(Oct. 14,
1846-March 5, 1929)
Randy has generously shared these for
publication with the Christian County Mogen Web site.No data may be reproduced
or published without permission of the author. Please
note that web host to delete names and data of the living altered the
manuscript.
Civil War veteran John Wesley Inman
(Oct. 11, 1842-March 7, 1927) was born near Campbellsville, TN in Giles Co.
to Elkanah Dulaney and Sarah Moore Inman, and the youngster was attending local
school in 1850 with his brothers James, Joseph, Isaac and Andrew.
Whether the school helped, however, is
questionable because many relatives could not read and write, according to
census records, although John could do both. Gov. and later-President Andrew
Johnson told the Tennessee Legislature in 1853 that "our common schools
are doing little or no good." The state had attempted to fund schools
through the sale or rental of township lands, a scheme that worked well in the
North, but failed in Tennessee. The state's public schools didn't truly
function until after 1854, when the Tennessee began levying a tax for education
and the Inmans already had moved to Missouri.
Elkanah's children consequently had a
poor educational foundation when they arrived, and Missouri schools were far
less advanced than those in Tennessee.
The Inmans had heard about the new
country in the Ozarks from their near-neighbors, the Keltners, the Horns and
the Balls, who had seen parts of their families move to lands in Greene Co.
since 1840. Also leaving for the Ozarks in 1845 was Walter McConnell, whose
family settled just south of the village of Springfield, the county seat for
most of southern Missouri. Just north of Campbellsville, many families related
to William and Mary Johnson Kenamore -- the McCaffertys, Edwardses, McCaslins,
Gooches, Macks, Smiths and Murphys -- were selling their lands in Maury Co. and
preparing for the move west.
This new country sounded -- and looked
-- like the plains and hills found in Giles Co.
The Inmans were divided -- about equally
-- into artisans and tobacco farmers. Long active in the Eastern TN
mountain-country iron trade, many of the Inmans became blacksmiths as they
moved west. Several, though, had learned to raise tobacco -- a commodity
unknown in the mountain counties -- after they came to Giles, beginning in
1827. The crop required little land, but large
amounts of labor that was difficult to obtain unless the family had
slaves. The Inmans had few. Most farmed plots of 25 to 40 acres, although James
William's son John W. Inman was among the largest landowners in the county.
The Inmans already had seen family leave
for the west by the early 1840s. Uncle Lazarus C. Inman, who had lived in Giles
in1836, moved to Huntsville, AL and then to Missouri River areas west of St.
Louis, but he was already planning relocation to Oregon in the early 1850s.
John W. died at age 52 in June 1852,
continuing the series of deaths that had decimated the ranks of the elder Inmans.
The Rev. James William Inman, the family patriarch, had died in the 1830s, and
his brother John followed in 1838. Only Major Joseph Inman, a veteran of the
frontier Indian wars, his wife Frances and James William's widow Martha
remained from the oldest generation of Inmans who had come to Middle Tennessee
a half-century before. Joseph, a plantation and slave owner who already had
turned 70, had no intention of leaving.
Most of the other Inmans emigrated to
Missouri in late 1852, and the following spring, John Wesley's brother David
became the first of the family born in southern Greene Co. -- an area that soon
would break off to form Christian Co. Forming the core of the group who moved
were Elkanah Inman, their father, and his nephew James C. Inman, the son of
John W., but other related families expanded the group to more than 40
settlers.
In federal papers from the 1890s, Nixa
Postmaster Irvin W. Edwards said he had known John W. since 1853 - the spring
when the family made its first impact on Porter Township. John W. attended
school in Missouri because Justice of the Peace George W. Nokes said he had
known John W. since 1854 and they had been "school boys" together.
The Civil War years
The Civil War sorely divided the Inman
cousins in Missouri, and at least a half dozen joined the Confederate lines
against their Union relatives in the volatile war zone along the
Missouri-Arkansas border. Even James C. Inman enlisted in the Confederate forces,
and his family quickly moved back to Tennessee.
John Wesley like his brothers sided with the Union, saw extensive
action in the war and earned a pension that was a principal source of income in
his later years. State records nevertheless do not indicate that he served in
the Christian Co. Home Guard in 1861 as
did most of his neighbors.
A daughter-in-law, in a 1971 interview,
told the story of John Wesley's activities when the Battle of Wilson's Creek
grew near in August 1861, as he related them to the family:
John Wesley was
assigned to drive a grub wagon for Union forces coming down from Rolla to
Springfield on the eve of the battle. His father Elkanah had been in extremely
poor health, and John Wesley received permission to visit him. The next
morning, he heard sounds of the battle and turned in that direction on the Mt.
Vernon Road (Highway 14) and took the Old Wire Road north to the battlefield.
He told the family
about terrible carnage - halves of bodies lying on opposite sides of the fence
- in Sharp's cornfield at the Greene Co. line and the dead laid out for burial.
John Wesley then drove his wagon back to the Springfield Public Square where
his unit was bivouacked.
He enrolled Aug. 20, 1862 in Company A
of the 72nd Enrolled Missouri Militia Regiment and served until Feb. 1, 1863.
On April 1 he entered Company H of the 6th Regiment of the Provisional Enrolled
Missouri Militia and re-upped on Sept. 14, 1863 in Company L of the same
regiment; during roll call on Oct. 31, 1863, he was "absent with
leave." His service ended in that stint on March 15, 1864, but he again
was drafted to serve from Aug. 20 to Nov. 14, 1864 patrolling Ozark Co.
The 6th Provisional Militia was
considered regular army and earned John Wesley the pension that supported him,
his wife and apparently some of his children's families in later years.
John Wesley enrolled in the 15th
Regiment of the state militia after the war to help keep general order. His
records show he was 5-feet-6 with auburn hair, blue eyes and a fair complexion.
But his pension records offer a far different picture: John W. Inman was
6-foot-3 with sandy hair, a towering man brought low by disability in middle
and later years.
The Wilsons
At whatever height, John Wesley married
his cousin Nancy Lavanda Wilson on Feb. 9, 1865 before Justice of the Peace
Elijah L. Elam, who lived near the Inmans in the hills southwest of what became
Nixa. Elijah was the brother of Flora
Ann Elam Nokes, the wife of Archibald G. "Nelson" Nokes who was one
of the Inman's closest neighbors; they were parents of John W.'s "school
boy" friend George W. Nokes. Records of the marriage were burned in the
Christian Co. courthouse fire of 1865, which was set by an arsonist trying to
destroy his criminal records and evidence. The Inmans didn't re-register their
marriage, unlike others in the county. But in 1915, John W. and Lavanda still
had their original marriage certificate, which has been lost.
Lavanda Wilson (Oct. 14, 1846 - March 5,
1929) was born near Campbellsville, Giles Co., TN to James H. Wilson (1820,
Maury Co. - Oct. 6, 1862) and Sarah Emily Hawthorn (1821 - 1851). The families were closely connected: James
H.'s father Joel is believed to have been the brother of Martha Wilson Inman,
John Wesley's grandmother. After his first wife died, James H. married his
cousin and John Wesley's aunt Louisa Caroline Inman Glover, whose husband had
been killed in 1846 in the Mexican-American War. All the known Wilsons had
joined the Inman wagon train to Missouri.
James H. Wilson's parents Joel Wilson
(1784) and Mary (1794) LNU (possibly
Newell), both NC natives, probably married in Hickman or Maury Cos., TN, where
they were living in 1812 and then 1820 with four children under 10, two sons
and two daughters. By 1830, they had resettled in Giles Co., and the census
records suggest five sons and four daughters, all under 20. At least two more
sons were added in the 1830s.
Only the names of the youngest sons have
been identified: James H. (1821), Francis P. (1830), Daniel W. (1833) and Joel
A. (b. 1836), all born in Tennessee. All were farmers, and all except Daniel W.
moved to Missouri with their parents..
Francis P. Wilson also married into the
Inman family, taking as a wife Nancy Ann Inman John W.'s aunt in 1854 and
making a home next door to Elkanah in Porter Township shortly after both
families moved to Missouri. In 1860, Francis owned a 40-acre farm southeast of
Nixa, with five acres under cultivation. A tobacco farmer, he harvested 1,000
pounds that year while ranging a lone milk cow. (See section on Nancy Ann
Inman, daughter of James and Martha).
Joel was mentally retarded, but worked
on farms and boarded with relatives among the Inmans and Wilsons until he died,
sometime after 1880.
The Hawthorn family
According to Lavanda Wilson Inman's
death certificate, her mother was (Sarah) "E. (Emily) Hathhorn" whose
family came from Ireland, South Carolina, Georgia and Barren Co., KY, where she
was born.
Sarah Emily's grandfather, John Hawthorn
(January 1748-after 1835, Graves Co., KY), was born to John Hawthorn Sr. and
Elizabeth Chalmers in Co. Monaghan, Northern Ireland, and their family and
other kin sailed from Belfast to Charleston, SC on the Chichester, arriving on
Jan. 5, 1768. The family settled in Fairfield Co. of central SC, and John Jr.
married there to Margaret Greene and fought in the Revolution.
John Hawthorn Jr. moved to Georgia in
1791, but in 1806 to Barren Co., KY. There, son James Hawthorn (1777, Fairfield
Co.-after 1850, Lawrence Co., TN) married his cousin Sarah Forbes May 16, 1808.
Sarah was the daughter of Colin Forbes and Mary Hawthorn, John Jr.'s sister,
who had married in Camden District, SC. Forbes had arrived in America by May
1767, or just before the Hawthornes landed.
John Jr. and his son James moved south
to Maury Co., TN in 1823, but the father relocated in 1833 to Graves Co., KY
where he began collecting a pension the following year. James remained in
south-central Tennessee, where wife Sarah died. Many of his Forbes cousins also
lived in Giles Co., which bordered both Lawrence and Maury Cos.
James was living with second wife Nancy,
born in NC in 1795, in 1850 in Lawrence Co., TN with daughter Ann (1824),
daughter-in-law Elizabeth Callahan Hawthorn (1805, VA,) and her children: Ben
(1833), Martha J. (1835), James (1837), Melvina (1839, who married an Inman
cousin named Elkanah Dulaney) and Laura C. (1840). Living with James H. Wilson
and Sarah Emily Hawthorn in 1850 was her sister Nancy, who was deaf, but
married later to James A. Randolph of Giles Co.
The family of James H. and
Sarah Emily Hawthorn Wilson
Sarah Hawthorn and James H. Wilson
married c. 1840 -- although the Giles Co. records were destroyed -- and
daughter Nancy Lavanda had three sisters, all born in Tennessee who moved to
Missouri: Mary (May 7, 1843-April 9, 1912), Margaret (1844-before 1876) and
Sarah Catharine (1847-after 1900).
Mary N. married James Lafayette Inman,
and Sarah Catherine married Joseph Inman, both brothers of John Wesley Inman.
(See children of Elkanah and Sarah Moore Inman for more information.)
Margaret married Rufus Benjamin Tyler in
Christian Co. on May 28, 1868, and they had one son, James Isom (February
1869-1940). Rufus B. Tyler (Feb. 24, 1849-1917, Haskell, OK), the son of Isom
Tyler and Elizabeth Holderby, had grown up near Pocahantas, Randolph Co., AR.
He had served in the Civil War with James Grandison Puryear, who married Mary
N. Wilson as her second husband. They had come to Christian Co. after the Civil
War with his kin, the Holderbys. Margaret Wilson Tyler died after 1870, and
Rufus returned to Arkansas to remarry, leaving his son with the Inmans and
Wilsons to raise James I.
James I. Tyler is shown as an orphan boarder, living with his aunt
Nancy Ann (Mrs. Francis P.) Inman in the 1880 census. James remained with the
family at least until 1900, when he was living with Nancy Ann's son, Will D.
Wilson, in Christian Co. before that family moved to Craig Co., OK. James I.
married Ella Bell Herndon, the daughter of William Joseph and Frances Hedgpeth
Herndon, and they moved to Caddo Co., OK about 1905; they died there and are
buried in Memory Lane Cemetery.
Sarah Hawthorn Wilson died c. 1851 in
Giles Co., and on Feb. 10, 1852, James H. Wilson remarried to his cousin and
second wife Louisa Caroline Inman Glover (December 1813-after 1917), the widow
of Finley Glover. By 1860, James H. and
Eliza were living with his three youngest children and Jesse Wood, an
11-year-old boy of unknown origin, on a Porter Township farm.
James Wilson originally was a tenant;
the 1856 tax lists show he owned a horse (worth $500?), a cow and three mules.
But James H. assembled a farm worth $1,000 and personal property of another
$1,040 by 1860.
Living with the family, too, was James'
brother Joel, who was something of the village idiot. In 1860, he was unable to
read and write while living with brother James H.; within 10 years, Joel was a
farm laborer living with his niece Mary Wilson Inman Puryear and her husband.
The 1880 census flatly lists Joel as an "idiot" and
"insane" while living with Nancy Ann Inman Wilson, his sister-in-law.
James H. Wilson died Oct. 6, 1862; his
second wife acted as administrator while Elkanah Inman provided the security.
The microfilm of James H.'s settlement records are virtually impossible to read
-- and Christian Co. officials say the originals were destroyed -- but he had
loaned major sums to other area farmers like Isham W. Faught to buy their land.
By 1870, Eliza Louisa Inman Glover
Wilson was doing domestic work and living with Charles Thomas and Matilda
Hedgpeth Herndon next door to Nancy Inman Wilson's house. But Eliza married
again to William Sanders on Sept. 7, 1871 before Justice of the Peace Benjamin
F. Hollowell. (See section on Eliza Louisa Inman/Nancy Ann Inman Wilson.)
William, who died in 1891, was the
brother-in-law of Ezekiel Inman, who first had married Sally Sanders, but any
relation between the two Inman families has not been documented. Ezekiel's six
children by his first wife, however, all emigrated from KY and Indiana to the
area along the Greene-Christian county line in the 1840s with their Sanders
guardians. Ezekiel essentially farmed out the children and left for Illinois
for a second and third marriage that resulted, in total, in 17 children. He
died in Bethel, MO in 1879.
The John W. Inman compound
After the Civil War, John Wesley Inman
set about establishing what eventually became a 200-acre family compound in
Porter Township, Christian Co., southwest of Nixa, adjacent to his mother's
55-acre farm.
By 1876 he owned 85 acres: two 40-acre
farms and a 5-acre home site (SE 1/4 of SE 1/4 of Section 21, Township 27,
Range 22; NE 1/4 of NE 1/4 and part of NW 1/4 of NE 1/4 of Section 23, Township
27, Range 22). Part remained in his hands, but the lands in Section 23, almost
inside the current city of Nixa, went to Birdie McDaniel and her family by
1912.
It is unclear why John did not sell this
farm when he moved to Texas in 1884, but he was fortunate because he did
return.
Personal property tax records show that
John Wesley and Lavanda were running nine head of cattle, three sheep and 14
hogs on the place by June 1, 1892. By 1899 he had divested the land nearest
Nixa. Instead he owned, besides his original home place of 80 acres, 40 acres
of the land that touched his property on the northeast corner.
John Wesley swapped that 40 acres for
another 40 adjacent to his property to the east within the next 10 years. He
also bought the property of his three siblings, David, Ann and Jack who moved
to Oklahoma in 1900.
In 1908, the holdings included three
plots: one 80 acres (S 1/2 of SE 1/4, Section 21, Township 27, Range 22),
another 80 acres (S 1/2 of NE 1/4, Section 21, Township 27, Range 22) and 40
acres (SW 1/4 of SW 1/4 of Section 22, Township 27, Range 22) apparently the
largest extent of John Wesley's landholdings.
The property contained a large spring,
which fed a creek that joined another spring-fed stream on the property before
the unnamed branch flowed into the nearby James River. Also traversing the
property was Maupin Hollow, a valley named for one of the early Greene Co.
Maupin families.
The compound eventually came to include
three houses that sheltered John and his three sons' families and a tiny cabin
in the hollow that was rented to tenants like Emily Jane Dewitt Lawson. As late
as 1908, John W. was paying taxes for the entire compound himself, both for personal
and real property, out of his Civil War pension.
John Wesley and Lavanda survived into
their 80s, although Lavanda, a heavy woman, could move little, either because
of weight or arthritis. John was more active, even traveling to Oklahoma in his
80s to visit kin, according to the Ozark paper.
According to their death certificates,
John Wesley died of chronic nephritis, a kidney disease marked by failure of
the organ, and Lavanda was claimed by lobar pneumonia. Both are interred at
McConnell Cemetery.
Union Hill Church began life southwest
of Nixa in 1912 when John Wesley Inman donated an acre of ground and neighbor
Jim Young the lumber for a building. Each family bought a pew until enough
seating was available.
In 1914 the first
"revival" was held in the church, and a predominantly Missionary
Baptist congregation was organized with the Rev. Wes Coughron as pastor. But
the non-denominational church opened its doors to evangelists of most faiths,
much the same as churches did back in Tennessee where the families originated.
The sessions were known as "protracted" meetings because, unlike
later revivals, they had no set completion date and often lasted four to five
weeks. The Ozark newspaper in 1899 noted that one at a Porter Township chapel
on the James River lasted for three weeks, leaving 100 persons ready for
baptism.
Activity at the
church ended largely by World War II; it later burned.
The deed for the church required that
the land revert back to the heirs of John Wesley when it was no longer used for
those purposes. However, in the 1990s, his grandson William Jack Inman began
improvements there, including a chain link fence. He originally described the
tract as a family park. He later approached the other heirs for their
permission to take over the land, but they refused. Eventually, William Jack's
children got signatures from a few heirs on a power of attorney and convinced
Christian Co. officials to accept the sale of the property to a Nixa developer,
who erected a house there.
Children of
John W.
and Lavanda
Wilson Inman
Census records
indicated that two children died in infancy, but their names were not recorded
or remembered by current family. However, John W. noted their births and deaths
in his federal pension papers. They probably were buried in unmarked, lost
graves in a cedar grove on the farm that Robert Inman owned southwest of Nixa,
along with John's infant granddaughter Mabel.
Sarah Jane Inman Love
(August 1866-Nov. 28, 1921)
Jane married Louis F. Love (Jan. 20,
1866-Nov. 28, 1932), a farmer and son of Charles I. and Margaret Love of Greene
Co., on Oct. 12, 1890 before Justice of the Peace Henry Hubbard. Jane and Lou
owned 80 acres directly west of her family's farm.
Among their other neighbors at the turn
of the century was John Green McConnell, John W. McConnell's nephew. Green, who
had a hot temper according to court records, began arguing with Lou one early
March day in 1899 over livestock. The verbal salvoes ended when Green hurled a
rock and fractured Lou's skull; he was expected to die. According to the Ozark
newspaper, Green "skipped," but he was later apprehended and charged
with felonious assault.
Lou may have provoked the altercation
because he is recalled by his nephew Robert as a "windjammer" who had
set and unshakeable opinions.
Jane and Lou, who later moved to
Springfield, had three children: daughter Cora Lavanda (Nov. 24, 1895-Dec. 11,
1983), a nurse who moved to Oklahoma and married a man named Conway late in
life; and two sons, Charles Glover (Oct. 14, 1900-March 11, 1970) who married
and also moved to Oklahoma; and John Wesley (Sept. 5, 1904-Aug. 16, 1977), who
married Violet Bradshaw.
All of the children moved to Oklahoma,
but relocated later in life to Lake Wales, Polk Co., FL.
Jane and Lou lie in Greenlawn North
Cemetery in Springfield along with Cora and Charles.
Finley Glover
"Bud" Inman (March 6, 1869-Oct. 2, 1914)
(separate section)
Mary Martha Frances Inman
(Dec. 11, 1871-Sept. 9, 1872)
John Grandison Inman
(1873-1932)
John was named, in part, for his uncle,
James Grandison Puryear, who had married Mary N. Wilson (Inman) as her second
husband.
John married Cora
Frazier (Sept. 12, 1880-Aug. 11, 1962), whom he met when he visited his double
uncle and aunt -- Joseph Inman and Sarah Catherine Wilson, who were living near
Waldron, Scott Co., AR at the turn of the century. Cora was born in Scott Co.
to John S. and Nancy Adeline McCord Frazier, who had married in Walker Co., GA
in December 1869 just before moving to Arkansas.
The parents had
been born, however, in Greene Co., TN, where the Fraziers were likely related
to the families who settled west of the Inmans in Christian Co. and came from
that area of Tennessee. According to
the late Robert Inman, John met Cora when he fled south of the Boston Mountains
in the late 1890s to avoid testifying in a murder case that involved a relative
or neighbor, but Robert appears to have confused the story with that of his
uncle Andrew and cousin Will Wilson who fled to Arkansas after murdering their
brother-in-law Daniel Stephenson in 1882.
John and Cora were married on Oct. 15,
1898 in Scott Co., and their first son Edgar was born the following October.
Within two months, John's brother Bud came to take the young family home to
Christian Co. But his timing was poor because Bud's wife Mary Alice gave birth
to Robert at Cassville in December on the return trip.
In the Inman family compound, John and
Cora lived in a two-room house, which they quickly populated, and John operated
the molasses mill on the family compound, where neighbors and relatives took
their cane for processing.
John, curiously, was listed in the 1880
census as "insane," but he appears to have shaken whatever condition
prompted that diagnosis; he is remembered, however, as a considerable drinker.
He and Cora lie in McConnell Cemetery.
Among the children, other than an infant
who was buried in the family plot that has since disappeared:
Edgar (Oct. 21, 1899-Feb. 22, 1983) in
May 1919 married Marie McConnell (July 13, 1903-Nov. 28, 1938), the daughter of
Harvey and Maud McConnell. Edgar and Marie had four children: Ila (Jan. 19,
1924-May 22-1985) who married Carl Widders, Okla (Jan. 9, 1922-Aug. 15, 1933),
Avadean Inman Cole (Aug. 18, 1934-July 26, 1951), Glen Edgar (Nov. 20, 1931)
and Nolan Eugene (Jan. 20, 1926). Cole and her 2-month-old niece, Carlyla
Widders, were killed in a 1951 auto accident in Stockton, KS. Cole was driving
with the Widders family as passengers. Curiously, no spouse is listed for the
16-year-old Cole in her obituary.
Glen Edgar married Jackie Prugger, and
they had two children, Allen and Glenda.
Nolan married Lena Nokes after her first marriage to Hugo Hedgpeth.
After Lena's death, Nolan remarried to Marcelle Bolin, a McConnell cousin
through the Edwards family.
Anne (June 26, 1901-May 17, 1978)
married Homer Nokes, the brother of Lena Nokes. Annie and Homer are buried at
Payne Cemetery. Homer and Lena were
among the hundreds of descendants, including the McConnells, of the Kenamore
sisters who settled in Christian County in 1852 and 1854. Homer and Lena were children of W.J.
"Bunk" and Lillie Mayabb Nokes, grandchildren of J.T. Nokes and Nancy Edwards and the
great-nephew and -niece of Matilda Edwards McConnell.
Lloyd (Jan. 25, 1903-April 26, 1950)
married Ollie Aven (Sept. 6, 1908), the daughter of Walter A. Aven and Josie
Hedgpeth, who after his death married Harvey Ginger (April 20, 1901-April 21,
1971) in 1951. Ollie had her name engraved on each man's monument at McConnell
Cemetery. Lloyd and Ollie had no children.
Lydia (Nov. 7, 1904-Feb. 25, 1980)
married Hobart McConnell (Feb. 16, 1898-Jan. 19, 1979), the son of Jim Wright
and Mary Frances McCafferty McConnell, on July 5, 1924. The couple had four children: Tommy, a Nixa
rancher who married Dorothy Ford; Russell,
a former Christian County treasurer who married Peggy Shumate; Sue who married
Wesley Harp; and Roy (Feb. 8, 1927-Oct. 24, 1932).
Lavanda (Feb. 11, 1907-Jan. 1, 1985)
married Emery Pope (Feb. 3, 1902-Feb. 25, 1980), son of Jefferson Pope and Ella
Faught and grandson of Samuel H. Pope and Malinda Evaline McCafferty. Emery was a builder and farmer. The couple
had one son, Leo, and they are buried at McConnell Cemetery. Leo married Dorothy Martin, and they had two
children: Carla and Markel.
Earl (March 5, 1909-Sept. 18, 1976)
married Helen Stamper (Dec. 12, 1913), the daughter of Charles and Nettie Young
Stamper, who lived in Nixa. The couple
adopted a daughter, Brenda.
Kenneth (July 7, 1912-Dec. 19, 1978),
who is buried in McConnell Cemetery, married Norma Painter (Feb. 17, 1912),
daughter of Jacob Painter and Stella McDaniel. Kenneth worked as a carpenter
and a realtor. He and Norma had two children: Wilma (Cox); and Ronnie.
Peter Inman (March 16,
1877-Jan. 1, 1878)
James Elkanah or L. (March
3, 1883-Aug. 13, 1944)
Jim married Martha Jane Sparkman of Nixa
(Oct. 6, 1883-April 22, 1980), known simply as Janie, on Nov. 11, 1900 before
Justice of the Peace Henry S. Evans. She was the daughter of James Alexander
Sparkman and Ophelia Virginia Pruitt.
Jim and Jane eventually lived with John
Inman in the four-room main house, and family members whispered that Jim was
attracted to his father's veterans pension from the Civil War.
Among Jim's money-making schemes was a
sweet potato cellar. Sweet potatoes, unlike other vegetables, keep best in a
warm, rather than cool, dark place. Jim built a special cellar with a stove
where local farmers could pay to store their yams; Jim, like his brothers,
raised yams and stored them in the cellar to sell in the winter for coffee
money then 15 cents for a five-pound can.
Both Jim and Janie are interred in
McConnell Cemetery. To them were born:
Mary (Sept. 20, 1903-1944) married
Alva Young (1904-1940) on May 7, 1922. They are buried in Delaware Cemetery in
Christian Co. They had one daughter, "Midgie."
James Homer or Jimmy (July 1,
1905-Aug. 22, 1988) married Laura Mae Norman (May 1, 1909-Sept. 17, 1992) on
Dec. 24, 1934. The couple had five children:
Phynis Eugene; Shirley Dean, Glen Edward (May 10, 1939), James Wilbur
and Darvin Dee.
Phynis Eugene (Oct. 13, 1935) married
Rhea Thomas and fathered Kimberlea Norene (Nov. 28, 1963) and Teresia Elaine
(May 17, 1969). Kimberlea married Ernest Gray in 1987.
Shirley (Aug. 1, 1939) married Wayne
Edward Davis, and the couple had sons David (Sept. 7, 1956) and Allen Dean
(Aug. 14, 1960); David Wayne Davis married Martha Leagh Harvin (Aug. 22, 1953)
in 1983, and they had two daughters, Lindsey Anne, (March 21, 1981) and
Jennifer Leagh Conroy Davis (April 19, 1977).
James Wilbur (Nov. 4, 1941) married
Willadean Davis in 1965, and they had two children, Tony Lee (Feb. 7, 1968) and
Tammy Lynn, who died at birth on Oct. 16, 1975.
Darvin (April 4, 1944) married Donna Elaine Wilke (July 7, 1948)
and had two children Dianna Dee (March 31, 1971) and Douglas Eric (Jan. 29, 1975).
Jimmy and Laura Inman are buried in
Brookline Cemetery.
Florence Elizabeth (June 5, 1907-Jan.
31, 1998) married Harvey Jones and helped raise her cousin Grace Inman
McConnell's son, Clyde, after the couple moved to California. Florence and
Harvey eventually divorced after they had one son, Roger Lee. She remarried to
Ernie Miackle, who was killed afterward in a pickup accident also claimed their
son, Jerry Michael. Florence remarried a third time to Al Vaillancourt. She had
returned to live in Springfield when she died on Jan. 31, 1998, but her burial
took place In California.
Porter Isaac (Nov. 16, 1909-Feb. 6,
1983) married Opal Mae Bolin (Dec. 12, 1912-Feb. 20, 1976) in 1937. Porter was
a retired powder plant worker and member of Walnut Grove Baptist Church. The
couple had sons Jerry and Dean and six daughters: Edna (Thompson), Mary (Simmons),
Rose (Hightower), Donna (Rowley), Nettie (Hubbard), and Martha (Martin). Porter
and Opal Mae are buried in McConnell Cemetery.
Dorae Rachel (Feb. 4, 1911-Sept. 8,
1911) is buried in McConnell Cemetery.
Louis Carl (Aug. 11, 1913-Nov. 13,
2001) married Ava Lucille Bolin (April 13, 1917-Feb. 22, 2001), daughter of
William Dolphus Bolin and Addie Estella Seaton. Louis and Lucille are buried in
Oaklawn Cemetery, Olathe, Johnson Co., KS.
Seth Eldon (Oct. 8, 1918-June 19,
1984) married Joyce Hamilton and Christine Ann Iglodi. He died at the
then-State Chest Hospital in Mt. Vernon.
William Jack
(Nov. 3, 1915-Jan. 6, 1998) lived in Springfield where he operated a roofing
business with his wife, Mayme Ruth O'Neal (Nov. 7, 1919-Oct. 18, 1981). The
couple had three children: Jack Lee (who with wife Joan had sons Randy and Rod); Jody (who with wife
Karen had children Dave and Kim); and Jay Newton (who with wife Glenda St. John
had children Andy, Amy and Jason).
A son later
operated the company.
Jewell Alvance (June 3, 1922) married
Floyd James Cannady (Oct. 6, 1917-May 16, 1957), son of Robert Cannady and
Corcia Hayes. Floyd was a policeman who was electrocuted while working with
wiring under their home. The couple had
two sons, Bobby and Danny.
William David Inman (March
10, 1890-Aug. 4, 1939)
Will, the youngest
child of John Wesley and Nancy Lavanda Wilson Inman, originally was thought to
have been named for his relative William Daniel Wilson, who had been sent to
prison for murder. However, numerous records show this man was named William DAVID
Inman.
Will, a carpenter, married Artie May
McConnell (Oct. 26, 1888-Nov. 20, 1976), the daughter of Jim Wright and Fannie
McCafferty McConnell, on Dec. 5, 1909. Will and Artie first lived with his
father and mother. But the couple later moved in a four-room house on the
family farm and had three children: Raymond Theodore (Sept. 15, 1910-Dec. 11,
1913); Lowell E. (April 24, 1911-April 27, 1991), who lived in Nixa; and Mabel
who married Carmen Okla McConnell (Feb. 18, 1916-Nov. 25, 1999), a relation of
Artie. Mabel and Carmen had three daughters, Linda Merrill McConnell Noe,
Connie McConnell Jones and Marsha McConnell Crotts. Raymond died of bronchia
pneumonia, according to his death certificate.
Will and Artie eventually moved to
Springfield. Will's nephew, Robert Inman, remembered him as "a fine fellow
until him and his wife separated," although they continued living
together. Will eventually moved to Joplin, where he died.
Like his brothers and their wives, Will
and Artie are buried at McConnell Cemetery.