Kulkel Burrs and Sticky Burr Grass

Kulkel burrs are
Painful to remove!

It is common to find Kulkel burr grass in older cemeteries in Southeast Missouri.  On my trip to Sikeston two weekends ago, I visited my parents' graves, as usual.  I then drove to the old Sikeston City Cemetery to visit my grandparents, an aunt, my great-grandmother and great-great-grandmother's graves.  Almost immediately upon exiting my car, it felt like something bit my leg.  When I looked down, I saw three Kulkel burrs attached to my sock.  By the time I was through in the cemetery, both of my feet were covered in Kulkel burrs, as shown in the above photo.   Removing these stickers is painful. It jolted me back in time to when I toured many sandy cemeteries and wrote about them between 1998 and 2006.  These sticky burrs are not something I miss about Sikeston or Scott County.  They grow best in poor soil of sand and earth.

The oldest grave in the Cline Family Plot within the Sikeston City Cemetery is my great-great-grandmother Elizabeth Cornelia Tickell-Jones-Moore-Blount-Mosier.  She was born 9 Mar 1811 on the Virginia-North Carolina border, and she died in New Madrid, Missouri on 20 Feb 1892.  The other burials inside the plot are her daughter, Anna Eliza Blount Kline, her granddaughter Lena Kline Cline, and her husband William Henry Cline, their infant son Henry Webster Cline who died at the age of thirteen months, on 21 December 1893.  Then many years later, Henry and Lena Cline's daughter Vera Daughterty Cline Johnson had her cremated remains placed there in 1995.  Vera's husband, Edward Johnson, was the inventor of the hydraulic brake mechanism applicable to the landing gear of airplanes.  He received Patent Number US 1, 870,289 on August 8, 1931.  

Ed Johnson was on the Pennsylvania railroad’s The Spirit of St. Louis passenger train testing a new invention.  He was seriously injured when the car he was riding in broke loose and rammed the locomotive of a stationary passenger train of the same line in the Columbus (Ohio) Union station yards at 9:35 o’clock on June 7, 1948.  Police and firemen identified ten seriously injured.  Most critically injured was E. D. Johnson, 45, of Jennings, Missouri, a mechanical engineer with the Wagner Electric Corporation of St. Louis.  He suffered fractures of both legs and a severe laceration of the lower abdomen.  He was taken to St. Frances Hospital.  Johnson was en route to Allentown, Pa., on business.   Edward Johnson died on June 19, 1948.  He asked to be buried in Falconer, Chautauqua County, New York with the Johnson family.  Vera and their two daughters, Ruth and Martha Johnson remained in the St. Louis area.  At the time of Vera's death, she requested to be buried near her parents and grandmothers in Sikeston, Missouri, the same as her husband had done forty-five year before her.

Vera and her husband Edward Johnson had a wonderful life up until the fatal train wreck.  Life presents us with many joys, but like kulkel burrs, sometimes painful things happen that pierces our heart.  Vera Cline Johnson never got over the loss of her bright husband and remained single the rest of her life.  When you walk through a cemetery, you will see beautiful works of art incorporated into headstones and many sad stories of people being taken too quickly.   Just remember, it is the painful parts of life that make us appreciate the minor and significant joys for which we are blessed.

The Cline Home in Morehouse, MO - 1890-1926 - Part 1 of 3

My father, Curtis Henry Cline, was born in this house on May 14, 1911, in Morehouse, Missouri, to William Henry and Nancy Lena (Kline) Cline.  He was the next to the youngest child in this family. Curtis had three brothers and three sisters.  Howard was born in 1891 and died 1967, a sister, Eula Cline Goolsby born in 1895 and died 1982, William "Ed" was born 1899 and died 1957, Gazwell born 1903 and died 1983, Vera Cline Johnson born 1905 and died 1995, Grace Cline Dye born 1907 and died 1989.  My dad had one younger brother, Clarence Dennis "Cotton" born November 19, 1913, in Morehouse, Missouri, when Curtis Henry was 2 years old.  Less than a year later, my Dad's mother Nancy Lena passed away on August 31, 1914, in a hospital at Cairo, Illinois, at the age of 44.  Cairo had the nearest hospital to Morehouse.

My brothers and I heard about the beautiful house our Dad grew up in many times.  Late in his life, he visited me and my husband, Tom, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.  We took my dad and mother for a day in sugar cane country.  There was a large plantation home nearby, and we took my parents inside for a tour.  My dad's eyes lit up when we went into the dining room.  Then tears came to his eyes when he said, "The house I grew up in had a beautiful dining room something like this.  The table was long like this one, with twelve chairs to seat twelve people."  I knew the Cline family had a large set of fine china which dad and my aunts and uncles used to talk about.  They all said their home was one of the largest and most beautiful in Morehouse.  Their Uncle Madison Tickell and his family had one identical to their home, except the Cline home had more gingerbread accents.  It was an enjoyable day spent with my parents on that visit.

When we returned home to Baton Rouge, I took my dad into

our office and had him describe their home and the dishes he remembered so well.  Dad recalled the house had two floors, and it was made of cypress wood from a local sawmill.  Curtis remembered it was an early colonial style home which was popular at that time.  The house was painted white, and the boys had to repaint the house every other year.  The broad front had porches up and down stairs extending the width of the house.  Two large rooms and a hall opened on this porch. He laughed saying that his sisters call it a gallery,

The back of the house showing the "L".

not a porch.  The doors were paneled, and the hall door had a transom of small panes.

There were nine rooms in the main part of the house, four large rooms downstairs and five bedrooms upstairs.  The kitchen and pantries were back in the "L" part of the house.  There were two bedrooms above the kitchen and pantries.  

Curtis with brother
Dennis and pet dog
as teenagers.

Curtis talked about the family pets and the family's fine buggy.  They had several horses that all the family members use to ride, but they had a special horse that was utilized with the buggy.  He remembered his Grandmother and sister Eula took the horse and buggy to New Madrid once a month to take care of business.  They left after breakfast and did not get back to the house until it was time to eat supper.  He laughed and said, "Today, you could drive there, take care of business, and be back home within two or three hours."  Then he recalled they had a dog and a cat too and everyone had their favorite pet, but he enjoyed them all.

Next week, learn more about my father's memories related to this fine house.

Grandma’s Drop-Down Table

In the mid-1950s, my Grandma Austill moved to an apartment in downtown Sikeston, above the Collins Music Store.  I remember taking a set of very steep stairs to reach her apartment.  At the top of the steps, there was an open landing area leading to the several apartments.  Once Grandma opened the door to her two-room, one-bath apartment one was always impressed at how fastidious she kept the two rooms.  She was a second generation German-American, and they believed that cleanness was next to Godliness.  You could not find a speck of dust on her floors. 

The apartment had a room in front where she had her bed, a chest, a chair and table with a lamp and a couple of other things in that space.  Then you went through a small hall with the bathroom on the right and her closet on the left.  She had a tiny kitchen, with a divider between the small stove, refrigerator, and dining area.  The divider was where she kept her dishes.  The dining area was small, a standard table and chairs would not fit into the designated eating area provided because space was only about four feet by five feet in size.  Instead of a standard table, she had a fold-down or drop-down table, and two thin benches, one on each side of the table, where she ate her meals.  The table and two benches worked like a Murphy bed.  You opened double doors of a cabinet.  Inside, the table and two benches were mounted to the kitchen wall.  The legs fit into specials sized wells cut into the back of the cabinet for storage. To use them, you unhook the latches, drop each down to the floor and place each leg on the floor to stabilize the table and benches.  When you are through eating, you do the reverse to put it back into the cabinet. Not once did I ever hear my grandma complain about a lack of space.  She loved the little place she made her home, and I loved visiting her in her unique place with the “special” table for two.  She would have preferred a standard table and chairs, but she never complained about the effort it took to take down and put up the table daily.  She was content staying home; she did not have the drive or need to travel and see the world.

Other than work, church and the grocery store, she rarely went anywhere.  She would have much rather people visit her in her apartment than to go and visit others.  She had no car and walked to work, shopping or to visit my family.  In a small town in the 1940s and 1950s, a person could live without a car.  I am not sure if that is true today.  Few of us today could be as happy and content with so little space or items of comfort as she was throughout her life.  When I want to travel, but don’t have extra money for that special trip, I think about my Grandma Austill.   I am truly blessed and can learn from her lesson of being content with what I have and with the good Lord above.  She was about minimalist before it was in vogue.  As an adult,  I am thankful for the many lessons she taught me, however, I will pass on having a drop-down table to use daily.

Next week, I will tell of my first meeting with my husband, and the results of that meeting.  I was a wee girl at the time.

Anna Eliza Blount Kline

                           Anna Eliza Blount Kline                      And Her Swamp Land Patent

The great New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-1812 created a big swamp in southeast Missouri.  Small streams including the Little River that runs through Morehouse, Missouri, fed the swamp.  A two-million-acre region called the “Missouri Glades” was the largest wetland in America prior to 1928.  The swamp was nearly impenetrable and considered almost useless by most everyone.  The exception was at the edges and on the ridges.  The swamp's dense forests contained millions of feet of marketable timber.  Some of the ancient oak trees reached 27 feet circumference, and some of the Cyprus trees circumferences reached 10 to 12 feet.  In the early to mid-1800's, lumbermen recognized the value of abundant timber and bought up most of the land. But after the lumbermen cleared the land of its oak, cypress, hickory, and gum trees, they found that they had to pay taxes on unproductive land.  The Swamp Land Act of 1850 was enacted to solve this problem by finding individuals willing to pay taxes on the swamp land.

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The land in the district initially was owned by the United States government and granted to the state through the Swamp Land Act of 1850. Not knowing what to do with it, the state conveyed the land to the counties.  The land remained vested in the counties for most of the last half of the 19th century because the counties were unable to find anyone willing to assume the burden of taxes on swamp land after the timber was removed.  The counties eventually sold the land to private owners and companies at low cost, with the stipulation that it had to be developed and drained.[1]

My great-grandmother Anna Eliza Blount Kline applied for a Swamp Land Patent from the General Land Office of the United States at Ironton, Missouri.  She received Swamp Land Patent Number 496, on August 6, 1883, located in Section 4, Township 25, and Range 13, consisting of 640 acres.  The land was two miles southeast from Morehouse, Missouri, and down the dirt road from her Uncle Madison J. Tickell, her mother’s brother. 

[1] Missouri Secretary of State website.

Anna Kline (Census records show the last name as Cline) was the daughter of Thomas P.  and Elizabeth Cornelius (Tickell) Blount, born 24 Nov 1846 in Obion County, Tennessee, or Fulton County, Kentucky.  Obion County is in the northwest corner of Tennessee.  Anna’s mother’s parents, William J. and Lavinia (Stallcup) Tickell, lived in Fulton County, Kentucky at the time of her birth, which is adjacent to Obion County, Tennessee.  My Aunt Grace (Cline) Dye told me Anna’s father was said to be related to the prominent political Blount family.  However, I have yet to find a published connection, or a Will, relating him to Tennessee Governors William or Willie Blount.   Elizabeth Tickell was married to Thomas Blount a month less than two-and-a-half years when he died on 29 Mar 1848.    Family tradition tells that her father provided well for Anna and her mother financially, but as of February 2017, I have not located Thomas P. Blount’s Will in either Obion County, Tennessee or Fulton County, Kentucky.  Anna Eliza was only 16 months old when her father died, and was forty-five when her mother died in New Madrid on 9 Mar 1892.  Her mother left her property in New Madrid, and all her personal belonging in a will recorded in the New Madrid County Courthouse.  I believe, but can’t prove, that Elizabeth Tickell’s wealth, and then Anna’s wealth came from the Thomas Blount marriage.

Part 2 of 6 will be published tomorrow, and one part a day thereafter until all six are published.

Obituaries Can Be Time Capsules

I find obituaries to be time capsules, if those writing them put the person and personality of the dearly departed into the obituary.  Here is an example below and if you like it, I can publish her husband's next week.  It is equally interesting.

The Journal's County News Service, 

Melcher, Marion County, Iowa, March 26, 1930

Mrs. A. J. Tickle Aged 93 Dies at Dallas Home
Pioneer Woman was 93; Was Born in Covered Wagon 

Lucretia Helms was born on March 1, 1837, and departed this life at the family home, near Dallas, March 21, 1930, aged 93 years and 21 days.   In May 1861, she was united in marriage to Andrew Jackson Tickle. To this union, eleven children were born, two of whom preceded the mother to the great beyond. John died in May 1926, and Eddie, when 16 days old. 

The surviving children are George of Dallas, Mrs. Mattie Rood of Sedalia, Mo., Julius Tickle of Allerton, Mabel Tickle of Fairfield, Mrs. Barbara Green at home, Elmer of Dallas, Mrs. Raymond Stoddard of Guernsey, Wyo., Mrs. F. B. Wilson of Wheatland, Wyo., and Levi Tickle of Chariton.   Besides the husband and nine children who survive her, thirty-five grandchildren and seventeen great-grandchildren remain to mourn her loss. 

Born in a covered wagon at Davenport, Ia., as the parents were emigrating from Illinois to Iowa; growing to womanhood here in this vicinity of Dallas and Melcher, spending her married years in the same vicinity, living for twenty-three years beyond the allotted time for life, surely this woman spend a long useful life, and benediction to her children.   Her children say of her that she was a good wife and mother, that she lived a cheerful, prayerful, optimistic life. Not a member of any church, she believed in the things of the Kingdom. 

Serviced were conducted by R. V. Hughes at the Christian church on Sunday afternoon, March 23, at 2 p.m. Interment in Dallas Cemetery. 
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Note: Obituary shows marriage date as May 1861, but according to Marion County records Lucretia Helms and Andrew Jackson Tickle were married Nov 16, 1861.

Curtis H Cline – A Great Father and Role Model

This collage covers the early life of my father.  Curtis Cline enjoyed his parents, siblings and grandma Kline while growing up in a beautiful two-story home on the outskirts of Morehouse, Missouri.  He excelled in in his school work, especially mathematics, and wanted to go to college but the Great Depression stopped that dream.  He made All-State in Football and men who knew him from Morehouse High School, and Southeast Missouri said he could have played in the pros. 

Curtis loved his wife, Marie, and their three children and was very faithful to God and the First Church of the Nazarene.  He enjoyed teaching boys Sunday School class and stayed in touch with several of the boys after they graduated and left Sikeston.  Curtis Cline was the Sunday School Superintendent for a few years too.  Most of all, he loved working his mind and body.  He also loved food.  When he went somewhere with the family, often he took his bookkeeping with him because there was not enough time, he said, to get it done if we took time off to do leisurely things.  I remember him leaving the house at dawn and returning after the sun went down.  He was happiest when he was working or eating.  He was also happy when he was with family.  Often, he took his family with him when he drove one of the trucks to spread limestone, and to make collections.  Our family enjoyed eating out at restaurants too and some weekends, several families from church took the Tiptonville (TN) Ferry from below Charleston, MO over to Tennessee to eat catfish.  I enjoyed the ferry ride but I have never enjoyed fish or any food that comes out of the water.  I enjoyed the hush puppies.  I remember the restaurant in Tiptonville was on Kentucky Lake and most of the dining area was screened-in.  Of course, back then there was no air-conditioning.

My father was an excellent role model.  Every Wednesday, he came home at noon, went into the master bedroom, shut the door and prayed for one house.  He also fasted lunch every Wednesday.  Late in life, when he went to the nursing home in Sikeston, I received a call from the Director of the home complaining that he refused to each lunch on Wednesdays.  They tried everything but he would not eat.  They had to document it and could receive bad reviews from the State of Missouri if he did not eat.  I laughed and told her that was part of his religious belief and practice.  I had to send her a note in writing asking that he be excused from eating lunch on Wednesdays.  

He had one speed, fast.  He was funny, without trying to be, he was compassionate and had a temper now and then.  Once the temper exploded, he forgot about what made him mad within minutes.  He held no grudges and was honest as the day is long.  I feel privileged to have been the daughter of Curtis H. Cline.

Next week, I will talk about his middle to late life.

Developing Your Family History is Gratifying

To me, family history is the most fascinating story individuals can read. Or, where no family history exists, to discover it for themself and then write it.    
I remember the time I received my first requested military pension record. It was for William F. Cline, my paternal great-grandfather, pictured to the right. I learned that he was five feet ten inches tall, had a fair complexion, blue eyes, and light brown hair. Wow! I am five foot eight inches tall, have a fair complexion, am blue eyed and my hair was blonde when I was younger, and now I am brown headed.
To my knowledge, the best, and often the only place, to gain the knowledge of ancestor's physical description is from military records.
  There are billions of records, including military records, on-line through Ancestory.com, Findmypast.com, WikiTree.com and other on-line genealogy sites. These sites have annual fees to use their alphabetized and multiple historical databases. Are they worth the cost? You bet they are! Experienced genealogist, like myself, remembers the need to get in a car, drive to a distant courthouse, and often courthouses in other states, to learn, or confirm, information on ancestors. Once there, genealogist comb through county record book, after heavy record book, to learn birth, marriage, death and property records on our forefathers. Then genealogist would rent a motel room in the local county seat, or in a nearby town. Many county seats of government are in or near the center of the county and are small towns. Many do not have motels or other services for which most Americans are accustomed. Only once was I lucky enough to stay with a relative I only talked with by telephone, before my visit to where some of my ancestors lived. That was a treat, and I will always remember, and appreciate, the hospitality George and Brenda Kreig showed me in Ft. Branch, Indiana. They own a family farm north of Evansville, the county seat of Vanderburgh, Indiana.
  I am still working on the follow-up Blog of the Price Family that lost their house and the lives of family members in the Killer Tornado back in 1916. With the ability today to view period, and specific newspapers, and federal census records, writing non-fiction histories allows us to learn far more than expected. It is very gratifying to use documents and papers to bring the lives of our ancestors into readable existence. 
  To travel from county to county and other states in pursuit of family history is expensive. When you travel alone, it can also be lonely and costly. With the existence of Ancestory.com and related websites, the family historian can now develop their family history from the comfort of their homes.