Harriet's Letter dated Oct 1874

Dear Owen,

I didn't think I wold write another lettr but I have to tell you why your with Mr and Mrs Smith. I learnd that William and Permelia left without you nor talking with me. Gone to Exira, Iowa. Well after gampa Owen died I had money from seling the place. .
Well I bout tickets on the train to Atlantic. Riding that train the best time I see you have. I hired a buggy take us to Exira It wernt a long ride but William have no farm. He live on Edgerton st in Exira. His 5 children and Permelia all in this house. She says she have no more room for children. Youd be lucky to have a bed there. William working as a carpenter she says. New buildings in Exira and Oakfield and at the Hollocks place and the Dodges place maybe more.
Well I got to find someone so I ask the clerk at the store. He said maybe ask Mrs. Smith. Shes a teacher and have no children of her own. He says sometime back they have Rosette Heath stay with them. Not sure why maybe to finish school. At the livery I hired a buggy so we don't have to walk. Your gama cant walk that far. I writ a lettr to Mrs and the Rev in Masechusets so they know where you are. I put this letter with your other lettrs from me. If this the last lettr you have then you know it work out the way God wanted.

Love,
Gama Harriet

This letter is an invention.

Harriet's Letter dated May 7. 1873

Dear Owen,

My wish for you

I wish you could be on a farm like Ebenezer's father. Nathaniel Jr. Your grandfather. He lived on his Ide farm all his life. It weren't his fathers but next to it You remember that Ebenezers grandfather, Nathaniel Sr had 17 children a bunch of them boys. Theres only so many times you can cut pie til you have none but there was plenty of land then so they lived close by each other. Can you believe that hill by them was called Ides Hill. That's what everybody called it. Because the Ides your grandfather and great grands and more had lived there so long.
You see it was first Nicholas and his mother come from England just after the pilgrims. Then they went to Rode Island after that first Baptist Roger Williams because Masechusets don't like the way they worship. Then Lt. Nicholas he fought in a war with the Indians. Then Jacob Ide and Nathaniel Sr. and then Nathaniel Jr your grandfather and Ebenezer and you Owen Fowler Ide. Emilene said Fowler was her family even though she was adopted so she didn't want to name you Owen McKinon Ide or Owen Riggs Ide.

I went far from my wish. I wish you have a farm like you grandfather Nathaniel Jr and live there til you die of old age happy. God will it will happen

Love, Gama Harriet

This letter is an invention.

Harriet's Letter dated May 7. 1872

Dear Owen

Today you are 8 years old You need a father I apresiate that you work the McCunes showing how a farmer works and sometimes you workd with gampa Owen in the tobacco. But I think you will be in Iowa. William stopped talking to me about it. Maybe because they have 5 kids know but you need a lot of kids if you going to be on a farm. He keep saying he aint a farmer he is a carpenter I don't know why. Everyone else is talking abot farming in Iowa.
Sad day when my Owen died 2 months ago. Cholera come round the country agan. Gampa old and ben sick. Cholera kill him easy. God keep you me alive so you can be in Iowa I know that.
Since he ded thers no hapiness in this lettr. You father died when you just 6-7 month old. Consumption just as he afeard since Jemima die. Sick from befor you was born. Terrible wory it was for Emilene a new mother. She was so happy with her baby Owen.
Shoe the old horse, shoe the mare,
Drive a nail here, drive a nail there;
But let the little knobby colt go bare.
And she shakes your litle feet Then you and she be happy 1-2 years then she gets sick. Worse and worse for 2 years suffering all that time thinking abot what happens to you.
But even then all her friends visit even from Cambridge come more than once. They say they just paying Emilene for all that elixir she give them. sometimes they sit and talk or sing. Good for both of them visitor and Emilene. Then she died January 28 1868 You not even 4 years old And that's when I start writing these letters.

That all the writing I can do abot the saddest times.
Love,
Gama

The nursery rhyme is real. The letter is an invention.

Harriet's Letter dated May 11, 1868


Dear Owen,

Ide manufacturing Co It was good for 2-3 years and then it don't make any money so Nathaniel and Ebenezer they had to sell it. 1825 about. Ebenezer and Jemima and Mary and Maria those two born by then they moved from rode island back to the Ide farm in Masechusets. At the farm Hariot was born and then Amanda. Ebenezer was saving his money and looking for a new place to live and have a business. Your father could do his own work to make money or he could do other peoples work. Not like my Owen. He waits for other people to ask if he want work to do. Tobacco, pennyroyal, corn, hawlin, pickin, packin.
Not sure when exactly they moved to Smithfield. But I remember 1836 becaus that's when Ebenezer told me how keen he was about church. When he got to be a Revrend isn't coming to my thinking but Smithfield was important. He and some other men signd the papers legal and all to start the Lime Rock Baptist Church. Then he lay down that pen and paper and picked up his hammer and nails to build that church building. That's a smart way to think about it. It shows how specil he was. He got to be the deacon for a longtime. Deacons sometimes preach if there is no real preacher. Maybe that's how he come to be called Revrend.
They lived in Smithfield at least 17 years. Well they all didn't live ther that long. Maria died there and then Hariot. I told you about them already. Owen I hope when you are a father children don't die all the time. We re used to it and Ebenezer too. Just last week my friend showed me a lettr from her sister. It said
Lots of sickness but the deths has ben amung the children
Then she count 16 children she knew and some she don't . Like it dont no matter it only children.
Well the paper ran out of room so I will tell you the saddest part next letter.

Love,
Gama

Harriet's Letter dated February 8, 1868

February 8, 1868

Dear Owen,

More abot your mother Emilene.

What with Broodhall and her living in Cambridge we see each othr almost ever day. And on Sundays to the regular Baptist church. Women in town liked to visit Emilene. They told me they come get a dose of Emilene elixir. I know it wasn't her looks since it was women. She was pretty wit her black hair and frekels. She said no wise words or funny and she cook as good as most but nothing specil. Those women just like to walk talk work next to her awhile. That made them happy. Because she learnt to be happy even tho her parents taken sudden like that. It was the blood of Jesus I know becaus I pray a long time so she wont be sad.
Sometimes Broodhall has to go to Marietta to get iron for the blacksmith. When the weather was good Emilene goes too. Other times she stays with me. In the morning that last time we look at each other and knowed we wer worrying abot the same thing. Broodhall is late coming back. Dinner time here come his wagon with Broodhall dead in back. Man from the iron place says accident with crane dropping the iron killed him.

Emilene cried and cried. I wonderd if she ever stop. She say she miss her Broodhall then she say she miss her family. Sometimes I don't know who she miss most. But we talk and walk and work together sometime sing a hymn from church we know.
Where dost thou dear shepherd resort
with thy sheep to feed them in pastures of love.
Say why in the valley of death should I weep
or alone in this wilderness rove.
I tell her she still got me long past 60 years old and not goin to leave. And Jesus too.

Thats all tonite
Love, Gama Harriet

The hymn is real. The letter is an invention.

Harriet's Letter dated February 1, 1868

Dear Owen,

You are only 4 years old. Your father ded almost 4 years. Your mother just died. Suffering so much since you was 2. In these letrs I will tell about your family. If your reading this then God ansered my prayers. You are with a good family who made you go to school and learn reading. I want my son William to be your father. I went to the office yesterday sent him a letter asking him to adopt you. He has some children. Wilbert is just 3 years ahed you.
I will write just as it comes to me. I cant remember it all at once. I want you to remember your mother and father Not like your Emilene. Her mother and dad Riggs that's ther name taken so sudden she remember nothing. Maybe she don't want to. I wont sadden you with how it happen because your mother was specil and I want you to think on that. Emilene come to us when we lived in Belmont Conty. 8 years old. And William only 4 yr. Now I had daughter. She learnt to cook and sew and make butter and soap and all those women chores. Help me take care of Will. then faster than a horse flik a fly away she is 16.
In love she says with Broodhall McKinon his family come from Barnesville Broodhall work with the blacksmith. We lived in Cambridge then. I told her the law say she have to be 18. but she cant wait. One evenin Broodhall and she come and they didnt go to work says they got married in Washington conty Justice of peace. She showed me the paper and all. I hope you dont ever go aganst your parents that way.
I am not done telling you about Emilene but I can write only when you are sleep. 4 year old and so busy all the time If I dont watch youll wory the checkens or get cat scratched or kickd by the cow.

Too tired tonite to write more.

Love,
Gama

These letters are inventions.

A lonesome batchelor

Here is what I have in my story from Grandma Mort; this is what she told me:
"Sarah Elizabeth Cotton, born in Eddyville, Iowa, December 20, 1868, met and married "a lonesome bachelor" by the name of Owen Fowler Ide, born May 7, 1864, in Fairview, Ohio.  His father, a Baptist minister, the Reverend Ebenezer Ide, 70, died when Owen was seven months old.  His mother, Emiline R. S. Ide, died at age 35 on January 28, 1868.  Both died at the residence of Owen Fowler in Fairview, Guernsey County, Ohio.  Left an orphan by age three, Owen was brought by his grandmother to Exira, Iowa, to some Fowler relatives who evidently did not wish to keep him.  A childless couple, Oliver and Emily Jane (Beers) Smith, took him in.  Emily Jane, born 1832, was a teacher from New York, and it was her desire that Owen should be educated.  He went to high school in Exira from the Smith farm near Brayton.  He also attended Ames (Iowa State University) for part of a year."
The farm where the Smith's lived was the farm that the Owen and Sarah Ide, after their marriage, rented and later purchased from the Smiths and where Grandma Mort grew up.  Grandma referred to them as "Grandpa and Grandma Smith."  Owen lived on that farm for 65 years.  The Smith grandparents moved later to California but would come back every year and spend time at the farm.  Grandma said her parents always had to move out of their bedroom so the Smiths could have it.
Love, Aunt Mary
email 20070207

Owen Fowler Ide short flattering Biography 1889

OWEN F. IDE, Postmaster at Brayton, Iowa, was born in Guernsey County, Ohio, May 7, 1864. He is the son of Ebenezer and Emeline (McKenna) Ide. His father was born in Rehoboth, Massachusetts, in 1794, and during the war of 1812 he was the Captain of a Massachusetts company. He emigrated to Ohio and settled in Cam bridge, in which place he was a Baptist minister for many years. He died at Fairview, Ohio, in 1864. His wife survived him four years.

After her death Owen F. made his home with his aunt, Mrs. Harriet Fowler. In October, 1874, he removed with his aunt to Audubon County, Iowa, and then went to live with Oliver Smith, with whom he made his home for fourteen years.

During this time he took a course at the Agricultural College at Ames, Iowa, being a member of the class of 1885. On leaving college he re turned to Mr. Smith's, and engaged in farm ing for three years.

In July, 1886, he formed a partnership with J. M. Reynolds in the general dry goods business, under the firm name of Reynolds & Ide. In October of the same year Mr. Ide was appointed postmaster at Brayton under Grover Cleveland's administration.

He is an efficient and faithful officer, and in connection with the office is doing a profitable business. Mr.Ide was married December 24, 1885, to Miss Eliza beth Cotton, the oldest daughter of George and Mary Cotton, of Brayton, Iowa. They have one daughter Bessie.

A nephew of Mr. Ide's was educated at Heidelberg, Ger many, and is now Professor of Languages at Cornell University, New York.

Mr. Ide taught two terms of school after coming to the county. He began his career without means, but a well disciplined mind has done him good service, and today he is one of the reliable and highly respected citizens of the county.


1889 BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF
SHELBY AND AUDUBON COUNTIES, IOWA
W. S. DUNBAR & CO., PUBLISHERS
113 ADAMS STREET, CHICAGO

page 739

Commentary on two letters Mar and Apr 1902

Mary,

Thank you for the extra effort in scanning the two letters. One thing that got lost in the previous translation effort was that we had one long letter. Although the long letter has four distinct parts knowing that it was one letter helped the translators understand who was speaking and what was being said. The primary translator works with the Emigration Center in Vora, Vasa, Finland, which also collects genealogical information about residents. That is why they are able to suggest the identity of the letter's scribe. 

Context for the letters
The people
The Rasmus Farm
Matt Rasmus Family
Betsy Rasmus Lund (Beatta Mattsdotter Rasmus married Wilfred Lund in Denver in 1889)
Lisa Mattsdotter Rasmus (married Finnish neighbor Charles Bartell in Denver )
Anders Mattson Rasmus (married Anna Lisa Johansdotter Enges before emigrating to Colorado)
Mickel Rasmus Family
Lisa Mickelsdotter Rasmus This 18 year old unschooled scribe of the long letter used no punctuation and few capitals.
The Enges Farm
Johan Enges Family
Anna Lisa Johansdotter Enges (After marrying Anders Rasmus she moved to the Rasmus Farm before emigrating to America.)
The Bertills Farm
Jakob Jakobsson Bertills
Karl Johan Jakobsson Bertills(As Charles Bartell he married neighbor Lisa Rasmus in Denver in 1894)

Lisa Rasmus Bartell's husband, Charles, died in an accident (probably mining) March 3, 1901. Betsy Rasmus Lund's brother, Anders Rasmus, died in an accident at Arkins Quarry, September 19, 1901. Anders's death was mentioned in Denver, Fort Collins and Loveland newspapers. Wilfred Lund, who had been waiting in Denver for Anders' wife to arrive from Finland, rushed back to Arkins and Jonas Hard went to Denver to meet the new widow Anna Lisa Johansdotter (nee Enges) Rasmus and her one year old son, Johan. The following year, 1902, Anna Lisa and Jonas were married just in time for the birth of their first child. 


First Lisa Bartell's parents are speaking through the scribe. Next the writer, Lisa Mickelsdtr, makes some pointed comments and then expresses her excitement about Lisa Bartell's possible visit. Some last greetings are squeezed into little remaining space.

In the second letter Lisa Bartell refers to herself and her son as Le and Janie (pronounced yawnie). She may have just received the long letter from Finland and included it with her own note. 

Letter from Lisa Bartel to Betsy Rasmus Lund, April 22, 1902

Goldfield April 22 1902

Dear sister Betsy [Lund, nee Rasmus], we wish you well, I and Janni (1),. I may now answer your letter which I received. Good to hear that you are alive and the same I may send you back that we are alive and doing pretty well. We like it here as long as we may stay healthy, but so many people are sick around here, in almost every house. Mary(2) is here at the moment, but she works sometimes when she is here, she …?
Last week I had a letter from Finland. They don´t have a lot of news, but everything is as before. They want me to come home. Have you been to the Arkins this winter? In lack of news, I am shortening my lines with many greetings to all of you from all of us. We are a lot of Finns here(3), mostly from VörĂĄ.

Sincerely Le Bartell [Lisa Rasmus Bartell]
Reply wanted, same address

(1)   6 year old son of Lisa and Charles Bartell
(2)   Mary has not been identified
(3)   Goldfield, Colorado near Cripple Creek seems the most sensible choice.There is a Goldfield, Wisconsin, not far from  Florence, Wisconsin, where the 1888 envelope addressed to Betsy Rasmys was postmarked.  But Charles Bartell was killed in a mine accident in Colorado.


Translated by the Emigration Center in VörĂĄ., Vasa, Finland and Kristin Rhodes.

Letter to Lisa Rasmus Bartell March 28 1902

Notes by Kristin Rhodes and Emigration Center in Vora, Vasa, Finland

The letter does not contain one single comma or period. I have added them to enhance the translation. Neither did the writer use capital letters, except a few. It is not a direct translation. The writer had not gone to school, so it is sometimes difficult to know what she means.

This letter was written in Finland by Lisa Rasmus and sent to Lisa Bartell, birth name Rasmus, in America.  In the first part, the writer, Lisa Rasmus in Finland is writing something dictated by Lisa Bartell’s parents, who were probably illiterate.  Then she goes on to write her own comments to Lisa Bartell.

It is our guess that Lisa Rasmus, the letter writer, was Lisa Mickelsdotter Rasmus, a daughter of another farmer on Rasmus farm.  Not related.  This Lisa later also went to America in 1907.

It is interesting that the family of Lisa Bartell’s sister, Beata, would have this letter written to Lisa, but that is what it is.



[Finland] March 28 1902

Our beloved daughter Lisa [Lisa Rasmus Bartell],
We may now answer your letter, which we received yesterday, and where we find you being alive, although it has seemed a long time for us, waiting for your letter. We may now say that we toil here as before. One day is better and the other worse. That is how every day of life is, but remember, when you get old like us, it gets worse every day. But what else can we expect.

I hear you are not sure about coming home.(1) You say that if Anna Lisa comes, she will come here, but you don´t need to think that. She has taken all of her belongings from here so she doesn’t need to be here any more. She [Anna Lisa Enges Rasmus] will go back home [to Enges]. They [Enges family] want her there, so we don´t have anyone else than you, Lisa [Rasmus Bartell] . Many greetings to [our grandson] Johan from your parents.

Then I want to tell you Lisa [Rasmus Bartell] , a couple of words, but don´t be offended. I feel pity for your father and mother. They are old now and would need help and now they have nobody here to help. We help them what we can, but that is only sometimes. They need help every day. You know inside yourself. You got help from them as long as you couldn’t take care of yourself, but now when they are in need, they don´t get any help. Signed Lisa [Mickelsdtr] Rasmus

Now I myself may greet you Lisa Bartel that I am alive and well and wish you and your fiancĂ© the same, when you get these lines. I was so happy, when I heard that you are coming home with your fiancĂ© and bringing a couple people with you. When I got your greetings in the evening, I could not sleep all night, when I heard what a friend [male] I may get. I am not without one, but there is no one I like. I can have the ones here once or twice, but then I´m glad to get rid of them. But I hope that you are bringing something better, when you bring them such a long way, so don´t you bring any water load men(2). You know I don´t like such ones. Be careful, not to bring any with crooked legs (3), because then you may keep them. Hurry as fast as possible because as you know the time is ripe.

So don’t dawdle when you get this letter. You know that we will be very grateful to you. Signed Lisa Rasmus.

This part is upside down:
Then aunt (mother´s sister) is sending greetings to her nephews and nieces. She thinks that poverty will get a kick in the nose(4) over there, now that there are so many of you. Don´t let the reply wait for three months on the road.

(1)From Kristin Rhodes: This is a confusing paragraph. We have made it make some sense. For Lisa’s parents what is important is that there will be no one to care for them whether it is Anna Lisa, Anders widow or another Anna Lisa. Our scribe, Lisa Mickelsdtr is probably wrong about Anna Lisa Rasmus returning. Within months of Anders’ death Anna Lisa and Jonas Hard were on the path to marriage and parenthood. She may have been reluctant to share this information.
(2) literal translation. Whether it is a term for alcoholics is not known In contrast earlier translators suggested “I hope that you will not bring an oaf (lout, idler, loafer, fool).”
(3) Lisa’s father, Matts Rasmus, “limps” according to a note in church records

(4) Literal translation; other translators: “teach poverty a lesson”
(5) This was written one year after Lisa Bartell's husband , Charles died, perhaps in a mining accident.

1814 George Silver and Martha Moore

One of George , Jr., and Nancy Silver’s 10 children was George Silver III, born on 18 Jul 1787 in Georgetown, Frederick, Maryland. On December 4, 1808 he married Martha Moore, born on 15 Oct 1787 in North Carolina. They had 11 children, three of whom died before 1822.

In George III’s household in the 1810 Census there is an older couple. Because his father George Jr is living nearby this older couple may be Martha’s parents. There were also two slaves in their household. When the War of 1812 came about, George enlisted in the North Carolina Militia at Hickory, North Carolina. He remained on active duty until the end of the war and was Honorably Discharged. This information comes from Martha’s application for a U.S. Government veteran’s pension in October of 1880.According to the application; they had lived in Indiana for about 20 years, in Illinois for about 7 years and about 10 years in Missouri. (Information gathered by Karyl Hubbard and posted at the Silver Genealogy Website)

After the war George, Martha, moved to Lawrence County in Indiana with
his in-laws, the Moores

“ Many Quakers from North Carolina were Orange County [Indiana] Pioneers. In 1809 Jonathan Lindley visited Indiana Territory with a land-seeking party, and purchased land in what is now Vigo Co. In 1811, under his leadership, a party of thirty or more left North Carolina, and arrived in Indiana Territory, where they stopped at the stockade at Half Moon Spring, near Lick Creek, in what is now Orange Co. It seemed inadvisable, due to unsettled conditions [marauding Indians], to push on to the Wabash Country, as had been planned, so they remained at the Lick Creek settlement.
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/in/county/orange/quaker.htm

George was not a Quaker. His grandfather was a Lutheran and his father had been christened in the Lutheran church in Trappe, Pennsylvania. As a young man, George III was not interested in church. The Moores had arrived in America as “dissenters.” The term refers to anyone who disagreed with the Church of England or the government of the British Isles. Later many of the dissenters became Quakers. Martha may have been a Quaker—until she married George. Her meeting would then have declared her “Out of Unity” for marrying a non-Quaker.

There were several groups of Quakers that moved to Indiana during this time One of the wagon trains had 30-40 wagons. According the US Census George and Martha have moved by 1820 and the Moores by 1830. About 10 Moore households are there in 1830.

Following is a digest of a diary regarding travel from North Carolina to Indiana. The Silvers experience would have been very similar.

“ With all of their possessions loaded into their tarpaulin-covered farm wagons pulled by oxen or horses, the trip took the Coxes and their large group about a month. The travelers covered between 10 and 20 miles each day, stopping near settlements or with acquaintances for the night. The route through the Blue Ridge Mountains and over the Cumberland Gap was the most frequented trail to Louisville, where travelers crossed the Ohio River into southern Indiana or boarded rafts or flatboats bound for Illinois and the west. Although the trip was rigorous travelers paused for sight-seeing at well-known features such as caves or iron furnaces. Time also was spent in small settlements having horses shod and wagon wheels fixed. Each traveler had to have cash available, for tolls were charged for some roads, turnpikes, bridges and ferries. A typical charge on the Cumberland Turnpike was $2.87. At Louisville the cost was $2 for each wagon to cross the Ohio River and it took one group two hours. Total cost for one trip from North Carolina to southern Indiana was $81 including ferriage, bridge tolls, turnpike fees, etc.
A Cox Family History__, c1989, p61; In the __Illiana Genealogist,__ vol.12, no. 4, (Fall 1976) p. 121- 124 in an article from a diary entitled "Journey from N. Carolina to Indiana in 34 days in the Year 1815." Judy W

Eleven families of freed slaves traveled under the Quakers’ protection in the first wagon train to this new territory where slavery was forbidden. More former slaves joined them later. Were the two slaves in George III’s household in 1810 in North Carolina were among the 96 freed slaves counted in 1820 in Indiana? It is not unreasonable to believe they were.

“These free men were deeded 200 acres of land in the heart of a dense forest [near the first building the Quakers built—their Meeting House]. Word of mouth soon spread the news, and this land became part of the "underground railroad" for runaway slaves.
http://www.fs.fed.us/r9/hoosier/docs/history/lick_creek.htm

Amy [Thompson] Moore [wife of Joshua Moore] mentioned in the account below may have been a relative of Martha Moore, George’s wife.

“A number of widely known women preachers among the Quakers of early days came from this congregation. Among them was Amy Moore, who was known throughout southern Indiana for her missionary zeal. Another woman, praised for her evangelistic work in early times, was Eleanor Chambers, who grew up in this church and began her work here.“

HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY CHAPTER 3
http://www.us-data.org/in/orange/history/his1884chapter3.txt

George was 35 years old when he had this letter   written. He mentions the price of hogs. This indicates that he has discovered that feeding corn to hogs and then shipping them to Cincinnati is more profitable than shipping the corn. Others have discovered that making corn liquor is also more profitable. Since we want to think the best of our ancestors we assume that George did not contribute to the 7 gallon per person annual consumption of alcohol. (Today’s annual consumption is 2 gallons.) Reaction to this excessive drunkenness and the associated spousal abuse led to the development of the Temperance movement and Prohibition.

A Homestead Act deed recording the joint purchase by Andrew Wakefield and George Silver of one of three parcels purchased jointly in Illinois.

George’s and Martha’s travels began in an area near Abingdon in the lover right of the map above. Following the Wildernness Road and then took the left fork to the current site of Louisville then crossed the Ohio River into Indiana where they lived about 20 years.

They moved to Shelby County, Illinois, in the 1830s, perhaps as early as 1830 when George purchased three different parcels of land with Andrew Wakefield, a descendant of the original settler in the area, Charles Wakefield. George may have farmed the land for a few years and then sold his share back to Andrew.

Among the events that may have pushed the Silvers on to Missouri: . Panic of 1837 during which many banks closed: Either Andrew or George Silver needed to cash out their half of the property

Poor harvests: The Silvers moved each time in less than seven years. If a farmer leaves within 7 to 10 years it may mean that the enterprise failed.

George Silver III Letter Home 1822

 The group which researches the Silver Genealogy has found the following letter from George III to his father and mother. Some parts of the letter are illegible but George reveals much about his life in Indiana. Since George or Martha probably did not read and write someone else wrote the letter for them.

Indiana, Lawrence County September 12, 1822

Dear Father and Mother,

I embrace the oppurtunity of writing you that we are all in a reasonable state of health at the present, thanks be rendered to Omnipotence for the same. Hoping when these lines come to hand will find you and yours enjoying the like health. This may inform you that through the mercie of the Lord we have embraced religion for about three years. We are both members of _______Baptist Society. We have had seven children and have burried three of them. My oldest child I have living has had fits for about three years which we call William. The other names as followeth Nancy, Edward, George are the children we have living. The children we lost one died with choking ______, one with a sore mouth, _____other _____to death.

This may inform you that I have never regretted moving from that country to this country for I have lived plintiful. I have farmed ______ for provision. I have lived on land of my own for about six years. I expect to rase 700 bushels of corn for this year. Corn is selling now for 50 cents ______ barrel.... This neighbor has ____ the present crop.

This may inform you that I have sold my place I now live on, and I am going to move to my father-in-laws to take care of the old people while they live. That is by their request. I should be very happy to see you all come to see me and take a good look at this country, for I think it is a far better country for a man to make a living in than that country is, for we can rase our grain – our pork much easier here than you can there.

We can make our own sugar very handy if we try, and we can buy plenty of our country-made sugar at six or seven per pound. We can buy coffy at 25 cents per pound. This is a very fine country for sault. We can buy plenty for one dollar a bushel. Pork is worth from $1.50 to _____dollars per hundred. We can buy cotten here at sixteen cents per pound.

This is a very fine country to raise sheep. (They) yeald a heep more wool here that they do there and the women have no trouble here in carding wool for ____ we have carding machines to card wool into rolls in this country.

It is a fine time to buy land in this country. Congress land is worth $1.25 per acre. That is, you can buy 80 acres for $100 and any number of acres above that quantity at the same price but you can’t buy no less than 80 acres of Congress land.

A man can settle here on Congress land _____ and do very well. I think if you all would move to this country you never would regret it. This may inform you that all kinds of property sells very low.

So I must conclude my letter. I want you to write me and let me know how you all are doing and where my brothers and sisters lives. I heard last_____that sister Elizabeth was dead. I want you to direct your letter to Peola, Orange Co (unty) for my father –in-law lives six miles (and) a half from there. I don’t know when _____ the oppurtunity of comin to see you & if _____ see each other in this world I hope we w_____ to enjoy the Ble____ cricified redeem(er)____. Give _____ to all enquiring friends.

So I remain your dutiful son until death.
George Silver, Martha Silver

==================================================

Rev. Dr. Edward Silver, Martha Hansen, Nancy Jennings 1838-1877

George and Martha lived in Illinois for seven years. After their son, Edward, married Martha Elizabeth Hansen in 1838 they moved with Edward to Missouri. They followed the National Pike to St Louis and Boone’s Lick Road to Rocky Fork Township in Boone County in Missouri.

Edward gradually purchased a total of 80 acres (#1 in map left) George purchased 40 acres (#2). M. G. Singleton and William Yates were two of their slave holding neighbors. Singleton purchased more than 1200 acres over several years. That’s more than two sections or two square miles.

Edward and Martha soon had four children, Isaac, George, Martha and John. Tragically Edward’s wife, Martha, died in 1845. Soon Edward married Nancy Jennings. Sidney Maupin Silver was born in 1846. Two other children would follow. Edward and George W Silver were among the first members of the Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church (#3 on map) which was constituted April 18, 1853. According to the History of Boone County, the member built church, completed in 1855, was still in use in 1882. The Centralia Baptist church was organized on April 17, 1871. Edward and Nancy Jennings Silver, and their daughter Elinder were among the original members.

After meeting in other church buildings for eleven years they worshipped for the first time in their own building in 1882. Having been ordained in 1877 Rev Edward Silver certainly would have been one of the participants at the dedication. Marriage records in Boone County are not available yet but to the east is Audrain County whose early marriage records reveal that Rev Silver officiated at three weddings on 04 Jul 1883, 15 Jan 1878, and 03 Mar 1886.


George Silver III died on February 22, 1870. Martha Moore Silver died on November 27, 1881. They were buried in the Pleasant Grove Cemetery, Boone County.
37
Obituary: Reverend Edward Silver
One of the oldest and most respected of Missouri citizens, and a faithful Baptist divine, died at the home of his son, Sidney Maupin Silver, six miles east of Mexico, Thursday, May 7th 1896.

Rev. Silver was a native of Indiana and was born May 5th, 1816, which made him 80 years and 2 days old. He came to Missouri in 1838 and located in Boone County on a farm 4 miles south of the present town of Centralia, where he lived up to the latter part of 1890 when he made his home with his son, S.M. Silver, with whom he lived up to his death. He leaves 8 children, 6 sons and 2 daughters. Besides S.M. of this vicinity there are Mrs. McKensie of Moberly, Mrs. Mat Turner of Saling Township, J.H. of Centralia, George H. and Lock W. of Oklahoma, Isaac in Kansas and Martin in Charles County.

Reverend Silver was ordained in 1877 and faithfully consecrated himself to the cause of the church. The funeral services were conducted at Centralia by Reverend Hardy and the burial took place on the farm which he first purchased when he came to Missouri.

Silver Threads
http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~silver/south/archive/2005-03.html

[Editor’s note: The headline on an obituary I have not been able to read refers to Rev. Dr. Edward Silver. If this title is accurate Edward returned to college for a Doctor of Divinity degree] 

Boone County, Missouri: Little Dixie

Boone County was named for Boone's Lick Country, a salt lick which the sons of Daniel Boone relied on for their stock. Emigrants before 1820 were primarily slave holders from the Upper South States of Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia. One third of early settlers were from Madison County, Kentucky. They grew familiar crops: hemp and tobacco. Large acreages were most efficient and these they claimed. Six counties north and south of the Missouri River were so predominantly Southern in influence that the area was known as Little Dixie. Boone County was its heart. In 1820 Missouri was admitted as a slave holding state. By 1860 25% of the residents of Boone County were slaves.


After 1820 emigrants of German descent came to Missouri in large numbers. They had no interest in owning slaves and settled on smaller acreages amidst the Southerners. They would gradually change the political balance from slave to non-slave but now it was not safe to publicly denounce slavery. After their marriage in 1838 Edward and Martha Elizabeth Silver along with Edward’s mother and father, George and Martha Silver, moved into this community and society of slave holders. Edward’s brother, George W, was with them also. What did the Silvers, once fellow travelers with anti-slavery Quakers in Indiana, feel and think? The consequences of publically opposing slavery were often threats, assaults, arson, and murder. 

Battle of Centralia and the Silvers

Battle of Centralia

Since the Rev Edward Silver lived 1 ½ miles from the Battle of Centralia it is relevant to our stories. We can not always bring about heaven on earth. As President Lincoln and others before him suggested, the American Civil War was divine punishment for being unable to solve the problem of slavery in America without armed conflict. In Missouri and Kansas the war seems to have been more chaotic and savage. The Centralia Massacre and the Battle of Centralia have “No parallel in the annals of the civil war”. They were “the wildest and the most merciless, and in proportion to the number of the force vanquished, the most destructive of human of life” The author of The History of Boone County never shies away from hyperbole, but the brutality and the savagery of these events are remarkable. Among the Confederate forces in Missouri were loosely organized “rangers,” who had been instructed to “keep the Federal militia north of the [Missouri] river actively employed.” Through a series of reciprocally and increasingly savage encounters with Union troops across the state, the rangers became “bushwhackers” and then “guerillas”. Union savagery was covered by the uniform so it was not always called by its proper name.

On the evening of September 26, 1864 four groups of the rangers totaling about 300-350 had come together and were encamped on M. G. Singleton’s farm in the brush and trees along Young’s Creek. (#4 on map). One of the four leaders of this combined force was “Bloody Bill” Anderson. When the guerillas needed a meal farmers in the area were forced to prepare food for the unwanted guests.

The next morning about 80 men went into Centralia, harassed, abused and robbed the citizens while waiting for the North Missouri train to arrive. The arrival of stage from Hallsville provided more robbery victims. Ties stacked on the rails stopped the speeding train. The passengers were searched and robbed and 22 unarmed Union soldiers on furlough were brutally and savagely killed and mutilated. Before leaving town a few citizens were also killed. These 80 guerillas returned to their camp.

About 3pm Major Johnson arrived with 155 newly recruited Union troops riding mostly brood-mares, mules, and plow-horses, armed with muskets, muzzle-loading guns and bayonets. Believing the townspeople were exaggerating and feeling that refusing to engage in battle was not acceptable Major Johnson led these ragtag men into an ambush (#4 on map). Thinking that he was facing 80 gunmen he ordered his men to dismount and form ranks. Before many of the Union troops could fire a second shot, they were dead, shot by the revolvers of the guerillas suddenly emerging on horseback from the bushes on three sides. Eighty three men were killed, some mutilated and even scalped. Among the attackers was Frank James brother of Jesse James. Jesse was elsewhere recovering from wounds of an earlier battle.


The next morning residents began gathering the bodies and bringing them to Centralia where they were laid in a mass grave east of town. It is hard to imagine that the Silvers were not involved in these events; that they did not have uninvited guests, that they did not help clear away the bodies, and that they did not pray for the families of those killed and wounded, for the country and, perhaps, for the guerillas. 

Isaac Silver and Nancy Ellen Sullivan

In 1860 Isaac, 21, is working on a large farm owned by James Jenkins near Uncle George’s and his father Edward’s farms in Rocky Fork Township, Boone County Missouri. About 1862 he married a woman who is only known as M J. Odds favor Mary or Martha. The last name is probably James, Jennings, or Jenkins, all neighbors of the Silvers. They had one daughter, Martha Ella, born in 1863. After his wife died or disappeared Isaac married Nancy Ellen Sullivan in 1871, in Saline County, Kansas. Their first daughter, Emma Jane Silver, born on February 18, 1873, near Winfield, Kansas, remembers that when she was a small child they moved to Salina. (About 1878) [Her family] lived in homes that ranged from dugouts, sod houses, and rock. When Emma was about 10 years old Isaac bought a farm in the southwest part of Chase County in the Pleasant Valley school district

Dugouts, sod houses and rock houses—residences of someone trying to find the right place and a successful livelihood. Like his father and grandfather, Rev Edward Silver and George Silver III, Isaac had high standards for himself and kept trying, moving from one place to another until settling down in Chase County, Kansas.



Chase County Sketches 1863 – 2005
Pleasant Valley School
By Myrtle E. Riggs Cox
It must have seemed a pleasant valley to the earliest comers to that little community located near the southwest corner of Chase County, joining Butler County on the south and Marion County on the west. Pleasant Valley's first settlers bought their land near the source of Middle Creek, and in a few years, homes dotted both sides of that small stream of water.

Much of the land was still owned by the United States government. The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe had purchased some tracts. The nearest trading center was St. Francis, now known as Burns, which is ten miles west, in Marion County, following the Chase-Butler county road. St. Francis at that time consisted of a box car as the depot for the A. T. and S. F. railroad, one dwelling house and a general merchandise store owned by Funke and Bueke, who had come there in 1879.

By 1884 the settlers in Pleasant Valley felt the need of a public school in their midst. This need was realized by the organization and formation of District No. 45 on June 18, 1884. The name given was Pleasant Valley school


In 1882 Isaac and Nancy Ellen Sullivan Silver moved on the S. E. 1/4 of section 35. There were not enough children in the vicinity to justify a school district. It was through the efforts of Isaac Silver, who had no children of school age, [Isaac and Nancy had four school age children.] that Nicholas E. Sidener was influenced to move to section 26. [Two Silver daughters married Sideners.s]

When a school census was taken, it lacked one pupil of required number. So Isaac Silver included his married daughter living on section 36, but not yet 21 years of age. Now enough pupils were in the district to organize a school district. [Isaac Silver’s married daughter is Martha Ella of his first marriage who was born in 1863. Her mother is unknown and probably died about 1870.] Isaac Silver's married daughter, Ella, did not attend school. Her husband, Andrew A. Siefert, was the first board member elected for district No. 45. Another daughter of Isaac Silver, Emma, ten years of age, was a pupil in the first year of the Pleasant Valley School. http://skyways.lib.ks.us/genweb/chase/SubSketch/SubSketchP/SketchPleasantValleySchool.html
Figure 13 Nancy Ellen Sullivan



Isaac Silver

I just keep putting one foot in front of the other

“… after the death of his wife, Nancy Sullivan Silver, in 1916, [Isaac] got the urge to visit his children and other relatives who had managed to scatter themselves all over the western United States. At age 78 and after a lifetime of hard work as a farmer and carpenter he really looked forward to the trip. He had visited his brother George in Oklahoma and a brother-in-law, Amos Patterson, in Colorado and had been fascinated and amazed [by] the mountains. When he arrived in San Diego for a visit with his son Ira, one of the top things on his list was to go up a mountain. Mount Lowe, at the time was a popular place to go. There was a train that went most of the way up the mountain to a resort lodge and restaurant.

And there was steep trail to the summit. So Ira and Gertrude (presumably Ira’s wife?) took Isaac up the mountain for lunch. After the meal, Isaac decided to stroll on up the mountain. A young newspaperman for a Chicago paper saw him and asked if he could walk along. The path was very steep and soon the young reporter was huffing and puffing and asked Isaac if it wasn’t time for a break. Isaac kept replying, “Just a little way more.” Near the summit, Isaac did stop to have his picture taken, and then went to the rest of the way to the top. When they got back down to the restaurant, the young man, still panting, asked, “How come you can climb a mountain so easily when I’m half your age and found it so hard?” “Well, I just keep putting one foot in front of the other and I get there.“

Silver Threads News Letter Old Man And The Mountain By Karyl Silver
Figure 14 Isaac Silver, 82
Mount Lowe 1921


Isaac Silver Pioneer Dies

Isaac Silver 94 year old Butler County pioneer, died at his home in Burns this morning. He had been a resident of the county for nearly 70 years, most of which time was spent in the Burns community. Mr. Silver was a former resident of El Dorado, having lived here from 1910 to 1918. he had been in poor health for several months but did not become seriously ill until a few weeks ago. Because of his long residence in Butler County the aged man was well known and his death is mourned by scores.

Mr. Silver was born in Boone County, Mo., on February 14, 1839, but came to Kansas when a young man. He settled in Saline County and then removed to the Burns [Chase County] community in 1864. He was married to Miss Nancy Sullivan at Salina, on December 22, 1871. She died in 1916. Funeral services for Isaac Silver, Butler County Pioneer, who died at Burns Thursday were held at the Methodist Church there Saturday afternoon with Rev. R. D. Miller, officiating. A large group of friends and relatives of the aged Burns resident attended.

A quartet, composed of H. A. Bender, Ellis Manka, Ralph Gfeller, and Mr. Miller sang “The Old Rugged Cross,” “No Night There,” and “City Foursquare.” Pallbearers were sons and grandsons of Mr. Silver. Interment was made in West Cemetery here. The Byrd Funeral Home was in charge. Surviving are five daughters, Mrs. Ella Siefert, of Elk falls, Mrs. C. H. Sidener, burns, Mrs. N. A. Sidener, Parma, Idaho, Mrs. Roy Freeman, emporia and Mrs. H. B. Gallagher, Hollyrood; five sons, A. G. of El Dorado, C. E. Portland, Ore., Charles, Watsonville, Calif., I. G. San Diego, Calif., and W. H. Silver, of Culver; one brother, George Silver of Yale, Okla., 28 grandchildren; 29 greatgrandchildren and six great-great-grandchildren.


The El Dorado Times, Thursday, June 15, 1933 (and another newspaper’s obit combined) 

Charles Silver and Agnes Thompson 1900-1923

Charles worked on his father’s farm and in June 1, 1900 he was working on his Uncle’s farm in Oklahoma. He was single. After finishing school Agnes “played around” and became pregnant. According to family oral history she had been dating two different boys named Charles. She chose Charles Edward Silver. They were married sometime after June 1 and before the birth of their first daughter Lillie on August 28, 1900. When Aggie saw her infant daughter she realized she had not married the father of her child.

Charles and Agnes had two more children. Hope Silver was born on October 15, 1904 and Sterling Silver was born on October 19, 1910. Charles rented a farm next to his father’s according to the 1905 Kansas Census. In 1910 the US Census shows that he had taken out a mortgage on a farm; and the 1915 Kansas count records that he is a laborer and renting. This information, if correct, may mean that the Silvers are having financial trouble.

Pleasant Valley School records, perhaps incomplete, show that Lillie and Hope attended school in 1912 and 1913 in Chase County

Trouble struck about 1917 or 1918. World War I had broken out and Charles registered for the draft in September 1918 but it was the tragic death of Lillie Silver, who was full of the promise of youth, which crushed the family, especially Agnes.

As Hope remembers it:

“In Aggies's view Lillie was so beautiful, so perfect, and I was an ugly ducking in the family. My mother put all her attention on Lillie and my father put all his attention on me. Mother felt that Lillie would never live to wear her wedding clothes. She superstitiously believed that the blue vein across the bridge of her nose indicated so.

Lillie was engaged to a beau before the war. One afternoon Lillie was out driving with a boyfriend following a truck with a load of pipes. The pipes fell off and one pierced Lillie who died instantly.

I never saw a mother grieve so. She was sure she was being punished for playing around.
My sister and I did not look alike. My brother Sterling and I did. In 1919 the family moved to Roswell, Idaho where they could get a fresh start.

The Silvers arrived in 1919, 20 years after the Wolfes had begun farming here. Much had changed in the intervening years.

. Electrical power—on at dusk off at midnight
. Two telephone companies
. Municipal waterworks
. Idaho’s first public park
. New county fairgrounds
. Flour mill
. Creamery
. New Hotel
. Several retail stores
. Plans for a sugar beet factory launched
. Construction of interurban trolley to Boise begun
Stores stayed open late on Saturdays for ranchers and sheepherders


Hope Irene Silver married Paul Levine Wolfe on 29 Dec 1923 in Caldwell, Canyon, Idaho.

1814 George Silver and Martha Moore

One of George , Jr., and Nancy Silver’s 10 children was George Silver III, born on 18 Jul 1787 in Georgetown, Frederick, Maryland. On December 4, 1808 he married Martha Moore, born on 15 Oct 1787 in North Carolina. They had 11 children, three of whom died before 1822.

In George III’s household in the 1810 Census there is an older couple. Because his father George Jr is living nearby this older couple may be Martha’s parents. There were also two slaves in their household. When the War of 1812 came about, George enlisted in the North Carolina Militia at Hickory, North Carolina. He remained on active duty until the end of the war and was Honorably Discharged. This information comes from Martha’s application for a U.S. Government veteran’s pension in October of 1880.According to the application; they had lived in Indiana for about 20 years, in Illinois for about 7 years and about 10 years in Missouri. (Information gathered by Karyl Hubbard and posted at the Silver Genealogy Website)

After the war George, Martha, moved to Lawrence County in Indiana with
his in-laws, the Moores

“ Many Quakers from North Carolina were Orange County [Indiana] Pioneers. In 1809 Jonathan Lindley visited Indiana Territory with a land-seeking party, and purchased land in what is now Vigo Co. In 1811, under his leadership, a party of thirty or more left North Carolina, and arrived in Indiana Territory, where they stopped at the stockade at Half Moon Spring, near Lick Creek, in what is now Orange Co. It seemed inadvisable, due to unsettled conditions [marauding Indians], to push on to the Wabash Country, as had been planned, so they remained at the Lick Creek settlement.
http://www.usgennet.org/usa/in/county/orange/quaker.htm

George was not a Quaker. His grandfather was a Lutheran and his father had been christened in the Lutheran church in Trappe, Pennsylvania. As a young man, George III was not interested in church. The Moores had arrived in America as “dissenters.” The term refers to anyone who disagreed with the Church of England or the government of the British Isles. Later many of the dissenters became Quakers. Martha may have been a Quaker—until she married George. Her meeting would then have declared her “Out of Unity” for marrying a non-Quaker.

There were several groups of Quakers that moved to Indiana during this time One of the wagon trains had 30-40 wagons. According the US Census George and Martha have moved by 1820 and the Moores by 1830. About 10 Moore households are there in 1830.

Following is a digest of a diary regarding travel from North Carolina to Indiana. The Silvers experience would have been very similar.

“ With all of their possessions loaded into their tarpaulin-covered farm wagons pulled by oxen or horses, the trip took the Coxes and their large group about a month. The travelers covered between 10 and 20 miles each day, stopping near settlements or with acquaintances for the night. The route through the Blue Ridge Mountains and over the Cumberland Gap was the most frequented trail to Louisville, where travelers crossed the Ohio River into southern Indiana or boarded rafts or flatboats bound for Illinois and the west. Although the trip was rigorous travelers paused for sight-seeing at well-known features such as caves or iron furnaces. Time also was spent in small settlements having horses shod and wagon wheels fixed. Each traveler had to have cash available, for tolls were charged for some roads, turnpikes, bridges and ferries. A typical charge on the Cumberland Turnpike was $2.87. At Louisville the cost was $2 for each wagon to cross the Ohio River and it took one group two hours. Total cost for one trip from North Carolina to southern Indiana was $81 including ferriage, bridge tolls, turnpike fees, etc.
A Cox Family History__, c1989, p61; In the __Illiana Genealogist,__ vol.12, no. 4, (Fall 1976) p. 121- 124 in an article from a diary entitled "Journey from N. Carolina to Indiana in 34 days in the Year 1815." Judy W

Eleven families of freed slaves traveled under the Quakers’ protection in the first wagon train to this new territory where slavery was forbidden. More former slaves joined them later. Were the two slaves in George III’s household in 1810 in North Carolina were among the 96 freed slaves counted in 1820 in Indiana? It is not unreasonable to believe they were.

“These free men were deeded 200 acres of land in the heart of a dense forest [near the first building the Quakers built—their Meeting House]. Word of mouth soon spread the news, and this land became part of the "underground railroad" for runaway slaves.
http://www.fs.fed.us/r9/hoosier/docs/history/lick_creek.htm

Amy [Thompson] Moore [wife of Joshua Moore] mentioned in the account below may have been a relative of Martha Moore, George’s wife.

“A number of widely known women preachers among the Quakers of early days came from this congregation. Among them was Amy Moore, who was known throughout southern Indiana for her missionary zeal. Another woman, praised for her evangelistic work in early times, was Eleanor Chambers, who grew up in this church and began her work here.“
HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY CHAPTER 3
http://www.us-data.org/in/orange/history/his1884chapter3.txt

The group which researches the Silver Genealogy has found the following letter from George III to his father and mother. Some parts of the letter are illegible but George reveals much about his life in Indiana. Since George or Martha probably did not read and write someone else wrote the letter for them.



============================================================
Indiana, Lawrence County September 12, 1822

Dear Father and Mother,

I embrace the oppurtunity of writing you that we are all in a reasonable state of health at the present, thanks be rendered to Omnipotence for the same. Hoping when these lines come to hand will find you and yours enjoying the like health. This may inform you that through the mercie of the Lord we have embraced religion for about three years. We are both members of _______Baptist Society. We have had seven children and have burried three of them. My oldest child I have living has had fits for about three years which we call William. The other names as followeth Nancy, Edward, George are the children we have living. The children we lost one died with choking ______, one with a sore mouth, _____other _____to death.

This may inform you that I have never regretted moving from that country to this country for I have lived plintiful. I have farmed ______ for provision. I have lived on land of my own for about six years. I expect to rase 700 bushels of corn for this year. Corn is selling now for 50 cents ______ barrel.... This neighbor has ____ the present crop.

This may inform you that I have sold my place I now live on, and I am going to move to my father-in-laws to take care of the old people while they live. That is by their request. I should be very happy to see you all come to see me and take a good look at this country, for I think it is a far better country for a man to make a living in than that country is, for we can rase our grain – our pork much easier here than you can there.

We can make our own sugar very handy if we try, and we can buy plenty of our country-made sugar at six or seven per pound. We can buy coffy at 25 cents per pound. This is a very fine country for sault. We can buy plenty for one dollar a bushel. Pork is worth from $1.50 to _____dollars per hundred. We can buy cotten here at sixteen cents per pound.

This is a very fine country to raise sheep. (They) yeald a heep more wool here that they do there and the women have no trouble here in carding wool for ____ we have carding machines to card wool into rolls in this country.

It is a fine time to buy land in this country. Congress land is worth $1.25 per acre. That is, you can buy 80 acres for $100 and any number of acres above that quantity at the same price but you can’t buy no less than 80 acres of Congress land.

A man can settle here on Congress land _____ and do very well. I think if you all would move to this country you never would regret it. This may inform you that all kinds of property sells very low.

So I must conclude my letter. I want you to write me and let me know how you all are doing and where my brothers and sisters lives. I heard last_____that sister Elizabeth was dead. I want you to direct your letter to Peola, Orange Co (unty) for my father –in-law lives six miles (and) a half from there. I don’t know when _____ the oppurtunity of comin to see you & if _____ see each other in this world I hope we w_____ to enjoy the Ble____ cricified redeem(er)____. Give _____ to all enquiring friends.

So I remain your dutiful son until death.
George Silver, Martha Silver
==================================================
George was 35 years old when he had this letter written. He mentions the price of hogs. This indicates that he has discovered that feeding corn to hogs and then shipping them to Cincinnati is more profitable than shipping the corn. Others have discovered that making corn liquor is also more profitable. Since we want to think the best of our ancestors we assume that George did not contribute to the 7 gallon per person annual consumption of alcohol. (Today’s annual consumption is 2 gallons.) Reaction to this excessive drunkenness and the associated spousal abuse led to the development of the Temperance movement and Prohibition.

A Homestead Act deed recording the joint purchase by Andrew Wakefield and George Silver of one of three parcels purchased jointly in Illinois.

George’s and Martha’s travels began in an area near Abingdon in the lover right of the map above. Following the Wildernness Road and then took the left fork to the current site of Louisville then crossed the Ohio River into Indiana where they lived about 20 years.

They moved to Shelby County, Illinois, in the 1830s, perhaps as early as 1830 when George purchased three different parcels of land with Andrew Wakefield, a descendant of the original settler in the area, Charles Wakefield. George may have farmed the land for a few years and then sold his share back to Andrew.

Among the events that may have pushed the Silvers on to Missouri: . Panic of 1837 during which many banks closed: Either Andrew or George Silver needed to cash out their half of the property
. Poor harvests: The Silvers moved in less than seven years. If a farmer leaves within 7 to 10 years it may mean that the enterprise failed.

George and Martha lived here for seven years. After their son, Edward, married Martha Elizabeth Hansen in 1838 they moved with Edward to Missouri. They followed the National Pike to St Louis and Boone’s Lick Road to Rocky Fork Township in Boone County in Missouri.

BOONE COUNTY

Little Dixie

Boone County was named for Boone's Lick Country, a salt lick which the sons of Daniel Boone relied on for their stock. Emigrants before 1820 were primarily slave holders from the Upper South States of Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia. One third of early settlers were from Madison County, Kentucky. They grew familiar crops: hemp and tobacco. Large acreages were most efficient and these they claimed. Six counties north and south of the Missouri River were so predominantly Southern in influence that the area was known as Little Dixie. Boone County was its heart. In 1820 Missouri was admitted as a slave holding state. By 1860 25% of the residents of Boone County were slaves.

After 1820 emigrants of German descent came to Missouri in large numbers. They had no interest in owning slaves and settled on smaller acreages amidst the Southerners. They would gradually change the political balance from slave to non-slave but now it was not safe to publicly denounce slavery. After their marriage in 1838 Edward and Martha Elizabeth Silver along with Edward’s mother and father, George and Martha Silver, moved into this community and society of slave holders. Edward’s brother, George W, was with them also. What did the Silvers, once fellow travelers with anti-slavery Quakers in Indiana, feel and think? The consequences of publically opposing slavery were often threats, assaults, arson, and murder.

Edward gradually purchased a total of 80 acres (#1 in map left) George purchased 40 acres (#2). M. G. Singleton and William Yates were two of their slave holding neighbors. Singleton purchased more than 1200 acres over several years. That’s more than two sections or two square miles.

Edward and Martha soon had four children, Isaac, George, Martha and John. Tragically Edward’s wife, Martha, died in 1845. Soon Edward married Nancy Jennings. Sidney Maupin Silver was born in 1846. Two other children would follow. Edward and George W Silver were among the first members of the Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church (#3 on map) which was constituted April 18, 1853. According to the History of Boone County, the member built church, completed in 1855, was still in use in 1882. The Centralia Baptist church was organized on April 17, 1871. Edward and Nancy Jennings Silver, and their daughter Elinder were among the original members.

After meeting in other church buildings for eleven years they worshipped for the first time in their own building in 1882. Having been ordained in 1877 Rev Edward Silver certainly would have been one of the participants at the dedication. Marriage records in Boone County are not available yet but to the east is Audrain County whose early marriage records reveal that Rev Silver officiated at three weddings on 04 Jul 1883, 15 Jan 1878, and 03 Mar 1886.


Battle of Centralia

Since the Rev Edward Silver lived 1 ½ miles from the Battle of Centralia it is relevant to our stories. We can not always bring about heaven on earth. As President Lincoln and others before him suggested, the American Civil War was divine punishment for being unable to solve the problem of slavery in America without armed conflict. In Missouri and Kansas the war seems to have been more chaotic and savage. The Centralia Massacre and the Battle of Centralia have “No parallel in the annals of the civil war”. They were “the wildest and the most merciless, and in proportion to the number of the force vanquished, the most destructive of human of life” The author of The History of Boone County never shies away from hyperbole, but the brutality and the savagery of these events are remarkable. Among the Confederate forces in Missouri were loosely organized “rangers,” who had been instructed to “keep the Federal militia north of the [Missouri] river actively employed.” Through a series of reciprocally and increasingly savage encounters with Union troops across the state, the rangers became “bushwhackers” and then “guerillas”. Union savagery was covered by the uniform so it was not always called by its proper name.

On the evening of September 26, 1864 four groups of the rangers totaling about 300-350 had come together and were encamped on M. G. Singleton’s farm in the brush and trees along Young’s Creek. (#4 on map). One of the four leaders of this combined force was “Bloody Bill” Anderson. When the guerillas needed a meal farmers in the area were forced to prepare food for the unwanted guests.

The next morning about 80 men went into Centralia, harassed, abused and robbed the citizens while waiting for the North Missouri train to arrive. The arrival of stage from Hallsville provided more robbery victims. Ties stacked on the rails stopped the speeding train. The passengers were searched and robbed and 22 unarmed Union soldiers on furlough were brutally and savagely killed and mutilated. Before leaving town a few citizens were also killed. These 80 guerillas returned to their camp.

About 3pm Major Johnson arrived with 155 newly recruited Union troops riding mostly brood-mares, mules, and plow-horses, armed with muskets, muzzle-loading guns and bayonets. Believing the townspeople were exaggerating and feeling that refusing to engage in battle was not acceptable Major Johnson led these ragtag men into an ambush (#4 on map). Thinking that he was facing 80 gunmen he ordered his men to dismount and form ranks. Before many of the Union troops could fire a second shot, they were dead, shot by the revolvers of the guerillas suddenly emerging on horseback from the bushes on three sides. Eighty three men were killed, some mutilated and even scalped. Among the attackers was Frank James brother of Jesse James. Jesse was elsewhere recovering from wounds of an earlier battle.

The next morning residents began gathering the bodies and bringing them to Centralia where they were laid in a mass grave east of town. It is hard to imagine that the Silvers were not involved in these events; that they did not have uninvited guests, that they did not help clear away the bodies, and that they did not pray for the families of those killed and wounded, for the country and, perhaps, for the guerillas.

George Silver III died on February 22, 1870. Martha Moore Silver died on November 27, 1881. They were buried in the Pleasant Grove Cemetery, Boone County.
37
Obituary: Reverend Edward Silver
One of the oldest and most respected of Missouri citizens, and a faithful Baptist divine, died at the home of his son, Sidney Maupin Silver, six miles east of Mexico, Thursday, May 7th 1896.

Rev. Silver was a native of Indiana and was born May 5th, 1816, which made him 80 years and 2 days old. He came to Missouri in 1838 and located in Boone County on a farm 4 miles south of the present town of Centralia, where he lived up to the latter part of 1890 when he made his home with his son, S.M. Silver, with whom he lived up to his death. He leaves 8 children, 6 sons and 2 daughters. Besides S.M. of this vicinity there are Mrs. McKensie of Moberly, Mrs. Mat Turner of Saling Township, J.H. of Centralia, George H. and Lock W. of Oklahoma, Isaac in Kansas and Martin in Charles County.

Reverend Silver was ordained in 1877 and faithfully consecrated himself to the cause of the church. The funeral services were conducted at Centralia by Reverend Hardy and the burial took place on the farm which he first purchased when he came to Missouri.

Silver Threads
http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~silver/south/archive/2005-03.html
[Editor’s note: The headline on an obituary I have not been able to read refers to Rev. Dr. Edward Silver. If this title is accurate Edward returned to college for a Doctor of Divinity degree]

PLACES – CHASE COUNTY KANSAS

Isaac Silver and Nancy Ellen Sullivan

In 1860 Isaac, 21, is working on a large farm owned by James Jenkins near Uncle George’s and his father Edward’s farms in Rocky Fork Township, Boone County Missouri. About 1862 he married a woman who is only known as M J. Odds favor Mary or Martha. The last name is probably James, Jennings, or Jenkins, all neighbors of the Silvers. They had one daughter, Martha Ella, born in 1863. After his wife died or disappeared Isaac married Nancy Ellen Sullivan in 1871, in Saline County, Kansas. Their first daughter, Emma Jane Silver, born on February 18, 1873, near Winfield, Kansas, remembers that when she was a small child they moved to Salina. (About 1878) [Her family] lived in homes that ranged from dugouts, sod houses, and rock. When Emma was about 10 years old Isaac bought a farm in the southwest part of Chase County in the Pleasant Valley school district

Dugouts, sod houses and rock houses—residences of someone trying to find the right place and a successful livelihood. Like his father and grandfather, Rev Edward Silver and George Silver III, Isaac had high standards for himself and kept trying, moving from one place to another until settling down in Chase County, Kansas.



Chase County Sketches 1863 – 2005
Pleasant Valley School
By Myrtle E. Riggs Cox
It must have seemed a pleasant valley to the earliest comers to that little community located near the southwest corner of Chase County, joining Butler County on the south and Marion County on the west. Pleasant Valley's first settlers bought their land near the source of Middle Creek, and in a few years, homes dotted both sides of that small stream of water.

Much of the land was still owned by the United States government. The Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe had purchased some tracts. The nearest trading center was St. Francis, now known as Burns, which is ten miles west, in Marion County, following the Chase-Butler county road. St. Francis at that time consisted of a box car as the depot for the A. T. and S. F. railroad, one dwelling house and a general merchandise store owned by Funke and Bueke, who had come there in 1879.

By 1884 the settlers in Pleasant Valley felt the need of a public school in their midst. This need was realized by the organization and formation of District No. 45 on June 18, 1884. The name given was Pleasant Valley school


In 1882 Isaac and Nancy Ellen Sullivan Silver moved on the S. E. 1/4 of section 35. There were not enough children in the vicinity to justify a school district. It was through the efforts of Isaac Silver, who had no children of school age, [Isaac and Nancy had four school age children.] that Nicholas E. Sidener was influenced to move to section 26. [Two Silver daughters married Sideners.s]

When a school census was taken, it lacked one pupil of required number. So Isaac Silver included his married daughter living on section 36, but not yet 21 years of age. Now enough pupils were in the district to organize a school district. [Isaac Silver’s married daughter is Martha Ella of his first marriage who was born in 1863. Her mother is unknown and probably died about 1870.] Isaac Silver's married daughter, Ella, did not attend school. Her husband, Andrew A. Siefert, was the first board member elected for district No. 45. Another daughter of Isaac Silver, Emma, ten years of age, was a pupil in the first year of the Pleasant Valley School. http://skyways.lib.ks.us/genweb/chase/SubSketch/SubSketchP/SketchPleasantValleySchool.html
Figure 13 Nancy Ellen Sullivan



Isaac Silver

I just keep putting one foot in front of the other

“… after the death of his wife, Nancy Sullivan Silver, in 1916, [Isaac] got the urge to visit his children and other relatives who had managed to scatter themselves all over the western United States. At age 78 and after a lifetime of hard work as a farmer and carpenter he really looked forward to the trip. He had visited his brother George in Oklahoma and a brother-in-law, Amos Patterson, in Colorado and had been fascinated and amazed [by] the mountains. When he arrived in San Diego for a visit with his son Ira, one of the top things on his list was to go up a mountain. Mount Lowe, at the time was a popular place to go. There was a train that went most of the way up the mountain to a resort lodge and restaurant.

And there was steep trail to the summit. So Ira and Gertrude (presumably Ira’s wife?) took Isaac up the mountain for lunch. After the meal, Isaac decided to stroll on up the mountain. A young newspaperman for a Chicago paper saw him and asked if he could walk along. The path was very steep and soon the young reporter was huffing and puffing and asked Isaac if it wasn’t time for a break. Isaac kept replying, “Just a little way more.” Near the summit, Isaac did stop to have his picture taken, and then went to the rest of the way to the top. When they got back down to the restaurant, the young man, still panting, asked, “How come you can climb a mountain so easily when I’m half your age and found it so hard?” “Well, I just keep putting one foot in front of the other and I get there.“

Silver Threads News Letter Old Man And The Mountain By Karyl Silver
Figure 14 Isaac Silver, 82
Mount Lowe 1921


Isaac Silver Pioneer Dies

Isaac Silver 94 year old Butler County pioneer, died at his home in Burns this morning. He had been a resident of the county for nearly 70 years, most of which time was spent in the Burns community. Mr. Silver was a former resident of El Dorado, having lived here from 1910 to 1918. he had been in poor health for several months but did not become seriously ill until a few weeks ago. Because of his long residence in Butler County the aged man was well known and his death is mourned by scores.

Mr. Silver was born in Boone County, Mo., on February 14, 1839, but came to Kansas when a young man. He settled in Saline County and then removed to the Burns [Chase County] community in 1864. He was married to Miss Nancy Sullivan at Salina, on December 22, 1871. She died in 1916. Funeral services for Isaac Silver, Butler County Pioneer, who died at Burns Thursday were held at the Methodist Church there Saturday afternoon with Rev. R. D. Miller, officiating. A large group of friends and relatives of the aged Burns resident attended.

A quartet, composed of H. A. Bender, Ellis Manka, Ralph Gfeller, and Mr. Miller sang “The Old Rugged Cross,” “No Night There,” and “City Foursquare.” Pallbearers were sons and grandsons of Mr. Silver. Interment was made in West Cemetery here. The Byrd Funeral Home was in charge. Surviving are five daughters, Mrs. Ella Siefert, of Elk falls, Mrs. C. H. Sidener, burns, Mrs. N. A. Sidener, Parma, Idaho, Mrs. Roy Freeman, emporia and Mrs. H. B. Gallagher, Hollyrood; five sons, A. G. of El Dorado, C. E. Portland, Ore., Charles, Watsonville, Calif., I. G. San Diego, Calif., and W. H. Silver, of Culver; one brother, George Silver of Yale, Okla., 28 grandchildren; 29 greatgrandchildren and six great-great-grandchildren.

The El Dorado Times, Thursday, June 15, 1933 (and another newspaper’s obit combined)



PLACES – CHASE COUNTY KANSAS

Charles Silver and Agnes Thompson

Charles worked on his father’s farm and in June 1, 1900 he was working on his Uncle’s farm in Oklahoma. He was single. After finishing school Agnes “played around” and became pregnant. According to family oral history she had been dating two different boys named Charles. She chose Charles Edward Silver. They were married sometime after June 1 and before the birth of their first daughter Lillie on August 28, 1900. When Aggie saw her infant daughter she realized she had not married the father of her child.

Charles and Agnes had two more children. Hope Silver was born on October 15, 1904 and Sterling Silver was born on October 19, 1910. Charles rented a farm next to his father’s according to the 1905 Kansas Census. In 1910 the US Census shows that he had taken out a mortgage on a farm; and the 1915 Kansas count records that he is a laborer and renting. This information, if correct, may mean that the Silvers are having financial trouble.

Pleasant Valley School records, perhaps incomplete, show that Lillie and Hope attended school in 1912 and 1913 in Chase County

Trouble struck about 1917 or 1918. World War I had broken out and Charles registered for the draft in September 1918 but it was the tragic death of Lillie Silver, who was full of the promise of youth, which crushed the family, especially Agnes.

As Hope remembers it:

“In Aggies's view Lillie was so beautiful, so perfect, and I was an ugly ducking in the family. My mother put all her attention on Lillie and my father put all his attention on me. Mother felt that Lillie would never live to wear her wedding clothes. She superstitiously believed that the blue vein across the bridge of her nose indicated so.

Lillie was engaged to a beau before the war. One afternoon Lillie was out driving with a boyfriend following a truck with a load of pipes. The pipes fell off and one pierced Lillie who died instantly.

I never saw a mother grieve so. She was sure she was being punished for playing around.
My sister and I did not look alike. My brother Sterling and I did. In 1919 the family moved to Roswell, Idaho where they could get a fresh start.

The Silvers arrived in 1919, 20 years after the Wolfes had begun farming here. Much had changed.

. Electrical power—on at dusk off at midnight
. Two telephone companies
. Municipal waterworks
. Idaho’s first public park
. New county fairgrounds
. Flour mill
. Creamery
. New Hotel
. Several retail stores
. Plans for a sugar beet factory launched
. Construction of interurban trolley to Boise begun
Stores stayed open late on Saturdays for ranchers and sheepherders


Hope Irene Silver married Paul Levine Wolfe on 29 Dec 1923 in Caldwell, Canyon, Idaho.