Family Tidbits

I post the following stories not because I think they provide "truth," but because they contain a perception of my family's roots. These are stories that were told to me over and over again, and frequently alluded to in other conversations. They are, in other words, my ancestors perceptions of themselves and their background. True or not, they are the very stuff folklorists study.

In my family, there are numerous stories about my maternal ancestors which are often told. These stories usually involve three families -- the Armstrongs, the Dodsons and the Gibsons -- who were among the first settlers in my native part of Missouri, the "Tri-county" area where Laclede, Pulaski and Camden counties come together. The Armstrongs and the Dodsons were both professional families who immigrated to Missouri from Tennessee in the 1830s and 50s. My great great grandfather John Armstrong (b. 9/26/1838, d. 10/23/1884) was a medical doctor turned journalist. He served in the Confederate Army as a private soldier (actually first in Co. K, Enrolled Missouri Militia, which was later transferred to the Confederate Army), was wounded at Helena, Arkansas, on July 3, 1863, and later (1871) founded the second, and first successful, newspaper in Camden County, The Rustic, which he later moved to Lebanon, MO. During its life, it was published in Stoutland, Linn Creek, and Lebanon.

My great great great grandfather Dodson was also a medical doctor and continued to practice medicine. (See note 4) He was also a Methodist preacher and established the second Southern Methodist church West of the Mississippi. He is best remembered in the family for his role in the naming of Joe’s Cave. His sister, Mary Dodson Donoho, was the first Anglo woman in Sante Fe. See the book about her (Mary Donoho: First Lady of the Santa Fe Trail, written by Marian Meyer). His daughter Lucy married John Armstrong.

The Gibson family immigrated from England, to the Washington, MO, area. See documents. I have a copy of the land title issued by the Spanish government. George W. Gibson was the first person to camp in what is now Waynesville, MO. (See note 5) His brother, Sam Gibson, or else Sam’s son Sam -- I’m a little confued about who’s who! -, was one of the founders of the Pulaski County Bank, which was, for 3/4 of a century the pre-eminent bank in the "tri-county" area. (See note 6) He was also a Circuit Judge and was later murdered by one of his hired hands. Apparently he had recently returned from driving a consignment herd of cattle to St. Louis, which was one of the ways he made his living. One day he was working in the field with the hired hand. When he didn't come in that night, the family hunted for him and found him in the field with his head resting on a stump and with an axe buried in the back of his head. It is presumed by my informants that the hired man thought Judge Sam was still carrying the cattle money. (See note 7) My uncle and my mother tell me that two of his sons, my great-grandfather among them, and Lee Perkins, my mother's paternal uncle, hunted down the killer and killed him "somewhere in Kentucky." (See note 8)

The line of the Dodson family from which I am descended has virtually died out, but we still know that they were well-off, professional people. For instance, J. N. B. Dodson, William Dodson’s brother, was the first Clerk of the Circuit Court in then Kinderhook (now Camden) County. He also donated the land where the Osage Beach, MO, elementary school now stands. At that time, what is now Osage Beach, MO, was called Erie and was the first county seat. Shortly thereafter, the county name was changed to Camden and the county seat was moved to "Old Linn Creek," which is now under the Lake of the Ozarks. J. N. B. Dodson was also partner in the Dodson-Roberts Mercantile Co., located first in Erie, then in Old Linn Creek. Mr. Dodson was one of the moving forces in both changing the county name and the county seat. (See note 9) At some later date, which I have not yet been able to track down, Mr. Dodson founded a new town some ten or fifteen miles east southeast of Linn Creek: Glaize City, so named because it was on the Wet Auxglaize River, locally called the "Wet Glaize." (See note 3) Though the town site is now private property, three of the old buildings still stand. [Those buildings were razed in 1992. I have photographs of them. A house, ostensibly built on the same floor plan as the original, according to Uncle Nig Perkins, still stands there. The slave jail is still there, but scheduled to be demolished soon -- 1994.] The town, which is the site of the Dodson family cemetery, was in existence until the early 1900s.

The Armstrong line is now represented by only one childless great great uncle, James Armstrong, whose father, J. W. ("Uncle Jim") Armstrong, was a state representative for many years [James died in Sept. 1991; he was actually the son of Uncle Kav, not Uncle Jim], and one daughter of Ros Armstrong, Lucy Ella Marquis, who lives in Huntsville, AL.

The stories -- anecdotes and small facts mostly -- all have one thing in common. They serve to remind us of the family's past social status from which it has declined. For instance, I am the first in my family to have gone to college and I am frequently told that Grandma (my great grandmother) would have been proud of me for getting us back where we belong in that respect. One of the things Gramdma often told me was that the Civil War destroyed the family's fortunes. There is probably some round-about truth in that since, without slave labor, it was difficult for them to continue to farm their roughly 6000 acres and to also run their flour mill and brik-making operation.

One of the stories regards a speech J. W. gave at "the Stoutland Picnic" every July 4th for many years. It was published in pamphlet form and passed through the family, though I haven't seen a copy of it for years. However, it is a thing all the family is familiar with. As I recall, it was a sentimental, patriotic, inspirational speech of little substance. However, it was treasured in the family. [I gave a speech about Joe’s Cave at the Stoutland branch of the Kinderhook library in 1991. James Evans attended the speech and gave me a copy of the published speech. I shall be forever indebted to him.]

Another of the stories is rather gruesome, but also served to remind us that our "people" had been professionals. This story involves boiling the flesh off the bones of a lynched black man and rearticulating the skeleton for use in his medical office by one of my great great uncles, James Dodson. (As Grandma frequently said, "He was a doctor, you know.") (See note 11) The skeleton was destroyed in 1944 when the Kav Armstrong house burned, thought I have talked to numerous people -- including James Evans and my mother -- who claim to have seen it. (See note 12)

Dr. Dodson was also an ordained Methodist minister and later donated a piece of land for a Southern Methodist Church near Wet Glaize, MO -- according to many, the second Methodist church west of the Mississippi. He served in the Confederate Army as a chaplain for about six months in 1861. (See note 13)

The Dodson Cemetery is also pointed out to us -- though it is on private land that has gone out of the family and is now inaccessible to us -- because the family is buried at one end and the slaves at the other. There is always mention of the fact that the family had slaves, again to reaffirm past status, I think. It is also pointed out that the last black family in Linn Creek was the Dodson family, the last male of which died of influenza during WWI. [The new owners have given us free access to the cemetery.]

The Armstrong Cemetery has also gone out of the family, but is still accessible to us. In it are the graves of my grandmother Perkins, her parents, Harley and Lizzie Gibson, Lizzie's parents John Armstrong and his wife, Roscoe "Uncle Ros" Armstong, who was the brother of Lizzie, and a "baby" about which all anyone knows is that a young woman in trouble stayed with the Armstrongs in her pregnancy. This latter is pointed out to show the magnanimity of the old folks.

Across the hollow to the southeast, on land that now belongs to the Ozark Fisheries, John Armstrong had a water-powered flour mill in a place that is identified on a map owned by the Camden County Museum as "Auxglaize." I have looked at dozens of other maps of the region dated from 1831 to 1911 and find no other listing of it. Apparently, the location is at the point where one of the main hatchery springs flows out of the hillside. It is, nonetheless, a point of pride that the family owned a mill.

Another of the Armstrong stories concerns an accidental killing. On Monday following a two week long revival at the High Point Baptist Church, two young men of the area, a DeBerry and an Osborn, got into a scrap and the Osborn boy shot the DeBerry. The Osborn boy fled. Not too long afterward, the DeBerry boy's relatives bushwhacked the Osborn boy. His horse brought him home dead in the saddle. Charles Kavanaugh ("Uncle Kav") Armstrong, my great-great uncle, was a friend of the Osborn boy and believed by the DeBerrys to be involved in the killing, so they then began to stalk him. One night, for instance, the family heard noises outside the house, so they armed themselves and went out. They found a ladder leaned up against the side of the house by Uncle Kav's bedroom. For a long time, the family kept cloths over the windows so no one could look in and see him or shoot him through the window. (See note 10)

Most of these stories have as one of their themes the idea that the family was once well off then fell into relative poverty, a common theme in many folktales. The best I have been able to ascertain, none of these families was ever "rich," though they attained relative comfort during their lives. I've often been told that my Armstrong great great uncles squandered what was left of the Dodson and Armstrong estates. Since that, the Gibsons, Dodsons and Armstrongs have essentially been "working class," by which I mean dependent on their labor for their livings.

1Jerry Vandergriff. Telephone conversation. 6/26/89.