Daniel Alexander SREAVES was born on October 28th, 1888, near the small town of Huntsville in Madison County, Arkansas, the son of Alexander and Mary Jane (ELLIS) SREAVES. He married Nancy Jane “Siss” ROARK in McDonald County, Missouri, on March 12th, 1913. Dan SREAVES, as he would be known throughout his life, passed away on September 29th, 1970, at St. John’s Medical Center in Joplin, Jasper County, Missouri.
Daniel Alexander SREAVES was my maternal grandfather.
Dan was the oldest child of Alex and Mary Jane SREAVES, and in 1901 he and his next four younger siblings - William “Jess”, Ira “Jackson,” Ethel, and Fannie - were suddenly uprooted from their Arkansas home when Alex SREAVES got into an altercation with a violent neighbor. Alex and Mary Jane threw as many belongings as they could handle - and five children - into two covered wagons and headed north to Missouri. Alex SREAVES drove one of the wagons, and Mary Jane’s younger brother, Tommy ELLIS, drove the other. That trip, which Fannie Matilda SREAVES ULMER recounted in a journal that she wrote many years later, took three full days on the road and three nights of camping-out. The third night they pitched their camp at Anderson, Missouri, near what would become their future home in McDonald County.
Because almost the entire 1890 census was destroyed in a fire, Dan’s first existing census entry is in the 1900 enumeration. That census found him as Daniel A. “Shreves,” the 11-year-old son of Alex and Mary J. “Shreves” of War Eagle, Madison County, Arkansas. The 1900 census indicated that Daniel had attended four years of school and could read and write.
The 1910 census showed that Dan was still living at home with his parents. “Da Seaveres” was listed at 21-years-old and a wage-earning day-laborer whose occupation was farming. All of his six younger siblings were still living at home as well. The household residence was in Buffalo Township of McDonald County, Missouri, the farm where his parents would spend the rest of their lives.
Dan SREAVES was still a resident of Buffalo Township of McDonald County, Missouri, when the 1920 census was taken, but by that time he was married and a father of two small children and a guardian of a third. He was listed in the 1920 census as 31-year-old Daniel “Neaves,” along with his 30-year-old wife, Nancy J. “Neaves,” 5-year-old son, “Hearoldene” (Harold Dean), 3-year-old daughter, Mary R., and 8-year-old nephew, Ivan Roark. That census stated that he was a farmer living in his own home which was mortgaged.
(Ivan Lafayette ROARK -- 1911-1974 -- was the youngest son of Nancy’s oldest brother, John Henry ROARK. He grew up in the SREAVES’ household. After marrying Helen GUNKLE in Seneca, Missouri, in 1937, Ivan moved to Colorado, and finally to Oregon where he spent the remainder of his life.)
The 1930 census taker for Buffalo Township of McDonald County, Missouri, finally got the spelling of Dan’s name right. Again he was listed as a farmer living in a home that he owned. That census revealed that the family did not own a radio set. The 1930 census mistakenly listed Dan and Nancy J. as 31 and 30, respectively, when they would have actually been 41 and forty. Other household members included: Dean Sreaves (16), Ruth Sreaves (13), “Nead” (Ned) Sreaves (9), “Larine” (Florine) Sreaves (7), “Chistine” (Christine) Sreaves (6), “Bettie” (Betty) L. Sreaves (5), and “Ivon” (Ivan) Roark (18).
The 1940 census still had the family in Buffalo Township of McDonald County, but the address was more specific - Sooter Holler, Goodman (Missouri) Rt. 1. According to that census Dan was still farming, and he had attended elementary school through 8th grade. That census listed Dan correctly as fifty-one-years-old. Also in the household were Nancy Jane Sreaves (50), Ned Sreaves (20), Florine Sreaves (18), Christine Sreaves (17), Betty Lou Sreaves (15), and Floyd Sreaves (10). By the time this census was taken the oldest son, Harold “Dean” had been placed in an institutional setting where he would spend the rest of his life, daughter Mary Ruth had married and left home, and nephew Ivan ROARK had married and also left home.
The seven children of Dan and Siss SREAVES were: Harold Dean (1914-1968), Mary Ruth (1916-1995), Ned Roark (1920-1970), Ruby Florine (1921-1986), Virgie Christine (1922-1999), Betty Lou (1926-1996), and Floyd Edgar (1930-2017).
Two of Dan’s sons preceded him in death (Harold Dean on April 28th, 1968 - and Ned Roark on March 19th, 1970). One granddaughter, Debra Lynn SREAVES (Floyd and Shirley’s daughter) also preceded him in death when she passed away in June of 1954 at a little less than two years of age.
My grandfather, Dan SREAVES, did his patriotic duty and registered for the draft for both world wars, but due to his family circumstances (a wife and children) he was never called to active duty. When he registered for the World War I draft, he was described as “married,” living at RFD 1 in McDonald County, Missouri, and of being of medium physical build and height, with light brown hair and eyes. The World War II draft registration said that he was living in Seneca, Missouri, was 5 feet 10 inches tall, weighed 155 pounds, with brown hair and eyes and a light complexion.
While Dan SREAVES did not serve in either World War, his younger brother, Jess, saw service with the General Hospital of Boston, Massachusetts during the First World War, and several of Dan and Siss’s children were involved in the Second World War. Mary Ruth’s husband, Fred MARBLE, taught supervised aircraft electrical systems for the Air Force, Ned served on active duty in a mobilized part of the Missouri National Guard which provided air defense to the city of Los Angeles, California, and later in the Aleutian Islands, Florine worked at a munitions plant in Parsons, Kansas, and at a Post Exchange, and Christine’s husband, Bob DOBBS, served with the Army in Europe. After the war Florine and Betty Lou each married Army veterans of World War II, Garland MACY and his cousin, Dalton MACY, respectively.
Dan SREAVES was a devout Christian who attended the Swars Prairie Methodist Church. He looked to the Bible for advice and guidance. My mother told me that the minister was a fairly regular guest at their table for the noon meal after church on Sundays. She also said that when times were especially hard, her father would often provide the minister’s salary out of his own pocket.
One of my younger cousins told me that Granddad liked to show up in his pickup truck on Sunday mornings at the homes of his two sons, Ned and Floyd, who lived nearby. He would load the grandkids into the back of his truck and drive them to church. (Skipping church probably was not an option with Granddad waiting out front in his truck!)
Another cousin, this one a city kid, told of her amazement, and Granddad’s amusement, when he took her into the garden to collect a few vegetables for a meal. She was awestruck at so much produce being right there, ready to pick and prepare, and he was enjoying her wonderment at nature and the practicality of having a garden.
And there were lots of us cousins - twenty-three, I think - with a dozen of those, Ned and Floyd’s kids, living close enough to Granddad that they could walk to his house if need be, and all of the rest, except for two, residing within a drive of thirty minutes to an hour from his house.
There were always large gatherings at Granddad’s house for his birthday and for Christmas - and often for Thanksgiving as well - and I remember them for the noise. My grandmother, Siss, passed away in 1953 and I barely knew her, but an older friend told me once that she had a loud and sharp voice. That same vocal quality was passed on to her daughters, and it seemed like when they got to talking you could hear them all over the farm. My father remarked once (possibly joking) that he suspected Granddad turned off his hearing aid when his grown daughters were around!
I remember the night that my grandmother, Siss SREAVES, passed away at a hospital in Joplin. Granddad was in our car and we were taking him home when he suddenly became very ill and had to return to the hospital. He was admitted, and I remember my mother telling me - I was almost five - that I should step up to the bed and kiss Granddad goodbye, which I did. The poor man was so ill that he was not even able to attend his wife’s funeral.
I remember that we went by Granddad’s house in Seneca one night not long after that, and he had the lights out. My mother had my father go to the door to see if he might be awake and perhaps sitting in the dark. My dad came back to the car and said that he had seen Granddad standing in front of a picture of Siss and that he was crying. She was clearly the great love of his life.
But the next year, when no one was really expecting it, my Granddad started seeing another lady. Martha THOMPSON ROARK was herself a widow, and apparently Granddad had been sweet on her when they were younger. (Martha had been married to a first cousin of Siss's, Wesley Henry ROARK, who had passed away in 1932.) I can remember my Dad and Uncle Bob DOBBS telling their wives (at the family cafe and gas station which the two couples owned and ran together) that their father had a girlfriend! Granddad and Martha were married in Seneca, Missouri, on February 11th, 1954. I can remember the big party at their house on the evening of the wedding.
Siss had not been well the last couple of years of her life and she had talked Dan into selling the farm and moving into the town of Seneca. Dan was still at the Seneca house when he married Martha, but the newlyweds soon sold the home in town and bought a small farm outside of Seneca near Dan’s sons, Ned and Floyd. They would remain there for the rest of their lives, and that little farm is the place where most of my memories of Granddad are based.
One clear memory that I have is of a day, undoubtedly a Saturday, when most of granddad’s kids and their families showed up for a day of farmwork. The relatives teamed up to kill roosters and prepare them for freezing, and to pick plums in Granddad and Martha’s small orchard and make plum jam. It was a farm factory scene with the men killing roosters, the young roosters flopping around on the ground, the birds being plucked (I helped with that), and then gutted, washed, and taken to town to the storage freezer. I also helped with picking the plums. The women gutted chickens and helped in making the jam. It seems like everyone left with some plum jam and a dressed chicken or two.
Another memory which I have is of the color television set that the family gave to Granddad and Martha. It was in the late 1960’s as color television was starting to become more common. All of the families donated to the project, and my father, who owned an appliance store and sold color televisions, sold the group one at cost and then set it up. I’m sure that Granddad and Martha were the envy of their rural neighborhood. He had come a long way from being the boy who arrived in Missouri in a covered wagon to being the proud owner of a color television set!
My grandfather, a private and humble individual, was about as far from being a publicity hound as a person could get, but even someone living in a place as remote as Swars Prairie in Newton County, Missouri, couldn’t help but make the news occasionally. The first occurrence of a Dan SREAVES news story that I have come across was a one-sentence news note on page one of the May 25th, 1923, issue of the “Pineville Democrat” newspaper. It said simply:
“Mr. and Mrs. Danial Sreave spent Thursday evening with uncle Sam Roark.”
Sam was a common name among the ROARK’s, but I could find no uncle’s of Siss with that name living in the vicinity at that time, and her older brother, Samuel Lafayette ROARK had passed away two years earlier. My guess is the “uncle Sam Roark” they went to visit was a reference to Siss’s parents, Sam and Nancy ROARK, and that “uncle" was probably how the 68-year-old Samuel ROARK was referred to in the community.
The next mention of Dan SREAVES in the news occurred on February 14th, 1936. That day’s issue of the “Miami (Oklahoma) News Record” had an article which told of an injury that Dan received while trying to cross one of the busiest streets in Joplin, Missouri. It read:
“Dan Sreaves Injured”
“Dan Sreaves, living south of Seneca, is in a Joplin hospital, suffering from injuries received when he was hit by a car as he was crossing Seventh Street in Joplin Tuesday. He suffered a crushed arm and badly lacerated legs.”
In 1936 and 1937 there were a couple of news items after the death of Dan’s mother in 1936. He was appointed as the administrator to handle the estate of his father who had preceded his wife in death nine years earlier.
Early in 1965 Dan and Martha were noted for social events in “The Neosho Daily News.” On page 5 of the January 10th edition of that newspaper was a mention about a New Year’s gathering at the home of one of Dan’s daughters - Christine DOBBS and her husband, Bob, of Goodman, Missouri. That piece stated:
“Holiday Guests at Dobbs Home”
by Mary Jo Hall
“Mr. and Mrs. Ned Sreaves and family, Mr. and Mrs. Floyd Sreaves and family, and Mr. and Mrs. Dan Sreaves were dinner guests on New Year’s of Mr. and Mrs. Bob Dobbs.”
A month later, on February 2nd, 1965, this item appeared on page three of “The Neosho Daily:”
“Eighty relatives were present at a dinner recently at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Dan Sreaves, Seneca. Relatives were present from Seneca, Anderson, Southwest City, Neosho, Goodman, and Kansas City, MO; Jay and Picher, Okla., Wichita, Kan., and Elkins, Ark.”
Martha had a large family, and I am guessing from the communities represented, that those eighty relatives may have been basically hers. But that huge gathering was typical of many that I remember at Granddad’s house as I was growing up. All of his kids would be there - and all of their kids - as well as some of his siblings and members of their families. Everyone brought food and after “the blessing” everyone would find someplace to eat - and for the kids that often meant someplace outside. That little farm house could not have accommodated eighty people at one time even if they were all standing!
Dan SREAVES was also featured in a very nice newsletter that was put out by the Milnot Company of Seneca, Missouri in April of 1957 (Volume 2, Issue 9). The brief article was titled “Dan Sreaves, Milk Hauler,” and was accompanied by an outdoor photo of my grandfather. It read:
“Dan Sreaves has been in the milk hauling business for 17 years, the last seven being with Milnot. Dan runs the 1300 route south of Seneca five days a week for his son, Floyd. He says he likes this set-up very well because it gives him time to attend church each Sunday.
“Mr. Sreaves has lived on the farm all his life, likes outdoor work, and his excellent health at the ripe age of 68 verifies his belief that “hard work never hurt anyone.
“We, at Milnot Company, are proud to be associated with men like Dan Sreaves. The feeling must be mutual, for as Dan put it one day, ‘I have always liked to deal with Milnot and with all the fellows who haul milk there. They are a great bunch of men.’”
Dan's children "passed the hat" and paid to fly him and Martha to California in the summer of 1970 to visit his daughter, Mary Ruth MARBLE, and her family. It was a trip that Dan had talked about taking for many years. Being a busy senior in college, I never got around to seeing my grandfather after they returned from that special trip, but I did hear several relatives talking about the things that they got to do in California - like wading in the ocean and going to Disneyland. But I was busy with my life and could surely hear about it all at his annual birthday gathering or at Christmas. That was my plan, but . . .Granddad became ill on September 28th just a few weeks after returning from California, and was rushed to St. John’s Medical Center in Joplin. Everyone knew the situation was serious, and the next afternoon, around two-thirty, he passed away quietly as my mother was feeding him a late lunch.
Granddad’s funeral was immense and amazing. There were as many people outside listening to the service over the loudspeakers as there were crammed into the little church. Lots of people were sobbing openly, and one of Martha’s daughters was so overwhelmed with grief that I thought she was going to collapse. If the size and emotion expressed at a funeral can serve as a measure of a person’s success in life, my Grandfather was an enormous success as a human being - but I already knew that!
Dan SREAVES’ obituary ran in several area newspapers. Below is what appeared in the “Neosho Daily News” on September 30th, 1970:
“Daniel A. Sreaves"
“Daniel A. Sreaves, 82, Route 1, Seneca, died at 2:35 p.m. Tuesday at St. John’s Medical Center in Joplin where he had been a patient one day.
“Mr. Sreaves was born October 28, 1888, in Huntsville, Ark. He lived in this area 70 years. He was a retired farmer and a member of the Swars Prairie Methodist Church.
“Surviving are his wife, Mrs. Martha Sreaves; a son, Floyd, Route 1, Seneca; four daughters, Mrs. Christine Dobbs, Goodman, Mrs. Ruth Marble, Huntington Beach, Calif., Mrs. Flornie Macy, Noel, and Mrs. Betty Macy, Neosho; three sisters, Mrs. Ethel Anderson, Hollywood, Fla., Mrs. Fannie Ulmer, Asbury, and Mrs. Lula Kelly, Wyandotte; 22 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
“Services will be announced by the Biddlecome Funeral Home of Seneca.”
Dan SREAVES was born into modest circumstances and lived a simple life steeped in love and kindness and generosity. He was a good person, perhaps the best person that I ever had the privilege of knowing.
