have her ashes put there in her family's cemetery and she has agreed to do this, in fact already done. Thanks for listening. Ideana

Ideana, Were I you, I'd be making a note of it in your genealogy work, and be sure that others besides yourself and your cousin's immediate family know what he's done. To be honest, I feel he has already done more than most people would have even considered doing, and I see nothing wrong with it, but you have an extremely valid point. Maybe on the tombstones in the family cems it could be noted on the stones themselves, something along the lines of "buried in 'such & such cemetery, city, state". The cost would be minimal, and would give future generations a clue in looking for clues. Anyone else? Vonda

Ideana, My wife and I are planning something similar. I want to be cremated and she doesn't. We have purchased two plots and will have two stones, one for each of us. My stone will have the added comment "Cremains scattered at xyz". The family knows and now anyone else who sees the stones will know what took place. Just another idea...... Rob Rob and Aileen (Meroney) SCHULZE, Prescott, AZ ([email protected]) Researching: BRADLEY, SCHULZE, HENEY, KASTEN, SCHREINER, OLEY/OHLEY, FAUCETT, WALKER, TEAL, ALLEY, MERONEY, GENTRY, PILGRIM, WAINSCOTT, DOYLE, WILSON, GOODE, NOLAN, LUTZ, MILLER, FYKE.

Here is a good site to prowl around in. Canadian Archives and its very interesting as it even list ships. http://www.archives.ca/exec/naweb.dll?fs&02011002&e&top&0 V.

Hee, hee... Got my Summer 2000 issue of the White River Valley Historical Quarterly in the mail just a little while ago. Ingrid Albers, a list member here, has done wonderful with her first issue as editor! (and I'm not just saying that because I have an article in there, either...I'm ashamed I didn't contribute earlier, when Lynn Morrow, the former editor, was aboard, and I have all 1001 excuses at the ready, including being one of the younger and newer members) I would say this is a history-making edition for a variety of reasons, not the least being Ingrid's first...included are articles about the MO-KS Melungeon Group; several articles about Branson and Hollister in the early days, including articles about the Turkey Creek Bridge in Hollister, and the first stage production of Shepherd of the Hills on the lake front in Branson; there is a letter from one Bald Knobber descendant to another; and an article about Frank Jones, a sheriff in Christian County, MO. Unfortunately, the latest edition online is from 1998... Maybe that's another project for next year, eh? You can join the Society from the home page of the White River Valley of MO and AR at http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~moarwrv/ and scroll down to "The White River Valley Historical Society". Members get copies of each quarterly for the year of their membership, as part of membership dues. Speaking from experience, each one is a good read; I'm going to have to start keeping a list of the ones I do have so I can get the ones I don't...(can't you hear poor Greg moaning now? LOL) Hear, hear, Ingrid! GREAT WORK! Vonda

Hey, Barb, According to Janice Looney's transcription, that family in Flat Twp (I venture to suggest that it was known later as Flat Creek Twp) is Benham, and can be found in 1860 Stone Co. Census. Here is what she has-- #297 Beniam J. 36 m MO 400 John Benham [source] 1860 Stone Co. M. 26 f MO Mary S. 7 f MO "Cyntha" R. 5 m MO Robert J.P. 3 m MO John P. J. 1 m MO James K. E. 1 f MO [no name] twins SMITH, M. J. 12 f MO [no name] Although we can't put her transcriptions online, you can use Looney's and other works for consultation and research purposes. To me, what you have online looks like "Buniem". Gosh...I don't envy you t'all. My guess is that this census enumerator's ears have been burning, and that he has been rolling in his grave from the wind caused by all the hollering that's been sent his direction for quite some time. Many thanks for all the headaches you have been enduring for this project. Big PAT on the back to you, and some Advil is in the mail... Vonda

Hi Taney County researchers. I volunteered a couple of years ago to transcribe the 1850 Taney County Federal Census for the U.S. Gen Web census transcription project, but I was having a tough time making it to a local Mormon FHC to view the microfilm. This summer I managed to get a CD of the census images, so I have been working every chance I get to get it transcribed. I am over 1/3 of the way finished!! YAH!!! Some pages are hard to read and some names hard to make out. Maybe someone could help me with this page. I am putting a small section of the page here : http://www.alaska.net/~dlogan/362a.gif Could you take a look and see if you can guess what the name may be?? I have thought of BLEVINS or BINSEN or ?? The head of the house is listed on the previous page 361b : "Flat" Township, Taney County, Missouri Dwelling and Family #297 B ????? J. 36 M Farmer 400 Missouri Page 362a says : "Washington" Township, Taney County, Missouri Dwelling and Family #297 (assumed) B ????? M. 26 F Missouri B ????? S. 7 F Missouri B ????? R. 5 M Missouri B ????? J. P. 3 M Missouri B ????? J. 1 M Missouri B ????? E. 1 F Missouri Age Column also says "Tns" (Twins?) SMITH M. J. 12 F Missouri The enumerator was not real clear when he moved from Township to Township, so this happens several times that part of a family is listed on a page as being in one place and the rest of the family on the next page is listed in another place.... It would probably be better to E Mail me direct with your thoughts, at : MAILTO:[email protected] If you reply to the list, PLEASE don't forward the entire message! Let's not waste our space with repetition. Barbara Logan [email protected] in Fairbanks, Alaska

Well... I'm not totally cut-off from the rest of society, anyway... I'm headed over to Forsyth to make copies of Bob's notebooks, and to work on my lessons for my certification course...I've been dragging my feet, reasons unknown. The quarterly meeting Sunday of the WRVHS went well. It has been decided to re-activate the Historic Places Committee, and we should be holding a committee meeting in the next week or so. It wasn't necessarily inactive, but hadn't been a really big priority in the past couple of decades. I get to be on the committee (squeaky wheel, a role I play well), and I've decided to draw up a prototype brochure and design a non-fancy sign that we could use as a prototype as well. The hollering I've done in the past about there being few, if any, historic markers or preservation work being done in the WRV region, particularly Taney County, may get a few results. We'll have to see. I still have some kinks to work out for suggestions, and since I have a lot to learn, it's going to be a wild ride! The president of the society, Jo Albers, and Ingrid Albers, who is the editor of the WRVHS's Quarterly, and I met Friday morning to start up a list of places we felt deserved recognition. It is by no means complete, but it is started! The Becker Family Reunion was held last weekend, at Taneycomo Resort on Lake Shore Drive, just east of Branson. I found out that Vera Greene (whose mother was Minnie Becker) was married to Clarence CORNELIOUS, and they had 2 sons, Freddie and Harold. Freddie apparently has been sheriff or a deputy in Douglas Co. MO, and plays in a band (which no one seemed to know the name of). I received 2 death certs in the mail from the MO Dept of Health last week, both for my mother's Becker grandparents. The one for Mary Ellen Watson Becker is correct, but apparently there were 2 Jacob Beckers who died in 1936, and they sent the first one--which was not the right one, although I had supplied the necessary dates and places. One thing the websites for MO Vital Records do not tell you is to submit a copy of your i.d. and you have to state your relationship to the person you want records for. I sent the incorrect record back, the receipt, my original letter, and a letter to the supervisor, requesting that they send the correct record since I had supplied the actual dates for them. If I hadn't, I'd simply just request the record again, but I felt someone simply found a Jacob Becker who died in April 1936 and didn't bother to double-check. My Jacob died in June 1936, in a different county altogether; plus I supplied the date of birth. I hope they don't write me back asking me for another $10, but we'll see...;>) Pama Nash Wilder and Deb Hagler visited me last Thursday (while my living room is in the midst of preparation for a yard sale in a couple of weeks). We had a wonderful time--it so neat to actually get to talk to people who know the same stuff you do. Pama is a cousin to me twice--through the Bilyeus, and through the Nashes (though the Wilson-Nash connection is quite a bit closer). She's also a cousin to Greg through the Blansit-Nash marriages. Deb, who is not onlist, is a Nash descendant from the NW corner of MO. We are trying to find if there is a connection, but haven't yet. Wanda Pickett Ehlers, who is related to the Edwards-Pickett-Haggard/etc., bunch of folks who live around Kirbyville, called me on Labor Day. She is wanting to find someone who restores tombstones, for work on Van Zandt Cemetery in Kirbyville. I spoke to Walter Cobb, director of Whelchel Funeral Home in Branson, at my cousin's funeral last Wednesday, and he thought he might know of someone who does such work. I'm going to give him another few days, then drop in to see if he's found someone. Speaking of my cousin...Ernest Lee Boyd, s/o E. Jake Boyd and Pansy Malita Wilson, passed away 2 Sep 2000, from cancer. He was b in 1940 in Branson. The Boyds all lived up along Hwy 248, along the ridge separating Bear Creek Valley from Roark Creek Valley. I've not figured the exact connection yet, but I believe Lee was a great-nephew of the Fate Boyd in the book "These Were the Last", who is pictured and noted to be a white-oak basket maker. There is a sign up at the jct. of Hwys 248 and 160 advertising the baskets, and I believe some Boyds are still making them up there. A neighbor and I went to breakfast together a couple of weeks ago, celebrating the kids going back to school <VBG>, and ended up going exploring down some dirt roads in Taney and Stone counties afterwards. Considering some of the places we were, the flat tire I got on the way back down 248 to Branson was a blessing--we were on some old shelf-rock wagon roads in my little Chevy (which Greg probably wouldn't have taken down) waaaaaaaaaaay back in the hollers. I made it almost home after airing the tire up on the north side of town, and a couple of nice young fellers changed out the spare. Seems I can't go exploring with either my aunt or my female friends without having car/van trouble of some kind--Greg said that meant he was supposed to get to go, too! The thing is, Greg always insists on driving, and he goes so fast, I don't get to see some places...by the time I tell him I want to stop, he's already past it! And he gets irritated at turning around...so it's kinda small price to pay, picking up a bolt on a tire covered by road hazard! LOL It does my heart good to "get lost" in some of these places. Repairs my soul, you could say. I asked a couple of people, just for kicks, who the Bald Knobbers were, in the past couple of weeks. No surprise, the answer was, "That music show out on the strip". So I'm putting together a site for Bald Knobbers, that I hope to have done in the near future. It will be accessible through the WRV site. I am trying to collect some stories from some of the descendants of the people involved, both for and against. The more I study them, the more I really can't say they were good or bad--they did what they thought necessary at the time, I suppose. We got our first rain since the first of August this morning, and it may rain some more today. Let's hope... Have a GREAT week! Vonda mailto:[email protected] if you need to reach me!

Hello! My servers are down for both the business and my mail, so I've not gotten any emails since Friday. Despite the work being done, seems they can't find the problem...I'm hoping, for a change, that y'all are just being real quiet--otherwise, I'm probably kicked off all my lists for bounces. If not, I likely have more than 500 e's waiting for me... If you need to contact me, use my backup addy of mailto:[email protected] --I seem to be getting mail through it okay! Vonda

Hi List, There are some new mystery photos on the Stone County web site. We need your help identifying them. They are pictures from the 1930-1940's and we are hoping you all might recognize someone! For those interested the URL is: http://www.rootsweb.com/~mostone/mystpics/cook/cook.html Thanks for your help! Jo

Hey, The MO Dept of Conservation has a hiking trail near the old townsite of Garber, on Roark Creek. It is part of the Ruth and Paul Hennings State Park. There are several old homesteads, parts of which are still standing, on the map of the trail. Newt Cox's place is one of them. The person who compiled the history already had it wrong at the Rube Isaacs homestead, by stating he was a temporary sheriff after Galba Branson was killed in the shootout with Billy Miles and friends. She stated that Galba was killed by Bald Knobbers, when Ingenthron is quite clear in all of his books that Billy Miles was an Anti-Bald Knobber. Then I got to thinking about it, and I don't think Sheriff Reuben Isaacs ever lived over on Roark Creek. When his daughter married before his death in 1895, she was listed as living in Forsyth (clear over to the other side of the county.) My grandmother knew a Rube Isaacs, clearly NOT the one who was sheriff, since she wasn't born until 1915. My question is, did the Sheriff have a son by that name, and if so, did he live in Jasper, or possibly Newton or Branson Twp in later years? I'm wondering just whose homestead that was. Vonda

Wouldn't you know, just when I wuz a'wonderin' how to let more folks know about the Godsey books, I'd get an e about an area at Rootsweb from another list. If you didn't know about the classified ads at Rootsweb, here's the link: http://cgi.rootsweb.com/~classifieds/ You can post things to buy or sell here. Larn summat new ever'day. Hope y'all have a great week! Vonda

okeydoke, here we go--better not be drinking whilst you're a-readin', you'll spit all over your puter. A native who lives south of Hollister, MO, tells about how he tried to befriend an outlander who had come into the hills from Chicago, and knew nothing about raising a garden. The Ozarker told him how to plant pole beans and how to set up a wigwam of poles for them to climb on. He explained the importance of pulling weeds and even gave the fellow his own recipe for the finest bean soup. A couple of months later the outlander came to the Ozarker's cabin complaining that the bean soup was tasteless. The native went back with him to find out what could be wrong. When he looked into the bean pot it was full of hickory nuts. They went out to the garden and he found that the man had used shagbark hickory shoots for his bean poles, and in the rich Ozarks soil the poles had flourished and grown a crop of nuts. Thinking the bean vines were weeds, the newcomer had pulled them up and harvested the nuts instead. *********** Referring to an unusually cold winter in the Ozarks, a native said, "It was a common thing that winter to see a farmer a-buildin' a fire under a cow of a mornin' to get her thawed out so's the milk'd flow." Another fellow said he thawed his cows so the milk began to flow but the stuff froze immediately and busted the bucket. So he milked right on the ground and the milk froze as it fell. When the cow wouldn't give down any more he just took an axe and chopped the frozen milk into chunks which he carried like cordwood into the house. That must have been the same winter it got so cold folks couldn't blow out their candles because the flame was frozen stiff. One night the blaze in the fireplace froze right in the chimney and had to be chopped out with an axe. The old woman ground it up in the coffee mill and used it for red pepper. ********** In the Ozarks, as it should be anywhere, nobody but strangers and durn fools attempt to predict the weather. Once a native was asked if he thought it would rain the next day. He replied, "When God was a-runnin' the country, I used to be a pretty good weather prophet but now the govern'mint has took over, hit's mighty hard to tell what's a-goin' to happen." ********** One of the better known Ozarks beasts was the Sidehill Hoofer which always ran in one direction for its legs were shorter on one side than the other. Because of this, it could more easily run along the sides of the Ozarks hills. Unfortunately, the Sidehill Hoofer became extinct from overkill a hundred years ago. Hunters, seeking the critters for meat and fur, learned to get them confused and they turned around and ran in the opposite direction. Their legs then being shorter on the downhill side they lost their balance and tumbled downhill where they were easily captured and killed. ********** Windies, for all their exaggeration, may explain as metaphors, characteristics of subjects, of places or things. How better to set forth the remarkable qualities of the common Ozarks persimmon than this: A deacon whose responsibility it was to bring the grape juice for communion in his backhills church forgot it one Sunday morning. It was too late to return home and get it but a brother deacon rose to the occasion. "Ye just stop frettin'," the 2nd deacon said, "I've got a jug of persimmon beer in my car and we can use that." And they did; and all went well until the end of the services when the congregation had to whistle the doxology. That there is real art in tall tale telling is seen when an uninitiated person attempts to repeat such a tale. An Oklahoma preacher who had heard the persimmon beer story told by his brother used it in his own pulpit one Sunday morning but the congregation sat stony faced. In reporting the incident to his AR relative the puzzled preacher said, "Last Sunday I used that story you told me on that congregation but no one laughed. I don't understand it." "Which story?" "The one about the prune juice." *********** [vks note--this, without a doubt, is about either a direct cousin of mine, or a married-in one. Could even be my grandpa and one of his little brothers, now that I think on it.] A classic coddling (gulling) story from the hills concerns two pranksters, brothers from over on Roark Creek in Taney County. One fall the boys were out in the woods and they came upon a city sportsman who was scouting the timber to locate a deer stand. As the trio said their "howdies" the city man noticed that the bigger boy was carrying a heavy muzzle-loading shotgun while the smaller boy had a claw hammer hanging from a loop at one side of his overalls. His curiosity aroused, the sportsman asked the older boy, "I guess you must be hunting with that shotgun, but what's the little fellow doing carrying a claw hammer?" This was the cue for the smaller lad to begin whimpering and his big brother to answer. "We live mostly on squirrel meat, mister, and they's no cash money to buy shot, so we loaded Old Betsy here with rusty nails." He put his arm around his sobbing brother. The younger boy shoved him off. "Ever squirrel we kill nowadays is nailed fast to the tree," he blubbered, "and this big sunny-b*%&# makes me climb up an' pry 'em loose with this here nail puller." *************** A Eureka Springs resident tells of a gulling tour guide who operated out of the old Crescent Hotel. At one stopping place the guide had an accomplice who walked around holding his left arm conspicuously akimbo. Invariable one or more of the tourists noticed the native, sidled up to the guide and asked him if the man's arm was frozen into a big O because of an accident. Feigning surprise and concern, the guide called out to his accomplice, "Tolliver, what's the matter with your arm?" The seemingly startled man looked down at his arm and yelled, "My God, I've lost my watermelon!" ************* A tourist ran out of gas on a backhills road and started walking to town. Around a bend in the road he came upon an old Ozarker leaning against a yard gate. The tourist called out, "How long will it take me to get to a place where I can get some gas?" There was no answer and thinking the old man didn't hear him he repeated his call, "How long will it take me to get to where I can get some gas?" Still no answer, so in disgust the tourist walked on down the road. About 100 miles later the old man called out, "About 10 minutes." The tourist turned back and glowered. "Why didn't you tell me in the first place?" The old man just grinned and said, "I didn't know how fast you were a-goin' to walk." *********** A friend say his wife has an awful memory--never forgets anything. *********** A trout fisherman whipping the waters with his fly rod below Table Rock Dam was approached by a man he presumed to be a curious tourist who asked, "How are you doing?" "Pretty darn good," said the fisherman as he lifted a string of beauties out of the water. "They're all mine. I was out here this morning, too, and did good." The curious man moved closer and examined the string. "I bet you don't know who I am, mister. I'm the conservation agent." The fisherman let the stringer slip from his hand as the catch disappeared in the rolling waters. "You don't know who I am, do you? Anyone around here can tell you that I'm the biggest liar in Taney County." ********* Chigger Bill says: "Hit never bothers me none catchin' myself talkin' to the hoot owls or even when they begin talkin' back to me. But when I git to understanding what they'uns air sayin', hit's time for me to shuck out for town." ********* A smart aleck tourist pulled up along a hitchhiking young Ozark boy. "Guess I've hit the wrong road, sonny, how far is it to Harrison?" "Don't rightly know," said the boy. "Then how do I get to US 65?" "Don't reckon I know." "Boy, you're sure the dumb one." "Could be, but I ain't lost neither." ************* A student brought up to let a computer solve his problems in mathematics at school had an old fashioned teacher that gave him homework to do. That evening, he appealed to his grandfather for help. "Grandpa, will you help me find the common denominator?" he asked. "Haven't they found that thing yet?" asked grandfather. "They were looking for it when I was a boy." *********** Two old Ozarkers met on a street in Forsyth one day. "What do you know?" one asked of the other. "Don't know nothin' and didn't find that out 'til yesterday." Now yuns know whyfor I'm dis way. Vonda

Some of the folks in some of the pictures-- "Uncle" Wylse Yandell, ferryman of the White River Adella "Cassie" Wheeler, butter maker Tommie Redfearn, sorghum maker Mary Elizabeth Mahnkey, writer of Ozarkian life Picture of the Hilda (Taney Co.) post office Fox chasers, hounds and all Bee hunters Fayte Boyd, basket maker J. M. Nichols, Mt. Judea (Newton Co. AR) chairmaker Lige Isaacs Frank Shaffer, Protem (Taney Co.) columnist for the "Taney Co. Republican" The store at Protem Sycamore Log Church (Taney/Stone, near the townsite of Garber) Tom Yocum, White River float guide Charlie Barnes, johnboat builder Ted Richmond, Newton Co. AR homesteader and librarian Pie Supper at Pine Top (Taney Co./Boone Co.) Vance Randolph, folklorist and more "Deacon" Hembree, fiddle player and storyteller May Kennedy McCord, newspaper columnist and ballad singer Sue Mullinax, grannywoman Frank Hodges, horse trader John Groves, preacher Levi Casey's log house (built 1843) Taney Co. MO That's not nearly all of them. Vonda

"Hillbillies had a great sense of humor, usually humor of character which often was pungent. Humor of character is personal and to be effective requires that the hearers know the victim of the joke. Hillbillies took delight in 'gulling'. Gulling was in effect play-acting of the most realistic sort. If a stranger was within hearing, two or more hillmen would strike up a conversation with each other in deliberately audible tones. With great exaggeration they would rehearse or vividly tell an oft-reported happening. Their demeanor would be so serious and they so seemingly oblivious of an audience, the gullible stranger would be completely taken in. Such duping was wry fun for the natives and it gave them a sense of superiority over the gullible outlander. Their everyday humor was droll humor, sly and sometimes offcolor, more closely related to British humor of understatement than to the traditional American frontier humor of overstatement...." [That sounds very much like my daddy, who will go out in the yard ever' so often, dig a hole, put something dated in the present in the bottom, fill it partially with dirt, then put in something that is much older before filling the hole back in. I told him once that archaelogists 10,000 years from now were going to be a-cussin' his name; he just laughed and laughed, and when he could finally speak, he said, "Shore wish I could be there!" I've considered doing the same, over on this side of the river, just so's they know we're related.] One last quote from the book, which states something that is still quite true today. "Hillmen had a strong sense of family. They staunchly defended the virtue of wife, daughter, and hound dog, though not necessarily in that order. A good boy was one who was good to his mother. As outlanders began to come into the Ozarks to live, settlers became clannish. They fought among themselves, over the most trivial of matters such as the spelling of a family name; but they resented intrusion by another and invariably united against outsiders, sometimes violently turning upon an innocent bystander. These hillfolk asked only to be let alone and allowed to 'stomp their own snakes.' Native Ozarkers were suspicious of 'furriners' and not without cause, for some outlanders who came into the area on business took advantage of them. First it was fur, beeswax, and yarb [herb] buyers; then land speculators, peddlers, and bushwhackers. There were timber buyers and railroad tie buyers and later, range hog and cattle buyers. Egg, fruit, cotton, and tobacco buyers came. As they had little, if any, means of transporting their produce to a favorable market, hillmen were at the mercy of unscrupulous traders. It was natural then that Ozarkers became suspicious of all straangers. In later years there was the added fear that the stranger might be a game warden looking for poachers or a federal agent hunting moonshiners or one to tell them how to run their farms. Hillmen transferred their deep suspicions of outsiders, whom they felt threatened their freedoms, to new settlers and it took a long time for newcomers to prove themselves and be accepted. Even today, though Ozarkers are overtly courteous and respectful, an outlander is seldom fully accepted into whatever remains of the Ozarkers' fragmented society. Considering their experience with outlanders, it is not surprising that hillbillies became as sharp bargainersd as the proverbial New England Yankees. It is said of one family that on a rainy afternoon their menfolk could go out in the barn lot and make five dollars each just trading knives among themselves. In business dealings, however, These Last were honest folk whose word was bond. Once they had 'shook' on a deal it was considered final and inviolable. No written word or signature was needed." I will post some of the names of folks in the pictures of the book shortly. (Gettin' ready for a yard sale, y'know...) Vonda

First published in 1977-- Some of you will remember that the first thing you read on the WRV site is from the opening paragraphs of this book. Here's more-- "The Ozarks hills embrace the highest land between the Applachians and the Rockies although they are not as high as is often assumed... Here and there knobs, or "balds", a surprising sight, rise out of the landscape. Balds are nigh rounded treeless hills often covered with tall grasses or low shrubs. Once an imaginative westerner was riding along one of the ridge roads with its lovely vistas. As the road descended into the hollow below to the usual small settlement, the traveler mused aloud, "You know, these Ozarks hills are different from our Rocky Mountains in more than just their lesser height and lush greenness. Out there, you go uphill and come down; but here it is more like you go downhill and come up." It is when going downhill or entering a deep hollow or gap that the illusion of mountain height is encountered. The Ozarks embrace at least 1,400 caves...Most are inhabited by some species of bats...Early settlers excavated guano, (you know what that is), from some of the caves, using it for fertilizer or boiling it down to produce saltpeter. They mixed the saltpeter with pulverized charcoal and sulphur to make gunpowder. Alluvial lead was so common in some areas of the hills that pioneers could pick it up off the ground. Using resinous pine knots which burned very hot for the smelting fire, they melted the metal in hollow stumps and used it to make rifle balls. The once abundant buffalo, antelope and elk were gone by the mid-1830s but bear, deer and wild turkey remained abundant." (vks note--deer were nearly all gone in MO by the start of the 20th century, but conservationists have brought numbers back up to where deer are sometimes considered pests in the city of Springfield. Black bear, which a person never heard about 30 or 40 years ago, are being sighted on a regular basis in some of the less populated areas of Taney county these days. There was a report of a bear on Roark Creek last spring, upstream from Branson. And the Taney County Times columnist Herman Rosser is reporting bear up on H Highway, north of Forsyth). Then there is talk on the different seasons of the year, weather averages, and what pioneers and settlers did in each season in relation to gardening, "yarb gathering" (herbs and wild greens), and other plant and meat preparation. Discussion of the cabins-- "Cabin building techniques used by an Ozarker even in the late 1800s were identical to those used in Virginia, North Carolina and New England during Revolutionary War days! Shingles, or shakes as the Ozarkers called them, were made with the froe, a blade about a foot ong and three and a half inches wide with a round hole at one end where a handle was inserted. This blade was set upright near the edge of an upended bolt (a 24" section of tree trunk) of oak or cedar, and struck with a mallet to split the wood lengthwise into shingles about 1/2 inch thick and 5 or 6 inches wide. Shingles must be split during the dark of the moon lest they curl up at the edges, causing the roof to leak. To prevent splitting, they were put in place when fresh cut, with a single homemade nail. They were laid on the rafters snugly, side by side, and the first rain swelled and tightened them. Early cabins were rectangular untis about 10 to 15 feet wide and 16 to 20 feet long, called pens. Their size was limited by the length of logs available and how heavy a timber could be handled. If more space was needed as the family increased, an additional unit was built nearby. The roof and sometimes the floor were then extended to join the two pens, making a "dog trot" between them... Cabin furniture included a corner bed with trundlebed, and perhaps a freestanding cradle...The bed was little more than a bunk built into a corner of the cabin, the fourth corner being attached to a post... Children, both boys and girls, wore long dresses and were called "shirttail youngens" until they were about 5 years old. To keep a child from underfoot in so small a living space a mother would "bedpost" him. This meant putting the child's dress under the free corner post [of the bed] giving him reaching freedom but not roaming room. There were no limiting game and fish laws in the wilderness but extravagant killing of wildlife was not common. An animal was killed chiefly for meat, grease, or hides. Yet having no stringently enforced state or federal laws did not make this a lawless area [vks note--That's depending on the period of time you are discussing. The Godseys are NOT discussing the first 20-25 years after the Civil War]. "Chimbley corner" or common-consent law, provided a definite code of conduct. Any breech [sic] of the code was severely punished often by the person against whom an offense was committed or by a committee of "regulators". Hillfolk put great emphasis on informal religious worship and avoided involvement in an "organized" church. Fifth Sunday meetings and basket dinners were joyous events. Religious leaders were usually unschooled men who had "seen the light" or were "called" to preach.... Young hillmen and women began dating early and most were married by their eighteenth birthday, many much younger... Granny women served as physicians to the isolated hill people. They had a store of mysterious simple remedies and superstitions handed down from generation to generation of pioneers. A few of these remedies were traceable to the Indian's use of medicinal herbs. Hillfolk buried their own dead and most communities had a woman skilled in laying out a corpse. She closed the eyes of the dead, placing coins on the lids to hold them shut; she tied a cloth under tha chin and over the top of the head to hold the mouth closed. These were left in place until rigor mortis set in. She bathed the face with wahoo bark tea and camphor to prevent discoloration of the flesh. Washing and clothing the bodies of women and children was her task but a man was expected to bathe older males. Many an Ozarker kept boards in his hayloft against the day neighbors would be called in to make a coffin for him or a member of his family. By the late 1800s coffin material such as sateen for lining and cotton lace for trimming were staples in many stores. These items were still available in isolated areas as late as the 1940s. Funerals were held as soon as possible after death. (Facilities for embalming a corpse were not available to most hill folk until well into the 1900s.) In the preface of one of his many books on Ozarks folkways, Vance Randolph said of the Ozarkers that they were 'the most deliberately unprogressive white people in the United States...'" [more to come]

Howdy! I am going to be posting excerpts from 2 of Townsend Godsey's books today. These books are available for sale now--if you will e me privately, I'll send you the link to order them (I won't post it to list, for they are from our business website, which Greg designed. Since y'all are genealogists, the only other thing you'd be interested in there would be my library, which <bribe offered here> you can visit when you come to Taney Co. LOL). "Ozarks Mountain Folks--These Were the Last" is a "portfolio of photographs" taken by Townsend and his wife, Helen, with an introduction consisting of information regarding the lives of pioneers in the Ozarks. I've seen this book available in stores here in the Branson area, but haven't been able to find it either online or out of the immediate region. This particular edition was reprinted by the Godseys' grandsons in 1988; it was originally published in 1977 by the Godseys. "Ozarks Tall Tales: Not by a Jugfull", written with the pseudonym of Will Townsend, is a collection of jokes, short stories, and pranks pulled by hillbillies; it is similar in style to some of Vance Randolph's books, although I've not read any of the exact same things anywhere else. Townsend and Vance were friends, and it would be unusual for Townsend to NOT have a book with Vance's influence (or maybe it was the other way around?). As y'all know, any chance I get to share history and Ozarkian lore with you, I do. Neither book is indexed, but both are good reading for anyone interested in our history, not just genealogy. And I'm excited to have an opportunity to share these books with you. It is very hard to find books on the region like this anywhere but here in the area. This was one of the goals Greg and I had when we started diving head first into genealogy and history, making "unique to us hillbillies" stuff available to EVERYONE, not just folks who could here in person. Now, if I could just get some of Elmo Ingenthron's books... Vonda mailto:[email protected]

I have an emergency request, my grandmother died today and I am writing her obit, I have three different dates for her and grandpas marriage. Do you know anyone that could do a super quick look-up for me? Here is the info: Mildred Cornelia Randen m. James Ernest Weatherman in Galena, Stone County, Missouri The dates I have are: September 05, 1927 and September 05, 1928, and September 05, 1935 Denise Weatherman Canida Researching the Surnames ALMS, BOEHNER, CANIDA, KEITHLEY, MARTIN, MATHEWS, PETERS, PHENIX, RANDEN, STOCKSTILL, STOUT, THORNTON, and WEATHERMAN. Our Families Homepage: http://home.swbell.net/audiec Taney County, Missouri Home Page: http://www.rootsweb.com/~motaney/taney.htm Johnson County, Missouri Home Page: http://homepages.infoseek.com/~snowrose1/index.html

Okeydoke, Just spent the afternoon fixing links, etc., at the Marriages 1885-1900 at the Taney Co. site at WRV. Just as I was finishing the last page of brides, I was doing some double-checking at the "Grooms, A-Box" page when I noticed the Adams men missed being alphabetized by either me or Access. So then I fixed that. IF anyone knows of any other surname group that is not alphabetized by given names, would you please let me know? Vonda