Missouri Ruralist from Topeka, Kansas • 5

I- A iU Vol. XVIII, No. 14 JULY 20, 1919, Fifty Cents a Year ar Fmm th i First AmmaH Reoraom of Missouri Folks Wlio Have Owned Farms for More Than SO- Years By John Francis Case Mr, J. Robinson of Henry County tramped out on the threshing floor, then fanned. I lived on this farm 51 years with my mother and never was out of her sight three weeks in all that time.

I know of 10 or 12 farms in Warren county that have not been out of the family for 50 years. I was named Pleasant, after father. I will close with pleasant greetings. Dont tell me, folks, that theres nothing in a name. Friend Kennedy comes next to Uncle Jim Allen in number of years of unchanged title.

Listen now to Neighbor P. W. Mayfield, of Oak Ridge, Cape Girardeau county, whose farm has been in the family for 95 years: I am living on the homestead that my father entered, June 1, 1824. There have been but two transfers, one from grandfather to father and from father to me. My grandfather and grandmother lived on the farm until both died at the age of 97.

years. My father was the sixth child and he lived on the farm until he died at the age of 87Va years. I am the third ciiiid and am 55 years old. My mother is still living at 77 and makes her home with me here. I have heard grandfather say that wolves, bear, deer and snakes were numerous when he first settled here and that the wild turkeys would eat up the corn and the deer the turnips.

Grandmother once saw six deer in their turnip patch. Grandfather had to make a strong log pen to put his calf and colt in to keep the wolves from kill ing. them. A remarkably long-lived-family, Neighbor May-field, not many can equal it. I wonder if your "grandparents would have lived to 97 had they lived in town.

Now, Im going to introduce Aunt Angelina Wagnon, of Marionville, Barry county. She tells a most interesting story of the years ago I was born in Barry county in 1850 on part of the farm now owned by my nephew, G. H. Lusk, i Father settled on the place in 1844. The house 4 if I 4 I ii -t.

v- 9 i ft 4 was a typical settlers home built of hewed logs daubed with clay. It was floored with slabs called puncheons, split from logs and shaved smooth with a drawing knife. The roof was boards, split with a fro. The chimneys were split sticks and clay. Farmers cut grain with a cradle and bound it by hand.

Women and children carried water to the field and often took lunch there between meals. Harvest hands could be hired for $1 a day. They threshed wheat with a flail, a hickory pole pounded in the middle so it would bend, and panned the chaff in the wind. In later years the grain was tramped out on a dirt floor with horses. Tho floor was pounded hard and smooth with a wooden maul.

Hides were tanned with oak bark in a trough dug out of a log with an adz, and shoes were made on a wooden last. The soles were put on with pegs of their own make. Our clothes and bed clothes were spun, dyed and woven by the women and girls from wool and cotton raised on the farm. The cotton was ginned by hand. Our beds were homemade ticks filled with straw and feather beds made with feathers from our geese and ducks.

The women and girls wore linsey in winter and homespun cotton in summer with once in awhile a bought dress for Sunday or for a wedding dress. Our dyes did not come from Germany. We used indigo, madder, copperas, alum and barks. A calico dress and sunbonnet were good enough to wear to church. We went to church in a home-made wagon drawn by oxen.

There was a wooden axle and a tar bucket hung on the coupling pole. We were not ashamed as others went the same way. We broke all ground with a bull-tongue plow having a wooden, home-made stock, cultivated, it with the same plow and hoed between times. I remember when sorghum was first introduced in Southwest Missouri. We ground the cane in a wooden mill and father boiled the juice in wash boilers mostly borrowed from the neighbors.

Most of our near neighbors used- the same mill, and what glorious times we children had when we were allowed to sit up and make taffy candy. Pigs could be bought for $1 apiece with the sow thrown in. Hens were $1 a dozen with the rooster thrown in. Newspapers were scarce and were used to paper the walls. An almanac cost 25 cents, and if I remember right, postage on a letter was 25 cents, paid by the receiver.

There were no envelopes. The letter was sealed with a wafer. Our nearest trading point was Springfield, Mo. Our folks made two trips a year. There was no market for eggs before the Civil War.

There were no railroads in this part of Missouri until about 1870. My father built a two-story frame house in 1857. He brought the lumber from Van-. winkles mill in Arkansas, using three yoke of oxen. It took 10 days to make the round trip.

Father and the boys did all the work, quarried and dressed the rocks to make the chimney, and, believe me, it was considered some house. Now in addition to the -applause lets give Aunt Angel ine and the other pioneers three cheers. Fine They know we mean it. Meet W. R.

King, of Edgar Springs, Phelps county: I traded for my farm in 18G5 and still own it, having lived on and farmed the place continuously. My daughter and son- in-law now handle the farm for me. I have here a picture of the old house and the new one. In the latter picture J. L.

Steele and family and myself are shown. Mrs. J. W. Robinson, of Urich, Henry county, now will talk to you.

Grandmother Robinson is 74 years young. Shes already told me tnis most interesting story, so I know youll enjoy it: I came from Ohio to Missouri with my husband, arriving at the farm where I now Jive October 24, 1868. Two weeks later my husbands father, mother, two sisters and three brothers followed. Two other brothers had come in 18G6 and bought fcO acres for us. On this they had built a one-room log house 14 by 16.

In this house the family of 11 passed the first winter. My husband and I occupied it two years longer and it was there that our first baby was born. Theland was unbroken prairie and (Continued "on Page 8.) IMPERIAL Missouri owes much of its great-lie. to the farm builders of today, the men who in recent years have shaken off the traditional show me shackles and marched bravely forward on the highway of progressivo-ness that leads to prosperity. It owes more, tho, to the farm builders of yesterday, progressive men and women, too, who hewed homes from the wil-.

clerness and taught their children not only-to call that spot home but to love it well. These folks, with their sons and daughters, are those with whom we visit at the Old Settlers Reunion. Its warm today but not uncomfortable in the shady grove on the farm of Neighbor James Allen. We are in Lincoln county, not far from Foley, and Uncle Jim has asked us to be his guests. Altlio there are more than 100,000 of us who have gathered honor Missouris pioneers, we are so quiet an ttentive that every word can be clearly heard.

Ofi the distance is an old, old house. Theres a speakers stand and on it are gathered a group of gray-haired men and women. I am master of ceremonies and will introduce those who will tell us of olden times. Uncle Jim Allen is to be the first speaker, because for 116 years his farm has been owned by the men of one blood. Hats off, now, and be quiet, for Uncle Jim has begun to speak.

My great grandfather, Benjamin Allen, came to Lincoln county, then a part of St. Charles county, Missouri, in 1804. Grandfather Edwin Allen was 4 years old. The family first settled y2 mile south of Winfield, then later took a Spanish claim where Apex Station now is. Benjamin Allen fought in the Revolutionary War under his nephew, Ethan Allen.

His grave is on a hill near where he first settled. He was a Mason and the first Master Mason buried by that order in Lincoln county. Grandfather Edwin Allen was a farmer and also a cooper. He lived on part of the Spanish land of his fathers old claim and was buriedbesidje his father. My father, David Allen, also was a farmer and cooper and too, have worked at the coopers trade.

Benjamin Allen was the first justice of the petfee in Lincoln county and David Allen served continuously for 30 years as justice. My grandfather, Francis Riffle, came to Missouri in 1803, riding an Indian pony. Choteau, of St. Louis, also a Frenchman, offered him 40 acres of land for the pony. The Union Station in St.

Louis now stands on part of that land. At that time a large pond of water stood where the station now is. The offer was and Grandfather Riffle settled on Sandy Creek. His father, Francis Riffle, had come over with General Lafayette and fought with him in the Revolutionary War. He settled in Virginia and was killed by Indians.

My. father, David Allen, bought 120 acres of the 400 acres owned by Grandfather Riffle and on it built a two-story house in I still am living-In that same house. It has been my home for 69 of my 75 years. I was a Union soldier during the Civil War, serving in 18G3 and 18G4. When father bought the land and built there were 4 acres broken and a small orchard.

One apple tree has been bearing for more than 80 years. It is a seedling, bears every year, and is a fine eat- ing apple. Grandfather called it a Vanlever. In my boyhood days I broke seven -yoke of oxen and have driven three yoke of oxen to the plow, breaking new ground. I have handled four yoke of oxen hauling logs on an old truck wagon.

Altho I am a cripple I still can use the garden tools for a short time every day. Fine, Uncle Jim! May you live 100 happy years. Now we will hear from Pleasant Kennedy, of Wright City, Warren county. I own 190 acres that was settled in 1807 by my grandfather, Major Thomas Kennedy, who built a fort. My father was born in that fort in 1814 and lived on the farm all his life.

-When he died in 1884 he willed it to me. I was born in 1845, have lived on the farm all my life, and expect to keep it as long as I live. I have seen and grown many kinds of crops on that good old farm, sometimes growing as much as 15 acres of tobacco a year. Have seen wheat cut with the old time cradle and Heres the Type of Los Cabin That Aunt Angeline Wagnon Telia About. Still Standing In Itnrry County..