Jessie Roberts Trowbridge

1899 - 1985  (85 years)

• Name	Jessie Roberts Trowbridge  [1, 2]
  Born	31 Dec 1899	Kansas, USA   [2, 3]
  Gender	Female
  Narrative	Written by Jessie (Trowbridge) Smith, date unknown I was born in a small town in Cloud County, Kansas in the little settlement of Minersville, close to Concordia, Kansas, one of a family of eighteen children having the same father and mother. My father worked in the coal mines until 1897. When the Cherokee Strip of Oklahoma was opened for settlement, my father and his brother were on the line to try to get a homestead, but failed along with many others. However, both were able to take over from others who got land and after five years prove up on their homestead. So we stayed on the place each summer and in the winter returned to Kansas and my father worked in the coal mines. My uncle kept our cows and we always made the trip by covered wagon. Our first home on the homestead was called a dug-out and was dug in the side of a hill. It was snug and warm but very dark only on days when it was warm enough to leave the door open. Which was dangerous after it got warm enough for rattlesnakes to come out. At one time my aunt left the baby asleep on the bed and went out to hang some clothes. When she went back in, a rattlesnake was sleeping on the bed with the baby. She said the Lord must have it hypnotized for she was able to turn the dishpan over it and get out with the baby. Uncle Eddie came and killed it and put up the screen door but (it was) not much like the ones we use today. As soon as a crop could be put in, a new house was started. First four horses were hitched to a plow to cut and turn up the sod. It was careful cut and hauled and my dad and Uncle Ed started out house. It was 28 by 14, since there were several of us children, it was none too large. It was 8 foot high with a slightly raised roof with a ridge pole covered with wide thick boards, then layers of sod like the walls which were soon covered with a thick coat of green. In one end three bunk beds were built to one wall and curtained off. The rest of this room was the kitchen with the usual cupboard made of green tin and a stove and table and a few chairs. The flue in the middle partition served both stoves and the other room had one large bed, which was pulled out at night and made a bed for my sister and I. This, with a dresser and baby bed completed our furniture, until much later. In 1906 we had a new house built and traded our place for a much larger one, where we lived two years. Dad hauled freight for a country grocery store two days a week and farmed too, but he decided to come out and see if he could locate in Missouri. In August 1907, we had a farm sale. loaded two covered wagons and in three weeks we arrived in Mtn. View. We camped in a wagon yard close to where the Penninger house is now if I remember right. A Mr. Durnell was a land agent then and fixed up a trade where dad traded one team wagon and harness and got the farm just south of Shady Grove schoolhouse. We attended school there. Some of my school mates are still around: Lula Jackson, John CAmpbell, the Denton boys and Lena and Wilford Millary, whose father was teacher and last and orneriest -- Earl Walker. He pulled our hair, tripped us, and tied his sister lena's and my sister Mary's braids together, and dropped them in the ink. But when the teacher asked who did it, he didn't know -- He'd been so busy getting his lesson. Millard Robbins was our close neighbor, also Uncle Tom Walker whose son Roy was teaching Cantrell School. They were going over and take dinner the last day and asked us kids to go along. He told us to walk down a steep hill and told Earl to hold our hand so we wouldn't fall fall down. After the rig got out of sight, Earl said, "Its lots easier to run down hill than up." So down hill we sailed, 'til I fell down and skinned one hand and both knees and tore up my socks. I must have squalled pretty loud for they waited for me and let me ride and Uncle Tom said, "If I knew you did this on purpose, you'd get your britches tanned.' Well he got to walk with my sis, who was 12, like he planned and my brother walked with Lena. I remember that one of Carl Caton's brothers spoke a piece that day. It was: Mulberry leaves and calico sleaves and all school teachers are hard to please. When spring came, our place in Oklahoma had not sold, so my father decided to return to Oklahoma and try to sell our place and come back. This required six years. We exchanged our home there for a place near Hutton Valley but, as it was already rented, we lived on a farm that the man owned as Trask until the next November. While moving, one of my brothers who was very small for his age, decided to walk over to the other place. He was stopped several times by people who were sure he was lost. My father hauled tomatoes to a canning factory and, one day, he took one of the girls along. The man helped her out, but started to carry her across the yard/ She said, "Put me down. I can walk!" He said, "I know you can, but I want to carry you." Dad said. "How old do you think she is. She is eighteen, past." And he dropped her so quick you'd have thought he'd got burned. We were very glad to get moved into own home which had six large rooms and two porches. Also a cellar covered by a smoke house. One of our neighbors, Newt Smith, usually stopped by on Sunday a.m. on his way to Lost Camp Church and visited a few minutes. You don't forget someone who takes time to be friendly when you move into a strange place. He was a friend to everyone and loved by all who knew him. He was accidentally killed a few years later in a hunting accident and we were all terribly grieved. He left two small boys whose mother was dead and now they were double orphaned. They were left on their own at an early age, but both married nice girls and have nice children and grandchildren. Dad found time every fall to take us kids to Jacks Fork to spend the day playing in the water and looking for hazel nuts, walnuts and butternuts. We would fix our dinner the day before and start about daylight in the wagon. One year, a neighbor boy was going with us if he could. He didn't show up, so we finally went on. Just as we were getting ready to eat dinner, he arrived all hot and tired. Dad said, "We'd have waited a bit if we'd known you were coming." He said, "Oh, I knew you'd be gone. I told them to get me up early and it was daylight, but I'd have sure been mad if I'd missed my dinner for I thought maybe if I ran I could catch you so I missed my breakfast too." He got his dinner, picked some nuts, and I'm sure he enjoyed the trip home much better. Some of the story needs explanation, perhaps, for those who might read this and are not acquainted with the family. Jacob Alva (called Alva) and Nancy Alma (called Alma) were both small people. None of their children were very tall, my father, Carl Trowbridge, at five feet - six inches tall must have been among the tallest of the boys and Guy was much shorter. Many of the girls were five feet and shorter. Perhaps this is the place to list the children of Alva and Alma Trowbridge. There was Roy, born in 1892; Roy E,. born 4 Feb. 1894; Mary T., born 31 Jan., 1896; Floyd Erwin and Lloyd Edward, born 25 March, 1898; Jessie Marie, born 31 Dec. 1899; Thomas, born 11 June 1901; Grace, 15 Sept. 1902; Lora, 31 jan. 1904; Hazel, 4 July 1905; Letha, 24 Feb. 1911; Carleton Earl, 9 April 1912; Willis, 24 Feb. 1914; Eunice, __________________; James, 24 Aug. 1917. All but one of the 18 children lived until adulthood. Eunice died in infancy. when this was being written in 1990, only Ena, Letha, CArl and James survived. (Carl died December 26, 1996). For the last few years, this writer kept notes of my father's memories and those of his sister Hazel who passed away on 1988. When I asked Hazel why Jacob Alva left Oklahoma to settle in Missouri, she said he never liked the "northerns" (sandstorms) and wood for fuel was hard to get. he had to go to a place she called "the canyons" to get wood for heating and cooking. Evidently, this was some distance away. The big house Jessie mentioned burned while the family was away. A temporary building was hurriedly put up for Alma and the younger children, and the older boys with their father, slept in the barn while they rebuilt the house. The house was of stone and still stands near Hutton Valley. The man who lives there graciously allowed me to photograph the house and told me of the changes he had made. My father told me that the family did whatever they could to make money in order to pay the taxes. His mother took the younger children with her to Northern Arkansas to pick strawberries. Grandpa took the older ones to Fisk, Mo. to pick cotton. The children seemed to regard these trips as high adventure. Alma inherited some money when her mother died. Alva wanted to buy livestock with the money; she wanted to pay off the farm. They bought the livestock. In perfect hindsight, Alva later admitted that she was the wiser, because the stock didn't return a profit and they lost the farm. They had a twenty-year loan on the "old home place" as the family always called the farm. They lived there 22 years, paying only the interest and taxes. When Grandpa saw he was going to lose it, he sold it to ___________________________________ and traded ________________________________ for a farm in the Mt. Olive Community. By this time, most, perhaps all of the family were gone, times were difficult for the aging couple. Mother told me of a family get together when several of the children and their families came to visit for the day. Floyd's wife, Ovilla, had brought some green beans canned in vinegar -- several half-gallon jars of them. Alma cried silently all morning, which was very unlike her. Alva and some of the men sat up some sawhorses with boards across them for a table outside. When they sat down to dinner, the only thing on the table was Ovilla's beans. Alva said, "We've never been quite so low before, but we're grateful for what we have." As one who can never remember going without food, that story haunted me. Surely, they were people of great courage to have provided for so many years for so many children without becoming soured and bitter. Perhaps, in the face of great need, great faith is born and Alma was a woman of faith. My father remembered going to the barn to tend the horses and, on hearing her praying in one of the stalls, slipping quietly away. Daddy said that she would find some secret place like that to pray all her life. Some of my most treasured memories are of family gatherings at their house when I was a child. There were lots of cousins with whom to play. From the farm in the Mt. Olive Community. Alva and Alma moved to Guy's farm near Willow Springs. They remained there until Alma, who had been an invalid for some time died on Jan. ??, 1952. Alva took a room in town for a while, worn out from the constant care of Alma, but found it very lonely. He was visiting his daughter Ruth, when he died. He had bought a suit shortly before and told Ruth, when she urged him to wear it to some affair, that he had bought it to be buried in. On Dec. 1952 he joined Alma.  [4]
  Died	Jan 1985	Willow Springs Township, Howell County, Missouri, USA   [3]
  Person ID	I1630	Full
  Last Modified	29 Jan 2014

  
  

  Family	Jeffrey E. Smith,   b. 1 Jan 1896, Missouri, USA ,   d. 4 Jul 1989, Willow Springs, Howell County, Missouri, USA  (Age 93 years)
  Married	Abt 1917  [5]
  	Estimate
  Children	1. Victor Smith   2. Melvin Smith + 3. Lora Duane "Monk" Smith,   b. 25 Nov 1922, Howell County, Missouri, USA ,   d. 9 Oct 2007, Springfield, Greene County, Missouri  (Age 84 years)   4. Mildred Smith   5. Fern Smith
  Last Modified	8 Feb 2009
  Family ID	F549	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Sources

  [S728] Missouri, Howell - email Lonnie Smith, 10 Oct 2002, (Lonnie Smith (lsmith148@juno.com) to Janis Gilmore, e-mail, 10 October 2002; regarding his Smith lineage in Howell County, Missouri.). [S17] Missouri, Howell - 1920 U.S. Census, (1920 U.S. census, Howell County, Missouri, population schedule), Goldsburry township, Howell County, Missouri, ED 90, Sheet 15A, Dwelling 307, Family 324, Webb Smith household, jpeg image (Reliability: 3). [S457] SSDI - Ancestry.com, (Social Security Administration, "U.S. Social Security Index," database, «i»Ancestry.com«/i» (http://www.ancestry.com/)), Number: 495-38-0276; Issue State: Missouri; Issue Date: 1952-1953. (Reliability: 3). Name: Jessie Smith SSN: 495-38-0276 Last Residence: 65793 Willow Springs, Howell, Missouri, United States of America Born: 31 Dec 1899 Died: Jan 1985 State (Year) SSN issued: Missouri (1952-1953 ) [S4145] "Aunt Virginia's Narrative: A Trowbridge Family Story," TrowbridgeMountain.info (http://www.trowbridgemountain.info/ : accessed 29 January 2014), narrative attributed to Jessie (Trowbridge) Smith, undated. [S17] Missouri, Howell - 1920 U.S. Census, (1920 U.S. census, Howell County, Missouri, population schedule), Hutton Valley township, Howell County, Missouri, ED 95, Sheet 5B, Dwelling 98, Family 102, Jacob Smith household, jpeg image (Reliability: 3).