Surnames Beginning With 'A'
ALFRED WESLEY ABBOTT
Alfred Wesley Abbott, son of Andrew Jackson and Fannie/Frances Abbott, died at his home in Eldon on 24 Jan 1946 at the age of 89 years. He was born in Miller County 1 Jan 1857. (In the census records the name is spelled ABBETT).
Alfred Wesley Abbott married Catherine Lucinda Keeth on 3 March 1881. Their marriage was performed by J. D. Thompson, minister of the gospel. Lucinda was a daughter of Solomon and Mary Ellen (Bourne) Keeth of Richwoods Township.
Alfred and Lucinda (Keeth) Abbott lived on a little farm near Brumley for about 34 years, retiring from the farm life in their later years and at that time bought a small home in Eldon where they lived until Lucinda died in 1942.
Following the death of his wife of almost 61 years, he spent the remainder of his life with his children. At the time of his death in 1946, he was at the home of his son, George Abbott, in Eldon.
He left to mourn his passing 5 children: one son, George of Eldon; four daughters: Mrs. Fannie Shipley and Mrs. Maude Allee of Eldon; Mrs. Lucy Cobble of Richland and Mrs. Alpha Wright of Kansas City, Kansas. He was also survived by 27 grandchildren, 43 great grandchildren and 8 great, great grandchildren.
Alfred Wesley Abbott was converted and baptized into the Christian Church in 1896 and remained a faithful Christian the rest of his life. He served as deacon of the Glover Chapel Church for a number of years.
His funeral services were conducted by Rev. William Freeman Jones at the Pleasant Hill Church six miles southwest of Iberia and he was buried in the church's cemetery beside his wife, Lucinda (Keeth) Abbott.
Additional information on Lucinda Catherine Keeth-Abbott:
She was born 2 March 1861 and died 22 Feb. 1942 at the age of almost 81 years. When she died in 1942 she was survived by her husband, one son, and four daughters as well as two brothers: Willie Keeth of Perew, Oklahoma and Jack Keeth of Eldon; and two sisters: Fannie Keeth Carroll of Miami, Oklahoma and Lucy Keeth Sloan of Lebanon. She was buried near her Keeth relatives at Pleasant Hill Cemetery located southwest of Iberia.
JAMES D. ADAMS
James D. Adams was born in Miller County on January 19, 1873, a son of Benjamin Franklin Adams and Sarah A. Long. Benjamin and Sarah were married 4 January 1866, the marriage performed by Joshua D. Cochran, minister of the gospel. They were parents of seven children: MARY C. ADAMS b. 1868 m. George A. Mace 1887; MARTHA C. ADAMS b. 1869 m. James M. Shelton 1885; GEORGE W. ADAMS 1870-1958 m. L. Gertrude Gardner 1894; JAMES D. ADAMS 1873-1956 m. Della Thompson 1894; Dr. WILLIAM H. ADAMS 1875-1940; JOHN F. ADAMS 1878-1905; and ROSA A. ADAMS b. 1883 m. Frank Farnham 1900.
In 1880, the Adams family lived in Glaize Township near the families of Keeth, Musick, Shelton, Cochran, and Huddleston.
Benjamin Franklin Adams (1840-1885) and Sarah (Long) Adams (1849-1917) are buried at Iberia Cemetery. Benjamin's parents were Benjamin F. Adams Sr. and Malinda ______, natives of Virginia. Sarah's parents were James L. and Harriett Catherine Long, natives of Tennessee. Both the Adams and Long families lived in the same general area of Richwoods township in 1850 and 1860.
James Adams, son of Benjamin and Sarah, married Della Thompson in Miller County on November 12, 1894, the marriage conducted by John K. Groff, justice of the peace. In the census of 1900, they were living in southwest Richwoods Township and had three children in their home: Eunice, Charles, and Maude. Their nearest neighbors were his mother, Sarah Adams, and sister Rosa, age 17. Also living nearby was his brother, George Washington Adams, his wife Gertrude (Gardner) and young daughter, Cora Adams (she became the wife of Clarence Casey of Iberia).
Della Thompson Adams was born in April 1877 and was a daughter of John C. Thompson (1825-1906) and Sarah Elizabeth McCaleb (1837-1898), both natives of Tennessee. The Thompsons were in Izard County, Arkansas prior to the Civil War and moved to Miller County after the close of the war. The children of John and Sarah Thompson were: FRANCES ANN b. c/1854 Arkansas; ELIZABETH b. c/1855 Arkansas m. Robert B. Garner 1873; ELEVEN C. b. c/1858 Arkansas m. Alice M. Groff 1884; EDNA H. b. c/1859 Arkansas; HENRY R. b. c/1861 Arkansas; MARGARET VIRGINIA v. c/1862 Arkansas; JONTHAN GRANT 1864-1924 Arkansas m. (1)Emma Olive Ponder 1886 (2) Amanda Myrtle Wornell 1902; MARY G. b. c/1867 Missouri; SARAH EMMA b. c/1869 Missouri; ROSA ALICE b. c/1874 Missouri m. James Walter Morrow; DELLA P. b. c/1877 Missouri m. James D. Adams 1894 and CHARLES D. 1871-1873.
James and Della (Thompson) Adams spent much of their married lives on a farm southwest of Iberia. In later years they moved to Iberia and lived in a large, two-story house facing Main St. near the old Assembly of God church. They were living there when I was growing up in Iberia and I passed their home every day as I went to school, so I remember them well.
James died at his home in Iberia on January 19, 1956 at the age of 81 years. He was survived by Della, his wife of 62 years; three sons: Charles/Charley of Crocker, Elmer and Lev of Iberia; four daughters: Eunice Adams Farnham of St. Louis, Maude Adams Wilson of Iberia, Lucy Adams Atwell of DeSoto, Kansas, and Luane Adams Lowry of Ballwin; 16 grandchildren and 18 great grandchildren. Della died a year later on March 21, 1957 and was buried beside James at Iberia Cemetery.
SARAH ANN ADAMS
Sarah Ann Adams was born in Bath, England, on July 21, 1848, a daughter of Joseph Adams and his second wife, Sarah Ann Ponting. Joseph was born c/1825 and Sarah was also born about 1825, both natives of England. In 1852, when young Sarah Ann was about 4 years of age, her parents came to America and first stopped off in New York for a while and later moved to Chicago. By 1860 they were living in Glaize Township, Miller County, near Ulman's Ridge.
Joseph Adams, father of Sarah Ann, died in Hutchinson, Reno County, KS in 1877 and is buried in that state. His wife returned to Miller County where she died in 1900. She is buried at Gott Graveyard/Cemetery, which was located near the family's Glaize Township farm.
Sarah Ann Adams married Jesse Franklin Gott on April 7, 1869, at her parents' home, called "The White House." It was also a general store, and was located just a short distance south of the Gott Cemetery. Jesse Franklin Gott was born March 18, 1845, near Ulman's Ridge and was a son of Jesse Gott Sr. (1815 - 1900) and his first wife, Catherine Tinsley (1819 - 1851).
Jesse's father was a schoolteacher back in Bledsoe County, Tennessee, and continued teaching after they moved to Miller County. A schoolhouse was built on Jesse's farm, and was called Gott School. He probably was an early teacher at this school.
After Catherine Tinsley Gott died in 1851, Jesse married a widow, Elizabeth (Berry) Wines who had children by her first husband. Elizabeth was a daughter of Phillip and Rachel (Jenkins) Berry, who were natives of Caliborne County, Tennessee.
Sarah Ann Adams-Gott was christened in the Trinity Church of England in 1848, but later joined the Brumley Baptist Church in 1867. Her husband became an ordained deacon of this church and they both served faithfully for many years.
Sarah Ann Adams-Gott died on Aug 16, 1928, in Washington D.C. where she had been living with her unmarried daughter, Anna Elizabeth Gott. She was brought back to Miller County and buried at Gott Cemetery beside her husband, Jesse Franklin, who had died nine years earlier on Aug 18, 1919. They had lived all their married lives on the original Adams farm, once called "The White House" where her father, Joseph Adams, had operated a general mercantile store. She was laid to rest in the same countryside where she had spent most of her life after coming to America from England in 1852.
Note: Much of this information was found in a wonderful book, THE GOTT FAMILY OF MILLER COUNTY, MISSOURI 1650 - 1992, compiled and written by Jeanette Whitten Gott (Mrs. Garland Gott) of Arvada, Colo.
DR. W. H. ADAMS
In the Miller County probate files there is a probate for a man named Dr. W. H. Adams who was living in Iberia in 1940 when he died. I had never heard of a Dr. Adams at Iberia so was curious to learn who he was. I called Eugene Keeth and he remembered the old doctor very well.......He told me that he was a veterinarian who came to Iberia from Rolla, MO to practice his profession and died while living in Iberia. Dr. Adams was born in 1875 and died at the age of 65 years in 1940 and was buried at the Iberia Cemetery.
He had a wife named Sadie and according to Eugene's account, she was a much younger woman than Dr. Adams. Dr. and Mrs. Adams had a son but Eugene could not remember his name. He stated that about 3 years ago (c/2001), he was at the Iberia Cemetery when he began talking to a stranger who was visiting there. He was so surprised to learn he was the son of Dr. Adams and had come to Iberia to visit his father's gravesite. There is no record of Sadie Adams buried at Iberia, so at this time I do not know where she later lived and died after the death of her husband.
In the probate records, Mrs. Adams stated that they owned real estate and lots in the town of Iberia. No value was given to the property. The household goods were given a value of $150; they had a cow and 3 hogs that were worth $75; a 1933 Chevrolet sedan valued at $60 and a small amount of cash in the Bank of Iberia (no figure given).
Eugene Keeth told me the Adams' lived in a house up near the old Newlight Church that had some acreage attached to the property. The house is still there and is located to the east of Bill and Connie Prather's home. When I was a child I remember that Roy, Mae and Imogene Perkins lived in the house and my parents, my brother, and myself lived across the street from the old Adams place in a little rental home that belonged to Charles Aust. I should have remembered Dr. Adams because I was about 5 years old when he died, but I do not. In the same neighborhood during those years were Arthur, Clarice, and Juanita Perkins; Harry & Pauline Hicks and their children; Oscar and Marsha Lilly and their boys; Felix/Pea and Fannie Smith; Mamie Green; Mrs. Margaret Wallis; and I am sure there were other families living there that do not come to mind at this time. The area was once called "Stringtown".....Why? I have never learned the answer to that question..........
According to Eugene's memories, Dr. Adams was a member of the Iberia Masonic Lodge and was an active member while he lived in Iberia. He thinks there may be a picture of the doctor somewhere in the official files of the Masons of Iberia.
ADCOCK FAMILY
Joseph Still Adcock wrote the following information about his Adcock family history when he was 84 years old in 1924. It has been preserved by the family for all future generations and was sent to me by George Wilks Peabody of Placerville, CA, who is a descendant of the Adcock family...(Peggy Hake)
"This is a partial biography of my great grandfather, Joseph Adcock and his descendants, from the time he landed in Colonial Virginia from England in 1745 down to the present time (1924). It is supposed he married in Virginia circa 1750. Three sons were born to them; with no record of the first two sons. The third was Joseph Adcock, the grandfather of Joseph Still Adcock. He was born in Virginia in 1774 and died in Virginia in 1825. Joseph married Judith Jones c/1795 and they had six children: Flemsted Jones Adcock b. 1797; Joseph Samuel Adcock b. 1799; Mary/Polly Adcock b. 1802; George Cogbill Adcock b. 1810; and Lucy Jane Adcock b. 1816.
After Joseph's death in 1825, Judith Jones Adcock, with her six children, moved to Wilson Co., Tennessee, and lived there for about 4 years. While in Tennessee her daughter, Judith Ann, married Joseph D. Taylor and they soon moved west to Central Missouri. Judith Jones Adcock and her other children moved again to Simpson Co., Kentucky. In the spring of 1836, Judith, 2 sons and 2 daughters, moved to Miller County to join her son-in-law and daughter, Joseph and Judith Taylor. She also brought 3 Negro slaves with her--2 women and a young girl.
They settled in northern Miller County in what would later become Saline Township after the county's formation in 1837. George Cogbill Adcock, the father of the author of this biography, went back to Kentucky in the fall of 1838 and took himself a wife, Martha Jane Still. They came back to central Missouri in the spring of 1839 and lived on their farm until Joseph Still Adcock was born in April 1841.
Once again George and Martha Jane made a trip back to Kentucky. While there, a daughter, Jane Frances, was born and shortly thereafter Martha died, probably with childbirth complications. George returned to Miller County and brought Joseph with him but left the young baby with Martha's sister, Liza Still Hummer. In the fall of 1844, George went back to Kentucky and married Emily Bradshaw in March 1845. Once again they returned to Missouri and brought Jane Frances with them. George and his second wife had three children, Judith Ann Adcock, William Bradshaw Adcock, and John Alfred Adcock.
George Cogbill Adcock raised tobacco to support his family. When the tobacco crop was ready for market, George would put it in a hogshead (a large barrel or cask) which was large enough to hold over 1000 pounds and load it on a wagon which was hitched to a team of steers. He would then haul it to Jefferson City to be shipped down river to St. Louis on a boat.
There was no railroad at Jefferson City until 1857. George also kept sheep so that Emily could spin wool for their clothing. Processing the wool was a long, drawn-out procedure...it had to be carded, made into rolls, spun and reeled into hanks, spooled into thread, washed down and put into the loom and finally made ready for weaving.
The Adcocks were members of the Old Salem Christian Church in northern Miller County. They were very active in the church's history. George Cogbill Adcock, Albert Wilkes (who married Lucy Jane Adcock), William Jones and his son, William Jones Jr., built this Old Salem Church house, made the seats, the pulpit, and did all the work. It was built in 1857, the largest church house in central Missouri. Most of the Adcock family members are buried at Old Salem cemetery, although George Cogbill Adcock is buried at Fulton, Callaway County, MO. He died on March 4, 1857.
NOTE: It is wonderful to find information, such as in the story above, which was written by an old pioneer in 1924. I am sure that George W. Peabody would not mind that I am passing his family's history on so everyone can share in his well-documented ancestral history.
DR. WILLIAM S. ALLEE
Dr. William S. Allee was born in Moniteau County, MO on January 20, 1852. He was a son of James V. Allee and his first wife, Sabra Bowlin. William was their only child and his mother died when he was quite young. His father, James, married again after Sabra's death but her name was not found. They had a child, Princeton A. Allee who later lived at Eldorado Springs, MO.....James Allee married his third wife, Ellen Williams, and they became parents of several more children including James M. Allee, Alice B. Allee Baxter, Martha Allee Ayers, Mary Allee Ward, Yeoman B. Allee, and Robert Allee.
William S. Allee received his education in the common schools of Moniteau County and later he attended the Missouri University. He continued his studies at Rush Medical College in Chicago where he took medical courses and finally ended his education at the Missouri Medical College in St. Louis.
After becoming a physician and surgeon, Dr. William Allee practiced medicine for a little while at California, MO and then in High Point (Moniteau County). In 1882, he moved to Miller County and settled at Olean in northern Saline Township. In 1875, he married Laura C. Hutson of St. Louis who was born in Cape Girardeau County, MO and was a daughter of Dr. William A. Hutson. Her grandfather also practiced medicine.
Dr. Allee was president of the Miller County Exchange Bank at Olean for 24 years and was an ex-president of the Missouri State Medical Association. He was a member of the Mt. Pleasant AF & AM Lodge #134 and a member of the Olean school board.
He entered politics and became a State Senator on the Democrat ticket serving the 27th Senatorial district of the 46th, 47th, 48th, and 49th assemblies. He was elected in the general elections of 1909 and 1915. He was serving his second term as State Senator when he died in October 1916.
William and Laura (Hutson) Allee were parents of four sons including Dr. Gail Allee of Kansas City, Rea H. Allee of Kansas City; Dr. Warren Logan Allee of Olean, and Henry Priest Allee of Olean.
William S. Allee, doctor and state senator, died at the Wesley Hospital in Kansas City on October 9, 1916 after undergoing surgery. He was 64 years old at his death and was survived by his wife, Laura, and their four sons. His services and burial was held at Olean. Laura died in 1926 and is buried beside Dr. Allee at Olean Cemetery.
ELIAS ALLEN FAMILY
Elias Allen died in Miller County in June 1885, leaving a will that was filed in the Miller County Probate Court. According to census records, Elias was born c/1810 in Kentucky although I found a record where he was living in Smith County, Tennessee, in 1832. He may have been a typical young man of the early 19th century, who made a habit of moving around exploring new country. The Allen family had been in Barren County, Kentucky, for quite sometime and he probably was born there also, but in the early 1830s, had ventured down to north central Tennessee. Trying to keep up with our wandering ancestors can keep one busy!
Elias Allen came to Miller County in the early 1840s with other members of his Allen family. Other Barren County, Kentucky, families who came along with the Allens were the Gardners, Baileys, Wheelers and Shacklefords. By either birth or marriage, all these families had kinship.
On Jan. 6, 1842, Elias Allen married Mary Gardner, the marriage performed by Squire Williams, a justice of the peace in the Big Richwoods. Elias had a brother, Joel Allen, and he married Jemimah Gardner and his sister, Olive Allen, married Jacob Gardner. I have not been able to definitely confirm it, but I believe Elias' wife, Mary Gardner, was the younger sister of Jacob Gardner and Jemimah Gardner Allen.
Elias and Mary homesteaded more than 250 acres of land directly east of Iberia, just outside today's city limits. Elias was a slave owner and brought at least six Negroes with him to Miller County. In 1859, the six slaves were assessed with a value of $1,950; in 1860 their value was $1,800; and by 1862, their value had decreased to $500. The Civil War was being fought and the fate of the slaves seemed to be "written on the wall". With their assessed value falling so drastically, it would appear the war was being won in 1862 by the northern forces, at least in Miller County.
The first school constructed near the Iberia community for the area children was located about one mile east of Iberia. On Jan. 19, 1870, Elias and Mary Allen sold a half-acre of land to the township board of education of the Third District for the total of $1. This school was located on the old Iberia-Big Piney road, and was known for years as "Allen School." It was situated on land that is owned today by the Hopkins family. After it was no longer used as a school building, Mr. and Mrs. Marion Hopkins purchased the building, remodeled it, and lived in the house for a number of years.
Some of the neighbors of Elias and Mary during the mid to late 1800s were the families of Groff, Tallman, Miller, Gooch, Lynch, Dyer, Short, Allen, Gardner, Irwin, Hedges, and Keeth. Today the Allen land is owned in part by the Robert Hopkins family and the Norman DeVore family. Elias and Mary (Gardner) Allen were parents of only two children, a daughter and a son.
When Elias died in 1885, at age 75, he bequeathed all his land to his wife, Mary. He also gave her all his personal effects including money, cattle, horses, sheep, hogs, notes, accounts, and all other assets that he might have at the time of his death. At the death of his wife, their two children would inherit the land (160 acres to Robert and 60 acres to Cornelia). His will was witnessed by two Iberia residents, Isaiah Latchem and Jeremiah C. Tallman.
Mary Gardner Allen died on Aug. 16, 1894, and was survived by her son, Robert. Cornelia Allen Fisher died in January 1891, so she did not inherit her portion of the land. Robert Allen died in May 1897 and was Elias and Mary's only living heir.
Cornelia and Thomas Fisher had no children so the only heirs left after the death of Elias, Mary, Cornelia, and Robert, were the children of Robert and his wife, Mariah (Tallman).
Elias and Mary Allen, their daughter Cornelia Allen Fisher, son Robert Allen and wife Mariah (Tallman), are all buried at Iberia Cemetery, which bordered the land where they had lived for over half a century.
MARGARET ADELINE ALLEN
Margaret Adeline Allen was born in Miller County in 1853, the fourth of 10 children born to Marshall Elias Allen (born circa 1828, Barren County, Kentucky) and Eliza Jane Shelton (born circa 1826 in East Tennessee). Her parents were married in Miller County June 3, 1847, the marriage performed by Jonathon Blevans, a justice of the peace for Richwoods Township.
Margaret Adeline married John Brown Tallman, a Civil War veteran, on March 15, 1874. Rev. A. M. Misseldine performed their marriage ceremony. John was a son of William Tallman (1806-1867) and his wife Susan (born c/1806), natives of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania. John Brown Tallman was born in Lycoming County on Feb. 18, 1839, and came to Miller County with his parents prior to the Civil War.
Margaret (Allen) and John Tallman began their married life on a farm near Iberia. In the census of 1880, their neighbors were John and Dorcas (Shelton) Ferguson, Isabella Ferguson (mother of John Ferguson and a native of Scotland), William and Elizabeth McCubbin, Daniel and Elizabeth (Hoskins) Keeth, James and Martha Burgess and Willis and Polly Ann (Keeth-Smith)Long.
John Brown Tallman died May 5, 1900, at age 61, and was buried at the Tallman Family Cemetery, south of Iberia near Custer Creek. Margaret Adeline (Allen) Tallman lived until Nov. 7, 1934, when she died at age of 81 years. Her death occurred at the home of her sister, Mary Tallman Brown, in Springfield. Margaret's funeral services were held at the Crocker Presbyterian Church and she was buried beside her husband at Tallman Cemetery.
ALLEN-TALLMAN
Margaret Adeline Allen was born in Miller County in 1853, the 4th of 10 children born to Marshall Elias Allen (born circa 1828, Barren County, KY) and Eliza Jane Shelton(born circa 1826 in East Tennessee). Her parents were married in Miller County 3 June 1847, the marriage performed by Jonathan Bievans, a justice of the peace for Richwoods Township.
Margaret Adeline married John Brown Tallman, a Civil War veteran, on 15 March 1874. Rev. A. H. Misseldine performed their marriage ceremony. John was a son of William Tallman (1806-1867) and his wife Susan (born c/1806), natives of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania. John Brown Tallman was born in Lycoming County on February 18, 1839 and came to Miller County with his parents prior to the Civil War.
Jeremiah Tallman
Margaret(Allen)and John Tallman began their married life on a farm near Iberia. In the census of 1880 their neighbors were John and Dorcas (Shelton)Ferguson, Isabella Ferguson(mother)of John Ferguson and a native of Scotland), William and Elizabeth McCubbin, Daniel and Elizabeth(Hoskins)Keeth, James and Martha Burgess, and Willis and Polly Ann (Keeth-Smith) Long.
John Brown Tallman died 5 May 1900 at the age of 61 years and was buried at the Tallman Family Cemetery, south of Iberia near Custer Creek. Margaret Adeline (Allen) Tallman lived until November 7, 1934, when she died at the age of 81 years. Her death occurred at the home of her sister, Mary Tallman Brown, in Springfield, Mo. Margaret's funeral services were held at the Crocker Presbyterian Church and she was buried beside her husband at Tallman Cemetery.
THE ARNOLDS
On August 18, 1881, two brothers, George W. Arnold and William G. Arnold, presented a plat to the Miller County recorder's office and proceeded to establish a potential resort area in Section 23, Township 39, Range 13 in the Big Richwoods. On this location were found many bubbling springs of water and the brothers decided to plat out a proposed town site complete with four streets that would surround the springs area. The streets were named Sycamore, Main, Elixir, and Spring. They encircled a large park area that encased springs measuring 231 feet square.
The springs were named "Big Spring" and "Medical Spring" and the town was given the name Elixir Springs. It had 7 blocks mapped out with each block containing 4 lots each measuring 40 ft. by 60 ft. in size.....Today, these old springs are still producing water which flows clear and bright, but the town never came into existence. The springs are near Bailey Branch on the old Gordon Groves farm approximately 1½ miles west of Iberia. George Washington Arnold and William Gray Arnold were born in Tennessee. George was the oldest, born in September 1833. William Gray was born about 11 years later, circa 1845. I believe a third brother was in Miller County also...John L. Arnold, born c/1837 in Tennessee. John L. Arnold was the first to come to the Big Richwoods of southern Miller County and settled near Iberia just after the Civil War. All three men had children born in Arkansas so evidently they left Tennessee and migrated westward into Arkansas before the Civil War. George W. Arnold served in the Union army as a Private in Co. D of the 1st Arkansas Infantry for 6 months in 1862. In a special veteran's census taken in 1890, there were two other men living in Iberia who had fought in the same Arkansas unit as George W. Arnold. They were John Barlow and Thomas J. Marchant and I would speculate they knew one another while in Arkansas.
William Gray Arnold married Nancy Jane Evans in Miller County on 3 April 1871, the marriage performed by Joshua D. Cochran, minister. Nancy was a widow with 3 sons (James, John, and William Evans). Nancy's first husband, John Evans, was killed in the Civil War. From the 1880 census, it appears two children were born to William Gray Arnold and Nancy Colvin-Evans (George N. Arnold b. c/1873 and Anna C. Arnold b. c/1875). Sometime before the turn of the century, William Gray Arnold and his family must have moved from Miller County because no further information was found of William following the 1881 attempt to plat the resort area called "Elixir Springs" near Iberia.
William Gray and Nancy Jane Colvin Arnold
George Washington Arnold, born Sept 1833, and his wife, Mary Arnold (b. c/1840 IL) married in Arkansas and were parents of 9 children. Some of the children were born in Arkansas before they came to Miller County. Their children included: Amanda Arnold b. c/1862 m. D.W. Baker 1882; James A. Arnold b. c/1865 m.Woxie A. Wilson 1886; Mary E. Arnold b. c/1867 (never married); John D. Arnold 1871-1888; Sarah C. Arnold b. c/1873 m. George Ferguson 1899; and George W. Arnold Jr. b. c/1878 m. Isabelle Ferguson (1899). Two other children died in infancy.
Mary Barlow Arnold & Geo. Washington Arnold Sr.
By the census of 1900, William Gray Arnold and his family were no longer found in Miller County, but George W. Arnold and his wife, Mary, lived west of Iberia near the families of Mace, Long, Denton, Bond, and Groves. Their daughter, Mary E. Arnold, was living with them (she never married). Also living in the Iberia area were their children: George Arnold Jr. and wife, Isabelle (Ferguson); Sarah (Arnold) and her husband, George Ferguson; Amanda (Arnold) and her husband, D.W./Dick Baker and their 6 children. There was no record found for James A. and Woxie (Wilson) Arnold so they may have moved away by then.
Amanda Arnold & Dink Baker
George Washington Arnold (1878-1929) and his wife, Isabelle (Ferguson) Arnold (1878-1949) are buried at Iberia Cemetery. George's brother, John D. Arnold (1871-1888) is also buried there. I do not know where the parents, George W. Sr. and Mary Arnold, are buried since they do not appear in the inventoried records of Iberia Cemetery.
George W. Arnold Jr. and wife Isabelle Ferguson Arnold With baby Virgil about 1924
NOTE: George W. Sr. and Mary Barlow Arnold, James A. and Woxie Wilson Arnold, Mary Elizabeth Arnold Ferguson, Ruby Alice Arnold and Louie Ferguson Arnold are all buried in the Fairview Cemetery in LeFlore County, Oklahoma.
LEVI ANTHONY ATKISSON
Levi Anthony Atkisson was born 9 Nov 1873 near Old Bagnell. He was a son of Harley Carter Atkisson (1839-1918), a native of Ohio, and his second wife, Cynthia Jane Elizabeth Jones (1848-1922), born in Arkansas. During the Civil War, Harley Atkisson and his first wife, Sarah Smith, came to central Missouri from Izzard County, Arkansas. Her Smith family had also left Izzard County and moved to southern Miller County, locating near Iberia (then called Oakhurst).
Sarah Smith Atkisson died in 1872 and on January 1, 1873, Harley married Cynthia Jane Jones, daughter of Jesse and Elizabeth Jones, who lived near the Atkisson's, south of the Osage River. Both the Atkisson and Jones families worked in the railroad tie business in the late 19th century where they cut and floated ties down the Osage River on homemade rafts. I believe Harley and his first wife, Sarah, lived in Camden County when they came to Missouri. There were enumerated in the Camden County census of 1870. Evidently Harley moved a short distance to the east and settled south of the Osage and across from Old Bagnell about 1878.
Levi Anthony Atkisson, oldest son of Harley and Cynthia, was born on their Osage River farm in November 1873. He probably helped his father in the railroad tie business as he grew to adulthood. About 1895, he married Lucy Lenora Landrum (1877-1967).
Later in their married life, Levi and his wife moved to Eldon from the Bagnell area and established a business. At the time of his death in 1938, he operated an auto parts store. Levi died in March 1938 at the age of 64 years and was buried at Eldon cemetery beside his two sons, Elzie and Raymond, who had died in the 1920s. Levi's wife, Lenora/Nora, lived until 1967 when she died at the advanced age of 90 years.
JONATHAN ATWELL FAMILY
Jonathan Atwell was born in Kentucky circa 1820. He may have lived in Barren County, Kentucky, for several years before coming to Miller County, Missouri about1848. There were several Atwell families listed in the 1840 census of Barren County, Kentucky, and he could have been a son of William Atwell or Richard Atwell Sr. Both men were heads of households in the 1840 census and had sons in the age range of young Jonathan.
Evidently Jonathan Atwell married his first wife, Elizabeth, in Kentucky and they had at least three children before coming to Missouri, Both Jonathan & Elizabeth were born circa 1820 in Kentucky, per the 1850 Miller County census records. I have not been able to learn Elizabeth's maiden name.
Elizabeth Atwell died sometime before November 1857 because Jonathan married his second wife, Irena Dunnigan, on 11/24/1857, in Miller County. She had two daughters when she married Jonathan. They were Emerine M. Dunnigan, born c/1852 Ky., who later married Joseph A. Slawson, and Mary M. L. Dunningan born c/1854 (no record of her marriage).
The neighbors of the Atwell Family in the 1850s and '60s included the families of Davis, Pitman, Bilyeu, Bryant, Dickerson, Abbott, Goss, Forbis, Martin, Evans, Record, Ritchey, Bowlin and Ray.
Jonathan Atwell died in February 1866 at the approximate age of 46. He died without a will, so his estate was filed in the Miller County Probate Court shortly after his death. The Administrator of his estate was a man named John Seaton, who made an administrators bond in the amount of $1000. Jonathan Atwell had owned about 240 acres of land in Section 14 Township 38 Range 12 which was in the southeast corner of Miller County, near the Pulaski County line. The probate records listed his heirs, which included his widow, Irena, sons James, William and Joel and his daughters, Lucinda, America, Elizabeth, Margaret and Sarah/Sally. All lived in Miller County, with the exception of son, James who lived in Osage County.
After Jonathan's death his widow Irena Dunnigan Atwell, married John Seaton. Evidently he was the same man who was the administrator of Jonathan's estate. In the 1880 census, in Richwoods Township, Irena Seaton was head of the household and in her home was daughter Margaret Irena Atwell and Lavicy Seaton, 14, her daughter by John Seaton. Irena Dunnigan-Atwell-Seaton had four daughters: Emerine Dunnigan, Mary Dunnigan, Margaret Atwell, and Lavicy Seaton.
There were two sons of Jonathan Atwell who carried the ancestral name onward into new generations in Miller County- Joe, who married Rhonda Ann Lee and William who married Josephine Roland.
OBITUARY OF SARAH SHACKLEFORD AUST
John & Sarah Shackleford Aust
Sarah A. Shackleford was born in Louisville, Kentucky on July 7, 1835 and died in Miller County on August 10, 1928 at the age of 93 years. In 1856, she and her 4 brothers and 2 sisters came to Missouri. These included: Murrell Shackleford, James Shackleford, Allen Shackleford, William Shackleford, Jane Shackelford, and Elizabeth Shackleford. In 1859, Sarah married John H. Aust, a native of North Carolina, and they became parents of 5 children (4 girls, 1 boy). One girl died in infancy, but the remaining children were: Charles Aust, Mrs. James Pilkington (Mary Jane); Mrs. Sarah Ann Jones: and Mrs. Mack Jones (Belle). Rev. John Aust, her husband, died in March 1912. Funeral services were held for Sarah Shackleford Aust by the Rev. J.A. McNatt at the Livingston Cemetery where a host of friends had gathered to pay their last respects of Grandma Aust, as she was so lovingly known.