Submitted on 14 September 2008 by
Donovan Yingst
The house was built by John and Sarah
(Thompson) Dobkins ca. 1841. It was located in the SW1/4NW1/4,
Section 24, T. 37 N., R. 2 W, 5th Principal Meridian, Courtois Twp.,
Crawford Co., MO, a short distance Westerly from the Dobkins
Cemetery. The house was built on land patented by the Federal
Government on 31 May 1824 to Lovel Thompson, father of Sarah
(Thompson) Dobkins. John and Sarah Dobkins acquired the
property by deeds in 1856. The house burned about 1901; only
the remnants of the stone foundation, covered with vegetation, are
visible now.
According to family tradition, the
men in the household worked in lead mines in the locale. My
grandmother, Sarah (Walton) Dobkins, decided to burn some of the
men's worn-out rubber boots in the kitchen range. The range
became overheated and caught the house on fire. The only thing
grandma was able to save was a piano stool, but she did try to get
the piano out. I vaguely remember a piano stool in her Idaho
home at the Jerome Country Club, so maybe it was true.
Pictured Left to Right
On horseback, unidentified (probably
Cain Pharris); Albert Earnest Dobkins; his wife, Sarah (Walton)
Dobkins, (my grandparents); Joshua Frank Dobkins; Willie Devol
Dobkins; Otto Lambert, Etta May (Dobkins) Sanders and her husband,
Joshua Sanders; two of their children - James Herkely (Herk) and
William Milas (Sam) and last, probably one of Joshua's brothers.
