Missouri, Howell - email Shannon Chenoweth Graham (14 Feb 2007)

• Title	Missouri, Howell - email Shannon Chenoweth Graham (14 Feb 2007)
  Short Title	Missouri, Howell - email Shannon Chenoweth Graham (14 Feb 2007)
  Publisher	Shannon Chenoweth Graham, Jefferson City, Missouri [(E-address for private use),] to Janis Gilmore, Pawleys Island, South Carolina, e-mail, 14 Feb 2007; regarding the Chenoweth, Vickers, Hargroves, and DeBoard families of Howell County, Missouri; digital copy held by author (2007); Mrs. Graham is now deceased.
  Source ID	S297
  Text	Dear Janis: No, I'm not in CA. anymore, worse luck, we have about 4" of snow and sleet, and it's 20. We ex-Californians hate that. We lived in Fullerton, CA.,Orange Co. CA, Lovely place but Howell Co., is still home. My father, S.J. Chenoweth's gggrandparents came from Caswell County, N.C. He was Phillip Cox, had quite a large plantation and number of children.We now live in Jefferson City, MO. which is about the mddle of the State and the Capitol. We've been moving in and out of here since 1959. When we came back in 1985, I said this is it., I'm not moving again no matter what. We are 250 miles NW of Howell Co. I"m an historical researcher as you will soon learn, and a nut about dates. Tina says she hates me even if she knows how important dates are. So you will get a lot of data from me. I will apologize for my date fetish right to start with. It took us 40 years to take our Chenoweth family back to Cornwall, so I've been working with geneology since World War II, I did not find James and Amy's marriage in Illinois either and I think this is the reason. George McKenzie, son of Roderick McKenzie, nephew of Sir Alexander McKenzie of Sascatchuwan Povince, Canada, was a member of the Hudson Bay Co like Alex and Roderick. There's a book on the life of Sir Alexander you should be able to get at your library. They were Scots, of course, and George came to the U.S. to establish a fur trading post in TN. I'll send you what I have on this. It is amazing to me how our ancestors romped around over great distances under the most extenuous circumstances like we go to the grocery store. Of course, they went by the rivers. MO has 6,280 sq acres of navicable water, if you can believe. The western border of Jefferson City is the Missouri River. Rambling again. George, while still trekking back and forth to Canada, stopped in White Co., IL and stayed. At the time James and Amy married the border of Northern IL counties was not clear. Amy told mother she was born in Indiana, so we may find them there. I haven't looked yet. I couldn't find my Griffins in Wabash Co. IL either. They married in Ind. I"ll check into that, I have a good contact in Wabash Co. Jim was an orphan from Dover, TN. His grandfather, also James, had moved from N.C. to Roberson Co. and on to Stewart Co. in the early 1800s. The older James had three sons, George, Michael and William. William married Sarah Logan and they were building a plantation house on the Cumberland River outside Dover. They were drowned in a flood. Sarah's sister took Jim's two sisters, Harriet and Elizabeth to KY. James was 2 yrs old and never saw them again. He was raised by his Uncle Mike, but mother said he knew nothing about how to love anyone or anything except God. It seems he spent his time with Uncle Franklin visiting the sick, clothing the naked, feeding the hungry. Mother said he was not good to Amy. My daughter, Adele, is a professional illustrator and she did a sketch of him according to mother's directions. I'll send you a copy with Amy's picture. My grandfather Griffin, who came from VA. said Jim was the laziest white man he ever knew. Mother said Grandpa Vickers was used to plenty of slaves, had never worked, and he simply didn't. Amy and their oldest son, Albert took care of the 250 acre farm in MO. Albert could not read or write, he helped his mother and didn't go to school. The Vickers, DeBoards and Hargorves came to MO. about 1870 (tell you for sure later). The three sisters, each had twelve children, Ann and Vitura (you have her name backwards, it was Vitura Priscilla, I knew Aunt Vite as a child), raised most of theirs, Amy and Jim only raised ten. Amy carded, spun, wove and made by hand every stitch of clothes they wore. Amy was a :"granny woman", so few people know what that is tnese days, but she doctored everyone in Howell Co. She delivered every one of my uncles and aunts, about 1500 babies in 20 years. The Family had a strain of fine saddle horses, from TN, I suppose and the women and men, of course, rode everywhere. Amy had a bay mare she called Ribbon that she rode over the hills of Howell Co. day and night, all kinds of weather,. One night she was coming home and her horse shied, then Amy could hear a large something padding along tracking them through the woods. Talk about horsemanship, Amy said she knew it was a mountain lion and she controlled that horse and rode for home. Those wonderful women from whom we came asked no odds and gave nonel Their lives were ruled by God and the Methodist Church. Amy loved to ride in the rain, she hated housework and she trained her daughters to take over as soon as they were big enough. When our ancestors came to MO there was no Methodist Church, just a nondenominational one, so they bought land and built a church. Orville's youngest brother, Charles, hauled the first load of lumber from Kenaga's Sawmill, that went into the church. Uncle Franklin was it's first minister and he and Aunt Ann worked tirelessly in that community. One day in 1882, Amy was coming home from one of her patients. She knew Ann was holding a women's meeting (heaven forbid men and women should meet together, they still sat on opposite sides of the church), Mother said Aunt Ann, besides knowing the Bible cover to cover, could pray a prayer that the angels could hear. That's the way mother put it, she loved Aunt Ann and was closer to her than Aunt Vite. Well to get back to Amy, she wasn't dressed properly so she stopped on the church porch and listened to Aunt Ann. Amy took pneumonia, nearly died, the doctor dosed her too heavily with belladonna, and for the last 30 years of her life she was blind. She still delivered babies, my youngest uncle with a caul on his head. A caul, in case you never heard of it, is a very thin membrane that comes on some baby's heads and you have about a minute to get it off and get that child breathing. When Irving didn't cry, Amy sensed something was wrong (no anesthetic so baby's cried immediately at birth, usually), she grabbed scissors, cut and pulled that caul off his head, athough she couldn't see, and he lived to a ripe old age. Grandma kept that caul in a glass rolling pin as long as she lived. I've seen it many times. When my grandmother died, my mother buried the rolling pin in the garden. Can I tell you about Marcella, she was lovely, my mother said, had the family red hair, big blue eyes, and she caught the eye of Bent Taylor, the local outlaw. Howell Co. near our area has mountains of solid lead and several caves. O\\ne particularly large one, Egypt Cave was a hideout for Jesse and Frank James, the Daltons, the Youngers and Bent and his small gang, mined the lead in Egypt cave and ran bullets for everybody. Did the countryside know it? Did they tell the sheriff? No more than up here where we saw Jesse cross the river on a ferry at least once a week. Where he and Frank sat in front of the largest bank in town and visited with the natives. Well, poor Marcella, from what mother said she was yelled at, prayed over, begged, you name it. She left with him. She was pregnant, what could she do? About a year later, she returned with little Marcella, mother said she was beautiful too. Marcella married but mother didn't say who, and put her life together. I'll go back to the tapes on this. I'm writing it off the top of my head, no Altzheimer's in our family, mother died at 97 sharp as a tack. Incidentally, prepare for a long life, you come from people who live to be nearly 100, Aunt Vite was 98, Heavens, you must be worn out with this, if you are still with me. George McKenzie's wife, he married in TN, was Elizabeth Vickers. Their son, William married Margaret Vineyard, May3, 1824. Children: Vitura Priscilla b. May 5, 1825, d. Jan 24/1927, Mountain View, MO, Margaret Ann b, 1829, Amy Luana b. Mar.27, 1831, d. 4/13/1912, MOMary Francis (Aunt Frankie married William Bagby, never left Norris City, IL), b. 1833 d. 1/19/1901. George Thomas b. 1848 and William James b. 1846, went down on the General Lyon. Several months passed and the McKenzies didn't know why they didn't come home. Hiram Floyd, who had been on the General Lyon with them but escaped brought the news. This is the end for now. I swear. I have a big book, and I'm not through. I still want to see if I can get a picture of Aunt Vite from someone down home, maybe we'll get lucky. I see you are following all of us McKenzie musicians. My son, Nick has a beautiful voice, always singing in some choir or other. He's a microbiologist, haven't know what he was talking about since he was 12 years old, now it's genetics and we're worse off. My daughter, Adele, worked for the State Department of Health and retired from there, but she sold her first artwork to an English Dogfood Co. when she was 9. Now she illustrates books and has been compared to Edward Gorey which pleases her and us no end. I might add that I'm a published writer, you have to say published these days, everyone writes. If I bore you with all these family stories, there is always File 13, as Nick says. I would offer to just X-erox mother's transcripted tapes, but my father was an M.D. and there are things in there that are classified as confidential. May you walk this day in peace and the warmth of the sun (CA signature) Shannon Chenoweth Graham
  Linked to	Mary Frances "Frankie" McKenzie Family: James Vickers / Amy McKenzie

  
  

• Notes

  Shannon Chenoweth Graham is the daughter of Pearl Vickers and S.J. Chenoweth, of Howell County, Missouri. Shannon's grandfather was James Vickers. Shannon stated that she was age 87 in 2007, so she would have been born around 1920. She resides in Jefferson City, MO, (2007) and her email address is Obit of Shannon Chenoweth Graham (GenealogyBank.com) Jefferson City News-Tribune (MO) - December 9, 2007 Deceased Name: GRAHAM Mrs. Shannon Chenoweth Graham GRAHAM Mrs. Shannon Chenoweth Graham, age 88 years, of Jefferson City, Mo., died Friday, December 7, 2007, at Capital Region Medical Center. She was born November 25, 1919, at Winona, Mo., the daughter of Samuel James Chenoweth, M.D. and Pearl Vickers Chenoweth. She was married January 11, 1939, at Springfield, Mo., to William Clement Graham. She was a graduate of Dixon High School; the Draughan Business College at Springfield, Mo.; and had attended William Woods College and the University of Missouri. Mrs. Graham was a member of the Catholic Church. She had been employed as a secretary in the Office of the Attorney General for the state of Missouri and had also been a school teacher. Mrs. Graham was an accomplished pianist who loved music. She had been church organist at different times. She was also a genealogy enthusiast who enjoyed researching the history and lineal descent from ancestors. Survivors include: one daughter, Adele Chenoweth Graham, and one son, James Nicholas Graham, both of Jefferson City, Mo. A Memorial Mass will be held at a later date. Interment will be in the Center Hill Cemetery at Mountain View, Mo. Should friends desire, memorials may be made to the St. Jude's Children Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee; or to the Missouri Coalition for the Quality Care, P.O. Box 1765, Jefferson City, MO 65102. Arrangements are under the direction of the Buescher Memorial Home.