Progress Notes

Last year in the Progress Notes of May 16 I discussed the tragic death of Will Fogleman, a very successful Tuscumbia road contractor, who helped build many of the early roads in Miller County (photo 01).

01 William F. Fogleman - 1912

Will was married to a woman named Arie Bunker, whose family was one of the earliest settlers in the Eldon area (photo 02).

02 Will and Arie Bunker Fogleman

Will and Arie had four daughters, who were very well known in Miller County at the time. Here is a photo of the adult daughters (photo 03).

03 Helen, Ruby, Pauline and Lillian Fogleman - Daughters of William and Arie Fogleman

Pauline, Ruby and Lillian Fogleman moved out of the area after reaching adulthood; however, Helen Fogleman remained here and later married Tolliver Lawson of Tuscumbia (photo 04).

04 Toliver and Helen Lawson - 1965

This week I am going to present the story of the Bunker family. (I am indebted to Pauline Fogleman Meehan for some of the history and photos.) Not only was the family one of the earliest settlers in Miller County but also has more burials in the Dooley Cemetery than any other family. To some extent this was because of the family’s early arrival to the county. This history of the Bunker family was written about thirty five years ago by Ellen Bunker Henley, great granddaughter of William Bunker, and her niece, Ruby Fogleman Webb and Ruby’s daughter, Ann:

The Bunker Family of Miller County

The Bunker family were early settlers in Missouri near the town of Eldon. The first Bunker located in what is now Miller County was William Bunker. He was born in 1790 in Delaware. His grandfather was Jonathan and his father was John. The history of these two is incomplete. John served in the Revolutionary War including the Battle of Bunker Hill. He was taken prisoner in 1777 at the Battle of Brandy Wine and escaped after the close of the War. He moved to Delaware.

William was bound out to a hatter in Pennsylvania where he learned the trade. He served in the war of 1812 and after his discharge moved to Urbana, Ohio to practice his trade. In 1815, near Urbana, Ohio, he was married to Mary Glass. In 1832, he moved with his family to Danville, Illinois. Two years later he walked to Missouri to file a land claim. When he returned home he found his wife and one child had died. In 1836, he moved to Missouri with his children and settled southwest of where Eldon is now located. He paid for his land with land grants from the war of 1812. Before the Civil War, he sold the land where he located and bought land where the Starks Caverns was located (now known as Fantasy Caverns). He lived in a log house on the hill above the caverns and lived there until the 1860 census. He was living with is daughter, Lydia Ann Cotton. His death was recorded in 1869 and he was buried in Dooley Cemetery near Rocky Mount.

Other tragedies struck William Bunker before his death. Two sons, Cyrus and Isaac left for California in 1849 for the gold rush and never returned. Another son, William, was taken from church services at a country church near California, Missouri by bush whackers and was killed.

Isaiah Bunker told this story in 1858 when he was in his early teens of walking from where he lived to visit his grandfather, William. One time his grandfather told him he could have the old clock on the wall as it wouldn’t run anymore. The clock probably had been moved here from Ohio. He carried it home under his arm. On arriving home he got a jar of kerosene and a feather and took the clock apart and cleaned each part and put it back together and it kept time for many years. Isaiah’s daughter, Ellen, can remember seeing the clock in their home.

The two children of William Bunker who chose to live in Miller County were Milton P. Bunker and Lydia Ann Bunker. Both married and raised their families in Miller County.

Lydia Ann married Franklin Cotton. They had three children. One son, Joe and two daughters, Alice who married Frank Jones and they had several children and their grandson, Dwight Jones, lives on Route 1, Eldon and he has two sons. Louis married W.A. Simmons. They had three sons. They have one grandson still living, Paul Simmons of Steelville, Missouri.

Note: The above paragraph is incomplete regarding the three children but is copied here just as written from the original narrative.

Milton P. Bunker, the oldest son of William and Mary Glass Bunker, was born February 15 in 1816 in Urbana, Ohio. On October 22, 1846, he was married to Elizabeth Wadley who was born December 3, 1826 in Indiana, the daughter of David and June Conner Wadley. In 1848, he traded a wagon he had made and an army musket for forty acres of land in Franklin Township about three miles south of Dooley Cemetery. Milton and Elizabeth were parents of ten children. Milton served in the Civil War with the Union Army in Company B of 48th Missouri Infantry. Part of the time he was in Rolla while he was serving with the Regimental Hospital (photo 04a).

04a Milton Bunker Co. B 8th Inf. 1816
b.15 Feb 1816 Urbana, Ohio - d. 27 Sept 1873 Miller County

Isaiah Bunker was the oldest son of Milton and Elizabeth Bunker. He was born in Gentry County, on August 24, 1847 and moved back to Miller County with his parents in 1848. He died November 30, 1929 and was buried in Dooley Cemetery. He married Martha Jane Mosley on August 17, 1882, the daughter of Parkes and Mary Ann Pearson Mosley. She was born June 14, 1860 in Fayetteville, Arkansas and died February 24, 1949 in Miller County, Missouri, and was buried in Dooley Cemetery (photo 05).

05 Isaiah and Marha Jane Mosley Bunker with Byron, Arie and Milton
Back Row: Ethel, Marha, Isaiah and Ellen - 1906

Isaiah Bunker was 26 years old when his father, Milton Bunker, died. He stayed at home and helped his mother keep thing going. As each of the children left home he bought their share of the home place. When he was married in 1882, his youngest brother, George, was still with him and stayed until he was 21 years old after which he left for the West. He was never married. George was born January 7, 1867 and died June 25, 1944 in Prescott, Arizona and was buried in Dooley Cemetery.

Only two sisters married and stayed in this vicinity. Eliza Jane married Lawson Thacker. Some of their descendants live in Miller County. Isabell married George Vaughan. She died along with one son. Both are buried in Dooley Cemetery.

Isaiah and his wife continued to live on the old place. They had six children. Byron Arthur was born June 12, 1883 and died November 19, 1955 in Miller County and was buried in Dooley Cemetery. He was never married. Milton Parkes was born March 16, 1886 and died June 1956 and was buried in Dooley Cemetery. He married Vercie Cooper, January 17, 1909 and died August 1942 being buried in Dooley Cemetery. They had three children: Hansen Ray who married Norma Slote living in Eldon; Hazel, who lives in Fresno, California having never married; and Mildred, who married Ralph Hees living in California, Missouri. They have one daughter, Frances.

Arie Bashie Bunker was born September 7, 1890 and died July 26, 1974 being buried in Dooley Cemetery. She married William F. Fogleman on March 6, 1912 in Miller County. He was killed March 25, 1937 when a tree fell upon him. He is buried in Dooley Cemetery. They had five children. One son died in infancy and was buried in Dooley Cemetery. They also had four daughters. Helen married Tolliver Lawson of Tuscumbia and they had one son, William (Bill) Claude, three grandchildren and one great grandchild. After Tolliver passed away Helen later married Lloyd Slone of Tuscumbia.

Ruby, the second child of William and Arie Bunker Fogleman married William Webb; they live in Jackson, Mississippi having four children: William Foster, Ann, Mary Helen and Linda. They have six grandchildren.

Pauline married James Meehan of Arlington, Virginia (now deceased) and they had two daughters, Catherine and Mary and two grandchildren.

Lillian married Victor Thomas and they live in Raytown, Missouri. They have four children, John, Pat, Susan and Margaret. One son, Chauncey, died in infancy and was buried in Dooley Cemetery.

Ethel Geneva was born December 30, 1896 in Miller County and died September 17, 1979 being buried in Dooley Cemetery. She was not married.

Ellen Elizabeth was born in Miller County and married William Arthur Henley August 3, 1919. He died on October 31, 1980 and was buried in Dooley Cemetery. They had three children: Maxine lives in Eldon and never married; Betty of Eldon married Gerald Currence (now deceased). They had six children Janice Sue, Monroe City, Missouri; Richard, Eldon, Missouri; Ronald, Eldon, Missouri; Donald, Morgan City, Louisiana; Debra, Eugene and Barbara of Eldon and four grandchildren.

Betty later married Harold Vance. Dorothy of Eldon married Bill Engle and they have three children, Patricia, Mandeville, Louisiana; Gwendolyn, New Orleans, Louisiana, and Gordon, Eldon.

The large frame house was on the site of two former houses, one small log house and later a larger one, and was erected in 1847 by Isaiah Bunker. The 335 acre farm on which the house was located has been in the Bunker family for 104 years, this being the third generation to live on it (photo 06).

06 Isaiah Bunker Home - Late 1800's

The land grant right to the original 160 acres was purchased by the grandfather of the present generation when Isaiah Bunker was only 6 months old. The purchase price was a musket rifle. There never has been a mortgage on the farm through the century it has been in the Bunker family.

When the Bunker farm was sold in 1952, it had over 300 acres having grown through accumulation over the years from the original forty acres. The farm was in the family for more than one hundred years. Harold Demott of Kansas City was the new owner. He built a new home on the original foundation which was made of solid rock 18 inches thick. The home now is owned by Fred Lee of Eldon.

Note: Mr. Lee, who also owned the residential retirement home in Eldon known as the “Lee House” passed away several years ago. His wife, Irene, has sold part of the farm to her grandchildren. In the 1905  plat map of T41N R15W the Bunker farm is located in section 19 (photo 07 and 08).

07 T41N - R15W
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08 T41N - R15W Section 19

In the 2009 Miller County Plat book the same property is listed as being owned by Fred Lee (photos 09 and 10).

09 T41N - R15W
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10 T41N - R15W Section 19

The Bunker family has been proud of the history of their family. Many descendants of William Bunker are buried in Dooley Cemetery. I made a brief count and found at least 42 persons with the Bunker surname listed as being buried there.

The first house in which Isaiah Bunker lived in Miller County was where he died in 1890. The rest of the family lived there until the home burned in 1951.

Here is the Advertiser story of the burning of the home which also gives additional historical information:

Eldon Advertiser
Thursday, February 15 1951

County Landmark Burned Thursday

An early morning fire Thursday destroyed an old landmark in the Eldon community. The three story dwelling on the Bunker farm on the Blue Spring road, 6 miles southwest of Eldon, was completely destroyed, along with most of the contents. The flames were discovered on the roof about 6:30 a.m. by Byron Bunker who, with his sister, Ethel, has lived on the farm since the death of their parents, Mr. and Mrs. Isaiah Bunker.

The fire was thought to have been caused by a defective flue, and in spite of the assistance given by neighbors, flames could not be brought under control. Zero temperature also hampered efforts to save the structure. The loss was partially covered by insurance.

The member of the Bunker family long time residents of the area may remember most was Arie, wife of Will Fogleman mentioned above, who was tragically killed by a falling tree. Early on Arie taught school. Here is a photo of her card of introduction commonly presented in those days by school teachers (photos 11 and 12):

11 Arie Introduction Card

12 Arie Introduction Card - Back

She also was a well respected seamstress in Eldon for many years. One of the last photos of her was with her daughter, Helen Fogleman Lawson, taken in 1972 when she was 82, two years before she passed away (photo 13).

13 Arie Bunker Fogleman and daughter Helen Lawson - 1972

Here is her obituary:

Arie Bunker Fogleman obituary

Mrs. Arie Bunker Fogleman, 84, Tuscumbia, died Thursday at the Phelps County Hospital, Rolla.

Mrs. Fogleman was born September 7, 1890, at Eldon, the daughter of Isaiah and Martha Mosely Bunker. On March 6, 1912, she was married at Eldon to William Fogleman, who died in March, 1937 due to an accidental tree fall.

She was a member of the First Baptist Church of Eldon.

Survivors include four daughters: Mrs. Helen Lawson, Tuscumbia; Mrs. Ruby Webb, Rolla; Mrs. Pauline Meehan, Arlington, Virginia; and Mrs. Lillian Thomas, Raytown.

She had two sisters, Mrs. Ellen Henley and Miss Ethel Bunker, both of Eldon; 11 grandchildren and five great grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held at 2:00 p.m. Sunday at the First Baptist Church, Eldon, with the Reverend Donald Wainwright officiating. Burial will be in the Dooley Cemetery, near Eldon. The Phillips Funeral Home, Eldon, is in charge of arrangements.

Recently we were visited at the museum by Bob McGowan Jr. accompanied by his parents, Bob and Lena Mae Slote McGowan, who now live in the state of Washington (photo 14).

14 Bob McGowan

Lena Mae and I were in the same class at Tuscumbia. Here is her class photo when we were in grade school (photo 15):

15 Lena Mae Slote

(Somehow I failed to get a photo of her and her husband, Bob McGowan Sr. at the museum.) One of the memories which we discussed was the day that Bob Jr. at the age of about four or five became lost in the woods near Lena Mae’s home farm, originally settled by her grandfather, Marvin Slote. Here are a couple of plat map copies from the 1905 County Plat map of the location of the Slote farm which was located about five miles north of Tuscumbia (photos 16 and 17).

16 T41N - R14W - 1905
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17 T41N - R14W Section 20 - 1905

You will notice that the Slote name is misspelled as “Moat.”

The day Bobby Jr. was lost caused quite a community response to find the lost boy. My mother in law Elva Steen remembers that perhaps about five hundred searchers took part in looking for him. Here is the newspaper account of the event as published by the Associated Press:

Tuscumbia MO. (AP)
November 1, 1967

A 3 year old boy missing overnight in below freezing temperatures was found this morning not far from his home west of Tuscumbia. Several youths in a searching party found Bobby McGowan sitting on a log in an area that had been searched Monday night. Searchers said the boy shouted at them. Sheriff Wendell D. Hensley said the boy appeared to be in good shape.

“He seemed to be pretty bright,” the sheriff said. “He had his shoes and coat on.”

The sheriff surmised the boy had gone to sleep in the area and was not awakened by searchers. The boy was taken to a doctor at Eldon for a checkup.

The parents, Mr. and Mrs. Bobby McGowan, have three other children. The father recently finished a hitch in the U.S. Navy and the family moved to a place near the farm of young Bobby’s grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Slote, six miles west of Tuscumbia.

Bobby was with his father and grandfather while they were hauling firewood on the Slote farm. The men said Bobby started toward the house while they were unloading wood about 1 p.m. It was several hours later before they went to the house and learned that Bobby wasn’t there.

Highway patrolmen, sheriff’s officers, police from Eldon and Lake Ozark, and hundreds of volunteers joined the search Monday night when the alarm was broadcast.

Estimates of the number of searchers ranged from 420 to 1000. The scene is about five miles east of Bagnell Dam and most of the hilly terrain is heavily wooded.

Bobby’s great grandfather, Marvin Slote came to Miller County from the Russelville area more than a hundred years ago. He married a native Miller Countian, Leona (Lena) Zobedia Harrison, who lived to the age of 100. Here is a photo of the couple later in life (photo 18):

18 Mr. and Mrs. Marvin Slote
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Bobby’s grandmother, Leola Schubert Slote, who was married to Charles Slote, was a school teacher having taught at one room schools in the area including Ginger Ridge school. She also taught a couple of years at Tuscumbia.

I asked Bobby what he remembered now of the night he was lost in the woods. He says he remembers well the event but remembers having no fear or worry. In fact, he was asleep when two teen age boys came into his area when their talking and moving through the brush awakened him! He was next to a log to keep the cold wind away but when he raised up the boys saw him and the hunt was over. Even though several hundred people were searching for him, he may not have been found if he had not awakened and raised up in view of the two searchers looking for him. All agreed it was a very fortunate outcome for an event that could have turned out much worse.

Once in a while I check a website which locates any place in the world which logs on to our Miller County Museum website. Most of the readers seem to be localized to the Midwest but we also have regular readers from both coasts as well. Sometimes we receive some really interesting responses from these far away readers. One of those recently was from a lady who lives in New York City. Here is what she wrote me:

Of course, I was delighted to receive the photograph of the Shepherds, who were the original publishers of the Eldon Advertiser (photo 19).

19 Ed and Laura Shepherd

Here is the caption on the back of the photo:

“E.H. Shepherd, owner and editor of the Eldon Advertiser from 1902 until 1945, with his wife Laura Belle Mitchell Shepherd on their wedding day, March 12, 1922. This photo was owned by their daughter, Helen Ossa, of New York City.”

With further investigation I learned that Ms. Ossa lived on Columbus Avenue in New York City. She gave the photo of her parents to family friends in New York in 1978. They in turn having discovered our website and learning of the mission of our historical society decided to donate the photo to the museum. It will be on display in the journalism section of the museum located in the second floor of the new addition.

I don’t know much about the Shepherds’ daughter, Helen Shepherd Ossa, who moved from Miller County to New York City; however, the New York friends of her (who wish to remain anonymous), sent me this information about Ms. Ossa:

Helen Shepherd Ossa passed away September 1986 in NYC.

The only photo of her I could find was a tiny one on a University of Missouri website where she is included with others of her graduating class (photo 20).

20 Helen Shepherd

You can find at this website the class photo where Helen Shepherd (Ossa) is second from the bottom of the vertical row of photos on the right:

You can read the story of Ed Shepherd (father of Helen Shepherd Ossa), the founder of the Eldon Advertiser, at this previous Progress Notes.

I received some feedback from several readers about the story I wrote regarding the Hillcrest Café of Tuscumbia in the Progress Notes of last week, February 20. One of the comments came from my cousin, Sandra Bear Shelton, who is the daughter of my uncle, Arthur Bear, now deceased, who was one of those who leased the Hillcrest Café for several years in the early 1940’s. Here is a recent photo of Sandra with her husband, David Shelton (photo 21):

21 Sandra and David Shelton

Next is a photo of the Hillcrest Café in the time frame Sandra’s parents had it (photo 22):

22 Hillcrest Café

And last are photos of Sandra and Arthur about the time the family operated the Hillcrest café (photos 23 and 24):

23 Sandra Bear

24 Arthur Bear

I thought Sandra’s memories were quite good and detailed as well as interesting so I am copying her essay to the end of this week’s Progress Notes:

Hi Joe------as you can imagine I read with great interest your article about the Hillcrest grocery/restaurant since mom and dad owned it for a while and I remember living there. We had endured so many floods when we lived below the hill that mom and dad were very happy to move to a flourishing business in a better location on top of the hill. I was around six years old when we moved, so it must have been in 1942. It was a fascinating place to live because of all the different activities. People were there buying groceries or visiting, eating, and getting gasoline for their cars. Some of the cars were pretty old and still had to cranked in order to get them started. It seemed as if the store was kind of like a community center because people congregated there and I was often frightened by the discussions the men were having about the war. I think they would forget that a little girl was listening to them, and some of their language was very graphic. I remember having nightmares after hearing them talk about the Japanese prisoner of war camps.

Adjoining the restaurant, was our family living room and upstairs were two bedrooms. There was a screened porch across the back of the building. We had two different teen-age girls who lived with us there, and helped mom with the food preparation and they also helped out with my brother Billy and me. He was just a toddler then and was prone to much mischief. Since there was not a school bus service at that time, the girls living with us went to high school and helped mom when they were not in school. I remember both their first names but not their last names. They were Rayma and Doreen and I believe they were sisters. I really liked both of them and they were very good to us children. I even named my dolls after them.

Since we lived on the premises, people would often stop after business hours and bang on the door until daddy would let them in to get whatever it was that they wanted. Usually it would be a quart of milk or a loaf of bread that they had just run out of, or they needed some gasoline before they could get to Eldon, etc. That was the only disadvantage about living on the premises---mom and dad were NEVER off duty. Since we were located just across the street from the school, some of the high school students would come over at noon for a sandwich and I really enjoyed watching them. I thought they were sooooo cool.

Les Shackelford helped operate the grocery store. We had a nice back yard and my best buddies were Janet Hix, who lived just down the street, and Marjorie Humphreys who lived near by. We usually played outside and spent much time over in the school yard so we could use their swings. Our other favorite activities were jumping rope and playing jacks. It was a wonderful life for Billy and me---everyone in town knew who we were and we felt welcome everywhere. The courthouse was just down the street and Grandpa Bear (Madison Bear) was the County Treasurer, so I often went down to visit him in his office. By far the most exciting thing that happened to us in Tuscumbia, was when the soldiers came and camped just outside of town. It was an engineering unit and they were there to learn how to build a bridge across the river. When they were off duty the soldiers had nothing to do, so they often hung around the store swapping stories, watching for pretty girls, and hoping to find transportation to Eldon. They really enjoyed playing with brother Billy, who was a cute little two year old. He was fearless and they made a game of tossing him around from one to the other or putting him on their shoulders for a ride.

He loved the attention!!!

We lived there in the store until 1945 when we had to move so that daddy could work in the defense plant at Blue Springs, Mo. I can't remember who purchased the store from mom and dad, but after the War was over we moved back to the area and settled in Eldon.

Thanks Sandra for taking the time to send us your memories of the Hillcrest Café of Tuscumbia.

That’s all for this week.

Joe Pryor

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