Automation Doesn't Create Markets, Jobs Do!

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Earlier this month a big-rig semi traveled from a railyard in Tucson to a distribution center in Phoenix - a distance of approximately eighty miles. The route was nothing special, basically a long, fairly straight stretch of multi-lane highway that reaches across a broad stretch of the Sonoran Desert to connect two of Arizona's larger urban areas.  Thousands of big commercial vehicles travel that same road every week.

But what was remarkable about that particular trek across the desert was this:  the semi had no driver.   A fully automated commercial truck drove from Tucson to Phoenix, driverless, and while it was enroute it passed slower vehicles, faithfully obeyed traffic signs and signals, and successfully navigated on-and-off-ramps.  Yes, the test run occurred late at night when traffic was scarce, and a lead vehicle about five miles out in front checked for surprise road hazards, and a vehicle following stood ready to intercede if an emergency developed, and unmarked police vehicles were also close at hand - but the trip was successful and none of the emergency procedures had to be deployed.

While all of that sounds like great news for modern man - because fully automated vehicles could provide more time for humans to get other things accomplished, and they could also significantly reduce road injuries and deaths - fully operated vehicles also represent a death knell for professions like truck drivers, bus drivers, Lyft, Uber, and taxi drivers, and all manner of delivery personnel.

And it's not just a threat to transportation workers, automation has already invaded the retail markets.

I have shopped in stores with automatic checkouts, though I have never used one - and never will.  But they are here, and retailers who have traditionally mistreated and underpaid their employees have been quick to begin using the automatic checkouts, machines which require no raises and no benefits.

During the pandemic banks learned that many of their customers are just fine with doing their banking on-line or through ATMs, and now branches are closing as more and more banking customers get routed into automated banking.

Recently I read where food-dispensing "automats" are making a comeback in some urban areas.  These are like snack machines but on a much larger scale, and people can essentially purchase an entire meal, item by item,  without any human contact.

One question remains, however, as commerce becomes more and more automated:  how do all of the newly unemployed, those people displaced by automation, pay for the goods and services that the machines are providing?

Automation doesn't create markets, jobs do!

A Time for Giving

 

by Pa Rock

There is something about the closing days of the year that make it seem like the right time to be thinking about charitable giving.  Yes, there are some tax advantages to be had by donating to charities, and yes, email inboxes fill up and overflow at the end of any month with pleas from charities and politicians, and particularly in December when the year is about to end.

But the end of the year seems to strike an especially emotional chord with many people.  The warmth and fellowship of Christmas has just ended, and people are now pulled more deeply into the cold and gray of the lingering winter.    We are reminded of the discomforts that many are feeling as they try to go about their daily lives.  Not everyone has a home to protect them from the elements, or adequate food and clothing, or transportation, or medical care, or even someone to talk to, and winter just seems to compound all of that sadness.

As this year closes we should all do what we can to insure that there is less suffering and more opportunities in the new year.  Find a group that is doing some actual good in the world, and then become a volunteer or write a check - or do both.

Give thanks for what you have, and share it!

Plane, Train, Bus, and Ship Passengers Should be Vaccinated

 

by Pa Rock

Domestic Traveler

Did you know that foreign nationals traveling to the United States are required to be fully vaccinated?  Or that Americans flying from the United States to many foreign destinations also have to be fully vaccinated - as determined by the receiving countries?

Getting shots in order to fly internationally is not a new concept.   When I flew to Japan to work with the US military in 2010, I had to have multiple shots before boarding the international flight.  It is just one more way that a nation has of protecting its borders.   Restricting access to vaccinated individuals makes sense.

But being vaccinated to board any aircraft during a highly contagious world-wide pandemic also makes sense.  What better place to come down with an airborne disease than while sitting five or six miles up in the air in a thin metal tube that recirculates its air supply?

President Biden says that he is considering issuing a mandate that all domestic travelers on public conveyances in the US be fully vaccinated, an edict that would presumably include not only air travelers, but also train, subway, bus, and cruise ship passengers.  Biden says he is waiting on the advice of his medical team, and will issue a mandate for domestic travelers to be vaccinated if the team recommends it.

And then we will have to suffer through the explosion of outrage from right-wing politicians and news outlets.  Groups that this week were critical of Biden for having no plan to combat the spread of COVID will next week be erupting over a plan that he is promoting which they don't like. 

There is just no pleasing some people.

Bring on those vaccine mandates for domestic travel, Joe.  Fully vaccinated passengers on public transport will curb the spread of the virus, save lives, and help the American economy grow.  And, if conservative heads begin exploding on national television as a result - so damned be it!

Jingle Jangle, Another New Holiday Tradition

 

by Pa Rock

Holiday Glutton

Yesterday in this space I posted a few remarks about a new tradition which I am incorporating into my holiday routine:  The wonderful fruitcakes baked and sold by the monks at  Assumption Abbey in Ava, Missouri.  But the holidays are about more than just extraordinarily wonderful fruitcakes.  The festivities surrounding Christmas and New Years also demand a plentiful helping of rich, dark chocolate - a craving that led me to my second great snack discovery of this holiday season:  Trader Joe's "Jingle Jangle."

Trader Joe's does not have stores out in the rural areas like where I live, probably because they assume that the hicks in the sticks, people like me, would not be sophisticated enough to enjoy the unique variety of grocery items that they traditionally stock.  And maybe they are right, but I don't think so.    Trader Joe's retail cousin, Aldi's, has established footholds in rural areas with their grocery stores, and they seem to be doing quite well, thank you very much.    And when I do make the long trek to Kansas City, I often visit a Trader Joe's to pick up a few items - like their ginger snaps - which are just about as good as cookies can possible get!

When I was in Kansas City earlier this fall, my son gave me a tin of Trader Joe's "Jingle Jangle" as an early Christmas gift.  Like the Assumption Abbey fruitcake, which came in a tin exactly the same size as the "Jingle Jangle," I set the "fun mix of fan favorite candy treats" aside until Christmas Day when I opened it and used the wonderful dark chocolate treats to help subdue the effects of the fruitcake.

Tim, my urban son, told me that "Jingle Jangle" was a seasonal item at Trader Joe's which sells out quickly.   According to the advertisement on the tin, each  assortment contains milk chocolate candies, dark chocolate 'enrobed' Trader Joe's cookies, milk and dark chocolate mini peanut butter cups, milk and dark chocolate covered pretzels, and  dark chocolate covered caramel popcorn.

The outside of the tin also contains this proclamation:

"We have chocolate that jingle jangle jingles . . . well, when you shake the tin.  Anyway, there's a party - of bite-size, dark & milk chocolate-covered, salty sweets - inside every tin.  Gather your friends, satisfy your chocolate cravings, and give it a jingle . . . jangle."

(Television addicts might also associate "Jingle Jangle" with the teen drama, "Riverdale."  On that show, "Jingle Jangle" is the illicit drug that the bad thirty-year-old teens abuse while the good thirty-year-old teens are busy having lots and lots of sex!)

Riverdale's "Jingle Jangle" is bad, but Trader Joe's "Jingle Jangle" is good . . . really, really good!

Flammable Fruitcake

 

by Pa Rock

Holiday Glutton

Not everyone appreciates fruitcake, I understand that, but I have always been a fan of the festive holiday staple.  While others stay busy re-gifting fruitcakes so they won't get stuck with one over the holidays, I am always happy when one makes its way to my doorstep.  If I get it, I keep it.  The fruitcake stops with me!

There is a monastery secluded in the Ozark foothills about fifty miles from where I live that is internationally famous for the baking and selling of fruitcakes on a year-round basis.  The monks from the abbey produce a quality fruitcake that makes its way to some of the world's finest holiday tables - as well as to the tables of many ordinary people who enjoy sampling the better things in life.

My life has been a merry assortment of cheap fruitcakes, but this year I decided to give my taste buds a gift and order a cake from the monastery - my first - and as I was going to all of the effort of placing an order anyway, it was no extra trouble to order one for each of my kids while I was at it.  They arrived the week before Christmas, and I cut into mine on Christmas Day.

As I pulled the lid from the attractive tin, the first thing to hit my senses was a strong, and not unpleasant, odor of alcohol.  Thankfully I had given up smoking decades ago, and last year I traded in the old gas range with the pilot lights for a new electrical model, so there was no bothersome holiday explosion, but nevertheless upon getting a good whiff of the cake, one of my first thoughts was of Robert Duvall's iconic line from "Acopalypse Now" about loving the smell of napalm in the morning!

Then I tried the cake, and it was is delicious.  One small slice left me feeling warm and relaxed, and after the second slice  I was firmly planted on the couch like a big potted ficus - hoping some kind soul would come by and water me!

There was a flyer included with the two-pound fruitcake saying that it had a shelf life of two years and would do just fine in the refrigerator for up to a year if I kept it wrapped and in the tin.  A year - hah - like that will happen!

Many thanks to the Cistercian Monks of Assumption Abbey in Ava, Missouri, for making my Christmas special!  You guys make and bake a really great fruitcake!

One SMITH Family: (Part 3)

by Rocky Macy

(The first part of this series dealt with introducing a SMITH family who were residing in the South Division of Smith County, Tennessee, in 1850 and subsequently migrated Kentucky and on to southwest Missouri where they were located in Jasper County by the time of the 1860 census.  Although their parentage was murky, the children of the family consisted of between seven and nine siblings born between 1828 and 1849.  The second part of this series centered on profiles of the siblings in that family.  Part III, today’s offering, deals with the court battle over the estate of William C. SMITH, one of those siblings.) 

William C. SMITH was born on December 18, 1839 in Tennessee and passed away at his home near Seneca, Newton County, Missouri, on February 8, 1920.  He was eighty at the time of his death and had accumulated a fair amount of property, both land and personal items, as well as quite a few promissory notes covering loans that he had made to individuals, most of which had interest rates of eight percent.  William’s promissory notes included $2,106 which he regarded as “solvent,”  $2,094.63 which he deemed to be “insolvent,” and $1,158.50 which he saw as “doubtful” at the time of his death.

William also had savings certificates totaling $2,000 at the Citizens State Bank of Seneca,  as well as $300 in Liberty Bonds and $100 in War Savings Stamps that had been issued during World War I.  By local standards, he was undoubtedly seen as a man of consequence, and he appeared to be the “go-to” person when neighbors needed a quick loan.

William died a widower who had never fathered any children.   His siblings had also all preceded him in death.  But even without obvious heirs, William had a plan for the distribution of his estate.  Sometime in his final years of life William visited with an attorney and drafted the following will:

Last Will and Testament

Know All Men By These Presents,

That I, W.C. Smith, of the County of Newton, State of Missouri, being of sound mind and memory, do make and publish this, my Last Will and Testament, in manner and form following:

That I desire and request that all of my just and legal debts be paid.  That all of my property both real and personal of every description whatsoever be divided equally between the heirs of John A. Smith, A.J. Smith, Elizabeth Boyd, Mary Scarbrough, Martha Parthena Cline, and Sallie Ann Hankins, all to share and share alike.

All told, the heirs of William’s six siblings numbered fifty-three.  

The inheritors of the estate of William C. SMITH were determined in the following manner:  any surviving children of any of the six named siblings each received one share.  In the event that any of those inheritors had preceded William in death, their children became inheritors with one share of the estate each.  And, in the event any of the inheritors from that generation had preceded William in death - as was the case with a couple - their survivors each inherited a share.

To illustrate how the determination of who became an inheritor to the estate of William C. SMITH actually worked, I submit as an example the children of his oldest sister (and my g-g-grandmother) Mary Jane (SMITH) SCARBROUGH.  According to the obituary of their only son, Mary Jane and her husband, James Mayberry SCARRBROUGH,  both ”died young,” and probably in Texas prior to 1870.  They left behind four children who, incidentally, went to live in the household of William C. and Lucinda SMITH when their parents died.  Those four children were (from oldest to youngest):  Sarah “Sallie” A., Nancy Anthaline, Catherine, and James William.

By 1880 two of the children had disappeared from the public record - Sarah “Sallie” A. and Catherine.  Nancy Anthaline (my great-grandmother) had married Samuel James ROARK and started a family, and James William, then an adolescent, was still living in the William C. and Lucinda SMITH household.

When William C. SMITH died in 1920, Nancy Anthaline and James William should have each received one share of the estate of their uncle - but - James William had passed away nine years earlier in Kansas and left a widow and five minor children.   The resulting distribution gave one share to William’s niece, Nancy Anthaline (SCARBROUGH) ROARK, and one share each to the five children of James William ROARK.  Instead of being on an equal footing with her brother’s family, Nancy was to receive one fifth of the total amount that went to James William’s children.

By the time the Court finished counting the heirs, they numbered fifty-three, and obviously not everyone was happy about the number of people involved in the split.  What would have been a nice inheritance for a few, was turning into a pittance for the many.

Not long after William passed away and his intent for the settlement of his estate became known, a group of six of the inheritors filed suit in the Newton County Circuit Court to partition the other forty-seven inheritors out of the estate.  When the legal notices were posted in the local newspapers regarding the upcoming court action, my great-grandmother, Nancy Anthaline (SCARBROUGH) ROARK was always listed as the first of the six plaintiffs, leading me to suspect that she might have been the ringleader of the effort.

In my great-grandmother’s defense, it needs to be noted that she lived in William’s household at least from 1870 until her marriage to Sam ROARK (which occurred in William’s house) in December of 1876.   From that time on she also lived in close proximity to her Uncle William, and as he became older and more infirm, she was undoubtedly one of the people who helped to care for him.

But Nancy was not happy with the idea of splitting William’s estate fifty-three ways, and she, along with five other heirs, went to Court to try and get the will adjusted in their favor.  The six plaintiffs were (in the order in which they were listed in the legal notices):   1.  Nancy A. ROARK;  2.  Margaret L. SPARLIN;  3.  K.M. NANCE;  4.  Leo BURKHART;  5.  Pearl SELLERS;  and,  6.  John W. BURKHART.

The forty-seven defendants in the suit, again listed in the order in which they were presented in the legal notices, were:  

1.  M.F. SMITH;  2.  Bennett A. SMITH;  3.  J.C. SMITH;  4.  H.E. SMITH;    5.  Robert M. SMITH;  6.  Nannie D. DAVIS;  7.  Stella M. DOTY;  8.  Jim W. SMITH;  9. Thomas SMITH;    and,  10.  Newton SMITH.  

11.  Nannie RAMSEY;   12.  J.W. BOYD;  13.  T.D. HOUSE;  14.  Samuel H. RAINWATER   15.  Emily NICHOLSON;  16.  Lillie SHERER;  17.  Odell BURKHART;  18.  Lola BURKHART;  19.  Cleo V. BURKHART;  and,  20.  Dorris BURKHART. 

21.  Clarence SCARBROUGH;   22.  Sylvia L. SCARBROUGH;  23.  Nancy M. SCARBROUGH;  24.  Samuel W. SCARBROUGH;  25.  Theodore L. SCARBROUGH;  26.  J.W. CLINE;  27.  J.A. CLINE;  28.  Allie REED;  29.  Cassie CLINE;   and,  30.  Roy CLINE. 

31.  John CLINE   32.  Clarence CLINE;   33.  Oscar REED;   34.  Mamie SMITH;  35.  Ara WILLIAMSON;   36.  Lee F. REED;  37.  Alta QUICK;  38.George HANKINS;  39.  Andrew HANKINS;   and,  40.  Parthena HANKINS.

41.  Loula SMITH;  42.  L.C. HANKINS;  43.  C.R. HANKINS  44.  Alice GREGORY;   45.  Nellie WILSIE;   46.  Sadie SMITH;  and, 47.  W.B. HANKINS.

The Disposition of the Case:

Judge Charles L. HENSON of the Circuit Court of Newton County, Missouri, ordered  the land which was owned by William SMITH in Missouri, be advertised locally and then sold at the courthouse door by Sheriff George W. YADON.  That was accomplished and the proceeds, after debts were paid, were added to the estate.  The judge then ordered that the estate, once all of the bills were paid, be divided fifty-three ways and paid out in equal portions to each of the plaintiffs and defendants - as William C. SMITH had originally intended. 

The lots in Miami, Oklahoma, were not a part of the Newton County settlement, and a recent telephone call to the County Clerk in Ottawa County, Oklahoma, revealed that property had been sold for back taxes a couple of years after William’s death.

When all of the collections and disbursements were complete, there was a balance of $5,087.35 to be evenly split among the fifty-three inheritors, or approximately  $95.98 each.  And while that sum was not a fortune even by 1920 standards, it undoubtedly was a nice little windfall that many of the inheritors truly appreciated.

(Part IV of “One SMITH Family” will profile each of the six plaintiffs in the lawsuit over the estate of William C. SMITH.)

Merry Christmas from Pa Rock and Rosie!

 

by Pa Rock

It's a little after 9:00 a.m. on Christmas Day, and Alexa tells me that the temperature outside is currently sixty-six degrees and will be in the low seventies later in the day.  The skies are clear.  It's going to be a beautiful day!

The weather has been shuffling between warm and cold snaps for the past month, with enough bounce between temperature extremes to insure that everyone stays just on the edge of being sick.  The cold days are really cold, with winds, occasional rain, and hard frosts at night - and the warm days are wonderful.  I was outside yesterday wearing shorts and a tee-shirt - and will be again today!

All of the leaves are down, and I have given them all a good shredding with the lawnmower - and yesterday I noticed that the lilac bush in the front yard is suddenly covered with big green buds!  These fluctuating temperatures are leaving their marks.  It is confusing for me, and I can just imagine the impact that these quick climate changes are having on the creatures that must nest and burrow in the wild.

The poultry census at The Roost is down to just two little brown roosters and three guineas.  Yesterday the roosters decided they were going to chase me - they like to attack the backs of my legs as I walk across the yard.  But the guineas have suddenly decided that I am their friend, and, as such, merit some special protection.  When the little roosters launched their surprise attack, which I was really expecting, the guineas suddenly sprang into action and ran the frantic roosters all over the yard!  It was really funny!

I finally filled the bird feeders last Sunday during one of the cold snaps.  The little birds didn't discover full feeders until Thursday when it was starting to become warm again, and today, when it almost feels like spring outside, they are showing up in droves for a Christmas brunch!  The littlest birds, finches and the like, found the seed buffets first, and today the cardinals are beginning to arrive.  One wily old squirrel has also found the food, so things will undoubtedly be swinging and jumping at the feeders for the rest of the winter, spring, winter, spring, winter, spring, winter, spring, winter, spring . . . 

A couple of the grandkids called yesterday, and if I don't hear from the others in the next hour or so I will begin tracking them down.  The birds and I will not be ignored!

Merry Christmas from Pa Rock and Rosie!

Tourists Trapped on the High Seas

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

If someone wanted to intentionally contract a case of COVID, the easiest option night be to visit a school classroom in Texas or Florida - or any of a couple of dozen other GOP-controlled states where schools are forbidden to institute face mask mandates, and a large percentage of parents believe that getting vaccinated against COVID will make them magnetic.  

Another way to almost guarantee exposure to the deadly virus would be to book a cruise - because, unbelievably, cruise ships are once again packing themselves full of passengers and setting sail on the high seas.   And, to almost no one's surprise, cruise ships have also begun turning themselves into floating Petri dishes where the deadly virus can spread and mutate in wild abandon - just like it was doing in early 2020 when the cruise ship industry literally sank.

People are back to cramming onto to cruise ships - large, closed environments that are ideal for the spread of contagious disease - of course they are.

Last week Royal Caribbean's "Symphony of the Seas," a "mega" cruise ship, docked at Miami, Florida, with 48 active cases of COVID on board.   This week a second Royal Caribbean "mega" ship, the "Odyssey of the Seas" which sailed from Ft. Lauderdale a few days ago, has been denied entry to the islands of Aruba and Curacao after the ship informed authorities that it had 55 confirmed cases of COVID-19 on board.  The holiday travelers will now be forced to remain on the ship until it docks back in Florida later this week.  The numbers of infected are likely to be higher by the time the ship docks.

Florida passed a state law earlier this year that denied cruise ship companies the ability to require "vaccine passports," or proof of vaccinations for cruise customers, and the governor of the state, Ron DeSantis, threatened $5,000 fines for every instance in which a cruise ship company asked for proof of vaccination.  A federal judge blocked the governor from enforcing the law in August, stating that it would jeopardize public health and was likely unconstitutional.

However, even with vaccine passports and testing in place, COVID is still managing to find its way aboard the large cruise ships.

Royal Caribbean has announced that it is now suspending all cruises until January 10th, at which time the company will limit the numbers of passengers who can board and enforce stricter masking and social distancing policies.

A new year is fast approaching, but that does not mean that we have conquered the disease that has plagued our planet for the past two years.  COVID is still with us, and pretending that it is not only serves to strengthen its resolve to remain and spread even further.

If you've always wanted to play Russian roulette but have a fear of guns, taking a cruise might offer just the thrill that you've been seeking!

The Space Trilogy by C.S. Lewis

by Pa Rock

Reader

Back in the mid-1970's when I was working on getting a teaching certificate at what was then called Missouri Southern State College in Joplin, Missouri, I happened into a book sale on campus one day, and, being a reader, I stopped to snoop.  While browsing through the stacks I came across a new copy of a book by C.S. Lewis, the British author perhaps best known for his Chronicles of Narnia series.  The book that I had stumbled upon was called "Perelandra," and it was the second book in what is commonly referred to as Lewis's Space Trilogy.  Not being familiar with the Space Trilogy, and because the copy of Perelandra was priced at less than a dollar, I snatched it up.  Eventually I came up with the other two volumes, the first being "Out of the Silent Planet," and the third "That Hideous Strength," and proceeded to read my way through the set.

I enjoyed the three books of The Space Trilogy back in the seventies, and a few months ago I decided, quite by chance, that I would like to re-read the series.  This time I had to order the three as one volume, a heavy tome that proved difficult for my aged hands to hold onto while reading - but I persisted and have recently finished my second flight through the outer space created by C.S. Lewis in the 1940's.

My memory from forty-some years age was that I had liked "Perelandra" better than the other two, but that I had enjoyed them all.  This trip through, "Perelanda" was easily my least favorite volume of the three.  I'm not sure why, except that there is more actual story involved with the first and third books than there is with "Perelandra," which basically describes the Book of Genesis as it would have played out on Lewis's version of the planet Venus.

(As those familiar with the works of C.S. Lewis - including the Narnia books - already know, the author is all about religion.  Scrape off the fluffy frosting, and the cake is always an overdone mixture of philosophy, ethics, and Christianity - with heavy emphasis on the Christianity.)

The main character in all three of these books is Dr. Elwin Ransom, a linguistics professor from Cambridge, a confirmed bachelor who liked to spend his free time by himself.  Ransom, a World War I vet, was alone on a walkabout in the English countryside when he inadvertently came across Professor Weston whom he knew on a casual basis prior to that encounter.   Professor Weston and his friend drugged and kidnapped Ransom who awakened hours later in a strange environment - and soon learned that he was on a spaceship with his abductors heading toward a strange planet which they called Malacandra.  The professor and other kidnapper had been to Malacandra before and were making a return trip to conclude some type of business there.

When the ship arrived on Malacandra - which was the planet that people on Earth called Mars - Ransom learned that he was to be given to the inhabitants of Malacandra as part of an effort to secure something of value from them.  He quickly managed to escape his captors and lead them on a long chase.  During his flight from captivity, Ransom discovered more about Malacandra than his captors had learned in multiple trips to the planet, and Ransom, an expert in linguistics, even mastered the language of the Malacandrians.

While on the run across the fantastical landscape of Malacandra, Ransom also met of some of the Eldils, the God-like creatures who controlled life on the planet and beyond, and he even met the Oyarsa who was the ruler of Malacandra.    Through those experinces Ransom learned something of the spiritual history of the universe.  Eventually he was able to make his way back to England in the 1940's and to resume his life as a Cambridge professor.

In "Perelandra" Professor Ransom was visited at his country home in England by the Eldils.  They brought a coffin-like box for him to travel in to another planet, this one called Perelandra - which the inhabitants of Earth knew as Venus.  Ransom disclosed the plan to a colleague who would care of his residence while he was gone, and then he climbed into his box and was promptly transported to Perelandra.

The first creature that Ransom met on Perelandra was a green lady who appeared to be still orienting herself to the planet.  It became apparent that she was the first woman on the planet, or the "Eve" character.  She and Ransom moved about going from one rolling, shaking island to another before finally coming to a solid continent, a place where the woman told him they were forbidden to stay.   While they were moving about on the planet, Ransom saw a spaceship descend and land, and a passenger climb out.  The traveler turned out to be Professor Weston, one of the men who had kidnapped Ransom and taken him to Malacandra.

Professor Weston joined Ransom and the green lady and he became the "tempter" of the Eve character, encouraging her to do things that she instinctively knew she must not do.  Ransom soon saw Weston as the satanic influence on the virginal new world, an influence that must be destroyed.

The third book, "That Hideous Strength," took place in and around a small college community in England.  The college owned a wooded area which it had protected for centuries, but a financial crisis and some dishonest players convinced the school to sell the woods to a scientific concern which promised much income for the college and many jobs for the community.

But things went to hell in a hand basket when the scientific corporation began destroying the wood and the local community, forcing many residents to flee.  The corporation was planning a major revolution in how life was to continue on Earth.  One woman, Jane, a professor's wife who had visions - usually when she was asleep - became the focal point of the story as the corporation rushed to bring her into their fold, and the opposition forces, headed by Dr. Elwin Ransom, struggled to align her with their efforts to thwart the efforts of the corporation.

Add to that mix, Merlin, the Druid "magician" from King Arthur's time, who had been asleep in a tomb beneath the protected woods for centuries, a cast a colorful characters, both good and bad, and even a friendly bear, and a rollicking tale ensued - one that helped to insure the survival of the planet and the human race on a solid, moral basis.

Of the three separate novels in this collection, "That Hideous Strength," the final one, is definitely the easiest to read and the most enjoyable.  The second, "Perelandra," promotes Lewis's interest in Christianity in the clearest terms, and the first, "Out of the Silent Planet," had an interesting science fiction tale draped in religious vestments and was perhaps, of the three, the one that came closest to being what the author was trying to capture and convey to his readers. 

The Space Trilogy by C.S. Lewis has held up well over the years, probably better than this aging reader!  

One Smith Family: (Part 2)

 

by Rocky Macy

(The continuing saga of the SMTH family of the South Division of Smith County,Tennessee, who migrated to southwest Missouri in 1856-1857 - and many of their descendants.)

Profiles of the SMITH siblings, in birth order:  

1. Mary Jane SMITH

Mary Jane, the oldest sibling, was born in Tennessee around 1828.  She did not leave much of a paper trail during her nearly forty years as a pioneer heading from Tennessee (where she was born and grew up), to Kentucky (where she married), to Missouri, and finally to Texas (where she likely died).  As already mentioned, Mary Jane was living in the household of Catherine SMITH, who was likely her mother, in the South Division of Smith County, Tennessee, in 1850.

Also previously mentioned in this profile was the fact that Mary Jane married James Mayberry SCARBROUGH in Logan County, Kentucky, on August 7, 1856.  At that time the couple already had a daughter, Sarah “Sallie” A., who had been born in 1853.  Sallie was either born without the benefit of married parents or she was James’ or Mary Jane’s daughter from a previous relationship.  The couple’s second child, Nancy Anthaline SCARBROUGH (my great-grandmother), was born in Missouri on May 28, 1857.

James and Mary Jane and their oldest daughter moved from Kentucky to Missouri between August of 1856 when the couple were married and May of the following year when Nancy Anthaline was born.  When the 1860 census was taken they were living in Sarcoxie Township, Jasper County, Missouri.  Mary Jane’s birth family, the SMITHs and her married sister, Sarah “Sallie” Ann (SMITH) HANKINS and her family were all living in McDonald Township of Jasper County, a township which was adjacent to Sarcoxie Township.

Catherine, the third SCARBROUGH child, was born in Missouri in 1862, and James William SCARBROUGH, the fourth and final child was born (according to his obituary) in Sien, Texas, on December 13, 1868.

(This researcher has been unable to locate any record of a Texas community by the name of “Sien.”  Mary Jane’s youngest sister, Martha Pafrthena F. SMITH, was married to D.M. CLINE on Christmas Day in 1864 in Marion County, Texas, so it is possible that James and Mary Jane SCARBROUGH and their family were living in that area.)

After the birth of James William SCARROUGH in Texas on December 13th, 1868, James Mayberry and Mary Jane (SMITH) SCARBROUGH both disappear from the public record until they are noted posthumously in the marriage and death records related to their son, James William SCARBROUGH and by their surnames only in the death certificate of their daughter, Nancy Anthaline (SCARBROUGH) ROARK.

By the time of the 1870 US census the four SCARBROUGH children were listed in the household of their maternal uncle, William C. SMITH, of Buffalo Township, Newton County, Missouri.  That census listed the names and ages as:  Nancy A. Scarbrough (13), Catharine (8), William (4), and Sarah A.  (22).  (William would have been a little less than two-years-old, and Sarah would have been around seventeen.  Sarah’s age might have gotten conflated with that of Lucinda, William’s wife, who was twenty-two.)

Neither Mary Jane nor James Mayberry SCARBROUGH were in the William C. SMITH household at that time, leaving open the possibility that they died in Texas and the children were removed to the care of a relative who was able to offer them a home where they all could remain together.

James William SCARBROUGH’s obituary in 1911, which was likely written by his sister, Nancy, stated that his parents “died young.”

2.  Sarah “Sallie” Ann SMITH

Sarah “Sallie,” the second oldest sibling, was born in Tennessee around 1830.  By the time of the 1850 census she was already married to Timothy W. HANKINS, a farmer, and the mother of a one-year-old son.  At that time they were living on the same property as Sarah’s birth family in the South District of Smith County, Tennessee, and Timothy’s younger brother John and his wife, Mary, were also residing in that household.

  
By the time of the 1860 census Timothy and Sarah and their family were living in McDonald Township of Jasper County, Missouri, again in close proximity to Sarah’s birth family, and John and Mary HANKINS were no longer part of their household.  In addition to Timothy W. HANKINS (age 35) and Sarah A. HANKINS (age 29), the household also included the following HANKINS children:   William F.  (9, TN), Andrew T.  (8, TN), John H. (7, KY), Louisa C. (4, KY), and Parthena J. (2, MO).

Thus far those two census records represent the extent of what is known about Timothy and Sarah “Sallie” Ann (SMITH) HANKINS.  Two of their children, Andrew and Parthena, went on to become heirs of William C. SMITH.

3.  John A. SMITH

John A. SMITH was born January 11, 1831, in Tennessee.  He died at the age of sixty-nine in Lincoln County, Oklahoma, on November 15, 1900, and is buried at Arlington Cemetery in Prague, Lincoln County, Oklahoma.

John was living with his birth family when the US censuses fr 1850 and 1860 were taken.  He married Delania POE.  As of yet he has not been located on the 1870 US census, but by the time of the 1880 census he was living with his wife, Delania, in Buffalo Township of Newton County, Missouri, along with their first three children:  Melvin N. SMITH (age 9), Nancy A. SMITH (4) and Joel W. SMITH (1).

Delania (sometimes referred to as “Delana” and “Delamia” in various records) was the daughter of Bennett and Susanna POE of Pineville, McDonald County, Missouri.  She was born in September of 1851 in Missouri.  At the time of the 1860 census Delania was eight-years-old and living with her birth family.  Also in that household were her father, Bennett POE (53), mother, “Susannah” Poe (42), and siblings (all POEs):  Elizabeth (20), William (15) Joel C. (12), John (4), and Martha J. (1).  By the time of the 1870 US census she was still living with her birth family and listed as “Delana” (age 18).  Also in the household were her mother, Susanna (53) and sister, Martha J. (11).

By 1880 Delania POE was married to John A. SMITH and had three children.  That suggests that John A. SMITH and Delania POE were married sometime between the time the 1870 census was taken and the US census of 1880, and likely in 1870 or 1871 prior to the birth of their first child, Melvin N. SMITH.

John and Delania (POE) SMITH went on to have at least eight children (Melvin N., Nancy Delilah, Joel W., Stella May, James Carroll, Bennett A., Hugh Elmer, and Robert M. - seven of whom became heirs to the estate of their uncle, William C. SMITH.  Joel W. SMITH, who was born around 1879, was the only non-heir.  Joel was no longer with the family by the time the 1900 US census was taken.  He may have died in the interim between 1880 and 1900, or moved away and become estranged from the family.

Five of the SMITH children were living at home with their mother, Delania, when John died in 1900.  Delania (POE) SMITH has not been located on the 1910 census, but when the census was taken in 1920 she was at the home of her son, Hugh Elmer SMITH and his wife, Mary, in Madilla, Marshall County, Oklahoma.  Various family sources at Ancestry.com suggest that she died in 1926.

4.  Andrew Jackson SMITH 

Andrew Jackson SMITH was born in 1836 in Tennessee.  He died on March 11, 1900, and is buried at Potts Cemetery, Charleston, Franklin County, Arkansas, next to his wife, Clarinda (1847-1901).

Andrew married Clarinda CARR, the daughter of George W. and Allison (LOGAN) CARR, in Pope County, Arkansas, on October 17, 1869.  Their first child, Nancy Katherine SMITH, was born on July 28, 1870.  Nancy had not been named by the time the 1870 census taker arrived, and she is listed on that census as “Not named Smith” with an age of 1/12.  Also in the SMITH family household in Illinois Township, Pope County, Arkansas, in 1870 was Clarinda’s younger brother, Thomas CARR, age 21.

By the time that the 1880 US census took place, the SMITH family was residing in Prairie Township, Franklin County, Arkansas.  At that time they had three children:  Nancy Katherine (listed as “Nancy C.”) age 9, Mary F. (8), and James Washington (listed as “James W.”) age 5.

The family of Andres Jackson SMITH was located in Washburn Township, Logan County, Arkansas, when the 1900 census was taken.  Nancy and James had already left the family by that time, and Mary F. had disappeared from the public record.  Two new children had been added to the family during the interim between the 1880 and 1900 censuses:  Thomas Walter (listed as “Thomas W.”) age 16,  and Theodore Newton (listed as “Theodore N..”), age 12.

All of the children of Andrew Jackson and Clarinda (CARR) SMITH went on to become heirs of Andrew’s brother, William C. SMITH, with the exception of Mary F. SMITH who likely died sometime prior to 1900.

5.  William C. SMITH

William C. SMITH was born December 18, 1839, in Tennessee.  He died on February 8, 1920, at his home in Seneca, Newton County, Missouri, and is buried in the Swars Prairie Baptist Cemetery in rural Newton County, Missouri.  William was married to Lucinda (maiden name unknown) in 1868.  Lucinda was born in January of 1848 in Tennessee.  She died in 1909 and is buried next to William in the Swars Prairie Baptist Cemetery.

William and Lucinda had no children of their own but at various times they opened their home to relatives and others.  The four children of William’s oldest sibling, Mary Jane (SMITH) SCARBROUGH were residents in the home of William and Lucinda SMITH of Buffalo Township, Newton County, Missouri, when the 1870 census was taken.  The children were likely orphans at that point.  William and Lucinda had been married less than two years when Sarah A., Nancy A., Catherine, and James William SCARBROUGH came to live with them.

Nancy Anthaline SCARBROUGH was married to Samuel James ROARK in the home of William and Lucinda SMITH on December 10, 1876.  James William SCARBROUGH was still in the William and Lucinda SMITH household when the 1880 US census listed him as “James W. Scarbrough,” age 14.  The other two SCARBROUGH siblings, Sarah “Sallie” A. and Catherine, were no longer in that household in 1880.

  
Lucinda SMITH passed away in 1909, and by the time the US census was taken the following year in 1910, William had three apparent non-relatives living with him.  James STEVENSON (22) was listed on the census as a “farm laborer” to William, and James’ wife, Pinar L. STEVENSON (17) was noted as William’s housekeeper.  The STEVENSON’s had an infant daughter, Ova M. STEVENSON, who was less than a year old and also a member of William's household.

William C. SMITH died on February 8, 1920, but was included on the 1920 census.  At the time the census was taken, though William was already deceased but counted, his niece, Martha Alene “Allie” CLINE REED (the daughter of William’s younger sister, Martha Parthena SMITH CLINE), along with her husband, Edward Earl REED, and daughter, Eunice E. REED, were all living in William’s house.  Allie (CLINE) REED was later an heir to William’s estate, and one of the defendants in the subsequent court action over the estate.

6  Elizabeth M. SMITH

Elizabeth M. SMITH was born in Tennessee around 1841.  She was residing with her birth family in the South Division of Smith County, Tennessee, when the US census was taken in 1850.  Elizabeth married David Wilson BOYD (born November of 1838 in Missouri) shortly after she and her family arrived in Missouri in 1856 or 1857.

So far it has not been determined where Elizabeth and David (and either one or two very young daughters) were living when the 1860 US census was taken, but by the time of the 1870 census they were residing in Granby Township of Newton County, Missouri, along with five children:  (Sarah (12), Martha (10), Mary (8), Margaret (2) and James (2/12).

Also in the BOYD household in 1870 were two male “farm laborers” whose ages were both listed as twenty.  Those young men were James SMITH, possibly Elizabeth’s youngest sibling or perhaps a cousin, who was born in Tennessee around 1849 and grew up in Elizabeth’s birth household, and William HANKINS, likely Elizabeth’s nephew, the oldest child of Timothy and Sarah “Sallie” A. HANKINS (Elizabeth’s older sister), who was born in Tennessee around 1849. 

The BOYD family was living in Erie Township, MdDonald County, Missouri, when the 1880 US census was taken.  At that time David and Elizabeth had four children remaining at home:  Mary E. (17), Maggie (13), William (10), and Johnnie (8).     “William” of the 1880 census was likely “James” of the 1870 census, perhaps named after James and William, the “farm laborers” and likely relatives who were in the household at the time of his birth.  (Elizabeth SMITH BOYD’s oldest sister, Mary Jane SMITH SCARBROUGH, also has a son named James William.)

David Wilson BOYD was living in Anderson, McDonald County, Missouri, at the time of the 1900 US census, and he was listed on the census as a widower, an indication that Elizabeth had died sometime between 1880 and 1900.

7.  Martha Parthena F. SMITH

Martha Parthena F. SMITH was born around 1844 in Tennessee and was residing with her birth family when the 1850 and 1860 censuses were taken.  She married James D.M. CLINE in Marion County, Texas, on December 25, 1864.  By the time of the 1870 census six years later, James and Martha (SMITH) CLINE were living in Illinois Township, Pope County, Arkansas, along with three children:  Cassandra J. (age 3), Lydia F. (2) and James W. L. (3 months).  Martha P.F. CLINE was listed as 25 on that census, and James D.M. had his age recorded as twenty-nine.

The CLINE family was in Holly Bend, Pope County, Arkansas, at the time of the 1880 US census.   That census taker listed all family members by initials along with their complete surname.  Present in the household were J.D.M. (James) CLINE (39), M.P.F. (Martha) CLINE (36), C.J. (Cassandra) CLINE (12), L.F. (Lydia) CLINE (10), J.W.L. (James) CLINE (9), J.A. (John Andrew) CLINE (7), B.D.H. (Ben) CLINE (1874-1880), and H.M. (Henry) CLINE (2).  

Martha Parthena F. (SMITH) CLINE presumably died prior to October 1, 1896, when James D.M. CLINE married his second wife, Tennessee HOOKER, in Pope County, Arkansas.

8.  James W. SMITH

James W. SMITH, who was a one-year-old in the SMITH household of 1850 in South Division of Smith County, Tennessee, was possibly a sibling of the older SMITH children.  He disappeared from the public record after the 1870 census and was not an inheritor in the 1920 estate of William C.SMITH.

(Part III of “One SMITH Family” will focus on the court action over the estate of William C. SMITH.)

Missouri Cop Threatens to Report School Bus Driver Over Face Masks

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

In November a circuit judge in Cole County, Missouri, issued a decision that struck down a regulation of the state's Department of Health and Senior Services which allowed state and local health authorities to issue orders aimed at slowing the spread COVID and protecting the public health.  The judge ordered the department to refrain from issuing verbal or written orders designed to mitigate the spread of COVID.  

Normally a judicial order that outrageous would have been immediately appealed, but the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services has as its official lawyer the attorney general of Missouri, and the state's current attorney general, a Republican by the name of Eric Schmitt, is running for the US Senate and saw the judge's ruling as being beneficial to his campaign.  Schmitt therefore chose not to appeal the ruling and instead announced that it also covered Missouri schools. 

Attorney General Schmitt then stretched that misinterpretation of the ruling even further and said that the court's ruling meant that school districts could not require face mask mandates, and he appealed to Missourians to report - to his office - any districts that went against the Cole County ruling and continued to require face masks, and he asked that the concerned citizens also send also photographs and videos of masked students and teachers - things that might even find their way into political commercials.

Attorney General Schmitt is now threatening to sue schools and local health authorities if they enforce COVID health mandates.

This past week Missouri's GOP state treasurer, Scott Fitzpatrick, went on record asking the state's school districts to comply with COVID mandate "rules" established by the state's attorney general.  Fitzpatrick also said that his office would no longer help schools finance bond debt unless they promised not to institute face mask mandates.

So, with all of that craziness that is coming from Missouri's state government regarding face mask mandates in the public schools, perhaps it is somewhat understandable that frontline police officers in the state don't have a clue as to what is actually "legal" and "illegal" with regard to school district mask mandates.

Last Friday an armed policeman approached a school bus driver for the Rockwood School District in Jefferson County, Missouri - near St. Louis.  The policeman, an officer in the Arnold, Missouri, police department, was outside of his jurisdiction, but he felt compelled to intervene with the driver because he had children who attended school in that district.  The policeman told the bus driver that he was going to report her because she was "going against the law" by requiring the students on her bus to wear masks.   He elaborated, "There's an executive order by Eric Schmitt saying you cannot wear a mask."

The driver, to her credit, remained calm and radioed her supervisor regarding the incident.  The school district is reiterating that students in the district must wear masks while on the district buses.

Legal experts are pointing out that the attorney general for the state of Missouri has no power to issue executive orders - and federal regulations also require masks on buses.

Confusion reigns - and Eric Schmitt's senate campaign rolls on!

Sarah Palin Can Just Be Damned!

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Yesterday Sarah Palin, the former queen of the GOP crackpots, showed up in Phoenix and gave an interview to Charlie Kirk at Turning Point USA's AmericaFest.   While discussing COVID vaccines, Palin uttered a line that could have been written for the late comedian, Gracie Allen:  "It'll be over my dead body that I have to get a shot.  I will not do it.  I won't do it, and they better not touch my kids, either."

Karma, you have been challenged!

Palin and others on the right edge of the political spectrum are becoming almost nonsensical in their opposition to COVID vaccinations, and their theatrics, of course, are slowing the rate of vaccinations and also playing into the continuing spread of the disease.

This week the 6th Circuit Federal Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to uphold the Biden administration's vaccination mandate for all businesses that employ over a hundred people, and several states, including my own, are rushing to challenge that decision before the US Supreme Court.  It would seem they are more focused on defeating Biden than they are in defeating the killer virus.  

Whether the President is able to mandate vaccinations for employees in large businesses has yet to be clarified, but some businesses are taking the initiative and adopting measures designed to get higher rates of vaccinations among employees.  Kroger grocery stores, a national concern that has almost half-a-million full-and-part-time employees, told its workers last week that it will no longer provide two weeks of emergency leave for unvaccinated employees who contract the COVID-19.  Kroger is also going to add a $50 monthly surcharge to company health plans for unvaccinated managers and non-union workers - those workers on a salary rather than an hourly wage. 

Delta Airlines has added a $200 a month surcharge to its healthcare plan for employees who refuse to get vaccinated against COVID.  The airline reported that action brought about a marked increase in the number of employees getting the vaccinations.

But efforts to get employees vaccinated is not all "stick."  Many companies are also offering incentives (carrots) to get their employees to roll up their sleeves and do what is right.  Aldi's, Trader Joe's, and Amtrak are offering two hours of regular pay in exchange for employees getting their COVID shots - and Dollar General is giving four hours of regular pay for the shots.  American Airlines is giving a day of paid vacation and $50 in rewards points for employees who get vaccinated.  Tyson Foods, which is requiring its employees to be vaccinated, is also sweetening the pot by giving a $200 bonus to its frontline workers (pending union approval) when they do get their shots.

So Sarah Palin can just be damned.  America is slowly but surely doing the right thing - the patriotic thing and the Christian thing - by getting vaccinated!

Say goodnight, Sarah.

NRA Leaders Disparaged Members as Wackos, Fruitcakes, and Hillbillies

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

There is a great segment running on National Public Radio (NPR) today that focuses on an audiotape of a conference call held by bigwigs associated with the National Rifle Association (NRA) the day following the 1999  school shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado.  The NRA was scheduled to hold its annual convention in nearby Denver just ten days later, and the leaders of the gun group were struggling with what type of response, if any, they should make to the shooting - and the mayor of Denver had just suggested that an appropriate response would be to cancel their convention.

The tapes, which were provided to NPR investigative reporter Tim Mak by a person who was actually in on the call and had surreptitiously taped it, give remarkable insights into the thought processes of the NRA leadership as they worked to come up with a public relations strategy that would become their go-to position for the next two decades of school shootings.  Some members of the group thought it was important to openly show compassion, even to the point of perhaps setting up a million dollar victims' fund, while others felt that compassion smacked of weakness and that it would encourage a feeding frenzy from the media.

The group ultimately scaled back its convention for that year, and polished up a response of blaming everything but guns - particularly society and culture - a response the they now employ as a standard rebuttal to school shootings  -  as well as always being critical of how the press covers school shootings.

One of the more interesting aspects of the conference call, which included the NRA's forever executive director, Wayne LaPierre, was the way several of the leaders showed what sounded like open contempt for a segment of the group's membership whom they referred to as "wackos," "fruitcakes," and "hillbillies."  They did not want to set up any scenario in which the press could equate those people with the actual operations of the NRA.  

There is also an admission that certain Republican politicians were waiting on the NRA to provide them with "talking points" before they addressed the shooting publicly.

The NPR report on the secret tapes of the NRA is playing all day - and it is well worth a listen.  A nice summary is also available at the news organiztion's website:  npr.org.  Check it out!

House Committee on January 6th Is Making Progress

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

The House Select Committee charged with investigating the January 6th attack on the US Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump has now questioned more than two hundred individuals who had ties to the government or to the anarchy that occurred on that fateful day.  Many of those who have been questioned are former members of the Trump administration who came forward on their own without the legal impetus of a subpoena, a clear indication that not everyone associated with the Trump White House was pleased with the way the day's events were carried out.

The full House has voted to hold former Trump advisor Steve Bannon in "Contempt of Congress" over his refusal to cooperate with the House investigation of the January 6th insurrection, and a federal grand jury has indicted Bannon on two charges of "Contempt of Congress."   In addition to all of that, the House January 6th Select Committee has also voted to advance contempt proceedings for ex-Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark and former House member and Trump chief-of-staff Mark Meadows.

So while there are times when it feels like nothing is being accomplished by the one committee whose job it is to find out what actually occurred on January 6th - and why - in reality an inordinate amount of work is being accomplished.  Public hearings have been very limited so far, but the committee is promising that will soon change, and there has been a lack of news because there is no meaningful minority party (GOP) representation within the committee to constantly try to sabotage the work of the group through leaks and political maneuverings.

The committee was originally intended to be bipartisan, with a slim majority control going to the Democrats, the party currently in the majority in the House.  However, when House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy named the GOP members to the group, he included two members who were grossly inappropriate based on their past actions and statements regarding the insurrection - Jim Jordan of Ohio and Jim Banks of Indiana - and Speaker Pelosi promptly rejected them out--of-hand.  (This past week Congressman Jordan was shown to have had involvement in the strategizing leading up to the violence at the Capitol.). When Pelosi rejected Jordan and Banks for seats of the January 6th Select Committee, Minority Leader McCarthy made what was undoubtedly the dumbest move of his political career and withdrew all of his GOP nominees for seats on the committee - announcing that the Republicans in Congress would have no part in the affair.

Now, many months later, the Republicans still have no part in the affair, nor a voice in what it does, nor a spy on the inside to keep theme abreast of the committee's work, nor any way to sabotage that work from the inside.  Pelosi did appoint two Repbublican members to the group, Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinsinger of Illinois, but both are clearly working for the interest of the nation and not for the political benefit of Kevin McCarthy and the Republican Parrty.

The January 6th Select Committee appears to be working hard - and quickly - for a government enterprise, but it must produce results before the fall elections when Republicans could regain control of the House and the Speakership - and stop the work of the committee in its tracks.  If the committee fails to meet that deadline and the House does change hands as a result of the election, the committee should rush to publish all that it did manage to uncover about the treachery of last January so that future generations will know the dangers that were posed and how they were able to  manifest in such an extreme and deadly manner.

Getting its findings out of the murky backrooms of Congress and before the public may be the January 6th Select Committee's biggest challenge, but judging from the group's already proven ability to stay on task and not get sidetracked by political noise, I suspect that the members will be up to that challenge.  

The survival of democracy rests on their able shoulders.

Happy Birthday, Molly Files!

by Pa Rock

Proud Papa

My daughter, Molly, is celebrating her forty-fifth birthday today.  I suspect she will be having a grand day at home in Oregon with her husband, Scott, and their three youngsters, Sebastian, Judah, and Willow.  I wish them all a day of fun and happiness!

Molly was born at the brand new Freeman Hospital in Joplin, Missouri, during the waning days of the Ford administration, and in a nursery full of  tiny, bawling infants, she was the only one with red curls.  When my parents came to visit the first evening after she was born, my mother stepped to the nursery window and pointed to Molly whose basinette was on the front row, and said:  "That's our baby right there.  The one with the curls!"

The next day Molly's maternal gramma, Aggie, came to visit and she was carrying the largest poinsettia that I had ever seen.  Aggie was in the company of her mother, Sophia "Nana" Doerpinghaus, who was there to meet her second great-grandchild.

Over the years Molly has always made me proud.  She has had an interesting life and always been focused on helping others - and the amount of time and energy that she devotes to raising her children is just amazing!

Happy birthday, Molly.  May the year ahead be your best ever!

One Smith Family: (Part 1)

 

by Rocky Macy

Preamble:  Both the US Census Bureau and Ancestry.com identify the name “Smith” as the most common surname in the United States, and really common surnames such as Smith, Johnson, Williams, Brown, Jones, Garcia, MIller, Davis, Rodriguez, and Martinez (identified by the Census Bureau as the ten most common surnames in the US) can play havoc with family tree researchers.  Coming upon a “Smith” or one of those other extremely common names in research often signals an end to that line of inquiry, or at the very least, a complicated road ahead.

Several years ago I came across a cache of information on fifty-three descendants of a SMITH sibling group of six.   Those descendants were involved in a court battle over the estate of the seventh member of the sibling group who had recently died and at the time of his death had been the last survivor of the sibling group.  

That man, William C. SMITH of Newton County, Missouri, had passed away in 1920, a widower who had fathered no children of his own.  A couple of years before his death, William C. SMITH visited with an attorney and drew up a will in which he left his entire estate - including cash and land in Missouri as well as land in Oklahoma - to the fifty-three heirs of his six siblings.  Upon William’s death on February 8, 1920, six of the inheritors went to court in an effort to partition the remaining forty-seven out of their share of the inheritance.

William C. SMITH was my great-great-granduncle.

My great-grandmother, Nancy Anthaline (SCARBROUGH) ROARK was a niece of William C. SMITH who had grown up in his household.  Nancy was also a member of the unhappy six heirs to William’s estate, and her name was always listed first in the newspaper legal notices regarding the legal action, giving the impression that she may have been the ringleader in the effort to disenfranchise the other forty-seven inheritors.

As I reviewed this matter, the thought struck me that I had a remarkable amount of genealogical information on a large SMITH family, and I resolved to explore the family as far as I could and then place all of that information in the public record where it could hopefully assist a future researchers who encounter a SMITH in their family tree.

I began by looking backward to try and learn as much about the original SMITH sibling group as I could.  The siblings were (from oldest to youngest, as identified by William C. SMITH in his will and other subsequent sources):  Mary Jane SMITH;  Sarah “Sallie” Ann SMITH;  John. A. SMITH;   Andrew Jackson SMITH;   William C. SMITH;   Elizabeth M. SMITH;   and Martha Parthena F. SMITH.

Being armed with their names, I next turned to the 1850 census, the first to list every family member by name, and was able to locate the family in the South Division of Smith County in north-central Tennessee.   (There is nothing in the historical record to show that this family had any connection to Revolutionary War veteran, Daniel SMITH, for whom the county was named when it was formed in 1799.)

The family whom I was researching had ten members listed in the 1850 census.  They were all named SMITH and included:   Catherine (age 40, born in Kentucky);  Elizabeth (37, KY);  Mary (22, TN);  John (17, TN);  Andrew (14, TN);  William (11, TN);  Elizabeth (9, TN);  Martha (6, TN);  James (1, TN);  and Elizabeth (1, TN).   Clearly the six in the middle - Mary, John, Andrew, William, Elizabeth, and Martha - were the siblings I was seeking, with only the second oldest, Sarah “Sallie” Ann missing.  The missing daughter was located in the preceding census entry as the spouse of Timothy W. HANKINS, along with their one-year-old son, William, as well as Timothy’s brother, John, and his wife, Mary.   (The property for both families appeared to be a single parcel worth $350 and owned by Catherine SMITH.)

That 1850 census entry for the SMITH family in the South District of Smith County, Tennessee, left several questions unanswered.  First, there were no males listed who could have been the father of the older siblings.  Of the two women listed who were age appropriate to have been the mother, Catharine and Elizabeth, there was no way to definitively recognize either as the parent.  Catherine was the most likely candidate because she was listed first on the entry, the place generally given to the “head of household,” and she was the only one indicated to have been a property owner.

The relationship of the two older ladies to each other is also unclear.  They could have been sisters, sisters-in-law, cousins, or no relation whatsoever. 

There is an obvious question as to the relationship of the two youngest children, the one-year-olds, to the rest of the children.  The fact that they were listed as being the same age might suggest that they were twins, or perhaps cousins with one belonging to Catherine and one to Elizabeth - or perhaps even one to Mary Jane.  It is unlikely, however, that the baby Elizabeth and the nine-year-old Elizabeth, having the same given name, would have both been born to the same mother.  A sample scenario could be that Catharine was the mother of the seven older siblings and that she named her daughter, the older Elizabeth, for the adult female Elizabeth, and then when the adult Elizabeth had a daughter of her own, she also chose that name, perhaps to honor her mother or some other relative named Elizabeth.

The baby, Elizabeth, had disappeared from the family by the time of the 1860 census, likely due to a childhood death, but the baby, James, was still with the family in 1860 and listed as James W. SMITH, aged 10 and born in Tennessee.  He was also still a part of the family in 1870 when he and William HANKINS (Sallie’s son) were listed as farm laborers in the home of Elizabeth (SMITH) BOYD, who was William’s aunt and possibly James’ sister.  James W. SMITH disappeared from the public record after 1870, so even if he had been a sibling to the older group of SMITH’s, if he died childless at a young age, he would not have figured into the estate of William C. SMITH.

The 1860 census found the bulk of the family living in McDonald Township, Jasper County, Missouri.  (McDonald Township was created from Sarcoxie Township on July 18, 1854, and today it is considered an "inactive" township.). The first name listed in Dwelling # 367 and Family # 352, was that of Louisa C. SMITH (Louisa Catherine ?), age 50 and born in Kentucky.  The final name listed of the seven individuals in that household was Elizabeth LUCAS, age 46, TN, who was likely the Elizabeth SMITH who was in the Smith County, Tennessee household in 1850, although that census listed her place of birth as Kentucky. Elizabeth might have married a Mr. LUCAS between the 1850 and 1860 censuses, but agiain there were no males in the 1860 household entry who could have been husbands to Louisa C. SMITH or Elizabeth LUCAS.

The other five members of that household in Missouri were all named “SMITH.”  They were:  John A. (28, NC*);  Andrew J. (23, TN);  William C.  (20, TN);  Perthinia F. (15, TN);  and, James W. (10, TN).  (John A.’s state of birth had been listed as “Tennessee” on the 1850 census, so the North Carolina listing on the 1860 census might be an important clue as to the family’s place of origin.)

Sarah “Sallie” Ann (SMITH) HANKINS, the second oldest daughter, had been married and out of the primary household when the 1850 census was taken - although living next door on what appeared to be the same parcel of property.  By the time of the 1860 census, Sarah and Timothy were also in McDonald Township, Jasper County, Missouri, and still living in close proximity to  Catherine’s household and her younger siblings.  But by 1860 Mary Jane, the oldest daughter, and Elizabeth, the third oldest daughter, were also out of the SMITH home.

Mary Jane SMITH had married James Mayberry SCARBROUGH in Logan County, Kentucky, on August 7, 1856, and by the time of the 1860 census she and James and two young daughters were living in Sarcoxie Township of Jasper County, Missouri, near where the bulk of the SMITH family was residing in McDonald Township.  Elizabeth SMITH had married a Missouri native, David Wilson BOYD, shortly after her family arrived in Missouri in 1856 or 1857.  So far it has not been determined where Elizabeth and David and their very young daughter or daughters were living at the time of the 1860 census.

(Part II of “One Smith Family” will profile the seven, or possibly eight, original SMITH siblings in greater detail.)