The Ggma Chronicles, part 4: Migrating Between Ohio, Kansas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma
Eunice Soaks Her Petticoats and Annie Drives the Horses into the Blue Hole
The notes about Eunice’s side of the family and story are hard to decipher because there is so much crossing out and near palimpsest going on:
I can’t determine just when it was the Reeders took the trip from their former home in Mansfield, Ohio, seven hundred miles as the heron flies, west and only slightly south to Worth County, Missouri. It would have probably been a circuitous route they took, though—probably southwest to Cincinnati, then on the Ohio River to southeast Missouri, then up the Mississippi River to St. Louis, then west up the Missouri River, and finally from there to Worth County by stagecoach.
If they made that trip in the 1850s, Mark Twain may have been aboard the steamboat on which they traveled, as either a “cub” pilot, the regular pilot, or possibly even as a passenger.
I can, though, report that Eunice, although going against her parent’s wishes as to her choice of groom, was not thumbing her nose at them. She felt distraught about the friction caused by the difference of opinion. My grandma’s notes say:
She said, “I cried all day the day before my wedding as I ironed all my petticoats that went under my wedding gown, since I wanted very much my parents’ approval.”
Other parts of the narrative that I can confidently transcribe are:
Sylvester made all important decisions, since Eunice had all the confidence in him and thought he could do no wrong. Soon they had a home of their own where they prospered and lived for twelve or thirteen years. By then they had five children. In spring of 1882 or ‘83 they sold out and with several families set out in covered wagons . . . western Kansas, settling in Graham County. They went until they came to a fork in the Solomon River where they built a dug-out finished with sod.
Sylvester took a timber claim and planted many locust trees . . . house where Mary Myrtle was born.
In 1890, Sylvester took a timber claim near Nicodemus, Kansas, bought a frame store building and moved it to the claim for a house. He built a big barn, a stone chicken house and well house where milk and butter were kept cool. Sand Creek was nearby and the children spent many happy hours here. The family lived here until they heard of the warmer climate in the Ozarks.
After raising most of their family in Kansas and helping build the railroads and telegraph lines through western Kansas, Sylvester was ready for a change. In the spring of 1904, Ves sold out, loaded a covered wagon drawn by a team of horses, and headed for Arkansas. They bought a 3-story, 10-room home on Sugar Creek about five miles north of Bentonville, and approximately five miles south of Caverna, a small store and grain flour mill just over the Missouri line.
The closest school was Dug Hill school, along with churches, the Baptist + Camolite [Campbellite?] about three miles north of Sylvester and Eunice’s farm.
Birdie and Mary grew up here by Sugar Creek, boating, horseback riding, and playing with the little neighbor, Sadie Cunningham. The Cunningham family lived a short distance down from the Myers family.
About 1916, Sylvester and Eunice sold their country home and moved to the western part of Bentonville across the street from Judge Dickson.
Thomas [Green] and Belle [Myers Green] left Kansas and moved to a farm nearby. In a few years, Meril and Emanuel left Kansas with their families and bought homes in Benton County. Emanuel lived up Mills’ Hollow, across Sugar Creek. Up this hollow was a mammoth old mill spring that gushed out a cold draft of air and very cold water.
Meril, his wife Annie and six children also lived up Mills Hollow for a time. They had to cross Sugar Creek to get to the Mills place. One day Annie drove a team of horses and wagon to Bentonville for supplies. The creek was slightly higher than usual. On the way home, Annie’s wagon started floating a little. Annie panicked and guided the horses right into the “blue hole,” a very dangerous hole. Annie began screaming from the top of the pile of sacks of grain. Sylvester and Charlie Myers, Emanuel’s son, heard her screams and hurriedly jumped into the creek to save her. She started pulling them under and Sylvester told her he’d have to knock her unconscious if she didn’t stop struggling and fighting. This is the only way they saved her, but too late for the horses.
Emanuel’s children, Charlie, Lillie, Viola, Ruth, Inez, Crystal, Grace, Minnie and Maxine spent a short time in Mills Hollow before going to El Reno, Oklahoma where Emanuel worked for the railroad until retirement.
Florence, a widow with a son John, came to Benton County and lived with her parents, Sylvester and Eunice, for several years. She worked at the Massey Hotel in Bentonville as a maid until John grew up. She then moved to Rolla, Kansas, and married a wheat farmer and lived there until her death.
Birdie married a taxidermist, moving to Pinole, California, where they lived the remainder of their lives. Birdie always longed to return to the Ozarks where she grew up, but never got her wish.
As a young lady, Mary nursed for Dr. Cargel, also for Dr. Hurley in private homes.
In Bentonville, she met a Lowell man, Ferdy Brigham, and they were married shortly after W.W.I. They had a baby girl who lived only a few hours. Their son Johnny Roosevelt was born in 1919. He was called J.R. and still lives near Lowell and has five children: Kenneth, Steve, Johnny, Mary, and Belva [?] and several grandchildren.
His mother, Mary Myrtle Brigham, lived life to the fullest. She died Nov 1. 198_ at the age of 93 and is buried in the Bingham Cemetery beside her late husband near Lowell.
Eunice and Sylvester and also daughter Belle remained in Benton County the rest of their lives. On Mar. ____, Eunice’s heart stopped during the night. In 19__ Sylvester died at 89 years. They are both interred in the old Dug Hill cemetery beside Thomas and Virginia Belle where the pine trees moan over their graves and the wild strawberries ripen red and sweet in the Ozark sun.