Charity Scrivner Holder, New Santa Fe, Missouri

We recently attended the New Santa Fe, Missouri Christian Church Historical Marker Dedication on the Old Santa Fe Trail (f. 1821) and met new-to-us cousins. My guy is the bearded fellow. 

I discovered a couple of years ago that a John and Charity (Scrivner) Holder were buried in the New Santa Fe Christian Church cemetery on Find-a-grave.com and contacted a member of the New Santa Fe Historical Society's Trail Center. I wanted to know if there were any relatives still in the area and sure enough, she introduced me, via email, to one. He's in his 80s and we have communicated via email ever since. He's been undergoing chemo, so we haven't been able to meet until now and what a good time we had getting acquainted in person, along with his wife.

He told us a little about himself and about Doris Collier's Scrivner genealogy which David has since purchased. We figured that Charity and John were my husband's 4th great-aunt and uncle. David is a direct descendant of the Scrivner family of Cole County, MO. through his paternal line [Norman Rush, Nanny Marie (Rush) Rush, Cora Lee (Sullens) Rush,  Nannie Cynthia (Scrivner) Sullens,  William J. Scrivner and so on, back through time]. 

I grew up southeast of New Santa Fe, MO. and attended VBS at the Christian Church there one summer. My mother attended a rummage sale there  also, and bought a big shiny slide for us kids. Dad set it next to our red swing set in the back yard. We had it for many years until mom decided we were too old for it and sold it. 

New Santa Fe on the Santa Fe Trail was usually the first camping stop after leaving Independence, MO. that morning.  Pioneers pulled their wagons up to the 4 o'clock house, got out, made camp, and walked or rode a horse into "town" to purchase the last necessities they needed before crossing the border (present-day State Line Road) into the Kansas territory the next morning. After  1858, the next stop was ten miles across a flat prairie to the Mahaffie Farm (the Stage Coach line didn't officially open until 1863).  

Growing up there, I never knew the area was part of our ancestral family history, more than I ever imagined. For instance, I learned that the 1838 forced removal of the Pottawatomi from Indiana (Trail of Death) crossed just north of the home of my 3rd great-grandparents in Christian County, Illinois when they were living there at the end of a hot and dusty September and that these same trail-weary and cold Indians and their government agents (approximately 1000 people altogether) plus horses, cattle and wagons camped on the western side of the Big Blue River after crossing it at the beginning of November. Today that camping spot is in present-day Minor Park and is south of Red Bridge Road and east of Holmes in Kansas City, MO.  There is a marker on the bluff above the river that marks the spot near their crossing on the Santa Fe Trail and a DAR marker further up the hill, west of the railroad tracks, marking the swales of the Trail. The Trail angled southwest across present-day Minor Park Golf Course, across present-day Holmes Road to the 4-0'clock house situated between present-day St. Thomas More Catholic Church and Avila University.  

I never knew that my 3rd great-grandfather probably camped there one night with a group of militia men on their way to  Miami County, Kansas one hot August night in 1856. Or that the Congregational missionary, Rev. Samuel Adair, was a first cousin to Lucinda (Henderson) Mahaffie and brother-in-law to a man who despised my 3rd great-grandfather because he was a Justice of the Peace in that part of the territory and he couldn't be bought to join his cause nor look the other way. Nor did I ever dream that my future husband's relatives lived in the parsonage across the road from the New Santa Fe Christian church. 

Here's the new marker for the New Santa Fe Christian Church. If you wish to read more about the history of the church, please click here to read Diane's story and here for the video she compiled to play in the narthex of the hosting congregation which had purchased the "new" New Santa Fe Christian Church building to worship in. 

"Santa Fe Christian Church
In 1869, families living in the southwestern part of the county (Jackson County, MO) organized the Santa Fe Christian Church in the town of New Santa Fe. Some pivotal charter members included: William A. McKinney, William Rippeto, Joel Lipscomb, Marcus Gill, John M. Wells, and Isaac Weeks.
The congregation originally met at the schoolhouse in New Santa Fe. A white-framed church was dedicated on the land in 1892.
By the 1960s, the church was one of the last buildings standing in the town of New Santa Fe. In November 1969, a fire damaged part of the church. The newer members held a meeting without including everyone and voted to raze the church. An injunction to stop the demolition was filed in February 1971 and was approved; however, the church was bulldozed before the order could be enforced.
Most of the original church is under the current parking lot on the southeastern edge of the cemetery. A small part of the chimney and the outline of the baptismal font are still visible today inside the cemetery's gates. Santa Fe Christian Church 
Marker placed by the Historical Society of New Santa Fe." 

Update! More to Read: 
1. "Santa Fe Christian Church's Final Homecoming Celebration" By Mary Wilson. Jackson County Advocate Newspaper Blog. Grandview, MO., Friday, October 13, 2017

Here's my contribution to the event -- a coloring sheet of the old church that had been torn down:

Update: Bill Crotty passed away 13 February 2019. His Findagrave memorial 

and Obituary. 

Article written by Dolores J. Rush, Updated: 9/20/2022.