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Very truly yours, Charles O. Baltzell. ------------- Flagstaff, Arizona January 28, 1916
Fortune favored me. I fell into the hands of the best man in Lawrence County, J. A. Barekman. He and his good wife reared me as their own and the kind treatment they extended me and the sacrifices they made for me shall never be forgotten. After completing the eight years work at White Oak, attended the Sumner public schools, the Union Christian College at Merom Indiana and the Southern State Normal at Carbondale Illinois. After teaching four years in Lawrence County, I was seized with a roving disposition, which is never forsaken me. Leaving Sumner in the early spring of 1868, I travel my way of St. Paul, Minnesota, Victoria, British Columbia and Seattle, Washington, to San Francisco, California. There I enlisted for five years in the US Marine Corps in sailed for the Philippine Islands. I spent a very pleasant week in Honolulu, Hawaii while the ship was undergoing repairs. After three years of active service against Filipinos, I return to Boston, Massachusetts, stopping en route to Nagasaki, Japan, San Francisco, Washington D. C. and New York City. After seven months service as guard a at the U.S. Naval Prison at Charleston, Massachusetts and a few months service at Washington D.C. I was honorably discharged from the US military service and entered the railway service. Visited the exposition at St. Louis secured a job as motorman and held it seven months, when I resigned to accept the position with the East St. Louis Suburban Company. After six years of service with that company during which time I made a couple of trips to Colorado and one to the exposition in Seattle. I resigned to take my wife west for her health. My wife was formerly Miss Ella Broughton of O'Fallon, Illinois. It was in 1911 that we immigrated to Mexico. After spending one year at Los Lunas, New Mexico, where we lost all we had in an irrigation venture we came to Flagstaff, Arizona, and entered 160 acres of government land. In the spring of 1914, we went back to Illinois and took up our residence at Granite City, where I was employed as conductor for the Illinois Traction System. In April 1915, we again came to Arizona, raised a good crop on our Homestead, received a patent for our land and moved to Flagstaff, where our children have the advantage of the most excellent schools which they have here. We have two children, Inez who is seven years old in the second grade and John Willis eight years old who is in the fourth grade. Flagstaff is a thriving up to date little city, among the scenic pines and snow-clad mountains, and ideal climate for lung diseases and the center of many interesting scenic and prehistoric places, including San Francisco Peaks, the amount of perpetual snow; Sunset Mountains and Lava beds; the painted Desert; Bottomless pit; Ancient cave dwellings and Cliff dwellings; and petrified forests etc. It is also the county seat of Coconico County, the seat of the northern Arizona State Normal School and the great trading post of the Navajo Indians. There are thousands of acres of government prairie land within a radius of 20 miles of Flagstaff yet open for homesteading. This land is surrounded by National Forest fuel and fencing are free and plentiful. While we have not accumulated much of this world goods owing to our roving dispossession and severe sickness which has overtaken us in the past that we are now healthy and happy, free and content, and permanently settled until the spirit moves us again.
Charles N. Barekman ------------- Sedalia, Missouri January 17, 1916
I enjoyed the other so much I am yet on praying ground and pleading terms. I am 85 years old in September, and nearly lost the use of my right arm and can't write in ink at all. Hardly readable with pencil. I hope my friends haven't forgotten me. Philo Bell was born near Sumner in 1830, where there were no schools, no town, no churches so I did not get much education. Well I lived in and around Sumner till 1904. Mr. Bell died and I went to Salem, Illinois to live with a daughter, Mrs. Draper. Lived there three years and she died, then I went to Sedalia, Missouri, to live with my youngest one, Mrs. Dr. Staats and have made my home here ever since. I have reasonable health for one of my age, have practically lost the use of my right arm, can't write or do much else. I don't enjoy this cold weather very well. I go to Sunday school and Church most every Sunday, just across the street and am so thankful I can. If you make this readable all’s well, if not put it in the waste paper basket. I wish you, Mr. Editor, success in your business, and wish all my friends health and happiness in this New Year. Mrs. Philo Bell ------------- Veedersburg, Indiana January 15, 1916 Editor Press: It is with much pleasure I have the privilege of writing to the good old Sumner Press and my dear old schoolmates and friends of good old Richland and Lawrence counties. My home place was about six miles southwest of Sumner, about two miles east and a quarter miles south of the Mt. Olive Church and three quarters of a mile east and north of Mulberry school house, the only school I ever went to in my life, and there remain some of the dearest friends that I could hope to meet any place. In the spring of 1884 my father sold the old home place to George Haynes. Now I think his son Bud owns the place. At this old home we used to have some of the grandest times each autumn. My father ran a cane mill and it was a busy time for us boys and most every week during the sorghum making the young people of our good neighborhood would gather in and have a taffy pulling and play party and we played the usual old games such as weavely wheat and skip to my lou and wading the cedar swamps and so forth. When my father sold his farm in the spring of 1884 he left dear old Richland and moved to Ford County, Illinois. I being about 17 years old and rather a husky lad, my father picked on me to take a team through to Ford County, a distance of about 200 miles. It was in the month of February. I remember too well the day I started, the snow was falling thick and fast and I had a team of horses and a team of small wild mules, and the last ones I told goodbye was my good old aunt, Mrs. Mitchell Berlin, who lived quarter of a mile of our old home place, after bidding her and the children and cousins goodbye. I put spur on the horses and started on my journey. The weather turned out fearful cold and the snow was deep. My trip was anything but pleasant. The rest of the folks came by railroad. We farmed in old Ford County for two years, my brother David, being general manager of the farm, and we did real well during the two years. The winter of 1885 we had an awful cold winter. One cold winter day my brother David and myself each took a load of corn and started to market with it at Melvin and after we sold the grain it was late in the afternoon and the thermometer was registering 20 degrees below zero. On our way home we had a stretch of raw Prairie to cross which covered with sloughs, ranging from one foot to six feet in the depth and as they were frozen over and covered with snow it was hard to determine where they were. Night had come on and we were making our way home when I was driving ahead with a great surprise I heard an awful crash and down went my team and the front wheels of the wagon and we soon discovered I had driven on a slough about four feet in depth and my good brother and I jumped down into the water unhitched the team and took the neck yoke and double trees and broke the ice until he made a road to the edge of the slough where the horses could plunge out. We then pried the front part of the wagon out and had about two miles to the nearest house. We were all but frozen to death when we reached fire. My father sold his farming machinery and stock and went to Bellflower, Illinois and bought a nice little home in town. This was the last earthly home he ever owned and he and my good mother both passed away there and they rest in sleep in the cemetery about one mile north of Bellflower, Illinois, in McLean County. My parents were good Christian people and belong to the M.E. Church up to their death; my mother's maiden name was Hannah Landis. Was closely related to the Landis in and about Sumner and the Brians. Now I will give you a little more of my biography. After my father and mother passed away as children we were left to shift for ourselves and in the summer of 1887 I hired to Adam Forepough’s Big circus. It was a largest American circus at that time there I had the pleasure of meeting old Sitting Bull, the notorious Indian chief and we put on a wild west performance with each show and played the Custer massacre. I stayed with the circus till the snow began to fall and then they went back to Philadelphia to their winter headquarters and I stopped off in the west. Being fond of gun and saddle I worked for a few ranchers and then dropped back to the Ozark Mountains where I was an out and out hunter for a long time. While hunting here in the mountains I always got my part of the game. When I was only a lad down in the dear old Richland I used to go coon and possum hunting with the older hunters and we would meet in the evening to make our plans and they said that we would go in cahoots and that they knew the best market for furs and they would sell them and give me my part of the money. I don't know if they have found the market yet up to this date I received nothing but the cahoots. A few years ago I was in the vicinity of Sumner and was talking to one of my cousins and she laughed and asked me if I remember the time I ate my mother’s sugar, and I told her I had forgotten it. I didn't want to get her to get the joke on me I say I hadn’t forgotten it for my mother took me out in the back room and use the elastic part of her slipper on me. I wish to say to my old chums that I never go back on my friends so I won't say anything about us playing wild animals and chicken roosts and so forth. No I won't mention it. Well we have grown up to be men now. I am living in Veedersburg, Indiana. I have four children three girls and one boy, who is the baby and he is ten years old. My children are getting along good in their schooling and music. I employed with the New York Central Railroad as bridge carpenter. I work between Peoria Illinois and Indianapolis Indiana at home every Sunday. No one loves their old schoolmates better than I, and dear friends, my wishes are tonight, that we may all so live that when we are called to the great beyond we can honestly and earnestly say: Over the river, the peaceful river, the Angels of death shall carry me to that land far away mid the stars, we are told where we know not the sorrows of time. A. J. Berlin ------------- San Jose, Illinois January 25, 1916 Once more we are called on to report to old home paper, the Sumner Press. I was born in Lawrence County Christy Township, September 26, 1843, when wolves and deer were plentiful. In those days neighbors were few and far between. Father’s closest neighbor was James French, two miles east, William Leathers two miles west. But soon people commenced moving in and then there was a schoolhouse built on fathers land. There I graduated. My first teacher was Mary Ann Jones (now Shick), and I believe she is still living. A great many great men graduated from that little log schoolhouse. Just a few names refresh our memory: Jesse P. Jones, Doctor Z. B. French of Lawrenceville, Sanford Kocker, Lipton Johnson, Riley Turner, Polk French, Hyat and Eli Bunn, Marion Combs, Fred Moore, Thomas Jones and many others. We had one room and one teacher, and he did all the whipping and heard all the classes recite and our daily average was about 55-75 enrolled. Now if anyone doubts what I say just ask Eli Bunn if he remembers the evening when he was shot out of the persimmon tree. Those were great days. I love to go back in my mind and converse with all that I was once acquainted with but now we see them as old, gray headed men and women, and many have left us and gone onto their happy reward. Just last week, when I opened the Sumner Press I saw the name of Peter W. Shick, and old-school master and neighbor who had answered the summons that we all will have to obey sooner or later. Well I am remaining on fathers farm until I was 19 years old, then I enlisted in Company B, 98th Regiment August 1862. Served three years in the Army of the Cumberland, and most of the time in the 14th Army Corps, commanded by General Thomas. I had good health all three years that I was in the Army, was in 21 battles, taken prisoner once, but made my escape. After I came home I worked for father and then went to school at Olney 11 weeks, then came home and went to grubbing out the young trees and making rails. Helped to run a sawmill two winters, then married John Milligan's oldest daughter, the best woman on earth. Moved on the place known as the Caleb Hoopes farm. Improved it and then went into the milling business, and that put me out of business and now I am living in San Jose and working on a salary. May God bless all of my old friends, and neighbors and enemies, if I had any, is the wish and prayer of one who loves to know and greet all.
------------- Vincennes, Indiana January 21, 1916 Editor Press: I am among the many of who like to see their names in print, so will send you a few lines for your Pink Issue. This finds us still on the job at our store in Vincennes. Things have been running along much the same as when I wrote you last year. Of course business has been a little puny, but I am under the impression it will be much better before the end of the year 1916. Myself and family are enjoying good health. Our happy family of five little Burnside's is still unbroken. We would enjoy very much our friends in Sumner calling on us when in the city. Just take a car at the union station and tell the conductor to put you off at First and Swartzel. Yours respectfully, George B. Burnside ------------- Oilton, Oklahoma January 21, 1916
Our little daughter, Mildred, will soon be five years old and we hope to be near some good school by the time she is old enough to attend. My husband has steady work, drilling for J. H. Markham, Jr. since coming here. We are all well and happy and getting along fine. My youngest brother, Russell, came out in November and learned tool dressing. He is now working with my husband Will. He seems perfectly satisfied and thinks six dollars per day is pretty good wages for a boy. We have only one neighbor, and as there is no place to go, or not much to do, my neighbor and I visit and crochet, while the men work. My sister, Carrie, lives about 2 1/2 miles from us, so we visit quite often, it's only down one hill and up another, but they are sure long ones. We had sleet, snow and ice the same day you folks in Sumner did, but now it's just like spring. I like it here very much better than at first, but believe me; I still have a warm spot in my heart for dear old Illinois, and would be glad to hear from any of my old friends. If the editor had let me write about the country and oilfields, my letter would have been more interesting. I will close with the best wishes to all. Mrs. Essie (Vanatter) Bodine ------------- 3730 Westminster Place St. Louis, Missouri January 20, 1916
Anna is delighted with her work as a registered nurse. Besides affording her a means of livelihood, she has many interesting and amusing as well as pathetic experiences. After all, human nature is about the most interesting thing in the world. I am still with the Harvey System as stenographer for one of the superintendents, the same position I have had for some time. Last September I had the pleasure of taking a western trip, including Colorado Springs, Salt Lake City, San Francisco and the exposition, Los Angeles, Long Beach, Pasadena and Grand Canyon, Arizona. Every mile of the way was a wonder to me as I had my first sight of the mountains and the ocean, with the experience of a little trip to Catalina Islands. My impression is that the extreme west is a wonderful country for one with a full purse, but a working woman has just as good opportunities elsewhere. Anna and I have fond recollections of former days in Lawrence County and wish our friends a very happy new year. Yours truly, Edna Carlisle ------------- Brown, California January 24, 1916
Ten years ago last December my family and I left Sumner for California. We lived there five years, until we moved to Fruita, Colorado, for health reasons, and two years later to Long Beach, California. We enjoy changing from one locality to another. Most unpleasant part of it is breaking the home ties of friendship when leaving. Since April 1915 we had been on a 320 acre ranch near Brown, Kern County, just to improve the ranch. The valley is about all a desert with a few good ranches, but we are surrounded by beautiful mountains. We enjoy the canyon, with the running water in summer as our summers are very warm. The mountains are covered with snow now. This is a good fruit country and most all kinds of grain can be raised here. We are all enjoying the best of health here and consider this a very delightful climate. We have many friends each place we have lived. I wish I could tell you more about California's land of sunshine, climate and flowers. We have a married daughter near Altona, Illinois, a married son in Fruita, Colorado, and two married daughters in Davidson, Oklahoma and our youngest daughters at home. We often talk with fond recollections of the good times enjoyed with our neighbors and friends in Lawrence County. The Lord is wonderfully blessing us in this new country. May the New Year surpass your expectations and hope in success and prosperity, Yours respectfully, Mr. and Mrs. H. F. Combs ------------- Madison, Illinois January 22, 1916
Many happy days have I spent in the old schoolhouse at Frogeye. My first teacher was Addie Wright, who later became the wife of Rev. W. C. Ivie. I would like very much to see again the old Beulah Church, a place very dear to me, perhaps because my mother is buried there and many other friends. Although I am nearly 27 years old, incidents seem very real to me that happened many years ago in our little house on the hill, near Moffett cemetery. When I was about five years old I was running around on the floor, with a long iron hook in my mouth, and had the misfortune to fall down and push it down my throat. When my mother pulled it out, part of the flesh came with it in my voice has been marred ever since. It was about two years after that, when I was out one night to draw a bucket of water (with the pulley and chain), when I got the bucket to the top and reached over the curb to get it, my foot slipped and I went down headfirst into that cistern which was 20 feet deep and half-full water. As I came up to the top of the water I grabbed to the bricks in the wall and held and yelled for help. There was one place in my life that minutes seemed like hours. However I was soon rescued by my father and unhurt. It was in the winter of 1900 that we moved to Richland County, located four miles west of Sumner. I had no more accidents for a few years really not until the winter of 1905, when we lived in the Shaffer property on the state road. On 17th of February, I started to Olney driving Mr. Shaffer’s team and wagon. Before I got half a mile from the house, the team ran away and turned the wagon over on me. I was picked up more dead than alive. It was about this time Hugh Murphy had returned from college, where he qualified himself to be a doctor, and it was thought that I was a good patient to work on. Drove from Sumner, five miles and a half, in 30 minutes and after working with me for hours, succeeded in sewing up the gash in my head eight inches long, with 12 stitches. However he did a good job and I hope he is still successful wherever he is practicing. I have been away from Lawrence County about 10 years. Spent part of my time in Douglas County but most in Madison County. Spent the last summer of 1912 in Colorado, a beautiful place to visit but a poor place to live, at least that is the way many of my friends as well as myself found it. I have been in Madison about eight years. I have been Sunday school superintendent three years, secretary and treasurer for the Township Sunday School Association five years and am now serving my third year as County Secretary. It was my good fortune to meet here a girl who was born and raised in Indiana, just across the river from Mt. Carmel. We were married in 1913, have a fine home and two boys. The youngest arrived Christmas Day 1915. My other two brothers, Elmer and Everet live here also, and I have seen quite a few people from our old home County. We all look forward with delight to holidays where we can go home and visit our parents and friends. However, it has been over six years since I was in Bethel the old home place. I often think of grandma Moffet and the dear old Aunt Sally Beasley whose life and stories she told me in the primary class of Bethel have been a help and inspiration to me this far in life. May she never get too old to be good. This is my first attempt to write a letter to the Pink Press. I will close. Sincerely, Glen Corrie ------------- Little Rock, Arkansas January 25, 1916
My husband (Kent Cunningham) and I were residents of Lawrence County, Lukin Township all of our lives until four years ago. We lived south of Sumner, near Bethlehem church. We came to Little Rock, Arkansas about four years ago and like it fine. We have such beautiful winters there is always a cool breeze, so we do not notice it being any hotter than up there. My husband has been with a loan company now three years and likes his work fine. Of course we aren’t getting rich very fast, but we have a living and have had excellent health. We have a little son now nine months old, and from his looks, the climate agrees with him. I have visited back Lukin Township every summer since I left there, but from the obituaries I read from the Press and the news I receive from there I shall be afraid to come back anymore. Directory: ~illchgs -> letters -> old files old files -> From Former Sons and Daughters of old files -> L. M. Wood and Sons: In response to the general invitation extended to former residents of Lawrence County, I proceed to write briefly, if possible concerning the few "wanderers," in this section Download 1.59 Mb. Share with your friends:
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