Ralls County Historical

Volume 2- Issue 6                                                                                   November 2003

RALLS COUNTY MISSOURI HISTORICAL SOCIETY

P.O. BOX 182

CENTER MISSOURI 63436

http://www.rootsweb.com/~morchs/

 

Dear Friends of the Ralls County Missouri Historical Society:

            The regular Ralls County Historical Society meeting will be held November 17 at the Oak Hill rural school between Hannibal and New London in Ralls County .  Ray Crane and a group of neighbors and former students at the school have worked hard to preserve this old schoolhouse. Ray will give a history of the school and the plans to continue their restoration. From New London take State Highway V east out of New London about four miles to State Highway T, then turn north or left on T (old 79) about one mile to Oak Hill Road, turn right on Oak Hill Road and the school is a short distant on the left. From Hannibal take State Highway T (old 79) south about five miles to Old Hill Road, turn left on Oak Hill Road and again the school will be a short distant on the left. Oak Hill road and State Highway N are together.  The doors will be opened at 6:00 a.m. and the meeting will begin at 7:00 p.m. There will be a display of rural schools of Ralls County . Please begin any rural school pictures or items you would like to share.   The public is welcome to attend.

Society Annual Picnic;

I want to thank Ralph Omer, Fred Omer, and Charlotte Omer for the great dinner that they prepared for our September picnic. Also thanks to Margarethe Price and others who brought desserts and treats.

 

Tentative meeting dates for 2004;

January 19, 2004 at Center Christian church Basement (annual meeting)

March 15, 2004 at Perry VFW

May 17, 2004 at New London courthouse basement

July 19, 2004 at Center Christian church basement

September  20, 2004 at Perry (annual meeting/picnic)

November 15, 2004 at New London courthouse basement

Doors open at 6:00 p.m. and meetings beginning at 7:00 p.m. except September picnic meeting which is being planned.

Please send your groups events and dates so we can add them to the calendar

 

Thanks To;

            Rose Ann Bueter Papke for the donation 1913 Department of Agriculture 29”X34” laminated colored soil map of Ralls County .  The map shows not only soils, but also houses, roads, schools, churches and roads of the time. She also donated a CD with the map for better viewing.

            Fran Watts for the sign she donated for the Perry Bank building at the Perry City Park . A picture of the sign will be posted on our website soon.

            Arnold Sharp for his donation of a luggage cart from the Perry Missouri Short Line depot. It will also be pictured on our website soon.

            Sue DeLaporte for entering “A Pioneer Missourian” by Joshua Ely Briggs into Word to be published. This is only one of many projects she has done for the society.

 

We have been getting so many items and help in the past few months that I decided to TRY and thank the people who contributed.  I know I have  forgotten some of the people who have contributed and want to apologize to anyone I did not include on this list. I will try doing better the next time. Ron Leake

 

Madisonville Cemetery Clean Up;

Plans are being completed and should be available at the meeting.

 

2004 Memberships Are Due; 

Membership dues will remain the same for 2004, $10.00 for single membership and $15.00 for a family membership.  Please include the members of your family that you want to include in your family membership so we can get true count of our membership. If you are a new member also include your mailing address, phone number and e-mail address with your payment. All information will stay with the society. Checks can be sent to Ralls County Historical Society, P.O. Box #182 , Center MO. 63436 if you are unable to attend a meeting

 

New Book;

We now have published “1908 and 1912 Perry Missouri Corn Carnivals” with detailed articles and 34 historic photos these two important events in Perry History. The estimated daily attendants at these events were as big as 10,000 people. The pictures are of businesses, people and displays of both years of the events. There is a rare photo of  Perry’s  “Short Line” depot and others of special trains operated to bring people for the 1908 Carnival. The price of the book is $10.00 plus $2.00 if mailed, send payments to

Ralls County Historical Society, P.O. Box #182 , Center MO. 63436

 

Center Shoreline Depot;

            Speaking of the Short Line depot, we could use volunteers to help with the restoration of the Center depot. We have been able to lease the depot from the City of Center fro $1.00 a year. The depot needs a good cleaning and repairs both inside and out. If you can help with this project, please contact me as soon as possible work will have to begin while the weather allows.  We will also use community service people with the project and we would need local people to over see them.

 

New Books With Ralls and Local Interests;

            “Hannibal Heritage” written by Roberta Hagood and her late husband Hurley Hagood can now be ordered. The book is 121 pages hardback book, is being published by Jostens Publishing, 112 South Main , Marceline MO 64658 . It is expected to be available by December 15. Prepublication orders are being taken until December15 and may be mailed to the publisher above. The prepublication price is $29.95, plus $5 for mailing.  After December 15, the regular price will be $39.95 plus $5.00 for mailed orders. It will also by sold at  the Big River Discount Books and Mark Twain Book & Gift Shop, both in Hannibal .

            “Searching of Jim” Slavery in Sam Clemens’s World, by Terrell Dempseyt is available at Big River Discount Books and Mark Twain Book & Gift Shop in Hannibal . The suggested price is $44.95

 

Ralls County Cemetery ;

Jones 2 (aka Dabney Jones) Cemetery # 72 Township 55 west, Range-4 west, Section 21

The base for the burials at this cemetery listing is from the files of Mike Weaver, who researched old families of Ralls and Pike counties for years. When Mike canvassed the cemetery in 1973 he only recorded two burials, Dabney and Sally Jones. Mike later hand wrote in seven more burials that I have added to the end of the listings.  Rev. Gammon’s had ten more burials on his listings. I have put burials and dates from Gammon’s that vary from Weavers listing in [] brackets and noted which variants of Gammon and Weaver listings in {} brackets. The Weaver listing shows the full names of the parents of the added burials, Gammon showed initials. The stones of Dabney and his Sally were moved to the Jones 1 (aka William Jones) cemetery just over the Ralls-Pike county line in Pike County on old state highway 61. The site was dozed and no sign of the cemetery can be found. March 14, 1961 Mrs. Bess (Cleaver) Caldwell and her half brother Ben Hill Cleaver moved the remains of Stephen Cleaver to the Frankford Missouri cemetery in Pike County .  Some of the information came from “John Thomas Layne ( Virginia ) and his descendants” (my copy with added information by Mike Weaver)

 

Jones;               Dabney, born 5, 1785, died June 10, 1852

Jones;               Sally, (Layne)[1] (born September 29, 1788 )[2] died May 24, 1849 age 60                                    years 6 months, 5 days

These following names were written into Mike’s listing or shows on Rev. Gammon list.

Cleaver;            Stephen, born May 20, 1766, died May 30, 1846, age 80 years 10 days

Jones;               Chapel H. (Hardin?), died August 11, 1847, age 6 months [4 days],                              Michael Jackson  & Emily D. Alfred Jones

Jones;               Elizabeth, died September 15, 1819 [1919] , age 4 years 11 months 8 days,                 daughter of Dabney and Sally Jones

Jones;               Elizabeth, died 16, 1833, age 3 years 6 months 15 days, daughter T.                             and  C. A.]

Jones;               [Henry Lee, born 17, 1866, no death date, son of M. J. and E.D. Jones]                                   {not on Weaver list}    

Jones;               Infant, died June 15, 1838 , daughter of daughter of Taylor & Cynthia                             A. Trabue Jones {not on Gammon list)

Jones;               Infant, died July 10, 1849 , daughter of John & Elizabeth Nichols Jones

Jones;               Isabel, died February 4, 1848 , age 25 years one month, wife of John                             Jones      

Jones;               Lucy Ann, died August 7, 1841 , age 9 months 5 days, son of Michael                           Jackson and Emily D. Alford Jones

Jones;               Sally A. [Sallie A.], died September 29, 1833 [1835],  age 1 year 9                             months 12 days, daughter of Taylor & Cynthia A. (Trabue) Jones

Jones;               [Sarah, died May 16, 1859, age 8 years 2 months 6 days, daughter of                         H. & A. Jones] {not on Weaver list}    

Jones;               [William, died September 18, 1819, age 6 years 6 months 19                                     days, daughter of  D.  & S. Jones] {not on Weaver list}

 

Presidents View;

I want to thank everyone who has made this society such a successful and growing group. We have come a long way in the past four years and the future looks even brighter.  These results are because of our members increased participation, enthusiasm and input. Any group or society is as good as members and this society has  a diverse and knowledgeable membership which has made it a success. Not only have attendants at meetings increased, but a lot of projects are completed by members and even nonmembers who cannot be attended meetings. 

 

Bit of Ralls County History

Died at his residence in Centre Township, Ralls Co. MO., on The 28^th of Oct. 1875 , Levi Keithley, aged eight-one years, five months.

 

            As the decreased was one of the pioneers of MO., it is thought by his relatives and friends that it would be of interest to publish a short

 

SKETCH OF HIS LIFE

            He was born in Warren Co. KY. A. D. 1794. At the age of twenty-one he married Miss Fannie White, near Bowling Green , KY. Two years after the young couple left their native state and came to MO. This was three years before MO. became a state. He Lived one year at St, Charles and in November 1818 moved near the Ely Springs, in what is now Pike Co., encountering the pathless woods and unfelled forest, to hew himself out a home          in the primeval wilderness. His means were scanty, but he and his companion had left their kindred to make their home in the far West. With deep interest, I have listened to his stories of his early life and pioneer hardship and soon all these octogenarians will be gone and the last link broken that binds us back to the scenes and incidents of the first settling of our state. I would like, if I could, to tell of these in his own plain, simple language, giving the pathos with which he warmed up at the relating. I would tell of now, upon landing on Spencer Creek in November, he placed his “plunder” under the branch of a tree, five miles from his nearest neighbor, began a rude structure in which to winter, for as yet not a stick was cut, nor a board, nor a friendly dash of Mortar had been placed to protect the family from the near approaching winter. Trusting in God and his own string arm, he set about to work and soon the reverberating hills sent back the echo of the last lick stuck upon a finished cabin, in which he snugly tucked his little effects wintered as happily, perhaps as if his pointed cabin had been a mansard instead.

            The winters were spent in clearing for the field and the first few years were attended with toil, privation and danger. The few coins which he had brought were soon exhausted and may want remained unsatisfied. His own wardrobe, however, he supplied from the forest, of buck of his own tanning. The second winter was drawing nigh and the family shoeless. Procuring some leather, he, upon lasts of his own, manufactured clap down shoes for all around. The nearest mill was St. Charles– 75 miles away, though a sparsely settled and almost unbroken wilderness. Although his fellow men lived far from him and were few, yet his neighbor were near and numerous. The wolf, bear, panther and wild cat made night hideous or crept around his lonely cabin and preyed upon his pigs, calves and sheep, besides being a constant terror to the little ones that “played round the door.”

            The dinner horn was an instrument of summons in hour of peril at the house and one day while the subject of this sketch was in the field he heard the horn blow with unusual violence. Hastening home, he found his wife trying to frighten away a huge black bear from the hog pen, from which it took a fat porker, intending the same for an evening repast. Hot pursuit was made, with gun and dog and Bruin’s fat carcass helped to fill the larder. The wolf was sly and hard to capture, besides the pioneers hadn’t the profit arising from the sale of the wolf scalps to the state.

            Snakes were too “numerous to mention,” and it is a wonder how the little barefooted urchins escaped unbitten as they did. Nine years of toil, Privation, and battling with wild beasts and venomous reptiles brings prosperity to a certain extent, for by that time other settlers had arrived and Mr. Keithley sold his land and moved to the place where he died – on Salt River – again encountering the dense woods. By industry, frugality and perseverance, he soon acquired a competence.

            But death visited his home and snatched away the companion of his toils; he married again and this one likewise died; and so with the third and fourth and the surviving widow was his fifth wife. Numerous progeny – mostly grown up men and women as well as useful and respected citizen – are left to mourn his loss and to revere his name

            He served in the Black Hawk War, under Capt. Matson.

            From this sketch of his life, in which not a tithe of his hardships are related, we see under what circumstances our fathers redeemed this country from the savages and wild beasts and built up society and planted churches and schools. The subject of this sketch was an ardent supporter of schools and a consistent member of the Christian church over thirty years.

            He was a marked force and solidity of character, with dauntless energy and believed in success being attainable by every youth, without exception. In fact, his motto was, “there should be in the bright vocabulary of youth which leads on to a brighter manhood, no such word as ‘fail’”. He despised all kinds of chicanery and sophistry and believed in the old fashioned “hewed and split road to wealth”, instead of the new speculating routes which oftener lead down than up the hill of fortune.

G. W. Waters