This n That

St. Clair County Library Files
October 2, 2007
Submitted by Susan Graham Town and the St. Clair County Library

The enclosed papers are copies of the obituary for Mrs. Jemima Asenath Scobey from the St. Clair County Republican.
This obituary was written by S.S. Burdett (Samuel S. Burdett) who was a friend of the family.
Also included in the file is a copy of a letter that local resident, John Mills, had written concerning some family research that he was conducting.

P.O. Box 151, Osceola, Mo. 64776, Feb. 13, 1978

Dear Ms. Towne:

You have probably come to the conclusion that I had lost your letter or was not interested in replying. Such is not the case.

In your letter you mentioned that your mother sent to Mrs. Edward Burdette Graham some old newspapers and other record in 1948 or 1949. The newspapers she sent were the copies of the Osceola Herald from Volume 1, No. 1, July 4, 1866 edited and published by William D. Graham and Robert S. Graham who moved to Osceola from DeWitt, Iowa.

The above newspapers were turned over to the St. Clair County Library, and were microfilmed. Recently the library has obtained a microfilm reader and I have been, off and on, for the last two months or so, indexing the names printed in these newspapers which publication by the Graham Brothers was discontinued in 1869.

I have only completed the indexing through the April 23^rd issue, 1868. As far as I have gone, I have copied the notice at the beginning of the microfilm as well as cards concerning the Scobeys and Grahams that I thought might be of interest to you this far.

These are enclosed.

The Osceola Herald was published as a “Radical” Republican Newspaper and the “Editorials” and news items give a very good idea of the political and business and religious activities of the community at that period of time.

Your information on Edward Graham is such that up until April 30, 1868, he did not practice law in this part of Missouri.

Samuel S. Burdette was an attorney and was elected a Circuit covering St. Clair, Cedar, and Polk counties in 1866. HE is always referred to as Capt. Burdette in the newspapers. His father was A.A. Burdette and after serving as the Circuit Attorney, he served at least three terms in Congress. The home he built while he lived in Osceola is still standing and is owned by Charles and Jean Sheldon. Charles is a grandson of W.P. and Willie A. Scobey Sheldon (See enclosed card). Apparently you failed to mention this daughter of William H. and Jamima A. Scobey. Charles told me last week that his father used to write his cousin Juliet Towne at a New Jersey address.

Back to Samuel S. Burdette. Somewhere I found that his mother was a sister of William Johnson, who married a daughter of Jedediah Waldo and hence was a 1^st cousin of Waldo P. Johnson. In talking about this to and with Dr. Franklin P. Johnson, he told me that the Johnson family had little to do with the Burdette family. After reading the Osceola Herald, it is easy to figure out the reason.

When Jim Shepherd was here, I did not know of the Sheldon connection with the Scobey family, but, the Sheldons are buried on a lot or lots just south of the Scobey Lots.

I also mention to Jim that there was still living a grand-daughter-in-law of the Scobeys, the widow of Edward B. Graham, but that Mrs. Graham was either still in the hospital or had just been discharged, and that she was deaf and her eyesight was not too good. She was, before her marriage Miss Augusta Hostetter, daughter of Frank Hostetter. She has since passed on, but she was nearly 90 years old. She had no children.

Charles Sheldon has one sister living here and one half-brother. He is very interested in obtaining more information on the Scobeys and Sheldons.

The centennial (1883) History of Vernon County Mo. states that the Scobeys ran a hotel at Montevallo prior to the Civil War. Now initials are given as whom those Scobeys are. Asked Charles Sheldon about this and he replied “That’s news to me.”

I am enclosing also a chart form which I shall use as a guide in working this out for you.

Sincerely,

John Mills

P.S. The card with the Osborn marriage had a pencil mark by it on the newspaper. I have checked with the only Osborn I know, and he is not a descendant of William H. and Sarah Hopkins Osborn.

Page of handwritten notes.:

From Osceola Herald, October 24, 1867
Married. On Thursday evening, Oct. 17^th at the residence of the bride’s father, by Rev. Brown (Rev. Brown Circuit Presbyterian Minister), Mr. W.P. Sheldon to Miss Willie A. Scobey.

From Osceola Herald, May 22, 1867
Married. At the residence of the bride’s father, Monday morning, May 13, 1867 by Rev. J. Van Antwerp, Mr. W.D. Graham, publisher of the “Osceola Herald” and Clerk of the Circuit Court of St. Clair County, Missouri, to Miss Julia Gage of DeWitt, (Iowa).

From Osceola Herald, Thursday, April 9, 1868
Obituary. In Osceola, Mo., at midnight, April 6^th, 1868. Juliet A., wife of W.D. Graham, aged twenty-four years, of pulmonary consumption.
(Obituary apparently written by Dr. D.C. McNutt, M.D., _____ of DeWitt, Iowa.)

From St. Clair Co. Republican, Nov. 14, 1907

Jemima Asenath Scobey.

On the nineteenth day of the present month there passed from amongst us to such place as there may be in the Beyond where it is good for mortals to abide, one whose resting place will be marked by a stone upon which will be inscribed “In the memory of Jemima A. Scobey, born at Hartsville, Tennessee, A.D. 1823; died at Osceola, Missouri, September 19^th, 1907.”

Born to the common lot of earth’s children, for a generation there will be memory of her, and then she will pass to the throng of the forgotten who, since Time was, have slept the last sleep. One who speaks for the dead has no hearers save among the narrow few of the then living who know his voice or remember that of the subject of his story. There is, here and there, exception to this as to that very few who come to be known as “historic characters”. Yet these characters have generally rested the structures which gave them fame on the sure foundations in hand of some or many of the departed and forgotten. The real builders of States and Nations – and especially so it is with us and with our people – are the pioneers who blaze their way into – not through – the wilderness, and then set up a new State and society, whose original seat of power and promise is not a palace but the rude log-cabin; and whose voice and example beckons others to follow and help it in the work. The pioneers of Missouri, those of the very earliest coming, the traders and adventurers, have all passed away. The earlier home-makers, the true state-builders, are well nigh gone. Those who now till the cleared fields and enjoy the broken paths “have entered into their labors”, and are their debtors. How many of that class can yet be named as among the living within the circle who knew the subject of this sketch? Is she not well nigh the last of the advance guard who carried the home into Southwestern Missouri? The debt which the present possessors of the land owe to those vanished people is very great, and especially so to the wives and mothers among them. To the men that were compensation; there was glorious hunting and fishing, in those days, and many primitive joys, but the woman was a drudge. Distance deprived her of neighborly intercourse; she had not only the usual household cares, such as we know, but the clothing of the family, from picking the cotton and carding the wool from which it was made to its spinning, weaving and making, was the work of her hands and brain. The plaint of the woman, who, writing back to the old Tennessee home of her new surroundings, said: “This country is fine for men and dogs, but hard on women and oxen”, was rudely eloquent and sadly true. Mrs. Scobey, if not one of the very earliest, was yet one of this noble company, and her passing away well nigh silences its roll-call.

Nature fitted her for her life’s task. She was strong in mind, will and body, yet with a true woman’s charitable kindness of heart, a love of things right, and a detestation for things evil.

She early allied herself with the disciples of Him who has given us the best example of how to live here.

Our true epic is not in the conflict of wars or politics, which have happened in our short national history, but in the “marvelous tale” of how the American citizen has lived and labored, “how he has subdued the wild and waste lands, how he has made the desert to blossom as the rose, and how he has builded up an empire with axe and plow”. The amazing results achieved are the works of many hands, but each hand was that of a sturdy warrior who bent himself to the task of subduing obstacles which Nature had spent her strength in establishing for myriad of years. The results we see and enjoy are the monuments to that all-conquering host, and to each who had a place in its ranks.

Mrs. Scobey, whose maiden name was Jemima Asenath Osborne was born at Hartsville, Tennessee. At the age of sixteen she was married to William Howell Scobey, and in 1842 the newly married pair took up the journey to Missouri. The responsibilities and trials of the married and pioneer life thus fell to her lot whilst little more than a child. The first settlement was made near Chalk Level.

In 18__ (1886?) the family removed to Osceola. There, in 1889 the husband passed away, honored and respected by all who knew him. There were born to them seven children: Ophelia, Eliza Jane, Florilla Anne, Martha Virginia, Ada Howell, William Edgar and Jessie Stanwood. All, save the eldest and youngest, survive to mourn the loss of a mother who, to her latest day, remained a mother to a widening circle of grandchildren and great-grandchildren. The good old age she reached bears testimony to the vigor of her frame and the undaunted spirit which possessed her.

She had many traits which evidenced a masterful mind and character, among them a remarkable memory. The writer of this sketch recalls being present a few years since when she was called upon by a gentleman engaged in writing a history of the part borne by Kansas in the history of the Rebellion. He was seeking information as to that disastrous episode, which in the early days of the struggle resulted in the destruction of Osceola. He had spent a day or two among the older people with little result, when some one advised him to call on Mrs. Scobey. His interview with her was more than satisfactory. The names of the actors, the day and hour of every occurrence, the reasons for sparing the few residences which escaped the general destruction, and the cause for each exception, were given with the clearness of the trained historian, and without a moment’s hesitation. In the olden times, when history as tradition, it was such as she who gathered and transmitted the deeds of Gods and men to the later ages when the hands of men had learned to record what the tongues of the father’s had spoken.

In her earlier years, in addition to fulfilling the duties of the household, she taught school in the new country, thus carrying into the wilderness the light of knowledge. Her own education had been of rather remarkable scope for the time in which she lived, as is shown by the books she preserved from her own school days.

Her qualities of heart, her graciousness of manner and of speech, her interest in the aims and struggles of all ages, made her beloved by a large circle. She was the sympathetic friend of the friends of her grandchildren as well as her own contemporaries. Of what she was to her own wide family circle, their grief is eloquent. To the one who pens these lines, it seems impossible that the flame of her vigorous personality and loving heart can have been quenched by death. Such a life is immortal in its influence for good; its noble forces will pulse through generations yet to come.

S.S. Burdett.