My Mid-West Adventures or My Search for Relatives

by Donna Swagerty Shreve

In 2009 I had just recovered from a rough previous year of fighting cancer and then recovering from the treatments. I now had a new mantra in my life, “What Am I Waiting For?”  For awhile I had wanted to visit the land of my ancestors. My husband John had recently retired and enjoyed driving. I mapped out where I wanted to travel and all of the places were in a nice cluster in the connecting states of Iowa, Missouri, Kansas and Arkansas. Now I planned out our trip to make the best use of the 14 days we agreed to use.

While doing my genealogy research, I had encountered a third cousin on my mother’s side of the family. Dean Cunningham’s great grandfather was a brother to my great grandmother who married Milton Boone, my  mother’s grandfather. Dean had grown up in the same town as my grandfather Jesse Boone along with many generations of Boones and Cunninghams. He was so generous with his knowledge and connections. We planned to visit him on day 2 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. 

We left at 6:00 A.M. on day one May 5 and arrived in Scottsdale at 6:15 P.M. I actually got to drive four of the twelve hours today. 770 miles were covered the first day and it is on to Albuquerque early tomorrow morning. Cousins Dean and Nan were waiting and we talked family history until John was crossed eyed. Actually that  didn’t take so long. As we traveled along through San Joaquin Valley,the first morning, I had a feeling we were getting a preview of the farm land yet to be visited.

• Our second day took us from Arizona to stay with Dean Cunningham and his wife in New Mexico.

We spent our first night at my sister’s home in Paradise Valley near Phoenix, Arizona. I gave her a preview of our upcoming adventure and promised to post each day so relatives could be on the trip with me through the internet. We got up and left early in the morning to get a good start on our day two May 6. 

We  arrived in Albuquerque at 2:30 P.M. at Dean and Bonnie Cunningham’s house. Dean and I could have shared family stories and talked all night but there just was so little time. Nan White and her husband Lowell came over to dinner and I had John take a picture of all three cousins.

• Dean Cunningham was such a gracious host and he set me up with other relatives in Missouri.

 Nan White is a relative on the Boone side of the family and had done a bit of research on the family. Dean had shared old home movies done in the 30s, 40, and 50s by Glenn Cunningham and put onto a DVD by his daughter Carole. I played the DVD and this time had Dean narrate what and who was in the screen. I hope to transfer his comments to the DVD later. He also gave me the number of Carol so I might meet up with her while we are in Missouri. I quickly heard that I pronounce Missouri like someone who hasn’t lived there. Between Nan and Dean I have many places to explore and people to contact when I  am in Missouri. Today we traveled only 470 miles and we have 720 to go tomorrow. We are off to find Swagertys in Kansas and then on to Boones and Cunninghams in Missouri after that.

• Dean invited Nancy White and her husband over for dinner so we could share family history.

 Thanks to Dean I had four awesome local contacts when I arrive in Edina, Missouri. I felt so lucky to have such a generous and knowledgeable guide. Nan had done so much research and the three of us cousins could have talked all night but time ran  out and we had to go our separate ways. I was energized with all of the possibilities ahead of me. Dean and Bonnie Cunningham were the best hosts ever!

• Most of our drive through Kansas looked like this!

Day three May 7 was another long day with 676 miles. We traveled that distance under 12 hours with a  time zone change. John was a retired professional driver and could drive forever. When we did stop to change drivers, at my insistence, John cheated and peed along side of the road. I discovered that my bladder had a shorter range than the truck’s gas tank. It was amazing how exciting a short stop at McDonald’s becomes. Kansas was so flat and straight. Any time we spotted a silo or house, it became a much bigger deal than normal. We traveled through Kansas to the east side and arrived in Junction City. With the time change, we arrived at 6:18. I took many pictures to prove that the scenery didn’t change much, if at all. Day four May 8 we will head for Riley and check out the court house and local cemetery for Swagerty information. Issac Swagerty is my great great grandfather and had settled in Kansas after leaving Benton, Arkansas during the Civil War.

• Nelson’s Landing lived up to its reputation as a great place to eat.

After a restful night at a hotel in Junction City, we headed to nearby Manhattan, Kansas. It was known as the Little Apple which I found  amusing but had to refrain from rolling my eyes. Manhattan was the county seat of Riley county containing the town Leonardville where my great great grand parents were buried. Thanks to a helpful clerk I found the cemetery I needed. We were now going to Leonardville. Several clerks had to go out of their way to recommend a special eating place in Leonardville called Nelson’s Landing. How could we resist? Being inside Nelson’s Landing was like going back to  the diners of the 1950s. The owners had their own herd of cattle and bragged about the best hamburgers in the state.

• Nelson’s Landing was a great place to eat but it did not seem like a sports bar to me.

I was amused that diner labeled itself as a sports bar. There are not too many professional sport teams in Kansas. We were in the main dining room and there was a side  room where there was a pool table and a few televisions. This room became what they decided what made it a sports bar. Along the wall were posters of local high school sports memoberia. Now it was to find Isaac and Mary Swagerty in the still active town cemetery. The waitress gave us a warning that sometimes the local high school students would use the cemetery for various activities. 

• It took us a while but we finally found the graves for Isaac and Mary Swagerty.

We followed Main street out of town and continued on a dirt road as directed by the locals. There was no directory for the cemetery so John and I divided up the cemetery and started looking. After 20 minutes, we found it! I was surprised at the size of the headstone as the Swagerty’s were known for not having much money. By checking out the headstone, I discovered that Isaac had been a local Methodist minister. He had been a minister back in Arkansas along with being a blacksmith and owner of 160 acres of farm land.  I am guessing his church parishioners contributed to their headstone. I knew two grandsons had died but I found no evidence of their graves. I found information about where Isaac and Mary ended up in Kansas. The land was now part of military land and we would not be able to get pass the guard gate. I was pleased to know the land was not being used as a strip mall. We had done all we could in Kansas and it was on to another branch of the family. We were now head to Missour where I would search for Boone relatives on my mother’s side.

May 9 To entertain ourselves we found a radio station as we traveled through Missouri. We were headed to Missouri’s northeast corner to Knox county where my maternal grandfather, Jesse Boone grew up. A radio station from Des Moines Iowa piped away and we were quite engrossed. It was a call-in show for anyone in the area who wanted to buy or sell something. First I was surprised at how much information was sent out to all to hear. After dealing with trying to sell items on Craig’s List, we knew to be very careful. Some of the items up for sale were a 28 foot aluminum ladder, a spiral staircase for use on a boat, firewood, and a garage sale. Between callers, the DJ played Leonard Skynyrd music. Our scenery was green rolling hills with a random farm here and there.

We found our motel which was one of only two in the town of Memphis, Missouri. We found this larger town with the population of 2,000. The actual town my grandfather had grown up in was no longer a town as the post office had shut down years ago. Edina was also a possibility but it contained no motels. When we pulled up to the motel we were cautious. It had limited rooms but we did have reservations. Arriving in the office, the manager pulled out her large old fashioned ledger. No computer was in sight. John asked about internet connection and she gave us a cord to attach to the phone in the room. There was only dial up available. After checking us in, our manager went back to cleaning rooms.

Our room was clean but definitely a vision into the past. The television was outdated and there was no coffee pot or hot water pot or hair dryer. So the next morning John asked about how we could get coffee. The same manager directed us to the gas station within walking distance down the road.

• Thanks to Dean< I met with Joe Cunningham and John Nichols and his sister in her home. We then got the grand tour of Knox county where Joe and Dean and John grew up.

May 10 Off we went to the local gas station that also contained various drinks and a few snacks for purchase. The tables in the small space were few and were picnic tables. There was one empty table that was right next to the large barrel of night crawlers. The locals seemed to be farmers gathering for a morning coffee and chat before they headed to their farms. They stared at us as we were obviously not local. We had our wrapped pastry and hot drink and wandered back to the motel. Thanks to Dean, I had a phone number of a Lola Childress Slater who was well known local. Her family had lived in the area for generations. I called to ask her for an address to put into our GPS for our car. She chuckled at my naivety and said she really needed to give me directions the old fashion way. I got out paper and pencil and wrote down her instructions. To give an idea of local directions, her first detail was go to the four corners in Edina and go north 3 1/2 miles. Any county roads in Knox County, Missouri are dirt gravel roads and are not on any GPS system. Lola also gave me a warning that we would drive past a nudist colony on our way to her place.

At two o’clock, we met up with Lola. Lola was full of local lore and only came to her grandparents’ farm on weekends. She and her husband lived in Illinois which was the state east of northern Missouri. The farm was located in a now non-existent town called Sandhill. Again the post office left and the town lost its status. Every year various relatives of the town of Sandhill gather back at Lola and Paul’s Missouri farm. Paul grew wheat and corn which was harvested and ground for sale in small bags. The money received from the crop was used to pay someone to keep the Sandhill cemetery groomed.

We turned on to a gravel dirt road and drove by the commune otherwise known as the nudist colony. It was started in the 1970s by two couples from Berkeley, California. Some of them had been there since the 1970s farming and managing to survive. There was a big May Day celebration that weekend and as we left after visiting Lola, we got a better look. There were just a few people wandering around when we first arrived. By the time we left there was a gathering of about 75 people. They were entertaining down by the river. Most of them were minus clothing but it was not a pretty site and I did not take any pictures.

Lola held my attention for over two hours with tales of locals. Paul gave us a tour of his restored 1950 truck and a grinder that had been bought by Lola’s grandfather in the 1870s. Lola gave me a small bag of wheat and corn meal. She even gave me several pages of recipes. I kept it in my refrigerator for over ten years and then had to admit to myself that I was not going to use. Lola had warned me that there would be extra grit due to the grinder. As we left the farm, we met another car coming up the road to be Lola’s next visitor. Locals flock to Lola when she is in the area.

I had asked Dean Cunningham, who grew up in the area, what were recommendations for eating. He suggested Keith’s Cafe where he had spent many hours growing up. The parking lot was full and it was a Friday night. When we walked into the cafe, I felt like I was in a movie set. As if on clue everyone in the main dining room stopped and froze and watched our every move as we made our way across the room to the guy standing behind a cash register. He said he had a table for us but it was in the overflow room. We agreed and were lead into a long rather narrow room. At the far end was a family group of three generations. It soon became obvious that the adults were there to celebrate the end of the work week and everyone was ignoring the children. One boy of about 8 years of age was playing a fun game of running as fast as he could and then dropping and sliding right past our table which was near the entrance to the room. We tried to ignore him and hoped he would stop but that wasn’t going to happen. Finally the grandfather of the group gave some instructions to a girl of about 12. She came the length of the room and told her brother to stop and come back to the main table. He ignored her so she just grabbed him by his collar. He went limp so she proceeded to drag him the length of the room back to the group.

The food was very basic. I had ordered a green salad and received a wedge of lettuce with thousand island dressing. We certainly got a taste of the local culture. I decided the way to fit in would be to be over weight, wear Mom jeans and tight tee shirt. The hairdo was a ponytail. So many of the women in the 30 to 40 age range wore this like a uniform. It was as if we had gone back in time several decades.

The next day we met up with Joe Cunningham who is also a third  cousin of mine. Dean had connected us. Joe grew up in this area along with Dean. Joe brought along a guy named John Nichols. He grew up in the area also and knew every crook and cranny in Knox County. John’s sister Sandra Nichols Browning hosted us at the beginning of the day. She was a local historian and has written several books about the area families, including the Boones and Cunninghams. To find her place, again we had to get directions as the GPS did not include country roads. Country roads are all dirt gravel roads and only the locals seem to need to know how to navigate them. While I sat at the table with Joe, Sandra and John, John my husband chatted away with Sandra’s husband. Their son had a job setting up web pages. The parents wanted to see his work but the only internet connection was dial up. There was a tower near by but none of their neighbors saw any use for a quick wifi connection. Again I felt I had traveled back into time.

• The Cunningham cemetery had quite a few ancestors. We took our time and found many relatives.

One of our stops that day was to see the old Millsport Church and cemetery. My grandfather, Jesse Boone, had attended that same church  with his family. Joe had to go to a certain local person who had the key to the now unused church. With the key we entered a beautiful church with hand made pews. A few windows up high had been broken and someone had stolen the alter. Otherwise the church seemed intact. As we wandered through the cemetery along the church, John Nichol had a story for almost every grave. Twice a year John visits every  cemetery in Knox County and places a flag at the grave of all veterans. John had quite a wealth of information and that is why Joe had brought him along. Those guys spent six hours with us and I was so grateful. We finished up the day with dinner in Edina. John and I treated Joe and John to dinner at a local site.

Also that day Joe and John took us to the cemetery for Cunninghams and Boones. This cemetery is kept up by a farming couple who live nearby. Various relatives pay this couple to maintain the cemetery as it is private land and there is no upkeep unless someone is paid to do it. While we were in the Cunningham cemetery, I asked Joe where the town of Fabius was located. Fabius had once been a busy town but eventually the post office left.The nearest post office now was in Edina. Joe pointed away from the cemetery to high grass and a ditch. He invited me to go exploring and he would give me a tour.

• The Millport Church was attended by both Boones and Cunninghams. It is no longer used but with just a little work could be made viable again. The cemetery contained more relatives.

As we headed through the high grass to the remains of the town, Joe suggested I step high and make noice. Snakes. I smiled and did as I was told. Joe and I had to help each other get across the ditch and we saw the ruins. What had once been a general store was now rubble. There were bricks everywhere. 

Joe decided I should not leave without a souvenir so we went through the various bricks and chose what we felt were the two best. The bricks were stamped Missouri Brick Works which is long out of business. This pictures shows what remained of the old stove that heated up the general store. Again my grandfather spent time in this general store as a child. It is such a unique feeling when you realize you are following the footsteps of ancestors.

• Joe is very proudly standing next to a shared ancestor.

This last picture I had to take. It was in the town of Edina where time has stopped it seems. It is not too often one rides a horse down a street where you live. 

Edina, Missouri had a larger population than Memphis, Missouri but no hotel. Yes, it had a horseback rider!

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