Shakin' the Family Tree

I've written before about looking for one thing, and finding another.

And so it was with Ollie Mable Kinzie.

I was at the Arkansas History Commission in mid-May, plowing through microfilm of old newspapers in 1914, and stumbled upon a very sad story. That story started me on a quest.

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SAD SUICIDE OF FRIENDLESS GIRL
"NO HOME, NO MONEY, NO FRIENDS AND CAN'T GET WORK."
Little Rock - "No home, no money, no friends, and can't get work." In that terse, tear stained sentence she had hastily scrawled on a piece of paper which lay on the bed beside the body of pretty Mable Kinzie who had taken her own life in a rooming house at 215 West Third street at 12:00 o'clock Thursday afternoon is told the pathetic story of hardships, loneliness and final desperation that drove the friendless girl to swallow the contents of a vial of carbolic acid.

"I have been wandering friendless and penniless for weeks, and when my money ran out I could think of no other recourse by which to better this scheme of life than destroying it," read the farewell message. "My friends were not friends in times of trouble.The world was sweet when all went well, when I had money and work, but the cup of bitterness has blighted whatever sweetness there is in life for me and this is my time to leave." The letter was addressed to her sister, Mrs. Frank Bentley, at the Barnfield house, Texarkana.

"Miss Kinzie came to my house Monday afternoon," said Mrs. Willie O'Connor, who conducts the rooming house, "and paid me for one night and left her grip in the hall Tuesday afternoon when she went out in search of work. She didn't come back Tuesday night. Yesterday afternoon, I saw a light in the room she had formerly occupied. I knew that it should not be lighted at that time of day and went in the room not expecting to find anyone there.

"I saw Miss Kinzie lying on the bed, and supposing she was only asleep went over to the bed and began to shake her, and then I noticed the paleness of her face and called to her but she did not answer. Then I saw the note and thinking she might be saved I called a doctor who said she was dead. She couldn't have been dead very long when I entered the room."
Source: Southern Standard, Thursday, 14 May 1914.

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But even in death, Mable appeared to have no friends.

GIRL'S BODY UNCLAIMED
Couldn't Find Work; In Despair Ended Her life
Lifeless Form of Mabel Kinzie Still at Morgue
The body of pretty Mabel Kinzie, who ended her life Wednesday afternoon at 215 West Third street by swallowing the contents fo a bottle of carbolic acid because she was without funds, friendless and could not obtain work, still lies unclaimed at the Healey & Roth morgue.

In a note to her sister, Mrs. Frank Bentley of Texarkana, she said that her reason for taking her life was, "No home, no money, no friends, and can't get work." This sister was notified and said that her husband, Frank Bentley, would arrive in Little Rock yesterday afternoon to take charge of the body, but at a late hour last night Mr. Bentley had not appeared.

It is said that the girl is a native of Missouri and that her parents are living there now. Wednesday night Bentley did not announce the home of the girl's parents, and it is the belief of the local authorities that they have never been notified of their daughter's death, as no word has come from them.

The verdict of the coroner's jury last night was that the girl committed suicide. The investigation was conducted by Deputy Coroner Frank Martin.
Source: Arkansas Gazette, Friday, 8 May, 1914

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So now, I wondered if Mable was one of the people buried in a pauper's grave at Oakland & Fraternal Historic Cemetery Park - at that time, still the City Cemetery.

After waiting for two months for the Arkansas Department of Health to get its act together on the printing of the 1914 death certificate - apparently you have to have a special printer for those, and theirs needed parts, to which I finally said, PRINT THE FRICKING CERTIFICATE ALREADY! - I got it.

The Gazette must have gone to print before Mable's body was sent - probably by train - to Webb City, Missouri on 8 May 1914.

There are two cemeteries in Webb City, which is in Jasper County, the county of her birth in 1892. Her death certificate says she was born in Independence, and that she was 22 years old. The informant for the certificate was her sister, Mrs. Frank Bentley, who didn't know her own sister's date of birth.

One of those cemeteries is the Webb City Cemetery, and the other is Mount Hope Cemetery. I cannot find a grave for her, even using alternate surname spellings, in either cemetery. It's possible the grave was not marked, or it was and an online record of it just doesn't exist.

But I do know who her parents were - Charles Henry Kinzie and Mary A Kants/Koonts, both born in Indiana. I found Ollie Mable Kinzie living with her father and step-mother in the 1910 census in Carterville Ward 1, Jasper Co., MO. I know she had an older brother named John, but I can't find out what happened to him after the 1880 census.

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By now, I am very curious about why it took so long for someone from Mable's extended family to claim her body. Why she found herself nearly 300 miles from home, alone in Little Rock, AR, without friends and not a penny to her name.

And I want to find her grave.

This is the part I love about collecting old postcards. From a flea market last week, I purchased a bit of Arkansas history.

Three sisters, the daughters of Abner Clark Evans and Mary Catherine Morrow. It appears the family lived, worked and died in Izard County after Abner and Catherine's marriage in 1855 in Independence County. All of these are buried in Barren Fork Cemetery, Mount Pleasant, Izard Co., AR.

Identification of the sisters on the back, and the date was 20 Nov 1922.

From left to right:
Sarah Elizabeth "Lizzie" Evans McSpadden - Jan 1867 - 9 Aug 1936
Minnie Kate Evans McSpadden - 26 Sep 1874 - 18 May 1936
Alice C Evans Sims - 5 May 1862 - 13 Nov 1947

I'd love to get this card home to direct descendants. If any of you have connections in Izard County and are able to locate direct descendants, please comment below or email me at sharpchick13 at hotmail dot com with an address to mail the card.

Twenty farmers pledged their support for the extension of the electric power line through the Hopewell and Economy communities at a meeting held at Hopewell church Wednesday night. The proposed line will start at the C L Davis store on Highway 105 and the main line will extend to Burnett Cove with the laterals tapping nearby residences and covering a total of approximately eight miles. County and home agents were present and explained the advantages of electricity on the farm and in the home. Excerpted from The Atkins Chronicle, 28 Oct 1938.

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I loved reading this in The Atkins Chronicle, 23 Jan 2013 issue, at page 3.

75 Years Ago
From the files of Feb. 4, 1938
People of Hector will celebrate the installation of electric power Tuesday, Feb. 22. The celebration will begin at 4 o'clock. J M Danley of Scottsville is in charge of the program. H M Cheek of Hector will deliver the welcome address. Other speakers on the program will be W P Strait of Morrilton, Lieutenant Governor Bob Bailey, Judge A B Priddy, Reece Caudle and E W Hogan of Russellville.

Rural Arkansans have always been last to get most of the modern conveniences.

As early as 1913, Arkansas had, in addition to city and town electrical utilities, an electric utility that connected cities on the power grid.

So I imagine that a quarter of a century later, it was a really big deal for the little Pope County town of Hector to get electricity.

In my mind's eye, I see someone ceremoniously flipping a switch, and I hear the "oohs and aahs."

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Got this photo in my email the other day.



That's my dad, and one of his favorite hunting dogs - a pointer named Rex. The year was 1972.

Dad always loved to bird hunt - back in the day when Arkansas had an abundant quail population.

Before humans destroyed their habitat.

When I was very young, he had English setters. The pointers came later. Dad and his dogs competed in field trials.

And Rex was a very cool dog.

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As I read other blogs, I've noted that most bloggers try very hard to credit information they use in their blogs to appropriate sources, if it's not original content.

It does kind of bug me to see a blogger's copyright symbol displayed on so many old photographs. While I understand that the blogger is probably trying to prevent indiscriminate copying and re-use of photos, just possessing a photo doesn't grant you copyright.

From the FAQ page of the United States Copyright Office:
Copyright is the right of the author of the work or the author's heirs or assignees, not of the one who only owns or possesses the physical work itself. See Circular 1, Copyright Basics, section “Who Can Claim Copyright.”

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I am taking the Family History Through the Alphabet challenge, albeit starting a few months late.

The person who emailed me answered my reply. She is interested in John Webb (some folks say his middle initial was L). I have a date of birth of 10 Sep 1798 in Tennessee, but no date of death. His wife, Sarah "Sally" Waters, died in 1882 and was buried in Fairplay Cemetery, Benton, Saline Co., AR

And that's all I know.

And that's all I know about what she wants to know.

Webbs are collateral members of my family tree. There have been scattered intermarriages of Webbs with my Stricklands and McCarleys - sisters of John Webb.

So now, I'm taking a look at the Webb family. There appears to be evidence of a large, well established family in Grant County made up of the children and grandchildren of John Webb.

It would be nice to have specifics about what my correspondent wants to know.

But I am intrigued anyway...

Another of the buys from eBay...

Mr. Watson was not related to me, as far as I know.

When I went to Pope County to see my folks this past weekend, they loaned me a couple of local history books.

One was History of Pope County, Arkansas. (Pope County Historical Association of Arkansas and Hunter Publishing, 1979.)

I found several entries of interest in the section of family biographies for people in our family tree.

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An entry about Joshua Alfred Ashmore at page 136:

Joshua married Sept. 1, 1853 in Gum Log, Nancy Melinda Guest, who had recently come on a wagon train with her parents, Moses Holland Guest...and Sarah Minerva Turner from Milledgeville, Georgia. In spite of his southern wife, Joshua was a northern sympathizer when the Civil War broke out. A target of the "night riders," he hid out in swampy places until he got to the Union Army where he enlisted. He became sick with malaria, and Nancy went to his camp to nurse him, leaving their children, William Anderson (b 1854), Samuel Henry (b 1857), Sarah Elizabeth (b 1860), Nancy Ann (Nannie) (b 1862), and infant Eliza Adelaide (b Jan 1865) at home. She got pregnant while at camp and Mary Jane was born 11 months after Eliza in 1865. Robert Holland was born in 1870.

Joshua died May 11, 1871, never fully recovering from the exposure he endured during the Civil War.... Originally written by Helen Peters Mauk.

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More information on page 16 about little Grace Electra Shinn, daughter of Josiah Hazen Shinn and Mildred Carleton Williams:

...About where the pool hall is on Main Street, the Judds lived in a two story frame house. They may have kept boarders, but at least Mrs. Judd fed folks. Every day at noon she would come out of her front door and ring an old fashioned dinner bell, loud and long.

It was at Mrs. Judd's house where I first came in contact with death. Professor Josiah H Shinn, who later wrote a history of Arkansas, was superintendent of our public schools, and his family lived at the Judd home. His daughter, Gracie, was a classmate of mine, and she died at Mrs. Judd's house. Her classmates marched from there to the cemetery, the girls dressed in white, and all of us with a black band on our arm. Originally written by Miss May Russell.

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I learned on page 27 that Mary Ann Shinn was a heckuva housekeeper, but often late with supper.

Mary Ann Shinn Booher kept a neat house. Her table was always set at all times with the plates turned down and the whole table covered with a misquito (sic) net. Her dining room floors, as were all the floors in her house, was scrubbed with a shuck mop end (sic) lye soap as thick as molasses, then rinsed and dried. She had mirrows (sic) hanging on all walls above the washstands. As she passed through a room, she would glance into the mirrow and smooth her hair or dust the puff cotton across her nose that took the shine off. Her one failing was her slowness to get things done. Many times she would be 9:00 o'clock at night getting the supper on the table. Originally written by Geneva Taylor Booher.

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And was surprised to read on page 35 of the decidedly unpastoral conduct of the Rev. Warren Washington Strickland when provoked to righteous anger...

It is said the Rev. W. W. Strickland, first moderator of the Sulpher Springs [Cumberland Presbyterian] Church, believed in strict order while he was preaching. During those days there were a lot of ruffians and it was nothing unusual for Rev. Strickland to ask the boys to behave and if they didn't, he would walk back and slap or hit them with his fist and keep on preaching. Originally written by J. B. Lemley.

From the Gurdon Times, dated 24 Feb 1906:

Valentine Party
Mrs. Tom Callaway, in her charming manner, on last Saturday afternoon, from 3 to 5 o'clock, entertained the Kadohadacho Club with a Valentine party.

The weather was propitious and a large number of ladies were present.

The Valentine idea was carried out in the decorations, the house being artistically decorated in red and white hearts in the spirited contest in which all were so interested; also in the score cards, and last but not least in the delicious and dainty refreshments, after which we were served with most refreshing punch.

In the contest Mrs. Fitzgerald won first prize and Mrs. Kress won the booby prize.

The guests lingered and departed reluctantly, enthusiastic over the afternoon's pleasure and hoping Mrs. Callaway would entertain again at an early date.

Comment: The Kadohadacho Club was apparently the fledgling effort in Gurdon by women of the community to establish a library in their town. The Club was named for a local Indian tribe.

I do not know the identity of Mrs. Tom Callaway for sure - I suspect she may have been the former Mattie Estelle Moore, wife of Thomas F Callaway, who was the son of William "Little Bill" Callaway and Emily L Bevil.

But there are a bunch of Tom Callaways in the Clark County family tree around the same age. I eliminated the widowers...

From the Russellville [AR] Courier Democrat, 3 Nov 1898:

Since our last reports, County Clerk Mourning has issed marriage license to the following persons: J M Epps to Miss Lula Epps; W R Freeman to Miss Rena Dunlay; Everett McGorven to Miss Ora Butler.

Russellville Courier Democrat, 3 Nov 1898:

Mr. Josiah Womble one of Pope County's oldest and best citizens died at his home in Bayliss Township Monday Oct 24th. He was perhaps the oldest educator in the county, having been an active and prominent teacher back in 1860 and '62. Mr. R Hogins and Jno R. Young of our city are some of the many prominent men of our county who were his pupils during the time of this good old man's days of usefulness. Peace to his ashes.