Border Ballads

My husband and I enjoyed Hank Roberts' and Tom Refiner's "Border Ballads" concert down at the Bates County Historical Society Museum in Butler, MO. this morning along with a donation luncheon afterwards.

Tom wrote two books about Brig. Gen. Thomas Ewing's Order No. 11 that affected the citizens in Jackson, Cass, Bates, and the northern edge of Vernon County in August of 1863. My 3rd great-grandfather, Martin White had passed away by that time ( April 21, 1862), so it didn't affect him, but it did his wife, Kiturah, and the rest of their family. They heard about the order a little late, so only had a few days before the deadline to vacate Bates County. They moved across the county line into Henry County about half-way between Germantown and present-day Montrose, Mo. They lived there until after the Civil War and then returned home. One third of the citizens of Bates County returned and those that did, had to pay back property taxes during the years of the war. Those who could not afford to pay, forfeited their land.

Tom had an idea for a collaboration after hearing Hank's concert during the Order No. 11 Memorial Marker dedication last year in Butler (March 22, 2014). Hank agreed and the rest is history, so to speak! Tom gave Hank especially moving stories he read during his research which Hank composed into ballads. He sang a few today as a teaser to their CD which has thirteen songs altogether.  I purchased Tom's second book today for $25.00 -- "Cinders and Silence: A Chronicle of Missouri's Burnt District 1854-1870." Burnt District Press, Harrisonville, MO. 2013, which he signed for me.  As in his first book, "Caught Between Three Fires," Tom wrote about Martin in his second also, but with a correction to the story concerning Martin's "demise" at the hands of Charles Jennison.

You see, Martin had been "killed" a number of times in the papers since the summer of 1856 in the territory of Kansas and Missouri, but, then, oops!, he shows up alive somewhere.  I know several recent authors who have mistakenly written about Martin's death based on one or two newspaper articles, however, at the time that Jennison supposedly killed Martin in Morristown, MO., Martin was on his way south to Republic, MO.  (Wilson's Creek) with the Missouri State Guards. And speaking of Wilson's Creek, Tom is currently researching R.L.Y. Peyton  who was Martin's Colonel in the Missouri State Guard. You can find all about his other projects on his website.

To purchase either Hank's CD's or Tom's books, please visit their websites which are linked into their names above in the first paragraph. By the way, my husband took a photo of us together for my blog post today. Thanks, guys! You did good!  :)

Millard and Ethel Akers

Photo courtesy of Aker family

Rev. Millard Merle Akers (1890-1945) = Carpenter, School teacher, Farmer, Minister. Millard was born to Oliver and Clara Isabelle (Shaffer) Akers in Linn County, Kansas near Mound City on August 7. The Akers emigrated to Seward County, KS. Millard learned the carpenter trade from his father and then became a school teacher when he grew up and taught two years after he married his wife, Ethel Julia (1890-1974; great-granddaughter of Elder Martin White) on November 6, 1910 at her parent’s home, Alfred Jefferson and Fannie Viola (Bogart) White, east of Liberal, KS.

To this union, six children were born – Richard, Alfred, Fannie, Nellie, Arlene, and Donald. Richard, Alfred, and Don owned menswear clothing stores in Kansas – Richard, Pioneer Men’s Store in Elkhart; Alfred, Al’s Clothing in Kinsley; and Don in Dodge City. Fannie worked in the canteen at the Veterans Hospital in Wichita, KS; Nellie was a nurse and Arlene was a teacher and pastor’s wife.

Millard and Ethel moved to Baca County, Colorado after his school teaching days to a claim about fifteen miles west of Elkhart, Kansas. During this period of time, he felt God calling him to ministerial work. He pastored Church of God (Anderson, IN.) churches in Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Missouri, and Florida. He was the pastor at the Liberal, Kansas church when his youngest daughter, Arlene was born. Millard filled the pulpit of the Pleasant Prairie Church of God near Satanta, KS. from time to time during the year of 1938-39 when the church was without a pastor. He was in Beaver County, Oklahoma at the time of his death with cancer on November 4, 1945. He was buried in Liberal’s city cemetery and Ethel was laid to rest next to him.

* I have happy memories of spending a week with Great-Aunt Ethel at her home in Liberal, KS during campmeeting one summer. She lived in a tiny bungalow across the street from the Church of God campmeeting tabernacle. Ethel’s granddaughter also had the privilege of staying that week too. Donna and I went shopping uptown, bought some liquid dip film in a can and wire to make plastic flowers from the dime store that was all the rage then and spent our week making bouquets of flowers to donate to the ladies missionary store on the campgrounds. The WOCG supplied linens and craft items to sell and the money collected went to help support Church of God missionaries, like Edna Thimes.

* I just learned this week that my grandmother was saved after her brother-in-law, Rev. Akers preached during the 1923 Liberal, Kansas Church of God (Anderson, IN) Camp-meeting.  And that my dad and mother met at camp-meeting several years later. 

More to Read:

1. Ancestry.com -- US Federal & State Census Records

2. Haskell County, Kansas. 1887-1987. 100 Years Beneath the Plow, A Historical Anthology. Ed. By Janice Lee McClure, Haskell County Historical Society. Mennonite Press, Inc., Newton, Ks. 1988.

3. “The Old Timers: As I Remember Them” by Chester C. Tucker. Printed c. 1963

4. White’s Family and Their Kin. Mrs. Gladys Esther White O’Neal and Elma Leota White Stoops. Paper Graphics, Garden City, KS; 1983. 
5. Gospel Trumpet, the Church of God (Anderson, IN) publication: Google Books and Internet Archive.  
6. 1937 Dust Storm Photograph of Elkhart, Kansas
7. An ad of Richard Akers' Pioneer Men's Wear & Department store on this sheet

8. Findagrave #10328566

Places to Visit in KS:

1. Church of God campgrounds, Liberal

2. Pleasant Prairie Church of God, Satanta
3. Morton County, Kansas Historical Museum, (Pioneer Men's Store exhibit), US Highway 56,  Elkhart 

Biography written by Dolores J. Rush. Updated: 7/3/2020

Brick Walls

"Brick Walls" are when you've come to the end of your ancestral line research and you can go no farther. If you can't break through, because information is not available to you at that precise moment or what you found may be incorrect, then you might have to take a little detour around the brick wall. Find another family expert and pick their brains to see what they know, however, be forewarned, some genealogy nuts are harder to crack than others. 

"Even professional genealogists have brick walls and need other genealogists, with specialties in those areas, to help them out." ~ Christa Cowan, Ancestry.com

I've been researching one particular ancestor, Martin White,  and have found much new information which  has enriched the historical environment he lived in. I have found some of his FANS (friends, associates, and neighbors) and, with the help of others, have uncovered journals and letters by his FAN's and family.
  

My Dad's Birthday

Today would have been my dad's 88th birthday had he lived this long! He was a handy man to have around as he was an air-conditioning and heating serviceman. He also knew about refrigeration and motors and electricity. It would irritate my mother to no end when he would take a small greasy engine apart and put it back together on our kitchen table. I took his talents for granted until he passed away several years ago, four days before my parent's anniversary, of a sudden heart attack. 

His funeral service verse was,

Then I heard a voice from heaven say, "Write:

Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on."

"Yes," says the Spirit, "they will rest from their labor,

for their deeds will follow them."

~ Revelation 14: 13,

because I made a note of it in my Bible. 

A girlfriend found this bazaar poem for work gloves somewhere and sent it to me when I was a preschool Sunday School teacher.  I had to rework it a bit so that my class could give a gift of gloves to their daddies for Father's Day; however today I'm posting this in memory of my dad!

Dad's Gloves Craft.

Supplies needed:
a computer generated copy of the poem
1 pair of men's brown jersey work gloves per child (I saw some at a salvage store for 50 cents a pair here; sometimes you can purchase them in a bundle; my Dad's favorite thing to do was to buy in bulk! *grin*)
1 brown paper lunch bag per child
a piece of brown twine, abt. 8 inches long or so
appropriate tool rubber stamps and dark brown or black dye ink pad
or black and white printed clip-art 
glue or paste, hole punch, & pinking sheers

Instructions:
Stamp tool images all over the front of the bag with the ink or color in the clip-art, cut out and glue to bag.  Trim around the pre-printed poem with pinking sheers, and paste it to the front of the bag. Then place the gloves in the bag, fold the top over a couple of times, and punch two holes in the middle about an inch apart. Thread the jute through and tie into a bow. Dad's gift is finished! 

(Note about poem: "I", in the personal sense, was written as their Sunday School teacher, but it can changed to the corporate "we", as in siblings shopping together. Use as needed.)

Father's Gloves
Author Unknown.

 I went shopping store to store
For one gift that fits all,
Some were too tall, some too wide,
But many were just too small.

 The mystery was solved when I saw
The perfect gift for every male,
It’s just the right size for their dads
And it even was on sale!

  

It fits the hands that mow the grass
And takes the garbage out.
It fits when dads are pumping gas
Or moving things about.

 It fits for this and fits for that,
And on and on you see.
I’m sure you might have a chore or two,
Or maybe even three.

 So free your hands of cuts and scrapes, dad,
On all the jobs you do.
As you slide each hand in a glove;
remember the love they have for you.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD!